More
Witch StuffCoven of Cythrawl
POSTINGS
(Number 455, 456 & 457)
INTRODUCTION TO PARADIGM SHIFTS AND AEONICS
It was xmas and I just happened to join in a
conversation about
religion, religious thought and basically coming down to paradigms
and aeonics. Whilst the original debaters were originally very
happily chatting away, confirming and reinforcing each other's
conversation and thoughts, (as all the other conversers were all
looking through the same Christian paradigm); when I came along and
turned it all upside down and the subject suddenly got very deep, in
fact it nose dived to the depths of hell itself as far as they were
concerned.
Let's face it though; there are many thousands of forms of belief and
many ways of thought and thinking of those beliefs, while all
belonging to many hundreds of thousands of different cultures; which
can be construed as paradigms in this debate. We must all learn to
empty our glass before we can get more liquid in, (empty our opinions
for a moment), take off the "blinkers" and see the whole and not be
restricted by any tight and restricted sphincter thinking.
In thinking about all this later, I thought it might make a good
posting for our group and tried to put abstract into words. We've
touched and skirted around it a few times, (especially paradigms in
magick), but never dug-in so to speak on a broader viewpoint. I've
been so busy just lately and haven't had a chance to post or chat for
ages it seems, so this seemed like a good icebreaker for the year's
end and therefore, I have tried my best to verbalize what is hard to
even conceptualize sometimes and give it a go.
For starters, if we break it all down to the most basic that we can,
perhaps it would go something like this. All the philosophies,
creeds, dogmas and beliefs that humanity so far seems to have evolved
over the millennia are quite possibly what can be called as variants
of `only three great paradigms'; the Transcendental, the Materialist
and the Magickal. (Yes, I know there are others, but we're trying to
break it down for simplistic sake and then later we can all chat and
build on it if you wish).
But I also believe that in no human culture has any one of these
three paradigms been completely distinct from the others. Let's say
for example in our own culture, at this particular time of writing,
the Transcendental and Magickal paradigms are frequently confused,
(or even fuzed) together. Let me try and explain a little better
here.
Transcendental philosophies appear to be basically religious and
manifest in a rather broad spectrum, stretching as far it seems, as
from the fringes of primitive spiritualism, through to Pagan
polytheism, eventually to the monotheism of the Judaeo-Christian-
Islamic traditions and of course, not forgetting the theoretical non-
theistic systems of Buddhism and even in some ways of Taoism,
(because of the spiritual side of Taoism and in Buddhism because
Buddha never said there weren't Gods or spirits, just not to consider
them in his path as they were irrelevant).
Therefore, in each case of the above mentioned, it is believed that
some form of consciousness or spirit created and maintains the
universe and that humans and in many cases, other living organisms,
contain some fragment of this consciousness, or spirit, which
underlies the veil or illusion of matter. Let's try to break it down
even further and look at some Paradigms ourselves, so that our
members can perhaps grasp what I'm trying to say here.
The essence of basic Transcendentalism is a belief in spiritual
beings greater than oneself, or might I say, states of
spiritual `being' superior to that which currently one enjoys as we
are. Earthly life is frequently merely seen as a form of dialogue
between oneself and one's Deity or Deities, and/or perhaps some
impersonal form of higher force.
The material world is then but a theatre for the spirit, or soul, or
consciousness that created it. Spirit is then the ultimate reality
to the transcendentalist.
In the "Materialist paradigm" of course, the universe is believed to
consist fundamentally and entirely of matter. Remembering that in
this context, energy is but a form of matter and together, they
subtend space and time within which all change occurs, strictly on
the basis of cause and effect.
In this context then, human behaviour is reducible to biology;
biology in its turn is reducible to chemistry; chemistry is reducible
to physics and physics is reducible to even mathematics.
Mind and consciousness are thus merely electrochemical events in the
brain, and then it seems that spirit is really a word without
objective content. The causes of some, if not many of the events
that happen in this universe are likely to remain obscure perhaps
indefinitely, but there is an underlying faith that sufficient
material cause must exist for any event.
