2007-01-09
McKenna-inspired mycoruminations
azure writes:
In a discussion tonight, a young man had compared terence's death to the
death of dm turner, then implied that terence somehow caused his illness
and 'deserved' what had happened to him. After listening to a tirade on
how terence had never offered anything of value to this community, and how
his ideas were all nonsense, I wrote the below; it's all poorly referenced
etc, so... I'll keep my posts on this sort of thing to more of a minimum
in the future, but wanted to share it with this list...I had been going
through some of the older videos of terence, and had commented that it was
nice to see images of him in 'prime form,' I feel alot of gratitude for
what he offered, in his own inimitable and crazy way:
Categories: psychedelic, philosophy
It is a mysterious impulse in the heart of a human being that compels her
to tend to things unseen. What, in the innermost of our species, caused
the first of our agricultural ancestors to plant in the ground small
seeds from the flowers and fruits of gathered plants? It is strange
enough that the human mind should apprehend that a flower lie within the
simple germ of a seed, but how much stranger that our species should
realize that the germ of the flower need be concealed from sight in order
to bloom. Yet because we know the flower is there, we do our tending day
in and out, until a miracle occurs.
Truly, the workings of nature are wondrous and miraculous in the
absolute sense of the word, for they spontaneously proceed from a
certain quality of being. In the literature of alchemy we find
numerous references to the 'nature of the natures,' as in the
Tractatus aureus Hermetis, 'O mightiest nature of the natures, who
containest and seperatest the midmost of the natures, who comest with
the light and art born with the light, who has given birth to the
misty darkness, who art the mother of all beings!' It is a foregone
assumption in any serious exploration of the nature of being, that we
cultivate a quality of awareness that attends to it's very self, that
is the 'nature of the natures.' Not only is there a centerring, there
is a multiplication and resolution of the primordial chaos that
allows us to apprehend nature as such. The mystical literatures of
alchemy and Buddhism often clothe themselves in such redundant
metaphors that blend into one another and so become translucent. For
it is through the planting of an invisible seed that we become aware
of our own unconscious selves. Naturally, our tendency is to focus on
what we can see, as in science. But, what of that within us which
cannot yet be seen? What of the original nature of language?
Of the names given to the sacred mushrooms of the indigenous
mesoamerican people, one name in particular stands out as
exceptionally revealing. Of this name, Gordon Wasson says, 'the
sacred mushrooms are nti xi tho, an arresting expression. The initial
expression syllable is a particle expressing endearment and respect.
The rest of the word means 'what leaps forth.' I have already
rendered the whole: 'the dear little tykes that leap forth.' (pg. 45,
The Wondrous Mushroom) Of this nature of the natures, Maria Sabina
further expounds, 'The little things [sacred mushrooms] are the ones
that speak. If I say, 'I am the woman who alone came down, who alone
was born,' it is the little things that speak. And they say so
because they sprout by themselves. No one sows them. They sprout
because God so wills. That is why I say: I am the woman who can be
pulled up, because the little things can be pulled up...' (pg. 46,
The Wondrous Mushroom)
In these numerous references to the immaculate conception of the
'little tykes,' 'little dear ones,' we begin to understand the
function of nature in the spiritual development of our species. For if
mushrooms excel at anything, it is symbiosis as a guiding principle of
social organization, or what Buddhism terms interdependent
originations. Thus the Mckenna brothers, in embodying the voice of the
mushroom observe, 'The mycelial body is as fragile as a spider's web
but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive
of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral
star swarm.' ... 'Since it is not easy for you to recognize other
varieties of intelligence around you, your most advanced theories of
politics and society have advanced only so far as the notion of
collectivism. But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into
a single social organism there lie richer and even more baroque
evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is one of these.' Certainly,
this passage again touches on that mysterious impulse in our species
which compelled us to enter into a relationship with some invisible,
subterranean seed that sprung from the darkness. Let me venture a
suggestion and simply say that any truly transformative relationship
bears two distinct marks: it is something we enter into by virtue of
grace alone, and is also something organic and dynamic in it's nature,
naturally speaking. This holds true for any of the so-called prophetic
'mystery traditions,' whether Tarot, Alchemy, I Ching, Mayan
Calendrics. The naturalness of this inwardly maintained--and thereby
eternal--relatedness effectively extinguishes the seeming solidity of
what is generally considered 'real,' by dissolving the division
between self and other. To this effect, the Christian mystic Hildegard
von Bingen notes, 'Since my childhood I have always seen a light in my
soul, but not with the outer eyes, nor through the thoughts of my
heart; neither do the five outer senses take part in this vision...The
light I perceive is not of a local kind, but is much brighter than the
cloud which supports the sun...I cannot recognize any sort of form in
this light, although I sometimes see in it another light that is known
to me as the living light...'
