legba lodge: 4/1/25

.. 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 ..