"Spirits and gods were woven into the fabric of ancient life not because of a lack of scientific knowledge, but because our ancestors lived in the larger world; one not designed by humanity. It was a bristling place, it was Nature entire, with all its merciless peril and untamed wonderment. The shelter that our ancestors forged from the living real was far thinner than the bubble within which modern humanity moves. What’s more, the ancients comprehended this far more readily than modern folk do. The fierce, unveiled wilderness was just outside the door of those houses of wattle and daub. Night truly fell in those fire-lit villages. Darkness meant something to our ancestors. Today we have lost this connection because we are quite literally addicted to light. We have washed out all developed areas with constant artificial illumination. Darkness is now often little more than an ambient backdrop to our nocturnal activities."
— Richard Gavin
