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AS in our media transmissions, and the mental images we transmit through verbal or other means of communication, the basic common quality is that all of these means, rely on a form - or, the sensual, corporeal quality. The storage of these images must have started with the birth of single celled organisms, through to the image in history as an evolution of organic perception, initially of trees, birds, mountains, the planets, sun and moon, rivers, rocks and so forth, through to the first Paleolithic and Neolithic concrete representations of these images in stylized symbols, Lauscaux, aboriginal and Bushman Art etc. It was a linear path from this early birth of visual images to the Golden Age of Greece, the Venus de Milo, Hermes Aphrodite, Disco bolus etc. With the Renaissance the Image reaches a new sophistication the vocabulary is now greatly extended - the entire European cultural circuit is vivified with the frequency of a new vision, perspective and the entry of Time and Space into the Image. In a linear line of growth the image  is further extended into a blue Earth shining in the blackness, and a guru in lotus position, inner and outer space are the New perspectives of the image. Stanley Kubrick  treats the images in 2001 with great profundity. The images of the control panels  are ciphers which convey high energy information to the pilots of the ship.

 

Imagination, is thus the clay of image making. To have imagination is to be able to produce inner images, and later, externalize them.

 

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     The closing of the National Film Board of Canada, American Films, The Peoples Space, CTAC etc illustrates how it is only through a fundamental re-alignment of the values of society as a whole - that any form of cultural socialization is likely. For the time being, the apathy and lack of both discipline and any co-ordinated strategy makes this seem impossible.

 

    Doris Lessing, and Stanislav Lem show social science fiction - and confirm that through sci-fi. writers are expressing ideas or new paradigms that are unavailable elsewhere. Frank Herbert in the "Dune" quartet fits into this category as well.

 

True the analysis of UID participating groups shows a complex structure but so has the Pentagon, the Kremlin and the Reich. It is perhaps because it lacks a grassroots, participatory democratic process that it is so out of focus with the times.

 

 

(1) Thus Nigredo/Nekyia codifies the blackness of a dismembered psychic state prior to the germination of the new Centre. Thus humanity is deep within the black earth = material condition. This LEAD is the heaviest matter, the outer fringes of phenomena - where 'things' cannot get heavier. It's heavy man, it's the outers. This relates again to the extremities of Plutonic polarity. It could also be the atavistic, thereomorphic scorpionic Gods of the Sumerians - who fused the depths of the half-scorpion, half-man, with the astrological heights of which they were famed and exceedingly accurate observers. As above, so below. Astro-symbolically there are structural relationships between:- Lead-Saturn - Gold-Sun -  Pisces-Neptune - Aries- Mars.  Pluto - Sun.

 

Saturn is the end of matter, the heaviest metal, the dross, the outermost of 'weight'.

Pluto is the outermost planet of our solar system with the Sun as the centre of this polarity. Pisces is the last sign of the Zodiac (Sacrifice) Aries the first (Transformation)

 

     When the sangoma asked me  'What do you sacrifice' - I should have answered 'I sacrifice my 'self'.'

 

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Lilly in a certain contest mentions:

"Another alleged evasion is the melting or mosaic, or distortion maneuver in which images flow in whole or plastically, or are broken up into parts like a mosaic, or parts are interchanged among several stored images at different levels. The melting, mosaic or distortion of course can be programmed, of itself, under direct orders. It is only considered an evasion when it is not under the control of the self.”

 

     Here the key phrase for comparison with the visualization techniques of interior display patterns is the section underlined above. From the Dorje Sempa Visualization we read: (The Meditation on Vajra Sattva):-

 

"The dutsi comes from the HUNG and the letters of the mantra and gradually it fills Dorje Sempa completely. Dutsi looks like milk and you may visualize it coming from HUNG and the mantra just as water comes from melting ice except that the letters, unlike ice, are not thereby diminished."

 

What, we may ask is the inner 'use' of the human mind using these programmed 'melting' techniques? There is an esoteric reason, which can be unfolded in the practice of the visualization - as authorized projection-display techniques from the "Gods", and. served to the Western mind by the Tibetan Lamas after thousands of years of isolated culturing or pre-programming by the Celestial Ones.

 

The two streams of movement, two currents of consciousness – the fiery ascending – and the liquid descending.

