Posts by Matt

Speaking of Santa Claus…

Before the Coca-Cola rebranding of Santa, he appeared as a tall thin bearded man known under various names. One of the most notable is Father Christmas. In pre-Christian pagan times the Yule season was celebrated by various peoples and the patron of this time of year was the Yule Father, Jölföthr…aka Odin or Woden. Known to associate with elves and other spirits he would ride through the sky at night on an eight legged flying horse. Not dissimilar to eight flying reindeer. One of which is etymologically related to Thor or Donar…Donner/Donder “Thunder.”

Other than the gift giving aspect of the very different St. Nicholas, Santa Claus has far more in common with the magical Odin who reigns over the magical realm of Asgard. It seems just like in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Mr. Wednesday (Odin) has rebranded himself and has made himself relevant through the ages. 🎅🏻🎅🏻

I love my online Epicurean community and friends. I really wish I could be more active, I have such a desire to be out striking blows for Epicurus throughout the year. Maybe 2022 will be different, but who knows. All I know is that my chance swerve into the Garden almost a decade ago has enriched my life and I want to always give back and validate how much this movement and community means to me.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Yule and Peace and Safety!

I’ll try to swing online here and drop in tomorrow and the next day.

Quote from Cassius

Right there is never going to be consensus on this point so it makes little sense to worry about differences in position so long as the core implications are protected.

I feel this is true…there’s a special kind of worry or concern that simply emanates from debates about this subject and frankly whatever “Epicurean” conclusions a person has should suffice without causing themselves mental anguish. It dovetails off the “do not fear god” principle in that worrying excessively about what Epicurus meant can also get quickly out of hand. Like all things, prudent thought is important in how deep we dive.

Very lovely house! I feel like Hansel and Gretel would have difficulty restraining themselves from indulging in a house that might look like that. 😁

I have a couple of oversized gingerbread man kits that I’m going to do soon. I’ll post my terrible decorating skills here!

I’ve been drinking brandy and cognac these last couple of months usually mixed with cider. In autumn and winter when the weather gets colder, I typically switch to hard cider and various Irish and Scotch whiskies. In the summer I typically drink sangria with vodka or tequila. I’ll drink beer, but it’s infrequent. Usually it needs to be a craft beer of sorts.

As far as wine goes I’ll do dry reds like Cabernet and Malbec. And of course if mead is available I’ll have a glass. 🥃🍷

Absolutely! It’s interesting to take a step back and think about the traditions that really give me a pleasurable feeling. Living in New England in the cold weather, I derive pleasure from wood fires burning, decorated fir trees, candle lit windows, the smell of pine, cinnamon and peppermint. The gathering of friends and family at meals and the imbibing of spiked cider and nog. These particular aspects are in no particular way Christian, but for me make up a significant aspect of the holiday that I look forward to.

Since the time I joined the online Garden (which is coming up to a decade) and started learning about Epicurus, I made a connection with why I believe Christmas really is a deeply Epicurean holiday. Especially from a secular perspective. The 25th of December (rooted in the Germanic Yule and Roman Saturnalia festivals) was a time of merriment during the dark days of winter. Lights and decorations abound and people prepare for a gathering of family and friends to exchange gifts and eat sumptuous food. The experiences are explicitly rooted in pleasure. From the time a person is a child the pleasures associated with this time of year are absolute evidence of the Epicurean position that pleasure is the driving force behind why humans do anything and why many of us look forward to gatherings with friends and family.

Wow! This is a long interesting thread.

I’m just going to comment on the latter part of “doing no harm”.

In my opinion the doing of harm relates to intention. But purely the intention of harming someone outside of personal self-defense or preservation. As in assaulting or murdering an innocent person, defrauding them, slandering them...basically hurting the other for the sake of it or for your own benefit.

Any act of self defense and the intention of defending yourself would fall outside the realm of doing harm, since defending yourself or a loved one is a “natural” act that is in accord with nature. So having a .38 in your nightstand and training to use it is intentional to DO HARM, but since the intention is based in self-defense and that act is natural it would seem to be entirely just.

Also this antiquarian source is pretty interesting in describing the differences between the Druids in Ireland and those in Gaul:

https://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryA…TXmjUhTXgIgPuSU

Yes! I found the source:

Strabo, Geographica IV.4.4-5

• the poets and singers known as bardoi,
• the diviners and specialists in the natural world known as o'vateis, and
• those who studied "moral philosophy", the druidai.

I’ve always found the Druids fascinating.

Absolutely!

And that “memorization” of oral texts by the Druid class, very, very similar to how the Hindu Brahmins memorize the Vedic lore via chants.

Caesar also observed that there were “classes” or a caste system in ancient Gaul...the Druids and the “Equites” which he based on his own Roman understanding. In my mind this is similar to the Brahmin priestly caste and the Kshatriya warrior class of the Hindus. There may have been more division of societal classes that Caesar did not observe.

Caesar’s commentary on the Gauls belief in the soul:

“With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed. Subsidiary to the teachings of this main principle, they hold various lectures and discussions on the stars and their movement, on the extent and geographical distribution of the earth, on the different branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion.

— Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, VI, 14“

Quote from Godfrey

From today's paper, an op-ed about how Christians came to believe in an immortal soul, from a professor of religious studies. (Spoiler alert: it has roots in Plato's deception and trickery....) Personally, I was unaware of how late it came about.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/…eaven-hell-soul

Interesting article! One thing I’ve always found interesting is that certain ancient Indo-European cultures held a doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. The best known being the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists but second to them the ancient Celts, specifically the Gauls as reported by Caesar and Alexander Polyhistor. They called it the “Pythagorean” doctrine. That the Celtic druids believed in a sort of reincarnation. I’ve always believed there is a very deep connection between Vedic and Celtic culture that extends waaaay back in time. But this idea of transmigration of a disembodied soul is unique to the Celts and Hindus. Perhaps the Greeks adopted this from the Indian philosophers.

To what extent the Celts believed it we will probably never know...but perhaps to the same degree as the Indians.

That’s a good poll...hard to just pick 7!

Anything that focuses on pleasure first and foremost, a severe skepticism to anything “supernatural”, the understanding of the materiality of the universe, an “agnosticism” or apathy to any concrete nature of divinity other than what is posited by Epicurus.

In absence of any actual virtue or divine mandate, pleasure would in my opinion, be the default “good” in life.

I’m in..we just need to lock down a time. I’m available after 7 pm EST most Tue-Friday.

Again, if it pleases the court, I’d like to state on the record that I am in no way a fan of Parmenides as a whole just an Epicurean with some eclectic knowledge that would infuriate Epicurus.

😂

Hahaha that’s real Neoplatonist terminology!

Should you wonder why I embraced materialism and Epicureanism? 😅

With all that being said with modern physics, Parmenides and a host of exhausting (monstrous) eastern philosophies being brought up as a comparison...I’m satisfied with the Lucretian and Epicurean assertion of the eternal universe.

However it actually looks or looked doesn’t ultimately have a bearing on my pleasurable living.

I’m happy with laughing about Democritus’s keen observations of the changes in female sexual evolution rather than going mad worrying about first principals, but I’m always willing to go there! 😂

I think as far as we Epicureans go, it depends on how far we want to defend the position of an eternal universe. Getting into modern physics and other philosophical arguments beyond the more simple assertions.

I think there is ample observable and logical evidence that the universe is eternal. It may go through “changes” but those changes really make no difference to me as an Epicurean.

It’s easy enough to say it’s eternal and move on with my day seeking out pleasure.