[Dialogue] teetering on the cultic edge

Tue Jun 3 10:25:25 EDT 2008

Wayne

I was just not confident of the use of the word teetering. As to the rest of
your response, I am part of the same self story but there was a zombie for
quitters story that did teeter on the cultic. That being my perception, I
still am more than glad that I was part of what many of us experienced. I
think we cannot overestimate the impact of what we did. The children of the
order were not a bad barometer of our shortcomings.

Your zombie friend

Carlos R. Zervigon, PMP

Zervigon International, Ltd.

817 Antonine St.

New Orleans, LA  70115  USA

504 894-9868 Mobile: 504 908-0762

carlos at zervigon.com

http://www.zervigon.com

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of W. J.
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 11:24 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: [Dialogue] teetering on the cultic edge

Geez, Carlos, what can I say? Except that the cultic edge continually moves
on. And for a while we teetered on it.

It's clear that in 1957 the cultic/cutting edge was the Christian
Faith-and-Life Community; in 1967 it was the Order:Ecumenical living in
Fifth City and teaching RS-1/CS-1 across the globe; in 1977 it was the ICA
doing human development projects LENS, and town meetings across the globe
and living beyond the death of JWM; in 1987 it was the ICAI, the diaspora,
and the radical secularizing / indigenizing / transparenizing of the Word
about life.

By 1997 the cultic edge had moved on to envision the 21st century in a very
new and global context that embraced an ecosystemic lens and struggled with
a new set of global economic, political, and cultural contradictions. I'm
not sure we're fully up to speed on how to teeter on this cultic edge.

If the twentieth century revolutions were indeed scientific, urban, and
secular, maybe the current revolution in global human consciousness is more
tribal, global-village focused, and eco-centric. 

In that postmodern context what has re-emerged with power is the Cultus or
the Cultic. Not just in reductionistic, otherworldly, or apocalyptic Cults
seeking to escape this world in some kind of utopian communities. 

More importantly, it has to do with a recovery of the transformative power
of ritual to bind us together in a common experience mediated by mass media
and inclusive of altered states of consciousness evoked by music and images.

Or something like that.

We haven't exactly figured out what a global Cultus will look like for a
global village.

More later, possibly, or maybe not. 'Cause early tomorrow morning I'm off to
Lake Junaluska for another visit.

Marshall

--- On Mon, 6/2/08, Carlos R. Zervigon <carlos at zervigon.com> wrote:

From: Carlos R. Zervigon <carlos at zervigon.com>
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Brooke Tippett wins the Golden Apple Award
To: "'Colleague Dialogue'" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Date: Monday, June 2, 2008, 6:50 PM

Mike and Judith

Having been a school teacher, I appreciate the significance of what Brooke
has done. I remember my theory of gradual transition from bright eyed and
hopeful to cynical and go through the motions. It is probably significant
that she could benefit from our history and yet recognize the cultic edge on
which we teetered (Wayne alias Marshall help me here). I rejoice in this
great event.

Carlos R. Zervigon, PMP

Zervigon International, Ltd.

817 Antonine St.

New Orleans, LA  70115  USA

504 894-9868 Mobile: 504 908-0762

carlos at zervigon.com

http://www.zervigon.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080603/88127fc3/attachment-0001.html 