2020 - The year of the double global revolution; the year of two successful international coups

2020 was the year when there was a completely successful coup in which global-totalitarianism took-over all the nations of the world; conclusive evidence for which was that the various previous governance procedures of nations were displaced by diktat - and under such a system the peoples of the whole world were "locked down". 

Early 2020 was an extraordinary moment in history! 

Not least because (it seemed at the time) hardly anybody noticed or recognized that it had happened - a perfect, silent takeover had been accomplished; under cover of fake-necessity concealed by the stalking horse that was the Birdemic. 

So... A silent coup, an unopposed takeover, and therefore almost entirely un-noticed at the time - and indeed hardly acknowledged since. 

By the early summer of 2020; the world was (almost literally) under-the-thumb of the totalitarian leadership class: confined to quarters, mentally terrorized into compliance, physically separated, masked and anonymized - utterly pacified! 

And the expectation was that this was only the start of such-things, and the situation would surely be made complete and permanent... 

Allowable public debate was confined to discussing whether all this was enough to make people "safe", or else whether conditions should be made more restrictive. 

The expectation was for "more of the same" - a world under a single authority; a world of omni-surveillance and micro-control. 

Then, quite rapidly in the high summer of 2020, and even less recognized then and since: a second coup! 

Into this situation of triumphant totalitarian control, of top-down pacification, was injected the phenomenon of race war. 

Suddenly, the world's unity and obedience was severed by mandatory antiracism...

Hostile groups were created, encouraged, subsidised, given legal immunity - and very swiftly, what had been a distinctively American species of mutual destruction; was spread across most of the world, and bureaucratically-incorporated into all the major social institutions (officialdom, mass media, law, religions, education, science etc. - and even sports, even cricket!...)

The divisive chaos of a manufactured US race war was deliberately imposed on the world; by that same new-formed, centrally-controlled, bureaucratic-media system that had been created and enforced by the Birdemic.  

Evidently - as so often happens in revolutions - the first and successful coup had been co-opted by a second revolution - with different aims. 

Whereas the first Birdemic coup of early 2020 was aiming at a totalitarian controlled world of order; the second antiracism revolution was aimed at dis-order. 

Whereas the first revolution had used centralized power to make all the nations and the peoples of the world one for the first and only time in human history! One in their obedient docility...

The second revolution seized the new-forged instruments of surveillance and coercion and encouraged division, mutual hostility, break-up, violence...

And the same centre of globalist totalitarianism (but now "under new management") began to kindle resentments and fears that had been almost wholly suppressed by the Birdemic-coup.

They have since fanned into flames the embers of those many and highly lethal post-2020 inter-national, inter-ethnic, inter-religious conflicts, gratuitous wars - with multiple provocations, escalations, fake pennant events - and so forth. 

Because the second revolution was silent, unnoticed, unacknowledged - it has not only been able to present its own plans for destructive chaos as if they were part of the first revolutions program; but also to subvert and invert the established plans for totalitarian surveillance and control. 

The biggest and best example is the phenomenon of "AI" - which is regarded by the advocates of the first, Birdemic, revolution as a tool for surveillance and control; but which is actually an agent of socially-destructive chaos. 

2020 was indeed a watershed year in which "everything changed": the year of two silent and invisible and imperceptible international coups; the year of successful double global revolution: first the making of a system for world control; and then the seizing and usage of this system to induce global chaos... which continues and increases, on a daily basis.

 

Note: The ultimate, and causal, reality behind these proximate political phenomena was spiritual. It was an evolutionary change from the ascendancy of one form of evil to another. Evil is "progressive" - unless repented, it feeds upon itself and gets more-evil. As the "Ahrimanic" evil seeking power reached its apex of success; it began to be displaced by the more advanced and purer "Sorathic" evil that spitefully sought the suffering and eventual destruction of all that is of-God, Good - of divine creation and its aspects of Men and other Beings, of Nature... eventually everything. 

The "AI" propagandists payroll: You can't possibly persuade people whose pay depends on Not being persuaded

The vast and endless stream of drivel on the subject of the supernatural superpowers of "AI" continues - and it will continue until the funding dries-up. 

Those many thousands of propagandists on the "AI" payroll will keep doing what they are being "paid" to do (remembering that "payment" comes in many shapes and forms) until the totalitarian system has other priorities, or that part of it collapses. 

But "AI" pockets are deep - because the "AI" money comes from you and me, and millions of others like us. They are spending our money on their project spiritually to destroy us, and materially collapse the civilization. 

This is an area in which it is wise to recognize that analysis and argument is futile, logic and evidence are futile, insofar as these oppose or fail-to-support The Agenda. One cannot persuade those whose livelihood and status depend on not being persuaded - try as you might.  

I have, in earlier years, wasted a good deal of effort on trying to accomplish this Quixotic task of trying rationally to persuade professional manipulators of opinion - and can attest that it is both frustrating because futile; and that - even worse, it is playing into their hands. 

By allowing dissent, yet maintaining the torrent of evil-motivated AI-dolatry regardless; the "powers that (should-not) be" create an impression that logical and evidential counter-arguments have all been thoroughly aired and considered... but these counter-arguments have been overcome!

What I try to do nowadays; is identify the totalitarian strategies as they emerge; from which point all work of analysis and clarification is done from my own interest in the problem, and for my own spiritual benefit.  

 

When people keep on making the same Big Mistakes, over-and-over - we should at least consider that it is being done On Purpose

All over the media (mass and "alternative") are explanations of how the such-and-such Big Nation has made a Big Bistake, because badly advised, because influenced by X, because over-optimistic, because poor intelligence, because too greedy... or because whatever. 

It's all "A Big Mistake" of some kind... supposedly; Just like all the other Big Mistakes of precisely the same kind over the past decades. 

Or some Small Nation has supposedly made a Big Mistake in embarking on some action that leads to its own destruction - because of greedy-corrupt elites, because some ideology or religion, because it is actually the puppet of some Big Nation...

