causticus: trees (Default)
2018-12-06 04:48 pm

Absolute Good cannot exist in the Material Universe

The idea that Absolute Good can exist in the Material Universe is perhaps the most literal understanding of the aspiration of "bringing Heaven to Earth." Going by the wisdom of the great sages of gnosis (East and West), we come to the simple conclusion that the ultimate object of this aspiration is fool's gold and any serious attempt to bring it to fruition will manifest as some form of utopian delusion of grandeur and thus only result in a magnificent disaster.

Why? Because, the Material is inherently a mixed realm; it's an place where light and darkness, order and chaos, knowledge and ignorance, ect., both coexist. The Material is the ultimate battle arena. As long as there is darkness, chaos and entropy, there will be change and flux. Under these conditions, the forces of Order will never be able to maintain the same form for a very long period of time. Entropy (decay) eventually gets the best of anything solid.

From the Gathas (Hymns) of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Yasna 30:

3: Within the conscious mind of man there are the Twins, those two mentalities which talk among themselves: in thoughts, words and deeds, these two mentalities greatly differ in that one is supremely better and the other supremely worse; those people who are possessed of good understanding are able to discern Truth from falsehood, but for those of who lack understanding, they are unable to make this discernment and thus fall prey to the wicked mentality.

4: When these two mentalities intermingle, both life and destruction result; And as long as the cycles of life and destruction exist, this mixed state of affairs will persist in one way or another; The worst mind is that of the wicked and the best mind is that of the person who earnestly cultivates Truth.


What he's talking about here is consciousness in general and how we can conceptualize there being two fundamental poles toward which consciousness can be oriented. The highest is the Divine Light of the Spiritual realms far above the Material. And the lowest is the the most base, chaotic and bereft of Divine Light; that which can only look down toward matter.

Ultimately, a conscious being here in the Material must go inward and get in touch within their Divine Spark in order to draw on the Light of Truth from the higher planes. Absolute Good does exist in the highest of planes; such a place that is totally uncorrupted by chaos, disorder, ignorance and entropy. Even the highest of ideals eventually become corrupted here in the Material. We see with Zarathustra's own teachings, which originally espoused in the form of purely philosophical principles; the dualities he expounded upon were concepts. Only later did his teachings undergo the typical process of perversion and degradation. What begun as a simple duality of consciousness devolved into mythological doctrines full of comic book dualism; the sort of childish dualism that eventually rubbed off on the Abrahamic religions. Dualist dogma makes for quite potent narrative propaganda political and priestly elites can utilize to frame themselves as the ultimate good guys, and anyone who opposes them as being the servants of cosmo-demonic forces.

On a more mundane level, the pursual of rigid Order is another pitfall that must be avoided. Eternal Earthly Order is the conservative cousin to Libertine Utopianism; both result in foolish and destructive ideologies, which always become consumed by their own shadows. Rigid Order results in tyranny, stagnation and the total inhibition of creativity and innovation. To employ a Jungian dichotomy here, we could say that an obsessive devotion to Order will only aggravate and bring forth the chaotic forces of the Unconscious. Obsessive devotion to Order almost always involves the snuffing out of any perceived enemies of whatever that Order is imagined to be. That old saying, "if you stare into the abyss to long, it just might stare right back at you," is quite apropos regarding this topic.

The better way of coping with chaotic life in the Material seems to be embracing the Golden Mean, which is the happy medium between excesses. Of course Order needs to be maintained to keep the forces of chaos at bay, but there needs to be many outlets of benign chaos to be permitted among the people. An individual or community cannot keep chaos in check if they become consumed by that chaos. This why we will always need a balance between things like: right/left, rules/permissiveness, novelty/repetition, work/leisure ect. Basically, enough Order to keep the whole thing held together, and enough chaos to make the endeavor sufficiently fun and dynamic. Meanwhile, seekers can pursue the Absolute Good within themselves and on their own terms.
causticus: trees (Default)
2018-12-03 08:48 pm

Archons and Things

At the most metaphorical level, the so-called "Archons" are the natural forces of the cosmos; specifically those which regulate the cosmos and the multitudinous natural phenomena which comprise the cosmos. In most of the Gnostic mythological accounts, the Archons are conscious and sentient entities, even if they are something more akin to AI constructs rather than beings imbued with Spirit from the highest planes.

