Posts
Tell me who gave us the Book of Doves
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Reality Failure
Ultimately, philosophy strains towards a reality.
Reality is that which we most avoid - even unthinkingly, unintentionally.
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Philo-sophia
'Philo-sophy' should mean the attraction towards wisdom - i.e., traditional wisdom ...
Vision and judgement, my friends.
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Presocratics
The Presocratics were not merely the first scientists - they were the first metaphysicians too.
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Thales was Right
All Aryan existence begins in rainfall.
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Heroic
'The world' must be grasped both as Oneness and as Diversity.
This very contradiction is the barbed wire fence which rips the flesh and scars the spirit.
A Hero who is a Hero of Oneness is Doomed to fail just as the Hero who is a Hero of Diversity is Doomed to fail as both will be crushed in the Paradox.
Dionysos and Apollo symbolise this unending contradiction.
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Violence
There is a Paganism of Oneness just as there is a Paganism of Diverisity.
Odin is a god of diverse masks, but he is also the Allfather, just as Nietzsche sees all Heroes as masks of Dionysos.
Likewise there is in Nietzsche the Oneness of the Will of Power and also the Diversity of the Perspectival.
The Tyrant is he who - heroically - attempts to "stamp Being on Becoming", as Nietzsche has it.
That is 'violence'.
The Tyrant is a Hero withal.
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Witches' Brew
"The mass death in the war for the glory of the German race is the apotheosis of this witches' dance." [Wilhelm Reich]
I seized upon the above quote in my Nietzschean Jim Morrison essay as it so obviously echoed Nietzsche's view of the pure Dionysian [which is Oneness - i.e. the Dionysian without Apolline mediation] as being a "witches' brew".
As I say that phrase I can't help but think of Miles' Bitches Brew [with John McLaughlin on guitar] which is itself a very pure Dionysian music.
I think also of the view that the witch is a residue in Christian times of the Odinist seidh religion.
The difference between Paganism and Christianity, as Carlyle has it, is that the former divinises Nature while the latter divinises the Moral Law.
In so doing, Christianity transvalues Paganism. The witch is 'evil' to the Christian, while the 'witch' is 'good' to the Pagan. So Paganism's 'good and bad' is transvalued to Christianity's 'evil and good' respectively.
I think again of Miles' 'Live Evil' [also with Johnny Mac]:- 'Evil' is itself 'Life'. The same was thought by Blake too, who saw Evil as Energy.
Just as Odin became the horned Devil, so too is Hitler the personification of Evil.
Savitri Devi's book The Lightning and the Sun, which deals with Gengis Khan, Akhnaton and Hitler, is a natural sequel to Carlyle's Hero Worship which begins with Odin and ends with Naopleon.
Given that Nietzsche too affirmed the Heroic in Napoleon, we might see his Dionysian as the bridge between Carlyle's and Devi's conceptions.
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This is Ragnarok
Despite what they say about Hilter, the West has yet to experience Nothingness: and it is fated that we will.
Ragnarok was/is ushered in by a deadly Winter of annihilation.
But this is like the Indian conception of cyclic ages, with the Kali Yuga being comparable to the age of the Ragnarok.
It is Zarathustra's downgoing that is a necessary pre-requistite for the creation of the Overhuman.
This is not so much of an historical End Time, but rather a thorough experiencing of Nothingness and a complete oblivion.
This would be beyond all Time and Space.
Therefore it has no 'when'.
It is beyond even 'cycles'.
Western culture has always tried to avoid this abysm - our every breath is devoted to certain somethings, to History, to Being and to Becoming.
Unlike the East we have not ... let go;
We can't let go ... yet.
Nihilism has yet to be plumbed in total.
Therefore we do not yet know Dionysos in his purest sense.
This Nihilism is the negating of all values known hitherto.
Until, ultimately we are left only with one value: negation itself.
It is Zarathustra's downgoing that is a necessary pre-requistite for the creation of the Overhuman.
This is not so much of an historical End Time, but rather a thorough experiencing of Nothingness and a complete oblivion.
This would be beyond all Time and Space.
Therefore it has no 'when'.
It is beyond even 'cycles'.
Western culture has always tried to avoid this abysm - our every breath is devoted to certain somethings, to History, to Being and to Becoming.
Unlike the East we have not ... let go;
We can't let go ... yet.
Nihilism has yet to be plumbed in total.
Therefore we do not yet know Dionysos in his purest sense.
This Nihilism is the negating of all values known hitherto.
Until, ultimately we are left only with one value: negation itself.
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Levels
The distinction between the exoteric and esoteric levels remains; the former is mythology, religion; the latter is philosophy, insight.
Hidden Agendas
Omens
"Precisely because there are no revealed scriptures, the signs become the pre-eminent form of contact with the higher world and a mainstay of piety ... To doubt the arts of divination is to fall under the suspicion of godlessness."
[Burkert, Greek Religion p. 111]
In this form of piety, the whole world, from the smallest to the largest, has meaning.
The problem then becomes one of interpretation.
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If self-less morality is in reality self-ish, then is there a higher morality which actually is selfless?
To Nietzsche [e.g. BGE 222] pity, compassion, sympathy etc. are all forms of disguised self-contempt.
If that is so, then he must have thought that ruthlessness cruelty etc. are forms of disguised self-love - or at least of certain strength?
No - isn't ruthlessness rather undisguised self-hatred?
Or is it more logical to suggest that those with with open self-contempt would have easy contempt for others?
Self-love would entail love for others.
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Over-cooked Rococo
The art of 18th century France is a perfected art - a non plus ultra.
