Dreams of Personal Splendor in a Chicken Coop

I saw something amusing this morning. There’s a particular individual like many another individual of his type. He’s far too intelligent to believe in any power greater than his own mind and has certain pretensions about the levels of his insight, awareness and education. He likes to throw out the names of various writers who are as famous for the boring and convoluted natures of their presentations as they are for the embarrassments of their presumptions. He thinks by dropping these names that somehow he’s a member of this group of people that no really illumined or partially illumined person would want to even be associated with.

What amuses me the most about this sort of person is the way they will reflexively dismiss things they’ve put no time into investigating, primarily because their association with ideas outside of the mainstream might make them less welcome in the company of those who hold one another in contempt and whose only purpose in life is the admiration of those who have spent their life in the attempt to make themselves seems wise and informed among similar minds whose entire focus is on their place in the pecking order. It’s like self important chickens all clucking at the same time and it doesn’t even matter if anyone is listening because they are only attuned to the sound of their own voice. If you draw a line in the sand and put their beaks down on it they won’t be able to lift their heads back up. There’s a lot to be learned from this but one of the main points is that it’s not hard to hypnotize a chicken.

Then again, when you call someone a chicken it implies cowardice and it is indeed cowardice that keeps the majority of these chickens quoting the words of dead weight academics and avoiding the real truths that these academics spent their lives obscuring with the posturing bombast of their self important whines. Truth has no place in the lives of these individuals because it tends to diminish them and that’s the one thing they avoid at all costs. It’s a known fact that the majority of people who study philosophy and dense literature do it only in order to be able to talk about it; understanding it is not important. What is important is that it makes them seem brilliant by association. So you get an entire culture of chickens clucking like fools while the farmer sharpens his ax. Anyone who doesn’t think this is so is in deep error concerning the inescapable truth of their destiny.

I once attempted to read James Joyce and it didn’t take me long to realize that I would learn more and enjoy myself more by repeatedly hitting myself in the head with a stick. It’s no surprise that the people I am referring to consider this writer to be some kind of a god. He may well be if there are deities whose primary function is boring the reader to death. Joyce had a secretary named Samuel Beckett. There’s a story told about how he admired Joyce so much that he insisted on wearing the same size of shoe although his own shoe size was larger. I consider that a fitting destiny for the sort of man who wrote a pointless play called “Waiting for Godot”. Ironically this play sums up the lives of these writers and others like Sartre and that sad collection of existentialists marching after fata morganas into an endless desert. Any child knows more about the meaning of life than they do and gains a great deal more enjoyment from it as well.

The fact is that those who have changed the world in any positive way and changed the minds of their fellows for the better have always been outcasts from these cabals of the blind, naked and clueless. One has only to witness what the Royal Society did to the true seekers after knowledge over the course of their benighted tenure on this beleaguered sphere. One has only to study the treatment of truth seekers by any and all of these self-important societies to see what I mean. Those who seek life’s deeper meaning are forever at odds with those who spend their lives building monuments to their own enduring ignorance.

It is sad to watch these men and women in their constant adjustment of poses. They convict themselves whenever they write or speak and never realize how ridiculous they look in their attempts to seem as exceptional as those they take for examples. No sane or self-respecting person would consider such a thing. Yet... on and on they go, basking in the imagined adulation of their comrades and preening before the world as they accept their awards for this and for that and giving speeches about things of no value to people with no comprehension.

Someone said some time ago that “the proper study of mankind is man”. Another said, “Know thyself.” Unless one knows who and what they are, there is no great currency in anything else that they may think they know. It is a ubiquitous characteristic of those possessing true knowledge that they are humble and quick to acknowledge how very little they know. The reverse of this is true of those who use whatever they know for the further advancement of themselves. Many of these self-deluding souls spent their lives dining in the ivory tower. They have certificates on their walls with all the authenticity of the one that was awarded to The Scarecrow by the Wizard of Oz. They have positions and they have students. They have arrived... somewhere.

Unfortunately, when death comes to call; when illness and catastrophe visits and when life leaves them bent by the hearth, cold and infirm, they are as powerless to answer their needs as they ever were to answer the needs of others. Strange madnesses afflict them. They disappear into the bottle. They take their own lives. They become ever more and more concerned about what history will make of them and are engaged in an endless fever of making sure that the world remembers and has need of them. Surely the world will remember some of them for all the good that it will do. It is not the world that you want to remember you. The world can give you nothing of lasting use and value.