 

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Here we leave behind the physical maps. Having physically come into control of the intercontinental exploration and even populating of far off lands that were opened by Diaz, da Gama, and Columbus etc. - a new level was opened, the meeting between cultures with vastly different maps of reality. The views of Christian Europe in the form of the soldier Cortes - washed over the Aztec civilization of Montezuma - an abrupt confrontation. The relationship between these two men is a cosmic drama of vivid and raw experience. The next time this could happen, is when the first contact takes place between Earth beings and another planet. On a planetary scale, all cultures submitted to the Europeanization programme.

 

    True to our nature of serial or linear thinking we embarked on an exploration of outer space. With the extension of European industrialization almost complete and all nations enmeshed therein (the developing nations) – very few, if any, unitive cultures are left. European culture, as manifest in the United States – now prepares to turn inwards.

 

Here we briefly review, that the physical maps led into mental models of our material environment and universe, which in turn altered our spiritual maps. The most obvious example is the war between the heliocentric and geocentric minds – Catholicism and Copernicus and Galileo. This applies only on the superficial, political level - as esoteric traditions in Europe had always maintained a heliocentric view. In his book on the Stellar mysteries of the Dogon tribe, Robert K. G. Temple writes;

 

"The Dogon are thus free from the illusions of our European ancestors, who thought that the sky and stars wheeled round the Earth (though there was an exception to such primitive notions in Europe which no historian of science has ever reported ..."

 

Robert Temple here refers to the Platonic philosopher, Proclus.

 

We can understand the conceptual monsters that were born from this unscientific view of the universal, and certain debris of those wrong ideas still lurk about our theological structures. Thus, our mental maps were severely changed - and once in deeper harmony with Universal Structure, we were prepared to make the move to interior dimensions. The exploration of other planets and solar systems, could be in a sense a psychological preparation to exchange information with extra-terrestrial civilizations. These few ideas are what David Spangler indicates:

 

"To cross this threshold, to gain this New Age, is less a matter for action and more a matter for clear perception of who and where we are in an historical and spiritual perspective."

 

Our romantic attraction to the exploration of unknown spaces, is still evident in the mass media and especially the cinema.

 

These few loose ideas are hung around the central subject under consideration - the 'path.'

 

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AND THE LAST WAVE SHALL BE THE FIRST WAVE.

 

In a culture so dedicated to the repression of the psyche seeing Peter Wier’s film 'The Last Wave' is like having salt packed on open wounds, The same applies to John Boorman's film ‘The Heretic' which was savaged mauled by the "critics". Both films, have emanated, so to speak, from the same stable. Both share a certain parallelism with the African context. One has become immune to the gross critical faculties of the Sunday papers - quote: "the pseudo-mysticism" of 'Close Encounters of The Third' as if those venerable critics have anything positive to add to the body social on the subject of  mysticism at all. But there they are, putting down the three films without any profound insight. Françoise Triffaud  puts it in a nutshell - when In 'Close Encounters' he talks of "an event sociological". The work of C.G. Jung entitled 'Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth' - (1958) may yet find itself  may yet find itself with the ‘Close Encounters’ and ‘Star Wars' T-shirts and paraphernalia now on sale via the Kine circuit. (Laughter)

 

     'The Last  Wave' is by no means a perfect film, I would place it in a lesser position than 'Picnic  at Hanging Rock'. Both films evoke layers of chthonic energy attacking the rational and offering instead, the vast space of the unknown. The 'white' Australian consciousness refuses to accept the existence of the 'tribal' magic and ritual in the midst of what we presume is the city of Sidney. It is thus a powerful analogy, which has exactly the socio-psychological symbol needed - to externalize   this fear of the unknown as a tidal wave. This wave represents the threat of the unconscious on the terrain of the conscious, which is the destructive force of the locust swarm in 'The Heretic' - and personified in an evil entity. The key to both is not in the hands of the priest (the Heretic) or the   lawyer (The Last Wave). Both Religion and Law as we know it, are powerless in the face of the wisdom, or esoteric knowledge that is still alone carried by the Aborigine High Priest in 'The Last Wave' and the Ethiopian Master in 'The Heretic'. Both are very involved in the Trial and Test archetypes and thus have a real area of textural similarity too the work of Carlos Castenada.

