re:claim your Self (or, the gilded grifters)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Water has no enemies .. only friends"

- from Washington Black 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. shades (.. thus named because he was a lifelong wanderer, ever seeking the shade ..) reflected thus(ly): I'm a restless person who gets bored easily; & good luck satisfying someone like that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & how, in any case, do you become who you've always wanted to be ..? .. it's easy; you decide to .. it's sticking with it that's the real challenge .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. needless to say, perhaps, that you'll meet with many diversions, not to mention distractions, on the Way to becoming who you are, but I'm stubborn, & I'm just not good at surrendering ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. William S Burroughs, a real dyed in the wool psychonaut, writing in Naked Lunch, said "Hustlers of the world, there is one Mark you cannot beat: The Mark Inside" ..  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. without a strong con nection to an inner Guide, things can veer off track fairly fast .. the Self whispers in moments of inner quiet, & listening is a skill that can be honed like any other; with patient, yet persistent, practice ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. more Mysteries exist than time to study them, is the magician's real curse .. so choices & priorities are inevitable .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. to take just one example, tho surely a con temporary one that's arguably increasingly pertinent: is there a deeper, esoteric meaning to so-called artificial intelligence (a better term for which might be "synthetic intelligence" ..?

 

 .. in engaging with it, it's important to keep in mind the epistemic uncertainly of AI, what with 'hallucinations' etc .. but one could also think of it as an infestation which, eventually, will cause an inoculation against this particular flaw ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  it might even result in people being more picky about defining facts & figures .. or so one might hope ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't it all a little odd? You can't quite put your word on it, irreducible. Man vs man vs woman vs dog. The spectacle of it all - and then what? The glory carnival of souls turns on (and on), for some reason. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe we're unwilling to admit that there could be some kind of biological / energetic structures above us in the food chain, but we should at least be able to admit as obvious that there are people who are further up the economic pyramid or intra-species food chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All it takes is a dollar to buy some humans' souls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems like this has all happened before... It has, but it was different back then. The major signposts along the way mark out similar segments in time and the macrocosmic orbits are crisper and more constant than the more varied minutiae of the meso-cosm. Great batteries of motion ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[There's no point in trying to tie these forces into those set aside for use in technological apparatus (for the moment) {and i bet someone already has, but its use is not at my disposal and I must figure it out for myself}. You can just start with the geometry. Euclid is a guide to the location and construction of forms in the environment, right?]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roaring 20s, appeasement, brutality against "the other": every nation sitting in a different chair. If World War II didn't end, what better time for a reunion than right about now? Remember the national socialists' concern with eugenics way back then, and now the ghastly recurrence shown in Maxwell / Epstein conspiracy that turned out to be real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If my memory serves correctly, the UFO phenomena cropped up more seriously WWII days and not so long ago there'd been a whole push for transparency on the US Government's knowledge regarding such whacked out shit as flying saucers and little green men. But, hey, if the elite are running sex rings & at the same time giving speeches to the UN, who's to say ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, then there's Antarctica too. Piri Reis map, etc. Atlantis, whatever...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give me bigfoot any old day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that magic, science, religion, statecraft, art and music were all once united. They did serve to subject and control populations to build out the visions of priestly kings and their courts, though. So there's that, and let me ask you a question: do you like where things seem to be currently headed these days?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe your personal life is cozy enough, I hope, but what about the trajectories of those tectonic masses of people that seem to be implied by all the current goings on? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn man, what does a trajectory of that sort even look like at a scale that could be remotely possible to deal with? Little bitty unit there, little human, I'll represent you by X and you start going over this way, then that way, etc. Now start punching that guy over there, ok great.

 

I mean, how long ago was it that Obama had been elected? The whole tenor was different. Honestly, what could change the psycho-emotional gestalt to such a degree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did anything ACTUALLY happen? Or are some orbs swinging around?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[[Loath as I am to say it: ChatGPT (et al.) could probably help me figure it out. worth mentioning that local LLMs can function as totally private search?]]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. it's only a "con spiracy theory" if it's wrong ..

.. remember that ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but if it's true, then it's a fact .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(w)hol(e)istic(k) (days/daze/dais)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If you wanna talk about reputations, and if by some fuckin' miracle long shot you haven't heard of my reputation, let me tell you who the fuck I am. I am the fuckin' sultan of slick, Sadie. I am the rule of fuckin' cool. You wanna be a gangster? You wanna be a thug? You sit at my fuckin' feet. Gather the pearls that emanate forth from me. Because I'm the fuckin' original, straight-first-foremost, pimp-mack fuckin' hustler, original gangster's gangster"

 

- from Gigli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" .. morality is unethical. To always be told what to do and when to do it, even if only through an internalized moral code or religious law, is to be denied even the condition of possibility for ever becoming an ethical person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethics is a question of developing one’s own character – in terms of attitudes, habits, and inclinations conditioned by various experiences that afford one an opportunity to act in ways that determine and express a certain telos or aim in one’s life.

