Ep. 16 Sermon on Worlds (LIVECAST)

Excerpts from Aesthetical Sermons

For our first livecast, we will be hearing Joris' idea of how heaven looks.

Unfortunately, our question and answer session is cut short due to unseen circumstances.

Transcription of Joris:

I am frequently asked by those seeking inspiration about what sort of landscapes I believe heaven and hell to be. The simplest answer would be to describe them as metaphysics has painted them: the sewers for that wonderful fluid called life that the spigot of nature pours upon the earth. A tawdry collection of human souls celebrating themselves in a monochromatic zone of cloud and air. But this answer is often unsatisfactory to those unfortunate creatures incapable of imagining the afterlife on their own. And so I psychically transport myself for them, describing every detail along the way.
There would be in heaven, nay, must be, a great mountainside covered in conquering pine. And where the tips of their crowns reach the sky, I would espy an owl or some great raptor preening herself with a great hooked beak. And I would travel through those woods, smelling the various odors my disruptive footsteps conjured from the soil. And I would love those odors. And so would the great hooved beasts that roam that wood. And those great hooved beasts would love me. And I would come across very few humans, for ‘twould not be heaven otherwise. But perhaps a grumpy farmer who would reluctantly direct me through his neighboring field were I to become lost. And there would be a storyteller, whose tedious narratives would sour the mood, but who would take delight in my mockery of a brown goose that follows him about. And that goose would bite me mercilessly, until I gave it sweet morsels to enjoy. Then the three of us would venture to a precipitous gorge, where violent rapids roared and dreamy many-legged insects filled the air with carefree curiosity. And I would toss and turn upon the bank of that river, the victim of a fever whose only origin was my own disbelief.