Strange Overtones

Commonplace Morality

Vs.

Morality for the Conservation and Accumulation of Power

This morning I witnessed a tiny battle.  I was walking back into my house after feeding my chickens, and I spotted a little commotion in the grass.  My first thought was snake, but it turned out to be a green long-legged grasshopper, locked in mortal combat with a hornet.  

I picked the grasshopper up by his wings and tossed him up onto my picnic table.  The hornet still clung along, appearing to sting the grasshopper behind its head.  I watched the fight, moralizing that it was incorrect for me to interfere with an “act of nature.” 

Then, out of “pity for the grasshopper,” I acted.  I grabbed a nearby tool, a sharp crowbar type instrument which I use for beekeeping, I pinned the grasshopper, jabbing the hive tool between the hornet's middle, splitting it in two.  Then I observed the grasshopper.  He was taking this opportunity to drag himself away; clearly he had several legs which were irreparably damaged.  So I thought, “waste not, want not,” grabbed the grasshopper and fed it to my chickens.  

Now I just “did what I did.”  But could my actions be justified, morally? 

Morality is subjective.

I acted in a way which helped me.  Happy chickens help me.  Less hornets in the world, helps me.  And I acted, which is so much more interesting, more satisfying, than inaction.

And I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it, which is actually more significant a concept than it may seem.

I have heard so many people rationalize their religion by the fact that they were born into it.  As if all religions are equal, and out of pride and blind nationalism, we must all stick to the religion of our fathers.  Religion, in turn, claims a higher morality; a blessing from God.

But here we are, then, connecting subjective perspective to objectified idealizations; meaningless words. 

Words allow us to paint pretty pictures, keeping the audience focused on the hat, instead of the rabbit.  George Orwell realized that propaganda's true purpose is to create the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, as well as misplaced word associations and blind hatred.  This “double think” concept is inherent in Orwell's fictional slogan “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.”

Philip K. Dick, translating his Bodhi-wisdom into colloquial English, puts the moral problem as this:

“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go.  It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity.  At some time, every creature which lives must do so.  It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; it is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life.  Everywhere in the universe.”

Carlos Castaneda's Morality:

Castaneda's writings are truly a blessing, because like Arthur Machen, he realizes there is a higher morality.  This morality allows man to see truth, to experience the folly of existence on one's own terms. 

The sorcery of Castaneda divulges the theoretical and practical aspects of the conservation and accumulation of power.  How often our minds are filled with thoughts not-our-own.  Castaneda's recipe, if I had to sum it up:  stalk silence, with the mind of a warrior.

Aleister Crowley's Morality:

Crowley believed that one of the main problems with introducing Buddhism to the Western world was separating cultural advice from the deeper teachings.  No living master has ever taught enlightenment in a vacuum.  Ask yourself:  What about our culture is preventing us from achieving unity?

Compare the teachings of any of these masters with the alternative.

Modern religion and sociology interpret morality as an issue of scale and enforceability. 

In Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut begs the question; what [do we] do with too much efficiency?  Buckminster Fuller answers: “Pay people to learn.”  Or, as Foucault speculated, you can just “jail everyone.”

Let’s go all the way back to my bug battle.  There is a futility to moralizing in a way which internalizes guilt.  The Greeks knew this, which is why they blamed acts of passion on being possessed by a God.  My personal act is ultimately a universal null-equation, or, it has as much meaning as I imbue it with.  But in the long run, I believe, we need to differentiate between the act, and the conceptualization of the act; they are not the same thing. 

The Leaping Way of Astral Crow-ley

Image: Otto Dix, Sunrise, 1913

Occult Sidhi in Frank Herbert's Dune and Castaneda

In my previous blog titled “The Mouth of the Sandworm Is the Wrath of God” I made an assertion that Frank Herbert used concepts from the Hebrew Kaballah in the construction of his Dune myth.

