The shamanic journey described in the Pyramid Texts

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

The previous post, entitled "The Cobra Kai sucker-punch (and why we keep falling for it, over and over and over)," presented the argument that the ancient wisdom encoded in all the world's sacred mythologies taught that this universe contains both the apparently material and ordinary reality with which we are all familiar, and an unseen realm which is actually the "seed realm" from which the apparently material and ordinary reality is projected, much like a hologram is projected from the holographic film.

Using an analogy from the original Karate Kid film (1984), that post argued that the ability to tap into that unseen realm, and even to journey there in order to bring back information or to effect changes which impact the ordinary realm, is analogous to a form of "karate" or "kung fu" that was secretly taught within the esoteric myths of the world's sacred traditions (just like the karate that Daniel-San learns in the movie was "hidden" inside of ordinary-looking motions such as "wax the car" or "paint the fence"). 

The post then argued that this ancient knowledge of travel to the other realm was deliberately stamped out in "the West" by a group that wanted to keep the system of "karate" to themselves (although it did survive in other parts of the world for many centuries, including in the shamanic cultures found in parts of the globe that the Roman Empire and the later Western European nations descended from the Western Empire did not conquer).

One extremely important body of evidence which supports the above interpretation of world history can be found in the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt. The Pyramid Texts are found inscribed within pyramids left by the kings and queens at the end of the Fifth Dynasty and into the Sixth Dynasty (in the pyramid of the final Fifth Dynasty King, Unas, who reigned from 2375 BC to 2345 BC) and those of his successors in the Sixth Dynasty (Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, and Pepi II and Pepi II's wives Neith, Ipwet, and Oudjebten), probably ending in 2184 BC.

These texts are in fact the oldest known examples of extended writing (longer than brief prayers or simple tomb inscriptions) from the human race.

As discussed in previous posts (including this one and this one) and at length in The Undying Stars book, Egyptian scholar Dr. Jeremy Naydler has presented thorough arguments which demonstrate that these pyramids -- and the texts that they contain -- were not primarily funerary structures (as they are almost universally taught to be) but rather sacred enclosures in which the king as part of his Sed Festival rites would lie inside a stone sarcophagus and undergo a shamanic out-of-body journey to the other realm on behalf of the entire kingdom. His book is entitled Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt.

Below is an image from within the sarcophagus chamber of the Pyramid of Unas:

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

This thesis, if correct, has profound significance for humanity. First, it would demonstrate that the very oldest extended scriptures that we currently possess are shamanic in nature. Second, it would demonstrate that "Western civilization" possesses a shamanic heritage, despite later efforts to suppress the shamanic worldview in "the West." And third, it raises the possibility that the incredible accomplishments of ancient Egypt were aided in some way by deliberate, regularly-scheduled trips to the unseen realm. There are many other implications as well, of course, but these three are some very significant ramifications of the assertion that the Pyramid Texts contain clear evidence of shamanic travel.

The Pyramid Texts as they are arranged in the Unas Pyramid can be viewed in their entirety online at this excellent website, The Pyramid Texts Online. They can be quite daunting at first, but if examined in conjunction with the helpful "guide" of Jeremy Naydler's book (linked above), the process of becoming more familiar with their contents can be greatly facilitated.

Below are just a few selected "utterances" from the Pyramid Texts which provide very clear support to the assertion that these texts were used in conjunction with deliberate shamanic travel by the king. All selections can be found in the Pyramid Texts Online site. At the end I will provide a brief commentary, but really these texts speak for themselves.

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Utterance 253

275:

To say the words: "He is purified, who has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

Re has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

He is purified, who has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

This Unas has purified himself in the Fields of Rushes.

The hand of Unas is in the hand of Re.

Nut, take his hand!

Shu, lift him up! Shu, lift him up!"

Utterance 302

458:

To say the words: "Serene is the sky, Soped lives, for it is Unas indeed who is the living [star], the son of Sothis.

The Two Enneads have purified [themselves] for him as Meskhetiu [Great Bear], the Imperishable Stars.

The House of Unas which is in the sky will not perish,

the throne of Unas which is on earth will not be destroyed.

459: The humans hide themselves, the gods fly up,

Sothis has let Unas fly towards Heaven amongst his brothers the gods.

Nut the Great has uncovered her arms for Unas.

[. . .]

461: He [Unas] ascends towards heaven near you, Re,

while his face [is like that of] hawks, his wings [are like those] of apd-geese,

his talons the fangs of He-of-the-Dju-ef-nome.

463: Upuaut has let Unas fly to heaven amongst his brothers, the gods.

Unas has moved his arms like a smn-goose, he has beaten his wings like a kite.

He flies up, he who flies up, O men!

Unas flies up away from you!"

Utterance 304

468:

To say the words: "Hail to you, daughter of Anubis, she who stands at the windows of the sky,

you friend of Thoth, she who stands at the two side rails of the ladder!

Open the way for Unas that he may pass!

Utterance 305

472: To say the words: "The ladder is tied together by Re before Osiris.

The ladder is tied together by Horus before his father Osiris, when he goes to his soul.

One of them is on this side,

one of them is on that side,

while Unas is between them.

473: Are you then a god whose places are pure?

[I] come from a pure place!

Stand [here] Unas, says Horus.

Sit [here] Unas, says Seth.

Take this arm, says Re.

474: The spirit belongs to heaven, the body to earth.

[. . .]

Utterance 247

259: Unas there! O Unas, see!

Unas there! O Unas, look!

Unas there! O Unas, hear!

Unas there! O Unas, be there!

Unas there! O Unas, arise on your side!

Do as I order, [you] who hate sleep, you who are tired!

Get up, you who are in Nedit!

Your fine bread is made in Buto.

Receive your power in Heliopolis!

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The texts were selected to indicate aspects of the shamanic journey -- aspects which are common to the methods of embarking upon shamanic journeying taught today by shamanic teachers and practitioners, many of whom learned their techniques from shamanic teachers from traditional shamanic cultures in places as widely dispersed as Mongolia, Siberia, North America, South America, or Australia.

The selections above begin with Utterance 253, in which an actual spoken formula is recited. One can almost hear the "singsong tone" that might have been used, based upon the repetition of certain phrases, and based upon the common "chant-tone" which has survived in many widely-separated cultures on our planet to this very day, and which was remarked upon and illustrated in videos that can be found within this previous post.

Note that in the final lines of the utterance, the speaker is describing Unas as taking the hand of the god Re (or Ra) and the goddess Nut, and of being "raised up" by the god Shu (whose upraised arms are described in this previous post). It is difficult to deny that this sounds very much like the start of a shamanic journey (those familiar with modern techniques and teachings of shamanic travel may have personal experience to draw upon to support this connection, and Dr. Naydler provides plenty of more academic evidence which also supports the same conclusion about this and other texts).

In the next utterances cited, Unas is described as flying up to the region of the sky in which dwell the Imperishable Stars (also known as the Undying Stars). He is also described as transforming into a bird, or taking on the features of a bird, which is a common shamanic motif (one of the most common and widespread, in fact -- see discussions here, here and here). Elsewhere in the Pyramid Texts, Unas is described on his journey as transforming into a falcon, a hawk, a powerful bull, a crocodile, a serpent, and other animals, and as taking on aspects of various gods and goddesses. These are all elements which can be present in shamanic travel.

In Utterance 304, the Pyramid Texts describe the daughter of Anubis, who stands "at the windows of the sky." Dr. Naydler points out:

In the text, the word for "opening" or "window" is peter, which as a verb means "to see," implying some kind of aperture in the sky that opens onto the spirit realm. Shamanic accounts of passing through such apertures relate that they open for just an instant, and only the initiate is able to go through them into the Otherworld. 272.

Travel through such an "opening" or "window" is a very common feature of shamanic accounts, as well as of the accounts given by those who have undergone Near-Death Experiences (some of which are discussed in previous posts such as this one, this one, and this one). 

