on spirituality 2...and a take on 2001's space baby.
Okay. My "L" key is a bit loose, so i'm going to have to make this quick. (which i didn't)
I think i really totally failed last time in explaining spirituality. So....today at work, i was going over the nature of "magick". this is the magick that pagan's practice. what i practice. And it's SYMBOLIC in nature, but is very real...and also not real at all. much like ourselves. Memento Mori.
But. Here is the idea. I was thinking about the time i spent in New Zealand. I could have accompanied a few friends on a 3 day trip to sidney, australia. and i really wanted to go. And we all talked about finally seeing that sidney oprea house. It had been a goal of mine since watching "finding nemo". But i didn't have enough money. And i ended up not going. And when they got back, they said it was "okay". but seeing the oprea house and the city was well worth it.
Same thing with my travels in europe. We had to see the vatican. The collesium. Stonehenge. The Eagle's Nest.
All of these iconic things.
But really...the one thing i've learned is that these things are just....well....things. They hold no real specialness. Not really. But we seek them out....because they speak to us. They are extreamly powerful tools. And they are used to shape our very lives. Our identity. And give us meaning.
I tell people at work about my trip to europe and they are amazed. They are like "wow, you are awesome, i wish i could have gone".
But they are just dead things. Things which have helped define us. They represent ideas. They represent an "acheivment" in life.
And we end up crossing thousands of miles to get to these places. Which help us open up to our hearts and help define ourselves in seeing them. Like they are little miricles. And we go on these long journeys...to find ourselves in them.
When really.....the true magick lay within our own hearts.
They were there all along....but we just needed a tool to unlock this vast emotional validation of ourselves.
AND THIS IS THE VERY FOUNDATION OF MAGICK. We have this power all along. The power to define ourselves. To give ourselves true meaning out of something meaningless. To re-arange our "icons" to tools we can use. TO manipulate our own hearts....to do wonderful things....and instill such a sense of purpose and power and confidence in our own selves, that it truely affects what we do.
That is Magick. It's no more than "knowing thyself" and knowing thy heart. And using it to your own advantage. My mind knows this. My heart knows this. But my heart doesn't care. It is lost in the beauty and power of it's own self.
It's a lot like sexuality. My rational mind knows what's really going on. but we don't care because we are lost in the feeling. It's the feeling that drives us. That gives us purpose and power.
My rational mind is a non-theist. But My heart....the thing that i consider my TRUE self...the self that matters.....doesn't care. And That side of me practices MAGICK. And I have lived more profoundly than most are able to.
People cross oceans to gaze upon the "tool" which I can simply reach across a table and pick up.
It used to be a knife....but i have tied it down to my the symbolic system which has been part of what has defined me so well that it is a sacred object to me.
I don various attire for the same reason. They have power over me....because i have given them power over me.
And this is the nature of spirituality. And it can be seen in music too. A song may hold no special place in my heart...yet may make another cry tears of beauty. It's because of the EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS that go along with that song.
And MAGICK....is the power to define those emotional attachments on your own. To do it with purpose....and to realize that why you may have made them up....they are just as powerful....and not just know this....but to feel this.
So....really....you don't have to be pagan to do "magick". They can come from ANY set of symbolic background. Christian. Naturalist. Buddist (hell, "magick" is part of their core structure. It's just i create emotional attachments and they destroy them. same thing really).
anyway. That's my diatribe on that. I'd also like to point out that my rationalist mind is not "okay" with this existance thing. And while it does not give credence to a biblical "man made" god or a god with "human" features, it does not rule out the possibility of being part of god. Of being part of something much much bigger than itself which it can not be aware of.
Like the star child from 2001.
Which brings up a good point. I finally have understood the true signifigance of the ending to 2001: a space oddesy.
It was the glass of wine which caught me. And it validates both the rational mind. And our bodies existing within the order of the universe. But it's the wine. When he drinks it, he expresses emotion....the only time in the scene where he does.
and it's all about the relationship between The room and the man. And wine in the wine glass.
The room represents the universe. the physical observable universe. And ourselves in it. Our bodies. "us" in relation to it. the room remains. We pass through it.
But durring earth man's "last supper"......he is sitting down and eating. And then he picks up his glass of wine and has a sip....and then becomes "alive". He is filled with emotion. The beauty of the wine he has just drank. It's the only time in the scene where "reacts" and "comes alive".
