Post by david on Oct 19, 2020 17:09:43 GMT
Dear friends,
At the heart of each thing is the truth of that thing and none shall know the truth of any thing without knowing its heart and none shall find the way to the heart without knowing the truth.
How, then, can we find the truth? Is there a way we can just know, that we can, as many people tell me, just suspend analysis and the deepest truths will be known? They tell me we have gone too close to the rational mind and we must go away from it to find the deeper truths of intuition. All Pagans want to be magicians and all magicians want to be psychic and that means they want to know things that are not logically derived. It seems that those who follow the rational path must give that up and you must wonder if I, with my rationalist writings, am capable of non-logical knowledge. Well, I know exactly what you are doing at this moment. You are reading this message. How is that for non-logical proof of intuition?
This dilemma has not always seemed so obvious. In Plato's dialogue Meno Socrates questions an uneducated slave boy and the boy works out for himself one of Euclid's theorems. Socrates, after this demonstration of the boy's inherent logic, declares this proof that the boy contained knowledge within him that must have come from a previous existence. He used the boy's logic to prove that the boy possessed intuition. To Plato the two things were the same and it was taken for granted. It is this, and not intuition itself, which we have lost.
They say the two things are different and if you use one you destroy the other and that no-one can use both intuition and logic. But, you see, some people can use intuition and some people can use logic and that means they are both in the world. If we aspire to know all that it is in the world and beyond we must know both intuition and logic.
Intuitively we know that logic is true. A child that has just learnt to talk begins to question and has faith that all questions can be answered. We instinctively believe that all that is unknown can be explained and when we cannot explain we are drawn by the desire to know. There is nothing so irrational as reason.
If intuition exists it can therefore be explained. To know without knowing why we know means that we know something that cannot be apprehended by the conscious mind but which the conscious mind must be sensitive to. This means that there is something which is beyond the mind but which is of the nature of the mind. That means that there is something which is of the nature of the mind which the mind does not know.
The problem is that the mind does not know the whole of the mind. The rational consciousness does not comprehend the whole of reason. It is an imperfect faculty and that is why some turn to intuition. But, you see, intuition is knowing without knowing the reason for knowing and is therefore imperfect. I doubt it goes deeper.
To know something requires that what is known impinges on the consciousness in some way. If we are seeking knowledge of the highest level of existence there must be some way in which the mind is able to gain a rapport with the highest level. The argument is that the mind cannot examine the highest level logically because the mind is not of the nature of this level. If this was true the mind would not be able to perceive it intuitively either.
All spiritual philosophy must be based on the assumption that we are beings of a spiritual nature. If this was not true, if we were wholly material in our being, then no spiritual
attainment would be possible by any means whatsoever. Intuition is possible by means of a direct rapport in the same way that a voice on the radio is a replica of a voice in a studio. Spiritual archetypes are impressed onto the passive support of matter so as to create a lower
reflection. If our perception was pure we would be able to see archetypal states clearly. I know it was Jung who coined the term archetype but he did take it from Greek and ought to have
conformed to the usage of the Greek language. Arche means both rule and beginning and typos means an impressed pattern. This is nothing to do with the unconscious mind but requires a state of pure consciousness which sees all things in their pure form.
Reason is a deriving of the unknown from the known. What we know forms into a pattern pointing to further knowledge. The pattern is created by the nature of things and the
more things resemble their true nature the more harmoniously they inter-relate which makes the progression from one state to another easier to perceive. It is of the nature of a seed that it becomes a plant and of a bud that it becomes a flower and if you know the nature of these things you know why they change in this way. As you become more spiritually advanced logic should become easier and not harder. By reasoning from the known to the unknown we are
following the pattern of archetypal states and creating a mental reflection of higher realities. It should make these realities easier to perceive. There is no conflict between intuition and reason. At the highest level the two are one and as we practise one we approach the other.
Intuition can be so subtle that its effects are not noticed. Astrology seems a purely intellectual thing without any psychic abilities playing a part but I have found that I cannot
interpret a chart set up using a calculator or by someone else. Apparently, all that arithmetic, though it is a purely mental thing, sensitises the mind to the planetary influences and creates an intuitional flow into the logic of our interpretation.
The most intuitional thing I know is the Tarot but the reading must take a logical form because it relates to a situation which is governed by logic. Now we find the trouble with intuition when we compare the Tarot with more objective methods. I once did two Tarot readings in succession and the same cards came up with the same feel to them. I could not accept that the interpretation was the same and kept trying to change the feel into a different one. In the end I gave up the reading. Now when we are doing arithmetic and the same figures come up it is easy for us to check and know for certain it is a coincidence. With the Tarot there is always the suspicion that you are influencing the reading.