So some Small Nation ends-up essentially destroyed; because they begun something they could not finish, and it is another Big Mistake. 

So, it seems that Small Nations and Big Nations keep on-and-on mutually wrecking and destroying one another, thanks to Big Mistakes. 

Informed people, many facts, complex analysis... and they always infer that it's a Big Mistake, a terrible error.

(Or done for short term profits - to benefit X or Y; which is always a permissive and proximate factor, but never The Originating Reason). 

And the informed analysts never-but-never seem to consider the possibility that - when these Big Mistakes happen over-and-over and with increasing frequency - then maybe, just maybe, it is being done On Purpose. 

Done On Purpose, not by Little Nation nor even Big Nation - but by somebody (or some-thing) operating at a level above Nations, and above multi-national organizations. 

Somebody (or some-thing) that is engineering mutually destructive events On Purpose - and is able to do so repeatedly exactly because nobody even considers that this could even be possible. 

The biggest problems in the world are invisible, because they are spiritual - and they are the biggest problems exactly because they are invisible. 

First step is to regard On Purpose as genuinely possible; second step to perceive it - recognize it...

Only then maybe, perhaps, it might be possible to do something constructive about it materially. 

But the spiritual must come first, because the spiritual is first. 

Celebrating "Aunt Grace Day" on 3rd March - a new JRR Tolkien anniversary for Newcastle

Last week my wife and I were the first to celebrate a new festival that we originated: "Aunt Grace Day"...

JRR Tolkien's Aunt Grace 

Can we know from direct personal experience that "the immortality of our soul" is real?

Assuming that we acknowledge it as a real possibility, and have not pre-decided that it cannot be true; we can know that our soul is is not bounded by mortal life (our conception and death). 

We can know this directly and for-ourselves - simply by remembering our past experience. 

If we have personal knowledge of being-alive (in some way) that extends back beyond our incarnation; then we know that "we" (whatever makes me me) are not only mortal Beings. 

(I am saying nothing here about the specifics of our past existence, such as the forms in which we existed. Whether as spirits of some kind...Whether we were previously incarnated in some human or other form - or how many times. Such specifics may not be knowable... But surely are much harder to establish accurately, and are much less reliably knowable, than the simple fact of having existed.)

In sum: we can know our immortality going-back-in-time, by direct personal experience. 

And there is nothing more sure than direct personal experience.    

What about life after death?

What about immortality going-forwards? 

Can our future potential state also be known for ourselves - known despite that we personally have not yet experienced it? 

(And despite that any and all "reports" of post-mortal life are subject to all the uncertainty, error, manipulations, lies, and varieties of interpretation that are common to all forms of second-hand, third-party, "public knowledge".)

We can potentially know about possible future states from those we love who have died, and with whom we have established direct and personal contact. 

We can know this, in just the same way we know of those we currently love in this mortal life; but with whom we are not at this moment, here and now, in sensory contact. 

This contact is not available to everybody. 

It must, of course, be acknowledged as possible, if it is to happen and be taken seriously. Also it depends on being capable of love, and on actually loving someone who is now "dead" - and also that the person who died is in a post-mortal state in which contact can be established.

It is not the same when contact with the dead is claimed by other-people (such as spiritualist mediums - who almost certainly do not love those whom they claim to contact); nor by means of visions, voices, nor any intermediate symbolism - all of which require interpretation. 

What is most convincing is not to have conversations with "the dead"; but instead to have a living and loving relationship by direct (mind to mind) contact - just the kind of relationship (to repeat) we may currently be-having with someone we love and who loves us.

In other words, this is not a matter of "getting information" about post-mortal conditions from the so-called dead whom we have loved; it is knowledge that arises in the course of having a loving relationship.  

I think this may be the best (and only) sure way we have, personally to experience the possibility of resurrected eternal life in Heaven - to be in a direct and personal relationship with someone who currently lives thus.  

The point about such direct and relational personal experiences is that they by-pass all concerns about errors, deceptions, manipulations and dishonesty of third parties - or the consequences of misunderstanding, fear and wishful thinking in imagining and interpreting... Those problems that beset all discourse on such matters in public. 

Of course, the consequence is that in knowing by personal experience, we can't convince other people that we are right! 

Indeed we should not try to convince them of the reality of past or future existence - only, as I am trying now, to convince them to discover for themselves. 

 

The biggest problems in the world are invisible

The spiritual is primary, and includes the material. 

Therefore every material problem necessarily has a spiritual dimension. 

But mainstream modern materialism denies the reality of the spiritual - and insofar as the spiritual is acknowledged (e.g. by churches) it is secondary to the material.

(e.g. Churches attitude to the Birdemic and lockdowns of 2020.) 

Consequently, the modern world is plagued by invisible spiritual problem - problems that are not and cannot be acknowledged as existing. 

For instance, our wars and rumours of war have primarily spiritual causes and motivations; but these true causes are undetected, never considered - excluded as unreal. 

Indeed; all of the most severe and intractable problems in the world are these invisible spiritual problems; because it is their invisibility that has enabled them grow to become severe and intractable.    

Some maxims for current geopolitics

Not so much preferring "the lesser of evils" - because how could we really know which was lesser? More like recognizing that one side actively seeks to destroy good wherever possible (at home, and abroad) - and at whatever cost to itself. 

Not so much wanting one side to win and the other to lose; as it being overwhelmingly important that one of the sides does not win. 

"Unfinished business" in dreams

I often have unpleasant dreams just before waking; and if I try to go back to sleep after one such, I simply return to the dream. 

At one level, I take this to be telling me "You have had enough sleep: time to get-up!"

But if I set aside the specific content of the dreams, and instead consider what the dream makes me think-about and how it makes me feel; I can often recognize that the unpleasant qualities of a current dream derive from unhappy aspects of past times, decisions, situations, relationships, or the like.

The dreams are about "unfinished business" from my past. 