Only a free spirit is ethical. Anyone who needs a moral code handed to him or her, with a specific set of commandments and prohibitions, does not even have the possibility of being ethical. Such a person is not consulting his own conscience or cultivating her own character"

 

 

 

- Jason Reza Jorjani, The Philosophy of Zarathustra

 

Store current texture

Load spectral data

repeat...

process, react

next frame

data incoming ->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

receipt acknowledged

forward to recipient:

-- . -- . - .. -.-.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information overload

too much to hash

 

revert commit / migrate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

shutdown \ restart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

acid flush repair body

Up and At'em (Ra)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time spent in transit

there and back again...

...and then there again

 

 

 

 

 

 

homebase, supply chains, food

salt, salaries: paper dolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a crane ducking under

a stream to captcha frog

 

 

 

 

 

 

human or not? we'll need

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

your blood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to prove it: sign on

[the dotted line]



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

blink, don't blink

can you adjust your frame rate?

and, what about those power surges

where the lights go dark 

quickling, then on; but,

digital equipment continues in operation


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a wave of night

material shadow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Distance between the straight John and the wise guy is not good or evil. It's just knowing what's going on"

- from Henry Johnson

.. you really wanna be a master, learn everything there is to know about yourself .. but not at second hand; from your own experience .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. 'know yourself' is an idea often attributed to Socrates, the father of Western philosophy, but he learned it from the Delphic Oracle, a much older tradition .. other scholars attribute it to the Chinese strategist Sun Tsu, and to African schools of thought ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. in any case, it isn't a stretch by any means to say that anyone who's seriously undertaken esoteric research has been guided by this idea, in some Way ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. this isn't a selfish, self-indulgent or solipsistic undertaking .. on the con trary, it is only through attuning & engaging with our own subjective reality that we can form correlations & con nections to the "simulation", the shared hallucination that is the "real" world .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. the master is thus called because they've mastered themselves, having studied & learned its secrets .. at that point, some are satisfied, having real eyes-ed that nature's own code is in everything, including us .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. others, having reached the same crossroads, reason that to master oneself is to master the world, & subsequently set out to demonstrate that thesis in practical terms ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

".. someone has to watch the watchmen .. "

 

- from Ballard 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. there are listeners & those who know .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the former have peace but lack wisdom,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

whereas the latter have wisdom, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but no peace .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. so choose well ..

.. I have friends everywhere ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle"

 

 

 

- George Orwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. even in first class, there's turbulence ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"success breeds complacency .. complacency breeds hubris .. hubris breeds arrogance"
 

 

 

- from MobLand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was dada particularly philosophical other than just the starting point that everything is absurd?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took it more as an attempt at showing a miniaturized representation of the underlying "insane / meaningless / absurd" incongruities of modern living for human organisms at that point in historical time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But also that that art which is displayed on walls is not all that different from the experienced life of a people, and that the boundary between art, or fiction, and reality becomes blurred when viewed through the lens of the absurd as a personal experience of the imposing, impersonal, piece of art that is the civilization and culture created by our long dead ancestors, or not even that, but the civilization of some conquering people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The absurd is still “art”, even if there was a controversy at the time. It was, is, maybe the art we are forced into confronting - and if our way of living is absurd, and the absurd is a form of art, maybe our way of life needs a very intentional remodeling along some different aesthetic thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t have to be the experience we are all forced to live through, but also, a sufficiently large number of people have to agree to give the living piece of art that is a civilization and culture the vital force to sustain it over some timespan. Which requires a very high degree of collaboration on a set of minimum values.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, people got to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet, now in particular, it is obvious that that boundary between the real and unreal, illusory, or at best possibly real, is deteriorating. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simulation is cheaper that the real thing, or, will hifi word-churns replace the real, fleah-and-blood, deal?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"When did our lives get so empty that we have to constantly stuff them full of this shit?"

