Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Theory of Knowledge - Genetic Disease, Physiognomy and Ego

As you know one of the main subjects that is tackled by the Hermetic Lessons is Physiognomy (updated by genetics and biopsychology) and a few things have come up recently that I wanted to post a little thought experiment about.



I was reading this article on facial recognition technology being used to help diagnose the chance of acquiring/having a genetic disease at the same time I was going through my fb friends and noticed that of my friends who had disabled children all had ended up with someone who looked similar to them - in one pair, who have a child with Angelman's Syndrome, both of the parents have ''proto'' Angelman features which to my mind indicates the genetic disease lurking beneath the surface - they are already on an Angelman ''spectrum''.

We know from biopsychology that chemical attraction tends to try and link you to someone with as opposite an immune system as possible in order to increase the survival-ability of the offspring* but we also know that the distortions in the ego caused by modern society and the confusion of the senses due to makeup, perfumes, contraception etc can often lead people away from it in other random directions or perhaps the worst possibility, towards ''themselves''.

So:

- People who are attracted to people who look very much like themselves normally have a positive self-regard often to the extremes of narcissism, this why they want to form relationships/get married to themselves or ''a mirror''

- The more similar you are in looks to a person the more likely you are to generate genetic disease because you are increasing the chance of two recessive alleles meeting

Obviously there are other ways that genetic disease can be acquired - radiation, etc - and we would fall short of suggesting the egoist in question is being ''punished'' by this but its an interesting idea to me.

Working out how many successful shags were necessary to create me from the 1400s rapidly becomes a scary number especially when you compare it to population.  Work it out.  Being kind here, lets just say that our genetic backgrounds are full of kissing cousins - so what could be happening... in these cases... could be a kind of genetic timetravelling incest thing (?) as opposed to pure Narcissism.  But who knows?  Is this idea insane?  Let me know!

*Although that is no certainty of it increasing the survival-ability of the relationship!

Monday, November 30, 2015

The Nightmare

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/212363/the_nightmare_2015_full_documentary/

If you haven't seen the documentary ''The Nightmare'' yet you really should.  Its about sleep paralysis... and features an extremely unbiased view of the subject which touches on a variety of different reasons/explanations such as genetic factors, social factors, etc all the way up to spirituality and extra dimensional entities.  As somebody who experiences sleep paralysis about once a month and has been through times, especially at the Tower, when it was every night, I can say that the way in which it is portrayed and the confusing/terrifying experiences that go along with it are extremely accurate.

To some extent I think the most plausible explanation for this is unrecognized shamanism and these unfortunates should have been exposed to systems which helped them train the mind and explore the spiritual realms.  They look like Shaman-flesh too.  Some of the pre-paralysis ''hallucinations'' shown in the documentary very closely simulate what the early parts of the astral plane look like - coloured blobs, geometric tesselations, scintillating fields etc - and often the people are pulled back from the astral and trapped in their physical body.  Some describe OBEs and being able to see their astral thread.

I understand now that there is a pay-off to my predilection for sleep paralysis and this is the ability to explore the astral plane alongside lucid dreaming.  I know,from experience, that hypnapompic hallucinations are way more pleasurable than hypnagogic - like many other victims/patients in the documentary I have developed coping strategies that reduce the terror of the latter.  The shadow man, made of static, has shown himself to be an angel numerous times* for ''every angel is terrifying'' - their apperance much like that portrayed by the character of Indrid Cold in the Mothman Prophecies along with their ability to tell me things I could not possibly know.

In the Hekhalot literature the planes of heaven, i.e. higher planes of consciousness/other dimensions** are protected by accusing angels and in order to pass them you must use the correct words - I have spoken about this at various times in the Hermetic Lessons.  In my understanding the individuals shown in the documentary get trapped bewteen Malkuth and Yesod or Assiah and Yetzirah, the sleep paralysis ''zone'' being on the path of Tav which the erroneous Kircher Tree attributes to Saturn and which I attribute to the Moon.  It is very easy to state that conquering your fear is the way in which to bypass this sleep paralysis ''holding cell'' but people who do not experience it regularly can't understand just how absolutely terrifying it is.  People also need to be aware that these terrifying guardians are there for a good reason either 1) you are not responsible enough to mess around on the higher planes or 2) you are a legitimate threat to the higher planes because you carry the curse of violence.  The sleep paralysis cell is actually one step more free than the cell which you nominally occupy in the ''physical world'' - perversely.  If we can liken it to Plato's analogy of the cave, sleep paralysis is like ''knowing'' that you are chained to the ground staring forwards at shadows all the time, which we forget on a day to day basis when confronted by the illusions of depth, colour, etc created by our mind.

In the past Kabbalists argued about whether the ultimate nature of Kether was love or fear.  As you can read here many of the alternate names for Kether speak of absolute destruction, annihilation and darkness.  The Sefer Yetzirah warns us to run and return, lest we are obliterated by the divine kiss. The Kabbalist explores the tension between love and fear and recognizes the existence of both in the Godhead - the light that draws the moth in is beautiful but it burns.

Although sleep paralysis is an extremely harsh experience to endure it has propelled me rapidly along a path to greater understanding. I have had to come to terms with direct experience of these entities along with extreme vulnerability in their presence, my spiritual path has not been spent chasing fairies in the woods or looking for goddesses in the waterfalls.  The experience is not a hazy, fleeting one, as you can see in the eyes of the people who have experienced it.  It lasts a long time and is never forgotten.  Ultimately though it is a gift and probably a genetic one - like I spoke of before about epilepsy and diabetes obfuscating great gifts so does sleep paralysis but in a society that does not explore dreams or spirituality, or discuss the nature of imagination and creativity these gifts can often go unrecognized as the person focues on the disadvantages of their condition and has no understanding of the benefits gained or the losses they will incur if ''treatment'' is successful.

*Mainly Uriel or Raziel in my experience.
**I think these are probably the same thing, not that this is a ''psychological model'' just that everything in the universe is fundamentally mind not matter.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Reincarnation and its Discontents


Reincarnation is a fundamental belief in the mysteries and one that has consequences if we take it to heart.  You will find references to reincarnation throughout the Hermeticlessons - thought experiments on things like retro-incarnation, recovered insights from past lives, etc.

