E is for Elements & Evolution (of Perception)

                    Periodic Table Illustration from: http://www.techespot.com/2011/02/list-of-30-best-ipad-apps.html



             E is for Elements

The standard 4 cardinal elements of earth water air fire, with the "quintessence" of medieval alchemists being variably Spirit or Love. The Chinese system adds a fifth element as metal then further subdivides the elements into strong and weak (and places these around 8 points of a Pa Kua compass thus relating it to the I Ching; these 8 directions also representing Michael Moorecock's Star of Chaos beloved by post-modern chaos magicians).

All five of the cardinal elements are contained in Blood and Semen which is why they are such sacred elements used in so much ritual. While on the topic; female sexual fluid (from "squirting") has been analyzed and verified as chemically exactly the same Fructose as found in fruit. 

I referred in another blog post to musical elements, the ASDR Attack Sustain Decay Release factors by which musicians talk about how sound waveforms can be manipulated. Attack is a rate for how punchy or soft the sound starts, Sustain and Decay are similar in that they measure how long the body of the sounds waveform goes on for, and Release is if the sound ends abruptly or has a tail; how long it takes for it to fade out after you take your finger off the keyboard. As energy is measurable as waveform the ASDR grid is useful to know about. It is used to shape the waveform to some extent, without altering the original tone.

I feel that a much better way to describe soundwaves in terms of energy is the analogue wave shape. There are four major types and the symbols for these correlate directly to the classical cardinal element symbols, used by Hermetic groups and which are themselves rooted in primal indigenous shamanic culture all over the world from way back in history to the very first cave paintings. This itself reveals a remnant of a once unified global consciousness using the same symbols for the same concepts, in pre-history as today.

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Zig Zag     = fire     = saw-wave (percussion)

Castelation  = earth  = square-wave (bass tones)

Oscilation   = water  = sine-wave (synth pads)

Rise&Drop = air      = sawtooth (synth sweeps)

"first you get the pressure, then you get the pressure drop" Wendy James, Transvision Vamp


Note that while there are other musical waveforms, which I have not yet bothered to assign to the traditional elements, Tarot students will recognize that each waveform type relates to one of the four suits;

triangle         = fire     = diamonds = pentacles/coins
square-wave   = earth   = clubs      = staffs/wands
sawtooth       = air      = spades     = swords
sine-wave      = water  = hearts      = cups


                "Reality is constructed of Waveforms"

Why this becomes important is that Quantum Science now claims that everything in reality is made of waveforms of energy. That the universe is holographic and responds to subconsciously programmed will is something that chaos magicians and new-age spiritualists have been explaining for decades. These waveforms can be understood on many levels of reality from electromagnetic aura's that we emit, to the Songlines (read Bruce Chatwin). The very best resource I have found exploring and explaining How It Works in practical terms, is a science fiction novel called 'Quarantine' by Greg Egan, and I recommend that you read Kim Stanley Robinsons 'The Memory Of Whiteness' directly afterwards if you can maintain the context waveform you will see what I mean and ready yourself for a treat.



                           some links for further research into sound waveforms;

                                                   http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_1/3.html
                                         http://en.flossmanuals.net/pure-data/ch024_generating-waveforms/
                                                    http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1525/mp.2011.28.4.415

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http://4cornershikesbridges.blogspot.com/2010/09/whiskers-draw-trail.html

     "Imagination is not imaginary."

  McGregor Matthers, Order of the Golden Dawn

The Cardinal Elements correlate to the 4 Watchtowers  NESW; however my being a student of Egyptology, you can expect that my imagination is filled up with pyramids.

"As Above; So Below"     ancient maxim


The trinary system of Alchemy might be associated with the triangle-wave Fire element if we base our interpretation purely on geometric symbolism. As Chinese year of the fire-snake this seems instinctively obvious to me.

It utilizes three major components;     Salt,  Sulphur  &  Mercury   (a catalyst for change).

