tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50474743607535919282024-03-12T21:39:03.414+00:00Juice Nothing Blog: The Insides Of Jared Woods On The OutsideRead About Jared's Views On Music, The Internet, Sex, Law Of Attraction, Celebrities and Himself. Also The Latest On Coming Down Happy, The Funpowder Plot, Art-Pulpitations, Help Jared Woods Meet Lily Allen, This Is Your Brain On Drugs, And His Autobiography.Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.comBlogger223125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-26578750521566620132024-02-19T02:38:00.007+00:002024-02-19T03:07:14.065+00:00SHORT STORY: The Natural Order of Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://mybook.to/lovejar" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ri2TP7aKyAPOrCnRJQikAdkRL6j2LywGvaGM26jUqfonvvHNuZ5XMP4CSDQ-_MhOTlrA5S74hmUPfKFu6-jiOUR2dQy8FpkAGPdK6Tw8L9A-kWu42KWxsU05_EU3gWGTMbGch9dymn_xbagPl_B4QBR4xHvvXjlgwF_QTJVlcq_DS5plx7nrYULzWrQ/s320/lovejar_natural2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<i>This tale can be found in Jared Woods' most recent publication, <a href="https://mybook.to/lovejar" target="_blank"><b>Licking the Bottom of the Love Jar</b></a>. It is a collection of short love stories which are as magical as they are upsetting. You should<a href="https://mybook.to/lovejar" target="_blank"> totally get it!</a> Available on Amazon paperback and Kindle!</i>
<p>Nobody noticed Jordan sneak out of the warren on the first night. Such a triumph fed into an arrogance that begets sloppiness. His second time was clumsier, and faint noises disturbed the slumber of his little sister, Cashew. She held no secrets the following daylight, whispering her witness to Kale, who, in turn, notified the elders.</p>
<p>The rabbits were sceptical. Jordan was never one for dishonesty, while Cashew had a reputation for dreaming the wildest of visions. But when Jordan crept from his bed on the third night and bounced out the hatch, the fake snores of the seniors ceased as they sat up, dismayed by the truth of the tale. Their anxious murmurs spoke over each other, amplifying in volumes until they roused many newborns, crying in the dark from confusion. </p>
<p>It was decided that Daddy Walter and his eldest son, Basil, would track Jordan through the forest to reveal the meaning of his strange behaviour. Granny Ginger said she had a bad feeling about this, but she had a bad feeling about everything. So, with great caution, father and firstborn left the protection of their home to venture out into the nocturnal reflection of Clayfield Woodlands.</p>
<p>Rabbits know rabbit tracks, and they pursued Jordan's shallow prints pushed into the soft dirt. Owls interrupted the silence as beetles scattered aside, the black world seemingly aware of these unusual midnight hoppers. Daddy Walter kept up a speedy start-stop motion, sprinting beneath the moonlight into the shadows faster than most eyes could detect. Basil matched the pace, but he was skittish, ears darting in erratic directions, unsure where his focus would be the smartest to fall. Luckily, the trail did not lead them far away, the two rabbits hopping up Eden Hill, slipping behind some bushes and then trying their best to make sense of the horror before them.</p>
<p>There was Jordan, perched on the top of the hill, gazing upwards at the constellations. But he was not alone. His excited speech and laughter were shared by a snake many times Jordan's size as they both pointed out star patterns and agreed on their significance. Walter and Basil were frozen stiff with their ears flat against their bodies, unequipped to register this scene of unimaginable converse. But when the snake's tail gently slid around Jordan's shoulders, Basil's fight mode initiated, and he bounded forward, baring as much of his incisors as his gums would allow while growling in a surprisingly deep tone. The snake's head whipped back to note this incoming attack and then zipped away into the bushes, the shimmer of its moonlit scales gone in an instant. </p>
<p>Basil embraced Jordan, thankful to the ancestors for his safety. Jordan awkwardly reciprocated the hug, feigning appreciation, but when his eyes met his father's, he understood he had been caught. The three returned to the warren and rested without a word.</p>
<p>Between sunrise and breakfast, Basil was already exaggerating his heroic story as one for the Book of Legends, and the children crowded him with lights in their pupils. Daddy Walter used this opportunity to call Jordan aside and quietly scolded him for his foolishness. Without saying as much, Daddy Walter made it clear that snakes and rabbits were not to mingle under any circumstances, as snakes were their deathly enemies, and other such relationships would disrupt the natural order of things. Jordan took the words well and thanked his father for the wisdom. The two hugged, and Daddy Walter was satisfied to write the episode off as teenaged curiosity, a characteristic he himself was known for at that age.</p>
<p>Three nights came and went without incident, and routine sleep was enjoyed by everyone. However, on the fourth, Jordan carefully rolled from his patch and inched his paws to the exit. It may have been a clean getaway too, but in his excitement, he brushed a stone from the wall, softly pattering to the floor. Jordan froze to gauge any stirring, then moved onward when the chorus of breathing did not waver. But like before, Cashew's dreams betrayed Jordan, and this time, she went straight to wake the adults to report what had happened.</p>
<p>Upon Eden Hill, Jordan and Crowley, the snake, held one another, expressing their emotions through tight squeezes, confessing how much they had missed these starlight moments over the previous days. They reminisced humorously about their first chance meeting, when Jordan was foraging for gazanias and had accidentally slipped down Crowley's burrow, facing fangs, certain he was a goner. Instead, Crowley was sympathetic, and he helped Jordan out to freedom. The unlikely friendship quickly evolved into a romantic connection, a love they both yearned for, yet a love neither family would understand. The recent exposure had threatened the affinity they were only beginning to explore, and they agreed to be extra vigilant with their future endeavours. But this concurrence had just as soon proved futile, as Daddy Walter loudly interrupted the exchange, sending Crowley darting out of sight again while Jordan trembled with guilt.</p>
<p>When Daddy Walter's teeth dragged Jordan into the warren by his ear, the whole household was awake and pacing. Daddy Walter was enraged, announcing that their son was engaging in interspecies relationships with a snake, of all creatures. A tirade of fury was discharged upon Jordan from the male rabbits while his mother cried tears of unprecedented sorrow. Jordan was overwhelmed at first, but the ceaseless offence boiled into a frenzy of his own, and he shouted that he was in love with Crowley, <i>"love is love!"</i>, and they were destined to be together. Reactions varied from condescending laughter to declarations of nausea until Daddy Walter sent Jordan to bed to await his discipline in the morrow. Only the newborns slept that night. </p>
<p>The minute daylight broke, Daddy Walter took Jordan to the Head Bear, retelling the sinful story with disgust. Head Bear nodded slowly, occasionally looking towards Jordan, whose gaze drooped low from the weight of shame. After brief contemplation, Head Bear agreed that this was an outrageous crime against Clayfield Woodlands and would require additional council attention. He called an emergency meeting the following afternoon, and many animals turned up, having caught the gossip from the wind, wanting to affirm such an abomination firsthand. Both Jordan and Crowley were in attendance, and they shared distressed glances. Crowley's scales displayed fresh streaks of injury where his parents had let him know their standpoint.</p>
<p>The council heard the tale, and each member took their turn to express disbelief in a relationship so disgraceful and repulsive. Suggestions for a punishment ranged from beatings to exile, but Clements Jackal spoke with compassion, asking the council to consider the adolescent ages while underhandedly implying that parental neglect may be a factor. Jackal suggested a form of experimental conversion therapy, where a suitable variation of virtuous education could realign these children to societal norms. Certain representatives felt this was too lenient, but Head Bear appreciated the hopeful tenderness of the idea, and he outlined a program.</p>
<p>Jordan and Crowley were assigned to opposite sides of the forest to undergo their respective treatments. These lessons mainly comprised of senior members from their species who emphasised traditional values and folklore myths, teaching these misguided youths about the importance of continuing bloodlines. Jordan yielded to the disciplines rather quickly. Crowley was more stubborn, but as the months rolled by, the regular reports were positive, and the frantic chitchat died down until the woodland had largely forgotten the matter. Progress became so promising that Jordan was allowed weekend visitations back at the warren, and the relief from his absence overpowered the scandal, so much so that even Daddy Walter was happy to ignore the past and welcome his son home. </p>
<p>That was until the fateful evening when a curious fawn overheard some birds chirping that they'd glimpsed the infamous interspecies duo snuggling in a cave by Stellar River. The fawn snooped to the region, stunned to verify the rumour. She darted away to deliver the word despite the couple's cries for confidentiality. Jordan and Crowley knew there was no lawful way around this, and they made a break to escape the forest forever, only to be caught by a command of racoons sent to retrieve the sinners. A trial was called immediately, and the whole of Clayfield Woodlands dropped their business to attend. Even the nighttime critters were woken by the clamour and forced their groggy bodies to the gathering. The fury of the council was blind to any sympathies, and Head Bear was quick to accept a new ruling: the first Clayfield death sentence in over two centuries. </p>
<p>Public response was mixed. Some were enthusiastic about a verdict they deemed overdue since the initial hearing, but an underground opposition also grew in urgent volume. It came to light when a tortoise and beaver protested the judgement by publicly kissing in front of the sacred Five-Finger Tree. These two were imprisoned, but their stunt triggered a mass reaction, where creatures of all kinds marched through the shrubbery, chanting that it was an individual's right to love whichever species one chooses, for <i>"love is love"</i>, and it was nobody's business. Acts of defiance were becoming increasingly courageous, with widespread displays of interspecies affection and even an incident of a weasel spending a night in a woodpecker's nest, helping to warm her newly laid eggs.</p>
<p>Endless council meetings took place, desperately seeking a way to cease this immoral hysteria, but each suggestion was rejected as either too extreme or impracticable, while every session was inevitably interrupted by loud demonstrations, calling for acceptance where <i>"love is love is love is love"</i>. The most significant disruption came when Clements Jackal declared her resignation from the council and was soon seen on the other side, fighting for the freedom of all relationships.</p>
<p>What appeared as an irresolvable conflict ultimately ended with the worst of tragedies. Distracted by the strife, everyone ignored the warnings from neighbouring woodlands and were not equipped when the human machines tore through their homes. Trees that once kept families safe were demolished in a swoop, soil upturned into inhabitable sludge. Creatures scattered to the outskirts of the forest. Many risked their luck and relocated to yonder lands. But even more were killed. Both the iconic kissing protesters, the tortoise and beaver, were killed. Clements Jackal was killed. Jordan was killed. </p>
<p>During the final days of the Clayfield Woodland massacre, Daddy Walter located a shelter within a cave by Stellar River. Having long lost his family, he was appreciative to find Head Bear's familiar face hiding here too. At first, their shared trauma prevented any conversation, but as the sun fell away and the monstrous machinery hushed their violent upheaval for the day, Head Bear found some words. </p>
<p>"You know, it pains me to admit this," he said. "But it was not until the plunder of our forest that I realised every creature—you, me, the birds, the snake, the boy—<i>every</i> creature was part of the same singular entity. Even in our differences, our <i>unity</i> made <i>us</i> the forest."</p>
<p>Daddy Walter slowly nodded in agreement. "I understand. We were so absorbed by our customs that we became our own enemy. We forgot that we were Clayfield as one. And now everything is gone."</p>
<p>The two sat listening to the water gushing by, punctuated by several birds and insects calling out for help, the night quieter than it had ever been. Finally, Head Bear laid back, exhausted and drifting to sleep, offering one conclusive mumble.</p>
<p>"I suppose those crazy kids were right in the end. Love <i>is</i> love. And love is always better than hate."</p>
<p>Daddy Walter swallowed the dry lump of loss in his throat as the warning of a tear stung his eye. He echoed the sentiment.</p>
<p class="noindent">"Love is always better than hate."</p><p class="noindent"><br /></p>
<i>This tale can be found in Jared Woods' most recent publication, <a href="https://mybook.to/lovejar" target="_blank"><b>Licking the Bottom of the Love Jar</b></a>. It is a collection of short love stories which are as magical as they are upsetting. You should<a href="https://mybook.to/lovejar" target="_blank"> totally get it!</a> Available on Amazon paperback and Kindle!</i><div><i><br /></i></div>Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-37618260859493221272023-12-20T10:18:00.004+00:002024-01-04T14:52:03.209+00:00The Top 50 Albums of 2023<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 50%;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022" border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxwEJJgKDVz4IN7-U684TF3sjZC2TQ6RXlHdkXMFsLw_zCSmgbryCtLuQMFh1LeCWwQFcxHHw7p1jbKOUFC_IdgSA6-F7y797N8zLo2orBN3OIEACyDv7J8IS1RYILiOXx31TZoLpfymEo9DEaeZxpOGXQvhUnkqj9RDZGND5UP6XKwS6UVxkKL92oWPE/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023.png" style="width: 100%;" /></span></div>
A ballerina spinning on her toes fades to the Earth dancing around the sun. A new year come and gone, events dotting our timeline like the pearls circling her neck. Elated jumps and minor tumbles are part of the game, but the music keeps on playing, more now than ever, overwhelming listeners who struggle to know where to turn. With so much material, how do we distinguish the gems from the dirt? Ah, don't worry about a thing, baby! I've done it for you!<br /><br />
Flashback! <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-top-50-albums-of-2022.html" target="_blank">Remember 2022</a>? That was a tricky jig where I suddenly made awkward eye contact with my mortality. That year did not inspire the same joy of some that came before, and as any respectable music consumer should, I blamed myself entirely. If you ever find yourself saying stupid shit to the effect of, "They sure don't make music like they used to," just know you are getting old. And maybe I was getting old. The musical landscape appeared to be moving on without me, losing the connection I once bragged about so fearlessly.<br /><br />
Thankfully, my concerns were baseless, and 2022 was to blame, after all. Duds are to be expected from time to time, but not all the time. Exhibit A: 2023. A superb year of music! Rivalling the best of the decade thus far. I am still young! Ish!<br /><br />
My loudest relief arrived in the form of rappity rap hip-hoppity hops. Several years have rolled on by where I found this genre lacklustre or even embarrassing. But now the cycle has blasted from the ground into the stratosphere, giving us its strongest run in recent memory. Another significant contender for the style-of-the-year conversation is the happy-sad-girl pop, which was everywhere. Furthermore, the trend of super-long records grew in prevalence, which is not a practice I condone. I'm busy, ffs! Still, there is a glimmer of power in this approach. Cast your mind back to when everyone said the death of the album was imminent, and that the industry would splinter into singles-based packages due to the ADHD digital age. Let's agree that this prediction was incorrect and has died.<br /><br />
2023 was my 14th year of scrubbing the corners of the music scene, and the project hardly stresses me out anymore. The mental process is automated, and the system knows how to shut out the noise and focus on albums using a simple yet effective prerequisite: I have to remember them. So many technically excellent records fall out of the skull the moment the closer dissipates to silence. Conversely, excruciatingly painful records claw at my nightmares, forcing their way into a slot. You may think this protocol would produce a list catered to my tastes, and you'd be right. This is <i>MY</i> list. However, I listen to and appreciate every genre, which means I aim to represent the full spectrum of the musical train below. <br /><br />
Simply put, you <i>WILL</i> find something you love. It is <i>GUARANTEED</i>. It has been designed that way. <br /><br />
I listened to <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sJS1AhoTIEqvHUenTqeWoZmwza3FxrS0ZM_G5L9FuAc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">445 albums</a> this year. Here are the best 50.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Nuovo Testamento - Love Lines" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQYSWHN-KbHrt6vQFwnzMvY6n9LUYvGrMpRCMHa2pAhA3_hILDKdMXw79PIpgLbZqTqp4gQaDl3_xtSHic8Os5jvers0BpPtNK9ihtmtjc9dmJ0Y__xz5KFfvBsH5kn593bsbrJ0LI_bu8fWcZXEmcnEwDqqM1_EbyiGggj2rK-1qE72b2K__lCehx-0/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Nuovo-Testamento---Love-Lines.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>50. Nuovo Testamento - Love Lines</h3>
<i>Italo-Disco Dance-Synthpop<br />
3 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1PBV2EaPBN8pW4GMwOmnWE?si=1Qat-w1RQeqnB7NtzkrUkQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Exploding from the 80s right into 2023, it feels unfathomable to experience something so brazenly retro coming at us under the guise of "new music". Yet it doesn't appear as some a nostalgic cash-grab due to Nuovo Testamento's sheer proficiency at yanking us back onto the long-forgotten disco floor where the colours and dance moves have never lost their appeal. It's such a thrill to hear modern people making tunes like these, and while it's a touch samey-same throughout, that's more a genre flaw, no? And if you're intentionally doing a thing, then why would you veer from it, anyway?
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Nuovo Testamento - Love Lines" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFHbU7YYQIukfpBTxybBKgttMQoOya-dRMASokP4JO_nqZsALNqIbf-TpLlLWKD3-sVjCxTeetuOLNmrssMLnIZ4DKz_mhd1dPvw3Wy1NA32tQmaSn9lSO47AEWrSbnd39OAFvh1SwGmrq9X33puBsw60eMl3z3LiBTen7sRZbEbCBlUZEdeO55ujNVA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Monika-Roscher-Bigband---Witchy-Activities-and-the-Maple-Death.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>49. Monika Roscher Bigband - Witchy Activities and the Maple Death</h3>
<i>Experimental Avant-Progressive Big Band Pop<br />
5 May 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0e8PY3HOEQKaN1xrO0JaY1?si=JB3cP0O5SwKUGxfqHqgN0Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
<em>Witchy Activities and the Maple Death</em> has such an excess of strange colours that its talent can be nauseatingly uncomfortable. Every crevice is stuffed with a different instrument to summon some mythological beast of pagan order, moving in to swallow your life within a swirl of psychedelic energy and technical prowess. It's fun and scary, but at over an hour, it could also prove too heavy for many to bear. Thankfully, they've thought of that, and the best songs are right at the end, sending you off with a smile on your face and a permanent streak of bright paint across your brain.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Blut aus Nord - Disharmonium - Nahab" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJtOIP8k5YR0uaaSWamA0-Ef3TIb7OGmU4XkmXlLpDlAj49Ugmo0JWTOt98laj_Im1WG0a1rKDaHNzPN0czdHLlkVbY2vca1tyy9ibMlFqeAus0E5TS6RgHNDl7Kaszn6qnzqv2CNXAU9IzZBtbLh90n9X25lvocQkZxQWnvO4RzgeIHFRRzOGfBi7wZE/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_blut-aus-nord---disharmonium---nahab.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>48. Blut aus Nord - Disharmonium - Nahab</h3>
<i>Atmospheric Avant-Garde Black Metal<br />
25 August 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2spORRGVutsk0KwxPhd3eU?si=L8C_HkxkQGuTkIJqYcdn4w" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Irrespective of whatever you were listening to before, turn up your volume at least one notch for this horror show. There are layers here which are terrifyingly otherworldly, dwelling deep beneath the heaviness, and you must go to them. If demons made music, this would be it. It is no easy feat to create something so inhuman yet without completely losing the musical ability. For even in its dark wonkiness and buried indecipherable vocals, there is an undeniable talent inside of what this band does.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Underscores - Wallsocket" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6e949tbY16HQNRx2zoRfM0kHbR6vEYtY3xhN3Pp_LtDpKMs8FKa6sxbs-vTsmwLXR6p_Aa1PBiM1pQtxcEl_-ZG7OdT-sbTpHfMjwB7_S6PasG2a1PjR8LfG5ska-pAI-NkzcZ9kvxCf3zEjasVqTq3mwaFL7wcMLpDi98rjELc5Uv7qrfR0zVM2uoI/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Underscores---Wallsocket.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>47. Underscores - Wallsocket</h3>
<i>Indietronica Electropop Rock<br />
22 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6exrhkZKAwCGoihIZDJnpv?si=j2ujet2rRl-UzUJx1oL-mg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
There’s one person here, but she sounds like a full band. There are 12 songs here, but each is enjoyable, not an ounce of fat. And there’s a 90s indie flavour here, but maybe that’s what the scene needs? If not, the massive injection of dance-pop vibes straight to the heart will flood your system with the precise fun energy the doctor ordered; proficient at the comedic upper songs but competent at mellowing down without taking itself too seriously. Keep an ear out for that sample-use, too, as they are never utilised as icing but instead build the songs as integral components to the compositions in a casual way. I guess sometimes it’s just nice to enjoy music without getting too clever about it, you know? That said, there is something very clever about this.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggg5hwmaSo8CjPR-v6bzHn1jxp1T2S4H2sxWJFWEoRC9glMdLh8mxVoZKGTmUF8LriZDMyfgm_5MwGZHyiVKNvMufKl0ldnI1T9wdl3cuWekijq7NVfJ_FCGgDL4sPtnaUB0FE2YEzSct_e-6ZVTu_mrwbj1eLiRDZQ3ERYEY16K55fKEeQFqBJ1KJNDc/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Jessie-Ware---That!-Feels-Good!.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>46. Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!</h3>
<i>Disco Dance-Pop<br />
28 April 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/17g3sAeWfpHSJlqMHuRAr6?si=38aHlPtiTWOJjgicVy_Kgg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
First and foremost, I <i>LOVE</i> Jessie Ware. <i>LOVE LOVE LOVE</i>. Her debut was on my <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-top-50-albums-of-2012-according-to.html#:~:text=46.%20Jessie%20Ware%20%2D%20Devotion" target="_blank">Top Albums article in 2012</a>, and I featured her last release on my <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-top-50-albums-of-2020.html#:~:text=16.%20Jessie%20Ware%20%2D%20What%27s%20Your%20Pleasure%3F" target="_blank">2020 collection</a>, so there's all the proof I need. And now we have <em>That! Feels Good!</em>, a record every reviewer is worshipping on such an elevated pedestal that it's towering far above anything I understand. Granted, each song sounds like an infectious single and comes with sneaky manoeuvres that are out of the ordinary. But is it really as wonderful as everything she's done before? Maybe. I fear it is, and I'm the one who does not get it. Hence, I am future-proofing my ass and placing it on this list in case that its click is in the mail. But let it be known that if everyone agreed that this record was a slight disappointment, I'd be more inclined to fall that way. Soz, Jessie!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. leroy - Grave Robbing" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgIR8WwgkUKxZiaKXZMyjrqtHsAheNgI6Qft4hluiSxJTLs7vSNXpA-xYxYg-32ApyzSA9kXYk9RkdqPIOLtAq7ufKdLJZADbxjap_yo8U0dENqpHZUWivRqU1ibeV34PTwbPyswTG6K4ASQPrU0FV5s0nXbwlCyyeDEln7q-U-g2mO-TMIzBxhy7NcN4/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_leroy---grave-robbing.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>45. leroy - Grave Robbing</h3>
<i>Hard Dance Dariacore Mashup<br />
20 July 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6qIN9U43r7QDcHCG6wrA2d?si=D76Pt6J5Sf-7vXahdb08fA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
What sets <em>Grave Robbing</em> apart from other mashup albums is that the samples are not the star of the show. Instead of those “aha” moments of directly stolen song recognitions, the snippets are madly detailed bricks to insulate the overall picture. How such a project bypasses the royalties nightmare is a mystery to me. Still, I’m thrilled it’s here, rushing out with a speedy excess of energy to provide something that is not only danceable fun but also a brutal pounding to the headache.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcsGCUa4j2oqxYrmRj8bdGya_w85p7__4vqdGp3hm3LDPDKxnhnQETmgvdb9Ac1L4mmYktQkAiNWQkD7lJIjUqm180PvtHLpn8G8xToWJQN38FYtGo4OzlU2YE90Ar3GzbVoiGz4Ueb1IBWWlT-WUVAgCaL0j81nv4P2RtOlpqHwTWAQFxdyQ7Lb4H2lU/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_PinkPantheress---Heaven-Knows.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>44. PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows</h3>
<i>Contemporary Alt-Electronic R&B Dance Pop<br />
10 November 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2pOEFqvfxp5uUQ8vQEmVA0?si=z8Yzv7zOSMeI3ve847JjlQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When I talk about our current era of happy-sad girl pop, PinkPantheress represents the team perfectly. Her hooky vocals long for romantic fulfilment which tugs on our emotions, but thanks to the vibey electronic beats, the experience uplifts us into our dancing step, song after song, until it ends too soon with an aftertaste of honey. PinkPantheress has been a conversation for a hot minute, and her debut proves we weren’t wasting our breath. Even if it's nothing new, it doesn’t have to be. Just do what you do, and do it well!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Eartheater - Powders" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB18ftR1SVQ0j5u5HSegZLW_dYYOGiU-jb9uiDSfhSf4iYxDmKFbfuXZyQUnZ2Z_13qIDqIdSzEd4gwPSw_aV-L7zGa7IWRM70I-Urf_t-T82CJCk74uJD1l8XO7q0zUtMCKYDhSA6S3uoI2sIQBTNAE_pkOTCmP4WxJoYway7da81Mpdow5M-Zdaeopg/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Eartheater---Powders.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>43. Eartheater - Powders</h3>
<i>Electronic Art Pop<br />
20 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3zjvJv9tqkQ5kdX9pOpT6U?si=rn6gXRirQ_6p1RMkQO4wbQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Eartheater has one of the most unique and instantly recognisable vocal styles in the Strange Folk scene. However, her former artistic decision to sing over equally interesting music has fallen away, with <em>Powders</em> taking part in a far more digestible trip-hoppy electro-art landscape. As a result, here is her “normal” album, decidedly “ordinary” in the context of her previous offerings, which may be considered a bad thing, depending on your position. But once you deal with such disappointments, you cannot deny the beats serve her so voice well, and perhaps this record could be remembered as the point where Eartheater’s revered avant-gardeness turned to conquer the mainstream. That said, the System of a Down cover is a funny yet terribly executed dip on the album, and is wholly skippable.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Nation of Language - Strange Disciple" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GN56eXIHdzI2NzoWgPLxKrufe5TzY3mBvdFL7TOMQqImAQIxqecBvYEkDy24sciWw0BALRTA-s4TIEztK8n-TVWzV8z2vJUgeYpYk1HZ1IkZIG6vGUiwFW7BnM2lrYhvVslKWlweQWJf_t0LwAdLpMrpVS0hqqTag9nxoM7aiyDc1JJSd2QvUUXDbfc/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_nation-of-language---strange-disciple.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>42. Nation of Language - Strange Disciple</h3>
<i>Synthpop<br />
15 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1VDxaxECCJJh4of5htFnmK?si=Z1HA_a_wSA2T0R-WfK7HuQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
God bless you, Rough Trade! In your compulsion to be forever obscure in your Album of the Year choices, you've nailed something genuinely special in 2023, introducing many otherwise ignorant listeners to the catchy world of Nation of Language (myself included). With the romantic, melancholic vocals that could be Morrissey at a stretch, the midi synthyness is this project's primary bragging right because it's delivered without shame, embracing itself for what it is, laying out a cohesive sound across a quality of consistency. And how about that five-opening track run? That's one of the best rows of initial songs you'll hear on a 2023 project.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Gezebelle Gaburgably - Gaburger" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghB6r7xMzZtMjXGZwxZfhyphenhyphen9utuyZseJ84qK8Ss_0YGGzHeH_8aXxI8OzDfPmYW44D64WomhZ71QaU07gwH8Iq2VQGerioRmz7FZSg475qmQz_YfVYVEAx5fJIfrpCu1a47EqlKuUQfbsMNnOTU6hk-lmMM9-EY0yJhzvzMg7ARE1657FtWPWVgBLDa7iA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Gezebelle-Gaburgably---Gaburger.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>41. Gezebelle Gaburgably - Gaburger</h3>
<i>Slacker Indietronica Pop Rock<br />
4 July 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/196Klxh11gaG4QQjzFjH9S?si=jLWczkOpSNeisznNKOH1hg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Noise so fuzzy and playful you want to scratch it behind the ears! This album’s selling point is its number of standout tracks, surpassing the usual “keep rolling the dice until we get lucky” style that the lo-fi slacker pop genre is famous for. An upbeat energy lifts the catchy choruses while her nervous, self-deprecating lyrics return them down to earth, landing in a package that the artwork manages to capture in some indirect manner. Part of me hopes this record gets the attention it deserves because what could Gezebelle achieve with an actual producer? Then again, does her craft require an ugly messiness to thrive? Just like the snails? Regardless, I am looking forward to what she does next!
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; " target="_blank"><img alt="Janthopoyism: Your New Religion" border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk13AKniawRG_8ifdslrTs4w_SwqLOjpm3FO_xCFyR8Z9Ak3DZM_AEkqjhNqfDU9-3_u5v1X9w26fNvWertwbNv-98HSK0m2C857EFVJI42pzTEnEscK4EmW4mwKw1ZzZLoNhO7-5Ty__FOmUtRXW5CwmRZq_hJf8f5IGIOOkYpcRd3t1hgS92aT85/s1600/Jantho-blogger-ad.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. MSPAINT - Post-American" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6baPzqJnE8FRZqZIifJ6BivUzKQzSOiTbTxzzBEWPiECcIkK7VfNisAHmvxDWiomsclK5BUpG5X0XZWLYTnuvNj9X4oNzr1RoPN9oeT5FA3XdzWm-eP9Mg5XGMDmxRQiR7x6pYV8p1A0qD4adNqpYHfaxloKhr6x-oc70qg_8MbuJiEU1HLpnwMK0WBQ/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_MSPAINT---Post-American.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div><br />
<h3>40. MSPAINT - Post-American</h3>
<i>Post-Hardcore Synth Punk<br />
10 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0O9TQ88Zb6NE6oa6Gkb0S9?si=YhQ6onV7QHqnL-Hh0I2dKg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
With a band name like this, how could you go wrong? You can’t! The hard-hitting joy of this record is hilariously aggressive, with catchy sing-a-long (or shout-a-long, rather) vocals over unashamedly synthy music; the components rebelling against each other yet collaborating in a gloriously jagged pixelated manner. <em>Delete It</em> is one of my Songs of the Year. <em>Hardwired</em> is very close.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVz7g2SXL3YdRE5qDnLfmiwU9s1cm2Gvkirgwgkk5YQ6c8U-9619gEMWunOkS6ZckNV_xiv5INykfIotss1WYFI3XUeBBUwlSlqudZlt3DL7Dmp0q8zARNxj8B6z5mubHs-xDPaiUwq7DR-8e5ev0KV3Zi8Tfa0C1FclR31CnzMwG-eiYpvHRvhqT8tw/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Aesop-Rock---Integrated-Tech-Solutions.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>39. Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions</h3>
<i>Abstract Conscious East Coast Hip Hop<br />
10 November 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/64L1urQKsuPJQMteCZX6pX?si=Hh029pmaQXKfTfJNaQNnpw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Revolving around the concept of technology and consumerism, meet <em>Integrated Tech Solutions</em>. Like the majority of Aesop Rock albums, it's comparable to listening to a comic book, proving that audio can be brightly technicoloured in a way nobody else does. And while it's dazzling to remember that he makes these beats himself (and they're so dope!), it's his smarty-pants flow that rivals some of the best out there. As if a storyteller comedian, he's <i>SAYING</i> stuff, fictional adventure vibes, which is refreshingly ego-free and unlike anything you've heard before. That said, it's a lot of quirk for such a long runtime, and occasionally I do get the sense, like... what are you even talking about, bro? Still, his discography is enormous now and features five or six of the millennium's most essential hip-hop records, which includes <em>Integrated Tech Solutions</em>, so there.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Tenhi - Valkama" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-5kUPYHbpe6z2zAJh-aMDSR5iREcbjxsqnQRp8lgY8B8WIjFQ2VCDRhWjEZaiBn0htRf4XQGZBP0RKhYIgjPEapfXEDwgPPgntG0XsqxfXN-d_KpLTPQWpS_u-lD6I4KDdtWZDYmy0S_JRM6ZsZzTZS3nyYDdouhP3PLLtgFM9QMNJ3rUXFIyBdX8UU/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Tenhi---Valkama.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>38. Tenhi - Valkama</h3>
<i>Dark Folk<br />
9 June 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6ADmXfHvQIXrsa4StwrhA4?si=rPKWDgiiSSWaT2wO-dNeRA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
How dark can folk go? Let me show you. Tenhi’s first album in 12 years is as devastating as a funeral and as eerie as if the said funeral was held in a haunted forest. I’m convinced it is an experiment at bringing the mood as low as possible without resorting to manipulative strings or metal wails of anguish. Instead, it is acoustic minimalism that depends on the richness of the composition, achieving so much sadness with so little energy spent. They’re Finnish, which makes more sense than any other location.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Wednesday - Rat Saw God" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnPd8hiTKcAu3Owr4kUFtOk3hXaRvb_ELKtKPTFo9Eyx9UoF1pYSPvSHlD9-gTWmPP_kk5w1y9K8dwQBNmGCLAYw4V3BgBxc5SnrY8TDoZRGPJzYVozsTlZIm_7TQyVSeOiboOwlT_VHhLxgblQRp0UqCxQMKI4M__AGTF99-0OdG8QttAyevRFefmmM/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Wednesday---Rat-Saw-God.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>37. Wednesday - Rat Saw God</h3>
<i>Alt-Country Indie Noise Rock<br />
7 April 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1oTR3aC0jYmwUlr9duBi05?si=_OuecZ1JR8qsV4xEavApzA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
We need the yearly reminders that the simple lockjaw of noise rock will never lose its grip on the modern indie scene, and <em>Rat Saw God</em> could be argued as 2023’s hero piece. Scraping the circumference of the genre to artistically present its emotional splinters, the occasional country twangs give Wednesday an additional boost, sticking into my memory so forcibly that it can’t even compare to itself.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Zh8f-uJpPcdRGAFNcoqOJUT3MEZ5sDzM6nB5YTmprQKjEf-y4ea_wL7R3l2d7LZcHJh8JShxjQ4bhnflYyOuWftgj7uz5bdjL8HYB6eWyuxs9bX8pNX0RWGHRZXafR5qw4z37_DycqAMbo1JU3ljLf_o5YOgRYdrrRnYQYaBbhgxHn9MmHsyr_2fpuY/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Model-Actriz---Dogsbody.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>36. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody</h3>
<i>Industrial Noise Rock Dance-Punk<br />
24 February 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1DWLFwBZxTSBWw7G9uhpok?si=lm86GB_3QKaMiKBC95dA6A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Panic stations, everybody! If you're faced with a day when abrasive industrial noise just isn’t fucking you up enough, give Model/Actriz a try. With frontman Cole Haden’s awkward self-loathing smeared on top, there’s an original type of discomfort to what this band does, guaranteed to make you feel more disgusting the longer you dance to it. Not bad for a debut!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Liturgy - 93696" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzgX81tUWjW1QggJAYMs8s_5vaukgvIqwPiDL07x-XEpSqHJzrlZ1YKGCGIx1dZf32jwVrsw65xKltdBZE6wvziZX0wbVeoEP6o7ZKUJA9uoSnaEngXKQrsSEFO9x1R-AZ5lYwhG4IXwW770eElAoqk6WXvIJsDf0hl78Ko87BZfAkuzOUxAabde9aT9E/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Liturgy---93696.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>35. Liturgy - 93696</h3>
<i>Avant-Garde Black Metal<br />
24 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/28gL6vjKVFaO7UG0ImRzkY?si=0ooYRfkMToaa4Qrl-KGN6Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When an avant-garde black metal album is one hour and 20 minutes long, you've just got to surrender to the thing. But hear me now: they do not waste a second of that time, covering so much ground that you might as well build a country here. The vocals are balanced between screechy forward attacks and softer harmonising backings that exemplify the genre perfectly yet are the least talented pieces on offer. Rather, it's the technical prowess of the music that tosses you around like an anatomical therapy doll, shaking your limbs, sometimes for 15 minutes a pop, sometimes for only one minute. And while the glitchy production trick is so overused, I've never grown sick of it, and then suddenly a dainty flute joins the song, and you really question your survival. It takes a lot for a metal record to impress me these days, let alone hit my top 50, but <em>93696</em> proves it can be done.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Mega Bog - End of Everything" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj24un29bPK4I90wWTjvZU3nhguDV8SNO4SV464nWnlKA5WJl-kX-X3O8vGKjJ7_C5tkn5yBXWZrbsL210PkGpEtTVUFj9G6whwvlgPz6E4qTB6H6XU4B4QZGmtH2yhgSW7CD0ENBfFjcviXeSfKlMpLtZZpY9jhjGGfEigJSWlWQqBfYarAdwyzIl7gs/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Mega-Bog---End-of-Everything.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>34. Mega Bog - End of Everything</h3>
<i>New Wave Art Synthpop<br />
19 May 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3VQakkGxH2EJNqFi3cATna?si=iQJb3bmpQuSkSBtBq71q1Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Using unapologetic retro synths, Mega Bog may take its every cue from yesteryears, but it does so in a unique manner that brings something different to the party than what you'd expect. Without a song or a note or a breath of filler, its slumberous romances conceal a sophisticated style of mystery, which I think can be best described through the following lyrics from their song <em>Anthropocene</em>, which goes: <i>“City skies turn black in the daytime. See a burnt-up alligator. What the fuck?”</i> We’ve all been there.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. dodheimsgard - Black Medium Current" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgjgFQP4nLrnHwfWhMUC8fSbCeAfhS5ZE87gb1vmBACfFT4ma8WO2RsGiQLKyuoMdkJJtczGxXEdh1zsOERb83K7wauvQzCju1Y-YK0z8IYkFcAC8yt-ukRX2IJqrieM-RIOOgGz6rdXv0kUe4BIgtpg1g_B2Jf6Q7SPGEFCwvcXM4lkVy-iurlrroF80/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_dodheimsgard---Black-Medium-Current.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>33. dodheimsgard - Black Medium Current</h3>
<i>Progressive Avant-Garde Metal<br />
14 April 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6lJ8c7QFGE0x32KaslsRCE?si=AeeYb0iESQaLdu19VOiKbw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
It may not be evident upon first listen, but <em>Black Medium Current</em> is hiding a secret. Initially, you might foolishly consider this album a standard (albeit remarkably talented) Norwegian black metal affair. But as it goes on, with its boundless stylistic shifts and moments of modernised surprises, you start to uncover the truth: this is hilarious. But is it intentionally hilarious? Or are we mocking the sermon? Are we in on the joke? Or are we the joke? The fact that we can’t tell makes it even funnier because whatever it is doing, it’s serious about it, never letting up on the joke if there is even a joke here because you don’t actually know. But once you <i>know</i> you don’t know, it’s even more lols, because whether it’s meant to be funny or not is a question that makes it funnier still. At the same time, it’s no joke because the songwriting skills are undeniably a solid chunk of metal regardless, representing the genre with style, but also, hahaha.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Sprain - The Lamb as Effigy" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6z557aqlWVOc67wUIr7Pz0X53GQEcphLMNTTM2OBlCD7JcX_omEKAZOcGlLQIzwwlfs1LC0pTiBKKc4mnlZIayg1VeduTJ5YPAQ7A3WuoLzkI5hSTKU9z63RscwUeq74HitQ_MzgKUPowqJjArgbFIq9av3jbttLXr1A-i8184YsCD8lUfSqkROl9xHk/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_sprain---the-lamb-as-effigy.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>32. Sprain - The Lamb as Effigy</h3>
<i>Experimental Post-Noise Rock<br />
1 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4DYjQAfIJMtvw43uw1L64c?si=I9ewfZyOR0KNm3GPDxkj0A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Apologies. This review is about to come across as overly critical. But the album made the list, right? I obviously love a lot about it. For example, the nihilistic lyrics that are delivered by unhinged vocals on top of noisy instruments that forever makes unpredictable left turns... that's the post-hardcore record that every year deserves, and <em>The Lamb as Effigy</em> is a respectably demented forerunner. However, there are some unnecessary annoyances, such as extending the songs to where they have no business being, with two 24-minute pieces that don’t add anything to the experience except to aggravate a nightmarish endurance test. If they removed 30 minutes from this project, it’d not only remain over an hour, it’d be a modern classic. In additional complaints, I get the sense that the vocal wails are, at times, disingenuous, as if cashing in on the contemporary breed of dissonant dominoes Daughters set in motion in 2018, but now a copy of a copy of a copy. Perhaps this album will do down in history as the final nail in that coffin of derivatives? Regardless, my biggest gripe is that we’re listening to a special offering here, and I had faith that Sprain could ultimately refine themselves to find something even better. But instead, they went and broke up, so fuck them.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVOugJwxH5J-Taj9UI3eeWVgCY6x348C32C7X7qe_izPmdVZai6QzOGnQfZlruslZrnARzzsaum1r_AG82nyzBzxA4q6Y6xEBDERNCBreh2hjoIPGW1giPQRjDE5LVI1y0vw2dZhDQ77DY_ayCxo7D1awSS0e9wz3U3rfLvQUan2hZAp_OV1j2DIiIB9E/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Lil-Yachty---Let%27s-Start-Here..jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>31. Lil Yachty - Let's Start Here.</h3>
<i>Neo-Psychedelia Rock<br />
27 January 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6Per97deaWqrJlKQNX8RGK?si=ZWn43GhrQLmzpDNhNwFafg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Haters call it derivative, but let's analyse the market. What's more saturated? Trap Pop Rap? Or Neo-Psychedelia? I know my answer. Irrespective of whether you think it's a generic play at the genre or not, such an alteration of one's roots is no easy feat to pull off. But Lil Yachty's reinvention is not only a step in a respectable direction, but he's fully competent at it, evidently paying attention to all the spacey greats, inspired by the likes of Pink Floyd to Tame Impala and even Radiohead artsies for extra security. What could possibly go wrong? You may reject it like many have, but how can you be mad when it's so good? I don't care what anyone says, anyway. This album is far out, man.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Hail the Sun - Divine Inner Tension" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTAD-iD4AjoO9nrCOiuW5HEAsi0tauMcLtr53chXfwmj-cmoY2FdR9-QLqebokRNfhvz-7JTD1q60wJc1zKTU6lCcDH0YnRGyKqnMPGMGHHUHDO3A4tK0ucQbPWkhYSG_oMdEPoxtg76bs_T1qdPdY140Y8oU-ncYg9-n0YJ4k64gY4fFc6w1-2YKTOqw/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Hail-the-Sun---Divine-Inner-Tension.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>30. Hail the Sun - Divine Inner Tension</h3>
<i>Swancore<br />
711 August 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/69StGO0XyGh0559WNSwmjH?si=65d0d43d4ad54d65" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
What the fuck is Swancore? Within a minute of runtime, I am like, oh god no, eject this emu crap immediately. Two songs later, I am headbutting my laptop in a fit of passion. The inventive structures and soaring vocals bypassed every anti-whinecore tastebud I'd developed by never placing a single misstep, but that is hardly sufficient. Instead, <em>Divine Inner Tension</em> made my precious list based solely on the profound lyrics, which are frequently the best I've heard in years. For example, this topical offering from <em>Tithe</em>:<br /><br />
<i>Fight or flight, escape it,<br />
Zion is their torture chamber.<br />
This always happens,<br />
Accusations,<br />
We cannot let this get out,<br />
All our sermons are important,<br />
But business comes first.<br />
Casket cradle innocence,<br />
Scripture for my benefit,<br />
And if you think the heavens chose you to lead,<br />
Then you can do nothing wrong.</i><br /><br />
Or this fresh honesty from <em>Chunker</em>:<br /><br />
<i>If you stare at my reflection long enough,<br />
You'll see a sovereign, you'll see what you wish you saw.<br />
And all my life I've been so stubborn in this way,<br />
I'd rather see them crash and burn or have to pay.<br />
Enemies fueling my thoughts, taking up space,<br />
Why do I have to be so fucking spiteful?<br />
And if I suffer, they should suffer, that's what I want<br />
It gets me nowhere and I'm aware it just makes it worse.</i><br /><br />
I wake up with these songs in my head. Man, if I were still an emotionally vulnerable kid, this album would destroy me because I'm nearly 40, and I <i>FEEEEEL</i> this shit.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf4ngWX1h9RR3YxmhOKzNYkAWRkBXaH7da3w_E18skhaZMgKwpWppsANOTKANdSTQouOhz12bohYG4ro8mUta5tcOvxZ8pY9QMI_0Kx80pESwXqBq-dkTTNDOvvW1z1qo896SpEBiDfPzBWsdHiZPLVJ2dhrD7O7lMsJ2nB58nBCcT7tKwuZn-tzJuIE/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_JPEGMAFIA-&-Danny-Brown---SCARING-THE-HOES.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>29. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES</h3>
<i>Experimental Hardcore Hip Hop<br />
24 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3u20OXh03DjCUzbf8XcGTq?si=Qd0dQaQpQzuG0GoUAWuweA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Shove JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown in the same room, and what did you think was going to happen? Absolute cartoon carnage, of course, with so much hyper quirk that 16-bit candy and rotten teeth explodes from every song. But while the key duo are at their utmost do-not-give-a-fuckery, the beats have far more flash than the flow. The sliders are set to the red, clipping be damned, as the jam-packed slop of production is best described as “sparkly chaos”. Take these joys with one of the funniest album names of 2023, and you’re not going to find hip-hop like this anywhere else, standing tall above an uncharacteristically excellent year in the genre anyway.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Kesha - Gag Order" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOm2Lx6LQuWwJsE1eqT_GWc5-DUNHA5-b-yBd-WsmJIWCmy0705QbacOdHh6K856SUa6QVEYaYRIiIxsP9rRGKSLVfr401IEpBdlJRyqPFZ5yZPlMzX_Q416rkjXsvgFfYtPP05BJRGLQPlKEjLRc2SZTI5rkDxBLSZowt-HCzQ-maiXC8spAv3s5k3w8/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Kesha---Gag-Order.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>28. Kesha - Gag Order</h3>
<i>Electronic Alt-Pop<br />
19 May 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5hOFWwfkeWetTEnMTbX4q9?si=Jwm2SBTBQcWwkQ0AbIjgGA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Kesha records are either hit or miss, never between. But when she knocks a home run—a feat Kesha's achieved, like, three times now—she gifts us with such a skew calibre of experimental pop that she cements her name as a star in a sky of her own creation. Her woes have been public knowledge for a long time, but Kesha reaches her peak when she uses this turmoil as inspiration, and <em>Gag Order</em> illustrates this achievement perfectly. It is a project driven by an insecure heart, yet within the healing process, a coherent spiritual awakening runs through these songs, collaborating to create a piece greater than its parts. It works. It sticks. And if this isn't her best album, then it's most definitely the most well-produced, but also, yeah, this is her best album, right?
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Yaeji - With a Hammer" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYu69XViJyZf2FOom67mkIngELLlSiytaudtNhjpqeX0Qgk6Cspxl4Pm0srta6_2_TGz7G6-Em9w2W03m2oMXXpPTFJu-4IeihXOJkPjO14YGUpVakphezo6YRmf8s0BufVp83_TyIK5ZNulwfgm-gNcpZsTP1UFh2txRhdkjQ0ap0GWCumEm8Q58mRtk/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Yaeji---With-a-Hammer.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>27. Yaeji - With a Hammer</h3>
<i>Glitch Pop<br />
7 April 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2VYo0PSqdxVTMI0ydKUtoL?si=jIlAjX6VQ5ihqg3nu5zZng" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Yaeji's long-awaited debut moves like it's made from interlocking segments, fluidly passing through a cute atmosphere that is soft but never light due to the danceable beats that regularly drop their hammers onto the clean production to ensure we keep up. And as she flips between Korean and English, Yaeji shows off herself as someone who knows how to maintain interest even if her smarty-pop substitutes and ambition for originality don't always bear fruit. So, no, it's not a perfect record. But it holds some of the year's best songs, and that's enough.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Katie Gately - Fawn / Brute" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwplI_IL8a6fo3Qq2X-R9RO3z7n-pDM3xYvfMGvN8nb2hjagl5K_4XSRh1zz7U9jJPPah9pKF-8KcHNuM1CgZWlYQ-OceJoFc97oM14J16QdwwJfB9HvFjcUBy3iaBPxk5W6wTJfw35WHbzncpYOjRLExmiAgksbUWmiz9ZVPRbbOfAhbixF7nEARQq4k/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Katie-Gately---Fawn---Brute.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>26. Katie Gately - Fawn / Brute</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial Art Pop<br />
31 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7iQU6Zpz0xfCiJEl5eL53R?si=1YbDuEaIRLSgvATXgoAW4g" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
There's an entrancing curiosity to this record, like venturing into an fairy tale woods at midnight, aware that you probably shouldn't, and yet there's something so familiar about this place that you can't turn back now. It's a peculiar experience, but it isn't going out of its way to be so, rather an egg naturally laid from the moon, deliciously rich in protein but might make a lesser person sick. Unfortunately, there is a slight midway-sag, but even in that, there's an illustration of just how calculated this record is, striking you in the beginning, then lulling you into a false sense of fatigue before re-smashing you at the very end, leaving a strong aftertaste of forest egg lingering. 2023 has unfairly overlooked this beauty, so come join us in the know. It's nice here.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://linktr.ee/legotrip" target="_blank" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoD31KG6RIEY28NWE8F13MrJ8bgIHQy6q7xM_e79R0Fh_Se7RUx1dImwCIHa_PQ2wVigVz-GdLbpNBQImlqrzinllfDD83Nlfh6tX0KOc4LxCKXoeOPvUuKt-FEt_6rnMdk-Jj8SQKKR0WgfwXwFQhrHUpRWdbcnvaymNghQvA8v5OEPUli75mlKla/s1600/blog-ad.png" style="width:100%" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Swans - The Beggar" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVTHY9YIPEUMY21EX3lZ3MxYBH-IqH6CSPEVh6dZvOG5nxzo98wu71sLw3wn3uZ18q2X-7ZFECK_tf05_y9hrukzncgTc0-9Z9HEOWnI33ST3mIv7omDT2V38WDSLa3OH6fOFBMDqgdhLrcoc08AEHkDSyPh6nSOI7K8s0gZRWDpp43metZDaGlHVeeI/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_hemlocke-springs---going%E2%80%A6going%E2%80%A6GONE.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>25. hemlocke springs - going…going…GONE!</h3>
<i>Bedroom Synthpop<br />
29 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6hnlO74dZkXLCk8dQNjLjf?si=PIIjflHYRgeiYRHABY1c1Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
If you are craving that infectious pop that doesn’t sacrifice danceability for kooky eccentricity or vice versa, then you won’t find anything as satisfying as Hemlocke Springs’ debut release. And the greatest compliment I can give is this: EPs have never qualified for my lists, but I changed the rules for this one alone. There are seven songs here, each competing for the best pop tracks of the year. Heck, the EP itself may even be the most solid EP I’ve ever heard.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ND_649D2cHf03yjFoylCsksFaAZqk-iZsUQMG2cENzbb7cyrPOEUxh7wMAE12V24HoVCFyMFXM-hJSwV3zEAXb0V2jF_H_qIui4VulkXucgX-klsX6mh0vtnlz6Savnbt-N7CwRz4AkKIgUSFmz2yjqcb-TJA6uhkgu4EZpU7HmldMz9o3Iwz8GpA9E/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_DJ-Sabrina-the-Teenage-DJ---Destiny.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>24. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny</h3>
<i>House<br />
13 August 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3S2JjNVTT7FKujPny0Bwgo?si=95deb7446cce4ed7" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Four hours of music, wtf, Sabrina! When you're busy, that's, like, giving up your whole day for one record! And to make the journey even more daunting, our DJ is not known for her versatility, with an album that is essentially made from the same long song. But what a song! Her signature layers upon layers of love-infused vocal samples gleam from astoundingly perfect production that is, somehow, unmistakably her. It's dopamine on tap so undiluted that I wish she'd been around when I was a teenager, coming off drugs, where this album may have saved my life. So what can you do? You accept it, commit to it, and then let go. And once you reach that point of surrender, you realise that this record is so unobtrusive and cohesive that you can break out of it and jump back into it whenever you want, and it won't disrupt the experience in the slightest. Plus, it's so enjoyable that you'll ultimately admit that you wouldn't care if it kept going for literally fucking ever.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Tim Hecker - No Highs" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkeuRhawsmE4dQ1tbfXXqKm5ygoQPDmMrWDoIYFQvVAjWQcFmCa_a3vmv8Nul2pQe0gVuMa30X6SwEUaHfeoRG_knGPYfWZ3k1UzPxSwP0hk3DrTFubh3PGsOOzzFSN0R79cNvKdwlMLTRuQZZ_zluY9xYNazY-NGNM6mBgL6BQolXOdP-1k6pA-bbGf8/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Tim-Hecker---No-Highs.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>23. Tim Hecker - No Highs</h3>
<i>Ambient Electroacoustic<br />
7 April 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7nKNz12BoGEYHqJmwUoC4P?si=OeaCW10IRn2i2wDOUBxIaA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Tim Hecker is the best of the best in the modern ambient scene, or progressive electroacoustic scene, or minimalist drone scene, or whatever this is. What is it? Well, it’s music without being music, pushing its audio onward and building the creep with the finickiest of details, doing just enough to be... something. I’ve listened to and loved each of Hecker’s eleven studio albums, and <em>No Highs</em> is high up there with his finest of the fine. But what I appreciate about everything he’s done is that they’re inadvertently interactive experiences. They’re just <i>there</i>. If you wish to use them in conjunction with other things, like reading or writing or simply experiencing life lost in thought, they can provide that soundtrack. However, if you wish to actively participate, you can melt into it, becoming one with it, as immersive as you’ll allow it to go.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Noname - Sundial" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMiq-OHMT1DKY4UeBdn9y5LQEzOfUMu5D2jbTCh9VxyaYU5ZK2ghUo1STi_Zx0s99s1O4ZAk3Y9TrgRhCvyRipOpwY3aS9hTbGGmMp50kaq6a_qbXk8i4Bu4We9tazmyEcBnVCxMOFeyVWBHNKjmuJandv7iBlZQOHXR2QljWwJstWXC3OkDumkhQvCPM/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Noname---Sundial.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>22. Noname - Sundial</h3>
<i>Conscious Jazz Hip Hop<br />
11 August 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1RThtoZbeE7OQHMBzaBCJt?si=J629nZD2QmWP3OtqyTRQbw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
<em>Sundial</em> may present those smooth, laid-back beats and intriguing (at times controversial) choice of guest stars, but Noname is <i>the</i> name, and Noname is <i>the</i> star. In a year of solid hip-hop, she nudges her way above the norm based on her lyrical talent alone. Her rhymes are clever in both structure and message, egolessly offering clued-up perceptions while firing some risky subtext shots if you can keep up with them. But beyond even this, is that Noname sounds like she’s rapping with a smile from the beginning to the end, which is an appreciated enhancer to the journey even if our time together is over far too quickly.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHY58ngurX7cTgkHwjSW2YLNl7faif3KMRZhJXNONQRyhIV5YGSrbvihuN7Mk_EFjSbjrpMBXzpNh_1POOhW2OSFVvd95AUc2draR87lK0BcWShexJ7gPwoOhg-tscM8MAk7fsBYcD3rFgp36LJLvaz-_Uru5wb0xe6Clg9vL9EPBKYTSYoQ3CmWMDpdA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Sufjan-Stevens---Javelin.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>21. Sufjan Stevens - Javelin</h3>
<i>Indie Chamber Folk<br />
6 October 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2KqSL3vLfyVO7rrZJL9tUs?si=UhqPQahBREuHcSyoIMuQkg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Analysing Sufjan's erratic catalogue, the evidence is undeniable: the artist performs at his best when mourning the death of someone he loved. The passing of his partner, Evans Richardson, dictated this album's theme, which harkens to his 2015 masterpiece <em>Carrie & Lowell</em>, which itself revolved around the death of his mother. However, where <em>Carrie & Lowell</em>'s folk acoustics devastated the listener, <em>Javelin</em>'s sadness is brightened using colourful electronics reminiscent of 2010's <em>The Age of Adz</em>, another of the artist's defining moments. This combination of the two styles Stevens has perfected did the trick, unsurprisingly crumpling critics into grieving heaps. And even if I find the reaction a touch overstated, one cannot deny that Sufjan is very proficient at handing the bleakness over to you.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. KNOWER - Knower Forever" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSAp1gsxaCKmGKH4F4sTgAtU9zJ9pY7jWy640VZxqBUYK0Zho4ZR3CvBguWhzLWSFNrMbjWmEGFQCqFNGVArTqJjPd0r46Dpjg7UQ4s5HAxHBhki7Nmwt8iWa9kO3L4Ps8JSQI7v9L0QzUSDJMc8rn2HQgPq8bJ5Z8_SeGcwAS7T10b5R994J5l46RkSA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_KNOWER---Knower-Forever.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>20. KNOWER - Knower Forever</h3>
<i>Synth Jazz-Funk<br />
2 June 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4HLzhoSO67xRwfZa1T343L?si=pX_qEJu1T-umj41gAy3bNw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Energetic funk licks and jazzy percussions boost a soft voice filled with expletives into the sky, bouncing the listener along in pure delight. I'll be the first to admit that some songs are better than others. But not because some songs are bad. It's because the good songs live in the highest quality bubble of 2023 tracks (<em>I'm the President</em> knocks on the upper rungs of my ladder, btw). Still, the top-heavy initial run and the gut-nudge closer prove their ordering was pedantically organised, effortlessly running to the end, encouraging repeated visits, always a good time to listen, listen to it now, <em>Knower Forever</em>.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Swans - The Beggar" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0XrqWBt-jEdVoLDbRU6fRIeV90yGXWoQkb_SHLQtF5jrgvjT7z7RqtojtaFms9W93fBXbQaQJ4dFBGdHx9ASP_ekymPM7V-Fyw1UpTWQI6y9Gk8ttasMCbJblcuo4msmtOVy7ZSItlPftn3QrVc8OfC2l8nONbuUGKiR0WFEqrRywvdiYoJyFIn9qFs/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Pile---All-Fiction.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>19. Pile - All Fiction</h3>
<i>Indie Art Rock<br />
17 February 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4v08iCGScPw3iDnH0EnhcX?si=m4dnwqpiSE6ALC8bxEVA_w" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As a long-time fan, I am forever impressed at Pile’s ability to captivate me in ways the majority of bands struggle to achieve. However, during the last several years, their trajectory wavered as if they were trying to accomplish something yet could not ultimately find a landing. Such uncertainties have historically broken bands, either retreating to familiar ground or doubling down to prove their vision. But not Pile. Instead, with <em>All Fiction</em>, their attempts are made clear as they finally locate the perfect spot to insert the knife. And it hurts. It really hurts, not as the most distraught album in the world, not even close, but immensely troubled in no immediately obvious manner. This confusing sadness sets me low, makes me want to give up, and sometimes, that’s exactly how I want to feel. Life can be beautiful from down there. And so can this record, as perhaps even their best thus far. I don’t say that lightly.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loveliest Time" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwhGdD3sJjjzEuDgWjMH_IraTJjUnOFlBok7p_dFK93xDV8xGwe-9M-6MVu21rAhoybG76fEa-CEZa8Pm8wSOzFNnlcOHtl07beF0gHm2BMRmp6KML9y6QW5xJfQ0FKo8yeMADW0k2XvArIsDqawxjs3LC2T6qZmFAdEaYecRcOg5BJCUJV-fpqUeH5iU/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Carly-Rae-Jepsen---The-Loveliest-Time.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>18. Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loveliest Time</h3>
<i>Dance-Pop<br />
28 July 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4bRYGKmKOkXvKL1QBf0cGk?si=L1urENF2QS-Zi8Qe8uMzAQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Following the 2022 gem, <em>The Loneliest Time</em>, Jepsen has lifted herself as the lowkey queen of pop by releasing this b-side companion piece. Somehow, it not only sounds better than the a-side collection but also sounds better than just about any other radio album in recent memory. Her secret to uccess is exactly that: a secret. Sure, we could discuss her ability to compose the most infectious hooks on the planet since the early 2010s. We could also praise her desire to pen commercial music that never lets go of its optimistic love, pumping life into our Fridays or nurturing our broken hearts on Mondays as a brand new genre I’m calling <i>"healing pop"</i>. But none of this explains the adoration people have for her. She transcends elitism, whereby I’ve even spoken to metalhead snobs who proudly confess that “Carly Rae Jepsen is pretty good.” That’s incredible and wholly unexplainable.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Mandy, Indiana - I've Seen a Way" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VDOQR2uX7ShVXeSBB3qXp3e4B1FpJnUyW6GmJgDp_nOSi6LExp3qhRJV03sQZ3y9gL01raWQ5KGhi0J-fFPqQ09dX0CoVDrnwFPLS23AG5Uai5oq36zZVnidx7zx75cDYeMAYLdfoZ5xAYtnKnL19T1EHNZoqumuixhnBoWq-Glw6M1aEY-oYdyi-CA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Mandy,-Indiana---I%27ve-Seen-a-Way.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>17. Mandy, Indiana - I've Seen a Way</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial<br />
19 May 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4oMlaPrzjAHEHh26MkR6DB?si=RSZb08lcSg-HDNWeumOkDw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The vocals may threaten you in French, but the hard industrial is unmistakably German, the band representing their Manchester-Paris-Berlin bases proudly in equal measures. They are byproducts of their environments, and could never happen without this precise blend. As a result, the sinister aura of <em>I've Seen a Way</em> does not let up, void of bad songs, even though there are tent-pole tracks that lift the project over the entire electronic landscape. This sentiment applies like superglue to <em>Pinking Shears</em>, which I reckon was the song I listened to the most in 2023, with no other luring me back in quite the same way.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Swans - The Beggar" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9L_-KdNCjzFMa_AW4MzgWMNABXJvsTPciW4fHIJyQhk5ZsD2JyRGmCSt-Y4m_OZ6cqd4Wo_VzphYezv_MEHJr29ZrptK9Cxw6SZXfGmrE9kbrbVsRobh4Xvi4TqNXQnt47tnZOF4PxWJmOQ_SXql6aZP2S5GSkSy92kzrKgB9f_L2HeSM9OZ_DZ5s-dU/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Swans---The-Beggar.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>16. Swans - The Beggar</h3>
<i>Experimental Post-Rock<br />
23 June 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5e925G5F00QzYCyg3AAMeS?si=t_IKWRJARx6glM-98ktcMw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As always, Swans are unmistakably Swans, but Michael Gira has spent a career edging forward, honing the craft he has invented, every album getting sharper, more focused, and closer to... what??? I’m not sure we should ask. Regardless, there are clues as to where we’re going on <em>The Beggar</em>. Gira’s signature ugly meets beauty aesthetic still festers here, but the beauty is gaining dominance. Most Swans records overpower the senses. This one’s madness has mellowed out into subtle accessibility, calling you to peer deeper in, deeper, deeper, and then you tumble down, gone. As you'd expect, the runtime is a challenge, crossing the two-hour mark, which includes a 43 minute track, an album inside an album. But that goes for every Swans record for the last two decades, so no surprises there. But what is a surprise is that, within context of all their achievements, this record, somehow, comes out as one of their finest works yet.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Sofia Kourtesis - Madres" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd9wQjIF3XUV3zoGYttsAnv2mPg04tOdVAw9WTI4LZiNgXQlcQEtrJkJZYwtUAX1n9dg1tt567xvZIU6zca5gbwcK4Ra4sXC13SgOsd7RSLkBLGyYXCWNtD8bpFExilelfwWsA_FgQp5tmRli2hqTf3IDMf3fMxXIvX4EjkeruowWFk4Ulqe0ay65cFfo/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Sofia-Kourtesis---Madres-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>15. Sofia Kourtesis - Madres</h3>
<i>Deep Latin House<br />
27 October 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6zt8N56kz8b58cnHnBhx9f?si=B_4V3affTMelh8fcGLMw8Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The line separating humans and machines blurred beyond recognition in 2023, but the collaboration between Sofia Kourtesis and her anaesthetising breed of repetitive house music offers hope for what our future may look like. The chilled beats comes with spiritual properties while her traditional Peruvian flavouring is stirred within, producing one of the more soothing electronic debuts in recent memory. It’s pretty much perfect for what it is.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. きくお [Kikuo] - きくおミク7 (Kikuo Miku 7)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2do2TNjxmKKhfGBuyoDQN-CKGJENX8qOLKjgYZaYZDk5uqiQ-pY17tCAk9NdAzsmyzbXPTpT18RFjVn0_kZPpQigh0UESYe4Thkrbx6mf5_4ZkwFInJMYshguwjypIlghciy-LJjahy8LkMmrC3tYUn5C5P4LzFeoiRXPevwqKmjal_qCEIOuTJdLf4/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Kikuo---Kikuo-Miku-7.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>14. きくお [Kikuo] - きくおミク7 (Kikuo Miku 7)</h3>
<i>Art Pop<br />
21 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6SBHOST42KWt5IiDsOkx94?si=4x1iiUtBSeOxfsZScn4yqg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The Japanese have mastered a particular flavour of pop, and only when listening to Kikuo's seventh offering did I realise how long it has been absent from my life. But this album is <i>THAT</i> thing, capturing the instant-stick big-eyed anime cuteness in audio format but with creepy undertones, subtly hiding beneath the happy-clappiness that crawls further out per every listen. The amount of mood-layers on any given song are incalculable, and yet there is no conflict, everything functioning to a higher gleam of near-perfection (even if it can't resist the occasional truck driver's gear change, which I automatically deduct points for, fuck you, Kikuo).
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Christine and the Queens - Paranoïa, Angels, True Love" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjII2cxhKkX0LSUpDW4mveYBVFJQ_1Iosm4Wzev-uniWFg4my-8MnDMZxmnQZOkO7rQHf1PuuXG4wfSy10kchA6RO4vzcizAEieL2eLy3FWh2Cs01uY478crUnbQaHEinMNkSPhi3POndySgHQzfJGgCHp2R5xDbB0CS1UY-qTl2P-5CJrz7C5VzjGolMI/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Christine-and-the-Queens---Paranoia,-Angels,-True-Love-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>13. Christine and the Queens - Paranoïa, Angels, True Love</h3>
<i>Alt-Art Pop<br />
9 June 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2Yg3Rha1y4PDlIWh5vy6rJ?si=e7zuIqOPQG-hYBl2azhniw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Something about Chris’ brand of self-important synthpop has annoyed me for years, so when he announced a 90-minute triple record, the preceding cringe was automated. It’s a typical move at this point in someone’s career; a fourth album leap into indulgence, a platform we’ve witnessed so many people miss and plummet. It’s a bad look, and it’s difficult to recover from. However, within seconds of <em>Paranoïa, Angels, True Love</em>, I exhaled my troubles, and by the end, I realised he’d bypassed my preconceived unfairness, and I was forced to reevaluate myself rather than evaluate this record. The spacious production is in no rush to deal track after track that builds upon its epic stage, each worth the time and not a single composition better off cut. There are only a handful of examples in history where such an ambition has been fulfilled so successfully. and when Chris manages to hook Madonna for not one but three feature slots, we can almost see the sword of pop royalty hovering over his shoulders.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. George Clanton - Ooh Rap I Ya" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSqFGouQ0PBd49k3w23SHWIyMyV5b4fVcwe0tj7ClUgX2MSPjzq0cPvKwsIpaRlFyz4mE1q9JyDze8Cj5tPPatiPClF1cdvZpSMCI4XFwi-4GtpY2YZzYw_48jYuJsmqt6b8K1xq4KzhgSdTmZIszxzIPvYsTM90bG9CJ44jlL3aNiUW624RHcXAb5nQ/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_George-Clanton---Ooh-Rap-I-Ya.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>12. George Clanton - Ooh Rap I Ya</h3>
<i>Baggy Neo-Psychedelia Chillwave<br />
28 July 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2kvz9frUn3LUK83imD2BQS?si=fMZKLVQ8SL6WJ2lOavazDg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
If you've been paying attention, you'll note the baggy genre creeping back above the musical landscape and making a proper go for it. My love for the style is so all-consuming that I wonder if <em>Ooh Rap I Ya</em> is as good as it sounds or if it just so happens to have fallen on my tongue at the exact right time as the quintessential baggy album of the modern era? Is that how music works? Either way, it offers a specific flavour of that loose swagger, and it's pretty bulletproof in its filler-less execution, which is easier to do when you're clocking in at under 40 minutes. If anything, it ends too quickly. One final shout-out to the Hatchie guest slot, another baggy frontliner who is only here to add lamination, not to steal the show, proving an artistry that did not need to be proven.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZUbUfX7P8NYPh-VyqRpenfh1ZIhdWcEMnFbpIGzTNfd-9MMZaPhN-mxhq16Pnkjn0LHjoyfYPZJOvj8i-PUIHdtH-v4mIfc9WQcSo-8Nuo_r6JVmR-jg10JVQQP64kHaQwpnmf65vER2EFSa_PX_52hl0YcgXdE0LviF4VqllT_grBlKbfVQzoZnJQA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_ANOHNI-and-the-Johnsons---My-Back-Was-a-Bridge-for-You-to-Cross.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>11. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross</h3>
<i>Soul<br />
7 July 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4g6x7cqgxfkuqA8lfvIKMf?si=PsR1BlRMR8OWLiypt_CfWg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Already boasting an impressively critically treasured backlog, Anohni has finally dropped her masterpiece. With the musical chops that serve the soul genre by its very name, it is our front lady who yanks the spotlight upon herself. She was never the most gifted singer, but she uses her vocals in a manner that no other voice will do: shaky and vulnerable, dedicating every beat of her heart to cut out her emotions and spread them flat like an animal hide, ready for us to treat with our tears. If this isn’t the most flawless record you hear this year, I’d love to know what you’re listening to.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Yeule - Softscars" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQqu648v_TjyOUkMzGR0xkGyZmmWOQ1segVHRzWc5OAEImCqs5aVUE7EjBFGwo96tyKKUozEJzfSx_lWMFfBYSu_2rS901yNB-ibSojXyKuqLSCIuGHlgiqKe3NeHN3uycStcvZ-mTN8dRgri9VR4HOFWuX5NkqcjKpd-GLVoCqROKtlzCVku6pKL8cQ/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Yeule%20-%20Softscars.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>10. Yeule - Softscars</h3>
<i>Dream Pop Indietronica<br />
22 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7t01lwQRDjtEvwiAm88ACH?si=tjBxmBTTT5aTGgoAjmHWog" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I’ve chanted Yeule’s name for years, but she has transcended my little voice and is finally getting the praise she deserves, no longer mine to tout, like a mechanical bird flying free from my hands. I’m happy for her, but it breaks my heart the tiniest bit; my grief further agonised in that she seems happier than ever. Her glitchy bleakocore nightmare (which I adored) has been pushed aside for something far dreamier and more melancholic than her former outright self-hatred. But what <em>Softscars</em> lost in the reboot, it gained with stylised production and pleasurably psychedelic pop, amalgamating to create one of the rarest creations you’ll find in music: an album that is an instant stick and a grower at the same time. Moreover, everything orbits the star of the show, Yeule, whose character alone is enough to guarantee my loyalty for decades to come.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7YrqGj0sCdXz3eyZe9jW4p_lymE5TfZFznef0UkyjyyMpVItkRDCQ_tYFGQ6ElXx0a6hvQGbBZxLI0f_S4qzi3ehKkzB5q5cVoYsh6bDuWs1ESmdY_1oKtY-dro6NnVmpQ1u9uQP12L1dOgU05HDYW4vUM0yPwPiss7pKcKe-Rrmwg0-R6eWoV_7L7IA/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Kara-Jackson---Why-Does-the-Earth-Give-Us-People-to-Love.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>09. Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?</h3>
<i>Contemporary Chamber Folk<br />
14 April 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2itoipNg0XOD1uwThhkVtO?si=kQpCBud9SOqwPX7HpceT0g" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Kara Jackson’s debut’s secret is its simplicity, achieving so much with so little, building its arty smarts tall upon soft ground, risking a saggy structure yet avoiding that altogether. Instead, it’s an exercise in introspective exploration, exposing her profound depth and producing something of substance which is as boundlessly genuine as it is intimately captivating. When I think of outstanding 2023 records, this album is one of the top examples that always comes to mind.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Łona x Konieczny x Krupa - TAXI" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2Vz-mPdK-OY9cf-HiUSp06G01KgHOvkQLeHihotWKcsfehlIisazU4f3aHaVhEEsBPJNV4iJSoTg3sxC1Ia6_M5KBxA_sF9Yjl37B0OFXjVF9tiOqXp8gCTk2rX1j2r9Wr2lHEUMxVsigyTb6AhCowmKzXUO3eOsdFd6107lEbQjNYMwbgCoogCW0v8/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Lona-x-Konieczny-x-Krupa---TAXI-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>08. Łona x Konieczny x Krupa - TAXI</h3>
<i>Conscious Jazz Hip Hop<br />
13 October 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/36JweiTeWUUnrrhu38rcMl?si=jOGcx55WSUirlUi9tOlEJQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Łona is regarded as one of the greatest lyricists in Poland, but I have no idea because I don’t speak Polish. It would be nice to understand what he’s saying, but in this comes the additional advantage of foreign rap. The words don’t overshadow the show. We can pay extra attention to the production. And in the case of <em>TAXI</em>, the production raises the bar. The beats are so clean, with careful awareness of the smaller details, but more importantly, they do not rely on loops. They are genuine compositions, proving that modern hip-hop does not need to rely on cringy gimmicks or surrender to old-school ethics to impress. Because this spreads its talents across every taste of the musical spectrum, and is as fresh as it gets. 2023 was already hip hop’s best of the decade. <em>TAXI</em> is just about the best of that.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLJts3IDxX-Yg_z5qi_hE2l0AZT9YqG71yuYtYNsMTvnKdfA0d8HzFOOeKprIS11epF3SJXuWD8Efc_8hiGBX-ZX1VWq1fz99fOgDoGwKsYKAr7k5LlltCXa-XLI3hN-YozYC_kDs-bvekIARSWnDmaXZj5QqeyN8TuEJ9ymANIMs4Yj91JSERj_A6hk/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Lana-Del-Rey---Did-you-know-that-there%27s-a-tunnel-under-Ocean-Blvd-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>07. Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd</h3>
<i>Alt-Chamber Art Pop<br />
24 March 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5HOHne1wzItQlIYmLXLYfZ?si=jaMHxf-DTtq0u6h9NUI6Bw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
At 77 minutes, Lana’s ninth album is her longest, and she is certainly in no hurry to please anyone but herself. Instead, this offering educates our entire musical spirit on how to mature creatively without playing it safe, demonstrating the art of softly falling back into slow pianos without becoming boring. By finding inspiration in gospel music and her family, <em>Ocean Blvd</em> becomes more impressive still when compared to the greater scheme of her career, where her evolution has been so unforced, yet she is a completely different person to the one we met a decade ago, finally getting the respect she always deserved. And even considering her past successes, we may remember this one as her most important work. A&W alone is life-changing. <br /><br />
<b>BY THE WAY:</b> I wrote a book about Lana Del Rey this year and people are <i>LOVING</i> it. <a href="https://mybook.to/lanadelrey" target="_blank">You should take a look!</a>
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Laufey - Bewitched" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdSV5qCDoULK3Ew6sxNrST9bf5vwgRcp4gWi6zjrgwiIT0x2PwSxmGQVIDMRHqMSJnrljvcZkdSg0eOT4qioHlNGTul_ps_0G9-hm93vt9T9JaMR5-jZCQLN7x2pzAV88A1KQYvRJ0_jm2MY20H9TzyuQDsy3ZU9tg6R8z4CXyGkBp-D9jSNZpniAfX3g/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Laufey---Bewitched.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>06. Laufey - Bewitched</h3>
<i>Traditional Pop<br />
8 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1rpCHilZQkw84A3Y9czvMO?si=gVNzi4VKRYm09Qq3QeIyyw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
From the first instant I heard Laufey's sophomore right up until listening to it now, I would happily get rid of all other music and leave this as the only one that exists. Its melodic lounging is delivered by a piano so softly minimal that her romancing vocals are almost the only thing we have, and in that lies lullaby perfection. In comparison, the frills of modern music are exposed as desperate and embarrassing. Meanwhile, Laufey belongs in a Disney princess musical because it's actual magic. I feel something here. <em>Bewitched</em> exactly. I genuinely believe this album transcends opinion and if you don't like it, I refuse to accept you like music whatsoever.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Otay:onii - 夢之駭客 Dream Hacker" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ncXD7lTMcV0FJXjtqLQX3-De-FgTwwm_D36oILS6Su-b8jXaxNmztDtTWuayJInOM2FcPB3fL-WCgxe3pGUpL15pjJueKMVPJoIyAEpzM1Q5uZoxI2SvcsbnfT5TFepqVsw_16HephmT9WY2waIP27w0_JoG4jgz17hGkHkgET5PApNq43YT3rhmY4g/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Otay-onii---Dream-Hacker.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>05. Otay:onii - 夢之駭客 Dream Hacker</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial Art Pop<br />
22 February 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2tr2kXZrYu5OcCwZ98jXSP?si=D-wAPSAkRWWK4rkvZtMjWg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The fact that this record hasn't brought the music scene to its knees both thrills and saddens me. With a hypnotic new-age core surrounded by a densely ethereal atmosphere, it's a witchy affair that is as spiritual as it is menacing, summoning its danceable electronics with spellbinding chants in English and Mandarin. <em>Dream Hacker</em> is an appropriate title. It's as dreamy as they come except infecting the slumber with darkness, tossing throughout the night, the bedbugs biting, pass the cream.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tSyCt7hJGCN5EhsHLyp-NsgbR55K1wyZx5uJZenSSs6zbzfew1rlZWhnKHhM_2AKaCrCpFl2uXodFnKRbsVM6PJcRxpv1ODkoez8Ww53htguXW05tXY9zjaILyLSHjWvR4CS0eRNFB7kMt_35qNfhWMu7iOyx25cBSr0-SWIoTLuFPWuj8-0wLNPZN8/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Armand-Hammer---We-Buy-Diabetic-Test-Strips.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>04. Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips</h3>
<i>Abstract Experimental East Coast Hip Hop<br />
29 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3xtJ7J0TyOaMqslZdKGkoh?si=7jNtNQTjRGyJoWVmwe1bHg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
For over a decade, Billy Woods has constantly churned out such a consistent display of hip hop’s top albums that it’s difficult to know whether he’s at the utmost highest rung of the underground or already racing up to conquer the mainstream scene. 2023 was much the same, but while the world dropped to unzip the trousers of <em>Maps</em> (his release with Kenny Segal), that project didn’t smash me as hard as some of his previous releases. But Armand Hammer, his collaborative outfit with Elucid, fucking did. As with anything Billy touches, there is an old-school refusal for unnecessarily pretty accessories. Hence, Elucid provides the perfect no-nonsense backdrop, which toys with the abstract line of what-is-or-isn’t a beat. Yet, the music doesn’t submit to the temptation of being abrasive or annoying solely to backhand the listener, rather gifting us with just the right amount of everything to keep us interested at each turn. As for Billy, he sounds as dangerous as ever, like the dark figure blocking the street with a wide smile as you’re crossing a neighbourhood you don’t belong in, past the hour you should be out. I repeat myself, but there appears to be a shift in general rap quality in 2023 with a bountiful harvest to feed from. But this is the hip-hop album of the year for me. Not even a shred of competition.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Geese - 3D Country" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU8n_zEBr2otS9MnvfJxas2XZhotTnnSq2-PZens76a9bXjJxN3nvAZE2RlHi5JvJ9CHTCNQoLnBWAEao0U5BQdBV2QkqWZXJp8inYAR9rh2i9PgoK9a-tvFRmBEpQIJvYeQ8NPW3L59nCJIU-gR-cr0_T4SDyAXBocvBmfixxjEOxgrdIrdWUuA1XTII/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Geese---3D-Country-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>03. Geese - 3D Country</h3>
<i>Alt-Country Indie Art Punk Rock<br />
23 June 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/475CtqaU2OY24xBvIekWV6?si=p47gKi75S6y_yI7Vdoz35Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I can’t remember when last an album caught me off guard with such a left hook before sending me spinning to the floor in a stupified chortle. It’s one of those “catch lightning in a bottle” types of records, where its appetite for originality shocks charisma into every genre it gallops over, perhaps the most inventive “country” derivative I’ve ever heard. No easy comparison points exist (besides The Stones?) due to the quirky moments shifting so rapidly that you instantly forget what came previous. Still, the ride is smacked upwards by such comedic joy that it leaves me panting at the end of the session, serotonin milked dry yet in awe of how this celebratory masterpiece fell from the sky just when our hurting world needed it the most.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3sVnfcGwe-1xgm4QPJm54agl53DvbFbhYdbmEGqky0pSIrg46xRdotdaxy7zVITnDZBU2A20CJV0zQs82nEHZRGX2lE-9BjjdfGboHTf2g3YDcmb3GtuWS-XtQzx_XWXI4mIF5XmmkO-do7JYnK4oIO6O0hK4mPVY4gWKO2Gnf5IuxP0ND4I79_iSwr0/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Mitski---The-Land-Is-Inhospitable-and-So-Are-We.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>02. Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We</h3>
<i>Indie Folk<br />
15 September 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2Cn1d2KgbkAqbZCJ1RzdkA?si=XvM7x5H8SNqJMnf6Y9UN2g" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Full disclaimer: I am Mitski's number-one fan. The love I harness for Mitski has reached a unique level separate from anything I hold for any artist across time and space. And because of this adoration, I felt unworthy to even differentiate between her records, each an extension of the artist, no project superior to the other because they all existed beyond the scope of us mere worshippers. But when <em>The Land Is Inhospitable</em> fluttered into our audio awareness, these sentiments no longer held. Mitski's ability to create unparalleled pieces of original quirk was always her strong point, and that's what makes this record so different, as a brand new branch on that growth, utterly alien to anything that came before. It's a far deeper affair. More mellow. Refusing to disguise the melancholy beneath her signature arty pops, but squeezing the last drop of love from me like lemon. And I am left as nothing. It's difficult to sink into a collection of slow ballads without becoming mediocre, but <em>The Land Is Inhospitable</em> knocks me out cold, and I could listen to it all day (and have). So yes, as Mitski's number-one fan who was unable to pick her greatest album, I now can, and here it is. This is the one.
<br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: XX. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter - SAVED!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheiDXrZxBobitFp6FywQWJ3A0rOhx6yhTtld_vfp6w-9ltRIcZyEkRFxXjW0GN4E_1-az3ZMnojf6Pp6pMWY9le0pfsHdG_CwjHf-PRBxP3pO4zHyx5YBZwZ8d8M__L6oxnDFYMi6EqaiPbnCJ2OukMWIuiKxz8piigmrdcUJ_3kpq379QymLu5WlyQvk/s1600/23Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2023_Reverend-Kristin-Michael-Hayter---SAVED!.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>01. Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter - SAVED!</h3>
<i>Southern Gospel Hymns<br />
20 October 2023<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1IdsqGbN3oB6kAM1Iq0QnC?si=oe_6gvj0SY6rAOgBYRX38A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Kristin Hayter, aka Lingua Ignota, is the unchallenged queen of flipping the switch on Satan and exposing how Christian indoctrinating is a far more terrifying form of religious trauma. But while her previous projects smashed the concept with brute force like a hammer, <em>SAVED!</em> strips out the abrasive industrial and is left with something wholly holy gospel. And in that genre, somehow, it is even more inconceivably distressing. By reflecting on the hymn format to inflict havoc upon our souls, the result is such a fully realised project that it speaks for itself entirely. It doesn't get any better or worse per each listen because it's so set in cold stone that it is what it is and always will be, and there you are with it every time. Like everything she's done, it's the best thing I've ever heard in my life.
<br /><br /><br />
<h3>WITH APOLOGIES TO</h3>
Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall<br />
The HIRS Collective - We're Still Here<br />
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics<br />
Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)<br />
Amaarae - Fountain Baby<br />
Foo Fighters - But Here We Are<br />
Jeff Rosenstock - HELLMODE<br />
Mandaworld - For Emotional Use Only<br />
Trhä - Av◊ëlajnt◊ë£ hinnem nihre<br />
Odz Manouk - Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան)<br />
Victory Over the Sun - Dance You Monster to My Soft Song!<br />
Invent Animate - Heavener<br />
Victoria Monét - JAGUAR II
<br /><br /><br />
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<h3><a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/94986860" target="_blank">READ THE TOP THREE RIGHT NOW!</a></h3>
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Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-74621884070701805432023-11-14T06:06:00.008+00:002023-12-15T07:04:47.257+00:00I Read The Secret Doctrine So You Don't Have To (Theosophy)<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img alt="I Read The Secret Doctrine So You Don't Have To (Theosophy)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dxrpZSwSmGj0sly1RLdjYvkptYevIJP1GhEKhWwhWX0emNguXj32ssJzPdQ4lcsdOJen2yg-oc1wJ2PGo36BYL2zEpSZMkDoj8KER5Afv9eFc2tLE_ddoieLAJSEQwsP7mYhp0J4rSQAWiGcHnY5B-ji2ut_FB9K6QwoYybt_5bGtWqdgNDZNRXYK3s/s1600/Secret-Doctrine-Header.png" style="width: 624px;" /></span></div>
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<div style="font-size: 75%; line-height: 1.3em;">
<i><b>PLEASE NOTE:</b> 2023 is my eighth consecutive year of analysing a book of scripture central to a religion. Before The Secret Doctrine, I absorbed the teachings of <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2016/06/i-read-quran-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Quran</a> (Islam - 2016), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2017/03/i-read-satanic-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Satanic Bible</a> (LaVeyan Satanism - 2017), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2018/09/i-read-dianetics-scientology-book-one.html" target="_blank">Dianetics</a> (Scientology - 2018), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Bible</a> (Christianity - 2019), <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">The Book Of The Law</a> (Thelema - 2020), the <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/03/i-read-tao-te-ching-taoism.html" target="_blank">Tao Te Ching</a> (Taoism - 2021), and <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2022/12/i-read-corpus-hermeticum-so-you-dont.html" target="_blank">The Corpus Hermeticum</a> (Hermeticism - 2022). Check them all out and you will be different for it.
</i></div>
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Reading back on my notes, I was amused to find the words <i>"BE CAREFUL"</i> scrawled at the utmost top of my first page. This is an apt representation of my self-confidence when I initially picked up <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, partially owed to my impressionability, but also as a reflection of author Helena Blavatsky's reputation.<br /><br />
Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (HPB) was born in the USSR in 1831. From a young age, she expressed an obsession with esotericism (and, by some sources, psychic powers), which dictated her line of travel through Asia. Annoyingly, accounts of her journey are so mismatched that nobody knows what to believe, but there is no denying her hunger for knowledge and impossibly vast research abilities. By all narratives, Blavatsky thought of herself as a messianic figure, and she would expend immense energy attempting to prove that to others, which resulted in a hefty body of work from her pen. <br /><br />
So, who gave Blavatsky this audacious vision to speak from these prophetic platforms? Well, the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, of course! According to HPB, she came across enlightened beings (known as the Initiates) who exist on etheric planes alternate to our boring realm. They went by names such as Morya and Koot Hoomi, and they sent her to Tibet to train her in this otherworldly awareness. During this time, she was granted access to holy texts that went beyond those found in human libraries, and when she finally returned to the West, she had a mission to bring this unorthodox insight to the masses.<br /><br />
Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in the States in 1875 and went on to write her two most famous (and largest!) publications. The first was 1877's <i>Isis Unveiled</i>, which was two volumes with a total of 1,471 pages. It came under severe scrutiny as an accused regurgitation of Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and Spiritualism, but it sold well, with 1,000 copies gone within a week.<br /><br />
Eleven years later, in 1888, Blavatsky published her defining work, <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, the topic at hand. Again, at two volumes and 1,478 pages, it was a monumental dumping ground for the seemingly bottomless knowledge Blavatsky possessed—or was indeed taught, as she claimed. <br /><br />
<i>The Secret Doctrine</i> is (so says Blavatsky) essentially a translation (and a detailed interpretation) of a different text titled <i>The Book of Dzyan</i>, the "accumulated Wisdom of the Ages". Reportedly, these ancient collections of Tibetan stanzas hold the keys to unlock the root message of every religious and mystical theology ever, but were long hidden safely away from the public eye. However, even when read, they are cryptically poetic, disguised beneath oodles of symbolism and numerology so that people like us could never comprehend it. But do not fear! The Initiates were there, helping Blavatsky to decode the material and unpick the riddles of the Universe. And that, in summary, is what a significant portion of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> consists of: metaphoric verses with intricate analyses following. <br /><br />
In another explanation, <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> (or <i>The Book of Dzyan</i>) is one lengthy history lesson driven by unprovable yet fascinating speculation packaged as fact. The first volume, <i>Cosmogenesis</i>, focuses on the birth and evolution of the Universe. The second volume, <i>Anthropogenesis</i>, focuses on the evolution of our Earth and the human race. Coupled together, it is sold as the "synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy", and what's more, it delivers on its promise, doing its damndest to amalgamate every shred of knowledge. <br /><br />
Now, to satisfy the subject of philosophy is an easy feat. It is a fluid study by nature that can be debated and then moulded into whatever shape you like. Science is a tougher battle, but Blavatsky does not shy from the matter, trying her best to take these (forgivably dated) understandings on board, connecting them to her grander plan or fervently fighting its findings when incongruent with her cause (which is a brave, if not insane pursuit, and something I will highlight in deeper detail later). <br /><br />
But at its core, Theosophy is a religious organisation, which is undoubtedly Blavatsky's area of expertise. What's known as a "perennial philosophy", Theosophy believes (as do I) that every religious tradition shares a common origin of Ancient Wisdom, feeding from a fundamentally identical schooling. And while it spends tremendous portions discussing the Abrahamic traditions (with more weight to the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5644171280" target="_blank">Gnostics</a> and especially Kabbalah), the Doctrine remains inescapably intertwined within the dharmic teachings of the East. I suppose it's no big surprise. One thing my quest has proven to me is that the further back on the timeline you go, the more powerful the ideas become due to their unrestricted lack of specifics. <i>The Vedas</i> (Hinduism) are some of the (or, very likely, <i>the</i>) most profound scriptures the world has seen, and Theosophy always retains its grip on that narrative. Following the Hindu soil, we have the evolution into Buddhism, of which Theosophy is directly connected. In the beginning, <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> frequently mentions the book <i>Esoteric Buddhism</i>, written by A. P. Sinnett. He was a hugely influential member of the Theosophical movement, and it is a piece I look forward to picking up. <br /><br />
Of course, we could still accuse this publication of potential manipulated data, but Blavatsky does not skip on extensive footnotes (at times taking up the majority of the page) along with a library worth of references. This onslaught of clarifications splits the reading experience in two and weighs heavy upon the slog-like chore that the <i>Secret Doctrine</i> already was. That said, these infinitely pedantic citations assist her case as something she has not just made up by herself and is instead airtight in various of its suggestions. Without the internet, I can't fathom how she's accomplished this project. How many books did she consume to build this tower? The mind spins. <br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; " target="_blank"><img alt="Janthopoyism: Your New Religion" border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk13AKniawRG_8ifdslrTs4w_SwqLOjpm3FO_xCFyR8Z9Ak3DZM_AEkqjhNqfDU9-3_u5v1X9w26fNvWertwbNv-98HSK0m2C857EFVJI42pzTEnEscK4EmW4mwKw1ZzZLoNhO7-5Ty__FOmUtRXW5CwmRZq_hJf8f5IGIOOkYpcRd3t1hgS92aT85/s1600/Jantho-blogger-ad.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></a></div><br />
As for what it teaches, perhaps it's easiest to first lump Theosophy into the Pantheism/Panentheism category, a term Blavatsky has touted while equally refusing to commit to. Here, "God" can be understood as the entirety of the Universe as a collective macrocosm in which we live (or maybe as something that exists slightly higher above this idea, greater than the sum of its parts). Theosophy refers to this as the "Absolute", which is the perfect word if there ever was one. By definition, it is the root of everything from where spirit and matter manifest. And as Theosophy ties so deeply into Hinduism, we could effortlessly trade the concept for Brahman (or Para Brahman, an unnecessary name for an even more potent Brahman, which I learned from this book). These relations to the "Ultimate Reality" have numerous names across different theologies, such as "The All" (<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2022/12/i-read-corpus-hermeticum-so-you-dont.html" target="_blank">Hermeticism</a>), "The One" (Neoplatanism), or, most famously, "The Dao" (<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/03/i-read-tao-te-ching-taoism.html" target="_blank">Daoism</a>), which are interchangeable according to many, including me. It's an undefinable thing. Not necessarily conscious or unconscious. Deeper than anything we can comprehend in our little finite minds. <br /><br />
I happily concur with the above, but my commitment becomes hazy regarding the subdivisions of what should be an unconditional picture. I don't see the necessity of anything other than <i>Everything is Everything</i>. And with the contradicting theories and labels provided across the religious board, what gives each of them the authority to claim the exact mechanics? Because no matter what any theology claims, they are propositions and nothing more.<br /><br />
However, Theosophy's teachings run sickeningly obscure, making for a convincing forcefield of impenetrably intricate arguments. This places the reader in a challenging position if ever asked to repeat what they were told. Nevertheless, some bits stuck with me due to their significance and otherworldliness, and I'll try to relay those now. <br /><br />
Remaining in the Vedic realm, "The Great Breath" (aka Absolute Abstract Motion) is a concept Theosophy subscribes to. It illustrates the emanation from the Absolute's essence, whereby the unfathomable pre-cosmic raw substance "exhales" into an expanded state where everything manifests. Physical objects to principles, phenomena to laws, it is the creation of the illusionary reality (Maya) as we perceive it. But it is still just an exhale. And once we have evolved to the furthest extended point, the inhale will begin, and life as we know it will contract, collapsing into the source. <br /><br />
Within this process, there is another key component known as Fohat. You often bump into this word in Theosophy under a myriad of contexts, but it is essentially "the animating principle electrifying every atom into life." In that way, it is the force that propels atoms together to create discernible material for us to perceive. Quantum mechanics have recently caught up with this in the 1970s with electron properties and the strong interaction of hadron-bound states. Still, of course, there are spoken differences in terms of spiritual presence, even if there does not need to be. <br /><br />
Another reference you'll often encounter (probably above any other) is the number seven. There is not a number in Theosophy that isn't seven or at least somehow manipulated to look like a seven. In many natural ways, it checks out (seven notes on a scale, seven colours in a rainbow, etc.), but for Theosophists, it resonates on a far more profound dimension. And here we come into the evolutionary cycles. <br /><br />
According to the Secret Doctrine, every piece of our world advances through a circle within a circle within a circle. Each of these circles consists of seven points. 0 is the nothingness of the Absolute. 1 - 3 is the emanation away from the source, further into the tangible physical. 4 is the turning point. And 5 - 7 is when we collapse back into spirituality. It's kind of like a respiratory diagram. <br /><br />
Concerning the human race's distinct collective cycle, I believe we have recently surpassed the turning point (now at number 5). It is suspicious because every religion claims its current age as the "shifting era" since the dawn of the written word. Doomsday theories forever state that something is just about to happen. But it never does. It never has. "Time will tell" is what all these prophets say, and so we wait, in the case of the <i>Secret Doctrine</i>, for well over a century, still waiting. What has spiritually changed from its publication date? Perhaps a lot. And to be fair, it does mention that it works as a spectrum, whereby some people will have slid ahead at 6 while others are left behind at 4, etc. Again, it's down to whether you trust the specifics or not. <br /><br />
I could latch onto an endless amount of additional Theosophical ideas, terms, and sevens that attempt to connect to one another with stretchy pieces of gum. But armed with the above knowledge alone, we can already deduce some sort of a rough summary to cover the basics of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>. Everything emanates from the same spiritual source, and the further we evolve, the more entangled with the material illusionary realm we find ourselves (Maya). However, this process goes in cycles with seven defined points, which are made up of infinitely smaller cycles with seven defined points and are part of an infinite amount of bigger cycles made up of seven defined points. As the human race, we have gone through many iterations and our current collective majority have started to return to the source, meaning higher spirituality and fewer material "truths". And this information has been passed to us from otherworldly Ascended Masters (including Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, etc.) who have taught the exact thing through all the fundamental teachings of every religion. <br /><br />
The biggest heartbreak of this story is that <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, even at its near-thousand-and-a-half pages, is an incomplete work. Blavatsky had plans to publish volumes 3 and 4, but she fell victim to the influenza epidemic and died in London in 1891 at the age of 59. At the time of her death, public opinion was polarised. Many accused her of fraudulent assertions (especially surrounding her self-proclaimed paranormal abilities), while many others mourned the loss of profound texts that could have been. However, she did leave behind extensive notes, which were then compiled and rewritten by fellow Theosophist Annie Besant as Volume 3. This publication proved highly controversial, with most Theosophists shunning it. Hence, I am fine with not adding that to my bucket. Still, I wouldn't mind giving it a go one day. Some readers swear it's alright. <br /><br />
But even at only two volumes, I liken Theosophy's central texts to an esoteric bomb blasting down the historical timeline in either direction. When it comes to past holy scriptures, <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> incorporates every one of them, merging and reinterpreting symbolism to form a coherent-ish picture between each. If you pay attention, it is akin to a treasure chest of ideas shattering open. For me, even The Bible could never be read the same again, melting into a metaphorical putty whereby the once fascinating lores were reshaped into semi-scientific ruminations. <br /><br />
Yet, while the past works as a significant pillar beneath this journey, the future is brighter. Was <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> a result of the revival of mysticism in the late 19th century? Or perhaps it was the very cause? Either way, the influence of these teachings remains vast and undeniable. Since its publication, various prominent figures have expressed a deep fascination with the philosophy, including Lewis Carroll, Thomas Edison, Carl Jung, and even Gandhi, who stated, "It is Hinduism at its best. Theosophy is the Brotherhood of Man".<br /><br />
Anthroposophy (which led to Waldorf education) was a direct Theosophical baby as founder Rudolf Steiner was majorly involved in the organisation. There are also unmistakable similarities between author Helena Blavatsky's approach to writing and Aleister Crowley's vague efforts (such as <i><a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">The Book of the Law</a></i>). Scholars have further noted the profound impact this doctrine had on Islamic mysticism (Sufism), not to mention the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism in the West. And, finally, any Western New Age branch you can name has almost certainly sprung off this trunk. <br /><br />
However, the difference between Blavatsky and those inspired works is that she makes everyone look like children. In every way, Steiner, Crowley, and whoever else were too lazy to pursue what Blavatsky managed and ultimately produced half-assed mimicry at best and a worthless pile of hypothetical selective research at worst. In another way, I am reminded of <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/09/david-icke-biggest-secret-book-review.html" target="_blank">David Icke's writing</a>, which inescapably feels like a poor man's Blavatsky from various comparison points. This includes his intentions to be considered a guru, hoping to follow in Helena's footsteps using the cheapest brand of philosophy he could find. One may also argue they both utilise the Gish gallop technique, whereby it's very difficult to confirm their tellings because it's a bombardment of information, overwhelming the reader's patience. In 1992, Icke wrote a book called <i>Love Changes Everything</i>, which is based on Theosophy, and many of his other publications allude to <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, even his lizard-fixation probably stemming from her "ancient dragon men" claims.<br /><br />
The authority of her resume makes sense when diving into the murky thickness of her work, as like <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Bible</a>, its so convoluted that you can yank it in any direction you prefer. To make matters even more confusing, Blavatsky has said that we should not read this book before reading <i>The Key to Theosophy</i>, which I didn't do. Additionally, she has explicitly stated not to attempt it from cover to cover, as one will only become frustrated. I can attest to this fact. She has provided alternate sequencing, but enjoying a book in its page order is the traditional method of reading, and I'm old school. So I did so, and have no regrets.<br /><br />
Still, the repercussions of my actions were evident very early on. I realised I was sinking and retaliated by souping up my artillery as fast I could using outside methods. First, I watched around <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2hdnG6eeI" target="_blank">eight hours of video where Pablo Sender explained <i>The Doctrine Doctrine</i></a>. He is a Theosophist who really knows his stuff, and I got a lot out of that. I then read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5646809372" target="_blank">The Secret Doctrine abridged version by Michael Gomes</a>, which is wholly ill-advised by HPB and Theosophists alike. But as it was consumed in conjunction with the real thing, it certainly assisted. Extra shout-outs to <a href="https://theosophy.wiki/en/Main_Page" target="_blank">Theosophy Wiki</a> and <a href="https://www.theosophy.world/" target="_blank">Theosophy World</a> for the light when I got stuck. And I must finally note that I studied the <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2022/12/i-read-corpus-hermeticum-so-you-dont.html" target="_blank">Corpus Hermeticum</a> in the middle of my <i>Secret Doctrine</i> undertaking, and this additional wisdom unlocked a ton of these teachings that I did not understand before. I imagine by investigating each religion separately, you will uncover new corners of this education that weren't available to you previously.<br /><br />
But despite my efforts, Blavatsky's dedication to an unavoidably theoretical field, mixed with her unrestrained flood of knowledge, leaves us with an impossible book to fully grasp—definitely the most testing I've ever attempted. Without a doubt, you'll need quite the background in spiritual scripture for any of this information to penetrate your aching skull because it drops you into an ocean of preexisting conceptions and expects you to swim on your own. I consider myself pretty versed in religious subjects, but I struggled to hold onto more than 60% of these passages, and even that may be an overestimate. My ultimate strategy was to get through four pages a day. Any more than that, my fatigue would reject it. <br /><br />
Yet in there lies perhaps <i>The Doctrine</i>'s strongest weapon. The topics are so expansive that they cover everything, drawing dots based on selective research and then joining the dots they drew anyway. Utilising this method, one can compose anything they like, interpreting obscure information to fit the convictions they designed themselves. Explicit statements are made about unprovable assumptions while compartmentalising aspects of other theories repackaged with different names. Furthermore, it's so tricky to discern what's metaphorical and what's literal, and I never knew what to take note of because even the most intriguing of sections could just as easily be imaginary. Numerology is a particularly bothersome example as one cannot verify it, leaving an easy path to influence coincidence while relying on the reader to accept what it means in the context provided. I admire the boldness, but taking something's word for its word is a dangerous game, and I cannot be a part of that.<br /><br />
Regardless, even when meeting these complex subjects on their level, her writing often fails us too, with a waffling tendency to overexplain everything for countless pages, complicating the read further. I do blame some of this on a language barrier. Her English is fluent and articulate, but she makes the most common error second-language people make, which is over-compensating through verbosity. She unnecessarily adds poetics and fairy tale wording to stitch together strange terminology that elongates sentences to breaking point. <br /><br />
Following a side thought, her style reminds me of <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2018/09/i-read-dianetics-scientology-book-one.html" target="_blank">L. Ron Hubbard</a> (or rather, chronologically, L. Ron Hubbard reminds me of her), where every sentence is amplified into pedantic theoretical explanations that muddle instead of clarifying and would be better served if simplified. There's an easier way! It's the curse of philosophers, I suppose, too smarty pants for their own good. It lifts her to an unattainable standard, producing scripture that makes less sense than any I've read, not necessarily because it's unbelievable or insane, but because it's so challenging to comprehend. This, by the way, was not the case for Hubbard, as his material could be summarised in a Tweet. <br /><br />
If you can handle it, my qualms with <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> have only just begun. Perhaps scholars' most noted issue is that the existence of the Initiates and <i>The Book of Dzya</i>n has only one reference point: Blavatsky herself. Due to this lack of evidence, these stanzas face much-deserved criticism and debunking. The historian community generally hypothesise that Blavatsky made it all up as the world's biggest exercise in spiritual masturbation. In fairness, however, Blavatsky counters by acknowledging the opposition, agreeing that no scholar could possibly believe her, which, in turn, makes me slightly more inclined to believe her. <br /><br />
But it doesn't help her case when she (rather ballsily) attacks accepted scientific theories. Initiates blessing Blavatsky with secret knowledge, sure, fine, I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of the experience. And who am I to say she's fabricating that story, anyway? But when she claims the moon is older than the sun. And when she claims we did not evolve from monkeys. And when she spends chapters trying to convince us of the former existence of giants and dragons. That's when I'd be more reluctant to defend her work in public. Although, strangely, the Biblical dragons could be dinosaurs, right? Tales may have been spun surrounding those fossils, surely? I could play that game.<br /><br />
Another speed bump shrouded beneath every occult text is the dedication to the ancients. We study archaic symbology for clues to a hidden knowledge once possessed that we do not. In one way, I accept this as plausible. The evolution of the human mind eventually demanded logic from a Universe that was largely built on semi-illogical energetic forces (and that is scientific, as we see now with the anti-classical unpredictable nature of quantum studies). At the same time, perhaps the truth is sillier than that, whereby the ancients were simple creatures and grasped onto things around them for profound godlike symbolism, such as the egg, the snake, and the sun. Maybe the occult is the process of studying the cryptics <i>into</i> the tokens, which is no better than those who take them literally.<br /><br />
But perhaps the trickiest conversation is Blavatsky's alleged racism. So much of her work revolves around the progression of humans, and our races play an immense role in that. This becomes problematic because, in doing so, she creates a hierarchy between human categories. Many have observed indications of antisemitism (which are reportedly the result of Blavatsky's hatred for Christianity, rooted in Judaism), and others note Theosophy's influence on Ariosophy (basically esoteric Nazism). Meanwhile, I spotted fairly horrid statements about the Indigenous Australians, among less frequent examples. <br /><br />
Of course, Theosophists fight back, stating that there are races who are more physically/spiritually evolved, yet we all derive from the same divine spark. That doesn't make anything better. However, what will soften me is that times were very different in 1888, and people were a product of their society, unaware of how offensive they were because those parameters had not yet been defined (as they continue to be sharpened yearly). The dregs of racism are dying out, but they still live strongest within the ignorance of older generations. They are of a contrasting period. We can't argue our way through convictions of that age, but we can smile and nod as we graph how such stances will pass from the conversation soon. There's never an excuse, but in this perception, one can find immense hope. <br /><br />
Be that as it may, and moving on, I consider my plethora of complaints to be of no relevance. Even if HPB is talking absolute rubbish pulled from her bum, it's the highest-quality bum-stuff I've ever come across. She took no shortcuts here. The amount of labour that has gone into such an incomprehensible undertaking can be easily weighed simply by holding these heavy books in your hand. And whatever the outcome, she was utterly committed to the task. <br /><br />
Perhaps making up a juicy backstory about the Initiates was a smart move to muster attention or validate her theories using some grand mystical fable. Maybe every religion requires its folklore, as they have each done so. But what is indisputable is that Blavatsky is one of the most impressive religious academics ever to author a book. For starters, she spoke Russian, Georgian, English, French, Italian, Arabic, and Sanskrit, which is exceptional by any standard. More on topic, I would bet money that nobody can find anyone who grasps exoteric and esoteric wisdom as in-depth as she does. Her obsession with these topics hardens like cement between the quantity and quality of her content, so much so that I do not have the knowledge even to suggest what she may have left out. And, remember, she achieved this in the late 1800s, internetless and all! This adds up to a compelling piece of education, one that, if nothing else, she certainly believes. Hence, no matter what was or wasn't a fabrication, the data is still far ahead of anything that came before or since, proven by the persistence of its influence. And maybe that's all the truth we need?<br /><br />
Because there is a transcendent fact above this: Blavatsky is not preying on stupid people. Quite the opposite, Theosophy's target market is the most educated of society, even if those readers must have some leeway when it comes to a scientifically provable reality. That is a very thin section to be aiming for! But instead of dumbing her message down to reach a larger audience, she went out of her way with a minimal payoff, considering how relatively unknown Theosophy remains. <br /><br />
Hence, it sits snugly in the underground library, the material far too challenging to rear its head in any commercial circles, remaining largely unheard of and unread. There is an extra mystical flavour to that result, whereby there are esoteric teachings, and then there are <i>full-blown expert-level borderline impenetrable occult teachings</i>. And even if they bubble into your pool of awareness, you still could never decode it, upholding the "secret" in <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>. If there is a more complex scripture, I can't read it. <br /><br />
Theosophy deserves much higher praise, and it's almost tragic how under-spread it is, considering the monumental complexities it offers. Given the era it is written, it's odd that it didn't alter the world more than it did (or that she didn't get murdered). Because if you choose to believe it, it will change everything in your life. But did I believe it? Did it change everything in my life? And the answer is... not that simple.<br /><br />
For me, Theosophy resonated less as a spiritual religion and more as a mental one. Even as you start to find your groove, it's a textbook education rather than an intense realisation. It spends so many of its pages arguing its case using all the logic it can—which is admirable and imperative for our current science-based mindsets—but it loses stacks of what we should <i>feel</i> in its arguments. Then again, Theosophists assert that <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> isn't meant to be understood per se. These texts are meant to be meditated upon until the reader experiences their own truths within the words. There's an intended stimulation of the spirit and development of the mind in a way that awakens a deeper level of perception. And perhaps something like that happened to me, but it's impossible to say. It took two years to complete this book, and my spiritual comprehension has leapt forward immeasurably in that time. But is this owed to Theosophy? Or my countless other readings and musings? With such a varied mix of beliefs smashed into my brain every day, how could I differentiate and credit accordingly? <br /><br />
Personally, I don't value that type of analysis. Whatever happens on the quest for enlightenment, you kinda have to go with it and hope pieces leap out, stick, and make changes in your thought patterns. And certainly, hefty sections of this book did just that. Like anything worthy, it operates subconsciously, where later reflections and imaginary scenarios develop profound connections to illogical notions. The answer is not about finding answers. It's about gradually accessing higher planes of spiritual awareness until you break through. But break through what, exactly? The Maya? Is that even a good idea? What then? I've met people who claim to have "escaped the Matrix", and the only aspect they had in common was that they were arrogant self-celebratory condescending assholes with zero proof of their claims. <br /><br />
Still, somewhere in these vague theoretical ramblings, I am more likely to locate my place than other comparable texts. The fundamental ideology of Theosophy feels 100% legit to me (even if it's nothing particularly new—although, then again, are my familiar ideas rooted in Theosophy anyway?). And if you think it's rubbish, where is the harm? It never asks anyone to perform strange rituals or obey restricting practices. It just wants to be heard because it has much to say, even if what it says is either things I've already thought of, things that were too hypothetical to resonate with me, or things entirely over my head due to their complexities.<br /><br />
However, none of this detracts from how impressive the work was, and perhaps most importantly, how it granted me the ability to let go and sink deeper into all realms of theology as metaphors, finding better ways to connect everything into the same picture, including philosophy and science. As I type this, my fascination with <i>The Book of Genesis</i> as a symbolic tale has intensified to permanent excitement, and I owe the seeds of that to <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>.<br /><br />
Futhermore, mini-epiphanies (epiph-minis?) did occur albeit with expansive spaces between them. Certain lines within this book made me feel like I was on drugs. Remembering to exist from the Hindu position of Atman (soul), and then reconnecting as one through Brahman—where you are me, I am you, we are everything, the nonduality of reality—these notions loudly clicked at certain junctures during this journey, and today I find it easier to get back there. Such concepts may not be exclusive to Theosophy; indeed, they are shared across any mystical work worth its bread. But that is the primary reason we read esoteric materials anyway. They collaborate to unhurriedly bump our perspectives into new shapes, reframing the Universe and slowly kneading out the hidden knowledge that millions of gurus have agreed upon from history until now. So while the realisations were subtle, they were there, allowing me to venture onward on this mission armed with a toolbox so fucking massive that only Blavatsky could have passed it on. I have had several religious debates recently, and my retorts have honed into something relatively unblockable.<br /><br />
If I reread <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, it'd be a completely different experience, and if I read it a thousand times, I still would not fully understand it. But this observation is a compliment and should apply to any reputable spiritual material. You have to dedicate your life to the study, and then perhaps you will achieve enlightenment because there is an inevitable power within the repeated process. But will I ever read it again? With all the other books out there? It seems doubtful. <br /><br />
Closing in on the end and in some sort of an overview, I have to commend Theosophy for arriving at the same fundamental conclusions that <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/index.php" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a> has (my religion). It's that every strand of knowledge is correct and connected. The only difference is that while Blavatsky uses a convoluted comb to twine each hair, Janthopoyism takes the opposite root of simplifying the subject to their barest bones and disregarding the rest as fat. There is no right or wrong approach here. In fact, they work quite well together in parallel studies. But unsurprisingly, I prefer Janthopoyism. One of the reasons why is that it protects me. It resonates so profoundly within my soul that it'd be difficult for any other belief system to come and swallow me up. Hence, my intentions to <i>"BE CAREFUL"</i> were laughable by the end, for which I am grateful. <br /><br />
I am honoured to be surely one of the very few who have read <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> in its entirety (on a side note, I carried these heavy books across <a href="https://jaredwoodssavedmylife.com/jarexit/" target="_blank">33 countries</a> over that time, which was a nightmare in itself!). I wore my reservations on display, but I stand by the statement that, of any spiritual author I know about, Helena Blavatsky exists on a plane several dimensions above the others in terms of education, confidence, and the effort she's exerted to get her word out. Her knowledge is demonstrable, her teachings are religiously inclusive, her ideas are recent enough, and her message is endlessly intricate, warranting a lifetime of analysis that will never reach the bottom (just like every theology must be!). Because of that, I have no problem claiming Helena Blavatsky as the most impressive "prophet" I've ever researched. If she was still around, I'd more likely follow her than anybody else, feeling secure that even if I was wrong, she could at least annihilate absolutely everyone in an argument until they were a wet pulp of regret. <br /><br /><br />
And that's it! Now, as customary, I shall be snipping stand-out pieces from <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, calling attention to them while adding my two cents to each. Initially, I was concerned that these pull quotes would make little sense when individualised out of context, but while tying this article together, I think it might be ok. You'll get a feel for her writing and what I was dealing with anyway. As per every year, please forgive speling erors, misinterpretations, and my habit of comparing everything to <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/index.php" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a>. Enjoy!
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2022/12/i-read-corpus-hermeticum-so-you-dont.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read the Tao Te Ching So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdskRbEMiUuLtLEQwq6XwjfvUoBz6OJjgnhOGneOHbrQwV1i2vCSGAV59pRlkNW-ti0hoBCnLoeIW0z2UIqZ5TWzW8OaF0rHJtsK-9P9l64o14h-sVdMaM7BojAGbHu1j6TKuAvUPdbe7DKH6OGbQBjDeU9NNLAo4BfnH1pW5JBLESR0cAcWE9F3Jt/s1600/I-Read-the-Corpus-Hermeticum.png" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2022/12/i-read-corpus-hermeticum-so-you-dont.html" target="_blank">I Read The Corpus Hermeticum So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="theparts">
VOLUME I<br />
Cosmogenesis
</div>
<br />
The first volume, the origin and evolution of the universe! It's very Hindu-based, as previously noted.<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
PREFACE
</div>
<br />
This section is about the texts that have gone missing and how they unlock the magic of the ancient scripture that we have yet misunderstood because we lack certain “keys”. I was taking notes diligently at this point.<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
INTRODUCTORY
</div>
<br />
One God, all religions are the same. Esoteric teachings have been passed down but people weren’t ready; hence, it was bastardised then lost?<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As real Occultism had been prevalent among the Mystics during the centuries that preceded our era, so Magic, or rather Sorcery, with its Occult Arts, followed the beginning of Christianity. <br />
</div><br />
I am heavily spinning off into Gnostic studies lately, so this computes, but what about Kabbalah?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As to those who may reject her testimony, -- i.e., the great majority -- she will bear them no malice, for they will be as right in their way in denying, as she is right in hers in affirming, since they look at TRUTH from two entirely different stand-points. Agreeably with the rules of critical scholarship, the Orientalist has to reject a priori whatever evidence he cannot fully verify for himself. And how can a Western scholar accept on hearsay that which he knows nothing about? Indeed, that which is given in these volumes is selected from oral, as much as from written teachings. This first instalment of the esoteric doctrines is based upon Stanzas, which are the records of a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency, incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special hobby of their own to defend. Therefore, the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand.<br />
</div><br />
I respect and appreciate her for recognising this.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Says Faigi Diwan, the "witness to the wonderful speeches of a free-thinker who belongs to a thousand sects": "In the assembly of the day of resurrection, when past things shall be forgiven, the sins of the Ka'bah will be forgiven for the sake of the dust of Christian churches." To this, Professor Max Muller replies: "The sins of Islam are as worthless as the dust of Christianity. On the day of resurrection both Muhammadans and Christians will see the vanity of their religious doctrines. Men fight about religion on earth -- in heaven they shall find out that there is only one true religion -- the worship of God's SPIRIT."<br />
</div><br />
Agree with this 100.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This period, beginning with Buddha and Pythagoras at the one end and the Neo-Platonists and Gnostics at the other, is the only focus left in
History wherein converge for the last time the bright rays of light streaming from the aeons of time gone by, unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanaticism.<br />
</div><br />
I wish I understood this better. Why are those examples on each side of the spectrum?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
But to the public in general and the readers of the "Secret Doctrine" I may repeat what I have stated all along, and which I now clothe in the words of Montaigne: Gentlemen, "I HAVE HERE MADE ONLY A NOSEGAY OF CULLED FLOWERS, AND HAVE BROUGHT NOTHING OF MY OWN BUT THE STRING THAT TIES THEM." <br />
</div><br />
A splendidly visual introduction! She takes very little credit for this content. That's the type of attitude that separates her from any other "prophet" I can think of.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
PROEM
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
To use a Metaphor from the Secret Books, which will convey the idea still more clearly, an out-breathing of the 'unknown essence' produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to disappear. This process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one of an infinite series, which had no beginning and will have no end."<br />
</div><br />
The Great Breath is something Theosophy really got me into. We are an exhale of "God", and will retact into nothing just as quick (as in billions of years).
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This passage will be explained, as far as it is possible, in the present work. Though, as it now stands, it contains nothing new to the Orientalist, its esoteric interpretation may contain a good deal which has hitherto remained entirely unknown to the Western student. <br />
</div><br />
This paragraph precedes a plethora of shapes and symbols that represent different ages of evolution. I find it fascianting but it would be too much include here, and futhermore, what good does it really do?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is not the One Unknown ever-present God in Nature, or Nature in abscondito, that is rejected, but the God of human dogma and his humanized "Word." In his infinite conceit and inherent pride and vanity, man shaped it himself with his sacrilegious hand out of the material he found in his own small brain-fabric, and forced it upon mankind as a direct revelation from the one unrevealed SPACE.<br />
</div><br />
So through the truth of "God" we created a bastardised version of "God". It’s exactly how I feel.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Every atom being said to contain in itself creative energy of the divine breath. <br />
</div><br />
Electron worship! Janthopoyism all the way. (This was a footnote)
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The reader who is not a Theosophist, is once more invited to regard all that which follows as a fairy tale, if he likes; at best as one of the yet unproven speculations of dreamers; and, at the worst, as an additional hypothesis to the many Scientific hypotheses past, present and future, some exploded, others still lingering. It is not in any sense worse than are many of the so called Scientific theories; and it is in every case more philosophical and probable. <br />
</div><br />
Lines like these work so well in her favour. I feel she knows this.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA I
</div>
<br />
The core content of The Secret Doctrine is The Book of Dzyan, sacred texts revealed exclusively to Blavatsky, which she spends analysing, stanza by stanza. There are many problems with this which I have noted above, but that makes the information no less interesting. <br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"The number seven," says the Kabala, "is the great number of the Divine Mysteries;"<br />
</div><br />
Everything in Theosophy is about the number seven. Everything. If there's a seven somewhere, it'll show you. If there's not a seven somewhere, it'll make one.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for everything that exists has only a relative, not an absolute, reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any observer depends upon his power of cognition. To the untrained eye of the savage, a painting is at first an unmeaning confusion of streaks and daubs of color, while an educated eye sees instantly a face or a landscape. Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the noumena of all realities. The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest DhyanChohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows cast by a magic lantern on a colourless screen; but all things are relatively real, for the cogniser is also a reflection, and the things cognised are therefore as real to him as himself. <br />
</div><br />
Well-put and it agrees with my beliefs.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"The Causes of Existence" mean not only the physical causes known to science, but the metaphysical causes, the chief of which is the desire to exist, an outcome of Nidana and Maya. This desire for a sentient life shows itself in everything, from an atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought propelled into objective existence, into a law that the Universe should exist. According to esoteric teaching, the real cause of that supposed desire, and of all existence, remains for ever hidden, and its first emanations are the most complete abstractions mind can conceive. These abstractions must of necessity be postulated as the cause of the material Universe which presents itself to the senses and intellect; and they underlie the secondary and subordinate powers of Nature, which, anthropomorphized, have been worshipped as God and gods by the common herd of every age. It is impossible to conceive anything without a cause; the attempt to do so makes the mind a blank.<br />
</div><br />
I have thought this myself yet it continues to blow my mind.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA II
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The question whether Hydrogen and Oxygen cease to exist, when they combine to form water, is still a moot one, some arguing that since they are found again when the water is decomposed they must be there all the while; others contending that as they actually turn into something totally different they must cease to exist as themselves for the time being; but neither side is able to form the faintest conception of the real condition of a thing, which has become something else and yet has not ceased to be itself. Existence as water may be said to be, for Oxygen and Hydrogen, a state of Non-being which is "more real being" than their existence as gases; and it may faintly symbolise the condition of the Universe when it goes to sleep, or ceases to be, during the "Nights of Brahma" -- to awaken or reappear again, when the dawn of the new Manvantara recalls it to what we call existence.<br />
</div><br />
Well said, easy to understand.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
If, in the Vedanta and Nyaya, nimitta is the efficient cause, as contrasted with upadana, the material cause, (and in the Sankhya, pradhana implies the functions of both); in the Esoteric philosophy, which reconciles all these systems, and the nearest exponent of which is the Vedanta as expounded by the Advaita Vedantists, none but the upadana can be speculated upon; that which is in the minds of the Vaishnavas (the Vasishta-dvaita) as the ideal in contradistinction to the real -- or Parabrahm and Isvara -- can find no room in published speculations, since that ideal even is a misnomer, when applied to that of which no human reason, even that of an adept, can conceive. <br />
</div><br />
Sentences like these are a good example as to why The Secret Doctrine is so hard to read! You lose track of the train of thought by the end! You have no ideaa where you began!
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA III
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The simile of an egg also expresses the fact taught in Occultism that the primordial form of everything manifested, from atom to globe, from man to angel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations the emblem of eternity and infinity -- a serpent swallowing its tail. To realize the meaning, however, the sphere must be thought of as seen from its centre. The field of vision or of thought is like a sphere whose radii proceed from one's self in every direction, and extend out into space, opening up boundless vistas all around. It is the symbolical circle of Pascal and the Kabalists, "whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere," a conception which enters into the compound idea of this emblem. <br />
</div><br />
The symbols of eggs and snakes (ouroboros) explained, which are obvious as an enternal life type of cycle. Eggs coming out of creatures coming out of eggs. Snakes shedding their skin to become brand new.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As Balzac, the unconscious Occultist of French literature, says somewhere, the Number is to Mind the same as it is to matter: "an incomprehensible agent;" (perhaps so to the profane, never to the Initiated mind). Number is, as the great writer thought, an Entity, and, at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he called God and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone could organize the physical Kosmos, "where naught obtains its form but through the Deity, which is an effect of Number." <br />
</div><br />
Numerology explained somewhat. Something here I like.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The curds are the first differentiation, and probably refer also to that cosmic matter which is supposed to be the origin of the "Milky Way" -- the matter we know. This "matter," which, according to the revelation received from the primeval Dhyani-Buddhas, is, during the periodical sleep of the Universe, of the ultimate tenuity conceivable to the eye of the perfect Bodhisatva -- this matter, radical and cool, becomes, at the first reawakening of cosmic motion, scattered through Space; appearing, when seen from the Earth, in clusters and lumps, like curds in thin milk. These are the seeds of the future worlds, the "Star-stuff." <br />
</div><br />
Poetic in Blavatsky's standard verbose manner.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The essence of darkness being absolute light, Darkness is taken as the appropriate allegorical representation of the condition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute rest, or nonbeing, as it appears to our finite minds. The "fire," "heat," and "motion" here spoken of, are, of course, not the fire, heat, and motion of physical science, but the underlying abstractions, the noumena, or the soul, of the essence of these material manifestations -- the "things in themselves," which, as modern science confesses, entirely elude the instruments of the laboratory, and which even the mind cannot grasp, although it can equally little avoid the conclusion that these underlying essences of things must exist. Fire and Water, or Father* and Mother, may be taken here to mean the divine Ray and Chaos. "Chaos, from this union with Spirit obtaining sense, shone with pleasure, and thus was produced the Protogonos (the first-born light)," says a fragment of Hermas. Damascius calls it Dis in "Theogony" -- "The disposer of all things." <br />
</div><br />
Again, this does make sense. We interpret things the best we can using the only words we know.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
No religious symbol can escape profanation and even derision in our days of politics and Science. In Southern India the writer has seen a converted native making pujah with offerings before a statue of Jesus clad in woman's clothes and with a ring in his nose. When asking the meaning of the masquerade we were answered that it was Jesu-Maria blended in one, and that it was done by the permission of the Padri, as the zealous convert had no money to purchase two statues or "idols" as they, very properly, were called by a witness -- another but a non-converted Hindu. Blasphemous this will appear to a dogmatic Christian, but the Theosophist and the Occultist must award the palm of logic to the
converted Hindu. The esoteric Christos in the gnosis is, of course, sexless, but in exoteric theology he is male and female. <br />
</div><br />
Very cool story!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
If the student bears in mind that there is but One Universal Element, which is infinite, unborn, and undying, and that all the rest -- as in the world of phenomena -- are but so many various differentiated aspects and transformations (correlations, they are now called) of that One, from Cosmical down to microcosmical effects, from super-human down to human and sub-human beings, the totality, in short, of objective existence -- then the first and chief difficulty will disappear and Occult Cosmology may be mastered.<br />
</div><br />
This is 100% what I have come to understand. It’s all the same stuff manifested in different ways. I guess one could tie it into electron activity again.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Fohat hardens and scatters the seven brothers" (Book III. Dzyan); which means that the primordial Electric Entity -- for the Eastern Occultists insist that Electricity is an Entity -- electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and consciousness. "There exists an universal agent unique of all forms and of life, that is called Od, Ob, and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative, like day and night: it is the first light in Creation" (Eliphas Levi's Kabala): --- the first Light of the primordial Elohim -- the Adam, "male and female" -- or (scientifically) ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. <br />
</div><br />
Again, this resonates with me.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA IV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
"When our Soul (mind) creates or evokes a thought, the representative sign of that thought is self-engraved upon the astral fluid, which is the receptacle and, so to say, the mirror of all the manifestations of being.<br /><br />
"The sign expresses the thing: the thing is the (hidden or occult) virtue of the sign.<br /><br />
"To pronounce a word is to evoke a thought, and make it present: the magnetic potency of the human speech is the commencement of every manifestation in the Occult World. To utter a Name is not only to define a Being (an Entity), but to place it under and condemn it through the emission of the Word (Verbum), to the influence of one or more Occult potencies. Things are, for every one of us, that which it (the Word) makes them while naming them. The Word (Verbum) or the speech of every man is, quite unconsciously to himself, a BLESSING or a CURSE; this is why our present ignorance about the properties or attributes of the IDEA as well as about the attributes and properties of MATTER, is often fatal to us. <br /><br />
"Yes, names (and words) are either BENEFICENT or MALEFICENT; they are, in a certain sense, either venomous or health-giving, according to the hidden influences attached by Supreme Wisdom to their elements, that is to say, to the LETTERS which compose them, and the NUMBERS correlative to these letters."<br /><br />
This is strictly true as an esoteric teaching accepted by all the Eastern Schools of Occultism. In the Sanskrit, as also in the Hebrew and all other alphabets, every letter has its occult meaning and its rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a preceding cause and a combination of these very often produces the most magical effect. The vowels, especially, contain the most occult and formidable potencies. The Mantras (esoterically, magical rather than religious) are chanted by the Brahmins and so are the Vedas and other Scriptures. <br />
</div><br />
The quotes are by P. Christian, the author of "The History of Magic" and of "L'Homme Rouge des Tuileries". Basically, everything we speak (and do?) merges with the cosmos? This is stuff I think about a lot.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
For, as observed by one of the modern adepts of Astrology, "Now that photography has revealed to us the chemical influence of the Sidereal system, by fixing on the sensitized plate of the apparatus milliards of stars and planets that had hitherto baffled the efforts of the most powerful telescopes to discover them, it becomes easier to understand how our solar system can, at the birth of a child, influence his brain -- virgin of any impression -- in a definite manner and according to the presence on the zenith of such or another zodiacal constellation."
</div><br />
I'm not an astronomy junkie but this is a great way of putting this. Undeniable, really.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA V
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The question will surely be asked, "Do the Occultists believe in all these 'Builders,' 'Lipika,' and 'Sons of Light' as Entities, or are they merely imageries?" To this the answer is given as plainly: "After due allowance for the imagery of personified Powers, we must admit the existence of these Entities, if we would not reject the existence of spiritual humanity within physical mankind. For the hosts of these Sons of Light and 'Mind-born Sons' of the first manifested Ray of the UNKNOWN ALL, are the very root of spiritual man." Unless we want to believe the unphilosophical dogma of a specially created soul for every human birth -- a fresh supply of these pouring in daily, since "Adam" -- we have to admit the occult teachings. This will be explained in its place.
</div><br />
I was waiting for this. Are these entities merely personifications of a greater force? Apparently not, they are legit. Again, I am unconvinced.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hegel, the great German thinker, must have known or sensed intuitionally this truth when saying, as he did, that the Unconscious evolved the Universe only "in the hope of attaining clear self-consciousness," of becoming, in other words, MAN; for this is also the secret meaning of the usual Puranic phrase about Brahma being constantly "moved by the desire to create." This explains also the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying: "The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god." The Mind-born Sons, the Rishis, the Builders, etc., were all men -- of whatever forms and shapes -- in other worlds and the preceding Manvantaras.
</div><br />
Evolution is Brahma's Great Breath (although, I'd prefer it if they said Brahman). I dig the "Breath becomes a stone..." bit.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The "fiery Wind" is the incandescent Cosmic dust which only follows magnetically, as the iron filings follow the magnet, the directing thought of the "Creative Forces." Yet, this cosmic dust is something more; for every atom in the Universe has the potentiality of self-consciousness in it, and is, like the Monads of Leibnitz, a Universe in itself, and for itself. It is an atom and an angel.
</div><br />
Following on closely from the previous, and this page turned out to be one of my favourites. The divinity of the atom agrees with my understanding completely.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important character in esoteric Cosmogony, should be minutely described. As in the oldest Grecian Cosmogony, differing widely from the later mythology, Eros is the third person in the primeval trinity: Chaos, Gaea, Eros: answering to the Kabalistic En-Soph (for Chaos is SPACE, [[Chaino]], "void") the Boundless ALL, Shekinah and the Ancient of Days, or the Holy Ghost; so Fohat is one thing in the yet unmanifested Universe and another in the phenomenal and Cosmic World. In the latter, he is that Occult, electric, vital power, which, under the Will of the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving them the first impulse which becomes in time law. But in the unmanifested Universe, Fohat is no more this, than Eros is the later brilliant winged Cupid, or LOVE. Fohat has naught to do with Kosmos yet, since Kosmos is not born, and the gods still sleep in the bosom of "Father-Mother." He is an abstract philosophical idea. He produces nothing yet by himself; he is simply that potential creative power in virtue of whose action the NOUMENON of all future phenomena divides, so to speak, but to reunite in a mystic supersensuous act, and emit the creative ray. When the "Divine Son" breaks forth, then Fohat becomes the propelling force, the active Power which causes the ONE to become TWO and THREE -- on the Cosmic plane of manifestation. The triple One differentiates into the many, and then Fohat is transformed into that force which brings together the elemental atoms and makes them aggregate and combine. We find an echo of this primeval teaching in early Greek mythology. Erebos and Nux are born out of Chaos, and, under the action of Eros, give birth in their turn to Ether and Hemera, the light of the superior and the light of the inferior or terrestrial regions. Darkness generates light. See in the Puranas Brahma's "Will" or desire to create; and in the Phoenician Cosmogony of Sanchoniathon the doctrine that Desire, [[pothos]], is the principle of creation.
</div><br />
A long but detailed definition for Fohat, which is essentially the Pantheistic god with unnecessary add-ons imo. We continue directly on...
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Fohat is closely related to the "ONE LIFE." From the Unknown One, the Infinite TOTALITY, the manifested ONE, or the periodical, Manvantaric Deity, emanates; and this is the Universal Mind, which, separated from its Fountain-Source, is the Demiurgos or the creative Logos of the Western Kabalists, and the four-faced Brahma of the Hindu religion. In its totality, viewed from the standpoint of manifested Divine Thought in the esoteric doctrine, it represents the Hosts of the higher creative Dhyan Chohans. Simultaneously with the evolution of the Universal Mind, the concealed Wisdom of Adi-Buddha -- the One Supreme and eternal -- manifests itself as Avalokiteshwara (or manifested Iswara), which is the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Heavenly Man of the Hermetic philosopher, the Logos of the Platonists, and the Atman of the Vedantins.* By the action of the manifested Wisdom, or Mahat, represented by these innumerable centres of spiritual Energy in the Kosmos, the reflection of the Universal Mind, which is Cosmic Ideation and the intellectual Force accompanying such ideation, becomes objectively the Fohat of the Buddhist esoteric philosopher. Fohat, running along the seven principles of AKASA, acts upon manifested substance or the One Element, as declared above, and by differentiating it into various centres of Energy, sets in motion the law of Cosmic Evolution, which, in obedience to the Ideation of the Universal Mind, brings into existence all the various states of being in the manifested Solar System.<br /><br />
The Solar System, brought into existence by these agencies, consists of Seven Principles, like everything else within these centres. Such is the teaching of the trans-Himalayan Esotericism. Every philosophy, however, has its own way of dividing these principles. <br /><br />
Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes, the action of which resembles -- on an immense scale -- that of a living Force created by WILL, in those phenomena where the seemingly subjective acts on the seemingly objective and propels it to action. Fohat is not only the living Symbol and Container of that Force, but is looked upon by the Occultists as an Entity -- the forces he acts upon being cosmic, human and terrestrial, and exercising their influence on all those planes respectively. On the earthly plane his influence is felt in the magnetic and active force generated by the strong desire of the magnetizer. On the Cosmic, it is present in the constructive power that carries out, in the formation of things -- from the planetary system down to the glow-worm and simple daisy -- the plan in the mind of nature, or in the Divine Thought, with regard to the development and growth of that special thing. He is, metaphysically, the objectivised thought of the gods; the "Word made flesh," on a lower scale, and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations: the active force in Universal Life. In his secondary aspect, Fohat is the Solar Energy, the electric vital fluid, and the preserving fourth principle, the animal Soul of Nature, so to say, or -- Electricity. In India, Fohat is connected with Vishnu and Surya in the early character of the (first) God; for Vishnu is not a high god in the Rig Veda. The name Vishnu is from the root vish, "to pervade," and Fohat is called the "Pervader" and the Manufacturer, because he shapes the atoms from crude material.* In the sacred texts of the Rig Veda, Vishnu, also, is "a manifestation of the Solar Energy," and he is described as striding through the Seven regions of the Universe in three steps, the Vedic God having little in common with the Vishnu of later times. Therefore the two are identical in this particular feature, and one is the copy of the other.
</div><br />
Again, apologies for the massive wall of text, but it's important to get a sense of Fohat, especially in terms of comparitive religion, which this section delivers so well.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
What says the esoteric teaching with regard to fire? "Fire," it says, "is the most perfect and unadulterated reflection, in Heaven as on Earth, of the ONE FLAME. It is Life and Death, the origin and the end of every material thing. It is divine 'SUBSTANCE.' " Thus, not only the FIREWORSHIPPER, the Parsee, but even the wandering savage tribes of America, which proclaim themselves "born of fire," show more science in their creeds and truth in their superstitions, than all the speculations of modern physics and learning. The Christian who says: "God is a living Fire," and speaks of the Pentecostal "Tongues of Fire" and of the "burning bush" of Moses, is as much a fireworshipper as any other "heathen." The Rosicrucians, among all the mystics and Kabalists, were those who defined Fire in the right and most correct way. Procure a sixpenny lamp, keep it only supplied with oil, and you will be able to light at its flame the lamps, candles, and fires of the whole globe without diminishing that flame. If the Deity, the radical One, is eternal and an infinite substance ("the Lord thy God is a consuming fire") and never consumed, then it does not seem reasonable that the Occult teaching should be held as unphilosophical when it says: "Thus were the Arupa and Rupa worlds formed: from ONE light seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times seven," etc., etc.
</div><br />
One thing I don't blindly subscribe to but love to read is Theosophy equating fire to "god" in many ways.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This metaphysical tenet can hardly be better described than Mr. Subba Row's in "Bhagavadgita" lectures: "Mulaprakriti (the veil of Parabrahmam) acts as the one energy through the Logos (or 'Eswara'). Now Parabrahmam, is the one essence from which starts into existence a centre of energy,
which I shall for the present call the Logos. . . . It is called the Verbum . . . by the Christians, and it is the divine Christos who is eternal in the bosom of his father. It is called Avalokiteshwara by the Buddhists. . . . In almost every doctrine, they have formulated the existence of a centre of spiritual energy which is unborn and eternal, and which exists in the bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of Pralaya, and starts as a centre of conscious energy at the time of Cosmic activity. . . ." For, as the lecturer premised by saying, Parabraham is not this or that, it is not even consciousness, as it cannot be related to matter or anything conditioned. It is not Ego nor is it Non-ego, not even Atma, but verily the one source of all manifestations and modes of existence.
</div><br />
This was a footnote but I thought it was lovely at explaining that energy stuff.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Note well, "Christos" with the Gnostics meant the impersonal principal, the Atman of the Universe, and the Atma within every man's soul -- not Jesus; though in the old Coptic MSS. in the British Museum "Christos" is almost constantly replaced by "Jesus."
</div><br />
As I sit here and type this, my theology studies are running full-speed into Gnosticism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
All that science has a right to affirm, is that there are no invisible Intelligences living under the same conditions as we do. It cannot deny pointblank the possibility of there being worlds within worlds, under totally different conditions to those that constitute the nature of our world; nor can it deny that there may be a certain limited communication* between some of those worlds and our own. To the highest, we are taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth; which progeny is indissolubly linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us. Physical Science is welcome
to speculate upon the physiological mechanism of living beings, and to continue her fruitless efforts in trying to resolve our feelings, our sensations, mental and spiritual, into functions of their inorganic vehicles. Nevertheless, all that will ever be accomplished in this direction has already been done, and Science will go no farther.
</div><br />
A strong argument against atheism here. Although I am on the fence with a lot of Blavatsky's teachings, she is of great value to have on our side.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Each world has its Fohat, who is omnipresent in his own sphere of action. But there are as many Fohats as there are worlds, each varying in power and degree of manifestations. The individual Fohats make one Universal, Collective Fohat -- the aspect-Entity of the one absolute Non-Entity, which is absolute Be-Ness, 'SAT.' "Millions and billions of worlds are produced at every Manvantara" -- it is said. Therefore there must be many Fohats, whom we consider as conscious and intelligent Forces. This, no doubt, to the disgust of scientific minds. Nevertheless the Occultists, who have good reasons for it, consider all the forces of Nature as veritable, though supersensuous, states of Matter; and as possible objects of perception to Beings endowed with the requisite senses.
</div><br />
Footnote and I am unsure about all of this. My understanding of Fohat is broader, more absolute. Again, Blavatsky insists of breaking things down into pieces of which their very existence are hypothetical. There is a massive degree of wankery in every occult teaching.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
A period of 311,040,000,000,000 years, according to Brahminical calculations.
</div><br />
I knew this already but just marking it down in writing. It's known as a "kalpa" in Hinduism/Buddhism, the time between creation and recreation of a universe.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The reader must bear in mind that, according to our teaching which regards this phenomenal Universe as a great Illusion, the nearer a body is to the UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE, the more it approaches reality, as being removed the farther from this world of Maya. Therefore, though the molecular constitution of their bodies is not deducible from their manifestations on this plane of consciousness, they nevertheless (from the standpoint of the adept Occultist) possess a distinctive objective if not material structure, in the relatively noumenal -- as opposed to the phenomenal -- Universe. Men of science may term them Force or Forces generated by matter, or "modes of its motion," if they will; Occultism sees in the effects "Elemental" (forces), and, in the direct causes producing them, intelligent DIVINE Workmen. The intimate connection of those Elementals (guided by the unerring hand of the Rulers) -- their correlation we might call it -- with the elements of pure Matter, results in our terrestrial phenomena, such as light, heat, magnetism, etc., etc. Of course we shall never agree with the American Substantialists* who call every Force and Energy -- whether Light, Heat, Electricity or Cohesion -- an "Entity"; for this would be equivalent to calling the noise produced by the rolling of the wheels of a vehicle an Entity -- thus confusing and identifying that "noise" with the driver outside, and the guiding Master Intelligence within the vehicle. But we certainly give that name to the "drivers" and to these guiding Intelligences -- the ruling Dhyan Chohans, as shown. The "Elementals," the Nature-Forces, are the acting, though invisible, or rather imperceptible, secondary Causes and in themselves the effects of primary Causes behind the Veil of all terrestrial phenomena.
</div><br />
Glimpsing through the Maya is where my research will eventually specialise, I can feel it. For now, however, I like the idea of there being a "driver" but I am never convinced about anything.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This may give rise to the idea that there is a decided contradiction between the expounders of the same doctrine; whereas the difference, in reality, arises from the incompleteness of the information given to earlier writers, who thus drew some erroneous conclusions and indulged in premature speculations, in their endeavour to present a complete system to the public. Thus the reader, who is already a student of Theosophy, must not be surprised to find in these pages the rectification of certain statements made in various Theosophical works, and also the explanation of certain points which have remained obscure, because they were necessarily left incomplete.
</div><br />
Calls out its own contradictions but in a way that its learning has evolved. It's fair.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
A FEW EARLY THEOSOPHICAL MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING PLANETS, ROUNDS, AND MAN.
</div>
<br />
Goes off on a side tangent here about text they've written that was wrong. It's mostly through theft of an Esoteric Buddhism book, which I wish to read.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
If, for the sake of a clearer mental conception, we imagine the human principles to be arranged as in the following scheme, we shall obtain the annexed diagram of correspondences:
</div><br />
There's a <a href="https://gyazo.com/579db383eb218356ff1d30fcfce8c2f6" target="_blank">diagram here</a> that looks important.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Entity" may be thought a strange term to use in the case of a globe; but the ancient philosophers, who saw in the earth a huge "animal," were wiser in their generation than our modern geologists are in theirs; and Pliny, who called the Earth our kind nurse and mother, the only element which is not inimical to man, spoke more truly than Watts, who fancied that he saw in her the footstool of God. For Earth is only the footstool of man in his ascension to higher regions; the vestibule --<br />
". . . . . . . to glorious mansions,<br />
Through which a moving crowd for ever press."
</div><br />
Beautiful.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The Moon is now the cold residual quantity, the shadow dragged after the new body, into which her living powers and "principles" are transfused. She now is doomed for long ages to be ever pursuing the Earth, to be attracted by and to attract her progeny. Constantly vampirised by her child, she revenges herself on it by soaking it through and through with the nefarious, invisible, and poisoned influence which emanates from the occult side of her nature. For she is a dead, yet a living body. The particles of her decaying corpse are full of active and destructive life, although the body which they had formed is soulless and lifeless. Therefore its emanations are at the same time beneficent and maleficent -- this circumstance finding its parallel on earth in the fact that the grass and plants are nowhere more juicy and thriving than on the graves; while at the same time it is the graveyard or corpse-emanations, which kill. And like all ghouls or vampires, the moon is the friend of the sorcerers and the foe of the unwary. From the archaic aeons and the later times of the witches of Thessaly, down to some of the present tantrikas of Bengal, her nature and properties were known to every Occultist, but have remained a closed book for physicists.
</div><br />
Moon stuff. Not sure I buy any of it but it sounds great on paper.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
SEPTENARY DIVISION IN DIFFERENT INDIAN SYSTEMS.<br />
"We give below in a tabular form the classifications adopted by the Buddhist and Vedantic teachers of the principles of man: --
</div><br />
There is a <a href="https://gyazo.com/91302fb85e305a6efc585cf226214dda" target="_blank">table here</a> showing the different layers of humans (I think?) from an Indian-religion standpoint. Notice how there are seven entries, at least in Esoteric Buddhism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Its Humanity develops fully only in the Fourth -- our present Round. Up to this fourth Life-Cycle, it is referred to as "humanity" only for lack of a more appropriate term. Like the grub which becomes chrysalis and butterfly, Man, or rather that which becomes man, passes through all the forms and kingdoms during the first Round and through all the human shapes during the two following Rounds. Arrived on our Earth at the commencement of the Fourth in the present series of life-cycles and races, MAN is the first form that appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable kingdoms -- even the latter having to develop and continue its further evolution through man. This will be explained in Book II. During the three Rounds to come, Humanity, like the globe on which it lives, will be ever tending to reassume its primeval form, that of a Dhyan Chohanic Host. Man tends to become a God and then -- GOD, like every other atom in the Universe.
</div><br />
I remember first reading this, thinking, hmmmm interesting. But now it's been so drilled into me that this hardly even registers. Still, it's a good explanation of the cycles.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
To this day it is evident that the latter have utterly failed to understand the meaning of the term "Fifth and Sixth Rounders." But it is simply this: every "Round" brings about a new development and even an entire change in the mental, psychic, spiritual and physical constitution of man, all these principles evoluting on an ever ascending scale. Thence it follows that those persons who, like Confucius and Plato, belonged psychically, mentally and spiritually to the higher planes of evolution, were in our Fourth Round as the average man will be in the Fifth Round, whose mankind is destined to find itself, on this scale of Evolution, immensely higher than is our present humanity. Similarly Gautama Buddha -- Wisdom incarnate -- was still higher and greater than all the men we have mentioned, who are called Fifth Rounders, while Buddha and Sankaracharya are termed Sixth Rounders, allegorically. Thence again the concealed wisdom of the remark, pronounced at the time "evasive" -- that a few drops of rain do not make the Monsoon, though they presage it."
</div><br />
Name-dropping people who were ahead of the round? Earlier she also notes that we "are not in the Fifth Round" although I think that means we're still in the fourth round but fifth round people are growing in numbers because it's a transitional phase.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
ADDITIONAL FACTS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS.
