Winter Wolf Forge » Philosophical

Why Love is “A Mystery”

Doug C — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:20:21 +0000

The world is defined by systems. Or rather, to be more specific, human being derive systematic descriptions and quantitative scales to asses everything in our universe. We are creatures of labels and definitions. Who is the hunter, who is the man, what is green, why does an apple fall. We spend a very large portion of our collective lives working to describe and label things. Yes, there are creative fields of professional intent. The sculpture, the painter, the mechanic. But even these activities of humanity are built upon systems of definition and description. To be a metalsmith you must know what a hammer is which metal is gold or silver. To be a warrior you must know what a hilt is, what a guard is. Even in cultures or fields where these definitions aren’t used, there is still some way of defining and labeling everything in order to communicate. we spend countless collective hours going to school so we can label all the latin names of the bones in the body, or describe dark matter accurately. We spend countless collective hours researching the cosmos, labeling and defining, even though these things were around millennia before us and will be much after. The point I am making is that we like to know what we are seeing, because it gives us a sense of control. We know in math that two plus two equals four, and it has been that way since before math, but we derived these words -plus, minus, equals, etc- to define something that already occurs without definition. We know in biology that the finger bones are phalanges; we know in economics that to optimize profit margin we must raise costs as high as the demanding market will allow while simultaneously dropping cost of production as low as we can manage. The key here is that WE know these things. As a collective race these are universal concepts based on universal(more or less) systems of label and definition. Your profit margin is defined by the same criteria as mine, as mine; my trigonometry is the same as yours.

How love comes in. Love is similar in that we define it with a system of labels as well. Many of which are directly related to the system of labels we’ve made for emotions. Like, love, lust, long term, happy, depressed, disappointed, frustrated, angry, girlfriend, husband, spouse, fiance. These words are all universally accepted, but there’s a catch. Some of them have a broader range of meaning. Some are hard to even define. We’ve given them a name and don’t even really know what they mean. Others have different meanings by different people. your love may not be the same as my love, and it’s certainly not the same as a five year old’s love. But we all still use the word. I think that “I love you” is more meaningful then saying “Love you”, and I think that there is a big difference between “making love” and “having sex”, even in a closed relationship. But others might disagree. The big key here is that, not only is the system of labels and definition for love not entirely pinned down like math or chemistry, but that even in a relationship it is not the same across the board. When two people talk of math there is a specific outcome, and even in the extremely theoretical mathematics there are systems developing that are specific. My f(x)=2-b is the same as yours. With love, or specifically relationships, while there is a universal dictionary, the values are not always the same. I may love you “a whole lot” and you may love me “a whole lot” but in rough times your “whole lot” might not be enough for it to be worth it to stay. Mine may be plenty. This becomes a problem because we can’t balance these situations. If you do more of the dishes I can do more of the laundry and effectively balance the time and effort contribution of the relationship, but if I only love you so-so, you can’t balance it out by loving me “a shit-ton”. Our understanding of universal definition and balance-able concepts doesn’t apply to love, and I think this is why it’s considered a mystery.

What this means, I suppose, is that in order for a relationship to last each person defines their half; their 50%. I cannot define or value more then 50%, and I have no choice but to value at least 50%. I can determine what it’s worth, what it’s not worth, what I want and don’t want, but in the end, both 50% must be complete, and acceptable to their respective parties, for the relationship to continue. If I choose not to really know what I expect of the relationship, I’ve not valued my half. And likewise if you have determined exactly what your 50% is, or even have no idea, but deem it not worth it, no amount of compensation on my end will fix that. I can simply try to effect my 50% in the hopes that it will make you revalue yours, but in the end, we are each given the vote, and the answer must be unanimous or it won’t function.

Moral of the story… make sure you know what you want and don’t want. What you expect and don’t expect, what you’re willing to go lax on and what you are going to stick to your guns about. Make sure you know all these things, and then determine if you still want it. In the end, don’t try to make any decisions or value assessments on what you think the other person wants, or what is good for them, because you’re removing their option to choose, and forfeiting your own. Don’t base your decisions on what your parents think or your friends think, or whether it will be hard or easy, simply base it on what you think, what you want, what it’s worth to you. If both people do the same thing, and communicate these thoughts, then there can be no discrepancy or misunderstanding. No one has to be stuck in a relationship unhappy, and neither party will feel pressured, knowing that they get to make their choice entirely on their own.

