Jung on Magic as a way of Living
"It is an error to believe that there are magical practices that one can learn. One cannot understand magic. One can only understand what accords with reason. Magic accords with unreason, which one cannot understand. The world accords not only with reason but also with unreason. But just as one employs reason to make sense of the world, in that what is reasonable about it approaches reason, a lack of understanding also accords with unreason.
This meeting is magical and eludes comprehension. Magical understanding is what one calls noncomprehension. Everything that works magically is incomprehensible, and the incomprehensible often works magically. One calls incomprehensible workings magical. The magical always surrounds me, always involves me.
lt opens spaces that have no doors and leads out into the open where there is no exit. The magical is good and evil and neither good nor evil. Magic is dangerous since what accords with unreason confuses, allures and provokes; and I am always its first victim. Where reason abides, one needs no magic. Hence our time no longer needs magic. Only those without reason needed it to replace their lack of reason. But it is thoroughly unreasonable to bring together what suits reason with magic since they have nothing to do with one another. Both become spoiled through being brought together. Therefore all those lacking reason quite rightly fall into superfluity and disregard. A rational man of this time will therefore never use magic.
But it is another thing for whoever has opened the chaos in himself. We need magic to be able to receive or invoke the messenger and the communication of the incomprehensible. We recognized that the world comprises reason and unreason; and we also understood that our way needs not only reason but also unreason. This distinction is arbitrary and depends upon the level of comprehension. But one can be certain that the greater part of the world eludes our understanding.
We must value the incomprehensible and unreasonable equally, although they are not necessarily equal in themselves; a part of the incomprehensible, however, is only presently incomprehensible and might already concur with reason tomorrow. But as long as one does not understand it, it remains unreasonable. Insofar as the incomprehensible accords with reason, one may try to think it with success; but insofar as it is unreasonable, one needs magical practices to open it up.
The practice of magic consists in making what is not understood understandable in an incomprehensible manner. The magical way is not arbitrary, since that would be understandable, but it arises from incomprehensible grounds. Besides, to speak of
grounds is incorrect, since grounds concur with reason. Nor can one speak of the groundless, since hardly anything further can be said about this. The magical way arises by itself If one opens up chaos, magic also arises.
One can teach the way that leads to chaos, but one cannot teach magic. One can only remain silent about this, which seems to be the best apprenticeship. This view is confusing, but this is what magic is like. Where reason establishes order and clarity, magic causes disarray and a lack of clarity.
One indeed needs reason for the magical translation of the not-understood into
the understandable, since only by means of reason can the understandable be created. No one can say how to use reason, but it does arise if one tries to express only what an opening of chaos means.
Magic is a way of living. If one has done one’s best to steer the chariot, and one then notices that a greater other is actually steering it, then magical operation takes place. One cannot say what the effect of magic will be, since no one can know it in advance because the magical is the lawless, which occurs without rules and by chance, so to speak But the condition is that one totally accepts it and does not reject it, in order to transfer everything to the growth of the tree. Stupidity too is part of this, which everyone has a great deal of, and also tastelessness, which is possibly the greatest nuisance."
~Carl Jung; Red Book
"It is an error to believe that there are magical practices that one can learn. One cannot understand magic. One can only understand what accords with reason. Magic accords with unreason, which one cannot understand. The world accords not only with reason but also with unreason. But just as one employs reason to make sense of the world, in that what is reasonable about it approaches reason, a lack of understanding also accords with unreason.
This meeting is magical and eludes comprehension. Magical understanding is what one calls noncomprehension. Everything that works magically is incomprehensible, and the incomprehensible often works magically. One calls incomprehensible workings magical. The magical always surrounds me, always involves me.
lt opens spaces that have no doors and leads out into the open where there is no exit. The magical is good and evil and neither good nor evil. Magic is dangerous since what accords with unreason confuses, allures and provokes; and I am always its first victim. Where reason abides, one needs no magic. Hence our time no longer needs magic. Only those without reason needed it to replace their lack of reason. But it is thoroughly unreasonable to bring together what suits reason with magic since they have nothing to do with one another. Both become spoiled through being brought together. Therefore all those lacking reason quite rightly fall into superfluity and disregard. A rational man of this time will therefore never use magic.
But it is another thing for whoever has opened the chaos in himself. We need magic to be able to receive or invoke the messenger and the communication of the incomprehensible. We recognized that the world comprises reason and unreason; and we also understood that our way needs not only reason but also unreason. This distinction is arbitrary and depends upon the level of comprehension. But one can be certain that the greater part of the world eludes our understanding.
