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"We must learn the science of self-expression...if we cannot say something useful, there is no need to become involved in the conversation. If we cannot say something that inspires, at least say nothing that destroys.

Let us try, therefore, to make everything that we say valuable. Let us quietly turn away from a book that hurts us. Let us turn off the radio program that helps build up a negative disillusionment in ourselves. Let us also turn away from groups of people who are dedicated to violence and discord and who have no constructive solution to problems.

Instead of becoming involved in these things and being polluted by them, let us quietly face the problems of life, examine the values in situations around us, and through the use of the best faculties that we possess, quietly prepare a constructive strategy by means of which we can live better every day.

There are things we have to listen to, but in quietude we can weigh them. Also in quietude we try to establish a point of contact with that part of ourselves that is able to see through the circumstances to the rules and laws behind them.

We are not here to judge each other. We are here to help each other grow. If we cannot do big things at the moment, we can at least take our part away from the stream of pollution that is destroying our integrity. If we will put this leadership upon our own tongues we can do a great deal to make this a better world for all of us."

~Manly P. Hall, Compassion and compatibility: The Lost Art of Sharing Thoughts (1975)

Travel in the Indian subcontinent, where I am at present, and you will encounter wandering ascetics – rishis, sadhus – in every village, town and city or making their way from place to place on foot along the roads from Kanyakumari in the far south to the Himalayas in the far north. Many, like the sadhu depicted here (photographed at Pashupatinath temple, Kathmandu, Nepal), are devotees of Siva, the God of Knowledge and ultimately the system of ideas to which they adhere holds that enlightenment and true knowledge cannot be obtained without becoming the master of one’s impulses and renouncing the lures of the material world – or at any rate one’s ‘attachment’ to it. Conversely, a person’s material wealth and physical beauty can tell us nothing about that person’s mind and soul. The Vedas, India’s oldest sacred texts speak of the Seven Rishis who with Manu, the Indian Noah, survived the flood that brought the last age of the world to a cataclysmic end, and went on to restart the civilization of our own epoch. Like any of the wandering holy men today they are depicted in the Vedas with their hair uncut, matted and tied in a knot, their bodies smeared with ashes. There is even a tradition in the Bhagvata Purana that the greatest sages “range over the world in the guise of mad persons” while imparting wisdom. At the very least the lesson here, surely, is that we should show respect and listen carefully, to the words of any person. Appearances can be deceptive and you never know whom you’re dealing with.

Photo by Santha Faiia.

Happy Birthday to one of humanities greatest modern polymaths; writer, teacher, philosopher, psychologist, futurist, comedian, civil libertarian, activist, free thinker, mind & souls. Robert Anton Wilson, Ph.D. You are missed, praise BOB!

Happy Birthday Robert Anton Wilson!
Praise BOB!

The Divine in us can little by little gain authority if we give it a chance.

The simplest way to give it a chance is to subside those things which destroy its chance, which frustrate its purpose, and which lend themselves to an infinite delay.

By small steps we reach a point where we come to the gate of the "the shut place of the king", as it was called in alchemy.

When we open the door we go not into a strange place but we stand in the presence of the alter of our own soul.

~Manly P. Hall "The Third Eye in the Soul"

A great first day of a month long workshop given by Terence McKenna @ Esalen Institute back in 1989.

EROCx1 BLOG: Terence McKenna This recording is from the first day of a month long session at Esalen Institute back in June of 1989. Featuring a great introduction to Terence McKenna, his background & ideas. I recommend it to everyone, those foreign or familiar to all things McKenna. If you never had an opportunity to experience...

Robert Anton Wilson
The Universe contains a Maybe
December 16, 2000
Palm Springs, CA

Robert Anton Wilson: Prophets Conference Robert Anton Wilson speaking at the Prophets Conference ~ Palm Springs (number 8) held at the Marquis Resort Conference Center. Recorded by Steven Pratt using a portable minidisc recorder.

Quoted from page 16 of "Magic: A Treatise on Esoteric Ethics"

The Crucified Serpent

'The Crucified Serpent' - an interpretation by Peter Dawkins.
This remarkable heraldic emblem printed in the 1613 edition of Edmund Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’ incorporates a depth of hidden meaning. It is based on the cabalistic Tree of Life, as viewed “paneem” (”face to face”), the usual heraldic viewpoint of the higher mysteries. That part of the Tree of Life which it depicts is the “Cosmos” or “Soul” created by and manifesting the Holy Trinity.
The central feature, corresponding to Tiphereth ( #6, Beauty) of the Tree of Life, is the framed oval containing the Crucified Serpent. The Cross is the Cross of Light, signifying Faith; the Anchor is the emblem of Hope; and the Crucified Serpent, symbolic of the Saviour, represents Charity. These are the three fundamental initiatic degrees of loving (faith), understanding (hope) and service (charity), by means of which we reach illumination and the likeness (or manifestation) of God. The whole is held in the hands of God, indicating this essential supportive and compassionate truth.
The symbol of illumination, which corresponds to Daath (Knowledge) on the Tree of Life, is at the apex of the picture. This is the unveiled face of Bride, signifying Revelation or Truth Revealed. To her right and lower down is a symbol of Hesed ( #4, Mercy), the “right-hand of God”. This is the radiant Book of Law or Wisdom held in the right hand of God that descends from the cloud of glory. The Latin motto surrounding it is “Veritas tua et usque ad Nubes” (“Thy truth even all the way unto the clouds”). Complementing this, to the left side of Bride, is a ‘star’ symbol of Din ( #5, True Judgment, Perception), the “left-hand of God”. The Latin motto surrounding it is “Os homini sublime dedit” (“The speech of man offered up aloft”).
Lower down, on the heraldic right, is a symbol of Netsah ( #7, Victory, Eternity), the heraldic shield depicting the Dove of the Holy Spirit, the Book of Law (thrice shown), two roses and a phoenix. Its twin counterpart, on the heraldic left, depicts the mercurial mystery of Hod ( #8, Glory, Reverberation) with a subtle, cryptic image of the Crucified Serpent. In this the Serpent is represented by the letter ‘S’, whilst at the base of the Tau cross are the letters ‘R.O.E’, the whole providing the Golden and Rosy Cross signature of the Rosicrucians as well as an explanation of the Rosicrucian teaching concerning “the Rose that blooms upon the Cross”.
At the foot of the whole emblem is the face of Pan, the procreator or progenitor of mankind, the world and universe. He is in the position of Yesod ( #9, Foundation, Generation, Procreation) on the Tree of Life. Pan is the foundation of the universe; his bride, Echo, is its apex or “capstone”. In all this lies a revelation of the mystery of life and mankind’s purpose for existence.

Giving is All we Have :)

Challenges of the 21st Century In this animation, Jeroen Timmers shortly portrays the challenges we face in our Society and explains why Giving is All we Have. Illustration & Animation: Ra...

EROCx1: September 11, 2001 So far 48,430 US military personal are dead or wounded, currently about the same as American Revolutionary War.James Corbett'

An interesting interview with Louis Sahagun, author of Master of the Mysteries: The Life of Manly Palmer Hall. I have not read the book, but its on my reading list. Has anyone here read it?

Louis Sahagun and the “Master of the Mysteries” | Occult of Personality Podcast 49 – Louis Sahagun and the “Master of the Mysteries” Posted on July 14, 2009 by gkaminsky Podcast: Play in new window | Download Originally published on July 9, 2008 Writer and reporter Louis Sahagun joins us to discuss his amazing new book, “Master of the Mysteries: The Life of M...