Key: Knighthood
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
THE BETTER MEN
There is but one conclusion that remains for the dispassionate student of history. Whatever may be the partial explanations of the downfall of the Southern Confederacy, and whatever may be the various excuses that passion and false pride, and flattery of demagogues, may offer, the great and melancholy fact remains that the Confederates, with an abler government and more resolute spirit, might have accomplished their independence.
This reflection irrestibly couples another. Civil Wars, like private quarrels, are likely to repeat themselves, where the unsuccessful party has lost the contest only through accident or inadvertance. The Confederates have gone out of this war, with the proud, secret, deathless, dangerous consciousness that they are THE BETTER MEN, and that there was nothing wanting but a change in a set of circumstances and a firmer resolve to make them the victors. To deal with such a sentiment, to keep it whipped, to restrain it from a new experiment requires the highest efforts of intellect, the most delicate offices of magnanimity and kindness, and is the great task which the war has left to American statesmanship.
Would it be strange, in a broad view of history, that the North, pursuing a policy contrary to what we have indicated, and venturing upon new exasperation and defiance, should realize that the South has abandoned the contest of the last four years, merely to resume it in a wider arena, and on a larger issue, and in a change of circumstances wherein may be asserted the profit of experience, and raised a new standard of Hope!
-Pollard, The Lost Cause, pg 729
This reflection irrestibly couples another. Civil Wars, like private quarrels, are likely to repeat themselves, where the unsuccessful party has lost the contest only through accident or inadvertance. The Confederates have gone out of this war, with the proud, secret, deathless, dangerous consciousness that they are THE BETTER MEN, and that there was nothing wanting but a change in a set of circumstances and a firmer resolve to make them the victors. To deal with such a sentiment, to keep it whipped, to restrain it from a new experiment requires the highest efforts of intellect, the most delicate offices of magnanimity and kindness, and is the great task which the war has left to American statesmanship.
Would it be strange, in a broad view of history, that the North, pursuing a policy contrary to what we have indicated, and venturing upon new exasperation and defiance, should realize that the South has abandoned the contest of the last four years, merely to resume it in a wider arena, and on a larger issue, and in a change of circumstances wherein may be asserted the profit of experience, and raised a new standard of Hope!
-Pollard, The Lost Cause, pg 729
Friday, November 6, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
kwisatz haderach 3
¨You who have defeated us say to yourselves that Babylon is fallen and its works have been overturned. I say to you still that man remains on trial, each man in his own dock. Each man is a little war.¨
The Fremen said of Muad´Dib that he was like Abu Zide whose frigate defied the Guild and rode one day there and back. ´There´ used in this way translates directlyom the Fremen mythology as the land of the ruh-spirit, the alam al-mithal where all limitations are removed.
The parallel between this and the Kwisatz Haderach is readily seen. The Kwisatz Haderach that the Sisterhood sought through its breeding program was interpreted as ¨The shortening of the way¨ or ¨The one who can be two places simultaneously.¨
But both of these interpretations can be shown to stem directly from the Commentaries: ¨When law and religious duty are one, your selfdom encloses the universe.¨
Of himself, Muad´Dib said: I am a net in the sea of time, free to sweep future and past. I am a moving membrane from whom no possibility can escape...
507
The Bene Gesserit program had as its target the breeding of a person they labeled ¨Kwisatz Haderach,¨ a term signifying ¨one who can be many places at once.¨ In simpler terms, what they sought was a human with mental powers permitting him to understand and use higher order dimensions.
They were breeding for a super-Mentat, a human computer with some of the prescient abilities found in Guild navigators.
508
-Dune
The Fremen said of Muad´Dib that he was like Abu Zide whose frigate defied the Guild and rode one day there and back. ´There´ used in this way translates directlyom the Fremen mythology as the land of the ruh-spirit, the alam al-mithal where all limitations are removed.
The parallel between this and the Kwisatz Haderach is readily seen. The Kwisatz Haderach that the Sisterhood sought through its breeding program was interpreted as ¨The shortening of the way¨ or ¨The one who can be two places simultaneously.¨
But both of these interpretations can be shown to stem directly from the Commentaries: ¨When law and religious duty are one, your selfdom encloses the universe.¨
Of himself, Muad´Dib said: I am a net in the sea of time, free to sweep future and past. I am a moving membrane from whom no possibility can escape...
507
The Bene Gesserit program had as its target the breeding of a person they labeled ¨Kwisatz Haderach,¨ a term signifying ¨one who can be many places at once.¨ In simpler terms, what they sought was a human with mental powers permitting him to understand and use higher order dimensions.
They were breeding for a super-Mentat, a human computer with some of the prescient abilities found in Guild navigators.
508
-Dune
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Absolute Person 2
Personality is a level of deified reality and ranges from the mortal and midwayer level of the higher mind activation of worship and wisdom up through the morontial and spiritual to the attainment of finality of personality status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal - and kindred - creature personality, but there are numerous other orders of universe personalities.
Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity coordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities.
On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are associable and even co-creational. Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael - Son of Man and Son of God.
All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially co-creational. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and co-creational capacity. But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy and it is associated only with living energy systems; identity can be associated with non-living energy patterns.
The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality.
The Eternal Son is the ABSOLUTE PERSONALITY, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits, and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is nonpersonal and extraspiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.
The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality. The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the morontial soul.
-Urantia, 8-9
Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity coordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities.
On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are associable and even co-creational. Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael - Son of Man and Son of God.
All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially co-creational. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and co-creational capacity. But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy and it is associated only with living energy systems; identity can be associated with non-living energy patterns.
The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality.
The Eternal Son is the ABSOLUTE PERSONALITY, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits, and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is nonpersonal and extraspiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.
The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality. The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the morontial soul.
-Urantia, 8-9
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
10 gifts from Apollo
Consider these things...
