tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45434716553175839102024-03-05T08:16:48.685-07:00The Number Two CollectiveNumber Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-83771151285950881582016-02-02T19:12:00.000-07:002016-02-08T12:58:17.808-07:00The Living Word of Zos <b>This I AM (GOD) Stuff</b><br />
<br />
Everyone would like to be (a) God. Some have not conceived the possibility; others haven't<br />
the desire - yet if God exists at all, then all is his will and there seems no outlet, even in<br />
death. Also, and equally, I am at least a descendant of and related to God: may be even as<br />
a child who grows up, leaves his parents, becomes independent and may supersede them.<br />
<br />
Our history is a moving picture of our forms, rising, falling and changing, but always separating<br />
and becoming more remote and differentiated not only from our earlier forms but<br />
from each other. Man now has little in common with his fish, worm - and plant - forms,<br />
though still interdependent and related.<br />
<br />
Thus it seems we have less near relationship to our Source (God) than ever we had. But<br />
as we become more remote from early forms, we become more and more complex, and<br />
paradoxically we retrogress functionally more and more to early types of ourselves,<br />
although our primal subconscious instincts become more overlaid by the deliberate, the<br />
arbitrary and the conscious. This chaotic transition resolves itself into a logic by which we<br />
become conatively pragmatic, yet all our inventions and discoveries, etc . , come from atavistic<br />
urges - the old instincts - by profound nostalgias becoming our source of inspiration.<br />
In this process <i>away from and towards</i> God, we perchance develop self-will, and this is<br />
where we again run amuck - another chaos of transition which has bred our dictators, some<br />
of whom have been nascent while others come late to their epochs and the bulk of men<br />
drift on unequally yet hardly human.<br />
<br />
And so, to be nearer to God we must regress functionally and rely mostly on atavistic<br />
impulse from the remotest strata of our being until we are motivated by a pure instinctivism<br />
needing no other reaction than its own spontaneity.<br />
<br />
Ideas of our being God must be realized by a process of re-memoration backwards to the<br />
first or primal instincts - till the necessary one is reached . As I am not making Gods, the<br />
formula must be your own guess . . .<br />
<br />
Our 'Self-Truth' is an identity of Will, Desire and Belief: when this identity is focussed<br />
on to one thing, we need not interfere with our minds by thinking. For the Soul is near and<br />
casts its omniscience through us; not by language, but by inspiration. Then we will know<br />
the answer, and action will follow.<br />
<br />
<b>Discourse to the Bewildered Well-meaning</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Whether Religion claims to be apocalyptic or otherwise it remains anthropocentric. (The<br />
Greek Pantheism was at least honest and created not only the greatest men but the nearest<br />
yet to the Ideal State - whatever its drawbacks . ) Our panlogistic conceptions of God<br />
are never closely related to subjective significance : the conceptions have little qualitative<br />
difference from our own emotions, desires, functions, etc. The first requirement is a blind<br />
faith in the alleged miracle, mysteries and abracadabra of authority and its dogmatic teaching;<br />
to hold man captive from his instinctive search for Truth. In return for his slavery the<br />
wildest promises of eternal happiness (after death) are made. The trouble with the apostates<br />
is that they have no fecund substitute, and cease to believe much in anything, whereas<br />
vital belief (whatever its truth) is essential to any creative effort.<br />
<br />
The ethical and the social are different profiles of true religion, and wise laws their concrete<br />
form . The Ideal is the aesthetic potential, the urge for constant improvement and spontaneity. The social and the ethical aesthetics are but different idioms and diverse directions of the same quality of sentiment. Equity can be taught - by example - as a duty.<br />
<br />
There will be no social transformation until this becomes a pragmatic religion that gives salvation today, as well as tomorrow. The only alternative to worship is its sublimation to the service of the social and humane. This does not cancel God; if we have a duty to God it must be by our appreciation of life to the full. Have faith in yourself and your Soul will have faith in you. What the hell were you born for - to murder each other, to grasp more than you need? If so, then God is hate and you are his disciples - devils - I know no others .<br />
<br />
Man is now a normal chaos, an affair of bloody bathetic paradoxes, a madness of greed and hypocrisy and Earth has more meaning without him. This cold madness is the result of forced beliefs, lies, half-truths and bad laws taught him through politico-religious hierarchies.<br />
<br />
All this could change easily by correct learning and evaluation of the factual. Human<br />
nature (at the worst) is the most plastic thing on this earth, and although man has swallowed<br />
every absurdity and lie, he would still find an altruistic and healthy diet easier. I predict<br />
that our next 'society' will be a wise synthesis based on ' Co-operative Individualism ',<br />
i . e . , if we are not shortly blotted out by the final culmination of this lip-avowal to the best<br />
while espousing every activity against it.<br />
<br />
ALTERNATIVE TEXT:<br />
<br />
Whether religion claims to be apocalyptic or otherwise it remains anthropocentric. (The<br />
Greek Pantheism was at least honest and created not only the greatest men but the nearest<br />
yet to the Ideal State . . . whatever its drawbacks . ) Our panlogistic conceptions of God<br />
are never closely related to subjective significance: the conceptions have little qualitative<br />
difference from our emotions, desires, functions, etc. The first requirement is a blind faith<br />
to accept the alleged miracles, mysteries and abracadabra of this authority and dogmatic<br />
teaching; to hold captive man from his instinctive search for Truth in reality. In return for<br />
his slavery the wildest promises of eternal happiness are made - when dead! The trouble<br />
with the apostates is that they have no fecund substitute and cease to believe anything<br />
much: whereas vital belief - whatever its merits as truth - is essential to any creative effort .<br />
The ethical and social are different profiles of true religion, and wise laws their concrete<br />
form . The Ideal is the aesthetic potential and the urge for constant improvement for immediacy.<br />
The aesthetic, social and ethical are merely different idioms and diverse directions<br />
of the same quality of sentiment. Equity can be taught - by example as a duty. There will<br />
be no social transformation until this becomes a pragmatic religion that gives salvation<br />
today, as well as tomorrow. The only alternative to belief in worship is its sublimation to<br />
the service of the social and humane. This does not cancel belief in God: if we have a duty<br />
to God it must be by our appreciation of life, men, etc. , to the full. Have faith in yourself<br />
and your soul will have faith in you. What the hell were you born for - to murder each<br />
other? - to grasp more than you need? Then God is hate and you are his devilish disciples .<br />
For man is now a normal chaos, an affair of bloody pathetic paradoxes, a madness of greed<br />
and hypocrisy, and Earth has more meaning without him . This cold madness is the result<br />
of forced beliefs, lies, half-truths and bad laws taught and enforced through certain politico-<br />
religious hierarchies.<br />
<br />
All this could change easily by correct learning and evaluation of the factual. Human<br />
nature (at its worst) is the most plastic thing on this earth - it would still find an altruistic<br />
and healthy diet easier. I predict that our next 'society' will be a wise synthesis based on<br />
'Co-operative Individualism', i . e . , if we are not shortly blotted out by the culmination of<br />
this lip-avowal to the best, and every activity for the worst.<br />
<br />
<b>On Psychology</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Psychology should be taken in small doses and not swallowed whole. To swallow it whole<br />
puts an end to common sense : it has been allowed even to over-ride the law, which for the<br />
evil-doer has become a "psychopath's escape " .<br />
<br />
This new hierarchy with its categories, techniques, matrical tenets and arbitrary theses i s<br />
n o w established and fortified b y every pretentious argument. Psychologists have been converted<br />
into vehicles of enthusiasm for their own theories, with a labyrinth of dialectic meanings<br />
overloaded with a complex and transferred vocabulary that can mean anything - and<br />
yet not mean that to which their words commit them.<br />
<br />
Psychologists are as neurotic as their creed, and their fear of deviating from their self-imposed<br />
criteria confirms their estimate of the psychopathic.<br />
<br />
Psychology is relatively true for certain types and periods only. Whereas one admits to<br />
some of its truths, most of it need not be true, and the remainder is mainly untrue. Analysis<br />
may be applied to particular individuals, whether diseased or not, but little of it is applicable<br />
to a majority outside the 'chronic' category. Most people grow out of their fads or<br />
adapt them - often advantageously! Pshaw! - the undefined premises prove the inconclusions.<br />
But, psychology is already becoming an over-reaching, over-riding psycho-caucus.<br />
<br />
There is too much loose talk of uninhibition and suppression. How much is anyone mad,<br />
normal, or otherwise? <i>Not much</i>, because early conditioning makes enactment unlikely .<br />
These things come and go with us all. Taking the exception, their idiocracy apart, madmen<br />
are often normal 'average' and conventional. In extreme cases of schizophrenia there is a<br />
transference of certain ideas and values to serve a dominant obsession and, often, great satisfaction<br />
is found by 'as if . The lives of schizophrenics are often as full as the lives of 'normal<br />
' people. Strong emotionalism must exhaust itself in fulfilment and where there is frustration<br />
or failure then the only vent is in violence and antisocial acts. This, to a degree,<br />
applies to most people. Religion, the arts, collecting, hobbies, etc., outside our work, are<br />
usual alternative interests which act as a catharsis and keep us sane by a form of schizogenesis<br />
of normality. What else is love and friendship but extreme, refrangible schizophrenia?<br />
Close the door on reality and the 'as if door opens. Oversuppressed or uncontrolled, our<br />
damned 'Ids' will, if possible, have the final word ! But they are rectifiable, as in the initial<br />
stages of all things, and re-direction and control are often simple and always possible - outside<br />
congenital idiocy.<br />
<br />
Analysing this psychosis-stuff with its abundance of complexes, mental arrestments etc.,<br />
I state this as applicable to many: that I myself <i>may</i> have had <i>all</i> these 'things ', in some<br />
degree and at some time, and have come through no worse, perhaps have become more<br />
adaptable because of them.<br />
<br />
Now, as being older and more aware, a more conscious being, those complexes I have<br />
retained, I want: they are useful, harmless, and serve my purpose.<br />
<br />
It could be proved that many psychopaths are the offspring of, and have grown up with<br />
many of these self-created psycho-bogies. My friend who coined the cliche "inferiority complex"<br />
hardly expected it to slop over into its current usage and meaning. Everyone now<br />
seems to fear being thought of as inferior; modesty and reserve are discounted . The reaction<br />
is that ignorance and over-indulgence find fertile soil, and every nincompoop would<br />
now be a Dictator. One is almost tempted to assert that most madness, ignorance, evil, and<br />
the general malaise, is due to lack of early frustrations which are the best means of later<br />
control. I can say of myself that all my wrongness and weakness comes from a lack of correct<br />
suppression and discipline at some early time; and it would not have interfered with<br />
the best self-expression.<br />
<br />
'Psychology' is now the equal of any other dogma in as much as it demands the full<br />
acceptance of rigid conclusions from undefined qualities and premises.<br />
Psychology has no dominant thesis or definition of such fundamentals as 'consciousness',<br />
'intelligence', 'thought', 'purpose', etc. We know that there are no exact or final definitions<br />
or conclusions of <i>anything</i>, but we are also aware that certain correct hypotheses - viz . , the<br />
ether - have rendered us certain other facts and thus indirectly proved themselves. But the<br />
offer of such very shaky nominalism - which begins nowhere and ends in an excusing<br />
pathology - presents a worse gamble than that of any religion. Psycho-ism has no standard<br />
of morality, behaviour, or normality with which it mainly deals, so must be based on the<br />
common mean, the "average" - an inelastic average at that. Thus anything 'abnormal' or<br />
'sub-normal' could or might be pathological . And when the common denominators are<br />
realized from Ids of Greed - then where are we? The zombie our level? Genius a madness?<br />
No, for <i>civilization</i> there must be a more arbitrary ethical-intelligent standard . Above the<br />
'normalities', an Ideal that is <i>tactual</i>, that is directly related to reality - with its integral precisions<br />
determined by social motivation. Convention, whether of morals or behaviour may<br />
be as wise as anything man has invented.<br />
<br />
<i>Know thyself-</i> how much of such knowledge is possible, helpful, or necessary? Better for<br />
most to un know what they think they know. It doesn't need a biologist or a psychologist to<br />
tell us that the mind has strata of atavistic remnants which in suitable soil may degenerate<br />
into the foulest anomalies and freakishness. We also know for certain that we may curb<br />
our greedy appetites by re-direction and the placing of our real values outside them, thus<br />
cultivating our best potentials. Yes! fundamentally, everything is as simple as that, and<br />
there is little need for Witch-doctors. Without 'Bell, Book and Candle' one could go on<br />
laying these hideous ghosts of<i> patho</i>-psychology. That which is appropriate to normality is<br />
so ungeneralizable, trivial and transitory as to be almost worthless. Different environment<br />
- different selection; but our mutation now is a choice: <i>man is the arbiter of his genes</i> - if he<br />
so desires . . .<br />
<br />
Schools of psychology have their passing fashions and phobias: the Freudian 'free association'<br />
technique of interpreting dreams and mental ills, always with a sexual basis, grew<br />
stale, gained stimulus by the 'as new and latest' oedipus complex (very rare in families) , and<br />
solutions were claimed for that theory or a variant of it. The absurdity of the 'free method'<br />
is self-evident. If I dream of washing dirty dishes, it means that I desire intimacy with my<br />
mother or (failing that) , my sister, cousin, in-laws, or a relation of some kind, or, if necessary,<br />
anyone they care to nominate. But they will also give much the same interpretation<br />
of any other dream, however opposite or diverse the symbols and situation . In fact, they<br />
can make any dream mean anything that conforms to their purpose. Nearer the truth: there<br />
are many different types of dream, each needing a different technique of translation.<br />
<br />
Logically, by intricate and accurate co-relating, anything may be proved derivative, as<br />
'one from another' - which does not prove anything. Take your phobia (or what have you)<br />
to a psychiatrist for the real dirt . . . Expensive amusement for something you can do better<br />
yourself.<br />
<br />
Most people, all average, have their own form of assuagement by abreacting to each<br />
other, what they call 'spilling their guts' . . . The exceptional psychopath is always with us.<br />
<br />
I have (like many others) a dislike of climbing and of crowds : both labelled phobias. As<br />
applying to myself, the reason is simple: I had both ankles crushed in childhood, so climbing<br />
was either tiring or painful. As for crowds, I could smell too much and always began to<br />
feel lousy. Yet, after my twentieth year, these 'allergies' ceased to bother and since then I<br />
have climbed and mixed unaffectedly. This commonplace suggestion did not satisfy the<br />
psychologist - he had to prove and confirm his thesis - so he probed into my very early<br />
affections . I admitted 'natural affection' for one of my Aunts and for another 'unrelated '<br />
lady (old enough to be m y grandmother) . And there he had it . . . i n his own round-about<br />
way! I had illicit desires for them! Although it was extremely ingenious, his relating ideas<br />
of 'climbing, crowds and coitus' - it was nonsense . For, if at any time during my life, such<br />
an idea or desire regarding these two people could ever disturb my phallus - awake or asleep<br />
- I personally would give loud cheers and be first to praise such a method of psycho-analysis.<br />
Alas, poor Freud, I knew him well. The obsequies linger on, 'free association' and<br />
'abreaction' (dialectic variants) are still the main techniques to interpret the mental cloaca.<br />
<br />
<b>Schizophrenia</b><br />
<br />
Schizophrenia, now considered psychopathic (and a literary tag) is nevertheless one key<br />
to psycho-physics . It is an essential part of general <i>normality</i>. Indeed, all we inhibit<br />
and reject splits our mind as does, probably, the primal acceptance of good and evil.<br />
Schism being constant, the uncommitted and rejects of mind form a spooky being, which<br />
seeks indulgence or substance by the 'as if . It causes a flaccid probabilism, a slurred,<br />
smudgy or blurred seeing and thinking - now a vogue in many art forms . The old<br />
accomplishment of completion is almost lost. The conflict creates the necessity of self-socializing,<br />
usually satisfied by over-insistence on 'I am I' based on this shaky medium! Yet<br />
all of this is only normal <i>and</i> evidence of the the extensiveness of the 'as if connotation and<br />
other forms of make-belief. More corrupt are disbeliefs, half-beliefs or aimless circum ambulatory<br />
believing. Don't delude yourself, no-one can believe anything and everything; it is<br />
always inefficacious.<br />
<br />
The substantiality of things is realized more by negatives, i.e. their shadow, separating<br />
them from otherness; colours, tones - an afterthought. So we gauge all things by their<br />
extremes and are inclined to jump all in between. The essential separateness of ourselves<br />
from other things - 'I am this - I am not that' - is a major duality and the more intense the<br />
greater the reality. Abstractly and actually the snag is: that all opposites are not the entire<br />
absence of each other, they are <i>relative</i> quasi-absolutes (as all else) , and are a <i>quantitative</i><br />
<i>degree </i>of each other, radiating from some unseen middleness. All recognition of reality<br />
depends on this and other pseudo-dualities. In co-ordinating we incline to near likenesses<br />
(easier to relate to the ape than to the tree). By such unities we leave something of ourselves<br />
behind - a future harvest. We gain by increasing our susceptibility to other things:<br />
this sub-relating may be infinitely inclusive, and it extends us.<br />
<br />
Schizophrenia is much more . . . because we are a multitude of past beings, experiences and<br />
longings; a vast heritage competing for<i> you to be another you</i> again. We are a permanent,<br />
fluxing and inter-relating Trinity: 1 ) I am - consciousness - body: 2) Ego - subconsciousness<br />
- mind: 3) Self - consciousness - S oul (mainly unaware of it) . 'Mind' is the medium<br />
of appetences and 'thought' the tool that conates through body: all constituting an<br />
automachy by apparent yet phoney dualities - and we remain mainly colour-blind.<br />
<br />
<b>On Consciousness</b><br />
<br />
Definition of consciousness and subconsciousness: Consciousness is considered as indefinable<br />
although we are aware of its being our entirety. Analysis along two lines, distinction<br />
between act and content as separable: The <i>cogito</i> argument:<i> " Cogito, ergo sum" </i>could be<br />
more fully expressed as: 'Sensation, cognition, thought, action', e.g., ( 1 ) If something bites<br />
me and I feel nothing, nothing has happened consciously. (2) If I am bitten and it hurts<br />
me, i.e., sensation. (3) If ! see the thing that bites me, that is perception as cognition. (4)<br />
'Thought' then follows, to avoid and prevent recurrence followed by action. (5) Therefore,<br />
consciousness is con-sentience and awareness of varying degree and direction. The final<br />
phase is introspection or reflection: a scrutiny of the event and processes involved are subsequent<br />
and determine future acts . Ergo: "I feel therefore I am". Therefore, consciousness<br />
creates memory and fore-knowledge, i.e., preceptiveness and intuition from sensational<br />
experience recoverable from memory, the main function being to create ability to cope with<br />
events, e.g., the experiencing, questioning and reifying factors of future individualistic Ego.<br />
<br />
The subconsciousness, so called, is probably the emotional structure, the conjunctional<br />
amalgamating and rationalizing of impressions, where values are measured against empathy<br />
and antipathy, good and evil, which form our hopes and fears . As subsurface to consciousness<br />
the subconsciousness is not directly accessible to introspection, except by vivid<br />
revisualizations, or via dreams . It is also capable of being tapped by certain techniques such<br />
as semantics, indirect association, and dream-interpretation (when accurate) . Automatic<br />
drawing and writing may also release earlier memories . No one has yet probed its limits to<br />
re-acquaint us with our own past concatenation of experience, although there is individual<br />
evidence of a previous existence.<br />
<br />
Accepting consciousness (of all degrees) as the outward facet of 'Mind', the situation is<br />
so complex and dualistic, the interactions that form our mentations so baffling, that unless<br />
we accept the fact that we are creating our own Ego from Universal Mind, everything is<br />
irrational.<br />
<br />
<b>On Paradox</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Paradox: If used as a truism or as relating to contraries, paradox is simply, though indirectly,<br />
stating that extremes - opposites and contradictories - meet or intersect and fulfil<br />
each other and that their copula is the mean of their ratio. Thus: Black, Grey, White - all<br />
opposites relate to each other by their variability, which does not mean that A is Z, or the<br />
reverse . It may imply that both A and Z are degrees of each other. But while A and Z are<br />
as they are, they are not each other. Attenuation or superimposition gives variability to<br />
both . Our clumsy language itself here precludes gymnastical predicates, i . e . , that A is Z or<br />
that Black is White . There is no paradox, paradox exists only where the same relation is<br />
self-contradictory or when two opposites take over each others ' qualities. But mostly, paradoxes<br />
are involved with semantical or syntactical ambiguities, making a circular argument:<br />
"It is true that it is false", which is hyperbolic assertion for emphasis, or "trying to be<br />
clever" . The statement should be: "It is untrue", or "It is a false statement", nothing more.<br />
<br />
Again, one could more picturesquely assert of a great book: "It is in the greatest of all<br />
styles, it is without style", which is a series of mis-statements, mis-implications, and is a<br />
misnomer. The statement should be: "Its very stylelessness gives significance ".<br />
<br />
Again, to give an old "play on words" variety: On one side of the card is written the words:<br />
"On the other side of the card is written an understatement"; on turning the card over<br />
appear the words : "On the other side of this card is written an overstatement" . The best<br />
answer would be the Cockney' s well-known mouthful . . . Another answer is that it is a<br />
hyperbolic statement, i . e . , abstract conjunctionalism of two opposite words making a<br />
meaning as a misnomer or solecism. Any self-conflicting statement is the extreme of understatement<br />
and overstatement. Thus : "I feel dead and alive".<br />
<br />
<i>Paradox is a disease of fallacious vocabulary.</i> A number of so-called paradoxes are mere<br />
solecisms, flabby thinking prompted by apparent contradictories: "He is an atheist, an<br />
unbeliever", whereas he may be a greater <i>believer</i> (in no God) than a believer in God. Does<br />
this entail, as natural corollaries, the assertions : "He believes in disbelief', or "He disbelieves<br />
in belief'?<br />
<br />
Apart from the essential concatenation of variables between opposites (whether known<br />
or not) there is another way of faulting the phony paradoxical. If we use things relating to<br />
semantical meanings, the paradox becomes more shadowy - thus: "On the other side of<br />
this card is drawn a true portrait". On turning over the card appear the words "On the<br />
other side of this card is drawn a false portrait". I have simply replaced the words 'statement'<br />
by 'portrait' and 'drawn' by 'written' . It is now proved unequivocally that the whole<br />
thing is absurd, there is no portrait, true or false. <i>Ipso facto</i> there is no statement, as such,<br />
entirely true or false. (The actual wording is: "On the other side of this page is written a<br />
true statement. On turning over appear the words: On the other side is written a false statement."<br />
q.v. Jourdain.) I should emphasize that 'written' and 'drawn' are the same; that a<br />
portrait is a statement, or a statement is a likeness of something - therefore the latter fails<br />
as having no positive statement of anything. It is a looking-glass illusion - a reverse reflection<br />
of the word not explicit in the reflection as further meaning; a predicate without the<br />
statement - nothing equals nothing. Truth is inexistent when anything is entirely false or<br />
true; thus a thing entirely black is not white. Our real dilemma is that nearly everything has<br />
'quasiness' and will intersect <i>either</i> end. There is a series of letters that when reversed are<br />
the same (a palindrome), making it possible that a word formed from such letters, on being<br />
reversed, has the same meaning; which proves only that forms as well as meanings may be<br />
ambiguous.<br />
<br />
There are other such tricks by reflective reversal, all of which means that our reasonings<br />
and mentations rely on legerdemain semantics held together by a loose syntax. So, many<br />
judgements have as their criteria this writhing <i>hypotenuosa</i> as emphasis. The greatest absurdities<br />
are seldom self-evident, though man is a ceaseless exhibitor of his own.<br />
<br />
Another such paradox arises: by the use of adjectives that are either autologic or not, and<br />
by onomatopoeia (itself heterologous) as distinct from words denoting properties. Then,<br />
e.g., thrust, spurious, soul, elegant, lunge, mind, splendid; or colloquialisms, shove,<br />
scrounge, gorblimey, etc . , ebullient, if crude, often have expressive virtue . Truth, vulgarly<br />
rendered, suffers not by such emphasis . Thus, autologic words have the merit of being<br />
colourful, vivid, and having an emotional catholicity. If a friend said to me: "She stinks" -<br />
then I know a bookfu!' Moreover, the meaning of these picturesque words almost visualizes<br />
itself whereas heterologous words lack these forms of veracity. There are so many<br />
examples that more are unnecessary. A vague paradox intrudes when we ask whether the<br />
words 'heterological' is 'autological' or heterological (q.v. Grelling) . They are both in as<br />
much as either... having dog-knotted paradox.<br />
<br />
We should mention that the anomalies of language have never been indexed. The very<br />
thought of this 'undertaking' as a prelude to a rational syntax, etc., gives anaemia to all<br />
scholars and logicians.<br />
<br />
When we have developed a mind that can grasp a simple form, with analogous meanings<br />
and associations by contiguity, then our sensory continuum will respond interpretationally<br />
even if symbolically. Having evolved such a heterologous, chancy, quasi, or uninterpre<br />
table language it is not surprising that it would<i> think for us</i>. To revise and vivify meanings<br />
we must revert to the naive, the crude or the colloquial for a simple expressionism<br />
without preamble and a hiatus of qualifications . Truth is evident in simplicities; overlooked<br />
in complexities. Know Truth by this: It is <i>radiant</i> and needs no emblazoning. Which suggests<br />
indirectly that most 'logical forms ' are another dehydrated Hippopotamus.<br />
<br />
<b>Beginning of the End to a Rebeginning</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I believe in the <i>Eternity of Ego</i> whether I am carnate, discarnate, reincarnate, or whatever<br />
metamorphosis I suffer. For I am <i>change </i>and forever ultimate however I may appear. I am<br />
all differentiations, all unities, separatenesses and inconceivables. My fatigue, my forgetfulness<br />
are a mystery of duality, yet they must be my way of <i>knowing</i> by the effort of re-remembering.<br />
This is the way to the new abortions or higher selves: constantly determining<br />
values by acceptances and rejections, by becoming rights and wrongs, by deceiving me<br />
and teaching me against my greater inherences. Self can know only not-self, from dissolving<br />
omniscience.<br />
<br />
I believe in eternal equity - whatever may momentarily stun or deceive me - to myself<br />
and, through all my commitments, to others. I teach the acceptance of all things without<br />
love or hate . I, as a lover of the flesh, say this: Not only is S elf-love itself a value, it is the<br />
supreme means of determining all values. The 'will to pleasure' and the coalescence of total<br />
experience from all things is the ultimate.<br />
<br />
Pleasure is seldom found when it is sought outside for it is first within and can relate<br />
where we so will when our will and beliefs are one in desire and one of necessity.<br />
Through this 'necessity' we create the dynamics that ultimately serve our desires that we<br />
have made necessary, for it shall be our reality one day.<br />
<br />
As a misologist I have a great superstition about spontaneity as a way of action. First, the<br />
self-unity with the sublimation - then the courageous act. The first inspiration from our<br />
Soul is the technique for all subsequent inspiration, for this self-illuminism is the only thing<br />
that begets inspiration.<br />
<br />
To give reality to your autistic thinking is the great theurgy of which I have given you the<br />
key: <i>Sublimate your beliefs into the unfamiliar energeia of orgasm, for it is numinous, it is immanence and the moment of conception-creation.</i><br />
<br />
Zos stretched himself, saying: "These innocents need things unwrapped, then doctrinized<br />
and ornamented . . . so let me remember my old abilities, summon my elementals,<br />
and commit my will to a new theurgy. "<br />
<br />
<b>Illusion and Reality</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Knowing only our impressions of reality, felt or seen, we find reality illusive and call it illusion:<br />
the shadow misnaming the substance. It gives this equation: Reality is illusion;<br />
Illusion is reality. Illusions transpose into reality and vice-versa. There are illusions that are<br />
illusions, i.e., not guising anything; there is also an illusionable reality. That reality is makeable.<br />
A thing is as real as it is conative . There are no precludable propositions or possibilities<br />
except those limited by the dimensional framework of which we know not the limits,<br />
and perhaps there is an indiscrete partial that floats out and returns? We are ever the fleshy<br />
surface, but there are further possibilities (in flesh) than those we know. Everything shall<br />
become unto flesh: Dreams may be as true as 'reality', certainly less expensive . Although<br />
the Classical Gods are all well fleshed and versed therein, I should mix best with the drunken<br />
Dionysus, Silenus or Satyros, for like them I prefer to sleep on the bellies of Nymphs<br />
than on any Athene . And when I enter this heaven's brothel I shall have a laudable phallus<br />
ravening, spilling over. My own predicament: "Which has the broadest bottom? " To<br />
play with great Cats, drink rough wine, copulate to sleep, has no satiety in me. Alas, passes<br />
the dream . Again I awake in some Athene's bed - permitted once weekly. Where are the<br />
Elysian Fields? Ever on the left, or into your fears, and left when you are told to go right.<br />
There is no pleasure where there is fear; otherwise, has Hero ever met Heroine without the<br />
bucketful of aftermath?<br />
<br />
Pleasure is never complete in itself; shall I ever find the broadest bottom? Probe deeply<br />
enough, and everyone is superstitious, meaning that they also hope to find the broadest<br />
bottom. Satisfaction ceases with satisfaction. Therefore be ever satisfied with your dissatisfaction,<br />
for if I satisfy function in one form, I become - dissatisfied. Then, ipso facto, I<br />
must change into another form and, by such a process, eternally change, seeking a satisfaction<br />
without reactions. Whether flesh takes over dreams or dreams flesh, there are no<br />
pleasures for me except as transferred to flesh.<br />
<br />
<b>One Thing Evolves Another</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
One thing evolves another, always a little different, which becomes a plethora of variety;<br />
then, the revolutionary mutations surpassing selection and environmental changes .<br />
Ultimately, man emerges, not only an epitome of his ancestry but o f his experience through<br />
mind, thought, intelligence and Ego. (I shall not stress my metaphor: there are automatic<br />
machines that so completely serve their purpose that only consciousness and the arbitrary<br />
are absent. The first camera gave a shadow-graph but if we include the latest complex camera<br />
we get a rough parallel to the senses' growth from infancy onward.)<br />
<br />
All hypotheses are the off-spring of a metaphor that finds a parallel in fact; hence all our<br />
knowledge derives initially from symbol, metaphor and hypothesis, plus the audacious<br />
long-arm linkage from an episode (our personal guess by 'freer' association).<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
The symbol used: this camera reflects not only an image within, but, like a magic-lantern,<br />
projects the image outside upon a vast screen; and so with our senses . The cardinal point<br />
is that neither the camera nor our body is conscious of any image . Only the photographer,<br />
representing Ego, the senses, etc. , is conscious; and although he works through and by the<br />
camera, he is outside it and separable. But, but, but! The photographer, as such, is entirely<br />
dependent on the camera for expression. This is also true of the Ego which consciously<br />
expresses itself only through the body. But there is a chain of intermediaries, each one acting<br />
as a medium for the others : camera, learner, teacher, improver, and inventor. The main<br />
copula between body and Ego is mind which is an index of memories, whether unconscious,<br />
subconscious or conscious, which results from our reaction to otherness and which is also<br />
the assimilative and recollective faculty of memory. The brain is capable of registering<br />
innumerable impressions and of classifying them chronologically. At the moment of death<br />
the astral mind transfers itself to its own warehouse to await the new body; otherwise there<br />
would be no heritage . Thought, mind, intelligence, Ego and Soul, do not develop pro rata<br />
with the body (camera) but they manifest best when the body matures and achieves perfection. Illustration: The ability of Michaelangelo or Rubinstein would be utterly nonplussed<br />
working through an unsuitable and untrained medium - there would be only scribble<br />
and cacophony. We are deceived by the <i>gradual</i> manifestation of intelligence: first the<br />
recognition of resemblances and differences, then of comparisons, etc. The superimposition<br />
of imagination and critical [lacuna] on these comparisons is intelligence, with all its<br />
co-ordinating properties. My symbol is mainly visual but there is always a certain amount<br />
of unity and assistance from the other senses. We see a thing and receive an impression<br />
which, if casual, is almost worthless. When our observation is appetitive and appreciative<br />
it is due to sense co-ordination and is effective apperception from which our values, levels<br />
and selections come, assisted by mental references stimulated by all things relevant or not.<br />
<br />
What is Ego? You; the individual that has, by means of differentiation, gained separateness<br />
from the 'stinking lump '. Ego becomes energized and is rendered conscious by constant<br />
impact on all otherness - known and unknown. A like liking, or disliking, like and the<br />
unlike, and by audacious effort liking remote likeness and seeking relationship with the<br />
highest or lowest as directed by our good and evil. What is the 'stinking lump '? What we<br />
were, but what we have long superseded and what is now inimical to our highest potentials.<br />
Who taught the photographer? Experience (impact) with other bodies (cameras) - the<br />
Soul which initially inspires as desired. Who created the Soul? The Gods as <i>manifest</i> likeness,<br />
because the non-dimensional is inconceivable. Man is not ultimate; the best now pilot<br />
their own craft, and tomorrow is another day towards space . . .<br />
<br />
<b>Argument by Parallelism</b><br />
From one thing evolves another, slightly different but becoming a plethora of varieties .<br />
Then there are revolutionary mutations, above selection and environmental changes. Man<br />
emerged not only as an epitome of his ancestry but of his experiences, with Mind,<br />
Thought, Intelligence and Ego.<br />
<br />
A SKETCHY METAPHOR:<br />
<br />
Keeping our symbolism within limits, we now have automatic machines which serve their<br />
purpose so completely that only the arbitrary and consciousness are missing. The early<br />
camera threw a shadow-graph, and, if we include also the latest of complex cameras we<br />
have, broadly, a parallel with the growth of the senses from infancy. All hypotheses are the<br />
offspring of a metaphor that finds a parallel in fact. Hence all knowledge in the beginning<br />
was from symbol, metaphor and hypothesis, plus the audacious long-arm linkage from an<br />
episode (often a guess by a more free association) in our past, relating to the present.<br />
<br />
The symbol: The camera not only reflects an image within itself but, like a magic-lantern<br />
projects the image outside itself upon a vast screen. And so with our senses. Here's the rub;<br />
neither the camera nor the body are conscious of any image. The photographer (representing<br />
Ego, Mind, etc.,) is conscious and, although he works through and by the camera - to<br />
realise his desires - he is outside of and separate from it. But the photographer himself is<br />
entirely dependent upon the camera for his own expression which is true also for the Ego,<br />
which chiefly has conscious expression through the body.<br />
<br />
There is a chain of intermediaries, each link acting as media for the others (camera,<br />
pupil, teacher, manufacturer, innovator, inventor) . The main copula between body and<br />
ego is 'thought' - from the mind, which is an index of memories, whether unconscious,<br />
subconscious or conscious . Thought which results from our impact on otherness is also the<br />
assimilative and recollecting factor of memory. The brain is capable of recording ego 's<br />
innumerable impressions and chronologically cataloguing them; when death takes place<br />
the astral mind transfers these to its own warehouse, to await the new body, otherwise there<br />
would be no heritage, never a difference, never a genius. Thought, mind, intelligence, soul,<br />
do not develop <i>pro rata</i> with the body, only ego does so; but, to us, they all manifest better<br />
with the greater maturity and perfection of the body, or camera. The ability of a<br />
Michael Angelo or a Rubinstein would be utterly foiled by unsuitable, untrained media -<br />
only scribble and cacophony would appear. We are deceived by the gradual manifestation<br />
of intelligence; ability must work through a near capability of expression. It must be<br />
remembered that whatever is, may not be so forever; neither memory nor flesh have<br />
reached their limits. Who taught the photographer (Ego) ? Experience, plus other bodies<br />
(cameras) and the demi-urges - originally the soul, which initially inspired as desired, from<br />
our necessity. Who created the soul? The Absolute, as <i>manifest</i> (dimensional) likeness,<br />
because the undimensional is inconceivable. Man does not achieve the ultimate by leaps,<br />
slow progress has made him what he is from his experiences and aptitude, not from choice.<br />
<br />
ALTERNATIVE TEXT:<br />
What is Ego? You, the individual as experience, a distinction that has, through differences<br />
and duality, gained separateness from 'the other stinking lump ' . Ego becomes energized<br />
and is <i>conscious </i>by constant impact on all otherness, known and unknown: a like liking, or<br />
disliking like and the unlike, and by audacious effort, seeking remote likeness and forming<br />
relationships with the highest or the lowest, directed by our levels and valuations as good<br />
and evil. What is the 'stinking lump '? That which we were as the first conglomerate, effervescing,<br />
but which we have long since superseded, and which is now an evil into which we<br />
slip back.<br />
<br />
<b>On Perception</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Perception is a rapid sequence of impressions, none of which is accurate or complete but<br />
vague and partitive, an orient, unfinished or untrue. Perception is built up from a multitude<br />
of impressions which, superimposed, give a rough reflection of a thing relating to a<br />
particular position (view). By constant reorientations and the noting of details of the surface-<br />
content we arrive at a general truism or judgement of the whole. No one could hope<br />
to synthesize the whole, pictorially, as one. Verbal expression, being a 'timed sequence',<br />
would be easier as a synthesis but never sufficiently accurate or even visually complete.<br />
Indeed, for perception to have any true reflex value a highly-trained and skilled faculty is<br />
necessary. Observation is never perfect, always partitive, omitting predicaments of illusion<br />
by 'simulars ', perspective, wishful seeing, and later-seeing through our flabby pre-knowledge<br />
of a thing. So all ideas are formed from impressions of a thing, usually slight sensations<br />
without emotion, but when experiential they are <i>affective,</i> i.e., both emotionally and<br />
sensationally. They then awaken correspondence with the preceptive or intuitional.<br />
Conative ideas are thus born with Empiricism... Taking Art as subject, the following would<br />
be its syllogism: ' Composition, proportional reality, functional conjunctionism by value s ' .<br />
The obvious failure of any such formula is the ambiguity of both words and syntax - there<br />
are few one-in-one meanings. Thus ' Composition' implies 'balance', 'harmony', but not<br />
necessarily 'pattern' by an arranged dis-symmetry (indeed, composition is essentially asymmetrical<br />
balance) . Not only does every word need qualification but the whole thing could<br />
be transposed and transcribed in other words and terms. Whole sets of such syllogisms<br />
could be written, more or less as true: 'idea', 'form es) ', and ' Composition', would be sufficient<br />
- if our words were - and would give a fundamental axiom from which tautology<br />
would follow, allowing all contiguousnesses, correlatives and elatives as deductive concatenation.<br />
All this bull-shit means is that all forms of mentation adopting 'a form of logic',<br />
as expressionalism, are <i>modalities</i> whose rules serve only their own. Thus, the values that<br />
created Pre-Raphaelism and its sets of rules cannot apply to Post Impressionism... therefore<br />
any form of analysis should probe into the fundaments of all modalities, styles, conventions<br />
and idioms, and expose as truisms the common denominators between them.<br />
<br />
Used thus as symbols, then only is the mind prescient enough to stimulate casually as inspiration.<br />
Indeed, it is more than probable that only when we transgress our logical rules, and<br />
trespass, do we ever reach a state of worthwhile concept, reformulating our thesis to fit it<br />
- and another piece of psycho-hocus-pocus is either born or discounted.<br />
<br />
<b>Mind and Matter</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Mind and matter are always evident to each other: A crystal does not appear to us as an<br />
intelligent thing, yet it is perfectly so with respect to its own form and function. To us, a<br />
blade of grass seems more intelligent and courageous, too, as it fights for its place in nature<br />
with the oak. The insect, bird, reptile, and mammal appear successively more intelligent as<br />
complexity increases. This is the great illusion. The minds of the crystal, the rabbit,<br />
Michaelangelo, or God, are the same, only the <i>means</i> of each mind differ; the one is manifested<br />
more fully than the other. Ability is always equal or superior to the means. The<br />
dynamic inter-relationship of all things causes the universality of change, a transformation<br />
process embracing everything, although the over-all content is the same - everything in<br />
time changing into everything else. Thus the butterfly became Aristotle! But change is so<br />
gradual that any thing is always completely itself as manifest reality. Nature does show us<br />
rapid metamorphosis, but only during gestative periods and in early forms of life . The most<br />
magnificent example being the egg-larva-butterfly emanation; the most perfect allegory of<br />
a thing becoming its own Imago.<br />
<br />
From the least form to the highest there is a fundamental pattern of change - from simple<br />
to complex - which follows definite laws, the whole purpose being to further expressional<br />
means and individual perfection for ultimate independence. The case of the individual<br />
appears to be more important than the mass. Nature's quest is for the genius, the<br />
altruistic few who create everything worthwhile in the world. Certain beings are older in<br />
time, a point which everyone reaches, but not at the same time . Hence there is no equality<br />
but always equity - an insoluble mystery of 'Why?'.<br />
<br />
This is mere supposition only if it <i>presupposes</i> that we are but automata. This i s what happens:<br />
Nature creates and is manifoldly re-creative - a dual concurrent production of replicas.<br />
Body not only creates body but mind also; ego and soul replicate themselves as our<br />
own. Indeed, God recreates the potential of God as our individual self. Thus, all universals<br />
appear ultimately within the individual. Within each of us, by our own encouragement, will<br />
be developed all possibilities from whatever our residuum of experience and present<br />
means . This will entail voluntary frustration of one thing to obtain another. To become<br />
good - sacrifice evil, and our choice will manifest itself, though sporadically, depending on<br />
our consistency in overcoming periods of fatigue . When sacrifice is total, i.e., all for one<br />
thing, then the result is a cataract of power.<br />
<br />
Our past experience alone yields valid inference (organic and intuitive) not only from our<br />
reactions to it but from the sensational aftermath value of our active participation. All<br />
actions become irretrievably formative, whereas our thoughts are mutable and mainly<br />
directive. The only elements opposing Man are exterior ones which may cause conflict,<br />
e.g., man himself, disease (unities without empathy; or natural decay). All actions create<br />
our destiny, therefore whatever environment and accidents we inherit are to a certain<br />
extent our liability.<br />
<br />
<b>Man Forgets</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The manner of interpenetration of anything with other things (natural or artificial) is rectified<br />
by experience and forms, natural affinities or allergies. There are no conflicts as such;<br />
fire may be hurtful but it is also useful - both are facts by impact, forming our fears . All<br />
such phenomena are indifferents . The whole Cosmos is a harmony of empathy and indifference<br />
- everything is always a near-perfect harmonious unity, though temporary and continuously<br />
changing. Man is either a mere automaton without sin, responsibility, etc., or he<br />
is partially responsible and creates evil. In his efforts to create his own Ego-image he necessarily<br />
deviates; his lies, pretensions, fallacies and assumptions become the hyle, and are<br />
not evil even though he would rather satisfy himself on illusions than face the difficulties of<br />
reality. These are creative qualities, but Man is a forgetter. Everything he generates returns<br />
to its origins; the past never sleeps. Ability is acquired over long periods of experience of<br />
all kinds; it is necessary to experience sufficiently in order to acquire additional factualities.<br />
How does Man manage to become the world's worst bastard and inconceivably evil? Is it<br />
conceivable for anyone to be so small-minded as to imagine himself as God without the<br />
ability of being decent? And so on, <i>ad nauseam</i> . . . Yes! Man forgets (reciprocation).<br />
<br />
<b>The Law of Change</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The law of change is of quantity and quality: duration is eternal, a constant factor; all new<br />
qualities become as real as the original qualities. The original Ids are the same in a microbe<br />
as in Man, but in Man they have branched out, effloresced, become more indirect - but<br />
remain the same . The Ids appear as eternal - their phalli, the new expressionalism; they<br />
guise their functions of acquisition. They are the eternal stimuli, and that which ceases to<br />
desire ceases to be (as it is) and death becomes a necessary mutation against resistance.<br />
<br />
If there is a Law of Progression there is also a Law of Regression. Although everything is<br />
changing, everything is always complete; any series of changes and emergent qualities are<br />
probably cyclic. Man is the summit of this, which only means the end of a particular cycle .<br />
Each state is a synthesis o f all preceding states and i t resolves their difficulties. [Lacuna]<br />
Ontological and dialectical forms emphasize the interconnectedness of all things and the<br />
self-development of each thing, its separateness and self-identity. From such gleanings the<br />
only sentient syllogism would be: 'supposition, experience, composition' .<br />
<br />
Modifications of a Universal 'A' : 'A' is a changing factor and develops towards 'B', as<br />
'Ab ' . Only when it is fully 'B', as 'aB', does it develop into ' C ' : thus, 'aBc ' . When it<br />
becomes 'fGh' does it formally cease to manifest 'A' . In fact, forms rather than functions<br />
have changed. 'A', 'b', 'c' and all preceding states are resident as residua. 'A' never ceases.<br />
The complete cycle is 'AMZ'; 'M' being the apex. From 'A' onwards are potentials of<br />
'M'; from 'M' to 'z' are differentials of 'A' to 'M' by refunctioning all the specializations<br />
of 'A' to 'M' as 'M' to 'Z '. If this sequence of experience has any purpose at all it is for<br />
individuation and extension of faculties and aptitudes, i.e., the formation of genius as a<br />
responsible being, ultimately independent even if interdependent.<br />
<br />
Ego : an ideal unity of ability (i.e., relatability). Our concepts of Ego become our<br />
Daemon. Our sense of inferiority is caused by our inability to individuate our self through<br />
our concepts rather than through others' concepts.<br />
<br />
We cannot test either dialectics or our forms of mentation, against Nature. Nature creates,<br />
we make partial similitudes how and where we may: we know nothing of the continuous unfelt<br />
impacts from Cosmic sources that may inspire change and determine all things . Moreover,<br />
nothing is impossible with Nature whatever our limits. All our thoughts and conceptions<br />
relate to things, therefore the processes are similar: ideas change, gain content etc., by<br />
intercommunication, and so develop; any one thing or thought is the medium for another.<br />
<br />
The test of all things is not fidelity but ethical pragmatism. Anything true to its own laws<br />
(even when false to other things) will manifest a content, perhaps different and contrary -<br />
moral or not - to all other known things . The human brain and body are capable of receiving,<br />
indexing and giving back whatever is put into them, as any other complex machine;<br />
but they are also capable of re-forming, judging, evaluating, believing and feeling.<br />
Whatever the brain receives (<i>a priori</i>) it shapes to its limits as a jug shapes to itself the wine<br />
it receives. Ego does the thinking, or para-percepting - Mind: the procreative; Soul : the initiator;<br />
the Absolute : the originator of all media though itself not a medium . So, Man's path<br />
and destiny is to create his own semblances of Ego, Mind, S oul and Gods as his own.<br />
Whether Man is so endowed (he is a refraction of all conceivables) shall be manifest with<br />
his ability. Better to be an artist than a sterile shite! Reaching across the very rafters of<br />
Cosmos is a vast shadow, Man's frustrations silhouetted . . .<br />
<br />
Far better a facade of make-believe or some self-made arabesque than . . . ? For whatever<br />
we serve we are subject to - and all things are their own good and evil - inescapably.<br />
<br />
Although certain integers must give evidence of 'fact as factual' (e .g., Knowledge,<br />
Mathematics, etc .) everything is essential to truth for everything is true (fact and fiction)<br />
as infinite relatability. Truth ceases to relate outside our span, and all conceivability is within.<br />
But who knoweth the dimensional extent of Ego?<br />
<br />
<b>What is Truth?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
What is Truth? Propositional forms are inferences from an 'as/or' synthetic composibility,<br />
inferences of partitive semblances refrangible from both ends and equally correlative from<br />
any 'inbetween' ratio to either end. Illustration: an octave spanning all assonances by resonance,<br />
therefore any degree (of itself) is mergeable or emergeable within its span (usually,<br />
categorically imperfect). Irrespective of this, truth always and only equals its ability to<br />
be true (from any premise) . Truth is also ability of transpositions, as from the audile to the<br />
visual prismatic scale - from which primitive pattern we originate our own schema.<br />
<br />
Facts are partitive, or correlative of truth, posited by <i>time-place</i>: "It is a fact that it is raining";<br />
to be true it must rain all the time in all places. It may have done so, and may do so<br />
again, but usually does not - meaning: "It frequently rains 'as/or' somewhere, sometime " .<br />
And all our truths are a s such. Truth necessitates all fictions. Look upon Ego as<br />
Altrotheoego for you can 'put into' Ego anything you so will and it will give back semblances<br />
(truth enough) . Any arabesque of unverifiable fictions will find pragmatic testimony.<br />
Syllogistically: supposition, potentiality, probability.<br />
<br />
<b>The Ecstoicism of Zos vel Thanatos</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Awaking and yawning, he wondered whether this was a re-birth or another reiteration of<br />
yesterday . . . and when he had clarified his mind and cleansed his body he thought thus:<br />
<br />
I will give my other self <i>the one ethic, the one sin, the one virtue and many other onenesses.</i><br />
Equity is the whole moral law. From it sprang this Cosmos, your future equation and<br />
Nemesis; for whatsoever you take from life you will give back. Whatever you commit to life<br />
you will entail as good and evil.<br />
<br />
Virtue is positive when to yourself, for how else could you love others unless you are fit<br />
to love yourself? To do unprovoked injury to none should be the whole ethic of behaviour<br />
towards all beings . Never forgive those who serve thee ill, until thou hast punished them,<br />
for thou wouldst thereby injure others . Greed and all wickedness survive only through ease<br />
and success. If the law of the Country is rotten, adroitly live thine own. Make punishment<br />
suitable and not excessive, as revenge would also injure thee. See that all thy motives are<br />
healthy and altruistic. The fool strikes in heat without judgement, often over-injuring,<br />
therefore 'correct' only with <i>cold passion</i>, knowing exactly what you do. For if we are all<br />
sons and related and are interdependent, or if others are as ourself, how can injury to them<br />
(except as correction) ultimately benefit us? Your immediacies are from yesterdays, your<br />
tomorrows the aftermath of the todays : their good and evil live on.<br />
<br />
The body is our whole means of expression, therefore guard and preserve it, for it is your<br />
common right to survive . Be not over-fastidious, rather harden your body and mind so that<br />
you can face reality in all its facets, and accept the violence of pleasure or pain with fortitude.<br />
For remember, this body has potentialities not yet realized: Man is not the ultimate . . .<br />
and it is often wiser to cleanse the mind rather than to remove the dirt of your labours from<br />
your body, or the earth from your feet; the body is temporary, the mind more lasting. Have<br />
a shameless mind and your body will manifest its beauty.<br />
<br />
The great gesture is that which neither expects nor asks for anything, and which inflicts<br />
on others only what is merited. Ask not forgiveness of Gods or men but take your reparations<br />
Willingly.<br />
<br />
Disregard the fortuitous, give effect to your desires by effort. The Ecstoic has no fear of<br />
reincarnation, karma, 'last judgements ', nor of the earth itself giving way beneath his feet.<br />
If he is injured - it is acquittance. His sole effort is to do no injury to others . He is acceptive<br />
of Nature and mainly negative to Man. He faces life and death with open eyes, and if<br />
he seeks suicide as relief for a while, he goes forth to meet death with a smile knowing he<br />
will come again. How cautious he is in doing good - delicately, like a funambulist. He has<br />
no morals, beliefs or ideals that are not tactual to life, possibility, and human nature; thus<br />
heaven and hell are within his hand. He neither prays, begs, nor borrows (if possible) , but<br />
works by the sweat of his mind and body; therefore why should he pray - or prey? He<br />
expects nothing for nothing yet often gives. He is too proud to act or to believe merely for<br />
rewards - or punishments. He acts and believes in the way he considers wise and healthy:<br />
neither Devils nor Gods, or his Ids, can corrupt him. If he seeks sanctuary, he is tired, unfit<br />
to accept unequal odds, but he always comes back . . .<br />
<br />
We love the child for its total dependence and acceptance, therefore b e ye the same to<br />
your parental good and evil, for until ye have paid and have become sufficient unto yourselves<br />
ye shall wear this halter of dependence.<br />
<br />
The Ecstoic is largely indifferent to praise or blame but makes no virtue of it; he doeth<br />
whatever he does and asks none to accept unless he so desires. He will say: "This I believe,<br />
but I would that you believe differently, as your actions are different" . He is often austere<br />
in eating, heavy in drinking, as he believes in having at least one weakness, but would<br />
forego this and find another weakness if he found he became less human thereby. He is a<br />
fine soldier, unambitious; yet if none desire the van he will go first; if none desire the rear,<br />
he will be last. He is the last to retreat, he never surrenders, rather would he destroy himself;<br />
but he fights only in what he considers a just cause. He is fearless because he can smile<br />
with the Gods at life and death as mere temporary transitions.<br />
<br />
Although he cannot condone and stomach all religions or cults, knowing their corruption,<br />
yet has he been animist, polydaemonist, zoomorphist, pantheist and monist, but he<br />
usually becomes apostate to them all, becoming ultimately a 'Self-love Theurgist '! The<br />
Ecstoic has his own esoteric cult, sacred to his own symposia: his effort is to convert himself,<br />
not others. He believes that a religion should equate with a person' s level, a new polymorphism<br />
