Bruce Charlton's Notions

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William Arkle's Geography of Consciousness (1974) is so densely written that it is extremely difficult to understand - so it was only yesterday that I grasped the meaning of Chapter Sixteen The Will - and recognised that (without mentioning the term) it provided an explanation for a phenomenon which so interests me: Synchronicity.

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=synchronicity

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My previous understanding was very general and external - that synchronicity was an indirect form of evidence for the reality of a personal God since it implied that 'the universe' was being 'arranged' such that I experienced certain events of special significance.

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Arkle's explanation is related to a contrast between The Will versus Will Power.

Will Power is taken in its usual secular and common sense definition, and interpreted as the use of normal psychological disciplines to attain a particular goal.

Will power is a matter of 'getting what we want or believe we need'; it is a matter of strategically using our mind, understanding, predictive ability, force and manipulations to attain an objective.

Will Power may or may not achieve what it sets out to achieve - but it is essentially an attempt to impose ourselves upon the world; and therefore extremely prone to be evil in motivation and effect.

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The Will is something altogether different in its nature and operation. It is our true, higher, individual Self; that contains an element of, and is in communication with, God.

Therefore The Will is a source of the power strength, and purpose of God as this specifically applies to our (real) selves.

The Will is therefore necessarily good, and (being divine) this good is harmonised with the good of all other things.

We have no conscious power to influence The Will by a strategic decision - any more than we could change God's will; we can only recognise The Will, and choose either to accept or to reject it.

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Mostly we choose to ignore or reject The Will, and instead attempt to impose our false selves upon the world by Will Power.

And mostly this is un-successful - and this failure is both necessary and fortunate as the results of success would be disastrous to ourselves and to others (including the whole environment).

When (as is usual) the Will Power goes against The Will; The Will 'sabotages' our plans, by all kinds of means including psychological sabotage, but not confined to that - since The Will is divine it has power to influence other things in the environment - leading to what may be termed 'bad luck' but is actually a necessary failure to get what we want, because what we want is opposed to what God wants, and therefore creation is 'weighted against us'.

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But a person who knows, accepts and lives by The Will (in however brief and incomplete a fashion) finds the opposite - he finds that not only his own mind (mental powers) but also 'things in general' cooperate in ways that are good.

This includes genuine synchronicity - which is a consequence of harmony between ourselves and our environment working towards the good, caused by The Will spontaneously (over time) reproducing in our surroundings 'a drama which represents the significance of our being': i.e. synchronicity, or 'meaningful coincidence' (as we interpret it).

*

By this account synchronicity is mostly an operation of God-within-us, rather than a situation created by God's power external to us. It is evidence of a truly vast and intrinsically good power - a divine power of subtle harmonisation that we may recognise (or reject); but which it is impossible for us to control, exploit or 'use' to achieve our personal desires.

This also explains divine providence, that sense of God's Will working in the world (but only with our chosen cooperation) can make situations that seem like a near-incredible 'good fortune' by a sequence of apparent 'luck'.

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This may be the explanation for Great Men (in religion, theology, politics, arts, sciences etc.) who are (who 'happen to be') in the right place at the right time, and whose (small) decisions and acts are amplified (by invisible processes) to have vast consequences.

Arkle's example is Winston Churchill; whose personal qualities in the role of Prime Minister during the Battle of Britain were a consequence of extraordinary sequences of 'luck' - with world historical consequences.

"If you are a Churchill, you make a few small noises into a microphone, and you set forces in motion in people's natures which make all the difference..."

The lesson is that if we want real power in life, like Churchill, or the Greats in other domains of life; then this can be had only by renouncing Will Power, and embracing The Will.

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We tend to suppose that the 'main problem' of life is 'amplifying our voices' - using force, cunning, chance to make the world take notice of what we think is important; but this is the false self at work deploying Will Power.

When the true self, The Will, is at work comes a recognition that our proper main problem, something that only we can do, is to recognise and nurture our true self, our highest consciousness which contains and harmonises with the divine.

And insofar as this achieved (and whether we know this is happening or not, and whether we are personally credited with it or not) the goodness of a true self in higher consciousness will quite easily and quite naturally be 'amplified' and propagated by innumerable instances of 'luck', sequences of meaningful coincidences: synchronicities.

Repost from 2014: http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/william-arkle.html

*
William Arkle's Geography of Consciousness (1974) is so densely written that it is extremely difficult to understand - so it was only yesterday that I grasped the meaning of Chapter Sixteen The Will - and recognised that (without mentioning the term) it provided an explanation for a phenomenon which so interests me: Synchronicity.

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=synchronicity

*

My previous understanding was very general and external - that synchronicity was an indirect form of evidence for the reality of a personal God since it implied that 'the universe' was being 'arranged' such that I experienced certain events of special significance.

*

Arkle's explanation is related to a contrast between The Will versus Will Power.

Will Power is taken in its usual secular and common sense definition, and interpreted as the use of normal psychological disciplines to attain a particular goal.

Will power is a matter of 'getting what we want or believe we need'; it is a matter of strategically using our mind, understanding, predictive ability, force and manipulations to attain an objective.

Will Power may or may not achieve what it sets out to achieve - but it is essentially an attempt to impose ourselves upon the world; and therefore extremely prone to be evil in motivation and effect.

*

The Will is something altogether different in its nature and operation. It is our true, higher, individual Self; that contains an element of, and is in communication with, God.

Therefore The Will is a source of the power strength, and purpose of God as this specifically applies to our (real) selves.

The Will is therefore necessarily good, and (being divine) this good is harmonised with the good of all other things.

We have no conscious power to influence The Will by a strategic decision - any more than we could change God's will; we can only recognise The Will, and choose either to accept or to reject it.

*

Mostly we choose to ignore or reject The Will, and instead attempt to impose our false selves upon the world by Will Power.

And mostly this is un-successful - and this failure is both necessary and fortunate as the results of success would be disastrous to ourselves and to others (including the whole environment).

When (as is usual) the Will Power goes against The Will; The Will 'sabotages' our plans, by all kinds of means including psychological sabotage, but not confined to that - since The Will is divine it has power to influence other things in the environment - leading to what may be termed 'bad luck' but is actually a necessary failure to get what we want, because what we want is opposed to what God wants, and therefore creation is 'weighted against us'.

*

But a person who knows, accepts and lives by The Will (in however brief and incomplete a fashion) finds the opposite - he finds that not only his own mind (mental powers) but also 'things in general' cooperate in ways that are good.

This includes genuine synchronicity - which is a consequence of harmony between ourselves and our environment working towards the good, caused by The Will spontaneously (over time) reproducing in our surroundings 'a drama which represents the significance of our being': i.e. synchronicity, or 'meaningful coincidence' (as we interpret it).

*

By this account synchronicity is mostly an operation of God-within-us, rather than a situation created by God's power external to us. It is evidence of a truly vast and intrinsically good power - a divine power of subtle harmonisation that we may recognise (or reject); but which it is impossible for us to control, exploit or 'use' to achieve our personal desires.

This also explains divine providence, that sense of God's Will working in the world (but only with our chosen cooperation) can make situations that seem like a near-incredible 'good fortune' by a sequence of apparent 'luck'.

*

This may be the explanation for Great Men (in religion, theology, politics, arts, sciences etc.) who are (who 'happen to be') in the right place at the right time, and whose (small) decisions and acts are amplified (by invisible processes) to have vast consequences.

Arkle's example is Winston Churchill; whose personal qualities in the role of Prime Minister during the Battle of Britain were a consequence of extraordinary sequences of 'luck' - with world historical consequences.

"If you are a Churchill, you make a few small noises into a microphone, and you set forces in motion in people's natures which make all the difference..."