1. First, what is my relation to men; we are made for one another; or, in another view, I was made to be set over them, as a ram over a flock or a bull over a herd. But examine the question from first principles: If all things are not mere atoms, it is nature which orders all things; if this is so, the inferior things exist for the sake of the superior, and these for the sake of one another.
2. Second, consider how men are at table, in bed, and so forth; and particularly, under what compulsions they are with respect to opinions; and as to their acts, consider with what pride they do what they do.
3. Third, that if men do rightly what they do, we ought not to be displeasedñ but if they do not right, it is plain that they do so involuntarily and in ignorance. For as every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power of behaving to each man according to his deserts. Accordinly, men are pained when they are called unjust, ungrateful, and greedy, or charged with behaving wrongfully to their neighbors.
4. Fourth, consider that you also do many things wrong, that you are a man like others; and even if you abstain from certain faults, you still have the disposition to commit them, though either through cowardice, or concern for reputation, or some such mean motive, you refrain from wrongdoing.
5. Fifth, consider that you do not even know whether men are doing wrong or not, for many things are done with a certain reference to circumstances. In short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on another man´s acts.
6. Sixth, consider when you are vexed or grieved that man´s life is only a moment, and after a short time we all lie stretched in death.
7. Seventh, that it is not men´s acts which disturb us, for those acts have their foundation in men´s ruling principles, but it is our own opinions regarding them. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss your judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and your anger is gone. How then shall you take away these opinions? By reflecting that no wrongful act of another brings shame on you; for since that which is shameful is alone bad, you must of necessity do all sorts of evil, become a robber and everything else.
8. Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we are angry and vexed.
9. Ninth, consider that benevolence is invincible if it be genuine, and not merely an affected smile and playing a part. For what will the most violent man do to you, if you continue to be of a benevolent disposition towards him and, as opportunity offers, gently admonish him and calmly correct his errors at the very time he is trying to do you harm, saying, "Not so, my child. We are constituted by nature for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but you are injuring yourself, my child." And show him with gentle tact and by general principles that this is so, and that even bees do not as he does, nor any animals which are formed by nature to be gregarious. And do this neither with any double meaning, nor in the way of reproach, but affectionately and without rancor in your soul; and not as if you were lecturing him, or to show off before others, but quietly in his own ear, even if others are present.
Remember these nine rules, as if you had received them as a gift from the Muses, and begin at last to be a man so long as you live. But you must equally avoid flattering men and being vexed by them, for both are unsocial and lead to harm. And let this truth be present to you in the excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that mildness and gentleness are more manly, just as they are more in conformity with human nature. And he who possesses these qualities possesses strength, nerves, and courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of passion and discontent. for in the same degree in which a man´s mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength; and as the sense of pain is a characteristic of weakness, so also is anger. For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger are both wounded, and both submit.
10. But, if you will, receive also a tenth gift from Apollo, leader of the Muses, and it is this: That to expect bad men not to do wrong is madness, for he who expects this desires an impossibility. But to allow men to behave evilly to each other, and not to expect them to do you any wrong is irrational and tyrannical.
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.18. 119-122
1. First, what is my relation to men; we are made for one another; or, in another view, I was made to be set over them, as a ram over a flock or a bull over a herd. But examine the question from first principles: If all things are not mere atoms, it is nature which orders all things; if this is so, the inferior things exist for the sake of the superior, and these for the sake of one another.
2. Second, consider how men are at table, in bed, and so forth; and particularly, under what compulsions they are with respect to opinions; and as to their acts, consider with what pride they do what they do.
3. Third, that if men do rightly what they do, we ought not to be displeasedñ but if they do not right, it is plain that they do so involuntarily and in ignorance. For as every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth, so also is it unwillingly deprived of the power of behaving to each man according to his deserts. Accordinly, men are pained when they are called unjust, ungrateful, and greedy, or charged with behaving wrongfully to their neighbors.
4. Fourth, consider that you also do many things wrong, that you are a man like others; and even if you abstain from certain faults, you still have the disposition to commit them, though either through cowardice, or concern for reputation, or some such mean motive, you refrain from wrongdoing.
5. Fifth, consider that you do not even know whether men are doing wrong or not, for many things are done with a certain reference to circumstances. In short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on another man´s acts.
6. Sixth, consider when you are vexed or grieved that man´s life is only a moment, and after a short time we all lie stretched in death.
7. Seventh, that it is not men´s acts which disturb us, for those acts have their foundation in men´s ruling principles, but it is our own opinions regarding them. Take away these opinions then, and resolve to dismiss your judgment about an act as if it were something grievous, and your anger is gone. How then shall you take away these opinions? By reflecting that no wrongful act of another brings shame on you; for since that which is shameful is alone bad, you must of necessity do all sorts of evil, become a robber and everything else.
8. Eighth, consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we are angry and vexed.
9. Ninth, consider that benevolence is invincible if it be genuine, and not merely an affected smile and playing a part. For what will the most violent man do to you, if you continue to be of a benevolent disposition towards him and, as opportunity offers, gently admonish him and calmly correct his errors at the very time he is trying to do you harm, saying, "Not so, my child. We are constituted by nature for something else: I shall certainly not be injured, but you are injuring yourself, my child." And show him with gentle tact and by general principles that this is so, and that even bees do not as he does, nor any animals which are formed by nature to be gregarious. And do this neither with any double meaning, nor in the way of reproach, but affectionately and without rancor in your soul; and not as if you were lecturing him, or to show off before others, but quietly in his own ear, even if others are present.
Remember these nine rules, as if you had received them as a gift from the Muses, and begin at last to be a man so long as you live. But you must equally avoid flattering men and being vexed by them, for both are unsocial and lead to harm. And let this truth be present to you in the excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that mildness and gentleness are more manly, just as they are more in conformity with human nature. And he who possesses these qualities possesses strength, nerves, and courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of passion and discontent. for in the same degree in which a man´s mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength; and as the sense of pain is a characteristic of weakness, so also is anger. For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger are both wounded, and both submit.
