Saturday 12 December 2015

Thought 85: Ascending the Mountain of Enlightenment


What is the Mountain 
of Enlightenment?

The Climb out
of Illusion.

What is at the 
Summit of 
the Mountain?

The Temple
of Initiation.
 



Friday 11 December 2015

Thought 84: Which Gouldberg?


The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a popular collection
of keyboard pieces by the god of composition 
Johann Sebastian Bach. 

It was his first recording of them
that brought the pianist Glenn Gould
to international classical music stardom.



Gould re-recorded them many years later,
not long before his death.


Among those who appreciate the pianist,
the question has therefore long been
which version is the superior one.

My answer to this question is that
neither of the above recordings is his best
take of the Go(u)ldberg Variations
for, despite that musician's fondness
for the recording studio over live performance,
the most vigorous, fresh, and lively recording
that he made of them is the concert version
of the famous aria and its thirty offspring.

Thursday 10 December 2015

Thought 83: Controlled through Fear


Fear shuts down
consciousness
and is therefore
the best means
of mind control.

Thursday 12 November 2015

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Review 7: Freemasonry, A Journey through Ritual and Symbol


Engrossing Symbolism—A Review of Freemasonry, 
A Journey through Ritual and Symbol by Kirk MacNulty

After providing a brief if convincing history of the origins of Freemasonry, MacNulty, in what is a sympathetic treatment of this mystery tradition, reveals Freemasonry to be an effective, inspiring, and even addictive symbolic system for developmental psychology, that is to say, the ascent from base to higher consciousness, within a tight framework of self-labour, ritual, and interpretation.

This is a small volume but I felt greatly enriched within the small amount of time it took me to read its thirty or so pages of text and seventy pages of beautiful illustrations. 

This is a most unpretentious work, requiring only open mindedness and curiosity, and I felt greatly empowered by this brief overview of what is in effect a psychology of the self, but far more sophisticated and inspiring I found than modern popular psychology. 

This book is an excellent resource therefore on a subject which by its nature is esoteric and the knowledge of which is hard to come by. 

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Art 15: Tom

Monday 9 November 2015

Sunday 8 November 2015

Saturday 7 November 2015

Thought 82: The Meaning of Courage


Confrontation.

Friday 6 November 2015

Art 12: Papa

Thursday 5 November 2015

Thought 81: Evil Never Sleeps


Evil never sleeps
because power
never sleeps.

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Thought 80: Being and Modern Life


Modern life inundates
with things seeking
our trust.

Why not
trust in
Being?

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Monday 2 November 2015

Thought 79: My Brand of Elitism


To point the
finger at
myself.

Sunday 1 November 2015

Art 11: Mama

Saturday 31 October 2015

Thought 78: Money as Technology


Money is a 
social technology. 

And technology enslaves
to the degree that it liberates,
and liberates to the degree 
that it enslaves, on account 
of the purgatory
that characterises the 
human condition.

Friday 30 October 2015

Thought 77: A Note on Edge of Tomorrow (Live, Die, Repeat)


In the motion picture Edge of Tomorrow
(Live, Die, Repeat), it is clear that the enemy
alien race wins in all universes except the one
where Tom Cruise makes good on his power
to 'reset' the day.

Thursday 29 October 2015

Thought 76: A Note on Voting


Voting gives legitimacy
to the power structure.

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Thought 75: Poisonous Politics


Politics is a poison
in so far as it feeds
on and fuels the 
worst in human 
nature.

Yet this
too is
a political
statement.

Everything
is political
=
Everything
is shit

(including 
this equation)

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Thought 74: I Love Losers


As a loser, I love losers.

Monday 26 October 2015

Sunday 25 October 2015

Saturday 24 October 2015

Thought 73: Qualifications


Qualifications qualify.

Friday 23 October 2015

Thought 72: The Power of Money


Though based
in universal deceit,
the power of money
lies in the fact that
people trust it enough
to do what they would
not otherwise do, e.g.
work a job they hate.