In this paradigm, all human acts can be categorized as serving some
biological need, or as expressions of previously applied
conditioning, or even merely as a malfunction. The goal of a
materialist who eschews even suicide, is the pursuit of personal
satisfaction including altruistic satisfactions if desired.
The main difficulty in recognizing and describing the pure Magickal
Paradigm is really that of insufficient vocabulary. How many times
have I said in my postings just this and is why we go through
initiations, ritual and a Mentor/Student relationship to pass on
knowledge, because words alone cannot suffice. Magical philosophy
really is only recently recovering from a heavy adulteration with
transcendental theory.
The word aether will be used here to describe the fundamental reality
of the magickal paradigm. It is more or less equivalent to the idea
of Mana used in oceanic shamanism. Aether in materialistic
descriptions is information which structures matter and which all
matter is capable of emitting and receiving.
In transcendental terms then, aether is a sort of "life force",
present in some degree in all things. It carries both knowledge
about events and even the ability to influence similar or sympathetic
events. Events either arise spontaneously, out of themselves, or are
encouraged to follow certain paths by influence of patterns in the
aether.
As all things have an aetheric part, they can be considered to be
alive in some sense then. Thus, in this format, all things happen by
magick; where the large scale features of the universe have a very
strong aetheric pattern which makes them fairly predictable, but
difficult to influence by the aetheric patterns created by thought.
Magickians see themselves as participating in Nature.
Transcendentalists like to think they are somehow above it, and
Materialists like to try and manipulate it.
Now, it is apparent that this universe has the peculiarly
accommodating property of tending to provide evidence for, and
confirmation of, whatever paradigm one chooses to believe in!!
Presumably at some deep level there is a hidden symmetry between
those things we call Matter, Aether and Spirit. Indeed, it is rare
to find an individual or culture operating exclusively on a single
one of these paradigms and none is ever entirely absent.
Non-dominant paradigms are also always present and realized as
superstitions and fears. A subsequent section on Aeonics will
attempt to untangle the influences of each of these great worldviews
throughout history, to see how they have interacted with each other
and to predict future trends. In the meantime, an analysis of the
radically differing concepts of time and self in each paradigm is
offered to more fully distinguish the basic ideas.
Transcendentalists appear to conceive of time in millennial and
apocalyptic terms. Time is really regarded as having a definite
beginning and ending in this case, both initiated by the activities
of spiritual beings or forces. The end of time on the personal and
cosmic scale is regarded not so much as a cessation of being, but as
a change to a state of non-material being.
The beginning of personal and cosmic time is similarly regarded as a
creative act by spiritual agencies. Thus reproductive activity
usually becomes heavily controlled and hedged about with taboo and
restriction in religious cultures; as it implies an usurpation of the
powers of Deities.
Reproduction also implies that death has in some measure, been
overcome. I sometimes think and ponder how awesome the power of
creation might be, and how final must earthly death subconsciously
loom to a celibate and sterile priesthood!?
All transcendentalisms embody elements of apocalyptism, (if I can
coin that word, but you know what I mean). Typically, these are used
to provoke revivals when business is slack or attention is drifting
elsewhere. Thus it is suddenly revealed that the final days are at
hand, or that some earthly dispute is in fact, a titanic battle
against evil spiritual agencies.
Materialist time is linear to this kind of thinking, but unbounded.
Ideally it can be extended arbitrarily, perhaps far in either
direction from the present. To the strict Materialist though, it is
self-evidently futile to speculate about a beginning or an end to
time.
Similarly the materialist is contemptuous of any speculations about
any forms of personal existence before birth, or after death. The
materialist may well fear painful or premature death, but can have no
fears about after they are dead.
The magickal view might be thought of as time being cyclic and that
all processes recur in some way or another. Even cycles, which
appear to begin or end, are actually parts of larger cycles still; ad
infinitum perhaps. Thus all endings are beginnings and the end of
time is synonymous with the beginning of time in another universe,
per se.
The magickal view then, that everything is recycled, is mostly
reflected in the doctrine of reincarnation. The attractive idea of
reincarnation has often persisted into the religious paradigm and
many Pagan and even some monotheist traditions have retained it.