The lesson is that if we want real power in life, like Churchill, or the Greats in other domains of life; then this can be had only by renouncing Will Power, and embracing The Will.

*

We tend to suppose that the 'main problem' of life is 'amplifying our voices' - using force, cunning, chance to make the world take notice of what we think is important; but this is the false self at work deploying Will Power.

When the true self, The Will, is at work comes a recognition that our proper main problem, something that only we can do, is to recognise and nurture our true self, our highest consciousness which contains and harmonises with the divine.

And insofar as this achieved (and whether we know this is happening or not, and whether we are personally credited with it or not) the goodness of a true self in higher consciousness will quite easily and quite naturally be 'amplified' and propagated by innumerable instances of 'luck', sequences of meaningful coincidences: synchronicities.
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The development of human consciousness means that strategies that once were (overall) directed towards Good, have now become net-harmful. Will power is one of them. 

This is because (to a nearly complete degree) modern Man's will power is cut-off from the creative purposes of God; and cut-off also from his former immersion in the unconscious mind of other-Men. 

In the past, an individual Man's will arose from a context of other Men and from at least some degree of spontaneous sharing of divine purpose - for example, from some degree of 'automatic' harmony with the natural world. 

But nowadays a Man's free will lacks these former (unconscious, spontaneous, automatic) elements of coherence and direction. 

Therefore any strengthening of will power, of focused concentration upon an inner purpose, will - unless deliberately directed into harmony with divine creation - be directed against God and fellow Men. And nowadays this maldirection does not tend to be corrected 'automatically' by unconscious inner feedback impulses. 

In effect; there is only one Good direction for will to be harmonious with God; and an 'infinite' number of bad/ wrong/ evil directions - in pursuit of which will power is dissonant, disruptive - and ultimately destructive of creative harmony.  

Thus we moderns are more free in our will and thinking than ever before; consequently for us to will in harmony with divine creation is a conscious choice; whereas to will in conformity to divine creation used to be, to some extent - albeit an extent dwindling through recorded history - natural and spontaneous.

Yet nowadays we are confronted with a vast array of options and alternatives among which we must and do choose. 

Given this range of choice; most Men choose to conform by (what they regard as) expediency: i.e. they make their choices for their own best advantage... And, in practice, this usually means they will choose whatever is most powerfully imposed upon them. 

In the modern world; this means that Men typically choose whatever is imposed by saturation (by marination) in the outputs of mass media, state and corporate bureaucracies; and by propaganda from all these plus from (what used to be called) churches, law, science, schools and colleges etc. 

And since 2020; it has been obvious that all these are 'converged' onto a single global program: so (in those matters of core importance to the 'world government', the passive individual experiences a unified external will.

What is the nature and direction of this external pressure that is imposed? It is demonic, purposively-evil; it is a will unified in opposition to God, divine creation and The Good. 

Thus passivity is evil; and the scope of such evil is unbounded - including even nonsensical incoherence and the gross inversion of Good - since modern Man's will power can now 'make' whatever 'reality' it chooses. 

 

But this is not inevitable - it is always a choice. 

In effect, it is often a choice made by the cut-off will power to deny choice. 

It is simply choosing passively to yield to external pressure.  

Yet, all the time, the divine harmony and purpose of God's creation is still there - (as it were); in the background; waiting to be noticed and waiting to be chosen: waiting to have will power directed at it. 

Any Man is free make this choice, but it must be a conscious choice.

 

How can a Man know where this choice lies? 

By the possibility of directly knowing God-within each Man, through directing our attention to our real-divine Self; and by directing our will power to make such choices. 

And from 'externally'; through knowing in our hearts the personal presence of the Holy Ghost; which is the spirit of the ascended Jesus Christ... 

This through love-of, and faith-in, that same Jesus Christ - by making the choice to follow the Good Shepherd to eternal resurrected life.  

I have often noticed that there is an almost-opposite stream of therapeutic self-help to the oneness spirituality - and that is to propose that we need to improve our powers of mental concentration. 

This suggestion goes back to Nietzsche, and includes George Bernard Shaw and Colin Wilson - and also several strands of the Golden Dawn tradition of ritual, or ceremonial, magic*. All these (and many other self-help gurus) advocate training oneself (or undergoing systems of training) in 'habits' of mental control and concentration; as a kind of amplification of will power. 

This is a significant half-truth; because there is certainly a sense in which our inability to control our thinking is a real plague of mind. If we cannot focus, or concentrate, our thoughts - then we can't follow a line of reasoning, cannot analyze and critique, cannot resist the ubiquitous distractions of mundane life (especially now that the mass-social media is so prevalent). 

Also; people who have high powers of concentration - whether spontaneous or trained - may be impressive in their capacity for work, and also relatively socially dominant: they may be able to manipulate other people more effectively than would otherwise be the case, in a kind of "hypnotic" fashion. 

Concentration really can, therefore, be a kind of power - power over the natural world, and over social situation, and it is easily understandable that some people (at least in some moods) would desire this power. 

Yet such power amounts to self-assertion. It is a means to the end of imposing one's will on the rest of the world. 

In other words; concentration operates at the level of the everyday, mundane self - which self is ultimately passive, externally-controlled, un-free. 

What concentration bypasses is the Primal Self; and if you agree that this mortal life is "about" the learning and development of our Primal Self - then it can be seen that a focus upon focus, concentrating on concentration, is missing the point - and indeed amounts to a deliberate exclusion from purpose of the real meaning of life. 

In other words: because a focus on concentration is a means, not an end; then, to the extent that mental concentration is made a purpose in life - in making concentration our aim we are not discovering (leave alone following) the divinely-intended destiny of our spiritual life. 

Thus, to focus on enhancement of the will-power of concentration, is rather like making improved efficiency the goal of life while neglecting what the efficiency is aimed-at; instead of discovering what ought to be the purpose of life. 

Overall it is surely better to be inefficiently aimed at the right purposes of life, then to focus efficiently on achieving goals that have been passively absorbed from external sources. 

At root, a person with tremendously focused will power is not even serving his own interests - because the mundane self is not Primal nor essential, but merely contingent. In practice; will power operates as merely an effective servant of the powers that dominate this mortal world and life. 

The lure of successful self-assertion, of imposing oneself upon other people and upon Life; in practice turns people into mental slaves for this-world's demonic rulers. 

*An example of the power of trained "magical" concentration in the Golden Dawn tradition can be seen with the Inkling Charles Williams; of whom many accounts have been written of his hypnotic, charismatic effect. None more vivid than that of Lois Lang-Sims; who was an initially-complicit "victim" of Williams at his most "vampiric". Charles Williams demonstrates that a training in focused attention is a tool that can be effectively deployed - for good and Christian purposes; for the "Left Hand" path of selfish personal benefit - or for both purposes, at different times. Williams was aware of the temptations of such self-willed power, as is evident from several of his novels; yet despite such knowledge was not able effectively to resist the temptations to abuse such power - even in the last years of his life.   

The basic and original situation in created reality was (and is) one of harmony and power - it is our destiny (the gift of God - if we choose to accept it) to become participants in this harmony and power.

Against this; false, superficial 'personality' and its 'will power' strive to attain worldly, selfish, short-termist and materialistic goals...

These cherished worldly goals that we consciously strive-for (status, fame, wealth, influence, sex, indolence, pleasures, distractions...) are continually being-sabotaged-by the divine tendency in multiple ways that we perceive as 'bad luck', illness, failure, misery, boredom, demotivation...

Our worldly-goals - even if we do get them - always turn-out to be infrequent, transient, unsatisfying.

Nobody pursuing worldly goals ever gets his hands on real power - primary power - the power of creation: including never getting the power to attain genuine, lasting, pervasive gratification, fulfilment, meaning and purpose - of being at home in reality.