We must value the incomprehensible and unreasonable equally, although they are not necessarily equal in themselves; a part of the incomprehensible, however, is only presently incomprehensible and might already concur with reason tomorrow. But as long as one does not understand it, it remains unreasonable. Insofar as the incomprehensible accords with reason, one may try to think it with success; but insofar as it is unreasonable, one needs magical practices to open it up.
The practice of magic consists in making what is not understood understandable in an incomprehensible manner. The magical way is not arbitrary, since that would be understandable, but it arises from incomprehensible grounds. Besides, to speak of
grounds is incorrect, since grounds concur with reason. Nor can one speak of the groundless, since hardly anything further can be said about this. The magical way arises by itself If one opens up chaos, magic also arises.
One can teach the way that leads to chaos, but one cannot teach magic. One can only remain silent about this, which seems to be the best apprenticeship. This view is confusing, but this is what magic is like. Where reason establishes order and clarity, magic causes disarray and a lack of clarity.
One indeed needs reason for the magical translation of the not-understood into
the understandable, since only by means of reason can the understandable be created. No one can say how to use reason, but it does arise if one tries to express only what an opening of chaos means.
Magic is a way of living. If one has done one’s best to steer the chariot, and one then notices that a greater other is actually steering it, then magical operation takes place. One cannot say what the effect of magic will be, since no one can know it in advance because the magical is the lawless, which occurs without rules and by chance, so to speak But the condition is that one totally accepts it and does not reject it, in order to transfer everything to the growth of the tree. Stupidity too is part of this, which everyone has a great deal of, and also tastelessness, which is possibly the greatest nuisance."
~Carl Jung; Red Book
I-MAGICK: The Path to the Self
A work of art carries its proof in itself. Artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the image-test; all such concepts crumble, they are revealed as puny and colourless, they convince nobody. But works which have drawn on truth and presented it to us in live, concentrated form, grip us and communicate themselves to us compellingly - and nobody, even centuries later, will ever be able to refute them. The same is true of the authentically lived spiritual life in any of its formats:
One artist imagines himself to be the creator of an independent
spiritual world, burdens himself with the act of creating and peopling
this world, accepts complete responsibility for it but he breaks down,
because no mortal genius is capable of withstanding such a burden;
just as, in a more general ense, man, who has declared himself to be
the centre of existence, has been unable to create a balanced
spiritual system. And if he is overwhelmed by failure, he lays the
blame on the eternal disharmony of the world, on the complexity of the
distraught contemporary soul, or on the lack of comprehension of the
public.
Another artist knows there is a higher power over him and will work
joyfully as a small apprentice under God's heaven, although his
responsibility for everything he paints and draws, and for the souls
who apprehend it, is even greater. But on the other hand this world
was not created by him, is not uled by him, there are no doubts about
its fundamental principles; this artist has only the gift of
perceiving more acutely than others the harmony of the world and the
beauty and ugliness of man's contribution to it, and the gift of
acutely conveying this to others. In failure and even in the lowest
depths of existence - in destitution, in prison, in sickness, the
consciousness of this steadfast harmony cannot forsake him.
However, the whole irrationality of Art, its dazzling convolutions,
its unpredictable discoveries, its shattering influence on people are
too magical to be plumbed by an artist's philosophy or scheme of
things or by the labour of his unworthy hands. This is the way of no
meta-narrative, standing in the Mystery of Naked Awareness.
_________________________
In the process of investigation and self-investigation, it is necessary to figure out the M.O. or motivating factors that lead to behaviors. These are our basic life patterns. We all make decisions based on our internal map of reality and unconscious hierarchy of values. Values and beliefs drive our behavior.
If we make our own values and beliefs conscious and focus on them, we can direct our energy toward what we really want in life. Question WHY certain values are important to you, what situations you want and what you want to avoid at any cost. Have a friend prompt you with the comparisons to make it easier. List and relist them as you adjust their relative importance. Don't analyze it and don't overthink it or add any other strategy in this exercise.
THE WHOLE IN YOUR SOUL
1. WHAT IS IMPORTANT ABOUT LIFE?
2. Look again and add more values later; they may be more important than your first thoughts.
3. Think about when you were highly motivated and what values drove you.
4. Which values are most important? Rank them in order and re-compare them.
5. Compare each to all the others: If I could have this and not that...would it work for me?
6. IS THIS ME? What is the thing that generates what I ACTUALLY spend my time on, not what I think I should spend it on?
7. Identify conflicts in values. Am I moving away from any values? WHY is that important? Don't pretend or censor yourself.
