new terrain...new words to contemplate...

just as the hearts of others deals with...love, sex, and death...the new thing i'm working on seems to be an attempt to view those same themes through...an awakening sense of spirituality...

don't run...this is an exploration...not a sermon...

so...acknowledging that i am by no means the first person to consider this approach to telling a story...and that the estimation of...the level and/or presence of my talent...is untested...at best...let's add some context to to the discussion...

i first came across this combination of themes in William Burrough's Cities of the Red Night trilogy...The Western Lands in particular...



it is here that he most fully describes his Seven Souls concept...


a concept inspired by Norman Mailer...

how does any of this inform what i am working on...not much...except...it forces the question...what is the nature of the human soul...where does it come from...and where does it go...

as a man who doesn't believe in heaven or hell...and because i'm obsessed with questions of mortality...i've spent a long time thinking about this...the new story is, in part, an attempt to illuminate some of my thought...

which brings us to language...because it is the foundation of thought...i've had to expand my lexicon in order to expand my thinking...

so...in no particular order...some new words, and their meanings...as an introduction to some of the new themes i am working on...

theism...

noun

the belief in the existence of one or more divinities or deities. There is also a narrower sense in which theism refers to the belief that one or more divinities are immanent in the world, yet transcend it, along with the idea that divinity(s) is/are omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.

pantheism...

noun

a doctrine that identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.

polytheism...

noun

the belief in or worship of more than one god.

misotheism...

noun

is the "hatred of God" or "hatred of the gods". In some varieties of polytheism, it was considered possible to inflict punishment on gods by ceasing to worship them.

(thanks to mr Murray for providing the impetus for my research)