(Satan, an unincarnated spirit, has no such power; but is a tormented soul who can only work by corruption of existent creation - to destroy that which is, and is good.)

This is a safety feature - since we (as we are) would certainly abuse real, primary power if we could grasp it - we would destroy the  divine harmony between free agent beings; so creation was set-up so that is impossible - power comes only with Love: the two are attained together or not at all.

In sum: we cannot access primary power except by working from our true (divine) selves with motivation of Love; but if,or when, or insofar as this pre-requisite is attained then we may indeed work with the primary power of ultimate creation.

Real power exists for us in proportion to how aligned we are with divine purpose and its harmony. The true nature of our Will is not in 'forcing' reality to conform to our worldly appetites but in knowing and (voluntarily, with Love) aligning ourselves with the divine harmony and hopes.

This is what lies behind such phenomena as synchronicity (the alignment of multiple complex strands of reality, over time, to create positive situations for our potential personal benefit); also by what seems like luck, patterns, cycles, and stories as they apply to our lives.

This mortal life is for our education - we are to be educated by experiences; and the main thing we are intended to be educated in is the qualities of Life - which we know imperfectly as both positive and negative phenomena such as love, fear, hope, despair, affection, hatred and so forth - all these must, eventually, be understood; and to understand them requires experience. 

But how do we understand?

There is an inner and outer communication. The main inner communication is by imagination. We can consider imagination to be a full, inner grasping of reality: to know something we must imaginatively-inhabit it. Imagination (properly understaood) is indeed the primary and ultimate experience of knowing.

But sometimes a purely inner stimulus does not suffice, and we need to have the lesson impressed upon us by the physical outer world; sometimes we need to know something as an objective experience (perceptible to others as well as to ourselves). These lessons from the physical world are slow to emerge, and simple in their nature - but these 'harsh lessons' (as they feel to us) may be compelling in a way that, in practice, is necessary to improve the possibility of our learning from them.

(Of course we can always resist learning! No matter how many lessons, or how harsh the lessons may be - people can, and do, choose not to learn them. Nonetheless, God does not give-up on us; but gives us chance after chance to learn what is vital to our eternal progression - so long as we allow him.)

Thus, primary divine power works to reproduce in our surroundings a real life picture of our situation - of the situation of our mortal life on earth. The drama of each of our lives is a way we can perceive and learn what we most need. 

Our real-true-divine Will is therefore always spontaneously working-away - often against our superficial, selfish, worldly will - to enact in our environment the drama of our own being, and its requirements; typically in a slow, simple, heavy-handed and linear fashion. 

On the other hand, we can in principle learn these necessary lessons much more rapidly, simultaneously, and less painfully if we can learn-to-learn-from imagination - in the spiritual realm.

(The above is a paraphrase of an argument in the chapter The Will in William Arkle's book A Geography of Consciousness, 1974 - esepcially page 212.)

 

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This is William Arkle writing in the persona of God, who is writing a letter to us to explain himself:

You are in a situation where your own private world which you live in will be what you make it. If you allow it to be dominated by the wishes of your physical nature, you will feel alien to it even if you are carried along by it. If you feel like a stranger to yourself it will make you unhappy, and you will doubt your own true identity, and you will lose faith in all the higher values in life.

 You may disguise the situation to the people around you but inside yourself you will feel lost and helpless and degraded.

My work is to increase your sense of reality to yourself, and make it feel of great value to you, without it spilling over into pride and selfishness. The balance between the over-subdued nature and the over-inflated nature is not easy to keep, and is a necessary balance to be achieved before other values can be built in.

The balance between the over-subdued nature and the over-inflated nature is not easy to keep, and is a necessary balance to be achieved before other values can be built in. The foundation lessons to be taught are thus integrity and responsibility, combined with affection and sympathy, but added to an ability to feel a balanced importance in the scheme of things. 

It is not an easy thing to believe you have great value and ability, and at the same time maintain a temperament which does not try to show off and impress people, and perhaps even dominate them. 

Every new gift I give you with trepidation because I know you are more likely to misuse it before you learn to handle it correctly, so, to me, a gift can appear like an ordeal and a temptation, and I am worried when I see some of you working to achieve special powers which may well be your downfall so far as the graceful balance of your temperament is concerned. 

On the other hand, I am glad when I see you developing gifts as a result of loving aspiration and wise discrimination, for such gifts I know will surely benefit you and all those associated with you.

http://www.billarkle.co.uk/prose/letterfromafather3.html

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In our culture there is a tendency to assume that gifts and abilities ought to be developed - people should make the most of themselves -- in general, the idea is that power and capability (in persons or in our groups or nations) are 'a good thing'.

But from a divine perspective there is a big problem - and it is a problem that we can see with many geniuses - especially the most recent twentieth century geniuses.

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Gifts are potential abilities to affect the world - Gifts are Power.

Is power a good thing? It depends on what you do with it: But we would agree that giving power to an evil person, or even just an irresponsible person, is a bad thing.

Bad, that is, from a divine perspective, even when the specific person with power got what they wanted. And bad from the perspective of that individual's 'graceful balance of temperament'.

(Think of Gollum and the Ring of Power - Gollum 'wanted' to possess the Ring, but it was bad for Gollum's balance of temperament, and bad from a divine perceptive that he should have it.)

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I think this used to be much better understood than it is nowadays: That before someone has power, they need already to have learned the foundation lessons of integrity, responsibility, affection, sympathy, balance...

It applies to individuals, and it applies to nations and cultures. Yet not only are the foundation lessons neglected, they are not even attempted!

The situation is perilous enough when dealing with natural (divine) gifts - but the worst possible situation is when people, nations, cultures are systematically and successfully working to achieve special powers without any recognition that powers are intrinsically likely to be corrupted. And this applies to powers of all types - including medicine and healing, including art and literature, including housing and clothing... But obviously so in terms of science, technology, and bureaucratic organization.

Insofar as we fail to perceive the probability of hazards, we have chosen to misuse power - while blinding ourselves even to the possibility of misuse.

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The situation is really very simple: it is a matter of motivation. From the divine perspective; gifts and powers in the hands of the badly motivated are a horror - and only in the hands of the well-motivated are they a good.

Since everybody claims to be well-motivated (even Gollum) - but nearly everybody is this requires discernment on the basis that people tend to be self-deluded and dishonest about their bad motivations - and what people say about their motivations needs to be compared with their actions; and their ability to maintain good motivations in the face of temptations needs to be evaluated: power does intrinsically tend to corrupt, and corrupted power is far worse than no power.

The divine perspective would therefore seem to be: Better no geniuses than corrupted genius; Better no breakthrough innovations than those which would be used with bad motivations; Better cultural decline and extinction than an unstoppable evil empire.

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In other words, from where we are, and as we are, and what we want to be - gifts and powers, energy and determination will all do more harm than good - much more harm than good; and we cannot use the excuse that we have evil enemies and it is 'us or them' because - from a divine perspective, we may both be bad, but we may be worse because of our superior gifts and powers...

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Therefore - the situation is that on the one hand, we in The West we have cultural decline (decline in power, achievement, capability, efficiency, courage and will) because we have rejected Christianity - because we no longer place religion above all other considerations; and on the other hand we should not even allow ourselves to hope that Western cultural decline is reversed until after there has been a Christian revival, a Great Awakening.

And if religious revival does not happen (as seems all-too-probable) then it is better that we do not reverse Western cultural decline.

Because - motivated as we now are - with our policy, propaganda and multiple laws and regulations systematically enforcing explicit moral inversion (a situation of depravity previously unknown in human history) - we are already and are still much-too-powerful

So enhancement of Western power, achievement, capability, efficiency, courage and will in the absence of prior religious revival would (from a divine perspective) likely be regarded as one of the worst possible outcomes.