These men mock the unknown. They mock the idea that there is a pervading consciousness that composes everything and is resident within all of us. “Oh this will never do.” They think themselves courageous in their personalized version of “Invictus”. They never see themselves for what they are.

We who have considered the inner route know how real that passage is. We may only understand a little of it but we know it is there. We have varying degree of faith, certitude and determination. Only a little of it will take one a good distance. Help is always present to be called upon. The way is open to all but one cannot take their personal burdens on this road. One cannot take their arrogance and self-importance. One cannot take their reputations, their stations or their pride.

Everything we think and say and do is recorded. We are all in error but some of us know forgiveness and succor are at hand. We take the opportunity to speak with our creator. We seek to be made free of that which presses down upon us. Those who seek this mercy will not find it wanting. However, those who do not seek it will not find it ...and many a hard penny will be paid as a result.

Like my fellows, I am a flawed sketch done by my own hand; a work in progress. I’ve no claim to greatness nor do I seek it... not here in any case. I know that I do not know. What I know of myself I know of others too. Without the least enjoyment of the fact, I say that I am glad I am not like those who have supplanted what is real with the false vanities of their imaginary selves. While there is still time it would be best to make awakening the single compelling pursuit of what remains of this life. It can end at any moment.

I am aware, as I am always aware, that others will laugh at what I say here. They should remember that the injury done is to themselves. It is no injury to me. This is the nature of the world. I seek a deeper illumination and forgiveness for my errors. You are welcome to everything else. It has no value or meaning for me.

Visible sings: ♫ Graveyards of the Heart ♫
'Graveyards of the Heart' is track no. 3 of 13 on Visible's 2007 album
'The Sacred and The Profane'
Lyrics (pops up)

The Hostile Witness of the Apocalypse

To uncover and to reveal... to lift the veils... these are the more accurate definitions of Apocalypse than the common denominator of flaming furnaces; four horsemen riding, nuclear bombs dropping and that Hollywood thing that tends to mess with our perception.

This is one of the biggest problems about comprehension; what do these terms and labels mean? Think about “Revelations” and you get the image of fiery angels pouring metaphorical white phosphorus from the heavens. Think about the word ‘revelation’ and it is a different thing. You need to keep this in mind when you seek to identify meaning. Things are not what they seem and neither are we.

In The New Testament there is a curious line which has been presented many different ways and which, strangely enough... is now being rewritten and in some cases transformed beyond recognition which speaks directly to the point of the statement itself; “Even the Devil is turned into an angel of light at the given moment, be not deceived.”

Let your mind turn that statement around. All kinds of things might ‘reveal’ themselves to sincere and penetrating inquiry. Sometimes, some people don’t publish my work because they think I’m working some kind of a God angle or because it doesn’t fit into their comprehensive schematic of what’s what.

I like to think that I’m as much of a scientist as I am a mystic and I guess that makes me a metaphysician, although it doesn’t mean I’m any good at it. Life is the stage where that will get demonstrated so let’s just leave it at that. That will also be a revelation for anyone who may be interested and certainly for me. I just think it’s important to keep in mind that there are things we can see and things that we can’t see. There are terms that are used and the terms do not always state what wound up in the common parlance if... you catch my drift.

Whether or not what religion tells us is true, is not germane to the point of this piece. The fact is that religion and those who manipulate it have a definite effect upon the world in which we live. That’s a given. So it would make sense to explore the way religion interprets the proclamations given by the ones upon which the religion is based.

This same thing applies to politics. This same thing applies to anything. What is the thing saying about itself and what are the people representing it saying about it and what is the actual meaning of the terms being used?

There is no one who can say that they know what composes the unknown. That is why it is called the unknown. It could be that there is a conscious force that rules the universe. It is a given that there are any number of conscious forms running around in the world we live in who are controlling or trying to control the world we live in. We’ve got all kinds of hierarchies here in the visible realm. I hate to throw a Mobius strip at you but wouldn’t you think that what you can’t see also operates according to the same thing?

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus is a short, precise and mysterious aggregation of words that implies just this. I’ll throw out one of the main lines again which is, “As above, so below, for the performance of the miracles of the one thing.”

It really does come down to how you define something whether or not you can achieve agreement. Hard, cold physics already proves what I call God. It doesn’t define or explain it and I’m told that’s not possible anyway but... it does say something is there. So... there is something that even hard core atheists can agree with and let’s just leave it at that.