This quality of relating to our own being, this 'nature of the natures,'
is truly beyond the domain of science and rationalism, for it is not
something that can be disproven. This nature of the natures, which is our
relationship with ourselves, our community, the ecospheres of the planet,
the planet itself, the solar system, the galaxy and universe, manifests of
itself as mercy and spontaneously creative joy and ecstasy. Nonetheless,
and I see this as nothing short of miraculous, we can enter into a
relationship with these harbingers of intergalactic intelligence, and
through a sort of skillful artistry, bring the seed of revelation down
into our daily lives and plant it in the people who are receptive to it's
message. Jung comments, 'In the end it will come to pass that this
earthly, spagyric foetus clothes itself with heavenly nature by its
ascent, and by its descent visibly puts on the nature of the centre of the
earth, but nonetheless the nature of the heavenly centre which it acquired
by the ascent is secretly preserved.' (Alchemical Studies, pg. 150) To
someone who has not made the descent into ascension, the ideas born of an
authentic contact with intergalactic intelligence can seem utterly insane
and irrational, as is the case with those theories born of the Mckenna
brothers infamous 'Experiment at La Chorrera.' Such ideas are best planted
in the hearts of children, as bedtime stories or fantastic tales of
mythology. Then as we grow older, we can come to know that the
psychological and spiritual truths of childhood may in fact have more
relevance to the quality in which we relate to our own lives, than
scientific and rational 'truths,' however noble and useful they may be. As
in childhood the impulse comes from a certain irrational centerring in the
species, 'The midpoint of the centre is fire. On it is modelled the
simplest and most perfect form, which is the circle. The point is most
akin to the nature of light, and light is a simulacrum Dei.' (Alchemical
Studies, pg. 151)
So gather again around the fire, for here we aarrive at the rejected
and worthless pebble of the plant and fungal teacher teachers, the
lumen naturae. Surely there is no enlightenment to be found in a humble
mushroom! How quick people are to discount phenomenon like elves, like
shapeshifting, nymphs and pixies of the forest; radical theories of the
end of time and the dawning of a new age in the astral origins of the
human species. Perhaps Empedocles said it best in his inimitable way,
'I know that truth is with the words I will be saying. But, for humans,
the rush of assurance towards the seat of their awareness has become so
very troublesome: so undesired.'
In a discussion tonight, a young man had compared terence's death to the
death of dm turner, then implied that terence somehow caused his illness
and 'deserved' what had happened to him. After listening to a tirade on
how terence had never offered anything of value to this community, and how
his ideas were all nonsense, I wrote the below; it's all poorly referenced
etc, so... I'll keep my posts on this sort of thing to more of a minimum
in the future, but wanted to share it with this list...I had been going
through some of the older videos of terence, and had commented that it was
nice to see images of him in 'prime form,' I feel alot of gratitude for
what he offered, in his own inimitable and crazy way:
Categories: psychedelic, philosophy
It is a mysterious impulse in the heart of a human being that compels her
to tend to things unseen. What, in the innermost of our species, caused
the first of our agricultural ancestors to plant in the ground small
seeds from the flowers and fruits of gathered plants? It is strange
enough that the human mind should apprehend that a flower lie within the
simple germ of a seed, but how much stranger that our species should
realize that the germ of the flower need be concealed from sight in order
to bloom. Yet because we know the flower is there, we do our tending day
in and out, until a miracle occurs.
Truly, the workings of nature are wondrous and miraculous in the
absolute sense of the word, for they spontaneously proceed from a
certain quality of being. In the literature of alchemy we find
numerous references to the 'nature of the natures,' as in the
Tractatus aureus Hermetis, 'O mightiest nature of the natures, who
containest and seperatest the midmost of the natures, who comest with
the light and art born with the light, who has given birth to the
misty darkness, who art the mother of all beings!' It is a foregone
assumption in any serious exploration of the nature of being, that we
cultivate a quality of awareness that attends to it's very self, that
is the 'nature of the natures.' Not only is there a centerring, there
is a multiplication and resolution of the primordial chaos that
allows us to apprehend nature as such. The mystical literatures of
alchemy and Buddhism often clothe themselves in such redundant
metaphors that blend into one another and so become translucent. For
it is through the planting of an invisible seed that we become aware
of our own unconscious selves. Naturally, our tendency is to focus on
what we can see, as in science. But, what of that within us which
cannot yet be seen? What of the original nature of language?
Of the names given to the sacred mushrooms of the indigenous
mesoamerican people, one name in particular stands out as
exceptionally revealing. Of this name, Gordon Wasson says, 'the
sacred mushrooms are nti xi tho, an arresting expression. The initial
expression syllable is a particle expressing endearment and respect.
