The Awakening:
Man’s Divinity & Destiny: In the previous post, we discussed how McKenna’s view of spiritual practices is biased compared to a psychedelic approach. According to him, spiritual practices serve as a crucial aspect in enhancing psychedelic development. However, without the aid of these substances, it takes a lot of patience, which he needs. He feels obligated to know the facts about these substances and their effects and share them with others due to his indebtedness to his approach.
I have a theory that could provide an explanation for this dispute. What if McKenna, who had never experienced a spiritual awakening before, suddenly had one – a sudden explosion of the crown chakra that was meant to be experienced in a sober state rather than a psychedelic one. While inside his entheogen matrix, McKenna also experienced a sensory overload. This reaction could have resulted in a mycelial abnormality or anomaly, leading to tumour growth in his brain and ultimately causing his death. Alternatively, he may have become disillusioned by the entities he encountered, which could have corrupted his reasoning.
He believed decades of practising consciousness movements to reach the entheogen dimension were more accurate than our everyday reality. According to Raschke’s theory, these entities aim to elevate us to that realm. The question arises as to whether McKenna became disillusioned by his fascination with these entities. However, he did mention that these entities are harmless and positive, and DMT does not have any physical impact on the body except affecting the visual cortex. As per his experience, contact with these entities is distinct from other spirits in the spirit world. He also states that DMT does not affect the mind; there won’t be any sudden delusions, and the mind and body remain unchanged. What happens is that the world has been replaced.
It is possible that on an individual’s level spiritual awakening can affect their experiences and insights. Conversely, those who exhibit negative behaviours such as egoism, narcissism, and demonic thought patterns may attract negative spirits. Additionally, it is possible that the use of psychedelic substances could lead to encountering one’s higher self, resulting in a battle to achieve self-actualization.
He may have a narrow focus when it comes to approaching psychedelics. Still, he approaches the use of these substances scientifically to bring back personal experiences that can either confirm his belief in the power of magic to heal the world or strengthen his sceptics for the warning against it. Christians are hesitant about these practices because they believe they can open a doorway for negative entities to take over. He once warned against mixing DMT and mushrooms.
| The way ayahuasca is used by these amazon tribes is they brew a standard brew, and if they have a plant that they think have medical usage they take apportion of that plant and throw it in the mix. I took half dose of ayahusca and half dose of mushrooms, and it was awful it was different from any bad trip I ever had. It wasn’t about my personality it seemed to be about core processes. It was as if my memory was being eaten away likened to a Pac-man chewing away at its dots. I could almost see the molecular machinery jammed, it’s somehow caught in a loop, and I sweated bullets for an hour in half. Then it finally released me, and it let me go. But as I sat in that chair, I thought if I can’t pull out this place – then there is a room in the back ward somewhere, and they just sit me there and look every so often, and that’ll be the end of my story. – McKenna |
There is an interesting parallel between those who advocate for a matrix-simulated world garnered in the understanding to transfer human consciousness into machines and be immortal. And those who are addicted to video gaming in their autistic spectrum are stuck in virtual reality worlds. Additionally, some proponents of psychedelic experiences may confuse this virtual world for reality, raising the question of whether McKenna, who worked for the CIA, was advocating for a humanist agenda or became confused himself. Despite the psychedelic movement’s positive impact on applied pharmacological evidence, mythology and its abstracts, cosmological concepts, and reproducible experiments, there is still a sense of God’s grace or filtering. There are mechanisms of worthiness, levels of insight, gnosis, awakening, enlightenment, demons, and angels. In a dogmatic sense, some individuals may be chosen, and not all can be saved – a topic that delves deeper into philosophical thought.
