Archive for category Fiction
Logic and Intuition
Posted by antitheology in Fiction on July 7, 2011
There once was a little boy called Logic. Logic loved to stay in his room solving puzzles, doing math problems, and making plans. He was a voracious consumer of facts and trivia, and he would share whatever he had learned recently with whomever would listen.
Logic had a twin sister, whose name was Intuition. Logic and Intuition were as different as night and day. While Logic was holed up in his room, Intuition would be out socializing, making art, and having adventures. Intuition loved people, and jokes, and religion, all things which were too irrational for Logic. But the two twins shared a mutual deep appreciation for beauty.
Intuition regarded her brother as prudish and dull. Logic regarded his sister as completely insane. All the same, they were the closest of companions, because they needed each other; they could not function by themselves. If they were traveling, for instance, Logic would look at the map and plan out the route, while Intuition watched to make sure that Logic did not get hit by a car. So, though they did not always appreciate each other, they were inseparable and completely co-dependent.
Logic and Intuition had two teachers: Truth, and Falsehood. Truth and Falsehood were also twins. Truth was a man, and Falsehood was a woman. Predictably, everything that Truth said was true, and everything that Falsehood said was false.
Each student could understand only some of the things that their teachers had to say. Some of the things the teachers said were incomprehensible to Logic, but Intuition understood them immediately. Conversely, certain things that were grasped by Logic, flew right over Intuition’s head.
Logic would have very little of what Falsehood had to say. He saw that it did not fit together, and that it was not consistent with what he already knew. Plus, whenever he tried to verify something that Falsehood said, he wound up either disproving it or finding it to be unverifiable.
Intuition, on the other hand, believed a great deal of what Falsehood said. Falsehood would spin wild tales that appealed to Intuition’s feelings and imagination, and she would eagerly gobble them up. These tales got combined with Truth’s teachings in her head, so that Truth and Falsehood were inextricably mixed up in everything she said and thought.
Now, Logic and Intuition were Wisdom’s secretaries; they did odd jobs for him, assisting him in his quest for understanding. Wisdom knew that Logic’s knowledge was almost entirely Truth, and that Intuition’s knowledge was a mixture of Truth and Falsehood. Now, Wisdom loved Truth, and hated Falsehood. So it was a source of constant consternation to him that Intuition was so filled with Falsehood’s nonsense.
One day Wisdom thought of a solution to this problem. He tried using Logic alone, while never calling on Intuition. He reasoned that he could get closer to Truth by ignoring Intuition’s nonsense.
Wisdom eventually discovered that this course was no good. Though he had rid himself of Intuition’s falsehoods, he had also rid himself of Intuition’s truths, which as I said before, included many, many truths that Logic did not and never would understand.
The work that Logic did, without Intuition’s artistic touch, was correct but dry and lifeless. It was not of much use to Wisdom. What’s worse, there were many tasks that Logic simply left undone, because he did not know how to approach them. So Wisdom terminated his experiment, and welcomed back little Intuition with open arms.
Love, Wisdom, and Unity
Posted by antitheology in Fiction, Ra on July 6, 2011
I am considering beginning a project to construct a mythological explication of the Ra material. The basic idea is to personify the central philosophical concepts of the Ra material as gods, and write stories illustrating various points about these concepts and their interactions. If this project goes far enough, I am thinking of writing a novel set in the universe of the Ra material, featuring interactions between humans, gods, and entities from other densities, again with the goal of illustrating the philosophical concepts. But that’s all dreaming. Anyway, here is a starting point for this proposed project, defining the characters for three of Ra’s foundational concepts.
Three of the Creator’s most treasured children, for whom the highest praise and worship rings throughout the four corners of creation, are called Love, Wisdom, and Unity.
Love is a young woman with fair skin, a medium build, brown hair, and green eyes. She wears a light, silken dress, and a golden cross on a chain dangles between her breasts. She lives in a cottage in the forest. Love is never alone; she always has companions about her. Sometimes she puts on a disguise and goes to visit people in the cities, hoping to brighten their days.
Love has many, many partners. She wishes that she could give herself to all beings. Whenever two people kiss each other out of true love, she is there, delighting in the experience with them. In every romance, she is the secret third participant. All beings love Love; that is, all beings except for the disciples of Power, who regard her as a sentimental fool. But Love loves even them.
Wisdom is an old man, strong and hardened in body by all that he has endured. He has blue eyes and a shaven head. He is extremely beautiful, in defiance of his age. He wears white robes, and has a yin-yang symbol tattooed on the back of his neck. He lives by himself in a cave, meditating on the mysteries of existence, and contacts the outside world mainly to share his revelations — that is, those that the world is capable of understanding.
Wisdom is the keeper of the Great Record of Creation, in which is contained careful documentation of everything that has ever happened. His ongoing project is to make sense of it all. He seeks to discern the order in apparent chaos, and to devise principles which will improve the creation and its processes. Whenever any being feels lost or confused, and in need of guidance, they consult Wisdom.
Love and Wisdom are married. They are metaphysical opposites, and this is the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of their partnership. It is a strength because, being so different, they find the most unimaginable depths of joy and beauty within each other. It is a weakness because it makes it hard for them to relate to each other. This has led Love and Wisdom to drift apart, so that their precious meetings are infrequent and brief. Love and Wisdom are estranged lovers, lost to each other, seeking to rediscover their missing half.
Wisdom is celibate, and so the two have consummated their marriage only once. From this act Love bore a child, whom they named Unity. The Creator dubbed Unity the greatest expression of his true nature, those of his children who was closest to himself.
Unity is a young child, androgynous, dressed in white robes, and with indigo-colored eyes. He wears a bindi on his forehead. Though on the surface Unity is youthful and filled with joy, if one looks into Unity’s eyes one can see great age, the experience of aeons, and the burdensome memory of unbearable suffering.
Nobody understands Unity. Wisdom has spent innumerable hours studying Unity, attempting to comprehend his nature, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the precocious Unity has blazed past his father, effortlessly solving problems that baffled Wisdom for years.
For her part, Love believes that she understands Unity, but in fact all that she understands of Unity is that of Unity which is her own self. She sees Unity as love, without fathoming Unity’s deeper nature.
Wherever Unity goes, he transforms the creation. Everything he touches becomes like himself. If he touches a rock, that rock becomes alive. If a diseased person touches him, they become well. Once a person who was so cured asked Unity how he had accomplished this feat. Unity responded that he had done nothing; that the person had been well all along.
Nobody can look at Unity for very long, because it seems as if everything were happening simultaneously in him. His facial expression conveys every possible emotion. Nobody can figure out what he is, and this is uncomfortable for most people, so he has few friends. But those friends he does have, treasure him as the greatest gift of the Creator.