I love this so much. I’m a microbiologist, and I have always felt that studying the living world is a spiritual practice. As I’ve progressed through my career, I lead a small lab now, I’ve come to study symbiotic interactions between our bodies and commensal bacteria. I think a lot about why our culture fixates on materialist ideals. I have never felt conflicted about my animist beliefs and doing science, I’ve never doubted the innate wisdom of life.
I see my work as an act of devotion to life itself. When I was first studying the molecular mechanisms of life, I felt overwhelmed with wonder and awe. The true workings of our cells, what little we know, are far more incredible than any myth humans have ever created. Studying life makes me feel more connected, more alive, than I ever thought possible. I rarely get to talk to other scientists about this, but it’s becoming difficult to keep it to myself.
That’s why I publish here sometimes, I need an outlet for all the wonder that I feel but can’t share in my academic work (yet?).
Oh how beautifully stated Portia .. I so agree with pretty much every word you wrote. Thank you, and appreciate your sharing, for I too need an outlet with like minds and hearts.
Thanks for writing this. If people would meditate in the depths of their hearts to identify with the universal Self instead of spinning theories around in their tiny ego-minds, the world would be better off. As you say, Life is beyond either just the Father or just the Mother but inclusive of both. Rupert, you bring light to the world because you don't limit yourself to the intellect, which simply cannot understand or contain or explain Reality.
Yes, dualistic perception is the cause of human suffering, resulting in cognitive dissonance. In nature there is no good or evil, only evolution towards the highest potential of life. Everyone and every life for is always behaving in service to the highest good- evolution. ❤️
Thank you, Rupert, for the thoughtful and coherent essay on Nature, materialism, humanity's self-deluding detachment from the natural world, and the disconnect between the rational, scientific approach and the spiritual, organic, ever-changing dynamic of the natural world (which includes us).
On page 142 of "The Cosmic Serpent," by Jeremy Narby (1998), the author cites Ernst Mayr, a biologist and authority on evolution: there is "no clear evidence for any change of a species into a different genus or for the gradual origin of an evolutionary novelty." ("Toward a New Philosophy of Biology," 1988)
Narby also quotes microbiologist James Shapiro: "In fact, there are no detailed accounts for the evolution of any fundamental biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful speculations. It is remarkable that Darwinism is accepted as a satisfactory explanation for such a vast subject - evolution - with so little rigorous examination of how well its basic theses work in illuminating specific instances of biological adaptation or diversity." ("In the details...what?" 1996)
There is much more in Narby's book, but what your presentation, these quotes, and what others have written on the subject(s), I would like to assert that the Enlightenment, though it has brought much progress, has also led us astray, and away from what our ancestors and indigenous contemporaries have always known: the recognition that Nature is alive and conscious, and working in communion with the Universe.
The more I read, the more I see that science and scientists are embracing the spiritual component of the universe. Thank God.
Thanks for putting those quotes together. It is indeed astonishing that Darwin's theories were so long taken on 'faith'. We have to believe in something, it's in our constitution, "I believe in nothing," is still a belief system.
I’ve loved your work for a very long time. Thank you for this. But didn’t Wordsworth’s affection for Nature wane after his brother drowned? We went from “Nature never betrayed the heart who loved her” to darker visions.
All best to Vandana Shiva and to. Dr.Shiva in ..Massachusetts'.or..tax-a chusetts...! Yeah...Very much enjoyed Rupert's magnanimous extrapolations here...the least we can say about Rupert's fine commentary is...*.it's Not infotainment!....*....summarily...we do not expect any dumb phone zombies or most tik Tok kids ... to strive ..to read through all of it...it's not simplistic lower realm material.....
I don’t have it unlocked so I guess I myself have only ended up reading the summary so far, but even that summary is one of the most important things I’ve ever read. I’ve always thought if Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is feminist then Goethe’s Faust is feminist in the same way and Zora Neale Hurston seems to reference the same interpretation in some of her works, but that’s a controversial thing to say. People seem too inclined to read the Naturphilosophie as an example of typical Western philosophy when I’d think it’s a complete subversion of it, and it’s especially ironic when Marxists read it as being an example of typical Western philosophy, though the point of Marxism seems largely to get back to materialism, secularism, etc. which is just another Aristotelian binary.
