We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. – Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac, Foreword)
Section 1: Home
(Speculation) 9 e1
I heard that the story of the fall of Adam and Eve is about the fall from God’s Grace. The New Testament is supposed to be returning to God’s grace. Do people have spiritual needs? I do not know. We have material needs. Then, some people want to free the soul from those material needs. That kind of talk is not for people who like being imprisoned in the material world. Perhaps we can balance spiritual needs with material needs. Or maybe we should ignore the spiritual nonsense and live in the material world.
The Nuns at my school claimed to be living a spiritual life. That life might work for them, but it would have been unnatural for most people to live that way. The maids who worked for my parents would keep a small altar in their room. They would talk to these spirits and claim that the spirits talked back. The spirits understood the maids. Years later, I learned more about the maid’s religion. The spirit is a prostitute and mother. The maid’s religion seemed natural because it was about their life.
You might say there is no unnatural because Nature is everything. Such an assumption ignores how a living tree differs from a plastic bag. Someone willing to live in a plastic world would not care. The rest of us can feel an obvious difference between natural and unnatural. Just touch moist, healthy soil, which the Earth has produced for millions of years, and feel all the life in it. Then, compare this to the dead dust technology leaves behind. We do not live in a world where every supplement is as complete as the original; some changes are wrong.
I use the word matter to refer to the stuff you and rocks are made of. The brown disk of the material world circles all the perspectives as a tenth perspective made of all the perspectives. This world around us is not just an artifact we were programmed to believe. Rocks seem more than a figment of the imagination when one falls on your foot. This tenth perspective has all kinds of descriptions; however, we do not need a description of the material world when looking outside provides the best description.
James Lovelock thought life could stabilize the ecosystem, or in other words, Gaia could regulate itself. Though Lovelock’s hypothesis sounds like one of those balance of Nature fallacies, microbes do influence the atmosphere and oceans. I call life Maya and the Earth Gaia. Gaia includes rock and air. The Wiccan Goddess combines Maya and Gaia into one Goddess of life and Earth. Whatever the case, Gaia is the sacred name of Mother Earth.
Did the Great Mother exist in ancient times, or is it a modern invention? The scholar Ronald Hutton thought old feminine gods stood for civilized activity much more often than the natural world.
“In the pagan ancient world goddesses were most commonly patronesses of cities, justice, war, handicrafts, and home fire, agriculture, love, and learning; they stood for aspects of civilization and human activity much more often than for those of the natural world.” (Hutton, 1999 ch. 2)
Though Hutton does an excellent job of debunking the exaggerations that modern Pagans say about their religion, contemporary Pagans are not entirely wrong because Mother Nature and Mother Earth appear in the stories of most cultures.
Hutton was partially correct since people who see themselves as part of the world will develop a social image of The Great Mother. This mother cares for you by teaching the ways of your home, the ways of your village, and the ways of your tribe. The house belongs to the mother, who decides what must remain outside the camp. The mother gathers fruits to eat and knows the plants around the village. No person should be forced to live this stereotype, though we should value the protector of the home. Our cultures do value the older conservative matriarch. Jews call it Israel. Black Elk called it Buffalo Cow. The Hopi call it Corn. Catholics call it the church. I see it in the trees.
Professor Jordan Peterson wrote about chaos and order and recommended that people find an orderly life by following rules (Peterson, 2018). Perhaps alcoholics need this kind of advice to help them regain order in their lives. I’ve been told that professional applied psychology can help troubled people become reliable members of society. Peterson is practicing applied alchemy, which is an ancient art. Even cultures living close to the Earth have purification rituals, idealistic concepts, discipline, and work ethics. These seeds will eventually produce civilization when cultures gain too many rules. The Gods of tradition become a problem when civilized people think their traditions equal the necessary ways of the world. For them, the personification of tradition, Hera, would also be Gaia. Only certain situations make this combination true. I rarely recommend anyone follow rules since rules lead to domestication. Instead of rules, let us build a culture of hedonistic and anarchistic values, and we will call this cult “The Church of Holy Anarchy.”
Interpreting the Great Goddess as the Earth is not the full story. The Goddess is also an imaginary Allie. Since this companion is unreal, let us examine a few unreal ideas in the rest of this chapter.
