A thelemic view of consciousness

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“Notes for an Astral Atlas”
Crowley’s argument may be charitably reconstructed in the following way:

Time and space do not pick out truth in whole or in part. They are merely ways evolution has equipped us for survival and reproduction.
Time and space are therefore effects of a cause transcending them.
Therefore objects in space and time we perceive are not real, either, and they have no causal efficacy, either over each other or our minds.
Physicalism—the view that conscious experience can be nothing other than brain activity—is therefore wrong.
So there is no reason in principle conscious intelligences could not exist independent of physical brains. In fact we are such intelligences.
More recently, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman and mathematician Chetan Prakash have arrived at a similar conclusion with regard to the structure of our perception and its implications for philosophy of mind. On the basis of game theory simulations of evolution, in their 2014 paper “Objects of Consciousness” they conclude:

“…natural selection does not favor perceptual systems that see the truth in whole or in part. Instead, it favors perceptions that are fast, cheap, and tailored to guide behaviors needed to survive and reproduce. Perception is not about truth, it’s about having kids.”

Hoffman and Prakash, “Objects of Consciousness”, Frontiers in Psychology, vol 5
They then leverage this finding to support their hypothesis of conscious realism.

Conscious realism: The world W consists entirely of conscious agents

Ibid.
In other words, the dependence of conscious intelligence on brains is merely apparent. In fact consciousness is more fundamental than space-time and the objects in it.

Having established his own anti-physicalist stance on the basis of Poincaré’s conclusion, Crowley then raises what he terms the fundamental problem of religion.

“But the fundamental problem of Religion is this: Is there any praeter-human Intelligence, of the same order as our own, which is not dependent on cerebral structures consisting of matter in the vulgar sense of the word?”

Ibid
If physicalism is false, then that would explain the existence of what Crowley refers to as praeter-human intelligences, i.e., discarnate intelligences that were nevertheless able to communicate with us by means of the methods of magick. But it’s another matter entirely to prove that such intelligences actually exist.

Crowley goes on to claim that the reception of The Book of the Law in 1904 proved the existence of such intelligences.

“In a word, the Book of the Law proves the prime postulate of Religion.”

Ibid.
I’m not going to review the details of Crowley’s argument which he gives in “Notes” and in The Equinox of the Gods. I know very few people who accept the argument, though without doubt Crowley believed it.

These passages from “Notes” illustrate the epistemic relationship between Crowley’s views on magick and his understanding of physics, evolution, and mathematics. He thought Poincaré’s Darwin-informed neo-Leibnizian anti-physicalism made space for the satisfaction of what he called the postulate of religion. In fact Crowley understood the worldview of The Book of the Law as being both Leibnizian and Darwinian. I’ve made this case across multiple articles and lectures as this point.

This highlights yet another way in which Thelema is not simply a theory of ethics. It brings with it a certain view of the universe—a cosmology—which makes its core practices intelligible.

It also implies Thelema is falsifiable. If certain facts about the world don’t hold, then that undermines Thelema.

It’s quite striking that Crowley was aware of the most cutting edge science of his time and correctly understood its implications for philosophy of mind. It’s possible to argue with him about the significance of the reception of The Book of the Law, but there’s less doubt that he grasped the implications of Poincaré’s views on space and time for conscious intelligence. Some of the most interesting developments in cognitive science right now are exploring implications Crowley correctly identified a century ago.
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https://www.academia.edu/305878/Crowley ... nconscious

https://mitch-horowitz-nyc.medium.com/t ... e60c5b0f52

https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewc ... text%3Detd

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient ... f_the_soul

This is important to all this too:
https://www.wvt-online.com/media/9783868215274.pdf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_and_Body

"
Soul and Body is a poem in which the soul addresses its body. It is clear, as Moffat notes, that there is an identifiable first-person speaker throughout the entire poem; the speaker is the damned soul or the saved soul who is addressing his respective earthly body. In Soul and Body II, or The Damned Soul's address in Soul and Body I, the soul has a strong "contempt for the rotting corpse" from which it came (Frantzen 77). The body-and-soul theme, which dates back to the early Christian era, is meant to remind readers what will happen to their soul should they choose to neglect their obligations to God. The soul demands an answer from its body, because as the soul believes, the body is largely, if not completely, responsible for their shared, horrific fate (Ferguson 74). Despite the body being "dumb and deaf" (line 60), the soul reminds its body to plead its case before God at the Last Judgment.[2]

