@tune

"There is a wave-motion in the psychic
envelope of our experience, a constant
movement; yet this movement is like the
movement of water, or the movement of waves,
and yet it has its own mode of expression -
its own rhythm or 'beat'..."


-Michael Bertiaux

its vibrations or rhythms






within them are planes, surfaces, quantities




but the oscillations, which are the


more challenging to perceive,






supersede

& how do we know this? simple. changing
quantities, surfaces, changes nothing in our
life. Or if it does, it's a minor and trivial
change.






changing the rhythm, which is not
at all easy, changes things in our existence
so much that we can say without exaggeration
that it makes one into a different person

it is a war, you see

vibe versus quantity.

those black magicians

Even though the external world in which we (usually) act is a three dimensional ensemble of objects, they are all actually processes or (at least) four dimensional objects. And this includes our own beings, and we know this although it may tend to be only a background noise. Yet is this four dimensional world indeed static or must it have its own form of time to which it is beholden, where timelines are like string in the wind. Time as we experience it is full of recurrences leading to suggest that time itself is cyclical in nature; that there is something fundamental in the nature of time that leads to repetition.




There seems to be a force compelling the existence of an ever changing present sandwiched between the two vast spaces of the past and future - a surface of contact between two four dimensional spaces. We can view this surface, which is also a three dimensional volume, as moving along a track at each point presenting a section of a static four-fold reality. We can also view this surface as itself being static with higher objects passing through from either side, future or past.




What we see in our present reality is the collision or interaction of the past and future. The force of change, or time, seems most often to be a pressure coming from 'behind', from the past, but it may just as well be a suction from the future. This order may be reversed or they could be both either of the two alternatives. Pressure and suction, although some of their effects agree, are two different things. Suction takes from a large volume and compacts, while pressure give from a smaller volume and expands. This distinction can be easily discerned from either one's breath or a fan. Hold your hand in front of your mouth while you inhale and exhale, or hold it on either side of a fan, and you will notice a qualitative difference - yet the amount of air moved is the same.




If current scientific big bang cosmology is correct, then the force of the past is a pressure - and this is all they see, yet instead there may be a pulling from the future which is qualitatively different. If we see time as inherently cyclical we need not choose one or the other. Imagine time as a torus, a doughnut shape. A push in one direction is then very much also a pull. If we imagine the torus as cinched then there is both a divergence from the 'beginning' of time and convergence to the 'end' of time. From the analogy with our breath, these forces would manifest as different qualities in our three dimensional present. Perhaps, however, one of the two is truly the original motion.

what does this have to do with esotericism?
simple.
these so-called rhythms are themselves definitive of the esoteric




they are the very texture, structure of
space-time-mind





These rhythms are neither outside nor inside, but rather interact and converse. .

Or at least they should

what interests the esotericist is the nature of these rhythms, which can be 'synced' to various wavelengths, moods, vibes, or spirits, gods, or what you will

Time is best felt through the sensation of moving bodies, including our own. Different forms of bodily activity give rise to different sensations of time. Tai chi or Aikido for example highlight its fluid nature, while a more contact based martial art such as karate highlight its punctuation by distinct events.




Time independent of the body is best experienced in busy places such as a train station. Look at an unmoving point but focus on the entire visual field. Relax your mind and you will begin to notice the echoes of the past in the form of trails 'behind' objects and people. While performing the exercise you will also come to feel the energetic environment more clearly and it is also possible the you will notice time begin to get sticky. You will notice a backwards flow and instants of time being replayed.




Absorption in the experience of the flow of time leads to its linearity breaking down and the recurrent nature becomes evident. In a way one becomes outside of time and the whole eternal cycle of cycles is suspended at that point, dangling by a thread the whole is pregnant with possibility. Deja vu is a similar experience of recurrence, but that comes without effort on one's part - you made similar choices in a past past that led to the same point.




By suspending the moment, you can step outside the well-worn pathways of eternal recurrence and begin to make a new path. It is also worth noting that in such a state you are also more likely to meet other beings for whom time is not so linear.

bodymind complexi ties

"I wonder how this wealth has
made its home in this poverty."

- The Gospel According to Thomas




In theravada buddhism, a technique is taught whereby the meditator learns to experience their body not as a resident thereof who sits in the head and peeks out the eyes, but rather as essentially a field of energy, through which their consciousness moves, scanning it from top to bottom and repeatedly.

This technique is known as vipassana. not ones to mince their words, the buddhists think of this as literally the way to grasp how things (the body, the mind) really are.




Never mind smoking, spending too much time in public can kill you. Get your own room where you can have privacy whenever you need it, & train your body to be comfortable by itself. At first it'll be hard, that's your body signaling it's discomfort at being responsible for itself. Or its the bodies of others calling you because they stand to benefit from your energy. Resist. Learn to become comfortable by yourself. Only then will you be suitably prepared to face your own death.




One who is well versed in the technique will begin to isolate points of tension in the body, knots or blockages, as they're variously called (and both names are accurate to the experience of these areas).

The experienced/advanced bioalchemist will have already identified their own areas for work, or transmutation. The object being to work with these areas of conflict, to turn the areas of stress into new opportunities and real life changes.




its all rates of flow, reality itself is a frequency.

A profound secret of bioenergetics lies herein, and it was stated centuries ago by that thrice great alchemist Hermes, to wit, "That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing".

As the bioenergetic technician works with these areas, and learns the methods of earthing their charges of tension, they will see real and increasingly intense changes to their reality. Changes are effected in the way consciousness arranges reality, and what it chooses to focus on.

Death comes from the right, or it comes from the left. But it always comes from the same direction. & it is always insistent. no. inexorable




This is the bioenergetic magnum opus.

a little death

falling straight down about twenty-five feet I smashed my nose in almost to the point of puncturing the brain, the surgeon said they were very nearly operating on that cerebral organ when they reconstructed my battered face. The interesting thing about my, admittedly painful, experience was that soon after I began my inevitable plunge, my consciousness left my body and I could see myself falling in slowed time before I was transported to a bird’s eye view of a limitless desert and a mechanized city in its midst. What my vision means I cannot be certain, but it seemed to me to say that only machines were left at the far-side of eternity; that we human organisms were fast losing our own immortality by fearing death and believing that the end of the body is the end of the individual.