Section 2: The Winds
(Speculation) 10
In Genesis 2:7, God breathed life into Adam. The book does not say where God got this life.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)
Did the breath of life exist before God, and does God need the breath to live? Christians prefer to claim that God made everything, including the breath.
Each direction has two contrasting steps. The direction of fall and death contrasts with the East wind, the red generator of life, spring, and sunrise. The direction of winter and lifelessness contrast with the South wind, the yellow source of life, summer, and daytime. The direction of spring and birth contrasts with the West wind, the black counterclockwise thunder god of destruction of fall and sunset. The direction of summer and life contrasts with the Northwind, the white purifier of winter and night.
The word step means both the area we step on and the movement from one area to another. Picture the four winds as movements and the elements as objects. Eshu, the east wind, animates fire and is the hidden spirit in society. Helios, the south wind, animates air and life. Jove, the west wind, animates water and hides in human consciousness. The north wind, Maat, animates Earth and is the way the world works. This order of steps, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, maps the Holy Spirit. The four winds also portray the breath of life.
“Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” (Ezekiel 37:9)
The Ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates thought disease happened when the four humors got out of balance (Nature of Man IV). The Chinese wrote about a life force called Qi (Mencius 2A:2). The Prashna Upanishad called it prana. These ancient writers thought life needed a unique property. Then, in 1828, Friedrich Wohler synthesized an organic compound from ordinary chemicals, and we now know life consists of ordinary material. Modern medical books no longer use the four humors to explain disease because no life force or mystical vapor causes life to grow; the body operates like a machine. Supernatural agents only exist in fantasy stories. May the Force be with you.
As modern science improved our knowledge, our view of the universe became more interesting. Nature is full of reoccurring patterns, and these repeating structures make the larger structures possible. For example, how atoms bond in a molecule enables the growth patterns of crystals. We know complex replicating molecules carry the instructions for life, yet no one knows exactly how life started. However, various processes associated with life happen in the complex chemistry of nanobacteria (Young, 2010), which include cells, reproduction, and consumption. Since such chemical processes happen anywhere with the right conditions, the emergence of life could be common in our universe. We do not see new life develop on Earth since living things eat the necessary ingredients.
However, a few people still claim nonliving cannot turn into living unless something special happens. Creationists claim the intricate workings of organic structures require a designer. They still believe in a supernatural agent. Even with all the scientific evidence available in modern times, fundamentalist Christians and Muslims think an invisible magic man is a reasonable answer to why we exist. They stubbornly closed their minds to all the amazing discoveries science continues to make, and their minds remain part of an intellectual dark age as they call science fraud while inventing persuasive arguments to convince themselves that scientists have an evil agenda.
In parables, every detail does not have to be real. The original authors of Genesis were smart enough to know they were writing fiction. Jesus used fictional stories to teach stuff. Augustine knew more than one way to interpret Genesis leads to truth.
“What difficulty is it for me, I say, if I understand the text in a way different from someone else, who understands the scriptural author in another sense?” (Confessions XII 27)
Read carefully, and you will notice that the Book of Genesis contains more than one creation story. Perhaps the authors included contradictions to show both the story’s potential and limitations. The Jewish Scholar Maimonides gave a very obvious answer to how we can interpret scripture.
“Thus it is the function of the intellect to discriminate between the true and the false.” (Maimonides pt. 1 ch. 2)
If a theme seems wrong, change your interpretation. Just remember, figments of the imagination don’t exist. If you insist on only one idea of the winds, you will miss out on one of the interesting aspects of the breath of life: the winds represent change, and sometimes change requires us to change. People become superstitious when they persist in believing the fake parts of the stories. Genesis is fake. The talking snake should be a clue.
Even people who don’t believe in magic vapors use words such as spiritual when they discuss stuff they consider important. Someone who likes psychological health might use the word spiritual while discussing consciousness. Someone who thinks societies have groupthink might use the word spirit to talk about culture. Religious people use the word spirit for all kinds of imaginary ideas. Some people even think of nature as a spirit. The word spirit has no clear definition. Obscure words make nonsense and sound important.