having texture to changing life and tactual to all possibilities - as the young begin with the alphabet, so may they come to know the most abstract truths.<br />
<br />
The Ecstoic's solipsism embraces creation as the atmosphere, for it is the world in which<br />
he lives. This contact with it does not preclude his following his mind into all elsewheres<br />
to receive inspiration from Allness.<br />
<br />
The Ecstoic is never superior - a saviour, saint, apostle or gospeller, as such. He is often<br />
in the company of sinners, though never self-righteous. He condones much and condemns<br />
little - outside himself - yet he is resolute against corruption or injury to the young or helpless.<br />
He loves all animals, for are they not great Ecstoics? The veriest fool can understand<br />
the one ethic of Ecstoicism: Do not desire, or do, injury to others, other than they do unto<br />
you. <i>Do as you please, to whom the pleasing is the law.</i> Return good for good, corrective punishment<br />
for injury.<br />
<br />
You are not alone in this world, whatever your beliefs; and you are relatively responsible<br />
for its wrongnesses. Your example and your attitude can change things.<br />
<br />
Again: what you do not desire from others do not commit to them; far better violate yourself.<br />
And what you desire from gods or men, ask for decently and accept only when reasonable<br />
as <i>'Quid pro quo'</i>; and if you give - forget it! For who knoweth what is for their good.<br />
Be as autonomous as possible, self-disciplined, resilient, fearless, with moral courage to<br />
face all difficulties. Have your stance in reality and let truth be your mirror: these are the<br />
Ideals of Ecstoicism. Virtue is impersonal and greater than love which involves attachments<br />
. There is great virtue in serving the necessitous . Desire little from others - fulfilment<br />
may return as demands or as useless or undesirable gifts.<br />
<br />
Let your hero be Prometheus : did he not take from the gods to give to man?<br />
<br />
Again, I say: I would that you were different from me. Go forth in your way and be greatly<br />
your truth without injury to others . This shall be your law and the road to your Numen<br />
and to your becoming . . .<br />
<br />
Here Zos fell into a deep abstraction and when again he became foreconscious he spoke<br />
to himself thus:<br />
<br />
"All morality smells somewhat, and immorality often stinks . Something more is wanting<br />
for Eternity. There are many lives in this one, as there are many closets in space, and one<br />
sincere belief spawns ability anywhere. But there is this difficulty for others - of knowing<br />
<i>how and what</i> to believe . Must I give the magic word? Then so be it: He that <i>so</i> loveth himself.<br />
. . all creation will come unto him. "<br />
<br />
<b>Mind to Mind and How</b><br />
<b>By a Sorcerer</b><br />
<b>Rendered in an idiom other than for scientists</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Consistent with other directions of abstract knowledge, the threshold of the occult is the<br />
market-place for the charlatan . Coinage is sometimes different - lies have a strange longevity<br />
and fecundity - truth becomes buried. Abstracts such as 'mind', 'thought', 'intellect',<br />
naturally have no exact definitions; to agree at all, we have had to resort to the Classics.<br />
Should I, as a God, fall into this cesspit of inexactitude? I, too, revert, and rely on 'Delphic'<br />
means for my answers. There are no conclusions . . . but I assert that the most positive and<br />
exact evidence it is possible to present to others, reposes in the lowest, most common<br />
denominator of occultism - 'fortune-telling' . Be patient awhile for you will be enlightened<br />
by what follows.<br />
<br />
The means used and the way it happens are simple and the inverse of scientific. I use a<br />
traditional formula, created by instinctive guess and arbitrarily formed, not evolved by<br />
hypothesis and experiment. The law of sorcery is its own law, using sympathetic symbols.<br />
This <i>logomachy</i> was subsequently deduced from actual practice, using cards like an 'oracle',<br />
the exponent as interpreter.<br />
<br />
Thought may be looked upon as dynamic, ever-present like the Ether; we are inescapably<br />
in and of it. It is neither a work incomplete nor completing though always changing our<br />
shape and degree of consciousness. Man is a vehicle of thought, and thought governs the<br />
world. Scientists constantly mistake the 'means' for the cause: brain, nerves, body etc. , are<br />
the media of thought, and when thought is dynamic in them we say it is 'the mind ', which,<br />
in itself may have some queer relationship with <i>The Mind </i>behind it all. If mind has any<br />
'seat' it is in the whole body, rather than a part. Because thought is a subsequent impression<br />
of feeling and all things cohabit all the time - <i>identity is by identifying,</i> and the price is<br />
suffering (and much more thought). So, Identity is an obsession, a composite of personalities,<br />
all counterfeiting . . . a faveolated ego: a resurging catacomb where the phantom-like<br />
demiurguses seek in us their reality.<br />
<br />
There are abstract 'Ids', <i>symbols that are cognizances of the mind:</i> inveterate, interpreted by<br />
some kind of metaphor. Our actions and beliefs being liars to each other, our usual language<br />
is useless for mystic communion. <i>The nexus between cause and effect is medianimity.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
There is a Grimoirium of graphic symbology and vague phonic nuances that conjoins all<br />
thought and is the language of the psychic world. Mind is a continuant and all concepts<br />
are relatable to preceptions and contact, therefore real; the continuum of all aspects of<br />
memory and learning is consciousness - the past again becoming explicit, more or less.<br />
<br />
Our whole mentation is cognizing our cognition: I do know not only that I know, but<br />
how little I know of my own omniscience.<br />
<br />
The conjugation of <i>'a priori'</i> and <i>'a posteriori'</i> creates the anoetic . A little knowledge is<br />
necessary common sense, much is dangerous, as the motive is a form of greed. One aspect<br />
of Knowledge not only discloses another but a whole series of fresh problems .<br />
Invariably, inspiration is the only mechanism science has for the disclosure of new facts<br />
and such a form of guessing is a casual process of 'mind to mind' recollection and transference.<br />
Our very existence establishes a previous history (thought, mind, body), <i>so all subsequences</i><br />
<i>are difef rentiated derivatives of 'a priori'.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
If there is a 'primacy of practical reason' then judging by results (in man) it has become<br />
its own laughing poltergeist . . . we are worse in prospect than in retrospect: and nothing<br />
seems to exceed its own archaism. <i>Wisdom appears a stasis,</i> while Knowledge is ever forming<br />
- never complete. Whether within or without, nothing is fully explicit; Nature reveals<br />
slowly her techniques and media; of her motives we know nothing, we only guess at them<br />
from our own wishes. The tactual quality of relating is by a sentiment - the latent memory<br />
identifies and gives knowledge . . . Our truth - the totality of impressions from affections<br />
when confirmed by our atavism. All we know for certain are the great uncertainties and<br />
<i>unknown commitments of ourselves.</i> Our lives are spent in finding the solution, a reciprocity<br />
of para-rational creativity. We are only fitted to co-relate our own level - whether by inspiration<br />
or any other means .<br />
<br />
Certain directions of Knowledge should be arrested, they give little and at great cost: we<br />
have always had a plethora of the means of destruction. Laws of Art and Logic are limited<br />
rules of patterning and nothing is deduced, except variations from them: there is no technique<br />
of spontaneity and inspiration<br />
<br />
Science, like Logic and Psychology, is its own bogey and as neurotic as its own creed: its<br />
fear of deviation from its arbitrary standards and categories confirms all the definitions of<br />
the psychopathic . . . Science also has to await its rare artists to make an audacious guess for<br />
enlightenment or mutation. For me, the inexplicable of beauty, the undivulged of things<br />
gives them their enchantment - not their known meanings.<br />
<br />
From the above evolves a suggestion: that the mind knows all, that thought, which permeates<br />
all things, is the conveyor and nexus, and that we become <i>en rapport </i>and evocative<br />
by some cryptic symbolism which we must originate. Here is a clue: How do two fraudulent<br />
telepathists convey messages to each other? By a legerdemain; some subtle secret code.<br />
And the means of psychic correspondence, telepathy, premonition and prediction is by a<br />
like parallel. Merely to establish telepathy between two people by <i>known</i> things, means little<br />
outside of the proof, so we extend to the unknown, i.e., <i>prediction</i>, and by a simple form<br />
anyone may put to the test.<br />
<br />
<b>Language - Words in general and in particular</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The revelationary and predictive possibilities of a personal or a universal symbolic language<br />
have never yet been rationally probed or exploited, either as from mind to mind or from<br />
our own mind. And when I (as Ego) question the mind, what mind is it? Absolute, submind<br />
or mind of my own? Answers are only given when the correct language is used via<br />
inspiration or automatic means. Mind is absolute articulation: the nearer we simulate, the<br />
more expressive . . . Through the shaky structure of language has evolved a quasi-automatic<br />
jugglery of words in a jungle of indiscrete meanings and loose tergiversated grammalogues:<br />
forcing us to rely on crudities and colloquialisms for one-to-one meanings or qualify almost<br />
every word we use. A simple sentence may be self-contradictory. What is remarkable, is<br />
that by transposing or casually mixing words in a sentence what nonsense is made, which<br />
proves that words have to fit and obey the predetermined grammatical pattern, which, if<br />
itself ambiguous - gives ambiguities. It is not my function here to lay the foundations for<br />
a rational language, but it is the essential work of logicians and scholasticism: who so far<br />
have lamentably failed - suggestions galore and nothing attempted. It is now urgent, not<br />
only as a check on speculative intemperance, misuse and absurdities, but as essential pruning<br />
of inevitable extraneous outcroppings of our spatial language . Our excessiveness of<br />
unnecessary words has itself become a form of mentation (with semantical half-truths) -<br />
rather than a means of discovering. There is this paradoxical equation: Truths are their<br />
conditions, so bind us to their own rules of conation.<br />
<br />
Truths are only partial-transitives to words, i.e., there is no full-blooded semantical truth:<br />
words are the material of sentences, "meanings" by qualified inferences or relatables limited<br />
to certain rules.<br />
<br />
Language as now, is ideal for authorship, poetry, hyperbole etc., sufficiently varied to<br />
allow of choice for any expressionism, we need only use words of our own selecting: defective<br />
as over-spatial and illogical syntax.<br />
<br />
As for Ego requesting from Mind: To so question - use simply 'one to one' symbols in<br />
short sentences of telegrammatic form. Answers will be emotional and abstract, pregnant<br />
by finding their own means - maybe as by words in travail . . . All reasoning is a muddling,<br />
truths can only be suggested, must be self concepted. My truths may not be yours, <i>truth</i><br />
<i>has interchangeability into any belief.</i><br />
<br />
The Mind is generous one way: It will give power to anyone on - one condition only.The<br />
original language was a series of phonograms, purely of emotional expression with gestures<br />
aiding; subsequently, graphs were added - crude pictures, mainly of things : developed as<br />
sound-signs, the 'ideograph' ultimately relating abstracts: syntax gave words their sequence<br />
and spatial inexactness. If logic needs its own language, theurgy, i.e., communication<br />
between 'Ego and Mind' also needs its own form, based on the primal universal language:<br />
sign plus sound plus meaning.<br />
<br />
What are the essential requirements of such a language? The axiom is simplicity: Signs<br />
and symbols used - as near as possible - have relevance as geometric, arabesque or abbreviated<br />
picture-graphs; with a 'one to one' meaning. Syntax is mainly conjunctional, an<br />
accurate sequence of words giving significant meaning: Certain properties cannot be either<br />
implicit or explicit in one word, nor of autological form. Our real predicament begins with<br />
abstracts. Example: The word 'God', what do we mean and how symbolize - by attributes?<br />
I'll agree we all mean 'Absoluteness' - itself limiting: 'God the unpredictable absolute'<br />
is better: any such symbol must be arbitrary and fictional.<br />
<br />
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<b>The Brotherly Harangue of Zos to the Striveless</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
And they crowded towards him saying: "Lord save us, we would learn of your wisdom" .<br />
And h e answered them from his dissolving magnanimity, thus:<br />
<br />
"As your brother I hate your guts - the Truth is always terrible. Though your stomachs<br />
are distended, you have no room to conceive reality. How much of myself have I saved after<br />
my sacrifices? I am naked to my Ego, swimming the Sea of the Qliphoth, ready for the<br />
increative from the labyrinth of the Mind. Should I, in my travail of death, speak of these<br />
miracles? Better that I told you about your un self-evidence to expansive Truth, with your<br />
all-redundancy living a dissolution. Your love is fratricidal, and a self-hate that spawns all<br />
destructive diseases. Did not the Gods make you as beautiful as the Moon? Now look at<br />
you ! Not healthy fat but a flaccid over-weight, or like animated corpses, wayward as somnambulists<br />
or drunken ghosts: unreal - ugly.<br />
<br />
What, I ask, is there to save? But right you are in some things : lost to yourselves and<br />
damned by your own Gods. So, unless you come unto the reality of your Truth through<br />
yourselves, you will be born again abortively; and unless you are true to your Gods, how<br />
can you know your truths outside your damned kennels? You know not what you want . . .<br />
but I am too conscious of your hidden desire:- easy remission of your sins and Heaven a<br />
fortuitous brothel . Verily, I say unto you: space itself could not contain your greediness!<br />
Know you, that Heaven is very limited, - and on Earth? So suffer your flatulences and<br />
inhale your own stench; for Here and Now is your time and day of mayhem, sadism, and<br />
every debauchery . . . this world is nearer your lecherous dreaming than any hereafter.<br />
<br />
Once I asked you: If equity is ultimate, what could you expect? When you can answer,<br />
without fear of reciprocity, then only is your self-redemption by manhood near. For now<br />
you are mere caricatures, dirty tatterdemalions, deserters, frustrated bastards unworthy of<br />
mixing with animals . How near you are to your self-extermination to which you are wilfully<br />
blind. But . . . I was once of you, with you, and perhaps no better. . . but I destroyed my<br />
pretentious fa<;:ade and had no ears for you. Go your way without injury to any man, and<br />
beauty and self-love will grow again from the manure of your discarded foulnesses."<br />
<br />
Zos departed, muttering: "After my dissolution, I wonder how much I have gained from<br />
my duality?"<br />
<br />
<b>Allegory</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Temptation is always here : the Devil came unto the Stoic, Zos, with the old, old story,<br />
offering the world with every luscious promise of power in exchange for his S oul, and Zos<br />
replied: "Every stupidity would seem outlasting; first know, I have greater temptations to<br />
use my own powers and already possess far more than you offer, for I was begotten of my<br />
own God. Other Gods, the Soul and myself are one with all things and no other man or<br />
devil shall rend me. And absurd, my bartering what I already have ! Moreover, I need little,<br />
sufficient food and shelter to work and a few amenities, so what else should I desire of<br />
my own superabundance? - I am neither sickening, aged, nor so greedy that I need the<br />
world's slavery to maintain and pleasure me. Yet how catastrophic if I, or any man, held<br />
the World in power . . .<br />
<br />
The supreme littlenesses have become Gargantuous; conquering the world is now a<br />
cheap-jack's technique: one's only needs seem sufficient lust, hate and loud-voiced slogans,<br />
with promises, to establish a parasitic hierarchy. But look, those swine yonder: voracious,<br />
and rightly so for they are essential and useful scavengers . Is my function to excel them -<br />
become the greatest swine? The only gift I need is an 'ability' which none but I can attain.<br />
You are as other bastard dictators, promising everything, giving nothing and living on the<br />
credulousness of fears and greed."<br />
<br />
Then, facing the Devil, he laughed and spat in his face, saying: "What I give you, I give<br />
freely!" After which he wiped his spittle from his face.<br />
<br />
<b>Abstract Art</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
What is now labelled 'uninhibited expressionalism' is usually a deliberate attempt to be different<br />
from, or to react to, some orthodoxy, style or dated sentimentalism by non-functional<br />
exaggerations - therefore a misnomer. Failing by this non-parallelism they resort to<br />
arbitrary symbolism and other absurdities, and also adopt sensational methods and values<br />
from the worst exhibitionism . Indeed, unless their work at once 'slaps you in the face', it<br />
fails . Also, the glib talk and furore over 'abstract art' is equally misleading and unmeaning.<br />
To give an abstract of a concrete - a clock - first remember its function. We must remove<br />
the face, expose the works and dismantle to analyse, restate the mathematical formula from<br />
proved hypotheses (ideas) , then the mechanical metallurgic basis with the chemical and the<br />
electrical, etc., right down to the atomic as necessary for an 'abstract portrayal'. Does<br />
abstract art give or symbolize this? Whether it does or not, we are less wise having removed<br />
the face - we can no longer know the time! Faceless and featureless things have no meaning.<br />
Is abstractism 'unfunctional purpose' catering for sciolists? If you really wish to see a perfect<br />
rendering of an imperfect 'abstract of an abstract' - use a looking-glass, for whatever<br />
you see, be sure it is not the real you, nor would your anatomy or any part, nor analysis,<br />
disclose such, although we are refracted as an extract from the absolute abstract.<br />
<br />
<b>The Moderns and Art - <i>'Absit Invidia'</i></b><br />
We must own that the effect of their respective arguments, as usual with frenetic propaganda,<br />
is not to satisfy us with either, but to dissatisfy us with both. Neither side has much<br />
veracity in its conclusions - the usual jumping from half-truths into the uncertainties of<br />
generalizations .<br />
<br />
The Greek ideals (of art) were tactual of reality and potentiality, with the possibility of<br />
being true to Art and Life. Whereas the <i>atavistic nostalgias</i> called 'modernism' are mainly<br />
the dark sanctuary of incapacity - the fear of facing and expressing reality. The fine traditional<br />
works (not always so in their period) will always remain great, because they are works<br />
that have survived the ephemeral fashions and phases of thought. The 'Academy school'<br />
has lost its fine traditions and oft degenerates into sentimental and analgesic art. Let us<br />
remember that although Art may have direction it is not necessarily knowledge, truth, intuition<br />
or anything else: it is ubique, a metaphor of possibilities and of making aesthetic and<br />
other interesting sensations more permanent.<br />
<br />
What is Art? The function of Art is the ornamentation of things and of life for pleasure<br />
or interest. It has this paradox, that it can make anything appear possible, and is the most<br />
justifiable form of lying. Fundamentally, all art is an essential and natural graphic syllogism<br />
without antithesis. That is: <i>'Idea, form and composition' </i>- (asked by one of my pupils to sum<br />
up Art in one word, I replied: ' Composition' - with the proviso that successful coitus needs<br />
sufficient libido), with spatial parenthetical embellishments never accurately indexed.<br />
<br />
Yes, but this content does not qualify i t as great art or anything very much; indeed, quite<br />
elementary patterns are significantly all this and still quite commonplace. Hence, of the<br />
fundaments: the 'Idea' should be original or a fresh interpretation of the familiar. 'Form'<br />
should be aesthetic and, however rhythmic, logical and vital.' Composition' should have<br />
balance, however asymmetrical or inventive, and always remain geocentric.<br />
<br />
These three elements at their best when unified, however abstract, constitute fine Art and<br />
may significantly throw an halation of nuances hard to define. Colour, tone, perspective,<br />
conventions, degrees of realism, etc., are subsidiary although sometimes dominant: indeed,<br />
there are great works of Art that are purely linear and colourless, and others that have dominant<br />
subsidiaries such as colour. Hence Art is elastic and elusive, where much overlaps,<br />
where certain qualities may have special value or be absent, but the three fundaments are<br />
always there . And apart from the more abstract values, the above should be the criterion<br />
for judgement, whatever the idiom, school, style or period . As for the public, the best<br />
advice re: 'modem art' is to like whatever appeals to it and not what it is told to appreciate.<br />
I can remember such statements as "Lord Leighton (and others later) equalled<br />
Michaelangelo", and so on <i>ad nauseum</i>. And G.F. Watts stated publicly when I was fifteen<br />
years old that I had already done sufficient work, which, when properly exploited, would<br />
surpass, etc . . . So be careful what you believe, and trust your own inclinations; modern<br />
things, whatever their style, are always under- or over-rated. The fear of the ultra stylist is<br />
- the next one.<br />
<br />
Personally, I believe that reality, too remote, paralyses Art. What we term 'genetic' is<br />
either emphasis, exaggeration, or mutilation of natural stuff - at its best a synthesis. Man<br />
is excreative; if he were increative he would neither require Art nor anything else.<br />
<br />
The latest idiom appears to be an effort to express sincerely what we do not believe, as<br />
if it were co-equal to expressing what we do. This effort seems the destruction of beauty<br />
by such artistry, and, already, our most appreciative class is dying. The authorities and<br />
educational experts have helped - from the culture that lavatory distempered walls<br />
(L.c .c .), etc., display... <i>"Muraglio bianca di mauo "</i>.<br />
<br />
Finally: great Art is the result of great ability, whatever the idiom, style, and so on,<br />
inspired by the subject having its own meaning - the apperceptive concept of the Thing's<br />
ethos . Thus, the portrait of a person should be more like him than himself - seldom complimentary...<br />
<br />
Laws of Art or Logic are limited rules, as of patterning, and nothing is deduced except<br />
variations from them: there is no technique of spontaneity.<br />
<br />
Beauty is the depth of the average mean, and the alignment of all extremes<br />
.<br />
Perfection cannot be caricatured because it is perfect economy.<br />
<br />
<b>Discourse to the Next Moderns</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Art may be a means of experiencing by abstracts, symbols, etc., what can not be conveyed<br />
by other means; but not by equivocation or by something contrary to our healthy feelings<br />
and intelligence. At the least it has to have pattern and give intimation of its genetic truth<br />
- and should be technically competent.<br />
<br />
When I see something that might be a vomit of small ingenuity, called 'Portrait of my<br />
Mother', then - as in the method of 'psychoanalytic free-association' - it could be called<br />
'God', 'The Soul ', 'The Rape of Helen', or any damn thing you please. This sewerage is<br />
served up to the public as deep abstract! Well, they are the best argument I know for the<br />
credence of psychology, i.e., the smutty-romantic pathology of St. Fraud, Junk and Co...<br />
<br />
Anything badly out of alignment or grossly distorted must have merit - seems to be their<br />
first maxim . Their stuff is not vital or grotesque; but a disintegration, flaccid, stinking, and<br />
of lost meaning. They are necrophagous . Fortunately, this decay quickly dessicates and<br />
becomes the manure for something different. (For beauty, vitality and inventiveness in the<br />
chimerical, horrific, grotesque, etc., see the works of Bosch, Grunewald, Graf, Deutsch,<br />
Cranach, Breughel, Durer, Michaelangelo, and even Leonardo studies.)<br />
<br />
Let us have Art that we can look at twice; if not beautiful, something that stimulates<br />
towards an illusive significance, and in a style that does not involve the poster-artist's tricks<br />
for effectiveness - always the sensationalism out to arrest attention by kicking, or other<br />
means of shock. The most compellingly dynamic works I know are archaic - a static simplicity<br />
that is vital if not beautiful. Like my cat, I always judge a thing in this wise: is it true?<br />
(genetic or actual); can I breed from it?; does it smell good (to eat)? New idioms are easy<br />
and abundant, but ability . . . well, that's recollected.<br />
<br />
<b>On Reality</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Certain maudlin literati glibly assert the acceptance of reality as fullness and finality, and<br />
the 'surrealists ' just as glibly assert the opposite. But we are a kind of mental and actual<br />
symbiosis (with restless schisms). How much of reality should we accept and of what kind<br />
- for to accept the whole is impossible? There is a constant shuffling of the extrovertive and<br />
introvertive as reality or non-reality, and all values and levels are rejection of much more.<br />
I ask, which are the essential realities amongst those for which we strive? Also, our acceptances<br />
are well filtered, stultified by allergy and prejudice, devitalized by fears, cheese-paring,<br />
and often unacceptable to our inner 'as if imaginings. And what of the wayward and<br />
intrusive thoughts, ideas, vagaries and more subconscious chaos? Beginnings of things are<br />
deceptive, for ideas birth and rebirth to ultimate flesh, when shaped by utility. And what<br />
of our future uses? We know little of reality as such, so accept all things as potentials of a reality,<br />
even those we only feel and guess. If we could accept and stomach all things, some kind<br />
of Godhood would be nearer.<br />
<br />
<b>Thisness and Thatness</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Reality is explicable in terms of one principle (duality) in any single thing, ultimately in all<br />
things - abstract or concrete. One thing maketh another near-like thing, all with a constant<br />
factor of variability and inherent duality. The homogenous becomes heterogenous, then, a<br />
multiple individuation: therefore the ethos of anything is its potential for variability and<br />
individualism, unrelatedness a question of orientation, duration, place, quantity and quality.<br />
The resolution is the same - degrees of each other furthering individual Ego (as separating<br />
from the Universal) .<br />
<br />
Not-self is the least degree of self (i.e., the vastnesses of otherness are the hylic of creating<br />
Ego) .<br />
<br />
All contradictories have ground of synthesis in the 'mean of their ratio', i.e., inbetweenness<br />
is the spatial point: White, Grey, Black dimensionals and the terminology of both . But<br />
the<i> absolute idea</i> is prismatic, colourful, vivid, giving aesthetic veridity, and nearer syllogisms<br />
as: ultra-violet, prism, ultra-mauve is the designated structure which we constantly<br />
re-design (as harmony or not).<br />
<br />
What is unmanifest is absolute, what is manifest is reality, as all differentiations.<br />
Therefore all true analysis must be by co-ordination of contradictories.<br />
<br />
Man (scintillating and syntactically tessellated). Any two or more points (things) anywhere<br />
are alignable, eg., all manifest differences are communicative on an abstract axis<br />
(i.e., they intersect or join).<br />
<br />
For any enquiry or dissection of (human) existence we must first determine our altruistic<br />
purpose, which is: to experience fully phenomenal reality and acquire power of resolute<br />
choice of self-predestination, over-ride all failures and realize, by sufficient ability. Only by<br />
penetrating to fundamentals, to the primal unsoiled insights of man, may we resurrect a<br />
symbolic communion with sublated mind and the netherworld of the demiurges.<br />
<br />
Only by a brutal and destructive analysis of corrupt conventions, traditions and modalities<br />
as adversely affecting mentation, can we hope to reveal the primal sources, cohere pure<br />
apperception and apprehension, and revive genuine thought-forms (as philosophizing)<br />
which are now either buried, vanished, or over-ridden by spurious forms of hetero-zeteticism<br />
masquerading as prescience.<br />
<br />
Human reality is so structured that, superficially, it is immediately self-evident; further<br />
stripping reveals only the conative means. The really real has no structure that we know,<br />
thereby we must accept our psychosomatic and emotional structure as proxy (reality).<br />
<br />
From this equation we make our personal purpose, purely hedonistic with its dilemmas<br />
- if wise, an ethically felicitous altruism having relevance to the factors of <i>like and dislike</i>.<br />
As all significant, they determine our values, and ultimate values, and become forever our<br />
good and evil, because all things are algedonic and only differ in degree, frequency and<br />
duration, as mainly our concern with them. Our failure to find pleasure, and our fear of<br />
pain, becomes an apperceiving morass: frustrations become a jungle-growth of pretences,<br />
the 'inasmuch as', a respectability or hypogene and/or, and every Jackassery making pedagogy<br />
and successful failures.<br />
<br />
One predicament or inconsistency arises: that since pleasure is the main good, we should<br />
seek pleasure, and when so sought it is seldom found. E.g., all ends in themselves are self-defeating,<br />
therefore aesthetic and such values are the best forms of hedonism. Another<br />
manner of obtaining pleasure is to make the seeking (means) the pleasure, for whatever you<br />
thus find you may so make pleasurable. Likewise, pain is avoided by rejecting what produces<br />
it. All motivation is explained entirely in terms of desire for pleasure (however weird<br />
the forms) and aversion to pain. The pleasurable evaluates the useful and conative.<br />
Because it may 'work out' contra, is another predicament of our perspectives.<br />
<br />
Time is merely our duration of relationship with things and events, and space equally<br />
such a loose association.<br />
<br />
Measurement of space: lie on your back, close your eyes and revisualize any past event;<br />
then open your eyes suddenly and you will observe that the ceiling is an appreciable distance<br />
away. Hence, the nebula of Orion both rests on your shoulders and is equally millions of<br />
miles away.<br />
<br />
We constantly search to confirm our deviations and fallacies as truth, mainly by inhibitions.<br />
Whatever we can clothe with a degree of veracity, or simulate as real, shall become<br />
a form of reality at some appropriate time/place.<br />
<br />
Being dimensionally confined, we are baffled by space . . . yet in certain inspired and<br />
dream states the sense barriers appear to dissolve and we marvel at our late ignorance of<br />
space. Yet there is no mystery, a simple equation! Many times it has been made rational to<br />
me and on awakening I have worked out a correct mathematical formula which, for a time,<br />
appears understandable and true; then the meaning vanishes and I am left with either an <i>ad</i><br />
<i>absurdum</i>, an uninterpretable formula, or the usual <i>circulus in probando</i>, thus:<br />
<br />
Any part has the potentiality of the whole, therefore the whole is plus all particulars as possibilities, both <i>ad infinitum</i>. (Briefly, anything is everything - as potentiality.)<br />
<br />
The 'whole' we partially discern and conceive is manifest as physically pulverized, confluxing<br />
and cohering, making apparent increase to create diverse differences, and, when<br />
sufficient, forms entity. There cometh a constant separating and rejoining, ever seeking<br />
new form and forms. This menagerie of past forms becomes our prescient heritage: there<br />
appears a designer's hand with affection for summation, epitome and synopsis, with a<br />
unique index of what shall activate most . . . everyone lives under such a selected predestinating<br />
'Totemic' influence.<br />
<br />
Apparently, the Absolute we may conceive transcendentally - it first pulverizes as itself<br />
refracted sensually for every dimensional diversity. The eternal alogical law would seem to<br />
be " . . . do as you please as long as it is different . . . ". But man, forsooth, is addicted to moralities<br />
and whether guised as ideologies or religion is rotten with good and evil . Man forever<br />
indirectly punishes himself by breaking his <i>own</i> laws. Think what you will, one cannot<br />
break or disobey natural laws, or achieve the absurdity of conquering oneself or the flesh .<br />
Only a fool forces a machine; control your body by guiding gently as you would a wayward<br />
child; non-resistance may be more sensible. When I have empathy with earth and flesh,<br />
then, maybe, my will and desire become of supreme importance.<br />
<br />
<b>Spiritists Say -</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Spiritists say: "The inner being conquers the outer" (meaning body) . Such absurd statements<br />
are typical of Eastern nominalism. There is no 'mind versus body' - no civil war.<br />
The waywardness of the Ids, our emotional instability, are permitted by the mind and<br />
essential to the life-force. They may be disciplined, transferred, changed, or occulted for a<br />
while, but never conquered or destroyed. Control is a social ability, not a total abstinence,<br />
or creation would cease - Nature's suicide ! What is body? A vast experience, veritable strata<br />
of wisdom from our many past forms made implicit and organic and formed by mind<br />
and all inner states. Is it more than quixotic that mind needs destroy its own processes and<br />
media? No, there is a vast co-operation with mind constantly rectifying the body for further<br />
expression. As men, we express more than our birdform, etc . All emancipation will be<br />
by and through the body, for the body is the house and means of mind, nourished by all<br />
outwaynesses: soul, God, stars - all contribute to the miracle of flesh.<br />
<br />
Redouble your belief by fastening on to "I, eternal I as body", and the rest phantasmagorically<br />
- mind, soul, God.<br />
<br />
<b>Sword Dance of the 'Ids' in a decaying World</b><br />
<br />
Purpose and virtue of life: first to summarize some of the difficulties of our early and most<br />
sentient period in that it creates our fears and allergies. Our 'Ids' at birth are wild, and like<br />
other arboreal products, are amoral, virile as weeds and respond equally to good or evil,<br />
with more possibilities for evil . They are malleable by direction, discipline and transference,<br />
never by abuse or suppression (the garden of our 'Ids' must be the travesty of horticulture)<br />
<br />
In addition, we inherit a basic pattern from our chromosomes and genes which is<br />
our essential individuality and also rectifiable. And there is the most potent of all - 'environment',<br />
which includes parents and everything associative and inflicted upon us at that<br />
period. Whether environment is good or bad it is our inescapable Nemesis: all our early<br />
controls are forged and forced on us from it. These three fundamentals are in constant<br />
impact creating experiences, forming our complexities, frustrations, desires, good, evil, hate,<br />
temperament, character and the direction of our individuality, ethics and principles. So amid<br />
this unrhythmic gyration our early life is usually chancy. After the dangerous transition from<br />
adolescence comes the opportunity to break or not the harness of these controls. We have<br />
paid to cross another threshold; some quizzically, some half-awake, most with the ideals of<br />
a <i>maquereau,</i> enter and . . . here a lengthy etcetera must serve as we all know the sequences<br />
(e.g., our own) . Later we shape our orbit to some ambition, ideal or desire: more or less<br />
form judgements from experiences, knowledge and those things that serve us best ... we feel<br />
the piking finger of "I am I", a sort of psychic masturbation: we grasp at things and find<br />
every frustration and we seek escape in every kind of illusion and sedative, instead of self reformation and virtue in behaviour. And there is always the band-wagon, manufactured<br />
pleasure, thinking done for you: this permeating miasma of the 'ready-made ' and its noisy<br />
<i>spielers,</i> few entirely escape. <br /><br />Forsooth, all these factors are part of our Destiny, predetermined from our previous life. Why moan so much, when we can lead a full life . . . whether as labourer or craftsman - there is no greater virtue than to work hard at something for which one is well suited - there is no better service to yourself and others -<br />
than to enjoy<br />
your leisure your own way, making or seeking your own amenities: generate your own truth<br />
and worth without argument, i.e., without forcing them on others or allowing others to<br />
inflict theirs on you. But this is a mad world to awake in: robbed of your birthright, freedom<br />
measured out, misapplied and seldom trained for our rightful work . . . sickeningly I could<br />
go on. This present top-heavy and officious hierarchy with more parasites than ever<br />
before . . . is already showing cracks, its feet of clay, without intelligence of its own - one<br />
good shove will see the end. When the intelligent cease to sell their ability to unworthy<br />
causes individuality will come into its own . And these saviours, prophets, atheists, nihilists<br />
etc . , are useless: they are so entirely self-deceived, such supreme egotists that they really<br />
believe that only by the extension of their careerism and ideologies can good accrue to<br />
others! To hell with their heavens and their miserable bargainings . . . and the atheists, for I<br />
have forgotten more than they could digest. Let them save themselves . . . On different days<br />
I am different . . . even deny my denials; but sometimes I am blessed, to some extent intoxicate<br />
myself, and draw nearer to Gods and Soul than these spielers ever were. Here, an<br />
intrusive voice whispers, "What about a good strong woman to finish off?" Ah, yes ! I was<br />
forgetting the priceless warmth of flesh. Therefore lead me to the best tavern - I know<br />
nothing finer: every drink shall be a libation to a better Earth . . . our need is for improvers :<br />
a constant rectification . . . and an ever open eye.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Commination & Valediction</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
My friends, a word allow me: Many moons ago I spoke thus, saying <i>I accept all things, </i>that<br />
<i>the final conclusion is that there is no conclusion, </i>that<i> reality is your only truth</i> and that he who<br />
be-lives his truth can create a reality, that <i>the impact of flesh is all consciousness</i>, that <i>pleasure</i><br />
<i>has no fear,</i> that <i>life and death are the same realities</i> (today is yesterday's rebirth and death the<br />
great pregnancy for tomorrow's life), that <i>no man knoweth anything,</i> for there is no 'absolute<br />
collective' . This is the beginning of Wisdom for <i>your</i> Inceptor knows all life . To become<br />
your reality is also the means to the Ideal . Know this also: Who knew not before he knows<br />
- has less when he knows . Enough - is too much! Let me reiterate :<br />
<br />
<i>"I believe in the flesh</i> 'as now' and forever . . . for <i>I am the light, the truth, the law, the way,</i><br />
and none shall come unto <i>anything</i> except through the impact of flesh on reality!<br />
<br />
Did I not show you the eclectic path between ecstasies, that precarious funambulatory<br />
way? - But you had no spunk, were tired and fearful . . . awake I say! Dehypnotize yourselves<br />
from the rotten idioms you be-live and be-lie. For the great Noontide is here, the great bell<br />
has struck . . . let others await involuntary immolation, the forced redemption so certain for<br />
those coprophagists. Now, this day I ask you to search your memories, for consciousness is<br />
impact, a nostalgia from a previous experience - is desire and consummation, is life, i.e.,<br />
consciousness. The Inceptor of all memories is your Soul. Again remember! <i>Life is desire,</i><br />
<i>death its rebuilding. Life is eternal and there is sleep."</i><br />
<br />
That I should have loved you! I, the Pan-Enanthroposist, a Narcissus who thought you<br />
a looking-glass; that you were my brothers! But when I look at you I see such a vast endemonism<br />
of myself, a substantiated stench, a visual presentation of emotional ugliness and<br />
no vestige of the humane - I am amazed and non-plussed, for there is so much I would<br />
destroy . . . too much to reconcile. Ideals seem remote and become imperative. Your Ids<br />
have triumphed!<br />
<br />
So let me pass on. There can be no following, for except through some phenomenal<br />
debacle I see no reformation or recomposition. Such a dramatic change would need a<br />
magic that could instantly change the very protozoa into men: then, having such magic,<br />
neither would I waste nor abuse the powers . Time must change you: you have no worth<br />
except destructively; the mind has tired of you . You were given great potentialities towards<br />
pleasure and virtue! You have squandered all in your greed and inexhaustible vandalism -<br />
now the world is almost a bloody muck-heap . So, farewell my brothers, keep hating yourselves.<br />
I make path towards the beasts . . . until I make <i>my</i> form of death.<br />
<br />
<b>The Conclusions Of Zos delivered to his other Selves</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I believe in the life; in the flesh of infinite variety. We are eternity, with - as now - a fleeting<br />
and fluxing consciousness. Possibilities of being are limitless, because there is no total<br />
of experience or memory. Our potentialities are within this all-spaciousness, reined in by<br />
dimensionals and senses.<br />
<br />
I believe in Ego as our full-known stature; in Will, Desire, Belief, Values, Principles; in<br />
Beauty, Art, Virtue, Equity, Ideals and much else; in Man and all his paraphernalia and<br />
incongruities; in the not-knowing in all knowledge; in my own incomprehensibility; ever<br />
complete - never complete .<br />
<br />
I believe in Ego unbegotten and always present . . .<br />
<br />
And they interrupted him saying: "Lord, you once told us that you always thrust your<br />
penis into every possible desirability. We did likewise and are now satiated, diseased and<br />
prematurely old in spite of aphrodisiacs, unguents and medicines : O' Lord, in what is there<br />
to believe that will save us?"<br />
<br />
And he answered them: " Once I did so speak, but never asked you to do likewise, nor<br />
that it was the whole purpose of life; each man to his own meat and drink. Better to go<br />
astray than to follow. For my pleasures I willingly pay - do you? Now here is a simple way<br />
of life within the moral codes: I teach polygonic truth, so accept all things as <i>reality</i>; but as<br />
you cannot swallow the ocean, then accept by 'as if . <i>You</i> are the greatest reality, therefore<br />
believe deeply of yourself or whatever you find acceptable and natural, and the Gods will<br />
believe in you."<br />
<br />
"Strive to become <i>man,</i> for the fullness of manhood has not yet been reached, and is<br />
more urgently necessary than ever. Cut the navel-cord, free yourself from the womb, and<br />
your Soul will give you your virtue and your genius. Finally, know that everything begotten<br />
by you, and in you, is by unities with otherness to further your individuality. Your sincerity<br />
will bestow reality. Pleasure shall be our respite from service to others, ourselves and<br />
the Gods. There is no greater pleasure than the mutual; <i>reciprocity is my law."</i><br />
<br />Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-58169473682979193502016-01-20T22:27:00.001-07:002016-01-20T22:28:11.397-07:00Occult Priesthood by Our Pope of PestilenceMagical, Mystical & Religious enterprises seek to fulfill five basic human needs, which can be identified as follows:<br /><br />
<i>To provide techniques of Emotional Engineering. </i><br />
<i>To give life a sense of Meaning.</i><br />
<i>To provide some means of Intercession or Intervention.</i><br />
<i>To supply an explanation of Death.</i><br />
<i>To formulate a Social Structure or Cult.</i><br /><br />
These needs are deeply interrelated and many religions, and particularly many political philosophies, do not attempt to deal with them all. Finding a solution to some of the problems may make it less urgent to solve others. An occult priest should be capable of dealing with all of these issues. Let us consider how he might tackle each one and contrast his methods with those of the more orthodox systems.<br /><b><br /></b><br />
<b>Emotional Engineering</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This includes all practices designed to stimulate or control emotional states. Exaltation in prayer and song, contrition and guilt for imagined sins, fear and anguish at the specter of divine anger, and joy at the prospect of divine reward.<br /><br />
In our culture, a correlation between a fall-off in religion and an increase in the use of mood-altering drugs is very marked. The greatest threat to religion, however, is entertainment. The new power of the entertainment media to supply us with everything from joy to terror has usurped many of the functions of the priest.<br /><br />
There is a refreshing honesty about secular entertainment; it's just entertainment without the excuse of spirituality for its justification. It is still, however, manipulative.<br /><br />If the priest wishes to put himself into or out of any
emotional state, then he should be provided with the techniques
to accomplish this. The process requires no justification — that
he wills it is sufficient. One cannot escape emotional experience
in a human incarnation, and it is preferable to adopt a master
rather than a slave relationship to it. The priest should be
capable of instructing anyone in the procedures of emotional
engineering. The main methods are the gnostic ones of casting
oneself into a frenzied ecstasy, stilling the mind to a point of
absolute quiescence, and evoking the laughter of the gods by
combining laughter with the contemplation of paradox.
<br /><br />Anyone who masters these techniques fully has achieved a
tremendous power over himself more valuable than health, love,
fame, or riches. He has set himself free from the effects of the
world; nothing can touch him unless he wills it. As it has been
said, the sage who knows how can live comfortably in hell.
<br /><br /><b>Meaning</b>
<br /><br />Meaning is motivation. Anything which gives rise to physical and
mental behavior of any kind is providing meaning. Thus the body
is the source of many basic meanings in this world. Pain, pleasure,
hunger, sexuality, and so on provide an impetus to action and
hence a source of meaning. Once the organism has solved these
problems, other more subtle motivations arise on the mental
level — desire for knowledge and power, and emotional gratification
of all kinds. Beyond this the organism may seek higher level
purposes which have been called "spiritual," and some there
are who seek the meaning of meaning itself.<br /><br />To question any level of meaning with reason is usually to
loose it. Meaning arises from the differentiation of experience into
pain and pleasure, good and evil, interesting and uninteresting,
beautiful and ugly, worthwhile and not worthwhile. Experiences
are only meaningful when we are sensitive to them. We can only
perceive difference. Ideas are only meaningful when we can
appreciate their separateness and novelty. Spirituality only arises
when we begin to consider some things non-spiritual. Meaning is
dependent on establishing dualities, and belief is fundamentally an act of differentiation — considering one thing different from
another. So ideas which create meaning for us must be conditional
beliefs. For example, certain knowledge about God, whether it
was yes or no, or certainty about everlasting life, either yes or no,
would completely destroy any meaning in these ideas. If this were
absolutely believed to be everlasting heaven or hell with no
escape, there would be no reason to care about anything.
<br /><br />Reason is therefore destructive of meaning when it seeks
unconditional and absolute answers. In this context it is probably
more prudent to stay the hand of suicide and ask if reason is not
somewhat out of phase with the nature of existence.
<br /><br />The ascetic mystic and the occult magician adopt different stances
toward their respective existences. The ascetic mystic conceives a
vast differentation between the material and the spiritual. He
then attempts to withdraw meaning from the material so that he
can put in into the spiritual. Withdrawing meaning from the
material seems a bizarre exercise, but there is an inner logic to it.
He seeks indifference to sex, indifference to hunger, to pleasure,
and to pain, indeed to everything that motivates normal men. In
return a whole world of what he calls spiritual experiences opens
up for him. His dreams, his acts of devotion, and his inner
thoughts become charged with meaning.
<br /><br />For those who devise or believe in religions, it is necessary to
erect conceptions on a cosmic scale to provide a source of
reference and meaning. Invariably the highest principle must be
paradoxical or contain some duality. Either the ultimate principle
must actually consist of two opposed principles or there must be
some sort of fall from the ultimate. The paradoxes of religion are
unquestionable and can only be interpreted on a hierarchical
basis. Religions are innately repressive and conservative. Only
heresy and schism permit any evolution of ideas. Much of the
meaning in religion derives from authority-and-obedience relationships;
hence most religions exist only as social phenomena. Private
religion inevitably evolves into mysticism or magic, and these
have a tendency to devolve into new religions.
<br /><br />The occult magician does not conceive of such a vast gulf between
spirit and matter. To him they are both part of the same thing, and
he exalts neither above the other. He rejects no part of his experience. The magician lives in a continuum beginning with
the sublime and ineffable Tao/God/Chaos/Kia through the mysterious
and subtle Aethers to the awesome and strange material world. To
the magician, any piece of knowledge, any new power, any opportunity
for enlightenment is worth having for its own sake. The
only thing abhorred in this incredible existence is failure to come
to grips with some part of it. To be able to operate in all spheres,
the magician must master the art of either acting without belief or
of being able to invest belief temporarily in anything with which
he is experimenting. The occult magician should be equally at home with
a crozier, a paintbrush, a test tube, or a wand. In all things he is
seeking to bring his Tao/God/Chaos/Kia into manifestation; for him life is its own
answer, and the way he lives it is his spirituality.
<br /><br />It is senseless to ask grand and unspecific questions about life
and the universe in general, because for an answer we can only
invent hypothetical states of not-life or not-universe. The universe
as it exists is a fantastic and magical place itself, and life is a
mystery whose depth can never be exhausted. It is only when man
does not pay enough attention to the totality of what is going on
around him every second that he is tempted to invent spurious
theories to cover his lack of knowledge. For the occult magician, that
lack of knowledge is the ultimate source of meaning. The true
priest is one who can communicate this sense of mystery.
<br /><br /><b>Intercession
</b><br /><br />All religions have some method of affecting reality, or of
encouraging some god to affect reality, or of merely giving the
appearance that they are doing these things. As a religion becomes
more institutionalized and orthodox, there is less and less emphasis
on this type of activity, and for good reason. Magic is a very
anarchic business. Some people have a greater gift for it than
others and sometimes it fails. Most priests who become adept at it
would soon realize it was their own psychic power at work and not
that of a god. Such priests who became adept would soon attract a
huge following and usurp and disorder the clerical hierarchy. All
orthodoxies tend to frown on its use for this reason, and also
because they might not themselves be able to deliver on demand.
<br /><br />The religions' answer is to involve the congregation in a
half-hearted attempt at intercession, and then be ready with the catchphrase, "It was not god's will," in the event of failure. One
might well ask, if god is going to do his will anyway, surely he does
not require a cue from us?
<br /><br />The approach of the priest is entirely different when
he leads his order or coven in magical activity. There is a high
probability of failure because they may not be able to raise sufficient
power and they may not be doing exactly what is required.
Everyone will be aware of this. In this situation they have to act
with total commitment and without the slightest trace of lust of
result. Everything possible must be done on the physical plane to
set up the conditions of success beforehand, and then the magic is
hurled in to tip the balance. To have given one's utmost is enough
in itself. The result can be awaited without fear or desire and
received with laughter, whatever it may be.
<br /><br /><b>Death
</b><br /><br />The difference between ideas and beliefs is that ideas may be true
but beliefs are always false. That may seem a monstrous thing to
say, but I offer it as a definition. What separates an idea from a
belief is the emotional force committed to upholding the belief. If
something were really true for us, we would not have to make an
effort to believe it. <br /><br />All beliefs about death have one other
characteristic apart from their inherent improbability and falsity.
They have to be conditional. That is to say, they have to contain
both heaven and hell, or both pleasant and unpleasant reincarnations.
Consider a scheme in which one was destined for either
everlasting heaven or everlasting hell or for either total extinction
or perpetual existence as a totally disembodied spirit without the
organs of will or sense. Or consider a certain knowledge that one's
next incarnation could not be affected by events in this life. <br /><br />As
beliefs, these things would be quite useless and unsatisfying. This
reveals beliefs about death for what they mostly are, devices to
create emotional effects in this life. The priest should
abstain from adding anything to this necrotic heap. Rather he
should devote his talents to showing people what death is like.
Necromancy is something of a dying art these days, largely because
it has been widely abused by those who are merely telepathic with
the living and/or who want their money. Nevertheless those who have directly seen or spoken to the dead have a certainty of
something beyond faith. The single experience of having left one's
body for a time is worth more than any belief, and it is the only
useful preparation for death. The experience is reasonably accessible
to any determined person.
<br /><br /><b>Social Structure
</b><br /><br />Any human enterprise involving more than one individual will
exhibit some form of social structure from complete hierarchy to
apparent democracy. The dynamics of assorted cults, cabals, and
religions are instructive of the various ways in which magical
orders ought, and ought not to be, organized.
<br /><br />In a religion, hierarchy is of paramount importance and is
effectively an object of worship itself, though this would never be
openly stated. To enslave their followers, hierarchs represent
themselves as the emissaries of higher powers or "the teaching" or
whatever, but not as the thing itself. This is analogous to troops
saluting not the officer but the commission he wears on his breast.
The end result is the same, but it does help to overcome the ego
resistance involved in one person submitting to the will of another.
<br /><br /> Once such an assymetric relationship has been established, it
readily perpetuates itself. The priest or leader is permitted to pass
personal comments on his followers. These do not even need to be
especially perceptive. They need only be the sort of things one's
friends wouldn't say to one's face, plus a few things one would like
to hear and suddenly the guru appears the wisest man on earth.
<br /><br />Another gambit of religious and political organizations is to
force a re-rationalization of beliefs through action. People are not
persuaded into belief intellectually. They are persuaded to perform
religious acts in childhood or while under stress. Afterward they
develop or accept the rationalizations and opinions that go with it.
To convert a man to anarchism, persuade him to throw a bomb for
various romantic emotional reasons. He will subsequently have to
adjust his beliefs to justify what he has done. The most successful
organizations are those that plunge potential converts straight into action. Obedience follows a similar pattern. At first only the
smallest and most inconsequential obediences will be demanded.
These force the rationalization that one is in fact loyal to whatever
one is giving one's obedience to. This loyalty is but a stepping
stone to greater acts of submission, usually of one's intelligence,
wallet, and sexual favors.
<br /><br />Leader-follower relationships also allow the leader to license
his followers to act without responsibility. The natural inhibitions
to displays of violence, sexuality, and other emotionalities can
easily be over-ridden if the leader tells his followers to do these
things. They will often thank him for letting them do what they
have always had a desire to do.
Secrecy and elitism characterize all hierarchies. There is
nothing wrong with being elite or having real secrets, as such, but
most cults rely heavily on artificial elites and manufacture secrecy
as a means of enticement and control. Accepting that elites exist
and keeping secrets are acts of obedience themselves. Membership
within an elite and a degree of megalomania are among the
licenses leaders can confer upon followers. To this end most cults
reinforce their collective identity with standards of dress and
behavior and all manner of badges, insignia, and labels. These
often assume as much importance as the actual activities of the
cult. People are easily tricked into accepting membership in a
large group as a substitute for enlarging themselves.
<br /><br />The activities of cults would seem to presuppose a high degree
of cynicism among their leaders. This is rarely so. Most have
swallowed their own lies and deceptions totally, or else rationalized
them in terms of an even higher cause. As a result, their
burning obsession equips them with a certain charisma which puts
fire in their eyes and inflames their speech. And what is the end
result of all this cultish activity?
<br /><br /><u>Commercialism or a Police Raid</u>: A cult either man<span style="font-family: inherit;">ages to turn
itself into a harmless institution or it becomes progressively more
extremist until the state decides to smash it. A genuine Order will be engaged in psychic guerrilla warfare against all </span>black
cults and religions including materialist philosophies. In such a cult every man is his own priest. Any member has the right to
teach any other member anything he knows. No member has the
right to claim any secret within the Order beyond the secret of his
own identity if he wishes it.
<br /><br />Unlike cults and religions, a genuine Order will not admit
people on a number-for-its-own sake basis. Vitality can only be
maintained by quality control at the intake. Whatever hierarchy
arises within an Order will be a reflection of demonstrable ability.
Attempts to use the various tricks of the teacher enumerated in
this section will be immediately spotted and ridiculed. There is
only one justification for the existence of a genuine Order — to enable individuals to take control of their own
spirituality. And that is a very heroic and dangerous objective.
