Fragment 30

It is time to get back to the Search for the Self. I have a few preliminaries to get through before resuming the Search for the Self. To begin with I must acknowledge some intellectual debts. Besides the usual cast of characters: Bohme, Paracelsus, Gurdjieff, Crowley. ertc.; I have a special obligation to the philosopher F.W. v. Schelling and the psychologist G.H. Mead for this "Fragment". And I have some practical advice, which shall help us transition into the following discussion. The advice is when you have achieved inspiration go as far as you can with it. I am talking about mentally not doing something stupid. When you get a new theory or insight do not cut it off. Carry the theory or insight as far as you can. Go as far into the weeds as you can, there is always time later to trim back the theory or insight. Most people kill their inspiration in the cradle, that is why most people are not good at practicing Magic. Don't let the voices in your head or the voices of family and friends cut short inspiration. To restart our search for the Self, we must talk about consciousness. What is consciousness? Are higher states of consciousness possible? Can higher states of consciousness reveal hidden knowledge? These are some of the questions that led me to practicing Magic, and studying philosophy. So what is consciousness? The usual answer is awareness, this is undoubtedly true. The trouble is we substituted one vague word for another vague word. So I shall offer an operational definition that can be worked with. A definition that only applies to humans at this particular time. Consciousness is the conversation that goes on in a person's head. Now we can start answering the questions that were posed about higher states of consciousness and whether they can reveal hidden knowledge. We know from talking to people that some conversae divided inottions are better than others. So higher states of consciousness are the better conversations one has in his-her head (the Egregores). Remember Crowley said one of the goals of Magic was to achieve a conversation with one;s Holy Guardian Angel (H.G.A.). I will have more to say on the H.G.A. in future "Fragments". Before discussing the thought entities that dwell in the mental sphere, let me say a few more things about conversations. When we read a book, what are we really doing? We are having a conversation with the author. Books like all our conversations follow the rule that some conversations are better than others. Even when we are studying nature our consciousness still puts the study into the form of a conversation. We ask questions and then try to get an answer. We try to make nature answer our questions. The experiments we devise are questions. Let me take a more common example of looking for a building you have never been to. We look to the street names and numbers for our answers. Our consciousness takes the framework of a conversation. This is why nearly everyone from the ancients says that consciousness implies a duality. To be conscious there must be at least two elements that are interacting. A dialogue is the mark of being conscious. Let us move on to the characters that make up a person's internal dialogue. They are the Egregores. When a person lets in or has an Egregore implanted into his-her consciousness, the Egregore forms a "Me". I must state before moving on that I am using some familiar terminology in an unfamiliar way, but bear with me. I am doing the best I can, like I have said we have not invented the tools or the terminology to properly investigate the Egregores. A "Me" is passiveI response to an Egregore. It is Egregore's beach head into one's mind. "Me"s do what they are told. In the Bronze Age there were "Me"s and only a few proto- "I"s. This is why people were the [ro[erty of the Egregores in the Bronze Age. Usually in the Bronze Age the controlling Egregore could be identified by a person's name. Most names in the Bronze Age were theophoric. The "I" comes about when a person begins to question the Egregore. The resulting "I" can be divided into two types depending on the relation to the Egregore. If the reacting "I" embraces the Egregore, and his-her reaction is to further the reach of the Egregore, this results in a passive "I" or an active "Me". I prefer the term "active Me ", because the person is still under the control to the Egregore, even if she-he thinks that they are controlling the Egregore. We know sometimes rival groups of active "Me"s arise in an Egregore.These internal conflicts in an Egregore manifest as conflicts among the Egregore"s followers. The difference between the active "Me" and what I call the "I" is the active "Me" accepts the Egregore's goals. Religious wars,and conflicts would fit into this paradigm of active "Me"s in conflict. The followers are in conflict about how best to pursue the goals of the Egregore, or about some technical point that is meaningless to any outsiders. When a person accepts the goals and conduct of an Egregore they become active "Me"s, and become the Egregore's collaborators. This active "Me" is the reason most people think theyBronze Age there is now a lot of duplicity. I think it was C.S. Lewis said something like: "The Devil's best trick is to make people think he does not exist." The Egregores have developed an even better trick, they make you think that their voice in your head is your own. Like S. Kierkegaard I miss the honesty of the ancient and medieval worlds.This state of thinking you are free while being controlled by Egregores is what Occultists have called sleep or hypnotism. Most people are