The Reason for Lent: Part 2

The Books of St. Paul's Jihad

Mar. 6, 2016

      “According to St. Paul’s manual of arms,” Thieu impresses upon me, “we fight not flesh and blood, but Powers and Principalities -- the hosts of a Quipothic realm.

      “In fact – forgive me for my impertinence, but I have a feeling that Henry Demonford is speaking through me. He is telling me that these Powers and Principalities, which we call nations, cartels, and corporations, are truly great demons who thrive by driving us to commit those boundary violations through which our sense of humanity becomes humiliated and debased.

      “Does not your Christian Augustine inform us, that most of the Gods who were worshiped by the pagan Romans were once men or women who gained such renown that, just like Henry here, they came to represent the same virtues for which they came to be remembered? And in the same way, were not these corporations which have become the godlike demons of our modern world, once simply the idea of a person or a small group of persons, whose bodies have now become ashes and wormfood, but whose economic engine has attained to a state of virtual immortality?

      “There is one thing more, I feel that Henry wishes to remind me of the reason for the season. Lent is a time to remember those who did not survive the winter. In the olden days, when social services such as we have now were non-existent it was more common – but even now, there are many who find the dark days oppressive and the rigors of the winter too extreme. And so even now, we shall find reason to pause in remembrance of those who did not live through the winter.

      “But now I feel, that Henry is admonishing me. He is telling me that we should not mourn them – it is far more accurate to say that they mourn us, because they see us committing the same mistakes of which they have now repented. They want to be remembered, not because they still need us but rather, because when we remember them, they shall be able to lead us, so that we can be more free and can avoid some of the pitfalls which they fell into when they were alive on this earth.”

The Architecture of Belief

Are we not in the suburbs of St. Augustine’s City? When we look about us, do we not perceive the architecture of both Heaven and Hell? Heaven perceives in outworn Gods, a mirror of those sicknesses which have corrupted the people. But then, instead of chaining these demons in ways that compel them to heal their victims, the architecture of Hell shall force the soul to wear the concrete boots of dogma, and thus imprison the new vision in a prison of unyielding stone.

      Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Here is an ideological superstructure designed to impede progress and confine your spiritual experience to the world of names and attributes only.

      Religions have been born from the dreams of those whose flesh has now become ashes and wormfood. It is said that their souls have ascended into the empyrean Realm, and they are therefore called Malakutis.

      We contemplate the architecture of Hell. Hell is rooted in the flames of our rebellion, those flags of treason raised by our own jealousy against our Creator. We are empowered to represent God, as servants of the Creative Will. But unfortunately, the Brother who’s drunk on Crude Oil cannot be satisfied with the role of a servant.
      Those who are drunken on Wormwood shall try with all their might and main, to construct an ideological or economic machine which can become everyone’s master, and walk like a God on the earth.

      We have seen how, on account of the reluctance of normal men to rob the sanctuaries, the temples of the Old Gods have become the centres of the banking system. The Old Gods of Rome became imprisoned with the golden ingots stored within the sanctified vaults of their temples. Men of discernment had long ago lost faith in these Gods. But the Old Faith could not be allowed to die, because if the temples of the Old Gods became deserted, the banking system also would collapse.

The Reason for Lent

March 6, 2016

      It used to be said that the Sun never sets on the British Empire. Today, that Empire has been humbled and transformed into a Commonwealth. While that Commonwealth has been struggling to acknowledge its debt to non-European sources, the great ideal of a world that would be governed by Fair Play has been replaced by a Chaosium in which strange things fall from the clouds and winged mechanical drones home in from the skies to kill people who are celebrating their weddings.

      The day is sunny and on the lower elevations, wildflowers are beginning to blossom. Nevertheless, at these higher altitudes, patches and even expanses of snow remain on the ground.

      Thieu and I are driving out to place flowers on the memorial to Henry Demonford which has been erected over his grave.

