seriously

In your mid-50s comes a test of the serpent goddesses to see if you are still virile.

Yeah, that's it, that's a reality.

What reality is that?

It's a reality the ancient Egyptians created.

How?

Through belief.

It's magic.

They were the most skilled in magic.

Do you think their magic involves only amulets, words of power, and a show?

I think that is part of it.

That gets the buy-in to belief.

Ceremony and ritual get the participants in the mind state which allows magic to happen.

Is that what happens in a plant medicine ceremonial circle?

Yes, everyone shares in the coming altered state.

The ancient Egyptians were using the same trance technology to create realities.

This is also rave technology.

You tune in to the DJ and their music, and everyone has a shared experience.

It's a different world.

So, what is this explaining?

Vibrational frequencies of being.

The captured human mind operates in a tight frequency that is the dominant narrative of those who control reality.

Who controls reality?

Those who are in charge.

Who is in charge?

The people who are in power.

Who are they?

Generally, the ones with the most money.

They set the agenda for the world, and we follow along.

It's the world order.

To change reality, you must get control of the world and shape it to your liking.

Reality is overlaid upon the physical structure.

So, you're the saying the physicality of the world is baked in?

In a physical sense, yes.

It's the container which allows realities to flourish.

Outside the container, you are unintelligible.

The trick is to operate within the permissible bounds of what is plausible.

You step outside of that, and it is madness.

Okay, but isn't the idea of two serpent goddesses coming to test your virility as you age and determine whether you live or die a little far-fetched?

It appears to be.

Why does it work?

It is grounded in this reality.

A magician takes the preposterous and adds a ground to it.

In this case the ancient Egyptian magicians took the idea of Goddess as a serpent and created a festival where they tested out the virility of the pharaoh in a recurring jubilee, they called the Heb-Sed.

It ensured the pharaoh was still fit enough to rule.

Everyone believed in it.

Oh, I'm sure there were some who doubted it.

Yes, those are society's outcasts who are forced out to the fringe or expelled completely.

A system has built into it a mechanism to expel non-conformists.

It's a top priority of any reality generating system.

Why is that?

Because an alternate reality can catch on like wildfire, burn down the current reality, and place a new reality in its place.

Christianity was such a brush fire.

It wasn't stamped out by the authorities.

Well, they tried, but the mechanism behind Christianity was ingenious because the more they tried to stamp it out, the hotter it burned.

Martyrs fuelled the cause.

It got out of control and took over.

Constantine the Great recognized it and instead of fighting it, he made a deal with those in charge of the movement.

He was enlightened in the sense he knew he couldn't fight Christianity and thus absorbed it.

Once given power, Christianity then stomped out its rivals.

Yeah, I see that.

That's how it works.

Thanks for the history lesson.

Well, it's important to be cognizant of history so when you do understand how the carnival works, you can put the pieces together.

Yeah, I see that, though no one is going to believe this.

Is it important that they believe what you write?

No, I don't think so.

Why would you care?

For validation, I guess.

Do you need validation from those immersed within society?

Hmm, no because then I'd be mainstream and assimilated, however, getting someone to take your ideas seriously helps as a check on madness.

Is that what you want?

Good question.

Alright, let's play it out.

You are taken seriously.

What does that entail?

I'd have to explain myself.

How are you going to do that?

I think I'd need to document my process of discovery.

What does that involve?

A mid-life crisis of belief.

Well, not belief per se, I didn't have any, but I wanted to discover the origins of belief in human societies.

This was a massive undertaking, and I didn't back down.

I educated myself.

I travelled to faraway places.

I read a ton of books.

Took classes.

Collected information.

That was the beginning stage.

Eventually, I hit on the idea of shamanism and altered states.

I then entered the experiential phase where I immersed myself in that world.

It was difficult, but I kept returning.

There was something to it.

I didn't know what, other than that I should keep going back and trying to figure it out.

Repetition worked and then I saw it.

Saw what?

A carnival and how meaning is derived from the carnival.

You make it up.

It's belief.

The origin of beliefs is from seeing a game, and the game is to make up your beliefs and then get everyone else to believe them.

That's pretty funny.

So, if I get people to take me seriously, they will find out I am the most unserious person in the world.

