Assorted thoughts + Aspects of our Apocalyptic Age

Assorted Thoughts: 

My evolving view is currently at:

Mount Sinai was a massive event, these things were scrambled to be recorded down with the book of Genesis itself being a preservation of something much older (and with it's connections with other middle eastern legends).
The "Torah" is in two parts, there are those five books but there is also the Talmud (within it the Mishna and Midrash, among others).
Jews did a fairly good job at trying to preserve all this history and revelation, although they were not perfect.

The figure of Jesus is far more complex. The physical historical person who taught the doctrine of the Gospel of the Kingdom, was one thing. His life is another thing.
The New Testament represents a lot of the competing views of him, as well as a much less pristine attempt to preserve him.
The Ebionites were definitely the closest to the actual early Nazarene community.
The Christian 'gospels' (reinvention of the term to mean books) are one thing, Gnostic 'gospels' are another. Like prior, we are dealing with the attempts at preserving oral tradition.

As the final verse of the gospel of John says: "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."

This is itself a hint towards a validation of much of what is contained in 'gnostic' texts, because we are dealing with various groups spread around the middle east at the time who had different bits of this original oral tradition spanning what Jesus taught and his life.

(this is also why the Qur'an seems to reference some things about Jesus found in gnostic texts - such as making clay birds etc)

The main point is that Jesus is not limited to just those four books, just as Muhammad isn't limited to one hadith collection.

Then we have the case of Islam which is a state of finality, to however you interpret that.
Muhammad received and preserved that last revelation (Qur'an) which expounds all things.
From the very earliest period, everyone knew not to conflate the Qur'an with the sayings and life of Muhammad, that the two were connected but not the same (something that never happened with Jesus).
The oral tradition surrounding Muhammad and his life consequently amassed a very voluminous library of records. Unlike with the Christian gospels, these collections known as hadith have no explicit 'canon', there is rather methodologies of verifying authentic accounts from inauthentic accounts because of the wise practice of recording chains of transmission.
So out of Islam we get a much broader and prolific recording of the Prophet.

Unlike the previous two, the revelation itself (Qur'an) was standardized very early on and hasn't changed, it is not conflated with Hadith.


Basically we have three very different paradigms for recording history and revelations received by Prophets.
The Qur'an is expounding, refuting and unveiling light out of a very very complex situation prior. It is finding the diamond in the rough, re-establishing what was all along meant to be a universal revelation.



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Aspects of Our Apocalyptic Age:

I am slowly intuiting a kind of religio-phenomenological-sociological kind of map of how different religious movements/religions, esoteric movements and socio-political things all relate to each other.

History does seem to consist of a lot of really radical occultists who's revelations become split into parts of competing factions who crystallize into an embodiment of the age/era which appeals towards a wider-audience. There is a strange competing between the mainstream and the fringe/elite/initiated.
There is the visible and the shadow, in other words.

Every religious movement also has it's political parallel as there are political systems created, either directly related to it (such as the Catholic Church or the Sunni Caliphates, etc) or indirectly. Every century has it's own zeitgeists and 'currents' (to use Thelemic terminology).

The current period, seems to have this gradual shattering of a very bright and pristine esoteric light. It seems to have started at the revelation of Islam via the Ahlulbat and the Twelve Imams, passing through the Ismailis and the Sufis, then lingering in the dark for many centuries before becoming the highly occult doctrines and mysticism and magic of The Bab, who formed Babism/Bayani.
This was too arcane for the masses and would never become a world-religion.
There are other parallels with this zeitgeist, ones that would not be as influential however - things like the philosophical/political "enlightenment" era, Mormonism, Jehovahs Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Spiritualism, Blavatsky/Theosophy, Eliphas Levi.
Most notably though preceding The Bab and the rest by about two centuries was the very infamous/controversial Heretical Jewish Messiah, Sabbatai Zevi who also cast a shadow.
All the things that culminate with The Bab cause a splinter in his own movement giving rise to the Prophet Baha'u'llah who creates the only sect of Islam that successfully branched away from Islam and became it's own separate religion - that being Baha'i.
Baha'u'llah was succeeded by his own equivalent of the Apostle Paul, being Abdul'baha and Shoghi Effendi, who both promoted/propagated/evangelized the Baha'i message and created socio-political ties around the world with related organizations and movements with similar ideals.
One in question is the evolution of Theosophy, the controversial author Alice Bailey who had her own aspirations towards world-unity.