8. Frame values positively.
What you FOCUS ON is THE secret of life. You can EXPAND your internal map of reality. The most important variable is how you spend your time and EVALUATE what you've done. You can feel bad or guilty if you act on others' values, not your own. Values tell you the deeper structure of how you create your life. Ask yourself WHY each value is crucial and what you fear without it. If a caring partner is important, have you had uncaring partners? If you crave financial security what would it mean to be poor? Would you rather be happy and poor or rich and unhappy? What do you want to avoid? What are you with or without it?
How do you rank the values of happiness, guidance, learning, career, money, reknown, success, good relationships, mentoring, balance, integrity, passion, creativity, spontaneity, self-expression, novelty, excitement, comfort, service, compassion, IF those are some of your values? Is balance or success more important than family or communication? Is peace of mind more important than a partner? than personal growth? Can you have money and integrity at the same time; money and family; money and happiness; freedom and relationship simultaneously? Health, avoiding failure, or avoiding pain?
WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE?
If you could have balance but not family, or family without health or health without family, what would you choose? Family or security; success or family? Which would you choose first? Family but not love; fame but not family? Family or financial security? Family or social commeraderie? How do you rank your values? Is excitement, challenge or opportunity more important than balance, honesty, integrity, security? Using your own values, make your own comparisons between them to determine your own ranking. Are there any values you are trying to avoid? Dig deeply within yourself.
Is security more important than challenge, excitement more important than love? Accomplishment more important than romance? Personal fulfillment more important than family? What works for you? What two are in conflict and how do you resolve that dissonance? Are security and excitement compatible for you? Are spirituality and financial security incompatible for you? Can you identify your conflicting values and the dissonance that creates in your mind/body and life?
We all have an M.O., a method of operating in the world at large.
How we act is governed by our motives and opportunities.
Beliefs and values direct our M.O. and WHY we do what we do.
Compare and contrast your values. Do you value excitement more than family, passion more than serenity, self-expression over partnership, inspiration over security, peace of mind more than truth or love or financial security; or balance, devotion, learning, honesty, integrity or friendship more than romantic love? Pair them and ask yourself which you want more, to be loved or to be honest? Can you be dishonest to be loved? Can you be loving if you are dishonest?
Whether you think your top values SHOULD rank that way or not, for example, peace of mind over family, it motivates you anyway. You need to know yourself, to know your M.O. in an accurate, considered way to achieve the life satisfaction you seek. If a value leads to another value, it ranks higher. Examine WHY certain values are more important to you.
Are you living an authentic life, doing what you really want? What do you move toward, and what do you move away from? Is that 90-10% or 50-50%? How much is what you move toward and how much away from? What makes you depressed, restless, frustrated, anxious? Behind what's important can be something you want to avoid. What's holding you back? Do you stand up for the values you hold?
If you focus on what you don't want, it's because you had a negative emotional experience, wounding, or trauma. You watch out for it by focusing on what you don't want - a negative experience. You focus harder on the path you don't want to go down. You must heal the emotional trauma and root causes, initial events and neutralize the emotional charge. This eliminates the emotional charge and you don't move away from it and you can focus on what you WANT. Once you remove the charge, it seems like something that happened to someone else - you no longer identify with it and aren't motivated by decisions you made about yourself or the world in that root cause. Coping mechanisms (ego) can buffer us from true feelings, creating unwanted outcomes and feelings.
Once you clear these charges, your values list may change; some things may drop off and others change their order, through resolution of conflicts.
MISSION CONTROL
Values and goals interact to create a MISSION infused with a deep sense of personal satisfaction. You can formulate your own Mission Statement with a few simple steps:
1. Identify a goal or desire, then ask yourself "What do I want or need from this selected goal? What is important about it; what do I value about it?
2. Higher. more important, values can be discovered by asking, "What will these higher values do for me?" They may reveal greater happiness, success or achievement, but will reveal the direction your motivation comes from: Toward (achieve, attain, gain) or Away From (avoid, relieve, out).
3. Your highest value is found by asking, "What will having the highest value do for me?" Your answer helps you determine your Mission, your creative passion.
4. Your MISSION includes and fulfills all of your highest values.
PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
'Consciousness' is the final frontier for science, the 'hard problem' of philosophy, and mysticism's greatest mystery. It is the central focus of the philosophy of mind. But different scholars and different disciplines use that same word to mean very different things, from simple awareness to the very basis of existence. There is confusion among the very scholars, mystics, and scientists who make their careers exploring the nature of mind, matter and the nature of existence.