I’m not an evangelist. I don’t have a collection plate. I don’t have a building with symbols and signs and I don’t have a ceremonial outfit and a funny hat. I’m just wanting to lay something out for you and hope it makes you think. I personally find religions are often the enemy of what I call God. I also think they are a veil. This brings us back to the Apocalypse thing and the meaning of terms... the lifting of veils... to uncover... to reveal...

There’s a lot of information out there. A lot of that information is a fabrication for the purpose of profit and deception. There are prophecies and portents and all kinds of things being bandied about. You are hearing the direst things and, it is true, there is evidence that indicates these possibilities as possibilities.

No one knows what’s coming. All of these ancient predictions and everything dancing around and pointing in whatever directions are just ideas and projections. Because life is cyclical it is possible to predict that certain things will repeat but nobody knows how that is going to happen so let’s leave that be too.

Okay... here’s the thing. It is glaringly evident that big changes are in the wings. Well... maybe it’s not glaringly evident to a lot of people because that’s just not interesting to them. They’re fully occupied and in pursuit of the object of their attention. They want to have this and they want to do that and everything else is either a help or a hindrance.

Materialism is a veil. One could say that it is the biggest veil in operation. It makes us forget who we are. We lose perspective and we identify with what’s outside of us and lose contact with what is inside of us. That’s a recipe for disaster. That’s where most of the world is at the moment and that is why what is happening is happening. It’s all about too many people wanting to have as much as they can get and some portion of people wanting to control all of it. This upsets balance.

When balance goes missing then natural forces come into play to adjust that balance and you get an apocalypse. Even if there were no divine force you would get an apocalypse and that’s the key issue. When the possession and application of technology exceeds the level of our humanity then we wind up doing destructive things because we neglected our inner growth in the pursuit of personal comfort and the desire for acquisition.

Some of the veils are coming off of the ancient lies and we are being compelled to witness the result of our belief in them. These veils are going to come off in a much bigger way as we move along and then everyone is going to stand in judgment of themselves. You don’t even need a God to come out of the sky on a fiery chariot and have him throw thunderbolts at you. The situation itself is prepared to do that.

Everyone is going to have the opportunity to decide what they hold valuable. If you can’t afford to lose something you don’t need then you’ll be riding after it when it goes. Everyone should take the opportunity to consider what is important to them and clarify this in their hearts and minds.

There can be no doubt that the shit is hitting the fan. Some things are more lasting than other things. My personal preference is to hold to what is enduring. What you will make of this is a matter for you to decide and the time will come when you will have to do so. No one can resist change. No one can resist being changed according to what they think and say and do. Your world cannot resist being changed by what you think and say and do. It’s right there in front of you.

Visible sings: ♫ Nothing More ♫
'Nothing More' is track no. 5 of 13 on Visible's 2007 album 'The Sacred and The Profane'
Lyrics (pops up)

Tripping the Light Fantastic Beauty

It cannot be denied that the world is in a state of transition. Ancient infrastructures of the last two thousand years are crumbling and the foundations of a new environment are being laid. We stand now in the demolition phase where what is is being transformed into what was and the debris is being carted of to the invisible foundries for remaking into the next presentation.

What this is all about is the emergence of the avatar. The avatar is on the way... moving from the central point within and precipitating down the planes while pushing before it all the invisible transmission centers that have been the broadcast booths for our confusion. He leaves intact those citadels of ageless wisdom... the Shangri Las and Shambhalas... the Buddhic realms and other lighthouses that are the places mentioned by Christ when he said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not true I would not have told you so.”

Those in a position to be informed know that there is only one original source of illumination... creation... succor and control. The appearance given to the indefinable incomprehensible source of all is tailored for the benefit of the souls on their particular rays. You need only think of light through a prism and the seven rays which all proceed from the central point. It’s the same thing whose presentation is adjusted for those inclined to pay attention.

This is the Kali Yuga; not the time and place one would choose if serenity and clarity were their flavors. However... however... and going back to the mention of ‘lighthouse’, there are bright places in the surrounding dark. Such a circumstance is upon us now so... regardless of the sinister appearances and looming unknown, there comes not only a condition but also a consciousness and an aperture of which the 60’s was a herald.

Looking at what is going on right in front of you can be misleading, insofar as it being an indication of what will actually come over the horizon. Much better for those so disposed is to focus on what is happening inside of them because... things occur there... before they appear here.

What I am saying is that there is good news... very, very... very good news. You might think about it as something like a cure for cancer or... some amazing renewable energy force. You might think of it as an opportunity to fix something for which there didn’t previously seem to be the proper tools. You could imagine it as an ability to give yourself a chiropractic adjustment that works under the ministrations of informed hands. You could think about it as a way to lose some baggage that you have been carrying for some time but are unable to locate and which is in a position to be disposed of, recycled and turned into something that is more an asset than an encumbrance.

