--- In solomonic@yahoogroups.com, "Colin Low" <valkeerie@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks Aaron .. some very interesting thoughts. As a convinced
monist I see
> things in a broadly similar way - every 'thing' - ideas, visions,
dreams,
> pizzas, thoughts of pizza etc, have the same ontological status.
Everything
> is a first class object. Things differ, not in substance or essential
> nature, but in the kinds of relationships they can enter into - you
can't
> eat the 'thought of a pizza', but you can torment someone with it.
Pizza ...
> Pizza ... anchovy ... mozarella ....etc etc.

You bet! It's what the Buddhists call "phenomena." Every single
thing you ever experience beyond the silence of the womb - from every
rock and tree to every idea or fiction - is a phenomenon within the
universe. A "something that happened here." Angels and spirits are
also phenomena- just as inherently "real" as any other. (The Buddhist
would say "not real" - but I'm framing this in a Western context.)

> The information/meme thing, with selection, is a neat idea.

I think it's the best model- so far- to explain the "biology" of
spiritual creatures. If you can grasp how an Idea lives and survives
over centuries, then you should be able to grasp how a God lives and
survives.

It also wrentches the whole debate from the usual unspoken
implication: "How can you believe that little invisible beasties are
really flying through the sky and rushing to answer your exorcisms?"
Yet, if you look at it from the standpoint of memetics, it suddenly
makes *perfect* sense when folks like Agrippa write "An Angel resides
wherever its Sigil is inscribed." As well as later bits of wisdom
like "By Names and Images are all Powers awakened and re-awakened."

In Ch. 3 of "Secrets...", I outline the Leary-Wilson 8-Circuit model
of consciousness. I pay special attention to the 3rd-
Semantic/Time-Binding- Circuit, where I believe most of the magickal
arts are rooted.

LVX
Aaron