sleepwalkers controlled by an Egregore's dreams.The way Egregores control people is by inducing dreams. Egregores also use guilt and flattery to control people. In self loathing the Active "Me" condemns and tortures the "I' that resists. Yes guilt may be the greatest mind control technique ever. This is how self loathing become manifest in an individual. An Egregore may also use flattery to approve when the "I" becomes an active "Me".This also is how an Egregore rewards its followers. It makes them feel like they are better than other people. This should be easy to observe in our virtue signalling society. How an Egrgore puffs up people making them sanctimonious and didactic. To finish this "Fragment" I shall go back to the practical advice I started with. When one calls either a god or a demon they are seeking inspiration. I know the older view is where the god or demon is supposed to fetch the desired object and deliver it to the door. I also know this sometimes happens, but it is usually for small or unimportant things. We can take the example of a love spell. Very seldom does a god or demon act as a pimp. But a god or demon can give the confidence or tools to win the desired love, or show one the desired lover is not really that desirable. This is the gift of inspiration. As the ancients knew and we moderns have forgotten inspiration is th

Fragment 29

Before continuing with the Search for the Self, I have some more material I want to cover. Material that does not fit in anywhere, yet is still important to understanding the Self and Occultism. This "Fragment" shall have two parts. The first part shall be some thoughts on Astrology. The second part is an ontological theory of mine. A theory I have no commitment to, in simple terms I am uncertain of the truth of this theory. I could be talked out of it easier than I could be talked into it.The reason I am passing this theory on, is because my unconscious mind keeps working on the theory, even though my conscious mind seems to reject the theory. A strange if not unIliphas common phenomenon. Showing that our conscious mind is but a small part of the greater Self. I shall start with the thoughts on Astrology, and its place in Occultism. The older attitude was that no one ignorant of Astrology should practice Magic. Thi@s view can be found in Paracelsus, and most of the ancient and medieval writings on Magic. The best example is sublime grimoire "The Picatrix". This state of affairs did not change until the middle of the nineteenth century, and was the work of one man: Eliphas Levi. Levi was the great reformer of Magic. I have written about Eliphas Levi before (see my essay "Kierkegaard and Levi" @processidealism.blogspot.com), but as with most subjects I write about I have come to deeper insights with further study, and reflection. To give a very brief summation of my previous essay I recognized his accomplishments in reforming Occultism. His reform of connecting the Tarot cards with the letters of the ahebrew alphabet, and the Qabalah, and his doctrine of the Astral Light. Although he was not the first to use these two doctrines, he was the first to develop and analyze these doctrinal changes.I am giving Levi the credit. As the legendary Chess Champion said about naming chess openings. That an opening should not be named after the first player that plays the opening, but the first player that analyzes and develops the opening. As I said previously Levi democratized Occultism. Most people do not have the time, and resources to master the complicated mnemonic systems of the Renaissance, but everyone can afford a deck of cards. Even though I discussed and recognized the above insights, I seemed to have missed the big picture. What Levi did was to switch the focus of Occultism from the macrocosm to the microcosm. Levi pulled off a Copenican revolution in Occultism as Kant did in philosophy. The older Occultism was focused on the cosmos, and the external world. Levi flipped the focus to the subjective self by making the Will of the Magos central to Occultism. This is how he democratized Occultism. Like using the mnemonic systems of the older Magic using Astrology to plan your rituals or consecrate tools takes time and work. While relying on the Will of the operator is a short cut. It is the same with substituting the Tarot cards for the mnemonic systems of the past. The cosmic energies are channeled through the Will of the operator, instead of using the configurations of the cosmos. Thus the energies of Magic become accessible to all. Of course the trouble is people do not do the work. If one wants to explore the older Magic there is no better book than the sublime "Picatrix" to understand Astral Magic. I shall take a slight diversion here to discuss some of the influences on Levi's thought that are often overlooked. Levi, like Kierkegaard, was a reaction against German Idealism. A turning to subjectivity against the deification of the objective by Hegel. The switch from the objective macrocosm to the subjective microcosm. Anyone who reads Levi's books can observe the influence of Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte on Levi;s thought. But, it is Schopenhauer that gave Levi his central nsight to make the Will of the operator the supreme power in Magic. Back to Astrology. I guess the first question most people ask; is can Astrology really predict the future? A question I cannot answer. I am far from a competent Astrologer. A similar question could be asked of the Tarot cards. Astrology like all the occult arts differs in quality depending on the operator. Astrology is a