"Memories, Dreams, Reflections" Vintage Books Edition, April 1989
I asked myself: "Whence comes such a dream?" Till then I had taken it for granted that such dreams were sent directly by God. But now I had imbibed so much epistemology that doubts assailed me. One might say, for instance, that my insight had been slowly ripening for a long time and had then suddenly broken through in a dream. And that, indeed, is what had happened. But this explanation is merely a description. The real question was why this process took place and why it broke through into consciousness. Consciously I had done nothing to promote any such development; on the contrary, my sympathies were on the other side. Something must therefore have been at work behind the scenes, some intelligence, at any rate something more intelligent than myself.
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A cool paragraph I was reading before turning out the light. Back to bed....
"Memories, Dreams, Reflections" Vintage Books Edition, April 1989
More Jung tripe:
Looking back, I now see how very much my development as a child anticipated future events and paved the way for modes of adaptation to my father's religious collapse as well as to the shattering revelation of the world as we see it today--a revelation which had not taken shape from one day to the next, but had cast its shadows long in advance. Although we human beings have our own personal life, we are yet in large measure the representatives, the victims and promoters of a collective spirit whose years are counted in centuries. We can well think all our lives long that we are following our own noses, and may never discover that we are, for the most part, supernumeraries on the stage of the world theater. There are factors which, although we do not know them, nevertheless influence our lives, the more so if they are unconscious. thust at least a part of our being lives in the centuries--that part which, for my private use, I have designated "No. 2" That it is not an individual curiosity is proved by the religion of the West, which expressly applies itself to this inner man and for two thousand years has earnestly tried to bring him to the knowledge of our surface consciousness with its personalistic preoccupations: "Non foras ire, in interiore homine habitat veritas" (Go not outside; truth dwells in the inner man).
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Don't mind me, just practicing my typing....
Hmmm...I'm just going to turn this thread into random quotes that strike me while I'm reading. I hope no one minds.
Quote:
Originally Posted by C. G. Jung
"Memories, Dreams, Reflections" Vintage Books Edition, April 1989
"...The arch sin of faith, it seemed to me, was that it forestalled experience...."
While recalling his father:
"Once upon a time he too had been an enthusiastic student in his first year, as I was now; the world had opened out for him, as it was doing for me; the infinite treasures of knowledge had spread before him, as now before me. How can it have happened that everything was blighted for him, had turned to sourness and bitterness? I found no answer, or too many."
Alright, I'm just going to bury these stoner thoughts in this thread vs. creating a new one.
More ravings
So we all sit there...bathed in the monitor light in a darkened room. Those more pressing thoughts pushed to the back of our consciousness as we stare into the worlds of others out there on the vast, bodiless internet. I spend more than enough time on here. Waaayyyyy too much time. And yet I realize that there's an interesting benefit that grows so naturally out of this technological wasteland of circuits and wires, of electricity and binary.
We all hide, within ourselves, those other facets of our personality. Our shadows. Shadows that may not see the light of everday, physical life but are barricaded in and wanting out. Here amongst the journals and forums, spreading through many gigabytes of hardrive space across this planet, we are able to turn those shadows to the light and let the hidden facets of our personality...breath.
Lord knows, I played Everquest for 2 years, I've learned something about myself and my interaction with other people. We can sumberge ourselves safely into an environment that allows us to nurture and to grow. We may enact our bolder, more defiant side in our online mannerisms. Where we are insecure about our sexuality we can open up and dip into the waters of sin we normally do not allow ourselves. In Everquest I played a northern barbarian shaman. The name Tantobourne was first given to this character, my avatar. In him I was able to express things about myself I dared not express in reality. I learned to be bold without fear of repercussion. I could leap off a cliff and imagine the exhilaration. I could defeat any evil and obtain any treasure. I could be what I am not.
It's all about games. A friend of mine is obsessed with Playstation racing games to the point where it drives me nuts to hear about it (uh...no pun intended there). We are all obsessive , just like him. We all have a need to play the hero or the stranded maiden. We all want to be the villain or the mighty diety. We seek out ways to "empower" ourselves, however vainly. We drift into the worlds of television and movie in order for ourselves to "feel" just for a moment. Assurances.
Even in our everyday relationships we seek out people that we are able to enact our fantasy's with...more games. Some beautiful, some sorrowful, others bitter and angry and even horrible. We surround ourselves with people that cater to our needs just as we do unto them. I'm almost tempted to think that a large number of people find it somewhat easier to enact their repressed desires and needs through this medium that is the internet. A medium that provides a cloak of mystery and security.
It is addictive. Like any drug, we are allowed to chase the high. From peak to trough, sobriety to momentary ecstasy. It is a tool. It is the next step in evolution. It's an opportunity to not only aid ourselves in personal growth. It is also a gaping hole that we may run into, away from our insecurities and fears. I still haven't settled on which of the two descriptions I fall under. I am ever in flux.
...and as an orbiting thought: "What do you stand to Gain by lying to yourself?" Rather the Question should be , "What do you stand to Lose?"
-Tant
Last edited by Tantobourne; 07-25-2003 at 12:09 AM..
Reason: because this is where my life has led me. narf!
The teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui way of knowledge
"A Man goes to knowlede as he goes to war, wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps"
I asked him why was it so and he said that when a man has fulfilled those four requisites there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his acts lose the blundering quality of a fool's acts. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that
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The teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui way of knowledge
...He asked me to remember the time I had tried to find my spot, and how I wanted to find it without doing any work because I had expected him to hand out all the information. I f he had done so, he said, I would never have learned...If, however, he had told me where it was, I would never have had the confidence needed to claim it as true knowledge. Thus, knowledge was indeed power.
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And to the forum condition check I say:
"...Climb on my six inches and go down on Maynard's dick..."
Last edited by Tantobourne; 07-27-2003 at 01:13 PM..
From " A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism - Gareth Knight - Red Wheel/Weiser,
"...The great majority of humanity are ruled by their external circumstances, but the superior man is he who works out his own direction and then changes his environment, or his reaction to it, accordingly. He is a amster of his destiny..."
GNOTHI SEAUTON
"...But words are the data upon which the rational mind works and the only means of communication of such things in words is by analogy, allegory and symbols..."
It is a tacit taboo to express, with seeming audacity, any new religion or similar construct. If the path has not already been struck and the "way" already lit, it more often than not is met with some form of scorn.
This is not to say that pre-existing schools of thought & religion are without value, obviously. Even in the most poorly constructed paradigm lies a gift and a lesson.
So, like a kite, give slack and release some measured caution to the wind. Know how much length you have and maintaina firm grasp on the spool. For even in such endeavours you stand to loose your tether and find yourself eternally drifting before eventually crashing down.
In part I am on a journey in search of my own religion. This is a path adorned with the architecture of man and underlying that, nature.