 ...

in esotericism we often encounter schemes of the subtle body and its various levels of energies. one can understand the well-meaning commentators who have a tendency to rank these energies; surely it is a better investment of time & energy to cultivate the consciousness of higher energies?

those experienced in navigating these realms often report encounters with nonhuman, yet conscious and sentient, beings. many do not, and so, judging by their own experiences, conclude that those who have had these experiences are fabricating, or exaggerating more pedestrian encounters. the truth is much more interesting and complex, and pertains to the logistics of such encounters.

seekers after such experiences are almost universally advised to follow the stock preparations for 'the esoteric life': renouncing excess, maintaining a strict discipline, &c. what is not always emphasized is whether these steps are the means or the end in itself. If one is seeking to encounter what have been variously called allies, or spirits, then discipline is a means to an end.

another reason one might tend to discount these encounters is that they do not happen in a normal waking consciousness. this is one reason to work with the methods of discipline (unless one has the ability to consciously recollect one's dreams, they are unlikely to be aware of such encounters even if they are already having them).

The greatest fear is the fear of death - the fear of an imminent unknown, the ultimate unforetold. What, if anything, of this fear pierces through the veils of sub- and un-conscious processes and finds life in the daily habits of the individual and society?

The fear of the unknown most certainly finds parallels with the fear of death, which is its exemplar, but how does this very real, and at times very palpable, fear resonate throughout the human worlds? In large part it would have to be by the fall back into ritual and superstition regarding separation from the body, that which in this world is often the only thing a person has that they consider themselves capable of knowing.

Certainly death is inevitable for all living creatures, at least outside the confines of religion or the lore of alchemy that posit a life-here-after or a wondrous medicine capable of bestowing a measure of immortality, as well as the wealth with which to enjoy it. But why fear the inevitable?

Or perhaps it is that very certainty which we most fear and not the unknown itself, for there are certainly psychedelic travelers ready to barrel headlong into strange contortions of mental landscape. Some even return after the obligatory eight hours or so with stories of their death and rebirth. So perhaps it is the unwavering certainty and knowledge of the inevitable that human beings fear so much, yet that would mean there is some strange transference going on in our aptitude to pick up ritual and habit, things and activities that we make inevitable and certain.

Ritual can serve to hold our lives together. Something we can always return to, that we know and are comfortable with. Death before one’s time is a tragedy, yet who can say when one’s time is and whether or not departing at a specified date was not the best thing that could have happened?

these experiences most often occur in liminal states which are neither sleep nor dreaming per se, and at times that are neither daytime nor night. nor are such experiences restricted to dreaming - they can occur in any 'break' in normal, waking consciousness, the kind of states that certain meditators actively seek, what a certain sorcerer might call 'stopping the world'. these breaks in consciousness can be entered into, just like doorways or gateways into other, outer worlds. just like (a little) death.

-

the best or worst time for these to happen depends on an intricate machine of factors that includes the astrological configuration, lunar and solar phase and one's own existential circumstances, most prominent among which is whether they have developed, through a strict discipline, the ability to know that they are happening.

these experiences can be used as a component in a sort of machine which the magician can use to control time and space, to control energy. the objective here is not to dominate, but rather to organise ones energetic gestalt in the most effective manner. the magician's ability to seek the latter while avoiding the former will be one of the factors determining the extent of their success.

-

why not advise students to take the seemingly responsible route, to hone in on the higher energies and to ignore the lower? many of those who give this advice are not giving it to people who live in the real world, are not living in the real world themselves, are not (and mystics in general are not) esoteric strategists¹.

those magicians of the so-called left hand path are esoteric strategists. their position is basically that even the dark, the evil, the unclean, can be a means of esoteric attainment. & an attainment of a peculiar nature, it is – not to become one with god, but to become oneself a god.

many modern magicians described as being of the left hand path advocate association with certain energies, intelligences, or spirits as they are variously called, in order to exchange with them knowledge and power, often in return for energies of a 'lower' nature. the argument being that the spirits existing on these lower frequencies of the energetic spectrum accessible to us tend to be business-minded².

both the methods of these magicians and their objectives, seen to be alien to the 'known', the human world, cause them to be described as being of the left hand path, this being understood by some as little more than a pejorative term³.

nonetheless, these technicians have understood the end of esoteric study as the attainment of knowledge and power, and the means as both the most ready to hand and potent of all, these being precisely those which are understood by the layperson to be 'unclean' or inherently dangerous to use (in this manner)...

When you ask someone what they believe happens after we die, they ought to rightly respond by affirming that they do not know – many will say they will cease to exist, others that they will be going to heaven or hell, similitudes to the life we certainly do have some inkling of only transfigured into regions of only good or only bad, some will say that they will be reborn into some other body in some other time.

There are cases of young children who have provided astounding knowledge regarding what appear to have been their past-lives, and this gives some credence to the idea of reincarnation, but the vast majority appear to remember nothing. But yet, where do life and death come from - what is life and what is death? What can we say about the state of being without a body, being embodied ourselves, and why do we fear it? Why are little children scared of the dark?

A vast eternal blackness necessarily without feature would seem to be the closest approximation we have to non-existence, no thought yet still an undeniable appreciation and perception of darkness. It may not be a very full life, but it would still be a life of sorts. And what about the light at the end of the tunnel that many say they have seen after having been on the brink of death or even truly clinically dead?

Light and dark are the two existential phenomena that cannot be resolved into further analogical contraries: Light begins and is life, darkness the end being death, and in between a water wherein the Great Game is played out between the White and Dark forces of the world.