 

John Boorman is a devotee of Jung, and  Peter Wier obviously has a deep interest in the ancient lore of power points, energy centres and cultures from our deepest past. All this indicates that films such as those must be viewed, with a certain respect from the position of a social psychology.

 

     Both Capitalistic and Communist systems share repressive ideologies against the strata of collective, mythic lore. The only exception, to my mind, is the Soviet film 'Solaris' which in a statement cinematic, comes vary close to the highest reaches of Buddhist metaphysics.  The theme, for those who have not seen this film, is of a sentient ocean, on which a few astronauts have a research station in some distant solar system. This ocean, duplicates the contents of their subconscious, including dead wives, and eventually reproduces entire chunks of earth, drawing from their memories of their home planet. It is a shattering vision - structurally even purer than the above mentioned films.

 

To show that this area of 'returning to the source' is very much alive here in South Africa -  a conference took place at Wits University, May 19^th  - 21^st  quote; "Indigenous healers (izangoma or witchdoctors) are the principle caretakers of the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of the majority of people in our country. And yet people operating within a Westernized framework have little or no knowledge of the life and work of the izangoma." Thus psychologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists and students in psychology and medicine delivered papers, Zulu dancing was demonstrated by Johnny Clegg etc. Naturally our local theatrical intellectuals were not there, preferring, I presume, the imported agonies of our decaying civilization or such succulent morsels such as 'Patty Hearst'.  In conclusion, all I wish to state is a deep sorrow, that the first wave of a new cinematic vision should have come from directors living in Eire and Australia . .

 

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The Gnostic vision in L. Durrell's 'Prince of Darkness’ could be situated in the Oasis of Siwa, the

oracular centre of Jupiter Ammon. Though a wrathful form, the key frequency is actually blissful and supreme in the sense of the Dakini being Queen - theriomorphically projected as a Lioness, the Queen of the Beasts- A Beast is an animal and this word contains the ANIMA, which often emanates the Queen archetype.

 

"Something that is deeply symbolic does not have a single point to get; rather it presents us with facets behind which  the effective core remains inaccessible."

William Willeford.

 

Emblem 42: Stolcius. Shows the Sun in his chariot with a Seven Pointed Star behind his head.

 

A great radiation of rays. Drawn by Three Birds, SALT, SULPHUR and MERCURY.

 

"My Father the Sun has all the power

That the whole world seeks."

 

On the wheels of the Chariot are FIRE and WATER and on the clouds AIR and , EARTH.

 

**

 

Purcell - King Arthur - works with Old Age, Saturn - youth/ Beauty/ Cupid and Venus - in the Genius of Winter scene. Beauty and Death, Sebastian and Aphrodite. Cold and very hot. Dead or Alive. Don't shoot before you see the whites of his eyes. The "Chains of Venus' could be a very radical/root image to explore S & M bondage fantasies with chains, ropes etc. - in fact this is

the inverted/perverted Plutonic expression of Venus - black leather is a Plutonic code.

 

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Here we enter the vast field of Information on MERCURY as the reconciliation of the opposites, being a planet which is neither male nor female. In this context the following quote from 'The Spirit Mercurius' by C.G.Jung will suffice:

 

"Mercurius consists of all conceivable opposites. He is thus quite obviously a duality, but is named a unity in spite of the fact that his innumerable inner contradictions can dramatically fly apart into an equal number of disparate and apparently independent figures."

 

     Returning to our visual confirmation, plate ( ) Illustrates the function of Mercury in uniting the polarized psychic structures.

 

"Mercurius truly consists of the most extreme opposites; on the one hand, he is undoubtedly akin to the godhead, on the other he is found in the sewers." (Jung)

 

And as Ostanes says in Cleopatra in an alchemical text - " Make known to us how the highest descends to the lowest, and how the lowest ascends to the highest, and how the midmost draws nearest to the highest and is made one with it."

 

Mercury thus stands between the opposites of Venus and Mars. Mars is to his right, Venus to his left - as we connect the right side to the father, the left to the mother, right the sun and left the moon. Behind we see two further symbols, the sun and the moon, which could be seen as additional confirmation of this set of opposites. But in actual fact, this creates a stereoscopic structure - which is known as the QUATERNIO - i.e. two sets of opposites. If we are working along the lines of psychic structure, as a revelation of cosmic structure, then - we must conclude that the second s et are placed in front and behind the figure of Mercury.