</div>
<br />
The evolution of “monads” goes through, you guessed it, seven stages. Its these that become thinking entities, and it’s all karmic and specific and could be absolute bullshit. Where is this coming from?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In reality the Moon is only the satellite of the Earth in one respect, viz., that physically the Moon revolves round the Earth. But in every other respect it is the Earth which is the satellite of the Moon, and not vice versa. Startling as the statement may seem it is not without confirmation from scientific knowledge. It is evidenced by the tides, by the cyclic changes in many forms of disease which coincide with the lunar phases; it can be traced in the growth of plants, and is very marked in the phenomena of human gestation and conception. The importance of the Moon and its influence on the Earth were recognized in every ancient religion, notably the Jewish, and have been remarked by many observers of psychical and physical phenomena. But, so far as Science knows, the Earth's action on the Moon is confined to the physical attraction, which causes her to circle in her orbit. And should an objector insist that this fact alone is sufficient evidence that the Moon is truly the Earth's satellite on other planes of action, one may reply by asking whether a mother, who walks round and round her child's cradle keeping watch over the infant, is the subordinate of her child or dependent upon it; though in one sense she is its satellite, yet she is certainly older and more fully developed than the child she watches.
</div><br />
She says a lot of contradictory-to-science stuff about the moon, which starts here, I guess.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The most developed Monads (the lunar) reach the human germ-stage in the first Round; become terrestrial, though very ethereal human beings towards the end of the Third Round, remaining on it (the globe) through the "obscuration" period as the seed for future mankind in the Fourth Round, and thus become the pioneers of Humanity at the beginning of this, the Fourth Round. Others reach the Human stage only during later Rounds, i.e., in the second, third, or first half of the Fourth Round. And finally the most retarded of all, i.e., those still occupying animal forms after the middle turning-point of the Fourth Round -- will not become men at all during this Manwantara. They will reach to the verge of humanity only at the close of the seventh Round to be, in their turn, ushered into a new chain after pralaya -- by older pioneers, the progenitors of humanity, or the Seed-Humanity (Sishta), viz., the men who will be at the head of all at the end of these Rounds.
</div><br />
This can be used as a decent summary of Theosophy evolution and karmaic reincarnation.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Moreover, a German scientific work is mentioned in a footnote on the same page. It says that a Hanoverian scientist had recently published a Book entitled "Ueber die Auflosung der Arten durch Naturliche Zucht-wahl," in which he shows, with great ingenuity, that Darwin was wholly mistaken in tracing man back to the ape. On the contrary, he maintains that it is the ape which is evolved from man.
</div><br />
Another controversial theme throughout the Secret Doctine is that man did not evolve from ape. At first, I rejected it as ludicrous, but now I'm slightly more open to it as I've come across more articles about an advanced civilisation that lived before us. Not saying I believe it though!
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VI -- Continued
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Thus "SATAN," once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious, dogmatic, unphilosophical spirit of the Churches, grows into the grandiose image of one who made of terrestrial a divine MAN; who gave him, throughout the long cycle of Maha-kalpa the law of the Spirit of Life, and made him free from the Sin of Ignorance, hence of death.
</div><br />
Luciferianism in the more figurative vein, which Blavatsky may have very well played a part in shaping. Fun fact: she started publishing a magazine called Lucifer in 1887.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Mrs. Elizabeth Denton, one of the most learned, and also one of the most materialistic and sceptical women of her age -- the wife of Professor Denton, the well-known American geologist and the author of "The Soul of Things" -- was, nevertheless, one of the most wonderful psychometers some years ago. This is what she described in one of her experiments; with a particle of a meteorite placed on her forehead, in an envelope, the lady, not being aware of what it contained, said:<br /><br />
"What a difference between that which we recognise as matter here and that which seems like matter there! In the one, the elements are so coarse and so angular, I wonder that we can endure it all, much more that we can desire to continue our present relations to it; in the other, all the elements are so refined, they are so free from those great, rough angularities, which characterize the elements here, that I can but regard that as by so much the more than this, the real existence."
</div><br />
I cannot find any evidence to back this claim up.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VI -- Continued
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Born in the unfathomable depths of Space, out of the homogeneous Element called the World-Soul, every nucleus of Cosmic matter, suddenly launched into being, begins life under the most hostile circumstances. Through a series of countless ages, it has to conquer for itself a place in the infinitudes. It circles round and round between denser and already fixed bodies, moving by jerks, and pulling towards some given point or centre that attracts it, trying to avoid, like a ship drawn into a channel dotted with reefs and sunken rocks, other bodies that draw and repel it in turn; many perish, their mass disintegrating through stronger masses, and, when born within a system, chiefly within the insatiable stomachs of various Suns. (See Comm. to Stanza IV). Those which move slower and are propelled into an elliptic course are doomed to annihilation sooner or later. Others moving in parabolic curves generally escape destruction, owing to their velocity.<br />
</div><br />
In my developed understanding, I believe this as a good descriptor of how it all started.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
We must remember, moreover, that the law of Analogy holds good for the worlds, as it does for man; and that as "The ONE (Deity) becomes Two (Deva or Angel) and Two becomes Three (or man)," etc., etc., so we are taught that the Curds (world-stuff) become wanderers, (Comets), these become stars, and the stars (the centres of vortices) our sun and planets -- to put it briefly.<br />
</div><br />
I think there was something similar in the Tao Te Ching?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Let those who doubt this statement explain the mystery of the extraordinary knowledge possessed by the ancients -- alleged to have developed from lower and animal-like savages, the cave-men of the Palaeolithic age -- on any other equally reasonable grounds. Let them turn to such works as those of Vitruvius Pollio of the Augustan age, on architecture, for instance, in which all the rules of proportion are those taught anciently at initiations, if he would acquaint himself with the truly divine art, and understand the deep esoteric significance hidden in every rule and law of proportion. No man descended from a Palaeolithic cave-dweller could ever evolve such a science unaided, even in millenniums of thought and intellectual evolution. It is the pupils of those incarnated Rishis and Devas of the third Root Race, who handed their knowledge from one generation to another, to Egypt and Greece with its now lost canon of proportion; as it is the Disciples of the Initiates of the 4th, the Atlanteans, who handed it over to their Cyclopes, the "Sons of Cycles" or of the "Infinite," from whom the name passed to the still later generations of Gnostic priests. "It is owing to the divine perfection of those architectural proportions that the Ancients could build those wonders of all the subsequent ages, their Fanes, Pyramids, Cave-Temples, Cromlechs, Cairns, Altars, proving they had the powers of machinery and a knowledge of mechanics to which modern skill is like a child's play, and which that skill refers to itself as the 'works of hundred-handed giants.'" (See "Book of God," Kenealy.) Modern architects may not altogether have neglected those rules, but they have superadded enough empirical innovations to destroy those just proportions. It is Vitruvius who gave to posterity the rules of construction of the Grecian temples erected to the immortal gods; and the ten books of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio on Architecture, of one, in short, who was an initiate, can only be studied esoterically. The Druidical circles, the Dolmen, the Temples of India, Egypt and Greece, the Towers and the 127 towns in Europe which were found "Cyclopean in origin" by the French Institute, are all the work of initiated Priest-Architects, the descendants of those primarily taught by the "Sons of God," justly called "The Builders." This is what appreciative posterity says of those descendants. "They used neither mortar nor cement, nor steel nor iron to cut the stones with; and yet they were so artfully wrought that in many places the joints are not seen, though many of the stones, as in Peru, are 18 ft. thick, and in the walls of the fortress of Cuzco there are stones of a still greater size." (Acosta, vi., 14.) "Again, the walls of Syene, built 5,400 years ago, when that spot was exactly under the tropic, which it has now ceased to be, were so constructed that at noon, at the precise moment of the solar solstice, the entire disc of the Sun was seen reflected on their surface -- a work which the united skill of all the astronomers of Europe would not now be able to effect."<br />
</div><br />
This is always a huge debate and is used for everyone, from esoteric educators to UFO chasers to conspiracy theorists. That said, Cusco is an interesting example having only been established around 1200 A.D. That doesn't feel that long ago in compairson to, say, 2550 to 2490 B.C. of the pyramids. What is the timeline exactly?
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
One of the explanations of the real though hidden meaning of this Egyptian religious glyph is easy. The crocodile is the first to await and meet the devouring fires of the morning sun, and very soon came to personify the solar heat. When the sun arose, it was like the arrival on earth and among men "of the divine soul which informs the Gods." Hence the strange symbolism. The mummy donned the head of a crocodile to show that it was a soul arriving from the earth.<br />
</div><br />
I'm always open to explanations.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
THE ONE RAY MULTIPLIES THE SMALLER RAYS. LIFE PRECEDES FORM, AND LIFE SURVIVES THE LAST ATOM OF FORM. THROUGH THE COUNTLESS RAYS PROCEEDS THE LIFE-RAY, THE ONE, LIKE A THREAD THROUGH MANY JEWELS.<br />
</div><br />
This is a direct Stanza quote. They're usually very cryptic hence these huge books deciphering them, but this one made sense.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"When the seed of the animal man is cast into the soil of the animal woman, that seed cannot germinate unless it has been fructified by the five virtues (the fluid of, or the emanation from the principles) of the six-fold Heavenly man. Wherefore the Microcosm is represented as a Pentagon, within the Hexagon Star, the "Macrocosm." ("[[Anthropos]],") a work on Occult Embryology, Book I.). Then: "The functions of Jiva on this Earth are of a five-fold character. In the mineral atom it is connected with the lowest principles of the Spirits of the Earth (the six-fold Dhyanis); in the vegetable particle, with their second -- the Prana (life); in the animal, with all these plus the third and the fourth; in man, the germ must receive the fruition of all the five. Otherwise he will be born no higher than an animal"; namely, a congenital idiot. Thus in man alone the Jiva is complete. As to his seventh principle, it is but one of the Beams of the Universal Sun. Each rational creature receives only the temporary loan of that which has to return to its source; while his physical body is shaped by the lowest terrestrial lives, through physical, chemical, and physiological evolution. "The Blessed Ones have nought to do with the purgations of matter." (Kabala, Chaldean Book of Numbers).<br />
</div><br />
Breeding between different heirachies of "man". I think I noted this paragraph because it's poetic but I'm not sure about the content at this time.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This was so well understood by the Ancients that the Kabalist even made of soul and body two lives, independent of each other.* The soul, whose body vehicle is the Astral, ethero-substantial envelope, could die and man be still living on earth -- i.e., the soul could free itself from and quit the tabernacle for various reasons -- such as insanity, spiritual and physical depravity, etc. Therefore, that which living men (Initiates) can do, the Dhyanis, who have no physical body to hamper them, can do still better.<br />
</div><br />
This goes on further but I just wanted to note that I agree with the duality of body and spirit. However, I am unsure about bodies living without spirits/souls. It ties into Hermeticism, how some have "mind" (nous) and some don't. But it is not my understanding.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The processes of natural development which we are now considering will at once elucidate and discredit the fashion of speculating on the attributes of the two, three, and four or more "dimensional Space;" but in passing, it is worth while to point out the real significance of the sound but incomplete intuition that has prompted -- among Spiritualists and Theosophists, and several great men of Science, for the matter of that -- the use of the modern expression, "the fourth dimension of Space." To begin with, of course, the superficial absurdity of assuming that Space itself is measurable in any direction is of little consequence. The familiar phrase can only be an abbreviation of the fuller form -- the "Fourth dimension of MATTER in Space." But it is an unhappy phrase even thus expanded, because while it is perfectly true that the progress of evolution may be destined to introduce us to new characteristics of matter, those with which we are already familiar are really more numerous than the three dimensions. The faculties, or what is perhaps the best available term, the characteristics of matter, must clearly bear a direct relation always to the senses of man. Matter has extension, colour, motion (molecular motion), taste, and smell, corresponding to the existing senses of man, and by the time that it fully develops the next characteristic -- let us call it for the moment PERMEABILITY -- this will correspond to the next sense of man -- let us call it "NORMAL CLAIRVOYANCE;" thus, when some bold thinkers have been thirsting for a fourth dimension to explain the passage of matter through matter, and the production of knots upon an endless cord, what they were really in want of, was a sixth characteristic of matter. The three dimensions belong really but to one attribute or characteristic of matter -- extension; and popular common sense justly rebels against the idea that under any condition of things there can be more than three of such dimensions as length, breadth, and thickness. These terms, and the term "dimension" itself, all belong to one plane of thought, to one stage of evolution, to one characteristic of matter. So long as there are foot-rules within the resources of Kosmos, to apply to matter, so long will they be able to measure it three ways and no more; and from the time the idea of measurement first occupied a place in the human understanding, it has been possible to apply measurement in three directions and no more. But these considerations do not militate in any way against the certainty that in the progress of time -- as the faculties of humanity are multiplied -- so will the characteristics of matter be multiplied also. Meanwhile, the expression is far more incorrect than even the familiar one of the "Sun rising or setting."<br />
</div><br />
Long, but she lays into the idea of fourth dimension sooo well here, I am inclined to buy it.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In the second chapter (the Jehovistic), plants and herbs are created before water, just as in the first, light is produced before the Sun. "God made the Earth and the Heavens and every plant of the field before it was in the Earth and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Elohim ('gods') had not caused it to rain upon the earth, etc." (v. 5) -- an absurdity unless the esoteric explanation is accepted. The plants were created before they were in the earth -- for there was no earth then such as it is now; and the herb of the field was in existence before it grew as it does now in the fourth Round.<br />
</div><br />
My notes told that I didn't understand this but recognised it as new information. Now I do. Plants (and indeed everything) existed on a metaphysical plane before they could be brought into the physical realm on Earth. The code was always there. Note, however, that Genesis does not order it that way.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As already indicated, a partial familiarity with the characteristic of matter -- permeability -- which should be developed concurrently with the sixth sense, may be expected to develop at the proper period in this Round. But with the next element added to our resources in the next Round, permeability will become so manifest a characteristic of matter, that the densest forms of this will seem to man's perceptions as obstructive to him as a thick fog, and no more.<br />
</div><br />
Eventually we will see gases.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Thus, in the first Round, the globe, having been built by the primitive fire-lives, i.e., formed into a sphere -- had no solidity, nor qualifications, save a cold brightness, nor form nor colour; it is only towards the end of the First Round that it developed one Element which from its inorganic, so to say, or simple Essence became now in our Round the fire we know throughout the system. The Earth was in her first rupa, the essence of which is the Akasic principle named *** "that which is now known as, and very erroneously termed, Astral Light, which Eliphas Levi calls "the imagination of Nature,"|| probably to avoid giving it its correct name, as others do.<br />
</div><br />
First Round is “ether”, a kind of fire, and by the end it had manifested Earth? Later in the book it equates the second with air and the third with water. Now in the 4th we are here, where matter has manifested? With consciousness? I might be way off with this though.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It might be supposed that these "fiery lives" and the microbes of science are identical. This is not true. The "fiery lives" are the seventh and highest subdivision of the plane of matter, and correspond in the individual with the One Life of the Universe, though only on that plane. The microbes of science are the first and lowest sub-division on the second plane -- that of material prana (or life). The physical body of man undergoes a complete change of structure every seven years, and its destruction and preservation are due to the alternate function of the fiery lives as "destroyers" and "builders." They are "builders" by sacrificing themselves in the form of vitality to restrain the destructive influence of the microbes, and, by supplying the microbes with what is necessary, they compel them under that restraint to build up the material body and its cells. They are "destroyers" also when that restraint is experimenters as Pasteur are the best friends and helpers of the Destroyers and the worst enemies of the Creators -- if the latter were not at the same time destroyers too. However it may be, one thing is sure in this: The knowledge of these primary causes and of the ultimate essence of every element, of its lives, their functions, properties, and conditions of change -- constitutes the basis of MAGIC. Paracelsus was, perhaps, the only Occultist in Europe, during the last centuries since the Christian era, who was versed in this mystery. Had not a criminal hand put an end to his life, years before the time allotted him by Nature, physiological Magic would have fewer secrets for the civilized world than it now has.<br />
</div><br />
Not sure about all of this but there's something interesting here. I guess recognising the former "alive" creations that formed into our molecular structures is how we manipulate physical reality? That's what I got anyway, haha.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
SUMMING UP.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The Universe is called, with everything in it, MAYA, because all is temporary therein, from the ephemeral life of a fire-fly to that of the Sun. Compared to the eternal immutability of the ONE, and the changelessness of that Principle, the Universe, with its evanescent ever-changing forms, must be necessarily, in the mind of a philosopher, no better than a will-o'-the-wisp. Yet, the Universe is real enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself.<br />
</div><br />
If you're interested, this entire section is worth reading as a summary up until this point. I am only pulling out small ection that grabbed my interest, like this explanation of the Maya which I agree with.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The Universe is worked and guided from within outwards. As above so it is below, as in heaven so on earth; and man -- the microcosm and miniature copy of the macrocosm -- is the living witness to this Universal Law, and to the mode of its action. We see that every external motion, act, gesture, whether voluntary or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by internal feeling or emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind. As no outward motion or change, when normal, in man's external body can take place unless provoked by an inward impulse, given through one of the three functions named, so with the external or manifested Universe. The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled, and animated by almost endless series of Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a mission to perform, and who -- whether we give to them one name or another, and call them DhyanChohans or Angels -- are "messengers" in the sense only that they are the agents of Karmic and Cosmic Laws. They vary infinitely in their respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence; and to call them all pure Spirits without any of the earthly alloy "which time is wont to prey upon" is only to indulge in poetical fancy. For each of these Beings either was, or prepares to become, a man, if not in the present, then in a past or a coming cycle (Manvantara). They are perfected, when not incipient, men; and differ morally from the terrestrial human beings on their higher (less material) spheres, only in that they are devoid of the feeling of personality and of the human emotional nature -- two purely earthly characteristics. The former, or the "perfected," have become free from those feelings, because (a) they have no longer fleshly bodies -- an ever-numbing weight on the Soul; and (b) the pure spiritual element being left untrammelled and more free, they are less influenced by maya than man can ever be, unless he is an adept who keeps his two personalities -- the spiritual and the physical -- entirely separated.<br />
</div><br />
Another interesting section which goes on for much longer.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In its great ignorance, the public, while blindly accepting everything that emanates from "authorities," and feeling it to be its duty to regard every dictum coming from a man of Science as a proven fact -- the public, we say, is taught to scoff at anything brought forward from "heathen" sources. Therefore, as materialistic Scientists can be fought solely with their own weapons -- those of controversy and argument -- an Addendum is added to every Book contrasting our respective views and showing how even great authorities may often err. We believe that this can be done effectually by showing the weak points of our opponents, and by proving their too frequent sophisms -- made to pass for scientific dicta -- to be incorrect. We hold to Hermes and his "Wisdom" -- in its universal character; they -- to Aristotle as against intuition and the experience of the ages, fancying that Truth is the exclusive property of the Western world. Hence the disagreement. As Hermes says, "Knowledge differs much from sense; for sense is of things that surmount it, but Knowledge (gyi) is the end of sense" -- i.e., of the illusion of our physical brain and its intellect; thus emphasizing the contrast between the laboriously acquired knowledge of the senses and mind (manas), and the intuitive omniscience of the Spiritual divine Soul -- Buddhi.<br />
</div><br />
I've stated these sentiments before, myself!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There were produced out of the Ideos, the elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, whose birth, however, did not take place in a material mode, or by simple separation," but by spiritual and dynamical, not even complex, combinations -- e.g., mechanical mixture as opposed to chemical combination -- just as fire may come out of a pebble, or a tree out of a seed, although there is originally no fire in the pebble, nor a tree in the seed. Spirit is living, and Life is Spirit, and Life and Spirit (Prakriti Purusha) (?) produce all things, but they are essentially one and not two.<br />
</div><br />
Poetic.<br /><br />
What follows is largely pull quotes from The Definition of Asclepios, apparently compiled by Mrs A. Kingsford. I can find very little connection between title and author but the Hermetic texts are available so I'll check that out!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
KRIYASAKTI. The mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally if one's attention is deeply concentrated upon it. Similarly an intense volition will be followed by the desired result.<br />
</div><br />
LOA anyone?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Owing to circumstances still unknown (Karmic provision, H.P.B.) there appear from time to time great thinkers, who, devoting their lives to a single purpose, are able to anticipate the progress of mankind, and to produce a religion or a philosophy by which important effects are eventually brought about. But if we look into history we shall clearly see that, although the origin of a new opinion may be thus due to a single man, the result which the new opinion produces will depend on the condition of the people among whom it is propagated. If either a religion or a philosophy is too much in advance of a nation it can do no present service but must bide its time* until the minds of men are ripe for its reception.<br />
</div><br />
Quote from H. T. Buckle's "History of Civilization". I've thought about this A LOT with Janthopoyism. So many factors have to align.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK I. -- PART II.
</div>
<br />
<div class="thebookparts">
I. SYMBOLISM AND IDEOGRAPHS
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
For example, when the Egyptians portrayed the moon as a Cat, they were not ignorant enough to suppose that the moon was a cat; nor did their wandering fancies see any likeness in the moon to a cat; nor was a cat-myth any mere expansion of verbal metaphor; nor had they any intention of making puzzles or riddles. . . . They had observed the simple fact that the cat saw in the dark, and that her eyes became full-orbed, and grew most luminous by night. The moon was the seer by night in heaven, and the cat was its equivalent on the earth; and so the familiar cat was adopted as a representative, a natural sign, a living pictograph of the lunar orb. . . . And so it followed that the sun which saw down in the under-world at night could also be called the cat, as it was, because it also saw in the dark. The name of the cat in Egyptian is mau, which denotes the seer, from mau, to see. One writer on mythology asserts that the Egyptians 'imagined a great cat behind the sun, which is the pupil of the cat's eye.' But this imagining is all modern.<br />
</div><br />
I stole these sentiments for a section in the Janthipoyism Bible. People need to understand.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
II. THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
RECENT discoveries made by great mathematicians and Kabalists thus prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that every theology, from the earliest and oldest down to the latest, has sprung not only from a common source of abstract beliefs, but from one universal esoteric, or "Mystery" language. These scholars hold the key to the universal language of old, and have turned it successfully, though only once, in the hermetically closed door leading to the Hall of Mysteries. The great archaic system known from prehistoric ages as the sacred Wisdom Science, one that is contained and can be traced in every old as well as in every new religion, had, and still has, its universal language -- suspected by the Mason Ragon -- the language of the Hierophants, which has seven "dialects," so to speak, each referring, and being specially appropriated, to one of the seven mysteries of Nature. Each had its own symbolism. Nature could thus be either read in its fulness, or viewed from one of its special aspects.<br />
</div><br />
Solid intro.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is maintained that INDIA (not in its present limits, but including its ancient boundaries) is the only country in the world which still has among her sons adepts, who have the knowledge of all the seven sub-systems and the key to the entire system. Since the fall of Memphis, Egypt began to lose those keys one by one, and Chaldea had preserved only three in the days of Berosus. As for the Hebrews, in all their writings they show no more than a thorough knowledge of the astronomical, geometrical and numerical systems of symbolizing all the human, and especially the physiological functions. They never had the higher keys.<br />
</div><br />
Although wildly unprovable in every word, it’s fascinating info.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Judaism having availed itself of two keys out of the seven, and these two keys having been now rediscovered, it becomes no longer a matter of individual speculation and hypothesis, least of all of "coincidence," but one of a correct reading of the Bible texts, as anyone acquainted with arithmetic reads and verifies an addition or total.* A few years longer and this system will kill the dead letter of the Bible, as it will that of all the other exoteric faiths, by showing the dogmas in their real, naked meaning.<br />
</div><br />
Interesting. So there is a key in the bible, maybe??
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Adam was not the first man** created upon this earth." . . . The exhumed relics of pre-Adamic man, "instead of shaking our confidence in Scripture, supply additional proof of its veracity". How so? In the simplest way imaginable; for the author argues that, henceforth "we" (the clergy) "are enabled to leave scientific men to pursue their studies without attempting to coerce them by the fear of heresy" . . . (this must be a relief indeed to Messrs. Huxley, Tyndall, and Sir C. Lyell). . . . "The Bible narrative does not commence with creation, as is commonly supposed, but with the formation of Adam and Eve, millions of years after our planet had been created. Its previous history, so far as Scripture is concerned, is yet unwritten." . . . . . "There may have been not one, but twenty different races upon the earth before the time of Adam, just as there may be twenty different races of men on other worlds" . . . . Who, then, or what were those races, since the author still maintains that Adam is the first man of our race? It was THE SATANIC RACE AND RACES! "Satan (was) never in heaven, Angels and men (being) one species." It was the pre-Adamic race of "Angels that sinned." Satan was "the first Prince of this world," we read. Having died in consequence of his rebellion, he remained on earth as a disembodied Spirit, and tempted Adam and Eve.<br />
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This is quoting Primeval Man Unveiled, or, The Anthropology of the Bible by Rev. James Gall. This book incorrectly says author unknown. Very interesting theory about Satan predating us. This all also ties into alien genetic theory.
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<div class="thebookparts">
III. PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT.
</div>
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<div class="quote">
Therefore, such being the case, all those who sought to give a name to the incognizable Principle have simply degraded it. Even to speak of Cosmic Ideation -- save in its phenomenal aspect -- is like trying to bottle up primordial Chaos, or to put a printed label on ETERNITY.<br /><br />
What, then, is the "primordial Substance," that mysterious object of which Alchemy was ever talking, and which became the subject of philosophical speculation in every age? What can it be finally, even in its phenomenal pre-differentiation? Even that is ALL in manifested Nature and -- nothing to our senses. It is mentioned under various names in every Cosmogony, referred to in every philosophy, and shown to be, to this day, the ever grasp-eluding PROTEUS in Nature. We touch and do not feel it; we look at it without seeing it; we breathe it and do not perceive it; we hear and smell it without the smallest cognition that it is there; for it is in every molecule of that which in our illusion and ignorance we regard as Matter in any of its states, or conceive as a feeling, a thought, an emotion. . . . In short, it is the "upadhi," or vehicle, of every possible phenomenon, whether physical, mental, or psychic. In the opening sentences of Genesis, as in the Chaldean Cosmogony; in the Puranas of India, and in the Book of the Dead of Egypt, it opens everywhere the cycle of manifestation. It is termed "Chaos," and the face of the waters, incubated by the Spirit proceeding from the Unknown, under whatever name.
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The Tao, the unamnfested substance, the “chaos” that came before.
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<div class="quote">
There is more wisdom concealed under the exoteric fables of Puranas and Bible than in all the exoteric facts and science in the literature of the world, and more OCCULT true Science, than there is of exact knowledge in all the academies. Or, in plainer and stronger language, there is as much esoteric wisdom in some portions of the exoteric Puranas and Pentateuch, as there is of nonsense and of designed childish fancy in it, when read only in the dead-letter murderous interpretations of great dogmatic religions, and especially of sects.
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</div><br />
The keys are intentionally hidden beneath the excessive fluff of religious texts. My recent research has pointed in similar directions. But is the Secret Doctrine not much the same?
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<div class="quote">
Let anyone read the first verses of chapter i. of Genesis and reflect upon them. There "God" commands to another "god," who does his bidding -- even in the cautious English Protestant translation of James the First's authorised edition.
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I've written about this before, although God commands other gods plural, no?
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<div class="quote">
In the Sepher Jezirah, the Kabalistic Book of Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu. In it the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted from itself the Spirit. "One is the Spirit of the living God, blessed be his Name, who liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit." (Sepher Jezireh, chap. 1, Mishna IX.) And this is the Kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the Fathers. From this triple ONE emanated the whole Kosmos. First from ONE emanated number TWO, or Air, the creative element; and then number THREE, Water, proceeded from the air; Ether or Fire complete the mystic four, the Arba-il. (Ibid.) In the Eastern doctrine Fire is the first Element -- Ether, synthesizing the whole (since it contains all of them).
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The Holy Spirirt is the energy of us all. So there are other levels? Could be, although I’m unsure what evidence there is of any of it.
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<div class="quote">
This "primordial Substance" is called by some Chaos: Plato and the Pythagoreans named it the Soul of the World after it had been impregnated by the Spirit of that which broods over the Primeval Waters, or Chaos. It is by being reflected in it, say the Kabalists, that the brooding Principle created the phantasmagoria of a visible, manifested Universe. Chaos, before -- Ether, after, the "reflection;" it is still the deity that pervades all Space and things. It is the invisible, imponderable Spirit of things and the invisible, but too tangible fluid that radiates from the fingers of the healthy magnetizer, for it is Vital Electricity -- LIFE itself. Called in derision by the Marquis de Mirville "the nebulous Almighty," it is termed by the Theurgists and Occultists to this day "the living Fire"; and there is not a Hindu who practises at dawn a certain kind of meditation but knows its effects.
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This is everything to me. I’m unsure of the different categorisations but this is where Theosophy and I (and so many!) are really seeing eye to eye.
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<div class="quote">
Writing upon this subject in Isis Unveiled we said of it that it was: "The Chaos of the ancients, the Zoroastrian sacred fire, or the Atash-Behram of the Parsees; the Hermes-fire, the Elmes-fire of the ancient Germans; the lightning of Cybele; the burning torch of Apollo; the flame on the altar of Pan; the inextinguishable fire in the temple on the Acropolis, and in that of Vesta; the fire-flame of Pluto's helm; the brilliant sparks on the hats of the Dioscuri, on the Gorgon head, the helm of Pallas, and the staff of Mercury; the Egyptian Phtha-Ra; the Grecian Zeus Cataibates (the descending) of Pausanias; the pentacostal fire-tongues; the burning bush of Moses; the pillar of fire of the Exodus, and the "burning lamp" of Abram, the eternal fire of the "bottomless pit"; the Delphic oracular vapours; the Sidereal light of the Rosicrucians; the AKASA of the Hindu adepts; the Astral Light of Eliphas Levi; the nerve-aura and the fluid of the magnetists; the od of the Reichenbach; the Psychod and ectenic force of Thury; the psychic force of Sergeant Cox, and the atmospheric magnetism of some naturalists; galvanism; and finally, electricity -- all these are but various names for many different manifestations or effects of the same mysterious, all-pervading cause, the Greek Archeus." We now add -- it is all this and much more.
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Comparative religion about this “mystic fire” in all these things.
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<div class="quote">
Spirit, then, or Cosmic Ideation, and Cosmic Substance -- one of whose principles is Ether -- are one, and include the ELEMENTS, in the sense St. Paul attaches to them. These Elements are the veiled Synthesis standing for Dhyan Chohans, Devas, Sephiroth, Amshaspends, Archangels, etc., etc. The Ether of science -- the Ilus of Berosus, or the Protyle of Chemistry -- constitutes, so to speak, the rude material (relatively) out of which the above-named "Builders," following the plan traced out for them eternally in the DIVINE THOUGHT, fashion the systems in the Cosmos. They are "myths," we are told. "No more so than Ether and the Atoms," we answer. The two latter are absolute necessities of physical science; the "Builders" are as absolute a necessity of metaphysics. We are twitted with: "You never saw them." We ask the materialists: "Have you ever seen Ether, or your Atoms, or, again, your FORCE?" Moreover, one of the greatest Western Evolutionists of our modern day, the coadjutor of Darwin, Mr. A. R. Wallace, when discussing the inadequacy of Natural Selection alone to account for the physical form of Man, admits the guiding action of "higher intelligences" as a "necessary part of the great laws which govern the material Universe" ("Contributions to Theory of Natural Selection").<br /><br />
These "higher intelligences" are the Dhyan Chohans of the Occultists.<br /><br />
Indeed, there are few Myths in any religious system worthy of the name, but have an historical as well as a scientific foundation. "Myths," justly observes Pococke, "are now proved to be fables, just in proportion as we misunderstand them; truths, in proportion as they were once understood."
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Again, I have selected paragraphs that resonate with my understandings. This is something I loudly use in many debates. Science has seen as many electrons as they've seen God. Conversely, ancient scripture is as factual as any science book when you learn how to read it symbolically.
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<div class="quote">
Let us apply that Key to the rare fragments of long-forgotten cosmogonies and try by their scattered parts to re-establish the once Universal Cosmogony of the Secret Doctrine. The Key fits them all. No one can study ancient philosophies seriously without perceiving that the striking similitude of conception between all -- in their exoteric form very often, in their hidden spirit invariably -- is the result of no mere coincidence, but of a concurrent design: and that there was, during the youth of mankind, one languages, one knowledge, one universal religion, when there were no churches, no creeds or sects, but when every man was a priest unto himself. And, if it is shown that already in those ages which are shut out from our sight by the exuberant growth of tradition, human religious thought developed in uniform sympathy in every portion of the globe; then, it becomes evident that, born under whatever latitude, in the cold North or the burning South, in the East or West, that thought was inspired by the same revelations, and man was nurtured under the protecting shadow of the same TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.
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</div><br />
Another explanation for the ever debated question of comparative of religions. There are so many unignorable links, and the idea of a core source does satisfy. Of all the proposed solutions, something bout Madame Blavatsky’s feels in deeper tune.
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<div class="thebookparts">
V.ON THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS
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<br />
<div class="quote">
When the Theosophists and Occultists say that God is no BEING, for IT is nothing, No-Thing, they are more reverential and religiously respectful to the Deity than those who call God a HE, and thus make of Him a gigantic MALE.
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To the point, and naturally I agree.
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<div class="thebookparts">
VI. THE MUNDANE EGG
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<br />
<div class="quote">
WHENCE this universal symbol? The Egg was incorporated as a sacred sign in the cosmogony of every people on the Earth, and was revered both on account of its form and its inner mystery. From the earliest mental conceptions of man, it was known as that which represented most successfully the origin and secret of being. The gradual development of the imperceptible germ within the closed shell; the inward working, without any apparent outward interference of force, which from a latent nothing produced an active something, needing nought save heat; and which, having gradually evolved into a concrete, living creature, broke its shell, appearing to the outward senses of all a self-generated, and self-created being -- must have been a standing miracle from the beginning.
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An entire chapter about egg symbolism? Sign me up!
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<div class="thebookparts">
VII. THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF BRAHMA
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<div class="quote">
There is a curious piece of information in the Buddhist esoteric traditions. The exoteric or allegorical biography of Gautama Buddha shows this great Sage dying of an indigestion of pork and rice, a very prosaic end, indeed, having little of the solemn element in it. This is explained as an allegorical reference to his having been born in the "Boar," or Varaha-Kalpa when Brahma assumed the form of that animal to raise the Earth out of the "Waters of Space." And as the Brahmins descend direct from Brahma and are, so to speak, identified with him; and as they are at the same time the mortal enemies of Buddha and Buddhism, we have the curious allegorical hint and combination. Brahminism (of the Boar, or Varaha Kalpa) has slaughtered the religion of Buddha in India, swept it away from its face; therefore Buddha, identified with his philosophy, is said to have died from the effects of eating of the flesh of a wild hog.
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Explaining the death of Buddha as a figurative measure (it goes on). I'm more likely to believe this than the literal, due to Buddha's choice of food.
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<div class="thebookparts">
VIII. THE LOTUS, AS A UNIVERSAL SYMBOL
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<div class="quote">
Burnouf, the great Orientalist, has seized the idea perfectly when saying that Brahma does not create the earth, any more than the rest of the universe. "Having evolved himself from the soul of the world, once separated from the first cause, he evaporates with, and emanates all nature out of himself. He does not stand above it, but is mixed up with it; Brahma and the universe form one Being, each particle of which is in its essence Brahma himself, who proceeded out of himself."
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Footnote. I feel like anything said beyond this is irrelevant. It’s every thing I believe and nothing else really.
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<div class="quote">
In the relics of ancient Egypt, the greater the antiquity of the votive symbols and emblems of the objects exhumed, the oftener are the lotus flowers and the water found in connection with the Solar Gods. The god Khnoom -- the moist power -- water, as Thales taught it, being the principle of all things, sits on a throne enshrined in a lotus (Saitic epoch, Serapeum). The god Bes stands on a lotus, ready to devour his progeny. (Ibid, Abydos.) Thot, the god of mystery and Wisdom, the sacred Scribe of Amenti, wearing the Solar disc as head gear, sits with a bull's head (the sacred bull of Mendes being a form of Thot) and a human body, on a full blown lotus. (IVth Dynasty.) Finally it is the goddess Hiquet, under her shape of a frog, who rests on the lotus, thus showing her connection with water. And it is this frog-symbol, undeniably the most ancient of their Egyptian deities, from whose unpoetical shape the Egyptologists have been vainly trying to unravel her mystery and functions. Its adoption in the Church by the early Christians shows that they knew it better than our modern Orientalists. The "frog or toad goddess" was one of the chief cosmic deities connected with creation, on account of her amphibious nature, and chiefly because of her apparent resurrection, after long ages of solitary life enshrined in old walls, in rocks, etc. She not only participated in the organization of the world, together with Khnoom, but was also connected with the dogma of resurrection. There must have been some very profound and sacred meaning attached to this symbol, since, notwithstanding the risk of being charged with a disgusting form of zoolatry, the early Egyptian Christians adopted it in their Churches. A frog or toad enshrined in a lotus flower, or simply without the latter emblem, was the form chosen for the Church lamps, on which were engraved the words "I am the resurrection" "[[ego eimi anastasis]]." These frog goddesses are also found on all the mummies.
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The concluding paragraph about lotus symbolism. A lot of the info in this section could be coincendtal. It speaks of the lotus represented by a wave, and therefore the letter M. It then goes on about names like Messiah, Mary, Moses, Mithras, Monad, Maya, etc.
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<div class="thebookparts">
IX THE MOON, DEUS LUNUS, PHOEBE
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<div class="quote">
In every religious system the gods were made to merge their functions as Father, Son, and Husband, into one, and the goddesses were identified as "Wife, Mother, and Sister" of the male God; the former synthesizing the human attributes as the "Sun, the giver of Life," the latter merging all the other titles in the grand synthesis known as Maia, Maya, Maria, etc., a generic name. Maia, in its forced derivation, has come to mean with the Greeks, "mother," from the root ma (nurse), and even gave its name to the month of May, which was sacred to all those goddesses before it became consecrated to Mary. Its primitive meaning, however, was Maya, Durga, translated by the Orientalists as "inaccessible," but meaning in truth the "unreachable," in the sense of illusion and unreality; as being the source and cause of spells, the personification of ILLUSION.
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When I first read this, something heavily tripped me out about Mother Mary actually being a representative for Maya (the illusionary reality). But upon this revisit, I can not recreate it. Perhaps I was but a sweet summer child at this point and now my wonderment has been crushed by excessive esoterica.
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<div class="quote">
Originating in the dual aspect of the moon, the worship of the female and the male principles respectively, it ended in distinct solar and lunar cults. Among the Semitic races, the sun was for a very long time feminine and the moon masculine -- the latter notion being adopted by them from the Atlantean traditions. The moon was called "the Lord of the sun," Bel-Skemesh,* before the Shemesh worship. The ignorance of the incipient reasons for such a distinction, and of occult principles, led the nations into anthropomorphic idol-worship. But the religion of every ancient nation had been primarily based upon the Occult manifestations of a purely abstract Force or Principle now called "God." The very establishment of such worship shows, in its details and rites, that the philosophers who evolved those systems of nature, subjective and objective, possessed profound knowledge, and were acquainted with many facts of a scientific nature. For besides being purely Occult, the rites of lunar worship were based, as just shown, upon a knowledge of physiology (quite a modern science with us), psychology, sacred mathematics, geometry and metrology, in their right applications to symbols and figures, which are but glyphs, recording observed natural and scientific facts; in short, upon a most minute and profound knowledge of nature.
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Goes on about this personification of the natural world. I find it intersting but I take these teachings lightly. Blavatsky has some strange stuff to say about the moon, which I've covered earlier and will go into more later.
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<div class="quote">
Hence also the moon was intimately connected in all the Pagan theogonies with the Dragon, her eternal enemy; the Virgin, or Madonna, standing on the mythical Satan under that form, crushed and made powerless, under her feet. This, because the head and tail of the Dragon, which represent in Eastern astronomy to this day the ascending and descending nodes of the moon, were also symbolized in ancient Greece by the two serpents. Hercules kills them on the day of his birth, and so does the babe in his virgin mother's arms. As Mr. Gerald Massey aptly observes in this connection: "All such symbols figured their own facts from the first, and did not pre-figure others of a totally different order. The Iconography (and dogmas, too) had survived in Rome from a period remotely pre-Christian. There was neither forgery nor interpolation of types; nothing but a continuity of imagery with a perversion of its meaning.
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I love the last line of this para but also noting the serpents as Eastern symbology. I am interested in this, even if Icke has kinda tainted the experience.
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<div class="thebookparts">
X. TREE, SERPENT, AND CROCODILE WORSHIP
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<div class="quote">
THE Ophites asserted that there were several kinds of genii, from god to man; that the relative superiority of these was ruled by the degree of light that was accorded to each; and they maintained that the serpent had to be constantly called upon and to be thanked for the signal service it had rendered humanity. For it taught Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would raise his being immensely by the learning and wisdom he would thus acquire. Such was the exoteric reason given.
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This is Luciferianism.
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<div class="quote">
It is easy to see whence the primal idea of this dual, Janus-like character of the Serpent: the good and the bad. This symbol is one of the most ancient, because the reptile preceded the bird, and the bird the mammal. Thence the belief, or rather the superstition, of the savage tribes who think that the souls of their ancestors live under this form, and the general association of the Serpent with the tree. The legends about the various things it represents are numberless; but, as most of them are allegorical, they have now passed into the class of fables based on ignorance and dark superstition. For instance, when Philostratus narrates that the natives of India and Arabia fed on the heart and liver of serpents in order to learn the language of all the animals, the serpent being credited with that faculty, he certainly never meant his words to be accepted literally. (See De Vita Apollonii, lib. 1, c. xiv.) As will be found more than once as we proceed, the "Serpent" and "Dragon" were the names given to the "Wise Ones," the initiated adepts of olden times. It was their wisdom and their learning that were devoured or assimilated by their followers, whence the allegory. When the Scandinavian Sigurd is fabled to have roasted the heart of Fafnir, the Dragon, whom he had slain, becoming thereby the wisest of men, it meant the same thing. Sigurd had become learned in the runes and magical charms; he had received the "word" from an initiate of that name, or from a sorcerer, after which the latter died, as many do, after "passing the word." Epiphanius lets out a secret of the Gnostics while trying to expose their heresies. The Gnostic Ophites, he says, had a reason for honouring the Serpent: it was because he taught the primeval men the Mysteries (Adv. Haeres. 37). Verily so; but they did not have Adam and Eve in the garden in their minds when teaching this dogma, but simply that which is stated above. The Nagas of the Hindu and Tibetan adepts were human Nagas (Serpents), not reptiles. Moreover, the Serpent has ever been the type of consecutive or serial rejuvenation, of IMMORTALITY and TIME.
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Sorry for such a large chunk, but I am forever fascinted with serpent imagery in mythologies and I think Blavatsky's take is believable (and educated!).
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<div class="thebookparts">
XI. DEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS
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<br />
<div class="quote">
If "God" is Absolute, Infinite, and the Universal Root of all and everything in Nature and its universe, whence comes Evil or D'Evil if not from the same "Golden Womb" of the absolute? Thus we are forced either to accept the emanation of good and evil, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon as offshoots from the same trunk of the Tree of Being, or to resign ourselves to the absurdity of believing in two eternal Absolutes!
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This has become obvious in our current age of enlightenment.
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<div class="quote">
Satan never assumed an anthropomorphic, individualized shape, until the creation by man, of a "one living personal god," had been accomplished; and then merely as a matter of prime necessity. A screen was needed; a scapegoat to explain the cruelty, blunders, and but too-evident injustice, perpetrated by him for whom absolute perfection, mercy, and goodness were claimed. This was the first Karmic effect of abandoning a philosophical and logical Pantheism, to build, as a prop for lazy man, "a merciful father in Heaven," whose daily and hourly actions as Natura naturans, the "comely mother but stone cold," belie the assumption. This led to the primal twins, Osiris-Typhon, Ormazd-Ahriman, and finally CainAbel and the tutti-quanti of contraries.
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The Devil is man-made. Cane and Abel are interesting examples. Shout-out to my Pantheism name-drop!
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<div class="quote">
That which the student will do well to remember is that, with every people except the Christian nations, the Devil is to this day no worse an entity than the opposite aspect in the dual nature of the so-called Creator. This is only natural. One cannot claim God as the synthesis of the whole Universe, as Omnipresent and Omniscient and Infinite, and then divorce him from evil. As there is far more evil than good in the world, it follows on logical grounds that either God must include evil, or stand as the direct cause of it, or else surrender his claims to absoluteness. The ancients understood this so well that their philosophers -- now followed by the Kabalists -- defined evil as the lining of God or Good: Demon est Deus inversus, being a very old adage. Indeed, evil is but an antagonizing blind force in nature; it is reaction, opposition, and contrast, -- evil for some, good for others. There is no malum in se: only the shadow of light, without which light could have no existence, even in our perceptions. If evil disappeared, good would disappear along with it from Earth. The "Old Dragon" was pure spirit before he became matter, passive before he became active. In the Syro-Chaldean magic both Ophis and Ophiomorphos are joined in the Zodiac, at the sign of the Androgyne Virgo-Scorpio. Before its fall on earth the "Serpent" was Ophis-Christos, and after its fall it became Ophiomorphos-CHRESTOS. Everywhere the speculations of the Kabalists treat of Evil as a FORCE, which is antagonistic, but at the same time essential, to Good, as giving it vitality and existence, which it could never have otherwise. There would be no life possible (in the Mayavic sense) without Death, nor regeneration and reconstruction without destruction. Plants would perish in eternal sunlight, and so would man, who would become an automaton without the exercise of his free will and aspirations [[Vol. 1, Page]] 414 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. after that sunlight, which would lose its being and value for him had he nothing but light. Good is infinite and eternal only in the eternally concealed from us, and this is why we imagine it eternal. On the manifested planes, one equilibrates the other. Few are those theists and believers in a personal God, who do not make of Satan the shadow of God; or who, confounding both, do not believe they have a right to pray to that idol asking its help and protection for the exercise and impunity of their evil and cruel deeds. "Lead us not into Temptation" is addressed daily to "our Father, which art in Heaven," and not to the Devil, by millions of human Christian hearts. They do so, repeating the very words put in the mouth of their Saviour, and do not give one thought to the fact that their meaning is contradicted point blank by James "the brother of the Lord." "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." -- (The Gen. Ep. of James, i, 13). Why, then, say that it is the Devil who tempts us, when the Church teaches us on the authority of Christ that it is God who does so? Open any pious volume in which the word "temptation" is defined in its theological sense, and forthwith you find two definitions: (1) "Those afflictions and troubles whereby God tries his people;" (2) Those means and enticements which the Devil makes use of to ensnare and allure mankind. (St. James i., 2, 12, and Mat. vi., 13.) If accepted literally, the two teachings of Christ and James contradict each other, and what dogma can reconcile the two if the occult meaning is rejected?
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</div><br />
Another huge section, but goddamn, I can't argue with it!
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<div class="quote">
Between the alternative allurements, wise will be that philosopher who will be able to decide where God disappears to make room for the Devil! Therefore when we read that "the Devil is a liar and the father of it," i.e., INCARNATE LIE, and are told in the same breath that Satan -- the Devil -- was a son of God and the most beautiful of his archangels, rather than believe that Father and Son are a gigantic, personified and eternal LIE, we prefer to turn to Pantheism and to Pagan philosophy for information.<br /><br />
Once that the key to Genesis is in our hands, it is the scientific and symbolical Kabala which unveils the secret. The great Serpent of the Garden of Eden and the "Lord God" are identical, and so are Jehovah and Cain ONE -- that Cain who is referred to in theology as the "murderer" and the LIAR to God! Jehovah tempts the King of Israel to number the people, and Satan tempts him to do the same in another place. Jehovah turns into the fiery serpents to bite those he is displeased with; and Jehovah informs the brazen serpent that heals them.
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Biblical contradictions about SATAN.
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<div class="quote">
While it is very probable that the Gibborim (the giants) of the Bible are the Rakshasas of the Hindus, it is still more certain that both are Atlanteans, and belong to the submerged races.
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Gibborim <i>might</i> mean giants, and has been used to describe the Nephilim. Meanwhile, Rakshasa are pretty intesne, worth researching. As for Atlanteans, Blavatsky is a dedicated believer in Atlantis, which she mentions right until the end of Volume II.
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<div class="quote">
Before we can approach the evolution of physical and divine man, we have first to master the idea of cyclic evolution, to acquaint ourselves with the philosophies and beliefs of the four races which preceded our present race, to learn what were the ideas of those Titans and giants -- giants, verily, mentally as well as physically. The whole of antiquity was imbued with that philosophy which teaches the involution of spirit into matter, the progressive, downward cyclic descent, or active, self-conscious evolution.
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Blavatsky also talks about giants as a fact a lot. I have looked into it and the lack skeletal remains puts me off.
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<div class="quote">
So much for Professor Wilson's uncalled-for fling. As for the apparently incongruous appeal to Vishnu by the defeated gods, the explanation is there, in the text of Vishnu Purana, if Orientalists would only notice it.* There is Vishnu, as Brahma, and Vishnu in his two aspects, philosophy teaches. There is but one Brahma, "essentially prakriti and Spirit,".<br /><br />
Therefore, it is not Vishnu -- "the inert cause of creation" -- which exercised the functions of an active Providence, but the Universal Soul, that which E. Levi calls Astral Light in its material aspect. And this "Soul" is, in its dual aspect of spirit and matter, the true anthropomorphic God of the Theists; as this God is a personification of that Universal Creative Agent, pure and impure both, owing to its manifested condition and differentiation in this Mayavic World -- God and Devil -- truly. But Dr. Wilson failed to see how Vishnu, in this character, closely resembles the Lord God of Israel, "especially in his policy of deception, temptation, and cunning."
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Bold claim if I'm understanding correctly. So Yahweh (or Elohim, rather) was the same as Vishnu??
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<div class="quote">
"The tree is known by its fruit," -- the nature of a God by his actions. The latter, we have either to judge by the dead-letter narratives, or to accept allegorically. If we compare the two -- Vishnu, as the defender and champion of the defeated gods; and Jehovah, the defender and champion of the "chosen" people, so called by antiphrasis, no doubt, as it is the Jews who had chosen that "jealous" God -- we shall find that both use deceit and cunning. They do so on the principle of "the end justifying the means," in order to have the best of their respective opponents and foes -- the demons. Thus while (according to the Kabalists) Jehovah assumes the shape of the tempting Serpent in the Garden of Eden; sends Satan with a special mission to tempt Job; and harasses and wearies Pharaoh with Sarai, Abraham's wife, and "hardens" his heart against Moses, lest there should be no opportunity for plaguing his victims "with great plagues" (Genesis xii., Exodus) -- Vishnu is made in his Purana to resort to a trick no less unworthy of any respectable god.
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</div><br />
Again, Vishnu and the Israeli God. It's such an incredible thought but how could one easily accept it?
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<div class="thebookparts">
XII. THE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS
</div>
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<div class="quote">
TO thoroughly comprehend the idea underlying every ancient cosmology necessitates the study, in a comparative analysis, of all the great religions of antiquity; as it is only by this method that the root idea will be made plain. Exact science -- could the latter soar so high, while tracing the operations of nature to their ultimate and original sources -- would call this idea the hierarchy of Forces. The original, transcendental and philosophical conception was one. But as systems began to reflect with every age more and more the idiosyncracies of nations; and as the latter, after separating, settled into distinct groups, each evolving along its own national or tribal groove, the main idea gradually became veiled with the overgrowth of human fancy. While in some countries the FORCES, or rather the intelligent Powers of nature, received divine honours they were hardly entitled to, in others -- as now in Europe and the civilized lands -- the very thought of any such Force being endowed with intelligence seems absurd, and is proclaimed unscientific.
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Another agreed upon approach though Janthopoyism.
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<div class="quote">
In the Norse cosmogony it is again the same. "In the beginning was a great abyss (Chaos), neither day nor night existed; the abyss was Ginnungagap, the yawning gulf, without beginning, without end. ALL FATHER, the Uncreated, the Unseen, dwelt in the depth of the 'Abyss' (SPACE) and willed, and what was willed came into being." (See "Asgard and the Gods.") As in the Hindu cosmogony, the evolution of the universe is divided into two acts: called in India the Prakriti and Padma Creations. Before the warm rays pouring from the "Home of Brightness" awake life in the Great Waters of Space, the Elements of the first creation come into view, and from them is formed the Giant Ymir (also Orgelmir) -- primordial matter differentiated from Chaos (literally seething clay).
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This goes on and it's all very interesting but I struggle to know how much to include here. Comparitive Religion is my real thing.
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<div class="quote">
The best metaphysical definition of primeval theogony in the spirit of the Vedantins may be found in the "Notes on the Bhagavat-Gita," by Mr. T. Subba Row. (See "Theosophist" for February, 1887.) Parabrahmam, the unknown and the incognisable, as the lecturer tells his audience:<br /><br />
". . . . . Is not Ego, it is not non-ego, nor is it consciousness . . . . . it is not even Atma" . . . . . "but though not itself an object of knowledge, it is yet capable of supporting and giving rise to every kind of object and every kind of existence which becomes an object of knowledge. It is the one essence from which starts into existence a centre of energy . . . . ." which he calls Logos.<br /><br />
This Logos is the Sabda Brahmam of the Hindus, which he will not even call Eswara (the "lord" God), lest the term should create confusion in the people's minds. But it is the Avalokiteswara of the Hindus, the Verbum of the Christians in its real esoteric meaning, not in the theological disfigurement.
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Again, the temptation to include pages of information here is strong. It's one of the most enjoyable descriptions of The One I've come across, and it goes on much longer than the above.
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<div class="quote">
And here we may incidentally point out one of the many unjust slurs thrown by the pious and good missionaries in India on the religion of the land. This allegory -- in the "Satapatha Brahmana" -- namely, that Brahma, as the father of men, performed the work of procreation by incestuous intercourse with his own daughter Vach, also called Sandhya (twilight), and Satarupa (the hundred formed), is incessantly thrown into the teeth of the Brahmins, as condemning their "detestable, false religion." Besides the fact, conveniently forgotten by the Europeans, that the Patriarch Lot is shown guilty of the same crime under the human form, whereas Brahma, or rather Prajapati, accomplished the incest under the form of a buck with his daughter, who had that of a hind (rohit), the esoteric reading of Genesis (ch. iii.) shows the same. Moreover, there is certainly a cosmic, not a physiological meaning attached to the Indian allegory, since Vach is a permutation of Aditi and Mulaprakriti (Chaos), and Brahma a permutation of Narayana, the Spirit of God entering into, and fructifying nature; therefore, there is nothing phallic in the conception at all.
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</div><br />
Interesting litle incestuous side story.
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<div class="quote">
One thing is thus undeniably proven. The more one studies their Hierarchies and finds out their identity, the more proofs one acquires that there is not one of the past and present personal gods, known to us from the earliest days of History, that does not belong to the third stage of Cosmic manifestation. In every religion we find the concealed deity forming the ground work; then the ray therefrom, that falls into primordial Cosmic matter (first manifestation); then the androgyne result, the dual Male and Female abstract Force, personified (second stage) ; this separates itself finally, in the third, into seven Forces, called the creative Powers by all the ancient Religions, and the "Virtues of God" by the Christians.
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So all deities were manifested at the 3rd stage? One before us? Do I believe these specifics though? Do I care?
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<div class="quote">
For the present it is sufficient to show, by a few instances, the truth of what was asserted at the beginning of this Monograph, namely, that no Cosmogony, the world over, with the sole exception of the Christian, has ever attributed to the One Highest cause, the UNIVERSAL Deific Principle, the immediate creation of our Earth, man, or anything connected with these. This statement holds as good for the Hebrew or Chaldean Kabala as it does for Genesis, had the latter been ever thoroughly understood, and -- what is still more important -- correctly translated.** Everywhere there is either a LOGOS -- a "Light shining in DARKNESS," truly -- or the Architect of the Worlds is esoterically a plural number. The Latin Church, paradoxical as ever, while applying the epithet of Creator to Jehovah alone, adopts a whole Kyriel of names for the working FORCES of the latter, those names betraying the secret. For if the said Forces had nought to do with "Creation" so-called, why call them Elohim (Alhim) in plural; "divine workmen" and Energies ([['Energeia]]), incandescent celestial stones (lapides igniti coelorum), and especially, "supporters of the World" ([[Kosmokratores]]), governors or RULERS of the World (rectores mundi), the "Wheels" of the World (Rotae), Ophanim, Flames and POWERS, "Sons of God" (B'ne Alhim), "Vigilant COUNSELLORS," etc., etc.
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I've written about this myself before. God is so often referred to in multiples, even in monotheistic religions. What about Islam though?
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<div class="quote">
The choice is curious, and shows how paradoxical were the first Christians in their selections. For why should they have chosen these symbols of Egyptian paganism, when the eagle is never mentioned in the New Testament save once, when Jesus refers to it as a carrion eater? (Matt. xxiv. 28); and in the Old Testament it is called unclean; that the Lion is made a point of comparison with Satan, both roaring for men to devour; and the oxen are driven out of the Temple. On the other hand the Serpent, brought as an exemplar of wisdom to follow, is now regarded as the symbol of the Devil. The esoteric pearl of Christ's religion degraded into Christian theology, may indeed be said to have chosen a strange and unfitting shell to be born in and evolved from.
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Footnote and side topic but I found the animal stuff interesting. It's true about the snake.
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<div class="thebookparts">
XIII. THE SEVEN CREATIONS
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<div class="quote">
"Created beings" -- explains Vishnu Purana -- "although they are destroyed (in their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the good or evil acts of former existences, are never exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma produces the world anew, they are the progeny of his will . . ." "Collecting his mind into itself (Yoga willing), Brahma creates the four orders of beings, termed gods, demons, progenitors, and MEN" . . . "progenitors" meaning the prototypes and Evolvers of the first Root Race of men. The progenitors are the Pitris, and are of seven classes. They are said in exoteric mythology to be born of Brahma's side, like Eve from the rib of Adam.
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Footnote. Karmic reincarnation.
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<div class="thebookparts">
XIV. THE FOUR ELEMENTS
</div>
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<div class="quote">
METAPHYSICALLY and esoterically there is but One ELEMENT in nature, and at the root of it is the Deity; and the so-called seven elements, of which five have already manifested and asserted their existence, are the garment, the veil, of that deity; direct from the essence whereof comes MAN, whether physically, psychically, mentally or spiritually considered. Four elements only are generally spoken of in later antiquity, five admitted only in philosophy. For the body of ether is not fully manifested yet, and its noumenon is still "the Omnipotent Father -- AEther, the synthesis of the rest." But what are these "ELEMENTS" whose compound bodies have now been discovered by Chemistry and Physics to contain numberless sub-elements, even the sixty or seventy of which no longer embrace the whole number suspected. (Vide Addenda, §§ XI. and XII., quotations from Mr. Crookes' Lectures.) Let us follow their evolution from the historical beginnings, at any rate. <br /><br />
The four Elements were fully characterized by Plato when he said that they were that "which composes and decomposes the compound bodies." <br /><br />
Hence Cosmolatry was never, even in its worst aspect, the fetishism which adores or worships the passive external form and matter of any object, but looked ever to the noumenon therein. Fire, Air, Water, Earth, were but the visible garb, the symbols of the informing, invisible Souls or Spirits -- the Cosmic gods to whom worship was offered by the ignorant, and simple, respectful recognition by the wiser. In their turn the phenomenal subdivisions of the noumenal Elements were informed by the Elementals, so called, the "Nature Spirits" of lower grades.
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</div><br />
Interesting and a lot to agree with. Like the one element. I love the “visible garb” terminology.
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<div class="quote">
For primitive religion was something better than simple pre-occupation about physical phenomena, as remarked by Schilling; and principles, more elevated than we modern Sadducees know of, "were hidden under the transparent veil of such merely natural divinities as thunder, the winds, and rain." The ancients knew and could distinguish the corporeal from the spiritual elements, in the forces of nature.
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</div><br />
I've said this before.
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<div class="quote">
When included under the arts and sciences of the fourth race, the Atlanteans, the phenomenal manifestation of the four elements, justly attributed by the believers in Cosmic gods to the intelligent interference of the latter, assumed a scientific character. The magic of the ancient priests consisted, in those days, in addressing their gods in their own language. "The speech of the men of the earth cannot reach the Lords. Each must be addressed in the language of his respective element" -- is a sentence which will be shown pregnant with meaning. "The Book of Rules" cited adds as an explanation of the nature of that Element-language: "It is composed of sounds, not words; of sounds, numbers and figures. He who knows how to blend the three, will call forth the response of the superintending Power" (the regent-god of the specific element needed). <br /><br />
Thus this "language" is that of incantations or of MANTRAS, as they are called in India, sound being the most potent and effectual magic agent, and the first of the keys which opens the door of communication between Mortals and the Immortals. He who believes in the words and teachings of St. Paul, has no right to pick out from the latter those sentences only that he chooses to accept, to the rejection of others; and St. Paul teaches most undeniably the existence of cosmic gods and their presence among us. Paganism preached a dual and simultaneous evolution: "creation" -- "spiritualem ac mundanum," as the Roman Church has it -- ages before the advent of that Roman Church. Exoteric phraseology has changed little with respect to divine hierarchies since the most palmy days of Paganism, or "Idolatry." Names alone have changed, along with claims which have now become false pretences. For when Plato put in the mouth of the Highest Principle -- "Father AEther" or Jupiter -- these words, for instance: "The gods of the gods of whom I am the maker (opifex) as I am the father of all their works (operumque parens)"; he knew the spirit of this sentence as fully, we suspect, as St. Paul did, when saying: "For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many," . . . . etc. (1 Cor. viii. 5.)* Both knew the sense and the meaning of what they put forward in such guarded terms.
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Good spell techniques? I believe all of it. Corinthians 8:5 mentions "gods" plural without a doubt.
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<div class="quote">
Says Sir W. Grove, F.R.S., speaking of the correlation of forces, "The ancients when they witnessed a natural phenomenon, removed from ordinary analogies, and unexplained by any mechanical action known to them, referred it to a soul, a spiritual or preternatural power. . . . Air and gases were also at first deemed spiritual, but subsequently they became invested with a more material character; and the same words [[pneuma]], spirit, etc., were used to signify the soul or a gas; the very word gas, from geist, a ghost or spirit, affords us an instance of the gradual transmutation of a spiritual into a physical conception . . . . . ." (P. 89.) This, the great man of science (in his preface to the fifth edition of "Correlation of Physical Forces") considers as the only concern of exact science, which has no business to meddle with the CAUSES. "Cause and effect," he explains, "are therefore, in their abstract relation to these forces, words solely of convenience. We are totally unacquainted with the ultimate generating power of each and all of them, and probably shall ever remain so; we can only ascertain the norma of their actions; we must humbly refer their causation to one omnipresent influence, and content ourselves with studying their effects and developing, by experiment, their mutual relations"
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Very strong argument for how science has not explained away the spiriual or anything really!
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<div class="quote">
The Athenians are accused of having sacrificed to Boreas; and this "Demon" is charged with having submerged and wrecked 400 ships of the Persian fleet on the rocks of Mount Pelion, and of having become so furious "that all the Magi of Xerxes could hardly counteract it by offering contra-sacrifices to Tethys" [Herodotus "Polym." cxc]. Very fortunately, no authenticated instance is on the records of Christian wars showing a like catastrophe on the same scale happening to one Christian fleet owing to the "prayers" of its enemy -- another Christian nation. But this is from no fault of theirs, for each prays as ardently to Jehovah for the destruction of the other, as the Athenians prayed to Boreas. Both resorted to a neat little piece of black magic con amore. Such abstinence from divine interference being hardly due to lack of prayers, sent to a common Almighty God for mutual destruction, where, then, shall we draw the line between Pagan and Christian? And who can doubt that all Protestant England would rejoice and offer thanks to the Lord, if, during some future war, 400 ships of the hostile fleet were to be wrecked owing to such holy prayers. What is, then, the difference, we ask again, between a Jupiter, a Boreas, and a Jehovah? No more than this: The crime of one's own next-of-kin -- say of one's "father" -- is always excused and often exalted, whereas the crime of our neighbour's parent is ever gladly punished by hanging. Yet the crime is the same. <br /><br />
So far the "blessings of Christianity" do not seem to have made any appreciable advance on the morals of the converted Pagans.
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Shots fired! And target met! The comparisons between Jupiter (Zeus) and Yahweh are documented, famous for lightening bolts to strike down those who do it wrong. But they only strike those who believe in them; if you're Greek, it was Jupiter who did it, if you're Jewish, Yahweh. So what's the difference? Are they exactly the same? And, if so, worshipping one does not promise a better life whatsoever, rendering the subdivisions redundant. That's super powerful stuff.
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<div class="quote">
That, however, which God and the Christian Saints are justified in doing, becomes a crime, if successful, in simple mortals. Sorcery and incantations are regarded as fables now; yet from the day of the Institutes of Justinian down to the laws against witchcraft of England and America -- obsolete but not repealed to this day -- such incantations, even when only suspected, were punished as criminal. Why punish a chimera? And still we read of Constantine, the Emperor, sentencing to death the philosopher Sopatrus for unchaining the winds, and thus preventing ships loaded with grain from arriving in time to put an end to famine. Pausanias, when affirming that he saw with his own eyes "men who by simple prayers and incantations" stopped a strong hail-storm, is derided. This does not prevent modern Christian writers from advising prayer during storm and danger, and believing in its efficacy. Hoppo and Stadlein two magicians and sorcerers -- were sentenced to death for throwing charms on fruit and transferring a harvest by magic arts from one field to another, hardly a century ago, if we can believe Sprenger, the famous writer, who vouches for it: "Qui fruges excantassent segetem pellicentes incantando."
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Janthopoyism talks about this extensively. Prayers are spells! But then how come some were persecuted when they worked??
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<div class="quote">
Kwan-shi-yin, then, is "the Son identical with his Father" mystically, or the Logos -- the word. He is called the "Dragon of Wisdom" in Stanza III., as all the Logoi of all the ancient religious systems are connected with, and symbolised by, serpents. In old Egypt, the God Nahbkoon, "he who unites the doubles," (astral light re-uniting by its dual physiological and spiritual potency the divine human to its purely divine Monad, the prototype "in heaven" or Nature) was represented as a serpent on human legs, either with or without arms. It was the emblem of the resurrection of Nature, as also of Christ with the Ophites, and of Jehovah as the brazen serpent healing those who looked at him; the serpent being an emblem of Christ with the Templars also, (see the Templar degree in Masonry). The symbol of Knouph (Khoum also), or the soul of the world, says Champollion (Pantheon, text 3), "is represented among other forms under that of a huge serpent on human legs; this reptile, being the emblem of the good genius and the veritable Agathodaemon, is sometimes bearded." The sacred animal is thus identical with the serpent of the Ophites, and is figured on a great number of engraved stones, called Gnostic or Basilidean gems. This serpent appears with various heads (human and animal), but its gems are always found inscribed with the name [[CHNOUBIS]] (Chnoubis). This symbol is identical with one which, according to Jamblichus and Champollion, was called "the first of the celestial gods"; the god Hermes, or Mercury with the Greeks, to which god Hermes Trismegistos attributes the invention of, and the first initiation of men into, magic; and Mercury is Budh, Wisdom, Enlightenment, or "Reawakening" into the divine Science.
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Just noting more repitile references here.
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<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK I. -- PART II.
</div>
<br />
In this section of the book, Blavatsky admirably leans deeper into the scientific space. From here, I took less notes. The reason being is that my knowledge on religion can just about stand up against most of them, but the scientific side bounced more off my skull. She uses a lot of jargon with many references, and I lost interest in independently researching any of it. But from what I could gather, she spends most of her time picking apart proposals from scientists one by one then offering contradictory information. As esoteric wisdom is often laughable in the scientific community, it makes sense that she'd take such a defensive approach.<br /><br />
Specific topics she appeared to gravitate towards the most included the mass of planets (through The Nebula Theory), large pieces about Isaac Newton (who Blavatsky spoke of warmly due to the man's spirituality), and John Ernst Worrell Keely. The latter was an inventor who claimed to have discovered a new "vaporic" or "etheric" motive force which is generally accepted as fraudulent. However, Blavatsky appears to think that Keely was onto something.<br /><br />
The problem with scientific books (unlike ancient religious ones) is that their subject moves so fast. There is no way for an 1888 publication to be up-to-date, and critics have noted that already. <br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
II. MODERN PHYSICISTS ARE PLAYING AT BLIND MAN'S BUFF.
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<div class="quote">
"It must not be forgotten that the several departments of Science are simply arbitrary divisions of labour. In these several departments the same physical object may be considered under different aspects. The physicist may study its molecular relations, while the chemist determines its atomic constitution. But when they both deal with the same element or agent, it cannot have one set of properties in physics, and another set contradictory of them, in chemistry. If the physicist and chemist alike assume the existence of ultimate atoms absolutely invariable in bulk and weight, the atom cannot be a cube or oblate spheroid for physical, and a sphere for chemical purposes. A group of constant atoms cannot be an aggregate of extended and absolutely inert and impenetrable masses in a crucible or retort, and a system of mere centres of force as part of a magnet or of a Clamond battery. The universal Ether cannot be soft and mobile to please the chemist, and rigid-elastic to satisfy the physicist; it cannot be continuous at the command of Sir William Thomson and discontinuous on the suggestion of Cauchy or Fresnel."* <br /><br />
The eminent physicist, G. A. Hirn, may likewise be quoted saying the same in the 43rd Volume of the Memoires de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, which we translate from the French, as cited: "When one sees the assurance with which are to-day affirmed doctrines which attribute the collectivity, the universality of the phenomena to the motions alone of the atom, one has a right to expect to find likewise unanimity on the qualities described to this unique being, the foundation of all that exists. Now, from the first examination of the particular systems proposed, one feels the strangest deception; one perceives that the atom of the chemist, the atom of the physicist, that of the metaphysician, and that of the mathematician . . . . have absolutely nothing in common subdivision of our sciences, each of which, in its own little pigeon-hole, constructs an atom which satisfies the requirements of the phenomena it studies, without troubling itself in the least about the requirements proper to the phenomena of the neighbouring pigeon-hole. The metaphysician banishes the principles of attraction and repulsion as dreams; the mathematician, who analyses the laws of elasticity and those of the propagation of light, admits them implicitly, without even naming them. . . . The chemist cannot explain the grouping of the atoms, in his often complicated molecules, without attributing to his atoms specific distinguishing qualities; for the physicist and the metaphysician, partisans of the modern doctrines, the atom is, on the contrary, always and everywhere the same. What am I saying? THERE IS NO AGREEMENT EVEN IN ONE AND THE SAME SCIENCE AS TO THE PROPERTIES OF THE ATOM. Each constructs an atom to suit his own fancy, in order to explain some special phenomenon with which he is particularly concerned."*
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This is a quote from Arthur Beiser (author of Concepts of Modern Physics). It's a fascinating observation, that different fields of science are analysing the atom in ways that suit their needs, but their conclusions render a completely different image of the atom itself. It says a lot about science but even more about the atom.
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<div class="thebookparts">
IV. IS GRAVITATION A LAW?
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<br />
<div class="quote">
If we are taken to task for believing in operating "Gods" and "Spirits" while rejecting a personal God, we answer to the Theists and Monotheists: "Admit that your Jehovah is one of the Elohim, and we are ready to recognise him. Make of him, as you do, the Infinite, the ONE and the Eternal God, and we will never accept him in this character." Of tribal Gods there were many; the One Universal Deity is a principle, an abstract Root-Idea which has nought to do with the unclean work of finite Form. We do not worship the Gods, we only honour Them, as beings superior to ourselves. In this we obey the Mosaic injunction, while Christians disobey their Bible -- Missionaries foremost of all. "Thou shalt not revile the gods," says one of them -- (Jehovah) -- in Exodus xxii. 28); but at the same time in verse 20 it is commanded, "He that sacrificeth to any God, save unto the Lord, he shall be utterly destroyed."
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Footnote but interesting. The Abrahamic God is a god, but only one of the gods. Even in Biblical terms, it is recognised as such. While reading this, I'm sure it blew me away, but that was so long ago and now I'm well versed in this teaching.
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<div class="thebookparts">
VVI. THE MASKS OF SCIENCE.
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<br />
<div class="quote">
To conclude on the question of gravity. How can Science presume to know anything certain of it? How can it maintain its position and its hypotheses against those of the Occultists, who see in gravity only sympathy and antipathy, or attraction and repulsion, caused by physical polarity on our terrestrial plane, and by spiritual causes outside of its influence? How can they disagree with the Occultists before they agree among themselves? Indeed one hears of the conservation of energy, and in the same breath of the perfect hardness and inelasticity of the atoms; of the Kinetic theory of gases being identical with "potential energy," so called; and, at the same time, of the elementary units of mass being absolutely hard and inelastic! An Occultist opens a scientific work and reads as follows: -- <br /><br />
"Physical atomism derives all the qualitative properties of matter from the forms of atomic motion. The atoms themselves remain as elements utterly devoid of property." (Wundt, "Die Theorie der Materie," p. 381.) <br /><br />
And further: <br /><br />
"Chemistry in its ultimate form must be atomic mechanics." (Nazesmann, "Thermochemie," p. 150.) <br /><br />
And a moment after he is told that:<br /><br />
"Gases consist of atoms which behave like solid, perfectly elastic spheres." (Kroenig, Clausius, Maxwell, etc., Philosophical Magazine, Vol. XIX., p. 18.) <br /><br />
Finally, to crown all, Sir W. Thomson is found declaring that:<br /><br />
"We are forbidden by the modern theory of the conservation of energy to assume inelasticity, or anything short of perfect elasticity of the ultimate molecules whether of ultra mundane or mundane matter." (!!!) ("Philosophical Magazine," p. 321, loc. cit.)
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</div><br />
A good method of attack, showing that, while scientists disagree with occultists in every field, they are even further disagreeing between thmeselves.
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<div class="quote">
Science has no right to deny to the Occultists their claim to a more profound knowledge of the so-called Forces; which, they say, are only the effects of causes generated by Powers, substantial, yet supersensuous, and beyond any kind of matter with which they (the Scientists) have hitherto become acquainted. The most science can do is to assume the attitude of agnosticism and to maintain it. Then it can say: "Your case is no more proven than is ours; but we confess to knowing nothing in reality either about Force or matter, or that which lies at the bottom of the so-called correlations of Forces. Therefore, time alone can prove who is right and who is wrong. Let us wait patiently, and meanwhile show courtesy instead of scoffing at each other."
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I hear her beef with science community, I think she explains it well here, it’s fair.
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<div class="thebookparts">
VII. AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE BY A MAN OF SCIENCE.
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<div class="quote">
Thus we find that Ether and elastic atoms are, in the alleged mechanical conception of the Universe, the Spirit and Soul of Kosmos, and that the theory -- put it any way and under whatever disguise -- always leaves a more widely opened issue for men of Science to speculate beyond the line drawn by modern materialism -- or call it agnosticism rather, to be more correct* -- than the majority avails itself of. Atoms, Ether, or both, modern speculation cannot get out of the circle of ancient thought; and the latter was soaked through with archaic occultism. Undulatory or corpuscular theory -- it is all one.
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Ether is one of the most mentioned substances in the Secret Doctrine. According to Theosophy, it is the fifth of the seven elements, one of the unmanifested ones. It is kind of a "space" or a "light" found everywhere.
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<div class="thebookparts">
VIII. LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY.
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<br />
<div class="quote">
For see what another eminent physician says, who calls this (our life-fluid) "nervous Ether."
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</div><br />
Haha, nervous ether, best name.
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<div class="quote">
"The idea attempted to be conveyed by the theory is, that between the molecules of the matter, solid or fluid, of which the nervous organisms, and, indeed, of which all the organic parts of a body are composed, there exists a refined subtle medium, vaporous or gaseous, which holds the molecules in a condition for motion upon each other, and for arrangement and rearrangement of form; a medium by and through which all motion is conveyed; by and through which the one organ or part of the body is held in communion with the other parts, by which and through which the outer living world communicates with the living man: a medium, which, being present, enables the phenomena of life to be demonstrated, and which, being universally absent, leaves the body actually dead. . . . . ."
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</div><br />
Such a great quote by Dr. B. W. Richardson. Not sure I entirely agree (or disagree) with the details but I fully believe every atom is communicating with every other atom, and this is a fairly scientific proposal on how that may be possible (also, quantum entanglement, hello).
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
VII. AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE BY A MAN OF SCIENCE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The Vedic Aryans were as familiar with the mysteries of sound and colour as our physiologists are on the physical plane, but they had mastered the secrets of both on planes inaccessible to the materialist. They knew of a double set of senses; spiritual and material. In a man who is deprived of one or more senses, the remaining become the more developed: e.g., the blind man will recover his sight through the senses of touch, of hearing, etc., and he who is deaf will be able to hear through sight, by seeing audibly the words uttered by the lips and mouth of the speaker. But these are cases that belong to the world of matter still. The spiritual senses, those that act on a higher plane of consciousness are rejected a priori by physiology because the latter is ignorant of the sacred science. It limits the action of ether to vibrations, and, dividing it from air -- though air is simply differentiated and compound ether -- makes it assume functions to fit in with the special theories of the physiologist. But there is more real science in the teachings of the Upanishads when these are correctly understood, than the Orientalists, who do not understand them at all, are ready to admit. Mental as well as physical correlations of the seven senses (seven on the physical and seven on the mental planes) are clearly explained and defined in the Vedas, and especially in the Upanishad called Anugita: "The indestructible and the destructible, such is the double manifestation of the Self. Of these the indestructible is the existent (the true essence or nature of Self, the underlying principles). The manifestation as an individual (or entity) is called the destructible." Thus speaks the ASCETIC in Anugita; and also: "Every one who is twice-born (initiated) knows such is the teaching of the ancients. . . . . Space is the first entity. . . . . Now Space (Akasa, or the noumenon of Ether) has one quality . . . and that is sound only . . . and the qualities of sound are Shadga, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama, Panchama, and beyond these five Nishada and Dhaivata"; (the Hindu gamut). These seven notes of the scale are the principles of sound. (Vide ch. xxxvi. of Anugita.) The qualities of every Element, as of every sense, are septenary, and to judge and dogmatize on them from their manifestation (likewise sevenfold in itself) on the material or objective plane above is quite arbitrary. For it is only by the SELF emancipating itself from these (seven) causes of illusion that one acquires the knowledge (secret wisdom) of the qualities of objects of sense on their dual plane of manifestation -- the visible and the invisible. Thus it is said: --<br /><br />
"State this wonderful mystery . . . . . Hear the assignment of causes exhaustively. The nose, and the tongue, and the eye, and the skin, and the ear as the fifth (organ of sense) Mind and Understanding,* these seven (senses) should be understood to be the causes of (the knowledge of their) qualities. Smell, and taste, and colour, sound, and touch as the fifth, the object of the mental operation, and the object of the Understanding (the highest spiritual sense or perception), these seven are causes of action. He who smells, he who eats, he who sees, he who speaks, and he who hears as the fifth, he who thinks, and he who understands, these seven should be regarded as the causes of the agents.** These (the agents) being possessed of qualities (sattwa, rajas, tamas), enjoy their own qualities, agreeable and disagreeable" (Anugita).<br /><br />
Then one reads in the Bhagavadgita (chap. vii.) the Deity (or Krishna) saying: -- <br /><br />
". . . . Only some know me truly. Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space (or Akasa, AEther), Mind, Understanding and Egoism (or the perception of all the former on the illusive plane). . . This is a lower form of my nature. Know (that there is) another (form of my) nature, and higher than this, which is animate, O you of mighty arms! and by which this Universe is upheld. . . . All this is woven upon me, like numbers of pearls upon a thread (Mundakopanishad, p. 298). . . . I am the taste in the water, O son of Kunti! I am the light of the sun and moon. I am . . . sound ('i.e., the Occult essence which underlies all these and the other qualities of the various things mentioned,' Transl.), in space . . . the fragrant smell in the earth, refulgence in the fire . . . etc., etc."
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</div><br />
Super long but gorgeously powerful. Everything is sound, as in vibration. And there are SEVEN musical notes on a scale so thats good. Also love the duality of the vibrational eternal SELF and the manifested individual temporary SELF. Janthopoyism writes about all of this.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
VIII. LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
And the learned gentleman might have added on the same Occult principle: "That the 'nervous Ether' of one person can be poisoned by the 'nervous Ether' of another person or his auric emanations. But see what Paracelsus said of 'Nervous Ether'": -- <br /><br />
"The Archaeus is of a magnetic nature, and attracts or repels other sympathetic or antipathetic forces belonging to the same plane. The less power of resistance for astral influences a person possesses, the more will he be subject to such influences. The vital force is not enclosed in man, but radiates (within) and around him like a luminous sphere (aura) and it may be made to act at a distance. . . . It may poison the essence of life (blood) and cause diseases, or it may purify it after it has been made impure, and restore the health" (Paragranum; "Life of Paracelsus," by Dr. F. Hartmann.)
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</div><br />
This is LOA looong before it was a buzz term. But it also goes into energy influencing one another, auras and such, vibration, moods, negative, positive.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
IX. THE SOLAR THEORY
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Thus, there is a regular circulation of the vital fluid throughout our system, of which the Sun is the heart -- the same as the circulation of the blood in the human body -- during the manvantaric solar period, or life; the Sun contracting as rhythmically at every return of it, as the human heart does. Only, instead of performing the round in a second or so, it takes the solar blood ten of its years, and a whole year to pass through its auricles and ventricles before it washes the lungs and passes thence to the great veins and arteries of the system.
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</div><br />
I ADORE this as something I've written about loads. Everything is a living organism, a sum of its parts, yet you can go up and as down as far as you like. The Sun as our Solar System's heart is so lovely.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is said in a work on Geology that it is the dream of Science that "all the recognized chemical elements will one day be found but modifications of a single material element." ("World-Life," p. 48.)
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</div><br />
I totally believe there is one thing!
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<div class="quote">
Thus fact and truth have once more forced the hand of "exact" Science, and compelled it to enlarge its views and change its terms which, masking the multitude, reduced them to one body -- like the Septenary Elohim and their hosts transformed by the materialistic religionists into one Jehovah. Replace the chemical terms "Molecule," "atom," "particle," etc., by the words "Hosts," "Monads," "Devas," etc., and one might think the genesis of gods, the primeval evolution of manvantaric intelligent Forces, was being described. But the learned lecturer adds something still more suggestive to his descriptive remarks; whether consciously or unconsciously, who knoweth?
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</div><br />
The way she uses science to “prove” god is masterful.
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<div class="quote">
Indeed these "signs" are many and multiply daily; but none are more important than those just quoted. For now the chasm between the occult "superstitious and unscientific" teachings and "exact" science is completely bridged, and one, at least, of the few eminent chemists of the day is in the realm of the infinite possibilities of occultism. Every new step he will take will bring him nearer and nearer to that mysterious centre, from which radiate the innumerable paths that lead down Spirit into matter, and which transform the gods and the living monads into man and sentient nature.
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</div><br />
A nice summary of spirit evolution.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
X. THE COMING FORCE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
For Sound generates, or rather attracts together, the elements that produce an ozone, the fabrication of which is beyond chemistry, but within the limits of Alchemy. It may even resurrect a man or an animal whose astral "vital body" has not been irreparably separated from the physical body by the severance of the magnetic or odic chord. As one saved thrice from death by that power, the writer ought to be credited with knowing personally something about it.
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</div><br />
I actually read about this. Helena Blavatsky nearly died before she finished the Secret Doctrine, and then she was suddenly fine, claiming she'd been granted more life to finish these volumes. She then died shortly after. Also this was on my page 555 which means nothing really.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
* In this case the American "Substantialists" are not wrong (though too anthropomorphic and material in their views to be accepted by the Occultists) when arguing through Mrs. M. S. Organ, M.D., that "there must be positive entitative properties in objects which have a constitutional relation to the nerves of animal sensations, or there can be no perception. No impression of any kind can be made upon brain, nerve, or mind -- no stimulus to action -- unless there is an actual and direct communication of a substantial force." ("Substantial" as far as it appears in the usual sense of the word in this universe of illusion and MAYA, of course; not so in reality.) "That force may be the most refined and sublimated immaterial Entity (?). Yet it must exist; for no sense, element, or faculty of the human being can have a perception, or be stimulated into action, without some substantial force coming in contact with it. This is the fundamental law pervading the whole organic and mental world. In the true philosophical sense there is no such thing as independent action: for every force or substance is correlated to some other force or substance. We can with just as much truth and reason assert that no substance possesses any inherent gustatory property or any olfactory property -- that taste and odour are simply sensations caused by vibrations; and hence mere illusions of animal perceptions. . . ."
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</div><br />
FOOTNOTE. This is where I’m placing a lot of thought these days.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
XI. ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Modern physics, while borrowing from the ancients their atomic theory, forgot one point, the most important of the doctrine; hence they got only the husks and will never be able to get at the kernel. They left behind, in the adoption of physical atoms, the suggestive fact that from Anaxagoras down to Epicurus, the Roman Lucretius, and finally even to Galileo, all those Philosophers believed more or less in ANIMATED atoms, not in invisible specks of so-called "brute" matter. Rotatory motion was generated in their views, by larger (read, more divine and pure) atoms forcing downwards other atoms; the lighter ones being thrust simultaneously upward. The esoteric meaning of this is the ever cyclic curve downward and upward of differentiated elements through intercyclic phases of existence, until each reaches again its starting point or birthplace. The idea was metaphysical as well as physical; the hidden interpretation embracing "gods" or souls, in the shape of atoms, as the causes of all the effects produced on Earth by the secretions from the divine bodies.* No ancient philosopher, not even the Jewish Kabalists, ever dissociated Spirit from matter or vice versa. Everything originated in the ONE, and, proceeding from the one, must finally return to the One. "Light becomes heat, and consolidates into fiery particles; which, from being ignited, become cold, hard particles, round and smooth. And this is called Soul, imprisoned in its robe of matter;"** Atoms and Souls having been synonymous in the language of the Initiates. The "whirling Souls," Gilgoolem, a doctrine in which so many learned Jews have believed (See Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia), had no other meaning esoterically. The learned Jewish Initiates never meant by the "Promised land" Palestine alone, but the same Nirvana as the learned Buddhist and Brahmin do -- the bosom of the ETERNAL ONE, symbolized by that of Abraham, and by Palestine as its substitute on Earth.*** The passage of the SOUL-ATOM "through the Seven Planetary Chambers" had the same metaphysical and also physical meaning. It had the latter when it was said to dissolve into Ether (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. I., p. 297.) Even Epicurus, the model Atheist and materialist, knew and believed so much in the ancient Wisdom, that he taught that the Soul (entirely distinct from immortal Spirit when the former is enshrined latent in it, as it is in every atomic speck), was composed of a fine, tender essence, formed from the smoothest, roundest, and finest atoms.
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</div><br />
All of this is fantastic and EXACTLY my thoughts.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
XIV. FORCES -- MODES OF MOTION OR INTELLIGENCES?
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
It must be that which filled space -- was space -- originally, whose motion in differentiated matter was the origin of the actual movements of the sidereal bodies; and which, "in condensing itself in those very bodies, thus abandoned the space that is found void to-day." In other words, it is that same matter of which are now composed the planets, comets, and the Sun himself, which, having in the origin formed itself into those bodies, has preserved its inherent quality of motion; which quality, now centred in their nuclei, directs all motion. A very slight alteration of words is needed, and a few additions, to make of this our Esoteric Doctrine.
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The formless substance now taking form, yet the space between form is still that substance.
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<div class="quote">
Another quite occult doctrine is the theory of Kant, that the matter of which the inhabitants and the animals of other planets are formed is of a lighter and more subtle nature and of a more perfect conformation in proportion to their distance from the Sun. The latter is too full of Vital Electricity, of the physical, life-giving principle. Therefore, the men on Mars are more ethereal than we are, while those of Venus are more gross, though far more intelligent, if less spiritual.
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What the heck is this alien stuff?
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
XV. GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
"Perhaps this hypothesis can be simplified if we imagine yttrium to be represented by a five-shilling piece. By chemical fractionation I have divided it into five separate shillings, and find that these shillings are not counterparts, but like the carbon atoms in the benzol ring, have the impress of their position, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, stamped on them. . . . If I throw my shillings into the melting-pot or dissolve them chemically, the mint stamp disappears and they all turn out to be silver." . . .<br /><br />
This will be the case with all the atoms and molecules when they have separated from their compound forms and bodies -- when pralaya sets in. Reverse the case, and imagine the dawn of a new manvantara. The pure "silver" of the absorbed material will once more separate into SUBSTANCE, which will generate "Divine Essences" whose "principles"* are the primary elements, the subelements, the physical energies and subjective and objective matter; or, as these are epitomised -- GODS, MONADS, and ATOMS. If leaving for one moment the metaphysical or transcendental side of the question, -- dropping out of the present consideration the supersensuous and intelligent beings and entities believed in by the Kabalists and Christians -- we turn to the atomical theory of evolution, the occult teachings are still found corroborated by exact Science and its confessions, as far, at least, as regards the supposed "simple" elements, now suddenly degraded into poor and distant relatives -- not even second cousins to the latter.
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</div><br />
I like the analogy. Atoms are the same.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
XVI. CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or -- break them.
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</div><br />
A lot to love, and in agreement with Jantho.
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<div class="quote">
It is neither prevision, nor prophecy; no more than is the signalling of a comet or star, several years before its appearance. It is simply knowledge and mathematically correct computations which enable the WISE MEN OF THE EAST to foretell, for instance, that England is on the eve of such or another catastrophe; France, nearing such a point of her cycle, and Europe in general threatened with, or rather, on the eve of, a cataclysm, which her own cycle of racial Karma has led her to.
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</div><br />
Karma for Europe's evil ways. I often feel this way but has it happened yet? Maybe England.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
XVII. "THE ZODIAC AND ITS ANTIQUITY."
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
So patent is the fact, that the Roman Catholic writers -- especially among the French Ultramontanes -- have tacitly agreed to connect the twelve Jewish Patriarchs with the signs of the Zodiac. This is done in a kind of prophetico-mystic way, which would sound to pious and ignorant ears like a portentous sign, a tacit divine recognition of the "chosen people of God," whose finger has purposely traced in heaven, from the beginning of creation, the numbers of these patriarchs. For instance, these writers (De Mirville among others) recognise curiously enough all the characteristics of the 12 signs of the Zodiac, in the words addressed by the dying Jacob to his Sons, and in his definitions of the future of each Tribe. (Vide Genesis, ch. xlix.) Moreover, the respective banners of the same tribes are claimed to have exhibited the same symbols and the same names as the signs, repeated in the 12 stones of the Urim and Thummim, and on the 12 wings of the cherub. Leaving the proof of exactitude in the alleged correspondence to the said mystics, it is as follows: Man, or the Aquarius, is in the sphere of Reuben, who is declared as "unstable as water" (the Vulgate has it, to be "rushing like water,"; Gemini, in the strong fraternal association of Simeon and Levi; Leo, in that of Judah, "the strong Lion" of his tribe, "the lion's whelp"; the Pisces, in Zabulon, who "shall dwell at the haven of the sea"; Taurus, in Issachar, because he is "a strong ass couching down," etc., and therefore associated with the stables; Virgo-Scorpio, in Dan, who is described as "a serpent, an adder in the path that biteth," etc.; Capricornus in Naphtali, who is "a hind (a deer) let loose"; Cancer, in Benjamin, for he is "ravenous"; Libra, the "Balance," in Asher, whose "bread shall be fat"; Saggitarius in Joseph, because "his bow abode in strength." To make up for the twelfth sign, Virgo, made independent of Scorpio, is Dina, the only daughter of Jacob. (See Genesis xlix.) Tradition shows the alleged tribes carrying the 12 signs on their banners. But the Bible is, besides these, full of theo-cosmological and astronomical symbols and personifications.
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</div><br />
This break down of Judo-Zodiac connections is pretty convincing.
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<div class="quote">
Why see in the Pisces a direct reference to Christ -- one of the several world-reformers, a Saviour but for his direct followers, but only a great and glorious Initiate for all the rest -- when that constellation shines as a symbol of all the past, present, and future Spiritual Saviours who dispense light and dispel mental darkness? Christian symbologists have tried to prove that it was that of Ephraim (Joseph's son), the elect of Jacob, that therefore, it was at the moment of the Sun entering into the sign of the Fish (Pisces) that "the Elect Messiah, the [[Ichthus]] of the first Christians, had to be born. But, if Jesus of Nazareth was that Messiah -- was he really born at that "moment," or was he made to be so born by the adaptation of theologians, who sought only to make their preconceived ideas fit in with sidereal facts and popular belief? Everyone knows that the real time and year of the birth of Jesus are totally unknown. And it is the Jews, whose forefathers have made the word Dag signify both "fish" and "Messiah," who, during the forced development of their rabbinical language, are the first to deny this Christian claim. And what of the further facts that Brahmins also connect their "Messiah," the eternal Avatar Vishnu, with a fish and the Deluge, and that the Babylonians made of their Dag-On, equally a fish and a Messiah, the Man-Fish and Prophet?
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</div><br />
I enjoy the fish meets Christ theories, and here’s Theosophy chatting about it, disagreeing with it mostly.
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<div class="quote">
The observation of the year 3102, which seems to have fixed their epoch, was not a difficult one. We see that the Hindus, having once determined the moon's daily motion of 13deg. 10m. 35sec., made use of it to divide the Zodiac into 27 constellations, related to the period of the moon, which takes about 27 days to describe it.<br /><br />
It was by this method that they determined the positions of the stars in this Zodiac; it was thus they found that a certain star of the Lyre was in 8h. 24m., the Heart of the Hydra in 4d. 7h., longitudes which are ascribed to Hermes, but which are calculated on the Hindu Zodiac. Similarly, they discovered that the "Wheatear of Virgo" forms the commencement of their fifteenth constellation, and the "Eye of Taurus" the end of the fourth; these stars being the one in 6d. 6h. 40m., the other in 1d. 23h. 20min. of the Hindu Zodiac. This being so, the eclipse of Moon which occurred 14 days after the Kali Yug epoch, took place at a point between the "Wheat Ear" of Virgo and the star [[ ]] of the same constellation. These stars are very approximately a constellation apart, the one beginning the fifteenth, the other the sixteenth. Thus it would not be difficult to determine the moon's place by measuring her distance from one of these stars; from this they deduced the position of the sun, which is opposite to the moon, and then, knowing their average motions, they calculated that the moon was at the first point of the Zodiac according to her average longitude at midnight on the 17th-18th February of the year 3,102 before our era, and that the sun occupied the same place six hours later according to his true longitude; an event which fixes the commencement of the Hindu year.
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</div><br />
This works as a good example of what these pages are about.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
XVIII. SUMMARY OF THE MUTUAL POSITION.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Theology is taken to task and ridiculed for believing in the union of three persons in one Godhead -- one God as to substance, three persons as to individuality; and we are laughed at for our belief in unproved and unprovable doctrines, in Angels and Devils, Gods and Spirits. And, indeed, that which made the Scientists win the day over Theology in the Great "Conflict between Religion and Science," was precisely the argument that neither the identity of that substance, nor the triple individuality claimed, after having been conceived, invented, and worked out in the depths of Theological Consciousness, could be proved by any Scientific inductive process of reasoning, least of all on the evidence of our senses. Religion must perish, it is said, because it teaches mysteries. Mystery is the negation of Common Sense, and Science repels it. According to Mr. Tyndall, metaphysics is fiction, like poetry. The man of Science takes nothing on trust; rejects everything that is not proven to him, while the Theologian accepts everything on blind faith. The Theosophist and the Occultist, who take nothing on trust, not even exact Science, the Spiritualist who denies dogma but believes in Spirits and in invisible but potential influences, all share in the same contempt. Very well, then; what we have to do now, is to examine for the last time whether exact Science does not act precisely in the same way as Theosophy, Spiritualism, and Theology do.
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</div><br />
These are some solid blows to Science here. The truth is, some of us don't blindly believe ANYTHING, even science.
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<div class="quote">
No student of occultism, however, ought to be betrayed, by the usual phraseology used in the translations of Hermetic Works, into believing that the ancient Egyptians or Greeks spoke of, and referred, monk-like, at every moment in conversation, to a Supreme Being, God, the "One Father and Creator of all," etc., as found on every page of such translations. No such thing indeed; and those texts are not the original Egyptian texts. They are Greek compilations, the earliest of which does not go beyond the early period of Neo-Platonism. No Hermetic work written by Egyptians (vide "Book of the Dead") would speak of the one universal God of the Monotheistic systems -- the one Absolute cause of all, was as unnameable and unpronounceable in the mind of the ancient philosopher of Egypt, as it is for ever Unknowable in the conception of Mr. Herbert Spencer. As for the Egyptian in general, as M. Maspero well remarks, whenever he "arrived at the notion of divine Unity, the God One was never 'God,' simply." And Lepage Renouf very justly observed that the word Nouter, nouti, "god" had never ceased being a generic name with the Egyptians, nor has it ever become a personal pronoun. Every God was the "one living and unique God" with them. Their "monotheism was purely geographical. If the Egyptian of Memphis proclaimed the unity of Phtah to the exclusion of Ammon, the Thebeian Egyptian proclaimed the unity of Ammon to the exclusion of Phtah," as we now see done in India in the case of the Saivas and the Vaishnavas. "Ra, the 'One God' at Heliopolis is not the same as Osiris, the 'One God' at Abydos, and can be worshipped side by side with him, without being absorbed by his neighbour. The one god is but the god of the nome or the city, noutir, noutti, and does not exclude the existence of the one god of that town or of the neighbouring nome. In short, whenever speaking of Egyptian Monotheism, one ought to speak of the Gods 'One' of Egypt, and not of the one god" (Maspero, in the Guide au Musee de Boulak.) It is by this feature, pre-eminently Egyptian, that the authenticity of the various so-called Hermetic Books, ought to be tested; and it is totally absent from the Greek fragments known as such. This proves that a Greek Neo-Platonic, or even a Christian hand, had no small share in the editing of such works. Of course the fundamental philosophy is there, and in many a place -- intact. But the style has been altered and smoothed in a monotheistic direction, as much, if not more than that of the Hebrew Genesis in its Greek and Latin translations. They may be Hermetic works, but not works written by either of the two Hermes -- or rather, by Thot (Hermes) the directing intelligence of the Universe (See ch. xciv., Book of the Dead), or by Thot, his terrestrial incarnation called Trismegistus, of the Rosetta stone.
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</div><br />
This is interesting and I trust Blavatsky more than myself, but my research in Hermeticism has been different.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
While Materialists deny everything in the universe, save matter, Archaeologists are trying to dwarf antiquity, and seek to destroy every claim to ancient Wisdom by tampering with Chronology. Our present-day Orientalists and Historical writers are to ancient History that which the white ants are to the buildings in India. More dangerous even than those Termites, the modern Archaeologists -- the "authorities" of the future in the matter of Universal History -- are preparing for the History of past nations the fate of certain edifices in tropical countries: "History will tumble down and break into atoms in the lap of the twentieth century, devoured to its foundations by her annalists," said Michelet. Very soon, indeed, under their combined efforts, it will share the fate of those ruined cities in both Americas, which lie deeply buried under impassable virgin forests. Historical facts will remain as concealed from view by the inextricable jungles of modern hypotheses, denials and scepticism. But very happily actual History repeats herself, for she proceeds, like everything else, in cycles; and dead facts and events deliberately drowned in the sea of modern scepticism will ascend once more and reappear on the surface. . . .
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</div><br />
End of Book Vol I and, like every scripture, it warns us of something happening SOON. Are we there yet? Would we know?
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read the Bible So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pyFKdFAMOmx3Y0d9iYv5w_PjgnJnP_xl2mlK74J7BdQVLdwgAbTgDJeRGqwmtRuX5RSUikf9t19T4LsOcwxU6kuAz0AHFIFOhwWGb1ATdGxJXZKnEcMcNTYPBiRMshu_zIMKC_MdvW0/s1600/19Oct18-I-Read-the-Bible.jpg" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">I Read the Bible So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VOLUME II<br />
Anthropogenesis
</div>
<br />
I found the second book easier to understand, but that makes sense. Rather than the cosmology behind the universe, we now come closer to the planet and the birth of man, which is a more accessible conversation with far more provable stuff behind it. Due to this advantage, Blavatsky's writing feels more coherent, plus I had gotten used to her by this point. Regardless, I took fewer notes from this volume.<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
PRELIMINARY NOTES: ON THE ARCHAIC STANZAS, AND THE FOUR PRE-HISTORIC CONTINENTS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
It is, therefore, sufficient to examine the Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform and other inscriptions to find also therein, scattered here and there, not only the original meaning of the name Adam, Admi, or Adami,* but also the creation of seven Adams or roots of men, born of Mother Earth, physically, and of the divine fire of the progenitors, spiritually or astrally. The Assyriologists, ignorant of the esoteric teachings, could hardly be expected to pay any greater attention to the mysterious and ever-recurring number seven on the Babylonian cylinders, than they paid to it on finding the same in Genesis and the Bible. Yet the number of the ancestral spirits and their seven groups of human progeny are there, notwithstanding the dilapidated condition of the fragments, as plainly as they are to be found in "Pymander" and in the "Book of the Concealed Mystery" of the Kabala. In the latter Adam Kadmon is the Sephirothal TREE, as also the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." And that "Tree," says verse 32, "hath around it seven columns," or palaces, of the seven creative Angels operating in the spheres of the seven planets on our Globe. As Adam Kadmon is a collective name, so also is the name of the man Adam. Says George Smith in his "Chaldean Account of Genesis:" -- <br /><br />
"The word Adam used in these legends for the first human being is evidently not a proper name, but is only used as a term for mankind. Adam appears as a proper name in Genesis, but certainly in some passages is only used in the same sense as the Assyrian word" (p. 86).<br />
</div><br />
This is a snippet of a massive part of what Volume II went on about, whereby Adam is not a guy but an entire evolution of human subspecies. While I don't believe anything, this was revelationary to me and influenced a ton of my thinking.
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<div class="quote">
The claim that physical man was originally a colossal pre-tertiary giant, and that he existed 18,000,000 years ago, must of course appear preposterous to admirers of, and believers in, modern learning. The whole posse comitatis of biologists will turn away from the conception of this third race Titan of the Secondary age, a being fit to fight as successfully with the then gigantic monsters of the air, sea, and land, as his forefathers -- the ethereal prototype of the Atlantean -- had little need to fear that which could not hurt him. The modern anthropologist is quite welcome to laugh at our Titans, as he laughs at the Biblical Adam, and as the theologian laughs at his pithecoid ancestor. The Occultists and their severe critics may feel that they have pretty well mutually squared their accounts by this time. Occult sciences claim less and give more, at all events, than either Darwinian Anthropology or Biblical Theology.
</div><br />
At the time of noting this, I figured it was talking about The Book of Enoch, but now having finished the book, I know her belief in giants goes much further than that.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK II. -- PART I. ANTHROPOGENESIS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="thebookparts">
ANTHROPOGENESIS IN THE SECRET VOLUME.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
* Only forty-nine Slokas out of several hundred are here given. Not every verse is translated verbatim. A periphrasis is sometimes used for the sake of clearness and intelligibility, where a literal translation would be quite unintelligible.
</div><br />
Footnote. Dzyan translations are not 100% accurate. Gotta just trust her judgement.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA I.* BEGINNINGS OF SENTIENT LIFE.
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<br />
VERY much about planets and their associated mythological figures.
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<div class="quote">
* All the words and sentences placed in brackets in the Stanzas and Commentaries are the writer's. In some places they may be incomplete and even inadequate from the Hindu standpoint; but in the meaning attached to them in Trans-Himalayan Esotericism they are correct. In every case the writer takes any blame upon herself. Having never claimed personal infallibility, that which is given on her own authority may leave much to be desired, in the very abstruse cases where too deep metaphysics is involved. The teaching is offered as it is understood; and as there are seven keys of interpretation to every symbol and allegory, that which may not fit a meaning, say from the psychological or astronomical aspect, will be found quite correct from the physical or metaphysical.
</div><br />
Footnote. Seems legit.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
At the commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahm manifests as Mulaprakriti and then as the Logos. This Logos is equivalent to the "Unconscious Universal Mind," etc., of Western Pantheists.
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Shout-out to my fellow Pantheists!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It has been repeatedly stated that the Serpent is the symbol of wisdom and of Occult knowledge. "The Serpent has been connected with the god of wisdom from the earliest times of which we have any historical notice," writes Staniland Wake. "This animal was the especial symbol of Thot or Taut . . . and of all those gods, such as Hermes (?) and Seth who can be connected with him. This is also the primitive Chaldean triad Hea or Hoa."
</div><br />
Originally I was interested in serpent iconography due to reptilian theories in more of a debunking manner, but now I'm kinda obsessed with the snake in mythology on its own.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Vossius utters here a greater occult truth than he suspected. The Hermes-Sarameyas of the Greeks is closely related to the Hindu Saram and Sarameya, the divine watchman, "who watches over the golden flock of stars and solar rays."
</div><br />
This is something I want to look into deeper. The Hindu Sarama is a mythological dog, "the female dog of the gods" mentioned in the Rig Veda. I have found other sources that state Greek Hermes is related to Sarama. Wtf is even going on hahaha?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Sukra, or Venus, is thus represented as the preceptor of the Daityas, the giants of the Fourth Race, who, in the Hindu allegory, obtained at one time the sovereignty of all the Earth, and defeated the minor gods. The Titans of the Western allegory are as closely connected with Venus-Lucifer, identified by later Christians with Satan. Therefore, as Venus, equally with Isis, was represented with Cow's horns on her head, the symbol of mystic Nature, and one that is convertible with, and significant of, the moon, since all these were lunar goddesses, the configuration of this planet is now placed by theologians between the horns of the mystic Lucifer.
</div><br />
Marking because Hail Satan stuff. But also want to note that the preceding pages are filled with symbols and associated explanations, which obviously I can't copy and paste here. But it's fascinating, and I really do love Theosophy's relationship with the Swastika which obviously predates Nazi perversion.
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<div class="quote">
"Thus there is but one Absolute Upadhi (basis) in the spiritual sense, from, on, and in which, are built for Manvantaric purposes the countless basic centres on which proceed the Universal, cyclic, and individual Evolutions during the active period."
</div><br />
Theosophy is pantheistic irrespective of what she says.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Seven seems to have been the sacred number par excellence among all civilised nations of antiquity. Why? Each separate people has given a different explanation, according to the peculiar tenets of their (exoteric) religion. That it was the number of numbers for those initiated into the sacred mysteries, there can be no doubt. Pythagoras . . . calls it the 'Vehicle of Life' containing body and soul, since it is formed of a Quaternary, that is Wisdom and intellect, and of a Trinity or action and matter. The Emperor Julian, 'In matrem, etc.,' expresses himself thus: 'Were I to touch upon the initiation into our Sacred Mysteries, which the Chaldees Bacchized, respecting the seven-rayed god, lighting up the soul through him, I should say things unknown to the rabble, very unknown, but well known to the blessed Theurgists.' " (p. 141).<br /><br />
And who, acquainted with the Puranas, the Book of the Dead, the Zendavesta, the Assyrian tiles, and finally the Bible, and who has observed the constant occurrence of the number seven, in these records of people living from the remotest times unconnected and so far apart, can regard as a coincidence the following fact, given by the same explorer of ancient Mysteries? Speaking of the prevalence of seven as a mystic number, among the inhabitants of the "Western continent" (of America), he adds that it is not less remarkable. For: -- <br /><br />
"It frequently occurs in the Popul-vuh . . . we find it besides in the seven families said by Sahagun and Clavigero to have accompanied the mystical personage named Votan, the reputed founder of the great city of Nachan, identified by some with Palenque. In the seven caves* from which the ancestors of the Nahuatl are reported to have emerged. In the seven cities of Cibola, described by Coronado and Niza. . . . In the seven Antilles; in the seven heroes who, we are told, escaped the Deluge . . . ." <br /><br />
"Heroes," moreover, whose number is found the same in every "Deluge" story -- from the seven Rishis who were saved with Vaivasvata Manu, down to Noah's ark, into which beasts, fowls, and living creatures were taken by "Sevens." Thus we see the figures 1, 3, 5, 7, as perfect, because thoroughly mystic, numbers playing a prominent part in every Cosmogony and evolution of living Beings. In China, 1, 3, 5, 7, are called "celestial numbers" in the canonical "Book of Changes." (Yi King, or transformation, as in "Evolution").
</div><br />
Just slapped a huge slab of info here as an illustration of Theosophy's obsession with the number seven. This is a tiny example of it.
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<div class="quote">
"Ideal nature," the abstract Space in which everything in the Universe is mysteriously and invisibly generated, is the same female side of procreative power in Nature in the Vedic as in every other Cosmogony. Aditi is Sephira, and the Sophia-Achamoth of the Gnostics, and Isis, the virgin Mother of Horus. In every Cosmogony, behind and higher than the creative deity, there is a superior deity, a planner, an Architect, of whom the Creator is but the executive agent. And still higher, over and around, within and without, there is the UNKNOWABLE and the unknown, the Source and Cause of all these Emanations. . . . .
</div><br />
Interesting but also crazy. Why break it down so much? Just the final unknowable is enough in Jantho.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA II. NATURE UNAIDED FAILS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Oannes (or Dagon, the Chaldean "Man-fish") divides his Cosmogony and Genesis into two portions. First the abyss of waters and darkness, wherein resided most hideous beings ---men with wings, four and two-faced men, human beings with two heads, with the legs and horns of a goat (our "goat-men,")* hippocentaurs, bulls with the heads of men, and dogs with tails of fishes. In short, combinations of various animals and men, of fishes, reptiles and other monstrous animals assuming each other's shapes and countenances.
</div><br />
I never know if Blavatsky is talking literally or mythologically. I was recently reading that "fish" is a mistranslation?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Weeded of metaphors and allegories, what will science say to this idea of a primordial creation of species? It will object to the "Angels" and "Spirits" having anything to do therewith: but if it is nature and the physical law of evolution that are the creators of all there is now on Earth, why could there be "no such abyss" when the globe was covered with waters, in which numbers of monstrous beings were generated? Is it the "human beings" and animals with human heads and double faces, which are a point of the objection? But if man is only a higher animal and has evolved from the brute species by an infinite series of transformations, why could not the "missing links" have had human heads attached to the bodies of animals, or, being two-headed, have heads of beasts and vice versa, in Nature's early efforts? Are we not shown during the geological periods, in the ages of the reptiles and the mammalia, lizards with birds' wings, and serpents' heads on animal bodies.*** And, arguing from the standpoint of science, does not even our modern human race occasionally furnish us with monster-specimens: twoheaded children, animal bodies with human heads, dog-headed babies, etc., etc.? And this proves that, if nature will still play such freaks now that she has settled for ages into the order of her evolutionary work, monsters, like those described by Berosus, were a possibility in her opening programme; which possibility may even have existed once upon a time as a law, before she sorted out her species and began regular work upon them; which indeed now admits of definite proof by the bare fact of "REVERSION," as science puts it.
</div><br />
Following on from my previous comment, this does indicate that she's speaking literally. Which is weird. But also, there are some roundabout sense here, as per always. That's her forte, I suppose.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA III. ATTEMPTS TO CREATE MAN.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Now the plain meaning of these two allegorical and metaphysical disquisitions is simply this: Worlds and men were in turn formed and destroyed, under the law of evolution and from pre-existing material, until both the planets and their men, in our case our Earth and its animal and human races, became what they are now in the present cycle: opposite polar forces, an equilibrized compound of Spirit and Matter, of the positive and the negative, of the male and the female. Before man could become male and female physically, his prototype, the creating Elohim, had to arrange his Form on this sexual plane astrally. That is to say, the atoms and the organic forces, descending into the plane of the given differentiation, had to be marshalled in the order intended by Nature, so as to be ever carrying out, in an immaculate way, that law which the Kabala calls the Balance, through which everything that exists does so as male and female in its final perfection, in this present stage of materiality. Chochmah, Wisdom, the Male Sephiroth, had to diffuse itself in, and through, Binah, intelligent Nature, or Understanding. Therefore the First Root-race of men, sexless and mindless, had to be overthrown and "hidden until after a time"; i.e., the first race, instead of dying, disappeared in the second race, as certain lower lives and plants do in their progeny. It was a wholesale transformation. The First became the Second Root-race, without either begetting it, procreating it, or dying. "They passed by together," as it is written: "And he died and another reigned in his stead" (Genesis xxvi. 31 et seq. Zohar iii., 292a). Why? Because "the Holy City had not been prepared." And what is the "Holy City"? The Maquom (the Secret Place or the Shrine) on Earth: in other words, the human womb, the microcosmic copy and reflection of the Heavenly Matrix, the female space or primeval Chaos, in which the male Spirit fecundates the germ of the Son, or the visible Universe.* So much so, that in the paragraph on "the Emanation of the Male and Female Principles" in the Zohar (ibid.), it is said that, on this earth, the WISDOM from the "Holy Ancient" "does not shine except in male and female." "Hohmah, Wisdom, is the Father, and BINAH, understanding, is the Mother . . . . and when they connect one with the other they bring forth and diffuse and emanate truth. In the sayings of Rabbi Je-yeva Sabah, i.e., the Old, we learned this: What is Binah Understanding? But when they connect in one another, the [[diagram]] (Yod) in the [[diagram]] (Heh), they become impregnated and produce a Son. And, therefore, it is called Binah, Understanding. It means BeN YaH, i.e., Son of YaH. This is the completeness of the whole."*
</div><br />
I marked this due to the male and female creation aspect, which Theosophy has a lot to say about especially in regards to an initial hermaphrodite root race (Adam?) which then split into gender. I feel like Hermeticism inspired a lot of it.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA IV. CREATION OF THE FIRST RACES.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
* In spite of all efforts to the contrary, Christian theology -- having burdened itself with the Hebrew esoteric account of the creation of man, which is understood literally -- cannot find any reasonable excuse for its "God, the Creator," who produces a man devoid of mind and sense; nor can it justify the punishment following an act, for which Adam and Eve might plead non compos. For if the couple is admitted to be ignorant of good and evil before the eating of the forbidden fruit, how could it be expected to know that disobedience was evil? If primeval man was meant to remain a half-witted, or rather witless, being, then his creation was aimless and even cruel, if produced by an omnipotent and perfect God. But Adam and Eve are shown, even in Genesis, to be created by a class of lower divine Beings, the Elohim, who are so jealous of their personal prerogatives as reasonable and intelligent creatures, that they will not allow man to become "as one of us." This is plain, even from the deadletter meaning of the Bible. The Gnostics, then, were right in regarding the Jewish God as belonging to a class of lower, material and not very holy denizens of the invisible World.
</div><br />
When I first read this, it blew my mind and an angle I'd never considered. I have since researched Gnosticism quite intensely and they do kinda cover this, although I feel this is still a very strong addition to the argument. And may I just say, I LOVE interpretations of Genesis soooo much.
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<div class="quote">
Nevertheless, as the illusionary distinction exists, it requires a lower order of creative angels to "create" inhabited globes -- especially ours -- or to deal with matter on this earthly plane. The philosophical Gnostics were the first to think so, in the historical period, and to invent various systems upon this theory. Therefore in their schemes of creation, one always finds their Creators occupying a place at the very foot of the ladder of spiritual Being. With them, those who created our earth and its mortals were placed on the very limit of mayavic matter, and their followers were taught to think -- to the great disgust of the Church Fathers -- that for the creation of those wretched races, in a spiritual and moral sense, which grace our globe, no high divinity could be made responsible, but only angels of a low hierarchy,* to which class they relegated the Jewish God, Jehovah.
</div><br />
And here, she mentioned the Gnostics. Which is pretty impressive considering the bulk of Gnostic material was only discovered in the 1940s!
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<div class="quote">
"My first idea of this part" (of the rebellion), he says, "was that the wars with the powers of Evil preceded the Creation; I now think it followed the account of the fall" (Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 92). In this work Mr. George Smith gives an engraving, from an early Babylonian cylinder, of the Sacred Tree, the Serpent, man and woman. The tree has seven branches: three on the man's side, four on that of the female. These branches are typical of the seven Root-Races, in the third of which, at its very close, occurred the separation of the sexes and the so-called FALL into generation. The three earliest Races were sexless, then hermaphrodite; the other four, male and female, as distinct from each other. "The Dragon," says Mr. G. Smith, "which in the Chaldean account of the creation leads man to sin, is the creation of Tiamat, the living principle of the Sea, or Chaos . . . which was opposed to the deities at the creation of the world." This is an error. The Dragon is the male principle, or Phallus, personified, or rather animalized; and Tiamat, "the embodiment of the Spirit of Chaos," of the deep, or Abyss, is the female principle, the Womb. The "Spirit of Chaos and Disorder" refers to the mental perturbation which it led to. It is the sensual, attractive, magnetic principle which fascinates and seduces, the ever living active element which throws the whole world into disorder, chaos, and sin. The Serpent seduces the woman, but it is the latter who seduces man, and both are included in the Karmic curse, though only as a natural result of a cause produced. Says George Smith: "It is clear that the Dragon is included in the curse for the Fall, and that the Gods" (the Elohim, jealous at seeing the man of clay becoming a Creator in his turn, like all the animals,) "invoke on the head of the human Race all the evils which afflict humanity. Wisdom and knowledge shall injure him, he shall have family quarrels, he will anger the gods, he shall submit to tyranny. . . . he shall be disappointed in his desires, he shall pour out useless prayers, he shall commit future sin. . No doubt subsequent lines continue this topic, but again our narrative is broken, and it re-opens only where the gods are preparing for war with the powers of evil, which are led by Tiamat (the woman). . . . " (Babylonian Legend of Creation, p. 92.) <br /><br />
This account is omitted in Genesis, for monotheistic purposes. But it is a mistaken policy -- born no doubt of fear, and regard for dogmatic religion and its superstitions -- to have sought to restore the Chaldean fragments by Genesis, whereas it is the latter, far younger than any of the fragments, which ought to be explained by the former.
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Another interesting take on Gensis, especially where the serpent is considered phallic, everything a metaphor for sexual seduction.
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<div class="quote">
17. THE BREATH (human Monad) NEEDED A FORM; THE FATHERS GAVE IT. THE BREATH NEEDED A GROSS BODY; THE EARTH MOULDED IT. THE BREATH NEEDED THE SPIRIT OF LIFE; THE SOLAR LHAS BREATHED IT INTO ITS FORM. THE BREATH NEEDED A MIRROR OF ITS BODY (astral shadow); "WE GAVE IT OUR OWN," SAID THE DHYANIS. THE BREATH NEEDED A VEHICLE OF DESIRES (Kama Rupa); "IT HAS IT," SAID THE DRAINER OF WATERS (Suchi, the fire of passion and animal instinct). THE BREATH NEEDS A MIND TO EMBRACE THE UNIVERSE; "WE CANNOT GIVE THAT," SAID THE FATHERS. "I NEVER HAD IT," SAID THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH. "THE FORM WOULD BE CONSUMED WERE I TO GIVE IT MINE," SAID THE GREAT (solar) FIRE . . . . (nascent) MAN REMAINED AN EMPTY, SENSELESS BHUTA . . . . THUS HAVE THE BONELESS GIVEN LIFE TO THOSE WHO BECAME (later) MEN WITH BONES IN THE THIRD (race) (a).
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This is an actual section from a Dzyan Stanza. A personification of concepts like we always see in Jantho.
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<div class="quote">
After being called the incognizable, eternal Brahma (neuter or abstract), the Punda-Rikaksha, "supreme and imperishable glory," once that instead of Sadaika-Rupa, "changeless" or "immutable" Nature, he is addressed as Ekanaka-Rupa, "both single and manifold," he, the cause, becomes merged with his own effects; and his names, if placed in esoteric order, show the following descending scale: --<br /><br />
1. Mahapurusha or Paramatman ... Supreme Spirit.<br />
2. Atman or Purvaja (Protologos) ...The living Spirit of Nature.<br />
3. Indriyatman, or Hrishikesa ..........Spiritual or intellectual soul (One with the senses).<br />
5. Bhutatman ................................ . The living, or Life Soul.<br />
6. Kshetrajna .................................. Embodied soul, or the Universe of Spirit and Matter.<br />
7. Bhrantidarsanatah .........................False perception -- Material Universe.
</div><br />
I enjoy these levels of spirit even if why or how, you know? Why 7? It feels like if they concluded 8, Blavatsky would remove one. If thy concluded 6, Blavatsky would add one.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA V. THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECOND RACE.
</div>
<br />
This is all about the race that birthed itself, i.e. it wasn’t a reproduction between male and female but a singular entity self-replicating; humanity as hermaphrodites. This was all new information to me, and while I don't believe it per se, it has severely altered the scope of my thinking. I talk about it all the time.<br />
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<div class="quote">
This cannot be thoroughly understood unless the student makes himself familiar with the mystery of evolution, which proceeds on triple lines -- spiritual, psychic and physical.
</div><br />
Seems important enough to note. In some ways, kinda logical, perhaps even undeiniable, but idk lol.
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<div class="quote">
"The Souls (Monads) are pre-existent in the world of Emanations," (Book of Wisdom viii., 20); and the Zohar teaches that in the "Soul" "is the real man, i.e., the Ego and the conscious I AM: 'Manas.' "<br /><br />
"They descend from the pure air to be chained to bodies," says Josephus repeating the belief of the Essenes (De Bello Judaeo, 11, 12). "The air is full of Souls," states Philo, "they descend to be tied to mortal bodies, being desirous to live in them." (De Gignat, 222 c.; De Somniis, p. 455)***; because through, and in, the human form they will become progressive beings, whereas the nature of the angel is purely intransitive, therefore man has in him the potency of transcending the faculties of the Angels. Hence the Initiates in India say that it is the Brahmin, the twice-born, who rules the gods or devas; and Paul repeated it in I Corinthians vi., 3: "Know ye not that we (the Initiates) shall judge angels"? <br /><br />
Finally, it is shown in every ancient scripture and Cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a luminous incorporeal form, over which, like the molten brass round the clay model of the sculptor, the physical frame of his body was built by, through, and from, the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life. "The Soul and the Form when descending on Earth put on an earthly garment," says the Zohar. His protoplastic body was not formed of that matter of which our mortal frames are fashioned. "When Adam dwelt in the garden of Eden, he was clothed in the celestial garment, which is the garment of heavenly light. . . . light of that light which was used in the garden of Eden," (Zohar II 229 B). "Man (the heavenly Adam) was created by the ten Sephiroth of the Jetziric world, and by the common power they (the seven angels of a still lower world) engendered the earthly Adam . . . . First Samael fell, and then deceiving (?) man, caused his fall also."<br /><br />
(b) The sentence: "They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords," i.e., the progenitors created man out of their own astral bodies, explains an universal belief. The Devas are credited in the East with having no shadows of their own. "The devas cast no shadows," and this is the sure sign of a good holy Spirit. <br /><br />
Why had they "no fire or water of their own"?* Because: -- <br /><br />
(c) That which Hydrogen is to the elements and gases on the objective plane, its noumenon is in the world of mental or subjective phenomena; since its trinitarian latent nature is mirrored in its three active emanations from the three higher principles in man, namely, "Spirit, Soul, and Mind," or Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. It is the spiritual and also the material human basis. Rudimentary man, having been nursed by the "air" or the "wind," becomes the perfect man later on; when, with the development of "Spiritual fire," the noumenon of the "Three in One" within his Self, he acquires from his inner Self, or Instructor, the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he does not possess in the beginning. Thus here again divine Spirit is symbolised by the Sun or Fire; divine Soul by Water and the Moon, both standing for the Father and Mother of Pneuma, human Soul, or Mind, symbolised by the Wind or air, for Pneuma, means "breath."
</div><br />
The nautre of souls vs. physical, and a perfect example of how thorough Theosophy is. Here, its conclusions connect the Kabbalah Zohar, the New Testaemnt, and molecular science. It's mad.
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<div class="quote">
And these three are all quaternaries completed by their Root, Fire. The Spirit, beyond manifested Nature, is the fiery BREATH in its absolute Unity. In the manifested Universe, it is the Central Spiritual Sun, the electric Fire of all Life. In our System it is the visible Sun, the Spirit of Nature, the terrestrial god. And in, on, and around the Earth, the fiery Spirit thereof -- air, fluidic fire; water, liquid fire; Earth, solid fire. All is fire -- ignis, in its ultimate constitution, or I, the root of which is O (nought) in our conceptions, the All in nature and its mind. Pro-Mater is divine fire. It is the Creator, the Destroyer, the Preserver. The primitive names of the gods are all connected with fire, from AGNI, the Aryan, to the Jewish god who "is a consuming fire." In India, God is called in various dialects, Eashoor, Esur, Iswur, and Is'Vara, in Sanskrit the Lord, from Isa, but this is primarily the name of Siva, the Destroyer; and the three Vedic chief gods are Agni (ignis), Vayu, and Surya -- Fire, Air, and the Sun, three occult degrees of fire. In the Hebrew (aza), means to illuminate, and (asha) is fire. In Occultism, "to kindle a fire" is synonymous to evoking one of the three great firepowers, or "to call on God." In Sanskrit Osch or Asch is fire or heat; and the Egyptian word Osiris is compounded (as shown by Schelling) of the two primitives aish and asr, or a "fireenchanter." Aesar in the old Etruscan meant a God (being perhaps derived from Asura of the Vedas). Aeswar and Eswara are analogous terms, as Dr. Kenealy thought. In the Bhagavad Gita we read, "Iswara resides in every mortal being and puts in motion, by his supernatural power, all things which mount on the Wheel of Time." It is the creator and the destroyer, truly. "The primitive fire was supposed to have an insatiable appetite for devouring. Maximus of Tyre relates that the ancient Persians threw into the fire combustible matter crying: 'Devour, oh Lord!' In the Irish language Easam, or Asam, means 'to create,' and Aesar was the name of an ancient Irish god, meaning 'to light a fire' " (Kenealy). The Christian Kabalists and symbologists who disfigured Pymander -- prominent among them the Bishop of Ayre, Francois de Tours, in the 16th century -- divide the elements in this way: -- <br /><br />
The four elements formed from divine substances and the Spirits of the Salts of Nature represented by -- <br /><br />
St. Matthew. . Angel-Man . . Water . . (Jesus-Christ, Angel-Man, Mikael)<br />
A - . St. Mark. . . . .The Lion . . . . Fire<br />
E - Y . .St. Luke. . . . . The Bull . . . . Earth<br />
I - O . . St. John. . . . . The Eagle . . . Air*
</div><br />
Names for fire in diff religions, I like this.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Long before Darwin, Naudin, who gave the name of Blastema to that which the Darwinists call protoplasm, put forward a theory half occult and half scientifico-materialistic. He made Adam, the asexual, spring suddenly from the clay, as it is called in the Bible, the Blastema of Science. "It is from this larval form of mankind that the evolutive force effected the completion of species. For the accomplishment of this great phenomenon, Adam had to pass through a phase of immobility and unconsciousness, very analogous to the nymphal state of animals undergoing metamorphosis," explains Naudin. For the eminent botanist, Adam was not one man, however, but mankind, "which remained concealed within a temporary organism . . . . distinct from all others and never contracting alliance with any of these." He shows the differentiation of sexes accomplished by "a process of germination similar to that of Medusae and Ascidians." Mankind, thus constituted physiologically, "would retain a sufficient evolutive force for the rapid production of the various great human races.
</div><br />
Talking about how different ages of sexless men could have birthed themselves, hermaphroditism, self born race, born through will. Again, this was a revelationary concept to me.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Is this a poetical fiction only? An allegory, one of those "solar myth" interpretations, higher than which no modern Orientalist seems able to soar? Indeed, it is much more. Here we have an allusion to the "Egg-born," Third Race; the first half of which is mortal, i.e., unconscious in its personality, and having nothing within itself to survive***; and the latter half of which becomes immortal in its individuality, by reason of its fifth principle being called to life by the informing gods, and thus connecting the Monad with this Earth. This is Pollux; while Castor represents the personal, mortal man, an animal of not even a superior kind, when unlinked from the divine individuality. "Twins" truly; yet divorced by death forever, unless Pollux, moved by the voice of twinship, bestows on his less favoured mortal brother a share of his own divine nature, thus associating him with his own immortality.
</div><br />
I'm only putting this piece here but the preceding paragraphs are where the actual magic lies as Blavatsky does what she does best and cleanly ties Greek mythology into her sermon.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In the Book of Enoch we have Adam,** the first divine androgyne, Moon, conceived as twins . . . The Sun, the immortal and powerful being that disappears every evening from the horizon and descends under the Earth, as though he would make room for the fraternal orb which comes to life with night, is Pollux, who sacrifices himself for Castor; Castor, who, inferior to his brother, owes to him his immortality: for the Moon, says Theophrastus, is only another, but feebler Sun." (De Ventis 17. See Decharme, p. 655.) separating into man and woman, and becoming JAH-HEVA in one form, or Race, and Cain and Abel* (male and female) in its other form or Race -- the double-sexed Jehovah** -- an echo of its Aryan prototype, Brahma-Vach. After which come the Third and Fourth Root-Races of mankind*** -- that is to say, Races of men and women, or individuals of opposite sexes, no longer sexless semi-spirits and androgynes, as were the two Races which precede them. This fact is hinted at in every Anthropogony. It is found in fable and allegory, in myth and revealed Scriptures, in legend and tradition. Because, of all the great Mysteries, inherited by Initiates from hoary antiquity, this is one of the greatest. It accounts for the bi-sexual element found in every creative deity, in Brahma-Viraj-Vach, as in AdamJehovah-Eve, also in "Cain-Jehovah-Abel." For "The Book of the Generations of Adam" does not even mention Cain and Abel, but says only: "Male and female created he them. . . and called their name Adam" (ch. v. 5). Then it proceeds to say: "And Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth" (v. 3); after which he begets other sons and daughters, thus proving that Cain and Abel are his own allegorical permutations. Adam stands for the primitive human race, especially in its cosmo-sidereal sense. Not so, however, in its theo-anthropological meaning. The compound name of Jehovah, or Jah-Hovah, meaning male life and female life -- first androgynous, then separated into sexes -- is used in this sense in Genesis from ch. v. onwards. As the author of "The Source of Measures" says (p. 159): "The two words of which Jehovah is composed make up the original idea of male-female, as the birth originators"; for the Hebrew letter Jod was the membrum virile and Hovah was Eve, the mother of all living, or the procreatrix, Earth and Nature. The author believes, therefore, that "It is seen that the perfect one" (the perfect female circle or Yoni, 20612, numerically), "as originator of measures, takes also the form of birth-origin, as Hermaphrodite one; hence the phallic form and use."
</div><br />
A lot to unpack here, and honestly, it's insane. I can confirm that the KJV Bible (and plenty others, I'm sure), states in Genesis 5.2 "Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created," which is HUGE in terms of Adam being a representative of both genders. It then TOTALLY SKIPS Cain and Abel which is like wtffff why????? <br />
As for the Jah-Hovah eymology, I couldn't affirm that unfortuantely, which sucks cos I really wanted to!<br />
On a side note, I love how the Book of Enoch is forever used in occult texts yet omitted from The Bible. Such a powerful book and probably why is was removed.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In "Isis Unveiled,"** it was explained by the writer that "Cain . . . is the son of the 'Lord' not of Adam (Genesis iv. I)" The "Lord" is Adam Kadmon, the "father" of Yodcheva, "Adam-Eve," or Jehovah, the son of sinful thought, not the progeny of flesh and blood. Seth, on the other hand, is the leader and the progenitor of the Races of the Earth; for he is the son of Adam, exoterically, but esoterically he is the progeny of Cain and Abel, since Abel or Hebel is a female, the counterpart and female half of the male Cain, and Adam is the collective name for man and woman: "male and female (Zachar va Nakobeh) created he them . . . and called their name Adam." The verses in Genesis from chs. i. to v., are purposely mixed up for Kabalistic reasons. After MAN of Kadmon, the sexless (the first) Logos, Adam and Eve once separated, come finally Jehovah-Eve and Cain-Jehovah. These represent distinct Root-Races, for millions of years elapsed between them.
</div><br />
Ooof, so much here that amplifies my energy. Everything is symbolic.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VI. THE EVOLUTION OF THE "SWEAT-BORN."
</div>
<br />
The second race creates third then perishes.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
To make it clear: The First Race having created the Second by "budding," as just explained, the Second Race gives birth to the Third -- which itself is separated into three distinct divisions, consisting of men differently procreated. The first two of these are produced by an oviparous method, presumably unknown to modern Natural History. While the early sub-races of the Third Humanity procreated their species by a kind of exudation of moisture or vital fluid, the drops of which coalescing formed an oviform ball -- or shall we say egg? -- which served as an extraneous vehicle for the generation therein of a foetus and child, the mode of procreation by the later races changed, in its results at all events. The little ones of the earlier races were entirely sexless -- shapeless even for all one knows*; but those of the later races were born androgynous. It is in the Third Race that the separation of sexes occurred. From being previously a-sexual, Humanity became distinctly hermaphrodite or bi-sexual; and finally the manbearing eggs began to give birth, gradually and almost imperceptibly in their evolutionary development, first, to Beings in which one sex predominated over the other, and, finally, to distinct men and women.
</div><br />
Tidy summary of where we are now.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The two twin births of Genesis, that of Cain and Abel, and of Esau and Jacob, shadow the same idea. The name 'Hebel' is the same as Eve, and its characteristic seems to be feminine," continues the author. "Unto thee shall be his desire," said the Lord God to Cain, "and thou shalt rule over him." The same language had been uttered to Eve: "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." . . .
</div><br />
I started wondering here if the patriarchal system is not a mistranslation whereby it’s not that women are subservient to men but that we are both born from an energy that has been pronouned as male and therefore completely misinterpreted (perhaps even intentionally).
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hylozoism, when philosophically understood, is the highest aspect of Pantheism. It is the only possible escape from idiotic atheism based on lethal materiality, and the still more idiotic anthropomorphic conceptions of the monotheists; between which two it stands on its own entirely neutral ground. Hylozoism demands absolute Divine Thought, which would pervade the numberless active, creating Forces, or "Creators"; which entities are moved by, and have their being in, from, and through that Divine Thought; the latter, nevertheless, having no more personal concern in them or their creations, than the Sun has in the sun-flower and its seeds, or in vegetation in general.
</div><br />
Hylozoism that that all matter is alive, which I cannot argue with. I also like how she calls atheism idiotic lol, I’m into it.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VII. FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES.
</div>
<br />
According to my rough notes, there is a mind-created race, then a “sweat” created race, which were then hemaophodites that can impregenate themselves?<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Here the inferior Races, of which there are still some analogues left -- as the Australians (now fast dying out) and some African and Oceanic tribes -- are meant.
</div><br />
Alright, queue the racism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus LUCIFER -- the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought -- is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the LOGOS in his highest, and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect -- both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the LOGOS, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the "first of all creatures."
</div><br />
Luciferianism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This explains the otherwise unaccountable degrees of intellectuality among the various races of men -- the savage Bushman and the European -- even now. Those tribes of savages, whose reasoning powers are very little above the level of the animals, are not the unjustly disinherited, or the unfavoured, as some may think -- nothing of the kind. They are simply those latest arrivals among the human Monads, which were not ready: which have to evolve during the present Round, as on the three remaining globes (hence on four different planes of being) so as to arrive at the level of the average class when they reach the Fifth Round.
</div><br />
I disagree with this problematic statement, not only as inexcusably racist but also in argument of the theory. Theosophy misses so much of the spiritual due to its focus on appealing to the intellect. Europeans have evolved here in some regards, but have completely lost the spiritual connection, whereas the quote-unquote "savages" are actually far more in tune with the natural world, living in harmony in a way that Europeans have severed. It is a big disparity between Theosophy and Janthopoyism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The king of the gods (or Indra) sends a beautiful Apsarasas (nymph) named Pramlocha to seduce Kandu and disturb his penance. She succeeds in her unholy purpose and "907 years six months and three days"* spent in her company seem to the sage as one day. When this psychological or hypnotic state ends, the Muni curses bitterly the creature who seduced him, thus disturbing his devotions. "Depart, begone!" he cries, "vile bundle of illusions!" . . . And Pramlocha, terrified, flies away, wiping the perspiration from her body with the leaves of the trees as she passes through the air. She went from tree to tree, and as, with the dusky shoots that crowned their summits, she dried her limbs, the child she had conceived by the Rishi came forth from the pores of her skin in drops of perspiration. The trees received the living dews; and the winds collected them into one mass. "This," said Soma (the Moon), "I matured by my rays; and gradually it increased in size, till the exhalation that had rested on the tree tops became the lovely girl named Marisha."<br /><br />
Now Kandu stands here for the First Race. He is a son of the Pitris, hence one devoid of mind, which is hinted at by his being unable to discern a period of nearly one thousand years from one day; therefore he is shown to be so easily deluded and blinded. Here is a variant of the allegory in Genesis, of Adam, born an image of clay, into which the "Lord-god" breathes the breath of life but not of intellect and discrimination, which are developed only after he had tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; in other words when he has acquired the first development of Mind, and had implanted in him Manas, whose terrestrial aspect is of the Earth earthy, though its highest faculties connect it with Spirit and the divine Soul. Pramlocha is the Hindu Lilith of the Aryan Adam; and Marisha, the daughter born of the perspiration from her pores, is the "sweat-born," and stands as a symbol for the Second Race of Mankind.
</div><br />
Nice little story with an interesting interpretation.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA VIII. EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL MAMMALIANS. -- THE FIRST FALL.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Thus Occultism rejects the idea that Nature developed man from the ape, or even from an ancestor common to both, but traces, on the contrary, some of the most anthropoid species to the Third Race man of the early Atlantean period. As this proposition will be maintained and defended elsewhere, a few words more are all that are needed at present.
</div><br />
Bold claim and not something I can possibly agree with. Also hate how she speaks as if the spokeswoman for Occultism.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA IX. THE FINAL EVOLUTION OF MAN.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
This, regardless of modern materialistic evolution, which speculates in this wise: "The primitive human form, whence as we think all human species sprang, has perished this long time." (This we deny; it has only decreased in size and changed in texture.) "But many facts point to the conclusion that it was hairy and dolichocephalic." (African races are even now dolichocephalic in a great measure, but the palaeolithic Neanderthal skull, the oldest we know of, is of a large size, and no nearer to the capacity of the gorilla's cranium than that of any other now-living man). "Let us, for the time being, call this hypothetical species Homo primigenius. . . . This first species, or the Ape-man, the ancestor of all the others, PROBABLY arose in the tropical regions of the old world from ANTHROPOID APES." Asked for proofs, the evolutionist, not the least daunted, replies: "Of these NO FOSSIL REMAINS ARE AS YET KNOWN TO US, BUT THEY WERE probably AKIN TO THE GORILLA AND ORANG OF THE PRESENT DAY." And then the Papuan negro is mentioned as the probable descendant in the first line (Pedigree of Man, p. 80).
</div><br />
Footnote with big racial problems.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Human crossing may have been a general rule from the time of the separation of sexes, and yet that other law may assert itself, viz., sterility between two human races, just as between two animal species of various kinds, in those rare cases when a European, condescending to see in a female of a savage tribe a mate, happens to chose a member of such mixed tribes.* Darwin notes such a case in a Tasmanian tribe, whose women were suddenly struck with sterility, en masse, some time after the arrival among them of the European colonists. The great naturalist tried to explain this fact by change of diet, food, conditions, etc., but finally gave up the solution of the mystery. For the Occultist it is a very evident one. "Crossing," as it is called, of Europeans with Tasmanian women -- i.e., the representatives of a race, whose progenitors were a "soulless"* and mindless monster and a real human, though still as mindless a man -- brought on sterility. This, not alone as a consequence of a physiological law, but also as a decree of Karmic evolution in the question of further survival of the abnormal race. In no one point of the above is Science prepared to believe as yet -- but it will have to in the long run. Esoteric philosophy, let us remember, only fills the gaps made by science and corrects her false premises. <br /><br />
Yet, in this particular, geology and even botany and zoology support the esoteric teachings. It has been suggested by many geologists that the Australian native -- co-existing as he does with an archaic fauna and flora -- must date back to an enormous antiquity. The whole environment of this mysterious race, about whose origin ethnology is silent, is a testimony to the truth of the esoteric position.
</div><br />
I can't find any sources to back up a significant issue with interracial breeding, so I'm calling bullshit. Janthopoyism encourages interracial relationships as a manner of speeding up a merged human race. Also, there are subtle attacks on the Indingenous Australians throughout this book, which is 100% against my position as someone who reckons they are the demographic closest to the formelss unmanifested substance, shown through their art and philosophies of The Dreaming.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
EDENS, SERPENTS, AND DRAGONS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Whence the idea, and the true meaning of the term "Eden"? Christians will maintain that the Garden of Eden is the holy Paradise, the place desecrated by the sin of Adam and Eve; the Occultist will deny this dead-letter interpretation, and show the reverse. One need not believe and see in the Bible divine revelation in order to say that this ancient book, if read esoterically, is based upon the same universal traditions.
</div><br />
A small bit of a bigger piece. I’m very interested in the metaphor of biblical stories. It's probably my favourite takeaway from SD.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Now we find in the Zohar a very strange assertion, one that is calculated to provoke the reader to merry laughter by its ludicrous absurdity. It tells us that the serpent, which was used by Shamael (the supposed Satan), to seduce Eve, was a kind of flying camel.
</div><br />
First I've heard of such a thing! These pages go on about flying serpents and connects them to dinosaurs. If you're into the snake side of mythology, seek out this section, it goes on.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The same ram's horns are found on the heads of Moses which were on some old medals seen by the writer in Palestine, one of which is in her possession. The horns, made to form part of the shining aureole on the statue of Moses in Rome (Michael Angelo), are vertical instead of being bent down to the ears, but the emblem is the same; hence the Brazen Serpent.
</div><br />
I actually know a lot about this, there's a statue in Sydney where Moses has horns too. It's a known Biblical mistranslation.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
So little have the first Christians (who despoiled the Jews of their Bible) understood the first four chapters of Genesis in their esoteric meaning, that they never perceived that not only was no sin intended in this disobedience, but that actually the "Serpent" was "the Lord God" himself, who, as the Ophis, the Logos, or the bearer of divine creative wisdom, taught mankind to become creators in their turn. They never realised that the Cross was an evolution from the "tree and the serpent," and thus became the salvation of mankind. By this it would become the very first fundamental symbol of Creative cause, applying to geometry, to numbers, to astronomy, to measure and to animal reproduction.
</div><br />
This is good.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Sceptics may smile and denounce our work as full of nonsense or fairy-tales. But by so doing they only justify the wisdom of the Chinese philosopher Chuang, who said that "the things that men do know can in no way be compared, numerically speaking, to the things that are unknown"; and thus they laugh only at their own ignorance.
</div><br />
A solid quote. This relates to Blavatsky illustrating how crazy creatures lived at the time of man, perhaps dragons, but also possibly lots of things that have gone extinct. Maybe hey.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
THE "SONS OF GOD" AND THE "SACRED ISLAND."
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
"As to the Polynesian continent which disappeared at the time of the final geological cataclysms, its existence rests on such proofs that to be logical we can doubt no longer. <br /><br />
"The three summits of this continent, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Easter Island, are distant from each other from fifteen to eighteen hundred leagues, and the groups of intermediate islands, Viti, Samoa, Tonga, Foutouna, Ouvea, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Poumoutou, the Gambiers, are themselves distant from these extreme points from seven or eight hundred to one thousand leagues. <br /><br />
"All navigators agree in saying that the extreme and the central groups could never have communicated in view of their actual geographical position, and with the insufficient means they had at hand. It is physically impossible to cross such distances in a pirogue . . . without a compass, and travel months without provisions. <br /><br />
"On the other hand, the aborigines of the Sandwich Islands, of Viti, of New Zealand, of the central groups, of Samoa, Tahiti, etc., had never known each other, had never heard of each other, before the arrival of the Europeans. And yet each of these people maintained that their island had at one time formed part of an immense stretch of land which extended towards the West on the side of Asia. And all, brought together, were found to speak the same language, to have the same usages, the same customs, the same religious belief. And all to the question, 'Where is the cradle of your race?' for sole response, extended their hand toward the setting sun"
</div><br />
I think this is taken from "Histoire des Vierges: Les Peuples et les Continents Disparus" by Louis Jacolliot. I don't know enough not to argue but it's interesting.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA X. THE HISTORY OF THE FOURTH RACE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
To make it plainer, any one who reads that passage in Luke, will see that the remark follows the report of the seventy, who rejoice that "even the devils (the spirit of controversy and reasoning, or the opposing power, since Satan means simply "adversary" or opponent) are subject unto us through thy name." (Luke x. 17.) Now, "thy name" means the name of Christos, or Logos, or the spirit of true divine wisdom, as distinct from the spirit of intellectual or mere materialistic reasoning -- the HIGHER SELF in short. And when Jesus remarks to this that he has "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," it is a mere statement of his clairvoyant powers, notifying them that he already knew it, and a reference to the incarnation of the divine ray (the gods or angels) which falls into generation. For not all men, by any means, benefit by that incarnation, and with some the power remains latent and dead during the whole life. Truly "No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son" as added by Jesus then and there (Ibid v. 22) -- the Church "of Christ" less than any one else. The Initiates alone understood the secret meaning of the term "Father and the Son," and knew that it referred to Spirit and Soul on the Earth. For the teachings of Christ were occult teachings, which could only be explained at the initiation. They were never intended for the masses, for Jesus forbade the twelve to go to the Gentiles and the Samaritans (Matt. x. 8), and repeated to his disciples that the "mysteries of Heaven" were for them alone, not for the multitudes (Mark iv. 11).
</div><br />
Worth taking note of this, especially the last line. Chrisitianity was always intended to be a SECRET, even Jesus said so. Y'all fucked up.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As narrated in King's "Gnostics," "Ilda-Baoth, whom several sects regarded as the God of Moses, was not a pure spirit, he was ambitious and proud, and rejecting the spiritual light of the middle space offered him by his mother Sophia-Achamoth, he set himself to create a world of his own. Aided by his sons, the six planetary genii, he fabricated man, but this one proved a failure. It was a monster, soulless, ignorant, and crawling on all fours on the ground like a material beast. Ilda-Baoth was forced to implore the help of his spiritual mother. She communicated to him a ray of her divine light, and so animated man and endowed him with a soul. And now began the animosity of Ilda-Baoth toward his own creature.
</div><br />
This is 100% what many Gnostics believe, I have read this elsewhere plenty, and its nuts. Yaldabaoth is the demiurge is Yahweh, a completely different God from the New Testament. It's a total Uno Reverse Card on the entire system.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
But this does not prove that there is no esotericism in the latter. The fact that the Jews and all the Christians, the modern as well as the early sects, have accepted the narrative literally for two thousand years, shows only their ignorance; and shows the great ingenuity and constructive ability of the initiated Rabbis, who have built the two accounts -- the Elohistic and the Jehovistic -- esoterically, and have purposely confused the meaning by the vowelless glyphs or word-signs in the original text. The six days -- yom -- of creation do mean six periods of evolution, and the seventh that of culmination of perfection (not of rest), and refer to the seven Rounds and the seven Races with a distinct "creation" in each; though the use of the words boker, dawn or morning, and crib, evening twilight -- which have esoterically the same meaning as sandhya, twilight, in Sanskrit -- have led to a charge of the most crass ignorance of the order of evolution.
