Chapter 10: GAIA
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. - Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac, Foreword)
Someone might make up a system where concepts are connected like a big crossword puzzle. This person might then argue that this system is logical. How does this person know if the system is true? Logic is not always true because sometimes the real world is different from what you think it is. The Earth must be our teacher. The brown disk of Earth circles all the concepts and this tenth concept is made of all the concepts. I do not have to describe the Earth; you can explore it yourself. But, I will tell you that the sacred name of the world is "GAIA."
The Bible talks about the fall from God's Grace. The Mahabharata talks about degenerative ages. Both books talk about ways of returning to the original better order, they call salvation. You might notice that I do not talk much about returning to God's Grace; I have never been any good at such talk. Salvation is an important part of some people's religious life. Do it if you want to, but remember also to stay part of Nature. The Earth is your mother. Heaven is your father. You are a union of the two.
To the Jews, she is Israel. To the Sioux, she is Buffalo Cow. To the Hopi, she is Corn. To Catholics, she is the church. To me, she is the trees. The Goddess is the safety of your mother who raises and cares for you. She is the ways of your home. She is the ways of your village. She is the ways of your tribe. She is the home. Men might run around outside the camp and kill things, but your home belongs to your mother. She decides what is evil and must remain outside the camp. She decides what is good and can come in. She gathers fruits to feed you and knows the plants around her village as if she herself was the Earth that gave the fruit.
One important Goddess that I should mention is Hera, who is tradition. Each society must discover its own ways of seeing and doing. The symbol for Hera is different from culture to culture. Civilization is full of silly rules and ways. I prefer anarchy. Perhaps there is a way that is closer to Earth, but I have not found it. Most primitive cultures are close to the Earth, but also have purification rituals, idealistic concepts, discipline, and work ethics; these could be the seeds that eventually produce civilization. I have tried to invent a religion that is hedonistic and anarchistic. Perhaps anarchy is the correct way and Hera is just a female Zeus.
The Winds
The four winds are active forces in Nature that give the elements life. Each wind is identified with a season and a direction. West is the direction of spring and birth, but the west wind is the destructor of fall. North is the direction of summer and life, but the north wind is winter and purity. East is the direction of fall and death, but the east wind is the life-giver. South is the direction of winter and lifelessness, but the south wind is summer and a life-preserver. The west wind is black, the counterclockwise thundergod of destruction, Jove, and sunset. The north wind is white, the purifier of winter, the Moon, and night. The east wind is a life-giving spirit of Spring, fire, and sunrise. The south wind is the life preserver of summer, Helios and daytime.
The winds are identifies with the spirit of the elements. The east wind is the spirit of fire. The south wind is the spirit of air. The west wind is the spirit of water. The north wind is the spirit of Earth. The winds represent the Holy Spirit represented by this order of elements Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Ancient Greek medicine had a concept call Humors where the order of elements is a mirror image of the Holy Spirit. They thought that the physical causes of disease happened when Humors were out of balance. Modern science has show that disease is not cause by Humors. It is important to remember that mythological concepts are fictional. They can be used to represent Ideas. The ideas can be true but the Myths are not literally true. To assume that the mythical concepts are literally true is superstation. Some superstitious people reject the theory of evolution because they think God made everything in a single act of creation. Perhaps the people who originally wrote the story of creation intended the story to be a metaphor. Only stupid people think that it’s all fact.
Each season a priest might put a symbol of the season on the direction of that season, then put a symbol of the wind of the season on the direction of that wind. Each season the priest changes and redecorates his temple. A priest may use other symbols, if he wants. Like an artist he can choose how he decorates the temple. The important issue is whether his congregation accepts the decorations or not. The temple belongs to the congregation, so the choice is theirs.
The Tower
Religions have evolved and changed as ages passed. This evolution does not mean they are getting better or worse; they simply changed with traditions. Cults come and go. Religious movements happen all the time. However, one basic system has been used in Europe and the Middle East for centuries. They corresponded the seven basic concepts to the seven planets and seven days of the week. The order of the seven days of the week represents the seven days of creation, from spirit to matter, from the Sun and Moon, which are pure spiritual, to Venus, which is the material world. Sunday is the Sun, a time for prayer. Monday is the Moon. Tuesday is the day of Mars, when God created grass in the field. In the Middle East, Mars is a shepherd. On Wednesday, the day of astrologers, God created the stars in the Heaven. Priests meet on this day. Thursday is the day of Thor, the Thunder God, Jupiter. Friday is Venus' day, a day for fun. Saturday is Saturn's, the seventh day that the Creator rested and made that day sacred to himself. These seven concepts are the steps of the tower of Babel.
