Hyborian Bridge 82

What CL Moore calls the “ambiguous symmetry” (Hyborian Bridge 17) of things is often really as aspect of the destruction that anticipates revival. As Kari Hohne notes in The Mythology of Sleep (prev) in the chapter on Brahman and the Unknown Self, snakes or sea monsters can be either “bad guys” or just the destructive aspect of eventual renewal. Sanskrit “Devi” is the root for both devil and gods (divinity).

Moses established Nehushtan, a snake-worshiping cult of healing that in Second Kings 18 was “broken”. The Christian priests in America (Mexico) went on the same path, the theme of DH Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent. Religions that you could call naïve Earth religions, are dwelling in the physical aspect of creation. Because we are now in a solar culture, the Earth religions seem now to have the reality of Earth (soil) being both a destroyer (decay) and a renewer (fertility).

In Christian terms this would seem to be compatible unless Christianity is de facto a religion of “the white man’s advance”, which specifically means hygiene and not fertility (as a side-note, right-wing Christians in Rome smashed three Amazonian fertility figurines). Fertility always goes hand-in-hand with water – the womb, the moon – In The Mythology of Sleep (Pictorial 60) in the chapter on I ching and the way, Hohne describes the eight Pa Kua or forces that manifest in changes.

The Abysmal Water, K’an, is a sea of shape-shifters that we take with us in our dreams. It is the well of inspiration in the same way Odin finds secrets in Mimir’s well (Pictorial 56)

Living things are 70% water – and yet what is water? In scientific terms it’s H2O, but in terms of Chinese philosophy it has deep crystal symmetries that are “attuned” in homeopathy.

The idea that water attunes itself to minerals is older than Rome (Weird 11) Water’s unique properties are the product of hydrogen-binds by which oxygen pulls the two hydrogen electrons closer, making the molecule bipolar. Water is therefore “stickier” and forms liquid easier.

So, can the stickiness explain the symmetries of attuning to minerals? Well, the real point is that water is very simple, consisting of 3 atoms in a repeating lattice that is intricately mobile. If this intricate mobility is practically infinitely variable, then it could be attuned like the strings of a harp.

Dr Strange #46

Scientifically there’s no law that demonstrates this property but, again, water is unique, the stuff of life. If it is uniquely variable then it could have that property – but anything unique doesn’t follow scientific laws. If something is a priori, there’s no real explanation.

Why is there a sun and a moon that are highly symmetrical (Greek Phoebe, personification of moon, and Phoebus the radiant Apollo)? There’s no scientific reason for it but it is unique. The Chinese rationale for it is Yang and Yin, the male and female principles of action and receptivity.

This is another Earth-religion that sees what is the physical reality of the Earth in the cosmos. The Chinese dragon or Tao is moving two ways at once, a ssnakes do. This principle of two things becoming one is present throughout religions. The destroyer (Shiva); the creator (Brahmnan); the preserver (Vishnu).

As I’ve been saying for awhile, if we live in a solar system (viewed from the sun) it is an illusion of the sun. It is not a physical reality, which is viewed from Earth. The sun is light, which is geometrical perspective (C4 etc) If you look at your screen on your iphone, that is what you are seeing. It looks realistic because it’s a good illusion. It’s not physical reality.

The geometrical perspective is attractive to the ego, especially of acolytes. This essentially means we live in a world of the head, not the body. Appearances to the contrary, that is the physical truth of the situation!

In order to live in a physical reality, we have to become our bodies – in the symmetrical sense – and that is at least partly the subject of DH Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent (prev.) Our bodies are highly symmetrical, and we access this power through balance and proportion (Greek games).

The “secret places” Lawrence mentions – our fronts and rears – are sources of power when our bodies are active in a balanced manner on the Earth. By being balanced, it means not being in our heads because this disempowers our physiques.

The numerical obsessions of acolytes (politicians, economists, scientists) are a form of physical weakness, a compulsion as described previously. Where humans have physique, the planet has its own symmetries of cyclical seasons.

Out of nowhere, a flash of lightning explodes in brilliant color as Thunder Birds, Feathered Serpents and Dragons scratch their long talons against the sky. Although the lightning illuminates the scenery of a distant horizon, we feel the reverberation of the Thunder deep within our bones . (The Mythology of Sleep, page 235)
Whether the earth is aroused during the storms of spring, or whether we awaken to the myths we live by, Chen (Thunder) sets the stage to allow the creative to be reborn. (page 236)

If we live by Earth’s powers, we live in a cyclic system and not in a solar system. There are two different perspectives; one is linear, the other is cyclical.

It’s all very well to say that both are true, but one is actually an illusion, not a physical reality. A civilization of the head will always be illusory because it does not have the cyclical proportionality of either body or Earth.

Yes, it is very realistic – that’s why the egos like it. Apollo is an ego-maniac – watch Richard Strauss’s Daphne! The metaphorical power of nature is contained in Sun the Gentle Wind, a force for renewal (autumn) that will combat unconscious jinxes or the Shadow Self (Pictorial 65). The gentle ease of nature is our reality that we can repossess as the heirs of Earth from the puny acolytes of base nature.

Tui the Joyous Lake is yet another Taoist metaphor for inner strength.

Like the path of joy in Hindu philosophy, Tui offers a lesson about removing judgement and an attachment to a specific outcome to find the pleasure of discovering life on its own terms. (page 238)

“In the old days our people had no education. All their wisdom and knowledge came to them from dreams. They tested their dreams and in that way learned their own strength.” (Ojibwa elder, page 243)

BUTTERFLY DANCE