That's a paradox.

Taking you seriously would collapse the seriousness of this reality.

Yes, that's the result of getting people to take my ideas seriously.

So, you don't want that?

It's impossible.

If you take my ideas seriously you will collapse reality into a madhouse of unseriousness.

In other words, I can't be taken seriously.

dionysos enorches

The Covid pandemic was a bad flu mixed in with a magic spell.
You might want to keep that to yourself.
Nah, that's a good one because I can explain it without coming across as too nuts.
Most people know by now how nonsensical those years were.

Paul can be moody.
Dionysos is very talkative.
Why do you think that is?
Dion was shut away for a long time while Paul had the run of the place.
Yeah, but Paul is quiet.
Why was I a quiet and shy kid?
Other people.
They try to dominate interactions.
It's endemic to the whole human experience where you notice this behaviour in sexual relationships and business because they are more raw in terms of showcasing behaviour and then we don't realize it permeates all walks of life.
You don't have a personality which is dominating and needs to control other people, however you don't want to be controlled.
This leads you towards withdrawing.
Thanks, doctor.
Why don't you exhibit this same behaviour as well, doctor?
Oh, there's no controlling me.
I'm it, the big kahuna.
There's nothing more than me.
You have an interesting confidence.
Yes, it's quite the thing to go through life knowing you're better than others.
How do you do it?
For the most part you shut up about it.

What do you think of the act in ancient Egypt of raising the Djed pillar?
It's hard to grasp it completely if you follow the interpretations of Egyptologists.
Why is that?
They are prudes.
It depicts the power of the life force to animate you.
How is that done?
In a male it's virility.
The pillar is your penis.
Osiris is the symbol and the strong life force in him gives him a huge erection.
I have pictures I took in Egypt at his temple in Abydos which will demonstrate this to you.
Nobody tells you this.
If you dig into ancient Egyptian thought, you come across the Heb Sed festival where the pharaoh had to prove his virility to the two serpent goddesses.
What did he have to do?
He'd masturbate in front of them to completion.
It's harder than you think when you get old.
What do you think bull cults were?
They are ancient parallels to Viagra.
The ancient Egyptians were using worship of the bull and magic for power.
One of those purposes was virility.
The pharaoh needed to be able to get hard.
Why?
That defines an alpha male.
It's all about strength and virility with a man.

The pharaoh needed a harem to maintain his virility.
He always had to prove he was virile.
Festivals.
Bull cults.
He needed to get it up like Osiris or they got rid of him.
Needed strength or he was ousted.

Do you consider yourself a bull?
You mean alpha?
Yes.
I don't compete with others for recognition.
Why?
If you must compete with other males for the honour of being an alpha male, then it's clear you aren't there.
Instead, I constantly demonstrate my superiority in whatever situation I encounter.
You make a good case.
If you are the top dog, which I clearly am, I don't need others to tell me that.
I see them come for me.
What do you do?
I get out of the way.
Why don't you fight them?
Because I'll destroy them.
You mean like Pentheus?
Don't pick a fight with me.
So, you're an alpha?
I don't pick a side.
You can't be both.
Why?
You must choose.
Who says?
Society.
Society says you need a role.
You are an alpha male or a beta male.
You need to pick a side.
I don't choose.
I dominate whatever game I choose to play.
I cannot deny that.
I submit when it gives me a perverse thrill.
That's the truth.
So, you really are Dionysos.
Who did you think I was?
Some random spectre I conjured from drug use.
Could be.

indestructible life

It’s important to study mythology and the goddesses and gods if you are a seeker of wisdom and knowledge. Contained within these myths, are wisdom bombs that withstand the test of time and are a check against the obfuscation of language and culture. The indestructible life force behind the body and powering you up is the eternal energy that just is. The Greeks had a word for it, called zoë, which they differentiated from individual biological life of a perishable nature which they called bios. This speaks towards the importance of language and the different meanings of life that we have lost that were ingrained into the Greek mind. This same situation pops up again with our conception of love which we leave as a catch all and depend on modifiers to describe how we are feeling. The Greeks in turn, used multiple and differing words all related to the core concept of love, that related precisely to the specific feeling whether it be romantic love, brotherly love, a mother’s love, unconditional love, and so on.