Me?

I like to travel light.

What I am attempting to say is that the potential for connecting yourself to this process is right where you are right now. Evidence of its immanence is around to be sure; here we are talking about it right now. However... you have what you need, if you don’t mind a competent guide as opposed to wandering around at night in strange landscapes alone and... this being the Kali Yuga it could be termed ‘night’ under a moon.

There are resources aplenty to be found, if one has the circumspection to know how to look... once again; it’s right where you are right now and if you did need some or any of some other things it would be glad to show you how.

Being as this is a time of transition, the key concern should be, what to keep and what to let go. So... whats important to you and what do you want? Now ...in the always now ...is where you determine that and automatically the course is set.

Pay no mind to the special effects going on around you. The purpose of those effects is to engage the attention of the people attracted to them. Since this is a time of transition the question you want to ask yourself is; where do I want to land. The sorting out will be going on in any case so it’s really nothing more than determining your itinerary. In this case you don’t actually pick a destination. You pick a state of being and the transition will accommodate that.

This is why I say that it is with you already because... this avatar... as it is pushing its way through the planes is also pushing its way through you. It’s a Macro-microcosm kind of thing. You could call it a ‘top to the bottom’ thing or so on and so forth.

Those of you who study arcane history as opposed to the ‘history written by the victors’ know that around every two thousand or so years a new age appears. It’s happened every time before so why would anyone think it isn’t happening now? Well... like I said, pay no attention to those special effects unless that is the sort of thing that interests you.

Something is coming which is the very best part of all of us and it is redefining itself for our benefit should we be inclined to have an interest in our benefit... depending on what we think benefits us. You’ll have to make up what you call your mind about that a la “There where your treasures are your heart is also.”

You deserve a break today.” I’m guessing our readers aren’t thinking of McDonald’s when they read this but I suspect they get the connection in an “As above, so below” sort of a way.

Presently, certain forces are exposing themselves in broad daylight to the whole world. It is amazing when you consider how clever some forces think they are that they actually think that they are hiding themselves in full view. This is all for the purpose of demonstration. It is an object lesson. Life really is a movie and every movie has a director and an audience as well as those performing in it. In this instance, the audience and the performers are interchangeable... interactive and so on and so forth.

What is going to happen has already happened, just as any battles being fought are already won and lost. There isn’t any question about the outcome except in the minds of those who are confused because they can’t make up their mind about what to leave and what to take.

So... for those whose values are of the eternal variety, I’ve got some very good new for you. For those whose values are otherwise placed the news is not so good. Still... the news is good for them too if they are capable of making an adjustment. We shall see about that.

So... despite all the bells and whistles and flashing lights there’s wonder opening into wonder for those of you who know that there really is a Santa Claus, even if he’s not dressed they way you expected.

Visible sings: ♫ Something Good (is Coming Soon) ♫
'Something Good (is Coming Soon)' is track no. 10 of 10 on Visible's 2002 album
'911 was an Inside Job'
Lyrics (pops up)

Scuba Diving in the Emerald Waters of the Mind

It’s a sad reality that you can’t call an ambulance if you are already in the hospital. There are a great many strange ironies to life and many more of them that apply to humanity and its endless contradictions. As I walk through this world, I try to remind myself that I am in a mental institution. The patients are mad, the doctors are mad and the visitors are mad and you might find anyone pretending to be any of them at any time. All it takes is for someone to put on a lab coat or change into street clothes and voila! The appearance has transformed the character but... the eyes are still mad.

As I move among them I know that if I prod, or poke; ask the wrong question or look too closely, I will call attention to myself. There’s a pattern here. It has circumference and shape. You operate within it as a part of it or you swim through without calling attention to yourself because things feed here.

Do you want to understand the world? Take a scuba dive. Your malls are the emerald green limousines that pull along the periphery of your feeding zone. Do not forget that you are food too. Lao Tzu said, “Even a fish would survive if it would keep its mouth shut.” Then again, you have to open your mouth to eat. Animals cross the road for food or to mate. This is something to keep in mind because some things can make you reckless.

Vast shadows move in the deeps, trailed by their attendants...whole populations dart and scurry as one... or stand motionless. There is a trick of the light that makes things seem to be part of the landscape but they are not; camouflage is engaged. Green turns to blue. Yellow turns to brown and back again. There is beauty and mystery everywhere. There is appetite and desire as the scenery feeds on itself.