More Tidbits

Doug C — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:03:48 +0000

Further excerpts:

Well, I sincerely believe there is an uprising of energy going on, hence validity for the first option, but that this first option(higher energy is coming INTO our lives, causing christian increase in “holy spirit” and thus media efforts) might have CAUSED the second(nothing special is occurring, but due to modern uprise of awareness of eastern and non “traditional” beliefs the churches feel threatened and must increase conversion efforts) to occur. The thing about people is we have been severely desensitized (I think that in the past, as in 3000+ years ago, magic and ethereal activity was much more prominent and has been fading since, hence myths about merlin and knights with powerful swords) and this uprising of energy could have been going on for 50 years and we’d not have noticed. The empathy and the powerful pagans might have, but under such scrutiny and pressure from non-pagan sects, why would they bring it up?

I agree, that the churches as separates and as a general mass of political/social entities looking for power are trying to suppress alternate perspectives, because their power comes from the fact that they’ve convinced nearly a billion people that their ideas are right and if you dont follow suit you are doomed beyond the end of your life. They are threatening the quality of existence beyond death, which should be held as morally accountable as threatening someone’s current life, but they’re churches, so its apparently ok. But the thing to remember is the pagan groups have been around for a whole lot longer, they’ve evolved and changed and grown with the times and people that practice, and there is hardly any oppression occurring in their history beyond reciprocated aggression towards those oppressing them in the first place. They were around before Christianity started, before the old testament even, and they will be around after, guaranteed, because no spiritual group that is used as a political tool can survive. People may tell you Wicca is a new tradition, less then 100 years old, and its true, but its because the blood lines of the witches have adapted as they go. Wicca is simply the most recent adaptation, and before that the community of witches was much much more secretive, or accepted as medicinal/herbal/magic members of the community and no mention was made of “evil”.

Agreed. The thing is the media has been making light of the pagan myths and traditions for a long time. Movies like Ginger, Hokus Pokus, The Craft, etc, have all been using these (in my opinion true) ideas and legends for entertainment, and you know what makes me laugh all over the place: they’re SUPER popular. The Craft is a classic “fantasy” movie. Harry potter is loved by everyone(except me), Lord of the Rings is a household classic now. People are, whether they realize it or not, craving a connection to these aspects of our existence that society has drifted away from and labeld wrong/obsolete/myth/etc. It’s on the rise, its just a matter of time. Look at the huge organic food uprising, but what do you think herbalist pagans and naturalists have been doing for a hundred years? None of it is new, people are just realizing that something is missing in their lives.

The movie Constantine is, in my opinion, probably a fairly solid account of the potential reality of our universe, or at least some aspects of it.

The transformers thing(movie referencing ancient religious symbols/beliefs): totally not new, like I said, they’ve been using our(now I’m speaking as a member of the collective traditional pagans) beliefs and sacred rites and symbols for their own entertainment for a long time. But you know, I don’t really mind because I know where I stand and I don’t really care if people think its all just a movie. When the cork finally pops there will be no disputing the reality of what is occurring, regardless of how much they might try to write it off, and I’ll just smile and think “I told you so” and be happy knowing I found it on my own, just like you’re doing. But you’re right, the first phases will be hard, are hard, because people negate it as science fiction fantasy.

Global warming is, as far as my research a while back, actually global climate re-distribution. The poles are getting colder and the equator is getting hotter, which is reducing the gradient, so that the area that is cold enough for ice is smaller but colder and the area that is hot is bigger but not significantly hotter, and that the space between is less of a transition and more abrupt thermaclines. Not sure what the current is on that study, but it makes more sense because my aunt (works in Antarctica every arctic-summer) said the average temp is dropping down there at the actual caps.