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It is seldom explained explicitly; but experience of life teaches that those who seek power are thereby made more vulnerable to power. 

In general terms: those who seek to manipulate the world thereby open-themselves to manipulation by the world. And this applies whether the power sought is physical-material, or spiritual.

There are many routes and reasons by which this happens; but the general principle seems solid. It is a Faustian-type bargain; as if reality tells us:

"Yes, you can impose your will on the world, to some extent; but the price you must pay for this privilege is that your will itself becomes subject to elements within the world". 

Why this should be a kind-of law is perhaps abstractly explicable in terms of engagement: insofar as we engage with the world (for whatever purpose), we are Just Are engaged-with the world! And influence flows both ways, whether we like it or not. 

Another way to consider this interaction is relevant to the role of churches and religious structures such as priestly hierarchy, ritual, symbolism and sacred scriptures. These structures can generically be considered as intermediary between human and divine: a set of intermediary media. And these media are charged with power by the religious believer, who then seeks to lead the religious life by their intermediary power. 

Thus a religious symbol is effective in achieving its life-changing goals, only when and if it is made powerful; and when we yield to that symbol the ability to affect us. In a Good religion, that symbolic power will (on the whole) be wielded upon-us for our net-Good, and that is why we open ourselves to symbolism. 

But when the religious symbolism is used with evil intent, it has power over those who have (to some significant extent) previously yielded to it that personal power, and implicitly opened-themselves to the power of that symbol. 

(This is the principle behind a Black Mass, or other forms of subversion using distorted but traditional Christian symbols and rituals.) 

 

If we consider this issue very generally; it also applies to secular and physical power. At a material level; anyone (say a monarch or dictator) who intends to impose his will on society, must do so via "human technologies" such as powerful armies, police, spies, and bureaucrats; and by doing so, he becomes the subject of manipulation (individually, and in combination) by these same powerful institutions. 

This is a Big Problem in a world and society of increasingly-evil corruption, where all intermediate institutions, media, symbols, rituals... that whole world of abstractions and things by which we have traditionally related to Reality - gets subverted, destroyed and/or inverted. 

In a corrupting world; those entities by-which we sought power to do Good, to our-selves and to the world, are turned-against us - and with a power that we have previously given to them. And that power strikes home exactly because we have previously (but originally for Good intentions) made ourselves open-to it. 

So; in battling the evil manipulations of The World; we are also turning-against our-selves: turning-against our own former convictions and intentions. 

We are (inevitably) dis-engaging-from The World; and eschewing power - even the attempt to impose power on the world.  

It strikes me that this perspective may help us to understand why so many people are incrementally apostatizing from Christianity - and also why they seldom realize they are doing-so.  

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Since political correctness is (more or less) egalitarian in its aim, it is superficially hard to explain why the PC is so power-seeking: why they seek to subordinate every human decision (public or private) to government regulation. Surely this is to favour one group (the PC elite) above all others?

The answer is simple - albeit unconvincing.

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The aim is to take all power into the PC elite, who will use this power to make the world safe for PC - by using power to extirpate all trace of resistance to political correctness (all trace of racism, sexism and the various 'phobias') - and then to relinquish this power.

More exactly, to install systems that prevent all forms of prejudice - then when these systems are indestructibly installed - to walk away from power.

So that no individual human being or group of persons will have any more power than another human being or group of persons: all will be subject to the same algorithmic processes of social justice.

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The unconvincing bit is that there will be nothing and nobody that makes the PC elite walk away from power. There is only the PC elite's trust in their own good intentions, and trust in their own ability to carry-out these good intentions.

Of course, the time to walk away from power will never come if there is any residual trace of non-PC resistance (real, or imagined)...

And since PC is social constructivist (believes neither in God/s nor in human nature) this means that to ensure they will indeed walk away from power, when the time comes, the PC elite must be sure first to brainwash themselves completely and irrevocably...

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I feel it is necessary to clarify the status of magic from a Christian perspective; and specifically from a Romantic Christian perspective that sees human consciousness as having developed (evolved) through human history. 

Necessary, because if we regard magic as (something like) the attainment of human will by supernatural (non-material) means; then magic is real, important; and may be white or black. 

I define white magic as in accordance with God's will; that is, in harmony with ongoing divine creation. 

White magic is done by loving alignment of an individual's will with Good...

Whereas black magic is the attempt to impose one's detached and personal will upon other persons, other beings, or the world generally. 

Black magic can only be done with demonic assistance, and therefore (overall, eventually, inevitably) actually is done in pursuit of evil.

Black magic has not changed very much through history - it has always been possible, and apparently always follows the same 'Faustian' trajectory. Some person or group wants to impose their personal, selfish will upon the world; seeks to do so by supernatural means; and actually does so by means of employing demonic power. 

The black magician believes he can control the demons (despite that they are supernaturally magical, and he is not); by means of some technology or bargain. But the whole thing is actually a demonic snare by which the demon comes to control the black magician - who is therefore either a dupe, servant or slave to the Satanic agenda. 

And the end result is the same - the unrepentant black magician is damned; and apparently suffers more than the usual torments of the damned, for his presumption.

A somewhat conjectural history of white magic (which, nonetheless, I believe is broadly correct) has it that in our pre-historical hunter-gatherer past, God-aligned white magic was simply part of life.  

The individual human's will was neither detached from the human group-will and the group-destiny; and was immersed-in the divine will and having a mostly un-conscious direct knowledge of divine destiny.

Apparently, some individuals had a greater aptitude (what we now term the 'shamans') but the essential activity was universal: everybody did their bit, and contributed magically in some way - spontaneously and mostly unconsciously. 

As human consciousness developed, and humans became more free-agents, as in the Ancient Egyptian empire; this spontaneous knowledge and alignment with the divine was also lost. 

For the Pharaoh and priest-magicians of Egypt, magic required elaborately-selected and -initiated priests; who employed complex systems of ritual, symbol and many other 'technologies' (such as divination) to align their wills with the divine. 

These were overwhelmingly white magicians, who used the supernatural to benefit the society rather than themselves; and who (under the semi-divine Pharaohs) guided the society in harmony with God's destiny - and were able to accomplish (by magic instead of technology) advanced material achievements that still astonish the world. 

The development of consciousness continued, and as well as becoming more free, more of an agent; the individual Man's will became more separate from the divine will and the community will alike. 

As a result, white magic became more difficult, less powerful - and Men (detached from the divine) became more prone to black magic. 

The (all-but) end of the era of strong white magic was at the start of the modern era (Renaissance - 15th and 16th centuries in Europe); with the last of the white magicians (e.g. Paracelsus, John Dee and the Alchemists most of whom had ambivalent reputations or kept their activities secret (like Newton, Hooke and Ashmole). 

This darkening of magic was probably due to contamination of motive by the magician's more-detached personal will. This was the era when the Faust legend of black magic became archetypal; and the negative views of witches (motivated by spite, desiring to harm individuals and society) also became more dominant. 

In the fully modern era, white magic became almost impossible. 

Attempts to revive it in the 19th century, and increasingly through the twentieth century, were only partially successful (skeptical outsiders saw nothing). 

The practitioners found that the power and scope of magic was dwindling almost to nothing; and eventually was almost wholly limited to the psychological realm of the practitioners themselves. 

For example; in the last 19th and early 20th century magical rituals could change the consciousness of participants and sometimes produce quasi-objective 'manifestations'  - but by the late twentieth century this power was greatly reduced, and ritual magic work was all-but merged with imagination (art, narrative, music and drama) as technologies of consciousness. 

So, where from here? The way ahead to a resurgence of white magic was explained (albeit not implemented) by Rudolf Steiner and his 'disciple' Owen Barfield. 