In this post I discuss why one would want to recover their magickal memory and warn against the standard new age problems of remembering you are Cleopatra or that you know everything already. Working on your magickal memory helps communication between the lesser countenance and the greater countenance within you.  We are all at different stages in this journey and some people return to help others.  As I believe this I am not racist, sexist or ageist.  I value and listen to the opinions and wisdom of young people and older people alike.  I respect the fact that younger practitioners can advance far along this path and that older practitioners can have had their growth stunted by poor choices or late starts.   Being older does not automatically make you superior.  Wisdom depends on life (lives) experience and varies widely between individuals.

When I was perhaps too young I worked in a nursing home for ex-mental patients and saw the terrifying realities of aging and insanity, this certainly increased my understanding of the reality of the human condition.  I also worked in radiotherapy, cardiology and acute medical conditions for more experience.  After obtaining my degree in Biochemistry I worked in an Alzheimer's Day Centre for a long time before working in a secure mental ward with more advanced cases of mental disease. I also worked in an asylum for a time dealing with the victims of schizophrenia.  Even then I listened - the soul can speak out through these conditions and in fact can often be heard more clearly when the ''impatient'' ego of the individual is debilitated by the disease. I have learned a lot from both the old and the insane.

As I began work in education I also learned to listen to young people.  A progressive approach to education means that we don't belittle young people but see them as partners in a journey towards becoming a life-long (lives-long) learner.  This partnership is the secret to engaging that spark of the individual that will turn into a roaring inferno and its also the secret to reawakening the passion of the learner in yourself.  The default hierarchical thinking of the WMT, that older = wiser is a great impediment to the advance of our tradition and one that must be abandoned as rapidly as possible.  

We are in this, whatever it is, together - as peers.

During my life I have witnessed extremely wise and good young people taken from this world by tragedy.  Often I believe these people were angels in human form and simply too good for this world. Children are extremely sensitive from a psychic perspective and it is always worth considering their imaginings from that position - they can come out with absolutely precious nuggets of wisdom - conversely an older practitioner, weighed down with cynicism and a lifetime of failure and embarrassment can produce tosh and ignorance.

Here I discuss details of the kind of material that can be unearthed from the soul through the use of techniques aimed at recovering magickal memory - regaining one's former spiritual allies and esoteric knowledge.  My artist is still working on bringing this map to life but I hope to have it out in the next month.  In searching for and embracing memories from my past life and communication with my higher self I have made significant progress on the Western Mystery Path.  If you are on this path it is likely that you have been here before - you too would do well to search in the recesses of your soul.

Finally in this post I discuss the notion that there is no such thing as the present - and in some sense what we experience is all memory.  These are quite demanding ideas.  Throughout my experiments and discussions on time travel with Raziel it has become to clear to me that presentism is a deeply flawed philosophical basis for reality.  Presentism is actually one of the reasons that some people think, erroneously, that older automatically = wiser because we see things from the narrow perspective of linear time. Magicians who are presentists are a confusing bunch as so much of the mysteries speak of Eternalism.  Eternalism has scary implications for free willc so generally magicians don't thoroughly explore properly and end up with paradoxes buried in their philosophies that they are often unaware of.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Raziel - Time Travel II

I've been reflecting more on what Raziel has been teaching me about time travel.  The description of reality offered by Raziel suggests that we are in a sandbox time cycle which starts with the invention of time travel by Reptilians in the past and ends with the invention of time travel by Utopians in the future.  This beginning and end occur simultaneously and these two events are considered to be the pinch-points - the past, before its pinch-point with the present sandbox time-cycle, is populated by Reptilian time travelers and the future, after its pinch-point with the present, is populated by Utopian time travelers.  Time, as we understand it, from a linear perspective does not exist in these zones, as the primary sentient denizens of them are all time travelers and see time in the same way we see space - to them the 1890s would be a place rather than a time period.  Indeed in this model, time as our present period, is a circular river and when we approach the pinch-points, the flow increases, time seems to move faster but we can't get past the pinch-point* and are swept back into the past.  We can liken this to the journey of the soul and it would allow for retro-incarnation, i.e. being reincarnated into the past.  The events are fixed though and there is no such thing as free will on this level.

In exploring this further lets imagine that time travel is invented in 2200 and is widespread by 2250 - when time travelling into the future one would only encounter time travelers i.e. time travelers colonize the future. Imagining this is fairly simple but when we begin to contemplate how it must be for the reptilian time travelers of the present-past pinch-point its a little more complex as we must imagine this process in reverse i.e. the reptilian time travelers have colonized the past.  The reason it works backwards for them is due to the nature of retro-causality, since the future causes the past as much as the past causes the future the experience is in the opposite direction for the Reptilians.  Please let me know if this makes any sense!


Both sets of time travelers sample time from the sandbox of the present therefore how do we know that we are not, at heart, time travelers from these two opposing groups in the process of sampling time right now?  We don't.  In certain moments of my meditation or astral experiments when I am feeling most transcendent and not ''myself'' this is how I feel, that I am another being experiencing a time tunnel of this particular human's consciousness.  If this sampling is ultimately an aesthetic experience, then we could explain the fact that people lose themselves in ignorance of their true self and have to rediscover this inner time traveler as a way of heightening the experience.  At the level of the time traveler one could envisage different difficulty settings determining how hard it will be to know thyself in this incarnation.  Although this model of reality suggests that events in this sandbox are fixed and there is no free will, it does not mean that our opinions on those events are necessarily as fixed - what we take away from this experience of this particular tunnel is not predetermined, in what we take away we are free?  Perhaps we are taking away something more than simply aesthetic pleasure?  Perhaps post-present and at home in the future or past these experiences and opinions do have other implications?