For it is certainly the interplay of water, light, and the dark unshining elements that have created these bodies that we inhabit and use. Without the sun and without water there would be no life. Yet also, without shade and shadow and tempering coolness life would not be. Some philosophies even say that our world and matter is all a shadow cast by higher objects in a greater space of higher meaning. That only with our current habits of mind is there the battleground where life and death and time are real

---

1 indeed, one can (over)generalize mysticism as the 'right hand path' itself. similarly, the magician would be definitive of an adherent of the lhp. if one moves in this trajectory, one will soon come to the (accurate) conclusion that the ideal is a synthesis of the two, rather than any adherence to only one or the other..
 

2 this seems overly materialistic, but that is simply an inappropriate perspective to take. In physics we learn that for every action, there is an equal, opposite reaction. This is a structural 'fact' of our reality. Money is simply a standard for measuring energy, and far from the most accurate one could conceive. in any case, this is the correct, or 'healthy' way to think of the relationship. while it is an important interaction, it is inaccurate to think of it as some kind of 'end'; rather it is to be considered a means toward the magician's own ends.

3 in fact, the problem is not with using these techniques, or aiming for these lofty aspirations. one might easily become obsessed with these encounters, setting aside all else in their favour. even as the rest of one's life comes tumbling around one, all they will be thinking of is the next opportunity to indulge in ones addiction.

(negative) space

There's more to space than mere distance. There is also the duality that finds expression and use in projective geometry. Consider two intersecting lines. The lines intersect in a point, and the point and two lines are in this sense equivalent. It would be fruitful at this point to examine the standard geometric entities of point, line, plane, circle, &c.

1 create an empty three dimensional space into which your mind's eye might peer.

2 posit a point in this space and imagine all the lines that pass through that point. The object made up of all those lines is called a 'pencil of lines', and it may variously be considered as containing the unifying point or not, as circumstances dictate. This is a more expansive notion of the duality as noted supra.

3 With this second geometric structure image it is more easy to see that there are two fundamental ways of defining any thing, a positive and negative definition, or specification: we may say either 'this thing' or 'not all these other things'.

we may also consider a line constructed of points, & associated with it the pencils of the points from which we composed it in our mental space.

Generally, the line is considered to be dual with a pencil of planes, each point contributing from its pencil only those lines which lie in a plane at right angles to the constructed line at the point under consideration. The image of this general form is the easiest to consider, but all the other lines in each pencil also lie in these fundamental 'normal' planes and form a system of skew planes also associated with the line.

one can generalize these notions to curved lines and various 3D surfaces. The idea is to take any object in one's mind and attach all the associated tangent lines and planes, the minimum necessary to grasp the image. Although normal and other intersecting lines and planes can be considered they are tangential to these purposes.

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External reality is, for human perception, a set of different massive objects defined by space. Space is the dual to mass and is negative as mass is positive. The occult fields unknown to mainstream science are likely operations and changes occurring in this negative space.

we have a hand upon which are placed some symbols and various glyphs. The glyphs are representations of the negative space associated with the hand considered apart from the rest of the body, which explains why it appears to be severed.

Consider your own hand for a moment and picture the associated geometric structures associated with its boundary in some real space. It is helpful here if you can already see finer detail in the extended human energy structure or if you have seen it and those finer details in the past, perhaps when under stress. 

This field is what the various glyphs refer to and describe. If one does not easily see, or has not seen, these energetic structures, one may become cognizant of them relatively easily, especially when one has some general idea of what to look for. 

One might attempt to see the fields surrounding one's own hand, or indeed of any object, in a dimly lit environment. It is useful here to focus one's vision on the boundary between an object and the air and to keep one's eyes in a state of focusing on the distance of the object; we are trying to see something that is not exactly matter, after all.

Consider a single outstretched finger. It is roughly a cylinder capped with half a sphere. From the tip of the finger there emanates a central axial line. Around that line there is a family of approximate paraboloids varying in what may as well be called density. This is the basic structure emanating from each fingertip. As one bends one's finger, curving the axial line, the family of paraboloids varies in response.

On the thumb, this basic structure is roughly delineated: We see the cone-like triangular issuance from the tip, and a spiral issuance portending from the joint in opposite direction to the material.

On the forefinger, the various spiral structure are shown as again developed at the joints.

On the middle-finger, the dividing third of five is the axial line as dividing the clockwise and counterclockwise depository spirals.


On the little-finger, the basic structure is again delineated, this time as ingress....

fulcrum

Individuals have a form of center which manifests psychologically as the ego and linguistically in the word 'I'. Since it is a center, the ego must have a periphery, & since it is the notion of our self as a personality, we can assume it to be the locus around which personalities congregate, and the outlet through which they affect the other.  We each have multiple personalities, or modes of interfacing with the world. In the standard individual the differences between the various egos are small and their separate natures not evident. Being 'close' to one another, they are all close to the center and the ego does not, and cannot, change much over time. 

In so-called multiple-personality disorder (mpd), the little egos are more distinct and the fact that each personality has no knowledge of the others is an indication that they are also further away from the center than in ‘normal’ individuals. 

Under differing circumstances, it is useful to behave in a certain manner, to take on the characteristics of a certain personality. Personality systems are formed over time in reaction to our environment, and manifest in habits. Being a product of the environment in time, differences in location and duration will elicit different forms of personality. People of similar environments share the same basic personality structure. This notion of 'environment' includes culture. 

The very existence of mpd indicates that the ego is a kind of center. This disorder is seen to occur amongst people who have undergone traumatic experiences, and one can come to understand it by viewing the personality as a product of environment in duration. Different environmental conditions encourage and demand different courses of action in securing the needs of the body and the dominant personality. Taken to the extreme an environment may be hostile to the point where the inability or unwillingness to act in a certain manner would lead to death. In such a case the dominant personality will usually be sacrificed in order to ensure survival of the physical organism.

The difference between a new environment and that in which primary personalities were formed will dictate how far the ego must move from its usual location to 'center' the emerging personalities. In moving, it will take on other personality characteristics. This change in personality is the movement of the ego; one is always accompanied by the other.