</div><br />
A lovely summary on what's going on here.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE EARLY RACES.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Thus saith Hermes, the thrice great Initiate,*** "the Power of the Thought Divine." St. Paul, another Initiate, called our world "the enigmatical mirror of pure truth," and St. Gregory, of Nazianzen, corroborated Hermes by stating that "things visible are but the shadow and delineation of things that we cannot see." It is an eternal combination, and images are repeated from the higher rung of the ladder of being down to the lower. The "Fall of the Angels," and the "War in Heaven" are repeated on every plane, the lower "mirror" disfiguring the image of the superior mirror, and each repeating it in its own way. Thus the Christian dogmas are but the reminiscences of the paradigms of Plato, who spoke of these things cautiously, as every Initiate would. But it is all as expressed in these few sentences of the Desatir: -- <br /><br />
"All that is on Earth, saith the Lord (Ormazd), is the shadow of something that is in the superior spheres. This luminous object (light, fire, etc.) is the shadow of that which is still more luminous than itself, and so on till it reaches ME, who am the light of lights."<br /><br />
In the Kabalistic books, and in the Zohar pre-eminently, the idea that everything objective on earth or in this Universe is the Shadow -- Dyooknah -- of the eternal Light or Deity, is very strong.
</div><br />
Several cool quotes which are talking about the Maya, surely.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The mutilation of Uranos by his son Kronos, who thus condemns him to impotency, has never been understood by the modern Mythographers. Yet, it is very plain; and having been universal* (vide foot note infra), it must have contained a great abstract and philosophical idea, now lost to our modern sages. This punishment in the allegory marks, indeed "a new period, a second phase in the development of creation," as justly remarked by Decharme (Mythologie de la Grece Antique, p. 7), who, however, renounces the attempt to explain it. Uranos has tried to oppose an impediment to that development, or natural evolution, by destroying all his children as soon as born. Uranos, who personifies all the creative powers of, and in, Chaos (Space, or the unmanifested Deity) is thus made to pay the penalty; for it is those powers which cause the Pitris to evolve primordial men from themselves -- as, later on, these men evolve their progeny -- without any sense or desire for procreation. The work of generation, suspended during a moment, passes into the hands of Kronos,* time, who unites himself with Rhea (the earth in esotericism -- matter in general), and thus produces, after celestial -- terrestrial Titans. The whole of this symbolism relates to the mysteries of Evolution.
</div><br />
A delicious interpretation of the classic Greek story.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
THE RACES WITH THE "THIRD EYE."
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
When we learn that the "third eye" was once a physiological organ, and that later on, owing to the gradual disappearance of spirituality and increase of materiality (Spiritual nature being extinguished by the physical), it became an atrophied organ, as little understood now by physiologists as the spleen is -- when we learn this, the connection will become clear.
</div><br />
Jantho agrees with this slow movement away from spirit into materialistic, manifested physically. There is biological evidence.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Questions with regard to Karma and re-births are constantly offered, and a great confusion seems to exist upon this subject. Those who are born and bred in the Christian faith, and have been trained in the idea that a new soul is created by God for every newly-born infant, are among the most perplexed. They ask whether in such case the number of incarnating Monads on earth is limited; to which they are answered in the affirmative. For, however countless, in our conceptions, the number of the incarnating monads -- even if we take into account the fact that ever since the Second Race, when their respective seven groups were furnished with bodies, several births and deaths may be allowed for every second of time in the aeons already passed -- still, there must be a limit. It was stated that Karma-Nemesis, whose bond-maid is Nature, adjusted everything in the most harmonious manner; and that, therefore, the fresh pouring-in, or arrival of new Monads, had ceased as soon as Humanity had reached its full physical development. No fresh Monads have incarnated since the middle-point of the Atlanteans. Hence, remembering that, save in the case of young children, and of individuals whose lives were violently cut off by some accident, no Spiritual Entity can re-incarnate before a period of many centuries has elapsed, such gaps alone must show that the number of Monads is necessarily finite and limited. Moreover, a reasonable time must be given to other animals for their evolutionary progress.
</div><br />
I am unconvinced about any of this.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Compare this blind faith with the philosophical belief, based on every reasonable evidence and lifeexperience, in Karma-Nemesis, or the Law of Retribution. This Law -- whether Conscious or Unconscious -- predestines nothing and no one. It exists from and in Eternity, truly, for it is ETERNITY itself; and as such, since no act can be co-equal with eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is ACTION itself. It is not the Wave which drowns a man, but the personal action of the wretch, who goes deliberately and places himself under the impersonal action of the laws that govern the Ocean's motion. Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plans and creates causes, and Karmic law adjusts the effects; which adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending ever to resume its original position, like a bough, which, bent down too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigour. If it happen to dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural position, shall we say that it is the bough which broke our arm, or that our own folly has brought us to grief? Karma has never sought to destroy intellectual and individual liberty, like the God invented by the Monotheists. It has not involved its decrees in darkness purposely to perplex man; nor shall it punish him who dares to scrutinise its mysteries. On the contrary, he who unveils through study and meditation its intricate paths, and throws light on those dark ways, in the windings of which so many men perish owing to their ignorance of the labyrinth of life, is working for the good of his fellow-men. KARMA is an Absolute and Eternal law in the World of manifestation; and as there can only be one Absolute, as One eternal ever present Cause, believers in Karma cannot be regarded as Atheists or materialists -- still less as fatalists:"
</div><br />
And then just as quick, I am pretty much 100% on board with this version of karma!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
To avoid erroneous conjectures, however, with regard to the claim that the esoteric doctrine has much in it of the legends contained in the Hindu Scriptures; that, again, the chronology of the latter is almost that of the former -- only explained and made clear; and that finally the belief that "Vaivasvata Manu" -- a generic name indeed! -- was the Noah of the Aryans and his prototype, all this, which is also the belief of the Occultists, necessitates at this juncture a new explanation. (Vide Part III. "Submerged Continents.")
</div><br />
According to Hinduism, Vaivasvata Manu is the current Manu (original human). Trippy to connect Noah with this.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
THE PRIMEVAL MANUS OF HUMANITY.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Those who are aware that the "great Flood," which was connected with the sinking of an entire continent -- save what became a few islands -- could not have happened so far back as 18,000,000 years ago; and that Vaivasvata Manu is the Indian Noah connected with the Matsya (or the fish) Avatar of Vishnu -- may feel perplexed at this discrepancy between facts stated and the chronology previously given.
</div><br />
I have actually read about this elsewhere.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hippocrates said that number seven "By its occult virtues tended to the accomplishment of all things, to be the dispenser of life and fountain of all its changes." The life of man he divided into seven ages (Shakespeare), for "As the moon changes her phases every seven days, this number influences all sublunary beings," and even the Earth, as we know. With the child, it is the teeth that appear in the seventh month and he sheds them at seven years; at twice seven puberty begins, at three times seven all our mental and vital powers are developed, at four times seven he is in his full strength, at five times seven his passions are most developed, etc., etc. Thus for the Earth. It is now in its middle age, yet very little wiser for it. The Tetragrammaton, the four-lettered sacred name of the Deity, can be resolved on Earth only by becoming Septenary through the manifest triangle proceeding from the concealed Tetraktis. Therefore, the number seven has to be adopted on this plane. As written in the Kabala "The greater Holy Assembly" v. 1161: -- "For assuredly there is no stability in those six, save (what they derive) from the seventh. For all things depend from the SEVENTH."
</div><br />
Footnote with stacks more seven stuff.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA XI. THE CIVILIZATION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH RACES.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
But as Orientalists know nothing of the secret teaching, they will take everything literally, and then turn round and abuse the writers of that which they do not comprehend!
</div><br />
Unsure about Orientalists but I feel the same way about atheists.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
To speak of a race nine yatis, or 27 feet high, in a work claiming a more scientific character than "Jack the Giant-Killer," is a somewhat unusual proceeding. "Where are your proofs?" the writer will be asked. In History and tradition, is the answer. Traditions about a race of giants in days of old are universal; they exist in oral and written lore. India had her Danavas and Daityas; Ceylon had her Rakshasas; Greece, her Titans; Egypt, her colossal Heroes; Chaldea, her Izdubars (Nimrod); and the Jews their Emims of the land of Moab, with the famous giants, Anakim (Numbers xiii. 33). Moses speaks of Og, a king who was nine cubits high (15 ft. 4 in.) and four wide (Deut. iii. 11), and Goliath was "six cubits and a span in height" (or 10 ft. 7 in.). The only difference found between the "revealed Scripture" and the evidence furnished to us by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Homer, Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus, etc., etc., is this: While the pagans mention only the skeletons of giants, dead untold ages before, relics that some of them had personally seen, the Bible interpreters unblushingly demand that geology and archaeology should believe, that several countries were inhabited by such giants in the day of Moses; giants before whom the Jews were as grasshoppers, and who still existed in the days of Joshua and David. Unfortunately their own chronology is in the way. Either the latter or the giants have to be given up.
</div><br />
Cool list of giants.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
CYCLOPEAN RUINS AND COLOSSAL STONES AS WITNESSES TO GIANTS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Suppose an Occultist were to claim that the first grand organ of a cathedral had come originally into being in the following manner. First, there was a progressive and gradual elaboration in Space of an organizable material, which resulted in the production of a state of matter named organic PROTEIN. Then, under the influence of incident forces, those states having been thrown into a phase of unstable equilibrium, they slowly and majestically evolved into and resulted in new combinations of carved and polished wood, of brass pins and staples, of leather and ivory, wind-pipes and bellows. After which, having adapted all its parts into one harmonious and symmetrical machine, the organ suddenly pealed forth Mozart's Requiem. This was followed by a Sonata of Beethoven, etc., ad infinitum; its keys playing of themselves and the wind blowing into the pipes by its own inherent force and fancy. . . . . What would Science say to such a theory? Yet, it is precisely in such wise that the materialistic savants tell us that the Universe was formed, with its millions of beings, and man, its spiritual crown.
</div><br />
Really fun way of putting it. I like this a lot. I must quote this.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
STANZA XII. THE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS.
</div>
<br />
A lot of this Stanza was just about fighting dragons.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
OUR DIVINE INSTRUCTORS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
In the "Book of the various names of the Nile," the same author (the historian Ahmed-Ben-Yusouf Eltiphas) tells us of the belief among the Semitic Arabs that Seth (become later the Egyptian Typhon, Set), had been one of the seven angels (or Patriarchs in the Bible): then he became a mortal and Adam's son, after which he communicated the gift of prophecy and astronomical science to Jared, who passed it to his son Henoch. But Henoch (Idris) "the author of thirty books, was Sabaean by origin" (i.e., belonging to the Saba, "a Host"); "having established the rites and ceremonies of primitive worship, he went to the East, where he constructed 140 cities, of which Edessa was the least important, then returned to Egypt where he became its King." Thus, he is identified with Hermes. But there were five Hermes -- or rather one, who appeared -- as some Manus and Rishis did -- in several different characters.
</div><br />
Jared is me!
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
THE ORIGIN OF THE SATANIC MYTH.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
There is at present no need to touch upon the mystic and manifold meaning of the name Jehovah in its abstract sense, one independent of the Deity falsely called by that name. It was a blind created purposely by the Rabbins, a secret preserved by them with ten-fold care after the Christians had despoiled them of this God-name which was their own property.* But the following statement is made. The personage who is named in the first four chapters of Genesis variously as "God," the "Lord God," and "Lord" simply, is not one and the same person; certainly it is not Jehovah. There are three distinct classes or groups of the Elohim called Sephiroth in the Kabala, Jehovah appearing only in chapter iv., in the first verse of which he is named Cain, and in the last transformed into mankind -- male and female, jah-veh.** The "Serpent," moreover, is not Satan, but the bright Angel, one of the Elohim clothed in radiance and glory, who, promising the woman that if they ate of the forbidden fruit "ye shall not surely die," kept his promise, and made man immortal in his incorruptible nature. He is the Iao of the mysteries, the chief of the Androgyne creators of men. Chapter iii. contains (esoterically) the withdrawal of the veil of ignorance that closed the perceptions of the Angelic Man, made in the image of the "Boneless" gods, and the opening of his consciousness to his real nature; thus showing the bright Angel (Lucifer) in the light of a giver of Immortality, and as the "Enlightener"; while the real Fall into generation and matter is to be sought in chapter iv. There, Jehovah-Cain, the male part of Adam the dual man, having separated himself from Eve, creates in her "Abel," the first natural woman,* and sheds the Virgin blood. Now Cain, being shown identical with Jehovah, on the authority of the correct reading of verse i. (chapter iv., Genesis), in the original Hebrew text; and the Rabbins teaching that "Kin (Cain), the Evil, was the Son of Eve by Samael, the devil who took Adam's place"; and the Talmud adding that "the evil Spirit, Satan, and Samael, the angel of Death, are the same" --(Babba Battra, 16a) -- it becomes easy to see that Jehovah (mankind, or "Jah-hovah") and Satan (therefore the tempting Serpent) are one and the same in every particular. There is no Devil, no Evil, outside mankind to produce a Devil. Evil is a necessity in, and one of the supporters of the manifested universe. It is a necessity for progress and evolution, as night is necessary for the production of Day, and Death for that of Life -- that man may live for ever.
</div><br />
Lots of discerning of God and Satan here, I like it. It's also so true that God said Adam and Eve would die if they ate the apple, but they did not!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Satan represents metaphysically simply the reverse or the polar opposite of everything in nature.* He is the "adversary," allegorically, the "murderer," and the great Enemy of all, because there is nothing in the whole universe that has not two sides -- the reverses of the same medal. But in that case, light, goodness, beauty, etc., may be called Satan with as much propriety as the Devil, since they are the adversaries of darkness, badness, and ugliness. And now the philosophy and the rationale of certain early Christian sects -- called heretical and viewed as the abomination of the times -- will become more comprehensible. We may understand how it was that the sect of SATANIANS came to be degraded, and were anathematized without any hope of vindication in a future day, since they kept their tenets secret. How, on the same principle, the CAINITES came to be degraded, and even the (Judas) ISCARIOTES; the true character of the treacherous apostle having never been correctly presented before the tribunal of Humanity.
</div><br />
The balance of good and evil, the Church needs Satan. I have also heard of Christian sects that highly revere Judas, because he was actually the initiator needed for the murder of Christ that brought upon the forgiveness of the world. It's very important to remember these things.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Satan represents metaphysically simply the reverse or the polar opposite of everything in nature.* He is the "adversary," allegorically, the "murderer," and the great Enemy of all, because there is nothing in the whole universe that has not two sides -- the reverses of the same medal. But in that case, light, goodness, beauty, etc., may be called Satan with as much propriety as the Devil, since they are the adversaries of darkness, badness, and ugliness. And now the philosophy and the rationale of certain early Christian sects -- called heretical and viewed as the abomination of the times -- will become more comprehensible. We may understand how it was that the sect of SATANIANS came to be degraded, and were anathematized without any hope of vindication in a future day, since they kept their tenets secret. How, on the same principle, the CAINITES came to be degraded, and even the (Judas) ISCARIOTES; the true character of the treacherous apostle having never been correctly presented before the tribunal of Humanity.
</div><br />
The balance of good and evil, the Church needs Satan. I have also heard of Christian sects that highly revere Judas, because he was actually the initiator needed for the murder of Christ that brought upon the forgiveness of the world. It's very important to remember these things.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
THE "CURSE" FROM A PHILOSOPHICAL POINT OF VIEW.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The foregoing teachings of the SECRET DOCTRINE, supplemented by universal traditions, must now have demonstrated that the Brahmanas and Puranas, the Yathas and other Mazdean Scriptures, down to the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, and finally to the Jewish Sacred records, all have the same origin. None are meaningless and baseless stories, invented to entrap the unwary profane: all are allegories intended to convey, under a more or less fantastic veil, the great truths gathered in the same field of pre-historic tradition.
</div><br />
This is something I have come to be certain of in my research.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
WESTERN SPECULATIONS, FOUNDED ON THE GREEK AND PURANIC TRADITIONS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
That state will return to it and to the world at large, when the latter shall discover and really appreciate the truths which underlie this vast problem of sex. It will be like "the light that never shone on sea or land," and has to come to men through the Theosophical Society. That light will lead on and up to the true spiritual intuition. Then (as expressed once in a letter to a theosophist), "the world will have a race of Buddhas and Christs, for the world will have discovered that individuals have it in their own powers to procreate Buddha-like children -- or demons." "When that knowledge comes, all dogmatic religions, and with these the demons, will die out."
</div><br />
We will be breeding divine children at will! I wanna.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
ADDITIONAL FRAGMENTS FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE VERSES OF STANZA XII.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
They "of the yellow hue" are the forefathers of those whom Ethnology now classes as the Turanians, the Mongols, Chinese and other ancient nations; and the land they fled to was no other than Central Asia.
</div><br />
Interesting but swaddles the line between racism and non. Product of the times?
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
CONCLUSION.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
But this is the personal view of the writer; and her orthodoxy cannot be expected to have any more weight than any other "doxy," in the eyes of those to whom every fresh theory is heterodox until otherwise proved. Therefore are we Occultists fully prepared for such questions as these: "How does one know that the writer has not invented the whole scheme? And supposing she has not, how can one tell that the whole of the foregoing, as given in the Stanzas, is not the product of the imagination of the ancients? How could they have preserved the records of such an immense, such an incredible antiquity?" <br /><br />
The answer that the history of this world since its formation and to its end "is written in the stars," i.e., is recorded in the Zodiac and the Universal Symbolism whose keys are in the keeping of the Initiates, will hardly satisfy the doubters. The antiquity of the Zodiac in Egypt is much doubted, and it is denied point-blank with regard to India. "Your conclusions are often excellent, but your premises are always doubtful," the writer was once told by a profane friend. To this, the answer came that it was one point, at least, gained on the scientific syllogisms. For, with the exception of a few problems from the domain of purely physical science, both the premises and conclusions of the men of Science are as hypothetical as they are almost invariably erroneous. And if they do not so appear to the profane, the reason is simply this: the said profane is very little aware, taking as he does his scientific data on faith, that both premises and conclusions are generally the product of the same brains, which, however learned, are not infallible; a truism demonstrated daily by the shifting and re-shifting of scientific theories and speculations.
</div><br />
I’m glad she addresses this but it largely goes on to highlight things that have been questioned or disregarded in the past then later proved true. Of course, this is a thing but doesn’t actually mean anything.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK II., PART II.<br />
THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ VII. THE "HOLY OF HOLIES." ITS DEGRADATION.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Noah, a divine permutation, the supposed saviour of Humanity, who carries in his ark or argha (the moon), the germs of all living things, worships before the "body of Adam," which body is the image of, and a Creator itself. Hence Adam is called the "Prophet of the Moon," the Argha or "Holy of Holies" of the (Yodh). This also shows the origin of the Jewish popular belief that the face of Moses is in the moon -- i.e., the spots in the Moon. For Moses and Jehovah are once more permutations, as has been shown Kabalistically.
</div><br />
I'm not too clued up on all of this. It's followed by stacks of numerology, and while it's super interesting, I’m just not sure how to present it without slapping pages upon pages here.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ XVIII. ON THE MYTH OF THE "FALLEN ANGEL," IN ITS VARIOUS ASPECTS.
</div>
<br />
I loved this one.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
OUR present quarrel is exclusively with theology. The Church enforces belief in a personal god and a personal devil, while Occultism shows the fallacy of such a belief. And though for the Pantheists and Occultists, as much as for the Pessimists, Nature is no better than "a comely mother, but stone cold" -- this is true only so far as regards external physical nature. They both agree that, to the superficial observer, she is no better than an immense slaughter-house wherein butchers become victims, and victims executioners in their turn. It is quite natural that the pessimistically inclined profane, once convinced of Nature's numerous shortcomings and failures, and especially of her autophagous propensities, should imagine this to be the best evidence that there is no deity in abscondito within Nature, nor anything divine in her. Nor is it less natural that the materialist and the physicist should imagine that everything is due to blind force and chance, and to the survival of the strongest, even more often than of the fittest. But the Occultists, who regard physical nature as a bundle of most varied illusions on the plane of deceptive perceptions; who recognise in every pain and suffering but the necessary pangs of incessant procreation: a series of stages toward an ever-growing perfectibility, which is visible in the silent influence of never-erring Karma, or abstract nature -- the Occultists, we say, view the great Mother otherwise. Woe to those who live without suffering. Stagnation and death is the future of all that vegetates without a change. And how can there be any change for the better without proportionate suffering during the preceding stage? Is it not those only who have learnt the deceptive value of earthly hopes and the illusive allurements of external nature who are destined to solve the great problems of life, pain, and death?
</div><br />
A superb paragraph, a thrill to read.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As the whole philosophy of the problem of evil hangs upon the correct comprehension of the constitution of the inner being of nature and man, of the divine within the animal, and hence also the correctness of the whole system as given in these pages, with regard to the crown piece of evolution -- MAN -- we cannot take sufficient precautions against theological subterfuges. When the good St. Augustine and the fiery Tertullian called the Devil "the monkey of God," this could be attributed to the ignorance of the age they lived in. It is more difficult to excuse our modern writers on the same ground. The translation of Mazdean literature has afforded to the Roman Catholic writers the pretext for proving their point in the same direction once more. They have taken advantage of the dual nature of Ahura Mazda in the Zend Avesta and the Vendidad, and of his Amshaspends, to emphasize still further their wild theories. Satan is the plagiarist and the copyist by anticipation of the religion which came ages later. This was one of the master strokes of the Latin Church, its best trump-card after the appearance of Spiritualism in Europe. Though only a succes d'estime, in general, even among those who are not interested in either Theosophy or Spiritualism, yet the weapon is often used by the Christian (Roman Catholic) Kabalists against the Eastern Occultists.
</div><br />
Another incredible paragraph, this one about the Satan bluff.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
A thing can only exist through its opposite -- Hegel teaches us, and only a little philosophy and spirituality are needed to comprehend the origin of the later dogma, which is so truly satanic and infernal in its cold and cruel wickedness. The Magians accounted for the origin of evil in their exoteric teachings in this way. "Light can produce nothing but light, and can never be the origin of evil"; how then was the evil produced, since there was nothing co-equal or like the Light in its production? Light, say they, produced several Beings, all of them spiritual, luminous, and powerful. But a GREAT ONE (the "Great Asura," Ahriman, Lucifer, etc., etc.) had an evil thought, contrary to the Light. He doubted, and by that doubt he became dark.
</div><br />
This is Hermeticism, perhaps even more so in the Kybalion. The following paragraphs were great too, if you're interested. There's also a footnote with a WONDERFUL quote, omg: <i>"Should the Idealist be right, the doctrine of evolution is a dream," says Mr. Herbert Spencer.</i> My brain shoots off in a billion directions because I am an idealist.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ XIX. IS PLEROMA SATAN'S LAIR?
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The "Old Dragon" and Satan, now become singly and collectively the symbol of, and the theological term for, the "Fallen Angel," is not so described either in the original Kabala (the Chaldean "Book of Numbers") or in the modern. For the most learned, if not the greatest of modern Kabalists, namely Eliphas Levi, describes Satan in the following glowing terms: -- "It is that Angel who was proud enough to believe himself God; brave enough to buy his independence at the price of eternal suffering and torture; beautiful enough to have adored himself in full divine light; strong enough to reign in darkness amidst agony, and to have built himself a throne on his inextinguishable pyre. It is the Satan of the Republican and heretical Milton. . . . . the prince of anarchy, served by a hierarchy of pure Spirits (! ! ) . . . . "(Histoire de la Magie, 16-17) This description -- one which reconciles so cunningly theological dogma and the Kabalistic allegory, and even contrives to include a political compliment in its phraseology -- is, when read in the right spirit, quite correct.<br /><br />
Yes, indeed; it is this grandest of ideals, this ever-living symbol -- nay apotheosis -- of self-sacrifice for the intellectual independence of humanity; this ever active Energy protesting against Static Inertia -- the principle to which Self-assertion is a crime, and Thought and the Light of Knowledge odious. It is -- as Eliphas says with unparalleled justice and irony -- "this pretended hero of tenebrous eternities, who, slanderously charged with ugliness, is decorated with horns and claws, which would fit far better his implacable tormentor -- it is he who has been finally transformed into a serpent -- the red Dragon." But Eliphas Levi was yet too subservient to his Roman Catholic authorities; one may add, too jesuitical, to confess that this devil was mankind, and never had any existence on earth outside of that mankind.* <br /><br />
In this, Christian theology, although following slavishly in the steps of Paganism, was only true to its own time-honoured policy. It had to isolate itself, and to assert its authority. Hence it could not do better than turn every pagan deity into a devil. Every bright sun-god of antiquity -- a glorious deity by day, and its own opponent and adversary by night, named the Dragon of Wisdom, because it was supposed to contain the germs of night and day -- has now been turned into the antithetical shadow of God, and has become Satan on the sole and unsupported authority of despotic human dogma. After which all these producers of light and shadow, all the Sun and the Moon Gods, were cursed, and thus the one God chosen out of the many, and Satan, were both anthropomorphised. But theology seems to have lost sight of the human capacity for discriminating and finally analysing all that is artificially forced upon its reverence. History shows in every race and even tribe, especially in the Semitic nations, the natural impulse to exalt its own tribal deity above all others to the hegemony of the gods; and proves that the God of the Israelites was such a tribal God, and no more, even though the Christian Church, following the lead of the "chosen" people, is pleased to enforce the worship of that one particular deity, and to anathematize all the others. Whether originally a conscious or an unconscious blunder, nevertheless, it was one. Jehovah has ever been in antiquity only "a god among other Gods," (lxxxii. Psalm). The Lord appears to Abraham, and while saying, "I am the Almighty God," yet adds, "I will establish my covenant to be a God unto thee" (Abraham), and unto his seed
after him (Gen. xvii. 7) -- not unto Aryan Europeans. <br /><br />
But then, there was the grandiose and ideal figure of Jesus of Nazareth to be set off against a dark background, to gain in radiance by the contrast; and a darker one the Church could hardly invent. Lacking the Old Testament symbology, ignorant of the real connotation of the name of Jehovah -- the rabbinical secret substitute for the ineffable and unpronounceable name -- the Church mistook the cunningly fabricated shadow for the reality, the anthropomorphized generative symbol for the one Secondless Reality, the ever unknowable cause of all. As a logical sequence the Church, for purposes of duality, had to invent an anthropomorphic Devil -- created, as taught by her, by God himself. Satan has now turned out to be the monster fabricated by the "Jehovah-Frankenstein," -- his father's curse and a thorn in the divine side -- a monster, than whom no earthly Frankenstein could have fabricated a more ridiculous bogey.
</div><br />
Sorry for the huge text dump, I actually wanted to drop more. I like it a lot, the Satan description, Yahweh is a Pagan god etc.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The Kabbalists say that the true name of Satan is that of Jehovah placed upside down, for "Satan is not a black god but the negation of the white deity," or the light of Truth. God is light and Satan is the necessary darkness or shadow to set it off, without which pure light would be invisible and incomprehensible.* "For the initiates," says Eliphas Levi, "the devil is not a person but a creative Force, for Good as for Evil." They (the Initiates) represented this Force, which presides at physical generation, under the mysterious form of God Pan -- or Nature: whence the horns and hoofs of that mythical and symbolic figure, as also the Christian "goat of the Witches' Sabbath." With regard to this too, Christians have imprudently forgotten that the goat was also the victim selected for the atonement of all the sins of Israel, that the scape-goat was indeed the sacrificial martyr, the symbol of the greatest mystery on earth -- the Fall into generation. Only the Jews have long forgotten the real meaning of their (to the non-initiated) ridiculous hero, selected from the drama of life in the great mysteries enacted by them in the desert; and the Christians never knew it.
</div><br />
I wonder how innovative these ideas were back in the day, but it’s just nice to read it. I've also noted Eliphas Levi's name, I must read his work.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The tiger and the donkey, the hawk and the dove, are each one as pure and as innocent as the other, because irresponsible. Each follows its instinct, the tiger and the hawk killing with the same unconcern as the donkey eats a thistle, or the dove pecks at a grain of corn. If the Fall had the significance given to it by theology; if that fall occurred as a result of an act never intended by nature, -- a sin, how about the animals? If we are told that they procreate their species in consequence of that same "original sin," for which God cursed the earth -- hence everything living on it -- we will put another question. We are told by theology, as by Science, that the animal was on earth far earlier than man? We ask the former: How did it procreate its species, before the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, of the Good and the Evil, had been plucked off? As said: "The Christians -- far less clear-sighted than the great Mystic and Liberator whose name they have assumed, whose doctrines they have misunderstood and travestied, and whose memory they have blackened by their deeds -- took the Jewish Jehovah as he was, and of course strove vainly to reconcile the Gospel of Light and Liberty with the Deity of Darkness and Submission."
</div><br />
Great points plus I love how she gives full props to Jesus and then brushes his followers swiftly aside.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In our day of dreary soul-killing materialism, the ancient priest Initiates have become, in the opinion of our learned generations, the synonyms of clever impostors, kindling the fires of superstition in order to obtain an easier sway over the minds of men. This is an unfounded calumny, generated by scepticism and uncharitable thoughts. No one believed more in Gods -- or, we may call them, the Spiritual and now invisible Powers, or Spirits, the noumena of the phenomena -- than they did; and they believed just because they knew. If, initiated into the Mysteries of Nature, they were forced to withhold their knowledge from the profane, who would have surely abused it, such secrecy was undeniably less dangerous than the policy of their usurpers and successors. The former taught only that which they well knew. The latter, teaching what they do not know, have invented, as a secure haven for their ignorance, a jealous and cruel Deity, who forbids man to pry into his mysteries under the penalty of damnation. As well they may, for his mysteries can at best be only hinted at in polite ears, never described.
</div><br />
I love how hard she is laying into just about the entirety of organised religion here.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ XXI. ENOICHION-HENOCH.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
To accept Enoch as a Biblical character, a single living man, is like accepting Adam as the first one. Enoch was a generic title, applied to, and borne by, scores of individuals, at all times and ages, and in every race and nation. This may be easily inferred from the fact that the ancient Talmudists and the teachers of Midrashim are not agreed generally in their views about Hanokh, the Son of Yered. . . . Some say Enoch was a great Saint, beloved by God, and taken alive to heaven (i.e., one who reached Mukti or Nirvana, on earth, as Buddha did and others still do); and others maintain that he was a sorcerer, a wicked magician. This shows only that Enoch, or its equivalent, was a term, even during the days of the later Talmudists, which meant "Seer," "Adept in the Secret Wisdom," etc., without any specification as to the character of the title-bearer. When Josephus, speaking of Elijah and Enoch (Antiquities, ix., 2), remarks that "it is written in the sacred books they (Elijah and Enoch) disappeared, but so that nobody knew that they died," it means simply that they had died in their personalities, as Yogis die to this day in India, or even some Christian monks to the world. They disappear from the sight of men and die -- on the terrestrial plane -- even for themselves. A seemingly figurative way of speaking, yet literally true.
</div><br />
Interesting stuff, worth noting. I have a thing for Enoch. Son of Jared and that.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ XXII. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYSTERY-NAMES IAO AND JEHOVAH, WITH THEIR RELATION TO THE CROSS AND CIRCLE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The numbers of the name Moses are those of "I AM THAT I AM," so that the names Moses and Jehovah are at one in numerical harmony The word Moses is and the sum of the values of its letters is 345; Jehovah -- the genius par excellence of the lunar year -- assumes the value of 543, or the reverse of 345. . . . In the third chapter of Exodus, in the 13th and 14th verses, it is said: And Moses said . . . Behold when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? and God said unto Moses -- "I am that I am." The Hebrew words for this expression are ahiye asher ahiye, and in the value of the sums of their letters stand thus:-- . . . This being his (God's) name, the sum of the values composing it are 21, 501, 21 are 543, or simply a use of the simple digit numbers in the name of Moses . . . but now so ordered that the name of 345 is reversed, and reads 543. . . . So that when Moses asks "Let me see Thy face or glory," the other rightly and truly replies "Thou canst not see my face" . . . but thou shalt see me behind -- (the true sense, though not the precise words); because the comer and the behind of 543 is the face of 345 -- "for check and to keep a strict use of a set of numbers to develop certain grand results, for the object of which they are specifically employed." "In other uses," adds the learned Kabalist, "of the number they saw each other face to face. It is strange that if we add 345 to 543 we have 888, which was the gnostic Kabalistic value of the name Christ, who was Jehoshua or Joshua. And so also the division of the 24 hours of the day gives three eights as quotient. . . . The chief end of all this system of number checks was to preserve in perpetuity the exact value of the Lunar year in the natural measure of days."
</div><br />
Kabbalah numerology, I looove it. Sadly, some of the glyphs can't copy across here, so check the book itself for that.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
B. THE FALL OF THE CROSS INTO MATTER
</div>
<br />
This chapter all about the crucifix as a symbol.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Still later, owing to the gradual loss of spirituality, the cross became in Cosmogony and Anthropology no higher than a phallic symbol.
</div><br />
It’s a dick thing.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ XXIV. THE CROSS AND THE PYTHAGOREAN DECADE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
"The Nile was the river of time with the number of a year, or year and a day (364 + 1 = 365). It represented the parturient water of Isis, or Mother Earth, the moon, the woman, and the cow, also the workshop of Osiris, representing the T'sod Olaum of the Hebrews. The ancient name of this river was Eridanus, or the Hebrew Iardan, with the Coptic or old Greek suffix. This was the door of the Hebrew word Jared, or 'Source,' or Descent . . . of the river Jordan, which had the same mythical use with the Hebrews that the Nile had with the Egyptians,* it was the source of descent, and held the waters of life" in them a highly philosophical and moral meaning. One instance will be sufficient. It can read:
</div><br />
My name is here as "Source" but I believe it's "One Who Rules"?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
But the best evidence to the antiquity of the cross is that which is brought forward by the author of Natural Genesis on page 433.<br /><br />
"The value of the cross," says Mr. Massey, "as a Christian symbol, is supposed to date from the time when Jesus Christ was crucified. And yet in the 'Christian' Iconography of the Catacombs no figure of a man appears upon the Cross during the first six or seven centuries. There are all forms of the cross except that -- the alleged starting-point of the new religion. That was not the initial but the final form of the Crucifix.** During some six centuries after the Christian era the foundation of the Christian religion in a crucified Redeemer is entirely absent from Christian art! The earliest known form of the human figure on the cross is the crucifix presented by Pope Gregory the Great to Queen Theodolinde of Lombardy, now in the Church of St. John at Monza, whilst no image of the Crucified is found in the Catacombs at Rome earlier than that of San Giulio, belonging to the seventh or eighth century. . . . There is no Christ and no Crucified; the Cross is the Christ even as the Stauros cross was a type and a name of Horus, the Gnostic Christ. The Cross, not the Crucified, is the essential object of representation in its art, and of adoration in its religion. The germ of the whole growth and development can be traced to the cross. And that cross is pre-Christian, is pagan and heathen, in half a dozen different shapes. The cult began with the cross, and Julian was right in saying he waged a 'Warfare with the X'; which he obviously considered had been adopted by the A-Gnostics and Mytholators to convey an impossible significance.* During centuries the cross stood for the Christ, and was addressed as if it were a living being. It was made divine at first, and humanized at last."
</div><br />
This is not something I can swallow. Jesus on the cross was originally avoided in art because it was a common form of Roman execution, nothing to be revered. There are also several 4th century depictions of Jesus with arms stretched out that would indicate the crucifiction. Still, interesting though!
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ XXV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEBDOMAD.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The following diagram will perhaps assist the student to grasp these parallelisms.
</div><br />
It's an impressive diagram which you can <a href="https://gyazo.com/27f72517bba98ea11834310243bd4f82" target="_blank">see here</a>. Bringing these scientific elements along with metaphysical principles. Even if unprovable, she’s paying attention to everything.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
"Note that in Hebrew, Jared, the father of Enoch, is construed to be 'the mount of descent,' and it is said to be the same with Ararat on which the cubical structure of Noah, or foundation measure rested. Jared, in Hebrew, is . The root derivations are the same with those of Ararat, of acre, of earth." As by Hebrew metrology "Jared, is, literally in British Y R D; hence in Jared is to be found literally our English word yard (and also , for Jah, or Jehovah, is rod). It is noteworthy that the son of Jared, viz., Enoch, lived 365 years, and it is said of him by rabbinical commentators, that the year period of 365 days was discovered by him, thus bringing, again, time and distance values together, i.e., year time descended by co-ordination, through the yard, or jared, who thus was its father, in or through Enoch; and truly enough, 1296 = yard (or jared) x 4 = 5184, the characteristic value of the solar day, in thirds, which as stated may be styled the parent numerically, of the solar year" (ibid. p. 65). This, however, by the astronomical and numerical Kabalistic methods. Esoterically, Jared is the Third race and Enoch the Fourth -- but as he is taken away alive he symbolizes also the Elect saved in the Fourth, while Noah is the Fifth from the beginning -- the family saved from the waters, eternally and physically.
</div><br />
Is it... is it me??
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
D. THE SEPTENARY IN THE EXOTERIC WORKS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The Gnostics, whose various teachings are the many echoes of the one primitive and universal doctrine, put the same numbers, under another form, in the mouth of Jesus in the very occult Pistis Sophia. We say more: even the Christian editor or author of Revelation has preserved this tradition and speaks of the Seven RACES, four of which, with part of the fifth, are gone, and two have to come. It is stated as plainly as could be stated in chapter xvii., verses 9 and 10. Thus saith the angel: "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are SEVEN Kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come . . . . " Who, acquainted in the least with the symbolical language of old, will fail to discern in the five Kings that have fallen, the four Root-Races that were, and part of the fifth, the one that is; and in the other, that "is not yet come," the sixth and seventh coming root races, as also the sub-races of this, our present race?
</div><br />
Can confirm these sevens in the Book of Revelation are true.<br /><br />
The book bangs on about sevens for ages from here, which I didn't feel needed note.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK II. -- PART III. ADDENDA.<br />
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.
</div>
<br />
You will notice by the headings flying past that I hardly took notes as it came to the end (over 50 pages unrepresented). I felt like we had covered it all before or maybe I was just exhausted, idk.<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
ADDENDA TO BOOK II.<br />
§ I. ARCHAIC, OR MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY?
</div>
<br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ II. THE ANCESTORS MANKIND IS OFFERED BY SCIENCE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="thebookparts">
PLASTIDULAR SOULS, AND CONSCIOUS NERVE-CELLS.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The collective aggregation of these atoms forms thus the Anima Mundi of our Solar system, the soul of our little universe, each atom of which is of course a soul, a monad, a little universe endowed with consciousness, hence with memory.
</div><br />
I really take this on board. I love this theory and semi-subscribe to it.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
B. ON CHAINS OF PLANETS AND THEIR PLURALITY
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The theory of the earth's rotation was met by a like opposition -- even to the martyrdom of its discoverers -- because, besides depriving our orb of its dignified central position in space, this theory produced an appalling confusion of ideas as to the Ascension -- the terms "up" and "down" being proved to be merely relative, thus complicating not a little the question of the precise locality of heaven.*<br /><br />
* In that learned and witty work, "God and his Book," by the redoubtable "Saladin" of Agnostic
repute, the amusing calculation that, if Christ had ascended with the rapidity of a cannon ball, he
would not have reached even Sirius yet, reminds one vividly of the past. It raises, perhaps, a not illfounded suspicion that even our age of scientific enlightenment may be as grossly absurd in its
materialistic negations, as the men of the middle ages were absurd and materialistic in their religious
affirmations.
</div><br />
Including the footnote with the paragraph here. Super interesting and funny.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
PARALLELISM OF LIFE.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
"The primeval savage is a familiar term in modern literature," remarks Professor Rawlinson, "but there is no evidence that the primeval savage ever existed. Rather all the evidence looks the other way." ("Antiq. of Man Historically Considered.") In his "Origin of Nations," pp. 10-11, he rightly adds: "The mythical traditions of almost all nations place at the beginning of human history a time of happiness and perfection, a 'golden age' which has no features of savagery or barbarism, but many of civilization and refinement." How is the modern evolutionist to meet this consensus of evidence?
</div><br />
I'm not even sure how to start researching this. I like the idea but it seems unlikely and it would take a lot to covince me. I do come across such statements every now and then, so hopefully as time goes on, I can start to develop a more educated stance because, at the point of writing this, I simply do not know enough.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As said by an anthropologist in "Modern Thought" (art. "The Genesis of Man"): "The theory, scientifically based or not, of Peyrere may be considered to be equivalent to that which divided man in two species. Broca, Virey, and a number of the French anthropologists have recognised that the lower race of man, comprising the Australian, Tasmanian, and Negro race, excluding the Kaffirs and the Northern Africans, should be placed apart. The fact that in this species, or rather sub-species, the third lower molars are usually larger than the second, and the squamosal and frontal bones are generally united by suture, places the Homo Afer on the level of being as good a distinct species as many of the kinds of finches. I shall abstain on the present occasion from mentioning the facts of hybridity, whereon the late Professor Broca has so exhaustively commented. The history, in the past ages of the world, of this race is peculiar. It has never originated a system of architecture or a religion of its own" (Dr. C. Carter Blake). It is peculiar, indeed, as we have shown in the case of the Tasmanians. However it may be, fossil man in Europe can neither prove nor disprove the antiquity of man on this Earth nor the age of his earliest civilizations.
</div><br />
This is inexcusably racist and very dangerous.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
B. THE EUROPEAN, PALAEOLITHIC RACES. -- WHENCE, AND HOW DISTRIBUTED.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The types of the skulls found in Europe are of two kinds, as is well known: the orthognathous and the prognathous, or the Caucasian and the negro types; such as are now found only in the African and the lower savage tribes. Professor Heer -- who argues that the facts of Botany necessitate the hypothesis of an Atlantis -- has shown that the plants of the Neolithic lake-villagers are mainly of African origin. How did the latter come to be in Europe if there was no former point of union between Africa and Europe?
</div><br />
Ethnicity can be identified via the skull, which isn't something I'd really thought of before. I guess it makes sense due to climate, diet, etc.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ VI. GIANTS, CIVILIZATIONS, AND SUBMERGED CONTINENTS TRACED IN HISTORY.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
No skeleton ever yet found is older than between 50, or 60,000 years,*** and man's size was reduced from 15 to 10 or 12 feet, ever since the third sub-race of the Aryan stock, which sub-race -- born and developed in Europe and Asia Minor under new climates and conditions -- had become European.
</div><br />
This record has been shattered. Lucy in Ethiopia is 3.2 million years old (which I've seen), and there are other (questionable) entries. These are human ancestors though, so on the chance that Blavatsky meant homo sapien direct, I found an article about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/07/oldest-homo-sapiens-bones-ever-found-shake-foundations-of-the-human-story" target="_blank">300,000-year-old remains in Morocco</a>. Either way, her sizing estimates are way off. Lucy is tiny!
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
A. SOME STATEMENTS ABOUT THE SACRED ISLANDS AND CONTINENTS IN THE CLASSICS, EXPLAINED ESOTERICALLY.
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
A good proof that all the gods, and religious beliefs, and myths have come from the north, which was also the cradle of physical man, lies in several suggestive words which have originated and remain to this day among the northern tribes in their primeval significance; but although there was a time when all the nations were "of one lip," these words have received a different meaning with the Greeks and Latins. One such word is Mann, Man, a living being, and Manes, dead men. The Laplanders call their corpses to this day manee, (Voyage de Renard en Laponie I., 184). Mannus is the ancestor of the German race; the Hindu Manu, the thinking being, from man; the Egyptian Menes; and Minos, the King of Crete, judge of the infernal regions after his death -- all proceed from the same root or word.
</div><br />
I love a game of language breadcrumbs, but to state "the cradle of physical man" comes from the north is the opposite of the general consensus these hundred-plus of years later.
<br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
§ VII. SCIENTIFIC AND GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF SEVERAL SUBMERGED CONTINENTS
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Were the public to be left to its old opinions: namely, on one side, that Occultism, Magic, the legends of old, etc., were all the outcome of ignorance and superstition; and on the other, that everything outside the orthodox groove was the work of the devil, what would be the result? In other words, had no theosophical and mystic literature obtained a hearing for the few last years, the present work would have had a poor chance of impartial consideration. It would have been proclaimed -- and by many will still be so proclaimed -- a fairy tale woven out of abstruse problems, poised in, and based on the air; built of soap bubbles, bursting at the slightest touch of serious reflection, with no foundation, as it would be alleged, to stand upon.
</div><br />
Poetic.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In his "Franc-maconnerie Occulte," rightly or wrongly, Ragon, an illustrious and learned Belgian Mason, reproaches the English Masons with having materialized and dishonoured Masonry, once based upon the Ancient Mysteries, by adopting, owing to a mistaken notion of the origin of the craft, the name of Free Masonry and Free Masons. The mistake is due, he says, to those who connect Masonry with the building of Solomon's Temple, deriving its origin from it. He derides the idea, and says: . . "The Franc Mason (which is not macon libre, or free masonry) knew well when adopting the title, that it was no question of building a wall, but that of being initiated into the ancient Mysteries veiled under the name of Francmaconnerie (Freemasonry); that his work was only to be the continuation or the renovation of the ancient mysteries, and that he was to become a mason after the manner of Apollo or Amphion. And do not we know that the ancient initiated poets, when speaking of the foundation of a city, meant thereby the establishment of a doctrine? Thus Neptune, the god of reasoning, and Apollo, the god of the hidden things, presented themselves as masons before Laomedon, Priam's father, to help him to build the city of Troy -- that is to say, to establish the Trojan religion."
</div><br />
Some cool Free Masonry insights, if you trust it.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Thus far have proceeded the rough outlines of the beliefs and tenets of the archaic, earliest Races contained in their hitherto secret Scriptural records. But our explanations are by no means complete, nor do they pretend to give out the full text, or to have been read by the help of more than three or four keys out of the sevenfold bunch of esoteric interpretation, and even this has only been partially accomplished. The work is too gigantic for any one person to undertake, far more to accomplish. Our main concern was simply to prepare the soil. This, we trust we have done. These two volumes only constitute the work of a pioneer who has forced his way into the well-nigh impenetrable jungle of the virgin forests of the Land of the Occult. A commencement has been made to fell and uproot the deadly upas trees of superstition, prejudice, and conceited ignorance, so that these two volumes should form for the student a fitting prelude for Volumes III. and IV. Until the rubbish of the ages is cleared away from the minds of the Theosophists to whom these volumes are dedicated, it is impossible that the more practical teaching contained in the Third Volume should be understood. Consequently, it entirely depends upon the reception with which Volumes I. and II. will meet at the hands of Theosophists and Mystics, whether these last two volumes will ever be published, though they are almost completed.
</div><br />
The final full paragraph of The Secret Doctrine. And while I read it using my inside voice, my inside voice was SCREAMING in excitement. I can't believe it's over! So much of my life dedicated to this sweet moment!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH.
</div><br />
Quite fittingly, The Secret Doctrine Volume II ends with the line that has become the slogan for Theosophy. I am glad, because it gives me the oppertunity to express my rejection of it. <br /><br />
People talk of "The Truth" all the time, but if you pay attention, they are talking about their developed opinions. Indeed, any objective truth is impossible to discern, because even if it exists, we can only find it surrounded by many opposing voices claiming what it is. <br /><br />
"The Truth" is merely which information you trust and nothing more. Hence, Janthopoyism does not believe in such a thing. Instead, it ties deeper into the Jainist understanding, whereby there is truth in every perspective, and perhaps even reality itself is subjective, the quantum attributes changing per the viewer. <br /> <br />
If you're interested in this, you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWAt-5ydb94" target="_blank">listen to ME chatting about objective reality (Maya) on the Janthopodcast episode here</a>.
<br /><br />
Ok, byeeeeeeeeee.
<br /> <br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read The Book Of The Law So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBYxSasJOj9eNwmJSguPTlYQEpRTp21XWgpzeDIAr4sB05KlJkgzDyWdsst7JmPwx4rAu6JE-KAceOj5Mvww84X2jiRYAUAW0ekkaPYgtW5U-8PHjH0ikVJ7hpWxEKB3_IlumwkkrDyuQ/s1600/20March23-I-Read-the-Book-of-the-Law.jpg" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">I Read The Book Of The Law So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
<br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-36319982395540053932022-12-15T15:19:00.008+00:002023-03-22T10:49:45.218+00:00The Top 50 Albums of 2022<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 50%;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022" border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtfhSQ47KrJ5y9l6Ilm0Hk8eW8nf5SKvequyjTDRIK8AKHnSDSyzF-EUHNqxSoKjUkLkHM2-k8w6s0dhsRybEH_nEqltFT-w0ahy_fo1oiCjf55VIVedp9I1Iyvkl-ZEmOKL6S-j3E4wui5p8OmQZcz-VWURkq-G1St1kiX2hiQmrpnKzrkHuAUUU/s1600/22Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022-1.png" style="width: 100%;" /></span></div>
Hey! Look at me! Everyone, look at me! <i>*does a cartwheel*</i><br /><br />
Guess how many years I've been writing these Top 50 Album articles? Guess! If you guessed "thirteen", you are correct. Congrats to your life! Normally this is the part where I complain about how stressful these posts are and how imposter syndrome prods my armpit, laughing at my self-imposed authority, calling me names I dare not repeat. But weirdly, not this year! Everything oozed into place like melted cheese, which I slapped upon a toastie and, <i>ta-dah</i>, done! Oh yes, I <i>am</i> the authority! I remember. I don't eat cheese, though.<br /><br />
That considered, 2022 was... alright. I swallowed up <a href="https:
//docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13rFdKtGKqFAas5HCkNm5oKt_0CfnwmH-xqmrWrlCPkA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">426 releases</a> since January, and while there were plenty of top-performers in their particular genres, I'm not sure there is much that will go down in history for steering the world into higher realms of creative articulation. And even those who licked the ceiling were generally veterans of the art, conquering the landscape with their reliable proficiencies above any newcomer smashing the scene with something fresh. But if 2022 is anything, it's the year of strong pop, especially in the dreamy arty dialogue, and usually with a female voice upfront. <br /><br />
Introduction ends. I've used all my good words below, so we should get to it. Just know that I compiled this list with everyone in mind, so you <i>will</i> find music you love or your money back. I recognise you have your choices on internet clicks, and I am grateful you chose to be here right now. These are this year's most memorable albums, according to your pal, Jared.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 50. The Linda Lindas - Growing Up" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1xPTjMbcn7c6aErD3VBgLKL9OfEKy8gab1--evAErjLT7iE7d9zCgpSlmKtkVJ28NFf8Z876Ry7-tEBN10HcxDc8tX21XK7BbPyRGg9mWgkzMc5zsIXwlzd8A-Im2WWFc_vzGzLE1f78l98nCx-C0X0RvpkXKYFVDGJNp8n4aPhF1KKMHH4PrOMO/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_the-linda-lindas---growing-up.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>50. The Linda Lindas - Growing Up</h3>
<i>Pop Punk<br />
8 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6BkAzZNlSz80Iz3oTlKHet?si=VniUx63NTC-t-wB3W7zprg " target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When the instant classic anti-prejudice anthem, <em>Racist, Sexist Boy</em>, went viral, The all-female under-18 four-piece Linda Lindas quickly rose as the poster kids for online liberals. It was a complete gimmick on paper, sure, but everyone from Rage Against the Machine to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Sonic Youth were happy to share the joy. Then the album dropped. And what did we learn? We learned that novelty labels were great for mainstream attention, but their overshadowing age and progressive ideals were, in actuality, unfair distractions. Because these ladies were the real pop-punk deal. Within a compact runtime, their self-titled debut presented itself as competent and catchy, demanding a fun time with a serious message laid beneath, spoken loudly by the exact generation we need to be listening to.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022:49. Stabscotch - Prison Jar" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ota7GNE3_EF2J377XNLybpEuobfOtHqjVAtWG4HzAfGRu7Yz7tyLZTmGoKB2i3xqETdGwKxSvs3vDuH3P5ap4NhZuTaqi5qmwdJUsEVGSRS8UT3FMD4koUOG4iIlvWLhBMKcewoU5TNlmatd2EjZ_8WeWxAhw357PlkCZaoTmpil1Oz62emWQ6jq/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Stabscotch---Prison-Jar-artwork.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>49. Stabscotch - Prison Jar</h3>
<i>Experimental Avant-Prog Noise Rock<br />
21 June 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/01e4j2oRveMqGF2pVYRljS?si=RHEyGp4tQbKkpqLz_1kgKw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
This is gonna hurt! Stabscotch, hey. Not like other bands. While some groups may flirt with craziness or even attempt to fabricate insanity for underground credibility, this outfit goes full lunatic without compromise. But what you'd imagine to warp into an unlistenable excessive of disarrayed perplexity, somehow manages to splatter the scene with enough catchy colour to still be somewhat... enjoyable? I don't know if that's the right word. Whatever. It's probably their best work.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 48. iANO - Life Cycles" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgSctXrDP9fYp1Ksw2xHY3TeL4ZlS203mzB5rVqOl_YHB1KMPgKnVLg3fKTqIiDq1UlswhOs_COv85-ZDXu_LoehDtehfuF-AfW_QLplBxsH3Px-G0Svy7s9yH02fNNdXyhH4rAEM-NwXPYrFSQwuuN2kIlbHRr_J4yl6_rLjADkYBNWBk8_EBP8VN/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_iANO---Life-Cycles.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>48. iANO - Life Cycles</h3>
<i>Electronic Art Pop<br />
15 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4Kaq6XF4qKfkr4gIavoKGR?si=W_gyVBcKR6CFdf4lm7TdYQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When <em>Life Cycles</em> starts cycling, it's easy to feel comfortable within its mellow atmosphere, allowing the music to zone out and swirl freely into the ambience of space. But be careful when your ears are turned, for this album may slide away from you, and by the time you repay it any attention, it will reintroduce itself carrying far more complex emotions than you signed up for. This leaves us with something undeniably special in no obvious way, as iANO covertly flows around genre norms and skims the surface of obscure pleasantries. Such a feat makes for a complex piece to review, the adjectives slipping through the slits in my mind the moment the record ends. So I'll leave you to finish up in your own words: ___________________
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 47. Prince Daddy & The Hyena - Prince Daddy & The Hyena" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuoIYof0zu9MZM67vwcV7UegQ7emgwRrL5TzBpbmBofHKBJonkQb5AyKGpVDopl9_TaXAcpFH9dl9v6ITLbv4oxNAzMgFJbR14wu4JouqdFwNgQy-qIFir6qXD4lkXbvaorDxLPYuDa8TIZw45GuL5-GBfxehPPHST_lueYdM0vKFcmEc62rzYHfH/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Prince-Daddy-&-The-Hyena---Prince-Daddy-&-The-Hyena.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>47. Prince Daddy & The Hyena - Prince Daddy & The Hyena</h3>
<i>Power Emo-Pop<br />
15 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4Os6Tb2ris9W7QgWSHEUye?si=meUKV2CXRwW_0dfayCKHhA " target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Without breaking the walls of the poppy punky vein, Prince Daddy & The Hyena achieve a fantastic job of bouncing around the genre's styles to cover every basic emotion allowed. Their rebellious energy swims headstrong through each track, publicly fighting their demons with sharp hooks that are so expertly crafted that even the listener's misery doesn't stand a chance. So, if you enjoy angry emo that cheers you up, here is 2022's best album you've never heard of.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 46. Diamanda Galás - Broken Gargoyles" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOaRg5D0sZr-hxu-PrzW9muZ-MedW7japQ-1s4mcYu6KFj8PTeaB47GmjOnM792rY-juq7riI_WuSXujw4OvJeBwZchl7owQDknAmgfyUIAbZRllo_85d-tuvVRQhNQ0jlYtwRD2Qxe4bLl6wblYjTtT0_2dFBtfHjiej6SQIphyMBC09L4snilIQs/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Diamanda-Galas---Broken-Gargoyles.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>46. Diamanda Galás - Broken Gargoyles</h3>
<i>Experimental<br />
26 August 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2kiRbAOjsR3WSnuM8qbZ7F?si=35gMjor8QLmFSS3URJy4e" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Here comes another one of those <i>"is it music, though?"</i> types of deals. Surely it is. What isn't? Although this may be closer to a witchy ritual summoning animalistic demons. More of an <i>experience</i>, really, where a torturous ordeal is set over two lengthy disturbing songs, droning into darkness while German words screech out stuff I don't care to understand. But within its atmospheric terror, it has built a hut to call its own where no 2022 competitors can go. Hence I invited Diamanda along. It's the type of trauma I'm into, to be fair. Crazy to think I've just found out about her too, being she's a 67-year-old artist with nine albums under her robe. Oooh, I feel an obsession spell coming on, working backwards through time. If you never hear from me again, you'll know why.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 45. CMAT - If My Wife New I’d Be Dead" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkoe32QGvJuwNfaFYNOYf2NfGtQNfQjucY4-044maKKLhELK-4b-FPV9j3YjEJ8seU08tpuNcXWkzgpkNn74uZ7RE06IQGpQFUzu6XtTw-jzdnu5NGr8gQEtsxZ2pc5RpG38bRL8qDl6nsypX9O39pwDg8wpXy9Twb7ou3XuiIwo7ljk28AVzp9_eq/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_CMAT---If-My-Wife-New-I%27d-Be-Dead-.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>45. CMAT - If My Wife New I’d Be Dead</h3>
<i>Alt-Country Indie Pop<br />
25 February 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0xItOwIAddsdxIZBHJyJYh?si=8pLFGf2zRZay6YScJ0h_Dw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Ignoring the indefensible title, my biggest issue with <em>If My Wife New I'd Be Dead</em> is that it comes out swinging with some of the best country songs of 2022 but then can't quuuuite sustain the magic. That classic front-loading technique ultimately sabotages the record by setting the impossible follow-up of tracks, and, no surprises, it sags during the midsection. But please don't note me wrong! It remains an enjoyable listen throughout! And every spin exposes treasures missed previously! But, damnit, if the tunes were as satisfactory as those first ones… then what? Country album of the decade? THE CENTURY? Who is to say. It's the country album of the year, regardless. 2022 was a dud one for country, but still.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 44. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Boy Named If" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgdveiUz2ITwkH2Aixh-vUlN5_DBhS6q4GvAFQButGsY47rH4TsmPgyB0nV6_NufPHkO978o245o8dzWZr-gDJaOBK-vxgLqXGOnpeV8h2gbY7oAE21df4vp8L0QFhy1k9gQVp8u1J5iW84aUR0AkeF7uHXTCtDsqMv9R7t24jl8td74jolRpJs7J/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Elvis-Costello-&-The-Imposters---The-Boy-Named-If.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>44. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Boy Named If</h3>
<i>Power Pop Rock<br />
14 January 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5UvNnPzKxLMYz6bYi8NpoS?si=RiS_3Lk_QhqV4ghTj8zXbA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I would never have thought Elvis Costello had another album in him remarkable enough for my precious top 50. But what's this? How could such a thing be possible? A 67-year-old man? Still singing in the way we love? His voice not ageing a day? His inspiration refusing to wane, maintaining eternal relevance? Proving what we already knew? Elvis Costello's music is timeless? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. As for <i>how</i>, it's because <em>The Boy Named If</em> sounds like another Costello classic by doing what he does best: rocking out with a scent of weirdness yet never leaning too far in any which direction. And, hey, if it sounds like a Costello classic, that means it must be!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 43. Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kGcBqYa3wK76ZCCmPNjE8Cn8f8bdwsSMmtQ-gUhs94a7Ogf0lCAOc9ftPwjDUNHNcVHufyZs6EuLAD9S1MVKA9ig6Q8Tu-vflUDte3kMEyPPb_7Lqwc5XLcsTMqGU72_beQIT21er4Xq32kgzBgM6spCCE8l2-JPlAXZs3PIBsnyREPvGo4Myycw/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Sudan-Archives---Natural-Brown-Prom-Queen.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>43. Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen</h3>
<i>Alternative R&B<br />
9 September 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1QSo9HgowUqAc5BI3AdkqN?si=rN30iLmTQjyIMondCunqHw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
It's humbling when you loathe an album upon first listen, and then it rapidly rises as one of your year's greatest. I was quick to label <em>Natural Brown Prom Queen</em> as a missed-mark affair, where the themes were cringy and the production was awkwardly mismatched. In fairness to me and everyone else, however, the initial mix submitted to Spotify was reportedly the incorrect version, meaning my subsequent experiences bounded forward thanks to that technical correction. And every spin since then has rubbed harder against the g-spot between my flaps of playful R&B and weirder artsy experimentation, getting me off and up and away. It might be an overly-long product that appears to have put the commercial world to sleep, but it offers a fuckload of bang for our time; hence so many critical end-of-year lists are gifting it the gushy love it deserves. Mine too!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 42. Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loneliest Time" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEjenG3q1Rtl8WASkOVCsKdDO3y02Ep_MJWqtku9DreRKuJ--i9VzKJAbVWPvgja_Rb44XrlAlY1nPYswjrLbeM7T-hcynMz2SDeafmZgM185O3e-T7viFHQfZv8msvTXTGzi0ZIeMO4gnf254hH3xsOSg-krQjJk4cSTj-ZEeAGEZtpDFfaSDdWP/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Carly-Rae-Jepsen---The-Loneliest-Time.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>42. Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loneliest Time</h3>
<i>Dance-Pop<br />
21 October 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3l2Gi0hMjZV2uvKoWlFkoQ?si=PCGFZf6GQ-Std0wzMGjGHA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I'd like to start this review by talking about Taylor Swift. Her 2022 record <em>Midnights</em> was released on the same day as <em>The Loneliest Time</em> and everyone proceeded to have a meltdown, Tay-Tay smashing streaming records and earning her 11th number-one. But do you see Swift on this list? No. So I'm here to sing praise for the unfairly disregarded Queen of October 21st, Carly Rae Jepsen. Her music forever brings that Friday energy to any day of the week, employing infectious hooks to blast rays of sunshine into everyone's life; hence the <i>Rae</i> in her name. But her party always has <i>heart</i>, Carly's discography essentially a collection of bright love songs, and in turn, I love her. But most noteworthy is her ability to transcend coolness, where even metalheads appear to give her a pass, and I know why. It's because her albums are calculated journeys riddled with easy stick tunes to pull you in, but these candy gems are surrounded by sneakier audio timebombs that trigger only after repeated listens, exploding at later stages, ensuring that when you're finally well acquainted with the totality of the album, every song has snagged you and holds you dearly. It's a smart technique that applies to each of her outputs, and we must recognise the consistent quality that is everything she's ever done. Meanwhile, <em>Midnights</em> is (dare I say it?) overrated as fuck, so I had to use this platform to release my tension. Thank you for allowing me this safe space.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 41. Real Lies - Lad Ash" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Z5yB6EhcTIMg70Z8io1h6KijyUdTiYJtN6ZqcIS7l8qHHVhezG2kjikWbCkb53Ii2xyBbrd6F2TuXxdV0VW4HSL00lAk1hfeSW6mzd2oATQ7wU4qWzSvjYkLNLmJZC_Npt9_pFYdCGy15aMMpkJP_P36AxtkpFtuuJ7xlFG_CZH5GN5X4ktxNjG-/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Real-Lies---Lad-Ash.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>41. Real Lies - Lad Ash</h3>
<i>Downtempo Deep House<br />
22 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2UOJiguEycRRWLZj6O4bRc?si=zenXMW4oTcGr_-b3r9affg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Talk about nostalgia-pandering. The early 90s British club scene runs so strong through this album that the ecstasy crystals snapped off my spine, initiating a waft of chemical euphoria followed by a vulnerable sadness of days long gone. Still, a little flashback is what we need sometimes, and Real Lies revives this ambient house style with such competence that I remembered this record before it was made. It deserves this spot because there is nothing else on the list like it.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; " target="_blank"><img alt="Janthopoyism: Your New Religion" border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk13AKniawRG_8ifdslrTs4w_SwqLOjpm3FO_xCFyR8Z9Ak3DZM_AEkqjhNqfDU9-3_u5v1X9w26fNvWertwbNv-98HSK0m2C857EFVJI42pzTEnEscK4EmW4mwKw1ZzZLoNhO7-5Ty__FOmUtRXW5CwmRZq_hJf8f5IGIOOkYpcRd3t1hgS92aT85/s1600/Jantho-blogger-ad.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 40. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwzd45LgqKhvG848UfyNH89DiVmSd2xPwagW4B0mi4N0AeeC5iYkJ-CVQo1IJE-qwlhuS5570MvqAjCVkzJNgeTTXC7NBZjwmNduZquE_9KFQG0RH5ka0-W-FmpbdIfLWR_og8xtw46jlPjSLtEi9IpwZRk9ivtwdruavmbsWMtkEaAJdkfWkHhz5f/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Aldous-Harding---Warm-Chris.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>40. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris</h3>
<i>Contemporary Chamber Folk Pop<br />
25 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/56rWsCsd2UF9l1XTpUfZ1v?si=nIvcfaTyQmGsaNlT57qk6A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Just doing my part to amplify an overlooked and underrated gem in Aldous Harding’s catalogue. As per always, her bouncy mood is subdued beneath her minimalist hush, calming the world into a frictionless journey which is still super weird when you inspect it up close. Here is easily the soundtrack to your favourite days.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 39. DITZ - The Great Regression" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8MOG8GiF6g_3k_87fTky5qHBUcO2NaWyBMfSsJlVtNvQiTXeEMpB0I6nI8qUvQTJpbt4dyv7v6Z1nxTaacYPFI8FqK64-bTL3AOVVUEgqp9laDHfNGmMnDdyNZO3yTi6qYf4P27C9oFeePEQkcuxwEFsGRsHtSSuTgYtoU5iueJT-5bunBK5oh2Hi/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_DITZ---The-Great-Regression.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>39. DITZ - The Great Regression</h3>
<i>Post-Punk Noise Rock<br />
4 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7CHysqi9XojKnr2DpqfHG1?si=1wpthfFgTTGHtcTQxmcx6g" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Considering Post-Punky Noise Rock is a saturated scene drowning in their own choices, it's a relief when a band cannonballs the party, still thirsty for a taste. DITZ does that by slightly skewing the raw genre standards then flaring them up with production tricks and despondent observations, keeping <em>The Great Regression</em>'s ambitions afloat for its duration. And there is something too cool about it. Something that suits my dark tastes exactly, slurp that shit right up, yum yum yum.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 38. Palm - Nicks and Grazes" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3mld3a9hXqMRN_ybnEZU8_1_q4kn8WzR17HqBA-NtU-psrI1wj-gFv-2uPx1DXSlJ-m4vlJYdLamt9KlXjclC9tzF1D4OBzqjiIoBDKUpVyEYaencYNckOWQ0LA9KgulEd9quO4vHeKvQfNm8HxwJrMY3Xq26f1GMWwGa79Mvco-e1GN9LjJAQso/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Palm---Nicks-and-Grazes.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>38. Palm - Nicks and Grazes</h3>
<i>Experimental Neo-Psychedelia Math Pop Rock<br />
14 October 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5B7LF61Ey37x7ET7Vnc2pA?si=RNDYWCWPQASmMzfRHdeQXA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Palm are a premium example of a band locating the ever-elusive balance between talent and a complete meltdown. Like an island holiday on very clean acid, it's wonky pop of the most engaging order, dolloping a generous share of calculated chaos upon a detailed delivery of precise mess. If it helps, think Animal Collective, except remember that Animal Collective also released an album this year—a good one at that! But it's not <i>this</i> good. And that is why I propose we start referring to <em>Nicks and Grazes</em> as the benchmark for all Neo-Psychedelia moving forward.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 37. Scarcity - Aveilut" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeaX1WftG4UwGQIbYeqDPGK4rfSO0kxElgDffLJhJJy8RbgvyrXvWhaLwxyrsqU_nznj5xxT1AdbSE9GNLk_z9Itn8vxa_ONxVulvKK8D3bLWOq9cdLBmO6Yr5PI7rzYOpTcXy58VK4xudVLYbnDfuaSj3dJu8VG6R18IpErTU_SepAhmv5QDoQRhL/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Scarcity---Aveilut.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>37. Scarcity - Aveilut</h3>
<i>Atmospheric Avant-Garde Black Metal<br />
15 July 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5O3nu34y1TtjTej3SYbQCG?si=qCBtDI9FSkGMhWCdnfgR-w " target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
What feels akin to a 45-minute album of pure build-up, this dense fog of death never stops growing, a constant expansion of repetitive drone until it climaxes into a full brutal murder. Your murder! Metal itself has had a less-than-inspiring year from my standpoint, but as long as bands like Scarcity hold the fort, we shall march forward victorious!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 36. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Bewitched!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhlwkSuBjFw_Y5J8qZfzN3uLLwANOOyh4TiPnmrs8dITsoXzQHxIxwzqdDLE1KOdYtTpuHoz6MJEJ842ri6l5HI3Yy9fL3RShZMPmSA-bOOBpp6QbwV1aKRiYKPf7TXn69Xcz8sQ30usYq9waHS4pavtkvvaaAfBQFUMN7zEifhsMM7FsAXzSrby0H/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_DJ-Sabrina-the-Teenage-DJ---Bewitched!-.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>36. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Bewitched!</h3>
<i>House<br />
30 August 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0iucK9wUrmrQfS3B0kccTl?si=IlWv-tWNRnqpYmUSgmMJHw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
If you're struggling with those dopamine flows, slap on DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ and get on with your life. It's guaranteed to uplift your euphoria with joyously mashed (surprisingly sugar-free) vocal samples, summoning those same vibes you might experience when driving on the way to the party. In fact, my only complaint about <em>Bewitched!</em> is that it's too freaking long! One and a half hours with 8-10 minute songs is a ballsy move and a lot to ask for, especially in the House genre, which can famously overstay its welcome. Whether that happens or not will depend on personal taste, but from my perspective, it's impressive how annoying it <i>should</i> be, but isn't. We're here, aren't we?
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 35. Perfume Genius - Ugly Season" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhimv1_g6CLtLu3EirWBhPa9R3l6Dn0g1a2Hv3vse83Sx164JacLTjAESqj7YLpiahETNqFiVHHttWiEaDr0gjUQroFmeLKl0AknTFx3iRZhqXr0FMEHAZZu1Ax2i2hLTtDHZUOGC7znOzf2axeZiWVkppgO4iPw5zHRUelXf9AKIJwri1FgmF6uTQi/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Perfume-Genius---Ugly-Season.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>35. Perfume Genius - Ugly Season</h3>
<i>Experimental Modern Classical Art Pop<br />
17 June 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6rFFWK98d8hhdSYgaOxI5L?si=aDe-P46xTi6GKed-Cf5RTw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Talk about a grower, <em>Ugly Season</em> is not the Perfume Genius you remember. Gone are his characteristic instant stick quirks and excitingly eccentric pop madness, replaced by a sombre ambience and abstract classical motions. It's a risky departure, one you're not going to be immediately comfortable with, but Perfume Genius has done his time and has earned however many listens it takes to understand his artistic decisions. And when it clicks, it's a wandering wonderment of sensual abundance, a <i>True Artist Album</i> comparable to an epic drama Oscar bait film. It's probably a drag to sit through live, though.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 34. Marina Herlop - Pripyat" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNR3FdkpM2v40dq2acm824yp-9lRlo5Qr5dA0CXql1u6stmIHCI0p4sDS-RvAR2W5sl7MAyatxtaa0J33hzbExy59KvfuCJQJ1xzBWqsiKtXdc6EdLVX_ER71U2anNmXY594CcOABpPNz-oHYqC-nkW3J_rZ5StBgO840fk78VOk8hDj1jBAfMOzn/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Marina-Herlop---Pripyat-.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>34. Marina Herlop - Pripyat</h3>
<i>Avant-Glitch Pop Folk<br />
20 May 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0jwNPISM1nMtFfBqJvPnHE?si=_lYRw7BMQSyVynHEFvFFrw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Do you see that album cover? That's precisely what this record sounds like. Are you wondering how that is possible? Because I am wondering how that is possible. Maybe because the vocals are organic like a snail, but then the electronics have completely mutated the nature of the thing, and now it's all fucked? Or maybe because there is something so fresh about this modern take of folky-tronica, and the slime from snails is fresh too? But it's also perked and plucky, giving me the jitters even if it's kinda cute, which is my feelings about snails exactly. I have no idea what I'm saying anymore, so I'll fall back into the lazy reviewer technique. FOR FANS OF: Holly Herndon, Aurora, Fever Ray, and (most notably) Björk's work with Arca.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 33. Lizzy McAlpine - Five Seconds Flat" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1iDiIAf1KzW8k-LCx-6YQq080FjQOxqBM-Z19jkliig7JFXUV_hYmQv82Id2SbmOORASSoh2OiSX741ovV3LZVEGsPnQRd2HVYvxjAWZicir5Uv-gr5apMSxqNavSZdI4k2yybGv5eqCsfOQoPLvmfcBtg0G9Jp89F6rm0NTfK9PgU4d3bFAh7RpQ/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Lizzy-McAlpine---Five-Seconds-Flat.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>33. Lizzy McAlpine - Five Seconds Flat</h3>
<i>Indie Folk Pop<br />
8 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/68L5xVV9wydotfDXEik7eD?si=7D525_KQRzmbJzUDSmLc0A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Heartbreak art will perpetually stand as the most untouchable inspirational tool because it’s a pain so profound that the words falling from your mouth will not be ones you can uncover otherwise. Lizzy has felt love and heartbreak. She understands it’s not all screams and drama. It’s often an undercurrent of misery, a softness of yearning, an almost warmth in the melancholy that you are afraid to leave. If you know, you know. Once you’ve been there, you’ve always been there, and it takes but a slight nudge to recall the absolute devastation you endured. It fucks me up, and now I’m sad again.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 32. Pan Daijing - Tissues" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6hfyrHcRYeTAIH_90ILANQkTmMgs9vQapHOp3Y0LAnHA5QRPI9qch3S0Wm5Kkl63cC7dNQpD614NgrVKX9mUCO282AfUCob01tUrMOUazyLpy04yvpDOyUFD0E5n73dWXytSY4EEuZcHS2UrtV4g0hj90HPqa7jLmuiMPPaGhw08nYlEd6fgun7p/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Pan-Daijing---Tissues-.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>32. Pan Daijing - Tissues</h3>
<i>Experimental Post-Industrial Opera<br />
21 January 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2AgYzS3FeYcOkR2yady4hQ?si=HYrJsz8VRwmkK-sF7rNMjA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Every year needs records that are so original that the necessity of their recognition amplifies. When no one is in your league, there are no competing adversaries, and you flatten the land by default. <em>Tissues</em> is my proposal for 2022's weirdo, taking the traditional opera genre and then modernising it using techniques usually found in horror films. It's creepy yet pleasant in its unpleasantries, and despite its repetitiveness and lack of high energy, it is never dull as it entices us to follow the sound into the darkness. An hour-long single song is a complex request in today's ADHD world, but once you surrender to Pan Daijing's unorthodox ambience, you'll realise there could be no other way.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 31. Melody's Echo Chamber - Emotional Eternal" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirGFXjjqH2H2YG7-QpfJGaPAXLNmMTQbcRh4e1sH17fDsQoJSwOv-bCdW7CdJwxybNSUQjZ4zr-Ypg_PFqmV2oH1g5mBUVUPlsrBg0OYFLFcKR91qLJWnAh5uQYR_bLCfWbwaY4znhT65KsgIFiJWJzIX7_Dv5u7_dH-jzPhZg7RQFHYEjqXbc9gBi/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Melody%27s-Echo-Chamber---Emotional-Eternal-.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>31. Melody's Echo Chamber - Emotional Eternal</h3>
<i>Neo-Psychedelia Dream Pop<br />
29 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0GXQpIFaT0uAi4y59t4nKg?si=8Mtrc7PJSbWrIjtMMiTxOA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Gorgeously written pop songs aside, it's the hushed vocals of Melody Prochet that pushes this record beyond your standard dreamy psychedelia affair. Her whispered deliveries flow through the boppy compositions like a breeze, bringing a peacefulness without sacrificing any of her classy Frenchie style, which is an artistic execution so many get wrong. Moreover, my memory adores this album, constantly bugging me to put it on as if I don't already have a schedule. Fine, here you go, brain!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 30. Yeule - Glitch Princess" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJUr1dSuEyyupK83W0X36UIMlJP1fujkRVNTFime4zn_WkKY9YEHgiklwkxU0mwfnrSDd69ZPChVGwEFCqMzWRnBhRtgpzOJ1KhO-rUCC5r_wSDPbyCQtCY6SIYMHrWBrsKSwGy2vuzRc0XsT0pi7OVh7QV564woP4Oe5xmKM_BKxMOgN0JHKcQqdg/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Yeule---Glitch-Princess.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>30. Yeule - Glitch Princess</h3>
<i>Glitch Art Pop<br />
4 February 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6jBRjtrgSlOvQvrSdtQa8Q?si=sEdfMImEQhuVQoxYjEoJgA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Always a thrill when someone who is candidly mentally damaged turns their disorders into ambient pop music! So much self-loathing and existential anxiety repackaged as a cutsie gift from the future is something I can't precisely define but can never forget, like a leap from a tall building onto a soft pillow filled with knives. It’s 100% where I’m at in my life. But I refuse to listen to that 4h44m closing track, sorry.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 29. Madison Cunningham - Revealer" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyi6WXWBrcbWIxSZ5teP5uftpG2cK7UFQH7RdQ8oMyR-tbP1c-lIvN8BBS048TqKcJR0GJu0lZU2uJ9ZJFjGNjiL2Q0QE3-LWY08hAOIvQ4uODaxVXTcFHkeXUeB5z0adrdT-Po4QYhpWE1GMBGkYepFI6TtOHJNtFjr3-zofqIgMDSk7AGJfqZ1-l/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Madison-Cunningham---Revealer.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>29. Madison Cunningham - Revealer</h3>
<i>Indie Art Rock<br />
9 September 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3flejyQLaN7EolO3Vmg31D?si=tKYr_dD8Q_mrzZBs-p1avw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Swiped right on Art Rock, and Madison Cunningham was the perfect match. Track after track, she flexes a superior understanding of the songwriting craft, simplifying the meal by shedding the need for garnishing and, instead, adding just a pinch of tasteful melancholy, letting the talent keep it warm. Nice to be so good at what you do, eh? As for me, I felt obliged to do my part to encourage more people to hear this otherwise ignored record, so here that is.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 28. Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH7YtRXFKz8wUO8XW4zEp9LQvjlJ3oRkijY7IdJMXj_7CsWWAlJLg9Fxj_uOlkddC-rTSBXVbojM0jOtGDDjVlZvWhCeKypC6P7R3_5LZrkPm5Ab5D0uqYbtskl_vdCo09f6sgJm2pGecW8iSSjBSzwGqwA9gjIrcn1vXZFbYt95sp9x65hBbxFhOx/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Dry-Cleaning---Stumpwork.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>28. Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork</h3>
<i>Post-Punk Indie Rock<br />
21 October 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/64OXKq9VK1geZd3Q9OpoBO?si=6Wj9k0KmT4S32JjNHAkEEw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Dry Cleaning are so unique yet so specifically one-trick that I figured the joke was accomplished with their debut, and anything else would be a sad devolution of surprise-less futility. But if there were any concerns, Dry Cleaning were the last to notice, strolling through the impossible follow-up while doing the exact same thing as they did before, proving that there is still a gaping hole for jangly guitar work and a lady rambling absurdities to herself in deadpan monotone. Is she a crazy person? Or perhaps a poetic genius? Either way, Florence is the real deal, and I want to know her personally. I love them for every reason, and I cannot fault a move they've made (if they've even made a move whatsoever).
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 27. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEbMlScBDa94tkfPyE-o2g0sLzRutPNrlzUWohqtoMhd5x24IxOxV0dmUm0GjDjQ8x2ov5y_7t6EUCF6FJor0RwOs4v2YdfAsC13wfrcyb_Mra7thP6Ibddwv0p_YJiYge6LuGiekVbQv-kA2uFzwxxEbGETJoYRkjjEE8LmIo8KekXBuWyWNk0MhI/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Weyes-Blood---And-in-the-Darkness,-Hearts-Aglow.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>27. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow</h3>
<i>Baroque Pop<br />
18 November 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1hngVRZt95TrqPqXoJzQ4A?si=qWcfa-aoRMuEqapInquufQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Weyes Blood's 2019's offering, <em>Titanic Rising</em>, was an utter masterpiece, a genuine instant classic, remaining one of the most outstanding records released in my lifetime. So, for those with a similar superior pallet, I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that this album is <em>Titanic Rising</em> the sequel: <em>Titanic Rises Again</em>. Which was what we wanted, right? Why mess with perfection? Hence the identical adjectives apply. Glowing. Ethereal. Pure magic. But don't forget the bad news. It's that with such a faithful continuation, a certain degree of familiarity dampens the <em>Titanic</em> WOW factor, still unimaginably beautiful, but not the same plummet into aquatic dreamland we once felt. To be blunt, it doesn't floor me, and it almost bores me. But it's nevertheless incredible! Better than anyone else in her vein! And I'm embarrassingly aware that I stand alone here!!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 26. Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcunIGedp7uyAB4q-KpWMQskEhp8fyQ6HJohNCj6weRWgDGlW8GPzIF8LP0yXFDBewxcgpkQItSTV3FpnGlrJDjPVQDNlQ5h7l-s3sHlQQgGW6DcfFQhP3YwBWh3vMDpKGzttMhYlu69zW0XHZIV5-ZScx6lEGCIGEYL3_exCFpHqapBlfCirp5lhJ/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Danger-Mouse-&-Black-Thought---Cheat-Codes.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>26. Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes</h3>
<i>Conscious East Coast Hip Hop<br />
12 August 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0rEbmIQjHTKzKraH4UqiDy?si=DSpbML3VRSuM_ppFcajlc" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
All the love to The Roots' Black Thought, but Danger Mouse's production outshines the project. Like a carpenter, he calculates his every stroke to cleanly carve out flawless creations that are never dependent on luck, just a perfect craft presented time and time again. And if you build something this shiny and then stamp it with these two names, the people will come. And who came is a feat unto itself, the guestlist including the biggest of the big, such as Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, Michael Kiwanuka, A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, and even another posthumous contribution from the eternal MF DOOM. When we talk of expert hip hop, here it is. And the Gods of Rap know that 2022 was desperate for it.<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://linktr.ee/legotrip" target="_blank" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoD31KG6RIEY28NWE8F13MrJ8bgIHQy6q7xM_e79R0Fh_Se7RUx1dImwCIHa_PQ2wVigVz-GdLbpNBQImlqrzinllfDD83Nlfh6tX0KOc4LxCKXoeOPvUuKt-FEt_6rnMdk-Jj8SQKKR0WgfwXwFQhrHUpRWdbcnvaymNghQvA8v5OEPUli75mlKla/s1600/blog-ad.png" style="width:100%" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 25. FKA Twigs - Caprisongs" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55CVOGaaOIRrlT7WmyuA7XEWcVAlGnk-SwVtUIHi_9ZlYdPKbiboqlaDVpGct8Q9BRLNRbQvOR1eXctV4CftnZQ4XW96JzK1q77ek0lGZ9d_uTEb8x-N7SjnVp1ZDp7aI5d6OVrykB1Ceivr1cjI4Ylx5mWmUSvkpYUNRfAJ2yg-X5oj2tlFxPKNs/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_FKA-Twigs---Caprisongs.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>25. FKA Twigs - Caprisongs</h3>
<i>Alternative R&B<br />
14 January 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5IubZbuFhSwJyCJrdRFgkJ?si=b1PwTmLwTVe3HKeDncgw6Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
FKA Twigs has a knack for impressing me, confirmed when her first two albums sliced into my top 50s with this mixtape effortlessly completing a threebie straight run. But this is not to say her releases are repeats or even comparable! As each are only similar in their high-shelf quality and FKA’s pedantic attention to detail. With <em>Caprisongs</em>, we hear an artist normalising her approach with less desperation to stand out as something strange, instead confident to click into a more established R&B groove—and it suits her perfectly. Admittedly, the overall theme of relationship reflections does tire my cringe, but it serves a functional purpose: to tie together an otherwise positive self-celebration that still goes out of its way to ensure everyone at the party is having a good time. And I am! Cheers for the invite into your personal thoughts FKA. It’s the deepest we’ve met yet!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 24. Billy Woods - Aethiopes" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3CWf13loHOb09XzWGnIsrtPhpK0QND2_j3OaNktpGQu1O6UYeL26olMSa3f8WYPnQAp02u8p5J_4_IxI0GfMhNoS3Y0rutkUOqKuWXZk0fFPhfpAMwnS-ENyOFNSIxGufcKR2RDPDAWC7EdS_YL_1zOTzZKmehltGyiTK8cNpnxhSU0cYfbCu4-e/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Billy-Woods---Aethiopes.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>24. Billy Woods - Aethiopes</h3>
<i>Experimental Abstract East Coast Hip Hop<br />
8 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/34uTUAM6SE8Eo6Cv4PRqwD?si=jW81kpx5QK2RB5IfXK0YSA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Here comes my annual hipster moment, but I was (probably) pumping Billy Woods before you. It was ten years ago in 2012 when I placed his record <em>History Will Absolve Me</em> on that Top 50, and I've followed him with a microscope ever since. There have been plenty of highlights along the way, but <em>Aethiopes</em> feels like the perfect crash course for everything that makes Billy so unique. It's partially his signature laidback rhymes that impress the masses. It's also partially his choice of simplistic jazzy music that meanders across melodies rather than relying on punchy beats. But more than that, it's about his artistic integrity. Flashy pop production or scoring a hit song with an R&B hook means nothing to this guy! His love is a dedication to hip hop so old school that it's dusty, and I'm getting old now myself, which is why I hold this offering close to my heart as I yell to the sky, <i>"modern hip hop sounds so uninspired!"</i>.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 23. Rosalía - Motomami" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwm2WKploXjk6WKhbslgDPep2jBEivXIDZEgNZIkgBAbQ9eQYFzY7Li-dKYwrUs33C86QnNbSKBbqwFsAp8xfaYQ-8DICUWZbObZN0m8kVUxxdKHCjf5qazZLFyxajwZ6hcJkQ7NUZGYeZiliIRVO5xbykaFZWzKKA_e1W4XU-lm6qjon5NBaUaklL/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Rosali%CC%81a---Motomami.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>23. Rosalía - Motomami</h3>
<i>Neoperreo Art Pop<br />
18 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6jbtHi5R0jMXoliU2OS0lo?si=FmYeYcQ5QHm7zuKVOuxHHw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Rosalía exploded across the globe with 2018's <em>El Mal Querer</em>, easily one of the best releases from the entire previous decade. Such an achievement surely summoned the pressure to beat the unbeatable, and it was a thrill to watch how Rosalía expertly tackled the challenge: by confidently spreading her wings into wider styles, switching up her flavour, and hitting the party way harder than before. In doing so, she successfully stared all expectations down and presented herself as a star with her eyes on further ground to conquer. And while I'm doubtful there will be many who place this record above the epicness of her forenamed work, I can't imagine too much disappointment with such a powerful feminine celebration either, particularly when it's this fucking exciting.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 22. 稲葉曇 [inabakumori] - ウェザーステーション (Weather Station)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oNYJsK0VFF70phBxNcYuluTtWVFgQFNLr3-WunMNzOQHzciwltIz6whDaaZSPEonneQbtpqxq6tbxIuPRGfHqYDvvZW7zqwMX0EG94VkwPaq_pIUYMZPLymBiyVBQ47X98hgHGULd79A-y7EuJUjCkK4itlpAZxIcijxe-46KDAtKuKWRBoduAzk/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_inabakumori-Weather-Station.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>22. 稲葉曇 [inabakumori] - ウェザーステーション (Weather Station)</h3>
<i>J-Pop Rock<br />
23 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6jg2tl87TSzWMU6SXYUwsd?si=AtmdmrwtSSqNKc_evJrRPA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
One horrid thing that developed in 2022 was my fear of robots dominating human creativity. The deep fakes and AI-generated imagery challenge our visual imaginations, but these practices have also extended into the audio world for some time. For example, Vocaloid synthesisers have transformed text into singing voices since 2004, allowing grown men to pretend to be little girls without leaving their rooms. Creepy! And cute! Incidentally, creepy and cute is the perfect vibe for J-pop, and Inabakumori exploits this to the max. Because what J-whatever does better than any western genre is hiding weird subtleties in their production, and <em>Weather Station</em> has an endless number of tricks just like that. Meanwhile, what J-whatever does <i>worse</i> than any other genre is not being annoying, but Weather Station is hardly annoying at all! In fact, this is potentially the best record in the J-pop vein for over a decade, even if I see the beginning of the end within its programming.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 21. Wet Leg - Wet Leg" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZpWRD-7qtLcmyE2Z0OdGuVLi-7kFxzZ9K8aPiQQ9tReU6l5x1bilKlSvx6vMJNqwKMe5PVBlt99BG8R9E73mdGR6jVmQdP0prbj_2R2l4o0_3fie1Vh7tjMvUZt981pSl3vJU7U2Fut_rbzKJDqeDx4VmeSFe69UQAVq_HYthLyLhzYSLycT1l7v/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Wet-Leg---Wet-Leg.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>21. Wet Leg - Wet Leg</h3>
<i>Indie Rock<br />
8 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0r9awI5WRCZpwk0aVQ4bKO?si=hv94WUcARoSdpO_EABoXyA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The tsunami hype preceding this band was so daunting that I was willing to bet money their debut would be a single-driven affair toppled by filler. But in some rare twist of promotional prophecy, this bouncy album is a solid ride that is very difficult to hate, thanks to instant sticks for first-timers and growers for repeated visitations. What's more, it indicates there's still space on the market for simplistic indie catchiness as long as the sexualised lyrical content can keep mustering those little chuckles. The name Wet Leg is too funny.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 20. Jenny Hval - Classic Objects" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5hx_GEIxz0akfvL531d4HebyZPH-5YeZpOm5wneog8I4tgwV7SrB5_l4y2zlDovmjuMRH1EnU3G3e-cnsJER2ZGVOTBxvRBN8dgz_k-DBTnHw1XLSgc9hmbdZqJwenEA_i0GeYH1uqb3pEuM5RHhySvXI57XQIuNiz_WBrGY-ZcjEiGhUX632bM_/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Jenny-Hval---Classic-Objects.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>20. Jenny Hval - Classic Objects</h3>
<i>Ambient Art Pop<br />
11 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/71T5vyKWwbd4oUPfDpyNwb?si=SDm0cK0_Qlm7xURCNZS9BQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I'm sure I’ve written this identical review before, but here I go again: Jenny is the best. Her track record is impeccable, but what she excels at above pretty much anyone in history is transitioning from an experimental avant-garde artist into a more sophisticated pop master without accusations of commercialising. And that’s because it suits her so well that it almost appears as if a calculation from the very beginning. First, dominate the awkward underground weirdo scene but then gradually edge your way to ethereal radio-friendly sounds, taking the fans with you while sneakily grabbing extras along the way. This seamless evolution is so natural to her that nobody feels betrayed, most likely because the output preserves her flawless reputation. And the rhythmic tranquillity of <em>Classic Objects</em> is one of her crowning moments, which says A LOT. Like, A LOT A LOT.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 19. Gilla Band - Most Normal" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf8TadERe_S0kDscojF8gXmNL-BYwxjzJ1zdVxviumlkgjCgL-EGxK3qvVOUErFPaSi48QRXLlDqG5s35E5ZE-fvbfe7iZLYOod8vUYjUZULDCD5DqrZWOz0L27OdlvAhGXZH7XDxrEVS5gGnYREDWtsw2MOjXjs0q762PNDQ2DKZBHa1-UMfYdrvh/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Gilla-Band---Most-Normal.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>19. Gilla Band - Most Normal</h3>
<i>Experimental Industrial No Wave Noise Rock<br />
7 October 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3UcqK7oJ4UiScKZD8IQsk0?si=WLz-AzPKRFCl1lRPANCoRQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Girl Band changed to Gilla Band in 2021 as they considered it a <i>"misgendered name"</i> that could have been <i>"propagating a culture of non-inclusivity"</i>. Of course, the anti-woke clan hate that type of leftie stuff, but don't misinterpret the shift as the group going soft. Because they've punched the chaos way the fuck up! Indeed, <em>Most Normal</em> is anything but "normal", and is instead a rather noisy affair. So much noise! But not unnecessary noise. Noise directed somewhere, like an unstoppable runaway train or a stick fashioned into a weapon boasting a small dab of demented poison on the tip. It's their third and best record, which is hardly ever the case and an exciting premise for future things.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 18. Mitski - Laurel Hell" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdv3KiS6lp1UuiaFiOON7_mGAG-M90SmxPCnIGF0SaAggkby8lzCkZWRM2mBpaG9QunKDRDGx5qHUtElQrqO8faM4gXN3FybuaJKDgAJ1t0W6htG83hUma1TlSjJFq5inHIOuvhE9to3uCa3unN3TEIHT0YQfQAaJpm0bwTuhS7eWn7bu2vQjf5FZB/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Mitski---Laurel-Hell.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>18. Mitski - Laurel Hell</h3>
<i>New Wave Art Synthpop<br />
4 February 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4rcinMUHEWOxpIwJo2sf22?si=9Jxpf2NfSdKur0WZMyF99w" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Give me Mitski or give me death! Confession time: while I was never shy to shower the lady with accolades (her previous two records hit my <i>and everyone's</i> top 50s), it was only in 2022 that some mental wall shattered, and I intensely connected with the genius that she is. I clicked that her work is not about what you <i>hear</i>, but what you <i>aren't</i> hearing, as if she's framing something beneath our ears that we do not have the deeper perception to grasp. It's a subtle art that explodes silently within hidden reservations, and I can solely compare it to that feeling just as you are on the brink of crying but haven't burst yet and never quite get there. It takes a lot of confidence as a songwriter to pummel the audience without using bright flashes or dramatic punches, so if the general public sadly misunderstands <em>Laurel Hell</em>, that's their problem. I think it's as good as anything she's done. She was officially my favourite artist of the year (thanks, <em>Spotify Wrapped</em>), and I am embarrassed it took me so long.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 17. Kilo Kish - American Gurl" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCD-ovBiTA9_S4t12F0fyxf1Z5hgqG_1aQGxLLXSCS5r8SDxx6R-kfAksEpQvgKJ4MaNwiYQcgr7_IkWh6eOI7N_ffN5JJ13Dbbg1fsYoL3FAWiMNm6VvaVMT_qX8nUPKGppjXyH-BIWaeoaSFCfDfnkJ4JNcHG2F07dmm0cK3laUf3fNdyXH-UsGL/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Kilo-Kish---American-Gurl.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>17. Kilo Kish - American Gurl</h3>
<i>Electropop<br />
25 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5LXmSrGzPSEmTEu3OIsotT?si=i4G240U9QgKpDUBhh2FTgQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Based on the cover, the title, the labelled genre, and the opening tracks, you’d be forgiven for assuming you’ve worked <em>American Gurl</em> out within minutes. So you zone out, and when you wake up, you wonder if you’re even listening to the same album. Without falling into the messy trap of hybrid incohesiveness, Kilo Kish’s sophomore uses gradual stylistic shifts to introduce darker and quirkier elements that are far from where we started yet not jarring enough for us to remember quite when we changed rails. Furthermore, it’s a concept record about American consumerism, just in case her ambitious intellect wasn’t clear already.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 16. The Callous Daoboys - Celebrity Therapist" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO7oMZPIcU1IZcEBF50GlKAj8Ta9uWrEqsKbQgGGKKsF6HUzbpY-_XuREHKXmE9tA84KS095vHznWyx7sdXkLyKlPYAV7yJXmR6VeBzmi4PlAynNyhMo9U7bCpve6iiBQZJ0U5ow7XywQrtE82AbR9s0MzrthhPmTnS1XvKSlKpYbrwHL6c15qovjs/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_The-Callous-Daoboys---Celebrity-Therapist.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>16. The Callous Daoboys - Celebrity Therapist</h3>
<i>Mathcore<br />
2 September 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3AXdvdFv3yoEyVD9UH2h1B?si=nPGO93KBTniGkFlxHaPNvQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I guess with Dillinger gone, this is the best we've got? And, tbh, maybe it's a good thing? Because <em>Celebrity Therapist</em> SLAPS all the smarty-pants metal criteria, with hilarious lyrical content and heavy-as-fuck technical music that explodes with inventive tricks, every moment a new sneak attack. But most importantly, it does not take itself seriously, even the emotional melodic parts regularly interrupted with an <i>HVHUqwrKF564agsYGKUsdgsbFYKUF</i>, proving they are simply hellbent on throwing absolutely fucking <i>everything</i> at this album. It's a very satisfactory experience, and for what it's trying to do, it is 100% spot on.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 15. Beabadoobee - Beatopia" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGD-HJbpEe3IgV3lRE3I1k474w_SH4nLcOjWB70wcpS1ueFsj5PsZTFr0ymuUv2N8Ltf89cNhqHYwhaQVfL9eS7IM6dnhsAsmfUBjbygXeyAXuT3NvZvpAGtXXm2yP6chiBKjF3Ofin5xn7grqa3DsXsu3jzOh4u7HBPrlREIgAq-wF-rP5FpiEAGu/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Beabadoobee---Beatopia.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>15. Beabadoobee - Beatopia</h3>
<i>Alternative Indie Pop Rock<br />
15 July 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2rhNQbqRNxiNQkDXTffe1V?si=IKB98GRVT3alq2y99gmkdA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The only thing better than Beabadoobee's debut is her sophomore. By maturing her skillset, she rose as 2022's Queen of Euphoric Pop for Sad People, playing with light aesthetics without escaping a tragically broken-hearted undertone. It's meeting us on our low level, then healing us with prods upwards, showing us how to be depressed and cute simultaneously. Yeah, but it's all fun and games until I trauma bond with her because now I am crushing soooo hard.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 14. The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigU7WBVs5NIAnB6Q_O9B_gzVvjHr-1OCczffy-V6jEJb-UeRs7fG4eigN7I2zj2_pkH72kxeclFJN3jovZ7gez9KbXbiiRwHAid9zT1jX8Bknhe4Wz5n31nOpjNpx1KeRO-SBZrrV6MhAMO0EAfp7xvaQ9opKA2giWBNcdJNDDqaclZbKAdW_emels/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_The-Smile---A-Light-for-Attracting-Attention.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>14. The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention</h3>
<i>Art Rock<br />
13 May 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/009EjjwUjtdjvH7UP0wHzi?si=ntlBMVl6QT2iLHwTALXL9" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Try and find a review for The Smile that doesn't mention Radiohead. Impossible. Let's count how many times I say Radiohead in this piece. Why? Because here are the most talented members of Radiohead doing what they do better than anyone, or perhaps even better than that? The freedom away from a name as pedantically clean and critically weighty as Radiohead wipes the playing field, allowing them to shed the artsy pressures and have fun in a messier, rockier groove. And this delightful relief leaks to the listener, where we have a Radiohead album that's not a Radiohead album yet fills the gaps that the general Radiohead album lays bare; such as a raw edginess that loosens the noose of indulgences. People label it <i>"the best record yet by a Radiohead side project</i>", which is undeniable but also unfair. Because when it's good, it's Radiohead good, and when it's not, it's The Smile good. Hence I wish it never existed. I shudder at what it means for Radiohead's future. But the fact that I just said Radiohead 11 times highlights that we are still focusing in the right direction.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 13. Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4tAqKEgoZycznjEG3tzwrWZx-ir0JQhox-N3Ku_XUN56p7CLyWmIqQ-3Tu7UmWio8x2Erw4B5iyL5tGKgqQkWoK_0xe10Utf31tV1yg95gvIIj4C70dJ6kzvKvojcok5Es6C3GJOPiUIeGX8IkbRTj3VgokX3IfwuCsGlhNoza9O_QoVgNEx4NXuO/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Ethel-Cain---Preacher%27s-Daughter.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>13. Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter</h3>
<i>Slowcore Dream Pop<br />
12 May 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3WmujGwOS0ANHkJRnMH6n8?si=CUmh73FVSQyemc9U2kquRQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
We're all for those lowkey vibes in our modern era, and <em>Preacher's Daughter</em> subtly destroys me. Ethel Cain cherrypicks styles from the most haunted of trees, plucking notes from every melancholic female-fronted project from the last decade then planting it as her own, her voice rising through the dark clearings between the gorgeously spacious production. An hour and 15 minutes of Slowcore could kill just about anyone, but each song pivots the album away from any front-loading, taking its time to warm up until it finally does, and it's so fucking cold. I have never felt such gratitude for a recording to be this long. I'd like her to go on forever, if possible.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 12. Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZb-eR68JgrDH9WbN-t4lptXkdxuxbC2bUW-X5vW61S95SXC_GY9M6nXalNdw3B4Dve7vNnDIacCfz6LYrVceNGj3rg2xcY60-40USvL9aG1mrCm4LdPRz65-CLgqtnZfIRPXyylCTdpuGg5aEk8bspx-MB8xDoArUbumKe5yPqqI3IBwRBet1ix9/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Soul-Glo---Diaspora-Problems.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>12. Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems</h3>
<i>Hardcore Punk<br />
25 March 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2ZYhM0LXHZ38te98EizcQW?si=P6GNViMwRWCJ_tkeIQ2cew" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Allow Soul Glo to illustrate how to write the best hardcore punk album the world has heard in years. First, you need to muster your highest energy and then charge with it, never losing any steam from beginning to end. Secondly, you must wear a whole load of fancy tricks on your sleeve, including completely altering your style, at times in the middle of the song, and at other times, shifting into rap verses which somehow works(???). And finally, keep shouting and keep it raw, but never ever take the fight seriously. Because when hardcore punk takes the fight seriously, it becomes a parody. Thankfully, Soul Glo are not a parody. Or maybe they are, but they're aware of it? Or maybe not. Either way, I love it, obviously.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 11. Just Mustard - Heart Under" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTSgWbb3hKm3EifS8F8dIvcJXKd8-XG1okuF_s7oCc3vvXmmdCcoDGPBH8ENgyir3MbxsgYPWIXBabiaF4yTgt4LLBVKEY9jTm1ImLOk7LSpS5UN8qI0RnYHWAzXKOLGZTMcmdz7Ll-zOrCS2pZ1OACh9fyl0uMDDRKXiGC2UOg7mdl3f2n7ZWr4e/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Just-Mustard---Heart-Under.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>11. Just Mustard - Heart Under</h3>
<i>Post-Punk Noise Rock Shoegaze<br />
27 May 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6zVROv27567N68Hu6EVbxb?si=d07cgX0WT32NdLei5MHfqA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Fuck yeah, Just Mustard! That industrial darkness with noisy lofi textures is exactly where post punk deserves to be today, but when Katie Ball's voice gently slices through those rhythms? Well, then we transcend into surreal realms of utter hypnoses. At the same time, it provokes mad anxiety in me, and I'm always relieved when it's over. Even that is a compliment.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 10. Björk - Fossora" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFi6mwlc3SR5EeR0KMQXRx4evOSJBi2AlCO2zmUxHQpGFLxacGaT3YNhRtKWHenpe8TsBxQtKVBS6TtZ1jtJPviD3pWOOcR1YulFWNVhZD6IIAvfGPpZHT9ujDAhrk3w0TyABRKP3YjEZZtcOn-9RzUW6yhf51UhzLZ_dJhq10DTn0XaeCaOHDb3Ey/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Bjork---Fossora.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>10. Björk - Fossora</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial Electronic Art Pop<br />
30 September 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0KVdzmHHGGE8STv19uYPiL?si=VmNAjiQfTkuZFf_WuFUMfw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Björk albums are an event. She's so authentic, it makes you realise how unauthentic everyone else is. A true artist, she's such a painstaking audio perfectionist that even her worser albums are better crafted than anything ever. Her flawless track record is owed wholly to her uncanny knack of capturing a cohesive vibe per release, never repeating herself and presenting each output like a creature with a distinct personality. Noting that, <em>Fossora</em> is perhaps her most direct evolution from previous offerings, deepening the dainty magical winds of 2017's <em>Utopia</em> whilst reintroducing certain loud electronics easiest found on 2011's <em>Biophilia</em>. I am ecstatic about this decision, for <em>Utopia</em> didn't quite land for me, and this do-over is a far more progressive exploration into that lush organic world she built before, now perfecting the dampness for her awkward spores to grow. As with any decent Björk project, you can't rush your understanding, but it's within this non-stickiness that it thrives, and no matter how many listens you offer, you can always hear there is some depth to go. To conclude, here is another one of her best records in a discography of at least six best records and zero bad ones. It's beyond comprehension that a four-plus decade career is still producing work this ahead of everyone, and y'all should be ashamed of yourselves.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 9. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYAfv7DLYp2WWnOOOyV3MNwG9dVnKlMqaqBth-CDW_WLt3pvgtqyIyo_1xa5czeZ_a_K2Qg9DGpGQl_YODgXzmIL_K0bCT6OaD0HjGCTi1vCok0efTvbcf4vgKK1d9UjwNWyINcjKUmefWWKx_qWmrWvMRa3Puzfk50JHYuCxuWlgIu2aWAErkj9v/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Kendrick-Lamar---Mr.-Morale-&-The-Big-Steppers.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>9. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers</h3>
<i>Conscious West Coast Hip Hop<br />
13 May 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/79ONNoS4M9tfIA1mYLBYVX?si=7tP1GaZYQXyPLibzgG-Dnw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
All hail the mighty Kendrick! Is there another modern artist who redefined and conquered their respective genre as quickly and as loudly as Lamar did? Boasting more classics under his belt than what's fair, it's a difficult matter when something new comes around, diving towards a bar nobody else has even touched yet, now burdened with an additional 70 million eyes upon him. I've written extensively about how <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2017/09/kendrick-lamars-damn-sucks.html" target="_blank"><em>DAMN.</em> was a tumble</a> for me, and I met great resistance in doing so, but I have acquired a fresh weapon: <em>Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers</em>. For while <em>DAMN.</em> shamelessly dabbled in commercial trap pops, <em>Mr. Morale</em> experiments with jazzy soul sophistications. And while <em>DAMN.</em> was a collection of well-defined compositions, <em>Mr. Morale</em> contains what makes Kendrick albums superior: an underlying cohesive essence tap-dancing through every song, suggesting ideas that extend beyond the album itself. Maybe it isn't quite the peak he reached with <em>m.A.A.d city</em> or <em>Butterfly</em>, hindered by a midsection bloat of erratic quality, but snip snip a few songs, and it'd be snap snapping at the masterpieces. Plus, where it falters, it rebalances as Kendrick's most introspective, vulnerable, and emotionally in-tune offering yet. He remains the king.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 8. Alvvays - Blue Rev" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlPzWWmv-i7ACXaQ727W-Uc3pq7rhDzvtPpfuwF_Xai1URopgeWTLAsbzOeVxyNuqHm_P7BzRDTViVb5ENEJ9L5Px4FylJiwhPsvgmimC4a7HzOZwegslg-uovZadvnVMt6LadYHhx2agwZR4OOgd4kClLvl_bci_xkFVEWy3JBDLA8rEbpnUAwC5/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Alvvays---Blue-Rev.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>8. Alvvays - Blue Rev</h3>
<i>Indie Shoegaze Noise Pop<br />
7 October 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5ifRlHZX33kTfE5kb1Cpf1?si=-W6oA9C9SASy7kQwcTIWqw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The shoegazy indie pop thing is so common that it can be tricky to get it right, let alone rise above the ocean. But Alvvays! Oh, Alvvays, with their jangle angle washed over with puppy love! They initiate the sweetest dream sequence, not only here on <em>Blue Rev</em>, but on. Every. Single. One. of their three albums. So much so, that it's challenging to determine which is their best? This one? I'm unsure, but I do know that when I'm swimming in their world, I can't think of anything nicer.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 7. Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLDU3HhBthVjdTwuTeBw2opURb0AyAPHeerUobv5TB01jPvl6FTiYTtzSfEIrTwg6OPGO4CxAq9kaM-10dQ9Nc0NZIp8Dpr9yahqo2NABux11gpy5xjFUJP0J2bsDpiLEkufvnntww9eysgNNXiAQXoK9FD8hte7SAaqsLEjCyeDbNoFT7BXjhBU7/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Jockstrap---I-Love-You-Jennifer-B.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>7. Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B</h3>
<i>Art Glitch Pop<br />
9 September 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4YFlC5Abaj48ERwaOPfpu8?si=g6vPnKISR4yGOPbiHF0ZjA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Jockstrap's eclectic amalgamation of pop glitchiness and folky principles combine so well that I am furious I didn't think of it first. From the opener to the closer, my attention is transfixed by a group who understands that modern retroness is not an oxymoron and instead is an opportunity to flex their creative chops while teetering over the edge of artsy indulgence, never falling in. And yes, just like the name Jockstrap suggests, there is a subtle element of self-aware humour here, yet the music is far more stylish and invigorating than anything that's touched my groin area in a long time.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 6. black midi - Hellfire" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqm3MRlTLGXPafQuz4YW95G4W-zg4O76HxWr_HZhj9-zDCNxlZJ1miVUBjF9GI6wX-q_uM739SnC6-CtsyaiIO9H6B1Fg34SYlafr7CZeU69sl81_RKJRTMoCmK9DSPUILvnOd3U7Vydd7wVWlsaBWo9SlylP-BW4UY5dlNhvSM9Nelp8Wmffp-vZ8/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_black-midi---Hellfire.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>6. black midi - Hellfire</h3>
<i>Brutal Avant-Prog<br />
15 July 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/68z6MWYYNmvTcru1QMcYId?si=cBkgr_oaQUSDAVJ4T3yfp" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
black midi are the what's-hot group of the decade gone. Three albums in, and their evolution only continues to elevate the insanity to manic decks of what-the-fuckery. Yet, despite their previous two records reaching my top 20 of respective years, this third shot might be remembered as their most outstanding achievement. So what is their seemingly foolproof method for success? It's easy to analyse but impossible to replicate. For you see, many bands try their hardest to sound crazy, but it feels like black midi are trying their best to suppress their lunacy, shoving it beneath jazzy traditions until it bursts upwards for a few brief moments at a time, then buried once again. It's funny! But also terrifying. Except the last ones who appear to realise this is black midi themselves. And that's how you describe a band who could alter the history books.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 5. Chat Pile - God's Country" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgjmVujWJrtB4yGcaksE9KR8duk33UJLzWWmB_a-a3_DStB3Q9OwYArrTwchQrj2PhBwuPJKG4AgPWY3uJleO38o55bQEn-kr9scPwQmQ4Ux3F8UIDd3LtHqnaKHWJt7do_8SMVOsaYHtFmmYXmQpG8ATZOa2vG5_kcRKpy0ZhZeNMzrPYk9mWaoW/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Chat-Pile---God%27s-Country.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>5. Chat Pile - God's Country</h3>
<i>Sludge Noise Rock Metal<br />
July 29, 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/38hr6lK2Up3QabqUEUEhKx?si=7uQzSfayRz27OmSQjJdnGA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When Daughters demolished the noise rock scene in 2018 with <em>You Won't Get What You Want</em>, bands have scrambled to rub fingers into its ash ever since. It's sad, really, watching so many fail to reach the impossible standard every time, but now... there's this. Chat Pile. <em>God's Country</em>. And suddenly, Daughters feel like a distant memory. The pure amount of suffocating nihilism and self-hatred force-fed into us from this record is highly concerning. Does vocalist Raygun Busch have any friends reading this article? Could you please check up on him? Regardless, the only reason why this isn't my Album of the Year is simply because I didn't want it to be.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 4. Beyoncé - Renaissance" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEuMdDNgaKn42HjYRB6Ptf_s3KYi5KlMj7dCkMGcMd5qT1PdVRyA3TO1MnVWUwity-14wXTEW4q_MIMB98bDga7f1EE0jH-5hjicaVCk6PJsdOD0bKLorLjzxPjd-0BD601z2Ixs-aTXW0GyKtyiCbGYRufp36_bSrC0ESJjOAN2MD0W8d21G3pbx6/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Beyonce---Renaissance.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>4. Beyoncé - Renaissance</h3>
<i>Contemporary R&B Dance-Pop House<br />
29 July 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6FJxoadUE4JNVwWHghBwnb?si=ZQCsP0kQSmW5k1h1FEgjow" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
What is left to say about Beyoncé at this point? I have a lot to say, actually. My worship is public knowledge. <a href="https://www.jaredwoodssavedmylife.com/250albums/" target="_blank">I wrote an entire book detailing the previous decade's top 250 records</a>, and her self-titled was Number Fucking One. Some of us just know. And if you've been paying attention to the landscape, you would have noticed more listeners are crossing over to our side. Even those who argued with us before. Even those from the darkest of contradictory genres. And now we have <em>Renaissance</em>, which is, oh my god. It's an album that the scholars should study for generations under the heading <i>"Exactly What Needs to Happen When Someone Has Artistic Integrity and an Infinite Budget"</i>. She's hired the right people and pushed them to work to an impossible criterion where not a turn is ordinary or predictable, where the clubby vibe is effortless yet meticulously spotless, and where the production is... the greatest production I've ever heard in my life. Lady is feeling herself, and so she should be. I cannot fault a second of it. I refuse to state this is her best release, but I will write this sentence and leave it at that.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 3. Hatchie - Giving the World Away" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjGJg95SePhscTNR2lFg6rGeqR5DM78yDrYwQV_eHJ1NEwBgIvLG4pXuMp-uPoH8bcSLxZR_EFdY2lFsufRD7REgq_OhrI6MkE7wlcuLUI_Rzi-oBLIWtOofvrr5u_6ld9ue6SYBn4Q88Tx4V3Uyaao0aws8rnrRMGBiV_gRg9meG-xbYe9JKwn6Q/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Hatchie---Giving-the-World-Away.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>3. Hatchie - Giving the World Away</h3>
<i>Alternative Baggy Dance Dream Pop<br />
22 April 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2TwATR1G07ckXIDydjPKsw?si=MoD0gYH1RDqVyjjoTaLEcA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I know what you're going to ask! Where does one turn if they crave the 90's pop of, say, All Saints, churned together with the ethereal dreaminess of, perhaps, Cocteau Twins? Ask no more, people! For Hatchie has gifted us a once-in-a-lifetime record that is an absolute instant classic to my ears. The nostalgia is in high-def thanks to <i>POW</i> modern production so deliciously saturated in gleeful atmospheres that it almost steals the show. But it's the songwriting that dislocates my jaw, not only never placing a foot wrong but also sidestepping all expectations, getting better each spin and building a fucking empire in my memory. There is no 2022 album I adore as highly as this release, and I have lost faith in everyone else who has neglected to speak the same. What's more, she's an Aussie. Oh, of course she is. Every impressive new artist is from Australia these days.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 2. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaQ6nbjY2MC6ZFbohh02q2y8T-KGGCf6nzJRnQaNwdtKd46JM2vVTQFNJD4eV-c2St5h0bOn0cDBhxlmauPkEiHfQHD7Z8XqpcBEpxPvXmZciaApZtSddWPxIehK_7KThsV_4Q5NfMancYD_0eTTOhQr3M8MFUkGSnZMQU2F-MSK6WU9QrvkK5cjlP/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_Black-Country,-New-Road---Ants-From-Up-There.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>2. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There</h3>
<i>Post-Art Rock Chamber Pop<br />
4 February 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/21xp7NdU1ajmO1CX0w2Egd?si=yl7XkzhaQgOYc0Q5AAbENA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Black Country, New Road's 2021 debut album, <em>For the First Time</em>, broke me as the coolest Slint since Slint, and it ground every other record into powder, effortlessly <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-top-50-albums-of-2021.html" target="_blank">perched at the top of that list</a>. Fast forward another 365 (minus one) days, and they stayed true to their promise by releasing their sophomore on the anniversary of that release. However, what should have been a celebration became a modern-day musical tragedy. Four days before <em>Ants from Up There</em> landed, lead vocalist/guitarist Isaac Wood quit due to mental health issues. Of course, I don't know what one has to go through to abandon a project that was soaring at a peak while escalating, but whatever the story, I took it personally. Isaac can't leave. He can't do this to me. Black Country, New Road were on the verge of godliness. They were the best band in the world for, like, one year, and now it's all ruined. Sure, the group is continuing, and as we noted earlier, violinist Georgia Ellery's Jockstrap is owning it, so there is hope for some legendary status to cement still. Perhaps the outfit will be remembered as a launching pad for many talents to grow into branches from this original trunk. But I doubt Black Country, New Road itself will reach its potential or regain what they captured on their two-piece discography. Not without Isaac. I guess we have what we have. And what we have is absolute perfection. Immaculate masterpieces. Two of the most instrumentally talented post-rock records ever produced. What I would assume to be the majority of publications' go-to choice for album of the year. But Isaac, why.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2022: 2. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmbhIliwxCIAjZuQaPkyGEKv799JTc3U2aEapHn3og7hj9Z0RGIl0BEuNcvxiTY6GP8FjtLg_AkxI0w5f_oVsw5-Fo_2qbUgGxH2mAZLag9Uq9vNDq-5EPHviFCO_Mt5RgJLNRCgRp3GjJ6778EXXyusL1w6L5iqNa9q8oXErzE2tRH4Nu5HT9UTfX/s1600/220Dec_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2022_death%27s-dynamic-shroud---darklife.png" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>1. death's dynamic shroud - Darklife</h3>
<i>Glitch Vapor Art Pop<br />
23 September 2022<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4FLvXR2NkxZDNCLgVJQ1Q8?si=EEX-3qAASqecZbXN8mwftg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Darklife could not exist before this moment, and it's even debatable what it's doing in our current age whatsoever. Here is what happens when you update the retro program so many times that you accidentally get sucked into the future, where even the human elements are synthesised to appear real. It is the aesthetic of excess; every song stretched to the limitation of what might reasonably qualify as pop, while each step of its production sounds deliberate as it is shined to perfection. Who knew the old thing could be a brand new thing? At least we know now, as these are the coolest songs I've ever heard in my life. It's a struggle to articulate something I hardly comprehend, but if I failed, hopefully this does a better job: it is my Album of the Year, 2022.
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<h3>Honourable Mentions</h3>
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You <i>(I even <a href="https://sharetext.me/ngpc39gdq4" target="_blank">roughed up a review</a> for this one)</i><br />
brakence - hypochondriac<br />
SZA - SOS<br />
Nas King's - Disease III<br />
Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores<br />
Alex G - God Save the Animals<br />
Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler - For All Our Days That Tear the Heart<br />
Dark Funeral - We Are the Apocalypse<br />
Aeviterne - The Ailing Facade<br />
Foxes - The Kick<br />
Silvana Estrada - Marchita<br /><br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-18948349817834303002022-12-07T05:19:00.002+00:002023-03-22T10:38:55.574+00:00I Read The Corpus Hermeticum So You Don't Have To (Hermeticism)<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img alt="I Read The Corpus Hermeticum So You Don't Have To (Hermeticism)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdskRbEMiUuLtLEQwq6XwjfvUoBz6OJjgnhOGneOHbrQwV1i2vCSGAV59pRlkNW-ti0hoBCnLoeIW0z2UIqZ5TWzW8OaF0rHJtsK-9P9l64o14h-sVdMaM7BojAGbHu1j6TKuAvUPdbe7DKH6OGbQBjDeU9NNLAo4BfnH1pW5JBLESR0cAcWE9F3Jt/s1600/I-Read-the-Corpus-Hermeticum.png" style="width: 624px;" /></span></div>
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<i><b>PLEASE NOTE:</b> This is not my first holy rodeo. Thus far, I have absorbed the teachings of <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2016/06/i-read-quran-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Quran</a> (Islam - 2016), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2017/03/i-read-satanic-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Satanic Bible</a> (LaVeyan Satanism - 2017), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2018/09/i-read-dianetics-scientology-book-one.html" target="_blank">Dianetics</a> (Scientology - 2018), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Bible</a> (Christianity - 2019), <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">The Book Of The Law</a> (Thelema - 2020), and the <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/03/i-read-tao-te-ching-taoism.html" target="_blank">Tao Te Ching</a> (Taoism - 2021).<br />
2022 is my seventh consecutive year of analysing a religious scripture. I chose the Corpus Hermeticum because I ran out of time to complete my Secret Doctrine (Theosophy) studies, and I leapt towards something shorter yet equally mystical. Hermeticism fit the criteria perfectly.
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If you enjoy your religio-philosophical systems to be led by an unforgettable legendary figure, then Hermeticism may be the most impressive teachings to fall into your palms. For our tale begins with <i>Hermes Trismegistus</i>, an entity whose hotly debated origins rival the finest legends ever told.<br /><br />
Some general agreement forms around the Ancient Egyptian god, Thoth. This abstract ibis-headed deity supervised many human practices, notably wisdom, writing, science, and magic. Meanwhile, the Ancient Greeks had Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), a once-mortal then-Olympian deity who (among numerous tasks) assisted communication between the gods and people. When the Greeks and Egyptians traded cultural ideas, the nations recognised these personalities as identical, and a merger occurred. Civilians effortlessly worshipped Thoth and Hermes as one, now recognised as the Thrice-Greatest Hermes Trismegistus, the "scribe of the gods", a spiritual aid who blessed his followers with esoteric knowledge from the divine.<br /><br />
Depending on who you speak to, the myth bleeds over every other spiritual timeline available. Certain scholars place Hermes as a contemporary of the Biblical Abraham or even a teacher of Moses. At the same time, Islamic and Baháʼí researchers equate him with the Quran's third prophet Idris. And as the ages have rolled onward, his texts have influenced every occult sect to date, most directly Thelema, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry, plus some fascinating Kabbalah offshoots. And even if none of this prods your memory sacks, you surely recognise Hermes' Caduceus logo of two snakes embracing a staff, aptly used as a symbol for commerce (Hermes was also the god of merchants) and later erroneously appropriated as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus_as_a_symbol_of_medicine" target="_blank">symbol for medicine</a>.<br /><br />
For me, the most exciting element of this myth is that Hermes left us with an extensive body of work, collectively referred to as the <em>Hermetica</em>. I mean, how often do you read a book that was supposedly written by an authentic deity? Never have I ever? Of course, there are naysayer explanations. There always is, and they have merit. You see, back in the day, when inspiration knocked, a writer may believe some supernatural source of wisdom was speaking through them, and they'd prefer to gift credit to those powers above. It's a decent theory, but the content is so visionary in its information yet convincingly coherent in execution that attributing the effort to an all-knowing being almost feels more logical. Almost.<br /><br />
Now, when assessing the Hermetica texts themselves, you'll find quite a large selection, recorded between the third century BCE and the third century CE. They deal with an array of topics but are commonly split into two categories.<br /><br />
The first is the "technical" writings, which include astrology, alchemy, and magic. Within these is the influential <em>Emerald Tablet</em>, a brief but cryptic teaching which famously coined the phrase <em>"as above, so below"</em>. This tablet is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet" target="_blank">freely available online</a>, so you can read it yourself in less than a minute.<br /><br />
The second is the "religio-philosophical" writings, focusing on anthropology, cosmology, and theology. And here we hold the most famous compilation of Hermes Trismegistus content, called the <em>Corpus Hermeticum</em>, woven together around the 15th century and translated into Latin. Due to this adaptation process, one must exercise a degree of caution, as per usual. We must recognise the vulnerabilities of authenticity. What we read is plausibly far removed from the original intentions, where language rephrasing and cultural pressures unmistakably made an impact.<br /><br />
Be that as it may, Hermeticism faired much better than the majority of theologies during the periods of religious suppression because Christianity shared some fascinating associations with Hermeticism. They both emerged in popularity in the late antiquity period, and many consider Hermes Trismegistus as a great sage who helped build the foundations of Christianity itself. In fact, debates persist today about which faith influenced the other the most. This observation opens a comparative conversation between specific terminologies, for example, where both doctrines seek answers inward while receiving revelations from a "God" figure. Still, Hermeticism was ultimately forced into underground cult status by Christianity, and religious authorities surely revised the surviving texts through the Biblical lens until editors were granted approval. So we take what we can get.<br /><br />
And, as it turns out, what we can get is quite a lot! <br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; " target="_blank"><img alt="Janthopoyism: Your New Religion" border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk13AKniawRG_8ifdslrTs4w_SwqLOjpm3FO_xCFyR8Z9Ak3DZM_AEkqjhNqfDU9-3_u5v1X9w26fNvWertwbNv-98HSK0m2C857EFVJI42pzTEnEscK4EmW4mwKw1ZzZLoNhO7-5Ty__FOmUtRXW5CwmRZq_hJf8f5IGIOOkYpcRd3t1hgS92aT85/s1600/Jantho-blogger-ad.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></a></div><br />
When a reported deity offers sacred information from the ether, the pressure is on to deliver. And Hermes does so despite the millennia that have since passed. Using the teacher-student format, Hermes engages in conversations, occasionally with the Greater Intelligence, but usually with his son, Tat, or another Greek god, Asclepius. And here, the secrets of the Universe are handed over verbally, eventually written, decoded a hundred times, and now in our grasp. It blows my mind that every human on the planet isn't scrambling to read these, because the premise is otherworldly! But we all have our priorities. <br /><br />
Regardless, I assume you are one of those who are keen to learn the code of the Universe? That's why you're here? Ok, I'll tell you. <br /><br />
But a <i>FOREWARNING</i> that everything from this point will be riddled with interpretations via the studies of <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a>. For those who don't know, my beliefs have developed to be 100% Janthopoyistic, and I can no longer separate my cemented philosophies from other spiritual notions. I will ensure to explain myself each step of the way, but if you find yourself overcome by curiosity, please lean back into those texts <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /><br />
Hermeticism is an <i>idealistic</i> faith whereby the entirety of reality is a construct of perception and does not persist outside the mind. Even deeper is that this <i>Mind</i> is <i>One</i>, everything an extension of "God", essentially living within the thoughts of the Supreme Being. Already we can relate this to a spectrum of other ideas, from the Eastern understanding of an illusionary existence (Maya) to the scientific evidence that matter is primarily electrical currents that behave differently when observed or measured (quantum mechanics). Janthopoyism agrees.<br /><br />
Once you arrive at the <em>"God is the All"</em> perspective, many alternate notions automatically fall into place. Hermeticism alludes to deterministic mechanics, where free will is largely a false impression. It is also a <em>prisca theologia</em> belief that states one true theology exists through all religions (which is the only reasonable conclusion when everything is hugged into the same circle anyway). Again, this is in tune with Janthopoyism completely. <br /><br />
So far so good! But that is not to say I easily swallow everything Hermes Trismegistus bestowed upon us. On the contrary, I take issue with plenty of its core ideas.<br /><br />
The interchangeable terminology between "Mind" and "God" is problematic. From a Janthopoyism standpoint, the mind is simply the electricity of Life meeting an otherwise useless fleshy organ. <i>Thinking</i> is akin to the function of the heartbeat or drawing air into the lungs. There is an energy source that keeps the body running, and then it leaves after death, the brain remaining with the corpse. <br /><br />
Hermeticism speaks of the mind as a divine quality tied to God. What's more, only some humans have a "mind", some humans don't, and no other species is so lucky. This bold statement creates a spiritual hierarchy that is wildly unprovable and dangerous. Ask anyone if they have a mind, and they will respond with a resounding <i>yes</i>. Ask anyone who has read the Corpus Hermeticum if they have a mind, and they will scoff from an even higher pedestal of egotism, believing they are privy to the genuine God-mind but, again, without a provable comparison point. And don't get me started on animals. I have stared into the eyes of creatures and fallen into God's depths. At times, more than that of any person.<br /><br />
Please note that I am not stating Hermes Trismegistus was incorrect, but I believe layers of interpretation have distorted the vocabulary. It is also possible that what Hermes attempted to convey was too advanced for a BCE crowd, and he submitted the closest comprehendible hypothesis he could at that period. That is why I appreciate translators such as Clement Salaman, who carefully sidestepped the "mind" to favour the word <i>"Nous"</i> instead. Conceptually, the two are not miles apart, but Nous is a deeper part of our intellect that deals with rational thinking required to perceive reality in a certain way. In occult conversations, this understanding applies to the underlying vibrational principle. That the All is all and all we are. <br /><br />
In a Janthopoyistic sense, there is a big difference between the mind and the observer. We have a spiritual essence (Soul? Atman?) that records data, perhaps even on an atomic level. A lot of this may be filtered through the brain organ as an instrument of perception, sure, but the mind itself is hardly something to worship as it's a mad flurry of radio gaga at the best of times. That is why I feel most comfortable replacing "mind" with "Nous" myself. Plus, if you ask someone whether they possess "Nous" or not, you will encourage far more deliciously complex answers (or blank stares). <br /><br />
To consider consciousness as some apex of divine awareness exposes nothing but the arrogance of humans. We struggle to fathom platforms above the ones we've reached; therefore, our peak becomes the peak of everything. If we are able to describe God's inner workings using our mental achievements alone, then I will be so disappointed that I am no longer interested whatsoever. Thankfully, I am more inclined to blame man's ego for such restraints on our imagination. <br /><br />
The "man-worship" of Hermeticism does not end there either. No, we are only just tapping the shell. <br /><br />
One clear Hermetic schooling is that we are an extension of divinity. Such a proposal predates everything. We can find it in the holy Hindu Vedas or even the conception of animism/shamanism devotion. However, Hermeticism clearly distinguishes between "God" and "nature", whereas humans lie in some middle ground. We are trapped in the mortal sense of materialism, but our eternal soul is nearer to that of a deity. There is enlightenment to unlock here, and we cannot deny our species' inherited desire to identify spiritual purpose, a drive seemingly exclusive to our DNA. But how do we know that certain animals haven't already achieved that zen quality we crave? Or, from an infinite Universe standpoint, what makes us think there is no race out there which has advanced much further than us? Again, it is a shortsighted ego-driven curse of the human being, where we have convinced ourselves that we are the best, and whatever else vibrates on a lower plain. <br /><br />
Janthopoyism teaches that everything is equally holy, using the electron as a base unit for sacred electricity while recognising a field of power that permeates each person, creature, and object, as well as the space between. That noted, I am open to softening my resistance as leeway for the times. Subatomic chitter and extraterrestrial chatter would not compute thousands of years ago. So even if an Egyptian god had access to such knowledge, relaying it could have been counterproductive. Or perhaps "God" itself did not comprehend these ideas back then, the Universe learning through perceptions like ours. Or maybe atoms didn't exist at that point, the minute details of science evolving as they were noticed, creating further data only as the growing wisdom called for it. These proposals are harmonious with Janthopoyism's scripture. <br /><br />
There are other nitpicky hiccups that have dated badly too, such as unforgivable astrological inaccuracies or the demand that every human must procreate as a cosmic order. But perhaps what resonated with me the least was the conviction that God is pure good. According to Hermes, strictly nothing else is good. Only God is good, and anything not-good is only that way because it is removed from God. <br /><br />
It's a common discussion where the murky side of life is explained via demons or at least an absence of God. On an emotional level, certain associations connect for me. Bad things feel bad because they are bad, and vice versa. But even in this acceptance, it contradicts the idea of God and <em>The All</em> as <em>The One</em>. How can an overarching process claim to encompass everything and then not include the entire spectrum of every topic? I get the <i>"darkness is merely the lack of light"</i> argument, but there is still a procedure in place where the light can come and go. Whatever that higher field may be, it transcends the God of Hermeticism, for that force is built into it. When speaking of a bulletproof Pantheistic God, we are referring to the realm where the physics of light and darkness apply, a system that was developed to contain every component of the program. <br /><br />
Therefore, despite claiming "The All", there is an advanced "God" found in many doctrines above that of Hermeticism. One where good and evil are a necessary balance and coexist by loving "design". We can find beauty in the whole package. <br /><br />
Following that groan is a similar groan against the ongoing need for esoteric and exoteric beliefs alike to compartmentalise concepts and then name each along the way. Janthopoyism finds considerable comfort in viewing the Universe as a singular entity. Breaking it down into nondualistic bits is of no interest to us. We view that practice as unnecessary and wholly unprovable. When a document claims God consists of <i>x</i> and <i>y</i> parts, it is but the renaming of the Cosmos' pieces that have been defined previously. Or they are introducing something brand new while lacking any evidence to support the suggestion. By default, I question why we must trust the words of some aged scripture as the blessed fact. I refuse to accept anything I cannot state without hypothesis. The absolute collection of everything under one name is unfathomable, but it undeniably exists on some infinite upper level. Beyond that is speculation or opinion. <br /><br />
I also have concerns that deal with mystical education in general. For starters, mysticism forever sells itself as something we can't logically understand but rather must be <i>felt</i> through personal experiences. I can grasp such sensible wisdom, for as soon as a theory provides globally accepted proof, it shifts into a science. Mysticism is an imperative category in our experimental studies of reality, but the loose criteria provide an abundance of wiggle room for self-appointed actualities. <br /><br />
And herein lies another sticky point that Hermeticism does so well: refashioning simple truths into slightly obscure presentations. By creating a cryptic puzzle for the reader to interpret, a resounding <i>"Oh, I get it!"</i> follows, delivering a false hit of accomplishment dopamine one could misconstrue as an epiphany. You feel you have cracked the code into something profound, whereas you merely unwound a web built for you so you can find a relatively uncomplicated centre. Even worse, the prize you uncover may only be a cheap mirror, vague enough to reflect and amplify preexisting assertions in your mind, offering a different answer to whoever stumbles upon it. Here is the greatest trick occult books have ever pulled. Crowley was a master of it. I can spot it everywhere. <br /><br />
Those objections aside, I readily admit that Hermeticism got more right than wrong through my eyes, altering my spiritual path for the better. So here comes the good stuff!<br /><br />
Arguably its most beneficial encouragement was to focus on the spirit and not the physical. One of its strongest warnings was against the materialistic world where our vices live. Our indulgences in sex, porn, food, sleep, drugs, or any other such body-based pleasures work to trap us deeper into the illusion. I have researched many Eastern traditions that teach similar practices (the dedication of Jainism stands out), and something inside me resonates with this as the most promising path. Possessions are a commonly discussed aspect, but even luxuries like homes and human relationships apply. By completely ridding oneself of everything material and then devoting your focus to the metaphysical being within, the God for you will grow. I know my spiritual future eventually moves this way. <br /><br />
Another essential education found in Hermeticism (and everywhere!) is that of ethical purity. Even the contemplations of living a virtuous life muster an awareness of divine purpose, and it makes practical sense too. Harnessing ugly emotions that scrape contrary to your principles will torture your days and hinder the world around you. But while ample faiths exploit after-life fears to morally herd society, Hermeticism's bait is one of powerful enlightenment or godlike abilities. That is a more enticing prize, and it has inspired me to gradually shift away from my mischievous pleasures. We should always strive to be better people, and Hermeticism offers attractive tools to achieve such goals. <br /><br />
On a side note, I also devoured the 1908 publication <em>The Kybalion</em> by the "Three Initiates" to easier grasp Hermes Trismegistus' teachings. These texts are far from canon (if anything, a New Thought interpretation of Hermeticism), but they blasted my mind forward on a track I never expected. These modern educations are more coherent and applicable than the Corpus Hermeticum itself, so I'd recommend starting here if you're into what I am saying. It's a speedy read, yet its information about influencing the laws of the Universe will impact my thoughts forever. For further study, I've included the Kybalion's <em>Seven Hermetic Principles</em> at the bottom of this article, and you can check out my separate <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4906183393" target="_blank">review for that publication on Goodreads</a><br /><br />
In the end, the Corpus Hermeticum lived up to the hype and motivated me in much the same way as the <i><a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/03/i-read-tao-te-ching-taoism.html" target="_blank">Tao Te Ching</a></i> or <i><a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">The Book of the Law</a></i>. After heavy analyses, I came out the other side convinced I am interpreting the material slightly differently than the others and would love to offer my own translation one day. Additionally, there is something extra special when "Western" esoterics are not tangled in Abrahamics. It's a mysticism that feels deeply connected to a method that will really work if you work it. And that is something I love a lot.<br /><br />
Ok! So that's above, here's below: I've included the <i>FULL</i> Corpus Hermeticum (Mead translation) with my comments sliced between. It's a messy and rushed undertaking that you should fairly consider as nothing more than a study on public display. Once again, please forgive any spelling errors, any misinterpretations, and my tendency to digest everything through a Janthopoyism filter.<br /><br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/03/i-read-tao-te-ching-taoism.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read the Tao Te Ching So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVG9wvBZXqTmo87po317Tlp1jsNjgcNiA4dP6aWXtxyhqt0xHTsxmaVgXXmQg50oEE6v5wiIhnw0atlMzo6yCxgARZhQxaUeEUJQOdb0ibeicay7i_6OKZIHYb_iMHuu_BvkKVmom6ac/s0/21March17-I-Read-the-Tao-Te-Ching.jpg" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2021/03/i-read-tao-te-ching-taoism.html" target="_blank">I Read the Tao Te Ching So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
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<b style="font-size: 120%;">But First, We Need to Talk About Translations</b><br /><br />
Unlocking the Corpus Hermeticum is a complex task. Only by reading multiple translations can you forge the necessary keys. I decided on the following five editions based on varying reasons which I shall detail as we go.<br /><br />
<b>The Corpus Hermeticum by G. R. S. Mead</b> <i>(published 1905)</i><br />
When considering the options, primarily focusing on Mead's translation was the obvious choice. Not only is it available in the public domain (meaning I could include it here without breaking any laws), but it was also the first printed copy I purchased. Furthermore, it was the golden standard for many years. While other translations are quite similar to each other in their interpretations, Mead's stands out as its own thing, a much more original piece of work while the alternatives can become almost interchangeable, meaning redundant.<br />
However, with those advantages came issues. George Robert Stow Mead was a dedicated Theosophist, so his biased understanding leaned more towards those ideologies. Furthermore (and like anything Theosophy correlated), Mead was not shy of complex educations and favoured dated poetics over coherency or faithfulness to the originals. I feel he wanted to sound clever while maintaining an aura of esoterics simply for the sake of it. For these reasons, Mead's version has slipped down in hierarchy, now considered a dirtier choice in Hermetic circles. No matter! Because when merged with the rest of them, it still fits as a valuable piece of the puzzle.<br />
It's easy to find free online if you're interested.<br /><br />
<b>Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in English Translation, with Notes and Introduction by Brian P. Copenhaver</b> <i>(published 1991)</i><br />
It is my understanding that Copenhaver's version has since overtaken Mead's as the academic go-to Corpus Hermeticum. It's easy to see why, as it is uncomplicated to understand and has a decent reputation for standing true to the original Latin translations. There are also pages upon pages of additional notes if you want to fall nice and deep into the thing.<br /><br />
<b>The Way of Hermes: New Translations of The Corpus Hermeticum and The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius by Clement Salaman</b> <i>(published 2004)</i><br />
Salaman's translation is cut from the same cloth as Copenhaver, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if he simply ran through Copenhaver's copy and changed words that suited him. However, it is written in an even easier-to-grasp language while boasting all the selling points Copenhaver had in the first place. Thus, I'd consider this my favourite and the first I'd recommend to you. My only major complaint is that his chapter titles are terribly bland and indistinguishable!<br />
Please note that my copy was fully credited to Clement Salaman, Dorine van Oyen, William D. Wharton, and Jean-Pierre Mahe.<br /><br />
<b>Corpus Hermeticum: The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus by John Everard</b> <i>(published 1650)</i><br />
Reportedly the first English translation ever, what Everard achieved was incredibly impressive. Unfortunately, Everard's source material wasn't as well organised back in the 1600s, and he is missing some standard treatises while seemingly replacing them with different Hermetica texts (known as the <i>Stobaean Fragments</i>). The numbering of sections and the ordering of chapters differs from the previous examples, which turned into a cross-referencing nightmare. I have a lot of respect for the man and his work, his contribution to my understanding was priceless, but it suffers from a lack of modern perspective (through no fault of its own). <br /><br />
<b>Corpus Hermeticum: The Divine Pymander by Tarl Warwick</b> <i>(published 2015)</i><br />
Talk about cheating off the wrong paper, Warwick is a line-by-line rewrite of Everard's jumbled output. In fairness, it was an easy read with some chosen words that I preferred above any other. But for the most part, it was the least essential Corpus Hermeticum that I read by quite a while.<br /><br />
Walter Scott's translation fell on my radar too, but I haven't come across the most glowing reviews for it (some calling it "unreliable"); hence I did not include it in my research. Sorry, Walter!
<br /><br />
Shout out to both <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/LetsTalkReligion" target="_blank">Let's Talk Religion</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/ESOTERICAchannel" target="_blank">ESOTERICA</a> YouTube channels, not only for their knowledge on Hermeticism, but honestly, on every religion. I constantly come back to these dudes, and you should too!<br />
I also spent a little bit of clicks on <a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/th2/th200.htm" target="_blank">Sacred Texts</a>. Less than I thought I would, but when I fell stuck, sometimes the push was provided by them. Great site regardless. I have a small dream that they host the Janthopoyism Bible there one day.<br />
Finally, huge respect to <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/polyphanes/" target="_blank">Polyphanes</a> on Reddit for helping me out with some questions. Whenever scouring the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Hermeticism/" target="_blank">Hermeticism subreddit</a>, his name was always there, providing answers to the masses. I bow to your superior knowledge!
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Alright, here goes everything:<br /><br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
I. PŒMANDRES, THE SHEPHERD OF MEN
</div>
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<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>Poimandres to Hermes Trismegistus</em> (Copenhaver); <em>(Discourse) of Hermes Trismegistus: Poimandres</em> (Salaman); <em>Poemander</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
Quite fittingly, here is where Hermes gains his insights, blessed to him by Poimandres, who is some manifestation of The All. A deity, if you will. Following this chapter, the rest of the book is about Hermes passing that info down to others.<br /><br />
To make matters more confusing right off the starting line, Warwick and Everard have a different first chapter not found in the others, this chapter falling at number 2. I will deal with these inconsistencies at the end.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, 2 my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back—just as men are who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.<br /><br />
Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?<br />
</div><br />
Hermes "meets" Poemandres/Poemander during a strange state compared to sleepiness or when you've overeaten. Something about this messes with its credibility like he's dreaming or delirious. No translation sounded confident here; it always revolved around <i>thinking</i> he saw something. But whatever it was, the "epiphany" led to these unfathomable texts, so it was legit.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. And I do say: Who art thou?<br /><br />
He saith: I am Man-Shepherd (Poemandres), Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I am with thee everywhere.<br />
</div><br />
<i>"Mind of all-masterhood"</i> has various interpretations such as <i>"the mind of the Great Lord"</i> (Everard), <i>"Nous of the Supreme"</i> (Salaman), and <i>"The Mind of the Great Lord"</i>(Warwick).<br />
I also learned that the accepted English "Man-Shepherd" came from the Greek words ποιμήν and ἀνήρ, but latter-day scholars believe it is actually Peime-nte-rê, which means "Knowledge of Re" or "Understanding of Re". That would equate Poimandres with the ancient Egyptian sun deity Ra (or a least some fusion of them). Wheee! <br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. [And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.<br /><br />
He answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will teach thee.
</div><br />
I love how Hermes is like, <i>"I wanna know!"</i> and Poimandres is like, <i>"Cool, I'll tell you"</i>.<br />
I also want to emphasise how Salaman uses the word <i>Nous</i> instead of <i>mind</i> in just about every example. This is far more congruent with my understanding of the Universe and my preferred terminology. I'll stop going on about it from here, though!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. Even with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision
limitless, all things turned into Light - sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported as I gazed.<br /><br />
But in a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it], awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought it like
unto a snake.<br /><br />
And then the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossed about beyond all power of words, belching out smoke as from a fire, and groaning forth a wailing sound that beggars all description.<br /><br />
[And] after that an outcry inarticulate came forth from it, as though it were a Voice of Fire.
</div><br />
Hermes witnesses the creation of the Universe and there's a buttload to unpack here.<br />
First, all things turn to light, which ties very neatly into Genesis (<i>"Let there be light!"</i>) but also ties into the rudimental field of energy particles, the infinite vibration manifesting into existence. It's the formless substance or the Tao transitioning into something tangible. Please also value the various examples of sound dotted about, which is another vibrational property, perhaps even more fundamental than the visual (which the Hindu Vedas teach as <i>Sabda Brahman</i>).<br />
The darkness follows (absence of God/good?), which abides by the Hermetic Principles of Rhythm (5) and Cause and Effect (6), which we shall discuss right at the end of this page. And through this, the nature of the reality we perceive was born.<br />
It's fun noting the translation differences for <i>"awesome and gloomy"</i>. We have <i>"fearful and loathsome"</i> (Salaman),<i> "fearful and gloomy"</i> (Copenhaver), and <i>"fearful and hideous"</i> (Warwick/Everard).<br />
I must call attention to the snake, which reptilian theorists love to support their narrative, I'm sure. I'm not going to spend too much time picking this apart other than to say the symbol of Hermeticism is two serpents wrapped around a staff with wings (Caduceus) which comes with several mythological backstories. One tale tells that Hermes (or Mercury) separated two fighting snakes with a staff, hence an image of peace. Other meanings of snakes in Greek history include rebirth (inspired by the shedding of its skin) and healing (due to the medicinal properties of their venom).<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. [Thereon] out of the Light [...] a Holy Word (Logos) descended on that Nature. And upwards to the height from the Moist Nature leaped forth pure Fire; light was it, swift and active too.<br /><br />
The Air, too, being light, followed after the Fire; from out of the Earthand-Water rising up to Fire so that it seemed to hang therefrom.<br /><br />
But Earth-and-Water stayed so mingled with each other, that Earth from Water no one could discern. Yet were they moved to hear by reason of the Spirit-Word (Logos) pervading them.
</div><br />
Mead's theosophical background is easiest exposed by his Logos terminology, as he is the only translation that does so.<br />
Logos (λόγος) is Greek for "word," "speech," "reason" or "account". However, in more esoteric terms, it is used as the principle of order and knowledge. Theosophy co-founder Madame Blavatsky defined it as, <i>"The manifested deity with every nation and people; the outward expression, or the effect of the cause which is ever concealed."</i> <br />
The "Holy Word" is a concept that makes more sense as we go on and will be better explained then. More on the meaning of fire later too!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. Then saith to me Man-Shepherd: Didst understand this Vision what it means?<br /><br />
Nay; that shall I know, said I.<br /><br />
That Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which appeared from Darkness; the Light-Word (Logos) [that appeared] from
Mind is Son of God.<br /><br />
What then? - say I.<br /><br />
Know that what sees in thee and hears is the Lord's Word (Logos); but Mind is Father-God. Not separate are they the one from other; just in their union [rather] is it Life consists.<br /><br />
Thanks be to Thee, I said.<br /><br />
So, understand the Light [He answered], and make friends with it.