 

- from Your Friends & Neighbors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. if life is absurd, both generally & especially in the world of today, we can still give it our own meaning .. people find meaning in work, in family & their children, in larger organizations that make them feel part of something important ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but then what happens when one or more of these disappoints them in some way, & they lose that sense of meaning ..? .. well, they often spiral into nihilism or give into self- or other-destructive tendencies .. maybe there's a firmer foundation on which to base & from which to derive one's meaning ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the esoteric practitioner is the center, the very heart of their own magickal universe ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. now, in thinking thrugh this point & its implications, it's important to be careful to avoid hyperbole & especially reflexive & oppressive either/or binaries.. it's not about choosing between self & others .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & yet, all of our experiences, decisions & actions are from our own perspective, so it's phenomenologically accurate to ground one's sense of meaning within ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  to seek & find meaning esoterically, in this Way, is thus accurate to experience & more sincere; deeper, because it doesn't depend on, nor is it subject to, other people & organizations .. but this doesn't mean that others are somehow unimportant or expendable .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..  if one is the center of one's magickal universe, then the response ability for their actions & their con sequences are also their own .. in actual fact, it's not possible to build a functional, let alone a fruitful society unless this is the case .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. what does it mean to seek & find meaning within ..? .. well, it isn't something that can be pointed to, like an object; inner meaning being literally subjective .. nor is it an inner state, like an emotion ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. finding one's inner meaning would entail a search to seek it out, & moreover, it may well change over time .. but once it is actually gnown, it becomes like a center from which one's decisions & actions emerge, a foundation for one's position & effects in the world ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. the magician is the center of their own magickal universe, & they are response able for its outcome; whether it flowers & flourishes, or degenerates & devolves ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"No, truth is not a mirror. Truth is a Promethean torch burning amidst the darkness of predominating occultation. This is why I say that every ‘truth’ has the violence of a Promethean act of theft"

 

 

 

- Jason Reza Jorjani, Aletheion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. we run it like a business, we run it like an op; 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we run it like a Workshop ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(retro)causality: commod(e)itized li(v)es

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. there's only one Way to learn patience ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. & yes (needless to say..?) ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. it's the hard way ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Those we call heroes only did what they had to do"

 

 

 

- from The Wheel of Time

..  it's re@LLy all in the delivery  .. some might offer dead ends, whereas others offer means to discern a Way ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. let me drop this (2) on you ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. up/down - dropping the proverbial deuce ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flush it all away why don't you - you know it's headed there anyways: spin spin down the drain. Everything's falling, just saying. You ever notice how the vertical of gravity sometimes seems to shift in altered states, down is not quite "down" if you catch my drift. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if "down" is how we're centered, anchored, to Terra, then maybe we can shift our view about in some way if only we can shift the "down".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While our bodies respond naturally to being pushed or pulled, whichever it is, you know some have conjectured that there is no such thing as a pull. Everything is pushed and smooshed together like all that flotsam and jetsam bobbing up and down in our junk yard oceans. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a matter of density, see. Even when we go about pulling things, we have to hook our hands around whatever it is, and then those trailing hooks end up doing some pushing - we're then also pushing off against the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The proprioceptive accounting of our bodies' tie to the earth is one thing that can be shifted, then along with the visual apperception of that linear chain from head to foot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know, how when you tilt your head "down" stays "down" and shit doesn't look all that out-of-place? So two things here we can attempt to adjust, both of which are basic feelings that attend to the sensory intake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pick a point out there somewhere, preferably very, if not infinitely, far off. Make yourself feel that you are being pulled, or pushed, towards it. Transpose the greater center of gravity from the standard earth -> (moon) -> sun -> etc. chain to some other unique location, but then you won't be on earth any more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This modulation of the perception of gravity is very apparent with the diviner's sage, however, you know now that you can look for these deviations and even attempt to cause them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the everyday, with walking or standing in a shop, it is possible to notice being "pushed" around by the environment. Notice the varied trajectories of your body and how they adjust as the external changes. Changes in the local, physical, down will tend to make you lean and veer one way or another. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The psychic structure of verticality is not wholly the same. The first relates to the being of activity in the common, shared, world. The second to how we "put together" that material world. Nevertheless, following along with the familiar can lead to the unexpected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are only able to act on the sensed environment, whatever the extent of that sensing. The internal state is also a sensed environment that, however, seems uniquely bound up in what we consider to be ourself, say, apart from a tree or a house. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forget that our identity is tied up in all of our perceiving, and reflect on the fact that the human gestalt has certain invariants attributed to it, one of which is "down". 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These structures that underly the assemblage of environmental data into some sort of coherence are deeply seated assumptions of the self and changes to them are reflected subsequently in great measure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The effects of various substances and the emotional, mental, internal reactions in some sense indicate the degree to which variances in the fundamental structures cascade into the rest of the functioning of the individual. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other words, if you succeed in modulating "the down", you might just notice some things - and maybe act a bit off.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. people like us are dangerous, but not because we're a danger .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. rather, we @LL but compel others to operate at a high(er) standard ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"There is no beginning; no end. Life is a scratched record looping over and over again.."

