Within Astronism, we philosophise about the nature of the stars, the order and chaos of space, what exists beyond space, and what is humanity’s relationship to The Cosmos.
For millennia, humans have peered up to the night sky to contemplate the stars with greater sophistication as technology, and our understanding of the world beyond our own, has progressed. But it is that innate curiosity of humankind to want to explore that which I term as The Cosmos that I have recognised in myself. However, at the age of fifteen, I simultaneously realised that there existed no system or school of thought and belief for me to apply my contemplations of space to, hence I embarked upon the task of creating my own tradition of philosophy which I am going to briefly introduce in this article known as Astronism.
Astronism, which may also be known as Millettism, refers to a panentheisticor transtheistic philosophy founded by Cometan in the philosophical treatise known as the Omnidoxy. The first aspect of Astronism to understand is that it has been designated in the Omnidoxy as an organised philosophy which means that there exists an institution, known as The Institution of The Philosophy of Millettism, which holds proprietorship over the philosophy and will navigate it through the world.
An amalgamation of astrolatry, astro-theology and a cosmological theory formed as a belief system, the vast majority of Astronism’s ideas and beliefs are naturalistic, its theology, as aforementioned, can either be interpreted as panentheistic or transtheistic, yet its designation remains firmly as a philosophy. But why a philosophy?
Those whom consider the designation of Astronism as a religion misunderstand its nature; a large chunk of Astronism’s ideas are concerned with the discipline of metaphilosophy (the study of the nature of philosophy itself). Despite the fact that Astronism holds its own unique theological, eschatological and soteriological system, which are three disciplines mostly associated with religious study, it approaches these topics in a uniquely philosophic way. There exists no doctrine in Astronism because it isn’t a religion, hence anyone can interpret the ideas and beliefs of Astronism how they wish and from that, they can apply those ideas to their own theological beliefs, whether they are atheistic, monotheistic, polytheistic, or another type of belief system.
Astronism’s inherent concern for metaphilosophy stems from its beliefs regarding the inadequacy of the current state of philosophy and philosophers in society. From the Astronist (demonym for Astronism) perspective, there has existed a decline in philosophical discourse and the identity of philosophers collectively has become distorted and mystified since the professionalisation of the discipline in the 20th century. It is for this reason that the majority of the population either do not know what philosophers do or they certainly do not understand how they contribute to society.
Since then, philosophers have developed the tendency to stay within the walls of their institutions rather than going outside to observe the world and the people within our societies and attempting to understand their worries, troubles, and problems. It has always been the role of a philosopher to observe the world, ask those within it how the world could be improved, and think up new directions for the world to proceed; it is this process of ideation in which philosophers find their unique contribution to society.
One of the greatest examples of this is when I observe homeless people in our cities; I find it curious as to how society has allowed them to reach such an existence and how they have allowed themselves to get there. Another example are those abusing drugs; I ask them questions such as why choose this way of life? What is missing from your life that you feel you must alleviate yourself from this world to join one that is neither real nor is such a world healthy for your mind?
Philosophers should be out there asking the hardest questions to the most troubled of people if they wish to solve the problems of society. It has always been the role of the philosophers to persistently and somewhat annoyingly ask why, how, and what for? It is this persistence of questioning that granted philosophers their identity back in Ancient Greece, however, this seems to have been lost today.
Finally, to me, the line between philosophers and historians has somewhat blurred. Although I concede that we must look back in history to philosophers passed to understand their views and apply those ideas to today’s world, we should spend more of our time creating new ideas and theories rather than contemplating those of old. This does not mean to say that we should disregard the oldest of ideas for they are often the best of them, but the wheel of philosophy requires new ideas to keep it turning and we are presently in danger of having that wheel stop completely.
This type of perspective on philosophy is to be henceforth referred to, especially in the context of Astronism, as reascensionism. Reascensionism is categorised as one of The Seven Tenets of Association of the philosophy of Astronism which means that it is designated to be one of the seven main beliefs of the philosophy. The basic premise of reascenionism is that philosophy has been undermined by other sectors of society and that philosophers should work to redefine philosophy for the modern day by streamlining its identity into a clear and categorisable entity so that it may return to become one of the central pillars of society as it once had been.
The Omnidoxy, which is over one million words in total length and forms the structural foundations of Astronism, subsequently encompasses a countless amount of neologisms, new beliefs, theories, and notions about all aspects of philosophy. However, as aforementioned, The Seven Tenets of Association are a group of the most important ideas to the philosophy of Astronism which will have articles dedicated to exploring them, hence I shall just briefly outline each as part of this article.
The second tenet after reascensionism is to be known as the Humanic Exploration of The Cosmos; this refers to Astronism’s belief that it is not only humanity’s duty to explore outer space, but that it is humanity’s destiny to do so. It remains imperative to note that Astronism injects notions of fate, duty, and existential purpose to humanity’s exploration of space which subsequent forms its astro-theology, as well as greatly influencing its eschatology and soteriology. The theme of Astronism is of course outer space and the contemplation of The Cosmos, its progeny, and its phenomena, but more specifically, it is humanity’s exploration of outer space.
Thirdly, that which is to be termed as cosmocentrism, or cosmocentricity, refers to the essential premise of the approach of Astronism to all questions, beliefs, and theories. Similar to other centricities, such as geocentricity (centricity of The Earth) and anthropocentricity (centricity of humanity), cosmocentricity pertains to the centricity of The Cosmos which greatly informs and pervades throughout the entirety of Astronism. Astronism is cosmocentric in its orientation by the predication of all its ideas and beliefs which put The Cosmos at the forefront. In the Omnidoxy, I have used Astronism’s cosmocentric identity to distinguish it from other philosophies and religious traditions; I postulate that Astronism remains the first organised philosophy and the cosmocentric philosophy.
Intracosmism is the fourth tenet which is predicated upon the same line of thought as cosmocentricity and postulates that rather than searching for the answers of human purpose, destiny, and existentiality through the concepts of God, heaven and hell, and the afterlife, we should instead turn to contemplate The Cosmos which is considered to hold all the answers to our ontological questions.
Sentientism, or known as cosmic pluralism in non-Astronic contexts, refers to Astronism’s belief in the existence of sentient life residing upon planets other than The Earth as well as advocates for the notion of the diversity of such sentient life beyond that of the human species.
Cosmic devotion involves the spiritual practices of creating greater proximity between one’s own mind and identity with that of The Cosmos. Cosmic devotional practices are characterised both by emotions such as wonderment, as well as by astronomical observations and forms of meditation. Cosmic devotion can be considered as part of Astronic mysticism which is the mystical element of Astronism within which a spirit is believed to exist as part of each person and that this spirit is yearning for a greater connection and more proximate to The Cosmos.
Finally, the seventh tenet is known as enknowledgement. Conceptually, enknowledgement refers to the belief that any sentient being’s knowledge is presently unfilled and remains unfulfillable due to the limitation of sentient capacities and the limitlessness of that which exists extracosmically. Therefore, the Enknowledgement Principle states that a continuously increasing diversity and abundance of knowledge is proportionate to one’s extent of their understanding of God and other extracosmic entities and existences.
It is these seven main ideas that form the identity of Astronism and it is these ideas, and the countless others that derive from them, that make Astronism and the wider Millettic philosophical tradition, ultimately distinct from any other system of thought.
“My faith is strongest when the night sky is clear.”
Cometan, The Omnidoxy