Group magical work is rare, weak - and at present illegal (because groups are illegal for the masses --- although not among the Establishment, who continue to perform their black magic in groups); so nearly all modern white magic must be individual. 

Now that human consciousness is spontaneously and naturally detached from the divine; white magic requires conscious choice. 

White magic now does not attempt to influence by will the appearances of the world, or the behaviours of persons. Furthermore, it happens in thinking rather than (as in the past) by perception. 

This, because the white magician is no longer immersed in the divine - he must meet the divine halfway. 

Indeed, white magic needs to become detached from the individual's will; instead the individual's will needs to be aligned to God by conscious, chosen effort. 

In sum: White magic now should not try to operate at the level of changing God's primary creation - we should not be looking to change our sensorial-perceptions of reality. 

We should not be motivated by a desire to impose our will; nor to attain any particular end-result in this world (such as a change in human behaviour, or society, or weather). 

Instead, white magicians need to attain (and this will, of course, be temporary and usually very partial) alignment of their own conscious thinking with God's ongoing creation.

And if this is attained then white magic will 'Just Happen'.

What we will then be doing is contributing to God's creation; and contributing from our own unique divine Real Self. 

We will therefore be contributing some-thing (some Good) that nobody else could have contributed. 

We will be adding to the total sum of eternal actuality; adding some-little-thing from our own small corner of that actuality. 

Is this worth the effort? It may be. Because sometimes even the littlest contributions turn-out to be vital to the Big Picture.

If we seek power for its own sake, we may expect to be continually disappointed with the fruits of our effort; because the whole of creation is weighted against us. The reason is that success in this endeavour would be a negative factor in our spiritual education and tend to destroy the potential of our real consciousness.

In the same way that we keep dangerous and powerful artifacts out of the range of our childrens' grasp, so God has arranged for the real power of the universe to be kept out of our grasp. 

Power exists for us in direct ratio to the extent that we succeed in bringing our absolute nature to a condition of resonant life. This power then works for us quite spontaneously to reproduce in all our surroundings a 'drama' which represents the significance of our true Being. 

In this way our own true nature is caused to be portrayed for us externally, in order that we can know it as an objective experience; as well as an experience in our inner sensibility. 

Our true Will Power (aligned with divine destiny) causes people and situations to come together in our environment, so that they may live out for one another the whole significance of the quality of their true being. 

This purposive arranging of multiple environmental aspects does, of course, take a long time at the physical level. But those aspects which are expressed as higher spiritual levels are not under the same restrictive and sluggish constraints as the physical level; and can be experienced by us in great quantities and at great speed.

Our personal experience of freedom and fulfilment therefore consists in recognising that much of our condition has already been fixed for us, for our own eternal benefit. We find ourselves in a situation where Life will try to force us to pay attention to qualities rather than quantities; and to keep and use our individual true nature; even when we consciously attempt to avoid what we need and shed our true nature in favour of some superficial desire. 

(Edited and explicated from pages 212-3 of Chapter 16 The Will, in A Geography of Consciousness by William Arkle - published 1974.)


Note: I find this analysis very satisfying and convincing as a picture of why we each are in the situation in which we find ourselves, and what to do about it.

My impression is that I came to consciousness with a personality and set of motivations that had been corrupted by all sorts of false desires and distorted notions - and I now count myself fortunate (and blessed) that so few of these were allowed to come to pass.

Those desires which - by stubborn will power - I did 'succeed' in forcing-upon myself and the world, invariably led to bad, unsatisfying and tormenting outcomes that pulled me up short and - eventually, after denials and further fruitless efforts - compelled me recognise my stupidity and errors.

It also strikes me that the horrors of Radical, 'progressive', Leftist, secular activism over the past few centuries can be seen in this light; as a direct consequence of the cultural implantation of a multitude of false, superficial and harmful desires for oneself and the world - and the encouragement to force-these-upon the world by the sheer intransigence of our personal and collective will...

...An attitude that invariably lead to disappointing, bad, perverse and even inverted outcomes (outcomes which invite - but seldom lead to - repentance).

We are stuck in habits of materialist, reductionist, abstract thinking that have been inculcated from all directions of our culture; and which are sustained by all public discourse. 

Breaking free and developing better, truer, stronger ways of thinking - thinking with the innate cosmic and unconstrained scope consequent upon the divine part of our human natures - is difficult. 

Furthermore, we cannot really use conscious 'will power' in this task, because conscious will is rooted in the same world of habit which we are trying to escape. With conscious will power; we are in the paradoxical situation of deploying exactly that which we are simultaneously trying to change!

To break the evil habits of our mainstream, mundane thinking; we need to be able to think actively, and from our real (divine) selves. We cannot just let our thoughts happen; but we cannot use will power. 

And I believe we cannot achieve that active thinking by increments, we cannot attain metaphysical transformation by generalizing from earlier and specific successes. 

(This is why Rudolf Steiner's meditation exercises seem to be useless at generating active primary thinking - since they rely upon the mistaken assumption that the general can be built-up stepwise from the specific.)

How then might we 'strengthen' (as Owen Barfield terms it) our primary thinking, and develop the capability of using it more often and more fully? 

The answer is by what Coleridge called "imagination" - if that term is properly understood; which is also what Tolkien called "subcreation". And this is by the act of creating in thinking - i.e. in primary thinking - which is creating in the non-material, spiritual, realm.

All material is spiritual - because matter comes-from spirit; so creation in the material realm - i.e. creating stuff like poetry, music, painting, scientific or philosophical theorizing - is potentially valid. 

Such activities are potentially good for developing 'imagination' so long as they are active and innerly-driven. But these are minority activities - and such material manifestations of creativity are secondary. 

The Real Thing about creating goes on in thinking: thinking is primary, when it comes to the kind of imagination/ subcreation we need. 

Unconscious creativity (e.g. that of a child, or someone who creates something valued by accident, or without trying) is Not what we want and need - if we are to break the materialist mind-set.

No - to develop the imagination; requires that creation be conscious, active, chosen. 

And such creation happens first in thinking. 

Whether or not thinking later results in a poem, song, new theory or whatever - is secondary and inessential. 

The value in creating comes from the thinking - even if that thinking is unspoken, unexpressed. 

Indeed, the expression of creativity is always secondary; and - necessarily - incomplete, distorted and inferior to the original and primary thinking that led to it. 

Thus; whether inner creativity of thinking is recognized by 'other people', or is accorded praise and status - is inessential. "Great" poets or painters may in fact be less primarily creative than one who has never even spoken about his inner states of primary thinking. 

So, imagination, creation, in the realm of primary thinking; is what is needed to develop the desired true and good alternative to the false and evil thinking-habits of this time and place. 

And such creation can only come from the thinker being aligned with God and divine creation; and can only happen when the thinker is motivated by love. 

This is another reason why it cannot be achieved by conscious will power - when the Good-alignment is absent, and/or motives are selfish or manipulative - then primary thinking just does not happen; and a kind of pseudo-creativity is the result.

It might be said that plenty of people are 'already doing this kind of inner-creating without realizing they are doing it'. But that does not suffice. 

We need to be clear that anyone who does not realize he is doing it, is actually not doing it! 

This is clear from the fact that such unconsciously creating people remain trapped in the habit-prison of mundane materialist thinking - often barely aware of the fact. 

Our core task here-and-now is to become conscious about many things which used to be unconscious. 

We need to become conscious that we are indeed in a socially-imposed thought-prison of mundane materialist thinking; conscious that we want to escape this prison; and consciously decide to develop our primary thinking - our inner and spiritual creativity.  

 

The consciousness of our real self is largely beyond the understanding of our more familiar 'personality self'. 

At its most fundamental level, the real will is divine; and at this level the purpose of the real will mixes perfectly with the purposes of other divine beings. 

