Forwarded from Diary of an Underground Ronin
"The truth was something too dazzling to be looked at directly. And yet, once it had come into one's field of vision, one saw patches of light in all kinds of places: the afterimages of virtue."
— Mishima, 'Sword'
— Mishima, 'Sword'
Forwarded from Lance's Legion
“The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.”
— Heraclitus
— Heraclitus
Forwarded from Survive the Jive: All-feed
The serpent, the dragon; call it Vritra, Hydra, Python, Typhon, Jörmungandr, Fafnir, Zmey, Vishap, or by its Christian name, Satan. The enormous reptile is a symbol of the enemy of our people as Eliade explains in the quote. It is therefore clear what the dragon slayer represents.
Although St. George is a popular Saint in many nations, his worship in England is a continuation of the ancient Indo-European tradition. The Germanic hero Sigurd, known as Sigeweard to the English and Sigfried to the Germans, is the archetypal dragon slayer in Germanic heroic myth.
Although St. George is a popular Saint in many nations, his worship in England is a continuation of the ancient Indo-European tradition. The Germanic hero Sigurd, known as Sigeweard to the English and Sigfried to the Germans, is the archetypal dragon slayer in Germanic heroic myth.
Forwarded from The Classical Wisdom Tradition
Mail Online
Plato's exact burial site has been found in Greece, researchers claim
Plato's long-lost burial has been found in Greece, claim experts who found the exact burial spot in the Herculaneum scrolls. The team used AI to read the text, reveal 1,000 new words on the scroll.
"People of peace, men and women of desire, such is the splendor of the Temple in which you will one day have the right to take your place. Such privilege should astonish you less, however, than your ability to commence building it down here, your ability, in fact, to adorn it at every moment of your existence. Remember the saying 'as above, so below', and contribute to this by making 'as below, so above'."
- Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
- Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
Forwarded from Gnostic Intel
“Untroubled, scornful, outrageous - that is how wisdom wants us to be: she is a woman and never loves anyone but a warrior.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Image: Kalki Avatar slaying demons by Fridolin Froehlich
Additional Notes: Some representations of the Kalki avatar show a white horse with no rider, suggesting the question: Who is missing? Why is the white horse riderless? Who shall be mounted on this horse?
This imagery is consistent with the challenge facing humanity today: to restore honour to manhood in the fullest possibility of genuine virile power that can be imagined. The haunting image of the riderless horse points exactly to what is missing in the current closing chapter of the world drama: the Kalki avatar is the wrath of Gaia-Sophia in male-gendered expression.
Until that happens, the honour of man is a riderless horse.
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Image: Kalki Avatar slaying demons by Fridolin Froehlich
Additional Notes: Some representations of the Kalki avatar show a white horse with no rider, suggesting the question: Who is missing? Why is the white horse riderless? Who shall be mounted on this horse?
This imagery is consistent with the challenge facing humanity today: to restore honour to manhood in the fullest possibility of genuine virile power that can be imagined. The haunting image of the riderless horse points exactly to what is missing in the current closing chapter of the world drama: the Kalki avatar is the wrath of Gaia-Sophia in male-gendered expression.
Until that happens, the honour of man is a riderless horse.
The Extraordinary In The Ordinary
By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Our acceptance of the ordinary is part of our spiritual maturity and capacity to be of service. It also helps us to avoid the trap of inflation, which can easily catch us when we glimpse a world beyond the ego. It is only too easy to identify with an inner experience. But when we let go of wanting spiritual life to be about us, when we live in the various dimensions without mixing the levels or imposing expectations and desires, this freedom allows us to fully participate in spiritual work.
Present in both the inner and outer world, one learns to serve the world, serve life, serve others without effort. This is a very careful balance. If one takes upon oneself the onerous responsibility of service, then the ego easily gets caught in it; the psyche gets encumbered by it. But being engaged in an ordinary life allows us to be of service without the burden of thinking we can solve the world's or other people's problems, which brings with it self-importance and, worse, spiritual self-importance.