      All about the cemetery, it is snowy. It is only the naked stones that rise up to proclaim that here lie creatures who once used to be called human beings. These stones, indeed, proclaim the destined end of all our mortal striving.

      The chill and melancholy wind reminds us that there was nevertheless a profound rationale driving the aspirations of those of us who came to maturity during those fateful years of the 20^th Century. The chill that hangs in the atmosphere today reminds us that if we committed ourselves to act in foolish ways, there was nevertheless a purity of motive which is today becoming increasingly obscured under the residues of post-traumatic compulsions.

      There was a time, only a few decades ago, when most of us had great hopes. We saw, quite briefly, a vision of the sun – but then the world became tormented by the spectre of a cruel shadow which is eager to impose compulsions, and which is intent on the extermination of any cultural influence which questions the all too superficial dogmas of its self-appointed leaders.

      We, who had wanted to believe that the women among us were sweet angels, whose breasts swelled only with the milk of human kindness, were to learn that this is not true either. Weary of suffering for our causes, these women began to make little deals with the Other Side. As we discovered, the Cruel God whom we had allowed to claim Heaven had left a cruel shadow here on earth.

      That cruel shadow took the form of an economic incentive which pitted men and women against each other on the stage of a Theater of Cruelty. Nevertheless, I did not have the sense to save my life, and found myself falling in love with these women.

The Ground About the Tomb

Henry’s tomb is marked by an angel who is pouring out an amphora. At the angel’s feet, a plaque is inscribed:

It’s not the power of guns and bombs
But the grace which can heal the wounded heart Which shall finally conquer all

    Thieu and I leave flowers on the grave, and say a little prayer for the departed. And I find myself wondering why it is only we, the old soldiers who have managed to keep none of the commandments, who can see through the web of deception the social neurosis has woven.

      Can it be that our whole society is highballing down the main line to Satanhood, and that one can only recognize this after one has made a personal decision to leap from the train that is carrying everyone down to destruction?

      I now begin to understand, just why the sickness of the world is so distressing. The choice between heaven and hell belongs to those of us who have died and returned to the earth. When first we grasped this truth, we strove with might and mein to move the world. We pledged ourselves eternally to some social ideal, even though we remained in denial concerning the hubris and the power-lust which hide beneath the cross of the Crusader.

        In the world of Eternal Recurrence, Lancelot falls once again from his horse. He grasps then what it was he loved and then betrayed. He's looked up into heaven, seen Valkyries descending. In polite society, he'll speak of them as angels. He begs them for mercy, forgiveness and healing; they remain in heaven, teasing him all the way as he hobbles along into town. From the depths of his heart he cries out. If it he could renounce everything, would angels please release him from this world?

      And the Valkyries laugh. "You ask us why your world is chiseled from the essence of pain? You ask us why your love has been unwise? Look then to find a lady writhing on a stake. And the man who has judged she should burn -- he thought he had self-mastery, but why this fatal flaw? Return to the world in our service -- redeem her from this jealousy which turns every prophecy false."

      He rides then into town, beholds the lady burning as a witch. It's then he knows the cause of foolish love. We love, because the pain of love sustains the soul against all baser fires. And the soul rapine has shattered may only survive by throwing itself to the flame.

Life in a Crude Oil Lagoon

Jan 1, 2013

      Flames were leaping from the parapets, as the the old Crusaders’ Castle burned. The citizens of Aleppo might have been amused, except for one little thing.

      The economic heart of the city operates out of the many shops and bazaars which have grown up in the lower levels of this castle, and in what used to be the castle courtyard. As a result, the bazarris, the leaders of the city’s middle class, have lost their livelihoods.

      It is a disturbing portent. It must be admitted that the approach of the end of a Mayan Cycle which seems to be the equivalent of the Hindu Kali Yuga had filled us with some very fine hopes. But just as so often before, we are beginning to fear that all of these fine hopes shall only pave the way for a profound disillusionment.