continuum that runs from the daily advice column in the newspaper to the esoteric verse of Nostradamus (1503-1566). What I can say like the Tarot cards Astrology is a wonderful key to unlocking the unconscious. The trick is to identify oneself with the entire cosmos, instead of one's individuality. A trick that seemed easier for the ancients, and medievals. Not that it was easy even back then. The reason that this trick was easier for the ancients was the cosmos was considerably smaller back then. The Copernican revolution was one of the greatest shocks to humanity in history. More far reaching than Darwin's evolution. The Copernican revolution is what made Darwin's discoveries possible. Back to trying to identify with the cosmos. To successfully do this trick, one has to take to heart the saying of many mystics, that the space inside your head is identical with the cosmos. As for Astrology's efficacy in Magical rituals, I can commend the practice. As the key to success in Magic is adding content. When one does the work of calculating the proper time to do a ritual it adds importance and content to the working. What I can say with confidence is having some knowledge of Astrology is of great benefit to the Magos. Even if it is just being aware of the phases of the Moon, and knowing the symbolism and meaning of the planets and signs. We have now come to the theory. I first used this theory in my fiction (see the "Monas Stone" @gwenchustories.blogspot.com), and then promptly forgot it. I should say my conscious mind forgot it, but my unconscious mind kept working on the theory. So I have some ontological speculation for the reader. The theory is that Reality is a wave which I shall refer to as the Reality Wave or R,W. Think of the R.W. as an analogy to a F.M wave. A F.M. receiver only picks up the peaks of the wave, that is where the information is that is the broadcast. So the theory is that our reality only exists at the peaks or valleys of the R.W. like the F.M. broadcast only exists at the peaks of the waveform. This means our reality ceases to exist except at the peaks or valleys of the wave form. So our reality phases in and out of existence, and other dimensions of reality may exist at other points on the waveform. Our dimension of reality would alternate with other dimensions of reality. When our dimension phases out another dimension would phase into existence. How long the time it takes for our dimension to phase back in does not matter, since we do not exist during other phases of reality, or at least exist in a different form. It could take a microsecond or a century. Although I have a hunch that in our time perception it is closer to a microsecond than a century. Before turning to what this theory could mean to occultism, let us take a look at some evidence for the theory. According to Einstein solid matter is the result of a low vibratory rate. If vibrations drop below a certain rate the congeal into solid matter. A dimension of a higher vibratory rate would seem immaterial for us, and a dimension of a lower vebratoru rate would be of solid matter to us. like Parmenides's Sphere. Another piece of evidence is when observing electrons they seem to bounce in and out of existence, but in the R.W, theory they would go somewhere.What we view as electrons would be a point of a waveform not discrete particles. This would make the electrons the information part of our dimension of reality like the peaks of the F.M broadcast wave. We are all made of electrons, thus they are the information carriers of our reality. Not much evidence I admit, so let us turn to what this could mean to Occultism. Our brain waves are of a higher frequency than the brain matter, thus being immaterial (at least from our point of view). The psychologist Alfred Adler claimed that the brain is the tool of the mind. (see his book "What Life should Mean to You") Adler's example is that if someone suffers brain damage, they can train other parts of the brain to take over for the damaged parts. Thus the mind changes the brain. Of course it is really a reciprocity instead of one being prior to the other. This could mean the Egregores exist in a higher vibratory dimension of reality, They feed on the vibrations of our emotions and thoughts, thus there would be a reciprocity between our consciousness and the Egregores. As I have said before Egregores are born and they die. They are born when our brain waves reach a certain pitch, and die when the pitch no longer exists. There is also an argument for life after death that accords well with Occult teaching. That when we die, the higher vibrations of our consciousness live on in another dimension on the R.W. Many mystic and Occult traditions have taught existence after death is only possible if someone had done the work to create some sort of vibrational body. Example of this are the Light Body in Occultism,as well as Gurdjieff's teaching about creating an astral body that will survive death. The Greek Orthodox tradition has a similar teaching about reaching deification. That our human substance is replaced by divine substance if we follow the rites and teaching so the Church. Anyone interested in this teaching can consult "The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Tradition" by N. Russell, or if interested in primary sources Maximus the Confessor is a good place to start. I shall probably write more about the R.W. theory, since my unconscious mind is still working on it. Anyway I hope some readers find this theory useful, even if it is just for writing fiction. Failing that I hope at least it was entertaining.