It is also intriguing to wonder if the name of the New Testament apostle Peter, who is given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, might not be related to this Egyptian concept of the "window" through which one can see the Otherworld, as Dr. Naydler says. Of course, we are told in the New Testament that the name comes from the word for "rock" (Latin petrus), and this certainly seems likely, but the connection to the Egyptian word, in the name of the apostle who is traditionally described as "guarding the gates," is most remarkable (the celestial or zodiacal reason that Peter is the one who guards the gates to the kingdom of heaven is discussed in this previous post).

In any case, it is difficult to deny that this "window of the sky" has strong analogs in shamanic travel. 

Next comes Utterance 305, in which Unas is described as climbing what Naydler describes as "the celestial ladder," a concept he relates to the Djed pillar -- one of the most important symbols of ancient Egyptian myth, and one that we have seen has undeniable connections to the shamanic worldview (see for instance this previous post). 

Previous posts including that one (and others linked in that post) demonstrate that the Djed symbology embodies both the "earthly" situation of the individual in his or her incarnate state (the "Djed cast down") and also the "heavenly" component in each man or woman, which he or she must remember, recognize, and seek to elevate during this earthly sojourn (the "Djed raised up"). In light of that fact, it is most significant that this same utterance that talks about the "heavenly ladder" also includes the line at 474 which declares "the spirit belongs to heaven, the body to earth." 

Dr. Naydler presents analysis to argue that both Utterance 305 and the following Utterance 306 teach "a linking of heaven and earth" (274), a concept which we recently saw to be embodied in the ancient symbol of the vesica piscis (as well as in the widespread symbol of the Cross).

The final selection cited above is Utterance 247 (note that these numbers are not necessarily in chronological order: the order that the walls of each pyramid should be read is debated among scholars, and the texts themselves do not always appear in the same order in different pyramids or in later writings or inscriptions). There, we see what could be interpreted as a very obvious "call to return" from the shamanic state of ecstasy. 

This is indeed how Dr. Naydler interprets these lines, and the repetition of commands for Unas to come back to his body, to see, to hear, to "be there," to turn onto his side -- all suggest that the priests who have been in attendance, and who probably assisted in the king's achieving the state of shamanic trance (using whichever of the many known techniques for achieving travel to the unseen realm -- or perhaps a technique that is now unknown), are calling Unas back from his voyage.

These descriptions of what appears to be a deliberate journey to the seed realm, the realm of the gods, are incredible, and their importance to our understanding of human history cannot be over-emphasized.

There is abundant evidence from around the world that such journeys to the unseen realm can and do create real impact on the ordinary realm. If so, then we can begin to understand why certain people would want to take away this knowledge from the rest of humanity, and keep it all to themselves.

But the evidence of what was once known cannot be suppressed forever. It is there, in plain sight, in the oldest scriptures left anywhere on the planet. It is also preserved in the other sacred traditions of the world's cultures, including the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the myths of the ancient Greeks and the Norse, and nearly everywhere else around the globe. These texts are waiting there patiently for us to recognize them for what they are.  

If you are in the habit of contacting the other realm, perhaps you will find ways to employ some of these ancient aspects of what may well be the oldest extended description of shamanic travel known to humanity.

The Cobra Kai sucker-punch (and why we keep falling for it, over and over and over)

So, I have now spoken about the "Wax on, wax off" metaphor a few times in various interviews, explaining that I think it is an excellent analogy for the concept of "the esoteric," by which deeper meanings are "hidden" underneath the surface appearances, both to "hide" the deeper information from those who would perhaps misuse it but also and more importantly to actually convey or transmit the deeper meaning in a way that speaks to the "intelligence of the heart" and bypasses the often counter-productive "over-thinking" of the left-brain or the "intelligence of the head."

In the metaphor from the original Karate Kid (1984), Mr. Miyagi used an esoteric method to convey a level of knowing to Daniel-San that went far beyond anything he could have imparted by simply "explaining" the concepts to Daniel-San's "head-intelligence." In terms of the movie, Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel-San to "wax the car" or "paint the fence," and the "surface meaning" was the use of those motions to actually wax a car or paint a fence -- but the deeper, esoteric meaning of those motions was to do karate. 

To relate this metaphor from the movie to what I argue has actually taken place in real life in the history of "Western civilization," I believe there was an ancient body of knowledge ("the karate") that was conveyed through a series of special stories, the ancient myths (in the movie, the motions of waxing the car or painting the fence). 

This ancient wisdom was intended for the benefit of humanity, and for the increase in individual consciousness, and it was not just some "navel-gazing hippy-dippy" impractical-for-the-real-world knowledge either: it was an actual system of kung fu or karate, so to speak, through which powerful things could be accomplished that could not be accomplished any other way.

Then, at a specific point in history which we can actually narrow down to real calendar years, a certain "Cobra Kai" school decided that they wanted to use that karate knowledge for their own selfish purposes, and they set out to tell the world that all the myths had a literal interpretation only, and that anyone who was caught teaching that they had an esoteric meaning had to be denounced and strictly punished. In other words, anyone caught teaching that the ancient myths meant anything more than the literal, surface teachings (useful for waxing the car or painting the fence) would be severely punished (sometimes executed in horrible ways, including burning at the stake) and his or her teachings denounced as rankest heresy (if written down, efforts would be made to gather up these writings and burn them as well).

As we might expect, the leaders of the Cobra Kai school themselves knew what the myths were really about (that is, doing karate) and they wanted to keep that karate knowledge all to themselves. That way, you see, it was so much easier to dominate in any situation: they knew karate, and their opponents didn't.

In fact, they didn't even really need to know karate at the deepest levels, because they were almost always using it against opponents who knew nothing about karate or kung fu themselves. The Cobra Kai school could basically get away with using the same basic moves, over and over again, to win bar-fight after bar-fight, simply going from one bar to the next and using their favorite techniques, and the ignorant locals (who may have been both brave and strong and willing to put up their dukes) really didn't stand a chance.

In the scene above, we see Daniel-San (before Mr. Miyagi has decided to teach him the secrets of his family style of karate-do) being set upon by members of the Cobra Kai school, led by the ruthless Johnny. They are, appropriately enough, dressed in black hooded outfits with skeletal outlines of human bones on them (some of them also wear hoods, and their faces are painted to look like skulls). Daniel-San really doesn't stand much of a chance at all of stopping their well-practiced moves.

Pay particular attention to the image at approximately 0:43 in the above video. That's where Johnny delivers the first, telling fist-strike to Danny's gut, after drawing his attention by getting all up in his face. Danny never sees it coming, doubles over in pain, and the fight is basically over from that point on: Johnny can deliver big kicks with impunity against his listless opponent.

The scene is illustrated below, with labels to explain the metaphor:

So, what is this system of "karate" that the Cobra Kai kept for themselves and want to keep from everybody else? 

Well, it's what those sacred myths from around the world are teaching, underneath all of their literal stories about twelve Olympian gods or twelve disciples or nine nights hanging on the World-Tree. Those myths are incredibly important, in just the same way that the motions of "wax on, wax off" and "paint the fence" were incredibly important (notice that Mr. Miyagi insisted that "wax on, wax off" and all the other motions be done in precisely the correct way). 

But their real power is in their underlying esoteric message, which teaches that this universe is composed of the projected, apparently material ordinary reality in which we spend most of our waking hours, as well as an underlying "seed realm" or "unseen realm" of non-ordinary reality, which co-exists with and interpenetrates the ordinary realm. The ability to tap into that unseen realm, and even to journey there in order to bring back information or to effect changes which impact the ordinary realm, is the secret "kung fu" that keeps getting used against the majority of the people on this planet, who don't even know it exists (and who have been taught either to laugh at such notions, or call them dangerously heretical, or evil, etc).