Ironically, the body's silence only emphasizes its harsh reality; the body will not be able to speak with God in the final days because of its sinful behavior while alive on earth. Not once, but twice does the soul chastise its body for its "firenlustas" (lines 31 and 41), or literally its "appetite for sin," specifically material wealth and earthly possessions (175). Furthermore, the efforts of the soul—and ultimately the reality of Christ's death and resurrection—have been in vain, since the body has perverted any chance of both the soul and the body enjoying eternal life in heaven. As one can see at the end of the poem, the Christian message of unity and judgment comes full circle, with the modern English translation stating "to every man among the wise this may serve as a reminder."[3] Thus, Soul and Body II, or The Damned Soul's address in Soul and Body I, is the self-judgment of the soul and its condemnation of its body.

Soul and Body I then continues with The Blessed Soul's address, in which the saved soul praises the body for its mortification and thanks the body for all that it gave him. Although the soul laments that the body cannot experience all the joys of heaven at the moment, he reminds him that they will be reunited at God's judgment, and then they will be able to enjoy whatever distinctions they receive in heaven.

Critical assessors of Soul and Body agree that the religious theme of the poem is quite obvious; the soul addresses its body in relation to the Final Judgment of both the soul and its body on the last day. The gruesome details of the damned body's state are reminiscent of the medical metaphor, which compares sins to wounds or disease and penance and confession to a cure. For this very reason, the details of the body's decay are passed over in The Blessed Soul's address. While a body must decay, the body of the saved soul already did his penance.

Penance in this poem is defined by the practice of fasting. Both the damned soul and the blessed soul imply that the body either did or did not fast. In the former, the soul accuses:

Wære þu þe wiste wlanc ond wines sæd,
þrymful þunedest ond ic ofþyrsted wæs
godes lichoman gastes drynces.

You, who were proud of dining and sated with wine,
you boasted majestically, and I thirsted for
the body of God, for the drink of the spirit.

—lines 39–41
The body ignored the soul's need for the body and blood of God, i.e. the Eucharist, and indulged in earthly pleasures.

Furthermore, because the damned soul reproaches its body for not repenting, the poem seems to suggest that the body is in control, which goes against traditional beliefs of the soul's superiority. Smetana and other scholars have questioned the unorthodoxy of the theology used in the poem, with some charging the poem with dualism (i.e., the inherent evil of the flesh). However, Frantzen reassesses this apparent inversion of the soul and body hierarchy, arguing that the poem does, in fact, follow normative Christian beliefs because its focus is not on theology, but penitential practice. He states that, while the soul may will repentance, "the body must bear the burden of mortification; if the body does penance it becomes the soul's 'lord' and 'protector' because it ensures the soul's bliss in eternity; and, conversely, if the body refuses to do penance it becomes a tyrant who destroys their union ... and ensures the soul's misery in hell" (Frantzen 81).

Additionally, Frantzen points to the homilies of Aelfric and handbooks of penance to illustrate that Soul and Body has much in common with the pastoral teachings of the late Anglo-Saxon period (85). As such, early Christian audiences were very familiar with these themes; the imagery would have had strong implications for them (Ferguson 79).
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https://cynthiawinton-henry.com/blog/wi ... sk-a-poet/

https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10 ... /ch4.xhtml

https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream ... pt_PhD.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... Narratives

https://www.academia.edu/9640202/The_So ... r_WVT_2014

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67 ... adc331895/

https://www.writingforums.com/threads/i ... ry.174237/

https://britishromanticism.wordpress.co ... ul-making/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoticism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_mentality

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonising_the_Mind

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporality

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Position_(geometry)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_(geometry)

Again, these are a lot of things, not meant to be random but tied together very closely.

For the frustrated Englishman with deviant sexual proclivities and counter-cultural angst that is much more actually "hyper-cultural" and accelerationist , Crowley and even the others I brought into play, combined Romanticism, Orientalism, Exoticism, and Imperialism to express and explore different methods to do what they thought like they felt like doing (and not necessarily what they would have realized that they felt like doing had they not thought), and their story, posdibly Crowley's most of all, was like a pinball in a pinball machine of reactions and responses that were seemingly influencing his directions to both embrace an idealistic or Romantic form of himself as Hero and as a Fugitive from polite society, coming to terms with its uses also, while taking it for granted as people if his class mingling with others of such classes abd ranks in the British Caste System of the time and even today may tend to do.

Social and Racial or Ethnic Cosplaying was a trend at the time for some grown ups to enter portals into different roles and even different souls (through soles) to travel to times abd places both imaginary (and probably wholly and always imaginary) and real.