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality, transcending those of any particular science. It traditionally includes cosmology, ontology and speculative philosophy. Cosmology is the general philosophy of the universe considered as a totality of its parts and phenomena subject to laws -- the origin, nature and structure of the universe. Ontology is the study of being -- that branch of metaphysics which deals with the philosophical theory of reality, universal characteristics of all reality.
Epistemology relates to "how we know what we know." This branch of philosophy critically investigates the nature, grounds, limits, and criteria of any particular theory of cognition. It helps us analyze facts, thought processes and value-judgments.
This personal synthesis helps us adapt or individuate and perhaps even self-actualize high well-being, or even extraordinary human potential. This comprehensive synthesis is mirrored in synoptic philosophy, which helps us fit the pieces of life into the whole mental jigsaw puzzle. Synoptic philosophy helps us achieve an all-inclusive view of our subject matter, seeing all parts in relationship to one another. To a greater or lesser degree, it erases the mental barriers that separate branches of knowledge in a holistic vision. Taken together, the personal synthesis of a holistic experiential worldview and the cultural synthesis symbolized by the synoptic wheel is what we refer to here, in shorthand, as "metasyn."
This open-ended philosophic journey has certain milestones:
1). When you have any philosophical question proceed as far as possible with philosophical analysis, clarifying and drawing out all the hidden meanings that you can, dissolving the problem completely if possible.
2). If not, find out what philosophers of the past have thought about the problem.
3). Rephrasing the question in a variety of meaningful ways helps reveal what kinds of information will help solve it.
4). Develop an intuition for asking and reasking questions from different angles until they point to the data that illuminates them.
5). What fields most likely contain information related to the problem? Begin by asking questions about the problem and how it might connect one by one, to the various fields.
6). Go to these promising fields and gather information, looking for conclusions, hypotheses, and models currently used by field specialists. Keep asking questions relating the data to your central problem and cross-relating insights and drawing parallels from these fields themselves.
7). Network and integrate these insights refocusing new ideas on the initial problem to see what understanding and creative insights emerge. Weave these illuminative strands together into a glowing tapestry.
So, to envision our new paradigm we have to paint a multidisciplinary picture. We will draw on philosophy, physics, psychology, medicine, genetics, biology, politics, religion, anthropology, ecology, astronomy, geometry, mathematics, computer theory, economics, the humanities and the arts for our metaphors -- for our vocabulary -- to frame and reframe our questions.
Paradigms underlie the interplay of chaos and order in human culture, at the collective and individual level. They act as lenses through which all sensory data passes before it is experienced as perception.
A work of art carries its proof in itself. Artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the image-test; all such concepts crumble, they are revealed as puny and colourless, they convince nobody. But works which have drawn on truth and presented it to us in live, concentrated form, grip us and communicate themselves to us compellingly - and nobody, even centuries later, will ever be able to refute them. The same is true of the authentically lived spiritual life in any of its formats:
One artist imagines himself to be the creator of an independent
spiritual world, burdens himself with the act of creating and peopling
this world, accepts complete responsibility for it but he breaks down,
because no mortal genius is capable of withstanding such a burden;
just as, in a more general ense, man, who has declared himself to be
the centre of existence, has been unable to create a balanced
spiritual system. And if he is overwhelmed by failure, he lays the
blame on the eternal disharmony of the world, on the complexity of the
distraught contemporary soul, or on the lack of comprehension of the
public.
Another artist knows there is a higher power over him and will work
joyfully as a small apprentice under God's heaven, although his
responsibility for everything he paints and draws, and for the souls
who apprehend it, is even greater. But on the other hand this world
was not created by him, is not uled by him, there are no doubts about
its fundamental principles; this artist has only the gift of
perceiving more acutely than others the harmony of the world and the
beauty and ugliness of man's contribution to it, and the gift of
acutely conveying this to others. In failure and even in the lowest
depths of existence - in destitution, in prison, in sickness, the
consciousness of this steadfast harmony cannot forsake him.
However, the whole irrationality of Art, its dazzling convolutions,
its unpredictable discoveries, its shattering influence on people are
too magical to be plumbed by an artist's philosophy or scheme of
things or by the labour of his unworthy hands. This is the way of no
meta-narrative, standing in the Mystery of Naked Awareness.
_________________________
In the process of investigation and self-investigation, it is necessary to figure out the M.O. or motivating factors that lead to behaviors. These are our basic life patterns. We all make decisions based on our internal map of reality and unconscious hierarchy of values. Values and beliefs drive our behavior.