The ability to tap into that realm, and even to travel to it, is not "evil" any more than karate or kung fu are "evil" -- they can certainly be used for evil (as the Cobra Kai demonstrate in the movie), but they can also be used to stop violence and oppression and to protect the people (as Mr. Miyagi demonstrates and endeavors to teach).

If you've ever wondered why the people who are pulling the karate moves on the world like to employ "occult symbolism" (including skeletal imagery, as illustrated in the movie scene shown, as well as many other symbols from the zodiac wheel and the metaphors that accompany it in ancient myth, especially the metaphors having to do with the lower half of the zodiac wheel, symbolizing hell and the underworld), this is why. They are employing the suppressed kung fu of the ancients, which is really an integrated system intended for humanity's benefit, but they are deliberately selecting the darker symbology.

This symbology is often employed in conjunction with their favorite sucker-punches, which can all be seen being employed by the groups which effected this takeover during the early dynasties of the Roman imperial period, and include assassinations (see this previous post entitled "Commodus and Marcus Aurelius"), the employment of proxy armies (such as the "barbarian" armies employed during the later centuries of the Roman Empire, up to and following the split into the Western and Eastern Empires), the employment of two different sides which are apparently bitter rivals but are actually being controlled by those at the top in order to accomplish a pre-planned outcome (such as the apparent rivalry between early literalist Christianity and the so-called "cult" of Sol Invictus Mithras), and a few other patterns which can be seen playing out over and over again down through history, just like Johnny's sucker-punch that does the trick time and time again.

We seem to fall for the sucker-punch every few years. It's as if the ordinary townspeople just never learn, and refuse to look into the possibility that someone is using karate against them. 

The good news, however, is that once these moves are revealed for what they are, they are in fact very easy to recognize. Once enough people see them for what they are, the people may not be as easy to fool, or to lead into a trap. Much of what is being done over and over actually relies on deception and the creation of false narratives -- and depends upon large numbers of people buying into those false narratives (standing there waiting to get hit in the gut, so to speak). As Mr. Miyagi demonstrates, it's best to keep one's guard up when dealing with a group that has demonstrated its willingness to employ such "underhanded" tactics.

The other good news is that, if the above outline is at all close to the truth, this is really a battle not on the "physical plane" but on the plane of truth vs. deception, of consciousness vs. imposed ignorance, and of natural-law rights vs. mind control. It takes place on the level of the spiritual more than anywhere else. In fact, as earlier posts

have discussed, violations of natural universal law are only countenanced and tolerated by most normally-functioning, ethical men and women (which I believe describes the vast majority of humanity) when they convince themselves (or allow themselves to be convinced) that such violations are somehow not violations of natural law. They need some false narrative to assuage their conscience and to rationalize their support of criminal violations of the rights of others, or to temporarily short-circuit their innate sense of justice and get them into a fighting frenzy.

We can actually see this taking place in the Karate Kid clip above, in which the Cobra Kai character "Bobby" tries to call Johnny and the others off after Danny has clearly "had enough," and then Johnny quotes the "mind control" dogmas he and the others have been taught at the Cobra Kai dojo, in order to quash this innate voice of right and wrong and replace it with rigid dictums. (Message to members of Cobra Kai, like Bobby, who have mistakenly been participating in and enabling their bad actions: stop following Johnny! He doesn't care at all about you, except insofar as you enable his goals!)

It is high time for the people to start waking up and stop being the punching bag for the same sucker-punch over and over again. That process starts with information, which is why the rise of alternative platforms where challenges to the official narrative can be aired and examined is such an important development (and so important to support, as discussed here). 

The other important part of the picture is the recognition that there is, in fact, an unseen realm, a fact which is largely ignored (and, as mentioned above, ridiculed) by the majority of the population or at least by those who try to control the flow of opinion and information and who represent the voice of academia and Science and conventional respectable opinion), but which can and almost certainly must be part of the solution, by re-connecting with the positive aspects of humanity's common shamanic heritage (as opposed to the primarily negative aspects that are being employed by a small number of people who wish to oppress and bully everyone else).

Ross Hamilton's Star Mounds

The following is the text of a review I just posted of Ross Hamilton's Star Mounds: Legacy of a Native American Mystery (2012):

Ross Hamilton has done and continues to do a great service to our generation and future generations in his thorough (and ongoing) exploration of the mysterious "Star Mounds" of the Ohio Valley, and his analysis and attempts to unlock their ancient messages, alignments and meanings. His deep knowledge of geometry, sacred geometry, and astronomy, as well as his profound respect for the Native American traditions and legends and teachings, shine through in this beautiful book. The geometric analysis was astonishing, and the connections to the constellations equally significant: these earthworks are truly an often-overlooked wonder of the world (many of the earthworks surveyed by Squier & Davis in the first half of the nineteenth century are now sadly lost), and Ross Hamilton's careful and insightful analysis should increase our awareness of and desire to learn more about these treasures from the distant past, and about those who envisioned them and caused them to take shape upon the terrain of our amazing and wonder-filled world. Through his patient and careful examination and his unique set of skills and abilities, Ross brings to light the truly breathtaking hidden patterns and connections designed into these mounds.

In the first line, I might also have said "and to past generations as well" -- because through his prodigious study and examination of these ancient earthworks Ross Hamilton has helped to discover, express, and preserve at least some of the multi-layered messages that the ancient builders of these incredible monuments were conveying in their monumental design.

The earthworks of the greater Ohio Valley are truly incredible in their size, scope, durability, and layers of mystery. Most well-known among them, perhaps, is the Great Serpent Mound, which Ross shows to function as the central "key" uniting all the far-flung structures, and to which he devoted an entire equally-essential earlier book, The Mystery of the Serpent Mound: In Search of the Alphabet of the Gods (1993), which I discuss in earlier blog posts such as this one and this one.

In that earlier book, Ross Hamilton presents convincing arguments and evidence to demonstrate that the Great Serpent Mound is a terrestrial model and reflection of the celestial serpent found in the constellation Draco; in Star Mounds the author provides additional evidence to demonstrate that the entire network of earthworks in the greater Ohio Valley region (covering -- at least -- an area claimed by four different modern states in the US) represents a vast mirror of the wider heavens, including the constellations of the zodiac band, the circumpolar stars of the north celestial pole, and even the Southern Cross.

Using diagrams of the earthworks created in past centuries by professional surveyors (before some of these precious monuments were obliterated or damaged almost beyond recognition), as well as modern LiDAR imagery, Ross illustrates the celestial connections -- and ties the constellations into Native American myth and legend (the Star Mounds are tied in to Star Myths! incredible!). Some of the most satisfying and difficult-to-dispute connections to celestial formations are those that Ross illustrates between the Newark Complex and the constellation Pisces (especially in his diagram at the top of page 169) and between the works known as the Cross and the constellation Cygnus (page 131), but there are many others, and there are so many correspondences that the resonance cannot be dismissed as being either imagination or mere "coincidence."

This analysis is of tremendous importance, for it demonstrates that the designers of the "Star Mounds" of the Ohio Valley region were involved in the very same kind of monumental terraforming to make the terrestrial landscape reflect the celestial that can be shown to have also taken place in South America, the British Isles, and the Nile River valley of ancient Egypt: the entire "Orion's Belt" thesis of Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval was an important recognition and discussion of this ancient world-wide endeavor, as were earlier works such as John Michell's View Over Atlantis (1969) and New View Over Atlantis (1983) and Kathryn Maltwood's even earlier Guide to Glastonbury's Temple of the Stars (1929).

These undeniable connections to similar projects around our planet make Ross Hamilton's demonstration of the celestial patterns in the North American complex of the Ohio Valley region extremely significant not just to North American history, but to the mysterious history of the entire globe, and to the ancient dictum (which can be shown to operate in all the world's mythologies) of "as above, so below," the microcosm and the macrocosm.