</div><br />
I liked Salaman's version here. For example, both he and Copenhaver use <i>"the watery substance"</i> instead of <i>"moist nature"</i> which connects better to the flow of the formless substance of the Tao. It is the unmanifested becoming manifested, where the light is the God that precedes it.<br />
Salaman also says, <i>"That which sees and hears within you is the Word of the Lord, and Nous is God the Father. They are not separate from each other, for their union is life"</i>. I interpret that as the "Word" being an extension of God and a component of The All. It's comparable to the soul in you (Atman), which itself is a portion of Brahman divinity.<br />
Everything is the same, as above, so below. That what came before and then the "mind" of God, thinking Life into life, and by our thoughts, we too are perceiving creation into creation, a godlike activity.<br />
Only Mead instructs us to make friends with the light, which is rad.
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<div class="quote">
7. And speaking thus He gazed for long into my eyes, so that I trembled at the look of him.<br />
But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.<br />
And when I saw these things I understood by reason of Man-Shepherd's Word (Logos).
</div><br />
Instead of <i>"at the look of him"</i>, Everard uses the terms <i>"idea"</i> or <i>"form"</i> to describe Poimandres. I like idea more; it shifts from the physical to metaphysical, a mental construct.<br />
Again, fire is important throughout these texts (as with all esoteric writings), and we shall continue to point this out.<br />
For now, I'd like to propose this "fire" as an outdated way to describe the energy (electron) field of the All. Warwick says the fire is <i>"comprehended or contained"</i> by a <i>"great moist power"</i>. This clicks for me. There is this insane electricity within and passed between our every atom, yet there is a wet power of nature that holds it into solidified, tangible material. It makes biological sense!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. But as I was in great astonishment, He saith to me again: Thou didst behold in Mind the Archetypal Form whose being is before beginning
without end. Thus spake to me Man-Shepherd.<br /><br />
And I say: Whence then have Nature's elements their being?<br /><br />
To this He answer gives: From Will of God. [Nature] received the Word (Logos), and gazing upon the Cosmos Beautiful did copy it, making
herself into a cosmos, by means of her own elements and by the births of souls.
</div><br />
This gets tricky, but essentially there is the archetypical form (raw unmanifested mind) which is genderless. But then there was The Will of God, a male force (see Hermetic Principle #7 at the end of this article) that used its <i>"vital seed"</i> (Warwick) to initiate the female force to create/birth nature. Nature itself is an <i>"imitation"</i> (Copenhaver) of the Cosmos.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. And God-the-Mind, being male and female both, as Light and Life subsisting, brought forth another Mind to give things form, who, God as
he was of Fire and Spirit, formed Seven Rulers who enclose the cosmos that the sense perceives. Men call their ruling Fate.
</div><br />
So essentially, the Nous brought about a lower mind to create our reality, like vibrational frequencies reaching lower levels to manifest into what we know now.<br />
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. Straightway from out the downward elements God's Reason (Logos) leaped up to Nature's pure formation, and was at-oned with the Formative Mind; for it was co-essential with it. And Nature's downward elements were thus left reason-less, so as to be pure matter.
</div><br />
It's just different layers of creation, specifically moving in a downward path. This terminology makes a lot of sense as I see it like a drop of water, finding the path of least resistance to race further, connecting with a hard deterministic trajectory of creation predefined by the grooves of the land. And eventually, matter is formed. But as Salaman said, God was <i>"united with the Creator Nous (for he was of the same substance)"</i>. Again, it's all vibrational.<br />
The only part I'm unsure of is the pure matter being <i>"reason-less"</i> or <i>"without the Word"</i> (Salaman). At what point does something lose that God Juice? It brings into question the genuine difference between something that carries a live soul and an inanimate object. Are we not all simply made of identical vibrational markup? Where do we draw the line?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. Then the Formative Mind ([at-oned] with Reason), he who surrounds the spheres and spins them with his whorl, set turning his formations, and let them turn from a beginning boundless unto an endless end. For that the circulation of these [spheres] begins where it doth end, as Mind doth will.<br /><br />
And from the downward elements Nature brought forth lives reasonless; for He did not extend the Reason (Logos) [to them]. The Air brought forth things winged; the Water things that swim, and Earthand-Water one from another parted, as Mind willed. And from her bosom Earth produced what lives she had, four-footed things and reptiles, beasts wild and tame.
</div><br />
Rotating spheres are surely planets, but other translations (such as Copenhaver) use the word <i>"circles"</i>, which could allude to the cyclic understandings of the Universe's lifespan from various other (usually Eastern) scriptures. I also like how Warwick and Everard use the term <i>"creeping beasts"</i> for animals, which is very Biblical. Which came first?<br />
So what's interesting is that all things that (the female) Earth brought forth lack <i>"reason"</i> or <i>"speech"</i> (Salaman) for they do not possess the Word in them. It is an interesting teaching of Hermeticism, one that devalues all of life while placing humans on a much higher pedestal, as we'll see in the next verse.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12. But All-Father Mind, being Life and Light, did bring forth Man coequal to Himself, with whom He fell in love, as being His own child; for he was beautiful beyond compare, the Image of his Sire. In very truth, God fell in love with his own Form; and on him did bestow all of His own formations.
</div><br />
"God fell in love with his own Form" is hilarious. He basically loved himself so much that he made us in his own image. Obviously, we have to marvel of the eerie similarities between Hermeticism and Abrahamic understandings, or we must be concerned about how much editing took place by the Christian hand. Either way, Mother Nature brought creatures up through her physical formations, but Father God brought some of himself down to create man. We are the best of the best, the pinnacle of creation in all the universe, an amalgamtion of divine and nature, better than the animals and everything. It's not exactly where Janthopoyism sits.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. And when he gazed upon what the Enformer had created in the Father, [Man] too wished to enform; and [so] assent was given him by
the Father.<br /><br />
Changing his state to the formative sphere, in that he was to have his whole authority, he gazed upon his Brother's creatures. They fell in love with him, and gave him each a share of his own ordering.<br /><br />
And after that he had well learned their essence and had become a sharer in their nature, he had a mind to break right through the Boundary of their spheres, and to subdue the might of that which pressed upon the Fire.
</div><br />
Copenhaver and Salaman talk about controlling the fire in a way that sounds literal, but Mead is more about controlling the pressure against the fire, which is holding the spirit in the physical plain? Either way, man wanted to join the ranks of the creator to connect better with God and influence his reality more. It makes sense if you note humans as part of nature but also the only Earthly creatures striving for some spiritual enlightenment (as far as we know). Although perhaps that's backwards, our minds have robbed us of an innate spiritual energy that other animals already exist in, and we are fighting to just get some of that back? Again, I don't fully agree with Hermeticism in that human divinity is closer to God than animals or plants. Janthopoyism doesn't worship the mind like that.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. So he who hath the whole authority over [all] the mortals in the cosmos and over its lives irrational, bent his face downwards through the Harmony, breaking right through its strength, and showed to downward Nature God's fair form.<br /><br />
And when she saw that Form of beauty which can never satiate, and him who [now] possessed within himself each single energy of [all seven]
Rulers as well as God's own Form, she smiled with love; for it was as though she had seen the image of Man's fairest form upon her Water,
his shadow on her Earth.<br /><br />
He in turn beholding the form like to himself, existing in her, in her Water, loved it and willed to live in it; and with the will came act, and [so] he vivified the form devoid of reason.<br /><br />
And Nature took the object of her love and wound herself completely around him, and they were intermingled, for they were lovers.
</div><br />
I'm still grappling with this, but I think what happened is that God and Nature saw a reflection of one another in the "water" and became lovers. And in that way, man was created, a lovechild of those two entities, humans somewhere between a god and monkey. But then what is everything else??? <br />
Again, it's the stupid segregation of everything that is not only unprovable but also unnecessary. Janthopoyism starts and ends with The All, the environment whereby this God and Nature are somehow falling in love. For whatever that is which contains these ideas is surely even bigger than this event. Whatever holds the content is the Jantho All.<br />
Furthermore, what is man without the ecosystem that sustains it? Every component is essential, and even more importantly, completely insignificant in any universal understanding. It's this back-patting of humans where Hermeticism exposes certain ancient irrelevances. And how can we believe these texts to be the words of a deity when it is no longer flawless?<br /><br />
I do like the water thing, though. We are majority water.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. And this is why beyond all creatures on the earth man is twofold; mortal because of body, but because of the essential man immortal.<br /><br />
Though deathless and possessed of sway over all, yet doth he suffer as amortal doth, subject to Fate.<br /><br />
Thus though above the Harmony, within the Harmony he hath become a slave. Though male-female, as from a Father male-female, and though he
is sleepless from a sleepless [Sire], yet is he overcome [by sleep].
</div><br />
Copenhaver's translation was clearer: <i>"Even though he is immortal and has authority over all things, mankind is affected by mortality because he is subject to fate; thus, although man is above the cosmic framework, he became a slave within it."</i> <br />
Like before, it's an ego-driven text where man has a two-fold essence, unlike any other creature. We are mortal and die like anything in nature, yet we are also spiritually godlike. We are the sole creatures with souls, I guess. Regardless, the Kybalion was proficient at describing this in ways that nature has laws, but with our intellect, we can bend or even transcend these laws once we know how to play them against one another. It's one of the benefits of being human, but then again, we don't know what the animals are performing with their mental capacities.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. Thereon [I say: Teach on], O Mind of me, for I myself as well am amorous of the Word (Logos).<br /><br />
The Shepherd said: This is the mystery kept hid until this day. Nature embraced by Man brought forth a wonder, oh so wonderful. For
as he had the nature of the Concord of the Seven, who, as I said to thee, [were made] of Fire and Spirit - Nature delayed not, but immediately brought forth seven "men", in correspondence with the natures of the Seven, male-female and moving in the air.<br /><br />
Thereon [I said]: O Shepherd, ..., for now I am filled with great desire and long to hear; do not run off.<br /><br />
The Shepherd said: Keep silence, for not as yet have I unrolled for thee the first discourse (logoi).<br /><br />
Lo! I am still, I said.
</div><br />
Bit of an argument there. I'm still not sure who these seven "men" are supposed to be, besides personifications of the classical planets?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
17. In such wise than, as I have said, the generation of these seven came to pass. Earth was as woman, her Water filled with longing; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Aether. Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the form of Man.<br /><br />
And Man from Light and Life changed into soul and mind - from Life to soul, from Light to mind.<br /><br />
And thus continued all the sense-world's parts until the period of their end and new beginnings.
</div><br />
The male spirit impregnated the female nature, and she was galvanised to create the human, which contains both soul and mind, which are godlike qualities separate from the rest of Nature's manifestations.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
18. Now listen to the rest of the discourse (Logos) which thou dost long to hear.<br /><br />
The period being ended, the bond that bound them all was loosened by God's Will. For all the animals being male-female, at the same time with Man were loosed apart; some became partly male, some in like fashion [partly] female. And straightway God spake by His Holy Word (Logos):<br /><br />
"Increase ye in increasing, and multiply in multitude, ye creatures and creations all; and man that hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself is deathless, and that the cause of death is love, though Love is all."
</div><br />
Here creatures are given the ability to breed and multiply independently through the split sexual manifestation of the Gender Principle (even though we each have both masculine and feminine properties).<br /><br />
Mead's translation above where the <i>"cause of death is love</i>" is senseless. What's more widespread is the <i>"cause of death is love of the body",</i> while Salaman moves closer to the Buddhist/Jainist route with <i>"desire is the cause of death"</i>. Either way, we receive an essential component of Hermetic teachings here, whereby the physical world (aka everything material) is the downfall of human spirituality.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
19. When He said this, His Forethought did by means of Fate and Harmony effect their couplings and their generations founded. And so all
things were multiplied according to their kind.<br /><br />
And he who thus hath learned to know himself, hath reached that Good which doth transcend abundance; but he who through a love that leads
astray, expends his love upon his body - he stays in Darkness wandering, and suffering through his senses things of Death.
</div><br />
The Nature/God thing is the split between divinity and physical reality. Whatever you focus on will be what you lean towards, and by facing the spirit, you'll find immortality, for only the body dies but the soul never does.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
20. What is the so great fault, said I, the ignorant commit, that they should be deprived of deathlessness?<br /><br />
Thou seemest, He said, O thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest. Did I not bid thee think?<br /><br />
Yea do I think, and I remember, and therefore give Thee thanks.<br /><br />
If thou didst think [thereon], [said He], tell me: Why do they merit death who are in Death?<br /><br />
It is because the gloomy Darkness is the root and base of the material frame; from it came the Moist Nature; from this the body in the senseworld was composed; and from this [body] Death doth the Water drain.
</div><br />
Cryptic, but the <i>"gloomy darkness"</i> is the root of the material frame that came after the light which we read earlier (4). So darkness is perhaps metaphorical as an absence of God's goodness? I love the phrase <i>"Death doth the Water drain"</i>, so metal and also scientifically sound.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
21. Right was thy thought, O thou! But how doth "he who knows himself, go unto Him", as God's Word (Logos) hath declared?<br /><br />
And I reply: the Father of the universals doth consist of Light and Life, from Him Man was born.<br /><br />
Thou sayest well, [thus] speaking. Light and Life is Father-God, and from Him Man was born.<br /><br />
If then thou learnest that thou art thyself of Life and Light, and that thou [happenest] to be out of them, thou shalt return again to Life. Thus did Man-Shepherd speak.<br /><br />
But tell me further, Mind of me, I cried, how shall I come to Life again...for God doth say: "The man who hath Mind in him, let him learn
to know that he himself [is deathless]."
</div><br />
As opposed to nature, God is "light and life, " an eternal electricity.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
22. Have not all men then Mind?<br /><br />
Thou sayest well, O thou, thus speaking. I, Mind, myself am present with holy men and good, the pure and merciful, men who live piously.<br /><br />
[To such] my presence doth become an aid, and straightway they gain gnosis of all things, and win the Father's love by their pure lives, and give Him thanks, invoking on Him blessings, and chanting hymns, intent on Him with ardent love.<br /><br />
And ere they give up the body unto its proper death, they turn them with disgust from its sensations, from knowledge of what things they operate. Nay, it is I, the Mind, that will not let the operations which befall the body, work to their [natural] end. For being door-keeper I will close up [all] the entrances, and cut the mental actions off which base and evil energies induce.
</div><br />
This is profoundly important, as I understand it. Those who are more spiritually inclined will shut off the body after death by turning away from the physical sensations. In fact, it appears God intervenes during this process, disallowing the evil in? I'm unsure what evidence we have of that, but there you go. It's still an excellent attitude, for it can beneficially realign your thinking. <br />
The trick to getting closer to this outcome is to live <i>"piously"</i> (Salaman) and <i>"hate your senses"</i> (Everard). You rebel against the physical realm, which I have some experience with in regard to various vices damaging my spirituality. My only gripe is that some people have fucked minds distorted by external factors, so how do we segregate such things? Especially when All is in the All and free will is largely subjective? It's another conflict point between Hermeticism and Janthopoyism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
23. But to the Mind-less ones, the wicked and depraved, the envious and covetous, and those who mured do and love impiety, I am far off,
yielding my place to the Avenging Daimon, who sharpening the fire, tormenteth him and addeth fire to fire upon him, and rusheth upon him
through his senses, thus rendering him readier for transgressions of the law, so that he meets with greater torment; nor doth he ever cease to have desire for appetites inordinate, insatiately striving in the dark.
</div><br />
Verses such as this one assist my case against the term "mind". There are two separate concepts here: the mind that we all have (electricity powering the brain) and the Nous (Salaman) that we can embrace or cut off at varying degrees. It's more of a spiritual thing that you can throttle with amoral behaviour.<br />
Salaman's examples: evil, worthless, envious, greedy, murderers, ungodly. <br />
Copenhaver's examples: thoughtless, evil, wicked, envious, greedy, violent, irreverent.<br />
Everard/Warwick examples: foolish, evil, wicked, envious, covetous, murderous, profane.<br />
These actions use your physical senses to pull you away from God and cause you to suffer while you only crave for more. This is the work of a demon, btw, which I must assume is metaphorical.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
24. Well hast thou taught me all, as I desired, O Mind. And now, pray, tell me further of the nature of the Way Above as now it is [for me].<br /><br />
To this Man-Shepherd said: When the material body is to be dissolved, first thou surrenderest the body by itself unto the work of change, and thus the form thou hadst doth vanish, and thou surrenderest thy way of life, void of its energy, unto the Daimon. The body's senses next pass back into their sources, becoming separate, and resurrect as energies; and passion and desire withdraw unto that nature which is void of reason.
</div><br />
Surrender the material body to the demon??
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
25. And thus it is that man doth speed his way thereafter upwards through the Harmony.<br /><br />
To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energised; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energised; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energised; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity, de-energised; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandisement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood, de-energised.
</div><br />
Ok, so here are the seven plains/zones of liberation, which are perhaps comparable to the Hermetic 10 Commandments:<br /><br />
1. Surrendering the energy of increase and decrease. Allow life to go up and down. This is the Hermetic Principle of Rhythm (Kybalion).<br />
2. The means of evil and trickery now being inactive. Everard says, <i>"no plotting evils"</i>.<br />
3. No covetous deceit of the illusion of longing? Warwick uses the word <i>"concupiscence"</i>, which is sexual longing specifically. <i>"Desires"</i> is the best term I can think of.<br />
4. No ruler superiority. Mead's <i>"Domieering Arrogance"</i> said it best.<br />
5. No daring and reckless audacity. No unholy presumptions. No profane pride. No headlong rashness of confidence.<br />
6. No evil impulses that come from wealth (gluttony comes to mind).<br />
7. No deceit that lies in ambush.<br /><br />
It's about living a sinless life, really.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
26. And then, with all the energisings of the harmony stript from him, clothed in his proper Power, he cometh to that Nature which belongs
unto the Eighth, and there with those-that-are hymneth the Father.<br /><br />
They who are there welcome his coming there with joy; and he, made like to them that sojourn there, doth further hear the Powers who are
above the Nature that belongs unto the Eighth, singing their songs of praise to God in language of their own.<br /><br />
And then they, in a band, go to the Father home; of their own selves they make surrender of themselves to Powers, and [thus] becoming Powers they are in God. This the good end for those who have gained Gnosis - to be made one with God.<br /><br />
Why shouldst thou then delay? Must it not be, since thou hast all received, that thou shouldst to the worthy point the way, in order that
through thee the race of mortal kind may by [thy] God be saved?
</div><br />
Once you've mastered the previous seven, you hit the 8th plain of freedom? And that's where God is?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
27. This when He had said, Man-Shepherd mingled with the Powers.<br /><br />
But I, with thanks and blessings unto the Father of the universal [Powers], was freed, full of the power he had poured into me, and full of what He had taught me of the nature of the All and of the loftiest Vision.<br /><br />
And I began to preach unto men the Beauty of Devotion and of Gnosis:<br />
O ye people, earth-born folk, ye who have given yourselves to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of God, be sober now, cease from your surfeit, cease to be glamoured by irrational sleep!
</div><br />
So Poimandres leaves here, and Hermes goes on his quest to liberate those willing to listen. I'm assuming <i>"drunkenness and sleep"</i> is metaphorical. We have to sleep. And I must drink.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
28. And when they heard, they came with one accord. Whereon I say:<br /><br />
Ye earth-born folk, why have ye given yourselves up to Death, while yet ye have the power of sharing Deathlessness? Repent, O ye, who walk with Error arm in arm and make of Ignorance the sharer of your board; get ye out from the light of Darkness, and take your part in Deathlessness, forsake Destruction!
</div><br />
The immortality promises are a complicated topic. Yes, the spirit lives on but does it have the awareness to even grasp that fact? I'm not sure I buy these life-after-death promises. It's dated and not Jantho.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
29. And some of them with jests upon their lips departed [from me], abandoning themselves unto the Way of Death; others entreated to be
taught, casting themselves before my feet.<br /><br />
But I made them arise, and I became a leader of the Race towards home, teaching the words (logoi), how and in what way they shall be saved. I sowed in them the words (logoi) of wisdom; of Deathless Water were they given to drink.<br /><br />
And when even was come and all sun's beams began to set, I bade them all give thanks to God. And when they had brought to an end the giving of their thanks, each man returned to his own resting place.
</div><br />
Jesus parallels, although one could state the same for any prophetic figure. On that token, Hermes is crazy overlooked in the bigger scheme of religious evolution.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
30. But I recorded in my heart Man-Shepherd's benefaction, and with my every hope fulfilled more than rejoiced. For body's sleep became the soul's awakening, and closing of the eyes - true vision, pregnant with Good my silence, and the utterance of my word (logos) begetting of good things.<br /><br />
All this befell me from my Mind, that is Man-Shepherd, Word (Logos) of all masterhood, by whom being God-inspired I came unto the Plain of
Truth. Wherefore with all my soul and strength thanksgiving give I unto Father-God.
</div><br />
What's suspicious here and at the end is where he talks about certain sleep connecting with his visions. It's called dreams, bro. I have those visions every night too.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
31. Holy art Thou, O God, the universals' Father.<br />
Holy art Thou, O God, whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers.<br />
Holy art Thou, O God, who willeth to be known and art known by Thine own.<br />
Holy art Thou,who didst by Word (Logos) make to consist the things that are.<br />
Holy art Thou, of whom All-nature hath been made an image.<br />
Holy art Thou, whose Form Nature hath never made.<br />
Holy art Thou, more powerful than all power.<br />
Holy art Thou, transcending all pre-eminence.<br />
Holy Thou art, Thou better than all praise.<br />
Accept my reason's offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up to Thee, O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the Silence can express.
</div><br />
Here is a good place to muse again that "God" might be nothing but an alien race that bred with monkeys. Hence, we are not from nature or at least not entirely of this world. Was Poimandres an alien who bestowed this knowledge down? It's a theory like all theories.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
32. Give ear to me who pray that I may never of Gnosis fail, [Gnosis] which is our common being's nature; and fill me with Thy Power, and
with this Grace [of Thine], that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren, and Thy Sons.<br /><br />
For this cause I believe, and I bear witness; I go to Life and Light. Blessed art Thou, O Father. Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy, even as Thou gave him Thy full authority [to be].
</div><br />
And thus ends the first treatise, at least according to Mead, Copenhaver, and Salaman.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
II. THE GENERAL SERMON
</div>
<br />
Doing us no favours, this section only exists in Mead's translation, knocking everyone out of line. Copenhaver and Salaman's II become Mead's III and continued on from there. Furthermore, what Mead provides is hardly scripture whatsoever, leaving us with only this line:<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
(The title only is preserved in our Corpus, the text having disappeared with the loss of a quire or quires before the parent copy came into the hands of Psellus.)
</div><br />
Michael Psellos was a monk who helped preserve many of these texts. <br />
So in some ways, you can ignore this treatise, but in other ways, I respect that Mead did not. Props to Copenhaver too, for he does acknowledge the existence of something or other in a footnote.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
III. TO ASCLEPIUS
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>Hermes to Asclepius</em> (Copenhaver); Untitled (Salaman); <em>The Universal Sermon to Asclepius</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
In this dialogue-driven treatise, Hermes educates his student, Asclepius.<br />
Asclepius is an ancient Greek hero and god of medicine. There is no agreement that Hermes is speaking to <i>that</i> Asclepius here, but how many Asclepiuses could there truly be? Otherwise, nobody really has a clue.<br />
It's also worth noting that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius" target="_blank">Rod of Asclepius</a> is the correct symbol of medicine which has frequently been (incorrectly!) replaced with Hermes' Caduceus.<br />
Parts of this tie into the Hermetic Principle of Vibration (Kybalion), which I'll detail at the very end.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Hermes: All that is moved, Asclepius, is it not moved in something and by something?<br />
Asclepius: Assuredly.<br />
H: And must not that in which it's moved be greater than the moved?<br />
A: It must.<br />
H: Mover, again, has greater power than moved?<br />
A: It has, of course.<br />
H: The nature, furthermore, of that in which it's moved must be quite other from the nature of the moved?<br />
A: It must completely.
</div><br />
For something to move there requires a relative thing standing still. That's what is meant by different in nature. Instead of <i>"other"</i>, Copenhaver says <i>"contrary"</i> and Salaman says <i>"opposite"</i>. I feel like there must be exceptions to bring to this debate.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. H: Is not, again, this cosmos vast, [so vast] that than it there exists no body greater?<br />
A: Assuredly.<br />
H: And massive, too, for it is crammed with multitudes of other mighty frames, nay, rather all the other bodies that there are?<br />
A: It is.<br />
H: And yet the cosmos is a body?<br />
A: It is a body.<br />
H: And one that's moved?
</div><br />
Objection, your honour, leading the witness.<br />
The Cosmos is a body; that's my vibe. The overall physical manifestation of the Absolute. They say here that the Cosmos is as large a body as it gets, which syncs with me too. Everard refers to the Cosmos as the <i>"Great World"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. A: Assuredly.<br />
H: Of what size, then, must be the space in which it's moved, and of what kind [must be] the nature [of that space]? Must it not be far vaster [than the cosmos], in order that it may be able to find room for its continued course, so that the moved may not be cramped for want of room and lose its motion?<br />
A: Something, Thrice-greatest one, it needs must be, immensely vast.
</div><br />
Foiled again by the limitations of the human mind, I struggle to figure out how this works. The Cosmos is the physical manifestation of the underlying formless substance and exists in a space, certainly. But does it move? Within itself, sure, but does it move as a unit too, like a planet around something else? I'm unsure how to place that without resorting to hypotheticals. Those are interesting thoughts, though.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. H: And of what nature? Must it not be, Asclepius, of just the contrary? And is not contrary to body bodiless?<br />
A: Agreed.<br />
H: Space, then, is bodiless. But bodiless must either be some godlike thing or God [Himself]. And by "some godlike thing" I mean no more the generable [i.e., that which is generated] but the ingenerable.
</div><br />
Space is God is close to how I feel. The <i>"nothingness"</i> is the closest we can conceptually grasp of the unmanifested. The formless substance, the electron field between, still buzzing with life.<br />
Salaman agrees with Mead on the <i>"bodiless"</i> term, while Copenhaver goes with <i>"incorporeal"</i> and Everard goes with <i>"unbodily"</i>. However, it is the least likely candidate, Warwick, who says it best to me, with <i>"intangible"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. If, then, space be some godlike thing, it is substantial; but if 'tis God [Himself], it transcends substance. But it is to be thought of otherwise [than God], and in this way.<br /><br />
God is first "thinkable" <or "intelligible" > for us, not for Himself, for that the thing that's thought doth fall beneath the thinker's sense. God then cannot be "thinkable" unto Himself, in that He's thought of by Himself as being nothing else but what He thinks. But he is "something else" for us, and so He's thought of by us.
</div><br />
Copenhaver does this better: <i>"for us, god is the foremost intelligible entity, but not so for god himself; what is intelligible falls within the awareness of one who thinks of it; thus, for himself god is not intelligible because he is not something distinct from the object of his thought" </i><br />
We think God into existence because we need to define it. But God does not think of itself, for it <i>is</i> its thoughts. It doesn't function on the tangible level we require just to understand it. In a very roundabout way, God <i>doesn't</i> exist, for existence itself is our problem, and The All is beyond such a realm. Than again, we have to put it in a box to work with it, so it's justified.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. If space is, therefore, to be thought, [it should] not, [then, be thought as] God, but space. If God is also to be thought, [He should] not [be conceived] as space, but as energy that can contain [all space]. <br /><br />
Further, all that is moved is moved not in the moved but in the stable. And that which moves [another] is of course stationary, for 'tis
impossible that it should move with it.<br /><br />
A: How is it, then, that things down here, Thrice-greatest one, are moved with those that are [already] moved? For thou hast said the errant spheres were moved by the inerrant one.<br /><br />
H: This is not, O Asclepius, a moving with, but one against; they are not moved with one another, but one against the other. It is this contrariety which turneth the resistance of their motion into rest. For that resistance is the rest of motion.
</div><br />
<i>"But if the space in which the cosmos is moved is perceived, it is not God but simply space"</i> - Salaman.<br />
This is like the naming of the Tao, which is actually the name of the name, a placeholder for that which cannot be named. Similarly, one cannot name a thing <i>God</i>, otherwise it becomes something else, and God <i>is</i> that thing but also everything that is not that thing as well.<br />
Meanwhile, stars are fixed in context of our planetary system, but they are not fixed in their own movement? I'm not sure if that's exactly what was meant here, but it's true all the same.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. Hence, too, the errant spheres, being moved contrarily to the inerrant one, are moved by one another by mutual contrariety, [and also] by the spable one through contrariety itself. And this can otherwise not be.<br />
The Bears up there <i.e., Ursa Major and Minor>, which neither set nor rise, think'st thou they rest or move?<br />
A: They move, Thrice-greatest one.<br />
H: And what their motion, my Asclepius?<br />
A: Motion that turns for ever round the same.<br />
H: But revolution - motion around same - is fixed by rest. For "roundthe-same" doth stop "beyond-same". "Beyond-same" then, being stopped, if it be steadied in "round-same" - the contrary stands firm, being rendered ever stable by its contrariety.
</div><br />
The "bears" are constellations. I repeat myself, but I'm fairly certain this is just a convoluted way of saying, <i>"stars are fixed in context of our planetary system, but they are not fixed in their own movement"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. Of this I'll give thee here on earth an instance, which the eye can see. Regard the animals down here - a man, for instance, swimming! The water moves, yet the resistance of his hands and feet give him stability, so that he is not borne along with it, nor sunk thereby.<br />
A: Thou hast, Thrice-greatest one, adduced a most clear instance.<br />
H: All motion, then, is caused in station and by station.<br />
The motion, therefore, of the cosmos (and of every other hylic <i.e., material> animal) will not be caused by things exterior to the cosmos, but by things interior [outward] to the exterior - such [things] as soul, or spirit, or some such other thing incorporeal.<br />
'Tis not the body that doth move the living thing in it; nay, not even the whole [body of the universe a lesser] body e'en though there be no life in it.
</div><br />
The swimmer analogy is about swimming upstream, how the water is moving and the swimmer is counter-moving, and in that way, remaining in one position. Can you apply this illustration to the stars, for example? Are they moving just to stay still in context to those orbiting around it? <br />
The World-Soul is forever moving. The body itself is not. It's the electricity that powers our physical motion, and this applies to the Universe as a whole.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. A: What meanest thou by this, Thrice-greatest one? Is it not bodies, then, that move the stock and stone and all the other things inanimate?<br />
H: By no means, O Asclepius. The something-in-the-body, the that-which-moves the thing inanimate, this surely's not a body, for that it
moves the two of them - both body of the lifter and the lifted? So that a thing that's lifeless will not move a lifeless thing. That which doth move [another thing] is animate, in that it is the mover.<br />
Thou seest, then, how heavy laden is the soul, for it alone doth lift two bodies. That things, moreover, moved are moved in something as well as moved by something is clear.
</div><br />
The soul moves the body to move other things. Nothing moves that is not alive. Although is not everything alive on an electron level? Are the tectonic plates moved by the Earth's spirit? Is the gravitational pull an effect of the Sun's spirit? I'm gonna say yes!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. A: Yea, O Thrice-greatest one, things moved must needs be moved in something void.<br />
H: Thou sayest well, O [my] Asclepius! For naught of things that are is void. Alone the "is-not" is void [and] stranger to subsistence. For that which is subsistent can never change to void.<br />
A: Are there, then, O Thrice-greatest one, no such things as an empty cask, for instance, and an empty jar, a cup and vat, and other things like unto them?<br />
H: Alack, Asclepius, for thy far-wandering from the truth! Think'st thou that things most full and most replete are void?
</div><br />
More on this up next, but for now, I'd like to commend Warwick for using the term <i>"full of existence"</i> to explain emptiness which is grand!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. A: How meanest thou, Thrice-greatest one?<br />
H: Is not air body?<br />
A: It is.<br />
H: And doth this body not pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill them? And "body"; doth body not consist from blending of the "four"
<elements>? Full, then, of air are all thou callest void; and if of air, then of the "four".<br />
Further, of this the converse follows, that all thou callest full are void - of air; for that they have their space filled out with other bodies, and, therefore, are not able to receive the air therein. These, then, which thou dost say are void, they should be hollow named, not void; for they not only are, but they are full of air and spirit.
</div><br />
Air (breath) and Spirit are fairly interchangeable in Greek, so much so that <i>"air and spirit"</i> is <i>"breath of life"</i>, according to Salaman. And if we remember the Janthopoyism hypothosis of "spirit" being an electron field, it's crazy how advanced this all is. The electron was only discovered in the late 1800s, yet these ancient texts tell us that even empty space is never empty!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12. A: Thy argument (logos), Thrice-greatest one, is not to be gainsaid; air is a body. Further, it is this body which doth pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill them. What are we, then, to call that space in which the all doth move?<br />
H: The bodiless, Asclepius.<br />
A: What, then, is Bodiless?<br />
H: 'Tis Mind and Reason (logos), whole out of whole, all self-embracing, free from all body, from all error free, unsensible to body and
untouchable, self stayed in self, containing all, preserving those that are, whose rays, to use a likeness, are Good, Truth, Light beyond light, the Archetype of soul.<br />
A: What, then, is God?
</div><br />
Running on from what I was saying just previous, air itself is full of mind (Nous), which is more directly referring to an energetic "bodiless" entity. Furthermore, Everard and Warwick say the mind is "comprehending itself" which ties into the quantum mechanics idea that the observer creates reality itself. There isn't anything at all but this field of electrons behaving in ways dependent on measurements!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. H: Not any one of these is He; for He it is that causeth them to be, both all and each and every thing of all that are. Nor hath He left a thing beside that is-not; but they are all from things-that-are and not from things-that-are-not. For that the things-that-are-not have naturally no power of being anything, but naturally have the power of the inability-tobe. And, conversely, the things-that-are have not the nature of some time not-being.
</div><br />
This grates slightly against the idea of encompassing absolutely everything, no?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. A: What say'st thou ever, then, God is?<br />
H: God, therefore, is not Mind, but Cause that the Mind is; God is not Spirit, but Cause that Spirit is; God is not Light, but Cause that the Light is. Hence one should honor God with these two names [the Good and Father] - names which pertain to Him alone and no one else.<br />
For no one of the other so-called gods, no one of men, or daimones, can be in any measure Good, but God alone; and He is Good alone and
nothing else. The rest of things are separable all from the Good's nature; for [all the rest] are soul and body, which have no place that can contain the Good.
</div><br />
Definitions and distinctions run wild.<br />
God is known by two terms here: all that is Good and the Father. Salaman tightens these up with Nous and the cause of existence. This splits the two roles of God as the pervading spirit and the Creator. So for me, the Big Bang is a part of the Creator definition, but I see that as a result of the formless spirit evolving towards a more perceivable self.<br />
The <i>"all that is Good"</i> aspect is a huge part of Hermeticism. It doesn't quite resonate with me that we as humans have no way to contain this goodness. I butt heads with his topic more as we move on.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. For that as mighty is the Greatness of the Good as is the Being of all things that are - both bodies and things bodiless, things sensible and intelligible things. Call thou not, therefore, aught else Good, for thou would'st imious be; nor anything at all at any time call God but Good alone, for so thou would'st again be impious.
</div><br />
In Hermeticism Land, it is blasphemous to call anything "good" except for God. It's a big ask, and I refuse limitations of vocabulary.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. Though, then, the Good is spoken of by all, it is not understood by all, what thing it is. Not only, then, is God not understood by all, but both unto the gods and some of the men they out of ignorance do give the name of Good, though they can never either be or become Good. For they are very different from God, while Good can never be distinguished from Him, for that God is the same as Good.<br />
The rest of the immortal ones are nonetheless honored with the name of God, and spoken of as gods; but God is Good not out of courtesy but out of nature. For that God's nature and the Good is one; one os the kind of both, from which all other kinds [proceed].<br />
The Good is he who gives all things and naught receives. God, then, doth give all things and receive naught. God, then, is Good, and Good is God.
</div><br />
<i>"God is good, not by being honoured, but by his nature."</i> - Salaman
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
17. The other name of God is Father, again because He is the that-whichmaketh-all. The part of father is to make.<br />
Wherefore child-making is a very great and a most pious thing in life for them who think aright, and to leave life on earth without a child a very great misfortune and impiety; and he who hath no child is punished by the daimones after death. And this is the punishment: that that man's soul who hath no child, shall be condemned unto a body with neither man's nor woman's nature, a thing accursed beneath the sun.<br />
Wherefore, Asclepius, let not your sympathies be with the man who hath no child, but rather pity his mishap, knowing what punishment abides for him.<br />
Let all that has been said then, be to thee, Asclepius, an introduction to the gnosis of the nature of all things.
</div><br />
It is fascinating that a religion said to predate Judaism uses the word "Father" for God.<br />
Still, I could not disagree with a passage more. Not having a child is a huge no-no in Hermeticism, but I'm sure it was of its time, an instruction for each civilisation to grow. Back in the day, it was a good idea. Now with our environmental awareness, it's no longer the way.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
IV. THE SACRED SERMON
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>A Sacred Discourse of Hermes</em> (Copenhaver); Untitled (Salaman); <em>The Holy Sermon</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
This is a famously disjointed chapter. Some scholars even express their opinion that it's incomplete.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. The Glory of all things is God, Godhead and Godly Nature. Source of the things that are is God, who is both Mind and Nature - yea Matter, the Wisdom that reveals all things. Source [too] is Godhead - yea Nature, Energy, Necessity, and End, and Making-new-again.<br /><br />
Darkness that knew no bounds was in Abyss, and Water [too] and subtle Breath intelligent; these were by Power of God in Chaos.<br /><br />
Then Holy Light arose; and there collected 'neath Dry Space <literally: "sand" > from out Moist Essence Elements; and all the Gods do separate things out from fecund Nature.
</div><br />
Mead's <i>"Dry Space"</i> as sand is interesting but not widespread, more commonly written as some combination of liquid and earth. I take this to mean that everything was made from dirt and water? Stardust functioning primarily on hydration? It makes sense to me!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. All things being undefined and yet unwrought, the light things were assigned unto the height, the heavy ones had their foundations laid down
underneath the moist part of Dry Space, the universal things being bounded off by Fire and hanged in Breath to keep them up.<br /><br />
And Heaven was seen in seven circles; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God.
</div><br />
Seven planets again. Fire again.<br />
The idea that gods show themselves as stars works for me on some level (Sun worship is star worship, after all), but I'm unsure of constellations. Maybe, maybe not. <br />
That's why I prefer Warwick's translations here, where he says <i>"gods were seen in their ideas of the stars"</i> and <i>"the stars were numbered with the gods in them"</i>. I feel we are the ones looking for shapes, and the alignment of stars are either random or for a purpose far greater than we are capable of hypothesising. Of course, I don't know what Hermes may have known.<br />
I also keep one foot on the theory that there was an alien intervention here, the stars being the worlds where the gods came from. It's interesting. But I am more inclined to believe it was just the course of the age, staring into the infinity of the night, capturing the imagination without any scientific clue.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. And every God by his own proper power brought forth what was appointed him. Thus there arose four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and those that in the water dwell, and things with wings, and everything that beareth seed, and grass, and shoot of every flower, all having in
themselves seed of again-becoming.<br /><br />
And they selected out the births of men for gnosis of the works of God and attestation of the energy of Nature; the multitude of men for lordship over all beneath the heaven and gnosis of its blessings, that they might increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, and every soul infleshed by revolution of the Cyclic Gods, for observation of the marvels of Heaven and Heaven's Gods' revolution, and of the works of God and energy of Nature, for tokens of its blessings, for gnosis of the power of God, that they might know the fates that follow good and evil [deeds] and learn the cunning work of all good arts.
</div><br />
As per usual, Salaman helps us to understand easier: <i>"The gods sent forth the generations of men, so that they should know the word of God, be the active witness of nature, and that they should multiply, rule over all under heaven, and know what is good; and so that they should increase and continue to increase, multiply and continue to multiply. Through their own wonder-working course the gods sent forth every soul clothed in flesh, so that men should survey heaven, the paths of the heavenly gods, the works of God and the activity of nature; so that they should know the signs of what is good, the power of God, and the turning fate of good and evil things and discover all the marvellous works of good men."</i> <br />
Some decent life summary here. Work out what is good and then be good while reproducing. I do wonder how Hermeticism fits in with evolution though.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. [Thus] there begins their living and their growing wise, according to the fate appointed by the revolution of the Cyclic Gods, and their deceasing for this end.<br /><br />
And there shall be memorials mighty of their handiworks upon the earth, leaving dim trace behind when cycles are renewed.<br /><br />
For every birth of flesh ensouled, and of the fruit of seed, and every handiwork, though it decay, shall of necessity renew itself, both by the
renovation of the Gods and by the turning-round of Nature's rhythmic wheel.<br /><br />
For that whereas the Godhead is Nature's ever-making-new-again the cosmic mixture, Nature herself is also co-established in that Godhead.
</div><br />
Everard: <i>"So it beginneth to live in them, and to be wise according to the operation of the course of the circular gods; and to be resolved into that which shall be great monuments and the memory of the cunning works done upon earth, leaving them to be read by the darkness of times."</i> <br />
I love this closer. All things must end, the cycle goes around, but there will forever be traces of us. You can take that on an archaeological sense or you can go deeper. And if so, it's the first Occult text I've found (besides Janthopoyism) that alludes to a learning effect, whereby everything done is part of a process and shall weave its presence into the fabric of forever. God lives in everything, we are God, we are contributing to a forward motion, us building upon what was before while what we provide is continued for infinity.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
V. THE CUP OR MONAD
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>A Discourse of Hermes to Tat: The Mixing Bowl or the Monad </em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Tat</em> (Salaman); <em>His Crater or Monas</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
Did you know Hermes has a son? His name is Tat, and this treatise is part of his education. And what an education it is! A very powerful chapter that really made a profound impact on me in a practical sense. The concept of turning the "mind" away from the physical flipped my brain around a bit, and (according to my notes) I <i>"actually felt high, legit insane feelings"</i> which is always what we seek!<br />
Scholars have also spent much time musing over the connection between the cup and other similar mystical documentations, such as Holy Communion and the Holy Grail. It's fun, but it's all speculation, and I couldn't find anything solid on the matter.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Hermes: With Reason (Logos), not with hands, did the World-maker make the universal World; so that thou shouldst think of him as everywhere and ever-being, the Author of all things, and One and Only, who by His Will all beings hath created.<br /><br />
This Body of Him is a thing no man can touch, or see, or measure, a body inextensible, like to no other frame. 'Tis neither Fire nor Water, Air nor Breath; yet all of them come from it. Now being Good he willed to consecrate this [Body] to Himself alone, and set its Earth in order and adorn it.
</div><br />
The Universe created by reasoned speech (according to Copenhaver plus the meaning of Logos) or <i>"the Word"</i> (Salaman, Everard/Warwick) ties into everything I've learned about cosmogony. It's a sound, a root vibrational understanding which is scientific fact via electrons. To add the word "reasoned" adds a nice spice. It was intentional.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. So down [to Earth] He sent the Cosmos of this Frame Divine - man, a life that cannot die, and yet a life that dies. And o'er [all other] lives and over Cosmos [too], did man excel by reason of the Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For contemplator of God's works did man become; he marvelled and did strive to know their Author.
</div><br />
Copenhaver: <i>"The man became a spectator of god's work. He looked at it in astonishment and recognised its maker"</i>. I can digest this. As far as we know, we're the only creatures who actively seek God, right?<br />
Hence, man is the midpoint between nature and God. The Cosmos itself is the Universal Energy in a physical form, which has an expiry date. But the human consciousness/awareness is a spiritual component which brings immortality, making us godlike and superior to even the Cosmos itself. This is not congruent with my definitions but only due to a lack of any certainty. I can't just accept and have an aversion to the ego-driven mentality that humans have, one of such self-importance. Hermeticism is full of it.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. Reason (Logos) indeed, O Tat, among all men hath He distributed, but Mind not yet; not that He grudgeth any, for grudging cometh not from
Him, but hath its place below, within the souls of men who have no Mind.<br />
Tat: Why then did God, O father, not on all bestow a share of Mind?<br />
H: He willed, my son, to have it set up in the midst for souls, just as it were a prize.
</div><br />
This dialogue further supports my notion that "mind" is the incorrect word, simply the best they had at the time. For it claims not all men have a mind, only some are granted the mind like a prize. But then how do we define that? Is it a level of awareness? And would not every human claim they have mind? So how can we trust who says they do or don't? And how do I know I have that?<br />
Hence I (again) consider Salaman's use of the word Nous here (and everywhere) to be essential and the only accurate interpretation. It's a different thing. It's more of a godlike energy that underlies everything, and the closer you get to it, the better you see through the Maya.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. T: And where hath He set it up?<br />
H: He filled a mighty Cup with it, and sent it down, joining a Herald [to it], to whom He gave command to make this proclamation to the hearts of men:<br />
Baptise thyself with this Cup's baptism, what heart can do so, thou that hast faith thou canst ascend to him that hath sent down the Cup, thou that dost know for what thoudidst come into being!<br />
As many then as understood the Herald's tidings and doused themselves in Mind, became partakers in the Gnosis; and when they had "received
the Mind" they were made "perfect men".<br />
But they who do not understand the tidings, these, since they possess the aid of Reason [only] and not Mind, are ignorant wherefor they have come into being and whereby.
</div><br />
According to Salaman, if you have this Nous, you feel complete. So confirmed I don't have it then. Does anyone?<br />
The cup (or mixing bowl or perhaps even Holy Grail) comes in here, spoken in terms of baptism. Everard/Warwick refer to being <i>"dowsed into the mind"</i> of God, which is a mad angle. Surely metaphorical in that standpoint which makes sense to me even in terms of Abrahamic literature.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. The senses of such men are like irrational creatures'; and as their [whole] make-up is in their feelings and their impulses, they fail in all appreciation of <lit.: "they do not wonder at" > those things which really are worth contemplation. These center all their thought upon the pleasures of the body and its appetites, in the belief that for its sake man hath come into being.<br /><br />
But they who have received some portion of God's gift, these, Tat, if we judge by their deeds, have from Death's bonds won their release; for they embrace in their own Mind all things, things on the earth, things in the heaven, and things above the heaven - if there be aught. And having raised themselves so far they sight the Good; and having sighted it, they look upon their sojourn here as a mischance; and in disdain of all, both things in body and the bodiless, they speed their way unto that One and Only One.
</div><br />
There's an epiphany egg in here, and if I can just think about it in the right way, then I'm going to crack reality right open.<br />
It's materialism as the root of all problems. The more you take the Universe at physical value, the deeper into the illusion you get stuck, which is the opposite of spiritual liberation. This includes possessions, relationships, sexual desires, etc. This has been written about forever in Eastern religions, most notably Jainism, and I can feel there is truth here in my heart. <br />
<i>"But wholly addicted to the pleasures and desires of the body, they believe that man was made for them"</i> - Everard
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. This is, O Tat, the Gnosis of the Mind, Vision of things Divine; Godknowledge is it, for the Cup is God's.<br />
T: Father, I, too, would be baptised.<br />
H: Unless thou first shall hate thy Body, son, thou canst not love thy Self. But if thou lov'st thy Self thou shalt have Mind, and having Mind thou shalt share in the Gnosis.<br />
T: Father, what dost thou mean?<br />
H: It is not possible, my son, to give thyself to both - I mean to things that perish and to things divine. For seeing that existing things are twain, Body and Bodiless, in which the perishing and the divine are understood, the man who hath the will to choose is left the choice of one or the other; for it can never be the twain should meet. And in those souls to whom the choice is left, the waning of the one causes the other's growth to show itself.
</div><br />
You cannot love yourself unless you hate your body. It's a big ask, but I don't think it's literal, more like a rejection of your own personal representation of the physical world. The difference between mortality and divinity is purely physical. Instead of falling slave to Earthly desires, lean into the background spiritual essence. The more you focus on The One, the others will shrink. That's the greatest lesson I've learned from all my occult studies.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. Now the choosing of the Better not only proves a lot most fair for him who makes the choice, seeing it makes the man a God, but also shows his piety to God. Whereas the [choosing] of the Worse, although it doth destroy the "man", it doth only disturb God's harmony to this extent, that as processions pass by in the middle of the way, without being able to do anything but take the road from others, so do such men move in procession through the world led by their bodies' pleasures.
</div><br />
By following the physical, you not only destroy yourself but may also hinder the path of others. This offends God, which seems weird to me. How could we offend God? Did it not create this? But whatever.<br />
Meanwhile, those who seek enlightenment not only unite with God (become godlike) but also please God as the correct pursuit.<br /><br />
Here's Copenhaver to better grasp it: <i>"Thus this power, the choice of the better, not only happens to be the most glorious for him who chooses, in that it unites man with God, but it also shows reverence to God. The inferior choice has destroyed man. Nothing offends God but this : as processions passing in the road cannot achieve anything themselves, yet still obstruct others, so these men merely process through the universe, led by the pleasures of the body."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. This being so, O Tat, what comes from God hath been and will be ours; but that which is dependent on ourselves, let this press onward and have no delay, for 'tis not God, 'tis we who are the cause of evil things, preferring them to good.<br /><br />
Thou see'st, son, how many are the bodies through which we have to pass, how many are the choirs of daimones, how vast the system of the star-courses [through which our Path doth lie], to hasten to the One and Only God.<br /><br />
For to the Good there is no other shore; It hath no bounds; It is without an end; and for Itself It is without beginning, too, though unto us it seemeth to have one - the Gnosis.
</div><br />
Gnosis is Knowledge in other translations. <br />
There is a conundrum when it comes to Hermeticism, "God", and "Good". According to the Corpus Hermeticum, God is only good, nothing else is good, and God does not make bad things. Therefore, when something good happens, praise be to God, but when something bad takes place, it is purely the fault of the human. That is a cop-out and far from Janthopoyism's teachings.<br />
The problem comes with the concept of The All, a pantheistic/panenthestic understanding of how everything exists within and emenates from "God". This is a notion Hermeticism preaches loudly, and yet if we are here and a bad thing happens, then this is surely part of (or made by) this God, meaning it cannot be all good.<br />
Some Hermetic scholars have tried to tackle this. Salaman later states, <i>"It is only God (in the sense of the nous, not in the sense of the All) who is completely free of evil."</i> which differentiates The All (Father?) and the Nous. It's yet another example of how convoluted Occult teaching becomes, and it's wholly unnecessary. One could even accuse it of moral herding, equating good deeds as "godly" when the true God is in the balance of both good and evil. The simplicity is where Janthopoyism excels, but in all fairness, we have had millennia of educated texts to help us get there.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. Therefore to It Gnosis is no beginning; rather is it [that Gnosis doth afford] to us the first beginning of its being known.<br /><br />
Let us lay hold, therefore, of the beginning. and quickly speed through all [we have to pass].<br />
`Tis very hard, to leave the things we have grown used to, which meet our gaze on every side, and turn ourselves back to the Old Old [Path].<br />
Appearances delight us, whereas things which appear not make their believing hard.<br />
Now evils are the more apparent things, whereas the Good can never show Itself unto the eyes, for It hath neither form nor figure.<br />
Therefore the Good is like Itself alone, and unlike all things else; or 'tis impossible that That which hath no body should make Itself apparent to a body.
</div><br />
Essentially we must seize "the origin" (premanifested God?) and run with it without being distracted by the material world. It also fully recognises that it's a difficult thing to achieve, because ("evil") material appears readily before the eyes, whereas the Nous is invisible. As says Everard, <i>"for things that appear, delightful us, but make the things that appear not, hard to believe, or the things that appear not, are hard to believe".</i><br />
There is a lot of science to this. We get stuck in a logic-based world which is so tied to the physical that it makes unmeasurable things seem untrue. It's a flaw in our current ways of thinking, and well reported in the Janthopoyism Bible. <br />
I do wonder how Hermeticism gels with the "present moment" mindfulness of so many other teachings. Being here in the moment without paying any mind to the material traits might actually smash the walls down pretty hard!<br /><br />
I've added Salaman's full translation because it's easier: <i>"Knowledge then is not the origin of the Supreme Good, but for us it provides the origin of what is to be known. Let us therefore take hold of the origin, and pass over everything else with speed; for it is a path full of tangles, when leaving the familiar and present, to return to the ancient and original. For what appears to the eyes delights us, and what is unseen makes us mistrust. To those who have eyes, evil is most evident and the Supreme Good is hidden. For the Supreme Good has no form and leaves no mark. Thus it is like to itself, but unlike all else. What is unembodied, can never be seen by a body."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. The "Like's" superiority to the "Unlike" and the "Unlike's" inferiority unto the "Like" consists in this:<br /><br />
The Oneness being Source and Root of all, is in all things as Root and Source. Without [this] Source is naught; whereas the Source [Itself] is from naught but itself, since it is Source of all the rest. It is Itself Its Source, since It may have no other Source.<br /><br />
The Oneness then being Source, containeth every number, but is contained by none; engendereth every number, but is engendered by no other one.
</div><br />
Instead of The Oneness, Copenhaver uses the Monad (as he does in the title) i.e. the most basic or original substance.<br />
In justification to the whole <i>"God is good"</i> notion, it's worth noting that materialistic people crave spirituality, and never the other way round. This does place some defence in the <i>"like wants always somewhat of the like"</i> as Everard/Warwick put it.<br /><br />
Around here of reading my notes shot off onto a tangent about <i>"The Breath of God"</i>, that we are emanating away from that original source the further we manifest into this tangible reality. The process is beautiful in its own self, as we are experiencing something or other. And if not that, then what? We retreat back into the inhale of source, reality itself collapsing? Is that what esoteric knowledge will ultimately provide? How many minds does it take to unscrew the lightbulb? And is that even the goal? Or should we just enjoy what we've built here more? It is all divinity, the fact that we are here was obviously the point.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. Now all that is engendered is imperfect, it is divisible, to increase subject and to decrease; but with the Perfect [One] none of these things doth hold. Now that which is increasable increases from the Oneness, but succumbs through its own feebleness when it no longer can contain the One.<br /><br />
And now, O Tat, God's Image hath been sketched for thee, as far as it can be; and if thou wilt attentively dwell on it and observe it with thine heart's eyes, believe me, son, thou'lt find the Path that leads above; nay, that Image shall become thy Guide itself, because the Sight [Divine] hath this peculiar [charm], it holdeth fast and draweth unto it those who succeed in opening their eyes, just as, they say, the magnet [draweth] iron.
</div><br />
<i>"But everything generated is imperfect and divisible, subject to increase and decrease. None of this happens to what is perfect. And what can be increased takes its increase from the monad, but it is defeated by its own weakness, no longer able to make room for the monad."</i> says Copenhaver. It tells you exactly what God is and isn't. It's the perfect indivisible whole, for as soon as you break it into pieces, those separations can increase or decrease, meaning they are no longer perfect. And, most importantly of all, if you concentrate on it, it will guide you.<br /><br />
Everard/Warwick use <i>"Unity"</i> instead of Monad/The One, which has its benefits.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VI. THOUGH UNMANIFEST GOD IS MOST MANIFEST
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>A Discourse of Hermes to Tat, His Son: That God is Invisible and Entirely Visible</em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Tat</em> (Salaman); <em>That God is Not Manifest And Yet is Most Manifest</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
Hermes continues chatting with his son, hence Salaman's title for this chapter is identical to the previous. Copenhaver's title is the best here, especially the <i>"God is Invisible and Entirely Visible"</i> part. It fits this chapter perfectly. Mead's title reminds me of the Dao again, as from the unmanifested the manifest comes; an extension of God.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most manifest for thee.<br /><br />
Now were it manifest, it would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becoming, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest for ever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things.<br /><br />
Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinkingmanifest <i.e., thinking into manifestation>, He thinketh all things manifest.<br /><br />
Now "thinking-manifest" deals with things made alone, for thinkingmanifest is nothing else than making.
</div><br />
There are multiple layers here from my perspective.<br />
God is the unmanifested from where all things manifest. Once something manifests, it is still in God, but it has taken on other qualities. It is definable, and is now at the mercy of other laws. Therefore, nothing we know can be God as a whole, for God itself is undefinable, unknowable, and intangible.<br />
God is not manifested because nothing manifested it, it is before the manifestation. And it is only this God that manifests the stuff via its thoughts. I believe we can apply this to ourselves too, whereby it is our observing that creates reality (quantum mechanics) and the conscious thoughts that align us with what happens (LOA). We are God perceiving God through us.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking-manifest, and is unmanifest.<br /><br />
And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest. <br /><br />
Do thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One-and-Only One, from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto
thee, in order that thou mayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone "sees" the Unmanifest, in that it is itself unmanifest.<br /><br />
If, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord begrudgeth not Himself to anything, but manifests Himself
through the whole world.<br /><br />
Thou hast the power of taking thought, of seeing it and grasping it in thy own "hands", and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is within thee even is unmanifest to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is within thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes?
</div><br />
Mental activity is godliness because it too is unmanifested material. But you can still see God deeply stitched into the core of the manifested.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. But if thou wouldst "see" him, bethink thee of the sun, bethink thee of moon's course, bethink thee of the order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number.<br /><br />
The sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven; to whom all of the heavenly gods give place as unto king and master. And he, this so-great one, he greater than the earth and sea, endures to have above him circling smaller stars than him. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son, [doth he do this]?<br />
Nor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who [then] is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent?
</div><br />
Copenhaver: <i>"Does not each of these stars in heaven make the same circuit or a similar one? Who determined the direction and the size of the circuit for each of them?"</i> <br />
The above (more modern) interpretation is better than Mead's, because Mead is more directly Sun-worshipping. I get that we're talking from an Earthly perspective, in which the Sun is the best, but it's still one of the most gaping flaws in Hermeticism, claiming to be otherwordly knowledge that has no regard to the infinities of the universe and what else might be there. Is there a limit to God? One just for us? If we think in the sense of an actual universal absolute, then no. <br />
And of course, scientific-leaning atheists will be quick to argue against something mystical about the solar system, using simple evolution. Still, this is a cop-out. It's such an intricate configuration, and while perhaps random events led us here, it's a puny human-ego thing to do, to rule out something despite the size and unknowns.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. The Bear up there that turneth round itself, and carries round the whole cosmos with it - Who is the owner of this instrument? Who He
who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth?<br /><br />
For, Tat, there is someone who is the Maker and the Lord of all these things. It cound not be that number, place and measure could be kept
without someone to make them. No order whatsoever could be made by that which lacketh place and lacketh measure; nay, even this is not
without a lord, my son. For if the orderless lacks something, in that it is not lord of order's path, it also is beneath a lord - the one who hath not yet ordained it order.
</div><br />
Salaman: <i>"This Great Bear turns around itself, and carries the whole universe along with itself."</i> So poetic, such a visual.<br />
The bear is a constellation, which Everard/Warwick refer to as female.<br />
Obviously people will take issues with the creationism side of these texts, but it's the pedantic order of the Cosmos that is difficult to argue against. It's so ordered!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftness, [and] the coursing of the stars, the swiftness of heaven's circuit round them [all]!<br /><br />
Most blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway -the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order.
</div><br />
What's great is that we do this all the time now.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. If thou would'st see Him too through things that suffer death, both on the earth and in the deep, think of a man's being fashioned in the womb, my son, and strictly scrutinise the art of Him who fashions him, and learn who fashioneth this fair and godly image of the Man.<br /><br />
Who [then] is He who traceth out the circles of the eyes; who He who boreth out the nostrils and the ears; who He who openeth [the portal of] the mouth; who He who doth stretch out and tie the nerves; who He who channels out the veins; who He who hardeneth the bones; who He who covereth the flesh with skin; who He who separates the fingers and the joints; who He who widens out a treading for the feet; who He who diggeth out the ducts; who He who spreadeth out the spleen; who he who shapeth heart like to a pyramid; who He who setteth ribs together; who He who wideneth the liver out; who He who maketh lungs like to a sponge; who He who maketh belly stretch so much; who he who doth make prominent the parts most honorable, so that they may be seen, while hiding out of sight those of least honor?
</div><br />
A lot of evolutionary debate could resist this, but for me, I still feel like the creation of a human inside of another human is the most godlike shit I can fathom. It's insane.<br />
And even if you wish to disregard these miracles as evolution, ask yourself why did specific senses develop to interpret certain vibrations (audio, visual, etc.)? That's weird to be random. Why not something else? Why not less or more? The reason I would lean more towards a Godlike guidance theory is because practical evolutionary steps would have been more mathematical and methodical. Instead, it's kinda shoddy what we've ended up with hence its easier to blame an overarching force just oozing along, hahaha. <br />
The last line refers to genitalia or, at very least, the butthole.<br />
<i>"Portal of the mouth"</i> is exclusive to Mead and appreciated!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. Behold how many arts [employed] on one material, how many labors on one single sketch; and all exceeding fair, and all in perfect measure, yet all diversified! Who made them all? What mother, or what sire, save God alone, unmanifest, who hath made all things by His Will?
</div><br />
And yeah, babies are made from the same atomic substance just like everything yet somehow it does this? And atheists think science has the answer for it? It doesn't, you know. It never will. Not saying it's a "God" per se, just that it could be something comparable rather than just the stock unimaginative atheistic answers.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. And no one saith a statue or a picture comes to be without a sculptor or [without] a painter; doth [then] such workmanship as this exist without a Worker? What depth of blindness, what deep impiety, what depth of ignorance! See, [then] thou ne'er, son Tat, deprivest works of Worker!<br />
Nay, rather is He greater than all names, so great is He, the Father of them all. For verily He is the Only One, and this is His work, to be a father.
</div><br />
Also a valid point! When someone makes art, do you say, <i>"Oh yeah, science and evolution!"</i>. There is always a creator. I think peope get hooked up on the personification aspect, brainwashed by Abharamic definitions as to what God is, not what it could conceivably mean.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. So, if thou forcest me somewhat too bold, to speak, His being is conceiving of all things and making [them].<br /><br />
And as without its maker its is impossible that anything should be, so ever is He not unless He ever makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of everything. For there is naught in all the world that is not He.<br /><br />
He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, He keepeth things that are not in
Himself.
</div><br />
This ties in nicely with my Pantheistic understanding. God is everything as a unit, including that which is behind the scenes as the unmanifested. He is everything and the nothing between everything, so tells the Dao. <br />
Copenhaver and Everard/Warwick use the term <i>"pregnant"</i> for this conceiving business, which is interesting considering how firm Hermeticism stands that "God" is male and nature is female (something I do not blindly agree with).
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. He is the God beyond all name; He the unmanifest, He the most manifest; He whom the mind [alone] can contemplate, He visible to the
eyes [as well]; He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather He of every body.<br /><br />
Naught is there which he is not. For all are He and He is all. And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no nome, in that He's Father of [them] all.<br /><br />
Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee?<br /><br />
Whither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing Thy praise; above, below, within, without?<br /><br />
There is no way, no place [is there] about Thee, nor any other thing of things that are.<br /><br />
All [are] in Thee; all [are] from Thee, O Thou who givest all and takest naught, for Thou hast all and naught is there Thou hast not.
</div><br />
As above, so below. Bodiless yet ALL bodies. All names yet with no name. You can only see god in the mind, except that you can see god everywhere in the physical too. Weirdly it makes complete sense. <br />
I also love the <i>"giving all but taking nothing"</i> idea, because it is everything so it needs nothing, but it gives everything we see. Appreciate life!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. And when, O Father, shall I hymn Thee? For none can seize Thy hour or time.<br /><br />
For what, again, shall I sing hymn? For things that Thou hast made, or things Thou hast not? For things Thou hast made manifest, or things Thou hast concealed?<br /><br />
How, further, shall I hymn Thee? As being of myself? As having something of mine own? As being other?<br /><br />
For that Thou art whatever I may be; Thou art whatever I may do; Thou art whatever I may speak.<br /><br />
For Thou art all, and there is nothing else which Thou art not. Thou art all that which doth exist, and Thou art what doth not exist - Mind when Thou thinkest, and Father when Thou makest, and God when Thou dost energise, and Good and Maker of all things.<br /><br />
For that the subtler part of matter is the air, of air the soul, of soul the mind, and of mind God.
</div><br />
When we praise God, are we not just pieces of God praising a projected aspect of ourselves? Are we not just God praising God? It's weird.<br />
Last line is great too. This energetic soul essence is like air because it is "unmanifested". The soul powers the brain to create our understanding of the human mind, at least that's what Janthopoyism says.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VII. IN GOD ALONE IS GOOD AND ELSEWHERE NOWHERE
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>That the Good Is in God Alone and Nowhere Else </em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Asclepius </em> (Salaman); <em>That in God Alone is Good</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
Here we go, deeper into the Hermetic statement that God and <i>only</i> God is good, while everything bad is not God. Janthopoyism wholeheartedly disagrees. Our terminology for God is The All, the Highest Collective Power which must encapsulate everything including the bad. Hermeticism has taken an aspect of the Absolute and chosen to worship it, and that's fine, but it still exists within an extended system of balance between good and bad. That is the higher plain that Jantho calls God. Our God is bigger than your God.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Good, O Asclepius, is in none else save in God alone; nay, rather, Good is God Himself eternally.<br /><br />
If it be so, [Good] must be essence, from every kind of motion and becoming free (though naught is free from It), possessed of stable energy around Itself, never too little, nor too much, an ever-full supply. [Though] one, yet [is It] source of all; for what supplieth all is Good. When I, moreover, say [supplieth] altogether [all], it is for ever Good. But this belongs to no one else save God alone.<br /><br />
For He stands not in need of any thing, so that desiring it He should be bad; nor can a single thing of things that are be lost to him, on losing which He should be pained; for pain is part of bad.<br /><br />
Nor is there aught superior to Him, that He should be subdued by it; nor any peer to Him to do Him wrong, or [so that] He should fall in love on its account; nor aught that gives no ear to Him, whereat He should grow angry; nor wiser aught, for Him to envy.
</div><br />
<i> "No being is disobedient to Him which would provoke His anger, nor is any being wiser which would provoke His jealousy."</i> - Salaman. It's refreshingly different from Abrahamic teachings.<br />
The absence of God being bad is a worthy education, considering the time of writing. It's the moral herding of religion that perhaps had its place once upon an age. It's also probably why these texts survived the mighty sweep of Christian oppression.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. Now as all these are non-existent in His being, what is there left but Good alone?<br /><br />
For just as naught of bad is to be found in such transcendent Being, so too in no one of the rest will Good be found.<br /><br />
For in them are all of the other things <i.e., those things which are not Good> - both in the little and the great, both in each severally and in this living one that's greater than them all and the mightiest [of them] <i.e., the cosmos>.<br /><br />
For things subject to birth abound in passions, birth in itself being passible. But where there's passion, nowhere is there Good; and where is Good, nowhere a single passion. For where is day, nowhere is night; and where is night, day is nowhere.<br /><br />
Wherefore in genesis the Good can never be, but only be in the ingenerate.<br /><br />
But seeing that the sharing in all things hath been bestowed on matter, so doth it share in Good.<br /><br />
In this way is the Cosmos Good; that, in so far as it doth make all things, as far as making goes it's Good, but in all other things it is not Good. For it's both passible and subject unto motion, and maker of things passible.
</div><br />
Another issue I take is this invincible blanket where if something is good, it's God, when something is bad, he's nowhere near it. It's too easy.<br />
The word <i>"passion"</i> used as a negative trait is tricky here and I was ready to fight it but I have since found some claims that it is an old-timey phrase to mean <i>"passive"</i>. While that disagrees with the Tao Te Ching, I am more comfortable with it. Everard uses <i>"will"</i> instead, which is far more Dao-related. Curiously, Salaman uses <i>"suffering"</i>.<br />
It also alludes to how making things is good, perhaps only in a God (Creator) sense, but surely that trickles down? Copenhaver, Everard, and Warwick use the word <i>"participation"</i> instead of <i>"making"</i>.<br /><br />
Side note: I love how Copenhaver uses the word <i>"substance"</i> to refer to the supreme <i>"being"</i>, it coincides with my understandings 100%.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. Whereas in man by greater or less of bad is good determined. For what is not too bad down here, is good, and good down here is the least part of bad.<br /><br />
It cannot, therefore, be that good down here should be quite clean of bad, for down here good is fouled with bad; and being fouled, it stays no longer good, and staying not it changes into bad.<br /><br />
In God alone, is, therefore, Good, or rather Good is God Himself. So then, Asclepius, the name alone of Good is found in men, the thing
itself nowhere [in them], for this can never be.<br /><br />
For no material body doth contain It - a thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors, pains, desires and passions, by error and by foolish thoughts.<br /><br />
And greatest ill of all, Asclepius, is that each of these things that have been said above, is thought down here to be the greatest good.<br /><br />
And what is still an even greater ill, is belly-lust, the error that doth lead the band of all the other ills - the thing that makes us turn down here from Good.
</div><br />
There is no way for humans to be good, so don't worry about it. The entire thing is a diss on nature, for this is where the separation between God and man lies.<br />
Copenhaver: <i>"Here below, the evil that is not excessive is the good, and the good is the least amount of evil here below"</i>. Our definition of good is not pure good, it's just the lessening of evil.<br />
Finally, <i>"Belly-Lust"</i> lol! What a term! Which obviously means gluttony (Copenhaver/Warwick) or greed (Salaman) or<i> "pleasures of the belly</i>" (Everard). It's strange that this is considered the <i>"ringleader of all evils"</i>, no? I can think of worse.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. And I, for my part, give thanks to God, that He hath cast it in my mind about the Gnosis of the Good, that it can never be It should be in the world. For that the world is "fullness" of the bad, but God of Good, and Good of God.<br /><br />
The excellencies of the Beautiful are round the very essence [of the Good]; nay, they do seem too pure, too unalloyed; perchance 'tis they that are themselves Its essences.<br /><br />
For one may dare to say, Asclepius - if essence, sooth, He have - God's essence is the Beautiful; the Beautiful is further also Good.<br /><br />
There is no Good that can be got from objects in the world. For all the things that fall beneath the eye are image-things and pictures as it were; while those that do not meet [the eye are the realities], especially the [essence] of the Beautiful and Good.<br /><br />
Just as the eye cannot see God, so can it not behold the Beautiful and Good. For that they are integral parts of God, wedded to Him alone, inseparate familiars, most beloved, with whom God is Himself in love, or they with God.
</div><br />
Salaman: <i>"For the world is the sum total of evil"</i> - what a terrible perspective!<br />
I do like how the essence of God is questioned, because they don't know. That's the only actual way to speak of God.<br />
Where Mead says <i>"pictures"</i>, Salaman says <i>"paintings"</i> while Everard/Warwick say <i>"idols and shadows"</i>. This is important; it's the Maya thing again. Everything we see is an illusion, so even while it is a manifestation of God, it's not genuinely anything but a facade before the truth.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. If thou canst God conceive, thou shalt conceive the Beautiful and Good, transcending Light, made lighter than the Light by God. That
Beauty is beyond compare, inimitate that Good, e'en as God is Himself.<br /><br />
As, then, thou dost conceive of God, conceive the Beautiful and Good. For they cannot be joined with aught of other things that live, since they can never be divorced from God.<br /><br />
Seek'st thou for God, thou seekest for the Beautiful. One is the Path that leadeth unto It - Devotion joined with Gnosis.
</div><br />
It's simple and makes sense. You find God through <i>"Devotion joined with Gnosis"</i> (reverence/piety with knowledge) as well as by seeking beautiful things. But is not beauty in the eye of the beholder? And that is exactly what I resonate with. It's an inner state, one which differs from person to person. <br />
<i>"If you seek after God, you also seek after beauty."</i> - Salaman.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. And thus it is that they who do not know and do not tread Devotion's Path, do dare to call man beautiful and good, though he have ne'er e'en in his visions seen a whit that's Good, but is enveloped with every kind of bad, and thinks the bad is good, and thus doth make unceasing use of it, and even feareth that it should be ta'en from him, so straining every nerve not only to preserve but even to increase it.<br /><br />
Such are the things that men call good and beautiful, Asclepius - things which we cannot flee or hate; for hardest thing of all is that we've need of them and cannot live without them.
</div><br />
I like this: it's not good if it's not quenching you and only leaves bigger cravings. It's also not good if you're afraid of losing it. Again, this is Daoism through and through, while I keep getting flashes that Jainism might be the final path out of here. To truly connect with that world, you must rid yourself of ALL material possessions, including places and people.<br />
The last line is difficult. We've grown dependent on this reality, I guess?
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VIII. THE GREATEST ILL AMONG MEN IS IGNORANCE OF GOD
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>That the Greatest Evil in Mankind is Ignorance Concerning God</em> (Copenhaver); no title (Salaman); <em>That the Greatest Evil in Man is Not Knowing God</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
From my perspective, this treatise is about breaking free from the Maya by realising it is what we see as physical.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Whither stumble ye, sots, who have sopped up the wine of ignorance and can so far not carry it that ye already even spew it forth?<br /><br />
Stay ye, be sober, gaze upwards with the [true] eyes of the heart! And if ye cannot all, yet ye at least who can!<br /><br />
For that the ill of ignorance doth pour o'er all the earth and overwhelm the soul that's battened down within the body, preventing it from fetching port within Salvation's harbors.
</div><br />
Salaman: <i>"Whither are you being carried, 0 men, drunk as you are, having swallowed neat, the word of ignorance, which you cannot keep down, but are already vomiting up? Stop, be sober."</i> - relatable. Of course, the drunkness it speaks of can in every way lend itself to intoxication but may also be applied to any Earthly indulgences. And the more your trap your soul in the material, the more you damage it, and the more difficult it will be to connect to the larger being.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. Be ye then not carried off by the fierce flood, but using the shorecurrent <lit., "back-current" or "up-current" >, ye who can, make for Salvation's port, and, harboring there, seek ye for one to take you by the hand and lead you unto Gnosis' gates.<br /><br />
Where shines clear Light, of every darkness clean; where not a single soul is drunk, but sober all they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who willeth to be seen.<br /><br />
No ear can hear Him, nor can eye see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but [only] mind and heart.<br /><br />
But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear - the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption's chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation's corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice.
</div><br />
I love Copenhaver's poetics. To know God, <i>"first you must rip off the tunic that you wear, the garment of ignorance, the foundation of vice, the bonds of corruption, the dark cage, the living death, the sentient corpse, the portable tomb, the resident thief, the one who hates through what he loves and envies through what he hates."</i><br /><br />
Basically, you can't perceive God, a metaphysical concept, via physical senses. You can only experience God through Nous and the heart. I wish there was more of a direct instruction manual on how to do this though.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. Such is the hateful cloak thou wearest - that throttles thee [and holds thee] down to it, in order that thou may'st not gaze above, and having seen the Beauty of the Truth, and Good that dwells therein, detest the bad of it; having found out the plot that it hath schemed against thee, by making void of sense those seeming things which men think senses.<br /><br />
For that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may'st not hear about the things that thou should'st hear, nor see the things thou should'st see.
</div><br />
I loooove this, how the physical Maya world plays tricks on us by making itself "pleasurable". It pulls us on its level, so we do not even realise the viciousness of it. That's some good stuff.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
IX. THAT NO ONE OF EXISTING THINGS DOTH PERISH, BUT MEN IN ERROR SPEAK OF THEIR CHANGES AS DESTRUCTIONS AND AS DEATHS
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>That None of the Things That Are Is Destroyed, and They Are Mistaken Who Say That Changes Are Deaths and Destructions</em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Tat</em> (Salaman); <em>That None of the Things That Are Can Perish</em> (Everard/Warwick)<br /><br />
This chapter revolves around DEATH.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. [Hermes:] Concerning Soul and Body, son, we now must speak; in what way Soul is deathless, and whence comes the activity in composing and dissolving Body.<br /><br />
For there's no death for aught of things [that are]; the thought this word conveys, is either void of fact, or [simply] by the knocking off a syllable what is called "death", doth stand for "deathless".<br /><br />
For death is of destruction, and nothing in the Cosmos is destroyed. For if Cosmos is second God, a life <or living creature> that cannot die, it cannot be that any part of this immortal life should die. All things in Cosmos are parts of Cosmos, and most of all is man, the rational animal.
</div><br />
Death doesn't exist. We are immortal. This is actually scientific in context. The atoms of you will last for eternity.
The Cosmos is "second God" which is a new way of putting it. The way I understand it, the cosmos <i>is</i> God, except a manifested version, the perceived Universe, not necessarily excluding the unmanifested, but more in a body sense.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. For truly first of all, eternal and transcending birth, is God the universals' Maker. Second is he "after His image", Cosmos, brought into being by Him, sustained and fed by Him, made deathless, as by his own Sire, living for aye, as ever free from death.<br /><br />
Now that which ever-liveth, differs from the Eternal; for He hath not been brought to being by another, and even if He have been brought to being, He hath not been brought to being by Himself, but ever is brought into being.<br /><br />
For the Eternal, in that It is eternal, is the all. The Father is Himself eternal of Himself, but Cosmos hath become eternal and immortal by the Father.
</div><br />
I loathe the layering of so many beliefs, and occulty texts are often the most guilty. The All God made the Creator God made the Cosmos God, ad nauseous nauseam. It's not only unprovable but unnecessary too. Why can't we just be happy that God encompasses everything and the innerworkings are unknown?<br />
I do like the differentiation between immortal and eternal. Eternal has no beginning.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. And of the matter stored beneath it <i.e., beneath the cosmos>, the Father made of it a universal body, and packing it together made it spherical - wrapping it round the life - [a sphere] which is immortal in itself, and that doth make materiality eternal.<br /><br />
But He, the Father, full-filled with His ideas, did sow the lives <or living creatures> into the sphere, and shut them in as in a cave, willing to order forth the life with every kind of living.<br /><br />
So He with deathlessness enclosed the universal body, that matter might not wish to separate itself from body's composition, and so dissolve into its own [original] unorder.<br /><br />
For matter, son, when it was yet incorporate <i.e., not yet formed into bodies>, was in unorder. And it doth still retain down here this [nature of unorder] enveloping the rest of the small lives <or living creatures> - that increase-and-decrease which men call death.
</div><br />
The illustration of Life itself being a sphere gels so well with me. I don't know why. God is a circle in my mind.<br />
Anyway, so the unmanifested disorder falls into order as manifested material (as we are) and then eventually it falls back into disorder again, but the substance is still there, just part of something undefinable. That's what we call death, but it's not true death in one sense. Although, let's be honest, it is death in another sense.<br />
I'm confused though. Does Mead say that lesser-than-human creatures do die, though??? I do not compute if so.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. It is round earthly lives that this unorder doth exist. For that the bodies of the heavenly ones preserve one order allotted to them by the Father as their rule; and it is by the restoration of each one [of them] this order is preserved indissolute.<br /><br />
The "restoration" of bodies on the earth is thus their composition, whereas their dissolution restores them to those bodies which can never be dissolved, that is to say, which know no death. Privation, thus, of sense is brought about, not loss of bodies.
</div><br />
<i>"Thus there is deprivation of the senses but no destruction of bodies.</i> "- Salaman.<br />
That is a good angle to view death from. It's loss of senses. I view it like alchemy in a way, like the melting of metal or ice down into a fluid state to rejoin the bigger body. It's not actually gone.<br />
Instead of <i>"senses"</i> Copenhaver uses the word <i>"awareness"</i> which is ballsy and I prefer. I have grown apart from the idea that there is any afterlife awareness, either in reincarnation or some paradise/hell consequcne. I believe awareness to be a brain function, and the brain, like the body, is dissolved, as the texts say.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. Now the third life - Man, after the image of the Cosmos made, [and] having mind, after the Father's will, beyond all earthly lives - not only doth have feeling with the second God <i.e., the Cosmos>, but also hath conception of the first; for of the one 'tis sensible as of a body, while of the other it conceives as bodiless and the Good Mind.<br /><br />
Tat: Doth then this life not perish?<br /><br />
Hermes: Hush, son! and understand what God, what Cosmos [is], what is a life that cannot die, and what a life subject to dissolution.<br /><br />
Yea, understand the Cosmos is by God and in God; but Man by Cosmos and in Cosmos.<br /><br />
The source and limit and the constitution of all things is God.
</div><br />
Again, this layering. Like the Cosmos to God (in God from God) as is man to the Cosmos (in Cosmos from Cosmos). But we are also beyond nature as we are godlike ourselves, a divine connection between the Cosmos and the Father. We are physical and therefore part of the Cosmos, but in the "mind" sense, we transcend that plain to reach godliness. Just the fact we are aware of these two separated modes (physical and divine metaphysical) proves our superiority.<br />
I personally cannot stomach this. Sure, it's easy to look upon animals and call them names, but who knows what other species are in the Universe in which our self-appointed ego-driven godlike status is laughable. No, I won't take your word for it.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
X. ON THOUGHT AND SENSE
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>Hermes to Asclepius</em> (Copenhaver); <em>On Understanding and Sensation: [That the Beautiful and Good Are in God Alone and Nowhere Else] </em> (Salaman); <em>Of Sense and Understanding</em> (Everard/Warwick)
<br /><br />
This is a direct continuation of the last chapter.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. I gave the Perfect Sermon (Logos) yesterday, Asclepius; today I think it right, as sequel thereunto, to go through point by point the Sermon about Sense.<br /><br />
Now sense and thought do seem to differ, in that the former has to do with matter, the latter has to do with substance. But unto me both seem to be at-one and not to differ - in men I mean. In other lives <or living creatures> sense is at-oned with Nature, but in men thought.<br /><br />
Now mind doth differ just as much from thought as God doth from divinity. For that divinity by God doth come to be, and by mind thought, the sister of the word (logos) and instruments of one another. For neither doth the word (logos) find utterance without thought, nor is thought manifested without word.
</div><br />
This could be seen as a decent argument against my aversion towards using the "mind" word. For as God is not divinity but an instrument for divinity, the mind is not thought/senses, but a vehicle for it to exist within. However, I stand by the fact "mind" is either a wonky mistranslation designed to spoonfeed minds of yesteryear, or a simplification for the same reason.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. So sense and thought both flow together into man, as though they were entwined with one another. For neither without sensing can one think, nor without thinking sense.<br /><br />
But it is possible [they say] to think a thing apart from sense, as those who fancy sights in dreams. But unto me it seems that both of these activities occur in dream-sight, and sense doth pass out of the sleeping to the waking state.<br /><br />
For man is separated into soul and body, and only when the two sides of his sense agree together, does utterance of its thought conceived by mind take place.
</div><br />
You can separate sense and thought, for example, in a dream state. It's all mental. Although, so is reality, it is perceived only in mind. Come to think of it, dreams are one of the greatest pieces of evidence we have that the waking world could exclusively be a cerebral construct. We do it all the time.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. For it is mind that doth conceive all thoughts - good thoughts when it receives the seeds from God, their contraries when [it receiveth them] from the daimonials; no part of Cosmos being free of daimon, who stealthily doth creep into the daimon who's illumined by God's light <i.e., the human soul>, and sow in him the seed of its own energy.<br /><br />
And mind conceives the seed thus sown, adultery, murder, parricide, [and] sacrilege, impiety, [and] strangling, casting down precipices, and all such other deeds as are the work of evil daimons.
</div><br />
Every good thought comes from God, but every bad from demons? That is a difficult one to work out. Is it a personification? Of what, though? I'm all for hard deterministic lack of free will, but at what point can we give up because everything is a consequence of external force?<br />
Nice list of bad energies though. Copenhaver and Salaman include <i>"violence to one's father"</i> which is concerningly gender-specific. Ok to beat your mom, then? Only Everard states <i>"parents"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. The seeds of God, 'tis true, are few, but vast and fair, and good - virtue and self-control, devotion. Devotion is God-gnosis; and he who knoweth God, being filled with all good things, thinks godly thoughts and not thoughts like the many [think].<br /><br />
For this cause they who Gnostic are, please not the many, nor the many them. They are thought mad and laughted at; they're hated and despised, and sometimes even put to death.<br /><br />
For we did say that bad must needs dwell on earth, where 'tis in its own place. Its place is earth, and not Cosmos, as some will sometimes say with impious tongue.<br /><br />
But he who is a devotee of God, will bear with all - once he has sensed the Gnosis. For such an one all things, e'en though they be for others bad, are for him good; deliberately he doth refer them all unto the Gnosis. And, thing most marvelous, 'tis he alone who maketh bad things good.
</div><br />
<i>"Few seeds come from God"</i> - (CopenhaverSalaman). I get this and it was touched on before. There are many little devil things in life, but they are small, not profound realisations like that of a higher divinity. The only issue is that the evil is often material and obvious, whereas godliness is trickier to access.<br />
I am wondering, however, about the statements that evil is purely an Earthly curse and not the Cosmos. How did anyone come to that conclusion? How many planets have you visited?<br />
These last lines are some of the most powerful and practical advice in the entire book. You can turn evil into good by devoting yourself to that process and understanding that <i>all</i> is good. Everything is an extension of divinity, which is clear in Janthopoyism via branches of Hinduism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. But I return once more to the Discourse (Logos) on Sense. That sense doth share with thought in man, doth constitute him man. But 'tis not [every] man, as I have said, who benefits by thought; for this man is material, that other one substantial.<br /><br />
For the material man, as I have said, [consorting] with the bad, doth have his seed of thought from daimons; while the substantial men [consorting] with the Good, are saved by God.<br /><br />
Now God is Maker of all things, and in His making, He maketh all [at last] like to Himself; but they, while they're becoming good by exercise of their activity, are unproductive things.<br /><br />
It is the working of the Cosmic Course that maketh their becomings what they are, befouling some of them with bad and others of them making clean with good.<br /><br />
For Cosmos, too, Asclepius, possesseth sense-and-thought peculiar to itself, not like that of man; 'tis not so manifold, but as it were a better and a simpler one.
</div><br />
Again, not all men are equal. Some are plagued by demon seeds stuck in the material, while others find God and rise above. I like the idea of separating from the material world as some path to higher development but I do think the hierarchy rating is dangerous. Everyone thinks they are doing the right thing, so how do we gauge this? Must I trust my brain to be honest with me?<br />
<i>"The friction of the cosmos produces different kinds of generations"</i> - Salaman. Is this referring to the evolutionary conflict which works as the foundation for Janthopoyism? <br />
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. The single sense-and-thought of Cosmos is to make all things, and make them back into itself again, as Organ of the Will of God, so organised that it, receiving all the seeds into itself from God, and keeping them within itself, may make all manifest, and [then] dissolving them, make them all new again; and thus, like a Good Gardener of Life, things that have been dissolved, it taketh to itself, and giveth them renewal once again.<br /><br />
There is no thing to which it gives not life; but taking all unto itself it makes them live, and is at the same time the Place of Life and its Creator.
</div><br />
The last bit of the previous stanza states that the sense-and-thought differentiation is a process that runs for the Cosmos too, albeit in a better way. Here, that's elaborated as a reincarnation deal, except more emanation in-and-out breath of life manner, not fully cyclic? Manifest and unmanifest. Repeat.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. Now bodies matter [-made] are in diversity. Some are of earth, of water some, some are of air, and some of fire.<br /><br />
But they are all composed; some are more [composite], and some are simpler. The heavier ones are more [composed], the lighter less so.<br /><br />
It is the speed of Cosmos' Course that works the manifoldness of the kinds of births. For being a most swift Breath, it doth bestow their qualities on bodies together with the One Pleroma - that of Life.
</div><br />
The periodic table of the elements? And evolution moves so fast that it keep refining? That's what I got anyway.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. God, then, is Sire of Cosmos; Cosmos, of all in Cosmos. And Cosmos is God's Son; but things in Cosmos are by Cosmos.<br /><br />
And properly hath it been called Cosmos [Order]; for that it orders all with their diversity of birth, with its not leaving aught without its life, with the unweariedness of its activity, the speed of its necessity, the composition of its elements, and order of its creatures.<br /><br />
The same, then, of necessity and propriety should have the name of Order.<br /><br />
The sense-and-thought, then, of all lives doth come into them from without, inbreathed by what contains [them all]; whereas Cosmos
receives them once for all together with its coming into being, and keeps them as a gift from God.
</div><br />
My notes here were just bitching about the multilayering, how we're separating God and the Cosmos when these are just words. In a Panentheistic view, they are one and the same or at least of each other. Breaking everything into smaller components is an infinite practice, for where do you stop? So why even start?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. But God is not, as some suppose, beyond the reach of sense-andthought. It is through superstition men thus impiously speak.<br /><br />
For all the things that are, Asclepius, all are in God, are brought by God to be, and do depend on Him - both things that act through bodies, and things that through soul-substance make [other things] to move, and things that make things live by means of spirit, and things that take unto themselves the things that are worn out.<br /><br />
And rightly so; nay, I would rather say, He doth not have these things; but I speak forth the truth, He is them all Himself. He doth not get them from without, but gives them out [from Him].<br /><br />
This is God's sense-and-thought, ever to move all things. And never time shall be when e'en a whit of things that are shall cease; and when I say "a whit of things that are", I mean a whit of God. For thigs that are, God hath; nor aught [is there] without Him, nor [is] He without aught.
</div><br />
And then, following on from my previous whine, this here is so Pantheistic. Are we differentiating the Cosmos and God just for explanation's sake? I can get that as long as you say that.<br />
I also appreciate how it says that God is beyond simple superstition and can be reached via thought and understanding. That's been my experience and my ONLY experience. I rejected God until it made more sense than the alternative.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. These things should seem to thee, Asclepius, if thou dost understand them, true; but if thou dost not understand, things not to be believed.<br /><br />
To understand is to believe, to not believe is not to understand.<br /><br />
My word (logos) doth go before [thee] to the truth. But mighty is the mind, and when it hath been led by word up to a certain point, it hath the power to come before [thee] to the truth.<br /><br />
And having thought o'er all these things, and found them consonant with those which have already been translated by the reason, it hath [e'en now] believed, and found its rest in that Fair Faith.<br /><br />
To those, then, who by God['s good aid] do understand the things that have been said [by us] above, they're credible; but unto those who understand them not, incredible.<br /><br />
Let so much, then, suffice on thought-and-sense.
</div><br />
And thus ends another chapter!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XI. THE KEY
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>[Discourse] of Hermes Trismegistus: The Key</em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Tat</em> (Salaman); <em>The Key</em> (Everard/Warwick)
<br /><br />
Another long chat to Tat coming up! It's a goodie.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Hermes: My yesterday's discourse (logos) I did devote to thee, Asclepius, and so 'tis [only] right I should devote toafy's to Tat; and this the more because 'tis the abridgement of the General Sermons (Logoi) which he has had addressed to him.<br /><br />
"God, Father and the Good", then, Tat, hath the same nature, or more exactly, energy.<br /><br />
For nature is a predicate of growth, and used of things that change, both mobile and immobile, that is to say, both human and divine, each one of which He willeth into being.<br /><br />
But energy consists in something else, as we have shown in treating of the rest, both things divine and human things; which thing we ought to have in mind when treating of the Good.
</div><br />
In a way, the Hermes, Tat, and Asclepius trio is like their own Holy Trinity? Or his disciples, at least.<br />
Everything is energy, so says literally every text ever.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. God's energy is then His Will; further His essence is to will the being of all things. For what is "God and Father and the Good" but the "to be" of all that are not yet? Nay, subsistence self of everything that is; this, then, is God, this Father, this the Good; to Him is added naught of all the rest.<br /><br />
And though the Cosmos, that is to say the Sun, is also sire himself to them that share in him; yet so far is he not the cause of good unto the lives, he is not even of their living.<br /><br />
So that e'en if he be a sire, he is entirely so by compulsion of the Good's Good-will, apart from which nor being nor becoming could e'er be.
</div><br />
Teachings such as this are the fastest way into my heart, where you can bend it either which way to vibe with Pantheism or Taoism or even science. God is the energy (electron?) that forms the fundamental substance of (and therefore evolves into) all things.<br />
My only gripe is why we split the growth of nature and the will of God? It seems so obvious to me that it's an evolutionary desire in both worlds?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. Again, the parent is the children's cause, both on the father's and the mother's side, only by sharing in the Good's desire [that doth pour] through the Sun. It is the Good which doeth the creating.<br /><br />
And such a power can be possessed by no one else than Him alone who taketh naught, but wills all things to be; I will not, Tat, say "makes".<br /><br />
For that the maker is defective for long periods (in which he sometimes makes, and sometimes doth not make) both in the quality and in the
quantity [of what he makes]; in that he sometimes maketh them so many and such like, and sometimes the reverse.<br /><br />
But "God and Father and the Good" is [cause] for all to be. So are at least these things for those who can see.
</div><br />
Here is another differentiation made between God/The One and the Maker/Creator. If you're stating that God is all that is Good, then I guess you require such a loophole, one where things go wrong, babies are born with physical abnormalities or natural disaster wreck lives of the innocent. For how could God be the Creator if the Creator gets it wrong? I get the effort, but it's not my spiritual understanding.<br />
I also appreciate how the sun gets its dues in Hermeticism. As Everard puts it, the Sun is <i>"father by participation"</i> which is very nice. None of us would be here without that ball or plasma.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. For It doth will to be, and It is both Itself and most of all by reason of Itself. Indeed, all other things beside are just bacause of It; for the distinctive feature of the Good is "that it should be known". Such is the Good, O Tat.<br /><br />
Tat: Thou hast, O father, filled us so full of this so good and fairest sight, that thereby my mind's eye hath now become for me almost a thing to worship.<br /><br />
For that the vision of the Good doth not, like the sun's beam, firelike blaze on the eyes and make them close; nay, on the contrary, it shineth forth and maketh to increase the seeing of the eye, as far as e'er a man hath the capacity to hold the inflow of the radiance that the mind alone can see.<br /><br />
Not only does it come more swiftly down to us, but it does us no harm, and is instinct with all immortal life.
</div><br />
Mead's <i>"that it should be known"</i> is Copenhaver's <i>"For being recognised is characteristic of the good"</i>. We must get to know God, yes, but I can't help but draw parallels between that and the Observer Effect. I'm probably just looking for it, though.<br />
I do like the Sun comparisons. The vision of God is often compared to the star, except it doesn't hurt our eyes, it actually does the opposite and helps us see more clearly. And in that way, connecting with God is a mind thing, hence we worship that part of our perception.<br />
Salaman: <i>"These things are so for the man who is able to see; God wills this and so it is; indeed it is for this man's sake."</i>That's not where I'm at. Janthopoyism teaches that everything happens is for God's sake, it is evolving through us. Again, the ego of man drives so much of this scripture. Perhaps that was the only way to teach back in the day?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. They who are able to drink in a somewhat more than others of this Sight, ofttimes from out the body fall asleep in this fairest Spectacle, as was the case with Uranus and Cronus, our forebears. may this be out lot too, O father mine!<br /><br />
Hermes: Yea, may it be, my son! But as it is, we are not yet strung to the Vision, and not as yet have we the power our mind's eye to unfold and gaze upon the Beauty of the Good - Beauty that naught can e'er corrupt or any comprehend.<br /><br />
For only then wilt thou upon It gaze when thou canst say no word concerning It. For Gnosis of the Good is holy silence and a giving holiday
to every sense.
</div><br />
So fascinating to name-drop Uranus and Cronus here, both Greek deities, although notes abound that these were probably replacements for Egyptian equivalents. Even more curious is how Everard/Warwick refer to Celius(?) and Saturn (Roman) instead. <br />
Salaman's closing lines include <i>"When you have nothing to say about it, then you will see it"</i> which is well-put and very important. I sound like a stuck record, but this echoes Daoism too. The moment you define God, you lose it completely.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. For neither can he who perceiveth It, perceive aught else; nor he who gazeth on It, gaze on aught else; nor hear aught else, nor stir his body any way. Staying his body's every sense and every motion he stayeth still.<br /><br />
And shining then all round his mond, It shines through his whole soul, and draws it out of body, transforming all of him to essence.<br /><br />
For it is possible, my son, that a man's soul should be made like to God, e'en while it still is in a body, if it doth contemplate the Beauty of the Good.
</div><br />
Astral travel? Either way, there's a bit of a debate here. Mead, Everard, and Warwick use the word "<i>possible"</i>, while Copenhaver and Salaman state the opposite, using the word <i>"impossible"</i>. Three against two though? It's possible!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. Tat: Made like to God? What dost thou, father, mean? <br /><br />
Hermes: Of every soul apart are transformations, son.<br /><br />
Tat: What meanest thou? Apart?<br /><br />
Hermes: Didst thou not, in the General Sermons, hear that from one Soul - the All-soul - come all these souls which are made to revolve in all the cosmos, as though divided off?<br /><br />
Of these souls, then, it is that there are many changes, some to a happier lot and some to [just] the contrary of this.<br /><br />
Thus some that were creeping things change into things that in the water dwell, the souls of water things change to earth-dwellers, those that live on earth change to things with wings, and souls that live in air change to men, while human souls reach the first step of deathlessness changed into daimones.<br /><br />
And so they circle to the choir of the Inerrant Gods; for of the Gods there are two choirs, the one Inerrant, and the other Errant. And this is the most perfect glory of the soul.
</div><br />
I prefer Mead's (and Everard/Warwick's) <i>"creeping things"</i> because it's Biblical, but it's interesting to point out that Salaman says <i>"reptiles"</i> and Copenhaver says <i>"snake-like"</i>. I know this type of stuff is delicious info for the Reptilian believers, how they came first before man perhaps even to make man.<br />
But a more rational interpretation would be a separate pocket from the overall energy, an evolutionary system coming into being as the different species of our past and today. But are some souls superior? Does the quality of energy affect the manifestation? And why would such a system exist? It throws me.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. But if a soul on entering the body of a man persisteth in its vice, it neither tasteth deathlessness nor shareth in the Good; but speeding back again it turns into the path that leads to creeping things. This is the sentence of the vicious soul.<br /><br />
And the soul's vice is ignorance. For that the soul who hath no knowledge of the things that are, or knowledge of their nature, or of
Good, is blinded by the body's passions and tossed about.<br /><br />
This wretched soul, not knowing what she is, becomes the slave of bodies of strange form in sorry plight, bearing the body as a load; not as the ruler, but the ruled. This [ignorance] is the soul's vice.
</div><br />
Just to go on about the reptile thing a little more, it's only Salaman who uses such terminology, while Copenhaver focuses more specifically on snakes. I'm not sure if it's significant, but the snake symbology always made sense to me, not only as a metaphor for rejuvenation (shedding the skin) but also as an animal we know to avoid due to its venom. It's what makes it the perfect choice for the Biblical Lucifer interpretation as it strikes fear, even by today's standard.<br />
Anyway, again here we speak about the material world cursing the soul to some sort of a trapped cycle, which resonates with me. However, the idea that knowledge frees us can be complicated. Where is the knowledge found? Is this it? Now that I have read these texts, am I knowledgeable? Can I walk around like a big holy man now? Some people will study these texts and then do just that, an aura of self-appointed spiritual supremacy, which is so wrong in my understanding.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. But on the other hand the virtue of the soul is Gnosis. For he who knows, he good and pious is, and still while on the earth divine.<br /><br />
Tat: But who is such an one, O father mine?<br /><br />
Hermes: He who doth not say much or lend his ear to much. For he who spendeth time in arguing and hearing arguments, doth shadow-fight. For
"God, the Father and the Good", is not to be obtained by speech or hearing.<br /><br />
And yet though this is so, there are in all the beings senses, in that they cannot without senses be.<br /><br />
But Gnosis is far different from sense. For sense is brought about by that which hath the mastery o'er us, while Gnosis is the end <i.e., goal> of science, and science is God's gift.
</div><br />
<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/th2/th222.htm" target="_blank">Sacred-Texts.com</a> hilariously pointed out the irony of how the "speak less" ethos doesn't seem to apply to Hermes' teachings, especially this chapter which is very long.<br />
Either way, we can apply it easily to our lives. The answer is not via the sensory perception of this Maya reality. The answer is an understanding within oneself. Then again, how can we not see the danger in this? How many people believe crazy things simply because it clicks inside of their convictions, and they use texts like these to justify unruly conclusions?<br /><br />
Mead's <i>"science"</i> becomes <i>"knowledge"</i> for Salaman, Everard, and Warwick, while Copenhaver prefers <i>"learning"</i>. Me, I consider science to remain the best we've got. It's important for us to use that term as much as possible in context of divinity so that the bridges become clearer for those who have developed mental barriers.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. All science is incorporeal, the instrument it uses being the mind, just as the mind employs the body.<br /><br />
Both then come into bodies, [I mean] both things that are cognisable by mond alone and things material. For all things must consist out of
antithesis and contrariety; and this can otherwise not be.<br /><br />
Tat: Who then is this material God of whom thou speakest?<br /><br />
Hermes: Cosmos is beautiful, but is not good - for that it is material and freely passible; and though it is the first of all things passible, yet is it in the second rank of being and wanting in itself.<br /><br />
And though it never hath itself its birth in time, but ever is, yet is its being in becoming, becoming for all time the genesis of qualities and quantities; for it is mobile and all material motion's genesis.
</div><br />
The Cosmos is the material manifestation of the Universe/God and therefore subject to bad stuff. It makes some sense if you're willing to suspend other theories.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. It is intelligible rest that moves material motion in this way, since Cosmos is a sphere - that is to say, a head. And naught of head above's material, as naught of feet below's intelligible, but all material.<br /><br />
And head itself is moved in a sphere-like way - that is to say, as head should move, is mind.<br /><br />
All then that are united to the "tissue" of this "head" (in which is soul) are in their nature free from death - just as when body hath been made in soul, are things that hath more soul than body.<br /><br />
Whereas those things which are at greater distance from this "tissue" - there, where are things which have a greater share of body than of soul - are by their nature subject unto death.<br /><br />
The whole, however, is a life; so that the universe consists of both the hylic and of the intelligible.
</div><br />
The most difficult aspect of this undertaking is to decipher whether I'm reading what I want to read or not. A lot of this feels incredibly close to what Janthopoyism teaches, where the meeting of the soul "electricity" and the brain tissue that makes the mind. So perhaps there is some lenience with this whole "mind" worship. It's not the mind per se, but the "Nous" type of energy that has the capability to observe? Which again alludes strongly to the observer effect in my eyes, where this mind is creating the material through us. Warwick even uses the term "film" in the head, which Jantho does too.<br />
<i>"Every living being, like the cosmos, is composed of matter and Nous."</i> - Salaman. Copen uses <i>"material"</i> and <i>"mental"</i>. The power that animates the physical, but what about on an atomic electron level?<br />
The idea of the Cosmos being a sphere is so common I have to wonder about it. Reminds me of Xenophanes, who said <i>"all things are one, that this is unchanging, and is god, that this never came into being and is eternal, and has a spherical shape."</i> which was back in 570-478 BCE!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12. Again, the Cosmos is the first of living things, while man is second after it, though first of things subject to death.<br /><br />
Man hath the same ensouling power in him as all the rest of living things; yet is he not only not good, but even evil, for that he's subject
unto death.<br /><br />
For though the Cosmos also is not good in that it suffers motion, it is not evil, in that it is not subject to death. But man, in that he's subject both to motion and to death, is evil.
</div><br />
Another example of man worship. No cares about the animals here. Also interesting to note that the prerequisite of evil is being subject to death. I guess it's a material thing? Immortality means you're not corruptible, maybe?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. Now then the principles of man are this-wise vehicled: mind in the reason (logos), the reason in the soul, soul in the spirit <or, rather, vital spirits>, and spirit in the body.<br /><br />
Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a
way.<br /><br />
For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowing that [at death] it is iteh spirit that must first withdraw into the soul, whereon the blood congeals and veins and arteries are emptied, and then the living creature <or life> is withdrawn; and this is body's death.
</div><br />
I suppose that's why spirit means breath, because it's the first way to tell the soul is gone. <br />
I've never heard that the soul was considered blood before, I guess science ruined that argument. <br />
The mind is in the reason; the reason is in the soul; the soul is in the spirit in the body. That's the pecking order of things. I'm not sure I quite subscribe to the differentiation of the soul and the spirit. It's all Atman to me!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. Now from one Source all things depend; while Source [dependeth] from the One and Only [One]. Source is, moreover, moved to become Source again; whereas the One standeth perpetually and is not moved.<br /><br />
Three then are they: "God, the Father and the Good", Cosmos and man.<br /><br />
God doth contain Cosmos; Cosmos [containeth] man. Cosmos is e'er God's Son, man as it were Cosmos' child.
</div><br />
Levels within levels, systems upon systems. Jantho agrees to a degree, even if we don't concern ourselves with any level other than the uppermost. We don't believe there's an agreed-upon terminology for what all the levels are anyway!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. Not that, however, God ignoreth man; nay, right well doth He know him, and willeth to be known.<br /><br />
This is the sole salvation for a man - God's Gnosis. This is the Way Up to the Mount.<br /><br />
By Him alone the soul becometh good, not whiles is good, whiles evil, but [good] out of necessity.<br /><br />
Tat: What dost thou mean, Thrice-greatest one?<br /><br />
Hermes: Behold an infant's soul, my son, that is not yet cut off, because its body is still small and not as yet come unto its full bulk.<br /><br />
Tat: How?<br /><br />
Hermes: A thing of beauty altogether is [such a soul] to see, not yet befouled by body's passions, still all but hanging from the Cosmic Soul!<br /><br />
But when the body grows in bulk and draweth down the soul into its mass, then doth the soul cut off itself and bring upon itself forgetfulness, and no more shareth in the Beautiful and the Good. And this forgetfulness becometh vice.
</div><br />
Babies are holy. Again, the Jantho scripture says the same thing. This chapter is quite congruent with those teachings.<br />
<i>"The body's passions"</i> good way of putting it.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. It is the same for them who go out from the body.<br /><br />
For when the soul withdraws into itself, the spirit doth contract itself within the blood, and the soul within the spirit. And then the mind,
stripped of its wrappings, and naturally divine, taking unto itself a fiery body, doth traverse every space, after abandoning the soul unto its judgement and whatever chastisement it hath deserved.<br /><br />
Tat: What dost thou, father, mean by this? The mind is parted from soul and soul from spirit? Whereas thou said'st the soul was the mind's
vesture, and the soul's the spirit.
</div><br />
The soul gets judged on how corrupt it was. Maybe like a quality control converter belt afterlife process? Ha! I don't buy it. Is a soul not divine? How are we corrupting these things? If God is everything good, why is there a process that undermines that whatsoever? <br /><br />
This line is new info:<br />
<i>"When the soul returns to itself, the breath withdraws into the blood and the soul into the breath; but Nous, being freed from covers and being godlike by nature , takes on a body of fire and ranging everywhere leaves the soul to the judgement and justice it deserves." - Salaman<br />
"When the soul rises up to itself, the spirit is drawn into the blood, the soul into the spirit, but the mind, since it is divine by nature, becomes purified of its garments and takes on a fiery body, ranging about everywhere, leaving the soul to judgment and the justice it deserves."</i> - Copenhaver
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
17. Hermes: The hearer, son, should think with him who speaks and breathe with him; nay, he should have a hearing subtler than the voice of
him who speaks.<br /><br />
It is, son, in a body made of earth that this arrangement of the vestures comes to pass. For in a body made of earth it is impossible the mind should take its seat itself by its own self in nakedness.<br /><br />
For neither is it possible on the one hand the earthly body should contain so much immortality, nor on the other that so great a virtue should endure a body passible in such close contact with it. It taketh, then, the soul for as it were an envelope.<br /><br />
And soul itself, being too and thing divine, doth use the spirit as its envelope, while spirit doth pervade the living creature.
</div><br />
More separations. The soul is like a shell (envelope is the better word) to hold the Nous because it'd be too potent to hold otherwise. This does help explain some of my questions, but again, it's only a theory, I don't quite subscribe to it nor do I like these constant divisions where it might be even simpler. Why can't a body support a spirit? How can it support a soul? <br />
I am realising the importance of the dynamic between teacher and listener in Hermeticism. Your ears need to be ready to hear, or quicker than the speaker in this example?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
18. When then the mind doth free itself from the earth-body, it straightway putteth on its proper robe of fire, with which it could not
dwell in an earth-body.<br /><br />
For earth doth not bear fire; for it is all set in a blaze even by a small spark. And for this cause is water poured around earth, to be a guard and wall, to keep the blazing of the fire away.<br /><br />
But mind, the swiftest thing of all divine outthinkings, and swifter than all elements, hath for its body fire.<br /><br />
For mind being builder doth use the fire as tool for the construction of all things - the Mind of all [for the construction] of all things, but that of man only for things on earth.<br /><br />
Stript of its fire the mind on earth cannot make things divine, for it is human in its dispensation.
</div><br />
This verse actually inspired me to write an entire essay about how we can start fires with our minds, which I did.<br />
I do appreciate how fire is holy in all these occult religions. Hey, I get it, man. Fire is crazy. It's some otherworldy substance because we can hardly handle it. Even nature is ruined by it. <br />
If you take all of this literally though (and I'm not sure you should), it's interesting how God uses fire to spread himself fast, and that's why we have oceans, to prevent it from wrecking the entire planet. I'm unsure if that's scientifically sound. Is spirit actual fire? <br />
And here's the biggest problem, in that if one tiny inaccuracy comes into this scripture, it all falls down. Hermes must be infallible; otherwise, what? Then again, in Jantho terms, even the mysteries of the universe are evolving, so what may very well have been true then has evolved into lesser truths now. And everything could have been dumbed down using terminology that an audience thousands of years ago would understand. Personally, I equate "fire" with electrons at this point of my comprehension.<br />
But props to the <i>"robe of fire"</i> (or <i>"Fiery Coat"</i>, according to Everard) is such a great concept.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
19. The soul in man, however - not every soul, but one that pious is - is a daimonic something and divine.<br /><br />
And such a soul when from the body freed, if it have fought the fight of piety - the fight of piety is to know God and to do wrong to no man - such a soul becomes entirely mind.<br /><br />
Whereas the impious soul remains in its own essence, chastised by its own self, and seeking for an earthly body where to enter, if only it be
human.<br /><br />
For that no other body can contain a human soul; nor is it right that any human soul should fall into the body of a thing that doth possess no reason. For that the law of God is this: to guard the human soul from such tremendous outrage.
</div><br />
A very Eastern dharmic understanding of reincarnation. Get off the wheel! By the way, only humans get souls, animals are not punished in that way. Idk, so many details disagree across various religions that I can't just accept Hermeticism's proposals.<br />
Humans are <i>"demonic and divine"</i> (Copenhaver), which I get.<br />
More Copenhaver: <i>"Knowing the divine and doing wrong to no person is the fight of reverence."</i> This is the way you save your soul. Although I'm not 100% sure, it does resonate with me that this is the simplest way to get closer to "God".
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
20. Tat: How father, then, is a man's soul chastised?<br /><br />
Hermes: What greater chastisement of any human soul can there be, son, than lack of piety? What fire has so fierce a flame as lack of piety? What ravenous beast so mauls the body as lack of piety the very soul?<br /><br />
Dost thou not see what hosts of ills the impious soul doth bear?<br /><br />
It shrieks and screams: I burn; I am ablaze; I know not what to cry or do; ah, wretched me, I am devoured by all the ills that compass me about; alack, poor me, I neither see nor hear!<br /><br />
Such are the cries wrung from a soul chastised; not, as the many think, and thou, son, dost suppose, that a [man's] soul, passing from body, is changed into a beast.<br /><br />
Such is a very grave mistake, for that the way a soul doth suffer chastisement is this:
</div><br />
This is Hell: it's not a place but a condition. I wonder where the crossovers come in. The whole "on fire" thing is interesting in a comparative religious sense. Hermeticists would have you believe they inspired the Abrahamic narrative.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
21. When mind becomes a daimon, the law requires that it should take a fiery body to execute the services of God; and entering in the soul most impious it scourgeth it with whips made of its sins.<br /><br />
And then the impious soul, scourged with its sins, is plunged in murders, outrage, blasphemy, in violence of all kinds, and all the other things whereby mankind is wronged.<br /><br />
But on the pious soul the mind doth mount and guide it to the Gnosis' Light. And such a soul doth never tire in songs of praise [to God] and
pouring blessing on all men, and doing good in word and deed to all, in imitation of its Sire.
</div><br />
There are differences between Jantho and this. The manifestation of God is all things, and everything is a natural evolution following a somewhat hard deterministic order. How cruel would it be, then, if humans were formed simply to damage their souls and get shoved into a reincarnated human who is equally as horrid. A damaged soul finds a human and continues its rampage of evil deeds, such a terrible system which by very definition must be created by God, a being that is, according to Hermeticism, wholly good? It doesn't work, or at very least indicates a greater system exists above even the "All is Good" God whereby it is absent from certain areas. If there is space for something to not exist, then that very container is greater than the thing that may or may not be in there.<br />
But I do not completely disregard that soul energy can be dirtied by amoral activities. It surely feels like it does. But it's about balance to me. Every person has both sides to them at differing degrees, in my observations. <br />
I do love how Everett uses female pronouns <i>"In Imitation of HER father"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
22. Wherefore, my son, thou shouldst give praise to God and pray that thou mayst have thy mind Good Mind. It is, then, to a better state the
soul doth pass; it cannot to a worse.<br /><br />
Further there is an intercourse of souls; those of the gods have intercourse with those of men, and those of men with souls of creatures
which possess no reason.<br /><br />
The higher, further, have in charge the lower; the gods look after men,n men after animals irrational, while God hath charge of all; for He is higher than them all and all are less than He.<br /><br />
Cosmos is subject, then, to God, man to the Cosmos, and irrationals to man. But God is o'er them all, and God contains them all.<br /><br />
God's rays, to use a figure, are His energies; the Cosmos's are natures, the arts and sciences are man's.<br /><br />
The energies act through the Cosmos, thence through the nature-rays of Cosmos upon man; the nature-rays [act] through the elements, man [acteth] through the sciences and arts.
</div><br />
Gods have intercourse with men, which reminds me of The Book of Enoch. ALIENS????<br />
Art and sciences are man's acts of divinity. I knew it! Those are our holy beams, to create and to learn, that's Jantho too. What's closer to the creator than creativity? <br />
It does say that soul can pass into a better realm but never a worse one, so in that theory, the general soul is getting better as more and more go up but never down? There's something beautiful about that version of the reincarnation process.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
23. This is the dispensation of the universe, depending from the nature of the One, pervading [all things] through the Mind, than which is
naught diviner nor of greater energy; and naught a greater means for the at-oning men to gods and gods to men.<br /><br />
He, [Mind,] is the Good Daimon. Blessed the soul that is most filled with Him, and wretched is the soul that's empty of the Mind.<br /><br />
Tat: Father, what dost thou mean, again?<br /><br />
Hermes: Dost think then, son, that every soul hath the Good [Mind]? For 'tis of Him we speak, not of the mind in service of which we were just speaking, the mind sent down for [the soul's] chastisement
</div><br />
Actually, I do think every soul hath the Good "Mind". The soul is pure, it's the warped grooves of the brain that causes the problems. Is the abused child who becomes the abuser really to blame on a spiritual level? Is the anti-social man with a blood clot in the brain fundamentally bad? For some souls to have Nous (mind) and some not is problematic because obviously anyone reading this will be like I HAVE IT and look down on people they perceive not to. Some of us are True Humans, others are animals? No good can come of that.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
24. For soul without the mind "can neither speak nor act". For oftentimes the mind doth leave the soul, and at that time the soul neither
sees nor understands, but is just like a thing that hath no reason. Such is the power of mind.<br /><br />
Yet doth it not endure a sluggish soul, but leaveth such a soul tied to the body and bound tight down by it. Such soul, my son, doth not have
Mind; and therefore such an one should not be called a man. For that man is a thing-of-life <or animal> divine; man is not measured with the rest of lives of things upon the earth, but with the lives above in heaven, who are called gods.<br /><br />
Nay more, if we must boldly speak the truth, the true "man" is e'en higher than the gods, or at the [very] least the gods and men are very
whit in power each with the other equal.
</div><br />
This is interesting and weirdly makes sense. For men to be of nature and gods, in a way, makes us higher than both, for "gods" do not have access to this material world. Although are we not just gods experiencing the world through us? There are fundamental ideas that I simply cannot gel with.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
25. For no one of the gods in heaven shall come down to the earth, o'erstepping heaven's limit; whereas man doth mount up to heaven and measure it; he knows what things of it are high, what things are low, and learns precisely all things else besides. And greater thing than all; without e'en quitting earth, he doth ascend above. So vast a sweep doth he possess of ecstasy.<br /><br />
For this cause can a man dare say that man on earth is god subject to death, while god in heaven is man from death immune.<br /><br />
Wherefore the dispensation of all things is brought about by means of there, the twain - Cosmos and Man - but by the One.
</div><br />
Kinda cool that "gods" won't come down onto our level but we can ascend to theirs. It's that emanation concept, whereby the more we manifest into material awareness, the further away from God we go, giving us an experience further than what "God" can reach. It's an interesting angle.<br />
<i>"But all is from the One."</i> - Salaman. Here is the primary issue, for it's still a game that God is playing, creating all things, some made lesser than just to watch it like a sicko? How Old Testament of you! And yet even in that process means we are equal, pieces of the same display, each required for the show to be the show. And then we need to bring into the free will conversation again... <br /><br />
The way I see it is that these teaching are DESIGNED to push you in a certain direction. Perhaps words are mindfully chosen to do this (or perhaps not) but either way, it's a good perspective to have. Don't get clogged up with the details, just follow its advice in hopes of achieving some sort of enlightenment, and then you might just do so.
<br /><br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read the The Book Of The Law So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBYxSasJOj9eNwmJSguPTlYQEpRTp21XWgpzeDIAr4sB05KlJkgzDyWdsst7JmPwx4rAu6JE-KAceOj5Mvww84X2jiRYAUAW0ekkaPYgtW5U-8PHjH0ikVJ7hpWxEKB3_IlumwkkrDyuQ/s1600/20March23-I-Read-the-Book-of-the-Law.jpg" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">I Read the The Book Of The Law So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
<br />
<div class="theparts">
XII. MIND UNTO HERMES
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>Nous to Hermes</em> (Salaman)
<br /><br />
This chapter is more scripture-like and, much like the first treatise, it is the actual Nous speaking to Hermes. Crazy times! It's an interesting dynamic shift, from Hermes standing as an all-knowing figure to then swapping back down to the disciple role.<br />
As you'll note, my clarifications and opinions start to dwindle around here. This is not for reasons of disinterest, laziness, or misunderstanding but because much of the text is familiar themes we've covered before. I found my thoughts repeating themselves, and instead of forcing out my stance for the sake of it, I reserved the space for new information. However, I continue to include the Corpus Hermeticum in its entirety so you can keep reading it if you wish.
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<div class="quote">
1. Mind: Master this sermon (logos), then, Thrice-greatest Hermes, and bear in mind the spoken words; and as it hath come unto Me to speak, I
will no more delay.<br /><br />
Hermes: As many men say many things, and these diverse, about the All and Good, I have not learned the truth. Make it, then, clear to me, O
Master mine! For I can trust the explanation of these things, which comes from Thee alone.
</div><br />
This was the first section of many that I did not take any notes.
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<div class="quote">
2. Mind: Hear [then], My son, how standeth God and All. God; Aeon; Cosmos; Time; Becoming.<br /><br />
God maketh Aeon; Aeon, Cosmos; Cosmos, Time; and Time, Becoming <or Genesis>.<br /><br />
The Good - the Beautiful, Wisdom, Blessedness - is <the> essence, as it were, of God; of Aeon, <the essence is> Sameness; of Cosmos, Order; of Time, Change; and of Becoming, Life and Death.<br /><br />
The energies of God are Mind and Soul; of Aeon, lastingness and deathlessness; of Cosmos, restoration and the opposite thereof; of Time, increase and decrease; and of Becoming, quality.<br /><br />
Aeon is, then, in God; Cosmos, in Aeon; in Cosmos; Time; in Time, Becoming.<br /><br />
Aeon stands firm round God; Cosmos is moved in Aeon; Time hath its limits <or is accomplished> in the Cosmos; Becoming doth become in Time.
</div><br />
Salaman makes this easier: <i>"eternity is in God, the cosmos in eternity, time in the cosmos, generation in time"</i>. It's logical.<br />
In a way, it's like, God made eternity which gave everything an infinite amount opportunities for the cosmos to develop, and within that came order and the measurements of time, which then creates beginnings and ends, life and death. But God is still the source energy that lives in all of it, for eternity.<br />
I also adore how eternity stands still in front of God, because for that upper concept, it means nothing. We are the finite minds, not God.
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<div class="quote">
3. The source, therfore, of all is God; their essence, Aeon; their matter, Cosmos.<br /><br />
God's power is Aeon; Aeon's work is Cosmos - which never hath become, yet ever doth become by Aeon.<br /><br />
Therefore will Cosmos never be destroyed, for Aeon's indestructible; nor doth a whit of things in Cosmos perish, for Cosmos is enwrapped by
Aeon round on every side.<br /><br />
Hermes: But God's Wisdom - what is that?<br /><br />
Mind: The Good and Beautiful, and Blessedness, and Virtue's all, and Aeon.<br /><br />
Aeon, then, ordereth [Cosmos], imparting deathlessness and lastingness to matter.
</div><br />
Aeon means timeless/spaceless/eternity.
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<div class="quote">
4. For its beginning doth depend on Aeon, as Aeon doth on God.<br /><br />
Now Genesis <or Becoming> and Time, in Heaven and upon the Earth, are of two natures.<br /><br />
In Heaven they are unchangeable and indestructible, but on the Earth they're subject unto change and to destruction.<br /><br />
Further, the Aeon's soul is God; the Cosmos' soul is Aeon; the Earth's soul, Heaven.<br /><br />
And God <is> in Mind; and Mind, in Soul; and Soul, in Matter; and all of them through Aeon.<br /><br />
But all this Body, in which are all the bodies, is full of Soul; and Soul is full of Mind, and Mind of God.<br /><br />
It <i.e., Soul> fills it <i.e., the Body of the Cosmos> from within, and from without encircles it, making the All to live.<br /><br />
Without, this vast and perfect Life [encircles] Cosmos; within, it fills [it with] all lives; above, in Heaven, continuing in sameness; below, on Earth, changing becoming.
</div><br />
I don't have many new arguments. Again, it's quite Pantheistic or rather Panenthiestic because "God" transcends the universe as a single living "body" creature, which is fine. I still draw the line because it's hypothetical by any standard of measurement. You either just accept these texts as truth or you question it. I don't accept anything ever out of principle. <br />
It's interesting how we perceive God as this huge force and then Nous as a level down then to the human, soul etc, whereas that's backwards. We're talking about root substance, so matter is actually at the end, broken down into soul, then Nous, then God. Again, it's less about expanding out into space to find answers, and more about breaking it into subatomic/vibrational particles to truly pull back the curtain.
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<div class="quote">
5. And Aeon doth preserve this [Cosmos], or by Necessity, or by Foreknowledge, or by Nature, or by whatever else a man supposes or shall suppose. And all is this - God energizing.<br /><br />
The Energy of God is Power that naught can e'er surpass, a Power with which no one can make comparison of any human thing at all, or any thing divine.<br /><br />
Wherefore, O Hermes, never think that aught of things above or things below is like to God, for thou wilt fall from truth. For naught is like to That which hath no like, and is Alone and One.<br /><br />
And do not ever think that any other can possibly possess His power; for what apart from Him is there of life, and deathlessness and change of quality? For what else should He make?<br /><br />
God's not inactive, since all things [then] would lack activity; for all are full of God.<br /><br />
But neither in the Cosmos anywhere, nor in aught else, is there inaction. For that "inaction" is a name that cannot be applied to either what doth make or what is made.
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Again, I do enjoy the whole "don't define god, you idiot". It indirectly backhands almost every modern-day practices/scripture.
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<div class="quote">
6. But all things must be made; both ever made, and also in accordance with the influence of every space.<br /><br />
For He who makes, is in them all; not stablished in some one of them, nor making one thing only, but making all.<br /><br />
For being Power, He energizeth in the things He makes and is not independent of them - although the things He makes are subject to Him.<br /><br />
Now gaze through Me upon the Cosmos that's now subject to thy sight; regard its Beauty carefully - Body in pure perfection, though one than which there's no more ancient one, ever in prime of life, and ever-young, nay, rather, in even fuller and yet fuller prime!
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No notes.
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<div class="quote">
7. Behold, again, the seven subject Worlds; ordered by Aeon's order, and with their varied course full-filling Aeon!<br /><br />
[See how] all things [are] full of light, and nowhere [is there] fire; for 'tis the love and the blending of the contraries and the dissimilars that doth give birth to light down shining by the energy of God, the Father of all good, the Leader of all order, and Ruler of the seven world-orderings!<br /><br />
[Behold] the Moon, forerunner of them all, the instrument of nature, and the transmuter of its lower matter!<br /><br />
[Look at] the Earth set in the midst of All, foundation of the Cosmos Beautiful, feeder and nurse of things on Earth!<br /><br />
And contemplate the multitude of deathless lives, how great it is, and that of lives subject to death; and midway, between both, immortal [lives] and mortal, [see thou] the circling Moon.
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Running over the same concepts again: the seven planets, love for the moon, mention of fire.<br />
Unfortunately, this all-knowing Nous exposes its miseducation here, claiming the Earth is the centre of it all; astrologically incorrect, Earth as the centre, HOW EMBARRASSING.
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<div class="quote">
8. And all are full of soul, and all are moved by it, each in its proper way; some round the Heaven, others around the Earth; [see] how the right [move] not unto the left, nor yet the left unto the right; nor the above below, nor the below above.<br /><br />
And that all there are subject unto Genesis, My dearest Hermes, thou hast no longer need to learn of Me. For that they bodies are, have souls, and they are moved.<br /><br />
But 'tis impossible for them to come together into one without some one to bring them [all] together. It must, then, be that such a one as this must be some one who's wholly One.
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No notes.
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<div class="quote">
9. For as the many motions of them [all] are different, and as their bodies are not like, yet has one speed been ordered for them all, it is
impossible that there should be two or more makers for them.<br /><br />
For that one single order is not kept among "the many"; but rivalry will follow of the weaker with the stronger, and they will strive.<br /><br />
And if the maker of the lives that suffer change and death, should be another <from the maker of the immortals>, he would desire to make the deathless ones as well; just as the maker of the deathless ones, [to make the lives] that suffer death.<br /><br />
But come! if there be two - if matter's one, and Soul is one, in whose hands would there be the distribution for the making? Again, if both of them have some of it, in whose hands may be the greater part?
</div><br />
A weak effort at explaining why God is a singular entity. If there were two, there would be a rivalry, apparently. But does not every single collaborative project on Earth prove this does not have to be the case? Does a band not still write a coherent song even when they may disagree on details?
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<div class="quote">
10. But thus conceive it, then; that every living body doth consist of soul and matter, whether [that body be] of an immortal, or a mortal, or an irrational [life].<br /><br />
For that all living bodies are ensouled; whereas, upon the other hand, those that live not, are matter by itself.<br /><br />
And, in like fashion, Soul when in its self is, after its own maker, cause of life; but the cause of all life is He who makes the things that cannot die.<br /><br />
Hermes: How, then, is it that, first, lives subject to death are other than the deathless ones? And, next, how is it that Life which knows no death, and maketh deathlessness, doth not make animals immortal?
</div><br />
Literally says every living thing has a soul, whereas I'm sure you said something different before? Although the distinction between soul and Nous is probably the explanation. But if soul is the shell to Nous, why would animals have one and not the other? Pretty certain there's a contradiction here. I'm of the school of thought that every atom has Nous myself.
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<div class="quote">
11. Mind: First, that there is some one who does these things, is clear; and, next, that He is also One, is very manifest. For, also, Soul is one, and Life is one, and Matter one.<br /><br />
Hermes: But who is He?<br /><br />
Mind: Who may it other be than the One God? Whom else should it beseem to put Soul into lives but God alone? One, then, is God.<br /><br />
It would indeed be most ridiculous, if when thou dost confess the Cosmos to be one, Sun one, Moon one, and Godhead one, thou shouldst wish God Himself to be some one or other of a number!
</div><br />
Patriarchal, so typical. I know we've explained this before, Nature female, God male, blah blah, doesn't gel with me.
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<div class="quote">
12. All things, therefore, He makes, in many [ways]. And what great thing is it for God to make life, soul, and deathlessness, and change, when thou [thyself] dost do so many things?<br /><br />
For thou dost see, and speak, and hear, and smell, and taste, and touch, and walk, and think, and breathe. And it is not one man who smells, another one who walks, another one who thinks, and [yet] another one who breathes. But one is he who doth all these.<br /><br />
And yet no one of these could be apart from God. For just as, should thou cease from these, thou wouldst no longer be a living thing, so also, should God cease from them (a thing not law to say), no longer is He God.
</div><br />
Problematic. If I cease to see, do I becomes less human? Obviously, it didn't mean that, but these justifications that God "works alone" are weak. I find it more convincing to simply state it's the overall system. At some point, you'll find the uppermost entity that contains everything wholly and of course, there is only a fathomable one of those? Any others would be an exercise in imagination.
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<div class="quote">
13. For if it hath been shown that no thing can [inactive] be, how much less God? For if there's aught he doth not make (if it be law to say), He is imperfect. But if He is not only not inactive, but perfect [God], then He doth make all things.<br /><br />
Give thou thyself to Me, My Hermes, for a little while, and thou shalt understand more easily how that God's work is one, in order that all things may be - that are being made, or once have been, or that are going to be made. And this is, My beloved, Life; this is the Beautiful; this is the Good; this, God.
</div><br />
The desperation to convince Hermes of this one thing exposes insecurity.
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<div class="quote">
14. And if thou wouldst in practice understand [this work], behold what taketh place with thee desiring to beget. Yet this is not like unto that, for He doth not enjoy.<br /><br />
For that indeed He hath no other one to share in what He works, for working by Himself, He ever is at work, Himself being what He doth. For did He separate Himself from it, all things would [then] collapse, and all must die, Life ceasing.<br /><br />
But if all things are lives, and also Life is one; then, one is God. And, furthermore, if all are lives, both those in Heaven and those on Earth, and One Life in them all is made to be by God, and God is it <i.e., God is the One Life> - then, all are made by God.<br /><br />
Life is the making-one of Mind and Soul; accordingly Death is not the destruction of those that are at-oned, but the dissolving of their union.
</div><br />
That second part describes me perfectly! <br />
God does not create using sexy time, the Universe is basically a massive wank.<br />
<i>"Death is not the destruction of what has been put together but the dissolution of the union."</i> - Salaman.
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<div class="quote">
15. Aeon, moreover, is God's image; Cosmos [is] Aeon's; the Sun, of Cosmos; and Man, [the image] of the Sun.<br /><br />
The people call change death, because the body is dissolved, and life, when it's dissolved, withdraws to the unmanifest. But in this sermon
(logos), Hermes, My beloved, as thou dost hear, I say the Cosmos also suffers change - for that a part of it each day is made to be in the
unmanifest - yet it is ne'er dissolved.<br /><br />
These are the passions of the Cosmos - revolvings and concealments; revolving is conversion and concealment renovation.
</div><br />
Life withdraws into the unmanifest is exactly what I believe.
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<div class="quote">
17. For it is like the form of reason (logos) and mountain-tops in pictures. For they appear to stand out strongly from the rest, but really
are quite smooth and flat.<br /><br />
And now consider what is said more boldly, but more truly!<br /><br />
Just as man cannot live apart from Life, so neither can God live without [His] doing good. For this is as it were the life and motion as it were of God - to move all things and make them live.
</div><br />
Maya! Look at a photo. It seems 3D, but it's a 2D object, a complete lie. Now realise how reality could be an illusion! Actually one of the best analogies I've heard for it, so much so that I added this stanza to the Janthopoyism Bible.<br />
Also, like the structure of a word. A word makes sense but isn't actually anything. It's a placeholder, illusionary squiggles or sounds that connect to create something that isn't there. Maya is a communication!! This bit had a profound impact on my articulation of reality.
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<div class="quote">
18. Now some of the things said should bear a sense peculiar to themselves. So understand, for instance, what I'm going to say.<br /><br />
All are in God, [but] not as lying in a place. For place is both a body and immovable, and things that lie do not have motion.<br /><br />
Now things lie one way in the bodiless, another way in being made manifest.<br /><br />
Think, [then,] of Him who doth contain them all; and think, that than the bodiless naught is more comprehensive, or swifter, or more potent,
but it is the most comprehensive, the swiftest, and most potent of them all.
</div><br />
Salaman: <i>"For a place is not only a body, but an immovable body, and what lies in a place has no motion."</i> A place itself does not ever move. I've never thought about that. On that note, the place you were when you started reading this sentence is about 40 miles different due to the movement on the Earth. You were in a place, and that place stayed there as you moved.
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<div class="quote">
19. And, thus, think from thyself, and bid thy soul go unto any land, and there more quickly than thy bidding will it be. And bid it journey oceanwards; and there, again, immediately 'twill be, not as if passing on from place to place, but as if being there.<br /><br />
And bid it also mount to heaven; and it will need no wings, not will aught hinder it, nor fire of sun, nor auther, nor vortex-swirl, nor bodies of the other stars; but, cutting through them all, it will soar up to the last Body [of them all]. And shouldst thou will to break through this as well, and contemplate what is beyond - if there be aught beyond the Cosmos; it is permitted thee.
</div><br />
This is called imagination and is the biggest tool used in Scientology. <br />
Salaman, Everard, and Warwick all specifically mention India, where to bid thy soul go. It's by no means the agreed-upon translation but fascinating all the same. India is, of course, the most spiritually rich regions in history (and today!), so there is a gleeful connection to be made where Ancient Egypt recognised this. From what I understand, the mention of this country may have been under the influence of Apollonius of Tyana, a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher who was heavily influenced by Hermeticism and probably dabbled his fingers in interpretations as it went along. Philostratus wrote many texts about his trips to India, hence there is a connection. I openly accept that I could have this all wrong.
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<div class="quote">
20. Behold what power, what swiftness, thou dost have! And canst thou do all of these things, and God not [do them]?<br /><br />
Then, in this way know God; as having all things in Himself as thoughts, the whole Cosmos itself.<br /><br />
If, then, thou dost not make thyself like unto God, thou canst not know Him. For like is knowable unto like [alone].<br /><br />
Make, [then,] thyself to grow to the same stature as the Greatness which transcends all measure; leap forth from every body; transcend all time; become Eternity <literally, Aeon> and [thus] shalt thou know God.<br /><br />
Conceiving nothing is impossible unto thyself, think thyself deathless and able to know all - all arts, all sciences, the way of every life.<br /><br />
Become more lofty than all height, and lower than all depth. Collect into thyself all senses of [all] creatures - of fire, [and] water, dry and moist. Think that thou art at the same time in every place - in earth, in sea, in sky; not yet begotten, in the womb, young, old, [and] dead, in after-death conditions.<br /><br />
And if thou knowest all these things at once - times, places, doings, qualities, and quantities; thou canst know God.
</div><br />
Wanna be god? Fake it until you make it!
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<div class="quote">
21. But if thou lockest up thy soul within thy body, and dost debase it, saying: I nothing know; I nothing can; I fear the sea; I cannot scale the sky; I know not who I was, who I shall be - what is there [then] between [thy] God and thee?<br /><br />
For thou canst know naught of things beautiful and good so long as thou dost love thy body and art bad.<br /><br />
The greatest bad there is, is not to know God's Good; but to be able to know [Good], and will, and hope, is a Straight Way, the Good's own
[Path], both leading there and easy.<br /><br />
If thou but settest thy foot thereon, 'twill meet thee everywhere, 'twill everywhere be seen, both where and when thou dost expect it not -
waking, sleeping, sailing, journeying, by night, by day, speaking, [and] saying naught. For there is naught that is not image of the Good.
</div><br />
Seek the good, though. I really take that on board.
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<div class="quote">
22. Hermes: Is God unseen?<br /><br />
Mind: Hush! Who is more manifest than He? For this one reason hath He made all things, that through them all thou mayest see Him.<br /><br />
This is the Good of God, this [is] His Virtue - that He may be manifest through all.<br /><br />
For naught's unseen, even of things that are without a body. Mind sees itself in thinking, God in making.<br /><br />
So far these things have been made manifest to thee, Thrice-greatest one! Reflect on all the rest in the same way with thyself, and thou shalt not be led astray.
</div><br />
THAT'S EXACTLY IT. People say you can't see God. I say, fuck, dude, you can see God literally EVERYWHERE.
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<div class="theparts">
XIII. ABOUT THE COMMON MIND
</div>
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<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus: On the mind shared in common, to Tat</em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Tat</em> (Salaman); <em>Of The Common Mind, to tat</em> (Everard/Warwick)
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This was not my favourite section as it rubbed raw many glaring dissimilarities between Hermeticism and Janthopoyism, which I highlight in antagonistic detail below.
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<div class="quote">
1. Hermes: The Mind, O Tat, is of God's very essence - (if such a thing as essence of God there be) - and what that is, it and it only knows
precisely.<br /><br />
The Mind, then, is not separated off from God's essentiality, but is united to it, as light to sun.<br /><br />
This Mind in men is God, and for this cause some of mankind are gods, and their humanity is nigh unto divinity.<br /><br />
For the Good Daimon said: "Gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods."
</div><br />
Nous is God, which ties into pantheistic understandings. I like the <i>"light of the sun"</i> analogy.><br />
The Good Daimon (or <i>"Demon"</i>, according to Copenhaver) is a new character throughout this treatise. This is accepted to be a personification of the "common mind". Salaman refers to it as <i>"Agathos Daimon"</i>, and we are led to the Greek spirit Agathodaemon, a supernatural being representing luck, fertility, health, protection and wisdom. I like his quote anyway.
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<div class="quote">
2. But in irrational lives Mind is their nature. For where is Soul, there too is Mind; just as where Life, there is there also Soul.<br /><br />
But in irrational lives their soul is life devoid of mind; for Mind is the inworker of the souls of men for good - He works on them for their own good.<br /><br />
In lives irrational He doth co-operate with each one's nature; but in the souls of men He counteracteth them.<br /><br />
For every soul, when it becomes embodied, is instantly depraved by pleasure and by pain.<br /><br />
For in a compound body, just like juices, pain and pleasure seethe, and into them the soul, on entering in, is plunged.
</div><br />
I've said this all before but one of my biggest issues with Hermeticism is this idea that some humans/souls have Nous while others do not. Every person would argue they have "mind", so how do we know who does and who doesn't? Where does the ego come into play? And what about dogs? I've met dogs with more soul than any human has.
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<div class="quote">
3. O'er whatsoever souls the Mind doth, then, preside, to these it showeth its own light, by acting counter to their prepossessions, just as a good physician doth upon the body prepossessed by sickness, pain inflict, burning or lancing it for sake of health.<br /><br />
In just the selfsame way the Mind inflicteth pain on the soul, to rescue it from pleasure, whence comes its every ill.<br /><br />
The great ill of the soul is godlessness; then followeth fancy for all evil things and nothing good.<br /><br />
So, then, Mind counteracting it doth work good on the soul, as the physician health upon the body.
</div><br />
The great disease of the soul is "atheism" according to Everard, hehe, I like that.<br />
So anyway, every disease of the soul is born through pleasure, hence Nous causes pain to rescue it. I could take this to mean the cravings of separation from material vices? Like quitting smoking is torture but you know it's ultimately good for you.
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<div class="quote">
4. But whatsoever human souls have not the Mind as pilot, they share in the same fate as souls of lives irrational.<br /><br />
For [Mind] becomes co-worker with them, giving full play to the desires toward which [such souls] are borne - [desires] that from the rush of lust strain after the irrational; [so that such human souls,] just like irrational animals, cease not irrationally to rage and lust, nor are they ever satiate of ills.<br /><br />
For passions and irrational desires are ills exceeding great; and over these God hath set up the Mind to play the part of judge and executioner.
</div><br />
Desires are limitless, true. But why does this system even exist? Why is God testing or punishing us when we are an extension of that? It reminds me of the cruel Old Testament Yahweh, playing a sick game with all of us. I cannot.
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<div class="quote">
5. Tat: In that case, father mine, the teaching (logos) as to Fate, which previously thou didst explain to me, risks to be overset.<br /><br />
For that if it be absolutely fated for a man to fornicate, or commit sacrilege, or do some other evil deed, why is he punished - when he hath
done the deed from Fate's necessity?<br /><br />
Hermes: All works, my son, are Fate's; and without Fate naught of things corporal - or <i.e., either> good, or ill - can come to pass.<br /><br />
But it is fated, too, that he who doeth ill, shall suffer. And for this cause he doth it - that he may suffer what he suffereth, because he did it.
</div><br />
Props to Tat for asking my previous question exactly. I don't feel it was answered in any satisfactory manner.
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<div class="quote">
6. But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching as to vice and Fate, for we have spoken of these things in other [of our sermons]; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind: - what Mind can do, and how it is [so] different - in men being such and such, and in irrational lives [so] changed; and [then] again that in irrational lives it is not of a beneficial nature, while that in men it quencheth out the wrathful and the lustful elements.<br /><br />
Of men, again, we must class some as led by reason, and others as unreasoning.
</div><br />
It's tricky this "destiny" business, which Jantho repackages as a hard deterministic system. But it's terrible to have a "god" that is supposedly all "good" yet some men are to be born as lesser-than simply to be punished for it. It makes zero sense and is a considerable flaw in most religions, one I've never seen appropriately explained—except for Janthopoyism, wherein God is not entirely good, rather it encompasses all of life and we are merely extensions of that, learning via our unique pockets of perspective, good or bad not clearly defined yet essential to the illusion of free will.<br />
<i>"In each man, as it quells passion and desire, it acts differently and it is necessary to realise that there are some men who possess reason (logos) and others who do not."</i> - Salaman uses the word logos here too.
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<div class="quote">
7. But all men are subject to Fate, and genesis and change, for these are the beginning and the end of Fate.<br />
And though all men do suffer fated things, those led by reason (those whom we said Mind doth guide) do not endure <a> like suffering with
the rest; but, since they've freed themselves from viciousness, not being bad, they do not suffer bad.<br /><br />
Tat: How meanest thou again, my father? Is not the fornicator bad; the murderer bad; and [so with] all the rest?<br /><br />
Hermes: [I meant not that;] but that the Mind-led man, my son, though not a fornicator, will suffer just as though he had committed fornication, and though he be no murderer, as though he had committed murder.<br />
The quality of change he can no more escape than that of genesis.<br />
But it is possible for one who hath the Mind, to free himself from vice.
</div><br />
Nous is reason. Everard/Warwick were far clearer with this bit. Whereas the person without Nous will suffer for murdering someone, a person with Nous will suffer because they are a murderer. It's about being the thing rather than having done it.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. Wherefore I've ever heard, my son, Good Daimon also say - (and had He set it down in written words, He would have greatly helped the race of men; for He alone, my son, doth truly, as the Firstborn God, gazing on all things, give voice to words (logoi) divine) - yea, once I heard Him say:<br /><br />
"All things are one, and most of all the bodies which the mind alone perceives. Our life is owing to [God's] Energy and Power and Aeon. His Mind is good, so is His Soul as well. And this being so, intelligible things know naught of separation. So, then, Mind, being Ruler of all things, and being Soul of God, can do whate'er it wills."
</div><br />
In the words of Salaman, the Good Demon did say: <i>"all is one, and especially spiritual beings"</i>. This is a slight contradiction, for if all is one then why is anything more "one" than another? That last part also sounds like Thelema, no?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. So do thou understand, and carry back this word (logos) unto the question thou didst ask before - I mean about Mind's Fate.<br /><br />
For if thou dost with accuracy, son, eliminate [all] captious arguments (logoi), thou wilt discover that of very truth the Mind, the Soul of God, doth rule o'er all - o'er Fate, and Law, and all things else; and nothing is impossible to it - neither o'er Fate to set a human soul, nor under Fate to set [a soul] neglectful of what comes to pass. Let this so far suffice from the Good Daimon's most good [words].<br /><br />
Tat: Yea, [words] divinely spoken, father mine, truly and helpfully. But further still explain me this.
</div><br />
So here's the answer: Nous can rise above destiny. If you're properly in tune with reason, you can break free of destiny. I am willing to accept this explanation within a Hermetic context, at least.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. Thou said'st that Mind in lives irrational worked in them as [their] nature, co-working with their impulses.<br />
But impulses of lives irrational, as I do think, are passions.<br />
Now if the Mind co-worketh with [these] impulses, and if the impulses of [lives] irrational be passions, then is Mind also passion, taking its color from the passions.<br /><br />
Hermes: Well put, my son! Thou questionest right nobly, and it is just that I as well should answer [nobly].
</div><br />
No notes, as this leads onto the next section.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. All things incorporeal when in a body are subject unto passion, and in the proper sense they are [themselves] all passions.<br />
For every thing that moves itself is incorporeal; while every thing that's moved is body.<br />
Incorporeals are further moved by Mind, and movement's <i.e., movement is> passion.<br />
Both, then, are subject unto passion - both mover and the moved, the former being ruler and the latter ruled.<br />
But when a man hath freed himself from body, then is he also freed from passion.<br />
But, more precisely, son, naught is impassible, but all are passible.<br />
Yet passion differeth from passibility; for that the one is active, while the other's passive.<br />
Incorporeals moreover act upon themselves, for either they are motionless or they are moved; but whichsoe'er it be, it's passion.<br />
But bodies are invaribly acted on, and therefore they are passible.<br />
Do not, then, let terms trouble thee; action and passion are both the selfsame thing. To use the fairer sounding term, however, does no harm.
</div><br />
While most texts agree with the word <i>"passion"</i>, I can't help but feel it's a mistranslation. Salaman says <i>"experience of change"</i> which is confusing, but at least it doesn't conflict with my perspectives lol. I feel like passion is more about movement. It moves things, things are moved by it. Therefore, Nous is also moved by this force and is subject to change? I'm really unsure. Passion is one of the holiest of emotions, according to Janthopoyism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12. Tat: Most clearly hast thou, father mine, set forth the teaching (logos).<br /><br />
Hermes: Consider this as well, my son; that these two things God hath bestowed on man beyond all mortal lives - both mind and speech (logos)
equal to immortality. He hath the mind for knowing God and uttered speech (logos) for eulogy of Him.<br /><br />
And if one useth these for what he ought, he'll differ not a whit from the immortals. Nay, rather, on departing from the body, he will be guided by the twain unto the Choir of Gods and Blessed Ones.
