Saturday, March 07, 2009

Antichrist Update, Vol. 1 (1.07.10)

About a year ago, I wrote a series of posts about Obama. Now that the Obama presidency is well on its way to being an unmitigated catastrophe for the nation, I thought it might be fun to revisit them and repost some excerpts, just to see if my cʘʘnvision was really 20/∞. In short, we are now living in the future of which these posts were shadows. Or, to be precise, it was more the case of a shadowy future casting its darkness into the past for any gnocturnal b'atman to see.

****

Will brought up a very important point in a comment yesterday. It was in response to my questions, "What great world-historical events are invisible to the jaded elites of the present? What great vertical energies are entering the world today, undetected by a spiritually oblivious moonstream media?" Will's reflections on this are worth reproducing in full:

"There is a danger here, I think, given that this might be the age when 'Spirit pours out on all flesh,' i.e., the vertical energies actually do become, in a way, more visible, more tangible, even to the oblivious MSM.

"The danger is this: the influx of vertical energies for the most part cannot find suitable spiritual anchoring, do not result in a growth of spiritual insight and wisdom, but rather the vertical energies might be suborned by the horizontal in an entirely unwholesome way. [Let us symbolize this (-?!) -- ed.]

"An example: hypothetically speaking, let's say... oh, let's say, some political candidate who's running for... oh, let's say, for president of the United States... Let's say this candidate uses the influx of vertical energy in such a way that it does not invest him with any particular wisdom -- in fact, this candidate mouths and apparently believes in the same old amorphous lefty platitudes. Only... this candidate seems invested with a peculiar type of charisma that has citizens from coast to coast virtually swooning in some orgasmystic ecstasy... no one's higher intellect is sharpened, only their *feelings* are set on fire by this candidate in some peculiar way...

"Well, as was said re: the days when the Spirit pours out on all flesh, one must be very careful not to fall for false messiahs and whatnot... meanwhile, there are those who indeed are spiritually anchoring the vertical energy influx and are doing so invisibly and with a certain amount of travail, as is necessary at this time."

***

First of all, let's get this out of the way at the outset. Are we calling Obama the antichrist?

Yes, of course.

Nah, just kidding. Let's not engage in ad obamanem. Let's just say an embodiment of the antichristic principle. Please, let's be mature, and discuss this in terms of abstract cosmic principles, without getting personal. No need to demonize someone just because he's an instrument of satan. Besides, he's just the vehicle, not the driver. The surfer, not the wave.

Now, what do we mean by "antichrist?" I would say that, as Christ is Word-made-flesh, the realm of the antichristic would analogously represent the "lower principle" made flesh -- the instantiation, as it were, of the energies of the Fall.

So first of all, to go along with our analysis, one must believe that man is in some sense a fallen being with a built-in -- or at least ineveateapple -- dasein flaw. You don't have to be a fanatic about it. You only have to know that "something ain't right" with the earthlings, however you wish to conceptualize it. Being aware of this principle is our greatest inoculation against utopian leftist schemes to perfect mankind, which always result in unanticipated cosmic belowback, to say the least.

Secondly, you would have to believe that it is possible for the energies responsible for the Fall to be personified -- or, let us say, both focused and dispersed like a beam of darkness through the concavity or convexations of man's heart. As Christ is a blinding light, antichrist would be, oh, darkness visible. Thus, to those who live in spiritual darkness, it would appear as a false light -- as, say, a single match is brighter than the sun in an enclosed room, cut off from the real source of light.

The Serpent -- to paraphrase our best Unknown Friend -- sssymbolizes advanced intelligence ("the most cunning of the beasts") turned wholly toward the horizontal. Thus, it is a perversion of man's intellect, as it represents a self-sufficient naturalism and total (small r) realism that betrays the vertical source of human intelligence. As such, we would expect one aspect of the antichrist to be high intelligence combined with extraordinary vapidity, at least for those with spiritual discernment.

But this cannot merely be the philosophical vapidity of the doctrinaire atheist or scientistic materialist, or it could never gain traction in the human heart, which always hungers for Spirit, even (or especially) if it is the false kind. Rather, it would have to come cloaked in some sort of seductive or hypnotic faux verticality. It would indeed have to be charismatic and charming, bearing in mind the root meaning of former, which is "divine gift," and of the latter, which is "incantation" or "magic spell."

A spiritually normal person would be alarmed and even deeply creeped out if he possessed this kind of influence over others. At the very least, it would be an occasion for the deepest humility, combined with concern over the precarious state of the souls under his influence.