It is a good exercise to open the mind. My English language steers me in the direction of thinking about life with just the one meaning and that it begins and ends with my biological body and I treat everyone as an individual who concentrates life within their own personal biosphere. I don’t ever give thought to a power behind all life that gives rise to everything and is the arcing presence behind the creation of life because language shields me from this way of thinking. I don’t feel immortal because I have little exposure to a legitimate concept that bestows immortality upon us however there is a force that is indestructible and it is the power behind everything; an energy which the Greeks called zoë.

You can’t kill or destroy this power. A gun does nothing. You can’t stomp it out or burn it. You can try and tear it to pieces but it just adopts a new form or reforms. It lies behind all and is forever coming and going in a cycle of creation and destruction, vibrating in a constant transformational flux. Zoë uses the power of the Goddess to keep reappearing. The feminine is the creator that gives birth to recurring biological forms, allowing the divine actor to take the stage once again and perform the dance of life. The life form is the vehicle for zoë to reappear in our world; the ever-changing and transformational glory of indestructible life.

In my never ending journey on a ship of fools, I’m starting to understand this power called zoë. My biological body is a finite structure animated by this power. This eternal power doesn’t expire and is forever pulsing with a huge amount of energy. It’s the body that eventually slows down and has trouble accessing the power. There is an advantage to this slowing down though as awareness increases and you can sit with yourself and get a feel for what is happening: to you and all around you. I was walking on a path in the woods yesterday and came across a patch of overgrowth that had all these bees and deer flies buzzing about. I knew that was the power concentrated in a little insect and the buzz was the sound of the energy. It was popping, zinging, and having a glorious time. I felt like I was in the midst of a day with Huachuma, with my senses alive and noticing all this wonder. A butterfly came into my view and the majestic fluttering while riding the wind gave me a glimpse of the artistry contained within this power.

It got me thinking about how I have encountered this power in my mythological studies. The ancient Egyptian Heb Sed festival stands out as a celebration of the virility of the Pharaoh. He shows off his strength and concludes this display by maintaining an erection and masturbating to completion. For real! They had an elaborate ceremony for this act. The ability to prove he is still virile is a testament to the power still coursing through him. There is a depiction in a tomb of a courtier of Amenhotep III that describes a renewal of the Pharaoh’s power in which the starry serpent of the sky, as the goddess Hathor, is invoked in order to propitiate the continued strength of the king through granting him this much needed power. I also remembered in Lao Tzu's ancient Chinese Tao Te Ching, the passage where the power is being described as coming forth pure in the erection of an infant male.

Being full of power is like being a baby.

Scorpions don’t sting, tigers don’t attack, eagles don’t strike.

Soft bones, weak muscles, but a firm grasp.

Ignorant of the intercourse of man and woman, yet the baby penis is erect.

True and perfect energy!

All day long screaming and crying, but never getting hoarse.

True and perfect harmony! To know harmony is to know what’s eternal.

To know what’s eternal is enlightenment.

Increase of life is full of portent: the strong heart exhausts the vital breath.

The full-grown is on the edge of age. Not the Way.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way – Ursula K. Le Guin

To know what’s eternal is enlightenment! Plant medicine teachers reveal the eternal and the homework is to understand it. Then you know. Additionally, how much is our sexuality connected and tied to this power and why does it makes us feel so alive? I thought of how zoë enlivens our bodies and gives us that feeling of strength and virility; personified by the ancient Olympian and the modern decathlete. Also, the bodybuilder who takes this power and shapes it in the human form. Plus, the artist who creates and the scientist who discovers by accessing the creativity, wonder, and wisdom within this power. I also wondered about how the power is taking this amalgamation of flesh and bone and granting it the charge needed to act. I thought of how we can express this power and how it manifests within creation. In the jaguar, you see in the ferocity of the animal this power and in the fur the patterns displaying its savage grandeur. The flower coming forth is the grace inherent in life. The eyeball and its exquisite intricacy and stunning beauty defy words.

