Fragment 34

In this "Fragment" I am going to continue to discuss people who I believe crossed the abyss. I realized before discussing anyone from the Christian tradition, that I needed to examine guilt. There were also two recent incidents that made me realize how important it is to examine guilt. Guilt is a powerful emotion that deserves much more examination than iit has been given. It can be used to control people, and manipulate people both on a social and personal level, it can destroy someone's life, and it can be used for self-transformation. So let us examine the use and abuse of guilt. Let us begin with the present day. To riff off the old saying on the weather, everyone seems to be spreading guilt around, but no one wants to analyze it. I looked around for some modern analysis of guilt, but found little. In the nineteenth century Nietzsche and Marx did some analysis of guilt in philosophy, and Dostoesky in literature. But not much since. The reason guilt is still so important to understand in the present day is that we are still living in the Christian paradigm, and guilt is a very important part of the paradigm. The fires of Hell are a metaphor for guilt. The Christian mystics who are going through the Dark Night of the Soul are consumed in guilt and doubt, and more guilt because of his-her doubt. I know many people think we have moved out of the Christian paradigm, but that is not true. When I came to examine guilt, I realized how close that the modern day Progressive paradigm is to Christianity. Although much inferior as a method for transformation. I shall illustrate by the two examples that inspired me to write about guilt. The first incident example is that of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D. RI). Whitehouse is a progressive Senator who is quick to accuse his opponents of racism. Yet, he belongs to a whites only Yacht Club. When you belong to an organization that has the same membership requirements as the Ku Klux Klan, you are a racist.If there is any doubt about his Whithouse's racism, his wife owns controlling interest in the Yacht club. In simple terms Whithouse could have the membership rules change anytime he wants , and he does not. I am sure if you questioned Whithouse whether he is a racist, he would honestly reply: no. Of course, he is lying to himself, he is a racist. It first seemed to me that Progressives have no integrity. Progressivism has become synonymous with hypocrisy. So much so I am surprised that some prominent Progressive has not claimed that hypocrisy is a racist construct. This also gives us an idea of how close Christianity is to Progressivism. The charge most often levelled against both is hypocrisy. Although Christians usually try to hide their hypocrisy, while Progressives do not. The question becomes why do Progressive not think they are hypocrites? The answer is very subtle. Humans use projection to interact with the world. We are always projecting our categories onto the cosmos. We do this to achieve our goals. This is why the Pragmatic theory of truth is the only theory that holds up. The trouble with the other two main theories (the correspondence and the coherence) is that we are always changing our categories depending on the goal. An easy example to illustrate this is building a house. The technical workers like the carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. use a different set of categories than the interior decorator and sometimes each other. (anyone who has been involved in constructions has heard arguments between carpenters and electricians) The interior decorator must understand what is pleasing instead of what is technically the best. The technical crew is only interested in everything working, I must take a slight diversion here to examine the term "perfect" , a most misunderstood word. The word "perfect" is a subjective word. To be "perfect" , it has to be perfect for someone (a subject), nothing is intrinsically perfect. The thinking that there are things that are intrinsically perfect is a holdover from the Platonic paradigm of the divinized realm of the Forms. This misunderstanding has misled countless people throughout history. There is no Utopia. When Utopianism and projected guilt are found together it is disaster, causing genocide, and tyranny. Back to Whithouse is of course, a Utopian. He is projecting his guilt onto other people, and when they do not show any interest in feeling guilty, it makes him angry. Not just angry but that righteous anger that sanctions repression, tyranny, and genocide. Just as socialism uses other people's money to pay for their promises, and programs, they want other people to atone for their guilt. When I say Whitehouse is a racist, I do not mean like members of the Ku Klux Klan, who are honest about their racism. Instead, Whitehouse is like the nineteenth century Imperialists who believed in the doctrine of "White Man's Burden'' The doctrine of "White Man's Burden" was the old name for "White Privilege" denying people of color any agency. Infantilizing non-white people by denying that they have any power to change their lives. I shall now move to the second example. Recently a news report came out about a group of heavily armed men who do not believe that they are subject to the laws of the United States. Which in itself is disturbing. The Progressives thought leaders did not view it that way. Instead it was a chance to virtue signal by projecting their guilt on to the group.They automatically assumed that it was a group of White Supremacists, and took to social media to show their righteous anger. It seems that righteous anger is as addictive as cocaine. Like a crack addict will crawl through broken glass to smoke a rock, Progressives rush to judgement, without evidence to vent their righteous anger. This is what makes righteous anger so dangerous. It turned out the band of heavily armed men were Black Supremacists. At that point Progressives had nothing left to say. Is this