Friday, October 29, 2021

Abracadabra

According to the Hebrew Bible, God made the world with words.... The Aramaic for "I create as I speak" is avara k'davara or, in magician's language, abracadabra. Not only are words the instrument of creation, in Judaism they are the primary reality itself. --Lawrence Kushner 

Ah ha. A cosmos made of language. That would explain a great deal -- in particular, it would shed additional obscurity on yesterday's post on the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of analogy, for an analogy is always between this and that word.

Now, a word is a form, and a form is a kind of word. In this context, it is noteworthy that Before the Beginning, when the Creator begins to begin, it is in the context of a void, which is to say, a complete absence of form. There are no words. Literally! 

It is also dark, which one would expect it to be with no words to light up the place. Think of, say, the world of Helen Keller before she made that infinite leap from the sensation of wetness to the concept of ¡water! That right there is an analogue of the moment man became man and left animality below.

To be perfectly accurate, we never left animality entirely. We are not angels. But that was the moment a link was established between. 

Yes, between, full stop. Between what? It almost doesn't matter, or, on the other hand, perhaps nothing matters more. 

I'm thinking of Voegelin's concept of the metaxy, which is the "in between" state where humans live, where we have always lived, and where we will always live. This space is humanness itself, hence its place of honor atop the comment box:

The quest, thus, has no external "object," but is reality itself becoming luminous for its movement from the ineffable, through the Cosmos, to the ineffable.

Some things will never change. Here is an exact definition of metaxy:

Between. Plato's symbol representing the experience of human existence as "between" lower and upper poles: man and the divine, imperfection and perfection, ignorance and knowledge, and so on. Equivalent to the symbol of "participation in being" (Webb).

"Between lower and upper poles" -- or in other words, within the space of verticality. With this firmly and clearly in mind, now you understand why we would never stoop to argue with someone who cannot or will not acknowledge something as soph-evident as our nonlocal verticality. 

By the way, this isn't just understood conceptually, or at least it shouldn't be. Rather, it is perceived by the intellect. Indeed, it is among the first things seen by the intellect upon opening its third eye on thinksgiving morn. 

With regard to verticality, you could say that man is suspended between animality and divinity; or -- and, rather -- time and eternity, spirit and matter, one and many, appearance and reality, angels above and demons below, etc.

Analogously, think of the space that is opened up with the local appearance of biological life in the cosmos. The other day, my son was inquiring as to why mosquitos exist. I think it's because this is a full-employment biosphere, or in other words, the very existence of a biosphere implies that every nook & cranny must be filled. 

Likewise our vertical world, filled as it is with so many crooks & loonies: it takes all kinds to make a pneumosphere. Alas, they will always be with us.

In the beginning we must begin with something that cannot be doubted, about which error is impossible, which presupposes no prior truth(s), and denial of which leads to absurdity. We're talking about the Truth by which truth is even possible. Thus, we're talking about necessary truth.

Which is kind of a trick, because a good working definition of truth is that which must be: 2 + 2 not only equals 4, but must equal 4. Certitude. 

Certitude! I'll let Schuon, with his limber mind, tie up the many strands unraveled in this post, emphases mine:

[P]hilosophy -- the “love of wisdom” -- is the science of all the fundamental principles; this science operates with intuition, which “perceives,” and not with reason alone, which “concludes.” 

Subjectively speaking, the essence of philosophy is certitude; for the moderns, on the contrary, the essence of philosophy is doubt: philosophy is supposed to reason without any premise, as if this condition were not itself a preconceived idea; this is the classical contradiction of all relativism. Everything is doubted except for doubt.

There is indeed "a source of certitude that transcends the mental mechanism, and this source -- the only one there is -- is the pure Intellect, or Intelligence as such." 

The intellect knows through its very substance all that is capable of being known and, like the blood flowing through even the tiniest arteries of the body, it traverses all the egos of which the universe is woven and opens out “vertically” on the Infinite (ibid.)

If anything is certain, it means that certitude is possible in principle. And what is the principle of certitude? Yes, God, the one thing of which -- of Whom -- we can be certain. For it is written:

If God were not a person, He would have died some time ago (Dávila).

In the spirit of shorter posts, I think I'll stop. Besides, 

God is the guest of silence.

Words and ears. Abracadabra! 

11 comments:

julie said...

The other day, my son was inquiring as to why mosquitos exist.

I often wonder the same thing. More particularly, I wonder why the little monsters seem to like me so much...

