The Prometheus Grotto

Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to mankind. He stands as a champion of mankind's rebellion against the gods, and the term “Promethean” refers to iconoclasts of god-like stature, who are first with stasis-shattering ideas.

Prometheus should be viewed in connection with his brother, Epimetheus. The names "Prometheus" and "Epimetheus" literally mean "forethought" and "afterthought," respectively. Forethought means the ability anticipate events, and afterthought means the ability evaluate the consequences. All events are directed by previous events and will lead to future events. Over time, consequences and causes merge, and become as closely related as the brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. In order to follow the path that leads through the events of greatest indulgence, the Prometheus Grotto strives to recognize future events and their consequences by sensing the present flux.

The fire that Prometheus passed to mankind will always be burning somewhere as long as it is in man's possession; because if it ceased to burn somewhere, mankind would have lost it again. While the fire burns, mankind can reap its advantages. But, while the fire burns, it consumes and destroys, and by giving fire to mankind as a gift of “divine intellectual development,” Prometheus also subjected mankind to a destructive force.

Our civilization is accustomed to seeing only the fire, not what nurtures the fire, or vice versa. For example, one may focus exclusively on the godliness of our technological advances, while being oblivious of the fact that we are advancing ourselves into a corner: our technological advances are threatening to destroy our very foundation for existence in the form of pollution of our planet—literally, but also figuratively speaking. It is not possible to use the fire without consuming and destroying something else.

The constructive and destructive attributes of fire form an apparent antithesis to each other, and as the constructive and destructive tendencies counteract each other, over time they both becomes each others' cause and effect. As Doctor described in his essay on the uncomfortable third alternative, the Dark Force motivates a change that emerges from the apparent contradiction, as if it were a small column of smoke arising from a friction between a rock and a rotating stick. Part of the strength of the Prometheus Grotto lies in recognizing and exploiting that change.