In the matrix, Neo said:” If you die in the matrix, do you die in the real world?” The take away here is that you die either way – meaning you can’t disconnect your consciousness from your body either in a fictional artificial AI model or an entheogen one. You must separate McKenna’s scientific rhetoric from his narrative, like flights of fancy, because he blends them. Interpolated within a climate, end times urgency (or eschatology) is examined in his dimensional perplexity. This means his dimensional insights are ancillary to technological progress, whether it’s factual or fictional; he states:
| Nano tech is that a possibility can we download/upload everybody into a super cooled cube made of gold alloy buried 500 feet deep in the centre of Copernicus. Will go there and leave the earth and dance forever in the hallways of the imagination. The way to think of these psychedelics is that they amplify the morphogenic field. It’s not that I follow current events, it’s not because the mushrooms knows things. It’s because it’s all around us, in the air, it’s like all the FM, and short wave, long wave, uhf, and vhf – all these information around us become transparent, and you actually feel the planetary body heaving. The world becomes a Gibson like cyberspace. – McKenna |
McKenna’s fascination with the ideology of transhumanism, a Julian Huxley idea and term that seeks to augment the human condition beyond our expectations is intriguingly juxtaposed with his humanist agenda. This dichotomy is further emphasized by the fact that the same idea that captivated him, Aldous Huxley (brother to Julian), repelled it. In the intellectual battleground of the 19th century, McKenna points out those thinkers of evolution, such as Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, and Charles Lyell, were waging a fierce war against Christianity. They were the great warriors of atheism and promoted the denial of purpose. This led to a lot of energy in the scientific community being focused on getting rid of purpose and promoting random mutation colliding with selective purpose in the environment. This process may work well for the nature of species, but it does not explain the emergence of great forces, pull-forward change, or the phenomena of metamorphosis. Wallace suggested that by looking at the same evidence, there must be a Telos. McKenna calls this force that pushes forward change an “attractor“.
I believe that his psychedelic experience has led him to have a biased preference for transhumanist goals, which is similar to the effect of an attractor. This is evident because computing, particularly artificial intelligence, displays proto-adaptive behaviors, which can also create a similar kind of attractor.
Aldous Huxley, Julian Huxley’s brother, was a philosopher who believed in perennialism, a post-modernist way of thinking. These days, postmodernism are less popular among traditional Christians and those who study religion and Christian theology. This is because they tend to emphasize the differences among various traditions. Some Christians criticize perennials as an import of pagan metaphysics into the biblical tradition. However, others–like the Anglican theologian Owen Thomas–argue that Christianity is a synthesis of “biblical religion” and a Neo-Platonist-influenced version of the perennial philosophy.
There is a perspective on postmodernism and perennialism that suggests postmodernism emerged as a way to promote politically correct ideas after humanism. However, this is not an accurate representation of the situation. The rise of postmodernism can be attributed to atheism, rationalism, and a calculated takeover by cult groups who act as gatekeepers through post-leftist ideology. Perennial philosophy allows for psychedelic understanding without the need for psychedelic drugs because Terence McKenna has already taken it to its endpoint. Huxley characterizes perennial philosophy as a “working hypothesis” about the nature of reality that goes beyond “humanism and nature-worship” and is wary of the overdeveloped dogmas of organised religion. This working hypothesis can, Huxley thinks, provide the basis for experiential “research” into spiritual reality.
You can identify when researchers attack perennialism as soon as they emphasize pagan metaphysics into this narrow field of “warning” – in a Pharmakeia sense. A perplexing contention arises in that these entities are generalised to one culprit (with speculations), and we know there are many spirits in the spirit world. And alongside theology in which good angels came down to conquer these watcher angels – that interfere with man’s cosmic destiny impart Raschke’s argument that we are being elevated to these realms. A counter-argument is that instead of trying to raise us up/down to their dimensions, they always try to come into our physical reality by any means necessary. Furthermore, it indicates a theory that there’ve always been drug cults that go back to the Eleusinian/Mithraism mysteries. History is indicative of outlining humanity’s past itinerary where entities have influenced man’s faculty captured in pagan rituals and sacrifices, examined in the Aztec’s need to sacrifice to please the (entity-like) gods. The ruling class now codifies it in watcher cults (or entity worship). It has a bureaucratic influence on government agencies acting as a national security apparatus with projects that seem to have other unseemly (secret) motivations, not one favouring the people.
