Greetings and Welcome!
I've created this blog to communicate the experience of Oneness and Connectedness employing views from science and metaphysics, with an emphasis on Alchemy, but also including Non-duality, Carlos Castaneda, Qabala, Gurdjieff, Quantum physics, Tao, Dreamtime, Krishnamurti, Hermeticism, Raja Yoga, Gnosticism, Ramtha and more. At the bottom of the page, you'll find related links to websites and videos. Please feel free to comment or contact me.

With much love, Serpentrio Arquila

Friday, January 28, 2011

More on Ouroboros

What I have called the Ouroboros is called the electromagnetic spectrum by science, the Wheel of Time
and the Eagle's emanations by Castaneda, the Rainbow Serpent by Australian aborigines, etc.

When I have described it, it's easier to start from the very small and see how things dream larger
communities together which then become new levels of dreaming/consciousness/awareness.
But this direction shows how we are dreamed.

I must emphasize that when we wake up and see the connectedness and our place in it as human beings
specifically, but as the whole spectrum as well - that all these tiny things exist within you - then you
can be a realized dreamer. You can change the unconscious direction of the flow of the river,
the arrow of time. You can dream your DNA and put to use the so-called "junk" DNA. This is how we heal.
By consciously dreaming with the unconscious (below your conscious awareness) autonomic nervous system, a part of which is called the sympathetic nervous system (Exactly! Sympathy. Dreaming) and another part called the enteric nervous system: http://www.psyking.net/id36.htm.
Do you see the relation - the gut, the dan tien, Castaneda's area of the will, sympathy, dreaming...

So, we are being dreamed, and we are also the dreamer, and we are the dream.
Wise Hermes made a point to say "As above so below, as below so above." It is a two way street:

That which is below is like that which is above, that which is above is like that which is below, to do the miracles of one only thing. And as all things have been arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.

But until we see the Oneness, the traffic goes mostly one way - we are being dreamt by our genes
and our environment. You can wait for your genes to "adapt", or you can be an adept at dreaming. :)

Castaneda has some applicable teachings:

"When I talk about time, I am not referring to something which is measured by the movement of a clock. Time is the essence of attention; the Eagle's emanations are made out of time; and properly, when one enters into any aspect of the other self, one is becoming acquainted with time.
The wheel of time is like a state of heightened awareness which is part of the other self, as the left side awareness is part of the self of everyday life. It can physically be described as a tunnel of infinite length and width; a tunnel with reflective furrows. Every furrow is infinite, and there are infinite numbers of them. Living creatures are compulsorily made, by the force of life, to gaze into one furrow. To gaze into it means to be trapped by it, to live that furrow.
Will belongs to the wheel of time. It is something like the runner of a vine, or an intangible tentacle which all of us possess. A warrior's final aim is to learn to focus it on the wheel of time in order to make it turn. Warriors who have succeeded in turning the wheel of time can gaze into any furrow and draw from it whatever they desire. To be trapped compulsorily in one furrow of time entails seeing the images of that furrow only as they recede. To be free from the spellbinding force of those grooves means that one can look in either direction, as images recede or as they approach."



Consider also influence and effluence. As sleepers, we are influences by the stars, the fates,
the Matrix, other sleepers... everything! Because we are at the bottom rung of Jacob's ladder - the EM spectrum, and "higher" frequencies rule "lower" ones as a rule. This what Paracelsus
points to when he says "a strong will subdues a weaker will." The strongest force known to 
science is called the strong force. It holds the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus
of an atom. The weakest force is gravity which acts on galaxies, planets, holds objects to 
the earth. So you can see we are speaking about opposite ends of the spectrum:






The strong subdues the weak. The extremely small dream the large. This is the the rule for unawakened beings, but not the entire truth. When we see the Oneness and can change the direction of the arrow of time, we can dream the gods, the stars, the fates, the Kingdom of Heaven! This relates to Gnostic freedom from heimarmene.