The Crosses
Yule, Easter, Litha, and Modron are elemental festivals, celebrating events that really happen, and represented by a red and black cross that holds the elements in place. Justice is everything in its right place. Evil happens when events get out of their right place. The right place exists for every event, even if the event is not in that place. People being detached from Nature is an injustice. When things are in their right place, there is victory. The red and back cross of justice is the material cross.
Candlemass, Mayday, Assumption, and Halloween are conceptual festivals. They celebrate conceptual ideas that people created, and are represented by the conceptual cross, which is also the Greek letter Khi, the spiritual cross. White light religions think the concepts are more holy than anything else and that a holy person is someone who is spiritually minded. I do not agree. I believe there are many kinds of holy objects and a materialist can also be a holy person. I guess it is O.K. for someone to be dedicated to the concepts, so long as he does not let his belief upset Nature. A person dedicated to the concepts is insane.
The red line of the soul can be drawn with a circle on top to represent a head and is called Rhon. The Khi and Rhon are combined in a symbol called the Khirhon. The names Christ, as used by Christians, and Krishna, as used by Hindus, can be represented by the Khirhon. In both of those religions the Big Khirhona is considered the one God who makes all and sees all, and everything is part of his plan. I guess sometimes it is O.K. to devote yourself to some dream of an all-powerful God, but I also think it is just a waste of time. Some people waste their whole lives praising him.
The name Christ is actually an ancient Greek word that can be added to the names of any God; it sort of means anointed or full of a power called charisma, which is semen. Christ is the ancient Greek word for cum, or actually it means covered with cum. It was used in ancient bukkake parties. Semen has a few magical meanings. I call semen the water of life. To be a cum-covered whore is sacred in some old pagan religions, or to be the guy who is cuming is also sacred. Many modern words have roots in prehistoric, sacred words. Often, the meanings of words are now completely different from what they originally were. Very few Christians are referring to semen when they say Christ.
It is interesting how sex and religion are mixed up. Religious people who consider sex evil talk about sex a lot. Today, most nuns are very anti-prostitution. In ancient Babylon, prostitutes were nuns. Most people have forgotten the original sexual meanings of sacred words. Christianity is a nonsexual ceremony, but adopts a lot of symbols from old orgy cults, such as anointing with oil, magic wands, holy water, and nuns. I would rather have an old-fashioned orgy cult than in boring Christianity.
I tend to use whatever meaning I like. Some of my symbolic meanings are traditional symbols that have been used for centuries, some, I just make up. I like to use the Khirhon to represent the divine power in semen. A lot of stories about Jesus being sacrificed to make the crops grow, are really about sex. These stories appear in cultures that still remember the old pagan ways, which the Catholic Church would like them to forget.
The male star is a circle of concepts in the astrological numerical order: Saturn to Moon; they are numbered according to how fast they move trough the Zodiac. The female star is a circle of concepts in the order of the seven days of creation. Connect the concepts of the male star with lines in the creation order. Connect the concepts of the female star with lines in the numerical order.
The Tree of Knowledge
The visions I see on a vision quest are my own way of dreaming about the world. I try not to use these visions to escape the world. The Native American, Crazy Horse, believed the world of his visions was real but he also lived as part of material nature and even fought civilization to remain a part of Nature. Crazy horse's religious experience is quite different from a monk who lives separate from Nature in some monastery with nothing but his insane dreams.
Occultists want to turn their lead into gold. They interpret this transformation as a spiritual process where you improve yourself. There is an astral plane that occultists think you can use to become a more complete person. Occult traditions go back to ancient Alexandria in Egypt, where Jews and Greeks shared ideas. One of their most interesting creations is call the Qabalah.
The Qabalah teaches that God cannot be defined. God is not spirit or matter but rather something beyond both. Trouble with this theory is that Spirit also has no real definition. The Greek word for Spirit means breath of life but most people seldom use the word to refer to actual breath. Instead it refers to some kind of whatever. How can the occultist be so sure God is not it? They say that God is too vast to ever be imagined, but they also think we can understand ten extensions of God called Sephiroths. These Sephiroths form a tree of letters, numbers, and names. The universe is God in extension. Each person is made up of these ten extensions; therefore, we can experience the extensions inside ourselves. Man is a microcosm of the macrocosm.
The higher sphere is unity of all spheres. For the occultist the great spiritual One is somehow more connected to mind than the material world. Even though they think everything is one. They want to be one by being one. The way they say it sounds less circular. The top of the Qabalah is bright and lighted. The bottom is dark, rotting filth. Most Qabalist put their peaceful, lawful ideals in the top half. They put material Nature on the bottom, which they consider violent and chaotic. They see people as having an evil material side, which fights the spiritual side. They tend to think that the lighted half can guide and inspire you. They think your soul is purified and saved by joining the lighted half. They think that biological life is a form of death since for them the One is the only true life.