Coincidentally, I have been attempting to correlate Carlos Castaneda's concept of “splitting,” with what “new agers” might term as developing an astral self.  Castaneda recounts a compelling account of the final stages of his “splitting” process, in which his teachers, Don Juan and Don Genaro, speak into his two either ears simultaneously.  Aparrently, splitting can occur as the result of an intentional process.  Clearly, this somewhat counter-intuitive process can be worked upon any man, but Don Juan states that he chooses his initiates by omen.  I take the omen concept as synonymous with the concept of Synchronicity, yet again another topic which comes up in Aleister Crowley's work! 

I suspect that “splitting” an average man, or one who is not ready for initiation,can result in insanity, paranioa or schizophrenia.  The presence of Synchronicity or omen is an indicator that a specific person is ready to initiate an internal journey of living myth, a sign that they are ready for The Work.

As a result of the tactics and teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda realizes he has the occult ability to be in two physical places simultaneously.   Later, Castaneda states, he is instinctively able to use his astral self to protect himself in times of great danger, even to the extent of acting on his physical realm with his astral body.

Aleister Crowley recounts a similar astral ability in the book “Magick Without Tears.”  Crowley states that he entered astral form and traveled to an acquaintance's house, and attempted to knock an item off his friend's fireplace mantle.  Crowley states that it helped him to turn into a bird for the initial trip, then return to human form when he wanted to effect the object.  Of course, this story would not be out of place in Castaneda's writings, as Don Juan himself claimed the ability to take on the form of a crow.

It is my belief that bicameral mind theory, or to put it more broadly, the study of right brain modes of thought, gives us the theoretical tools to reconcile mysticism with science.  As I have stated before, myth, ritual, and icons are the currency of the right brain.  To worship logical, linear (left brain, patriarchal) thinking, as if it is the pinnacle of modern thought, leads to mechanistic oblivion.  Reintegration of the right brain is key, both internally, and outwardly in the modification of societal norms. 

The study of Castaneda and Crowley form a sound basis for understanding theoretical or practical aspects of developing an astral body, as well as other “right brain” attributes.  I believe I also have sound proof that Frank Herbert may have also been aware of the “astral body” concept through his study of Jewish mysticism and Kaballah. 

Israel Regardie, a famous and renowned Kaballist, suggested that practitioners of Kaballah study widely, but also suggested the study of semantics was helpful to such students.  Crowley made a similar suggestion, insisting that his students understand the true meaning of words.  On that note, lets discuss the meaning of easily the most loaded title in Frank Herbert's Dune, that of Kwisatch Haderach.

 

Frank Herbert, defines Kwizatch Haderach as the "Shortening of the Way.”  This is the label applied by the Bene Gesserit to the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit who's organic mental powers would bridge space and time.”

So what of it?

Well, According to a Dune “Wiki:” (Source 2)

“The term itself is Hebrew, K'fitzat ha Derekh, literally “the leaping way” by means of which an initiate may travel some distance instantaneously, appearing to be in two or more places at once.”  From  the HaZohar, or Book of Splendor, attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar-Yohai

Frank Herbert mythologizes this Leaping Way as the pinnacle of spiritual development, result of a breeding program lasting centuries.  The character Paul MauDib, as Kwizatch Haderach, represents the union of vast genetic potential, combined with occult instruction, yogic exercise, and mental conditioning.  The resultant Kwizatch Haderach has the ability to observe the true nature of time and space.

Sources:

1.  Magick Without Tears, Aleister Crowley

2.  http://Dune.wikia.com/wiki/kwizatz_haderach

            3.  Dune, Frank Herbert

The Great Dog Nap

“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.” –Disney’s Peter Pan

The Great God Pan, is a horror novella written by Arthur Machen in 1890, which Steven King called “maybe the best horror story in the English language.”  From Machen’s Pan, I quote:

            "Look about you, Clarke. You see the mountain, and hill following after hill, as wave on wave, you see the woods and orchard, the fields of ripe corn, and the meadows reaching to the reed-beds by the river. You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things—yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet—I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes. There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these 'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,' beyond them all as beyond a veil. I do not know whether any human being has ever lifted that veil; but I do know, Clarke, that you and I shall see it lifted this very night from before another's eyes. You may think this all strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan."