Friday, January 21, 2011

more on mirror awareness

Mirror shares the same root as miracle:
mid-12c., from O.Fr. miracle, from L. miraculum "object of wonder" (in Church L., "marvelous event caused by God"), from mirari "to wonder at," from mirus "wonderful," from*smeiros, from PIE *(s)mei- "to smile, be astonished" (cf. Skt. smerah "smiling," Gk. meidan "to smile," O.C.S. smejo "to laugh;" see smile).

Other words from this root are mire, admire, mirabile, mirage, mirth...

Reflect:
early 15c., "to divert, to turn aside, deflect," from O.Fr. reflecter (14c.), from L. reflectere (see reflection). Of mirrors or polished surfaces, to shine back light rays or images, 1520s; meaning "to turn one's thoughts back on" is c.1600. 

An astute person might notice that our ability to reflect has become a reflex; i.e. automatic, unconscious.

Recall the chapter "Breaking the Mirror of Self-reflection" in Power of Silence by Castaneda.
" A sorcerers' increased energy, derived from the curtailment of their self-reflection, allows 
their senses a greater range of perception. The only worthwhile course of action, whether for 
sorcerers or average men, is to restrict our involvement with our self-image. What a nagual 
aims at with his apprentices is the shattering of their mirror of self-reflection.

Each of us has a different degree of attachment to his self-reflection. And that attachment is 
felt as need. It is possible for sorcerers, or average men, to need no one, to get peace, 
harmony, laughter, knowledge, directly from the spirit--to need no intermediaries. For you 
and for me, its different. I'm your intermediary and my teacher was mine. Intermediaries, 
besides providing a minimal chance--the awareness of intent --help shatter peoples mirrors 
of self-reflection."


I have discussed the importance of words and the green language. Perhaps one can now imagine that
those who have had knowledge of the mirror nature of the Universe have encoded that knowledge in
language. Ancient languages were often written from right to left. Da Vinci used mirror writing.
Others hid words or phrases in words that can be read differently backwards (anadrome) or words read
the same forwards or backwards (palindromes) and words read the same upside-down (ambigrams)...



Infinity is the mirror/reflection of Nothing/the Void

8/infinity = 0 and its reflection 0


The right side of your body is connected to the left side of your brain, and vice-versa.
Do you think some wires got crossed, or do you see a mirror involved, a dimensional twist?







































This is a dissection of the brain stem, the mediator between brain and body.
Do you see the grid/net marked "Decussation of superior peduncle" and the second
Decussation below it? And between them runs the RAS - the reticular activating system,
which is responsible for sleep-wake transitions.
Can you imagine how the two grids/nets act as filters for the above and below; and how
our somatic mind and our thinking mind contribute different qualities to the dream?

See my related post on "the net" at Alchemy Forums:
http://forum.alchemyforums.com/showthread.php?1987-The-net&p=12911#post12911

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Communication - Part 4

Communication is happening all the time, whether you intend it or not.
Being aware of what is being communicated determines the quality of life.
We are communicating with Spirit all the time - two ways (sending and receiving) - we are constantly
announcing to Spirit who we are (by our actions) and Spirit is constantly affirming who we say we are.
(I recall a catchy phrase often used by some extra-terrestrial 'walk-ins' - "The Universe constantly
rearranges Itself to accommodate your picture of reality.")
So if you don't like what you see, what the Universe is telling you, you have to look at what you
are telling the Universe.

We are communicating with the air around us constantly, inhaling and exhaling. Do you know how to
interpret this communication? Do you know how to enhance it?

We are receiving impulses through the 5 senses almost constantly, but we almost never listen, not
to mention a 6th sense.

When we eat food, do we remember to savor? Do you talk with the spirit of the cocoa plant
when you take a bite of chocolate? What more does the coffee bean have to tell? Do you listen
to the nicotiana spirit as you take your cigarette break? Are you even aware that communication
is happening? Do you realise what more can be known when you truly enter communion with life?