The real will is the manifesting of this already-harmonised divine purpose throughout the lower levels of creation, and eventually right down to the physical level. 

Thus our real self witnesses itself as it becomes more fully mature and at the same time helps to perfect the purposes of others. The real self has this power in it as a part of our divine heritage. 

All nature responds to the proper command of the real will of the real self. But the will does not command 'willfully' - it achieves command by being more fully what it is. Thus the 'sound' of the quality of its individual being mingles more loudly with the creative sound of God. 

What we usually call 'will' is actually more like 'desire power' and 'idea power', through which our lower self focuses on things it feels it wants or needs. 

But what we feel as a need in the deepest sense is not something we can 'make a decision about', we just pretend that it is a decision. Our real will has already-decided, and is something we can only be either true-to, or untrue-to: the real will is not something we are in a position to use.

Edited - for clarity, punctuation, emphasis and language - from the Summary of chapter sixteen - The Will; from A Geography of Consciousness, by William Arkle, 1974.

Notes:

1. The true individual nature of each person is divine - that is, it belongs to the nature and function of the absolute - as a consequence of all men and women being God's children.

2. Therefore, we are, each of us, directly in touch with the power and purpose of the absolute, with the divine nature - at least potentially; simply because some of the divine nature is within us.

3. However, although the divine is active within us; we are initially (personally and culturally - in childhood and in early tribal societies) unconscious of the divine within ourselves. It affects us - but we are not aware of the fact.

4. As human consciousness evolves towards higher (ie. including more self-aware) levels - we get to a 'dead centre' of total self-consciousness cut off fro awareness of the divine. This state has been called the 'dead centre' of consciousness, or the consciousness soul - it is the adolescence of human personal and cultural evolution - a necessary transition phase. This position must be moved-through before we can become actively aware of the divine within us; that is the actual experience of the divine within us (not merely the abstract fact of their being a divine element in us). 

5. But, even before we are actively aware of the divine within-us; it may be at work in an unconscious way - expressing itself (or at least trying to express itself) as may be evident implicitly. For example, our behaviours may be shaped against our conscious will - our superficial and intellectually- or socially-moulded plans and schemes may be self-sabotaged; or synchronicities may channel us in certain directions.

6. The real self - that is, the divine self, is attuned-with the divine level of action. Each person is, in this way, an essential part of the divine plan of creation. However, to participate; he or she must freely opt-in to this plan, on the basis of love and awareness of the divine plan (made possible by the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ).

7. At the highest and deepest level our Life is a destiny - and indeed an unique destiny - yet that destiny is a gift, and as-such it may be declined.

8. At the deepest and highest level the true 'will'  of our true self is not chosen by us - because only at this divine level - in which the wills of many beings are harmonised.

9. Thus, because of this high-level harmonisation; the will of any one individual cannot 'sabotage' the divine plan of creation by any act or will at a lower level of consciousness. Each individual can either join in the work of creation, bringing his or her unique nature to the open-ended task; or he or she may decline to participate - leaving a gap in the original divine plan, and causing a change in the unfolding of creation.

10. The divine plan cannot be sabotaged in its character and aim (the specific plan is optional, non-mandatory, freely chosen); but it can be changed in its specifics (the plan is not a blueprint but evolutionary, pluralist, endlessly creative).  

Thinking lately about a way of living (or something aimed-at in living) that I associate with the work and practice of Charles Williams - by which the mundane world is understood as (what I have termed) a palimpsest - as when a new medieval text is written on a secondhand parchment, and the pre-existing manuscript can sometimes be seen shining-through. 

The idea is that we are at first aware only of the mundane 'natural' and surface level of meanings; but underneath these, there is a super-natural reality, of eternal and archetypal forms.  

Thus; for Williams the City of London (or any city) represents the City of God; and its mercantile exchanges of goods and money, represent the Christian spiritual "exchange" between "co-inherent" Men. In his novels and poems, and also apparently in his own life and that of his 'disciples', this seems to have been the daily practice of Charles Williams - anything in the passing show, might be experienced as a symbol of some-thing archetypal and eternal.  

From long before I counted myself a Christian, this had a strong initial appeal to me; as an attitude that seemed to lend depth and meaning to a mundane, everyday world that so-often, so-badly lacked depth and meaning (consisting of dull bureaucracy, transient distractions, the pursuit of low motivations and rejection of high). 

It came naturally too: I suspected, sometimes detected, much going-on beneath the surface; including good things of which people seemed often unconscious, and good influences that were unnoticed, unintended, unsuspected... 

In other words; the reality was largely negative and implicit in in its effects; and my idea was that to make it positive ought to enhance its power to enhance life. 

"Power" was indeed a part of the concept - including Will Power. I was sympathetic to the idea that there could be a collective focusing of will power for Good; and that this kind of activity might do good in ways that were again unnoticed and unconscious. 

(Indeed, such ideas were prevalent a few decades ago, and people would often organize mass activities of 'will power' - such as prayer, meditation, and many varieties of ceremonial activity; with the expressed aim of doing some-Good to the world... In a sense, the underlying idea was that Good could be done-to masses of people - "whether they liked it or not"! 

So there were ideas of a realler-reality beneath the surface; and ideas of the Good-stuff being present and operative without awareness, working-away in all kinds of positive ways, but unknown and unsuspected. And maybe "some way" of tapping into this underlying world by those (relatively  few) who recognized the nature-of-things; and thereby influencing things-in-general for the better - although they probably would never know it. 

And so I continued for many a year. 

And I gained satisfactions by it: both an immediate satisfaction of seeing beyond or below, and the motivation of doing more so. 

Yet, of course, there was no purpose to it. Ultimately, it was hedonic in its intent - a way of making life more enjoyable, but without making life qualitatively different. 

And there were disadvantages - because regarding actuality as a palimpsest devalues it relative to the deep past and the hoped-for future. Indeed, the surface seems ever-thinner, as the mind penetrates to 'eternal verities' beneath; and this life itself - mortal life, full of ephemeral objects and ideas - seems futile. It is going nowhere - but to change, corruption, death; so why do we linger in this vale of mere shadows when there is a bright and pure and flawless world awaiting us on the other side? 

Indeed, why did we ever come here at all - when there exists a world so much better; and a world which we will (apparently) experience as wholly satisfying? 

What is the point, if temporarily incarnating into such a mixed and messy world of temporary stuff; if/when there is an archetypal and timeless reality to which we might in principle have dwelt-within? 

And when we try to abolish time and sequence, and start believing that what is now is always, what was is also now, and what is to come has already-happened - then various terrible implications begin to sink-in. 

We have bought meaningfulness as a terrible cost; the cost of abolishing purpose hence choice - leading to paralysis as we contemplate an essentially tragic state of being. 

So, in the end I found - as, I believe, did Charles Williams - that despite the immediate allure and benefits of regarding this mortal life as a palimpsest written over an eternal and ideal world that can be accessed by the determined adept; when taken seriously and over the long term, such an attitude detracts-from and devalues (rather than enhances and validates) the mundane life.  

*

The difference between socialism and anarchism is that for socialists economics is primary while for anarchists power is primary.

By this definition, political correctness is essentially an anarchist ideology, while communism (from which it evolved) was essentially a socialistic ideology.

*

The primary aim of communism is/ was to redistribute money (wealth, income, whatever).

The primary aim of anarchism, and of PC, is to redistribute power.

Political correctness redistributes power in various ways - some of these are indeed economic, since wealth leads to power: economic power is a form of power.

So PC allocates salaries, subsidies, taxes, tax-exemptions, selectively enforces economic rules, and so on.