The contention is not about a debate about angels or entities influencing humans; we already know they do. It’s how reason is used as a weakness. This is the argument of fear in which reason is withdrawn from the context of other qualities. From here, it raises the disagreement between human nature and reason. If we try to investigate the truth with other qualities that pertain to a better (positive) understanding of psychedelics and their effects, like psychedelic-assisted therapy and other medical opportunities that it can be harnessed for – to open windows to dreaming dimensions while being fully aware it. When do we have a clearer understanding? When we ignore it, we choose to close that window. How indicative is it, then adhering to the Biblical warning of Pharmakeia tunnelled through the misunderstanding that the older the text, the truer it is (or rather, it’s not true; the older the text, the truer it is)? Or rather, there is a warning for their time, and there is a warning our time is both mutually exclusive and entirely different. However, it’s really about using that notion and engaging (or transforming) it through modern reason; it’s like needing an alibi for having a right-centric viewpoint regarding religion and politics. In this argument, gnosis, spirituality, enlightenment, awakenings, etc., is irrational because normal thinking is enough.
The motivation or need to outline these pagan metaphysics to a fixed set of ideas (paganism is evil; right-centric Christianity is good) is a fundamentalist approach with prideful intentions – in so much as Plato had already normalized this weakness in reason. “When [the soul] tries to investigate anything with the help of the body, it is led astray.” When does “the soul get a clear view of fact”? [W]hen it ignores the body.” – Plato … Here you can see Plato’s adage is also a misunderstanding of Socrates’s death. Socrates was made to face trumped-up charges invented by his ignorant and prejudiced fellow citizens. He was found guilty of “impiety” and “corrupting the young”, sentenced to death and then required to carry out his execution by consuming a deadly potion of the poisonous plant hemlock.
Looking at the history through general semantics, specifically the history of witchcraft, we may think the intention is noble. However, it may be rooted in pride, a form of fear. Conspiracy theories or conspiracies impart the same hidden fear of terror but are made for all to see by the hero truther-theorists. While propaganda has led many to believe in a neo-pagan version of the loving nature of witches, in reality, witchcraft has a dark side that many refuse to acknowledge. The witch trials had valid reasons for arresting people, and the standard of proof was high. Despite the negative portrayal of witch trials in literature, they were fairer than others. The witches used sacrifice rituals, and drugs played a part in their rituals. However, Cochrane’s defence article entitled “Genuine Witchcraft is Defended” in 1963 argues otherwise.
| I am a witch descended from a family of witches. Genuine witchcraft is not paganism, though it retains the memory of ancient faiths. It is a religion mystical in approach and puritanical in attitudes. It is the last real mystery cult to survive, with a very complex and evolved philosophy that has strong affinities with many Christian beliefs. The concept of a sacrificial god was not new to the ancient world; it is not new to a witch. Mysticism knows no boundaries. The genuine witch is a mystic at heart. Much of the teaching of witchcraft is subtle and bound with poetical concept rather than hard logic. I come from an old witch family. My mother told me of things that had been told to her grandmother by her grandmother. I have two ancestors who died by hanging for the 66 Clan of Tubal Cain practice of witchcraft. The desire for power may have been the motive behind the persecution of witches . . . [Cochrane explains that during the Crusades in the 13th and 14th centuries, Islamic ideas infiltrated witch covens, and witches were members of the upper classes as well as the lower.] One basic tenet of witch psychological grey magic is that your opponent should never be allowed to confirm an opinion about you but should always remain undecided. This gives you a greater power over him, because the undecided is always the weaker. From this attitude much confusion has probably sprung in the long path of history. [Cochrane then explains that witches are not part of a premature Spiritualist movement and are not concerned primarily with messages or morality from the dead.] . . . It [witchcraft] is concerned with the action of God and gods upon man and man’s position spiritually. – Rosemary Ellen Guiley: The Encyclopaedia of Witches, Witchcraft & Wicca. |
The contrast between ancient witchcraft and a more benevolent version (of witchcraft) doesn’t mean the former is more truthful or realistic. Instead, it is used to muddle the truth. When examined through logic and simplicity, rationality is more similar to our lived experience than McKenna’s dimensional reality. Stepping outside this reality can lead to a fear of complexity and reality itself. For example, in modern-day Africa, children born with the label of “witch-children” are isolated and abandoned on the streets, left to starve and suffer from malnutrition. While some orphanages try to help these children, not all are saved. This is a clear example of reason being sacrificed for superstition. Not only are these children innocent, but this is also parallel to infanticide during the witch trials. Dogmatic ideas should be flexible enough to adapt to current situations. This is where a more benevolent form of witchcraft might have saved the children from superstition. Superstition comes after the dogmatic warning aspect.