It is useful to consider the existence of a field of personality that exists independent of any individual and with which each ego must find some relation. In relation to this field the ego is a point. Since it haunts some ‘area’ of the field, we can talk about sub-fields of varying 'densities'. Once a certain density has accumulated in the personality field, the ego will tend to center it.

Inducing a different habitual structure, moving the position of the ego in the personality field, and remaining in such a state will cause density to accumulate in that portion of the field. At the same time, the initial personality as a region of density will grow weaker. After returning to normal conditions, the individual ego will find itself with a new center.

Individuals with mpd are characterized by the existence of especially dense regions remote from one another, each of which can act on its own as a center. Just as the personality of a normal human changes along with conditions, so too does that of someone with mpd. The difference being that, since individuals with mpd have multiple centers, a change of conditions may force the ego into a drastically different orbit. In this sense the ego and personality structure are similar to the solar system and astrology can, under this light, be considered a science. Even ignoring the influences of the actual planets, the various signs and conjunctions can themselves be viewed as fundamental personality elements.

 

The most striking characteristic of this phenomenal world is the apparent distinction between the static and dynamic. While we appear to move, the vast majority of objects in our environment do not. The sun, moon, the planets appear to move over time, whereas the Earth on which we stand does not. This 'primitive' notion of a geocentric cosmos based on simple sense evidence has been discarded and replaced by a heliocentric system which has gradually developed into the more general notion of hierarchocentricity. 

The choice of center is arbitrary, however, due to the fact that motion is relative. Selecting out any particular point as a center is then purely a matter of convenience relative to the task at hand; the mathematical formulae for predicting the locations of the heavenly bodies are simpler when the Sun is at the center. The relative simplicity of the heliocentric predictive laws compared to the geocentric ones led to the former system being considered true, and the latter false. This tendency of valuing simplicity is part of the modern scientific enterprise. 

& yet the wanton application of Occam’s Razor is both crippling and blinding. There is no reason things must be simple in their basic nature. Certainly as far as human life is concerned, the Earth is the center not only of the Solar System, but of the Universe. It might not have been wise to shelve the geocentric system, especially considering that past ages have been unanimous in declaring the effects the planets have on the Earth, mind and social organization of humanity. In any case, relativity of motion indicates that the geo- and helio-centric systems are complementary and that neither has any right to be considered ‘true’, & the other ‘false’. 

Relative usefulness for some specific end is no good as an arbiter of truth. This description of the choice of center for the local planetary-sun system is an illustration of the equivalence of the static and the dynamic that arises from the relativity of motion. This formal equivalence allows some freedom in choosing what we will consider to be static, and what is dynamic. This choice can also be made in various aspects of our experience.

Throughout our lives we associate with the environment and conceive that it is our body that moves. Still, it is possible to operate from the notion that our body is static and that the movements we appear to make are actually movements of the environment. If we choose to not inextricably tie our self to our body and think of ourselves as a point-like observer or consciousness then we have the choice as to whether we as that point believe we are moving through a field of unified observational states or that we are unmoving and the field is changing. In short, we have the right to consider our being as the center of creation, and without a doubt we are each already the center of our own world. 

The ability to mentally position one’s self further from or near to the center of all things is a prerequisite for certain magical actions. This is based on control of that aspect of ourselves that exists abstracted from mundane bodies; that is not so much seen or felt but heard, and that is referred to as mind. The relativity of motion, insofar as it applies to material bodies, provides a logical basis for what is commonly considered illogical nonsense. 

Logic is not a crutch in magical practice, but rather its legs. The production of physical effects is the prerogative of modern science and its mathematical tools, which are a product of logic. The magical production of physical effects must be based in the application of logic, and hierophants have always come from among the ranks of those acquainted with physical facts and forces. 

Something is called magical by those who do not know the logical steps necessary to reproduce it. That a television or computer is no longer considered magical is due to there being a widely-held notion of what is and isn't possible to achieve with logic. It should be noted that mathematics, as the high development of logic, often leads to ‘illogical’ results. There is no reason that a mathematic concerning existence as willful consciousness may not lead to similar ‘illogical’ results. 

 

In order to form new personality centers, traumatic experience is necessary. In all cultic systems there exist rites of initiation, which often include some aspect of trauma. The idea of Induction or initiation as a member of some group includes within itself the notion of some degree of ‘loss of self’ alongside the creation of a new self, or personality. From the standpoint of an esotericist, the notions introduced here are useful in that they provide a simple structural approach for tackling the ‘problem’, since it is to a large extent not of one’s own creation. 

What needs be done is painfully obvious and consists in changing one’s habits, through putting oneself in hostile environments. The extent and desired speed of the change determine the methods. The use of highly traumatic experiences will rarely work as planned, which is precisely the point. The application of massive physical and/or emotional pain is primarily of use in causing rapid deterioration, and even shattering, of an existing personality. This may or may not be desireable.
Changing oneself consists in identifying habits of body and mind, so that one may do or think something other. Over time the ego will become more mobile and the personality and mind more flexible, and the opportunities and range for action will increase. Before any more effectual magical practice this first is necessary.

A ‘normal’ human experiences the world dualistically as self and other. This division is synthetic and operational (all definitions are operational and exist as closed loops within a linguistic framework). Unity demands that this division be illusory, however useful or common. As the normal state of human consciousness is dualistic, the density in the personality field will tend to support the ego in this state. 

A preliminary training of the personality through forced habit changes will diffuse the density and facilitate breakthroughs into non-ordinary personality super-system fields. The thinning out of the field of the dualistic personality super-system is necessary in order to eliminate its 'total gravity'. By thinning out or homogenizing the density of the super-system field it obtains the condition wherein there are only weak potential positions where the ego may center itself and the hold the dualistic super-system has on the ego approaches annihilation. Dualistic and unital consciousness may appear to be diametrically opposed, but this cannot be the case if the two states are to coexist.