This accomplishment alone would make Star Mounds an essential reference to place in your library next to the other works just mentioned dealing with other regions, but that's not all for the hidden messages that Ross Hamilton has found in these ancient monuments -- not by a long ways. With his formidable knowledge of geometry and proportion, Ross Hamilton discerns undeniable evidence of advanced sacred geometry at work in many of the ancient earthworks -- some of them simply breathtaking.

As just a small example, take for instance his examination of the "works" located in Seal Township,  in Pike County, Ohio, and drawn by Squier & Davis in the illustration shown at top (the entire text of Squier & Davis's Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, published in 1848, can be viewed online here).

Ross Hamilton notes that the Seal Work monument itself consists of a square and a circle, connected by a "neck" feature that is aligned (along with the sides of the square) to true north with near-perfect precision. He points out that this "neck" feature in the Seal Work is the longest known among the Star Mounds. He then proceeds to demonstrate why the length of that neck is so important, and how the distance between the square and the circle was surely no accident or simple random decision by the ancient designers.

Taking the outline of the circle, which is incomplete due to its interruption by a steep cliff, he completes the circle -- shown below in green (these are my illustrations of the explanations that Ross Hamilton shows on page 41 of his book, which the interested reader should consult -- any mistakes in the discussion that follows or the diagrams that I've made to try to illustrate it are my own and should in no way reflect badly upon Ross Hamilton's book):

In the above diagram, I have also added a purple outline to the circular feature, because what happens next is that we slide that purple outline towards the square feature, until the closest edge of the square forms a tangent with the perimeter of the circle, as shown below:

As Ross Hamilton discovered, performing the above operation with the circle of the Seal Works and sliding its outline towards the square forms "a true vesica piscis" (the extremely important shape made by the overlapping outlines of the two circles shown above -- the words vesica piscis are Latin for "bladder of the fish"). The outline is a "true vesica piscis" if the widest point of the vesica touches the center-point of each of the two circles.

This geometric figure was obviously incorporated deliberately into the Seal Works, and it provides tangible evidence of the sophistication and geometric knowledge of the designers. 

It also speaks to their incorporation of sacred spiritual symbology in their Star Mound architecture: for the vesica piscis symbol relates directly to the message conveyed by the Ankh and the Djed discussed in a series of recent posts beginning with "Scarab, Ankh and Djed." That series of posts explores the symbology of the cross (including the Ankh, but also the Djed, which was depicted horizontally "cast down" and then vertically "raised up"), and presents evidence that this common and potent ancient symbol typifies our human condition in our incarnate material form: a horizontal "cast down" or "animal" component (our material, physical body of earth and water) and a vertical "spiritual and immortal" component (the Christ within, the divine spark that comes down from the realm of air and fire to inhabit this body of earth and water).

In The Jesus Mysteries (1999), Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy make the argument that the ancient symbol of the vesica piscis was known to convey the exact same message!

On page 40 of that text, Freke and Gandy provide a vesica piscis illustration, showing how it is the origin of the familiar Christian "icthys" symbol shown below:

In the caption beneath their illustration of the two circles forming a vesica piscis with superimposed icthys, they write:

The sign of the fish is widely used today as a symbol of Christianity, but originated in Pagan sacred geometry. Two circles, symbolic of spirit and matter, are brought together in a sacred marriage. When the circumference of one touches the center of the other they combine to produce the fish shape known as the vesica piscis. The ratio of height to length of this shape is 153:265, a formula known to Archimedes in the third century BCE as the "measure of the fish." It is a powerful mathematical tool, being the nearest whole number approximation of the square root of three and the controlling ratio of the equilateral triangle. 40.

The mathematical approximation of the square root of three that they are referring to is the number 1.732, which is also the result (or quotient) that we get if we divide 265 by 153 (265/153 = 1.732).

Is it not extremely noteworthy that the vesica piscis was anciently seen to be emblematic of the unification of spirit and matter, just as we have seen the crosses of antiquity to have been as well?

Freke and Gandy point out the fact that in the 21st chapter of the New Testament gospel of John, the risen Jesus showed himself to the disciples, who have been fishing all night but without success. From the shore, he directs them to cast their nets on the right side of the ship, and upon doing so they catch so many fish tthat "they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes" (John 21:6). After they get the catch to shore (with the help of another boat), we are told the exact number of the fishes that were caught, in verse 11: "Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken" (John 21:11). Freke and Gandy draw the direct connection to the anciently-revered sign of the vesica piscis and its known ratio of 153:265, and point out that the ancient Pythagoreans "were renowned for their knowledge of mathematics and regarded 153 as a sacred number" (39).

But this subtle incorporation of the sacred vesica piscis is not the only sophisticated mathematical message that Ross Hamilton finds hidden within the Seal Works of Pike County, Ohio. In the illustration below, the area of the square that is connected to the circle is designated as one square unit (for a square with sides of one unit), and the area is placed adjacent to the square, as shown below. A circle is then traced out which touches upon the four corners of the "doubled square" as shown in the illustration:

Here again we see that the distance between the circle and the square at the Seal Works was carefully thought out. Because the new larger circle thus indicated happens to reach precisely to a line drawn tangent to the edge of the original circle, and parallel to the edge of the original square (see diagram). In other words, we can see right away that the size of the square was no accident, if doubling it leads us to be able to draw a circle that precisely reaches to the nearest edge of the earthwork's physical circular space.

But that is not all, because the size of the square, and the distance between the square and the circle, incorporate an even more amazing connection than the one described in the preceding paragraph (as obviously deliberate as that preceding connection must be). Because Ross Hamilton demonstrates that the distance to the outer edge of the circle would be 0.618 units, if the edge of the Seal Works square is 1 unit. In other words, there is a golden ratio indicated by the ratio of the distance between the square and the new larger circle just described. Specifically, this aspect of the golden ratio (the 0.618) is called the sacred cut or the golden cut (for some discussion see here and also look at the subsection entitled "Golden Ratio Conjugate"). 

It would be very difficult to argue that these mathematically demonstrable aspects of the Seal Works were not intentional. Think for just a little while about the beauty and subtlety of the design of this ancient earthwork, and how the size of the circle feature is just right to create a vesica piscis with the distance along the "neck" to the square, and then how the size of the square feature was likewise made to be just right to create a double-square that yields a circle that indicates the golden ratio when placed at that exact same distance (along the "neck" again) back to the original circle!

And this is just one of the amazing earthworks in the Ohio Valley region and the subtle geometrical knowledge that it contains and that it preserved through the centuries (in addition to its celestial mirroring aspects!). There are many more which are equally if not more astonishing, and which Ross Hamilton demonstrates and illustrates in his remarkable book. I should point out that I myself would never have seen these subtle geometrical messages within the Seal Works if Ross Hamilton had not taken the time to discover and present them. He has truly done humanity an important service.

The book also illustrates that most if not all of the works also have a feature which can function as a sort of "hub" around which the outline of the entire earthwork can be (mentally) rotated in a full circle, and that the number of "complete outlines" which fit around such a circle is different in most cases but has some significance to the message of that particular earthwork. Often the fit is a perfect whole number, indicating still further levels of astonishing sophistication and subtlety in the design of these amazing treasures in the landscape.

Knowing what we now know about the incredible ratios built into the Seal Works shape discussed above, the reader will no doubt be as sickened as I was to learn that much of this incredible monument has now been destroyed in order to dig for gravel. The short-sightedness of that fact is difficult to express in words, and it seems distressingly symbolic of much of our modern disregard for the sacred landscape and for the incredible efforts and achievements of those who occupied long before us.

These incredible Star Mounds of North America should be known to all humanity, and should be revered -- not ransacked in order to dig gravel pits.

Ross Hamilton's encyclopedic examination of these earthworks and their stories should go a long way towards bringing this vast ancient heritage site the recognition and reverence that it deserves. We, and future generations, owe him a debt of gratitude for his work.

