Blue Fox Shaman

Apologies to our followers (all three of you!) for not writing sooner. We’ve been much too busy, not only with the Mundane World (which still exists in basically the same form, though for how much longer it can continue is anybody’s guess), but also with our own journeys in Non-Ordinary Reality (you’ve really got to visit someday). Fox has been showing me how to bring together the streams of mystical thought from several past cultures and create something new for the (Post)Modern Age. Hence the title of this post.

We are, of course, referring to Paul the Apostle. He referred to himself in this manner to acknowledge the audience of his teachings, as well to emphasize how he had grafted one branch (branches?) of Jewish Philosophy / Religion / Cosmology onto a broader “Gentile” cultural trunk. The formula he gave his followers is well known– you don’t have to follow the cultural injunctions and taboos of the Jews, all you need do is believe in their Messiah and in his “substitutionary” death and resurrection. That’s why nowadays you can call yourself a Christian, have all the cheeseburgers you want, and go to Heaven once they thoroughly harden your arteries. No worries.

We want to do something similar for you who are Rationalists, Agnostics, and Atheists. No, we don’t want to encourage you to eat more cheeseburgers (though you can haz [sic] them if you want). Since Fox and I know that there is no fundamental dichotomy between Spirit and Matter (both are a construct derived from a particular viewpoint, after all), we want to show you how to take advantage of the good bits of Mysticism without losing your mind, er, reason… specifically.

Okay, okay, we know you’ve heard from your Prophets (you call them Professors) that there is not, and never has been, any good thing in any Religion, anywhere, at any time or place. To even begin to think otherwise is to risk the Eternal Damnation of your Tenure. But hey, wait, not even in Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Mass in G Minor? (Fox is fond of English Romantic composers.) Boy, what a tough crowd! [We’ll just stick our foot, nonchalantly, in your door jamb before the inevitable slamming begins…]

Headline: Atheist gets religion…

…and immediately splits it into its component parts. Shall we?…

How do we intend to turn you into Mystics, but without the loss of your “objectivity”? Here’s how we’ll start– do you know that concept of the Immanence of God that is a thing in Mystic circles? No? Well, it is. The basic idea is that the Creator of the Universe is “somehow present” in each particle of His Creation and His Glory shines lovingly in all things. Yeah, that one. The one your Biology professor warned you about. Don’t run away just yet. Yes, we got rid of God and all that “spiritual” stuff when Galileo gave the Pope the finger. You don’t need us to rehearse for you all the reasons that was A Good Idea, if there ever was one.

Except, Science and Rationalism have a problem with emotions. They’re either like an Aunt who wears too much makeup and perfume, or a Cousin who inevitably gets you back at 4 a.m., drunk and without your pants. Ah, but you forget that falling in love with something or someone can do wonders for your state of being. As long as you can keep track of your underwear.

Ahem! Yes, so now, forget about all that for a moment and start back with me at the Big Bang, or thereabouts. We would love to know more about it because if we can figure out initial conditions, then draw a line from there to current conditions, we not only get the satisfaction of solving a neat little puzzle, but we can turn the other direction and extrapolate from here to figure out what’s going to happen in the future. And we do that in smaller (less Universal) ways every time we design an airplane or a computer chip.

Well, this works great until we try to understand complex systems, with emergent properties. I’ve spoken about this before, and it’s current news, even outside of academic circles. Anyway, not to detain us, we want you to see that the Universe is actually composed of systems of such systems of such systems. Yes, We’re making a bold claim about Physics– things like “atoms” are best understood as stable, self-regulating systems that maintain their identity under a certain range of conditions. Just like a Human Being, but much, much less complex. (Or maybe just as complex, who the hell knows?) And that’s okay. Just because they’re less complex doesn’t mean that they can’t be understood in the same general way, that is, using the same set of metaphors for as far as they will take us. That’s the Way of Heaven as described in the I Ching.

Wait, what!? Yes, the Way of Heaven doesn’t mean the Will of God the Creator, it means this principle that manifests itself as self-regulating systems– it keeps popping up in all sorts of places. We like to think of it in atoms, cells, organisms, societies, and other places in between, probably. Talk about Immanence! Really, that’s just a reminder. That concept of Immanence, we mean. In other words, we Rationalists agree that it has no actual referent, but we forget that there can be a value in such concepts that have nothing “physical” about them. That value is in how it allows us to recognize, and to reason about, certain principles. Like Beauty. Okay, that’s a particularly hard one to pin down. How about Justice? Um, guess so, yes. But you see what we mean, yes?

Okay, back to the Way of Heaven. That one is getting a lot of media attention these days because it’s being applied to more concrete matters. Isn’t it neat to think about how all those little atoms eventually give rise to Beauty and Justice?! That’s the Way of Heaven joined with the Way of Earth. To put it another way, The Marriage of Heaven and Earth is this strange, but somehow wonderful, Universe. We were going to say “Creation” but Fox reminds us that that implies a “Creator”, and all of His Baggage.

Guess what, His Baggage was lost and He’s stuck in an airport somewhere for… who knows how long. We can talk freely about His Wife (whom He denies ever knowing) and His Child (whom he has kicked out of the house for being too Gay). Yeah, let’s just drop this metaphor and pick back up with the previous one.

So, we recognize that these two complementary principles lie at the heart of The Kosmos. (Ah, there! A lovely Greek word that implies order, but, as we now know, order can, and has, arisen from Chaos.) Right! That’s emergent behaviors from a Complex system. The other way is more poetic. And all the wonder and delight you felt, and still feel, pursuing the knowledge and understanding of that Kosmos, to its rational conclusion, whatever that may be, that’s, that’s…

That’s the Knowledge of the Presence and it’s concomittant emotional states spoken of by the Mystics. Yes, really. That’s all it is, they just dress it up in a different metaphor. And (hopefully) they undertake additional practices so that the emotional channel runs deeper and straighter. (Ask us about those, if you’re interested.) Have you felt at least a wee, small bit of what I’m referring to? Uh, huh. The good news is that it gets better with practice. It’s a natural human state and it helps a lot with developing one’s “personality” and with building emotional and logical capacity, EQ and IQ.

So, there you are, you’re now a Mystic. Yes? Sure. You are. All you need to do is what Mystics have always done– that is, to periodically stop for a moment and recognize the Way of Heaven and the Way of Earth in anything you might wish to contemplate. When you get a little “shiver” or “gasp” from this “recognition” then you’ll know why the Mystics became Mystics in the first place. You might have also felt this before, occasionally, in the presence of Beauty. Like we said, keep it up on a regular schedule and it gets better and deeper. That much we can tell you from personal experience. That’s all being a Mystic is. Like it?

We’re your friendly mystical drug dealers. Now you’re hooked. Come around tomorrow for another hit and bring cash this time.

Oh, wait! How do we define the Way of Earth? Glad you asked. It’s a bit harder to conceptualize, because it is the foundation of all conception. Let’s see if we can phrase that better. If the organization of things is the Way of Heaven, and that is based on the exchange of information (which it is), the “transmit” and the “receive” of computer lingo, the Way of Earth is the medium by which that exchange takes place. Like we said, it is hard to conceptualize because it is the basis of conceptualization. “Can the eye see itself?” Uh, no.

Maybe the best shorthand we’ve come up with so far is: the Way of Heaven is the fount of becoming; the Way of Earth is the foundation of being. Please remember, metaphors are our friends. Friends don’t let friends drink and drive, or philosophize. Ta, ta!