Watch out for the Police Raid. Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-28902193418060958322014-08-06T13:38:00.001-06:002014-08-06T15:40:27.402-06:00On The Absolute & Bagels - A Collection of Writings Examining the Infinite Hypersphere, the Centre of Which = Everywhere, and the Circumference Nowhere by Borges<h2>
Pascal's Sphere</h2>
<br />
Perhaps universal history is the history of a few metaphors. I should like to sketch one chapter of that history.<br />
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Six centuries before the Christian era Xenophanes of Colophon, the rhapsodist, weary of the Homeric verses he recited from city to city, attacked the poets who attributed anthropomorphic traits do the gods; the substitute he proposed to the Greeks was a single God: an eternal sphere. In Plato’s Timaeus we read that the sphere is the most perfect and most uniform shape, because all points in its surface are equidistant from the center. Olof Gigon (Ursprung der griechischen Philosophie, 183) says that Xenophanes shared that belief; the God was spheroid, because that form was the best, or the least bad, to serve as a representation of the divinity. Forty years later, Parmenides of Elea repeated the image (“Being is like the mass of a well-rounded sphere, whose force is constant from the center in any direction”). Calogero and Mondolfo believe that he envisioned an infinite, or infinitely growing sphere, and that those words have a dynamic meaning (Albertelli, Gli Eleati, 148). Parmenides taught in Italy; a few years after he died, the Sicilian Empedocles of Agrigentum plotted a laborious cosmogony, in one section of which the particles of earth, air, fire, and water compose an endless sphere, “the round Sphairos, which rejoices in its circular solitude.”<br />
<br />
Universal history followed its course. The too-human gods attacked by Xenophanes were reduced to poetic fictions or to demons, but it was said that one god, Hermes Trismegistus, had dictated a variously estimated number of books (42, according to Clement of Alexandria; 20,000, according to Iamblichus; 36,525, according to the priests of Thoth, who is also Hermes), on whose pages all things were written. Fragments of that illusory library, compiled or forged since the third century, form the so-called Hermetica. In one part of the Asclepius, which was also attributed to Trismegistus, the twelfth-century French theologian, Alain de Lille - Alanus de Insulis - discovered this formula, which future generations would not forget: “God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” The Pre-Socratic spoke of an endless sphere; Albertelli (like Aristotle before him) thinks that such a statement is a contradictio in adjecto, because the subject and predicate negate each other. Possibly so, but the formula of the Hermetic books almost enables us to envisage that sphere. In the thirteenth century the image reappeared in the symbolic Roman de la Rose, which attributed it to Plato, and in the Speculum Triplex encyclopedia. In the sixteenth century the last chapter of the last book of Pantagruel referred to “that intellectual sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere, which we call God.” For the medieval mind, the meaning was clear: God is in each one of his creatures, but it not limited by anyone of them. “Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee,” said Solomon (I Kings 8:27). The geometrical metaphor of the sphere must have seemed like a gloss of those words.<br />
<br />
Dante’s poem has preserved Ptolemaic astronomy, which ruled men’s imaginations for fourteen hundred years. The earth is the center of the universe. It is an immovable sphere, around which nine concentric spheres revolve. The first seven are the planetary heavens (the heavens of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn); the eighth, the Heaven of Fixed Stars; the ninth, the Crystalline Heaven (called the Primum Mobile), surrounded by the Empyrean, which is made of light. That whole laborious array of hollow, transparent, and revolving spheres (one system required fifty-five) had come to a mental necessity. De hypothesibus motuum coelestium commentariolus was the timid title that Copernicus, the disputer of Aristotle, gave to the manuscript that transformed our vision of the cosmos. For one man, Giordano Bruno, the breaking of the sidereal vaults was a liberation. In La cena de le ceneri he proclaimed that the world was the infinite effect of an infinite cause and the divinity was near, “because it is in us even more than we ourselves are in us.” He searched for the words that would explain Copernican space to mankind, and on one famous page he wrote: “We can state with certainty that the universe is all center, or that the center of the universe is everywhere and the circumference nowhere” ( De la causa, principio e uno, V).<br />
<br />
That was written exultantly in 1584, still in the light of the Renaissance; seventy years later not one spark of that fervor remained and men felt lost in time and space. In time, because if the future and the past are infinite, there will not really be a when; in space, because if every being is equidistant from the infinite and the infinitesimal, there will not be a where. No one exists on a certain day, in a certain place; no one knows the size of his face. In the Renaissance humanity thought it had reached adulthood, and it said as much through the mouths of Bruno, Campanella, and Bacon. In the seventeenth century humanity was intimidated by a feeling of old age; to vindicate itself it exhumed the belief of a slow and fatal degeneration of all creatures because of Adam’s sin. (In Genesis 5:27 we read that “all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years”; in 6:4, that “There were giants in the earth in those days.”) The elegy Anatomy of the World, by John Donne, deplored the very brief lives and the slight stature of contemporary men, who could be likened to fairies and dwarfs. According to Johnson’s biography, Milton feared that an epic genre had become impossible on earth. Glanvill thought that Adam, God’s medal, enjoyed a telescopic and microscopic vision. Robert South wrote, in famous words, that an Aristotle was merely the wreckage of Adam, and Athens, the rudiments of Paradise. In that jaded century the absolute space that inspired the hexameters of Lucretius, the absolute space that had been a liberation for Bruno, was a labyrinth and an abyss for Pascal. He hated the universe, and yearned to adore God. But God was less real to him than the hated universe. He was sorry that the firmament could not speak; he compared our lives to those of shipwrecked men on a desert island. He felt the incessant weight of the physical world; he felt confused, afraid, and alone; and he expressed his feelings like this: “It [nature] is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.” That is the text of the Brunschvicg edition, but the critical edition of Tourneur (Paris, 1941), which reproduces the cancellations and the hesitations of the manuscript, reveals that Pascal started to write effroyable: “A frightful sphere, the center of which is everywhere, and the circumference nowhere.”<br />
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Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of a few metaphors.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Everything And Nothing<br /></h2>
There was no one in him; behind his face (which even in the poor paintings of the period is unlike any other) and his words, which were copious, imaginative, and emotional, there was nothing but a little chill, a dream not dreamed by anyone. At first he thought everyone was like him, but the puzzled look on a friend’s face when he remarked on that emptiness told him he was mistaken and convinced him forever that an individual must not differ from his species. Occasionally he thought he would find in books the cure for his ill, and so he learned the small Latin and less Greek of which a contemporary was to speak. Later he thought that in the exercise of an elemental human rite he might well find what he sought, and he let himself be initiated by Anne Hathaway one long June afternoon. At twenty-odd he went to London. Instinctively, he had already trained himself in the habit of pretending that he was someone, so it would not be discovered that he was no one. In London he hit upon the profession to which he was predestined, that of the actor, who plays on stage at being someone else. His playacting taught him a singular happiness, perhaps the first he had known; but when the last line was applauded and the last corpse removed from the stage, the hated sense of unreality came over him again. He ceased to be Ferrex or Tamburlaine and again became a nobody. Trapped, he fell to imagining other heroes and other tragic tales. Thus, while in London’s bawdyhouses and taverns his body fulfilled its destiny as body, the soul that dwelled in it was Caesar, failing to heed the augurer’s admonition, and Juliet, detesting the lark, and Macbeth, conversing on the heath with the witches, who are also the fates. Nobody was ever as many men as that man, who like the Egyptian Proteus managed to exhaust all the possible shapes of being. At times he slipped into some corner of his work a confession, certain that it would not be deciphered; Richard affirms that in his single person he plays many parts, and Iago says with strange words, “I am not what I am.” His passages on the fundamental identity of existing, dreaming, and acting are famous.<br />
<br />
Twenty years he persisted in that controlled hallucination, but one morning he was overcome by the surfeit and the horror of being so many kings who die by the sword and so many unhappy lovers who converge, diverge, and melodiously agonize. That same day he disposed of his theater. Before a week was out he had returned to the village of his birth, where he recovered the trees and the river of his childhood; and he did not bind them to those others his muse had celebrated, those made illustrious by mythological allusions and Latin phrases. He had to be someone; he became a retired impresario who has made his fortune and who interests himself in loans, lawsuits, and petty usury. In this character he dictated the arid final will and testament that we know, deliberately excluding from it every trace of emotion and of literature. Friends from London used to visit his retreat, and for them he would take on again the role of poet.<br />
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The story goes that, before or after he died, he found himself before God and he said: “I, who have been so many men in vain, want to be one man: myself.” The voice of God replied from a whirlwind: “Neither am I one self; I dreamed the world as you dreamed your work, my Shakespeare, and among the shapes of my dream are you, who, like me, are many persons—and none.”<br />
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<h2>
From Someone to Nobody</h2>
In the beginning, God is the Gods (Elohim), a plural that some believe implies majesty and others plenitude, and which some have thought is an echo of earlier polytheisms or a prefiguring of the doctrine, declared in Nicaea, that God is One and is Three. Elohim takes a singular verb; the first verse of the Law says, literally: "In the beginning the Gods [He] created the heaven and the earth." Despite the vagueness this plural suggests, Elohim is concrete; God is called "Jehovah" and we read that He walked in the garden in, as the English versions say, "the cool of the day." Human qualities define Him; in one part of the Scriptures we read: "And it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart"; and in another, " For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God"; and in another, "In the fire of My wrath have I spoken." The subject of such locutions is indisputably Someone, a corporal Someone whom the centuries will magnify and blur. His titles vary: "Strength of Jacob," "Rock of Israel," "I Am That I Am," "God of the Armies," "King of Kings." This last-which no doubt conversely inspired Gregory the Great's "Servant of the Servants of God"-is, in the original text, a superlative of "king": as Fray Luis de Le6n writes, "It is a property of the Hebrew language to use the same word twice when one wants to emphasize something, either favorably or unfavorably. Thus, to say 'Song of Songs' is the same as our 'A Song among Songs' or 'he is a man among men,' that is, famous and eminent among all and more excellent than many others." In the first centuries of our era, theologians began to use the prefix omni, which previously had been reserved for adjectives pertaining to nature or Jupiter; they coined words like omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, which make of God a respectful chaos of unimaginable superlatives. That nomenclature, like the others, seems to limit the divinity: at the end of the fifth century, the unknown author of the Corpus Dionysiacum declares that no affirmative predicate is fitting for God. Nothing should be affirmed of Him, everything can be denied. Schopenhauer notes dryly: "That theology is the only true one, but it has no content." Written in Greek, the tracts and letters that make up the Corpus Dionysiacum find a reader in the ninth century who puts them into Latin: John Erigena or Scotus, that is, John the Irishman, whose name in history is Scotus Erigena, or Irish Irish. He formulates a doctrine of a pantheistic nature: particular things are theophanies (revelations or appearances of the divine) and behind them is God, who is the only reality, "but who does not know what He is, because He is not a what, and is incomprehensible to Himself and to all intelligence." He is not sapient, He is more than sapient; He is not good, He is more than good; He inscrutably exceeds and repels all attributes. John the Irishman, to define Him, used the word nihilum, which is nothingness; God<br />
is the primordial nothingness of the creatio ex nihilo, the abyss where first the archetypes and then concrete beings were engendered. He is Nothing and Nobody; those who imagined Him in this way did so in the belief that this was more than being a What or a Who. Similarly, Shankara teaches that all mankind, in a deep sleep, is the universe, is God.<br />
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The process I have illustrated is not, of course, aleatory. A magnification to nothingness occurs or tends to occur in all cults; we may observe it unmistakably in the case of Shakespeare. His contemporary, Ben Jonson, loves him "on this side of Idolatry"; Dryden declares that he is the Homer of the dramatic poets of England, but admits that he is often insipid and pompous; the discursive eighteenth century attempts to appraise his virtues and rebuke his faults; in 1774, Maurice Morgann states that King Lear and Falstaff are nothing but modifications of the mind of their inventor; at the beginning of the nineteenth century that opinion is recreated by Coleridge, for whom Shakespeare is no longer a man but a literary variation of the infinite God of Spinoza. Shakespeare as an individual person, he wrote, was a natura naturata, an effect, but "the universal which is potentially in each particular opened out to him . . . not as an abstraction of observation from a variety of men, but as the substance capable of endless modifications, of which his own personal existence was but one." Hazlitt corroborated or confirmed this: "He was just like any other man, but that he was unlike other men. He was nothing in himself, but he was all that others were, or that could become." Later, Hugo compared him to the ocean, which is the seedbed of all possible forms.<br />
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To be something is inexorably not to be all the other things; the confused intuition of this truth has induced mankind to imagine that being nothing is more than being something and is, in some way, to be every thing. This fallacy is inherent in the words of that legendary king of India who renounces power and goes out to beg in the streets: "From this day forward I have no realm or my realm is limitless, from this day forward my body does not belong to me or all the earth belongs to me." Schopenhauer has written that history is an interminable and perplexing dream of human generations; in the dream there are recurring forms, perhaps nothing but forms; one of them is the process reported on this page.<br />
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<br />Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-20918479872050687002014-07-14T23:32:00.001-06:002014-07-14T23:32:57.732-06:00When speaking on different subjects.... by The Tiger of The Turkestan<br />
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<br />
<br />
When speaking on different subjects, I have noticed how difficult it is to pass on one's understanding, even of the most ordinary subject and to a person well known to me. Our language is too poor for full and exact descriptions. Later I found that this lack of understanding between one man and another is a<br />
mathematically ordered phenomenon as precise as the multiplication table. It depends in general on the so-called "psyche" of the people concerned, and in particular on the state of their psyche at any given moment.<br />
<br />
The truth of this law can be verified at every step. In order to be understood by another man, it is not only necessary for the speaker to know how to speak but for the listener to know how to listen. This is why I can say that if I were to speak in a way I consider exact, everybody here, with very few exceptions, would think I was crazy. But since at present I have to speak to my audience as it is, and my audience will have to listen to me, we must first establish the possibility of a common understanding.<br />
<br />
In the course of our talk we must gradually mark the sign posts of a productive conversation. All I wish to suggest now is that you try to look at things and phenomena around you, and especially at yourselves, from a point of view, from an angle, that may be different from what is usual or natural to you.<br />
<br />
Only to look, for to do more is possible only with the wish and cooperation of the listener, when the listener ceases to listen passively and begins to do, that is, when he moves into an active state.<br />
<br />
Very often in conversation with people, one hears the direct or implied view that man as we meet with him in ordinary life could be regarded as almost the center of the universe, the "crown of creation," or at any rate that he is a large and important entity; that his possibilities are almost unlimited, his powers almost infinite. But even with such views there are a number of reservations: they say that, for this, exceptional conditions are necessary, special circumstances, inspiration, revelation and so on.<br />
<br />
However, if we examine this conception of "man," we see at once that it is made up of features which belong not to one man but to a number of known or supposed separate individuals. We never meet such a man in real life, neither in the present nor as a historical personage in the past. For every man has his own weaknesses and if you look closely the mirage of greatness and power disintegrates.<br />
<br />
But the most interesting thing is not that people clothe others in this mirage but that, owing to a peculiar feature of their own psyche, they transfer it to themselves, if not in its entirety, at least in part as a reflection.<br />
<br />
And so, although they are almost nonentities, they imagine themselves to be that collective type or not far removed from it.<br />
<br />
But if a man knows how to be sincere with himself—not sincere as the word is usually understood, but mercilessly sincere —then, to the question "What are you?" he will not expect a comforting reply. So now, without waiting for you to come nearer to experiencing for yourselves what I am speaking about, I suggest that, in order to understand better what I mean, each of you should now ask himself the question "What<br />
am I?" I am certain that 95 percent of you will be puzzled by this question and will answer with another one: "What do you mean?"<br />
<br />
And this will prove that a man has lived all his life without asking himself this question, has taken for granted, as axiomatic, that he is "something," even something very valuable, something he has never questioned. At the same time he is unable to explain to another what this something is, unable to convey even any idea of it, for he himself does not know what it is. Is the reason he does not know because, in fact, this "something" does not exist but is merely assumed to exist? Is it not strange that people pay so little attention to themselves in<br />
the sense of self-knowledge? Is it not strange with what dull complacency they shut their eyes to what they really are and spend their lives in the pleasant conviction that they represent something valuable? They fail to see the gailing emptiness hidden behind the highly painted façade created by their self-dlusion and do not realize that its value is purely conventional.<br />
<br />
True, this is not always so. Not everyone looks at himself so superficially. There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter what path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him. For without this knowledge, he will have no focal point in his search. Socrates' words "Know thyself" remain for all those who seek true knowledge and being.<br />
<br />
I have just used a new word—"being." To make sure that we all understand the same thing by it, I shall have to say a few words in explanation.<br />
<br />
We have just been questioning whether what a man thinks about himself corresponds to what he is in reality, and you have asked yourselves what you are. Here is a doctor, there an engineer, there an artist. Are they in reality what we think they are? Can we treat the personality of each one as identical with his profession, with the experience which that profession, or the preparation for it, has given him?<br />
<br />
Every man comes into the world like a clean sheet of paper; and then the people and circumstances around him begin vying with each other to dirty this sheet and to cover it with writing. Education, the formation of morals, information we call knowledge—all feelings of duty, honor, conscience and so on—enter here. And they all claim that the methods adopted for grafting these shoots known as man's "personality" to the trunk are immutable and infallible. Gradually the sheet is dirtied, and the dirtier with so-called "knowledge" the sheet becomes, the cleverer the man is considered to be. The more writing there is in the place called "duty," the more honest the possessor is said to be; and so it is with everything. And the dirty sheet itself, seeing that people consider its "dirt" as merit, considers it valuable. This is an example of what we call "man," to which we often even add such words as talent and genius. Yet our "genius" will have his mood spoiled for the whole day if he does not find his slippers beside his bed when he wakes up in the morning.<br />
<br />
A man is not free either in his manifestations or in his life.<br />
<br />
He cannot be what he wishes to be and what he thinks he is. He is not like his picture of himself, and the words "man, the crown of creation" do not apply to him.<br />
<br />
"Man"—this is a proud term, but we must ask ourselves what kind of man? Not the man, surely, who is irritated at trifles, who gives his attention to petty matters and gets involved in everything around him. To have the right to call himself a man, he must be a man; and this "being" comes only through self-knowledge and work on oneself in the directions that become clear through self-knowledge.<br />
<br />
Have you ever tried to watch yourself mentally when your attention has not been set on some definite problem for concentration? I suppose most of you are familiar with this, although perhaps only a few have systematically watched it in themselves. You are no doubt aware of the way we think by chance association, when our thought strings disconnected scenes and memories together, when everything that falls within the field of our consciousness, or merely touches it lightly, calls up these chance associations in our thought. The<br />
string of thoughts seems to go on uninterruptedly, weaving together fragments of representations of former perceptions, taken from different recordings in our memories. And these recordings turn and unwind while our thinking apparatus deftly weaves its threads of thought continuously from this material.<br />
<br />
The records of our feelings revolve in the same way—pleasant and unpleasant, joy and sorrow, laughter and irritation, pleasure and pain, sympathy and antipathy. You hear yourself praised and you are pleased; someone reproves you and your mood is spoiled. Something new captures your interest and instantly makes you forget what interested you just as much the moment before. Gradually your interest attaches you to the<br />
new thing to such an extent that you sink into it from head to foot; suddenly you do not possess it any more, you have disappeared, you are bound to and dissolved in this thing; in fact it possesses you, it has captivated you, and this infatuation, this capacity for being captivated is, under many different guises, a property of each one of us. This binds us and prevents our being free. By the same token it takes away our strength and our time, leaving us no possibility of being objective and free —two essential qualities for anyone who decides to follow the way of self-knowledge.<br />
<br />
We must strive for freedom if we strive for self-knowledge.<br />
<br />
The task of self-knowledge and of further self-development is of such importance and seriousness, it demands such intensity of effort, that to attempt it any old way and amongst other things is impossible. The person who undertakes this task must put it first in his life, which is not so long that he can afford to squander it on trifles.<br />
<br />
What can allow a man to spend his time profitably in his search, if not freedom from every kind of attachment?<br />
<br />
Freedom and seriousness. Not the kind of seriousness which looks out from under knitted brows with pursed lips, carefully restrained gestures and words filtered through the teeth, but the kind of seriousness that means determination and persistence in the search, intensity and constancy in it, so that a man, even when resting, continues with his main task.<br />
<br />
Ask yourselves—are you free? Many are inclined to answer "yes," if they are relatively secure in a material sense and do not have to worry about the morrow, if they depend on no one for their livelihood or in the choice of their conditions of life.<br />
<br />
But is this freedom? Is it only a question of external conditions?<br />
<br />
You have plenty of money, let us say. You live in luxury and enjoy general respect and esteem. The people who run your well-organized business are absolutely honest and devoted to you. In a word, you have a very good life. Perhaps you think so yourself and consider yourself wholly free, for after all your time is your own. You are a patron of the arts, you settle world problems over a cup of coffee and you may even be interested in the development of hidden spiritual powers. Problems of the spirit are not foreign to you and you are at home among philosophical ideas. You are educated and well read. Having some erudition in many fields, you are known as a clever man, for you find your way easily in all sorts of pursuits; you are an example of a cultured man. In short, you are to be envied.<br />
<br />
In the morning you wake up under the influence of an unpleasant dream. The slightly depressed mood disappeared but has left its trace in a kind of lassitude and uncertainty of movement. You go to the mirror to brush your hair and by accident drop your hairbrush. You pick it up and just as you have dusted it off, you drop it again. This time you pick it up with a shade of impatience and because of that you drop it a third time. You try to grab it in midair but instead, it flies at the mirror. In vain you jump to catch it. Smash! ... a star shaped cluster of cracks appears in the antique mirror you were so proud of. Hell! The records of discontent begin to turn. You need to vent your annoyance on someone. Finding that your servant has forgotten to put the newspaper beside your morning coffee, your cup of patience overflows and you decide you can no longer stand the wretched man in the house.<br />
<br />
Now it is time for you to go out. Taking advantage of the fine day, your destination not being far away, you decide to walk while your car follows slowly behind. The bright sun somewhat mollifies you. Your attention is attracted to a crowd that has gathered around a man lying unconscious on the pavement. With the help of the onlookers the porter puts him into a cab and he is driven off to the hospital. Notice how the strangely familiar face of the driver is connected in your associations and reminds you of the accident you had last year.<br />
<br />
You were returning home from a gay birthday party. What a delicious cake they had there! This servant of yours who forgot your morning paper ruined your breakfast. Why not make up for it now? After all, cake and coffee are extremely important! Here is the fashionable cafe you sometimes go to with your friends. But why have you remembered about the accident? You had surely almost forgotten about the morning's unpleasantness. . . . And now, do your cake and coffee really taste so good?<br />
<br />
You see the two ladies at the next table. What a charming blonde! She glances at you and whispers to her companion, "That's the sort of man I like." Surely none of your troubles are worth wasting time on or getting upset about. Need one point out how your mood changed from the moment you met the blonde and how it lasted while you were with her? You return home humming a gay tune and even the broken mirror only provokes a smile.<br />
<br />
But what about the business you went out for in the morning?<br />
<br />
You have only just remembered it . . . that's clever! Still, it does not matter. You can telephone. You lift the receiver and the operator gives you the wrong number. You ring again and get the same number. Some man says sharply that he is sick of you—you say it is not your fault, an altercation follows and you are surprised to learn that you are a fool and an idiot, and that if you call again . . . The rumpled carpet under your foot<br />
irritates you, and you should hear the tone of voice in which you reprove the servant who is handing you a letter. The letter is from a man you respect and whose good opinion you value.<br />
<br />
The contents of the letter are so flattering to you that your irritation gradually dies down and is replaced by the pleasantly embarrassed feeling that flattery arouses. You finish reading it in a most amiable mood.<br />
<br />
I could continue this picture of your day—you free man.<br />
<br />
Perhaps you think I have been exaggerating. No, this is a true scenario taken from life.<br />
<br />
This was a day in the life of a man well known both at home and abroad, a day reconstructed and described by him that same evening as a vivid example of associative thinking and feeling. Tell me where is the freedom when people and things possess a man to such an extent that he forgets his mood, his business and himself? <br />
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In a man who is subject to such variation can there be any serious attitude toward his search?<br />
<br />
You understand better now that a man need not necessarily be what he appears to be, that the question is not one of external circumstances and facts but of the inner structure of a man and of his attitude toward these facts. But perhaps this is only true for his associations; with regard to things he "knows" about, perhaps the situation is different.<br />
<br />
But I ask you, if for some reason each of you was unable to put your knowledge to practical use for several years, how much would remain? Would this not be like having materials which in time dry up and evaporate? Remember the comparison with a clean sheet of paper. And indeed in the course of our life we are learning something the whole time, and we call the results of this learning "knowledge." And in spite of this knowledge, do we not often prove to be ignorant, remote from real life and therefore ill-adapted to it? We are half-educated like tadpoles, or more often simply "educated" people with a little information about many things but all of it woolly and inadequate. Indeed it is merely information. We cannot call it knowledge, since knowledge is an inalienable property of a man; it cannot be more and it cannot be less. For a man "knows" only when he himself "is" that knowledge. As for your convictions—have you never known them to change? Are they not also subject to fluctuation like everything else in us? Would it not be more accurate to call them opinions rather than convictions, dependent as much on our mood as on our information or perhaps simply on the state of our digestion at a given moment?<br />
<br />
Every one of you is a rather uninteresting example of an animated automaton. You think that a "soul," and even a "spirit," is necessary to do what you do and live as you live. But perhaps it is enough to have a key for winding up the spring of your mechanism. Your daily portions of food help to wind you up and renew the purposeless antics of associations again and again. From this background separate thoughts are selected and you attempt to connect them into a whole and pass them off as valuable and as your own. We also pick out feelings and sensations, moods and experiences and out of all this we create the mirage of an inner life, call ourselves conscious and reasoning beings, talk about God, about eternity, about eternal life and other higher matters; we speak about everything imaginable, judge and discuss, define and evaluate, but we omit to speak about ourselves and about our own real objective value, for- we are all convinced that if there is anything lacking in us, we can acquire it.<br />
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If in what I have said I have succeeded even to a small extent in making clear in what chaos is the being we call man, you will be able to answer for yourselves the question of what he lacks and what he can obtain if he remains as he is, what of value he can add to the value he himself represents.<br />
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<br />
<br />
I have already said that there are people who hunger and thirst for truth. If they examine the problems of life and are sincere with themselves, they soon become convinced that it is not possible to live as they have lived and to be what they have been until now; that a way out of this situation is essential and that a man can develop his hidden capacities and powers only by cleaning his machine of the dirt that has clogged it in the course of his life. But in order to undertake this cleaning in a rational way, he has to see what needs to be cleaned, where and how; but to see this for himself is almost impossible. In order to see anything of this one has to look from the outside; and for this mutual help is necessary.<br />
<br />
If you remember the example I gave of identification, you will see how blind a man is when he identifies with his moods, feelings and thoughts. But is our dependence on things only limited to what can be observed at first glance? These things are so much in relief that they cannot help catching the eye.<br />
<br />
You remember how we spoke about people's characters, roughly dividing them into good and bad? As a man gets to know himself, he continually finds new areas of his mechanicalness—let us call it automatism—domains where his will, his "I wish," has no power, areas not subject to him, so confused and subtle that it is impossible to find his way about in them without the help and the authoritative guidance of someone who knows.<br />
<br />
This briefly is the state of things in the realm of self-knowledge: in order to do you must know; but to know you must find out how to know. We cannot find this out by ourselves.<br />
<br />
Besides self-knowledge, there is another aspect of the search —self-development. Let us see how things stand there. It is clear that a man left to his own devices cannot wring out of his little finger the knowledge of how to develop and, still less exactly what to develop in himself.<br />
<br />
Gradually, by meeting people who are searching, by talking to them and by reading relevant books, a man becomes drawn into the sphere of questions concerning self-development.<br />
<br />
But what may he meet here? First of all an abyss of the most unpardonable charlatanism, based entirely on the greed for making money by hoaxing gullible people who are seeking a way out of their spiritual impotence. But before a man learns to divide the wheat from the tares, a long time must elapse and perhaps the urge itself to find the truth will flicker and go out in him, or will become morbidly perverted and his blunted flair may lead him into such a labyrinth that the path out of it, figuratively speaking, will lead straight to the devil. <br />
<br />
If a man succeeds in getting out of this first swamp, he may fall into a new quagmire of pseudo-knowledge. In that case truth will be served up in such an indigestible and vague form that it produces the impression of a pathological delirium. He will be shown ways and means of developing hidden powers and capacities which he is promised, if he is persistent, will without much trouble give him power and domain over everything, including animate creatures, inert matter and the elements. <br />
<br />
All these systems, based on a variety of theories, are extraordinarily alluring, no doubt precisely because of their vagueness. They have a particular attraction for the half-educated, those who are half-instructed in positivist knowledge. In view of the fact that most questions studied from the point of view of esoteric and occult theories often go beyond the limits of data accessible to modern science, these theories often look down on it. Although on the one hand they give positivist science its due, on the other, they belittle its importance and leave the impression that science is not only a failure but even worse.<br />
<br />
What is the use then of going to the university, of studying and straining over official textbooks, if theories of this kind enable one to look down on all other learning and to pass judgment on scientific questions?<br />
<br />
But there is one important thing the study of such theories does not give; it does not engender objectivity in questions of knowledge, less so even than science. Indeed it tends to blur a man's brain and to diminish his capacity for reasoning and thinking soundly, and leads him toward psychopathy. This is the effect of such theories on the half-educated who take them for authentic revelation. But their effect is not very different on scientists themselves, who may have been affected, however slightly, by the poison of discontent with existing things.<br />
<br />
Our thinking machine possesses the capacity to be convinced of anything you like, provided it is repeatedly and persistently influenced in the required direction. A thing that may appear absurd to start with will in the end become rationalized, provided it is repeated sufficiently often and with sufficient conviction. And, just as one type will repeat ready-made words which have stuck in his mind, so a second type will find intricate proofs and paradoxes to explain what he says. But both are equally to be pitied. All these theories offer assertions which, like dogmas, usually cannot be verified. Or in any case they cannot be verified by the means available to us.<br />
<br />
Then methods and ways of self-development are suggested which are said to lead to a state in which their assertions can be verified. There can be no objection to this in principle. But the consistent practice of these methods may lead the over-zealous seeker to highly undesirable results. A man who accepts occult theories and believes himself knowledgeable in this sphere will not be able to resist the temptation to put into practice the knowledge of the methods he has gained in his research, that is, he will pass from knowledge to action. <br />
<br />
Perhaps he will act with circumspection, avoiding methods which from his point of view are risky, and applying the more reliable and authentic ways; perhaps he will observe with the greatest of care. All the same, the temptation to apply them and the insistence on the necessity for doing so, as well as the emphasis laid on the miraculous nature of the results and the concealment of their dark sides, will lead a man to try them.<br />
<br />
Perhaps, in trying them, a man will find methods which are harmless for him. Perhaps, in applying them, he will even get something from them. In general, all the methods for self- development which are offered, whether for verification, as a means, or as an end, are often contradictory and incomprehensible. Dealing as they do with such an intricate, little-known machine as the human organism and with that side of our life closely connected with it which we call our psyche, the least mistake in carrying them out, the smallest error or excess of pressure can lead to irreparable damage to the machine.<br />
<br />
It is indeed lucky if a man escapes from this morass more or less intact. Unfortunately very many of those who are engaged in the development of spiritual powers and capacities end their career in a lunatic asylum or ruin their health and psyche to such a degree, that they become complete invalids, unable to adapt to life. Their ranks are swelled by those who are attracted to pseudo-occultism out of a longing for anything miraculous and mysterious. There are also those exceptionally weak-willed individuals who are failures in life and who, out of considerations of personal gain, dream of developing in themselves the power and the ability to subjugate others. And finally there are people who are simply looking for variety in life, for ways of forgetting their sorrows, of finding distraction from the boredom of the daily round and of escaping its conflicts.<br />
<br />
As their hopes of attaining the qualities they counted on begin to dwindle, it is easy for them to fall into intentional charlatanism. I remember a classic example. A certain seeker after psychic power, a man who was well off, well read, who had traveled widely in his search for anything miraculous, ended by going bankrupt and became at the same time disillusioned in all his researches.<br />
<br />
Looking for another means of livelihood, he hit on the idea of making use of the pseudo-knowledge on which he had spent so much money and energy. No sooner said than done. He wrote a book, bearing one of those titles that adorn the covers of occult books, something like<i> A Course in Development of </i><i>the Hidden Forces in Man.</i><br />
This course was written in seven lectures and represented a short encyclopedia of secret methods for developing magnetism, hypnotism, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, escape into the astral realm, levitation and other alluring capacities.<br />
<br />
The course was well advertised, put on sale at an exceedingly high price, although in the end an appreciable discount (up to 95 percent) was offered to the more persistent or parsimonious customers on condition that they recommend it to their friends.<br />
<br />
Owing to the general interest in such matters, the success of the course exceeded all the expectations of its compiler. Soon he began to receive letters from purchasers in enthusiastic, reverent and deferential tones, addressing him as "dear teacher" and "wise mentor" and expressing deepest gratitude for the wonderful exposition and most valuable instruction which gave them the possibility of developing various occult capacities remarkably quickly.<br />
<br />
These letters made a considerable collection and each of them surprised him until there at last came a letter informing him that with the help of his course someone had, in about a month, become able to levitate. This indeed overran the cup of his astonishment.<br />
<br />
Here are his actual words: "I am astonished at the absurdity of things that happen. I, who wrote the course, have no very clear idea of the nature of the phenomena I am teaching. Yet these idiots not only find their way about in this gibberish but even learn something from it and now some superidiot has even learned to fly. It is, of course, all nonsense. He can go to hell. . . . Soon they will put him into a straitjacket. It will serve him right. We are much better off without such fools."<br />
<br />
Occultists, do you appreciate the argument of this author of one of the textbooks on psychodevelopment? In this case, it is possible that somebody might accidentally learn something, for often a man, though ignorant himself, can speak with curious correctness about various things, without knowing how he does it. At the same time, of course, he also talks such nonsense that any truths he may have expressed are completely buried and it is utterly impossible to dig the pearl of truth out of the muckheap of every kind of nonsense.<br />
<br />
"Why this strange capacity?" you may ask. The reason is very simple. As I have already said, we have no knowledge of our own, that is, knowledge given by life itself, knowledge that cannot be taken away from us. All our knowledge, which is merely information, may be valuable or worthless. In absorbing it like a sponge, we can easily repeat and talk about it logically and convincingly, while understanding nothing about it.<br />
<br />
It is equally easy for us to lose it, for it is not ours but has been poured into us like some liquid poured into a vessel. Crumbs of truth are scattered everywhere; and those who know and understand can see and marvel how close people live to the truth, yet how blind they are and powerless to penetrate it. But in searching for it, it is far better not to venture at all into the dark labyrinths of human stupidity and ignorance than to go there alone. For without the guidance and explanations of someone who knows, a man at every step, without noticing it, may suffer a strain, a dislocation of his machine, after which he would have to spend a great deal more on its repair than he spent damaging it.<br />
<br />
What can you think of a solid individual who says of himself that "he is a man of perfect meekness and that his behavior is not under the jurisdiction of those around him, since he lives on a mental plane to which standards of physical life cannot be applied"? Actually, his behavior should long ago have been the subject of study by a psychiatrist. This is a man who conscientiously and persistently "works" on himself for hours daily, that is, he applies all his efforts to deepening and strengthening further the psychological twist, which is already so serious that I am convinced that he will soon be in an insane asylum.<br />
<br />
I could quote hundreds of examples of wrongly directed search and where it leads. I could tell you the names of well-known people in public life who have become deranged through occultism and who live in our midst and astonish us by their eccentricities. I could tell you the exact method that deranged them, in what realm they "worked" and "developed" themselves and how these affected their psychological makeup and why.<br />
<br />
But this question could form the subject of a long and seperate conversation so, for lack of time, I will not permit myself to dwell on it now.<br />
<br />
The more a man studies the obstacles and deceptions which lie in wait for him at every step in this realm, the more convinced he becomes that it is impossible to travel the path of self-development on the chance instructions of chance people, or the kind of information culled from reading and casual talk. At the same time he gradually sees more clearly—first a feeble glimmer, then the clear light of truth which has illumined mankind throughout the ages. The beginnings of initiation are lost in the darkness of time, where the long chain of epochs unfolds. Great cultures and civilizations loom up, dimly arising from cults and mysteries, ever changing, disappearing and reappearing.<br />
<br />
The Great Knowledge is handed on in succession from age to age, from people to people, from race to race. The great centers of initiation in India, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, illumine the world with a bright light. The revered names of the great initiates, the living bearers of the truth, are handed on reverently from generation to generation. Truth is fixed by means of symbolical writings and legends and is transmitted to the mass of people for preservation in the form of customs and ceremonies, in oral traditions, in memorials, in sacred art through the invisible quality in dance, music, sculpture and various rituals. It is communicated openly after a definite trial to those who seek it and is preserved by oral transmission in the chain of those who know. After a certain time has elapsed, the centers of initiation die out one after another, and the ancient knowledge departs through underground channels into the deep, hiding from the eyes of the seekers.<br />
<br />
The bearers of this knowledge also hide, becoming unknown to those around them, but they do not cease to exist. From time to time separate streams break through to the surface, showing that somewhere deep down in the interior, even in our day, there flows the powerful ancient stream of true knowledge of being.<br />
<br />
To break through to this stream, to find it—this is the task and the aim of the search; for, having found it, a man can entrust himself boldly to the way by which he intends to go; then there only remains "to know" in order "to be" and "to do." On this way a man will not be entirely alone; at difficult moments he will receive support and guidance, for all who follow this way are connected by an uninterrupted chain.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the only positive result of all wanderings in the winding paths and tracks of occult research will be that, if a man preserves the capacity for sound judgment and thought, he will evolve that special faculty of discrimination which can be called flair. He will discard the ways of psychopathy and error and will persistently search for true ways. And here, as in self-knowledge, the principle which I have already quoted holds good: "In order to do, it is necessary to know; but in order to know, it is necessary to find out how to know."<br />
<br />
To a man who is searching with all his being, with all his inner self, comes the unfailing conviction that to find out how to know in order to do is possible only by finding a guide with experience and knowledge, who will take on his spiritual guidance and become his teacher.<br />
<br />
And it is here that a man's flair is more important than anywhere else. He chooses a guide for himself. It is of course an indispensable condition that he choose as a guide a man who knows, or else all meaning of choice is lost. Who can tell where a guide who does not know may lead a man? Every seeker dreams of a guide who knows, dreams about him but seldom asks himself objectively and sincerely—is he worthy of being guided? Is he ready to follow the way?<br />
<br />
Go out one clear starlit night to some open space and look up at the sky, at those millions of worlds over your head. Remember that perhaps on each of them swarm billions of beings, similar to you or perhaps superior to you in their organization. Look at the Milky Way. The earth cannot even be called a grain of sand in this infinity. It dissolves and vanishes, and with it, you. Where are you? And is what you want simply madness?<br />
<br />
Before all these worlds ask yourself what are your aims and hopes, your intentions and means of fulfilling them, the demands that may be made upon you and your preparedness to meet them.<br />
<br />
A long and difficult journey is before you; you are preparing for a strange and unknown land. The way is infinitely long.You do not know if rest will be possible on the way nor where it will be possible. You should be prepared for the worst. Take all the necessities for the journey with you.<br />
<br />
Try to forget nothing, for afterwards it will be too late and there will be no time to go back for what has been forgotten, to rectify the mistake. Weigh up your strength. Is it sufficient for the whole journey? How soon can you start?<br />
<br />
Remember that if you spend longer on the way you will need to carry proportionately more supplies, and this will delay you further both on the way and in your preparations for it. Yet every minute is precious. Once having decided to go, there is no use wasting time.<br />
<br />
Do not reckon on trying to come back. This experiment may cost you very dear. The guide undertakes only to take you there and, if you wish to turn back, he is not obliged to return with you. You will be left to yourself, and woe to you if you weaken or forget the way—you will never get back. And even if you remember the way, the question still remains—will you return safe and sound? For many unpleasantnesses await the lonely traveler who is not familiar with the way and the customs which prevail there. Bear in mind that your sight has the property of presenting distant objects as though they were near. Beguiled by the nearness of the aim toward which you strive, blinded by its beauty and ignorant of the measure of your own strength, you will not notice the obstacles on the way; you will not see the numerous ditches across the path. <br />
<br />
In a green meadow covered with luxuriant flowers, in the thick grass, a deep precipice is hidden. It is very easy to stumble and fall over it if your eyes are not concentrated on the step you are taking.<br />
<br />
Do not forget to concentrate all your attention on the nearest sector of the way—do not concern yourself about far aims if you do not wish to fall over the precipice.<br />
<br />
Yet do not forget your aim. Remember it the whole time and keep up in yourself an active endeavor toward it, so as not to lose the right direction. And once you have started, be observant; what you have passed through remains behind and will not appear again; so if you fail to notice it at the time, you never will notice it.<br />
<br />
Do not be over curious nor waste time on things that attract your attention but are not worth it. Time is precious and should not be wasted on things which have no direct relation to your aim.<br />
<br />
Remember where you are and why you are here.<br />
<br />
Do not protect yourselves and remember that no effort is made in vain.<br />
<br />
And now you can set out on the way.<br />
<br />
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-61733858119320631222014-01-30T11:38:00.001-07:002021-10-03T05:27:57.266-06:00domine delivre danikon daljinom "pax requiescat ineffabilis"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8q748-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8q748-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8q748-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Silence.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5ai8n-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5ai8n-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5ai8n-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">shattered.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bma5m-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bma5m-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bma5m-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">step,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9oai4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9oai4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9oai4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">by,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="f210v-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f210v-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="f210v-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">step.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="4jt7q-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4jt7q-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="4jt7q-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">dissonant syncopations.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="ej8pc-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ej8pc-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="ej8pc-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">disintegrating dissipation.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="792v-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="792v-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="792v-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Nothing, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="e00to-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e00to-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="e00to-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">comes to a stop...</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9rp78-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9rp78-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9rp78-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">just shrapnel left to pick up the peace</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3uurs-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3uurs-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3uurs-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">bleak blackouts in lamentation.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bhcq8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bhcq8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bhcq8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Cacophonous wails,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="rbev-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="rbev-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="rbev-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">passed over,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="b1kto-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b1kto-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="b1kto-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">grief strewn & stricken shock.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9159g-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9159g-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9159g-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">emptied of broken narrratives,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="d53sn-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d53sn-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="d53sn-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">except the mere pain unspeakable.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bj24j-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bj24j-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bj24j-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Surrounded by ever lengthening shadows;</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6kam-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6kam-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6kam-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">tattered souls submerged in disarray.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8veei-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8veei-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8veei-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Confined to puncture fragilities</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="cf1je-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cf1je-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="cf1je-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">skewered shivers,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="a6uk7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a6uk7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="a6uk7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">dripping somberous anathema involuntarily,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="f3bft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f3bft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="f3bft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">as the pale glamours</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="fg62b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fg62b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="fg62b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">desolate.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="er2bt-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="er2bt-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="er2bt-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="db959-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="db959-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="db959-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">o christ, child,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9fvlf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9fvlf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9fvlf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">one wishes it could be easier.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="eoctl-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eoctl-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="eoctl-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">this raw & piercing cold,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="a1dcj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a1dcj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="a1dcj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">continues unabated;</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6etpk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6etpk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6etpk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">smoldering our endurance,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="e92f4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e92f4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="e92f4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">blowing out the pilot light,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8m90c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8m90c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8m90c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">cutting any prime connection,s</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="d6ieb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d6ieb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="d6ieb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">irreversibly,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9vdc1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9vdc1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9vdc1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">cruelly, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="egf09-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="egf09-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="egf09-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">irreparable eternally,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="e4ljj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e4ljj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="e4ljj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">off time & time again.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8e2gf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8e2gf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8e2gf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="2nr6g-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2nr6g-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="2nr6g-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">All succumb.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="b5ai2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b5ai2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="b5ai2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">All devoured.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9l2i8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9l2i8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9l2i8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">All conquered, at </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="eteo9-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eteo9-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="eteo9-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the inevitablities </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dm89h-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dm89h-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dm89h-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">drawn bridges;</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9co2j-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9co2j-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9co2j-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">into</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6dnqi-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6dnqi-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6dnqi-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the abyss,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="79bv1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="79bv1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="79bv1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">abominable,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3g90m-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3g90m-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3g90m-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">agape.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="7emb2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7emb2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="7emb2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">deep, morose & mourning.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="2j80-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2j80-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="2j80-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">waste.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8cbl1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8cbl1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8cbl1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the ever comatose.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="eoj16-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eoj16-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="eoj16-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the endless in crash common coryza,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8hha5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8hha5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8hha5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the machinations of callous commerce </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="d59on-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d59on-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="d59on-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">called fate.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9kdi7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9kdi7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9kdi7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">sustain these rusted arterials of</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="36ov2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="36ov2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="36ov2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">chrome pumping</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6vc8n-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6vc8n-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6vc8n-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">miasmatic saturnine,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="a2fcb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a2fcb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="a2fcb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">petroleum carcinogen,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="asu1q-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="asu1q-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="asu1q-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">grating taciturn diseased flesh, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3sqc-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3sqc-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3sqc-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">careening pallid stale slate tundra empyreon.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="7819l-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7819l-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="7819l-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5f0o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5f0o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5f0o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">crushed asunder unspeakable feats</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="cijcr-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cijcr-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="cijcr-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">& under facts, helpless.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="4c7al-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4c7al-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="4c7al-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="96j5a-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="96j5a-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="96j5a-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">can there be no denial of dharma</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="pkjr-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="pkjr-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="pkjr-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">in the perilous parallax of existence?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="164id-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="164id-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="164id-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">total point = suffering, tribulation & precious brevity.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="11agu-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="11agu-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="11agu-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">all one, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="76lei-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="76lei-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="76lei-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">yet all alone.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="f0p97-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f0p97-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="f0p97-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">a part,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9ebki-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9ebki-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9ebki-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">yet still never apart from</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dlaub-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dlaub-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dlaub-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">paradox.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="nmq4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="nmq4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="nmq4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">this all encompassing sorrow constant.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="evfla-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="evfla-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="evfla-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">bitter advertents</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="340u1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="340u1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="340u1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">whittle down destiny,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="1thld-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1thld-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="1thld-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">as the world turns</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dqq89-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dqq89-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dqq89-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">blindly,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="ai4iu-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ai4iu-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="ai4iu-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">on a dime,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="4rvo6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4rvo6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="4rvo6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">without reason.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="90osa-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="90osa-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="90osa-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">without rhyme.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="fh504-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fh504-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="fh504-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">...or so it seems upon this deterministic stage sublime...</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8jhu5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8jhu5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8jhu5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5ovqo-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5ovqo-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5ovqo-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">beyond struggle,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="ap4qm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ap4qm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="ap4qm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">can liberty be attained?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3m8v1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3m8v1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3m8v1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">can empty tombstone bones ever be bound beyond</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="direq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="direq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="direq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">rite rote restriction?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8mvi6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8mvi6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8mvi6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">could being ever resist the urge for repetition?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6aioe-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6aioe-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6aioe-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">is there only surface despair amongst creviced catatonics?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dat66-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dat66-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dat66-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">mere static rhetoric,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5pp7t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5pp7t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5pp7t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">betwixt the flaw & ruin of petrified airspace</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="eemaf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eemaf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="eemaf-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">gone dead,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dj6bg-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dj6bg-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dj6bg-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">seized ceasing, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="fbf67-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fbf67-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="fbf67-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">tuned to strains of background radiation,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3u72u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3u72u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3u72u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">fatally fragmenting for perpetuation?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8fskk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8fskk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8fskk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5u7n9-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5u7n9-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5u7n9-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">sudden split, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="eefcm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="eefcm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="eefcm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">an accidental hesitation, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="2ea4f-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2ea4f-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="2ea4f-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">decision jagged pulsating,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3onmj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3onmj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3onmj-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">rapid vermilion careening,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="c8rqh-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c8rqh-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="c8rqh-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">clasped at the clutch;</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="ea55-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ea55-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="ea55-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the moment sinks </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="86lj2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="86lj2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="86lj2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">into the stream.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5bmft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5bmft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5bmft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">sudden oblivion,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dg58o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dg58o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dg58o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">redemption lost,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="2jv8f-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2jv8f-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="2jv8f-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">& only regret remains.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9crt4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9crt4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9crt4-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">a transient dance carries us to</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="1ca3t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1ca3t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="1ca3t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">the curtain fall,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="e34nq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e34nq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="e34nq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">as bright new snow veils</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="fivsk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fivsk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="fivsk-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">over the old ashes,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="46q9u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="46q9u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="46q9u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">incessantly</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8ij48-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8ij48-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8ij48-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">endless.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6edup-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6edup-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6edup-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dg9le-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dg9le-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dg9le-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">reprocussive concrete</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="7kbat-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7kbat-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="7kbat-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">active consecration,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="on8b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="on8b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="on8b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">still rings in reverberation of</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dkpjb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dkpjb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dkpjb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">cathartic echoes,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8rar2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8rar2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8rar2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">reanimation caught </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="a351b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a351b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="a351b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">on carbon</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="81at1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="81at1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="81at1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">imprinted reproductions</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8f28r-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8f28r-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8f28r-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">of matter </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="4ft2c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4ft2c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="4ft2c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">carelessly evaporated aetheric.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bolni-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bolni-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bolni-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">where information transforms</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="fis2c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fis2c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="fis2c-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">undeniable irrepressible </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="frt0b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="frt0b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="frt0b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">off-color signals,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="4qs2u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4qs2u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="4qs2u-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">transcending the bonds of phenomena,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bucl6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bucl6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bucl6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">breaking chains of thanatotic mantras,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="htq5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="htq5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="htq5-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">virulent representations reiterating that</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5p3ft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5p3ft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5p3ft-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">"all things must pass"...</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6kvle-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6kvle-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6kvle-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5askm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5askm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5askm-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">...solemnly understanding, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="f4n0t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f4n0t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="f4n0t-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">acceptance reflects:</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3f4r2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3f4r2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3f4r2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">"surely yes, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="9p1oq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9p1oq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="9p1oq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">i agree...</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3brfn-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3brfn-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3brfn-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">but love, most certainly, surely,.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="c3de8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c3de8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="c3de8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"> conquers all things. . . </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3c79b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3c79b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3c79b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">so please,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3r041-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3r041-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3r041-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">fear dread</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="63mbs-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="63mbs-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="63mbs-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">nought"</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="aqmdb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="aqmdb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="aqmdb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="aag1o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="aag1o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="aag1o-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">still,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="g34-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="g34-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="g34-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">it shall always come & it shall all ways go.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="e8tv8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e8tv8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="e8tv8-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">still,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="c29lq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c29lq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="c29lq-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">one cannot but must carry on.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="b1kj1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b1kj1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="b1kj1-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">still,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="986h7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="986h7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="986h7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">even this mystery can be beautiful:</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bb8ot-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bb8ot-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bb8ot-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">that nothing ceases,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="1tuu2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1tuu2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="1tuu2-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">except the tears, </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="f1l7e-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="f1l7e-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="f1l7e-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">which find clarity reflecting </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="af1vi-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="af1vi-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="af1vi-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">amidst the disillusion.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="b5upd-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b5upd-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="b5upd-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">that moment found,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="fi4fh-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fi4fh-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="fi4fh-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">right before the everglowing apparition rises</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="95lef-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="95lef-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="95lef-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">anew.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6c8gd-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6c8gd-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6c8gd-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="67sd7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="67sd7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="67sd7-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">now,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="dr5cl-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dr5cl-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="dr5cl-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">try without trying.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="24l0b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="24l0b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="24l0b-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">seek not this,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="6grp3-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6grp3-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="6grp3-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">nor that,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="8s489-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8s489-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="8s489-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">just release,</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="bp6cg-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bp6cg-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="bp6cg-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">& return.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="cnba-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cnba-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="cnba-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="au2i6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="au2i6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="au2i6-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">this sentence is over</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="3cosb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3cosb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="3cosb-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">now</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="c2093" data-offset-key="5ql89-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #242526; color: #e4e6eb; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5ql89-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none !important;"><span data-offset-key="5ql89-0-0" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">you are free</span></div></div>
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-67269633226018446512013-11-19T14:04:00.001-07:002013-12-02T11:55:24.391-07:00Spare's Ontology by St. Mace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiUyqBeef0wQ9OOTycla9mSDj-xK42XoKdLZJlfgKpuo6Z6Xtw-8AtLulMRMAvyLXSSkFW6Jt2mtvistSpu7oBH-ltYtpmJ6Jw_GgEqRdkW9qe_XTKtFk3q8kGzDH05bUcz6lMkKl058/s1600/eyecheewahaowo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiUyqBeef0wQ9OOTycla9mSDj-xK42XoKdLZJlfgKpuo6Z6Xtw-8AtLulMRMAvyLXSSkFW6Jt2mtvistSpu7oBH-ltYtpmJ6Jw_GgEqRdkW9qe_XTKtFk3q8kGzDH05bUcz6lMkKl058/s1600/eyecheewahaowo.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The whole question of "What is real?" is one that has
plagued the pursuit of knowledge ever since people became sufficiently aware of
themselves to realize it needed an answer. A major difficulty is the problem of
what is objective and what is subjective, or what is really out there and what
is just projected out onto it by our own biases—our hopes, needs, fears and
preconceptions, conscious and unconscious, admitted and denied. All we can know
is what we perceive, so it is impossible to be perfectly objective, and yet
objective reality is real enough, as anyone knows who has been in an automobile
accident. The elimination of the perceiver's bias is one major aim of the
scientific method, with its emphasis on measurement and replication intending
to ensure that scientific theories work for anyone competent to apply them. But
these safeguards reach their limit as soon as we begin to study anything that
may be conscious, for mind may not be measured and will show a perverse defiance
to attempts to fit it into repeatable experiments. Even so, certain academic
psychologists still work to reduce all mental functions to what may be
quantified in a laboratory setting, and come to the wholly logical conclusion
that mind is no more than a side effect of the existence of nervous tissue.
This makes as much sense as trying to set a broken leg with prayer and is the
clearest possible proof that strict scientific methodology breaks down at this
point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Magick attempts to provide a middle ground between science and
credulity, but this does not mean we escape the objective/subjective conundrum.
Instead we rephrase the problem as that of macrocosm and microcosm. In magickal
usage the macrocosm consists of the powers in the universe beyond us. The
microcosm consists of the powers we have inside us. Traditionally, magicians have
presumed that one or another of the ancient planetary mythologies can provide a
symbolism descriptive of the powers available to us. The powers are personified
as "the gods" who somehow project their particular powers in from the
outside, and the human entity—as the "creation" or
"emanation" of these gods—is a composite of these powers, which we
thus experience from the inside. Once the magician chooses such a symbolic
architecture, he or she has available the techniques of ceremonial magick to
manipulate the powers this architecture includes, and through these techniques
can either exalt a power or abase it, either draw on it or diminish it as his
or her will might determine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Thus does the magician acquire a symbolic interface through which
he or she might manipulate power, and this without being obliged to deal with
the question of what power <i>as such </i>really
<i>is.</i><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The key to the effective use of any symbolic system is the complete
unconscious assimilation of its components by the magician who uses it. In the
Golden Dawn tradition this is done by memorization of the symbolism, ceremonial
initiation in terms of the symbolism, and, most importantly, astral discipline.
That is, one must be willing to impose the Rosicrucian structure onto one's astral
visions, to require that whatever displays they choose to make be in terms of
the imagery used by that system. Aleister Crowley, for one, is quite clear
about this, insisting that we banish as demonic deceivers any entities who
resist the requirement that they so conform. In my own personal experience this
was hardly necessary, for my visions seemed anxious to do so. This was hardly
reassuring to me, making it obvious that my unconscious was willing to take on
any imagery, so long as it was self-consistent and able to include all the more
conspicuous dualities that entertain our existence. This the Golden Dawn system
surely does, and admirably so. Nonetheless, I found the whole notion of
self-programming of symbolism to be personally repugnant. Thus as soon as it was
clear to me that this was, in fact, the purpose of Rosicrucian training, I
wanted no more part of it. My teacher at the time, Frater O.T.L., hearing my
loud and articulate denunciation of the Rosicrucian option, graciously
recommended that I look into the writings of an English sorcerer named Austin
Osman Spare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The essence of Spare's magick lies in his solution to the
objective/subjective, macrocosm/microcosm conundrum that we just covered. Spare
addressed the problem with a direct attack, coming up with what can only be
described as a practical solipsism— solipsism being the belief that the self is
the only object of knowledge and thus, by extension, the only thing that
exists. "What is there to believe, but in Self?" he asks in <i>The Book of Pleasure</i>. "And Self is
the negation of completeness as reality. No man has seen self at any time. We
are what we believe and what it implies by a process of time in the conception;
creation is caused by this bondage to formula." (p. 1) Which is to say,
what we believe determines what we experience, which determines what we are,
which, over time, determines what is, because through our presumptions we shape
whatever comes into contact with us, according to our power. Reality is the
objective residue of a subjective process. In his <i>Focus of Life</i>, Spare elaborates:<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Eternal, without beginning is Self; without end am I; there is no<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">other power or substance. The everchanging
modifications and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">diversities we see are the results of
forgetfulness, misinterpreted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">as nightmare senses. When the Self again
desires, then I only and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">nothing else shall remain. Permitting all
things, whatsoever is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">imagined comes out of it. (p. 21)<br />
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">To give an idea of the dynamic in all
this, in <i>The Book of Pleasure</i> Spare
offers the argument of me (the reader) and a butterfly. I am conscious of being
"I," the butterfly is conscious of being "I," and therefore
my consciousness and that of the butterfly are the same. Spare errs in
presenting this as a logical syllogism, in which terms it must fail, but it
isn't really logic he's giving. Instead it's a description of the facts of his
perception, upon which he based his magick, which worked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The consequences of accepting that my "I" (me!) is the
same as your "I" and the same as every other self-aware "I"
in the whole of existence—that it's all at bottom a common experience made
separate only by our belief in our alienation—are somewhat far-reaching. The
Golden Rule becomes a truism and the decision to eat flesh presupposes a
willingness eventually to be eaten. But to think that I am fundamentally the
same as that bitch mosquito I just swatted, or that sonofabitch who cut me off
on the Turnpike this afternoon, well, it's just too difficult to believe and so
we don't, mostly. Creation is the result of this separation, the result of all
the points of view—identical in source, essence and being both with each other
and with the primordial I—seeing Self as something to eat, to fuck, or to flee
from so as to keep from being eaten. From, again, <i>The Focus of Life</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">And in this living nightmare, where all is cannibalism. Why dost thou
deny thyself? Verily, Man resembles his creator, in that he consumes himself in
much filth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Heaven gives indiscriminately of its superabundance to make the
ghastly struggle called existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The necessity was a deliberate serving of its own pleasure— becoming
more alien. Remoteness from self is pain and precocious creation. (p. 7)<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The necessity of creation was a deliberate serving of pleasure to
the I, letting it see Self as a ground to be mined for pleasure, an object, not
really Self at all. With this split came pain, and a desire to avoid pain even
as pleasure was more fervently pursued. The split spawned millions of species
and thousands of stratagems from fins to hard shells, from flight to
pheromones, all the efflorescent life of the natural world. And in essence the
split is simply belief embodied in flesh, the biological reification of "a
process of time in the conception." To the extent we can recognize and
reintegrate these, if only through an erasure of our own belief, the Cosmic Momentum
behind Infinite Creation will be ours to tap, to do our wills.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">At least that's the way Spare had it, which certainly does not mean
that's the way things really are, even though his magick was effective. We can
just as easily say that his self-alienated solipsism is simply an effective attitude
to have when addressing power to do magick, even if existence in itself is not
solipsistic. After all, the only way we can encounter the powers of magick is
through our perception; we can even say that everything in consciousness is either
a source of power for manipulation or else something that inhibits our
manipulation of it. The fact is that what is really out there is not that
important magickally. What matters is the way we take it in, the underlying
assumptions we have over what it is, and what we are able to do with it.
Optimism and pessimism are obvious examples of such assumptions, attitudes that
can color our whole approach to life. More subtle are our preconceptions
concerning what is possible, on what is and isn't connected in the "outside"
world. Through taking the solipsistic attitude that All is Self, Spare evades
the problem by making everything "inside," and All Things have their
connections there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
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</div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So for Spare it is our habitual attitudes that hold us
back, our beliefs as opposed to our ideas. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[The English Chaos magician Peter J.
Carroll proposes the intriguing notion that the difference between a
belief and an idea is that an idea may be true, while a belief is always false. Ideas
may be true because they are merely recognitions of patterns in what is perceived.
Beliefs are always false because they define the way things are in an absolute sense, and the Absolute is something that does not permit
any manner of definition.]</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">
<br />
It is as if our beliefs are tracks that
run parallel to power, drawing on it to move us along but without allowing us
to address it directly, to tap it deliberately and exploit it. We must leave
these tracks if we would do so.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">For Spare, belief is the main obstacle to the work of the
magician, with beliefs concerning the nature of spirit and psyche the most
insidious of all. "Religions are the projections of incapacity," he
writes in The Book of Pleasure, "the imaginations of fear, the veneer of
superstition...while oftimes the ornament of imbecility... What you have
ordained in your righteousness is your very rack, imagined though it be!"
(p. 1) Faith he condemns as mere self-delusion, since it "'protects' but
does not change the vital." For instance, if a man has faith that some
benevolent deity has saved him from his personal pack of demons and that he is
thus no longer their puppet (in spite of usually ample evidence to the
contrary), then he will believe that there is nothing more to be done and will not
take the trouble to meet them on their own ground and bind them into
submission, which is the only way to control them with any degree of
reliability.<br />
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<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">"When faith perishes, the 'Self' shall come into its own... Myself,
I have not seen a man who is not God already."<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">But then even beliefs that define man as a god do not escape Spare's
condemnation, for he is equally derisive of traditional magick. "Others
praise ceremonial Magic, and are supposed to suffer much Ecstasy! Our asylums
are crowded, the stage is overrun! Is it by symbolizing that we become the
symbolized? Were I to crown myself King, should I be King? Rather should I be
the object of disgust or pity." (p. 2) He tells us that magick is a
natural thing, our ability to spawn events as if by chance, ceremony more a style
of living than any sort of production. And he dismisses the traditional practice
of classifying different types of power according to their places in a
theosophical scheme. "The freedom of energy is not obtained by its
bondage, great power not by disintegration. Is it not because our energy (or
mind stuff) is already bound over and divided, that we are not capable, let
alone magical?" (p. 3)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The unbinding of mind-stuff is the essence of Spare's approach to
magick—that and also its channeling in ways that do not bind it, that allow it
to be focused according to will without putting any restrictions on the
magician's ability to specify its use.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">For Spare, it isn't just beliefs concerning the nature of the divine
architecture that bind our power, but any belief short of Self-love. Self-love
is an acceptance of and ecstasy in the Self as a whole, the sum of all
possibilities in all times and places, what he calls Kia. Without definition,
its name a designation rather than a description, Kia is a typical mystic
Absolute [Whole] and can be equated with the Chinese [Wuji], [the Hindus
Parabrahman], [the Buddhists Nirvana], the Qabalistic Ain Soph, [the Gnostic
Pleroma] and the Neoplatonic One. "Obvious but unintelligible, without
form, its design most excellent... How mighty it is, in its assertion of <i>'Need not be—Does not matter'![See also "The Tao which is Tao is not Tao" of Taoism & "Neither this, nor that" of Hinduism]</i> Self-love
in complete perspective, serves its own invincible purpose of ecstasy. Supreme
bliss simulating opposition is its balance... Could we but imitate its law, all
creation without command would unite to serve our purpose in pleasure and harmony."
(p. 8) Which is to say, our cosmic purpose as nodes of perception in Kia is to
enjoy it, taking all seeming contradiction and conflict as variations on its
infinite power—power which, once we recognize it for what it is, will be ours
to use. But we cannot so long as we are enthralled by beliefs smaller than love
for Kia, for these inevitably trap us in the snare of duality—simulated opposition,
to be sure, but deadly enough for those who are caught in it. It is out of our
conceptions that duality comes, out of our tendency to make distinctions.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Whenever we make a distinction—whenever we say "It is <i>this </i></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">and not </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">that</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">"—we are unconsciously affirming that that is equally real
to this, and thus must in time supplant it. If I believe </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">order</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> exists, then so also must </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">disorder</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">.
If disorder did not exist then order would be a constant state and would never
assert itself enough to be believed in. If I say </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">male</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> exists, then so also must </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">female</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">;
if there were only asexual reproduction, then there would be no way to make the
distinction, and only </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">life</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> would be
recognized, whose opposite would be </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">death</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">.
And so it is with any distinction we allow ourselves to make. "Duality in
some form or another is consciousness of existence. It is the illusion of time,
size, entity, etc.—the world's limit. The dual principle is the quintessence of
all experience, no ramification has enlarged its early simplicity, but is only
its repetition, modification or complexity, never is its evolution
complete." (p. 9)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Now for distinctions like predator and prey, male and female, and
life and death, the dual principle is obvious and easy enough to accept, at
least in the abstract. Nor, on this level, is it anything we can easily render
down for the power in it, these distinctions being the result of the collective
machination of Self and I—the pattern of Creation itself. So if we are to tap
the power of Kia behind duality, the dualities have to be closer to home. A
good place to start looking is among those distinctions at the root of our
emotional reactions—energetic responses whose power will be available to accomplish
our wills, if only we can reconcile the distinctions.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The distinctions that we enforce, that we insist are truth, are
the ones that constitute the crippling beliefs. Suppose, for instance, that a
farmer looks at his field and tells himself that it is lush. If he has accepted
the dual principle, he will simultaneously affirm that there is also land that
is arid, and that in time his field may become </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">arid, too. But if his self-interest requires that his land </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">will be</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> lush, and the rainfall diminishes,
then his belief in lushness will cause him to irrigate. For a time, perhaps
even for several lifetimes, this tactic will succeed, but ultimately the salts
in the water will build up in the soil, making it not only arid but a stinking
desert, sterile to all life. His enforcement of his belief makes the poles of
the duality more extreme, bringing on the violent intervention of the opposite—crippling
to Self-love and the power that comes out of it. As Spare writes in his </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Anathema of Zos</i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">: "Belief
foreshadows its inversion. Overrun with forgotten desires and struggling
truths, ye are their victim in the dying and begetting law." (p. 13)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The way of no belief would simply be to change crops to account
for the shifting rainfall, going from corn to grain to grass as required,
always taking care not to strain the soil for the sake of short-term profit.
This requires sensitivity and thought, a mind brimming with ideas, but not
belief, which only stifles the creativity needed to be in harmony with what is
perceived, to truly love Self.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Of course scientific technologies can be applied to situations like
this to extend the reign of one element of a duality over its opposite. To cut
down on salt build-up, drains may be installed in a field to carry off waste
water. But the reversal will still come eventually and will be that much more
extreme—for instance salty soil littered with clay tiles instead of just salty
soil. Any technology that does not account for all elements of its component dualities will ultimately fail. The whole perspective of scientific
materialism, by treating all things as dead and devoid of spirit, will also.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">But while the dual principle is a subtle problem in physical technology,
in moral and social technology it is overtly malignant. The most blatant
example of a moral duality is that of good and evil. To exalt what is perceived
as "good" or, worse, to try to wipe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">out "evil," only strengthens what we don't want, causing
it to manifest in ever purer forms. The Catholic Church's desire to wipe out
the perceived evil of disunion and heresy caused it to create its Inquisition,
which itself became an unsurpassed instrument of horror. America's attempt to
banish the evil of Communism culminated in the abscess of the Vietnam War. And
then when it lightened up and just pushed the equilibrium in an abstract
military sense, Communism collapsed under the weight of its own dogma.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The good/evil duality plays havoc with our inner states of mind as
well as the course of history. If we allow the situations or people we
encounter to in any way offend us, Self-love and the power it supplies will be
impossible to maintain. To believe that something is offensive and combat it,
even if only in our minds, is to split it off from Self and lose our power to
perceive it accurately and manipulate it decisively. Also, the energy we devote
to opposing it will give it a sharper definition and a greater strength.</span><span style="font-size: 18px;">Of course it isn't just anger and offense that can alienate us from Kia. Fear does it, too, as does guilt, sentimentality, greed and pride. In Spare's published work he implies that the source of these is our limited beliefs. For myself, I must say that I don't think he goes deeply enough. In my own experience, beliefs that have a foundation in an emotional response to circumstances are generally products of biases that are wired into personality, psychic reflexes that may be interpreted as independent spirits or demons and managed through an ongoing program of evocation and magickal control.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Spare, on the other hand, treated the problem as one of beliefs as
such, and attempted to dismember them through two more general techniques—an
exercise he called "the death posture" and the use of a logical tool
he called "the Neither-Neither principle." The death posture is just
that—a posture—so it isn't really relevant to this essay, but the
Neither-Neither fits right in, it being the corollary of the dual principle—its
precise counterpart, in fact.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The point of the Neither-Neither is that just as the assertion of any
distinction makes necessary its opposite, so the combination in mind of a
distinction and its opposite will nullify the duality and release the energy of
the original assertion as an undifferentiated power that should then be used in
magick. This energy Spare called "free belief."<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Neither-Neither works against any belief, from a belief in the
existence of any "permanent" object (just imagine it over time) to
emotional necessities to the airiest philosophies. Of course the more committed
one is to a belief, the more difficult it will be to conjure up the necessary
opposite; in cases where the belief seems absolutely necessary, it will take
great personal power just to see the other half of the duality, and even more
to transcend the two halves to leap to the level where both may be held in mind
simultaneously.</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Also, just because a person is able to accept both halves intellectually
doesn't mean that he or she must accept them both as equally valid courses of
action. That is, it is important to distinguish matters of Fact from matters of
Will. To apply the Neither-</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Neither to the statement "I am alive" is to affirm that
"I will die," but this does not mean I am thus obliged to make it so.
So long as it is my will, I may fervently promote the Life half of the duality.