"...I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die...." - Roy Batty - Bladerunner
And as this journey of my senses unravels, wrapped within my introverted shell, the pieces are coming together.
It is a deep seated understanding that skirts the languages of man. Something elusively obvious within the light of day.
My beliefs are a cobbled together raft on an unforgiving sea. I have taken tidbits of meaning from countless sources of information: religious texts, cultural history, drug induced musings and their subsequent reflections, heavy and light banter amonst friends as well as the movement of the wind through the trees. And like a summer breeze moving through me, or like the crash of the surf at my feet, I can only smile.
It is entriely to easy to shoot the messenger and leave the matter lay than to consider the message and its portent.
While listening to Jim Morrison's - An American Prayer album repeating on winamp ...
The Internet is a chapter in the pages of new social psychology. A means that people grow acustomed to using in order to satiate their needs and insecurities. It's gratuitous stroking and flaming with the convenience of not having to physically interact in the exchange. It's self-implied fantasy that may likely be so far removed from the actual reality. The denizens of civilization are more apt to court self-wrought and bred-into fantasy rather than face the truth of the matter. Specifically in mind is this LiveJournal world I've recently been sucked into. I won't even go into the fantasy chat rooms of MMORPG's like Everquest or the like.
So amidst this all rises the Internet, a sort of gateway into the illuminations of connected humanity as well as into the dark depths of our collective shadow. This is a place where we drift through and collide with others. We interact at a maddening and addictive pace. The older generations are slipping by, a majority of them that see this technology as a bizarre yet fascinating or repulsive oddity that they may never fully grasp.
Then there is the younger generation, people like myself that were born into the rise of technology just as integrated chips and computers were relpacing those fancy HP Calculators that read magnetic strip information. I drifted into the computer world when there were only text games and monstrous blocky graphics. I passed through the Commodore 64s, the Ataris and Intellivison game consoles.
And still yet there is a generation and a half emerging to replace me. A generation that has been born into the computing age and are almost connected to the Internet at birth like an umbilical cord to their Internet-active parents. A mass of youth that cannot conceive of being without this convenience. It is our evolution that is emerging as this mad, frantic push of technology sustains us. People might not readily see it but this progressive, conscious reality is changing humanity as a whole. We are so enmeshed in our daily interactions that the larger effect goes unnoticed, we are smaller ripples drifting outwards and merging into the larger ones farther out. We are becoming a memory as each moment passes.
Where will this internet take us? We are on rapid ascension to a great unknown and yet I fear that our petty needs will tear down everything that civilization has built so far. Our group neglect of spiritual matters is a cancer that eats this society from the inside. A cancer that is feasting at a ravenous pace and threatens to surpass our vigorous & recent growth. There are those out there that directly feed this cancer and encites its growth in the people that they hold govern over. There is a war of light and dark going on. Each and every one of us is an oscillating spectrum of color shimmering through shades between either black or white. As we draw near each other our spectrums react like magnets and polarity. Those people that know how and have the ability to manipulate the collective unconsciousness drive our destiny. Are you one of those people?
So the internet can make us or break us. We can take this amazing tool and ply it to our deeper needs or we can let it turn into a market driven machine that sells instant gratification of every petty need and want. It's the age old adage of eat or be eaten. Does humanity's collective cancer consume us? Or do we consume it?
-Tant
Last edited by Tantobourne; 08-14-2003 at 07:39 AM..
I've noticed, or perhaps fancied, a "cycle within years" that my consciousness fluxes to. It is a cycle of spirituality, growth, and living. It is about this moment. I look back on that which is behind me and sift for patterns and clues to some imagined mystery. Before me is a gaping hole of the great unknown and I am frantically grasping at pieces of the past to bridge this chasm of the future.
There are moments in my life, made up of months, where I spiritually feast and take in any bit of meaning that can to sustain my journey. In a sense I am pushing the envelop and raising the ceiling of my consciousness in order to make room for my growth. This spiritual push leaves in its wake a gap that I may continue to grow into and thus fill with the day to day moments of living and experience. And when again I have grown to bursting I must, through the course of my life, readjust the ceiling so that I can continue to grow under the threat of suffocation.
It is a concept that I now apply to society: the collective spirituality and growth, the ritual of raising the ceiling, the passion of living. I fit this template onto those people that I know and in a way, weakly gauge the rest of humanity by it.
So what are your cycles? Outside of menstrual for you women out there. Have you lived a long enough life to look back at the pool of fading memory and filter through its contents and meanings? Have you come face to face with that precipice of the future? How do you face it? What is the method to your madness? Maybe in your words I might find some comfort for myself.
Parts of your thoughts on the internet's effects on successive generations resonated.
I was having a conversation the other day, lammenting the loss of oral history. I am not talking about rumours/myths/legends (the bible?) but the personal history each of us has with the past. It has faded to the point that a lot of people do not even know their family history.
Where once 2-3 generations would sit together and break bread, converse, tell stories, share remembrances. Now we have constant technological interferece. Where a grandfather, his son, and his son's son would once spend time together after say- a holiday meal, learning from each other, learning about each other - now they learn what the commentators have to say about the football game they are watching.
How does this tie in? one word -depersonalization This also ties in to a complaint thread of mine you answered the other day. The ME thread. Your response stating that at the age of 5 you were somewhat embarrassed about not sharing a kit kat w/ a hungry street woman. I was surprised at such an honest answer. But the thing is all childeren are very much 'me' oriented clinging to those values as an adult is less forgiving. It is too easy these days to isolate oneself. We don't have to be in a snow-bound cabin in the rockies eeking out existance to be very far removed from society. Now people seem to preferr they're interaction faceless, thank you very much. And the internet, not the telephone, has impacted this to a staggering degree
I also have two questions.
Do you sleep? At all? And what does Tantobourne mean?
Also…when you speak of spiritual growth and raising your personal ceiling in order to make room. How does one accomplish that without getting rid of stuff? I'm working w/ the metaphor here. How do you go about raising your 'ceiling'?
I understand what you mean by depersonalization. Christ, look where we have all been forced to go for real, honest communication (are we finding it)? I am constantly on the hunt for someone out there who will fucking listen, who can stand being looked in the eyes and told things that may very well change their beingness. But they cannot handle it. This is why: there is a lot more communication going on than just the verbal type when two people are interacting. People know that you are seeing them without their fig leaf covering their nakedness. People know you are seeing them, wounds and all. They know that they cannot hide. It is too easy to turn on the TV, or roll a doobie, or do a keg stand. These things are much more appealing, much safer, than being exposed, and maybe, just maybe, learning something and loving someone.