Support your alternative media information-bearers!

I cannot emphasize enough how important I believe the new brand of "alternative media" platform, which has developed only very recently within the past decade or so, to be to humanity at this particular juncture in history.

That's right -- to all humanity!

Allow me to expand on this topic for just a moment in order to outline the reasoning for such a sweeping statement.

In a very tangible way, our "reality" is created by words, and by "narratives" which give us the lenses we use to view the events taking place around us, and to make sense of what we see (for a couple previous posts on this idea of the "narrative" and on the creation of "realities," see here and here).

For most of human history, at least in the centuries since the end of antiquity (and in the parts of the world which fell under the literalist narrative and became what has been broadly labeled "the West"), the ability of the average man and woman to examine the narratives was limited by several gigantic obstacles that made seeing the big picture very difficult. 

For one thing, literacy was generally very limited -- the ability to read and write was not a skill that was considered necessary for the "lower classes" who produced food and goods through hard manual labor -- nor was it considered a good idea to let these laborers have the ability to read and write. First of all, there were an awful lot of them (the production of food and other goods being very labor-intensive in past centuries), and if they could read and write they might "get ideas," which was also not considered to be a very good thing.

Only in recent centuries has there been a major change in this situation, with a wider and wider band of the population becoming literate (a product of the need for literacy as technology changed and the composition of the economy changed with it). In the past century, we have generally been able to take very high literacy rates for granted, but the control over the sources of information remained extremely narrow until even more recently, with the advent of the internet. 

Prior to the internet, it was theoretically possible to look up information and piece together an alternative viewpoint to the narratives handed down by the "official" media and the consensus of academia, but doing so was still very difficult unless you happened to have access to exceptional libraries and collections, and the time it would take to go visit special collections made piecing together "the big picture" much more difficult.

The internet has changed all of that -- and it has enabled the rise of the very important phenomenon of the alternative media platforms that are the subject of this post. Platforms such as Red Ice Creations (which was one of the pioneers of this model) and other pioneers (we are still very much in the pioneering stage of this development) such as The Higherside Chats

have an extremely important distinguishing feature that sets them apart from other media sources -- including other media sources enabled by the internet.

That feature is the fact that they are directly supported by listeners.

The importance of this feature also cannot be overstated. Consider how important that single difference is. Consider the fact that traditional media channels have usually been supported either by advertising or by direct government funding. 

Obviously, if a media platform is supported by direct government funding, it is unlikely to publish information which directly contradicts narratives supported by the government. If it does, a simple call from the government agency in charge of funding requesting (or even gently suggesting) the removal of any such objectionable information would carry tremendous weight.

Alternative media such as The Higherside Chats would not likely receive government funding to begin with (nor would such a program really want such funding, it is safe to say). But what about the other traditional method of funding a media platform -- advertising? Once again, that method places the content at the mercy of the advertisers to at least some degree, and potentially to a very large degree. 

If a young enterprising podcaster decided to make the providing of a platform where alternative views, no matter how divergent from the mainstream narrative, his or her full-time endeavor (because doing it right, with all the production as well as the preparation and research, might well take more time than someone could do in addition to working another full-time job), and decided to rely on advertising to pay the bills for such a platform, imagine what that might mean for the independence of the content being offered. 

Let's imagine that the enterprising founder of such a show manages to score a few big advertisers, and suddenly finds that the revenues from these advertisers pays for the cost of production and the people necessary to make it work. Then, one day, a guest on the show makes critical remarks about genetically-modified organisms in the food chain, and the biggest advertisers (who happen to be involved in an industry which would prefer less criticism of GMO food, for whatever reason) inform the founder of the show that if any other guests mention the topic in a critical fashion, they will take their advertising dollars elsewhere. 

We can imagine the same scenario playing out for a variety of other interests that would prefer certain aspects of certain narratives not be challenged on public forums (extremely important recent news regarding one aspect of the childhood vaccine narrative is receiving very little media attention outside of alternative channels, for instance).

For this reason, the business model pioneered by Red Ice Creations, in which about half the content is provided for free, and paying members subscribe directly and receive access to additional content, is a very important different approach. It enables providers of alternative media platforms to put in the full-time effort required to bring new and narrative-challenging content (and to take the time necessary to prepare for the interviews that help their listeners get an idea of what that content involves), and to do so in a way that does not place that content at the mercy of centralized interests.

Again, the importance of this fact simply cannot be overstated -- which is why I would personally encourage all of us who care about such content to support these platforms in whatever way we might be able to do so.

Because, as important as it is for researchers to actually go out and find the narrative-challenging information, it is equally important for those researchers to have platforms where they can present that information to the people who are looking for the clues. Alternative media channels make that connection possible. 

Not only that, but when a particular show (such as those already mentioned, and the many other excellent shows which are cropping up around the planet) has on multiple guests over an extended period of time (one after another after another after another for many weeks, months, and even years), then listeners get to hear many different perspectives, many different angles, many different theories -- some of which will contradict one another, and some of which will complement one another. This is the way that new theories can be pieced together; this is the way that mysteries are solved.

As I've said before, we all have our own individual backgrounds, experiences, areas of focus, strengths, weaknesses, subjects we are most drawn to, parts of the puzzle that we are most familiar with. Even Scooby Doo needed the different strengths and weaknesses of Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma to put the whole thing together -- and the mysteries that Scooby was solving were always pretty easy to figure out, once you'd watched a few episodes. For the kinds of mysteries that we face in the real world, it's going to take a whole lot of different personalities and backgrounds -- and one important way of bringing those different voices together is the kinds of media platforms that have developed only in the past several years.

We are living in a very important time. These types of shows were not even available just a few decades ago. We are also living in a time, as mentioned above, in which there is a very large, literate, well-educated "middle class" around the world, with the time and inclination to actually look into these things (in previous centuries, when just growing the crops took up a huge amount of labor and time, and did not really require everyone to know how to read or write, looking into these kinds of matters was simply not as practical as it is right now)*. The internet, and the arrival of this new type of directly-supported alternative media platform, arrived at a very fortuitous time in history, when there is a large number of people who may have hated a lot of the schooling they received but who can be thankful that it gave them the tools to start challenging the narrative in a way that simply was not possible just thirty or forty years ago (at least on the scale that it is possible now).

And so, once again, I would encourage everyone to try to support these new alternative platforms, or at least the ones that they themselves listen to the most (and also to try to find new and upcoming ones that seem to be worth helping to make it). One way to find them is to go to Twitter and look up a few (such as The Higherside Chats, Red Ice Creations, Alchemy Radio, Truth Warrior, Mysterious Universe, The Grimerica Show, and many others) and then see who those platforms are following -- often they follow other alternative media platforms, since after all they are in the same business. In this way, you can find five or ten to investigate.

You could also check out some of the platforms I'm grateful to have interviewed on, such as:

Truth Warrior (and see also The World Was Meant to be Free) Pure Momentum and the aforementioned THC and Red Ice.

To finish up where this conversation started -- if our reality is shaped by narratives, then false narratives which go unchallenged and unexamined can lead us down paths that go in the wrong direction and end up causing enormous harm, suffering, and trauma. Seeing through those false narratives is of absolutely critical importance -- to each of us individually but really to all humanity (we can easily go back through history and find examples of false narratives which have had negative consequences on a worldwide scale). Alternative, independent media platforms are an essential tool for the widespread examination of false narratives, and an essential tool for piecing together alternative hypotheses about what is going on in the world around us.

Please: Support your alternative media information-bearers!

-------------

* Credit to Michael Tsarion for expounding some of the argument presented above (regarding the obstacles in the past to seeing through false narratives and piecing together the "big picture," and the opportunity to do so today) during an Alchemy Radio interview with John Gibbons, as well as to Professor Darrell Hamamoto, who articulated some of the same points in a conversation I had with him this past year.

