The French Revolution

Miscellaneous History
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While I really don’t go into “conspiracy” thinking, nor do I really care about the results of such things; there is one thing I do find interesting.

In general if a left wing intellectual does something similar- he is doing a “geneology” and is considred a philosopher

if a “right wing” type does this he is a conspiracy nut

I know there are differences, but they’re subtle enough not to make a big deal over. The end result is the left wing “geneologist” is “correct”, because his views are more accepted for whatever reason. If a subjective taste or perspective on history / narrative is not fashionable in talking about to “the culture” as a whole it is “wrong” to care about because the product is no longr in demand by the relevant powers it wishes to assess or the demographics on which it wishes to rabble rouse.

The left wing intellectual class had this figured out long ago (all history is to be used for politics, etc) - they will call such techniques subversion, deconstruction, and genologies. Fortunately we figured out the same thing and have the better “picture” of how it works and what the consequences are we just call it “market economics” - and it defines and trumps everything the left is trying and succeding at doing.

By their own damn philosophies - their artists, morals, and systems are nothing more than mere products to be consumed. By their own lips i find they condemn themselves to being “crass” entrepeneurs, speculators and ad execs that they loath so much. And like many of the corporations they hate so much or the aristocrats they overthrew, they are a subsidized class. How’s that for irony. Socialism is indeed a grammatical error.

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As far as Masons preserving traditions, not as much anymore. I doubt a lot of Masons have interests in understanding of in depth philosophy and occult matters and they’ve probably lowered their standards on who can be involved in the lodge. Stephen Flowers who teaches mythology at a Texas college and has written and translated uncountable books on occultism and mysticism was kicked out of a lodge because they were uncomfortable him being there after he showed them some books he wrote. If Masons had interests in such things that wouldn’t be the case, I think it’s merely shifted interests. Instead of “enlightenment” it’s down to positions in power, moving people up in a corporate setting.

Socialism is indeed a grammatical error.

I may have to use this in the future.

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This is more than likely true. Today, Masonry has devolved into backroom circle jerks for the elites. (Even though Dionysian parties are that).

I happen to think that introspective “religion” is more useful than one that is extraverted. Graeco/Egyptian Hermeticism is more usefull than the three major religions today. Hermes doesn’t tell me to kill anyone so that they understand him. He lets me know I can only understand me.

Also, these might be useful:

Templars and the Assassins - Yes, the game is loosely based on this history. Templars/Masons = fine line

Promethea - Hermeticism for the layman. Questions of psychological occultism are entertained here.

Heavens’ Fractal Net

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He wouldn’t be much of a god of commerce if he did.

Was American Masonry different to European Masonry in the late 1700’s? The American Revolution happened in the same period as the French, and many prominent American revolutionary figures were Freemasons, but the American Revolution turned out completely differently to the French, as if there were a completely different ideological impetus behind it.

Didn’t George Washington write paranoid rants about “black lodges” from Bavaria infecting Masonry, or is that just hearsay?

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He is the Greek/Egyptian god of the intellect, not of commerce. The secular Romans saw Mercury (basically the Roman Hermes) as a God of commerce.

Here is something interesting from the wiki:

"The Hermetic literature added to the Egyptian concerns with conjuring spirits and animating statues that inform the oldest texts, Hellenistic writings of Greco-Babylonian astrology and the newly developed practice of alchemy (Fowden 1993: pp65–68). In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and offered the adept a method of personal ascension from the constraints of physical being, which has led to confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously.[9]

As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited with tens of thousands of writings of high standing, reputed to be of immense antiquity. Plato’s Timaeus and Critias state that in the temple of Neith at Sais, there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for 9,000 years. Clement of Alexandria was under the impression that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes, encapsulating all the training of Egyptian priests. Siegfried Morenz has suggested (Egyptian Religion) “The reference to Thoth’s authorship…is based on ancient tradition; the figure forty-two probably stems from the number of Egyptian nomes, and thus conveys the notion of completeness.” The Neo-Platonic writers took up Clement’s “forty-two essential texts”.

The Hermetica, is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. In the dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of herbs, gems and odors, is described, such that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy. In other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf."

I’m not sure that some of the same elements were not involved, but Jefferson and Washington wrote about how they despised the Jacobins, but liked the concept of Weishaupt’s Illuminati (which was to overthrow the continental governments and the church; things we’d all agree with here). As far as I know they only mentioned Masonry a few times. Washington, when he was President said something like, “I haven’t been in a lodge for thirty years or more…” I hear people say Jefferson was (obviously Franklin was) a Mason, but have found nothing corroborating it. He was just interested in the same things.

E Michael Jones has done a lot of research into the French Masons and the Revolution. Be careful where you cite him and make sure you can understand and/or explain his religious beliefs to yourself. He can be too much for some people. He is an “Augustine Catholic.”

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@Aristophanes: I’m highly interested in rationalist re-interpretations of past mystical/spiritual teachings. Consider telekinesis, for example - all human action can be thought of as a form of telekinesis. Whenever you lift your arm, you have altered the physical world merely by the power of your mind, have you not? Do you think there is a rationalist interpretation of these practices? In other words, can we think of magic as a ritualization of the bringing about of desired states of affairs?

I don’t mean to be deflationary; the metaphor cuts both ways. We may as well think of human action as telekinesis as vice-versa because, at root, we really don’t understand how it all works. Respect for the metaphor is motivated by the humility of acknowledging that there is a lot more that we don’t understand about the world than we do. Perhaps we can speak of all human action as a form of magic? Is not persuading people to do things on your behalf a form of casting a spell on them?

Clayton -

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!!! The word. Magic!

Grimoire (book of spells) = grammar

casting a spell = spelling a word

cursing something/one = writing in cursive.

witch = etymology; ‘wit’ (according to Freud, wit is ‘clever word play’)

I think the concept is that man is god because we can perceive time (a supposed dimension animals are unaware of) and we can manipulate the world around us.

The telekinesis thing is a little different. I think our brians might be capable of som serious electromagnetic energy. If we could direct it, it might be strong enough to move physical objects?

Yes, exactly. Look at Socrates in Plato’s Apologia. The people thought him to be speaking the words of demons for convincing them beyond their own understanding of what he taught. He taught people to think. He convinced them and they thoughht he was tricking them, so they put him to death. Just like a witch.

Plutarch quotes a letter from Alexander to Aristotle in his Life of Alexander that says something like ‘Why did you pubish Rhetoric? Now anyone who has been trained to read as we have will understand the extent of my dominion. I’d rather tell them what is good then them to figure it out for themselves.’ Alexander, upset because people will see through his manipulative words.

Logos in the greek bible is ‘word’ in Greek, but gets translated as ‘god’ or the ‘with god’.

Do you think the mind (or soul/conciouness w/e) is its own entity locked in a physical body?

Hugo - Fiat Lux

“1 1 2 3 5 Let It Reign”

Alan Moore - Art is Magic (he calls it the science of words; manipulating symbols to achieve changes in consiousness)

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Yea, my freaking videos didn’t embed. THEY NEVER DO!