This is one part of what is meant by the phrase 'Hermes Trimajestus'.


            An necessary Aside on Deification

Another interpretation of what is meant by the phrase Hermes Trimajestus that perception is three-fold within the Hermetic system; that there are three levels to it.  Hermes is the Greek name for Thoth an ancient Egyptian deity.

NB a 'deity' is not the same thing as a 'god' in the superhuman nor christian sense. I will have to explain that in another blog. For now suffice that properly a 'deity' is a personification of a concept that we devote faith and meaning to, to empower it. Such mythopoeic imaginal entities may later become manifest gods as they take on a life of their own and are unquestioningly worshipped as Facts. There are several books on the creation of such magickal entities, typically using sigils. This basis forms the foundation of most human archetypal cultures and references, as we apply it to everything we add a label to. Logos into Logo.

The triple-layered interpretation of Hieratic symbols (hieroglyphs) is essential and was intended by their creators to offer deeper insight into the original intended meaning. I can teach that aspect better in relation to translating Cartouche, which takes us beyond the simple scope of this blog. See my Opus Magi www.webjam.com/Auriglyphica (work in progress) for further information regarding all of this paragraph's content.


                                                                     My World

Since beginning writing for the Pagan Blog Project, I have made a list of the utensils or tools that I use in my magickal practice. This goes hand-in-hand with the Elements involved. I will include the list in the T is for Tools or U is for Utensils blog, later.  Since a  Newport  south Wales policY officer confiscated a 2.5 inch folding blade that I had found in a forest only hours earlier before my return to the city, thus ending my fledgling wood carving career, I now use only crystals as my athame for most of my ritual work; a different series of elements dealing with light, where crystals are 'salt' in alchemical terms (salt, sulphur, mercury). Therefore Sulphur becomes the element I relate to air-fire and fire-air.

I use incense and tobacco in my ritual work. Incense not only to tone the environment through pleasant fragrance but also to both feed and banish spirits; White Sage is expensive but necessary in my line of work, I find it more thorough than the more available, more affordable honey and sage smudge-sticks. Tobacco is never intended to be inhaled. The Peace-Pipe ritual to make good medicine between mine and thine spirits is not something that I have performed for a long time and when doing so, chillums and reefers and bongs full of skunkweed were by far the preferred ally. I have since given up smoking altogether as my habit was costly and I had achieved physical immunity from being able to get stoned any more anyway. Last time I tried it after a few years of being clean, I had an OBE during which I was shown Jose Arguelles Rainbow Bridge is already there, and advised by an ascended master to plant as many vegetables as possible all over the place, as soon as possible.

Tobacco is intended to be burned in prayer; thanks and request of the Great Spirit. When the tobacco smoke spirals, spirit is listening. It is a very peaceful ritual. I find that it attunes me to nature and aligns me to the more subtle planes, and is highly protective. I also use this to bargain with and pay energy to various spirit entities with whom I communicate, who require such. The Sunworker Mayan shamen advise that we perform such ritual blessing on a daily basis. They tell us that it is our forgetting to do so that is Koyanisqaatsi, turning of the world out of balance. 

Generally in the house I will have a candle burning at all times for similar purpose; protection and communion with those more human spirits that come and go as they please. The flickering indicates spirit movement in a windless environment. That is a flame ritual rather than for smoke. The atmosphere it creates is conducive to the mystical mood and perceptions. I have sufficient water in my body to count for that element, and water is linked to mood is linked to perceptions; the subtle shifts within, of instinct mood and mind, are by far the strongest part of my magickal workings; what is truly meant by Witchery, the creative process of drawing subconscious information into liminal awareness.

I am lucky in that I attract what is called Record Keeper crystals. These (typically quartz, occasionally amethyst) can be identified by triangles appearing raised up on one or more of the surfaces. These are said to have been programmed by the ancients to be a conduit for channeling. Discovering how this functions in practical terms is a part of the experiments we have been set to task. It branches.