Mystic Man

As we approach the September 11 anniversary of the horrendous criminal mass-murder destruction that took place in 2001 (that anniversary taking place on this coming Thursday), it is also appropriate to remember that another horrendous murder took place on September 11 in the year 1987, when the poet, prophet, songwriter, and musician Peter Tosh was slain in his home.

His albums are full of songs he composed himself, and each and every one of them is musically compelling, melodious, subtle, and pleasingly satisfying in its chord progression and resolution (some of them quite imaginative and unexpected). 

In addition, his lyrics speak powerfully against oppression and the kinds of violations of natural universal law discussed in the previous post. 

Based on the extremely incongruous details surrounding his murder (including the fact that he was apparently tortured before he was killed, that none of his possessions were taken by the perpetrators, and that two of the three killers were never identified despite the fact that others visited the house while Tosh was being held at gunpoint before being killed, and that one of the three perpetrators served time and was later released early, apparently without ever revealing the identities of the other two), the possibility that his murder was carried out by persons connected to those in power, who had been offended by the contents of his music and his statements against instances of oppression and injustice, must be considered (and the criticisms in his songs went far beyond criticizing the government of Jamaica, but to those he saw as running the entire world-order).

Obviously, murdering someone for his or her beliefs, statements, and verbal opposition to injustice is a gross criminal violation of natural universal law and can never be argued to be legitimate under any circumstances.

Many of Peter Tosh's individual songs are themselves worthy of thoughtful consideration for the insights and truths they contain and illuminate. An artist, songwriter and musician of his caliber can undoubtedly be suspected of being in touch with the other realm and to at times be bringing back glimpses of inspiration from it, to share with the people. We know, for example, that the ancient wisdom of the Greeks attributed such gifts to the Muse (or the Muses), as well as to Apollo (who was both the god of medicine and of music, and who was associated with the premier  oracle of the ancient world, the place where messages from the realm of the gods were most frequently sought, and which were delivered through the Pythia, as discussed in previous posts).

As seen in the video above, one of Peter Tosh's entire albums was entitled Mystic Man (released in 1979). The term itself, mystic, specifically refers to one who makes contact with the unseen realm (or one with whom spirits or entities from the unseen realm themselves initiate contact). 

All of the lyrics of the title track ("Mystic Man") are worthy of examination, and carry clear resonances with many of the concepts discussed previously in conjunction with the shamanic worldview, including a series of denunciations against alcohol, and against drugs created by concentration, purification, and enhancement of the alkaloids in the opium poppy (morphine and heroine) or the coca plant (cocaine). 

It is extremely revealing that a song entitled "Mystic Man," in which the lead singer declares he is a Mystic Man and thus one who makes contact with the spirit world, categorically rejects these substances: this tension strongly resonates with the topic discussed in the previous post entitled  "The heron of forgetfulness." 

Later in the song, there is a series of stanzas denouncing the consumption of fried chicken, frankfurters, hamburgers, and "soda pop" (and that was even before soda pop was filled up with sweeteners which are almost always derived from genetically-modified corn or sugar beets, as they are today). The fact that the list primarily denounces food items made by killing animals resonates with the many ancient philosophical arguments against raising and killing animals for food, some of which have been discussed in previous blog posts including "Ovid on Pythagoras and the abstention of eating the flesh of animals," "The ancients and the 'plant-based diet' debate," and "Plutarch's 'On the Eating of Flesh'." 

There was also an additional post which ties together both the subject of eating the flesh of animals and the subject of genetically-modified crops, exploring Plutarch's argument that to say "we cannot feed the world without them" is an insult to Demeter and Dionysus (see "Plutarch, Demeter, and genetically-modified food").

Below are the complete lyrics of the song (at least as I hear them). The italicized lines represent lines which are sung by the echoing responses of the accompanying singers, while the non-italic lines are those sung by Peter Tosh:

I'm a Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

I'm just a Mystic Man

Mystic Man

I man don't

I man don't, I man don't

I don't drink no champagne

Don't drink no champagne

No I don't

And I man don't

I man don't

Noooo

I man don't

I don't sniff them cocaine

Don't sniff no cocaine

'Cho brain

I man don't

I man don't

No I don't

I man don't

Don't take a morphine

Don't take no morphine

Dangerous

I man don't

I man don't, I man don't

I don't take no heroin

Don't take no heroin

No no no

'Cause I'm a

Man of the past

and I'm

Living in the present

and I'm

Walking in the future

Stepping in the future

Man of the past

and I'm

Living in the present

and I'm

Walking

in the future

Walking

Stepping in the future

I'm just a Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

Got to be a Mystic Man

Mystic Man

I man don't

I man don't, I man don't

Eat up your fried chicken

Eat up your fried chicken

Not lickin'

I man don't

I man don't, I man don't

Eat up them frankfurter

Eat up the frankfurter

Garbage

I man don't

I man don't, I man don't

Eat down the hamburger

Eat down the hamburger

Can't do that

I man don't

I man don't, I man don't

Drink pink, blue, yellow, green soda

Soda pop, soda pop

'Cause I'm a

Man of the past

and I'm

Living in the present

and I'm

Walking in the future

Stepping in the future

Man of the past

and I'm

Living in the present

and I'm

Walking

in the future

Keep on walking

Stepping in the future

Just a Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

Got to be a Mystic Man

Mystic Man

I man don't

No I don't

Play fool's games on Saturday

And I man don't

No I don't

Congregate on a Sunday

No I don't

Such a Mystic Man

Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

Mystic Man

'Cause I'm a

Man of the past

and I'm

Living in the present

and I'm

Walking in the future

Stepping in the future

Man of the past

and I'm

Living

and I'm

Walking in the future

Stepping in the future

Such a Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

Got to be a Mystic Man

Mystic Man

Just a Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

Such a, such a,

Mystic Man

Such a, such a

Mystic Man

Such a Mystic Man

Does writing something on a piece of paper make it a "law"?

"Whew! You sure gotta climb a lot of steps to get to the Capitol Building here in Washington. 

Well I wonder who that sad little scrap of paper is?"

And with those words began one of my childhood favorite Schoolhouse Rock videos, which used to be on television back in the early 1970s when I wasn't really old enough to have any idea what exactly they were all about, or why they would sometimes show up in between episodes of Superfriends, Speed Racer, or Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

In  I'm just a bill," we witness the progress by which "that sad little scrap of paper" receives a fancy seal and a president's signature and becomes a law ("He signed ya, Bill: Now you're a Law!").

Although the video does an admirable job depicting some of the checks and balances contained in the US Constitution, through which the members of both houses of the legislature must agree to send the bill forward to the executive branch for final approval before any proposed bill is signed into law, it does tend to convey the impression that any "good idea" can be transformed into "a Law" through the magical process of being debated by important-looking men in impressive-looking buildings with lots of steps and Greek columns, on top of high hills (and filled with long rows of impassive US Marines in dress blue uniforms, and statues of distinguished statesmen from previous generations), signed by the president using a fountain pen, and affixed with a shiny-looking seal with a ribbon.

Nineteenth-century abolitionist, legal scholar and philosopher Lysander Spooner (1808 - 1887) would vehemently disagree that something becomes "a law" just because it goes through the above process and receives a president's signature and a fancy stamp. In fact, he published a treatise in 1850 entitled A Defence for Fugitive Slaves against the Acts of Congress of February 12, 1793 and September 18, 1850, in which he argued that an illegal law is no law at all, and confers no obligation on anyone to obey it, nor any authority to anyone desiring to enforce it.

He begins his treatise with the complete copy of each of the two acts in question, both of which were considered "law" in 1850, compelling men or women who knew of a "fugitive slave" to help catch that "fugitive slave" or face penalties including fines and imprisonment (the term "slave" is put in quotation marks here because Spooner argues that no person can ever own another person, and that there actually is no such thing as a legal slave or the legal condition of slavery, all so-called "laws" which make one person the property of another being illegal and criminal).