 

 

- from The Devil's Hour 

 

 

..  shades (.. thus named because he could barely remember who he was when he started on this Way .. ) is gnown to have said,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

".. I don't be lie ve in sadness as a category .. maybe that's a magickal act to empty it of its power .. but Castaneda says (don Juan said) that sadness is a sort of acclimation to a change in the state of affairs, & I read that to mean that one who has a plan really has no use for sadness as such, save perhaps to channel it towards fulfilling said plan .. might even put this in the upcoming issue, for that matter .."
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. which isn't to say that having a plan & operating with ambiguity should be seen as mutually exclusive .. the former pertains to being prepared & organized, whereas the latter emerges from a sense of con fidence in oneself, which are two different trajectories ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. con fidence doesn't doesn't come out of nowhere, or rather that's exactly where it comes from .. what happens over time is that we either reinforce this originary self-assuredness, or gradually lose (sight of) it ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. but the latter shouldn't be seen as the end of the story; not unless we decide it is .. it's possible to regain this self-con fidence, over time, by engaging with reality in creative ways ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. retrocausality, or reverse causation, is defined as an effect "causing" (or is it effecting..?) a cause, literally putting the cart before the horse, so that the cause comes after the effect in time.. it's a difficult con cept to con ceive, but this is precisely where it's useful for the magician ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. we can also think about retrocausality as rewriting reality, & like all magickal techniques, it's as dangerous as it is powerful, its level of threat determined by the character & intentions of its wielder ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. it can be used to justify atrocities ("if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have a progressive pushback") just as well as to strengthen & empower the practitioner ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. we're always looking backwards; that's just how memory works .. so why not have fun with it, as long as it's toward a positive & productive cause .. maybe a past mistake was merely an "experiment" that didn't quite pan out .. & really, isn't that exactly what it was ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. originary self-con fidence & a sense of playful experimentation aren't mutually exclusive, but, on the con trary, are one & the same; they emerge along parallel trajectories .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. mistakes (or 'experiments') are an inextricable part of life, & should be seen as either detours from, or further & deeper explorations of the Way, as the practitioner wills ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. by opening to these approaches & attitudes, we can eventually, with patience & practice, gain the ability to retrocausally affect past events to better con nect to our present spaciotemporal location, &, in a double movement, simultaneously free the present to refer to the future & vice versa, thereby accessing the inner truth of retrocausality within our own experience ..

 

 

 

 

"Suicidal hierarchy, racing in reverse;
 

 

everything that's done today will be tomorrow's curse .."

 

 

- Slayer, Fictional Reality

.. when you have enough money ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. everything is cheap as shit ..

.. but isn't it enough ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. don't u think u have enough stuff ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. can't you make do ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. without that thing or (#)2 ..
 

the kakistocrats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. caught in a spiral again & spinning ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. con fused & disoriented & seeking signs, mantras ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. a Way to stay grounded as I assemble the world ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. as I've done countless times before ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Tous les jours à tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux"

 

 

 