But PC also redistributes power in other forms: it allocates privileges (legal and administrative) and positions, assigns duties, generates images (positive and negative), regulates propaganda and advertising, gerrymanders voting (ie. shapes constituencies to benefit PC-favoured groups), regulates media depictions in terms of relative and absolute frequency and whether positive and negative. And so on.

*

In practice, PC (because it is an ideology of the ruling elite) in the first place takes power from the middling people and allocates it to bottom people - from the moderately-powerful to the least powerful; subtracts power from PC-disfavoured groups (whites, men, economically-productive people, the native-born, tax and rates-payers etc.) and adds power to favoured groups.

Political correctness perceives this process as being a just re-allocation from selfish, undeserving exploiters to miserable, vulnerable victims.

Since this process is a matter of raising-up the lowest using the money of the middle, it is a matter of being 'generous' using other-people's-money; and is therefore - at the first level of analysis - an extreme form of hypocrisy and moral grand-standing.

And, for the most part, that is precisely what PC is: the appropriation of moral approbation by  elite bureaucrats who coercively extract resources from their enemies and reward their supporters.

*

But at the highest level of politically correct aspiration and devoutness, the elite among the PC sincerely intend to take this process through to completion. They sincerely intend to destroy their own class, as well as the middle class.

Naturally, this intention is kept under wraps; not broadcast to the mass of PC careerists; but it is surely there.

The elite within PC intend to redistribute their own power.

*

In the short term the PC elite need to take all power to themselves, partly in order to begin the process of redistribution of power, but most importantly so that they can convert their personal power into impersonal power.

Those who sincerely want an egalitarian distribution of power cannot simply replace themselves with another class of redistributors, because humans are intrinsically selfish and corruptible.

This would soon lead to a recapitulation of power inequalities, as always happened under communism. The Marxist idea of replacing the bourgeoisie with the proletariat only replaced the personnel in charge of the state, only inverted the power structure - but it did not create an equal distribution of power.

The PC elite therefore intend to disempower themselves, intend to redistribute their power permanently.

This means not installing people or classes into power. Instead the PC elite intend to replace themselves with abstract systems of redistribution.

*

The PC elite intend to replace their own personal and inevitably selfish power with abstract power, in a nutshell to replace people with committees, to replace individual discretion with algorithmic regulations and votes, irreversibly to install redistributive procedural bureaucracy as the permanent form of ruling power.

*

Once procedural bureaucracy is irreversibly installed, thenceforth society will experience a continual redistribution and equalization of power imposed by an all-seeing, all-measuring, all-powerful system.

And the system will not depend on its personnel; indeed the ideal ruling system would be immune to influence by its administering personnel, unaffected by change in personnel, the system would use the personnel - not vice versa.

It would perhaps be something like rule by a computer - or maybe rule by 'The Borg' from Star Trek: the Next Generation: that is to say, rule by a group mind - an entity in which the individual is immersed, and which selfishness is therefore impossible.

From this perspective the ubiquity of voting (as the only method for generating authority) is merely a primitive step on the road to decision by the group mind.

*

So political correctness is the evolutionary child of anarchism, the product of a New Left focus on the distribution of power replacing the Old Left perception of economics as the primary social reality.

And - interestingly enough, ironically enough; PC is of course a totalitarian ideology which aspires to annihilate individual agency.

A totalitarian and anti-human bureaucracy was not-at-all what early anarchists were hoping-for.

Nonetheless, it is what they are getting...

So, anarchism has evolved from extreme libertarian individualism to the dissolution of the individual in the group mind...

*

Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.

*

Many or most people achieve Final Participation quite frequently - and in a reductionistic, psychological sense it isn't all that difficult to do so.

The problem is that achieved Final Participation is not noticed; or when noticed it is rejected as unimportant.


In a minimal sense - Final Participation is happening to me in those, mostly brief, 'moments' when I look at the stars or a beautiful and beloved landscape, read and really 'get' The Lord of the Rings, am suddenly moved by music and recognise it happening to me, or become aware of myself among my family, or awaken in the night feeling my-self to be at the centre of a great field of awareness.

That is IT - but it is generally regarded as trivial or delusional - just a random firing of neurons, or evidence of the human ability to imagine themselves more significant than they really are... In a word: the subjective experience is regarded as merely subjective - and having no relevance or importance to anybody else or any-thing else.

And this interpretation is understandable; because by this-worldly criteria it is nearly-always true.


For a start - we expect to be overwhelmed by reality (when it is really-real). We figure that anything real will impose-itself on us, so that we cannot resist it - that we will be swept-along by real-reality... so brief and delicate moments are not what we are looking for.

But being overwhelmed would not be a good thing; not for an adult; not for a soul that is aimed at becoming fully a part of the divine family...

If we are ultimately to become fully divine, and to participate in God's works of creation - then (to be valuable, for each to make a substantive contribution) we must be operating from a situation of full agency.

This, in turn, means that we need to to be consciously aware of our own thoughts, and of the ultimate realities external to our-selves. We cannot be immersed unconsciously in reality, we ought not to be overwhelmed nor swept away by reality. In contrast, we need to be able to stand-outside of reality and perceive reality and our-selves, and the creative integration of original thought from our-self and the already-existing reality.   


And secondly - our interest in reality is typically a (covert) interest in power. We are prepared to believe that something brief, delicate and subjective is real if - like mathematics, science, and engineering - it promises to bring us power.

Such power might be personal enhancements (such as money, a job, high status) or it might be more remote and idealistic power - the power to build a bridge or cure pneumonia... but our interest in subtle, non-overwhelming reality is linked to our optimism that it will have 'cash-value' in our mortal lives. 

(To put it another way: Almost all people, almost all of the time - are doing things for reasons of 'power' (by this broad definition); and, for obvious reasons, none of these people can be allowed anywhere near teh process of creation - or else creation would be poisoned and destroyed. But the prevention it does not really work by exclusion; it works by inability... Anyone motivated by person power - 'egotism', pride etc. - thereby automatically and totally excludes himself from participating in the creative process.) 

So we seldom notice Final Participation because it is outside of our metaphysical assumptions about what is really real - but even when we do notice it, our interest usually fades rapidly when it becomes apparent that we cannot (under any circumstances) use that knowledge to get power to improve our mortal lives: when we realise that such knowledge is not power.


Indeed, the knowledge that we get from such moments as I listed is not easy to share - it is not translatable into the common language of our times - partly because that common language excludes such matters, and partly because we don't even know how we might be able to communicate or explain such matters beyond (as I did above) merely describing the situation in which it happened.

It seems that an important part of it is that there must be a direct form of knowing, a knowing without communication - so that two people might know exactly the same thing without sensory perception or having to interpret symbols... by some mechanism whereby the same knowledge is being (simultaneously) shared...

Since the entirety of modern culture is based on the assumption that no such mechanism can exist, that all knowledge arises by a complex, multistage and unreliable chain of communication-steps... well we can barely even formulate the possibility of direct knowing.


However, however, however... If we are able to understand that these brief and delicate moments of Final Participation are In Fact direct glimpses of truth and reality; attained because our minds are (briefly) attuned with the divine creation - we can see why they are brief and incommunicable; and we can also see why the knowledge we attain is disconnected from power.

When we are directly observing divine creation, we are indeed only one step away from actually joining-in-with divine creation - but that is a vast step, seldom taken. It is one things to observe reality - but another and qualitatively more-difficult thing to engage in the making of reality; because for creation to continue entails that it be coherent, harmonious - that all additions to creation be fruitful and (of course) Good.

You and I are (almost certainly) a very long way from being able to contribute to divine creation; because we are not in harmony with the divine. (In other language, we are creatures of sin.) But I am not saying it is impossible for a mortal Man to add something to creation - indeed, that is precisely what a true creative genius has done (done objectively; whether or not recognised by fellow men).

