a while back in blogsville i was writing about beliefs and the idea these are mostly based upon some form of dogma, usually untrue and quite meaningless. this morning i was watching some people from opus dei talk about the da vinci code, cos there is a certain amount of hysteria as the film is getting so much exposure, when questioned about their concerns they said, 'the film is a based upon real people ie jesus and mary, but it is fiction and therefore a lie.' i am curious as to their arguement, the presentor just accepted their point as valid, but i would have liked to have asked, 'what makes it any different from any other representation of events.'
you see where i am going here? dogma.
dogma asks that you not use your intellect to question the information you are being presented with. belief is a tool, if you have followed these posts regularly, you may notice that i occassionally smash any fixed ideas i have, sometimes to the point where even though i do not eat meat, i will eat meat, purely to not be attached to the idea that i don't have to eat meat. it was Dr. Hyatt that first set the example by smoking ciggarettes just so he could quit every now and then to test his will. RAW suggests that his students believe in arbitory extremist ideologies for a few months, suscribe to magazines they would not normally read ect, this is a process that one should keep alive, fixed thinking can only cause stagnation, gradually a point is reached where there is little truth, random beliefs connect the dots, peoples arguments and constructs fall away, even my own.
nothing is real everything is possible
for years i saw the meaningless futility of all human endevour, yet meaninglessness in my personal life the microcopism reflected, until i took the magickians path, the secret patterns, the unwritten codes, the language that cannot be spoken or written but only expressed symbolically in life tides. these patterns are mine, they are not yours, you have your own, look for meaning in meaningless, follow the yellow sphered sun, watch the reflection of the moon upon water, dance with the firefies, eat the lotus and suck the marrow outta life, gamble everything for love, risk it for the risk not the prize, mess with the cosmos and let it mess with you. beleve in nothing and put faith in everything. if you choose some weird fundamental religious belief like opus dei, lizard theory, fascism, science, democracy, then be prepared to let it overtake your intellect, eat your heart and take over your brain like a interstellar virus.
one of my own fave beliefs is the idea that there are two main emotional states, love and fear, fear being the energy that takes you and your world into areas that are destructive, reductionist, without beauty, if you look in an old man or womans face and see nothing but an old person, you live in fear, if you see potentiality and wisdom, beauty dignity and grace then you live in love. if you love your enemy, man that's love, if you heart is filled with hate, then brother sister, you are in fear.
me i am mortal, a poor simple slave to the human condition as well, but i make it my mission to strive, struggle and work towards love. the more i do, the easier it comes.
sorry to come over all depak chopera on ya but this is elementary stuff and it's best we get it out the way early on. there's a lot of mis information about magick and magickians, why the other day a collegue called my work black magick. yeah really, in this day and age. magick is not black or white in the same way landscape is not. it is the heart that is balck or white, and often the black is white and the white is black, there is no duality in magick, a magickian has left all of that behind, yeah even fear is love. the idea of a black magickian is a construct left over from the dark ages, inquisitions, witch finder generals and religious institutions.

in tales of the egyptian underworld, the deceased mortals spirit is taken to the pair of golden scales and judged by the 72 magistrates while his / her heart is plucked from their ribs and placed upon the scales, weighed against the feather of maat, if the heart is lighter than the feather the mortal will continue their journey towards heaven or if the heart is heavy with impurity, judgement and dishounour the mortal can expect to pass on to hell.
how's your heart? which way do the scales tip, i often ponder this having lived a life where my my good intentions pave a way to personal hell, it's the paradox of duality i guess, ones mans good intent can often be misconstrude. At the end of the day, my heart will be measured and it won't be an unknown anymore.

ps i use heaven and hell as metaphors, please do not take literally.