sin magic moon

Are we as humans rational? I'm well aware of our shortcomings as a species and our tendency to do irrational things but from an overall perspective usually what we do has some underlying basis, especially if it is a monumental task. This is one of the things that struck me when I visited Egypt in 2009. There are temples, pyramids, and obelisks up and down the length of this ancient place and some are staggeringly incomprehensible to a modern like myself.

Gizah plateau

Karnak temple

Luxor temple

Luxor temple

I say that because of the manpower, logistics, and resources that would have been necessary to construct these objects that were a demonstration of their beliefs. Why would a culture, the world's most powerful empire, erect all these shrines? This spectacle I witnessed galvanized my efforts to keep searching for an answer to an unknown question. I didn't know what I was searching for but I was pretty determined to find it. You see I came to the conclusion that there was an unshakeable belief in the gods and goddesses they worshipped but my mind said well that's just foolish. But again - look! The treasure expended to build. This is irrational unless... Why?

I believed them and I was going to prove to myself why they believed.

It was about two and a half years after I got back from Egypt that I started to get the why. At first I figured they were deifying nature and the cosmos but that only gets you so far until you are confronted with fantastic images and texts of strange worlds populated by various gods, goddesses, and demons. I was reading about night time celebrations in the Goddess Hathor's temple at Denderah involving music and intoxication when it finally clicked: they were altering their consciousness and they were the masters of this very thing.

Temple of Hathor at Denderah

That's why the ancient texts describe ancient Egypt as the most magical land and why the roots of our word chemistry are derivative of one of the ancient names for Egypt which is Kemet. So being obsessed with this question, I wanted to experience what they experienced. Using the Great ancient Egyptian Goddess Hathor as my guide, I followed the ancient trail of shamanism right down into the Amazon basin. Let's just say it didn't disappoint, as this blog space is a testament to my ability to do this very thing.

So what has happened to us? Well first of all, what we moderns call psychedelics are pretty much universally banned or consigned to the fringes of civilization and are considered 'trips' and escapism that respectable members of society do not sully themselves with. Instead of having temples with priests devoted to the use of these agents of consciousness, they are often taken in horrendous settings and for the unprepared this can be quite dangerous. They also have the ability to let you see through cultural games and can show you love is all that matters and this for our western culture is very subversive. Therefore the possession of these substances are considered criminal and society will lock you up if they catch you with them. There are no suppositories of wisdom, nor caring wiseman or wise woman to properly lead you into this mysterious realm. Well, there are still people like this, but you have to find them and that isn't easy either.

Second of all, we don’t see magic in the world anymore because we have succumbed to a spell. We are all hypnotized and under the spell of a great magician. Before the spell cast had taken hold humans knew of magic, of charms, and of enchantment. Those in power with the keys to shape human destiny then used the power to enchant against us and through a spell we lost the magic. What is the spell? It's language. Language shapes your beliefs and filters all your knowledge. Through language we live in an objective material world. Everything is objectified, taken from its background, and given a name. Person, place, or thing is hammered into all children and sentences are constructed on this axiom. Our world is made of language. 

If you ever want to realize the hold language has on you try to figure out why we have to say "It is raining." or "There is a lot of rain." In our language we can't just describe rain as a happening. But even in examining the 'it' in it is raining we can deduce it is describing a state and that state of affairs is ever changing because it is going to eventually get sunny out. Objectified rain cannot exist without a slew of other objects and phenomena which then depend on other happenings, all which are demonstrating everything goes with everything else. Everything is a happening, a verb, and once you stop moving you die. I'm a happening, a pattern of eternal energy that has come forth and is forever changing. A similar language trickery is going on with the word matters. If something is important then it matters; it is substantive and material. It is made of stuff! Nothing could be further from the truth. There's no stuff, just patterns and forms of vibration as energy. However we are taught and hypnotized to believe in a material world full of real objects.

Childhood is pretty magical. Slowly we lose what is called our innocence and we start adulting. Once this language spell takes ahold of us we are taught that wiggly and undefined shapes are a problem. Everything has to be straightened out and measured. Then we can call it an object and put it in an orderly geometric box. If someone is acting unpredictable or out of character they are told to straighten themselves out or they will not succeed in society. This person has to get on the right path to succeed. Everyone wants to be right. The spiritual achievers are all righteous. What's up with this? What is left?

The left is sinister; sinister is referring to evil and its association to the moon. From dictionary.com here are some definitions of sinister:

—adjective

1. threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous: a sinister remark.
2. bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell: his sinister purposes.
3. unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable: a sinister accident.
4. of or on the left side; left.

The root 'sin' is from the name of the Akkadian god of the moon. As well, used as a verb then the moon’s actions become derogatory as these definitions from dictionary.com reveal:

—verb (used without object)

9. to act or wander abstractedly or listlessly: You've been mooning about all day.
11. to gaze dreamily or sentimentally at something or someone: They sat there mooning into each other's eyes.

13. to spend (time) idly: to moon the afternoon away.

And from etymonline.com here is the root of the word left:

left (adj.)

c. 1200, "opposite of right," probably from Kentish and northern English forms of Old English *lyft "weak; foolish" (in lyft-adl "lameness, paralysis"). Compare East Frisian luf, Dutch dialectal loof "weak, worthless").

Apparently we don't like left handed people; they are weak and foolish and inclined towards evil. It's emphasized over and over to go right. What's hiding on the left? The left has no purpose, it just is and wanders about. It's the Great Mother, symbolized by the magic of the moon, by chaos, by curviness, by nature, by water, and by love. How's that for a mind spell? The path of the Goddess is forbidden and ingrained in language as something to avoid.

Spiritual enlightenment for the righteous is a a right hand masculine path up the mountain to become the most high while the forbidden left hand path is the lost way home. In a sense to follow the left hand path is to become a kid again and take in the wonder and magic of the world. It is a return to the mother, to unity, and the home of our rebirth. The right hand path is the path of the self and is an egoic climb to the top in order to crown yourself with the ultimate spiritual achievement. The left hand path involves the valley spirit of Love and it is by following this path you find connection and wholeness. We are as cosmic wayfarers to experience both paths and a reconciliation of these opposites will bring everything to centre and in this balance, experienced now on earth, will be peace.

So yes we are rational when it comes to large scale endeavours. We have lost the ability to understand the why behind some of the things the people of antiquity constructed and believed in, but that's on us. Projecting our inability to grasp the whys onto ancient civilizations will not lead to an answer of why they did it. Breaking free of the spell however will put you on that left hand path and from there it's a magical journey home.