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The first symbol of this download is GEMATRIA [01]:
(Heb. גימטריה, from the Greek εωμετρία) is numerology of the Hebrew language and Hebrew alphabet, and is used by its proponents to derive meaning or relative relationship. Several forms can be identified: the "revealed" form and the "mystical form". The word itself comes from the Greek word geometry' and the concept or system is the same as the Greek isopsephy and the Arabic isāb al-Jummal. There is also a gematria of Latin-script languages, dating from the early Middle Ages, and very possibly back into Roman times, too. Recent times have also seen an emergence of new gematrias, though these lack a length of exploration that more ancient versions have seen. … One fascinating application of gematria is its use by exegetes to suggest that authors of certain biblical texts were keenly aware of specific mathematical principles and properties.
I suppose we can refer to Mx as a new gematria.
Another popular game - also taken dead seriously - connected with the Apocalypse is "beasting." At the end of the 13th chapter, it says,"Here is wisdom (Sophia). Let him that hath understanding [Nous] count the number of the beast [Therion]: for it is the number of a man [Anthropos]; … This advice plainly has to do with Hebrew gematria or Greek isopsephos, …. But when the world failed to end in the first few centuries of the Christian era, other candidates were selected for the "the Beast 666," usually this or that pope or King. … Napoleon was a popular beast. Most American presidents and Soviet Premiers, … However, if you consult scripture rather than horror movies, you will find that the Beast puts his mark on other people; it is not something he possesses himself. … Jesus is quoted as chiding the church at Ephesus "because thou has left thy first love." … the Goddess … [ref. to The Woman of the Apocalypse - woodcut by A Durer]: It's also possible that Christianity here improves upon Gnosticism in its veneration of the Goddess by making Sophia the mother of Her own redeemer rather that her having to be rescued by someone from the Pleroma.
Godwin D. Light in Extension, 1992, Llewellyn Publications.
The quest for the Holy Grail: a psychological interpretation of why Parsifal failed to ask Anfortas the most important question: What ails you? The second symbol FATE [02] relates to the first as a device to decode archetypal patterns. This thing looks like a Quest that one is fated to experience as a calling.
Parsifal: The psychological history of virtually every modern man. His is offered a vision of the meaning of his life in his mid-teens but cannot find the strength of consciousness to accept it. The first meeting fails, inevitably. … Parsifal spends the night in the Grail castle, awakens in the morning to find no one about … and is back in the ordinary world of time and space. The myth tells us that he then spends the next twenty years in the exhausting work of rescuing fair maidens, fighting dragons, … Fate is kind and allows us two chances in life when the veil between consciousness and the unconscious grows thin. … the other is in mid-life when he has a second chance to touch his visionary life if he has earned the right. The Grail castle is close at hand every night … but is most easily accomplished at these two critical times … The Parsifal we find this time is a middle-aged man, weary, worn, and tired of the heroic journey. … principle duty of his life, to heal the suffering fisher king. … The meaning of life is not in the quest for one's own power or advancement but lies in the service of that which is greater than one's self. … Parsifal need only ask the question; he is not required to answer it. +[p46] Jung: is to relocate the center gravity of the personality from the ego to the Self. Johnson R.A. The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden, 1993, HarperCollins
The third symbol introduces MUSIC THERAPY [03], returning to the mystery of why certain music has the power to activate archetypes within the collective unconscious.
In a 1993 lecture Rodgers discussed the role of music therapy in the operating room … ideal music … is anxiolytic - designed to reduce anxiety. Developed by the department of anesthesiology at a hospital in , in the mid -1970s, anxiolytic music avoids lyrics, singing, and anything else that can trigger harmful memories or associations. The idea is to provide a free-flowing river of sound, … Rodgers concluded, "it is reasonable to expect a more rapid recovery from surgery with fewer complications (etc.)" … In 1997, President Bill Clinton tore a tendon and required extensive surgery, which he chose to undergo without general anesthesia. Campbell D. The Mozart Effect, 1997, Books.
This SYNTHESIS [01+02+03] is more difficult because it appears to describe Mx as a Grail device with which to help navigate unconscious relationships and patterns. It is in some ways like the Grail 'inscriptions'. As a gematria, it serves the higher-Self and not the ego; it has that number/geometry/music magic thing going for it like an innate musical language, like the Ur-song.
