ae “THE ROOTS OF RITUAL, very good. 1c seems as though, almost without knowing then, we have lon the way. Thomas O'Dea has recently likened our situation to one depicted earlier by Dante, in the opening lines ofthe Tnerno: In the middle of te journey of our le Tame to my senses in dark forest, for Thad kn the aight path Dante atleast knew where home was, even if e fle lost For him God and Paradise were sure. We do not even know where home is: for us there i literally no diection home, ‘We have an immense nowalgia and longing for Thome, for being at home, yet our cule acute, radical homelesnes, Most Americans have never been at home io this lad, ‘This is not only because most of us are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants who have generation after gen ‘ration continued to wander over the face of this éom- tinent, but aso because most of the founding fathers be ved in some version of that religous tradition of which Dante was an earlier voice. For them this earth wat only 1 temporary abude. They were to be in but not of the world. Their true home was their Father's house, and theit Father was in heaven. ‘This earth was simply the Jocation of the long upward climb, the “Pilgtim’s Prog es.” which was to end gloriously in heaven. Gradually, ‘over the course of several centuries, that upward course thas become truncated, The heavenly home in which i ‘ends is a split level in suburbia supplied with all the Tatest electrical equipment. In this transition, hope has Ihccome gradually overpowered by fear. One cannot really ‘heat home in a house if one feels physically and morally inure about onics ponewion of Hit one Deeds to pur ‘hase gums to defend it. As Max Weber pointed out nearly Seventy years ago, the lle lived in obedience to the heavenly father when the heavenly father has dit Foam Fe sem Ct ny 1. inyth of the sky home and the: deepening. dsllusionment with the. pseu home Called sucess which gradually took i place that more than anything has precipitated our rest csi. Seculat ‘als fine nurtured bythe myth of the sky home have ‘weenched themelves lome and have set ou wxcety om 4 Course of uncontrolled acclraton. Wealth and power when they become ends in themscley, lea inevitably 10 the destruction ofthe natural ensitonmien, eer weaker Societies, the ls privileged eihin our own society. an finally and inexorably to the destruction of those mt fervently and succesflly dedicate to them, As this has Iecome increasingly clear. there has cacured & manive revulsion agninat these dominant secular ales, 4 con alive reaction to the attack by doe mont commited {o them, and so the cllapse ofthat gest conse Which has for Tong, though never totally ay the apg have claimed, characterized Americans. ‘Throughout human history, during those troubled times when. the common value were collapsing. there frould arse a nostalgia fora forme. better time In the Tite twentieth century wesc hat od tendency i a ome- ‘what new form, Teas een common for dhe hostalgia to te directed toward an eater phase of the same sxiety, oF t's purely mythical golden age. What is ew b the fonsderabie historical and anthropological resoutees be Sng utilized in the current nostalgic fantsicn What we See is nothing lew than palelihi eval, and its hero is the one group of people who ever Feally felt at home jn Amerie, the American Indian “The young Americans who have made what Thomas TTR Wel, The Pretunt ihe andthe Spat of ‘eb Tle Peso York Sime 1980. ce Se ad ali wl°Dea calls “the great refusal," that i the refusal o en ter the iton cage, have developed a new earth mysticism. They wane to live with great simplicity and directness, ab the Indians did. in an earth home or, im Gary Snyders words, an Barth Howe Hold. Phylis Beauvais in her poem "Furniture has beautifully captured the contrast Ferween the old and new visions there are younger Bow younger than Ir moving 4 nomads vou the make camping ground ‘eho do not hope or what a, expected the catalog comforts toe once nor do they imagine ‘hangelean that what they encounter whose parents In the Suburbs, inthe small imidvesera tov have et down Heavy houses on the land fn filled them ‘vith a weght of furnishings, and in a manner ld them down ‘but not their chikren: who dreamed of Indians tracing Ad move Tigh om city exchanging ‘Hornmentis themselves the ay Shelter they have found? Unlike these young people, most of the American In- dans were not nomadic. ‘Fhey found long ago what our Youth are sll seking. They were at home in their land, In the cosmos, in their bodies, Among the Pueblo Indians, Sear Ser, Hark Howe Mold itasphins New Dic ven, Pyle Rowe, “ure” New Ye, e316 LLETURGY AND EXPERIENCE the kiva the underground ceremonial chamber built into for near every pichlo, wat sll micracou of the wk were. The iva. according to Frank Waters, "reepiulates structural form” the "lour'world universe" of Pueblo mythology: 1 the fori 3 smal ol, the spp, tending down toto the fant ender, The foot tel fo he coed world imo wbich sn emerged. The rated veating ge seprees te thiol wert hd ac Inder rot 30 {he fest opening Un Gerth work to ch oem fn eter the kva, man is cver remind that he Hives inthe whole of the inumense and mad univer. And he i ny made amare of the phi nivel a ‘mont tet eS Bien For the Navaho, who have no ivas, the hogan or ordinary dwelling has the same symbolic meaning as the Pueblo iva, This is indced being at home in the world. Tn contrast to the traditional American heroic image of the Indian as solitary, self reliant, and indi the new image is more anthropologially informed, if lin part romantic. Tis the Indian in organic harmony ‘with himself his communal society, and his natural environment, Not only the Indians But all the remnants ‘of primitive and archaic culture, and theie survival in the form of heresies and sects in the great civilizations, ate celebrated in the new culture. Gary Snyder speaks of a surfacing (na specifically ‘American’ incarnation) of the Great Subculture which goes back as far pethaps as the late Paleolithic.» He ses this Great Subculture sur viving in such forms as shamanism, witchcraft, Taoist, ‘Tantrism, Sufism, and Gnosticism. Unlike the religions of the sky father, this wadition celebrates Nature a8 a ‘mother. The sky religions emphasize the paternal, hier (ve York" Rallanine ook, 1970) pW. e