Most people, if they knew the implications, would not want this power, because they would know that they are neither worthy of it nor competent to deal with it, any more than they are competent to perform brain surgery. But a person with narcissistic issues will be too intoxicated by the feelings of adulation to care about the souls with whom he is toying. They are just props, part of his psychic furniture.

This power is a heavy responsibility and is not to be taken lightly. The spiritually normal person knows that this charis is only on loan to him (or courses through him locally from a nonlocal source), and that he is not free to use it as he will.

Rather, one is only free to use this power if it is aligned with its vertical source and with vertical principles, i.e., Truth, Love, Beauty, and Unity (not relativism, idiot compassion, aesthetic barbarism, and diversity). There is something coming through the charismatic, not from him, and as soon as one realizes this, it is an occasion, yes, for gratitude, but also fear and trembling. It is analogous to the power to send men to die for their country, only on the vertical plane. It is the ability to inspire selfless martyrs, but for what purpose? Our satanic Islamist enemies are clearly selfless idealists under the influence of charismatic leaders. So what?

Our Unknown Friend asks the questions, "Can one produce artificially intellectual, moral or spiritual inspiration? Can the lungs produce the air which they need for respiration?" No, of course not: "the very process of breathing teaches the laws of obedience, poverty, and chastity, i.e. it is a lesson (by analogy) of grace. Conscious breathing in of the reality of grace is Christian Hatha-yoga. Christian Hatha-yoga is the vertical breathing of prayer and benediction -- or, in other words, one opens oneself to grace and receives it."

Unknown Friend goes on to say that the antichrist represents "the ideal of biological and historical evolution without grace." This is a key idea, for what is a progressive? A progressive is someone who believes fervently in progress while fanatically denying its possibility, since progress can only be measured in light of permanent truths and transcendent ideals.

The antichrist "is the ultimate product of this evolution without grace and is not an entity created by God," since divine creation is always a vertical act or descent. Yes, all things ultimately "come from God," in the same sense that all light comes from the sun, but think of all the infernal uses to which man may put the light, darkling!

Now, in this circular die-electic, Obama is ultimately a creator of those who created him. Unknown friend writes that, just as there are spiritual beings who reveal themselves "from above," there are what he calls egregores, which are "engendered artificially [and collectively] from below."

Thus, "as powerful as they may be," they "have only an ephemeral existence," the duration of which "depends entirely on galvanising nourishment on the part of their creators." [As Obama's projected power begins to fade and the illusion is punctured, we'll see more and more people such as Brooks and Cramer publicly asking, "what was I thinking?" in supporting this intellectual cypher. The answer is, "you weren't. You were fantasizing." Of course, others -- the true believers -- will "dig in."]

As such, the really frightening thing about these kinds of amorphous demagogues is that they are given life and nourished by the rabble they nourish and to whom they give life, in a spiritually barren cycle. The result is either spiritual asphyxiation or starvation, or probably both. And starved and suffocating men are capable of anything. [So in terms of the future psychic weather, look for a kind of blinding "psychic frenzy" from the left.]

Ultimately, the antichrist is the shadow of the totality of mankind, as Jesus was the immanent shadow, so to speak, of the transcendent Divine Principle. The antichrist represents all that man is, and can be in the absence of divine grace. It is he who transported Jesus to the highest earthly mountain "and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory" and said to him All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

The secular extremist or fanatical progressive worships his own creation, and in so doing, gives birth to the antiword. Materially, it results in a lefthound Tower of Babel (i.e, the all-powerful state), whereas spiritually it results in a gelatinous tower of leftist babble (i.e., the vacuous but seductive demagogue who will lead the people in the direction of their most base impulses and envious desires).

Again, please bear in mind that we are simply discussing abstract meta-cosmic principles. The events depicted in this post are fictitious. Any similarity to any biologically living or spiritually dead person is merely coincidental.

47 comments:

julie said...

:D

The nose bone and the flames are nice touches. I also like the gibbering Calloway riff at the end, there.

Anonymous said...

This post kicks off the unmeme of the Anti-Christ.

Rick said...

Excellent post, Bob.
Has it been a year already? You know what they say…such 'fun'.
Anyway, I can’t tell the old parts from the new, which is the point.
Very valuable too. This coonsense is what I’m/we’re talking about. The faster we can spot 'em, the better.

QP said...

Bob, I use to be mostly blind, but now I'm beginning to see - thanks to your generous expositions.

"Barack's name ain't Jesus. Barack ain't gonna improve your child's reading score. There are things we've got to do on our own," Reverend Wright said.