Arthur Machen was a good friend of A.E. Waite, both were students and members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.   There is similarity here in my mind between Whitley Streiber and Arthur Machen.  Both were horror writers whose horror was influenced by familiarity with the occult.  Streiber wrote a book on the tarot called The Path and Machen was good friends with the most famous tarot deck designer of all time, the aforementioned A.E. Waite.  What is it about the deep study of the occult which brings the spirit face to face with terror?  So says Guillermo Del Toro on the topic:  “It is a rare breed of fabulist who transcribes and records-rather than invents-a reality invisible to us.  These scribes, like St. John the Divine, are possessed of near religious certainty that such worlds exist.  Arthur Machen was one of these.”

Guillermo Del Toro’s notable contribution to the ever present Pan myth, is the movie Pans Labyrinth.  In it, Del Toro combines the Pan myth with the Minotaur’s labyrinth myth.  This movie is “not to be missed,” as Toro’s pedigree of Nebula, Hugo, and Bram Stoker awards indicates.  The labyrinth is a physical form of what Gurdjieff called “objective magic.”  Del Toro’s take is a visually perfect take on the Pan Arcanum. 

In Joseph Campbell’s The Masks Of God Series; Primitive Mythology, he states:

“The fear of the dark, which is so strong in children, has been said to be a function of their returning to the womb:  the fear that their recently achieved daylight consciousness and not yet secure individuality should be absorbed.  In archaic art, the labyrinth-home of the child-consuming Minotaur-was represented by the figure of the spiral.  The spiral also appears spontaneously in certain stages of meditation, as well as to people going to sleep under ether.  It is a prominent device, furthermore, at the silent entrances and within the dark passages of the ancient Irish kingly burial mound of New Grange.  These facts suggest that a constellation of images denoting the plunge and dissolution of consciousness in the darkness of non-being must have been employed intentionally, from an early date, to represent the analogy of threshold rites to the mystery of the entry of the child into the womb for birth.”

Which brings me to a dream I had last night:

I am climbing an impossibly steep grassy slope, I am digging a refuge, or resting place in the dirt, high above the town below.  In digging this hole, I find remnants of a previous civilization, baubles, and become particularly excited at finding an immaculate sword, somehow clean, bright, and sharp.  I place the sword at my right hip.  The slope continues upwards to a cave, trickling stream, which I cannot enter.  I return at some point to the town below, and a “shaman” tells me all the ills of the world are, in effect, caused by trading the shock and awe of mystery for the security of rationalist, materialist science.

Now, of course, it doesn’t help that yesterday I watched the first episode of the HBO series Carnivale, which begins with a similar introduction.  It is significant that I subconsciously associate the loss of mystery with sexual concepts.  This is a typical return-to-womb dream, probably the most common motif in psychoanalysis.  In myths or fairy tales, a cave under a waterfall often is the structure of the sexual imagery of this myth.

“The dichotomy between sexuality and spirituality can only take root in countries founded on puritanical principles-countries that cannot laugh at the Devil because they would be mocking God, too.”  -Guillermo Del Toro

Morality isn’t what you think it is, because reality isn’t what you think it is.

The hyper-retarded state of modern sexuality and its effect on the modern psyche is lamented in both Wilhelm Reich’s The Function of the Orgasm: Discovery of the Orgone, and in John Lamb Lash’s Not in His Image.  Perhaps the subject of a separate post, removal of the guilt or shame motivator in modern culture is paramount to our sanity.

Who is this God of terror, this God of night, this God of labyrinths?