Fragment 28

In this "Fragment" I have some add ons to some previous "Fragments". So in this "Fragment" we shall tade a short break from the Search for the Self. As I have said before, these "Fragments" are not Systematic or to be taken as eternal truths, instead they are meant to be dynamic; to change and be built upon. To start with I have some further thoughts on our first ancestors, and how they evolved. To supplement my theory that humans were originally scavengers. The fact that humans are bipedal and with an upright posture seems to add weight to this theory. Walking on two instead of four legs and sg.. standing upright would be of great benefit to scavengers. To begin with an upright posture would allow individuals to see further ahead which would facilitate looking for food. Having the hands free would also have allowed humans to carry or drag things back to any sort of temporary camp the humans had set up. Another fact that I think supports that early humans were scavengers is that humans to this day have a penchant for collecting. Humans love to have collections. We do not find this trait in predators or in other apes. Like I said before I believe that humans were to the primates as rats are to rodents. Before moving to Jaynes's theory, I have an add on to my interpretation of the Set myth. I just recently finished reading C.G. Jung's book "Aion" where Jung investigates the fish as a symbol. Jung holds that the fish is a symbol of consciousness, or the self. The water is the unconsciousness that consciousness (the fish) swims around in. Thus the fish eating Osiris's phallus would be consciousness destroying the vitality of Egregores in the bicameral paradigm. I also have some add ons to Jaynes's theory of consciousness. When I said the left brain interprets the voices from the right brain, I should have said "messages". It would be the left brain that would add the words to the feelings, emotions, or images from the right brain. l must also state here that I am not convinced of a lot of Jaynes's right-left brain theory.But i shall leave the neuroanatomy to those more qualified than myself. Al I think of the Egregores as having an existence outside of the human brain. The other thought I want to add to Jaynes's theory is Jaynes offers us a solution to the problem of why many ancient and mesoamerican cultures would suddenly desert their cities and civilizations to return to tribal life. It was because the Egregores were condemning them. From reading the Old Testament we find the Egregore Yahweh several times thought of killing Moses. I bring this up to draw a parallel with today. Much the same thing is happening with the demon Egregore Hoggg. Hoggg is the patron demon of the social justice movement. Hogg is using guilt to condemn Western Civilization. This is why we can not solve problems today that were solvable in the past. Thus leading us back to barbarism. I will say a few words on Hogg, since he is so active today. Examples being cancel culture, the suggestion of re-education camps,and some sort of secret police that the Democratic progressives are calling for to monitor and destroy "domestic terrorism", you can be sure they shall not invetigate any violent leftist movements (Antifa, B.L.M. etc,) In simple terms Hoggg wants to destroy all those that are not serving him. Hoggg has had several internal conflicts over his life. Of course, with Egregores internal conflicts are worked out as real conflict between its human followers. One of Hoggg's most important internal conflicts happened in the Weimar Republic in Germany post W.W.1. It was the fight between the Nazis, and the Communists (Marxists). In that conflict the Nazis won, then to be defeated in W.W.2, and never rise again. I know there are several neo-Nazi movements around today, but they are just maggots feeding off the rotting corpse of the Third Reich. What is happening today is that the latent Nazism is resurfacing in Hoggg in the Progressive left. I know Progressives are always calling their opponents Nazis, but this is also a Nazi propoganda techinique of the orginal Nazis of accusing your opponets of doing what you are doing. A good example of this is when the Progresseve Democrats accused President Trump of corruption in the Ukraine, while all the time it was their candidate that was leveraging taxpayer money to help himself and his family. Let me explain. Today's Progressives are not really classical Marxists. The trouble with Marxism is it was based on a stupid economic theory. An economic system that did not work. Today's Progressives have instead turned to a Fascist economic system. Big government controls big business through regulation, instead of nationalizing production. In return the government cushes big business, big tech., and the big bankers competition with laws and regulations. In this way they can keep the population subject to Hoggg. Also because Marxism had an economic system as its heart, the messianic class was factory workers, supposedly the most oppressed class. It was factory workers that were supposed to lead us to Utopia. This absurd theory was dropped, instead today's Progressives have substituted a racial (Nazi) theory in its place. Although, they have inverted it in several ways.Now it is whiteness instead of jewishness that is the problem. (Progressives still hate Jews. The Democratic party is rife with antisemitism from top to bottom.) So instead of "Jewishness" it is "Whiteness" that is the problem. The Nazis used to talk of Jewish science, Jewish history, etc. in a pejorative way, now the Progresseve left speaks of White science, history, civilization in the same way. It should not be hard to observe that Progressive of today owe more intellectual debt to Adof Hitler than Karl Marx. Although Hogg has kept some Marxist traits. The international character of the movement. which is now called globalism. The other prominent trait is that people living under the Progressives of today must keep up a steady stream of affirmations of the Progresseve value system, to constantly confirm their allegiance to Hoggg. When I was young, I was able to meet some people that had lived under both the Nazis and the Communists. I asked them what was the difference? They told me under the Nazis you could keep quiet, and they would not bother you. Under the Communists you had to keep up a steady stream of talk affirming how great Communism was. This is of course, a technique of mind control; to gain control of the voices in your head. Like when a popular song gets stuck in your head; Hoggg wants his voice to get stuck in people's heads. There are many parallels between modern America and the Weimar Republic. But do not lose hope, there are also many differences. The most important difference is the quality of Hoggg's tools.Today's Progressives are weak, stupid, soft cowards, a far cry frome the cunning, battle hardened veterans returning frome W.W.1. I would advise everyone to stay clear of the warring Egregores to today. So in parting I shall relate a story from the life of Gurdjieff. When Gurdjieff was leading his followers out of Revolutionary Russia, he had a piece of paper, on one side was a pass to get through the Red Army checkpoints and on the other side was a pass to get through the White Army checkpoints.

