The English Lion & the American Eagle
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Thank you Mr Mason for some common sense on this issue. I personally think these symbols are meaningless in modern use, medallions and coins are designed by artists, not occultists. The seven-sided 20p piece had us occult Brits wondering a lot when it was introduced, after all, one five-sided rose overlaying another topped by a crown, so it's Kether, then ten, surrounded by seven, ooh, significant!
Then the artist who designed it was interviewed, and he said:
"I wanted a symbol that hadn't been used for a while, and I liked this one."
The seven-sides on the 20p and 50p were designed so blind people could easily distinguish them from the 1p and old 10p while still being able to roll into coin-slot machines. -
Sethur, 93,
Thanks for the compliment. Though I agree with Red Eagle's criticism of my remark about most people already knowing about that stuff (the material Behahemi posted). I wasn't clear how I was supposed to "heed" it, though.
That the Nazis made extensive and very effective use of symbolism is no secret. They made it plain what they were doing, and they were very good at it. We don't often see Italian Fascist or Spanish Falangist imagery today, but everyone associates the swastika and a particular "Queer Eye for the Aryan Guy" fashion-sense with Nazi Germany.
But uniforms aside, I can't believe any human conspiracy is behind how major events play out. We're not that smart. My day-job puts me in contact with senior business-people, many of whom are brilliant - and not necessarily nice. But they never wholly grasp what's happening around them. Put a dozen such giant egos in a room, and you get a nest of vipers, not a conspiracy. The current financial meltdown is clear proof of that. I know the conspiracy fans see the meltdown as part of an ever bigger plan for world domination, but the way this is playing, the variables are so extreme it could all turn in any direction, and do so more than once or twice. Not even a committee of Illuminati can ride 15 rodeo bulls in the same direction at once.
I have a standard reaction when presented with evidence of great conspiracies. Our view of life is colored by modern attitudes to fiction or TV, which becomes unbelievable when the coincidences pile up. "That couldn't happen in real life," we say. This is untrue, because real life presents amazing coincidences. The real life-changing events in my own life were often triggered by fantastic coincidences. They showed the Universe itself is a conspiracy, which I find reassuring. If it wasn't, the existence we lead (if we had one) would be impossible. Or at least, inconceivable to us in our current state.
As far as I grasp the idea of a Magus - a True Will in unfettered action - it seems to involve rolling with your own waves rather than precisely directing anything. Even Crowley, Prophet of the Aeon, could only announce it - it wasn't his idea, in any way we normally think of people "having ideas."
When we project our self-authority onto some greater power or group, we're essentially demonstrating our lack of contact with our own energy. As the True Will, over time, comes to the fore, the idea that someone or something else "has the power" is seen to be false. All the would-be conspirators are just painting the scenery, not playing the starring roles they - or we - think they are.
93 93/93,
EM
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@Edward Mason said
"When we project our self-authority onto some greater power or group, we're essentially demonstrating our lack of contact with our own energy. As the True Will, over time, comes to the fore, the idea that someone or something else "has the power" is seen to be false. All the would-be conspirators are just painting the scenery, not playing the starring roles they - or we - think they are.
"You need to clarify the above better.
How do you explain AC's numerous references to the White Brotherhood, how they controlled his life etc? Or reconcile the above view with the Oath of the Abyss wherein one vows to regard everything as a personal message from the Universe?
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Scratch that. Your italics have been duly noted.
@Edward Mason said
"But uniforms aside, I can't believe any human conspiracy is behind how major events play out."
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There have traditionally been two theories of history, known in the UK as the Conspiracy Theory and the Cock-Up theory (Cock-up means disastrous mistake).
I believe in the Cocked-Up Conspiracy theory.
I do believe human conspiracies to control us exist, and to a certain extent that is what the CIA etc are there for - to do things to further a particular political belief in secret. But they aren't usually very good at it.
Especially when, as in the 1950s, they are fighting each other. J. Edgar Hoover sent agents to try to decode the "secret commie signals" incorporated into Jackson Pollack's art without realising Pollack was being promoted by the CIA.
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93,
Sure, and there are competing conspiracies all the time. The limitations are not in the nastiness of human intentions, which as we know can be extensive, nor even in the resources deployed. The problem lies in human capacity to comprehend an extensive range of variables, which, in the case of any large-scale endeavor, would have to include Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns" as well as the known unknowns.
I watch all this most in the business area, where you could say any large corporation is a conspiracy aiming to profit at other conspiracies' expense. Sometimes there are alliances of convenience - super-conspiracies if you like - but they are usually limited to narrow areas such as price-fixing, where the unknowns aren't too numerous.
But as you note, the cock-up syndrome surfaces sooner or later, whether you're trying to take over someone else's brutal, corrupt republic without asking the locals first, or make billions pushing dubious loans.
I've often speculated that the human need for experiential education (what we could also call "the initiatory process") trumps the need to succeed in a material sense. That principle still operates on a collective level, such as an executive suite or boardroom, the way it does on a private level.
Ideally, the whole set of off-kilter drives, desires and dysfunctional patterns should offset those of any one individual in that executive group. But usually, the most dominant individual steers things in one direction. So you might end up with a Google or a Wikipedia, which are arguably positive advances. You can also end up with an Enron.