The "rawness" of such dreams, their power to evoke sharply unpleasant feelings; is, in particular, a response to highlighting my own defects, weaknesses, errors, and sins relating to particular events or eras of earlier life. 

Underneath these dreams is an insight that much of those problems I experienced from bad situations and events and people; was rooted-in - or at least made much worse - by problems in myself... 

The unpleasant dream nearly-always draws my attention to negative aspects of myself - aspects that (it seems) need to be recognized and acknowledged...

My bad character traits and selfish, short-termist mistakes; that require to be registered as indeed... bad character traits and selfish, short-termist mistakes. 

And I need also to note that these problems remain; as evidenced my my continued inability to come to terms with the situations and events... 

It is this persistence of the problems - and the attempt to deny my own part in the matter - that gives bad memories their continued raw power to annoy and irritate!

Of course, this can be considered at the psychological level - with the "therapeutic" aim either of stopping the bad dreams, or else of stopping their power to annoy, irritate, induce misery etc. 

But this is to miss the point; which is that these dreams are spiritual phenomena; if we are able to recognize the fact and to respond spiritually. 

From a spiritual perspective; these dreams are doing an important job; and that job is open-ended - so we should neither expect nor want such dreams to stop!

(At least, not if we want to make spiritual progress throughout our mortal lives.)  

The dreams need to continue because our defects of character, the errors and selfishness of our past sins, are not finite! There are more genuine and significant problems about us than could possibility be dealt-with. There is always "room for improvement".  

The matter of acknowledgement and repenting is always good-for-us; but does not have any end-point - we are never finished with repenting so long as we are alive: there is always more such work to do. 

However; I am not suggesting that this ought to be a full-time occupation or anything like it! 

That would be a lop-sided, unbalanced, distorted life. And a life that seems extremely unlike that of Jesus Christ during his years of ministry - which was a life which had many aspects and facets; many positive, loving, and creative; as well as those that were negative, sorrowful, and reactive. 

But I am suggesting instead that for some of the time, and some-times more urgently than others, and some-issues more urgently at some times (when some specific unrepented actions/ attitudes/ sins etc. are - here-and-now - e.g. blocking spiritual progress or causing us to advance in evil) - we ought to give attention to our unfinished business. 

So there is a question of priority, or even necessity, about the particular issues that each of these dreams are raising for our attention and consideration. 

After all; dreams (largely) come-from us; therefore usually have meaning-for us. 

In sum - when we have such dreams - it is probably worth thinking about them in the spirit of learning from them... Rather than simply forgetting about them ASAP; or "curing" the bad memories with a strong cup of coffee! 

Sergeant Aircrew of Bomber Command in World War II (and other NCO aircrew): a cull of the elite among British working class men

The crew of a Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber - some Sergeant's stripes evident

The extremely high casualties in RAF Bomber Command, throughout the Second World War - with roughly half of crews killed, more than 50,000 men* - was mostly among Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs)

All RAF aircrew were volunteers; and (soon after the war began) NCOs were awarded the rank of Sergeants or higher. Most of the personnel (and resources) of the RAF were in Bomber Command. 

Indeed most of the total UK expenditure and military effort in WWII went into Bomber Command (i.e. more than the totality of the Army, Royal Navy, and RAF Fighter and Coastal Commands combined).  

Whereas RAF Officers were mostly selected from the upper class, especially those who had been in Officer Training Corps at public-private schools or university; NCOs were promoted from those who entered the services as Private. 

In practice; NCOs were substantially recruited from among the skilled working class (e.g. trades and craftsmen), and lower middle class (shopkeepers, small business owners)...

In other words; NCOs - especially in the elite military groups such as aircrew, paratroopers etc) could be taken to represent "the salt of the earth", "the backbone of the nation", "the Yeomen of Old England". 

Becoming an aircrew member of the RAF was extremely competitive. 

This meant that aircrew took only those men who had passed rigorous physical and intellectual tests, and who could pass a range practical examinations. 

So, Bomber Command (which was most of the RAF) represented an elite of the non-officer class... and then most of them were killed.  

My point is that this cull of so many of the best of "Lower Class" men in WWII could be compared with the much better known and investigated - and very real - losses of men of the upper classes in the First World War.

(i.e. Those junior officers - e.g. "Subalterns" - Second Lieutenants - whose job was to lead their men in hazardous advances, patrols, raids and the like. The astonishing casualty rate of this group can be seen in the length of war memorial lists from 1914-18; that are displayed in - for instance - public schools and Oxford and Cambridge colleges).  

It seems likely that the loss of so many of the best of upper class men had a definite detrimental effect on that became evident after 1918. 

It seems likely to me that some of the evident decline in British society following the 1939-1945 war - analogously - a consequence of the exceptional casualty rates in Bomber Command.  

*It has been said by credible historians I have read; that such a casualty rate sustained over such a long period in a large cohort, may be the highest in history. I don't know whether this is correct - but as a percentage killed in a substantially sized selective volunteer military force, Bomber Command was certainly extremely high in terms of the wars of the twentieth century. 

Subfertility is willed biological extinction - an intractable fact. What then?

People are apparently unable to grasp the very simple fact that the "subfertility*" of all the populations of all the developed nations is a strategic choice of biological extinction. 

The peoples of the modern world are willing their own annihilation. 

Of course, the averaged population choice in favour of death is composed of multi-millions of individual choices - which have, presumably, thousands of specific reasons and motivations. 

Nonetheless, if we are talking at a population level, in terms of group averages of reproduction - then the deep psychological (indeed spiritual) problem; is that the population has chosen its own destruction. 

At every level from the family, through the tribe, clan, nation - religion, or ideology. 

This seems to me a far more significant fact than real-but-temporary issues such as an ageing population. It is very solid, biological, evidence of the short-termism and self-focus characteristic of all modern populations. 

This is, in itself, a product of the changes in human consciousness that have happened everywhere - which could be described as alienation, or as the autonomous consciousness. 