When do these inventions occur and what then are the boundaries of our particular sandbox?  In my previous experiments with this I managed to project into the future, from a linear perspective, between thirty and fifty years to a heavily flooded village in Somerset where I met some entities in the attic of a mostly submerged cottage.  I understood, from them, that various parts of the world had undergone severe flooding and that the waters were not receding.  However the severe climate change had brought people together into a strictly controlled Ecotopia.  I have the sense that the future begins, in the sense that the pinch-point occurs, not too longer after this perhaps 2200?  Maybe this is too early? I can't be sure though and I need to experiment more.  I feel that the other pinch-point must occur around the extinction of the dinosaurs, say 65 million years ago - these two figures then would define the temporal size of our sandbox time cycle.

Are angels time-travelers, or is the entity claiming to be Raziel a time traveler?  Certainly when angels are encountered they have a very different feeling to other spirits or Gods - they do feel a little like concepts made star-flesh and not as human as other entities.  I don't think this means that they are not Utopians from the future though - I imagine that this crypto-fascist ecotopia could produce a very different kind of sentience over time so much so that the Utopians are radically different from humans - i.e. colder, more rational, more collectivised, perhaps merged with some kind of AI, etc - in this sense maybe humans become concepts made flesh, Utopians literally embody Utopian principles. 



In the same way our pinch-point with the past is to be found in our common link with the dinosaurs, Diadectomorpha, our pinch-point with the future may occur when humans transcend into Utopians.  There are certainly genetic (and astrogenetic) components to this sandbox and this probably does effect our ability to achieve various forms of time travel and projection from any given body - this kind of work would increase the range of potential sampling as well as present a new type of aesthetic experience.  As Tomasi said in a comment on the last post we travel in families (perhaps tribes or parties), and through esoteric work we transcend the local physical family in many ways, to begin with in our ancestor worship we build bridges to a deeper past and in spiritual work we build the connection of our family to all humans, to all mammals, to all organisms.  The more enlightened you are in this sense the more you can project into different vehicles in this life - whether they be animals, plants or even minerals.  Our connection with different points in time could be rooted in the memory of our genetics but I feel that there are more and less advanced ways to exploit these wormholes that exist inside all of our cells - travel could occur down gene lines but one could bridge across to another and then travel up allowing one to look out of a different set of eyes i.e. various forms of remote viewing.



Since the events will happen, they already have happened both in the future and in the past, therefore this sandbox time cycle universe was born this way.  In the bible the first line of ''in the Beginning'' we often interpret to mean as ''at the beginning'' and imagine a timeline proceeding from it into an uncertain future shaped by our free will.  But the first Beit of the word Berashith (in the beginning) could be read as within i.e. ''within the beginning'' i.e. the whole of this sandbox could be called the beginning since it all happens at once.  We are approaching creation as an eternalist not as a presentist.

There still remains this idea of a struggle between the Utopians and the Reptilians, struggle over the present and the way in which this struggle occurs is not clear to me, especially if the events are fixed and any time-travelers are only sampling as opposed to influencing.  Since Raziel informed me that due to the nature of the pinch-points future travelers cannot enter the domain of the past travelers and vice versa they regard each others veiled areas with some suspicion.  Perhaps the struggle is also played out in this notion of what we take away from the sandbox as opposed to what we do?  Is there a more vital mission behind the sampling?  What could it be?


*Or at least it is incredibly difficult and only achieved by those with a very high level of enlightenment.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Is ''public occultism'' dying?

Alright I'll bite, Mr Farrell.  Personally I enjoy a bit of an argument during retrograde.

Mr Farrell's general points are only in the headings of this post if you want to read them in detail you need to go to:

http://www.nickfarrell.it/ten-reasons-why-public-occultism-is-dying/

I have been posting about this topic for quite a while now in my ''The WMT - What Went Wrong?'' series.  Unlike Mr Farrell who is always more than a little tempted to blame the youth I plant the blame squarely on the leaders, elders and teachers.
 
1. The contamination of occultism by dumbed down “New Age” systems, fantasy and fraud. 

Absolutely agree with you here Mr Farrell but of course I would add the Golden Dawn and its spin-offs to your list as they are the ones responsible for most of the problems we are now dealing with. You are right in the early part of your post when you say the GD has been a failure.  It has.

2. Contamination by Intellect.

Absolutely agree.  There is a certain tendency these days to attempt to dress up your occultism in the language of the Ivory Tower as if this somehow makes it more legitimate.  Magicians as academics is one of the reasons I cite for the increasing dissolution of the WMT.  You're esoteric scientists dammit, come down from the Ivory Towers, and get back in the lab.  I read so many very general or abstract posts about magic these days and precious few discussions of concrete experiments or experiences.  This is why I quite enjoy Magick from Scratch  - here is someone bashing out concepts with Gods in the astral, in dreams and in trance and then recording them.  They are demonstrating, by way of example, what other people should be doing in the magic blogosphere.  There needs to be a massive shift towards practical experimentation and reporting and an openness towards admitting failure in these endeavours.  Most so called magickal blog content is identity politics, thinly veiled promotions for books/workshops or conspiracy gnosticism with magick lightly drizzled over it like raspberry sauce.   

3. Contamination by Psychology. 

I think this is less of a problem than Farrell (prob. becuase I am younger than him and I think this problem affected earlier generations more than mine) but I agree its a problem.  I think the pressure from the Grimoire Crowd and the Pick n Mix Sorcery Bunch over the last 10 years or so has done a lot to reverse this by getting people to focus on external magickal results (for instance Fr. Assan Chassan's insistence on conjuring to physical manifestation, etc) rather than just on dealing with their neuroses and other issues.

4. Contamination by fundamentalism. 

Fundamentalism is stupid but a concern with correcting errors in the tradition by a recourse to earlier source material and fresh archaelogical evidence is absolutely rational.  There should be arguments about the Kabbalah and the way it is used in the WMT.  These arguments need to be had, those conflicts are signs that the tradition is living.

5. Contamination of training systems by “non-occult” leaders. 

I agree with Dionysian Atavism who pointed out in social media that magicians have been using their mysterious arts to make money and get laid for most of recorded history.  The proliferation of lower quality sorcerers and simple con-men in the WMT also doing this, is of course largely the fault of the Golden Dawn, Golden Dawn spinoffs and Aleister Crowley et al who created the books behind their materials in the first place. 