If we make our own values and beliefs conscious and focus on them, we can direct our energy toward what we really want in life. Question WHY certain values are important to you, what situations you want and what you want to avoid at any cost. Have a friend prompt you with the comparisons to make it easier. List and relist them as you adjust their relative importance. Don't analyze it and don't overthink it or add any other strategy in this exercise.
THE WHOLE IN YOUR SOUL
1. WHAT IS IMPORTANT ABOUT LIFE?
2. Look again and add more values later; they may be more important than your first thoughts.
3. Think about when you were highly motivated and what values drove you.
4. Which values are most important? Rank them in order and re-compare them.
5. Compare each to all the others: If I could have this and not that...would it work for me?
6. IS THIS ME? What is the thing that generates what I ACTUALLY spend my time on, not what I think I should spend it on?
7. Identify conflicts in values. Am I moving away from any values? WHY is that important? Don't pretend or censor yourself.
8. Frame values positively.
What you FOCUS ON is THE secret of life. You can EXPAND your internal map of reality. The most important variable is how you spend your time and EVALUATE what you've done. You can feel bad or guilty if you act on others' values, not your own. Values tell you the deeper structure of how you create your life. Ask yourself WHY each value is crucial and what you fear without it. If a caring partner is important, have you had uncaring partners? If you crave financial security what would it mean to be poor? Would you rather be happy and poor or rich and unhappy? What do you want to avoid? What are you with or without it?
How do you rank the values of happiness, guidance, learning, career, money, reknown, success, good relationships, mentoring, balance, integrity, passion, creativity, spontaneity, self-expression, novelty, excitement, comfort, service, compassion, IF those are some of your values? Is balance or success more important than family or communication? Is peace of mind more important than a partner? than personal growth? Can you have money and integrity at the same time; money and family; money and happiness; freedom and relationship simultaneously? Health, avoiding failure, or avoiding pain?
WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE?
If you could have balance but not family, or family without health or health without family, what would you choose? Family or security; success or family? Which would you choose first? Family but not love; fame but not family? Family or financial security? Family or social commeraderie? How do you rank your values? Is excitement, challenge or opportunity more important than balance, honesty, integrity, security? Using your own values, make your own comparisons between them to determine your own ranking. Are there any values you are trying to avoid? Dig deeply within yourself.
Is security more important than challenge, excitement more important than love? Accomplishment more important than romance? Personal fulfillment more important than family? What works for you? What two are in conflict and how do you resolve that dissonance? Are security and excitement compatible for you? Are spirituality and financial security incompatible for you? Can you identify your conflicting values and the dissonance that creates in your mind/body and life?
We all have an M.O., a method of operating in the world at large.
How we act is governed by our motives and opportunities.
Beliefs and values direct our M.O. and WHY we do what we do.
Compare and contrast your values. Do you value excitement more than family, passion more than serenity, self-expression over partnership, inspiration over security, peace of mind more than truth or love or financial security; or balance, devotion, learning, honesty, integrity or friendship more than romantic love? Pair them and ask yourself which you want more, to be loved or to be honest? Can you be dishonest to be loved? Can you be loving if you are dishonest?
Whether you think your top values SHOULD rank that way or not, for example, peace of mind over family, it motivates you anyway. You need to know yourself, to know your M.O. in an accurate, considered way to achieve the life satisfaction you seek. If a value leads to another value, it ranks higher. Examine WHY certain values are more important to you.
Are you living an authentic life, doing what you really want? What do you move toward, and what do you move away from? Is that 90-10% or 50-50%? How much is what you move toward and how much away from? What makes you depressed, restless, frustrated, anxious? Behind what's important can be something you want to avoid. What's holding you back? Do you stand up for the values you hold?
If you focus on what you don't want, it's because you had a negative emotional experience, wounding, or trauma. You watch out for it by focusing on what you don't want - a negative experience. You focus harder on the path you don't want to go down. You must heal the emotional trauma and root causes, initial events and neutralize the emotional charge. This eliminates the emotional charge and you don't move away from it and you can focus on what you WANT. Once you remove the charge, it seems like something that happened to someone else - you no longer identify with it and aren't motivated by decisions you made about yourself or the world in that root cause. Coping mechanisms (ego) can buffer us from true feelings, creating unwanted outcomes and feelings.
Once you clear these charges, your values list may change; some things may drop off and others change their order, through resolution of conflicts.
MISSION CONTROL
Values and goals interact to create a MISSION infused with a deep sense of personal satisfaction. You can formulate your own Mission Statement with a few simple steps:
1. Identify a goal or desire, then ask yourself "What do I want or need from this selected goal? What is important about it; what do I value about it?