I found this awesome blogger who wrote:
Carl Jung believed that we are born, not just with our physical bodies, but also with a collective consciousness. He suggested this collective consciousness was composed of “the residues of ancestral life… (whose) origins can only be explained from assuming them to be deposits of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity.” How else to explain, for instance, universally accepted sounds, terms, symbols, etc– for ‘Mother’? Along these same lines there are those who believe that part of this collective consciousness includes or contains what has been called an ‘Ur-Song’, that is: A basic, fundamental and universal sequence of notes, forming a melody; and so named because of the of , regarded as the first civilization. Some academics think of melodies as symbols, and indeed a motif can heighten dramatic intent via deft symbolic use. So, it's not a great leap to consider that that this Ur-Song while itself not literally a symbol –not a graphic one, anyway– is nevertheless equivalent to a symbol, –or in fact it is a musical or sonic symbol– and therefore worthy of semiotic analysis. CRITICAL NOISE features essays on the subject of sound. Topics include natural audio phenomena, sensory perception, the urban landscape, modern music production, music brain cognition, cultural aesthetics, audio design, language, media as the medium, sound and symbol, audio in advertising and sonic branding. The author is Terry O'Gara, an award winning music producer and creative consultant.
I can see that I'm going to have to start mapping the patterns in this series of downloads. This fourth symbol: MEDITATION [04] comes up frequently, as does the power of music; the emphasis is on using music while practicing mindfulness, to raise consciousness. This is something we know, but fail to do.
Meditation is at best a means and not in itself an end. … Western Buddhists who, not content with study alone, want a careful blend of study, meditation and application with which to prepare for the mind for direct experience. … For the few, there is the ideal of meditation all the day, the cultivation of a state of mind in which consciousness is deliberately raised whenever it is not chained to lower purposes, and used as a searchlight in the darkness of Ignorance. This is the highest form of mindfulness, what the Lama Trungpa called 'working meditation, where wisdom and skilful means must be companied as the two wings of a bird.' Only a mind so poised can be said to 'abide nowhere'. … In such a way one may be busily and happily 'walking on', 'living as life lives itself', as Dr Susuki calls it, flowing with one's karma and laughing all the time. Humphreys C. A Western Approach to Zen, 1993, Quest Books.
The consequence is that our HISTORY [05] (knowledge) has been lost; as Charroux said
"Man is in danger of disappearing without having known where he came from and whether or not his destiny was controlled by unknown masters who changed its natural course. … Fascinating, frustratingly impenetrable mysteries still challenge our curiosity: …Sensing, perhaps, that they are living at the end of an era, rebellious men now want to take off their blindfolds and question everything that has been imposed on them …"
With reference to GEMATRIA, one cannot ignore the fact that so much esoteric knowledge was encrypted and subsequently lost. Take note of the word MASTER for it comes up again, and it includes spirit masters.
In the thirteenth century, when chivalry and the myth of the Grail flourished, the octagonal castle corresponded to a triple mysticism that made it the athanor (alchemist's furnace) … The emperor (Frederick II) had a spiritual master: the monk Michael Scot. … he sometimes gathered his friends around an empty table and then, when he made a certain sigh, dishes of food appeared magically … Scot would point … 'This one comes from the table of the King of …' . He wrote many scholarly books … transcription of an alchemical collection titled De Sole et Luna (Vol. 5 of the Theatrum Chimicum) in which he reveals the procedures for transmutation in cryptic language. Charroux R. Legacy of the Gods, 1979, Sphere Books.
Scot himself, an ordained priest, was an alchemist. Frederick II, another 'beast'?: … His empire was frequently at war with the , so it is unsurprising that he was excommunicated twice and often vilified in chronicles of the time. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him the Antichrist. After his death the idea of his second coming where he would rule a 1,000-year reich took hold, possibly in part because of this. He was known in his own time as Stupor mundi ("wonder of the world"), and was said to speak nine languages and be literate in seven ... a ruler very much ahead of his time, being an avid patron of science and the arts.