6. The failure of modern students to study or give the work priority.

Don't blame the kids again, bro.  We can go round and round on this all you like Mr Farrell, but it is the teachers of this generation who are failing to pass the tradition on because we are not teaching properly or handling the changes in the Zeitgeist.  If you can't change with the times, you, and your order are dust.  Magick will survive in a different form.

7. Failure to financially support teachers, writers, or orders. 

Look, this kind of whining from occultists annoys me more than anything else.  First of all, you're supposedly magicians right?  If you're not magician enough to magic yourself up some money then maybe you shouldn't be teaching ''sorcery'' in the first place.  This kind of financial pressure will hopefully cut down the amount of wannabe writers/teachers out there who don't want to do anything but write and teach on the occult and return the balance in favour of the groups who have the money from their normal occupation and practise esoteric sciences on their own time.  If not that then to the actual shamans who work tirelessly with and for the community that support them and which they live in.  Nothing wrong with this, in fact this is how it should be and how it has been for most of recorded history.    The 70s circuit, etc were the self absorbed baby boomers of the occult revival who failed to effectively pass on the tradition.  So in this Golden Age you are missing these people laid the foundations for the current problems.  It was a blip in the history of magic not its peak by any means.

My entire work will continue to be published for free on this blog.  Thanks but I don't need your money for my ideas.  The tranmission of the knowledge is reward enough. I just want people to use the tools they now have at their disposal to create a Renaissance and stop holding back because they think they might one day turn it into a few thousand books. Josephine McCarthy's high quality Quareia course is free.  

If you want to charge a fortune for your work bear in mind that people do just steal what they need - people break intellectual copyright laws all the time.  We don't make a big deal about all the movies and music that have been stolenThe internet has changed everything. If you're not good enough to make it as a writer, a teacher or an order in these new times because of a lack of marketing nous or basic business acumen then get a different jobYour customers don't have as much money as they used to.  Most practitioners are poor and therefore the extra cost of supporting jet-setting teachers is not something they are comfortable with.  You want to get money from an average Gen Y you better be good, because they are going to read reviews, check and double check before they spend it. If you are reputable and adaptable enough to survive, excellent, you have been sucessfully selected by the Zeitgeist.  ''Its the economy stupid''.  Don't whine, adapt or die.

8. The collapse of the Order and Teaching system. Orders and teachers used to be the balance.

Orders perpetuated misunderstanding as well as protecting nefarious secrets.  They brought the wrath of the collective tradition down on their heads when they behaved so terribly during all the legal cases over the use of various names, etc ad nauseum.  That we have such low opinions of them these days is their fault or the fault of individuals within their organisations.
  
Independent magicians who occasionally work in small groups on specific projects is the trend and this is actually a return to the natural state of these individuals.  As I understand it this is Mr Stratton'-Kent's position and I am in complete agreement with him.  If the order system is indeed collapsing then good.

9. The Internet has made occultism too accessible.

Mr Farrell here seems to be complaining mainly that the internet has made occultists too accessible as opposed to occultism itself.  If you don't want to recieve messages from idiots then don't give out your contact details to them.  Its not rocket science.   You need to filter the students that's part of the job of the teacher.

10. The quality of occult information has become less and not more.

The quality of occult information is the highest it has ever been.  Humanity now has much greater access to the actual sources that most modern commentaries are based upon than ever before, can read them and make up their own minds.  We don't need the next 101 sorcery guide from Llewellyn.   Sales are down from tens of thousands to hundreds? Good, its done.  Game over.   Just like the music industry. They were charging eighteen pounds for a CD in the 90s - I am glad these industries are dying - they deserve to.  Publishing will only exist for these small beautifully bound works of the grimoire crowd, as it should be, and the way it once was - these books are not for the mass marketing of the occult they are for the veneration and dedicated study of the secret and the few.  

Magick will always protect itself from the worthless who just want it dumbed down and served up on a plate to them ( and they are common to all generations not just ''kids today'').  

Magick will always seek the shadows.  


In conclusion I agree with Mr Farrell that the WMT is going through a very rough patch and might dissolve.  In order to penetrate the mysteries you are going to have to work hard but at least we no longer have to painstakingly copy esoteric treatises by candlelight in secret basements while hiding from the Inquisition - I can now just go to sacred-texts.com. If the price of that is dark fluff blowing in the wind  so-be-it.  Its worth it, more than worth it for what we have now.    These are boom times for the elect.   Make the most of them.  Work harder, stop chatting shit, share results, be selective and ignore the idiots.




Monday, September 14, 2015

Raziel - Time Travel



A few months ago I asked Raziel some questions about what time travel was like.  In order to perform this kind of communication I enter a trance state and then engrave the Hebrew letters for Raziel on the astral vision, light then streams through the letters and they become like gates.  Below are the details of the communication.


- Think of time travel from the perspective of an entity who is a time traveller

- From their point of view the future already exists as does the past, and they see them as places rather than as times, as you would step into the next room that is time travel for them

- Although they can move around in time they cannot change history as this time stream is fixed but the future caused the past as much as the past caused the future

- Time did not play out ''once'', from beginning to end, as a certain sequence of events in linear time and was then saved in the temporal dimension, rather the two depths, future and past, cause each other simultaneously

- We call this the wellspring (gimel lamed) and the beginning (reshit), since they cause each other any point in time is the beginning

- You can access a different version of this universe but only from the dimension above time, this would not be time travel but something else

- Time travellers sample time at different points

- Imagine there are three loops in any given fixed time stream, the past, the present and the future and each loop is pinched at its conflux with the next loop

- Pinchpoints occur in every time stream and are fixed events in history, which includes the future, thus each timestream is divided into past, present and future with the pinchpoint occuring at a point in the linear time of this universe, there are two pinchpoints in each timestream

- The pinches are caused by events involving the ''invention'' of time travel that occur at those points in history

- As you approach a pinchpoint the percieved flow of time increases

- Entities which discovered time travel in the past loop, thereby creating the ''first'' pinch cannot go past the pinch with the future, entities which discovered time travel in the future loop, thereby creating the ''second'' pinch cannot go past the pinch with the past, only entities that discover it in the present can travel in (and sample) both

- For our closed timestream the entities are as follows:

Past - ''Dinosaur'' time travellers (past and present zones)
Present - ''Human'' time travellers (past, present and future zones)
Future - ''Utopian'' time travellers (present and future zones)

- All three groups are genetically related via the Tree of Life, in that they share common ancestors, but dinosaurs and Utopians can only meet in the present, as an entity from the past approaches the pinchpoint between the past and the future it gets pushed back and vice versa

My reflections on this:

I can understand how the paradoxes involved in time travel would affect the nature of time.  As you invent time travel in the future all time after that time becomes one time, it would effectively be simple space.  So the invention of time travel effectively ends time as we know it.  And this has already happened.