Then we have a lot of events in the 20th century and organizations form, and political alliances such as the United Nations (who themselves have their fair share of conspiracy theories).


History itself does seem to be a constant commentary on the past, as well as the splintering and projection of shadows onto a wall. Ideas are evolved in such a manner that give rise to new forms out of old bodies of ideas.

Islam is the finality of the Abrahamic Tradition (no Prophets after Muhammad), Baha'i is the distillation of the Quranic message and a proper universalization of it's message. It is an expansion of the central Muhammadun focal point.
We have surrounded by it growing socio-political and philosophical interest in a unification of systems towards a point.
Thelema has it's aspects though it remains always fringe (no matter how much Crowley and Parsons are referenced in pop-culture), Blavatsky and Alice Bailey have their aspects too and remain hefty influence on a lot of political structures (U.N. being the most notable, E.U. being semi related).


We have further occult strands dating very far back as well, such as that of John Dee who gave rise to the English Empire, with his connections to Plato's Atlantis which from Francis Bacon was a further influence on the concept of America or the United States (of America), which is a prototype for the further expansion of the United Nations.
There is a lot of back and forth ideas played with here.

Then furthermore there is the conceptions (wrongly misinterpreted, misunderstood and demonized by the conspiracy crowd) of Freemasonry, which takes the concept of the Hermetic "Great Work" to a massive scale. Being that a man lives for 70 years (generally) and is only capable of so much through his labor in that amount of time, so an organization stretching over centuries is capable of far more with the transformation of human consciousness than a single person - therefore creating an egregoric entity that can produce so much more profound change to humanity over the span of millennia.
Freemasonry itself containing a lot of the same kinds of traits and having it's own esoteric teachings (to do with death and the soul), but most notable concepts being the equality of humanity, the One God and bridging the differences between cultures etc.


Basically though, we are living in a massive construct that has both it's divinely revelatory aspects, as well as it's secular aspects. In many ways, as others before us have already noted, there is a clear sense that all fields of human endeavor will eventually become one. It is an inevitability.
Things that couldn't happen in Islam (although the 9th-13th century were certainly flowing with scientific inspiration) were then leeched into things like Masonry which further leeched into Baha'i, Theosophy, Thelema and even the New Age movement.
These things are all nodes that are connecting towards something else.

Furthermore so much things in popular media seem to be indicating towards something of this nature (albeit conveyed fictionally). These is something going on and I don't think it's to be feared.

Also I will add that it is fascinating how all the major world religions are awaiting some kind of messianic figure yet we've already had the biggest known change in human civilization in the late 19th century, of which we're living through the results of such radical changes right now in the internet-age of the 21st century.

The chaos of the modern age however certainly hasn't dissipated and in fact continues to increase in intensity and hostility. On one side of things, the Thelemic Aeon Of Horus is more than obvious in it's manifestation. Humanity is in a 'new age' and is more childlike than ever in history, we are like the child Horus (the crowned and concurring....)
It is chaos and destruction, the war between Horus and Set?
Thelema is definitely one useful lens to view things.


Interestingly, in Baha'u'llah's text the "Kitab i-Aqdas" (one of the central texts of the Baha'i religion), it says that God will not send another Prophet in the next 1000 years.
In 1904 however we have Crowley receiving Liber AL Vel Legis from Aiwass, not God but an entity or angel nonetheless. Seems like Crowley is a shadow of the Baha'i "revelation" at least in the religious aspect of Thelema.
Both like Theosophy of course both espouse a kind of union between Science and Religion, and also Philosophy. (for Thelema it includes Magic of course)


I see patterns everywhere personally.