What isn't communication? When does this not apply?
Communication is the acknowledgement of Oneness in our dream of separation.
It is a Holy ceremony/sacrament.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Ouroboros as described by Castaneda

I have no arguments with this description - it is just as I experience the Ouroboros:

"For the shamans of ancient Mexico, time was something like a thought; a thought thought by something unrealizable in its magnitude. The logical argument for them was that man, being part of that thought which was thought by forces inconceivable to his mentality, still retained a small percentage of that thought; a percentage which under certain circumstances of extraordinary discipline could be redeemed. 
Space was, for those shamans, an abstract realm of activity. They called it infinity, and referred to it as the sum total of all the endeavors of living creatures. Space was, for them, more accessible, something almost down-to-earth. It was as if they had a bigger percentage in the abstract formulation of space. According to the versions given by don Juan, the shamans of ancient Mexico never regarded time and space as obscure abstracts the way we do. For them, both time and space, although incomprehensible in their formulations, were an integral part of man. 
Those shamans had another cognitive unit called the wheel of time. The way they explained the wheel of time was to say that time was like a tunnel of infinite length and width, a tunnel with reflective furrows. Every furrow was infinite, and there were infinite numbers of them. Living creatures were compulsorily made, by the force of life, to gaze into one furrow. To gaze into one furrow alone meant to be trapped by it; to live that furrow. 
A warrior's final aim is to focus, through an act of profound discipline, his unwavering attention on the wheel of time in order to make it turn. Warriors who have succeeded in turning the wheel of time can gaze into any furrow and draw from it whatever they desire. To be free from the spellbinding force of gazing into only one of those furrows means that warriors can look in either direction: as time retreats or as it advances on them. 
Viewed in this manner, the wheel of time is an overpowering influence which reaches through the life of the warrior and beyond, as is the case with the quotations of this book. They seem to be strung together by a coil that has a life of its own. That coil, explained by the cognition of shamans, is the wheel of time."

Friday, January 7, 2011

Grace

I recently said, "There is a moment where imagination becomes vision, where thinking becomes seeing, where binary mind becomes analogical, and the dream takes on a life of its own. Depending on how much one knows Oneness, this can be seen as a communication between two, or one."


What is that moment? It is a moment that "you" can't do, can't make happen.
It's directly related the uncertainty principle. :)
You can increase the odds of it happening, but when, and whether, it happens, "you" are not the doer.


We are talking about Grace. 
May I define that moment as the meeting place or bridal chamber of the finite and the infinite,
the microcosm and the macrocosm, influence and effluence.


To "increase the odds" is a matter of alignment. As far as doing goes, we can only prepare the vessel/field to be a fit receiver for that which we desire to attract.
Then we have to not-do. 
If "you" sit in front of the Christ-mass-Tree all night waiting for "Santa", you'll end up with no gifts. :) 
You can't keep digging up the seed to see if it is sprouting. 
The caterpillar has to surrender/die for the butterfly to be born.


You have to allow Grace. 
It's a mysterious relationship - difficult to describe.


see my post on the two attentions
http://serpentrioarquila.blogspot.com/2010/12/two-attentions.html



From the Father to his son...

I notice this phrase, not only in alchemy but in many mystical traditions.
Like one interpretation of Kabbalah is "to receive".
One gets the idea that these are things past on by word of mouth, from a
father to his son, from a master to his disciple, a teacher to student.
Sometimes it is emphasized that these things are never written down.

Today when I saw this phrase in the title of an alchemical tract, I saw something new.
I usually interpreted it as the teacher's writing to be read by the student.
But today the student and teacher were one. That is, I was looking at the recorded
[record (v.) - early 13c., "to get by heart," from O.Fr. recorder "repeat, recite, report," from L. recordari "remember, call to mind," from re- "restore" (see re-) + cor (gen. cordis) "heart" (as the metaphoric seat of memory, cf. learn by heart); see heart. Meaning "set down in writing" first attested c.1300; that of "put sound or pictures on disks, tape, etc." is from 1892.]
event or communication between a man and his God.

In other words, this phrase and the reception alluded to are not necessarily describing the communication
between two human beings, but often between God and self/heart, the Holy Guardian Angel and man, or
whatever words you choose to describe your connection with Divinity, the One Mind, etc...

This also relates to the practice of an initiate to ascribe or author his own work under the name of some
divinity, such as Hermes, Jesus, etc. They are having a vision, experiencing a connection, and being the
receiver and transmitter of the message simultaneously.