This power is mostly hidden. It’s always there with us but for the most part we are oblivious to it and once again because of language we never think about it or go looking for it. There are ways to access it however and in order to re-introduce yourself to this power you have to find a way to change your consciousness. I know of a few methods. A surefire way to directly access this power is through the plant medicine Huachuma. It will sharpen your senses and allow you to recognize this power free flowing throughout your body. At first, it is quite the strange experience as you feel this coursing energy envelop your body. With experience, you will then be able to start to work with the energy. Strong, powerful, lustful, challenging, teaching, rewarding, and connection are some words that come to mind. Connection is the biggie. Through the commonality of this power between all it becomes possible to make connections with nature, others, and yourself through a sub-channel of communication we don’t normally use. Perhaps that is not correct. I think we do use this mode of communication all the time but we don’t know we are engaging in this transmission. It involves harmony and resonance with others. Mental telepathy is a thing; we just don’t have the requisite experience and natural ability to change consciousness enough to recognize it. Plant medicines will show you it is possible and help you cultivate this power. At its core, this power is vibration. All life is vibration and the language of frequency plays out on a scale hidden to us until we unmask its use through changing our consciousness. Changing consciousness allows us to experience the world from a different perspective instead of the frequency we normally lock to that obfuscates much of what is going on behind the scenes. The way we operate in the world is oblivious to this power and the fundamental connection we have to all life, and to zoë.

The ancient Egyptians referenced this power in their art as someone’s double which was the connecting same source life force running through us all that came from the power of the Goddess called sekhem.

Ka power represented as a double

The Hindus call it the subtle body (sukshma sarira) which is the expression of the chakra system and their power centres within. Zoë is the power expressed by the kundalini serpent that rises on up through the chakras. The energy that propels the serpent upwards is zoë. The expression of the power sexually results in bliss and waves of serpent energy coursing throughout the body. It leaves and ever returns, thus the need to recharge. Fully charged, you can eventually express the energy via a different modality. It can still be strong and pulsing sexualized energy but instead of the genital route you can enliven your subtle body and make it shine and pulse. It’s called working with the power and through it you can heal and fully enliven your spiritual centres. This is true enlightenment through tantric practice for anyone who is interested. All of us on the pure and holy path towards enlightenment run from tantra because of its association to sexual power and sex isn’t spiritual; it’s dirty right?

The ancient Minoan god Dionysos is the image of indestructible life. In the myth, zoë is always returning through the auspices of the goddess Ariadne; he mystically impregnates his wife who subsequently becomes his mother.

Dionysos and Ariadne on the Derveni krater from the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum

The ancient Egyptians called this phenomenon the kamutef which means "bull of his mother."

Ithyphallic Amen-Kamutef from Luxor Temple

Originally in mythology, the ever-coming god was sent away, ridiculed, and torn apart by the Titans but this immortal god always returns. The god is zoë; the one behind all life. Dionysos, once discovered, is the liberator par excellence, freeing one from care, worry, and the self through madness, ecstasy, and potent unmixed wine; the wine being an all-inclusive symbol of intoxication that throws off the chains of self-restraint and cultural expectations. At its best you are free to love all; at its worst you kick down the door of repression and upset the guardians of society.

Dionysos can be described as a he-she. Dionysos is the link between the living and the dead and thus he appears in the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries with Persephone as she descends into the underworld and returns with new life. The awesome power you can feel flowing through you is Dionysos. I will do my best not to pronoun Dionysos as the presence of the god encompasses all. Dionysos is the new life of the grape that appears courtesy of the sun and the rain. Dionysos is a vegetarian and the god also eats raw meat. Dionysos comes forth as a creator, as a vegetarian Dionysos preserves life, and by trapping wild animals in the forest and rending them alive, tearing their flesh and devouring it, the god is also the destroyer. The god is a paradox encompassing life and embracing death. Dionysos dances delightfully upon the thread that binds the living with the deceased. 

Dionysos could just be the god for our tumultuous time. The god is a liberator from the restraints of society and culture, allowing all to embrace their passions and kinks. Transgenderism, free love, freedom from identification, and gender fluidity are all in Dionysos’ retinue. These underground currents within society always return to challenge the status quo and invite cultural revolution or repression. Shall we send the liberator god away once again or this time integrate the perverse into society? A little has to be let in or the dam is going to break. Can’t you see it is happening now? Society is being challenged and walls are coming down. Chaos is rushing in. History informs us of the coming backlash and repression or alternatively the crumbling of a civilization. However beware of the forces that rush in when society collapses as that is never predictable. There’s no escaping this influence and it will always be a part of the fabric of life and our attempts to organize and preserve our way of life. The forces of authoritarianism stand at the ready to take advantage of the Dionysian impulse within all civilizations.

