Some of you have probably been wondering if I'm alive. Yes, I'm alive. Yes, I still think and write deeply on topics...though most of it has been for my own records and understanding.
I hesitate to say that I've become more of an armchair magician, but at some point during the height of isolation in my shed in the woods, I connected to something I hadn't before.
I realized my lack of knowledge, and strove to correct it. Since then I have re-acquainted myself with world mythology, history of ancient human migrations, and the evolution of language, my own perceptions colored by my own spoken language, and started trying to unravel the symbol-language that exists within my own head.
This is related to archetypes, but the archetypes themselves seem to be... influenced by a sort of allegorical symbol image-language in my own mind, that appears to be influenced by, or echoed by symbols used in storytelling and mythology through the ages. Trying to understand this has also started to finally unlock the tarot for me more, as well as the mystery of my own inner self-imagery.
This I think at least for me, is part of the Great Work. - unraveling the tangle of time, and lost meanings of things, uncovering what is in plain sight, but unknown, dragging these things out of the darkness...especially when it comes to my own subconscious.
To give an example of the rabbit hole I have found myself in:
Did you know that the modern word cracker, and the ancient Sanskrit for chakri/chakram, or circle are related? This is because in the area around ancient India and the Iranian Plateau, bread was not made with yeast, it was instead a round, unleavened flat bread, and sometimes these were baked into hard, crisp circles, more like we would associate with crackers or snack food today. Part of this region was also known as Bactria, which we can infer was known for its bread making, or specifically the processing of cereals with a wooden rod for pounding or stirring...as the Greek word baktron, refers to a staff, and Greek is closely related to ancient languages from the Iranian plateau. The Sanskrit word pac, which refers to the act of stirring, or baking, is considered to be the origin of the Greek root word bac/bak, as the B and P sounds are considered closely related linguistically.
The flat bread called bhakri, appears to have come from the same general area, and may have influenced our modern word for the place of bread-making, or the bakery. Thus food shapes, prep tools, and food-related place names from thousands of years ago, have shaped the concept of baking and crackers through the transmission of language and and now-ancient culture, across time and space into the present.
Often without thinking about it, we are influenced by our language and its history in ways that are difficult to fathom. Understanding ancient root words can help inform us to great changes that may have happened in history and religion as well. I think this is extremely important when it comes to being able to extrapolate how ancient people thought, back when the world was governed by pre-Christian thought and imagery....and I think that actually trying to understand their way of thinking, is crucial to trying to realize how our ancestors actually thought, and how it may differ from how we think now.
How does this tie in with the Great Work, and the symbolism of the tarot? It's because ancient peoples appear to have viewed the world and its workings through what we would now consider Hermetic principles.
The primary one that should be noted is the rule "As above so below" We as students of the mysteries hear this a lot, and have probably stumbled through trying to understand and apply it.
Because Pagan thought and philosophy in ancient Greece is probably the most well-documented, outside of Egypt and India, I will attempt to use it to explain this concept in a way that I hope people will be able to understand, and also understand the inner language within us.
History tells us that there were groves of oak trees that were also somehow related to Zeus. The branches of the oaks reached towards the heavens, and the branches of oak trees fork like thunderbolts. Because the trees themselves were strong, old, and touched the heavens with a shape akin to lightning (and they were sometimes struck by lightning) they became considered a place where the Zeus would dwell, or be invoked into, and were thus sacred.
How long has it been since you really looked at an oak tree? Have you ever considered its shape, and applied its mighty forking branches to memory? If this all seems poetic, you're right...and I think that poetry is a reflex action of trying to speak of that inner world, and the layers of it that we don't know how to describe otherwise. These forms of poetic imagery touch upon the spirit of something...like trying to look at what's casting the shadows in Plato's cave.
If there is a symbol language that we mask things with, in the form of archetypes, or other symbols...what does this mean about the gods? Are the images we clothe them with, masks that we place on natural forces in an effort to tame and categorize them? Does this, or should this change how we approach our interactions and perceptions of the divine? That might seem a little out there, or even eldrich... but time keeps showing me that the world is not what I thought it was.
If I want to be honest with myself and others, I have to push farther into the understanding of my own mind, to inform myself of the workings within my own existence. This is my Great Work, until I have progressed far enough to see the next mountain that must be climbed.
Often without thinking about it, we are influenced by our language and its history in ways that are difficult to fathom. Understanding ancient root words can help inform us to great changes that may have happened in history and religion as well. I think this is extremely important when it comes to being able to extrapolate how ancient people thought, back when the world was governed by pre-Christian thought and imagery....and I think that actually trying to understand their way of thinking, is crucial to trying to realize how our ancestors actually thought, and how it may differ from how we think now.
How does this tie in with the Great Work, and the symbolism of the tarot? It's because ancient peoples appear to have viewed the world and its workings through what we would now consider Hermetic principles.
The primary one that should be noted is the rule "As above so below" We as students of the mysteries hear this a lot, and have probably stumbled through trying to understand and apply it.
Because Pagan thought and philosophy in ancient Greece is probably the most well-documented, outside of Egypt and India, I will attempt to use it to explain this concept in a way that I hope people will be able to understand, and also understand the inner language within us.
History tells us that there were groves of oak trees that were also somehow related to Zeus. The branches of the oaks reached towards the heavens, and the branches of oak trees fork like thunderbolts. Because the trees themselves were strong, old, and touched the heavens with a shape akin to lightning (and they were sometimes struck by lightning) they became considered a place where the Zeus would dwell, or be invoked into, and were thus sacred.
How long has it been since you really looked at an oak tree? Have you ever considered its shape, and applied its mighty forking branches to memory? If this all seems poetic, you're right...and I think that poetry is a reflex action of trying to speak of that inner world, and the layers of it that we don't know how to describe otherwise. These forms of poetic imagery touch upon the spirit of something...like trying to look at what's casting the shadows in Plato's cave.
If there is a symbol language that we mask things with, in the form of archetypes, or other symbols...what does this mean about the gods? Are the images we clothe them with, masks that we place on natural forces in an effort to tame and categorize them? Does this, or should this change how we approach our interactions and perceptions of the divine? That might seem a little out there, or even eldrich... but time keeps showing me that the world is not what I thought it was.
If I want to be honest with myself and others, I have to push farther into the understanding of my own mind, to inform myself of the workings within my own existence. This is my Great Work, until I have progressed far enough to see the next mountain that must be climbed.
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