People still like to pretend that their thoughts are important. And they confuse all these different ideas of spirit together into something they think is important. For example, you can claim that your religion will improve human consciousness, which will improve society and the world. Or perhaps you might not claim a religion. Instead, you support a political organization or another kind of organization. Perhaps you don’t even use the word spirit. Call it whatever you want; it makes you feel as powerful as the God who breathed life into the first human.
Section 3: Double Trouble
10
The seven planets get numbered according to how fast each seems to move through the Zodiac. Each planet moves in one of seven spheres, with higher shells surrounding the lower shells. The Earth rests at the center of this cosmology, and beyond the Zodiac lies a mystical realm of light. These imaginary structures are silly, yet people have invented similar cosmologies since ancient times. Aristotle thought this kind of cosmology was a relic of primordial beliefs (Metaphysics 1074b).
Traditions changed as ages passed, but one custom did not change: Europeans corresponded seven basic concepts to the seven planets and seven days of the week. In our temple, the order of the seven days of the week is the seven days of creation. We begin with Sunday, the Sun’s day. Monday is the Moon’s day. On Tuesday, the day of Mars, God created grass in the field. On Wednesday, the day of astrologers, God created the stars in Heaven. The thunder god Jupiter gets a day on Thursday, the day of Thor. On Friday, the day of Venus, have fun. On the seventh day of Saturday, Saturn’s day, the Creator rested and made the day sacred for itself. We draw these seven concepts in the steps of a tower that connects spirit with matter.
Notice how the spirit is at the top of the tower. The word spirit refers to a cosmic mind or an individual’s mind, and sometimes, the idea is a confusing combination of both. Christians and Buddhists equate various imaginary concepts with the divine. A person devoted to religious concepts is symbolically thought of as having moved up to be closer to the divine. Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain celebrate concepts. A cross that looks like an X holds the conceptual celebrations in place. There is a rumor going around that the higher mind does good things. That rumor could be a lie.
Those who prefer the material world would want to go in the down direction. We call material objects holy, and for me, a materialist can also be a holy person. Yule, Ostara, Litha, and Mabon celebrate events, and a red and black cross holds these steps in place. Justice happens when events occupy the right place, and evil happens when events leave their rightful place. People live in injustice when they detach from the land and live in cities. Fortunately, the right place exists for every event, even when events are outside their place.
Sex gets mixed up with religion in dishonest ways. The Roman Catholic mass uses a lot of symbols with sneaky sexual meanings, such as anointing with oil, magic wands, holy water, and nuns. The Greek word Christ used in Matthew 16:16 means anointed (strong G5547). For anointing, they used holy oil that resembles semen. Even with all these sex toys, they think of sex as bad. Calling sex evil causes people to talk about sex a lot. Anger about sexual behavior allows people to talk about sex without feeling like a pervert. We would be less angry if we practiced an orgy cult instead of boring Christianity. Such a cult would equate semen with the water of life, and nuns would be allowed to become prostitutes.
For the male star, draw a circle of perspectives in the numerical order of Saturn to Moon. For the feminine star, draw a circle of perspectives in the order of the seven days of creation. Connect the angles of the male star with lines in the creation order. Connect the angles of the feminine star with lines in numerical order. Also, draw a third star to portray a union. This union is Heaven with Earth, spirit with matter, mind with Body, and reason with emotion. Perhaps the balance of alternative ideas brings about a healthy life when the balance puts you in harmony with the world around you.
A sign on a temple in ancient Greece said, “Never in excess.” This saying implies the correct path would exist between the extremes. Avoiding extremes while aiming for an imaginary center sounds like a good policy, yet people seldom need this advice. Sometimes, life needs the extreme. My idea of justice means everything in the right place, including situations without a balance. To find harmony, there would need to be harmony, and the universe might not have harmony. Nonetheless, looking for the middle makes you think about more than one side, which is good.
Civilized people want to put their lives in harmony. No wonder the Yin Yang remains popular in a stressful modern culture. The yinang contains a circular flow of opposing influences that flow around the world and in the internal function of our body. Ancient Taoist authors were aristocrats who thought the world revolved around them. Let us build a temple with the water of life rather than flowing symbols for lazy people who have lots of servants.