The Fall of the Old World Order

     As they watched the old citadel burning, the middle-class citizens became increasingly disillusioned with their government. It might be true, as government spokesmen insisted, that the Crusaders were at it again. In fact a very good argument could be made, that the suicide bombers who had ignited this conflagration had been duped by the CIA. But it was also a fact that until very recently these suicide bombers had been good Syrian citizens. They had been loyal defenders of the marketplace. That is why, when they finally allowed the gnawing feeling that they had been paying their taxes to Satan goad them into action, they were able to strike so effectively.

      We have become accustomed to believing that the world is under some evil spell, and that if only we can kill the right dictator or evil magician, life will become rational again. But this is a way of evading the reality, that our own passions for vengeance are of the of same substance that gives strength to the sinews of that evil spell.

     There is an evil spell – you may call it Taghoot, but that is just another word for Sanctimonious Denial. We have indeed ventured so far into this realm of Great Denial, that we have convinced ourselves that it will take the intervention of some external power – perhaps the Turks, perhaps the Great Satan, perhaps even aliens from outer space, to restore the rule of justice and make things turn out allright.

These Very Pious Hopes

A very pious hope – but are we not ignoring the intervention from which we have been benefitting all along? Of course we are willing to die for our Prophets, to prove ourselves worthy of being in the company of the historical Imams who were their most faithful followers. But can we really blame this war on the Prophets – do we dare ascribe these outbursts of hatred to the Prophets? Can it be the lust of the Prophet which reduces a civilization to minefields and gravel? Or can it be that human leaders have dared to marry their own passions to the Prophet’s name?

Perhaps the nightmare shall go on until we confess that we now have experienced the meaning of the warnings of the Prophet concerning a place where we would have only boiling water for our drink and only pus and gore for our food. Eventually, we shall need to listen to the women who try to tell us through their tears, that Hell is what you get when you try to mix compulsion with religion.

Too Much Crude Oil

There is too much Crude Oil in Arabia, and petrodollars have done nothing to enhance the purity of Islam. What the Crude Oil Brothers have done, is to cover the social diseases of their puppets in the all too familiar white sheets. Just as in Birmingham, Alabama, sadism shall masquerade as orthodoxy. Nevertheless, we must not forget that religious biggots do have souls. The reason they are using religion as a crutch, is because their souls have been withered by the cleft moon of historical trauma.

These fanatics shall end up crying for the women and the children, until at last they shall come to realize that they should have listened. Oh yes, that Crude Oil Currency tasted like honey in the mouth – but what a stomach ache it gives you, when you see the things that currency has bought.

Can it be a coincidence that petrodollars have persuaded the Islamacists to become fanatics who persecute their more reasonable brethren? Maybe these Islamacists should ask Pancho Villa how Bonapartists frack a religion by raising up pious hypocrites who are both infallible and rigid.

The tears of the women shall prevail, when at last, men’s visions of The Compassionate One urge them to peace and reconcilliation. Which is, of course, exactly the thing that the Crude Oil Brothers most fear.

These Crude Oil Brothers are the present incarnations of Aryan Gods who are far more effective than the Iranians in silencing their women. Or at least they were until the Domestic Violence Ladies began to remind the Christian Church that adultery is not a sex act but rather the betrayal of a partnership.

Perhaps it is their shame which prevents the Shiekhs in white sheets from confessing their sins to the congregation, so that a true Islamic Liberation, a Liberation which shall not be founded on religious compulsion, can finally begin. Perhaps the day shall come, when these Islamicists realize that they have been caught in a snare by the Fox, and that they are being manipulated like high school punks by the real out and out gangsters.