I avoid using the concept of the One, because people who use it tend to think that the material world is inferior to the One. They get this idea from Plato who thought that the material world is an inferior copy of the One. He thought that a perfectly ordered state or a well-built athletic body is an imitation of the one. Plato saw a divine justice in Heaven. I prefer to see a material justice on Earth. Strange concepts like Plato’s One make it easy to confuse the material connections in Nature with a less-realistic unity.
A new religious movement call the New Age developed in the nineteenth and twentieth century. New Age thinkers combined occult and eastern mysticism. A notable New Age philosopher named Alan Watts would accuse scientist of having the illusion of seeing material events as separate events. He called this illusion Maya, a word he borrowed from the Hindus. I have never met a scientist who has this illusion. All scientists I know see material events as being part of larger events. Watts misunderstand what Maya really is. The world that science explores is real. Maya is not an illusion.
Joseph Campbell thought that psychological harmony is the meaning of the One. Modern psychology seems to indicate that people have many needs. Some people jump to the conclusion that the Qabalah is a map of these needs. The steps along the Qabalah are sometimes associated with stages of psychological development. For example, Venus might be the time when someone leaves the safety of his mother to enter an unknown danger. This interpretation of Venus is based on obscure interpretations of obscure interpretations. Perhaps the original idea was that love could drive you to face any danger.
A common Idea in New Age thinking is a higher self who can control the animal Nature. This higher self is identified with a driving force in all people. Some say that the essence of the force is the love for people, and think you can only spread love if you order your life. Their goal might seem good, but they go to extremes to do something most of us can do naturally. A civilized occultist might see civilization and domestication as necessary to create love. They think that civilized domestication is what makes you human. I prefer to think that love is a natural part of the human animal. I do not believe that any civilized practice can improve love.
Aleister Crowley promoted the theory that rituals can manipulate the unconscious mind. He thought that these unconscious changes could influence a persons life. New age rituals consist mostly of highly energized chanting and climactic freaking out. Some occultists are busy trying to overcome fears, so they can properly deal with psychological shadows. Their coven meeting become group therapy sessions. Most spells have never actually been tested. Some people will believe anything and are easily fooled. It is possible you do not need whatever psychological benefit they are trying to push. I tend to mistrust most forms of psychotherapy. This self-inflicted brainwashing seems unnatural. Most people can work things out without neurotic rituals, which only make them more neurotic. The therapy might actually prevent you from getting something important.
Civilization puts a lot of pressure on people, causing them to do weird things. People waste a lot of time studying the Qabalah, when they could be out studying real Nature. There is something artificial about ceremonial magic that tries to make changes in your psychology. Any ritual can have some kind of psychological effect, but let it happen naturally, do not force it. Ritual should be done just for fun. Put down your Qabalah or whatever you are using and just do whatever feels good. You might get a power that neurotic occultists will never know.
A lot of stuff might look like it is better than Nature, but is it really better than Nature? When my grandparents where young, people used to think that they must tame the wilderness to make the wasteland grow to improve Nature. Since then Aldo Leopold found that interfering with the environment can hurt Nature. He also learned that Nature was not a wasteland, but rather a healthy environment that we need. The best ecology grows naturally on its own. Perhaps someday we will learn about the dangers of interfering with the Nature in people. Studies have been completed on how kids should be trained. Sure, some programs might produce kids who can learn faster, but will that actually be better for the kids? Perhaps kids learn fine by using their own natural curiosity. In the long run, the natural is the best way.
In the Qabalah each person is an extension of the divine. In the twentieth century New Age religions spread the idea that we have no individual self. Such teachings are considered heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church claims that God and people are separate. You can experience God's love or grace, but you always remain yourself. You do not disappear into the divine. I prefer the Catholic doctrine over the New Age thinking, since I would rather remain myself. Also, in the Catholic Church, God is a real being with real powers. An experience of God is a real gift and not just a state of mind.
I adopted a lot of ideas from the occultist when I first started designing my Temple. You might have notices that my planets are numbers the same way modern astrologers number them. Then I added and changed some of the concepts to fit my own point of view. Personally I believe that people who only accept one pattern are religious cowards. They are afraid to look beyond their dogma. I have never been afraid to look into the unknown. I enjoy stories by HP Lovecraft who warns us not to look too far. I interpret Lovecraft’s warnings to be invitations.
