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Initiation between men in ruling
class
Standard initiation series,
astrology, Wilber, Hermeticism levels.
Reincarnation = purgatory.
Dionysian rites as initiation
allegories
>>Authentic
initiation must be a series, because the mind must spend some time, some number
of sessions, working through ideas and sense-of-self feelings while in the
mystic state. Astrotheology reflects
this by the idea of ascending through graded planetary spheres.
>This
reminds me of the 'stations of the cross'.
In the Old
Testament, the governor had to bathe some number of times in the river to be
healed, per the prophet.
A man had
numerous sons, and the last one was blessed to be the chosen king. Here 'sons' = 'mystic-state intiation
sessions'. Jesus was unique among
humans: he was born fully initiated already, enabling him to be both the
firstborn son and lastborn son.
Here is a
curious inherent inconsistency in the use of an always-perfect godman to
represent the normal initiate. Did
Jesus experience rebirth? Could Jesus
experience ego death? Normal humans
start out with original delusion, undergo regeneration, then become
purified.
But if
Jesus was born without original delusion (lacking the delusion of freewill
moral agency), he doesn't fit the initiation pattern -- which is really
logically inconsistent, because his drinking mixed wine and undergoing death
and resurrection is intended to clearly represent the initiation pattern.
So we
patch on the idea that he was *born* without freewill moral agency delusion,
but *took on* normal ignorant sin/error/delusion on the cross so that he too
could participate in the initiation sequence of changing from delusion to
enlightenment. Myth is a leaky
abstraction or imperfect metaphor. If Jesus
was supposed to be an exact model of initiation, he would start out being deluded,
then undergo initiation, before becoming sinless and obedient.
Surprisingly,
the Jesus figure fails to provide a model of a central Christian salvation
event: that of conversion or repentence.
The closest Jesus comes to representing repentence is his prayer in the
garden, to not drink the cup but to accept drinking the cup.
Balaam,
Paul, and Jonah are better models of repentence: they all start out doing the
opposite of blessing God's favored people, but switch and end up blessing
them. Jesus takes advantage of the
Jonah figure, to make himself represent repentance, by saying the only sign he
will give is that of Jonah.
The more
perfect an initiation system is, the closer intiates can come to the simple
ideal of a single, sudden, complete conversion from a deluded to an enlightened
worldmodel. Still, it makes sense to
toggle between tight cognition and loose cognition some number of times,
spending some number of training hours in the loose cognition state, before one
can claim to have used and explored and engaged that part of the mind's
potential functioning.
A
spiritually mature mind has altered-state experience as well as conceptual
understanding of transcendent knowledge, just as a sexually mature person is
justifiably defined as one who not only intellectual knows about that subject,
but has experience in that domain as well.
>>But
if Jesus was born without original delusion (lacking the delusion of freewill
moral agency), he doesn't fit the initiation pattern -- which is really
logically inconsistent, because his drinking mixed wine and undergoing death
and resurrection is intended to clearly represent the initiation pattern.
>even
jesus had to be baptized
That has
been debated, whether he *had* to be baptised.
The theologians have had to do an amusing dance around that one.
Greek
society was patriarchal. We may suppose
that the initiated bearded man gave his own amanita water to the uninitiated
unbearded young man. This may be the
real idea behind the stories of being touched by the Guru and physically
receiving enlightenment from him, and of book knowledge not being sufficient
for enlightenment, but needing "oral teaching" from a guru.
As more
evidence rolls in for the use of entheogens throughout European elite history,
we may suppose that the same personal initiation was used at the highest levels
of the later men's clubs.
-- Michael
James
Arthur wrote ( http://jamesarthur.net/mushroom4.html ):
>>Revealing
the secrets of Entheogens, one of the most closely guarded secrets of
Freemasonry (as well as many other secret societies), is something that can
only be done by a layman (non-member). This is because if you have initiation
at that level you could not discuss it any further. Secret Societies are called
Secret Societies because they keep certain secrets.
>>I
have spoken personally with High Priests and Bishops (Secret Society
Initiates), who simply told me that they could not discuss anything with me
because of their oaths of secrecy. In fact they were so blown away that I knew
the information, that it scared the hell out of them. Entheogens, and
particularly the Amanita muscaria, are a huge secret.
>>The
initiatory rites, into this particular field, are so far up the totem pole of
secret societies and religions that when you find those who know, they really
freak out, that anyone else knows, because it cuts to the deepest recesses of
their self perceived spirituality, and cuts to the center of their most secret
God/Society given indoctrination experiences.
>>They
have this certain look in their eyes, and unless you somehow are perceived as a
threat to them, they invariably have the need to tell you that they do know
what you are talking about (which is likely a violation of oath in itself), but
they cannot discuss it further. This has left me not only feeling
dis-enfranchised but sometimes pretty upset. Which has led to some severe, yet
moderated, chastisement from me.