To me, "raising the ceiling" simply means making the unknown known and all that that implies. Or, making the unwholesome whole. It means going back and undoing all of those things that have clipped our beingness in some manner. You asked about getting rid of stuff? I believe there are many, many things within us that must be jettisoned, because first of all there is a lot within us that is not coming from us. Other people's opinion, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, ideas, etc.
JT- Two things jump out with your post.[list]Vulnerability[*]Validitiy[/list]
If finding and experiencing love are part of a fulfilled happy life you must make yourself vulnerable to the other person. Faith and trust. The risk is quite high. If you are wrong, if you make a bad choice and expose your soft white underbelly you risk emotional catastrophe. But we do it again and again don't we? And if lucky get it right. Maynard's focus on vulnerability. His use of the finger/knuckle/shoulder imagery illustrates this to a potent degree.
Validity - What we must unlearn to create room for more valid experience. The 'shedding skin' picking at scabs thing. It is difficult to shine that searchlight introspectivly by yourself, and not come away even more fucked up. But---if you have secured that vulnerable loving relationship each step after is less weighted.
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Originally Posted by trippletaurus
I also have two questions.
Do you sleep? At all? And what does Tantobourne mean?
Also…when you speak of spiritual growth and raising your personal ceiling in order to make room. How does one accomplish that without getting rid of stuff? I'm working w/ the metaphor here. How do you go about raising your 'ceiling'?
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1. Yes, I slept off my hangover almost all day, yesterday.
2. It has no meaning, it's a made up name I used for online gaming. The other name I use, Dotar Sojat, is a character from a Burrough's series.
3. Regarding the ceiling. I don't know. This thread is merely here so I can 'think out loud'. But here's some more ramblings:
Before raising my 'ceiling' I assimilate what I've already consumed. I sift through the information of my life, take what works for me and discard the rest. At some point, as JTCrace mentioned, we jettison that which isn't used. No worries that what we get rid of might later on have some use. Hopefully we can still go back into the 'archives' and re-sift through what's discarded and recycle the scraps.
Once we've assimilated the information and hopefully gleaned from it what we might call the 'wisdom' we're fortified to go back out and push the confines of our ceiling higher. We go out and take in yet more information in bucket loads or teaspoonfuls, like a miner panning for gold in a riverbed. Wash, rinse, repeat.
The sources of information are everywhere: the bum on the street holding his hand out for a quarter, the couple bitching in the grocery store, the article in the back of Hustler, a bumper sticker on a passing car, the local church or just talk amongst friends. Some with value, others with very little. The process of 'living' and 'experience' should help one sort out what they can use vs. what's rubbish. 'Living' is the proving grounds of your convictions. You take what you put together as a belief and go out into the field of life and test it out. Sometimes you come back beat to shit, black and blue, and other times you come back scarred but full of the moment.
As we progress in the cycles we hopefully add to the growing picture of understanding. Nothing is set in stone. I don't want to fool myself with thinking that everything that I've built my beliefs on is the one and only truth. To a degree, I'm willing to rip apart this construct of consciousness that I've smooshed together and try a different approach. There are certain groups out there as well as individuals that are not willing to do such a thing. I have a tendency to believe that that rigid 'closed mind' approach condemns any good intentioned causes they might broadcast.
Again, I'm just thinking out loud here. Feel free to rip apart or spin off of the ramblings.
Last edited by Tantobourne; 08-14-2003 at 10:24 PM..
This is just more of the previous shite. Something you can click on by in mad search for a good thread to read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trippletaurus
I'm working w/ the metaphor here. How do you go about raising your 'ceiling'? .
In light of the internet in the other post that you referred to, I'll use the online games of Warcraft or Starcraft as examples. Both games pit you as a gatherer of resources and a builder of your military to conquer whoever is on the map out to do the same thing. Frighteningly enough, my greater look on life is reflected in how I play those games. Each player on the map has their own strategy with, bear in mind, is to consume the whole of the map and taking down opposition that stand in the way of that goal.
I am a 'horder': one who is too busy gathering resources and building up the foundation. As the game progresses I'm deeply aware that I need to shift the focus off of my buildup with the risk of getting blitz'd by the opponent. So I start to send out troops, sloppily deployed with the mentality of taking by sheer mass, the opponent and their resources. If, during my buildup of base forces, the opponent comes in and attacks me, I'm usually fortunate enough to stave off their attack but at a drastic cost of personnel. My dramatic flaw is that I am all to aware (or think that I am but haven't a clue) of just exactly how fucked I am at that moment, if I do not change my approach. So there are times when I do muster up a good force of cutthroats and scallywags and send them out at my bidding to smother the opposition by sheer number. But more often than not, I spend too much time fortifying myself for the 'right moment' rather than going out and 'living' to test my ideas. Sometimes I win and when I win, I win big; but most of the time I lose and chalk it up as another 'good try'.
You get tired of the 'good tries' after a while. A more skilled person, be it inborn or derived from their own depth of 'living' might not notice the 10 foot speedbumps I normally go over in my life. They might glide right over it, unaware. So in the game, my approach could use some polish. I'm content with that. My 'hording' tendencies in the cycles that I mentioned earlier are slowly changing. I'm painfully reaching out and deploying my troops; trying to break my vicious cycle. I'm determined to 'live' my convictions. My approach may be sloppy but through repetition I'm steadying the variation down to the middle line and the fine hum. These past few months has been steeped in the contemplation of what I've horded. When my subconscious mind has digested the content then the connections, or the bridges, between what's stewing inside of me and my conscious-self will snap into place. An epihpany in the form of a dorky lightbulb above my head will flicker on and I'll know that it's time to move my forces out and push the expanses of my life. To go out and reconnoiter, gather information and bring it back for analysis.
I'm slowly learning to swim, I suppose. To not fight it but to ride it. It's what we're all doing in our own way. Looking back up at all the shit I just wrote, I think I over-complicate the matter, but I love to pick scabs.
So tripletauras, I didn't have a good explanation for you when I set out to write this stuff. If you read it, I pity you but if you get something out of it, share the wealth.
So we're all familiar with the 'pick a scab' metaphor, right? Well I'm going to take it and run with it for a few paragraphs.
Relationships are the delicate dance of scab picking. Those of us that are even a shade compulsive may have found themselves picking random scabs, as kids. If we weren't on of them than we were at least witness to the fat kid in choir class that insisted on picking his freshly crusted strawberry and wiping the blood on the person next to him. No? Perhaps not then...
Some people are more than content to let the scab go its natural course. Other people go through degrees of obsession: minor flake picking to full on, flesh rending, crater bombed pits of screaming skin and oozing fluids. *whew* that was a little too much. With each person that we interact with we go through a period of acquaintance. We 'feel' each other out and push each other to get a reading on their tendencies. How we treat that period of introduction is much like how we might treat a scab.