Fragment 27 continued

The box symbolizes the triumph of the subjective over the objective. Set has freed himself from the tyranny of the Egregores. The water of the Nile is also a chthonic symbol of the subjective swallowing up the objective. Then Isis and Nephthys rescue the box and hide Osires's body. When confronted by Set, Nephthys breaks and tells Set the location of the body. Set then cuts the body up into fourteen pieces. Remember Osires is the god of the outside order. The cutting up of the body represents turning the outside order into a number of abstractions, instead of a living whole. It is no longer the voice of the living god that rules people.but a number of dead abstractions. Isis and Nephthys now go on a search for the pieces of the body. They find all the pieces but the phallus (penis) which was eaten by a fish. The fish is another chthonic symbol of the subjective swallowing up the life of the objective order. Isis and Nephthys assemble Osiris and bring him back to life, but Osiris decides to stay dead becoming kthre judge of the dead. Osiris represents the outside order as and experience of abstractions or laws. The law is no longer a living, creative voice guiding people's lives, but a series of laws that people are judged by. To continue the story Isis uses her magic to become pregnant and give birth to Horus. Horus then defears his uncle Set and becomes Pharaoh. Horus rules by following the dead abstract voice of Osiris. This is of course the subjective self suppressing and repressing its own individuality to conform to the laws of the outside collective order. This probably also represents how every new Pharaoh had to suppress his individuality to become Horus. And so again the outside order rules over the land in Horus. I believe we are in an analogous time today of the breakdown of the Bicameral mind of the Bronze age. The R.H.P. paradigm is falling apart. The modern Crisis. It is time to create a left hand paradigm. The Aeon of Set is upon us.

Fragment 27

The last "Fragment" was inspired in part by "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris. In this "Fragment" some of the inspiration shall come from Julean Jaynes's book "The Origins of Consciousness in the Break Down of the Bicameral Mind", Do we shall continue with observing the development of consciousness. I will try to give a brief summary of Jaynes's theory of consciousness. Jaynes posits that the humans of the Bronze Age had a far different conscious mind than we do today. That instead of a conscious self reflective thought to guide their actions, that they were grided by audio hallucinations. In simpler terms, instead of thinking about a course of action, a voice identified with a god would tell them what to do. This was an age ruled by the Egrergores. It seems in the early Bronze Age humans and regularly gods conversed face to face. One only has to look at the arts and myths of the age to observe humans and gods talking. This dramatically changed around 1230 B.C. In the year 1230 B.C. the Assyrian King Tukulti-Ninurta had an alter made that is dramatically different than anything that had come before, Jaynes describes it thus: "In the carving on its face Tukulti is shown twice first as he approaches the throne of his god, and as he kneels before it. The very double image fairly shouts aloud this beggarly posture unheard of in a King before in history. As our eyes descend from the standing King to the kneeling King, just in front of him. it is emphatic as a moving picture in itself a quite remarkable artistic discovery. But far more remarkable is the fact that the throne before which this first cruel Assyrian conquers grovels is empty." So what happened to the gods? There are three theories of what happened to the gods. That the gods left gor reasons only known to them: the theological theory. That the gods were ancient alien astronauts, and left for reasons only known by them: The alien theory. And the third theory, that there was a change in human consciousness: Jaynes's theory. Jaynes goes on to describe brain anatomy, and the symptoms of schizophrenia to bolster his theory. Basically what he is saying is that the left brain hemisphere interprets the voices from the right brain hemisphere as the voices of external gods. That instead of consciously thinking humans were directed by the voice of their gods, and this only changed with the introduction of writing and larger and more complex social structures. Some of the evidence Jaynes produces to support this theory is" quite illuminating. Most human thinking to this day is done unconsciously. That is why solutions to problems often come about as inspiration; out of seeming nowhere. Like when suddenly a solution to a problem pops into our heads when we are doing something unrelated to the problem. As I said before most of our thinking is still done unconsciously. What Jaynes is saying is that Bronze Age humanity did not know how to think out their problems consciously. Instead they heard the voice of a god when the unconscious mind had come up with a solution. Another interesting theory of Jaynes's is that for the ancients reading was a psychedelic experience. That they hallucinated as they read. What Jaynes is saying is that by our standards Bronze Age people were unconscious. I do not think Jaynes needed to make his theory as strong as he did. I think most humans act and think unconsciously. The difference is now we have moved the voices we hear from outside to inside our heads. That except in exceptional cases, and mental illness we regard the voices of the Egregores as internal instead of external. And reading is still a hallucinatory experience. A primate staring at a page of printed symbols has nothing to do with the images and thoughts in the primates' mind. Of course, as I have said before our seperation of inside (subjective) and outside (objective) is a construct. All our experience is inside (subjective) experience. The difference is we have developed tools, like the law of noncontradiction to create the outside or the objective world. In the ancients there was only the external world, all emotions,and voices were all thought to be in the external world. As late as Empedocles we can observe that psychology and physics had not yet been separated. As I have said before it was Protagoras that separated inside (subject) from outside (objective).The thing with humans is that they gain competence before comprehension. And sometimes we never gain comprehension. We start