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THE CAMBRIAN PESHER
THE VOICE OF THE DESPOSYNI TO THE AMERICAN DISPERSION
The Annunciation, 2004
On Hierogamy
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
- Luke 9:24
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
- Luke 1:38
Beloved:
Grail theology is Pelagian; it teaches that each individual is endowed with free moral agency - free will. Pelagianism is also Druidism; for the Druids taught that man's ability to originate choice is what separates him from the beasts of the earth. It is what enables him to exercise lordship over creation. He has instincts, but he also has the power to say "no" to his instincts.
The Culdees were Druids who converted to Christianity. Christianity taught the fall of mankind from the state of dominion. Man abused his freedom; therefore, his will was wounded. The first Culdees were Pelagians. Pelagius - known as "Morien" among the Welsh - was the son of a Druid and the head of Britain's largest center of Christian instruction (Bangor).[1] He believed that man was a fallen creature unable to harmonize his will with the created order. Pelagius taught that man needed spiritual enlightenment before he could be restored to his pre-fall condition. The will of man is changed by the action of truth upon the soul. Christ came to reveal that truth.
Augustine was Pelagius' main rival. He accused Pelagius of not believing the doctrine of Original Sin. Augustine lied. Pelagius did believe in Original Sin; he just did not believe Augustine's weird interpretation of it. Augustine taught that Original Sin was sexual in nature. Like most of the Latin fathers, he had a pathology about sex. The Pelagians didn't see anything inhuman or sinful about mankind's disposition to enjoy sex. The Celtic Britains represented a tribal culture and had a relaxed attitude toward sexuality - so relaxed, in fact, that the Romans accused them of not having marriage at all.
The mixed intercourse in the married state was the subject of a taunt addressed by the Empress Julia Augusta (wife of Severus) to the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian; but the latter lady retorted that, while in Britain they had openly intercourse with the best men, the Romanae had secretly adultery with the worst men.
- Arthur Whatmore, Insulae Brittanicae, p. 64
The Christians of the classical world (Greco-Roman) were uptight about sex. In contrast to the tribal Celts, they lived in an imperial culture (a culture of master/slave, conqueror/conquered). Relational boundaries were carefully marked and institutionalized. The battle over Pelagianism demonstrated the stark contrast between these two cultures. The traditional leaders of Christianity had a lot of repressive rules on sexual behavior to deal with the pathologies of urban society.[2] The Celts were a people of villages and clans. The rules of the Church Councils didn't fit their societies which were lived close to the earth and the rhythms of nature.
The Pelagians could tell the difference between human nature and sinful nature. The Augustinians confused the two. In the minds of the Pelagians, what was human was not necessarily sinful. Sex was human, therefore, it was innocent. For the Augustinians, sex was sinful because it was human and not angelic. Augustinians had a metaphysical definition for sin: whatever was imagined not to be the nature of the heavenly hosts. Since angels are, presumably, asexual, eunuchism is the higher earthly calling because it, too, is asexual.
In contrast to this, the Pelagians had a moral definition for sin: whatever was contrary to the law of God. "Of all the trees, thou mayest freely eat, except . . ." For the Pelagians, Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death. The children of God may now eat freely in the Garden, except for what He forbids. The Pelagians said, "what is not expressly forbidden is allowed". The Augustinians said, "what is not expressly allowed is forbidden."
Who was right: Pelagius or Augustine? Considering that Jesus said "the law [the sabbath] was made for man, not man for the law", my vote is with Pelagius.
Now comes the paradox. Mankind is given free will and then invited to surrender it to God. This is not a surrender of the capacity to choose; it is not an obliteration of man's essence. Man is not required to surrender his humanity, only his claim to divinity and the right to make his own moral law. As in our text above, Jesus tells us the law of life. It comes through self-sacrifice. By surrendering our own interests for the good of the Christ, we regain them. And how is that possible? It is possible because Christ has taken the journey first. His self-sacrifice has imparted life to us. Our self-sacrifice will impart life to others. "The parents ought to lay up for the children, not the children for the parents" (2 Corinthians 12:14).
When it comes to marriage and sexual relationships, what is the single cause of failure? When it is distilled and reduced to a single principle, the cause of marital failure is self-will: the quest of people looking out for their own happiness. The modern philosophy of marriage is skewed because we are taught that marriage, as an institution, is supposed to make us happy.
What did the young peasant girl say to the angel when he told her God was going to make her pregnant? "I want an abortion"? No. "I want the going rate for surrogacy?" No. "God, I'm having your baby. You'd better pay child support and give me an easy life." No. She said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word."
The doctrine of hierogamy can be summed up in this proverb: "Marriage by lottery, love without limits. Marriage by choice, love in chains." God crossed the boundary between the human and the Divine to manifest His love for the world. Because Mary surrendered her girlish dreams to a union most unnatural, she became the mother of the bridegroom, and the bridegroom of the bride.
Only when you read my book, Hierogamy & the Married Messiah, will you understand this riddle.
A Servant of Jesus,
James
Collect for the Day:
"We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts, that we who have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."
[1] See my book The Holy Conspiracy: Christian Druidism & Cultural Alchemy for more about Pelagius.
[2] An example is the veiling of women. Among the Celtic Christians, women were not required to wear veils. In fact, in Celtic villages it was not an unusual sight to see bare-breasted women. Contrast that with Tertullian's rule that a woman must wear a blanket over her head and completely cover her face when seen in public.
Hierogamy & the Married Messiah