10. But, if you will, receive also a tenth gift from Apollo, leader of the Muses, and it is this: That to expect bad men not to do wrong is madness, for he who expects this desires an impossibility. But to allow men to behave evilly to each other, and not to expect them to do you any wrong is irrational and tyrannical.
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.18. 119-122
Kwisatz Haderach 2
KWISATZ HADERACH - "Shortening of the Way." This is the label applied by the Bene Gesserit to the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time. (from "Terminology of the Imperium" - Dune)
---
"He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman. "Sly little rascal." She chuckled. "But royalty has need of slyness. And if he's really the Kwisatz Haderach...well..." (3)
---
"...ever sift sand through a screen?" she asked.
The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind into a higher awareness: Sand through a screen. He nodded.
"We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans."
He lifted his right hand, willing the memory of the pain. "And that's all there is to it - pain?"
"I observed you in pain, lad. Pain's merely the axis of the test. Your mother's told you about our ways of observing. I see the signs of her teaching in you. Our test is crisis and observation."
He heard the confirmation in her voice, said: "It's truth!"
She stared at him. He senses truth! Could he be the one? Could he truly be the one? She extinguished the excitement, reminding herself: "Hope clouds observation."
"You know when people believe what they say," she said.
"I know it."
The harmonics of ability confirmed by repeated test were in his voice. She heard them, said: "Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach. Sit down, little brother, here at my feet."
"I prefer to stand." (10)
---
Paul felt himself coming more and more out of the shock of the test. He leveled a measuring stare at her, said: "You say maybe I'm the...Kwisatz Haderach. What's that, a human gom jabbar?"
"Paul," Jessica said. "You mustn't take that tone with - "
"I'll handle this, Jessica," the old woman said. "Now, lad, do you know about the Truthsayer drug?"
"You take it to improve your ability to detect falsehood," he said. "My mother's told me."
"Have you ever seen truthtrance?"
He shook his head. "No."
"The drug's dangerous," she said, "but it gives insight. When a Truthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memory - in her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the past... but only feminine avenues." Her voice took on a note of sadness. "yet, there's a place where no Truthsayer can see. We are repelled by it, terrorized. It is said a man will come one day and find in the the gift of the drug his inward eye. He will look where we cannot - into both feminine and masculine pasts."
"Your Kwisatz Haderach?"
"Yes, the one who can be many places at once: the Kwisatz Haderach. Many men have tried the drug...so many, but none has succeeded."
"They tried and failed, all of them?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died." (13)
---
"So I had a son!" Jessica flared. And she knew she was being goaded into this anger deliberately.
"You were told to bear only daughters to the Atreides."
"It meant so much to him," Jessica pleaded.
"And you in your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach!"
Jessica lifted her chin. "I sensed the possibility." (22)
---
The old woman stared at Paul, then: "Young man, as a Proctor of the Bene Gesserit, I seek the Kwisatz Haderach, the male who truly can become one of us. Your mother sees this possibility in you, but she sees with the eyes of a mother. Possibility I see, too, but no more."
She fell silent and Paul saw that she wanted him to speak. He waited her out.
Presently, she said: "As you will, then. You've depths in you, that I'll grant."
"May I go now?" he asked.
Don't you want to hear what the Reverend Mother can tell you about the Kwisatz Haderach?" Jessica asked.
"She said those who tried for it died."
"But I can help you with a few hints at why they failed," the Reverend Mother said.
She talks of hints, Paul thought. She doesn't really know any thing. And he said: "Hint then."
"And be damned to me?" she smiled wryly, a crisscross of wrinkles in the old face. "Very well: 'That which submits rules.' (27)
---
"Grave this on your memory, lad: A world is supported by four things..." She held up four big knuckled fingers. "...the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing..." She closed her fingers into a fist. "...without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. make that the science of your tradition!" (30).
---
"She asked me to tell her what it is to rule," Paul said. "And I said that one commands. And she said I had some unlearning to do...She said a ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel..."(31)
-Frank Herbert, Dune
---
"He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman. "Sly little rascal." She chuckled. "But royalty has need of slyness. And if he's really the Kwisatz Haderach...well..." (3)
---
"...ever sift sand through a screen?" she asked.
The tangential slash of her question shocked his mind into a higher awareness: Sand through a screen. He nodded.
"We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans."
He lifted his right hand, willing the memory of the pain. "And that's all there is to it - pain?"
"I observed you in pain, lad. Pain's merely the axis of the test. Your mother's told you about our ways of observing. I see the signs of her teaching in you. Our test is crisis and observation."
He heard the confirmation in her voice, said: "It's truth!"
She stared at him. He senses truth! Could he be the one? Could he truly be the one? She extinguished the excitement, reminding herself: "Hope clouds observation."
"You know when people believe what they say," she said.
"I know it."
The harmonics of ability confirmed by repeated test were in his voice. She heard them, said: "Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach. Sit down, little brother, here at my feet."
"I prefer to stand." (10)
---
Paul felt himself coming more and more out of the shock of the test. He leveled a measuring stare at her, said: "You say maybe I'm the...Kwisatz Haderach. What's that, a human gom jabbar?"
"Paul," Jessica said. "You mustn't take that tone with - "
"I'll handle this, Jessica," the old woman said. "Now, lad, do you know about the Truthsayer drug?"
"You take it to improve your ability to detect falsehood," he said. "My mother's told me."
"Have you ever seen truthtrance?"
He shook his head. "No."
