Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Tree of Life - The Path of the Sun

In Start from the Top I described a male individual situated in the Depth of the West as having a simple identity with a limited internal monologue and instead experiencing a surging oceans of urges and forbidden desires. Why would I consider this individual an example of the West expressed in the human psyche as opposed to one of the other Depths?

THE SAADIA TREE OF LIFE


Along the middle pillar of our rectified Saadia Tree of Life we see the grand journey of time from the Future to the Past and the more microcosmic day to day journey of East to West joined by the paths of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon.  What do these symbols/concepts really mean?*  The Sun is a symbol for being awake and self-conscious, the East getting up in the morning and the West going to bed at night; the Moon a symbol for the unconscious world of dreams and desires; Saturn a symbol for the embrace of our death (and higher selves) in the future.

An individual who is closer to the East will experience a strong internal monologue, they are very like to think in terms of ''I, me, mine'' and this will be expressed in the way they talk about the world. They will be egocentric, think the world orbits around them even to the point of a Messiah complex. They can also be pathologically self-conscious.  On the other hand an individual in the West will be losing this self consciousness, self obsession, etc, they will not be concerned with fitting in or with making themselves the centre of the world.  They will not think ''I am angry'', they will simply feel anger and the urge to do violence.  They will not think ''I think this person is hot'', they will simply experience lust and the urge to have sex.**

The West is the Best,
The West is the Best,
Get here and we'll do the rest.

The End, Jim Morrison

Extending this to the Path of the Saturn and completing our description of the Middle Pillar, individuals here will tend to think objectively about themselves and even experience themselves in the third person.  This type of consciousness becomes more pronounced the closer that individual is to the Depth of the Future.  The Path of Saturn and the Depth of the Future inevitably lead to the death of that self-consciousness and the re-connection with the Higher Self and the All Self and it is this type of consciousness that is being expressed by their relentless objectivity.  We can sense this loss of self in the themes of divine melancholia and the crossing of the abyss.

Although the word ego can be a little cumbersome one can think of the path of the Moon as pre-ego, the path of the Sun as ego, and the path of Saturn as post-ego.  In the Depth of the East I discussed masks and our nuclei, these primary spheres of self-ideation, personality, mood or scent with which we surround ourselves.  A close examination of the Tree of Masks will show you how the specific masks associated with the Depths fit into this overall idea of the development of self-consciousness/ego and the inevitable loss of it.  In the Depth of the West, I discuss our connection to our ancient animal selves that are preserved through our chromosomes, this nestling nicely with individuals in the West being more connected to their primal spirits.

The real trick to this kind of navigation/medicine though is in utilizing the physiognomical endocrinological clues that have been explained on this site and which will only become clear when you start using them.  The Depth of the Future produces big friendly giants, tall individuals***, with strong features particularly brows and noses - neophilic, creative but also controlling i.e. directors and generals. The Depth of the East produces individuals who store fat easily around the abdomen and will have either a pigginess or a slightly feline look (these two animal appearances are joined by the boar on our spectrum).  The Depth of the West produces body hairiness, severely receding/balding, gorilla muscularity in men and an Artemisian warrior-huntress look in women.  As explained in Start from the Top, the 22 path system allows us to realise the spectrum of all near-infinite possibilities and create a sliding scale of these groups of features.





*For instance with North we need to think cold, and with Down we need to think contract.
**By this I don't mean that all individuals of the West are mere brutes on the contrary they can make fine poets, but the form it will take is unbidden words rising from the unconsciousness as opposed to the poetic craft of the Easterner.  Their lack of concrete self means they can also be great actors, perhaps the best.
***Tall, for their family.



Tuesday, April 26, 2016

The Tree of Life - Start from the Top


Metaphysics has always struck me as a prolonged form of latent insanity.  If we knew the truth we'd see it; everything else is systems and approximations.  The inscrutability of the universe is quite enough for us to think about; to want to understand is to be less than human because to be human is to realise it can't be understood.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Let us begin within the beginning.  We cannot start at the beginning, otherwise time has to be somewhere and go somewhere.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Plato, The Republic

Within the beginning things have to (have) end(s) for without them they could not be perceived. These ends or depths are the system of five dimensions; three polarities of space, one of time and one of morality/perspective describe the Tree of Life.  Such huge finite numbers - of souls, of alternate worlds of experience - exist within the Tree of Life you would be forgiven for thinking it infinite but it is not.  The infinite defies ends, the finite necessitates them. Our finite cosmos approaches infinity in depth but never quite reaches it.




