Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Twin Peaks Season 3, Painting by Numbers III


As I suspected David Lynch is using the Kircher Tree *and* the misaligned Tarot paths.  I didn't comment on the Gevurah episode (episode 7) but the symbolism was strong, the evil Coop ('"Set''), the prison and justice system (cops everywhere), the red balloon, the pentagon officials (pentagon is sacred to Gevurah) and the ''right arm''.


I still want to avoid making this blog a popular Occulture blog so I will be very brief as I do appreciate there is a hunger for info.  In the mind blowing episode 8 we have crossed the Abyss! The scene opens with Doppledale driving in the car (path of the Chariot) and very quickly turns into an Abyss sequence.  Amongst many other things revealed in this journey through time Laura Palmer is very clearly identified as the fallen daughter (Malkuth) whose Fall leaves her lying atop the Shells/Husks (Qliphoth).

But why did we skip Chesed?  If you look at the Kircher Tree (and the Snakes and Ladders approach Lynch is using) you will see going to Gevurah necessitated a choice for Lynch as there is no direct route from 4 to 3.  So Lynch either sends the character across the Abyss from 5 to 3 (where the ''dark mother'' Binah will prob. be revealed as Audrey), or goes from 5 to 4 to 2 to 3.    What I suspect will happen is that Doopledale having crossed the Abyss from 5 to 3 (Sitra Achra) will mean Dougie Cooper will cross from 4 to 2 (Sitra Tov). So next episode should be the Chesed one which I imagine will have a lot of blue and be a comedy but maybe I am wrong.  As I said previously this Snakes and Ladders game played by the adherents of the faulty Kircher Tree tends to lead to disaster and although I am hugely enjoying this show I am beginning to seriously worry about the effects of the massive ritual he is working.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Reality - Terms and Conditions


In the Science Delusion, Sheldrake criticises the underlying assumptions of science and this got me thinking about the underlying assumptions of magic. Magick is currently dominated by a belief in ''the probabilistic universe'' but there are at least two other ways we can look at things - the deterministic and the compatibilist.  The philosophical literature on the argument between free will and determinism is dry and dense and free wheeling sorcerers don't necessarily have time to dig too deeply (concerned as they are with preparing for long elaborate rituals, gathering authentic lion-skin parchment and whatnot) but I think challenging that assumption (of the influence upon probability) throws up some interesting points to reflect on.  In this short and highly limited post I am looking over the rival models and asking some questions which I think are pertinent.  




Probabilistic Universe

At any given moment you are a being with free will and various things are possible but affected by probability. Magick (strange attractors) is used in order to influence probability in your favour.  If something is more likely to occur then magick can easily tip the odds your way, if its a long shot magick can still have some kind of effect but may not work depending on the outcome of the various competing forces. - making Magick a subtle kind of Physics.  The future does not pre-exist (therefore Probabilistic Model is dependent upon philosophical Presentism) but comes to be as a result of these competing wills and forces already in existence. There is therefore no destiny or you make your own.
  • What is the medium through which magick influences probability?  How do the strange attractors (sigils, spells, altars, etc) work?
  • Why are you ''free'' at any given moment considering the amount of pressure on you from physical forces, genetics, reflex responses to stimuli, social privilege, etc?
  • Do you exercise free will at all times?  Or only sometimes?  Is free will truly global?
  • If there is genuine randomness in the universe then aren't your actions equally random when seen from a global perspective?  If objectively all entities are behaving randomly where is purpose in free will?
  • Often it is the case with magick that the result of your magick already had to be in the process before you actually did the magick and this implies either a retro-causal or temporal entanglement aspect to the act of magick.  If so the future already exists.  How does the probabilistic model explain these situations?

Deterministic Universe

Everything you do in life, including waving your magickal wand, you do because of things that happened before. You were led here.  The future already exists.  You are not free in the slightest and there is no such thing as magick because there is no such thing as free will.  Whether you choose to believe in the delusion of free will or accept determinism is also predetermined.  ''I created you in order to destroy you.'' The feeling of doing magick is explained by misguided prophecy, your ego is claiming responsibility for something that is happening which would have happened anyway. But your ego, your thoughts on this and your belief in the probabilistic universe that made this possible are also predetermined.  Self - Consciousness acts as an analogue narrator/commentator for events over which it has no control. Although this might feel spontaneous it is in fact entirely scripted. There is only destiny.
  • What is the point in life if there is no free will?
  • If my act of magick is predetermined doesn't that mean that magick works I am just not in control of it?  
  • Is free will a necessary component of magick?

Compatibilistic Universe

Several futures already exist.  The only surviving futures are ones where time travel exists - ''time travel'' binds the future to the past (the beginning in the end and the end in the beginning) and allows that universe/timeline to cohere.  You are in one of those universes.  Magick is only possible at certain key moments where those surviving universes intersect - they are knotted together. At these moments you can change/select universe from your list of finite surviving variants.  A ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' book where magick allows you to flip universes.  There are multiple destinies - ''Enlil'' is the Master of the Destinies (plural).
  • If I can only select an observational point at specific times from a limited variety of me then who am I?  Am I riding this vehicle?  How many observers can be on a given vehicle?
EKUR



Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Twin Peaks Season 3, Painting by Numbers II

Last week I discussed the fact that David Lynch was Painting by Numbers using the ''Hermetic'' Tree of Life as his source of inspiration.  I gave a number of predictions in that post about what symbolism we could expect to see in the next episode (Tifereth) if the theory was correct.  We expected lots of yellow and boy did we get it!




