When visiting Catholic Churches I'm always struck by their emphasis on beauty - the incredible light in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, or the mosaics in Rochdale - and beauty can be so nourishing. In fact I first found out about the mosaics in Rochdale through social media and would probably never have ventured 10 miles down the road to see them if not for that chance encounter online (they're online here for anyone who wants a look: https://modernmooch.com/2020/10/31/st-john-the-baptist-rc-rochdale/).
The double-edged sword of social media aesthetics is something I have been mulling over for a while. I don't mean this in a grumpy "kids these days" kind of way but it often seems to lead to a shallowness of engagement - the hunger for connection is real, but everything discourages us (or distracts us) from believing in and reaching for the real depth that lies beyond it. So we make do with the image of what we hunger for, instead of the nourishment that waits for us.
The kind of Catholicism you write about (which I find very enriching!) asks something of us, however gently, and that might be one of the first barriers that people find in moving from image to nourishment, or from shallowness to depth. My own faith journey has asked me to come to terms with my feelings of unworthiness, to embrace sincerity (social media always tempts me to express an ironic distance from the things I truly care about), and to find new understandings of and value in things I thought I had understood and rejected years ago. It's been humbling and uncomfortable, and there is no way to express the value of it that translates easily into social media aesthetics, but I for one am very glad you write about these things.
Hello! I have been wanting to learn more about Tarot, but wanted to find the right source. I just discovered your page and found it very interesting. I'll have to check out your book. I guess I would also consider myself a Catholic mystic astrologer. - Clara
When visiting Catholic Churches I'm always struck by their emphasis on beauty - the incredible light in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, or the mosaics in Rochdale - and beauty can be so nourishing. In fact I first found out about the mosaics in Rochdale through social media and would probably never have ventured 10 miles down the road to see them if not for that chance encounter online (they're online here for anyone who wants a look: https://modernmooch.com/2020/10/31/st-john-the-baptist-rc-rochdale/).
The double-edged sword of social media aesthetics is something I have been mulling over for a while. I don't mean this in a grumpy "kids these days" kind of way but it often seems to lead to a shallowness of engagement - the hunger for connection is real, but everything discourages us (or distracts us) from believing in and reaching for the real depth that lies beyond it. So we make do with the image of what we hunger for, instead of the nourishment that waits for us.
The kind of Catholicism you write about (which I find very enriching!) asks something of us, however gently, and that might be one of the first barriers that people find in moving from image to nourishment, or from shallowness to depth. My own faith journey has asked me to come to terms with my feelings of unworthiness, to embrace sincerity (social media always tempts me to express an ironic distance from the things I truly care about), and to find new understandings of and value in things I thought I had understood and rejected years ago. It's been humbling and uncomfortable, and there is no way to express the value of it that translates easily into social media aesthetics, but I for one am very glad you write about these things.
Hello! I have been wanting to learn more about Tarot, but wanted to find the right source. I just discovered your page and found it very interesting. I'll have to check out your book. I guess I would also consider myself a Catholic mystic astrologer. - Clara