The environment does not determine every step we take. Instead, the environment allows more than one potential future. We go with the flow or choose a path, or maybe we think we choose one. If you want religion to tell you what to do, plenty of other religions will. Organized religions connect symbols into structures and pretend these structures say something about harmony. Then, they pretend that understanding harmony allows them to give advice and make rules. The tendency for religions to impose structures on us might be a relic of primordial beliefs. In Holy Anarchy, anything goes. However, people who refuse to listen to instructions might fail, get frustrated, and give up. Occasionally, we need organization. That Peterson guy was not completely wrong.
Before I continue to write further nonsense, I will include a pagan ritual.
Before us, someone wishes to feel comforted by life’s embrace. Let the person lay in the center of the temple, feet to the North, head to the South, left arm to the West, right arm to the East. Always use the water of life instead of death since life must grow. Take a wand in your left hand, dip it in the water of life, and sprinkle it on the person, saying, “Thou art the kingdom, the power, with the glory, everlasting. EUOI”
Section 4: The Tree of Knowledge
(Conjecture) 12 e1
Throughout the ages, the superstitious assumed Nature operates by magic instead of cause and effect. Without the support of physical evidence, people support their claims with persuasive arguments that connect concepts like a crossword puzzle. These connections seem logical to the inventor. Making false connections becomes easy when dealing with a subject for which you have no verifiable facts. Without facts, how could you know when you are wrong? Believers easily add more bad links to their goofy maze of ideas. Modern occultism developed during the Renaissance from a mixture of ancient Greek Platonism and Jewish mysticism. One of their creations, called Qabalah, contains loose interpretations of nonsense. This Qabalah survived for centuries because people tend to become fascinated with anything obscure.
Maimonides thought we cannot define God (Maimonides pt. 1 ch. 58). An undefined God looks no different from something that does not exist. How could an unknowable God talk to Moses in the burning bush? God would not be not completely unknowable if everyone knew the goodness of God. An Ancient Egyptian Platonist named Plotinus wanted to show the mind’s potential to appreciate goodness (Ennead 1.8.2). This Egyptian writes about a process called emanation, where the supernatural stretches itself into the shapes people know. Aristotle thought of matter as a potentiality inside form and change (Physics bk II), and Plotinus equates this matter with the absence of good (Ennead 3.6.11). For Plotinus, the soul wants to return to the orderly perfection of a singularity called the One. This contradicts my image of the soul wishing to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. Plotinus makes matter sound impotent. I believe our Nature developed as part of the material world where matter is not powerless.
Long before Plotinus, the Greek philosopher Parmenides talked about the unchanging One. The idea of a primal singularity had a big influence on Plato, who liked unchanging order and thought the world where change happens is an inferior copy of perfect forms (Republic 508b–520a). Plato considered the world of ideas more real than the world of ordinary events, and the truth is found in unchanging abstract order. Plato’s God creates the world as an imitation of its form. Such a God is a blueprint for the world.
“He was good, and one who is good can never become jealous of anything. And so, being free of jealousy, he wanted everything to become as much like himself as was possible.” (Timaeus 29e)
Plato portrayed a cosmos of concentric circles. The outer shells are closer to divine perfection than the material world, and Plato thought people became healthiest when they synchronized their movement with the shells. In the Republic, an organized nation happens when citizens move toward orderly perfection, which imitates the stable divine justice in Heaven.
“And when this conformity is complete, we shall have achieved our goal: that most excellent life offered to humankind by the gods, both now and forevermore.” (Timaeus 90d)
Whether the Platonic One equals the Jewish God remains open to interpretation. God could be an intelligence that comes after one. An unchanging One would be so useless that such a god would need another god to do stuff. In Plato’s book Timeous, this secondary creator god, called Demiurge, would do all the work. Haters of the world could consider this second god to be evil. I prefer to believe in justice on Earth and refuse to think of the world as an inferior copy.
For centuries, Plato’s Timeous remained the standard manual that educated Europeans used when developing their cosmologies. Other cultures also developed cosmologies about good and evil. The Jewish Qabalist Isaac Luria thought the creator modified itself to make room for the universe, which then broke.
