6147924 Paul Laffoley the Portals Symbol and Myth

8/11/2019 6147924 Paul Laffoley the Portals Symbol and Myth

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The Portals: Symbol and Mythpaul laffoley, from the Phenomenology of Revelation (transcribed by bibble - errors mine!)

Language

Symbolism and mythology are essentially the same. Neither can be totally understood ithout atheory of language, nor can they be totally appreciated ithout recogni ing a basic difference intheir realities" their aspects of being static and dynamic, respectively.

#ne of the pioneers of semiotics, $ac%ues &acan, states"

Instead of saying that Freud anticipates linguistics, I introduce the following formula: Theunconscious is the condition of linguistics.... An analyst, on the contrary, who bathes in the

procedures of the university and who is infatuated by it will be captured by its discourse and willmake the blatantly erroneous statement that the unconscious is the condition of language. Thosewho say this make themselves into authors by disregarding what I told them, what I incanted tothem, which is that language is the condition of the unconscious ... Freud proposed thefollowing evidence to sustain the ordering he called the unconscious: 1 The sub!ect is not onewho knows what he is saying. " #omething is said by the word the sub!ect cannot remember. $The sub!ect behaves oddly and believes that his behavior is his own.

' panding &acan s incantation a bit e can say that language is the something essential to theappearance or the occurence of the unconscious. *e seems to be saying hat +en amin &ee

holf said about the nature of language and its relationship to the universe. horf claimed thatlanguage possessed a relativity principle such that unless their linguistic bac grounds are similaror can in some ay be correlated, no t o observers are led by the same physical evidence to thesame picture of the universe. / cosmology, therefore, is a creature of the language thatdescribes it, and so nature is not something sub ect to a model of creativity that cannot be at leastpartly delineated (as sustained by the theory of cretio e nihilo), but rather something that is said.

0he mathematician Rene 0hom has also developed this idea in his study of catastrophe theory,hich has implications in biology, topology, and linguistics. *e declared" 1/s far as life and social

sciences are concerned, it is difficult for me to udge hether my present ideas may be of interest,but in riting these pages 2 have reached the conviction that there are simulating structures of allnatural e ternal forces at the very heart of the genetic endo ment of our species, at theunassailable depth of the *eraclitean logos of our soul, and that these structures are ready to gointo action henever necessary.1

&ogos is the 3ree ord for 1 ord1. 0he ancient 3ree s used t o related ords to amplify logos"eido, meaning form, and mythos, meaning speech. 0he logos (or form- ord) as the utteranceof the fates or the moerae. 0he statements &acan uses to describe 4reud s evidence for thee istence of the unconscious could ust as easily describe a hierophant s inspired seating at theoracle of 5elphi or the current model of someone sub ect to the creative process ithout criticalfeedbac .

2f &acan s attempt to absoluti e language into a universal creative principle is to be consideredviable (as the cliche of the universe as information ould have us believe), then there must be a

ay of uncovering in the nature of language an infinitely self-referential %uality that is encoded inthe process of the unfolding of the information being delivered. 0his self-referential element isnecessarily inherent in a system that depends on it for its function, because if it ere not inherentthe entire system could conceivably cease to continue. +ut the self-referential %uality itself cannotbe totally predictable in its results.

2n recursive (recursive meaning relating to a procedure that can repeat itself indefinitely or until a


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specified condition is met) function theory, a branch of mathematics no n also as computabilitytheory and as the theory of algorithms, there e ists the so-called creativity theorem, hich statesthat if there is a computable function f such that hen ever sub6 7 8, f(i) e%uals 8, but f(i) doesnot e%ual sub6. Roughly translated, this means that if there e ists a recursively enumerablebut not recursive set 8 that embodies an ob ect that is forever un no able but of such a naturethat e can continue to no it to be un no able, then any recursively enumerable set havingthe property asserted of 8 is called a creative set.

0he creativity theorem is a lin to understanding the ancient concept of fate and the propulsion offate s core of un no ableness into manifestation hile that core continues to be protected frombeing no n. 4ate, therefore, e%uals language, and the description of fate s protection finds itse%uivalent in the various systems that have been outlined above.

2 believe that inspiration embodies the idea of being possessed by an entity that is un no ablebut hose un no ability passes through oneself in a manner that produces action as a by-product of the passage. Such an interpretation of inspiration has never been part of, on the onehand, the easy agnosticism of the aristocratic notion of creativity, hich does not %uestion theorigin and hierarchy of ability, or, on the other hand, the constant democratic attac on the sourceof ability in an effort to produce an e%uitable distribution of it. Rather, the traditional association ofcreativity and language has been an attempt to understand ho hat e call religious symbolismand mythology or and hy they have the po er that they do.