Perhaps the pinches occur naturally in the overall structure of time and are a feature of all timestreams but these pinches then cause time travel as opposed to the invention of time travel causing the pinches???  Or maybe they cause each other?

According to Raziel since the future and the past cause each other and happened simultaneously, the two pinchpoint paradoxes involved in the invention of time travel and the subsequent end of time also happened simultaneously i.e. dinosaurs and Utopians invented time travel at the same time which was actually the beginning?

He did not give me the dates of the actual pinchpoints.

In multiverse theory when we observe the wave form it collapses into the universe that we percieve but it does not mean that other universes are not happening - we just can't see them.  By choosing which path to take at any given time are we in fact surfing universes.  Is magick the process of selecting the universe you want to live in?  As time passes are we on some level surfing universes?

Probably should look for common ancestor with dinosaur and explore this point in the ToL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadectomorpha

Friday, September 11, 2015

Initiation and Genetic Disease


Locating yourself in the physiognomial Tree of Life is a good place to start if you are attempting to understand how it can inform your own practice.  Knowing yourself is in fact the essence of the mysteries.  When looking through the Hermetic Lessons on the Physiognomical characters bear in mind what I am really talking about is the spectrum of these conditions, i.e. you may have schizophrenic or anorexic tendencies without necessarily manifesting the full blown disease.  Similarly you may be aware that you gain weight easily but keep yourself on a very strict diet because of this - genetically though it is more likely that you would still be a physiognomical character associated with Tifereth or Daat, even if you manage to keep your weight down.  What follows below is not a complete list and if you have a question about where some disease or advantageous trait should go please ask me or consult the archives for more information - bear in mind that you may have some symptoms of your character and are unlikely to have them all.

  • Kether (The Ignorant Genius) - megalomania, controlling, agromegaly (spectrum is seen as large facial features/prominent brow without harsher symptoms), creative, future-oriented
  • Chokmah (The Ignorant Fool) - hard-drug addiction (cocaine, ecstasy), schizophrenia, groomed, charming, seductive, stocky
  • Binah (The  Bloodless Being) - anorexia, self-obsession, young-looking, slim, good complexion, irregular menstruation, sleeping problems, low self-image, aloof
  • Daath (The Treefrog) - metabolism (hyper or sluggish), restlessness, growth problems, froggy-toadiness
  • Chesed (The Shellfish) - obsession, addictions, alcoholism, lazy, wider-spaced eyes, fleshy 
  • Gevurah (The Confused Venutian) - overly analytical, anxiety, chain-smoking, paranoia, sniffly because of overactive immune system, skinny
  • Tifereth (The Prisoner) - abdominal weight gain, diabetes, epilepsy, fantasy prone, lazy, daydreamer, narcissism, anarchical, pigginess of feature
  • Netzach (The Mime) - manic-depression, skin conditions (urticaria, eczema), high sex drive, stress control, emotionally cold but with breakdowns that lead to sickness/infection - stocky/fleshy
  • Hod (The Jay) - anger management issues, lithe, dextrous, avian features (sometimes owl-form), good memory, bears grudges
  • Yesod (The Many Mannered Mind Man) - aggression, paraphilias, lots of body hair, balding. facial width is closer to facial height 
Since most individuals lie on the path between two of the Sefirot it is probable that you will have defining characteristics which are linked on that path.  For instance a manic-depressive, highly sexed person with paraphilia could be said to be on the path between Netzach and Yesod, and a lithe, muscular, aggressive individual with paraphilia could be said to be on the path between Hod and Yesod.  In this post on the path of Venus I discuss the symptoms of an individual who is on the path between Chesed and Netzach in more detail.

Ultimately we have to decide whether this kind of knowledge constitutes knowledge of the self, or knowledge of the vehicle of the self.  I certainly believe that I am inhabiting this body and will survive its death, but during this incarnation it is to my advantage to learn what this particular body is capable of.  If this body is on a particular path does it mean I should neglect work that is more in the domain of other paths?  No.  As initiates it is our task to attempt to develop the entire being and we will find that some areas are more difficult to develop than others we are gifted naturally in.

Aleister Crowley has this to say in a footnote of Magick in Theory and Practice, Ch.7:

''Every person, whatever his grade in the Order, has also a "natural" grade appropriate to his intrinsic virtue. He may expect to be "cast out" into that grade when he becomes 8'=3'. Thus one man, throughout his career, may be essentially of the type of Netzach; another, of Hod. In the same way Rembrandt and Raphael retained their respective points of view in all stages of their art. The practical consideration is that some aspirants may find it unusually difficult to attain certain grades; or, worse, allow their inherent predispositions to influence them to neglect antipathetic, and indulge sympathetic, types of work. They may thus become more unbalanced than ever, with disastrous results. Success in one's favourite pursuit is a temptress; whose yields to her wiles limits his own growth. True, every Will is partial; but, even so, it can only fulfill itself by symmetrical expansion. It must be adjusted to the Universe, or fail of perfection.''