We have Crowley and the Golden Dawn before him leaking all of this ancient Occult knowledge to the public, we have before that the Baha'i religion externalizing Islamic (Shi'ite) Esotericism.
We have Theosophy bringing eastern religions into the limelight in a much more complex manner than the Baha'i's as well.

Then we've got movements in the mid 20th century such as Chaos Magic and our beloved Discordianism, both playing around with the nature of symbol, mind, perception, propaganda, philosophy and praxis.

Some various thoughts (from a notepad):

I still find it absolutely hilarious that YHWH itself is Fire in the Tanakh (Old Testament). Christians completely overlook this, even though Paul goes ahead and quotes Leviticus/Deuteronomy's statements about it.
God-as-fire, is in fact something that does attract me a lot and of course, Zoroastrianism means a great deal to me as well.
In Islam, it didn't take outside influence to notice what it said about Jannah and Jahannam. When you take the text as it is and meditate on it, as well as contemplate what Prophet Muhammad and the Twelve (or, eleven recorded so far) Imams have said about it, it's impossible for me to take dogma over what the tradition itself proclaims symbolically and metaphysically.
Everything has a dual nature, the outward form is necessary. The dogma attached to the more conventional Western "Heaven and Hell" is necessary for social and moral structure.
However outside that dogma it's not hard to see how glaringly obvious that these are alchemical metaphors, metaphysical realities on another and warnings/anticipations on the other.
They serve many roles.
Fire is God's role as purifier, destroyer and renewer. "Gardens beneath which rivers flow" is another symbol of purification but also peace and tranquility.
All of these are God.
Concepts such as burnt offerings in the Tanakh have a greater purpose and Orthodox Jews know this very well.
At the same time, these are also formulas for us to use ourselves. It's no wonder that Taoism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity have all at various points been big proponents at alchemy and it's practice.
In many ways (in relation to this particular subject), Surah 56 may be the most important Surah in the entire Qur'an. At the same time it outlines what later in the west became known as Phenomenology (of which I adhere to somewhat).
What I see everywhere in different scriptures and sacred texts is that often different "realities" are overlapping at once. I don't mean realities as in realms or dimensions but rather parallel aspects of a congruent whole of which illustrate a central idea under many guises.
The reality of Duality is perhaps the most well-known example. Male/female, existence/nonexistence, sun/moon, dark/light, night/day, etc.
The point is that there are things that universally manifest themselves on so many levels through nature and unseen realms.
This relates to the Apocalypse for instance, in one sense, how it has a psychological level, it has a political level, it has a cosmic aspect (literal planet destruction or universe implosion etc) and it has a Dramaturgical level (relating to the soul itself experiencing the merging with the divine through the expression of universal symbols). Etc etc etc.

There is a lot there but essentially what I'm saying is that these things have a long shelf-life and are not merely psychological (materialistically) or mythological. I think psychology in the 20th century took a massive nosedive when it failed to recognize that psychological and cognitive states are themselves just metaphors and expressions of metaphysical realities.
The problem relates further with science too but really when it comes to things of that nature too (such as psychology, science/cosmology, etc) we should be perceiving them as not things of themselves which define other things but rather lower emanations of greater ideas. It's a shame that materialist science just inverted the tree of life, in a way.
It's fun and all to entertain a purely dogmatic materialist view, inasmuch as it is fun to entertain a purely dogmatic evangelical view but both are as shortsighted as each other

I understand the contention within Science to sever ties to religiousity but science itself is an expression of philosophy, and philosophy itself is heavily spiritual (even materialist philosophy is spiritual, only that it deals with a soul trapped from it's divine nature trying to work out why things are the way they are, being eternally trapped in a tiny paradigm that will only get smaller as science closes-off itself).
Science just becomes ideology when it throws out metaphysics but as we all know, physics itself is doomed and trapped without having metaphysics to make sense of it. etc etc etc.