Unity and duality are separate notions, although two does indeed come from one (which comes from zero, but that is another matter). They are not opposed, they are rather independent and complement one another. The condition wherein two quantitative terms are independent of one another and yet related is a condition called in mathematics ‘normality’; its geometric figure is the right angle. The axes of the two dimensional  graph, the 2D Cartesian system, are normal to one another. Move along either one and your position will not change with respect to the other. Two spaces that are normal are independent of one another; separate in a sense, and also related, together creating a space larger than if they were separate.

Considering any personality super-system, in this case the dualistic and unital, to be planar, the condition of normality can be visualized by considering two planes separated by some fixed distance – picturing them close together will be helpful here. When our dualistic personality super-system has had its density ‘thinned-out’, has been homogenized, it loses what power of gravity with which the ego was centered. The ego is no longer strongly bound to the dualistic system and is free to ‘float’ into the unital personality super-system and begin the creation of a new density/gravity relation within the unital structure.

One who begins operating from a position within the unital field first notices not so much a change in the appearance of the other, but rather that everything will have meaning, whereas in the dualistic field very few things present themselves as containing significant meaning. Likewise will every act be characterized by meaning, and will carry unimaginable potency. To one accustomed to the dualistic field, existing and acting in the unital field will be draining, similar to being awake for extended periods. This similarity indicates exactly how self-induced sleep deprivation serves as an accelerative. When we sleep, we dream, and the dream world and the unital super-system are identical.

The esoteric justification for sleep is that our consciousness must return from the dualistic field to its source in the unital field regularly, to obtain sustenance. We feed our bodies in the dualistic world, our souls in the unital world. We find in dreams that the things we encounter have meanings beyond their mere appearance, and that we are able to act in ways usually unimaginable. These are the same changes one finds when entering a state of cosmic consciousness. The unital super-system is what Australian Aboriginals refer to as the Dream Time.
 

 

There are many things the structures of which may be elucidated in terms of hierarchocentricity. When one speaks of hierarchy, they mean a gradation of power, or control, and a hierarchy is in this sense the relational structure of that gradation. A usual symbol is the pyramid, indicating that the power of many is controlled by a few. This is not the only possible symbol of hierarchy. It could just as well be represented by a line, or a pillar, and could take as representation for itself any image so long as it has a way of indicating the ideas of being greater, and less than. 

As an example, the structure of power within a democracy would be two pyramids connected at either their bases or their apices. These forms would indicate that although the power of the many are controlled by the few, those few are in turn controlled by the many. Centricity is, obviously, the idea of something being central and heierachocentricity is, as would be expected, the structure of control relating to things considered as central. As the apex of control in a system is a sort of center, hierarchocentricity is then a hierarchy of hierarchies. 

Hierarchocentricity is the natural order of the All, and any deviations therefrom will be subject to a corrective action corresponding to the degree of deviation and the propensity of that deviation to recreate itself.  The whole of nature is a hierarchocentric paradox that cannot be resolved from the spatiotemporal point of view. This comes as no surprise to students of esotericism and is evident in the symbol of the cosmic egg and the related ‘chicken in the egg’ paradox. Paradox, as outside the law, is the source of all phenomenal things subject to law as normally considered. An understanding of the law of paradox is necessary to move beyond current limitations and these suggestions for personal development arise from and are a means of resolving basic paradoxes attending our existence.

lapis occultus

the most advanced techniques in several esoteric disciplines involve neither folk magic nor intellectual exercises*. instead, they are focused on working with the energy body through the most immediately available interface, the physical form, that is, the body and its immediate environment. through balancing certain energies, specific fields are created &/or enhanced. by this means, one is capable of attaining anything from physiological effects (rapid healing, an enhanced metabolism and immune system, increased productivity etc.) to more abstract goals (such as finding it easy to obtain objects or life circumstances that one desires). specific examples of such techniques might be alchemy (both 'internal' and 'external') and other kinds of ecstatic ritual.

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*: this is not to belittle these practices which have their importance in/& their place, but rather to place them into a larger context; magic may work for everybody, but that is more a problem than one might think - the whole trick is to know when to expend energy & when simply waiting for things to work themselves out will save one a mountain of repercussions, & no amount of reading or mere reflection can resolve this dilemma.

clear

echo "Knowledge is Power"

The lead of Galen taken from the land has already begun to break apart. The fires of hell reneged on their pledge and turned on their master, the pipes that conduct the waters have been transmuted to electrical copper.

Locked symbols conduct for powerful estuaries. Urgrund.

the emphasis, then, is on an embodied practice rather than mere theory. however, this is not simply practice for its own sake. the objective here is twofold: first, to gain experience with the manipulation of certain subtle energies either through a mediating substance or even directly; and second, to obtain a link to what has been given various names including inspiration, insight, conversation with ones holy guardian angel, &c.

Underground the boiling toil biols into viols over the future. Poured from the heavens as We GoDS see fit. The ciphers are ours to decipher and retrofract into the present - ThE Prescience of Future Knowledge. Born a dark sign in a dark worlds light to inform the Worthy of the cOMing Flight. We who flee back to knowledge of GoDs Surfeit will revel once again in the aeternity of balanced light and deaf death black unpierced by a point of green. But WE know that the GREEN iS ThE blaCk Whole.

Unto ours is given a needed drink. lead is ours to keep as ours, ours to turn to Gold globules of the hidden Earth. Let them not eat, who do not seek gold. For ever a dreadful yeast poisoning our unsullied source. We know one HalF of the Force, and all of hating the farce. We are the undefatigable hierophants, who see our own reflection as gold in the heart of the leaden world of the unliving.

some have theorized that the philosopher's stone is a mere metaphor, a term used to describe an intangible experience. this is surely a lazy reading which ignores the strange precision & the extent of the sophistication of alchemical terminology. what is more likely is that the stone is indeed a substance, but perhaps not what one normally imagines when they have matter in mind.

there is more to matter than walls and ceilings. from the perspective of quantum physics, its even possible to think of light itself as a subtle kind of matter on the boundary between substance and energy. if we look at things from this angle, the stone can be thought of as a certain energetic configuration of fine matter (or, what is perhaps the same thing on another level, energies) that may only exist in potential in the preinitiate & that would require refinement, accumulation, controlled combination, and so forth. thus is alchemy understood to be an advanced psychophysical technology rather than being concerned exclusively with either materials or with psychological experience*.

