The Veil, Part II
Jan. 26th, 2022 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kimberlysteeleThe era we are living through seems particularly rough for the spiritually inclined. Any encounters we have with deities are rife with misunderstanding, whether this is in the form of aggrandizement or its opposite, wholesale denial. I have a wacky theory that we are living through the age of Peak Demon. Demons usually don't get to run roughshod through the material, etheric, and astral planes. They're typically confined to their realms of extreme density from which they can only dream of interacting with beings outside their realm. Complex rituals used to be required to summon demons. Nowadays it is as easy as surfing to most parts of the internet or flipping on a television.
The ultimate force and the one most routinely associated with godhood is the Sun. Almost every world religion acknowledges the Sun as the creative force behind it all, and some such as Christianity worship the Sun (Son) to the detriment of the other forces. There's a funny blond joke about a woman so dumb that she thinks the trick to landing a spacecraft on the sun lies in traveling there by night. Elon Musk and pals have the same derpy conviction that traveling to other planets in the solar system will be easy-peasy, failing to take into account the piercing rays of our yellow star. Without the magnetic field that shields the Earth from radiation, astronauts will find themselves dying painful deaths of radiation poisoning long before they reach Mars. The story of Icarus comes to mind, but instead of melted wings they will suffer tumors and melted internal organs. It won't be pretty. For those of us who don't want to learn the hard way, we can be content with worshipping the Sun and the planets from our modest places on Earth safely within the confines of her magnetic veil, ahem, I mean field.
Hermes or Mercury as a force rules the Word, or direct communication with deities. I believe humans cannot talk with deities or angels directly because it will fry our little pea brains. Boom, short circuit, game over. Hermes gives us the kiddy version of communication with deities in the form of language. Our goal is to learn a great deal about languages so we can eventually develop the chops to receive our transmissions directly from God without frying the circuitry. One Mercurial/Hermetic manifestation of language is the joke or meme, which communicates a great deal in a small package.
Aphrodite rules love, including non-romantic love. Love is a process of uniting with another force. I love Aphrodite, but if she were to love me on the level that gods use, I would immediately perish and dissolve, game over. That's why I get the lite version and am encouraged by Aphrodite to do things that are sacred to her, like creating music, building friendships, and maintaining my marriage of nearly 22 years.
Gaia rules the material world. If I go to Gaia right now, it's an easy enough process. Taking a dirt nap requires a bottle of pills with a vodka chaser or a sturdy rope and a thick tree branch, but that isn't appropriate at this time. Instead, I reach Gaia through the buffer zone of preparing food that she generously grew for me to eat. If it is warm, I go outside my house and work in my garden, an activity otherwise known as Playing in the Dirt for Adults.
Ares or Mars rules war and conflict. Conflict is a necessary evil. Anyone who thinks it can or should be avoided usually ends up qualified to be in a funny farm. War is the ultimate conflict, but this is not Sparta and it's not the right approach for me to go to literal war with people I disagree with. Instead, I can exercise the instinct to go to war in more constructive ways, such as sports. Sports are mini-wars, which is why they were the exclusive domain of males. The ancient Greek Olympics were male only, as only males were expected to fight and die in battle.
Jupiter or Zeus rules law. In its ultimate form, natural law is simply too much to contemplate. An instant gnosis of all natural laws of our Universe would immediately dissolve my human brain. Instead I have the mild version of living under human laws and the laws of the material plane such as gravity and Murphy's law (luckily Murphy's law isn't always in effect, at least in my case). Those laws are enough for now.
Saturn is the god of time and death. As a human, I am especially impaired when it comes to conceiving geological time. I can barely grasp the hundred years before and after I will die in my feeble mind, and that is probably for the best. I can do better by studying history and by adapting better, perhaps by studying the Stoics and their approach.
Uranus is the god individuality, eclecticism, and change. Our time is supposedly the Age of Uranus or Aquarius, and that's not something I figured out by myself. Brighter minds than mine came up with the Procession of the Equinoxes. Change in its most extreme form is complete annihilation and revolution. I'm not ready for either one. Instead, I change my habits, my living arrangements, my underwear, and my diet.
Neptune or Pisces is the god of mysticism and oneness. Arguably, the Christian god is actually Pisces, and that is why we see him much diminished in the current time. The Age of Pisces is over and any hope of one world united under God has been dashed. The dying god Pisces lashed out and is still lashing out in the form of communism, that failed astral pyramid that claims to uplift the masses but instead crushes them under the weight of an elite head. In a milder and smaller form, an astral pyramid is a desirable structure -- for instance, a birthday party with the birthday boy or girl at the top of the pyramid. The masses in question are the party guests.
