by on

The Mouth of See widens further. This 3rdTooth is called Artemis. Artemis was a cruel Goddess of chastity and wild beasts. Artemis mercilessly punished mortals -poor Actaeon was ripped apart as a deer by his own hunting dogs after accidently seeing the Goddess naked. Artemis is the veil to the other world which should not be punctured. This is why she is chastity. She herself commands the phallus (bow and arrow) with which she defends the other world. It is the node Asnerist in the Hyperqabalah which is fed by Gramier and preceded by Teufos.

The pre-ontology is an almost impossible realm to describe. I don’t pretend to be able to see it clearly. However I think certain phenomenological activities and my play with occult systems as they pass through my region, sometimes have given me glimpses of this.

The problem with the pre-ontology and its relation to the vector field is that the vector field has no concepts in it by definition, so to be able to see it purely is probably impossible (Merleau-Ponty understood this). Sunyata in Buddhism seems to have a description of a kind of state in which the field is free of accretions yet all action is still possible, indeed improved. This sense of emptiness does seem flickeringly visible and in perceiving it one gets the sense that the ground that is seen could give rise to so many conceptual possibilities. It is simulataneously understood as the world we know and empty at the same time. The emptiness looks, is identical and yet due to its emptiness it looks different. When seen as empty, the pre-ontology albeit flickeringly, shows through.

This empty state suddenly reveals that the trees are stil trees but maybe not the regular trees that we know. Everything is more open. This ground always becomes an ontology, to regular awareness the accretions must take hold and a world appears. But underneath it is always what gives rise to it and this is not an academic fancy but an experiencable realm. The pre-ontology can help make sense of descriptions of the world like one finds in the old weird fiction writers like Machen and Blackwood. These intense, living, dark, pagan worlds are visible in the pre-ontology or rather they can spring out of it. These worlds themselves are accretions, layers. But they are not the regular accretions we perceive.

In this sense it is not simply a stripping away that reveals these worlds, but rather a stripping away and reassembly. The entry into them in this sense is perfectly real as (according to the theory) the accretions are not psychologically inert but ontolgically active.

If the pre-ontology can be held and the right route found, then Artemis can indeed be found in the wood. Though who would want to find her, I do not know.

by on

“It’s not possible what you say Steepleton! It’s too monstrous!”

Harris was distraught clearly as the apothecary regarded him with a cool eye. “I don’t know why you think it monstrous Austin, it is simply the world as science describes it.”

“But this is not science Edward, this is, this is sorcery!” He discharged the word, with no venom, something in that region but more muted. There was anger, disgust, pity and fear in his tone.

“You could call it sorcery I suppose Austin but this would be to lapse back into a primitive mode of thought. Your problem is that you perceive science only to extend in directions of the world as it commonly appears. However when one pays attention to certain other facets of existence, lines open up that describe directions not commonly entertained.”

“You mean all that Rosicrucian nonsense and the rest.”

“Yes and no. There is some truth to the order but much of their efforts are lost in the paradox of the matter.”

“Which is?’

“That very stuff of concepts is living, meaning concepts may appear luminous when given that as part of their conceptuality when in fact this is true of all concepts.”

“You talk in riddles Steepleton. You say this is science, but science requires proof. You have no proof of this, it is your insane conjecture alone.”

“If you require proof I can readily supply it, though it will be easier if you smoke this with me first.”

Edward Steepleton brought out a hashish pipe and some of the finest Moroccan resin that it was possible to obtain.

“You would intoxicate me, then insist my intoxication acted as proof?”

“This is a primitive science and we cannot yet easily manipulate the levels of awareness, hence we must do so with the aid of our friends the plants. I have much stronger substances than this at my disposal but they would be too much for you. Come smoke with me and observe, I can assure you the results will be quite objective.”

Austin continued to eye Steepleton like something of a lunatic, yet the truth was he knew otherwise. Edward Steepleton was a widely respected apothecary of generally brilliant intelligence. Austin Harris was more than an acquaintance; the two men had struck up something for a friendship after Edward cured his wife of a strange fever that no doctor had been able to touch. Harris though had alway put Steepleton’s skill down to rational genius and thorough knowledge of the plants and the human organism, rather than anything supernatural.

Seeing that Harris had not left the room and calmed himself somewhat, Edward loaded the pipe to capacity and lit it. Aromatic hashish odour drifted around the glow of the dim room, Edward drew deeply several times before passing the pipe to Austin. In subdued acquiescence Austin took the pipe and drew on it. The resin glowed fiercely as he did so and he felt the hot smoke soak into his lungs. The pipe returned to Edward who reloaded it, drew again and once more passed it back to Harris.