- Émile Coué, La maîtrise de soi-même par l'autosuggestion consciente

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, well, well - what do we have here? Looks like you're staring at a computer, reading some through a square grid of pixels superimposed on your approximately hexagonal arrangement of rods and cones. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything is just all square, normal. Those right angles just make everything so... independent, right (angled) where they belong; separated into neat little houses, all contained within those black-lined walls where nothing bleeds through, especially all those photos and videos of people hacking and slashing one another. Well that would make a mess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the pictures still stay, the after-images of passing frames, echoing and asking for a response. Fiction is one thing, dreams, stories of good and evil, predator and prey, but who wants to think about apex predators outside of the comfort of one's living room. Who has the time, or energy? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The machine is set to run through its human batteries, one-by-one: If you're not in the driver's seat, you're worse off than Fred Flintstone; at least he had to put in some effort, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, the machine may feed off people, be composed of people and things people have built, but that's a sort of secondhand apex predator. More like a body that discards dead cells when it's done with them, a bit too abstract to usually be thought of as threat to life and limb, unlike a rabid dog, for instance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do the cows, chickens, pigs, and all the other animals headed off to the abattoir know they're about to meet their maker? How do they image their two-legged masters? Can they have any intimation of the sort of predicament they are in? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not even hunted by a predator, but raised in a state where they need not want for food or water or shelter. All comfortable like, yet still their fate awaits them. Can this state of affairs still be considered one of predation? A factory farm from cradle to grave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We eat the flesh of (some of) the animals we keep, and nothing seems to be taking a knife or teeth and claws to our bodies, chopping them up for stew. At least not with anything approaching the regularity with which chicken is eaten for dinner. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, collectively we seem to be apex predators as far as physical nutriment is concerned, but there is at least one common cannibalistic way of feeding on humans and that is through the money totem. But that's old hat, and no-one cares. Just like with the animals on factory farms, the machine we feed takes care of us and there's really no vivid emotional reaction to predation of this sort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's just not that scary. What we want are those bulbous headed greys, the little green men, the H.R. Giger inspired aliens. What fun is a hospice? We want to be eaten alive, or, more likely probably not, but we would want something we can actually grab ahold of and fight against. But do we even want that? Again, probably not. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I summon a UFO, all I want to get for a souvenir is a t-shirt, thanks. I'll skip the implants and all that. We really don't want to deal with the probable fact that there are aliens, or that they might already be here, up to whatever interstellar shenanigans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We should consider the possible role of consciousness, belief, awareness: I think I'll pass on summoning any UFOs for the time being, but maybe other people'd like to take the job. Like people in the military and intelligence circles, perhaps. It's their work to consider crazy ass-hat possibilities and threats, take them seriously, give them that little sliver of belief. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the inconceivable is imperceptible, then it makes sense that the militaries and some of their personnel are the most likely to come into close encounters with the "third kind", indeed with any fringe phenomena. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Especially if they've already come across hints or even physical facts that suggest they're "on the right track" regarding the alien agenda. Belief snowballs, crystallizes into a worldview where the impossible happens, and may become commonplace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, let it be said, that I believe I have come across a non-human embodied intelligence capable of approximating a human being. As well also as other, apparently alive and self-acting, energies and apparent humans appearing and acting suspiciously under suspicious circumstances. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I'm right there with you, who I assume also has doubts about WTF exactly is going on. Even if I have to get up, eat, work and do it all over again. Put the incongruities out of mind and go about my day. I'll save the aliens for t.v...

a warrior, a master & a kakistocrat walk into a bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. Carlos Castaneda likes to talk about the warrior, & one can certainly see the appeal .. the warrior lives by a code of honor, is disciplined & organized, & above all is effective at what they set out to achieve .. who wouldn't want to think of themselves as a warrior ..?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. that's someone who's capable yet serene; equanimous, even .. engaging in actual warfare is almost an afterthought, because the idea is that if one can comport themselves in this Way, victory is @LL but assured .. ergo, if the warrior sets out to attain to Mastery, then surely if not ineviably, they will, in time ..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. wanna know how to tell if a self-styled master is a true master..? .. there isn't a master who doesn't meditate .. meditation changes you on a profound metaphysical level, puts you in touch with yourself in parallel universes, con nects you to the wider scheme of things, the so-called "big picture" .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. in other words, & if one is in the market for a definive trait of the masters, one could do a lot worse .. to be sure, it's also worth keeping in mind that there are many Ways to meditate, & to attune to different aspects of the Great Mystery ..

.. as for the kakistocracy, we can con trast their need for external validation to the more "organic", holistic con nections of the masters to deeper existential layers .. the former seek the approval of others, & wrongly surmise that worldly success will somehow offset their lack in other, deeper & more essential trajectories of attainment ..

.. kakistocracy is a word that refers to government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state; to a society that is determined or driven by its least adequate or capable .. with apologies if that hits a tad too close to home ..

 .. the kakistocrat will do whatever it takes to get ahead, without regard for moral quandaries, red lines or, most damning of all, any internal code of con duct or ethics .. this isn't something they even con sider; it lies beyond their purview ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. there's an old joke called 'the aristocrats', but for our purposes here it might as well be 'the kakistocrats', because it underlines this point .. the kakistocrat isn't driven, determined, motivated by a subjective Way to be, but instead seeks attainment & approval externally, from others .. & by this, they define themselves ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. all of which is emphatically not to say that only by choosing to be a member of the kakistocracy can one advance in the world .. on the con trary; only the warrior, the master, can ever experience true success ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

.. the point isn't to delineate attainment in the world from success in one's self-determined goals in the first place; to be sure, both of these can and often do con verge .. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. rather, it is to emphasize that the one isn't identical to the other, & to underline that which of these one chooses to prioritize goes a long Way to determine what kind of person they will become ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The only true aristocracy is that of consciousness"

- D H Lawrence

.. & Working in this Way ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. following the signs through the lifeworld I've con structured ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. I con tinue my journey home, ever onward ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 .. to my Self ..