</div><br />
Speech is revered as godlike. Communication is moreso, surely. But within language, Maya persists, according to Jantho. We don't realise the differences of our realities because we have developed a communicative system where we can agree on information via language alone, without any certainty that we are perceiving the same thing.<br />
There is also some indication of a heavenly afterlife with that last line.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. Tat: Why, father mine! - do not the other lives make use of speech (logos)?<br /><br />
Hermes: Nay, son; but <i.e., only> use of voice; speech is far different from voice. For speech is general among all men, while voice doth differ in each class of living thing.<br /><br />
Tat: But with men also, father mine, according to each race, speech differs.<br /><br />
Hermes: Yea, son, but man is one; so also speech is one and is interpreted, and it is found the same in Egypt, and in Persia, and in
Greece.<br />
Thou seemest, son, to be in ignorance of Reason's (Logos) worth and greatness. For that the Blessed God, Good Daimon, hath declared:<br />
"Soul is in Body, Mind in Soul; but Reason (Logos) is in Mind, and Mind in God; and God is Father of [all] these."
</div><br />
All languages are the same. I can understand that. When translated, we generally have different words for the same things.<br />
<i>"The Word in Nous"</i> - they speak about the word (logos) a lot but is word perhaps just meaning literal "word" as in speech itself? So in our ability to vocally communicate, that is where the Nous manifests? Or something?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. The Reason, then, is the Mind's image, and Mind God's [image]; while Body is [the image] of the Form; and Form [the image] of the Soul.<br />
The subtlest part of Matter is, then, Air <or vital spirit>; of Air, Soul; of Soul, Mind; and of Mind, God.<br />
And God surroundeth all and permeateth all; while Mind Surroundeth Soul, Soul Air, Air Matter.<br />
Necessity and Providence and Nature are instruments of Cosmos and of Matter's ordering; while of intelligible things each is Essence, and Sameness is their Essence.<br />
But of the bodies of the Cosmos each is many; for through possessiong Sameness, [these] composed bodies, though they do change from one into another of themselves, do natheless keep the incorruption of their Sameness.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. Whereas in all the rest of composed bodies, of each there is a certain number; for without number structure cannot be, or composition, or
decomposition.<br />
Now it is units that give birth to number and increase it, and, being decomposed, are taken back again into themselves.<br />
Matter is one; and this whole Cosmos - the mighty God and image of the mightier One, both with Him unified, and the conserver of the Will and
Order of the Father - is filled full of Life.<br />
Naught is there in it throughout the whole of Aeon, the Father's [everlasting] Re-establishment - nor of the whole, nor of the parts -
which doth not live.<br />
For not a single thing that's dead, hath been, or is, or shall be in [this] Cosmos.<br />
For that the Father willed it should have Life as long as it should be.<br />
Wherefore it needs must be a God.
</div><br />
There's a division of the number One to make more, but it's still never more than one. When we die, numbers may shrink, when born, they grow, but the collective unit One remains.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. How then, O son, could there be in the God, the image of the Father, in the plenitude of Life - dead things?<br />
For that death is corruption, and corruption destruction.<br />
How then could any part of that which knoweth no corruption be corrupted, or any whit of him the God destroyed?<br /><br />
Tat: Do they not, then, my father, die - the lives in it, that are its parts?<br /><br />
Hermes: Hush, son! - led into error by the term in use for what takes place.<br />
They do not die, my son, but are dissolved as compound bodies.<br />
Now dissolution is not death, but dissolution of a compound; it is dissolved not so that it may be destroyed, but that it may become renewed.<br />
For what is the activity of life? Is it not motion? What then in Cosmos is there that hath no motion? Naught is there, son!
</div><br />
Only bodies die, we've got that now. Although on an atomic level, they don't. I also love how often Hermes will "Hush!" someone, like, "Don't say that, God will hear you!".
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
17. Tat: Doth not Earth even, father, seem to thee to have no motion?<br /><br />
Hermes: Nay, son; but rather that she is the only thing which, though in very rapid motion, is also stable.<br />
For how would it not be a thing to laugh at, that the Nurse of all should have no motion, when she engenders and brings forth all things?<br />
For 'tis impossible that without motion one who doth engender, should do so.<br />
That thou should ask if the fourth part <or element> is not inert, is most ridiculous; for the body which doth have no motion, gives sign of nothing but inertia.
</div><br />
Of course, the question whether the planet has motion or not is ludicrous.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
18. Know, therefore, generally, my son, that all that is in Cosmos is being moved for increase or for decrease.<br />
Now that which is kept moving, also lives; but there is no necessity that that which lives, should be all same.<br />
For being simultaneous, the Cosmos, as a whole, is not subject to change, my son, but all its parts are subject unto it; yet naught [of it] is subject to corruption, or destroyed.<br />
It is the terms employed that confuse men. For 'tis not genesis that constituteth life, but 'tis sensation; it is not change that constituteth death, but 'tis forgetfulness.<br />
Since, then, these things are so, they are immortal all - Matter, [and] Life, [and] Spirit, Mind [and] Soul, of which whatever liveth, is
composed.
</div><br />
The manifested components change but the underlying source does not. Electrons, babez!<br /><br />
Salaman: <i>"for life is not birth, but perception; and death is not change, but forgetting."</i> <br />
Copenhaver: <i>"Life is not birth but awareness, and change is forgetting, not death."</i> <br />
Warwick: <i>"Generation is not life, it's sense. Change is not death but forgetfulness or occultation/lying hid"</i><br />
Everard has the fullest: <i>"For Generation is not a creation of Life, but a product of things to Sense, and making them manifest. Neither is Change Death, but Occultation of hiding that which was."</i> <br /><br />
I like it. In reincarnation, you forget your life, past life memories are not a thing according to Hermeticism and Janthopoyism.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
19. Whatever then doth live, oweth its immortality unto the Mind, and most of all doth man, he who is both recipient of God, and co-essential with Him.<br />
For with this life alone doth God consort; by visions in the night, by tokens in the day, and by all things doth He foretell the future unto him - by birds, by inward parts, by wind, by tree.<br />
Wherefore doth man lay claim to know things past, things present and to come.
</div><br />
Everard/Warwick claim that God speaks through symbols, signs, and dreams.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
20. Observe this too, my son; that each one of the other lives inhabiteth one portion of the Cosmos - aquatic creatures water, terrene earth, and aery creatures air; while man doth use all these - earth, water air [and] fire; he seeth Heaven, too, and doth contact it with [his] sense.<br />
But God surroundeth all, and permeateth all, for He is energy and power; and it is nothing difficult, my son, to conceive God.
</div><br />
Reincarnation will always take place in same environment? I'm not sure if it says that.<br />
But, again, man is all, go us. Then again, what about ducks? They chill on land and water and air. Ducks are as good as humans? I'm gonna say... yes!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
21. But if thou wouldst Him also contemplate, behold the ordering of the Cosmos, and [see] the orderly behavior of its ordering <this is a play on the word "cosmos", which means "order, arrangement" >; behold thou the Necessity of things made manifest, and [see] the Providence of things become and things becoming; behold how Matter is all-full of Life; [behold] this so great God in movement, with all the good and noble [ones] - gods, daimones and men!<br /><br />
Tat: But these are purely energies, O father mine!<br /><br />
Hermes: If, then, they're purely energies, my son - by whom, then, are they energized except by God?<br />
Or art thou ignorant, that just as Heaven, Earth, Water, Air, are parts of Cosmos, in just the selfsame way God's parts are Life and Immortality, [and] Energy, and Spirit, and Necessity, and Providence, and Nature, Soul, and Mind, and the Duration <that is, Aeon or Eternity> of all these that is called Good?<br />
And there are naught of things that have become, or are becoming, in which God is not.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
22. Tat: Is He in Matter, father, then?<br /><br />
Hermes: Matter, my son, is separate from God, in order that thou may'st attribute to it the quality of space. But what thing else than mass think'st thou it is, if it's not energized? Whereas if it be energized, by whom is it made so? For energies, we said, are parts of God.<br />
By whom are, then, all lives enlivened? By whom are things immortal made immortal? By whom changed things made changeable?<br />And whether thou dost speak of Matter, of Body, or of Essence, know that these too are energies of God; and that materiality is Matter's
energy, that corporeality is Bodies' energy, and that essentiality doth constituteth the energy of Essence; and this is God - the All.
</div><br />
Matter itself is the activities of God. I agree! So why are we pacing humans on a pedestal if it's all the same substance and process? Why is some combination of matter superior? If this is true and God is all, it created things to be unequal therefore, the inferiority of some things is imperative to make the superiority of others, and thus, just as important to balance one higher than the other.<br />
I'd also like to know why matter is separate from God? How so? Is it because of emanation, where the more we manifest physically, the furhter away from the divine source we go? Or is it because of Maya, where the matter-based reality is an illusion we need to see through to reconnect with that same source? Whichever way, the process is divine.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
23. And in the All is naught that is not God. Wherefore nor <i.e., neither> size, nor space, nor quality, nor form, nor time, surroundethGod; for He is All, and All surroundeth all, and permeateth all.<br />
Unto this Reason (Logos), son, thy adoration and thy worship pay. There is one way alone to worship God; [it is] not to be bad.
</div><br />
"Don't be evil", Google's motto though, right? Like anyone should be, and like the vast majority of spiritual philosophies agree, I am 100% on board with that closing statement.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XIV. THE SECRET SERMON ON THE MOUNTAIN
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>A secret dialogue of Hermes Trismegistus on the mountain to his son Tat: On being born again, and on the promise to be silent </em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Tat</em> (Salaman); <em>His Secret Sermon in the Mount of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence </em> (Everard/Warwick)
<br /><br />
This is like a summary chapter.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Tat: [Now] in the General Sermons, father, thou didst speak in riddles most unclear, conversing on Divinity; and when thou saidst no man could e'er be saved before Rebirth, thy meaning thou didst hide.<br /><br />
Further, when I became thy Suppliant, in Wending up the Mount, after thou hadst conversed with me, and when I longed to learn the Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth (for this beyond all other things is just the thing I know not), thou saidst, that thou wouldst give it me - "when thou shalt have become a stranger to the world".<br /><br />
Wherefore I got me ready and made the thought in me a stranger to the world-illusion.<br />
And now do thou fill up the things that fall short in me with what thou saidst would give me the tradition of Rebirth, setting it forth in speech or in the secret way.<br /><br />
I know not, O Thrice-greatest one, from out what matter and what womb Man comes to birth, or of what seed.
</div><br />
The big ask. No more fucking around. Tat wants answers!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. Hermes: Wisdom that understands in silence [such is the matter and the womb from out which Man is born], and the True Good the seed.<br /><br />
Tat: Who is the sower, father? For I am altogether at a loss.<br /><br />
Hermes: It is the Will of God, my son.<br /><br />
Tat: And of what kind is he that is begotten, father? For I have no share of that essence in me, which doth transcend the senses. The one that is begot will be another one from God, God's Son?<br /><br />
Hermes: All in all, out of all powers composed.<br /><br />
Tat: Thou tellest me a riddle, father, and dost not speak as father unto son.<br /><br />
Hermes: This Race, my son, is never taught; but when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God.
</div><br />
I do love Tat's frustration. Stop talking in riddles, speak to me like a son! But I am impressed with Hermes' response too. The power of silence is agreed upon by all spiritual texts, a medatitive mind a constant. And, even more importantly, that knowledge is not taught but remembered. I find that very exciting.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. Tat: Thou sayest things impossible, O father, things that are forced. Hence answers would I have direct unto these things. Am I a son strange to my father's race?<br /><br />
Keep it not, father, back from me. I am a true-born son; explain to me the manner of Rebirth.<br /><br />
Hermes: What may I say, my son? I can but tell thee this. Whene'er I see within myself the Simple Vision brought to birth out of God's mercy, I have passed through myself into a Body that can never die. And now i am not as I was before; but I am born in Mind.<br /><br />
The way to do this is not taught, and it cannot be seen by the compounded element by means of which thou seest.<br /><br />
Yea, I have had my former composed form dismembered for me. I am no longer touched, but I have touch; I have dimension too; and [yet] am I a stranger to them now.<br /><br />
Thou seest me with eyes, my son; but what I am thou dost not understand [even] with fullest strain of body and of sight.
</div><br />
No notes just yet.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. Tat: Into fierce frenzy and mind-fury hast thou plunged me, father, for now no longer do I see myself.<br /><br />
Hermes: I would, my son, that thou hadst e'en passed right through thyself, as they who dream in sleep yet sleepless.<br /><br />
Tat: Tell me this too! Who is the author of Rebirth?<br /><br />
Hermes: The Son of God, the One Man, by God's Will.
</div><br />
I am enjoying the back and forth here. It gives it a certain authenticity. <br />
Weirdly, Warwick says the complete opposite, with Tat encouraging riddles, not straight answers.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. Tat: Now hast thou brought me, father, unto pure stupefaction.<br />
Arrested from the senses which I had before,...<lacuna in original text>; for [now] I see thy Greatness identical with thy distinctive form.<br /><br />
Hermes: Even in this thou art untrue; the mortal form doth change with every day. 'Tis turned by time to growth and waning, as being an untrue thing.
</div><br />
Tat is calling Hermes out, like, <i>"You look the same"</i>, and he's like, <i>"No, I don't"</i>. <br />
The difference between translations here is quite vast. Everard and Warwick use this moment to say Tat is finally seeing the world as a falsehood, while the others interpret it as Tat arguing with Hermes that he does not see Hermes the way he described. Maybe I'm just reading into it wrong. Everard/Warwick's narrative does appear more logical in context.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. Tat: What then is true, Thrice-greatest One?<br /><br />
Hermes: That which is never troubled, son, which cannot be defined; that which no color hath, nor any figure, which is not turned, which hath no garment, which giveth light; that which is comprehensible unto itself [alone], which doth not suffer change; that which no body can contain.<br /><br />
Tat: In very truth I lose my reason, father. Just when I thought to be made wise by thee, I find the senses of this mind of mine blocked up.<br /><br />
Hermes: Thus is it, son: That which is upward borne like fire, yet is borne down like earth, that which is moist like water, yet blows like air, how shalt thou this perceive with sense - the that which is not solid nor yet moist, which naught can bind or loose, of which in power and energy alone can man have any notion - and even then it wants a man who can perceive the Way of Birth in God?
</div><br />
Formless substance, the God of Jantho.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. Tat: I am incapable of this, O father, then?<br /><br />
Hermes: Nay, God forbid, my son! Withdraw into thyself, and it will come; will, and it comes to pass; throw out of work the body's senses, and thy Divinity shall come to birth; purge from thyself the brutish torments - things of matter.<br /><br />
Tat: I have tormentors then in me, O father?<br /><br />
Hermes: Ay, no few, my son; nay, fearful ones and manifold.<br /><br />
Tat: I do not know them, father.<br /><br />
Hermes: Torment the first is this Not-knowing, son; the second one is Grief; the third, Intemperance; the fourth, Concupiscence; the fifth, Unrighteousness; the sixth is Avarice; the seventh, Error; the eighth is Envy; the ninth, Guile; the tenth is Anger; eleventh, Rashness; the twelfth is Malice.<br /><br />
These are in number twelve; but under them are many more, my son; and creeping through the prison of the body they force the man that's
placed therein to suffer in his senses. But they depart (though not all at once) from him who hath been taken pity on by God; and this it is which constitutes the manner of Rebirth. And... <lacuna in the original text> the Reason (Logos).
</div><br />
I do like the whole "wish it to come and it will come". There's a key in there.<br />
The 12 "tormentors", could be important. Seems pretty specific although it does say there are more.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. And now, my son, be still and solemn silence keep! Thus shall the mercy that flows on us from God not cease.<br /><br />
Henceforth rejoice, O son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the articulation of the Reason (Logos).<br /><br />
Gnosis of God hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Notknowing is cast out.<br />
Gnosis of Joy hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who give it room. The Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self-control. O Power most sweet! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son! How with its coming doth it chase Intemperance away!
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. Now fourth, on Continence I call, the Power against Desire. <lacuna in the original text> This step, my son, is Righteousness' firm seat. For without judgement <other translators read this "without effort" > see how she hath chased Unrighteousness away. We are made righteous, son, by the departure of Unrighteousness.<br /><br />
Power sixth I call to us - that against Avarice, Sharing-with-all.<br /><br />
And now that Avarice is gone, I call on Truth. And Error flees, and Truth is with us.<br /><br />
See how [the measure of] the Good is full, my son, upon Truth's coming.<br /><br />
For Envy is gone from us; and unto Truth is joined the Good as well, with Life and Light.<br /><br />
And now no more doth any torment of the Darkness venture nigh, but vanquished [all] have fled with whirring wings.
</div><br />
A guide on beating the tormentors. Useful.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. Thou knowest [now], my son, the manner of Rebirth. And when the Ten is come, my son, that driveth out the Twelve, the Birth in
understanding <literally "intellectual birth", noera genesis> is complete, and by this birth we are made into Gods.<br /><br />
Who then doth by His mercy gain this Birth in God, abandoning the body's senses, knows himself [to be of Light and Life] and that he doth
consist of these, and [thus] is filled with bliss.
</div><br />
A step-by-step process to reach divinity, that's very kind. <br />
I feel like if you really study these parts, you'll make immense progress.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. Tat: By God made steadfast, father, no longer with the sight my eyes afford I look on things, but with the energy the Mind doth give me through the Powers.<br /><br />
In Heaven am I, in earth, in water, air; I am in animals, in plants; I'm in the womb, before the womb, after the womb; I'm everywhere!<br /><br />
But further tell me this: How are the torments of the Darkness, when they are twelve in number, driven out by the ten Powers? What is the
way of it, Thrice-greatest one?
</div><br />
Tat reaches enlightenment. I wish he said <i>"I AM the womb"</i>. Either way, the pantheistic understanding rings strong.
How does 10 powers defeat 12 things, that's a good question though. Respect to Tat.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12. Hermes: This dwelling-place through which we have just passed <i.e., the human body>, my son, is constituted from the circle of the twelve types-of-life, this being composed of elements, twelve in number, but of one nature, an omniform idea. For man's delusion there are disunions in them, son, while in their action they are one. Not only can we never part Rashness from Wrath; they cannot even be distinguished.<br /><br />
According to right reason (logos), then, they <the Twelve> naturally withdraw once and for all, in as much as they are chased out by no less than ten powers, that is, the Ten.<br /><br />
For, son, the Ten is that which giveth birth to souls. And Life and Light are unified there, where the One hath being from the Spirit. According then to reason (logos) the One contains the Ten, the Ten the One.
</div><br />
A lot of cool stuff to unpack here.<br />
I have read that wherever the 12 tormentors/types-of-life are mentioned, it's the zodiac. But, again, in terms of the pantheistic unification, there are still but one. They work together and naturally beget into each other, negative vibes leading to negative vibes and are terms for indistinguishable entities.<br />
Regardless, they can be banished by the 10-step plan, which is perfect for me, because Janthopoyism worships the number 10 higher than any number! Yay!<br />
Also note how this is the 12th section too.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. Tat: Father, I see the All, I see myself in Mind.<br /><br />
Hermes: This is, my son, Rebirth - no more to look on things from body's view-point (a thing three ways in space extended)... <lacuna in text>, though this Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth, on which I did not comment - in order that we may not be calumniators of the All unto the multitude, to whom indeed God Himself doth will we should not.
</div><br />
I've felt this on ketamine. But I'm confused. If you become one with Nous and are no longer manifested physically, how are you communicating? Is there still not a separation here between Hermes and Tat, and therefore, a degree of Maya still active? Nondualism sounds great but what is the end result? <br />
I do like how Warwick uses the word <i>"imagination"</i> to describe reality, spinning it around, that this physical reality is the imaginary one, the ones in our head far closer to breaking through to the real world. Could be!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. Tat: Tell me, O father: This Body which is made up of the Powers, is it at any time dissolved?<br /><br />
Hermes: Hush, [son]! Speak not of things impossible, else wilt thou sin and thy Mind's eye be quenched.<br /><br />
The natural body which our sense perceives is far removed from this essential birth.<br /><br />
The first must be dissolved, the last can never be; the first must die, the last death cannot touch.<br /><br />
Dost thou not know thou hast been born a God, Son of the One, even as I myself?
</div><br />
Questions like that will pull you out of the Nous! I keep going back to "remembering" we are divinity. Abraham Hicks always said that (as did others, including Alanis Morissette) but it's sinking in deeper and deeper for me.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. Tat: I would, O father, hear the Praise-giving with hymn which thou didst say thou heardest then when thou wert at the Eight [the Ogdoad] of Powers<br /><br />
Hermes: Just as the Shepherd did foretell [I should], my son, [when I came to] the Eight.<br /><br />
Well dost thou haste to "strike thy tent" <i.e., be free from the physical body>, for thou hast been made pure.<br /><br />
The Shepherd, Mind of all masterhood, hath not passed on to me more than hath been written down, for full well did he know that I should of myself be able to learn all, and hear what I should wish, and see all things.<br /><br />
He left to me the making of fair things; wherefore the Powers within me.<br />
e'en as they are in all, break into song.
</div><br />
The eighth "Sphere" (Salaman) is the Ogdoad. In Christian Gnosticism, it is the stage above the seventh "heaven", where absolute freedom is attained. Something else I came across is the Ogdoad in Egyptian mythology, the term for the eight primordial deities (Nu, Naunet, Ḥeḥu, Ḥeḥut, Kekui, Kekuit, Qerḥ, and Qerḥet). Wheeee!<br />
I also like the analogy to <i>"strike thy tent"</i> to describe the physical Maya we need to escape. Reminds me of Buddha comparing our world to a burning house from which we must escape, or the Biblical Isaiah 40:22, where the heavens <i>"that stretcheth out [...] as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. Tat: Father, I wish to hear; I long to know these things.<br /><br />
Hermes: Be still, my son; hear the Praise-giving now that keeps [the soul] in tune, Hymn of Re-birth - a hymn I would not have thought fit so readily to tell, had'st thou not reached the end of all.<br /><br />
Wherefore this is not taught, but is kept hid in silence.<br /><br />
Thus then, my son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky, facing the southern wind, about the sinking of the setting sun, and make thy
worship; so in like manner too when he doth rise, with face to the east wind.<br /><br />
Now, son, be still!<br /><br />
The Secret Hymnody
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
17. Let every nature of the World receive the utterance of my hymn!<br /><br />
Open thou Earth! Let every bolt of the Abyss be drawn for me. Stir not, ye Trees!<br /><br />
I am about to hymn creation's Lord, both All and One.<br /><br />
Ye Heavens open and ye Winds stay still; [and] let God's deathless Sphere receive my word (logos)!<br /><br />
For I will sing the praise of Him who founded all; who fixed the Earth, and hung up Heaven, and gave command that Ocean should afford sweet water [to the Earth], to both those parts that are inhabited and those that are not, for the support and use of every man; who made the Fire to shine for gods and men for every act.<br /><br />
Let us together all give praise to Him, sublime above the Heavens, of every nature Lord!<br /><br />
'Tis He who is the Eye of Mind; may He accept the praise of these my Powers!
</div><br />
Secret Hymn! Not so secret anymore!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
18. Ye powers that are within me, hymn the One and All; sing with my Will, Powers all that are within me!<br /><br />
O blessed Gnosis, by thee illumined, hymning through thee the Light that mond alone can see, I joy in Joy of Mind.<br /><br />
Sing with me praises all ye Powers!<br /><br />
Sing praise, my Self-control; sing thou through me, my Righteousness, the praises of the Righteous; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises!<br /><br />
Sing thou, O Good, the Good! O Life and Light, from us to you our praises flow!<br /><br />
Father, I give Thee thanks, to Thee Thou Energy of all my Powers; I give Thee thanks, O God, Thou Power of all my Energies!
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
19. Thy Reason (Logos) sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into [Thy] Reason - [my] reasonable oblation!<br /><br />
Thus cry the Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All; they do Thy Will.<br /><br />
From Thee Thy Will; to Thee the All. Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The All that is in us, O Life, preserve; O Light<,> illumine it; O God<,> in-spirit it.<br /><br />
It it Thy Mind that plays the shepherd to Thy Word, O Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit [upon all].
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
20. [For] Thou art God, Thy Man thus cries to Thee through Fire, through Air, through Earth, through Water, [and] through Spirit, through Thy creatures.<br /><br />
'Tis from Thy Aeon I have found praise-giving; and in thy Will, the object of my search, have I found rest.<br /><br />
Tat: By thy good pleasure have I seen this praise-giving being sung, O father; I have set it in my Cosmos too.<br /><br />
Hermes: Say in the Cosmos that thy mind alone can see, my son.<br /><br />
Tat: Yea, father, in the Cosmos that the mind alone can see; for I have been made able by thy Hymn, and by thy Praise-giving my mind hath been illumined. But further I myself as well would from my natural mind send praise-giving to God.
</div><br />
I expected more. I've read better poems. Although who knows what the centuries of translations have spoiled.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
21. Hermes: But not unheedfully, my son.<br /><br />
Tat: Aye. What I behold in mind, that do I say.<br /><br />
To thee, thou Parent of my Bringing into Birth, as unto God I, Tat, send reasonable offerings. o God and Father, thou art the Lord, thou art the Mind. Receive from me oblations reasonable as thou would'st wish; for by thy Will all things have been perfected.<br /><br />
Hermes: Send thou oblation, son, acceptable to God, the Sire of all; but add, my son, too, "through the Word" (Logos).<br /><br />
Tat: I give thee, father, thanks for showing me to sing such hymns
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
22. Hermes: Happy am I, my son, that though hast brought the good fruits forth of Truth, products that cannot die.<br /><br />
And now that thou hast learnt this lesson from me, make promise to keep silence on thy virtue, and to no soul, my son, make known the
handing on to thee the manner of Rebirth, that we may not be thought to be calumniators.<br /><br />
And now we both of us have given heed sufficiently, both I the speaker and the hearer thou.<br /><br />
In Mind hast thou become a Knower of thyself and our [common] Sire.
</div><br />
Keep these teachings a secret!<br />
Ok!<br />
*writes teachings in a book*
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XV. [A LETTER] OF THRICE-GREATEST HERMES TO ASCLEPIUS
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>From Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius, health of mind </em> (Copenhaver); <em>Hermes to Asclepius</em> (Salaman); <em>To Asclepius, To Be Truly Wise </em> (Everard/Warwick)
<br /><br />
Continuing directly on from the previous chapter, Hermes chats to Asclepius, who is far more versed with the teachings than Tat was, hence this education is far shorter, and most of it covered before. As a result, my commentary is sparse and mostly useless.<br />
This is the final book in the ordering by Everard/Warwick.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
<b>UNTO ASCLEPIUS GOOD HEALTH OF SOUL!</b><br /><br />
1. Since in thy absence my son Tat desired to learn the nature of the things that are, and would not let me hold it over, as [natural to] a younger son fresh come to gnosis of the [teachings] on each single point,—I was compelled to tell [him] more, in order that the contemplation [of them] might be the easier for him to follow.<br /><br />
I would, then, choosing out the chiefest heads of what was said, write them in brief to thee, explaining them more mystic-ly, as unto one of greater age and one well versed in Nature.
</div><br />
Family dynamics.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. If all things manifest have been and are being made, and made things are not made by their own selves but by another; [if] made things are the many,—nay more, are all things manifest and all things different and not alike; and things that are being made are being made by other [than themselves];—there is some one who makes these things; and He cannot be made, but is more ancient than the things that can.<br /><br />
For things that can be made, I say, are made by other [than themselves]; but of the things that owe their being to their being made, it is impossible that anything should be more ancient than them all, save only That which is not able to be made.
</div><br />
Speaking about the maker. We are all creators, though. Even AI.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. So He is both Supreme, and One, and Only, the truly wise in all, as having naught more ancient [than Himself].<br /><br />
For He doth rule o'er both the number, size and difference of things that are being made, and o'er the continuity of their making [too].<br /><br />
Again, things makeable are seeable; but He cannot be seen.<br /><br />
For for this cause He maketh,—that He may not be able to be seen.<br /><br />
He, therefore, ever maketh; and therefore can He ne'er be seen.<br /><br />
To comprehend Him thus is meet; and comprehending, [it is meet] to marvel; and marvelling, to count oneself as blessed, as having learnt to know one's Sire.
</div><br />
Standard info at this point.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. For what is sweeter than one's own true Sire? Who, then, is He; and how shall we learn how to know Him?<br /><br />
Is it not right to dedicate to Him alone the name of God, or that of Maker, or of Father, or rather [all] the three;—God for His Power, and Maker for His Energy, and Father for His Good?<br /><br />
Now Power doth differ from the things which are being made; while Energy consisteth in all things being made.<br /><br />
Wherefore we ought to put away verbosity and foolish talk, and understand these two—the made and Maker. For that of them there is no
middle [term]; there is no third.
</div><br />
Salaman's summary is easier: <i> "He is God because of his power Creator because of his activity and Father because of the Supreme Good." </i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. Wherefore in all that thou conceivest, in all thou nearest, these two recall to mind; and think all things are they, reckoning as doubtful naught, nor of the things above, nor of the things below, neither of things divine, nor things that suffer change or things that are in obscuration.<br /><br />
For all things are [these] twain, Maker and made, and 'tis impossible that one should be without the other; for neither is it possible that "Maker" should exist without the "made," for each of them is one and the same thing.<br /><br />
Wherefore 'tis no more possible for one from other to be parted, than self from self.
</div><br />
The creator is not the creator unless it has created. Sounds obvious, but I had never really thought about that. The two depend on one another to exist, the act makes the actee.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. Now if the Maker is naught else but That which makes, Alone, Simple, Uncompound, it needs must do this [making] to Itself,—to Which its Maker's making is "its being made." <br /><br />
And as to all that's being made,—it cannot be [so made] by being made by its own self; but it must needs be made by being made by other. Without the "Maker" "made" is neither made nor is; for that the one without the other doth lose its proper nature by deprivation of that other.<br /><br />
If, then, all things have been admitted to be two,—the "that which is being made" and "that which makes,"—[all then] are one in union of these,—the "that which leadeth" and the "that which followeth." <br /><br />
The making God is "that which leadeth"; the "that which is being made," whatever it be, the "that which followeth."
</div><br />
Tongue twister mindfuck.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. And do not thou be chary of things made because of their variety, from fear of attribution of a low estate and lack of glory unto God.<br /><br />
For that His Glory's one,—to make all things; and this is as it were God's Body, the making [of them].<br /><br />
But by the Maker's self naught is there thought or bad or base.<br /><br />
These things are passions which accompany the making process, as rust doth brass and filth doth body; but neither doth the brass-smith make the rust, nor the begetters of the body filth, nor God [make] evil.<br /><br />
It is continuance in the state of being made that makes them lose, as though it were, their bloom; and 'tis because of this God hath made change, as though it were the making clean of genesis.
</div><br />
Time creates evil? Did God not make ulcers or dirt, though? Hermes' "God" has a ceiling, there is a greater system above it at work.<br />
Everard/Warwick say <i>"as excrement does the body"</i> which suggests that poop is not natural and we do not make it??
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. Is it, then, possible for one and the same painter man to make both heaven, and gods, and earth, and sea, and men, and all the animals, and lifeless things, and trees, and yet impossible for God to make all things?<br /><br />
What monstraus lack of understanding; what want of knowledge as to God!<br /><br />
For such the strangest lot of all do suffer; for though they say they worship piously and sing the praise of God, yet by their not ascribing unto Him the making of all things, they know not God; and, added unto this not-knowing, they're guilty even of the worst impiety to Him—passions to Him attributing, or arrogance, or impotency.<br /><br />
For if He doth not make all things, from arrogance He doth not make, or not being able,—which is impiety [to think].
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. One Passion hath God only—Good; and He who's Good, is neither arrogant nor impotent.<br /><br />
For this is God—the Good, which hath all power of making all.<br /><br />
And all that can be made is made by God,—that is, by [Him who is] the Good and who can make all things.<br /><br />
But would'st thou learn how He doth make, and how things made are made, thou may'st do so.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. Behold a very fair and most resemblant image—a husbandman casting the seed into the ground; here wheat, there barley, and there
[again] some other of the seeds!<br /><br />
Behold one and the same man planting the vine, the apple, and [all] other trees!<br /><br />
In just the selfsame way doth God sow Immortality in Heaven, and Change on Earth, and Life and Motion in the universe.<br /><br />
These are not many, but few and easy to be numbered; for four in all are they,—and God Himself and Genesis, in whom are all that are.
</div><br />
There's only four things? In total? <i>"Immortality in Heaven, and Change on Earth, and Life and Motion in the universe"</i>? Weirdly, that feels satisfactory.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XVI. THE DEFINITIONS OF ASCLEPIUS UNTO KING AMMON
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>Definitions of Asclepius to King Ammon on god, matter, vice, fate, the sun, intellectual essence, divine essence, mankind, the arrangement of the plenitude, the seven stars, and mankind according to the image </em> (Copenhaver); <em>Asclepius to King Ammon</em> (Salaman)
<br /><br />
For reasons beyond any reasoning, Copenhaver and Salaman skip any sign of a 15th chapter, moving from 14 to 16 in one leap. This finally syncs the texts up with Mead, due to Mead's lost treatise <i>"II. THE GENERAL SERMON"</i>. Small win?<br />
As previously stated, Everard and Warwick are missing all of these final sections, yet have some bonus ones of their own, which I'll address after the classic ordering is complete.<br /><br />
Researching (Googling lol) King Ammon leads to Amon of Judah, but I don't think there's any agreed figure here. Either way, it's Asclepius' voice, which does feel removed from Hermes as somewhat easier to understand but a little trickier to argue for in terms of divine content.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
1. Great is the sermon (logos) which I send to thee, O King—the summing up and digest, as it were, of all the rest.<br /><br />
For it is not composed to suit the many's prejudice, since it contains much that refuteth them.<br /><br />
Nay, it will seem to thee as well to contradict sometimes my sermons too.<br /><br />
Hermes, my master, in many a conversation, both when alone, and sometimes, too, when Tat was there, has said, that unto those who come
across my books, their composition will seem most simple and [most] clear; but, on the contrary, as 'tis unclear, and has the [inner] meaning of its words concealed, it will be still unclearer, when, afterwards, the Greeks will want to turn our tongue into their own,—for this will be a very great distorting and obscuring of [even] what has been [already] written.
</div><br />
As promised, Asclepius is writing a letter to the King of the time, and this opener really appeals to me. Asclepius admits that Hermes' teachings may contradict his own, but wants to highlight its simplicity which hides obscure meanings. He also utilises incredible foresight that inevitable translations will distort the messages further, mentioning the Greeks specifically.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. Turned into our own native tongue, the sermon (logos) keepeth clear the meaning of the words (logoi) [at any rate].
For that its very quality of sound, the [very] power of the Egyptian names, have in themselves the bringing into act of what is said.<br /><br />
As far as, then, thou canst, O King—(and thou canst [do] all things)—keep [this] our sermon from translation; in order that such mighty
mysteries may not come to the Greeks, and the disdainful speech of Greece, with [all] its looseness, and its surface beauty, so to speak, take all the strength out of the solemn and the strong—the energetic speech of Names.<br /><br />
The Greeks, O King, have novel words, energic of "argumentation" [only]; and thus is the philosophizing of the Greeks—the noise of words.<br /><br />
But we do not use words; but we use sounds full-filled with deeds
</div><br />
The way the words are read/spoken in their original tongue (Egyptian Arabic?) is significant, which I think is often the case with holy texts (The Quran, famously).<br />
I do love how Asclepius disses the Greek language here, <i>"a noise of words"</i> haha.<br />
Basically, this version we are reading is completely fucked and is adding insult by informing us so.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. Thus, then, will I begin the sermon by invocation unto God, the universals' Lord and Maker, [their] Sire, and [their] Encompasser; who though being All is One, and though being One is All; for that the Fullness of all things is One, and [is] in One, this latter One not coming as a second [One], but both being One.<br /><br />
And this is the idea that I would have thee keep, through the whole study of our sermon, Sire!<br /><br />
For should one try to separate what seems to be both All and One and Same from One,—he will be found to take his epithet of "All" from [the idea of] multitude, and not from [that of) fullness—which is impossible; for if he part All from the One, he will destroy the All.<br /><br />
For all things must be One—if they indeed are One. Yea, they are One; and they shall never cease being One—in order that the Fullness may not be destroyed.
</div><br />
Pantheism all the way.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. See then in Earth a host of founts of Water and of Fire forth-spirting in its midmost parts; in one and the same [space all] the three natures visible—of Fire, and Water, and of Earth, depending from one Root.<br /><br />
Whence, too, it is believed to be the Treasury of every matter. It sendeth forth of its abundance, and in the place [of what it sendeth forth] receiveth the subsistence from above.<br /><br />
For thus the Demiurge—I mean the Sun—eternally doth order Heaven and Earth, pouring down Essence, and taking Matter up, drawing both round Himself and to Himself all things, and from Himself giving all things to all.<br /><br />
For He it is whose goodly energies extend not only through the Heaven and the Air, but also onto Earth, right down unto the lowest Depth and the Abyss.
</div><br />
The Demiurge (<i>"the being responsible for the creation of the universe"</i>) is the Sun. The Sun is the link between heaven and earth. That's the perfect way to put it, in my opinion. All of Life is a result of its force, it's scientific if you're willing. That said, sun-worship so boldly stated in these texts is not common, and even suspicious when spoken by someone other than Hermes.
<br /><br />
Annoying: Mead skips treatise #5. Copenhaver and Salaman place the <i>"For thus the Demiurge..."</i> part at that number.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. And if there be an Essence which the mind alone can grasp, this is his Substance, the reservoir of which would be His Light.<br /><br />
But whence this [Substance] doth arise, or floweth forth, He, [and He] only, knows.<br /><br />
* * * * *<br /><br />
Or rather, in space and nature, He is near unto Himself . . . though as He is not seen by us, . . . understand [Him] by conjecture.
</div><br />
Salaman: <i>"If there is a spiritual substance, then it is the body of the Sun, which his light contains."</i> I'm a big fan of sun-worship myself. Massive source of energy, imperative to our existence, a tangible entity.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. The spectacle of Him, however, is not left unto conjecture; nay [for] His very rays, in greatest splendour, shine all round on all the Cosmos that doth lie above and lie below.<br /><br />
For He is stablished in the midst, wreathed with the Cosmos, and just as a good charioteer, He safely drives the cosmic team, and holds them in unto Himself, lest they should run away in dire disorder.<br /><br />
The reins are Life, and Soul, and Spirit, Deathlessness, and Genesis.<br /><br />
He lets it, then, drive [round] not far off from Himself—nay, if the truth be said, together with Himself.
</div><br />
<i>"For the sun is situated in the center of the cosmos, wearing it like a crown."</i> - Copenhaver. Poetic but LOL.<br />
Salaman is beautiful here: <i>"Like a skilled driver he safely guides the chariot of the cosmos binding the reins to himself, so that it does not run amok. His reins are life, soul, breath, immortality and generation. He slackens the reins so that the chariot can run freely, but not too far from himself; in fact it stays with him."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. And in this way He operates all things. To the immortals He distributeth perpetual permanence; and with the upper hemisphere of His own Light—all that he sends above from out His other side, [the side of him] which looks to Heaven—He nourisheth the deathless parts of
Cosmos.<br /><br />
But with that side that sendeth down [its Light], and shineth round all of the hemisphere of Water, and of Earth, and Air, He vivifieth, and by births and changes keepeth in movement to and fro the animals in these [the lower] parts of Cosmos. . . .
</div><br />
The scientific leeway goes downhill from here.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. He changes them in spiral fashion, and doth transform them into one another, genus to genus, species into species, their mutual changes into one another being balanced—just as He does when He doth deal with the Great Bodies.<br /><br />
For in the case of every body, [its] permanence [consists in] transformation.<br /><br />
In case of an immortal one, there is no dissolution; but when it is a mortal one, it is accompanied with dissolution.<br /><br />
And this is how the deathless body doth differ from the mortal, and how the mortal one doth differ from the deathless.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. Moreover, as His Light's continuous, so is His Power of giving Life to lives continuous, and not to be brought to an end in space or in abundance.<br /><br />
For there are many choirs of daimons round Him, like unto hosts of very various kinds; who though they dwell with mortals, yet are not far from the immortals; but having as their lot from here unto the spaces of the Gods, they watch o'er the affairs of men, and work out things appointed by the Gods—by means of storms, whirlwinds and hurricanes, by transmutations wrought by fire and shakings of the earth, with famines also and with wars requiting [man's] impiety,—for this is in man's case the greatest ill against the Gods.
</div><br />
The daimons (or demons, Copenhaver) are more logically called <i>"choirs of spiritual powers"</i> by Salaman. As per any ancient tradition, the gods communicate via means of the weather. Lol dumb.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
11. For that the duty of the Gods is to give benefits; the duty of mankind is to give worship; the duty of the daimons is to give requital.<br /><br />
For as to all the other things men do, through error, or foolhardiness, or by necessity, which they call Fate, or ignorance—these are not held requitable among the Gods; impiety alone is guilty at their bar.
</div><br />
Disrespecting God is the only sin. Men must worship, and then the gods will give benefits, or conversely, the demons will punish. It's a gigantic flaw in all religions that humans are rewarded or penalised for their behaviour when the evidence indicates something far more circumstantial (or random). Bad people thrive all the time, while many good suffer. Hence "spiritual texts" rely on unprovable afterlife promises. It's smart but its days are limited.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12. The Sun is the preserver and the nurse of every class.<br /><br />
And just as the Intelligible World, holding the Sensible in its embrace, fills it [all] full, distending it with forms of every kind and every shape—so, too, the Sun distendeth all in Cosmos, affording births to all, and strengtheneth them.<br /><br />
When they are weary or they fail, He takes them in His arms again.
</div><br />
Pretty dramatic analysis, but it is nice how the sun doesn't discriminate.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. And under Him is ranged the choir of daimons—or, rather, choirs; for these are multitudinous and very varied, ranked underneath the groups of Stars, in equal number with each one of them.<br /><br />
So, marshalled in their ranks, they are the ministers of each one of the Stars, being in their natures good, and bad, that is, in their activities (for that a daimon's essence is activity); while some of them are [of] mixed [natures], good and bad.
</div><br />
Evil spirits living among us? This is quite unlike the other Hermetic teachings, which makes me wonder if that's why it was excluded by Everard and Warwick.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. To all of these has been allotted the authority o'er things upon the Earth; and it is they who bring about the multifold confusion of the turmoils on the Earth—for states and nations generally, and for each individual separately.<br /><br />
For they do shape our souls like to themselves, and set them moving with them,—obsessing nerves, and marrow, veins and arteries, the brain itself, down to the very heart.
</div><br />
Demons have authority over our reality, but some are bad, and God is only good, so who granted them this authority?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. For on each one of us being born and made alive, the daimons take hold on us—those [daimones] who are in service at that moment [of the wheel] of Genesis, who are ranged under each one of the Stars.<br /><br />
For that these change at every moment; they do not stay the same, but circle back again.<br /><br />
These, then, descending through the body to the two parts of the soul, set it awhirling, each one towards its own activity.<br /><br />
But the soul's rational part is set above the lordship of the daimons—designed to be receptacle of God.
</div><br />
The demons possess the souls upon birth. It makes sense to assume these are human souls, reincarnated badly, trying again.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. Who then doth have a Ray shining upon him through the Sun within his rational part—and these in all are few on them the daimons do not act; for no one of the daimons or of Gods has any power against one Ray of God.<br /><br />
As for the rest, they are all led and driven, soul and body, by the daimons—loving and hating the activities of these.<br /><br />
The reason (logos), [then,] is not the love that is deceived and that deceives.<br /><br />
The daimons, therefore, exercise the whole of this terrene economy, using our bodies as [their] instruments.<br /><br />
And this economy Hermes has called Heimarmenē.
</div><br />
Heimarmenē is a goddess fate/destiny in Greek mythology. Fittingly, Copenhaver actually uses <i>"fate"</i> while Salaman uses <i>"destiny"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
17. The World Intelligible, then, depends from God; the Sensible from the Intelligible [World].<br /><br />
The Sun, through the Intelligible and the Sensible Cosmos, pours forth abundantly the stream from God of Good,—that is, the demiurgic
operation.<br /><br />
And round the Sun are the Eight Spheres, dependent from Him—the [Sphere] of the Non-wandering Ones, the Six [Spheres] of the Wanderers, and one Circumterrene.<br /><br />
And from the Spheres depend the daimones; and from these, men.<br /><br />
And thus all things and all [of them] depend from God.
</div><br />
This astrology feels off.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
18. Wherefore God is the Sire of all; the Sun's [their] Demiurge; the Cosmos is the instrument of demiurgic operation.<br /><br />
Intelligible Essence regulateth Heaven; and Heaven, the Gods; the daimones, ranked underneath the Gods, regulate men.<br /><br />
This is the host of Gods and daimones.<br /><br />
Through these God makes all things for His own self.<br /><br />
And all [of them] are parts of God; and if they all [are] parts—then, God is all.<br /><br />
Thus, making all, He makes Himself; nor ever can He cease [His making], for He Himself is ceaseless.<br /><br />
Just, then, as God doth have no end and no beginning, so doth His making have no end and no beginning.
</div><br />
There is a greater God above the gods/demons here, and it is forever creating by its own driven desire. That's what I pick up. Janthopoyism would call this evolution, the holy purpose of the Absolute.<br /><br />
Copenhaver and Salaman split this bit, <i>"Through these God"</i> at #19. Either way, every scholar agrees this treatise is incomplete.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XVII. OF ASCLEPIUS TO THE KING
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: No title (Copenhaver); <em>Tat to a King</em> (Salaman)
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Asclepius. If thou dost think [of it], O King, even of bodies there are things bodiless.<br /><br />
The King. What [are they]?—(asked the King.)<br /><br />
Asc. The bodies that appear in mirrors—do they not seem then to have no body?<br /><br />
The King. It is so, O Asclepius; thou thinkest like a God!—(the King replied.)<br /><br />
Asc. There are things bodiless as well as these; for instance, forms—do not they seem to thee to have no body, but to appear in bodies not only of the things which are ensouled, but also of those which are not ensouled?<br /><br />
The King. Thou sayest well, Asclepius.<br /><br />
Asc. Thus, [then,] there are reflexions of things bodiless on bodies, and of bodies too upon things bodiless—that is to say, reflexions] of the Sensible on the Intelligible World, and of the [World] Intelligible on the Sensible.<br /><br />
Wherefore, pay worship to the images, O King, since they too have their forms as from the World Intelligible.<br /><br />
(Thereon His Majesty arose and said:)<br /><br />
The King. It is the hour, O Prophet, to see about the comfort of our guests. To-morrow, [then,] will we resume our sacred converse.
</div><br />
Very brief exchange. The mirror thing is trippy the more I think about it, as there's nothing actually there and yet it's all there. A reflection of a body is not a body, it's a soulless entity.<br />
Salaman mentions <i>"statues"</i> instead of <i>"images"</i>. It's very interesting, especially once you've read the Kybalion, which speaks about how the essence (spirit) of the writer attaches to their characters, yet they are different. Same for any art. And same for us, created by the All, with the All in us.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XVIII. THE ENCOMIUM OF KINGS
</div>
<br />
<b>Alt titles</b>: <em>On the soul hindered by the body's affections </em> (Copenhaver)<br /><br />
Here is a much easier-to-understand chapter but it lacks so much representation, featured in only in two of the five translations in my possession. Many have also noted how this chapter feels a little out of place and is questionable in its inclusion. Hence, my comments are few and far between.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
<b>(ABOUT THE SOUL’S BEING HINDERED BY THE PASSION OF THE BODY)</b><br /><br />
1. [Now] in the case of those professing the harmonious art of muse-like melody—if, when the piece is played, the discord of the instruments doth hinder their intent, its rendering becomes ridiculous.<br /><br />
For when his instruments are quite too weak for what's required of them, the music-artist needs must be laughed at by the audience.<br /><br />
For He, with all good will, gives of His art unweariedly; they blame the [artist's] weakness.<br /><br />
He then who is the Natural Musician-God, not only in His making of the harmony of His [celestial] songs, but also in His sending forth the rhythm of the melody of His own song[s] right down unto the separate instruments, is, as God, never wearied.<br /><br />
For that with God there is no growing weary.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
2. So, then, if ever a musician desires to enter into the highest contest of his art he can—when now the trumpeters have rendered the same phrase of the [composer's] skill, and afterwards the flautists played the sweet notes of the melody upon their instruments, and they complete the music of the piece with pipe and plectrum—[if any thing goes wrong,] one does not lay the blame upon the inspiration of the music-maker.<br /><br />
Nay, [by no means,]—to him one renders the respect that is his due; one blames the falseness of the instrument, in that it has become a hindrance to those who are most excellent—embarrassing the maker of the music in [the execution of] his melody, and robbing those who listen of the sweetness of the song.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
3. In like way also, in our case, let no one of our audience for the weakness that inheres in body, blame impiously our Race.<br /><br />
Nay, let him know God is Unwearied Spirit—for ever in the self-same way possessed of His own science, unceasing in His joyous gifts, the selfsame benefits bestowing everywhere.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
4. And if the Pheidias—the Demiurge—is not responded to, by lack of matter to perfect His skilfulness, although for His own part the Artist has
done all he can, let us not lay the blame on Him.<br /><br />
But let us, [rather,] blame the weakness of the string, in that, because it is too slack or is too tight, it mars the rhythm of the harmony.
</div><br />
Basically, everything stated thus far is to blame the faulty instrument, not the player. The same applies to God and shitty people. It's a good analogy.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
5. So when it is that the mischance occurs by reason of the instrument, no one doth blame the Artist.<br /><br />
Nay, [more;] the worse the instrument doth chance to be, the more the Artist gains in reputation by the frequency with which his hand doth strike the proper note, and more the love the listeners pour upon that Music- maker, without the slightest thought of blaming him.<br /><br />
So will we too, most noble [Sirs], set our own lyre in tune again, within, with the Musician!
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
6. Nay, I have seen one of the artist-folk—although he had no power of playing on the lyre—when once he had been trained for the right noble theme, make frequent use of his own self as instrument, and tune the service of his string by means of mysteries, so that the listeners were amazed at how he turned necessitude into magnificence.<br /><br />
Of course you know the story of the harper who won the favour of the God who is the president of music-work.<br /><br />
[One day,] when he was playing for a prize, and when the breaking of a string became a hindrance to him in the contest, the favour of the Better One supplied him with another string, and placed within his grasp the boon of fame.<br /><br />
A grasshopper was made to settle on his lyre, through the foreknowledge of the Better One, and [so] fill in the melody in substitution of the
[broken] string.<br /><br />
And so by mending of his string the harper's grief was stayed, and fame of victory was won.
</div><br />
I do love this whole analogy, and we've seen it in action. A true professional will break a string but keep playing or even restring WHILE playing. And then they're even MORE impressive. This can be applied to so much of life. Jantho speaks about this too. <br />
The grasshopper was a cicada, according to Copenhaver.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
7. And this I feel is my own case, most noble [Sirs]!<br /><br />
For but just now I seemed to make confession of my want of strength, and play the weakling for a little while; but now, by virtue of the strength of [that] Superior One, as though my song about the King had been perfected [by Him, I seem] to wake my muse.<br /><br />
For, you must know, the end of [this] our duty will be the glorious fame of Kings, and the good-will of our discourse (logos) [will occupy itself] about the triumphs which they win.<br /><br />
Come then, let us make haste! For that the singer willeth it, and hath attuned his lyre for this; nay more, more sweetly will he play, more fitly will he sing, as he has for his song the greater subjects of his theme.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
8. Since, then, he has the [stringing] of his lyre tuned specially to Kings, and has the key of laudatory songs, and as his goal the Royal praises, let him first raise himself unto the highest King—the God of wholes.<br /><br />
Beginning, [then,] his song from the above, he, [thus,] in second place, descends to those after His likeness who hold the sceptre's power; since Kings themselves, indeed, prefer the [topics] of the song should step by step descend from the above, and where they have their [gifts of] victory presided o'er for them, thence should their hopes be led in orderly succession.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
9. Let, then, the singer start with God, the greatest King of wholes, who is for ever free from death, both everlasting and possessed of [all] the might of everlastingness, the Glorious Victor, the very first, from whom all victories descend to those who in succession do succeed to victory.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
10. Our sermon (logos) then, doth hasten to descend to [Kingly] praises and to the Presidents of common weal and peace, the Kings—whose lordship in most ancient times was placed upon the highest pinnacle by God Supreme; for whom the prizes have already been prepared even before their prowess in the war; of whom the trophies have been raised even before the shock of conflict.<br /><br />
For whom it is appointed not only to be Kings but also to be best.<br /><br />
At whom, before they even stir, the foreign land doth quake.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
<b>(ABOUT THE BLESSING OF THE BETTER [ONE] AND PRAISING OF THE KING)</b><br /><br />
11. But now our theme (logos) doth hasten on to blend its end with its beginnings—with blessing of the Better [One]; and then to make a final
end of its discourse (logos) on those divinest Kings who give us the [great] prize of peace.<br /><br />
For just as we began [by treating] of the Better [One] and of the Power Above, so let us make the end bend round again unto the same—the
Better [One].<br /><br />
Just as the Sun, the nurse of all the things that grow, on his first rising, gathers unto himself the first-fruits of their yield with his most mighty hands, using his rays as though it were for plucking off their fruits—yea, [for] his rays are [truly] hands for him who plucketh first the most ambrosial [essences] of plants—so, too, should we, beginning from the Better [One], and [thus] recipient of His wisdom's stream, and turning it upon the garden of our souls above the heavens,—we should [direct and] train these [streams] of blessing back again unto their source, [blessing] whose entire power of germination [in us] He hath Himself poured into us.
</div><br />
Wrap it up nicely.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
12.' Tis fit ten thousand tongues and voices should be used to send His blessings back again unto the all-pure God, who is the Father of our souls; and though we cannot utter what is fit—for we are [far] unequal to the task—[yet will we say what best we can].<br /><br />
For Babes just born have not the strength to sing their Father's glory as it should be sung; but they give proper thanks for them, according to their strength, and meet with pardon for their feebleness.<br /><br />
Nay, it is rather that God's glory doth consist in this [one] very thing—that He is greater than His children; and that the prelude and the source, the middle and the end, of blessings, is to confess the Father to be infinitely puissant and never knowing what a limit means.
</div><br />
No notes.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
13. So is it, too, in the King's case.<br /><br />
For that we men, as though we were the children of the King, feel it our natural duty to give praise to him. Still must we ask for pardon [for our insufficiency], e'en though 'tis granted by our Sire before we [even] ask.<br /><br />
And as it cannot be the Sire will turn from Babes new-born because they are so weak, but rather will rejoice when they begin to recognise [his
love]—so also will the Gnosis of the all [rejoice], which doth distribute life to all, and power of giving blessing back to God, which He hath given [us].
</div><br />
<i>"For the king it is just the same."</i> - Copenhaver. A king is like a parent is like god???
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
14. For God, being Good, and having in Himself eternally the limit of His own eternal fitness, and being deathless, and containing in Himself that lot of that inheritance that cannot come unto an end, and [thus] for ever ever-flowing from out that energy of His, He doth send tidings to this world down here [to urge us] to the rendering of praise that brings us home again.<br /><br />
With Him, therefore, is there no difference with one another; there is no partiality with Him.<br /><br />
But they are one in Thought. One is the Prescience of all. They have one Mind—their Father.<br /><br />
One is the Sense that's active through them— their passion for each other.' Tis Love Himself who worketh the one harmony of all.
</div><br />
Parents are like mini-gods. They expect us to be one way, but when we go against them, we disappoint them and have to make amends. They punish us and forgive us. But our entire existence is their fault!!!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
15. Thus, therefore, let us sing the praise of God.<br /><br />
Nay, rather, let us [first] descend to those who have received their sceptres from Him.<br /><br />
For that we ought to make beginning with our Kings, and so by practising ourselves on them, accustom us to songs of praise, and train ourselves in pious service to the Better [One].<br /><br />
[We ought] to make the very first beginnings of our exercise of praise begin from him, and through him exercise the practice [of our praise], that so there may be in us both the exercising of our piety towards God, and of our praise to Kings.
</div><br />
Practice your love of God on your kings. I find this all highly dubious.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
16. For that we ought to make return to them, in that they have extended the prosperity of such great peace to us.<br /><br />
It is the virtue of the King, nay, 'tis his name alone, that doth establish peace.<br /><br />
He has his name of King because he levelleth the summits of dissension with his smooth tread, and is the lord of reason (logos) that [makes] for
peace.<br /><br />
And in as much, in sooth, as he hath made himself the natural protector of the kingdom which is not his native land, his very name [is made] the
sign of peace.<br /><br />
For that, indeed, you know, the appellation of the King has frequently at once restrained the foe.<br /><br />
Nay, more, the very statues of the King are peaceful harbours for those most tempest-tossed.<br /><br />
The likeness of the King alone has to appear to win the victory, and to assure to all the citizens freedom from hurt and fear.
</div><br />
I do love the reverence for statues in this religion! Different to Islam and Hòa Hảo, for example.
<br /><br /><br />
OK DONE, BUT THEN...<br /><br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
DIFFERENT CONTENT PER TRANSLATION
</div>
<br />
The previous treatise ends my physical copy of G. R. S. Mead's translation, but there are discrepancies across the board. I considered delving into each one using the same approach as above, but decided against it, for it is a bottomless pit of study, which I do not feel justifies the energy. However, I shall skim over what I know here, and hopefully that is adequate for you.<br /><br />
As already covered, G. R. S. Mead features 18 treatises.<br /><br />
Clement Salaman features 17 treatises, missing Mead's II and XVIII. It also leaps from XIV to XVI, skipping XV without omitting the number. It features an additional treatise at the end called <i>From Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius: Definitions</i>. <br /><br />
Brian P. Copenhaver features 18 treatises, also missing Mead's II while skipping over XV like Salaman. At the end, we have a very long chapter, <i>ASCLEPIUS: To me this Asclepius is like the sun. A Holy Book of Hermes Trismegistus addressed to Asclepius</i>. Following this have a daunting 167 pages of notes and then an index.<br /><br />
I must note that I have found an online version of G. R. S. Mead that places a treatise named <i>The Perfect Sermon or the Asclepius</i> at the end. I recognise how these three translations appear to present the same final content based on titles alone (they're each about Asclepius, after all), but I assure you, they are very different works.<br /><br />
This leaves us with the complexities of John Everard (and consequently Tarl Warwick). As previously highlighted, the 17 treatises here skip Mead's II and completely cut off anything from XVI onwards. Instead, Everard got mixed up and included three parts of what's known as the <i>Stobaean Fragments/Excerpts</i>. They are as follows: <i>Hermes Trismegistus, His First Book; Of Operation and Sense;</i> and <i>Of Truth to His Son Tat</i>. It is accepted in all Hermetic circles that this was incorrect.<br /><br />
I explored these above chapters myself but did not feel the drive to include any analysis. Based on these differences, perhaps every Corpus Hermeticum translation comes with its own quirks, so striving for completion would not end even here. I am comfortable with letting them fall away while sticking to the generally agreed standard order.<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
The Seven Hermetic Principles
</div>
<br />
Finally, we come to the <i>Seven Hermetic Principles</i>, according to The Kybalion. Now, it's important to note that this is not Hermeticism canon (some may even consider it blasphemous) as it was written thousands of years after the fact. However, its central concepts have infiltrated the imagination of occultists so fiercely that many people consider this to be Hermeticism in a nutshell (without any other knowledge). I, myself, do not tie it too deeply into the Hermetic conversation, but I am in debt to the power of its teachings, and am happy to include it for those who wish to connect the introspections. <br /><br />
Study the following laws, and you will learn how to play the physics of reality against itself to your benefit. Consider reading the book too, as it definitely helps to decode Hermeticism, plus it opened my mind way wider than Corpus Hermeticum managed. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4906183393" target="_blank">Check out my full review on Goodreads here</a><br /><br />
<b>1. The Principle of Mentalism</b><br />
Reality is a mental construct which is congruent with quantum mechanics. Hermeticism goes further where God itself is this mental substance (Nous), and our minds are on some sort of a playing field within that. Still, it's a theory, in my eyes. There could be many stages up or down or nowhere at all.<br /><br />
<b>2. The Principle of Correspondence</b><br />
An elaboration on the famed <i>"As above, so below; as below, so above"</i> statement. The more you explore this idea, the more it will change your life. All the dualism we think we see in the Universe is illusionary as it can be simplified to the same energetic substance. Spiritual, mental, physical... it's all electron-based, a collective unit of One. It puts literally everything on the same level, and everything affects everything else.<br /><br />
<b>3. The Principle of Vibration</b><br />
This thousand-year-old principle is a scientific fact now. Our atoms never rest. Everything is forever in motion. Hermeticism teaches that these vibrations play on different frequencies to create different things.<br /><br />
<b>4. The Principle of Polarity</b><br />
What appears so obvious when spelt out is that polar opposites are identical, just different degrees on the same measurement. There is no precise moment when hot becomes cold or East becomes West. It's a gradual shift on a spectrum. Same can be applied to atheism vs theism or even conspiracy theories vs mainstream media. Those who argue on either side don't seem to recognise that they are executing indistinguishable mechanics on a limited seesaw of a topic. Opposites are always equivalent in nature, just different in measure. Therefore, all truths are half-truths. One can utilise this to reconcile paradoxes. Emotional upset can be slowly transmuted to its positive end. Very powerful stuff.<br /><br />
<b>5. The Principle of Rhythm</b><br />
Life swings like a pendulum, moving one way then the other. We can see this in action with dominating left-wing/right-wing politics or social attitudes. Rise and fall, ebb and flow, up and down, it applies to everything big and small. What's great is the hardships of your life can be defeated using Principle 4. It also introduces the <i>Law of Neutralisation</i>, whereby one can rise above this law simply by refusing to be involved with it. Awareness is the first step. When something goes wrong, this is the Principle to recall.<br /><br />
<b>6. The Principle of Cause and Effect</b><br />
The Kybalion dances around the topic of hard determinism/lack of free will, seeming to disagree with it yet failing to explain why. From my understanding, this Principle highlights how free will does not exist. Every cause has an effect, and everything that has happened did so from a preceding cause. Something happens and triggers another happening, and nothing is ever coincidental. It is a knock-on effect resulting from whatever came before. Think about rolling a dice. We assume it's random but it's not. If you could hold the dice in the exact same way then throw it in the exact same manner at the exact same angle on the exact same surface repeatedly, the identical number would roll time after time after time.<br /><br />
<b>7. The Principle of Gender</b><br />
Here is the only Principle I am unsure of. According to The Kybalion (and the Corpus Hermeticum in many parts), everything is either masculine or feminine. Each human possesses both in degrees (Principle #4), but there are distinct characteristics between the two, primarily that the male essence initiates the energy (galvanised the female), then the female essence creates everything. When looking at reproduction, it does check out. Hermeticism goes deep into this, "God" being male (a patriarchal hierarchy the Abrahamic texts would love to hear), but Nature is female, the one that created everything material (hence Mother Earth). The essential idea is that gender is about creation, and it takes both forces to get it done. The Kybalion even sifts this down to an atomic level, where negative and positive charges are required to produce change. I must say, for such an eggshells topic, The Kybalion does well never to favour one of the other, illustrating the importance of each while explaining that human sexes are <i>not</i> gender, rather sex is the physical manifestation <i>of</i> gender, but it's much more than that. It also explains later that The All is above gender (and indeed all the Principles) which helps the all-encompassing God I subscribe to. But in the end, it isn't something I feel is too necessary or even useful to contemplate. <br /><br /><br />
AND THAT IS THE END OF THIS STUDY, I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL TIME, I SURE DID.<br /><br /><br />
<i>True Hermetic Transmutation is a Mental Art.</i><br /><br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
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<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">I Read the Bible So You Don't Have To</a>
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<br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-63789429943067796132022-12-01T06:55:00.003+00:002023-06-15T15:57:52.040+01:00Why Jaws Is the Best Film Ever Made<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img alt="I Read The Corpus Hermeticum So You Don't Have To (Hermeticism)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnMJeZxkeZyije_G-ryCdfVLz_MzGZ9jo6lCMtZ1jRbeFnM1czo_AbVwTFXjU04_JkJlOeFJ2-4MHjeHA-_c9To5vtJFvUSxvN2gq_wg6uEgvLFJ5ytjmS-4IIL26R3o3-_1PjJC3PB1Bp7FTkVlmoVzJTp98psOf5fy0DymGQtT1JqgfljndAcMZV/s1600/ammressay.png" style="width: 624px;" /></span></div>
<!--i>Prompted by Ammr as part of the VIP <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism Bible</a> package.</i><br /><br /-->
In our modern age of cinematic experience, the art of genuinely scary horror is largely lost. Formulated jump scares and unbelievable boogymen dominate the plots as an excess of blood spurts across the screen while endings are left just cryptic enough to set up a sequel. It's perhaps not surprising, then, that a quick "Best Horror of All Time" scan generally pushes us decades backwards, for example, 1973's The Exorcist, 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and, of course, 1975's Jaws.<br /><br />
Considered Steven Spielberg's first masterpiece, what's fascinating about this work is how everyone knew exactly what the story was going to be before even sitting down with their popcorn. Despite the film's expertise in building suspense by hiding the monster for as long as possible, the movie poster had already openly revealed what was in store. How such a blatant giveaway managed to boost sales rather than spoil the climax is obvious: sharks are frightening. This was not some ghost in the closet or a demon in the mirror. This was a legitimate creature that existed out there, a threat that filled all murky waters with fear while an occasional real-life news item confirmed a surfer was indeed bitten in half by one of these nightmares of the sea. Terrifying! It is a nervousness that remains vibrating very loudly through our society in a very tangible sense, and this film played a significant role in aggravating our shared uneasiness. <br /><br />
But that is not to say that Jaws relies on cheap shots to entertain, proven during the early second half. The dynamic between Quint (Robert Shaw) and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) deserves particular mention as a juxtaposition of traditional practice vs scholarly knowledge, a tense conflict of personalities that softens into an exchange of scar stories. It's one of the all-time most memorable dialogues of cinematic history. Not to be outdone, Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) shines brightly too, his performance immortalised by the flawlessly adlibbed line “You're gonna need a bigger boat", now firmly cemented in pop culture forever. And although the shark's animatronics have become somewhat of a laughing point in latter years, the shock factor has never waned, and we must respect Spielberg's decision to avoid CGI. Our fast-moving computer-generated capabilities have left the 70s in the dust, and any reliance on that medium may have destroyed the picture by today's standards.<br /><br />
However, Jaws does carry one gaping flaw: its factual inaccuracies. The portrayal of sharks as fierce, bloodthirsty animals hellbent on consuming human flesh is far removed from reality. With less than five fatal attacks a year, it's worth noting that shark populations have decreased by 71% since 1970 due to overfishing and us eating them for shark fin soup. The backlash from conservation groups was so loud and convincing that they motivated both Spielberg and Jaws author Peter Benchley to later go on record in attempts to undo the trouble they had provoked. But it was too late, and Jaws is noted as a catalyst for a surge in shark-related phobias, even causing cinematic neurosis in a 17-year-old viewer who experienced convulsions while screaming, "Sharks! Sharks!".<br /><br />
Be that as it may, one cannot help but appreciate these outcomes as fuel to Jaws' timeless folklore. Such reputations do not follow an ordinary film. And as the genre has developed, Jaws still holds its own against any horror heavyweight owed to its tried-and-tested weapon of fast-paced entertainment delivered at its highest quality. But how could I dare call Jaws the best movie ever made? Simple. Because this is my blog.
<!--Because Ammr told me to.--><br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-72499140505669354832022-11-29T15:00:00.002+00:002022-11-29T15:32:33.100+00:00Why Selfishness is Regressive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img alt="I Read The Corpus Hermeticum So You Don't Have To (Hermeticism)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiiOkRVB0pEaBGnT3dTN8Uz24SjZBM_8EeDySGRaSWqxd0IQ5WyHdYn9kvPpvwZD2rweJHMyctBUC2HuhL8puIW9Tf8cu_3PPx1usVLTFE6AJYa2xXFvTgQ0nhtu1l55xzmWeEz2X1_gc19tEGA6KXIfaa4U7tMsJL-N1CWoAYKmZqIHARCjflnqve/s1600/adamessay.png" style="width: 624px;" /></span></div>
<i>Prompted by Adam as part of the VIP <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism Bible</a> package.</i><br /><br />
Ignoring that you've never seen one before, please picture an atom the best you can. The infinities of its powers are unknown as it tightly locks its secrets in an impossibly small world of inaccessibility. However, we can agree without much debate that it's the collection of like-atoms that bring about their influence. With enough grouped particles, all four fundamental states arrive into being (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma). As a result, the entirety of the Universe moves forward via this collaborative effort.<br /><br />
Atoms are the raw substance you are made of, from the bits of skin you shed every day to the electrical signals that spark between your neurological synapses, triggering thoughts, identifying yourself with yourself. Your brain is nothing but a conglomerate of these almost indistinguishable specks, and yet together, they create the most powerful organ known to humans. Still, what is a brain without the rest of the body? The atoms that construct the digestive tract to nourish your inner mechanics. The atoms that construct the lungs to draw oxygen into your cells. The atoms that construct the heart to pump blood, distributing that oxygen to keep the brain operational. And the atoms that construct the limbs which the mind can puppeteer to perform crucial tasks. Only in unity can these separate pieces of the anatomy manage a comfortably fulfilling life, relying on one another to do their job and forming the complete Homo sapien animal we recognise today. <br /><br />
For some reason, this model of systems built upon systems ends here for so many. The mind has no problem grasping the complexities of combined particles and tissues accomplishing singular units, yet when it reaches its individual perception, it snags on a ceiling manufactured by its ego. From this point upward, they're on their own. They're responsible for their life without much regard for those who do not bring benefit. It’s a line of thinking as miserable as it is ludicrous. If any organ adopted this approach, the body would soon perish. When a cell decides to behave independently, the consequences are cancerous. <br /><br />
Our society depends on humans satisfying specific roles, but we must look beyond the apparent chain of capitalist trade to find genuine value. For certain people to revel in excessive affluence while others suffer in poverty is akin to a robust set of kidneys next to a bad case of appendicitis. It only takes a single component to fail for the creature to fall. Instead, we must drop our outdated dog-eats-dog mentality and level the playing field so that every person has equal opportunity. With the right potential, the most skilled doctors, scientists, and artists will not entirely be found within the upper class. That is statistically implausible. For the better of the human race, we must view our species as a unit, no longer selfishly hoarding assets in fear but allocating favourable circumstances fairly, as this will ultimately enhance the collective and evolve us forward.<br /><br />
Once we manage this feat, we will conquer our egos, and our progression of thought will be infinite. First, the unification of the humans, then the humans with the Earth, then the Earth with our solar system, then our solar system with the galaxy, until we eventually identify ourselves for what we truly are: mere minute instruments, like atoms, functioning within the greatest superorganism of all. The assemblage of absolutely everything. The entire Universe as One Supreme Being. <br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-52738242477637973502022-09-19T13:45:00.004+01:002023-09-28T08:59:27.109+01:00Financial Case Study: Janthopoyism Bible <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="1108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAOKi-zzpmYLQn7MowqLW2RMz-5Dl0RHjB3FUeEvPIfNX0llYUVcAZn_jidka9ob_M6hJnfKHjiRWQUTwE2fc7zATojmOJW36NC-gbJfyAltCwL4AEwqRKN6MEC5TDS8NI7Y6Cy-IxZ2zSqCihiP5TidIYd9e3rIOTDvSzocZ9SeSPOF8tO1k8b-5/s16000/moneyarticle.jpg" style="width:100%" /></div><br />
If you are interested in writing a book using the crowdfunding avenue as I did (or if you're just a nerd for business stuff), I have chalked up the full financial results from my project below. Enjoy!<br /><br />
I based my economic model for the <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism Bible</a> (Limited Black Edition) on socialist sentiments, whereby everyone in the world pays the exact same amount irrespective of location. This way, those who lived close (in the UK) would subsidise the postal cost for those overseas, especially when the currency was not in their favour.<br /><br />
I launched the <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/janthopoyism-bible" target="_blank">Indiegogo campaign</a> with various tiers, ranging from as little as £1 (a prayer) or £5 (digital copy) right up to £1,000 (I'd come to visit you anywhere in the world to collaborate on art) or £5,000 (tattoo your name on me).<br /><br />
I was banking on a £15 average: the printed book, signed, and mailed. I estimated £6 print per each book (50 copies) would leave £9 shipping a pop to be delegated however. It seemed a safe bet. Turns out, it was not, as we shall see.<br /><br />
39 people backed the project, raising a whopping £1,061, ultimately 212% of my stupidly low £500 goal. <br /><br />
As per usual, fomo struck many onlookers after the fact, and a further 14 people jumped into my DMs following, raising £239.7 on top of that, now <b>£1300.70</b> in total. <br /><br />
With 53 people on board, I rounded up to print 60 books, because I also wanted a copy, plus it was nice to have extras to play with. This totalled £21.68 per book available, yippee! No sweat.<br /><br />
Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and many hidden (as well as obvious) costs rapidly chipped away at this amount.<br /><br />
Things first went wrong when the book was 100 pages longer than I anticipated, oops, me and my big mouth. That meant £7.13 per book to print, £427.7 all in.<br /><br />
Then there was the editing cost, £280.58. Of all expenses, this was probably the most worth it, as the quality of the product benefited endlessly, and I shudder to think of how many pages it would have been if not for this process. Shout-out to Jax!<br /><br />
The money arrived, and Indiegogo whacked out a £120.52 cut, <i>WHA-POW!</i> Paypal also stole £3.58 for no justifiable reason.<br /><br />
This left £469 after 60 books were in my lap. Sounds fine but, again, no.<br /><br />
Four contributors are the heroes of the story who went VIP and passed on £100 each. Most of you who receive the book owe it to them. Still, part of my gratitude came with additional prizes, which cost £47.71. Worth it from my side!<br /><br />
But one payment that proved my ignorance was general stationery (envelopes, printing, glue etc.), which totalled £59.28. Meanwhile, most international shipping required custom forms attached, a seemingly minor detail that came to £18.79.<br /><br />
Now we have £343 left, and we haven't even shipped anything yet! Which we shall do now.<br /><br />
Two VIP contributors lived abroad and deserved nothing less than the best postage care, costing £13.65 and £19.5 to Portugal and South Africa, respectively. <br /><br />
The rest of the shipping looked like this:<br />
UK (27 copies) - £93.05 (£3.20 shipping per copy including return train ticket from Reading to London for hand deliveries) <br />
EU (6 copies) - £53.95 (£8.99 shipping per copy)<br />
Australia (5 copies) - £61.82 (£12.37 shipping per copy)<br />
South Africa (1) - £14.85 (per shipping copy)<br />
USA (11 copies) - £168.39 (£15.31 shipping per copy)<br /><br />
That's 52 copies. <br />
There is another South African copy unaccounted for, which a friend's mom is hand delivering. Thanks!<br />
Additionally, I gave 2 away for a competition, 2 more away to my friends who were kind enough to let me use their house like a book factory, and kept one for myself. <br />
That leaves 2 more in case of emergencies.<br /><br />
In the end, the kitty was sucked dry, and I was <b>£82</b> in debt.<br />
This does not include the postcards I still owe those who paid for that bonus.<br />
It also does not include tax, but I have an inkling I can write this all off because I lost the game?<br /><br />
There is a lucky twist to this story. Last year I wrote a book called <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Heartbreak-Sucks-Over-Your-Breakup/dp/0993487629" target="_blank">Heartbreak Sucks! How to Get Over Your Breakup in 30 Days</a></i>. Owed to everyone who purchased that publication, I had some extra cash in my "book account", which I'd yet to touch. This padding absorbed the entire £82 hit. I had other promotional plans for that cash, but still, I am grateful for you.<br /><br />
So there are two ways to evaluate this outcome.<br /><br />
The one is that I spent three years writing a once-in-a-lifetime book, and somehow, lost money, a total failure, especially considering a big part of my campaign was to give the profits to the <i>Action Against Hunger</i> charity. Sorry, starving kids. I cannot help today.<br /><br />
The other perspective is that I spent comparatively very little money and self-published a book currently on its way around the world. Honestly, when looking at it this way, I'm living in a dream. If I could go back two decades and tell myself this, I'd be like, <i>"Holy shit, I wrote a book?"</i> Yes, little boy. It's your fourth one, congrats.<br /><br />
To conclude, it was a worthy (and brave!) experiment that I am unsure I'll ever repeat. Indiegogo's cut alone is ridic, and I am certain there are better methods. Still, I learned so much, and I know I will only sharpen each book's strategy under additional smarts. One day, I'll be rich as fuck!<br /><br />
If you'd still like to help, please <a href="https://mybook.to/janthopoyism" target="_blank">purchase the book on Amazon</a>. That will super benefit the recuperation of funds and will also be the true moment to spread the word further than those closest to me (i.e. you). This is undoubtedly how I need y'all the most. It's be cheap. Fore more fun times, please keep an eye on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/janthopoyism" target="_blank">this Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/legotrip/" target="_blank">this Instagram</a> or <a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">sign up for the newsletter</a> (preferably all three!). <br /><br />
And just know how grateful I am for everyone who supported a mate when they poured their life into something! For you, it's the cost of a pizza. For me, it's my life sprouting into meaning, thanks to you. ::HEART EMOJI:: <br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-7233929656963296162022-03-08T04:50:00.004+00:002023-02-20T06:04:42.703+00:00sunday breakfast<br />I don't deserve to eat, I deserve to die,<br />
But then I get hungry, and it's uncomfortable, so I eat.<br />
My girlfriend says everyone deserves love,<br />
But she doesn't know the things I've done,<br />
The bad links I've clicked,<br />
And how I've slept with every one of her friends.<br />
Thoughts like these make my bran flakes taste soapy,<br />
Kinda metallic, maybe it's the spoon.<br />
And I daydream about joining the war in Ukraine,<br />
Because at least my suicide would mean something,<br />
and people would misinterpret me as a dumb hero.<br />
That's the type of egomaniac I am.<br />
I'm so engrossed in myself that I gross myself out and push the bowl aside.<br />
I don't deserve to eat, I say again.<br />
My girlfriend rolls her eyes,<br />
Because I've already eaten enough not to be hungry anymore.<br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-41495812333994444572021-12-15T06:29:00.003+00:002021-12-15T15:11:20.310+00:00The Top 50 Albums of 2021<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 50%;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020" border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh36a-PYFpTJYj7ESi9Xp_2dXzHH8OHKM3tsyDdkm8a_QF_ky5RhkXN1v1zFbVeoEQl2xlnGnDSFGb1VPErW674LWB2E0p1L2K8MXnKcRdAiw-220CDdQiT1f5J2vtyFWrershwKJb3oZCnUPe8SE9402f7vsKVbbTsQQNK7JYRgviAGHtRtNk3niyq" style="width: 100%;" /></span></div>
I did another thing if you're keen on it.<br /><br />
Twelve years of writing these Top 50 Album articles. Twelve years! You may think it'd be effortless by now, especially considering <a href="https://www.jaredwoodssavedmylife.com/250albums/" target="_blank">I authored the <i>official</i> book on the subject</a>, every other book is shit, I am the lone voice of the musical landscape, but nooooo. Each December that passes, I am reminded of my inadequacy as that golf-ball sized lump of stress pops out from my left shoulder. Hello, old friend.<br /><br />
The toughest slab of beef is that I fucking loathe music critics. All of them can go to hell. I consider these people the lowest form of music listeners except for those who listen to the critics themselves. Who calls who the authority? If you do not enjoy a certain act, is that not your problem? If anyone, literally anyone whatsoever, is fond of a particular artist, even if just the artist themselves, does that not automatically justify the music's existence? Should everyone not strive to love and consume as much music (and, indeed, art) as possible? Should we not be embarrassed by the music we dislike because it reveals a lack of capacity to meet it on its level? Aren't our true superiors those who can pick apart what makes any music appealing to others and therefore appreciate anything that brings someone else joy? Yes to whatever I just said. Hence, the individuals who believe their taste is so exceptional that they publicly berate the subjective creativity of musicians are the same individuals who lick their fingers following a masturbation session. Every single music critic who isn't myself does that without fail. Call me old fashioned, but I do not favour such behaviour.<br /><br />
Unfortunately, my system was too strong, and it overpowered me again. I dissected each album I listened to by default. I neatly noted my analyses in a Google spreadsheet. I casually assigned numerical values to separate my favourites. I've been running this process for so long that I no longer identify with another method of listening to music. And so, when the year's concluding days rolled around, over half of this list was already in my palms. What were my options? Hide my findings? That feels like a disservice to music itself. How unfair to a year of material. How blasphemous to the album gods. How could I deserve music after that? How could I look at myself in the mirror? Plus, a considerable amount of readers claim that they dig these blog pieces. If I can prompt some happiness in our confusing world, then surely I'm an asset, and the demons shush for a minute.<br /><br />
At the end of today, I make peace with the annual practice. Do you know why I am an acceptable music critic? Because I only review the albums I adore. I'm never out to insult creativity. I'm pushing positive vibes to the records that others may have overlooked. And in 2021, there were a bunch of them. <br /><br />
I digested <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aLCAy7dcvuK3INCSRBjLOian67o81bDqhfmBQEcW__E/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">444 myself in total</a>—what a satisfying number from a satisfying twelve months! So much so, selecting the upper 50 was yet another exercise in curbing anxiety. The abundance of decent product is undoubtedly a result of lockdowns, a fresh batch of inspiration juice spewing from experiences none of us predicted yet shared the understanding. Not to mention that the musicians were stuck at home for ages, with no social distractions, no performance responsibilities, nothing but time to murder. And if the sudden rise in quality from the more raucous rock bands is anything to go by, everyone is sick of this shit.<br /><br />
Anyway, I hope you find something to change your life below, and if you do, please tell your hot friends about Jared. Here are this year's most memorable albums, according to me.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 50. Sectlinefor - Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2xg5xH3OYAk32Kgc6FgO58If7v_v1z2qvsBfA565ktNT8eElrKTXn8Sl_3JXvyI9ZwKZRkwJxB61LjEn0GobxSsyu7-dQ1iFUFL27m2cJMOgq3nEcodzQH0WkvyfA7fzFukI3Zqf6tg/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Sectlinefor---Kissing-Strangers-During-an-Outbreak.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>50. Sectlinefor - Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak</h3>
<i>Alternative Industrial Metal<br />
28 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6KGJSpNZUa34XcQig7TrfQ?si=WS3zh9ERR36_8eM23bGnYw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Respect the hustle! The general consensus is that Sectlinefor's third record stands on top of their catalogue as the (current) peak of their sound—the most comfortable/uncomfortable meeting point between guitarist Piton's progressive symphonics and vocalist Jared's comical aesthetics, representing both the darkness of depression and the colours of comedy in equal measures. And yet the unconventional deliveries and genre-bending spectrum of <em>Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak</em> can't unhinge the coherent ghost of the pandemic locked inside, a record definitely reflecting the "new normal" atmosphere of the world (which, as you know, is anything but normal). Just watch the video for the first single, <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1p5Ph6Ii6c" target="_blank">The Saddest Face in All of Existence</a></em>, and you'll grasp the vibe without ease.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 49. San Salvador - La grande folie" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3-IBrtuh93XG5Dt9LotuF8Vloc0bvcpldwV6-bwLIUlfqtyJ46ufqf9818xcDX7a8qj2N2j1bnElL8dzGBf-i478zK5Pypwe_XntoNjgtITpmhj6Oj0nTc0jVU3rTsZ5jMaoT32pong/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_San-Salvador---La-grande-folie.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>49. San Salvador - La grande folie</h3>
<i>Polyphonic Occitan Avant-Folk Chant Music<br />
22 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7l7XRFukaHudjfpaLhprBG?si=Xd4p-iW8SoKpXNzZZrUghQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
I'm sure there's a whole world where music like this flows in abundance, but I am yet to discover it, leaving all reference points nonexistent. I'm not even able to find my jaw, actually, I dropped it somewhere here, have you seen it? Supported by sporadic driving percussion, San Salvador are primarily a vocal outfit—one of the best vocal outfits I've ever heard, at that—passing melodies between each player like juggling balls while layering their harmonies so high that they lick the base of Heaven. The passion, the talent, and the freshness buzz a spiritual reaction inside of me, and I wobble dizzy when imagining how epic this must sound as a live performance.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 48. Nanoray - Zapper" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJwmW-gwQLxFPjGWwKTJJrTHDC4SH0iiWyTsAvFa5FAJ0xOWkUHOyQTVSq4DqT1zLZzeiZZBTJ8L3QAf45Dc4CUSwQIdHPFFJjGJmwg8QF3FEBqBoU8c429nXSTr_eXyXpIOCTlXgVTdFsqF1koS7vqetj_3JQU2VrJb1U3hBLu2VjYGlFBcp1BTM0" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>48. Nanoray - Zapper</h3>
<i>Hardcore Breaks<br />
8 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2kowSCEZhZnup8Qd57WJQ7?si=zKVOwNFFR9ubDHM0o_LxsQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Living up to tin’s promise, I can hear this record just by looking at the artwork. Distressed video game energy rushes the party, high on candy intake, glitching from the colours, permanently hyperventilating in full fight or flight mode. It’s a blast! Another welcome side effect is how quickly my fingers type when working to this music, zooming through tasks without noticing what I'm doing because I’m far too busy dancing. The secret to never realising you have a job lies in this album, apparently.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 47. Fire-Toolz - Eternal Home" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiB86mkxz9ylorOsSrFNmy9Wh2rB4eEx1wlqecHKss_AAhbsuUd5OAZ1O9vQRxny_tSEnWh8uTzUVgAhEHmjUzI834bcfSFcHDo2j6tCe_-T2vgnH7bVrpaWp63HLgOjGSjdntAF_mNM7SNuZGlY6zjPs1z8tQ_foPZZ3Jn8tDrD1oW_H8Ft7l6d7_N" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>47. Fire-Toolz - Eternal Home</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial Avant-Progressive Electronic<br />
15 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4ZyfutgwGoPLRNkJqVidZ2?si=3K47f085TSiXwyu4yVvGXA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As soon as the black metal vocals tear through the bouncy electro glitches, you know you're in for a perplexing journey, especially after noting the one hour and 18 minutes of endurance time. It goes on forever and ever! And yet, the chaotic overflow of crazy extract and ever-shifting variation of stylistic choices completely sidestep any risk of boredom, the onslaught eventually overriding the brain, tuning into a foreign planet countless years away. Lifetimes pass until you reach the end, a brand new person, wondering what happened, only returning to reality because a different album came into your headphones. And then it's like, oh, actually this isn't a different album! It's the same album! It's still going! It was one thing, and now it's another thing, then it's back to the same thing as before! It's so many different things at once that I keep forgetting what I was doing! What is this?? Do I even like it?? Irrelevant. Produce a record as surreal and eclectic and interesting as this one, and you're guaranteed a slot on my list. Good work, Fire-Toolz. Come and collect your gift certificate whenever you have a spare mo. <br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 46. Amigo the Devil - Born Against" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjI0b1YqR9_PZW5yUpyghWtKacQteATqlqDaYkltdGSZkJ7rC1EA8eYCDLbyv82j6gfb7_4_qUo70uEf9QpLjzH0XLz9r-yGodrw3AF5jQiAJbyEaG61kyeSZEW_LD7go3A5kIeaAM5cGEwSgJfDmkDCTwDZvd6f_jXdIGQGgRqvoaKP9yNKodapYvJ" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>46. Amigo the Devil - Born Against</h3>
<i>Gothic Country<br />
16 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4XEgfcc6oEc9KT1T9T4dn8?si=fC548Y1wRPuBcfjwY1XMNQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
<i>"I never knew how patient I could be until I watched you bleed"</i>. Hey, so, gothic country is a fun idea! Ah, Born Again<b><i>st</i></b>, I geddit! Haha. I like it. The Devil is in the details, Amigo. The darkness hides solely in the lyrics, rubbing its pain in your face raw over those storytelling pluckings only them folky southerner folks can accomplish without sounding silly. If you're the same as I am and wish to have a good time while thinking about death, check out this record over here. It's not your average cabaret bloodbath, take it from me.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 45. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjA7GAEhyTvOvc-obmqrndRx9f_lZvUaOYMKh9qntalTj6yLZZh8doFl1Lp_jfIG3rqlo1HTDoYaxrJ_qwPgA2Q6I_kkvopxkr1PPbpnSmHgaEfoHWl_VZVe_sKur7wABfmyO4Vf29bpUwI4mU-nsk5EML7Dnt0q3ehxusx6B6p5CfQ-elCec9o23aX" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>45. Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power </h3>
<i>Alternative Electronic Art Pop Rock<br />
27 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3sq0hRtlT2SYeYajr5Cx22?si=wwy_TwcGQs-Balg9DfZ_Hg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
What a delight when a project's backstory is as exhilarating as the content itself. Legend tells that Halsey had already completed <em>If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power</em> when she morphed from the star into the groupie. She reached out to her heroes, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, essentially begging them to produce the work by promising them full reign over the end product. What trust! Surprisingly to everyone, the duo agreed and proceeded to strip the songs into little bits, reconstructing each one until the record was less a Halsey effort, far more a Nine Inch Nails affair. How often does that happen? When the production team outshines the leading voice. When listeners click the link for the names inside of the cover, not the front. When a remix album comes out of an original that doesn't even exist. And yet, you've got to hand it to NIN for serving the tracks above their egos, forever recognising the moments where best to play it reserved by nudging the vocal hooks upwards, then knowing when to shove their industrial fists through the spotlight, knocking the centrepiece off to the side. That said, it's not fair to altogether remove Halsey from the creative praise here because her role came with its own signature magic. According to the artist herself, <i>"this album is a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth"</i>, and there is something infinitely special in that idea—the miracle of procreation within your female anatomy standing as your primary muse. It's a topic no male could ever comprehend or write about in any genuine fashion, and I find this theme so beautifully inspiring that it's worthy of the consideration alone irrespective of the Trent factor (even though the Trent factor is 100% why I've included this record, soz).
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 44. Rochelle Jordan - Play With the Changes" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQ4hDCR7kR454Qc936Hq0Kmc4pmZx_xoOnxt9xJUnUYNcvoX9OxkRl0V2Go_qSZw0YFV-EMP2gvDKOETFGfsaXTpFEzHrxmm93KaX1XcSVWABuZw37-wBQa67SifwbaFGxQ4jbM8QKLoskEyGO8rZT8Ejaw-uY7i5sgRS9VEDSg28Uu6s17mXKOREm" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>44. Rochelle Jordan - Play With the Changes</h3>
<i>Alternative R&B UK Bass<br />
30 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5qJ0CnwfIUUgcKFdrjRP6v?si=cJ8HNwH5RAiVOLqbxD3ylg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Rhythm and blues and drum and bass. Who knew? Rochelle Jordan knew. But while the sexy softness of her vocals keeps the clouds afloat, it's the super clean production that jolts the euphoria, never letting go of its clubby undertones, invigorating a faster heartbeat with busy percussion patterns that seduce you onto the dancefloor long into the night, then disappearing in the morning, leaving you feeling a little bit sad. Still a good party, though. No regrets.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 43. The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1aZlcP2T7iNjyvNNXT9kbPJwgdv4W93FdkQnAshvQ_82mUk88vRU-iM8lUE2f9T0QGNB2JvlBM-C8pJF3tlZVOtcDb3tOsHRV43VnKAmERsKx_hDNXuTWjPOyAFXGkoCmRY3PXufuNy-jjv5qidurK3yYqf4TfcCYmfdzFMMwBgCfs8ZBAS154CHd" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>43. The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls</h3>
<i>Post-Rock Midwest Emo<br />
8 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2LF6m9cVyej7vKLnjwGiLK?si=NP5uhSASTMCpIHeZW8QbWA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Leaving nothing to chance, The World Is a Beautiful Place have sacrificed every trace of energy they have into making this their most potent album to date. The dense production towers above the listener yet grants ample breathing space, never suffocating the ride, ensuring maximum power. The male-to-female vocal dynamics balance one another into a singular coherent system, missioning fiercely forward, aimed at a shared target. The lyrics are aware of... <i>something</i>, revealing deeper theatrics at work while the songs themselves are simply epico, swirling massive feelings inside me that weren’t placed there by accident. The proficiency of this record outshines the rest of their career, which is surprising when learning that two founding members were absent this round, namely Tyler Bussey (guitar, vocals) who quit, and Tom Diaz (keyboards, guitar, vocals) who sadly passed away in 2018.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 42. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5ewAscKW1Z352EHDU_0wzxpCeBg9cmukCiKww-CMFs7325gRjITMu5j_WlLB8ni2HdNAS48exSCEWH-vBH73NgtUd6Y9LLcvB8ktlu5BHClBzTzUVTWPOVzYv3saNIvmy1J0GrDFK7KPSrEPk09gHzeUNIgQHOUBYkKiG3jdyiVQStV44jgplISup" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>42. Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert</h3>
<i>Conscious UK Hip Hop<br />
3 September<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0DBoWQ52XUHtrZQdfAqOVj?si=i2Uk9w1yQNyuDQ9KU6Aztw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As this record explodes itself over every end of year publication, I hastily shove it into mine to protect my ass, but I'll readily admit I take issue with it. And that issue is how deep Little Simz is into her own shit, an arrogant attitude flaunting her greatness as if this entire album is bigging herself up in the mirror—a lyrical approach so typical so the genre that I no longer vibe the vibe. Her pretentiousness then leaks outward onto me, preaching advice like a motivational Helvetica Bold poster, which does not inspire me in the slightest. On the contrary, it cringes me. However, I can push that aside if needs be and focus on what <i>does</i> deserve the accolades. Fast flows. Thoughtful word choices. And, above all else, the production, which is oh-my-immaculate, not making a single mistake despite running for well over an hour. So I bow my head with grace. My complaints were opinion based anyway, and everyone has an asshole.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 41. Black Sheep Wall - Songs for the Enamel Queen" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJqeLXiwe8MXAWoa659rPUIDJLmcwGF3w5ta1XGYCKpnvZeD4xRqnf9bk9E69zAfuuerrruXMBrN44pp4RO1k_FHbNHQ6FDHntMDecvCCHdJbL3UjRlIuC9Toa3ZJRteloZ62axeZ-SspnFeJR6ICE8y1mNS_9fmJ7766X5MVz6Zx-YYYkOQ-6y5Zz" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>41. Black Sheep Wall - Songs for the Enamel Queen</h3>
<i>Atmospheric Sludge Doom Metal<br />
26 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1mpY4z5KZf5gq9E4dBgOAM?si=88F7dfj4TNe8KP8al7C5oQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
In a year when metal has turned soft and bendy, the hungry must seek vindication wherever we can, even if we have to confront the darkest mucks of nihilistic hatred. Black Sheep Wall are the ideal candidates who take the metalcore torch dropped by Norma Jean in the mid-2000s and then run with it straight into a jagged rock. Be warned of its aggressive heaviness that dribbles poison through bared teeth, but in the same moment, admire its quivering eyes that betray a vulnerability, losing a tear during melodic moments, wanting to die and wanting you to die in no particular order. Personally, I’m open to the conversation. I wasn’t doing anything else.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 40. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8rp0aLthrFDYOJl6Wa18dnSyV5V7tBn-DHPgvCuvCu3iFDp54NUiLx83uMaahi8gjOy_pYprF6rjXmMor6l-nHMiB7_OFrerXXfdcMzi05Q4SGxnpPcdY9Hxa59EG5Y8ehTZtoX60pRA/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Billie-Eilish---Happier-Than-Ever.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>40. Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever</h3>
<i>Contemporary Alt-Pop R&B<br />
30 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0JGOiO34nwfUdDrD612dOp?si=8PTnkDnDSBGKeC5wjtWV-Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Think back to the 2010s. Was there anyone who shot to the superstars faster and higher than then-17-year-old Billie Eilish? Her stainless debut pinned her name upon every map, a pressure none of us could fathom, personally or creatively. What goes up must fetch hype, and an endless line of critical pens clicked, ready to scrutinise this sophomore via any holes necessary. But their ink ran dry long before they found the words. Meet <em>Happier Than Ever</em>. Instead of pandering to what fans asked or shutting herself off in protection or desperately attempting to reinvent what she'd created, Billie invites us into the roundabouts of her newfound lifestyle. She candidly reveals how her intensely focused fame forced her to mature quicker than her years, an older soul dealing with the attention weighing upon her every move until she learns to stand up for herself and say <i>no</i>. Thankfully, she does not take this stand alone, with her brother Finneas returning with his production so uncluttered that he disguises his magic within the subtleties—truly a family of incomprehensible talent. That said, <em>Happier Than Ever</em> isn't perfect. It's longer than it needs to be, and it's not as exciting as her previous record either. But it unquestionably carries some of her finest songs, and even more importantly, it proves Billie is the real deal with every sign of a true artist laid out for the globe to drool over. She followed up the impossible follow up, and now she owns the foundations to build a solid career for a long time. Like, a long long time. Decades of Billie still to come. She's only 19!!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 39. Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés - Clamor" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfukZ9wpngd7oWO_4PBS1WoERDP66Yn6JeO7VayyAxtKQ82aTpdaYmhHsxvj4QM13g3IzRSDj3AyVvDpf-AKw98F0kZT6lDdMY1-dGun4AkdfMezZKO1paU-dMEXpUCuDpTPde665FxcY/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Maria-Arnal-i-Marcel-Bage%25CC%2581s---Clamor.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>39. Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés - Clamor</h3>
<i>Glitch Art Pop<br />
5 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/56FfSg2yi8EnmoY8OB85Sw?si=WaKRZBaVRLCzpf80LiE8Wg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Maria sure can sing, layering her gracefully light Spanish cream upon itself thick until the ethereal project threatens to drift away. But it’s the much darker production that keeps our feet grounded, then dropping us to our knees, creeping along, praying we don’t get caught. There is a scarier presence here that Maria appears to be hiding, the record containing something much larger than initially apparent. And with each curious listen, this <i>thing</i> escapes further, introducing itself louder, getting acquainted with the world outside of the music. It’s up to you how far you’re willing to let this go, so be careful.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 38. Ross From Friends - Tread" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjglD1xxMAsDQMLPA6uiqGoJP7s8YbjnRcJ_nJ78IbwJuDC-Rtj3LX0CXsOtE3rAJ2aO8y5ODQfD-YJeugaEKXRqH_T66YdFqUU3XHr0rsvdPSQ82PBU7DBs2LJNKBLVfv-tKZW2Rv6XNc/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Ross-From-Friends---Tread.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>38. Ross From Friends - Tread</h3>
<i>Future Garage<br />
22 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5wKXfInna4rPKYVhdiSgQA?si=p4WEESJmTdiu0sUEKvrn-Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
You had me at your DJ name, bro. Is this a 90s ecstasy euphoria throwback? Or is it downtempo house running along the cutting-edge of modern clubbing? If you can consecutively ask those two questions, then the explanation is <i>timelessness</i>, the precise record you're always aching for when you limp into the comedown tent seeking a saviour. Yeah, ok, sure, it loses a couple of points for being so gloriously top-heavy, but it manages to clutch the sentiment until the end, concluding as my favourite chillzone electronic offering since 2015's <em>In Colour</em> by Jamie xx.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 37. Fawn Limbs - Darwin Falls" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0XuUi8KxCrCSpwtuudqFmmX0rSyH_IPkH1L6RtThHQLyi924Nt8MUTPkfQtmOkg1vIPnXAJqPpSmjaIZs9zhBdOh3W3MSd6t-ZIn28VrrjHPvNLnBjCkRJG6F5L9Pum93YNEzQXR6qC0/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Fawn-Limbs---Darwin-Falls.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>37. Fawn Limbs - Darwin Falls</h3>
<i>Avant-Garde Mathcore<br />
13 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/17fIAZO0lyqloFiDbSDxBG?si=9ImeUYQ3QoSv82JHdkYyYQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As is the nature of elitist metalheads, it's always a risk to veer too far off the blueprint. The audience starts asking questions! But in Fawn Limbs' case, they appear to have found an original cranny that even the most snobby of the mob can observe with nods of agreement. The "metalcore" sections are typical to the genre (screamy and sufficient within their derivatives) yet it's the innovative downtimes that snag the ear with an unsual twist. Like finding yourself stuck in an audiobook, the protagonist relays tales via croaky spoken words. He takes the listener on a dangerous adventure, beckoning us to lean forward to better hear the narrative before smashing us back in our seats with that same metal punch, the two-gear dynamic all the more satisfying when working together. It's truly a unique experience and worth its weight, which is saying a lot because when it's heavy, it's fucking heavy, man!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 36. Underscores - Fishmonger" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFzKvK9PUwnr-0xCFoYdRzRg0-H7n7_8-pgT6q75zWbML2XgQn947Xzo-EOD39GpiQQAbekk3scWW62pKYLJEzYdxw1hJjqKW6WhwDyjlypAqL9mIHb63yEYjbplcIlABtFgzAH_eba4/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Underscores---Fishmonger.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>36. Underscores - Fishmonger</h3>
<i>Electronic Indie Hyperpop<br />
25 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5o9aTepLhqQL2gXuKPhd8g?si=Ir4WQvssR--4qNIx0VszDQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />Throughout the internet, barrels of this bedroom Gen Z electricity are overflowing, but something about Underscores' pop variation is fizzier than most, and I'm delighted to climb inside whenever. I know I'm in strange company. I accept that it's a reflection of a generation younger than me. But perhaps it's that same youthfulness I crave that fills me with such joy, and even if I don't possess the contemporary lingo to fit in with or describe this crowd, I know that whatever I'm trying to say has cartoon hearts floating around it.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 35. CHANCE デラソウル - CHANCE デラソウル" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPy8g4EVeT353Z93D6xsBpCZGuoMK_wE8Q5IQ5Cwb8p280YyMDoqtD_UutNYVDNxwXvZ1eDFssPDRmrZh6SLXClJVr5B9U6yZ5yv67aGSeSh498lgk_xKjJawS66V3VVX79buQeZVwNPk/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_CHANCE-%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2582%2599%25E3%2583%25A9%25E3%2582%25BD%25E3%2582%25A6%25E3%2583%25AB---CHANCE-%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2582%2599%25E3%2583%25A9%25E3%2582%25BD%25E3%2582%25A6%25E3%2583%25AB.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>35. CHANCE デラソウル - CHANCE デラソウル</h3>
<i>Future Funk<br />
27 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/353qG6ApXniOVm0reY8RvF?si=DFyUvSQkQsq1bQPbKpJKVA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />Hello, Chance de la Soul. Productive much? Eleven albums in five years? At times clocking in at over an hour a shot (including this one)? And yet no steam appears lost, this self-titled offering celebrating itself, bouncing your emotions like a ball until your mood levitates up and out of the house, gone. Furthermore, it never demands participation, just a background joy forever ready for you to dip in and out whenever you feel up to it. Only party if you want to! Because this subtly funky record simply wishes to <i>assist</i> your good times, not <i>be</i> the good times, you know? Maybe the production <i>errs</i> on the side of amateur, and perhaps a few track cuts would have served the overall voyage, but it lightly rubs me in just the right place and slots so cleanly into my memory that I want everybody to know. And now you do!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 34. Backxwash - I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUVfcwDPY16-ko1MWBUOohTME1TchlWVqrP_B4VVIRiMzjCFLg4zQZNq2QbPi_2xX8Q8AHDGZd2xI7ve-epTq3YyyQQQyx3_AJRDBJcbl4IcdhHdihadWrOVp81PoiBwboKqFJMmUf2eQ/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Backxwash---I-Lie-Here-Buried-With-My-Rings-and-My-Dresses.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>34. Backxwash - I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses</h3>
<i>Industrial Hip Hop Horrorcore<br />
20 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4gaxRsSkSQmoyDsTesvplD?si=vDmTPf2CQYuj82-7AN3XDg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Do I blame hip hop? Or myself? Usually such a dependable genre, it's worrying how few rappy releases impressed me this year. Thank goodness for Backxwash, then, for not only releasing my favourite "hip hop" record of 2021 but ensuring that hardly any other hip hop fan would have the stomach for it. Because <em>I Lie Here</em> is not your usual lyrical flow meets casual beats; this is hardcore, where the darkness drips heavy into realms much closely related to metal. It's also worth noting Backxwash's place in the subcategory of trans artists aggressively conquering the modern industrial scene<span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;">—e</span>xcept she appears to have no interest in sounding feminine whatsoever. Instead, Ashanti Mutinta sticks to her masculine vocal cords to deliver her message, happy to allow a very deliberate selection of guest stars to balance her out, including Ada Rook from Black Dresses and Sadie Dupuis from Speedy Ortiz. It's intense stuff! So much so, that even if the competition weren't so thin, this would surely remain one of our year's most remarkable rap contributions, period.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 33. Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9fQ0kcO_a5Yvmuoe3lnR9X2WIOTAp_zaKfWYkiO9JuSJ7j2yCp6Y8yjLYDM8GOCmSCgg11Vqdx-LhGBT9bJEICorpaGNGpVloTJXmqAPtLzTFfzCfmOrlJgYCaIFSzs8b94dpDg4i1Q/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Genesis-Owusu---Smiling-With-No-Teeth.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>33. Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth</h3>
<i>Neo-Soul<br />
5 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4j7wEZWND7GIh918rLgYHQ?si=y0hrqjgdSgqsjMTTrgO76Q" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Like any worthwhile art piece, <em>Smiling With No Teeth</em> comes loaded with so much duality that I'm unsure which words to use when describing what I'm hearing. There's that retro funky hip hop feel placing it way back when, yet the playful production is so unmistakably modern that it could never exist before the now, confusing the entire neo-soul narrative until it extends across a parallel timeline of its own creation. The minimalist beats smooth the land, allowing Genesis to flex his upbeat deliveries, exuding so much skill that it's borderline excessive. I can't eat all of this! But you know you're onto something when a 50+ minute album flies past at what feels half the time because... fun!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 32. LOREM IPSUM - Vivre Encore" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiv_zqMaZBrKlQ4y1rHY_ChbEDb9AoAuSJU6aKRpN-Ri5bgmk9ohIeCLjqPJi8678YkmeRc6lu2cKWdTktYHPKwQHS2JD8GxN7-WdiZMeAftzVLa1nMgGazjjUnIza-yPpN62TElxL6sU/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_LOREM-IPSUM---Vivre-Encore.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>32. LOREM IPSUM - Vivre Encore</h3>
<i>Avant-Folk Screamo Chamber Music<br />
28 January<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7piZItgoR4 " target="_blank">YouTube</a></i><br /><br />
And once again, another hybrid comes along to prove the human voice can scream over anything and produce something decent out the other side. In the case of <em>Vivre Encore</em>, the passionate cries of French words jut out from a much softer yet highly spirited baroque orchestral feel, a combination of seemingly juxtaposed worlds collaborating so well that the choices appear painfully obvious now. Certainly, we can label it a one-trick gift horse, but it's one helluva trick, and for me to sit here in 2021 and sincerely tell you that I have never heard anything like it is alone an astounding feat.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 31. CFCF - memoryland" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg084Ekx2sGHmks0_7KfNBpfMukSjgZLdOSI38nBDplpwLA8aTNTe0TvyZ_SvEF3urK3oYOsSOl3dIDEEZ-fEjQa_DuVnmhuntx4Eat8yYv97hDrpA7rhuGXfUbbbEfEilBd72YNChETDM/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_CFCF---memoryland-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>31. CFCF - memoryland</h3>
<i>Indietronica Dance Music<br />
9 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1afj4IR9BrWY65bk8kCglF?si=pmfNrfOuQg2lA3H4cwZong" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The only foolproof excuse one can apply when releasing a 1h11 long record is variation, and CFCF has achieved this so well that I initially assumed I was listening to a compilation instead of a singular overarching mind. And from there, the man proceeds to breathe life into the machine, a rare example of where electronics boast more intelligence and heart than what some artists achieve using more organic materials. Hence, albums like this erode the argument that digital is soulless and perhaps even suggest that one day the robots may supersede our human abilities, utilising expert precision to manipulate the human flaws within? More perfectly human than human? Not to say we’re quite there yet, but based on this offering, the movement is moving and is also happy to take its time doing so. Meanwhile, no 2021 release sticks into my mind at the same place as this one, and I contemplate it often. I guess that’s why they call it <em>memoryland</em>?
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 30. Every Time I Die - Radical" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiimhxIu9s3gRhvpxL1JePC4PSgDw_B8GsipV0oSkEnovIKGw5Tsuih_vP8bFXu-14fgUgHmjhTV30c3fdPARu1IFoYFAVC5nxOS6QK6LTstTYy5x-i8AKiqi_mfEfJGjElf0PJWu-Sqi0/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Every-Time-I-Die---Radical.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>30. Every Time I Die - Radical</h3>
<i>Math Metalcore<br />
22 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6SUMl8L4l91N2igInZsGMO?si=MkuCZ3piQeCjKORBTOXFgg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As a long-term but casual ETID listener, never in all my reviewing years did I think this band would release something impressive enough to touch my precious end of year list. Then <em>Radical</em> burst out and <i>POW</i>, here I am, writing these glowing sentences, what a world. Because even if this is not some grand departure from paths they've bulldozed before, it's where their two strong decades of training has finally paid off. Just listen to them exploding with energy, dancing around their competition, aggressively throwing wild swings that land every punch. Moreover, they're blatantly having a ton of fun doing so, not taking the fight seriously in the slightest, laughing internally behind those angry faces. Goddamn, I want to say it's the best record of their discography, but it's <i>so</i> good that I suddenly feel compelled to rethink my lax attitude towards their entire back catalogue too. Brb.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 29. Leah Blevins - First Time Feeling" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhd1smWuHT6It1yK4j20d1zCB3U8NywPOLrCua0N9M_ZcWs6BBodigpsB5YyTr_AUDHEC0FtM-UAvMfUxEEWR9ZJLTRAaAbCi8pkYXcwMGXbMTw-c6FoxPEoK9F_ZzCbJdBnRBSD_p5_qVNTbNqN4IgnNc27DYPMa1Y6aNQXalk-3pbYOxCOQ342tcv" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>29. Leah Blevins - First Time Feeling</h3>
<i>Neo-Traditionalist Americana Country<br />
6 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7lAuqI7aCLX66UAyT74Yuu?si=TfBt7rIVRu6C3I5Q1I3nGA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When nothing but that genuine traditional Nashville country flavour will satisfy, consider giving Leah Blevins' debut a spin. Because <em>First Time Feeling</em> not only hits the spot, it crams its Americana gum into every available gap until the spot isn't even visible anymore, delivered with a smile, you're welcome. Each year has its country darling, and my 2021 money is on Leah, relieved to hear a newcomer pulling shots as confident as the veterans who have come before. Sadly, nobody else seems to have noticed her yet, which is why I dub this album as the most overlooked diamond on my entire list. Fine by me. Either she blows up, and I get to say, <i>"I told you so, na-na!" </i>or she doesn't, and I get to keep this one to myself. I can't lose!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 28. Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCApBPufg-prz0xPHdCXgtiwQuCHQn39XSxs2vS8CNorpjZJ19iKHjYPR8ObJVF6p6MjvG_qoNVqR3VMMg42GcVIYOdMrLoNJyJwtTu-xLt3hjLbE4P9IwPRslCiu1jUu3IALozbj3g0/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Silk-Sonic---An-Evening-With-Silk-Sonic.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>28. Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic</h3>
<i>Smooth Soul<br />
12 November<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0S0r2RFucaW9kVjBtcBOV1?si=EqXfuPpVQSKH5UXGKd5xcA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak walk into a club. How quickly do you think they each get laid? Here is the sexiest record of the year from the two contemporary kings of smooth moves. They're feeling themselves in the most laid-back of manners and on the prowl for pussy yet almost entirely avoiding the scent of sleaze. Almost. Either way, their joyous rapport booms through each line, an enjoyment of the craft that one cannot fake, oozing such fun vibrations that I bounce behind my desk just to take part. I'm not gay, but I'm fully turned on here.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 27. L'Rain - Fatigue" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUJhUp_YfL5qWQ6UhMMge2qB83Bop0aQSESBSdZzW6DKcOlJbAcpna5cnDz_Y7fjPKOrsKqkHZ-SpmSPRKids2dBjLCva_w9ddItssTJf7qM8xlZlHZRagMKAjLvOfOysEeysW9OIMQM/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_L%2527Rain---Fatigue.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>27. L'Rain - Fatigue</h3>
<i>Neo-Psychedelia Soul<br />
25 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1L9yCNvMeREkOXyLPzxP0b?si=wEhYj_VyQluvNGX2n1ivMQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Less than half an hour runtime means if you blink, you may miss it, which is precisely what the whole world has done. <em>Fatigue</em> is one of my uppermost choices for overlooked album of the year. I've never quite heard anything like it, coming across like a compilation of interludes that refuses to settle, blurring together fields of jazzy chaos and ambient soul until the picture is nothing but an unrecognisable mess of colour. It's as trippy as I make it sound, yet also highly attractive. Stop inhaling those fumes though. They're changing you.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 26. BRUIT ≤ - The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYRCAxZTG-DXKw0EDRDDE73zAIhe4G7xfQj86cJEiV3KBqbbCTF6WOHYNv__luzkhIZm12KKB3rpZWIG-baI15oHPOURieUs9oYSOPThh8rXod5nYWpjw2gehfQq2AHzarSSj8b8tdvg/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_BRUIT-%25E2%2589%25A4---The-Machine-Is-Burning-and-Now-Everyone-Knows-It-Could-Happen-Again.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>26. BRUIT ≤ - The Machine Is Burning and Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again</h3>
<i>Post-Rock<br />
2 April<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbxFEljPOcE" target="_blank">YouTube</a></i><br /><br />
It’s always impressive when a fundamentally instrumental album manages to invoke conceptual visions, but BRUIT ≤’s debut convinces me that it's an environmentally-driven record, accurately reflecting the apocalyptic fear of a dying world. Of course, destroying something beautiful means something beautiful was there to begin with, and that's represented too. So when the swells of orchestral emotion lift the dark curtain to remind us of the life we once had, you may be tempted to whisper the same thing as everyone else. <i>“This sounds like a Godspeed You! Black Emperor record”.</i> Ok, true. But Godspeed also released an album this year. A mighty fine record at that. Except, for my money, <em>The Machine Is Burning</em> is better. And if this <i>was</i> a Godspeed release, we’d be shitting ourselves at such a late-career epic, calling it one of their overall best. So there!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 25. nouns - Lonely Place of Dyin" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLpm_bOcZbuO5lu3VD4sgYZo7xGJm6rTZTX7CZjb_h2Ttw2T_kJH73dDjm6BaIOwrNecIz49UfVOgfsUyo7ZejHf5HAch7hsVKz9SHKxgFcc7EnqV1T1jl7Uj67bul6i9uxmsGzCgZgYM/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_nouns---Lonely-Place-of-Dyin.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>25. nouns - Lonely Place of Dyin</h3>
<i>Experimental Post-Hardcore Emo Rock<br />
9 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0E53f4ROmGz1BJGWWIvemM?si=3wT3z_ZYS6uTwxmFfEqotw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
A (very quick) 24-minute record featuring two (very long) tracks, <em>Lonely Place of Dyin</em> is not reliant on its tried-and-tested loud-soft dynamic that tugs the heart down then slaps you in the face. It's also not all about the lo-fi bedroom production, which sounds even louder without the gleam. Instead, it's about the <i>stories</i>, both songs processing the loss of a loved one through the ups and downs of emotions some of us are unlucky to understand. If you truly want to grasp what makes this album unique beyond its surface area, please read the <a href="https://nounss.bandcamp.com/album/l-o-n-e-l-y-p-l-a-c-e-o-f-d-y-i-n" target="_blank">eulogies on Bandcamp</a>. They shine a dim light into the darkness, and it will make you sad.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 24. Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHRv9efgkXfVyaJl0cp8Ggx8HVIMRl7jCLLf1i1dmumVyKNos6_BoQdDaXcvRJcGY5xYsCuyalxkw3sm7DvvPOUEGzCktGDvmOorUWWCFIcfSo2izlrnTlJXpyRF6CatSgTkz4hvrmmI/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Magdalena-Bay---Mercurial-World.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>24. Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World</h3>
<i>Dance-Synthpop<br />
8 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1ERrUvG31thFCxdwWUoJrY?si=BLdstXRRStWd9LhLjm1eYg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Stealing the cutest cues from classic disco dance floors (think Kylie) and more modern synthpop angles (think Grimes, think Purity Ring), <em>Mercurial World</em> claims a distinctive zone by avoiding too much nostalgia-play and refusing that final sachet of artificial sweetener. And while the temptation is to stack your best songs first, Magdalena Bay's strategy was far more balanced. They offer the listener an easy entry point initially, then use their most interesting songs to build a bridge over the midway sag, ultimately reaching the final stages safely before signing off with their biggest bangs yet. Such a lack of flashy arrogance and not caring about "being something" encourages me to suggest this as the <i>"pop"</i> pop album of the year. Although, full disclosure, certain fringe moments do irritate me. At least I'm honest.<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 23. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5z1WJwETBpCdANqwVpWOWyj7_AurrEgrhxmZkeyWAK19obIzTry5hbifVEVrGaeYbNO4asXwWiVnfuCd-XfnbB-ddnOyVflfpFjDGvtVkiPuQ3cuiZryO8m6mjFGXwu87Qt3CZl8AXU/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Dry-Cleaning---New-Long-Leg.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>23. Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg</h3>
<i>Spoken Word Post-Punk<br />
2 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4oNy189uvEgnJKNLsWx9Zz?si=72CXmhmeRR29MX8R78nv_w" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
How well can the modern middle-class British attitude front a jangly breed of post-punk artiness? Perfectly, as it turns out; proven by Florence Shaw's sardonic poetics that desaturate the mural into dreary monotones, giving zero fucks and all of the fucks simultaneously. Call it hipster, call it a stream of nonsensical phrases, call it a Rio de Janeiro bouncy ball filter, call it whatever. But the disinterest in vocal effort, studio trickeries, or contemporary genres is precisely what will keep <em>New Long Leg</em> on the timeless shelf for ample years to come (even if the repetitiveness might slightly lower the price).
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 22. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - CARNAGE" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaPoetsNgBZUh81FWOwr0mWKT4KS28viYe70UtdJ7kEuGUbPP_CryL2H6hSzQ22kUhYfjDqa-ndNiC_cquxj7p5fnZO2zq9sQVluvRraUU79rWJydbcsVzV4-Av63cx3IueaJngJp_3ig/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Nick-Cave-and-Warren-Ellis---CARNAGE.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>22. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - CARNAGE</h3>
<i>Chamber Art Rock Pop<br />
25 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6xWNh0mUOdEg77U1f6oojz?si=cxwy17YNQk-VOrGbdERyiw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Pretending this is a Bad Seeds record (and I fucking do!), <em>Carnage</em> is yet another definite progression for artists who have not made a wrong step for over four decades. And while the title got me salivating for an old school hark back to previous post-punk recklessness, it sticks to the trend set out by recent offerings. Cinematic ambience. Unsettling thumpings. A natural flow. Familiar, but a touch different to any ground covered before. And like we’d established many (many (many!)) records before this one, Nick is the archetype of a rock god growing old with charm. His voice has only improved over the years while his ultracool style exudes from his every lyric, his every gesture, his every pore. Hence I will mimic his every move for as long as I live because, historically, nobody has progressed with as much class.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 21. death's dynamic shroud.wmv - Faith in Persona" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAJxV-a8s-6Brgt20wVX1t108K1mArKiCk-mOU7FX3IVLggfcJZeWKI2rrEXzs9APXW0LiQih8C6F2QwnBaUiicFRH9rFt0lBA2V8tgXrgKEDjwYeNk0X2ndj-i8gfJ_GCG4xNAkR6Zw71Nllf6oiVxOqZi9f_S4XiBHZBC8k5XkLOHc35Fi1enM6I" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>21. death's dynamic shroud.wmv - Faith in Persona</h3>
<i>Glitch Pop Vaporwave<br />
1 November<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsIN8KVPZG4" target="_blank">YouTube</a></i><br /><br />
Talk about a numbers game; by my tally Death's Dynamic Shroud.wmv released 11 albums this year! Whaaaat. And while it's up for debate which one stuck the best (I was rather partial to <em>Sleepless</em> myself), it was November's <em>Faith in Persona</em> that appeared to capture the most substantial section of our collective imagination. Perhaps this success can be attributed to the atrocious artwork that lures a false sense of cheap progressive metal, conning clicks from fanciers of that subgenre? But therein lies additional appeal when listeners slap flat into an uplifting pop record that dances on the line between commercial hooks written for radio and abstract dreamscapes that ensure the radio wouldn't know what to do with it. I've read multiple fans lauding this release as a peak of the vaporwave genre, and I fully slam down my stamp of approval upon that notion. <i>JARED RECOMMENDS</i>, my stamp says.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 20. black midi - Cavalcade" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ctZktK7DV-4ndYQby20pPQXHl7beqoBMgXNCQeqbR47gqG6y7fKDxrt9C6YE5dO_jTWyF2aMqyg_LgsAOOzZsPZFZQppQUZ3E-Ibg_M-tejghHGxgOpfWGEdKenLzFtNaEIN5sIaAHg/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_black-midi---Cavalcade.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>20. black midi - Cavalcade</h3>
<i>Avant-Prog<br />
26 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7AsC27VDa3yOksZrfBSD6D?si=Gcar8iFoQKq3gN-fWX3PCA " target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Considering black midi’s 2019 debut, <em>Schlagenheim,</em> was one of the most forward-thinking spazz-outs of that decade, a ton was riding on their follow up. Did they harness enough genuine inventive genius to somersault over the sophomore slump? Or would the sudden spotlight pressure melt the insane drive into mundane dribble? Are you asking me? I’m unsure how to answer. On the one hand, they have drastically diluted the hysteria, trading the wild knife stabs for a more sophisticated form of avant-garde lounge music, less nervewracking but more unsettling. Yet this risk alone cements their position in the highest calibre of new experimental rock bands, unafraid to build a boat that works then promptly diving off the edge into unexplored waters. And while it initially caught me off guard (and while I still prefer their previous job), I recognise how difficult it is to successfully create peculiar art in our current desensitised zeitgeist. Not for midi though, as they slide straight through everything and hit their intended target dead-centre again. Keep it coming, boys!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 19. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVSmb3s8fHq6KorBVaNgqhj-97u5OwcgTGmE5sKye6prG9P_I3DSUCqa2eBHMtD1Np0cW_VU_xTMFIEMD10NRMuE9P_S6IvpNh4MuW_Hh2dJsRv1Z4liAcP04lWaCV2QPpe9cTMr5lzgE/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Converge-%2526-Chelsea-Wolfe---Bloodmoon--I.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>19. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I</h3>
<i>Atmospheric Gothic Sludge Metal<br />
19 November<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4rEDzWnp2RoNzSx8DjO7gY?si=JeyGVvNHT_us9v9pEUf45A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
My kingdom to be a bug on the wall, listening to this meeting. I can only imagine the excitement for everyone involved when some genius proposed the idea, <i>“Why not a collaborative album between Converge and Chelsea Wolfe?”</i>. Holy shit balls of darkness, I get chills! Because, even without the album existing, you know what it would sound like, and <em>Bloodmoon: I</em> sounds exactly like that! Except it’s better. Both artists muster their A-game without overstepping into another’s path or sacrificing their personalities to appease the counterpart, instead melting into one another by doing precisely what they can each do better than everybody. And here we hold a cold, fierce, and uncompromising treasure, prompting me to secretly pray that this is not the end of such a perfect creative marriage. Hold up, did you say <em>Bloodmoon: I</em>? As in, the first one??