The irony is that we are all must accept responsibility for our part in history that actively allowed or participated in suppressing intellectual reasoning. Take for example that if it was not for Jung we would have lost the alchemical insight into the transformational forces at work in the individual. Just imagine if the next generation stopped studying the Kabbalah. It is fortunate that there is 'something' inspiring one to do the Work and fitting that symbol number six is INSPIRATION [06]
Only the spirit matters, for it is that alone which connects us with God. … I do believe that the imagination and the thirst after knowledge have the power to bring me closer to the wonders of the world as symbols of the Godhead. … I see him in the hand of Leonardo, as he fixed an unearthly smile upon the lips of his divine creation, … I recognize God in the inspiration which he sends me as if in a dream, and in the long labour by which I must carry it out. Ludwig E. I believe, 1952, George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
This download is getting interesting; we get conditioned as kids not to challenge the beliefs of others, especially religious beliefs. I went to a Catholic boarding school and found it interesting that information was hidden in plain sight of those trained in psychology and languages such as Latin; that it was the priest's job to suppress the truth, but to what degree this was unconscious I don't know. Back then, whenever one explored any of the mysteries, the doors slammed shut. The symbol SIRIUS [07] suggests an outcome, that our magical history will remain lost to us unless we do the Work.
The Greeks were reputed … to have considered music the highest art; and the Pythagoreans made harmony and number into an actual religion. … ubiquitous Hercules who is connected in so many ways with the Sirius complex. adds: 'Thespius's fifty daughters - like the fifty Danaids, Pallantids, and Nereids, or the fifty maidens with whom the Celtic god Bran (Phorineus) lay in a single night. … Moon-goddess, to whom the lion-pelted sacred king had access once a year during erotic orgies … Eros … I assume that the cycle of fifty lunations which Graves mentions here is identical to his fifty month period of the reign of the sacred king, …the two-to-one ratio as a means of signifying the concept of the musical octave …
[+p325]: that Hecate (whose pet Cerberus was, and who was a form of Isis-Sirius and whose name literally means 'one-hundred') had three heads or forms, and that the boat of Sirius in ancient Egypt had three goddesses … the Dogon insist(ed) that there are three stars in the Sirius system. The Sirius Mystery, 1999, Arrow.
The point this symbol makes is that the Dogon knew of the three stars thousands of years before our modern astronomers were able to confirm it. There are things that the ancients knew that they couldn't have known unless there was or is a higher civilization we don't know about.
As to the condition one needs to overcome: It’s PASSIVE IMAGINATION [08]: Active imagination is a natural spontaneous process that must be developed as a meditation tool because one needs to make an effort to live according to its principles.
Q: What is the difference between how I use my imagination in day-dreaming and how it is used in the inner guide meditation?
A: Dr. Carl Jung answers this in his book, Psychological Types, written in 1921: … Active fantasies are the product of intuition; i.e. they are evoked by an attitude directed to the perception of unconscious contents, as a result of which the libido immediately invests all the elements emerging from the unconscious and, by association with parallel material, brings them into clear focus in visual form. … Active fantasy … owe their existence not so much to this unconscious process as to a conscious propensity to assimilate hints or fragments of lightly-toned elements, to elaborate them in clearly visual form. … positive participation of consciousness. … is one of the highest forms of psychic activity. For here the conscious mind and the unconscious personality of the subject flow together into a common product in which both are united.
Steinbrecher E.C. The Inner Guide Meditation, 1988, The Aquarian Press.
The attitude to adopt is given by the symbol MIRROR [09] or ASTRONOMY which in my mind relates to looking inwards, where looking out is a projection of the same need to discover the secrets of life. It also suggests the need to be open to a multi-disciplinary approach to resolving the mysteries.
In Proclus' commentary on Plato's Timaeus, Richard Proctor read that the Great Pyramid was used as an observatory in the intermediate stage of its building … Proctor also speculated that by looking down the Descending Passage into a mirror - a polished copper screen, or even a pool of water - the exact transit times of particular stars could have been noted. The Descending Passage, it will be recalled, was aligned on Alpha Draconis, the polar star. The earth's northern axis is inclined toward this star, which would have appeared virtually stationary. The other stars would have described a circle around … angle of 26deg 17min. … The problem of credibility seems to hinge on the fact that Proctor and Lockyer were astronomers. In applying their astronomical knowledge to fields of Egyptology and archaeology, they were breaking the rules.