However religious theories invariably contaminate the `original' idea
with beliefs about a personal soul. From a strictly magickal
viewpoint, we are an accretion, rather than an unfolded unity. The
psyche has no particular centre, so we are colonial beings, a rich
collage of many selves.
Thus, in this paradigm, as our bodies contain fragments from
countless former beings, so does our psyche. However certain magical
traditions retain techniques which allow the adept to transfer quite
large amounts of his psyche in one `Piece', should he consider this
more useful than dispersing himself `into' humanity at large.
Each of the paradigms in fact, takes a different view of the self.
Transcendentalists view `self' as `spirit' inserted into `matter'. As
a fragment, or figment of Deity, the self regards itself as somehow
placed in the world in a non-arbitrary manner and endowed with free
will.
The transcendental view of self is relatively stable and non-
problematic, if shared as a consensus with all significant others.
However, transcendental theories about the placement and purpose of
self and its relationship to Deities are mutually exclusive.
Conflicting transcendentalisms can rarely co-exist for they threaten
to disconform (is that a word?) the images of self. Encounters,
which are not decisive, tend to be mutually negative in the long run.
Of the three views of self, the purely materialistic one is the most
problematical. If mind is an extension of matter, it must therefore,
obey material laws and the resulting deterministic view conflicts
with the subjective experience of free will. On the other hand, if
mind and consciousness are assumed to be qualitatively different from
matter, then the `self' is incomprehensible to `itself' in material
terms.
Worse still perhaps; the materialist `self' must regard `itself' as a
phenomenon of only temporary duration in contradiction of the
subjective expectation of continuity of consciousness. Because a
purely materialist view of `self' is so austere, few are prepared to
confront such naked existentialism.
Consequently, materialist cultures exhibit a frantic appetite for
sensation, identification and more or less disposable irrational
beliefs. Anything in fact, that will make the self seem less
insubstantial.
The magickal view of `self', is that it is based on the same random
capricious chaos which makes the universe exist and do what it does.
The magickal `self' has no centre; it is not a unity, but
an `assemblage of parts', any number of which may temporarily club
together and call themselves "I".
This accords with the observation that our `subjective experience'
consists of our various selves experiencing each other. Free-will
arises either as an outcome of a dispute between our various selves,
or as a sudden random creation of a new idea or option.
In the magical view of `self' there is no spirit / matter, and/or
mind / body split, and the paradoxes of free will and determinism
therefore, disappear. Some of our acts arise from random choices
between `conditioned options' and some from `conditional choices',
between `randomly created options'.
In practice, most of our acts are based on rather complex
hierarchical sequences of all four of these mechanisms. As soon as
we have acted, one of our `selves' proclaims "I did that!" so loudly
that most of the other selves think they did it too.
Each of the three views of `self' has something derogatory to say
about the other two. From the standpoint of the `transcendental
self', the `materialist self' has become prey to pride of intellect,
(the demon hubris), whilst the `magical view' of `self' is considered
to be entirely demonic.
The `material self' views the transcendentalist as obsessed with
assumptions having no basis in fact, and the `magickal self' as being
childlike and incoherent. From the standpoint of the magical view,
the assorted selves of the transcendentalist have in fact, ascribed a
grossly exaggerated importance to one, or a few of the `selves' which
they call God or Gods, whilst the `materialist' has attempted to make
all his `selves' subordinate to the `self' that does the rational
thinking.
Ultimately it's a matter of faith and taste. The transcendentalist
has faith in his God self, the materialist has faith in his
reasoning `self' and the `selves' of the magickian have faith in each
other. Naturally, all these forms of faith are subject to periods of
doubt.
In the next posting, I want to continue on somewhat, but with lot's
more specifics of the growth, mixing and emergence of cultures,
religions and paradigms within the whole. I didn't continue here as
I thought this was enough for now and everyone always complains about
my long dissertations anyway. So for those guys, quickly take a
breath and remember, "I'll be back..."
In the meantime, I hope you all had a good Yule and I want to wish
everyone in our group "A Very Happy New Year 2004". (Wow, doesn't
time fly....)