hypocrisy? To understand what happened we must understand projected guilt. The reason that Progressives lost interest in the story is because they do not project their guilt onto Black Supremacists. This is also why when the Assad regime is Syria bombed Palestinian refuge camps noting was said. When Israel bombed Palestinian refuge camps jumped on the story. Even though the Israelis tried to minimize casualties while the Assad regime tried to maximize casualties. It is only on the people, and institutions of Western Civilization that Progressives project their guilt on. Let us turn to a historical example of projected guilt onto a people that had no interest in the guilt. The Puritans were guilt ridden Utopians. If anyone has doubts about the Puritans being Utopians, the reason for coming to America was to try to build a Utopian society. The Puritans were of course Calvinists and Christian communists. J. Calvin is of course the founder and father of all progressives movements in the West. Remember F. Engels grew up as a Ca;vinist and J. Bohme detested Calvin and Calvinists. If there is any doubt about the Puritans being communists, just remember the story of Thanksgiving. When the Puritans first arrived they tried collective farming. No one owned the land; the land was held collectively. And of course they starved, this should sound familiar' it is the same as communist countries implementing absurd agricultural reforms that cause mass starvation. Fortunately for the Puritans their adherence to communism was not so dogmatic. They switched to free enterprise where every man owned his plot of land and the fruits of the land. This is what caused the abundance that was the origin of Thanksgiving. Back to the Puritans and the Native Americans. When the Native Americans showed no interest in the guilt that the Puritans had happily informed them of, the Puritans got extremely angry at the godless heathens.( again righteous anger) This is what made the usual primate struggle for territory so vicious, and justified the struggle. This is the same mechanism that causes today's Progressives to put everyone they don't like into the category of White supremacists.The same as fundametalist Christians lump everything they do not like into the category of Satanic.This is what happens when a group puts ideology ahead of people's welfare. This is a characteristic of Utopians. Before returning to the use of guilt let us take one more historical example of communists Utopians . This time a benevolent society of Utopian communists and the most successful and longest lasting experiment in communism: the medieval Franciscan Order. The monks owned nothing, not even their robes according to Ockam. They were poor and starving. Yes, being poor and starving an essential part of communism. Even if a monk had a little something to eat if asked for it he would give it away. This is how an altruistic society looks. We do not live in an altruistic society , instead we live in a cyrenic society. We moderns pursue pleasure, sensual pleasures. The Franciscan monks put ideology over their own well being. They were trying to use guilt for their own self transformation. Which takes to the use of guilt. Time to examine the use of guilt for self-transformation. Guilt is associated with pain, debt, and obligation. This is why it is such an effective way to control and manipulate people. So we must examine how to cause guilt? The old occultists called this the descent into melancholia. It is also the first step in alchemical transformation; the nigredo.The Christian tradition calls it the examination of the conscience. Bohme calls it the descent into the torture chamber. The best way to get people to feel guilty and obligated is to get them to compare themselves against a perfect standard. In the Christian tradition this is of course, Jesus Chriat, the only perfect man. Progressives use a perfect society: Utopia. This is why Utopians feel so free to commit atrocities. To bring about a perfect society is not by any means acceptable even if it kills people. The goal of all guilty people is to redeem themselves; this is of course the obligation, or in Christanity the debt owed to God. The idea is to induce so much self-loathing that one shall do almost anything for redemption; the cessation of guilt. When one keeps one's guilt one's self there is a chance of self-transformation. When one projects one's guilt onto others it is a recipe for genocides and tyranny. Once self-loathing has reached such a pitch the present self and its complex of Egregores is destroyed. This is a similar procedure to the Zen Master and the use of koans. The idea is to overload the system with so much energy that it breaks. The energy of the abyss destroys a person's outer life. This is why monks take vow of poverty and give up their possessions; so they are not distracted by their outer lives being destroyed. Once one has entered the abyss they do not have to worry about renouncing possessions; the energies of the abyss shall take care of that. This is also why many Indian Gurus will not teach Kundalini. especially how to open the chakra above one's head; it opens the abyss. We notice in both Nietzsche and Bohme that their outer lives are destroyed. Even Bohme's kidest biographers admit that Bohme's children and family did not play a prominent part in his life. Bohme withdrew from his family and his business. He experienced a fourteen year depression before he wrote. Nietzsche of course chronicles the destruction of his outer life. Another characteristic of people who have crossed the abyss is that they see, to know things they should not know. This is the result of breaking the hold of the Egregores. It is what many traditions call sleep hypnotism; that people are not in control of their lives, they are controlled by dreams. To sum up the use of guilt. The ideas is to bring the self-loathing to fever pitch until the psychic system breaks, then the self can be rebuilt with a new paradigm.