That said, there was a cinematically fascinating Ze Frank documentary about mosquitos put out this month. Language is very naughty, though. Like sitting at the back of science class with that one kid who has to make everything hilarious and eventually gets kicked out for being too distracting.

Anonymous said...

This post is among your best and deserves the sobriquet "masterpiece." Any seeker of truth can benefit by reading it.

That being said, I am still obligated to exercise my responsibilities as a critic but I think I will cogitate a while longer before performing the exercise.

Something to look forward to. In the meantime stay loose and limbered up.

Anonymous said...

It's great to be part of God's Self realization, but if He ever does a Self improvement course I'm a goner.

Anonymous said...

This post explores divine exteriorization, the process whereby God manifests in ways that appear to be not-God.

Gagdad notes he is not God, but at the same time is not not God. How does that work?

The mosquito was brought up as an example. The mosquito is not a nice creature. It sucks the blood of others. So is the mosquito a legitimate child of God and/or beloved of God? Well, yes and no. It is complicated.

Gagdad wades in to drain this swamp and I think succeeds as well as anyone who has every attempted it. The answer is: exteriorization. This is what God does when He wants to set contrary qualities into play. God is love, but God also makes it possible for hate to be a thing.

The take home point is a simple monad view of God and cosmos is not going to work to explain what we experience.

I would extend on this. In Heaven, the Elysian fields and towns where souls are born and dwell prior to turns of Earth duty, there is a hallway leading to a debarkation ramp.

This grand hallway is lined with amazing marble which has been flawlessly worked and fitted. The marble is shot through with glittering veins of gold.

Each soul marches to the debarkation chute clutching in their left hand the play-book which describes their pre-selected goals and events for the life to come. They must retain these instructions at all costs.

As the souls tramp along the passage they pass under a wrought-iron sign which reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes you free).

No, actually the sign reads "Sheibe muss Passieren" (Shit must happen).

There is a long waiting list for souls to land a coveted Earth tour and therefore souls are exhorted not to waste the time spent on Earth. Slack must be limited.

The quality of boredom is used as an enforcement ramrod. If a soul is malingering then the boredom automatically kicks in to spur action.

Well that's my two cents today. Love to all from Stephen Greybeard "the oldest geezer in Pomona."

Anonymous said...

I think of the Woody Allen movie bit where the sperms are all lined up in the debarkation chute preparing to be shot into the unknown. All are wearing their little white jump suits and the little white backpacks. They try to remember their training. They try to steel their fears knowing that only one of them might make it. Unless.

Yet one of the sperms is black. And he nervously says: "Why am I here?" He looks around at all the other white guys and repeats more loudly: "I mean, Why Am I Here?"

Indeed. It seems that everybody plays the anomaly, sometimes. I've certainly played one myself. But playing the anomaly is better done while sitting in the back of the classroom instead of up front and center, since being that mysterious smartass from the back is easier than being the obvious dumbass in the front.

I got sidetracked. My apologies. Focus. Predestination and individuality.

It could be that mosquitoes are flies which became intrigued about being anomalous, after realizing they were finding carrion and dung boring. And then they made a deal with Satan. There's a lesson in there somewhere. Maybe that individuality should have it's limits? Or that good roads of individuality are paved with evil intentions? It seems that I've become a bit lost here...

Anonymous said...

Now that we have mentioned mosquitos, lets take a moment to reflect on insects in general.

Insects are impressive. Anyone who has taken the time to watch insects respects their speed, strength, savvy, and adaptability. And if they have stingers, that too.

The insect's chitinous morphology is a honed and reliable platform for almost any biological task you might want to do. Cooperate with plants as a pollinator? Check. Just install bilateral pollen baskets and there you go.

Clean up the jungle floor? Sure, assemble an army of ants and equip them with sharp mandibles.

Social orders? Sure, the honeybee will show you how to perfect that. Honey.

God can be relied on to be very, very down with insects. He LOVES his insect creations, without casting shade on fungi or bacteria. He has love for all.

That being said, God's main show these days is people. People create complex social dramas.

Now, as it was said, a soul falls from the debarkation chute, landing inside a fetus which it has selected. The fetus is now an ensouled human being. The soul occupies a sidereal space behind the physical heart and there it dwells.

Now, the job of the soul, is to drive the infant human through all stages of life until the terminus of death X number of years later, and it must undergo the narrative arc; that is, the soul must encounter conflicts and work through these to the denouement.