 

     If we see the Sun in front and the moon behind, Venus to the left and Mars to the right as a comment on the structure of the psyche (which is why we believe these pictures are deeply programmed with information) we can find confirmation in this  direction:

 

     Through the research of Dr John Lilly,  LSD was found to cause a hyperactive cortical system, but inhibit the negative cortical function.  This indicates that the Central Nervous System (CNS) is structured along the pattern of  along the pattern of an electro-magnetic polarity. The instructions that the CNS transmits flow from negative to positive, there is a 'motivational hierarchy' involved. If we see the brain, and the entire spine with the network of nerves - this model can be easily equated with that of the CHAKRAS. Each chakra consists of a series of polarities - and in turn has a polarity to the chakra above or below, plus a function and a motivation. The polarity can be seen as the 'hierarchy'. This is known in alchemical terms as the ' conjunctio oppositorium.’ 

 

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     Ten years ago all was very quiet on the Western front and society was not much concerned with dimensions other than the utilitarian consciousness that held planetary sway. But the times are changing and the frontier has moved to that of the MIND whether we are prepared to admit this or not. It is termed an 'expansion of consciousness' a term which is slightly jaded, when we undertake to explore the potential of our own faculties without the need for this concept of 'expansion'. Perhaps the only expansion which is taking place is the knowledge of who and what we are as a sentient race in manifestation on one planet. The political significance is in embryo, atomic, to say the least. Forces that do not wish us to extend the frontiers of our minds, work to keep the status quo on a global scale. An exciting example comes to mind, in that the latest outcry against a vivisection centre in Cape Town has as its basis humanitarian grounds. But the truth of the matter is that this laboratory is being built and financed by public funds to study the diseases of the affluent - who eat too much - and the poor - who do not have enough to eat. Animals, our poor dumb brothers are cut to pieces to find the cause of these diseases, whereas if the rich ate less and the poor ate a bit more of their surplus, the problem will be solved. But this would affect the consumer society - profits would drop and the whole indecent balance called "The Western Way of Life” would crumble. Although the stench of social decay is in the air, o be critical is a crime and our prisons are full of critics. We thus have generated a host of  alternatives, all of which short because they are born, more or less, from the rot that engendered them. So the cycle is maintained and we all pretend to be 'advancing’ towards total destruction - or what?

 

     The answer lies in the soil, say some and to a certain extent this is correct. The soil is known as Mother Earth, the Matrix of which there is only ONE. By psychologically conditioning the Mass Mind over many centuries, there is now the concept of 'property' and men 'own’ and 'buy' and 'rent’ that which belongs to all sentient beings in the first place. This is heresy and must be seen as such. But to stand up and cry this fact from the roof-tops is to invite the Security Police to your door at  four in the morning. For if you do not play the game , then the 'rules' demand your liquidation.

 

     The pile of martyrs and social reformers who have been given the axe as reward is mountainous. But always a figure rises phoenix like from the top and another message, the synthesis of the previous transmission is called out. And, once again the knock on the door.

 

     But we  all know, we are aware, in all camps, that the time is now nearing the Grand Finale. And this is where the Space Cowboys arrive on the scene to report their discoveries in Other Mansions of the Fathers House. The Doors of Perception opened, onto the unchartered border lands and the first brave individuals set off on their D.H.A. trains. Eventually they returned, bringing stories that only the few would believe. But the few entered as well and the numbers are growing daily. Dr John Lilly suggested that this entire process is programmed by Higher Intelligence, another shock statement to the political forces of today. Especially when the bulk of this programming is directed to and used creatively by, the ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY, the COUNTER CULTURE, excluding the negative forces of separative thinking and exploitation. On one level it seems that the financier, the business man and the exploiter cannot enter through those doors of perception into those finer vistas of the mind, and the vast fields of new energy. It is a RING PASS NOT! For we are on the verge of using forces which cannot be bottled, packaged and sold - or used for the purpose of exploitation but only function when used for UNIVERSAL WELFARE.  How about that.