2. Higher. more important, values can be discovered by asking, "What will these higher values do for me?" They may reveal greater happiness, success or achievement, but will reveal the direction your motivation comes from: Toward (achieve, attain, gain) or Away From (avoid, relieve, out).
3. Your highest value is found by asking, "What will having the highest value do for me?" Your answer helps you determine your Mission, your creative passion.
4. Your MISSION includes and fulfills all of your highest values.
PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
'Consciousness' is the final frontier for science, the 'hard problem' of philosophy, and mysticism's greatest mystery. It is the central focus of the philosophy of mind. But different scholars and different disciplines use that same word to mean very different things, from simple awareness to the very basis of existence. There is confusion among the very scholars, mystics, and scientists who make their careers exploring the nature of mind, matter and the nature of existence.
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality, transcending those of any particular science. It traditionally includes cosmology, ontology and speculative philosophy. Cosmology is the general philosophy of the universe considered as a totality of its parts and phenomena subject to laws -- the origin, nature and structure of the universe. Ontology is the study of being -- that branch of metaphysics which deals with the philosophical theory of reality, universal characteristics of all reality.
Epistemology relates to "how we know what we know." This branch of philosophy critically investigates the nature, grounds, limits, and criteria of any particular theory of cognition. It helps us analyze facts, thought processes and value-judgments.
This personal synthesis helps us adapt or individuate and perhaps even self-actualize high well-being, or even extraordinary human potential. This comprehensive synthesis is mirrored in synoptic philosophy, which helps us fit the pieces of life into the whole mental jigsaw puzzle. Synoptic philosophy helps us achieve an all-inclusive view of our subject matter, seeing all parts in relationship to one another. To a greater or lesser degree, it erases the mental barriers that separate branches of knowledge in a holistic vision. Taken together, the personal synthesis of a holistic experiential worldview and the cultural synthesis symbolized by the synoptic wheel is what we refer to here, in shorthand, as "metasyn."
This open-ended philosophic journey has certain milestones:
1). When you have any philosophical question proceed as far as possible with philosophical analysis, clarifying and drawing out all the hidden meanings that you can, dissolving the problem completely if possible.
2). If not, find out what philosophers of the past have thought about the problem.
3). Rephrasing the question in a variety of meaningful ways helps reveal what kinds of information will help solve it.
4). Develop an intuition for asking and reasking questions from different angles until they point to the data that illuminates them.
5). What fields most likely contain information related to the problem? Begin by asking questions about the problem and how it might connect one by one, to the various fields.
6). Go to these promising fields and gather information, looking for conclusions, hypotheses, and models currently used by field specialists. Keep asking questions relating the data to your central problem and cross-relating insights and drawing parallels from these fields themselves.
7). Network and integrate these insights refocusing new ideas on the initial problem to see what understanding and creative insights emerge. Weave these illuminative strands together into a glowing tapestry.
So, to envision our new paradigm we have to paint a multidisciplinary picture. We will draw on philosophy, physics, psychology, medicine, genetics, biology, politics, religion, anthropology, ecology, astronomy, geometry, mathematics, computer theory, economics, the humanities and the arts for our metaphors -- for our vocabulary -- to frame and reframe our questions.
Paradigms underlie the interplay of chaos and order in human culture, at the collective and individual level. They act as lenses through which all sensory data passes before it is experienced as perception.
NO WAY QABALA NO WAY QABALAH
Kabbalistic mysticism flowered within the syncretism of medieval and renaissance Spain when Christians, Jews, and Moslems lived in close proximity and exchanged philosophical traditions freely. Kabbalah was heavily influenced by the Sufi tradition.
Anyone can be a spiritual person even an atheist. Spirituality expresses as being in touch with your consciousness, that little voice you can hear right now in your head, and making an effort to improve your conduct and love of our fellow humans. On the other hand mysticism or gnosis is the direct knowledge of God, where individuals YEARN to have a direct, meaningful and above all fulfilling relationship with their creator.
Thus every religious tradition will have a certain cadre of believers who thread the Gnostic route which in fact is a methodology to meet and eventually annihilate into GOD. The universal theme of pining for the Divine is a spiritual wound that educates us – leads us from our status quo. The word ‘blessing’ is derived from the Latin for spiritual wound.