"The fine flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighborhood of the Holy," wrote C.S. Lewis; "nowhere do we [the tempters, the disgraces, the gentledevils] tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar."

(from "Screwtape Proposes a Toast")

Amazing grace is not truly amazing until we know how much we need it and how little we deserve it.

QP said...

wv says "chane".

The ties that bind are freely worn, to paraphrase our Unknown Friend.

Serr8d said...

"You are one day closer to the Apocryphal Obamolies."

Yeah, I went there too..

tw: focking

What's that supposed to mean?

Anonymous said...

Did I just hear Obama state in his Saturday address that because of the stimulus bill in concert with the upcoming health care reform legislation, he'll guarantee that the nation's elderly are shovel-ready?

Anonymous said...

Nothing wrong with Obama, more like something wrong with you....

Gagdad Bob said...

He started it. I haven't touched his 401K.

Rick said...

Bob, please don’t use the f-word.

Gagdad Bob said...

It's Obama's new retirement program: the 401 KO.

robinstarfish said...

wv: comente...

I looked for my 401k online but all I get back is "404 not found".

Rick said...

What’s a ‘retirement’?

Rick said...

Cured!

Rick said...

Hot tip…
(shhhhh)
(I’m investing heavily in Monopoly Money.)
(They don’t make it as fast as this other kind.)

Gagdad Bob said...

Since you have to keep working instead of retiring, Obama calls that a "saved job."

Gagdad Bob said...

Remember what Sasquatch said: "Barack is going to make you work."

julie said...

(Heh - I thought this was going to be off-topic, but looks like it's exactly on target)

Headline seen at Yahoo just now:
Stop the Money vampires

I got all excited until I realized it was about energy conservation. If they really want people to keep more of their own money, they'll quit telling us to do piddling crap like unplugging our electronics (you could save, like, $7 a month! Quit moaning - if everyone does it, think of the energy we'll save. It's for the children!!) and start figuring out how to get our cash back from the Obamessiah.

Gagdad Bob said...

Great news: Teleprompter Jesus is overwhelmed after six weeks on the job.

I wonder if it's dawned on him yet that President Bush is more intelligent than he is...

julie said...

Well, you know what they say - the first step is admitting you have a problem.

How long until they try to reassure the us that the Hollow Man hasn't actually deflated, he just said that to get those whiny Brits off his case?

Anonymous said...

Pssst! Want to see what a trillion dollars looks like, kids?

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Anonymous said...

I made it onto Fox news!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/07/chavez-urges-obama-adopt-socialism/

Rick said...

Man, it’s a good thing Obama got here when he did, though. I mean, just think how overwhelmed Bush would be right now. That was close...

Rick said...

Why not. I already know what a trillion zeros look like.

Anonymous said...

From the Hot Air link:
"They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister."

25 DVDs for an almost-blind Brown were not cheezeballee enough, so Worfette gave the Mrs: 2 models of Marine One made of plastic - sold at the White House Gift Shop - for Brown kidlets. Bet they have Made In China stamped on them too.

Solo faltava eso

OMG, Chytown ghetto trash on parade

Anonymous said...

Man…I hope that ignorigation gits here quick! I don’t think I can hold out much longuh..

Gagdad Bob said...

The guy literally can't function without a teleprompter, and the comedians can't find anything about him to ridicule...

Van Harvey said...

"A progressive is someone who believes fervently in progress while fanatically denying its possibility, since progress can only be measured in light of permanent truths and transcendent ideals."

Had a conversation last night with on of my boy's friends about what qualifies as a 'better musician'. If I mentioned anything along the lines of Lenon/McCartney, Mozart, etc, he'd que up some draino voiced metal band whose guitarist was 'shreding!".

He could't get his mind around the idea of musical quality vs more and more gazillions of notes and harmonics crammed into each measure.

More and more and more ... things... notes, skin, $, speed, thrills... doesn't matter which or what, just MoRE! That's progress! on the flat line.

Mention anything relating to Vertical depths? If it can't be measured in distance (from what?shhh) and quantity on the flatline... it's not anything.

Earn money? Save, invest, manage your wealth? eh?
Tax and redistribute $? Force banks to let you keep a house you stopped paying on? Yeah-Yeah! Now that's change we can believe in!

What? Stock market is plunging straight towards that flatline? Just tell people to buy again, that'll do it.

"All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me."

He sure will... God help you.

wv:cidies
yes he does

Van Harvey said...

(Ah... good to be back)

Gagdad Bob said...

When Elvis visited Nixon in the Oval Office, Nixon was at least kind enough to give him a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge.