Addictive Orthodoxy

Art degraded, imagination denied

War ruled the nations

(Wm. Blake-Laocoon)

Perhaps there shall come a time when these Islamicists shall put away their guns and come to America so that they can witness to the great and powerful just what it is like to live in a place where hatred has unleashed so much brutality that everyone is drinking scalding water. Perhaps they shall someday be able to teach us of an Allah who prefers that we should serve life by helping our brothers and sisters survive. When people choose to fight by committing suicide – there always is a question of just how universal they want that suicide to be.

“Art degraded, imagination denied, War ruled the nations.” Two hundred years ago, William Blake foresaw what we now deny at our peril.

Damascus saw the flowering of the Peacock Screen, and thought the Alchemy was coming to a climax. But when the beautiful vision began to ferment, it turned into a poison which one dare not breathe.

It is a cruel alchemy. Perhaps at one time there were fine hopes which rose like the Peacock’s Tail – but right now the city is burning.

photo By Zyzzzzzy [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Encounter With the Fire Marshall

Encounter With the Fire Marshall

April 2, 1994

    Again, Regina and I are seated at her breakfast nook table, when the ghost of Soren Kirkegaard flies in from Denmark to join us.  He introduces himself as the Fire Marshall.

    “If we would be spiritual explorers,” declares Soren, “we must acknowledge that the karmic road is paved with gravel. And if we accept that we are the adopted brothers and sisters of the God Who Died on the Cross, then we must also accept that we shall have our turns to scream and groan when the slaves get flogged.  It’s only those who are too punch-drunk with pain to say no to God, who can win the good race, and gain admission to the House of Lords in Heaven.”

    “You are the one who were the bandit,” Regina critiques. “You were the one who frightened the Church and the State by proclaiming that you had been led to establish, not a new theology, but a division of natural science which would examine social parasites!”

    “I wished to lead the people of sincere devotion away from the decadent castles of Ludvig, so that they could build the kind of defenses which would be of some actual value in resisting the coming tide of bestiality,” the Fire-Marshal answers. “The masses of so-called Christians will not join me in this effort, because their leaders have too much regard for a fine purse. But when they recognize the nature of the plague which is encroaching, and which is carried by the amiable mediocrity of popular Christianity, the few who are healers shall appreciate my vision of the Vanishing Point. Quite simply, we must be able to look at everything from both unbelief and faith, so that we may develop a hyperbolic relationship to the True and Unattainable Ideal.

    “Once we have developed that sort of quiet and inward relationship, we shall be able to appreciate the potential oil wells that lie beneath so many avocado ranches and other small and independent farms. We also shall appreciate that certain resources must remain potential, until the rapacity of certain economic systems have been chastised. You see it every day, but you refuse to look. You say that God takes care of his own, but what happens when the smallholders try to hold back the developers’ bulldozers? Of course, their petit-romanticism is too small for the world, and therefore doomed for failure – but is the more efficient System of the Beast that drives it out, any sort of real improvement?”

 

Encounter with the Real Peoples' Grandfather

Behold another voice, whose visible image at the table appears as a scowling tribal face, a mask carved rather crudely out of a log:

      “Before you go on and on in your discussion of what is or is not appropriate for a Christian, I believe that I have a right to ask of you one little question. By a Christian do you mean a Lutheran or a Methodist – which is to say, one whose life is programmed by the ideological structions of the mercantile idealism of Europe? Or does being a “Believer” imply a relationship with the sense of Prophesy which you recognize in Jesus the Christ, but which so-called primitive peoples also see in the teachings of Medicine People like Deganiwidah or the White Buffalo Woman?”

      “Ho there!” chuckles the Fire Marshall. “I now see what it is I longed to seek through travel, but despaired of finding on account of the thorn in my flesh. That is not a little thing you ask of me. I know that our Western Civilization is going down, and that on this account the man of discretion is likely to be the solitary.”

      “But love lurks in the woods,” insists Regina. “Your world is knocked out of equilibrium, because the weight of large estates and big crimelord houses puts everything out of balance. You can’t have love while you are trying to shoot a gatling gun. It is only when you can begin to appreciate the inspiration in the flowing water, that love has a chance to survive.”