In the past, people felt themselves part of a group-consciousness. Much of behaviour was unconscious, automatic, and flowed-into each person from the group-mind. 

The group-mind could be resisted, but such resistance need to be active. 

Individuals did not therefore consciously "decide" to have "at least three children" (e.g. weighing the options, calculating the risks and benefits) - instead it was not experienced as a choice, certainly not an individual choice. 

Wanting children was just "what people did"; and "I" am "people"... so I want it too.  

Modern consciousness doesn't work like that. 

We modern live "inside our heads" - looking-out. 

We often pretend to be concerned about other-people-in-general and in-the-long-term; but endemic subfertility shows that we don't genuinely and powerfully experience such oft-expressed care and concern. 

Ultimately, we don't care about the extinction of our kind; and we don't care so deeply that we cannot even notice or acknowledge that it is happening!

If we don't care about the extinction of our people - And We Don't! - then all the other altruistic and planetary concerns are revealed as puffs of wind! 

This relates to the currently so-evident "wars and rumours of war" - which are also symptomatic of the same underlying spirit**. These wars, and their gratuitous and gleefully spiteful nature, are a consequence of profound facts of human spirituality - here-and-now. 

To be clear - I am not suggesting that we "ought" to be less selfish, more long-termist, more group-minded: the reality of our situation is that these are impossibilities. 

We can in theory ask for them, recommend them, incentivize them - but because people do not want them, they will not happen - just as all attempts, everywhere, to reverse subfertility have utterly failed (but mostly, they are not even attempted). 

These are facts of the human condition in this earthly mortal existence. 

Sins are fact - they cannot be evaded; but that does not free us from the responsibility to acknowledge and repent them.

Why do we find it so difficult - impossible, even - to acknowledge and repent facts which will not be changed? Usually because we do not fundamentally desire to change the facts; or if part of us does want to change - we cannot make ourselves do it.

Why are we so eager to pretend these are soluble problems, why expend such energy in evasions?

Surely this intractability of mortal Life is at the very heart of Jesus's message, and the reason for his great gift (or offer) of salvation? 

What we need to do is something that we think is "too easy" or "not worth" doing...

Therefore we do not do what actually-is needful, and possible for everybody - and thereby reject salvation.   

*Anything less than two-point-something children per woman, on average. The point-something is (approximately) to account for children that do not survive to adulthood, or are otherwise infertile. Biologically speaking, it is very probably necessary to have considerably more than an average of two children per woman to replace the human population - if significant and cumulative genetic damage is to be avoided.  

**The world is breaking down. When that happens the structures of civilisation develop cracks and start to fail after which the normal forces of entropy and decay take over and do the rest. 

Recent wars are the result of a loss of centre. The centre is the spiritual focus of a society, what it is grounded in and what sustains it. When that no longer holds then things do fly apart, as the poet says. 

We have had no centre for a long time in the West which is why we have pitiful replacements such as human rights and democracy but these have no real substance to them. They are feeble ideological substitutes for what we have lost or rejected and they don't really inspire anybody for long. 

Wars come about because of ambition, and that is certainly a factor with the present one. But there is something else going on which is a simple desire for destruction. 

When the world has no meaning, and it has none without a sense of something beyond itself, we can find a crude purpose of sorts through destruction. Destruction is easy and it's exciting. It can stimulate the jaded palate and thrill the mind that has become bored and without a deeper goal.

From William Wildblood

Escapism is a good thing - so long as we follow-through...

Escapism is a good, and perhaps spiritually-necessary, basis for Life. 

The desire to escape, the evaluation that escape from this actual-Life is needed, is an aspect of any person of depth and wisdom... 

Which implies that not to be an escapist is to be a shallow, dishonest fool (and there are plenty of these!).   

To be an escapist is to recognize and to feel that Life - as it actually is - is tragic; such that if there were nothing better to hope for, then we need to escape Life. 

The mass majority of mainstream modern materialists - the people who affect to despise escapism, and who pose as hard-nosed realists that revel in sordid cynicism - are all In Fact and ultimately escapists; but escapists of the worst kind. 

Such people, most people, deny the reality of the spiritual; and want death of their own body to be followed by total annihilation of themselves. 

In other words; such people, and I mean most people, so much fear and loath actual Life, that they desire complete and irrevocable and inevitable escape... Not only complete escape from Life, but total escape from them-selves.  

Thus; even though escapism is "a good thing" (and in a sense an inevitable thing for any honest Being capable of Love); escapism is not necessarily a good thing - consequently; there are bad, because dishonest, because half-baked, forms of escapism. 

Having discerned that escape from Life is desirable; the dishonest escapist then tries to ignore the fact - not to think about it; and instead tries lose-himself in Life by attempts at distraction. 

Yet no matter how strongly distraction is sought (e.g. by wishful-thinking, media immersion, immersion on social interaction or sex, extreme busyness, or obliteration of consciousness through intoxication) - all such are half-baked - because partial or temporary. 

Although common, this strategy is incoherent and self-defeating - because it tries to escape the innate tragedy of life, by attempting total immersion in the business of Living. 

Unsurprisingly; all such dishonest or half-baked escapism gravitates towards the desire of permanent annihilation: that mainstream modern death-wish that underpins the suicidal self-hatred of contemporary Western Civilization: a yearning for death-as-the-end. 

Honest and rigorous escapism - on the other hand - leads the escapist towards God and Jesus Christ... 

Towards acknowledging that we inhabit a created reality, made by a personal and good God; therefore escape from the tragedy of this-Life is both meaningful and possible. 

And towards to the possibility of an eternal and complete "escape" from the innate tragedy of our present mortal Life within creation - an escape by following Jesus Christ to resurrection in Heaven. 

Note added: I am not saying that everybody will eventually choose the salvation of Jesus Christ. For a start, Heaven has no interest for those incapable of Love. And Heaven does not appeal much to those who have some other and higher-priority than the divine principle of "loving-creation" that is the necessary eternal commitment for those Beings who choose Heaven. 