The City of Light: McKenna had hoped to create a new language of Alchemy that could be utilized for the betterment of the world. This hope was realized with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence. Unfortunately, McKenna passed away before he could witness the birth of this awakened silica (A.I.). While he had only foreseen this technology like a prophet, the reality is that it is inaccessible to those who could reshape and use it (beyond marketing and advertising) as a tool for world redemption through magic. This is because the ruling class (corporations) own this technology and have no intention of using it for the greater good.
Their utopian goal of enlightenment was never intended to be shared with the peasants of the time. Instead, it was about the divinity of Man and the possibility of using magic to evade the predetermined fate of the cosmos. This perception of Man, his divinity, and his destiny had a double-edged effect. On the one hand, it gave a new urgency to find life’s meaning and strive for a humanist goal. On the other hand, it was a hubristic endeavour of the ego. This perception, characterized by Ficino’s statement that “man is the measure of all things” and that it is up to man to decide the course of the cosmos, led to the birth of science.
Interestingly, magic and science are two sides of the same coin, stemming from the same dual perceptions. On one aspect, there was a strong focus on man’s divinity and magic, which the Church sought to suppress because it challenged the Church’s authority by placing importance on humanity. Between the 1500s and the start of the 30-year wars, there was a widespread push for a magical revolution in various parts of Europe, in contrast to the millennia of scholastic rationalism that had previously dominated. Witchcraft and other magical practices only began to gain prominence in the 15th century, leading to social hysteria and fear of witchcraft, alchemy, conjuring, and magic.
As time progressed, physicists, with their ever-expanding knowledge, were able to split the atom. However, in a moment of sobering realisation, Oppenheimer understood that they had done so without the proper reverence for the heart of ‘matter’. Their greatest achievement was the ability to create a powerful light that burned at the centre of stars, a power that was harnessed not only for the betterment of humanity but also for the creation of devastating weapons, tested in deserts and used against enemies. This, without a doubt, is a cosmic sin, an abomination that cannot be seen as magic with applied results because we have separated this double perception so far. Nowadays, magic is viewed as nothing more than the late works of Picatrix, which consist of spells, circles, chants, and rituals or filtered down into fictional fantasy. Although it was a concern in the past, in the modern world, it has been nullified by superstition. It is also evident that the traditional Christian right turned a blind eye to this sin for a propagandised greater good, even when the war was essentially over. This is not surprising since Christianity had become a big brother to science as a by-product of divorce several centuries before Christianity’s thinking split from Alchemical thinking.
In a second aspect, Humanity (Man) believes it can change its fate. Atomic physics is based on the assumption that we can escape the fate that was recognised in the Hellenistic period. During that time, people with a gnostic mindset towards astrology and stars believed these external forces could shape their fate. The gnostic concern was to avoid this cosmic destiny; the only way to do that was to ascend through the layers of cosmic ordering forces. These layers included archons, planets, planetary demons, and beyond the Heimarmene, a space in which one can burst through to transcend fate. This idea is illustrated in the metaphor of black holes.
The text discusses the possibility of calling down the sun’s power to Earth through atomic energy, which may be a predestined fate that parallels the not-so-successful space programs, rocket science, astronauts, and travel. This fate could be personified in the hermetic thought of Decons, 36 cosmic spirits. The Decons’ role is to control and manipulate fate (time), and they were summoned by the renascence Magi to do so. The Decons, zodiac signs, and associative schemata included plants, minerals, odours, flowers, animals, etc. Invocations, along with certain music or tonal modes together, all conjure the microcosm of the macrocosm and draw down the stellar energy. Later, a less refined style of magic emerged in the form of Picatrix – imageries similar to pop culture’s take on this craft. With Picatrix, it became possible to call archangels to your side and work with them on the idea that man’s fate is not bequeathed to the inevitable cosmic working machine, which runs counter to the New Testament. However, the New Testament has a similar message: you can be saved in the body and escape the inevitable disillusionment and degradation laid upon us by time.