Naqshbandi Sufis have always lived this way, forsaking special robes and working in ordinary jobs, traditionally often as craftsmen – Baha ad-Din Naqshband was a potter, Attar a perfumer. And of course many of the great Zen and Taoist teachers emphasized the ordinary and the dangers of spiritual importance:
Emperor Wu: 'I have built many temples, copied innumerable
Sutras and ordained many monks since becoming Emperor. Therefore, I ask you, what is my merit?'
Bodhidharma: 'None whatsoever!'
Emperor Wu: 'Why no merit?'
Bodhidharma: 'Doing things for merit has an impure motive and will only bear the puny fruit of rebirth.'
Emperor Wu, a little put out: 'What then is the most important principle of Buddhism?'
Bodhidharma: 'Vast emptiness. Nothing sacred.'
Emperor Wu, by now bewildered, and not a little indignant: 'Who is this that stands before me?'
Bodhidharma: 'I do not know.'
If we can allow ourselves to live an ordinary life while also staying awake to the great void at the center of all that is, then we can be this intermediary place between that intoxicating, mystical bliss of oblivion and the wonder of how the Divine creates and reveals Itself in all the forms of life. Our lives are the expression of this bridge – ordinary and extraordinary, all things in their place, everything free to be as it is, and our consciousness, our heart, free to be used as needed.
By Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Our acceptance of the ordinary is part of our spiritual maturity and capacity to be of service. It also helps us to avoid the trap of inflation, which can easily catch us when we glimpse a world beyond the ego. It is only too easy to identify with an inner experience. But when we let go of wanting spiritual life to be about us, when we live in the various dimensions without mixing the levels or imposing expectations and desires, this freedom allows us to fully participate in spiritual work.
Present in both the inner and outer world, one learns to serve the world, serve life, serve others without effort. This is a very careful balance. If one takes upon oneself the onerous responsibility of service, then the ego easily gets caught in it; the psyche gets encumbered by it. But being engaged in an ordinary life allows us to be of service without the burden of thinking we can solve the world's or other people's problems, which brings with it self-importance and, worse, spiritual self-importance.
Naqshbandi Sufis have always lived this way, forsaking special robes and working in ordinary jobs, traditionally often as craftsmen – Baha ad-Din Naqshband was a potter, Attar a perfumer. And of course many of the great Zen and Taoist teachers emphasized the ordinary and the dangers of spiritual importance:
Emperor Wu: 'I have built many temples, copied innumerable
Sutras and ordained many monks since becoming Emperor. Therefore, I ask you, what is my merit?'
Bodhidharma: 'None whatsoever!'
Emperor Wu: 'Why no merit?'
Bodhidharma: 'Doing things for merit has an impure motive and will only bear the puny fruit of rebirth.'
Emperor Wu, a little put out: 'What then is the most important principle of Buddhism?'
Bodhidharma: 'Vast emptiness. Nothing sacred.'
Emperor Wu, by now bewildered, and not a little indignant: 'Who is this that stands before me?'
Bodhidharma: 'I do not know.'
If we can allow ourselves to live an ordinary life while also staying awake to the great void at the center of all that is, then we can be this intermediary place between that intoxicating, mystical bliss of oblivion and the wonder of how the Divine creates and reveals Itself in all the forms of life. Our lives are the expression of this bridge – ordinary and extraordinary, all things in their place, everything free to be as it is, and our consciousness, our heart, free to be used as needed.
Forwarded from Diary of an Underground Ronin
"Nothing beautiful without struggle."
χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά
— Plato, The Republic
χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά
— Plato, The Republic
"Ruland's Lexicon Alchemiae defines meditatio as follows: "The word meditatio is used when a man has an inner dialogue with someone unseen. It may be with God when He is invoked, or with himself, or with his good angel."