But my purpose will be supported if I can accept the reality of the Death half,
for by dancing close to it great power may be snatched, power that may be used
to live all the more triumphantly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">To close, I would only remark that once you generate free belief,
you should always focus it into some sort of magickal working, for if you leave
it lying around it will energize one or another of your dominant demons,
bringing the alienation back all </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">over again, even if in a different form.</span></div>
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-17100241738379412032013-09-10T16:39:00.000-06:002013-11-15T15:33:50.210-07:00Everything Must Go - On! by C. Abrahamsson<i>"For nature applied to nature</i><br />
<i>transforms nature.</i><br />
<i>Such is the order of tbe natural law</i><br />
<i>throughout the whole cosmos, and</i><br />
<i>thus all things hang together."</i><br />
ZOSIMOS, THIRD CENTURY A D<br />
<br />
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<br />
PLEASE CONSIDER THIS IDEA: new, consciously made, magical, talismanic totems as members/parts of a new divinity. Artworks of different kinds become cells and building blocks of a new pagan pantheon of intelligence, of whose essence future generations can rely on and partake of. Special importance should be given to indigenous, traditional, tribal folk culture, woven into the mosaic fabric of genuine human creation. The final times of our mercurial technocratic culture could actually help in setting this up before these new gods are properly established enough to live on through the rituals of the post-technocracy-survivors.<br />
<br />
In ancient grimoires, forces were evoked to visible appearance in order to be questioned and/or commanded through certain arcane techniques and mind-frames. This was also true of art up until High Priest Duchamp celebrated the mental and conceptual while discarding two-dimensional bourgeois thought and a wordly Weltanschauung. When art suddenly became intellectual, intangible and non-personal, the power of the old forces by no means decreased. They just went into a slight hibernation, awaiting the duchampian antithetical fulfillment. The coming synthesis of tangible, will-driven talismanic art and an anti-bourgeois, non-commodified approach will be a distinct characteristic of our new pantheon's magical bag of tricks.<br />
<br />
Is it a far-fetched idea or one worthy of consideration? I think it should be considered as a project where individual seeds are sown in communal ground, where each garden patch then in itself becomes a new seed, and so on. I believe it is possible to make a quantum quilt of new creative possibilities.<br />
<br />
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the sacrament of the new religion will be psychedelic - either organic or chemical. The transubstantiation process in itself and the integration of the divine in edible, digestible form has been with us since the dawn of human time. The psychedelic age, with its chaotic beginnings in the mid 1960s, has been instrumental in bringing forth a radical re-evaluation of art, aesthetics, thought, philosophy, etc. I can foresee this pleasant open-mindedness becoming a prerequisite for future communications with the very principles of life, of nature, of human interaction as well as those of art and culture. We discover things when they're apparently badly needed. We seem to have a built-in intuition in situations of dire emergency. An expansion of the mind and a related expansion of art are crucial emergency routes at this point in time and space.<br />
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<br />
What's wrong with the old grids and frames of reference then?<br />
<br />
Well, I don't think anyone really doubts the sincerity of some religious believers or entertainment industry people, but the focus on greed in both areas help facilitate what I call the "180° phenomenon." What's put on for show actually, in reality, signifies the opposite. An example: although the "moral" key in disaster movies - that we should all work together as one human race post the big disaster - seems fair, fine and human(istic), the effect of the movies actually engender subconscious fear of disasters that will very likely never happen. What on the surface appears to be benevolent cathartic entertainment in fact cements the biggest lie of all: that humans are victims of nature, separate from general biospheres and eco-systems. Well, in a sense we are the victims now, but i t's certainly no fault of nature's! What does this huge fear create in human beings? As with all fears, a desire to be safe. How do people handle this today? They consume.<br />
<br />
Here's another example: If it's so painfully obvious that many people are starving today, why then not, as a first step at least , celebrate, encourage or even enforce the use of contraceptives among the cultures and people who can't, at this point in time, deal with their own fertility? The gilded pro-life (so called) benevolence of the Catholic Church and State makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. They simply engender fear through fiction so that people remain loyal to the herd. And pay their dues. The same old story over and over again. Our contemporary Axis of Evil is the epiphytic effect stemming from the Vatican and Hollywood, both enticing dream factories working overtime to create very real nightmares.<br />
<br />
However, everything must go, disintegrate, fall down, evaporate . . . As all empires crumble, so will the hegemonial grip of fragmenting entertainment and the parasitic power of the monotheistic power structures. After this huge "paradigm shift " has taken place, I foresee a development towards a post-technocratic neo-feudal culture, where food access will be the driving force. A variety of land owners will protect what they have through privately owned armies and regional skirmishes will be common. The technological "daze" will have created a new breed of mindless serfs who will be forced into manual labour. Basically: when the<br />
technological culture has gone overboard and greed disguised as misdirected altruistic charities (as in the ongoing NGO swindles) have created very hollow human infrastructues, we are faced with Homo Talionis and desperate living again.<br />
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In this scheme of things, the artist will no longer be a state-funded iconoclast of irony, but one of religious stature and active function. The art has to be relevant to the times, as always. One gets the culture one deserves. If artists conscious of this already now start working in their own pantheonic cellular bio-art-work, the transition may be gentler and more intelligent, with less violence and devastation. Showing the past in its often violent manifestations through art can help change how we approach the future. Non-dogmatic instructions are just some of the building blocks I'm referring to.<br />
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The escapist aspects of wishful thinking are easier to distill in hard times. That's why art in our present times is thin, evanescent, transparent, dreamy, infantilistic, afraid. The current core of thought on a deeply rooted emotional level is spelled S-U-R-V-I-V-A-L. If our own culture is afraid to deal with it because of complacency or ingrained fear best cured with entertainment, then pioneers and movers and shakers will have to take responsibility and show new models and possible avenues. It really is time for our culture to grow up.<br />
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By "growing up" or "taking responsibility", I'm not specifically referring to technological solutions of "saving" energy, the environment, nature etc - humans in panic seemingly always need to "save" something ! - but rather of multidimensional artists evoking new behavioural patterns, intelligence interchanges, existential models. These experimental engineers will very likely not use the commonplace given methods (art history, empirical science, interest-based economy, etc) but rather seek out entirely new ways based on visionary perspectives and, not forgetting, common sense.<br />
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When we meta-program the future through our art, we are very aware that our will is not singular and its manifestations may not be exactly as "wished" (analogous dynamics may occur in traditional magic). If we do good according to our own plans, yet the world is breaking apart in cataclysmic upheavals of politics and<br />
geo-shudders, we shouldn't be discouraged. We cannot fully grasp the mechanics of art, at least not until a greater kind of illumination has taken place. Whether one is secure, safe and pampered or vulnerably naked in the rubble, it is important to never lose [confidence] in art and its transformative powers. Instilling will and soul in artworks has created, creates and will keep creating major changes in the world outside your own.<br />
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We are accustomed to art being a secluded area of activity for kooks and experts. Some become successful and take on the roles as clowns or jesters. Some remain unsuccessful and take on the roles as tragic clowns and derogatory objects of ridicule. The experts, like similar people in high finance, do essentially nothing but are expert in meta-trading adjectives dealing with "worth" and "relevance". What could be a free-flowing exchange of irrational (in the good sense, I have to emphasize), emotional and radical ideas, has become hi-jacked/lo-jacked and dragged into an arena of stress, trade, illusion and mere decoration. I'm not merely talking about fine art in the traditional sense, but about our entire culture. Everything's commodified and marketed except perhaps events (performances, temporary installations, etc) which are usually handled by a sub/supra-economy of institutional funding. The direct communication between artwork and viewer is perhaps best handled by classic structures like museums and publicly available collections. The shady relationship between these kinds of structures and the art dealers is more than well-known though. Kickbacks mean the possibility to kick back and who could ask for more in stressful times like these?<br />
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Grassroots reactions in the form of art are seldom vital in themselves in the long run, but definitely interesting as phenomenae where art in itself is actually looked upon as more powerful than throwing a rock at a building. The expression of aggression and frustration by proxy is an emotional-magical act that could be integrated in mainstream culture if it's loud enough (punk culture being one clear example). That's how the overall culture works, by sucking up new, radical and aggressive seeds into its own slow-grinding soil. Whether the seed later becomes a bland garden flower or a nutritious vegetable no one powerful curator or institution can singularly decide. Herein lies not only great stimulating mysteries but also great optimism for the future.<br />
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And here we come again to the crux, so to speak: history shows, again and again, that change in direction, culture and behaviour comes not through divine providence but through distinctly human initiative. People with ideas and the will to manifest the ideas in question take on the role of creators and leaders and then change everything. How does this revolutionary process begin? It begins in fractions of thoughts and invisible inspiration that gradually conglomerate into ideas or feelings that in their turn eventually take on the shape of communicable forms (words, images, "memes", etc). Then, through a suitable medium, these formulations are spread and given by talismanic proxy to the world outside the mind(s) of the formulator(s). The sparks drifting towards the fuel.<br />
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Our culture is currently saturated with opportunities of communicating which, quite paradoxically, make it harder to communicate. If everything is apparently ablaze, who can see the flame of Prometheus? Our culture is saturated with possibilities of travel and discovery, but to an increasing degree we are only met by a globalised culture similar to the one on our own street. Our culture is saturated with concepts like freedom and choice but advertising, expertly using feelings of insecurity, make most people strive for complacent and comfortable homogenity. It's literally the emperor's new clothes designed by black magic: everyone wants a piece of the exclusive but everyone looks exactly the same!<br />
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Is it far-fetched to call our present culture one of illusion? We are presented with givens but none can really tangibly be taken, unless you very clearly leave the trodden paths. "Who dares wins "is something we are taught, but the culture as such does not encourage its manifestation in action.<br />
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At this point, we can touch upon the concept of magic in itself. As with most terms, it is used as the tribal leaders see fit. Today, it is undoubtedly synonymous with stage magic, tricks, illusions, extravagant, flamboyant magicians and their scantily dressed assistants. The magical aspects of pre-science and pre-culture, the pioneering seed-sowing work, are humourously disposed of. The aspects of empowerment of the individual. tribe, society, etc, ditto. The aspects of consciousness training also. Anything or anyone that distinctly brings magic back to a tangible surface, will be associated with certain negative keywords that are inherited from one indoctrinated generation to another. Why is this? The fear of real tangible change in one's life is greater than the fear of abstracted demons and wizards in our entertainment-drenched contemporary mythology.<br />
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Is my view of the future too dystopic? Isn't it better to try and get along in peace and harmony instead of painting things black? Well, of course it is, but not to the point of cheating ourselves that human happiness comes from dictated consumer patterns. Or that genuine happiness comes from obeying those one intuitively feels are ripping you off (or even apart) . My view is not dystopic. It is realistic. The varnish of our civilization is wearing thin and that is neither bad nor good. We, as caretakers of the present times, can probably enjoy our lives in wealth and comfort until we die. But the lives of our children may not be so blessed. The present superstitious belief in science, technology, urbanisation, globalisation, etc, is making a big pooh-pooh mess and unfortunately I believe there will be a big and violent "baptism of fire" in the centuries up ahead.<br />
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Counter-seeds of change can and will have to be planted today. And they are. The spirits of the elements and other spheres will have to be evoked to visible and tangible appearance. Let nature in her splendour, beauty and philosophy be the guide. The guidelines are readily available. If we are currently living in a so called technological heaven, then the gates of hell should be opened and minions of pro-human demons should be warmly welcomed to create havoc and tear apart all the digital illusions that enfeeble and fragment us. Regardless of our languages or terminologies, let's just agree that change is necessary. Not the transparent "change we can believe in", but one where future generations can look back at us and nod in proud approval rather than shake their heads in utter despair.<br />
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It could be appropriate to end as we began, with a full quote from the Gnostic philosopher Zosimos. Not necessarily to tie this in with the "ancients", but rather to give another fine example how the basic, well known conditions of life that we all share are preserved for future evaluation - and resonance. It is through poetry, literature, art and music that we decode and then encode ourselves, our children and those around us. We can indeed set examples for ourselves and for the future.<br />
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"BEAUTIFUL IT IS TO SPEAK AND BEAUTIFUL TO HEAR, beautiful to give and beautiful to take, beautiful to be poor and beautiful to be rich. How does nature teach giving and taking? The brazen man gives, and the moist stone receives; the metal gives, and the plant receives; the stars give, and the flowers receive; the sky gives, and the earth receives; the thunderclaps give darting fire. And all things are woven together and all things are undone again, and all things are mingled with one another, and all things are composed, and all things are permeated with one another, and all things are decomposed again. And everything will be moistened and become desicated again, and everything puts forth blossoms and everything withers again in the bowl of the altar. For each thing comes to pass with method and in fixed measure and according to the weighing of the four elements. The weaving together of all things and the undoing of all things and the whole fabric of things cannot come to pass without method. The method is natural, preserving due order in its inhaling and its exhaling; it brings increase and it brings stagnation. And to sum up: through the harmonies of separating and combining, and if nothing of the method be neglected, all things bring forth nature. For nature applied to nature transforms nature. Such is the order of natural law throughout the cosmos, and thus all things hang together."<br />
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<br />Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-43709940667289547452013-07-11T08:31:00.000-06:002013-11-09T15:16:24.333-07:00Shimmer, Sparkle, Spin & Burn by V. Cummer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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WHAT IS DIVINE INSPIRATION AND WHY DO WE NEED IT? </b>Why do we put ourselves through the efforts of creation, giving and giving of ourselves over and over again, when it sometimes seems there is so little return? Why do we feel compelled to write, as though our very blood and breath, our bodies and our spirits, couldn't live without it?<br />
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As though we have little choice but to dip into that divine well and drink of it as best we can and, in so drinking, surrender ourselves to what comes after. The words surge through us and we can't just help ourselves. We must write or die.<br />
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As poets, it's true that we can't help but be inspired by the wonders and horrors of the world around us and our own experiences in it, both sweet and the bitter, but poetry comes from a divine source is clearly something special. It seeks to cast a light darkly through a stained glass window, a light that otherwise might not be seen. It seeks to tell a truth that can't otherwise be told. It seeks to transform all who hear it, spreading change in both creative and destructive ways. While the poet who becomes the conduit for that light, that truth, that transformation may not, at least at first, even be consciously aware what it is we've gotten ourselves mixed up in. We may not know we've essentially become a priest or priestess of the Muse.<br />
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Words pour through the hands of a poet like drops of crystalline water, sparkling and sparking off the outer world, looking for purchase in the physical. Poetry wants to describe what is difficult to describe, hard to capture. It tries to hold the shimmer of the dying sun on the waves, the gleaming arc of the stars across an impossibly deep night sky, the smile and scent of a newborn baby, the energy rising up within you as you dance around a Beltane fire, something you can't otherwise grasp and yet are intimately drawn to. As Yeats puts it, <i>the true poet is all the time a visionary...</i><br />
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Divinely inspired words carry an even greater charge, one that resounds through all aspects of prophecy, magick, and witchcraft. These words have power because they remain closely linked to the web that lies behind the physical form of things, a shining web that some call Wyrd or fate itself.<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Of course, all destiny cannot be written in words, cannot be captured in a physical shape. Yet destiny must, by its nature, find its way into this world and the only way to do that is to take on form.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">The current of power is the bright darkness and black brightness that hides behind divine poetry, divine song, divine prose, all of them paeans to the Goddess Muse. They are prayers to destiny, seeking to grasp what cannot otherwise be grasped. We know its there because we've felt it on rare occasion. We've caught a glimpse of what is really real through the cracks in the world's skin. We've dreamt and dance it, and yet seen it slip away as soon as the dream ends or the dance dies.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Of course, it means pain to hold the truth of these words, these feelings, even for but a moment. It's an ecstasy and astonishing to behold, just for a breath or two, what lies behind the window they make on the greater universe. But then for a poet to be a channel for the divine, we must live in pain and pleasure for the time it takes to write these words down - knowing the whole time that they can never be enough, never tell the whole story. All we can do is brave the pain and not let ourselves be carried too far adrift into the rapture. All we can do is struggle to submit ourselves and our meager talents to the gift we have tapped into.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Truest poets often die of this gift. We are torn apart by the forces we have unleashed upon the page, the canvas, the world. We wear ourselves out by rushing ever after that singular experience; often giving up what most others think makes living worthwhile. But then what can food and family, fame and fortune, mean to us when compared to the glories of drinking the divine essence? Better to be a bright light and burn out than to live on in the slumbering dark.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Like prophets of old, we can't quite help it. We can't resist that bargain, difficult and dangerous though it might sometimes be. That beautiful light is just too terrible to resist, and to make the attempt to put it into words becomes a quest as great as any hero ever undertook. But then we are heroes in our own way - going Out There, experiencing the edge of what is normal and stared, and then going even further, into the dangerous Abyss. Trying to find a way to bring back what we've found there and give it purchase in this world. Through our efforts, what is supernatural might become quite natural. That is, the odd may well turn into the norm, the strange becoming the accepted way of things. And then, the poets of the next generation must do it all over again, pushing the envelope, sparking the continued evolution of the human spirit and collective psyche.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Many artists have found themselves on that bittersweet edge, riding between ecstasy and despair. John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, John Wilmot, Sylvia Plath, [Jack Kerouac] - there are many names, many gravestones, some well tended and some forgotten, scattered along the battle line of the Arts. And yet how could they not fight the fight? They were all drawn to it, unable to resist, unable to be anything else but whom they were meant to be. They chose to live until they died and to not demean the price, to not deny their gift.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">This is our shared journey, the journey of the poet and the madman. It's much the same journey as that taken by the practitioner of the occult, the seeker after what is 'hidden', what can't be grasped by mortal means. For magick is an art like any other and needs inspiration, and so must seek to court the chancy favors of the Muse. Ritual may be expected method rather than the pen or the keyboard, yet they are all tools in the end to touch the source and bring about transformation.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">We, as poets, are the Witch, the Magician, the Prophet, the Shaman, the Star. We are all wanderers in the dark, seeking to bridge two worlds through the sheer power of the word, allowing that bright current to flow through us. Destruction, change, rebirth, passion, fear, heartbreak, hunger, need, bravery, seduction, daring - all must pass through the page and out into the world. As ideas and spirits and forces far too great to exist in their present form and be intact in the physical find their manifestation through the arts.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">We do our best to open that door for them to enter in, even if it means we pay a great price for the effort. Even if, sometimes, that price means everything. For we hold the door open through our life force, bleeding to bring to the world of form something that's never been seen or known before. Out of love, we make new what is most needed. We do it because we can and because we must. For that creative force, once felt, no longer allows us to turn back. We've tasted the divine and we want desperately to share that essence, that experience, as best as we are able.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">Who are we and why do we do this? We are poets. We are madness. We are desire. We are prophets. We are witches. We are the evolutionaries of the world and revolutionaries of [destiny]. We are glitter in the hundred thousand eyes of the great spider who sits in the very center of all that is chaos and empty and nothingness and weaves all that is real and there and perfect. We are the darlings of daring and the servants of the art, an art we would willingly allow to break us, if only it lets something truly special into the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">From Datura : An Anthology of Esoteric Poesis</span></div>
Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-23369676496038084652013-06-17T18:47:00.001-06:002013-06-17T18:47:54.599-06:00Magic Psalm by Allen Ginsberg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Because this world is on the wing and what cometh no man<br />
can know<br />
O Phantom that my mind pursues from year to year descend<br />
from heaven to this shaking flesh<br />
catch up my fleeting eye in the vast Ray that knows no bounds<br />
-- Inseparable -- Master --<br />
Giant outside Time with all its falling leaves -- Genius of the<br />
Universe -- Magician in Nothingness where appear red<br />
clouds --<br />
Unspeakable King of the roads that are gone -- Unintelligible<br />
Horse riding out of the graveyard -- Sunset spread over<br />
Cordillera and insect -- Gnarl Moth --<br />
Griever -- Laugh with no mouth, Heart that never had flesh to<br />
die -- Promise that was not made -- Reliever, whose<br />
blood burns in a million animals wounded --<br />
O Mercy, Destroyer of the World, O Mercy, Creator of Breasted<br />
Illusions, O Mercy, cacophonous warmouthed doveling….”<br />
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<br />
Come,<br />
invade my body with the sex of God, choke up my nostrils with<br />
corruption's infinite caress,<br />
transfigure me to slimy worms of pure sensate transcendency<br />
I'm still alive,<br />
croak my voice with uglier than reality, a psychic tomato<br />
speaking Thy million mouths,<br />
Myriad-tongued my Soul, Monster or Angel, Lover that comes<br />
to fuck me forever -- white gown on the Eyeless Squid --<br />
Asshole of the Universe into which I disappear -- Elastic Hand that spoke to Crane –<br />
Music that passes into the phonograph of years from another Millennium -- Ear of the buildings of NY --<br />
That which I believe -- have seen -- seek endlessly in leaf dog<br />
eye -- fault always, lack -- which makes me think...<br />
Desire that created me, Desire I hide in my body, Desire all Man know Death, Desire surpassing the Babylonian possible world<br />
That makes my flesh shake orgasm of they Name which I don’t know never will never speak –<br />
Speak to Mankind to say the great bell tolls a golden tone on iron balconies in every million universe,<br />
I am thy prophet come home this world to scream an unbearable<br />
Name through my 5 senses hideous sixth<br />
That knows Thy hand on its invisible phallus, covered with electric bulbs of death –<br />
Peace, Resolver where I mess up illusion, Softmouth Vagina \that enters my brain form above, Ark-Dove with a bough of death.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Drive me crazy, God I’m ready for disintegration of my mind, disgrace me in the eye of the earth,<br />
Attack my hairy heart with terror eat my cock Invisible croak of deathfrog leap on me pack of heavy dogs salivating light,<br />
Devour my brain One flow of endless consciousness, I’m scared of your promise must make scream my prayer in fear –<br />
Descend O Light Creator & Eater of Mankind, disrupt, disrupt the world in its madness of bombs and murder,<br />
Volcanoes of flesh over London, on Paris a rain of eyes – truckloads of angelhearts besmearing Kremlin walls – the skullcap of light to New York –<br />
Myriad jeweled feet on the terraces of Pekin – veils of electrical gas descending over India—cities of Bacteria invading the brain __ the Soul escaping into the rubber waving mouths of Paradise –<br />
This is the Great call, this is the Tocsin of the Eternal War, this is the cry of the Mind slain in Nebulae,<br />
This is the Golden Bell of the Church that has never existed, this is the boom in the heart of the sunbeam, this is trumpet of the Worm at Death,<br />
Shovel my feet under the Andes, splatter my brains on the Sphinx, drape my beard and air over the Empire State Building,<br />
Cover my belly with hands of moss, fill up my ears with your lightning, blind me with prophetic rainbows<br />
That I taste the shit of Being at last, that I touch Thy genitals in the palmtree,<br />
That the vast Ray of Futurity enter my mouth to sound They Creation Forever Unborn, O Beauty invisible to my Century!<br />
That my prayer surpass my understanding, that I may lay my vanity at Thy foot, that I no longer fear Judgment over Allen of this world<br />
Born in Newark come into Eternity in New York crying again in Peru for ultimate Tongue to psalm the unspeakable,<br />
That I surpass desire for transcendency and enter the calm water of the universe<br />
That I ride out this wave, not drown forever in the flood of my imagination<br />
That I not be slain thru my own insane magic, this crime be punished in merciful jails of death, men understand my speech out of their Turkish heart, the prophets aid me with Proclamation.<br />
The Seraphim acclaim Thy Name, Thyself at once in one huge Mouth of universe make meat reply.<br />
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<br />Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-53154632330064160632013-05-30T14:23:00.001-06:002013-10-31T00:34:38.226-06:00De Occulo Bjundo remixed by Syd Arthur<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
1. This is thee Book of the Growing of the Nostril Horn of the OverWHOAMan-icorn, of which the symbol in the profane world is the dot in the circle, and of which the meaning is Illumination.<br />
2. Thou who readest this doth not read; thou who seeketh shall not attain; thou who understandeth doth not understand. For attainment and understanding cometh only when thou art not thou, yea, when thou art no-thing.<br />
3. Once there was a Dude, a disciple of some great Member of our Order whom men name the Great Bud which signifieth He Who be Here & Now Mate. For men asked the Great Bud, Are you a God? And he answered, No. And they asked again, Are you a saint? And he answered again, No. And they asked then, What are you? And he answered: I am awake, mate. Thence is he known as the Great Bud, the Awakened One.<br />
4. And the Dude, in order to awaken himself, practiced the Art of Meditation as taught by the Great Bud, which in its original form before being distorted by False Imaginings and Elaborations of Theologians, was but this: To look upon all incidents and events and Remember to Say Unto Thine Soul of each: <i>This is transitory.</i><br />
5. And the monk looked upon all incidents and events, Reminding himself always:<i> This is transitory.</i><br />
6. And the monk came close to Awakening, and therefore was he in great peril, for The Lord of the Abyss of Hallucinations, whom our Order calls E. Gawd, the Sky Tyrant, cometh quickly to one near Awakening, to hypnotize him again into the Sleep of Fools which is the ordinary consciousness of Men.<br />
7. And E. Gawd did sorely afflict the Dude with death of offspring, and insanity of loved ones, and eye-troubles, and slander, and malice, and the great curse of Law Suits, and diverse sufferings; but the Dude thought only: <i>This is transitory.</i> And he was closer to Awakening.<br />
8. And E. Gawd, the Sky Tyrant, the Lord of the Abyss of Hallucinations, then caused the Dude to die and reincarnate as an almost Mindless creature, a Parrot, which flitted from tree to tree deep in the jungle; and E Gawd thought, "Now he hath no chance of Awakening."<br />
9. But a brother of the Great Bud came strolling one day through the jungle, chanting the Teachings, and the Parrot heard, and repeated the one phrase over and over: <i>This is transitory</i>.<br />
10. And Mental Activity began in the Parrot, and the memories of his past life came to him, and the meaning of the teaching, This is transitory; and E. Gawd cursed horribly in frustration, and caused him to die again and reincarnate as an Elephant, even deeper in the jungle and further from the languages of men.<br />
11. And many years passed, and there seemed no chance of Awakening for that soul; but the effects of good karma, like those of bad, continueth forever; and eventually Men came to the jungle, and took the Elephant captive, to sell him to a Boss Playa.<br />
12. And the Elephant lived in the courtyard of the Boss Playa, and many years passed.<br />
13. And another brother of the Great Bud came to the Boss Playa, and taught in the courtyard, and his teaching was: <i>This is transitory.</i> And memories awoke in the Elephant, and meaning was understood in the memories, and Awakening again came close.<br />
14. And E. Gawd cursed wrathfully, and caused the Elephant to die; and this time E. Gawd took good care that reincarnation would recur at the furthest possible remove from all chance of Awakening, for E. Gawd caused that the monk be reborn this time as an American Evangelist.<br />
15. And the Evangelist was of the Moral Majority and he journeyed across the American nation, North and South and East and West, preaching that all were in danger of hellfire, and that there was only One Path to Salvation, and that this Path lay in believing All he Said and doing All he Demanded.<br />
16. And he enslaved many, who became mental Automatons, and these Automatons went about crying: Hallelujah! We Are Saved!<br />
17. And Gawd was gleeful, for now the soul of the monk was further from Illumination than ever; for previously he had been a Subjectively Hopeless Idiot -- id est, one who is aware of his own hopeless idiocy -- but now he was an Objectively Hopeless Idiot -- id est, one who Thinks that he Knows when in fact he doth Know Nothing.<br />
18. But the Evangelist met with others of the Clergy to discuss sending Missionaries to the Heathen of the East; and there One spoke of the superstitions of the Transient and Eccentrics, and he mentioned the Great Bud teaching that <i>All is transitory</i>.<br />
19. And Mental Activity began in the Evangelist, and memories of Past Incarnations stirred; and E. Gawd, in bitter frustration, attempted the Last Trap of All, and caused the Evangelist to become MegaBroWhoaMan, Master of Masters, Penultimate Supreme Being of all possible Universes.<br />
20. And MegaBroWhoaMan abode in Divine Bliss for billions of billions of years, creating many lesser Supreme Beings who created Their own universes and were as Gods to them; and MegaBroWhoaMan watched all this Activity and rejoiced in it with High Indifference; for MegaBroWhoaMan was Consciousness Without Desire.<br />
21. And the Dude now seemed at last cut off from Illumination forever.<br />
22. But finally MegaBroWhoaMan observed, after watching many Supreme Beings come and go, and all Their universes grow and flourish and perish, that the great Law of Laws is that <i>All is transitory.</i><br />
23. And MegaBroWhoaMan realized that <i>He</i>, too, <i>was transitory</i>.<br />
24. And MegaBroWhoaMan achieved Illumination.<br />
25. And MegaBroWhoaMan came back to ordinary consciousness in the mind of the Dude practicing the Great Bud meditation of looking on all things and thinking, <i>This is transitory</i>.<br />
26. And the Dude did not know if he was a Dude imagining he had been MegaBroWhoaMan or MegaBroWhoaMan playing at being a Dude; and thus was his Illumination perfected.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Lovingly remixed from RAW by Syd Arthur]</span>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-61044740634619259422013-05-18T14:01:00.002-06:002013-07-30T18:30:59.764-06:00THEE GRÆNN BÖK BUY P. ORNOT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
They speak Panic. They conquer from within. <i>From within.</i> Whispering words of Panic to an inner ear, suggesting, conniving, adding brush-strokes to the pictures of the Last Few Days. And we are mere understudies, mere look-alikes.<br />
<br />
The curtains rose on these histrionics with the birth of Man. Long before the first crude figures were daubed in the half-light of ancient caves, they were here, waiting, with Infinite Patience. We have never been alone. There are others indigenous to this spinning ball, trapped in some Phantom Zone, waiting for the kill, the sacrifice, the Second and Final Death.<br />
<br />
The father of Grock the clown, having had his legs broken in eight places by his father for professional reasons, broke Grock’s legs in eight places to be certain that the child would grow up walking grotesquely so as to ensure his eminence as a clown.<br />
<br />
We are the spinning, hobbling, waddling clowns in the eyes of our secret police. The livestock and the Farmer.<br />
<br />
Humans can be programmed with any belief or attitude. The human does not possess “free will.” We do not control our personal convictions, our opinions, our feelings. None of these are constant. We are composed of many “I”s, each a crystallization of opposite belief. When the wind changes, one “I” blows away, another steps forward. All of these “I”s revolve around an absent center. Penetrate the veils of personality. Within, there is nothing. Beyond a series of successively more tenuous masks, a hollow core. But, not quite hollow. A Puppet- Master sits and presides. A foreign body.<br />
<br />
When you walk down a street your eyes are presented by a continuously changing perspective, every visible object slides across your field of vision in a precise geometrical relationship to reinforce the illusion that one is really walking through three-dimensional space.<br />
<br />
I thought it was permissible to sit in my comfortable armchair and doze, as it didn’t seem anything particular was happening. No-one is demanding my attention, so why should I feel guilty to just drift?<br />
<br />
Once, I opened my eyes again, and I saw the facts of my situation. My comfortable chair became the seat in the cockpit of an aircraft, flying 50,000 feet above the earth, quite out of control, guided only by a long obsolescent automatic pilot. Despite the enormity of danger this situation presented, I sought the oblivion of sleep once more. It’s hardly ever now that I panic, and stirring briefly, kick spastically at the controls, striking random levers.<br />
<br />
We are content to see nothing.<br />
<br />
We have no control.<br />
<br />
It doesn’t even feel like failure.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
We thought the world was merely a question of gathering. We didn’t understand that knowledge is kept under heavy guard. We thought that to see a door implied the probability of its opening. We waited and waited, until finally such a great lethargy came over us that we were compelled to drop our aspirations, or seek their fulfillment in a purely imaginary landscape.<br />
<br />
We have never been alone. The door is fastidiously patrolled. There are, and always have been, those amongst us only <i>seemingly</i> human.<br />
<br />
Reality is <i>there</i>, but w<i>e do not see it</i>.<br />
<br />
It is fashionable these days to view the Universe as an “associative domain of consciousness.” The notion of an observer-created Universe, that reality is in essence subjective, might perhaps appeal and comfort, but it is an imaginary state of affairs. It is a tremendous conceit. There is a Reality that in no way needs our participation to ensure its continued existence. The Universe is not conditional on human population. Our notions that we have only to “become whole,” filled with joy, to see a corresponding change in the Universe, contacting friendly angels and so forth, is really an insufferable arrogance. There is nothing out there that cares. There are <i>no</i> guardian angels, holy or otherwise.<br />
<br />
Were we to possess any real degree of consciousness we would have the facility of being able to immediately discern truth from falsity, reality from fantasy. There <i>is</i> a distinction.<br />
<br />
Individuals approaching critical breakthrough point, on the edge of evolutionary transition, the strange attraction to a new order of being, are ruthlessly attacked by the Fear Arm. They are either broken down—paranoid schizophrenia, demonomania, cardiac arrest, chronic migraine, suicide, radiation sickness—or initiated into new belief systems, arteries quickly hardening, lusting to re-locate the nullity of mind on earth. Individuals are attacked and herded like sheep, duped into a false flower garden. Like pawns in a vast Chess, our magnetic center, that part of us which is drawn towards the search for freedom, is taken with consent, because we are believing creatures. Born to grow fat on belief. Forcefed with belief. Turned towards blind alleys along which we will forever stray. We sleep on eternally, dreaming that we are awake.And the Ultra Terrestrials (UTs) are the Dream-Masters.<br />
<br />
Our conclusion: UTs draw their vital sustenance from the tapping of the human state of arrested evolution. At critical transition points in human development, belief-circuitry is activated, which acts as a conduit for the life-energy.<br />
<br />
That we are not in control; that we are not alone. These are facts of our existence. Everything you have “known” and thought to be true up until this point is a lie. You are stupid, and you are asleep. All your systems of knowledge are based upon an absence of understanding. You talk of progress, yet you still have to begin. What you have is worth nothing, because it was not had through struggle, but through “accident.” You have wandered clumsily. And beneath everything, underlying all your squalid joys, hopes, trials and tribulations, your vestigial dances, you are overwhelmed with misery. A suppressed emergency. Not one person understands another. Almost everything in life is wrong. There can be no accurate meaning. It is all accidental, nothing is controlled, at least by us. We are thrall to the Law of Accident. A tall story of hypnotic alliance, and every little thing, every little thing. A foul fix of blank kidnapping time.<br />
<br />
Our experience of life is of a continual succumbing to inertia. Always abandoning for the anesthetic solace of black wings.<br />
<br />
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<br />
We talk about love, about truth. We have never known love or truth. Up until now they have not existed. They are but a distant rumor. We are like spoilt little children. We presume consciousness, but we are asleep. We presume the Universe accommodates us, but it does not care. We presume our thoughts can change the Universe, but it will never change. Forget the Universe, forget your “humanity.” At the end of the day, there is only YOU. You in your small corner. You in your Hell. You and your Personality.<br />
<br />
What is it that sucks the spit from your eye? What dim crave is the sound of your love? See it parade everything it can not uncover. The world blocked out with one hand.<br />
<br />
The only way to begin is to try and realize that you are asleep. It is no good to say, “I am asleep.” You have to <i>realize</i> it. There is a great inertia which works against us in this. There is the inertia which had been imposed throughout long years of social conditioning. Even should this inertia be overcome, additional external pressures come into play. Simply put, there is something out there that <i>doesn’t want you to learn.</i><br />
<br />
Some people are very conceited indeed. They decide that they can perform “magick” and influence the very fabric of time and space, in a cat’s whisker. And all of this without ever pausing to remember that they are asleep. Western “occult” traditions are practically valueless. If you want freedom, if you <i>really</i> want to wake from your sleep, then the “occult” is probably the last path you should follow. It is the idiot’s road. The idiot’s love of distraction. Another game to keep you from <i>the real work.</i><br />
<br />
Forces malign, coupled with typical human inertia, generated through thousands of years of false learning, combine to produce a deterrent so powerful that it is a rare individual indeed who could possibly hope to persevere through such an ordeal. The ordeal: objective verification of all experimental hypotheses through intense study of oneself.<br />
<br />
Resignation, however, is not an option.<br />
<br />
If escape is not achieved, and if the hidden hand does not snuff out your candle, the likelihood is entrance into, and adoption of, a rigid system of beliefs based on certain “clues” or “keys” occurring in the original work.<br />
<br />
These clues may have originated from dream, vision, visitation, voice, etc. Once keys have been formulated as such, and begin to cohere into a belief-system, the real work has, for all practical purposes, been terminated. What then happens is a gradual slide into redundancy, stagnation, and obsolescence. Such beliefs present only minute fragments of a larger jigsaw, and in themselves, are an index to nothing.<br />
<br />
<i>Their beliefs are wholly induced by external agencies in their bid to prevent the larger picture coming into view, and to rule out the possibility of real breakthrough with the work.</i><br />
<br />
The so-called “born again” phenomenon is one clear example.<br />
<br />
The UFO and associated phenomena constitute a vast panoply of bizarre and inexplicable events, spawning an equally broad spectrum of theory and belief. Evidence contradicts itself. It is like a box full of parts from fifty different jigsaws. This is called “the confusion effect.” It is quite intentional.<br />
<br />
The pivot of meaning, the space between a possibility and a belief, is the threshold of knowledge. The agencies which subvert real knowledge and channel it into harmless and passive beliefs are the guardians of the threshold. Through the manipulation of belief, a shiny silver slug’s trail of disparate clues, these agencies seek to control the destiny of life on this planet.<br />
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<br />
By default.<br />
<br />
Sentient, discorporate beings. Ultraterrestrials. From neither outer, nor inner space. An order of beings which resides within the same spatio-temporal co-ordinates as ourselves, on a different vibratory level of matter. Clearly, they possess the facility to access our vibratory level of matter, and can “phase” into our physical reality.<br />
<br />
This act of intervention requires energy: blood sacrifice, vampirism or simple appropriation. A dead cow, or a stalled engine.<br />
<br />
The Men-In-Black (M.I.B.) are amongst the crudest, yet paradoxically most sophisticated, manifestations of the Ultraterrestrials. Apparently minions, shock troops, as it were, they come from below, and have a sense of humor to match. Their aim is the inculcation and escalation of fear. They circumvent possible transmission of witness accounts. If necessary, they have license to kill.<br />
<br />
Another level of UT manifestation is as the Knowledge-giver. The Dispenser. The Great Holy Pharmacist. This is the direct “hacking” of human herding disposition, laying down “bugs” with post-operative, delayed effect, often years. (Look back into your childhood, down a foggy grey tunnel. A guy dressed in all black ever whisper in your ear?)<br />
<br />
Carefully staged theater. Visitation. Dream. Vision. Angelic conversation. In the midst of a subtly induced delerium, certain knowledge introduced. Small scraps of panic. Little shards of a counterfeit heaven. And then God disappears, leaving you on a yellow brick road, preternaturally glowing.<br />
<br />
Puppetry. True knowledge is a matter of <i>control</i>. Counterfeit knowledge is a matter of <i>promulgation and worship.</i><br />
<br />
Our growth is forestalled, deferred, by the “friendliness” of Gods and Angels. We have no will of our own, because we are bound to beliefs generated from without, spoken within. Every belief is the ragged claw mark left by a long-gone parasite. The vital sustenance has been drawn. We are dead. Until the next time, asleep, and in very great danger. On the wings of nightmare.<br />
<br />
One minute, absolute confidence and assurance. The next, all is lost. That is the way we are constructed. Built up to fall down. No substance, no backbone. Transported by brief glories, only to end up more crippled, more irrevocably broken than ever before. And all to no purpose of our own, because we never retain anything, never build on anything other than sand. Never reaching and touching, never finding anyone. Your mute suffering achieves nothing. Doubled over with gut pains, gut suffering, black vomit accreting on your feet. Never finding anything worth finding. Always thrown back into the same freezeframe of horror. You. You found comfort with others, apparently sharing the same misery. There was solace in that. A small place to stay and breathe in, look out of. Never daring to remember you had to leave. Be alone once more. It has to happen. Others forget you, achieve some miracle escape of circumstance, spinning off into further mad orbits of their own. The trappings don’t matter. All that matters to you is that they’re gone.Your haven destroyed. Perhaps it’s the same for them. There’s really no way of knowing. This is what it’s like to be asleep. No comfort. No escape. No presence. No satisfaction. It’s the warmth where you just sat, as you leave for another cold seat. That’s what hurts.<br />
<br />
Nowhere left to go. No place to stay.<br />
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<br />
They were consigned to their phantom zone before we were a glint in Horus’ eye. Turning in fear and loathing. Gradually sieving through the sands of knowledge and being, locating their truth, finding their source and path and way to do. We can’t call it consciousness. It’s merely a modality of instinct. Having no sex, they located ours. As surrogates. They don’t need it, don’t want it. Need only to play with our fascination and horror of it, to further their escape. If they draw us away from the body and what it means, the further bodies attainable and what they mean, the Law of Reciprocity, then they win. We approach the Second and Final Death. Which means death for us all, death for the believers. Another Holocaust. The Infidels live, and escape their prison, their karmic cycle.<br />
<br />
The Angels and Gods know no sex. Are completely without passion. Their seeds in our physical reality are sterile. Jesus on the Cross. The cold plague of mass religion. Sexless, denying carnal experience. Mirroring the Ultra-terrestrial landscape. Jesus was an Ultraterrestrial.<br />
<br />
This state of sexlessness is called “iesu.” A bitter joke. Sexual molestation is one of their most cynical manifestations. The Christ- Spirit is a shadow of a ravening thing, a twisted mirror of a wormbrained deity, struggling to escape the confines of its narrow cell, sending its spirit-spores across to Earth, to wriggle in the body of a man on a cross.<br />
<br />
And the future?<br />
<br />
We live in screens. Pure screens. The removal of ourselves, our identities, from the organic to the solid-state. Our symbolisms are a succession of steps away from corporeal existence. We drive our cars as extensions of the physical body. We conduct our lives through the screen, through the shift of perspective, barely deigning to move slow, leaden limb across the flat earth. We never leave our homes. We observe the Other on the screen of our projection. Repeatedly, steps removed. The ecstasy of information. Information vertigo.<br />
The vertiginous heights of our ambition. The cold sheen of the new orgasm. Leaving behind forever the Ancient Mysteries, for a New Sacred. The Information Ecstatic, the imminent execution of World Holocaust through the neutral screen, is the countdown to the Second and Final Death.<br />
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<br />
From Religion to Technology.<br />
<br />
The voice whispers, babbles on, in the inner ear.<br />
<br />
How would an eagle feel if it were hatching chickens’ eggs? At first the eagle thinks that it will hatch little eagles whom it is going to bring up to be big eagles. But what comes out of the eggs is always nothing but little chicks. Desperate, the eagle keeps hoping that the chicks will turn into eagles after all. But no, at the end they are nothing but cackling hens. When the eagle found this out, it had a hard time suppressing his impulse to eat up all the chicks and cackling hens. What kept it from doing so was a small hope. The hope, namely, that among the many cackling chicks there might be, one day, a little eagle capable of growing up into a big eagle, capable like itself, to look from its lofty perch into the far distance, in order to detect new worlds, new thoughts and new forms of living.<br />
<br />
You want the truth in a mirror, where you can’t grasp it. You have entered this world quite accidentally and will silently leave it again. Only the truth in your own fist will make you the master of this Earth. You set security before the truth.<br />
<br />
You are cowardly in your thinking because real thought is accompanied by bodily feelings, and you are afraid of your body.<br />
<br />
You have built everything upon sand; your house, your life, your culture and civilization, your science and technology, you love and your education of children. You don’t know it, you don’t want to know it, and you slay the great man who tells it to you. You built your house on sand and you all did this because you are incapable of feeling life in yourself, because you kill love in your child even before it is born, because you cannot tolerate any alive expression, any free, natural movement.<br />
<br />
With the greatest consistency, your thinking always misses the truth, just as a playful sharpshooter is able to consistently hit right beside the bull’s eye.<br />
<br />
You always think in too short of terms, just from breakfast to lunch. You must learn to think back in terms of centuries and forward in terms of thousands of years. You have to learn to think in terms of living life, in terms of your development from the first plasmatic flake to the animal man which walks erect but cannot yet think straight. You have no memory even for things which happened ten years ago or even this year, and so you keep repeating the same stupidities you said 2,000 years ago. You cling to your stupidities as a louse clings to fur. You do not dare see how deeply you stick in the morass of your misery. Every once in a while you stick your head in the morass of your misery. Every once in a while you stick your head out of the morass to yell, Heil! The croaking of a frog in a marsh is closer to life.<br />
<br />
There is never any progress. Everything remains the same.The same as it has been for tens of thousands of years. The outward form changes. The essence does not. Man remains just the same. “Civilized” and “cultured” people live with exactly the same interests as the most “primitive” savages. Contemporary civilization is based on violence and slavery and fine words. But all these fine words about “progress” and “civilization” are merely words.<br />
<br />
There are machines, not people. People who no longer consider why they are here at all. They merely exist. Surrounding themselves with false illusory reasons for living. To pass the time before they die. Millions of dead souls. The children are already dead. They were dead before they were even born. The cycle has come full circle and we are living out our last moments. It is five minutes to midnight. Yet people refuse to recognize it as such. They are told lies and they believe them.<br />
<br />
<br />
The End is Here or There.<br />
<br />
The beginning is nowhere.<br />
<br />
The struggle from the exterior to the interior. From the interior to the exterior. In between is the void. Yet the pain of anger is never enough. Whoever put you here is manipulating you. It’s always been that way. Now it destroys. To many of us, only the sound and rhythm of our breathing reminds us that we are alive.<br />
<br />
Upon Melanicus Wings it broods over this Earth. Deriving the energy that will sustain and evolve it. An evil thing that is exploiting us. It obscures the stars. A vast, black vampire.<br />
<br />
The flux between that which isn’t and that which won’t be, or the state that is commonly and absurdly called existence, is merely a rhythm of heavens and hells, and is intermediate to both.<br />
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<br />
Uninhabited.<br />
<br />
We are all uninhabited. Inside of all of us is Nothing. This manipulation comes from the initial incursion of Ultra-terrestrial influences into the human life-wave, attracted to the individual embryo or sperm as an effective means of incarnating genetic mutations.<br />
<br />
We’ve been damned by giants sound asleep, or by “civilized” concepts and abstractions that cannot realize themselves: those little harlots have visited their caprices upon us, those dark clowns have anathematized us for laughing so disrespectfully, because as with all clowns, underlying buffoonery is the desire to be taken seriously. We’ve been damned by corpses and skeletons and mummies, which twitch and totter with pseudo-life derived from conveniences.<br />
<br />
Once upon a time this Earth was a no-man’s land, that other levels of vibratory existence explored and fought over for colonization. Mankind won that battle for colonization, yet <i>now</i> the Earth is literally owned by <i>something</i>. All others are warned off.<br />
<br />
The Ultra-terrestrials are the beings which exist in the same spacetime coordinates as life on Earth, yet on a different vibratory level. They exist as parasites on human consciousness. As beings that exist as pure vibratory energy, they need the energy that human consciousness contains in order to sustain themselves. That human energy has to be controlled if it is to be tapped effectively. And that is what they have done.<br />
<br />
We have been, and continue to be, consistently manipulated into belief systems that lead us to accept that we matter. We believe. We have Faith. We accept. Why? To some it represents a fundamental inherent human trait; the <i>need</i> to believe in something. All beliefs are based on the promise of the <i>afterlife</i>, but it is a promise based upon adhering to rigid behavioral rules during life. A life consisting of unquestioning acceptance of fundamentals, unquestioning belief and dedication to the rules significant to the particular belief system. They are, in all cases, structures that guarantee non-development and human involution resulting ultimately in global destruction.<br />
<br />
There is something of ultra-pathos—of cosmic sadness—in the universal search for the belief system that one<br />
feels has been revealed by either unworldly inspiration or analysis. Clinging to it long after its insufficiency has been revealed is utterly hopeless. The only seemingly conclusive utterance, or seemingly substantial thing to cling to, is a product of dishonesty, ignorance and fatigue. All belief structures go back and back, until they’re worn out or until something occurs that indicates a move forward.<br />
<br />
Belief systems limit human consciousness, inner development and evolution. That is their sole aim. To bring human consciousness under control so that it may be farmed.<br />
<br />
We are the cattle for these ultraterrestrials. Belief systems are the green grass upon which we spend our short lives grazing, safe and satisfied. Faith, prayer, rigid behavioral traits such as hatred, ignorance and unquestioning obedience to all are the milk upon which these beings feed off during human life spans. Physical death and the transference of the undeveloped human consciousness into oblivion is the survival factor of these beings. It’s the meat that keeps them alive, as it were, on their own plane of existence as forms of pure energy.<br />
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<br />
Yet a characteristic that <i>is</i> inherent in human nature is the question of whether or not the grass we are made to eat is greener on the other side of the fence. Or if some other kind of vegetation growing on the other side of the fence would be tastier. Small minorities are constantly searching and questioning for real answers to the question of absolute truth. They do not recognize any answers in any past or present belief systems. These minorities represent the gravest danger to the ultra-terrestrial conspiracy. These minorities search for the expansion of the human consciousness and the development of the different levels of the human animal. The danger is not in the small minorities in themselves. They can afford to dispense with a few of the cows if<br />
they escape by breaking down a section of the fence once in a while. But wait. Can they really afford to?<br />
Of course they can’t. Cows on the other side of the field may spot the break in the fence and escape over it too, if they had the inclination, and soon the small break in the fence would become a gaping hole and the minority of escaped cows would become the majority. So no escapes can be allowed.<br />
<br />
Any individuals or minority group who threaten escape are subjected to the harshest punishment. The majority are also subject to this punishment, they know this and they present a formidable force working against the minorities seeking to escape from the grip of the ultraterrestrials; from the grip of the status quo. The ultra-terrestrials deliberately manufacture confusion across the globe, manufacture wars, sabotage any attempt at global cohesion. A close analogy would be a prisoner of war camp.<br />
<br />
The rules laid out were that anybody caught trying to escape would be immediately executed; they installed fear. However, if anybody had the courage to attempt to escape despite this fear (which could only effectively occur in small numbers; all prisoners can’t escape at once) then the majority of the prisoners in the prison would suffer terrible hardship and torture at the hands of their captors. Therefore there is the installed omnipresent pressure from the prisoners themselves to resist any small minority plans for escape. And so it is on Planet Earth.<br />
<br />
Every man and woman who reaches a higher level of spiritual and intellectual awareness becomes more aware of the presence of a higher intelligence that is separate from the human animal. They have become incorporated into rigid belief structures as Angels or Gods, but they are seldom viewed objectively. Any form of Gnosis is destroyed. Any large-scale group illumination is usually forced to an end, either by majority human pressure or a breakup in the catharsis.<br />
<br />
Small minority groups are faced initially with the full force of mass human hostility, violence, destruction and murder. However, they are also faced with a more sinister danger from the non-human sources, the ultra-terrestrials themselves. These beings play nasty and sometimes extremely violent and psychological games with these individuals and groups. The aim is to lull them into a dark dead-end belief tunnel by exploiting the very strengths that set the individual apart from the mass in the first place. Those strengths are a willingness to observe the universe in a way that is totally removed from the mass perception of it.<br />
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<br />
The tutelage. Of poles of belief.<br />
<br />
The ultra-terrestrials play with their perceptions of these individuals and minority groups. They do their best to lead them down avenues of pure self-deceit, by presenting them with vivid alternative visions of reality and existence that are mere fronts for dead-end belief structures. Occurrences such as UFO sightings, contact with extraterrestrials, visions of angels, demons, gods, fairies, voices of superior beings informing them of the ultimate secret knowledge of the universe. These are presented in such a real way that to escape the trap of being led into a belief system is almost impossible. It is very difficult to un-believe something that is presented in a vivid way, yet even more difficult when it is presented in such a way so as to align itself with your thought patterns at any one time. The ultraterrestrials seem to have worked out a method of exploiting the very state of mind that such an individual may find him or herself in at any one time.<br />
<br />
However, individuals do exist outside of the effect of their belief engendering processes, and these individuals are ruthlessly hunted down and haunted by the Men in Black. These are the ultraterrestrials assuming some kind of human form. They are very crude and imperfect human forms that exist as “shock troops,” and they have the ability to phase into our vibratory level from their own, with the sole intention of guarding the knowledge that they possess of the real state of human consciousness. They are the guardians of knowledge.<br />
<br />
The individuals who assume an intermediate position are in the gravest danger of all. The Men in Black hold high positions of power in world government. Their controls are explicit in some countries manifesting as mass extermination; in others it is so insidious as to be invisible.<br />
<br />
Everything in intermediateness is not a thing, but an endeavor to become something—by breaking away from<br />
its continuity, or merging away, with all other phenomena—is an attempt to break away from the very essence of a relative existence and become absolute—if it has not surrendered to, or become part of, some higher attempt.<br />
<br />
To this process there are two aspects:<br />
<br />
<i>Attraction</i>, or the spirit of everything to assimilate all other things if it has not already been assimilated by some higher attempted system, unity, organization, entity, vibratory level.<br />
<br />
And <i>Repulsion</i>, or the attempt of everything to exclude or disregard the unassimilable.<br />
<br />
A universal process.<br />
<br />
Anything is permitted. Everything is true.<br />
<br />
To the intermediatist, everything that seems to have identity is only an attempted identity, and every species is continuous with all other species, or that which is called the specific is only emphasis upon some aspect of the general. Every idea and belief is a mere conflict. Every conversation is a conflict of missionaries, each trying to convert the other, to assimilate, or to make the other similar to himself. If no progress is made, mutual repulsion will follow.<br />
<br />
Beings on other vibratory levels have attempted positivizations: to extend themselves upon Earth, to assimilate the indigenous inhabitants of this Earth. All things merge away into everything else. That is continuity. The system merges away and evades us when we try to focus against it.<br />
<br />
Out of the negative absolute, the positive absolute is generating itself, recruiting, or maintaining itself, via a third state, or our own quasi-state, it would seem that we’re trying to conceive of universalness manufacturing more universalness from nothingness. Out of unreality, instead of nothingness, reality, instead of universalness, is, via our own quasi state, manufacturing more reality. Intermediateness is a relation between the positive absolute and the negative absolute.<br />
<br />
In intermediateness there is neither free will nor slave will but a different approximation for every so-called person toward one or the other of the extremes.<br />
<br />
All intermediateists feel a lurking fear that they will be forced into solidification and dogmatism and evolve into higher positivists. All things in this intermediate state are phantoms in a super mind in a dreaming state, striving to awaken to realness.<br />
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<br />
By manipulating the human race globally into pure and simple ignorance and by engendering human systems based on fear, hatred, war, mass extermination, destruction and death concurrently with enormous developments in terms of technology, it seems inevitable that we have only a short time left before mass destruction occurs. This seems to have been the ultra-terrestrials’ plan all along. To have developed a global scheme where all human animals are at the very <i>moment</i> of global destruction in a state of total confusion, undevelopment in terms of human life and each and every person fragmented from each and every other person around. All so that they may at that <i>moment</i> of mass human destruction and death feed off of the sheer mass of unfocused and undeveloped human consciousness that will be thrown into oblivion.<br />
<br />
This massive release of human consciousness will enable them to ascend to a higher level of energy, and one which doesn’t depend upon the existence of human life at all. Our urgency is great. But we fear that mass human ignorance is the end that has already occurred. What remains is nothing, with merely nowhere to go. In the end we are all still cows, even if we do manage to escape over the fence. The only mass change in consciousness which will occur is the one that will happen <i>one second</i> from the end. Then all will become realized. And, of course, it will be too late.<br />
<br />
The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last; and now the last is reaching the first, and the end is the beginning.<br />
<br />
All things are returning to their Original. The heart shattered to shivers, ground to dust.<br />
<br />
Everything in the world obeys the Law of Three, everything existing came into being in accordance with this law. Combinations of positive and negative principles can produce new results that are different from the first and second only if a third force comes in. The Absolute creates in accordance with the same Law. Take the Ray of Creation. At the top is the Absolute, God the Word, divided into three: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. In our human systems we are the same as God—threefold. If we consciously receive three matters and send them out, we can construct outside what we like. This is creation. All three forces manifest through us and blend outside. Every creation is either subjective or objective. The life of man plays the same role as planets in relation to Earth, Earth in relation to Moon and all suns in relation to our sun.<br />
<br />
Passive man serves involution; and active man, evolution. In both cases we are slaves, for in both cases we have a master. We are a whole system within. One center of us affirms, the other denies. It is impossible to free oneself from it. Only he is free who stands in the middle. Intermediately. It is very difficult. We are slaves. We are weak. In order to become intermediate one has to go against the law of nature itself.<br />
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The power of changing oneself lies not in the mind, but in the body and the feelings. Unfortunately, however, our body and our feelings have been genetically constituted so as to not care about anything so long as they are happy. They live for the moment and their memory is short. The mind alone lives for tomorrow. Each has<br />
its own merits.<br />
<br />
The key to all of the manipulation is the fact that a lack of connection in us between the body, feeling and mind has not been recognized. The majority has become so deformed that there is no longer any common language between one part and another. It is irretrievably lost. The only thing left for those individuals who seek intermediate existence is to establish a connection in a roundabout way, a “fraudulent ” way. And these ways must be very subjective since they must depend on a person’s character and the form his inner make-up has taken. Establishing subjectivity in order that this connection may be built requires that the individual takes himself ruthlessly apart, becomes totally aware of the false layers of illusion that make up his or her<br />
character, and rigorous self-remembering. Associative thought and behavior has to be destroyed.<br />
<br />
Conscious faith is freedom.<br />
Emotional faith is slavery.<br />
Mechanical faith is foolishness.<br />
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The only worthwhile existence is to strike whilst all fists are clenched. Fear is the refuge of the weak. And we are all riddled with it. The only aim is to find the pearl buried in the manure.<br />
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He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.<br />
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Truth asserted against, and <i>triumphing</i> over <i>error</i>.<br />
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Evil is outlived Virtue, or incipient virtue that has not yet established itself.<br />
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We are faced with a <i>new</i> dominant.<br />
Thee PANDROGYNE…<br />
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In the darkness a contorted face writhing in agony appears before us. It is our own face reflected in the darkness of our own pain. Screaming in the agony of a birth long overdue.<br />
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We shall have an outcry of silences.<br />
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<b><i>I leave you all in a fine mess…</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>CHANGEDPRIORITIESAHEAD</b></span><br />
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TOPY STATION UK, 1991<br />
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<br />Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-18665295404020456862013-03-27T12:40:00.000-06:002013-03-27T12:40:01.478-06:00Revelations from Demian by Emil Sinclair <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"We were lying on the floor by the fire and he was talking about the mysteries and forms of religion which he was studying and turning over in his mind and the future potentialities of which preoccupied him. All this seemed to me more an object of curiosity and interest than a really vital matter; it had a pedagogic ring about it; it sounded like tedious research among the shattered remains of ancient worlds. And all at once I felt a repugnance against the whole business, this cult of mythologies, this mosaic game he was playing with fragments of traditional religious beliefs.</div>
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I spoke suddenly in a fit of malice which both surprised and frightened me. "You ought to tell me a dream - a real dream - one you have dreamed during the night. What you are telling me is all so damned antiquarian!"<br /><br /></div>
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He had never heard me speak like that before and I immediately realized with a mixture of shame and horror that the arrow which I had fired at him and with which I had pierced his heart, had come from his own armory- and that I was now returning to him with sharpened bards the self-reproaches which I had sometimes heard him utter in his ironical way.</div>
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A voice inside me said, 'No,no, I am wrong,' but I could not say it aloud. I knew that with brief words I had put my finger on his fundamental weakness, his affliction and wound. I had probed the place where he was unsure of himself. His ideal was 'antiquarian'- he was a seeker in the past, a romantic. And suddenly I realized very forcibly that what [my friend] had been and had given to me was precisely what he could never be and give to himself. He had shown me a way which even he, the leader, must by-pass and abandon.</div>
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When I hit out I thought I was aiming my blow at a tough, well-armed man but now it turned out to be a quiet, suffering defenseless creature who was surrendering without a protest.</div>
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Now for the first time I understood [my friend] and was able to reconstruct in my mind the whole dream he had set himself to fulfill. He had wanted to be a priest, to announce the new religion, provide new forms for the movement, serve it with love and devotion and create a series of new symbols. But it was beyond his power to do so; this could never be his function. He lingered too much in the past, his knowledge of ancient days was too precise; he knew far too much about Egypt, India, Mithras and Abraxas. His love was bound up with symbols that the world had already seen and in his heart of hearts he realized that the New must be really new and different and must spring up from new soil and not be created from museums and libraries. Perhaps his function was to help lead men to themselves - as he had done in my case - not to provide them with the yet unspoken message and their new gods.</div>