So as you peruse the forums of life imagine people as big fucking scabs. And as you interact you are peeling each relationship away in degrees. Some more so than others.
And with that I leave you with what I just now realized might be my epitaph:
Principal: "...Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul..."
How we process all the gazillion pieces of minutiae in the brain when first meeting someone. A lot more is revealed about ourselves than the person in front of us.
Admittedly I never thought about it quite that way before. And we seldom present ourselves in quite the same way from person to person either, do we? I am thinking that a whole lot of that stems from our desire for acceptance. How strong it is. A phsyc major will tell you that (need for acceptance) is all about mom & dad. How much positive reinforcement was delivered via the regurgitated worm into to gaping beak. Emotional sustinance.
I believe that each individual has varying needs as far as head stroaking is concerned.From birth. Some people just naturally need more than others. External influence is a part of it, sure. But not to the degree some people think.
I have been frustrated with myself about this. I adjust like a cameleon to people and situations. I haven't figured out why I do this. I want one diffinitive answer and there are many answers. The need for acceptance is strong obviously, so why am I such a shit? The desire to give people what they want, make 'um happy is also very strong. So why am I so self absorbed? This introspective shit can really be a pain in the ass.
I really enjoy your posts, and no, I'm not saying that to give acceptance. I joined TDN pretty early… got bored…came back when APC & PLC were rumored to be touring because I thought things would get more interesting. In general they have.
Don't mind me trippletaurus, I'm just dumping off some thoughts here so I don't forget'em.
Random snippets from a Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight:
...It must always be rememberd that it is a Tree of Life and not a Framewokr of Mentality. Mere mental juggling with symbolism will lead nowhere, it has to be made a part of one by mediation, contemplation...The implications of the symbolism, as well as being considered by the mind, mustr be felt in the heart, groped for by the aspirations, embedded in the viscera almost. The Tree of Life is not merely a lifetime's study, it is a way of life.
In view of this it will be plain that any so-called 'objective' study of the Tree of Life would be, if not impossible, certainly of little consequence. The remarks on the attributons throught this book then must be taken, not as an attempt at logical proofs to the rational mind, but as the often unclassified results of practical experience, including great chunks of symbolism which have not been fully explored, and also tentative intutitions of further possibilities. The implications of the Tree of Life are so vast that no definitive treatise is possible...
...In view of this, nothing which appears within these pages should be taken as authoritative. The only real authority rests within oneself, and it has to be searched for "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall b eopened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth..." And it is perhaps not always realised that the giving of what is asked, and the revealing of what is sought, and the opening of the Way it is deisred to tread, is done by the same being that does the asking, the seeking, and the knocking-to wit, oneself...
...There are other angels that ensoul the essence of beauty in the various forms of art, whether music, painting, sculpture, poetry or drama. If these arts really touch the higher levels they bring down a great amount of Angelic force which intensifies a hundrefold the appeal to the hearer or onlooker. Ready-built man-made forms for these are, for example, the Nine Muses...
...Where Angels speak or send messages to man, they do not exactly send a message in language, but they impress the idea or the meaning of the message very strongly on the mind of the recipient and his subconscious mind supplies appropriate words...
...Man's Path is one of the equilibrium between the opposites, forging the pattern of his humanity...
...The Mundane Chakras are, for the most part, planetary attributions, but the astrological forces associated with the planets are properly allocated to the Paths between the Sephiroth, which are psychological states, microcosmic, as opposed to the Sephiroth themselves which are primarily Universal or Macrocosmic...
...What is implied by the Mundane Charka is that each of the Sephiroth has some resemblance to the Divine Plan behind certain planets or astronomical forces. The writers of science fiction speak truer than they think for there are life forces on or in or 'in-forming' all the other planetary and stellar bodies but perhaps no in a way readily imaginable to man. Whenever a certain concept takes a grip upon the mind of man in the mass it is a good indication that there is a truth behind it, however fantastic the imaginative speculations may appear. And the truth often turns out to be stranger than the fiction; the limits of man's mind are, in a certain sense, his protection...
Last edited by Tantobourne; 08-15-2003 at 07:31 PM..
Random snippets from a Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight:
...All subsequent creation from the pure force of Kether is a gradual concretion into form of the one divine force. Form is force locked up into patterns of its own making. Force is that which is released when the patterns or forms are broken. Force and form, are one and the same-'As above-so below'.
3. This is the principle of the unity of opposites and of the processes of life and death. Force on one level acts as a duality, functioning either actively or passively. When opposing forces meet they mutually attract and repel one another, form a spinning ring after the manner of the process described in the extract from 'The Cosmic Doctrine' in the preceeding chapter, and thus descend a plane, creating a form through the interlocked equilibrium of their potencies. In a like manner, if the stabilised form is broken, the forces inherent in it become free-moving, on a higher plane.
4. To an entity conscious on the lower plane where the form is built, the interlocking of the higher forces, causing a form on the lower level, will appear to be a birth. When the form is broken and the forces return to their original higher level the process will appear as death.
5. To an entity conscious on the higher plane however, the descent into form of free-moving forces will be considered a death, and the break up of a form to release the forces will be a birth.
6. In this way it will be seen that birth and death are two sides of the same coin. The empty shell of the built-up form remains on the lower plane, to resolve back into the basic matter of that plane, and the forces return to their higher level, now vibrating with the experience of manifestation in the denser form.
7. This is the basic pattern of all manifestation and un-manifestation, which we have already seen to be cyclic. It is also the process of the human soul coming down the planes in densest form and subsequently dying to this form and being reborn to the inner worlds, and then, after a time of assimilation of past experience in densest form, coming to birth into it again by the death of its freedom of the less dense forms of the higher planes. This is the basic doctrine behind the theory of reincarnation. It is also the rationale behind the primitive religious practice of blood sacrafice-by destroying the form, force was released to wing its way to the higher worlds.
Trippletaurus is currently contemplating Lady Frieda Harris's artistic depiction of V - The Hierophant
'The Tarot could be described as God's Picture Book, or it could be likened to a celestial game of chess. The Trumps being the pieces to be moved according to the law of their own order over a checkered board of the four elements.'
Lady Freida Harris-
From Instructions for A.C. THOTH Tarot Deck
In part- The Hierophant: Occult force voluntarily invoked, teaching, divine wisdom, and inspiration.
Trippletaurus is currently contemplating Lady Frieda Harris's artistic depiction of V - The Hierophant
'The Tarot could be described as God's Picture Book, or it could be likened to a celestial game of chess. The Trumps being the pieces to be moved according to the law of their own order over a checkered board of the four elements.'
Lady Freida Harris-
From Instructions for A.C. THOTH Tarot Deck
In part- The Hierophant: Occult force voluntarily invoked, teaching, divine wisdom, and inspiration.