The psychologist is familiar with this "inner dialogue"; it is an essential part of the technique for coming to terms with the unconscious." Ruland's definition proves beyond all doubt that when the alchemists speak of meditari they do not mean mere cogitation, but explicitly an inner dialogue and hence a living relationship to the answering voice of the "other" in ourselves, i.e., of the unconscious.
The use of the term "meditation" in the Hermetic dictum "And as all things proceed from the One through the meditation of the One" must therefore be understood in this alchemical sense as a creative dialogue, by means of which things pass from an unconscious potential state to a manifest one.
Thus we read in a treatise of Philalethes: "Above all it is marvellous that our stone, although already perfect and able to impart a perfect tincture, does voluntarily humble itself again and will meditate a new volatility, apart from all manipulation." What is meant by a "meditated volatility" we discover a few lines lower down, where it says: "Of its own accord it will liquefy ... and by God's command become endowed with spirit, which will fly up and take the stone with it."" Again, therefore, to "meditate" means that through a dialogue with God yet more spirit will be infused into the stone, i.e., it will become still more spiritualized, volatilized, or sublimated.
Khunrath says much the same thing: "Therefore study, meditate, sweat, work, cook ... so will a healthful flood be opened to you which comes from the Heart of the Son of the great World, a Water which the Son of the Great World pours forth from his Body and Heart, to be for us a True and Natural Aqua Vitae..."
— C. G. Jung Collected Works Volume 12 Psychology and Alchemy
The psychologist is familiar with this "inner dialogue"; it is an essential part of the technique for coming to terms with the unconscious." Ruland's definition proves beyond all doubt that when the alchemists speak of meditari they do not mean mere cogitation, but explicitly an inner dialogue and hence a living relationship to the answering voice of the "other" in ourselves, i.e., of the unconscious.
The use of the term "meditation" in the Hermetic dictum "And as all things proceed from the One through the meditation of the One" must therefore be understood in this alchemical sense as a creative dialogue, by means of which things pass from an unconscious potential state to a manifest one.
Thus we read in a treatise of Philalethes: "Above all it is marvellous that our stone, although already perfect and able to impart a perfect tincture, does voluntarily humble itself again and will meditate a new volatility, apart from all manipulation." What is meant by a "meditated volatility" we discover a few lines lower down, where it says: "Of its own accord it will liquefy ... and by God's command become endowed with spirit, which will fly up and take the stone with it."" Again, therefore, to "meditate" means that through a dialogue with God yet more spirit will be infused into the stone, i.e., it will become still more spiritualized, volatilized, or sublimated.
Khunrath says much the same thing: "Therefore study, meditate, sweat, work, cook ... so will a healthful flood be opened to you which comes from the Heart of the Son of the great World, a Water which the Son of the Great World pours forth from his Body and Heart, to be for us a True and Natural Aqua Vitae..."
— C. G. Jung Collected Works Volume 12 Psychology and Alchemy
Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to make progress and grow. If this goes on long enough or if the intensity is so great, we may fall into depression. Spiritually, this can be antidoted by taking action to overcome our obstacles and break through our negative habit patterning. It does require making a choice. That choice, to put it simply and starkly, is the choice between life and death. I've found that the spiritual path is the way to become closer to the divine, but in order to do that, we must become better than who we are. We must endeavor with all our heart and all our might to fulfill our potential. Part of that is acknowledging that we do the work, but not by ourselves. If we want to make progress we must also be vulnerable, recognize and acknowledge that we fall short and miss the mark much of the time, and seek guidance and help from those who know how to help and are capable of doing so.
If you're interested to read more about this, I encourage you to subscribe to read my essay on this topic which includes a step by step process by which to start overcoming your obstacles to growth and spiritual progress. It's worked for me and is working for me now, which is why I feel confident in recommending it to you.
If you're interested to read more about this, I encourage you to subscribe to read my essay on this topic which includes a step by step process by which to start overcoming your obstacles to growth and spiritual progress. It's worked for me and is working for me now, which is why I feel confident in recommending it to you.