Champagne Supernovalis, part 2

Novalis “envisioned a future golden age to beattained by the poeticization of the world.”

His concept of magical idealism made human beings the authors of the nature that they perceive. This ‘romanticization’ of nature means that humans can become reflectively aware of this capacity to merge with nature, and hone it consciously. So these ‘artists of nature’ transform the world into a welcoming ‘thou’ instead of an alienating threat.
He said, “Every beloved object is the centre of a paradise.”

This communion with nature was a huge leap during Novalis’ time, since 18th century people still saw the world as threatening and unknown, just before the Industrial Revolution’s re-imagination of it as ripe for the plundering.

Currently our most widely distributed weltanschauung sees nature primarily as victim, with sorrow, regret and pain about what has been and is being done to it: climate change, animal extinction, loss of habitat, genetic manipulation, et cetera. There is a great deal of fear in this which is self-perpetuating, and generates a belief in the inevitability of further loss and destruction, which is likewise internalised in the human as a pessimistic dread of our own pollution.

"There is, properly speaking, no misfortune in the world. Happiness and misfortune stand in continual balance. Every misfortune is, as it were, the obstruction of a stream, which, after overcoming this obstruction, but bursts through with the greater force."

left: E. Hausner's Happy Landscape (Glückliche Landschaft)

How much more fitting it would be to apply magical idealism to our view of nature, I mean in practice, not as a mere mental, dismissive “to do list” sense, but rather consciously participated in, in order to transform our thoughts of reality. As spiritual practice. I don’t mean to propose to “be optimistic” and “look on the bright side.” I mean to propose, that if, as Novalis says, “The power of thought is an internal sky,” and “Life is not so much a dream as life is a thought,” then the proper response is to merge with nature to re-enchant it with our thoughts, nourish it with our LOVE (love here is a verb). If this were done on a mass scale, we would see the transformation of nature before our very eyes.

“I will sink down into dewdrops and mingle myself with ashes.”

I think of Julia Butterfly and her activist odyssey in Luna the tree, when I think of the physical practice of this, or Sandra Ingerman’s Medicine for the Earth. So, it is happening today. Look how much change can occur from the work of single people.

Here are some more grains of Novalis’ Pollen.

A character is a completely fashioned will.

Philosophy is actually home-sickness; the wish to be at home—everywhere.

The person is a sun, her senses are as planets.
(I’m using the feminine pronoun here, just for kicks)
Sleep is only for the inhabitants of planets. In another time, people will sleep and wake continually at once. The greater part of our body, of our humanity itself, yet sleeps a deep sleep.

There is but one temple in the world; and that is the body of humanity. We touch heaven when we lay our hands on a human body.

Nature is a harp, a musical instrument whose tones are keys to numinous strings in us.

"It is only due to physical weakness and our inner turmoil that we do not see ourselves in a fairy-world. All fabulous stories and fairy tales are merely dreams of that home world, which is everywhere and nowhere. Our numinous powers, which one day as genies shall fulfil our will, for the present are muses which refresh us with sweet remembrances during our toilsome course."

(to be continued...)