Money is 
quantified
power.

Thursday 22 October 2015

Poem 13: Amazon


Amazon...

Steer clear son
From this abomination

For all that tempts 
—the A-to-Z—
Is by them kept

At a finger's touch
No effort much

To transfer money
—It's so easy!—

At any time of day
Resist if you may

For pennies are easier saved
Than by hard effort made

Witness the world of work
That drives everyone berserk!

Enjoy what you own
Lying in your home

And use the library
Which lends for free

No need to clutter space
With needless blu-rays!

Yet I am a hypcocrite
I readily admit

Putting up for sale
Stuff dispatched by mail

Acquired in consumption
From the same corporation

Which gives me customers
And a stream of orders...

Amazon!

Wednesday 21 October 2015

Review 6: Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 1


Elliptical and Dense—A review of Walter Benjamin, 
Selected Writings Volume 1—1913–1926, 
Harvard University Press

This volume contains selected writings by thinker and cultural critic Walter Benjamin for the period spanning the years 1913–1926. 

Many of the entries consist in short fragments, interspersed by more lengthy pieces such as 'The Concept of Criticism' and 'Goethe's Elective Affinities'. 

Before I continue, I must confess to having a soft spot for WB. 


I first read him, in French translation, at the tail end of my 12 year mandatory stint in the French schooling system which never encouraged and in fact discouraged independent and critical thought; rather the aim of those twelve years seems to have been to annihilate all traces of imagination and creativity and ensure life-long submission to phoney authority.

So it was with much fascination and glee that I read some of WB's earliest essays which opened up a whole world of passionate intellectual enquiry into the nature of reality, all for its own sake. 


Nor did his output have anything to do with monetary or employment concerns, and indeed, taken too far, such concerns would have stifled WB's creative spirit and condemned him to obscurity, even post mortem

These things being said, I cannot now, as a mature reader of thirty years, heartily recommend this volume. 


While I still find WB's intellectual energy and penetrating analyses inspiring on principle, in practice WB's writing does not come off well in English translation, for his essays are at times impenetrable, elliptical, always dense, and all too often obscure in their argument. 

There are lighter and darker patches of density and ellipsis in this volume but I found my efforts at trying to penetrate the more arduous chunks of theoretical text slimly rewarded, for the contents when grasped are not all that revolutionary or illuminating.


Yes, WB offers new insights on certain terrains, such as fate, children's books, and translation, but I do not find the thinking, when understood, all that enlightened. 


WB lacks background knowledge of key areas such as the true content of Natural Law principles, the role of the occult, and the workings of conspiratorial power. 

To be sure, he was writing in earlier times but then some texts age better than others.

WB is often said to be a good writer, and this may be true in the German original, but in English his texts are chunky, lacking fluidity and clarity. 


Despite my best intentions of reading the book cover to cover, I gave up three quarters of the way through just because of the slog and the small pay-off for investing time and effort in getting to understand the heck WB is pointing out. 

While the world would undoubtedly be a poorer place without Walter Benjamin's literary and critical output, ultimately what inspires me the most about the character is his example as an always curious and diligent non conformist thinker, rather than the actual contents of his musings. 


Taking all these factors into consideration, the good and the bad, my score for this book is three stars. 

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Thought 71: The Wrong Decision Fallacy


We impute present
unhappiness on
wrong decisions
—but all decisions
may have led
to unhappiness.

Monday 19 October 2015

Thought 70: Fool's Consciousness


The price of high consciousness
is that it allergises one to low
consciousness, which is
the norm.

Sunday 18 October 2015

Poem 12: Welfare


Slavery and drudgery
Hallmarks of conformity
Are not my forte
—witness my résumé—

As I put off the day
Welfare won't pay
A pariah of the press:
A 'scrounger' no less. 

Feed me to the mob
It's the same as a job
Undergoing the loss
Of working for a boss.

