In a sense, yes…but you’re not really moving outward. In magick, the systems of symbolism are minutely explored, compared, and turned inside out..eventually, all those seemingly disparate things begin to blend together into an experience of unity. (example- the serpent on the cross & the gematric relationship between the serpent and the messiah, two outwardly irrewconcilable symbols)

In a (kabbalistic) sense you’re going back up the tree, reconciling the “shells.” in a way, you’re putting the pattern-recognition part of your brain on overdrive.

Endless Shells

Z. left a really good comment on my article about reverse-engineering [...]

Eric left an excellent comment on my article about “reverse-engineering“: I cooked my brain doing this kind of [...]

I cooked my brain doing this kind of thinking a few months ago, and got totally burned out on everything.

I guess that’s what I’m actually trying to do. Weird as that may sound…

getting caught up in “reason”, which always contains within itself the germ of its own self destruction.

And that’s the method to my madness at the moment, to use reason against itself, and try to dismantle it from the inside.

Anyway Z, I see what you’re saying and wrote exactly the same thoughts on Crowley’s “True Will” in a previous post. However, I don’t so much see the connection between that and the quote you posted from him…

How does one live in a state of constant acceptance of duality that surrounds them especially in the occult and organised religion without being swept up in it’s duality and judgement, I think its almost impossible unless one becomes a recluse, or as a child or unless we empty ourselves of thought routinely, even if its only for a few minutes a day, which relates back to your ideas on absolute bodhicitta.

Well … I’d disagree. Of course, it might appear that way if all one does is listen to or read endless debates on or about occultism in general, but occultism - or at least magick - is centered around actually doing things, instead of getting caught up in “reason”, which always contains within itself the germ of its own self destruction.

As Aleister Crowley wrote in his Liber O:

In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist.

It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.

I simply cannot appreciate things today like I used to as a child. These days, expectations, value judgements, and interpretations of meaning separate me from directly experiencing anything anymore. Too many shells.