''Tifereth'' light in the lamp, yellow plates, blond wife. In the yellow room, upstairs, with ''Sonny Jim'' Cooper turns the lamp on and off by clapping.  Yellow wife makes call on yellow phone.


As I said there would almost certainly be the ''seat of the HGA''  but I particularly enjoyed the reveal of Diane (who has always been the Holy Guardian Angel of Cooper - Knowledge and Conversation) pictured to as great an extent as possible as an actual rotating yellow sphere sitting in a bar.



Sons everywhere as expected.  The yellow light escaping the dead boy (held by his mother) followed by the cut to the number 6.   No prizes for subtlety Mr Lynch. And this is only a quick selection to fit on a blogpost as any observers will note this list is not exhaustive! The episode was drowning in yellow.  What then is he trying to do here?

The strong Saturnian symbolism of the first episode led me to believe that this was a giant death ritual similar to Blackstar.  In light of that I discussed the Lovecraftian flavour of the epsiode and assumed that he was going to continue that throughout.  Since it is now clear that he is going from Malkuth to Kether I assume he is attempting to take his fans on an initiatory journey following the classic symbolism of Hermetic Qabalah in the style of something like Konx Om Pax.  If you're freaking out because this is a different show then steel yourself because I suggest Cooper may not return to the town of Twin Peaks for 4 or 5 more episodes.  I don't want to analyse this symbolism any further here as I want to avoid turning the Hermetic Lessons into a popular Occulture blog. You now have enough information in the Painting by Numbers posts that you can spoil the show for yourself (at least for the next few episodes!) with a few books by Fortune, Regardie, Crowley etc - skip to their symbol lists.

Bear in mind that (Golden Dawn) ''Hermetic'' Qabalah mutilated a lot of concepts by trying to fit a bunch of square shapes into circular holes, there is a lot of unnecessary conflation and over-egging that ends up obscuring a much more useful underlying astrological structure.  As an example there is no need to conflate Planets with the Sefiroth.  The Sefiroth should represent the ten depths - past/future, good/evil, north/south, east/west, up/down and the planets should be on the vertical paths only.  The Saadia Tree (dedicated to Saadia Gaon as opposed to created by him) is a Tree of Life rectified according to the obvious rule of 3, 7 and 12 with the arrangement in the simplest, most rational order - I have colour coded where possible and used glyphs to make the astrology as easy to access and uncluttered as possible.

THE SAADIA TREE
The best way to start exploring this Tree is by looking at the Middle Pillar where you can see the Greater and Lesser Axes of Time.  The Greater Axis of Time takes place between the past (your birth) and the future (your death).  The Lesser Axis of Time takes place between the East and the West i.e. the typical day.  The planets only lie on the vertical paths and are no longer conflated with the Sefiroth.  We can see the path which occupies the Lesser Axis of Time (i.e. between East and West) is the Sun, Tifereth becomes (the Depth of) Sunrise, Yesod becomes (the Depth of) Sunset.  The paths which mediate the relationship between the Present and the the Future (Death) and the Past (Birth) and Present are Saturn and the Moon respectively.  As the Moon guards the journey from Birth, so Saturn guards your journey into Death.  I have explored this Tree a great deal throughout the site click on anything labelled qabalah or tree of life, enjoy and if you have any questions fire away.

Looking at the table below we can see how far off the planetary attributions of the Golden Dawn are when compared to earlier forms of the Sefer Yetzirah and obviously the path attributions themselves (where the letters go) are completely mangled on the Kircher Tree because it does not obey 3, 7 and 12.

Hebrew Letter / Planetary Attributions in the Sepher Yetsira, Shiur Komah and Other Sources
Version/LetterBaytGhimmelDalletKafPayRayshTav
Suares 1SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Work of the Chariot 2SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Short Version 3SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Long Version 4SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Long Ver Recap 5SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Saadia 6SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Saadia 6aSaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Donash 7SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Shiur Komah 8SaturnJupiterMarsSunVenusMercuryMoon
Zohar 9MoonMarsSunSaturnJupiterVenusMercury
Gra 10MoonMarsSunVenusMercurySaturnJupiter
Golden Dawn 11MercuryMoonVenusJupiterMarsSunSaturn
Adapted from Aryeh Kaplan, Sepher Yetsira, 1990, other sources

In closing I want to say that Theatrical Ritual like Twin Peaks will always produce strong effects. The cast of the show speak of ''happy accidents'' during the filming process, accidents which the magus in charge is inducing by manipulating the symbol set of reality.  A note of caution though, the Kircher Tree is so inherently unstable it will always produce errors and catastrophe in the end.  In playing Snakes and Ladders on the Tree of Life one can miss that the point is to Unify the Sefiroth. If Lynch is only using the symbolism of the Sefiroth (of the Hermetic Tree) he should be completely safe but if he is fully employing the Kircher Tree (paths with misattributions) the effect produced on the internal world of the cast/crew/producers or the external world of the audience will almost certainly be unbalanced or malign.  This said I want to be clear that this is my blog (therefore only my opinions), I don't think he is making that mistake and I absolutely love the new season and his work in general.