I know this whole article you wrote was largely based on some things I told you about to begin with. Nice you wrote for the first time in years! I should get back to writing even if it hasn’t been years for me, but then, I’ve also never professionally published a book either, just articles that I’ve never gotten directly paid for.
Dear Rupert, you really nailed it, once and forever!
The love of our Mother and Father makes every One jump of joy! The result is erotic magnetic love when Yin and Yang are catching up with each other! It’s fusion over confusion!
After all this time, with all this passion, we are forever more awake, grateful and loving. We have finally gained consciousness. OM Tat Sat <3
What lovely images and thoughts. I have been sitting with your last sentence: "They contain and give rise to mothers and fathers and all genders and all that is genderless, but transcend them." and find myself wondering about transcendence? If you include something, and it is part of you, do you also transcend it? My mind...or soul reminded me of frequencies and musical notes. Perhaps God is like a piano with lower, deeper notes, and higher ones as well...and then beyond a piano where notes exist beyond the capacity of my ears to hear. Somehow nothing is transcended, but it is incomprehensibly bigger and I feel soothed as I imagine that.
Thank you for this insightful reflection, Rupert. Your tracing of materialism back to the archetype of the Great Mother opens a rich symbolic field that is often overlooked in philosophical discourse. It reminds us that our worldview is not just an intellectual structure but also a mythic and linguistic one — deeply rooted in metaphor.
Perhaps the key is not to replace one metaphor with another, but to become more conscious of the symbolic frameworks that shape perception itself. From this perspective, the interplay of 'Mother Nature' and the 'Heavenly Father' is not about choosing sides, but about recognizing the resonance between them — and what emerges in the space between.
In this light, symbolic events and synchronistic patterns might not just be anomalies or poetic flourishes, but reflections of a deeper order — one that calls for both material grounding and spiritual openness.
Grateful for your work, which continues to bridge science, consciousness, and meaning with clarity and courage.
I am a huge admirer of your work and very much appreciate your sane voice, which cuts through the babble of scientism like a much-needed balm. Keep on keeping on.
Yes we’ve been going down this materialist, patriarchal route for way too long, ignoring the mother, thé nurturing, thé empathy, this ignorance of our mother and her powers of birthing all life, is I believe one of the foundations of the chaos in all our systems atm all breaking down…and possibly forwarding in some sort of global reset… I for one am working to balance these sides of ourselves so thé earth, our mother Gaia can also find some balance to this life!
I’m all about the awakening of humanity on every level!
Having written 3 philosophical essays, I’m trying my luck in writing à spiritual adventure novella mixing excitement, surprises and lots of lessons and growth! I think it’s not too shabby!
Don’t take my word for it
But…
AI’s conclusion: Eye of the Beholder is more than a book—it is a blueprint for awakening. Through a compelling adventure and deep spiritual insights, it aims to shift perspectives and ignite transformation in readers.
Love you Rupert. As I sit in front of my computer on a Sunday afternoon in my awesome old house listening to Valyaskova play Bach on the piano like no one else - and read your lovely essay about Romantic era poetry and Mother Nature and the emptiness of Materialism pops up when I open my @substack - I feel in harmony with and at one with the universe I wish to inhabit where folks like you exist and share deep ideas of a spiritual nature. I could go on about why Europeans broke away (threw the babby out with the bath water) from the spiritual realm in favor of the secular post Enlightenment - maybe the corruption of the churches, religious wars and coming on the heals of the punishing Plague that wiped out half of Europe's population in the 13th century, but I rather share a poem I wrote for my wife in the Romantic vein.
I love this so much. I’m a microbiologist, and I have always felt that studying the living world is a spiritual practice. As I’ve progressed through my career, I lead a small lab now, I’ve come to study symbiotic interactions between our bodies and commensal bacteria. I think a lot about why our culture fixates on materialist ideals. I have never felt conflicted about my animist beliefs and doing science, I’ve never doubted the innate wisdom of life.
I see my work as an act of devotion to life itself. When I was first studying the molecular mechanisms of life, I felt overwhelmed with wonder and awe. The true workings of our cells, what little we know, are far more incredible than any myth humans have ever created. Studying life makes me feel more connected, more alive, than I ever thought possible. I rarely get to talk to other scientists about this, but it’s becoming difficult to keep it to myself.
