Piety is a Lie to Me, so Full Meme Ahead

 

One of the things that always gets on my nerves is false piety. And by "false piety," I mean all piety.

Piety is the Scylla and Charybdis of religion and spirituality. It's a pretense that belongs in another time and another world, where life was shorter, harsher and far, far duller. It inevitably turns seekers into scolds and mystics into mush. 

And with a minuscule amount of exceptions, piety is always a mask for sin. Not to mention its excuse: "I am so righteous that I deserve indulgence." Hypocrisy is the tax virtue pays to vice, and all the rest of the cop-outs.

We are all broken and fallible, brothers and sisters. We all fall short of the glory of God, and there's no use pretending otherwise. We're all hostage to the flesh, and we're all living in a world of atoms and molecules that follow the laws of Nature, immutable and intransigent. Platonic forms are just hopes and dreams, after all.

Which may be why spiritual shitposting (and its cousin, schizospirituality) is so refreshing to me. I believe someone once said, "He exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted," or words to that effect. And that to me is the genius of this new movement - there's no pretense to anything but a semi-desperate need for relief.

There's also an authenticity there. Whereas religion has always tried to ape pop culture in an effort to read new converts - a usually cringeful effort, mind you - spiritual shitposters feel like true autists and digital natives. Their use of the peculiar idioms of meme culture feels earned, as does the self-aware self-mocking. What's more, you never get the feeling they're trying to sell you on someone else's agenda.

And while the spiritual shitposters memetic kung fu isn't quite as thrillingly unhinged as their schizoid brethren, you don't get the feeling it's meant to be.  

There's also a kind of outlaw syncretism at work there, one that doesn't suffer from the douche-chilling xenophilia that makes Boomer-vintage New Age so insufferable. It's for - and of - a different demographic entirely. A demographic that sees spirituality as a life-raft and not just another lifestyle accessory.

I'm guessing a lot you see things the same way.

Before we get started with the memely goodness, a lot of people have been asking me about the new Netflix Chaos: The Manson Murders, based on Tom O'Neill's book of (roughly) the same name. 

If you've read The Endless American Midnight, you know I have some thoughts on the matter and I'll be sharing them in a special Secret Sun True Crime Radio Mystery Hour going up tonight at The Secret Sun Institute. 

Click here for more information.

The Secret Sun Extension School is up and running, so do check out this post on The Fifth Element and the esoteric symbolism encoded within it. The piece is available to free members until March 24th, so don't you dare miss it. Click here.

There's also this piece, which takes a look at a strange period in our history when UFOlogy was embraced by the conspiracy underground. Check that out while you're there.

So without further ado, please enjoy this carefully-curated collection of spiritual shitposts. I hope it inspires you as much as it does me.