And then he goes to do something....and knocks the glass of wine over.
and it breaks.
And the glass and the wine.....the glass represents ourselves....and the wine inside it is the emotional matrix. The essence. And while the glass of wine is broken....the wine still remains. The wine still "was". Much how the room still "was".
It's the man and the glass which are broken. And while our "ego" barriers may fade away or break....the wine and the room will not. And each are equal. each "has been".
and then the monolith appears. which for me represents kind of "the man behind the curtain"....the great question. And man reaches out his hand as to wonder why.....as to validate himself. As if he wishes to become it somehow.
And the star child is born. The monolith takes away the man's body.....his ego barrier. What defines "himself". and the man finds himself reborn as the star child.
(i'd also like to note that when the astronaught 'arives' at this room (the universe)....he does not understand what is going on. and that he is viewing the room from this "space ship" which looks a LOT like a woman's womb. and he is breathing heavily as he gets out of it. because he is used to breathing something else. Just an idea here...)
Now the star child's symbolism...well....is still up for grabs. I have a very good idea.
It's not any kind of afterlife. It's not any kind of "you won't fade away". It simply is. It is the fundimental paradox behind this world. Everyhing is equally meaningless. None of us really exist. But....that's the thing. We do. it's just that we are unable to comprehend it. Behind this thing called "existance"....there is something. and nothing.
And my rational mind conceedes this. Cause...it has some serious problems with "being". So while i hold on to no illusions about retaining my idenity. All the "information" of this universe....all the history of the physical universe....and all the "information" about our brain activity and the entire "WORLD" it creates within ourselves....which sum up to be the very being of our souls......is retained. It "was"...which to say "it is". which is to say "I AM".
Which is to say "GOD". Not a human god. Not even a god who thinks. A meeting of nothing and everything.....just behind the "existance" paradox.
Because from me...the physical universe is meaningless. And to the physical universe...I am meaningless...or a byproduct of it. And it will eventually fall into chaos. and it's energy return to it's primative form.
And it really is just that. Energy that's been trapped by these rules. But what is this universe REALLY. Without the laws.....what is left?
I think that itself...is the star child. and all of humanity is of one body with it. We have been. We are. I AM.
I think i really totally failed last time in explaining spirituality. So....today at work, i was going over the nature of "magick". this is the magick that pagan's practice. what i practice. And it's SYMBOLIC in nature, but is very real...and also not real at all. much like ourselves. Memento Mori.
But. Here is the idea. I was thinking about the time i spent in New Zealand. I could have accompanied a few friends on a 3 day trip to sidney, australia. and i really wanted to go. And we all talked about finally seeing that sidney oprea house. It had been a goal of mine since watching "finding nemo". But i didn't have enough money. And i ended up not going. And when they got back, they said it was "okay". but seeing the oprea house and the city was well worth it.
Same thing with my travels in europe. We had to see the vatican. The collesium. Stonehenge. The Eagle's Nest.
All of these iconic things.
But really...the one thing i've learned is that these things are just....well....things. They hold no real specialness. Not really. But we seek them out....because they speak to us. They are extreamly powerful tools. And they are used to shape our very lives. Our identity. And give us meaning.
I tell people at work about my trip to europe and they are amazed. They are like "wow, you are awesome, i wish i could have gone".
But they are just dead things. Things which have helped define us. They represent ideas. They represent an "acheivment" in life.
And we end up crossing thousands of miles to get to these places. Which help us open up to our hearts and help define ourselves in seeing them. Like they are little miricles. And we go on these long journeys...to find ourselves in them.
When really.....the true magick lay within our own hearts.
They were there all along....but we just needed a tool to unlock this vast emotional validation of ourselves.
AND THIS IS THE VERY FOUNDATION OF MAGICK. We have this power all along. The power to define ourselves. To give ourselves true meaning out of something meaningless. To re-arange our "icons" to tools we can use. TO manipulate our own hearts....to do wonderful things....and instill such a sense of purpose and power and confidence in our own selves, that it truely affects what we do.
That is Magick. It's no more than "knowing thyself" and knowing thy heart. And using it to your own advantage. My mind knows this. My heart knows this. But my heart doesn't care. It is lost in the beauty and power of it's own self.