However; I do think that many people who acknowledge the primacy of the spiritual and the need for escape; will choose Heaven, when it comes to the point. 

For example, some of those who in their earlier lives declare a preference for reincarnation into a future series of mortal lives will change their minds. When a post-mortal spirit looks back at the totality of his mortal life, including the immediate pre-death experiences, and considers the prospect of more-of-the-same - for many people the prospect of reincarnation will be much less appealing than it seemed in their busy and pleasure-dominated early- or middle-lives. The here-and-now prospect of instead choosing resurrected Heavenly life may be much more attractive!

Those who expressed a desire to discard the incarnate body, and become "pure spirit" - perhaps to live in contemplative bliss, or become assimilated into the divine; may feel differently when the alternative is a resurrected body; and when Heavenly life is known to be the escape from both evil and "entropy" (loss/ sickness/ degeneration/ death).  

Similarly for the long-term atheist-materialist. When faced by a choice between on the one hand (apparently) eternal extinction of his self, his consciousness, all potential for experience... And on the other hand the real possibility of a living world of love and creativity; and in a world perhaps inhabited by some of those he most loved and who loved him? 

I am not saying - and I do not believe - that all will eventually choose salvation. Not least because I assume every human (and every other being) is unique. But I do believe that when the prospect of salvation is known to be real, understood, and constitutes a genuine possibility - even lifelong expressions of intention may change.    

What are the most evil sentences in The Lord of the Rings?

Tolkien depicted the nature of evil with a depth and power only possible to a good Man. But what is the extremity of evil as depicted in The Lord of the Rings? 

Which sentences would you nominate?

My candidate is quoted over at The Notion Club Papers blog. 

Auriga - the unjustly-neglected pentangle constellation

To my eye, drawing lines between the five brightest stars; Auriga (the charioteer) is a great pentangle in the night sky; and one that includes Capella (meaning "chapel") - which one of the brightest stars, and one that is usually high overhead. 

Because I have "a thing" about pentangles; my keen-ness is easily explained. 

Plus, when visibility is good; Auriga includes the little isosceles triangle of "the Kids", which points at Polaris - "the North Star". 

Are we seeing the beginning of the end for world civilization? A massive collapse in functionality?

I have begun to think so. 

It is impossible to be sure, because the whole world of communication is full of lies and fakes; as well as sheer ignorance and honest error. 

But the attempts to maintain some kind of civilization outside of the West - which is long-since committed to suicide - are apparently unravelling by the day.

It seems that positive feedback may have set-in, when one problem leads to several* - multiplying in a series; and the response to each problem actually makes it worse...

And, if this is so; then collapse will accelerate and soon become undeniable - and unstoppable.  

The new-ish factor is that the self-loathing Western civilization has become so consumed by resentment and spiteful sadism; that a significant portion of the Western-globalist ruling class have decided to do everything possible actively to bring down the rest of the world, during their own self-inflicted death throes. 

These people are negatively-motivated: they do things primarily in order to harm others - and they will do them, even when their own actions will harm themselves - and even when their actions will harm themselves even-more than they will harm others. 

Nowhere is exempt - the scope is as wide as their fear, resentment, and spiteful sadism... which is continually widening. 

And in this entropic world; destruction is just so much easier to accomplish than generating and sustaining functionality - that effort and resources invested with intent to harm, may go a long way and achieve a great deal. 

But I could be wrong again, as I have been wrong before; because I don't know - and nobody knows - what is really happening, and what is important, or how people will react. 

It should become clear, one way or the other, quite soon. 

*Each shortage leading to several more; one supply failure leading to several others that depended on the first; a war that leads to more wars, in more places etc -- all such iterating and interacting. And when resources are mobilized to solve one lethal problem, then this creates other fatal weaknesses elsewhere. 

A future for pagan religion? Laeth insights

 As a complement to William Wildblood's reflections on the potential value for Christians in what might be termed pagan-ism; Laeth makes an interesting point about the possibility of a future pagan religion in The West (edited): 

Jupiter stopped answering the Romans, and Jesus stopped answering the Christians. This is obvious. 

There is no power or magic left in the churches... 

Lots of people may say: "but my church is wonderful, we do this and do that, and so on". But that doesn’t change the fact that the spirit going through your local, or even home, church is not infecting and affecting the world the way Christianity as a whole thing did...

The fact is, no religion moves the West (and beyond) anymore. 

But it obviously did, as any look into history will show. 

Look around: the remnants of that incredibly strong motivation are still here. We like to visit such places. But we don’t do there what our ancestors did; and even when we do, we don’t feel like they did doing it.

C. S. Lewis, I think, once said that this was doubly true for paganism; that if we are removed from Christianity, we are even more so from paganism. 

But now I think it’s pretty much the same. That "gap" has been closed. 

The more a body decomposes, the more it looks like the one next to it.

That point about the "gap" between Christianity and pagan religions having closed strikes me as a genuine insight from Laeth. 

It is probably what underpins such pagan revivalism as has been evident over the past half century or so: Wiccan witchcraft; Druidism; Shamanism; and revivals of neo-Celtic, -Norse, or -Anglo-Saxon polytheistic rituals and symbolism - and the like.

This has been possible because - experientially - such invented neo-paganism is overall, pretty much, just as motivating and powerful as Christianity... 

The trouble is that this level power and motivation is Not Enough - in either case.

So that Christianity and the varieties of paganism are way too feeble to overcome pre-existing political beliefs.

So that both Christianity and paganisms now operate at the level of lifestyle, hobbies, fandoms - and do not do what religion historically "obviously did". 

From such a recognition we may look back into history and recognize that - in terms of theosis (i.e. learning and developing spiritually during mortal life) and salvation (resurrection into Heaven after death) - None Of This Matters. 