doing or believing something long before we understand the 'why' and the 'how' . So humans were using the law of noncontradiction long before Paramenides and Protagoras explained what we were doing. Philosophers are more discovers than inventors. The other key part of Jaynes's theory, that the subjective self or "I" is created I am in total agreement with.The subjective self is a creation, and was first developed in the Bronze Age. Child psychologists tell us that humans develop a "Me" before an "I". The "Me" is when we view ourselves the third person. An example is when the mind's eye I see myself hunched over my desk writhing, as if from above. The "I" is the first person way of looking from the inside out, instead of the "Me" which is looking from the outside in. Ancient humans did not distinguish between inside and outside, emotions, voices, etc. were all thought to have an external source. Ancient humans found the crocodile scary, they were not scared of the crocodile. Scary was an external quality possessed by objects. Of course , they had not consciously, it is the default way that humans experience the world. This can be observed in children. Children often look to adults on how to interpret an experience. I have observed children looking to adults after a joke was told to figure out if they should laugh. During the Bronze Age humans were property of the gods. One can still observe this in Islam. Many muslims still today talk about being owned by Allah. Humans are the tools which the Egregores use to achieve their goals. It is interesting to note that almost all Bronze Age names are theophoric. they contain the name of a god. The names of the Egyptian Pharaohs are good examples. It is also during the Bronze Age that humans developed the quality of treachery. Many animals use deception. Examples would be birds mimicking the calls of other animals to trick them out of their food. Jaynes gives the charming example of a female chimp assuming a seductive pose in order to trick a male out of a banana. Treachery is different, to be treacherous one needs a more sophisticated form of consciousness, namely a subjective "I". A self that can pretend to like someone while plotting against them. One must have a subjective self to make such decisions, instead of a "Me" that is told what to do by the gods. I will have a lot more to say about this in future "Fragments". I know the reader is asking how do I bridge the gap between the last "Fragment" where I discussed our early hominid ancestors and the much more sophisticated consciousness of the Bronze Age. What happened that led to the new state of consciousness? The answer is that early humans started using audio signs to stand for things or actions. So when an instinct or desire called for a course of action. humans would hear the audio sign for the action as if from an external source. So if one felt thirsty the audio sign for drink would be heard. In the early Bronze Age the gods (Egregores) ruled humans undisturbed by the rebellious subjective selfs. The gods were masters and the humans were their slaves and property. Even to this day there is a great longing to recapture this state of affairs, Jaynes calls this state of affairs the Bicameral paradigm. This is of course, the origin of the modern Utopia psychoses. Where everyone would be united by hearing the same voice. There would be no need of a coercive government. No one would have to take any responsibility, everyone would be the collective property of the god. Modern progressives have of course substituted government for god. Progressives are always saying we are all owned by the government. This is why Jung claimed that the consciousness of early humans was held in thrall by the gods. I will have more on this in future "Fragments". I shall try to make this more clear by concluding with a myth that had its first development in the Bronze Age. The Osiris-Set-Isis-Nephthys-Horus myth. I will be following the Plutarch Version of the story. So let us begin with Osiris. In the ancient world Osiris was often identified with Jupitar. Both were Kingsthat ruled over humanity; they were the archetype of the god-king that ruled over a golden age. J. Bohme when discussing astrology says that Jupitar represents the outside order. According to the myth, Osiris and his fabulous wife Isis brought civilization to humans. They taught humans all the arts and sciences from writing to agriculture. Osiris had a younger brother, Set who was jealous of his older brother. So what is Set the god of? What does he represent? Set seems to be the god of many things thunder, the other, the Red lands, etc. His name is often associated with the destroyer,but destroyer of what? Maybe we could call him the god of alienation. This would seem to tie all the other things together. But more accurately Set is the god of the subjective self, or the "I'. Set is the destroyer of the outside order and the domination of the Egregores over humanity. He is also the god of freedom. It is interesting to note Set's connection with the Christian Devil, Both Set and the Devil walked out of Utopia.They refused to renounce their individuality for the collective. To go on with our story, Osiris is seduced by Nephthys (Set's wife) and becomes pregnant with Anubis. This was the last straw for Set. He vows revenge and becomes treacherous. He talks kindly to Osires while plotting against him. Remember to practice treachery one must have a subjective self. To move on with the story Set has a beautiful golden box or casket made, Set brings the box to a party that is being held to honor Osiris.Set tells everyone at the party that he shall give the box to anyone who fits in the box. Of course, Set had the made only to fit Osiris. Everyone at the party tries and fails to fit into the box. Finally Set gets Osiris to try the box, Osiris eits in perfectly. Then Set and his retainers close the box and nail it shut. And throw the box into the Nile. The box represents the distinction between the inside (subjective) and outside (objective) worlds. As I said humans do things and use techniques long before they understand what they are doing. It would not be till centuries later that Greek philosophers would rationally explain the distinctions and techniques. Lood how long Christianity was around until Agustine explained it to us. Myth was the highest form of consciousness at the time. As reasons uses abstractions, myth uses symbols. To be continued

Fragment 26