Feeling the rising alteration in his mind already, Austin was half reluctant to take a second draw and yet did so anyway. He had committed and well, Edward was the apothecary, so he ought to know the dose. The room how had something of a quality of vividness to it and Austin’s mind was awash with that ineffable sensation, variable amongst folk, often referred to as high. He became aware of a certain lack of control in his demeanour but wished to contain this. He looked across at Edward who looked as implacable as ever. Austin fancied there was almost a curious glow emitting from him but suppressed the notion.

“I see your awareness has shifted sufficiently, if you are comfortable we can proceed?”

Harris was somewhat surprised to find a good deal of anxiety pulsing through him and felt he was losing further control of his expression.

“What are you going to do?” Was all he could manage in the end.

“Wait here” instructed Steepleton, at which he arose and left the room for his study.

Harris began to wonder if Edward would come back in some strange get up and attempt to frighten him. He then went down the road in which a strange apparition walked into the room which Harris clearly took too be Edward but that Edward then walked in simultaneously to the apparition. The thought was so vivid and sinister that Harris found he had thoroughly frightened himself and now longed for the simple reappearance of Edward.

He did not have long to wait. Edward reappeared from his study carrying what appeared to be a doll. He sat down and held to doll upright so that Austin could see it fully. It was made of a loosely stuffed cloth. The doll was maybe a foot and a half in height. The face was round with a smiling expression and button eyes. Red wool like string hung from its head as hair. It had a kind of top sewn into its upper half of some pale coloured material (one could not tell exactly in the gloom). The arms were bare, or at least slightly paler in colour than the top. It had a floppy knee length skirt of some darker material, though not as dark as black; his mind filled the colour in as a kind of purple. The legs were made of a kind of material as if the doll wore tights with broad hoops of colour alternating with white and it had no discernible footwear.

“This is Moppet. Austin, say hello to Moppet.’’

Steepleton’s sudden introduction and instruction caught Harris off guard. He looked baffled at Steepleton and then at the doll. Though on his return glance to the doll he noticed that that Edward had bent himself down in his chair so that he could place his hand subtly behind the doll’s back and hold it in such a way that it’s feet touched the floor and its head was propped upright -presumably by his finger.

Austin looked again at Edward and saw the face was as serious as ever. “Won’t you say hello to Moppet?”

Almost laughing now at the absurdity, Austin capitulated.

“Hello Moppet.” He said, though with little feeling except anxiety driven derision.

“Good” said Edward. “Moppet is not alive, do we agree?”

“Of course not.” Agreed Harris.

“Watch her now.” Instructed Edward.

Austin’s altered mind latched onto the doll, which Edward still skilfully held upright. He then began to manoeuvre her in such way that she had a strong sense of animation. She walked along the floor in front of Edward, then she cocked her head up and looked at Austin.

As Austin watched he felt a curious thing. He could see literally the doll as alive. It moved in such an animate uncanny way that he felt fascinated and horrified in equal measure. The doll did not look sinister. It did not need to. The sheer reality of seeing the life of the dolls shook him and yet he could not look away. A curious intensity intensity built in him, an unbearable strangeness grew and grew in his mind.

Then the light flickered out momentarily, came back on, then flickered out again. Austin started with fright.

“Stop it!” He cried. Then regained his senses as a rational embarrassment kicked in.

Edward stopped animating the doll and looked at Austin.

“Do you see?”

“See what?” Austin was almost annoyed.

“You projected the concept of life onto the doll. It began to take on this accretion of pneuma, as I call it. The result was a psychic disruption which resulted in a loss of physical energy from the surrounding system and the the light flickered.”

“Nonsense.” Austin managed, though was clearly shaken.

“Then what happened?!”

“You got me half out of my mind on your infernal hashish and played some hideous trick on me is what happened. No one would deny that things can look strange in this state.”

“And the light?”

“Coincidence.”

“Shall I animate her again?”

Austin had no choice but to say he must. His argument rested on Edwards failure to repeat.

“Watch Moppet” came the instruction.

So Harris watched Moppet and soon she became as entrancing as before. She curtsied prettily for him and walked across the rug most elegantly. Edward’s arm was hardly visible yet Austin did not even consider how he did it. Moppet, walked and peered under the armchair as if she looked for something. As the display went on, so the sensation of intensity began to build once more. Moppet look stranger and stranger, more and more alive and in doing so once the feeling built in Austin’s being such that he thought he would break from the impossibility of what he actually saw.

Then the light flickered once more and there was a loud report that sounded like it came from within the walls.

“Stop it!” Cried Harris, shaken pale and sweating.

Steepleton ceased animating the doll. The light returned and normality was restored.

“You see.” He said “Science.”

by on

The point I was trying to articulate in the last post is closer to this. When then shaman travels to other worlds, these worlds may well be accretive formations of pneuma based on his environment. The spirits are the local animals etc. These worlds are real and can be travelled to. The point of pneuma as a theory is that the accretions once made are not simply accessible by one individual, they have autonomous existence. Nevertheless these shamanist upper and lower worlds are accreted to certain vectors in the shaman’s world. These worlds do no whisper sinister secrets or at least if they do, the shaman knows what to listen to and what to avoid. The point being there is wisdom and power that is beneficial to the community in these worlds.