"The drug's dangerous," she said, "but it gives insight. When a Truthsayer's gifted by the drug, she can look many places in her memory - in her body's memory. We look down so many avenues of the past... but only feminine avenues." Her voice took on a note of sadness. "yet, there's a place where no Truthsayer can see. We are repelled by it, terrorized. It is said a man will come one day and find in the the gift of the drug his inward eye. He will look where we cannot - into both feminine and masculine pasts."
"Your Kwisatz Haderach?"
"Yes, the one who can be many places at once: the Kwisatz Haderach. Many men have tried the drug...so many, but none has succeeded."
"They tried and failed, all of them?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "They tried and died." (13)
---
"So I had a son!" Jessica flared. And she knew she was being goaded into this anger deliberately.
"You were told to bear only daughters to the Atreides."
"It meant so much to him," Jessica pleaded.
"And you in your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach!"
Jessica lifted her chin. "I sensed the possibility." (22)
---
The old woman stared at Paul, then: "Young man, as a Proctor of the Bene Gesserit, I seek the Kwisatz Haderach, the male who truly can become one of us. Your mother sees this possibility in you, but she sees with the eyes of a mother. Possibility I see, too, but no more."
She fell silent and Paul saw that she wanted him to speak. He waited her out.
Presently, she said: "As you will, then. You've depths in you, that I'll grant."
"May I go now?" he asked.
Don't you want to hear what the Reverend Mother can tell you about the Kwisatz Haderach?" Jessica asked.
"She said those who tried for it died."
"But I can help you with a few hints at why they failed," the Reverend Mother said.
She talks of hints, Paul thought. She doesn't really know any thing. And he said: "Hint then."
"And be damned to me?" she smiled wryly, a crisscross of wrinkles in the old face. "Very well: 'That which submits rules.' (27)
---
"Grave this on your memory, lad: A world is supported by four things..." She held up four big knuckled fingers. "...the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing..." She closed her fingers into a fist. "...without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. make that the science of your tradition!" (30).
---
"She asked me to tell her what it is to rule," Paul said. "And I said that one commands. And she said I had some unlearning to do...She said a ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel..."(31)
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Channel 22 - Conclusion of USA network
OLD SOUTH SAVANNAH PARLOR - FUTURE
The Yankee businessmen are still arguing over the situation trying to determine a course of action.
TRUSTEE 2
What was his real name?
CEO
Michael Bayzer.
TRUSTEE 2
So, where did the name TRISTAN come from?
CEO
He had been calling himself that since he was in college.
It was an alter ego.
TRUSTEE 4
His vision of a superhero.
CEO
There is an account that he had been treated for
a concussion back in 1996 for jumping headlong
into a television set.
TRUSTEE 1
What?
TRUSTEE 2
Well, that would explain it.
CEO
His explanation, though, was that it was a metaphor of transcendence.
That diving through the television screen was symbolic of the discovery of a higher self.
An evolutionary Individuality that had miraculously reincarnated.
TRUSTEE 2
He believed he was the reincarnation of something?
CEO
Of somebody.
TRUSTEE 3
Who? Specifically.
CEO
The ancient knight known as TRISTAN.
TRUSTEE 1
What?
CEO
The Child of Sorrow.
He believed there was a thread that connected the chivalric code of the Middle Ages to the Southern Cause in 1861.
That somehow they were fighting for the same thing but that modern prejudice against the South was clouding the true perception of her vital role in defending the ideal of Western
Civilization.
In the end he became confused by the virtuality of the park into actually trying to fight the Civil War again using modern information technology.
He built a Cult of Personality around himself.
It is known that the employees on Island of the Old South had begun calling themselves the Rapscallions.
TRUSTEE 3
RAPSCALLIONS NEVER SAY DIE!
TRUSTEE 1
What?
CEO
I would venture to speculate that he was exploiting an ignorant population for some crazy plan of world revolution that would be effected through a seizure of the airwaves.
TRUSTEE 4
So he would send people down this roller coaster.
CEO
And they would never come back.
TRUSTEE 2
The police received word that the first wave of visitors to Island of the Old South were not returning from their vacations to Savannah.
They initiated investigations and that’s when
The disaster occurred.
TRUSTEE 3
THE DERAILED RIDE.
TRUSTEE 4
Where did they go?
The people that rode into LEVIATHAN.
CEO
Into the airwaves?
TRUSTEE 1
Impossible.
TRUSTEE 3
And the explosion?
CEO
The last ride.
He was closing the portal behind them.
TRUSTEE 3
But I am talking about the nature of the explosion.
Plastique? Dynamite? Nuclear?
CEO
Actually, it was a sonic boom.
But it appears to have involved some sort of interdimensional rupture opened by a hitherto forgotten audio frequency.
When turned down and analyzed it becomes apparent...
TRUSTEE 4
What was the furious sound?
CEO
A human voice, a logoidal amplification!
TRUSTEE 3
You’re kidding.
CEO
No.
---------
They take a momentary pause.
---------
TRUSTEE 2
THE REBEL YELL
CEO
He must be stopped.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
recognition
The recognition of complicity is the beginning of innocence.
The recognition of necessity is the beginning of freedom.
The recognition of the direction of fulfillment is the death of the self.
And the death of the self, is the beginning of selfhood.
All else is surrogate of hope and destitution of spirit.
-Robert Penn Warren
The recognition of necessity is the beginning of freedom.
The recognition of the direction of fulfillment is the death of the self.
And the death of the self, is the beginning of selfhood.
All else is surrogate of hope and destitution of spirit.
-Robert Penn Warren
discovery of the unconscious
Everything that was naively presumed to be a knowledge of transcendental and divine things, which human beings can never know with certainty, and everything that seemed to be irretrievably lost with the decline of the Middle Ages, rose up again with the discovery of the psyche. This premonition of future discoveries in the psychic sphere expressed itself in the phantasmagoric speculations of philosophers [alchemists], who, until then, had appeared to be the arch-peddlers of sterile verbiage.
-Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis
-Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis
The Man
It is natural that everyone should be curious to ascertain his Mission upon earth. Of course I have thought much about it. As yet I have no inkling of mine, unless it is to drain morasses and convert them - without profit to myself - into the most fertile land. But I think I see what I was not made to do and why perhaps Providence has interposed to change my apparent destiny. I believe that with the help of heaven, if my career had not been so often cut short, I could and would have dissolved this Union. In my day, it has only required The Man to do it. And I have seen so clearly how to do it, that I believe I could have done it, if it had been God's Will. But it was not his Will to destroy it now, at all events, and he has chained me down.
-James Henry Hammond, December 6, 1851
-James Henry Hammond, December 6, 1851
Aurelia Occulta
I am the poison-dripping dragon who is everywhere and can be cheaply had
That upon which I rest, and that which rests upon me will be found within me by those who pursue their investigations in accordance with the rules of the Art.
My water and fire destroy and put together; from my body you may extract the green lion and the red.
But if you do not have exact knowledge of me, you will destroy your five senses with my fire.
From my snout there comes a spreading poison that has brought death to many.
Therefore you should skillfully seperate the coarse from the fine, if you do not wish to suffer utter poverty.
I bestow on you the powers of the male and the female, and also those of heaven and earth.
The mysteries of my art must be handled with courage and greatness of mind if you would conquer me by the power of fire, for already many have come to grief, their riches and labour lost.
I am the egg of nature, known only to the wise, who in piety and modesty bring forth from me the microcosm, which was prepared for mankind by Almighty God, but given only to the few, while the many long for it in vain, that they may do good to the poor with my treasure and not fasten their souls to the perishable gold.
By the philosophers I am named Mercurius, my spouse is the philosophic gold,
I am the old dragon, found everywhere on the globe of the earth,
father and mother,
young and old,
very strong and very weak,
death and resurrection,
visible and invisible,
hard and soft,
I descend into the earth and ascend to the heavens,
I am the highest and the lowest,
the lightest and the heaviest,
often the order of nature is reversed in me, as regards colour, number, weight, and measure,
I contain the light of nature;
I am dark and light;
I come forth from heaven and earth;
I am known and yet do not exist at all.
By virtue of the sun's rays all colours shine in me, and all metals.
I am the carbuncle of the sun, the most noble purified earth, through which you may change copper, iron, tin, and lead into gold.
That upon which I rest, and that which rests upon me will be found within me by those who pursue their investigations in accordance with the rules of the Art.
My water and fire destroy and put together; from my body you may extract the green lion and the red.
But if you do not have exact knowledge of me, you will destroy your five senses with my fire.
From my snout there comes a spreading poison that has brought death to many.
Therefore you should skillfully seperate the coarse from the fine, if you do not wish to suffer utter poverty.
I bestow on you the powers of the male and the female, and also those of heaven and earth.
The mysteries of my art must be handled with courage and greatness of mind if you would conquer me by the power of fire, for already many have come to grief, their riches and labour lost.
I am the egg of nature, known only to the wise, who in piety and modesty bring forth from me the microcosm, which was prepared for mankind by Almighty God, but given only to the few, while the many long for it in vain, that they may do good to the poor with my treasure and not fasten their souls to the perishable gold.
By the philosophers I am named Mercurius, my spouse is the philosophic gold,
I am the old dragon, found everywhere on the globe of the earth,
father and mother,
young and old,
very strong and very weak,
death and resurrection,
visible and invisible,
hard and soft,
I descend into the earth and ascend to the heavens,
I am the highest and the lowest,
the lightest and the heaviest,
often the order of nature is reversed in me, as regards colour, number, weight, and measure,
I contain the light of nature;
I am dark and light;
I come forth from heaven and earth;
I am known and yet do not exist at all.
By virtue of the sun's rays all colours shine in me, and all metals.
I am the carbuncle of the sun, the most noble purified earth, through which you may change copper, iron, tin, and lead into gold.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Age of Aquarius
Faith, quite as much as science with its traditional objectivity, is absolute, which is why faith and knowledge can no more agree than Christians can with another.
Christian doctrine is a highly differentiated symbol that expresses the transcendent psychic - the God image and its properties. This comprises practically everything of importance that can be ascertained about the manifestations of the psyche in the field of inner experience, but it does not include Nature, at least not in any recognizable form. Consequently, at every period of Christianity there have been subsidiary currents or undercurrents that have sought to investigate the empirical aspect of Nature not only from the outside but also from the inside.
...Though we can learn a lot from Indian thought, it can never express the past that is stored up within us. The premise we start with is and remains Christianity, which covers anything from eleven to nineteen centuries of Western life...
The bridge from dogma to the inner experience of the individual is broken down...
when a living organism is cut off from its roots, it loses the connections with the foundations of its existence and must necessarily perish...
The problems which the integration of the unconscious sets for modern doctors and psychologists can only be solved along the lines traced out by history, and the upshot will be a new assimiliation of the traditional myth. This, however, presupposes the continuity of historical development. Naturally the present tendency to destroy all tradition or render it unconscious could interrupt the normal process of development for several hundred years and substitute an interlude of barbarism. Whereever the Marxist utopia prevails, this has already happened...
Loss of roots and lack of tradition neuroticize the masses and prepare them for collective hysteria. Collective hysteria calls for collective therapy, which consists in abolition of liberty and terrorization. Where rationalistic materialism holds sway, states tend to develop less into prisons than into lunatic asylums...
We now have a new symbol in place of the fish, a psychological concept of human wholeness. In as much or in as little as the fish is Christ does the self mean God. It is something that corresponds, an inner experience, an assimilation of Christ into the psychic matrix, a new realization of the divine Son, no longer in theriomorphic form, but expressed in a conceptual or "philosophic" symbol. This compared with the mute and unconscious fish, marks a distinct increase in conscious development.