Hey now, don't get ahead of me. ; ) The book puts the study of the Tarot towards the end after first laying out the its foundation in the TOL. It should be interesting to put the two together. It'd give me a bit more insight into the deck that I didn't have before.
"...Occult force voluntarily invoked, teaching, divine wisdom, and inspiration..."
Yes, that's something to mull over. Some passage above makes mention of the 'seek and ye shall find' concept. That brought me to the Freemason concept of not soliciting membership. Rather one has to ask in order to be initiated. I read that in passing somewhere so I'm not sure if that is at all correct. Regardless of its accuracy, I think it's a very symbolic approach towards any initiation. If you aren't hungry enough to seek it out, it will remain unfound.
Last edited by Tantobourne; 08-16-2003 at 01:17 PM..
Random snippets from a Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight:
...3. Before making an examination of the phallic Chokmah symbols, though, it will be best to examine its aspects as a reflection of Kether. In all matters of spiritual analysis is is best to work from the highest point downards in order to get a genuine understanding, for the higher precedes the lower in point of creation and is thus its cause...
Random snippets from a Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight:
...Grief is a purgative and strongly disruptive force, and when the essential work of breakind down adhesions and dispersing poisons has been done by it, it gives place to a deep lassitude and feeling of emptiness which can act as a purified basis for new growth. People are so made that they will not or cannot realise a thing fully unless they are hit in the most vital part in some deep emotional sense. And so only by sorrow, and by going from sorrow to sorrow can an individual's evolution proceed. The man who cannot or will not feel sorrow or face it in others cannot proceed at all...
20. These may seem hard sayings, but if they evoke a violent emotional reaction of disbelief, then one would do well to examine oneself as to why these particular statements should produce an emotional reaction rather than mere indifference. A strong emotional antagonism towards something usually denotes a psychological blockage and a refusal to face what is implied by it.
I couldn't read through all of that without losing the threads which I picked up along the way, so I'm going to write this as I'm about halfway down the page.
Working with the metaphor you introduced, I suppose that at the moment I'm in the process of raising the ceiling. I've been through a pretty awesome time of my life, trying to exert as much positivity as I possibly could. Now is the time when this starts to take its toll. I'm sapped of energy, and I must start again, reconstructing my conscious (as you put it). This is all sounds very feasible to me. I'm on a big downer right now, and I must make some rather serious changes if I am to begin the climb up once again.
I want to be the best I can be. I want to be able to sleep at night content with the knowledge that I have done something worthwhile to contribute to someone elses life, and in turn contribute to my own. I tried this, and it worked for ages. I had never been happier, but now as I said, its tumbling down. If anything I'm lowering the ceiling. I've got to work pretty hard to keep it up, and even harder to push it higher than it previously was.
I'd never thought of this in cycles, but it makes sense to me. I believe our mood follows patterns, much like a heart beat. Up-down. I've felt for a long time now that I generally have prolonged periods predominently experiencing the same mood. Its a gradual build up, and it usually ends up crumbling to the floor. This may be triggered by an event, or by the foundations of my beliefs eventually being crushed by themselves.
Unfortunately a lot of my energy has been sapped in these forums, and the careless throwaway comments which a lot of people have made have got to me more than I would be happy to admit. The problem with being positive all the time, is that other people are free to wipe their feet on me. I am left dirty, while others can walk off with a clean pair of shoes. Often it seems I am but a stepping stone. A stepping stone towards nothing.
I also think of things in a spectral sense, where both positive and negative people exist. I'd consider myself a positive person, and when I get together with another positive person, things really start to happen... + + = +... however when I interact with a negative person, the opposite tends to occur for me.... + - = -... The negative is generally stronger in persuading my conscious than positive. At times I am strong enough to block it out, but other times it drags me down. And recently I have been dragged down.
I also thought your words on the Internet were very interesting. I'm not going to say 'right' or 'wrong', I just found them very interesting to read. I wrote an essay on the net a few weeks ago which I posted in socialise, and your thoughts reminded me greatly of those. The change which is bought about by the Internet is undeniably significant.
Is the Internet advancing because Society is evolving, or is Society evolving because of the Internet?
The Net allows people to be free from judgement. Judgement is in human nature, but without a vessel or body by which to judge, a deeper understanding of a person is gained. This is no doubt where the attraction of the web lies. Anywy, I'm not in the mood to elaborate at the moment.
Nice to hear your thoughts on a few things. Helped me out a lot, and I'm going to work towards rebuilding the tattered remains of myself.
. . o O o . .
Edit: I've been wallowing in my own chaotic insecure delusion. Perhaps with this as a priority I have twisted your ideas to suit my own needs, but anyway. Don't take it personally, just know that I gained something from you sharing your thoughts
Edit: I've been wallowing in my own chaotic insecure delusion. Perhaps with this as a priority I have twisted your ideas to suit my own needs, but anyway. Don't take it personally, just know that I gained something from you sharing your thoughts
I tell you what: You take what you will out of my blathering (which we do anyway) whether you judge it as positive or negative, bullshit or whatever. If it stirs up a thought and sends you off on your own little tangent of introspection than that's probably as much as I could hope for. I do it all the time with people like you and your thoughts as well as any other joe schmoe here in these forums or anywhere else in my life.
There's 99.9% chance that I'll never meet you or necessarily like you in person. Or vice versa. At least in here we are able to find maybe one pissant iota of common identity and purpose where otherwise there might be none. You take what you can get out of life and its inhabitants and rest assured I will do the same. That right there is the positive essence of the internet.
No, I don't take it personally and if I did, I'd get over it. ; )
uhm..warning...this is an extremely long spew of diarrhetic shit which I know nothing about.
You were warned.
Da'ath
First off, I am prefacing this with the fact that I am very backwards in how I approach things that I want. After these many years, in retrospect, it's a proven cycle of habit. When I wanted a motorcycle I went out and bought motorcycle boots first. Eventually I got the bike to match. I've actually been looking for some form of justification for getting my tattoos.
You see, all I had was a feeling. Eventually the feeling formed into a deep seated want. Finally want gave form to action and I got the tats. But to a random degree I chose what they would be. It was a process of elimination with a blindfold on. So in blindly or intuitively selecting my tattoos, I must now answer to myself why I chose them. By doing so I am in a sense asking myself, "Well you have these boots, but why do you have them? Ah...that's right because you want a motorcycle." Except in this case, the want is the depth of spiritual satisfaction and ultimately realisation.
So while doing some reading lately from a Gareth Knight book titled, "A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism". Now, no way am I an authority on this stuff. I'm just exploring my possibilities; trying to explain, in my own words, all of what I've read so far is beyond my capability right now. The whole body of knowledge that is just the" Tree of Life " is saturated with symbolism that transcends material religion and has been tended, added to and changed by many hands throughout history. Admittedly, for me, it's absolutely fascinating. Perhaps in some degree one can consider the Tree of Life as the rosetta stone of all spirituality.