Since the finite requires position in order to be finite, a series of relationships have to exist between the depths - therefore the 22 paths of wisdom.  Although they are represented by element, planet and zodiac sign you do have to see this as shorthand for what those symbols represent*.  Each position within the system ends up being characterized by the network of paths or depths that define it.  A finite world or soul/individual/character defined by the Depth of Evil would thereby be distinguished from a world defined by the Depth of Good and therefore percievable/intelligible.  Similarly a character or individual in our world can be characterized by the admixture of good, evil, north, south, east, west, past or future.  For example this position could find physical expression in the colour and quality of the skin, how saturated with melanin, whether it is cold, warm, clammy or dry or in personality qualities like neophobia and neophilia.

SAADIA TREE OF LIFE


The Tree of Life, using these principles of mathematics (number, geometry), language and physical quality, defines the entire range of possibility for manifestation within the finite and also the extent of all possible knowledge.  The use of this knowledge in medicine requires that you classify the position of the world or soul according to it.

For example a male individual who is positioned in the Depth of the West would be expected to have: a simple identity, no strong concrete internal monologue/voice but a surging ocean of urges/drives, paraphilias, anger management issues, impulsive behaviour, balding along with a host of other characteristics we might consider more positive like assertiveness.  Using this stock character as my benchmark the path system allows me to zoom in on a spectrum of individuals** that branch off from the Depth of the West and alter palliative remedies.

  • If this individual has the qualities in the median above but is also slightly fatter and stores the fat in their abdomen I would place them on the Path of the Sun (King of Life/Health) but close to the Depth of the West - diet focusing on blood sugar levels. 
  • If they are also fleshier with evenly distributed fat storage and have some kind of skin issue (eczema, urticaria, etc) or manic-depression I would place them on the Path of Sagittarius (King of Sleep)  - proactive psycho-dermatological relaxation strategies to reduce cortisol levels, anti-inflammatory diet in severe cases.  
  • If they are also skinnier and more avian in facial features I would place them on the Path of Capricorn (King of Anger) expect their anger management issues to be exacerbated and for them to be jumpy and temperamental - sports/exercise to burn off excess wrath.*** 


''Starting from the top'', within the beginning, what begins as simply a position in the cosmos of space-time-observer rapidly becomes a nest of virtues/vices that we derive character/personality/world from - the process of alchemy being the mitigation of the more vile aspects of our character and the extraction of virtue.


*In a previous post I talked about considering the planetary kingships as akin to the defining qualities of living organisms remembered in the acronym MRSGREN - movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, respiration, excretion, nutrition.
**Isaac Luria drew the ability to read the karma of individuals from their faces/bodies using similar methods.
***Although astrology is involved in this just because you are a Sagittarius do not expect to be on the Path of Sagittarius.  Your position in this scheme is determined by the totality of your horoscope plus underlying genetics.




Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Is the Kircher Tree of Life overrated?

Is the Qabalah overrated?

The problem with answering this question is that the vast majority of people in the WMT have only studied the flawed system of Qabalah espoused by the Golden Dawn et al based on the Tree of Life by Athanasius Kircher.  Their work and application has been largely limited to the commentaries of folks like Regardie, Fortune, Crowley or Waite.  There is a fundamental lack of understanding of what the Qabalah actually is.

Is the Kircher Tree overrated?

Absolutely.



What the Sefer Yetzirah describes and what the Tree of Life aims to represent is the Universe we inhabit which literally consists of the five dimensions of space, time and consciousness/observer - these are the Depths or Sefiroth.  This is all you get.  The paths between the Sefirot are the 22 elemental, planetary and zodiacal forces that shape our reality which describe aspects and are fundamental to it i.e. the Kingships*.  Mathematics, Language/Code and Communication/Relationship are the defining principles of reality.  If you don't believe this is the case please discuss. Consciousness is only one dimension of the universe, derived from time, via space.  The experience of these five dimensions takes place in our personal glome/hypersphere.


THE SAADIA TREE

The Qabalah is a system that seeks to describe objective reality and it is why her Alchemical lovechild Science has made such an impact on the world.  Correspondence systems are useful in the way they can be validated by experiment - i.e. classification of diseases based on the physiological centres they target: Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Kidney infections, Autoimmune diseases - types of correspondences allow us to zoom in on a problem and solve it more readily.