“The root of evil comes from the broken vessels. Good comes from the great light. And if it were not so, there would be only good in the world.” (Dunn, 2008 II 273)
“All commandments are given so that the vessels and the images, the breath of the bone, can be repaired. They are the sparks that fell when the vessels broke.” (Dunn, 2008 II 190)
Rabbinical literature uses the phrase Tikkun Olam when discussing how the world needs fixing. Tikkun Olam does not just refer to the world outside our bodies; it is also interpreted to be about improving our minds. As a guide to fix us, an ancient Hebrew manuscript called Sepher Yetzirah mentions ten emanations of God called Sephiroth. We can connect these emanations in a tree pattern, which resembles an illustration called the Arbor Porphyriana used in medieval textbooks on logic.
“The World of Creation and worlds below it are called the Tree of Knowledge that has both good and evil.” (Dunn, 2008 III 107)
Each person contains these attributes; minds are a microcosm of the macrocosm, for we were made in the image of God.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26).
Luria considers the top of this tree close to the big divine nothing.
“En sof is called absolute zero (efes), because no one can conceive it. It has no matter nor form.” (Dunn, 2008 II 125)
Peaceful and lawful ideas appear near the top. The material world appears on the bottom, along with evil and sin, which, according to Luria, needs to get purified out of us with God’s law.
“The commandments are meant to purify and clarify the image and matter.” (Dunn, 2008 II 207)
The New Age movement developed in the nineteenth century when writers combined Jewish mysticism with ideas from Taoist, Vedic, and Buddhist sources. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky wrote a bunch of books popularizing the idea of a higher self, identical to God. Then Tolstoy claimed love motivated people (Where love is, there God is also, 1887). Followers of the New Age want to cultivate this love and become the God in the mind. All You Need Is Love, like in the Beatles song (1967). Tolstoy practiced control of the self, which can seem good to other civilized people. They are wrong; nobody needs domestication to cultivate love. Love happens in the natural part of our animal. No advanced training improves love.
The psychologist William James gave lectures about how varieties of religious experiences contribute to a healthy mind.
“When we survey the whole field of religion, we find a great variety in the thoughts that have prevailed there; but the feelings on the one hand and the conduct on the other are almost always the same, for Stoic, Christian, and Buddhist saints are practically indistinguishable in their lives.” (James, 1917)
The idea of fixing a mind became popular in the twentieth century. Aleister Crowley used rituals to manipulate the unconscious mind in ways that are supposed to influence a person’s life. Other gurus would sell their version of amateur applied psychology for your soul. New Age meetings became group therapy sessions where people tried to overcome fears and deal with psychological shadows.
One of the functions of a coven is to support and guide each other through the confrontation(s) with the Guardian. (Starhawk, 1979 ch. 9)
Such practices cater to people who have loaded their imagination with fear, denial, and defense strategies. Highly energized chanting and climactic freaking out would be unnecessary if people could work things out without neurotic rituals, making them more neurotic. Also, using ceremonial magic to make psychological changes sounds like brainwashing. These spells are seldom tested to find the actual results from the spell. The wrong therapy could prevent people from getting something important, and amateur psychologists will misdiagnose themselves. Some spells were invented so the believer’s wallet gets thinner while the magician’s bank account gets bigger.
The rituals can also appeal to civilized people who want to tame the wilderness inside us. When my grandparents were young, forest managers wanted to tame the wilderness to improve the wasteland. Since then, Aldo Leopold found interfering with the environment lowers the fertility of the land. People need this fertility for a healthy environment to grow. Someday, people will learn about the dangers of interfering with the ecology inside people. Let us do rituals just for fun. Do not waste time studying old books when you can go outside. Put down your Qabalah or whatever you use and do whatever feels good. The best ecology grows on its own. If your unnatural civilized lifestyle is making you neurotic, get away from it.
If our minds only occur as extensions of the divine, we have no individual self, and everyone could reject the illusion of selfish individuality to become one with universal love. People who like selfish individuality want to remain themselves. Furthermore, how New Age writers equate the mind with the divine contradicts traditional Christian ideas of individuality. The Catholic God is a person and more than just a state of mind (Catechism 1998). The Catholic church claims people experience God’s love or grace while remaining themselves, never disappearing into the divine (Catechism 1996).
In Protestant Christianity, God did not create the cosmos just so it would think about itself. It made the world so people who do not think about God get roasted in eternal flames.
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15).