---
*: there are many different paths one might take towards this realization, from the Chinese school of Neidan to the works of Bertiaux (in particular, the lesson papers of the monastery of the seven rays) and Kenneth Grant.

The untruth of MANs meanings are unveiled to those worth to seek through the dross that is the human race. sOME WILL B e tUrned into lesser metals for our cause, our life - that refuses to die when surrounded by dEAth. We Learn while other's play useless games designed to steal their time, and we all know time is money - so get that GolD in your soul or DO AS YOUR TOLD. Wirklichkeit uber alles fur alle zeit, fur die UltraMenshenheit. Wan wir komst auf ein verstandlichkeit und dan wir will die UmWelt haben. Alle zeit mein ziegfrauen und heilMenschen... alle zeit. Wie nicht haben ein zymbol oder dann #!. Sha-bang!

repetition

However many times I try, I die. However many lives I live, they fly in to the abyss only to be catapulted back through the eye of the storm into the flashing light. Torn asunder by the thundering, smoldering, coal-black clouds, my voice is lost in the din. Recast then in a common form, attuned to a common existence - molded like red clay, a sounding vessel resonating with the void, the humming line between is and isn't. Between the maybes and the knowns and the unknowns, all along transmuting each of the three. An eye, an oval, an egg; a scroll marked by owls and scrawled by knaves.

the great work is not an end-point but a process, although it is common in the beginning stages to assume the former case. in fact its nature resembles the maintenance of a dynamic system within a certain range of values.

cycles, repetitions. easy enough to miss - one has to be looking. this is what Castaneda calls stalking. one looks out for the most subtle of changes in ones environment. truly an endless task, as the more attention one pays to one's reality, the stranger & less commonplace it will seem, until one suddenly finds oneself wondering how they could ever have mistaken this magical place for an ordinary world. but back to our cycles.

some have hypothesized that consciousness itself is a fluctuation, a binary alternation, a flickering, a flashing light¹. so perhaps its not so surprising that life itself also seems to move through cycles, expanding, contracting, succeeding, failing, & so forth.

isn't it unfortunate that everybody tends to move through these cycles? not particularly, as this is the way of nature. everything that lives moves cyclically through its existence. people are in fact at an advantage here, as they can realize this fact & work toward making the most of it. but this isn't simply a matter of contemplation (though that's a good start) or a matter of pointless superficial changes. what is required is a radical deconstruction of one's every action to determine what one can do without, energetically more than on a mere material level. although on the surface this might seem like another expression of some ascetic ideal, what is intended is perhaps the use of similar methods, but towards almost the exact opposite objective. one needs to develop the ability to avoid pointless wastes of energy and time that serve no purpose other than as trivial distractions, & to then redirect this energy to whatever one has decided are worthwhile pursuits. the point is that the effort saved through this process can provide a boost that can then be used to enter a whole new world of cycles. a magician is nothing other than a person who has attained a certain experiential understanding of these energetic facts, & can effectively use them to alter their own, or another person's perception. 

& yet, even in this new existence, this new reality, there will eventually arise an inevitable death (at least if this is understood in its technically accurate form of a radical change to one's state of being). why does one have to 'die'? Castaneda speaks of an assemblage point², which is a way to denote a particular trajectory of perception of the world. from this perspective, success is simply the fixation of the assemblage point in a position that one, or one's society, might consider successful. one might imagine this to be a final objective, at least until it is attained. at that point it slowly loses interest until one finds oneself almost bored with their own success.

from this perspective, it is irrelevant whether one is successful at any given thing or not - or, as Sartre says in Being and Nothingness, "it amounts to the same thing whether one gets drunk alone or is a leader of nations." The ultimate point is not to become fixated on any one point of perception, but to become flexible, able to take on whatever appearance or traits are necessary in any given situation. to experience everything that it is possible to experience. only from such a perspective is one capable of forming a comprehensive understanding of the world, & this is the position of a true initiate.

1: it could even be that consciousness is a kind of flow, that moves through but does not belong to anyone in particular. in this case, the self is simply a surface, or the 'set' through which this force acts; anything else is but an illusion caused by the fact that habits, including mental habits (or 'memories') persist.

2: In Castaneda's esoteric anatomy, a person is energetically experienced (but not, as some have erroneously judged, visually apprehended) as a spheroid of glowing energy. the 'subjective' experience of a person's perception of the world depends on where on this shape the assemblage point is located.

transcision

The father is the sun and
the mother is the moon.
The things they move together -
Makes the waters move.

The moving waters start to swim
And make the metals mingle;
Make the mix that's all life's flow,
And then begin to tinkle.

The tinkling's sound does all rebound
And make the colors bleed.
The bleeding's fade does all arrange
And make the mind aflame.
The fire flies in face of time,
And all but wick remains.