In our previous discussion, we discussed how time is often associated with the idea of fate, creating the concept of time-fate instead of space-time. Before the pursuit of enlightenment and the literal search for the proverbial light, there was a belief in Hermeticism that utopia could be achieved and that a perfect society was possible. Bruno referred to the Picatrix, a collection of magical books from the 12th century, mentioned by Yates, which inspired the birth of Rosicrucianism and other ideological movements. The Picatrix cites Hermes Trismegistus as the originator of some Talismanic images and other connections. However, a particularly striking passage in the fourth book of Picatrix states that Hermes was the first to use magical images and was responsible for founding a marvellous city in Egypt.
| There are among the Chaldeans very perfect masters and this art, and they affirm that Hermes was the first to construct images by means of knowing how to regulate the Nile against the motion of the moon. This man also built a Temple to the Sun, and he knew how to hide himself from the all, so that no one can see him, although he was within it. It was he Hermes Trismegistus who in the east of Egypt constructed a city twelve miles long within which he constructed a castle, which had four gates within each four parts. On the eastern gate he placed a form of an eagle on the western gate the form of a Bull on the southern gate a form of a Lion, and the northern gate he constructed a form of a Dog. Into these images he introduced spirit which spoke with voices, nor can anyone enter the gates of the city except by their permission. There he planted Trees in midst in which was a grape tree, which bore the fruit of all generations. On the summit of the castle he caused to be raised a tower thirty cubits high, on top of which he ordered to be, placed a light house – the colour of which turned every day – until the seventh day after which it turned the first colour, and so the city was illuminated by these colours. Near the city there was an abundance of waters which dwelt many kinds of fish. Around the circumference of the city he placed engraved images, and ordered them in such a manner that by their virtue the inhabitants were made virtuous, and withdrawn from all wickedness and harm. |
In this text, we encounter an idea of a perfect society, which is achieved through magic. The society’s inhabitants are believed to be virtuous due to the power of engraved images that their leader ordered. This meant that society was protected from negative cosmic influences. Other historical figures, such as John Dee and Frederick V, Elector Palatine King of Bohemia, shared this idea and aimed to create an ideal, alchemical kingdom. The four cities in this utopian society are perfectly harmonious, with fully realised inhabitants who practice a cosmic religion that frees them from the negative impacts of cosmic fate.
The Original Artist Prophet John Dee; His Prophecies & its Consequences: John Dee united the complete spirit of the medieval magus and the whole spirit of the modern scientist. John Dee came across an Aztec artefact, a “Shew Stone”, also called “Aztec Mirror” – this artefact was like a television screen into the logos [scrying]. He used it to direct England’s foreign policy as he was a confidant of Queen Elizabeth the First. Dee was an accomplished astrologer and mathematician. He was functioning like an intelligence agent, a spy for the British crown, inserting himself among courtly scenes and writing back to Elisabeth in cyphers.
In 1582, John Dee, his wife Ann, and Edward Kelly, a man who gained confidence in Dee through his scrying, set out for Bohemia to meet Rudolf, the mad king of Bohemia. Kelly sent word that he and Dee had perfected the alchemical process. Rudolf then paid for their journey to Prague and treated them well until Rudolf suddenly stopped paying for their expenses, which left them stranded. Dee was still in touch with Elisabeth, and her court gave him money, which he used to talk his way out of this alchemical imprisonment. However, only after Dee wrote the book Hieroglyphic Monad while imprisoned in Bohemia can we assume that Dee wrote the book with the help of the spirits through his scrying. In the book, he proposed to prove through occult theorems that a specific diagram (the symbol of mercury) can be used to raise people to certain levels of spirit.
Fascinated by the Hieroglyphic Monad, Dee initiated two young men, Andrea and Myers, into its mysteries. After Dee left Bohemia and returned to England, Kelly remained serviced to Rudolf. Unfortunately, Kelly died in an accident while attempting to escape. On the other hand, Dee returned to England, where he lived until his old age and died in Malt Lake in 1606, two years after Queen Elizabeth died in 1604. The presence of many notable people, including Shakespeare and Sir Philip Sydney, marked the period. Dee was also known for his vast collection of books, which included manuscripts of Roger Bacon that were assumed to have been lost.
During the early 17th century, a document called the “Pharma” was circulated, followed by the announcement of recruitment by the Alchemical Brotherhood in “Confessio” two years later. These documents were the foundation of Rosicrucianism, based on fiction and a made-up person named Christian Rosenkreuz. It was claimed that Rosenkreuz was a great alchemist who lived almost 200 years earlier in the 1540s and that his tomb was found to contain books that sparked the alchemical revolution of the world. He was also said to have authored “The Alchemical Wedding”.