Carl Jung, AION
Christian doctrine is a highly differentiated symbol that expresses the transcendent psychic - the God image and its properties. This comprises practically everything of importance that can be ascertained about the manifestations of the psyche in the field of inner experience, but it does not include Nature, at least not in any recognizable form. Consequently, at every period of Christianity there have been subsidiary currents or undercurrents that have sought to investigate the empirical aspect of Nature not only from the outside but also from the inside.
...Though we can learn a lot from Indian thought, it can never express the past that is stored up within us. The premise we start with is and remains Christianity, which covers anything from eleven to nineteen centuries of Western life...
The bridge from dogma to the inner experience of the individual is broken down...
when a living organism is cut off from its roots, it loses the connections with the foundations of its existence and must necessarily perish...
The problems which the integration of the unconscious sets for modern doctors and psychologists can only be solved along the lines traced out by history, and the upshot will be a new assimiliation of the traditional myth. This, however, presupposes the continuity of historical development. Naturally the present tendency to destroy all tradition or render it unconscious could interrupt the normal process of development for several hundred years and substitute an interlude of barbarism. Whereever the Marxist utopia prevails, this has already happened...
Loss of roots and lack of tradition neuroticize the masses and prepare them for collective hysteria. Collective hysteria calls for collective therapy, which consists in abolition of liberty and terrorization. Where rationalistic materialism holds sway, states tend to develop less into prisons than into lunatic asylums...
We now have a new symbol in place of the fish, a psychological concept of human wholeness. In as much or in as little as the fish is Christ does the self mean God. It is something that corresponds, an inner experience, an assimilation of Christ into the psychic matrix, a new realization of the divine Son, no longer in theriomorphic form, but expressed in a conceptual or "philosophic" symbol. This compared with the mute and unconscious fish, marks a distinct increase in conscious development.
Carl Jung, AION
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Initiatory Regality
The tradition of initiatory regality ceased to have contacts with historical reality and with the representatives of any European temporal power. It continued to exist only underground, in secret currents such as hermeticism and rosicrucianism, which increasingly withdrew inward as the modern world was taking form - when the organizations that they animated did not themselves undergo a process of involution and inversion. As a myth, medieval civilization left its testament in two legends. According to the first legend, every year on the night of the anniversary of the suppression of the Knights Templar, an armed shadow wearing a red cross on its white mantle allegedly appears in the crypt of the Templars to inquire who wants to free the Holy Sepulcher: "No one," is the reply, "since the temple has been destroyed." According to the 2nd legend, Frederick I still lives with his knights although asleep, in the Kifhauser heights inside a symbolic mountain. He awaits the appointed time when he will descend to the valleys below at the head of his faithful in order to fight the last battle, whose successful outcome will cause the Dry Tree to bloom again and a new age to begin.
-Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, 310-11
-Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, 310-11
Chivalry
Within a nominally Christian world, chivalry upheld without any substantial alterations an Aryan ethics in the following things:
1) upholding the idea of the hero rather than the saint, and of the conqueror rather than of the martyr
2) regarding faithfulness and honor, rather than caritas and humbleness, as the highest virtues
3) regarding cowardice and dishonor, rather than sin, as the worst possible evil
4) ignoring or hardly putting into practice the evangelical precepts of not opposing evil and not retaliating against offenses, but rather methodically punishing unfairness and evil.
5) excluding from its ranks those who followed the Christian precept "Thou shalt not kill" to the letter.
6) refusing to love one's enemy and instead fighting him and being magnanimous only after defeating him
- Julius Evola - Revolt Against the Modern World, 298-99
1) upholding the idea of the hero rather than the saint, and of the conqueror rather than of the martyr
2) regarding faithfulness and honor, rather than caritas and humbleness, as the highest virtues
3) regarding cowardice and dishonor, rather than sin, as the worst possible evil
4) ignoring or hardly putting into practice the evangelical precepts of not opposing evil and not retaliating against offenses, but rather methodically punishing unfairness and evil.
5) excluding from its ranks those who followed the Christian precept "Thou shalt not kill" to the letter.
6) refusing to love one's enemy and instead fighting him and being magnanimous only after defeating him
- Julius Evola - Revolt Against the Modern World, 298-99
Monday, August 24, 2009
Snake Oil Medicine 5: The Great Arcanum
Eliphas Levi shows it very truly - "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it...might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the great arcanum of transcendent Magic."
"This ambient and all penetrating fluid, this ray detached from the (Central or 'Spiritual') Sun's splendour...fixed by the weight of the atmosphere (?!) and the power of central attraction...the Astral Light, this electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines around two poles...and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn - emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos - "Time" - It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of the caduceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen snake of Moses encircling the Tau...lastly it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and is really the blind force which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of the earth - for if they should not, they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire.
The great arcanum is now discovered by and only for one...
"This ambient and all penetrating fluid, this ray detached from the (Central or 'Spiritual') Sun's splendour...fixed by the weight of the atmosphere (?!) and the power of central attraction...the Astral Light, this electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines around two poles...and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn - emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos - "Time" - It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of the caduceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen snake of Moses encircling the Tau...lastly it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and is really the blind force which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of the earth - for if they should not, they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire.
The great arcanum is now discovered by and only for one...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Snake Oil Medicine 4: Projection of the Astral Body
1) Projection of the astral body is capable of being demonstrated by means of direct experiment. This also demonstrates to us that the living force is independent of matter, and that one Individuality is composed of a physical body and an intelligent Soul - and a vital link, the astral body.
2) Since the phantom can exist and function apart from the physical body, it may also exist after death. That is, IMMORTALITY is a fact which is thus proved scientifically.
The first step consists in acquiring a certain dream control - by observing some incongruity or anachronism; leading to the knowledge or recognition that one is dreaming...