In this series of "Fragments" I want to discuss the topic of the "True Self". This has been viewed by many as the completion of the Great Work. I am not one of those, but it is an important part of the Great Work. Gurdjieff is a prime example of this attitude. This can also be observed in the more mystical systems, where it is called the creation of the light body. The "True Self" and the "Light Body" are the same thing. To understand how this is done, we must first look at rhe raw materials that we use to build the "True Self". To do this we must go back to our first ancestors, the first hominids. This is also the time of the first Great Magical working, where humans transformed themselves. I shall be using the term "humans" instead of "hominids" for two reasons. The first is for the sake of brevity, and the second is that I do not think that we are that much different from our ancient ancestors. In this series of "Fragments" I shall be relying on two books: "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris and "The Origin of Consciousness in the Break Down of the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes. Both these books are dated in some ways, but it does not affect their central theses.In some instances the new findings have only helped to straighten the central theses. I can commend both books to all students of the Occult and human nature. Both are very controversial books, although written by mainline academics. The purpose of this "Fragment" is to examine the Beast. I am using the term "Beast" to refer to our animal nature orninheretence from our ancient ancestors. It is the deepest level of the unconscious. We are descendents of Beasts not Angels. At this point I shall offer a diversion by way of a theory of mine, of which I am not totally convinced of; that the unconscious of humans is the unconscious of previous humans. That consciousness has many overlapping layers. The example being that of Classical mythology. Classical mythology was the conscious mind of the early Greeks and Romans and is in many ways the unconscious mind of modern humans. After all much of S. Freud's psychology is an interpretation of Classical mythology. As I said I am not convinced of this theory. I can be talked out of all my theories, but some would take more talking than others, this one would not take much talking for me to give it up. So let us examine the Beast. The Beast is not an amorphous entity of desires, like Freud's Id. The Beast has definite outlines, although there are some ambiguities. As we shall see these ambiguities are the product of humans first Great Magical working. The Beast is the default setting of human nature, it is what takes over which civilization falls apart. To get a glimpse of what happened we must go back to the end of the Miocene age when humans and chimpanzees split. So why the split between humans, and chimps? I have a theory that is all my own, so no one else should be blamed for it, and it has no scientific backup. It is my speculation. The theory is that before the split there were apes that were good at being apes, and apes that were not good at being apes. The apes that were good at being apes became the chimps, and the apes that were not good at being apes became the humans. A parallel would be the split between domestic dogs, and wolves The wolves that were not good at being wolves became domestic dogs. To stretch the parallel further, I think humans and chimps split for a similar reason. That the first humans were scavenger apes. Humans were the weaker apes. This is why when the forests receded; it was humans that got pushed out into the grasslands. They did not decide to leave the safety of the forest. Being a scavenger ape did give humans some advantages. Even today humans will eat almost anything that does not kill them or make them sick. Of course there were also great disadvantages to being pushed out of the forests. The main one being is becoming prey to the apex predators: the big cats. Although in a strange way this also worked to humans advantage, humans were forced to innovate. This is the time of the first Great Magical working. Humans transformed from typical primates into predators. Of course, all mistakes were severely punished. This kept the human population small. This is the reason that humans evolved so fast. The first Great Magical working was paid for in blood and death. The primate became a predator. This is what led to the ambiguous nature of the Beast. The ambiguity in the Beast is between typical primate and predator. These are the two aspects of human nature that cannot be ignored: the hierarchical imperative and the territorial imperative. Any political theory that does not allow for these two aspects is doomed to failure. The dual nature of the Beast as primate and predator has affected these two aspects. So let us return to our earliest ancestors and our cousins the chimps to see what we can learn about the Beast. We shall first examine the hierarchical imperative. Both humans and chimps are obsessed with status. Both groups have a well defined pecking order. For chimps status is defined by accessibility to females. This should sound familiar. We are never surprised when a powerful man has a mistress or many mistresses. The King Kong ape can have any female in the group; Polygamy is the natural state of the primate. And here arises one of the ambiguities in the nature of the Beast. This was modified into pair bonding when humans became predators. Monogamy is the result of humans becoming predators. Thus we can observe one of the ambiguities in the Hierarchical imperative. The other imperative is the territorial imperative. Even though chimps move about not having any fixed camp, they still move only within the troop's territory. Chimps regularly go to war with other chimp troops to expand or defend their territory. When humans became predators this changed into humans having fixed camps or lairs. The territorial imperative is mental as well as physical. This can be easily observed in academics. Even though our present day academics are always preaching equality, inclusiveness, and diversity. Just watch how viciously they defend their fields, when it is suggested someone outside their comments on their theories. Diversity and inclusiveness are resisted like a wild beast would resit an invader into their territory. To sum up their are two different natures in the Beast, sometimes they conflict, and sometimes they compliment each other. Here we have the raw material of the Self.