>>Actually,
I have nothing against any of those initiates that I have spoken with,
personally (including those that knew about it), but secrecy itself is a
problem of high proportional magnitude, in regards to the reason this world is
in the state which it is in.
>>In
my opinion, the oaths and secret combinations are the basis for that which is
fanatical, control oriented and destructive. The secretive vows are one of the
biggest reasons that society has degraded. Supposed truth should be given to
all for open debate. It is in this way, evolution is enhanced instead of inhibited.
The secret societies strive to acquire information, technology, etc., and then
hoard it for themselves.
>>They
then systematically destroy all public remnants of it, so they can keep it
exclusive. This is a major problem for the world; it's like the Christians
burning the libraries of the east all over again (after pillaging what they
wanted) in an attempt to erase the knowledge (and history) from the public
domain forever. This secrecy is an abomination that makes the rest of the world
desolate.
>>Just
as in the case of religion, where the revealing of the truth would relinquish
the churches (and their authorities) of their power over people, so too would
the governments and secret societies lose their power, were the truth to be
revealed, and those formerly oppressed humans would not take it lightly that
their lives have been manipulated through the false morals and dogma of
Fascism.
The number
of mystic sessions is less important than the idea of a finite series of
initiations leading to a completion.
(The series below is reposted.)
The
standard series of initiations proceeds as follows:
1.
Ordinary state. Egoic model is fully
engaged. Transcendent model is
completely unknown.
2. Mystic
state session #1. Egoic model is
available but relatively disengaged.
Transcendent model is partly intuited and constructed, and is relatively
engaged.
3.
Ordinary state. Egoic model is fully
engaged. Transcendent model is
practically completely forgotten.
4. Mystic
state session #2. Egoic model is
available but relatively disengaged.
Transcendent model is increasingly intuited and constructed, and is
relatively engaged.
5.
Ordinary state. Egoic model is nearly
fully engaged, but becomes problematized.
Transcendent model is basically forgotten, recalled in fragments only.
6. Mystic
state session #3. Egoic model is
available but relatively disengaged.
Transcendent model is largely intuited and constructed, and is relatively
engaged. As the mind becomes more
familiar with the control-breakdown vortex, the mind is increasingly (from
session to session) both attracted to its beauty, and increasingly terrified by
its control breakdown threat.
7.
Ordinary state. Egoic model is nearly
fully engaged, but becomes heavily problematized. Transcendent model is recalled in increasingly numerous
fragments.
8. Mystic
state session #4. Egoic model is
available but relatively disengaged.
Transcendent model is largely intuited and constructed, and is
relatively engaged. The mind is heavily
focused on the control-breakdown vortex, but yet again runs away, praying only
for ignorance and obliviousness to it, to restore the known-incorrect egoic
model because it is at least viable and reliable for daily life and practical
control stability.
9.
Ordinary state. Egoic model is nearly
fully engaged, but is thoroughly problematized and seen as dysfunctional. Transcendent model is recalled in
increasingly numerous fragments and the mind is impatient to finally figure it
out and consciously retain it as an available mental model, at least as a
theoretical/rational set of principles, if not as an intense nonordinary mystic
experiential mode carried into daily life.
10. Mystic
state session #5. Egoic model is
available but relatively disengaged.
Transcendent model is almost completely intuited and constructed -- it
is ripe and ready to blossom out from the midst of control-vortex fear. The transcendent model is relatively
engaged. The mind is tired of running
away from the truth about its dynamic control nature. The mind finally is willing to sacrificially destroy, for once
and all, the egoic model. This willingness
leads to understanding the great danger of control instability and the meaning
of myth-religion, which leads to acknowledgement (true prayer) and immediate
resumption of practical controllership.
The transcendent model is now fully formed and rationally understood.
11.
Ordinary state. Egoic model is nearly
fully engaged in practice in day to day life, but is now recognized
theoretically as a convenient illusion. Transcendent model is fully recalled in
principle as a theoretical intellectual mental worldmodel, although it is not
*experientially* present. In normal fully enlightened minds, the transcendent
model is present intellectually but not experientially.
___________________________
This
system enables making good sense of Wilber's zillion-level system compared to
my extremely simplified 2- or 3-level system of switching from the egoic to
transcendent mental worldmodel. Wilber
takes the levels too literally; what matters and what's being actually
expressed in the systems he combines is the general idea of a series of mystic
sessions, integrated with study and reflection, leading to a culmination and
milestone of transformation.
His own
increasing need to add ever more corrective epicycles to his overcomplicated
and literalist system shows he puts a questionable definiteness on the levels,
often oversystematizing them. He's not
even consistent at all about where so-called "mythic thinking" fits
in. Wilber's model looks more and more
ratty and filled with weaknesses.
His
systematization of collective psychospiritual evolution is highly doubtful and
arbitrary, supported by such moves as portraying the Greeks as even worse dolts
than moderns, in the area Greeks excelled in, and making a special lone
exception for Mr. Historical Jesus -- who was actually the product of the best
yet typical and definitive Greek thinking.