The tree is made up of symbolic spheres called Sepiroth. Each individual one is known as a Sephira. The books describes the involution of spirituality and consciousness in really abstract but beautiful imagery. Imagine this process of evolution as the waters of creation which are pouring into a great chalice, an outpouring of creation passing through each Sephira to the bottom and tenth one, which is Malkuth: the physical realm of humanity. In that materialisaton of consciousness then is the journey back upwards: evolution. An adventure of rediscovering ourselves, 'becoming' and 'remembering'. Living and Dying.
My readings brought me to the 5th Sephira of the Tree of Life which is known as Geburah. It is the sphere symbolized by what I'd call "the Taskmaster" but is associated to Mars, the god of war, the embodiment of a firm, unyielding antagonist. As the Taskmaster it represents the constant challenge and unyielding scourge. Within the Sephiric force of Gebura is the process of separating the wheat from the chaf. The refined soul can almost be imagined as a rainbow of light not emiting away from the prism but pushing into it. Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" album cover is an excellent example. As the soul travels upwards to the Sephira of Chesed it becomes even more pure and refined. From there the soul crosses what is known as Da'ath, the great Abyss, the invisible Sephira juxtaposed through the Tree of Life. From here the soul looses form in the final leg of its journey. Da'ath is the gateway to greater ascension. All that are not prepared to journey across the void do not pass.
And like that prism the spectrum drives through and emerges as a fine beam of essence shooting and dissipating into the great formless void symbolized by the one Sephira, Kether, the Ultimate. The Tree of Life symbolism is a map of spiritual ascension. It's a unique map not of just intelligent ponderings. It's also a map that can only be well understood through experience and the subsequent comprehension and absorption of that experience. It's something that's felt. I suppose it would be called a 'living document' that no word can accurately convey just as thought.
In all of that I go back to "Da'ath" which some say is the point of spiritual ascension where a soul reaches free-will. The point where they pass across the great Abyss and give up corporal form to dissipate into the face of the One. In Norse mythology it is the rainbow bridge separating Midgard, the land of mortals, from Asgard, the land of the Gods, to whom which Heimdall stands his vigil. It is that point on the path where the Buddhist Bodhisattva stops not because they cannot go on, but because they wish to aide others in their ascension. They are the one's that stay behind to aide in other's enlightenment. Other symbols are the river Styx, the beach of Nirvana. The black waters of all potentials.
So in all my convictions that I can't seem to voice I go out and instead mark myself with the power of symbols. In part like the man from the movie Memento: desperate to remember, in fear of forgetting...never knowing. And as most religious symbols it is a source of focus: this sun, this moon, and that inbetween: my body, a symbol of this living earth. It speaks to my deep, almost manical belief of trinity. It speaks of that great dark abyss. It is the great pallid fear just under the water that threatens to consume a soul if it so errs. It is these countless mortal fears that I strive to absorb and pass through like little deaths.
In my life I was closer to Da'ath than I knew at the time and that proximity has left a profound effect on me. Casting off the final rainments of our fear is the final breaking link in the adamantine chain of our mortality. The essence of what emerges on the other side of the abyss is no longer a soul but part of something greater. Somehwere in all of that is what I for now call, "me".
I'm possessed by a certain excitement of late. Perhaps I'm just deluded, but I feel as though I am at the dawn of understanding. Maybe I'm just beginning another cycle. I've passed through the cleansing phase and I'm ready to go at life again with a fresh resolve.
Perhaps one of the crappest days of this year was marked by my in-car stero's digital clock reading 11:11.... I thought to myself "11:11 is the signal for change". Feeling a little stupid, I dismissed the thought, and began the trek home. I was pretty torn up on the way home, because as I said it was a crap day, and the weight of a month or two had finally reached breaking point.
I got home and wrote down all of the things which had me so stressed, and I sent them to a very good friend of mine. I felt better even before the reply. So I cleaned me out, and suddenly I feel overwhelmed with positive energy. This in complete contrasting to the life sucking negativity of the previous few weeks.
I like the idea of cycles. I like to think life goes in circles, but instead of just going over the same ground, I like to think I'm spiralling out. Towards what I don't know, but I'm hunting for clues and pursuing the scents which lead me to happiness.
Perhaps I should start my own thread, but hey... I just felt possessed to post this.
I'm also thinking about Jimmy in a different light now.
Don't mind me, I'm just here to dump off some stoned thoughts.
Symbols and the Manifestation of Form
Throughout human history the conscious mind has been deeply moved by the concept of symbology. It is such a deeply rooted and natural tendency that for the most part, we only acknowledge a very small aspect. We practically miss their greater & deeper meanings. Everything is an expression pushed through the constructs of symbols. The five known senses are bathed in them, absorbing them and careening off of them like beads of water. The very presence of our consciousness is a manifestation of symbols.
Now consider the struggles of human evolution and their ascension to the unknown. It is a journey marked in joy, tragedy, hate, and misunderstandings. But taken as a whole in concept, we might almost say that our evolution is progressing, albeit slowly at times.
Our progression and ascension is tantamount on the manipulation of symbols into effective constructs. They are materialized in the signs that we see around us. We see them in the images within printed-paper. They wash over us in the auditory pleasures of music. Symbols are rich in the physical and written architecture of the world cultures and drive the ideals and passions of nations and tribes. Amidst all of this is the power of communication, a gross manifestation of symbols like a sea we are adrift upon, and drowning in.
Each and every one of us is part of that greater progression. We are reaching up to the unknown in an effort to remember who we were and where we came from. The rungs that we use to get there are built of symbols. Knowing the full essence of this concept is power incarnate. Those people that control the symbols of a population hold great power, indeed. Symbols are the vessels of force that will determine the success or failure of our civilization.
The ability to work symbols is hypnotizing. Most people don't often know that a symbol has grasped them. Their effects can be subtle and profound. If the human mind can synthesize the ability to mentally massage this concept...to purposely affect the path and power of the symbols, what are the possibilities? The trick is to train oneself to enact the transformation. It is a skill. Not a simple skill. It is that bad dream we all have had wherein we desperately want to wake up but are morbidly held in place of some unseen horror. We know through dream experience that we can affect the dream. We have that power over ourselves. In later dreams we have been able to divert the course through sheer will, breaking us from the paralysis of fear.
We must overcome the paralysis of our mind to the sensory overload of symbols that are trained at us from every media aspect in the modern world. We must push into the current, like spawning fish. We must not allow ourselves to be molded by the storm of symbols we are exposed to everyday. Instead we should actively mold them to our will. Changing the bad dream into something positive.