Writers like Rickert and Kingsley identify presocratic thinkers like Parmenides as half shaman, half priest type figures. They represent a transitional stage that still has access to the other world, before Plato placed reason as the source of wisdom. Thought in this way, Parmenides did not think his writing up, he accessed his ideas from the other world, and, if we are to believe Kingsley, inaugurated the west itself through the ideas he accessed through visions. The connecting wisdom then became lost and we are now adrift (I am not commenting on the correctness or otherwise of this pronouncement).

The Lovecraftian connection is that the realm of strange shining cities and books of odd symbols is the same place the shaman and the presocratic priest/shaman accessed. The King in Yellow’s home is exactly such a world. The ‘weirdness’ of these worlds possibly comes from their (as stated) being accreted to ideas outside of religion. That is, their presentment as places of other dimensions or worlds that are simply absolutely other gives them a feel that no living hermeneutic category understands adequately (other than weird).

When the Gods are real, the Gods can manage these realms. When they are not, then alien forces appear. As the alien forces appear it becomes harder to access them as sources of wisdom, for they may appear as strange and terrible and sinister as Hastur himself.

by on

This Tooth is called Superman/Boudica. It is weird that it has this double title. No doubt this is partially to do with its relation to the Chariot of the Tarot (which features the notion of chariot and hero). It is also remarkable, as was commented before, that in the Hyperqabalah (Eildour), it is the feeder node of the Teufos which is fetus. Hence Superman and Boudica produce the child. However the child as Hyperqabalah node has the curious name Teufos, reminiscent of Teufel (German for the Devil) and also Te UFOs , which could be an adaptation of the Te Deum. It’s tree is the holly, its animal the hare.

How can we make sense of Sunyata? What has happened to the relation to the accretions? Such a person is said to live through a primordial intelligence, seeing things as they are. We can translate this into seeing the vector field itself, but this only makes a certain level of sense. This is because to experience the vector field is to see the regions with no concepts. This is what Sunyata does, however the event of Sunyata also has a being that can still function, they can still use the concepts. 

What are we to make of this? In the ordinary situation the concepts plug into the vectors connecting self-accretion and external vector via accretions (of pneuma) attached to the vector. Clearly the Sunyata person-site is still functioning with the same array of concepts but also has at their disposal other ones that are invisible to regular NARPs ( Neurotic Accretion, Regional Processor) to use the old CEO terminology).

Since we speculate pneuma as a kind of substance, possibly a much simpler process of conceptual naming and recognition is employed in relation to the vector field. The pneuminous accretion is there but reduced to practically nothing; something we don’t consider possible with the heavy accretive layers we commonly attach to things. This gossamer level of minimal attachment is all that is required to enable the same level of communication whilst also revealing the vector field (a sort of things nakedly as they are to humans) itself. The description is of greater richness of perception. One can easily see how the conceptual (accretive) removal could achieve this. The questions remain about more a priori concepts (Kantian categories) and how much Sunyata also can remove these.

by on

Occult systems emphasise silence as important. Silence is identified not particularly with noise in the physical sense but rather the lack of conceptual interaction -mostly thought (accretions of pneuma). Hence one can be in a noisy environment and still tune into silence. Of course persons with highly developed concentration can be in talkative environments and still tune into silence; it’s just trickier.

Noisy here though simply means loud sounds, either natural or man made. Their possibility of inhibiting silence comes from their accretive nature (which of course is what thought and talk do). If we tune into our conceptual arrangement of the meaning of noises, we do not hear silence, we hear accretive noise.

Silence is about tuning out the accretions. Mystics may talk about the silence of existence. However some modern scientific revelations e.g. complex fungal networks point out the vast amount of communication that goes on in the seeming silent world. Complex chemical conversations take place all the time between organisms – is this not noise?

There are two points here. One is simply to say that we do not hear this noise and hence it does not impinge upon our silence. This though is somewhat anthropocentric, since what we are after is understanding the general silence of existence, it is however relevant as silence-to-us is a key factor (phenomenological).

The second is to say that thought/communication exists on a continuum that nevertheless has a threshold, after which the phenomena we have identified as accretions appears. Communication and thought develop in organisms. The more complex the conceptual system the more neurotic the organism can become. Noise is the development of accretions. The chemical conversations have not crossed the accretive threshold and hence do not fill the world with accretive chatter. Some animals’ (other than ourselves) thought and chatter no doubt is accretive, but equally may be interpreted as silence (just like our own chatter can be). However on an ontological level it contributes to the accretive interference that obstructs silence.