Cave beings

philosophical fancy

“We may call the ‘daimonion’ the uncanny, or the extraordinary, because it surrounds, and insofar as it everywhere surrounds, the present ordinary state of things and presents itself in everything ordinary, though without being the ordinary. The uncanny understood in this way is, with regards to what is ordinary or natural, not the exception but the ”most natural”, in the sense of “nature” as thought by the Greeks, i.e, in the sense of ‘phusis’. The uncanny is that out of which all that is ordinary emerges, that in which all that is ordinary is suspended without surmising it ever in the least, and into which everything ordinary falls back. ‘To daimonion’ is the essence and essential ground of the uncanny. It is what presents itself in the ordinary and takes up it’s abode therein. To present oneself in the sense of pointing and showing is in Greek ‘daio’...”¹

Imagine a fanciful scene that may not be too far from actual occurrence;

Twenty thousand years ago, in a cave, somewhere in the primordial forests, perhaps as violent storm winds, lightning, and dreadful hail racked the woods and thickets, setting the great beasts fleeing or howling in the shelter of their lairs, humans sat around a fire. One, or other, or more gazed at the flickering shapes cast by the flames on the high ceiling and dark corners of their cavern home. The dancing forms stirred something; memory, wonder, new thoughts revealing old truths. Here, at last met gods and humans. Faces and voices, eyes, tongues and firelight, looking , showing in the sanctuary of the holy cave, enveloping all in a womb of darkness.

Our ancestors may have left that cave, but there is another we can never leave; can never leave because it is our real being. Through the light of perception’s fire we look, and feel, and sense the world of time, space, and causality as shapes and forms and dancing patterns on cave walls and corners. Through our perception, the cave sees itself in it’s own inner light. Here too, from the surrounding darkness watch the gods, giving signs, speaking and unconcealing to us things not revealed in the light of perception. We are all together, gods and mortals in a grand communion about the fire of vision, but their realm is a little further out; the uncanny darkness of the cave, the place of sleep and dream.

A great podcast I came across recently, dealing with ‘the uncanny’ in a relaxing way!…

1. Martin Heidegger, “Parmenides”