Some easy criticism of 777 type correspondence tables would be:


  • The Sefer Yetzirah does not conflate planets with Sefirot and doing so leads to a great deal of logical contradiction in the Golden Dawn, Thelemic systems - there are 10 sefiroth, 3 elements, 7 planets and 12 zodiac signs and 32 positions on the Tree of Life.  No overlap is necessary.
  • 32 does not equal 34, the two sub tables and overlapping between extra elements and planets that goes on in 777 is unnecessary, confusing and misleading from a Qabalistic perspective.
  • Grouping all sky Gods, or Mother Goddesses together with each other and linking them to a Sefirah causes problems, there are a wide variety of cultural differences and nuances that distinguish these Gods/Spirits that is harmed by such generalization and subsequently leads to less effective practice



There are many embarrassing individuals in the Western Mystery Tradition who have brought shame to the community over the years with their fevered egos but it is ridiculous to suggest this is the fault of the Qabalah. I blame the Kircher Tree (and some of the ideas that have gathered around it) which does end up mutilating the aura to the point where you look like an astrally scrambled Mr Potato Head.

KIRCHER'S OCCULTNIKS

Suggesting that results validate the efficacy of a system is remarkably illogical.  The question is what quality of results are achieved and are some methods better?  The idea that all methods or approaches are somehow equal is deeply flawed - sure I can do brain-surgery with a sledgehammer if you'll let me! Whatever works is an excuse for sitting on your laurels.  If an individual has never compared and contrasted different Qabalistic approaches (for example actually studied the Jewish approach in depth) then their evaluation of the subject is inherently flawed.
 

*Wisdom, Wealth, Fertility, etc as described in Sefer Yetzirah - these can be considered very much like the fundamental aspects of living organisms - movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, respiration, excretion, nutrition or more ''elementally'' mutability or catalysis and should be studied in a similar way.


Monday, April 11, 2016

The Depth of the East - Tifereth, Beauty

Were I asked to discuss the social causes responsible for my soul's condition, I would speechlessly point to a mirror, a clothes hanger, and a pen.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

THE SAADIA TREE OF LIFE

The middle pillar of the Tree constitutes the axis of Time, with the Depth of the Future and the Depth of the Past representing the grand journey of life from birth to death, and the Depth of the East and the Depth of the West signifying the chapters or days that make that life up.  In the Depth of the West I discussed the chromosomes and unlocking both genetic potential and memory, how the process of initiation involves winding back time*, and as the highest level of initiation is prophecy**, ultimately winding all time back into the Depth of the Future.


THE NUCLEUS OR MASK

As discussed in the previous post on The Tree of Masks, the mask, related to Tifereth, is the body language and physical/facial expressions of the individual that demonstrate their personality or mood. On more subtle levels this is expressed in the form of a fine mist of chemical messengers or pheromones, a bio-electric field or an aura.  As explored in earlier posts the work on Cellular Consciousness and the Metabolism of Time links directly to Plato's Analogy of the Cave.  Having followed the path of the Sun to the Depth of the East one becomes initiated into the mysteries of their nucleus and merges with the Form of the Good***.  In practical terms you become the Egg of Light, one with your aura/nucleus, alongside being natural/relaxed in your body - in the langauge of the Tao, supple like a newborn child****. Since praise/criticism fundamentally distort our nucleus some form of Stoicism is an essential element in the path of the initiate and in following the path of the Sun.

Nuclear envelopathies, cellular problems with the nucleus, cause a range of genetic diseases - involving balance, physical posture, muscle spasm, fatigue, inability to cry, darkening of the skin***** - all of these seemingly related to the mask of body language and expression as explained above. Although full blown genetic diseases are rare individuals lie on various spectrums which only culminate in the disease state - i.e. you may be a thyroidal type without hyperthyroidism.  For example, someone on the anorexia spectrum may not manifest the  disease but will have issues with body image, seeing an ugly person in the mirror, etc.  Likewise distortions of the mask, brought about by exposure to extreme attention, cause problems in the physical posture although not necessarily crippling disease.  Someone who is spoiled or abused often has posture/expressions which do not match their underlying physiology and lead to problems later in life - in this way the mask is out of harmony with the body/underlying genetics.

All that we do, say, think or feel wears the same mask and the same costume. No matter how much we take off what we wear, we’ll never reach nakedness, which is a phenomenon of the soul and not of removing clothes. And so, dressed in a body and a soul, with our multiple costumes stuck to us like feathers on a bird, we live happily or unhappily – or without knowing how we live – this brief time given us by the gods that we might amuse them, like children who play at serious games.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet


**This does not simply mean divination, fully explored with the temporal model we are discussing online it would rightly include all aspects of so-called magick.
***Good, in this sense, means Excellent. One then merges with their own excellence.
****

''Carrying body and soul and embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?
Attending fully and becoming supple,
Can you be as a newborn babe?''

