The Promised Land Project: On the Trail of Dante: Towards a Vision of Paradise

Turning Vision into Action....at least hypothetically

Strike up the music of the band
We're blazing a trail for the promised land
Heaven on earth is within you.

Through the writing of stories, poetry, essays, and a novel, I’ve creatively contended with the consumer culture and the problem of the ideal in the modern era. This preoccupation in time would lead to a vision of cultural transformation and where I believe our democratic society needs to go to truly progress beyond the modern era. Conceding my limited credibility, this blog provides a synthesis of recognized visionaries, poets, and writers with the objective of making a credible argument. Ultimately, it is a certain feeling the project strives to inspire and sustain on a certain level, making more vital use of poetry and the arts; consequently whether one agrees or not is less important than whether one senses it and feels it over time.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

On the Trail of Dante: Towards a Vision of Paradise

“The highway of Love ends at the foot of the Cross” -- D.H. Lawrence

The acquired knowledge of the soul, as described in the previous blog, would induce a rapid succession of revelations, causing a foundational shift in my worldview and how we can truly progress as a society, and enable a projection of a kind of heaven on earth. The muse of ecstatic imagination and creative inspiration, that before had seemed to tease me along as a writer, suddenly seized upon me and poured right through me as my attention turned to transforming this vision into action.

Furthemore, my casual musings on love would synthesize into a spiritual awakening and "road to damascus" kind of experience of ecstatic illumination: take love far enough, it is self-sacrifice for the greater collective, hence the symbolism of Christ accepting the cross and the representation that God is love. As the Romans crucified Jesus of Nazareth at calvary to set an example, symbolizing their power and instilling fear, the fact that that same symbol would come to represent the power of love – eventually overtaking the Romans before their empire dissolved into history – that remains an effective force to this day, strikes me as a miracle and enough to make me a believer.

After years of a floundering existence marked by failure and rejection, at that time in 2002, I thought I'd finally arrived, and perhaps I did. But my life would resume an existence blessed in many respects while accursed in others. From the heights of basking in divine love, I fell back into the ways of the fallen world, retaining a degree of oscillation between the regions of both heaven and hell. On some level I've tried to accept this as my fate, as expressed in my poem, “The Poet that Rides the Waves” (see blog entry on June 27) while my spiritual journey continues.