How did I get to that again? lol.


So yeah, eSoteric religion is the way to go because it is authentic religion that understands what it is saying and is not closed off to rationality. The practice of mysticism however makes a good balance if one was to go down a wholly rational approach.
Rationality and mysticism both have their limits, which is why they need to balance each other.
We certainly have the ability to experience a whole large array of potential divine experiences in this life but it does ultimately come down to how salvation itself is the path out. Gnosis and the path of Law (Dharma/Tao/Sharia etc) is the two things which bring us towards the eventual unification with the Absolute. That is perhaps why both Buddhism and Islam in particular promote a middle/straight way/path, which is in the middle of both potential extremes.

In Islam, God is so personal that it is completely impersonal in every sense (and with it's antagonism towards anthropomorphism). This impersonality is so impersonal that it is total freedom in every single aspect when realized for how profound it really is.
In Christianity, God is stuck to form and appearance. The God is Christianity is too personal that it becomes an emotional belief. There are of course outliers but the problems that arise from this are the reason for Nietzsche’s statement “God is dead”.
The notion of “Everything that can be said has already been said” just resurfaced in my mind. One Biblical allusion that reminds me of this is “There is nothing new under the sun” (from Ecclesiastes).
Whilst it can seen fatalistic and Nihilistic, there is further meaning there.
Especially when we consider cyclical time and the notion of metaphysical archetypes it becomes hard to not see that history mirrors itself, everything reflects multiple other things. This is as much mystical as it is a physical phenomena.
In some way the Buddhist doctrine of Pratītyasamutpāda can be felt here too by virtue of nothing in physical existence having an identity due to itself, all things relate to what came before, what came after and what it itself exists within. One immediate metaphor that comes to mind is a web or spiderweb (intriguingly enough the Hindus thought about this in the Mandaka Upanishad).
Another thing this brings to mind is from the following ayat: “and Allah controls all things“

The Qur'an and Initiation (part 1)

I think part of the reason some things are not mentioned by God in the Qur’an is not because they aren’t true but they were originally (before the main Hadith collections) reserved for a certain elite who would be capable of directly contextually understanding them first hand from within the realm of the Prophet (saw), the Ahlulbayt and the Sahaba.


This does seem to largely be the case between Prophet Muhammad (saw) and the twelve Imams, who bare the most intimate of initiatory lineages.One of the reasons for keeping certain things secret is the inevitable obsession and destructive tendencies within the mind of man(kind) when given to the wrong people. Another reason is that some things are too “out-there” for certain types of people to contemplate (one example easily accessible to Christians is how Pharisees prepared to stone him after proclaiming the deeply eStoteric statement “I and the father are one”), and another reason is that people have the habit of developing false hopes through false (and often fanatical) interpretations.


Things such as knowledge of the Mahdi (Qa’im), Barzakh, et al are clearly esoteric or occult, and deal with concepts that are not relatable to the layman.The Qur’an gives allusions constantly to many things but at the same time God revealed the Qur’an for all of mankind. Because of this, the role of something like Sunnism becomes obvious as it caters to the average layman audience, regardless of cultural background. It’s understandings are sweet, simple and uncontroversial to itself. It’s aims have zero to do with spirituality (Ihsan) and the esoteric (batin), with exception of Sunni Sufis, and all instead to do with the overimportance of morals, discipline and ethical customs.


