One of the first things I noticed in Ulysses was the continual allusion to rebellion and heresy. From Stephen's musing on the heretics of
the Catholic church and his adoption of the Milton motto "non serviam", to Bloom being fixated with the Phoenix Park murders and his
association with Masonry, there is this motif of throwing off the chains of authority and conformity. This underscores the multiplicity of the
novel as a whole, what with the multitude of styles and multiple characters' points of view, it is a tapestry of diverse colors, rich textures and
manifold voices – all of Dublin in one novel, and all in one day.
Lynch points out in Portrait that Stephen' s "mind is supersaturated in the religion he doesn't believe in", in Ulysses our labyrinth
maker is brooding on the heresy of Scotus, Pico della Mirandello and Giordano Bruno. The schism between Roman and Celtic Christianity came
to a head at the Synod of Whitby which severed the tradition of an immanent godhead. All of the heresies Stephen is dwelling on relate to the
isconnection from this animistic tradition, a vestige of an archaic polytheism. An indwelling of the spirit of creativity, a flame instead of a fading
coal – the fruit of the other interdicted tree, this is the driving force in ecstatic religious experience. His intention is not only to allow us access
to the transcendental as well as reanimating the concept of an individual godhead resident in all of creation, but also to root us in the body,
which is the sensual world – the ineluctable modality of the experiential. Be Here Now: Life Is On You.
This fascination with rebellion translates into an identification with the outlaw, the outsider, and the martyr. We saw in Portrait the
championing of Lucifer's take on servitude from Paradise Lost. Stephen overcomes his guilt towards his mother's death, with the same
cry, this time though with an embellishment from the climax of the Niebelung operas. The severing of the older traditions and replacing
them with a new order, this is Joyce's intent towards literature with this novel and his work as a whole. The use of the existentialist statement,
"god is a shout in the street", the frequent reference to Neitzche, as well as his evident knowledge of (and embarrassment from) the metaphysical
intelligentsia, suggests his relationship to the nonconformist and outsider in Dublin society. In the phantasmagoria of the 'Circe' section, we
consistently see Stephen cast in the role of the sacrificial lamb - the martyred son of a bird. The malignant crab hand of god, the attack by English
soldiers, the desertion by Judas Lynch, and the association with Ruddy, the dead son of Leopold, all these plagues are hosted upon Stephen
before his spiritual unification; the consubstantiation of son and father.
Leopold Bloom is frequently reminiscing about other rebellious acts, specifically the Phoenix Park murders and the anachronistic Sinn Fein. The
Phoenix Park murders were the nail in the coffin of the Home Rule political movement, as well as the beginning of the end for Parnell. Bloom's
observation of the organizational framework of the Fenians shows him dwelling on this rebellious 'secret society' in a way, which, as an outsider
within the political landscape, should preclude this intimate knowledge, or at the least make it ironically suspect. When we get to the 'Eumeaus'
section we begin to see the reason for this; the character of 'Skin-the-Goat' Fitzharris is used to suggest the ambiguous nature of 'facts' when set
in a political (or religious) framework. One of the main observations which Bloom comes back to in regard to the Phoenix Park murders, and the
Fenians in general, is their tendency to betray their own, as well as their brutal reluctance to allow that betrayal to go unpunished.
Bloom's association with Masonry is strange indeed. As a Jew he is not necessarily interdicted from membership, and indeed many of the
religious doctrines underlying their ritual practice are descended from Kaballistic theory. He seems to be a walking representation of this
multiplicity of religious thought. In the 'Ithaca' section we learn that he and Stephen were both baptized in the same Catholic Church by the same
person. He of course doesn't consider himself a Jew, at least in regards to dietary restrictions, nor does he consider himself a Catholic, or he
would not be a Mason. As well, he doesn't seem to consider himself to be a Protestant, in fact his association with the Masons seems to relate
to the concept of universal brotherhood and the social status being part of the fraternity offered. This is particularly apparent in regards to the
law, as we see in the allusion to the Hungarian raffle incident and the end of the 'Circe' section where he is attempting to be a 'Good Samaritan' to
the incapacitated Stephen.
Earlier in this section there are several references to the Knights Templar, a particularly virulent heresy in the Catholic Church. One in which the
Church was used as a pawn by Phillip II of France to destroy a religious order that were only answerable to the Pope himself. A knightly order
that had amassed an incredible amount of wealth in the form of gold and land deeds from guarding pilgrims and offering to act in a usury capacity
to the feudal royalty in Europe. They are believed to be the forebears of the Masonic orders, having fled to the aid of Robert the Bruce in
Scotland and his battle for independence from England (see Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Temple and the Lodge for further information on
this). Phillip II used his puppet Pope to dissolve the order under suspicion of heresy and idolarty and claim their wealth and land as his own
(not to mention write off his debts to the order). He was murdered in a 'hunting accident' within a year of the oath "Verkam Adonai" or 'vengence
Lord' in Hebrew, uttered by the head of the Templars, Jaques de Moaly on his pyre. The puppet Pope as well was dead within the year.
Hegemony and heretics : Betrayers and betrayed.
As Stephen stated in Portrait, he was using as his weapon, against the religion he disbelieves in, cunning. The consistent use of the
outlaw and heretic to explicate the multiplicity of religious perspectives is his cunning way of showing the historical fallacy of the 'one true and
apostolic religion'. The use of the sensual in order to reawaken our connection to the body and the immanent godhead in the universal is a stab
at the heart of the singularly transcendent representation of religious thought. It is through this animistic approach that he makes the most
ground in this battle. The one thing that we all can feel is our disconnection from our physical bodies and the denigration of the earthly paradise,
as we listen to the continual condemnation of our more animalistic or biological reality. The immanence of the godhead is a religious ideal that
our ancestors, especially in the Celtic cultures felt strongly about, investing the landscape with a luminosity or claritas, which the Christian
tradition capitalized on and controlled for the benefit of establishing their hegemony.