When one graduates then one can be expected to become a living archetype of their path but only by exploring the symbols of the entire system of the Tree of Life, and embracing them can one hope to achieve this.  This ''casting out'' becomes a return to the primary destiny of the incarnated self and its role as a differentiated cell within the tissue of humanity and its specific role in the Metabolism of Time. As each cell contains all the DNA necessary to create any cell in the body but only expresses that which differentiates it as a nerve cell or a liver cell so our minds contains all knowledge of the entire human organism but only express that which differentiates us from others.  In exploring the system of initiation we are providing a context of knowledge whereby we are better able to define ourselves.

As someone whose natural grade is primarily Netzach, I can be expected to find the initiations of the Philosophus grade to be especially easy and pleasing to me.  In fact I could become so successful at the mysteries of devotion that I could neglect all other paths or similarly the vices of my own character could destroy me if I let them.  However in exploring other paths one must be careful to avoid distortion of the self - at ''graduation'' you still want to be cast out into your *natural grade*.

Let me furnish this by way of example.  Many women become obsessed with looking slim, young, etc and some go so far to achieve this that they distort their natural forms with plastic surgery, etc.  The entity that they are trying to become is the Bloodless Being - (to make this more complicated this is the type of those with a natural grade of 8 = 3)  Now I am not saying that some cosmetic surgery/makeup, etc is not necessary in certain situations or indeed pleasing but if you completely distort the natural self you will not be able to succeed in these initiatory endeavours, at least this time.  Only 10% of women are natural bloodless beings, i.e. natural 8 = 3's.  Whilst it makes sense to explore the role and the initiations associated with it (to treat all phenomena as a direct dealing of God with your soul is appropriately self-obsessed for the Bloodless Being) it does not make sense to lose the sight of one's own path.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Cellular Consciousness and The Prison Planet


The word cell often evokes the word prisoner and those who grasp the principles of cellular consciousness will understand how the prison of our mind is very similar to the prison of the biological cell.  Indeed a set of minds in a room, are something akin to cellular tissue - which could be likened to a line of prison cells.




We have talked at length about the difficulties of breaking through the membrane of our own minds into the bloodstream of time - the problems with accusing angels, time police, etc -  we are inclined to remain in our cells and for the vast majority of the population, the only way out is through their dreams.

Sometimes the problem with spiritual people is they assume a perfection of the spiritual dimension which isn't present on Earth, I personally don't see why this should be the case - the spiritual dimension if not directly overlapped on the cosmos proper and therefore not a separate thing at all persay, could be just as messy.  If this is a prison system, justice may not be the first thing on its mind and even if it is, its probably not always properly executed

For consideration:

- individuals wrongfully imprisoned on Earth
- individuals doing their time who want to keep their heads down and not risk any talk of breaking out, perhaps this is an explanation for why some people avoid spirituality, they are nearly out and don't want to jeopardize their release
- corrupt/sadistic guards
- corrupt prison regime, exploiting prisoners for manufacturing work, a cosmic incarceration complex
- rehabilitation vs punishment, this ends up including the ideas of education with the idea of imprisonment
- individuals breaking in so they can break others out
- multiple defensive layers - barbed wires, sealed doors, spiked walls, watch-towers, etc perhaps represented by the crystalline spheres and the angels/entities that protect them when you attempt astral ascent

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Healing and the Sorcerers

Philosophy isn’t just reading what dead guys said or contemplating the sun. It’s about putting the will of the gods into action, no matter what they’ve given you to do. We should all be dignified public servants, fearless, striving for what’s good instead of what’s popular. Seriously, if you have something to say, fucking say it; the truth always comes out. Until then, it is better to live in the favor of the gods who see all and be hated by fallible men than the other way around. If some petty motherfucker hates you, maybe he spreads a rumor or throws a rock.  So what? On the other hand, if Jupiter isn’t thrilled with you, well, you’re pretty much fucked then, huh?

Marcus Aurelius, paraphrased by Philosophy Bro
What is healing?

The Kingships of the seven planets in the Sefer Yetzirah are - Wisdom, Wealth, Fertility, Health, Power, Peace, and Beauty*.  Their transpositions are Ignorance, Poverty, Desolation, Sickness, Submission, War and Ugliness.  Using the double letters in their soft form Kabbalists are said to be able to dispel the transpositions and restore the Kingships.  A practical meditation on a letter might involve writing out the word BYTh in Hebrew and then writing out the full spelling of those letters BYTh, YVD, ThV and so on and so on until the mind goes on to what cannot be counted.

Quarry, carve, engrave, probe.

I associate the seven double letters with the chaldean order in their rational order:
  • Saturn - Beit - Wisdom (V)
  • Jupiter - Gimel - Wealth (J)
  • Mars - Daleth - Fertility (Dh, or Dj)
  • Sol -  Kaph - Health (Kh)
  • Venus - Peh - Power (F)
  • Mercury - Resh - Peace (Rrrr or ř)
  • Luna - Tav - Beauty (Th)
If you have only studied the Crowbalah and not the Kabbalah this may seem like a strange order and perhaps a strange concept.  In truth various Kabbalists have offered up different arrangements over the centuries but I feel that the above is the oldest order and also the most rational.

TYPICAL WMT STUDEN|T
If you understand that Mars was originally an agricultural deity, fertility may start making more sense when you also understand that the corrupted understanding of Mars as a God of War brings only devastation and desolation.  Perhaps you believe that the Kingship of Beauty would better rest with Sol or Venus - but the Sun is the Lord of Healing and dominance and submission are definitely in the dominion of Venus aren't they?  You naughty folk.   Perhaps the God of communication seems out of place ruling war and peace until you start thinking about it for a moment...

Example lifestyle ritual behaviour based on the order:
  • Monday - vanity and glamour preps
  • Tuesday - the tribe, the farmstead and maintaining its fecundity
  • Wednesday - communications and meditation/mediation, inter-personal and intra-personal
  • Thursday - money management
  • Friday - love-play, dating
  • Saturday - chowing down on knowledge pie 
  • Sunday - healthy eating and exercise
Some Kabbalists apply a more flexible approach and permute the letters, as esoterically as is possible of course, to achieve blends of the planetary forces, which as a group of entities can be said to govern over the group of Kingships.  I mean its not like we can just focus on looking good on Mondays and let ourselves degenerate over the rest of the week until we are a shambolic wreck.  Similarly if health activity only happens on Sunday you are probably going to end up a little out of shape.  These Kabbalists' approach makes sense to me, we must permute and mix the letters, adjusting their forces to the astrological weather, compensating and reacting to the cosmic wind.