The mystic rituals of scattered and forgotten cultures attest to the power of the Symbol. The shamans of the world, the magicians, and seers, the priests, all play an important part in the development of Symbols into beneficial structures that the human soul might pass through on their journey of ascension. The dark manifestations of the world: troubled spirits, haunted places, disease and famine, all of these are malformed symbols brought down and existing within or near the physical world that we know. Some of these dark symbols are constructs of our own collective fears; others are natural forces that preen the tree of humanity of dead and malignant foliage.
Finding the key that enables us to understand the symbols should be every person's intent. Symbols are a power commonly untapped that has dynamic and explosive potential. Become aware of the driving symbols of your existence. Find the patterns and piece the great weave together. It is your hand that guides our evolution. Know the powers at work about you and within you. And when you feel that you know it, as a clenching vindication in your gut, effect the change and watch the ripples of your will stretch out to the horizon around you.
Please, in all that you see and do, think consciously of symbols. Active analysis trains the mind to see the large weave of the tapestry. It is a progression of skill that lets you sense the texture of what goes on around you. It is the honing of one's intuition. Story's of people channeling physical manifestations, miracles, if you will, are uncanny adepts regarding the use of Symbols. However, in spirituality, it should not be the person's foremost concern to outwardly manifest their knowledge. Instead, it should be their inward transformation that, as a byproduct, washes over and affects the world around them.
Last edited by Tantobourne; 08-20-2003 at 10:09 PM..
Reason: phosphorescent desert buttons
Our journey through life is one of succesive visions. Imagine the unfolding panorama of your life peppered with viewing platforms and binoculars. We journey through life stopping to take in the view on the roadside shoulders of life. We dig into our pockets for some change and drop it into the metallic slot of the viewing platform to get a better perspective of what's out there and perhaps to assess where your journey will take you next.
The flashes of vision before we push on down the trail are what sustains us and gives us the will to go on. Some times the vista is not so clear, though. Sometimes unfavored weather hides the most desired path and we are forced to stumble our way to the next marker. But we can learn, with patience, to bide by the weather's governance. We can learn to pace our journey so that in each moment we reap the greatest reward between the wearying task before us and the satisfying promise of its completion. The trick is in learning to look up from the rocky path we tread and not forget the spectacular view that stretches around us.
It has gotten so chill in the past couple of weeks
I actually find myself pining for the warm nights
under the stars.
But up there tonight, brighter than the stars around it
is Mars, a celestial neighbor emanating in the inky night
Out of the waters like a great whale in a vast sea
Swimming alongside us for a passing moment
Before she breaks off and continues on her heavenly
destiny
Leaving us alone and drifting, again.
And so it brings me to wondering what mad or beautiful
Inspirations
Are birthed this night
In the proximity and ripples of our guest running alongside
i'm going to respond to all of the stuff in this thread, SO SLOW THE FUCK DOWN... i work at 3 am so i'll have to wait until the weekend when i don't feel like i've been fucked by a gang of bears... my eye's been twitching from little sleep for a week now and this fucking forum hasn't been helping much.
The Architectonality of Psychogeographicism
or
The Hieroglyphics of Driftwork
(in memoriam Guy Debord)
by Hakim Bey
obscure & mysterious grottoes into which they enter, imitating serpents -- spaces of return to an intimacy that "once upon a time" was shattered by memory -- by the simultaneous reiteration & belatedness of memory -- that faculty of human consciousness "closet to the divine". But don't they say that "to forgive is human, to forget is divine" ? In the ritual reiteration or "remembrance" (dhikr) of the sufis one forgets the "self" precisely in order to recall the Self; -- thus to re-member is to erase separation, & this erasure is a species of forgetfulness. (In certain key Islamic buildings like the Alhambra the reiteration of dhikr as calligrammatic text becomes the very definition of built space as mnemonic device or "Memory Palace" -- not ornament but the very basis or crystal-precipitation-principle of architecture.)
"Since we are Jesus Christ," as one of the Brethren of the free Spirit boasted, "the only issue is that what is already perfect in us should be reiterated ..." This process however leads to a paradoxical un-learning -- hence to a loss of fear -- so that one can "let oneself be led by one's natural senses, like a little child". Now, the cave stands for unconsciousness; -- the goal however is not to lose unconsciousness but to recapture that which unconsciousness separated us from, that which consciousness "spoiled". Thus within the dark grotto itself memory must be paradoxically inscribed -- key images are reiterated (literally repeated in some cases by a palimpsestic or incisive over-drawing) -- images which represent out lost intimacy as a pantheon of animals ("good to think with") -- each animal a special joy or "divine" function. Thus the the cave becomes the first intentional architectural space, the intersection of unconsciousness (the bliss of "Nature") & consciousness (memory , reiteration).
Ever since Plato we've been taught to revere anamnesis -- but let's descend to the pre-Platonic cave, the paleolithic grotto, to recover the positive dialectic of amnesia -- without which memory becomes simply a curse, coagulating at last as History (the degree of zero of memory as suffocation): the first city (Çatalk Hüyük) is already arranged as a gridwork, the very antithesis of the grotto's aesthetic shapelessness, it's meandering & amazing spaces, it's melted stalagmites & stalactites -- its organicity (which is never the less expressed as mineral life). The cities of Sumer & Harappa were likewise laid out as severe grids, cruel abstractions of linearity. To draw a line is to separate, to create spatial hierarchy (between priest & people, rich & poor, surplus & scarcity) and to define the topia of memory against the dark unconscious of the tribe, the u-topian cave, the organic wild(er)ness. The tertium quid or coincidentia oppositorium here (between "grotto" & Babylon) might appear in the medieval city (which still survives in a few places in the Islamic world) where the excessive cruelty of the grid is mollified -- not erased but softened -- by a recording of a space according to the tree or the river-delta model (chaotic bifurcation ranging to complexity based on intra-dimensional "strange attractors") -- an urbanism of the organic, the aesthetic, & the complex or plural (as opposed to the inorganic, the ideological, & the simple or total).
The medieval city is an extruded grotto Some of these cities introduced allegorical pageants or parades in which huge emblem-complexes (composite hieroglyphs) were built & set up or carried around the labyrinth of streets. Myths & legends were acted out: -- sometimes the Lord Mayor played the role of "Lord Mayor", wandering thru a street-theater of encounters with symbolic characters (like Bloom in Nighttown), thus re-newing the City as its elected Hero undergoing the initiation of ritual marriage with the urban goddess.
Here the Free City comes to a synchronic & ludic consciousness of itself hic et nunc, rather than succumb to the miserabilist diachronism of power's violence. In this Hermetic City we find the background or womb-space of the alchemical Emblem Books, and the narrativity of a Bosch or Breughel. Memory loses its heaviness here & takes on a folkloric air, carnivalesque (the festival as reiteration of pleasure) with built shapes that appropriate (thru design or thru the accidents of decay & accretion) the forms of breasts, phalluses, wombs, rocks & water, moss & flowers, even of wind & light.