 

     The main camp that is in the hands of 'the other side' is education, and this will perhaps be the last citadel to fall, for it is the breeding ground of exploitative consciousness and the supreme suppressor of the Truth. We are in the age of Cosmic Politics and so many ‘left’ thinkers are not aware of how 'off beam’ they actually are.

As David Bowie said: “We should be on by now.”

 

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I  think that what is to be dealt with here, can be summed up under the archetype of  ‘The Hero'. This Hero, is an Inner Space Cowboy and his name is Major Tom.

 

But before dealing with this example from common 'pop' culture, a brief introduction is necessary. In the work of most great minds, there are certain themes which eventually become the property of the general landscape of the mind. In the work of Jung we find this thought:

 

" Comparative religion and mythology are rich mines of archetypes and so is the psychology of dreams and psychoses. There is an astonishing parallelism between these images and the ideas they serve to express which has frequently given rise to the wildest migration theories, although it would be far more natural to think of the remarkable similarity of the human psyche at all times and in all places."

 

And also:

 

"Archetypal fantasy forms are, in fact, reproduced spontaneously anytime and anywhere, without there being any conceivable trace of direct transmission."

 

Let us take a contemporary fantasy form as an example, the comic book Hero, Superman. This dream extension of super-human potential is NOT an earthling. He was born upon the planet Krypton and; "Just before the doomed planet KRYPTON exploded to fragments, a scientist placed  his infant son within an experimental rocket ship, launching it towards Earth.” This pattern of an 'advanced being' entering the arena of earth evolution appears again in Stanley Kubrick's  ‘2001’. The opening music of this film is Richard Strauss tone poem, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and if anyone is familiar with the book by Nietzsche, we can recall his refrain:

 

"I bring you the Superman."

 

     In ‘2001’ the Space Child of the finale, is the Superman of the future - born out of man's technological extension into deep space - and the accidental warp into other dimensions. The thread from Superman, to Strauss, Nietzsche, Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke does not end there, but is beautifully garbed anew in the song 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie.

 

It is a song about a Hero, and his name is Major Tom.

"Ground Control to Major Tom, take your protein pills, and put your helmet on. Here I am floating in my tin can."

"Ground Control to major Tom, your circuits dead, do you hear me Major Tom."

But Major Tom has terminated the lines of communication. He has severed contact with Earth.

 

David Bowie, who has conveyed the ability to transmit short profound visual icons in his lyrics, creates  a deep symbol in Major Tom. Theodore Rozak expands the theme in his tome, ‘Where the Wasteland Ends'.

 

"Here we have man encapsulated in a wholly man-made environment, sealed up and surviving securely in a plastic womb that leaves nothing to chance or natural process. Nothing "irrational" - meaning that nothing man has not made, or made allowance for - can intrude upon the astronauts life space. He interacts with the world beyond his metallic epidermis only by way of electronic equipment; even his wastes are stored up within his self-contained, mechanical envelope."

 

“ . . cushioned and isolated within a prefabricated, homeostatic life space and disciplined to the demands of the mechanisms which sustain it - the astronaut prefers the artificial environment."

 

"He is packaged for export anywhere in the universe.'

 

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    In his novel 'The City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clarke  writes of a super-metropolis called Diaspar, which is circular and hermetically sealed. Alvin the hero searches for some form of exit from the city through the outer wall. In vain. Only later he on finds the exit in the EXACT CENTRE OF THE MANDALA CITY. The exit is through the centre, and his escape was consciously staged by a super conscious computer. As in his work with Stanley Kubric on '2001' - Clarke seems to be out to bait us into deeper thinking through his novels, for compare this statement from the Tibetan Rinpoche Trungpa in his book 'The Dawn of Tantra' ;-

 

"Having studied for a long time with mystical teachers, Buddha came to the conclusion that there is no way out. He began to work his way inward and found there was a way in. Enlightenment is more a way inward than a way out."

 

     Or, in the words of Novalis: "The mysterious road that leads to the interior." William Blake writes: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

 

ASCENT

 

     The Fathers House, The Hearth, the Palace of Wisdom,  the Sun and the Centre are all the same. Also The Citadel - The Castle. Let us continue to elaborate on the journey there. In his beautiful, unfinished novel MOUNT ANALOGUE, Rene Daumal writes of the assistance that comes from 'higher up' on the ladder.