Rick said...

Well…the current occupier does make the job look pretty easy.
Uh…for future presidents. However, I’m not certain I could be this bad at it.

Van Harvey said...

The least he could have done is give him a signed autograph from Jack Bauer's recent visit.

julie said...

On a different note, this appears to be precisely the kind of hollow mind that would look to a hollow man for leadership. (Actually, to be fair I've no idea what her politics are, but since she has an op-ed in the NY Times, it's not hard to guess)

"For the truth is, however admirable mindfulness may be, however much peace, grounding, stability and self-acceptance it can bring, as an experience to be shared, it’s stultifyingly boring."

Looks like she dove headfirst into a mud puddle, expecting oceanic depths.

Gagdad Bob said...

That miserable wretch is the same one who wrote about her fantasies of sleeping with Obama.

"Some people are in charge of pens / who shouldn't be in charge of brooms." --Graham Parker

Anonymous said...

But the other-worldly purple of the lips is just sooooo...............

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"Nah, just kidding. Let's not engage in ad obamanem. Let's just say an embodiment of the antichristic principle. Please, let's be mature, and discuss this in terms of abstract cosmic principles, without getting personal. No need to demonize someone just because he's an instrument of satan. Besides, he's just the vehicle, not the driver. The surfer, not the wave."

Obama is putting the cart before the ass, so to speak. Except he is he cart driven by the assbackwad dhimmicrats.

I love this post! It is still very prescient, as is Will's comments.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Ha ha! From the same HA link-

"British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary."

Yeah, waffles don't count as a formal dinner with all the trimmings.
I never thought I would see a worse President than Carter in my lifetime, but Obama is off to a fast start in the worst President ever department.

JWM said...

Damn blogger loat my post

I wonder if Mrs. O put the DVD set, and the toy helicopters on her VISA card. Or maybe she had to write a check at the register.

JWM

Anonymous said...

JWM,
Paid for them? Surely you jest.
Smart money's on DVDs re-gifted from Christmas & some lackey sent running to the WH Gift Shop to grab some 'boy' stuff. M lives there, so all the contents there-in are already hers.

No doubt they're casing the joint to see which items to swipe when it's time for them to leave.

julie said...

But the other-worldly purple of the lips is just sooooo..............

Ew. Just so, so ew. It smacks of smooching raw liver. Or maybe breath of brrraaaiiinnns....

Seriously. Purple?
Liberals, they lust for death.

Susannah said...

That column you linked makes absolutely no sense, Julie. Or is it just me?

I had no idea there was a "mindfulness" fad going on.

I'd say (re: Obama admin.) we are in the hands of incompetents, but I'm in far stronger hands myself. :)

Anonymous said...

a Beautiful tribute
My Father Asks For Nothing

julie said...

Susannah, I actually know a few people like that. They try to use the trappings of spirituality, but they take God out of the equation, so it becomes all about "feeling centered," only the center is themselves.

So in that sense, yeah - it makes no sense.

Anonymous said...

Is there hope? It all looks so dire right now. Is there light at the end of our tunnell?

I'm having a hard time seeing it. I can't see it. I see only wail and woe. Maybe America really is over?

Is it? We need some good news brother.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, there is hope, if the Obama catastrophe is seen as the final repudiation of leftism. But we definitely have to hit a kind of bottom for that to occur, so be prepared.

Van Harvey said...

Michael,
As bad as it is, and is going to be, there is hope. This is the first time in history where those who make up "The Remnant", who had held to the old ideals and felt that they were the last, this is the first time in history that those remnants can look around and connect across the world through mediums such as this.

Remember it wasn't a majority of those in the Founding Father's day that saw the need for declaring Independence or for creating the U.S. Constitution, it was a vocal few who never missed an opportunity to speak out with passion rooted in sound principles, spiritual and philosophical, and slowly (the spirit of 1776 didn't begin in 1776) their numbers swayed the majority.

Don't miss a chance to speak out, it doesn't need to be a speech or a harangue, a simple rebut, an "I don't agree", or if you've got the nack, use humor on the leftists (and mindless's) 'hope and change' spouting's - humor turned upon them is like holy water on a vampire.

You'd be surprised how much of an effect one voice can generate and ripple outwards through simply injecting sense into the conversation.

wv:represt
Never

Van Harvey said...

Ximeze, thanks for the "My Father" link. My best friend's Dad flew B-17's in the European theatre, he's still going strong... but there are so few, and the contrast between their quiet demeanor with that noise which surrounds us, speaks out volumes all it's own.

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