How To Be An Agnostic
tale and necessary, so that we can fi nd security and gain a sense
of who we are. Then, second, comes the integration of the ego
with the Self – that wider participation in life, variously referred
to as embracing the fl ow of life, a fuller consciousness, the Way,
God. It’s the spiritual aspect. One needs the other: the Self needs
an established ego fully to be in the world; the ego needs the Self
to fi nd not just biological, psychological and economic purpose,
but spiritual meaning. The goal of the human life might be
defi ned as connecting the two, to create a synthesis.
Transcendent causes
Comte, then, made a fatal mistake. He believed that we make
meaning when, in fact, we discover it. Though he was right
about one thing: human beings need rituals and stories in order
to live well. Reason and science alone are not enough. They
aid discernment and shift our frames of reference but, always
seeking facts, miss deeper truths. So where is the individual who
regards themselves as spiritual but not religious to look for that
which can only be glimpsed on occasion, that which must be
shown or revealed?
People try various options that we’ve already explored – not least
science – and there are others. For a few years myself, I turned to
the countryside, to fi nd a rural retreat. I repeatedly returned to the
same place in order to get to know something of its rhythms, that
which you don’t see directly but appreciate only over the course
of seasons. The great thing about nature is that it cares nothing
for you, and that forces you out of yourself. I’ve watched the point
on the horizon where the sun rises as it shifts south during the
winter, and then back north again as summer comes – things like
that. I’ve no unchecked notions about gorgeous blue peaks and
cool green glades. Across the valley there’s a plant that raises cows.
That’s quite enough to disabuse a city-dweller of the romance of
farming. But the rural landscape is relaxing for the city-dweller
because, at least in part, it takes you out of your immediate con-
cerns, away from what Jung called the ego.