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And at this point I felt the truth burning within me like a sharp flame, that there was some role for everybody but it was not one which he himself could choose, re-cast and regulate to his own liking. One had no right to want new gods, no right at all to want to give the world anything of that sort! There was but one duty for a grown man; it was to seek the way to himself, to become resolute within, to grope his way forward wherever that might lead him. The discovery shook me profoundly; it was the fruit of this experience. I had often toyed with pictures of the future, dreamed of roles which might be assigned to me - as a poet, maybe, or prophet or painter or kindred vocation. All that was futile. I was not there to write poetry, to preach or paint; neither I nor any man was there for that purpose. They were only incidental things. There was only one true vocation for everybody - to find the way to himself. He might end as poet, lunatic, prophet or criminal - that was not his affair; ultimately it was of no account. His affair was to discover his own destiny, not something of his own choosing, and live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Anything else was merely a half life, an attempt at evasion, an escape into the ideals of the masses, complacency and fear of his inner soul. The new picture rose before me, sacred and awe-inspiring, a hundred times glimpsed, possibly often expressed and now experienced for the first time. I was an experiment on the part of nature, a 'throw' into the unknown, perhaps for some new purpose, perhaps for nothing and my only vocation was to allow this 'throw' to work itself out in my innermost being, feel its will within me and make it wholly mine.</div>
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That or Nothing!"</div>
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-18883052211508410652013-03-03T14:32:00.001-07:002013-03-03T14:32:33.324-07:00The Gnarly Tree by Chuang Tzu<br />
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“Once a master carpenter named Shih was travelling with his apprentice on his way to the state of Chi. When they arrived in Chu Yuan village they passed a huge old oak tree sheltering the village shrine. It was huge, large enough to fit several thousand oxen under its branches. It was 100 spans and towered over everything else in the village with its lowest branches a full 80 feet in the air. These branches were so large they could have been made into a dozen boats. Many people were standing under it, their necks craned as they tried to see the top. But the master carpenter did not even turn his head as they passed it; but walked on without stoping for a moment.<br />
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His apprentice took one look at the immense tree and ran after his master saying: “Since I first took up the ax to train with you Master, I have never seen a tree as magnificent. Yet you do not even look at it, much less stop. Why is this?”<br />
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The carpenter said, “Enough! Not another word about this tree! Its wood is useless. A boat made from its timber would sink; a coffin would rot before you could put it into the ground; any tool you made from it would snap. It has too much sap in it to make a door, and a beam made from its wood would be full of termites. Altogether it is a completely useless tree and that is why it has lived so long.”<br />
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One night, after he returned home, the ancient tree came to the carpenter in a dream and spoke to him. “What are you comparing me too,” it asked, “useful trees like cherry, apple, pear, orange, citron and all the other useful trees? Yet for these trees, as soon as the fruit is ripe they are stripped; their branches are broken and torn off. It is their usefulness that causes them so much abuse. Instead of living out the years heaven has given them they are cut off halfway through. So it is for living things. This is why I have worked so long to cultivate the spirit of uselessness. I was almost cut down several times but I have been able to attain a great level of uselessness and this has been very useful to me. If I had been more useful I would never have attained the great age that I have, and grown so large.<br />
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“The two of us are similar. We are both just beings in the world. How is it that we go about judging other beings? You, an old and worthless man, about to die, how can you judge me and call me worthless?”<br />
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Shih the carpenter awoke then and spent a long time lying in his bed trying to understand this strange dream. Later, when he shared his dream with his apprentice the young man said, “If this ancient tree is so interested in being useless why has it allowed itself to become part of the village shrine?”<br />
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His master said, “It is only pretending to be a shrine. It is its way of protecting itself. Even though its timber is useless, if it were not a shrine it would have been cut down long ago. It is totally different from other trees. You cannot hope to understand it!”<br />
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-63995735461783414362013-01-31T14:33:00.001-07:002013-01-31T18:48:19.074-07:00What is Music? by Yamataka EyeI don't know what music is. Just what is it really? Is it an exchange of energy? Is it a process to arrive at a thing called harmony? Or thinking in reverse, is there anything that is not music? A conversation of young lovers has a musical rhythm to it, as does their bickering.<br />
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A good cook can whip up natural ingredients with water and fire, often with split-second decisions ... this requires time and timing - like music, it is an art that happens in time. These actions are often more like real music to me than music that is commercially packaged.<br />
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Some things are musical or contain an innate musicality ... Like the beautiful motion of planets revolving and orbiting around the sun. Just what is the origin of these natural phenomenon - these repetitive motions that are so like music to me ... These must be a terminal somewhere, a station that is actually transmitting them ... And what we call "music" is downloaded directly from home base, which is broadcasting it beyond time and space.<br />
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Is musical phenomena equivalent to living phenomena, like an insect camouflaging itself, transforming itself into nature - into a leaf, for example. When you make music, it is your interpretation of nature.... And the more you try to create, the more it becomes nature, just like an insect. By making music, you are actually sending the sound back to its origin - back to the universe.<br />
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I think of myself as an organic life phenomenon, and try to listen to myself as music....<br />
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A wolf howling at the moon is the singer.<br />
Thunder is the guitarist.<br />
The crashing of waves is the bassist.<br />
The tremors of an earthquake are the drummer<br />
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If one wonders where to find a recording of music by such and amazing band ...<br />
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It's been right here with us all the time.</div>
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-24874549299480774712013-01-04T21:58:00.001-07:002013-04-30T20:51:20.083-06:00Sub Rosa: Behind the Veiled Narrative from Mumbo Jumbo by I. Reed<br />
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"Studies of the magic and ritual of Africa have...established with some certainty that all systems for the disturbance of consciousness practiced by the African Negro are derived from ancient Egypt"</div>
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<i>Witchcraft </i>(1965) - Pennethorne Huges<br />
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"Some <i>unknown natural phenomenon </i>occurs<br />
which cannot be explained,<br />
and a new local demigod is named."<br />
-Zora Neale Hurston on the origin of new Loa</div>
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...If you must know, it all began 1000s of years ago in Egypt, according to a high up member in the Haitian aristocracy.<br />
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A certain young prince who was allergic to thrones attended a university in Nysa, a town in Arabia Felix (now Yemen). It was a land of dates coffee goats sheep wheat barley corn and livestock. Across the Red Sea were Ethiopia and the Sudan where the young man would commute bringing his knowledge of agriculture and comparing notes with the agriculturalists of these lands. There were agricultural celebrations; dancing and singing, and in Egypt this rhythm was known as the Black Mud Sound. At this time in history those who influenced the growth of crops and coaxed the cocks into procreation were seen as sorcerers. The theater accompanying these rites, these agriculturalists' rites, was a theater of fecundation generation and proliferation, a theater that Victorian Sir James Frazer of <i>The Golden Bough</i> calls "lewd and profligate." The processes of blooming were acted out by men and women dancers who imitated the process of fertilization.<br />
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The would play upon instruments, reeded stringed and percussive, as they acted out the process; open their valves and allow nature to pour through its libation. Osiris was so adept at the mysteries of agriculture that people began to circulate stories that his mother was the sky Nuit and the earth his father Geb.<br />
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As Osiris danced he would experiment, but the dances were not esoteric, they were in fact were quite basic and they caught-on. In the Sudan and Ethiopia he became known as "the man who did dances that caught-on," infected other people. Well, Osiris lived many years studying under the elders at Nysa until he returned to Egypt. (Some say he was driven out of Ethiopia, where his dances were banned.) In Egypt a dark cloud lay over the land. Cannibalism was still practiced.<br />
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Osiris was regarded by his brother Set as a dilettante a recipient of a far-out education and one who would not know how to deal firmly with the enemies of the Egyptian people. That was Set, the stick crook and flail man. Dealing firmly with enemies, holding them by the hair and chopping off their heads. Set wanted to use the death of their father as an excuse for invading foreign countries. Set hated agriculture and nature which he saw as soiled dirty grimy etc. He was arrogant jealous egotistical and when Osiris issued a ban on men eating men, introducing the techniques he learned from the long-bearded Black men in the university at Nysa, Set began to plot his brother's downfall. He was also jealous that Osiris was to marry their sister Isis. Fine as she could be. Firm breasts, eloquence, all of those qualities that are later to show up in her spiritual descendant Erzulie (love of mirrors, plumes, combs, an elaborate toilet) whom we in the United States call the girl with the red dress on. (Bessie Smith and Josephine Baker are 2 aspects of Erzulie.) People hated Set. He went down as the 1st man to shut nature out of himself. he called it discipline. He is also the deity of the modern clerk, always tabulating, and perhaps invented taxes.<br />
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The eating of barley wheat and corn spread through Egypt like a prairie fire and the people began to do the Black Mud sound, to do alchemical theater (theater of the "Black country"), and that got Set even more annoyed. The people would plant during the day and at night would celebrate dancing singing shaking sistrums and carrying on so that Set couldn't get sleep and was tired when he went out on the field and drilled marched and gave commands to others. 1 day Osiris performed a miracle. He danced so well that the vines began to imitate a particular slow sinuous movement and from that day to this we have the creeping vine. Osiris was called the Bull by the Egyptians who loved him and greeted him as he toured Egypt with his musicians and their sets of decoration having to do with procreation.<br />
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Set couldn't stand it. He would stand off to the side mad, balling his fists and spouting invective. He considered the music "loud" and "boisterous." Sometimes the dances were performed by pigmies Osiris imported from the South because they were able to execute the "dance of the Gods." 1 night Set went downstairs and told everybody to "cut out that racket." He was greeted only by catcalls and boos and when a young woman tried to persuade him to dance with her he hurried from the room to the general amusement of the court. And when later a guard came upon him trying out these dances himself in secret, the gossip leaked all over Egypt and he became the laughing stock of the country. Set can't dance became the cry.. Even Hully Gullying children on the street would point out Set as the man who can't shake it 'til he breaks it. The freak from Matovani. That did it. Set would show them. Happy all the time. Enjoying themselves when there was hard work to be done, countries to invade, populations to subjugate. Egypt was prospering under Osiris and there was peace.<br />
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People were eating good, the crops were abundant, things were going smoothly and Osiris and Isis were happily married. Their sister Nephthys and her husband, their brother Set, didn't make out so well. He spent most of his time "out with the boys"; legislators, an unpopular group of poets who went about Egypt telling Egyptians that they could do better that they weren't ready and that they ought to try to make something out of themselves. Make ready for what? 1 man asked at one of their whistle sops. Ready for progress? Invading foreign countries and killing? The people didn't go for it and sarcastically called them The First Poets because in Egypt at the time of Osiris every man was an artist and every artist a priest; it wasn't until later that Art became attached to the State to do with it what it pleased.<br />
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Then something strange happened. People began to do the dance of Osiris and it would interrupt their tilling of the soil. It would hit them at all times of the day and some of them would wander through the streets talking out of their heads and making strange signs. Set circulated a rumor that this was because Osiris didn't really know the alchemical arts and had brought a curse upon Egypt. Osiris was aworried and the people were grumbling. Well, there was a certain artist down near the harbor who painted arks. He was a man who had once made-out with Osiris' mother and had a big reputation for his decorative work. He called on Osiris 1 day and argued his theory that the outbreaks occurred because the mysteries had no text to turn to. No litany to feed the spirits that were seizing the people, and that if Osiris would execute these dance steps for Thoth he would illustrate them and then Osirian priests could determine what god or spirit possessed them as well as learn how to make these gods and spirits depart.<br />
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And so possessed, Osiris did his basic dances for many days until Thoth had them all down. A Book of Litanies to which people in places like Abydos in Upper Egypt could add their own variations.<br />
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Guides were initiated into the Book of Thoth, the 1st anthology written by the 1st choreographer.<br />
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Soon after, peace was once again restored, Osiris became bored. Sailors had come to him with tales of much suffering and cannibalism in many parts of the world. Osiris announced that he was going to leave his wife Isis in charge of the affairs of Egypt which was a little thing because at that time as 1 historian wrote "The Egyptians had little difficulty in being good." Set saw this as his chance. He yearned for the old days when he went out to the people to "Move that chariot to the side of the road, O.K. where's your license," you know, stuff like that. On the day Osiris left there was a big celebration down at the port with guides from all over Egypt doing the dances of the gods. With tons and tons of cereal, Osiris Thoth and a crew and a fleet of 34 papyri boats set sail. It was midsummer, the 10th day of July, that he left.<br />
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Osiris toured the world with is International Nile Root Orchestra, dancing agronomy and going from country to country with his band; and a choir directed by a young up and comer named Dionysus whom you don't hear very much about in his Egyptian setting because the Egyptian writing is "royalty centered." With Thoth he taught people to permit nature to speak and dance through them, for so many 1000s of eyes looked through Osiris that he became known as "the many-eyed."<br />
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Just as fast as Osiris would teach these dances the people would mimic him and add their variations to fit their country and their clime. People began to welcome Osiris the Bull, the Seedman, and he became a familiar sight walking down the ramp or rather trucking down the ramp, his pet eagle "Jackie" perched on his shoulder, his faithful Birdman Thoth at his side, taking it all down. And people of all the many ports of the world where he traveled would say "Hey Seedman, what's going down?"<br />
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It was on his 2nd trip to South America that the rumors reached him. Because Osiris was teaching people how to make wine and if they didn't grow grapes, beer, Set was going about Egypt telling everybody that Osiris was a fraud and that he was traveling the world "drunk" and "fornicating," disgracing the name of the Fatherland. Set issued a challenge which travelers brought to Osiris. He was saying that if Osiris was so smart and a Human Seed and all, a Germ, would he perform the feat of the Germ. Could he be planted in the Nile and then spring from the waters. Surely if he had learned the arts of sagacious bearded Black men in Arabia Felix at the University of Nysa he could perform this act. He said if he would do this that he, Set, would go somewhere and sit down and never complain again if people danced and sang. He didn't want to go down in history as a "party pooper." The devil was even hitting on Isis because he had eyes for her but she would just look upon her brother with disgust, this man who was going around putting the bad breath on Osiris. Osiris at the time was in Teotihuacan in South America where people of all races and from all over the world had arrived to watch the space ships their astronomer predicted would land. They landed after Osiris made a side trip to Olmeca where he remained long enough to pose for a portrait which was done in terracotta. He attended a 2-week festival as guest of an Inca King. It was here that he practiced Set's challenge for days at a time. It was easy. Osiris had developed such a fondness and attachment for Nature that people couldn't tell them apart.<br />
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He had never performed this trick but he knew that Nature wouldn't let him down for long. When Osiris and his band returned to Egypt the people turned out to greet him, dancing and being possessed as the guides led them through. They laughed as Isis blushed because they knew that that night he would give her his "rod of authority."<br />
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Set and his followers watched from the windows. That isn't a bad piece of tail, Set said commenting upon the attributes of his sister in the presence of Nephthys whom he treated like a dog, and called her a bitch a tomato a heifer a cow and all other words related to farming he hated so.<br />
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That night Osiris and Isis made love and the result of this Union was the child Horus.<br />
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The next day was the day of the test. The people gathered at the mouth of the Nile as the legislators placed Osiris in the coffer and drove nails through it. Molten lead was used to keep it airtight. Osiris winked at the people before the lid was closed. The coffer was sunk into the water on October 24th.<br />
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That night the legislators came to the Nile and raised Osiris. They lifted the lid and saw Osiris lying thre smiling in a deep death-like slumber, a trick he had learned "down home" among the heavies in the Sudan and Ethiopia.<br />
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They mutilated him and made believe that he was torn in to 14 parts, and from that day forward fish have been considered evil in Egypt. On October 31st the people came and saw the mutilated corpse, parts of which had been washed up on the shore, and the open coffer lying not far away.<br />
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Set, stood there in triumph. There goes your Seedman eaten by fish, let's cut out all this farming jazz and go back to eating each other. Come here you, Set said in his John Wayne voice, swaggering toward a luscious woman, a succulent dish standing in the crowd.<br />
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Thoth knew this to be a lie. He had seen Osiris perform this act during their sojourn in South America. Among the Navajo Indians in North America, at Aztec festivals, around West African peoples who were known to repel an invader by "playing whistles and beating on drums," the news had circulated through many tribes that Osiris could perform this trick.<br />
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Thoth spoke up, demanding an autopsy, an investigation of Osiris' death. Set had Thoth arrested for his proposal. Thoth was taken into custody but escaped through the help of some of the guards who were still loyal to the memory of Osiris. Before going into exile, he ran to Isis and left his sacred Book in her hands; and then he went away. Some say he went into exile in the hills where he wrote magical books under a pseudonym which survived until the "Civilized" Romans burned the library at Alexandria.<br />
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Isis began to walk about Egypt, screaming lamentations for her husband. At the moment of his triumph Set began to hear unsettling stories. Osiris had been seen in the land. He had been seen wherever Isis had left a backbone, or a toe or an arm belonging to her dead husband. The people were beginning to call Osiris the Bull the Human-Seed as well, and wherever they found a Bull with a scarab under his tongue, an eagle on his back and a square on his forehead they began to celebrate Osiris' "living Spirit." When he heard of this, old Set ordered the murder of the Bulls and being a particularly mean cuss, ordered they be tortured 1st. (This led to the sport that the American writer Ernest Hemingway took such delight in.) But wherever the Black Bull God Apis appeared and was murdered another Bull would take his place. Well this was driving Set up the walls. This was October 31st, the night the people went about wearing masks, being whatever they felt like in honor of the man who Nature spoke through. Set sent out warrants for the Osirian guides who had learned The Work and they fled. Some of them fled to Down Home where they matched knowledge with the necromancers in Ife, Nigeria. Dionysus traveled to Greece where the Dance "spread like wildfire" although Homer doesn't mention it. He nevertheless helped himself to the stories Dionysus brought concerning Osiris, the man who traveled through the world and returned home to a wife under siege by conspirators. Dionysus kept the faith of his school chum and home boy. (Dionysus can be read as "God From Nysa.") When the King of Thebes forbade the feeding of Dionysus, the angry loa influenced the young people to revolt. When Proteus, King of Tiryns, closed a temple dedicated to Dionysus known as "the man of the black goatskin" a contemporary writer described the ensuing choreomania:<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">They rushed out of doors and in frenzied dance raged over the countryside, singing weird songs, tearing their garments, unable to stop dancing.</span><br />
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Dionysus taught the Greeks the Osirian Art which lasted until the Atonists in the late 4th century A.D. convinced the Emperor Constantine to co-sign for the Cross. Dionysus taught the Greek guides to identify the Nature that spoke through mankind. The Work. Listen Hippocrates:<br />
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If they imitate a goat, or grind their teeth, or if their right side be convulsed, they say that the mother of the gods is the cause, but if they speak in a sharper and more intense tone they resemble this state to a horse and say Poseidon [Neptune] is the cause.<br />
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<b>RICHARD, CHUCK AND JOHNNY WISH TO REMIND CALIFORNIA'S ROCK FANS THAT THE STAGE IS VIRTUALLY INDESTRUCTIBLE. ONE MAY ATTEND WITH NO FEAR OF MORTAL INJURY, SHOULD HE OR SHE FEEL THE CALL TO COME FORTH AND DECLARE HIS OR HER SOUL TO THE GLORY OF </b><b>ROCK 'N' ROLL</b><br />
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The Greeks established temples to these Egyptian-derived mysteries where people would go out of theri heads so that the gods could take them over. (About the 10th century the Atonist priests will call this diabolical possession or corrupt the Greek word <i>daimon </i>so as to have evil connotations. Freud, the later Atonist [according to 1 biographer, a big fan of Moses, Cromwell and other militarists], is to term this "hysteria.")<br />
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The Greek and Roman masses were crazy about the Egyptian mysteries and celebrated them in Temples of Osiris and Isis, much to the chagrin of the satirist Lucian, who in <i>Dialogues of the Gods </i>derided the animal figures associated with the royal couple; but religions were too popular for criticism to affect anything and the people danced and sang and were touched by the Spirits under the careful watching of trained priests of Dionysus the choir master. They, the Greeks, would have never though about calling these Hosts schizophrenics or catatonics, which were after all their own words. Paranoia and the like were clinical Atonist words invented by people who having lost the knowledge of what they were doing just kinda threw these terms out there. These rites lasted on up to A.D. 378 when the Atonists made havoc upon the temples of their opponents' "pagan" systems. Prior to their sacking, jealous politicians had burned the temples in 58, 50 and 48 B.C. Formerly the people could go to the temples and get away from it all through the guidance of a priest; now they were tortured and any Osirian behavior was seen as an escape from reality and such. All of the gods who were rivals of the 1 they called Jehovah (the cover-up for the Flaming Disc God, Aton) were driven underground and the many were reduced to 1; even Muhammad, 1 of Jehovah's allies in the priesthood, is depicted in a church carving as the devil.<br />
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The 4th century A.D. was crucial period for both Atonism and the mystery Dionysus had brought from Egypt. Atonist scholars up to their old yellow journalism of the <i>Daily Heliopolitan </i>decided to depict Osiris as Pluto, a castrated god of the underworld but they kept on Isis as Virgin Mary. In fact in many African locales the passion for Isis was transferred to the Atonists' Mary. This occurred in Africa and southern Europe. Mary was the mother of the Atonist compromise Jesus Christ. They made him do everything that Osiris does, sow like a farmer, be a fisherman among men but he is still a <i>bokor</i>, a sorcerer, an early Faust. Lazarus was a zombie! He was a sorcerer, a Maharishi yoga type who went around the countryside performing tricks. The quality of which the great man Julian the Apostate Emperor (called Apostate because he wanted in the 4th century, to revive the religions Dionysus brought to Greece) was to comment<br />
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. . . Yet Jesus, who won over the least worthy of you, has been known by name for but little more than three hundred years: and during his lifetime he accomplished nothing worthy hearing of, unless anyone thinks that to heal crooked and blind men and to exorcise those who were possessed by evil demons in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany can be classed as a mighty achievement.<br />
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Julian knew the difference between a houngan and <i>bokor</i>, having surrounded himself with the solidest post-Osirian priests of his day. And Julian fed the loas publicly, to the ridicule and scorn of his countrymen who had been converted to Christianity. On February 4, A.D. 362, he proclaimed religious freedom in the empire and ordered the pagan temples restored. But the Atonists were too powerful for Julian. He was assassinated on a Persian battlefield 12:00 midnight June 26, 363. He failed in his gallant attempt to reverse the Atonist challenge. He foresaw the Bad News it was going to bring to the world. John Milton, Atonist apologist extraordinaire himself, saw the coming of the minor geek and sorcerer Jesus Christ as a way of ending the cult of Osiris and Isis forever.<br />
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The brutish gods of <i>Nile</i> as fast,<br />
<i>I</i><i style="font-style: italic;">sis </i><i style="font-style: italic;">and Horus, </i><i style="font-style: italic;">and the dog Anubis</i><i> hast.</i></div>
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Nor is <i>Osiris </i>seen</div>
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In <i>Memphian </i>grove, or Green</div>
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Trampling th' unshowr'd Grass with lowings loud:<br />
Nor can he be at rest<br />
within his sacred chest,<br />
Naught but profundest Hell can be his shroud;<br />
In vain with Timbrel'd Anthems dark<br />
The sable-stoled Sorcerers bear his worshipt ark.<br />
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This from his Hymn in "On the Morning of Christs Nativity," which is nothing but a simple necktie party out to get Osiris' goat. And those "Timbrle'd Anthems dark" is the music that old Jethro played, the music of the worshipers of those festivals where they had a ball. Boogieing. Expressing they selves. John Milton couldn't stand that. Another Atonist; that's why English professors like him, he's like their amulet, keeping niggers out of the departments and stamping out Jes Grew before it invades their careers. It is interesting that he worked fro Cromwell, a man who banned theater from England and was also a hero of Sigmund Freud. Well the mud-slingers kept up the attack on Osiris, a writer Bilious Styronicus even rewriting Osirian history in a book called the <i>Confessions of the Black Bull God Osiris </i>in which he justified Set's murder to Osiris on the ground that Osiris made "illicit" love to Isis who, he wrote, was Set's wife. He was awarded the Atonists' contemporary equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize for this whopper. Others went about calling Osiris, Moloch, which translated means "nigger cow."<br />
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Well the Atonist Church becomes stronger as the years pass but a strange thing happens. The rites associated with Osiris and other pagan gods continue underground. The only remedies the Church knew was to "beat the living shit out of them." Throwing those possessed by demons into dungeons, torturing and burning it out of them. They killed millions of people this way but it didn't put an end to the dance epidemics, heresies, witchcraft, infidels, and remnants of "pagan" religions. Well, if the Church had continued dealing with the foe in this manner, beating people up. raiding their apartments at 2:00 A.M., burning them at the stake, it would have wiped out a good portion of Europe's population. The rest of the population was being depleted by physical plagues. Much later came another Atonist compromise, Sigmund Freud, who refined the rhetoric of the Church and eased the methods of dealing with the problem. Freud saved many lives which would have ordinarily been dealt with by the Church in an inhumane manner. But when Freud came to America and saw what was going down over here it was too much for even this man. Freud fainted.<br />
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After the exile of the Osirians, Dionysus, Thoth and other members of that fabled entourage, Set had problems. Every time he'd got out on tour his convoy was stoned. He had outlawed Dancing. Everything that Osiris stood for he attempted to banish so that he would cut this figure out of his life forever. Next he banished Music. And as his mind deteriorated he banned Fucking.<br />
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And later even Life itself. He began to groove behind a real death cult that grew up around him. His legislators and their wives resembled a Billy Graham audience at Oakland Coliseum. The people began to grumble. There was talk of revolution. Talk that Horus had grown up in Koptos where Isis had gone into exile and was prepared to march on the old man. When the child was younger Set had dispatched an arch poisoner, but he failed because Isis was in possession of the Sacred Book and had developed some pretty strong <i>garde</i>.<br />
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Set decided that he would fasten his hold on the populace by performing a miracle the way Osiris used to. He had 1 of his <i>bokors</i> who practiced the art of the Petro Rites with the Left Hand to "come on up and give the folks a show." Well, being insufficiently trained the <i>bokor</i> didn't know what he was doing; he only knew Dirty Work and raised the temperature of Egypt to over 50,00 degrees resulting in something resembling and A-bomb explosion. Set and his followers fled to Heliopolis City of the Sun and decided to rule Egypt from there.<br />
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Set grew worse. The people began to return their old ways, dancing and performing the rites as they remembered them, but without the Text and someone to tell them what to do- Osiris' assistants now dispersed in West Africa, southern Europe, and elsewhere- it resulted in degeneration. Se began to develop a weird relationship with the Sun. If you can understand Los Angeles you can almost get the picture; imagine 2 or 3 Los Angeleses and you got Heliopolis. The legislators lay around in the Sun all day and developed a strange Body Building scene on the beach. Set decided that he would introduce a religion based upon his relationship to the Sun, and since he was a god then the Sun too would be a god. Of course this was nothing new because the Egyptians had worshiped the "heat, light, orbs, and rays," had worshiped the Sun in a pantheistic manner. With Set, the Sun's flaming disc eclipsed the rest of its parts.<br />
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He made the legislators serve as his writers, as Thoth had for Osiris. Maybe this would do it, he thought. And so the legislators went through the old texts and started rewriting things and doctoring them to make Set look good and Osiris look bad. By establishing his own religion based upon Aton (the Sun's flaming disc) he felt he would overcome the nature religion of Osiris. He would be the reverse of Osiris who was associated with fertilization and spring; he would become Aton the "burner of growing things," the Egyptian Jehovah who causes famine pestilence and earthquakes. Before he died he was in such a state that he believed that the Sun was dependent on him and thus he would walk around in circles all day thinking that when he walked the Sun made its course about the planet.<br />
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He really flipped. And he was to die watching the Bull God Apis rise all over the land. The Temples of Osiris and Isis were constructed in southern Europe, Nubia and the Sudan. It was becoming a world-wide religion. It was successful everywhere the remnant of the Osirian priesthood was; they knew what it was capable of and knew how to draw it out or make it depart. But in places where The Work wasn't known it would spring up unexpectedly and cause disastrous results or be mistaken for entertainment or be practiced with the Left Hand. Try as they may to popularize Atonism, the Egyptians weren't going for it. It became nothing but a club of old grumblers located in Heliopolis.<br />
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That was until Amenhotep 4 (about 1400 B.C.). He was a frail tall and weakling interior-decorator type who became an Atonist and changed his name to Akhnaton (devoted to Aton) while he spent sometime in Heliopolis hanging out on the beach the Atonists made popular, now a decadent, Joe Atlas scene.<br />
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When the fool moved the capital to Tel el Amarna they knew they had another Set on their hands and the Amon sect, the ones in charge of maintaining the Osirian mysteries, had the sucker offed. To make an uneasy pun they quit this 2nd Set.<br />
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Fortunately Tutankhamen came to power and the people were allowed to do their stuff, working out this way on the wall in the hall every which-a-way. That was until Thermuthis, the stubborn, self-indulgent daughter of a weak Pharaoh. 1 day while bathing she discovered a child in a basket and against the advice of Baria, an old HooDoo woman, brought the child into the palace. No 1 could tell her anything. Thermuthis had had her "been to": her expatriate fling in Europe. Hadn't she hung out in the cafes and listened to Greek, the language of "civilization"? Hadn't she learned how to be vague? To flim flam? She looked down on her own people whom she joined her friends in mocking as they went about "practicing that superstitious mess." The Osirian cult had lost its prestige and now did its stuff "way out on the outskirts of town." There were rumors of dancing and "getting happy" and singing out here in the roadside temples. At Thermuthis' request the Pharaoh would have them raided once in a while. But since the Osirians were giving the guard some "ice"- emeralds, diamonds, lapis lazuli- as soon as a priest, houngan and houngonikon or mambo or an elder and his sisters were arrested he was soon back on the street in circulation. Thermuthis and some of her Greek friends went down to these places one night and were appalled at the frankness of these rituals; the Pussies and Dicks on the walls as decoration, the low-down gut-bucket music. They were snobs. (The opening night crowd of charlatans at a racist N.Y. museum.) All day they stay around discussing such things as "If I stand in the water today am I the same person who stood there yesterday etc. etc." you know. Jiving the citizens of Egypt.<br />
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Her adopted son Moses (1350-1250 B.C.) had different ideas. He sneaked off to the Domain of Osiris every time he had a chance. Manetho the 3rd century B.C. Egyptian historian contends that he even became an Osirian initiate and changed his name to Osarsiph.<br />
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The people, down at these places which bore the aroma of plants growing wild in the fields, called him Pharaoh. The <span style="text-align: center;">Egyptian scribe Manetho also refers to him as Pharaoh, most likely the successor of Thermuthis' father. These orchestras of brass, sistrums and drums would play a music that was influenced by the stars. They played under the stars to 1000s of what they remembered of the Osirian Mysteries. Moses, the young Pharaoh-to-be, would sit in and join in with his brothers. The fingers of these men who worked the crops brought the electricity of the earth to their strings, these men who drank from the cold Blue Nile, whose lips had touched the waters of this magic river, brought this Nile sound to their instruments. Well 1 night they were sitting around and Moses asked them what was the heaviest sound they had ever heard. All the men agreed that it was old Jethro the Midianite who could still play the sounds of the spirits and had a legendary instrument that sounded like an orchestra and knew all the "old songs." It was rumored that he was </span></div>
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a descendant of an actual follower of Osiris who had gone into exile after Set's purge. They said that he could play so well that lions assembled on the ground of his farm and went to sleep, that the crops would weave their leaves toward the huts and climb into the bedroom window. That Nature had blessed him with daughters so that there would be more like him. Moses felt that he would have to study under this man. he would have to somehow gain this man's confidence and perhaps he would teach him everything he knew.<br />
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The next day Moses set out to see Jethro. When he came upon the town in whose suburbs Jethro dwelled he went in to the local Spirits Temple and made inquiries about Jethro. The Spirit Tasters told him all about Jethro and that he could see his daughters tending to Jethro's cattle if he went outside of town. They told him where and how far to go. Moses revealed himself as Pharaoh-to-be and hired the men to stage an episode for him. They would go and pretend to rustle Jethro's cattle and Moses would come riding out of the hills and divert them. (Moses really liked melodrama.) Well this was done and Moses came out of the hills and repelled the rustlers whom he had paid to perform such a stunt at the Temple of Spirits. The women took their rescuer home and introduced him to their father Jethro. Jethro was happy and persuaded Moses to remain at his home and "drink and eat as much as you and make-out with my daughters."<br />
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Why not? Moses thought. They weren't bad and he could just write down everything that Jethro said and when he returned to Egypt he would turn the place out. That night Jethro took out this instrument that must have had about 25 strings. He then put some kind of early styled harmonica in his mouth. And with his feet he beat on some kind of tinny thing. Then he started twanging on that many-stringed monstrosity and zipping his fingers up and down that thing and making that thing cry so that several times Moses leaped in the air and said, Damn! If he could learn that he could be the Hierophant of the surviving Osirian Order. Moses asked Jethro would he mind if he wrote all of this down. Jethro was grateful to the man. He almost considered him a son and told him that this would be fine.<br />
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Well the next few months Moses would help the women tend the cows, using them any way he desired, and at night, Jethro would play and Moses would write it all down. Soon they were doing duos as Moses slowly learned Jethro's art. Well when Moses had learned all of Jethro's songs and had made Jethro create upon these strange instruments he played, Moses packed his papyri instruments and was bidding Jethro goodbye. He said he would play his songs in the temples and while he was playing them he would always have a kind place in his heart for Jethro.<br />
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Just as Jethro was bidding Moses goodbye Jethro told him "It's too bad you're leaving because that's not enough. You must know the words to the songs and that's a family secret." Moses paused. "Family secret?" "Yes unless you know the words the music becomes 1/2 right, not all right." Moses told Jethro and his daughters that he was going to set out but the moon looked ominous. Perhaps he could remain with them for a few more days. That evening Moses asked Jethro to teach him the words. Jethro told him that they were family secrets. He would only pass them on to a son-in-law.<br />
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Well, the next day Moses told Jethro that he was in love with Zipporah and wanted to marry her. Jethro, trusting, was overjoyed because he had developed a great fondness for Moses. Moses married Zipporah and as her dowry Jethro taught Moses the family words. Well, Moses and his wife Zipporah were about to leave because he wanted as quickly to return to Egypt to "show off my lovely Black bride to my stepmother, The Pharaoh and my high-yellow sisters and brothers."<br />
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1 day when you return, Jethro said, you can take a trip to Koptos where there is in existence the Sacred Book said to have been written by Thoth himself.<br />
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What? Moses asked.<br />
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I said 1 of these days Isis will show you the real Book of Thoth-the original sound. The 1 located in her temple at Koptos, guarded by the deathless snake. It has to be gotten during the right moon or it will be the Book in its evil phase.<br />
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Moses sighed, <i>Now he tells me! </i>He told his father-in-law that Zipporah didn't look too well and that he would remain a few more days before they set out on such an arduous journey. Zipporah pleaded that she felt all right but Moses insisted. Jethro was pleased that Moses was so concerned for his daughter Zipporah and rebuked her for sassing her husband. Moses after a few weeks told Jethro, his wife and her sisters that he felt like going on a camping trip to get some air and that he would return soon.<br />
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Moses went into the woods and traveled to the mountains. He wanted to contemplate. He went atop Mount Horeb and fasted and meditated for days. On the night of the 12th day he was so weak, having lost many pounds, he thought he was doing to die. It was then a vision came to him. It seemed, the Specter, to be a man dressed in old-style Egyptian clothes 1000s of years before even Manetho had recorded the 30 Dynasties. He told Moses he knew his problem. He knew that Moses wanted to find out how to circumvent the deathless snake who guards the temple at Koptos: Isis and Osiris' Temple. The Specter said he knew that Isis would succumb to a certain line because it was "that time of the month." He said that he would tell Moses what to do, but first Moses had to promise he would restore the cult of Aton to Egypt.<br />
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Moses laughed. Man, the way people are into animal and vegetation rites and calling everything that moves a spirit, I would be the buffoon of Egypt restoring something as arid as that. The present mysteries, although frowned upon by the aristocracy, including my mother, are extremely popular with the masses. Why there would be revolution. The Specter began to fade-out when Moses reconsidered, <i>i must play this Book! I must find it! </i>He had developed a real thing about it.<br />
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Wait. Wait. Of course I will do what you say. How do I go about getting this Book?<br />
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You have to talk trash and feed her.<br />
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What is that? Moses said recognizing this as ancient dialect that would have to be revealed to him.<br />
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Set told him what he meant by these things and after Moses had gotten it all down he returned to Jethro's ranch looking like a new man. The next day Jethro was sitting on the porch, chewing on some herbs and swinging in a hammock he had made for himself. Some of the old red-eyed Black men from the hills were gathered about the master playing their stringed and percussion instruments, cowbells, mouth harps, calliopes.<br />
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Moses seemed like he was trying to tiptoe away when Jethro stopped him because by now Jethro knew he was being used.<br />
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Where are you going, son? Koptos?<br />
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The men ceased playing their instruments. It became so quiet you could hear the crickets for it was the crepuscule.<br />
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Aren't you taking Zipporah with you, said this man, his face a dark wood, his grey hair blue in the early twilight.<br />
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I'll . . . I'll er return for her before I go to Egypt, Moses said.<br />
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The men returned to playing their instruments. Jethro stopped them. He rose and addressed his son-in-law.<br />
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IF you get it out of her it will be useless to you; only a few things about converting rods to snakes; simple <i>bokor</i> tricks, the rest will be so awful that you wish you had never known The Work. Son, she's in that Aspect of herself with this Moon and you won't be able to receive the better side of her Book . . .<br />
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Look, leave me alone. Silly old man out here in the backwoods. How dare you talk to me that way. I'm a Pharaoh, or soon will be 1.<br />
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Moses jumped on his horse as tears came to Jethro's eyes. As he was about to ride away Moses rode to Jethro's porch where all the men were assembled and he dropped "a couple of bucks" on old Jethro.<br />
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Here's the copyright fee for the junk you taught me, he said sarcastically.<br />
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Jethro took the dollars and flung them at Moses who rode off into the night.<br />
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He wouldn't listen and now he will be merely a 2-bit sorcerer practicing the Left Hand.<br />
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It wasn't your fault, Jethro, you warned him, a friend consoled.<br />
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The old men resumed the playing of the instruments.<br />
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Moses arrived in Koptos a few weeks later. There were statues all over the town devoted to the ancient them of Isis and her child Horus who according to some versions returned and overthrew his father's murderer, Set. It is also said that Horus was the result of a coupling of Isis with the deceased Osiris. People were wearing emblems of the Mother and Child and their pictures were etched on coins. Moses was directed by a traveler to the Temple of Osiris and Isis. He walked until he came upon the temple outside town. He entered between 2 of its 6 columns. In the main room was a smoking pit, a retainer of sacrificial refuse; a statue of Osiris and Isis, holding the child Horus; and friezes depicting Sea Fights, the mysteries: Thoth, Nephthys, Horus, Anubis. Osiris the Eater of the Dead armed with two knives, Osiris Khenti, Amenti, Lord of Abydos and others. There were the animal-shapes: crocodiles serpents birds and rams. The colors of the room were green blue and yellow. Grains were scattered about the floor. The room was littered with tom toms pipes and drums. The air of funk was being dispersed by burning incense. It had been quite an afternoon. Several pigmy kings of about 4' 10'' had danced all afternoon intermittently, leaping into the air. Moses went into the kitchen and munched on some cereal that had been left in some ritual bowls. He drank some wine; he went past the dining room and into the bedroom of mysteries which was covered with pictures of male and female genitalia. Fatigued from traveling, Moses lay down on the bed and went immediately to sleep. At about 2 A.M. he awoke to someone running her hands through his hair and kissing him. It was Isis in the Petro aspect of herself. She was dressed in a scarlet see-through gauzy gown and covered with the odor of a strange perfume. He had never smelt anything so intoxicating to the brain. Her hair was giant black-bird feathers, her eyes blazing.<br />
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He would have to be careful. There was stories of mangled bodies carried through the air in the cruel beaks of giant birds. Men "bleeding like hogs," wandering about the temple senseless at dawn. There were tales of her victims condemned to traveling the world. Headless, pitiful men who brought the plague to cities.<br />
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I will give you what you want if you give me what I want.<br />
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She was so fine that if she dived down the abyss Moses would have plunged in after her. Moses was sweating as she removed her gown and began to make love with him. Moving her thighs about his legs, running her hands across his penis.<br />
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Well, Moses thought, as he responded to her caresses, I only hope the bird handles me gently.<br />
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Suddenly she leaped to her feet, her prominent firm black breasts swinging, her hands on her hips.<br />
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What have you brought for me?<br />
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Moses remove from his satchel everything Set instructed him to bring: brightly colored scarfs and liquors, jewelry and delicate chickens for her to eat. She handled the scarfs and tasted the liquor. Moses, when he saw her delighted expression, thought that he had passed the test but she hurled tht things to the ground with 1 gesture.<br />
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That isn't enough, she said, returning to the bed and lying next to him. You must talk to me. Baby, please talk to me.<br />
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Set knew his sister all right and Moses began to talk to her the way the Osirians talked to her in their rites. He told her how much he loved her and that he would die for her. Cut his throat swim in a river of thrashing crocodiles fight lions for her pussy. He said that he would cuss the day he was born if he couldn't have it and that he would walk all over Egypt crying like a baby. He said that he would gouge out his eyes and dust off the feet of all the dock workers in Egypt, jump off a cliff and lock himself in a cave for the rest of his life. And every time Moses would say another lie Isis would moan and sigh and whimper and purr like a kitten as Moses' hand moved down and touched her Seal. He fished her temple good. She showed him all her rooms. And led him into the depths of her deathless snake where he fought that part of her until it was limp on the ground. He got good into her Book tongued her every passage thumbing her leaf and rubbing his hands all over her binding.<br />
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When he was through he had gotten it all down. All down. Had it down pat. He left the goddess in slumber as he rose, collected his gear together and then set out for Egypt.<br />
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Well, Moses announced to the populace that he would give a concert with music and songs better than the Black Mud Sound, which was dying rapidly and played only by a few old fools in the hills. He said that this would be a dignified concert and that everyone would have to leave them old nasty-assed animal fetishes and "rattlers" and all those other "flesh-pipes" back home and that there would be no savage dancing. Don't be bringing none of that silly shit to my gig, Moses said. I'm the 1. For once music wouldn't just be used as a background to dancing but he would be a soloist and no 1 in the audience would be allowed to play a whistle or beat a drum or rattle a tambourine. The Osirians were furious. They knew this to be an Atonist trick and decided to disrupt the concert.<br />
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Well, the night of the concert the people were herded into the concert ground. (Non-attendance was equated with treason.) Moses began to play Jethro's songs but they weren't coming across like the way they had at the old man's fireplace. They sounded flat, weak, deprived of the lowdown rhythms that Jethro had brought to them. An applause sign was placed up and Moses received applause. A man who didn't go along was taken outside and beaten with flails and crooks. From a box seat, Thermuthis and her expatriate friends applauded loudest of all; 1 Greek said he would return to Greece and announce that Moses sounded even better than Osiris must have sounded himself. Moses then played the songs of Jethro with the words but his voice sounded feigned, his mimic of Jethro's dialect phony, and at this point some grain was thrown up on the stage and people were imitating snakes by HIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGGG. That corner of the park was beaten until blood streamed down the aisles.<br />
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Well, during the intermission Moses went back stage and his Atonist supporters, ass kissers who traveled with him everywhere he went since his return to Egypt, were drinking beer and told Moses how good he was and began to pat him on the back. Moses knew something was wrong. He was told by 1 of the ushers that fights were breaking out in the stadium and that they would have to call for the Army if the violence got out of control.<br />
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Don't worry, Moses said, I will do the songs and dances I learned from The Work, the sacred Book, and that way the people will rejoice and love me and young girls will follow me everywhere.<br />
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Well, Moses went on stage and began gyrating his hips and singing the words of the Book of Thoth, and a strange things happened. The ears of the people began to bleed. Some of them charged the stage and tried to get at Moses but the Atonist thugs beat them back. 1 Osirian priest could not longer take it. He and several others knew what Moses had learned and knew how it was using him.<br />
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Moses couldn't understand. Why hadn't the rites and the words and the dances congealed? Why hadn't the contagion broken out? Why weren't people talking in strange tongues and having happy convulsions?<br />
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Moses examined his guitar. Something was wrong. But then the Osirians rose from the rows they occupied and began blowing their whistles and the beautiful sounds filled the air. They didn't know The Work that Moses knew, but in his hands it wasn't doing him any good anyway. The people began to relax. Removed instruments of their own they had smuggled into the park and began playing them along with the Osirians who were marching toward the bandstand playing the instruments. The people began to dance. Moses couldn't stand it.<br />
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Arrest those men, he said as the men came closer to where he stood and began to mouth the steps. 1 Osirian-a Black Osirian, a crocodile wrestler known by his friends as "The Hunter"- lunged for Moses but the Atonist thugs surrounded him, stabbing him and making him bleed and then stomping him while he was down until he lay on the floor dead. Seeing this, the whole audience charged the bandstand and Moses was whisked away by some Atonists. People began stoning the royal chariots as they raced for refuge in the Palace. Looting and the killing of Atonists went on all night.<br />
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<br />
The people surrounded the Palace. Some of them leaped over the barricades set up by the Pharaoh's militia. They hurled missiles at the residence; inside, Moses' mother Thermuthis sobbed softly. She cried the way they did in Greece, civilized, dignified, not piercing walking from the viscera associated with the mourning of Isis who walked all over Egypt sharing her pathos with her people after husband's murder. (Thermuthis cried the way 1 of my relatives from Alabama described as "crying proper."-I.R.) The Greek friends were trying to reach the boats as quickly as they could- 2 of these loafers, brothers, thought of supporting themselves by selling an idea of frieze dealing with the murder of "The Hunter" at the hands of the Atonist thugs.<br />
<br />
Moses thought that he could calm the multitude by going out to the balcony and "reasoning" with the people (his mother's sophist friends had gotten to his head too), warning them that he would not truck any rowdiness and that horrible punishments were in store for those who persisted in this unruliness.<br />
<br />
Ladies and gentlemen of Egypt. I will unleash the Holocaust upon you this time if you persist in this action. We must have sanity and logic during these times of change and upheaval.<br />
<br />
A rock busted the cat's lip.<br />
<br />
In anger Moses flung his rod to the ground where it immediately transformed into a snake.<br />
<br />
The people laughed. They called him mountebank and sorcerer, fakir in a pejorative sense of the Petro Asson, and other names associated with cheap charlatans who would raise the dead for 15 dollars and change.<br />
<br />
The crowd began pushing into the Palace. Moses then ran back into the apartment where his mother was sobbing softly, touching her soft smooth flabby face with a handkerchief.<br />
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He berated her: For heaven's sake will you cut that out. I'm trying to concentrate.<br />
<br />
Then the idea hit him. Moses ran into his apartment and removed a leaf from the Book Isis had given him. He returned to the balcony where below the crowds had taken trees and were now using them to pound on the Palace gate. Moses uttered The Work aloud. 1st there was silence. Then the people turned toward the Nile and they saw a huge mushroom cloud arise.<br />
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A few minutes later, screaming of the most terrible kind came from that direction. The crowd dispersed, trampling 1 another as they rushed for the shelter of their homes. This was a turning point in the Book's history.<br />
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The practice of the Left Hand has now arisen to the level of that of the Right Hand. As the distinguished musicologist Fats Waller was to comment later: "Formerly the right hand was given all the work and the left hand shifted for itself, thumping out a plain octave or common chord foundation; now it's more evenly divided and the left hand has to know its stuff."<br />
<br />
Moses' explosion made even Set's magicians look small. The next day fish and other river creatures dead and dying washed up on the shores of the Nile.<br />
<br />
The VooDoo tradition instructs that Moses learned the secrets of VooDoo from Jethro and taught them to his followers. H. P. Blavatsky concurs: "The fraternity of Free Masons was founded in Egypt and Moses communicated the secret teaching to Israelites, Jesus to the Apostles and thence found its way to the Knights Templar." But this doesn't explain why he received the Petro Asson instead of the Rada. My theory is that it was due to the fact that he had approached Isis at Koptos during the wrong time of the Moon and stirred her malevolent aspects thus learning of the Book. Others say that shortly afterward Moses and his Atonist followers went into exile.<br />
<br />
When Jethro heard of the incidents occurring in the North, the nuclear attack and the outrage mob, he told Zipporah. She took it well. She was glad that Jethro hadn't, in a fit of rage, sent the white leprosy to Thermuthis, Moses' mother. Jethro was a good man and once you begin the Petro work it's hard to quit.<br />
<br />
Many years later when Moses returned home 1 day from "communicating with his God" he found his children dancing before the despised Bull God Apis, the animal which carries the living spirit of Osiris. Moses heard the "heathen sounds" (timbrel'd anthems dark, boogie, jazz, down-home music, funk, gutbucket) he hadn't heard since his old days in Egypt. Moses grabbed the awful Book from his sons and daughters who were enjoying themselves, dancing their tails off. Moses wanted to get rid of the Book, having sworn off it, but was afraid to burn it. He feared The Work's power. So instead he hid it in a tabernacle where it was lost and become known as 1 of the "lost Books of Moses."..........<br />
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Centuries went by until 1118 [A.D.] when the Knights Templar built their headquarters on the site of Solomon's Temple. The organization was an imitation of Hasan-ibn-al-Sabbah's Assassins which had similar offices: Grand Masters, Grand Priors, Priors, Knights, Esquires, Lay Brothers, and the the Templars even adopted the Muslim colors so as to distinguish themselves from their rivals the Teutonics and the Hospitalers. They were a bunch of filthy ruffians, thugs and excommunicated "holy sinners" who wore their clothes until they rotted off their backs; maybe not so bad when you consider that this was a time when the King of France only changed his clothes 3 times a year. They were bully boys who justified their existence by harassing "sacriligers adulterers and others in the name of the Cross." (As usual they left themselves to be the judges of who was guilty of these vaguely defined crimes.) Their stock rose and when they saved the 2nd Crusade from annihilation they were in a position to write their own ticket. . . . One night while stacking books in the basement of the library [they] came upon a secret passageway which led down some concrete steps into an ancient room. It was here [they] came upon the Book of Thoth, the sacred Work Isis had given to Moses. The Work of the Black Birdman, assistant to Osiris......</div>
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-33818513884663553512012-12-18T18:52:00.001-07:002015-02-10T22:20:15.517-07:00Magic with a K (Let's Push Things Forward) by Mr. Alan Chapman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
In an effort to demonstrate that no idea is big enough to explain existence, Buckminster Fuller once described the universe as 'non-simultaneously apprehended'. As the universe is not experienced all at once, but sequentially through space-time, we would need to apprehend all phenomena simultaneously (including that which hasn't occurred yet) in order to account for the entire universe. Because simultaneous apprehension is impossible, so too is a theory that explains everything.<br />
<br />
This spells bad news for theories that already claim to account for everything, such as every religion and philosophy previous to post-modernism.<br />
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The idea that there is no such thing as absolute truth is a central belief of post-modern magic, and although Fuller's ' non- simultaneously apprehended universe' has been used in the past to validate this idea, it is largely pioneering research in the fields of transactional psychology and quantum physics that informs the post-modern magical world-view.<br />
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Post-modern thought has made a number of significant contributions to a freer, less dogmatic world. For instance, there's <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>constructivism</b></i></span>, the idea that many of our perceptions of the world are created by ourselves through social and historical processes; <i style="font-weight: bold;">contextualism</i>, the understanding that meaning is dependent on context, and so phenomena are interpreted as well as perceived; and <i style="font-weight: bold;">pluralism</i>, the recognition that there are many contexts, and no single context is privileged in and of itself.<br />
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However, post-modernism is easily misunderstood: decide the constructivism applies to all phenomena instead of just some, and you end up with no metaphysical or universal truth; misunderstand contextualism by confusing interpretation with experience, and you deny the existence of a reality beyond the self; mistake pluralism for equality, and: 'nothing is true, everything is permitted'.<br />
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Sadly, we arrived at an accurate description of magic in the 21st Century, where the absolute truth is finally revealed: the universe is devoid of all value, except the relative usefulness of a given world-view in providing self satisfaction for the [po-mo mage]!<br />
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Has the last three hundred years of Western magical development really found its conclusion in this narcissistic dead end?<br />
<br />
Magic is suffering from the misrepresentation of post-modernism. The abuse of Fuller's 'non-simultaneously apprehended universe' as an argument for existence as devoid of truth is just one example amongst many of the post-modernist extremism that has infected Western occultism.<br />
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Although it is true that no idea can account for the entire universe, is it not true that some ideas account for more of the universe than others? Truth most certainly does exist, although it can only ever be known partially through ideas, and to a degree commensurate with the breadth, depth and width of an individual's direct apprehension of the universe. In other words, the greater the awareness of the individual, then the greater the apprehension of truth; the greater the apprehension of truth, then the greater the inadequacy of ideas at expressing that truth.<br />
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Buckminster Fuller was a mystic, not an egomaniac.<br />
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<h3>
Moles</h3>
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The relative nature of the personal world-view, or 'reality tunnel', has been explored at great length in the works of Robert Anton Wilson. Indeed, <i><a href="http://www.principiadiscordia.com/downloads/04%20Prometheus%20Rising.pdf">Prometheus Rising</a></i> has the rather strange effect of making you feel a little less dogmatic, and a little freer, simply by reading it. But just like Buckminster Fuller, RAW has become a casualty of post-modern extremism. I don't think it is unfair to say that this is largely due to his own work.<br />
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Wilson describes a certain stage within the magician's initiatory career as the Chapel Perilous:<br />
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"<i>In researching occult conspiracies, one eventually faces a crossroad of mythic proportions (called Chapel Perilous in the trade). You come out the other side either a stone paranoid or an agnostic; there is no third way. I came out agnostic.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Chapel Perilous, like the mysterious entity called 'I', cannot be located in the space-time continuum; it is weightless, odorless, tasteless and undetectable by ordinary instruments. Indeed, like the [Self]/'Ego', it is even possible to deny that it is there. And yet, even more like the [Self]/'Ego', once you are inside it, there doesn't seem to be any way to ever get out again, until you suddenly discover that it has been brought into existence by thought and does not exist outside thought. </i><b style="font-style: italic;">Everything you fear</b><i> is waiting with slavering jaws in Chapel Perilous, but if you are armed wit the wand of intuition, the cup of sympathy, the sword of reason, and the pentacle of valor, you will find there (the legends say) the Medicine of Metals, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>That's what the legends always say, and the language of myth is poetically precise. For instance, if you go into that realm without the sword of reason, you will lose your mind, but at the same time, if you take only the sword of reason without the cup of sympathy, you will lose your heart. Even more remarkably, if you approach without the wand of intuition, you can stand at the door for decades never realizing you have arrived. You mighty think you are just waiting for a bus, or wandering room to room looking for your cigarettes, watching a TV show, or </i><b style="font-style: italic;">reading a cryptic and ambiguous book.</b><i> Chapel Perilous is tricky that way."</i><br />
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It is far too easy when reading the above (and RAW's work in general) to assume that occultism is an intellectual pursuit- a simple game of interpretation. RAW states the Chapel presents itself when 'researching occult conspiracies'. However, it is evident from his book <i>Cosmic Trigger</i> that by 'researching' Bob actually means taking part in the occult conspiracy by actually performing magic.<br />
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It doesn't help that Bob goes on to claim that there are only two possible results or 'exits' from the Chapel-paranoia or agnosticism- which has the effect of reducing the magical quest to nothing but a question of belief.<br />
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Is it any wonder that 'the Medicine of Metals, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness' i.e. the Crown of the Great Work, is now considered a rather antiquated and flowery way of talking about the intellectual realization of the relative nature of all perception?<br />
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It's not for me to judge whether RAW attained to the Goal, but is it really possible to complete the magical quest and still have the option of leaving the Chapel<i> insane</i>? Is it really possible to attain an experience yet leave as a model <i>agnostic</i>?<br />
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Did Bob fail to mention a third, secret exit?<br />
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Achieving the goal of the magical quest can only result in what I consider to be the only sane world-view: Gnosticism. The world-view or 'reality tunnel' of the Gnostic is not chosen as a model, but given through direct experience. No amount of belief-shifting can substitute for this experience.<br />
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Yes, the Gnostic appreciates the arbitrary nature of all ideas, but he or she also knows of an objective truth beyond reason. No genuine teacher has ever preached literally, or claimed the truth is to be found in any idea. But preach they must, because it is better to point some in the right direction at the risk of deluding others, rather than settling for helping no one at all.<br />
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What function then does it serve to preach the extreme post-modernism of a universe completely subjective and relative?<br />
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There's no doubt about it, RAW was a mystic. <i>Cosmic Trigger</i> is an account of his mystical experiences. I'm not being overly generous when I say Bob preached model agnosticism partly as the necessary next step in introducing magic to the world at large, and partly as a refusal to talk about that which is beyond idea, and so risk muddying the waters.<br />
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There is a scene in <i>Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson </i>where Bob takes great pains to explain exactly what Korzybski's famous aphorism 'the map is not the territory' truly means. It's very easy here to think that Bob is simply promoting the idea of an observer-created universe- i.e. ' the map is not the territory' means that we all perceive with our own peculiar 'maps' of reality. However, Bob takes great care to draw attention to what is actually meant by 'territory', yet without actually ascribing any other, specific idea to it. (It is worth noting that in his later years RAW considered himself a Buddhist and a Taoist.)<br />
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I admire RAW's integrity in refusing to talk about that which cannot be talked about, but I think this approach has deluded just as many people as any of the more 'explicit' magical teachings.<br />
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<h3>
Happy Rainbow People</h3>
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The greater freedom afforded by post-modernism, in conjunction with the dawn of the communication age, has encourage a glorious growth in diversity of magical traditions within the Western magical community.<br />
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However, the insanity of extreme post-modernism has encouraged the delusion that all of these traditions are of equal value. As a result, magic has become vague and generalized. The plethora of available mystical experiences is reduced to a single, fuzzy notion: 'gnosis'; early stages of childhood are confused with enlightenment; rationalization is confused with meditation; beliefs are confused with perception; superstitious world-views are mistaken for magical consciousness; the pragmatism of pre-industrial sorcery is considered commensurate with post-industrial materialism. And there is supposedly one golden rule in all this: all that matters is if a world-view works for you!<br />
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Unfortunately, this approach is indicative of a failure to understand the nature of genuine magical tradition.<br />
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<h3>
Genuine Tradition</h3>
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<div>
Human beings are composed of many dimensions, one of which is the metaphysical. I am using the term in its Greek original sense- a 'metaphysic' is simply a language for describing mystical or profound experience. Every genuine magical tradition to have graced the surface of this planet describes the metaphysical 'plane' as the root of all others, in the sense that it transcends but includes all other experience. These traditions state that if you carry out a certain practice (such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81">Vipassana</a> or the <a href="http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/HGA">Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel</a>) on a daily basis, a developmental process will begin with predictable, recognizable stages, that will eventually culminate in what can be considered the completion of the metaphysical process, sometimes referred to as the Great Work [the G Dub], illumination or enlightenment.<br />
<br />
As the metaphysical is as much a part of being human as having a body or taking a shit, given enough time any group of humans will eventually produce a good magician who will produce a metaphysic (like the A.'.A.'., or Tantra, or Buddhism, or...etc.) that describes their experience of what it means to be human at the most profound level. This is why there are a startling number of traditions that all appear to be describing the same phenomena, but in different terms.<br />
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As these genuine traditions are an expression of the metaphysical process, and therefore concerned solely with the plane of profound or mystical experience, it is never a simple matter of choosing a world-view and reaping the intended results. There is a tradition peculiar to each magician that will bring him or her to the goal and will present itself naturally, or rather <i>magically</i>, at a certain stage in metaphysical growth.<br />