Finally, the god Pluto or Hades rules the underworld. Right now as we speak, miners are frantically drilling the Underlands in the desperate quest for petroleum wealth. Much like Icarus mentioned above, Plutonian ambitions land humans in a heap of misery. Wealth within strict limits, however, is the key to a good and happy life. The same natural gas that heats my small home in northern Illinois can be recklessly spent on the grotesque McMansion a dozen miles away. Like any aspect of the Veil, it's just a question of ambition.
In this age of interference from the denser planes, I have imagined that things are "like this" perhaps because the higher planes are at rest. In the great ebb and flow of the ages, we are living through a terrible time where angels are scarce and remote and demons threaten to overwhelm the psychic sensitives, who appear to be so many tasty snacks from the demon's purview.
Deities for Dummies in the Age of Interference
Because our age is so warped by the demonic and its milder manifestation, materialism, we tend to misunderstand the concept of the Veil that I talked about in an earlier essay on this blog. We confuse the veil for the force that it is buffering. Demonic materialism is actually a decent example. Materialism is not inherently demonic. There are plenty of times when it is appropriate and called for. For example, a little boy who is coddled and spoiled from the moment he pops out of mom's birth canal who turns into a monster brat is demonic and the material spoils that round out his lifestyle make him so. The same materialist instinct -- the one that calls us to gather and amass -- could be used as a thrust block. If the little boy has a change of heart, his materialism could morph into generosity and contemplation of material flows. He could become a man who understands why you don't spoil children from personal experience, and he will have gotten that way from his direct knowledge of materialism.The gods are always trying to school humans from behind the Veil because we are too uncoordinated to take off the training wheels. That is why the "lesser" activities of mundane life are just as important as straight up religious practices such as going to church (I say this and I don't go to church), religious rituals, prayer, and pilgrimages. One of the hugest and most unfortunate losses in the move from polytheism to monotheism in the West was the stripping away of specialized deities in order to supplant them with the One God concept. Monoculture is boring: as an American who is used to endless strip mall landscapes sliced up by concrete and asphalt highways, I can assert this from personal experience. I don't want to see Jesus's face in everything. When I communicate with the trees in my yard, I don't want to pretend they're Jesus. For instance, you guys might remember Cedric, the Eastern Cedar I rescued from behind my work building. He's doing fine, growing straight and tall in my front yard. (Well, actually right now he's hibernating because it is winter.) The point is that Cedric is not Jesus. He is also neither Buddha nor Vishnu. He's Cedric; I'm Kimberly, nice to meet you.
Various Manifestations of Gods through the Veil
I tend to lean heavily upon the Greek gods because I'm in a phase of my life where I am working on the Orphic hymns, so please bear with me and certainly feel free to associate different gods with the forces I am about to delve into.The ultimate force and the one most routinely associated with godhood is the Sun. Almost every world religion acknowledges the Sun as the creative force behind it all, and some such as Christianity worship the Sun (Son) to the detriment of the other forces. There's a funny blond joke about a woman so dumb that she thinks the trick to landing a spacecraft on the sun lies in traveling there by night. Elon Musk and pals have the same derpy conviction that traveling to other planets in the solar system will be easy-peasy, failing to take into account the piercing rays of our yellow star. Without the magnetic field that shields the Earth from radiation, astronauts will find themselves dying painful deaths of radiation poisoning long before they reach Mars. The story of Icarus comes to mind, but instead of melted wings they will suffer tumors and melted internal organs. It won't be pretty. For those of us who don't want to learn the hard way, we can be content with worshipping the Sun and the planets from our modest places on Earth safely within the confines of her magnetic veil, ahem, I mean field.
Hermes or Mercury as a force rules the Word, or direct communication with deities. I believe humans cannot talk with deities or angels directly because it will fry our little pea brains. Boom, short circuit, game over. Hermes gives us the kiddy version of communication with deities in the form of language. Our goal is to learn a great deal about languages so we can eventually develop the chops to receive our transmissions directly from God without frying the circuitry. One Mercurial/Hermetic manifestation of language is the joke or meme, which communicates a great deal in a small package.
Aphrodite rules love, including non-romantic love. Love is a process of uniting with another force. I love Aphrodite, but if she were to love me on the level that gods use, I would immediately perish and dissolve, game over. That's why I get the lite version and am encouraged by Aphrodite to do things that are sacred to her, like creating music, building friendships, and maintaining my marriage of nearly 22 years.
Gaia rules the material world. If I go to Gaia right now, it's an easy enough process. Taking a dirt nap requires a bottle of pills with a vodka chaser or a sturdy rope and a thick tree branch, but that isn't appropriate at this time. Instead, I reach Gaia through the buffer zone of preparing food that she generously grew for me to eat. If it is warm, I go outside my house and work in my garden, an activity otherwise known as Playing in the Dirt for Adults.
Ares or Mars rules war and conflict. Conflict is a necessary evil. Anyone who thinks it can or should be avoided usually ends up qualified to be in a funny farm. War is the ultimate conflict, but this is not Sparta and it's not the right approach for me to go to literal war with people I disagree with. Instead, I can exercise the instinct to go to war in more constructive ways, such as sports. Sports are mini-wars, which is why they were the exclusive domain of males. The ancient Greek Olympics were male only, as only males were expected to fight and die in battle.