The world has its seasons the same as any year. It is like the phases of the moon. Sometimes more light and sometimes less; when you can see better it is easier to move. You don’t question your steps because the way is clear. In these times life has an ease and joyful industry. We know each other and ourselves as well.

At other times there is more shadow. Rumors come out of the shadows as if things were happening in places far away. Mystery has an appeal. What is there that might lie further in and beyond? In these times certain arts might be cultivated and lineages begun. Rulers would tend to be fair and just. Great art and high technology would flourish.

At other times, half of the world is light and half in shadow... people go in and out or do not return at all. There is a balance that holds for the most part but goes missing in places. War presents itself as one shadow tries to prevail over another until they fall like the leaves from the trees around them. It is to be expected that for some it is important to go to the furthest place of shadow or to the greatest concentration of light. Some know what is coming and some don’t care.

Then you find there is more shadow than light. What was occasional becomes routine. Something is always happening somewhere and it usually isn’t good. You learn to count your change and people lock their doors. You never know... that’s the thing about it... you never know. What used to happen somewhere you had never been now occurs in a neighboring town.

Finally we come to the time we are in today. We know nothing of the times when it was mostly light and very little of the times that followed that. We think we know a great deal about the time of shadows but how much can you really know about a shadow? History like everything else has been corrupted, revised and watered down. There is more fat than sinew. There are more excuses than answers. There are more justifications than corrections. Everything which is supposed to fix something only makes it worse.

There is never a time in the world where the light has gone out. It always concentrates somewhere. As much as darkness may permeate, light will concentrate and radiate. People get used to living in the shadows because they feel too vulnerable in the light. Then again, the only place they catch you is in the shadows... back to those ironies again.

We live in a time of judgment and summation. Everything that is happening is happening for the express reason of making a point about itself. The whole of existence has been put together for you to see what choice you will make. You might think of it as God goes to the movies. You might think of it as recycling.

Let’s say a cast of characters gets together and puts on a play. Let’s say the play just goes on and on and on. So the characters change places and play the different roles. Some are better at it than others. What began as a play becomes a real matter... people live and die. They’re not acting. If you could watch from a distance over a certain period of time you would get the idea that the whole affair was pointless. It starts to look like everyone is out for themselves and there’s not much entertainment for anyone on or off the stage when that happens unless you happen to appreciate that sort of thing. Toward the end most people do.

A certain portion of the actors or real life players begin to wake up to the situation; given that the situation has gotten so crass and banal that it starts to sound like klaxon horns going off in your head. Strangely enough, a good portion of the people doesn’t hear anything at all or if they do it sounds like a band playing their song. The people who have- or -are waking up know that nothing good can come of what they are seeing. To them it looks like madness. It looks like they are in a mental institution. Even more disturbing is the indication that the doctors are crazier than their patients.

Absurdity becomes the order of the day. Lying is considered a fine art and murder is a recreational sport. Sex is something you can buy over the counter and you can screw the wrapper or the contents and just dispose of whatever it was on your way out the door to somewhere else. While this side of it gets lost in the excess of the possibilities... on the other hand, you have the other side which has ratcheted up in the other direction headed for Torquemada Land. One side is waving their privates and the other is locking them down. It is, as the estimable Lao Tzu said, “fealty and order gone to waste.”

As the scene becomes increasingly more chaotic a door opens for those who have lost interest in the show. For the rest, the performance has intensified so that they cannot take their eyes off of the stage. Those who go through the door can lay aside their costumes. They are done. There is another world and perhaps it is like the one they are leaving only it is woven of a finer cloth. For the rest, it’s the recycling of persona for the next extended act over a long period of time in the same theater.

There isn’t anything more to life than this. Either one discovers who they are or they go on pretending to be all of the characters whose accomplishments impressed them. This is why most people don’t really resent the rich and powerful. They admire them. They know deep down that they’ll get their chance and they intend to behave exactly like them when they do.

Everyone knows that they have more than one life, no matter what they may tell you. Everyone is waiting in line for their chance at a temporary life in which to lord it over their fellows. They’ll set it all straight when the time comes. They’ll get their revenge and do as they please, just as their fellows did when they had their chance. I suppose you could call it some kind of rapture of the deep.

Visible and The Critical List: ♫ Frogman ♫
'Frogman' is track no. 2 of 8 on Visible and The Critical List's 1987 album
'La Vierge Sperme Danceur'
About this song (pops up)