Madonna once said, "Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone." Some of the most profound words of her career.
At one point, humans mostly saw the world as enchanted. We explained our world as being manipulated by deities and creatures with magical qualities ranging from elves and wood sprites to quarreling gods on Olympus to witches, demons and evil spirits in the jungles. Humans who moved from hunter-gatherer to agrarian societies no longer needed all hands on deck to produce food and suddenly had bandwidth to both take on new tasks and to explore the world in new ways – most namely various forms of science and mathematics. These in turn gave rise to the Industrial Revolution and the post-industrial world many of us find ourselves in now.
Science has by and large led to the disenchantment of the universe. For the most part, when industrial and post-industrial societies can't explain something, they begin searching for quantifiable answers using empirical methods. We want to prove things through experiments and tests that can be replicated. These become our truths. When scientific truths and moral Truths come into conflict (which sometimes are a matter of perception and interpretation), usually larger societal conflicts erupt.
For many visitors, Patmos is appealing because to some degree it resists secularization – or at least it offers a non-secular space. Because of the Monastery of St John the Theologian who wrote Revelations and the Cave of the Apocalypse, Patmos is considered one of the three Holy Islands of Greece. I have heard from many they feel their prayers are better heard here and that the monastery inspires faith. Even those who are more secular or take some other religious or spiritual path, I have heard how Patmos is a healing island – a place where divine energy flows. Without taking a hard stance on the issue, I can say Patmos has been healing for me and it certainly has an infectiously good energy.
I think humans have multiple needs which include both understanding the world in an honest and factual way AND finding spiritual connection and meaning. Doesn't splitting the atom and gaining the ability to wield mass destruction create an even greater need to appreciate the value of life and our purpose in the world? We don't want to just know what's around us and how it works but WHY it works and what our place in it is. So far, science isn't capable of offering us those kinds of answers nor does it seek to.
This morning as I headed out to do my errands, passengers from an Azamara cruise were milling about town wearing what cruise passengers wear, doing what cruise passengers do – I realized many of them are doing two things at once: exploring their world in a secular way and re-enchanting their world. In one sense, they're seeing Patmos, seeing what's here, noting what they like, evaluating the shops and the flavors of gelato. Many go up to the monastery to see Patmos' main site of interest – a piece of history and culture. Some others may go to the monastery and cave with their non-secular hats on – wanting to feel connection to their deep and dear beliefs, feeling closer to God.
And then there those who may be seeing the world through enchanted lenses – riding bicycles through the narrow, cobblestone backstreets of a traditional white Greek town, imagining a life they'll never live and the feeling of centuries and millennia of human existence that took place in those very streets, buildings and hills. Isn't part of what captivates us about historical places the idea of all that went on there – the overwhelming idea of everything that may have transpired in a particular place – that our lives are a speck in an ongoing story in which we are linked in ways we may not even understand to people we don't even know existed? Isn't it sometimes the feeling of a place – the energy and attitude – of a culture or environment we didn't even know existed or imagined to be completely different that in fact resonates in some meaningful way?
While I walked toward the produce shop, grocery list on my mind, it's possible the couple whizzing by on rented bicycles are enjoying a moment that brings more magic to their world – maybe even spiritually. I remember seeing Patmos for the first time – at dawn from a slow, old ferry pulling into port, glow over the island and a cute, white Greek town growing larger. It was spectacular. It was a world I had imagined and never experienced – even though it was my third Greek island to-date that summer.
My morning errands included a stop at the Christopolous Bakery at the front of town. There, to my shock and delight, they had the cookies I so loved during my emotional sojourn here in 2022. The cookies disappeared after Orthodox Easter and in my moment of grief at the counter, the kind bakery women explained the cookie is vegan and special for Orthodox lent when many people give up eggs. My time with the cookies had ended. As if I were a five year-old, they empathized saying they too loved those cookies – but the cookies are part of a season. I asked why the cookies were back and I'm not sure if the attendant helping me today quite understood – but I believe they have to do with Assumption Day – or the Dormition of The Mother of God on August 15th in which a fast similar to Orthodox lent, including eggs, takes place.
In a time not so long ago, the cookies might have been a story with a touch of mystery and magic. I would have told the story how during the one spring I spent on Patmos, this one particular bakery made these amazing cookies I have only ever found there and they were just amazing. Try as I might, I never found them anywhere else and never learned the name of those special treats whose taste I will always associate with that magical island and specific chapter of my life. Instead, I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick shot of the cookies, including the sign with their name and price. Now I can Google a recipe, maybe even a YouTube video of how to make them. I can learn their history, ingredients and anything else I want about the cookies until I could open a business making artisan version of them in three new flavor variations I pack in special tins and sell online. I can, if I choose, disenchant my own life.
In 2010 when Emily and I first came to Patmos, she worked hard to find a massage. She eventually got a referral to someone who went around the island during summers offering in-home/in-hotel room massage. That seemed to be the only option. Today, I can count four spas and/or bodywork establishments around Skala off the top of my head. Some are a little more Burke Williams relax and indulge kind of spas. Others are a little more incense, Buddhas and energy-healing kind of establishments. Athena, whose yoga studio I sometimes attend, also does that kind of spiritually-bent bodywork.
It makes sense to see more of this because Patmos is becoming a more popular vacation destination – and who doesn't want to relax on vacation? And also because in an increasingly secular world, many people crave spirituality. If you're not comfortable with the increasingly unpopular adherence to organized religion, the "woo woo" category offers pieces and principles of spirituality separated from theology. We can all acknowledge souls and energy without having to bring God or any other deity into the picture. In that way, we can either quietly agree to disagree with one another, retain our secularism while scratching an itch, or both.
We can re-enchant our world without compromising our secular credentials.
Don't get me wrong – disenchantment of the universe has saved, elongated and improved lives. I am grateful we understand diseases are caused by germs rather than humors or spiritual maladies. Even within science, the adherence of good actors to scientific principles can challenge existing incorrect knowledge and make important improvements such as how medicine discovered peptic ulcers are caused by bacteria we hadn't imagine could exist in the acidic environment of the digestive tract rather than as strictly stress reactions. There is currently a working theory under research that schizophrenia might stem from an autoimmune disorder, rather than as a strictly psychological abnormality. Imagine the implications in how we help, let alone how we think about schizophrenics if this hypothesis turns out to be true and they move from the psych ward to the neurology or immunology department.
It's hard to imagine humans ever having it all correct. There is no point in history we can look back at and see where people didn't have something obviously wrong from our current perspective. So there's not reason to think we don't have just as many mistakes and problems today. Hopefully, we're making some things better so a future generation is a bit further along.
It also seems that no matter how far along we are with uncovering the scientific workings of our universe, there remains a need for meaning, purpose and spirituality. We need to be connected to something greater than ourselves and to feel a belonging in the universe beyond simply existing. Places like Patmos, Bali, the Western Wall…. places where people feel spiritual connection – they matter. Spirituality matters. There was to be a place for mystery, enchantment – but most of all, faith. Faith that we are part of something bigger and more important than ourselves – faith that there is a place to come home to when the dealin's done.
