Metabolism VI - The Masks of the Thymus, the Demon, the Magi and the Conflux

We will now focus on the middle section of the Metabolism of Time, namely the Inner Mind (associated with the pancreas, enteric nervous system) and the Analysis and Reaction of/to the Moment (associated with the thymus gland and by extension to the immune system).

THE CONFUSED VENUTIAN (THYMUS - RECOGNISING FORIEGN BODIES)



THE MASK OF THE DEMON
NATURAL MASK OF
CONFUSED VENUTIAN (THYMUS)

The natural characters of the Thymus gland are the Confused Venutian (highly analytical, tendency towards destructive, deconstructive - immune system recognising foriegn bodies) and the Shellfish (highly social - immune system recognising self cells), which have the masks of the Demon and the Magi associated with them.  The Demon is the natural mask of the immune system on the attack, the Magi the natural mask of the immune system recognising the self.



THE DREAMER - MASK OF
THYMUS UNDER
NEGATIVE ATTENTION

Demons typically feed on Shards (or strong memories - see Conflux II - Processes) and as such these masks are involved in generating situations where those Shards will form.  They may do this by engaging in group/solo extreme activities such as war, bungee jumping, surfing, etc or it might take the form of intense relationships.  Remember that generally individuals lie on a path so for example you might be encountering a Confused Venutian (thymus - foriegn) --> Jay (adrenaline) - in which case the memory forming may be centred on sport or war.  Alternately you may be encountering an individual on the path between Confused Venutian (thymus - foriegn) --> Treefrog (thyroid) in which the memory forming pursuits will be centred on art (normally art criticism, or deconstruction, because of the tendencies of the Confused Venutian) or travel/tourism (typically something more like backpacking for months than a quick weekend break is preferable).



THE GAMBLER - MASK OF
THYMUS CHARACTERS
UNDER POSITIVE ATTENTION

Just like in our other descriptions of the masks positive attention (compliments, praise) and negative attention (criticism, slander) will cause the mask to alter its type depending on the position on the diagram.  Negative attention will change the mask of the Demon (natural mask of the Confused Venutian) into the mask of the Dreamer - the visible effects of this are under the influence of negative attention the person will retreat into themselves and feed on the Shards (memories) they have already stored.  Typically the negative attention will be brought about by a failed attempt at creating another Shard (by the methods described above).  Under the influence of positive attention the Demon will transform to the Mask of the Gambler (the natural mask of the Treefrog/Thyroid) - the successful attempt to generate a shard makes the natural character incline to take more and more risks and generate more and more of them.  At some point this increasingly risky behaviour fails and negative attention is accrued.



THE SHELLFISH - THYMUS (RECOGNISING SELF)

The mask associated with the natural character of the Shellfish is the Magi - it is loud, highly social, entertaining and attention-seeking.  It requires vast amounts of attention to maintain itself, and develops its varous 'party tricks' (story telling, juggling, pub games, jokes, sleight-of-hand, etc) in order to milk out more attention than is possible in normal transactions.  Also the 'party trick' approach allows the Magi to tap the attention of many individuals at once.  The Magi takes centre stage in social settings such as parties (which they normally create themselves being fantastic hosts and social butterflies) and increases the flow of attention diverting much of it to themselves.  Sometimes if this is overzealously carried out they will causes Rifts (Rifts are obviously more likely to happen at parties).



THE MASK OF THE MAGI -
NATURAL MASK OF THE SHELLFISH

Similar to the Confused Venutian, the natural mask of the Shellfish - the Magi, transforms into a Gambler under positive attention and a Dreamer under negative attention.  Again looking at the diagram it is easier to turn a Magi into a Gambler and a Demon into a Dreamer because of the natural tendencies of the individual.  You can always force a reaction to occur (through pressure, catalysts, etc) against these tendencies but its much harder.  A Magi is much more likely to recieve positive attention for their entertainment value than a Demon, and so therefore more likely to become a Gambler when distorted.  The behaviour of the Gambler is such that the successful Magi will take greater and greater risks to get more attention from the central stage and as such is much more likely to end up making a fool of themselves - since the tendency of a Shellfish is towards indulgence and intoxication (recognising the 'self' in others, 'love') this making a fool of themselves is often the result of alcohol.  A Magi will generally only become a Dreamer if their initial attempts to 'entertain' fall flat and is so they will often retreat to the perimeter of the group nursing their ego and just feeding on 'background radiation' of the social environment.

QABALAH

The above information relates to individuals whose 'root-soul' or 'natural-character' lies on or around Gevurah (Confused Venutian, Analysis of the Moment, Thymus, Demon) and Chesed (Shellfish, Response to the Moment, Thymus, Magi).