The role of Shi’ism prior to the modern era stands in stark contrast, having been one of central esoteric (batin) initiation, one that looks very deeply at the philosophical and esoteric truths that Sunnism only lightly touches the surface of – as to say, that Shi’ism has a much more sophisticated metaphysical understanding of the same universally-Islamic ontology (all grounded in Tawhid, which is the Unity of God).I think the Sunni/Shi’i divide (as it is commonly framed as) is more than just politics or even spiritual succession, it is the relating in an obscure way to who deserves what knowledge. Sunnism serves as a gatekeeping for the masses, a way of ensuring the layman stays focused at the most basic aspects of faith (Iman). This likewise also relates to a Sunni’s (sometimes detrimental) understanding of their own doctrines – as a result it creates a politicising reaction to Shi’ite doctrine because they lack the knowledge (‘ilm) and wisdom (hikmah) to process and evaluate that which they have no knowledge – as to say, the process of understanding a word, idea, symbol and scripture is left in it’s surface aspect for need of cohesion and social stability.


Such states of mind can be seen, for instance, between the average Protestant Christian and the monastic monks of Catholic Orders. The comparison is radical but it does a good idea at demonstrating what the divide really entails, in it’s purer form. In one hand the monk says “I only want to be with God and experience God’s presence” and on the other hand the Protestant sees any attempt at connecting with God as evil and “Unbiblical” since ‘belief alone’ in the Protestants mind is the be-all-end-all of their religion.God keeps things ambiguous often in the Qur’an because many passages, many Surah too, are referring to multiple things at the same time. It has a doctrinal axis pole (qutb) that is firm, but it’s surrounding contents are rather like a prism wherein light shines through from different angles and gives different colours, such angels are embodied in the unfoldment of the Shi’ite Imams and their relation to the Qur’an. Such initiatic figures as the Imams represent the continued divine guidance from God to mankind, not in the form of Nabi or Rasool but rather the Wali (Walaya).

The Qur'an: Created or Uncreated?

Regarding if the Holy Qur’an is ‘uncreated’ or not (which I’ve not really understood either view), I’ve recently had contemplations on the subject and how it relates to freewill/determinism. 
In this post I will be exploring it from a philosophical and theological perspective, and not from fiqh.
Whilst the Qur’an does have some very mystical-apocalyptic passages throughout, it places emphasis on these as inevitable culminations of macro-history but through the inner dramaturgical experience of the Soul itself uniting with it’s Creator.

When dealing with scripture, the Qur’an does say numerous times “and we have not destroyed a town who had not first been sent a messenger” (paraphrasing)
In contemplating determinism/freewill, we must consider that scripture serves as a warning in the most direct and immediate sense. In conjunction with this, scripture is also the forcing of realization or awareness onto people who are oblivious to such things. The Qur’an is revealed to both the most intelligent and spiritual of people, as well as the most unsophisticated and secular-minded, so we must take this into account when dealing with how the Qur’an conveys such things. As a logoic book of direct revelation it serves as a meeting point, as a mediator, between various views, philosophies and conceptions but remains heavily on the esoteric side.
From here we can look at the paradox:

If the Qur’an was ‘uncreated’, then either it would not reference ‘earthly’ events at all (which of course is paradoxical because human language is from earth), or it would indicate that human events are equally part of the same book – in that I can see an aspect of the notions of ‘book of nature’ or ‘nature as scripture’ which both Muslim and Jewish philosophers have spoken of.

On the other hand, if the Qur’an was ‘created’ then on the exoteric level it would indicate a finite or lower divine status. The question as to what exact forms this perspective however, I remain unsure for now.

I think a further aspect to this which is always overlooked, is that in Islamic metaphysics, the Qur’an is the last portion of the Umm al-Kitab (or, the mother book), a celestial or heavenly logoic essence which resides in heaven symbolically. This is the basis of the Tawrat and Injeel in their original states. This aspect of the Quran’s ontological status is always missed when discussing the topic, the relevance is a necessity. 
We also have the further implication of all things been kept in a ‘record’, as stated in various Quranic Ayah (e.g, Surah 57:22).