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There is only one golden rule concerning genuine tradition: all that matters is if a world-view works for you in completing the Great Work.<br />
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Strangely enough, examples of genuine tradition can be found (albeit within their esoteric & heterodox schools) in the three major monotheistic religions of the West: Sufism, Hasidism/Kabbalah, Christian Mysticism [all which include elements Neo-Platonism, Hermeticism & Gnosticism]. Then there are of course the sacred traditions of the East: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism; not forgetting a number of African traditions, such as those practiced by the Yoruba.<br />
<br />
And of course, the focus of this article- Magick.<br />
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It should be noted that initiation into one of these traditions does not guarantee the expression of the metaphysical process, just as the process can manifest itself without requiring an initiation into one of these traditions.<br />
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<h3>
Pseudo Tradition</h3>
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<div>
However, not everyone has personal, direct experience of the metaphysical. As a result, some misunderstand the metaphysical teachings of genuine tradition and promote a degenerated version, usually by 'confusing the planes' and believing the goal of the metaphysical process is a mental, emotional or physical event.<br />
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These traditions are pseudo-traditions, offering only the outward appearance of a genuine tradition, regardless of whether effective practical magic is taught. All magical traditions that do not afford metaphysical process or mystical experience are at best pseudo-traditions. Syncretism is the ultimate example of this, as are those magical traditions that ascribe to a superstitious view of the world. (The superstitious view of the world is sometimes confused with genuine magical consciousness, which is the experience of synchronicity as a permanent adaptation or state.) These are best described in the language of developmental psychology as reflections of the 'magic' or 'mythic' <a href="http://www.thebaptistshead.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=152&Itemid=32">states</a> of development, and include traditions such as: paganism, wicca, heathenism. theosophy, new ageism, etc.<br />
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A tell-tale sign of the pseudo-initiate is an emphasis on practical results at the expense of experiencing the truth, or a contentment with rationalization, emotionalism or intuitionism over direct experience of truth.<br />
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<h3>
Counter Tradition</h3>
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<div>
Whereas pseudo-tradition is simply a case of tradition cut off from the metaphysical, there are those traditions that actively oppose the metaphysical process. These traditions are counter-traditions. Any tradition that advocates a refusal to participate in the dissolution of the [self]/'ego' in the divine is counter-initiatory - such as Satanism and Setianism- as are those traditions that traffic with entities that prohibit the metaphysical process, or restrict the magician to working solely within that tradition. The line between pseudo- & counter-tradition is easily crossed, as pseudo-traditions can easily be appropriated by the counter-tradition as a means of subverting genuine seekers.<br />
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All counter traditions are based on a misunderstanding of the metaphysical process, and operate from a basis of (usually subconscious) fear. The counter-tradition has its basis in confusion, and so the secrete master of all counter-initiates, regardless of whom they worship, is <a href="http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/cienciareal19.htm">Choronzon</a>.<br />
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<h3>
Why The long face?</h3>
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<div>
It should not be assumed that simply because a tradition is a pseudo-tradition or even a counter-tradition that it has nothing to offer, or that any benefits gained from practicing such a tradition are invalid.<br />
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Both pseudo- & counter-traditions can provide positive changes in [consciousness] and success in materialistic terms-such as in career or business, love-life, social role, etc., and can teach very useful magical techniques, with 'real world' results. Hence the staggering number of 'good' magicians, in the materialistic sense, that have never come across metaphysical experience. Many magical traditions are necessary and indispensable stepping-stones on the way to beginning the metaphysical process, and the expression of genuine tradition.<br />
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However, there is no escaping it: both pseudo- & counter-traditions either fail to engage with or completely ignore that part of reality that just so happens to include but transcend every other part of reality. This means that no matter how profound an experience, no matter how materialistically successful, no matter how well developed [consciousness] is as as result of practicing a pseudo-tradition, the magician will only ever know hirself and the rest of the universe at a superficial level.<br />
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<h3>
Special K</h3>
</div>
<div>
Aleister Crowley reverted to the old English spelling of 'magick' to distinguish between his 'art & science of causing change to occur in conformity with will' and stage trickery or illusionism.<br />
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Times have change since Crowley's day. I increasingly find that more and more people are using the word magic in its original sense, so I've never felt the need for an alternate spelling. However, in light of the mess of the contemporary magical scene, I very much feel the need to make a new distinction.<br />
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When I talk about magic, I no longer wish to reference materialism, superstition, extreme post-modernism, and the pseudo- or counter-traditions. As such, from now on, I will make the distinction by spelling my magic with a<i><b><span style="font-size: large;"> k</span></b></i>.<br />
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<h3>
The Royal Art<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Magick is the art, science and culture of experiencing truth.</i><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">This definition includes both subjective and relative truth (or perception), and objective and absolute truth (or enlightenment).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Any act therefore is an act of magick, if awareness is brought to that action. The practice of magick is the exercise and growth of conscious awareness, an expansion of consciousness in all directions and on all levels of experience.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">This means magick isn't just about obtaining a material result or attaining the goal of enlightenment, although the latter is most definitely the ultimate goal of genuine tradition. It includes both practicality and mysticism, and the mastery of every level or plane of experience in between.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">In light of the above, does getting high, conjuring for material results, pretending to 'belief shift', or indulging a regressive tradition (especially those that belong to the 'magical' or 'mythical' stages of development) really sound like magick?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">It is time we addressed the stupidity of extreme post-modernism in our magical community. I think the best way to start is for people to spell correctly.</span></span><br />
</h3>
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<h3>
Post Script</h3>
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<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Counter-tradition is NOT the same as the Left-Hand Path, tantra, black magick (i.e. magick for 'negative' ends, such as cursing), working with entities such as Satan, Set, Baphomet, Lilith, the Goetia, demons in general, or other supposedly 'negative' entities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Although I cite both Satanism and Setianism as examples of counter-tradition, it is the approach or attitude of these traditions that defines them as counter-initiatory. It is possible to work with any entity, including both Satan and Set, and still remain within the genuine tradition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">However, counter-tradition is synonymous with the concept of '<a href="http://hermetic.com/crowley/magick-without-tears/mwt_12.html">the black brothers</a>', and Rene Guenon often refers to counter-initiates as 'Satanists'. </span><br />
<h3>
<b>Obverse</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Genuine Tradition is NOT the same thing as the Right-Hand Path, white magick (i.e. using magick for 'positive' ends, such as healing), working with entities such as angels, classical gods and goddesses, such as Venus and Mercury, or other 'positive' entities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">It is possible to work with entities from the Greek or Hindu pantheon- for example- yet still remain in a counter- or pseudo-tradition. However, this will usually be a case of failing to understand or implement these traditions. For instance, it is possible to work with Kali without recognizing her transcendental aspect, and thus to fail to experience union with her as a result of ignorance.<br /><br />However, genuine tradition is synonymous with '<a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Great_White_Brotherhood">the great white brotherhood</a>' and the A.'.A.'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">A Classical Mess</span></h3>
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<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Although in the preceding [sections] I appropriated a number of terms from the work of Rene Guenon as a means of categorizing the traditions prevalent within the contemporary magical community, it must not be assumed that I am either endorsing Traditionalism, or that [this] work is a typical example of this school of thought.<br /><br />The problem of extreme post-modernism is not solved through retrospection. To reject post-modernism outright, lament the present condition of humanity, and long for a past 'golden age' is a great failure in understanding what I have called the genuine tradition.<br /><br />I do not contest that Guenon was first-rate magical genius, or that his book <i><a href="http://www.4shared.com/office/4R8Zdj1h/Rene_Guenon_-_The_Reign_of_Qua.html">The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Time</a>s </i>is a masterpiece. His metaphysic is elegant, and hi anticipation of our current society is nothing short of astonishing.<br /><br />The main thesis of the book concerns humanity's propensity toward the quantitative, at the expense of the qualitative, as an expression of the current period of time in which we find ourselves. In more traditional terms, quantity can be considered 'substance' or 'matter', and its ultimate expression is unmanifest infinite latency- it is therefore 'unintelligible' in the strictest sense. Quality, on the other hand, is the exact polar opposite: it is 'essence' or 'form', and its ultimate expression is unmanifest infinite realization- it is therefore that which is 'intelligible'. It is the interplay of quantity and quality that produces the manifest universe.<br /><br />The end-point of a movement towards quantity is uniformity, or a multitude of separate units all sharing the same qualities. (This is, of course, impossible. But it is this very denial of what is actually experienced that is at the heart of quantity, and the reason why mathematics is its primary expression.) Such units are 'confused' with each other, lost in uniformity whilst demonstrating separation.<br /><br />The end-point of a movement towards quality is unity, or a union of all qualities, each distinct but inseparable. An individual experiencing unity would be 'fused, but not confused'. The self/ego is not lost, as is usually supposed by counter-initiates, but transcended and included in unity- it is an end to the illusion of separation.<br /><br />Because it is only quality that can really be known, the experience of time and space cannot be anything but qualitative. Time is not the succession of quantitative units that we suppose, but a phenomenon that demonstrates qualities, such as speed and character. Of course, none of this is anything new to the magician familiar with aeonics (a study of the inner level of history/the shifts in mass consciousness).<br /><br />It was Guenon's contention that we are reaching the end of a period known in Hinduism as the Kali Yuga, where quantity reigns to an extent greater than ever before. The whole of history is nothing more than an accelerating descent from extreme quality to extreme quantity, ending in what Guenon called 'the dissolution'.<br /><br />If unity, or the experience of 'pure' quality is enlightenment, then it is easy to see that the traditions originating in a period in the past where quality was more prevalent, and quantity less so, are more likely to offer a more accurate metaphysic and teaching for attaining enlightenment.<br /><br />However, the belief that modern traditions are necessarily inferior in nature to those of the past, and that society can only get worse, means that the Traditionalist is always of the opinion that enlightenment is being lost with the disappearance (via Westernization) of the traditional society.<br /><br />And this is the fallacy of Traditionalism: that enlightenment, the metaphysical process, or what I call the genuine tradition, is synonymous with magical culture.<br /><br />Although the Traditionalist school recognizes 'the perennial philosophy', or ubiquity of the expression of the genuine tradition within numerous magical traditions, it nevertheless cannot see past tradition itself.<br /><br />In actuality, the truth is not any idea, religion, ideology, law, caste system, practice, philosophy or era. The truth transcends but includes all notions of space, time and culture, and is therefore not dependent upon any of these things.<br /><br />In [one of the sections preceding this one], I listed a number of traditions as examples of genuine tradition; but these are and can only ever be <i>cultural expressions </i>of genuine tradition- <u style="font-style: italic;">they are not the genuine tradition itself</u>. The genuine tradition, or metaphysical process, can express itself through an individual who belongs to no tradition at all, or through an individual that indulges a pseudo-tradition.<br /><br />However, this does not mean all traditions are of equal value. (<i>Out, demon, out!) </i>A tradition that not only acknowledges enlightenment, but provides a map or model of development and instruction in a practice conducive to the metaphysical process, is of infinitely greater value than those traditions that do not.<br /><br />This is why, despite the fallacy of Traditionalism, the works of the Traditionalist school (Rene Guenon, Julius Evola, etc.) are generally indispensable to the serious aspirant.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Degeneration of Chaos Magick</span></h3>
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<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Magick was left in a sorry state after the death of Crowley. Riddled with moralizing, pompous armchair transcendentalists, waxing poetical about magical matters beyond the scope of their personal experience, magick became nothing short of a ridiculous intellectual eccentricity.<br /><br />Somehow magick muddled through in this state for a couple of decades, until chaos magick materialized at the end of the Seventies to save its sorry arse. Suddenly magick was a practice again, with verifiable results.<br /><br />It was essential for the Western magical tradition that chaos magick exposed the fantasy that had accrued around magical practice, and it is thanks solely to post-modern thought that magick regained its vitality.<br /><br />The heart of the particular delusion that held sway with some (but not all) of the transcendentalists was the belief that the truth could be found in one correct answer (i.e. <i>theirs</i>). Chaos magick addressed this head-on by pointing out that no one idea is the truth, and that belief could therefore be used as a tool for magical effect.<br /><br />With the advent of chaos magick, there were those who refused to abandon the old approach, and as a consequence many (but not all) of the present-day proponents of the old transcendental approach tend to be quite naive when it comes to actual magical practice, and usually operate from a rather dogmatic view of the world.<br /><br />However, given enough time, delusion and fantasy will produce a degenerated form of any tradition, even if that tradition attempts to avoid such a fate by pretending it's just a theory.<br /><br />And so, it is time to address the degeneration of chaos magick. The delusion that holds sway with some (but not all) of its adherents is the idea that there is no truth, and the universe exists solely to provide personal satisfaction for the magician.<br /><br />We can address this head-on by realizing we do in fact experience truth on a moment-to-moment basis, and it is therefore not to be found in adopting the attitude that there is no one correct answer, or in using belief as a tool. The truth is not to be found in any idea or attitude, but in <u>direct experience itself.</u><br /><br />With this comes the recognition that some ideas or models describe experience better than others, regardless of which model the magician might actually prefer. This does not mean that the most <i>useful </i>model or map is the truth, or that the tradition that leads the aspirant to the direct experience of absolute truth is the only way. Indeed, it is the very subjectivity of perception itself that allows the aspirant to reach the absolute truth through the relative value of the tradition most suited to him or her.<br /><br />It is imperative that we do not assume that those magical traditions that do not address the metaphysical process are somehow superfluous or 'evil'; after all, magick is the expansion of [consciousness] in all directions. To focus solely on enlightenment at the expense of the rest of reality is as narrow-minded as focusing solely on material results and pretending there is no such thing as mystical or profound experience.<br /><br />However, a tradition that acknowledges the metaphysical domain offers a lot more that what might be supposed by the simple recognition of another plane of experience, for the metaphysical transcends but includes every other level. <u>This isn't a denial of experience at the level of 'everyday' life, but the facilitation of a greater depth and involvement with every experience whatsoever.</u><br /><br />Perusing the material available on instruction for achieving direct experience of the truth, and for charting progress made, it becomes apparent that most of it is to be found in the sacred traditions of the East, and the old transcendental traditions of the West.<br /><br />But there is a great danger with adopting a traditional view. The temptation to regress tot he belief that truth can be found in one correct answer, or in any idea for that matter, can be too easily indulged, and the retrospective attitude tends to promote a dismissal of the contributions of chaos magick and the lamentation of a supposedly rapidly degenerating occult scene. For clarity's sake: I do not believe the entire occult scene is without merit- just that there is a degenerated or delusional form of post-modernism and of chaos magick currently doing the rounds.<br /><br />It is important to recognize that extreme post-modernism or any degenerated tradition for that matter, is essential to the growth of magick. The truth is found in experience, and this is no better demonstrated in the fact that humans only change when circumstances, or direct experience, force them to do so. Degeneration serves an indispensable function, and is most certainly not something to cry over.<br /><br />I therefore salute the deluded proponents of both transcendentalism and chaos magick for fulfilling their appointed function, and for making progress possible.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Part 3</span></h3>
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<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">No other subject in the history of the human race has been as misunderstood and grossly misrepresented as that of enlightenment.<br /><br />For many Eastern traditions, enlightenment is a product whose value is directly proportionate to the strength of its myth: the more enlightenment is divorced from reality, the more the devotee is willing to pay for it. The popular conception of enlightenment has suffered accordingly. For many people, enlightenment is considered fantastic, highly specialized and virtually unattainable-if it is believed to exist at all.<br /><br />As for the Western enlightenment traditions, only one is still extant: magick. Unfortunately, enlightenment is considered a hopelessly regressive new-ageism by extreme post-modern magicians. It's only in the pre-post-modern (modern?), transcendental schools of magick that we still find reference to enlightenment as the goal of the magician's career.<br /><br />Yet enlightenment within transcendental magick has suffered the same fate as in the East, largely thanks to the life and works of Aleister Crowley. The deification of Crowley- by himself and by his disciples- has mythologized the process of enlightenment within the Western tradition. Western magicians that still take the idea seriously do so only on the ground that it is unattainable by the average magician, let alone the average man or woman. The magical community meets with incredulity any claim to the Western magical grades that delineate the process of enlightenment, resulting in the phenomenon of the inexcusable arrogant Western magician who will only 'hint' at the achievement of his or her grade, either as feigned humility in the face of his or her <i>incredible achievement</i>; or a means of claiming the unattained, and the kudos that goes with it, without having to validate their experience.<br /><br />However, we are not without hope: there are currently a few individuals making towards an open and honest discussion of enlightenment within the Eastern traditions, based upon their own personal experience.<br /><br />I feel that adopting such an approach with regards to the Western magical tradition is overdue. I therefore offer no apology to the extreme post-modern magician, who believes enlightenment does not have a place in today's magick, or to the transcendental magician whose bubble I'm intent on bursting. I do, however, extend to everyone reading this article an open invitation to the frank and honest discussion of enlightenment within Magick.</span></div>
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Let's Push Things Forward</span></h3>
If we are to avoid the types of degeneration peculiar to the transcendental and post-modern schools of magick, without dismissing the invaluable contributions of both approaches, how are we best to proceed? In my opinion by recognizing that:<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: medium;">
1. The truth is not found in any idea, religion, ideology, belief, law, opinion, map, model, technology, philosophy, practice, dogma, race, era (either long lost or imminent) or geographical location. </div>
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2. Truth exists in direct, personal experience.</div>
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3. Magick is the art, science and culture of experiencing truth.</div>
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4. What can be experience using magick is limited only by the ingenuity of the magician (the subjective), but how that experience manifests is limited by the available means of manifestation (the objective).</div>
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5. The available means of manifestation is the totality of reality. This means reality is not restricted to what is experienced through the five senses, but consists of many more planes or levels of experience. As well as the physical, emotional and mental realms normally recognized, there are also what are sometimes referred to as the astral, etheric and spiritual or metaphysical planes. What is experienced at each level has subjective, relative, surface features, and objective, absolute, deep features. In other words, although the perception of each level is subjective and relative, the actual experience of each level is not.</div>
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6. The human being is manifest or expressed at each level of experience. As such, every single person has the right and the potential to address any and all levels of his or her experience.</div>
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7. Each level or plane of experience must be addressed if we are to attain to understanding, happiness and ability at all levels. Magick is the expansion of [consciousness] in all directions.</div>
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8. The metaphysical level includes but transcends all other levels, and therefore to engage the metaphysical level is not to escape reality, but to engage with life in the deepest and most profound way possible.</div>
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9. The metaphysical level is therefore to engage every other level of experience, both objectively and absolutely. To perform the Great Work on a personal level (the microcosmic) is to address the future of humanity and the manifest universe (the macrocosmic).</div>
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10. The Great Work is first and foremost a personal engagement with the metaphysical, and secondly, the facilitation of the possibility of engagement with the metaphysical for every other human being.</div>
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11. Although the engagement of the metaphysical level of experience is never just a simple matter of conscious decision on the part of the magician, the only sane and reasonable way to proceed is to practice magick habitually, study every available map or model of metaphysical development, and use that which most accurately describes and predicts experience, and reject that which does not.</div>
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12. As reality has subjective, relative, surface features, each human being can best engage with each level of experience in a subjective and relative manner. In other words, there is a tradition or path most suited to the magician for engaging with each level.</div>
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13. The metaphysical level is a fundamental constituent of every human being, and enlightenment or the Great Work is a very real, very attainable direct experience available to everyone, right here and right now, provided they apply the necessary effort in engaging with the metaphysical process.</div>
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14. Everything said in this article is not the truth, but a metaphysic based on the direct experience of a fellow human being. It remains for each and every individual to corroborate or disprove everything said here by experiencing the truth for themselves, through dedicated magical practice.</div>
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">An Open Letter to the Magical Community</span><br /><div style="font-size: medium;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">With the advent of the communications age and the cult of the individual, magick can no longer be defined by any one specific religion, morality, lineage, region, political agenda or aesthetic.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As a result of this, and fore the first time in history, Magicians, Shamans, Pagans, Buddhists, Voudonists, Naths, Alchemists, Sufis Thelemites, Wiccans, Yogis, Qabalists, Heathens, Chaotes, and every other denomination, now stand side by side as a magical community.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not only has this community never existed before [on the history of this planet!], but popular interest in the occult, and so the magical community itself, is growing exponentially. Speculation abounds as to why this might be, but there is no doubting this is a very exciting time to be a magician. This has inevitably led some magicians to conclude the magical community is going to save the world and create heaven on earth.<br /><br />Unfortunately, although a number of individuals within the magical community may share certain aspects of magical culture, such a tradition or group affiliation, the magical community itself cannot be united by one single cause or aim, no matter how altruistic.</span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">This is the nature of diversity and, in my opinion, something to be celebrated. It's a shame diversity often leads to conflict. The occult scene is dogged by incessant bickering and political posturing, which rarely benefits anyone involved. After finding myself embroiled in one too many pointless debates, I came to the conclusion that a focus on personal creative output is far more rewarding. However, I very much care for the future of magic, and I feel that sticking my head above the parapet might just be worth it for everyone involved.<br /><br />The teenage dream is over. So how do we proceed? Where does the community go from here?<br /><br />Obviously, starting a new movement to unify the magical community is to repeat [previous follies]. That is not to say that starting a movement, tradition or magical society/[collective] isn't worthwhile or commendable, but that no single magical culture can be the community itself. The future of magick does not lie with agendas, beliefs, traditions or morality.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The steady growth of the global magical community is happening regardless of what we do, what aims we have, what beliefs we ascribe to. We do not need to evangelize magick, or seek to convert those that are not interested, because they are coming when they are ready and of their own free will. We do not need to find an overall purpose or aim for magic, because the overall purpose or aim of current events already exists and demonstrably has nothing to do with any specific magical culture.</span></span><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">What then? Do we just get on with our own lives until the current events come to some kind of conclusion?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No. Like any community, we have a duty. Not to God(s), not to the planet, not to any ideology, but to each other.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcasAnRYj0PK4pbuMVIxiJUoUtWXDj7X333GOMpOYG5m0Dy7BaTnmIQiFFI3FQQgwGKToqorF8RXtCMZQQhUy57D_vEbFY7suj3VYtGeprDwNX2Chx9SI8imXd7vVii46AZDDXVvb2hnY/s1600/roooff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcasAnRYj0PK4pbuMVIxiJUoUtWXDj7X333GOMpOYG5m0Dy7BaTnmIQiFFI3FQQgwGKToqorF8RXtCMZQQhUy57D_vEbFY7suj3VYtGeprDwNX2Chx9SI8imXd7vVii46AZDDXVvb2hnY/s640/roooff.jpg" height="640" width="620" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Should a fellow member of the community need help and guidance, whether newcomer or veteran, we have a duty to provide the benefit of our own experience, should it be useful to that person. The Problem is ensuring that our experience is both available and accessible.<br /><br />With the exponential growth of people suddenly finding themselves called to a magical tradition, I believe it is imperative for each of us to shout from the rooftops who and what we are, so that we may function as a beacon for those that need a little support and guidance from someone who has been there before.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">What accessible, relevant resources are there for a kid that find hirself approached by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loa">Loa</a> or the Tivar? Where can someone who suddenly experiences spontaneous Samadhi find help and guidance? Is the fourteen year-old girl who has discovered she can make wishes come true really be losing her mind?<br /><br />Instead of incessantly bickering over semantics on a forum, let's start our own magical journals and societies; instead of lamenting the lack of good magical instruction available, let's write our own grimoires and our own interpretation of tradition. Instead of waiting for the Next Big Thing to arrive, realize it's already here: </span><i>YOU! </i></span><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The Buddha sought neither to argue nor to convert, but to teach those with ears to hear. We can do better than that: let's seek neither to argue nor to convert, but to offer our own experience for those that may benefit from it, not as a teacher, but as a fellow human being.</span><br style="font-size: medium;" /><br style="font-size: medium;" /><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">As a community, we don't need new branding or another messiah; we simply need to recognize we have a duty to each other. This isn't a manifesto, but a call to arms. Where's your blog? Where's your book? Where's your podcast? Where's your movement? Where's your experience? Where are </span><i style="font-size: medium;">you</i><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">?</span><br />
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-11653566891942224862012-11-05T13:13:00.001-07:002012-12-19T17:11:31.104-07:00On Demonic Spirits by Duncan Barford<br />
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<h3>
Spirit leveller</h3>
People have problems with the word "spirit".<br />
<br />
I felt the same, until I decided that "spirit" is pretty much synonymous with information. (This is a term that people like much better.)<br />
<br />
If you insist on regarding "spirit" as a kind of mystical, flimsy substance, you will arrive at a poor notion of spiritual beings: "they're like us, only not made of flesh but 'spirit'". Yet to argue that what defines a spirit is that it's made of spirit explains bugger all.<br />
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Instead, thinking of demons, angels, the human soul, as forms of information steers us in a more useful direction.<br />
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<h3>
Here comes the science bit</h3>
Some things have material existence. Some don't.<br />
<br />
This is not to say that some things are more "real" than others. Very often, things that have no material existence (such as nation states, for example) are treated as very real indeed.<br />
<br />
A daffodil has material existence.<br />
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Like all objects with material existence, the daffodil has sensory attributes: a size, colour and shape. Often, the reason we claim a thing has material existence is that we can locate outside ourselves, through our senses, the attributes associated with the concept of that thing. In other words: it has material existence because we sense it.<br />
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But an informational entity, on the other hand, is composed of elements that are uniform and not necessarily sensory. A jpeg image of a daffodil, for instance, consists entirely of bytes. These elements have no remarkable sensory qualities - or none at all, it might be argued. The image of the jpeg daffodil on the screen is produced from the computer's interpretation of the relationships between the bytes.<br />
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Words and musical notes are further examples of elements that might constitute an informational entity. The attributes of the entity arise not from the elements of which it is composed, but from an interpretation of the relationships between those elements.<br />
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The daffodil in your garden is yellow. So is the daffodil on my computer screen. But my screen daffodil is yellow because the data in the jpeg file informs my computer it should display it as such.<br />
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So, we have arrived at a notion of two different types of things: material entities and informational entities. Material entities possess sensory attributes, but the attributes of informational entities, whose constituent elements may or may not be perceivable, become apparent only after an interpretation of the relationships between those elements.<br />
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Now, don't get me wrong; informational entities do indeed have a material basis. Undeniably, they have material qualities. But these are of secondary importance. The typeface of your copy of The Brothers Karamazov, for instance, has little bearing on your reading of it, or on its meaning.<br />
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And this brings us to the most important aspect of an informational entity: its meaning.<br />
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<h3>
My tricksy spirit</h3>
The attributes of demonic spirits can be found listed in grimoires, such as The Lesser Key of Solomon the King.<br />
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For instance, the demon Shax "is a Great Marquis and appeareth in the Form of a Stock-Dove, speaking with a hoarse voice, but yet subtle. His Office is to take away the Sight, Hearing, or Understanding of any Man or Woman; and to steal money out of the houses of Kings, and to carry it again in 1,200 years. If commanded he will fetch Horses or any other thing."<br />
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I'm not proud of my experiences with demons. So far, every working I've done has gone slightly tits-up, due to faulty intention on my part rather than the fault of the spirit or the evocation.<br />
<br />
In the course of a particularly poorly-conceived working, I summoned Shax and asked him to bring me some cash. A few days later, I was standing in a shop when a wad of notes fell out the back-pocket of the man in front. He must've felt it fall, because he bent to pick it up, but he only retrieved a single fiver that had separated from the remaining wad of twenties. The rest was left on the floor.<br />
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Everyone in the shop had entered a trance-state during which, evidently, I was invisible, because when I bent down and picked up the money, no one saw me. I could have put it in my pocket and walked out of the shop. Instead, I handed it back to the man.<br />
<br />
Although I ruined his good work, Shax had indeed fetched me some cash. Only later did I recall that his main office is to "steal money out of the houses of Kings". I should have been prepared that any money from this direction would be "dirty" (albeit stolen from someone who could probably afford to lose it).<br />
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I really wish I'd asked the guy in the queue his name.<br />
<br />
It was probably Rex.<br />
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<h3>
Informational entities from Hell</h3>
If Shax is an informational entity then, like our jpeg daffodil, he his perceivability depends on the interpretative action of another agency.<br />
<br />
In the case of the jpeg daffodil this agency is a computer, but I suspect the nature of the agency doesn't matter - most likely it's a human being, although perhaps an animal or another type of machine can fulfil the role - as long as that agency itself is another informational entity.<br />
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It was the informational entity of my mind that acted as the interpretative agency for Shax. Without my intent, or my decision to choose him from the grimoire, or my performance of the evocation, what happened in the shop would have had no significance other than a sequence of consecutive events.<br />
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But I know better. Because I had specifically asked Shax to provide the wad of cash that dropped onto the floor in front of me.<br />
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It has often been demonstrated, both in magic and in science, that perceptions are shaped by intention. An act of evocation - in effect - is the installation of an informational entity (or spirit) between my intention and my perception. It functions like a kind of filter.<br />
<br />
In evocation, the mind behaves like the computer, interpreting and giving to the informational entity life and meaning, until the image of the daffodil looms on our interior screen, and we perceive it as big and yellow and lovely. (In a sense, everyday reality is one continuous evocation.)<br />
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Similarly, Shax's ability to "steal money from the houses of kings" became wedged between my intention and my perception. My mind was running Shax like a computer program in order to change my reality.<br />
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<h3>
The vicissitudes of evocation</h3>
Here are some scenarios that describe the possible outcomes of an evocation:<br />
<br />
I evoke, and my intent and the demon’s attributes coincide nicely, so the demon forms a suitable filter between my intention and perception. This is a "successful" evocation, by which it’s meant that my intention matches the attributes of the demon, and through the demon’s service my will is enabled to act semi-autonomously upon the world.<br />
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I evoke, but my intent is only partially in accord with the full range of the demon’s attributes. Either I don’t want what the demon can deliver; or the demon can’t deliver what I want. The result may contain a contradictory significance (like my Shax working), or there may be no result at all.<br />
<br />
My intent and the demon’s attributes contradict or conflict. Unpredictable patterns of interference are the consequence. At best, the result is partial or zero. At worst, my intention is perverted, or its opposite manifests.<br />
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<h3>
Pea-green puke</h3>
We've all seen The Exorcist. But the view of demons as informational entities casts a different light on "possession".<br />
<br />
The demon leaves the service of a magician when it is granted licence to depart. Ideally, the transaction terminates once a result is obtained and the magician no longer needs an autonomous filter between his or her intention and perception.<br />
<br />
However, "possession" is what might occur if the transaction unsuccessfully terminates. Instead, the demon lingers and becomes grafted onto the will of the magician. The cause of this is - once again - a fault on the magician's part. "Lust of result", or an obsession with a particular aim to the extent that even a successful outcome does not satisfy the intention may lead to this state of affairs.<br />
<br />
You wouldn’t necessarily be conscious of being "possessed". You wouldn’t necessarily act or think in a style any different from your habitual notion of yourself. But you might notice that your actions in everyday life are becoming separated from your intentions, in a way that fulfilled the attributes of the demon more completely than it fulfilled your personal will.<br />
<br />
Feelings of alienation, boredom, frustration, discontent, and doubts concerning the efficacy of magic are, therefore, possible indications of possession.<br />
<br />
Sounds familiar?<br />
<br />
As Lon Milo DuQuette puts it: "Can the spirits hurt me? Yes, most definitely, spirits can hurt you. They hurt you all the time."<br />
<br />
A demon is a static template; a fixed collection of attributes. We are most likely to uncover demons grafted onto those aspects of ourselves that are less vulnerable to change: our opinions, well-established personality traits, or those myths we have constructed about ourselves in order to make sense of our personal histories.<br />
<br />
Fluidity, flexibility and development are the enemies of demons. We can change ourselves, but the attributes and function of the demon are fixed. The most powerful exorcism is always self-transformation, which can iron out the creases where demons might cling to us.<br />
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<h3>
Be ye not afeard</h3>
Replace the word "spirit" with "information" and there's no need to side-step the question of whether spiritual beings are real. There's no need to side-step any questions about spiritual beings, because this approach helps frame some detailed and specific replies.<br />
<br />
There's no need to be disappointed, either, the next time you evoke and a misty, wraith-like entity fails to appear. (Although who's to say it won't?)<br />
<br />
That feeling of presence, that baleful sense of being stared at from the triangle of art, is a faithful indication that the entity is active and alive.<br />
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<h3>
Personal Demons</h3>
<div>
This ritual allows a group of practitioners to expose and confront their demons in a controlled setting. It was performed after I realized how constantly critical I am of other people. I found my interior carping so impossible to control that casting it from my mind into a demon seemed the most reasonable means of handling it.<br /><br />Each participant chooses a <a href="http://www.spiralnature.com/reviews/general-magick/uncle-ramseys-little-book-demons-ramsey-dukes.html">personality trait or behavior </a>over which they require more control. They then take some time to personify this entity, by drawing its seal, giving it a name (e.g. 'LOLOTRANON'), visualizing the physical form it takes ('an emaciated bald man wearing glasses with round, black lenses'). Everyone in the group describes their demon, with its powers stated in <i>positive </i>rather than negative terms. For instance, my demon, which manifests needless criticism of others, nevertheless has positive attributes: it is useful for cutting down to size bullies and overbearing authority figures, and for deflating egos in circumstances where this is appropriate. The aim is to harness the demon and employ it intentionally, rather than allowing it to run riot. It is up to each participant whether he or she wishes to reveal to the group the negative aspect from which their demon manifests.<br /><br />The seal of demons are collected and placed in a pile. About the pile, with black gaffer or duct tape, a triangle is made. At each corner of the triangle a candle is lit. The company evoke their demons into the triangle by holding their breath to the brink of unconsciousness- or by whatever method of gnosis that is preferred.<br /><br />Once the demons are evoked, the company proceeds to the end of the room where they turn their backs on the triangle of art. Everyone chants at their own pace the following mantra: <i>This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine. </i>Whilst the others keep their backs turned, each person takes a turn to approach the triangle for some quality time with their demon, silently or out loud, as they wish. I took the opportunity to tell my demon it had been cast out from my mind, that now i exercised full control, and that it would no longer be allowed to disparage others unless I willed it.<br /><br />When everyone has had their turn, the leader of the rite gives the demons license to depart. Banish thoroughly. The triangle is dismantled and everyone retrieves their demon's seal for future summonings. Repeated use of this ritual could form the basis of a group grimoire of personal demons, as an alternative to traditional sources such as <i>The Lesser Key of Solomon. </i>Such a grimoire could prove powerful, since it would be based on the personality traits of group members.</div>
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-71187931339284007802012-09-16T18:41:00.002-06:002012-11-02T03:19:32.783-06:00The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic by H. Sapiens<br />
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<br />
IT IS LOFTILY amusing to the student of magical literature who is not quite a fool—and rare is such a combination!—to note the criticism directed by the Philistine against the citadel of his science. Truly, since our childhood has ingrained into us not only literal belief in the Bible, but also substantial belief in Alf Laylah wa Laylah [A Thousand and One Nights], and only adolescence can cure us, we are only too liable, in the rush and energy of dawning manhood, to overturn roughly and rashly both these classics, to regard them both on the same level, as interesting documents from the standpoint of folk-lore and anthropology, and as nothing more.<br />
<br />
Even when we learn that the Bible, by a profound and minute study of the text, may be forced to yield up Qabalistic arcana of cosmic scope and importance, we are too often slow to apply a similar restorative to the companion volume, even if we are the lucky holders of Burton’s veritable edition.<br />
<br />
To me, then, it remains to raise the Alf Laylah wa Laylah into its proper place once more.<br />
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<br />
I am not concerned to deny the objective reality of all “magical” phenomena; if they are illusions, they are at least as real as many unquestioned facts of daily life; and, if we follow Herbert Spencer, they are at least evidence of some cause [This, incidentally, is perhaps the greatest argument we possess, pushed to its extreme, against the Advaitist1 theories].<br />
<br />
Now, this fact is our base. What is the cause of my illusion of seeing a spirit in the triangle of Art?<br />
<br />
Every smatterer, every expert in psychology, will answer: “That cause lies in your brain.”<br />
<br />
English children (pace the Education Act) are taught that the Universe lies in infinite Space; Hindu children, in the akasa, which is the same thing.<br />
<br />
Those Europeans who go a little deeper learn from Fichte,2 that the phenomenal Universe is the creation of the Ego; Hindus, or Europeans studying under Hindu gurus, are told, that by akasa is meant the citakasa. The citakasa is situated in the “Third Eye,” i.e., in the brain. By assuming higher dimensions of space, we can assimilate this fact to Realism; but we have no need to take so much trouble.<br />
<br />
This being true for the ordinary Universe, that all sense-impressions are dependent on changes in the brain, [Thought is a secretion of the brain (Weissmann). Consciousness is a function of the brain (Huxley)] we must include illusions, which are after all sense-impressions as much as “realities” are, in the class of “phenomena dependent on brain-changes.”<br />
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<br />
<br />
Magical phenomena, however, come under a special sub-class, since they are willed, and their cause is the series of “real” phenomena, called the operations of ceremonial Magic.<br />
<br />
These consist of<br />
<br />
(1) Sight.<br />
The circle, square, triangle, vessels, lamps, robes, implements, etc.<br />
<br />
(2) Sound.<br />
The invocations.<br />
<br />
(3) Smell.<br />
The perfumes.<br />
<br />
(4) Taste.<br />
The Sacraments.<br />
<br />
(5) Touch.<br />
As under (1).<br />
<br />
(6) Mind.<br />
The combination of all these and reflection on their significance.<br />
<br />
These unusual impressions (1-5) produce unusual brain-changes; hence their summary (6) is of unusual kind. Its projection back into the apparently phenomenal world is therefore unusual.<br />
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<br />
Herein then consists the reality of the operations and effects of ceremonial magic, [Apart from its value in obtaining one-pointedness] and I conceive that the apology is ample, as far as the “effects” refer only to those phenomena which appear to the magician himself, the appearance of the spirit, his conversation, possible shocks from imprudence, and so on, even to ecstasy on the one hand, and death or madness on the other.<br />
<br />
But can any of the effects described in this our book Goetia be obtained, and if so, can you give a rational explanation of the circumstances? Say you so?<br />
<br />
I can, and will.<br />
<br />
The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain.<br />
<br />
Their seals therefore represent (Mr. Spencer’s projected cube) methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (through the eye).<br />
<br />
The names of God are vibrations calculated to establish:<br />
<br />
(a) General control of the brain. (Establishment of functions relative to the subtle world.)<br />
<br />
(b) Control over the brain in detail. (Rank or type of the Spirit.)<br />
<br />
(c) Control of one special portion. (Name of the Spirit.)<br />
<br />
The perfumes aid this through smell. Usually the perfume will only tend to control a large area; but there is an attribution of perfumes to letters of the alphabet enabling one, by a Qabalistic formula, to spell out the Spirit’s name.<br />
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I need not enter into more particular discussion of these points; the intelligent reader can easily fill in what is lacking.<br />
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<br />
If, then, I say, with Solomon:<br />
<br />
”The Spirit Cimieries teaches logic,” what I mean is:<br />
<br />
”Those portions of my brain which subserve the logical faculty may be stimulated and developed by following out the processes called ‘The Invocation of Cimieries.’”<br />
<br />
And this is a purely materialistic rational statement; it is independent of any objective hierarchy at all. Philosophy has nothing to say; and Science can only suspend judgment, pending a proper and methodical investigation of the facts alleged.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, we cannot stop there. Solomon promises us that we can (1) obtain information; (2) destroy our enemies; (3) understand the voices of nature; (4) obtain treasure; (5) heal diseases, etc. I have taken these five powers at random; considerations of space forbid me to explain all.<br />
<br />
(1) Brings up facts from sub-consciousness.<br />
<br />
(2) Here we come to an interesting fact. It is curious to note the contrast between the noble means and the apparently vile ends of magical rituals. The latter are disguises for sublime truths. “To destroy our enemies” is to realize the illusion of duality, to excite compassion.<br />
<br />
(Ah! Mr. Waite, the world of Magic is a mirror, wherein who sees muck is muck.)<br />
<br />
(3) A careful naturalist will understand much from the voices of the animals he has studied long. Even a child knows the difference of a cat’s miauling and purring. The faculty may be greatly developed.<br />
<br />
(4) Business capacity may be stimulated.<br />
<br />
(5) Abnormal states of the body may be corrected, and the involved tissues brought back to tone, in obedience to currents started from the brain.<br />
<br />
So for all other phenomena. There is no effect which is truly and necessarily miraculous.<br />
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<br />
Our Ceremonial Magic fines down, then, to a series of minute, though of course empirical, physiological experiments, and whoso, will carry them through intelligently need not fear the result.<br />
<br />
I have all the health, and treasure, and logic, I need; I have no time to waste. “There is a lion in the way.” For me these practices are useless; but for the benefit of others less fortunate I give them to the world, together with this explanation of, and apology for, them.<br />
<br />
I trust that the explanation will enable many students who have hitherto, by a puerile objectivity in their view of the question, obtained no results, to succeed; that the apology may impress upon our scornful men of science that the study of the bacillus should give place to that of the baculum, the little to the great—how great one only realizes when one identifies the wand with the mahalingam, up which Brahma flew at the rate of 84,000 yojanas a second for 84,000 mahakalpas, down which Vishnu flew at the rate of 84,000 croces of yojanas a second for 84,000 crores of mahakalpas—yet neither reached an end.<br />
<br />
But I reach an end.<br />
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<br />
Boleskine House,<br />
Foyers, N.B., July, 1903Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-1660966338198713662012-09-05T18:16:00.000-06:002012-09-05T20:06:59.107-06:00Thee ∞ Magiks by Peter J Carroll <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Our perceptual and conceptual apparatus creates a fourfold division of matter into the space, time, mass, and energy tautology. Similarly, our instinctual drives create an eightfold division of magic. The eight forms of magic are conveniently denoted by colours having emotional significance:</div>
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">
Octarine Magic</span></span></h3>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Following Pratchett's hypothesis, the eighth colour of the spectrum, which is the magicians personal perception of the "colour of magic", may be called octarine. For me, this is a particular shade of electric pinkish-purple. My most signifikant optical visions have all occured in this hue, and I visualise it to colour many of my more important spells and sigils on the astral. Before I set sail in a handmade open boat through the Arabian Sea I was tricked into accepting a huge and priceless star ruby by a wizard in India. It was of an exactly octarine hue. During the most violent typhoon I have ever experienced I found myself shrieking my conjurations to Thor and Poseidon whilst clinging to the bowsprit as mountainous waves smashed into the boat and octarine lightning bolts crashed into the sea all around. Looking back it seems miraculous that I and my crew survived. I have kept the octarine stone, uncertain as to whether it was passed to me as a curse, a joke, a blessing, or a test, or all of these things.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Other magicians perceive octarine in different ways. My personal perception of octarine is probably a consequence of sex (purple) and anger (red) being my most effective forms of gnosis. Each should seek out the colour of magic for himself.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">The octarine power is our instinctual drive towards magic, which, if allowed to flower, creates the magician self or personality in the psyche, and in affinity with various magician god forms. The "Magician Self" varies naturally between magicians, but has the general characteristics of antinomianism and deviousness, with a predilection for manipulation and the bizarre. The antinomianism of the magician self arises partly from the general estrangement of our culture from magic. The magicial self therefore tends to take an interest in everything that does not exist, or should not exist, acording to ordinary consensus reality. To the magician self, "Nothing is Unnatural". A statement full of endless meanings. The deviousness of the magician self is a natural extension of the sleight of mind required to manipulate the unseen. The god forms of the octarine power are those which correspond most closely with the characteristics of the magician self, and are usually the magicians most important modes of possession for purely magical inspiration. Baphomet, Pan, Odin, Loki, Tiamat, Ptah, Eris, Hekate, Babalon, Lilith and Ishtar are examples of god forms which can be used in this way.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Alternatively the magician may wish to formulate a magician god form on a purely idiosyncratic basis, in which case the symbolism of the serpent and the planet Uranus often prove useful starting points.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">The magician can invoke such god forms for the illumination of various aspects of the magical self, and for various works of pure rather than applied magic. The category of pure magic includes such activities as the development of magical theories and philosophies, and magical training programs, the devising of symbolic systems for use in divinations, spells and incantations, and also the creation of magical languages for similar purposes. It is worth noting here that chaos-magical languages are usually now written in V-Prime before transliteration into magical barbaric form. V-Prime or Vernacular Prime is simply one's native tongue in which all use of all tenses of the verb "to be" is omitted in accordance with quantum metaphysics. All the nonsense of transcendentalism disappears quite naturally once this tactic is adopted. There is no being, all is doing.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">The octarine power is invoked to inspire the magician self and to expand the magicians primary arcana. The primary personal arcana consists of the fundamental symbols with which he interprets and interacts with reality (whatever that may assault perception as), magically. These symbols may be theories or kabbalas, obsessions, magical weapons, astral or physical, or indeed anything which relates to the practice of magic generally, that is not dedicated specifically to one of the other powers of applied magic, whose symbols form the secondary personal arcana of magic.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">From the vantage point of the octarine gnosis, the magician self should be able to perceive the selves of the other seven powers, and be able to see their interrelationship within his total organism. Thus the octarine power brings some ability in psychiatry, which is the adjustment of the relationship between the selves in an organism. The basis difference between a magician and a civilian is that the latter the octarine power is vestigial or undeveloped. The normal resting or neutral mode a civilian corresponds to a mild expression of the yellow power which he regards as his normal personality or "ego". The magician self however, is fully aware that this is but one of eight major tools that the organism possesses. Thus, in a sense, the "normal personality" of the magician is a tool of his magical self (and, importantly, vice versa). This realisation gives him some advantage over ordinary people. However the developing magical self will soon realize that it is not in itself superior to the other selves that the organism consists of, for there are many things they can do which it cannot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">The development of the octarine power through the philosophy and practice of magic tends to provide the magician with a second major centre amongst the selves to complement the ego of the yellow power. The awakening of the octarine power is sometimes known as "being bitten by the serpent". Those who have been, are usually as instantly recognisable to each other as, for example, two lifeboat survivors are.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Perhaps one of the greatest tricks of sleight of mind is to allow the magician self and the ego to dance together within the psyche without undue conflict. The magician who is unable to disguise himself as an ordinary person, or who is unable to act independently of his own ego, is no magician at all.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Nevertheless, the growth of the octarine, or eighth power of the self, and the discovery of the type of magician one wants to be, and the identification or synthesis of a god form to represent it, tend to create something of a mutant being, who has advanced into a paradigm that few others are aware of. It is not easy to turn back once the jouney has begun, though quite a few have tried to abort the voyage with various narcotics including mysticism. It is a pilgrimage to an unknown destination, in which one awakes successively from one nightmare into another. Some on them appear vastly entertaining at the time. There are worlds within us, the abysses are just the initiations in between them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">The evocation of an octarine servitor can create an invaluable tool for those engaged in magical research. The main functions of such entities are usually to assist in the discovery of useful information and contacts. Negative results should not be ignored here, the complete failure of a well prepared servitor to retrieve information about the hypothetical cosmic "big bang", was a contributory factor in the development of the Fiat Nox theory, for example.</span></span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">
Black Magic</span></span></h3>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The Death programs built into our genetic and hence behavioral and emotional structure are the price we pay for the capacity for sexual reproduction which alone allows for evolutionary change. Only organisms which reproduce asexually, to replicate endless identical copies of their very simple forms, are immortal. Two conjunctions with the black power are of particular interest to the magician: the casting of destruction spells and the avoidance of premature death.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So called "Chod" rites are a ritual rehearsal of death in which the Death-self is invoked to manifest its knowledge and wisdom. Traditionally conceived of as a black robed skeletal figure armed with a scythe, the Death-self is privy to the mysteries of ageing, senescence, morbidity, necrosis, entropy and decay. It is often also possessed of a rather wry and world weary sense of humour.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Surrounding himself with all the symbols and paraphernalia of death, the magician invokes his Death-self in a Chod rite for one of the two purposes. Firstly the experience of the Death-self and the black gnosis brings the knowledge of what it feels like to begin dying and thus prepares the magician to resist the manifestation of actual premature death in himself and perhaps others by, as it were, knowing the enemy. A demon is just a god acting out of turn. In the course of various Chod rites the magician may well experiment in shamanic style by invoking into himself the visualised entities and symbols that he associates with various diseases, to practice banishing them. Thus the Death-self has some uses in medical diagnosis and divination.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Secondly, the death-self may be invoked as a vantage point from which to cast destruction spells. In this case the invocation takes the same general form but the conjuration is usually called an Entropy Rite. One should always look for any possible alternative to the exercise of destructive magic, for to be forced into the position of having to use it is a position of weakness. In each case the magician must plant in his subconscious a mechanism by which the target could come to grief and then project it with the aid of a sigil or perhaps an evoked servitor. Entropy magic works by sending information to the target which encourages auto-destructive behaviour.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Entropy magic differs from Combat magic of the Red Gnosis in several important respects. Entropy magic is always performed with complete stealth in the cold fury of the black saturine gnosis. The aim is a cold blooded surgical strike of which the target is given no warning. The magician is not interested in getting into a fight, merely in a quick and efficient kill. The supreme advantage of such attacks is that they are rarely perceived as such by the targets who have nothing but themselves and blind chance to blame for the disasters which even magnanimity in victory does little to assuage. One disadvantage however, is that it is rather difficult to present invoices to clients for effects that appear to be due entirely to natural causes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">God forms of the black power are legion; if the simple form of a cloaked skeleton with scythe does not adequately symbolise the Death-self then such forms as Charon, Thanatos, Saturn, Chronos, Hekate the Hag, Dark sister Atropos, Anubis, Yama and Kali may serve.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Servitors of the black power are rarely established for long term general use, partly because their use is likely to be infrequent and partly because they can be danger to their owner, thus they tend to be made and dispatched for specific single tasks.</span></span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">
Blue Magic</span></span></h3>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Wealth is not to be measured in terms of assets, but rather in terms of how much control over people and material, and thus ultimately one's own experiences, one achieves by economic activities. Money is an abstract concept used to quantify economic activity, thus wealth is a measure of how well you control your experiences with money. Assuming that varied, exciting, unusual and stimulating experiences are preferable to dull ones, and that they tend to be expensive for this reason, then the main problem for most people is to find a highly efficient form of money input which has the above agreeable qualities. The aim of wealth magic is to establish a large turnover of money which allows agreeable experiences at both the input and output stages. This demands what is called Money Consciousness.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Money has acquired all the characteristics of a "spiritual" being. It is invisible and intangible, coinage, notes and electronic numbers are not money. They are merely representations or talismans of something which economists cannot coherently define. Yet although it is itself intangible and invisible it can create powerful effects on reality. Money has its own personality and idiosyncratic tastes, it avoids those who blaspheme it, and flows towards those who treat it in the way it likes. In a suitable environment it will even reproduce itself. The nature of the money spirit is movement, money likes to move. If it is hoarded and not used, it slowly dies. Money thus prefers to manifest as turnover rather than as unexploited assets. Monies surplus to immediate pleasure should be re-invested as a further evocation, but the truly money conscious find that even their pleasures make money for them. Money consciousness gets paid to enjoy itself. Those in money consciousness are by nature generous. Offer them an interesting investment and they will offer you a fortune. Just don't ask for small cash handouts.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The attainment of money consciousness and the invokation of the Wealth-self consists of the acquisition of a thorough knowledge of the predilections of the spirit of money and a thorough exploration of personal desires. When both of these have been understood, real wealth manifests effortlessly.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Such invocations must be handled with care. The blue gnosis of wealth and desire creates demons as easily as gods. Many contemporary success and sales seminars concentrate on creating an hysterical desire for money coupled with an equally hypertrophied desire for the mere symbols of wealth rather than the experiences the punters actually want. To work like a possessed maniac all day for the questionable pleasure of drinking oneself into near oblivion on vintage champagne every night, is to have missed the point entirely and to have a entered a condition of anti-wealth.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">However, the majority of those who are poor in relatively free societies where others are rich, owe their poverty either to a lack of understanding of how money behaves, or to negative feelings which tend to repel it. Neither intelligence nor investment capital are required in any great degree to become wealthy. The popularity of tales about the misery and misfortunes of the rich is testimony to the ridiculous myth prevalent amongst the poor, that the rich are unhappy. Before beginning works of blue magic it is essential to seriously examine all negative thoughts and feelings about money and to exorcise them. Most of the poor people who win in lotteries, and only the poor regularly enter them, manage to have nothing to show for it a couple years later. It is as if some subconscious force somehow got rid of something they felt they did not really deserve or want. People tend to have the degree of wealth that they deeply believe they should have. Blue magic is the modification of that belief through ritual enactment of alternative beliefs.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Blue magic rituals may thus involve exorcisms of negative attitudes to wealth, divinatory explorations of one's deepest desires, and invocations of the Wealth-self and the spirit of money during which the subconscious wealth level is adjusted by ritual expression of a new value, and affirmations of new projects for the investment of resources and efford are made. Hymns and incantations to money can be delivered. Cheques for startling sums can be written to oneself and desires can be proclaimed and visualised. Various traditional god forms with a prosperity aspect can be used to express the Wealth-self such as Jupiter, Zeus and the mythical Midas and Croesus.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Simple money spells are rarely used in modern blue magic. The tendency nowadays is to cast spells designed to enhance schemes designed to make money. If one fails to provide a mechanism through which money can manifest then either nothing will happen or the spell will flesh by strange means, such as a legacy from the untimely death of a much beloved relative for example. Serious blue magic is never attempted by conventional forms of gambling. Conventional gambling is an expensive way of buying experiences which have nothing to do with increasing one's wealth. Blue magic is a matter of carefully calculated investment. Anyone but a fool should be able to devise an investment that offers better odds than conventional forms of gambling.</span></span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: red; color: #444444;">
Red Magic</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: red; color: #444444;">As soon as humanity developed the organisation and weapons technology to defeat its main natural predators and competitors it seems to have applied a fierce selection mechanism to itself in the form of internecine warfare. Many of the qualities we regard as marks of our evolutionary success, such as our opposable thumbs and tool handling abilities, our capacity for communication by sound, our upright posture, and our capacity to give and receive commands and discipline, were almost certainly selected for during millennia of organized armed conflict between human bands. Our morality reflects our bloody history, for whilst it is taboo to attack members of one's own tribe, it remains one's duty to attack foreigners. The only debate is over who constitutes one's own tribe. When enthusiasm for war is limited, we devise sports and games in which to express our aggression. From the whole ethos and terminology of sport it is plain that sport is just war with extra rules.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: red;">However, it should not be supposed that war is completely without rules. Wars are fought to improve one's bargaining position; in war the enemy group is a resource that one wishes to gain some measure of control over. Wars are fought to intimidate one's adversaries, not to exterminate them. Genocide is not war.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: red; color: #444444;">The structure and conduct of war reflects the "fight or flight" program built into our sympathetic nervous system. In battle, the aim is to intimidate the enemy out of the fight mode and into flight mode. Thus, assuming there is sufficient parity of force to make a fight seem worthwhile to both parties, morale is the decisive factor in conflict. Indeed, it is the decisive factor in virtually any inter-human competitive, sporting or military encounter.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: red;">Red magic has two aspects, firstly the invocation of the vitality, aggression, and morale to sustain oneself in any conflict from life in general to outright war, and secondly the conduct of actual combat magic. A variety of god forms exist in which the War-self can be expressed, although hybrid or purely idiosyncratic forms work just as well. Ares, Ishtar, Ogoun, Thor, Mars, Mithras and Horus in particular are often used. Contemporary symbolism should not be neglected. Firearms and explosives are as welcoming to the red gnosis as swords and spears. Drums are virtually indispensable. Sigils drawn in flammable liquids, or indeed whole flaming circles in which to invoke should be considered.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: red;">Combat magic is usually practised openly with the adversary being publicly threatened and cursed, or finding himself the recipient of an unpleasant looking talisman, spell or rune. The aim is intimidation and control of one's adversary who must therefore be made as paranoid as possible and informed of the origin of the attack. Otherwise combat magic takes the same general form as that used in Entropy Rites, with sigils and servitors carrying auto-destructive information to the target, although with sub-lethal intent.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: red;">However, the real skill of red magic is to be able to present such an overwhelming glamour of personal vitality, morale and potential for aggression that the exercise of combat magic is never required.</span></span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">