“By day, all is silent, and not without a secret is the horror of the light the fires of the night, the chorus of Aegipanum resounds on every side: they are heard, as the songs of a pipe, and up the sea coast, the tinkling of cymbals.”  -The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen

Aegipanum is the Goat-Pan, represented as half goat, half fish, union of opposites in one being.

“Mariners sailing close to the shores of Tuscanny heard a voice cry out from the hills, the trees and the sky: “The Great God Pan is dead!” Pan, God of Panic: the sudden awareness that everything is alive and significant.  The date was December 25, 1 A.D.  But Pan lives on in the realm of the imagination, in writing and painting and music.”

-William S Burroughs, (for full quote, see source # 1)

In Aleister Crowley's Hymn to Pan, it simultaneously appears that he is referring to a male and female entity.  A la Serapis, or Baphomet, who are shrouded chest and groin to hide their secret hermaphroditic state.

 

In my previous post, I discussed the obelisk as resonating with the god Pan or Priapus.  On that same note, lets discuss the etymological root “gno” from the Greek language we have gnomon, as in the face of a sundial, also the words gnostic and diagnosis.  From related Anglo Saxon root come the words know or knowledge. The Latin form is gno- or no- which produce the words note noble ignomy ignorant, etc. 

The sundial reference is the one I would like to discuss, although the knowledge root is just as significant.  A gnomon, is also significant in that it is another name for the Masonic square.  I have previously stated that the ball atop an obelisk has a symbolic connection to the pineal gland.  Actually, there is another, more practical reason to place a ball atop an obelisk.  In the case of using the obelisk as a sundial, a ball serves the purpose of focusing the cast shadow on a more precise point.

What light does linguistics, and especially the study of etymology, throw on the history of the evolution of moral concepts?  This is a question Neitzche poses in “On the genealogy of Morals.” 

So let’s try a bit to apply this etymology of the word bacchanal with the goal of shedding a little light on morality and sex. 

Bacchanal is defined as:                  

1. A follower of bacchus (Pan)
2. A drunken reveler
3. An occasion of drunken revelry; orgy; bacchanalia   

Synonyms are:

1. Saturnalia
2. Debauch
3. Spree
4. Carousal

There is, in my mind, a connection between the modern word Carnival, the word Carnal and the word Bacchanal.  I cannot, nevertheless, find a true documented linguistic source for the connection; I will have to assume they are connected only in ether or archetype. 

The makings of a myth: Pan resonators in modern culture

So, having placed a major emphasis on Pan in this and previous blog entries, we can begin to point out either intentional or archetypal instances of his occurrence.

Hilariously, I read one online review of “Pan's Labyrinth” and one reviewer said “while Pan does not appear in this movie, a similar horned beast does” are you seriously that brain-dead, foolish movie reviewer?  The movie is called Pans Labyrinth.  So here we have modern man's plight, which is to refuses to see the truth, even when it walks up to him in a three piece suit and introduces himself by name...

...but you just can’t help some people.

So, let’s see what we are looking for:  A plot that includes theft of innocence; sexuality either directly implied or implicitly present, a horned god resonator, any etymological clues, and any plot device which draws on Pan myth (or magic) from past or present. 

Furthermore, a closer(more creative) peering for Pan can be justified if you have already identified another commonly present character who often appears paired with Pan; in this case, I am referring to Artemis.

The Dognapper:

In 1934, Disney released a cartoon called The Dognapper.  The villain, Pegleg Pete, is a common recurring nemesis in the early Disney cartoons, several of which include “dognapping.” 

In my synchromystic mindset, it has been common to find the words dog and god juxtaposed as in the Sirius/dog star mythology. 

The storyline is fairly basic.  Pegleg Pete steals Mini Mouse's dog, and the two sheriffs, Mickey and Donald, are after Pete, “in hot pursuit.”  After stopping a barrage of Pete's bullets with an umbrella, and several other slapstick hijinks, Pegleg Pete arrives at his hideout, a log mill turned armory.  More gags ensue, but all is well when Donald finds a woman’s corset and finally traps Pete in it.

