Most esoteric systems & philosophy are expressible as a set of mappings. Concretes ("fire") are mapped into abstracts ("doctrine")
Relations between concretes stand in, or speak obliquely about relationships between abstracts
Plato's Cave:
in the Christian Trinity, the concretes are things like Father and Son, which is not literally meant
"Actual illustration is an exercise in futility"
Systems are not always so explicit in this mapping but sometimes they are. "Tree", "Crown", "Pillars", etc.
Mid left text, "Astrological Associations", there are mappings *between* systems too
One of the wildest and most involved of these I've seen is the "Occult Anatomy of Man"
Which is, uh, fairly involved to say the least in its correspondences between concretes (parts of the body) and abstracts (various occult, astrological, and other symbols/associations)
note that often the referent abstracts (things concretes refer to) may themselves be symbols standing for something else. In occult anatomy of man, a thing might stand for "astrological mercury" which is just an invitation to another level of symbolic mapping
some systems build up a library of symbols, and lots and lots of mappings with layers of concretes (spring, summer, stars in the sky) and abstracts (friendship, pleasure)
here, astrology
If you build up an entire system of symbols within some tradition, this enables a new form of abstract communication beyond words, which I sorta think of as "symbolic language"
This game is very very old. As old as humans. Once you know how to look for it, it's everywhere.
Whether you know it or not, you already know how to read some kinds of symbolic language! (That's why it's so popular/powerful: transcending words, still legible)
this type of human communication is lousy for analytical chemistry or mechanical engineering, but it excels in certain other areas that are critical to humanity. That's why it's been around forever and always will be
back to symbolic mapping, because references are unstable, this causes many of the failure modes of esoteric systems and religions you would probably recognize
You see, the symbol/sign just isn't the thing itself, it's just a pale stand-in
Christian trinitarians who refer to the "father" and the "son" do not literally mean father (shared DNA, helped raise a boy) it is an allusion to the type of relationship
but obv if you get too wrapped up in the literal father/son connection, you'll likely go the wrong way
what'll really bake your noodle is the realization that if the mappings are different, or conflict, or are multi-valent, the system can still work. A mapping system needs to be consistent, but not necessarily coherent in order to "work" as we need it to
this will probably anger partisans but this last point here imho takes off the table questions of who is "right" and "wrong" in symbolic interpretation or religious endeavors, and why ecumenicalism is so important to me
these systems are all exploring the same ineffable space using the same flawed human communication scheme
the map is not the territory, so it's to be patient with criticisms like "your topo map is wrong, this street map is right"
We only have but so many ways to get real facts into the brain. Only so many ways to create hard, concrete references that everyone can verify for themselves. And hence a limited vocabulary we can map onto for communication with others
Religion=good/bad is too simple, don't go for it. I would prefer to separate and steelman their esoteric context, while being open at all times to analyzing and critiquing the exoteric methods.
God doesn't need silver candlesticks but the church might
There is a special ladder in Jerusalem that nobody is allowed to move, and its story is related to the origin of the term "status quo"
The ladder and the story 🧵
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is a 4th century church that is the center of multiple denominations of Christianity, and is said to be on the spot where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected
here's a diagram that shows the purported physical relationship between where the church now stands, and where Jesus died and was buried
Demian: The Story of a Boyhood (of Emil Sinclair) written by Hermann Hesse
In this 🧵we're going to trace how it connects to Jungian psychotherapy, and 1st century AD Gnosticism. You're also going to find out about chicken-headed gods, it's gonna get weird
lfg
this book got given to me when I was an exchange student, at a key moment in my life where I was primed to hear what it had to say. Got my mind blown by the 25% of it I understood at the time, still unraveling it all
originally written by Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) famous German author of many a banger (Siddhartha, the Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf)
This is Douglas Hofstadter, professor of Cognitive & Computer Science at Indiana University Bloomington
Best known for his book Goedel, Escher, Bach (1980)
this is nerd 🧵 about his influence on me, and the present
back in high school I was a nerd, but I didn't have access to other nerds. Interest in esoteric topics was strongly socially punished, and it felt (to me) there was no one around me with much interest in learning and/or curiosity. It was pretty isolating
about 17, I met a few people outside of my school who were nerds and seemed to revel in it, like it was no big deal. They seemed like magical creatures to me, because they were similar and yet ... not punished for it? Anyway, we became friends pretty fast
It's gotta be this way for a while. But good news, it's escapable by many routes, some harder, some easier. Here are some ways I've seen people escape:
1. Question assumptions. "I should be unstuck" ORLY? Coming from where you're coming from, maybe you've got some shit to work through, maybe it's OK to be stuck. Just admitting it is major progress. Your next step is "I feel babystep progress" no longer the "I suck" loop
2. Get tired. Some people run the loop till they're too exhausted to continue. Not the optimal path, but tbh some people need to persist in their folly and really take it to the max before they'll be open to considering alternatives
sometimes, you can't move your thinking forward on some topic, because you want it to move too much.
you might be too thirsty. Desperate. It causes you to apply internal force, and that makes it worse
force tightens knots
there are many situations like this; calming a fussy baby, attracting a mate, going on vacation - where you fail from the beginning if you don't have a certain ease about you
if no amount of trying hard gives results, try trying less, or trying in a way that's very different. The harder working a person is, the harder it is to see this, because "try less" doesn't compute, and equates with giving up. It isn't.