Crystals constitute Salt in the alchemical trinity.



                                 Stillness: the Calm of Storms Eye

The Primal Elements are those associated with Survival Lifestyle, however we utilize them from choice and mistakenly we call it being civilized, a roman word meaning to have been made to fit into the city, which means to have been dominated and tamed. A better word to describe it is refined.

The scent of matches, the ice cold of a splash of water holy from the living earth, the grain of stone in our fingerprints. Rhythmic trance state as the mind zones-out and goes into self-space, the inner calm and balance, our central nervous system amplifying this out into the particles within our aura and setting them to the calm of storms eye required to work our desire by design.

This is the reality, non too harsh like camping with soggy, grubby fingers and freezing toes in a fresh forest at night, face stung by fire-flecks and lungs burnt by wild woodsmoke, eyes streaming and physical exhaustion from dealing with harsh elements and the hard ground, because the body is soft and used to city comfort, cushions and processed sugary food stores and central heating and fluoridated hot water on tap, spiked electric and internet and cancerous cellphone rays to distort our energy field and program our minds with flicker-rates too quick for the conscious mind to fathom.

This is the reality, of entering the Magickal Universe by ritual focus. Matter less what ritual we perform this night, it is the silent space we make for ourselves that is the key, the freedom from all other peoples awareness and designs. All strands of self connecting us to others are severed or calm and invisible, their attention elsewhere. This is the skill most worthy of teaching; it is protection and peace, it is powa and living, breathing instinct flowing through as perception. This is the initiation from where Will may be achieved. All mantra’s made within this space take hold without distortion.

We need this; as individuals, locked into glass and metal, concrete and petro-chemical plastic city lives, slaves worshipping the ruling god money, disturbed by the disfunction fields of emotionally fatigued peoples daily urban grinds. We need this time alone to steady ourselves and remember what we are when we are. We need the stillness. This itself is an element, should be considered as such and mastered before any real progress can be made.For this is when we step out of time and into our own Becoming.

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Conclusion

"Yes Spirit, but which is the father and which is the son?"

We have seen here how a world is made of elements set as a particular order. The more advanced our understanding of material and spiritual/perceptual science becomes, the more we observe the ancient principles of 'as above so below' or 'inner mirrors outer'.

External reality experience manifests according to preconceptions.

This unifies the a priori Songlines (Intent before Event) with posteriori Observation based (label what we find).

Summarized thus;  "the Observer Affects the Observed."


That we comprehend era's in terms of different symbolic series equally making sense of both inner and external realities, to describe a context, hinging around the core principle, give the sorcerer of any given era an infallible method of setting himself free of the Order of the Day, and accessing levels of alternative consciousness. The results as the new belief-structure . It is these symbols containing internal referencing framework to construct a stable cohesive paradigm or otherwise, that can correctly be called its Elements.

But you knew that all along.

What matters next is not so much the context by which we define and manifest versions of reality, all of which are equally as equivalent and unique; what matters is how much individual powa can be gained to manifest and maintain a reality-belief waveform. Self-belief is one aspect, Group-consensus is another. Here we face the age old issue of Individual verses Society.

The sorcerers art is to slip free of all the context grids.
Knowing them to be illusion, he seeks reality.

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http://genealogyreligion.net/entoptics-or-doodles-children-of-the-cave

  E is for Evolution (of perception)

 
“Science says that our brains are a grid-like structure, forming a field of consciousness. This gird is an invisible, vast database of memory, a template that contains perceptions and beliefs from the thoughts and feelings generated by you from any point in time. When this field is altered it shifts our physical existence.”

Paula Muran, Body of Light


As a brief outline for the thesis; Gustav Karl Jung explains 'Mind' as layers of associated symbols, many of which are common to us all throughout time are therefore called Archetypal Symbols, many of which are unique to a given culture and more importantly, many of which are unique to the individual. This framework is the grid or operating system for the mind.