Dionysos is the axis mundi who is the link between the dreamer and the dream. The god is the complete psyche; madness and all. Dionysos is the joker and wild card who upsets the jenga of expectations and conformity and lets it all ride on the outcome of a game of chance. The god resides in the orderly pack of playing cards, shuffling the deck, and inserting wild outcomes of chance within the game of life. Dionysos gets on the roller-coaster of life and turns it up to 11. You think you have it together and then Dionysos comes along to upset the perfectly stacked applecart or to scare the living shit out of you and chase you all the way home. Face it, the potential for self-destruction is such a kick, especially when you are indestructible. What game can I play to give this sensation junkie a thrill? How long can I keep up the game and keep upsetting the pillars of society before I’m asked to leave? Conversely have you ever felt you didn’t fit in, especially when you were a teenager? Didn’t you feel there was something funny about the game adults were playing that you knew was bullshit, so you rebelled? But you grew up and decided to fit in and play that game. The strategies you developed as a kid to fit in you levelled up in order to fit into the adult game. Everything eventually has its reckoning. I want to be free. 

sacred sexuality

Sacred sexuality is something I could grasp on a higher plane but doubted it in the now I find myself. I have intuitively understood that the union between a man and a woman mimicked the state of unity of the all however I knew the unity we can experience right now is fleeting and short. As well our peculiar human experience likes to foul things up and attach morals and expectations to biological urges so thus attached to sex are ideas of shame and a need to shield your predilections from others lest your ego be called out for what turns you on. Through this the dark side of your human experience can control you since it has something on you. It is a form of internal blackmail. If you engage in an activity not culturally sanctioned, in the aftermath of pleasure you immediately feel ashamed. This is so ingrained within it is difficult to break free of and perversely this leads to an addiction to the behaviour and a cycle hard to break. First thing is to clear the mind and stop the behaviour and regain control over your thoughts and actions. I did that and then tried to reintroduce the behaviour. It was a no go for a long time. Finally this wise woman I follow on the Internet counselled us on the need to bring joy into our lives and accept it and not feel ashamed about pleasure.

Play & Pleasure as a portal to the soul

For some reason this time it really got through to me and resonated down to my very core and I have reintroduced the behaviour, this time with no shaming but just full on acceptance of what turns me on and brings me a respite of pleasure within my mundane existence. It's funny in that I fully embraced purification and celibacy as a requirement for my journeys into altered states of consciousness. I was a prize student in this regard and then lo and behold during these ceremonies I experienced very erotic visions and senses, so much so it made me wonder what is up? It led me to a discovery of what serpent power is and how it can be used. I have boiled it down to the sexual, health, and the spiritual. Then the next step is balance, something I sorely lacked! In psychology it is a given that the suppression of a feeling or a desire will eventually lead to major difficulties and a presentation of this need in an increased way. The philosopher Alan Watts has counselled many times in his lectures about feelings and that there are no wrong feelings. You may attach cultural labels to feelings and there are justifiable moral questions raised by feelings we experience however it is important to remember a feeling is never wrong. I have taken this to heart. So with this all said, admitted to, and accepted, I fully realize as well the idea of purity and how it relates to the use of serpent power. Purity does not mean a Victorian sense of chasteness and prudishness. Instead it is an attempt to describe the need for an empty chalice or a stilled mind like the calmness of a cottage lake at dawn. The stillness of the mind is what is needed and what is being described by purity. This allows you to enter into higher states of consciousness much easier. Shifting gears on serpent power from the sexual to the spiritual is what I will be doing now. It is part of my intent as enacted by my will. I will return to pleasure at some point but for now I will channel the energy into my sacred journey to the top of the mountain. 

As an addendum to the above I'd like to discuss how the cycle of arousal within the male mimics the life cycle, in a sense the journey that is available to all. I have seen echoes in this idea within the iconography of ancient Egypt. The ithyphallic Osiris is a result of Isis and Nephthys re-membering him, after he was murdered by his brother Set, through magic in order that Isis could copulate with her husband to produce the son Horus.