Those two so-called laws (the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850) were both signed by the presidents of their day, George Washington in the first instance and Millard Fillmore in the second (they also bear the signatures of the respective Speakers of the House and Presidents of the Senate). But these signatures do not make them true laws, according to Spooner's arguments. Spooner demonstrates that holding anyone else as property is a crime, and that putting something on paper, stamping it with fancy seals, embellishing it with fancy legal language, and endorsing it with the signatures of people bearing impressive titles does not make it into law: it's still just a "sad little scrap of paper" in his eyes.

He even goes so far as to say that men and women have the right to resist illegal laws, in what is undoubtedly among the most important sections of his argument, found on pages 27 and 28. There, he powerfully dismantles the counter-arguments that he anticipates from those who would argue that once something is "a law," it must be obeyed until it is repealed.

If it were really true that an illegal or unconstitutional law must be obeyed until repealed, he reasons, then "there would therefore be no difference at all between a constitutional and an unconstitutional law, in respect to their binding force; and that would be equivalent to abolishing the constitution, and giving to the government unlimited power" (28).

Those who would disagree with Lysander Spooner on this point are invited to participate in a mental experiment, in which they imagine that the president has signed a law saying that if you in any way hinder the search for an escaped slave, or in any way assist a person who has been designated a "slave" and who has run away and is hiding from the authorities, then you yourself are a criminal and can be subject to enormous fines and imprisonment. Note that this is not just a hypothetical scenario: the first and the thirteenth presidents of the United States each signed such a proposition into "law."

Today, nobody reading this blog would likely argue that they would feel a moral duty to obey such a "law," or that they would have to actually support it until such time as they could eventually get it repealed through the same arduous process depicted in the Schoolhouse Rock video shown above.

Nearly every man or woman would agree with Spooner that the institution of slavery and "laws" enforcing one person's ability to "own" another are not laws but rather outrageous crimes, and would reject the notion that writing such a "law" down on a piece of paper, stamping it with a pretty seal and adding some flowery signatures suddenly turns it into something that must be willingly and voluntarily obeyed until it can be debated and eventually repealed.

Writing something on a piece of paper does not make it a law.

But, if this is true, then what does make something a law? Lysander Spooner argued that the actions of men and women cannot actually make anything a law, but that there is already an immutable or unchangeable universal law which he called "Natural Law" or the "Science of Justice." He believed that human society should only enforce natural law, and not dream up additional or "artificial" laws, and that trying to add to or subtract from the natural law is as foolish as trying to add to or subtract from other natural laws, such as the law of gravity.

He argued that men and women could voluntarily band together to help ensure compliance with this natural law among their group, but that they could not compel others to join that voluntary association. Even within such a voluntary association, he believed that people or groups could only rightly compel compliance with the natural law, which was generally extremely simple and basically entailed the command to "live honestly, hurt no one, and give everyone his or her due."

In an 1882 publication entitled Natural Law; or The Science of Justice, Spooner set out to explain the concept of natural law. In it, he made a distinction between those things that everyone has a legal duty to either do or to refrain from doing, and which others can and must compel in others, and those things which everyone has a moral duty to do but which must be left up to each person's own judgment and which no one has the right or duty to compel.

Below is a table based upon Spooner's 1882 text, generally following the order and wording of his argument:

The left column (labeled "Legal Duty" and highlighted in yellow), in Spooner's view, constitutes those things which are part of the natural law, and can actually be the only things which anyone can rightfully use force to uphold. He says that everyone has a duty to refrain from injuring others, and that force may and must be used when someone sees someone else in the act of injuring someone else. Spooner further argues in that 1882 text that nearly everyone understands these natural law prohibitions and duties before they are even old enough to know that "three and three are six, or five and five ten" (9).

The right column (labeled "Moral Duty" and highlighted in green), in Spooner's view, constitutes those things which we do have a moral duty to perform, but which no one else can compel us to do: we must judge the extent to which we are able to do those things, and how we wish to best accomplish them when we do decide to do them.

Thus, in Spooner's view, any so-called law that goes beyond the legal duties in the left column (or, worse yet, directly contradicts and violates those legal duties, as did the Fugitive Slave Acts) is actually no law at all and it can and must be disobeyed as illegal and criminal, regardless of whether it was written down on paper using legal-sounding language and passed by men and women in fancy buildings and stamped with fancy stamps and inscribed with fancy signatures.

At this point, the reader may be thinking that all of this is very nice, but what on earth does it have to do with the general subject matter covered in this blog?

The answer is: everything. 

Because, as insightful thinkers such as Mark Passio have articulated, violations of natural law are so contrary to our innate understanding of right and wrong (remember that Spooner says we know it before we even know that 3 + 3 = 6) that artificial laws which violate natural law must always be dressed up with various symbols and word-formulas designed to convey legitimacy, and reinforced by systems of mind control by which men and women who should know that those violations are immoral can somehow be made to believe that those violations of natural law are instead right and good and deserving of support.  

Institutionalized violations of natural law are nearly always accompanied by powerful forms of illusion, or the creation of "false realities" that enable those violations to appear legitimate, and to get people to go along with them. 

Therefore, seeing through these false realities is of absolutely primary importance. This blog primarily examines false realities which can be seen operating all around us, including in the realm of conventional history as taught in all the institutions of academia and reinforced by the organs of the conventional media (see for example "Piercing the fog of deception that hides the contours of history" and also the two short videos entitled "The importance of challenging false narratives").

These false realities or false narratives which cause people to accept gross violations of natural law are operating today with just as much force as they were operating in Spooner's day -- perhaps even more so.

False narratives assist in getting people to accept the premise that so-called "laws" permitting government surveillance of individual men and women at virtually any time and place are legitimate (see here and here). This is a violation of natural law in that it enables hidden enforcers and observers to treat individuals as criminals on the suspicion that they might do something to harm others, elevating some to the status of "prison guards" and demoting everyone else to the status of prisoners under constant suspicion and surveillance.

False narratives convince people to accept the idea that men and women can and should be locked up and denied their freedom for possessing certain plants or mushrooms known to induce a state of ecstasy. This is a violation of natural law in that it uses force to prohibit behavior that in no way harms the person or property of another or infringes on another's rights.

False narratives convince people to accept the idea that men and women representing the government and wearing military gear and driving military vehicles can point military weapons at people assembling in the streets to express themselves, or at people in their homes in a neighborhood where fugitives are supposedly hiding. These are clear violations of natural law in that such actions basically declare that force can be used against citizens whenever it is convenient for the government to say there is a need to do so, an idea which Spooner eloquently demolishes in pages 27 and 28 of his text against the Fugitive Slave Acts. In a passage labeled "Section IV" of his 1882 treatise on Natural Law, Spooner declares that the rights belonging to every human being by the unchangeable principle of justice "necessarily remain with him [or her] during life," and although these rights are "capable of being trampled upon" they are nevertheless "incapable of being blotted out, extinguished, annihilated, or separated from" each and every human being, and that there is no authority high enough to simply declare them null or void.

False narratives have even apparently convinced some people that it is somehow excusable to cover up evidence of the potentially harmful effects of vaccines on certain children in order to support "herd immunity."

All of the above examples, along with the many other violations of natural law currently taking place, are enabled and excused by a variety of false realities or false narratives, created and maintained in order to lend an air of legitimacy to these violations. So were many other horrendous violations of natural law which were enabled by false narratives and illusions throughout history, including the enslavement of Africans which Spooner argued against in the 1850s, to the destruction of Native American tribes in the western US after the end of the US Civil War and the seizure of their lands and their confinement to reservations or "agencies," to the seizure of the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines in the years after that, and on and on right up to the present.