B*B
Azaz
Answer to this posting
It was great to see some many old essay from old
Chaos ezines posted
by you on the group, regarding aeonics and stuff...really bring back
fond memories of my days hanging around with the IOT associates. I no
longer am in touch with Chaos Magick, but nontheless it has its
appeal. Keep it up!
Fraternally yours
Fra. ******
(My comments)
Thanks for your comments. It's very hard to write
about arcane
studies, or even chat about them and many chat groups invariably get
lost in a myriad of pedantics and arguments and therefore, defeat the
whole idea. The fact that this group has mature folk from all manner
of paths and beliefs, there is one strong factor, in us all being
true seekers wishing to learn from each other.
With the fact that not too many people actually chat here, it became
my goal to post interesting concepts and topics that remain as viable
tomorrow as they do today and yesterday. In fact that may be what
people actually want, instead of idle banter invariably going
nowhere. (I'm not saying we don't chat as it would be nice to see
some mature chats going on like in the beginning of this group).
So, in filling in for chats, I'm trying to constantly write and
source material that fits into a rather loose, but relevant group of
postings that can remain interesting to the knowledgeable, while
hopefully helping newcomers, (in a sort of lesson format that grows
and takes definite lines of expansion) into the nebulous depths of
our chosen path, is extremely difficult.
As you say, and I totally agree, that many of the old chaos writings
spell out some really interesting and startling paradigms that should
not be lost in the blackness of ancient scripts in an ever increasing
overloaded electronic network. Especially with notable thoughts and
comments started by old school chaotes, who were always the "doers"
of many of our fields and paths, and not the talkers. I love the
science of it all, even if we all move on, or lateraly, from pure
chaos itself to perhaps our 'true' inner path we find on our long
journey.
I feel that any and all good information and knowledge should be
constantly resurrected and perhaps embellished with yet still more
lateral thinking from each resurrection and thus, not only
maintaining these truths of the past, but also often enlivened into
truths of today. Keeping everything alive and dynamic so to speak,
which is how our whole world has progressed since time immemorial,
not just in written knowledge, but even in DNA I guess. I have
always wanted to put good, solid stuff, tried and tested, onto the
main website, (which almost grew of its own volition once started)
and this great group we have here for the sake of us all, and those
that follow similar paths and not pursue or stray into Harry Potter
kingdoms.
I don't know how long I myself will be around keeping the faith so to
speak and sincerely and hopefully always wishing to only help any
genuine seekers anywhere in this world, but I will certainly try and
keep going for as long as I can. And to be truthful, even if only
but a handful of seekers actually benefit, or suddenly see a seed
that might be nurtured into a lifelong fulfilling practice; then I
have done my job and am rewarded in full. The baton is passed on, as
I'm sure thousands of others are also doing to yet more thousands.
It's a sad fact that many sites nowadays do not get past the same old
stale, static restricted information, without thought provoking
concepts and choices and this must be changed, even if plagiarized in
some ways from other brilliant thought provokers of past and present;
as long as the seed is dynamically embellished to fit a line of
thought or path that goes somewhere and indeed further along the path
itself, then everything is not for naught.
It would be great to hear of some of your thoughts and musing
sometime you feel the urge, even if of times gone past, it would
certainly be interesting to many others in the group. I guess I feel
that as long as we all keep on learning and trying, we are doing
something and going somewhere and I for one never want to stop
learning and moving on and ....sharing.
Thanks and B*B
Azaz
(and a nice one back to me....)
> Thanks for your comments. It's very hard to
write about arcane
> studies, or even chat about them and many chat groups invariably
get
> lost in a myriad of pedantics and arguments and therefore, defeat
the
> whole idea. The fact that this group has mature folk from all
manner
> of paths and beliefs, there is one strong factor, in us all being
> true seekers wishing to learn from each other.
I agree that it's rather difficult or even almost impossible to
discuss serious esoterics nowadays with much occultist, considering
the fact that many of the "psuedo-occultists" are only interested in
ego-gratifying exercises. It really leaves one wondering about their
motives engaging in esoteric studies. Nonetheless, I believe
arguments (of the productive kind, that is) is relatively important,
for during the discussions/arguments/debate one can put one's
theories/beliefs to the test and fruitful insight to one's self might
also be gained.This will at least served to keep the student in
check, instead of allowing to indulge in self-made phantasies or self-
righteousness.
