“Symbols hold the mind to truth but are not themselves truth, hence it is delusory to borrow them. Each civilization, every age, must bring forth its own.”—Heinrich Zimmer, from Joseph Campbell’s Creative Mythology

  “Every civilization,” but more importantly for what goes on here at the Omphalos Cafe “…every age, must bring forth its own,” writes Heinrich Zimmer. 

  Why the emphasis on ‘every age?’

  Because the epoch of closed and bounded city states and then civilizations has come to an end. Planet earth is our bound today. With the gargantuan advancements in industry and technology what goes on in one hemisphere or on one continent of the globe affects the entire planet. And so some form of world and Life consciousness must be awakened which encompasses this vastly expanded awareness, viewpoint and indeed responsibility. 

  That’s all to say a new age is upon us. 

  And that’s where the Shaman-Types now and to come must be fostered in order that they may play their crucial role. 

  For it is the Shaman-Types who will “bring forth” the newly reconstituted symbols that will once more reveal the Truth in a new light. A Truth that has always been Life but until now has always been masked according to the relative needs and specifics of bounded communities. 

  The new Shaman-Type will understand relativity and learn to sing of the Oneness of all Life…

  Actually, it has already begun, though few are aware of it.

  One need only study the works of Oswald Spengler (Decline of the West), Hermann Hesse (Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game), and James Joyce (Ulysses and Finnegans Wake). And of course Joseph Campbell’s The Masks of God. 

  But who reads them today? 

  No matter. 

  The Omphalos Cafe does…