So the Exoticism had a specific connection to Time in History amd Space in Location and Distance, which they both traveled to and would warp back to by dawning certain outfits and demeanors also, sometimes just in their minds to enter a certain "mode" and to "go there" and "be there", a mental place that seemed otherwise "distant" and located "elsewhere" but bringing what seemed remote and the "shadow" into present consciousness and space, bringing some ancient thing, or so they may have imagined, to their present setting and place to "be" whatever, consciously.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediumship

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_possession

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possess ... nguistics)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_possession

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invocation

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evocation

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee

"
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist.[4] He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated the foundation of English colonies in the New World to form a "British Empire", a term he is credited with coining.[5]
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires

"
As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories.[5]
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_emp ... never_sets

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_monarchy

https://benebellwen.com/2019/11/07/the- ... -conjures/

https://www.reddit.com/r/religion/comme ... eam_media/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelema/commen ... ckal_east/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Work_(Thelema)

https://apps.thelemistas.org/en/MSS/Bjo ... archetypes

"
The ritual space is called a temple because it is a place where sacred space is established. It acts as a Mesocosm, or place of interface between the Microcosm of the magician and the Macrocosm of the greater divine reality. Its nature simultaneously reflects and is posited by both. It represents both the magician themselves and their psyche as well as the larger cosmos in an Imaginal aspect. The temple is therefore not only the universe without, but in the heart within.

The ritual space is intended to operate through all four worlds, and in its higher aspects is "not built by human hands". The temple can be built up gradually, both on the physical and Imaginal or visualized levels. It's often good practice to have an Imaginal temple whose complexity stays just slightly beyond one's ability to visualize fully, so that one is always working to concentrate harder. It is generally not necessary to constantly visualize the various elements in the temple during a ritual. Rather, just remain aware of the intention that they be in place, and review them occasionally.
"

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-notes ... liti%25204.

http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/T ... our_Worlds

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelema/commen ... e_of_life/

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelema/commen ... conciling/

http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Tree_of_Life

https://thelema.org/forum/topic/16624/the-four-worlds

https://hyperallergic.com/131541/the-ro ... -of-trees/

https://atsunnyside.blog/2019/01/08/the ... h-century/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trees_in_Middle-earth

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Trees_of_Valinor

https://boydellandbrewer.com/book/trees ... l-england/

https://www.medievalists.net/2015/06/tr ... ddle-ages/

"
In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the tree of life and can be found in Asgard. It is under this great Ash tree that the gods meet each days, and its branches and roots stretches out over all of the nine worlds, and extend up into heavens. One can find several animals living within the tree, including a squirrel, an eagle, and a dragon.

Trees were important religious symbols for the Norse. The 11th century chronicler Adam of Bremen offers this description of a holy tree near the Norse temple at Uppsala: “Near the temple is a great tree which extends its boughs far and wide, always green in winter and summer; of what sort it is no one knows. There too is a spring, where the sacrifices of the pagan are accustomed to take place and a man is immersed alive. For as long as he is not discovered, the will of the people will be granted.”
"

"
Trees were of fundamental importance in Anglo-Saxon material culture – but they were also a powerful presence in Anglo-Saxon religion before and after the introduction of Christianity. This book shows that they remained prominent in early English Christianity, and indeed that they may have played a crucial role in mediating the transition between ancient beliefs and the new faith. It argues that certain characteristics of sacred trees in England can be determined from insular contexts alone, independent of comparative evidence from culturally related peoples. This nevertheless suggests the existence of traditions comparable to those found in Scandinavia and Germany. Tree symbolism helped early English Christians to understand how the beliefs of their ancestors about trees, posts, and pillars paralleled the appearance of similar objects in the Old Testament. In this way, the religious symbols of their forebears were aligned with precursors to the cross in Scripture. Literary evidence from England and Scandinavia similarly indicates a shared tradition of associations between the bodies of humans, trees, and other plant-life. Though potentially ancient, these ideas flourished amongst the abundance of vegetative symbolism found in the Christian tradition.
"

https://usurj.journals.usask.ca/article ... d/279/pdf/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_paganism

https://www.epoch-magazine.com/post/the ... al-england

https://fathereadred.com/anglo-saxon-bl ... n-england/

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Two_Trees_of_Valinor

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/co ... f_valinor/

https://www.glyphweb.com/arda/t/twotrees.php

https://treeurn.eu/the-symbolism-of-the ... carl-jung/

"
2. The Tree and the Reconciliation of Opposites
A fundamental aspect of Jungian psychology is the importance of integrating opposites for personal growth. Jung viewed the tree as a symbol of this reconciliation between dualities, such as masculine and feminine, conscious and unconscious, shadow and light. The tree, in its structure, is rooted in the earth while reaching toward the sky, symbolizing the meeting point between two poles. This duality is also present in the tree’s parts, where the trunk represents the masculine energy of stability, while the branches and leaves symbolize the feminine energy of flexibility and creativity.