And yeah, the earth does this (global climate change/warming) all the time, we’re not causing it, we might just be producing enough green house gas to alter its usual progression, but it’s gonna do it anyways, because a planet’s orbit isn’t perfect, and neither is its rotation speed or tilt. that stuff shifts. It is all far to exact and dependent on itself to not change over time. I wouldn’t mind some aliens though, I mean, it’s pure probability that there are more out there. Read this site, I found it a bit ago and it seams to make sense to me. http://zebu.uoregon.edu/1999/ph123/lec19.html Even if life is super rare and there is only life near 1 of every 1000000 stars, there are still a shit-ton of stars, so there has to be at least a 100,000 other planets in the universe (assuming it isn’t infinitely sized based on the whims of a greater being) with intelligent life. Even if they’re super far away, they could be a hundred times more advanced. I don’t discount the possibility because pure logic states that there’s a decent chance based purely on science. I personally don’t feel an intelligent lifeforms would chose to make a single planet with life. That seams an immense waste of an immense gift/capacity.

See if you can find the book of Enoch, which is a portion of the bible removed by the catholic church because it linked Christianity to pagan systems of belief as well as masonry I believe.

Gardernarian wicca as I have understood its history is the first branch brought to america by mr Gardener whom claimes(It’s disputed) that he was accepted into an old-style witch coven in europe and that he was sharing what they taught him. This bothers me for two reasons: its part of the wiccan tradition not to publish the book of shadows of a coven. People are supposed to be drawn to the craft enough to search out witches and learn directly, not buy a 10$ book at barnes and nobles. it removes the oral tradition, the whole point behind the BoS, and the human aspect, making it another fad/religion/church. He also gained a ton of popularity and money(?) by bringing it out into the open and gets this “father of wicca” title which is bullshit, because he simply brought it into mass media. He also used his status as the high priest of his first coven to take advantage of people, including many women, and I think that is a severe corruption of his position as high-priest to his coven. Regardless, if you read up on gardenarian wicca, it is similiar to the traditional witchcraft that we once knew and that I am striving to realize through some other traditionalists. Gardernarian wicca also started this neo-pagan new-age witch movement, which I already mentioned is a broken toy that doesn’t know it yet.

I define “church” as a group that uses spiritual or personal beliefs to direct, control, and manipulate people into doing things their way with threat/suggestion of doom/failure/loss of eternal life/etc. I define religion as one of these sets of ideals being used by these churches. While traditional shamans and traditional wiccans may be fairly standard, when you find real pagans (non neo-fluffies) you will find that there is no propaganda, cohesion, forced belief, standardizing of ideals. If anything a high priest or priestess will try to help guide and teach his/her coven members but if doing his job correctly he should never direct their own spiritual journey directly.

I agree 100%. The body is simply a material tool/vessel that is granted us so that we can learn and grow in this specific environment before we return to our true selves and take our found knowledge with us. We’ll never know the full point to this until we get back and can use our full capacity to see everything.
On the other hand I might debate that our thoughts are expressions of the partition of our whole self that was sent here to learn. The formulation and processing of ideas and knowledge. Some are good thoughts and some aren’t, we just need to learn what is important. Our thoughts, to me, seem more like our limited self making rationality of the material plane so as to fully take advantage of this opportunity. More or less we’re on the same page: you are seeing it as being a higher-observer of a process that is occurring by a second, lesser entity(correct?), while I am saying that this mental self is a partition of our higher-self, sent here to learn and then return. Regardless, same overall effect, and whatever guides you/myself to learning the most productively is the way we must each use for ourselves.

Churches and the Future

Doug C — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:39:13 +0000

Another email excerpt:

So you know how you’ve been sensing a change in the ethereal presence around you, whether it be that you’re simply noticing it more or its becoming more prominent? Well I agree, it is becoming more prominent, but you’re also becoming more aware.

I preface this with the statement that I have no problems with christian beliefs but that I do have a problem with any church of any sect using cohesion, condemnation, guilt, peer pressure, and/or brainwashing to convert/keep members.

I have noticed that there are a lot, A LOT, of christian talk radio stations now. I mean, there are like 5 in Eugene and 3-4 in Bend now. And they’re all talking about the way to live and why to be christian and how the blasphemers are going to hell and blah blah blah. I wonder if they sense it too, this awakening of the human capacity, and they’re afraid that once people see that it’s about spirituality and personal power/self/relationship that they’ll loose their sway as a dominant political entity in the religion market. You know? This potential revolution, be it DNA activation, magic, evolution, or spirituality finally taking hold, threatens their way of life as a “ruling body” with followers and a populace. If people can be greater then who they are and reach higher levels of awareness and connection with other planes, learn for themselves what it means to be spiritual and know universe, what need would they have for a church to tell them how to think, act, live, and do?