The objective of mysticism is Annihilation in the Godhead. In the former experience the veils are removed from the heart of the Mystic and he or she comprehends the naked Truth. Subject and object merge and all labels such as Muslim, Jew, or Christian dissolve. After this transformation, the mystic returns to this reality as a conduit for God and integrates into this cosmos. A mystic is someone who has completed the path and achieved mystical union with God and returned to this physical reality, whereas a student is known as a traveller or seeker.
We can facilitate one another as fellow travellers. Since, all the questions and answers are already within us and we merely assist in the unveiling of the heart. Every day around us we are literally bombarded by virtually limitless SIGNS from the DIVINE and at the core or heart of every mystical philosophy there are tools to train the five senses to pick them up. Mystics are merely experts in remaining / becoming the moment and facilitating others into it. Their healing effect is one of osmosis; teaching by example. In reality this is Nirvana, Fana, Godhood, the void. Their external features are immersed in light and intricate jewellery of those moments.
Any mystic, is in reality a nothing / nobody / zero. In the Bruce Lee movie ‘The Game of Death’, there is a scene where he moves up a pagoda. At each level he fights a master of each style. He beats all of them. Consequently, he encompasses all styles and therefore he has no style. Or put it another way if you mix yellow and blue you get green. However, at a subtle level the green does not exist because the blue and yellow are distinct!
Bruce Lee was an inconoclast who felt petrified tradition often hampered ‘best practice.’ He was a fan of what worked, and worked efficiently…effortless effort. Rather than breaking rules he moved beyond rule-boundedness to the no-boundaries consciousness, and reacted through essence in the moment, the here and now…effortless action which brings the force of the Cosmos along with it. It is essentially a FLOW state.
He accomplished his goals by harnessing force and momentum and turning them toward his advantage. It is the same in kabbalah if our slavery to or parroting of tradition ties us to inauthentic forms. We need to go beyond rote practice into the essence of living from that wellspring of joy and abundance, of nurturance that sustains our lives.
It is that stabilized connection that makes it “work”, not arcane keys or endless numerical ruminations, though they have their place in our contemplation. Remember the Go Master in the movie “PI” who told our protagonist that if he wanted to find secret codes, he could do it anywhere, even in the cracks of the sidewalk. We seek external signs and synchronicities to confirm what we already know. Still, we must continue to look within.
In sum, the culture and ethos of your inner being will fundamentally change for the better by facilitating the unfreezing of the umbilical cord with the divine. This is an ongoing process and the road to success is always under construction. ‘GOD IS WITHIN ALL OF US’, as a transcendental and immanent reality, inner and outer dialogue. Call it what you Will.
Before realization of annihilation in the Godhead, the mystic will initially dissolve in his Master and then into the Light. In the former experience the culturally superfluous personality veils are removed from the heart of the Mystic and he or she comprehends the naked Truth. Subject and object merge all labels such a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, or Christian dissolve.
After this transformation the mystic returns to this reality as a conduit for God and integrates into this cosmos. He or she will help all of humanity regardless of faith or (ir)religiosity and becomes a viceroy for God, i.e., the celebrated PERFECT ONE or Zaddik of kabbalism, the Sant Sat Guru of the east, the western Master. The essence of mysticism is being in awe and wonder of God, but not necessarily being conscious of it. i.e., PARADOX.
Quantum cosmology is now demonstrating scientifically that the old Hermetic axiom, “AS ABOVE, SO BELOW” is a living reality linking micro- and macrocosm. There is an archetypal identity between divinity and mankind, mankind and the Universe.
Therefore we are capable of “cosmic consciousness.” When we look within we find that bit of cosmos that we each embody, and we are not separate from THAT, down to the fundamental metaphysical groundstate of our Being.
It is a WAY not a destination, an experiment that lasts a lifetime. If you don’t believe it, make the experiment for yourself. Ultimately, it is about access to and direct experience of discrete states of consciousness – all ways of Being and Becoming. It is everythingforever; there is no thing that is not God. It is “nowhere”…NOW-HERE. It is the Way of No Way.
Kabbalistic mysticism flowered within the syncretism of medieval and renaissance Spain when Christians, Jews, and Moslems lived in close proximity and exchanged philosophical traditions freely. Kabbalah was heavily influenced by the Sufi tradition.
Anyone can be a spiritual person even an atheist. Spirituality expresses as being in touch with your consciousness, that little voice you can hear right now in your head, and making an effort to improve your conduct and love of our fellow humans. On the other hand mysticism or gnosis is the direct knowledge of God, where individuals YEARN to have a direct, meaningful and above all fulfilling relationship with their creator.