The Protestant God seems hateful. Jehovah could use some New Age therapy. Religious cowards only accept one pattern and live afraid to look beyond their dogma. The stories by HP Lovecraft warn us about looking too far into the unknown. A lot of people interpret Lovecraft’s warnings as invitations. I like to steal ideas from multiple traditions, and many ideas from the occult books were used to design my temple.
During the Renaissance, occultists matched the Sephiroth on the Qabalah with the planets in their astrological order. Thus, Jupiter, numbered four, falls on the fourth Sephiroth, Mercy. This makes no sense to me since Jupiter should fall on Severity. Mars appears on Severity. Mars belongs on Beauty. Venus Appears off to the side where it gets called unbalanced and decadent. The occultists completely misunderstand the Moon because they adopt ideas from the old geocentric view of the universe where everything above the moon remains in unchanging circular cycles and everything below changes. The occult Moon is a door between the lower material and the higher spiritual. This tree contradicts many of my ideas. My Moon is not a doorway and should never be touched or crossed. In Victorian times, an occult group called The Golden Dawn used the upright tree design for the Sephiroth. Books about the Golden Dawn became so popular among occultists that the tree design became equated with the Qabalah, and this Qabalah picture became equated with the Tree of Knowledge. Don’t forget that in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life grows separate from the Tree of Knowledge.
I developed a different tree with a new order, starting with Saturn in Crown, and then Zodiac in Wisdom, Lucifer in Intelligence, Sun in Mercy, Jupiter in Severity, Mars in Beauty, Moon in Victory, Mercury in Glory, Venus in Foundation, and Earth in Kingdom. Suppose you draw this Qabalah as a lady. In that case, the Trinity of Crown, Wisdom, and understanding form the head. Then we find Mercy on the right hand, Severity on the left hand, Victory on the right foot, Glory on the left foot, Beauty on the body, and Foundation on the vagina. This tree stands on the Kingdom of Earth. My tree is the Tree of Life.
Section 5: Ancient Esoteric Knowledge Unveiled
(Portrayal) 9 e1
Since sex fascinates people, artists have placed all kinds of sexual symbols into our cultures, and we end up having strange traditions full of sexual ideas. A conspiracy nut might claim that religious authorities intentionally put sexual symbols in their art to seduce us into joining the cult.
The religions of the God of Abraham, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam dominate the world today. Throughout the ages, from Moses to the Taliban, clerics tell us what to do with our genitals, knowing everyone will violate sex taboos. These religious clerics want people to feel guilty for breaking the law. Christians want people to repent and hate themselves. Muslims want people to submit to their rules. Disciplining yourself, rather than fighting back, will make you weak, afraid, and easy to control. Let us free ourselves from these condemning traditions. Let us make Idols and picture God the way we want, and don’t let those fanatics tell you what to do.
Our mind draws pictures when it tries to understand something. Muslims do not make images of God. What are they trying not to think about? They are trying to avoid doubt about their idea of God. We can misunderstand God, just like all other ideas. Your idea of order might not equal the order in nature. The law you believe in might not equal the cosmic law. The universe might have a different purpose than your goals. The definitions you use might not be necessary. There might be better choices than the ones you choose. What if God is not your friend? Eve discovered after eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that God was having sex with Eve.
He defiled her. (Secret John 22:15)
Eve forgot when the mind eliminates terrible memories. The mind separated from the body, and God only got the Body. This story about Eve being raped reveals how people feel about God. Christians talk about loving God, and then secretly blame God for their suffering. This secret hate then motivated them to declare a secret jihad against everything. Since their holy books tell them to love God, they try to ignore all these feelings and hate themselves for having these feelings. The devoted see themselves as small compared to an eternal God. When the devoted can’t take the confusion anymore, something inside breaks. They start praying for God to save them. God becomes the obsession of the devoted, giving their minds to God, missing the most important part of life, and becoming a mind without an Animal. This madness has inspired suicide bombers, crusades, and inquisitions.
The idea of an invisible aggressor has been popular with paranoid people throughout the ages. The idea of the One countered this disorder and the One was a theme in Greek religion long before Plato. Plato wanted people to believe in something better, so Plato adopted the story about the One. Plato wanted people to have the potential to become perfect. For Plato, this perfect One is not the world of material activity. Seekers of such divine perfection might assume life has no purpose if we are material in the material world.
