evolution of spirit in societal structure - ken wilber

Every epoch of human evolutions seems to have one central idea, an idea that dominates the entire epoch, and summarizes its approach to spirit, and tells us something altogether profound. Each seems to build upon its predecessor.

Foraging: spirit is interwoven with earthbody. For aging cultures the world over sing this profound truth. The very earth is our bones, blood and marrow. And we are all the sons and daughters of that earth- in which spirit flows freely.

Horticultural: But spirit demands sacrifice. Sacrifice is the great recurring theme through horticultural societies, and not just in concrete form of actual ritual sacrifice, although we certaintly see it there as well. But the central and pervading notion is that certain specific human steps must be taken to come into accord with spirit. Ordinary or typical humanity has to get out of the way, so to speak – has to be sacrificed – in order for spirit to shine forth more clearly. In other words, there are steps on the way to a more fully realized spiritual awareness.

Agrarian: These spiritual steps are in fact arrayed in a great chain of being. The great chain is the central, dominant, inescapable theme of every mythic-agrarian society the world over, with few exceptions.

Modernity: The great chain unfolds in evolutionary time. In other words evolution. The fact that spirit was usually left out of modernity is quite disastrous. Evolution is one great background concept that hangs over every single modern movement; it is the god of modernity. And in fact this is a very spiritual realization, because whether or not it consciously identifies itself as spiritual, the fact is that it plugs human into the kosmos in an unbroken fashion, and further, points to the inescapable and frightening fact that humans are co-creative of their own evolution, their own history, their own worldspaces because….

Postmodernity: Nothing is pre-given; the world is not just a perception but is also an interpretation. That this leads many postmodernists into fits of aperspectival madness is not our concern. That nothing is pregiven is the great post-modern discovery, and it plugs humans into a malleable kosmos of their own co-creation, spirit becomes self conscious is the most acute forms, on the way to its own superconcscious shock.

Spirit is interwoven with earthbody, but spirit demands sacrifice. These spiritual steps are in fact arrayed In a great chain of being. The great chain unfolds in evolutionary time. Nothing is pregiven; the world is not just a perception but also an interpretation (co-creativity)