Dependant on income
For needs and fun
Most sell labour
For financial favour

Yoked by necessity:
The logic of money.
Would they prefer the option
Of those in my position

To embrace the torment
Of reliance on government
Whose stated public aim
Is to end their benefits claim?

Saturday 17 October 2015

Review 5: Martin Heidegger, Basic Writings


Sensitive and Non-Wordly—A review of Basic Writings
an anthology of German philosopher Martin Heidegger

This is a strong collection, benefiting from an excellent and up-to-date critical apparatus and providing a decent, if not exhaustive, overview of the thinking of German philosopher Martin Heidegger through a well judged collection of essays by that author. 

These include the introduction to Being and Time, 'The Letter on Humanism', 'The Question Concerning Technology', 'The Way to Language', and more. 

It is indeed the collection's main strength to show the development, spanning several decades, of Heidegger's thought, albeit with a larger emphasis on later pieces, as Heidegger's shorter writings tend to belong to the post World War Two period. 

I read, or should I say re-read, this collection after having taken a year-long break from my forays into the captivating world of Heideggeriana, looking into other ways of interpreting history, the world, morality, and so forth. 

Over this period I have become more sensitive to the role of conspiracy in human affairs, including the occult, Natural Law, the monetary system, and methods of mind control and mass manipulation. 

With this in mind, Heidegger's writings as contained in this book, for all their poetic beauty, sensitivity to the nuances of language, awareness of the predicaments of our time, and attempts at providing new foundations for thinking the now, lack gravely in worldly knowledge and street wisdom when it comes to assessing actual as opposed to imagined motors in human history. 

While I am not prepared to discount the role of the metaphysical tradition in the shaping of today's world, including modern technology and this very web page, that is far from being the whole story, if one samples one's reading widely, and that is not something Heidegger will tell you.

Thus I would characterise this collection and Heidegger's writings generally as non-wordly, not quite of this world, but as nonetheless shedding light on basic phenomena such as the difference between beings and Being (the ontological difference), the origins of modern science, what technology actually entails on a planetary scale for the human species, the meaning of freedom, the relationship between thought and language, art as a setting-into-work of truth, and so on.

Thus with a bit of recule, as the French say, I would heartily recommend this compendium of Heidegger's but with the proviso that, however seductive and totalising a narrative Heidegger provides, it is far from being the whole story, and any genuine quest for truth will require study in many more areas, including political history, the occult, and the works of independent researchers worldwide, than that provided by a single philosopher, however genial. 

For as Heidegger himself says in his essay on technology, the destining of revealing that sends into enframing also contains within it the seeds for a more primal and dignified existence which is to observe all essential unfolding on this planet. 

And that includes the step of reading authors besides Heidegger who look(ed) deeply into the fabric of the world but with different, less philosophical, lenses on. 

All that being said, this is philosophy of the first rank and deserves nothing less than five stars.

Friday 16 October 2015

Review 4: Friedrich Gulda's Well-Tempered Clavier


My Definitive 48: A Triumph of Musical Content over Musical Performance—
A review of Friedrich Gulda's recording of Bach's 
Das Wohltemperierte Clavier

It has been twelve years since I first started exploring interpretations of Bach's The Well Tempered Clavier, beginning with Richter, then Gould, then some lacklustre version I will not do the honour of mentioning by name, then a harpsichord version of Book 1, then Edwin Fischer's, then Angela Hewitt's, then Andras Schiff's, and lastly Pollini's. 

Only now has my search for the perfect 48 ended. 

I have found in Friedrich Gulda my definitive recording of these pieces. 

It pains me to think of the money and time I could have saved had I been made aware of this version sooner, but fate wanted me take the long haul it seems.

When it comes to Bach, I value transparency of playing so that each line can be isolated in the mind and meditatively absorbed in the integrated whole of the perfect music that it is. 