0he history of this attempt to uncover the nature of symbolism and mythology, primarily asaspects of religious rites and mystical e perience, is as old as human ind. *ere the archaic issought for its o n sa e. 9et Rudolf /rnheim neglected to ta e this into account in an observationhe made in the mid-6:;


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as their stated intention to do so.

Symbols and Myths

/s 2 see them, symbols and myths constitute the active aspects of fate. 2f fate e%uals language,then fate at its most comple and sophisticated is the ever gro ing, ever changing, multitudinous

language that e ists throughout the universe in every conceivable and inconceivable form. +utfate as language, in its most primordial form, is a dimensional system. 0he simplest dimensionalsystem consists of e foliation into states of the absolute aliveness of the one into the many ofabsolute death, the kenosis of being@ conversely through the meta-death of the many emanatesthe infoliation bac into stages of consciousness to ard the one, the gnosis of becoming.Symbols and >yths are the portals bet een the e treme stages, or dimensions, of kenosis andgnosis .

0he full octave of portals is composed of natural singularities that act li e message unites. 0heportals that e human beings can e perience have often been altered to fit our understanding, in

hich case they are called altered portals or structured singularities. hile Symbols and >ythsare the general terms for the t o entire octaves of dimensional portals, they specifically describeonly the interface bet een the fourth and the fifth dimensional realms.

0he litany of portals, therefore, ould be as follo s"

The Octave of Temporality

bet een < and 6 - &ist

bet een 6 and A - /necdote

bet een A and B - 0ale

bet een B and C - &egend

bet een C and D - >yth

bet een D and ; - 'piphanybet een ; and E - 8ratophany

bet een E and F - *ierophany

The Octave of Spatiality

bet een < and 6 - Sign

bet een 6 and A - 2nde

bet een A and B - 2con

bet een B and C - /rchetype

bet een C and D - Symbol

bet een D and ; - 7ypher

bet een ; and E - 7ipher

bet een E and F - Sypher

0hus the dimensional interactive litany rising from absolute death ould be &ist-Sign, /nectode-


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2nde , 0ale-2con, legend-/rchetype, >yth-Symbol, 'piphany-7ypher, 8ratophany-7ipher, finallyreaching absolute life in *ierphonay-Sypher.

'ach realm of the dimensional portals represents aspects of the consciousness that d ells ithineach dimension. &ist-Sign, for instance, represents the atom of consciousness of the ego, ust as>yth-Symbol represents the integrated self, and *ierophany-Sypher the so-called higher self oruniversal soul.

+ecause consciousness passes through every aspect of the universe from the ob ective-mechanical to the sub ective-living, in both the physical and the metaphysical realms, hat e ashumans call e perience is the consciousness of consciousness, bound by the t o limits ofperception and revelation. /nd as such, e perience is naturally an anthropocentric vision of theuniverse, a universe that becomes divided into three parts" the macrocosm, or that part of themetaphysical aspect of the universe that is inaccessible to human e perience, hich containsforms of consciousness that completely transcend human consciousness@ the mesocosm, or thatpart of human consciousness, including the so-called transcendent aspects of humanconsciousness and the microcosm, or that part of the physical aspect of the universe that hasbecome inaccessibly to human e perience because as humans e have evolved beyond thisaspect, not in the 5ar inian sense of evolution but in an epistemological and primordial sense.

The Mesocosm

0he mesocosm, then, is the total realm of human e perience and involves the symbology andmythology of three physical dimensions and one metaphysical dimension. it is by neither theob ective %uality of perception nor the sub ective %uality of revelation but by the pro ective %ualityof the human imagination that e inhabitants of the mesocosm no of the e istence of themacrocosm and the microcosm of the universe. 4or instance, hat e call a line by imaginativepro ection is in reality an abstraction from the profile of a shado , the final limit of humanperception. this pro ection of the imagination ma es us reali e the e istence of the microcosm.2n li e manner the mystical e perience - the limit of human revelation - is pro ected by theimagination to have its source in the divine orld, or the macrocosm. ithin the mesocosm thesemiotic rise of consciousness to revelation involves an actual inversal of the nature of the basicepistemic entity. 2n the presence of the revelation, that hich no s and that hich is no n

e ist in a mutually interdependent relationship. 0he epistemic progression that begins in themicrocosm as Sign-&ist is first manifest in the mesocosm as 2nde -/necdote, then moves to 2con-0ale, ne t to /rchetype-&egend and finally to Symbol->yth. 8no ledge advances from theabsolute arbitrariness of information to its absolute nonarbitrariness. e recogni e the change in

no ledge forms first by convention, then by logical evidence, ne t by homoeomorphism andisomorphism of structure, and finally by revelation. 0his epistemic change is also indicated by themanner in hich the relationship bet een the no er, the individual, ho is at first active, andthat hich is no n, at first passive, is inversed in revelation, ith that hich is no n becomingactive and the individual- no er becoming passive.