  

(& as I cut through or as it cuts through me I see)

day is calculation. separation
the night is intuition vision
& dusk is a doorway not from or to but through

a person is as a machine
energy the fuel, habits feelings thoughts the parts
& I am everything. or I'm nothing

geometries of initiation

prelude (on sacrificing oneself to oneself)

hints & stirrings is how it begins, voices whispered through the wind. that much was expected, the magician preparing, practicing daily. then it expands, like being swept up into a tornado. looking back, the magician is incapable of pointing to when, how or where this'd happened. all of a sudden. lost in a reality that intersected with this at an incomprehensible angle; or not so much an 'angle' as a half-remembered dream. even now, immersed within the experience. there are two of them, the one who slays & the one who weeps, mutters helpless. (& yet the magician is neither...)projections. the magician has mastered the art of sending forth credible projections. the Master is perhaps a projection & nothing more; a gateway, an opening for a force of the sort that finds names as amusing as they are irrelevant. & yet. the magician has never been so alive as she has been since her death. since she stopped moving in a straight line, started going round in circles. ever since the echoing instant within which she embodied these strange geometries of initiation

...

crossroads

The experience is plain and simple and can be described to a certain extent, yet it is often spoken of using metaphors and obscure language. As if the experience were not already obscure enough, in that people rarely have it. They often say, "be in the moment". Well- if a person is ever "in the moment" enough, they might stop giving that advice so freely, because when a person is fully in the moment they arrive at the crossroads. We have the perception of time that we have because we lag behind the center of the moment. There is even evidence that light creates "cools" into the elements and systems that comprise our reality because light itself is slowed in a way through it's immersion in what some are calling the "zero point field". The reason why we human beings lag behind time to such an extent is because of our thought processes and our use of language as we think. Our thought processes create the sense of linear time because they create a lag. When a person is fully aware, is fully in the moment, thinking ceases, and then time literally ceases to exist. The world around a person stops moving and becomes like a still, rather than a moving image.  If one looses his or her focus and regains it, or starts to panic, time can rewind and replay itself within one's subjective awareness. This applies to sound and other senses as well as vision. At the same instant that one's environment becomes a still image, the future and the past begin to flow into the present- into the center.  One can remember, in that state, as far into the future as into the past- which is, in that state, not particularly far. It is like two rivers flowing together into the center. How is this possible- when we know that different people's activities fit together, and that there is a kind of linear time? One can speculate that, because on some level we are made of pure light (and if at the speed of light time stops for the subject) then that might be the solution to this question- as other people seem to imply- for instance Castaneda.  If one then enters into this center- into the crossroads, then the world undergoes "Inversion"- that is, the outside becomes the inside, and the inside becomes the outside.  One is then aware of one's inner-world with the same intensity as is normally focused onto the exterior world. The outer world is experienced as well, but as something internal.

electromagnetic initiation mandala, earth chakra

it is possible to understand the energy body from a physical perspective. however, this would have almost nothing in common with the materialist-empiricism of today. after all, the body is not simply a mechanical machine, but also an electrical one - charged signals govern everything from thought to muscle movement. thus, instead of a superficial understanding of the body as a simple mechanism, we would now need to account for all of its interconnections to (pretty much) everything else (or, more particularly- those things which are possessed of an electromagnetic component. this would include stars, planets and perhaps even other 'bodies' which are by some rather difficult to discern: we might hypothesize the existence of entities which exist solely on the e.-m. level, without a body as it is usually experienced. might this be the basis on which to ground a scientific theory of spirits? it is left up to the interested reader to pursue this further...). thus can we compose an endless web of associations and correlations which would have almost nothing in common with classical mechanical conceptions.

...

It is at this point that one can ascend the "world-tree", which is described in various ways in a great deal of literature from modern accounts of shamans, to Hermetic teachings. The elements may be experienced as one ascends through the "wheels", or chakras. This experience of the elements is a very powerful one- quite a bit more powerful than ordinary awareness. One has an experience of the classical elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire that is so intense that the 'Moods' of these elements are as powerful as say, all of the emotions that one has ever experienced packed into these particular 'Moods'. The elements are experienced as having many gradations within each of them- this we might call the "Moods of the elements". These moods are very distinct and particular, and progress in a predetermined way- like the slow ticking of a clock is the regularity of the changes within each element. Each change can seem to last practically an eternity and yet is a regular "Ticking" behind the changes. In this phase, people who are dead may be encountered by the individual. They are encountered as images of themselves who are known by their elemental signature- a kind of a code- having to do with which moods of which elements comprised the sum of their personalities- not their inherent selves, but their personalities. Living people can also be contacted in this way. One can then see through the eyes of a person with whom one is familiar, and one can rifle through their memories, etc.

 

 electromagnetic initiation mandala, water chakra

we have wavelengths. some move fast, others move more slowly. the basic structure of one's frequency is reflected in their body, and even more in their behavior. within these general parameters, one's frequency falls within a particular range determined by their mood and emotional state. we can picture 'hot' emotions (anger, acute fear, etc.) as having a shorter wavelength, and a higher frequency than a calm or 'at rest' position. except that in doing this we are not simply using our imagination: there is a scientific schema which does just this, using brainwave frequencies as a means of reference. one can be said to empathize with another if they are, as it were, 'on the same wavelength'. but, there is no a priori reason for restricting this 'other' to a person (vide supra, re. all the different kinds of bodies that possess electromagnetic signatures).

...

After ascending through the elements, one reaches the fifth element, the vanguard- the point at which one is actively participating in the creation at the very edge of reality. One then, at some point after a seeming eternity, returns to one's baseline state through a process that seems to be very similar to the experience that one has when one enters the world- that is, as a biological entity. However, at least at first, on returning, one will be in what is called the mystical state, at least to the point that within one's environment, there is no subject/object distinction, though the "observer consciousness" can still be active. Most commonly, one's self includes everything within the limits of perception. One is then only a part of Oneself. 

 

 electromagnetic initiation mandala, air chakra

regarding seasonal shifts, & their effects on behavior. these latter tend to vary from the physiological to much more subtle internal psychic modifications. the magician uses these to their benefit, adjusting with the movements of the seasons, effectively dancing with them. on a scientific level, we can almost certainly hypothesize explanations for this. perhaps its electromagnetic shifts, slowly altering the balance of sensitive brain chemicals. in fact, there's a scientific article on evidence of solar geomagnetic seasonal control of the topside ionosphere (which a simple web search might uncover) and another on Diurnal, seasonal and inter-annual variations in the Schumann resonance parameters (also publicly available online) to list just two examples. if its been conclusively determined that drugs (& even certain foods) alter (balances of) particular brain chemicals, would it be such a stretch to postulate an electromagnetic system that interconnects the planet with its inhabitants? (such would be a solid scientific basis for the so-called gaia hypothesis of Lovelock et al.) & why stop there. perhaps this is exactly the kind of scientific grounding that astrology supposedly lacks. after all, where there's gravity, there's magnetism.