Of course, experiences are sometime best shared only with people who
have actually gone through it themselves, lest it dwindle into
another intellectual debates that leads nowhere but confusion.
> With the fact that not too many people actually chat here, it
became
> my goal to post interesting concepts and topics that remain as
viable
> tomorrow as they do today and yesterday. In fact that may be what
> people actually want, instead of idle banter invariably going
> nowhere. (I'm not saying we don't chat as it would be nice to see
> some mature chats going on like in the beginning of this group).
>
> So, in filling in for chats, I'm trying to constantly write and
> source material that fits into a rather loose, but relevant group
of
> postings that can remain interesting to the knowledgeable, while
> hopefully helping newcomers, (in a sort of lesson format that grows
> and takes definite lines of expansion) into the nebulous depths of
> our chosen path, is extremely difficult.
I support this commedable goal of yours to keep everyone here posted
of any interesting or relevant postings, and I wish this will pay off
in the long-run with more stimulated dialogues between the members
here. I would love to extend my help in this aspect whenever I can,
depending on my current mundane workload.
> As you say, and I totally agree, that many of the old chaos
writings
> spell out some really interesting and startling paradigms that
should
> not be lost in the blackness of ancient scripts in an ever
increasing
> overloaded electronic network. Especially with notable thoughts
and
> comments started by old school chaotes, who were always the
"doers"
> of many of our fields and paths, and not the talkers. I love the
> science of it all, even if we all move on, or lateraly, from pure
> chaos itself to perhaps our 'true' inner path we find on our long
> journey.
Amen to that. We all should take a leave from their books. Dare to
experiment and the willingness to try is what motivates the old
school chaotes, and I sincerely hope that more people should take up
this adventurous spirit, for my mentor used to say "reading/talking
about it won't get your bread buttered!".
> I feel that any and all good information and knowledge should be
> constantly resurrected and perhaps embellished with yet still more
> lateral thinking from each resurrection and thus, not only
> maintaining these truths of the past, but also often enlivened into
> truths of today. Keeping everything alive and dynamic so to speak,
> which is how our whole world has progressed since time immemorial,
> not just in written knowledge, but even in DNA I guess. I have
> always wanted to put good, solid stuff, tried and tested, onto the
> main website, (which almost grew of its own volition once started)
> and this great group we have here for the sake of us all, and those
> that follow similar paths and not pursue or stray into Harry Potter
> kingdoms.
The only constant in the Universe is change :-)
> I don't know how long I myself will be around keeping the faith so
to
> speak and sincerely and hopefully always wishing to only help any
> genuine seekers anywhere in this world, but I will certainly try
and
> keep going for as long as I can. And to be truthful, even if only
> but a handful of seekers actually benefit, or suddenly see a seed
> that might be nurtured into a lifelong fulfilling practice; then I
> have done my job and am rewarded in full. The baton is passed on,
as
> I'm sure thousands of others are also doing to yet more thousands.
> It's a sad fact that many sites nowadays do not get past the same
old
> stale, static restricted information, without thought provoking
> concepts and choices and this must be changed, even if plagiarized
in
> some ways from other brilliant thought provokers of past and
present;
> as long as the seed is dynamically embellished to fit a line of
> thought or path that goes somewhere and indeed further along the
path
> itself, then everything is not for naught.
Well, you've at least raised some awareness in Singapore, and I think
that's a good start. Without a start, we can never hope for an end.
The seeds are planted and all we can do is patiently tend to it, and
in time we'll have a garden of promengranates for the harvest!
> It would be great to hear of some of your thoughts and musing
> sometime you feel the urge, even if of times gone past, it would
> certainly be interesting to many others in the group. I guess I
feel
> that as long as we all keep on learning and trying, we are doing
> something and going somewhere and I for one never want to stop
> learning and moving on and ....sharing.
I will drop by whenever I'm not restrained by mundane work:-) That's
all, I have to get going now, for there is no rest for the wicked!
Degree System
within Wicca Working Tools of Wicca
Elements of Witchcraft More
Witch Stuff
Theban
Script
With Thanks