For Jung, integrating these dualities is essential in the process of individuation, which aims at achieving a form of psychological wholeness and balance. The tree’s symbolism thus helps the individual recognize and harmonize these opposing aspects within themselves. Through this reconciliation, the tree becomes a symbol of inner healing and transformation, enabling individuals to achieve a more fulfilled life.
"

https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blo ... anthology/

https://www.reddit.com/r/scientology/co ... stic_tree/

https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/642011.htm

https://www.reddit.com/r/Jung/comments/ ... wledge_of/

https://www.paulwestonglastonbury.com/c ... n-sermons/

"
A year ago today I gave a presentation at a conference in Glastonbury on some of my favorite material from my book Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus. From the chapter Gnostic Revival I discussed the strange commonality between two fundamental experiences in the lives of the apparently very different Aleister Crowley and CG Jung. Crowley had been led in 1904, after a series of strange experiences to write, supposedly over a three-day period, The Book of the Law. This was the most important experience of his life and he extensively promoted it. In 1916 Jung also wrote a mysterious text, The Seven Sermons to the Dead. It was likewise a vital episode in his development but one that he kept very much in the background.
The video of my presentation that day, which I have posted on this blog, didn’t do justice to the visuals I had assembled so I wondered about making them into a video on their own. I have made considerable additions and adjustments. Text was obviously now necessary. A soundtrack of early classic Tangerine Dream was added. I’m very happy with the results. It’s just over half an hour long. I recommend headphones and dimmed lights for best results!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFD1E6w ... ure=shared

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Language is a key component in both creating an understanding of experiences and attempting to express them and place importance and emphasis on certain things, heightening abd lowering certain things which have been linked to explanations which have altered how they are viewed when they are viewed.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _selection

https://journalofcognition.org/articles ... 220106.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _DOMINANCE

"
This brief encyclopedia entry provides the general public, as well as PK-12 and higher education students, teachers, scholars, and community-based activists, interested in and/or dedicated to issues of diversity and social justice with a succinct discussion of linguistic dominance. Linguistic dominance (also called language dominance) is a social process in which different languages have come to be assigned different levels of importance, such that one language and its speakers carry higher social and political status than others.
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https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/39020/3/J ... 112104.pdf

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1816994116

https://aclanthology.org/E06-1016.pdf

Very interesting and important in relation to the writing of Aleister Crowley and the formation of his ideas and their presentation and representation:

https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/epri ... _final.pdf

https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/m ... erg_MS.pdf

https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400 ... 843882.pdf

https://www.academypublication.com/issu ... /12/16.pdf

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c74c/3 ... d05593.pdf

https://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/33234/1/ ... 5Jan18.pdf

https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/172/17208205.pdf

https://ephemerajournal.org/sites/defau ... -3land.pdf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_language

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbecke ... -gods.html

https://entrustedtothedirt.com/2020/08/ ... -language/

https://voices.uchicago.edu/witnessingm ... god-speak/

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/11/10/la ... decoration

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Named_entity

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene

"
Artegall (also spelled Artegal, Arthegal, or Arthegall), a knight who is the embodiment and champion of Justice. He meets Britomart after defeating her in a sword fight (she had been dressed as a knight) and removing her helmet, revealing her beauty. Artegall quickly falls in love with Britomart. Artegall has a companion in Talus, a metal man who wields a flail and never sleeps or tires but will mercilessly pursue and kill any number of villains. Talus obeys Artegall's command, and serves to represent justice without mercy (hence, Artegall is the more human face of justice). Later, Talus does not rescue Artegall from enslavement by the wicked slave-mistress Radigund, because Artegall is bound by a legal contract to serve her. Only her death, at Britomart's hands, liberates him. Chrysaor was the golden sword of Sir Artegall. This sword was also the favorite weapon of Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest. Because it was "Tempred with Adamant", it could cleave through anything.
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https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/new ... sophy-says

https://iocdf.org/expert-opinions/to-be ... hical-ocd/

https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/why-ocd-feels-so-real

https://www.essentiafoundation.org/thou ... s/reading/

https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/qu ... bout-ideas

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