I do this myself sometimes. A simple form in which this occurs is that I'll be imagining writing a blog to
share with you guys, or having a conversation with a friend, or sometimes sitting in an audience of a
Mystery School, or talking with an Initiate, or meeting in Invisible College...
There is a moment where imagination becomes vision, where thinking becomes seeing, where binary mind
becomes analogical, and the dream takes on a life of its own. Depending on how much one knows Oneness,
this can be seen as a communication between two, or one. For me, more and more I see the Oneness - that
I am teaching myself - connecting to the Infinite, accessing subconscious DNA memory, etc... Sometimes
I am floored/amazed by my knowledge. I feel I'm such a different person than I used to be - so much has
changed, and yet so little.

Here's a thought/vision that may connect you to Oneness:
A tree lets fall many seeds and these become new trees - NEW but not SEPARATE.
The mind imagines separation. Well, it's separate and it isn't. I'll leave it at that.
In the same way, if you are alive today, which you are if you're reading this, you are the seedlings of
generations. Your DNA knows what everyone before you knew. And not only linearly - not limited to
your family tree, which alone is IMMENSE. But DNA is plants and animals too. This is why you can become
a tree or a crow or whatever, shamanically.

So your personal knowledge is however large or small...
Your family tree is larger...
Organic life is larger still...
And the Oneness goes even further - DNA is made of molecules, atoms, light...
Light is information. All these stages of manifestation are information. You can access it because IT IS YOU.
You are a manifestation of Ouroboros, One the All.
A specific manifestation, but also generically and wholistically unspecified,
depending on your focus/Intent/emphasis/identity/dreaming.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Communication - Part 3 merges with Dreaming - Part 2

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/whorf.html

I hope you had time to read the above link page.
So, as you can see, our vocabulary is inextricably combined with our dreaming reality.

Consider:
1. John 1:1 - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
2. Genesis 2:19 - "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."
3. Mark 16:17 - "These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues..."
4. Green language/the Language of the Birds, hieroglyphics, mathematics is a language, geometry...
5. Why did people like Paracelsus, Gurdjieff, Rabelais, Lewis Carroll, Jonathan Swift, etc... invent
words instead of using ones we are already familiar with?
6. "The idea that language is a necessary component of subjective consciousness and more abstract forms of thinking has been gaining acceptance in recent years, with proponents such as Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett, William H. Calvin, Merlin Donald, John Limber, Howard Margolis, Peter Carruthers, and Jose Luis Bermudez."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)
7. "By cognition, it is meant the processes responsible for the awareness of everyday life, processes which
include memory, experience, perception, and the expert use of any given syntax."
http://books.google.com/books?id=_3vfmEwoO1AC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&dq=castaneda+syntax&source=bl&ots=Bi3AC-ufhT&sig=Zs-qiqU7dob8fQaGlANmac9sRAQ&hl=en&ei=YmMkTaK5OIK6sAPR3_2WAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false
8. Heka
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/ancient_egypt/heka_-_magic_or_meaningful_speech.asp
9. Gestalt - A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic entities that creates a unified concept, configuration or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts (of a character, personality, or being).
10. NLP - "Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a name that encompasses the three most influential components involved in producing human experience: neurology, language and programming. The neurological system regulates how our bodies function, language determines how we interface and communicate with other people and our programming determines the kinds of models of the world we create. Neuro-Linguistic Programming describes the fundamental dynamics between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic) and how their interplay effects our body and behavior (programming)."
In the practice of NLP, you become aware of a persons language and how it relates to their
mode of apprehending the world - whether they are predominantly visual, auditory or kinesthetic. You can then match their mode in order to communicate better and create rapport. There's a lot of things to be gleaned from NLP - too much to say here.


I could go on, but my point is to bring your attention to the the connection between the way we think, 
the words we use and the reality we experience. You've probably noticed that the more you evolve the 
more aware you become and this awareness extends to the words you choose to represent your self and 
your ideas. Our level of intimacy with ourselves and others grows reciprocally and adjacent to our ability 
to communicate (Mercury).