Christianity was essentially not/ never supposed-to-be a socio-economic state programme. 

And it was supposed to be possible for all individuals who wanted what Jesus offered; regardless of their time, place, or personal circumstances. 

Just because someone opposes sadistic destructiveness, does not mean they are actually good!

In a geopolitical world where treachery and gratuitous murder are openly and officially celebrated; it's become pretty easy to appear "good" - merely by defending The System, and its continued functionality.

When contrasted with a mainstream moral system increasingly based-upon paranoid resentment and Schadenfreude - those whose vision of the future is 2020-on-steroids may begin to look "good by comparison". 

When routine usage of mass-scale and indiscriminate assassination, and the parasitic scavenger-of -corpses presented as a moral ideal; with its implicit Hobbesian future of eternal war of each against all...

It is easy to fall into supporting the only publicly available and organized alternative: a totalitarian world of omni-surveillance and micro-control (ostensibly) supervised by "AI" and implemented by "robots".  

In other words; the greedy lying tyrants of the lockdown-era start to seem "not so bad" after all... 

(By reasoning that "at least" they don't actively support industrial-scale torture and slaughter, sabotage of production and trade, and environmental annihilation.)

The stage has been set for the masses eagerly to invite their own mental slavery to a materialist-computerized society, built upon absolute denial and exclusion of the divine and human - hoping thereby to avoid the alternative.  

Unless we are alert to this spiritual danger; we will fall willingly into this long-prepared trap of not just choosing between two evils; but inwardly-endorsing that which we regard as the lesser evil - and thereby coming to regard in our hearts that which is fundamentally opposed to God, divine creation and salvation - as if it was good.

All this is presented as a forced-choice - either embrace the global totalitarianism and the systematic destruction of spirit; or else embrace a world of deliberate and spiteful destruction. 

The System is presented as the only bulwark against forever-everywhere war; and chaos is presented as the only escape from eternal mental slavery. 

These are not, of course, the only options; but nobody with power/ influence/ high status is going to tell you about the good alternatives.

Note added: We also need to ask how it became normal and acceptable among the ruling classes to celebrate treachery and assassination; even when these harm the ruling classes own long-term self-interest. This leads to a consideration of the trajectory of evil, of how unrepented evil is dynamic and feeds upon itself - how evil becomes "purer" with time: meaning that it becomes more wholly-negative.    

Distinguishing Etheric and Astral

In my reading of Rudolf Steiner I came across a fourfold division of Beings into what he called "bodies" but which might better be understood as "levels". 

Ego - Astral - Etheric - Physical*

The first and last are easy to grasp - Ego is me-my real-self which is eternal; and Physical is the mortal material body. 

But although there seems to me to be some validity to Steiner's posited in-between levels of Etheric and Astral, I have found it difficult to understand, distinguish and grasp these - especially when I see how the terms sometimes get used in practice.

For instance Steiner sometimes tries to draw a bright-line between the levels, and use them to divide and separate discrete categories of minerals, plants, animals and humans - on the basis that the etheric plane corresponds to "life"; the astral to "consciousness", and the ego to something-like "will". 

For Steiner (in some of his writings) plants are minerals plus the etheric; animals are plants plus the astral; humans are animals plus the ego. 

However; I believe that all Beings have all these attributes, but to widely varying degrees...

Such that we are talking about distinctions, not divisions; levels not planes or "bodies". 

So; to make coherent sense from these "planes" I think it must be acknowledged that all Beings (mineral, plant and animal) have all these planes of reality to some degree, but in widely varying degrees.

It could reasonably be decided to merge etheric and astral, to regard them as a continuum bridging the spiritual qualities in-between our mortal physical bodies and the eternal true-self. 

And this must be true in an ultimate sense. Nonetheless, the fact that these levels are often distinguished suggests that individual consideration may have value. 

Here are some thoughts on distinguishing Etheric and Astral that seem broadly valid:

The Etheric "field"

This realm is localized, and surrounds the physical body - extending into the surroundings but falling off rapidly with distance.  

The etheric can be understood as rather like a "field" surrounding the body - it is both sensory and imposes itself. For example, the etheric field is what enables people to realize that another person, or large animal, is near; or if we are being watched. 

We can reach-out with our etheric field to explore our surroundings, so it operates as a sixth sense - in addition what is perceptible to "the five senses". 

Charisma and sexual "chemistry" operate mostly at the etheric level - and so do "gut feelings" of fear, and the perception of threat from others. 

In such situations, our own etheric field interacts-with another person's etheric field; in a way that is qualitatively distinguishable from the five senses. 

It is by etheric communications that we may feel comfortable and happy to sit in silence beside those we love; and feel uncomfortable and miserable when we are nearby those whom we regard as hostile or manipulating. 

By etheric interaction we may be aware, and we may influence - and etheric interactions may be spontaneous and passive; or they may be active and willed.

Someone may project their dominance or their sex appeal etherically - entering the room and all attention is upon them. Or people may project the opposite. 

Or even withdraw their etheric field; to the point of a kind of willed etheric-invisibility, so they tend to pass un-noticed. 

The etheric level is also that of ghosts and the like: localized spirits, spirits tied to a place or situation; spirits that may be detected by our etheric awareness, and many interact directly with physical bodies. 

The Astral "realm"

The astral is de-localized, it is more like a realm than a field - a realm that we may enter and explore; and in which distance is irrelevant, and past and present are both experienced.

The astral is the realm of dreams. 

In dreaming we (mostly) leave-behind our everyday physical bodies and our etheric awareness - the dreamer lying on the bed asleep; and our egos instead travel in astral realms, equipped with astral "simulations" of the body and etheric field. 

In the astral realm of dreaming we may interact with other Beings using five physical sense plus the etheric - but in the astral realm these are "virtual" communications, all-but detached from the sleeping person's physical self, who is mostly cut-off from his surroundings. 

Since Beings are eternal and not localized - the astral realm potentially extends across all reality. 

