Thank you for this useful map, it's highlighted some things I have missed! The Abbey is one of my pools of sanity I can't wait to jump into, along with the Orthodox Church. Long may both continue. It was Paul's essay...
that started my own life changing journey to Orthodoxy. I had an extremely unnerving sense of the world being upended back in the early 2020's to '22 (I wonder why? - said wryly), and my long held views on all sorts of things were being challenged. I had spiritual vertigo! Paul's essay (at the risk of tempting him with pride) put into words a lot of things I was thinking but couldn't put my finger on and clarify.
I felt like I'd finally found someone who was on the same wavelength. I asked him why he'd chosen the Eastern Orthodox Church, rather than some other denomination. Like many Orthodox, as I now realise, his response was 'Come and see!' So I did. Now I have found tonnes of people who are 'on the same wavelength', but more importantly, I've found Truth. A priceless pearl in this world! I will reiterate...long may it continue!
There is a strange thing happening with the artwork at the top. Before you click on it, it’s a different piece that is most definitely not a map, with images of naked people. Then once you click on it, the map appears. Just fyi.
Initially I published it with a Hieronymus Bosch image. Then I decided it was a bit too Weimar, so chose something more literal. Bosch knew where we were headed though ...
I’m not Orthodox, by conviction, but I have really enjoyed your writing and perspective. I appreciate the map as it opens windows I was not aware of. Blessings on your work and plans.
Good stuff, thanks Paul. Will be passing through your land in about a week. Escaping this broken, chaotic one on this side of the pond if only for a short time. 🙏🏽☘️
Spring cleaning and organizing in preparation for the next round of gardening! This is happening at present in my shire as well, though we are at the stage of disorder necessary to achieve re-ordering.
I love maps, and appreciate this guide as way to share your work with friends now and students in the near future. Will tab it somehow as a card catalog.
The growing season now comes again. Cheers for Mary’s Day and may the warmth of brothers and a fire of St. Joseph the Worker find you as this next season begins.
I see the "plan du Mont St. Michel" in my image, and no Hieronymus Bosch figures. I think I would rather see the Hieronymus Bosch figures...
Thanks for the map/plan, Paul. I will explore it, at least for what is written here and that I don't know. Still very few videos though. Very, very few. And what you say about Savage Gods definitely tempts me.
This is very helpful - thank you! And my you have been a machine of production! No wonder your body has often suggested respite and recovery. God bless you.
Do you know the poet Tom Hennen? His book "Darkness Sticks to Everything" I return to again and again... today his poem "Winter Nap" I see the machinic exhaustion in that feels right toward you... I'm tempted to type it in... but I doubt could get the block of it right... maybe I'll try:
WINTER NAP
On a sunny winter afternoon I fill the stove with wood. When it
is hot it makes the purring sound of the heart of a man revived
after being dead for a few minutes. I pull a chair up to the heat,
sit down with a book, and fall asleep. I leave my body and fly
out over the snow-heavy fields. I sail about, avoiding treetops,
ignoring airplanes, gliding past sheds full of the cold metal-
lic silence of tractors. I've always had to work with machines,
be a machine, or less, part of a machine. Only those who don't
need to earn their living chained to technology can afford to
be romantic about it. The machine breaks down the nerves. Its
rhythm is different from the rhythm of life. Its steel and plas-
tic voice wedges itself between each beat of the heart. It throws
the whole body off center so that it can't digest moonlight or
sunshine or understand a single chirping cricket. It makes it
important to wake up from the winter nap to the smell of pine
smoke, snow, and the light that comes in the frost-thick win-
There is a strange mystery in this affair. Sometimes Bosch is there, and sometimes the map. I will go back to my e-mail and see if I can conjure him up again, as Charmane says. The Machine has its own mysteries ?
Thank you, Paul. Hard to believe it's been five years; time flies. I'm grateful to Dreher for pointing us to you. (And agree with your advice to him.)
A request - not that you have endless time for this, but please consider: Whenever possible, could you embed your videos in The Chantry? Even if clicking ultimately takes me to YouTube, embedding the videos someplace outside of YouTube somehow makes YouTube run an ad or two at the beginning only, and not every five minutes throughout - extremely annoying. (I understand YouTube running the ads, but an avalanche I do not enjoy, and I will not have my arm twisted to pay for an ad-less subscription - stuck either way...) And links to your various lectures, both both video and audio format (Socrates, Holy Trinity, Romania, UnBelieveable, etc.), would be appreciated; sometimes it's hard to track them down at the hosts' web sites, and they're not always on Spotify, for example. Perhaps your daughter could help you organize this? Would be *very* grateful to have a full archive in one place.
This is such a helpful map, Paul, thanks for doing this. As somebody (relatively) new to your work, it's very useful. I'm not a great reader-of-novels, but I'm now tempted to start your trilogy ...
Thank you for this useful map, it's highlighted some things I have missed! The Abbey is one of my pools of sanity I can't wait to jump into, along with the Orthodox Church. Long may both continue. It was Paul's essay...
https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/what-progress-wants
that started my own life changing journey to Orthodoxy. I had an extremely unnerving sense of the world being upended back in the early 2020's to '22 (I wonder why? - said wryly), and my long held views on all sorts of things were being challenged. I had spiritual vertigo! Paul's essay (at the risk of tempting him with pride) put into words a lot of things I was thinking but couldn't put my finger on and clarify.
