Redemption and Messianic Return

Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish critic and philosopher who died while fleeing from the Nazis in 1940. His subtle, numinous essays make him a unique thinker of the 20th Century, impossible to categorize. He is one of my intellectual heroes; I recall a few of his insights or aphorisms nearly every day. In his writing, he left many puzzle pieces and crystalline shards to help us reflect on the secret workings of our world.

Writing between World War One and Two, Benjamin foresaw humanity racing toward yet another catastrophic catharsis. He noted that humans possessed an innate need to “commingle” with the “cosmic forces”. If we don’t find avenues for enacting this creatively and productively, through shared ritual and ceremony, it eventually happens destructively — convulsively — through wars and other mass disasters. While I was writing How Soon Is Now, I often thought of Benjamin’s idea. I wondered if humanity has subconsciously decided to ignore the ecological crisis until it spins out of control. Perhaps we seek an initiatory threshold as a species — a collective event that forces us to confront the raw cosmic powers that modern society, with its focus on material comforts, tries to suppress and subdue?

Benjamin pointed out the need for initiation as both a societal and individual process. Advocating for the value — even the necessity — of exploring altered…