Fragment25

I have some odds, and ends on Magical thinking That I wish to tie up this "Fragment". So let us begin with some terminology. When one practices Magical thinking one is building the Magical mind. This is often called the Astral temple. A better term than "Astral Temple" would be "Astral Mill" . The reason being is that the Magical mind is always active, trying to fit in each new experience, new pieces of knowledge into the chains of correspondences. As Crowley said it becomes a habit after a while. When this happens you have built the Astral Temple. The Magical mind is the ability to think in long chains of correspondences. This is also connected to the Occult teaching of the Long Body. The long body is your mind and body extended through time. It is the history of all the changes your body and mind has gone through from birth to death. An easy way to think about the Long Body is to use the Light Motorcycles in the film "Tron". The Light Motorcycles in the film leave a trail of light or force behind them. As I said the Long Body contains all the changes of mind, body, and place in one's life. When one sets up a system of correspondences (Tarot, Astrology, etc.) one gains access to the Long Body. The Magos gains access to his-her past, and sometimes the future. This is the basis of divination. Magical thinking gives one access to the energies that shape our future. This is also why Magical thinking is so helpful in finding one's true self and true will. It also gives the aspirant protection from the people that are trying to manipulate him-her. The Magos views the energies that have shaped him-her. Thus giving the Magos insight on the way these energies shall affect the future. Remember the future is not determined or one who knows the active energies in their life. This does not mean the Magos never makes mistakes. Even if one has a presentiment of the future, there are all kinds of practical ways to go wrong. The future is the interplay of energies, all is process. There are no nouns, only verbs. The Long Body is the physical, and mental history of the individual extended through time. The teaching of the Long Body is a good way to remind ourselves that we are a process and not a thing at rest. We are always becoming, never finished. When one gains access to the Long Body he-she is powered by one's own energies, instead of relying on energies from outside to power one's thinking. I do not want anyone to think this is easy. It can be terrifying. The Astral Mill releases energies that have been long repressed. It also makes one realize all the lies we tell ourselves. This is why many people get scared when meditating or practicing Magic. The sigils are opened and the energies rise into consciousness. This is the esoteric meaning behind the myth of the Genie in the bottle. The myth of the Genie in the bottle seems to have originated with an old myth about King Solomon. That Solomon summoned demons to help him build the Great Temple. After the Temple was built Solomon imprisoned the demons in containers sealed with a sigil. And when the sigil is broken the Genie or demon is set free.The demons or Genies were imprisoned with a sigil because these energies can be extremely dangerous. This story is an analogy of the repressed and hidden material in our psyche which is also sealed with a sigil. This is of course. why we normally stay away from subjects can open the sigils. Like the myth of the Genie in the bottle these energies can bring great power. Whether they bring great pain, great power, or both the Magos is forced to confront the repressed energies and lies he-she has told them selves. The Magos gains energy in two ways, the first way is access to the repressed energies, and also by freeing up the energy that was used to maintain the regression. When the repressed energies are set free they come forth much like a Genie out of the bottle. The trouble is the freed energies more often resemble the Genie in the film "Wishmaster" than the Genie in "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad". The goal is to integrate these energies into consciousness. Don't expect to come out unscathed. This is also the origin of the Magical trope of trading sanity for knowledge. To conclude I shall offer some practical advice, which can be safely ignored. The purpose of the Magical Mind is to gain content. Only when your spells or ritual have content can they work. In simpler terms to make more and powerful associations. This practical advice shall also be a good example of what I mean by content. We all have our magical tools, the basic four being; the wand, chalice. the pentacle, and the athame (dagger). One can get all to these items from one of the many Occult supply stores. The trouble is most of these items from an occult supply store have no content, and they are not individualized. So what I am suggesting is to pick an Occult tool that has some content for you. An example would be the athame, instead of buying an ornamental athame from a store consider picking a dagger that has some content built in. This can be done in a number of ways. One can pick a knife that has been in his-her family for a long time. Bayonets make great athames. They already have associations with attack and defense. Another suggestion is consider buying a reproduction of a historical dagger. The Roman Pugio would be a good example as it already comes with content. The Pugio was the dagger that was used to assassinate Caesar. And the Pugio has associations with the Roman gods. If one is working with the Egyptian gods, a sickle sword would be a good pick. And for the Greek gods, a Spatha, the Celtic gods,a dirk, and so on. Next "Fragment"shall be a change of subject. Blessed Be!!