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 18. Black Dresses - Forever in Your Heart" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDJBv_rOiqtVLm5JhVG3OPC-ftcXAPYPZiGPx0SzkXCkDN1YPHSehl1l2ZcofMODq_laoOkCrVVdHkGhAZLqzaIca2ZxP8N6K1PuHdnT5jV09usum2KeJrE9Dc4tUsyCRa-YdQp1nq-i4/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Black-Dresses---Forever-in-Your-Heart.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>18. Black Dresses - Forever in Your Heart</h3>
<i>Electro-Industrial Rock<br />
14 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/09kEcsP2Lcx8g5f1CUeYsL?si=zYAtXGvJTOqahhN8wH82Aw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
In record time, Black Dresses have risen as a phenomenon within the underground contemporary industrial scene, swallowing up a portion all to themselves and repeatedly dominating it. Five albums in four years (excluding copious solo/guest work) is a testament to their high-speed productivity, proving they’ve found their exact vein with zero traffic, racing through the system, bursting every artery along the way. They walloped me from the get-go, my playlists well-acquainted with every album, the majority of their releases infiltrating my final Top 50 articles of those respective years. Hence, it provokes great fear when I conclude <em>Forever in Your Heart</em> as their most impressive work to date. The rise in appeal could be the lean into more commercial aesthetics, yet this record is the opposite of selling out. They’ve only gone harder! Sharpening up their electronic distortions so intensely that they are swinging scissors dangerously close to metal now. I’m just glad their prior break-up announcement turned out to be void, and while that move only added to the accusations of their arrogant personalities (which many find intolerable), the art speaks for itself, loud and clearly louder still. Meanwhile, the rest of us can only brace ourselves for whatever attack comes next, even though it won't help.<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 17. Low - HEY WHAT" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeftmpitXZZgAxLU5QqdM8dBuL9AmU5xqOHS-yS-N2jKNXesOcXmF0MUDfj-c8EB13oppYDpDdPL-E7-xhglCQz-ZZnA2tYumCW4SzrHObt6WeTMVuPGeY5no1KFLOYjaYjmYRiIsswFA/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Low---HEY-WHAT.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>17. Low - HEY WHAT</h3>
<i>Experimental Post-Industrial Ambient Pop Rock<br />
10 September<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6S6jg2LuEwGdo9iYMSwCBS?si=8UaZTz6sRwGj8_NLo9A5Aw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When 2018's infinitely acclaimed <em>Double Negative</em> dropped, the indie spectrum dropped with it, floored by the slowcore that had glitched beyond recognition, and what's more, from the heavyweights who had singlehandedly designed the genre landscape anyway. So when <em>HEY WHAT</em> joined the party, all predictions were off, and I was pleasantly surprised to note the band's half-step back towards their ambient roots yet still embracing their late-career fascination with electronic blips and fuzz-time distortions. It's encouraging to witness decades-old artists who have forever refused to compromise their visions, sticking to their craft without preciousness. They've allowed their sound to evolve naturally yet (in these cases) very abruptly without reservations, coming out the side with work that is their most relevant while rivalling their very best. And as we analyse a flawless 13-album-strong discography, what you're actually watching is one of the most consistent and greatest bands the planet holds right now.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 16. Tinashe - 333" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI6FZHITzMjvQfsNy457FztpfeeRjrvuPvk3i24WEjTuByypk0bQmKDhiavDD6iQcQotAG_EVNmiSsGrCg7RA5Ks3YQGwdz3njEbZdlg68mZz6QpVHR_3WeaGZ4fk92aYW2mYM9PSSp4Q/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Tinashe---333.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>16. Tinashe - 333</h3>
<i>Alternative R&B<br />
6 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0LHqiYYOsVM9lh9c9w0G1j?si=2ImuRUprS6qKIQvBLS-cCQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
A tsunami of R&B heavyweight records drowned out the 2010s, but like all good things, it pulled back across the shore, leaving fewer treasures in the wake of recent years. Speaking in 2021 terms, the lack of blinding glitter provided Tinashe with the perfect clear shot to pin the genre's AOTY, but the triumph wasn't exclusively contextual. Her audio smoothie of pure quality ingredients offered only absolute pleasures, including specific songs that completely slap the game out of orbit. Consequently, when analysing this analysis, it's obvious that Tinashe has really struck something special on <em>333</em>, but we must also appreciate that this isn't even the first time she's done so. She's been smashing it since 2014! I love everything she's done! And I'm always in the mood to listen any of her work because she pulls me onto her level and takes care of me until I feel better. So thanks again, Tinashe!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 15. Giant Claw - Mirror Guide" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEM6Dn1tPDdlyUj9ay8VuRtf83yyDsoFM1M_3IIn0S7Utzbk2-j5BW0olSVvvAi07AJtN4G6agvSuDqIrpkUbi3tWwPn-YR-5sGr9BK4Pd18SHVk8ph6Qarq2u2FLxAZE4ZTEKyospZAI/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Giant-Claw---Mirror-Guide.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>15. Giant Claw - Mirror Guide</h3>
<i>Progressive Electronic Collage Music<br />
14 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7pyzhrIqI26oUxVurJ0WnH?si=9Nl9098cQbWs_mBFGH-3Bg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The most agonising mistake I made with <em>Mirror Guide</em> was embarking on my first listen with a hangover. Man, my anxiety poked a hole through the ceiling. It was like getting stuck in the world's longest Windows start-up sound, and I kept having to turn it off every 20 seconds to catch my breath. But despite my struggles, I knew something unusual was to be found here, so I revisited the experience plenty. And eventually, I discovered myself within this futuristic "music", scattering minute details in every direction, these fast-forwarded jitters tiptoeing through my brain without any regard to the shine they left behind. It's utter madness. And I'm convinced I have some permanent damage now. Because I think about it. All. The. Time.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 14. Remi Wolf - Juno" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr0pmK-GoXq3kAnITMDnaqqrvX_uqB4hV7IxwZ8ybHHK_fColtaZtJGhyphenhyphenp_R0b48Bt-1JYKRqoACGrmmdUkvnFG2oCyIQ3Z4q6mVog4ebtwZCRKOCboqH3lgnrtwJ6EDXLOHEhcxaA8hU/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Remi-Wolf---Juno.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>14. Remi Wolf - Juno</h3>
<i>Contemporary Indie Pop R&B<br />
15 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7tJ8Wtej161vR0uCbGDiDR?si=SgX2AnE4SxO2UsLDZnhKWw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Far from attempting to rewrite the rulebook, Remi primarily prioritises having fun, effortlessly allowing her talents to spill out smarty-pants lyrics stacked on top of cheeky cultural references, verifying that she's been paying attention in class. The tried-and-tested pop formula is on full display here, and <em>Juno</em> definitely doesn't sound like anything new, yet when I sought artists to compare her to, I came up dry. That's when I realise there's something else going on here. It's a record that is, by every criterion, trendy af, but it does not succumb to any absolute trend, creating the illusion of following a beaten path, when in actuality, it's cutting a groove solely unto itself. And that goes for each one of these infectiously loveable songs, the album seemingly getting better per every track, per every spin, per every time my excited memory reminds me of its existence, lifting my mood waaaay up! :D<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 13. Anna B Savage - A Common Turn" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqTwMMYHUPbIE3GzFs-JPHiV1Gm0vBvHYoR5sVcb_OuTVYkADxxCv2MdS0JapzxurL9tXYvWfWjuRLKg_ZrkHd3d13U6wkmSdcKbNxmSNBqphvwg7p8X0VSNBhgSr3gkmHnOB01no6Gs/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Anna-B-Savage---A-Common-Turn.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>13. Anna B Savage - A Common Turn</h3>
<i>Art Pop<br />
29 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6RQArjhEoHV6Pvoc2kAtrw?si=kR1Yk04RSr6_p4UZdislQw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Savage by name but not by game, Anna won't tear into your heart using wild force but instead edges her way inside with deeply personal confessions and a strangeness of infinite discomforts. Of course, you will agree that her monotone melancholy steals the show, but once you can slip beneath her haunted covers and relate the beautiful mess to yourself, you may appreciate the true genius of the subtle instrumentation, gifting her/me/you/us the mattress to ache from. It is simply one of those impossible debuts that takes its total length of time before you realise how slowly you've been fucked. And only at the end, you're like... oh my god. Oh my god!!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 12. Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnKjk9drgg8pdZfuGhuD-JuxUdr5A8x239fFyd_aWvti0a7Pg2Er8LjpPmwulhx2QZeKKq_iPR5AqSfZfEGY3YAaGFIFnuaruCCxRK1SuLmIqL5aV09AOJhWpImKFyWGFeaCQXk07KzZo/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Arlo-Parks---Collapsed-in-Sunbeams.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>12. Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams</h3>
<i>Bedroom Pop Neo-Soul<br />
29 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/42joEEymK7EIHODfNB4yug?si=Fd0AyFcaTeq4D29cc-eXMg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Based on multiple reported observations (plus a direct Thom Yorke name-drop on <em>Too Good</em>), we Radiohead scholars/junkies have praised Arlo Parks' debut as some distant cousin to the critically worshipped <em>In Rainbows</em>. Because it is. And when you approach <em>Collapsed in Sunbeams</em> from that perception of soft arty guitar progressions and emotionally intelligent lyrical flows, the influence becomes inescapably obvious. Hey! Arlo birthed the <em>In Rainbows</em> sequel we never knew we needed! Hallelujah! And while every song deserves everyone's full awareness, there are special tracks that sweep me off my chair, which occurse integrity of what made them so special in the first plac frequently, dotted about until the very end, proving her pedantic attention to perfect track sequencing as well. Fast-forward several months, and this album won the <em>2021 Mercury Prize</em>, squeaking me with joy, <i>eep!</i>.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 11. Black Swan - Repetition Hymns" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08v0K2xvtUF9RYLciqss4zj_Pnsga9Kgm7abVbzQbRO_US90CFD8dz3RBbo2TxezZmR4w3dbC0GBdVCoSkv96Y4VckVdeb8h4xDpIxPfJ6jMkGpP63L8_n_1yIR3pZxd2-wFuFF2P47w/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Black-Swan---Repetition-Hymns.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>11. Black Swan - Repetition Hymns</h3>
<i>Ambient Drone Tape Music<br />
8 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1BRpE57tEtLPK7WaEZ11zr?si=3knjMOkAT-q4JEpmRV8S6A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When the euphoria tumbles into the dust and its mood swiftly turns ugly, <em>Repetition Hymns</em> will be there. It laps its textured tongue over you like waves that drag you under for so long that you almost hear a song down here somewhere. But even the darkest of attics have cracks where the light can creep through, penetrating the atmosphere with something nice, something optimistic. Go on and pick up that dirty euphoria. Wipe it off, and show gratitude for an experience so far removed from everything else that, no matter what 2021 holds, this record's position remains unaffected.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 10. Turnstile - Glow On" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbtO53Gl7SKnq5NTWolIaW1KVdfbNIgUr5ZFxFIK0SNp1z7FvZopaA0WPmXWBDaUuxzVllN0_TZtLG10_jDSsOnPMobRUnUkBcgTVvs9h4bh0psMy26bYRuvcZakRAxSRgXxW6N3SkIgY/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Turnstile---Glow-On.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>10. Turnstile - Glow On</h3>
<i>Post-Hardcore Punk<br />
27 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2NrYPcMmQBlbBxopc2XlzS?si=thPQp39aSrSZLr81sKFKBg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
In one of the most surprising curveballs of 2021, American hardcore scene leaders, Turnstile, traded their gritty tricks and fast bites for a more delicious poppy progression, and what's more, it worked! How did they do that? By never abandoning the integrity of what made them so special in the first place. Instead, they sought joy within what their boundaries allowed, ultimately offering the most unified record they've made yet<span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;">—</span>not a substantial departure but a conscious stride, one masterful shift seldomly executed so well in modern music. Honestly, I am yet to read a single critic who can describe this record adequately. That includes me.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 09. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6kJxjyhlL5GMY4qKC0Eakp_x7NsEzWOupyxG_4WErNCIz6mOf8i5XTLejBYfaTJbLgDWvn8uc6dHQ0UHF6L4NiThFjQFJAA-fxgQZ-997AsL-JpjrvIhEBIUWVZKqtZ5ayuNfhW5D3c/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Japanese-Breakfast---Jubilee.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>09. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee</h3>
<i>Indie Chamber Pop<br />
4 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1uD1kdwTWH1DZQZqGKz6rY?si=JvSXJGQSSxSgy1y7QAabDw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
As my age inescapably increases, I find myself far more impressed with the no-frills, zero-gimmicky, anti-shock tactic styles of artistic output. Give me strong songwriting presented within clean production value, and I’m at the mercy of your palm. Hence when I read the accolades raining down upon <em>Jubilee</em>, the most exuberant sense of hope about the entire future of modern music swells inside of me. Every song on offer deserves its timeframe, functioning to build a cohesive mood smoothed throughout yet void of repetitiveness; a complete collection of upper-quality gems that each satisfy with their own unique sparkle. It's so good it could be a best-of compilation! And that's why I struggle to think of any reputable end-of-year publication that would dare omit this entry. You'd look like a fucking fool.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 08. S280F - 28" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0ofaZAUm6JV8v9jyXkJqyCXS4Q_2ZkPg_7mmoRiE2vzTtjriO0m2bP-o2AsIbKuFeAwLiXxi0crBjdTu-wDg0RXUR2mqx9BolwnV9sSHGY-Bmck7IaLg4mAy6Kegq_LCix5-59rawbc/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_S280F---28.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>08. S280F - 28</h3>
<i>Ambient Epic Collage<br />
28 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7B8UJI0qm4X82wTyZJyKza?si=DC9QpfXmQ_iTN7ksRKaeWQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
A gentle piano tiptoes across light strings, placing soft cotton into your ear canal. And then a fucking monster comes out of nowhere and kills everyone you've ever loved. Oh god, no, this is not a meditation! This is a surgery! Electronic demons live here! Come quick, we better run! But where do you go when there's nothing but a lone 56-minute song? We're already lost, and there's no trail back. So we frantically turn dark corners in terror, vocalising our fears each time the sharp instruments cut into us, listening to the biological sludge as the operation intensifies deeper within our auditory orifices. How is anyone supposed to deal with something like this? The only way is to hold on. The only way is to accept this as the most beautiful pictureless horror film I've ever heard.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 07. IOSONOUNCANE - IRA" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeWu7R2o718RgZjJPHF-L03hX8TjwYSXVpk_3YhVCJ8FF43YnUL-jWHd4OppeAR4IbkZaKM-jNDPY5EnjQOeJ8cH1iIF4vfk5BlAmSPD8TzlwW5R5UZNAN9n6ks4yUW7k0rJANRYbHQc/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_IOSONOUNCANE---IRA.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>07. IOSONOUNCANE - IRA</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial Darkwave<br />
14 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4WhBN2WPPxAU5M5Tpw56PL?si=KkKKTk34T0KO_6DPPonRVg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
An hour and 49 minutes is an unreasonable amount of time to invite an album into your house just to summon demons, but <em>IRA</em> is one of those exceptional records where the length is part of the act. It wouldn't be such a monstrous masterpiece at a smaller size, so you give up, you let it in, and you sit verging on a panic attack as each haunted song introduces itself as an individual spiritual being. They're well-composed. Polite. Never disorderly. But as they bind themselves to your cerebral walls, you might find yourself permanently possessed by a presence far darker than <em>IRA</em>'s demeanour initially allows you to understand. Quite a peculiar vibe, to be fair. One I'd only cautiously recommend to a very select few of you.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 06. Origami Angel - Gami Gang" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivNrqAjoIAzRrKXfANJ0WzWluzCyLJg_TaupgARMij8emyRXKIlEkq97ITMm4ep6b_AWRWJeccDi6XIjva0shogYTEtXz7fClHgT1D3WAaZ25ydn1L0bBT5lLt4_NtXXfUuTyEvFn4c0k/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Origami-Angel---Gami-Gang.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>06. Origami Angel - Gami Gang</h3>
<i>Midwest Emo-Pop<br />
30 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2ohtZdoMSFtr2JrO3lJbB5?si=aGG75NfjSdSxJNX4OO12kg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Hey, have you seen that midlife crisis high school film where Jared Woods dances around his room in his underwear? Everyone has been stuck in such a dark rut since 2020 that perhaps Origami Angel's brand of super-pop optimism smashed through the murk by relativity alone. But it boasts the skillset to justify this position all the same, refusing lazy chord changes and using every four bars to unwrap a special surprise just for you. Except it's not some experimental artsy-fart or mathy flexathon either! It's nothing but smooth moves, baby! Only the juiciest vocal melodies effortlessly commanding the hookiest songs I've heard in this genre (or any genre, for that matter). Every song could be a single! Every damn song! Which is a dangerous game, of course. The shelf life of something so extra sticky will always be a concern. Ugh, future problems, right? For now, here is my guiltiest pleasure and most pleasurable guilt of the decade thus far.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 05. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdnTc_3xlaAwCrQxW_k04w6BoiD9iz5KTWXwxs_146jojdiXLosz9csocjT5V0rVUChVpLff3wr-ELlN6BlnRWUljJIMQU46DpLyyKW54w4SjxsmuysWAP7byAKFeaqpskTGi64Bjwt5U/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Lingua-Ignota---Sinner-Get-Ready.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>05. Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready</h3>
<i>Neoclassical Avant-Folk Darkwave<br />
6 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/06wtf2TCkmyTgS1yZGiSr5?si=in8MP-gFRMS1IG4ZpgZ_Mg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
While so many musicians shamelessly speak of the devil in hopes of scaring their audiences into darkness, Lingua discovered a much more disturbing key hidden deep within the opposite direction. Satan isn't scary. <i>God</i> is scary. <i>Religion</i> is scary. And that's why she writes albums that trap you in cold churches, whipping your dirty soul with sermons so terrifying that you repent! And repent! And repent! Please, I repent, Lingua! <i>I repent!!! </i>Very few artists legitimately strike a quiver into my day, but Ignota's work persistently ruins my life, and it's exclusively because her delivery sounds far too genuine. I believe her every word.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 04. Bo Burnham - Inside (The Songs)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUeQstD0IYnspBrnWP1nrvZjNZUdjkDdmHs0zsIX0jIxK8VaUVGt-7QPGxLKg4Wx7mMGgSO74X6Fj26GdRYJOouT95yPc6INmX3Rlv25UyU54QDM5zd22hAFDYHUGNC0LkCNXLh0m0Jg/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_%25E2%2580%258B%25E2%2580%258BBo-Burnham---Inside-%2528The-Songs%2529-.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>04. Bo Burnham - Inside (The Songs)</h3>
<i>Synthpop Musical Comedy<br />
10 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/35qVMfUfBN6q2xzm9rZn5a?si=zOD9KsDQRvagdgluFmH9rg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
With touring opportunities evaporating in the COVID mist, it appeared every artist and their dog released a lockdown album. But, note what I say, no record will go down in history as a more accurate time capsule than Burnham's <em>Inside</em>. It's <i>so</i> modern, in fact, that in a few decades, it might make little to no sense. Right now, though<span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;">—</span>like <i>right</i> right now<span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;">—</span>these songs are so relatable that I heard them in my head before I heard them here. Evidently, the pandemic soil proved fertile for Bo. His genius signature brand of woke comedy and competent songwriting found access into the pulse of current conditions, capturing everyone's unrest in such a hilarious manner that everything feels so much worse now. I laugh out loud, but it frightens me, and if any album nearly drove me to suicide, this would be the one.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 03. Yola - Stand for Myself" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WpLU9qX_sdeIGgP3CRv3or41DZ9zRKgxaQCS548ia2nBiW_Yyx7fnDSmgkvczdM2WkuGFx8zP9xtSGX_kkS6aRPm0V1iebc3uwzIYy_aC8kD2hMr_3LrQvBkD43UMekVbAr8N_g4y1k/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Yola---Stand-for-Myself.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>03. Yola - Stand for Myself</h3>
<i>Country Pop Soul<br />
30 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1aF9Xjtg1d1wwsE4hRAkQV?si=Ia9aogf3Twa6aydXuCVxSA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Every once in a long while, a record will come along that not only belongs to the decades previous but challenges the highest calibre of classics that age boasted. Point proven: if someone told me that <em>Stand for Myself</em> was the greatest record of the seventies, I’d listen to it and would not have the ammunition to disagree. My only complaint, then, is against myself. I am shamefully aware that something as flawlessly executed as Yola's sophomore deserves to be the Album of the Year, no questions asked. And yet, my cursed preconceived notions of what such an honour means blocks me, and I gently pat it down to this unfair (albeit hugely respectable) slot. But the secret is out: this release is 2021’s absolute best.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 02. Fucked Up - Year of the Horse" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFBVTniBSuQi8Gy9RR8Tad10J_blUwnPLGjiQND9b_WlwnLRf650f965NbWlGR62S9rgM65KwrD_eSEsf-3UylyuSZMd06_AW_wEVrXyYKf0UsnJyYW4UfinGJBjl0U2Lknnn3Lg-PfQ/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Fucked-Up---Year-of-the-Horse.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>02. Fucked Up - Year of the Horse</h3>
<i>Post-Hardcore Art Rock Opera<br />
7 May<br />
Spotify <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6PcK44BzFdTxXEd6KOx3qN?si=eO8A0risSRSWYMha1ye-VA" target="_blank">Act One</a>; <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2Ayuy7tu6mnIa4heSDMmLB?si=cM8ZF39fTtK0TnefmH5VTQ" target="_blank">Act Two</a>; <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6aDtbr6xOdXQN7dXVmZOIf?si=iZj7wYH2Soe1_mpAYXl3HA" target="_blank">Act Three</a>; <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4t5vUCQhvP5BOwjMm6PYKI?si=oUiNV86ASuKYqI8F72rCGA" target="_blank">Act Four</a></i><br /><br />
In an ever-transforming industry setting, only the fittest musicians can make a dent. But what Fucked Up have executed here is one of the biggest dick moves in the history of streaming favouritism. For <em>Year of the Horse</em> is less of an album, technically four EPs kind of, except they've split each release further down into 16 - 25 tracks a pop on Spotify. Meaning, if you listen to this full record only three times, that's 240 streams already. Talk about conquering everyone's end of year Wrapped lists! Whether you like it or not, welcome to your most listened to album/artist of 2021! Thankfully, the band earns the right, galloping short tracks past you so fast that it's impossible to lock focus on a singular idea, yet it's also impossibly consistent with zero loss of steam, an achievement that is utterly baffling to me. Who has such a bountiful mix of talent, stamina, and ambition to birth an idea so monstrous? Fucked Up, I guess, doing it all and doing it very well, finally nailing their perfectly juxtaposed confrontational/vulnerable dynamic after 15 years of trying.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2021: 01. Black Country, New Road - For the First Time" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHNDLSR89E3UQ_FW0B1sfHSdrAeb7H0IKrbxnqbr94RWYWN5wvuq2yY1II-K4dRerksP-UK0kgYvVrIfIse8qaS6JR-1JMyHGl5jg_AnOzRj-yzg0ewEQDSWbmdor_hktulanAot6P-c/s0/210Dec15_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2021_Black-Country%252C-New-Road---For-the-First-Time.jpg" style="width: 200px;" /></span></div>
<h3>01. Black Country, New Road - For the First Time</h3>
<i>Experimental Post-Punk Rock<br />
5 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2PfgptDcfJTFtoZIS3AukX?si=bPC0DPPlRzKyNXZViEpAnA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
What am I supposed to do? Not compare <em>For the First Time</em> to Slint? Maybe. I despise music comparisons anyway. They're frequently a crutch of lazy journalism, and this applies particularly strong to a band as uniquely creepshow as Black Country, New Road. But when I take a deep breath and resign to writing my review from this angle, what's important to note is that I mean it as the uppermost grade of a compliment. No album has come within inches of echoing that <em>Spiderland</em> overflow of intellectual and emotional anxiety, but for the first time since that 90s release, I think I can see the experimentally-posty-rocky bar rising. And the biggest difference is that Slint always sounded like they got lucky with that record. Black Country, New Road sound like they know exactly what they are doing. Additionally, according to the band themselves, there is more of this panic coming on this release's one year anniversary in 2022. How cool! And it's that type of crazy productivity mixed with such attention to detail that we love around here, arming a project with an additional wink and a nudge up to the top spot of my trembling heart. The end, goodbye. <br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-78606771701332466272021-10-12T06:08:00.007+01:002023-03-22T10:39:32.124+00:00Pantheism: The Golden Thread Combining Religion, Philosophy, and Science<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Pantheism: The Golden Thread Combining Religion, Philosophy, and Science" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY40FZkX2YKxRhDWGSGKkVsF2DiUnGal2YJwqGXGtZsbxSbazjssFZTgNfSEdsxMhyf5H4_5uOIltG1RCaxNoXLvRMDbrpe4UOISgaYkT6-2sJSR0oDvRF8Gfw8yQsXuoNPtmuiHzlAQ/s0/211012_pantheismgoldenthread.png" style="width: 625px;" /></span></div><div><br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #ffe0bd; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1em; text-align: center;">The following is an extract from the Janthopoyism Bible (<em><strong>Chapter 1.2. Pantheism: The Golden Thread Combining Religion, Philosophy, and Science</strong></em>). The publication will be available in 2022. <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Please sign up to the mailing list</a> if you'd like to stay informed about future magic times.</div><br />
<h3>1.2.1. TERMINOLOGY</h3>
Before I attempt to convince you why Pantheism makes more sense than any other spiritual belief, there are some other terms to discuss first. These ideas may have distinct meanings, but from a Janthopoyism standpoint, we recognise that they stem from the same soil.<br /><br />
Pantheism states that the collection of everything functions as a unified system or "organism". We label this as an all-encompassing "God", even though you don't have to. It is a version of <em>"monism"</em>, noting that we have merely divided the Universe into subcategories to analyse it more easily. Yet, it is all the same thing, and even these divisions are made of the same substance anyway (atoms). Using this, we shift into a gear of <em>idealism</em>, where matter presents different attributes when perceived, whereby the Universe's awareness of itself (through minds like ours) creates the reality as we experience it.<br /><br />
Every idea we're exhibiting here loosely falls beneath the <em>panpsychism</em> umbrella. This viewpoint asserts that everything in the Universe features some manner of a "mind" or "spirit". Janthopoyism sifts this down to an atomic level, where energy (electrons) group to create organic material through consciousness, building together as one ultimate system. Developing forward from that angle, <em>panprotopsychism</em> teaches that everything is <em>protoconscious</em> (i.e. sustaining a secondary form of consciousness) and that we are only fully conscious as a singular unit. Similarly, <em>cosmopsychism</em> states that each of our individual consciousness is simply the building blocks to a bigger cosmic mind, whereas <em>micropsychism</em> moves from the opposite direction, stating that consciousness itself only exists at micro-levels. The philosophy of Janthopoyism can effortlessly accept any of these proposals. <br /><br />
<em>Panentheism</em> is an intriguing theory that elevates to a stage where Pantheism and monotheism connects. It suggests that the Universe lives <i>within</i> God, meaning the supreme being <i>transcends</i> and is <i>greater</i> than the Universe. These meditations are undeniably possible and are not something we reject. But as we cannot prove/disprove the concept, Janthopoyism prefers to stick to the one thing that we do know: the collective Universe as a combined entity is the highest power we can speak of without assumption. <br /><br />
<em>Emanationism</em> is another fun conversation. It concerns an original "perfect God" as a source essence, the underlying principle to all of reality. From this Absolute Godhead, all things flow and evolve/emanate, expanding out from God like hairs; the more we materialise, the further away from divinity we go. Many faiths refer to this as the "Breath of God", believing that we are currently on an exhale but will ultimately retreat into the source once we've reached a particular potential. Interestingly enough, the word "spirit" comes from the Latin <i>spīritus</i>, which means breath, so take that as you will. Regardless, even this stimulating notion is too unprovable and specific for our tastes and is only applicable from certain Janthopoyistic grounds. <br /><br />
In the end, the above examples each grant us a puzzle piece that blurs into consolidated understandings of common denominators, slotting together in views that have existed since the birth of thought. And from those foundations, we build upwards into a Janthopoyism rocket and then blast off into the stratosphere of improved living. Hopefully, by the end of this lengthy five-part chapter, we'll illustrate how so many of us got there.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; " target="_blank"><img alt="Janthopoyism: Your New Religion" border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk13AKniawRG_8ifdslrTs4w_SwqLOjpm3FO_xCFyR8Z9Ak3DZM_AEkqjhNqfDU9-3_u5v1X9w26fNvWertwbNv-98HSK0m2C857EFVJI42pzTEnEscK4EmW4mwKw1ZzZLoNhO7-5Ty__FOmUtRXW5CwmRZq_hJf8f5IGIOOkYpcRd3t1hgS92aT85/s1600/Jantho-blogger-ad.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></a></div><br />
<h3>1.2.2. RELIGION</h3>
Buckle up, children, because here comes an extensive history lesson about Pantheism and its cornerstone position in religion as a whole.<br /><br />
But first, please note that Janthopoyism does not advocate "teachers" who manipulate interpretations of scriptures to support their narrative because one could conjure any message using this process (like so many have done). However, the following documentation comparing Pantheism to other world religions is vast and worthy of the exercise. We hope you'll allow it.<br /><br />
So Pantheists define their doctrine as one <i>"which identifies God with the Universe, or regards the Universe as a manifestation of God."</i> The word itself has Greek origins from <i>pan</i> ("all") and<i> theos</i> ("God"). <br /><br />
Interestingly, our vague descriptions of "God" and the "Universe" utilise identical terminology applicable either way, even if by our adversaries. We hear classifications such as "origin", "eternal", "omnipotent", "omnipresent", "indestructible", "infallible", "infinite", and "permeating time and space". Already on a language basis, we can effortlessly grasp the abstractions as the same.<br /><br />
Janthopoyism believes that ancient civilisations knew this. They were far more in sync with a spiritual intuition because their brains had not yet matured to demand a logic-based world. Instead, they spent their lives gazing at the stars while observing patterns in reality that responded to their emotional offerings.<br /><br />
This tradition can be dated back to the oft-argued first religion that studies are aware of, called animism (a practice still prevalent in many cultures today, and fundamentally connected to the panpsychism term we noted earlier). Animism teaches that everything (plants, rocks, water, animals, people, smells, musical notes, symbols, you name it) harness a spiritual essence. Sure, animism lacks the undivided definition of Pantheism (monism), but the core concept is undeniable: a spirit persists throughout all.<br /><br />
One unique sub-branch of the animistic tree would be the 10,000+ years old Aboriginal mythology dubbed Dreamtime. It's a frequently misunderstood and generalised worldview, so much so that the "Dreamtime" label itself is a mistranslation of the Aranda people's word <em>"Altjira"</em>. Latter-day academics now agree that Altjira is not necessarily about dreaming whatsoever and instead means <i>"uncreated; springing out of itself; having originated from its own eternity"</i>. Sounds familiar. <br /><br />
Animism evolved to shamanism, and that's where everything went wrong. Here, specific "chosen" individuals were deemed more in harmony with this spiritual essence and therefore could communicate with it. Such a self-appointed skill allowed them to influence the natural world as well as receive messages or chase away the ghosts of deceased loved ones. It established a hierarchy of holiness; a practice excessively exploited to this very day. <div><br /></div><div>It's also worth acknowledging that some variation of shamanism and animism developed on every continent seemingly independent of one another.<br /><br />
<i>"Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our animal neighbours the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land."</i> ― Sitting Bull (1831-1890), Hunkpapa Lakota Holy Man<br /><br />
These ideas eventually unfolded into polytheism across the globe, which is the fun practice of worshipping limitless pantheons of anthropomorphic deities. We can see how animism naturally reached this point, but we can also clearly note the Pantheistic ties. These (now firmly defined) religions personified pieces of the natural world into bite-sized beings to better relate to them, making it easier to manifest through them. In every polytheistic canon across continents, these deities shared obvious characteristics, including gods of the sky, water, farming, fertility, the Sun, and the Moon.<br /><br />
Be that as it may, it's significant to note that above every deity was always the "creator" or "overseer" who came first and made everything, including the lower gods we spoke of previously. It was a spirit above the spirits, the monism "God", the Pantheistic source glueing the faiths together. Examples include Ptah in Ancient Egypt, Nammu in Sumerian, Chronos in Ancient Greek, and Tengri in Tengrism, as well as Olodumare (Yoruba), Unkulunkulu (Xhosa), and Nhialic (Dinka) in African mythology, to name only the most popular. But none are as closely fixed to the Pantheism model (and more central to Janthopoyism) as Hinduism.<br /><br />
Despite standing as the oldest practised religion in the world (and the third biggest), the teachings of Hinduism are infinitely intricate and continue to inspire many forward-thinking spiritual seekers to this day. Their colossal polytheistic Pantheon totals millions in numbers, but these deities and everything else lives within one essence, namely Brahman.<br /><br />
<i>"Brahman alone is real; the world is the appearance."</i> ― Adi Shankara (8th cent. CE), Indian philosopher, reported avatar of Lord Shiva, <em>Vivekachudamani</em><br /><br />
<i>"Brahman is one, without a second."</i> ― <em>Chāndogya Upaniṣad</em> (oldest Upanishad, Vedic Holy Text)<br /><br />
<i>"All this is Brahman."</i> ― <em>Chāndogya Upaniṣad</em> (oldest Upanishad, Vedic Holy Text)<br /><br />
<i>"All life comes from the one universal source, call it Allah, God or Parmeshwara."</i> ― Mahatma Gandhi (1869―1948), Hindu political ethicist<br /><br />
Thanks to the supreme Brahman unifying the entirety of the One Universal Soul, Hinduism goes from a polytheistic to a monotheistic, but more accurately, a full-on Pantheistic belief system. Moreover, within each of us lives a vibrational section of this Brahman energy substance (Atman), which you may be more acquainted with as your soul (aka the True Self), an allocation of divinity within you. <br /><br />
<i>"Brahman [Absolute Reality] is the only truth, the world is unreal, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and Atman [soul of individual self]"</i> ― Adi Shankara (8th cent. CE), Indian philosopher, reported avatar of Lord Shiva, <em>Brahma Jnanavali Mala</em><br /><br />
Much of Janthopoyism relies on this revelation. <br /><br />
Sticking in the East, even Hindu-inspired non-creationism religions such as Buddhism and Jainism could not escape the scent of Pantheism lining their carpets. <br /><br />
<i>"The Buddhists or the Jains do not depend upon God; but the whole force of their religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man."</i> ― Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), Indian Hindu monk<br /><br />
One of the most important (Mahayana) Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna, taught of an absolute reality. The highly influential Mahāyāna sutras of East Asian Buddhis, <em>Avataṃsaka Sūtra</em>, tells that a singular pure awareness lies beneath all phenomenon. And the tantric practices of Tibetan Buddhism perform secret mantras to merge energies with deities. <br /><br />
<i>"Who, then, is 'animate' and who 'inanimate'? Within the assembly of the Lotus, all are present without division. In the case of grass, trees and the soil... whether they merely lift their feet or energetically traverse the long path, they will all reach Nirvana."</i> ― Zhanran, the sixth patriarch of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism<br /><br />
<i>"If you want to understand all the Buddhas of the past, present and future, then you should view the nature of the whole universe, as being created by Mind-only."</i> ― <em>The Avataṃsaka Sūtra</em>, a Mahāyāna sutra of East Asian Buddhism<br /><br />
Jainism is so acutely tied into the souls of all creatures that their monks sweep the ground before themselves to avoid accidentally crushing bugs. They do so to maintain a sinless energy in hopes of attaining the same properties as a god-figure. <br /><br />
<i>"All souls are equal and alike and have similar nature and qualities."</i> ― Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism<br /><br />
Along the road to China, two distinct and immeasurably persuasive spiritual principles grew almost concurrently: Confucianism and Taoism.<br /><br />
Confucianism's <em>Tiān</em> (Heaven) was considered the celestial aspect of the Cosmos, a supreme source of goodness that overruled human efforts, something in which Confucian placed complete faith. Additionally, pioneering Neo-Confucian philosopher, Zhang Zai, spoke of forming one body with the Universe.<br /><br />
<i>"Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters and all things are my companions."</i> ― Zhang Zai (1020-1077), Confucian philosopher and politician, <em>The Western Inscription</em><br /><br />
But that is nothing compared to the schoolings of Taoism/Daoism by the legendary Lao Tzu.<br /><br />
The Tao/Dao is <em>"The Way"</em>. It is the name of the name of the thing that we cannot name. It is undefinable by words but is everything and nothing, the vitality of the Universe which becomes physical matter but also exists between it. There is nothing that is not the result of the Tao.<br /><br />
<i>There is something<br />
that contains everything.<br />
Before heaven and earth<br />
it is.<br />
Oh, it is still, unbodied,<br />
all on its own, unchanging,<br />
all-pervading,<br />
ever-moving.<br />
So it can act as the mother<br />
of all things.<br />
Not knowing its real name,<br />
we only call it the Way.</i><br />
― <em>Tao Te Ching</em>, XXV (Ursula K. Le Guin translation)<br /><br />
You would struggle to find words more congruent with Pantheism there.<br /><br />
In Japan, two other prominent dogmas arrived, sharing Pantheistic characteristics. The indigenous nature religion of Shinto speaks of Musubi (the creative principle saturating all of existence) and Kami (the natural spirit manifestations that live in everything). And then the more recent Tenrikyo religion describes the Universe as "the body of God", which is a better description than anything we've come up with.<br /><br />
Eventually, polytheism fell out of favour, and monotheism conquered much of the globe. One would think that monotheism being the personification of a sole over-arching "God" would be even closer to the unified energy understanding, but thanks to the strict Abrahamic timeline and its dramatically rigid texts, the opposite occurred. Thus, whenever an argument about God or the Universe comes up, you will usually find an Abrahamic definition on the opposing side (including when the opposition is of an atheist persuasion).<br /><br />
Although, that is not to say that it's impenetrable! Many Biblical pages describe the monotheistic creator deity on Pantheistic levels, if even just metaphorically. Starting with the Hebrew Torah/Christian Old Testament, we read submissions such as:<br /><br />
<i>"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."</i> ― Genisis/The Book of Bereishit [1:27]<br /><br />
We could interpret the above as humans receiving life as an extension of God, evolving from his substance. Furthermore, we find:<br /><br />
<i>"I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High."</i> ― Elohim/Psalms [82:6]<br /><br />
Our Judaism conversation does not end there either as we move deeper into the Jewish mysticism of the Kabbalah. Here, we discover <em>Ein Sof</em>, God's most basic essence, existing for eternity before it manifested into tangible material. Eventually, this Ein Sof removed its limitlessness to create a finite space within itself. From this new standpoint, it birthed the Universe, its presence now woven between the consciousness of reality. This process is known as <em>Tzimtzum</em> by those Kabbalah mystics.<br /><br />
The mighty Christianity followed, and despite much historical animosity towards the Pantheistic ideology (including violent executions), their holy scripture does hold some lines that reinforce our causes, such as: <br /><br />
<i>"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."</i> ― Luke [7:21], <em>King James Bible</em> <br /><br />
<i>"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."</i> ― Romans [8.9], <em>King James Bible</em> <br /><br />
<i>"Jesus said: I am the light that is above them all. I am the all; the all came forth from me, and the all attained to me. Cleave a (piece of) wood; I am there. Raise up a stone, and you will find me there."</i> ― Gospel of Thomas [77], Blatz (extra-canonical)<br /><br />
To conclude Christ's input, we have the Latter Day Saint movement who also put forward some unignorable Pantheistic interpretations when it comes to the religion:<br /><br />
<i>"This is the alight of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and in the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made; And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; Which alight proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—The alight which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the claw by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things."</i> ― <em>The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</em> [88:7-13]<br /><br />
The Abrahamic chronology keeps marching forward until we catch up with Islam, another complex case regarding Pantheism, as they've forever fought against anyone who challenges their traditional monotheism. But there are some slivers to clutch here and there, such as:<br /><br />
<i>"To Allah belongs the East and the West. So, whichever way you turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing."</i> ― Al-Baqara [2:115], <em>Quran</em><br /><br />
<i>"He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is All-Knowing about every thing. He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then He positioned Himself on the Throne. He knows whatever goes into the earth and whatever comes out from it, and whatever descends from the sky, and whatever ascends thereto. He is with you wherever you are, and Allah is watchful of whatever you do."</i> ― Surah Al-Hadid [57:3-4], <em>Quran</em><br /><br />
<i>"Said those who disbelieve, 'The Hour (i.e. the Day of Judgment) will not come to us.' Say, 'Why not? By my Lord, the knower of the Unseen, it will come to you.' Nothing in the heavens and in the earth, even to the measure of a particle, can escape Him, nor is there anything smaller than that or bigger, but it is recorded in a manifest book."</i> ― Surah Saba [34:3], <em>Quran</em><br /><br />
Now, much like the Kabbalah of Judaism, Islam also has its esoteric reflections (Sufism), which too lean much deeper into Pantheistic philosophies. Exceedingly influential Sufi mystic, Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), wrote:<br /><br />
<i>"God is all things. The Cosmos is His form. The forms of the Cosmos are the manifest Reality, He being the manifest. He is also their inner essence, being also the unmanifest. He is the first, since He was when they were not, and also the Last, since in their manifestation He is the Essence."</i> ― Ibn Arabi, <em>The Bezels of Wisdom</em><br /><br />
<i>"None sees Him, save Himself. None perceives Him, save Himself. By Himself He sees Himself, and by Himself he knows Himself. His Veil is part of his Oneness; nothing veils other than he... His Prophet is he, and his sending is He, and His word is He."</i> ― Ibn Arabi, <em>The Treatise on Being</em><br /><br />
And then there was Muslim Sufi Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi (830–871) who offered us this quote which is so hugely favoured that it's often misattributed to the prophet Muhammad:<br /><br />
<i>"Whosoever knows himself knows his Lord."</i> ― Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi<br /><br />
Finally, let's look at one of the most well-known Sufis and Islamic scholars ever, Rumi (1207-1273). Always the poetic wordsmith, he blessed the world with some immensely profound Pantheistic gems, some of which goes a little bit like this:<br /><br />
<i>"I speak of plural souls in name alone –<br />
One soul becomes one hundred in their frames;<br />
Just as God's single sun in heaven<br />
Shines on earth and lights a hundred walls<br />
But all these beams of light return to one<br />
If you remove the walls that block the sun<br />
The walls of houses do not stand forever<br />
And believers then will be as but one soul"</i><br />
- Rumi, <em>Masnavi 4: 415-18</em><br /><br />
<i>"You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop."</i> ― Rumi <br /><br />
To wrap up the Abrahamic story nice and neatly, we have the new-ish (yet oft-outdated) Baha'i Faith, where their founder Baha'u'llah tried his best to unify every religion as one, focusing mainly on the Judo-Christian-Islam grouping. The faith teaches that God is an eternal and infinite yet uncreated being who is the source of all of Life. Mere mortals cannot comprehend such a supreme power; hence, it creates "Manifestations", chosen humans designed to deliver a message for those specific times, be it Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, or whomever. Such an admirable approach does not wholly conform to Pantheism, but it helps erode the separation enforced by strict monotheism. <br /><br />
As spirituality has evolved, the prehistoric components of Pantheism have persisted, gradually breaking through into a large portion of modern tutoring. For example, Helena Blavatsky's (1831―1891) Theosophy religion was heavily built upon Eastern esotericism, referring to the Pantheistic Absolute as the essence of everything. She also details concepts such as a Universal Mind while stating that all matter is energy, as the materialism of spirit. <br /><br />
<i>"Once we admit of a Deity, the God of the Pantheists seems the only reasonable one. True Pantheists do not say that everything is God ― for they would be fetish-worshippers then; but that God is in everything and the whole in God."</i> ― Helena Blavatsky, <em>Cosmogony and Anthropology</em><br /><br />
Meanwhile, a combination of Hinduism and Islamic Sufism spawned Sikhism, which also dances with Pantheism in its divine scripture from the very first sentence:<br /><br />
<i>"There is only one God, and it is called the truth, It exists in all creation, and it has no fear, It does not hate, and it is timeless, universal and self-existent!"</i> ― Mul Mantar [verse 1], <em>Sri Guru Granth Sahib</em><br /><br />
The list continues on and on with any New Thought/New Age derivative swearing by a supreme everlasting spirit of energy as the Ultimate Reality that lives within all. At the same time, Pagan/Wiccanism/Druidism explicitly worships the divinity of nature. And for all its humorous qualities, even Jediism is accurate in its Pantheist perspective, educating us about the life force that exists around us and inside of us. Who better to trust than Yoda?<br /><br />
<i>"You must feel the force around you. Here. Between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."</i> ― Yoda, <em>The Empire Strikes Back</em><br /><br />
<h3>1.2.3. PHILOSOPHY</h3>
When considering the vast array of polytheistic societies, it's impressive that Greek mythology is often the first to capture a scholar's attention (especially when analysing the Egyptian influences and Roman appropriating). But at its peak, it was Greek philosophy that thrived as somewhat of a religion on its own, setting in motion perhaps the most critical Pantheistic conversations that are still prevalent in Western culture today.<br /><br />
<i>"All things are full of gods."</i> ― Thales of Miletus (626/623―548/545 BC, pre-Socratic period), one of the Seven Sages of Greece<br /><br />
<i>"God (theos) is day and night, winter and summer... but he takes various shapes, just as fire, when it is mingled with spices, is named according to the savour of each."</i> ― Heraclitus of Ephesus (535-475 BC, pre-Socratic period)<br /><br />
One of the most lauded Pre-Socratic philosophers, Xenophanes, believed God was the unity of everything, and our world of plurality was merely a manifestation of this intelligence. <br /><br />
<i>"...all things are one, that this is unchanging, and is god, that this never came into being and is eternal, and has a spherical shape."</i> ― Xenophanes (570-478 BC, pre-Socratic period), paraphrased from <em>Cicero's Prior Academics</em><br /><br />
For Pythagoreans, underlying mathematical and geometrical formulas ruled the cosmos; numbers at the essence of the harmony within everything, the logic of God's mind identical to the laws of nature. <br /><br />
<i>"Number rules the universe [...] Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God."</i> ― Pythagoras (570-495 BC, pre-Socratic period)<br /><br />
As the ages rolled on, there became no more revered and quotable Pantheists than the 3rd century BC Greek Stoics, who taught the Universe as a unified construction made of logic, ethics, and monistic physics. It is one of determinism, where the unfurling of external events is wholly out of our control while interchangeably using the terms "God" and "Nature" as the same. <br /><br />
<i>"God is not separate from the world; He is the soul of the world, and each of us contains a part of the Divine Fire. All things are parts of one single system, which is called Nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with Nature. In one sense, every life is in harmony with Nature, since it is such as Nature's laws have caused it to be; but in another sense, a human life is only in harmony with Nature when the individual will is directed to ends which are among those of Nature. Virtue consists in a will which is in agreement with Nature."</i> ― Zeno of Citium (334―262 BC, Hellenistic period), founder of the Stoics<br /><br />
<i>"The universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul; it is this same world's guiding principle, operating in mind and reason, together with the common nature of things and the totality that embraces all existence; then the foreordained might and necessity of the future; then fire and the principle of aether; then those elements whose natural state is one of flux and transition, such as water, earth, and air; then the sun, the moon, the stars; and the universal existence in which all things are contained."</i> ― Chrysippus (279–206 BC, Hellenistic period)<br /><br />
<i>"Never forget that the universe is a single living organism possessed of one substance and one soul, holding all things suspended in a single consciousness and creating all things with a single purpose that they might work together spinning and weaving and knotting whatever comes to pass."</i> ― Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), Roman Emperor<br /><br />
Rewinding a few centuries and we bump into "the founder of Western political philosophy", Plato. Although one can widely interpret his material, Pantheists agree that his principles involve a duality between the absoluteness and relativity of the divine. <br /><br />
<i>"Thus, then, in accordance with the likely account, we must declare that this Cosmos has verily come into existence as a Living Creature endowed with soul and reason [...] a Living Creature, one and visible, containing within itself all the living creatures which are by nature akin to itself."</i> ― Plato (428–347 BC, Socratic period)<br /><br />
Plato's impact on modern thought can not be overstated as one of the most substantial in history, laying the fertile breeding ground for many philosophies and spiritual practices to flourish alike. These include a plethora of mystical beliefs that toyed with the line between science and religion, evolving into some of the most prominent occult sects the world has ever seen.<br /><br />
Hermeticism was a big one. Dating back to 100 CE, they referred to God as the <em>Ultimate Reality</em>. They defined it as the all-encompassing nature of the cosmos, in which we too participate. This doctrine assisted the idea that our minds could influence or even manipulate nature, a notion that has persisted through any secret circle that practises spells or the like.<br /><br />
Even closely related to Plato was the aptly named Neoplatonism, a 3rd century AD philosophy encapsulated by Plotinus. Their chosen title for God was <em>The One</em> as an unknowable absolute subsistence that developed into everything.<br /><br />
These two examples inspired various esoteric trains of thought, still fixed as building blocks within almost all Western occult movements today. But, sadly, these obscure explorations were driven far underground when Christianity conquered the land around the 2nd-3rd century; Pantheism suddenly regarded blasphemy resulting in severe consequences. Just ask renowned theologian philosopher Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), whose Pantheistic murmurings ended with the charge of heresy. <br /><br />
<i>"All things are contained in the One, by virtue of the fact that it is one. For all multiplicity is one, and is one thing, and is in and through the One. The One is not distinct from all things. Therefore all things in the fullness of being are in the One by virtue of its indistinction and unity."</i> ― Meister Eckhart, <em>Sermon LW XXIX</em><br /><br />
This battle between free thought and religious restriction raged through the Renaissance period. Authorities confined Tommaso Campanella to house arrest for two years after stating nature was a living organism. An even worse fate fell upon occultist Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), whose Pantheistic speculations famously got him burned at the stake in Rome.<br /><br />
<i>"Thus the single spirit doth simultaneously temper the whole together; this is the single soul of all things; all are filled with God."</i> ― Giordano Bruno<br /><br />
Thankfully, during the 1600s, Pantheism made its comeback owed massively to the great rationalist philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677). He was such a figurehead in the movement that some amusingly refer to him as the "prophet" of Pantheism, and practically all modern Pantheistic standpoints are synonymous with his interpretations (known unimaginatively as <em>Spinoza's Pantheism</em>).<br /><br />
<i>"God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things."</i> ― Baruch Spinoza <br /><br />
Interestingly, Spinoza's analysis of divinity wedged a distance between the Church's personal God and another more natural force-type of Higher Power (even if Spinoza never argued against the Christian deity). This prospect excited many atheists to change their tune, including the most famous nihilist of all time, Friedrich <em>"God is Dead"</em> Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), himself.<br /><br />
<i>"I am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted! I have a precursor, and what a precursor! I hardly knew Spinoza: that I should have turned to him just now, was inspired by 'instinct'."</i> ― Friedrich Nietzsche<br /><br />
<i>"We find in all philosophies the proposition – everything is one!"</i> ― Friedrich Nietzsche<br /><br />
Once you start to recruit the heathens, you know you're onto something good, right?<br /><br />
To end, let's give some love to someone who not only endlessly influenced the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, literature, philosophy, and psychology but also very much Janthopoyism's teachings in itself. We are, of course, talking about notable Pantheist Carl Jung (1875-1961), who firmly stated that <i>"nothing separated man from God"</i>, leading to his psychological concept of a collective unconscious, profoundly impacting New Age practices for decades to come.<br /><br />
<i>"Nothing could persuade me that 'in the image of God' applied only to man. In fact, it seemed to me that the high mountains, the rivers, lakes, trees, flowers, and animals far better exemplified the essence of God than men."</i> ― Carl Jung<br /><br />
<h3>1.2.4. SCIENCE</h3>
Of course, what concern is religion to a nonbeliever? And can we not simply write off philosophy as an exercise in mental wankery? Hence, we ultimately turn to science to provide answers of a more infallible nature. <br /><br />
When it comes to topics of spirituality, the scientific community is notoriously challenging to convince because matters of faith are not matters of logic. However, Pantheism has received a surprisingly warm embrace by many top minds in the field. <br /><br />
Have you ever heard of Isaac Newton (1642-1726)? He is easily one of the greatest mathematicians and scientists of all time, and while his stance on God is far from established, the Pantheist organisation have snapped him up into the crew. This move is not without merit, especially in regards to Newton's idea of "absolute space", a relation between God and nature where space is an "attribute" or "extension" of God. As noted in Newton's <em>Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis and Opticks</em>, God appears less as a creator but more a presence that organises via physics.<br /><br />
<i>"[God] is not Eternity or Infinity, but Eternal and Infinite; he is not Duration or Space, but he endures and is present. He endures forever, and is every where present; and by existing always and every where, he constitutes Duration and Space."</i> ― Isaac Newton<br /><br />
One of my favourite Pantheists is the physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851). He is the scientist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, which is already deeply tied into Janthopoyism's perception of the Universal Energy anyway. In 1849-50, he hypothesised the unity of mind in nature, published in his most revered work named <em>Aanden i Naturen</em>, which quite literally translated to <em>"The Spirit in Nature"</em>.<br /><br />
<i>"The laws of Nature are the thoughts of Nature [...] these thoughts of Nature are also thoughts of God."</i> ― Hans Christian Ørsted<br /><br />
The next Pantheistic fan favourite is Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), another man recognised for his contributions to understanding electricity. His comprehension of the Universe is so in tune with what we teach that we can let the man speak for himself:<br /><br />
<i>"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."</i> ― Nikola Tesla<br /><br />
<i>"What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics."</i> ― Nikola Tesla<br /><br />
<i>"When we speak of man, we have a conception of humanity as a whole, and before applying scientific methods to the investigation of his movement, we must accept this as a physical fact. But can anyone doubt to-day that all the millions of individuals and all the innumerable types and characters constitute an entity, a unit? Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them. I cut myself in the finger, and it pains me: this finger is a part of me. I see a friend hurt, and it hurts me, too: my friend and I are one. And now I see stricken down an enemy, a lump of matter which, of all the lumps of matter in the universe, I care least for, and it still grieves me. Does this not prove that each of us is only part of a whole?"</i> ― Nikola Tesla<br /><br />
Or how about Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), whose work has led him to be dubbed "the father of quantum mechanics", vastly shifting our model thoughts of reality without losing his keen interest in the mysticism of religion.<br /><br />
<i>"Multiplicity is only apparent, in truth, there is only one mind."</i> ― Erwin Schrödinger, <em>The Oneness of Mind</em><br /><br />
But there's no bigger gun than inarguably the most famous and greatest physicists of all time, Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who was a proud Pantheist without room for doubt in any direction. Again, our attempts to articulate his beliefs would fall short of allowing Einstein to do it himself:<br /><br />
<i>"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."</i> ― Albert Einstein<br /><br />
<i>"If there is any such concept as a God, it is a subtle spirit, not an image of a man that so many have fixed in their minds. In essence, my religion consists of a humble admiration for this illimitable superior spirit that reveals itself in the slight details that we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds."</i> ― Albert Einstein<br /><br />
<i>"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe... We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive."</i> ― Albert Einstein <br /><br />
Cool, huh? If nothing else, we've got some good company in this Pantheistic land<br /><br />
And finally, just for fun, let's hear from perhaps the most well-known modern solider of atheism, Richard Dawkins. Expectantly, he places such extreme limitations on the Pantheistic term that he misses the point, approaching it from the complete opposite side that we do. And yet, even he cannot disagree with the idea, and instead, desperately seeks to squeeze it beneath his own little umbrella.<br /><br />
<i>"Pantheists don't believe in a supernatural God at all, but use the word God as a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs its workings. Deists differ from theists in that their God does not answer prayers, is not interested in sins or confessions, does not read our thoughts and does not intervene with capricious miracles. Deists differ from Pantheists in that the deist God is some kind of cosmic intelligence, rather than the Pantheist's metaphoric or poetic synonym for the laws of the universe. Pantheism is sexed-up atheism."</i> ― Richard Dawkins, <em>The God Delusion</em><br /><br />
And thus ends the holy trinity of thought, each pursuing distinct approaches to achieve the same mission of unwinding the mysteries of the Universe, yet every conclusion seemingly braided together via the shared thread of Pantheism. And once you find yourself accepting this as the true lowest common denominator, you are ready to continue building upwards with Janthopoyism for the rest of our scripture. <br /><br />
However, if you still disagree, then take a moment to reflect on this. Don't you think it's strange that your brain believes itself to be more intelligent than the most brilliant brains that have existed throughout our planet's history? Could you possibly be drowning in the arrogance of your ego? Or trapped in a box nailed shut by your convictions? Perhaps this blinding excess of self-importance warrants your attention before you seek any spiritual growth? Just a suggestion. <br /><br />
<h3>1.2.5. APPENDIX: ART AND LITERATURE</h3>
The great Pantheists of history are not limited to the above subjects, and to demonstrate, here's a bonus punch of creatives you may have heard of before, each armed with quotes to reveal similar spiritual philosophies that we teach.<br /><br />
<i>"Nature alone is the master of true genius."</i>" - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), painter/scientist<br /><br />
<i>"Nature is a glorious school for the heart! It is well; I shall be a scholar of this school and bring an eager heart to her instruction. Here I shall learn wisdom, the only wisdom which is free from disgust; here I shall learn to know God and find a foretaste of heaven in His knowledge."</i> ― Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), composer<br /><br />
<i><b>Side note:</b> Beethoven's philosophies on the interchangeability of "God" and "Nature" has been well documented and he has, in retrospect, been called an enthusiastic Pantheist by modern scholars.</i> <br /><br />
<i>"It is from the more or less obscure intuition of the oneness that is the ground and principle of all multiplicity that philosophy takes its source. And not alone philosophy, but natural science as well. All science, in Meyerson's phrase, is the reduction of multiplicities to identities. Divining the One within and beyond the many, we find an intrinsic plausibility in any explanation of the diverse in terms of a single principle."</i> ― Aldous Huxley (1749-1832), author<br /><br />
<i>"Travel why to Nature, when she dwells with us? Those who lift their hats shall see her as devout do God."</i> ― Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), poet<br /><br />
<i>"We are Pantheists when we study nature, polytheists when we poetize, monotheists in our morality."</i> ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), poet<br /><br />
<i>"Everything in nature contains all the power of nature. Everything is made of One hidden stuff."</i>
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), poet<br /><br />
<i>"The soul or spirit transmits itself into all matter."</i> ― Walt Whitman (1819-1892), poet<br /><br />
<i>"One grand great life throbs through earth's giant heart,<br />
And mighty waves of single Being roll<br />
From nerve-less germ to man, for we are part<br />
Of every rock and bird and beast and hill,<br />
One with the things that prey on us, and one with what we kill."</i> ― Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900), poet, playwright (taken from his <em>Panthea</em> piece)<br /><br />
<i>"You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes. You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you [...] Life is the universe experiencing itself, in endless variety."</i> ― Alan Watts (1915-1973), writer<br /><br />
<i>"What did the Pantheist say to the hot dog vendor? Make me one with everything."</i> ― Hilarious Pantheism Joke<br /><br /></div>Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-81287418707042835572021-07-22T07:06:00.002+01:002021-07-29T07:14:34.715+01:00Worst to Best: Jarexit III<style>
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If Jarexit I - III were a film trilogy, it would be The Matrix because I AM THE ONE. <br /><br />
Moreover, these releases followed a similar pattern. From the 8th of December 2018 to the 9th of June 2019, the <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">first Jarexit</a> flew its course as an ambitious standalone project, tasting the waters of an unknown notion within some strict limitations (10 countries in six months or bust!). I had high aspirations already, but the sheer calibre of its success was so overpowering that my ordinary life cried sickly in comparison after the dust settled. It didn't take long before the imaginary studio in my head called me up and requested a sequel. And what's more, there would be no restrictions this time. Do what you want, baby! We trust your vision!<br /><br />
I can't remember my precise thought process when <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/06/worst-to-best-jarexit-ii.html" target="_blank">Jarext II</a> launched on the 27th of July 2019. Still, much like the Matrix franchise mentioned above, the venture outgrew itself until it split like healthy cells, dividing into two very distinct creatures. The solution became apparent soon after: keep moving without the standard London break between escapes, no rest for the wiki. So, on Xmas Day 2019, I ended the second instalment in Madrid, Spain, boarding a flying machine and igniting Jarexit III immediately.<br /><br />
That said, Jarexit III wasn't merely an extension of the 2nd Jarexit's irresponsible randomness. It had its own style going on, a sibling of a more focused breed. Undeniably the most obvious of these specifics were the locations chosen. Jarexit I and II had achieved an outstanding job frolicking around Europe and Asia while flirting with Australia and giving Africa a tiny kiss on its bottom. But that did leave a gaping hole in my chase for global domination.... ANTARCTICA! Fuck, no, I mean, AMERICA!<br /><br />
Jarexit III was the American Explorer Story, doing my best to stab some dots on both the north and south of that side of the world. Furthermore, I had enhanced the documentation process for my friends at home. After multiple complaints that my photography skills were wasting my trip, I spent months preparing for a meaningful shift, studying perspective techniques online while downloading apps to pop the hell out of reality. Finally, I unleashed this accumulation of knowledge not a second before Jarexit III kicked off, creating a definite turning point in the quality of my snappage. And almost everyone loved it.<br /><br />
But perhaps the most unexpectantly unique factor of Jarexit III was that the entire world fell apart in the middle of my quest, causing great disruption to my plans. No one else's plans were affected, only mine. Due to COVID's selfishness, Jarexit III never reached its intended number of stops, but I am grateful for what I collected regardless, and it does make for a more emotional tale. A tale we shall begin right now. Did you get the milk?
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<h2>08. Orlando, Florida, USA</h2><br />
<i><b>(Cocoa, West Palm Beach)</b></i><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 2 Feb - 9 Feb 2020 </i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> Stu's House [N/A]</i><br /><br />
Orlando finds itself unfairly dropped into the dregs because this entire slice of my Jarexit adventure is built upon a fatty-fat lie.<br /><br />
Sure, I initially entered the US of A via its Floridian butthole, landing in Orlando on 02/02/2020 (which is a good omen if there ever was one). And, sure, I grinned up at the Disney-esque airport for about 10 minutes. But then my mate Stu swooped in, sheltering me under his wing from the big scary world as he zipped me to safety into the quieter town of Cocoa. Because he lives there!<br /><br />
<i>"But who is Stu?"</i> ugh, I feel sorry for you even asking! He is a legend beyond legends who I spent many dodgy years partying with back in Cape Town. Despite our best efforts, we both grew up into adults, and then we moved so far away from one another that it took roughly a decade and a half to reunite, in fucking Florida of all places. And considering the bumpy ride that was South America (more about that shortly), this friendly pause was a godsend. I mean, I had a private room, for starters! And within these non-hostel walls, I enjoyed a week of recovery, assisted by Stu and his wife Lonny, who I now consider a good friend too. But, to be frank, their doggo Aria was way cooler than either of them. Every morning she’d forget who I was, and every evening we’d be besties, cuddling on the couch like it was our first date all over again.<br /><br />
We took a quick drive into Orlando one lunch break to check it out, and I liked it even though the city is basically one giant Disney advertisement. That said, the court that convicted Ted Bundy was a fun sight! But the fact remains: this piece of our story was nothing more than a break from the Jarexit madness, appreciating the simpler things in life such as bonding and drinking, and drinking, and drinking. We drank so much! Other than that, I watched Stu fishing while drinking, and then he'd throw the fish back, then I watched a ton of Netflix while drinking, and then I watched my drink being drunk by my drinking. <br /><br />
But hidden beneath the blanket of alcohol was a secret training session where Stu blessed me with guidance before he released me into the wild. Because if there's one thing crazy about Florida, it's everything. I spotted Florida Man a few times along the streets. Still, he's not half as intimidating as the Trump supporters who dominate the landscape, wearing MAGA caps unironically, each one holding a gun somewhere. My comrades warned me that I must never under any circumstances wear my <i>Make Racists Afraid Again</i> hoodie in these parts, so I didn't. It's a scary place.<br /><br />
Such a tragedy, really, because if you could zap the people away, Cocoa has a fuckton going for it. Despite the winter season, it was hot hot hot! And the vast bodies of water everywhere provided fun running trails for me, even if the regular warning signs about alligators did giggle me nervously. I never encountered one of those fun boys, but a snake did leap out at me during one of my jogs, rearing its aggressive head, ready to strike. I jumped so high that I heard God whisper my name, and then I took off like the roadrunner fueled by nitro-boosting farts of adrenaline. If you ever want to run fucking fast, a snake attack is highly recommended!<br /><br />
Anywho, I love Stu! And to send me off proper, we spent the final days skipping down to West Palm Beach, where I met Lonny's family (hey, Shells!). I waved at injured turtles being cared for at Loggerhead Marinelife Center, and I saw manatees for the first time! So it goes without saying that this Great Escape was not only great but also necessary for my mental state, a buffer period to find my footing in The Best Country in the World™ before I resumed my loner travels. The fact that it's so low on this list does not mean I had a bad time. It was merely a qualification formality, and I intend to get back there as soon as I can.
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Eola Lake, Old Orange County Courthouse (Ted Bundy trial), Fay Wilderness Park (Cocoa), Square Grouper (West Palm), Loggerhead Marinelife Center (West Palm)
<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8R9uqjB3xn/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8W52fyhVuP/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMOv-dVBRzP/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 07. Pucallpa/Lima, Peru" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTALZ3kdggzJWWQFh4wvosayUGT5VGPlOrk5ikWD8QZFbRiA7GmwG3kP_bNxs8m-AoFAPDcAJTYHV4ppHk3l7xfy59Lb_m907FXM63vTtEBRW7ni6buGdzNHmVisTVFoZ5kDlMw6qv7LY/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_07-pucallpa-lima.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>07. Pucallpa/Lima, Peru</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 26 Dec - 28 Dec 2019; 4 Jan - 11 Jan 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> Andrea's Parent's House [N/A] (26 Dec - 28 Dec 2019; 4 Jan - 5 Jan 2020)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/pe/hospedaje-marvento.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Hospedaje Marvento</a> - 7/10 (Pucallpa, 5 Jan - 11 Jan 2020)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/pe/hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">1900 Hostel</a> - 9/10 (Lima, 11 Jan - 18 Jan 2020)</i><br /><br />
What a peculiar Jarexit entry this Peruvian jumble is! Disjointed by a subplot splitting it down the middle while its core components are two very different locations associated by nationality alone. Sorry for any confusion this causes, call me if you need help. <br /><br />
This branch of the adventure kicked off strange enough too. It was Christmas day in Madrid airport when I crawled onto a plane and soared across the map, the hazy clock-wipe effect indicating the arrival of a new Jarexit. Number 2 had reached its natural conclusion, and as the wheels touched here and there (including a fucking nine-hour stopover in Lima, ugh!) I finally appeared in the relatively unknown jungle town of Pucallpa. The familiar arms of my older brother, Gareth, and his girlfriend, Andrea, awaited me, along with Andrea's welcoming parents as well as her sister, Sandra, who features much more further down this blog's line.<br /><br />
To reflect on Pucallpa is an interesting mental trip. Lack of sleep became a standard chat due to (a) the mutant mosquitos who deflated us at night and (b) the booming dance club several houses down the road that bounced the muddy grounds beneath us. My brother and I booked a hostel away from the family home for one night just to get some peace. But during the day, the home-cooked meals and non-verbal communications with our local hosts were very appreciated! Especially when the dad took me to get my trusty Jarexit hiking boots 100% fixed for only £2.30! These good boys had hugged my feet from Jarexit 1! And now they were tightened up to survive the entirety of Jarexit 3 and beyond! Why buy shoes??<br /><br />
A couple of days into the Pucallpa chill and we were ripped sideways to explore the Sacred Valley, but that's a different story coming shortly. We returned the next year, on the 4th of January, and one day later, I moved out of the family home and into a private hostel room of my own because I still had work to do! It was here that I dropped an entire pot of pasta into the sink, lost. I took a snap of the tragedy, but my friends were far more repulsed by my cooking skills, many of whom still talk to me about it today (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7a3VEzh04P/" target="_blank">last photo in this series</a>).<br /><br />
Regardless, I recall Pucallpa wearing a smile. So hot and humid! A billion tuk-tuks! Vultures instead of pigeons! No white people! Such iconic symbols of the Inca everywhere! Peruvian Hairless Dogs! Inca Cola! The Pablo Amaringo School is well worth the visit and research alone. What's more, the deep spiritual magic of South America was working, and my mind was already cracking open in an unusual way, which became a running theme through 2020 as a whole.<br /><br />
On January 11th, I packed my bags and said goodbye to my Pucallpa tribe, including my brother, who I haven't seen since. We bonded very strongly during this experience (as you'll read soon enough), but sadly, our contradictory opinions on COVID split us apart later in the year. He doesn't even follow me on Instagram anymore; that's how you know. If a secret organisation is trying to shove wedges in society, they did an impressive job with us. Nevertheless, I hang onto this piece of South America as to how I like to remember our friendship, the bittersweet hug of shared blood who experienced something deeper together. Then, I boarded yet another flight to hit up the capital city of Peru, namely Lima.<br /><br />
Lima and I had unfinished business. Besides the aforementioned nine-hour stopover, we also had to change planes here, back and forth from the Sacred Valley. So I landed in Lima for the fourth time, except now I could finally step outside to check what this place was about. It was about a lot, as it turns out.<br /><br />
These types of stories get me into trouble, but hopefully, you'll understand why I have to mention it. So I arrived in Lima, opened my dating apps, and they exploded. One thing I've learned about solo travelling is that you translate well in certain nations, others you do not. South America? Peak Jared. I threw my luggage down, took a shower, and went on a date the same night I arrived. This happy female whisked me around Lima, showed me some drinking hot spots and then invited me back to her house, where we got all intimate and stuff. I could get used to this! The only problem is when I awoke the subsequent morning, my brain still swimming in alcohol, I nearly had a panic attack. Where the hell was I? I didn't recognise this room and wasn't even sure what country I was in. I rolled over, and when this beautiful girl greeted me, my brain took at least three terrifying seconds to work out who was in my bed! Those were a weird three seconds! But as it all settled, I felt an enormous sense of wellbeing. Oh, hey, there! This is <i>your</i> bed! Welcome to Lima, Jared!! <br /><br />
In the end, I had to switch off my dating apps because I did not have time in my schedule for the attention. Not a bad problem, eh!<br /><br />
My following week was a memorable one. Lima's beating heat solar-powered me to explore extensively, in awe of the ocean views and artistic expressions splashed throughout the city, most notably across the Miraflores boardwalk and the Barranco neighbourhood. Inspiration kept me light on my toes until I'd literally turn one corner and swiftly find myself in Dodgeville, every head-spinning my direction, let's eat the white boy. I'd moonwalk out of there back to safety so fast that my fear lingered in the air long after I was gone. And that's where I penalise Peruvian points. I didn't feel safe for shit.<br /><br />
Part of this unsettlement came from my central-located hostel. I always try to book accommodation in the middle of the action, and it's an approach that has served me well. But Lima? Do not do it! I'd step outside only to catch Ubers because these streets want to kill you. Then again, when your hostel is as close to perfection as the 1900 Hostel, why ever leave? 100% geared towards the travellers, substantial lockers, comfy beds, an in-house travel agent, an overpriced cash machine, foosball, and a pool table. Plus complimentary yummy breakfast! Plus its own bar with 650ml beers for £2.77!!! The one evening, the barman played the entirety of Unplugged in NY by Nirvana, and I stayed put until the end. The general atmosphere was spot-on, relaxed and social, for only £6.25 a night. Did I mention the doggo?? They have one!<br /><br />
Quick obligatory shout-outs to Paloma and Melanie!! Thanks for making my Lima stay much happier with your lovely faces!!<br /><br />
One final fault with this country is not necessarily the country's fault but the nomads it attracts. They are the worst kind! Everybody one-upping their stories of spiritual wokeness, each of their ayawaksa trips more profound than the other, nobody listening to anyone else, merely awaiting their turn to demonstrate how they touched the divine light's G-spot better. I sat there, rolling my eyes, ignoring my hypocrisy that I was in the early stages of <a href="https://janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">founding a religion</a>. But at least I kept it to myself! I'm embarrassed by how enlightened I am, <i>ughhhh!</i><br /><br />
Such a minor complaint. In the grander scheme, I have very little to criticise Peru for, hence my difficulty in justifying such a low position on this list. I guess I can only jot it down as a testament to how powerful Jarexit III was comparatively as a whole. Perhaps this stop was too frantic for me to get the papers in order, slipping into incoherent disarray within my memory, never combining to make a singular entity and subsequently suffering as scattered pieces, overshadowed by the mid-Sacred Valley excursion to come. But know this: there is an energy running through this country (and, indeed, continent) which I've never felt anywhere before. Lima, in particular, is known for its witchy shenanigans and a transmission of that electricity merged into my Chi, following me forever. That Peruvian voodoo jolted my spirit and germinated the Janthopoyism seed, blossoming rapidly from here until... well, it's still growing! It's consuming me in the best of ways! Oooh, so good! And I'll never overlook the role that Peru played in this. Genuinely life-changing.
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Pucallpa Recommended Sights</b><br />The Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Pablo Amaringo (art school)
<br /><br />
<b>Pucallpa Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7a3VEzh04P/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7L5YBphqCV/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br />
<em><b>Top Five Lima Recommended Sights</b><br />Miraflores Boardwalk, Parque Kennedy and its hundreds of stray cats, Huaca Pucllana, The Bosque el Olivar, Barranco street art/ocean views
<br /><br />
<b>Lima Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7qExUwBRY8/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7fp0gFhzJz/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CLqtG7CBuVU/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit III: 06. Miami, Florida, USA" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUuJShjyzcsTaOl1twgRQUd-HszHDDGH95qgaUAwbe91JcFmxeXUsdkSbnXND47X9X229L9ZuNyLRRLGfcPFQiR1jVSy9Azpa1O0S2MPBThC_WiUBnGbSlxjkA0nYqGqBspssAiv4Kv9g/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_06-miami.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>06. Miami, Florida, USA</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 9th Feb - 16th Feb 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/hostel-brazilian.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Hostel Brazilian</a> - 6/10</i><br /><br />
When you bump Will Smith as much as I do, then you’ve spent a large portion of your life telling the Universe that you’re <i>“goin’ to Miami”</i> because it’s where you’re going to <i>“party in the city where the heat is on all night, on the beach till the break of dawn”</i>. I took my sweet time to fulfil the Will, but my destiny finally lined up on a bus from West Palm to the Capital of Latin America.<br /><br />
My lodging snuffed the dream almost immediately; Hostel Brazilian reflecting its rundown area aptly. Within moments, the receptionist cracked a vagina joke which I found funny at the time but less so as other building blocks of hindsight clicked in. The amount of sexist, homophobic, and even racist comments I heard bounced between the staff and occupants shifted my spirit uncomfortably. Piling onto that, there was one bathroom shared between 20 people; there were no lockers to keep your valuables safe; and, worst of all, the internet was shoddy. Horror! And then, when one ex-military man proudly informed the table that he slept with a gun under his pillow at times—<i>a pillow a few feet from mine</i>—I retreated into a mental space of solitude for the rest of my visit.<br /><br />
But I suppose the above is simply the Miami (or Florida) way. Because this place is way rougher than anyone (least of all Will Smith) let on to believe. So what is a boy to do? I embraced the unpolished vibez and adventured out every day in the fiercely hot (winter!?) sun to seek any explanation for the city's reputation in the slightest. Naturally, I uncovered a ton of it.<br /><br />
Top three? For sure!<br /><br />
Wynwood Walls! An expansive fenced-off space dedicated to unquestionably the best street graff I have ever seen in my life. Fuckloads of it, too, spilling throughout the area, hundreds upon hundreds of towering pieces exploding with more colour and talent than I care to see again. There is nothing like it and would be my first go-to must-see place for any Miami tourist.<br /><br />
The Holocaust Memorial! When you travel the world, you see many monuments remembering these atrocities that shook history, but none compete with Miami's level. I can't even recall a sculpture that comes close to what this did to me. I refuse to attempt to describe it, but if you're not going to visit Miami any time soon, I implore you to at least look at images on google. And when you do, please imagine an eerie soundtrack complete with human voices to match the pain. It was a fucking punch in the gut, and I confess I lost a tiny man-tear. <br /><br />
Miami Beach! Oh, wait! Ok, so <i>this</i> is what Will Smith was talking about! It's 100% what the postcards promised. Toasty days of boundless sands slipping beneath the waves where models splashed in their sexiest swimwear and lifeguards watched from colourful huts. And the explosive nights where the streets flooded the sky with neon bulbs, the party atmosphere ready to suck your wallet dry or perhaps take it off you at knifepoint. The only sadness I felt in this pink-flavoured fantasy land was that I was experiencing it alone. Nowhere else in the world did I wish I could pick five of my best male mates and tear this place to shreds. It felt like the biggest stag-do in history waiting to happen. I might actually get married for this reason. <br /><br />
Sadly (or fortunately?), I'm not much of a lone drinker; hence I only managed to get drunk once during my Miami time, and it was all on account of Valentine's Day. Be fucked if I spend the date of love on my own, and I promptly purchased tickets to a singles event at a place called Blue Martini Brickell. In a word, disaster. Of the perhaps 15 (mostly male) people there, I was the youngest one by quite a drop, so I resigned to downing beers which cost £6.19 a bottle. Eventually, my buzz was buzzing, and the live band kept me smiling, so I made the most of it by chatting to a woman who looked over a decade my senior but attractive enough relative to the options. The conversation was going well until I slipped the critical mistake of insulting Donald Trump. My foggy brain remembers someone ripping the needle off of the vinyl. Heads turned to me with aggressive questions, and that's when I remembered where I was. You can diss Trump anywhere in the world, but not in Florida, bro. These people love the guy. And they all carry firearms. <br /><br />
I speedily diffused the threatening interrogation by exploiting what Americans love the most: food for their egos. I declared with a clear conscience that I was but a British child, so my opinion on their politics was irrelevant. I then combo'd the move by praising the democracy of their country, factually stating that Trump won his presidency fair and square, his critics be damned. My company accepted my submission, and a normal pace resumed. I escaped shortly afterwards.<br /><br />
In the end, Miami was an uneasy excursion, one I would never regret taking. There was an identical redeeming factor for every fault, and the loose Latino vibe that blasted loudly from every angle kept my joy operating at an acceptable rate. Writing this piece now, I admit I had a stack of fun. That said, I remember leaving without turning around, happy to get the fuck out of Florida for the foreseeable future. Great state! But the people are fucking cooked!
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Wynwood Walls, The Holocaust Memorial, Little Havana, The Original Coppertone Sign, Miami Beach
<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8r0ATPBHKT/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8oj5dLhpEs/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMgxwG0hgqY/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit III: 05. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2oNNbeHfijITe6GYkxSVd5WDkG_xJa9KoAWXnA9KbRjUVrd0-cd6u1Wur0LdNV9UBAe_JV-aMiXMtJGT9P_u3xaLKJB__R-OSC12QDBCtM1306YG6QyEpZmz3v2f5cleiPJ1QoPrzvs/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_05-philly.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>05. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 23 Feb - 1 March 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/the-philadelphia-house.en-gb.html" target="_blank">City House Hostel Philadelphia</a> - 9/10</i><br /><br />
The most impressive element of Philadelphia is how much the locals adore it there. They are obsessed with their city! Everyone I met wanted to talk about how <i>Philly is the best, they used to live somewhere else, but now they live in Philly, and they could never ever leave Philly, because Philly is where it's at all the time, don't bother looking anywhere else for the thing because Philly is the thing, you've found it, it's Philly.</i> It was inspiring to hear such love! <br /><br />
The least impressive element of Philadelphia is that it's not always sunny! I had it on good authority that it was always sunny in Philadelphia, yet it rained about 50% of the time I was there, which quite literally put a dampen on my parade. Zero degrees at its worst! I was housebound in my City House Hostel for many days and nights! Woe is me! Except, not really, because this was one of my favourite Jarexit hostels of all time, where I conversed with people who still bless my newsfeed with their happiness. Loud, immediate shout-out to Lazar and Kim! You dudes were the perfect partners in crime. Hanna, you were a sunshiny face I am determined to see again. And mad love to Chelsea, my hostel BFF, who I had an overwhelming secret crush on the whole time.<br /><br />
Beyond my enthusiasm for the people, Philadelphia is hard to define as one singular idea. But, I guess as the birthplace of America itself, we can appreciate the solid patriotic flavour? Its extensive list includes Betsy Ross' house (where the lady sewed the first American flag or maybe didn't), Benjamin Franklin's grave, the Liberty Bell, and the Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. And that's cool! But also not what I'm all about.<br /><br />
The iconic LOVE sculpture was fun. There's a ton of fascinating Edgar Allan Poe stuff lying about. The trippy Magic Gardens is a must-see. And the Wanamaker Organ (the largest functioning pipe organ in the world) can be found inside Macy's Center City. All lovely locations! Yet none of which pulled together a unified feel in me. <br /><br />
Perhaps my love for the entertainment culture is where I best slipped into my groove. The Paddy's Pub said to inspire the very same Always Sunny location? It's here! Where Will Smith plays basketball in the intro for Fresh Prince? It's here! And the stairs Rocky runs up during the most famous training montage in cinema history? It's here! Naturally, I bounded up those steps like every tourist is obliged to do, and let me assure you, it's freaking easy. Embarrassingly so, if anything.<br /><br />
The activities don't end there either. I devoured my first Philly cheesesteak, which was obviously born here. And even though it was of the vegan variation, goddamn, they knew what they were doing!! I still dream of that fucking meal; it was enough to make a weepy child out of me. I want to cry right now! It was that good. Another interesting exchange was when one hostel worker couldn't shut up about how Philly was the greatest because they invented street art. New York City may have claimed the honour, but deep down, even NYC confess that it originated here. And I was like, suuuure bud. But I googled it, and it's totally true! All street art in the world started in Philly! That's huge!<br /><br />
But, in the end, what truly sticks to my pallet was what I mentioned in the beginning. The rainy evenings hunkering in that hostel, drinking and playing Jenga, that's what topped up my social tanks. There was a communal family vibe to that hostel, and indeed, the entire city. I would recommend it to anyone.<br /><br />
One final recollection. It's was here where a previously small conversation had begun to visibly snowball after following most of my Jarexit III travels throughout. It was that some pesky virus had been spreading rapidly across the world, and it'd recently touched down in 'Murica. The murmured concerns were getting louder, but if I remember correctly, I laughed it off. Remember bird flu? Swine flu? Guys, this is no big deal!
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, Rocky Stairs at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Irish Memorial, LOVE sculpture, Fresh Prince basketball court
<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9P2yA2h9GB/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9C3MTGB8pR/ " target="_blank">Rocky Stairs (video)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9NFE1-hwl5/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CNEwDg8hJq4/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit III: 04. Sacred Valley (Cusco, Santa Teresa, Machu Picchu), Peru" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmfr9x_FZynz_tale7peTAwzimzSKho2tHopJNdMdHx-yVm84OD7B1LADYf-bykQzgYbjlce_TNntF5p2pLUOuDlRk2kBBy5E65vXfXAokUGsR_VeeE9tPciGLjssKsSoX99IK7eubBnU/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_4-sacred-valley.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>04. Sacred Valley (Cusco, Santa Teresa, Machu Picchu), Peru</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 28 Dec 2019 - 4 Jan 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/pe/hostal-el-quetzal-machupicchu.en-gb.html " target="_blank">El Quetzal Machupicchu</a> - 8/10 (Machu Picchu, 31 Dec - 2 Jan)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/pe/hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">1900 Hostel</a> - 9/10 (Lima, 11 Jan - 18 Jan 2020)</i><br /><br />
If there ever was a Jarexit stop that doesn’t adhere to the standard criteria, this is the cheat card you seek. Shooting off the Pucallpa/Lima leg, this was not a singular destination but a multi-location adventure for which even the most expert of travellers would clip on their seat belts. Here is Peru at its deepest, bru, and I was ready for the big game! As were my three teammates (my brother, Gareth, my brother’s girlfriend, Andrea, and her sister, Sandra), a collective the world now recognises as the Los Cuatros Chullos. <br /><br />
It was a curious dynamic, partially because Sandra spoke minimal English. Still, everyone got along nicely thanks to Andrea’s ninja translation skills, her dual dialect saving our lives on more than one occasion. As for me, a black-belt lone traveller, it was just a relief to let go of the wheel and spread the mental weight across other minds, granting my thoughts the luxury of wonderment, thirsty for a trip that would change my life forever. And it did. First-order: a flight to Cusco!<br /><br />
Cusco is one crazy place! It's situated 8,000 feet above sea level. Such an elevation means that if you get overly excited and take one step too quickly, the lack of oxygen would power your brain off, and you'd go tumbling facefirst to the ground. Curiously, I appeared immune to this disorder, never once feeling the slightest bit woozy, masochistically jealous when the people around me kept fainting like goats. Regardless, this ailment only lasts a few days before your body adjusts, and then you can explore the surprisingly large city for all the cultural richness it's worth. The endless views were invigorating, the markets were buzzing with strangeness, and the dietary horrors eventually settled in my mind (deep-fried guinea pigs, anyone?).<br /><br />
A day passed, and then a man named Enrico let us in his car because we paid him. We drove six hours to Santa Teresa, and this road trip itself is a memory that shines brightly on its own. The infinite green landscapes that rise and fall like they're breathing, many hills reshaped by the Incas to summon their gods or entertain the aliens or whatever. We desperately chewed coca leaves to ward off altitude sickness while swerving around narrow mountain paths, tyres scraping the edges of cliffs haunted by bodies that annually plummeted to their deaths. Not us, not today, no thanks. <br /><br />
With sleepy butt cheeks, we finally reached our destination and promptly dived into the Santa Teresa Cocalmayo hot springs. Now, as this tale continues, you'll appreciate how many soul-melting landmarks we witnessed, but when we tallied the overall experience in hindsight, we unanimously agreed that this watery break was (perhaps) <i>the</i> highlight. Natural springs were gushing into manmade pools surrounded by mountains that dominated every direction, and it paused my puny mind. It was impossible to take everything in, but there is no past nor future in places like that. You are forced into the moment by mother nature's beauty, a reboot while she cleanses your ghost, a necessary process to grant access into deeper realms of the valley. They sell it as so. <br /><br />
After this otherworldly energy had seeped into our pores, we crashed out only to awake on the 31st of December, the concluding day of the decade, and we were amped for the final push. We cartwheeled onto a train that tore through a portion of the Amazon jungle which in itself was an incomprehensibly exhilarating bucket-list deal. Eventually, it screeched to a halt, and we stepped off into The Sacred Valley's main course: Machu fucking Picchu town. Bag drop then a causal visit to one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, some 15th-century Inca citadel or other.<br /><br />
That Peruvian timezone was way behind most of the globe, making for a trippy social media session. My friends were already screaming their countdowns while I held several extra hours to enjoy the decade-end, doing so by exploring old Inca architecture, smug about my superior life choices. Sadly, a murky mist crept into our vision, and droplets of rain interrupted many incredible photo opportunities, but how nice it was to remember how little control we have over nature? And what mattered was we were there. Where else would I want to be? Retrospection has been very kind to the occasion. Your present moment can never swallow something like that in one go. Even now, as I type these words, I feel like... what the fuck? Was I there? How is that possible?<br /><br />
Back to the mainland and we ushered in 2020 at some touristy bar where one round of drinks cost more than two nights of accommodation. I only had two alcoholic beverages, Peruvian pisco sours if memory serves me (it doesn't), but we danced to cheesy music and then dodged the loud fireworks that the local children threw at us specifically. Bedtime was early, and I awoke on the 1st of January without a hangover, the first time in perhaps 21 years. And while wearing smiles, we predicted with optimism how 2020 would be our best year yet. Aha. Ahaha. <i>aHAHAHAHA!</i><br /><br />
A day of Machu Picchu exploration blurred past, then we took a train back to meet our car man. He was late, and we were tired, our once vibrant South American energy depleted by the inevitable unrest of waking up in different places for so many consecutive days. After some time, an unrecognisable fella approached. He knew our names and relayed some news which immediately flipped our emotions. A destructive mudslide had occurred on the pathway home, meaning there was no direct passage of escape. The solution was for this stranger to taxi us as far as possible, and then we'd cross the earthly barricade on foot. We did so, scrambling over rocks monstrous enough to crush a torso while ominous stones continued to bounce from the skies, rolling across our shoes. We met our original driver, Enrico, on the other side and got into his car as he rushed us along. Bits of the mountain ceaselessly rained around the vehicle, and the pained creases on Enrico's face indicated we were in genuine trouble. At times he would slam on brakes so Gareth could leap out and roll a sizeable earth-chunk off the road, allowing us to resume our getaway. We were fully aware that it would take only one of those adult rocks to end us. We were holding our breath, nails digging into the seats, the threat of death snickering over our necks. But, of course, I'm telling the story; therefore, we survived with yet another epic page in the diary. These are the tales worth living to tell.<br /><br />
Once we'd regained our chill, the ride turned into one of great joy featuring various other notable events. First, we paused in the blinding fog of Abra Malaga, 14,160ft above sea level, the highest I've ever stood in my life. Next, we stopped at potentially a witch's hut where she showed us the skulls of her grandparents before feeding us home-brewed corn beer—which was delicious! And we completed this windy path at Cochahuasi Animal Sanctuary, where we fed llamas, shook hands with sad monkeys, and ducked as the soaring wings of condors brushed our heads. Quite a start to the decade!<br /><br />
We crashed out in Cusco for a few days to recover, but my computer-brain's hard drive was maxed at this point, so I was no longer storing memories. I recall playing Uno? I also managed to hang with a friend named Evi, who I knew pretty well in London but hadn't seen in close to eight years. How we both ended up in Cusco simultaneously is difficult to calculate, but as I say, I ceased asking questions way back when. And then the Jarexit slipped back into the mainstream, the Pucallpa timeline resuming as if nothing ever happened (see entry #7).<br /><br />
No question that this was the mission of a lifetime. I'm acutely aware of how dramatic it sounds when I announce I had a spiritual awakening-ish of sorts here, but I possess the texts to prove it. Not much time later, I began authoring my <a href="https://janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a> scripture, time and time again crediting South America as the conclusive <i>oomph</i> I needed to tie it together. Yet if this is so, how could such a historic undertaking only land at 4th place on my little list? Well, it wasn't easy! But I've pinned it down to two factors.<br /><br />
The first is that the Sacred Valley was no leisurely stroll. On the contrary, it was a perpetual forward motion, which provoked acute anxiety in certain team members. Make no mistake, the awe was superglued to my face, and my seasoned travelling coat swatted troublesome vibes away, but as the only one who'd spent the last five months galavanting around 12 countries, I can see why other people struggled. Because it was no relaxing ting for me neither!<br /><br />
And the second factor is that the Jarexit stops from here were just too cool to place any lower on my article. So get pumped for that shiiiiit.
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<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Machu Picchu, Cocalmayo hot springs (Santa Teresa), Inca Lienzo Pétreo wall (Cusco), the scenic drive from Cusco to Santa Teresa, Plaza de Armas de Cusco (Cusco)
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<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7AM6iIh13c/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7GRoO8B4dE/ " target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7KCIxMBWRB/ " target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6v3GENCeh0/ " target="_blank">New Year Machu Picchu Greeting</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B66VfKJBiDL/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CLYyzqGhX-h/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit III: 03. Washington D.C., USA" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsh3oUimRk_FNwQ_JyzDiYQHfbT72JV1vumcg6J19NLgh43bvfY0zh-VWxAnusLMZ9FdQxAKSlWPkNQsvj72i-C1-ZWAyFGfqR12HebO7A17U04O9ToVJ_BgDfmy1LzFMPoDGiLkKTcs/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_3-washingtondc.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>03. Washington D.C., USA</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 16 Feb - 23 Feb 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/duo-nomad.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Duo Nomad</a> - 8/10</i><br /><br />
Washington D.C. was a hyperspeed smudge of passing frames, shoving as much meat into my mind suitcase that could fit over a one week period of time. It was the impossible mission considering the infinite scroll of a to-do list I had to do, but by God, I was going to try. And this is the story of a tourism rollercoaster, without a doubt executed at the most expert level I've ever achieved, initiated before the plane even squeaked the tarmac. Because as you're gliding into the capital city of America and you instantly recognise that National Mall stretching across the land, your guts get restless. I've looked at this place a billion times on the TV since I was in nappies, and now here I was, no longer in nappies. <br /><br />
The excitement continued the moment I stepped out of the airport and ordered an Uber. An intensely chatty black lady picked me up and took me to my hostel, our conversation ending with an agreement that she would drive me to Philadelphia, and we were going to film the whole thing, creating a movie about us. Unfortunately, I never took her up on the offer, but her smiley face set the stage for the friendliest community of people I've experienced anywhere in the world.<br /><br />
The following seven days were nothing but a game of dot-to-dot, connecting a series of locations as quickly as my feet would move me. I licked up every corner of this city like something was chasing me, visiting on average 13 soul-shifting landmarks every day. On my final day alone, I walked 20.5km over five hours just to really slurp up as many floaty bits as I could. Consequently, it would not do this Jarexit entry any justice to simply dedicate a paragraph to the historical highlights. Because that's all this trip was! Historical highlights! I didn't make any new social media friends. I didn't go out on a drunken night. I just put my head down and devoted my energy to the cause of becoming one with Washington D.C. Here are some of the best things I've ever seen in my life:<br /><br />
Firstly, I ran around the National Mall on the daily. The Lincoln Memorial (complete with a tile indicating where Martin Luther King Jr.'s delivered his <i>"I Have a Dream"</i> speech), the Reflecting Pool, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building... these are all iconic structures that one can only respect as symbolic pinnacles of American pride. <br /><br />
Scribbled around this land are an unreasonable amount of buildings to visit within a week. But I gave it a shot! I loved the National Gallery of Art, where I marvelled over famed masterpieces such as a Van Gogh self-portrait, <i>The Sacrament of the Last Supper</i> by Salvador Dalí, and stacks upon stacks of Picasso works. Yet, weirdly, I enjoyed The Library of Congress even more, primarily from an interior design perspective. I also saw the five (P)EGOT awards in a row on display here! That throttled my lungs deeper than I would have anticipated.<br /><br />
Within this same vein, I must mention The United States Botanical Garden (the oldest in the country, 1850), the World War II Memorial, and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Whew!<br /><br />
Not far from this familiar madness was The White House, where Trump resided at the time, rambling away. I waved at his windows from the fence while wearing my <em>Make Racists Afraid Again</em> hoodie, a passive-aggressive statement I purchased around the time they inaugurated the dude. It felt like that clothing item completed its life circle that day, even if I still have it.<br /><br />
Moving forward, and here's the best joke in the world: The South African Embassy's Mandela statue stands across the road from the British Embassy's Winston Churchill statue. Churchill's peace/v-sign for victory is high in the air, as is Mandela's raised Black Power fist. Rock beats scissors, fucker! Hahahaa. This match-up was 100% intentional, by the way.<br /><br />
On my lonesome, a Scientologist tour guide showed me around L. Ron Hubbard's former house, which we now recognise as the first church of the religion. I touched the keys of the typewriter where he smashed out his first scripture! My anxiety always maxes out in Scientology situations (I've had several), but it was an appreciated education nonetheless!<br /><br />
The Washington National Cathedral charges entry which is against my principles, but I'm glad I made the sacrifice! The reasoning is two-fold. (1) You can get semi-close to Helen Kellar's final resting place, and (2) there is an actual fucking piece of rock from the moon stuck into one of the stained glass windows!! Have you ever seen a chunk of the moon a few meters from your cornea? I have.<br /><br />
Hey, do you recall that long staircase at the end of The Exorcist? That's in this city too! I skipped up and down those steps more times than my pride will admit, and I wasn't the only person doing so. This activity was a bigger deal to me than I'm making it sound. It's the best horror film ever produced, surely. <br /><br />
The Dupont Underground art gallery (set in an abandoned subway) was closed when I visited. But, again, Washington D.C. peeps are so kind that they let me go down anyway while they were setting up. I've run out of space on my scorecard.<br /><br />
Important: if you are <i>EVER</i> lucky enough to slide through this city on a Wednesday or the weekend, forget everything and march on down to the Culture House. This brightly coloured church serves as an art exhibition space, including two rave dancefloors set to serve the surrounding black community. I was one of the very few white people there, but they were more than welcome to have this skinny cracker hanging around, pretending to fit in. A genuinely exhilarating party that caught me completely off-balance, my heels spinning 360. I exploded a little. I get the jitters thinking about this spot as I type this. <br /><br />
I could go on for a much longer time, but for the sake of you, here is a quick splurge of must-sees if you're using my blog in that manner: the USNO Master Clock Display (the most accurate clock in the world), the Old Stone House, the triple-life sized statue of Einstein, the "secret" FBI house across from the Russian Embassy, Rosa Parks' former house, the 930 Club (holy ground for the DC hardcore scene), the Barbie Pond On Avenue Q (I can't explain this, check their <a href="https://www.instagram.com/barbie_pond_ave_q/" target="_blank">Insta</a>), the famous Ben's Chili Bowl, the Big Chair (19.5 feet tall), the Chinatown Zodiac intersection, and the Uline Arena (where The Beatles played their first-ever American show to 8,000 people in 1964). That juuuuuust about covers the essentials. <br /><br />
The only icky feeling Washington D.C. provoked within me was the inescapable wealth disparity dampening the fun. Here are these remarkable landmarks that define the entire landscape of the United States, and yet the poverty that sprawled the pavements below is some of the worst in the country (19% of residents, second only to Mississippi state, I believe). Certain blocks were unbearably sad, so you move on as fast as you can because if you don't, they will take everything you carry. <br /><br />
A brief sidestep to supply some much-deserved respect to my hostel. My stylish six-person bedroom was cramped af, but otherwise, it's an accommodation I'd recommend. One of the staff members was a highly attractive female who had flirtatious tendencies towards me, which always goes a long way. She fried chocolate-chip pancakes for the lodgers every morning, and even though I was trying to lean more vegan with my diet, I would never say no to anything she offered.<br /><br />
I left Washington D.C. with tired legs but armfuls of smiley faces, willing to do it again without changing anything. My cab driver to the bus stop was yet another cheerful fella of African descent, and I sat back in astonishment, attempting to digest what I'd just swallowed. The unsettling vibes of Florida only a week before had me questioning the USA as a whole, but the nation's capital slapped me right back in line, reminding me why this great country always boasted itself so grandiosely. Here was the wide tasty bite of America I always pictured, and I still regard the area as the ideal representative for anyone wishing to encounter America's patriotic energy charged to the brim. <br /><br />
Of course, within one year of my visit, this city flashed upon our news screens multiple times for various tense reasons. Just over three months later, the Black Lives Matter protests steered the world by its balls, but the booming cries for justice rightfully tore through the President's city the loudest. Frustrated hands set cars on fire while Trump built a wall of protection around his White House, scenes so historical that the council ultimately renamed a nearby street to <em>Black Lives Matter Plaza</em>. And then, only seven months following, Trump supporters rushed the Capitol building as an opposite breed of protest, fighting against what the soon-to-be ex-president called a "rigged" election result. It was pure insanity accurately reflecting our blemished zeitgeist. One always feels more attached to lands they've visited, and I shook my head in disbelief that I had been merrily skipping along those bright streets such a short time ago. And you know who I thought about? I thought about that Uber lady from my first day. I wondered if she was ok.
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<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />The entire National Mall, the Exorcist Stairs, the Culture House, the first Church of Scientology, the South African/British Embassy's statues
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<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8-W5ZhBLU6/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8-XQ7YhRTr/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href=" https://www.instagram.com/p/B86u1TvBAXS" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMyyj2sBOgB/ " target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit III: 02. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSH72LiKV_LPH4170vRZT_1nV1wXXG6EjQftBx-broAqeuuZFa_gQ_15jKED4DISvtZD8itPBzvspbmE8amnavDZp_8mdiH6qT6DBjjDbk5D9qpBBV1RtEmT2FnDdEDrM707U0Zi2m72E/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_02-rio.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>02. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 19 Jan - 1 Feb 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/br/rio-earth.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Rio Earth</a> - 7/10 (19 Jan – 26 Jan)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/br/mojito-hostel-amp-suites.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Mojito Hostel & Suites Ipanema Rio de Janeiro</a> - 8/10 (26 Jan - 30 Jan)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/br/cantinho-da-familia-rio-de-janeiro1.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Cantinho da Familia</a> - 9/10 (30 Jan - 1 Feb)</i><br /><br />
Some cities pull us towards themselves using an invisible string, the very name stirring a beckoning action within our tummies. For the life of me, I don't know why Rio had such a draw for my energy. And I do mean "for the life of me" quite literally, as I was fairly certain that if I went to this Brazilian hotspot, I was going to die. I'd heard the rumours from almost everyone I spoke to, nothing but horror stories around the campfire, some of my bestie friendies warning me not to go. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and my heart was like, <i>"stop being a willy, let's gooo to Riooo!"</i>. So with my wallet shoved into my sock and my iPhone never on display, I lept from my mind-cliff and into my gut-pool. <br /><br />
I wish I could tell you that the moment I landed in the city, all of my unwarranted paranoia dissipated into the ether, but this was not the case. Rio is fucking dangerous, buddy! And when you witness the heartbreaking amount of poverty, the numbers add themselves. Desperate people make for desperate situations. Still, I was here now, and I wasn't going to let a little fear of murder slow me down. If anything, it sped me up! When that man charged at me on the beach screaming Portequese madness through a foamy mouth, my legs moved in ways they hadn't shown me before. High alert adreno-glands all day, every day.<br /><br />
The surprising thing is that I found my groove relatively effortlessly, and I understand exactly how this happened. It's because I spent my most formative years living in Cape Town, South Africa, my "home" if home is where the family is. And these two cities are sisters from another mister to such a degree that I grew nostalgic for a time long forgotten, the loudest flaring of appreciation for my former residence since I left in 2008. Yes, the urgent dirty hands on the streets are comparable, and yes, the constant threat to your survival keeps both towns on their toes, but it pulsated far deeper than that. These places feel like they're on fire. The vibrancy of the culture and the colourful explosions of vitality dance across the land, leaving trails along the endless beaches, slipping between the forestation, and shouting from the mountains, every offering powered by the eternal drum of the joyful sun. Like a feral beast, Rio is unchallenged as the most "alive" city I've ever felt, every moment forcing you so hard into the present that you're unsure when you last knew you were real. Because Brazil is real. Brazil is so real that their currency is called Real. Ah man, my words can't compete with that.<br /><br />
And there is rad shit to see. Tons of the rad shit, tons and tons of it. The Royal Portuguese Reading Room is in the peak tier of gorgeous libraries I've set foot in (and I've visited many). The Rio De Janeiro Cathedral is like an alien spaceship, the most exciting palace of worship I've ever attended (and I've visited many). The crammed Cemitério São João Batista cemetery is in my top three cemeteries with the most character (and I've visited many). You've seen the Escadaria Selarón Mosaic Steps in pictures before. The largest mural painted by a single artist in the world is here (Etnies by Eduardo Kobra). Museu do Amanhã. Copacabana Beach. Ipanema Beach. Açaí. OMG, <em>açaí</em>. If I were a god, açaí would be the food I officially sponsor.<br /><br />
Of course, when you visit Rio de Janeiro, there are two major sites that you have to see, otherwise, you're a loser with their zipper down, and my zipper isn't down. I had to take half a day off work for this, but I got it done, I hope you're happy. The first is the World Heritage Site of Sugarloaf Mountain, which is fun because of its sugarloaf shape! And because it boasts the best fucking panoramic views over any fucking city I've ever fucking seen. And the second is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. I must say, it was an epic atmosphere, more than I'd envisioned. Jesus is a pretty influential celebrity and to see him towering above the city at all times is a gift. And then to see him again up close, it's one of those moments where you're intensely aware that you're going to be telling everyone about this for the rest of your age. I'm a big Jesus fan, and this was a big Jesus.<br /><br />
Now would be the perfect juncture to chat about people. If you throw that much spiritual energy into a bowl and mix in a heaped cup of sunshine, you're going to bake some friendly faces. First, mad shout-out to Sara and her two offspring, Gustavo and Cassi. They were a family who adopted me during the previous paragraph, keeping me company the whole way as if one of their own. So nice! If it weren't for these genuine humans, I would not have any photos of myself at such famous landmarks, and I will treasure that forever. Good people. I felt honoured to share that memorable day with them.<br /><br />
I also had the absolute privilege to hang out with my ex-housemate and top-top-top-shelf mate Pepê, as well as his lady friend, Ingrid, who I knew and now know even better. This duo came with a vast collection of other people, and for an evening, I was one of the cool local kids hanging with the other cool local kids, watching the sunset from Mureta da Urca, sharing massive beers into smaller cups so they didn't get too warm. I was off my tits by the end of that night, and, by God, I was so joyous too. Quick additional sprouts of love to Shenna and Alice!<br /><br />
Should we talk about Brazilian girls for a minute? Can you handle it?<br /><br />
As Peru illustrated, South America interpreted my dating profiles well, and two specific ladies deserve ample space in this blog and so much more. The first girl was one of those immediate connections like live wires touching. We conversed about the Law of Attraction and our attraction towards one another, and where those topics overlapped. We drank giant beers that cost £2.42 and kissed each other around the city centre like we were already a couple stuck in a whirlwind. We then accidentally stumbled on an explosive street rave which punctuated the night of <i>meant-to-be's</i>, like a sign from above that we had finally found one another. And then I fucking ruined it. The subsequent morning I awoke with a self-deprecating hungover and felt overwhelmed. Our following conversation was cold from my side, and she picked that up immediately. Once my hangover subsided, I recognised my tenseness and tried to patch it up, but she had turned her back. Try as I might, she would not see me again before I departed. I regret that so much. We are still in contact today and communicate regularly, but this is a tragic story as well as one of the most fascinating human interactions I've ever had. I'm still bewildered by all of it. Sometimes I wonder if I will see her again and then we'll live happily ever after? Maybe.<br /><br />
The second encounter was less profound but more satisfying. Pure rock 'n' roll chick, she arrived at the date already wasted, spent some time evaluating me and then invited me back to her place in record time. She lived on the uppermost floor of a favela, and as I stood on her balcony, marvelling over the expansive view of Rio's nighttime skyline, she sucked me off, Christ the Redeemer blessing us from a distance. We then banged to Aerosmith. I fell asleep, woke up hungover and rushed back to my hostel to make it to work on time. This event took place on my third day here. Too much information? I am aware, but try to see this from my perspective. Do you recognise how grateful I was for such a moment? How could I not tell you about it?<br /><br />
Just quickly, Rio Earth was an ok hostel/guesthouse where the owners are super smiley. Yet, it was a bit shitty, especially when we had a public argument on Booking.com about their temperamental internet connection. Meanwhile, Mojito Hostel & Suites was much closer to my vibe, a proper backpackers hostel with sufficient social opportunity, and Cantinho da Familia is ideal if you need a private room to break from the madness. Oh, and if you're seeking a dentist, Rio Implants was suitable. I decided I needed a checkup and a polish, so I did that too because I'm an adult. So interesting!<br /><br />
The gifts from Rio (and this continent) were of value unmatched anywhere else in the world, continuing to guide me until this day. There is a spiritual vibration beneath this earth's crust which many attest to, a region that is less clouded by prioritised intellect and instead driven by a primal intuition. <a href="https://janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a> sprouted in Peru, but in Rio, it blossomed, and I will always hold this city dear for such nurturing abilities. It is second on this list, so my love is evident, but in many trains of thought, it's criminal that it's not number 1.<br /><br />
Two weeks down the hatch, and I booked my ticket to the United States. I arrived at the airport and the native counter lady asked if I'd <i>"been to Sheena?"</i>. I was like, <i>"Sheena?"</i> and she responded, <i>"Yes, Sheena!"</i>. Hmmm, <i>"No, I don't know who or what that is, so I don't think so."</i> But she persisted. <i>"Sheena! SHEENA!"</i> eventually, I was raising my voice, <i>"Listen, I obviously have no idea what you're talking about, so it's fair to assume I have not been there!!"</i>. She accepted that. Through the gates and the English announcer announced, <i>"Please let staff know if you have recently visited China and if you're feeling any of the following symptoms..."</i> and I was like, <i>"Ooooh, not Sheeena, CHINA! And also, lol, everyone is really freaking out about this silly virus thing, huh?"</i>.
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<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro; The Royal Portuguese Reading Room; Cemitério São João Batista; Christ the Redeemer; Sugarloaf Mountain
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<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B7yUIDoh5s0/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8CV49Qh0o1/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href=" https://www.instagram.com/p/B8F1KATBjZu/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CL8ukw5hcXR/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit III: 01. New York City, New York, USA" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPySh0UkDTCNGE59HMSWM8ywRndJNLV8CLVYM1FXyeOONBN8B3cfv7cZfWlUvjLkWx2Sa1roK2tO7LZnYiT4z9MOUgs1nKlfLDBiKnRd-rLCUO7MMGNURzd46cVr1eQz-b3h5qO5VB0HY/s0/21July22_Jarexit-III_01-nyc.jpg" style="width: 626px;" /></span></div>
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<h2>01. New York City, New York, USA</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 1 March - 27 March 2020</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/blue-moon-manhattan.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Blue Moon Boutique Hostel & Hotel </a> - 7/10 (Lower East Manhattan. 1 March - 8 March)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/hi-new-york-hostel-nyc.en-gb.html" target="_blank">HI NYC Hostel</a> - 9/10 (Harlem, 8 March - 15 March)<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/ny-moore-hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">NY Moore Hostel</a> - 6/10 (Brooklyn, 15 March - 20 March)<br />
Genae's House - N/A (the Bronx, 20 March - 27 March)</i><br /><br />
Ever since the fateful day I crawled out from my mama, there appeared an obvious holy trinity of global cities. First and foremost, London, which I've conquered as many times as she's conquered me. Secondly, there's Tokyo, which effortlessly topped my <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/06/worst-to-best-jarexit-ii.html" target="_blank">Jarexit II</a> list, living up to its hyperspeed sugar reputation perfectly. And finally, there was the mighty New York City.<br /><br />
Every step I took upon every land I visited felt like merely a course marching towards this metropolitan zenith. And so when the bus from Philly turned to face that famous skyline, I confess I lost eye-liquid. I couldn't believe it was finally happening. I was about to explore New Fucking York Fucking City, baby, fuck! And you already know how it went, because we're coming to the end of this article.<br /><br />
The most remarkable feature about any Monster City is that there is too much stuff to keep you busy. For comparison's sake, my previous Philadelphia mission had a respectable 64 landmarks that I wanted to check off my list. NYC had 260, an itinerary that expanded even longer once I'd set up camp. And herein lies what makes this account challenging to write without just spewing an oversized tally of daily observations. Because one thing no one told me about New York is that it's compact as fuck. Yes, it's enormous, but not really by landmass, rather by height. It's very tall. And every crevice and every corner boasted something unique, not a street uncramped without notable magic, enriching my life with an overwhelming amount of Instagrammable content. It was so insane, and even as I reflect on those memories over a year later, no power is weakened. I remain enchanted by the weirdness of NYC. <br /><br />
I gawked up at some of the biggest things you've ever heard of, permanent iconic structures forever carved into the human psyche irrespective of where you grew up. The Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, Central Park, Wall Street and its Rockefeller Center... their names alone shake the memory tubes of anyone who has ever watched TV. Times Square is overpowering enough, so when my phone abruptly died despite its 50% battery display, I was worried no one would ever find me again. I retraced my steps back between bright superstructures that shrunk my existence until I found the subway and navigated those unfamiliar underground networks to my hostel, proud of myself. And then there was the 9/11 Memorial, where the weight of those towers came crashing down into my stomach. As I stared at that haunted concrete beneath my feet, the tragedy genuinely sunk in, and I felt sick, and I felt angry.<br /><br />
I toured the Museum Of Modern Art and bowed my head before pieces by Picasso, by Pollock, by Kahlo, by Mondrian. I smiled at <i>Campbell's Soup Cans</i> by Andy Warhol, I pressed my nose to <i>The Persistence Of Memory</i> by Salvador Dalí, and I nearly fainted when I casually bumped into <i>The Starry Night</i> by Vincent Van Gogh. Oh, hey! I didn't even know you were here! I'm such an uncultured idiot! I could've easily missed it, wtf!<br /><br />
But for an entertainment junkie such as myself, it was the spots made popular by modern artistic mediums that sparked my salvation glands. I took photos of the spaces where some of the greatest album artwork ever was captured (examples include PJ Harvey's <i>Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea</i>; Bob Dylan's <i>Highway 61 Revisited</i> and <i>The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan</i>; Led Zeppelin's <i>Physical Graffiti</i>; Ramones' self-titled debut; The Who's <i>The Kids Are Alright</i>; The Doors' <i>Strange Days</i>; Beastie Boys' <i>Paul's Boutique</i>; and Neil Young's <i>After the Gold Rush</i>—<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-R8TQ4B6ZS" target="_blank">all of which you can enjoy here</a>). I sniffed out a Sonic Youth trail of my design. I scouted locations from Taxi Driver and Birdman and Breakfast at Tiffany's and Annie Hall. I skulked around the diner from Seinfeld, I danced along the stairs from the Joker, I dribbled down the grate that blew up Marilyn Monroe's dress, and I joined the endless stream of tourists who snapped shots of the exterior apartment from Friends. I thought about drugs outside the Hotel Chelsea. I thought about fucking Meg Ryan at the table where she faked an orgasm as Sally Albright. I said a prayer at the tree where the Hare Krishna movement first started. And I said an even more authentic prayer at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where the entire hip hop genre was born.<br /><br />
Superior to the above were two extra special areas. The first was the street far below the penthouse where cancer defeated David Bowie, and his soul left the Earth to explore space as destined. Having spent some time outside the Brixton home where his spirit entered his body, I felt about as close as I could get to the guy. And even in my sadness, I was able to recognise a career well-spent and a passing that had achieved more than any man should reasonably expect. However, such a sensation did not apply outside the Dakota apartments, the exact spot where a bullet stole John Lennon from us. There I felt a more significant loss mixed in with a wad of fury. His life was severed far too short, and with every breath, my lungs choked on an atmosphere of absence. I have since visited Lennon's childhood home in Liverpool too, so at least that cycle is also complete. The two most influential legends to my creative life. God bless both of your contributions.<br /><br />
What I have told you thus far are only the highlights, things you would recognise. Due to time constraints, I have left out the seemingly infinite amount of quirky details this masterpiece of a city offers. But hopefully, I have accurately illustrated that I did New York, and I did it hard. I began in a Lower East Manhattan hostel which may not have been the best accommodation but was unchallenged as the best area with its artsy personality fighting off gentrification. I moved to Harlem my second week, which was also a dream, not as scary as the reputation tells, plus HI NYC Hostel was perhaps the most fun and well-equipped housing I've ever stayed in, 100% Jared recommended stamp of approval. I then relocated to the exciting streets of Brooklyn into a hostel that looked like an art piece itself, and that's where all hell shattered our reality.<br /><br />
The COVID conversation was already dominating the airwaves before I landed in the Big Apple, and despite my initial disregard to the seriousness of the situation <i>("It's just a media distraction!"),</i> it was evident by now that this thing, whatever it was, was chowing the planet like Pacman. The bug knocked Europe down, and as I watched Trump slam the borders to those countries (including the UK), a nervous electrical current outlined my organs. I refused to press the elevator buttons out of fear. Every time someone cleared their throat, the room was nothing but side-eyes. And then New York fell.<br /><br />
The concept of corona truly bulldozed me when I strolled into my local Trader Joe's and found it to be stripped bare. The shelves were just about empty, although I managed to grab a tin of beans, and then I nearly cried. At one point, a beggar man spluttered on me, and I convinced myself that he'd signed my death away. On March 17th, I stopped going out. But nothing can compare to March 20th, when the NY Moore Hostel announced that it was shutting its business, and we had to go.<br /><br />
The staff feigned their most earnest pity towards me in particular. The day before, I'd dropped hundreds of dollars to extend my stay by a further week. <i>"Don't worry,"</i> they said. <i>"You'll get a refund within five working days"</i>, and then they kicked us to the curb during a pandemic in the middle of the most infected city in the world without my money or a food coupon or a complimentary toilet roll or anything. The lack of professionalism and empathy would have left me furious if I didn't have other things on my mind, like, I don't know, being homeless!? It was a tense period because I had minimal resources and even fewer options. Every door was closing around me rapidly.<br /><br />
Miracles come in big packages, and my good mate Javier got in touch. A friend of his owns an Airbnb in the Bronx, and owed to the disease fog, it was available. What's more, she was happy to charge me the same price as my previous residence. For a private room! Thanks, Javzzzz! I moved in and settled down quickly, developing a strategy. I was supposed to be hitting Boston next and then Toronto, but I was aware that this was a futile projection. I had a flight booked from Chicago to London, leaving in about a month, so if I could sit tight in this comfy room and wait for the airborne germs to blow away with the wind, I could skip down that direction, easy peasy! Life's normality would resume soon enough with minimal disruption to my adventure time! Woohoo! <br /><br />
That never happened. Instead, I watched the bustle of New York grow quieter and quieter. I trembled as every essential supermarket visit imitated the apocalypse. And I was terrified. Existing alone in a city/country/continent where I hardly knew a face was difficult to deal with when a virus was contaminating the human race. But everytime my panicked mom called, I'd tell her I was alright. And all things considered, yeah, I was alright, I was alright.<br /><br />
After my Chicago ticket was cancelled, a meltdown did come. I frantically clicked a bunch of random buttons, accidentally purchasing a New York to London flight for many weeks later. Fuck! I chewed through my lip and bought yet another ticket for the upcoming March 29th weekend, then boarding that <i>packed</i> plane at JFK (which was a nightmare in itself), escaping the epicentre of the pandemic, NYC collapsing in my wake, now flying directly into the other epicentre of the pandemic, go figure. Of course, that's another story, and indirectly, <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/09/david-icke-biggest-secret-book-review.html" target="_blank">my blog about David Icke</a> serves as some agenda-driven sequel to the madness that followed. <br /><br />
So, in the end, my American Jarexit Tour was snipped prematurely, but I was not bitter. I was grateful. I had plans to visit New Jersey for a week before New York, but I opted to leap straight into the beast after Philly, and I appreciate that as some divine intervention. Imagine I hadn't! I was gifted two glorious weeks where I got to scrub the deepest cracks of NYC and was again impressed by my foresight. I knew in my heart that this was arguably the world's greatest city, and I confirmed that without a shadow. I guess I know me. <br /><br />
And how about that hindsight, huh? My New York encounter was way more legendary than anyone else's. I had front row tickets to armageddon, seated in the exact location the movies promised for decades. New York City evaporated into a ghost town around me. That's not something you can buy nor plan. Most likely, that's not something anyone will get to experience in our lifetime again. But I did. And that's what made it special.<br /><br />
My most aggravating regret is that I was saving the Statue of Liberty for last. Hence I never met the lady beyond a speck on the horizon. Oh well... I suppose... I'll just have to... <i>GO BACK! </i>Like, permanently next time, maybe idk.<br /><br /><br />
And thus ends the third Jarexit at its most vibrantly obvious concluding point: the peak and the end. I hope you had a good time! The absence of a break between numbers II and III meant eight months of uninterrupted travel across 12 countries in five continents. What's interesting is that Jarexit III ended just before April 2020, meaning that I hadn't been out of the Americas the entire decade yet. Needless to say, despite the unsettling circumstances, I was secretly relieved to be home, gearing myself up for death with the people I loved the most. Still waiting.
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<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Times Square, Central Park, The 911 Memorial, The Museum of Modern Art, Everything
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<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9fonO5BWBO" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ys25Ih5SW" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-D-DX8Bsem" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-R8TQ4B6ZS" target="_blank">Set 4 (album artwork)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B99v10Chwgf" target="_blank">Lockdown Chat</a> | <a href=" https://www.instagram.com/p/B-TuDEFBRVd/" target="_blank">Summary Shot (NYC and Jarexit III)</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CNWuNqHhvwX/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-42937778441058011482021-06-15T15:10:00.003+01:002021-06-15T15:24:42.726+01:00Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><a href="https://sectlinefor.com/kissingstrangers" target="_blank"><img alt="Sectlinefor - Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKboCrYU9SitJUt3EXMU5fquZ-1UtNXZ7otIO-A-fhJLUFbLmYs1p-t5r52EryXYqBLc5yo-RHX6g9km_-o3gKbQ4x9r0S3S5TGiYhQarSsygTXcUwz9vAZfy8bpsrkUjwDDUMJ0gbA40/s0/kissing-strangers-header.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 624px;" /></a></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center; width: 100%;"><b>LONDON, JULY, 2020</b></div><br />
When the tentacles from UK Lockdown v1.0 calmed their suction cups, and the country's rusted gears cautiously squeaked back into motion, I exploded out of my cave with frothy jaws and a fierce erection pointing the way. I was going to exploit this opportunity for all it was worth! Call of order number one: visiting the home of the legendary Piton Bathman Pit, the primary composer mastermind behind my band, <a href="https://sectlinefor.com/" target="_blank">Seclinefor</a>. During our time apart, we'd written our third record, and finally, the COVID numbers had pried open a window large enough for us to haphazardly slap my vocals down. Over two weeks, we vomited out the ten songs, then then I tipped my hat to the man, confident these babies were in the best of hands. My mission continued with unrivalled speeds, Jarexiting London the best I could (considering the circumstances). My adventure started in Liverpool, sucking some talent out from that sweet, sweet Beatlemaniac oxygen, then buzzing on upwards to the magical city of Edinburgh, armed with nothing but a mask, a bank card, and some other stuff too. Clothing mostly.<br /><br />
Within hours of my luggage wheels struggling over those cobbled Scottish stones, my Tinder vibrated a matchy-match. My anxiety hardly found a chance to awaken before I was socially distancing with a sparkly Boston girl at some local pub. The conversation that followed was akin to an evenly skilled game of friendly tennis, each player serving their best selves while impressed by the human bouncing back to them. The beers massaged our rapport as we related through topics most people would walk away from, such as productivity techniques, nomadic lifestyles, and a fascination for folk religion. The evening ended with a mutual agreement that it was the best first date either of us had experienced.<br /><br />
We wasted no time and met up the very next day, then continuing to do so at every leftover moment we could harvest from our busy schedules. My one week planned visit to Scotland's capital turned into two weeks, then three, all the while our interest and faces inched closer and closer. Emotions ultimately overrode any pesky lawful hindrances, and we were making out by the third get-together, inevitably snowballing into greater intimacies, as human romances tend to do.<br /><br />
One morning, I floated from her house into the rare Edinburgh sunshine, fueled by my affection for this girl and the perfection of this otherworldly city. The toes of my sneakers gently dragged upon the sidewalk as my dopey expression spread so far up my face that my smile obscured my vision, oblivious to the lightbulb tumbling from the heavens, aimed for my cranium. Special delivery! The gift clicked into my cerebrum with a knowing smirk, and a one-liner flashed across the horizon. <em><strong>Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak!</strong></em> Omg, that's what I've been doing! I laughed so hard. On the one hand, this was highly irresponsible behaviour according to the science community and wholly against government command. So naughty! But on the other hand, how could anything be wrong when everything felt so blissfully right? Furthermore, (and as this smarty-pants female has since pointed out) we weren't strangers by this point. We didn't feel like strangers from the split second we made eye contact.<br /><br />
But why get snagged on particulars? A blessed sentence had wedged into my pallet and would not budge, humming like a fluorescent tube, begging to be used somewhere, anywhere. One of the 10 Sectlinefor tracks was an obvious choice, but we had already named every song. Oh, but did the loud noise care about that? No, it did not. Instead, the volume increased until my guts reacted for me, sacrificing Track 9's title for this new shiny moniker. For your scorecards at home, that piece was originally called <i>The Self Harmy Army</i>. Reading it back all this time later, I note a loss. It's a good phrase in itself. But I also recognise that a line in this vein could trigger some sensitive minds in our sensitive world. I assume that was my deciding factor at the time. I can't remember a large portion of my life, to be fair.<br /><br />
This change slid beneath the closing door with only hairs to spare. Part of my band homework is to design our album covers, and when I proposed some options to Piton based on specific songs, wouldn't you know it? <em>Kissing Strangers During an Outbreak</em> won the honour, taking hold of the album title too. And once a thought breeds such an independent momentum, there is not much you can do to stop it. Proven sentiment when conversations about our lead single's music video lasted a total of three seconds. <i>"Should we just recreate a live-action version of the artwork?"</i>. Yes, we should. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1p5Ph6Ii6c" target="_blank">And we did</a>.<br /><br />
Belief in "God" is a controversial topic. No amount of heavenly coincidences could sway anyone's solidified opinion one way or another. But when an idea like this one <i>POP</i>s from the ether then sets off a glorious domino effect of creativity, it does assist the case of some celestial force at work. Even my atheist artist friends readily admit that their best inspirations appear to strike from a mystical realm outside of their skulls, but the only difference is that they trip over their words when attempting to explain. Meanwhile, the rest of us nod in gratitude, sending thanks to the powers for choosing us, encouraging them to keep up the great work.<br /><br />
Eventually, I did leave Scotland, sneaking my way into Belfast, then Dublin before the world crumbled to its elbows once again, forcing me to cower back to my London safety bubble. But I will forever treasure this pocket of my explorations for the sheer flawlessness radiating from every minute second, every second minute, every atom, every whisper haunting the dampy gothness that only Edinburgh can summon so well. And, of course, I must offer immense appreciation for my momentary muse, whose aura will eternally remain captured within this record. Thank you. I would kiss you again during any outbreak, probably, idk, maybe that's too far, but the thought is there xxx<br /><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y1p5Ph6Ii6c" width="560"></iframe>
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Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-80361121065476588952021-05-12T15:20:00.001+01:002021-05-12T15:20:17.859+01:00Definitely Not a Cry for Help - Chapter Nine: Da Nang<div align="center"><br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/be2xqeOJ3mY" width="560"></iframe>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpY-SNro8ZQ&list=PL7MT1kmAIA0RYFVD9pG43wU8Uc7hbo_sY" target="_blank">For Every Chapter in One Playlist, Click Here!</a>
</div><br /><br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-3721168758160527542021-03-17T07:01:00.014+00:002023-03-22T10:40:06.492+00:00I Read The Tao Te Ching So You Don't Have To (Taoism)<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img alt="I Read The Tao Te Ching So You Don't Have To (Taoism)" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVG9wvBZXqTmo87po317Tlp1jsNjgcNiA4dP6aWXtxyhqt0xHTsxmaVgXXmQg50oEE6v5wiIhnw0atlMzo6yCxgARZhQxaUeEUJQOdb0ibeicay7i_6OKZIHYb_iMHuu_BvkKVmom6ac/s0/21March17-I-Read-the-Tao-Te-Ching.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></span></div>
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<i><b>PLEASE NOTE:</b> This is not my first holy rodeo. Thus far, I have absorbed the teachings of <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2016/06/i-read-quran-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Quran</a> (Islam - 2016), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2017/03/i-read-satanic-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Satanic Bible</a> (LaVeyan Satanism - 2017), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2018/09/i-read-dianetics-scientology-book-one.html" target="_blank">Dianetics</a> (Scientology - 2018), <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">The Bible</a> (Christianity - 2019), and <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">The Book Of The Law</a> (Thelema - 2020).<br />
2021 is my sixth consecutive year of analysing a religious scripture. I chose the Tao Te Ching (the central text to Taoism) simply because it was overdue.
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The tale of the Tao Te Ching starts with a spiritual teacher known as Lao Tzu (or Laozi). Many crazy narratives persist about this man, including how his mother was pregnant with him for 62 years and how he lived for nine hundred and ninety years (after 13 rebirths). But whatever happened, his name has adorned the cover of every Tao Te Ching since its conception, fully credited as the sole author moments before he vanished for eternity. Gone without a trace! Leaving behind no genuine evidence to prove he existed in the first place. And that is why numerous scholars conclude he did not.<br /><br />
These researchers hypothesise that this legendary figure was but a myth. Their notions are supported by a string of solid arguments, for example, the direct translation of Lao Tzu's name being <i>"old master"</i>. It sounds like a made-up title, right? We must also acknowledge that portions of the Tao Te Ching date back to the 4th century BC, during an age when China was exploding with new developments of behaviour and thought. Schools were springing up all over the country, teaching humans to live better and rulers to rule better. And one such school was the school of Dao. The story goes that a stack of writings were authored here from separate minds, stitched together and placed under the singular Lao Tzu's moniker to create the Tao Te Ching we love today. But why?<br /><br />
One theory points towards another (provably authentic) teaching superstar known as Confucius. Heard of him? Interestingly, the Confucianism and Taoism philosophies arose in China around the same time. Yet, many consider them opposite doctrines, the former with its strict traditional values and the latter with its looser guidance favouring reserved spontaneity. Due to these comparisons, some have suggested that Lao Tzu's character was an invention used as a tangible opponent to Confucius' Chinese influence. <i>(Side note: multiple biographical accounts do speak about a one-off meeting between these two, even if the exchange differs quite substantially, depending on whose side you're on)</i><br /><br />
As life went on, both of these monumentally inspirational philosophies continued to transform China and then the world forever onward. The two seemingly contradictory instructions now effortlessly coexist, not only in nations but in individuals too, assisting different aspects of one's life duties and quests for inner peace. But while Confucius may have the more recognisable name, it is the work of the Tao Te Ching that has exceeded in popularity, with an estimated double amount of followers (12 million), and often declared "the second most translated book in the world beneath only the Bible". Facts like this give me hope. If a text so harmonious lives inside that many heads, then there's a chance our species might be ok after all.<br /><br />
Moving on and a logical next question would be, what is the Tao? And unfortunately, there is no simple answer. Directly translated as <i>"The Way"</i>, the Tao is not even the Tao. It's a placeholder name used to describe the name of the thing you cannot name. The Tao is undefinable, which means that as soon as you think you've defined it, you have already lost it completely. By naming it, it becomes something else with predefined criteria and limitations, lumped into a finite box and immediately losing its infinite power. And that does not make my job any easier.<br /><br />
To start, I'd like to quickly point towards <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a>, a standalone spiritual philosophy I have developed; check us out. Needless to say, when I was digesting the Tao Te Ching, I did so from that perspective, and while these two worlds slotted together with minimal splintering, I still can only offer <i>my</i> interpretation of these other interpretations. So with that flash of shameless promotion aside, my conclusion goes like this:<br /><br />
The Tao is the spirit of the Universe living within and outside of everything. It is the cosmic life force, the rawest form of electrical current that underlies all. It is the source code, the systematic perpetual forward motion of time, the flowing progression of vibrations, the evolution of physical manifestation, the ultimate reality, except further beyond and deeper within anything we have the ability to comprehend.<br /><br />
I am confident that the above paragraph falls roughly in the same ballpark as anybody's Taoistic understanding. However, the insight from renowned Chinese philosopher Zhang Zai is the one I gravitated towards the fastest. He labelled the Tao as the vital energy fundamental to ch'i, and therefore, the motive behind life itself. I also connected these teachings to specific New Thought movements, particularly Wallace D. Wattles' theory of a "formless substance", one which we can collaborate with to bring about a vaster fortune. This assumption may not be entirely in line with Tao Te Ching's schooling, but I have convinced myself that it is of the same essence.<br /><br />
Perhaps the most helpful explanation I've read is this: the Tao is not "everything". Instead, Tao encompasses "everything" and "nothing" as well. Taoists prefer the word "nothing" over "everything" because there are fewer connations to it. "Everything" immediately conjures up mental imagery, which needs to be cancelled out by "nothing" if we wish to grasp any awareness whatsoever. This approach makes sense too, because there are invisible atomic vibrations between everything anyway. From the nothing, everything is born. The space between stuff is what makes the stuff.<br /><br />
One can also effortlessly connect Taoism to pantheistic beliefs, which equate the Universe and "God" as the same by definition. It's the eternal creator; omnipotent, omnipresent, indestructible, infallible, and infinite, permeating time and space. That is the Tao, and that is "God" to the best of my comprehension. They are different terms with identical definitions of a higher power—not as some cruel Abrahamic personified figure, but as the literal highest power, i.e. the universal laws constructing then running it all. The Tao Te Ching is not so blatant in this comparison and hints in another direction by claiming the Tao came before Heaven as the raw material behind even that. But these are merely details of a hardly definable word. I hold no reservations that the Tao describes my firm belief in what "God" is, according to Janthopoyism, and according to many people (while disputed by others too).<br /><br />
So that's fun, but what good does it do? How can you apply this information to your life in any practical manner? And the simple answer is, you don't.<br /><br />
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The Tao Te Ching teaches <i>wu wei</i>, the route of "<i>inaction</i>" or (more effectively) "<i>effortless action</i>". Shed any friction, roll with the flow, do not interfere. Locate the calmest place where you do as little as possible. Make no plans and accept whatever happens, dealing with it exclusively at the moment it arrives. Otherwise, please sit back and watch in awe as the Tao performs its job with absolute perfection. Annoyingly, the decidedly Christain phrase <i>"let go, let God"</i> applies without flaw.<br /><br />
This practice is something I have pursued for many years, and my dedication has doubled after reading this book. The New Thought Movement preaches that we must follow the path of least resistance and was most likely derived from Taoism itself. Hinduism has similar sentiments that predate both of these, certainly a core component of Taoism's philosophic development. Regardless, I myself have written texts damning active exertion as an indication that you're doing something wrong. And while I struggle to "live in the now" at the best of times, I can appreciate how <i>wants</i> and <i>desires</i> are counter-Tao because they are future tense. We should not pursue anything. We should focus on enjoying what life gives us at this minute, come what may.<br /><br />
And the deeper you go, the more curious the Tao Te Ching's information becomes. One logical proposal I resist is that we will never lose if we do not play. It takes two to fight, so be submissive, and you will "win" every time. Certainly, one can find contentment in these ideas of inaction, but I, unfortunately, define myself by my drive. I fear any alternatives! Could I perhaps still play my cards with restraint? Careful to follow the most comfortable flow by utilising intense selection for the data I allow near me? I believe so. "Ignorance is bliss" has become such a dirty phrase to indicate childlike foolishness, but I have gradually grasped it as a powerful tool of intentional creation.<br /><br />
Ok, so basically, do nothing by "religious" order. It seems great on paper! Sign me up! But if you're honest with yourself, doing nothing is way more challenging than it looks. As Taoism clarifies, <i>doing</i> nothing is still actively <i>doing</i> something. You need to <i>be</i> and <i>let it be</i>, allowing everything to unfold without your meddlesome paws, riding smoothly upon the natural wave wherever it takes you. Any belief worth its sugar will teach lessons in the same vein.<br /><br />
It's a worldview you have to live with and practice each day, one which I am consciously aligning my thought process to, making more sense of it the longer we spend time together. And these teachings apply to our modern world of hyperspeed communications impeccably. When last did someone say something upsetting online? Did you want to react? Did you notice others responding from a heightened position of emotional conditioning? And did these heated exchanges make the world a better place? From what I have witnessed, it usually ends in louder voices and personalised insults. Thankfully, there have been tense moments during my recent days when the recollection of the Tao has returned me to an immediate peace. And when peace reigns inside of you, the pursuit of a dispute falls ludicrous. It is a counterproductive motion, one meriting avoidance.<br /><br />
If anything I've said sounds confusing, then do not fear! The Tao Te Ching is here to help! Just kidding. The Tao Te Ching is not written to provide answers. Seeking answers is against the Tao already. And even if you embark on this journey, hundreds of translations are available, each shooting off in oft-contradictory directions (owed to the English language's lack of many terms to match Classical Chinese concepts). An additional issue is the ordering of collected verses, standing as a haphazard structure that continues to frustrate scholars today. The original slivers of paper were slapped together based on similar wording, which proved to be a silly move, causing the teachings to jump around in a disjointed fashion. Some of the more carefree interpreters even shuffle the lines around to suit their narrative! This attitude could be regarded blasphemous to some but forgivable by others, especially considering the shoddy job they were forced to work with anyway.<br /><br />
Another stumbling point that people overlook is that the Tao Te Ching was not written for us. Back in the China day, spiritual philosophy and politics functioned hand in hand, governments even exploiting religious beliefs for their gain. Hence, multiple ancient texts directly address the emperors, cleverly tackling the "head" of the nation. The Tao Te Ching is no different. It is primarily an instruction manual explaining the correct way to run an empire while holding these authoritative figures accountable for their troubles. This viewpoint is more important than people realise because when discussing "inaction", some suggestions are unrealistic to an individual but make far more sense when applied to a governmental group. Of course, specific liberal translations tried to widen the inclusion by shifting words like "empire" to "universe" or "world", but it didn't settle the book from feeling slightly off to me. From what I gather, the Zhuangzi (arguably the second most important of Taoist literature) focuses deeper upon your everyday man, and I look forward to reading that whenever the Tao delivers it to me.<br /><br />
On a personal gripe, I also have an irrational aversion to wordplay that jumps to opposites in attempts of sounding smart, but are ultimately inapplicable to anything. A typical example I just made up would go something like, <i>"It is the dark and the light, the up and the down and the sideways. Nothing is everything, but everything is nothing and the time you waste is wasting your time"</i>. Do you get what I mean? It's bad writing! And the Tao Te Ching is stuffed full of them at every turn. I breathe in and accept its intention within the greater scheme of things, but if my message here can deter one fellow writer from executing this lazy composition style, then this inclusion was worth it!<br /><br />
Finally, many of my notes (especially in the beginning) questioned what the Tao Te Ching was trying to do. What's the incentive here? It's not about happiness or enlightenment, right? Those things are pursuits! And even the goal of understanding the Tao is action, therefore the wrong way. It explicitly teaches us to learn less and dumb ourselves down! Furthermore, the religious aspect itself is debatable (common among Eastern faiths, to be fair). The Tao Te Ching is far detached from the world of deities while the afterlife has not a whisper of concern. So what is it? <i>WHAT IS IT??</i><br /><br />
From my perspective, it is simply the root of all faiths. Irrespective of what you subscribe to, the Tao can apply as the undercurrent to everything/anything/nothing. It is the way of life, the "correct" way of living, and despite my earlier reservations, I wholeheartedly believe its texts to be true. The proof of the Tao is in its longevity. Don't forget that this manual is older than the Bible! Yet, these words are still appropriate to today's modern world irrespective of background, perhaps more so than ever before, remaining in tune forever. There's very little I need to say beyond that.<br /><br />
I'd like to gradually wind down by highlighting the apprehension I've held while writing this piece. When I announced the Tao Te Ching as my 2021 scripture studies, my friends' reaction was overwhelmingly positive. More people expressed their support for this project than any other of my previous religious explorations, gushing their praises so openly that it made me nervous. What if I hated it? What if (god forbid) I didn't get it?? They'd chase my fraudulent ass out of town! Thankfully, this was far from the case. Sure, I have reluctances towards certain verses (many of my favourite life-traits are reportedly contrasting to The Way, including ambition, knowledge, and travel), but this was not enough to knock me off course. Above everything, I closed this book with an armful of enthusiasm which I shall be dumping upon you right now.<br /><br />
Of every religious teaching I've read, the Tao Te Ching was the best one. It is the most enlightened I've felt after any holy text, and I know I can always fall back on these words for help whenever I need them. Unlike every other faith I've looked into, Taoism is logical, applicable, and not weird whatsoever. The amount of wisdom that these verses can initiate within anyone is infinite, and it has the potential to change your life forever. If you spent the rest of your days chilling within this space, your mental health would gently sway in the wind, and you would be a better person for it in all aspects. I know this will stand true for me.<br /><br />
If someone said to me that the Tao Te Ching was the best book ever written, I would be unable to argue. On the contrary, I have this deep calling to write my own interpretation, which I will do as soon as possible. I will call it Jao Te Ching. And it will be excellent, you'll see.<br />
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<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read the Bible So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pyFKdFAMOmx3Y0d9iYv5w_PjgnJnP_xl2mlK74J7BdQVLdwgAbTgDJeRGqwmtRuX5RSUikf9t19T4LsOcwxU6kuAz0AHFIFOhwWGb1ATdGxJXZKnEcMcNTYPBiRMshu_zIMKC_MdvW0/s1600/19Oct18-I-Read-the-Bible.jpg" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/10/i-read-bible-so-you-dont-have-to.html" target="_blank">I Read the Bible So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
<b style="font-size: 120%;">We Need to Talk About Translations</b><br /><br />
As previously noted, the "second most translated book in history" has been rewritten by so many minds that selecting a singular publication to follow is a daunting task in itself. There are over 250 versions in Western languages alone. One could endlessly lose themselves in the chase for the perfect adaptation (and I intend to), but for the sake of analyses, how many versions before a person draws the line? Six versions. That was my definitive answer. Hopefully with this amount, I have covered enough ground. If not, the Tao flows on within me and without me anyway. Below are the books I ultimately chose. <br /><br />
<b>D.C. Lau</b> <i>(published 1963)</i><br />
As a globally respected Chinese sinologist and translator, it's no surprise that my Penguin hardcopy of the Tao Te Ching was Lau's version. His expertise in this field of language offers us one of the more direct translations, and even if his introduction/conclusions were borderline unreadable, his educated stance proved invaluable to my understanding. Of every Tao Te Ching I read, I got the vibe that D.C. Lau knew his stuff the best.<br />
His translation is the one I have included below with my detailed analysis.<br />
I read it twice.<br />
<a href="https://terebess.hu/english/tao/lau.html" target="_blank">Available online here</a>.<br /><br />
<b>Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English</b> <i>(published 1989)</i><br />
If forced to recommend one Tao Te Ching translation, I wouldn't feel forced whatsoever, as this collaboration effortlessly swoops in at the top slot. Its simplistic clarity did not sacrifice the poetics, and when I needed help, this was the first direction I'd run. Perfect for first-timers! Very impressive! Good show, Gia-Fu and Jane!<br />
<a href="https://terebess.hu/english/tao/gia.html" target="_blank">Available online here</a>.<br /><br />
<b>James Legge</b> <i>(published 1891)</i><br />
As a Scottish scholar and sinologist best known for his early Classical Chinese translations, Legge's Tao Te Ching is on everyone's A-list of recommendations. It wins many points for such a smooth experience, but I wasn't a fan of his silly push for poetics, unnecessarily beating lines into rhymes. Never trust a translation that rhymes! Phrases will favour something over something else for the wrong reasons! Still, it is a decent place to start.<br />
<a href="https://www.taoistic.com/taoteching/taoteching-jameslegge.htm" target="_blank">Available online here</a>.<br /><br />
<b>Aleister Crowley</b> <i>(published 1923)</i><br />
When I discovered that the most famous occultist of all time had written an adaptation of the Tao Te Ching, I couldn't resist! Due to unmistakable similarities, I'm confident that Aleister's version is based on James Legge's work (or they both came from the same source), but Crowley's trademark spooky mysticism pokes through, justifying its existence as a unique addition to any student's collection. I enjoyed it!<br />
<a href="https://www.taoistic.com/taoteching/taoteching-aleistercrowley.htm" target="_blank">Available online here</a>.<br /><br />
<b>Ellen Marie Chen</b> <i>(published 1989)</i><br />
When seeking the big-name translators, everyone forever applauded Ellen Chen as a top-notch voice, and I was eager to spend some time together. Unfortunately, I quickly realised that her work was catered for proper academics, holding the poetic complexities intact without regard to clarity whilst littering every line with bracketed Chinese terminology. Complex! That said, I imagine once you eat the Tao Te Ching for breakfast, this version will serve as an appreciated acquired taste for those who crave stronger kicks.
<br />
<a href="https://terebess.hu/english/tao/e-m-chen.html" target="_blank">Available online here</a>.<br /><br />
<b>Ursula K. Le Guin</b> <i>(published 1997)</i><br />
Finally, American fiction author Le Guin gave it a go, and her adoration for Taoism oozes through her every word, coming out the other side as the most balanced and forgiving translation on this list. She also blesses her pages with helpful footnotes explaining her phrase choices, providing a sturdy journey from beginning to end. Very cool!!
<br />
<a href="http://www.sfhunyuan.com/images/TAO_TE_CHING_-_LE_GUIN_edition.pdf " target="_blank">Available online here</a>.<br /><br />
It's worth noting that both Stephen Mitchell and Jonathan Star perpetually fell upon my radar as essential contenders. Unfortunately, time is a finite resource, but I will get to them eventually. Sorry, boys!<br /><br />
Another cool text I stumbled upon is <a href="https://www.bu.edu/religion/files/pdf/Tao_Teh_Ching_Translations.pdf" target="_blank">this side-by-side collection of translations</a>, including the aforementioned D.C. Lau and Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English, among others. I have not read it in full, but just looking at these pages make me smile.<br /><br />
Finally, on those occasions when my brain cogs jammed from something extra sticky and no translation could free me, I visited <a href="https://www.taoistic.com/taoteching-laotzu/" target="_blank">Taostic's explained section</a> for an extra shove of help. And it always did so.<br /><br /><br />
Ok, whew, wtf, let's get this party started already! Coming up right now is my in-depth scrub of the Tao Te Ching! But just know that while <i>almost</i> all verses are included, there are some missing when I found them to be repetitive or uninspiring. May I suggested reading the Tao Te Ching along with my words? It'll maximise the value.<br /><br />
Drumroll, and away we go.<br /><br /><br />
<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK ONE: TAO CHING
</div>
<br />
<div class="theparts">
I
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way that can be spoken of<br />
Is not the constant way;<br />
The name that can be named<br />
Is not the constant name.<br />
</div><br />
It has no name, it's not even a thing, you just can’t.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;<br />
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.<br />
</div><br />
This ties in perfectly with my theory that the Tao is the raw energy <i>"formless substance"</i> which literally everything is made of.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observe its secrets;<br />
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.<br />
</div><br />
Annoying and contradictory but also important. "Manifestations" is the keyword of this substance's evolution. I also appreciate that, contrary to most Taoistic understandings, there is <i>some</i> leeway when it comes to desires. This gives me room to better slot my life into it, thanks!<br />
You must not want anything and you must go with the flow if you wish to see the mystery of the Tao. But it's only through wanting to see the result of these mysteries that you can. Something like that?<br />
Meanwhile, Ursula K. Le Guin strayed from the others, stating that the second line was <i>"the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants"</i> which makes much more sense in the greater context.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
II
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Thus Something and Nothing produce each other;<br />
The difficult and the easy complement each other;<br />
The long and the short off-set each other;<br />
The high and the low incline towards each other;<br />
Note and sound harmonize with each other;<br />
Before and after follow each other.
<br />
</div><br />
It’s the age-old truth where, for example, sadness is required to grasp happiness. Opposites depend on one another to exist.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore the sage keeps to the deed that consists in taking no action and practises the teaching that uses no words.
<br />
</div><br />
Kind of the Tao theme here. You can't teach the Tao, you live the Tao, and others can learn it by observation.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The myriad creatures rise from it yet it claims no authority;<br />
It gives them life yet claims no possession;<br />
It benefits them yet exacts no gratitude;<br />
It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.<br /><br />
It is because it lays claim to no merit<br />
That its merit never deserts it.
<br />
</div><br />
Beautiful words and fits the criteria of my theory exactly. It's the source of life moving forward.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
III
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention;<br />
not to value goods which are hard to come by will keep them from theft;<br />
not to display what is desirable will keep them from being unsettled of mind.
<br />
</div><br />
This makes logical sense.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore in governing the people, the sage empties their minds but fills their bellies, weakens their wills but strengthens their bones.<br />
He always keeps them innocent of knowledge and free from desire and ensures that the clever never dare to act.
<br />
</div><br />
But this does not! It's so far away from what anyone would consider the correct way to be treated. Keep the masses dumb and happy! Keep the clever afraid of action! I have an issue with this, but who wouldn’t?<br />
Although, one could defend that the entire Tao philosophy is passiveness and non-action. It's less about enforcing ignorance and more about diverting them away from the suffering of human kind's infinite longing. It's tough to swallow due to the wording but I don't think it's exclusive to the people; it's the path all must follow, even those with great power.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
IV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way is empty, yet use will not drain it.<br />
Deep, it is like the ancestor of the myriad creatures.<br />
Blunt the sharpness;<br />
Untangle the knots;<br />
Soften the glare;<br />
Let your wheels move only along old ruts.
<br />
</div><br />
Too poetic to take seriously.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there.<br />
I know not whose son it is.<br />
It images the forefather of God.
<br />
</div><br />
The mention of God is interesting because Taoism is regarded as a non-theistic belief by many. Still, this verse indicates that even God came from this stuff. In my interpretation of God and the Tao, they are interchangeable, or at least aspects of one another.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
V
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs;<br />
the sage is ruthless, and treats the people as straw dogs.
<br />
</div><br />
I don't get this. Are we supposed to be on the sides of sages? Verses like this convince me that the Tao Te Ching was never meant to be read by general society.<br />
The Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English uses the word <i>"impartial"</i> instead of <i>"ruthless"</i> which is way more digestible. It's like nature, it doesn't really care about your individual life. I get that. It makes sense to avoid differentiation once you view everything as coming from the same source point. Screw your ego.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Is not the space between heaven and earth like a bellows?<br />
It is empty without being exhausted:<br />
The more it works the more comes out.<br />
<br />
Much speech leads inevitably to silence.<br />
Better to hold fast to the void.
<br />
</div><br />
A bellows is one of those squeezy things you use to force air into a fire.<br />
In that way, this fun verse makes sense. It's empty but if you work it, stuff comes out! And you can do so forever without the mechanism getting tired.<br />
And then to conclude: speak less! Fewer words are more!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The spirit of the valley never dies.<br />
This is called the mysterious female.<br />
The gateway of the mysterious female<br />
Is called the root of heaven and earth.<br />
Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there,<br />
Yet use will never drain it.
<br />
</div><br />
I don't care what anyone says, they're talking about a vagina. Read that again and tell me that's not vagina talk. And once you can locate a level of maturity, it actually makes sense. All life is formed up there. The vagina does the work of the Tao like nothing else, surely.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Heaven and earth are enduring.<br />
The reason why heaven and earth can be enduring is that they do not give themselves life.<br />
Hence they are able to be long-lived.
<br />
</div><br />
You can’t kill what was never alive. Again, if you don’t play you can’t lose. There is no result.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore the sage puts his person last and it comes first,<br />
Treats it as extraneous to himself and it is preserved.<br /><br />
Is it not because he is without thought of self that he is able to accomplish his private ends?
<br />
</div><br />
Connecting to the previous statement, the sage must mimic "heaven and earth". His lack of involvement follows The Way without resistance.<br /><br />
I like the Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English offering of the first two lines:<br />
<i>The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.<br />
He is detached, thus at one with all.</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
VIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Highest good is like water.<br />
Because water excels in benefiting the myriad creatures without contending with them and settles where none would like to be, it comes close to the way.
<br />
</div><br />
I feel like water is one of the easiest visuals to grasp when illustrating The Way. Effortless and formless and vital.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In a home it is the site that matters;<br />
In quality of mind it is depth that matters;<br />
In an ally it is benevolence that matters;<br />
In speech it is good faith that matters;<br />
In government it is order that matters;<br />
In affairs it is ability that matters;<br />
In action it is timeliness that matters.<br /><br />
It is because it does not contend that it is never at fault.
<br />
</div><br />
I nearly didn't include this because it all seemed a bit obvious, but the <i>"in affairs it is ability that matters"</i> leapt out to me.<br />
More specifically, Ellen Chen's translation: "<i>(His/her) projects (shih) are carried out by good talents (neng)"</i>. That is something I have thought about a lot and it is a deep-rooted teaching from <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/writing/200826_whatisthemeaningoflife.php" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a> as well as Darma from Hinduism. Stick to your talents for they are what you are naturally good at. They require the least action from you, whereas someone else will struggle more. Your best contribution to the world has already been chosen for you.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
IX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Rather than fill it to the brim by keeping it upright<br />
Better to have stopped in time;<br />
Hammer it to a point<br />
And the sharpness cannot be preserved for ever;
<br />
</div><br />
A full vessel is difficult to carry and can be spilt.<br />
James Legge's translation described this second part as, <i>"If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness"</i>. I thought this was way better but Ellen Chen's <i>"to temper and sharpen a sword, its edge could not be kept (pao) long".</i> It makes me wonder if they mean over-use, over-sharpening, or hammering it into shape will ultimately weaken the blade? It all works.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There may be gold and jade to fill a hall<br />
But there is none who can keep them.
<br />
</div><br />
Riches put a house at risk, so true, so true.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
To be overbearing when one has wealth and position<br />
Is to bring calamity upon oneself.<br />
To retire when the task is accomplished<br />
Is the way of heaven.
<br />
</div><br />
If your name or wealth becomes too big, it will ruin you. Pull back once you’ve reached the goal. I have no idea how to apply this to my life. I can't fathom reaching that point. It will be the death of me, I guess.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
X
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
In concentrating your breath can you become as supple<br />
As a babe?
<br />
</div><br />
Babies are oft-revered in the Tao. My understanding is that they are the ultimate being of submission. Yet while they do nothing, they trust the flow, are cared for, and are protected.<br />
Ursula K. Le Guin states that this chapter is about meditation. The above verse would support her case.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Can you love the people and govern the state<br />
Without resorting to action?
<br />
</div><br />
Again, directly addressing a governmental body. And it's a big ask. Does any leader in our modern world adhere to this instruction? Is it even feasible considering our current worldly systems?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
When your discernment penetrates the four quarters<br />
Are you capable of not knowing anything?
<br />
</div><br />
I take this to mean that even with tons of knowledge, you still know nothing. Indeed, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. My experience, for sure. And I know a lot.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Thirty spokes share one hub.<br />
Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the cart.<br />
Knead clay in order to make a vessel.<br />
Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the vessel.<br />
Cut out doors and windows in order to make a room.<br />
Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the room.<br /><br />
Thus what we gain is Something, yet it is by virtue of Nothing that this can be put to use.
<br />
</div><br />
This is really great. The value of the nothing is more than the something. The empty spaces are what make things what they are; makes things functional.<br />
The Ursula K. Le Guin translation leads with <i>"Thirty spokes meet in the hub. Where the wheel isn’t is where it’s useful",</i> which is easier.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The five colors make man's eyes blind;<br />
The five notes make his ears deaf;<br />
The five tastes injure his palate;<br />
Riding and hunting<br />
Make his mind go wild with excitement;<br />
Goods hard to come by<br />
Serve to hinder his progress.
<br />
</div><br />
A warning against excess. Unsure what's up with the "five" specifications but whatever, Lao.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the sage is<br />
For the belly<br />
Not for the eye.<br /><br />
Therefore he discards the one and takes the other.
<br />
</div><br />
My initial understanding of this was literal. Stuff like hunger should be fixed, but pretty and luxurious solutions are not the way. I've always said this. Any meal will do as long as it's healthy! The cheaper the better!<br />
This is definitely the Tao but I see other translations view <i>"belly"</i> as <i>"gut feeling"</i> or <i>"the inner eye"</i> which I guess is way more poetic so, ok, fine, I accept everything.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
What is meant by saying favor and disgrace are things that startle?<br />
Favor when it is bestowed on a subject serves to startle as much as when it is withdrawn.<br />
This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace are things that startle.<br />
What is meant by saying that high rank is, like one's body, a source of great trouble?<br />
The reason I have great trouble is that I have a body.<br />
When I no longer have a body, what trouble have I?
<br />
</div><br />
Same thing here. Whether in a low position or a high position, you will fear either never obtaining the power or losing it. Hence why you must accept whatever happens.<br />
Also, without a body, none of this would be a problem. I love that wording, even though it's basically saying that only in death do we end the suffering. Buddhism 101?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence he who values his body more than dominion over the empire can be entrusted with the empire.<br />
He who loves his body more than dominion over the empire can be given the custody of the empire.
<br />
</div><br />
I found this confusing. It appears other translations lean more towards loving yourself and the world in equal amounts. Treat everything the same way you treat yourself? Something like that. Not always applicable especially for masochists.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XIV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
What cannot be seen is called evanescent;<br />
What cannot be heard is called rarefied;<br />
What cannot be touched is called minute.<br /><br />
These three cannot be fathomed<br />
And so they are confused and looked upon as one.
<br />
</div><br />
An admirable attempt at describing the indescribable. Tao is a formless substance; the root vibration of all things. But it is essentially nothing as far as we can perceive, for even the spaces between physical matter are buzzing with this stuff (electrons, baby!). Everything you can comprehend is a crude version of what it is, a dumbed-down variation so we can understand the reality around us. But it's not it. Because reality is a persistent illusion built by our own perception, the Tao making conscious sense of itself; Maya.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Its upper part is not dazzling;<br />
Its lower part is not obscure.<br />
Dimly visible, it cannot be named<br />
And returns to that which is without substance.<br />
This is called the shape that has no shape,<br />
The image that is without substance.<br />
This is called indistinct and shadowy.<br />
Go up to it and you will not see its head;<br />
Follow behind it and you will not see its rear.
<br />
</div><br />
The Tao is what always was. It came before and ultimately evolved into everything even us. It's the formless substance taking form to where we are now but it's still the same vibrational stuff. We are made of it, we are perceiving it, it is The Way.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Of old he who was well versed in the way<br />
Was minutely subtle, mysteriously comprehending,<br />
And too profound to be known.<br />
It is because he could not be known<br />
That he can only be given a makeshift description:
<br />
</div><br />
What were the old masters of the Tao like? It's impossible to know but these verses will attempt to describe them.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Tentative, as if fording a river in winter,<br />
Hesitant, as if in fear of his neighbors;<br />
Formal like a guest;<br />
Falling apart like the thawing ice;<br />
Thick like the uncarved block;<br />
Vacant like a valley;<br />
Murky like muddy water.
<br />
</div><br />
Poetic comparisons to earthly items used to understand the masters' manner. I adored James Legge's interpretation of the second to last line, <i>"unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into anything"</i>.<br />
The uncarved wood is a signature symbol of the Tao Te Ching. Undamaged and full of potential.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Who can be muddy and yet, settling, slowly become limpid?
<br />
</div><br />
This is perhaps my favourite illustration of the Tao. How do you clean muddy water? You leave it alone, dumbass. So good.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
He who holds fast to this way<br />
Desires not to be full.<br />
It is because he is not full<br />
That he can be worn and yet newly made.
<br />
</div><br />
I initially took this to mean that a person who has been through something profound has no desire to look fresh. You look worn because you are. You have earned it.<br />
However, based on other interpretations, it's more about not pursuing fulfilment. Again, Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English simplified it best with <i>"Not seeking fulfillment, they are not swayed by desire for change."</i>. There's something liberating about this instruction. All spiritual quests are fueled by the promise of something new or completion. The Tao views this as a path of action that can easily spin off course into bad places.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XVI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
I do my utmost to attain emptiness;<br />
I hold firmly to stillness.<br />
The myriad creatures all rise together<br />
And I watch their return.<br />
The teaming creatures<br />
All return to their separate roots.<br />
Returning to one's roots is known as stillness.<br />
This is what is meant by returning to one's destiny.<br />
Returning to one's destiny is known as the constant.<br />
Knowledge of the constant is known as discernment.
<br />
</div><br />
Stillness and emptiness should be the primary goals of life because it is the inevitable. Before life and after life, this is the default state. To achieve this during the brief period of living is to connect to the source.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Woe to him who wilfully innovates<br />
While ignorant of the constant,
<br />
</div><br />
I took this as a repeated teaching about action only causing more issues because the more you achieve, the more you have to lose (see <i>Mo' Money Mo' Problems – The Notorious B.I.G.</i>). Furthermore, it's all a distraction from the eventuality of stillness. Why are humans always in a rush to do things? Is it to escape some inherent fear of death? Perhaps the Tao is teaching us to embrace this certainty instead of avoiding the thought.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
But should one act from knowledge of the constant<br />
One's action will lead to impartiality,<br />
Impartiality to kingliness,<br />
Kingliness to heaven,<br />
Heaven to the way,<br />
The way to perpetuity,<br />
And to the end of one's days one will meet with no danger.
<br />
</div><br />
This is my own interpretation but I think it might be saying that, by doing nothing, you come closer to heaven/death, and therefore, are liberated from the fear of it. Get this right and death itself can do you no harm.<br />
Other translations allude to death not being the end because the Tao will exist forever. Life flows on within you and without you.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XVII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.<br />
Next comes the ruler they love and praise;<br />
Next comes one they fear;<br />
Next comes one with whom they take liberties.<br /><br />
When there is not enough faith, there is lack of good faith.
<br />
</div><br />
The different tiers of leadership and it's wonderful. The best rulers are those you do not even realise are ruling you. But the further away from the Tao you go, the more intrusive they become; the ones you admire, then the ones you fear, then the ones you rebel against. If a leader loses trust in their people, the people will become untrustworthy. This can apply to <i>EVERYTHING</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hesitant, he does not utter words lightly.<br />
When his task is accomplished and his work done<br />
The people all say, 'It happened to us naturally.'
<br />
</div><br />
This is the best. When the true ruler completes a task, the people believe they did it themselves. Brilliant.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XVIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
When the great way falls into disuse<br />
There are benevolence and rectitude;<br />
When cleverness emerges<br />
There is great hypocrisy;<br />
When the six relations are at variance<br />
There are filial children;<br />
When the state is benighted<br />
There are loyal ministers.
<br />
</div><br />
This is bewildering but also a strong example of what makes Taoism so unique. Qualities such as benevolence and rectitude and cleverness seem admirable but are still no substitute for the Tao. Even if your intentions are good, to have intentions is wrong. You are taking matters into your hands rather than going with the natural flow.<br />
It is also calling attention to how family devotion often arises when the family is falling apart, or how loyal ministers only appear when the nation is in turmoil. They seem like good things but are deviations. Very tricky but fascinating.<br /><br />
FYI: the "six relations" are father and son; two brothers; husband and wife. No girls allowed, I guess. Surprise!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XIX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Exterminate learning and there will no longer be worries.<br /><br />
Exterminate the sage, discard the wise,<br />
And the people will benefit a hundredfold;<br />
Exterminate benevolence, discard rectitude,<br />
And the people will again be filial;<br />
Exterminate ingenuity, discard profit,<br />
And there will be no more thieves and bandits.
<br />
</div><br />
This continues directly on from the previous piece. All of these things we considered to be good qualities (sainthood, wisdom, kindness, morality etc) but they disrupt the path to discovering the True Way. Stop trying to be something! Just beeeee.<br />
Ellen Chen uses the word <i>"artistry"</i> rather than <i>"ingenuity"</i> which I wholeheartedly fight against.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block,<br />
Have little thought of self and as few desires as possible.
<br />
</div><br />
There's that uncarved block again! That last line is basically the teachings in one squirt.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
I alone am inactive and reveal no signs,<br />
And wax without having reached the limit.<br />
Like a baby that has not yet learned to smile,<br />
Listless as though with no home to go back to.<br />
The multitude all have more than enough.<br />
I alone seem to be in want.<br />
My mind is that of a fool - how blank!<br />
Vulgar people are clear.<br />
I alone am drowsy.<br />
Vulgar people are alert.<br />
I alone am muddled.<br />
Calm like the sea;<br />
Like a high wind that never ceases.<br />
The multitude all have a purpose.<br />
I alone am foolish and uncouth.<br />
I alone am different from others<br />
And value being fed by the mother.
<br />
</div><br />
Hahaha, I found a note to myself here which read <i>I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS CHAPTER AT ALL, I NEED THIS EXPLAINED TO ME PLS</i>.<br /><br />
My confusion is not unwarranted as this verse is one of the most hotly debated in all of the Tao Te Ching. My hard copy of D.C. Lau's translation is littered with footnotes and certain lines are shifted around depending on who you speak to. I even note some scholars debate its authenticity. The reason is obvious. It shifts to an unusually personal and self-pitied voice, very unlike the Lao Tzu we have come to depend on.<br />
I don't feel equipped to comment on it, so let's just move on, shall we? :) <br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
In his every movement a man of great virtue<br />
Follows the way and the way only.
<br />
</div><br />
Aleister Crowley's translation was, <i>"The sole source of energy is the Tao"</i> which is exactly how I've been interpreting this whole thing. It's the source energy.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
As a thing the way is<br />
Shadowy and indistinct.<br />
Indistinct and shadowy,<br />
Yet within it is an image;<br />
Shadowy and indistinct,<br />
Yet within it is a substance.<br />
Dim and dark,<br />
Yet within it is an essence.<br />
This essence is quite genuine<br />
And within it is something that can be tested.
<br />
</div><br />
This verse really spoke to me, there's a lot to love in here. At times the Tao Te Ching can be overly poetic and intentionally contradictory in its explanations. But right here it's noting the Tao as a testable substance. It reaffirms my understanding.<br />
Furthermore, the word <i>"essence"</i> is often replaced in other translations. Ursula K. Le Guin uses <i>"spirit"</i> which is lovely, while Ellen Chen uses <i>"life seed"</i> which is even better.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore the sage embraces the One and is a model for the empire.<br /><br />
He does not show himself, and so is conspicuous;<br />
He does not consider himself right, and so is illustrious;<br />
He does not brag, and so has merit;<br />
He does not boast, and so endures.<br /><br />
It is because he does not contend that no one in the empire is in a position to contend with him.
<br />
</div><br />
I like all of this. It feels counter-intuitive but is logical. Be humble to earn respect. <br />
Some great simplified lines from the Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English version (as per usual), such as:<br />
<i>"And set an example to all. Not putting on a display, They shine forth,"</i> and<br />
<i>They do not quarrel, So no one quarrels with them."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
To use words but rarely<br />
Is to be natural.<br /><br />
Hence a gusty wind cannot last all morning, and a sudden downpour cannot last all day.<br />
Who is it that produces these? Heaven and earth.<br />
If even heaven and earth cannot go on forever, much less can man.<br />
That is why one follows the way.
<br />
</div><br />
This is an easy analogy to grasp and something I am already trying to nurture within my life. Speak less.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
When there is not enough faith, there is lack of good faith.
<br />
</div><br />
And here is another line that our world needs to better grasp. When you do not trust, how can you expect to be trusted?
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXIV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
He who tiptoes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.<br /><br />
He who shows himself is not conspicuous;<br />
He who considers himself right is not illustrious;<br />
He who brags will have no merit;<br />
He who boasts will not endure.
<br />
</div><br />
Again this is clear, logical, and worthy of your consideration.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
From the point of view of the way these are 'excessive food and useless excresences'.<br />
As there are Things that detest them, he who has the way does not abide in them.
<br />
</div><br />
It is really funny how the <i>"excessive food and useless excresences"</i> varies from version to version.<br />
James Legge says it's remnants of food and a tumour.<br />
Aleister Crowley says it's garbage and cancer.<br />
Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English say it's extra food and unnecessary luggage.<br />
And Ellen Chen says it's excess nature and superfluous actions.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
There is a thing confusedly formed,<br />
Born before heaven and earth.<br />
Silent and void<br />
It stands alone and does not change,<br />
Goes round and does not weary.<br />
It is capable of being the mother of the world.<br />
I know not its name<br />
So I style it 'the way'.
<br />
</div><br />
I can only reiterate how this applies to my Taoistic understanding perfectly. It's the same substance, the electrical current of the world running through every atom which is, in essence, identical everywhere, and <i>is</i> everywhere, and always has been. But it also perpetually moves because everything is evolving using this material yet it never gets tired. How could it? It is the pure energy so many spiritual teachings speak of.<br />
Hence the mother of the world. It's the mother of everything.<br />
Ursula K. Le Guin's footnotes on this one were in tune with me. She refers to it as an <i>"unshaped, undifferentiated lump"</i> aka the formless substance. She goes onto say, <i>"Though it is before everything, it follows what is"</i> which I love as it applies to my evolution ramble.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Man models himself on earth,<br />
Earth on heaven,<br />
Heaven on the way,<br />
And the way on that which is naturally so.
<br />
</div><br />
Here and elsewhere it indicates that the Tao came before even "God". That is nonsensical to me as it limits the description of "God" to be something other than what it has the potential to be. My classification is one of the "creator", the source energy, and the system which ensures a constant forward motion. The Tao fits my definition of God without flaw, perhaps even better than any other definition I've come across. <br />
People will argue but there is no need to argue. God is a word and you need not fear it.<br />
James Legge uses the term <i>"law"</i> in his version, as in <i>“Man takes his law from the Earth”</i> which I preferred.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXVI
</div>
<br />
This was one of the only verses that I didn't really gain anything from. It wasn't terrible and I could have forced something out, but it didn't appeal like the others, so I've omitted it. Maybe you'll disagree!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXVII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
One who excels in travelling leaves no wheel tracks;<br />
One who excels in speech makes no slips;<br />
One who excels in reckoning uses no counting rods;<br />
One who excels in shutting uses no bolts yet what he has shut cannot be opened.<br />
One who excels in tying uses no cords yet what he has tied cannot be undone.<br /><br />
Therefore the sage always excels in saving people, and so abandons no one;<br />
Always excels in saving things, and so abandons nothing.
<br />
</div><br />
I like it. You’ve got to save everyone! Otherwise, you’re not very good at what you do, Mr Sage.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This is called following one's discernment.
<br />
</div><br />
This line comes directly after and there are a few ways people go with <i>"following one's discernment"</i>.<br />
Chen and Feng/English state this line as <i>"following the light".</i><br />
Meanwhile, Legge is more secretive with <i>"hiding the light of his procedure"</i>.<br />
And then Crowley does his own thing as per usual: <i>"the Occult Regimen"</i> lol ok.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the good man is the teacher the bad learns from;<br />
And the bad man is the material the good works on.<br />
Not to value the teacher<br />
Nor to love the material<br />
Though it seems clever, betrays great bewilderment.<br /><br />
This is called the essential and the secret.