I quite liked Gould's 48 for this reason but his bravado and loud playing—frequently taken too fast or too slow—have always alienated me somewhat, and many of the preludes and fugues become deadened and boring through his over-interpretation; over-interpretation also mars Richter's version which also lacks a clear base line, preventing clear appreciation of all the voices of the fugues and of the contrapuntal melodies.

Friedrich Gulda's recording has in its favour an immediate, one might say intimate, non concert-hall sound, the microphones having been placed directly above the strings. 

Adding to the transparency of the sound is Gulda's extra delicate playing, slow and soft at the same time, where base and treble are clearly audible, which force one to pay attention to each note, each phrasing, each development, and come away mesmerised. 

This is the most sensitively played Bach for piano on the market. 

Gulda's tempi are also the most convincing I have heard, for example his very slow playing of Prelude I/8 or the fast pace of Fugue II/18, and I have never enjoyed listening to these pieces as much as now. 

It is rather like all these years I had been drinking watered wine until two days ago when, having purchased this set, I had my first sip of undiluted wine.

This set pleases me so much in its understated mastery that I cannot listen to it for too long out of fear of jinxing the spell of perfection it has me under. 

So long have I sought this exact interpretation, without even knowing it existed, that now I know that this has to be my favourite disc not only of classical music, but of all musical genres. 

It half surprises me that Gramophone gave a poor review of this set because it is hard for me to understand how critics could overlook such perfection, but then I am also aware that critics do not necessarily have better taste than I do in these matters.

Others may prefer more performance-heavy and romanticised versions of these Preludes and Fugues, but for those of us seeking the intellectual and spiritual content of these works, Gulda's is the one to buy, at least in the opinion of this reviewer who has over a decade's worth of exploring recorded interpretations of this work.

Thursday 15 October 2015

Thought 69: Uni-Verse


The uni-verse is
our big mirror.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Thought 68: Plato and The Picture of Dorian Gray


The novel The Picture of Dorian Gray
by celebrated author Oscar Wilde,
in so far as it relates the impact
of ill deeds on the soul by
way of a magical painting, 
joins up with Plato's
metaphysics of the
soul as something
that is impacted
in its health by
our thoughts,
emotions, and
actions.


That is why
'Those who find
beautiful meanings
in beautiful things
are the cultivated.
For these there
is hope.'

—Oscar Wilde,
Plays, Prose 
Writings 
and Poems,
The Picture of
Dorian Gray,
The Preface

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Thought 67: Money


Yet another blog post
on money to help
me get over
my fear
of money.

Monday 12 October 2015

Poem 11: Illusions perdues


Lucien Chardon
Bel homme garçon

Prey to an ambition
Nourished by illusion

Sought the company
Of High Society

But gained no ground
Lacking in background

As he lived off the funds
Of cherished loved ones

Condemned to misery...
The fate of so many

Suffering the injustice
Of that brutal artifice:

Monetary currency!
For economic scarcity

Serves ever to control
Your and my small role

In the absent Heaven:
La Comédie humaine!

Sunday 11 October 2015

Review 3: Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra


'Man Means the Evaluator'—A review of Friedrich Nietzsche, 
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Oxford World's Classics

This is a much preferable translation of this great work and having read some passages in the German, somehow feels closer to it in its light-footed, pithy, and indeed harrowing brilliance—the work of an intellectually isolated man who was thoroughly at odds with the modern age back in the late 1800s and while the religion in the West at the time was that of 'progress', had this to say instead: 'The wasteland is growing.'

In my perception, Friedrich Nietzsche successfully unravels in devastating fashion the Judean-Christian tradition which he saw as only having managed to tame humankind and ensure the preeminence of mediocrity, petty-mindedness, and the power of knaves and fools in their various social disguises.

Our whole current technological paradigm is still permeated through and through with the said tradition, and Zarathustra's call for creators to stay true to the earth has never been so evocative as it is today, when the planetary power of technicity has become almost total and the thought of human freedom seems remote and unrealistic, provided that the human does not itself become trans-human as the agenda of cybernetic elites would have it.

