Of Chaos and Of Monsters
By Kadmus
The following is the author’s new introduction to True To The Earth: Pagan Political Theology (second edition). It releases into the world 1 September, 2023.
We live in times of wonders and of monsters.
True to the Earth: Pagan Political Theology was first published in 2018, and the five years since its publication have been quite eventful. They’ve been desperate, frightening, unexpected years. They’ve been years of chaos and overweening order: a global pandemic, aggressive invasions and expansionist would-be empires, and climate change gallops on. They’ve been years of political chaos and violent reaction, totalitarian movements, broken civil and international agreements, increased police murders and increasing polarization and fear, while much of the world faces a major inflation crisis and shocking supply failures in the global market.
All of this makes clear how fragile the vast global system we live within really is. The world is uneasy, and order totters, then overcompensates. These are times of monsters and wonders, unpredictable chaos, and inhumane attempts at control.
But what are monsters and dragons? And what is chaos?
Dragon slayers and monster killers have not generally been people you would like to spend time with. I recently came upon a piece of writing by an extremist who claimed that, in a time of dragons, we must raise dragon-killers. The “dragons” he had in mind, though, were likely drag-queens, and other queer individuals: those just trying to live their lives, rather than destroying villages by fire.
Myths about order fighting off chaos, and light vanquishing darkness, are usually myths of domination and control — totalitarian myths. What may be the oldest written story to have survived to our time, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is just such a story of monster killers. Gilgamesh, the semi-divine king of Uruk, is meant to be the shepherd of the people; instead, he uses his power to dominate and abuse them in horrific ways. Then, the gods create a wild man, Enkidu, to divert his predatory interests away from the people. The two become friends, but unfortunately, they together turn their urge to dominate against nature and its guardians, destroying the sacred cedar forest and the monster (Humbaba) whose job it is to guard it. For these and other acts, Gilgamesh is cursed to face the death of Enkidu, his beloved companion, and then realize the truth: all things change, all things face death.
Chaos is the nature of reality itself. Chaos is the engine of change, against which there can be no assurance. Change will come, whether you desire it or not. Change will come with chaos, it will come, unexpected and monstrous. It can sweep aside tyrannical monoliths and humble homesteads alike. Nothing is inevitable, nothing is unchangeable. The cosmos is, at its most basic level, transformation and differentiation; that is, change. In this is great hope, particularly when the forces of the current order continue, like Gilgamesh, to choose domination and destruction in the face of increasingly urgent and dire crises.
Change will come even — and especially — for this order, too.
Change is inevitable, and reality itself can change the rules which our tyrants and oppressors insist are unchangeable. We have grown accustomed to thinking that reality, whatever we may mean by it, has some firm foundation, some stable ultimate source, truth, nature, or purpose. High Pagan cultures suggest, instead, that reality is multiple, diverse, and often inconsistent. Reality is pluralistic, and this multiplicity of Truths, or Powers, or Values, is reflected in polytheism. There is no way to unify reality, to stabilize it, to impose purity, to force it to behave or stay put.
Reality is a monstrous multiplicity that will not be commanded, and we live in a time of monsters. Older cultures knew these monsters, and named them: names like the Furies, Nemesis, and Sekhmet. These are names of monsters and also goddesses: goddesses of justice and vengeance, goddesses of chaos and change. They are forces of natural disaster, and disease, and punishment. They are goddesses who make a way when no other path forward seems possible. They are goddesses who make an opening for the trapped, the enslaved, and the imprisoned. They are goddesses who are, most of all, true to the earth and true to the earth’s rage.
We tend to see time as a mighty cosmic clock or consistent flow, but there is another concept of time which sees it as made of unexpected and impossible moments: right moments, unforeseen events, and unlikely opportunities and changes. These are what the forces of chaos and life, the forces of justice, suddenly and viciously open up amidst the ramparts of order. Kairos, the propitious moment, the unforeseen chance. There within disaster, within tragedy, within the monstrous upsurge of chaos and divine vengeance, shines the moment — the opportunity for a new future.
In looking back, behind, and beneath what we had thought was obvious and inescapable, we can recognize those wondrous new beginnings and sudden freedoms brought to us by the blessed monsters of our time. Then, having recognized these ways and openings, we can begin the process of building and expanding the works — and truths — of the earth.
More information about True To The Earth is below. Until 1 September, you can pre-order it for 25% off with code SUMMER
Release date: 1 September, 2023
RITONA is pleased to announce an updated edition of one of our most popular titles: True To The Earth: Pagan Political Theology.
Originally released in 2018, True to the Earth is the first English work to offer a robust explanation of the power of pagan cosmologies and their relevance for modern environmental, political, and social crises.
This updated edition includes a foreword from Sarah Lyons and a new introduction from the author.
Organic pluralism, an embrace of multiple, conflicting truths, and a deep understanding of the interconnection between humans and the natural world: all were core values of oral and animist cultures. As global climate change and the collapse of Empire throw the earth and our modern societies into crisis, these core values are what humanity and the nature it destroys desperately need again.
In True To The Earth: Pagan Political Theology, author and professor of philosophy Kadmus weaves a narrative from the lore of Celtic, Greek, Norse, and indigenous traditions to show us how we once saw the world and how we can see it again. He unveils the modern assumptions which blind us from seeing the past and what we've lost, challenges the core foundations of literal, universalist thinking, and shakes us free from the unseen bonds monotheism has placed upon our understanding of ourselves and the world.
Specifications and Ordering Information
This new edition of True to the Earth: Pagan Political Theology is released in all formats, including hardcover.
Hardcover edition: 190 pages, hardcover with digital cloth finish and matte cover, B&W text — $25.00
Paperback edition: 190 pages, perfect bound, matte cover, B&W text. —17.50
In addition, we are offering two packages:
HARDCOVER RELEASE PACKAGE: includes hardcover editions of both True To The Earth and The White Deer, by Melinda Reidinger, for $55.00 US (these normally retail together for $65.00 US — save ten dollars!)
PAGAN THEORY COLLECTION: includes the paperback editions of True to the Earth, The White Deer by Melinda Reidinger, and Being Pagan, by Rhyd Wildermuth, for $48.00 US (these normally retail together for 58.00 US — save ten dollars!)
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