"It felt as though I was rushing to insanity and death; but once the little door had clicked behind me, I enjoyed a mental clarity far superior to that of earthly life. And the fear was gone."
You must concentrate on the pineal gland.
2) Since the phantom can exist and function apart from the physical body, it may also exist after death. That is, IMMORTALITY is a fact which is thus proved scientifically.
The first step consists in acquiring a certain dream control - by observing some incongruity or anachronism; leading to the knowledge or recognition that one is dreaming...
"It felt as though I was rushing to insanity and death; but once the little door had clicked behind me, I enjoyed a mental clarity far superior to that of earthly life. And the fear was gone."
You must concentrate on the pineal gland.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
go the whole hog...
Eldest of my grandsons! Listen and always remember my strict injunction to you: In life never do as others do.
If you go on a spree then go the whole hog including the postage.
If you don't grease the wheels, the cart won't go.
Never poke your stick into a hornet's nest.
There is no offence which with time will not blow over...
--
His influence and authority had not only not declined during his exile, but on the contrary, they had greatly increased...
When an event is impending which arises from forces immeasureably greater than our own, one must submit.
And you know, don't you, that the talks of my dear grandfather always brings out tales of places where he has been...
We must not oppose forces higher than our own - not only must one not oppose them, but even submit and receive all their results with reverence , at the same time praising and glorifying the wonderful and providential works of Our Lord Creator.
I am not glad because of the misadventure but because an unforeseen event issuing from above has occurred, owing to which we shall be able to listen once more to the tales of my dear grandfather.
But I am curious to know whether there dwell three-brained beings on the planets of that solar system and whether higher being bodies are coated in them.
Everything existing in the world falls to the bottom.
And the bottom for any part of the universe is its nearest stability.
And this said 'stability' is the place of the point upon which all the lines of force arriving from all directions converge.
The centers of all the suns and of all the planets of our universe are just such points of stability.
When dropped into space everything tends to fall on one or another sun or planet.
May it therefore be possible to employ this cosmic particularity for the locomotion we need between the spaces of the Universe?
-G.I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson
If you go on a spree then go the whole hog including the postage.
If you don't grease the wheels, the cart won't go.
Never poke your stick into a hornet's nest.
There is no offence which with time will not blow over...
--
His influence and authority had not only not declined during his exile, but on the contrary, they had greatly increased...
When an event is impending which arises from forces immeasureably greater than our own, one must submit.
And you know, don't you, that the talks of my dear grandfather always brings out tales of places where he has been...
We must not oppose forces higher than our own - not only must one not oppose them, but even submit and receive all their results with reverence , at the same time praising and glorifying the wonderful and providential works of Our Lord Creator.
I am not glad because of the misadventure but because an unforeseen event issuing from above has occurred, owing to which we shall be able to listen once more to the tales of my dear grandfather.
But I am curious to know whether there dwell three-brained beings on the planets of that solar system and whether higher being bodies are coated in them.
Everything existing in the world falls to the bottom.
And the bottom for any part of the universe is its nearest stability.
And this said 'stability' is the place of the point upon which all the lines of force arriving from all directions converge.
The centers of all the suns and of all the planets of our universe are just such points of stability.
When dropped into space everything tends to fall on one or another sun or planet.
May it therefore be possible to employ this cosmic particularity for the locomotion we need between the spaces of the Universe?
-G.I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Working of the Avatar
The Avatar draws upon himself the universal suffering, but he is sustained under the stupendous burden by his infinite Bliss and His Infinite sense of humour. The Avatar is the Axis or Pivot of the Universe, the Pin of the grinding-stones of evolution, and so has a responsibility towards everyone and everything. At each moment in time He is able to fulfill singly and together the innumerable aspects of his universal duty because his actions are in no way constrained by time and distance and the here and now of the senses.
While engaged in any particular action on the gross plane , he is simultaneously working on all the inner planes. Unlike the actions of ordinary man, the Avatar's every action on the gross plane brings about numberless and far-reaching results on the different planes of consciusness. His working on the inner planes is effortless and continues of itself, but because of the very nature of grossness His work on the gross plane entails great exertion.
As a rule each action of an ordinary person is motivated by a solitary aim serving a solitary purpose; it can hit only one target at a time and bring about one specific result. But with the Avatar, He being the center of each one, any single action of His on the Gross plane brings about a network of diverse results for people and objects everywhere.
The Avatar's action on the gross plane is like the throwing of a main switch in an electric powerhouse which immediately and simultaneously releases an immense force through many circuits, putting into action various branches of service such as factories and fans, trains and trolleys and lighting for cities and villages.
An ordinary physical action of the Avatar releases immense forces in the inner planes and so becomes the starting point for a chain of working, the repercussions and overtones of which are manifest at all levels and are universal in range and effect.
Everything in the universe is, and from the beginning has been, a materialization of the divine Original Whim working out irrevocably without default, deflection or defeat. It is the unfolding upon the screen of consciusness of the film of creation, sequence after sequence according to the pattern that issued from the Original Whim. However, when God as God-Man plays the role of Audience he can alter or erase at his avataric whim any thing or happening which was destined from the Original Whim. But the very arising of the avataric whim was inherent in the Original Whim.
The Sufis distinguish between Qaza or destined occurrences, and Qadar or happenings which are impulsive or 'accidental'. The Avatar's or Qutub's actions are impulsive and arise from their infinite compassion; and the functioning of this whim relieves and gives beauty and charm to what would otherwise be a rigid determinism.
The Qutub's actions bring about modifications in the previously determined divine plan, but they are limited in extent. But the Avatar's interventions bring about modifications on a universal scale. For instance, supposing that it was divinely ordained for a war to occur in 1950. It must take place at the appointed time, and the train of events which follows will punctually meet the present time-table. However, if the Avatar is in the world at the time He might, in his exercise of Qadar, ward off the catastrophe by some particular action on the gross plane. And so in the relentless working out of the laws of Nature there can enter the inexplicable divine caprice, spelling out peace instead of war in the diary of man.