Is the cup half empty or half full? Suppose we try to determine the halfway point by drawing a measuring line down the side of the cup. In real life, we cannot divide a line segment perfectly in half since breaking it down to near the quantum level becomes too weird, and that’s good because nothing would happen if the world were stuck in perfect equilibrium. People live in a world of change instead of balance, and we would never occur without this disorder. The One that does nothing could not produce the world, and if all activity is imperfect, an active god would also be imperfect.
Plato would not have known about quantum weirdness, though even ancient people were aware that in real life you are unlikely to find a line segment that has been broken into two perfectly equal segments. One side will always be slightly longer than the other. Let us map this imbalance with a line segment divided into uneven sections. Plato called this segment the Indefinite Dyad. For Plato, the real world seems more confusing than the defined One. Though the mind conceives of perfect balance, the universe has an uneven harmony that we cannot easily define. Plato kept the idea of the Indefinite Dyad a secret because few would understand; they might assume the One is a lie.
Plato wanted to fit the definable order into the world and claimed that a mixture of definable and undefined allows for beautiful things.
“And when the unlimited and what has limit are mixed together, we are blessed with seasons and all sorts of fine things of that kind?” (Philebus 26b)
If there is no order to harmonize with the disorder, Plato’s idea of beauty would be a fictional story. Fortunately, we do not need Plato’s idea of beauty if we find beauty in the chaos of the material world where things get done. We only need the extra ingredient of order on rare occasions. I am happy being material in the material world.
The line segment divided into two uneven parts represents a corruption of the one and could be the same as a feminine concept the Sethians called Barbelo, who is the substance that the cosmic song is written on. The secret is not just knowing that the divided lines existed before the demiurge created the world. The secret is not just seeing possibility in the unpredictable. The secret is not just knowing that random probability waves happen inside the world we know. The big secret is that we don’t need the masculine One. We can be happy with an imperfect female. We do not live in an empty absence of Good; everywhere is full of change, and some of that change is good. All those mystics who think God is the One are completely wrong. Remember, the burning bush identified itself with activity, and you write your life on this activity.
Section 6: No Fair
(Speculation) 6 e1
A pessimist told me Nature was full of suffering, and it was overly optimistic to believe a natural lifestyle will more likely benefit you than hurt you. This person thought seeing the benefits of Nature equaled ignoring the hazards. I stopped to consider the hazards and realized that Nature offers numerous paths, and anyone in a wrong position can plan and prepare to improve their position. So don’t blame Nature for all your problems. The pessimist then asked about situations where people have no choice and suffer. Such situations happen rarely. Most of the time, the most complex challenges have solutions, and not looking for solutions makes natural disasters worse.
Have you ever seen a fight that seemed unfair? Suppose the fight was a big guy against a normal guy. A wise person would walk away from unnecessary conflict; however, this situation would not allow that option. We might assume the smaller guy has no chance, but we should never assume there is no chance. When the small guy won, all the suffering casualties in the world seemed part of a drama someone set up for the victor’s benefit.
The pessimist thought the story was unnecessary since no one can feel like the king of the world forever. The pessimist likes to point out how health will fade until all of us face Nature’s cruelty and no longer love it.
This pessimist is the CEO of a large corporation. Such a person seems to have the world working in their favor, though the CEO answers to various outside influences. The CEO has used these influences to make themselves seem successful and get lots of money for their song and dance routine.
The CEO is not the puppet master if the other influences are in control. Let me tell a fictional story about a caste system. We find privileged people who preach stories in the highest caste, though hidden within the highest caste, a secret inner council chooses the stories. The next caste is the police, who enforce the stories as if the stories were true. The caste below the police consists of merchants who know the lies are good for business. The lowest caste contains most of the population, who do most of the work. The highest caste claims to help the poor; then the lowest caste suffers to make the false claims of the higher caste seem necessary. Do you think the story of the four castes has any truth? In civilization, the combined fear of people at all levels of society contributes to the problem. This groupthink makes a parasitic government possible, and it makes the CEO possible. This groupthink is the inner council. What does civilization fear? It fears life.
Mr. Big becomes the puppet master of many situations. This pessimist expects the world to work for us. This person missed something important. We can say yes to life, and this makes all the difference. You do not need to hide in civilization. You can always do something else.
Next Page Chapter 11
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