0he inversion of the epistemic model may not be noticed until an individual confronts - no s - anauthentic Symbol->yth as a sub ective e perience. 4rom the point of vie of ob ectivee perience such Symbol->yth dimensional portal e amples as blac G hite holes and orm holes,

the velocity of light at the center of a photon, the still center of a moving heel, or the states ofrest of the t o ends of the invariant plane of oscillation of a pendulum system may still seem tobe scientific curiosities until a first mystical e perience ma es the connection for an individual.

The Symbol-Myth as Subjective E perience

Symbol->yths are energy portals bet een the fourth and fifth dimensional realms. 0ime-Solvoidand 'ternity-7osolid, and in the epistemic ran ing of human consciousness they are of the first


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order in the %uest for meaning and conte t. +eing in their presence is li e facing something totallybeyond yourself. 0hey appear as beings of greater maturity, aliveness, and internal comple itythan you. 0heir capacity to generate an energy of a different and more intense nature than youare capable of generating elicits the classic sublime response, hich transcends beauty" oycombined ith horror at the rush to the infinite. 0his response has led to their being interpreted asdivine and anthropomorphi ed as gods and daemons.

+ut a Symbol->yth is ultimately neither a sub ect or an ob ect. 2t is definable only as a portal, anentity characteri ed by its capacity to transform. /nd hat is transformed is the nature ofconsciousness itself at each dimensional realm. 0he a areness of consciousness in transition is

hat e call the sub ective aspect of Symbol->yths. 0he transition from dimensional realm fourto dimensional realm five as a conscious e perience is the mystical e perience, and as such isthe most comple e perience e as humans ill ever no .

0here is an analogous e perience of a lo er dimensional transition that although often neglectednevertheless contains the elements of unfolding and astonishment that accompany dimensionaltransition s impact on consciousness. 0he e perience is popularly called the uncanny. 0his is thee perience of /rchetype-&egend, hich can be called the discovery of time. 2 do not meanobservation of the effects of time, such as the atching of cloc s or the aging process. 2 meanthe sense of coming upon the elusive nature of time itself. ' amples of this e perience ould be

the sense that time goes by faster as you get older or that it momentarily slo s do n duringpotentially fatal situations such as being in an automobile accident or being shot from closerange@ the feeling of the loss of time as the result of drug-induced blac outs or from continuousoversleeping@ the peculiar feeling you get hen you first see a movie run in reverse@ and hat iscalled the bootstrap syndrome, that odd sensation your voice or appearance reproduced onmechanical media or an image of yourself at another age.

4inally, there are those e periences that begin to happen hen someone discovers that they areta ing the first steps on the path to e periencing a Symbol->yth. 0hese are the so-called occultor psychic phenomena, and they fall into four general categories. 4irst ould be thosesynchronistic events, hich 7arl $ung described as meaningful coincidence of events, that areacausal and completely private to the individual ho as them. Second are the ell-recogni edconditions of de a vu, or the feeling that you have itnessed someone, thing, or event before you

came upon it ob ectively, hile having prior no ledge that you did not, and amais vu, the feelingthat you have al ays no n and ill al ays no someone through many lifetimes. 0hird arethe more ob ective or 1ob ectivi able1 phenomena, including tele inesis, pre- and retrocognition,telepathy, and clairvoyance@ all these particular psychic phenomena have been the sub ects ofscientific scrutiny since the end of the nineteenth century. /nd fourth are those e periences li eastral pro ection or soul travel and the near-death e perience, hich are higher derivatives oflucid or veridical dreaming, in hich you no you are dreaming and in hich other people hoare having veridical dreams simultaneously can oin you in the same dream. 0hese fourth-category e periences almost eliminate the sub ect-ob ect polarity of a ing consciousness.

The !ormative Structure of Symbol-Myths

Symbol->yths reveal >ystery" they do not act as devices that decode mysteries into somethingelse. / conundrum, such as the revealed logical plot of a mystery novel, is something that can besolved, and hen it is solved it ceases to e ist. 0he true mysteries of e istence - from the natureof a color or a sound that is e perienced directly all the ay up to the mystery of pure being itself- cannot be eliminated by e periencing those dimensional portals of Symbol->yths that have astheir sub ects of focus the mysteries in %uestion. 2nstead e find ourselves at the portal of aninfinite abyss of mystery. #ften e are not prepared for direct revelation of mysteries such as se ,death, good, or evil, and as a method of self-protection against their infinity e either triviali e


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them by inducing boredom or escape them through insanity. +ut this is here an artistic traditionof creating structured singularities emerges. 0he creation of structured singularities is not astrategy aimed at diverting the full impact of mysteries, but rather a step in a process of initiation.Structured singularities build ritual to allo us to ithstand mysteries until e can pass the criticalbarrier of infinity and live in their presence.

