The Name & the Idea
An explanation, to start
The Name & the Idea
Don’t be too concerned with our use of the term “Church” for the organization’s name. The idea of starting a church for an experiential faith—one that does not require devotion to any deities—came after reading Ben Burgis’s Canceling Comedians While the World Burns. It wasn’t anything cynical, like how fundamentalist Christians use tithes as a tax dodge to fund lobbying operations. No, what I was grasping at in response to Burgis, is that an ascendant American left lacked self-sustaining factions. If one of these factions was a faith organization, what would it look like? Would it represent a leftist, anti-capitalist analogue to the Christian fever swamps that embraced Trump and Qanon? If this new church were to take a stance on prison abolition—or any number of radical topics—, how would that stance be reasoned?
“Pyth” is an abbreviation for “Pythagorean,” which history vaguely uses to describe esoteric cult practices. Although completely obscure to us now what the Pythagoreans believed and what rituals they performed, our cultural understanding of them is they were attempting to unlock the mysteries of the universe with the technology of the day. The Pyth Vulture then is picking at the bones of something that is lost, consuming the extant remnants, and keeping nothing secret.
The pronunciation is left to the individual. To me, “Pyth” is more “lithe” than “pith,” although the latter would make the overall result sonically resemble “pit viper.” (The symbology surrounding snakes will be discussed when we get to Patanjalian Yoga.) Turkey and black vultures are common in my area of the U.S., and they serve as a useful symbol. Vultures are not as venerated and respected today as they were in the ancient world, particularly Upper Egypt, but this may change in the coming years. And this project is about change and healing through exploration.