 

"To reach the summit one must proceed from encampment to encampment. But before setting out for the next refuge, one  must prepare those coming after to occupy the place one is leaving. Only after having prepared them can one go on up. That is why before setting out for a new refuge we had to go back down in order to pass on our knowledge to other seekers."

 

This beautiful and profound piece from Daumal opens us to the process known as a chain. From C.G.Jung:

 

"The Homeric chain in alchemy is a series of great wise men beginning with Hermes Trismegistus, which links heaven to earth. At the same time it is a chain of substances and different chemical states that appear in the course of the alchemical process."

 

This appears as the Stairway of the Seven Planets in Apuleius, and  even steps appear in the Egyptian vision Paul Brunton describes in his 'Search in Secret Egypt.' From Jung:

 

"The idea of an ascent through the seven spheres of the planets symbolizes the return of the soul to the sungod from whom it originated, as, we know for instance from Firmus Maternus "It is said that the soul descends through the circle of the sun. "

 

     This is beautifully illustrated in the film 'ZARDOZ' of John Boorman, where Arthur Frame tempts the curious ZED into the process of learning. This is the BAIT and I am sure that in the Tantric iconographic tradition the symbol of the HOOK is a confirmation of this. Also the LASOO.

 

     The neophyte begins the journey. Often co-incidence and synchronicity is responsible for this meta-physical putting two & two together. The guru & disciple relationship is also included in this process - the various and massive documentation of gurus who 'knew’ of their disciples long before they met personally.

 

     Precognition is a part of the equipment on the journey. The story of the Prodigal Son is a parable of deep significance. The Father KNOWS the son is returning and goes out to meet him. Another story of significance here is 'The Rabbi of Krakow' - who also goes on a journey only to discover that the treasure for which he is seeking is buried beneath his hearth.

 

      To those of us familiar with astrological language, we know that the hearth is also ruled by the Sun, for it is the warm centre of the home.  The Solar frequency is also by way of the Law of Correspondence, that of Angelhood, and thus Attainment in the scheme of human evolution. Thus here again, we are met the Mystery of Ascent into INTEGRATION and descent into DISINTEGRATION - so profoundly pictured by William Blake as The Dream of Jacobs Ladder'.

 

     Let us think now, of our journey as an ascent - we are moving up the ladder or steps, led onwards by intelligences one or many steps ahead of us. We are going home, to the hearth which is both the CITADEL and the CENTRE symbolized as the SUN.

 

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So why should we ever cease to Manifest that constant creative principle - the dynamic energy of an inconsistent/unconstant universe?  . . . that is/is not this, is, is not – INCLUSIVE of the aesthetics of decay and impermanence and, not merely the - 'All is Pretty' of Andy Warhol. It takes Courage (Arcana 19), yes, but True Creative Flow (Arcana I) Faith (Arcana I7) and courage. (I repeat, arcana 19) – are not separate. It is rather akin to the Hermetic To Know, to Will, to Dare, and to be Silent" - the last-mentioned of which, I never am. All our of these … knowledge, Will or Faith, Daring or Courage and Silence - all operate from Absolute Spaciousness, Sunyata. And it is in the uncharted spaces that Pure Energy flows. It is the "opening of fresh possibilities" which is the form of the Dakini. and therefore, the INSPIRATION behind the Creative Retention! All the rest is pig's food, the same eaten by The Prodigal Son (a la Hogarth) at the outer perimeter of matter, until he — starts the return to the Father or the Mother if that aspect turns you on I)

 

And as you say about meeting 'face to face' let me mention that the Queen of the Dakinis, alias rDore Phagmo alias Vajra Varahi – has TWO FACES - one is a grunting black sow, to be found in a painting by Hieronymous Bosch (or was it Breughel) anyhow, those paintings of the Middle Ages where one sees all those codpieces. In plain English, this Queen of the Dakinis is known to the Inner sanctum as - Diamond  Sow and I am sure she has a lasting relationship with the Prodigal Son, not to mention here textural similarities to Bosch and Breughel.

