This is my bodhicitta face

I'm not a fan of Monism, Panentheism or Gnosticism. I'm a Polytheist like our ancestors. I'm of the same position as Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher and Roman constitutionalist during Republican Rome. He is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and Prose stylists. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary. His work was very influential.

One of his books titled 'On The Nature of the Gods' is a favourite of mine. In this, Cicero explains how Diagoras the Melian, Theodores of Cyrene, Antisthenes and Plato have an incorrect conception of the Gods. One, because Diagoras and Theodores outright denied the existence of any Deity, thus making them Atheists. Antisthenes along with Plato claim that there are indeed "many national but *one* natural Deity." But according to Cicero, by this saying he destroys the power and nature of the Gods. Speusippus is also wrong in saying that a "certain incorporeal power governs everything;" by which he endeavours to root out of our minds the knowledge of the Gods.

Since we are polytheist, rituals can target various select deities. If the Gods were a metaphor, the entire action of ritual would be useless. You cannot build rapport with a symbol. Yes, symbols can be magical, but that's a different aspect entirely. If everything is just part of the big Godhead, why is there a distinct ritual for Freyja? Because, each deity has a distinct personality and "job". That is why we are polytheist.

I want to start out by saying that I really enjoy both of these guys’ channels. They curate great content and have plenty of good takes and fresh perspectives. I’ll be reposting heavily from both of their channels in the future.

With that said, I believe they’re both really off base with this criticism of the Platonic perspective. I think their aversion to the idea of the Platonic One stems from a misunderstanding of what the One, the Absolute, Dharmakaya, Brahman, actually is. I believe their principle objection is to the idea of a supreme God akin to the Abrahamic conception, with all the deities of European polytheism reduced to masks of this one entity. And I would object to this concept as well.

The reality is that the One is not conditioned in any way. It is outside of manifestation. The ultimate Source can only be described through analogy, and even these analogies fall short, as the process of describing it places conditions on it so it can be understood. It is not a being, it is not personified. It is that which is beyond all manifestations, including the manifestations of the gods in their heavenly abodes. The One is the source of all manifestation, the center of all being, interpenetrating everything, on every plane, and beyond. It is emptiness, and fullness. Clear light.

This doesn’t conflict with polytheism in any way. I feel like theuy are worried the gods will be diminished in some way through this understanding, but that isn’t the case at all. Our relationship to the gods doesn’t change at all in the light of absolute reality. The gods are still just as real as the material world around you. The truth of the absolute source, beyond manifestation, doesn’t affect our understanding of the gods as awe inspiring, powerful beings, worthy of reverence and devotion. The source is not an Abrahamic God of gods, it is not even an object to be worshiped. In the same way that the existence of the gods doesn’t take away from your veneration for your ancestors or nature spirits, the existence of the absolute doesn’t take away from your veneration of the gods. Even less so, as the Absolute is not a manifest being to worship.

These two guys do an excellent job attempting recreate exoteric paganism, but unfortunately they’re very averse to esoteric ideas. That’s perfectly fine. Esoteric concepts, by definition, aren’t for everybody. A devotional exoteric religion is a perfect way for those who are not esoterically included to relate to the transcendent and establish good merit for future rebirths.

“The snow lion with a turquoise mane, sure of his agility on the slopes of the snow mountains, relaxes at ease in sandalwood forests. He tears the skulls of foxes to pieces and disturbs the mind of the white, red-faced bull. He powerfully overwhelms all other wild beasts.

Conduct, free from hypocrisy, is like a lion who roams happily through the forests, fearless of the chasms of faults and sins. Whatever arises in one’s experience is joined with clarity and truth. This disturbs the minds of uncultured barbarians and powerfully overwhelms all conduct that does not adhere to the four times.”

Drukpa Kunley

The passage above ties in to my post on the Chariot tarot card. "Conduct, free from hypocrisy, is like a lion who roams happily through the forests, fearless of the chasms of faults and sins. Whatever arises in one’s experience is joined with clarity and truth." The karma of the action is determined by the inner orientation. When you unify your individual will with transcendent purpose and awareness, bodhicitta, you can act freely in all situations without fear of fault or sin.

The Gutians and Sumer

The Gutians were an Indo-European people group from the mountains to the northeast of Sumeria. While virtually unheard of, and completely uncredited, their influence may be responsible for the first golden age of Sumeria and many of the greatest achievements of the era. Their reign was short lived, but in it we see parallels to a near universal pattern: Indo-Europeans invading a settled people, and acting as a fertilizing influence that causes their culture to flourish and reach new peaks. Notable examples are the Dorian invasion of Greece and the Aryan invasion of India.

The consensus among many archeologists and historians is that the Gutians were blonde and fair skinned, and while they are not entirely conclusive, there are proposed linguistic connections to the Indo-Iranian Tocharians. From the image above of a Gutian slave, we can see that they wore their hair and beards in a very similar style to many of the Indo-European steppe peoples. Arthur Kemp, author of March of the Titans, connects them to the Celts, but I haven’t done enough research to confirm this.

Sumeria, which was of a primarily Mediterranean racial type in its origins (I’ll cover this later) had degenerated at the time of the Akkadian Empire into a multi-racial society with heavy Semitic influence. Less than 100 years after it was established, the Kingdom of Sumer and Akkad fell under the invasion of hordes of Gutians from the mountains, around the year 2135 BC. When the Semitic populations regained control later in the future, this period was regarded as a dark time and the Gutians are dismissed in later Sumerian literature as illterate and unintelligent barbarians, but the achievements of the kingdom under their rule tell a different story. Some notable achievements are as follows:

- The first written code of laws in all of recorded history, predating the Code of Hammurabi by several centuries (2095 BC)

- The construction of the great Ziggurat of Ur (estimated construction at 2100 BC)

- The restoration of the system of canals and waterways which is essential to the agricultural settlements of the region

It is interesting to see the establishment of a legal code under Indo-European barbarian rule, as many sources throughout history attest to the Scythians, Germans, and other barbarian people having exemplary laws and codes of conduct.

Later on, the Akkadians claimed credit for many of these achievements in retrospect and assert that they came right after they regained power, but it doesn’t seem like a coincendence that this brief cultural peak perfectly lines up with the estimated Gutian invasion and that we don’t see these kind of achievemenets continue after they lost influence. We see today how quickly those in power can rewrite history in their favor.

The Gutian rule was shortlived, lasting only a little less than 100 years (until about 2050 BC) but during this period we see some of the peaks of Sumerian culture. It is fascinating to see lesser known examples of the common pattern of Indo-European invasions bringing about an unprecendeted flourishing of the settled civilizations they conquered.

I used an image of Celtic warriors for the post because there’s no art of the Gutians, but if Arthur Kemp is correct, it should be a good fit.

There’s some ancient stuff hidden in the Amazon, archeologists have only recently started exploring with LIDAR, I’m excited to see what else they find.

“America Before” by Graham Hancock is a really interesting book I’ll summarize some of the topics covered in it later on

I’m considering a comments section because I find this a little unfulfilling with no interaction, feels like I’m talking to myself. Do you guys think it’s worth the effort? Would you interact with any of this kind of content?

Okay we’ll do comments and see how it goes

Kind of annoying that it doesn’t work retroactively for old posts