Mind’s Travail
Open Journal of Philosophy January 1, 2023 Robert S. Corrington
This essay outlines ecstatic naturalism and its associated theology of deep pantheism. Ecstatic naturalism centers on the distinction between nature naturing (nature perpetually creating itself from itself) and nature natured (the world's many orders). Nature naturing's pulsating potencies are equated with concepts such as Schopenhauer's will, Peirce's firstness, Jung's transcendental psychoid, and Whitehead's creativity. Deep pantheism rejects both theism's fully transcendent deity and panentheism's deity both in and beyond nature. The "deep" refers to the otherness of the unconscious depths of nature. Theism is retained only for finite gods and goddesses as archetypal images, with the Great Mother symbol grounding the human psyche. The mind's travail involves precarious transitions between finite, embedded mind in nature natured and awareness of unconscious depths via nature naturing.