As ever, in medicine, precision is everything so without understanding the correct order its difficult to zoom in on individual problems.  Most Crowbalists end up with a shotgun rather than a laser and their surgeries are often a little rough to say the least - if they even use the Crowbalah to attempt to heal another person.

To what extent does our will have to bend with the astral forces, and to what extent do we remake the world with that will?  A planetary lifestyle as I have outlined above need not exclude other planets on other days but making sure to include appropriate planetary activity for appropriate day cannot help but remake you over time and most of us need some sort of scaffolding to build anything lasting.

To what extent can the work of our sorcerers be said to be healing?
  • You are ignorant.  A healer teaches you.  You now know.
  • You are poor.  A healer helps you make money.  You are now rich
  • You are infertile.  A healer grants you the power to create.  You have children.
  • You are sick.  A healer cures you.  Your are healthy.
  • You are in chains.  A healer gives you strength to break out.  You are free.
  • You are vengeful.  A healer calms you down.  You are at peace.
  • You feel ugly.  A healer gives you glamour.  You feel beautiful!  Awww.
 Sorcerer or Healer?  Does it matter?  What's in a name?






*Grace, but the transposition is ugliness - do we mean beauty or does ugliness really mean a complete lack of sophisitication?
 

Monday, August 31, 2015

The Importance of Biology and Understanding the Hermetic Lessons


Biological knowledge is of immense value to the practising magician.  For thousands of years biological classification, whether or not it was fully systematised at the time, has allowed shamans to collect plants and herbs to tend the sick of their community.  Biological knowledge is useful in answering metaphysical questions such as the immortality of the soul and the nature of the self.

To begin with a practical point, in this post on Demonslayers I discuss the use of garlic pills (allicin), colloidal silver and vitamin D in fighting the undead (i.e. pathological microbes).  I want to say that I tried this in combination for the first time the other day and it was incredibly potent.  I seriously recommend you add these to your alchemical storeroom, especially if you live in Britain and are vulnerable because of the lack of light.   Although I suggest in Demonslayers that demons as they were understood are pathological microbes I want to be clear that this is not a materialist explanation.  I personally do not believe in matter as it is currently understood and think Rupert Sheldrake has a lot to provide to the scientific community when he talks about assumptions in science.  I see no reason why the fundamental nature of the universe is not Mind and therefore all matter, and living matter, are manifestations of that Mind.

When we talk about the source of pathological microbes - human emotional states are a good place to start.  If you are consumed with hatred, fear, sadness, anger, etc you are almost certainly stressed out.  Stress in the form of cortisol causes your immune system to dysfunction which allows various viruses that are dormant in the ganglia of your nervous system to emerge (this is why when you get stressed you might suffer recurrences of herpes simplex type I (cold sores) and II).  Your own mental demons have therefore released physical demons.

Furthermore if you are constantly unhappy, for whatever reason, you may well be a source of infestation - a carrier so to speak.  Disease is always in you, so you don't necessarily notice, considering this to be your normality, but your presence is causing spikes of infection in the population you mingle with.  Deeper than this and speculating, human DNA contains viral DNA, so it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that an individual can actually generate demons from within themselves as opposed to simply store them.

The Hermetic Lessons contain all kinds of useful applications of biology to magickal undertakings - healing, immortality, the true will, time travel, etc.  They are a continuance of the alchemical tradition of our ancestors, incorporating new discoveries into our Hermetic foundations.  There isn't more of this because there are precious few individuals in the Western Mysteries with scientific knowledge and these days people are more inclined to chat than work.

Demonstrating by way of example, one of the main subjects of the Hermetic Lessons is a physiognomy informed by recent findings in genetics, endocrinology and other aspects of the biochemical sciences.  This physiognomy is designed to allow you to discover your own genetic root character and some of the likely advantages and disadvantages that this comes with.  Although the subject here is identity I want to distinguish it from identity politics, an area which leads to more harm than good, much to the chagrine of the hordes of pagan social justice warriors who pour their lives into it, I am sure - more on this later.  The genetic identity discussed in the Hermetic Lessons crosses race, gender and sexuality.

THE MIME - CORTIOSL

My own genetic identity is predominately what I call a Mime, a set of genes I have inherited from my mother.  This genetic identity has its basis in the hormone cortisol which is released in stressful conditions.  Because of the way this hormone is released I have a much higher resistance to stress than the other physiognomical characters meaning I can stay cool, remain stoic or masterly, for longer in worse conditions, although it means that I can appear to be emotionally cold during these times.  Where other people flip out and lose it I am able to multi-task very effectively (symbolised by the juggling) and have incredible stamina and resilience but when I reach the breaking point though I will have a complete meltdown as opposed to a series of mini-ones.

This set of genetics also comes with a propensity to manic-depression - a disease which most people self-medicate.  Most of the time I have a kind of basal hypomania which allows me to function in the above described working conditions but during my long holidays the depressive aspect of the character generally manifests as indolence.  The ability to control environments combined with the more Venutian aspects of the character leads my artistic inclinations towards sculpting and crafting, when I engage in theatre arts (directing, acting, stage crafts) I tend to chisel the finished project from an initial block of stone, so to speak, rather than let it grow or explode out of me as another physiognomical character might.  I therefore approach the arts with a scientific mindset.

In order to manage my characteristics most effectively I need to pay attention to warning signs of too much stress and be pro-active in my relaxation remedies.  One sign is clenched teeth at night, although other common indicators for this character are skin conditions.  Remember when the cortisol gets too high you will get sick but for this character they will get really sick - therefore demonslaying at any sign of infection is also important as well as recognizing early symptoms as signs of stress.

