To all our screaming reader-fans out there who have patiently demanded yet more advenures on the Far Side, we apologize and remind the gentle readers that we have been very busily putting our money where our mouth is by leading the effort to create a massive arts and entertainment complex in Jakarta, unique in the country at this time, to put into practice our constant harping on culture and aesthetics being the key to "taking it back". Only by contemplating the highest of arts and liberating the mind and spirit from the constant attempts by the PTB to keep us in fear and loathing, can we hope to defeat the wave of evil cynicism and control sweeping our great planet at this time.
Thus, your front-line war correspondent diligently reports on the advancement of Good over Evil from the very point where the two clash and mix in a turbulent maelstrom of life and death. For those who would like to see what the front lines look like, we steer you to the Ciputra Artpreneur website, where the various weapons of Enlightenment are prominently displayed, as if on some ephemeral May Day parade. Anyone stopping by and mentioning this column will be treated to a comprehensive behind-the-scenes tour by yours truly.
For those already grumbling and demanding that we come to some kind of point today, let us launch into the topic of "Awakening," since it is tightly related to things such as art and aesthetics.
Around the net, and for several decades now, a lot of folks have been tossing around this term awakening, like so many sacks of philosophical potatoes. Commentators talk about folks waking up, and others hail the coming awakening, as if it is the New Age version of Pentecost.
Awakening, however, is a much more painful and frightening process than most assume. It is not something where one wakes up one day in a blissful state, having been freed from the cares of our sick society.
Awakening is, in fact, the complete and total failure of all the framework upon which we hang something called reality. The first inkling that you are awakening is the realization that reality is not. Loss of this critical lynchpin causes a chain reaction in which all those systems we use to define reality collapse: family, religion, education, history, government, etc. It is a terrifying, for most, process that modern psychology labels as mental disease, and for which a great number of people medicate themselves into a stupor to avoid confronting this process.
Suppose you are working on a scaffolded platform several stories above a field of razor-sharp spikes embedded in concrete, when you realize that the scaffold has begun to collapse far below you and you are unable to stop the process. That sick feeling in the bottom of you gut that blossoms into panic is what is euphamistically called awakening.
My own awakening came while I was in the process of reading The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and a companion collection of essays by Henry Ford (yes, THAT Henry Ford) called, "The International Jew".
For the record, I am not anti-semitic nor anti-jewish. Those who call themselves Zionists, and who have Germanic or Russio surnames are not semitic peoples, nor are they religiously Jewish. They have usurped the titles as a smoke screen for what they are trying to accomplish. Bear in mind that the modern Zionist movement was founded by the Rothschild family and promoted by the Askinasim jews, who are Caucasians (in the strict sense of the word). If you need an example of true anti-semitism, you need look no further than Israel'treatment of Palestine in the news.
That being out of the way, reading those above-mentioned texts were a crushing blow to my scaffold.
Keep in mind that I was raised in a political household by History and English teachers, and my education was solidly based in the Trivium and Quadrivium, with immersion in logic, rhetoric and philosophy, I was already a critical thinker who didn't buy most of the rubbish that passed for "culture". Add to that my vocation in the arts and media, and I was able to see through and even participate in the indoctrination process that oozes from our TeeVee sets. In other words, I was closer to awake than most folks are when the moment comes.
Despite all that, when the scaffold collapses, it is not a pretty sight. The final prop of my scaffold, which was my lifelong indoctrination in the Roman Catholic cult, was the most painful and disconcerting.
It is at the point of collapse that the awakening mind is most vulnerable. It scrambles for some ledge to grab onto in a desperate attempt to remain suspended above the crash point. Like a cartoon character that has just run off the edge of a cliff, the mind flaps wildly trying to defy gravity and imminent doom. The overwhelming fear of having nothing to believe in causes panic as the mind seeks to magically erect a new scaffold at terminal velocity.
If you have not felt this, then you are not yet awake. Sorry. It is an inevitable part of the process. It is the reason that secret societies have levels of mastery, so that the mind is carefully prepared for weightlessness. Most of us, unfortunately, don't have a Master at our side guiding us through the process. I was a lucky one, but only because my educational background had put me on the road to awakening and the right people were already in my circle of friends.
The exponential rise of anti-depressants and anti-psychotic drugs is a symptom of the Great Awakening happening to people ill-equipped to handle the transition. In a society where people are highly discouraged from reading the classics or learning art history or immersing themselves in real self-improvement (Habits of Highly Effective People and 10-Minute Abs do not count), people do not have the tools or foundation to guide them through such a profound experience. Thus, they feel rudderless and depressed with no idea what to do with these novel feelings.
Few people realize that awakening is a very old experience and one for which there is a lot of literature to ease the transition. The problem is that most of the beneficial literature is very old (and considered quaint or forbidden), and it is written in cryptic prose that is hard to interpret until you are in the middle of the transition. For instance, alchemical and hermetic texts will seem dense and undecipherable at first, but once you are in the midst of an awakening, suddenly they will seem to be maps, complete with signposts and landmarks. Until you have experienced something this profound, the vocabulary seems byzantine and overly complex. In other words, what appears to be mystical and esoteric at first glance will suddenly become crystal clear and meaningful once you are in the same landscape.
In our age, there are precious few gurus to walk us through this perilous transition. The nature of the transition is exacerbated by the fact that we no longer trust any of the institutions or systems in our society. A certain paranoia sets in and we become afraid to follow anyone, much less the matrices that have held us captive for generations. We are thus cast loose in a wild sea with no compass or sextant and are expected to navigate to safe harbor without charts or knowledge of the stars. We are truly on our own, and that, for most of us, is a deeply frightening prospect.
The first and most important step in one's awakening is to realize that you are going through it. The second, and equally important step, is to have absolute faith that the tools you need will come to you when you need them. This doesn't mean do nothing. You must read and study the ancient wisdom. You must find like-minded folks and join together in solidarity. But know that the key pieces that you need to rebuild your Universe correctly will come to hand - to that I can attest - and they will most often seem small and insignificant until you plug them into your thirsting mind and spirit: a seemingly offhand remark from someone you trust, a bit of text in a book of wisdom, a sudden shift in perspective in a scene you are looking at.
The first part of awakening is very much like Saul being struck from his horse on the way to Damascus, but the genuinely frightening part is that there rarely seems to be any follow up to guide your now-open mind and spirit. Don't be afraid...or as Douglas Adams so succinctly put it in the Hitchhiker's Guide, "DON'T PANIC!"
At this point, you've taken the first step. Go about your business as usual and be aware of everything around you. The tools will start coming quite rapidly, and once you get used to finding them, you will see them everywhere.
The best analogy I have yet found in pop culture, believe it or not, is the scene in "Interview With A Vampire," when Brad Pitt goes through his conversion, and suddenly everything around him seems alive. That is very much how it feels and what it looks like, and in fact you are entering the realm of eternal life, though it is quite a bit more pleasant than the movie implies.
Avoid imitations. When the real Awakening comes, it will feel, if not look, exactly like the painting at the top of this column. You will be struck hard and your initial reaction will be very near terror. I had a series of shocking visions, to the point that my parents even offered to get an exorcist to help me out. Don't let the fear win, and most importantly, keep your mind and spirit open to receive the tools that will be coming shortly, and for the rest of your life.
And stay focused on the fact that you are now Neo Unplugged. You are emerging from a long sleep and soon your body, mind and spirit will begin surging with new powers and sensations you have never experienced before, nor even considered.
Run with it!