corroborating post

I posted this back in July:
http://serpentrioarquila.blogspot.com/2011/07/alchemical-meanderings.html#comment-form

I tried to relay the three principles as axis of a cube or three dimensions using the
glyphs of nitre, salt and gold.

Anyway, today I came across this. It does a better job conveying what i wanted to say. :)

http://www.alchemylab.com/quantum2.htm

the art of being human

I've been thinking a lot about what a human being is.
We don't meet many humans anymore - it is always the personality,
the ego, the mask - some adjusted, corrected, PC version of oneself.
Does this hiding and protecting really benefit us?
Surely there is another human in everyone we meet that is just like us.
None of us is that different that our darkness or shadow is not the same
darkness in others. Why hide this sameness and flaunt our other sameness,
the sameness of lies/masks?
There'd be a lot less judgement in the world if we agreed not to censor ourselves.
Once you've seen the pure and simple human being, it becomes very tedious and
effortful to lie, to constantly embellish some edited version of yourself.
It really uses a lot of energy which could be being applied elsewhere.

If you've forgotten what an unmasked human being looks like, you may want to
check out the first part of this documentary on a "wild child" named Genie.
Notice how everyone is drawn to her. IMO, it's because she's a real person with no
pretense and we crave connecting with real people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEnkY2iaKis

A stretching exercise :)

I believe I've written about the upside-down tree and the hanging man before.
In a way, this is related - how upside-down and inside-out and backwards
we have things.

It is a common view, I believe, that one is a spirit and/or soul trapped inside a body.
Is it not more accurate that the body is inside of spirit?

Or, if you prefer, not a consciousness inside a body, but the body is inside consciousness.

How does that feel for you? Big difference, huh.  :)

Another exercise:



Let's call the center spirit/mercury, the radius an individual soul/sulphur and where
the radius touches the circumference we'll call body/salt.

When we withdraw awareness from the manifest circumference and go within to the
center, we can then realise the all:



Your center is the All-center. Mercury is One. Your source is the One source of All.

To be clear, the exercise is to return to the One center and then creep back towards
manifestation as the All, following All radii instead of just your one personal individual radius.

power, strength, virtue...

I think about words alot. I've often thought of making a blog
just for words that i find interesting.

Potent means powerful; consider potential:
po·ten·tial/pəˈtenCHəl/
Adjective: Having or showing the capacity to develop into
something in the future.

Noun: Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and
lead to future success or usefulness.

Dynamis (greek) means power, strength; consider dynamic:
dy·nam·ic/dīˈnamik/
Adjective: (of a process or system) Characterized by constant
change, activity, or progress.

Noun: A force that stimulates change or progress within a system
or process.

That's interesting, no?

And then we have a third form of energy/power in the Emerald Tablet:
"Virtus eius integra est si versa fuerit in terram."
"Its power is whole if it is turned into earth."


If you figure out how these three relate, let me know. :)

Fleeing Mercury and approaching Silence

Trying to capture our fugitive is like trying to approach silence, which is like trying
to make two similar poles of two magnets touch - they just keep repelling.
Our volatile Mercury is diffused throughout all of creation. In concentrating/fixing it
there is a reciprocating volatilization of creation and the simultaneous diffusion of
the alchemist/ego from word into silence.
Consider that silence cannot be approached; the very motion of the approachee
"towards" silence is a disturbance/vibration/sound. Silence/Mercury is what remains
when the subject-object relationship collapses/enfolds/implodes. It is the triumphant/
victorious One; always the "last man standing".
In the same way "new" is never "old". New can never be known; to know it is to
make it old. New cannot be grasped by the mind/knowledge which is always old/
past/accumulated. Why put new wine into old wineskins?
Consider likewise that the Philosophical Mercury is not made manifest by a process
of accumulation, but appears spontaneously, miraculously. The best chemists can think
about how to accomplish this and never know it.

stalking you?

"Australian Aborigines say that the big stories - the stories worth telling and retelling,
the ones in which you may find the meaning of your life - are forever stalking the right
teller, sniffing and tracking like predators."  - Robert Moss, "Dreamgates"



To me, this is a fascinating observation. It inspires me to make myself available for
such "big stories" - the bigger picture, the larger vision, initiation, genius. When your
story finds you, life is wonderful, the spirit is joyful - everything seems to go right.
This "big story", which is you - what some call the higher self, is stalking you like a
bird of prey, or a dove of peace if you prefer :) "Knock, and the door shall be opened."

There are interesting parallels with the Shekinah of Judaism and Kabbalah:
"Every bird nests [shekhinot] with its kind, and man with his like." Talmud Baba Kammah

The Talmud reports that the Shekinah is what caused prophets to prophesy and King
David to compose his Psalms. The Shekinah manifests itself as a form of joy, connected
with prophecy and creativity. - Talmud Pesachim

Shekinah is also the Sabbath bride.

Castaneda's immense contribution

I can't quantify the number of times that my own experiences have been confirmed by Castaneda's
writings, or how well they supplement the systems of others. His amazing ability to describe the
energetic realms is unsurpassed IMO. The lessons have an amazing practicality about them. It is rare
to find such a complete (relatively) system. The books are written with a power that initiates the reader
as a true apprentice. I would encourage everyone to read them. If you think you've read them, read them
again!

information, exformation, transformation

A tip of the hat to my favorite Philosopher, Steven Harrison:

Information is what we know.
Exformation is everything else.
Transformation is the continuous impression of exformation upon information, and its assimilation.

Can you see the relation to the hypercube? Is this not the serpent shedding its skin?
Do you see the application to the crucified serpent?



And this one says the same thing, one circle penetrating another = vesica pisces, fish/mercury/Christos:




"The exformation is always going to be overwhelming. It's always going to be experienced
by this information as fear, because it's always going to be vastly greater than the information.
We could say that fear is a portal to the exformation, the vastness, which is washing down
river and pushing. And what we tend to do, what the thought structure does, is try to cover our
heads and hold back the flow."

"It's always going to be experienced by this information as fear, because it's always going to be
vastly greater than the information":


"We could say that fear is a portal to the exformation, the vastness, which is washing down
river and pushing":