Intuition can be influenced and we really need something to check it against. The problem is that those who advocate intuition all want us to stop thinking in order to do it but
we seem to do everything as a means of overcoming thought these days. We use art to overcome thought, love to overcome thought, action to overcome thought, non-action to overcome thought and spiritual development to overcome thought. There have been spiritual
teachings known in the West since ancient times and by and large people have taken no notice of them but as soon as we discover one that is based on not thinking we all rush to create a
spiritual revolution.
The problem is that those who want to overcome thought also want to overcome introspection. They believe in spontaneity and letting go but this is a contradiction because
self control and analysis are spontaneous reactions. When we are startled by something we freeze and look at it. If it is unusual we try to work out what it is. We can never overcome that part of our nature. Spontaneity is an acting from the surface which makes us easily controlled by externals. We cannot distinguish between what comes from within and what comes from without.
We have to go deep within ourselves and discover what is truly ourselves. There is a reason why we want certain things and like certain things. There is a reason why our secret fantasies take a certain form and this reason is close to our true nature. Our true, archetypal nature manifests in the form of fantasies which are the result of a longing for a certain state of being but we have to distinguish between our own desires and those we have picked up from influences. Popular psychology has created the belief that if a desire is repressed it turns into a
different desire but I think it will always be the same desire. Examine the beginning of each obsession and remember how each one began and what persists. Remember that our character was not created by the events of this life but previous ones on different levels of existence where different things were possible. The truest will be what goes deepest and what persists longest.
Doing this is not just a form of psychotherapy. The ultimate purpose of your striving is to become one with your true self which is something you cannot change because it is an
eternal state and an aspect of Creation. Your separation from it is the cause of your unhappiness but it is also a part of the world chasm which separates the manifest world from the spiritual world. When you heal yourself you heal a part of this chasm and help to bring all manifest existence to its true nature. You also help to reflect an aspect of Creation into the manifest world and help spiritual influences flow into worldly events. This is why it is important not to follow fashions which come from the world, including fashions which disdain fashion, or uncritically follow conventional ideas which take you away from your true nature. It is also important to have the courage to withstand being labelled a crank because the spiritual world is not governed by the limitations of the material world and what is impossible here is possible there.
Your compulsions to act and think in a certain way should be examined and where you have been governed by fashion, even when you have proclaimed it from a pedestal, have the courage to disown it and seek your true nature and when you have the truth go towards it.
May She be with you,
David.
At the heart of each thing is the truth of that thing and none shall know the truth of any thing without knowing its heart and none shall find the way to the heart without knowing the truth.
How, then, can we find the truth? Is there a way we can just know, that we can, as many people tell me, just suspend analysis and the deepest truths will be known? They tell me we have gone too close to the rational mind and we must go away from it to find the deeper truths of intuition. All Pagans want to be magicians and all magicians want to be psychic and that means they want to know things that are not logically derived. It seems that those who follow the rational path must give that up and you must wonder if I, with my rationalist writings, am capable of non-logical knowledge. Well, I know exactly what you are doing at this moment. You are reading this message. How is that for non-logical proof of intuition?
This dilemma has not always seemed so obvious. In Plato's dialogue Meno Socrates questions an uneducated slave boy and the boy works out for himself one of Euclid's theorems. Socrates, after this demonstration of the boy's inherent logic, declares this proof that the boy contained knowledge within him that must have come from a previous existence. He used the boy's logic to prove that the boy possessed intuition. To Plato the two things were the same and it was taken for granted. It is this, and not intuition itself, which we have lost.
They say the two things are different and if you use one you destroy the other and that no-one can use both intuition and logic. But, you see, some people can use intuition and some people can use logic and that means they are both in the world. If we aspire to know all that it is in the world and beyond we must know both intuition and logic.
Intuitively we know that logic is true. A child that has just learnt to talk begins to question and has faith that all questions can be answered. We instinctively believe that all that is unknown can be explained and when we cannot explain we are drawn by the desire to know. There is nothing so irrational as reason.
If intuition exists it can therefore be explained. To know without knowing why we know means that we know something that cannot be apprehended by the conscious mind but which the conscious mind must be sensitive to. This means that there is something which is beyond the mind but which is of the nature of the mind. That means that there is something which is of the nature of the mind which the mind does not know.
The problem is that the mind does not know the whole of the mind. The rational consciousness does not comprehend the whole of reason. It is an imperfect faculty and that is why some turn to intuition. But, you see, intuition is knowing without knowing the reason for knowing and is therefore imperfect. I doubt it goes deeper.
To know something requires that what is known impinges on the consciousness in some way. If we are seeking knowledge of the highest level of existence there must be some way in which the mind is able to gain a rapport with the highest level. The argument is that the mind cannot examine the highest level logically because the mind is not of the nature of this level. If this was true the mind would not be able to perceive it intuitively either.