All of the above examples were enabled by lies, illusions, and false narratives or false realities.  For more on breaking through illusions and false realities, and creating new realities, see for example this previous post entitled "Jon Rappoport's talk on the trickster-god and creating reality."

It is one of Lysander Spooner's singular contributions that he perceived and forcefully argued that a criminal "law" is no law at all, and that men and women have the right and the duty to treat it as such, and to inform others of their right to do the same.

Putting something on paper doesn't make it a "law" -- even if it has been adorned with all the necessary stamps and signatures. As Spooner alludes in the writings linked above, the US Constitution as originally designed, and especially the Bill of Rights as originally conceived, were designed to safeguard natural-law rights in many ways, and to the extent that Schoolhouse Rock taught those principles to a new generation in the 1970s, it can be commended. Perhaps Spooner's arguments about an illegal law being no law at all could not really be expected to be squeezed into the "I'm Just a Bill" song.

But Lysander Spooner's arguments deserve to be brought into the modern era, in much the same way that the creators of Schoolhouse Rock tried to speak to the younger generation of the 1970s using the language and imagery of the 1970s. Spooner's arguments on behalf of the individual's rights under natural law -- rights which could never be abridged by any authority -- and his arguments against the creation of arbitrary "laws" which everyone has to obey just because a legislature or a president gave them the title of a "law" deserve examination, consideration, and thoughtful debate today more than ever.

And the false narratives supporting so-called laws which supposedly authorize some people to use violence against others, or to threaten violence against others, or to take away the freedom of others when those others have not done anything to harm anyone else's persons or property, must be shown to be the form of mind control that they are. No individuals or groups can give themselves the right to violate natural law and in doing so to infringe on anyone else's rights, simply by writing something down on a "sad little scrap of paper."

The heron of forgetfulness

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

In the previous post entitled "How many ways are there to contact the hidden realm?" we saw the breadth and variety of the techniques which human beings have used around the world, across different cultures, and across the centuries to achieve a condition of ecstasy: of freeing their consciousness temporarily from the material anchor of the body and its normal senses.

While many of the techniques employed do indeed make use of substances including cannabis, tobacco, mushrooms and others, it is also notable that many of them do not. While many of the  consciousness-altering substances used in traditional shamanic cultures to induce ecstasy (including mushrooms, peyote, cannabis, and ayahuasca) have been outlawed over the years, it is similarly noteworthy that possession of "consciousness-altering drums" has also been widely and vigorously persecuted for centuries -- probably even more widely and for longer periods of time than have the consciousness-altering plants and mushrooms. 

Interestingly enough, in the Poetic Edda, where the account of the shamanic self-sacrifice of the Norse god Odin is described, the same section containing the account of Odin's vision-quest to obtain the knowledge of the runes (the Havamal) also contains a warning against intoxication (in this case, by drinking too much mead or beer). Beginning in stanza 13, we read:

13. Over beer the bird of forgetfulness broods,

And steals the minds of men;

With the heron's feathers fettered I lay

And in Gunnloth's house was drunk.

14. Drunk I was, I was dead-drunk,

When with Fjalar wise I was;

'Tis the best of drinking if back one brings

His wisdom with him home.

[. . .]

19. Shun not the mead, but drink in measure;

Speak to the point or be still;

For rudeness none shall rightly blame thee

If soon thy bed thou seekest.

The above lines can be found by scrolling down to the page marked [31] in the online version of the Elder Edda (Poetic Edda) linked above. That online version is not the easiest to navigate, but by looking for the bracketed "page-numbers" the above verses can be found.

These verses, coming as they do in the same section of the Edda in which the shamanic ordeal is mentioned, seem to establish a fairly sharp contrast between the idea of becoming intoxicated (discussed in primarily negative terms, and as a condition to be generally avoided) and traveling out of the body (the result of which, in Odin's case, is presented as positive, and the methodology of which is presented as necessary).

The image of the "bird of forgetfulness" brooding over the beer, repeated a couple of lines later as a heron which traps the intoxicated with the "fetters" of its feathers (perhaps we might call these the "fettering feathers of forgetfulness") is pretty unforgettable. It's powerful imagery, coupled with delightful alliteration (Norse poetry, as also Anglo-Saxon poetry, made much use of alliteration), and causes a pang or two of regret among those of us who have met that heron a few too many times.

Notably, however, there is within the warning lines (which generally present drunkenness in an entirely negative light) a reference to the mead of Gunnlod, when the speaker switches to first-person in stanza 14, indicating that it is now Odin who is speaking, and that the quest to obtain the mead of poetry (which has many aspects of a shamanic journey, especially the transformation into an eagle but also the descent into a hole in the mountain and the retrieval of hidden knowledge that could not be obtained in any other way) did involve intoxication as part of the process.

This tension between the consciousness-lifting process of crossing over to the other realm, and the generally consciousness-deadening condition of becoming "drunk, dead drunk" and imprisoned by the feathers of the bird of forgetfulness (forgetfulness being pretty much the polar opposite of the usual purpose of the shamanic journey, which is to obtain knowledge rather than forget it) is found in other cultures as well -- to the point that it is worth exploring further.

In Mircea Eliade's encyclopedic 1951 study of shamanic culture and practice (Shamanism: Archaic techniqes of ecstasy, also mentioned in the post cataloguing shamanic technique), some representatives of shamanic cultures seem to indicate that the need to use of mind-altering substances to induce ecstasy is seen in a somewhat negative light, at least in some cases and in some cultures. Eliade points to the existence of opinions and attitudes that: "Narcotics are only a vulgar substitute for 'pure' trance [. . .] the use of intoxicants (alcohol, tobacco, etc.) is a recent innovation and points to a decadence in shamanic technique. Narcotic intoxication is called on to provide an imitation of a state that the shaman is no longer capable of attaining otherwise" (401).

This attitude (part of a pattern Eliade finds stretching across numerous shamanic cultures of a belief in the "decadence of shamans," in other words, a belief or tradition in the shamanic cultures themselves that shamanic technique and capability had decreased over time) is extremely interesting: there appears to be some recognition that, while the use of intoxicating substances may be a path to the shamanic state of ecstasy, their use can also be a crutch -- and even worse, can lead to an imitation of shamanic ecstasy and not the real thing.

This tradition, from some of the shamanic cultures that Eliade and his other sources examined, would seem to be an important warning to those of us coming from "Western cultures" where knowledge of the shamanic was largely hunted down and violently suppressed for centuries. The danger posed by those offering "imitation" shamanic journeys, based more in intoxication than in the travel to the actual realm of the spirits, is one that we may want to keep in mind. 

It is also notable that the great Sioux leader Crazy Horse, whose own personal vision was recounted in this previous post, was known for his refusal to drink alcohol (as Stephen F. Ambrose points out on page 220 of his 1975 book about Crazy Horse, which is linked in that previous post).

And it is perhaps also worthy of noting that in the Ghost Dance movement, which used dancing and drumming late into the night on multiple nights in a row in order to enable participants to achieve a state of ecstasy, alcohol was similarly discouraged. It might even be worth pointing out that in Rastafari practice, while ganja is revered, alcohol was also traditionally frowned upon.

All of this is not to suggest that one method of achieving contact with the hidden realm is "good" while others are "bad," or to "privilege" one method over another -- far from it. In fact, the whole point of examining the incredibly multifarious array of methodologies utilized around the world and across the centuries was really to point out that men and women appear to be inherently designed to be able to make contact with the other realm by methods that will be available no matter what type of climate or environment or culture they happen to find themselves in. 

However, the fairly widespread evidence of a clear tension between paths that lead to "intoxication" or "forgetfulness," and paths that lead to what Eliade called "pure" trance (putting "pure" in quotation marks himself) suggests that we should carefully ponder the warning that these voices from traditional shamanic cultures are giving us, to be careful of shortcuts, "imitation ecstasy," and the feathers of that dreaded heron of forgetfulness.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).