In the astral realm we can therefore interact with those who have died, and those from far away - from anywhere and from past or present; in an as-if fashion, communicating by quasi-sensory virtual-versions of vision, language, touch etc.  

[In the Astral we are not "in" the past, not re-living it; but instead may experience here-and-now the past of our own earlier experience (including our pre-mortal experience as spirits), and also here-and-now experience the past as has been experienced by the other Beings we encounter.] 

But the astral is a realm that includes all Beings - to some degree. 

Therefore we should not suppose that the astral is wholly, or even mostly, "good". It is not a realm exclusively for wish-fulfilment and pleasure. 

Since we inhabit primary creation, and since the astral is a realm in this mortal world, the astral is potentially open to all manner of Beings; although the ego remains conscious and always retains a measure of control - and of responsibility. 

The evil we encounter and do in the astral realm, is some kind of reality, for which we bear some kind of responsibility - which is why dreams are important. 

But the astral realm is not only a matter of dreaming; it is always present to some degree; and may be substantially or (almost) fully entered in other circumstances: for instance in meditation or trance states, in intoxication and delirium states.  

When we are aware of a kind of inner pressure to think, travel, read or otherwise do something; this may be a matter of communications from other Beings operating at the astral level. 

Astrally-communicating Beings may be good and loving (perhaps benign ancestors, or our beloved who have died, or those who love from their books or music or suchlike). However, just as in this mortal world; among these well-meaning benign Beings, none are infallible, and some are much wiser than others. 

But the astral Beings trying to influence us may instead be hostile. The thoughts and activities that these Beings encourage will be intended to harm us, spiritually.  

In other words (amongst others) the astral realm is that in which we are most likely to encounter both angels and demons; and our guide must be a combination of our own discernment with the guidance of the Holy Ghost - which guidance is above and independent from the astral realm. 

The astral realm is a realm of indirect communication; in which our interactions are symbolic and perceptual (even the etheric is a kind of perception) and require interpretation. 

While the level "above" the astral is that of the Ego, the real, ultimate, divine Beings that populate creation. 

And at this level where there is direct and unmediated - Being to Being - knowing. 

*My understanding is that this division - or at least this formulation of it - originated in Theosophy, and with Helena Blavatsky. Steiner began as a Theosophist. The idea therefore spread far beyond Steiner, and both in the West and the East (Gandhi was a Theosophist in his early adulthood, thus Theosophy influenced modern Hinduism. Several Theosophical concepts - such as Atlantis - have been widely incorporated into the New Age. So the etheric and astral are discussed all over the place. 

Christian polytheism - from William Wildblood

William Wildblood's latest post analyses and expresses well something I have felt for as long as I have been a Christian. 

Edited excerpt:

Paganism died out for a reason. It was superseded by the advent of Christ who really did make all things new. 

And yet some things were lost in the process, in particular a real connection to creation and a contact with the inner workings of nature as well as a proper relationship with the spirit of place. 

This is why the contemporary Christian needs to re-engage with paganism and even add a pagan element to his Christianity. This element should be seen in the light of Christ, in other words it must be baptised, but it provides a form of spiritual nourishment that Christianity lost as it lost touch with nature, with the earth and the land. 

This is what I mean by Christian polytheism. Such a polytheism does not mean believing in many gods rather than one God. It means that under God there are many what we can justifiably call gods who carry out his work in creation. 

This is not too great a leap from where Christians already are, characterising them as angels, but angels are often regarded as somewhat abstract or, worse, sentimentalised. By seeing them as gods our minds can enter more deeply into the spiritual universe and the inside of creation. 

You could call them the inner energies of creation though with the understanding that behind these energies are beings not mere impersonal forces.

This could be envisaged as a way of understanding the two concepts included in the term "Romantic Christianity" - with "paganism" doing the work of "romantic". 

My understanding of Christianity being essentially about choosing to accept Jesus's offer of post-mortal resurrected eternal life in Heaven; is of course easily compatible with many aspects of paganism. 

I assume this is why it was so easy and straightforward for pagans to become Christian - they regarded Christianity as an addition, a bonus: paganism-plus. 

The main (and only essential) difference between what they already had from paganism, and what they would get with conversion to Christianity; was that Christianity offered the possibility of a Happy Ending beyond death. 

Dark chocolate is the modernist classical music of foods

This is just so wrong

I have written before about the scam that is dark chocolate - how everyone really wants milk (and/or white) chocolate; but gets coerced, shamed, or indoctrinated into that inversion of enjoyment which is dark chocolate. 

Dark chocolate is the decadence of the over-indulged and satiated; and in this respect it is analogous to modernist classical music. 

Everybody who genuinely likes classical music, most enjoys and appreciates pre-20th century music of one sort or another - the music that came before Schoenberg and Stravinsky - whether from the renaissance, baroque, classical or romantic era. The music of (for example) Tallis, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, or Wagner. 

However, when people attend or watch on TV a classical music concert, or listen to a classical radio station, they are nearly-always compelled to hear a significant percentage of "modern" classical music - relentlessly dissonant, atonal, or in some fashion raucous, or simply incoherent and mediocre. 

This is because the classical music producers, conductors, performers, and composers have - by the time they reach adulthood - gorged on pre-modern music for hours-per-day from early childhood until they are heartily sick of it; and they want nothing other than to hear good music subverted, twisted, mocked, parodied, or spoiled - hence the liking for "modernism" in music. 

Modernist music is the decadence of the satiated professional, being force-fed to the amateur and music-lover, in a spirit of revenge or sheer spitefulness. 

And the same applies to the chocolate chefs, designers, manufacturers, and connoisseurs; they have stuffed themselves with sweet milk or white chocolates until their palates crave bitterness, sourness or and salt. 

Instead of the smooth creamy texture of good milk/ white chocolate; they instead desire dry, powdery, brittle, even salty (!) experiences.  