2n the final section of his treatise 7on der ahrheit (7oncerning 0ruth), the philosopher 8arl$aspers rote about the ideal activity of ma ing Symbol->yths as structured singularities" 10histas of actually ta ing hold of being is fulfilled by the symbol. 0hat is nor our theme. 0he cypheris neither ob ect nor sub ect. 2t is ob ectivity hich is permeated by sub ectivity and in such a aythat being becomes present in the hole.1

$aspers describes certain characteristics that these structured singularities must possess to betrue cyphers. 0hey must communicate a philosophical a areness of being and recogni e thatbeing is not another reality hidden behind empirical realities. / state of suspension and theavoidance of false corporealities insure the Symbol->yth s sense of infinity. $aspers alsomaintains that genuine Symbol->yths cannot be interpreted or decoded, and if the attempt ismade they ill fall bac into empirical reality - superstition, nonreality - allegory, detachment - theaesthetic attitude, conceptuali ation - dogmatic metaphysics or hat is intentionally anted -magic. 4inally, $aspers states that true cyphers are not some means to an end they cannot be

produced at ill. 0hey are found and unconsciously revived by each generation. 0he artist helpsthe cyphers unfold of their o n nature.

0he unfolding process as e perienced by the artist is astonishment in the presence of a cypher,hich leads to a %uestioning of the artist in relation to the cypher, or the structured singularity of

Symbol->yth. Such %uestioning centers around the nature of the mystery presented, andincludes the reali ation that the cypher is spea ing to the artist and that there is an ontologicaldistance bet een the being-that-2-am (e istence) and the being-that--is-all (transcendence) thatthe cypher presents.

$aspers calls the final phase of the unfolding of a Symbol->yth a cypher con uration. / visualmetaphor for this phase is an infinite series of glass panes placed flat on top of each other ande tending bac into space in the form of a gigantic line in a logarithmic spiral around a focus oflight in an infinite number of revolutions. 0he line of transparent glass panes eeps movingto ard the light but never %uite reaches it. 0he po er of light e tends bac into the initial pane ofglass and prevents any one pane from being observed, an event that ould halt the action of thecon uration. 2n other ords, the portal of Symbol->yth has the po er to transform theopa%ueness of phenomena into the transparency of cypher, yielding an infinite series oftransparent panes that revolve indefinitely around the infinitely great and infinitely small point ofpure being ithout ever arriving. 9et in the approach to pure being, the actual distance bet eene istence and transcendence is reduced.

Symbols and Myths as Structured Singularities

4or purposes of analysis Symbols and >yths can be artificially separated to e amine thedifferences in their natures as singularities. /ll singularities are ultimately the same@ they simplypresent themselves in a different guise depending on hether their conte t is the #ctave ofSpatiality or the #ctave of 0emporality.

0he portals that deal ith spatiality e hibit singularities that are dimensional variations on motionand rest. 0hey are indicated by the geometry of incommensurables li e phi (the golden section),pi, or ne er additions to the list li e fractals. 'ach of these incommensurables hovers above afocus, or 1attractor,1 providing an entity that processes energy of a different nature at each


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dimensional realm. 0he various energies give the differing character to each singularity andsignal the ne t higher dimension. &i e energy rippling from muscle to muscle during some greateffort, the singularities or spatiality drain the energy of absolute life bac and forth, up and do nthrough the dimensions.

0emporality s portals e hibit singularities of a slightly different nature. 0hey are not li e thegraphically definable geometric points of spatiality, but more li e hiatuses in process of lacunae ina line of te t. 0hese singularities are the instants of change bet een possibilities andmanifestations. 0he most obvious are singularities of 0ime - the abyss of transition bet een acause and its effect. hat e call mythology in the storyli e sense arises from this analysis oftime. 0he timeline of each of our lives, supposedly consisting of a bac -to-bac nonreversible setof causal events, has but one possibility that is manifested for each instant. +ut if e imaginebeyond the confines of 'instein s and >in ovs i s orld-line, e no n that e have manypossibilities that e could manifest. 'ternity, the ne t dimension above 0ime, becomes theeternal repository of each possibility that as manifested by us. 'ternity, then, allo s the criticalpath of each of our lives to e ist in a state that actually transcends the religious definition ofimmortality. 0he continuing e istence of other possibilities that e no ere ours simply by thelogic of situations ithin our timelines becomes the imperative to fantasy and to socialconnections ithin time. /s all personas begin to access one another s possibilities and toperform the rituals of mutual actuali ation of those possibilities friendship, love, nations, countries,and orlds develop. 0he crescendo results in the hypra is of the universe - the completeunfolding and manifestation of all possibilities.

6147924 Paul Laffoley the Portals Symbol and Myth

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