Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Prospectus for a New Community

This document appears to have been written by Dr. Pierce in 1985 or 1986, meant to inform and inspire certain National Alliance members to think about moving to West Virginia to become a part of his Cosmotheist Church Community. (See Dr. Pierce's White Zion speech from September 1984.)

HISTORY: The Cosmotheist Community began in 1974 as a religious discussion group which met weekly in the homes of interested persons in the Washington, D.C., area. These persons shared a concern for the fundamental values and goals -- or lack thereof -- on which the directions being taken by modern, American society depend. They felt that materialism, egoism, and a lack of any sense of responsibility to the future had become so widespread and so deeply entrenched that the spiritual that the spiritual and moral basis of Western civilization was being eroded dangerously.

In their meetings they explored the causes of this spiritual illness: the urbanization which has been growing rapidly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, with the consequent breaking of the bonds between people and land; the historical failure of Christianity to take the physical basis of man's existence into consideration along with the spiritual basis and to build a community of blood as well as faith; the spread of democracy as a political doctrine, with the consequent decline in quality and responsibility of the leadership of the nations of the West, especially the United States. Underlying these trends they saw the common problem of wrong values, a problem made more intractable by an unnatural life-style.

The members of the discussion group formalized their association in February 1977 by organizing themselves as a church and adopting the name "Cosmotheist Community" (later changed to "Cosmotheist Community Church"). The Church's first publication, THE PATH, a statement of fundamental doctrine, appeared in the same year, and was followed by ON LIVING THINGS in 1979 and ON SOCIETY in 1984. Even before their formal organization they adopted as their symbol the Life Rune (also known as the Man Rune) from the Norse futhark (i.e., alphabet), with its meaning of creation, rebirth, and renewal.

The Cosmotheist doctrine has been expressed in part by many men. The great British playwright, George Bernard Shaw, was a Cosmotheist, and he spoke through such characters of his as Don Juan (in MAN AND SUPERMAN), who declared man's purpose to be the service of the Life Force in its eternal quest to know itself. The German giant of philosophy, Frederich Nietzsche, also was a Cosmotheist. His character Zarathustra expressed Don Juan's truth in different words; he saw man's purpose as preparing the way for a higher, more conscious, more nearly godlike man. And the English poet William Wadsworth was giving expression to his Cosmotheist awareness of divinity when he wrote: "And I have felt/A presence that disturbs me with the joy/Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime/Of something far more deeply interfused,/Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,/And the round ocean and the living air,/And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:/A motion and a spirit that impels/All thinking things, all objects of all thought,/And rolls through all things." Another English poet, Alexander Pope, summed up the Cosmotheist view very concisely in the words: "All are but parts of one stupendous whole/Whose body Nature is, and God the soul." The Cosmotheist doctrine may be epitomized very briefly in the following statements:

There is only one reality, and it is the Whole -- the purposeful, self-creating, self-evolving Cosmos, which has both material and spiritual aspects, inseparably conjoined. Thus, Creation and Creator, Cosmos and Theos, Whole and God, are but different names for the same reality.
Man is part of the Whole, and his consciousness is one manifestation of a universal, immanent consciousness.
Man's ordained or natural purpose is the same as the Creator's purpose, which is self-realization.
Man properly serves his ordained purpose by striving toward ever higher ever more conscious levels of existence, both biologically and spiritually. His ordained task is to advance, generation by generation, along the Creator's path of evolving self-consciousness. In the past he advanced blindly, driven by the immanent urge toward self-realization, self-completion. Now he must guide his advancement.

This doctrine imposes obligations on those who accept it. Since man is not only an agent, but also a part of the Creator, he is obliged to conduct himself accordingly. Since his purpose is service of the Creator's purpose, he is obliged to prepare himself to render service as effectively as possible. Effective service depends on knowledge, consciousness, and discipline. Each man and each woman has the obligation to know his identity and his purpose and to elevate that knowledge, through purposeful living, to an ever-present consciousness; furthermore, he has the obligation to be strong and fully in control of himself, so that he can apply his knowledge unfalteringly in his service.

Knowledge can be gained by diligent study almost anywhere, but consciousness is dependent on life-style and environment. And discipline is the product of lifelong training. The members of the church realized the impracticability of attempting to discharge their obligations in a satisfactory manner while living in an environment determined by values opposed to their own. They also recognized the formidable obstacles to raising children properly in such an environment. With these problems in mind, in 1978 they began a building fund for the purpose of acquiring land where an environment more congenial to their needs could be established.

In October 1984 the Church purchased a 360-acre site on a mountainside in east-central West Virginia. The site was virtually in a natural state, with only one 100-year old farmhouse on it and no utilities. At the time of the purchase, one family moved into the farmhouse and began the preparatory work for bringing other families and single people onto the land. Wells were drilled, septic tanks dug, power and telephone cables brought in, and an internal road improved. A bathroom was added to the farmhouse, and mobile homes were brought in for additional dwelling space. A second family settled on the land in mid-1985, and a large building was erected to serve as a church/community center, with a central area for meetings and religious services, a 7,000-volume reference library, shops, offices, and room for classrooms and other facilities. At this time the construction of the interior of the building, the improvement of dwelling units, and the development of other community facilities are ongoing projects.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE: http://williamlutherpierce.blogspot.com/2012/06/prospectus-for-new-community.html