<br />
</div><br />
This took me a moment, but I reached a conclusion. The master helps someone but that someone is also imperative to the material as they help refine the teaching. If either the material is weak or the person is unable to follow, it’s irrelevant, because anyone who witnesses the lesson will believe that it doesn’t work.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXVIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Know the male<br />
But keep to the role of the female
<br />
</div><br />
This is a thorny road. As we know, in Taoism, the passive and soft are the closest to The Way. That is why the female role is favoured because she is the <i>"weakness"</i> (Crowley) or the <i>"feeble"</i> (Legge). Problematic! Even if the heart is in the right place by arguably placing women on a superior pedestal, it's still a sexist similarity shared between so many religions.<br />
Alternatively, the Feng/English translation registers the <i>"strength of man"</i> but argues to <i>"keep a woman's care"</i>. That's probably easier to cautiously accept.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
And you will again return to being a babe.
<br />
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
And you will return to being the uncarved block.
<br />
</div><br />
These two lines are situated quite far apart but are so often repeated that I wanted to note them together. It's about being pure, untouched, and uninfluenced.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Know the white<br />
But keep to the role of the black
<br />
</div><br />
Such a nondescript statement although the online translation of D.C. Lau's differed from my print copy, using the word <i>"sullied"</i> instead. Weird and unhelpful.<br />
Both Ursula K. Le Guin and Aleister Crowley speak to the effect of <i>"Knowing light and staying dark"</i> which really should be the norm. It makes sense. The light is The Way, you must follow it. But remain dark, as in unknowable and formless.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
When the uncarved block shatters it becomes vessels.<br />
The sage makes use of these and becomes the lord over the officials.<br /><br />
Hence the greatest cutting does not sever.
<br />
</div><br />
Most translations agree that these final lines are a call to non-violence, which is good.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXIX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Whoever takes the empire and wishes to do anything to it I see will have no respite.<br />
The empire is a sacred vessel and nothing should be done to it.<br />
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it;<br />
whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
<br />
</div><br />
Again with the <i>"empire"</i> although it's worth noting that Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English interpret the word here as <i>"universe"</i> while Ellen Chen uses the <i>"world"</i>. Chen's second line in full reads <i>"The world is a spirit vessel"</i> which nearly knocked me off my chair.<br />
Is this a better approach to apply the Tao to your life? By replacing <i>"empire"</i> with <i>"universe/world"</i> in all circumstances? It won't work all of the time but maybe some of the time.<br />
Either way, the message is clear and strong. Don't force change in accordance with your perception. Let things flow otherwise you’ll break it. Although... how do you break the Tao? You'll only break yourself. That's probably it.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore the sage avoids excess, extravagance, and arrogance.
<br />
</div><br />
Just hammering this bit in as a repeat.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
One who assists the ruler of men by means of the way does not intimidate the empire by a show of arms.<br /><br />
This is something which is liable to rebound.<br />
Where troops have encamped<br />
There will brambles grow;<br />
In the wake of a mighty army<br />
Bad harvests follow without fail.
<br />
</div><br />
This verse seems contradictory to my understanding of the Tao. It's more "mystical" in a sense, similar to other religions. If you do wrong, karma may return with unfavourable methods. You will be punished for doing wrong according to this philosophy. It feels out of sync with the flow for me.<br />
However, there are ways to spin it. Perhaps the <i>"brambles"</i> are symbolic of force creating resistance because you are swimming against The Way? And <i>"bad harvest"</i> could be talking about the inevitable economic devastation which follows a brutal war?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
One who is good aims only at bringing his campaign to a conclusion and dare not thereby intimidate.<br />
Bring it to a conclusion but do not brag;<br />
Bring it to a conclusion but do not be arrogant;<br />
Bring it to a conclusion but only when there is no choice;<br />
Bring it to a conclusion but do not intimidate.
<br />
</div><br />
This is great. If without option, the best leader will strike quickly with one goal: to end it. No boasting, no intimidation, no exploitation. Only swift retaliation, designed to finish the conflict immediately.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
A creature in its prime doing harm to the old<br />
Is known as going against the way.<br />
That which goes against the way will come to an early end.
<br />
</div><br />
Curiously, almost every translation writes this one differently, even at times indicating that ageing itself is against the Tao. But I prefer the above version from Lau. Those who are young and harm the old shall be punished.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
It is because arms are instruments of ill omen and there are Things that detest them that the one who has the way does not abide by their use.
<br />
</div><br />
My own stupidity is infinite, my notes took this as literal "arms". Because our arms carry out tasks and we are preaching inaction, so your arms are the enemy!<br />
As it turns out, it means arms as in weaponry. I should have kept this to myself.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Arms are instruments of ill omen, not the instruments of the gentleman.<br />
When one is compelled to use them, it is best to do so without relish.<br />
There is no glory in victory, and so to glorify it despite this is to exult in the killing of men.<br />
One who exults in the killing of men will never have his way in the empire.
<br />
</div><br />
This entire page is fantastic. If you have no choice, then you can use weapons. But no one should enjoy such a thing, even if you win using them.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
When great numbers of people are killed, one should weep over them with sorrow.<br />
When victorious in war, one should observe the rites of mourning.
<br />
</div><br />
Killing is never something to derive pleasure from. You must feel horrible. Even victory in war is a funeral.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way is for ever nameless.<br />
Though the uncarved block is small<br />
No one in the world dare claim its allegiance.<br />
Should lords and princes be able to hold fast to it<br />
The myriad creatures will submit of their own accord,<br />
Heaven and earth will unite and sweet dew will fall,<br />
And the people will be equitable, though no one so decrees.
<br />
</div><br />
Sooo if you could control the Tao then the world would bow to you? And it would rain? And everyone would be fair to one another without being told to?<br />
Legge and Crowley seem to think the last two lines are separated out and mean that the sky rains and hydrates our survival without man's interference, again proving that we do not need to try to control everything. I prefer this! But then again, the <i>"equitable"</i> word does not apply. Droughts! Some people are not getting anything!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Only when it is cut are there names.<br />
As soon as there are names<br />
One ought to know that it is time to stop.<br />
Knowing when to stop one can be free from danger.
<br />
</div><br />
In division, we separate pieces then call them different names. This is a sign we've gone too far. You lose the singular picture when you focus upon the parts.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The way is to the world as the River and the Sea are to rivulets and streams.
<br />
</div><br />
The whole universe is led by and runs into The Way.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
He who lives out his days has had a long life.
<br />
</div><br />
Sounds so dumb. Aleister Crowley says <i>“he who dieth without dying, liveth for ever.”</i> which comes across cooler. Meanwhile, Ursula K. Le Guin claims <i>"To live till you die is to live long enough"</i> which is stronger.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXIV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way is broad, reaching left as well as right.<br />
The myriad creatures depend on it for life yet it claims no authority.<br />
It accomplishes its task yet lays claim to no merit.<br />
It clothes and feeds the myriad creatures yet lays no claim to being their master.<br /><br />
For ever free of desire, it can be called small;<br />
Yet as it lays no claim to being master when the myriad creatures turn to it, it can be called great.<br /><br />
It is because it never attempts itself to become great that it succeeds in becoming great.
<br />
</div><br />
A few of these lines are repeated elsewhere, but as a complete piece, this is one of the better descriptions within my comprehension.<br />
The Tao is the energy of life. It is everything but it does not control what you do. Literally, <i>everything</i> is the result of it, but it demands no credit (nor do we give it any). It (indirectly?) clothes and feeds us. It is great in infinite size but is also very small, as in the vibrations of electrons. Other translations say creatures "<b>re</b>turn to it", as in death, as in our essence leaving our bodies, liberated to connect back into the overall "invisible" energy again. And it does so effortlessly.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Have in your hold the great image<br />
And the empire will come to you.<br />
Coming to you and meeting with no harm<br />
It will be safe and sound.
<br />
</div><br />
Nobody says this, but I take it to be the LOA side of the deal. If you can allow the Tao to flow through your life properly, you can manifest magic.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Music and food<br />
Will induce the wayfarer to stop.
<br />
</div><br />
It's difficult to know where to separate these lines. Some translations attach it to the above, others, below. Regardless, it appears to be saying that music and food can be distractions whereas the Tao causes no hindrance (see below)? I am gutted music is placed in the bad books here!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The way in its passage through the mouth is without flavor.<br />
It cannot be seen,<br />
It cannot be heard,<br />
Yet it cannot be exhausted by use.
<br />
</div><br />
I think James Legge was the clearest here. <i>“But though the Tao as it comes from the mouth, seems insipid and has no flavour, though it seems not worth being looked at or listened to, the use of it is inexhaustible.”</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXVI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
If you would have a thing shrink,<br />
You must first stretch it;<br />
If you would have a thing weakened,<br />
You must first strengthen it;<br />
If you would have a thing laid aside,<br />
You must first set it up;<br />
If you would take from a thing,<br />
You must first give to it.<br /><br />
This is called subtle discernment:<br />
The submissive and weak will overcome the hard and strong.
<br />
</div><br />
This is where the Tao Te Ching excels like no other. It provides concepts that are wholly counter-intuitive and yet highly logical once set out.<br />
Crowley's first line was the best: <i>“In order to draw breath, first empty the lungs”</i>.<br />
I also loved Chen's "<i>What is to be abolished, Must first be established"</i>. Great!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The fish must not be allowed to leave the deep;<br />
The instruments of power in a state must not be revealed to anyone.
<br />
</div><br />
And then you go and spoil it all by saying something stupidly questionable like this.<br />
Both Chen and Gia use the word <i>"displayed"</i> instead of <i>"not be revealed to anyone"</i> which is easier.<br />
Le Guin goes as far as to sections these lines off, disregarding them as an "anticlimax" and an "intrusion".<br />
Here I remind everyone that the order of the Tao's verses is hotly debated by scholars. Slips of text were stuck together in what was assumed coherent narratives, but it's far from certain.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXVII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way never acts, yet nothing is left undone.<br />
Should lords and princes be able to hold fast to it,<br />
The myriad creatures will be transformed of their own accord.<br />
After they are transformed, should desire raise its head,<br />
I shall press it down with the weight of the nameless uncarved block.<br />
The nameless uncarved block<br />
Is but freedom from desire,<br />
And if I cease to desire and remain still,<br />
The empire will be at peace of its own accord.
<br />
</div><br />
Powerful. <br />
The Tao doesn't act yet it does everything. And if we can understand this, then everything will fall into place around us.<br />
However, if we <i>want</i> to understand this and <i>want</i> everything to fall into place, then we've already messed it up. You have to just let it be without desire or attempts of influence. It must have no purpose to you.<br />
Keeping life as simple as possible is the best place to start (according to various translations).<br />
I think it's also saying that once everything clicks, you may think you've played a role in the success, and that too is going against the flow.
<br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
<a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank"><img alt="I Read The Book Of The Law (by Aleister Crowley) So You Don't Have To" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBYxSasJOj9eNwmJSguPTlYQEpRTp21XWgpzeDIAr4sB05KlJkgzDyWdsst7JmPwx4rAu6JE-KAceOj5Mvww84X2jiRYAUAW0ekkaPYgtW5U-8PHjH0ikVJ7hpWxEKB3_IlumwkkrDyuQ/s1600/20March23-I-Read-the-Book-of-the-Law.jpg" style="width: 500px;" /></a><br />
<a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/03/i-read-book-of-law-by-aleister-crowley.html" target="_blank">I Read The Book Of The Law (by Aleister Crowley) So You Don't Have To</a>
</div>
<div class="thebookparts">
BOOK TWO: TE CHING
</div>
<br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXVIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
A man of the highest virtue does not keep to virtue and that is why he has virtue.<br />
A man of the lowest virtue never strays from virtue and that is why he is without virtue.
<br />
</div><br />
James Legge's interpretation claims that those with the highest virtue do not show themselves off, therefore they understand and fully own them. Meanwhile, those of lower virtue cling to their qualities in fear of losing them, and in that way, never truly had them. The vibe is wrong, it becomes a negative experience.<br />
Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English's message was even better. When one is not aware of their goodness, it's a sure sign of their goodness. Whereas those who are trying to be good are obviously not good, for if they were, why would they be trying?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The former never acts yet leaves nothing undone.<br />
The latter acts but there are things left undone.
<br />
</div><br />
Those with the highest virtues never need to do anything and therefore everything is already done. The lower always need to be doing something and therefore can never complete the task.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
A man of the highest benevolence acts, but from no ulterior motive.<br />
A man of the highest rectitude acts, but from ulterior motive.<br />
A man most conversant in the rites acts, but when no one responds rolls up his sleeves and resorts to persuasion by force.
<br />
</div><br />
Self-explanatory. Concerning the last line, the most disciplined and obedient will force others to be disciplined and obedient. Not a recommended stance.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence when the way was lost there was virtue;<br />
When virtue was lost there was benevolence;<br />
When benevolence was lost there was rectitude;<br />
When rectitude was lost there were the rites.<br /><br />
The rites are the wearing thin of loyalty and good faith<br />
And the beginning of disorder;<br />
Foreknowledge is the flowery embellishment of the way<br />
And the beginning of folly.
<br />
</div><br />
I love how this illustrates the descending order of goodness. Some of the earliest points are even desirable traits but are stepping stones to a quick fall.<br />
Rectitude = Righteousness.<br />
Rites = Proprieties (Legge/Chen); Convention (Crowley); Ritual (Feng/English); or Obedience (Guin).<br />
It seems whichever way, it's a diss of religion as an attempt of control. In doing so, they lose their power, which rings more true today than ever. <br />
Foreknowledge = Opinion, according to Ursula K. Le Guin, which I like.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the man of large mind abides in the thick not in the thin, in the fruit not in the flower.<br /><br />
Therefore he discards the one and takes the other.
<br />
</div><br />
It's like those who get lost in the superficial beauty of a flower without going for the provided sustenance from the plant.<br /><i>"Thick/thin"</i> is "<i>solid/flimsy"</i> (according to Legge) and "<i>real/surface"</i> (according to Feng/English).<br /><br />
It's also fun to note that the line <i>"Therefore he discards the one and takes the other."</i> is the final line for chapters XII, XXXVIII, and LXXII.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XXXIX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Of old, these came to be in possession of the One:<br />
Heaven in virtue of the One is limpid;<br />
Earth in virtue of the One is settled;<br />
Gods in virtue of the One have their potencies;<br />
The valley in virtue of the One is full;<br />
The myriad creatures in virtue of the One are alive;<br />
Lords and princes in virtue of the One become leaders of the empire.<br />
It is the One that makes these what they are.
<br />
</div><br />
Here is a list of things that have possessed the Tao from the beginning: Heaven, Earth, Gods/Sprits, valleys, everything that is alive, and royalty. I have excluded the subsequent verse as it simply goes through these items again, highlighting how useless they are without the Tao.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the superior must have the inferior as root;<br />
The high must have the low as base.
<br />
</div><br />
Something really clicked in me here. The low is stability. It is the ground needed to constructively move upward. That's why the Tao is the lowest form. It is the foundation on which everything is created. You can't build up to get closer to it. You have to strip down.<br />
Other translations say <i>"humbled"</i> instead of <i>"inferior"</i>. What an easy and practical instruction. Start by removing all arrogance and you will edge towards The Way. I start immediately.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the highest renown is without renown,<br />
Not wishing to be one among many like jade<br />
Nor to be aloof like stone.
<br />
</div><br />
Most translations talk about how one should avoid <i>"sparkling like a jade"</i> or <i>"clattering (making noise) like a stone"</i>.<br />
But good ol' Crowley swung the last line into the opposite, stating <i>"They do not seek to appear fine like jade, but inconspicuous like common stone"</i>. That sounded more Tao to me.<br />
But then Le Guin goes in the deepest with, <i>"Jade is praised as precious, but its strength is being stone"</i>. Now that's really nice.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XL
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Turning back is how the way moves;<br />
Weakness is the means the way employs.
<br />
</div><br />
Remember that the yin and yang are always spinning. And it could also be referring to stripping back like we discussed earlier. Finding the root to progress, not moving forward and therefore away from it.<br />
As for "weakness", this is the newborn concept again.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The myriad creatures in the world are born from<br />
Something, and Something from Nothing.
<br />
</div><br />
I go off on my own mission here but the Janthopoyism creationism connects to this verse, at least for me. It's the vibrational formless substance of <i>nothing</i>, manifesting into <i>something</i> to perceive itself, i.e: us and all living creatures/physical beings. And from this <i>something</i>, is born <i>more something</i>, the act of reproduction furthering evolution, The Way moving forward now through us. At least in our tiny little narrative anyway, as the Tao permeates the Universe, obvz.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
When the best student hears about the way<br />
He practises it assiduously;<br />
When the average student hears about the way<br />
It seems to him there one moment and gone the next;<br />
When the worst student hears about the way<br />
He laughs out loud.<br />
If he did not laugh<br />
It would be unworthy of being the way.
<br />
</div><br />
I like the last bit and it's also a clever method of covering your back. If someone laughs at the Tao, it's ok! They are a bad student and it's not for everyone.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the Chien yen has it:<br />
The way that is bright seems dull;<br />
The way that is forward seems to lead backward;<br />
The way that is even seems rough.<br />
The highest virtue is like the valley;<br />
The sheerest whiteness seems sullied;<br />
Ample virtue seems defective;<br />
Vigorous virtue seems indolent;<br />
Plain virtue seems soiled;<br />
The great square has no corners.<br />
The great vessel takes long to complete;<br />
The great note is rarefied in sound;<br />
The great image has no shape.
<br />
</div><br />
At first glance (and many glances following) this is the type of verse I dislike the most. Opposites are presented which appear meaningful, but are anything but applicable.<br />
Thankfully, some authors have made the effort to fashion practical guidance here, and I'd like to highlight the ever-giving Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English duo, who offer the following:<br /><br />
<i>"Going forward seems like retreat;"</i> - this line makes complete sense in all translations as it's everything we've been taught already. Less is more! Reduce yourself to a simpler form.<br />
<i>"The easy way seems hard;"</i> - 100% spot-on. The Tao <i>is</i> the easiest way, the simplest flow, the closer to nothing, the better. But it's very difficult to do that!<br />
<i>"The highest Virtue seems empty;"</i> - we are taught to do nothing; that in doing anything you are not virtuous. Why? Because if you're <i>trying</i> to be virtuous then by very definition you <i>can't</i> be virtuous, for you wouldn't be trying if you were! Therefore, the highest virtue appears to be void of anything.<br /><br />
I also must show you Aleister Crowley's way, ending with: <i>“Its stability is change. Its form is without form. Its fullness is vacancy. Its utterance is silence. Its reality is illusion.”</i><br />
This agrees with the "formless source matter" that I believe through and through. Reality is an illusion. We have evolved to perceive a physical universe that is not truly there. Maya!<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The way conceals itself in being nameless.<br />
It is the way alone that excels in bestowing and in accomplishing.
<br />
</div><br />
The nameless thing is so important. Naming takes away from it, lumps it into a category, comes with predetermined ideas. It cannot be named because it is everything and nothing. It cancels itself out lol.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way begets one;<br />
One begets two;<br />
Two begets three;<br />
Three begets the myriad creatures.
<br />
</div><br />
I'm unconvinced that a single translator understood this verse, myself included. The Way is ground zero and from itself, it evolved into the Universe/God/One. This environment created two, which could be many dualistic concepts (the yin and yang philosophy is often proposed). However, in my mind, it's got to be the man and the woman. And then these two beget three, naturally reproducing a baby. After that, I'm unsure, but perhaps it's simply that birth continues exponentially from there?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two.
<br />
</div><br />
Yin and yang! In this context, we have several definitions such as <i>"breaths/energy"</i> leading to <i>"harmony"</i>. But again it is Crowley who speaks my language with <i>“obscurity"</i> leading to <i>“manifestation”</i>. It spins the pre-manifested raw source into tangible material, which ultimately goes around, back to obscurity in death.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There are no words which men detest more than 'solitary', 'desolate', and 'hapless', yet lords and princes use these to refer to themselves.<br /><br />
Thus a thing is sometimes added to by being diminished and diminished by being added to.
<br />
</div><br />
Standard. By losing something, you no longer have it to lose, therefore you gain. Conversely, whatever you gain is at risk of being lost, and therefore you lose that security you had before.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
What others teach I also teach.<br />
'The violent shall not come to a natural end.'<br />
I shall take this as my precept.
<br />
</div><br />
The last line emphasises this verse as the foundation of Lao Tzu's teachings. Those who live violently don’t die naturally. But is that true, though? Hey, Lao? Does that still apply to our modern world? Some very violent men have lived to quite a ripe old age. There's probably something deeper here though.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The most submissive thing in the world can ride roughshod over the hardest in the world;<br />
That which is without substance entering that which has no crevices.
<br />
</div><br />
<i>"The immaterial enters the impenetrable,"</i> says Ursula K. Le Guin.<br />
I can think of a few examples. Water wearing down rocks. And the wind blowing down rigid structures. Soft things will destroy the hard. Honestly, we've all seen how this can be applied to human debate. Someone who loses their cool and becomes aggressive is quickly made a fool of by the one who keeps their calm and doesn't resort to insults. There's some practical application right there.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, these are beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world.
<br />
</div><br />
There are days I feel like I am one of the few. There are other days I know I am not.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLIV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Your name or your person,<br />
Which is dearer?<br />
Your person or your goods,<br />
Which is worth more?<br />
Gain or loss,<br />
Which is a greater bane?
<br />
</div><br />
Logical. Material gain is a burden. Anyone who's gone travelling will tell you that. I also think it's talking about the chase for fame or possessions, as it sacrifices the importance of your life for something of far lesser value; something you may get but may lose too. Regardless, I am certain I can have it all!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
That is why excessive meanness<br />
Is sure to lead to great expense;<br />
Too much store<br />
Is sure to end in immense loss.
<br />
</div><br />
I have certain discomforts with this section. <i>"Excessive meanness (lack of generosity)"</i> like what? Saving money? Define "excessive"? I'd also like to know how Lao Tzu is so "sure" on the last line. Not everyone loses everything! Except when they die, but if they had a good time, who cares? Good inheritance for the kids too. I dunno, I believe there is a way even within The Way.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Know contentment<br />
And you will suffer no disgrace;<br />
Know when to stop<br />
And you will meet with no danger.<br />
You can then endure.
<br />
</div><br />
It's good advice but it's also very much about being cautious and staying safe. There is a common argument against Taoism that it's the coward's way out. I believe it doesn't have to be. But considering this entire passage, it doesn't quite fit into my reckless fun.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLV
</div>
<br />
This may be the only page of the Tao that gave me nothing at all. Go make your mind up but it was much of the same in my eyes. <br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLVI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
When the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to ploughing in the fields;<br />
When the way does not prevail in the empire, war-horses breed on the border.
<br />
</div><br />
Tao is a way of peace. During times of Tao, horses are used for fertiliser and pulling agricultural machinery. During times of war, horses are weaponry. Poor horsies.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There is no crime greater than having too many desires;<br />
There is no disaster greater than not being content;<br />
There is no misfortune greater than being covetous.<br /><br />
Hence in being content, one will always have enough.
<br />
</div><br />
Can't argue with the logic of that last line. By finding satisfaction in what you have, you'll have enough. A difficult place to get to when we're drowning in all this Western capitalism though! Feed me more!<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLVII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Without stirring abroad<br />
One can know the whole world;<br />
Without looking out the window<br />
One can see the way of heaven.<br />
The further one goes<br />
The less one knows.
<br />
</div><br />
Fuck. That. Noise.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLVIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day;<br />
In the pursuit of the way one does less every day.<br />
One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone.
<br />
</div><br />
Instead of acquiring new information, forget information. You can only accomplish everything by having nothing to do. How bored must Taoists be though? Honestly, the modern world is far too scary to sit still in. Perhaps that’s the problem.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is always through not meddling that the empire is won.<br />
Should you meddle, then you are not equal to the task of winning the empire.
<br />
</div><br />
As before, some translations say <i>"heaven"</i> instead of <i>"empire"</i>, which I prefer.<br />
Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English say the following: <i>"The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering."</i><br />
Either way, I 100% subscribe to this notion. Everything needs to be effortless or you're doing it wrong. You're swimming upstream and you're going to get battered, mate.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
XLIX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The sage has no mind of his own.<br />
He takes as his own the mind of the people.<br /><br />
Those who are good I treat as good.<br />
Those who are not good I also treat as good.<br />
In so doing I gain in goodness.<br />
Those who are of good faith I have faith in.<br />
Those who are lacking in good faith I also have faith in.<br />
In so doing I gain in good faith.
<br />
</div><br />
I love love love this! Treat everyone well without exception. It’s powerful and essential to all beliefs, despite so few dedicating to it. I won't settle for anything less. I judge scripture on this basis alone.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The sage in his attempt to distract the mind of the empire seeks urgently to muddle it.<br />
The people all have something to occupy their eyes and ears, and the sage treats them all like children.
<br />
</div><br />
And then in the same breath, it's ruined! Many translations are similar, but thankfully, there are those like me who refused to believe it at face value and took the liberty to warp it into our own happy place. Here are the best examples:<br /><br />
James Legge:<br />
<i>"The sage appeareth hesitating to the world, because his mind is detached. Therefore the people look and listen to him, as his children; and thus doth he shepherd them."</i><br /><br />
Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English:<br />
<i>"The sage is shy and humble - to the world he seems confusing.<br />
Others look to him and listen.<br />
He behaves like a little child."</i><br /><br />
Ursula K. Le Guin:<br />
<i>"They mingle their life with the world,<br />
they mix their mind up with the world.<br />
Ordinary people look after them.<br />
Wise souls are children."</i><br /><br />
Ursula was particularly opposed to this verse, stating in her footnotes, <i>"the last line is taken to mean that the wise treat ordinary people like children. This is patronizing, and makes hash out of the first verse"</i>. I hear you, Le Guin.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
L
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
I have heard it said that one who excels in safeguarding his own life does not meet with rhinoceros or tiger when travelling on land nor is he touched by weapons when charging into an army.<br />
There is nowhere for the rhinoceros to pitch its horn;<br />
There is nowhere for the tiger to place its claws;<br />
There is nowhere for the weapon to lodge its blade.<br />
Why is this so? Because for him there is no realm of death.
<br />
</div><br />
The fact that it starts <i>"I have heard it said,"</i> is interesting. It is not a statement, it is a rumour. Regardless, the message is a confusing one. Is it that you cannot kill someone who has already accepted death? Or is it that those who are truly in tune with the Universe manifest no harm? No translation explained itself.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way gives them life;<br />
Virtue rears them;<br />
Things give them shape;<br />
Circumstances bring them to maturity.<br /><br />
Therefore the myriad creatures all revere the way and honor virtue.<br />
Yet the way is revered and virtue honored not because this is decreed by any authority but because it is natural for them to be treated so.
<br />
</div><br />
Again, my interpretation is bulletproof. We all come from the Tao; the Universal Energy. This evolves into physical matter, and everything is then nurtured by its environment. It is life, and in that way, everything worships the Tao by default. You can’t help but do so because you and everything you do is part of it.<br />
The rest of the verse repeated older texts, hence why I opted to exclude it.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The world had a beginning<br />
And this beginning could be the mother of the world.<br />
When you know the mother<br />
Go on to know the child.<br />
After you have known the child<br />
Go back to holding fast to the mother,<br />
And to the end of your days you will not meet with danger.
<br />
</div><br />
I guess every religion needs its creation story, right? All translations agree that this tale begins with the mother which could mean many things. The Universe? God? Mother Earth/Nature? Regardless, the assumed gender is correct for are we not born from a mother? And the child is... us? Or the physical world? Whichever is fine but never forget the source and then you will flow free and safe.<br />
I can do it. I wanna be here with that.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Block the openings,<br />
Shut the doors,<br />
And all your life you will not run dry.<br />
Unblock the openings,<br />
Add to your troubles,<br />
And to the end of your days you will be beyond salvation.
<br />
</div><br />
Feng/English/Crowley/Legge use <i>"mouth"</i> and <i>"breath"</i> instead of <i>"opening"</i> and <i>"doors"</i>. Keep quiet and breathe easy for a chilled life. But if you release your voice and breathe outward, then you are no longer safe. I actually teach this quite explicitly in <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/writing/210127_knowingwhentoshutthehellup.php" target="_blank">Janthopoyism</a>.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
To see the small is called discernment;<br />
To hold fast to the submissive is called strength.
<br />
</div><br />
Or as Aleister Crowley puts it, <i>“To perceive that Minute Point is True Vision; to maintain the Soft and Gentle is True Strength.”</i><br />
Or as Morrissey says, <i>"It's so easy to laugh. It's so easy to hate. It takes guts to be gentle and kind."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Were I possessed of the least knowledge, I would, when walking on the great way, fear only paths that lead astray.<br />
The great way is easy, yet people prefer by-paths.
<br />
</div><br />
Going with the flow is easy but we overcomplicate it and we get <i>"sidetracked"</i> (Feng/English).<br />
Ursula K. Le Guin smashed it best with, <i>"The great way is low and plain, but people like shortcuts over the mountains."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The court is corrupt,<br />
The fields are overgrown with weeds,<br />
The granaries are empty;<br />
Yet there are those dressed in fineries,<br />
With swords at their sides,<br />
Filled with food and drink,<br />
And possessed of too much wealth.<br />
This is known as taking the lead in robbery.<br /><br />
Far indeed is this from the way.
<br />
</div><br />
So sad that this is a bigger problem now more than ever! To be so rich while others suffer is not The Way. It's fucking robbery, man!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LIV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Cultivate it in your person<br />
And its virtue will be genuine;<br />
Cultivate it in the family<br />
And its virtue will be more than sufficient;<br />
Cultivate it in the hamlet<br />
And its virtue will endure;<br />
Cultivate it in the state<br />
And its virtue will abound;<br />
Cultivate it in the empire<br />
And its virtue will be pervasive.<br /><br />
Hence look at the person through the person;<br />
Look at the family through the family;<br />
Look at the hamlet through the hamlet;<br />
Look at the state through the state;<br />
Look at the empire through the empire.<br /><br />
How do I know that the empire is like that?
By means of this.
<br />
</div><br />
This was a long verse with very little to gain personally. <i>"Hamlet"</i> has been called <i>"neighbourhood"</i> and <i>"village"</i> elsewhere. <i>"Empire"</i> has been called <i>"kingdom"</i>, <i>"world"</i>, and <i>"universe"</i> elsewhere. It is in these things that the Tao can be observed.<br />
Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English simplify as always, putting the last lines as, <i>"How do I know the universe is like this? By looking!"</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
One who possesses virtue in abundance is comparable to a new born babe:<br />
Poisonous insects will not sting it;<br />
Ferocious animals will not pounce on it;<br />
Predatory birds will not swoop down on it.
<br />
</div><br />
Pretty sure this is untrue. Do insects not sting babies? Ursula K. Le Guin tried her best to defend this, stating the baby is not <i>aware</i> of the dangers therefore they don't exist. But fat load of good that'll do the baby when it dies from a bear attack, right? Where were the parents?!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Its bones are weak and its sinews supple yet its hold is firm.<br />
It does not know the union of male and female yet its male member will stir:<br />
This is because its virility is at its height.<br />
It howls all day yet does not become hoarse:<br />
This is because its harmony is at its height.
<br />
</div><br />
This is a lot but it's got some good examples to further emphasise the Tao's affection towards the newborn as a symbol.<br />
Babies have strong grip, sure, but my grip is stronger. Jared 1, Baby 0.<br />
I googled it and male babies get erections even in the womb! So that's true and weird!<br />
Finally, no one can deny that babies somehow scream for hours yet their vocals remain crazy strong! How?? Babymetal!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
A creature in its prime doing harm to the old<br />
Is known as going against the way.<br />
That which goes against the way will come to an early end.
<br />
</div><br />
This is a repeated section form earlier and I don't buy it. Some pretty wicked people live long.<br />
Ursula again comes to the rescue as best as she could, explaining that the Tao is eternal and therefore never gets old. We do get old because we are not eternal, we are not the Tao, and therefore we... die?
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LVI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
One who knows does not speak;<br />
One who speaks does not know.
<br />
</div><br />
This is a hugely famous saying. I notice its truth more and more. People who don’t know much about a topic tend to argue more readily. Defensiveness is a glaring sign of uncertainty. If you know you're right, why would you bother trying to convince anyone else? Loud people are trying to convince themselves.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Block the openings;<br />
Shut the doors.<br />
Blunt the sharpness;<br />
Untangle the knots;<br />
Soften the glare;<br />
Let your wheels move only along old ruts.
<br />
</div><br />
If you ever need further proof that Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English provide the kindest of translations, simply compare the above to the following:<br /><br />
<i>Keep your mouth closed.<br />
Guard your senses.<br />
Temper your sharpness.<br />
Simplify your problems.<br />
Mask your brightness.<br />
Be at one with the dust of the Earth.</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LVII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Govern the state by being straightforward;<br />
Wage war by being crafty;<br />
But win the empire by not being meddlesome.
<br />
</div><br />
During my first read, it was at this exact point where I realised we weren't being spoken to. This was a guide for governments! It's a teaching of rule. We can apply much of it to our lives, sure, but we are not the target audience.<br />
<i>"Control the world by doing nothing,"</i> says Le Guin's last line.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The better known the laws and edicts<br />
The more thieves and robbers there are.
<br />
</div><br />
Further evidence here. The more laws they put on us, the more criminals there will be.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the sage says,<br />
I take no action and the people are transformed of themselves;<br />
I prefer stillness and the people are rectified of themselves;<br />
I am not meddlesome and the people prosper of themselves;<br />
I am free from desire and the people of themselves become simple like the uncarved block.
<br />
</div><br />
And here again. Ambitious governments are not great. Conquering or meddling, it’s a bad way. Leave the people alone! It's an appreciated message
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LVIII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
When the government is muddled<br />
The people are simple;<br />
When the government is alert<br />
The people are cunning.<br /><br />
It is on disaster that good fortune perches;<br />
It is beneath good fortune that disaster crouches.
<br />
</div><br />
<i>"Muddled"</i> is an interesting choice of word. Other more suited I've read include <i>"dull"</i> and <i>"light-handed"</i>.<br />
The last two lines also appear true in my experience. The worst things often force us to change in good ways. And for disaster to strike you indicates you had the good fortune to lose in the first place, right? Taoism!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore the sage is square-edged but does not scrape,<br />
Has corners but does not jab,<br />
Extends himself but not at the expense of others,<br />
Shines but does not dazzle.
<br />
</div><br />
This is poetic and agreeable. The last two lines in particular apply nicely.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LIX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
In ruling the people and in serving heaven it is best for a ruler to be sparing.<br />
It is because he is sparing<br />
That he may be said to follow the way from the start;<br />
Following the way from the start he may be said to accumulate an abundance of virtue;<br />
Accumulating an abundance of virtue there is nothing he cannot overcome;<br />
When there is nothing he cannot overcome, no one knows his limit;<br />
When no one knows his limit<br />
He can possess a state;<br />
When he possesses the mother of a state<br />
He can then endure.<br />
This is called the way of deep roots and firm stems by which one lives to see many days.
<br />
</div><br />
This is a fat chunk of text but it's easy to follow and it’s enjoyable teachings. It feels logical.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LX
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.
<br />
</div><br />
D.C. Lau left us a footnote here, explaining that a small fish is easily spoilt when touched. Thanks for clarifying!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
When the empire is ruled in accordance with the way,<br />
The spirits lose their potencies.<br />
Or rather, it is not that they lose their potencies,<br />
But that, though they have their potencies, they do not harm the people.<br />
It is not only they who, having their potencies, do not harm the people,<br />
The sage, also, does not harm the people.<br />
As neither does any harm, each attributes the merit to the other.
<br />
</div><br />
What a sloppy verse! Other interpretations are a little less clumsy but what’s interesting is an admission of spirits and their power (ghosts of ancestors, spiritual energy etc). These can harm you. Such beliefs run rife in Eastern (and many Western!) traditions, but Tao seemed different when it came to anything supernatural. It's a small hint towards what is believed about the afterlife, a topic largely ignored by the scripture.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXI
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
In the union of the world,<br />
The female always gets the better of the male by stillness.<br /><br />
Being still, she takes the lower position.
<br />
</div><br />
Always a dodgy place to go, saying the woman plays small to conquer the man. It's probably true in many cases but feels a little dated. Still, it ties in well with the next few lines...
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the large state, by taking the lower position, annexes the small state;<br />
The small state, by taking the lower position, affiliates itself to the large state.<br /><br />
Thus the one, by taking the lower position, annexes;<br />
The other, by taking the lower position, is annexed.<br />
All that the large state wants is to take the other under its wing;<br />
All that the small state wants is to have its services accepted by the other.<br />
If each of the two wants to find its proper place,<br />
It is meet that the large should take the lower position.
<br />
</div><br />
It took me many translations to get this, but it's something like a smaller country going into a union with a bigger country. The bigger country wants more people so it gets what it wants, meanwhile the smaller country is now better protected. One could argue that the smaller country, in being smaller, is at the best advantage in this arrangement, as it becomes less of a target. The bigger country would be the target if there was one. Either way, both countries are submitting to one another in order to dominate one another. It's mutual compliance to exploit for benefits.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXII
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
The way is the refuge for the myriad creatures.<br />
It is that by which the good man protects,<br />
And that by which the bad is protected.<br /><br />
Beautiful words when offered will win high rank in return;<br />
Beautiful deeds can raise a man above others.<br /><br />
Even if a man is not good, why should he be abandoned?
<br />
</div><br />
Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English have their second/third lines as, <i>"It is the treasure of the good man, and the refuge of the bad."</i><br />
This whole section is important to me. It is in tune with my beliefs and a dazzling difference between Taoism and Abrahamic pursuits. Even bad men are not abandoned by the Tao. How could they be? We are all a result of it.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence when the emperor is set up and the three ducal ministers are appointed, he who makes a present of the way without stirring from his seat is preferable to one who offers presents of jade disks followed by a team of four horses.<br />
Why was this way valued of old?<br />
Was it not said that by means of it one got what one wanted and escaped the consequences when one transgressed?
<br />
</div><br />
Aleister Crowley's thoughts were stronger here: <i>“this gift were not to be matched against the Tao, which might be offered by the humblest of men."</i><br />
The Tao is a gift that is more valuable than any but can be received or even offered by anyone. And whoever ”gets it” is instantly purified, free of guilt. I understand this. You let go.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXIII
</div>
<br />
This is a very good page.<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Do that which consists in taking no action;<br />
Pursue that which is not meddlesome;<br />
Savor that which has no flavor.
<br />
</div><br />
This works as a satisfying summary of the Taoist teaching. Go with the flow, touch nothing, don’t reach for the fancy.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Make the small big and the few many;<br />
Do good to him who has done you an injury.<br /><br />
Lay plans for the accomplishment of the difficult before it becomes difficult;<br />
Make something big by starting with it when small.<br /><br />
Difficult things in the word must needs have their beginnings in the easy;<br />
Big things must needs have their beginnings in the small.<br /><br />
Therefore it is because the sage never attempts to be great that he succeeds in becoming great.
<br />
</div><br />
Everything starts out small, so it's best to tackle a problem long before it becomes a problem. This includes being nice to those who are not nice to you. Prevention is the best way to minimise the need for action.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
One who makes promises rashly rarely keeps good faith;<br />
One who is in the habit of considering things easy meets with frequent difficulties.<br /><br />
Therefore even the sage treats some things as difficult.<br />
That is why in the end no difficulties can get the better of him.
<br />
</div><br />
The first two lines make sense. The second two are tricky. The sage treats everything as if it's a difficult task and therefore doesn't know the meaning of the word? Or perhaps they view everything as having the potential to become very difficult and therefore always catch it when it's small and easy? That would make a lot of sense except it's not quite what's being said lol.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXIV
</div>
<br />
<div class="quote">
It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure;<br />
It is easy to deal with a situation before symptoms develop;<br />
It is easy to break a thing when it is yet brittle;<br />
It is easy to dissolve a thing when it is yet minute.<br /><br />
Deal with a thing while it is still nothing;<br />
Keep a thing in order before disorder sets in.
<br />
</div><br />
Same sentiments as before and remains just as logical. What's interesting is that verses like this one appear to contradict the Tao's core message of not acting. However, if you dig deeper, it's telling you that action is often unavoidable, but the earlier you act, the better you can minimise your meddling until it's basically nothing. It took me a while to get this.<br />
<div class="quote">
A tree that can fill the span of a man's arms<br />
Grows from a downy tip;<br />
A terrace nine storeys high<br />
Rises from hodfuls of earth;<br />
A journey of a thousand miles<br />
Starts from beneath one's feet.
<br />
</div><br />
Really hammering that imagery in and doing a wonderful job of it. Those final two lines are probably the most famous of all the Tao Te Ching's teachings.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
In their enterprises the people<br />
Always ruin them when on the verge of success.<br />
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning<br />
And there will be no ruined enterprises.
<br />
</div><br />
This is quite profound. People ruin things because they get careless as they rush towards its end. Treat everything with the same care as you do in the beginning all the way to the finish line. I can apply this to a lot of examples. Relationships are a good one.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXV
</div><br />
Another page supporting my theory that the Tao Te Ching is not written for ordinary civilians. And if this is the case, where do we draw the line? Which parts are for us? I get that non-action is essential advice for a governing body but does this really apply to our daily lives?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Of old those who excelled in the pursuit of the way did not use it to enlighten the people but to hoodwink them.<br />
The reason why the people are difficult to govern is that they are too clever.
<br />
</div><br />
This is a bother. Are we supposed to know this?<br />
The only saving grace is the <i>"Of old"</i> lead-in. Is this speaking specifically of long times past? Is it no longer applicable?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence to rule a state by cleverness<br />
Will be to the detriment of the state;<br />
Not to rule a state by cleverness<br />
Will be a boon to the state.
<br />
</div><br />
It feels like we’re reading secret government documents here.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Only then is complete conformity realized.
<br />
</div><br />
<i>"Conformity"</i> is another red-flag word, one which Legge also uses while Crowley prefers <i>"accordance"</i>.<br />
But Chen says <i>"harmony"</i> and Feng/English/Le Guin say <i>"oneness"</i> soooo let's go with those instead! :D
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXVI
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
The reason why the River and the Sea are able to be king of the hundred valleys is that they excel in taking the lower position.<br />
Hence they are able to be king of the hundred valleys.
<br />
</div><br />
I do adore these real-life analogies but sometimes you've got to stop and question their relevance. How is this illustration applicable to my life? Must I drag my body over the ground for centuries until I erode the earth away? I am not a river!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore, desiring to rule over the people,<br />
One must in one's words humble oneself before them;<br />
And, desiring to lead the people,<br />
One must, in one's person, follow behind them.<br /><br />
Therefore the sage takes his place over the people yet is no burden;<br />
takes his place ahead of the people yet causes no obstruction.<br />
That is why the empire supports him joyfully and never tires of doing so.
<br />
</div><br />
Again, the Tao makes the most sense when guiding authority. Forceful leadership is not the solution. You need people to feel like you’re not making them do anything. They will feel free and in control, and then they will support you. Roll safe.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is because he does not contend that no one in the empire is in a position to contend with him.
<br />
</div><br />
Nutshell moment. There is no competition if you do not compete.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXVII
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
The whole world says that my way is vast and resembles nothing.<br />
It is because it is vast that it resembles nothing.<br />
If it resembled anything, it would, long before now, have become small.
<br />
</div><br />
I take this to be about specifics. Every other religion I can think of is more specific than Taoism, hence they limit themselves. They create borders, and in turn, the scope shrinks. Taoism may seem vague but this is the source of its timelessness.<br />
Ursula K. Le Guin had a good one here, <i>"Everybody says my way is great but improbable. All greatness is improbable. What’s probable is tedious and petty."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
I have three treasures<br />
Which I hold and cherish.<br />
The first is known as compassion,<br />
The second is known as frugality,<br />
The third is known as not daring to take the lead in the empire;<br />
Being compassionate one could afford to be courageous,<br />
Being frugal one could afford to extend one's territory,<br />
Not daring to take the lead in the empire one could afford to be lord over the vessels.<br /><br />
Now, to forsake compassion for courage, to forsake frugality for expansion, to forsake the rear for the lead, is sure to end in death.
<br />
</div><br />
The three treasures changes per translation, so let's take a vote amongst the seven I read!<br /><br />
D.C. Lau: compassion, frugality, and not daring to take the lead in the empire.<br />
James Legge: gentleness, economy, and shrinking from taking precedence of others.<br />
Aleister Crowley: gentleness, economy, and humility.<br />
Elen Chen: motherly love, frugality, and daring not to be at the world's front.<br />
Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English: mercy, economy, and daring not to be ahead of others.<br />
Ursula K. Le Guin: mercy, moderation, and modesty.<br /><br />
The results are in, and we're looking at: gentleness/mercy (2 votes each), economy (3 votes), and some variation of daring to not take the leading position (4 votes).<br /><br />
I noted Crowley's final lines as standing out. <i>"That gentleness maketh me courageous, that economy generous, that humility honoured. Men of today abandon gentleness for violence, economy for extravagance, humility for pride: this is death."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Through compassion, one will triumph in attack and be impregnable in defence.<br />
What heaven succours it protects with the gift of compassion.
<br />
</div><br />
Whether compassion, gentleness, mercy, or motherly love, this treasure appears to be of the utmost importance.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXVIII
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
One who excels as a warrior does not appear formidable;<br />
One who excels in fighting is never roused in anger;<br />
One who excels in defeating his enemy does not join issue;<br />
One who excels in employing others humbles himself before them.
<br />
</div><br />
Straightforward and true. You don't let your arrogance or emotions dictate your person. The last line is particularly beneficial. You hire people to learn from them, to gain from their additional skillset, not to order them around.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
This is known as the virtue of non-contention;<br />
This is known as making use of the efforts of others;<br />
This is known as matching the sublimity of heaven.
<br />
</div><br />
I like that middle line. Make use of others, that's what a team is.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXIX
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
The strategists have a saying,<br />
I dare not play the host but play the guest,<br />
I dare not advance an inch but retreat a foot instead.<br /><br />
This is known as marching forward when there is no road,<br />
Rolling up one's sleeves when there is no arm,<br />
Dragging one's adversary by force when there is no adversary,<br />
And taking up arms when there are no arms.
<br />
</div><br />
In times of war, do not engage nor make the first move, rather <i>"march without advancing"</i> (Chen), <i>"giving the attacker no opponent."</i> (Le Guin). It's admirable although I'm sure some war strategists would disagree. Although some may not!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There is no disaster greater than taking on an enemy too easily.<br />
So doing nearly cost me my treasure.<br />
Thus of two sides raising arms against each other,<br />
It is the one that is sorrow-stricken that wins.
<br />
</div><br />
I like this. To flatten an enemy is to give up the treasure/Tao (or <i>"gentleness"</i> according to some). It’s those who regret the battle regardless of the outcome that are the true victors in a more fundamentally spiritual sense.<br />
Curiously, almost all translations talk of "underestimating" the enemy and not striking hard enough, which doesn't sit with my understanding. I gravitate much closer to Ursula K. Le Guin who says, <i>"Nothing’s worse than attacking what yields. To attack what yields is to throw away the prize."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXX
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice,<br />
Yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice.
<br />
</div><br />
The funniest lines in the Tao Te Ching.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is because people are ignorant that they fail to understand me.<br />
Those who understand me are few;<br />
Those who harm me are honoured.<br /><br />
Therefore the sage, while clad in homespun, conceals on his person a priceless piece of jade.
<br />
</div><br />
That last line is something I understand and recognise how unlike me it is. It's in the mystery that the sage has value. Me, I give everything about myself away. I'll be sure to work on that, Mr Tzu.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXI
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;<br />
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
<br />
</div><br />
The more you know, the more you know you don't know. Of every Tao teaching, this is the one I've mastered. I'm agnostic on the fence in all matters, baby! I believe it's the only position you can see everything 360.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it.<br />
The sage meets with no difficulty.<br />
It is because he is alive to it that he meets with no difficulty.
<br />
</div><br />
The Incredible Hulk, right? <i>"That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry."</i><br />
Other translations have made the alteration to: <i>"The sage is not sick. Because he is sick of sickness, Therefore he is not sick."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXII
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them.
<br />
</div><br />
Sounds scary.<br />
Chen's translation was quite different to the others, with <i>"When the people fear no power, Then great power has indeed arrived"</i>. I'll buy that too.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Hence the sage knows himself but does not display himself,<br />
Loves himself but does not exalt himself.
<br />
</div><br />
Good distinctions. Keep your love for yourself to yourself.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXIII
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
He who is fearless in being bold will meet with his death;<br />
He who is fearless in being timid will stay alive.<br />
Of the two, one leads to good, the other to harm.
<br />
</div><br />
It's eye-opening to equate timidness with bravery. We are taught that meekness is a weakness. We are encouraged to be daring. We fear being considered timid, hence why it's a brave option in itself.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Heaven hates what it hates,<br />
Who knows the reason why?
<br />
</div><br />
Haha cop-out, but I do get it. We don't actually know anything. Stop pretending you do! Agnosticism ftw. Verses like this help to further stir Taoism into my established beliefs.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXIV
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
When the people are not afraid of death, wherefore frighten them with death?
<br />
</div><br />
Such a great line. When people have nothing to lose, what can you threaten them with?
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
There is a regular executioner whose charge it is to kill.<br />
To kill on behalf of the executioner is what is described as chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter.<br />
In chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter, there are few who escape hurting their own hands instead.
<br />
</div><br />
Most translations appear to talk of a literal official executioner as if that job is just a part of society. Perhaps it was back then. I suppose it still is in some regions. But I'd expect the Tao Te Ching to take more of a stand against the practice?<br />
Thank goodness for Ursula K. Le Guin who quotes Arthur Waley's translation, changing <i>"executioner"</i> to <i>"The Lord of Slaughter"</i>. This rightfully places the role of death into the Tao, and is therefore stating that humans are morally incorrect to ever make this type of a decision. That's the one!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXV
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
The people are hungry:<br />
It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes<br />
That the people are hungry.<br />
The people are difficult to govern.<br />
It is because those in authority are too fond of action<br />
That the people are difficult to govern.<br />
The people treat death lightly:<br />
It is because the people set too much store by life<br />
That they treat death lightly.
<br />
</div><br />
100% and still depressingly relevant today!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is just because one has no use for life that one is wiser than the man who values life.
<br />
</div><br />
Putting too much value on life will cause you to live in fear of losing it. Life is overrated!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXVI
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
A man is supple and weak when living, but hard and stiff when dead.<br />
Grass and trees are pliant and fragile when living, but dried and shrivelled when dead.<br />
Thus the hard and the strong are the comrades of death;<br />
The supple and the weak are the comrades of life.
<br />
</div><br />
Not all of Tao Te Ching's metaphors land but this one works perfectly. We are taught hardness is strength but in life, we can clearly see this is untrue. To be alive is to be soft. Remember the persistent baby analogy? It makes complete sense here too! For what's softer than a baby? Who has more life ahead of them? So fresh and so clean!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore a weapon that is strong will not vanquish;<br />
A tree that is strong will suffer the axe.<br />
The strong and big takes the lower position,<br />
The supple and weak takes the higher position.
<br />
</div><br />
Another well put verse on an excellent page. Too much strength makes you a target. When you’re at the top the only way is down. Can I pick the middle though?<br />
Elen Chen (among others) have a different first-line to likes of, <i>"Hence an unyielding army is destroyed"</i>.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXVII
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
It is the way of heaven to take from what has in excess in order to make good what is deficient.<br />
The way of man is otherwise: it takes from those who are in want in order to offer this to those who already have more than enough.<br />
Who is there that can take what he himself has in excess and offer this to the empire?<br />
Only he who has the way.
<br />
</div><br />
It's painful how much this applies to our current world, perhaps more so than ever. Our governments bleed the people dry while big corporations bathe in tax relief. The richest are richer than ever before, the poor growing in numbers. It's heartbreaking. It is not The Way.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Therefore the sage benefits them yet exacts no gratitude,<br />
Accomplishes his task yet lays claim to no merit.<br /><br />
Is this not because he does not wish to be considered a better man than others?
<br />
</div><br />
Please do what you can to benefit the world but never flaunt it. All humans are equal and you must not try to be seen as anything otherwise. Powerful stuff!
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXVIII
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water.<br />
Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.<br />
This is because there is nothing that can take its place.
<br />
</div><br />
The classic spiritual analogy. Be like water. It's the softest thing yet impossible to damage. It patiently erodes mountains yet does not change itself in the process. Also, like, without it, we all perish fast!
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
That the weak overcomes the strong,<br />
And the submissive overcomes the hard,<br />
Everyone in the world knows yet no one can put this knowledge into practice.
<br />
</div><br />
Not a great vote of confidence here, but at least it's recognised how difficult this practice is to apply to our lives.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Straightforward words seem paradoxical.
<br />
</div><br />
The Tao Te Ching in a box, just add water.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXIX
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
When peace is made between great enemies,<br />
Some enmity is bound to remain undispelled.<br />
How can this be considered perfect?<br /><br />
Therefore the sage takes the left-hand tally, but exacts no payment from the people.<br />
The man of virtue takes charge of the tally;<br />
The man of no virtue takes charge of exaction.
<br />
</div><br />
Those who know the Tao ensure they do what is fair but do not demand to be treated fairly. Meanwhile, those resisting the Tao want what is owed to them first and foremost.<br /><br />
The Feng/English translation makes life easy with:<br />
<i>"Therefore the sage keeps his half of the bargain<br />
But does not exact his due.<br />
A man of Virtue performs his part,<br />
But a man without Virtue requires others to fulfill their obligations."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
It is the way of heaven to show no favoritism.<br />
It is for ever on the side of the good man.
<br />
</div><br />
That's a nice thought.
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXX
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
Reduce the size of the population and the state.<br />
Ensure that even though the people have tools of war for a troop or a battalion they will not use them;<br />
And also that they will be reluctant to move to distant places because they look on death as no light matter.
<br />
</div><br />
Reducing the size of the population (by, say, China's former one-child policy) is not something I'm opposed to but it's still questionable wording. Thankfully, other translations talk about having a small kingdom already, not explicitly reducing the numbers.<br />
Both James Legge and Aleister Crowley have a different position on the second line, stating that even if one man has the capabilities to do the work of more men, he should not be employed to do so. I like that.<br />
Again, it is fair for nations to have weapons but they should not use them. It makes sense but it's a grey area in itself. Does not the person with many possessions open themselves up to theft? Therefore, does not the person with weaponry open themselves up to attack? Maybe that's fairyland talk.<br />
Finally, people should not want to go on adventures because they might die. I disagree.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Bring it about that the people will return to the use of the knotted rope,<br />
Will find relish in their food<br />
And beauty in their clothes,<br />
Will be content in their abode<br />
And happy in the way they live.
<br />
</div><br />
Be grateful for what you have.<br />
Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English's first line was <i>"Men return to the knotting of rope in place of writing."</i> which is not a future I subscribe to.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
Though adjoining states are within sight of one another,<br />
And the sound of dogs barking and cocks crowing in one state can be heard in another,<br />
yet the people of one state will grow old and die without having had any dealings with those of another.
<br />
</div><br />
Neighbours must stay separated. Much like the rest of this page, I do not connect with this either. Do you?<br />
Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English were kinder, with, <i>"Yet they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die."</i>
<br /><br />
<div class="theparts">
LXXXI
</div><br />
<div class="quote">
Truthful words are not beautiful;<br />
Beautiful words are not truthful.<br />
Good words are not persuasive;<br />
Persuasive words are not good.<br />
He who knows has no wide learning;<br />
He who has wide learning does not know.
<br />
</div><br />
Typical Tao conversing wordplay here but the sentiment is good.<br />
Aleister Crowley's second line was <i>“Those who know do not argue; the argumentative are without knowledge.”</i>. I have come to witness this as a truth in my experience.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The sage does not hoard.<br />
Having bestowed all he has on others, he has yet more;<br />
Having given all he has to others, he is richer still.
<br />
</div><br />
Give it away and you will have more. I am starting to see much evidence of this idea.
<br /><br />
<div class="quote">
The way of heaven benefits and does not harm;<br />
The way of the sage is bountiful and does not contend.
<br />
</div><br />
The final verse!<br />
<i>"Do no harm"</i> is the first of the closing message. And we'll let Gia-Fu Feng/Jane English neatly tie up the rest:<br /><br />
<i>"The Tao of the sage is work without effort."</i>
<br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-37683431583390323332020-12-16T11:44:00.006+00:002020-12-28T21:51:02.206+00:00The Top 50 Albums of 2020<br / >
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width:50%"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7brz_4sM9LUSHoaLZMMlyOShmU1Ma2BGKi9MlHfbiE4MRo_YYuvgAQJy6vv5n7KzcOdmBnDUPdCN4un5LYdhF2dBkI3s6ee8aRfpixIqc7GyoQMY8mUiGPrxRHfYrTUb24MRyJ75TEbo/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020.jpg" data-original-width="331" data-original-height="331" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020" style="width:100%" /></span></div>
What a stroke of divine coincidence when I released my first <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2010/12/jared-woods-top-50-essential-2010.html" target="_blank">Top 50 Albums list in 2010</a>. Purely accidental, you must understand, but it did slip me into an advantageous position where the decade stretched before me and became mine all mine. Off I went, year after year, listening to hundreds of records then compiling lists of my favourite 50 so that people might be impressed with ol' Jared from the block. Ten years past a little too quickly and I looked down at my hands, realising that I'd stuffed my ears with well over 4,000 albums during that period. I knew everything yet remembered nothing.<br /><br />
In 2019, I considered my mission to be complete. <a href="http://www.jaredwoodssavedmylife.com/250albums/" target="_blank">I wrote a book which is available for you to read for free</a> (although donations are desperately accepted). And that was it! The self-imposed shackles of musical superiority had fallen away, and I was free to delegate my energy down other avenues. Because, spoiler alert, those countless months spent writing yearly articles weren't exactly worth their weight in hits.<br /><br />
Annoyingly, old habits die hard. 2020 started with glee until I found myself treating music the same as it ever was. I was taking notes. I was rating releases out of 10. I was keeping them safe in a spreadsheet. But why?? And as the year went on, specific albums gurgled louder than others, and I mused to myself, <i>"Well, that would be in the top 10, wouldn't it?"</i>.<br /><br />
December rolled through the door, and I'd listened to just over 400 records. 404 to be exact which is a funny number cos it means that the page was not found lol. Regardless, I knew 2020 music quite well, and that presented me with two clear options. I could selfishly keep this information to myself, which was the original plan. Or I could put it out there to my billions of appreciative fans. You know what happened next.<br /><br />
Please note, however, that there is a significant difference this round. I cared less. I did not spend an hour per each release, poetically ordering adjectives and comparing them to abstract concepts. Instead, the reviews below are my genuine feelings on the albums without overthinking anything whatsoever. I spat out several descriptive sentences in tune with my instincts then let them dry in place. Annoyingly, many of them turned out better for it. They're a faster read anyway.<br /><br />
I will say this though: despite everything else, 2020 was an excellent year for music. Tons of decent stuff, yummy yummy tasty goodness. Some of the records I left out agonise my jawline to cracking point, but again, this isn't about them or you or even me. This article is about what felt right. So I'm sorry if your favourite record didn't make the cut, but it's just music so fucking get over it.<br /><br />
Here are my top 50 albums of 2020.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNx_uzlqOPjEvcsAte1qL2ugVwln0PZNPpmKfos-yCwgTUn8k1pcHGNRRpgmEnC_1DiKiY7uqn2nOO4RTrpeCeshY7PNW7d9B6k5hJbgwCoftN5EZ558Of2R7tPZgCyWAwobCGGqu__xc/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Andy-Shauf---The-Neon-Skyline.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 50. Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline" /></span></div>
<h3>50. Andy Shauf - The Neon Skyline</h3>
<i>Indie Chamber Pop<br />
24 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/41M6R2mWLgqU9aKFUvZv8S?si=HhCwQykFTBicHW_mNK31hA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Telling the tale of a group of friends with a complicated history yet very little drama between them, we listen as they experience an average night out. Such a subtle storyline makes one feel as if they are spying on stranger's lives, getting to know them personally, then feeling that pang of sadness when interactions remind you of your own miserable life. Nothing special happens, and it's not musically extraordinary either, but as a narrative, its a rare prize in our unnecessarily extravagant world of music.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBdHfH-YOXD2MxVUzap9RWeBs5ztoIpPYw4MPe3XVwEkwAIfKhCpiaqKlZ98qEUftiLN_D3saOa8IJR_mBo-_IvJrgHuq7OVAon9yl0ARPVe9WVvnbhLJd4VrZT1Bw_QPeuZT53lF8bc/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Neil-Cicierega---Mouth-Dreams.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 49. Neil Cicierega - Mouth Dreams" /></span></div>
<h3>49. Neil Cicierega - Mouth Dreams</h3>
<i>Musical Comedy Pop Mashup<br />
30 September<br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/neilcic/mouthdreams" target="_blank">Soundcloud</a></i><br /><br />
Neil Cicierega is many things, and the best mashup artist on the planet is one of them. His trick is to exclusively use recognisable songs mixed in a humorous manner which may hit funniest on first listen, true, but is always a fantastic party playlist to delight your guests with. It may not be entirely on par with his previous <em>Mouth Moods</em>, but it’s close!
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZeXIVuz-eUoGH9BdmhGktCJ06vYf1tBUqBmFxr562erf0zNek5cg52lJr0gQNuFKjgkAScg_tCE1bF8lpOVdtXuxZumV12GrPB11-aZcpC3u0D34qyuRlMArqcgcaVgAxlFf1yHqR4k/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Oklou---Galore.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 48. Oklou - Galore" /></span></div>
<h3>48. Oklou - Galore</h3>
<i>Alternative Ambient R&B Art Pop<br />
24 September<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2pNaPY2w707Cw7mKghi7m4?si=A88n6H-uTni2RvSB7SZUAA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Within seconds this rich production daintily tip-toes into my brain and sets up a tent. And I’m like what but it’s too charming to evict, so it’s still there now. I realise this review doesn't describe anything whatsoever so just come inside and check it out for yourself.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5ip-G7Hrt9etCHzpVviELmEN8LvEqwjsKZ5JU5llo1Pjc1qDWYW3MAiPknmugRzQUtjIv3fVw749rv-skyHFGa3KF3VqrlqQTcLl35ggnF5re_Bpk-dpsHefAkuHBDDfispKQmpUmbg/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Lido-Pimienta---Miss-Colombia.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 47. Lido Pimienta - Miss Colombia" /></span></div>
<h3>47. Lido Pimienta - Miss Colombia</h3>
<i>Latin Electronic Art Pop<br />
17 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6H6MZ54B5FLBLXXxWGEl7y?si=tcBCWh79Sw-vKxzG9ZxIGA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Taking a traditional dish and generously spicing it with contemporary flavours, there's a lot on this plate especially when Lido stands on top of it, squashing the meal beneath her feet, singing her voice upward until the roof blows off.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmOCON6da1qRYG8P3vinz2J8HG2rDY81QMqn7i-02KmtZvIxRSgPKQmmZngYEEaDhcU7Tw2VvHHLe4TI0toamE5OStrb8msHAsAKXkKYhM8XD-ofeQk7NZ0YMS4yJ0a7ZFu0-mNhKx70/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Katie-Dey---Mydata.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 46. Katie Dey - Mydata" /></span></div>
<h3>46. Katie Dey - Mydata</h3>
<i>Indietronica Chamber Art Pop<br />
24 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5DejDGv9n1FTq0fAULcLpL?si=HXfdyE9JREaeSJt_Kqtwcw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
With a light aura that trails long after the album closes, there’s faint magic to this poppy effort that leaves nothing but a positive memory floating beneath your bed.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgXg5aA_1GcdWyeIGLJXSaOMb4jSV5uID29u-3g6VKdvGuzsYyPyQLhgrd3EyjACMzZL-X2o0Ah88h0wpRJY6UwCqGHesAmNthMg4Qodf0vP2_v65KeV5yOICmPHtLcP0jy1j18EOAJgI/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Imperial-Triumphant---Alphaville.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 45. Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville" /></span></div>
<h3>45. Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville</h3>
<i>Technical Avant-Garde Black Death Metal<br />
31 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1VAxNxcYUKpJ1XEJW12oPY?si=OcN_X2xDSvGa_t4NUoMu0g" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Imperial Triumphant are lunatics. Their psychotic horn section alone is fucking terrifying. Check google images for some small idea of what you’re dealing with.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp6eTVkPXcfA9aOiNN-6IbBsiEBQOx4ML2D7DNfOdZA5hQnfjhI9_os2-wP0hq_GpGnmJIgXbdZ2VU2q7Fp4Pzmou0zoEnddkd8JsNfZjLMo_Z8NUP8PPeW0aZFuQixQFSJL38Bok3wvw/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Jay-Electronica---A-Written-Testimony.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 44. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony" /></span></div>
<h3>44. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony</h3>
<i>Conscious Abstract Hip Hop<br />
13 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0ZJt4dCoI19u71k37E1nQu?si=QilLw0UNTuOeH1gJGHVMqg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Thirteen years in the making and you basically have a new Jay-Z album here. Take that as you will, but the old school beats hold together a spiritual faith with a celebration of blackness. The tracklist may be top-heavy, but it’s fucking top-<b>HEAVY</b>, you know what I mean?
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8TBx29cffb62XFo4j2LezQgO_XhWGd-mEecjbrKhROSiReMmB281_mJTukvZDNFMESYl4IQToro8YowW-UbnEkO3dyobOIVVIvndv_iPSdvU1LeqA4UjN_RjJQwONj47rn0hyphenhyphenLawTbKY/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Protomartyr---Ultimate-Success-Today.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 43. Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today" /></span></div>
<h3>43. Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today</h3>
<i>Post Art Punk<br />
17 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1prgWeOu8QaOZnMeUeTdhN?si=1KnPGMejQy6mSvhMSQGOIQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Post punk's domination may be waning, but some centrepieces protect the fort with Protomartyr as perhaps the most remarkably unsung band on the planet. Their sound is so potent that they've never written a bad song, handing out the same consistency from the very beginning until right here right now.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqgTYiJ-aHZaizon4rvi5foEiJAOBqoHAk_DjchQru1kC6jV4I7ULBQgbmuYDZcTjF3UgESKydcFiApBfY3E_Tp08EDjwnNQZz8WhL2eY5aKvUpuo0pe996CBaEjU0VUVg-rYCf141uQ/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Sprain---As-Lost-Through-Collision.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 42. Sprain - As Lost Through Collision" /></span></div>
<h3>42. Sprain - As Lost Through Collision</h3>
<i>Post-Slowcore<br />
4 September<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6wqOfdit6W84Cto4elWAPG?si=MWyH3tBmT4GB9Tn0dW0FxA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The gravitational pull of effortless monotony has grown more appealing in my old age. Drag that shit as far apart as it can go. But what's this? Post-slowcore? So it's hardcore? But slow? What, like a weird Slint? Or a perpetual humming noise? Whatever, I like it.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAR81QbWEwgCzWVfeeCDEORoL1X5pGzGHxtEl1JpOT04zryYcmcIf1KUiOlmbJOHdFdWvbM47kUyeefmDtbHgXva9iPML13esN4NgC3I9ILB8AI12KAElgMTXQl0G7e63eSkfXXU57_h0/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Amaarae---THE-ANGEL-YOU-DON%25E2%2580%2599T-KNOW.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 41. Amaarae - THE ANGEL YOU DON’T KNOW " /></span></div>
<h3>41. Amaarae - THE ANGEL YOU DON’T KNOW </h3>
<i>Alternative Afrobeats R&B<br />
12 November<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1cceIhCQ8R79pwy8jbZFqE?si=yROEDbpMSUaQLCKffVBslQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Picking a tired genre then squeezing an adorable juice from it, <em>The Angel You Don’t Know</em> is uplifting without stupidity and commercial without being cheap. It sounds like it was written for her friends. I want to be her friend.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3lbZJl4e1tncdE-t0TZneCfidjbjoUS-OppuoGOQvXN_6rTh0odXWehaSw4QpNW4dUmMmpPqjv4ucMhRWH5Fa-veOGqDd1I_AIfs2a1ykpx2lRWVYiFAeXu_zl6nyu1udrW_URjnW-w/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Hum---Inlet.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 40. Hum - Inlet" /></span></div>
<h3>40. Hum - Inlet</h3>
<i>Alternative Shoegaze Metal<br />
23 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6SfnjkSphtKowg3tt7azDi?si=Gn0l0Q3HRnyKBlJtIkPFBA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
How long does it take to release a record that drowns you in fuzz, sinking you so far down into stoner tones that you are only introduced to the vocals right at the back? 22 years.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVLXkwdXCEnkIWAJ0PWHZ2w1mV60XNvxCObXZUV1TAanIrvHFrOx1Y-lUXXTqhMzH9yOKOX1OqZ_mTzWDxG4mIqd35pCqG0q98QZPJ0ZefsAfiFhyKbqYwZ2mwKTmKWN0x2FWq0F9yfw/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Mamaleek---Come-%2526-See.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 39. Mamaleek - Come & See" /></span></div>
<h3>39. Mamaleek - Come & See</h3>
<i>Experimental Avant-Garde Metal Noise Rock<br />
26 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/73ZGJ0noQl8rYFmbJZz8jH?si=WcRLEQCsQxac9OupalkoBg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
This stuff is immediately fucked but calculated in its fuckedness. It destroys everything in just the right way by never sacrificing talent. If it offers you a box full of noise while stirring a jazz tangle in the middle, be very careful.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi706HUvXZeeWsd4xqeFT7JJ0C1czfWmDodTBX1EBV_A3cwBXb4ZRdGj7cjWiKBYPwrrlxx6UGDhS36nKGn33Jhmh69IPf6GIo91h2v99opbk9bFkxbBiiGqVPpCR3lt_Q5acsrPMT4tmo/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Code-Orange---Underneath.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 38. Code Orange - Underneath" /></span></div>
<h3>38. Code Orange - Underneath</h3>
<i>Alternative Industrial Metal<br />
13 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/70kThssMOMBi4GyBPCk0Gu?si=q_hGBySaT6q9NIab-3iNCQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Hooky metal that's serious about being aggressive can come across disingenuine, but Code Orange escape the phoniness with horroresque elements to darken the atmosphere while glitchy tricks keep the listener guessing. They improve per record too so it could be an exciting decade for these dudes.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4UTT3dQ3_KncpEqaZktV77kvxrFH54tIMzHSuSQI7wSFOTQ2fYTGxST7xotwfKg7irWqHhuXHu6Ae_s9QYXwArRC-EA_hig2K5XiNTDJA9OHCwJHoX0jXC4wUQ7ZHKAIcjnJKuGhew30/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Carly-Rae-Jepsen---Dedicated-Side-B.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 37. Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated Side B" /></span></div>
<h3>37. Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated Side B</h3>
<i>Dance-Synthpop<br />
21 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7oHKKCXCFIv3J1Yh5F08pu?si=J5YCoG1FRDWD2yqfYHsjtQ " target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
It's sickening that Carly's b-sides are superior to most pop artist's lead singles. She's found her delicious groove and clings to it, flooding the world with hooks of joy that instantly stick on first listen then sink deeper with each preceding spin. She's pop royalty, and any opposing arguments are wrong.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH_TcWzvP0LbhoOz1joPDOGLzaf6vFaHvfDBNU-Wlzwgh5VougDEs-lFp6SF_vWm6hCmfixnII28JfraJFcWnWK7hHbbx0K2KnK30bgWvGds_aUT-AAfktomcXOAKUMqsuYETzuJOYlQ0/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Baauer---Planet%2527s-Mad.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 36. Baauer - Planet's Mad" /></span></div>
<h3>36. Baauer - Planet's Mad</h3>
<i>EDM Jungle Terror Trap<br />
19 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6uqNRIEzOXHDQRTXsOBqSW?si=GsYvKjRLR2KXmET6m4aV0A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Shove your working day with the eclectic electricity of jungle bangers sprinkled with African spices, your right-hand typing double as fast while your left-hand fist pumps at the air. I've had a lot of fun with this record, all alone.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOt0ghNkYNZce7WVBwTlcKeJHJPbZ7ZiaYBsGURJh7QKcVOAis7qdh0ULtn4Ubc4haB1ky1NyfGM_DluxVULfy-blgAGWhEmCPjZKXm27L0IC1qo5sXMveMyKpiK_bOfKW6ZNgXqeneX0/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_The-Microphones---Microphones-in-2020.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 35. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020" /></span></div>
<h3>35. The Microphones - Microphones in 2020</h3>
<i>Indie Avant-Folk<br />
7 August<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7BkabF31ak" target="_blank">YouTube</a></i><br /><br />
Imagine an album. And it's one song. And it's 44 minutes and 44 seconds long. And it only features two chords repeated forever. And the lyrics are all about making the record itself. If what you're imagining is a slog of monotony, you wouldn't be wrong, but even on paper, you've surely never heard of a project as ballsy as this. I'm just pleased that Phil Elverum sounds far more mended since the most recent Mount Eerie songs.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zx3IciUsYaBY-qK8Zy_LeUZ3iVRd-dGbgvByr9l8oB7OlZfeVNhAK8zmpo4LotIJNPPX5ykVXXvbLPoVtQoY8yuBXkJURt0DF1jdzY_ZmEivF9Nlixzjw1cYXphai2uWz4Zts9epMgc/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Kylie---Disco.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 34. Kylie - Disco" /></span></div>
<h3>34. Kylie - Disco</h3>
<i>Dance-Pop Disco<br />
6 November<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7EBIA9cqbuqkyWfp3UCitD?si=d9S6X80rTdK8pxoStRREdA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
A cemented legend crawls from her career slump wearing disco heels, spinning out one of her best albums from a 30-year career. Damnit, Kylie, how you do dat?
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Hy_LxucrMcqt5FJOzNFYwALyM_2Uzf2aYbTipIvrhU1eG6LxU9y_gc4ZgYSW1qz-AiRSytE3-5pvTyHrPZM3XqjmvNcZiZbe_XAIot9JajvFUZhaja3lpQ-gmzGEXzU96VOP05LgFBE/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Natalia-Lafourcade---Un-canto-por-Me%25CC%2581xico-Vol.-1.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 33. Natalia Lafourcade - Un canto por México Vol. 1" /></span></div>
<h3>33. Natalia Lafourcade - Un canto por México Vol. 1</h3>
<i>Ranchera Mexican Folk Music<br />
8 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6yDcHjoEqNkkl9UC6KSlFE?si=OU_u3UV0SQa8y-2RH47a9A" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
My adoration for Natalia exploded then died with her 2015 project <em>Hasta la raíz</em>. That record smashed high on my charts, but it seemed our star was not satisfied and spent the next half-decade exploring traditional sounds from her Mexican heritage which didn’t stick to me in the same way. Understandably, my hopes for <em>Un canto por México Vol. 1</em> were lowered, which stretched an opening for this record to dive directly inside. According to my ears, she’s finally found the midpoint between what she’s good at, what people want, and what she wants to do, taking a whimsical step outside of what you’d usually find in popular music and reigniting my love once more.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhsctXQMm4-yeB-enslH6oW97LYcLVpCzFDSqRXb8-DuHfFastkK8fkVQyqdgNogiL6q0aMravaWqCorOHrU5yCQSMmL4HonjqO2jUFKwAAgtrHt-ntn9T_qU5cCkYj6NQ3ZCY7UzGwEM/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Sault---Untitled-%2528Black-Is%2529.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 32. Sault - Untitled (Black Is)" /></span></div>
<h3>32. Sault - Untitled (Black Is)</h3>
<i>Neo-Soul<br />
19 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0GPmuVuCdC5hCsiuy1wXle?si=SD7X7BFjSjq6npQZ6FJpvw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
When Sault released two albums mere months apart, the debate over which reigned superior was turbulent and unresolved. Many preferred the more celebratory <em>Untitled (Rise)</em>, but for me, it’s the black power protest atmosphere of <em>Untitled (Black Is)</em> that edges slightly higher. In the end, however, these two records are a singular piece, driving their messages with one-liners and a sharp focus on instrumentation, no dips in quality, a feat even the greatest could not achieve.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFm604qq4F8tHoTGCfoSl2RFGulHOss_3fDt__vxeYXsvLSLVvKJYsyxPU9dU0tptS9g7zTmAIjFdLBxGlTAlxac11wxDLvixbLf8qHVQ4brCPAbs5bfBHDvOERijgFwhV1j2n8y1QNU/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Aesop-Rock---Spirit-World-Field-Guide.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 31. Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide" /></span></div>
<h3>31. Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide</h3>
<i>Abstract East Coast Hip Hop<br />
13 November<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1i4NEdHn7WBvmmqU3ilJSb?si=odRW1LxsSfW60Qd1aY-WBA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Listen to this album as many times as you want, you’ll never grasp every word of Aesop’s vibrantly colourful deliveries that zip by with so many quick witticisms that only he truly gets the jokes. Plus the man produces the beats too! Ten points to an album that sits in his top three out of nine.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Hiq0G0zg-i-DAuI0d9QtzOzco2ZVXLw1JuEN-pX7TvioBWcKhu6qJLHydgp17-YxCgQiic632vaLZ9Qj8_qf01ZHMDMv05UhWuevRNhgV5pwecIR10wk_K2WsOOtrqgWcf919TMGoUc/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Crack-Cloud---Pain-Olympics.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 30. Crack Cloud - Pain Olympics" /></span></div>
<h3>30. Crack Cloud - Pain Olympics</h3>
<i>Art Post-Punk<br />
17 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/72NfgdR6vc6FhUKytuUFkl?si=fB0W5zFtTNmB3RoN-sJEOA " target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Crack Cloud wrote this album for me. Crank that quirky knob and reverberate the subtle madness into every corner of the room. Half an hour later, gone, thank you, come again. Don’t mind if I do!
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_AszLWyD6nn11D9EkbbvqKsrEokaCt8cj-y-7xBWcnWfrmTb5SZ0p53g7plpCEzfvM2n-EwAa704a5aKDPsf15q_-MLRJpbyHEoTAlu7fhiHFcGlA5QjnIWVyyZBvRlJbyXDIu8Hn7fU/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Wake---Devouring-Ruin.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 29. Wake - Devouring Ruin" /></span></div>
<h3>29. Wake - Devouring Ruin</h3>
<i>Black Metal<br />
27 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0HPwpmR523VvXMFtnXPKT6?si=vb5fMo-LTpeNyKTJyT8_MQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Take the black metal blueprint then tick each box so furiously that you tear through the page. Now eat the paper. When we listen to black metal, we want black metal, and that's what Wake gives you. It's not trying to be smart; it's merely a relentless attack of darkness, which unlike most of its contemporaries, doesn't overstay its welcome.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiB8VYPQeGTkUDR83RTznSY9k2xnFs_nx6dRZeDzkSMesI1a_JxNj5M3KYcdGzbxR-XK8QWokZhXxDA7Opvh7FvFUz_A4dcBb5fk_d3DKLSeL056-OgXEBcgjK6eC_Rh6l9ejuFsIweVo/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Sorry---925.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 28. Sorry - 925" /></span></div>
<h3>28. Sorry - 925</h3>
<i>Indie Post-Punk Rock<br />
27 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1x4UFeq7sIZohSXgitqWXp?si=a3m0ClpbQUm3lcyBHC4BBA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The coolest kids never even register how cool they are, smoothly evading missteps as if they didn't even see them. Shamefully, my obsession with this band led me to stalk singer Asha Lorenz on Facebook and request her friendship. She is yet to accept.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9bQODQpBJWjO54aAZDyNt4T4ru2J8OxnGeAtQUsjabx1fllcKTlTTTmPQC5l-_-JGl8dimUR6jDFo4ZFscrqUevBzzagG1wGrwov6cPc-Xoaktqmn4uZRhvCgq1hDeUG-A5CCnlO0ldk/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Sa-Roc---The-Sharecropper%2527s-Daughter.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 27. Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter" /></span></div>
<h3>27. Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter</h3>
<i>Conscious East Coast Hip Hop<br />
2 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5PZSZfVW0FN1U6MTKZZcnV?si=6q9kec_6S_6LBdx4N703Yg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Comparisons are lazy, but when you hear whispers of "the female Kendrick Lamar", you've gotta follow that scent. How delightful that it delivers, a bulletproof flow over straight-up old-fashioned beats, no cringy stabs at modernised commercial radio shit, just a verbal assault stacking up a high hip hop player in a year that's desperate for them.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6S4lfnJpCl2mwFO0o6O-SptvPYIqvxism1WaNf8tabeu4Z0ylujIGmiITeYSbxOpOuwEOz0swktKGqKriVigjNilLPQtX160fylpMTauW5kSyrudUA7SZ-R2zuoGrXaQPhBw_cRLREU/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Ichiko-Aoba---Windswept-Adan.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 26. Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan" /></span></div>
<h3>26. Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan</h3>
<i>Chamber Folk<br />
2 December<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1W0SccGphtGQNYqaqQ5nhA?si=VvQkd5OgSZe2vfMdsTwaag" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
The artwork tells you everything you need to know. This album is made of water. Weightless, naked, peaceful, soft, I stopped breathing. Her voice is above water, though. Like, way above.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Qq4vsttCrrp8QqEEQRT7V_Cf_kLL8Em0uRlUHeItVhbrmf_7JMbtbWTvCA83XKR4wIjQbBXBLxXlVOZQasdMCrgtfF4KLwyloAlXNEyl4dW2A4dih9YM1S5rGD4nwlgt5huei33oXnI/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Eartheater---Phoenix--Flames-Are-Dew-Upon-My-Skin.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 25. Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin" /></span></div>
<h3>25. Eartheater - Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin</h3>
<i>Experimental Avant Chamber-Folk<br />
2 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7sc80uUN9dNdVB325D7XZ5?si=O-dPsDz6TnGTjMYdANRXyA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Never in history has there existed a more misleading artwork. No, this record is not some smutty clickbait trap rap trap nor is it a glam rock enticement of sexism. Instead, here is a unique chamber-folk voice backed by little jittery effects and occasional moments of anxiety-inducing drumming, placed in leagues you've never heard before. Except maybe Björk? Yeah, Björk would make an album like this. And, honestly, can you offer a more generous compliment?
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-fnadXygWcR30Ny0LbFZV03UQDpbYvK_JG0gGNeO4vFW1kJDZwMQY-L_Ip1ZeVMjNsDHTeKkdVWASAu8aW7nxBzfDlPWcfAderAcnH6QxMvYWjOAbZmeQ-zD6Y97J714mV8-I1mRjz-o/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Phoxjaw---Royal-Swan.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 24. Phoxjaw - Royal Swan" /></span></div>
<h3>24. Phoxjaw - Royal Swan</h3>
<i>Post-Hardcore Alternative Rock<br />
3 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2e75dFXyd7tVdqdvKQZGjD?si=Hu2WRwOATPCxFm7vIpdQDw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Bursting through the starting line with enthusiasm then only escalating until the closer, this coarse beast charges without frills except for a smear of humour glinting from their horns before they impale you, dead. Do not be a fool and overlook this 2020 post-hardcore park ride of swagger.
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMgXZZHHTrzraUeGfjVAkEmWMfJuKg8zvlBFB2d2u27GKRqxLZxqydy4SdpTLIYD0pohoklnbWZekHM9OESUiJ8v3GVzhxjYcw6WnXqnD9Qg0_YxUtBFS47Q1WE_hqIcAfGlrFxvdN5xU/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Perfume-Genius---Set-My-Heart-on-Fire-Immediately.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 23. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately" /></span></div>
<h3>23. Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately</h3>
<i>Ambient Art Pop<br />
15 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6daEdTBi1hyFQgmsnR7oRr?si=E6dINqZJSx-Ybc0nq44MKA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Each Perfume Genius album expands on the impressiveness of the one that came before. And while <em>Set My Heart on Fire Immediately</em> is less stylistically coherent than his backlog contributions, this peculiarity somehow works in its favour. Every song boasts an individual appeal, delivered intricately without blocking your easy access to tumble right inside, trapped. Perfume? Sure, whatever. But genius? One of the best we got.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8cNc0ZIphTnAIajmtEn8dQyE5rybT6hYOYvx7E6Mfuw4xRRy2WYvd_DsqasnrMnSpGn3H7Pm9AVdHb0lDRpHL1BXd4dOgMPjB4PxbsGZ6730vNn3Zoga6KKS-WejapsaLM3CL_PJibv8/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Dua-Lipa---Future-Nostalgia.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 22. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia" /></span></div>
<h3>22. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia</h3>
<i>Dance-Pop Nu-Disco<br />
27 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7fJJK56U9fHixgO0HQkhtI?si=jX5ko7lKRRKBZGqIWIidBw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
One sample-heavy hook to the face knocked me twirling backwards into the disco, and everyone thought I was dancing. When considering the globe was fearfully shivering round about this date, we can all be thankful for Dua's toffee centre of relief.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxuLcOb29LnZxtDDHBeEqKaPHxVxpJOZi91Fbr3mA0o-vWsJK9ePN-Z97TmUPSIez4RPgjOjJ1mz3hY7Kfj5yvEjj0UVdh77OHWjBpk6pPa_UylBVkl66DZdyzx9EIGyXytfrdwMZnmlE/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Wailin-Storms---Rattle.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 21. Wailin Storms - Rattle" /></span></div>
<h3>21. Wailin Storms - Rattle</h3>
<i>Punk Deathrock Garage Blues<br />
15 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4OTfKCxIygex4olgHHxPYu?si=lF-Q-PKjQxezXO9-oFbLrw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
If I ever require the confidence to smash a chair over someone's head, the gritty attitude of this album would be my secret weapon. It's not even trying to be violent, which makes it all the more dangerous.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqIBpMaWacIn9twCa9m6IO6PGXNjtClAgmxAG7r5u216hgPXYdFRO6Btf0P0r4trhJsalDkXlZqq5fw8l1WN8d0l8Ta4yS9SEmEFqskwcaOCc4CNzT-WQa46Bf7vVwa5FRKEKsc8Ks1lY/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Grimes---Miss-Anthropocene.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 20. Grimes - Miss Anthropocene" /></span></div>
<h3>20. Grimes - Miss Anthropocene</h3>
<i>Electronic Art Pop<br />
21 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4zyqNfmTrnvUejh8M1IEh9?si=dVj8BDU5SbWcHDomlTlqsg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
My suggestion is to examine Grimes' last three albums as one collection, and then you'll understand she's sneakily inking herself into musical history. These consecutive releases reveal a finger pushing the digital pulse of our culture's current bloodstream, and while few will consider <em>Miss Anthropocene</em> as her highest quality of work, many will confess it as her most terrifying.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7XTk6WmbSJ1_8XkH_BckVDM3KyOwnV19LnaaTpQvdkHQi3wrTqiqxO8Go-1QqnBCecYUnMni4YFiCsCG-PvnLTdBSx821vUOxBuhbcWJ16gQqSQZZm1C_eU01qqAoRVGe5BZonBxbMc/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_070-Shake---Modus-Vivendi.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 19. 070 Shake - Modus Vivendi" /></span></div>
<h3>19. 070 Shake - Modus Vivendi</h3>
<i>Alternative R&B Pop Rap<br />
17 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6Q2rUMVAKj1DaDh3xB0IEU?si=I1NRA95GRcuttj4_pCvrWA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
How scarce it is when someone slaps the tired commercial scene sideways, knocking some brains into the zombified radio nonsense. <em>Modus Vivendi</em>'s sound is so modern that it's already old but stretched like gum until it's new again. Now shove it into your mouth and fucking chew. Fresh, no?
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdpUWhBOQmnJEwVO-05nyJkvVal7CHFdsDJewNeCwGsbT7ZooPNbauU9d_9Lt5BT0GAvALU3CAfXMTp2vTwQkIA5EmXtTo4xMdiCStrtmkaSvoa-TER268G9zWr94gqF_KLoKMdzV3hDc/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Sewerslvt---Draining-Love-Story.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 18. Sewerslvt - Draining Love Story" /></span></div>
<h3>18. Sewerslvt - Draining Love Story</h3>
<i>Atmospheric Drum and Bass<br />
25 January<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3yQqw6ZJDHey6HZCpsrFTb?si=H2Ztsz71QDmYTCbmYOJOsw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Nothing like having a fun little dance as you try your best to ignore the darkness spreading dirt across your every move with ghastly samples that nobody invited to this party. Do not let them sink in! Focus on the bangers. Because they <i>bang</i>, brah!
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<div class="separator"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPRpUBXY9zWoARQQdsERnFPGwoePsDDGq9O2D0Ygt53w9iyXsFPjHsPW7rESLokcloJ-nw8i-2CxdoJTIhKy2x9gRuNy9JXZcUWWrMi-Ehli343puoVVHtIIXrHSFC8TdlozQbBRHIQY/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Dreamcrusher---Panopticon%2521.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 17. Dreamcrusher - Panopticon!" /></span></div>
<h3>17. Dreamcrusher - Panopticon!</h3>
<i>Power Electronics Noise<br />
1 May 2020<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adPd1Vkkr7Y" target="_blank">YouTube</a></i><br /><br />
Use knitting needles to pierce your eardrums so that they flap better with the distortion. Talk about noise. This shit does some actual damage like someone learned how to turn dying into music. I’m not even sure what it is.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1f2sL7pOCCZ4oF_JALMQxG0f_XA4jsg_rD6_UOgsrVsjOefDcmoJgyizvALOm9rvhk7Ay5Cd4eCWaDUxBMtsZIkCtcp5Mqe_kwEsm0nkPO9DQBRJxs9dG2w7uUaRdJP5mkFthtG5NWQ/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Jessie-Ware---What%2527s-Your-Pleasure-.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 16. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
" /></span></div>
<h3>16. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?</h3>
<i>Contemporary R&B Dance-Pop Disco House<br />
26 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1CTm3ARqDETSm7GfvNYNJp?si=TeAjjckIQBa0g06W08HlCQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Do you want to make a timeless record? Then go back in time! Just ask Jessie Ware who reinvented her game on her fourth album, not for the better, but for the best! None of her previous work drips with such sensationalism, and it lingers like a classic already.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_feW1mdWUfHhWCCl3_v011kS3U70nuKgnlNrWMbVa6XSyl5KtzptgljR2_HOWYSgVbm-xiY7bjRYGLQpbzZRCvQh_EMFxwmXkt6iNTNtNQgplC_bPqI62KqAYwfqPgrVkCXXdjOP2qs/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_R.A.P.-Ferreira---Purple-Moonlight-Pages.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 15. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages" /></span></div>
<h3>15. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages</h3>
<i>Abstract Jazz Hip Hop<br />
2 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5fO3IS08lcTw9rfUtkgILv?si=OmWfLQnNSpKKvuQCehT2WQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Why Milo changed his name here is frustrating, but the jazzy backtrack does differentiate this work from his previous, a free-form flowy flow which flows perfectly with Milo's flowy flows like silk that turns to liquid in your hands. But all the jazz in the world can't outshine the man's articulate intelligence that rises above the hip hop game without any flexes, only half-smiles and optimistic humour. It's a catalogue highlight.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXcPuWpSlPmPVCzIUqYxtV7tUk3XFarLJ_Sg9yicwyDkZkkYLTOXCUNcDY5nfp7yUAbAXQMtXNR2eHrWaz9o-VXXDR6MKEInlM-nGKYLGh2oiB60dU74W5DdGJarpstK4yxa4hzIJABo/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Against-All-Logic---2017---2019.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 14. Against All Logic - 2017 - 2019" /></span></div>
<h3>14. Against All Logic - 2017 - 2019</h3>
<i>Post-Industrial Tech House<br />
7 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/75vFTgDgdfVhbniLoyCNKh?si=GCSvgPPXRhSNX1Lc-HQLUw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Electronic artists are scrambling to take over the world while Jaar lives on another planet. His first AAL project covered five years of unreleased material; this follow-up covers only two. Yet, it stands as tall, casting a shadow over the scene moments before he released another two self-named records within this same year. Jaar is setting up his pieces to conquer yet another decade, but don't look, or you'll go blind.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL0BZ83YVVoOOOwjZ2bRm2T7BM3n6_jQ2BDZOFn37ktqi5DK8_nIx_VY4vzLBqBejQiTWU01KPzxpmMWAHJCAKGaCGevDJBaAIVtYYAQ7JTL7BgiK5hnLj5g_YxoFPEaGiP_IosJXfOoI/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Katie-Pruitt---Expectations.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 13. Katie Pruitt - Expectations" /></span></div>
<h3>13. Katie Pruitt - Expectations</h3>
<i>Contemporary Country<br />
21 February<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1v30ZLtb2nYIWqDto4GuIP?si=56LYG2UFTzWa5EwiCOU-WQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Growing up as a gay female in a conservative area provided just the right insides to blast a light from Katie's throat, her voice saturating the sky then diving down my throat into my insides now. It's one of the best country records I've heard and the first genuine threat to Kacey's throne since she sat on it.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqheGo1P2akn2Ap87ZY5kIg0OYCbWriULZOjkrCVmzDtUaTcsudKFNyUkiDgrbm9GhVddH50dOiT7ifrKwJ-RwojeKBG9R-nUOx_MZyx7okp0U5D9X0PEcJSYnGFoSUUTZAM1Rwv6PpU/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Yelle---L%2527E%25CC%2580re-du-Verseau.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 12. Yelle - L'Ère du Verseau" /></span></div>
<h3>12. Yelle - L'Ère du Verseau</h3>
<i>French Electro Synthpop<br />
4 September<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5iCfp2KefljOSPdRqpAvyW?si=o0iiXPl5SHyFXk4jJc4tFg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Nothing like a six-year wait to lose confidence in an artist only to have those fears squelched by the finest album of Yelle’s career. More mature energies in one hand and extra dark influences in the other, she leapt forward, slamming her flag into the already well-pasteurised lands of 2020 dance-pop. And her material flies high.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBQ7vKEEZ_tn_i_6KZdQCZcidHQNuI17MglWrWQojh97V9kATYlWMqXn0kiGOVoS1EcuUKwpN1V5I62DzTesz4zlxu3iNc4_1cGEjSH_YbAPrjMrqDCswKH5wwbQIfywsNEbd3LNm8lcQ/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Run-the-Jewels---RTJ4.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 11. Run the Jewels - RTJ4" /></span></div>
<h3>11. Run the Jewels - RTJ4</h3>
<i>Hardcore Political Conscious Hip Hop<br />
3 June<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6cx4GVNs03Pu4ZczRnWiLd?si=QEqld_iHT8aKOoo07oYQ0w" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Even when Run the Jewels pause for a summary record, they still sound like an unstoppable forward motion. Furthermore, the eerily prophetic BLM content proves they are several strides ahead of everyone, encouraging a fight all the louder. Four perfect albums in a row. Are they aiming for the record? You fucking know they are. Their solo careers are dead to me; I have zero interest in hearing them apart again.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH7taMmnciO0wPuHaYBMheecBsnyByFhMyrPWA-xnivoRTrRcZLBesuswXE9frTPepjwzSvNVSbbABbuE2eBAfy0JXwPge8SE6wCRGRJ27MT3u36LDDiYkst4Ev-nRr26algLEpLgZu64/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Clipping.---Visions-of-Bodies-Being-Burned.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 10. clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned" /></span></div>
<h3>10. clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned</h3>
<i>Industrial Experimental Hip Hop Horrorcore<br />
23 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0b1q9se93BEqBl3kiltn33?si=jrbGXgZ5TpmboG6pn-xoig" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Akin to an aggressive chess game, the speaker-shredding beats of abrasive minimalism battle the tongue-tricking rap flows of horror yet neither manages to outmanoeuvre the other, playing on different fields but the same team, seeking only to murder you. Albums like this are not easy, they demand dedicated energy, but if you survive it, something inside of you will still be dead forever.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5riSvUZh9hXfUONohiZDBHUCzPPfyINCUMFqCTyoPsNV4_EWIFYtLoSKYaaDnuicNJbIEjcIgfdVrBsZnuh5d6rpfY3F7r_1NFuP-b_3QJQMutqdIR_fw-3QywIu7kgc-dhu1WGBSH9o/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Ro%25CC%2581isi%25CC%2581n-Machine---Ro%25CC%2581isi%25CC%2581n-Machine.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 09. Róisín Machine - Róisín Machine" /></span></div>
<h3>09. Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine</h3>
<i>Nu-Disco<br />
2 October<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5WpDQt6EbpzXbqo9g9P0L6?si=1hZH7eRjRR2a4Ab5tuOlNA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Róisín's peculiar habit of tripping over the weird line finally culminated in raising the bar of her craft then drop-kicking that same bar off the planet. The superbly named <em>Róisín Machine</em> is a perpetual onward movement, one extravagant DJ set featuring songs that have surely been written before because each one sounds like a classic. It's some of the best disco I have ever heard.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaYN5Htwzo3uksCz2-mNHy_HkETavgkp6mgqoQP0PX0IAvHp1M0zNdwo8ubAOZ08GGjvX3Dm53ooaqqj0hLGESPrcRprYLVxmKY7VOLpU-xRHqfK8R49UUKA2HxLogCaDOVqLlsRfwzG0/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Sevdaliza---Shabrang.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 08. Sevdaliza - Shabrang" /></span></div>
<h3>08. Sevdaliza - Shabrang</h3>
<i>Art Pop<br />
28 August<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/54tTC9UQtLnu5Wldhlnstr?si=iid5F5MiSUy8gtokJhclug" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Fall to your knees, the second coming has arrived! Alanis Morissette upgraded and modernised for the new age! I'm the only one who thinks that but I worship this record anyway for doing something different without exerting any effort during the process. An album like this comes once a decade, and it's only 2020. Such a blessing.<br />
<span style="font-size: 0.75em"><i>(side note: Alanis did release a decent record this year too)</i></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjne45M1u_sLf0jscjDUHKQhcKrD1gN2mCOmkAzKb5ehecye_c2WKddooI3T_FM42NJTRjmR3MmX7p2ZLgxUPLzGTIwXmtsT8T3Qvzbt6mD1UgTXcvo2O573Qk2sZiWzObY9uI_UAMc_WE/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_The-Weeknd---After-Hours.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 07. The Weeknd - After Hours" /></span></div>
<h3>07. The Weeknd - After Hours</h3>
<i>Alternative R&B Synthpop<br />
20 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4yP0hdKOZPNshxUOjY0cZj?si=SIrt1f_DQqSPh1euMj_zeA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
After taking over the world, The Weeknd absorbed all of the dangerous electricity he could muster from immoral sex and filthy parties until his sins exploded outward and left behind (possibly) his best album yet. Did you expect this? I didn’t expect this. It’s really something.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQKX3l-1X8MebBA51TowGC286-9J7i6kVo-057cM_hvGWQwkfd8KJ7Yy8FjL6VuCuHvEO16KvXFZo9fLSv4RbVTTx_IpafI7Nx7JS2WRB4X-W2UykrtWduon4jZmv4v71LptnVgdvX-y4/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Fleet-Foxes---Shore.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 06. Fleet Foxes - Shore" /></span></div>
<h3>06. Fleet Foxes - Shore</h3>
<i>Indie Folk Chamber Pop<br />
20 March<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0lmjCPEcec2k6L7ysNIcd3?si=Z4LbcT2sSb-BvI9bYGX1zA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Indie folk has gone stale just kidding here's Fleet Foxes, dwelling in melancholic chambers but keeping the heavenly moods snug with knitted sweaters. And I can't fault a damn thing about it.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHJVbFpscOdfF4CgkZR67rzrBWRTuYRGNu8E2bDF47_fuSBIOOJGqR9NdNkS4xFHtYu5jh6Q1Ho00CNH9I99kmvKXY9RaGPh5T7UH2pKRrWRfPPJUZbdlDfeWffwyaoBDEjV9Ru6XdI0/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Deftones---Ohms.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 05. Deftones - Ohms" /></span></div>
<h3>05. Deftones - Ohms</h3>
<i>Alternative Metal<br />
25 September<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0VEFy5MsBiq0u2lWL0OwOd?si=qepAr2HcT7q7G-FNPHI93g" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
By embracing their strengths then cranking up the guitarwork, Deftones made a Deftones record. They comfortably conjured one of their most solid albums by working within the safety of their atmospherics; a space only they have access to. So I guess Deftones did it again? How many times have we said that now?
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzVnmOGKCH5lwwj62oX-iGruCgju75FGIoWutC9q8cyArWm698WFCvYGheJfLE4Vsr2Bzo3jFjgQ6MPVOlvUn7PaUZ-GepJqN79H5BeWUvsHRBIEDFA4XteJK8iJ9OXuC1kEJ8OdcCmo/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Oranssi-Pazuzu---Mestarin-kynsi.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 04. Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi" /></span></div>
<h3>04. Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi</h3>
<i>Psychedelic Avant-Garde Black Rock Metal<br />
17 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0gsk1RGjMrtEDE05s0TZMf?si=DNGwQk-0SsChp5JF3N9QBw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
If I’ve ever heard a better metal album than this, then <em>Mestarin kynsi</em> sucked the marrow from my memory, leaving me crumpled on the floor, delirious but shivering from delight. I didn’t know albums were capable of sounding this good. I'll kill myself to this record, I don't care.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPZIzkyFe9qPy-7ry1BS91qc-3U6fL2bQJulLx42RIj2u5U9zg8gQ6UfWoaCNZixbyXJO-5VhDofjzeagB4OGJcCSwWRt0KNe57xmG6g6lN-1_dd77SoUmTBLIb8eJvXpsisAeiU24X4/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Charli-XCX---How-I%2527m-Feeling-Now.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 03. Charli XCX - How I'm Feeling Now" /></span></div>
<h3>03. Charli XCX - How I'm Feeling Now</h3>
<i>Bubblegum Electropop Bass<br />
15 May<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3a9qH2VEsSiOZvMrjaS0Nu?si=N3LRtSVSSLKYUMazWrQTRQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
Note Charli as the first creative to be inspired by pandemic isolation and translate the craving of human interaction into a harsh set of bangers to help everyone else to deal. It's been less than a year since her previous record and her discography as a whole glows with consistency, but this album shatters the ceiling without leaving the house.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dXowYZc3-EK_CEBv5XK_NTT1n5Sg2jqf_IpJfgUEQtQKeUALSp_HotFXbpMVOpflQu7dx1uANlaN5WdCM76v0MwN9xbhLjVk3NDnVfR6PWiJtq6PV8mymhs6Azoq7-MJrCt7dQT1tbg/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Taylor-Swift---Folklore.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 02. Taylor Swift - Folklore" /></span></div>
<h3>02. Taylor Swift - Folklore</h3>
<i>Indie Folk Pop<br />
24 July<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2fenSS68JI1h4Fo296JfGr?si=TZXRAbOWT6OXghrWGzeVYg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
<em>Folklore</em> dumped the rest of Swift's discography into an acid bath and dissolved them to irrelevance. Everything she made before this album is pocket change for a kid at a candy store. Look at me; I'm gutted like a fish, flapping on the floor for a very long time, except I don't mind because every song belongs here. The thought of heartbroken teenaged girls crying while listening to Taylor's old records used to amuse me. Now I have become that crying teenage girl. Yes, I have cried to this record. Frequently.
<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvx6LH6EmmNqKGXUaPpFVr72V9OB9CtV3RPbAVGWx_ghHPlFLt140-plp4zdU5CDdeNTq47x-Z4qIg6D2ce9Va2aXxWEGhVOWpP4-KOn0LePynSMd6Suw_6yL4g1fzyWyghbic3YdoRo/s0/20Dec16_The-Top-50-Albums-of-2020_Fiona-Apple---Fetch-the-Bolt-Cutters.jpg" alt="The Top 50 Albums of 2020: 01. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters" /></span></div>
<h3>01. Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters</h3>
<i>Progressive Art Pop<br />
17 April<br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0fO1KemWL2uCCQmM22iKlj?si=9Nc9CHQjTDusvbSIwuROTA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></i><br /><br />
<em>Fetch the Bolt Cutters</em> is so raw and intimate that it shrinks me into a child, sitting on Fiona's carpet, watching her playing piano songs as I struggle to understand my feelings. Is this Fiona Apple's best album? Which album is Fiona Apple's best album? It's an impossible question which only reaffirms the perfection of an impenetrable discography stacked tall exclusively with classics. But mark my words and mark them fucking well: come 2029 as we are arguing over the highest album of the decade, the suggestion of this masterpiece will be forceful.
<br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-1572116212217668572020-11-26T13:43:00.005+00:002020-11-26T13:43:52.394+00:00Devolving to Evolve<br />Maybe we're backtracking the spiritual timeline.<br />
Devolving to evolve.<br />
Atheism was the motion set to unravel the thousands of years of Middle East Abrahamic rule.<br />
The New Agers are now re-stimulating the ancient practices of East Asia and India that thrived thousands of years before that.<br />
It's only a matter of time before Animism/Shamanism dominates the land once more.<br />
We shall communicate with rocks and pray to the ocean until the perception of matter becomes raw quantum vibration.<br />
We all merge then explode then retract into a singular sound that calls out our distance, placing the measurement on the Divine Charts.<br />
God takes a deep breath and goes for another round, determined to beat the high score.<br />
God wants to be the best God, but the competition is fucking fierce these days.<br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-22115641101590218962020-09-15T16:10:00.009+01:002023-03-22T10:40:21.267+00:00David Icke and Me: An Expanded Review of The Biggest Secret<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWYqtdPnm-zfFCQ-jMbkObjeK1cOrFpy4mEjFgc4UmtEPaCPDHeN4TKiVI1YD86UkP0TmtM0LCnPoeUvvbPharphywer-w_O2RPGpABVI4VtisdKNuGsLLbSNVbaVH_S-j5HyeoXq9D2c/s0/david-icke.jpg"/></span></div>
<i><b>PLEASE NOTE</b>: The following text is an expanded book review boasting bonus paragraphs about my recent journey through this conspiracy world along with my views on these general theories from a broader scope. It's a more complete work and justifies its length, but it is still rather long. If you do not feel you have the stomach, feel free to take a load off and read the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3256456619" target="_blank">abridged version on Goodreads</a> instead. It's missing the juicy bits but gets the job done all the same.</i><br /><br />
The chewy centre of this story breaks through like every classic apocalyptic tale: in New York City. It was March 2020, and despite a month of encouraging words from the QAnon messiah Donald Trump, the COVID virus went ahead and snapped a sharp and aggressive bite out of the Big Apple. The streets were wiped clean of their usual human bustle as the lifeblood of the city retreated into hiding. And there was little me, Jared Woods, kicked to the streets from a hostel that shut down and just managing to find an apartment in the Bronx, isolating and alone on the other side of the world from home. I'll admit, I was terrified, but I held a brave face on social media. I told my mom I was okay. And I focused on the one light of optimism I had: a Chicago flight to London, leaving in a month. Surely this silly outbreak would blow away by then? It was airborne after all.<br /><br />
During this bout of secretive writhing, I received a voice message from an equally tortured close friend. The world was unsettled, but this guy (as an incurable conspiracy theorist) seemed to be performing mental backflips more frantic than most (as terminal conspiracy theorists tend to do). Aware of my education on religion, his fearful questions babbled about the biblical "mark of the beast", stressing that this "outbreak" was a ploy to plant microchips into us via vaccines. This rant was the first time I'd considered such a possibility, but I offered him the same advice then that I would now. There are no vaccines yet, and there are no mandatory vaccine laws in the UK. You're living in terror of a future that doesn't necessarily exist. Once they find the vaccine and force it upon us, then we can chat about implants. My words seemed to calm his buzzing teeth, but based on his recent Facebook posts, nothing I said made any long term difference. <br /><br />
The cancellation of my flight from Chicago shortly followed this exchange, and I felt like I'd swallowed a brick. I panic purchased another flight which accidentally turned out to be many weeks in advance, oops. I bit my lip and bought another one, losing a lot of money as I rushed onto a plane from New York to London within days.<br /><br />
Have you ever taken a packed flight during peak-pandemic from the capital of the outbreak? It's an intense experience. I sat stiffly in my seat for seven hours, and I was too scared to breathe. Everyone was a suspect, and I sank away from the aisle whenever a crew member passed. It's easy to become self-centred when a disease smothers a planet—everyone has their corona nightmare stories. But even considering the greater scheme of people's issues, my POV was challenging. I was so nervous I wanted to cry.<br /><br />
We landed in London. I scanned my passport. I walked through the security and customs without exchanging glances with another human being. No one took my temperature; no one asked me how I was feeling; nobody cared that a fully-booked plane from the most plagued city on the Earth had just skipped through their borders. Such negligence shook my solar plexus, and when I finally reached a safe place to commence my UK isolation, I was exhausted and traumatised. Looking for comfort, I texted another very close but different friend, detailing my ordeal, and his response was arguably the most infuriating message I've received in my entire life.<br /><br />
<i>"You'd understand why this happened if you knew the teachings of David Icke".</i><br /><br />
I can't recall if there was winky emoji in there but every word stank of it. The arrogance oozed down from a podium of "higher knowledge"; a position where Icke and his followers comprehended everything that was happening as they scoffed down at the sheep snagged in a system of lizard design. Admittedly, the anxiety of my trip had beaten the patience out of my nerves, and I lost it. I was well-versed in the crux of Icke's theories, and I considered them to be the pinnacle of absurdity. I was happy to humour the notion at the worst of times, but not here, not now. My turmoil was not Icke's narrative, and to shove some unprovable waffle down my throat after what I had just endured felt like an absolute betrayal of compassion. I took it personally.<br /><br />
The proceeding argument was extensive, and I went to bed in pain that night. When I woke, there was one persistent thought that this person had spat into my face. How did I know Icke was full of shit? I could only recite the headlines and Wikipedia summaries. Is that enough to turn my back on the author? The undeniable truth is that Icke has managed to convince millions of oft-intelligent minds to digest his theory. There must be something to it! Perhaps my previous reactions had been harsh and unfair. I decided to give my two friends the benefit of the doubt and explore this world for myself. That same day, I ordered David Icke's most famous book <em>The Biggest Secret</em>, which arrived surprisingly quickly, and I eventually read it despite the 500+ pages of attention it demanded. And here we are.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.janthopoyism.com" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; " target="_blank"><img alt="Janthopoyism: Your New Religion" border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk13AKniawRG_8ifdslrTs4w_SwqLOjpm3FO_xCFyR8Z9Ak3DZM_AEkqjhNqfDU9-3_u5v1X9w26fNvWertwbNv-98HSK0m2C857EFVJI42pzTEnEscK4EmW4mwKw1ZzZLoNhO7-5Ty__FOmUtRXW5CwmRZq_hJf8f5IGIOOkYpcRd3t1hgS92aT85/s1600/Jantho-blogger-ad.jpg" style="width: 624px;" /></a></div><br />
For those of you who don't know what Icke's theory is, I'll summarise it for you. For thousands of years, a reptilian alien race has been meddling with our society. They've developed a Satanic Brotherhood organisation where they love nothing more than to rape and eat our children. If that isn't terrifying enough, these aliens dwell inside of the Earth (which is hollow) and operate from a 5th dimension, navigating the minds of literally everyone of any importance. These aliens often live among us through certain bloodlines (which are always caucasian and often Jewish; hence the frequent <i>founded</i> accusations of Icke's racism) such as the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, and the royals. They're all lizards!<br /><br />
From this position of power, our alien overlords have manipulated every corner of the world throughout history. You name it; it was them. Their command rules almost all world leaders, the media, the banks, the stock market, the scientific community, every religion, every war, every major event, and, of course, COVID-19. Everyone with power is some way involved (some more surprising than others, including exciting names such as Nelson Mandela, Madonna, Leonardo da Vinci, Adolf Hitler, and Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein). What's more, any newsworthy incident you've ever read about was related to their mission to control the masses (including every high profile assassination—and every death is assassination, don't know?). This command is achieved by creating problems then offering solutions which cost civilians a slice of their freedom. Thankfully for us, the reptilians have never got it right, and despite what Icke will tell you, this is a story of failed global domination which we can follow by using the ample symbolic clues they've left for us along the way. David knows how to get there, let's go!<br /><br />
It's fair to mention that David's theories have developed further since the 1999 publication of this book. Highlights include when he had an epiphany that the moon is an artificial creation which emits frequencies to trap our five senses deeper within this dimension of fear. He has also become a leading voice in the 5G and COVID conspiracies which I believe most people are aware of at this point.<br /><br />
If you think this sounds like the far-fetched ramblings of a mad man, you wouldn't be alone. However, you may be surprised that the majority of these beliefs are not the author's original work. Icke is a professional cherrypicker. He has harvested assorted bits from a vast array of rich counter-theories that were developed by other minds for decades, now rewritten through his voice (whilst regularly citing the sources, which is respectable). The only unique perspective of Icke's teachings is the connection between these ideas, selling them as one giant narrative; a conglomerate of well-known conspiracy theories ground together to create one epic singular timeline.<br /><br />
What's more, he hasn't done the best job of it. I'm no scholar, but I could quickly pinpoint where the already-established research met his views as he stretched the materials like a thin gum to combine whatever serves his story. But Icke knew that the soft putty between didn't have to make much sense. The more substantial wads had decades of previously written books to support them, holding convincing backstories which helped his research to appear foolproof because so many overlook how flimsy the overall picture holds up as a unit.<br /><br />
Now, I pride myself in my refusal to swallow or reject anything, and I don't necessarily write-off Icke's theory. But if someone is going to state claims of this magnitude, they better have some substantial evidence to back it up. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Icke does not. I was disappointed as I was hoping to at least come away with some extraordinarily eerie questions, but this did not happen. Instead, a nervewracking concern grew within me for those friends who have accepted these fragile messages. Make no mistake, Icke's statements are tremendously epic; they simultaneously blew my mind and made me sick to my stomach. But within 10 minutes of independent research, they effortlessly disintegrated into a dust of debunked funk. I am not exaggerating when I say 90% of this book leads to empty space. The lizard fundamentals, in particular, were so rickety that they broke my heart. C'mon, I was anticipating something meaty there! That's his claim to fame! But I can explain all of it (bar one Mesopotamian figurine carving, granted).<br /><br />
Furthermore, his information on religion was incorrect at every turn. I carry a keen interest in this topic which makes me Icke's greatest enemy because he has no shame in presenting information that lacks backing from any acceptable study. Such disregard to decades of research prompts me to believe that, say, an economist or a historian would have issues with their relevant sections too. Needless to say, my eroded trust quickly unravelled David Icke's wicked methods of persuasion after very few pages. <br /><br />
Thus my compulsion to write this piece. Icke is a liar, and I have all the evidence in writing. He's a conman who is intentionally manipulating the masses and, over the next series of paragraphs, I shall expose how he's managed to do so. Because if I can help one person to get out of the web that Icke has spun around them, then the half-year it took to read and write this will be warranted.<br /><br />
Icke is a heavy enthusiast of the Gish gallop technique. He blasts such an overwhelming amount of statements per page that the quantity of information becomes dizzying, and this type of onslaught is crucial to his strategy. It means that any given line will require lengthy research to question and is then quickly followed by another one, and another one, preventing the reader from fact-checking everything the man claims. I gave it my best shot. I got up to page 228 of debunking until I realised mere slivers of it had any reputable basis. After that, I resigned to sit back and go with the ride, which David always knew I would.<br /><br />
I did manage to put together a rough but in-depth analysis of the first 92 pages which <a href="http://juicenothing.com/icke-review/" target="_blank">you can read here</a>. If at any point you require examples of what this review accuses, you will find them there. It's an enjoyable skim regardless, especially as you watch my patience progressively disintegrate into surrender. <br /><br />
An awareness of this bombardment of unchallenged information immediately uncovers the risks of reading this book. Icke freely rambles about how everything that has ever happened is part of this reptilian story, and he does so with confidence because he knows nobody will have the hours or energy to pick everything apart. I consider this to be a form of brainwashing, a technique Icke has studied and utilised for his gain, which I shall detail shortly. <br /><br />
For now, imagine a softer mind racing with Icke's hyperspeed blabberings. A 500-page journey void of researchable facts, but with an abundant supply of sensationalist endorphins. The impressionable mouths are hooked! They open eagerly at his fingertips where he can feed them any varying degrees of mistruths. And he does so with an impressive variety. <br /><br />
One subtle move Icke executes is a type of inside-knowledge effect. He will claim the alien theory is responsible for a specific historical event (the stones of Baalbek or Rh blood types are the first to come to mind), but the powers above have buried the information away from the textbooks. Scandal! However, within minutes I could find numerous sources offering an alien theory in their reports. The only difference is that dedicated authorities also provide the alternative views available, of which there were always plenty. It's frustrating because you know Icke is familiar with these other hypotheses but has intentionally omitted them to ensure his case is airtight. If he'd included other explanations, he would have built trust. Instead, the man commits exclusively to the reptilians and is immoveable on that stance. It's selective research, separating the bits that suit his campaign then stretching everything else whichever way he desires. In this regard, <em>The Biggest Secret</em> is the most biased text I've ever read, which is a trivial complaint in comparison to what is coming. <br /><br />
Less subtle yet more sneaky is his swift manner of twisting hypotheticals into "factual" cornerstone. He will casually introduce speculation from another source, fully citing the original author (sometimes as simple as "somebody told me") then referring to it as just that: a theory. That's a practice I can support and appreciate. However, several pages later, he would suddenly refer to this previous theory as fact and use it to build onto his next point, the entire timeline now dependent on an unfounded hypothesis made only moments ago. It's unforgivably misleading because most people won't pick up on it. <br /><br />
And then there are those times he straight-up lies. He yanks data from thin air, and if you can catch it, you will uncover a profound danger in his work. Icke boasts such a dedicated following that his mistruths often harden into self-fulfilling resources. Your research may find articles reporting similar data until you note these same articles are citing Icke himself! The best example of this is when Icke uses a Hindu god named Virishna to discredit Jesus by connecting identical details between their stories. The internet holds many texts supporting the comparison, but they vanish before the publication date of this book. Why? Because Icke made him up! There is no Hindu god named Virishna! Icke invented a deity just to fool his readers! Everything that follows a betrayal like this is weighed heavy by dishonesty. And, what's worse, he knows what he's doing. For all his faults, David Icke is an impressive researcher. No one can deny that. But this does mean his misleading techniques are entirely intentional because he can lie to us but not himself... right? <br /><br />
<i>"[I had] the overwhelming feeling out of 'nowhere' that the moon was not 'real'. By 'real' I mean not a 'heavenly body', but an artificial construct (or hollowed-out planetoid) that has been put there to control life on Earth — which it does. I have pondered this possibility a few times over the years, but this time I just 'knew'. It was like an enormous penny had suddenly dropped." </i>- David Icke; Human Race Get Off Your Knees (2010)<br /><br />
Or maybe not. <br /><br />
Regardless, are you ready for his more advanced tricks?<br /><br />
One of Icke's fanciest manoeuvres is to claim ownership of every side of an idea even if they directly contradict one another. It's nervewracking that he gets away with it, but he does. I initially noted this during his infamous COVID-19 interview with London Real where David simultaneously used China's early lockdown release and UK's extended lockdown as evidence of societal control. I clicked that no matter what a government did, release or lockdown, he could apply it to his "insight". It's genius, really. And this publication is rife with so many of these multiple bookings examples that I was in hysterics. <br /><br />
Allow me to illustrate. The following paragraph is a list of items that Icke slowly drips through as indications of the Brotherhood. Please note how he manages to include just about everything. Anywhere in history where you see these symbols or words, know that the lizards were there:<br /><br />
Those that come from above; the sky in general; those that come from below; the Earth in general; those that come from water; water in general; those that come from light/energy/another dimension; any demon/deity who loves us; any demon/deity who hates us; the Devil; gods who walked among us; the Sun; the moon; space; stars; Mars; Jupiter; any planet really; the penis and all male energy; the vagina and all female energy; snakes; dinosaurs; dragons; serpents; any reptile really; birds; any creature with wings really; any creature with feathers really; fish; any creature with scales really; lions; lambs; trees; mountains; roses; lilies; goats; pyramids; blood; vampires; gargoyles; giants; placing a hand over your heart; the devil-horns gesture; eyes; skulls; bones; chess boards; squares in general; circles; hexagrams; pentagrams; swastikas; crosses; the colour blue; the colour red; the colour green; the colour white; and the colour black.<br /><br />
Each of the above examples are <i>explicitly</i> stated in the book, and yet this listing is by no means complete. I just stopped taking notes at a point for my sanity.<br /><br />
If you're grasping the bigger picture, you can see where David Icke has excelled, and that is in building an impenetrable fantasy protected from every side. In this vein, another extraordinary trick is how he's managed to convince his readers to discredit all research-based studies and media reports. The Brotherhood controls this information, remember? You must not believe anything you read except what David Icke writes even if he has no resources to support his hypothesis. And <i>tah-dah</i>, he is now invincible; impervious to attacks of facts or logic. You could dedicate your whole life to studying a topic, David Icke could say it was work of the Brotherhood, and his followers would immediately reject you. It's an unimaginable feat that worked for reasons that are beyond my comprehension. <br /><br />
Because the strangest ingredient to this story is that David was a football player. He was not a physicist, nor a historian, nor a holy leader. And yet so-called "intelligent" and "spiritual" people trust him above every scientist and doctrine on the planet, independent or otherwise. A large portion of his teachings dismisses religion as fabricated material to control us. Yet David has proclaimed himself to be the "Son of the Godhead", claiming that some higher knowledge has blessed his mind. Do not let anyone fool you; this movement has all the components of a cult. People follow Icke like a prophet and feverously defend him based on faith, trusting his texts more than any other medium of information. They laugh at the unrealistic story of Jesus, oblivious to the irony that they've just accepted a story about lizard aliens directing the world. How his readers can be so blind to this is what I struggle with the most. <br /><br />
David ends his sermon with the audacity of some faux hope by regurgitating a confused pseudo-spiritual variation of a Pantheistic Law of Attraction notion. He states that we must not live in fear because what we think about will manifest in our reality, ignoring that he just spent hundreds upon hundreds of pages flooding fear into the Universe about shapeshifting lizards who rape preteen children. What a severe lack of understanding this man has. How could one possibly encourage awareness of such an absurd unprovable concept while also acknowledging that this will invite further pain into your experience? I'm not sure about you, but every Icke-follower I've met are not vibrating on any positive level of harmony. They are anxious, angry, patronising, defensive, and distrustful. David then claims that the end-all solution is love, which is rich coming from a man who openly insults everyone who doesn't believe the Queen is a reptile to have "half a brain cell". If you gaze towards David Icke as some beacon of spiritual success, then we have contradictory opinions on what it means to be in sync with the Universe. That man harbours so much resistance in his chi that it's visible. <br /><br />
The final (and most important) trick I will be cracking open is David's moving of goalposts. None of Icke's predictions has ever come true. On the contrary, many of his statements have unequivocally not come true. My favourite example is the New World Order which is gradually taking place through unions between countries led by the Brotherhood. According to Icke, their headquarters are based in London. Then what's up with Brexit? That's the opposite of what he prophesied. So how does he get away with these perpetual inaccuracies? Easy. He swings the outcome into his narrative. Whatever takes place will never be what he's foretold, but he will have an explanation for it, followed by further predictions which will not come true. Please understand this more than anything I say: no matter what the event, Icke will spin it into his story despite the complete lack of forecasts to back it up. Such deceit has occurred for decades after this book. It will happen again with corona, and it will happen for everything for as long as he lives. <br /><br />
The difficulty lies in his followers. Nobody is holding Icke to any accountability. There are no definitive lines on what it would take for him to be decidedly wrong. Every incident, his groupies turn to him, awaiting his guidance, and he fires it to them, a new answer each time as if he knew the current events were inevitable even though he never said so. As long as there are problems in the world, Icke can use it to claim the Brotherhood are gaining control. In Icke's boogie man story, every incident has an ulterior motive. He will exploit any adverse event that takes place with the question <i>"Who benefits from this problem?"</i>, and this will muster fearful unrest in his audience, generating cash flow into his pocket. He's covered all bases, and his people eat it up like chicken feed unaware that they are locked in the coop.<br /><br />
Perhaps I'm too optimistic, but I assume that even the strongest soldiers of the Ickian church can smell the glaring holes they choose to ignore. For starters, if this thousands-of-years-old Brotherhood exists, they suck at their job. Our freedom of travel and communication has improved immeasurably per generation, just look at me! I write cartoons online for a living while I skip from country to country. I’m freer than anyone could have possibly been mere decades ago. I’d struggle to be more free, to be honest. Furthermore, this so-called "secret organisation" is so terrible at staying "secret" that a footballer exposed them, but I guess it's their fault for leaving so many clues for us, right? Silly Brotherhood! And so here we have him, the glorious David Icke, writing about the most powerful Satanic paedophiles in the world. He openly details their crimes in books and all over the internet, never shut down beyond a few platforms that have had enough, yet all the information is still widely available whenever you want it. And herein lies the most complicated puzzle. If anything Icke said were remotely true, why is he not dead? If you want to know what happens to people with real knowledge, look at Snowden, look at Assange, look at Epstein. <br /><br />
I'll give you a clue on how this works: Icke's theory is ludicrous to the point of applesauce. I know from my knowledge on religion that almost everything consequential he wrote on that topic was utter nonsense. I destroyed his statements using the references her provided so often that it was laughable. That's why nobody of any qualified authority even bothers to discuss Icke. Because when you lift the veil, there's nothing there. I repeat: if David were even remotely correct, he'd be gone. But (until recently) he wasn't on anyone's radar because his information was so wholly fabricated and it wasn't worth anyone's time.<br /><br />
Now, it would be unfair for me to shred this book to ribbons and leave it like that. Because, as is everything, it wasn't all bad, and does deserve some respect. One undeniable strength of Icke's is his immense research abilities. The amount of effort that has gone into this book is daunting, and when coupled with the man's imagination, it's a thorough piece of work (even if he built it upon matchsticks). His pedantically detailed timeline of events led me down some fascinating rabbit holes, and I came away with newfound and appreciated education on specific topics (such as migration and ancient cultures). Those who accept Icke's messy inaccuracies are easily manipulated individuals, sure, but I understand the appeal, owed in part to Icke's delivery. He has taken in-depth and far-out ideas, then presented them in a simplistic easy-to-understand format without losing a certain sense of humour. If you face this book as the fantastical <i>theory</i> that it is, then it's an exhilarating read as well as potentially the most hilarious joke you've ever heard.<br /><br />
But, once again, we must be open enough to query whether maybe, just maybe, the story might be true. In this case, then Icke is not the one to tell it. His contribution is detrimental as he leaps to conclusions and pushes too far with base-less ideas, wrecking his credibility as the expert on subjects that have zero foundations. Theories are acceptable when recognised as just that: <i>theories</i>. But this was presented as a one-sided fact without merit, and that is its ultimate downfall.<br /><br />
That said, when you make a million statements, some are going to land, and certain speculations that predate his work are worth the contemplation time. Was there alien interference with our DNA? The proposal is not too far-fetched (the Rh incompatibility blood types are a decent indicator of this). Are the people in power hiding secret agendas, perhaps to reach a New World Order? Plausible. Does paedophilia run rife throughout the elite of our society? Paedophilia exists in all classes, and many high profile figures have been caught over the years, so these accusations are nothing new. But where Icke falls short is his obsession with linking everything together, fluffing far-removed concepts towards one another until his conclusions are so wild and groundless that it does not work on any rational plane. I don't doubt there's some crazy stuff going on, and whether you think there's not, or whether you think you know what's going on, or whether you think David Icke knows what's going on, then you are very closed off either which way. <br /><br />
But if we ever do somehow prove Icke was telling the truth, then fuck me. That's terrifying. <br /><br />
If I had the time, I'd write a conspiracy book of my own. Icke has shown me that you can build a mass following using assumptions alone, and I feel confident I could do so using more substantial evidence than he ever did. For starters, Icke discusses how he studied the manipulation tricks of the government and religion and media, and I believe he has exploited this knowledge for his gain. Don't believe anyone but me! Be very selective with your research! And why? Because Icke is a puppet of the New World Order himself. I'm not the first to make this connection. How do you distract the masses from looking into a plot of global control? Send in a lunatic, blabbering about lizard baby-eaters from the 5th dimension! It will repel the rational and consume the paranoid. Look at those social media platforms deleting Icke's profiles. Did that censor Icke? Or did it light a fire under his name, skyrocketing him into a much larger stratosphere of conversation? Did the banning of that London Reel video encourage more or fewer people to watch it? Do you think Facebook and YouTube with all their unlimited data on how users operate did not know this would happen? Think about it. <br /><br />
Furthermore, Icke's barrage of mind-warping information is a conditioning technique which has worked on many. His target is those who were already vulnerable, susceptible to irrationality due to obsessive personalities as well as (let's be honest) some history with marijuana usage. The plan is to appeal to shaken brains who seek meaning, yearning to feel special like they're part of a counter-movement of intellectual whispers. Icke talks about conditioning techniques extensively while using them himself, and it's very smart. He's telling you he's doing it to you while he does so, hidden in plain sight. I could go on for a long time about this, but I'd recommend you look up Ivan Fraser (who helped edit this book and was one of the eight names mentioned on the "dedicated to" page) and his dodgy experience with David Icke, as well as how Arizona Wilder (one of his key-witnesses to the lizards) was groomed to repeat his words. It's a sickening account indicating a willingness to manipulate others for his financial gain, which I believe Icke is doing to his readers too.<br /><br />
Let's take a more in-depth look at the common denominators between his followers that may indicate some form of manipulation has taken place. Readers of Icke claim that mainstream media have brainwashed the average person, yet they exclusively consume conspiracy theory material all day (mostly written by other conspiracy theorists without any professional basis to back their statements up). These people also claim we must question everything, but when you question their stance, they label us sheeple. These people also believe anything a book like Icke's will tell them, rejecting the scientific publications, because that same book told them to do so, the most blatant cycle of misdirection I've ever witnessed. It's a wall of irrationality and, in my experience, locked securely; utterly inscrutable. No fact is acceptable except for the ones presented by sources that agree with their narrative. Proof is a minor criterion. <br /><br />
For a group of people who pride themselves on open-mindedness, general conspiracy theorists are suspiciously close-minded. I find it funny, because I when I initially picked holes this book, I was told that my mind wasn't open enough. It's a false sense of tolerance which flairs into arrogance or defensiveness at the first whiff of opposition. If you believe the media, they scoff down at you with smugness. If you've researched their theories and can challenge them on their level, they turn rigid. They've adapted a victimised mentality, any criticism you offer is taken as a personal attack and promptly disregarded because you are too blind to see what they see. The resistant reactions I've experienced were borderline delusional. I've had one specific individual fighting my research by screaming at my face in public, his only words of evidence that <i>"It's it obvious! Can't you see?! It's obvious!"</i>. This behaviour is more worrying than any religious nutter I have ever had to deal with in my life.<br /><br />
I am reminded of a quote by Tim Kreider, which goes:<br /><br />
<i>"Outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but, over time, devour us from the inside out. Except it's even more insidious than most vices because we don't even consciously acknowledge that it's a pleasure."</i><br /><br />
This stance rings accurate for conspiracy theorists too. They don't recognise that they are addicted to this way of thinking. It's granting them that elusive spirituality we all seek. It becomes a drug that serves the ego; a position of superiority where they believe they've found truth above general society just like all religions. In that motion, they post about their obsessions non-stop whilst swiftly rejecting any contradictory information under the guise that they do not swallow what they are told. They don't realise that they <i>are</i> swallowing what they are told. They fail to recognise it simply because it's not from a mainstream source. It's from books which make money off of their target market exactly. It's from articles that you can back-research to complete fabrication fueled by the mistrust of any standard data. It is incomprehensible, but here it is. <br /><br />
COVID-19 is an archetype of this formula. Despite scientists predicting an outbreak for decades, this is an unlikely scenario for Icke's children. Instead, the reptilian overlords are using a pandemic to control us. That makes more sense to them somehow. <br /><br />
Deep breath and realigning to my personal timeline, I was elated when I cracked all the clues throughout the conspiracy universe and resolved this madness. I could help people see the light! Let me share the good news! My friends, you do not have to be afraid! I did more research than anyone, I did more research than you, and I can get you out of this neurotic swamp! I started by writing two unrelated-to-Icke conspiracy articles named <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-5g-evil-weapon-against-our-health.html" target="_blank">Is 5G an Evil Weapon Against Our Health?</a> and <a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/06/does-bill-gates-have-evil-vaccination.html" target="_blank">Does Bill Gates Have Evil Vaccination Intentions?</a>. I utilised a non-bias, resource-only based approach, and I was proud of them. I had a third one in the works too, but I ultimately shelved it after it came to my attention that these friends were not interested in citable investigations because their "open minds" were shut cases. I was dismissed by those who called me dismissive. I was labelled condescending by people who spend all day telling their Facebook friends how stupid they are. I recall politely listening to one lady explain why corona was a hoax for half an hour, but when I expressed my disagreement, my Messanger was annihilated by rows of laughing emojis. My weeks of research lost the battle; my hundreds of sources were no match for preconvictions. I was drowned out by a newsfeed of anti-vaxxer speeches, pizza-paedophile accusations, and Bill Gates YouTube videos, even if I could debunk all of them within 10 minutes using the same sources they provided. It took far too long to realise that facts meant nothing in this battle. So I surrendered. I stopped correcting these posts. I stopped posting about COVID completely. Because my happiness was being affected.<br /><br />
The depressing reality is that no matter which side you vocalise support for, you create a circle jerk of exclusion. Posting conspiracy theories or anti-conspiracy theories only reaffirm the bonds with those who agree with you at the same time as driving a stronger wedge between those who don't. I wanted to assist the people I cared for, but there came the point when I had to turn the spotlight on myself. My exploration into these concepts hit brick walls with such consistency that I grew exhausted by a repetition which held me back for so long. I could have done something meaningful with my time! I could have pursued <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/scripture.php" target="_blank">my spirituality</a>, and I could have helped people in more reliable ways. Instead, I tortured my wellbeing with nonsensical garbage that has zero foundations in reality, and the frustration was sickening. There is unshakable darkness within this type of study—I experienced it firsthand. Texts like Icke's and the likes train your brain to think in suspicious ways, every report suddenly stinks of ulterior motives that vomited from my delusions, and it’s going to take a while for me to unpick this crap from my immediate psyche. I regret everything but I'm happy that my recovery has begun. Meanwhile, those who are dedicated to these theories will gradually spiral into unrest until their presence conjures nothing but social gloom. Many will die harnessing that energy, and perhaps in those final moments, they will realise how they traded the miracle of their life for a suffering they could never justify with any rational proof. We can only hope they reach this conclusion at all.<br /><br />
Speaking of conclusion, here is mine: this book is a significant waste of time. It is a contender for the worst book I have ever read. I confess that I skimmed the final hundred pages or so because I could no longer stomach the poison. This does not mean to say that Icke and his followers are wrong, but it does mean to say that the theories stated in this book have no basis in researchable information and were entirely made up by Icke as he went along.<br /><br />
I know it may not seem like it, but I wholeheartedly support conspiracy theorists. I believe that society benefits from their sharp, sceptical eyes that fixate on those in power; they will be the first to notice when certain figures overstep the boundaries. However, I do have an issue when people forget the definition of the word "theories", and if Icke's farts are your predominate perception of the wider picture, then that a disturbing place to be. <br /><br />
The world has changed immeasurably in recent months. Stories of factless paranoia used to be cute and harmless, but right now, these attitudes have real-world repercussions. People are refusing vaccinations and masks based on sources which are paper-thin. I take these agitations personally because our strange current environment is ripe for spiritual growth yet we are being robbed by those arrogant contrarians who swear they've cracked the code. The globe is working in a unity like never before. We are making communal progress that could benefit us for the rest of human existence. But these views from negative spaces of fairy tales are hijacking the efforts. To label the majority of the population as sleepy because we don't see through the lizard king's eyes is disrespectful. And I believe this stance to be the single biggest threat to a global spiritual revolution right now.<br /><br />
Books like <em>The Biggest Secret</em> sell themselves as "eye-openers" and, yes, it did open my eyes. I see now how easy it is to manipulate the masses. People are too lazy to research what you're saying and instead are so desperate for meaning that they'll latch onto anything that heightens their emotions. Can anyone do what Icke has done? I'm starting to comprehend how this is possible. <br /><br />
In the end, some unfortunate cards fell upon my table. Very close friends to me who I respected the opinions of were members of this movement, and it polluted my radar. Most people I've met rightfully laugh off this nonsense and go on with their lives, whereas I took it on board. With a heavy heart, I wonder how much permanent damage has been inflicted on these once-close relationships because they are bad right now. If you've managed to experience these strange times without such an additional burden of filth, I am envious of you because I lost a lot of reflective time and invited a ton of resistance into my days. Hopefully, with this catharsis piece out of the way, I can finally accept the error of focus and move forward, ceasing my contribution to this neurosis pool forever. But let this be a lesson to anyone so inclined: never push your shit into my face. Because, if you get my attention, I will research it and I will write about it. And you probably won't like what I have to say.<br /><br />
Anyway, don't read this book, it's fucking garbage.<br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-81136967741161326432020-06-21T11:07:00.002+01:002020-06-21T11:09:07.500+01:00David Bowie and the Fabric of Existence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfvOLsZYazLM8NeWMcPTNEvxuRyXC50mmXp__RnA_TywuJhdRaAQ1mfom3HsbDbgf2Vodb2_F6Fkq5qfD9ZdsWi7kLZ4FCGbEwlCvb5Nu3x_dnQG_KH70bsyBCbnZvzWGuTqjwz4r2qQ/s1600/david-bowie-end-of-world.jpg" width="626" /></span></div><div><br /></div>
I am going to tell you what happened and what is going to happen.<br /><br />
In 1972, an alien rockstar came to Earth from Mars. His name was Ziggy Stardust and he warned us that the world was set to be destroyed by an apocalyptic disaster within five years.<br /><br />
According to the prophecy, Ziggy himself dies, a victim of his fame. But, in real life, Ziggy only died as a concept, and our saviour lived on among us, holding the fabric of existence together. He went by many incarnations but was best known by his human name, David Bowie.<br /><br />
Sadly, by joining the human race, our alien hero also accepted mortality and met his ultimate fate on the 10th of January 2016, his messianic spirit rocketing back to the stars, where he always belonged.<br /><br />
Our reality was affected instantaneously, following the rule of fives as per the divine predictions. For example, the UK voted to leave the EU five months after his death. Trump took power of the United States five months following that. And, as any person living in our current age will attest to, this was only the beginning. Each year has slipped into deeper realms of unfathomable insanity, "unprecedented" becoming the true new normal.<br /><br />
By all accounts, 2020 has obliterated the previous years in terms of what-the-fuckery. Global issues before 2020 appear laughable now. This is because we completed the fourth rotation in January. Remember the threat of World War 3 due to tensions between the US and Iran? That set the higher motion of this revolution, all taking place within a week of Bowie's death anniversary (as well as his birthday). And if you think COVID-19 and the riots are crazy, just keep watching. Because, right now, as we speak, we are spiralling down the fifth and final year of human existence.<br /><br />
The world is going to end on the 10th of January 2021.<br /><br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-67037318529896376402020-06-12T10:22:00.016+01:002021-07-28T22:30:04.843+01:00Worst to Best: Jarexit II<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II (July 2019 - December 2019)" border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-IJ4ABtYc5Q2M97UBvKGofSEleFDa_XcwurWOGeaDbz_rl5JF2q7tDDIb4nCMC_mftptvfO32_6O2qNratl44mbE8Fe2s_yDXKzLvOIfVVjJaShK8mYSdIgIZvji5Am1C6CwqWOqA7s/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II.jpg" /></span></div><div><br /></div>
On the 9th of June 2019, my celestial contract with Brakishu had come full circle and our deal was terminated on amicable grounds. For six months, a path had been guided by his/her warm embrace and (ignoring a handful of minor mishaps) my mission was an undeniable success! I stole inspiration apples from 10 different countries then returned to the safety of my London nest, unharmed. Thanks, Brakishu! I owe you, bro! It’s right there in the fine print!<br /><br />
Back then, the adventure was dubbed "<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">Jarexit</a>", no sequential numbering required for it was the only thing, so says ye oh Lord Kanye, amen. I hold no reservations of how thrilled I was to be back in the Queen’s England. I practised my intricate tales of risky excursions, stories ready to be passed down to future generations, neatly ordered, a beginning, middle, and end, ample character development, moral lessons learned, twists and turns and crash landings directly into the eager ears of my friends. Imagine my horror, then, as no one wanted to hear about my trip whatsoever.<br /><br />
I have since learned that travelling is much like a dream. For, no matter how gloriously surreal these events may seem in the brain, nobody else cares. Instead, their lives had continued with or without me. London chugged onward and my return signalled nothing profound to anyone but myself. I was merely re-slotted into the machine with polite handshakes and one-worded formalities, an acknowledgement as humbling as it was infinitely frustrating. I had just witnessed lands that no man before me had ever witnessed*! And yet here I was, in my home, without a dime of attention spent on my story?? Unacceptable! Understandable, sure. But unacceptable all the same. In a fluster, I questioned the fabric of existence as well as the termination of my previous deal. Was the plug pulled prematurely? I was having the best time of my entire life back there. Why did I stop? Why didn’t I just... carry on?<br /><br />
Once that thought seed had been planted there was no ceasing the flourishment of insanity. I didn’t even pack my bags for I had never unpacked them in the first place. Instead, I waved goodbye to faces that were bored of my goodbyes and, on the 27th of July 2019, Jarexit became Jarexit I and Jarexit II became the now back then. No protection spells. No rules. No time limit. No set amount of countries. No calorie counting. Total freedom with only one overall goal: I wanna go to Tokyo for my birthday! Did I make it? You know the answer. Read on anyway. <br /><br />
But before that, here’s my offering to you: the list below can serve your wicked ways as much as mine. Use it to test the waters before you explore the oceans. Inspect these regions through my eyes as all of the photos are my own. Read my recommendations of landmarks, heed my advice on the hostels I rested my head, and join a pub crawl or two if you feel like getting fucked up. And, hey, if you and I exchanged communication over my trails of travel then don’t be surprised if you find your name written within these holy texts, exposed for all the world to see. I didn't even ask for permission, lol, soz.<br /><br />
Ultimately, Jarexit II did come to an end and I slid directly into Jarexit III without a break but that’s a story for a later moment. Don’t get greedy, take what you’re given. This is what you’re given. Remember me for the good times only, enjoy.<br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 10. Bangkok, Thailand" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi7KJyX_ADtu_QM7D_PsAfr_g17ESdeioRBuYelhbsac2Rs1JGnsTwkg36yZkm-Cgkolxo07rJBHpz4hQTnbx1UsJYXDX_lapxYp5krO2ckY68fsnCLQJzmUrnXBaYCSxZcilsb5z67nM/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_10-Bangkok.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>10. Bangkok, Thailand</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 2 Nov 19 - 9 Nov 19</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/th/hits-hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Hits Hostel</a> [7/10]</i><br /><br />
The joke here is that Bangkok effortlessly topped my <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">Jarexit I</a> list, yet plummeted down into the deepest pits of the second round, the worst possible slot on my presentation, how embarrassing. How could this happen? How could the former king of the ladder slip and crash through every rung, ending up as nothing but a crusty stain upon my otherwise immaculate rug? I gave it roughly two seconds of thought and can relay the answer via one word: <i>hype</i>.<br /><br />
My initial visit to the Thailand capital five months previous was an empty vase of obliviousness found balancing on that line between nervousness and excitement, ready to catch the traditions of the land with nothing but respect. And what shone down with the bright Sun was a wonderfully dangerous juxtaposition of calming Buddhism spirituality and the seediest of all adult locations that I have ever exposed my eyeballs to. I last left Bangkok equating it with the exact meeting point between God and the Devil, which is the only flavour I hope for in life. All of the flavours! Let's represent every vibration equally. Let's give the dark and the light the same fighting chance.<br /><br />
This contradictory environment was a blessing once upon a time but in the sequel, it had swiftly mutated into a curse and, what's more, it was my fault entirely. I waltzed into this city a second time as if I owned it. I tossed my luggage into my hostel without caring that it wasn't the greatest accommodation. Because it was the greatest <i>location! </i>Footsteps away from the infamous Khao San Road aka <i>"the centre of the backpacking universe"</i> according to The Beach. And within minutes I was already hitting those streets like the cocky Western tourist I had accidentally become. And the streets hit back.<br /><br />
What played out can only be recalled as a montage of brief snippets. My full intention was to recreate the magic but my strategy wasn't exactly the most refined that I've come up with. I basically just drank and drank and drank for two days until I had leaned too far the devil way. One of the more troubling of my memories flashes by with lightening. I was on the back of a taxi-scooter beneath a full-blown torrential thunderstorm, trying to save my phone but also acutely aware that this could be the end of me. The roads were flooded, my driver looked terrified and each time our tyres slid out of line I heard the voice of death spitting my name. I may have been out of it but this was not fun. It was very bad.<br /><br />
Not that it stopped me. At some point, I found myself at one of those world-renowned Bangkok red-light districts playing pool with ladyboys because that's what I did the last time and so we needed to do that again. Maybe there's something sick inside of me but I adore the attention as these lovely ladies attempt to coerce me into bed with their broken English<span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;">—</span>my predefined sexuality goes haywire! Of course, it was futile on their part, I was long past the drunk where my dick would work but I bought them a million drinks so everybody won in the end. Well, except me. I had some pretty in-depth conversations with the ATMs over this period. I am 99% sure I was robbed at one point. I have this final hazy memory of vomiting into a plastic bag in the back of a taxi this time, nearly filling it to the brim, of which you will find photo evidence among the Instagram Snaps below.<br /><br />
And on the third day, my phone broke. It suddenly decided it didn't like the internet and refused to connect to any wifi no matter where I was. My laptop google told me to put my phone in the freezer which did work for five minutes at a time. Unsustainable. Eventually, I had to get professional help and took my soaking hangover to a massive electronics market where they fixed my baby for £50. That's cheaper than most places, for sure, but still a kick to the bank account following a series of kicks, really damaging a dude who was already lying down in fetal position. If I'm honest, I was riding in debt from my previous two months anyway, which we'll get to in good time. <br /><br />
For now, we can cut a long story/week short and focus on how I shattered to pieces. No surprises that the Depression Monster kicked down the door because I had invited him over. He did this thing like he always does, punching me in my tear ducts then chaining me to the bed, a position I hardly left for around three days. I worked my job from under the covers. I watched cartoons for the rest of the time. It was a low, man. Real rough. But I'm a veteran now, so what do we do? We wait. We ride it out. And that's why my Bangkok photos are all shit.<br /><br />
There were some good fortunes, we must always count those. For example, I found out that the artwork for The Clash's album <i>Combat Rock</i> was shot around these parts and I scouted that out for a while. I also had a private room and the hostel gave us free eggs in the morning so that blessed me with the space to worry about other things. Then again, there was no hot water so my cries in the shower had to be well-planned and efficient. It's funny now, but back then it was bleak to the power of bleakness squared.<br /><br />
The days ticked on by and the serotonin returned just in time for Friday where I met up with two Bangkok legends named Angela and Henry. They did what they're good at and cheered me up over the pass mark again, washing the sour tastes away with yummy vegan food and an acceptable amount of beer. Thank you!<br /><br />
After that, I could step away and examine the experience from an objective distance. I concluded that I had probably frazzled my brain a little too hard. As we'll get in a moment, my previous two months had not been easy. I ran from Dubai to New Delhi to KL to Tokyo and then Bangkok. That's a fucking overload by anyone standards and I was overdue a breakdown if we're being honest with ourselves. Regardless, there was no justification for how smashed up I was. I left the city very aware that this country tickles out a strange version of myself and I must never ever go back.<br /><br />
I’m less convinced now. It’s still one of the coolest places in the world so why cut that off? My third visit will surely be better. I have been put in my place. I have learned my lesson. This would never happen again. Right?