Johnson K. The Ancient Magic of the Pyramids, 1978, Corgi Books.
This next symbol suggests a disturbing relationship between what one believes based on the books one looks to for answers, especially when it justifies destroying others we see as inferior. Consider the destructive power of the Jesuits; their ADAMANT BELIEF [10] is a symbol of right-action i.e. what not to do because blind faith delivers devastating consequences.
Kircher: He was fascinated by Chinese civilization and for years collected all the information brought back to by his fellow Jesuits. … publication in 1667 of Illustrata. … he wanted to demonstrate that Chinese culture originated with , and he interpreted any piece of information as evidence supporting his thesis. Kircher starts with his adamant belief that every aspect of Chinese wisdom was brought to the country by the third son of Noah, Ham who became an Egyptian Pharaoh, inventor of idolatry and magic, whose adviser was Hermes Trismegistus himself. … the hieroglyphs were of divine origin … Recent research has proved that the Amerindians' pictograms were in fact an instance of a very flexible pictorial language, also able to express abstract ideas. It really is a pity that Western scholars finally discovered this only some centuries after we had destroyed those civilizations on the grounds of their semiotical inferiority. … To justify such a violent transformation of a country and a culture, it was useful to demonstrate that their writing had no philosophical interest.… Naturally, everything depends on one's background books and on what one is looking for.
Serendipities, Language and Lunacy, 1998, Press.
The quality of right-action is represented by the symbol TENSION [11]: This I-Ching reading confirms Jung's position on marriage, that it is an alchemical vessel, a pressure cooker. One needs the tension that an individual’s right to personal growth creates.
Separate and clarify what is in conflict while acknowledging the essential connection. … You must be able both to join things together and to separate them. … These two things, individual expression and holding together, can be connected through brightness and awareness. … Man and woman are polarized, but their purposes interpenetrate. … Spirit speaks through the intermediaries, … There is fire over metal: the conflict between inner form and outer radiance that creates a polarizing tension. The ideal Realising Person reflects this by mobilizing his ability both to accept and reject. Hold the heart fast and take the risk. Change the mandate of heaven. … Don't worry over what seems gone. Harmony, strength and love will return by themselves. Karcher S. total I-Ching, 2004, Time Warner.
The 12th symbol highlights the importance of keeping a SPIRITUAL DIARY [12] of the transformation process. This blog is such a diary, and I experienced a synchronicity that placed Jung's Red Book in my hands in the same period, probably the only copy in the .
One of the most important of all the disciplines, … is the keeping off a spiritual diary. … the Master is able to assess at any time … where the student is on the Path, … such as symbols, spiritual perception, intuitive knowledge, creative insights, synchronicities, mental telepathy, … Usually the initial contacts which a Master makes with a disciple are through visual impressions. That is why your waking dreams are so important, because it is the time that the Master or an initiate … is trying to contact you. … Therefore, these dreams should be recorded and pondered over and related to events that have recently occurred or which take place later. … You should have three works (of the Masters) under your attention at any one time. … you will get answers from the Masters either through dreams or visions, or in meditation, … because They either wrote or inspired the esoteric classics. … entries related to the services you are rendering to mankind should be recorded. … Meditation energises the crown chakra; study of the occult classics energises the brow chakra; and service to mankind energises the alta major chakra. The simultaneous arousal of all three of these head centres results in the emergence of the Third Eye.
Baker D. Super Consciousness through Meditation, 1995, Baker Publ.
The final symbol is about an outcome that relates to becoming a DISCIPLE [13] of a spiritual master. See how this links with the preceding DIARY symbol; Jung encouraged his patients to keep a diary, using his own Red Book as an example.
Without faith, you cannot make any progress. … The beginning of spiritual life is faith. … The third stage is to perform the processes of devotional service. … naturally feel , "Why not become a disciple of a spiritual master?" … Then comes anartha-nivrtti, vanquishing unwanted habits. Bhaktivedanta A.C. Dharma, The Way of Transcendence, 1998, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
My take on this is that the Master is one's higher-Self that is linked to the universal mind and a collective database of knowledge. Genius can refer to the ability to tap into this database. Most geniuses may not want to talk about their support base, but history shows that most had inner characters that they communicated with. We called some of them Prophets and burned others, and generally ignored exploring this human potential.