Evolution of Perception is a large concept to explore and I am only interested in a specific factor of it for this blog. The foundation of which is E is for Elements, while much of the thesis is found throughout all of my Pagan Blog Project blogs.

Evolution of Perception is a purpose for why Evolution of physical forms has been happening. I am one of these who believes when the Canadian Human Genome Project after reviewing human dna from all over the planet, announced in early 2010 that "Human DNA has been manipulated in ancient times by technologies we have not yet discovered" there is some merit in their claim. Translations of ancient Assyrian clay tablets that tell the same story were made available at the same time, by what Jung would call 'syncronicity' and further evidence of 'giant' humanoid 'aliens' entombed all over the world were also announced, at the same time.


The Soul contained in any form of animal, is the same type of self-are, emotionally capable, entity; only that the biological form of the body is different between different species. A dogs sense of smell and hearing surpasses that of human beings while their eyes are not so sharp except at dawn and dusk. They have no opposable thumbs. Were that soul taken from a dog and placed into a homo sapiens body, once initial orientation had been mastered and some basic training given, I believe the symbiot would be as convincingly 'human' as are many 'humans'. That process is usually called Transmigration (of the Soul). I study various forms of eg; Haitiian from west African Fon culture which is also a root of American Vodun religion; the physical body of the priest is known as the 'Horse' which can be ridden by various possessing spirit entities and deities. This is what ALL humans are capable of and it happens much more regularly than closed minds of western pharmacological zomba culture likes to confess.

In this transmigratory process which is tantalizingly hinted at in the story of Taliesin and Ceridwen, we can see the journey of a same Soul through many physical forms, and incarnate within each body type is a different set of sensory perception. What Humans would call ESP Extra-Sensory perception, is very normal to some other forms of being. Exploring Mammalian Consciousness we need to illustrate not only the neural development map of a brain and its layers, but the different energy configurations available within it, which facilitate different states of perceptual awareness. The more complicated the circuit, the more potential configurations within it. On the one hand, Don Carlos calls this Tensegrity.


"The belief that intelligence and thinking are the same has led to two unfortunate conclusions in education:

1 that nothing needs to be done for students with a high intelligence because they will automatically be good thinkers.

2 that nothing can be done for students without a high intelligence because they cannot ever be good thinkers.

The relationship between intelligence and thinking is like that between a car and the driver of that car. A powerful car may be driven badly. A less powerful car may be driven well. The power of the car is the potential of the car just as intelligence is the potential of the mind. The skill of the car driver determines how the power of the car is used. The skill of the thinker determines how intelligence is used."

Edward de Bono, Teach Your Child To Think, p6


The purpose of E is for Evolution (of Perception) is to explain that Perception is not entirely based on Mind and that Mind is a system of associated archetypal symbols which are its Operating System. Magicians know this and use it to their advantage to re-program their own mind into whatever form they require. The Observer Affects the Observed. Our energy field radiates its waveforms and programs the particle (physical) domain to conform to its code. So by programing the Minds OS we program material reality.

These Archetypal Symbols are constructed of what can be described as Elements. The use of a platform to lay out and display the elements is called an Altar. Rituals utilizing various elements in Energy Exchanges the Altar can be seen as a chemistry set, a scientists laboratory. We use the term Psyence for an alchemist of Mind, it relates to the word Seance.

Reality is now believed by quantum scientists and new agers alike to be holographic. Constructed of Light, which responds to subconscious programming. On the basis of this, the Altar is metaphoric for the Grid we subconsciously project, which manifests as our reality experience. This given, removing unwanted programs, protecting ourselves from other peoples program-manifestations, and empowering personal belief to create the universe in our own image, are the three major concerns of contemporary magicians. All three of these factors involve some level of associative symbolism, and particular relaxed states of being, to achieve.


     "Now get ready, for Paradigm Warfare!" Snakeappletree, Paradigm Warfare

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