Isis as a kite bird copulating with Osiris from Seti I Temple at Abydos

It is the power of the two goddesses, in essence serpent power, that causes Osiris to become erect.

Ithyphallic Osiris from Seti I Temple at Abydos

The inert Osiris is reanimated and given life in this world once again temporarily through the magical power that is property of goddesses. The son of the union, Horus, is the ever returning vessel of light, the eternal energy, come forth once again through the magic of cosmic union. As well in ancient Egypt the figure of the god Min is shown erect.

Ithyphallic Min on stele from ROM

His power is fecundity and it is interesting that he is connected with mountains with one of his epithets being 'Min, the man on the mountain.’ I have found that in my spiritual journey I have reached a point where I need to physically go to the highlands in order to climb the proverbial mountain. With all that has been happening to me I can connect the scaling of the spiritual mountain to its apex as being in congruence with an erect penis. The serpent power is fully engaged within and you are at your peak but with the difference being channeling the power into a spiritual rather than a sexual outlet. A major reason why I have made this connection is that there is a passage in the Tao Te Ching that ruminates upon this pure power being present in a baby boy when the baby involuntary produces an erection. 

Being full of power

is like being a baby.

Scorpions don’t sting,

tigers don’t attack,

eagles don’t strike.

Soft bones, weak muscles,

but a firm grasp.

Ignorant of the intercourse

of man and woman,

yet the baby penis is erect.

True and perfect energy!

All day long screaming and crying,

but never getting hoarse.

True and perfect harmony!

To know harmony

is to know what’s eternal.

To know what’s eternal

is enlightenment.

Increase of life is full of portent:

the strong heart exhausts the vital breath.

The full-grown is on the edge of age.

Not the Way.

What’s not the Way soon dies.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way - Ursula K. Le Guin, pages 81-82.

It took a while to figure out what it meant but once I connected it to the figures of ancient Egypt discussed above along with serpent power I grasped the meaning. In relating this masculine sexual organ as being related metaphorically to the cycle of life it is such: 

Through excitation, metaphorically the plucking of a guitar string, the phallus through vibration is put into motion and gathers power. The power coalesces and the member stands erect. Through increasing vibrational power the member eventually reaches a stage of being fully engaged and full of power and explodes. This is reaching the top of the mountain peak and climaxing. From that point the power recedes and the form returns to a state of inertness until once again the vibrational string is plucked, put into motion, and the process repeats. In ancient Egypt when this power noticeably declines in the ruling Pharaoh they held a festival for the King to renew this power. Part of the rituals enacted at the Heb Sed festival had the Pharaoh demonstrating the ability to obtain an erection and masturbating to completion. In addition the Pharaoh would become a night time music maker for the great goddess Hathor and call upon the serpent goddess to renew his power, as this text from the tomb of an official of Pharaoh Amenhotep III’s court reveals:

…in the lower register is a powerful invocation to the starry snake goddess of the night, Hathor 'Gold', whom they call on to rise and be propitiated through the dances they perform in her honour. But they dance not only for this beneficent queen of the night, shining in her fiery brilliance, but also for Amenhotep who has great need of her power. In their chant to the goddess they implore her to take him to the east of the sky, to the place where at dawn, 'the doors of the sky open and a god goes forth pure'. And this is what they sing:

Make jubilation for Gold

and sweet pleasure for

The Lady of the Two Lands,

that she may cause

Nebmaatre [Amenhotep], given life,

to be enduring.

Come, rise. Come

that I may make

Jubilation at twilight for you

And music in the evening.

O Hathor, you are exalted

In the hair of Re, in the hair of Re,

For to you has been given

The sky, deep night and the stars…

Hathor Rising, The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt, Alison Roberts, pages 26-27.

Changing your attitude towards what is ultimately the most sacred of the sacred reveals ultimately that the expression of the godhead we seek, the totality of the all, the one, is the sacred cosmic union of the divine feminine and the divine masculine. The climax of that relationship enacts creation. It's the big bang. We are living in the post orgasmic stage of the most sacred sexual union ever consummated. How delightful is that?