You could
read the entire Wilber corpus and never realize that such a thing as the
Mystery Religions existed -- he has to omit it, to support his eastern-based
model. "West" for Wilber
means modern developmental psychology.
His
combination of "east and west" is not a combination of eastern
religious history and western religious history, but rather, adding western
modern developmental psychology and eastern religious theory. He covers everything but the most key
approaches that break his system: mystery-religions and Western esotericism.
New Age
'reincarnation' is opposite of eastern reincarnation. New Age seeks reincarnation; eastern seeks to end reincarnation,
meaning actually, seeking to end the return of egoic thinking after a mystic
altered state session.
It takes
multiple tries -- that fact is reflected in the creation of the
"ladder" and "hierarchy"/"stages" ideas, which
then end up in Wilber's hypersystematized model of levels of consciousness,
which ought to be portrayed instead as increasing grasp of transcendent
thinking, increased by each satori.
Reincarnation is functionally identical with purgatory -- burning off
"mortality"/"corruptibility" via a series of mystic-state
sessions.
The main
idea and theme in Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and related Western
esoteric currents, is ascent past the low, fast-moving planets, then past the
slow-moving planets, then past the sphere of the fixed stars. This is all allegory for phenomena
experienced during any particular mystic altered state session and during a
series of sessions. There are
variations of interpretation and assigning values, but the essential concern is
the same: awakening to and transcending cosmic determinism.
The sphere
of the fixed stars represents cosmic determinism, such as the awareness of
timeless cosmic determinism. That
sphere is also the cosmic egg or cosmic rock from which Mithras is born out of;
his penetration is like that of the woodcut of the pilgrim poking his head past
the sphere of fixed stars.
Such
esotericism and time-slowing is actually about experiencing and eventually in
some sense transcending cosmic determinism, transcending the timeless frozen
block universe that is ruled by Fate/Necessity.
In the
school of Alchemy, the equivalent idea is that of dissolving and coagulating
multiple times, leading to pure refinement of the mind. Entering the mystic altered state is
dissolving (loose cognitive associations), while the default state of cognition
is that of coagulation -- tight cognitive binding of mental construct
association matrixes.
So the
following are functionally equivalent
Christianity
-- Purgatory
Alchemy
-- Dissolve and coagulate to refine
Isis --
burning off the mortality (perishability) of the king's son
Buddhism
& gnosticism -- Ending reincarnation
Hermeticism
& gnosticism -- ascending through the slowing-down planetary spheres &
past the fixed stars
The
Dionysian rites depicted in the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii.
http://jcccnet.johnco.cc.ks.us/~jjackson/villa.html
Young
initiate girl = Mary Magdalene & clueless apostles
kykeon =
'mixed wine' at the Last Supper
Gorgon
corpse-decay mask = death on the cross
Initiated
mature woman = Virgin Mary & apostles who now understand Jesus/kingdom
These are
the four important elements. The
initiate is unenlightened, drinks the elixir, experiences death of the
childself worldmodel, and gains understanding of transcendent
self-knowledge. The same pattern can be
found in the symposium and seder -- it is the standard sequence of
initiation. There are many ways of
metaphorically allegorizing The Initiation Sequence.
Write
'mixed wine', never "wine", to prevent people from picturing today's
wine. Also, it was common to portray
godmen as beardless prior to the sacred drinking, and bearded afterwards --
paralelling the girl initiate contrasted with the mature woman, and
parallelling the relation between Mary Magdalene and Virgin Mary.
A
beardless youth enters the labyrinth and a bearded man emerges -- on this
metaphor, it seems that the beardless Dionysus is the pre-initiation person,
and the bearded silenus is the post-initiation person, effectively the mature
Dionysus.
Burton
Mack's socio-political theory is correct as far as it goes, but lacks awareness
of the mystic-experiencing allegory that was essential and central to all the
religion of the era.
The rites
of Dionysus, the rites of Mithras, the rites of Attis, the rites of Osiris, the
Last Supper rites of Jesus, the rite of the Greek symposium banquet, the Exodus
rite of the Jewish seder -- it's all the same rite in essence. The youth drinks the sacred drink (mixed
wine), dies, and the adult results.
This is the rock-bottom isomorphism underlying the claim that the pagan
rites were a pre-imitation of the Christian rite.
All that
remains in the comparative analysis of these rites is details about the
variations of allegorical and ritual expression of this basic initiation
sequence.
This
isomorphism is no stretch at all; it's trivially simple and straightforward. The basic pattern is youth -> mixed wine
-> adult. The Christian rite maps
directly to that basic pattern, with additional elaboration. The Dionysus rite maps directly to that
basic pattern, with additional elaboration.
Same with all the other initiation religions of that era, including
symposium and seder.
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