*****Cerebellar ataxia, dystonia, Triple A syndrome, muscular dystrophy...   


Thursday, April 7, 2016

The Tree of Life - The Tree of Masks


My God, my God, who am I attending to? How many am I? Who is me? What is this interval between me and myself?

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Although an individual's root genetic character does not change, their personalities do.  Personality, a function of mood, is influenced by positive and negative attention - praise, criticism, compliments, abuse, affirmation, humiliation, yes!, oops!  This personality-mood gestalt is worn as a mask over the root character and is normally appropriate to it, the physiognomy of individuals are in line with their mask.

THE GAMBLER

Why do we wear masks?  The disguise, defensive in nature, begins as a response to traumatic experiences, acting as a protective interface between the self and society at large as society requires interacting with people outside of our control in order to survive.  Individuals, learning from experience, attempt to shield their vulnerabilities and only project/reveal those aspects of themselves that they wish to.  Once developed the mask will feed on attention of different types, again mostly appropriate to the underlying character - a form of social nutrition reward system to encourage in us that tribalism that was so responsible for our evolution.  If an individual recieves an excessive amount of positive or negative attention then their resting mask can be distorted into an inappropriate mask - sometimes permanently.

THE VAMPIRE

A particular problem arises in this system when the mask is mistaken for the character underneath and takes on a life of its own.  Feeding on attention now becomes a means unto itself - gorging for pleasure as opposed to nutriment.  This mis-identification is brought about when a character has been forced to wear - through spoiling or abuse - a mask which is unnatural to them.  Many people operate within the elastic limit of their character, their mood oscillating with events and the attention of others but returning to equilibrium - some though have passed the plastic limit, the natural character's mask is bent out of shape or broken entirely, and a new mask, fevered and alien, takes over.  Rectification of this situation does not mean abolishing the mask to become a smiling nobody, it is about restoring the natural mood* and therefore the ''happiness'' of the underlying character.

THE IMMORTAL

Attention then, to simplify, comes in two forms, positive and negative - one building up the individual and the other breaking them down, extremes of which produce permanent, or semi-permanent, distortions of the mood and alter the mask and the health.  Different masks naturally seek out  certain types of attention, will feed on them until satisfied and then retire until they need more.  In this way the mood oscillates up and down but typically stays around that individual's equilibrium - often if they are getting too much praise or criticism they will find a way to block it out of themselves and prevent distortion.  Likewise when one is giving out attention one can only give out so much until the supply is exhausted.  Pushing somebody past the limits in producing attention can exhaust them in the same way as recieving it can.

THE LOVER

Attention is exchanged between individuals in environments usch as a workplace or meeting place.  The recycling of attenton in these places lead to the wear and tear of that environment and ultimately to its collapse/regeneration.  Some masks like to move between new environments as often as they can and meet new people, some reside.  Of those that remain within a fixed environment, a natural hierarchy of masks** and roles assigned to them emerges - an ecosystem related to varieties in the endocrinological spectrum.  As you ascend the hierarchy, the masks generally need more attention in order to feed their appetites but also relate to attention in different ways from lower masks:

Kether - The Director (pituitary)
Chokmah - The Angel (pineal)
Binah - The Timelord (pineal)
Chesed - The Magician (thymus)
Gevurah - The Demon (thymus)
Tifereth - The Dreamer (pancreas)
Netzach - The Lover (adrenals)
Hod - The Immortal (adrenals)
Yesod - The Vampire (genitals)
Malkuth/Daath - The Gambler (thyroid)

Gamblers seek out new environments and new masks - they are good at meeting people and adapting to newly discovered environments.  The attention they prefer is the new.

Vampires form close relationships with individuals in the environments as opposed to groups wthin them.  They enjoy ''best-friends'' type relationships and the preferred attention type is the exclusive.

Immortals protect the group from outsiders - they are cliquey team players and the attention they prefer is the sharing of agreement in principle, affirmation.

Lovers form close relationships with the group as opposed to individuals within them.  They flit between individuals in the group rapidly, recover from relationships far quicker than others and the attention they prefer is the longing or yearning.

Dreamers feed on the glow of others recycling attenton between them and create internal worlds and dreams, it is a passive form of attention gathering like photosynthesis.

