“Hierarchy, as in the Catholic Church, has to do with power, and vertical attention has to do with longing.” ChurchAttentionCatholicLongingHierarchyCatholic ChurchVertical Author:Robert Bly
“Vertical thought likes to imagine the vast distances between the stars.” StarsImagineDistanceLikesVertical Author:Robert Bly
“There's a quality we could call vertical attention, which is an attention upward toward ancestors, spiritual states, angels, gods.” StatesSpiritualAttentionQualityAngelAncestorVertical Author:Robert Bly
“There are very few adults in our culture able to imagine any genuine life coming from the vertical plane - tradition, religion, or devotion.” AbleCultureImagineAdultsTraditionGenuineDevotionPlanesVerticalGenuine Life Author:Robert Bly
“Myth and poetry represent a reservoir of vertical thinking, which we could also call longing and gratitude to ancestors. We need that gratitude desperately.” ThinkingNeedsGratitudeLongingMythAncestorReservoirsVertical Author:Robert Bly
“Vertical attention is not the same as, and doesn't evolve from nor imply, hierarchy. We could say that hierarchy is associated with power, and vertical attention with longing for the Divine Feminine, for the Divine Masculine, for what the Sufis call 'wine.'” AttentionDivineWineLongingEvolveFeminineSufiMasculineHierarchyVerticalDivine Feminine Author:Robert Bly
“The Roman Catholic Church early on simply adapted the hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire and confused the whole thing. Vertical attention and hierarchy were so entangled, that when the French killed the king during the Revolution, they lost much of their vertical attention too.” WholeLostChurchAttentionRevolutionKingsCatholicStructureConfusedEmpiresHierarchyCatholic ChurchAdaptedRoman EmpireVerticalRoman CatholicRoman Catholic Church Author:Robert Bly
“If you want to know what it will be like when we are more deeply into the horizontal, simply go to one of the Indian casinos. The Native Americans, who stand for vertical thinking more than anyone else in our culture, have been setting up totally flat casinos for honkies.” IfsThinkingKnowsWantHas BeensCultureSettingSettingsIndianNativeFlatsNative AmericanCasinosVerticalHorizontal Author:Robert Bly