In terms of human spiritual evolution (out of our meat-sack prisons and to higher and happier places) the Archons serve as the limiting forces which inhibit our higher potential; those roadblocks and hurdles that constantly dog us on our journey up the mountain. Of course, many of the Christian Gnostics anthropomorphized the Archons and cast them as malevolent, demon-like figures. How literal one believes in the Archon mythos if of course up to the individual seeker. Zoroaster (Zarathustra) was probably the first great spiritual figure to demonize the not-so-holy forces of nature; those forces which his tribal brethren and priestly contemporaries had worshiped as gods (devas). We could say that many centuries after Zoroaster's rebellion (against the old Vedic cults), the demonization of intelligent non-human beings residing in the psychic (soul) planes really started to pick up. And we know quite well that the Abrahamic religions took this practice to an extreme and ultimately demonized ANY sentient life that's not either God, the angels, or human beings; everything else be damned!! (literally) Zoroastrianism actually offered a middle ground between the two poles of nature-worshiping Polytheism and strict Monotheism; in Zoroastrianism the beneficent aspects of nature were re-branded as angelic forces (Yazatas) and the malefic ones as daevas.

What we don't know so much is how the Christian Gnostic sects spiritual entities that don't fit squarely into the angel/demon binary. That would be something interesting to look into, granted any definitive evidence of their position on this matter can be found in surviving texts. The Hindu and Buddhist traditions seem to treat this issue in the most balanced and nuanced manner; their positions on this might be the best to work from when it comes to the great work of reconstructing a coherent and beautiful Gnostic religion for today's world.
causticus: trees (Default)
2018-11-07 11:34 am

Did Zoroaster overthrow the old Vedic religion?

I've seen this accusation thrown around by a few intellectual hobbyists on various internet message boards. My own answer to this question is a simple, "probably not."

From reading the Gathas of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) many times over and even producing my own English rendering, it seems to me that Zarathustra probably did not intend to "overthrow" the version of the primordial IE tradition practiced in his own neck of the woods (Central Asia), but rather cleanse the religious practices of some of the localized corruptions that had accumulated during his time. The rigid "good vs. evil" dualism we find in the Zoroastrianism of much later times than Zarathustra (that in turn greatly influenced the Abrahamic religions) was only implied in the Gathas and only a philosophical teaching about a metaphysical duality of light vs. darkness and the general ethical orientations which self-conscious individual adopt along these lines.

I suspect that it was Zoroaster's disciples and subsequent generations of priests/practitioners who codified and ossified the original Avestan teachings into a sectarian dogma that eventually became a significant departure from the original paleo-Vedic stream it originated from. By the Achaemenid period, the Mazdean creed (which was still largely an oral tradition and not yet a centralized institution) had absorbed so many Mesopotamian features, aesthetics and attitudes that it bore little resemblance to the original practices found in Bronze Age Central Asia. By the Sassanid period it was a full-fledged Middle Eastern religion and the institutionalized priesthood of this time would have remade Zoroaster into a Semitic-style prophet. When in actuality, the historical Zoroaster (if he did indeed exist and was not just a legend) would have been more like an archaic Maha-Rishi (Great Sage-Seer) rather than a humble figure who passively receives divine grace and revelations from a higher power.

And finally, the religious divisions of Zoroaster's time was probably one small part of a great set of conflicts taking place Central Asia during the very warlike late Bronze Age period (first half of the Age of Aries. From both Vedic and Avestan accounts, it's clear there was a "Deva vs. Asura" war, which in reality would have reflected a broader tribal/factional conflict and of course the respective priesthoods belonging to each faction. Zarathustra's cult were merely one part of the Asura (Ahura) side, with the later non-Mazdean Iranic pagan practices emerging from that stream. The Deva factions would have been the ancestral Indo-Aryans who migrated away from the Aryan homeland in Central Asia (probably indicating they were the losers of the broader conflict) in multiple directions; the most notable being the migration through the Khyber Pass and into the Indian subcontient where they would merge with the Indus Valley remnants (an already-collapsed civilization, not the victims of a grand "Aryan Invasion") and form the nuclear of the great Indian Civilization that would soon emerge. The other Indo-Aryans mostly migrated into the Middle East, where they would mix with peoples native to Eastern Anatolia and become warrior elites lording over several kingdoms in Mesopotamia and Syria (Kassites rulers of Babylon and the Mittani kingdom, respectively).

Anyway, I digress and could babble on about this ad infinitum. The overall point is that the history behind these religious divergences is way more complex and nuanced than any simple narrative would require.