A quick take on Astrology; separating science from dogma.

Studying the stars, planets and cosmos has been a human undertaking since long before our known written records. If you look at a long enough timeline you'll find the procession of the equinoxes. A roughly 26,000 year cycle our planet goes through in the rotation of it's axis of spin. Understanding this clockwork of cycles and orbits helps us to understand the universe and our place in it. If we look at the closest celestial body to us, we see how the precise orbit of the moon and it's spin push and pull on the tide. Scientists measure the bursts of energy from the sun which bends and flexes our atmosphere and can interfere with our radio waves. For me this is enough evidence that celestial bodies do play a role in the energy patterns and cycles we experience and navigate through. However as Bill Nye the Science guy so cleverly pointed out, the procession of the equinoxes has caused the constellations that rise to be in a different place of the sky then they were 2,000 years ago when the current zodiacs were labeled and indoctrinated. The Dogma of the Horoscopes and Zodiac is well excepted, possibly because some minor details of influence are correct(since the planets affect us all), however there is a lot of speculation and a lack of depth of understanding when you simply look at a date of birth. It's simply not enough to provide any real insight, one would do better to consult a proper tool for looking within yourself for decisions such as the Tarot or I Ching. When it comes to understanding others, I find the Enneagram an effective method, as it is recognized that each person may contain elements of the other personality types. Just as each Chakra contains traces of light from the others in the system. While many lump all of Astrology into the zone of pseudo-science I think it's important to make a distinction between the research/awareness of the positions of the planets and their impact on us all, with the simplification of personality and assumed influences assigned by birthdate. The frivolous horoscopes can be fun to read and some like free will astrology provide a concept to ponder. However the real science and research is in the overall affect of our neighbor planets on our entire world. This is where it starts to get interesting, and where we might be able to find some truth amongst all the assumptions of the past.

Outside of fear and ignorance.

I often see debates raging online in regards to questionable situations that hold a potential for conspiracy. This also flares up with many new technologies. The views and opinions can range from a neutral consideration to an extreme speculation in either direction. What I would like to discuss is not any one of these specific theories, events or technologies but rather the approach to these considerations.

First lets talk about "them".  Sometimes this gets used as shorthand for "that group that runs everything" or occasionally it's just a reference to a previous modifier that is lost further back in the conversation.  Whether you think no conspiracies exist or you name a political group or an association as the antagonist or call it the shadow government, the military industrial complex the examples go on, let's give it due consideration.  The theory that some small group is manipulating the world is given a disproportionate amount of dramatic visualization. The smoking man of the X files comes to mind. The facts we can assess that might inspire this is the small percentage of the population that holds the largest amounts of wealth and resources. However this is still millions of people. It's not 12 guys sitting around a table, or a frat party of politicians and family boys.  Yet the people of the world recognize that it's a few of us living it up off the hard work of the rest of us. Let's not get divided though! That is a distinction we want to avoid. We must remember that these people are human and live in the human condition. So let's speculate a little if we were rich, and wanted to make sure the wealth stays in the family and doesn't dissipate. We'd raise our kids to handle things the way we did, attempting to maintain the status quot.  This isn't inherently good or bad, but it will influence how these people may choose to live their lives and manage their plentiful resources, or others resources if they have access. Our government operates in this slow moving way, carefully inching along taking a lot of external stimulation to generate change.

A desire to be part of this change is one reason a lot of people begin researching how our systems are operating to see if it's really helping or hindering the general public. The truth in plain sight dug up by these seekers then enters the telephone game of I heard, she said, he said, and personal speculations that could end up with wild tabloid worthy tales being passed around. Many oppose these theories as preposterous, that it's not possible for anything so impacting could be allowed to happen. I personally think there are much fewer conspiracies and much more blatant manipulations that are easy to identify if one finds the right place to look. That being said to really know all the laws and control systems we are submitted to would take half a lifetime to learn, and are therefore seemly excessive, but I digress.  The rich spectrum of people and places that make and change and shape the world include us, if we put ourselves outside of those we think have all the power, then we are mentally handing over that power and not taking responsibility for our own being and our own impact.

Down to the matter at hand. The double edged sword of the hot topics of these systems and technologies that are feared or purposefully ignored. I liken these to a kitchen knife. It's useful it's handy, you can make great use if it in a variety of ways, however in 'the wrong hands' it could be used to hurt or maim or kill you. In this metaphor there is latent potential in the thing itself to be used to abuse rather then to improve. A tool can also be a weapon. Since these many people in places of power and wealth are not one consciousness nor one nationally or political body or even one family, there is not likely a direct malicious intent of each person, but more a lack of concern, an ease with which to write off people as numbers out of habit. Though this can create a space in which businesses or other collections of people could cause harm by paying greater attention to a bottom line then to their affect on the world. Instead of feeling victimized by these situations we can rather recognize that progress means debate and generation of new ideas, getting rid of that which is identified as harmful or is no longer working.