Kabir has said:
O Kabir! The lines of fate are never effaced by Rama; He is all-powerful and can undo destiny, but He never does so for He has given full thought to what he has planned.
The Avatar does not as a rule interfere with the working out of human destinies. He will do so only in times of grave necessity - when he deems it absolutely necessary from his all-encompassing point of view. For a single alteration in the planned and imprinted pattern in which each line and dot is interdependent, means a shaking up and a re-linking of an unending chain of possibilities and events. The least divergence from the pre-drawn line of Fate not only requires infinite adjustments within the immediate orbit of the individual concerned, but involves in its interminable repercussions all those connected by the bond of past sanskaras.
The avataric whim is also part of the divine Destiny. Qaza provides for the absolute necessity of the Avatar's 'chance' intervention, and the very unpredictability of this intervention is predicted in Qaza - for his infinite compassion, because of which His intervention occurs, may not be denied.
In the working out of the Avataric whim there is not the least element of chance. The aim of the whim's action is perfect and its result is precise.
An ordinary person's whim, when expressed, may have consdquences quite outside itself, as illustrated by the following story. A drunken man was passing by a wood-apple tree and had a whim to taste one of its fruits. Asa rule a drunkard has a distaste for sour or tart things because they nullify the effects of drink, so this man's wanting a wood-apple was purely a whim, independent of thought or real desire. He picked up a stone and threw it at the tree. The stone missed any of the apples, killed a bird, scared away many others and fell on the head of a traveller resting beneath the tree. Thus the haphazard expression of the drunkard's whim not only failed to accomplish the whim but brought about results completely outside of it. The whim was merely an unrelated fancy, and the action stemming from it had no connection with its object.
- Meher Baba
While engaged in any particular action on the gross plane , he is simultaneously working on all the inner planes. Unlike the actions of ordinary man, the Avatar's every action on the gross plane brings about numberless and far-reaching results on the different planes of consciusness. His working on the inner planes is effortless and continues of itself, but because of the very nature of grossness His work on the gross plane entails great exertion.
As a rule each action of an ordinary person is motivated by a solitary aim serving a solitary purpose; it can hit only one target at a time and bring about one specific result. But with the Avatar, He being the center of each one, any single action of His on the Gross plane brings about a network of diverse results for people and objects everywhere.
The Avatar's action on the gross plane is like the throwing of a main switch in an electric powerhouse which immediately and simultaneously releases an immense force through many circuits, putting into action various branches of service such as factories and fans, trains and trolleys and lighting for cities and villages.
An ordinary physical action of the Avatar releases immense forces in the inner planes and so becomes the starting point for a chain of working, the repercussions and overtones of which are manifest at all levels and are universal in range and effect.
Everything in the universe is, and from the beginning has been, a materialization of the divine Original Whim working out irrevocably without default, deflection or defeat. It is the unfolding upon the screen of consciusness of the film of creation, sequence after sequence according to the pattern that issued from the Original Whim. However, when God as God-Man plays the role of Audience he can alter or erase at his avataric whim any thing or happening which was destined from the Original Whim. But the very arising of the avataric whim was inherent in the Original Whim.
The Sufis distinguish between Qaza or destined occurrences, and Qadar or happenings which are impulsive or 'accidental'. The Avatar's or Qutub's actions are impulsive and arise from their infinite compassion; and the functioning of this whim relieves and gives beauty and charm to what would otherwise be a rigid determinism.
The Qutub's actions bring about modifications in the previously determined divine plan, but they are limited in extent. But the Avatar's interventions bring about modifications on a universal scale. For instance, supposing that it was divinely ordained for a war to occur in 1950. It must take place at the appointed time, and the train of events which follows will punctually meet the present time-table. However, if the Avatar is in the world at the time He might, in his exercise of Qadar, ward off the catastrophe by some particular action on the gross plane. And so in the relentless working out of the laws of Nature there can enter the inexplicable divine caprice, spelling out peace instead of war in the diary of man.
Kabir has said:
O Kabir! The lines of fate are never effaced by Rama; He is all-powerful and can undo destiny, but He never does so for He has given full thought to what he has planned.
The Avatar does not as a rule interfere with the working out of human destinies. He will do so only in times of grave necessity - when he deems it absolutely necessary from his all-encompassing point of view. For a single alteration in the planned and imprinted pattern in which each line and dot is interdependent, means a shaking up and a re-linking of an unending chain of possibilities and events. The least divergence from the pre-drawn line of Fate not only requires infinite adjustments within the immediate orbit of the individual concerned, but involves in its interminable repercussions all those connected by the bond of past sanskaras.
The avataric whim is also part of the divine Destiny. Qaza provides for the absolute necessity of the Avatar's 'chance' intervention, and the very unpredictability of this intervention is predicted in Qaza - for his infinite compassion, because of which His intervention occurs, may not be denied.
In the working out of the Avataric whim there is not the least element of chance. The aim of the whim's action is perfect and its result is precise.
An ordinary person's whim, when expressed, may have consdquences quite outside itself, as illustrated by the following story. A drunken man was passing by a wood-apple tree and had a whim to taste one of its fruits. Asa rule a drunkard has a distaste for sour or tart things because they nullify the effects of drink, so this man's wanting a wood-apple was purely a whim, independent of thought or real desire. He picked up a stone and threw it at the tree. The stone missed any of the apples, killed a bird, scared away many others and fell on the head of a traveller resting beneath the tree. Thus the haphazard expression of the drunkard's whim not only failed to accomplish the whim but brought about results completely outside of it. The whim was merely an unrelated fancy, and the action stemming from it had no connection with its object.
- Meher Baba
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