This book is 'for everyone and nobody' in so far as it is open to anyone to read it but for no one in his or her current state of being who remains in that state, because the book pushes for nothing less than the advancement of the type 'man' towards what the translator calls 'the overhuman' (Übermensch). 

In particular, Zarathustra hopes that man be such as to deliver himself from the spirit of revenge which he defines as 'the will's ill will towards time and its "it was".'

[This book paved the way for German philosopher Martin Heidegger's grappling with the Western tradition and the onset of a new Western beginning, the Western metaphysical tradition for Heidegger having found its logical fulfilment in Nietzsche's work.]

On a personal level, this book has in many ways determined the course of my life so far and, despite myself, I keep coming back to it and, each time I do, I make note of a new thought-provoking passage or insight which corresponds with my own experience and attempts at thoughtfulness.

That said, the book is not a comfortable read, but philosophy being the friendliness towards wisdom, and wisdom being often borne of suffering, this book must rate as a very wise work indeed, especially considering the bloodletting it represented for its author, who said as much in a letter to a friend.

It is in effect a new Bible addressed to an audience very different from that of the (Un)Holy Bible.

On this edition: as I said, this is a brilliant translation and better, in my estimation, than Hollingdale's or Kaufmann's. 

Moreover, there is an extremely useful critical apparatus which contains plenty of notes of the references Nietzsche makes in his philosophical novel to the Western tradition: the Bible, New and Old Testament, Luther, Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, and so on... 

The introduction is also quite helpful, although inevitably on the 'objective' side. 

I do wish there was a more elegant hardcover edition of this work available instead of a cheap paperback, an edition more fitting of its biblical nature, but some day maybe.

In conclusion: this is not entertainment, and I do not say that disparagingly as I too do like to read for entertainment, but a book for those who wish to transcend and overcome themselves spiritually, intellectually, and in relation to the world that surrounds them. 

It is a book for the few.


Addendum: Examples of  
Thus Spoke Zarathustra Decoding

'Their jealousy even leadeth them to the paths of thinkers; and it is the mark of their jealousy that they ever go too far, so that their weariness hath at last to lie down on the snow to sleep.' —Thus Spoke Zarathustra Of Tarantulae

The Tarantula is the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu who wrote a mean-spirited account of the German thinker Martin Heidegger: L'ontologie politique de Martin Heidegger.

'Do they only believe a stammerer?' —Zarathustra's Prologue, §.5

The Stammerer is the British Scientist Stephen Hawking who wrote a pale scientismic version of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time: A Brief History of Time. Yet Hawking gets all the credit and Heidegger all the blame.

'Whoever is of the highest species will nourish the most parasites.' —Thus Spoke Zarathustra On Old and New Tablets, §.19

Who has fed the most parasites in the last century than the German Statesman Adolf Hitler?

'Where solitude ceases, there begins the market-place; and where the market-place begins, there also begins the noise of great play-actors and the buzzing of poisonous flies.

In this world even the finest things amount to nothing without someone to make a show of them: great men the people call these showmen.

Little do the people comprehend what is great, which is: the creative. But they do have a sense for all showmen and play-actors of great matters.

Around inventors of new values the world revolves—invisibly it revolves. Yet around play-actors the people and fame revolve: that is 'the way of the world'.

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra On the Flies of the Market-Place

An illustrative example and vindication of these words of Zarathustra is to be found in the actor president 'showman' Ronald Reagan's lifting a passage out of the occult philosopher 'inventor of new values' Manly P. Hall's book The Secret Destiny of America for use in public speeches (see this article), in a case where indeed the people and fame revolved around the former, but the spirit and authority around the latter.

'And this parable too, I give to you: not a few who wanted to drive out their Devil have themselves entered into swine.'

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra On Chastity

As a youth, the ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron put his penis in a pig's mouth as part of an elite ritual.