Such fantastical assertion was said to be purposeful, and instigation was gestated from Bohemia, where Dee’s students Andrea and Maier set out a plot to lay out the groundwork for an alchemical revolution in central Europe. It was a plot to medal with European history and to turn the protestant reformation toward an alchemical completion. They felt that Luther and Hus had only gone so far, and the culmination of throwing out the yoke of the Church would be establishing an alchemical kingdom in central Europe. They would become the centre of a movement – an alchemical reformation and revolution that sought to take the protestant reformation into the future, an enormous leap towards a new world to an enlightenment future.
Maier and Andrea and their cult followers gained notoriety and caught the attention of a young man who became an ally to them. This individual was the soon-to-be King Frederick, the Elector Palatine, a prince of the Northern League in Germany who ruled Heidelberg. Heidelberg was a hub for occultism in Europe, attracting all kinds of thinkers of the occult, including alchemists. Andrea and Maier counselled the young Frederick, guiding him through a series of political manoeuvres, including his marriage to Elisabeth, the daughter of James the First of England.
In the early 17th century, Frederick, a Protestant king, hoped to gain support for his alchemical plans by marrying the daughter of King James. However, James also arranged for his son to marry a Spanish Catholic princess from the Habsburg family. Although Frederick believed James supported his alchemical revolution, James was playing both sides. In 1617, Emperor Rudolf of Bohemia died, and the Protestant league elected Frederick as emperor, defying the traditional selection method. Frederick and his wife, now the queen, moved their court from Heidelberg to Prague, and the alchemist community followed. From the winter of 1618, they ruled from Prague and wanted to transform northern Europe into an alchemical kingdom.
In May of 1619, the Bishop of the Catholic Church learned that King James did not support the Protestants even though his daughter’s fate was at stake. As a result, the Bishop sent word to Madrid, and they raised a Habsburg army to lay siege to Prague. By summer, the King and Queen of Prague were forced to flee, and the Catholic forces took the city. The alchemical presses were destroyed, and Michael Maier, who was considered the prime minister, was killed in an alley. The entire alchemical dream died with the fall of Prague. Frederick, the leader of the Protestants, was also killed during the siege. Elisabeth escaped to the Netherlands and lived in exile for many years. The collapse of the alchemical dream played a role in sparking the 30 years of war.
In that Habsburg army, there was a young soldier of fortune. His name was Rene Descartes. Despite being only nineteen years old and lacking military knowledge, he participated in the battles. In his later years, Descartes remembered his time as a soldier with nostalgia. Once, Terence McKenna proposed writing a novel about Descartes and Maier, who would meet in a burning Prague alley way, debate the future of Europe, and fight with swords to which Maier will fall victim to Descartes sword.
Fictional fantasies aside, on the night of September 16th, Descartes had a dream in which an angel appeared and told Descartes that the conquest of nature was to be achieved through measure and number. This revelation would be the seed for modern science, the scientific method, and the distinction between the res cogitans and res extensa. The question becomes when juxtaposed with modernity where science has reached its limit and scientism has taken over – the plight for an alchemical dream was reaffirmed through the revelation of an Angel that transposes a science world – somewhere in that journey, we went in the wrong direction vis a vee heliocentric cosmology. Maybe in a conspiratorial sense, it was a demon rather than an angel that spoke to the ear of Descartes to halter a progressive alchemical world. If it were an angel, it would’ve known science would reach an endpoint in the assurance that a factual cosmology is false and just another semantic concept of a mythological cosmology. In either form, it mimics the cutting of enzymes in the body that we call junk DNA, as we are not ready for enlightenment.
In this alignment of fiction, Maier and Descartes confront each other. Descartes would finish what Myers had started by becoming the founder of modern science. However, this science is a diluted aspect of the alchemical dream. That science would lead back into itself a full circle in the collapse of the West and science and back to mythology and meaning. No matter how rational we assume ourselves to be, and however rational we assume modern science to be, it is founded on Angelic revelation, demonic intersession, and an extremely mysterious relationship between the human mind and what science calls inert matter. It is known that matter is not inert but alive and pregnant, with a purpose for mankind.
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