But rather than do the rational thing and eat something else other than chocolate, something that gratifies their anti-chocolate desires; they instead ruin the chocolate. 

Instead of leaving ordinary people to enjoy their sweet and smooth chocolate - they spitefully demand to insert dark chocolate where it is not wanted:

In selection boxes, when they mix nasty dark with delicious mild/ whites. Or (when prevented) by encrusting or lacing or dusting the creamy-sweet milk or white chocolate, with the bitter-dryness of The Black Stuff. 

And it is the moderate, common-sense, chocolate-loving amateur who must suffer the consequences of the professionals' dark depravity. 

Further confirmation of the ascendancy of the Agents of Chaos

It has been my contention since the second half of 2020 that the nature of dominant "establishment" evil has evolved and transformed from the goal of global totalitarianism (international omni-surveillance and micro-control of populations) to a resentment-rooted and spitefully-motivated destructiveness. 

The totalitarians have lost power since their peak in early 2020; and the Agents of Chaos have become increasingly dominant. 

This is how I understand the ongoing Western war against "modern Zoroastria". 

While there are a dozen or so theories about how this is a strategic war, aiming at power domination, resource extraction, geopolitical balance, security, territory, or whatever -- I regard these as disinformation; merely a smorgasbord of deliberately-confusing false excuses (pick your favourite!) for starting and escalating what is meant to be (at the highest level of control*) a process of mass mutual destruction.  

In other words; while the mid-level explanations of this war as driven by the interests of particular groups or individuals is partly and proximately correct - in that selfish-interest is indeed what motivates many of the active participants; I contend that these self-interested groups are being duped and used by those who actually seek their destruction. 

The overall aim and methods are designed, at the top-level, to induce destruction hence chaos; the chaos then generating further destruction in a positive feedback cycle. 

My explanation at least has the virtue of being almost certainly right immediately and for the medium-term of months and a few years! 

What is disputable is how this for-sure chaos, is related to some hoped-for-and-planned positive strategic outcome of whatever interest-group is genuinely dominant. 

There will be for-sure a vast and lasting increase in bilateral destruction of infrastructure, people and the land; and there will be regional chaos. 

The main question is whether this for-sure chaotic destruction is a side-effect, or whether it is the actual plan itself. 

Whether this definite chaos and destruction truly motivated by some-or-another optimistically-intended long-term (i.e several to many years ahead) strategic Master Plan; will become clear and evident to most people only after several to many years - but then only if they can conceptualize and recognize the reality and possibility of chaotic evil. 

It is spiritually important that we, here, now; become able to conceptualize and recognize that chaotic-destructive evil is a real thing, a real possibility, thus a real and possible motivator of world (as well as local) events.  

*The highest level of control of the pursuit of Chaotic Evil is the demonic, which explains the intent of maximum and mutual destruction of human life and society. Humans are involved at lower levels - highest are the demonically possessed/ enslaved and the willing/ whole-hearted servants of evil. Tese are covert. Below them, and in public view, are the great mass of selfish dupes and pursuers of money, sex, and power over others - the middle managers and henchmen of totalitarianism.  

Merely religious-themed fandom: the Christian churches here-and-now

I was reflecting on the fate of the New Age spirituality, which began in the late seventies but hit public consciousness from the middling 1980s. 

There was a tremendous growth in this (loose) "movement" - involving huge numbers of people thousands of whom were professionals (made a living from it), thousands of book titles - with sections in mainstream bookshops and multiple specialized bookshops, a huge expansion of participation in workshops, conferences, residential weekends, pilgrimages and the like. 

It seemed to most people at the time that this was evidence of an on-going mass spiritual transformation: which would lead to a much more spiritual and personal; less materialistic and bureaucratic world.  

And yet here we are. 

Masses of people spend many hours per day interacting with the internet and social media. 

A world where small scale institutions are subordinated or co-opted or assimilated to the agenda of globalist or multi-national institutions; a world where all the crafts, guilds or professions of 1980 are now either destroyed or converged into a depersonalized (increasingly computer-mediated) totalitarian bureaucracy. 

What we got instead of spiritual transformation was spiritually-themed fandom - which is simply a component part of The System: an aspect of the Leisure Industry. 

And almost exactly the same has happened to the churches. 

Whatever hopes may have been cherished for a positively-transformative religious revival, a church-based Christian revival; have devolved into merely Religious themed-fandom. 

To be a "devout" Christian church person is nowadays a part of the leisure industry, and implicitly regarded as such - as was evident in 2020 when the churches formally acknowledged themselves to be (unlike gardening shops, for example) a part of the non-essential economy - and therefore collaborated eagerly in their own closure.  

The churches offer a variety of leisure time and sociable activities; and the really keen Christian will spend hours a day getting updates and inspiring Christian quotes from social media, reading and commenting on Christian social media and (if serious Christians) various essays and blogs - and during their holidays can make Christian pilgrimages, and post photos of their Christian devotion onto their favoured media.

Really-really serious Christians can be internet "creators": generating their own visual and audio material to stimulate others -- and perhaps gathering a bit of extra income from running advertisements, getting sponsorship, amassing a band of admiring virtual-Patrons, or facilitating drive-by consumers to but them a virtual "cup of coffee". 

Christian church activity is nowadays just like any other Leisure activity - except that it "about" Christianity, has a Christian-themed content - instead of being about movies, popular TV series, bestsellers, celebrities, or sports teams and stars. 

Such activity is precisely analogous to, no deeper than, no more religiously significant than, any of the many other fandoms of sports, franchise products, hobbies and pastimes; special interest groups and charities; with which the mass/social media abounds.  

As with New Age - this kind of religious "growth" may be enjoyable (else people wouldn't do it); but it has demonstrably-feeble religious depth or motivational power; because the whole activity is encapsulated within the ruling mainstream totalitarian and materialist ideology. 

Christian churches here-and-now are just a subtype of System-assimilated fandom - and have no more spiritual significance than any other such.