Yellow Magic</span></span></h3>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Most of the extant texts on what is traditionally called "solar magic", contradict each other or suffer from internal confusion. Astrological commentaries on the supposed powers of the sun are amongst the most idiotic nonsense that discipline can produce. This is because the yellow power has four distinct but related forms of manifestation within the psyche. This fourfold division has led to immense problems in psychology, where various schools of thought have chosen to emphasize one in particular and to ignore those which other schools have alighted upon.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">The four aspects can be characterised as follows. Firstly the Ego, or self image, which is simply the model the mind has of the general personality, but excluding most of the extreme behaviour patterns that the selves are capable of. Secondly Charisma, which is the degree of self-confidence that a person projects to others. Thirdly, something for which there is no single English term, but which can be called Laughter-Creativity. Fourthly, the urge to Assertion and Dominance. All these things are manifestations of the same yellow power; although their relative emphasis varies greatly between individuals.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Success in most human societies usually results from a skilful expression of the yellow power. The strength of the yellow power in an individual seems to bear a direct relationship to levels of the sexual hormone testosterone in both sexes; although its expression depends on personal psychology. There is a complex interplay between testosterone levels, self image, creativity, social status and sexual urges, even if they are unexpressed. In esoteric terms, the moon is the secret power behind the sun, as most female magicians realise instinctively, and most male magicians discover sooner or later. The Ego gradually accretes through the accidents of childhood and adolescence, and, in the absence of particularly powerful experiences thereafter, remains fairly constant even if it contains highly dysfunctional elements. Any type of invocation should make some difference to the ego, but direct work with it can achieve much more. Several tricks are involved here. The very recognition of the ego implies that change is possible. Only those who realize that they own a personality rather than consis of a personality, can modify it. For most people a preparation of a detailed inventory of their own personality is a very difficult and unsettling activity. Yet once it is done it is usually quite easy to decide what changes are desirable.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Changes to the Ego or self image or personality by magic are classed as works of Illumination and are mainly accomplished by Retroactive Enchantment and Invocation. Retroactive Enchantment in this case consits of re-writing one's personal history. As our history largely defines our future, we can change our future by redefining our past. Everybody has some capacity to re-interpret things which were considered to have gone wrong in the past in a more favourable light, but most fail to pursue the process to the full. One cannot eliminate disabling memories, but by an effort of visualisation and imagination one can write in parallel enabling memories of what might also have happened, to neutralise the originals. One can also, where possible, modify any remaining physical evidence that favours the disabling memory.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Invocations to modify the ego are ritual enchantments and personifications of the new desired qualities. Attention should be given to planned changes of dress, tone of speech, gesture, mannerisms and body posture which will best suit the new ego. One manoeuvre frequently used in yellow magic is to practice the manifestation of an alternative personality with a specific mnemonic trigger, such as the transference of a ring from one finger to another.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Various god forms such as Ra, Helios, Mithras, Apollo and Baldur are useful to structure fresh manifestations of the ego, and for experiments with the other three qualities of the yellow power.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Charisma, the projection of an aura of self confidence, is based on a simple trick. After a short while there is no difference at all between the pretence and the actuality of self confidence. Anyone wishing to remedy a lack of confidence and charisma, and uncertain as to how to begin pretending to these qualities, may find that a day or two spent pretending to absolute zero self confidence will quickly reveal both the effectiveness of pretence and the specific thoughts, words, gestures and postures required to project either pretence.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Laughter and Creativity may not immediately seem to be related, but humour depends on the sudden forging of a new connection between disparate concepts, and we laugh at our own creativity in forging the connection. Exactly the same form of elation arises from other forms of creative activity, and if the insight comes suddenly, laughter results. If you don't laugh when you see a seriously brilliant piece of mathematics then you have not really understood it. It also take a degree of positive self-esteem and confidence to laugh at something creatively funny. Persons of low self-esteem tend only to laugh at destructive humour and the misfortunes of others, if they laugh at all.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Laughter is often an important factor in the invocations of the god forms of the yellow power. Solemnity is not a prerequisite for ritual. Laughter is also a useful tactic in drawing conscious attention away from sigils or other magical conjurations once they are finished with. The deliberate forcing of hysterical laughter may seem an absurd way of ending an enchantment or an invocation, but it has been found to be remarkably effective in practice. This is yet another sleight of mind manoeuvre which prevents conscious deliberation.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">The "pecking order" within most groups of social animals is usually immediately obvious to us, and the animals themselves. Yet within our own society such dominance hierarchies are equally prevalent within all social groups; although we go to quite extreme lengths to disguise this to ourselves. The human situation is further complicated by the tendency of individuals to belong to many groups in which they may have different degrees of social status, and status is often partly dependent on specialist abilities other than displays of naked force.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">However, assuming that a person can appear competent in the specialist ability that a social group requires, that person's position in the group depends almost entirely on the degree of assertion and dominance that person exhibits. It is basically exhibited through non-verbal behaviour which everybody understands intuitively or subconsciously but which most people fail to understand rationally. As a consequence they cannot manipulate it deliberately. Typical dominance behaviours involve talking loudly and slowly, using lots of eye contact, interrupting the speech of others whilst resisting the interruption of others, maintaining an upright posture of concealed threat, invading the personal space of others whilst resisting intrusion into one's own, and placing oneself strategically in any space at the focus of attention. In cultures where touching is frequent, the dominant always initiate it, or pointedly refuse it. Either way, they control it.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><span style="color: #444444;">Submissive behaviour is of course the reverse of all the above, and appears quite spontaneously in response to successful dominance from others. There is a two way interaction between dominance behaviour and hormone levels. If the levels change for medical reasons then the behaviour tends to change, but more importantly, from a magical point of view, a deliberate change of behaviour will modify hormone levels. Fake it till you make it. There is nothing particularly occult about the way some people are able to control others. We simply fail to notice how it is done because nearly all the behavioural signals involved are exchanged subconsciously. Dominance signals do not tend to work if their recipients perceive them consciously. Thus in most situations they must be delivered subtly and with gradually increasing intensity. One of the few situations where such signals are exchanged deliberately is in military hierarchies, but this is only possible because of the immense capacity for direct physical coercion that such systems exhibit. Break the formal rules of non-verbal communication with an officer and he will have a sergeant instil some submission by direct means. Eventually the formal rules become internalised and function automatically, allowing enough obedience to permit mass self-sacrifice and slaughter. The yellow power is the root of most of the best and the worst of what we are capable.</span></span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">
Green Magic</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">There is inevitable a considerable overlap in what is written in popular magic books on the subject of venusian (love) and lunar (sex) magic. Consequently a planetary nomenclature has been largely avoided in this text. Although love magic is frequently performed in support of sexual objectives, this chapter will confine itself to the arts of making other people friendly, loyal and affectionate towards oneself.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Friends are probably anyone's greatest asset. My adress book is easily my most valuable possession. As with erotic attraction, it is first necessary to like oneself before others will. This ability can be enhanced by appropriate invocations of the green power. Most people find it easy to elicit friendliness from people that they like themselves; but making persons who are not disposed to friendship towards you, become friendly, and making persons who you do not like at all friendly towards you, are valuable abilities. An unreciprocated friendship is a disability only to the person offering it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Invocations to the green power should begin with self-love; an attempt to see the wonderful side of every self one consists of, and then proceed into a ritual affirmation of the beauty and loveability of all things and all people. Suitable god forms for the Love-self include Venus, Aphrodite and the mythical Narcissus, whose myth merely reflects a certain male prejudice against this type of invocation.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">From within the green gnosis, spells to make people friendly may be cast by simple enchantment or by the use of entities created for this purpose. However it is in face to face meetings that the empathic abilities stimulated by the invocation work most effectively. Apart from the obvious manoeuvres of showing interest in everything the target has to say and affirming and sympathising with most of it, there is another critical factor called "behavioral matching", which usually takes place subconsciously. Basically, in the absence of overtly hostile postures on the part of the target, one should attempt to match the non-verbal behaviour of the target precisely. Sit or stand in the identical bodily posture, make the same movements, use the same degree of eye contact, and talk for similar intervals. As with dominance behaviour, such signals only work if they are not consciously perceived by the recipient. Do not move to match the target's moves and postures immediately. It is also essential to try and match the verbal behaviour and to communicate with the same level of intelligence, social status and sense of humour as the target.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Before I made myself wealthy, I used to practice these abilities when hitch-hiking. Soon, even people whom I found quite ghastly were buying me lunch and transporting me far out of their way. Empathy will get you anywhere.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: orange; color: #666666;">
Orange Magic</span></h3>
<span style="background-color: orange; color: #666666;">Charlatanry, trickery, living by one's wits and thinking fast on one's feet are the essence of the orange power. These mercurial abilities were traditionally associated with the god forms which acted as patrons to doctors, magicians, gamblers and thieves. However the profession of medicine has now partly dissociated itself from charlatanry since doctors discovered that antibiotics and hygienic surgery actually worked. Nevertheless about eighty percent of medications are still basically placebos, and the profession still retains the mercurial caduceus for its emblem. Similarly the profession of magic has become less dependant on charlatanry with the discovery of the quantum-probabilistic nature of enchantment and divination and the virtual abandonment of classical alchemy and astrology. Pure magic is now best described as an expression of the octarine power, having an Uranian character. Yet charlatanry still has its place in magic as in medicine. Let us not forget that all "conjuring tricks" were once part of the shamanic warm up repertoire in which something lost or destroyed is miraculously restored by the magician to get the audience in the right mood before the serious business of placebo healing began. In its classical form, the magician puts a dead rabbit in a hat before pulling out a live one.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: orange;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
To the list of professions drawing heavily on the orange power one must now add salesman, confidence trickster, stockbroker and indeed any profession with an extreme heart attack rating. The motive power of the orange gnosis is basically fear, a species of fear which does not inhibit the user, but rather creates an extraordinary nervous speed that produces quick moves and answers in tight corners.</span></span><br />
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The apotheosis of the Wit-self is the ability to enter that state of mental overdrive in which the fast response is always forthcoming. This ability is,, paradoxically enough, created by not thinking about thinking, but rather allowing anxiety to partially paralyse the inhibitory process themselves so that the subconscious can throw out a quick witted response without conscious deliberation.</span></span><br />
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Invocations of the orange power are best delivered at frantic speed and gnosis can be deepened by the performance of mentally demanding tasks such as adding up large lists of numbers in one's head or ripping open envelopes containing difficult questions and answering them instantly; activities which should be persisted with until a breakthrough to the experience of thinking without deliberation is achieved. Varied god forms can be used to give form to the Wit-self. Hermes, Loki, Coyote the Trickster and the Roman Mercurius are often employed.</span></span><br />
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Orange magic is usually restricted to invocations designed to enhance general quick wittedness in secular activities such as gambling, crime and intellectual pursuits. Enchantments and evocations performed subsequent to an invocation of the orange gnosis rarely seem to give results as effective as the invocation itself in my experience. Perhaps something should be said about crime and gambling for the benefit of those hotheads who may misunderstand what can be done with orange magic in support of such activities. Theft is ludicrously easy performed methodically yet the majority of thieves get caught after a while because they become addicted to anxiety, which they experience as excitement and start taking risks to increase it. The novice thief who, in state of extreme anxiety, takes something in a situation of zero risk, does not of course get caught and neither does the careful professional. However there are few careful professionals because there are far easier ways of making money in most societies for people with that kind of ability. The great majority of thieves however always manage to find some way of incriminating themselves because the anxiety of the theft itself fades, only the anxiety of punishment remains. Those quick witted and outwardly cool enough to thieve successfully can easily make more from salesmanship.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: orange;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
There are three types of persistent gambler. The losers account for two types. Firstly there are those addicted to their own arrogance, who just have to prove that they can beat pure chance or the odds set by the organisers. Secondly there are those addicted to the anxiety of loosing. Even if they win, they invariably throw it away again soon afterwards. Then there are the winners. These people are not gambling at all, either because they are organising the odds and stakes, or because they have inside information, or because they are cheating. This is true orange magic. Poker is not a game of chance if played skilfully, and skilful play includes not playing against persons of equal or superior skill, or persons holding a Smith and Weston to your Four Aces. Most conventional forms of gambling are set up in such a way that the use of anything but the most extreme forms of psychic power will make little difference. I would not bother to bet on odds that I had reduced from an hundred to one to merely sixty to one. However certain results obtained using double blind prescience with horse racing show encouraging potential.</span></span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">
Purple Magic</span></span></h3>
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">A large proportion of all the cults throughout history have shared one particular characteristic. They have been led by a charismatic man able to persuade women to freely dispense sexual favours to ther men. When one begins to look, this feature is startlingly common to many ancient cults, monotheistic schismatic sects and modern esoteric groups. Many, if not the majority of adepts past and present were, or are, whoremasters. The mechanism is quite simple, pay the woman in the coinage of spirituality to service the men who repay you with adulation and accept your teachings as a side effect. The adulation from the men then increases your charisma with the women creating a positive feedback loop. It can be a nice little earner until old age or a police raid catches up with the enterprise. The other danger is of course that the women, and eventually the men, may come to feel that constant changes of partners work against their longer term interests of emotional security and reproduction. The turnover in such cults can thus be high, with young adults constantly replacing those approaching early middle age.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Few religions or cults lack a sexual teaching, for any teaching provides a powerful level of control. The vast majority of the more durable and established religions trade on a suppression of so called free love. This pays considerable dividends too. Women's position becomes more secure, and men know who their children are. Naturally adultery and prostitution flourish in such conditions because some people always want a little more than lifelong monogamy has to offer. So it's quite true that brothels are built with the bricks of religion. Indirectly so with conventional religions, directly so with many cults.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">All this begs the question of why it is that people have such an appetite for wanting to be told what to do with their sexuality. Why do people have to seek esoteric and metaphysical justification for what they want to do? Why is it so easy to make a living selling water by the river?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The answer, it appears, is that human sexuality has some built in dissatisfaction function of evolutionary origin. Our sexual behaviour is partly controlled by genetics. Those genes most likely to survive and prosper are those that in the female encourage the permanent capture of the most powerful male available and occasional liaisons (clandestine) with any more powerful male that may be temporarily available. Whereas in the male, the genes most likely to prosper are those encouraging the impregnation of as large a number of females as he can support, plus perhaps a few on the sly that other men are supporting. It is interesting to note that only in the human female is oestrous concealed. In all other mammals the fertile time is made abundantly obvious. This appears to have evolved to allow, paradoxically both adultery and increased pair bonding through sex at times when it is reproductively useless. The economic basis of any particular society will usually supply some pressure in favour of a particular type of sexuality and this pressure will be codified as morality which will inevitably conflict with biological pressures. Celibacy is unsatisfactory, Masturbation is unsatisfactory, Monogamy is unsatisfactory, Adultery is unsatisfactory, Polygamy and Polyandry is unsatisfactory and presumably Homosexuality is unsatisfactory, if the renetic merry-go-round of partner exchanges in that discipline is anything to go by.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Nothing in the spectrum of possible sexualities provides a perfect long term solution, but this is the price we pay for occupying the pinnacle of mammalian evolution. So much of our art, culture, politics and technology arises precisely out of our sexual yearnings, fears, desires and dissatisfactions. A society sexually at peace with itself would present a very dull spectacle indeed. It is generally if not invariably tha case that personal creativity and achievement are directly proportional to personal sexual turmoil. This is actually one of the major but often unrecognised techniques of sex magic. Inspire yourself with maximum sexual turmoil and confusion if you really want to find out what you are capable of in other fields. A tempestuous sex life is not a side effect of being a great artist for example. Rather it is the art which is the side effect of a tempestuous sex life. A fanatical religion does not create the suppression of celibacy. It is the tensions of celibacy which create a fanatical religion. Homosexuality is not a side effect of barracks life amongst elite suicide shock troops. Homosexuality creates elite suicide shock troops in the first place.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Muse, the hypothetical source of inspiration, usually pictured in sexual terms, is the Muse only when one's relationship to her is unstable. Every possible moral pronouncement on sexual behaviour has doubtless been given a million times before, and it would be unseemly for a Chaoist to re-emphasise any of it. However, one thing seems reasonably certain. Any form of sexuality eventually invokes the whole gamut of ecstasy, self-disgust, fear, delight, boredom, anger, love, jealousy, rafe, self-pity, elation and confusion.It is these things which make us human and occasionally superhuman. To attempt to transcend them is to make oneself less than human, not more. Intensity of experience is the key to really being alive and given the choice I'd rather do it through love than war any day.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">A dull sex life creates a dull person. Few people manage to achieve greatness in any field without propulsion that a turbulent emotional-sexual life supplies. This is the major secret of sex mgic, the two minor secrets involve the function of orgasm as gnosis and the projection of sexual glamours.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Anything held in the conscious mind at orgasm tends to reach down into the subconscious. Sexual abnormalities can readily be implanted or removed by this method. At orgasm sigils for enchantment or evocation can be empowered either by visualisation or by gazing at the sigil taped to one's partner's forehead for example. However this kind of work is often more conveniently performed auto-erotically. Although the gnosis offered by orgasm can in theory be used in support of any magical objective, it is generally unwise to use it for entropy or combat magic. No spell is ever totally insulted within the subconscious and any leakages which occur can implant quite detrimental associations with the sexuality.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">At orgasm an invocation can be triggered, this operation being particularly effective if each partner assumes a god form. The moments following orgasm are a useful time for divinatory vision seeking. Prolonged sexual activity can also lead to stages of trance useful in visual and oracular divination or oracular states of possession in invocation.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The projection of Sexual Glamour for the purposes of attracting others depends on far more than simple physical appearance. Some of the most conventually pretty people lack it entirely, whilst some of the plainest enjoy its benefits to the limit.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">To be attractive to another person one must offer them something which is a reflection of part of their self. If the offer becomes reciprocal then it can lead to that sense of completion which is most readily celebrated by physical intimacy. In most cultures it is conventional for the male to display a tough public exterior and for the female to display a softer persona, yet in a sexual encounter each will seek to reveal their concealed factors. The male will seek to show that he can be compassionate and valnerable as well as powerful, whilst the female seeks to display inner strength behind the outward signs and signals of passive receptivity. Incomplete personalities such as those which are machismo to the core, or consist of the polar opposite of this, are never sexually attractive to anyone except in the most transient sense.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Thus the philosophers of love have come to identify a certain androgyny in either sex as an important component of attraction. Some have taken the poetic license to express the quaint ideal that the male has a femal soul and the female a male one. This reflects the truism that to be attractive to others you must first become attracted to yourself. A few hours spent practising being attractive in front of a mirror is a valuable exercise. If you cannot get mildly excited about yourself, then don't expect anyone else to get wildly excited.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The "moon glance" technique is often effective. Basically one briefly closes the eyes and momentarily visualises a lunar crescent in silver behind the eyes with the horns of the moon projecting out of each side of the head behind the eyes. Then one glances into the eyes of a potential lover whilst visualising a silver radiance beaming from your eyes to theirs. This manoeuvre also has the effect of dilating the pupils and usually causes an involuntary smile. Both of these are universal sexual signals, the first of which acts subconsciously.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It is generally unwise to cast spells for the attraction of specific partners but better to conjure for suitable partners in general for oneself or others. One's subconscious usually has a far more subtle appreciation of who really is suitable.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: purple;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Sexual magic is traditionally associated with the colours of purple (for passion) and silver (for the moon). However, the effectiveness of black clothing as either a sexual or an anti-sexual signal, depending on the style and cut, shows that black is in a sense the secret colour of sex, reflecting the biological and psychological relationship between sex and death.</span></span><br />
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mad props<br />
&<br />
<a href="http://numbertwocollective.blogspot.ca/2011/03/unborn-child-in-your-brain-stirs-self.html">further reading</a> & <a href="http://numbertwocollective.blogspot.ca/2012/02/thee-ol-songem-bonham-sweet-spheres-of.html">more</a>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-57429472920673822142012-08-27T15:52:00.000-06:002012-08-29T20:46:20.621-06:00Why is it Reasonable to be Rational? by Colin LowFor at least two & a half thousand years, reason has been elevated above all other things. Reason has been elevated above instinct. Reason has been elevated above intuition. Reason has been elevated above God and religion. The single greatest factor in the decline of religion and religious authority has been its inability to deal with the consequences of permitting free rational debate.<br />
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What is reason? What is it about reason that gives it such power? Why has it effectively supplanted religion among the cultural elite?<br />
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To begin to understand what reason is, we have to go back two and a half thousand years, to the beginnings of philosophy in classical Greece. It was at this time that a community of people began to ask questions about the nature of reality, about human behaviour, about ethics and morality. A question generally implies a debate, and so, when one reads the dialogues of the philosopher Plato, one finds that these are structured as arguments or debates among a small group of people. A question is posed, such as that at the beginning of the dialogue <i>Philebus</i>:</div>
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<i>“Socrates:</i> Philebus was saying that enjoyment and pleasure and delight, and the class of feelings akin to them, are a good to every living being, whereas I contend, that not these, but wisdom and intelligence and memory, and their kindred, right opinion and true reasoning, are better and more desirable than pleasure ….”</div>
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When one studies these debates, it is clear that the participants already accept that there are styles of argument which are more productive than others. Someone will make a statement, and the other participants will either agree with it, or someone will make a new statement that contradicts or modifies the original position. The discussion proceeds in this way, and more and more material relevant to the discussion is introduced, and reconciled with previous statements, until the participants arrive at a much expanded understanding of the subject under debate. If there are mutually contradictory positions that cannot be reconciled, and participants are being <i>reasonable</i> (that is, playing by the same rules) then this is a genuine impasse that all recognise.</div>
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It seems from these very early applications of rational discussion that reason is an agreement about how language is used. For example, if Socrates maintains that the cat is on the mat, and he is being truthful, then no reasonable person would maintain that the cat is not on the mat. If Socrates maintains, as a general property of cats, that all cats are on the mat, then we cannot reasonably deduce that there are <i>any</i> cats in any other place. The recognition that logic is a characteristic of the use of language was made by Plato’s student Aristotle, who went on to codify the first rules of logic.</div>
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A more formal and abstract application of rational argument can be found in mathematics. The most famous of the classical mathematicians was Euclid, who lived in Alexandria sometime around 300BC. It is impossible to under-rate the importance of Euclid’s <i>Elements</i>. It is said that next to the Bible, it has been the most translated, published and studied book in the Western world. It was still being used as a standard textbook up to this century. The arguments in Euclid’s <i>Elements</i> offered something miraculous: it was possible to state a proposition, and show beyond any possible doubt that it was true. For all time. For all people. One could argue about beauty and good and evil and God until the cows came home, and get nowhere, but with Euclid you could walk up to Truth and shake its hand. A mathematician could sit down after breakfast, follow the agreed (and largely self-evident) rules of argument, and be famous by lunch-time. He or she could present the proof, and the world would make obeisance. It was a miracle. It had to be divine.</div>
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And so it happened. The argument went like this. Everything we see in this world is transitory. Nothing lasts. Nothing is eternal. If, like Plato, we want to ask what is real and true, then we cannot find it in the world we live in. It must exist outside of the phenomenal world of the senses. Mathematical truth exists outside of the world of the senses, and it is both real and eternally true. So mathematical truth must come from another realm of being, what Plato and his followers called the realm of the <i>Intelligible</i>. Just as physical reality is perceived by the senses, so human beings must have another faculty for apprehending the realm of the Intelligible. The followers of Plato believed this came about because we are not unitary beings: we have a divine soul that not only remembers the divine realm from which it has fallen into a corporeal body, but is still capable of apprehending the Intelligible realm, in part through contemplation of mathematics and mathematical truths.</div>
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It was at this juncture that philosophy took on mystical flavour that was largely undiluted even as recently as two hundred years ago, and forms the backdrop to Christianity (via profuse borrowings from Aristotle and the Platonist philosopher Plotinus), and the backdrop to the development of modern science (via Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton, all of whom subscribed to the belief that the mathematics of the Intelligible realm was a key to unlock the mysteries of the physical universe).</div>
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Let us now back up from all this profoundly accurate mysticism, and return to rationality, and ultimately, to language. Let us adopt the position that rationality is a structure imposed on the use of language. So the question “what is rationality” is in part subsumed within the question “what is language?”. In asking this question at the end of the second millenium we have an advantage over all predecessors. We live in an age when language, via computers, has taken on a new dominance. What began with argument and mathematics has given us a profound understanding of physical law, and in turn that has given us the technology to embody rationality in the form of computer programs. A computer program is encapsulated rationality. This in turn leads to a revolution in our comprehension of language.</div>
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This revolution can be stated succinctly. Everyday language is an encoding of the gross laws of physics as they appear to our physical senses. The way in which we structure the world into nameable objects, the relations between these objects, and the time-related processes in which they are involved, are influenced directly the gross physical properties of the world.</div>
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Rationality is not arbitrary at all. With some important caveats, it is universal. In order to begin to justify these assertions, it is necessary to look at language in more detail.<br />
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Much of the structure of language is spatial and temporal: in, out, behind, before, after, on, under, inside. Verbs not only provide relationships between subjects and objects; they also provide insight into when something happened. “I am running” conveys something different from “I was running” or “I will run”. Adjectives describe many objective attributes of things: big, small, light, heavy, rough, smooth, wet, dry. We understand that there is a degree of subjectivity, but there is an implicit frame of reference: the speaker. We understand that heavy for an average man is about 50 kilos, and less for the average woman. Rough makes me think of sand, or fabric; very rough makes me think of tree bark. I understand that when a French polisher says rough, it probably means “not quite a mirror finish”.</div>
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There is a great deal more to language than objective description. There are various social modes of inquiry - how are you, how do you feel, are you well, and so on. I can talk about subjective feelings, beliefs, opinions, but here I am on shaky ground. Much discussion centres around areas of subjectivity; people like to calibrate their feelings, beliefs and internal states with those of others. I can’t be certain what a person means when they say they have a “thumping headache”, because there is no way to share the experience. I have to refer to the memory of my own thumping headaches, and my memory of how I felt at the time. We know that the subjective experience of pain is extremely variable if only because people behave in very different ways - for example, we have many records of life and conditions in the British army in the early nineteenth century that will seem completely incredible to the modern reader.</div>
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Language is capable of encompassing much of what we experience, but it functions most efficiently in the realm of shared physical reality. This is the region of consensus. If the cat is on the mat for me, it is one the mat for you. If the cat is in the box, it is not out of the box. If the bottle is empty, it is not full, and if it is full, it is not empty. We can see the structure of rational discussion and logic emerging in simple propositions about shared physical existence.</div>
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Real life has boundaries. Lines on maps have finite width, and sometimes we cannot tell which country a tree lies in. The steel ruler I use to measure your height expands in the heat. Already we are beginning to think about ideals: the ideal line with no width, the perfect circle, the frictionless plane, the inelastic string. Mathematics begins where real life leaves off, by providing us with ideal objects with perfectly defined ideal properties.</div>
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Take the idea of containment. A container is something like a box with a lid that can contain things. I can put something in the box. I can take something out. I can ask how many things are in the box. I can even put one box inside another box. Real boxes are messy - they have lids, things can be half in and half out, I can’t put an elephant in a matchbox, and so on. The mathematician creates an ideal container called a <i>set</i>. A set is a pure abstraction of the idea of containment. I can put things in a set, and take things out. I can have a set composed of all even numbers, or a set of all people with green eyes. Much of mathematics can be formulated in terms of sets.</div>
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The point here is that ordinary language is rooted in our understanding of basic properties of the physical world. Mathematics takes the informal, imprecise language of everyday life and turns it into a formal language that applies to ideal objects with simple and totally defined properties. There are agreed methods of reasoning (the <em>modus ponens</em>) that allow mathematicians to get from A to Z - if A is known to be true, and there is a valid argument that gets us from A to Z (via B, C, D, ….), then Z is also true. Do not be intimidated by the unfamiliar symbols in mathematics. Mathematics is a linguistic exercise, and its symbols are no more alien than the letters in the Cyrillic, Greek or Hebrew alphabets. However, mathematics may be a linguistic exercise, but there is a miracle hidden in it.</div>
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The miracle (and it really does seem to be miraculous, no matter how often it is contemplated) is this. Take a simple mathematical model, in the belief that in some way the behaviour of the real world is guided by simple underlying principles. Let the choice of model be inspired by a deep personal intuition. Apply the model to some aspect of the behaviour of the real world. Check the predictions with experiments. Reel back in astonishment. They fit.</div>
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The most famous example of this, although it did not take place in the rather naïve order described above, took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although the planets in the solar system had been observed for millennia, no one had produced an accurate model that accounted for their motions. Part of the reason for this was the long-held belief that the planets and sun moved around the Earth. Another part of the reason was the lack of sufficiently accurate observations. The second century Graeco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy had attempted a mathematical model based on circular orbits with epicycles, smaller circles that moved around the larger - this attempted to account for the fact that, seen from the Earth, the planets sometimes appear to move backwards along their orbits (moving “retrograde”). It did not work well by modern standards, but it was the right kind of idea, and it was not contradicted by the rough measurements available.<br />
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In the sixteenth century, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546 - 1601) spent his life creating, with the crudest of instruments, a detailed catalogue of observations which he bequeathed to his pupil Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630). It was Kepler, using the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus and the observations of Brahe who proposed the answer, and declared his three laws of planetary motion: that the orbits were elliptical with the sun at a focus, that a planet swept out equal distances in equal times, and the period of the orbit depended only on the distance from the sun.</div>
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It was Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727) however who performed the<i> tour-de-force</i>. Kepler had found an accurate <i>rule</i> that enabled one to predict the positions of planets. He had not found an <i>explanation</i> for why the orbits had that form. Given an arbitrary body set in motion about the sun, he could not predict in advance the path it would take, clearly a requirement for travelling about in a space ship, or for sending a satellite to Mars.</div>
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It was Newton who deduced the laws of motion and the law of gravitation, and who developed the mathematical tools necessary to solve general problems concerning gravitating bodies of any kind. His <i>Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica</i>, the “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, has been dubbed the most important scientific text of all time. Not only did it solve specific problems, it provided genuine and deep insight into the structure and mechanism of the solar system, something that only a few hundred years earlier had been regarded as part of the divine realm. Newton took the first giant step in removing God from the creation. His was the first major act of <i>disenchantment</i>. He did it all in his head, and he told other people how it worked, not in general, but in detail, so that any person could understand and reproduce his method and calculations. He told other people how he did it by using marks on paper. By using language. We can still read his thoughts today, and reproduce his reasoning and calculations hundreds of years after his death.</div>
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This is the conclusive proof, if you are not already convinced, that mathematics <i>is</i> a language. A person makes marks on paper. Another person reads them. Given adequate intelligence and background, the second person can fully comprehend the substance and detail of what the first person is trying to convey (this is certainly true in most areas of mathematics).<br />
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We have now arrived at an important point. We began this essay by considering rationality as a convention in the use of language, and followed this convention into its formal use in mathematics. We have arrived at the magical discovery that there is a congruence between the formal use of language and the physical world we live in. There is nothing obvious about this. It took the human race hundreds of generations to arrive at this discovery. It is a discovery that owes as much to the rational mysticism of platonism and neoplatonism as any other human discipline. This congruence is an example of <em>simulation</em>.</div>
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The physicist David Deutsch has pointed out that our brains obey the laws of physics. There is no evidence that they do not, and a great deal of evidence, in the form of detailed models of cell function, that they do. But a human brain (such as Isaac Newton’s brain) can compute the paths the planets will take in the sky. We have also been able to manufacture complex machines that will do the same thing, and they also obey the laws of physics. (It would be impossible to design and manufacture a computer without an exceedingly good knowledge of the laws of physics in the first place.)</div>
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This means that a part of reality (a brain, a computer) can simulate another part of reality (the solar system) in detail. Deutsch calls this property, and it is a property of the real world we live in, <i>self-similarity</i>. That is, parts of reality can simulate, to an arbitrary degree of precision, other parts of reality.</div>
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To give an example, in the University of Oxford there is the world’s most realistic simulation of a human heart, composed of millions of simulated nerve and muscle cells, which in turn are composed a dozens of simulated ion channels in a simulated cell membrane. The simulation is now so accurate it can be used to study heart disease and the effects of drugs. Simulations are now used routinely in many areas of industry because it is less costly and just as accurate to simulate a system. Deutsch comments:</div>
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Thus reality contains not only evidence, but also the means (such as our minds and our artifacts) of understanding it. There <i>are</i> mathematical symbols in physical reality. The fact that it is we who put them there does not make them any less physical. In those symbols - in our planetariums, books, films and computer memories, and in our brains - there are images of physical reality at large, images not just of the appearance of objects, but of the structure of reality. There are laws and explanations, reductive and emergent. There are descriptions and explanations of the Big Bang and of sub-nuclear particles and processes; there are mathematical abstractions; fiction; art; morality; shadow photons; parallel universes. To the extent that these symbols, images and theories are true - that is, they resemble in appropriate respects the concrete or abstract things they refer to - their existence gives reality a new form of self-similarity, the self-similarity we call knowledge.</div>
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Deutsch’s point here is profound. Once we abandon the Cartesian duality of mind and external reality, and treat our brains and computers as physical devices operating according to physical laws, then the ability of one physical system to simulate another comes as a surprise. It isn’t in any way obvious that this should be so. It is possible (Deutsch gives an example of a chess board world) to think of worlds that operate by laws which are not capable of supporting this self-similarity.</div>
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Deutsch also points out that this property is essential for life as we know it, in that living organisms embody knowledge of their environment in order to maintain their internal coherence. A universe without the self-similarity property would not be capable of supporting living organisms of any kind, far less human beings.</div>
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Deutsch’s arguments are not obscure. They derive from a long-standing question that dates from the origins of computer science: what kinds of computation can a computer carry out.</div>
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The notion of a ‘computation’ or an ‘algorithm’ is not well defined, and in the 1930’s there were a number of proposals. That is, a number of mathematicians attempted to formalise their intuitive notions of ‘computation’, based on the kinds of paper-and-pencil computations that people had been doing for centuries. These quite different proposals were subsequently proved to be equivalent - that is, if you could compute something by one method, you could compute it by any other. Although there was no way to prove that this was the limit to computation, the limit was embodied in something called “The Church-Turing Hypothesis”, after the mathematicians Alonzo Church and Alan Turing. Without going into the details, one can liken this model of computation as equivalent to what you can do with a large piece of paper, a pencil, and a rubber. You can use silicon and electrons instead, and it will go a lot faster, but it can’t compute anything that the paper and pencil can’t.</div>
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We know that computers can be used to simulate physical systems. The question is, given the constraint on computation imposed by the Church-Turing Hypothesis, is there any limit to the kinds of physical system that can be simulated? This is a completely legitimate and well-posed question. Is there anything we know of in the laws of physics which cannot be simulated, even in principle.</div>
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The Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman was interested in this question. He realised a Church-Turing computer could not simulate a quantum mechanical system. This is important because the laws of physics are quantum mechanical. At the level of everyday life we do not observe many of these effects, and we have approximations (classical physics) which work at this level, but classical physics is just an approximation, a convenient rule of thumb that simplifies calculations involving objects on the scale of human beings. A Church-Turing computer can simulate behaviour at this human scale, but not behaviour on the tiny quantum mechanical scale. Imagine what it would be like if we could use computer simulation to simulate the behaviour of any system composed of objects larger than a billiard ball, but nothing smaller. What a bizarre situation! Certain types of system would be essentially unknowable <em>in principle</em>. We would live in a universe with a cosmic censor inking out parts of reality, and we'd never really be sure where the precise boundary between the knowable and the unknowable was.</div>
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This is not the kind of question that had ever been asked in the past. There had always been some kind of naive assumption of "Seek and ye shall find", even if it meant, like John Dee, we had to implore God for the answers. The idea of a structural Cloud of Unknowing built into the fabric of reality had never occured to anyone. The fact that we had already been able to perform basic mathematical calculations about quantum mechanical systems such as the hydrogen atom suggested that the situation was not as bad as it might be (that is, our brains <em>can</em> simulate the hydrogen atom <em>in detail</em>), and Feynman was able to propose a simple computer-like system that did simulate other quantum mechanical systems.</div>
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In 1985 I was given a paper by a colleague who had just returned from a visit to the University of Oxford. The paper was written by someone called David Deutsch, and in it he proposed that as computers were physical devices (just as pencil and paper is physical), then the types of computation possible would ultimately be limited by the kinds of physical devices we can build. He then went on to show, using the known laws of quantum mechanics, the theoretical existence of a “Universal Quantum Computer”, a computer based on quantum mechanics that could simulate any quantum mechanical system. The old Church-Turing Hypothesis had been formulated by mathematicians who had intuitively adopted models of computation based on everyday life (paper-and-pencil). The real world does not work that way.<br />
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Deutsch’s paper had an immense impact on me. Nearly fifteen years later it has had an immense impact on physics and computer science. People are building quantum computers. Deutsch has been awarded the Dirac Prize in recognition of the importance of his work. The theoretical framework for quantum computing is being laid down. We are as far from a useable quantum computer today as Alan Turing was from a Pentium PC, but the impact is far more than carrying out computations. This work is transforming our view of physics. In trying to explore the properties of complex quantum mechanical systems from the point of view of representing, computing and transmitting information, many new insights are being made. Some of these (for example, insights and experiments into a quantum mechanical phenomenon called <i>entanglement</i> or <i>non-locality</i>) will almost certainly lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of reality. </div>
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It should be clear now that the phenomenon that Deutsch calls self-similarity isn’t a vague metaphysical principle. It is derived directly from what we know about the theoretical ability of a physical system (“the universal quantum computer”) to simulate any other physical system. This has been formulated by the physicist and mathematician Roger Penrose as “The Turing Principle”. In this form it is a statement as physically significant as Newton’s Laws of Motion, or the Laws of Thermodynamics, or Einstein’s Equivalence Principle. The Turing Principle is:</div>
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There exists an abstract universal computer whose repertoire includes any computation that any physically possible object can perform.</div>
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In his book <i>The Fabric of Reality</i>, Deutsch proposes a number of variants, the strongest of which is:</div>
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It is possible to build a virtual reality generator whose repertoire includes every physical possible environment.</div>
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That is, we can build a system, a mechanism, out of physical matter available to us which can perfectly simulate any part of reality. It can simulate reality to the extent that (given an arbitrary clever programmer) if we were to interact with it, we would not know that it was a machine.</div>
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This is the idea of simulation/self-similarity in a form where it is a principle of physics. The laws of the physical universe appear to be constituted such that a physical system can simulate any other physical system on any scale to any degree of precision. This principle is a necessary condition for the existence of living organisms as we understand them - a living organism is a limited simulator of reality. How does a bird fly if it does not embody deep and extensive knowledge about air and gravity?</div>
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It now becomes apparent why the universe is comprehensible: it is comprehensible because has the property that it is possible to create physical devices that can simulate reality. The human brain is such a physical device.</div>
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The idea of self-similarity has a long history in European thought. During the Renaissance, when many (now considered) occult and hermetic ideas were current at the highest levels of intellectual debate, this idea was expressed in the form of the concepts of the <i>macrocosm</i>and the <i>microcosm</i>. The microcosm, or human being, was believed to be a simulacrum of the creation, and this provided a mechanism whereby the powers of the macrocosm (the stars and planets) could act on human beings. Conversely, a human being could exploit the congruence to influence the macrocosm, and some magical or theurgic systems exploited this idea that a human being could affect the supernal realms of the divine.</div>
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The idea of self similarity was almost certainly suggested by the Bible, which states</div>
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“And God created man in His image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”.</div>
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The idea was further elaborated in Jewish Kabbalah in many differing forms, too complex to detail here, in which a human being was seen as a complete functioning simulacrum or embodiment of the divine powers that provided the dynamic basis for the visible creation. Another variant on the idea can be found in the legendary (but nevertheless highly influential) <i>Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trimegistus</i>, which again implies that the lower world is in some sense congruent with the upper world.</div>
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Another idea of great antiquity is that of “the world as a text” in the most literal sense. Jewish mystics believed that the whole of creation was detailed in the <i>Torah</i> (the first five books of the <i>Bible</i>), and hence all the hidden mysteries of the creation were to be found there. The Kabbalist would study the <i>Torah</i> in the expectation that with divine guidance, operational mysteries such as secret names would be revealed. These names could then be used in practical and mystical workings. It was this belief in the operational potency of names (subroutines, procedures, URLs) concealed in the text of the <i>Torah</i> that gave rise to the title “Baal Shem”, or “Master of the Holy Name”.</div>
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This ancient idea of "the world as text" is no longer implausible; it is guaranteed by the Turing Principle. Consider the idea that we can decide to build a successively larger and larger computer to simulate more and more of reality. Perhaps we need an interlinked network of such megacomputers. This detail hardly matters - we can consider a network of computers to be one extremely large computer.</div>
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This computer is going to need a program. This program will embody all the laws of physics (we already know how to embody many of these laws), and so it will describe how every subatomic particle in the universe simulation will behave. The Turing Principle guarantees that we can write such a program. The important point is that the program does not have to grow in proportion to the size or complexity of the system under simulation.</div>
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To give an example, suppose I want to simulate how two million particles interact via gravity. The program that simulates two or three particles is just as complicated as the program that simulates two million, and we know we can simulate two or three. The larger the number of particles, the more physical resources such as memory I will need in my computer, and the longer the computation will take, but the program does not become more complicated.</div>
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As we simulate more and more of the universe, we will reach a point where the program does not become more complex. We can then print it out onto paper and deposit it in a library. This program contains everything you need to know to carry out a perfect simulation of reality. Of course, it needs a computer to run on, so it would be useful for the program to contain a complete simulation of the computer it was designed for. If this sounds improbable, consider that many computer games written in the early 1980s were written for computers that no longer exist, so enthusiasts have written simulators for most of these early computers, and run these games on current PCs, which provide perfect simulations of early Atari and Sinclair computers.<br />
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So there we have it: the “world as a text”. The idea is not in the least far fetched. The Turing Principle guarantees that such a text can be created. A computer program is a purely rational exercise, akin to writing a proof in mathematics (when I worked as a computer science lecturer in the University of London, first-year students were taught to prove their programs correct by using standard mathematical proof techniques).</div>
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I am now in a position to propose an answer to the question posed by the title of this essay: why is it reasonable to be rational?</div>
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Rationality is a specialised use of language that mirrors properties of physical reality. In the form of mathematics, rationality leads to the ability to carry out simulations of physical systems, and this ability to simulate reality led directly to the scientific and technological revolution of the last three centuries.</div>
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An even more specialised form of mathematical language is the computer program, and this leads in turn to even more sophisticated simulations of reality. These simulations are now used routinely to design aeroplanes, to crash-test virtual cars, to evaluate the effects of virtual drugs, to design new medicines. The most sophisticated physical simulator we know of is the human brain: it can fly aeroplanes to the edge of space at several times the speed of sound, drive cars at hundreds of miles an hour, compute the trajectory of a tennis or cricket ball flying at over a hundred miles an hour, perform the most incredible gymnastics and acrobatics, juggle several balls, balance the most incredible assortment of junk, climb vertical surfaces, and spot a member of the opposite sex in the most improbable circumstances. We can echo the sentiment of Hermes Trimegistus that “A great miracle, Asclepius, is man.”</div>
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It is reasonable to be rational because the laws of physics make simulation possible. Living beings exploit this fact in order to exist. There would be no living beings if such simulation was not possible. Knowledge, whether genetic or acquired, whether dispositional or propositional, is the basis for survival in a hostile and changing environment. A paramecium or amoeba is as miraculous on a small scale as a human being, in their ability to transform simple substances into complex proteins and enzymes, their ability to reproduce and so pass on the knowledge of how to use the raw stuff of the world to maintain coherency. Life is no less a miracle and no less a wonder just because it is rationally comprehensible. Its miracle is based in something just as mysterious as a divine craftsman: the miracle of self-similarity, the congruence of part to whole, an extraordinary closure of the idea that we are made in the image of God.</div>
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Rationality is a way of using language such that language can be used to simulate complex physical systems. The rational use of language provides us with access to the “deep structures” underlying physical reality, such as the Hilbert Space model of quantum mechanics. We can use language to create programs for universal simulators. The Neoplatonic idea that reason has the power to grasp the forms or archetypes underpinning reality, an intuition based on an inspired guess about the significance of reason and mathematics, is validated.<br />
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There is more.</div>
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The Turing Principle states that complete simulation of any physical system is possible. With sufficient resources, it would be possible to simulate the universe. From the point of view of a self-conscious organism simulating the universe, the ancient mystical goal of the union of microcosm and macrocosm would be achieved. To simulate the universe I would simulate you, perfectly, and I would simulate myself, perfectly. I would have perfect knowledge (within the limits of physical law) of all that is. Deutsch equates this point with the Omega Point the physicist Frank Tipler, who owes a debt to the Christian philosopher and theologian Teilhard de Chardin. Western mysticism still exists against a dualistic backdrop of body and spirit, and the belief that the subject of mysticism is spirit, where true knowledge can be found. The creation is disenchanted, a dead thing, mechanical. The human body is a dead thing, mechanical, a “conscious corpse”, as one of the books of the <i>Corpus Hermeticum</i> puts it. This is a relic of beliefs that can be found in the writings of Plato, and are probably much older.</div>
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Deutsch presents us with a monist view of a world in which there is no Platonic Intelligible, no metaphysical dual of the real world, no hidden realm of secret knowledge to be wrested from angels by the power of secret names. His is a purely rational world, but it is no longer a <i>disenchanted</i> world, a world of clacking billiard balls and clicking gears. It is a world of infinite quantum parallelism, of non-locality, of entanglement, of multiple unseen dimensions, of black holes and space-time singularities. In a non-local, entangled world, <i>there are no billiard balls</i>. There is <i>no matter</i>. We have mathematics (the axiomatic Hilbert Space formulation of quantum mechanics) that provides superb simulations of this world, but the mathematical entities do not seem to correspond to any simple physical intuition. The idea that there are <i>things</i> with <i>properties</i> turns out to be unsustainable. Where there are properties, they don’t seem to exist anywhere in particular. It is a world a thousand times more mysterious and magical than anything to be found in the most extravagant works of mysticism.</div>
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“But,” the diehard dualist will protest, “It is still rational, it is still mechanical.”</div>
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There are arguments about that too. Roger Penrose has made the case, using rational argument of course, that human mathematical reasoning exceeds what is possible using reasoning automata. The sophistication of his argument excites admiration, and whether he is correct or not is to some extent, irrelevant.</div>
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It is irrelevant because whether we are automata or not, creativity is still creativity. Beauty is still beauty. Kindness and compassion are still kindness and compassion. Everything we know, in our genes, in our books, in our cultures, in our heads, keeps us alive on a lump of rock flying through an endless vacuum, keeps us one step ahead of the scythe. Set against the backdrop of geological time, it is a wild and desperate explosion of protoplasm that has reached the critical point of any simulation, the ability to include limited simulations of itself. We are self-conscious.</div>
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In the unimaginably vast and mysterious universe where we live we will find our angels and our devils, sages who are the living embodiment of wisdom, works of mysterious knowledge, and perhaps, the text that is the text of the world. We will find every imaginable form of life. All this is suggested by the Turing Principle, because it states that the universe is self-similar. This principle was arrived at, not through abstruse metaphysical arguments, but through a conceptually simple application of known laws of physics to the process of computation. The answer to the question: can one quantum mechanical system perfectly simulate another quantum mechanical system, is yes. This is an extraordinary and unexpected result of straightforward mathematical reasoning. As a conceptual breakthrough, it is as profound as Newton’s Laws of Motion. The ability of one part of the universe to simulate another is, in the most abstract sense, the phenomenon we call life. Life is as basic and universal a principle as gravitation. It can and will exist everywhere, in every possible embodiment.</div>
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Perhaps even in every <i>imaginable</i> embodiment, because imagination is a physical process that is self-similar to a thing imagined. That is, what is imagined can be simulated. A cave picture (a physical object) of a buffalo is self-similar to a buffalo (a physical object). Computer animations are self-similar to entities in the human imagination – that is how planes are designed these days, and questions about the physical behaviour of a complex flying object are now easier to answer with a computer simulation than with a wind tunnel. What we do today with silicon, we will do tomorrow with DNA. Every human artefact on this planet is a simulation of an imagined object and began its life in the human mind. There is little that is impossible. The Turing Principle restores enchantment to the universe, because it suggests that the phenomena of life and creativity are in physical fact something that human beings have always believed to be true: a well of unfathomable possibility, an endless unfolding of wonder and mystery.<br />
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One of the finest documents of the Renaissance is Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s <i>Oration on the Dignity of Man</i>. It still has the power to move:</div>
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God the Father, Supreme Architect of the Universe, built this home, this universe we see all around us, a venerable temple of his godhead, through the sublime laws of his ineffable Mind. The expanse above the heavens he decorated with Intelligences, the spheres of heaven with living, eternal souls. The scabrous and dirty lower worlds he filled with animals of every kind. However, when the work was finished, the Great Artisan desired that there be some creature to think on the plan of his great work, and love its infinite beauty, and stand in awe at its immenseness. Therefore, when all was finished, as Moses and Timaeus tell us, He began to think about the creation of man. But he had no Archetype from which to fashion some new child, nor could he find in his vast treasure-houses anything which He might give to His new son, nor did the universe contain a single place from which the whole of creation might be surveyed. All was perfected, all created things stood in their proper place, the highest things in the highest places, the midmost things in the midmost places, and the lowest things in the lowest places. But God the Father would not fail, exhausted and defeated, in this last creative act. God's wisdom would not falter for lack of counsel in this need. God's love would not permit that he whose duty it was to praise God's creation should be forced to condemn himself as a creation of God.</div>
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Finally, the Great Artisan mandated that this creature who would receive nothing proper to himself shall have joint possession of whatever nature had been given to any other creature. He made man a creature of indeterminate and indifferent nature, and, placing him in the middle of the world, said to him "Adam, we give you no fixed place to live, no form that is peculiar to you, nor any function that is yours alone. According to your desires and judgement, you will have and possess whatever place to live, whatever form, and whatever functions you yourself choose. All other things have a limited and fixed nature prescribed and bounded by Our laws. You, with no limit or no bound, may choose for yourself the limits and bounds of your nature. We have placed you at the world's centre so that you may survey everything else in the world. We have made you neither of heavenly nor of earthly stuff, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with free choice and dignity, you may fashion yourself into whatever form you choose. To you is granted the power of degrading yourself into the lower forms of life, the beasts, and to you is granted the power, contained in your intellect and judgement, to be reborn into the higher forms, the divine."</div>
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Imagine! The great generosity of God! The happiness of man!</div>
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Freedom is about unconstrained choice. We are self-simulating simulators, and within the limits of physical law we can be (simulate) anything we want. Pico’s <i>Oration</i> was never more valid than now.</div>
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And the answer to the question: why is it reasonable to be rational? Rationality is how human beings become self-similar to the universe.<br />
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Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-83108122876158094042012-07-16T23:40:00.000-06:002012-07-17T00:10:00.645-06:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">...<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">.</span>..<span style="background-color: #93c47d;">..</span>.<span style="background-color: #e06666;">.</span>. --</span> <span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Dr<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-size: x-small;">eam</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">L<i>i</i>st<i>en</i></span></span><span style="color: #783f04;">:</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span><strike><span style="color: #3d85c6;">www</span><span style="color: #8e7cc3;">.</span><u><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #8e7cc3;">soundc</span>loud</span></u>.com/</strike><i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/dreamaurua">dream</a>aurua</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">d</span>rr<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">d</span><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">d</span>r<span style="background-color: #3d85c6;">d</span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">d</span>r<span style="background-color: #0b5394;">rd</span><span style="font-size: large;">rea</span></b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?a6q79c68mhb41hd">drEaM</a>edia</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="color: #ffd966;">fi</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">re</span></span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> - </span><u><span style="background-color: #38761d; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do</span><span style="background-color: #38761d;">w</span><span style="background-color: #3d85c6;">n</span></u><span style="background-color: #3d85c6; font-size: x-small;"><b>lo<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">d <span style="background-color: #b45f06;">Al</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="background-color: #b45f06;">bu</span>m</span> </span><br />
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<br /></div>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-59985813926155863512012-07-09T19:34:00.000-06:002013-05-25T10:35:00.449-06:00Magic in the '80's - Where to Now? by The Hon. Hugo L'Estrange<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(from Aquarian Arrow No. 13)</div>
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2YqNWjvPNzL-_zA-qr9Bbe3_LpLLigZqN_m4uuj07dyeq9Cqr-qAbW-OlPVyBbJu0RHVJ0cBpGCnDCPQfhALzzJoisONzgnboRl9qm2u4iuklqOaDCyM9XN0oEaulvL8_4WFq5-cKbY/s1600/stele.jpg" /><br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS</h3>
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Please read these four illustrations carefully, and compare your reactions to them, before reading the rest of the article.</div>
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1. The spate of public interest in UFOs, telepathy, metal-bending, dowsing and other paranormal phenomena continues, but it has not left us with a single body of evidence that is capable of standing up to rigid scientific scrutiny.</div>
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2. A friend laments the decline of a mutual acquaintance: once the finest young ritual magician around, he has now given up all such interests and seems content with respectable bourgeois pursuits like money-making and the yacht club.</div>
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3. Crossing the street from my classroom, deep in thought: suddenly woken by a screech of tyres. A car had appeared, crazily slewed up onto the pavement. (Appeared? Had it driven by, it would never have registered on my awareness; but as it was my memory reminded me that I had seen it coming along the street.) “Are you all right?” Nobody hurt, but one front wheel sagged out at a horrible angle. “Jeez. Lucky that didn’t happen a minute earlier - we were doing 70 on the bypass” - the driver was now looking down at the wheel, while I crawled under to look. “You won’t repair that in a hurry - king pin or something has gone right through,” I said, dusting down my clothes. He was looking at me rather warily. I wondered why, until his wife pointed her hand out of the window and asked “Is this Eton College?” “Yes. I teach here, that’s why I’m dressed like this,” I looked down at my wing collar, white bow tie and tail suit, realising how odd I looked, all the more so since the fact that these clothes were working clothes rather than special occasion wear meant that I had not thought twice about crawling under a car in morning dress. “Oh, that explains it,” said the driver, looking relieved.</div>
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4. Most of the old vegetable varieties, apparently so flavoursome in the memories of sentimentalists, will soon be no more. Take peas for example: repeated tests at the Institution laboratories showed that, once they had been processed and canned, or frozen, not one of the control group was able to distinguish consistently between the different varieties. So it makes sound sense to concentrate on those vigorous varieties most profitable to the grower.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNh-5sVRvqu_EItqwHtjjJV1QViQZLO0ObfInpxCCm_ML_UGPoSZJgF-cNbQXzhvytJUqCC7I9SPhElYzGo8Idw-oVc9ZbvkC8e-Gl5VzJeLtpWRCW2VbW7oivvm6ELwEzgZfD2fvd8aQ/s1600/matt+moore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNh-5sVRvqu_EItqwHtjjJV1QViQZLO0ObfInpxCCm_ML_UGPoSZJgF-cNbQXzhvytJUqCC7I9SPhElYzGo8Idw-oVc9ZbvkC8e-Gl5VzJeLtpWRCW2VbW7oivvm6ELwEzgZfD2fvd8aQ/s1600/matt+moore.jpg" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
REACTIONS</h3>
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If you did read these illustrations carefully as suggested, congratulations - you are a more conscientious reader than I usually am! But how did you react to them?<br />
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Statements like the first illustration irritate me; but, more importantly, they sadden me. Why? Because I know they are true.<br />