I think the corrupt churches are losing ground and they’re afraid.

PS, I count generally count some established public pagan sects to be one of these “churches”, in line with most christian churches in its use of negative tactics to maintain a populace. It’s not just the christian groups that are susceptible to bad ideas, and person on the planet is capable of being persuaded to do “bad” things.

Thoughtful tid-bits

Doug C — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:35:29 +0000

Here is a selection of thoughts I had in an email convorsation with a friend. For their privacy I ahve chosen not to quote and discussion material from their end, so you just get to rad and think/comment on what I have to say;)

Questions mean stimulation and activity and that means a lack of stagnance. Stagnance is the fuel of failure and destroyer of growth, and of course leads to the dark side;)

Intuition is reguarded by the pagan community is a tool of ones inner self. The inner self is a connective bridge between the physical person we are and the limited capacity of our current state to our complete self which -most pagan groups agree in one form of another- is an ethereal, timeless being. Theoretically we can access this Self, and thus ideologies like buddhism, shaolin, taoist, and native american belief systems form. Point is, use that shit, you we’re given it for a reason, and you can make up whatever reason you’re most comfortable with, but its a good tool.

Not only do we create words for things we don’t understand, but we create entire vocabularies, dialects, rules, and dogmas. And I agree completely. I sincerely believe that most human religions are simply self-fabricated idealologies used to explain something we can’t fully comprehend to develop some sort of self comfort, however misguided some of us get by doing so. And Religion does not equal spirituality.

And you should feel restless. Restless is another inner-self tool, alarm system if you will, to remind you that youre lacking something or have yet to complete a task. I had a huge spell of restlessness back near the last years of my time at a catholic private school, 7th and 8th grade, and by the time I started 9th grade in highschool I had found that the restlessness was religion and spirituality and I derastically stripped and rebuilt my understanding of self. It was a very long, painful process, because I met a lot of opposition along the way.

The thing is, and you can label it god, god/godess, shiva, buddha, the force, gaia, etc, but there is a greater energy/power moving through the universe, and it’s not that it can’t get to us, its that our current state is too weakened to hear the message (and this is not to say we cant become twice as great as we are, but even that elevated human-condition wouldn’t compare to our true selves), so this greater entity (we’ll use “the Gods” just because that’s how my particular brain works) communicates with us however we will recieve it best. But I totally agree with you, you have to want it. Like the cirstians say “You must let Jesus into your heart”.

Imperial science is a system of labels and “laws” defined by man to understand his surroundings. I find it best to use this as a tool of simplification. but to negate it in its entirity as I believe it hinders full understanding of the world. I love studying science because the way humans as a whole think is intriguing, but I don’t look to it as my first source of explanation in any situation.

In referral to the third, that eastern cultures already follow these ideas, I would point out that spiritual groups, such as native american, old shaman, traditional wiccan, etc, are cases of common spirituality with trends and commonalities but in fact each tribe, group, and even individual has his own personal relationship with this ethereal existence. Shamanism, for example, is more of a language for a people to communicate about their spirituality in a way that they will all understand and can grow as a tribe. Every tribe has different specifics, and yes there area lot of commonalities, such as what a wolf in a dream means versus a bear, but each person has his own relationship with each animal spirit, his own pulls towards specific ideas, and his own spiritual essence which he sends forth ahead of him and leaves behind him, that no one can copy. This is what I consider spiritual, whereas a christian church defining the beliefs and telling people to join and conform or die/suffer doom, sending out “what the pope has decided we believe” pamphlets every year, and shunning people that reject complete conformity is simply a man made creation of manipulation. Many “churches” are simply political entities working in a social network based on belief and fear and not actually functioning as a community, despite any over-tones and layers they put over the top.