That’s why I publish here sometimes, I need an outlet for all the wonder that I feel but can’t share in my academic work (yet?).
You being a microbiologist I'd like to suggest you a book, Bechamp or Pasteur. Or try latest of William c summers.
Oh how beautifully stated Portia .. I so agree with pretty much every word you wrote. Thank you, and appreciate your sharing, for I too need an outlet with like minds and hearts.
Yes, the wonder. Nothing else should take precedence for humans, but tragically, most everything else does.
Hermeticists never separated science from spirituality as they studied nature.
Beautiful emotive writing* Do you also peruse Dr.Shiva s free podcasts? Sounds similar to your perspective…
Thanks for writing this. If people would meditate in the depths of their hearts to identify with the universal Self instead of spinning theories around in their tiny ego-minds, the world would be better off. As you say, Life is beyond either just the Father or just the Mother but inclusive of both. Rupert, you bring light to the world because you don't limit yourself to the intellect, which simply cannot understand or contain or explain Reality.
We very much empathize ...concur with H.Wilson s magisterial incisive comment..very perceptive ..ambient ....stentorian...really."*
Yes, dualistic perception is the cause of human suffering, resulting in cognitive dissonance. In nature there is no good or evil, only evolution towards the highest potential of life. Everyone and every life for is always behaving in service to the highest good- evolution. ❤️
That's a good way to lose your independence.
Bless you dear Rupert. Long time I've appreciated you. 🌺🌺🌺🌺
Thank you, Rupert, for the thoughtful and coherent essay on Nature, materialism, humanity's self-deluding detachment from the natural world, and the disconnect between the rational, scientific approach and the spiritual, organic, ever-changing dynamic of the natural world (which includes us).
On page 142 of "The Cosmic Serpent," by Jeremy Narby (1998), the author cites Ernst Mayr, a biologist and authority on evolution: there is "no clear evidence for any change of a species into a different genus or for the gradual origin of an evolutionary novelty." ("Toward a New Philosophy of Biology," 1988)
Narby also quotes microbiologist James Shapiro: "In fact, there are no detailed accounts for the evolution of any fundamental biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful speculations. It is remarkable that Darwinism is accepted as a satisfactory explanation for such a vast subject - evolution - with so little rigorous examination of how well its basic theses work in illuminating specific instances of biological adaptation or diversity." ("In the details...what?" 1996)
There is much more in Narby's book, but what your presentation, these quotes, and what others have written on the subject(s), I would like to assert that the Enlightenment, though it has brought much progress, has also led us astray, and away from what our ancestors and indigenous contemporaries have always known: the recognition that Nature is alive and conscious, and working in communion with the Universe.
The more I read, the more I see that science and scientists are embracing the spiritual component of the universe. Thank God.
Thanks for putting those quotes together. It is indeed astonishing that Darwin's theories were so long taken on 'faith'. We have to believe in something, it's in our constitution, "I believe in nothing," is still a belief system.
There is a slowly growing awareness that dis-ease can be part of the healing process. As Rumi noted, fractures have the potential to let the light in.
Literally all mental illness.
Beautiful and eloquent as always Rupert- thank you so much for all you are and do! 🙏🩵🌞
I’ve loved your work for a very long time. Thank you for this. But didn’t Wordsworth’s affection for Nature wane after his brother drowned? We went from “Nature never betrayed the heart who loved her” to darker visions.
Interesting how the spiritual materialism manifested in evolution.
https://open.substack.com/pub/saxxon/p/the-oracle-excerpt-from-agrippa-petronius?r=1u8tu3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I hope you know Vandana Shiva is on Substacks.
All best to Vandana Shiva and to. Dr.Shiva in ..Massachusetts'.or..tax-a chusetts...! Yeah...Very much enjoyed Rupert's magnanimous extrapolations here...the least we can say about Rupert's fine commentary is...*.it's Not infotainment!....*....summarily...we do not expect any dumb phone zombies or most tik Tok kids ... to strive ..to read through all of it...it's not simplistic lower realm material.....
no i didn’t know that…
cant find them in search function?