Demons feed on explosive bursts of attention given off in dramatic, memorable exciting events, good or bad.  They will do what they can to create, and then detonate, these events but they can survive off one explosion for a very long time if necessary.

Magicians also feed on drama but where demons operate in the background, magicians, like entertainers, prefer to be the centre of attention.  They treat groups as audiences and the favourite type of attention is applause.

Timelords tend to appear aloof, stoic and out of reach - they do not need much attention to subsist.  Secretly though, they feed on worship.

Angels feed on continuous intense bursts of love or fear, a kind of pulse, which they can generate in the environment by  - religiosity, Dionysian activity, Apocalypticism, politics.

Directors manage and guide environments so the preferred attention type is the one that they gather through direct control of individuals.

THE DREAMER

Just like the Tree of Time and the Tree of Faces even though we may express a particular part of the system in our relationship with the whole we contain the whole within us.  The mask is natural and appropriate when it is subordinated to the character  but not when it subsumes the character and takes on a life of its own.  Stoicism is a means through which one limits their exposure to the oscillations in their mood, maintains the naturalness of their mask.  By exploring this Tree of Masks we can understand how our mood oscillates as we seek attention and recognition from others, and ultimately we can play with the masks in our stories rather than have them play with us

THE DEMON

Who am I to myself?  I am only one of my sensations.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet




*Bear in mind that the natural mood can be ''angry'', ''depressed'', etc.  What happiness means from this perspective entirely subjective. A depressive/melancholic is not automatically ''happy'' at parties full of loud, smiley people.
**Although in terms of cellular consciousness all masks are related to Tifereth which is the nucleus of the cell.  Problems with the mask can be considered nuclear envelopathies. More on this in the Depth of the East.  The Tree of Masks however can be considered as a fractal Tree within the Depth of the East.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Raziel - Tramlines I

Probability engineering, or sorcery, is the manipulation of events in time through strange attractors - spells, amulets, spirits etc.  But if there is a huge variety of potential universes isn't this kind of magick simply the selection of different universes, a kind of probability surfing?  When your perspective jumps universes, there is still a you left in the unmagicked timeline.

I am imagining myself moving through my time line like a trampassenger, if I do nothing I will stay on this path of least resistance until the end.  If I act ''magickally'' I am deciding to move from one line to another.  A line where I am rich or wise perhaps.  My tram will break from one tramline and join another.  From the moment your tram track joins the other your shared experience with those other yous who were already on that line will be the same - you will pass the same sights, observe the same events  - even though passengers on the rich self  before you would have observed a different route to the same reality.  Maybe they were born rich.  The perspective of any individual passenger can be different, the opinions they form about what they observe are non-determined.  How many observers could there be on any given individual self?  A gigantic number all making observations and opinions simultaneously and completely unaware of each other.

All the tramlines are loops though.  The voice may say the end of the line but in reality the tram simply turns around and goes back the way it came.  In this case through the reversiverse - the afterlife where you have to go through the decisions and, more importantly, the opinions of life - you go back along the tramtrack seeing the same things in reverse.  The extended self of all possible probable 4 dimensional selves constitute the total tramloops.

Although it might appear that the number of probable 4 dimensional selves is infinite, since it is based on a binary choice of yes or oops in any individual planck moment it is finite.  In reality most of these tramloops do not adhere or subsist in time and the number of robust loops for any given self is probably a more manageable number.  The reason that the loops do not subsist is because a group of individual yes or oops! decisions played out in a variety of ways all lead to the same event in aggregate.  The versions that do subsist may be as low as fourteen, playing out varieties of the dominant seven planetary kingships and transpositions - a poor self, a rich self, a wise self, a stupid self, fertile, barren, at peace, in war, etc.  - together this would constitute a kind of temporal structure in the 4th dimension, like we see structuring in the clusters of galaxies and so on.

The act of magick is in itself a deviation.  Like breaking out of established loops like eating, breathing, digesting or sweating breaking out of a timeline is not completely safe.  Try to deviate in a non-robust branching moment and your tram is likely to derailTiming is everything.  And you can't deviate for long, you will have to successfully navigate to that other line. 

From the perspective of our fifth dimensional level of higher-self, our hypersphere, the part that experiences all possible probabilities, it seems the tram does not move so much as the lines move through the tram, the fifth dimensional self never leaving the tram of physical sensation/perception/intelligibility but simply guiding which lines move through it.  You are not engineering the universe, you are selecting a route through it.


Infinite cosmic power, itty bitty living space.

Aladdin, Musker and Clements