Thus every religious tradition will have a certain cadre of believers who thread the Gnostic route which in fact is a methodology to meet and eventually annihilate into GOD. The universal theme of pining for the Divine is a spiritual wound that educates us – leads us from our status quo. The word ‘blessing’ is derived from the Latin for spiritual wound.
The objective of mysticism is Annihilation in the Godhead. In the former experience the veils are removed from the heart of the Mystic and he or she comprehends the naked Truth. Subject and object merge and all labels such as Muslim, Jew, or Christian dissolve. After this transformation, the mystic returns to this reality as a conduit for God and integrates into this cosmos. A mystic is someone who has completed the path and achieved mystical union with God and returned to this physical reality, whereas a student is known as a traveller or seeker.
We can facilitate one another as fellow travellers. Since, all the questions and answers are already within us and we merely assist in the unveiling of the heart. Every day around us we are literally bombarded by virtually limitless SIGNS from the DIVINE and at the core or heart of every mystical philosophy there are tools to train the five senses to pick them up. Mystics are merely experts in remaining / becoming the moment and facilitating others into it. Their healing effect is one of osmosis; teaching by example. In reality this is Nirvana, Fana, Godhood, the void. Their external features are immersed in light and intricate jewellery of those moments.
Any mystic, is in reality a nothing / nobody / zero. In the Bruce Lee movie ‘The Game of Death’, there is a scene where he moves up a pagoda. At each level he fights a master of each style. He beats all of them. Consequently, he encompasses all styles and therefore he has no style. Or put it another way if you mix yellow and blue you get green. However, at a subtle level the green does not exist because the blue and yellow are distinct!
Bruce Lee was an inconoclast who felt petrified tradition often hampered ‘best practice.’ He was a fan of what worked, and worked efficiently…effortless effort. Rather than breaking rules he moved beyond rule-boundedness to the no-boundaries consciousness, and reacted through essence in the moment, the here and now…effortless action which brings the force of the Cosmos along with it. It is essentially a FLOW state.
He accomplished his goals by harnessing force and momentum and turning them toward his advantage. It is the same in kabbalah if our slavery to or parroting of tradition ties us to inauthentic forms. We need to go beyond rote practice into the essence of living from that wellspring of joy and abundance, of nurturance that sustains our lives.
It is that stabilized connection that makes it “work”, not arcane keys or endless numerical ruminations, though they have their place in our contemplation. Remember the Go Master in the movie “PI” who told our protagonist that if he wanted to find secret codes, he could do it anywhere, even in the cracks of the sidewalk. We seek external signs and synchronicities to confirm what we already know. Still, we must continue to look within.
In sum, the culture and ethos of your inner being will fundamentally change for the better by facilitating the unfreezing of the umbilical cord with the divine. This is an ongoing process and the road to success is always under construction. ‘GOD IS WITHIN ALL OF US’, as a transcendental and immanent reality, inner and outer dialogue. Call it what you Will.
Before realization of annihilation in the Godhead, the mystic will initially dissolve in his Master and then into the Light. In the former experience the culturally superfluous personality veils are removed from the heart of the Mystic and he or she comprehends the naked Truth. Subject and object merge all labels such a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, or Christian dissolve.
After this transformation the mystic returns to this reality as a conduit for God and integrates into this cosmos. He or she will help all of humanity regardless of faith or (ir)religiosity and becomes a viceroy for God, i.e., the celebrated PERFECT ONE or Zaddik of kabbalism, the Sant Sat Guru of the east, the western Master. The essence of mysticism is being in awe and wonder of God, but not necessarily being conscious of it. i.e., PARADOX.
Quantum cosmology is now demonstrating scientifically that the old Hermetic axiom, “AS ABOVE, SO BELOW” is a living reality linking micro- and macrocosm. There is an archetypal identity between divinity and mankind, mankind and the Universe.
Therefore we are capable of “cosmic consciousness.” When we look within we find that bit of cosmos that we each embody, and we are not separate from THAT, down to the fundamental metaphysical groundstate of our Being.
It is a WAY not a destination, an experiment that lasts a lifetime. If you don’t believe it, make the experiment for yourself. Ultimately, it is about access to and direct experience of discrete states of consciousness – all ways of Being and Becoming. It is everythingforever; there is no thing that is not God. It is “nowhere”…NOW-HERE. It is the Way of No Way.
synergetic
qabala
A Treasure House of Theoretical & Practical Qabala
Synthesizing the Hermetic Arts
with New Sciences, Depth Psychology, Philosophy,
Mysticism, the Arts
Synthesizing the Hermetic Arts
with New Sciences, Depth Psychology, Philosophy,
Mysticism, the Arts