It's true some theories that there is noting to worry about may hold true, and some theories of sinister intent could also hold true in other situations.  What we can know and can do, is to be vigilant of the latent potential for poor choices to be made for the use or misuse of our creations that are intended to improve the world. I'm being vague here on purpose, there are boundless examples of inventions and systems and organizational entities.  Community and transparency is our access to information, clarification and confirmation.  Being involved can shed light in areas of questionable circumstance. Even if it's colored or obscured light (here I go with the metaphors again) it's still shedding light on something that may be hidden and need revealed and then may need restructured or torn down and rebuilt.  It is time to question what is going on around us, in our neighborhoods, in our regions, in our countries and around the world.  To be willing to make conscious decisions to shape your life and the life of those around you. If you see that a law, a product, a technology, a political or military action, or anything else has the potential to be harmful to yourself, your family, or your community, you can speak up, you can team up with others, and you can demand visibility and oversight or even change. Recognize the latent potential within and know that with appropriate action we can make the best use of and improve upon the systems, inventions and resources we have in our lives today.

Holy Zombies Batman!

Don't be a mindless zombie. Wake up!


"Ancient philosophers stated that whatever we see when awake is death; and what we see when asleep is a dream. Plato is said to have revealed this identical view to Cebes, and commenting on the beliefs held by the practitioners of the Mysteries, the great expositor of Greek thought Thomas Taylor wrote that the Greeks 'believed that human souls were confined in the body as in a prison, a condition which was denominated by genesis or generation; from which Dionysus would liberate them. This generation  which linked the soul to the body, was supposed to be a kind of death to the higher form of life. Evil is inherent to this condition the soul dwelling in the body as in a prison or a grave....' Even the aforementioned egregious involvement of ancient Egyptian religion with the idea of death has been reinterpreted by some scholars as referring, not primarily to the souls who have departed their earthly habitation, but to the living, who philosophically, or as one might say today psychologically, might be referred to as dead. There is much indication of the possibility amounting to near fact that the three pivotal words death, the dead and to die bore the same esoteric meaning and reference in Gnostic and other Christian scriptures as they did in the Greek philosophical discourses and in the Egyptian books of old. C. G. Jung, a man as deeply versed in classical literature as he was in Gnostic spirituality, was aware of this meaning of death, and the dead to him undoubtedly meant the unregenerate hyletic representatives of humanity, who by identifying with physicality to the exclusion of their psychic and pneumatic natures, have allowed physical life to render them spiritually dead."

-The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Quest Books)

The Word

an·ti·no·mi·an 

Pronunciation: \ˌan-ti-ˈnō-mē-ən\

Function: noun

Etymology: Medieval Latinantinomus, from Latin anti- + Greek nomos law

Date: 1565

1 :  one who holds that under the gospel dispensation of grace the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation2 :  one who rejects a socially established morality

— antinomian adjective

— an·ti·no·mi·an·ism  \-mē-ə-ˌni-zəm\ noun

Wake Up

It's been such a long time since I first watched Waking Life in high school. I re-watch it nearly every year and it creates a new experience each time. This may be partially since I have had new experiences to relate the concepts to. The music does a great enhances the entire piece. Dream sequences of interesting conversations and perspectives on the human condition. It may have been one of the influences on my interest in documentary style film, and film in general even. Probably even contributed to viewing myself as a weaver of dreams in that I create art out of the space from which dreams spring forth, where physics are not the same, where the mysteries hide behind the chaos of madness. As someone who embraces madness, randomness, intelligence, philosophy, it was and still is a great inspiration. If you haven't yet, please watch it.

Have you ever had a vivid dream? Or felt a moment in your daily life where you thought you were dreaming, or had just awaken from a dream? It's always been about living the dream. Remember. You create your own reality.

