The Rubble of Palmyra

Thoughtful article at The Atlantic about the destruction of ancient western temple structures by the ISIS; with some analysis of the symbolism.

(I would add to it that while these structural remnants of our past economic system are being pulled down, the ISIS people are standing up a new metallic system; a report on that activity here.)

Excerpt from the Atlantic article:

A recent study describes the extraordinary variety of the “deities of the Palmyrene pantheon”: “Bel, Belti, Nebu, Nergal, and Nanai are of Babylonian origin; Balshammin and Belhammon seem to be from Phoenicia; Ishtar and Atargatis are Aramaean; Shadrafa and Elqonera are probably Canaanite; and Arab deities include Shamash, Allat, Abgal, Manawat, and a host of others.”

The oasis was an oasis of differences. When one reads this catalog of coexisting divinities, one is reminded of the old Enlightenment argument, made against the exclusivist and bellicose tendencies of the monotheistic faiths, about the innate tolerance of a polytheistic universe. Where there is one God, there is one way. Where there are many gods, there are many ways. 

In Palmyra there were many gods and many ways. The Palmyrene spirit is precisely what theocrats seek to extirpate. 

In the West, we are all, perfectly or imperfectly, Palmyrenes.

Monetary system operations have been influential to the outcomes of the wars between the nations for 1000s of years.

This verse from the Hebrew Scriptures book of Isaiah would lead one to believe the nations that subject themselves to the metals always end up the losers:

17 Behold Me rousing against them the Medes, who are not accounting silver, And gold - they are not delighting in it.  Isaiah 13:17

Under our ancient since retired pagan systems, evidence of which continues to be erased from material existence, we didn't always get it right, but sometimes we did:

For whenever they of the nations that have no law, by nature may be doing that which the law demands, these, having no law, are a law to themselves,   Romans 2:14