Whatever happened to the omen? They were common in the ancient world. Many classical writers speak of people taking their omens to get them interpreted by the Oracle at Delphi. She would ponder the omen and issue some response. Usually the response was cryptic, but what could you expect in a message from the gods?
Omens were portents. Theoretically, some omens are positive, but, mostly, omens seemed to herald some change for the worse. It's not for nothing that the word "ominous" developed from "omen."
Some people still believe them. They get heart-flutter if a black cat crosses their path. At the level of personal superstitution, omens endure!
Alas, we no longer note omens on a larger scale. Was it not an omen when a space craft broke up over Texas right before the start of the Iraq War? The Oracle would have had smoke coming out of her ears on that one.
Is it not an omen that the Waldo Canyon fire swept through Colorado Springs on the hottest day in Colorado history? Colorado Springs is the New Jerusalem of fundamentalism, a power center of religious industry, the city whose divines issue theological rationales for "dominion" over the earth and denial of climate change.
The ancient world was very well aware of hubris, the pride of considering one's self special, exempt from the constraints imposed on ordinary people. The ancients knew that retribution was not far away. Pride--hubris--goeth before the fall, after all.
Is it not hubris that which leads people to ignore nature and science by building houses amongst the most flammable material on earth? Is it not hubris which causes people to ignore land-use common sense and build suburban housing developments in the brush?
It's not like there wasn't any warning. Manuel Navarro, former fire chief of Colorado Springs, told the Denver Post he "knew it would happen." "I knew the terrain of Waldo Canyon and all the neighborhoods in the area."
In a 2004 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Navarro was among fire officials trying to get out the word that "a monster sleeps on the Front Range, ready to awaken, ready to kill and ready to destroy."
The word "waldo" comes from the Old English "waltheof," which means "power thief." Show disregard for nature--try to steal nature's power--and nature will rise up and steal it back. If the Oracle were with us today, she'd be apoplectic.
Signs are interpreted conveniently.
When a tornado did a little property damage in Minneapolis during the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, modern oracles were quick to proclaim that it was a sign of God's displeasure with our church body's stance on homosexuality.
When untamed fires turn Colorado Spring, home of the homophobic Focus on the Family, into a literal hell-on-earth, the oracles are silent.
I only note the irony.
Posted by: Brant | July 04, 2012 at 03:21 PM
That's our whole problem: no sense of irony any more.
Posted by: John Petty | July 09, 2012 at 03:37 PM