Jupiter or Zeus rules law. In its ultimate form, natural law is simply too much to contemplate. An instant gnosis of all natural laws of our Universe would immediately dissolve my human brain. Instead I have the mild version of living under human laws and the laws of the material plane such as gravity and Murphy's law (luckily Murphy's law isn't always in effect, at least in my case). Those laws are enough for now.
Saturn is the god of time and death. As a human, I am especially impaired when it comes to conceiving geological time. I can barely grasp the hundred years before and after I will die in my feeble mind, and that is probably for the best. I can do better by studying history and by adapting better, perhaps by studying the Stoics and their approach.
Uranus is the god individuality, eclecticism, and change. Our time is supposedly the Age of Uranus or Aquarius, and that's not something I figured out by myself. Brighter minds than mine came up with the Procession of the Equinoxes. Change in its most extreme form is complete annihilation and revolution. I'm not ready for either one. Instead, I change my habits, my living arrangements, my underwear, and my diet.
Neptune or Pisces is the god of mysticism and oneness. Arguably, the Christian god is actually Pisces, and that is why we see him much diminished in the current time. The Age of Pisces is over and any hope of one world united under God has been dashed. The dying god Pisces lashed out and is still lashing out in the form of communism, that failed astral pyramid that claims to uplift the masses but instead crushes them under the weight of an elite head. In a milder and smaller form, an astral pyramid is a desirable structure -- for instance, a birthday party with the birthday boy or girl at the top of the pyramid. The masses in question are the party guests.
Finally, the god Pluto or Hades rules the underworld. Right now as we speak, miners are frantically drilling the Underlands in the desperate quest for petroleum wealth. Much like Icarus mentioned above, Plutonian ambitions land humans in a heap of misery. Wealth within strict limits, however, is the key to a good and happy life. The same natural gas that heats my small home in northern Illinois can be recklessly spent on the grotesque McMansion a dozen miles away. Like any aspect of the Veil, it's just a question of ambition.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-27 03:43 am (UTC)I started a new job last November and am a habitual morning breaktime walker / banana eater no matter where I've worked. But this new place is special because there are dozens of beautiful, large live oak trees. You would love them.
Weather permitting, I'll cross the road to the other parking lot where the developer left the old ones alone. They are now breaking concrete with their roots and carpeting the ground with their fallen leaves that dance and whisper in the wind.
There is one in particular that I call The Elder. That's where I park, so that I can see him in the morning and before I leave. I'm not a sensitive but it feels male to me. I would like to share some of his energy but don't know how to go about it.
There is another with crazy, twisted branches on the woodsy side of the lot where 2 wild cats live. The ground behind that treeline is so thick with fallen leaves that it is springy underfoot.
I often think of them talking to each other and what they might talk about.
As far as I can tell, I'm one of the very few who doesn't spend their breaks staring down at a tiny screen and stubbornly insist on being human.
Colleen
no subject
Date: 2022-01-28 04:29 pm (UTC)Much to meditate on here
Date: 2022-01-27 08:38 pm (UTC)It occurred to me that oracles like Ogham might also act as intermediaries across the veil?
Do you draw any distinction between the Greek and Roman expression of the deities?
I've associated Hermes/Mercury with Jesus, (a comparison of the Orphic Hymns and alot of apostle Pauls' teaching suggests some plagiarism on his part), so when you say the Christian God, do you refer to Jesus or Jehovah?
Your association of planet to sign is interesting, is the correspondence made in Hellenic faith, astrology or from meditation?
Thanks again for your work. I would definitely support a kickstarter to empower your book.
Gawain
Re: Much to meditate on here
Date: 2022-01-28 04:38 pm (UTC)I absolutely think that's the case -- divination is one of the most reliable ways for the gods to relay messages across the veil.
I'm fairly uneducated on Ancient Greece and Rome. I can tell you the names of a few of the Roman Emperors and I know who the Greek philosophers were and I've read Homer's Odyssey and the Illiad, but other than the basics, I'm a dunce. I think they may be the same deities.
In the case of the Christian God, it depends. Jehovah is the angry one who seems to be bitter about the current state of affairs. (My opinion follows) Christianity is dying and Jesus's power to influence along with it. The dream of one world religion is over. It had a good run. It is not exiting gracefully, hence the horrors of communism which at this very moment are clawing at the air from a too-shallow grave.
I'm taking much of the correspondences of Hellenic faith from astrology. There has been some meditation involved. Thank you for that suggestion! I am hoping to get a fairly traditional deal for Sacred Homemaking once I've got it finished and a couple of drafts done. I hope not to need any additional fundraising, but I'll go that route if the other one is exhausted.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-30 02:34 am (UTC)