The Babylonian grid-city wants memory to persist thru time -- smooth & empty time -- but as Dali showed, memory persists only in the deliquescense of measured time. The medieval-hermetic city (like Blake's Green Jerusalem) preserves memory but in a "disordered" way -- like akashic marmalade -- time which is textured & full. "Babylon" preserves order (or else!) -- but what happens to memory there ? Isn't it transmuted into the poison formaldehyde of History, the re-iterated tale of our poverty & their power, taxonomic myth of the ruling class ? Who can blame us for harboring both a nostalgia & an insurrectionary desire for the narrow winding alleys, shadowy steps, covered ways & tunnels, middens & cellars of a city which has designed itself -- organically, unconsciously -- within an aesthetic of festive & secret conviviality, & of the curvaciuos negentropic mutability of memory itself ?
The psychic urbanism of the 1960's constituted yet another attempt to reclaim built memory for this "Romantic" project -- rus in urbe, as F. Law Olmstead put it -- "The country in the city" -- reintroduction of the eternal "baroque" (as in "baroque pearl") or spontaneous form -- (like the miraculous fungoid cinnabar grottoes of Mao Shan Taoism, created by the Imaginal potency of the Adept) -- which is also the "divine" spontaneity, unconsciousness & forgetting, of Nature. A project for the builders of some near-future No Go Zone: -- the city of psychogeographic resistance, the anti-grid, architectonality of driftwork, festal space -- and the Cave of Fluid Memory. Rock & water -- the reverie of the bard, the forgetfulness of the gods.
re:Pane…
For someone who writes so well (Tant) that was hard to do. Any particular link we should read? The one that stimulated that little rant.
*laughs* There isn't one particular thread. I just read that kind of stuff on various forums, not necessarily directed at me most of the time. It just comes off as a shallow "nothing better to say" response that detracts from some of the conversations out there in internet-land. I'm obviously bugged by the, "If you can't bother taking pride in your communication skills than you have nothing worthwhile to say."
It's a cheap-shot commonly used by heckler's whose sole pleasure is to perform character assassination and arguing for the sake of arguing. I'm equally guilty in fucking up threads and dropping two pages of rambling just to watch a post sink like a stone but really, I try to keep to pissant needling down to a minimum.
Anyhow, I'm rambling. And ]thE*s0uRce[ I'll slowly start digging into your post here throughout the workday.
Wow, that was an interesting read. There's a lot of references I'd have to look up but the gist of it has it's merit. While pondering the whole 'power of symbolism' bit I was trying to conceive of how to harness it as a useful tool. Architecture is a wonderful example.
There's a mention of the Alhambra in the article. Some previous neighbors had moved to Spain and lived in the town right below the Alhambra. I didn't know much of it other than that it was constructed by the Muslim faith and the architecture is supposed to be gorgeous. I managed to see a few pics of the place and thought it to be marvelousl and a relaxing construct. Apparently my neighbor used to jog up the hill to it every morning.
Just yesterday I was reading some page about the "Vault of the Adepti" which was a reconstruction of RosenKruetz's tomb and how it was part of the initiation into the Golden Dawn's Second Order. Again, along with symbolism and architecture, it is an interesting example to learn from. I suppose it's also unique in that the goal seems to be a dissolving of form and structure through the very same means. In an abstract sort of way I'm pondering the power of symbolism and how it could be used as a constructive tool for human development. In the sense of the Tree of Life it would be a 'calling down' of the powers higher up in the tree to the material world of Malkuth. Perhaps building a gate (architecture) of symbolism in order to channel certain inspirations and thus ascend, spiritually. In that light, I deem the 'quackery' of mysticism as having great value. And for what it's worth, it's around us in everything we see and do already, the architecture of good music as a prime example.
Bah...I'm just rambling. It does stimulate the thoughts, though. Thanks for the info, as usual.
Imagine rising under you, through you, above you, and around you, columns of unmanifested force. Call them the Skeins of Potentials. This image comes to mind as I perused the Qaballic symbology of the Tree of Life. I'm currently reading about the 21st path between Netzach and Chesed. According to the book, this path symbolizes the pure image of "Individuality" which, loosely defined is the upper-spiritual realm vs. the "Personality" which equates to the material realm of life as we know it.
It's a really loose-knit picture in my head as I read about the Tree of Life. The essence of the concept behind the philosophy is intentionally illusive and is explained throughout the book by the symbolism of ancient cultures as well as the esoteric and hermetic students of the recent two centuries.
One core concept is the involution of life from "God" or the eternal void of creation into material reality. Upon materialization life then works it's way back upwards, or evolving, back to the Eternal. In an odd sense the theory insinuates that our physical birth is simply the materialization resultant of cosmic involution. We are forever being born, living, and dying not just physically but mentally and spiritually; as a single entity and as a whole.
The mad idea about the power of symbolism comes into play in a very profound sense, here. When I mentioned the "Skeins of Potentials" I'm somehow playing with the idea that permeating our senses is this very fabric of reality. We are so involuted that our higher senses are dulled to the greater happenings and cycles. It is the process of evolution that awakens our spirits to those greater cycles. It is a process that is intended to work in tandem with our biological birth, growth, decline and death.
As we know, that natural process is not set in stone. Our ability to effect those Skeins determines how much or how little, how slow or how fast, we progress in our involution as well as our evolution of spirit. Drugs or any other chemically altering substance can retard or accelerate our growth as well as genetic makeup and other environmental factors.
So all of this brings me to music: a gift of the Muses. Some people take naturally to the skill while others must finish their involution first before their music can take off and evolve. Using the power of visualization and symbology I'm thinking of seizing those skeins about me and 'channeling' the evolutionary forces above me into the material world using myself as the gateway. Really, in a sense, we are all gateways with the aptitude of channeling the skeins that run invisibly around us and through us. But for me, the dream is to materialize, through tactile intuition, the greater powers and bring them down into these hands...to involve raw creativity and emotion into an evolution of music. Again, there is a large number of people that flow through life instinctively without needing to visualize such things. The visualization is not more important than the act of living it. That is the true art. Anything else is seemingly vain reflection.
There is so much unrealized potential and we are but children waking up from a fuzzy dream, realizing the wonders around us. As a parent some part of me wants to nurture this child, this civilization, and proudly watch it grow. Yet, I'm ever under the fear of having this child ripped away.
Until then, I'd just like to satisfy myself by adding to the weave of music of this unfolding life. Just another dreamer along the way.
Come on Tant, what? You get a social life or something? I know your reading. Your typing (out loud) is missed! Share yr reading material of the moment with us-- please?
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