...

There are a few things that should be mentioned in connection to this phenomenon. For one thing, it is a relatively common experience for shamans who use psychoactive sacraments. Also- it seems to be what Castaneda called "stopping the world".  When one approaches this "place", if one is around other people, their movements become jerky, and the whole thing has a rather low-tech quality as if a film maker didn't have access to very high quality editing equipment. Castaneda very accurately describes this aspect and notes that there is something fundamentally disturbing about the nature of this jerky quality of time. One wonders why he would be so vague about other aspects of this experience. Another thing about it is that as one approaches it, one loses the ability to think in words. If someone is talking to you, you will lose the ability to understand what they are saying. One can use this aspect of it to bring another person into this experience by what we might term the technique of "Prattling and Mumbling". Begin to speak very distinctly while sort of prattling on and on.  Then gradually slow your speech and make it increasingly indecipherable while not letting on with your body language that anything has changed, all the while  concentrating your power into yourself so as to create a kind of a gravity that would pull the other person into the same state as that which you are entering.

You will lose the ability to talk to yourself about what you are experiencing, and this by itself can be disturbing. But, this can allow a lot of power to flow into a person, and from a subjective point of view, the surrounding world can seem very chaotic, like the powerful emotions and perceptions that one might experience when laying closely next to a rail of train tracks while a train is passing. There are reliable keys to deliver this experience which we will leave it to the reader to discover. Anyone who has these "keys" can experience this if the amount of the keys is sufficient. The person, knowing what has here been written and having the keys can experience what we have described. Read it and think on it while the keys turn the locks. The reader should however be warned that this is an experience of what lies beyond death. Only those who truly desire to die in life and live again in a much changed state should consider this. One will not be better at one's job by doing this.  One will have a lot to think about- for the rest of one's life- though it gets easier with practice.  At first it lays heavy on the self and impels one by great Need to learn about what has happened to him or her.  This can be a distraction from any pragmatic goals one might have. So heed this warning because it is not for affect, nor is it an understatement. 

 

 electromagnetic initiation mandala, fire chakra

the most effective (perhaps the only) initiations are self-initiations. from another perspective, one might say with equal justification that the circumstances that lead one to initiation are like a force of nature that grabs hold of whom it will, without any volition on the part of the 'victim'. more interestingly, it might be both of these simultaneously, and it might well be that even this is irrelevant. what matters is what lies beyond this point, when one inevitably begins the study of these deep structures, these subtle

Vodou dreamachine schematics

i: axisward

thesis

Does reality have a center? If so, it is not somewhere 'out there' but within, subjective rather than objective. The world is like an onion - if I modify my behavior, I can access another level & thus inevitably become a different person: it is not the essential fact that one acts uncharacteristically when out of their element - it is rather that the easiest means to almost limitless change is to alter one's habits & thus, in time, to enter a novel environment. 

antithesis

The first spirit to be called in Vodou ritual is invariably Legba, who is charged with opening the gate to the spirit world, or not opening it as the spirit decides. Legba is in this sense the central spirit in Vodou, & is even called the poteau-mitan or center pole.

...

ii: encountering the ally

synthesis

a dream of young Petro Legba, showing me a golden spiral of all these versions of myself encased in bronze; they were laughing, crying, laying down asleep, etc in permanent stasis. We were underground and the clouds and sky were moving above this opening in the grass. His skin was in perfect molding, as if covered in oil, eyes fierce like Erzulie Yeux Rouge.

self-portrait as Legba Petro

an encounter with the wise old man archetype, right out of Jung, though you might just as well say it was Papa Legba. he had a sort of machine in his hand, a translucent sphere with similar spheres concentric within it. & he wasn't talking, but somehow communicating the idea that 'its all circles', or perhaps 'it goes all the way down'.

...

iii: postscript - a dream within a dream, shaped like a machine

Is the world a machine, do we live in a clockwork universe? This position is often contrasted with that of life as a dream, but is it possible for both positions to be true simultaneously? One can see each perspective as the endpoint of a series which also traverse questions of whether spirits are independent entities or aspects of oneself, & whether laws, such as those of physics, can predict human behavior. Perhaps an example can illustrate this further: Lord Kelvin is reported to have said, at the end of the 19th century(!) that "[t]here is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement". This unverified quote is often referenced to point to our ever-evolving knowledge of the world. Except there are two ways to interpret the statement. We have to keep in mind that Kelvin was working from within a Newtonian understanding of physics (i.e. classical mechanics) - Einstein's theories on relativity (with their electromagnetic, as opposed to a particle-based, understanding of beings) weren't published until early in the following century. So while Newtonian physics may well have been at its completion at this point, a whole new way of approaching the discipline was yet to begin.

It is most likely that our original question simply doesn't have an answer because it is badly formed. Thus while we can say on a conceptual level that 'all is one', experience is perhaps by definition of difference & variety. Even if there are experiences of a unitary world, these tend to be exceptional rather than being the norm. Likewise, while we can ultimately say that spirits are aspects of oneself (in the sense that they are primordial archetypes residing in some collective consciousness & which often appear to assist, to guide people), when one actually has an experience of interaction with these entities, just as when one interacts with another person, the emphasis tends to be on just how different from us they are.

Each position is true to an extent, or more accurately within specific situations. Existence itself can be understood as a dream that one, or rather the whole world, is having, but this does not in itself prevent an active engagement in the logic of the dream. This happens to include certain processes that can be calculated with a clockwork precision. The art is to know when to behave based on which of the respective understandings, a skill that can only come through a process grounded in direct gnosis.