Now the Qur’an being ‘uncreated’ along with actual theological contemplation would suggest a monistic view of reality (an obvious layer being related to the central Islamic axiom of La ilaha illa'llah, or "There is No God But God".)
The contents of the Qur’an in such a view would emphasize how reality parallels itself, how the Qur’an itself outlines the universal archetypes for the unfolding events of history. Such understandings, while prevalent in the Qur'an and understandings of even Sunnism, is far more expressed in Shi'i views with Imamate.
This also relates to an aspect of the inner or esoteric mystery contained within the veil (al-hijab) or reality, of which could be achieved through meditation on it’s pages would show us in the ‘aql sense.

The Qur’an being ‘created’ would suggest an undetermined history that is nudged by the Divine. It’s references to events in the Prophet Muhammad’s (a.s.) life could be seen as an indication and evidence of the created aspect, however the aforementioned apocalyptic passages throughout seem to create a paradox within such a question. 
As with the other prophets outlined in the Qur’an (and also in the Bible), the life and actions of these divinely chosen leaders and reformers seem to instigate a metahistorical universality in the aforementioned actuality of history being a mirror to itself.
Shi'ism and Sufism contains the doctrine of the Muhammadun Light (Nur), which would be one good concept we would naturally expect from the Qur'anic narrative. The seal of the Prophets, Muhammad, is the encapsulation of all Prophets - the synthesis of all previous ages. The light (Nur) that emanates through him, preceded the creation of Adam.
The nature of the Qur'an itself can therefore be seen as an illuminating amplification and on some level, self-awareness, through this ongoing process that is outside of time itself.
This awareness through various layers, both affirms the Primordial Doctrine (Tawhid) and instantiates change, while providing a kind of potentiality for the history that is to unfold for us. The Prophetic aspect of all of this boarders between real historical events and allegory, even to the point of allegorizing our own existence.

As far as the nature and universality of the Qur'an itself, Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (a.s.) himself is reported to have said:
"Because Allah (swt) did not make the Qur'an for a certain time and not another, or for certain people and not others. It is new every time and fresh for all people until the day of judgement"
(Scale of Wisdom, ch.1510, H5163)


Fundamentally the ambiguity between paradox itself (man/woman, chicken/egg, free-will/determinism etc) is an over-arching theme that should be noted and I find that breaking down the exoteric in the abrahamic religions leads to the esoteric by necessity, by it’s nature.

The Begining

The Beginning of A World Without Notice:

An introduction

I am inspired by Shi'i Islam, and Mahayana/Vajrayana Buddhism. My ventures and positions on many things are vast. This blog will be exploring many of those things, whether it be religion/spirituality/occultism, philosophy, politics or art. 

This introduction will be brief. We live in a turbulent world, in a society that is fragmented and fundamentally confused. We live in a world run through the vessel of division and we are egos inflated only to be siphoned.

The life-span of an average person is very short, every breath is sacred. Planet earth is sacred and we need to give her the reverence she deserves.

My influences go from Pythagorus and Plato, to the Upanishadic sages, to Buddha, to Jesus (pbuh), to Muhammad (pbuh) and the Twelve Imams (pbut), to Padmasambhava, to the great alchemists such as Paracelsus, to infamous spiritual leaders like Aleister Crowley, to philosophers like Artaud, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Deleuze, and to mystics such as Rene Daumal. 

My artistic influences are equally as left-field and diverse, ranging from Ockeghem to Bach to Xenakis, from Nick Drake to John Zorn, from Enya to Meshuggah. A fan of the films of artists such as David Lynch, to the early surrealists, to even more obscure filmmakers such as Sergei Parajanov.
I follow the path of inspiration and it has taken me far. Art expresses that which is hard to express in any other way, the aspect of life which remains totally allusive to the rational mind.

Today, the 31st or January 2020 I begin this blog as my way of diving into this heated and chaotic decade. 

As salaam alaikum, 

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.