666 & secrets revealed.

Th tarot spread in th post below represents th first that I have done. I ran out of time to provide any interpretation, but here's my highly amateurish analysis:

Th heart of th matter? Innocence, childhood, as represented by th VI of Cups. I take this to refer to my work with children - with teaching - an important thing to me. Opposing me - illusion & fear, as represented by th Moon. I have unconsciously manifested th Magician, a powerful entity of change & control, while consciously manifesting Strength, representing also patience & compassion. So inside, I desire to affect change, while outside I wait (& look for work in retail, etc.). My past in this department is perfectly represented by th X of Wands - overextending, burdens, struggles. That sounds like substitute teaching. Th future? Justice! Perfect. (I want Justice.)

How do I see myself? Th VI of Swords gives us th answer: somewhat depressed, recovering (from my subbing experience), feeling uprooted in this Chicago place. How do others see me? Th Devil! That means materialistic, ignorant, & hopelessly trapped. People don't understand me & my lack of concern for their illusions & I can see how some might spot th Devil in me.

Behind these identity concerns, we find my hopes & fears represented by th VI of Pentacles - concern with having & not having resources, knowledge, & power. This makes plenty of sense to me, as I struggle with control over bills & jobs. Now th exciting part, th outcome: th Tower! Th Tower represents sudden change, release, a humbling downfall, & a life-changing revelation. This card traditionally depicts two people falling to their death from a medieval tower that's just been struck by lightning!



It doesn't come with a guaranteed negative connotation, though. Th Tower kicks you in th eye, smacks you around a bit, brings change into your life (unexpectedly!) & generally disorders your personal universe. Sometimes for th better! I think I need to get a zap of lightning to th head, so I feel pleased by this doomy-seeming outcome.

One more thing: notice how many major arcana cards I received - more than minor. (Th major arcana have th cool names; th minor arcana come with suits: wands, cups, swords, & pentacles.) This supposedly gives th reading extra importance & such. I received one minor card from each suit, which seems pretty balanced. But look at th numbers. X of Wands, VI of Cups, VI of Swords, VI of Pentacles. 666! Th number of th Beast & Aleister Crowley! Notice that I also received th Devil (a major arcana card), further emphasizing th occult forces at work here. Perhaps Crowley (or his Holy Guardian Angel) is sending me messages in my tarot spreads. That's thoughtful of him. Thanks, Al, for creeping me out!

FNORD

I enjoyed that. I didn't think I'd find it so easy to make sense out of my first tarot spread. How encouraging! More to come in futures.

jobbies

Th search for jobbies has commensed. One interview have I for th morrow at a record store & several question marks abound in times to come. More searching plan I for th doing in times proper. Such goes wills & vessels.

A fellow of musick-making potentials for noise & chaos shall later on this day visit me. I look eagerly forward to such things with vigorous joys.

I continue divining fortunes for each day, but not always reflecting on them. Without reflecting, I sort of defeat th purpose of such happenings. Yesterday, I selected from Peter Carroll's 8 Color Magicks: Black Magick, Death Magick. So I thought pleasantly about dying, invoking Osiris, Egyptian god of th Underworld, whom all male Egyptians eventually sought to become upon death. As I went about, I thought about th idea that all of spacetime constitutes one four (or more) dimensional solid matrix, & that although at this particular point in spacetime, I "am alive," at many more I "am not yet born" or "am dead." I thought in particular of th latter & took as an empowering mantra, "I am a dead man."

I enjoyed this, but could have taken it much further.

Today, I I Ching-ed & got:

15. Modesty

Th text of this hexagram I have not with me; it invokes positive ideas about finding balance: subtracting from areas of excess & adding to areas of lacking. Although I sometimes find th humbleness & modesty of Chinese (particularly Taoist) philosophy a bit much (see also Jesus), I find this fortune fitting for th day.

I have begun work on a card catalogue of many god(esse)s from many mythological sources to eventually use in divination slash ritual.

An interesting question I've encountered recently: what to make of this, Gottfried Leibniz's "Principle of Sufficient Reason":

"For anything that exists, there must be some reason why it exists, and why it exists as it does."

Causality. Determinism. We can trace this back: Why did A happen? Because of B. Why did B happen? Because of C. Why did C happen? Because of D. & on & on. Leibniz says that if we trace th "Whys" back far enough, it leads eventually to either GOD or UTTER ABSURDITY. He claims that th human mind cannot accept utter absurdity (it's too horrible to bear!) so there must be a God.

I disagree. Th human mind can indeed accept utter absurdity! (In fact, it can accept most anything you try to cram into it.)

Page 81 in th Principia Discordia puts it like this:

NONSENSE AS SALVATION

The human race will begin solving it's problems on the day that it ceases taking itself so seriously.

To that end, POEE proposes the countergame of NONSENSE AS SALVATION. Salvation from an ugly and barbarous existence that is the result of taking order so seriously and so seriously fearing contrary orders and disorder, that GAMES are taken as more important than LIFE; rather than taking LIFE AS THE ART OF PLAYING GAMES.

To this end, we propose that man develop his innate love for disorder, and play with The Goddess Eris. And know that it is a joyful play, and that thereby CAN BE REVOKED THE CURSE OF GREYFACE.

If you can master nonsense as well as you have already learned to master sense, then each will expose the other for what it is: absurdity. From that moment of illumination, a man begins to be free regardless of his surroundings. He becomes free to play order games and change them at will. He becomes free to play disorder games just for the hell of it. He becomes free to play neither or both. And as the master of his own games, he plays without fear, and therefore without frustration, and therefore with good will in his soul and love in his being.

And when men become free then mankind will be free.
May you be free of The Curse of Greyface.
May the Goddess put twinkles in your eyes.
May you have the knowledge of a sage,
and the wisdom of a child. Hail Eris.