 

   To continue. Having peeled away the sociological surface we can attempt to excavate the deeper structure. In the Case of the Prodigal Son/the devouring of pigs food leads to a return to the Father's House. This suits the patriarchal matrix of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

 

This, in itself is a surface observation, For we are now aware that the Judeo-Christian tradition itself has great depth and multi-layered meaning. Using a triune model as a frame of reference we postulate that if the Father i.e. Yang, then the Pig (Diamond Sow, Dakini, cipher of inspiration, or in terms of C.G. Jung’s THE ANIMA ( must be WiP. The

 

     Mother is feeding on the energy or product of experience. She, as sow, eats shit,

 

     This yin shit eater sometimes eats her own children as well. As Chogyam Trungpa illustrates, the devouring of babies in times of stress is a sincere act, a genuine return to the Mother. He relates this instinct (though socially unacceptable act) to the Diamond Sow, Queen of Dakinis, and therefore by association: The Queen of Inspiration.

 

Working our way down the diverse paths of logic, this would seem to indicate that inspiration is to be gained through eating excrement and human flesh! Once again we trot out a structural interpretation, which is in another word - a symbol!

 

     I have always felt that artifacts are the most rewarding symbols to work with. I belong to a generation impressed by that bone that became a spaceship in Stanley Kubrick's '2001' - may the Force be with such a concise symbol.

 

     So - when we come to another Dakini called 'The Lion Headed Dakini' holds in her left hand, to her heart - a skull cup filled with blood - and in her right hand, aloft - a curved knife; we have two highly loaded symbols once again connected to the 'cipher of inspiration.'

 

     The iconography of this Dakini contains codified reference to both the dismantling process (the knife) and the containment of the energy thus released (the cup filled with blood.) To rephrase this situation: the breaking down of encrusted concepts and calcified habit patterns leads to a release of energy, which must be re-absorbed and centred, lest imbalance takes place. We are confronted with an ancient mythical structure wherein death and dismemberment takes place before the new energy cycle is commenced.   The inspirational flow cannot take place in an atmosphere of psychic stagnation. Hence, the Dakini, as a cipher of inspiration is often shown in a wrathful form because the knife edge which severs the old conceptual structures and allows for the blood flow of inspiration, is often a traumatic experience. "This vision can be abrupt, shocking to our preconceptions and expectations, and so the Dakini is often of terrifying appearance.'

 

Enough, Love and Peace,

Samten

 

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     To use  a rather technical Jungian word, this is also referred to as the 'psychopomp' or 'psychogogue'. In previous notes I had written that "the psychopomp leads the soul out of the body and back again. In the light of recent mental evolution I find the term "soul" very distasteful and would instead like to phrase that statement thus:

 

The psychopomp/anima/dakini, inspires the relative, perceiving entity, to move out of the reductive, imprisoning framework of the ego, or idea of self, and then, by paradox, integrates this entity back into the frame of reference, without the negative imprint. Or, as is said in Buddhist Mahayana terms, there is no difference between. Samsara or Nirvana. The body is a concrete pattern, from which one is lead out, by the personification of the anima, into the states where there is no frame of reference. It would seem that this process has  a dual direction, in that, in its negative aspect it leads down into what is known as the 'sub-conscious' - and also upwards, from the conscious to the super-conscious. These terms are not adequate. There may be parallels to the three or six 'bardo' states, or the state of waking consciousness, dream consciousness and dreamless sleep. The later could be equated to the 'unconscious'. As such, it is a fault, as true enlightenment is beyond the polarities   of conscious and unconscious. To continue the ideas on the Dakini, Lama

 

Lama Anagarika Govinda writes:

 

" . . . Dakinis became the genii of meditation, spiritual helpers who inspired the Sadhaka and roused him from the illusion of worldly contentment. They were the forces that awakened the dormant quality of, mind and soul." etc.

 

     Psychopomp examples: Jung, Alchemical Studies, p. 80, 156, 257 , Mercury as psychopomp; anima as psychopomp, see definition pg.40.

 

     The sequence, or order of the mental life, could also be seen as a journey to the most interior  matrix of reality. This would bring us into the realms of the archetype of the 'path' or 'journey', the ways to the centre. It is along this route that the anima is encountered, either in the constructive or destructive aspect. In 'Man and his symbols' Jung writes:

 

"The anima (like the shadow) has two aspects, benevolent and malefic (or negative) Orpheus is led to his 'hell' by a lethal anima. Also the Lorelei of Teutonic Myth. The Rusalka too."