      “In order to become a people,” grins the crudely carved wooden mask, “you’ve got to develop traditions of courtesy, which are founded on the awareness of past inspirations. Or you can act like the Crude Oil Brothers, who are always bringing in their mercenaries to take all the valued resources away from the little brown men. It’s just like your domestic violence problem. Whether it’s gas and oil rights or the rights to favors in bed – your so-called Christians have shown the world that they are not to be trusted. Or at least, not until you have begun to let your women have a chance to civilize you.”

Spider-Woman and the Smoking Chimney

    “Look at the board on which the cruel game is played,” declares The Happy Hunting Ground’s attorney-general. “Look how the rules all have been re-written by the God of Jealousy. You turn everything in life into an all-out struggle, and then, to make sure no one else can win, you change the rules as you go. For this reason, we’re convicting Jealousy of High Treason. Has the Felon Angel anything to plead?”
    “I don’t think he has any answer,” witnesses the Fire Marshall, “because Felon Apollyon knows that anything he declares may be used by the prosecution. And, as the Fire Marshal, I have got to take the Prosecutor’s side. I have seen too many instances of arson, and all of the evidence seems to indicate that the Indo-European Gods have not only managed a hostile takeover of Christianity, but that they are using the resulting consortium as a pretext for burning and imprisoning women.”

    “Let us examine the scene of the crime from the perspective of the Back Door,” imparts the Crudely Notched Mask. “Then, I believe, you shall see how the Guardian of the Ice and the Oceans would look at what has been coming down ever since Europe’s so-called enlightenment. Ever since the end of the Dark Ages, we have noticed that more and more hot smoke has been rising up from Europe’s chimneys. At first, it was just blacksmiths building fires so they could manufacture swords and armor for the knights.
    “The kings in those days thought they owned it all. What they did not understand, as they looked out on their Large Estates from the Manor Houses and Castles they farmed out to their vassals, was that their conquest of the common people was only the first stage in a process of avalanching entropy. The kings will try to develop enough prosperity to satisfy the people, and hope to settle down to a 500 year long Elizabethan Age, where gentlemen from varied nations shall duel upon the Spanish Main.
    “The Spider-Woman who spun and wove this fine tapestry died, and was remembered for the next 500 years as a lady who got tired of torturing her boyfriends and became a little old maid. The next kings were to find that Elizabeth’s peace could not last 50 years, let alone 500. For one thing, there were now by far too many chimneys, through which more and more smoke was rising up to disfigure the ozone. Beyond that, the Royal Privateers were becoming Disloyal Rats, and financing their treasonous aims through the most dishonorable sorts of commerce. No Crusader at the walls of Jerusalem has ever smitten a Saracen with such venom, as the Masters of the European Chimneys now inflicted on Africa.
    “You-all have studied the Great Bourgeois Rebellions in High School. What your instructors neglected to mention, was that these rebellions were simply the turbulence that was being generated by more and more smoke that was going up more and more chimneys. About the same time that Kings and their loyal retainers started getting their heads chopped off, the chimneys began reaching a critical mass, and chimneys started building chimneys. It wasn’t just the armory blacksmith anymore – now any little hamlet with a mill had to have a chimney too, so that a boiler could be stoked till it produced live steam.
    “And now the boilers with their chimneys were starting to walk over the land and across the Great Waters. Wherever these walking chimneys would travel, stationary chimneys would rise up to service the traveling chimneys. We have arrived at the point at which the Chief Engineers will try to stop this proliferation of chimneys, and will find out that they cannot. They will try to spread the alarm that all of the chimneys built since 1980 are united in a Communist conspiracy, and that any new chimney must be licensed by an old chimney – but in the end they will fail. We, who are the Spirits on the Northern Mountains, could have informed them long ago, just what an avalanche is all about – but the Chief Engineers were always too proud to listen.”