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />The Grand Palace, Nana Plaza, Top of the King Power MahaNakhon, The Ratchada Night Market, Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan.<br />
<i>(The above was lifted directly from <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">Jarexit I</a>, it's for the best.</i>
<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4nTAIEJ2oi/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4pKejapEf3/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9B4Xr-BAyc/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing (from Jarexit I)</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib9LqySa66JMYnUxyaqgIZ_U0Dka6Tl9OpVy8bbaoX_M3NHYGzRiy6gu39u0Uo6nkwP29RcgtENgatWqFxIVurr2Hs6oqR2ujDfWh5kFEi3vVL0fngrMHBCdVR0uRMyJUk96TLl4MyJnM/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_09-Kuala-Lumpur.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 5 Oct 2019 - 13 Oct 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/my/swiss-garden-residence-ss-suites.en-gb.html" target="_blank">SS Suites @ Swiss Garden Residences</a> [8.8/10]</i><br /><br />
Moving on and exposing a suspicious pattern: KL was also a firm contender on my <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">Jarext I list</a> and yet it tumbled from grace upon my second visit. Is it possible that a place will never be as rad as it was the first time? Do repeated visits wear the magic down? Is the surprise factor lost in the sea of familiarity? There's some truth in that. But, as always, it's not that simple.<br /><br />
The problem with this story is that I've told it so many times and it's a sobby job and I'm tired of it. What's more, every time I run over the details online, I get in trouble for it. However, for the completists, here we go again, once more with feeling: I visited KL for the second time within five months because of a girl. Naturally, she is a very very pretty girl with a certain aura so special that I'd never swiped right on anything quite like her before. And during our absence, my brain had convinced me that she might be the one. <i>"Spend all your money on her!"</i> was the instruction. Copy that! And so I set about doing the very best I could do.<br /><br />
If you chart my movements to Tokyo, KL was a weird sidestep, not exactly on the way. The price of this detour flight was not a consideration, my eagerness had taken the wheel. Next up, I paid for some accommodation which was the true budget buster but, damn, you get what you pay for! And this was a full-on apartment, inarguably the lushest place I've stayed in over my entire Jarexit II adventure, quirky decor, central location, gym, swimming pool... perfect to play marriage in! Yesss! I would convince this girl to run away with me in no time! I excitedly broke the news to her and that's when she informed me that she had <i>very</i> recently found another lover sweeter than me, more precious than me.<br /><br />
In my memory, we had a plan, one which we'd conversed about before, I have the documentation. But in her memory, this was not the case. Regardless, what was done was done and I arrived back in Kuala Lumpur with a miniature dose of heartbreak. Melodrama snipped my flowering feelings at the stem and I spent my days staring out of the window from my extra-comfortable accommodation, mourning the fantasies of affection I never had, mourning the money I would never get back. At least it was the rainy season which provided some solidarity as the gods and I cried together. Just kidding, I <i>obviously</i> didn't cry.<br /><br />
This girl and I still hung out (we watched <i>Joker</i> together which was my film of the year!) and that works as further evidence as to how great she is. But I was running on the fumes of insanity and I ruined everything in that special way only the Jared Brand can manage. Hindsight has been torturous and I can see how inappropriately I behaved—not in any physical manner, but emotionally and mentally. I couldn't shake this dark energy of self-importance that I'd been dealt an unfair hand and, boy, did I let her know. Even after I left, I couldn't let her go, sending her loving messages and even a gift from Japan. At the time I thought I was being sweet and romantic but now I see what she saw: I was being manipulative. My full intention was to convince her that I was better than her boy, that I was the solution to her everything. It's taken me a long time to understand that I was in the wrong.<br /><br />
A few months later and she rightfully told me to fuck off. She has even unfollowed me on Instagram since, which is when you know it's serious.<br /><br />
Another conflict of character is that she's a very private person whereas I like to tell everyone everything. I respect her wishes, on the one hand. I've never told anyone her name nor has anyone seen what she looks like (which is a goddamn crime, I assure you). On the other hand, I still betray some of her privacy with articles like this one. I tell myself it's ok because there is literally no social connection between us. No public photos exist where we are seen together. No mutual friends are asked to pick sides. <br /><br />
Regardless, she has expressed immense loathing when I write about her and so I know that if she's reading this, she's probably all kinds of mad with me, the negative perception reinforced even deeper. And that is fair enough. But if these are your eyes, KL female girl, I want you to know that I am deeply regretful for my behaviour. I have an embarrassing history of malfunctioning when people I was once vibing with reject me and that is something I am aware of and working on. Unfortunately, this does you and me no good. The damage is done. I take the blame. I was hurt and I acted from that place of hurt and I was a dick for doing so. That said, I will continue on this mind timeline with the hope that one day we can patch things up and be good friends again because I am a huge fan of yours. We got along really well. I think we can get there.<br /><br />
Now that this section has reached the end of its emo trail, it's obvious why KL didn't return the most impressive scorecard. However, it's just as obvious that this had nothing to do with KL whatsoever. Because Kuala Lumpur still stands strong as one of the (or perhaps <i>the?</i>) most underrated city I’ve ever been to. The fact that people don't talk about it all the time is criminal and I am now doing my part to encourage tourism to that piece of the world because it's got a flow that brings me great peace. If there ever was a capital city to be miserable in, this could be the winner. I guess it's what that ancient prophet said once upon a time. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find you get what you need. Oh, Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey!
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />The Petronas Towers from KLCC Park, KL Forest Eco Park, Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park, Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Museum Of Illusions.<br />
<i>(The above was lifted directly from <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">Jarexit I</a>, it's for the best)</i><br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B36wgy7pNmK/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3j3QYcp0GR/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B931-DphHmb/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing (from Jarexit I)</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 8. New Delhi, India" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhix4nhgf_jxUDnUc8ilZkuVeFPqLiZWDUO7wEeuQY-zfFnPuX3F4i7bAPIJNvbJapc-YLRFEvU1XQRuy6vdqknvbCz8_KOuvBUy62E_7vshk3KwMxm5o3ToyE55a3D1QkPZNIcVt61pQs/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_08-New-Delhi.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>8. New Delhi, India</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 21 Sep 2019 - 5 Oct 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/in/podstop.en-gb.html" target="_blank">PODSTOP</a> (21 Sep - 29 Sep 2019) [7.9/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/in/backpacker-panda.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Bunk Hostel Delhi</a> (29 Sep - 5 Oct 2019) [3/10]</i>
<br /><br />
Having spent some time missioning around India with a bunch of mates in 2015, I figured I had a pretty decent grasp on the nation’s capital and I strolled in with confidence. No doubt about it, the next two weeks were going to be as smooth as floating upon a cloud. I pictured myself as some yogi guru who would make a pact with all of the gods, reaching a peak of spiritual calm that only the chosen Hindu people could achieve. I would balance a thousand plates upon my head! Brahman would accept me as its own! I would transcend my physical form! None of this happened.<br /><br />It went more like this: Every morning I'd greet the day in excitement mode, rushing out the hostel doors to explore this world of potent smells, vibrant visuals and relentless buzzing noises. But the instant I stepped outside, a sledgehammer would pummel my face, my skull cracking down the middle, letting all sorts of stresses inside.<br /><br />
The utter chaos of this city remains unchallenged in my experience as a madness beyond realms of mortals, truly unlike anywhere else in the world. The car horns are like a thousand dicks deep throating your eardrums. The air pollution is so thick that you burn your eyes when you try to see through it. And the street plastic has conglomerated with the human faeces to create trash mountains that the cows love to eat right up, yum yum. It's a lot to take in. The poverty runs so deep that I was never sure if I stepped over a dead person or not. This would normally puncture my heart but you learn to build a shell of protection quick. You especially need to do this as a white person because the harassment is an evergrowing stack of bricks strapped to your back. Everyone wants to chat to you, they want to practice their English with you, they want you to buy their stuff, they want you to get into their taxi, they want to take a selfie with you whether you permit it or not. The people are friendly but are they? You’re never in danger but aren't you? The amount of times you say <i>"no" </i>in one day only ends once you stop saying it. I was shouting it. <br /><br />
And when you finally get back to your hostel, you crash facefirst into your pillow and your brain is upside down, filled with bees, and you swear you can’t survive another day in this sensory overload type of world.<br /><br />
It doesn't matter where I’ve been in my life. You name it, none of it is a speck of dirt in comparison to how gruelling this city is. It's like your spirit is being smothered by an energy turned up to 11 and I cursed myself for forgetting how much I had struggled with all of this last time, angry that I had come back to fight it again. But, as it turns out, I forgot something else too...<br /><br />
There's a curious charm that thrives in the noisy thick of New Delhi and it fuses itself to you. When you leave the kaleidoscopic rollercoaster that is India's capital, everything that comes next falls short. If it's not India, then it's too quiet, it's too easy, it's too boring. The unbearable intensity dries and crumbles out of your mind and you crave the dirt again. In its absence, bright vibrancy shines through the cracks and you recall how much fun you actually had. By Shiva, that was a powerful trip, man! The traffic alone is enough to make you a religious person because you pray for your life! Tinder works so well you become spoilt! And the affordability is absurd. Ubers cost a quid a pop. I had a 90p haircut at one point. I felt guilty about being British the whole time. In fact, I had one girl nearly walk out on a date because of my UK passport. Fair enough, historically speaking. Thankfully, I am a born South African otherwise she may not have fucked me that night.<br /><br />
Another strong flavour left on my tongue was the people I met during this stop. Partying at The Key was genuinely one of the best nightclub experiences of my life. Hey Sheen, wish we got to hang. Sup Jenny, you were a highlight. The Podstop hostel turned out to be a social goldmine and the crew from there still stand out as legends of the highest calibre; humans I'd gladly go out of my way to hang out with again. Shout-out to Eva, to Aneta, to Aakash, to Monty, to PJ and everyone else from that period, you peoples are inside of my mind permanently. Even more so, I extend a separate batch of love to Giacomo and Felix. You two dudes were the soundest of the sound and I properly enjoyed every single moment chilling with you brothers. I wish nothing but the best for both of your paths for the rest of all time.<br /><br />
I made a minor misjudgement when I moved to Bunk Hostel Delhi for my second week. I wanted a private room for some space to myself and it was fucked. An impenetrable language barrier, the noisiest street in India, my private toilet leaked liquid all over the floor. I tore them a new hole on Booking.com, a review so vicious that they somehow managed to get it deleted from the website, a feat I did not even know was possible. Respect. <br /><br />
Speaking of impossibles, did you know that I am the only tourist from the whole Western world to spend two weeks in his city and not get Delhi Belly? It's true, look it up. Anyway, I wanna go back, I'm serious, let's go back.
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />The Lotus Temple, Agrasen ki Baoli, Raj Ghat Memorial, Jantar Mantar, The Siddh Hanuman Mandir<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B29ZSoypNJ8/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3IA0qdJTfS/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3MJq4fJSXO/" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Oj7DdJAe6/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CAZnyfaBdSr/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 7. Glasgow, Scotland, UK" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YybuD6v2P7zvzNelK80Lnz7yFrBNF24qFJ8dMfKxg_P2WhOkKqnJn5mbNMwl1WFIloOVHgl8fIa5Y_4Ktq7_4eVi_Vow6lSnFqSQyOg9j69d10zXz5X6Ns4UKV-50m0MDhhJ0SJdFkE/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_07-Glasgow.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>7. Glasgow, Scotland, UK</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 27 July 2019 - 4 August 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> Giulia's Home [N/A]</i>
<br /><br />
When the Jarexit II door was first opened, I didn't explode into the stratosphere like some may have done and, instead, I took the most cautious step out of London I could. This was to be an easy transition, one where I remained in the same country (the UK, even though it was England to Scotland), where everyone spoke the same language (English, even though the thick local accent meant most spoken words were indecipherable), and where the same legal tender was accepted (the Queen’s pound, even though the notes look completely different).<br /><br />
Hold up and let's rewind a decade or so before. This story starts with an online Italian friend of mine. We will call her Giulia because that is her name. We connected over a mutual adoration for Lily Allen and gradually interacted with one another across all social media platforms until we became real friends. This binary code manifested into reality around 2018, when we finally met in person at All Points East festival in London. We reached a mutual agreement that we were both probably ok and she said I could come and visit her in Glasgow one day. Big mistake, Giulia! As I went there and I killed her and then I stole all of her coffee.<br /><br />
The coffee part is true! As are many other lovely factors which I could collect into a long-verse poem and call it Giulia. She let me into her home, gave me a place to sleep, gave me her wifi password, fed me Marmite peanut butter, and then took time out of her busy life to show me around her city. And her city was cool! I mean, very wet and rainy, sure, but that did not deter my mission in the slightest. I was dedicated to the cause! And I spent every lunchtime and whatever other available hours I had to explore these naturally beautiful planes, running around graveyards, hunting down Oor Wullie statues, photographing renowned murals, attending improv shows, admiring famous artwork, eating deep-fried Mars Bars, drinking probably a bit much, and doing all sorts of other stuff, you wouldn't believe it. <br /><br />
But nothing compares to the mini-Trainspotting solo tour I mapped out all by myself. At least two days worth of adventure time was focused on visiting various spots from that classic film, which meant a lot to me. That movie, man. It shifted a fundamental part of my psyche when I watched it, probably because I was faaaar under the recommended age restriction when I did. It was an honour to breathe oxygen in those areas while contemplating giving up everything for heroin. I felt like a teenager all over again!<br /><br />
Looking at this overall list, Glasgow may not have scored high but I think the reasons are fair. One week wasn’t enough. The weather and I had some beef. The UK is as the UK does. But I did get to hang out with my long-running friend Kate and my newer long-running friend Dan and my newest friend of them all, Emma, a baby human that these two legends created. Woohoo! That was very nice. And, of course, there was Giulia. Sweet Giulia. Love of my life, Giulia. Future wife whether she likes it or not, Giulia.
<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Duke of Wellington Statue, Glasgow Necropolis, The University of Glasgow, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Ashton Lane<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lVWddpm2s/" target="_blank">Set 1 (Trainspotting Tour)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B0v6px5JB9P/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B0u90jIJEBw/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a></em>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_RhJsehM0l/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 6. Barcelona/Madrid, Spain" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsKkK9FWjz5XjCSpi7mv2ww9PU0dfkikDZXEEI0buQRyWgCtO4oLQ-5mk6pfH8i-9zcdnzudgYn5u_He5LgMvcncXq7Rc3Rqv_8xjB2NqaNjJCWe3JMF3DmW23xMZWh29k0WMKDHEYSg/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_06-Barcelona-Madrid.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>6. Barcelona/Madrid, Spain</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 24 Nov 2019 - 25 Dec 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/primavera-hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Primavera Hostel</a> (Barcelona, 24 Nov 2019 - 8 Dec 2019) [8/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/hostel-bruc.en-gb.html " target="_blank">Sweet BCN Youth Hostel</a> (Barcelona, 8 Dec 2019 – 14 Dec 2019) [7/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/delicias.en-gb.html " target="_blank">Hotel Delicias</a> (Zaragoza, 14 Dec 2019 - 15 Dec 2019) [6/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/i-love-madrid-hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">I Love Madrid Hostel</a> (Madrid, 15 Dec 2019 - Wed 25 Dec 2019) [7/10]</i>
<br /><br />
My month-long stretch in Spain is a difficult one to summarise, stuffed to the breaking point with shimmering highlights and strenuous pitfalls, tales of love and loss, of pains and lessons, of blahs and blahs. In a fairer Jarexit world, the Barcelona-meets-Madrid city clash should have been split out into two separate chapters because the glue that joins them is nothing but a common country. Too late now, here we are.<br /><br />
Rushing right in and observing Barcelona, allow me to loudly state my undying love for this city. I love you, Barcelona! I adore this city so much that I've regularly referred to it as my “second home” without any regard to what my first home might be. It doesn't matter! What matters is that this was my 4th visit to this happy place and, in many ways, my favourite yet. <br /><br />
This elevation was owed, in part, to #<i>ME</i>. Over the last year of Jarexits, I had become an expert explorer, up there with the best, hence why I zipped along this familiar environment as if it was my first time, utilising sharper eyes to uncover an incredible amount of stuff I'd never discovered before. And these joyous findings united with the regular beaches and the religious establishments and the street buzz and the skyline views and the sunshine and the people (sup Alex, sup Carlos, sup Kate) until my problems evaporated and my previous adorations were reaffirmed. Oh, and Antoni Gaudi? The greatest architect that ever lived, surely. A firm fixture of the gawks. The Basílica de la Sagrada Família, my stomach. Oh, and the Montjuïc Cemetery? I’ve scuttled around graveyards all over the world but this was inarguably the craziest one.<div><br />
There were even higher highs than these above examples. Crying as I watched Kate Tempest live for the first time was certainly one. The <a href="http://www.ontherocksbarcrawl.com/barcelona/" target="_blank">On The Rocks Pub Crawl</a> was a goodie. Shout-out to the 8th of December 2019 where I celebrated my one year running with this nomadic lifestyle. I also have a note praising the 5th of December when Primavera Hostel fed us a free vegan meal and I spent an hour chatting to a beautiful Russian girl. Following that, my job (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/rossbollinger/videos" target="_blank">Pencilmation</a>) was announced as the 3rd biggest content creator in 2019 according to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lAe1cqCOXo" target="_blank">YouTube Rewind</a> and then a dorm mate I had never spoken to before handed me a Russian coin out of nowhere and said,<i> "For memories"</i>. I feel so warm!<br /><br />
But as appreciated as these Mario Mushrooms were, the complete Barcelona game did not always go according to plan. In fact, when I make a list of the worst things that have happened to me during all of my Jarexit travels, the following story ranks in the top three.<br /><br />
To summarise for time-reasons: after a particularly inspiring day of blissful tourism, I happened upon a magical vegan grocery store at the end of the rainbow. I shredded wads of cash there then skipped home with a bag of goodies. I opted to cook happy burgers right away and separated the patties with a big sharp kitchen knife, promptly sliding the blade so deep into my left palm that is almost poked out the other side. My ring finger lost its entire sense of feeling immediately, I had obviously severed a nerve. The tiny wound flapped open like a vagina and, naturally, it began to bleed. I slapped the burgers onto the frying pan as I sucked on the hole and was then sickened to discover how much of my internal hand-meat had prolapsed out from the cut. My head spun and I knew I was about to faint so I rushed to my room and collapsed into my bed with one thought swirling around my befuddlement: <i>those burgers are still cooking, brother. There's a fire hazard waiting to happen.</i><br /><br />
Thankfully, that didn't happen. Instead, I spent several hours wobbling around this Spanish terrain, visiting hospitals, conversing about their impossible waiting times and extortionate prices. My frugality and boredom ultimately conquered and I decided to risk it, doing nothing. For a week, the wound remained open and I couldn’t shake the trauma. My head played the VHS over and over. The city’s once flowery aura had turned dark and spoiled. One day in particular I couldn't get out bed I was so down. Thankfully, the injury did eventually heal up and, even though I am still lacking most of that finger’s sensation to this very day, I reflect upon this outcome with gratitude. Thank you, outcome. The number of ways this could have been worse is infinite. <br /><br />
Besides that gigantic hiccup and the fact that the Tories annihilated the 2019 United Kingdom general election (blah!), I think I was just mostly exhausted. Three Barcelona weeks came and went where I had slept in six-to-eight people rooms and I’d heard too many octaves of snores to be comfortable anymore. Don’t get me wrong, the two hostels I stayed at were each excellent in their own rights and I am still the undefeated adventure master. But travel fatigue is a real phenomenon and it was setting in fast. This wasn’t good because my Spain journey was only halfway done...<br /><br />
The next major stop was aimed towards the Spanish capital of Madrid but I decided to embark on a sneaky side manoeuver, tiptoeing through Borja and Zaragoza for one day and one sleeps. There was a singular reason for this and a singular reason only: I wanted to look at the Ecce Homo painting (i.e: Ecce Mono; Potato Jesus). This was the botched Christ art piece which had since become an internet sensation. The mere awareness of its existence had brought so much joy to my life already. I needed to scan its contents in HD!</div><div><br />
Getting to this little fella was a different story (5 am Barcelona start, two-hour train to Zaragoza, 1-hour bus to Borja, 6km walk up a steep hill to the Sanctuary of Mercy church) but the smiling sun made for a pleasant trip and the cherry was oh-so-worth-it. The painting is just too funny. I was in hysterics for the rest of the day, I truly love myself for doing this for myself, it was a moment of immense pride. Perhaps even more amusing than the painting is how much tourism money this fuck-up is pumping into Borja’s economy, it's like nothing they've ever seen, truly a miracle from Jesus. Meanwhile, Borja itself was interesting enough in that derelict type of way. Although, with only a 5,000 population, it was eerily quiet and I felt like everyone knew I was there. Let's get out of here! I popped down to Zaragoza to crash out in a private room (finally!), spending only a few hours exploring this (much bigger) city. It was whirring with social activity and I was legit heartbroken to leave so soon. I half-swore I'd cover this place properly at a later date, so let me know if you're keen for that.<br /><br />
Such an exhilaratingly swift adventure done and Madrid finally landed my way. First time ever! And I hit it hard! Multiple spots every day, soaking my eyeballs in some truly magnificent landmarks and works of art. I had spent a fair share of my travel life in Spain but I realised I had been missing a trick. This fresh piece of the puzzle was exploding my skull out! These streets wanna party. I have it in writing that, at the time, I claimed that Madrid was better than Barcelona. Blasphemy! And not a fair statement at all! But the sentiment was made and it means more than I could express here. The cut in my hand healed up. I had a few drinks with my a-grade London pal Javier. My mana bubbled to the rim, fully replenished. I remembered who I was. I was the king.<br /><br />
This ego trip didn’t last. The time came to snip the fun and games to an early demise and hunch over my laptop to honour my self-imposed deadlines. You see, the end of December is always a challenging time of year for me because I have annual projects which require wrapping up. This means days upon days upon days of sitting in my cramped hostel, smashing my fists into my keyboard while everyone around me has the holiday of their life. But did they knock out an entire book titled <a href="http://www.jaredwoodssavedmylife.com/250albums/" target="_blank">The Top 250 Albums of the Decade</a>? Or did they write an article which intricately picked apart every detail of the year named <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/12/dear-2019.html" target="_blank">Dear 2019</a>? No, they didn’t. Travelling is cool and all but work is my first love, so I look back on it without regrets. We do what we do. I clicked to <i>publish</i> the juices of my labour and then, on the loneliest Christmas day in history, I packed my bags and said goodbye to Spain, with my itinerary list only half satisfied. Something to do next time, I guess.<br /><br />
Jarexit II ended here as I flew to the Americas where the overall game levelled up big time. But that’s a different blog post...<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Barcelona Sights</b><br />Basílica de la Sagrada Família, Montjuïc Cemetery, Park Güell, Cathedral of Barcelona, Bunkers of Carmel<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Barcelona Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5gFesyBu9Z/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5iwYC3hmAX/" target="_blank">Set 2 (Montjuïc Cemetery)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B50faVfhNDl/" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6BLz-FBLbK/" target="_blank">Set 4</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5e4R5uBca7/" target="_blank">Stabbing (Warning: Random Political Content)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5XQxacBy4k/" target="_blank">Kate Tempest Review</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5zmZh6BbC8/ " target="_blank">One Year Jarexit Anniversary</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6GL1cRhW1X/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9qg2Wh5EO/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing (Barcelona)</a></b></i>
<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Borja/Zaragoza Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6DUDIChmaQ/" target="_blank">Ecce Homo Announcement </a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6LihH2BG_E/" target="_blank">Set 1</a><br /><br />
<b>Top Five Recommended Madrid Sights</b><br />Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, The Iglesia de San Antonio de los Alemanes, Plaza de Salvador Dalí, Jardines de Cecilio Rodríguez (Retiro Park), Madrid Walk of Fame<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Madrid Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6brSuehmBM/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6bsjSqh1tP/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6fofwfCgSF/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBPtDbeBXBL/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing (Madrid)</a></b></i>
</em></div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 5. Gold Coast, Australia" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkleESum2cgCJca6C6z2lmXey0hnpgEzZVgL5EC4CkNTrSumXi1QxckrnDNqmRzSUQ3-pd07poGNjJO4b2dKlAGu8rEfFGpmC6m8dt5KKdCDjgAJ2ArCYNBdwD0f6ie49iL8GepKhi1fQ/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_05-Gold-COast.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>5. Gold Coast, Australia</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 10 Nov 2019 - 23 Nov 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> Ash's House [N/A]<br /></i>
<br />
After feeling like a pinball ricocheting around the craziest locations on the planet (Dubai to New Delhi to KL to Tokyo to Bangkok = deadly!), I had no choice but to desperately dive towards normality, a last-minute save that happened far too late if anything. <br /><br />
Gold Coast has never been claimed as the most action-orientated city in the great country of Australia and you might think this would work in its detriment. The fact that I had been here several months previous normally wouldn't work in its favour either. But this relaxing familiar vibe was everything I needed at that low point, offering various little prizes that most people tend to take for granted. Like friends. And not a hostel. And drinkable tap water. And English.<br /><br />
Wait! Our story truly starts during <a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2019/06/worst-to-best-jarexit.html" target="_blank">Jarext I</a> where I ended that entire 6-month tour right here, the Gold Coast never considered a full-fledged chapter but rather a bonus stage after Melbourne. The purpose then was to spend a week with my long lost pal (and fellow <a href="http://thefunpowderplot.com/" target="_blank">Funpowder Plotter</a>) Ash in his natural habitat. What I hadn't accounted for, was that I'd fall in love with the Gold Coast. Because I did. Because the Gold Coast is a fucking paradise set on chill mode. Because no other modes are available. I left with a frowny heart but, as I did so, Ash requested my return for his 40th birthday a few months later. And I said, don’t you worry, my friend. I will be there for that.</div><div><br />
We are nothing if not the promises we keep and I fulfilled my brotherly duties right here, on the Jarexit II tour, landing during a substantially warmer season then promptly collapsing with a sickness worse than any I'd tasted during 2019. It makes sense too. No doubt my immune system had taken a beating due to the stress-induced panic that is known generally as Asia. So when my body recognised a safe place, it finally let go, surrendering to the filth and the foreign bacteria I’d exposed myself to over the last months. Not ideal but, also, ideal. If this had to happen, then so be it, this was the perfect place for it to happen in. The feeling of death watering your lungs is never going to be great but when you're on a beach, it's bearable. Glued to the couch from sweat is a pathetic feeling but when Ash hands me some homemade veggie food and a beer, I could hardly justify any self-pity, right? And, gradually, I became human again.<br /><br />
One of the most appreciated of feeding tubes was the one where I ate my friends. A delicious array of old school London peeps made an appearance, most notably Alan, Jock, and the legend Little Ash himself (no relation to larger Ash). Then there was this glorious line-up of newer Australian faces to the likes of Kez, Emily, Beks, Ken, and tons of others, everyone coming together for one reason only... to celebrate the big guy’s birthday. This was done properly, a Mad Max themed party which got reasonably out of control, without a doubt the hardest I've partied over this Jarexit (the competition wasn't high but whatevs). Sadly, the toxins in my system flared my diseases back to the forefront and I fell down sick again with a screaming headache but zero regrets. These are some amazing people, I felt honoured.<br /><br />
The rest of the trip was what truly made it. You'll probably remember the country was on fire around this time and the topic of unrest hung in the air just like the smoke in question. But it's difficult to stress when you're feeding a kangaroo, you know? There was loads of beer, loads of cake, and so much chilling on some of the most beautiful natural terrains I’d seen this year. We all need exercise and I run a lot no matter where I am. But the Palm Beach through Burleigh Head National Park to Burleigh Head Beach? That's my favourite trail in the world thus far. It heals me. <br /><br />
One particular moment I’ll never forget was sitting next to the Palm Beach lagoon beneath the scorching sun, craft tinnie in my hand, marvelling over the fundamentals of existence. I looked over to Little Ash and he looked back at me and we both shook our heads in disbelief. It was <i>that</i> inconceivably nice. Then Luci and I went and jumped off the bridge together into the water. Luci later deleted me off Facebook, which sucks, but what can you do? Anyways, Gold Coast! It melted away the mental gunk that relentless travelling seems to inevitably accumulate over time. I left rejuvenated with my batteries charged to the <i>max</i>, ready to move forward at an alarming speed which is not something I can say about anywhere else on this list, really. <br /><br />
This newfound stamina was more imperative than you'd think. I got on a plane and took a 28h50 flight to Spain which was made easier with a new idea I had just birthed. It went like this: when I'm old and I'm ready to die, the Gold Coast is where I'll live out my last days. It is that serene. It is the full-stop.<br /><br />
We did drink a fuckload though. I must make that abundantly clear.<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Palm Beach, Burleigh Head National Park, Burleigh Head Beach, Springbrook National Park (Jarexit I)<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5L18D1h2I4/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5NCyACh0ku/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-J1ydyBIZQ/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing (Jarexit I)</a></b></i>
</em></div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 4. Bucharest, Romania" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0YVJaiHNuBP7BAkI8FI0ly4E1A2I1KOxQIAlX2Q7UUVH1jZyjkFQ_WbOoG46EZZ4zfkahjPoMPTz32gZemFh3xG7PzPZes0lOpCYRju0Oz8WoFwIpKxd_NZ0xkKqYZ-xonmFi2J75mQ/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_04-Bucharest.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>4. Bucharest, Romania</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 25 Aug 2019 - 7 Sep 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/ro/motor-house.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Motor House Unirii</a> [7.5/10]<br /></i>
<br />
My decision to slide into Romania's DMs was born from strange and very sudden declarations of love from some of my most respectable travelling pals. Out of nowhere, this country was lauded as the place-to-be, do not miss it, and before I knew what I was doing, I'd purchased my flights to and accommodation inside of the nation's capital. My excitable announcement was met with a baseball bat of resistance. <i>“No, don’t go to Bucharest! That’s not where the cool kids are! Never go to the capital city of anywhere!”</i> Woah, what do you mean? I only go to capital cities! It’s where the best wifi is! And, anyway, it was too late, I'd already paid for everything. I made peace with my choice and pretended I was fine.<br /><br />
As is the nature of <i>Worst to Best</i> lists, the later in the game they appear, the better the time was. Here we find ourselves in the greater half so you already knew that Bucharest rocked my world. The reasons why are tougher to articulate but, my gosh, I will do my best over the next several paragraphs.<br /><br />
One hefty pull was the general prices. I've always welcomed travel stops that don't break the piggy. Beer was half the cost of London and I could afford a private room in a guesthouse. Both of these components are important. The room granted me the mental space to get a fuckton of work done and the workaholic gods were appeased by the sacrificed time. Meanwhile, those cheap beers served me well especially during <a href="https://bucharest2night.com/" target="_blank">Bucharest2Night</a>, my favourite pub crawl from this Jarexit II timeline. And with cheeks filled with drunk, I vibrated along these streets, consumed by the wild nightlife that this city offers, a raucous buzz of social activity featuring (no exaggeration) some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, hand's down.<br /><br />
This little intoxicated excursion got me in a speck of bother too. That same night when I was stumbling home with Google Maps as my only ally, some wanker on bicycle attempted to snatch my phone away. He failed like a loser and then I called out to a pair locals passing by. They came to the rescue, instructing me to <i>“run”</i> as they restrained him, super legends. And run, I did! I was lost though so I was forced to continuously hide behind cars every time I heard his slow tires scraping down the street, dashing in the opposite direction once they'd panned away. <br /><br />
By some divine guidance (probably still Google Maps, I can't remember) I eventually found my hostel but I overshot it, my gate key somehow working in the neighbour's lock. When my housekey didn't fit the front door, I had just about bubbled into my limit and I was in a dramatic state. I tearfully phoned the landlord at 3 am but to no avail until I resigned to my fate and lay on the ground, hoping to get some sleep outside. At some point, I realised that I recognised nothing around me so I jumped the fence and fell, collapsing on the sidewalk, lying on the concrete for a few minutes, wallowing in this comedic moment of self-pity. I got up, dusted myself off, strolled two metres to the real gate, entered without a hitch and went to bed. I have never woken up so relieved that I somehow had all my stuff!<br /><br />
The rest of my sober days were spent exploring and, boy, does Bucharest have endless places to explore! I did something every lunchtime and often at the night too, yet I was unable to tick everything off of my list. I could ramble many highlights but one all-encompassing characteristic of Bucarest's appeal was the urban decay. It's unmatched as the best I have ever seen, my heart turned operatic. The sleek modern buildings standing so proud next to these smashed up dens that are crumbling before your eyes is a juxtaposition to the most glorious of orders. It's my favourite thing!</div><div><br />
Another favourite thing was the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum which is a massive village of houses that nobody lives in, like a ghost town you can walk around and peer in windows without getting arrested. When I was there not another human was in sight which coated the atmosphere with an eerie blanket of solitude until I bumped into some sheep and I screamed. Maybe it was just my experience but even while I was in those moments, I was acutely aware that this was one of the best travel sites I had ever visited. I still consider it a peak point within every Jarexit ever.<br /><br />
Did I mention the weather was always above 30? So. Good. I ran a lot as a result.<br /><br />Side note: as time has gone on I have started to associate Bucharest as the place where Ina lives. She is the human representative of the city, she owns it as far as I'm concerned. She is a girl I met very briefly and we became social media friends right there. Since then, we have seriously bonded over many topics and she is super nice to me, far more than I deserve. So, anyway, hi, Ina! You’re so great I would go back to Bucharest just to hang out with her (even though I was planning to go back anyway).<br /><br />
Oh, also, hello Anuita! You are super cool too! :D<br /><br />The overall summary is that Bucharest solidified into that sweet central spot where everything just seemed to go well. My health was sturdy, my creativity was gushing, my social sack was mended, and the city itself kept on giving me what I wanted, day after day after night after day. It was the third stop on Jarexit II and before this, I was feeling very unsure of myself. My travel life seemed upside down, unsustainable, stupid. Had I made the right decision to resume rolling down the nomadic hill like this? Wasn't I too old to have ripped up all of life's responsibilities? Shouldn't I be establishing some roots rather than disappearing into the ether of global nothingness? Then Bucharest came along and was like, bro, wtf, it’s all good, keep on keeping on, this shit is fucking golden.<br /><br />
I also particularly enjoyed telling everyone from the first paragraph how mistaken they were. Bucharest is underrated and anyone who disses it did it wrong. In fact, I even went to the much-praised Brasov for a day to see what all the fuss was about and I wasn’t mad for it. And you know why? Because capital cities, man. That's where the glory is at.<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />The Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum, Romanian Kitsch Museum, the Romanian Palace of Parliament, The Cișmigiu Garden, Palatul Adevărul<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B19gk9rpkXI/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ADchvJ_FL/" target="_blank">Set 2 (incl Brasov)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2GmllDpAMy/" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2HDZ3ApIFW/ " target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_1ky4-h35J/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</em></div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 3. Florence/Pisa, Italy" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuK5iFK8NBZQlJNwe2Ig2CA235GFNd2zYqrySwGX0tvNtI7OrGU5Hh8cf7pNs-g-itXoCVhJhq5tedcutXqyqLH_UOCsAG1uN0j5-VRLgeG7B6UAcuSqqQsHl2vd3z62BbJ1t04cQRnI/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_03-Pisa-Florence.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>3. Florence/Pisa, Italy</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 4 Aug 2019 – 25 Aug 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/via-cristoforo-colombo-45-65-a.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Nirvana House Pisa</a> (Pisa, 4 Aug – 17 Aug) [8.3/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/my-friends.en-gb.html" target="_blank">My Friends</a> (Florence, 17 Aug – 25 Aug) [7.1/10]<br />
</i>
<br />
There is no way in any reasonable Universe that this Jarexit chapter should be placed this high up on my list. There were simply far too many glaring faults that nibbled at my legs during this leg and they all wore the same face. My face. It was me, I made mistakes.<br /><br />
The first and biggest mistake was Pisa itself. I prepared a sizeable list of things to do and then I happily skipped out into the wild, accidentally doing everything in a couple of hours. Oops! Nobody told me that Pisa was hardly a city! This was just a bunch of people gathered around a building! A building that is so shit it nearly fell over! Wtf! I seriously can't express this enough and anyone who has been here will tell you the same story: there is nothing to do in Pisa. And, what's more, I had already paid for two weeks of accommodation to do nothing in. D-to-the-fucking-'oh.<br /><br />
However, it must be said that this absence of activities almost maybe worked in the location’s favour. You see, I’m the type of guy who welcomes open hours to dedicate to his craft and, suddenly, I had ample of these hours do so with. I smashed my foot on the gas and made insane headway on my creative projects, zooming far ahead of schedule. Another helpful factor is that I had a super nice private room allowing me to lock the world away and keep my sneaky schemes to myself, hehehe.<br /><br />
Did I mention the Sun? Ah man, the Almighty Sun! Solid pal to me during this section of life, germinating energy within my cells and elbowing me to think outside of the box. Dig, motherfucker, dig! So I dug and unearthed some trippy areas to explore that most casual fans prancing through Pisa's streets may miss. I found a church which claimed ownership of a legit thorn from Jesus’ torture crown. I invented my own pub crawl which included a stop at a shot bar that boasts over 250 strange combinations. I braved the confusing transport to mission down to the charming city of Lucca for a day as well as Bagni Vittorio Emanuele beach another, drinking beers in a hammock watching the sunset. I also went on a walking tour which showed me everything I had already seen, except for one thing: a girl named Ella. She was a super cool person! She still is a super cool person, I imagine! After the tour, we went for vegan ice cream and chatted about how embarrassed we were about being Britsh, hahaha, omg, so embarrassed! The fact that she was 16 years my junior only made me feel a little bit old :(</div><div><br />In the end, total props to Pisa. The Leaning Tower is an undeniably exciting object to see with your own eyes (even if the daily flocking of tourism is insanely impenetrable!). The surrounding buildings may be overshadowed by their reject sibling but they're sick too, the inside of the Pisa Cathedral has its place inside of me. But once you've seen the tower almost every day for 14 days straight you do start to feel like you've been short-changed, you know? Hence why I completely skewed the wheel and decided not to jump the Italian ship just yet. I needed to get a better kick than this! And so, by following literally everyone’s advice, I jumped on a train and chugged my way to the nearby city of Florence.<br /><br />
Florence is the opposite bag with a seemingly infinite amount of historically important spots to check out. Except I had half the time to do it in. One week and one week only, baby! Not a second to waste! I quickly checked into a very cramped but otherwise lovely hostel and got to work immediately, my eyes on the mission, covering as much ground as humanely possible. And, as I do, I did well.<br /><br />
It would be impossible to name everything I achieved here but it'd be blasphemous if I didn't name-drop the Florence Cathedral Square as a location that sucked my breath away. The depth of detail in those architectural masterpieces stuck, carving their name into my heart. No matter where I was going that day, I always gravitated towards that special area first. My mind was also drowned by the bottomless amount of groundbreaking artworks I paid respects to (Michelangelo's <i>David</i> comes to mind, as does Botticelli's <i>The Birth Of Venus</i>) not to mention but to mention the gravesites that rested some of the greatest minds in history (Michelangelo and Galileo are all actually, but still).<br /><br />
On a personal note, my headspace wasn’t its usual cheery self here and I did struggle to connect with anyone on my level despite my best efforts (although, respect Leah, she was the friendliest face Florence had to offer!). Furthermore, I was gutted at how much everything cost! Quite a hefty sum of money for whatever you wanted to do and no two worthwhile things were in the same place. But! But the <i>magic</i> of Florence cuts through all of that and, on a city basis alone, it floored me with its culture and general superior vibrations. This place is truly in a league elsewhere. My artistic inspiration grew so large that it looped on itself and I suddenly knew I was a rubbish artist again. That's an impressive amount of emotion in one motion. <br /><br />If you count the two weeks in Rome from Jarexit I, a total of five weeks was spent in Italy over 2019. These days were of such a strong quality that they conspired together until I found myself accidentally labelling this as my favourite country to visit in the world thus far. This is still the case. There is something here that whacks everything out of the picture but I’m unsure what it is? The greatest art/artists/architecture in the world? The strong history? The best cuisine the world has ever tasted? Yes yes yes. All of these factors make Jared a swell boy and that's why I'll forever have a plan to go back to this land “very soon”.<br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Pisa Sights</b><br />The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Cattedrale di Pisa, The Santa Chiara Church (feat. Jesus Thorn), Keith Haring Mural, Chupiteria Shot Bar<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Pisa Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B0_TI7ApUh5/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1OxlldH8T5/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1QvYlvJvHG/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a><br /><br />
<b>Top Five Recommended Florence Sights</b><br />Florence Cathedral Square, Uffizi Gallery, Michaelangelo's David, The Basilica di Santa Croce, Giardino delle rose<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Florence Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Zd_nopiA9/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1gy7SYJrcq/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1jYbHtpkhw/" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1l6a2Hp3xs/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B_je1zOBOLN/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</em></div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 2. Dubai, United Arab Emirates" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnPY7Ns87trUX5PC-RUtGuyh95EwOmhKzCx6cBm4xCYIGAEsY7bg24O3Atsj39A2gcYfUyxT-DvaGbkK0XDiI8Mf9kH89Kc35oKFM6ThSi41ZzJipSlmlj-mmSM8PlJHQbiTK7L-mB7k/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_02-Dubai.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>2. Dubai, United Arab Emirates</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 7 Sep 2019 – 21 Sep 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accommodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/ae/at-the-top.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Top Dubai Apartment</a> (7 Sep – 18 Sep) [8.3/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/ae/leva-apartments.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Leva Hotel and Suites, Mazaya Centre</a> (18 Sep – 21 Sep) [7.9/10]<br />
</i>
<br />
The more you read my blogs, the deeper you’ll understand how much of a big fat fucking loser I am. Just kidding! I’m not fat :( Do me a favour and stop reading my blogs.<br /><br />
Classic story: my trip to Dubai was because of... <i>a girl!</i> She lives there told me I should come on over. I knew her from High School, 16 odd something years ago and back way when I was crushing on her something fierce! Our communication had been minimal since that point but then, suddenly, there she was, on my Whatsapp screen, saying cool stuff that was by no means explicit enough to guarantee a good time, but just the right amount of liquid to spring my male brain into action. Right! Let’s go to Dubai then! <br /><br />
Of course, the moment I landed, she ghosted me, and I haven’t heard from her since. <br /><br />
This was annoying to no end because I never had any interest in this city whatsoever. Stuff weirded me out about it. Certain laws were set in a past world. The type of people who came here were usually business-orientated, seeking sneaky tax breaks. It’s also worth noting that this one guy I know was very vocal about how immoral it is to visit Dubai after I had already visited. This is due to certain structures reportedly built with slave hands and that really messed with my moral mind too. But if you can take a deep breath and ignore these unpleasantries and ignore how intensely they searched me upon arrival and ignore how on edge I felt for the first several days... Dubai ultimately popped my brain, increasing my knowledge on just how uniquely trippy a city can be.<br /><br />
Even as a concept, Dubai is weird. It may look like a city with all the city parts but the weather won't let you forget that you are in a desert. Especially if you go during the months I went, or so I hear. The borderline 40-degree heat was the name of the game every single day which I loved because I am a creature of the Sun, gimme gimme. Still, this environment is unignorably inhabitable by human beings, hence why an ocean of money had to be pumped into the place just to get it functioning. And it shows. The level of artificialness is a loud factor that puts a lot of people off but, damn, when you look at that skyline at night? Every sci-fi film you’ve ever loved brightens up before your eyes, stretching all the way up to the heavens. Because those buildings are tall, buddy.<br /><br />
In fact, that’s the craziest characteristic of Dubai. The buildings have to be the tallest (and one of them is the tallest tallest). Everything you see forever appears to be suffixed with <i>“in the world”</i>. No matter what it is, it’s the biggest, longest, heaviest, fastest, loudest whatever the fuck in the world. Its entire purpose is to be this record-breaking monster which just screams excess excess excess, the stink of wealth gleaming from every one of its pores. It is so utterly insane that I spent most days in hysterics as I tried to work out what was going on. And best of all, the sheer extravagance of it all meant that I couldn’t afford to do anything. No drink, no cabs, no restaurants, nothing. And so, somehow, I saved a bunch of money just by being here. Go figure.<br /><br />
I also lucked out socially. Tinder girls loved me even though most of them turned out to be hookers. Saily was one of the non-hookers and we got along straight away, she's hilarious and we continue to Like each other's Instagram posts to this very day. I also stayed in a highly impressive hostel (Top Dubai Apartment), emphasis on <i>highly</i> as it's the fourth tallest residential structure in the world, blessing us with a dizzying view of Palm Jumeirah, the largest artificial island in the world. Here, a rotation of interesting cats kept shaking my mind with their lives and I was deep into it. A whole ton of love to SuPing from China, she's a genuine human that has made my life that much better, we've kept in touch. I also met this gorgeous American girl but we forgot to exchange details and that has haunted me ever since. There was a big lesson there. Finally, high-fives all around to Denise, to Ashu, and to Mahlet. Together, we were the crew who went 4X4 dune bashing over endless desert landscapes then rode impoverished camels before eating food in front of a belly dancer. That was a crazy night! <br /><br />
Here’s what it comes down to: when you travel a lot of Europe, the differences can be similar and sometimes it takes a moment for your memory to retrieve which file came from where. With Dubai, every moment was so unmistakably itself, an Arabian sci-fi hallucination, where there was never any question where I was. I was in the freaking future! And, as it stands, no city has managed to 180 my opinion as expertly as this one. I was wrong and I am sorry. Dubai is sick.<br /><br />
It’s a good thing too because at least I’m not mad at that girl who invited me to come over. How could I be? I am grateful! It’s as if her entire existence in my life was to lure me into this experience and, even if she wasn’t part of it, I thank her for the idea. Thank you for the idea! <br /><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Burj Khalifa, Jumeirah Beach, View of the Palm Jumeirah, the Dubai Mall, Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2e3ZfeJ7Gz/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2o-KbmpmMj/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2o-0OCJqJs/" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2rh2AJpe34/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CAHm1IyhUvM/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</em></div><br /><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1"><img alt="Worst to Best: Jarexit II: 1. Tokyo, Japan" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_aZgPSgKz8sQgYv1WqjWD9O0Vw5COpxsgTnS2NazU9oh4Aa352CrJQcR3tkPGn-I86TXg0Lt3-HBH2-owN8OvQi5oftqt0MS_0h4WmJf5Xew1AXxtYqss3V2QB3yFzWJdPXp2Aahjxo/s1600/20June11_Jarexit-II_01-Tokyo.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<h2>1. Tokyo, Japan</h2><br />
<i><b>Dates:</b> 13 Oct - 2 Nov 2019</i><br />
<i><b>Accomodation:</b> <a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/obi-hostel.en-gb.html" target="_blank">obi Hostel</a> (13 Oct - 19 Oct 2019) [7/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/khaosan-tokyo-origami.en-gb.html" target="_blank">Khaosan Tokyo Origami</a> (19 Oct - 26 Oct 2019) [8.3/10]<br />
<a href="https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/hopstepinn.en-gb.html" target="_blank">HopStepInn</a> (26 Oct - 2 Nov 2019) [6/10]<br />
</i>
<br />
Plot reveal: the string that ran down the centre of Jarexit II was a guide rope of baby steps, each notch pulling me across the planet until I ultimately arrived at the key destination of Tokyo for my birthday. I made it! Now, I know what you’re wondering... why Tokyo?? Just kidding, no one was wondering that. It’s, like, everyone’s dream to go to Tokyo, as it was mine, hence the plan. I’m a city boi after all and as far as cities go, you’re not going to find a level like this anywhere else on this floating rock of ours. Hence why, when the plane touched down, the excitement made a whistling noise through my teeth and my pupils expanded in response. <br /><br />
What I didn’t tell anyone is that I absolutely hated it. As a self-centred privileged Westernised white prick, I expected some level of English to assist me through my touristic ways. But within minutes of attempting to navigate this land, it became swiftly obvious that I was not going to be cared for. I had become so used to harnessing this exotic flavour of mine in Asia that I was hurt that no one in Japan gave a shit about me. The citizens were polite, sure. Excessively so. But there was this thin aura of superiority where they looked down on me, the caucasian visitor, responsible for all that was wrong in the world. They wouldn't be wrong either.<br /><br />
It got worse. My wires completely crisscrossed because I thought I knew how big cities function. I’m trained in the arts! But this one was set up wrong. Every single minute detail was just slightly different to anywhere I'd ever seen before. It was the first world to the cutting edge but none of it worked in the same fashion that I was used to. Everything was too expensive. Vegetarianism wasn’t communicatable. Tinder was on the hardest setting. The streets were packed with people but they were deadly quiet. And slowly, my mind shrunk inwards and I felt isolated within my own skull. Omg, this was not how this was supposed to be! And I had three weeks left of this! Buddha, help me, please!<br /><br />
Annoying how Worst to Best lists work because, spoiler no spoiler, it got better. Like, immeasurably better. I started to grasp the system. I simply had to click myself a little to the left then let go, allowing the ride to begin. All those confusing quirks turned out to be advancements. Every toilet, every train, every wifi connection operated on a greater plane. I became a cartoon character in a cartoon world and it was hysterical, high def technicolour of robotic surrealism, the package I’d imagined except real without being too real, an illusion of hyper-cuteness. Maybe the locals didn't appear to like me too much, but I liked them. Their fashion sense was cavity-inducing. Their language was like a thousand tiny daggers slicing up my ears in fast forward. And the general standard of female appearance was a tumbling line of heartbreak, a domino of yearning pain per every step. That part never got easier.<br /><br />
My birthday came and went and even though I was all alone, this solo celebration was one for the books (side shout-out to the girls who sent me birthday photos, y'all lit my smile all the way up). I set out with a magnifying glass to explore every corner that this peculiar city had hidden away, injecting the folds of my brain with quick setting jello, causing permanent damage. Or maybe that was the alcohol during the impressive <a href="http://www.tokyopubcrawl.com/" target="_blank">Tokyo Pub Crawl</a> party? Or maybe that was the alcohol my colleague/friend Greg fed me? Or maybe that was the alcohol my former colleague/still friend Bertan fed me too? Whatever, thanks, dudes! My little sister also joined the madness during the last week and it was here that I learned a valuable lesson: the racing-paced travel program I have developed since Jarexit I is not suited for everyone. Our energies didn’t match on the same playing field and we were forced to salvage our separate holidays by following our own paths. It's a shame but one can't blame Tokyo for sibling oppositions. Because Tokyo was <i>all that</i>, each and every day rammed with a frantic rush to fill my backpack with unusual crumbs until I could piece together some sort of a distorted picture of what was actually going on here, so much so that it’s tricky to identify a single event that stands above another. Well, except for <i>one</i> one...</div><div><br />
I must confess to you, my readers, that I have been a little less than honest in pretending I was touring Tokyo for my birthday. Yes, this was the dream location, and yes, I was stoked to turn 35 here. But this was just a happy organisational opportunity. What really set this trip in motion was a girl I met randomly at a party two years back and, believe it or not, this wasn't even a romantic story. Truthfully, I never got her name. I wouldn’t recognise her if I passed her on the street. But some people's roles in our lives revolve around different properties and this was one of those. During a conversation that my memory has since deleted, she looked me in the eyes and said, <i>“You have to go to Tokyo for Halloween, it’s like nothing on Earth”</i>. I decided right then that I had to do that. And so here I was. Doing it. And she wasn't wrong. I'm not even going to try to explain this to you. Google <i>"Shibuya Station Halloween"</i>. It’s not a normal experience. It’s the craziest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.</div><div><br /></div><div>One other quick trippy coincidence was that the 2019 Rugby World Cup took place in Tokyo while I was here. What's more, the finals were played between my birth home of South Africa and my home home of England. Cool! I couldn't lose! South Africa won and I was happy about that, for sure. <br /><br />Anyways, sadly, all good things must come to an end, and Tokyo came to an end. But I was a changed man, man! I was bowing at everyone, at dogs, at fridges. My mind was fueled to the max on rice and it repeated what I had to do, over and over again. I had to marry a Tokyo girl. That way I could stay here forever. I can’t emphasise this enough: the decision had been made. There was something in this city and whatever it was made a wordless pact with me. There was not an atom in my being which wanted to live anywhere else and I started to make plans. Plan one: learn Japanese! <br /><br />
I’ve chilled a bit now but vibes that vibe that strong don’t simply fizzle out. Tokyo was a life highlight, the Jarexit II focal point, and, as we stand, still the ultimate goal. Mark my words, I will go back there again as soon as I can, except this time with a greater understanding, a more focused itinerary, and a much longer time period to allow myself to sink into the culture like warm noodle soup, melting away to become the very best Jared I can be. Tokyo Jared.</div><div><br />
<div class="finalbox">
<em><b>Top Five Recommended Sights</b><br />Akihabara, Takeshita Street in Harajuku, The Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, TeamLab Borderless, Shibuya Station (during Halloween!)<br /><br />
<b>Instagram Snaps</b><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4AOpjRp5-0/" target="_blank">Set 1</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4CkZyMp5dl/" target="_blank">Set 2</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4KhluVpztd/" target="_blank">Set 3</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4PwcPyJZKG/" target="_blank">Set 4</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4SbY3-pznq/" target="_blank">Set 5</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4ScGfvJ1oA/" target="_blank">Set 6 (TeamLab Exclusive)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4UzMXcJS1e/" target="_blank">Set 7 (Halloween Exclusive)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4E1oWUpFDk/" target="_blank">Set 8 (Halloween Solo Shot)</a> | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4XdODBJN9n/" target="_blank">Summary Shot</a>
<br /><br /><i><b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CArpcnpBeMA/" target="_blank">Monstrocity Drawing</a></b></i>
</em></div><br /><br /><br /></div>Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-69225782892916937952020-06-07T15:20:00.007+01:002020-06-07T15:32:48.792+01:00BREAKING NEWS: New Details Emerge About the Dominic Cummings Lockdown Breach<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style=""><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmmHJX97BqHQKa4wvA9BwAyXuV7vqXLtC4mJPblR_UnLHrYw8RzBBNTbaSp1HTO5KwTvqC8p9T9_TLoDHVIDn4FXkHCx51dwXIblOMIBzN-kZDAi9BMPn8iAeT8_yVS-O1m9LrRz-LzE/s620/20June7-dominic-cummings.jpg" width="620" /></span></div>
<b>LONDON.</b> While statements from Dominic Cummings and Mary Wakefield divide a nation on whether his lockdown actions warrant a resignation, there is one central figure to this story that the media has largely overlooked: the couple’s son, Alexander Cedd Cummings.<br /><br />
Recently, investigative journalist Kieran Skieran sat down to interview the four-year-old. Together with renowned language expert, Samuel Crunkbottom (who specialises in the toddler tongue of the silver spoon variety), they uncovered details which may or may not alter the outcome of this narrative.<br /><br />
According to their interpretations, Mr Cummings was struck by a sudden mid-Spring metabolic deficiency and he required his yearly blood-transfusion much earlier than anticipated. However, due to the supply shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic, this procedure could only take place in County Durham at such short notice.<br /><br />
As The Daily Mail reports, Dominic Cummings suffers from a rare hereditary disorder that has run through his interbred ancestry for thousands of years. This medical condition (known as Plasma Occupant Eradication Syndrome but more commonly referred to as “vampire thirsting”) is diagnosed when an individual’s neural tissue becomes dehydrated by their own blood. This results in a myriad of side effects, including the craving for virgin flesh and an inescapable regret towards one’s role in the gradual collapse of Britain. <br /><br />
Little Alexander went on record stating that he feels his daddy’s actions came from a place of good heart. He added that Dominic was much less murderous after the successful transfusion and that the family had a wonderful day celebrating mommy’s birthday at Barnard Castle.<br /><br /><br />
<div style="font-size:80%; font-style:italic; padding:1em; background-color: #e5e4e4; text-align: center">This story was sponsored by the <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/newsletter.php" target="_blank">Janthopoyism newsletter</a>. Every month, one lucky subscriber will win a random prize. In May 2020, Kieran won a "200-Word Blog Post on Anything". <br />
His chosen subject was as follows: "As Dominic Cummings and his wife have both wrote separately about their trip to Durham, I'd love to hear from their 4-year-old son who was along for the ride". <br />
It shall be done.<br />
If you'd like to be in the running for future prizes, don't hesitate! <a href="http://janthopoyism.com/newsletter.php" target="_blank">Sign up to the mailing list now</a>.</div><br /><br /><br />
Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-56954028065522618212020-06-03T21:57:00.004+01:002023-01-17T02:37:50.377+00:00Does Bill Gates Have Evil Vaccination Intentions?<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span imageanchor="1" style="margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpH241Ve6d0dz2zGysPPjyJizx-ltZpSan-uMJZxV9I-LuR_3RnIi4VlzCtAmjhXUf8KgFCmLuxeHFFu_lNVAIfAxE_c-pSICO8fq8rWoRQSjpblOOmCFC97HsBOaScv4rhK-Y6bwksIU/s640/20June3-COVID2-Does-Bill-Gates-Have-Evil-Vaccination-Intentions.jpg" width="620" /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center; width: 100%;">
<i>PART 2 OF THE COVID-19 CONSPIRACY SERIES.<br />
NO OPINIONS, JUST NEUTRAL INFORMATION.<br /><br />
<a href="http://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-5g-evil-weapon-against-our-health.html" target="_blank">READ PART 1: IS 5G AN EVIL WEAPON AGAINST OUR HEATH?</a></i>
</div><br /><br />
<h3>Who is Bill Gates?</h3>
Bill Gates is best known as the co-founder and former CEO of the Microsoft Corporation. This technology company has created various software products (most notable the Windows operating system) and has subsequently remained one of the most valued companies in the world (currently <i>the most</i> valuable, overtaking Apple in 2018<a class="ref" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/how-did-microsoft-just-overtake-apple-world-s-most-valuable-n940751" target="_blank">[ref]</a>). Microsoft is valued at over $1 trillion since 2019<a class="ref" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/24/microsoft-q3-2019-earnings.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
With a net worth of $105+ billion<a class="ref" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/?list=billionaires#15aa77cc689f" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, Bill Gates is the second richest man in the world behind only Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder and CEO)<a class="ref" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2017/10/27/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-is-the-richest-person-in-the-world-again/#780d42891948" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. There were only four years between 1995 and 2017 where Bill was not the richest person on the planet.<br /><br />
Bill Gates largely stepped down from his Microsoft duties in 2008 to devote more time to the private charity he has set up with his wife. It's called the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their goals are to improve global healthcare and reduce poverty. This is reportedly the world’s largest private charity<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/15/bill-gates-charity-donation-microsoft-shares-foundation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>What is the Theory?</h3>
There are assorted dots scattered throughout this narrative. Conspiracy theorists tend to believe in different degrees and combinations of these points, but in one general string, it looks something like this:<br /><br />
Bill Gates may have invented COVID-19 himself or at least perpetuated the spread. He has done so to force the world to require a mandatory vaccine otherwise we'll never get back to normal life. This would not only skyrocket Bill Gates’ wealth due to his patent ownership but would also allow him to slip a microchip into every human being, tracking everyone, everywhere, at all times. All of which may be part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Donald Trump, possibly because Gates is part of a paedophile ring. I'll explain everything.<br /><br />
<h3>Where Do We Even Begin?</h3>
There are three distinct conspiracy timelines which have met up to create this mecha-theory, essentially the culmination of long-speculated anxieties coming to a climax right here. These are anti-vaccinations, microchip implants, and a general distrust for Bill Gates himself.<br /><br />
We will look at each of these separately.
<br /><br />
<h3>What's the Anti-Vaccination Movement?</h3>
The anti-vaxxer (or vaccine hesitancy) community has existed for centuries, initially rooted in religion. In 1772, Reverend Edmund Massey famously dubbed inoculations against smallpox as the work of the devil<a class="ref" href="http://defendgaia.org/bobk/whitem10.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Over time, these arguments against vaccinations have evolved across a wide spectrum. They range from an understandable lack of confidence over the safety of a vaccine’s contents, all the way to linking autism to said vaccinations (a theory which has since been debunked a thousand times over<a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24814559/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908388/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br />
In 2019, The World Health Organization called the vaccine hesitancy movement one of the biggest health threats in the world<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019" target="_blank">[ref]</a> due to the outbreaks which have resulted from reduced immunities. This includes the 2004 reappearance of polio in Nigeria<a class="ref" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18690921/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. There has also been a 30% global rise of measle cases/deaths<a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, for example, 600 in Nigeria (Jan - March 2005)<a class="ref" href="http://www.eurekaselect.com/55128/article" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and 83 over the last year in Samoa<a class="ref" href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/406802/two-more-deaths-from-measles-in-samoa-over-new-year-period " target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
As it stands, the scientific consensus is that vaccines are safe due to the immense safety standards required from a medicine that is administered to millions of humans<a class="ref" href="https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/safety" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. However, people like Heidi J. Larson from WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts takes some of the blame, stating <i>“We've invested in more and more vaccines and much less in bringing the public along with us. We need to pay attention to the public and listen to their concerns much earlier on.”</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5689193/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br /><br />
When it comes to corona, the war between the anti-vaxxers and the vaccination is nothing but loud words at this point. However, it will continuously gain momentum as we approach the inoculation date.
<br /><br />
<h3>Microchip Implants: What Are the Concerns?</h3>
The long history of VeriChip human implants would take too much time to document but it truly became newsworthy in 2004 when the practice was legally approved by The Food and Drug Administration<a class="ref" href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/14/human_rfid_implants/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Its current and <i>potential</i> functions include storing identity and medical information, monitoring diseases, tracking criminals, and replacing bank cards. Since then, places like the Epicenter in Stockholm<a class="ref" href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2881178/office-complex-implants-rfid-chips-in-employees-hands.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, City Watcher in Cincinnati<a class="ref" href="http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/ohio-company-embeds-rfid-chips-employees" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and the Baja Beach club in Rotterdam<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/jun/10/onlinesupplement1" target="_blank">[ref]</a> have experimented with the microchip for allowing personal access into secure or VIP areas. It’s worth noting that, at this time, there are no reported GPS implants available due to issues like device size and battery life<a class="ref" href="https://tractive.com/blog/en/tech/microchip-for-dogs-and-tractive-gps" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="http://petlovergeek.com/2016/09/25/gpsmicrochipspart3/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Questions quickly arose about this irremovable mechanism and its effects on our freedom. The American Medical Association published a report in 2007<a class="ref" href="https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/public/about-ama/councils/Council%20Reports/council-on-ethics-and-judicial-affairs/a07-ceja-rfid-labeling-humans.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which queried privacy issues. Security researcher Jonathan Westhues demonstrated how easy it was to clone such microchips simply by standing next to their person<a class="ref" href="http://cq.cx/verichip.pl" target="_blank">[ref]</a> in 2006. <br /><br />
The Bill Gates story is not the first time the conspiracy mill has spun about microchipping. Back in 2013, an email chain claimed Obamacare was looking to implant every US citizen by 2014 based on the <i>H.R.3590 – Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/3590/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. No such wording existed but this did not stop the rumour from updating the deadline every year that passed<a class="ref" href="https://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-microchip-implant/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Also in 2014, an almost identical hoax cropped up about the Ebola vaccine<a class="ref" href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chip-off-the-old-salk/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="http://www.hoaxorfact.com/pranks/ebola-vaccinations-containing-rfid-chips-facts.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a> as well as one stating that all EU newborns were set to be chipped<a class="ref" href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chip-shot-3/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no reliable documentation can back up these claims.<br /><br />
As it stands, involuntary microchip implants are illegal in the American states of Arkansas, California, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wisconsin<a class="ref" href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/forced-worker-microchipping-faces-growing-preemptive-strike" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/state-net/news/2020/03/13/states-just-saying-no.page" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and similar such laws continue to spread quickly. Consent is also required in the UK<a class="ref" href="https://www.uktech.news/news/industry-analysis/microchipping-employees-what-are-the-legal-implications-20181123" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. As these notions are fairly new, many nations are yet to establish their laws. Nevertheless, it feels reasonable to suggest that any free country will view forced/undisclosed microchipping as a conflict of basic human rights.
<br /><br />
<h3>Microchip Implants: The Mark of the Beast?</h3>
Much like any good story, we also have a birthplace in the Bible. More specifically, the <i>Book of Revelation</i>, the Bible's final book which deals with the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. <br /><br />
Look at <i>Revelation 13:15–18</i> which states:<br /><br />
<i>15. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.<br />
16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:<br />
17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Revelation-Chapter-13/#13" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br /><br />
The Biblical/microchipping connection was made shortly after FDA approval. <i>The Resistance Manifesto</i> in 2005 by Christian conspiracy activist Mark Dice stands as one of the earliest published examples<a class="ref" href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/05/rfid_chip_boycott/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4335863-the-resistance-manifesto" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Ignoring the controversial author’s racist sexist homophobic<a class="ref" href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-jim-crow-internet-is-pushing-back-against-black-lives-matter-65934" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/dumpstarwars-cry-babies-struggle-to-save-face-after-bl-1790256837" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/bts-fans-youtuber-insulted-amas-performance" target="_blank">[ref]</a> tendencies, he did note some very interesting points with those Revelation lines, such as <i>“rich and poor”</i> (every class getting vaccinated), <i>“receive a mark in their right hand”</i> (an often proposed positioning of the microchipping), and that <i>“no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark”</i> (becoming a cashless society where only chips are accepted). <br /><br />
The cashless society branch leads into another recent theory by Oscar-winning Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov<a class="ref" href="https://www.rt.com/news/487634-mikhalkov-bill-gates-microchip-implants/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> who called attention to a 2020 Microsoft patent. This document registers the idea that a person could earn cryptocurrency by performing certain activities<a class="ref" href="https://blockchain.news/news/microsoft-patents-cutting-edge-human-powered-crypto-mining-system" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. It makes no mention of microchips but who is to say? And what really tickled Mikhalkov’s imagination was the patent’s publication number: <i>060606</i><a class="ref" href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020060606&tab=PCTBIBLIO" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Three sixes! The number of the beast!<br /><br />
Which is to say that if Bill Gates delivers the microchip then he is surely fulfilling the prophecy of the Antichrist, sending whoever accepts the mark to Hell then ushering in the return of Jesus. Could be fun.
<br /><br />
<h3>Can We Trust Bill Gates?</h3>
Bill Gates isn't exactly the poster child for trustworthiness. Most of this stems from criticisms against Microsoft’s business practices including overworking employees<a class="ref" href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/archive-inside-microsoft-a-velvet-sweatshop-or-a-high-tech-heaven/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and questionable advertising techniques<a class="ref" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/xboxs-advert-pulled-after-protest-from-tv-watchdog-179193.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/aug/26/microsoft-race-gaffe" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
More to the topic, Microsoft and Gates have also come under fire for privacy issues. A leaked NSA document named Microsoft (and many other company giants) as providing non-US citizen data to the American government<a class="ref" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/us/nsa-verizon-calls.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which they have denied<a class="ref" href="https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/06/google-facebook-apple-deny-participation-in-nsa-prism-program/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The EU has had some particular concerns about data collections<a class="ref" href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/21/14682256/microsoft-windows-10-eu-privacy-concerns" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/dutch-government-report-says-microsoft-office-telemetry-collection-breaks-gdpr/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Furthermore, there are allegations of monopolising the PC market which has regularly found Microsoft in court. In 2001, there was the <i>United States v. Microsoft Corporation </i>case which accused the company of restricting users from installing competitive software. This was settled with Microsoft opening access to much of its code for third-parties<a class="ref" href="https://www.justice.gov/atr/case-document/file/503541/download" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. In 2007, the EU called for <i>Microsoft Corp. v. Commission</i>, claiming that Microsoft was blocking its competitors unlawfully. The courts agreed, smashing the company with a €497 million fine, the largest the EU had ever seen at the time<a class="ref" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3563697.stm" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. There are many more examples just like this<a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_litigation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Such dubious undertakings are essential roots that feed into the theories. This is due to similar concerns between privacy/tracking microchips as well as Gates’ so-called monopolisation of the medical industry, which we will look at in greater detail later. Many hypothesise that the establishment of the Gates Foundation was merely to transform his public image into someone more likeable, giving him additional leeway for his future projects<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/24/no-such-thing-free-gift-gates-foundation-philanthropy-review" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/04/bill-gates-foundation-philanthropy-microsoft" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Meanwhile, Gates credits a reading list from Dr. Bill Foege for his interest in global health<a class="ref" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/19/bill-gates-says-these-3-books-opened-a-new-world-for-him.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
There is already a mistrust for high up figures amongst those who swear by a New World Order social hierarchy, so when one of the richest men in the world has further muddied his name with the previous wrongdoings, then the crosshairs of conspiracy suspicions grow even larger. Hence why COVID-19 is not the first time Bill Gates has come under very similar allegations and, depending on the corona outcome, won’t be the last.
<br /><br />
<h3>What's the Theory with Bill Gates and the 2015 Zika Virus?</h3>
One of the best examples of how this is not Gates’ first conspiracy virus rodeo would be that of the Zika virus.<br /><br />
In early 2015, a Zika outbreak raced across Brazil with 205,578 cases reported in 2016<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800195/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This mosquito-spread disease is largely asymptomatic in an estimated 80% of infections and mildly feverish in the rest. However, it did cause severe birth defects<a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/s0413-zika-microcephaly.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation responded by donating $750,000 to the CDC Foundation<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2016/03/OPP1151548" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and backed the Oxitec project of releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes into Brazil, spreading their own disease throughout that insect subspecies and limiting their ability to pass Zika to humans<a class="ref" href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/far-out-idea-backed-by-gates-could-help-stem-zika-epidemic/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
That’s all the theorists needed and, led by conspiracy YouTuber VM Granmisterio<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/VMGranmisterio/videos" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, they concluded that Bill Gates and Oxitec had developed a bioweapon as part of an ethnic cleansing program, one which would also stop people from breeding under the fear of birth defects<a class="ref" href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=is_fac" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This was reportedly in hopes of reducing the Brazilian population, another component in this tale which we shall address shortly.
<br /><br />
<h3>How Did Bill Gates Become the COVID Talking Point?</h3>
As if bringing anti-vaxxers, Christians, Bill Gates-haters and general conspiracy theorists onto the same playing field wasn’t enough to birth the ripest conspiracy case ever, Gates himself made three additional moves which threw a stronger brand of petrol onto the fire.<br /><br />
The first was that Gates has been warning about a virus outbreak since at least 2010<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/A-Better-Response-to-the-Next-Pandemic" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Some argue that a man wanting to control the world with a pandemic wouldn’t pre-warn us of its arrival. Others say that’s exactly what he would do if he intended to prepare us mentally for his plans, pushing us to easier accept the process. More on this later.<br /><br />
The second move was where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have committed at least $250 million<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gates-foundation-spending-additional-150-million-on-coronavirus-aid-2020-4?r=US&IR=T" target="_blank">[ref]</a> in the fight against COVID-19. This ties into the theory of virus research monopolisation, another topic we will discuss later down the line.<br /><br />
The third and final move happened on the 18th of March 2020. Here, Gates opened an AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread on the relevant subreddit<a class="ref" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fksnbf/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, addressing any queries the public may have about, well, anything. When asked how to keep businesses functioning during times of social distancing, his response ended with: <br /><br />
<em>“Eventually we will have some <b>digital certificates</b> to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has received it.”</em><a class="ref" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fksnbf/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/fkupg49/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br /><br />
Which leads us to...<br /><br />
<h3>What Links This to Global Microchipping?</h3>
It took less than a day for the first article to expand this AMA response into the headline <i>“Bill Gates will use microchip implants to fight coronavirus”</i><a class="ref" href="https://biohackinfo.com/news-bill-gates-id2020-vaccine-implant-covid-19-digital-certificates/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. According to this piece, the “digital certificates” Gates was referring to are known as “quantum-dot tattoos” where microchips would be implanted via dissolvable sugar-based microneedles developed in part with a project called ID2020. This would grant Bill Gates greater control over the world like a mad Bond villain.<br /><br />
If we follow that article’s own source links<a class="ref" href="http://news.mit.edu/2019/storing-vaccine-history-skin-1218" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/523/eaay7162" target="_blank">[ref]</a> we quickly discover that no microchip implants are mentioned. Rather, “quantum-dot tattoos” are patches that stick invisible dye patterns under the skin that can be scanned to give digital information such as <i>“this person has been vaccinated”</i>. These patterns reportedly last for five years and can be delivered with the vaccine on one patch. The technology was tested on rats and is yet to be used on humans. The MIT research for this was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. <br /><br />
Defenders point out that one cannot track your location using ink and that it simply functions like a modern update to the smallpox scar, a simple piece of <i>yes-or-no</i> data, nothing else. Such a program would be additionally useful in developing countries where there is a severe lack of medical recording processes<a class="ref" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/invisible-ink-could-reveal-whether-kids-have-been-vaccinated/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Although one could argue this is still the perfect avenue to slip a chip into someone without their knowledge.<br /><br />
Moving on to the aforementioned ID2020 company, and this is far more in tune with what an actual “digital certificate” is. Hint: it has nothing to do with quantum-dot tattoos or microchipping or even injections. This non-profit organisation has one goal: to provide identification for the billion+ people worldwide (such as those in developing countries or refugees) who have no form of identification. According to the ID2020 manifesto, individuals would have full control over their digital identities<a class="ref" href="https://id2020.org/manifesto" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which would be stored in a cloud environment using blockchain technology<a class="ref" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-sixty-million-refugee_b_13202004" target="_blank">[ref]</a> for privacy reasons. The company is backed in part by Microsoft<a class="ref" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-accenture-digitalid-idUSKBN19A22B" target="_blank">[ref]</a> but is not directly involved with Gates. It appears data would be collected using biometrics<a class="ref" href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/201909/id2020-and-partners-launch-program-to-provide-digital-id-with-vaccines" target="_blank">[ref]</a> such a fingerprints and iris scans. This notion is supported by ID2020’s partnership with Simprints<a class="ref" href="https://medium.com/id2020/the-id2020-alliance-is-thrilled-to-welcome-our-newest-partner-organization-simprints-a9e27d3b8a8c" target="_blank">[ref]</a> an open-source fingerprint system<a class="ref" href="https://www.simprints.com/solution" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. It is only fair to mention that Simprints was founded by students from the Gates-Cambridge Scholarships program who went on to win $210 million from the Gates Foundation in 2017<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatescambridge.org/news/simprints-wins-2m-innovation-prize" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Irrespective of the truth or lies, the once-obscure ID2020 is now on the map big time for all the wrong reasons, receiving such vicious threats from conspiracy theorists that they resorted to getting the FBI involved. This was reported by the New Humanitarian, which also receives funding from the Gates Foundation<a class="ref" href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2020/04/15/id2020-coronavirus-vaccine-misinformation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
The final piece of this crazy collection comes with Bill Gates’ praise<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/A-coronavirus-AMA" target="_blank">[ref]</a> towards South Korea’s corona testing procedure and its very successful decline of infections. When someone tests positive in that country, their movements are traced back using a combination of smartphones, credit card usage and CCTV footage<a class="ref" href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2020/04/13/combating-covid-19-lessons-from-south-korea/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This info is then released publicly for other citizens to assess their movements near exposures<a class="ref" href="http://ncov.mohw.go.kr/bdBoardList_Real.do?brdId=1&brdGubun=12&ncvContSeq=&contSeq=&board_id=&gubun=" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Once again, this brings Gates’ opinions of privacy into question, but it also makes the idea of implant tracking seem redundant. They can track you already if they so choose.<br /><br />
<h3>How Did These Theories Spread?</h3>
Various mid-to-high profile players have helped to escalate this information early on. They include Trump’s buddy and conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones (more on him later); conspiracy theorist YouTuber James Corbett<a class="ref" href="https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=bill+gates" target="_blank">[ref]</a> (more on him later), anti-vaccine nephew of JFK, Robert Kennedy Jr<a class="ref" href="https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/how-bill-gates-controls-global-messaging-and-censorship/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>; pro-Trump conservative political activist, Candace Owens (more on her later); White House correspondent for conservative website Newsmax, Emerald Robinson<a class="ref" href="https://www.facebook.com/saracunial.camera/posts/527425274602361" target="_blank">[ref]</a>; Italian politician and anti-vaxxer, Sara Cunial; Fox News host, Laura Ingraham<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1247528216434106369" target="_blank">[ref]</a>; osteopathic conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxier, Rashid Buttar<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rashid+Buttar&page=&utm_source=opensearch" target="_blank">[ref]</a>; and convicted political consultant, Roger Stone<a class="ref" href="https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/roger-stone-bill-gates-may-have-created-coronavirus-to-microchip-people/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
Additional props to Florida Pastor Adam Fannin who seems to be making some of the most interesting noise by mashing all of the notes together, including those parallels with the antichrist, microchipping, and depopulation<a class="ref" href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90493469/why-bill-gates-is-the-focus-of-the-latest-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. His video is close to two million views as I type this<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k9LE5az_iY" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Full disclosure that Adam Fannin owes much of his notoriety to that time he wished death upon comedian Sarah Silverman<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/SarahKSilverman/status/1159562522036281344" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Combine the above clout with the flammable webs of conspiracy communities and we are now looking at 44% of Republicans who will refuse vaccinations under the belief that Bill Gates is trying to chip us (according to a Yahoo/YouGov poll<a class="ref" href="https://news.yahoo.com/new-yahoo-news-you-gov-poll-shows-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-spreading-on-the-right-may-hamper-vaccine-efforts-152843610.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).
<br /><br />
<h3>So... Did Bill Gates Engineer the Virus or What?</h3>
This theory is so wild that it is as difficult to disprove as it is to prove. The evidence trail is empty whichever way you look and it feels like the furthest leap one could make with their eyes closed.<br /><br />
Speculators claim that Gates knew about the coronavirus years beforehand because (1) he registered a coronavirus patent before the outbreak; and (2) he hosted a coronavirus simulation before the outbreak<a class="ref" href="https://infotagion.com/factcheck-did-bill-gates-create-the-coronavirus/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. We will address both of these suggestions shortly.<br /><br />
The official cause of COVID-19 is currently unidentified but experts are relatively convinced that it started at the Chinese wet market in Wuhan known as Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. This is because several of the earliest patients had visited this area<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7118693/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which has been called “unsanitary” by Time magazine<a class="ref" href="https://time.com/5769323/wuhan-coronavirus-outbreak/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> due to its confined space shared with live and dead animals. The virus appears similar to those that originate in pangolin<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156161/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and bats<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7121143/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> (the latter of which is the more common conclusion). Of the 585 environmental samples collected from the market, 33 were found to have traces of the virus according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention<a class="ref" href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/27/c_138735677.htm" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.
<br /><br />
<h3>Did Bill Gates Know About COVID-19 Before It Happened?</h3>
Bill Gates has warned about a global pandemic for close to a decade now<a class="ref" href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90478593/all-the-times-bill-gates-has-warned-us-about-a-deadly-pandemic" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Arguably his most discussed commentary came with his 2015 TED Talk titled <i>“The next outbreak? We’re not ready”</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
Gates' supporters use this as evidence against the conspiracies, asking why a man would prewarn us if he intended to inflict a virus on society. The anti-Gates crowd argue that he was softening us to the idea, allowing him to proceed with his plans under the guise of a hero. Both debates have merit but, in truth, Gates was not the first to predict an outbreak in any fashion.<br /><br />
A year before that TED Talk, then-President Obama warned about the lack of preparation we had against such a pademnic<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBVAnaHxHbM" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
American molecular biologist, Joshua Lederberg, was quoted saying <i>“The single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on the planet is the virus” </i>in 1988<a class="ref" href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/04/experts-warned-of-pandemic-decades-ago-why-werent-we-ready" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This was used to open the 1995 film <i>Outbreak</i><a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outbreak_(film)" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which dealt with similar scenarios.<br /><br />
In fact, Hollywood has been in tune with this idea for longer than any of us<a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_viral_outbreaks" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <i>12 Monkeys</i> (1995), <i>Contagion</i> (2011), and just about every zombie flick ever made now seem so obvious in hindsight as cautionary tales about the devastating effects of viruses. <i>The Hot Zone</i> miniseries about a deadly outbreak of Ebola was released mere months before the first documented case of COVID-19<a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone_(miniseries)" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and itself was based on the 1994 nonfiction book by Richard Preston<a class="ref" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16213.The_Hot_Zone" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. David Quammen 2013 book <i>Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic</i> warned about wild animals passing destructive diseases to humans<a class="ref" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17573681-spillover" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Laurie Garrett’s 1995 book <i>The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance</i> warned about taking action to avoid further outbreaks<a class="ref" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46722.The_Coming_Plague" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The goal of the 2008 <i>Pandemic</i> board game is to stop diseases from wiping out regions<a class="ref" href="Pandemic board game" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Quick side note: rumours that Netflix’s 2020 documentary series <i>Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak</i> was funded by Gates are wholly unfounded. That said, Gates did personally recommend the series on his blog<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Summer-Books-2020" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
The alarm bells about global viral infections have been going off for years. Bill Gates’ 2015 Ted Talk was speaking about a general epidemic based on the Ebola problem from one year previous, an outbreak his charity was heavily involved with, committing $50 million to the United Nations to help with supplies<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29145497" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Furthermore, Bill Gates’ TED Talk predicted that the outbreak would start and spread through underdeveloped countries, which was not the case for corona<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71R8cj1_z6M" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. In summary, there is no evidence backing that Bill Gates predicted COVID-19 specifically.<br /><br />
<h3>But What About the COVID-19 Patent Owned by Bill Gates?</h3>
What’s crucial to understand is that coronavirus is a collective term for a group of viruses known to cause disease in birds and mammals. The word “coronavirus” was first published in 1931<a class="ref" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1588476?origin=crossref&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a coronavirus, and COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2. <br /><br />
A patent was filed for coronavirus (not COVID-19) in 2015 by the Pirbright Institute<a class="ref" href="https://patents.justia.com/patent/10130701" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. By reading this document, you will notice the term “avian infectious bronchitis virus” (IBV) crops up a lot. IBV is a weaker coronavirus that affects birds<a class="ref" href="https://patents.justia.com/patent/10130701" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This patent was about using reverse genetics on an embryonated bird egg. But when you find out that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $5.5 million to the institute in 2019<a class="ref" href="https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/news/2019/11/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-funds-development-pirbright%E2%80%99s-livestock-antibody-hub" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, then the flames rise (even though this happened long after the patent was registered).<br /><br />
Most likely due to these rumours, the Pirbright Institute has gone on record stating that they receive funds from many other sources and the Gates Foundation did not back that specific patent<a class="ref" href="https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/news/2020/01/pirbright%E2%80%99s-livestock-coronavirus-research-%E2%80%93-your-questions-answered" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The online document itself even comes with a disclaimer at the top informing the public that this is not a COVID-19 nor even a human-related patent<a class="ref" href="https://patents.justia.com/patent/10130701" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
In conclusion: A scientific research company who owns a patent about a coronavirus that isn’t COVID-19 and primarily infects birds did receive money from Bill Gates’ charity after the fact. Less of a ring to it though, right?
<br /><br />
<h3>Did Bill Gates Run a COVID-19 Simulation Before the Outbreak?</h3>
The more you research this conspiracy, the more the name Alex Jones keeps cropping up over and over again. <br /><br />
Alex Jones is the owner of the notorious conspiracy theorist website InfoWars<a class="ref" href="https://www.infowars.com/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. For an interesting yet certainly one-sided view on the man, check out this video where Hilary Clinton used Jones’ relationship with Trump to assist her 2016 presidential campaign<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/787748100324503552" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Regardless, it seems whichever corona direction you turn, this guy is ready to cash-in on the action, be it from encouraging crowds to chant <i>“arrest Bill Gates”</i> at protests<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/10/ten-arrested-and-police-officer-injured-at-protest-against-victorias-covid-19-lockdown-laws#maincontent" target="_blank">[ref]</a> while selling “coronavirus cures" such as gel and toothpaste (which the FDA have warned him to stop doing<a class="ref" href="https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/free-speech-systems-llc-dba-infowarscom-605802-04092020" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br />
Nevertheless, Jones’ crowning achievement was “exposing” a simulation that the Gates Foundation ran in October 2019 during what was known as Event 201<a class="ref" href="https://www.infowars.com/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-others-predicted-up-to-65-million-deaths-via-coronavirus-in-simulation-ran-3-months-ago/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. In this tabletop exercise, participants worked to stop the spread of a hypothetical virus and ultimately ended with 65 million hypothetical people dead within 18 months. <br /><br />
This has worked as a strong component of the conspiracy theory. Part of the reason why is that Event 201 did happen just as described above<a class="ref" href="https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/about" target="_blank">[ref]</a> as a collaboration between The Gates Foundation and The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. We should note that Johns Hopkins University receives funding from the Gates Foundation<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/1999/05/Johns-Hopkins-University-School-of-Public-Health" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security responded to the allegations by once again highlighting the broadness of the “coronavirus” term whilst noting that there were severe differences between their fictional coronavirus and COVID-19<a class="ref" href="https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/news/center-news/2020-01-24-Statement-of-Clarification-Event201.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Furthermore, the Johns Hopkins Center has been running similar exercises for close to a decade now, for example, their 2001 and 2005 simulations hypothesising around a smallpox terrorism attack on the United States<a class="ref" href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/34/7/972/316999" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/events-archive/2005_atlantic_storm/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.
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<h3>Is Bill Gates a Satanic Paedophile?</h3>
For those who like their plots extra dank, here we are.<br /><br />
The rumours appear to have started with the far-right conspiracy theory group behind QAnon. Initiated by a single 4chan poster in 2017, their premise is that Donald Trump has saved the world from assorted Satanic paedophile leaders. This rabbit hole goes deep in the opposite direction, so I must leave you to look at that one yourself. Wikipedia’s article appears fairly thorough to me<a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" target="_blank">[ref]</a> as does this article in New York Magazine<a class="ref" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-explained.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
According to some of these threads, Bill Gates created the virus as a desperate move to finally stop Trump<a class="ref" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/qanon-supporters-and-anti-vaxxers-are-spreading-a-hoax-that" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. A lot of this cited evidence weighs upon the Pirbright patent we looked at earlier. <br /><br />
As for the “child sex slave ring,” these are not without some merit and are based on several suspicious factors. There were definite connections between Gates and infamous sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein<a class="ref" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Gates once flew on Epstein's plane from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach<a class="ref" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7377133/Bill-Gates-REFUSES-reveal-flew-Lolita-Express-Jeffrey-Epstein-prison-release.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top" target="_blank">[ref]</a> (but never Epstein’s island, contrary to some reports). This has been proven with the release of an official flight manifesto<a class="ref" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1507315-epstein-flight-manifests.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
Furthermore, an engineer working at Gate’s mansion named Rick Allen Jones was arrested for child pornography in 2014<a class="ref" href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/man-arrested-bill-gates-estate-reportedly-trading-/43531857/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, a case which has appeared to vanish<a class="ref" href="http://techrights.org/2020/04/20/rick-allen-jones-finer-details/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> leading theories of Gate’s involvement. I do not write this off but I also struggle to find any reputable information about Rick Allen Jones, not a photo nor any web presence whatsoever. <br /><br />
Another hugely incriminating headline reads <i>“Bill Gates Sued For Forcing Staff To Watch Child Rape And Murder”</i><a class="ref" href="https://newspunch.com/bill-gates-sued-staff-child-rape/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which is crazy misleading. This is about moderators doing their job by flagging inappropriate user-generated content. The filed complaint states that they did not receive adequate psychological support for the task at hand<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/11/microsoft-employees-child-abuse-lawsuit-ptsd" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
The “Satanic” aspect more than likely ties to the Antichrist parallels that we have also already covered above.<br /><br />
<h3>Is Bill Gates Monopolising the Health Industry?</h3>
Of all the weird and wonderful conspiracy points on our windy trail, very few stand the test as well as this suggestion.<br /><br />The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation freely unloads stacks of cash in every medical direction. According to The Guardian, the foundation has granted $3 billion every year to the industry with a total of $32.9 billion by 2015<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/16/what-is-the-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This very article of mine has already mentioned many without even scratching the far-reaching surface. <br /><br />
It’s got to the point that you can click the investor/sponsorship button on just about any renowned health organisation's website, and you will likely read the foundation’s name there. You can find an extensive searchable database of these fundings on their website<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The list of recipients is understandably too long to delve into here but does include many very admirable causes. However, for the sake of this article, we will be focusing on two specific organisations that slot in with the conspiracy narrative: GAVI and WHO.
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<h3>Who Are GAVI?</h3>
GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a worldwide health partnership aiming to get vaccines to poor countries. Bill Gates helped the founding of this alliance and has given crazy money to their cause with around $4.1 billion to date<a class="ref" href="https://www.gavi.org/investing-gavi/funding/donor-profiles/bill-melinda-gates-foundation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The GAVI name appears in the top 12 list of highest Gates donations five times<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database#q/sort=amount" target="_blank">[ref]</a> including the Gates’ biggest donation to date with $1,543,757,800 in 2016<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2016/01/OPP1131658" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Despite saving a projected 13.4 million lives<a class="ref" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X12016283" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, GAVI’s business tactics have come under some serious questioning. They have been accused of not supporting local healthcare systems as well as older vaccines by always pursuing newer, better, and more expensive options, meaning higher profits for investors<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/16/medicalscience.highereducation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. One example of this is when Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières - MSF) appealed to GAVI to use cheaper pneumonia vaccines developed in India rather than Pfizer/GlaxoSmithKline as those pharma-giants were swallowing up 80% of that project's financing<a class="ref" href="https://www.msf.org/gavi-must-work-ensure-more-children-get-new-more-affordable-pneumonia-vaccine" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. As GAVI is privately funded, this also raises concerns over individual motives. <br /><br />
According to an article from the Guardian, GAVI has defended themselves by stating <i>“GAVI wants to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop new vaccines for killer diseases in developing countries. Industry would not invest in those diseases unless there was a potential market”</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/16/medicalscience.highereducation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Regardless, it’s clear to see that in the world of vaccine domination, GAVI and Gates consider it a business.
<br /><br />
<h3>Who Are WHO?</h3>
WHO (the World Health Organization) is a United Nations agency responsible for international health. Trump recently announced the termination of all US funding to WHO<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52857413" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which leaves the Gates Foundation as their biggest contributor<a class="ref" href="http://open.who.int/2018-19/contributors/contributor?%20Melinda%20Gates%20Foundation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. WHO plays a crucial role in coordinating international responses to diseases and COVID-19 is no exception. For example, it was WHO that declared this coronavirus outbreak to be a pandemic<a class="ref" href="https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-pandemic-who.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. WHO has also been working with many social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) to flag or even erase misinformation<a class="ref" href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/facebook-warn-users-coronavirus-hoaxes-70181543" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. While some praise this work, others worry about how much power this gives WHO and, in turn, the Gates Foundation.
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<h3>Does Gates Control the Media?</h3>
Control is a strong word but as a video from the conspiracy theory YouTube channel The Corbett Report<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQSYdAX_9JY" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.helleniscope.com/2020/05/12/who-is-bill-gates-his-plans-to-monopolize-global-health-and-vaccinate-the-world" target="_blank">[ref]</a> accurately points out, he does sponsor a lot of money towards news sources. These include $1,4 million to the BBC<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2016/11/OPP1161829" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, $1.5 million to the ABC<a class="ref" href="https://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/gates-foundation-backs-abc-news-project" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, and $3 million to NPR<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2018/10/OPP1180191" target="_blank">[ref]</a> as well as standing as the primary supporter of The Guardian website<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2010/sep/14/about-this-site" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and Our World in Data<a class="ref" href="https://ourworldindata.org/supporters" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>What Does This All Meaaaaan?</h3>
It completely depends on how you want to look on it.<br /><br />
On the one hand, the Gates Foundation has an absurd amount of wealth and could be gifting a decent portion of it to genuinely support organisations that they feel are doing good work. After all, programs like GAVI are saving lives (as we see above and more on this later). Plus, the Gates Foundation’s searchable grant database is transparent with its reasoning behind each and every donation<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
On the other hand, the funding could apply pressure. We are looking at a situation where the research data, the international coordination, and the media reporting (including user-driven social media content) are all running on Gates’ pocket, meaning that if he does have an agenda, it wouldn’t be too difficult to nudge the entire health industry in his direction. The concern multiples when you remember we are dealing with a man famous for monopolising industries already<a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp." target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Of course, there are other factors. Considering the sheer amount of organisations that the Gates fund, how many people would have to keep quiet if blatant manipulation was going on? How far would the blurry line of objectivity have to get molested before professional integrity kicked in for at least some of those involved? If Bill Gates truly had sinister motives, why is he so eager to put his name on everything? And as these conspiracy theories continue to gain momentum, is the Gates Foundation and its reputation becoming more of a kiss of death? Will there come a time where well-meaning organisations refuse sponsorship due to reputation? And will this rejection of funding costs lives? I dunno.<br /><br />
<h3>How Can Bill Gates Make Medical Statements Without a Medical Degree?</h3>
If there is any scary premise you can freely ignore, this would be it. No, Bill Gates does not have a medical degree. But he has hired many many advisors who do, including an entire medical research institute<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesmri.org/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> to pass on relevant information. Do you have a medical degree?<br /><br />
<h3>The Billion Dollar Question: Will Bill Gates Gain or Lose Money From COVID-19?</h3>
It’s a difficult query with no definitive answer but we can break it down into smaller variables.<br /><br />
Before It’s News (a website which currently boasts a 0/100 trustworthy score according to News Guard<a class="ref" href="https://www.newsguardtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BeforeItsNews.com-label.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>) posted a viral article<a class="ref" href="https://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2020/04/breaking-bill-gates-foundation-and-the-covid-19-vaccine-network-scandal-3183847.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a> featuring a video by Zed Phoenix<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkzDQAeKcIU" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Together, they stated that the Gates Foundation stood to gain £45 billion from the vaccine in the UK alone. This figure was based on the price of £477 per injection which was reported by the Daily Mail and the Daily Mail only<a class="ref" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8123691/With-estimated-477-injection-potentially-billions-coronavirus-jab.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which, as a resource, is notoriously problematic anyway<a class="ref" href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/daily-mail-banned-from-wikipedia_uk_589c3e13e4b07685621810f8" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Regardless, the Daily Mail prematurely crowned the biotech company Moderna as the vaccine kings, which comes with many puzzles in itself. First of all, Moderna's COVID work has not reported any funding from the Gates Foundation<a class="ref" href="https://www.modernatx.com/modernas-work-potential-vaccine-against-covid-19" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The U.S. Government Agency BARDA is looking after them<a class="ref" href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-award-us-government-agency-barda-483-million" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Moderna also told Business Insider that their vaccine would not be priced more than other respiratory vaccines which could be ballpark-estimated to around $200 per shot<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moderna-ceo-stephane-bancel-interview-coronavirus-vaccine-price-2020-3?r=US&IR=T" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Profit does not take into account how much each shot will cost to manufacture as well as the fact that the vaccine does not even fucking exist yet.<br /><br />
Nevertheless, the race for financial gain with a COVID-19 patent is very real in the pharmaceutical industry<a class="ref" href="https://theintercept.com/2020/03/13/big-pharma-drug-pricing-coronavirus-profits/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://greenworld.org.uk/article/patented-covid-19-vaccine-could-price-out-millions" target="_blank">[ref]</a> but there is a fight to prevent this. Trump received a letter from 46 Congressional Democrats urging the refusal of any private ownership of the future vaccine<a class="ref" href="https://meng.house.gov/sites/meng.house.gov/files/coronavirus%20letter.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The EU is proposing a pooling arrangement<a class="ref" href="https://www.statnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/EU-Proposal-for-a-WHA73-Resolution-on-the-COVID-19-Response.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> where information and patents will be shared to ensure lower prices and wide availability. In an open letter curated by UNAID and Oxfam (which was signed by over 140 world leaders and experts) demanded that all treatments be patent-free and available to everyone everywhere<a class="ref" href="https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-05/ENGLISH--Uniting-Behind-a-Peoples-Vaccine-AgainstCOVID-19-1305201720.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
But perhaps most interesting of all, is the World Health Organisation’s stance on the matter. On the 24th of April 2020, they released the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/access-to-covid-19-tools-(act)-accelerator-call-to-action-24april2020.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which is aimed to make COVID-19 treatments available worldwide with a patent pool<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-05-2020-international-community-rallies-to-support-open-research-and-science-to-fight-covid-19" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. And what’s more, the launch itself was co-hosted by Bill and Melinda Gates<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-launch-of-the-access-to-covid-19-tools-accelerator" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. To simplify: Gates is fighting for a globally accessible vaccine, free of privatisation. Some might consider this the death blow to the entire profiteering conspiracy. <br /><br />
Whether this comes to pass or not is another story but, if so, Bill Gates is looking to lose money from the pandemic. A lot of money. Figures include the initial $100 million donated in February 2020<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2020/02/Bill-and-Melinda-Gates-Foundation-Dedicates-Additional-Funding-to-the-Novel-Coronavirus-Response" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, the $150 million to WHO in hopes of balancing the US withdrawal<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gates-foundation-spending-additional-150-million-on-coronavirus-aid-2020-4?r=US&IR=T" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, and further billions reported to fund seven vaccine factories<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-factories-7-different-vaccines-to-fight-coronavirus-2020-4?r=US&IR=T" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Please Note: According to Americans for Tax Fairness, Bill Gates has, in fact, increased his wealth by 8.2% between March and May 2020, but this is unrelated to the outbreak<a class="ref" href="https://americansfortaxfairness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-5-21-Billionaires-Press-Release-at-Two-month-Covid-Pandemic-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>Did Bill Gates Say He Wanted to Reduce the Population?</h3>
This bit of excitement started on January 1st 2016 with an article on Your News Wire (now known as NewsPunch, one of the most debunked websites on the internet<a class="ref" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/these-are-50-of-the-biggest-fake-news-hits-on-facebook-in" target="_blank">[ref]</a>). The article was titled <i>"Bill Gates Admits Vaccines Are Best Way To Depopulate”</i><a class="ref" href="http://archive.is/fqvuk#selection-515.1-515.56" target="_blank">[ref]</a> based on a 2011 interview with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta. Here, Bill Gates stated that vaccines gave the chance to reduce sickness and therefore reduce population growth<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?t&v=_GztDgpDy6k" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. There was also a 2010 Ted Talk where Bill Gates spoke about carbon emission, stating that vaccines could lower our population by 10 - 15% (it's around the 4:30 mark<a class="ref" href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_innovating_to_zero" target="_blank">[ref]</a>). These soundbites were enough to convince people that Gates had a plan to create a vaccine that either killed humans or reduced fertility, most likely aimed at developing countries for some ethnic cleansing reason (which we’ll discuss shortly). <br /><br />
What’s interesting is that NewsPunch has since completely backtracked on the article<a class="ref" href="https://newspunch.com/bill-gates-admits-vaccines-are-best-way-to-depopulate/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
In truth, the concept Gates was referring to was this: the smaller the death rate of children, the smaller the chance parents will over-reproduce in hopes of survival. He's made this abundantly clear on several occasions<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozlbeXrb_5A" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAG5V7x17A" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
A different tangent of interest is the design of an implantable birth-control microchip developed by MIT and funded by the Gates Foundation<a class="ref" href="http://news.mit.edu/2015/implantable-drug-delivery-microchip-device-0629" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://nationalpost.com/news/bill-gates-funds-birth-control-microchip-that-lasts-16-years-inside-the-body-and-can-be-turned-on-or-off-with-remote-control" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. With this, users could turn on and off their fertility at will. This would almost seem like a good idea if we weren’t talking about Gates and microchips again, eek!
<br /><br />
<h3>Is Bill Gates Using Africa As His Vaccination Guinea Pigs?</h3>
The distrust between Africa and Western medicine is complicated but if you’d like to explore the full length of it, Type Investigations has one of the most thorough articles that I’ve found on the matter<a class="ref" href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2020/05/12/the-long-strange-history-of-bill-gates-population-control-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. If you do so, pay attention to the history between the Gates Foundation and Ghana<a class="ref" href="https://psmag.com/magazine/new-war-on-birth-control" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
What matters in context is that tensions were already high. But when it comes to Bill Gates and COVID-19 specifically, the stories appear to take higher flight on March 27 2020 with a Facebook post from acclaimed but controversial French microbiologist Dr Didier Raoult<a class="ref" href="https://perma.cc/A5XV-EA73" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="http://archive.vn/TIm0g" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The post questioned Bill Gates’ supposed decisions to test Africa with vaccinations then warned the continent to refuse any of the treatments. However, the text was plagued with spelling errors and some grew suspicious until Check News, a French-fact checking organisation, got hold of Raoult’s place of work where the story was confirmed as false<a class="ref" href="https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2020/03/30/non-didier-raoult-n-a-pas-appele-les-africains-a-ne-pas-prendre-le-vaccin-de-bill-gates-contre-le-co_1783559" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Unfortunately, the damage was done and the hoax caused all kinds of trouble. South African media outlet News24 published an article perpetuating the claims but have since issued an apology and an investigation into how that got onto their site<a class="ref" href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/apology-to-the-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-for-africa-vaccine-story-20200405" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Video bloggers Diamond and Silk joined the bandwagon<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1250520971385155589" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and were then fired from Fox News (according to The Daily Beast<a class="ref" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-cuts-ties-with-diamond-and-silk?via=twitter_page" target="_blank">[ref]</a>). A White House petition demanded an investigation into Gates’ “crimes against humanity”<a class="ref" href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-call-investigations-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-medical-malpractice-crimes-against-humanity" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. And the South African comedian Trevor Noah received death threats after interviewing Gates<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/Trevornoah/status/1246864878775795713" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Things slipped deeper in early April where a debate featuring French doctors Jean Paul Mira (head of intensive care at Cochin hospital) and Camille Locht (head of research at the Inserm health research group) discussed potential vaccination experimentation in Africa<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52151722" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This essentially had nothing to do with anything but served to intensify the anxiety. <br /><br />
Speaking to The Cable, Mark Suzman (CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) explained that these two doctors had nothing to do with their work and assured everyone that they are against using Africa as a guinea pig nation<a class="ref" href="https://www.thecable.ng/gates-foundation-were-against-using-africans-as-guinea-pigs-for-testing-covid-19-vaccines" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The World Health Organisation called the doctors “racist” and went on record that <i>"Africa can't and won't be a testing ground for any vaccine"</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-52192184" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, tweeted his support for Bill Gates and thanked him for his medical support over the many years<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/CyrilRamaphosa/status/1246452035022700548" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>What About Candace Owens and Sharmeen Ahmed?</h3>
When it comes to this avenue of the conspiracy, no name appears to have spoken louder than that of Candace Owens. A highly controversial political activist, she is known for her stances that are pro-Trump<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/986066422399774720" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, anti-#metoo<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1006278364708077569" target="_blank">[ref]</a>,
and anti-the Black Lives Matter protests<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/987450257159077888" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Due to her opinions on gun control and Islam, she was named the main influence behind the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand by the shooter himself<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/candace-owens-manifesto-new-zealand-mosque-terror-2019-3?r=US&IR=T-bill-gates-contre-le-co_1783559" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
On April 15th 2020, she accused Bill Gates and WHO for testing vaccines in Africa and India for years via Facebook<a class="ref" href="https://www.facebook.com/realCandaceOwens/posts/3655805241157317" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and Twitter<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1250490791258177541" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. To support her claims, she provided a paper by Sharmeen Ahmed published by the Golden Gate University School of Law<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1250474036234203136" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=annlsurvey" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This paper appears to mainly attack three specific vaccination programs (HPV, malaria, and meningitis) run by nonprofit health organisation PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) which took place in India and Africa. This report has come under heavy scrutiny<a class="ref" href="https://quillette.com/2020/04/20/candace-owens-is-dangerously-misinformed-about-vaccines/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/did-bill-gates-test-unapproved-vaccines" target="_blank">[ref]</a> but let’s analyse the content for ourselves. <br /><br />
<h3>Did HPV Vaccinations Kill Children in India?</h3>
This is a biggie often quoted by opposers from all backgrounds.<br /><br />
In 2010, a PATH project was set up to reduce HPV infections for countries such as Peru, Uganda, Vietnam, and India. It was funded by the Gates Foundation<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/immunization/sage/HPV_partner_info_gates.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. India was a major focus here due to the country's yearly 60,000+ women who die from cervical cancer following HPV infection<a class="ref" href="https://hpvcentre.net/statistics/reports/IND_FS.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. PATH vaccinated around 23,500 females<a class="ref" href="https://www.path.org/media-center/update-paths-hpv-vaccine-project-in-india/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> but the project was halted after news reports claimed seven girls had died from the treatment<a class="ref" href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/09/indian-parliament-comes-down-hard-cervical-cancer-trial" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Investigations proved that these deaths were unrelated to the vaccine. Instead, they were caused by factors such as epilepsy, malaria, a snake bite, and two suicides<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6180758/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/09/indian-parliament-comes-down-hard-cervical-cancer-trial" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The reason why this seems logical is because the vaccines used (Gardasil and Cervarix<a class="ref" href="http://164.100.47.5/newcommittee/reports/EnglishCommittees/Committee%20on%20Health%20and%20Family%20Welfare/72.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>) are not new drugs and have been administered worldwide over 200 million times<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/committee/GACVS_HPV_statement_17Dec2015.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The notion that these were untested vaccines has also been debunked as Gardasil was first FDA approved 2006<a class="ref" href="https://www.fda.gov/files/vaccines,%20blood%20&%20biologics/published/Package-Insert---Gardasil.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> while Cervarix was approved in 2009<a class="ref" href="http://wayback.archive-it.org/7993/20170723025640/https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm186959.htm" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
The Indian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Health and Family performed an investigation of their own<a class="ref" href="http://164.100.47.5/newcommittee/reports/EnglishCommittees/Committee%20on%20Health%20and%20Family%20Welfare/72.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and had some interesting speculations (for example, that the vaccinations may have led to suicidal tendencies). In the end, they ultimately ruled that they could not find any connections. However, consent forms were determined to be incorrectly filled out which local newspaper The Hindu called “shockingly unethical”<a class="ref" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/a-shockingly-unethical-trial/article2021657.ece" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Both PATH and the Gates Foundation continue to work in India<a class="ref" href="https://www.path.org/where-we-work/india/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/where-we-work/india-office" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
A large theme throughout Sharmeen Ahmed’s paper is one of depopulation which we discussed earlier. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are no links between HPV vaccinations and infertility<a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/parents/vaccinesafety.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>Did Malaria Vaccinations Kill Children in Africa?</h3>
Another biggie concerns PATH’s 2010 Malaria Vaccine Initiative. Here they used a vaccine by GlaxoSmithKline across seven African countries while receiving a grant from the Gates Foundation<a class="ref" href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1102287" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Ahmed’s paper hinted that of the 15,000+ children inoculated during phase three of the trial, 150 died as a direct result of the vaccine<a class="ref" href="https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=annlsurvey" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This statement loses all credibility when you learn that the number includes <i>all</i> deaths after the vaccine within an 18-to-24-month timeframe for the older category, and a 9-to-17-month timeframe for the younger category<a class="ref" href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1102287" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The list of deaths was always open to the public<a class="ref" href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa1102287/suppl_file/nejmoa1102287_appendix.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and includes causes such as HIV and drowning. 10 deaths were from malaria itself, which was considered low for the area<a class="ref" href="https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/malaria-vaccine-trialled/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. According to The Dispatch Fact Check, none of these deaths were related to the vaccine<a class="ref" href="https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/did-bill-gates-test-unapproved-vaccines" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Similarly, Ahmed claimed that 1,048 of the children suffered “serious adverse effects, including paralysis and seizure”<a class="ref" href="https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=annlsurvey" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. That is incorrect. According to the very same study that Ahmed cites as her reference<a class="ref" href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1102287" target="_blank">[ref]</a> only 11 children experienced adverse <i>events</i> (keyword) directly related to the vaccine and the term “paralysis” is nowhere to be found. You can read the full list of adverse events here<a class="ref" href="https://www.nejm.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/mms/journals/content/nejm/2011/nejm_2011.365.issue-20/nejmoa1102287/20130404/images/img_xlarge/nejmoa1102287_t3.jpeg" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
With a 30–50% efficacy<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5612527/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, these trials were considered a massive success, potentially saving millions of lives, no ethical concerns were raised, and the program continues to move forward to this day<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/malaria/media/malaria-vaccine-implementation-qa/en/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.
<br /><br />
<h3>Did Meningitis Vaccinations Kill Children in Africa?</h3>
Sharmeen Ahmed’s mention of PATH’s Meningitis Vaccine Project is so brief, it’s hardly worth going into. Known as MenAfriVac, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated a ten-year, $70 million grant to establish the project in 2001<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2001/05/Meningitis-in-SubSaharan-Africa" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Costing around US$0.40 a dose<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2007/pr28/en/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and completely eradicating meningitis in 16 countries by 2018<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370001/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> the project could not have been a bigger success. Even Ahmed struggles to negate the achievement, claiming <i>“there were reports of informed consent violations”</i> but <i>“these were unsubstantiated”</i> and <i>“there were reports of adverse health effects in Burkina Faso, but these were deemed by medical researchers as normal and did not warrant safety concerns”</i><a class="ref" href="https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=annlsurvey" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
There were four adverse vaccine-related side effects in Burkina Faso. That's one per three million vaccinated<a class="ref" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22230584/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This was not a trial run either as the vaccine was already approved<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/regulation_legislation/icdra/WD-1_vaccine_BurkinaFaso.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Nobody died. People would have died but now they live.<br /><br />
<h3>Who Is Currently Leading the Vaccine Race? Who Does Bill Gates Sponsor?</h3>
According to the man himself, there are 115 COVID-19 vaccine candidates as of April 2020<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/What-you-need-to-know-about-the-COVID-19-vaccine?WT.mc_id=20200430165003_COVID-19-vaccine_BG-TW&WT.tsrc=BGTW&linkId=87665522" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Due to this, my information is certainly going to go out of date embarrassingly quickly, but at the time of writing (early June 2020), these are the main players who are already reaching the trial phase of the process:<br /><br /><b>
CanSino Biologics</b><br />
Where: China<br />
What: Ad5-nCoV<a class="ref" href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/the-national-research-council-of-canada-and-cansino-biologics-inc-announce-collaboration-to-advance-vaccine-against-covid-19-816213726.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
Human clinical trials have begun, the first vaccine to enter this phase<a class="ref" href="https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04341389" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
The Gates Foundation has invested money towards previous vaccine research (at least $400,000<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2020/04/INV-005838" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br /><b>
University of Oxford</b><br />
Where: UK<br />
What: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19<a class="ref" href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-05-22-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-begin-phase-iiiii-human-trials" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
Already recruited for human clinical trials phase<a class="ref" href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-05-22-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-begin-phase-iiiii-human-trials" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
The Gates Foundation has invested money towards this vaccine research (at least $7.5 million<a class="ref" href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-innovation-2020-3-university-of-oxford-wins-grant-for-drug-trial-to-prevent-covid-19/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br /><b>
Moderna</b><br />
Where: USA<br />
What: mRNA-1273<a class="ref" href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-positive-interim-phase-1-data-its-mrna-vaccine" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
Announcing first participants<a class="ref" href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200529005628/en/Moderna-Announces-Participants-Age-Cohort-Dosed-Phase" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
There has been no findable funding from The Gates Foundation towards this vaccine.<br />
The Trump Administration has invested money towards this vaccine research (at least $483 million<a class="ref" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/01/us/coronavirus-moderna-vaccine-invs/index.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br /><b>
BioNTech/Pfizer</b><br />
Where: Germany/USA<br />
What: BNT162 (a1, b1, b2, c2)<a class="ref" href="https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04368728" target="_blank">[ref]</a> <div>Recruiting for human clinical trials phase<a class="ref" href="https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04368728" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
The Gates Foundation has invested money towards this vaccine research (at least $55 million<a class="ref" href="https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-details/biontech-announces-new-collaboration-develop-hiv-and" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br /><b>
Sinovac Biotech</b><br />
Where: China<br />
What: CoronaVac<a class="ref" href="https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-funding/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
Not yet recruiting for human clinical trials phase<a class="ref" href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04383574" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
There has been no findable funding from The Gates Foundation towards this vaccine.<br />
Advantech Capital and Vivo Capital have invested money towards this vaccine research (at least $15 million<a class="ref" href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200522005096/en/Sinovac-Secures-15-Million-Funding-Accelerate-COVID-19" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br /><b>
Inovio Pharmaceuticals</b><br />
Where: South Korea and USA<br />
What: INO-4800<a class="ref" href="https://www.ivi.int/ivi-inovio-and-knih-to-partner-with-cepi-in-a-phase-i-ii-clinical-trial-of-inovios-covid-19-dna-vaccine-in-south-korea/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
Recruiting for human clinical trials phase<a class="ref" href="https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04336410" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
The Gates Foundation has invested money towards this vaccine research (at least $5 million<a class="ref" href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/inovio-stock-rallies-after-company-gets-gates-foundation-grant-to-test-device-for-coronavirus-vaccine-2020-03-12" target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br /><br />
Other big vaccine players to keep an eye on include Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Shenzhen Geno-Immune Medical Institute, Novavax, the University of Washington, the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, Beijing Institute of Biological Products, and the University of Queensland.<br /><br />
<h3>Will We Be Forced to Take the Vaccine?</h3>
This depends on your country as the world differs on what vaccines should be voluntary, recommended, or mandatory. These decisions often revolve around public schooling and welfare. Furthermore, who knows what types of laws could come as a result of this pandemic. However, we can predict a glimpse of each nation’s potential stance by looking at their current laws. Here are some of those for interest’s sake:<br /><br />
Perhaps the most terrifying law was passed recently (March 2020) in Denmark which allows the government to forcefully COVID-19 vaccinate you once the meds come into existence. This law expires in March 2021<a class="ref" href="https://www.thelocal.dk/20200313/denmark-passes-far-reaching-emergency-coronavirus-law" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Considering the country has no other mandatory vaccinations in circulation<a class="ref" href="https://vaccine-schedule.ecdc.europa.eu/Scheduler/ByCountry?SelectedCountryId=58&IncludeChildAgeGroup=true&IncludeChildAgeGroup=false&IncludeAdultAgeGroup=true&IncludeAdultAgeGroup=false" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, this could be some indication of what’s to come globally.</div><div><br />
Despite recent rumours<a class="ref" href="https://fullfact.org/online/control-of-diseases-act-coronavirus/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, consent must be obtained for all vaccinations in the UK according to section 45E of the <i>Control of Disease Act 1984</i><a class="ref" href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/22" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
USA laws depend from state to state but children are required to get certain shots if they attend public schooling<a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/laws/state-reqs.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. However, 19 states do have medical, religious, and philosophical loopholes<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/school-immunization-exemption-state-laws.aspx" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Australian vaccines are non-compulsory for adults but they will pay you A$129 if you take the plunge<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3216445/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
In the EU; Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia have up to nine compulsory vaccines for children<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3216445/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://ijponline.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13052-018-0504-y" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. 13 EU countries have some form of mandatory vaccinations while 16 have none whatsoever<a class="ref" href="https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/ese.17.22.20183-en" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
Latvia is non-compulsory for adults but one must sign a document to state that they understand the risks<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3216445/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Despite having the strongest anti-vaxxer population in the world<a class="ref" href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/how-much-does-world-trust-medical-experts-and-vaccines?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">[ref]</a> France require 11 vaccinations for public school kids<a class="ref" href="https://solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/prevention-en-sante/preserver-sa-sante/vaccination/vaccins-obligatoires/article/11-vaccins-obligatoires-depuis-2018" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Italy<a class="ref" href="https://www.wvlt.tv/content/news/Italy-approves-mandatory-vaccine-program-437515213.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and Germany<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40056680" target="_blank">[ref]</a> will fine you if you do not vaccinate your children. <br /><br />
Vaccinations are mandatory in Argentina<a class="ref" href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/esto-es-lo-que-necesitas-saber-sobre-la-nueva-ley/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, Brazil<a class="ref" href="https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/saude/noticia/2018-09/brazil-concerned-over-low-vaccination-rates" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and Indonesia<a class="ref" href="https://www.expatindo.org/vaccination-for-children-in-indonesia/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Malaysia vaccinates their children as part of the school program<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/immunization/programmes_systems/policies_strategies/Malaysia-school-immunization.pdf?ua=1" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
That said, the majority of countries in the world are voluntary including all of Africa, most of Asia<a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_policy" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, Canada<a class="ref" href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/measles-outbreak-the-loopholes-in-canada-s-vaccination-laws-1.2943583" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, and Russia<a class="ref" href="https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/russia-government-expanding-vaccination-for-measles-amid-outbreak-in-neighboring-countries/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
Of course, good luck if you want to go on vacation anywhere outside of your own borders. Required travel vaccinations are already an implemented standard in many places<a class="ref" href="https://www.nomadtravel.co.uk/travel-clinic/travel-vaccinations-for" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and COVID-19 will most likely join international programs.<br /><br />
<h3>Why Are Social Media Videos of Bill Gates Being Deleted?</h3>
While many platforms are working with WHO to flag misinformation<a class="ref" href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/facebook-warn-users-coronavirus-hoaxes-70181543" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, I am still able to find many videos which accuse Gates of microchipping or Satanic intentions or potential cashless societies<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-nzmwWDko" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k9LE5az_iY" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igx86PoU7v8" target="_blank">[ref]</a> with millions of collected views to back them up. Yes, this includes ones that feature David Icke<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCSqmZWY_SE" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and ones that use the clickbaity <i>“THEY WILL DELETE THIS”</i> title<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB9Tg8jiMw8" target="_blank">[ref]</a> even though they don't delete this. It appears that most of the erased Gates-related content were the pieces that linked 5G to COVID-19 or disputed the existence of the virus<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52198946" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/04/youtube-5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-ban/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. These videos were deemed against certain policies as a direct retaliation to the burning of 5G towers<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/youtube-to-suppress-content-spreading-coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. YouTube also demonetises anti-vaxxer channels<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47357252" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>Has Bill Gates Actually Done Any Good?</h3>
That’s somewhat of an understatement. <br /><br />
It would be an unreasonable expectation to list everything that Gates and his foundation has achieved through donations to other organisations over the years. However, here are some of the more impressive examples:<br /><br />
Helping to reduce infant mortality by 50% within 25 years (which equates to an estimated 122 million lives)<a class="ref" href="https://data.unicef.org/resources/levels-and-trends-in-child-mortality" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/14/bill-gates-philanthropy-warren-buffett-vaccines-infant-mortality" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Helping to save an estimated 32 million lives through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria<a class="ref" href="https://www.theglobalfund.org/media/8752/corporate_2019resultsreport_report_en.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Raising nearly $1.5 billion with Rotary to fight polio since 2007<a class="ref" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2017/06/12/gates-foundation-and-rotary-pledge-additional-450-million-to-end-polio/#6434c20865ec" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, helping to eradicate the disease from India by 2011<a class="ref" href="https://world.time.com/2013/01/13/how-india-fought-polio-and-won/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and wiping out two of the three wild strains by 2019<a class="ref" href="http://polioeradication.org/news-post/two-out-of-three-wild-poliovirus-strains-eradicated/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. <br /><br />
Helping to reduce meningitis infections to an absolute zero in 16 countries<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370001/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Helping to reduce measle deaths in Africa by 90% since 2000<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2007/pr62/en/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
And funding as well as naming the Omni Processor treatment which converts faecal matter into drinkable water for the developing world<a class="ref" href="https://www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/resources-and-publications/library/details/1640" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_Processor" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
Beyond his global health interest, Gates has also donated $6 billion to 392 universities in 51 countries<a class="ref" href="https://www.universityphilanthropy.com/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-giving" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. His biggest donation was $1,264,876,898 to the United Negro College Fund, Inc in 1999<a class="ref" href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/1999/08/OPP40" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>What Does Bill Gates Say About All of This?</h3>
<em>"I'd say it's ironic that you take someone who's doing their best to get the world ready and putting, in my case, billions of dollars into these tools for infectious diseases, and really trying to solve broadly infectious diseases — including those that cause pandemics. But we're in a crazy situation, so there's going to be crazy rumours."</em> - Bill Gates<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-conspiracy-bill-gates-infowars-2020-4?r=US&IR=T#despite-being-especially-vocal-lately-gates-hasnt-said-much-in-response-to-the-conspiracies-its-ironic-he-told-gctn-in-a-televised-interview-6" target="_blank">[ref]</a>
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<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-5g-evil-weapon-against-our-health.html" target="_blank">Is 5G an Evil Weapon Against Our Health?</a>
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</div>Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-60622114485562699082020-05-25T13:33:00.002+01:002020-05-25T13:33:40.274+01:00Definitely Not a Cry for Help - Chapter Eight: Bangkok<div align="center"><br />
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</div><br /><br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-70917460553049690832020-05-17T16:29:00.018+01:002020-06-04T10:24:47.011+01:00Is 5G an Evil Weapon Against Our Health?<style>
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<div style="text-align: center; width: 100%;">
<i>PART 1 OF THE COVID-19 CONSPIRACY SERIES.<br />
NO OPINIONS, JUST NEUTRAL INFORMATION.</i></div><div style="text-align: center; width: 100%;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center; width: 100%;"><i><a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/06/does-bill-gates-have-evil-vaccination.html" target="_blank">READ PART 2: DOES BILL GATES HAVE EVIL VACCINATION INTENTIONS?</a></i></div><br /><br />
<h3>What is 5G?</h3>
5G is the fifth generation of cellular mobile technology. By building new towers that use higher radio frequencies, they allow for greater bandwidth meaning much faster download speeds. The hope is to eventually hit 10 gigabits per second!<br /><br />
<h3>What is the Theory?</h3>
There are several.<br /><br />The first is related to privacy issues and security risks. The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei are dominating the tower-building market due to their cheaper supply costs. Obviously, the authoritarian Chinese government is a concern here as they may use this technology to gather data from other nations via surveillance backdoors. Huawei has been quick to clarify that they are <i>not</i> state-owned but the extent of this is debatable<a class="ref" href="https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=472093064123004107090019115014018009041017062031079020023099123006116000118123120024030049123054053040034006121068095094094001051016034093003068126072023124081071034026015125079118068004096084003008080091082091107031013089079080102069119091001097070&EXT=pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />Currently, only Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States have fully banned Huawei’s involvement with their 5G installations<a class="ref" href="https://www.statista.com/chart/17528/countries-which-have-banned-huawei-products/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href=" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-48309132" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The much meatier theory (and the one this article shall be focusing on) is the worry that this increase in electronic waves has not been tested thoroughly enough and may lead to adverse environmental and human health results.<br />
<br />Some people believe that this is tied into the corona pandemic as immune systems may be weakened and will therefore be at a higher risk. Others believe this is an intentional move by powers high up on the political chain. There are also those who think corona is a hoax to distract us from the rollout.<br />
<br /><h3>Where Did the Theories Start?</h3>
One could argue that the 5G school of resistance has existed for well over a century.<br />
<br />Electromagnetic radiation waves are used everywhere from microwaves to Xrays to even the sun. The term “radiophobia” was coined in 1903 by Dr Albert Soiland<a class="ref" href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10421078/medicos-meet-radiophobia-1903/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and was ultimately used to describe a fear of radio waves and their physical effects. Sunburn is the most common and serious health-related radiation problem we face today.<br />
<br />Concerns grew substantially with mobile phones. The World Health Organisation launched the International EMF Project in 1996 and they concluded that the 0-300 GHz range of electromagnetic fields was not a health threat<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/peh-emf/research/en/ " target="_blank">[ref]</a>. However, in 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (another WHO agency) stated that wireless radiation could possibly increase cancer risks<a class="ref" href="https://www.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr208_E.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Some two decades later, there are still no confirmed cases of any health issues caused by our phones<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/electromagnetic-fields-and-public-health-mobile-phones" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The fear of electromagnetic radiation has increased in direct correlation to our exposure. The retroactively named 1G was launched in 1979 in Japan at the 150 MHz frequency band. 2G was launched in 1991, most operators using 450 MHz. 3G was introduced in 2001, most commonly at 2,100 MHz and was heavily protested<a class="ref" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/3g-rollout-threatened-by-mast-protests/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. 4G was in 2009 at a maximum of 2,700 MHz.<br />
<br />It’s no surprise that 5G is causing a hot debate. We are now looking at a maximum of 300,000 MHz (300 <b><i>GHz</i></b>)<a class="ref" href="https://www.lifewire.com/5g-vs-4g-4156322" target="_blank">[ref]</a>! Although, to be fair, it'll more likely be used around the 39 GHz park<a class="ref" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobodonnell/2019/11/19/how-fast-will-5g-really-be/#16ba84f85cf3" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, but even that is a monumental increase.<br />
<br />What’s more, these higher frequency waves have a much shorter range, meaning a greater density of towers are required to be built. This comes with additional privacy anxieties as your location based on your connection will be much closer to home<a class="ref" href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90314058/5g-means-youll-have-to-say-goodbye-to-your-location-privacy" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-5g-technology-expands-so-do-concerns-over-privacy-11551236460?mod=rss_Technology" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br /><h3>What are the Health Concerns?</h3>
There are many health claims with varying degrees of scientific basis, but the central worry-glue is that not enough satisfactory studies have taken place to deem the network safe. After all, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection had previously set the limit of safe radiation to be at only 6 GHz! Not 300!<br />
<br />Then again, ICNIRP pointed out that these guidelines were written up around 1998 and, in 2020, they adjusted their findings to cater for the 300 GHz<a class="ref" href="https://www.icnirp.org/en/differences.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />One particularly stubborn theory points towards the ionizing effects of high-frequency waves that come from x-rays. Ionizing radiation is the detaching of electrons from atoms or molecules which can inflict a myriad of horrid damages to your DNA including cancer and death. However, every reputable study agrees that 5G (and all wireless technologies) are not only non-ionizing<a class="ref" href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/radiofrequency-radiation.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet " target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/spectrum.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod3.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a> but are also quite far down the spectrum (see <a href="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/2682/production/_107885890_5ggraphic-nc.png" target="_blank">this graph</a> put together by SCAMP/Imperial College London/EBU).<br />
<br />However, the anti-5G army rightfully points out that non-ionising does not necessarily mean safe.<br />
<br />The International Agency for Research on Cancer did state that wireless radiation is possibly carcinogenic<a class="ref" href="https://www.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr208_E.pdf " target="_blank">[ref]</a>. However, it has been placed in Group 2B<a class="ref" href="https://www.cancercareontario.ca/en/cancer-facts/putting-carcinogens" target="_blank">[ref]</a> which is the same category as pickled vegetables and coffee<a class="ref" href="http://del.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/15/10/54f93d6597594_-_ClassificationsGroupOrder.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Examples like alcohol<a class="ref" href="http://del.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/15/10/54f93d6597594_-_ClassificationsGroupOrder.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and processed meat<a class="ref" href="https://www.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr240_E.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> are in Group 1 due to much stronger evidence. The American Cancer Society has cited various studies to conclude that cancer is not connected to cellular phone use or the towers<a class="ref" href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/cellular-phone-towers.html " target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/cellular-phones.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />Other lesser discussed health matters include decreased fertility in males, disrupted sleep, memory loss, headaches, and changes in vision. We will be looking at some of these as we go on.<br /><br />
<h3>Are There Any Reputable Studies Against 5G?</h3>
Yes.<br />
<br />One of the most referenced studies was put forward by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in 2018. The group blasted rats with radiofrequency radiation every day for nine hours over the course of two years, starting from in utero. The results showed that the radiated rats developed cancer whereas the controlled rats did not<a class="ref" href="https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/about_ntp/trpanel/2018/march/wyde.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. The Ramazzini Institute in Italy performed a similar study and got the exact same results<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29530389" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />Critics of the study have pointed out problems<a class="ref" href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/cell-phones-and-cancer-random-chance-in-clinical-trials/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/cell-phones/scientific-evidence-cell-phone-safety" id="https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/cell-phones/scientific-evidence-cell-phone-safety" target="_blank">[ref]</a> with the findings. For example, only the males were affected, the tumours were minimal and cardiac-related, the radiation levels used were up to 75 times higher than our exposure limits, and that humans aren’t rats. Even more interesting, the radiated rats ended up living longer than the control group. Senior NTP scientist concluded <i>“I wouldn’t change my behaviour based on these studies, and I haven’t”</i><a class="ref" href="#" id="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/03/high-levels-of-cellphone-radiation-linked-to-tumors-in-male-rats-us-study.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />A lesser-known study showed that 3G radiation caused DNA damage to the liver of a chick embryo<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5583901" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />Far more worrisome is the plethora of studies that suggest non-ionising radiation may be causing DNA damage especially in male fertility<a class="ref" href="http://www.asmaa-algarve.org/en/5g/5g-research/5g-and-risks-to-male-fertility" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. These are generally inconclusive while contrary studies also do exist<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5303122/ " target="_blank">[ref]</a> but the concerns from all medical fields are overwhelming. <br /><br />
<h3>What’s the Deal with 5G and COVID-19?</h3>
There are plenty of theories but many revolve around the idea that 5G weakens the immune system and/or robs our blood of oxygen, leaving us more susceptible to the virus. Some believe that 5G directly causes COVID-19 while others have said that the corona outbreak is a cover-up for what’s actually a disease created and/or spread by 5G.<br />
<br />How we got here happened fast. As stated above, 5G opposers were already out in full force, picking the technologies apart for other health-related questions. When 5G’s rollout coincided with the pandemic, the guns were loaded.<br />
<br />Some of the leading individuals in the 5G/COVID-19 circle include John Kuhles (founder of the since-deleted Stop5G Facebook group), Thomas Cowan (a holistic medical practitioner who works with Medical Board of California, currently on unrelated disciplinary probation<a class="ref" href="https://www.davidgumpert.com/hot-alternative-doc-cowan-censured-ca-medical-authorities" target="_blank">[ref]</a>), Kris Van Kerckhoven (a Belgian general practitioner), and David Icke (arguably the most famous conspiracy theorist in the world). Different variations of their ideas were perpetuated by celebrity sharers such as Wiz Khalifa, M.I.A., Woody Harrelson, and John Cusack<a class="ref" href="https://www.codastory.com/waronscience/celebrities-5g-conspiracies/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The theories involving Bill Gates will be addressed in a separate article I will write in the coming weeks (maybe).<br /><br />
<h3>Is There Any Evidence to Support These COVID-19 Claims?</h3>
It’s flimsy but there is some.<br />
<br />A lot of it connects to the above health concerns, using the NTP study<a class="ref" href="https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/about_ntp/trpanel/2018/march/wyde.pdf" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and IARC’s “possibly carcinogenic” Group 2B status<a class="ref" href="https://www.cancercareontario.ca/en/cancer-facts/putting-carcinogens" target="_blank">[ref]</a> as ammo. As we’ve already covered, there are problems in using either of these for they are not conclusive data.<br />
<br />In theory, the heat produced from radiation waves could lower the immune system but the studies have been unable to produce any concrete connection between 5G and immune responses. These are endless and easy to find<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6765906/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/news/5g-and-other-telecommunications-do-not-affect-immune-system " target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4426920/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://academic.oup.com/jrr/article/56/1/30/2580394" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. There are far more severe and factual reasons behind an immune system drop, for example, losing sleep because you’re worried about 5G<a class="ref" href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/expert-answers/lack-of-sleep/faq-20057757 " target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The idea that 5G leads to deoxygenated blood appears to initially stem from the oxygen absorption properties of 60 GHz<a class="ref" href="https://www.rfglobalnet.com/doc/fixed-wireless-communications-at-60ghz-unique-0001" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This sounds scarier than it is, but simply means that oxygen absorbs 60 GHz waves, not the other way around. Oxygen slows the waves down, reducing the signal<a class="ref" href="https://www.everythingrf.com/community/what-is-the-impact-of-the-earths-atmosphere-on-rf-signal-propagation" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. As discussed before, 5G will mostly be operating around 39 GHz anyway<a class="ref" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobodonnell/2019/11/19/how-fast-will-5g-really-be/#1d8b243b5cf3" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. This has still led to other concerns of breathing in frequencies<a class="ref" href="http://emftests.com/countless-studies-show-5g-frequencies-cause-illness/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The theory that 5G damages the blood’s binding of haemoglobin to oxygen often leads backwards to Joe Imbriano (owner of noted conspiracy theorist website The Fullerton Informer<a class="ref" href="https://thefullertoninformer.com/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>) and Mike Adams (owner of noted conspiracy theorist website Natural News<a class="ref" href="https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-04-06-5g-alter-hemoglobin-coronavirus-patients-oxygen-deprivation.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>). Science Feedback wrote a study specifically looking at Mike Adams’ claims and concluded his findings had no scientific support<a class="ref" href="https://sciencefeedback.co/claimreview/conspiracy-theorists-claim-that-5g-increases-vulnerability-to-covid-19-with-baseless-theory-that-it-affects-hemoglobin/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. However, a 2015 study did note that the electromagnetic radiation from display screens could affect the blood platelets’ oxygen metabolism<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4697066/#" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The notion that electromagnetic waves can carry or create a virus has been deemed “biologically impossible”<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/52168096" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-people-who-think-5g-causes-coronavirus/ " target="_blank">[ref]</a> as genetic material and radio frequencies are two completely different things in almost every way. There is not a shred of contradictory evidence available on the topic.<br />
<br />Almost everyone (including most conspiracy theorists) accept the official verdict that COVID-19 is spread from person to person<a class="ref" href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#spreads" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /> <br />
<h3>But didn’t 5G and COVID-19 Originate in Wuhan at the Same Time?</h3>
Interestingly enough, 5G was first rolled out in China, going nationwide around September 2019 <a class="ref" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-telco-5g/chinas-state-telecoms-to-launch-5g-services-on-friday-idUSKBN1XA0JC" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Whether Wuhan was the first is unconfirmed (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou are more widely reported as such) but it looks like this city was still an early receiver around August 2019<a class="ref" href="http://en.hubei.gov.cn/news/newslist/201908/t20190827_1409062.shtml" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.
<br />
<br />Coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7128332/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, four months later.<br />
<br />Opposers argue this is a coincidence. The spread of 5G and COVID-19 do not follow any similar patterns. With over 110,000 cases, Iran was one of the hardest-hit countries in the world<a class="ref" href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/iran/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and yet they were only looking at rolling out 5G in March 2020<a class="ref" href="https://www.developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-regulation/9470-how-5g-ready-is-iran.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Similarly, Japan were reporting COVID cases long before they launched 5G<a class="ref" href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/05/business/tech/softbank-5g-japan-first/#.XsECoBNKimE" target="_blank">[ref]</a> while India’s 5G process was delayed due to the disease<a class="ref" href="https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/5g-rollout-in-india-may-face-potential-delay-due-to-coronavirus-1646430-2020-02-14" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />On the other side, South Korea has been one of the leaders in 5G deployment<a class="ref" href="https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3824986/south-korea-leads-5g-deployment" target="_blank">[ref]</a> while their response and subsequent low Corona infection rate has been praised around the world<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52482553 " target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br /><h3>Why Are They Rolling Out 5G Worldwide While Everyone is Isolated?</h3>
This was always the schedule. 2020 was set to be the “year of 5G<a class="ref" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/10-reasons-why-2020-will-be-the-year-of-5g/articleshow/72988533.cms" target="_blank">[ref]</a>” long before the pandemic was declared. If anything, 5G has been delayed due to the outbreak<a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52108172" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>What Has Been the Public’s Response?</h3>
It varies but the more extreme reactions have been drastic and dangerous.<br />
<br />Telecommunications engineers are key workers who ensure our communication technology is running during this period when we need it the most. Some of these professionals have faced verbal abuse from the misinformed public. According to Philip Jansen, CEO of BT, one Openreach engineer was stabbed and hospitalised<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qo-33xH1QM&feature=youtu.be&t=1410" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />Both Community Fibre and Openreach have issued statements begging people not to abuse their employees because neither company has anything to do with 5G installations<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/03/broadband-engineers-threatened-due-to-5g-coronavirus-conspiracies" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Openreach and EE have claimed a total of 85 incidents of threats and harassment as of April 2020<a class="ref" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory-news-latest-bt-openreach-ee-engineers-attack-abuse-a9468031.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />Even more troublesome are the reports of vandalism and arson. Reportedly, around 20 - 60 masts have been set on fire in the UK alone, with a further 11 in the Netherlands. Due to 5G’s slow rollout, most of the damaged equipment was 3G/4G related<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/06/at-least-20-uk-phone-masts-vandalised-over-false-5g-coronavirus-claims" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="https://www.ft.com/content/1eeedb71-d9dc-4b13-9b45-fcb7898ae9e1" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />One fire in Huddersfield was an attack on a mast used by emergency services<a class="ref" href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/mast-fires-surge-in-the-uk-over-easter-weekend-amid-5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-994035.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>Why Are Social Media Platforms Deleting Content?</h3>
See above.<br />
<br />Both Twitter and Facebook announced that they’d be deleting and banning posts encouraging mast attacks<a class="ref" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/04/23/twitter-bans-tweets-encouraging-attacks-5g-stations/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. YouTube began deleting COVID/5G content in direct response to the arson incidents<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/youtube-to-suppress-content-spreading-coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Facebook, Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube issued a rare joint statement against misinformation, seeming to align their policies closer to that of the World Health Organisation <a class="ref" href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/16/facebook-reddit-google-linkedin-microsoft-twitter-and-youtube-issue-joint-statement-on-misinformation/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />No video garnered greater attention than the London Live interview with David Icke. When asked about the burnings, Icke responded, <i>“If 5G continues and reaches where they want to take it, human life as we know it is over... so people have to make a decision"</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52198946" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Due to pressure from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and anti-antisemite groups, both his YouTube and Facebook accounts were ultimately deleted based on multiple offences<a class="ref" href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-david-icke-facebook-page-removed-over-covid-19-conspiracy-theories-11981821" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. At the time of writing this, Icke’s Twitter page is still active<a class="ref" href="https://twitter.com/davidicke" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />It’s worth noting that not all 5G conspiracy theories have been banned from these platforms and only COVD-19 appears to be under fire<a class="ref" href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=5G+and+health" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The general response to these decisions has been mixed. Many applauded the efforts to reduce “fake news” and protect lives. Conversely, people for and against the conspiracy theories consider it a form of censorship and a chokehold on basic freedom of speech.<br /><br />
<h3>Does 5G Use the Same Frequency as a Military Weapon?</h3>
Yes.<br />
<br />The Active Denial System (ADS) is a weapon developed by the U.S. military. It beams a direct hit of millimetre waves at 95 GHz, resulting in an intolerable burning sensation on the target's skin<a class="ref" href="https://jnlwp.defense.gov/About/Frequently-Asked-Questions/Active-Denial-System-FAQs/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />As stated above, 5G is more than capable of 95 GHz and then some. It also works on millimetre waves, which is another difference between the frequencies used by 5G and 4G/below<a class="ref" href="https://www.livescience.com/65959-5g-network.html " target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br />The proposed reason to not fear this, is that towers emit the waves in all directions rather than concentrating on one spot.<br /><br />
<h3>Is 5G Going to be Used for Mind Control?</h3>
Unlikely.<br />
<br />A lot of the theories related to this seem to be confused crossovers with the ADS weapon from above. However, one study<a class="ref" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17786925?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum" target="_blank">[ref]</a> did prove that alpha brain waves could be spiked with the use of a mobile phone.<br /><br />
<h3>Didn’t 5G Kill a Load of Birds?</h3>
Doubtful.<br />
<br />According to Snopes<a class="ref" href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/5g-cellular-test-birds/ " target="_blank">[ref]</a> the first instance of this story dates back to 2018. Here, anti-5G conspiracy theorist John Kuhles posted on Facebook that 297 birds dropped dead at The Hague park in the Netherlands due to 5G. The post went viral and the hoax has persisted, becoming the go-to narrative for the relatively common occurrence of mass-dying starlings (many dating back long before 5G was a conversation<a class="ref" href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/01/02/arkansas.falling.birds/index.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a><a class="ref" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8560398.stm " target="_blank">[ref]</a>).<br />
<br />Truthfully, there <i>were</i> a bunch of dying birds at The Hague in 2018 but The Antenne Bureau has denied any 5G was being tested at that time<a class="ref" href="https://www.antennebureau.nl/actueel/nieuws/2018/november/14/geen-5g-testen-bij-huygenspark-in-den-haag" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. According to Snopes again, Kuhles has since stated that his <i>“...conclusions are assertions/conjecture with a QUESTION mark!”</i><a class="ref" href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/5g-cellular-test-birds/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>. Similar stories have met similar theories have met similar debunkings, such as incidents in England<a class="ref" href="https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/mystery-after-birds-drop-dead-20594933" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and Wales <a class="ref" href="https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/vodafone-say-5g-conspiracy-theory-17441492" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br />
<br /><h3>What is the Science Community Saying?</h3>
The general consensus is that 5G is safe according to independent studies by various reputable organisations.<br />
<br />These include The International Commission on Non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection<a class="ref" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/12/5g-safe-radiation-watchdog-health" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, The Food and Drug Administration<a class="ref" href="https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/cell-phones/scientific-evidence-cell-phone-safety" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, The World Health Organisation<a class="ref" href="https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/5g-mobile-networks-and-health" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, Public Health England<a class="ref" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/5g-technologies-radio-waves-and-health/5g-technologies-radio-waves-and-health" target="_blank">[ref]</a>, and The American Cancer Society<a class="ref" href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/cellular-phone-towers.html" target="_blank">[ref]</a> to name very few.<br />
<br />Like all good conspiracy theories, the difficulty runs deeper. The above sources are not considered trustworthy by 5G opponents, because these organisations are allegedly influenced by those with money and power.<br />
<br /><h3>Do All Scientists Agree?</h3>
Definitely not.<br /><br />More than 372 scientists and medical doctors have signed an appeal begging the European Union to halt the 5G rollout until further health tests have been pursued.<a class="ref" href="http://www.5gappeal.eu/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
<br />253 scientists who specialise in electromagnetic force have also signed an appeal to the United Nations for a similar hold off on 5G development.<a class="ref" href="https://emfscientist.org/" target="_blank">[ref]</a><br />
<br />However, as it stands, I cannot locate a single reputable scientist or scientific organisation linking COVD-19 to 5G.<br /><br />
<h3>Have Any Cities Banned 5G?</h3>
Yes.<br />
<br />Brussels<a class="ref" href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/103718/5g-brussels-left-behind-in-belgian-rollout/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> in Belgium and several regions in Switzerland<a class="ref" href="https://www.ft.com/content/848c5b44-4d7a-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5" target="_blank">[ref]</a> are currently blocking 5G due to radiation laws. Mill Valley, California voted to cease the development too<a class="ref" href="https://www.marinij.com/2018/09/09/mill-valley-joins-effort-to-constrain-5g-proliferation/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>.<br /><br />
<h3>How Can I Prevent These High-Frequency Exposures?</h3>
You cannot. You’ve already been exposed.<br />
<br />According to various articles (such as those by Digital Trends<a class="ref" href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/is-5g-dangerous/" target="_blank">[ref]</a> and ZDNet<a class="ref" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/5g-radiation-no-worse-than-microwaves-or-baby-monitors-australian-telcos/" target="_blank">[ref]</a>), the same 5G frequencies are used by TV broadcasts, baby monitors, WiFi networks, garage door openers, and microwave ovens. <br />
<br />It’s too late, you've been frying for years. I’m sorry.<br /><br /><br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-top: 5px solid rgb(255, 123, 0); margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 2em; padding: 10px 15px 15px; text-align: center; width: calc(100% - 30px);">
<h3 style="border: 0px;">Read This Next Maybe</h3>
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<a href="https://juicenothing.blogspot.com/2020/06/does-bill-gates-have-evil-vaccination.html" target="_blank">Does Bill Gates Have Evil Vaccination Intentions?</a>
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Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5047474360753591928.post-1583611401633054082020-05-01T16:04:00.003+01:002020-05-01T16:04:57.931+01:00Unpopular Covid TheoryThe governments around the world are consulting with their brightest minds and following their best judgements to make tough but important decisions for the survival of their people and their economy. However, in these unprecedented conditions, it's a struggle and no one is exactly sure what they are doing.<br /><br />
Different countries attempt different methods. Some happen upon more positive results while others make tragic mistakes. However, each nation learns from one another until, after some time, the numbers fall into manageable figures with minimal casualties and financial damage.<br /><br />
A cheap and very safe vaccination is discovered shortly afterwards, administered only to those of high risk and society slowly resumes to a functional pace. Except now everyone lives with a newfound appreciation for their freedom, their health, and the touch of their loved ones.<br /><br />
COVID-19 is documented as a turning point in history, a spiritual awakening of sorts, where the positive environmental changes of isolation are revered and maintained; where essential workers are highly praised and compensated accordingly; where wet markets and the entire meat industry are held accountable for their crimes against nature; and the humans finally have the undeniable evidence that our species is profoundly connected, the sickness of one now treated as the sickness of all.<br /><br />
In this fantasy, I end up living with a beautiful photographer in LA and we have a child who teaches us about life and love in a way we never understood before.<br /><br /><br />Jared Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15835526705518223946noreply@blogger.com0