It's a lot like sexuality. My rational mind knows what's really going on. but we don't care because we are lost in the feeling. It's the feeling that drives us. That gives us purpose and power.
My rational mind is a non-theist. But My heart....the thing that i consider my TRUE self...the self that matters.....doesn't care. And That side of me practices MAGICK. And I have lived more profoundly than most are able to.
People cross oceans to gaze upon the "tool" which I can simply reach across a table and pick up.
It used to be a knife....but i have tied it down to my the symbolic system which has been part of what has defined me so well that it is a sacred object to me.
I don various attire for the same reason. They have power over me....because i have given them power over me.
And this is the nature of spirituality. And it can be seen in music too. A song may hold no special place in my heart...yet may make another cry tears of beauty. It's because of the EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS that go along with that song.
And MAGICK....is the power to define those emotional attachments on your own. To do it with purpose....and to realize that why you may have made them up....they are just as powerful....and not just know this....but to feel this.
So....really....you don't have to be pagan to do "magick". They can come from ANY set of symbolic background. Christian. Naturalist. Buddist (hell, "magick" is part of their core structure. It's just i create emotional attachments and they destroy them. same thing really).
anyway. That's my diatribe on that. I'd also like to point out that my rationalist mind is not "okay" with this existance thing. And while it does not give credence to a biblical "man made" god or a god with "human" features, it does not rule out the possibility of being part of god. Of being part of something much much bigger than itself which it can not be aware of.
Like the star child from 2001.
Click to viewWhich brings up a good point. I finally have understood the true signifigance of the ending to 2001: a space oddesy.
It was the glass of wine which caught me. And it validates both the rational mind. And our bodies existing within the order of the universe. But it's the wine. When he drinks it, he expresses emotion....the only time in the scene where he does.
and it's all about the relationship between The room and the man. And wine in the wine glass.
The room represents the universe. the physical observable universe. And ourselves in it. Our bodies. "us" in relation to it. the room remains. We pass through it.
But durring earth man's "last supper"......he is sitting down and eating. And then he picks up his glass of wine and has a sip....and then becomes "alive". He is filled with emotion. The beauty of the wine he has just drank. It's the only time in the scene where "reacts" and "comes alive".
And then he goes to do something....and knocks the glass of wine over.
and it breaks.
And the glass and the wine.....the glass represents ourselves....and the wine inside it is the emotional matrix. The essence. And while the glass of wine is broken....the wine still remains. The wine still "was". Much how the room still "was".
It's the man and the glass which are broken. And while our "ego" barriers may fade away or break....the wine and the room will not. And each are equal. each "has been".
and then the monolith appears. which for me represents kind of "the man behind the curtain"....the great question. And man reaches out his hand as to wonder why.....as to validate himself. As if he wishes to become it somehow.
And the star child is born. The monolith takes away the man's body.....his ego barrier. What defines "himself". and the man finds himself reborn as the star child.
(i'd also like to note that when the astronaught 'arives' at this room (the universe)....he does not understand what is going on. and that he is viewing the room from this "space ship" which looks a LOT like a woman's womb. and he is breathing heavily as he gets out of it. because he is used to breathing something else. Just an idea here...)
Now the star child's symbolism...well....is still up for grabs. I have a very good idea.
It's not any kind of afterlife. It's not any kind of "you won't fade away". It simply is. It is the fundimental paradox behind this world. Everyhing is equally meaningless. None of us really exist. But....that's the thing. We do. it's just that we are unable to comprehend it. Behind this thing called "existance"....there is something. and nothing.
And my rational mind conceedes this. Cause...it has some serious problems with "being". So while i hold on to no illusions about retaining my idenity. All the "information" of this universe....all the history of the physical universe....and all the "information" about our brain activity and the entire "WORLD" it creates within ourselves....which sum up to be the very being of our souls......is retained. It "was"...which to say "it is". which is to say "I AM".
Which is to say "GOD". Not a human god. Not even a god who thinks. A meeting of nothing and everything.....just behind the "existance" paradox.
Because from me...the physical universe is meaningless. And to the physical universe...I am meaningless...or a byproduct of it. And it will eventually fall into chaos. and it's energy return to it's primative form.
And it really is just that. Energy that's been trapped by these rules. But what is this universe REALLY. Without the laws.....what is left?
I think that itself...is the star child. and all of humanity is of one body with it. We have been. We are. I AM.