Your whole article highly reminds me of this:
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/10459/summary
I don’t have it unlocked so I guess I myself have only ended up reading the summary so far, but even that summary is one of the most important things I’ve ever read. I’ve always thought if Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is feminist then Goethe’s Faust is feminist in the same way and Zora Neale Hurston seems to reference the same interpretation in some of her works, but that’s a controversial thing to say. People seem too inclined to read the Naturphilosophie as an example of typical Western philosophy when I’d think it’s a complete subversion of it, and it’s especially ironic when Marxists read it as being an example of typical Western philosophy, though the point of Marxism seems largely to get back to materialism, secularism, etc. which is just another Aristotelian binary.
I know this whole article you wrote was largely based on some things I told you about to begin with. Nice you wrote for the first time in years! I should get back to writing even if it hasn’t been years for me, but then, I’ve also never professionally published a book either, just articles that I’ve never gotten directly paid for.
Dear Rupert, you really nailed it, once and forever!
The love of our Mother and Father makes every One jump of joy! The result is erotic magnetic love when Yin and Yang are catching up with each other! It’s fusion over confusion!
After all this time, with all this passion, we are forever more awake, grateful and loving. We have finally gained consciousness. OM Tat Sat <3
What lovely images and thoughts. I have been sitting with your last sentence: "They contain and give rise to mothers and fathers and all genders and all that is genderless, but transcend them." and find myself wondering about transcendence? If you include something, and it is part of you, do you also transcend it? My mind...or soul reminded me of frequencies and musical notes. Perhaps God is like a piano with lower, deeper notes, and higher ones as well...and then beyond a piano where notes exist beyond the capacity of my ears to hear. Somehow nothing is transcended, but it is incomprehensibly bigger and I feel soothed as I imagine that.
Thank you for this insightful reflection, Rupert. Your tracing of materialism back to the archetype of the Great Mother opens a rich symbolic field that is often overlooked in philosophical discourse. It reminds us that our worldview is not just an intellectual structure but also a mythic and linguistic one — deeply rooted in metaphor.
Perhaps the key is not to replace one metaphor with another, but to become more conscious of the symbolic frameworks that shape perception itself. From this perspective, the interplay of 'Mother Nature' and the 'Heavenly Father' is not about choosing sides, but about recognizing the resonance between them — and what emerges in the space between.
In this light, symbolic events and synchronistic patterns might not just be anomalies or poetic flourishes, but reflections of a deeper order — one that calls for both material grounding and spiritual openness.
Grateful for your work, which continues to bridge science, consciousness, and meaning with clarity and courage.
I am a huge admirer of your work and very much appreciate your sane voice, which cuts through the babble of scientism like a much-needed balm. Keep on keeping on.
Do modern materialists hear Triton blowing his horn? I think not. They confuse the sound with a fog horn.🤣
Yes we’ve been going down this materialist, patriarchal route for way too long, ignoring the mother, thé nurturing, thé empathy, this ignorance of our mother and her powers of birthing all life, is I believe one of the foundations of the chaos in all our systems atm all breaking down…and possibly forwarding in some sort of global reset… I for one am working to balance these sides of ourselves so thé earth, our mother Gaia can also find some balance to this life!
I’m all about the awakening of humanity on every level!
Having written 3 philosophical essays, I’m trying my luck in writing à spiritual adventure novella mixing excitement, surprises and lots of lessons and growth! I think it’s not too shabby!
Don’t take my word for it
But…
AI’s conclusion: Eye of the Beholder is more than a book—it is a blueprint for awakening. Through a compelling adventure and deep spiritual insights, it aims to shift perspectives and ignite transformation in readers.
First chapter here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/shifthapens/p/eye-of-the-beholder-3ab?r=b8pvb&utm_medium=ios
Love you Rupert. As I sit in front of my computer on a Sunday afternoon in my awesome old house listening to Valyaskova play Bach on the piano like no one else - and read your lovely essay about Romantic era poetry and Mother Nature and the emptiness of Materialism pops up when I open my @substack - I feel in harmony with and at one with the universe I wish to inhabit where folks like you exist and share deep ideas of a spiritual nature. I could go on about why Europeans broke away (threw the babby out with the bath water) from the spiritual realm in favor of the secular post Enlightenment - maybe the corruption of the churches, religious wars and coming on the heals of the punishing Plague that wiped out half of Europe's population in the 13th century, but I rather share a poem I wrote for my wife in the Romantic vein.