I felt like I'd finally found someone who was on the same wavelength. I asked him why he'd chosen the Eastern Orthodox Church, rather than some other denomination. Like many Orthodox, as I now realise, his response was 'Come and see!' So I did. Now I have found tonnes of people who are 'on the same wavelength', but more importantly, I've found Truth. A priceless pearl in this world! I will reiterate...long may it continue!
'The gates of hell will not prevail' as they say!
Me too, Sam. For some reason the Scriptorium had escaped me so I will be delving into that now.
It's always good to have reminders like this. It certainly helps me to see things afresh.
Like! Sorry, it's still not working :)
There is a strange thing happening with the artwork at the top. Before you click on it, it’s a different piece that is most definitely not a map, with images of naked people. Then once you click on it, the map appears. Just fyi.
Initially I published it with a Hieronymus Bosch image. Then I decided it was a bit too Weimar, so chose something more literal. Bosch knew where we were headed though ...
That explains it!
I’m not Orthodox, by conviction, but I have really enjoyed your writing and perspective. I appreciate the map as it opens windows I was not aware of. Blessings on your work and plans.
Good stuff, thanks Paul. Will be passing through your land in about a week. Escaping this broken, chaotic one on this side of the pond if only for a short time. 🙏🏽☘️
It's the best time of year to visit Ireland. Hope you enjoy it.
Thank you for sharing this map. It will be easier to travel the land of Kingsnorth.
Spring cleaning and organizing in preparation for the next round of gardening! This is happening at present in my shire as well, though we are at the stage of disorder necessary to achieve re-ordering.
I love maps, and appreciate this guide as way to share your work with friends now and students in the near future. Will tab it somehow as a card catalog.
The growing season now comes again. Cheers for Mary’s Day and may the warmth of brothers and a fire of St. Joseph the Worker find you as this next season begins.
I see the "plan du Mont St. Michel" in my image, and no Hieronymus Bosch figures. I think I would rather see the Hieronymus Bosch figures...
Thanks for the map/plan, Paul. I will explore it, at least for what is written here and that I don't know. Still very few videos though. Very, very few. And what you say about Savage Gods definitely tempts me.
Cheers.
The Cross and the Machine is a truly magnificent essay!
So good to have this all together,very helpful. Thanks.
This is very helpful - thank you! And my you have been a machine of production! No wonder your body has often suggested respite and recovery. God bless you.
Yes, putting this together did bring home how hard I had been at it! In retrospect it might not be surprising that I ended up in bed ...
Do you know the poet Tom Hennen? His book "Darkness Sticks to Everything" I return to again and again... today his poem "Winter Nap" I see the machinic exhaustion in that feels right toward you... I'm tempted to type it in... but I doubt could get the block of it right... maybe I'll try:
WINTER NAP
On a sunny winter afternoon I fill the stove with wood. When it
is hot it makes the purring sound of the heart of a man revived
after being dead for a few minutes. I pull a chair up to the heat,
sit down with a book, and fall asleep. I leave my body and fly
out over the snow-heavy fields. I sail about, avoiding treetops,
ignoring airplanes, gliding past sheds full of the cold metal-
lic silence of tractors. I've always had to work with machines,
be a machine, or less, part of a machine. Only those who don't
need to earn their living chained to technology can afford to
be romantic about it. The machine breaks down the nerves. Its
rhythm is different from the rhythm of life. Its steel and plas-
tic voice wedges itself between each beat of the heart. It throws
the whole body off center so that it can't digest moonlight or
sunshine or understand a single chirping cricket. It makes it
important to wake up from the winter nap to the smell of pine
smoke, snow, and the light that comes in the frost-thick win-
dow, pale and lonesome as distant music.
I don't know him, but I like that. Maybe I will look him up. I am always on the lookout for real poets.
Ha ! Bosch is back, since my last visit. A miracle ? !
YES.
He beats a map of le Mont Saint Michel any day.
Be careful about maps, Paul. And "plans", in the French, MACHINE sense. But the English sense has its own traps, doesn't it ?
You might need to reload your machine, Debra. Bosch remains gone! For now at least.
I will admit to being a sucker for maps.
There is a strange mystery in this affair. Sometimes Bosch is there, and sometimes the map. I will go back to my e-mail and see if I can conjure him up again, as Charmane says. The Machine has its own mysteries ?
I got Bosch in my e-mail (marked as sent at "06:58" a.m.), then when I clicked the image it led me to the non-Bosch-map.
That's the way mine has been from the get-go. Which I don't mind because I like both images, and the juxtaposition is quite effective!
Where's The Snack Bar?
Thank you so much for this!
Excellent. Thank you.
Christ is risen!
Thank you, Paul. Hard to believe it's been five years; time flies. I'm grateful to Dreher for pointing us to you. (And agree with your advice to him.)
A request - not that you have endless time for this, but please consider: Whenever possible, could you embed your videos in The Chantry? Even if clicking ultimately takes me to YouTube, embedding the videos someplace outside of YouTube somehow makes YouTube run an ad or two at the beginning only, and not every five minutes throughout - extremely annoying. (I understand YouTube running the ads, but an avalanche I do not enjoy, and I will not have my arm twisted to pay for an ad-less subscription - stuck either way...) And links to your various lectures, both both video and audio format (Socrates, Holy Trinity, Romania, UnBelieveable, etc.), would be appreciated; sometimes it's hard to track them down at the hosts' web sites, and they're not always on Spotify, for example. Perhaps your daughter could help you organize this? Would be *very* grateful to have a full archive in one place.
Dana
This is such a helpful map, Paul, thanks for doing this. As somebody (relatively) new to your work, it's very useful. I'm not a great reader-of-novels, but I'm now tempted to start your trilogy ...