Fragment 33

In this ¨Fragment¨ I was planning to examine some examples of people who I believe crossed the abyss, but many people have shown an interest in the god, Dionysus. I realized that these themes are not mutually exclusive. I could do both in examining the Philosopher, F. Nietzsche (1844-1900). The others I was going to examine shall have to wait for a future ¨Fragment¨. Dionysus was Nietzsche's god. It was Nietzsche who single handedly brought Deionysus back to the consciousness of the modern world. He is the modern prophet and High Priest of Dionysus. So we shall begin with Dionysus. To begin with Dionysus should not be confused with Bacchus. The Romans replaced Dionysus with Bacchus. They did so because the Romans did not want to deal with the chaotic energies released by the god. Dionysus. The first clue to the difference is the way the two gods are represented; Bacchus is represented as a middle aged drunk. Bacchus is the funny drunk, his literary representative would be Shakespeareś Falstaff. The jolly entertaining drunk. Dionysus is a beautiful youth, seductive, wild, and dangerously reckless. Dionysus never considers consequences to his actions,this is what makes him so dangerous. Dionysus is not evil or sinister, he is seductive, and reckless. The Classical Greeks recognized his dangers. This is why he was confined in time and space, to a festival. After the festival until the next festival he was left alone.The chaotic energies of Dionysus were confined to a yearly festival. While Bacchus is the god of jollity, Dionysus is the god of divine madness, or divine frenzy. This means all the defence mechanisms of the intellect and conventions are overcome in a wild celebration. The devotee of Dionysus is overcome with an emotional frenzy that leads to a cathartic emptiness. That is the repose of Dionysus. Manifestations of Dionysus are easily observed in modern times. Dionysus was the god of the mid to late nineteen sixties Rock and Roll, not Satan. Fundamentalist Christians are not good at drawing subtle distinctions. They have a tendency to put everything into the category of satanic everything they do not like. Satan is a much more deliberate god, Dionysus contains no treachery or planning. So let us briefly examine some of the Rock and Roll figures I believe manifested Dionysus. As a note these figures are not personal favorites of mine, I am an aficionado of Black Metal. Of course, we begin with Jim Morrison of the Doors. Morrison recognized that the Rock and Roll of his times was a manifestation of Dionysus. After viewing concert footage of his shows, he admitted he released energies that he had no control over. The psychedelic orgy of Jimi Hendrix is another good example. Dionysus is about seduction and losing control. It is easy to view the manifestation of Dionysus in the power and ethereal beauty of Mark Bolan of T Rex and Curt Cobain of Nirvana. The last Rock and Roll figure I shall mention is Iggy Pop of the Stooges. The early chaotic show of the Stooges was a nervous breakdown on stage. Of all the above Iggy Pop is the only one of the above figures that survived into old age. Probably because he fell under the Apollonian influence of David Bowie. Dionysus is inviting and seductive, not evil or scary. The corpse painted, bloodstained front man of Black Metal is not Dionysian. Before moving on to Nietzsche I want to mention the reaction against Dionysus in both ancient and modern times. The ancient example would be Plato wanting to ban the poets from his ideal city. (Republic Book X). The modern parallel would be Tipper Gore and the P.M.R.C. who also wanted to censor the poets. Let us now turn to Nietzsche. I believe Nietzsche crossed the abyss in 1889 when he collapsed on the streets of Turin Italy. Nietzsche knew he was involved in the Great Work. In his letters he admits he is seeking the Philosopher's Stone. That he sought to transmute his suffering, and pain into joy, and happiness. Of course, he did not succeed. It was pain that drove Nietzsche into the depths of his psyche. This is what made Nietzsche into the great psychonaut of modern times. At this point we must make a slight diversion to better understand the nature of the abyss. I heard an Indian Guru say that there were three ways to enter the abyss, (he should have mentioned they are also the three ways out of the abyss) they are Faith, Trust, and Madness. The first Faith is the way of the Christian mystic, who goes through the Dark Night of the Soul. (The Dark Night of the Soul is another way of saying crossing the abyss.) The Christian mystic has faith his god shall pull him out of the abyss. The second way Trust is the way of the Eastern Mystic, who trusts his Guru. A good example of this type of thinking is ¨The Tibetian Book of the Dead. The third way is Madness, this was Nietzsche´s way. He went into the abyss to find the source of his suffering, so he could transform into joy. (Lead into Gold) Unlike the other two ways out of the abyss the way of Madness has not been explored or written about much. If Nietzsche had faith that his god, Dionysus would pull him out, he was sorely mistaken. Dionysus is not the flip side of Apollo. They are two distinct gods. Dionysus does not turn into Apollo. Apollo is the god of harmony, sunlight and healing, he is not a chthonic god like Dionysus. Examples of manifestations of Apollo would be a Bach fugue, a beautiful chess game, or the brilliant dialog of a play. These works of art are deliberate, not the work of a divine frenzy. Apollo gives a glimpse of the divine through harmony., not a frenzy that overcomes the intellect, but art that elevates the intellect. Dionysus does not turn into Apollo. Dionysian repose cathartic emptying. The other mistake Nietzsche made was he thought the way out of the abyss was to crawl up. When one enters through madness the way out is through the bottom. (Remember my friend who exited the abyss through the portal of despair.) It is very telling that in his last letters, he mentions that he was experiencing psychic inflation. Claiming he was the Pope, Napoleon, and every name in history. This is the experience of losing oneself in a greater whole. Most commonly it is the feeling of being one with everything, but it does not have to be a positive experience. Again remember my friend who had the vision of Absolute Despair. He became one with despair losing the self. An exquisite experience. After Nietzsche passed through the inflation he collapsed in the streets of Turin Italy. Dionysus did give Nietzsche his gift of a cathartic emptying. The pain was gone.Nietzsche lived the rest of his life in an empty passivity. I know some readers shall question my choice of Nietzsche as a model in occultism. they should remember what a great influence Nietzsche was on early twentieth century occultism. I shall only mention Aleister Crowley. Nietzsche are well worth studying if one realizes they are one man's record of his journey through the abyss.