But we can also see that the situation in which this happens is rare and unstable. When the situation is right, when a person is (however briefly) truly aligned-with the goals of divine creation - when he observes and loves creation... then it may be that his own divinity, his own agency, may not only observe but also contribute to on-going creation in some way - quantitatively microscopic, but eternal and therefore significant.


Perhaps, indeed, there is do distinction between observing and co-creating; perhaps these ephemeral moments of Joy are in fact our own, individual, nano-contributions to the actuality of divine creation? I would not rule it out - and indeed perhaps this is why we are mortally alive - our destined purpose. Perhaps the contributions of mortal men - no matter how small and infrequent - offer something of great and permanent value to the vast totality of God's creation? 

Yet even if or when this happens, there need not be any observable relationship with mortal life in this world. Such a happening is Not about power, Not about 'will power', not about the limited situation of a 'successful' (comfortable, convenient, pleasurable) mortal and earth-bound life; but way beyond and above and far wider-than such superficial and ephemeral considerations.

'Conspiracy Theory' is correct, compared with the incoherent and non-explanatory nonsense that the world Just Happens to be driven continually in the direction of secular Leftism, generation after generation.

In CS Lewis's famous phrase from That Hideous Strength, which has become something of a 'meme' on this blog: Things are coming to a point.

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=coming+to+a+point

This means that more and more people are being tested, being asked to make a choice; and if this has not yet happened to you, then it is more likely to happen this year than ever before:

http://meetingthemasters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-test-of-today.html

Almost certainly you are already deeply morally compromised, probably by dishonesty (by having engaged in deniable but deliberate misleading) - we all are compromised - but when things come to a point, you personally will be asked actively and explicitly to give support to something that you know to be wrong.

This (whatever it is) is not trivial (nothing is trivial). If you can get into trouble for not doing it, then it is important.

(You don't get to choose the battle ground. Your choice is simply whether to surrender, as usual, to go-with-the-flow. Or not-to-surrender. To refuse. That is as much as most people are given to 'fight' over. Nothing glamourous - simply saying 'no, I won't'. It is enough - it is everything.)

This moment, this choice and decision, will change you one way or the other - that is the test; that indeed, is exactly why you have been put into the position.

Probably, this is a decision which you will face existentially isolated, and in making the right choice and doing the right thing - if that is what you do - there will probably be little or no visible support from those with power and influence (that is the nature of our modern condition in The West).

The issues, your motives, and your position will be lyingly misrepresented to other people; your character will be slandered; and the lies and slanders will (on the whole) be believed and repeated.

Be Ready.

Think through this situation in advance. Inhabit it imaginatively.

I am not advising you how to 'fight' in the public arena; because that can't be done - also, you are almost certain to make errors. You will also be likely to say or do things that actually help your enemies and worsen your situation (whatever they most want you to do, advise you to do, will almost certainly be bad for your situation - and it may not be possible to find out what would be the best tactical alternative).

Repentance

One thing I would emphasise - which I think has been neglected - is therefore the infinite power of repentance.

1. You are already morally compromised by your decisions and behaviours of the past - consistency suggests that you 'might as well' continue as you have done... But repentance wipes the slate clean and gives you a fresh start.

2. You will make mistakes in understanding your situation - you know something is wrong, something is going on, that you have reached a point of decision; but it is likely that you misunderstand things due to ignorance and inability - your first, second. third etc attempt to formulate your situation is wrong or badly emphasised... It doesn't matter! - in an ultimate sense: simply repent your errors as they emerge, and try again to the best of your ability. 

3. Just as you will misunderstand your situation, so you will make mistakes in action: you will say the wrong thing, do the wrong things, trust the wrong people and doubt those who are on your side. You will be foolish - people will mock you, you will feel ashamed... So be it. Repent your mistakes and foolishness, and bounce back.

I repeat: Christian repentance is a weapon of infinite power that cannot be defeated. No matter if it feels like You against The World - with repentance you cannot lose.

You Cannot Lose.


(Note - If you don't already know what is repentance; then you need to find-out. If you are not already a Christian; then you should make it a priority as of this very moment. It is, after all, the work of an instant to become a Christian; and the status is open to everybody, without exception, at any time or place. Nobody and nothing can stop you. And if you don't understand how that is possible - then you need to find-out.)

The Big Lie (e.g. the birdemic, antiracism, CO2 global warming)  is usually analysed in terms of its practical benefits - i.e. that lying is instrumental, that dishonesty assists the attainment of certain goals. But the Big Lie is primarily and ultimately spiritual - regardless of whether or not it is strategically helpful*. 

It has become vital consciously to know the Big Lies as lies... And because the lies are conscious; so muct the knowledge of their falsehood be conscious.

(Instinctive resistance to lies, based on unconscious urges, is spiritually insufficient.) 

 

A lie is a sin and a Big Lie is a fundamental sin by which a person (a civilization) may be overthrown and self-damned. Satan was called the father of Lies for this reason. The Big Lie is a temptation.  

If we focus only on the practical (e.g. sociopolitical or psychological) effects of the Big Lies, we will neglect or forget the spiritual dimension - which is primary. 

And if we are (in practice) unable to resist the material roll-out of the Lies, then we will be tempted to give-up on resistance altogether - to go-along-with the lie spiritually as well as practically - and that may well lead onto spiritual acquiescence to the lie. 

 

But the reality is that Thoughts Have Power: spiritual power first, and thence practical power. 

Thoughts indeed have ultimate power: Conscious knowledge of a Big Lie is a power against Satan, demons and supernatural purposive evil; and consequently power against what they plan to do.  

(Totalitarianism aims to be total for exactly this reason. There must be No Dissent - because each dissenter wields a spiritual weapon.)

 

There is a limitation of evil, to do with its needing the consent of those whom evil intends to corrupt. 

(This limitation has to do with the primacy of God and creation; and that evil is negative, hence secondary: Evil is opposition to already-existent Good.)   

This limitation is symbolised in mythical terms by such phenomena as the assertion that a vampire must be invited to cross the threshold of a house; or that the super-villain must 'monologue' his plans to the superhero, before he can execute them... People need to be told what evil intends, before evil can do it. 

The reality behind such myths is, of course, spiritual not verbal. The reality is that when evil is known as such and rejected, then it is ineffectual - it has no power to fulfil its wishes. 

Victims must therefore (spiritually) agree to the evil done to them: victims of evil must become complicit with their spiritual corruption.

(Although, of course, victims may physically be corrupted despite spiritual resistance - since mortal life is about learning directed towards Heavenly eternal life - and experiences of this life happen for this reason. Yet even the physical and this-worldly practical evil is - to some extent, for reasons perhaps not known - repelled or thwarted by spiritual refusal; since the physical is secondary.) 

In resisting the Big Lie we are often up-against established habit, and habit may lead us unthinkingly (un-consciously) to go-along-with the practical implementation of evil. Nonetheless, direct divine intervention will (sooner or later) alert us to the reality; and then each person will be brought to the point at which he must agree consciously to evil - or reject it. 

(Consciously to 'delay' making that decision is In Fact to agree to evil, here and now, and to advance its corruption in oneself. Repentance has infinite power, but is binary. There is no neutrality about evil.)

And it is never too late to repent, therefore never too late to resist evil. 

Better late than never is a true saying - when better has an ultimate and spiritual sense; and 'better' is true however the practicalities of this-world evil implementation work-out. 

Any individual person that consciously knows evil - who knows the reality behind a Big Lie - is thereby weilding a real spiritual effect upon the power of evil: a power to resist evil - including a power against the practical implementation of evil strategy.

Which is why many, many bad things that might have happened - that were planned to happen - in fact have not happened!

*Note added: This is why the mass media always lie, even when They don't need to; in the major, headline news stories.