The rest of the word means 'what leaps forth.' I have already
rendered the whole: 'the dear little tykes that leap forth.' (pg. 45,
The Wondrous Mushroom) Of this nature of the natures, Maria Sabina
further expounds, 'The little things [sacred mushrooms] are the ones
that speak. If I say, 'I am the woman who alone came down, who alone
was born,' it is the little things that speak. And they say so
because they sprout by themselves. No one sows them. They sprout
because God so wills. That is why I say: I am the woman who can be
pulled up, because the little things can be pulled up...' (pg. 46,
The Wondrous Mushroom)
In these numerous references to the immaculate conception of the
'little tykes,' 'little dear ones,' we begin to understand the
function of nature in the spiritual development of our species. For if
mushrooms excel at anything, it is symbiosis as a guiding principle of
social organization, or what Buddhism terms interdependent
originations. Thus the Mckenna brothers, in embodying the voice of the
mushroom observe, 'The mycelial body is as fragile as a spider's web
but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive
of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral
star swarm.' ... 'Since it is not easy for you to recognize other
varieties of intelligence around you, your most advanced theories of
politics and society have advanced only so far as the notion of
collectivism. But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into
a single social organism there lie richer and even more baroque
evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is one of these.' Certainly,
this passage again touches on that mysterious impulse in our species
which compelled us to enter into a relationship with some invisible,
subterranean seed that sprung from the darkness. Let me venture a
suggestion and simply say that any truly transformative relationship
bears two distinct marks: it is something we enter into by virtue of
grace alone, and is also something organic and dynamic in it's nature,
naturally speaking. This holds true for any of the so-called prophetic
'mystery traditions,' whether Tarot, Alchemy, I Ching, Mayan
Calendrics. The naturalness of this inwardly maintained--and thereby
eternal--relatedness effectively extinguishes the seeming solidity of
what is generally considered 'real,' by dissolving the division
between self and other. To this effect, the Christian mystic Hildegard
von Bingen notes, 'Since my childhood I have always seen a light in my
soul, but not with the outer eyes, nor through the thoughts of my
heart; neither do the five outer senses take part in this vision...The
light I perceive is not of a local kind, but is much brighter than the
cloud which supports the sun...I cannot recognize any sort of form in
this light, although I sometimes see in it another light that is known
to me as the living light...'
This quality of relating to our own being, this 'nature of the natures,'
is truly beyond the domain of science and rationalism, for it is not
something that can be disproven. This nature of the natures, which is our
relationship with ourselves, our community, the ecospheres of the planet,
the planet itself, the solar system, the galaxy and universe, manifests of
itself as mercy and spontaneously creative joy and ecstasy. Nonetheless,
and I see this as nothing short of miraculous, we can enter into a
relationship with these harbingers of intergalactic intelligence, and
through a sort of skillful artistry, bring the seed of revelation down
into our daily lives and plant it in the people who are receptive to it's
message. Jung comments, 'In the end it will come to pass that this
earthly, spagyric foetus clothes itself with heavenly nature by its
ascent, and by its descent visibly puts on the nature of the centre of the
earth, but nonetheless the nature of the heavenly centre which it acquired
by the ascent is secretly preserved.' (Alchemical Studies, pg. 150) To
someone who has not made the descent into ascension, the ideas born of an
authentic contact with intergalactic intelligence can seem utterly insane
and irrational, as is the case with those theories born of the Mckenna
brothers infamous 'Experiment at La Chorrera.' Such ideas are best planted
in the hearts of children, as bedtime stories or fantastic tales of
mythology. Then as we grow older, we can come to know that the
psychological and spiritual truths of childhood may in fact have more
relevance to the quality in which we relate to our own lives, than
scientific and rational 'truths,' however noble and useful they may be. As
in childhood the impulse comes from a certain irrational centerring in the
species, 'The midpoint of the centre is fire. On it is modelled the
simplest and most perfect form, which is the circle. The point is most
akin to the nature of light, and light is a simulacrum Dei.' (Alchemical
Studies, pg. 151)
So gather again around the fire, for here we aarrive at the rejected
and worthless pebble of the plant and fungal teacher teachers, the
lumen naturae. Surely there is no enlightenment to be found in a humble
mushroom! How quick people are to discount phenomenon like elves, like
shapeshifting, nymphs and pixies of the forest; radical theories of the
end of time and the dawning of a new age in the astral origins of the
human species. Perhaps Empedocles said it best in his inimitable way,
'I know that truth is with the words I will be saying. But, for humans,
the rush of assurance towards the seat of their awareness has become so
very troublesome: so undesired.'
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