Attention is one of the fundamental bases of the universe, in fact when we say the universe is Love, we might also say that the units are Attention.  I am more susceptible to negative attention than positive attention because of my position in the web of attention that underlies the genetic characters, for instance I respect and react to intelligent criticism and despise and dismiss mindless sychophancy and compliments.  My natural state is general flirtation, but under negative attention I will become more vampiric and seek out the positive attention of a single individual to restore the balance.  Under positive attention, I will become an indolent dreamer until the effects of it fade away and I am returned to my natural state as a lover.  This idea of there being a natural egoic state dependent on the attention we recieve is fundamental to the way in which these characters metabolise social nutrition - this equally applies to spirits.

These physiognomical characters are intended to help discover this genetic identity so we can manage our own psyche, get the best out of ourselves and heal others.  Although my blog is not as widely read as those with a lower reading level, generally more accessible content or more gossip and internal politics I understand that it is read by some of my peers in the blogosphere.  I therefore know that there are readers who are Shellfish, Prisoners, Many Mannered Mind Men, etc as I know what these individuals look like and therefore what they are most likely to struggle with as problems encountered on their paths.  I can see how their underlying genetic characters are influencing not only their activities in the physical world but also their writing style.  To be in denial about the influence of your own genetics on your behaviour is just that.

Whether or not the fundamental nature of the being we are is the genetic character or simply inhabits the genetic character temporarily it is to our own advantage that we play the hand we have been dealt.  A great deal of unhappiness in the world comes from not understanding that hand or wanting a different one.  As I said in my post on Genetic Disease if we have a set of natural skills but because of distorted attention (whether it be from the media, or general society) we are seeking a different one we are simply going to be a less potent version of that character and constantly unhappy.  Lets imagine that instead of being comfortable in the suit of the Mime as I have described above, I desperately wanted to be a Jay - a character which is effectively an adrenaline monkey, very lithe, dextrous and good at sprinting, hunting etc with a fine, naturally acquired musculature and monstrously fast metabolism.  I would spend way way more time acquiring that physique and that set of skills, almost certainly of lesser quality than a natural Jay, while letting my own genetic gifts atrophy - this is surely idiocy.  To be clear though if I have a natural inclination to manic-depression, or another character has a natural inclination to fat storage, or alcoholism, I am not saying just go for it, pile on the sugar and booze - with this knowledge of the genetic self, you have to moderate your own excesses as I have described, whilst simultaneously pushing your own gifts towards excellence.

That is Alchemy.



If you are looking for ways in which to use the Hermetic Lessons, go through the earlier posts on the various characters, the hormones they are associated with and the masks they use in order to complete their metabolism and you may find things that speak to you or to other people you can help. I rely on these characters because its often something in the physique which speaks of pigginess, or a piscine quality, or avian features that is telling us their secrets of pain and power.  In today's world with the media providing a source of attention designed to play on your fears and insecurities we are way more likely to encounter physiognomical characters out of place or whose problems are more extreme - whether it be anorexic Bloodless Beings, alcoholic Shellfish, obese Prisoners, aggressive Many Mannered Mind Men, etc and our primary task as esoteric practitioners is that of healing the sick.

Next

What if the map is the territory?

How could that be possible?

What if the territory you are seemingly experiencing is, in actual fact, a map?

Maybe you can judge a book by its cover?

Thursday, August 27, 2015

What is Cellular Consciousness?




Cellular Consciouness is an approach to consciousness based on the Metabolism of Time.  It explains consciousness as the process through which a being ''digests time'', (or perhaps that it arises as a necessary result of the digestion of time).  In this model consciousness is understood to include:

- your apprehension of possible futures and the way in which your actions have consequences that go beyond your immediate sphere of awareness
- your perception/understanding of your immediate environment
- your awareness of the way in which you analyse that environment and respond to it as well as specific awareness of specific analyses and responses
- your awareness of your awareness (for most people this feels like it sits behind the front of your skull)
- the faculties of remembering, forgetting and your memory

Through cellular consciousness we understand that our awareness of our self, our environment and that which is beyond our perception as described above is extremely similar to a cell's awareness.  Its potential and ability to affect its environment are ultimately under the dominion of the nucleus, this nucleus is contained in the cytoplasm which becomes the perceived environment of the nucleus, this cell is then separated from other cells and the body at large by a membrane - from the ''bloodstream of time''.

I used the following diagrams to explain how the cell's experience mimics our own:


This image represents our experience of our physical body and maps it over to the DNA




This image represents the limits of our physical influence and maps over to the nucleus which the DNA does not leave.


This image represents the limits of our sense perception and maps over to the cytoplasm of the cell.


This final image represents the limits of our mental perception and maps over to the cellular membrane.  All perception, awareness of our physical reach and our actual physical body occur within the larger sphere of the Mind.  All experience is mental experience.  This is the essence of the teaching of Plato's Cave.



The DNA spiral being at the centre of this cell is then subsequently mapped over to the Metabolism of Time diagram itself  - thus the ''head'' of the being is the thing mainly concerned with anticipating and planning for the future, the chest of the being (heart, lungs) are the ''present'' (beating, breathing) and the lower part of the being is involved in dealing with the past (digestion, elimination, excretion and reproduction - our genitals store ''the past'').

There are a great number of posts on this at the beginning of the Blogos which explain the links to molecular developmental biology, endocrinology, etc as well as providing all sorts of useful tips for physiognomy and other more ''esoteric'' applications.



I agree that is necessary to clarify terms and try to be as specific as one can be otherwise communication is impossible - terms like consciousness and ''soul'' are definitely subject to such criticism*.  To suggest that the biological sciences are useless in the pursuit of magick is absurd as genetics is clearly embedded in the ancient mysteries that have been handed down to us and its scientific theories and ideas are of both theoretical and practical value. All science is of use to the magician but you must return its ''heart'' - I agree that Science as a sociological phenemonena and institution allied to the military industrial complex and various corporate bodies has a lot to answer for.  If people are struggling to understand what I mean by any of the terms used in the Hermetic Lessons please ask me questions and I will attempt to be as precise as possible.

BIBLIOTECHA HERMETICA, AMSTERDAM




*''Energy'' is the one that gets my goat.