Trickster
teaches us that we must sometimes dance with ambiguity awhile to discover life’s
deeper mysteries. (page
133) We can break the shell that holds us prisoner to the illusion of
certainty, unleashing renewal that dances like the whirlwind across the inner
landscape. (page 159)
Trickster is the intermediary who is not that good nor that wicked, who
doesn’t seek the absolutes of certainty that civilization is always approaching
(and never reaches).
We find that the middle road.. becomes our willingness to let go. (page
133)
This is a clear echo of Paul Kantner’s Blows Against the Empire,
and specifically
Full title of quote: “It’s a fresh wind that blows against the empire”.
A fresh wind is the province of action, and is seen in the description of the
fight between Gilgamesh and Enkidu (prev), as well as in the way Shamash
heard the prayers of Gilgamesh and against Humbaba he stirred up the mighty
winds.. Lo! He cannot move forward! Lo! He cannot
move backward! And so Humbaba relented. Gilgamesh said: “Now that I have
discovered your dwelling, I will enter your house!” (page 179)
Hohne makes the point that
The whirlwind in many cultures represents the divine as it manifest on
earth.
And that, in dream
We will be picked up and placed into another context, releasing us of
our controlling tendencies. (page 193)
It is the principle of movement that frees us from suffocating certainty
(of the head) and places us in the land of action (body), or The Wizard of
Oz.
The gusty laughter of the barbarian is a signpost of Conan’s footloose,
elemental nature that cannot be held by civilized ways. The principle of
movement, the divine spark of independent will and unwillingness to be held by
civilized certainties, is also present in the barbaric awareness.
Civilized Man is now trapped by the illusion of certainty, essentially
since it’s an illusion of the head, of words and images (perspective, sun).
Outside of that is the regenerative principle of renewal that spreads vitality
and real meaning in the movement of people across landscape (the pioneer wagon
trail going East to West).
Whether it is Kantner’s naked children in the Universe, or the dream of
the hippies, it is a real dream of planting the seeds of renewal, starting
afresh and with purpose.
The modern world in its certainties (numerical, monetary) contains in
its collective consciousness the Shadow Self of the Forest (Pictorial 64).
The inner becomes the outer projection of fear; fear of disorder, of the
mythical substratum that is the principle of regeneration from decay, all of
which are personified by the hunt (the moon, Artemis).
The hunt is everlasting action, blood, death and renewal through
regenerative principles of lifecycle and rebirth. This entire area of myth and
of independent human existence under the stars is a subject of fear and
repression. The reason seems to be that the concept of pure order contains
within it a Shadow Self that is repressed, and projected as fear of disorder,
the primal forest, the labyrinth of myth.
Essentially, pure order can only exist as illusion, since it really
means the sun (reflection, perspective). The principle of regeneration contains
within it mortality, disorder and decay. This was the rationale behind
Gilgamesh’s wish to build a fitting monument to his rule, by felling the cedars
and usurping the mythical rule of the Guardian of the Forest (his Shadow Self Pictorial
65).
Kantner’s album expresses the spirit of freshness and wild regeneration
in the Universe (or Earth) and especially in the act of rebellion against the
Empire of the Acolyte (sorcerer, head) – as opposed to the lusty freedom of the
body.
The modern world is a weak illusion of acolytes, but a very convincing
one of the sun (perspective) and so we view the universe in terms of parallel lines
(the vanishing point of technique).
But that is not what the universe is if it is symmetrical. The Earth
spins midway between moon and sun (Artemis and Apollo) and as it spins we see
the stars and planets in their configurations and wandering ways.
So, why is the universe symmetrical? Because it is an Earth power of
movement in the cosmos. Because of myth. Myth is a way of recognizing an
underlying substratum of reality.
If you don’t wanna recognize that, you’re welcome to your solar
illusions with Bezos and the rest of the “smart planet” aficionados. For the
rest of us, a good point of departure is this Hyborian map.
(Conan the
Unconquered, Robert
Jordan)
Or the one
previously shown of a plotline from Savage Sword
C12
The really big
thing about archaic maps is that they depict the symmetry of reality. The North
is frigid and Ymir-like; the South is jungle-drummed; the East is exotic, turbaned,
sultry; the West is castled, dim-lit and rousting.
All that is so
because the Earth spins, identifying the direction of East-West and the South
and North poles. The East has certain attributes of psyche (oneness or
wholeness); the west the opposites of individualism. The North has ice giants;
the South Witch Doctors.
Even if no one
can deny the Earth spins, “they” do deny it explicitly by the use of atomic
clocks to run global AI. When Einstein said, “Time is an illusion” (prev), he
may have had in mind atomic clocks, since the only certain thing about them is
that they’re certain!
By contrast, the
movements of Earth through space establish some of the most real experiences of
all; the everlasting sunrise, the crescent moon, solstices at Stonehenge. So,
why is it real? Because you’re experiencing physical symmetry in the universe,
accomplished by the movements of physical objects.
The movements
are not as certain as atomic clocks, since they wobble and precess, but they
are real whereas atomic clocks are only certain.
We live in a world
of the illusion of certainty; this is why East is West and North becoming
South; we all live in the same illusion.
If you say the illusion
started with Newton (C4), it is reaching its nadir in the smart planet
of pure order run by atomic clocks (AI). It’s an illusion because time is
something we experience – as imperfect beings. We cannot experience it as
certainty, that is simply predictable death (Korvac Weird 8)
Living things
need uncertainty to express their physical presence on the Earth. In other
words, in terms of culture. This is the glory of those archaic-looking maps of
Hyboria! The geographic features outlined allow one to zoom in and see in one’s
mind’s eye the fierce sea-battles on the Vilayet sea, in the Turanian Holy War
(Hyborian Bridge 19, 20). The ripe quarters of the Maze in Shadizar the
Wicked; the gloomy crags of Cimmeria; the opulent Marches of Aquilonia.
Uncertainty, or what
you could call the irregularity of line, is the living, breathing expression of
cultures, of movement on Earth. It is Earth-time, Earth-movement. OK, let
people have their Rolex watches as a gimmick. Accuracy is simply the vanishing
point of technique; it takes you to illusion.
If you’re in an
illusory world, the reality is in there (the repressed Shadow Self), and
projects out there (fear of the uncertain Forest, labyrinth of myth, dreams). What is taken as order is simply a figment
that takes no account of the dream landscape of mythology, of history and
prehistory or of the fantasy lands and seas of Hyboria.