 

An aspect of the inner journey, precipitated by the anima, is dealt with by Dr John Lilly in his, book ‘'Metaprogramming the Human Biocomputer.’

 

" The next stage of development of those who have the courage and the necessary apparatus to do it, is the exploration in depth of this vast inner unknown region. For this kind  of task we need the best kind of thinking of which man is capable. We dissolve and/or reprogramme the doctrinaire and ideological approaches to these questions."

 

Here, within the context of the anima, we wonder what the "best kind of thinking" and "necessary inner apparatus" is. The direction in which we can look for an answer is supplied by C.G.Jung again in his 'In Memory to Richard Wilhelm':

 

" . . . as a rule, the specialists is a purely masculine mind, an intellect to which fecundity is an alien and unnatural process; therefore it is an especially ill-adapted tool for receiving and bringing to birth a foreign spirit. But a greater mind bears the stamp of the feminine; to it is given a receptive and fruitful womb which can reshape what is strange into a familiar form."

 

     In other word's, Jung is illustrating the fact that the operation of the anima, in its creative aspect, leads to inspiration, and “the opening of fresh possibilities” – here termed fecundity. It  is of deep interest that in the Sacred Tarot, as transmitted by the Church of Light, the mystery of Fecundity is essential the operation of a feminine archetype, here qualified as ISIS UNVEILED, or the 3^rd arcana of the Tarot cards.

 

     Thus the fecundity, the "stamp of the feminine" can be said to be related to the anima, and is connected to the experience  of  exploration, opening up new areas of reality, beyond the confines of the 'self or 'ego'. In this case, the anima (which Jung personified as the Unconscious in general, though this deserves further study), is also a bridge into the inner levels; the collective storage banks, the exploration of which is the anima activity. Here I may add, that, it is the energy that precipitates the exploration, that is the anima, whilst the actual exploration, as can be seen in myth, is the operation of the archetype which we can term 'The HERO'.

 

     In the Kabbalah, and especially the Zohar, we read that the nature of Solomon's wisdom was a discerning heart, and that its source was the full moon - moon and heart were generally associated with  the feminine sphere of knowledge - then the conclusion we derive is that Solomon gained his wisdom from the unconscious, the place  of dreams, where often the anima manifests in feminine form.

 

     That Wisdom is connected to a feminine form is seen from the SOPHIA of the Gnostics, It is also well documented in the Prajaparamita literature of Mahayana Buddhism where the Mother of Wisdom forms the foundation of Sunyata, the Void teachings. This is by comparison a very basic mention of an extremely deep subject,

 

     The terminology becomes rather confusing, especially in the light of our present philological tools with the inadequacies for deeper layers of metaphysical thought. But it is interesting that the great Hassidic mystic, Rabbi Baer has written:

 

"The power of our intelligence has its home in the heart. This corresponds to the saying "The heart is that which is intelligent". It is there where it receives  its content and the influences from the uppermost level, the unconscious."

 

     Here it would seem that the 'unconscious' is that which is beyond thought itself, the nominal state and as such, corresponds with the Sunyata/Void state, related to the Mother Prajanaparamita.

 

     This feminine representation takes us out of the relative/subjective/personal frame of reference, and into the universal. As such, these are not anima figures which are fractions of a personal process, but represent instead, a feminine archetype of cosmic proportion. We could view the inter-relationship with the instrument of the Hermetic Law of 'As Above, So Below' - which, would indicate that the permutations from negative anima, leading to disintegration; the positive anima, leading through inspiration and creative opening of fresh possibilities, to the cosmic archetypes,  are part of a spectral sequence.

 

     In this sense, these Divine Mothers, Dakinis, the anima figures in dream and myth - weave together that which is beyond consciousness, (unconscious) that which is conscious, and that which is beneath the surface of consciousness subconscious) - creating and generating bridges between the layers of concrete reality.

 

     This operation can be seen in terms of aesthetics, as the Nature of Beauty (or the Beauty of Nature) which equates to Venus, another of the main anima figures in myth, I have also considered that the anima subverts the world of concrete patterns, the logos, with the activities of the senses and  intuitions, Eros; which is why the female devotees played such an important part in the rites  of Dionysus.

DISPLAY - CASTRATION - RAPE.