Ok, skipping on to 2012. I might start by borrowing a quote from Morpheus in the movie the Matrix. In response to the other guy saying “Not everyone believes as you do, Morpheus.” he replied “My beliefs do not require them to”. If something is in the works, have a healthy dose of skepticism, but learn, watch, grow, and be open to accepting the new changes. Being of a stance to “not believe, but also not un-believe” is a very healthy position if it is accompanied by curiosity and a thirst for understanding.

Be wary of new-age spirituality. Shifts in the human-condition are one thing and are potentially good, but there are a lot of neo-pagans/new-age spiritualists that have studied old ways, taken the parts that they like, and ditched the rest. If you had the power to create a plant with your bare hands, and decided to only build the flowers because you liked them best, the plant would be corrupt and broken without its thorns and leaves, because those are functions of its exhistence in a material plane. Many neo-pagan/new-wiccan/etc groups are doing just that: taking the happy parts they like and neglecting the growth and knowledge and understanding that comes with it.

Just weed through the you-tube craziness and let your intuition guide you. You also have other tools: curiosity, skepticism, analysis, logic, creative thought. I also count ethereal connection, energy manipulation, and meditation/shaman walks as my Gods-given tools as well, and I do my best to use them all equally.

Youtube is actually, for this sort of research[2012], a good source of information. Thing is we tend to define “good source” and “bad source” as correct and incorrect information respectivly. But, considering the afore mentioned tools at your disposal, are you not capable of weeding through any information no matter how bizarre and decide for yourself? Don’t think of it as electronic, because electrons are simply aspects of the same energy you said was used to build everything anyways. THink of Youtube as a window into the day-by-day developments of our society. If one day you see 500 new posts on crop circles and the next day there are 1100 new posts on herbalism, you can gather not only information (for yourself to analyze) but you can look at the bigger picture. What does 1100 posts on reptilian monsters represent? A surge in population interest in potential conspiracy? An impending threat? Just weed through this massive tide of information with your critical self and your intuition to guide you and allows you to make fluid decisions when it comes to specific facts. Recognize that you are a constantly evolving entity, and that any form of concrete opinions or decisions will only hinder this. I get tied down by a ton of stuff but I am constantly trying to remove my restraints. If you find reptilians to be a semi-feasible idea, than take it in as your own with the recognition that of proven wrong or alternate, you can change your thoughts. It’s not wishy washy to feel that crop circles are legit one week and bullshit the next, it’s simply taking advantage of your capacity to grow at any given moment, at a whim.

I personally think DNA activation is legitimate. I think this because I know, as a personal point of fact that I have the capacity to evolve. I’ve gone through a few personal ascensions myself, though minor in relation to my true-self. I think a lot of the dormant dna relates to a complete use of mental capacity and the development of a greater connection to the ethereal plane. I connect with it when I can, and I have had many very wise people tell me that I had “ethereal tentacles that I feel out the world around me with constantly” but I can’t always get a full connection to it. I think we have that capacity on this planet, but we have lost the way, or possibly have not been granted it in this cycle of human existence.

Higher dimensional beings, from my experience, observe and guide us all the time, you just have to learn to be aware of the influence. I also feel that there are many lesser-being around us as well. I didn’t get a wolf tattoo on my arm because I thought it was cool, and if no one ever saw it I wouldn’t care. I got it because, to me, it represents a respectful reverence for a spiritual guide which has been at my side as long as I can remember, and likely before I even knew it was there. I made a permanent physical alteration to myself to mark, for me, an enlightenment in a part of me. The next part of my tattoo has the same value, as does my first. It’s a way of reminding/telling myself that I achieved something I can be proud of and that I should never forget it’s effect on my person. The thing is, the Gods express themselves in everything, and can become whatever you want them to be. It’s not out of a desire to please you though, it’s because we as humans currently require labels and definitions to feel safe and content, and the higher entities in the universe are offering a connection to them in whatever way we are most comfortable. Example: for all we know the same higher-entity that comes to my family as God the Father, Jesus Christ, could be the same Gods that come to me as the wolf Spirit, and the same God that the Mormons are communicating with. It’s equally possible that some of us (or all of us?) are completely off, but I sincerely feel that the population is evolving as a whole and that some of us have found connections to the next phase, and that regardless of the negative impact they can have, everyone has some semblance of purpose on this planet, however specific or vague or both.