The weird and unseen.
Anglican priest and hymnist John Mason Neale of the mid nineteenth century has some pretty far-out things to say about the earth's haunting by spirits: according to Fr. Neale, any location which has not been blessed and consecrated by the Church is full of troublesome and dangerous imps. This theory is especially true of all wild and desolate locations, and certainly of the sea; God said "cursed be the earth" after the Fall in Genesis, such that the earth must be reclaimed before it can be safe. CF the Desert Fathers having particarly violent situations in the desert; cf humanity's inate fear of dark forests; cf the fact that my father HATES the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro; cf that compelling urge to JUMP when one stands on a high precipice and looks down.... weird. You can find Fr. Neale's ideas here.
I may stick with his hymns, personally, but these ideas are pretty interesting...
posted by MM at 7:08 PM
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