Well phew.  Here we have Pegleg Pete as our Pan resonator, his peg leg and mill hideout giving him away.  The title itself implies not only theft, but also a reversal of terms, by disguising “god pan” as “dog nap.”  The mushroom/umbrella is an interesting component, but my favorite connection has to be the corset.  As I mentioned in the Jung/mithraeum post, Jung clearly connected his terrified vision of a “man dressed as a woman,” a Jesuit Priest, with his enthroned phallus dream.  This, you see, takes us full circle back to the hermaphroditic Baphomet/Mithra/Pan.     

*on a further note, the log mill occurs in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and in Guillermo Del Toro’s Pans Labyrinth, the mill-turned-armory theme is also present.

The Grinch:

While all the Who's in Whoville are taking a long winter nap, Pan, ahem, the Grinch attaches horns to his dog and sneaks into town to steal Christmas.  Cindy Loo Who, befouls his effort, our little innocent-betrayed, makes the Grinch return the goodies.  (by making his heart grow with her innocence)  Perhaps I am drawing too much out of this Dr. Seuss connection, but I chose to place it here due to some personal synchronicity which reinforced the connection in my mind.  Can all stories which involve theft be traced back to Pan?  Nope.  But I stand by this one.

Peter Pan:

The most obvious related movie is Peter Pan, but while this is a “gimmie,” I think it is interesting that, traditionally, especially in stage versions, Peter Pan is often played by a woman.  Another Disney movie, famous for Dog-Napping is 101 Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil is, of course, a word play on Cruel Devil.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

There are three things Lucy comes in contact with immediately upon entering Narnia;

A lamp-post, a faun, and an umbrella:

“Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well.  She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree trunks, she could see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had set out.  (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it was a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.)  It seemed to be still daylight there.  “I can always get back if anything goes wrong,” thought Lucy.  She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light.  In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post.  As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of the wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter patter of feet coming towards her.  And soon after that a very strange person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamp-post.

He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his head an umbrella, white with snow.  From his waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat’s (the hair on them was glossy and black) and instead of feet he had goat’s hoofs.  He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from trailing in the snow.  He had a red woolen muffler round his neck, and his skin was rather reddish too.  He had a strange, but pleasant little face, with short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair were stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead.”

Donnie Darko: 

Who is the Pan resonator in Donnie Darko?  Well, in the sense that Frank is a pooka, an Irish version of Pan.  Pookas, like Pan, are associated with drunkards and mountaintops.  Pookas are feared as malevolent shape changing spirits with the capacity of human speech.  Pookas are said to take the form of eagles, black horned goats, or large rabbits.  Pookas, also known as Boga, or Puck, are associated with fertility.

“The pooka is remembered in recent history as a trickster figure; it is from the name pooka that the term boogey man was eventually derived. A few thousand years back, the pooka was originally a central European god known as the Boga, a nature god similar to the Greeks' Pan. Some etymologists claim that the Slavic word Bog was derived from Boga. Bog of course, is the Slavic name for the Almighty, and is the predecessor of the English word God. You might find it amusing to tell your Christian friends that every time they invoke the name of God, they are, in fact, praying to a great horny rabbit.”  Source #3

I’m your boogey man

That’s what I am

I’m here to do

Whatever I can

Be it early morning

Late afternoon

At midnight

It’s never too soon

-Rob Zombie

Sources:

1. The post mediated world, ramblings from beyond media,  mmeiser blog http://blog.mmeiser.com/2005/08/post-mediated-world-ramblings-from.html?m=1
2. occult of personality  http://www.occultofpersonality.net/membership/baphomet-unvelied
3. Irish Pookah:  http://www.bellaterreno.com/art/irish/fairy/irishpookas.aspx