Post by david on Oct 18, 2020 16:35:36 GMT
Politics has nothing to do with mysticism, so every mystic tells us. So does every politician. Yet if we are trying to bring ourselves to perfection we must want to help others on the way and the best way to help the most people is to bring as many spiritual influences into the world as possible. Besides, why should the positions of greatest power be reserved for the least wise?
The ultimate end is that every single created being should be in a state of perfection. This is done by reflecting a perfect idea in harmony with every other idea and governing a
perfect archetypal activity which unfolds into perfect harmony with every other activity. Each stage in the process of Creation has its own idea so that the whole of Creation unfolds harmoniously.
This is reflected spontaneously into nature, the temple not made with hands. The earth is the potential from which all things come. Vegetation represents the first stage of transformation, grazing animals the second. Without grazing animals the increased quantity of dead vegetation each year would increase the amount of decay in the world. Predators are the third stage. They increase the level of intelligence and energy necessary as well as checking the destruction of vegetation. It may seem cruel but we are on a very low and impure level of manifestation so there is bound to be suffering. Each animal and plant represents a different idea acting out a different activity.
Humans seem to mess things up but it must be remembered that the largest vegetarian animals have no natural predators.
Only humans are not curbed by another species. Human abilities make them the final controlling influence. The least disruptive way is to live by hunting but that requires a very low
population density. Population increase makes it necessary to make an organized and intensive use of resources and we have here a popular misconception. It was farmers and not merchants who created property values and the organized state. Property is an unstable thing to a merchant. All the artificialities of our inhuman society come quite simply from population. They cannot be solved by philosophies of personal freedom which actually increase the birth rate.
What makes humans different is intelligence and this is the quality of the human archetype. The human part in Creation is knowing and humans are able to know every animal, vegetable and mineral state. This enables a human to act like an animal or with them but it is wrong to cease to be human in order to do so. Human activity can alter the landscape and the reason for this is so that the landscape can more purely reflect its archetypal nature. This can only be done by knowledge of archetypal states so every human activity must be pursued as a
contemplative activity with the material benefit, however necessary, a by product.
There are two reasons for acting on the earth. One is to create a garden and the other is to farm. The purpose of a garden is to create forms which reflect light. A flower is the final stage of a plant. They are always delicate, circular and vividly coloured. The delicacy represents the state of Psyche and care should be taken to distinguish Psyche from psyches. Psyche is the boundary between Spirit and matter which gives all things their form and beauty. It should never be forgotten that it is also the name of a very holy Person Who governs these forms. A
psyche is our own particular existence on the level of Psyche and is the source of the conscious mind.
If we were not so degenerate we would be able to live by eating the light reflected by flowers but being as we are we have to adapt to a denser level. Vegetables are really the same
principle but manifested into a deeper level of substance. It is because of the inner weakness of our souls we need to gain substance at a very dense and inert level. Meat is a more active form of the same thing which may upset some people. I realize that vegetarians are trying very hard to do what is morally correct but you have to consider the whole picture. Animals have more than two offspring per generation so if they are not eaten they starve. Crop farming also causes more soil erosion than livestock farming.
A farm really represents the same symbolism as the garden but on a lower level. Attached to each is the house. Anything manufactured is made by conforming substance to a
particular form. The form of the house is meant to give protection which is the same archetypal function as the iron hoop on the rim of a cartwheel which protects the rim from wear. All created things have a tendency to dissolve back into the formless potential from which they were created. The house is the centre of the activity of the family and the hearth fire as the source of warmth and nourishment is the solar centre reflected into the manifest world. A contemplative family should cook over the hearth fire.
Spiritual philosophy does not lend itself to egalitarian politics. All things are governed from a centre and human authority is a manifestation of the Divine intellect. All things are governed by knowledge. It is a fact that we cannot do something without knowing how to do it or even make a move without a conscious decision.
One of the principles that the Greek playwright Aristophanes parodied without understanding is Meton's measuring of the city in The Birds. Aristophanes is often mistranslated
because the translators want to conceal his true motives but the Greek makes it clear. He puns on the word astu meaning town and aster meaning star and describes streets as rays of light. The squaring of the circle is about the relationship between the solar circle and the manifest square. The combination of the two represents the conforming of substance to Spirit bringing us back to the symbology of the wheel. We can see from this how meditation on simple symbols can help us understand the complicated problems of life. True spiritual philosophy should not make us
unworldly but better able to cope with worldly matters.
The streets are rays leading to and from the centre which illustrates the relationship between the symbolism of the wheel and the symbolism of archery. Cities are centres of industry which is about the creation of forms necessary for life. The containing strength of the walls represent the womb from which all things are generated. Every house is, in fact, an extension of the womb.
The intersection of the streets creates choices. Every junction creates a centre containing more than one possibility. By moving from one choice to another you can reach any point in the city. The network of ways and choices creates a reflection of the primordial intellect impressed into matter. The same symbolism is reflected into the spider's web over which the spider alone can move freely. There is something of a mystery here.
Our movement through life is a series of choices all of which are made necessary by fate. The spider, which alone of all creatures can hunt without moving, is in harmony with
fate. Fate is the cause of all our happiness and unhappiness which is the object of our choices. Without fate we would have no life or death. The spider therefore weaves the world.
Choice implies a distinction between good and bad and when applied to the
whole creates morality which is based on the principle that there are correct and incorrect actions. The ordered state with its legislators and law courts is not an artificiality but the manifestation of an archetypal state. People have tried to rebel against the state on the grounds that there should be no constraints or distinctions but rebellion implies a change from an undesirable to a desirable condition which requires distinction. Spontaneous action
requires that action be preferable to non-action which is a contradiction. Nobody has succeeded in achieving spontaneity because they have to choose spontaneity first. You cannot achieve spiritual development by overcoming the discriminating mind because the discriminating mind is the reason why you want spiritual development. How did the Zen Masters get into the monastery?
Philosophies of change and action, of which revolutionary philosophy is one, must recognize moral purpose. The whole point of contemplative action is that your act does not
just produce its objective by direct material application but also has an invocational effect. Moral correctness is a necessary part of this effect in order that the action reflects an absolute truth. Revolutionaries are fighting upwards and therefore must be humble. The revolutionary philosophy popularised in the late '60's was based heavily on contempt for weakness.
The purpose of all this is to create the mesocosm, the intermediate state
between the microcosm and the macrocosm. When this is achieved the material world will then as far as possible reflect the spiritual state and have an effect on the consciousness of every individual. Daily work and entertainment will become spiritual practices. This is an important objective and every small step made by each individual will help to make the world purer.
May She be with you,
David.