In popular New Age dogmas the male is dominant and the female is submissive. To be the male is to rule over a force. To be the female is to let the force rule. As they explore the forces, they try dominant and submissive roles with each force. They consider Dionysus feminine, since he lets such forces as passion have power over him. I do not consider giving in to passions to be submissive. I consider Dionysus to be an assertion of the true self. My Dionysus is not a wimp. They consider Apollo to be the most dominant male, but I have noticed how Apollo is a form of submission; submission to imaginary stuff. I do not consider the male dominant or the female submissive. My Goddesses are not submissive.
Occult hermetic societies match the Sephiroths on the Qabalah with the planets in their astrological order. Thus, Jupiter, numbered four, falls on the fourth Sephiroth, Mercy. This makes no sense to me, since Jupiter should fall on Severity. They put Mars on Severity. I think Mars belongs on Beauty. They put Venus off to the side and say that it is off-balance and decadent. They completely misunderstand the Moon. Their Moon is their door, a contradiction of my Moon. The order I prefer is Saturn as Crown, Zodiac as Wisdom, Lucifer as Intelligence, Sun as Mercy, Jupiter as Severity, Mars as Beauty, Moon as Victory, Mercury as Glory, Venus as Foundation, and Earth as Kingdom. If you draw my Qabalah as a woman, the Trinity of Crown, Wisdom, and Intelligence forms her head, Mercy her right hand. Severity her left, Victory her right foot, Glory her left, Beauty her body, Foundation her vagina, and the Kingdom, Earth is what she is standing on.
Ancient esoteric knowledge unveiled
The Qabalah is sometimes said to be the Tree of Knowledge. In the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life is separate from the tree of knowledge. It is wrong to say that God cannot be understood. Islamic clerics go as far as saying that we cannot draw pictures of God. What are they trying to hide? The world today is dominated by religions that claim to follow the God of Abraham. This includes Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Throughout the ages, from Moses to the Taliban, these religions have tried to tell us what to do with our genitals. The reason these strange religions try to control sex is because they know people will violate sex taboos. They want you to feel guilty for breaking the law. They want you to repent. They want you to hate yourself. This hated would cause you to discipline yourself rather than fight back. They want you to be week, afraid and easy to control. Let us free ourselves from these religions. Let us make Idols and picture God the way we want. Don’t let those genital hating fanatics tell you what to do.
Do you know what Eve discovered when she ate the fruit of the Tree of knowledge? Here is the big secret. She discovered that God was having sex with her. She did not know because her mind would put the truth out of her memory. Rape victims sometimes have trouble remembering. The true self separated from her body. This self is called the Zoe and is the Zodiac Animal. God only got her Body; he did not get here Soul. This story about Eve being raped reveals how people really feel about God. Christians might talk about loving God, but secretly they really hate him. They blame God for their suffering. This secret hate causes them to declare a secret jihad against everything. Since their religion tells them they must love God they try to ignore all these secret feelings and hate themselves for having these feelings. They see how eternal God is and how small they are. They can’t take the confusion anymore and something in them breaks. They start asking God to save them. They start praying like mad men and God becomes their obsession. They give what is left of their soul to God. It is a soul that is missing the most important part of life. It is a soul without an Animal. They think they love God but it is really madness that they feel. This is the truth behind the religion that has inspired suicide bombers, crusades and inquisitions.
A Little Dogmatism
Two Gods want to be your father; if you choose one you deny the other. One is called Lucifer, who is nonexistence. The other is called Yahweh, the creator of the world. Yahweh is Yevo, clockwise, the seasons in order. If you choose to exist, you choose Yahweh, and your name will be Yesvo, the son of Yahweh. Yesvo is the five stages of life known as Jesus. If you choose not to exist, you choose Lucifer, and your name will be Jove. Jove is the destroyer of life, counter-clockwise, the seasons backward, known as Satan. You cannot just say you love one or the other. It is what you do that makes you Satan or Jesus. Some people think they love Yahweh, but actually live as though Lucifer was their father. Some people who claim to worship Lucifer actually live the way Yahweh wants them to. Faith must have a reality or else it is just foolishness. Some people who think they love God with all their heart and have Absolute Faith will never get to Heaven, because they are civilized. Some people never believed in God, but still go to Heaven, because they live as they are meant to. People once lived as part of Nature in a biological paradise with Yahweh as his father; this was the Golden Age of Saturn. People lost Nature when they denied our place in Nature. We fell out of paradise. Zeus, who is civilization, took over, because Satan fooled people out of paradise. We can return to Eden by accepting Nature again and living as part of it, the way humanity is biologically made to live.
Lon Milo DuQuette, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford. Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist. Published by Weiser Books, 2001. http://www.lonmiloduquette.com/
Aleister Crowley, Magick. Liber ABA, Book Four, Parts I-IV, 1911 - 1930. http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/aba/aba1.html
Buddhism http://www.buddhanet.net