93 93/93,
EM
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Ah Enron! Financial conspiracies are one of my hobbies.
Sub-prime mortgages are a classic example. If you don't earn enough money to get a $500 a month conventional mortgage, why on earth would anyone give you a mortgage for $800 a month? So that they can be bundled up and sold on to financial institutions all over the world, and when you inevitably default and your home is repossessed, the institution that bought the mortgage finds there are no buyers at anywhere near the amount lent - and appearing on their books as an "Asset".
And now, as a result, the United States government owns more American mortgages than any other institution, and along with the nationalisation of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac has resulted in a Republican President moving further towards interventionist Democratic State Socialism than even the British governments of 1945-51 or 1963-70!
Enron was just a new form of outright fraud, sub-prime is going to test laissez-faire capitalism to its utmost limits.
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I have always thought of it as the images being known, the meaning being occult.
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@sethur said
"Ah Enron! Financial conspiracies are one of my hobbies.
"So much of Finance mystifies me... it seems that there's always new gimmicks that no average Joe will ever understand. Accounting and tax laws make things so hard to follow. Definitely tons of panic-mongering amongst the markets and I'm sure some of that is conspiratorial (like certain traders releasing fake tips or fake scares about stocks).
It has interested me that much of the Financial world relies upon perceived, agreed-upon value. If nobody wanted Google stock, tomorrow it would trade for pennies... since commerce is associated with Mercury/Hod, and magick is too, I wonder how many similarities might be present there.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
...back to the point...
the british "lion" is simply the symbol of royalty adopted by one of their monarchic lines. while it may have had a magickal interpretation at one time, saying "the british lion" is like saying "old glory" nowadays.
same with the america eagle - adopted by congress as our national bird. no big whup. one of the big "masons" in the early governent, ben franklin, actually pushed really hard for the turkey as our national bird instead because it was actually good for something besides scavening carrion.
the phrase "the british lion and the american eagle" certainly has a deeper meaning for Some of us, but that's just a very tiny slice of what you get out of life, language and every other thing when you reprogram your mind to operate along a specific set of symbols that relate to each other in a specific way. crowley talks about this at great length in an early chapter in "Magick Without Tears" - his example is (of course) the Qabalah.
thing is, its important not to confuse the planes. your point of view - how you experience the play of Nuit - is not going to be the same as anybody elses, and it's problematic to ascribe specific (for example) "conspiracies" behind your own magickal and cabalistic revelations. that's the kind of thinking that, say, whassisname... ignatious loyola went with when he founded the jesuits - his (and their) conviction that Their Vision Was Truth turned their order into one of the most restrictive and bloodthirsty orders of their time.
when you consider that their time was the spanish inquisition, that gives you a bit more context. it's still illegal to be a jesuit in france.
that's also the knid of thinking that ends some folks up on the street in tin foil hats, shaking their fists at suspension bridges and muttering at the sidewalk.
Love is the law, love under will
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@Escarabaj said
"So much of Finance mystifies me... it seems that there's always new gimmicks that no average Joe will ever understand. Accounting and tax laws make things so hard to follow. "
Enron is easy:
You run a small business that is in trouble. To persuade the bank manager and your employees that there is no trouble you declare a false profit and pay a profit tax on it, when in fact the profit tax is just about all the money you have. The workers keep working, the bank manager keeps the overdraft facility alive.
The tax man comes in. The tax man has no interest in you overpaying tax, only underpaying. He does what every tax inspector does - looks in the "expense" account for assets - things you have bought that continue to have value, like a car. You are not allowed to hide assets in the expense account, it is like saying "we made no profit last year because at the last minute we bought a lot of gold bars". The classic way of underpaying profit tax is to put the cost of the car (an asset you can re-sell) in the account where you put your petrol bills.
The taxman looked at the expense account of Enron and found no cars. What he didn't do was to look at the asset account. If he had done he would have found tens of millions of dollars worth of petrol bills, lietrally (OK Americans, gas bills). Enron had bought gas, sold it to a company it controlled that was registered overseas, sold the petrol, pocketed the money but continued to show the purchase as an asset, as though it hadn't sold the petrol yet. So the tax man thought Enron owned a whole of petrol ready to be sold, when it was already gone. Then Enron paid profit tax and dividends - until iy ran out of cash completely and went bust.
The accountants who arranged for them to do this are still in business.
Not sure about Worldcom.
Most financial panics or crazes are caused by speculation about the share price, not what it represented. People invested in the dot-coms because they expected the share price to rise, and anyone smart could have made a fortune if they got out in time. Peope invested in the Mississippi company, the South Sea company and possibly tulip bulbs (in 17th century Holland) on that basis - I am not buying this share because I want part of a company (and its profits) but because I expect to be able to sell the share for a profit.
In the recent collapses, people have taken advantage of a rule that (in the UK for example) says you can trade shares now and not have to provide or expect the share certificates for three weeks. People sold shares they did not yet own, expecting to be able to buy them when the price crashed. This is entirely legal (or was). Now it is being banned by the "wise" representatives of the people (Bush, Brown) while the PM of Malaysia was universally reviled when he banned short selling a couple of years ago!
Convicting someone of inventing a "price crash" rumour is going to be impossible.