Everyone has different conflict areas. For instance, for a person who struggles to be honest with themselves and others, just such a person is capable of achieving the highest levels of sincerity by working through the disastrous consequences of dishonesty one at at time.

Someone who cannot love will be be put through a wringer of strife which culminating in a reversal on this, to someone who loves perfectly and ardently.

When looking inside yourself, where you see a deficit, a darkness, or a flaw, you can be assured these are the very qualities upon which you will tested sorely and, in being so tested, work out a victory.

Any and all such victories belong not only to the individual but to the entire world. Each such victory advances the world on its long, dramatic trek back to its Divine source.

So say I, SG, this day, All Hallows Eve, the final day of the month of October, the year of our Lord 2021.

Anonymous said...

I just saw a video about why there's coal. They said it's because fungi and rot eating microbes hadn't been invented yet. Back between 360,000,000 to 300,000,000 BC all the trees and plants that had died just dropped to the ground and lay there until Father Time converted that mass to coal.

That would mean that for millions of years plants just grew on top of the crumbled remains of their dead ancestors, in some places hundreds of feet thick.

Then along came fungi. Our mushrooms aren't just good for Halloween and pizza. They're the sex organs of large masses of fibrous gelatinous "plants" which are eating the remains of dead lignin organisms. Sadly with their prevalence, there will be no more coal created. This means that coal really is dead.

But that's not the end of the story. The fungus formerly known as Prince, now called Phaeolus schweinitzii, learned how to mutate into something which eats the wood inside of live old trees. The trees then eventually topple when kinked, just like a college dorm student's empty beer can. They're the mosquitos of the lignin world.

I've proposed that there are those amongst us humans who've evolved similarly, to become parasitic bloodsucking fungi which want us to eat their sex organs. Yet nobody cares. They tell me that since they're all going to hell I shouldn't be concerned with them.

Yet I respond: Is this not God's call for the wiser of his free will creations to try and do something about these vermin, for his own enhanced amusement? Do we not do after all, go out and buy high voltage badminton rackets and pay arborists to patrol the backyard tree root zones for dangerous life forms? People have tried converting these human vermin to Christianity. But they just go out and start cults an amuse themselves by manipulating the gullible into giving them money, sex, and power, the big (and for them, only) three things worth living for.

I think they're the root of all evil. Not money. Not leftism. Not BLM. Get rid of them, and conservatives and leftists everywhere will dance together in a new utopia, although they'll argue a bit from time to time.

EbonyRaptor said...

Mocking God doesn't go over well among believers. I'm pretty sure God doesn't like it either. I suggest you try your act among your own kind where you will receive the attention and adoration you desire.

Anonymous said...

Mocking God? Specifically how and where?

Nicolás is pretty good at explaining commenter missteps. Bob, Dupree and Anon#1 aren’t half bad either. No offence, but you seem to downright suck at it. Why not try again with a little more specific explanation this time? A quote from the Bible would be nice.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ebony Raptor:

I can see how you might think anonymous was "mocking" God when anonymous queried regarding verminous creatures "... is this not God's call for the wiser of his free will creations to try and do something about these vermin, for his own enhanced amusement?"

Who is having enhanced amusement, the wiser creature or God himself? If God, is God allowed to have enhanced amusement? If not, why not?

Ms. (Mr?) Raptor's critical comment was thought by anonymous to be poorly executed by dint of not being specific enough, and I can see where anonymous was coming from.

You come across as a bit of a "noob," Raptor. For one thing, you wrote to anonymous "I suggest you try your act among your own kind where you will receive the attention and adoration you desire."

That quip shows you don't know jack sh*t about trolls, ma'am. Ask Dupree about this. Dupree knows trolls because he preys on them. Trolls abhor adoration. Every troll lives to get the opposite, which would be severe approbation.

So, Ebony one, your comment was appreciated because at least you were slinging sh*t our way and that's is what we want.

Anonymous said...

I suggest you try your act among your own kind where you will receive the attention and adoration you desire.

A blog written by anonymii, for anonymii, commented by anonymii, in a land of anonymii, excepting the few named people who are the trolls, perhaps?

Sounds a bit like something that'd be MC'd, by Rod Serling, with a slightly sardonic tone:

Submitted for your approval, a community of anonymous citizens with faces unknown yet opinions well known, being trolled by a few mysterious oddly-named highly judgmental characters compelled to believe the anonymii a single individual. You have entered the Twilight Zone.

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