All spiritual philosophy must be based on the assumption that we are beings of a spiritual nature. If this was not true, if we were wholly material in our being, then no spiritual
attainment would be possible by any means whatsoever. Intuition is possible by means of a direct rapport in the same way that a voice on the radio is a replica of a voice in a studio. Spiritual archetypes are impressed onto the passive support of matter so as to create a lower
reflection. If our perception was pure we would be able to see archetypal states clearly. I know it was Jung who coined the term archetype but he did take it from Greek and ought to have
conformed to the usage of the Greek language. Arche means both rule and beginning and typos means an impressed pattern. This is nothing to do with the unconscious mind but requires a state of pure consciousness which sees all things in their pure form.
Reason is a deriving of the unknown from the known. What we know forms into a pattern pointing to further knowledge. The pattern is created by the nature of things and the
more things resemble their true nature the more harmoniously they inter-relate which makes the progression from one state to another easier to perceive. It is of the nature of a seed that it becomes a plant and of a bud that it becomes a flower and if you know the nature of these things you know why they change in this way. As you become more spiritually advanced logic should become easier and not harder. By reasoning from the known to the unknown we are
following the pattern of archetypal states and creating a mental reflection of higher realities. It should make these realities easier to perceive. There is no conflict between intuition and reason. At the highest level the two are one and as we practise one we approach the other.
Intuition can be so subtle that its effects are not noticed. Astrology seems a purely intellectual thing without any psychic abilities playing a part but I have found that I cannot
interpret a chart set up using a calculator or by someone else. Apparently, all that arithmetic, though it is a purely mental thing, sensitises the mind to the planetary influences and creates an intuitional flow into the logic of our interpretation.
The most intuitional thing I know is the Tarot but the reading must take a logical form because it relates to a situation which is governed by logic. Now we find the trouble with intuition when we compare the Tarot with more objective methods. I once did two Tarot readings in succession and the same cards came up with the same feel to them. I could not accept that the interpretation was the same and kept trying to change the feel into a different one. In the end I gave up the reading. Now when we are doing arithmetic and the same figures come up it is easy for us to check and know for certain it is a coincidence. With the Tarot there is always the suspicion that you are influencing the reading.
Intuition can be influenced and we really need something to check it against. The problem is that those who advocate intuition all want us to stop thinking in order to do it but
we seem to do everything as a means of overcoming thought these days. We use art to overcome thought, love to overcome thought, action to overcome thought, non-action to overcome thought and spiritual development to overcome thought. There have been spiritual
teachings known in the West since ancient times and by and large people have taken no notice of them but as soon as we discover one that is based on not thinking we all rush to create a
spiritual revolution.
The problem is that those who want to overcome thought also want to overcome introspection. They believe in spontaneity and letting go but this is a contradiction because
self control and analysis are spontaneous reactions. When we are startled by something we freeze and look at it. If it is unusual we try to work out what it is. We can never overcome that part of our nature. Spontaneity is an acting from the surface which makes us easily controlled by externals. We cannot distinguish between what comes from within and what comes from without.
We have to go deep within ourselves and discover what is truly ourselves. There is a reason why we want certain things and like certain things. There is a reason why our secret fantasies take a certain form and this reason is close to our true nature. Our true, archetypal nature manifests in the form of fantasies which are the result of a longing for a certain state of being but we have to distinguish between our own desires and those we have picked up from influences. Popular psychology has created the belief that if a desire is repressed it turns into a
different desire but I think it will always be the same desire. Examine the beginning of each obsession and remember how each one began and what persists. Remember that our character was not created by the events of this life but previous ones on different levels of existence where different things were possible. The truest will be what goes deepest and what persists longest.
Doing this is not just a form of psychotherapy. The ultimate purpose of your striving is to become one with your true self which is something you cannot change because it is an
eternal state and an aspect of Creation. Your separation from it is the cause of your unhappiness but it is also a part of the world chasm which separates the manifest world from the spiritual world. When you heal yourself you heal a part of this chasm and help to bring all manifest existence to its true nature. You also help to reflect an aspect of Creation into the manifest world and help spiritual influences flow into worldly events. This is why it is important not to follow fashions which come from the world, including fashions which disdain fashion, or uncritically follow conventional ideas which take you away from your true nature. It is also important to have the courage to withstand being labelled a crank because the spiritual world is not governed by the limitations of the material world and what is impossible here is possible there.
Your compulsions to act and think in a certain way should be examined and where you have been governed by fashion, even when you have proclaimed it from a pedestal, have the courage to disown it and seek your true nature and when you have the truth go towards it.
May She be with you,
David.