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A lot of popular writing on the paranormal gives a very different picture, it suggests that science is crumbling under the onslaught of evidence. But the truth is that science is only crumbling at the edges: if you study the hard-core scientific reaction to the paranormal you will find little or no change. Even John Taylor has withdrawn a lot of his evidence.<br />
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Does this mean that “I don’t believe in” the paranormal?<br />
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No: as is argued in ‘Thundersqueak’ and in an earlier article in this series, what I do not believe is that scientific scrutiny is the Gateway to Ultimate Truth. Instead I believe it to be a simple but extremely effective method of banishment: the state of mind we evoke when we say “let us look at these facts again very closely” is one which forms a magic circle of certainty around us, a magic circle expressly designed to exclude all mystery and surprise. Try it next time a ghost is troubling you - it works more powerfully than the pentagram ritual.<br />
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So any attempt to produce laboratory evidence of the paranormal is analogous to trying to persuade a clergyman that God created evil, by evoking Beelzebub within the holy ground of his own church - the attempt is doomed because such evil is by convention excluded from that holy ground.<br />
The second illustration could be depressing, especially in the wake of the first one. Together they add up to a picture of the failure of the revolutionary hippy dream now that we have woken to the harsh reality of the 80s. (In fact this illustration is not needed till later in this article)<br />
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As for the third illustration: you may not know how to react to this until it is put in context, and you know how the writer intends to use it.<br />
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So what about the fourth illustration? This type of statement annoys me. Why the hell should good vegetables be slaughtered on the altar of Economics? If processing does destroy the difference, my solution is not to give up tasty vegetables but rather to avoid processing them - let’s eat them fresh so we can enjoy the difference!<br />
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Do you agree?<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
REVELATIONS</h3>
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To return to the third illustration and its purpose: part of the reason it was included was simply to separate the first and fourth ones with a lot of words! Having confessed that, I would like to look back at the first and fourth and put them side by side in our minds to see what happens.<br />
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Does my reaction to the first illustration overwhelm my reaction to the fourth one; so that they combine to form a dismal picture of the invincible technological Juggernaut, crushing all nature and magic in its path?<br />
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Or does gastronomic pleasure carry more weight than my regard for scientific truth?<br />
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In the latter case I might now see the first example as exactly analogous to the fourth and come to a similar iconoclastic conclusion: “if no evidence for the paranormal is ever capable of standing up to scientific scrutiny then, rather than live without evidence of the paranormal, I would choose to live without recourse to scientific scrutiny.”<br />
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In purely practical terms that conclusion is not so very revolutionary: after all, how many of us really do use the scientific method in everyday life? Even in a high technology environment it is seldom used: in fact the full weight of scientific ritual working is usually only deployed in the face of danger, for example when testing safety equipment, testing a revolutionary new hypothesis or - above all - in paranormal research.<br />
So scrapping science should be easy - but it is not. For however seldom our ‘rational’ society actually uses the scientific method, it still treats it with slavish respect. This is even true of those of us who dislike the method and will argue against it at every opportunity.<br />
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Just imagine that a surgeon has examined your child and announced that only an immediate operation would save its life, while a clairvoyant has told you not to let the operation take place: in the fact of public opinion and conditioning how many of us would dare to refuse the surgeon?<br />
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Of course I would not suggest “scrapping” science, I would only suggest that we could remove the scientific method from its pedestal and put it carefully away as a useful tool in case of real need. (If the pedestal now looks a bit bare let’s put ‘Fun’ in the place of honour.)<br />
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However, the very fact that this resolution would be all in the mind means that it would not be easy. To show how deeply the old ideas are entrenched in our thought I will now explore a little further.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicV7qt1yYJ6-c9oGwtj0yiW1SmVbWyIlRhukG9RpyMgOWN2FCliI5ZhpNOgcLhaO5Je3ZTc9duGIaiZwgYnKvk4Niuv5BgwQCkzYzH2ot4ZpMW9U2BhoPkJ6JXmAQ5KIZgGPofrDHeEDQ/s1600/the+time+is+now.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicV7qt1yYJ6-c9oGwtj0yiW1SmVbWyIlRhukG9RpyMgOWN2FCliI5ZhpNOgcLhaO5Je3ZTc9duGIaiZwgYnKvk4Niuv5BgwQCkzYzH2ot4ZpMW9U2BhoPkJ6JXmAQ5KIZgGPofrDHeEDQ/s1600/the+time+is+now.jpg" /></a></div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
THE MAGICAL CHILD</h3>
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Recently I read “The Magical Child” by Joseph Chilton Pearce (who wrote ‘the Crack in the Cosmic Egg’), and found the book full of interesting and important ideas.<br />
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If we use the word ‘education’ in the very broadest sense, to include not only the whole upbringing and psychic environment but also the conditions of birth and even the prenatal experience; then the main message of the book could be crudely stated as follows: ‘every human has a natural capacity for magic, but traditional education in our society crushes that capacity and destroys it.’<br />
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This idea is well in accord with the opinions of most occultists. For example I have heard it said that there is more magic in primitive societies than in ours because they have not cut themselves off from nature as we have. It is also often said that the best mediums or psychics are found among simpleminded or backward folk, because their very lack of intellect has saved their innate psychic abilities from being swamped by rational logic.<br />
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Recently it has also been noted that the most able metalbenders were youngsters, and it has been suggested that this is so because such children have not yet had their psychic abilities educated out of them.<br />
All these examples carry a similar message, but how does science respond to this message?<br />
Simple! Of course those kids produce the most puzzling results, for we all know that mischievous youngsters are more interested in fooling adults than they are in obeying the strict disciplines of scientific method in order to discover the truth. In any case, being immature, children are more likely to be carried away by their imaginations aren’t they?<br />
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What about primitive societies? Well, without their having the benefit of our superior knowledge of the universe, we can hardly blame them if they too get a little carried away by their imaginations. As for those mental defectives .... say no more!<br />
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Two different views of the same facts: let us call the first view the ‘Romantic’ one, the second view the ‘Classic’ one, and put them in the boxing ring to see which wins!<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
CLASSIC V. ROMANTIC</h3>
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There is no doubt in my mind that the first round goes to the ‘Romantics’; for they win hands down on style.<br />
Their argument touches on my golden nostalgic memories of childhood’s magic moments. It also links with our dreams of the Golden Age, the myth of the Noble Savage and so on. Beside that the ‘Classic’ argument seems arrogant, insensitive, tactless and boring.<br />
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So on to round two.<br />
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Good grief! After that clumsy start the ‘Classic’ argument has scored a knockout in round two! This is so surprising that it calls for some careful explanation.<br />
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Throughout the ‘Romantic’ case there is a common idea of Nature being vanquished: the natural magic of childhood being crushed by convention, the natural psychic abilities of mankind having been castrated by the dogma of rationality, and so on.<br />
<br />
This idea appeals strongly to me as it has an obvious parallel with the picture of Nature’s destruction by technology, put forward so vividly by the ecology movement. This idea has a strong appeal to my latent mothering instincts, but it has a weak spot in that it makes absolutely no appeal to my not-quite-so-latent religious instincts. I want to worship Nature, not protect her! I look back to previous centuries when Nature was spoken of as a mighty and terrible power, when men spoke of the ‘majesty’ of Nature and the ‘forces’ of Nature - protecting butterflies feels a bit tame in comparison.<br />
<br />
Returning to the Romantic argument, I find it hard to respect man’s Natural Potential when I am told that it has been so thoroughly defeated by reason, by convention, by education and so on.<br />
So how do I ‘beef up’ Nature to make her worshipful?<br />
<br />
I do so by expanding her beyond the small view of Nature as ‘all pretty flowers and furry creatures that technology is threatening’. In the larger view man is included in Nature; earthquakes, comets, supernovas and the primal big bang are also included in Nature.<br />
<br />
On this scale there is no question of ‘Man versus Nature’ for man is just one of Nature’s little experiments: and if Nature has chosen to mold mankind (by means of technology) into a club with which to batter the flowers and butterflies to death then it is sheer impertinence on our part to suggest that this means that Nature has somehow ‘made a mistake’.<br />
<br />
Similarly it is impertinent to suggest that man’s rational mind (another of Nature’s creations) has somehow managed to destroy the Nature in us. A Goddess may perplex us, torment us, or destroy us, but she does not make mistakes. Least of all does a Goddess depend upon us to keep her alive. (It is my Religious Spirit speaking: Rationalism would argue against that last sentence of course!)<br />
<br />
(In practice, despite my feeling that the Ecology Movement has helped to debase Nature in our minds, I still support it like mad - and refuse to buy goods wrapped in paper bags whenever possible. Just how I reconcile religion and daily life is material for another article - better still, another lifetime - so I must return to the point without satisfying your curiosity on that topic.)<br />
<br />
I declare that the Romantic argument lost the second round because it made the rather silly suggestion that Nature, who created us, has made the mistake of allowing us to develop ways of life, ways of thinking, etc. which have defeated Nature herself. In comparison the Classic argument does at least have the decency to suggest that Nature’s progress is right - that adults do know better than children, that advanced civilisations are an improvement on earlier ones, that clever people are not defective, and so on.<br />
<br />
As referee I am far from impartial, I’m afraid. Despite my grudging respect for the Classic argument I do not like the company it keeps, for it is too often associated with the argument that Magic does not exist. So I feel that I must produce a new argument that is equal to the Classic argument in round two, yet which fits in better with what I want to believe.<br />
<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
THE THIRD APPROACH</h3>
<br />
A cheer, and Ramsey ‘The Crusher’ Dukes enters the ring!<br />
<br />
‘Why are simpletons more psychic?’ shouts the crowd.<br />
<br />
‘Because they are simpletons’ answers Ramsey.<br />
<br />
A puzzled silence.<br />
<br />
‘Why are children better at bending metal?’ shouts the crowd.<br />
<br />
‘Because they are worse magicians’ mutters Ramsey.<br />
<br />
Eh?<br />
<br />
‘Why was there more magic in olden times?’ shouts the crowd.<br />
<br />
‘Because mankind was not yet very good at magic’ sighs Ramsey.<br />
<br />
Has he gone crazy? What is Ramsey trying to say?<br />
<br />
If we begin with the last question which asks why there was more magic in olden times (or in primitive societies for that matter), the reply was not that primitive people are better magicians, but that they are worse.<br />
<br />
This seems a crazy statement, but let us look at it without preconceptions, and ask ourselves what was mankind’s original incentive to do magic. Was it not inspired by the wish to control the environment and gain greater security?<br />
<br />
But it is surely arguable that mankind’s present problems partly stem from too great a feeling of security: our environment has been tamed to the point that we feel obliged to create silly weapons and invent ideological enemies in order to put back the excitement in our lives. So a Martian observer might be forgiven for feeling that it is modern man who is the better magician, for it is a modern man who has more thoroughly tamed his reality.<br />
<br />
If we now reconsider the first question we can imagine how the Martian observer would look upon simpleminded psychics. Instead of seeing them as people with an extra ability of their own, the Martian might see them as people who had less control of reality, as incompetent magicians whose magic circles were leaky.<br />
<br />
If you are still not convinced, look back at the third illustration quoted at the beginning of this article. Even though I was not in that car - I was the schoolmaster - the incident scared me.<br />
<br />
Novice drivers soon learn to come to terms with certain levels of risk - if you thought every oncoming driver was likely to go mad and ram you, driving would become impossible. They learn to trust their judgement.<br />
<br />
At the time described my own judgement was not prepared for the possibility that, in these days of sophisticated engineering, stringent safety measures and yearly MOT tests, a car could fail in such a lethal fashion without any warning (had the car been going more than 15 mph it would certainly have rolled over).<br />
<br />
The sight of that torn member disturbed me so deeply that, five years later, it contributed towards a rather illogical decision to trade my car for a motorcycle.(Note also that the driver was disturbed by my clothing until an explanation had been provided.)<br />
<br />
Our modern way of life would be unbearable if we could not depend upon metal to behave itself. Sometimes when I was driving I used to think of Uri Geller and wonder whether my fears about the front wheel linkage might not create just the right mental state to cause the metal to snap by telekinesis. It never happened, but rather than accept this as evidence against telekinesis, I took it as evidence that it was my Unconscious Will to survive.<br />
<br />
This idea is supported by the following experiment: sometimes, when feeling suicidal, I have chosen a clear stretch of road (out of consideration for other users), shut my eyes and fully opened the throttle of my 1000cc motorcycle. In a few seconds of bellowing machinery and arm-wrenching acceleration, existence begins to regain its charm: and my eyes spontaneously open to reveal that I have steered accurately while my eyes were shut (note to my disciples: this variation of Spare’s Death Posture is strictly for Ipsissimi). My Unconscious Will to live has been invoked and has overcome the Conscious Will to suicide. Indeed I have a theory that it is the Unconscious Will that is the final arbiter as to who is going to be killed on the roads - and not the Department of Transport.<br />
<br />
Remember that in the third illustration the car did not collapse until it had slowed down: this fits my own experience that vehicles have a genius for breaking down at the most awkward or embarrassing times, yet have an equally uncanny knack for preserving life. Hence the unusually high proportion of motoring stories which end with the words: “if it had happened one minute earlier, I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale”.<br />
<br />
I had better leave this subject, for I would feel a right idiot if tomorrow saw my remains being hosed off the tarmac....<br />
<br />
When the subatomic structure of matter is considered, it appears to be so insubstantial as to suggest that the real miracle is not the bending of metal by telekinesis, but rather that we are so ready to trust our lives to its not bending.<br />
<br />
Observing the extent to which human belief can shape human reality, I am tempted to suggest that the strength of metal is not so much innate, as a consequence of our Unconscious Will to preserve our own security. (Study the history of metallurgy in this light and you will find that man’s inventions tend to run one step ahead of the materials needed: copper is easily mined but too soft for weapons; mix it with tin, an even softer metal, and you get bronze - which is harder!)<br />
<br />
So the child that can apparently bend metal by telekinesis is not really displaying magical powers so much as a magical failure ascribable to immature ability - it has simply failed to keep the metal rigid.<br />
<br />
Primitive mankind cannot have felt as secure as we do in their world - where a wolf could turn into a man or a neighbour’s curse could sour the milk - so the same argument would suggest that they witnessed more miracles not so much because of a superior magical ability as because they had not developed their magical powers as completely as we have.<br />
<br />
Similarly the medium who sees spirits and hears voices is not displaying a special talent lost to ordinary people, only a weaker ability to banish those spirits in order to preserve everyday reality.<br />
<br />
What of my second illustration, quoted at the beginning of the article, of the young man who ‘lost his magic’?<br />
We now have an alternative interpretation of this story. In those glamorous days when he was apparently such a great magician, he was in fact just a young seeker, in search of his true path. Now he has found that path and found, in the accumulation of money and status, a greater certainty and security than he had before. For now his magic is really working.<br />
<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
IS THIS DEFENSIBLE?</h3>
<br />
<br />
So that is my argument, but I bet you don’t feel satisfied by it! It seems a denial of all the dreams and hopes of the occult revival; it makes magic sound so boring.<br />
<br />
‘That cannot be the truth about magic,’ you say, ‘because if we really were such brilliant magicians, we would surely not be feeling dissatisfied, and be searching for more of what we call “magic”.<br />
<br />
Really? Is this not just what one should expect? Is this not just the well-worn story of the success that turns sour?<br />
<br />
Have we not all heard of the self-made millionaire who ends his life in dreams of the good old days when he shared a flat in the slums, or of the simple country girl who married an international tycoon and spent her life dreaming of the folks back home, or again of the pop star who committed suicide?<br />
Johnstone always stated that the deepest rut of all is success. Now the war is over we spend a hell of a lot of time reminiscing about it: the peculiar yearning for a return to insecurity has been aptly described in French as nostalgie de la boue.<br />
<br />
When I finished my training and was going to teach at Eton my fellow student teachers tended to think I had copped out: “doesn’t your conscience tell you that you should really be teaching in a deprived area?” they asked. This question made little sense to me unless the asker really believed that money solved all problems - that rich people never needed help. As it was, the difficulties I encountered at Eton were no more superficial than problems I had previously encountered in my more humble existence.<br />
<br />
In fact I sometimes felt a special calling to try to tackle the miseries that beset, for example, rich Californians because I feel these problems are not as trivial as some people claim. What, I ask, is the point of trying to raise the rest of mankind towards affluence when we have not yet tackled the problems of affluence itself?<br />
This then I propose as the problem of our age. It is not that we have developed abilities which have cut us off from our natural magical inheritance and left us high and dry in a technological desert; instead it is that our very magic has become too good.<br />
<br />
Encapsulated in the Victorian Scientific world view we have a model of reality rather too perfect and secure for our own highly developed magical ability. We have shaped the world too successfully and mankind is now looking back wistfully to the good old days when we weren’t quite so good at holding it all together and life had more surprises.<br />
<br />
Nature has not made a mistake, she has merely, as ever, striven to excellence.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
THE OCCULT DREAM</h3>
<br />
<br />
Could this be the reason why the occult dream of the 60s has been so slow to realise itself? In those heady days many would have predicted a parascientific revolution before 1982 - what became of it?<br />
<br />
I referred above to the “Victorian scientific worldview”: although the leading edge of scientific theory has long since moved into much more mysterious territory, I feel it is the Victorian idea which still dominates popular thought. People have heard of the uncertainties of subatomic physics, but basically assume that it is all going to be nailed down sooner or later to present once more a nice mechanical picture.<br />
<br />
Indeed, returning to the idea of Unconscious Will, it looks as if recent advances in science are a response to the Unconscious Will of that small section of the population who could not accept the narrow materialistic view, whilst the failure of those advances to shatter materialism is a consequence of the more widespread Unconscious Will to preserve our security.<br />
<br />
If we had been right in believing that our present state of rational materialism was a mistake, an evolutionary sidetrack now needing to be retraced, then surely it would have been easier to bring about the occult revolution?<br />
<br />
If we had been right in our early assumption that we only had to become as little children in order to ‘enter the Kingdom of heaven’, then surely individual enthusiasm would have carried more of us across the abyss?<br />
Instead there are an awful lot of people still wondering where all the magic has gone, and too many people feeling disappointed that all these years have passed and we have still not seen the scientific establishment on its knees before Uri Geller, begging for forgiveness.<br />
<br />
I suggest that the reason that the ‘mistake’ was so difficult to put right is that it never was a mistake, but rather an excess of success - and the deepest rut of all is success.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
THE AQUARIAN REVOLUTION</h3>
<br />
<br />
I have heard it said that we are living through a revolution; that mankind has discovered that it has lost its balance, lost its contact with Nature, and is now turning back to the right path.<br />
<br />
I do not believe this: when an individual makes such a fundamental discovery about his own psyche it does produce a revolution, and I would expect the same in society. But I do not see signs of revolution, instead I see signs of festering: much more reminiscent of the individual whose success has turned sour than of the individual who has seen the light. The revolution has not failed - it simply has not begun.<br />
<br />
True, there have been changes in public opinion, but they are only the slow undramatic changes that accord with the slow evolution of the Unconscious Will: although many of us want the paranormal, we still need the security of materialism.<br />
<br />
So if I can now talk about the Aquarian Revolution in the future tense, rather than in the past tense, what will it demand of us? Will it require that we turn back and abandon our left-hemisphere, rationalist stance?<br />
To return to the analogy of the individual, the question is this: should the miserable rich man abandon his wealth to become happy?”<br />
<br />
Traditionally the answer is ‘yes’ - but I disagree (except in cases when the wealth is abandoned in my direction). That affirmative answer is based on two popular myths:<br />
<br />
a) ‘He gave up all his money and spent the rest of his life happily helping the poor’;<br />
b) ‘He gave up all his money and devoted himself to spiritual progress’.<br />
<br />
Really these are two versions of the same story: the ‘spiritual’ version is based on the duality of material goods versus spirit, the ‘political’ version is based on the duality of wealth versus poverty.<br />
In each case the erroneous idea is to believe that misery at one end of the scale implies happiness at the other end. Anyone who tries this as a formula is liable to remain imprisoned in the duality: for example the rich man who ‘drops out’ in search of enlightenment, yet ends up chasing spiritual progress in just the same way as he used to chase purchasable goods.<br />
<br />
The falsehood of these two myths depends upon a subtle shift of emphasis.<br />
Consider the man who supposedly became happy by abandoning his wealth, then helping the poor: I suggest that the truth was that the rich man, while still rich, became very interested in helping the needy; so much so that he happened to lose his money in the process simply because it no longer concerned him greatly - for he had expanded from the duality of poverty versus wealth.<br />
<br />
However, to the rest of mankind, who are still trapped in that duality, the first thing they notice is the lost of money and so the story goes out that the rich man found happiness by giving away his money and helping the poor, rather than the truer story that happiness was found by helping the needy - with the loss of wealth as an incidental effect.<br />
<br />
The same applies to the spiritual case: although it is easy to find quotes about rich men not getting to heaven and the need to abandon wealth and so on, I would guess that this is very much a test of the faint-hearted. The loss of wealth should be incidental; if it is done too soon and too deliberately you are liable to retain a hang-up about the act, and become the sort of spiritual disciple who thinks ‘I’m bloody well going to get my Nirvana before Brother Fred, because his Daddy paid for him while I gave up my Lamborghini to follow Mahatma Kote’.<br />
<br />
Applying this free moral lesson to the problem discussed earlier: I feel the need for a revolution, but I do not feel that it will come about by looking back along our evolutionary path. It is tempting to discourage early literacy in children (because literacy represses ‘right brain’ thinking) and so try to make the children more ‘magical’, but I do not feel this is the answer.<br />
<br />
What is needed is a new direction rather than an undoing of past mistakes.<br />
<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
THE NEW DIRECTION</h3>
<br />
<br />
The true revolution comes when you break out of an old duality, not when you simply change direction within it.<br />
<br />
What we need is a new philosophy rather than an attempt to recapture lost magic by resorting to wholefoods, real education, restoring earth-contact and so on. Such admirable pursuits are best adopted in their own right rather than for ulterior motives or for theoretical reasons.<br />
<br />
I, for example, am keen on whole foods: I choose wholemeal bread because nine times out of ten I enjoy it more than white bread; thus I am happier. If I had chosen wholemeal bread on grounds of health, I would become a victim of medical debate and those researches sponsored by the Bread Board to prove that sliced white bread is the only safe food on the market.<br />
<br />
If I had chosen wholemeal as a gesture toward ‘small is beautiful’ economic theory, I would remain forever trapped in economic debate. (As it is, I remain for ever trapped in my pursuit of sensual pleasure ... you cannot win!)<br />
<br />
That is why, in Thundersqueak, and in this series of articles for Arrow, I have put emphasis on new forms of belief. Those articles on Johnstone’s Paradox were not so much an attempt to present a new Truth as to find a new Hope.<br />
<br />
The first illustration at the beginning of this article suggested that none of the evidence for the paranormal could withstand scientific scrutiny. Two typical reactions to such a statement are:<br />
<br />
a) ‘I always knew this occult stuff was nonsense’, or<br />
b) to react angrily and take an anti-science stance.<br />
<br />
Neither reaction offers any escape from the science versus occultism duality. Instead I suggested a change of attitude which amounted to saying ‘GREAT! At last we have a choice before us! No longer the victims of ‘magical’ forces, no longer (at last!) the slaves of scientific dogma: this illustration informs us that inconvenient paranormal phenomena can be safely banished by adopting a scientific attitude! The future of mankind can include a higher form of magic now that we have learned to banish properly.’<br />
<br />
In this way the dualistic tension is released, science is removed from its pedestal and put aside as a useful tool; we are free and better armed to explore the future.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
CONCLUSIONS</h3>
<br />
I have here and elsewhere in this article tended to use the word magic in two senses: in a popular sense to refer to the primitive, insecure state that is the opposite of ‘science’, and in a higher sense which sees science as a tool in the service of a greater magic. This is the same distinction that Crowley intended when he adopted the word ‘magick’ for the greater sense.<br />
<br />
So I will summarise my theory thus: ‘as long as we chase after magic, Magick cannot progress.’ And I present this prediction for the coming Aquarian Revolution: ‘In the sixties we became disillusioned with science. In the seventies we devised an “alternative” - but it proved too weak to topple the monolith. In the eighties we shall call rationalism/science an “alternative’ and it will be its turn to fight for survival.’<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
POSTSCRIPT</h3>
<br />
If a diabolist is a person who reverses the fundamental symbols of the age - saying the Lord’s Prayer backward and inverting the crucifix in times past - what does that make me?<br />
<br />
In this essay I began by proposing that we elevate ‘fun’ above ‘scientific method’; went on to suggest that the ecology movement might be debasing Nature; dared to put forward the idea that primitive peoples and children are inferior; outraged decency by hinting that Oxfam might better devote its care to the wealthy; and finally suggested that the Aquarian revolution had never begun.<br />
<br />
So appalled am I by this revelation of mine own wickedness, and such is the momentum of my sinfulness, that I feel impelled to commit yet one more atrocity: an act so base that the very editors of Arrow, nay Hugo l’Estrange himself, would shrink back in horror from its witness.<br />
<br />
For I feel bounden to fall meekly to my knees, clutching the Good Book to my breast and raising my eyes to heaven to pray for forgiveness for my evil deeds; and to surrender this most perfidious essay to the tender loving mercy of the Lamb of God by placing it naked before my readers that it may be stoned to death as is most fitting for the redemption of its fallen soul.<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(to every artist. super respecto! we just kinda grabbed from random collections on blogspot just to decorate it. if anyone wants their name attached or beautiful inspiring picture taken down. get ahold of us! same goes with you Mr. Snell!)</span>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-63817782220627892072012-06-25T21:44:00.002-06:002012-06-25T21:45:52.883-06:00Flint - Live at the Undermoutain Sled Island 2012Here are all the videos from Flint's set at the Pint-Sized Records Showcase Friday June 22nd at the Undermountain as part of Sled Island Music Festival 2012 in Calgary, AB. All the videos were shot by Paul DuLong. Make sure you check out all the other videos on his Youtube Channel PNTMusicStation, including videos of our good friend If I Look Strong; You Look Strong, who we all drummed for that show.<br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">Setlist:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Cold Eggs</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Hot Leather Piss</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Lorraine Outside of Work </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Gruberghof</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">My Head Don't Fit</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Mouser</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">The News</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">The Screaming Lucy's</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Sorry About That Punctured Lung, Boris</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Clubhouse</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Urethra Franklin</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-91947830012147431662012-06-11T20:52:00.002-06:002012-07-04T23:33:37.239-06:00Kendama Lama??!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">- <span style="font-size: x-small;">The Number</span> <span style="font-size: x-large;">2 </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Collective</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Presents:</span> - </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dama Dance & Art Party </span></span></b></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show">Live Performances by: </span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: large;">Prism the Static Face</span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u> </u></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOQD81FFlu1HaaTyuC4HKel5RWMSHyssUfZNhrPjRPrJPHzSVBclQRUgB32U0bRsmRxAYBsWKrShZVH1WcC4N2TawDOJNQDYYGh_0dSX6niRIW06_F93isz5eb1VnEpycwsilxmaWfMOU/s1600/293652_10150338463963354_1438013597_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOQD81FFlu1HaaTyuC4HKel5RWMSHyssUfZNhrPjRPrJPHzSVBclQRUgB32U0bRsmRxAYBsWKrShZVH1WcC4N2TawDOJNQDYYGh_0dSX6niRIW06_F93isz5eb1VnEpycwsilxmaWfMOU/s320/293652_10150338463963354_1438013597_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: large;">Anzu</span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u> </u></span></span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHtfITxvc5cF74-cypPk3zHLra2QmoGRM2pDUZZmuSGsQMS1q_BrOcKJlFGVwlDt_BBekCMJ6PdaOF5SRlP6UhyphenhyphenMSMOYyhAbytT_YS2F3pKud4DDKUnCY-go4U2G-iXTXm6MSf34iGWM/s1600/avatars-000014681685-w09d2f-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHtfITxvc5cF74-cypPk3zHLra2QmoGRM2pDUZZmuSGsQMS1q_BrOcKJlFGVwlDt_BBekCMJ6PdaOF5SRlP6UhyphenhyphenMSMOYyhAbytT_YS2F3pKud4DDKUnCY-go4U2G-iXTXm6MSf34iGWM/s320/avatars-000014681685-w09d2f-crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"> <span style="font-size: large;">Boosh! </span><br /> <a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/booshaok" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">www.soundcloud.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>booshaok</a></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u> </u></span></span><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi98FcsEc5iQncX_jnzweq86WQVuCM1EXWxPxUkO_-F-t6sBczUGLnC5O9-3eqXMGCKHEkbfh1_CKOjF4dzLMEMlgSVSTKAOKOGFm_QhVaBi66JeKRJ7ZC-jaTa5LXM6vCe30NH0ffsFeI/s1600/IMG_0500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi98FcsEc5iQncX_jnzweq86WQVuCM1EXWxPxUkO_-F-t6sBczUGLnC5O9-3eqXMGCKHEkbfh1_CKOjF4dzLMEMlgSVSTKAOKOGFm_QhVaBi66JeKRJ7ZC-jaTa5LXM6vCe30NH0ffsFeI/s320/IMG_0500.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: large;">Dreamaurua</span><br /> <a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/dreamaurua" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">www.soundcloud.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>dreamaurua</a></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u> </u></span></span><span class="text_exposed_show"> <br /> </span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Boogie Howser</span></span><br /> <a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/cptnkirk" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">www.soundcloud.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>cptnkirk</a></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u> </u></span></span><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></div>
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As some of you may know, #2 is teaming up with the one and only "Kendama Edmonton" to create a unqiue event June 30th. Be sure to arrive early as the Kendama Competition will start at 7 p.m, with the Music starting shortly after. We will be transforming the top floor into a makeshift art gallery
for all those who wish to display. ( if you are interested in displaying, contact matt 5879875766 ) a Live Art Jam can be enjoyed whilst the Music is being Performed. Everyone is encouraged to<span class="text_exposed_show"> bring their own ''writing utensil(s)'' [think felts
and paint markers] and/or a white shirt for admission. We want YOU to also take part
in our art jam</span>!<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span class="text_exposed_show">If you plan on participating in said
art jam, please no
aerosol cans or anything else pressurized. we will be indoors, and
anything that contaminates airspace could be dangerous. we
appreciate this!</span></i></span><br />
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NOW #2..... ATTACK!</div>
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look forward to updates on the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/378200348904038/"> facebook page</a>, you might find some fun stuff to get your ears in the groove! </div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"> <br /> <a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/cptnkirk" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"></a><br /> <br />
.</span>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4543471655317583910.post-35166209443433538842012-04-17T00:19:00.002-06:002012-04-30T21:16:50.342-06:002000: An Inner Space Odyssey by R.odebrecht A.n-Ton W.ilyson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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THAT WHICH IS ALLOWED, EXISTS. IN ALLOWING NO LIMITS, THERE ARE NO LIMITS... THAT WHICH IS ALLOWED, EXISTS. THAT WHICH EXISTS IS ALLOWED. TO ALLOW NO LIMITS, THERE ARE NO LIMITS. NO LIMITS ALLOWED, NO LIMITS EXIST... IN THERE PROVINCE OF THE MIND THERE ARE NO LIMITS. IN THE PROVINCE OF THE MIND, WHAT IS BELIEVED TO BE TRUE IS TRUE OR BECOMES TRUE. THERE ARE NO LIMITS.<br />
- A hyno-tape used by Dr. John Lilly to prepare experimental subjects to transcend their previous possibilities, as quoted in <i>The Center of the Cyclone</i><br />
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Jane had heard exaggerated reports of the successes achieved by the English psychiatrists Ling and Buckman in curing frigidity with LSD. It seems that, in her case, what was believed to be true came true. This "Christian Science" aspect of self-programming with LSD is often reported in underground lore and need not overly amaze us. After all, Jane was born, like all females, with a capacity for orgasm, and the blocks against it, whatever muscles may have been involved, resided primarily in her mind. When LSD temporarily broke down the historically given structure of her mind, her faith was that the "miracle" of orgasm would be included when the mind came back together again. Her faith obviously made this possible.<br />
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The religious aspects of the Drug Revolution & the earlier Drug Revolution (circa 15,000 BC) laid the visionary groundwork within a shamanistic context for the later religious history of our species. It seems evident that, as Weston LaBarre, Ph.D, argues in his monumental study <i>The Ghost Dance: Origins of Religion</i>, the religious ideas common to Greeks, Jews, Hindus, Romans and Christians (among others) would not be quite what they are without the influence of several thousand years of drug tripping by our Stone Age ancestors, in which they discovered the internal world of psychic processes that they classified in such categories as supernatural energies (mana, prana, Kundalini, wakan, etc.) and as supernatural places (heaven,hell, etc.) and as supernatural beings (the father-god, mother-goddess, etc.). It remains to be explained why the modern drug trippers often find themselves confronting the same archetypal internal powers, places and beings.<br />
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As Dr. LaBarre also points out, there are chronic and seemingly inescapable revivals of this "vision quest" whenever society undergoes prolong stress <i>in ways that the cultural traditions cannot explain</i>. Ordinary stress will not trigger this response; Dr. LaBarre chronicles calamities that give birth to no religious upheaval. But when the agony is such that it conflicts with cultural beliefs concerning those events that the god should not and could not allow, bewilderment sets in. Many are driven to the vision quest, to direct experience of the "supernatural" or psychic world, as they attempt to find out what the gods really want and why previous revelations cannot account for current sufferings. This happened to the Plains Indians in the late 19th Century when constant betrayals by the white man, constant defeats by the white cavalry, the vanishing of the buffalo herds, and the presence of Christian missionaries belittling their ancient religion combined to destroy their faith in everything that had once given life meaning and promise. Not unexpectedly, the vision quest appeared in dozens of forms among them, most notably in the famous ghost dance (which promised that if all tribes united to perform this rite, the buffalo would reappear and the hated whites would go back to Europe) and in the cult of psychedelic cactus-peyote-which became the Native American Church.<br />
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Entirely similar religious upheavals occur in all conquered peoples. Two well-known examples are the Cargo cults in the South Pacific-which worship airplanes-and the Johnson Cult in the same area-which involved the belief, by thousands of natives, that Lyndon Baines Johnson, whom they had seen in the newsreels, was the promised Messiah. More bizarre is a sect mentioned by Dr. LaBarre, which worshiped a photograph of King George V of England, which their prophet ( who had once attended Christian missionary classes, but evidently hadn't listened too closely) told them was "Jehovah, son of Jesus."<br />
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Christian culture appeared after several centuries of such social chaos and religious upheaval, beginning when the Dionysian and similar cults in Greece brought <i>amanita muscaria</i> mushrooms and solanaceae to Athens, and introduced to Greece the myths of the mother goddess, her dying-and-resurrected divine son, and the drug experience in which the cult member underwent "death" and "rebirth" and learned that he, too, was a God and would never truly die. John Allegro, the English philologist, attempts to show, in his The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, that the similarity of these cults to Christianity is more than a shared heritage of religious symbols (mother and son) or of ideas (resurrection) but was actually chemical. The early Christians, he claims, also used the hallucinogenic mushroom.<br />
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Whether of not this is true, Christianity is certainly a cult of the crisis-oriented variety we have been discussing, and one of the most bizarre of them. An American Indian messiah, mentioned by LaBarre, told his followers to destroy all livestock and burn their property; many Christian saints gave the same odd advice, and Christ himself urged taking no though of the morrow. One Polynesian messiah told his followers that the gods were angry because they had sex in the dark, and that the time of troubles would end if they would have sex in the daytime instead; Christ and his follower Pual had even more peculiar sexual ideas and many of their followers gave up sex entirely. (In this they were probably influenced by the earlier cult of Attis, whose priests castrated themselves and wore women's clothing. To this day, Catholic priests psychologically castrate themselves by vowing perpetual celibacy and, in some countries, wear feminized gowns.)<br />
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After their vision quests have been successful, most messiahs come back and announce that part of the old tribal tradition was true and should be maintained in spite of the contempt of the conquerors. (This is especially notable in American Indian crisis cults, which always stress certain archaic values, especially ecological ones.) So, too, Christ tried to preserve much of the Jewish tradition that was crumbling in his time under the yoke of Roman conquest. But the messiah is always responding, consciously or unconsciously, to some form of calamity, and he argues that if the old tradition had been entirely valid, the gods would not have sent such sufferings; therefore, every messiah offers new revelations and abrogates part of the old law. Christ did this and so has every Indian, Aboriginal, African, Polynesian or Micronesian messiah that Dr. LaBarre studied. The Native American Church, for instance, together with its Aboriginal elements (Peyote Woman herself, Road Chief, the midcien bundles) introduced the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament and Jesus Christ as a god equally strong as Peyote Woman.<br />
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It seems plausible that the new Drug Revolution of our time is part of this age-old religious pattern. But there are two important differences. The first and most important concerns the strange sexual context provided by Christian society that will be discussed below. The second is that we are living in an age of science. Many of the most experienced trippers and vision questers were men of science who began with a thoroughly scientific and skeptical orientation. When they saw gods and heavens and experienced "occult" energies, they did not take these dramatic events at face value. They sought a scientific explanation. Thus, Dr. Leary talked originally of sets, settings, games, role playing; Dr. Osmund, of Jung's collective unconscious and its archetypes; Dr. Lilly, of programming the human biocomputer with new information; others of the Freudian id and the return of the repressed.<br />
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This scientific skepticism did not last long when the drugs moved out of the laboratories and into the streets. (Even in the labs, some researchers could be caught barefacedly using the noun "God" or at least the adjective "divine", although they would usually protect themselves from professional ridicule by placing them in dubious quotation marks, as I have done. Leary, typically, was the first to take off the quotes and set up shop frankly as a new messiah.) In the streets, there were no such hesitations. The average acidhead, and quite a few pot smokers, were not shy at all about telling you they had found "some kind of truth" in all that religion stuff. Even so, the failure of the old tradition and the typical crisis cult pattern was visible: Few accepted traditional Christianity. Almost all added new elements- at first, from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and the Orient in general. Later, elements were taken from the Western occult tradition and Crowley's sexual magic. (IN some circles, this sex-occult aspect of the new Drug Revolution appeared as early as 1962.)<br />
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This tend was fated inevitably to conflict with the values of our still largely Christian culture. Too much in the new drug mystique was like the old solanceae cults of Greece and Rome that the fathers of Christianity had hated bitterly and much of the drug kulch even repeated; and sometimes revived, parts of these cults which the church had condemned as witchcraft and persecuted with fanatic cruelty for eight long centuries. It is not surprising that some who had gone far down this "verboten" path eventually became frightened and retreated into the most pig-headed variety of Christian fundamentalism. You will find a lot of former hippies in the "Jesus Freak" cadres.<br />
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There is something profoundly frightening to the orthodoxies of higher civilization about the shamistically originated vision quest with drugs. The shaman assumes, and even transmits, certain values that are tribal and ecological, and are tinged, almost inevitably, with anarchy. (Hasan i Sabbah's "Nothing is True / Everything is Permitted", Crowley's notorious "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law / Love is the Law, Love under Will", Abbie Hoffman's "You can't do good unless you feel good" etc.) The tribe is decentralized and radically individualistic (cf., the Cherokee Indian maxim, "no man should be compelled to do that which goes against his heart"). Civilization is centralized and, even in alleged democracies, radically authoritarian. It assumes that every man, every day, should do which goes against his heart, for the benefit of the harmony of the whole. In civilized religions, a confused man goes to a priest for religious advice; what he gets, always, is a messages telling him, one way or another, to conform, to sacrifice his own longings, to be "mature", to adjust. In the tribe, a confused man goes alone to the woods and suffers "sensory deprivation" to induce a peak experience, or just takes a drug, and has his own encounter with the gods, who often tell him the tribal ways have to be changed.<br />
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No; we cannot tolerate that. The individualist shaman or vision-quester has no place in a civilized state or a civilized church. The Catholic Church, shrewder than most, handles this potential troublemaker by guiding him to a monastery where his weird notions will not infect the rest of the faithful. The state has its own monasteries, called jails (or mental institutions, rehabilitation centres etc.) and this is where the messiah usually lands, if he isn't killed outright. Dr. LaBarre's book is full of cases of messiahs who were jailed by the state even though they used no drugs and their doctrines, on the surface, posed no direct threat. it won't do to have new revelations upsetting the equilibrium. For instance, some Polynesians began to believe that hey wouldn't have to work if they became more like Englishmen (who, in their experience, never worked). Logically, then, they acquired some chairs and held afternoon teas. When the English learned about this cult, they suppressed it. Similarly, the American Indian Ghost Dance posed no direct insurrectionary threat, but when the whites learned of it, they destroyed it in a fashion so bloody that even today the name of Wounded Knee, where the last massacre occurred, is still the most bitter phrase in the Indian vocabulary.<br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">Sex & Sin</b><br />
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If the Drug Revolution has one strike against it in its implicit, and then explicit, tribal nature in the highly civilized and centralized American state, it has a second strike against it in that there seems no plausible way of reconciling it with Christianity. Even if Martin Luther can be considered, in a sense, a tribal shaman, recreating the tradition in modified form through vehement personal vision quest (Professer LaBarre considers him as such), Christianity and even Protestant Christianity has remained, willy-nilly, the most authoritarian and bigoted of all world religions.<br />
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(editors note: this was written before much of the rise of the current repressive Muslim regimes, which, in this humble editors opinion, sits on the same level if not a little bit more strict & brutal (Orthodox Monotheism breeds Authoritarianism just look at Israel) ....still we are watching the modern Crusades go on right now....but you must understand that those movements were fostered by very Orthodox Christians in NATO countries who thought that those movements would stifle the Soviet Union....well they certainly succeeded but when they realized they were merely being used..... well you get the big picture....on with the program)<br />
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He who attempts to question or modify any of its dogmas quickly gets into very hot water in any Christian country. There has been one "revelation" and it is enough. He who has new ideas is probably inspired by the Devil, or has been out in the woods taking strange drugs with the witch women.<br />
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if such a heretic admits that he has, indeed, been taking strange drugs, the Christian response is even more vehement, quick and hostile. And, of course, if his teaching involves sexual liberty at all, the historical pattern is reactivated at once, and a new witch hunt is sure to follow.<br />
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This is a peculiarly Christian reaction. The Hindus, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Taoists, all the major religions have had their sexual mystics and have honored them. Every Hindu knows that the Tantrists achieve their mystical visions through sexual intercourse with a beloved partner; the Buddhists, Muslims and Taoists all have similar sects. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans had highly developed cults of hierogamy: ritualized sex magic. Christianity is alone (ed:again i would more accurately say The Orthodox Monotheistic Abrahamic Sects) in thinking that sex is entirely the Devil's business and an offense to God.<br />
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This is a strange doctrine, and almost implies that God and the Devil must have collaborated on the creation of humanity, God working above the belly button and the Devil below. The consequences of the doctrine are even more bizarre than the belief itself. If a man writes a poem to his beloved in a Christian nation, and is too frank about expressing that love, he is in danger of being called "obscene"; throughout most of Christian history, he could be jailed, tortured or even killed. As William Blake wrote in horror:<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Children of the future age</span></div>
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<i>Reading</i><span style="font-style: italic;"> this indignant page</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Know that in a former time</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Love, sweet love, was called a crime</span></div>
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One hundred and fifty years later, in the democratic, allegedly secular, United States of America, Stanley Kubrick's movie <i>A Clockwork Orange</i> has its X-rating (adults only) removed after 30 seconds of nudity are cut out. All the brutalities remain in gory detail. Hating, kicking, stabbing, and all manner of sadism are allowed in movies for Christian (ed: remember use Orthodox Monotheistic Abrahamic Religious Sects/Cults....it's the difference between using the terms global warming or global climate de-stabilization in debate) <u style="font-style: italic;">Only love is vile</u> . It can hardly be a coincidence that such a nation has the odd distinction of being the only country to have dropped atomic bombs on civilian populations, twice, and has surpassed all others in the use of napalm, which reaches 1000 Degrees centigrade on contact with human skin (ed: We can even talk about Radiation Tips & Drones.....among other things....look it up!). <u style="font-style: italic;">Only love is vile. </u>Anything else can be justified by finding a purpose (justice, national honor, the greater good of the greater number), since, evidently, like the Marxists, we now believe that "the end justifies the means". But sex, whatever its purpose, even if used in a religious visionary quest, can ever be justified. <u style="font-style: italic;">Only love is vile</u>- only love is too "obscene" to be treated as an art by people who have turned even Scrabble and crossword puzzles, not to mention skiing or surfing, (ed. see what others you can think of) into arts so complex as to border on religious rites. Only sex remains so dark a matter as to be rushed and fumbled (Kinsey discovered, a generation ago (ed. i guess two or three now), that the average American male reaches orgasm one and one-half minutes after intromission in the vagina) and usually performed in a dark room, so that i can be finished furtively before the sex-hating Jehovah has time to notice what's going on.<br />
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In such a context, psychedelic drugs that slow and magnify the sex act are not going to be greeted with the fervor that Arabs have long had for their beloved hashish. Hardly. The reaction is directly opposite; the users are thrown in jail on the thin pretext that they pose some metaphysical threat to the community, or that they might become so charged up some night that they will charge out of the boudoirs and commit rape on a mass scale. It doesn't matter that such crimes by users of these drugs are virtually impossible to document from police records. (When cases are alleged, as Dr. Fort shows in his book, <i>The Pleasure Seekers,</i> it almost turns out that the perpetrators were not on these drugs but, rather, on cocaine or amphetamines.)<br />
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Of course, the Christian sexual lunacy is not unique. all crisis cults, without exception, contain bizarre elements, the reflection of the time of stress and calamity in which they were born. Consider the South Pacific imitation English tea ceremony mentioned earlier, or the prayer wheels of the Tibetans, or the snake-handling cults in the American South; man is a strange animal when he seeks to attract the attention of his gods, and has tried every eccentricity (except possibly, praying in pig-Latin while standing on his head (ed. tis been done)) to convince them that his plight is terrible and merits their urgent attention. The early Christian denial of sexual needs was such a heroic attempt to find a gimmick that would bemuse or bamboozle the deity, and its closest parallel, probably, is the Plains Indian habit of cutting off a finger when a beloved person dies. Little children do equally peculiar things to attract their earthly father's attention for a while.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Heart of the Matter</b></span></div>
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But let us, as the Chinese say, draw our chairs closer to the fire and examine what we've been talking about.<br />
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Man <i>needs</i> dreams, as recent sleep research has well-documented. If you wake people up each time they start to dream (which is revealed by their rapid eye movements, which has led scientists to speak of REM sleep, meaning sleep with rapid eye movements and dreams) they will, within a few nights, become neurotic, irritable and slightly paranoid. No reputable researcher has continued this experiment for more than a few nights, because the evidence indicates real risk that the subjects might actually go totally mad. It doesn't matter how much sleep they have had; if they aren't able to dream, the same neurotic and near-psychotic behavior will appear.<br />
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By the same token, it is reasonable to suggest that perhaps people really do need religious/spiritual experiences, whatever such experiences consist of. It is well-established, in LaBarre's <i>Ghost Dance, </i>that a large number of people <i>think </i>they need such experiences, and actively seek after them, whenever society faces a crisis that it cannot rationally understand. An earthquake alone will not necessarily trigger such a response, because an earthquake can be explained, more or less, within some traditional framework of ideas. But when the gods are mocked by missionaries of false and foreign gods, and take no revenge; when the sacred taboos are violated on all sides, and the gods still do not respond; when military defeats and other disasters occur in this perplexing context; when a man's children are sold into slavery or his wife forcibly enwhored by the conquerors- then, some extraordinary explanation is needed, and it is at this point in time that the vision quest begins.<br />
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Whether induced by drugs or by fasting, by sensory deprivation or by self-torture, by yoga or by ritual dancing. A marvelous energy is tapped-the Mana of the Polynesians, Wakan of the Aboriginals, Prana of the Hindus, Kundalini of the Tantrists, Lung of the Tibetans, Ch'i of the Daoists (Aristotle's "Energia"?, Ibn Sina's "Anima Mundi"? Galvani's " Life Force"?Goethe's "Gestaltung"? Von Reichenbach's "Odic Force"? Steiner's "Aetheric Force"? McDougall's "Hormic Energy"? Bergson's "Elan Vital"? Gurtwitsch's "Mitogenetic Ray"? Mesmer's "animal magnetism"? Freud's "libido"? Reich's "orgone"? Grischenko's "Bioplasma"? Margenau's "Quasi-Electrostatic Field"? Sheldrake's "Morphic Resonance"? Puharich's "Psi Plasma"? Muses' "Noetic Energy"? Bio-Electricity? The Force?) The tribal spirits appear- sometimes the Father God, sometimes the Mother Goddess. And in the majority of cases, the subject undergoes a strange experience of death/rebirth in which he discovers that he is not only himself but also God (or, in the Hindu-Buddhist tradition, that he is the whole universe). Finally, and most distressingly, some verbal formulas are communicated to him, and he brings these back- to start a new cult, to become enshrined as dogma, to blind and cripple the minds of generations to come. Fortunately, this last and most negative result is conspicuously missing in a few religions, such as Zen Buddhism; and many of the heretics within our own religions, such as Sufis within the Muslim tradition, The Kabbalists within the Jewish tradition and figures like Boehme and Blake in the Christian world, also lack this characteristic. Such men, mercifully, did not establish new dogmas and even actively encouraged others to seek their own visions and find their own truths.<br />
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What is going on in such highly unusual "unification experiences"? Is it all a mental spasm, a kind of temporary lunacy? This is a tempting answer, and it is what most people assume about <i>all messiahs.....</i><u style="font-style: italic;">except the one that they themselves worship.</u> It is hardly the whole answer, however. As R.M. Bucke documents in his <i>Cosmic Consciousness</i>, many of the visionaries were not insane; some even managed to look at the experience with scientific skepticism, while admitting that it had altered and enlarged their consciousness. (Conspicuous modern examples of a rationalistic attitude preserved even after such a mystic experience are Bucke himself and Dr. John Lilly.)<br />
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The explanation- or <i>an </i>explanation- probably lie in cybernetics.<br />
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<i>Life is one, but consciousness is divided. </i>That is, all of our unconscious bodily functions, such as breathing, digestion, the beating of our hearts, the biochemistry of our metabolism, and so on, are part of a seamless web that does, indeed, include the whole universe. More locally, we are celles in an explosion of protoplasm on this planet that began 3 billion years ago. (this is the key to Dr. Leary's cryptic epigram, "Your body is 3 billion years old.") The "body of Buddha", as Buddhists call it, is, at any moment, in cybernetic contact with each of it parts. This does not involve anything spooky or metaphysical; what I have in mind can be illustrated by the experience of Dr. William Ross Ashby, who tried to build an analog computer that would be a model of a generalized animal organism. Dr. Ashby found that such a machine could no more be designed than one could divide by zero in mathematics. it cannot be designed because the <i>feedbacks,</i> the information flow channels, are not all inside the animal; many are in "the environment". Dr. Ashby ended by designing his "homeostat", widely used in biology and cybernetics classes. This is not a model of an animal; it is a model of an-animal-in-an-environment.<br />
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It seems that there is no unit-animal-which can be scientifically used to account for the facts known to modern cyberneticists. The only unit that can be used is animal-in-environment. (This is entirely parallel to Einstein's discovery that there is no "time" or "space" that physicist can measure, but only a "space-time event" which is the unit in modern physics.)<br />
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What I am suggesting is that the mystics got there before Dr. Ashby, that the "unification" with God or the universe mentioned in all religious literature and in reports of acid trippers and some pot or hashish smokers, is precisely the shift of attention from the conscious ego to the previously unconscious organism-environment feedback network. Does this seem an extravagant thought? All mystics have talked about the "unreality" of the ego; are they not trying to say exactly what Dr. Ashby has said? Many speak also, for that matter, of the unreality of space and time, and Einstein was modest enough to acknowledge that they seemed to be talking about the same facts he had noted mathematically. <i>You are part of something larger than yourself, something which space and time do not restrict </i>is what every mystic, in essence, tries to tell us, and this is just what Dr. Ashby's homeostat illustrates.</div>
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Why should this discovery be made by men under stress? The answer is obvious. <i>Life is one, but consciousness is divided. </i>It is the stress of the divided consciousness that every visionary is seeking to heal; what bothers him is not an individual earthquake or plague but a failure of traditional ideas, held by his conscious mind, to account for his tragic experience and observations. If the answer existed within the conscious ego, the quest would never have begun. The answer is found in those areas that were previously <i>un</i>conscious, those areas where the body links and joins other bodies and the total energy continuum of life and ecology.<br />
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In this connection, the singular drug experience of the Russian mystic Ouspensky is interesting. Aware that William James and others who had explored the mystic trance through nitrous oxide could not find words for their trip when they go back, Ouspensky kept a pencil and pad with him as he sniffed the gas. In ecstasy, as he whirled through the cosmos of his inner space, he scribbled desperately on the paper, trying to tie down what he was learning. When he came back to normal, the paper said, "<i>Think in other categories</i>". The experience of beyond ego was still unspeakable, but he at least had the key to <i>why </i>it is unspeakable. Our usual categories of thought- <i>animal </i>separate from <i>environment, space</i> separate from <i>time, </i>etc.- keep us from being able to talk about the unification experience in which all are "one".(0?=2!)<br />
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This is not a reification of the "one": I do not dare assert that the "one" is actually a conscious mind in the same way that each of us is a conscious mind. It is found through the unconscious, and unconscious it probably is in essence. I can understand why many, bowled over by this experience, call it "God", but I still feel that all <i>ideas</i> of God are only symbols of the experience itself. Certainly, this is true in the more anthropomorphic and less transcendental visions, when a very man-like god or woman-like goddess appears.<br />
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Since the crisis in Christian (ed. go back & say it with me, Orthodox Monotheistic Abrahamic Sects/Cults) culture is mainly sexual, we should not be surprised that sexual elements are very prominent in the unconscious channels opened by the Drug Revolution. These channels are a traditional part of religion outside Christianity*, anyways; but inside Christianity they were inevitable fissures, fated to erupt whenever the taboos of ego and superego became sufficiently weakened to allow unconscious material to flow into consciousness.</div>
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*(Ed. Aside: This was written in the early 70's (although tis quite surprising how relevant it still is).....& of course as we will see in the text there is a certain naivete in regards to the Future which happens when you read any Optimistic Futurist from previous bygone eras so be prepared for some insight & a chuckle......but before that I must make another pertinent point. Of course we still see much of this stigma against Sex in our era but with the passing of a generation, we now see the general loosening up & relaxation of these taboos in the Western World.....However the Sexual Revolution has hit another snag.....The commodification of Sex itself into another Consumerist function of our modern State Capitalism. Not that sex hasn't been used for advertising titillation for quite some time, in at least some form or another; it's now become an end in & of itself, a commodity to be bought & sold (quantity over quality), or even an addictive drug based solely on the Physical aspect (Am I fuckable? Are my Cock/Tits/Ass proper? How do I work it? etc.) & Culture Status orientated Shlock Romantics. These high unreasonable expectations start imposing idealized images/roles onto oneself & others totally disrupting the spontaneity which leads to whole new Inhibitions (& neurosis) of the Sexual Instinct focused primarily on these very Fundamental Materialist goals, typically void of any substantial meaning. Instead one should make it one of the most beautiful magical art forms that it really IS. Sex should be one of the most essential tools for rapture (stop waiting for the damn thing, it's right in front of you, just reach out & grab it!) on the integrative path to making closer richer connections & seeking greater realizations for the highest individuation & liberation .....Not that this critique applies across the board. But eh, with every revolution, you gotta expect some snags & counter revolutions.....nothing ever ends.... still put down the porn (or find some fucking good pornography (remember it is an artform)....not that by the numbers revamped stereotype bullshit) loosen up, drop the forced awkward "ethics", open up &explore this wide world of individuals with yr. heart open (& some head smarts) & truly.... GO FORTH & FIND LOVE (you might be surprised who or what you find.......love is the law, love under will....don't lust for results......don't forget to have fun....time to play)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Last Straw</b></span></div>
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None of these paradoxes and perplexities are going to go away. The Drug Revolution is still escalating and accelerating; the future will be much wilder and hairier than in the immediate past.<br />
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In the Evans-Kline anthology of scientific papers, <i>Psychotropic Drugs in the Year 2000, </i>Nathan S. Kline, M.D., proposes that within 30 years we will almost certainly have drugs that will:</div>
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<li>Prolong childhood and shorten adolescence</li>
<li>Reduce the need for sleep</li>
<li>Provide safe, short acting intoxicants</li>
<li>Regulate sexual responses</li>
<li>Control aggression</li>
<li>Mediate nutrition, metabolism and physical growth</li>
<li>Increase or decrease alertness or relaxation</li>
<li>Prolong or shorten memory</li>
<li>Induce or prevent learning</li>
<li>Produce or discontinue transference (the patient's emotional involvement with the therapist in psychiatry)</li>
<li>Provoke or relieve guilt</li>
<li>Foster or terminate mothering behavior </li>
<li>Shorten or extend experienced time</li>
<li>Create conditions novelty or familiarity</li>
<li>Deepen our awareness of beauty and our sense of awe</li>
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None of these predictions are irresponsible moonshine. Today's researchers have sufficient knowledge about the physiology of each of these responses to understand what sort o chemical changes in the brain will cause these changes in behavior. Some responses-for instance, fear and orgasm- have already been created in animals by electrical stimulation of the brain.</div>
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In the same book, Wayne O. Evans indicates that <i>real</i> aphrodisiacs will probably be available by the year 2000, also. That is, it will not only be possible to enhance a sexual experience, but to provoke one (as many already claim is sometimes done by cannabis or LSD). It finally appeared by 1998 and was called Viagra.<br />
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How will these drugs be handled when they appear? Recent history gives us little cause to hope that our society will treat them rationally. The sex drugs, almost certainly, will be declared illegal after a few years of research (like LSD) and reappear immediately in diluted and unsafe form on the black market. I cannot conceive of a time within 30 years when Americans will be allowed to buy sexually stimulating drugs legally, which means that I can only conceive of them appearing in the underground, with every user wondering if he or she is getting the product advertised or just the reject from some entrepreneur's bathtub mescaline distillery. There probably will be some memorably bad trips in those years.<br />
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And what of the drugs that "foster or terminate mothering behavior"? We can imagine how the Reverend Jerry Falwell would like to see them used, and the far different ways that the Radical Feminist movement would prefer to use them; can we imagine a reasonable compromise that would reconcile this conflict? Or do we have to admit that one drug (fostering maternal impulses) would be legal and the other, again, would be on the black market, like the abortifacient of yore?<br />
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The drugs that provoke guilt....will the police in some countries slip them to suspects, as they have already done with scopolamine? If, perchance, such drugs turn out to be, like LSD, tasteless, colorless, and odorless. will any suspect in custody ever dare to eat a meal? (This is not science fiction; these are very real possibilities.)<br />
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And what government office do we trust enough to give sole custody of drugs that control aggression, decrease alertness, prevent learning or prolong childhood?<br />
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Dr. Timothy Leary made the second most important scientific-political decision of the 20th century (the first was Einstein's decision to help the United States acquire an atomic bomb) (the third, arguably, was the making the World Wide Web Public). Whether Leary's decision was right or wrong (it can be debated as endlessly as Einstein's), it has markedly changed the emotional and intellectual climate of our time. he decided that LSD was too important to be monopolized by any government, or any scientific committee, or any other elite; that it should be available to all. Ten years later, we all know the risks involved in that libertarian choice (and Leary also undoubtedly knows the personal risk to himself better than he did when he started). With some of the desiderata of a showman, and some of a shaman, with great good humor and occasional flares of grandiosity, Leary set out to guarantee that, whatever action the government took, a black market would be created where acid would be available to all. (The same underworld or underground networks later helped him get out of the country when he broke jail.)<br />
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It is doubtful that Leary will be the only scientist to make such a decision and take the consequences. his famous Two Commandments apply to virtually all the new drugs we are discussing</div>
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<li>Thou shalt not force thy neighbor to alter his consciousness</li>
<li>Thou shalt not prevent thy neighbor from altering his consciousness</li>
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The government, which violates the second of these commandments every day, is now beginning to violate the first, forcing students in some grammar schools to take Ritalin (among other things....), an amphetamine-like drug that quiets unruly children but may have side effects not yet known. It is likely, given the general character of governments, that similar violations will multiply beyond all our guesses when bureaucrats discover that they have such delightful new toys as drugs that will reduce whole populations to perpetual childhood, decrease their aggressive rebelliousness, stunt their alertness and generally turn them into the drones described by Aldous Huxley in his <i>Brave New World. </i>The heretic of the 21st Century might be, not a man who takes a drug the government forbids, but a man who refuses a drug the government commands. </div>
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Robert Anton Wilson - 1973<br />
Edited by Moo'Ahh'Doo</div>Number Two Collectivehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534846294051299740noreply@blogger.com0