Or is it over-perfected.
Is excess of perfection, imperfect?
When the line of perfection is crossed - if there is such a line.
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The Two Morrisons
Count the Lords amongst us
Rock and roll your sweet gypsy soul
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Reward
Morrison's recorded voice intoned:
"I tell us this, no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn!"
And then I experienced - what? - an epiphany?
The soaring upwards of the soul ...
transcending the everydayness of the spirit ...
suddenly transported into that golden heaven ...
The Morrison voice is a sacred message left behind ...
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The Fence of Offence
He feels offence at what you say?
Then by that he inadvertently admits that what you said was right.
[apologies to D 499]
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No Shit-Hoarder
I want to possess nothing - not even this will to non-possession.
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Culture Vulture
We have need of art if we ourselves are bereft of inner creativity - this is why those who thirst for culture are disgusting, like starving men who suddenly and excessively glut themselves on food.
The culture-vulture quickly becomes obese with art.
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Definitive
A thing cannot be defined into existence - it must be demonstrated.
A definition merely defines itself.
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Artistic Order of Rank
1) The Übermensch - he is a work of art
2) The great artist - the creator
3) The man of taste and appreciation for art
4) Art workers
5) Those in thrall to art
6) Slaves too dull for art
#1) is that which all art aspires to - the godly Dionysian man. He is a law unto himself.
#2) is a step removed from #1) and creates in #1)'s likeness.
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Double Takes
He gets all 'meaningful' and says, "life has no meaning".
Another says that all things "happen for a reason" - but he cannot give a reason.
This other puts his faith in God's providence [a sleepwalker, he], whilst he schemes and plans, plotting his future in detail.
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Nationalism is Amoral - Good!
The nationalist is undermined by his own moralism as he seeks to use morality as a cushion for nationalism's amoral separation. He doesn't have the courage of his convictions.
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The Nature of 'Nature'
"Nature is always valueless."
[Nietzsche GS 301]
'Nature' is a curious abstraction used without qualification to endorse a variety of positions.
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Poets
"I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over."
[Whitman To a foil'd European revolutionaire 1955-81]
In ancient Greece the poet was called upon to save the City.
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Novel Philosophy
Wilson says that all philosophers should attempt to put their ideas into the form of the novel.
The essay, after all, is merely a form for testing, experimenting; only a step on from the workshop that is a notebook.
But do you have a philosophy that can be put into a novel?
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Inside Greek Philosophy
Colin Wilson doesn't find an Outsider amongst the Greek philosophers.
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The Hero
Someone who tries to live like an ancient Greek in a modern urban technocratic society?
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Punny
"You can't build a revolution on puns."
[Russel Brand to Rainbow George 2008]
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Death
Death is something complex - not just a ceasing of existence. This complexity is variously described metaphorically in mythology.
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Moral Relativism
All morality is relative: we ought not to interfere in others' morality - but 'ought' implies a moral imperative.
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Reality as Perfection
This is my interest: the quest for perfected reality. To live in such a way that one is completely enmeshed in the real. Not, as one usually is - absent-mindedly, imaginatively, phantastically - transported 'somewhere else': in some suspended parallel state.
Destroy your reality.
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Torture
"The personal cry for vengeance demands that before death the criminal must suffer long and severely; in other words, that torture must precede death."
[Ryley Scott A History of Torture 1940 p. 7]
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Trust No One
"Her legend was depicted by runes traced in gibbet dust."
[James Havoc Satanskin 1992]
"Her face stank of lightning."
[ib.]
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Music Pass-ive Pass-ion
Is listening to music a passive act?
But consciousness is intentional - so listening is an intentional act.
Only meditation lacks intentionality - and that is in silence.
Sounds are not real: the body makes them like it makes sweat.
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Rune Koans
The Zen Koans are reminiscent of Viking culture.
The meaning of 'koan' itself reminds one of the public rune-stones.
"A buried stone coffer was found. In it was a perfect circular mirror engraved on the back in runes were the words 'Perfect Realisation'
Leave for a moment that perfect mirror buried underground: the perfect mirror at this instant in your hands, what is it?
Try and bring it out of its stone coffer.
When the stone-coffer is broken open, what is the perfect mirror like?"
[adapted from Leggett, Samurai Zen, Routledge 2003 p. 50]
Perefct realisation of Odin's Discovery of the Runes -
Mirror - reflection in the Lake.
Sword in the Stone
Mirror Shield - a Shewer [OE sceawian]
Glinting Blade
Rune Coffer
The Shattered Reflection of Loss.
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Meditation
The birds sing: thoughts drift by like clouds and disappear.
Dreams float to the surface and 'pop'.
I dive to the depths of Nothingness.
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Art
Art as a justification for life, or as a distraction from life.
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Solid Air
The purest spiritual being cannot live.
Thta's why all spirits are dead.
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Hippie
The hippie movement wanted to go towards a pure spirituality and a higher culture. As Nietzsche notes, music is inimical to a higher culture.
The hippie movement was ultimately misled by i) drugs and ii) music.
These prevented a pure spitiuality and a higher culture from being created - No real spirituality was achieved. The Eastern spiritual genius was referred to, but it wasn't taken any further because the West was not spiritual enough; it couldn't pull its weight, let alone soar into the heights.
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Morality undermines itself
If I do good deeds, I will get into Heaven - but you should do good deeds for themselves, not for selfish reasons ... such as to get into Heaven.
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Dionysos symbolises the exoteric knowledge of the void.
In the esoteric there are no rituals, no symbols, no art. There is no 'clutter'.
The esoteric is beyond abstraction.
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