Spiritual Revolution

 

"Indeed the Gnostics knew something, and it was this: that human life does not fulfill its promise within the structures and establishments of society, for all of these are at best but shadowy projections of another and more fundamental reality. No one comes to his true selfhood by being what society wants him to be nor by doing what it wants him to do. Family, society, church, trade and profession, political and patriotic allegiances, as well as moral and ethical rules and commandments are, in realty, not in the least conducive to the true spiritual welfare of the human soul. On the contrary, they are more often then not the very shackles which keep us from our time spiritual destiny"

-The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead by Stephan A. Hoeller 

Instead of submitting and stagnating to the conditioning of those with too much influence on society, let us instead pursue our passions, seek out our unique purpose, engage in our expression as an individual iteration of creation. Here is some more information for my fellow research junkies: The Gnostic World View

It comes full circle again

Going back through notes from my college years I come across a number of books I wrote down to check out. A repeating title in numerous different notes is "The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life" While many research lines I followed pointed to it, I never ended up getting a hold of a copy, still haven't, although I hope to change that soon. I was more interested in madness and chaos, in figuring out why I embraced the dark mystery of pain and insanity that are polarized into evil and the enemy when they shouldn't be, leading me to chaos theories and complexity theories, an obsession with the Fibonacci sequence. Trying to find a core explanation

I had a strong interest in High School in DNA and the math involved in chemistry. Since I pursued an education in Fine Arts Math and Science was only involved when I wanted to do the research independently. Recently I have followed my path of research and exploration back to connect to DNA and the platonic solids and the table of elements and many other scientific presentations of the world. I found it strange over the years that I would instinctively have a vision why something was, or how it connected to something else, and pursue books to find out if there was something to it discovering research that was done while I was young and before I was born that confirms the idea.

It's become obvious that there was innate knowledge that I knew, but not consciously, I connected to poetic concepts that I didn't fully understand at the time, I experienced it without being aware of what I was experiencing. Now I pay closer attention, to signals from within and without, to serendipity and instincts and then I was introduced to spirit science. It laid out for me all the information I missed in the book about the Flower of Life and made connections between all sorts of various paths of research that I hadn't yet connected.  Since then I have been returning to my research, to this investigation into comprehension of existence, the search for truth, not as in the details of an event in history, but the core truths of being that apply to all of infinity.

Check out the Sacred Geometry movie for a crash course. It has been a great inspiration for returning to my journey to spread awareness and influence the world with creative and evolving energy.

I actually go back and watch this and many other videos over again, each time a different comment or point triggers a relation to something else I recently thought or read about and I can jump off to the next exploration. It's interesting that in my search for an understanding of the great mysteries, for the answer to the great questions of what is life which then subdivides into the new questions what is it's meaning, purpose, origin and direction, I find so many others all over the world presenting a "unified theory of everything" none of which are exactly the same, but all of which touch on interesting perspectives of a similar origin. Sure with linguistics we can use all sorts of terms, the key, the code, the pattern. I think what I like best is stepping into each of these conceptual viewpoints and perceiving what others do, I feel like it gives me a grander perspective from which to view. Sometimes I think it will be the spaces in between all these grand theories, the unspoken connection, the ghost beat, the space between the lines, here in the darkness, is the experience of knowing.

Commuter Symbiosis

Traffic is an excellent example of how disconnected we are from the world around us and each other. So many motorists texting or participating in other distractions rather then be fully aware of the big heavy object they are hurtling forward in and the objects around them. Not only are so many people on auto-pilot but they also think of everyone else as an obstacle to get around, there is so little communication. It's a treat for me when others use their turn signals and merge cooperatively instead of forcefully or absent minded.

It is also excellent to see the few motorists willing to warn one another about something happening to their car. Or those who stop to lend a hand. I was lucky enough to experience this sense of social effort today, shortly after I had the thought of how strange it was that so many were focused on their phones instead of the road.

Life should not be lived by impulse alone, that leads to an unfulfilled existence always chasing the things that are being fed to you for someone else's benefit at your loss. This modern social culture and business culture is all predators and prey rather symbiosis. I among others are working to be the change we want to see, but until we reach critical mass of aware and consciousness people there will be a lot of impulse driven fools for us to navigate around or figure out how to co-exist with.

Where have all the good films gone?

The really unfortunate reality about Netflix, Hulu, and other video streaming services is that it is so easy to limit the available movies. Waking Life has never been on the lists. It is a must see movie shuffled under the edgier less truth inspiring one that came next on the director's filmography. This is only one example, but even those classics I cherish to watch over and over must always be pulled out of the dvd case.

This was a random thought, the one that followed was what can I do about it. I'm not really in a position to create a streaming app for enlightenment seekers. I do make playlists on YouTube but haven't found the best way to share them. This blog I think will be my best method to do so.  Perhaps a review of some kind is in order? To be honest I'm more the type to find the correlation between things. I'll have to find a core idea to explore. Looks like I'll be watching Waking Life again very soon.