Shamanic Storytelling and Data-Point Fetishism

* * * Shamanic Storytelling and Data-Point Fetishism * * *

By Ezra Sandzer-Bell

“I don’t even know if I believe in astrology, yet it works, and seems to work better for some people than for others.”
-Antero Alli, “Astrologik”

Seven globes of green light hang in the black abyss of an empty mind. The eye sees no connective thread, no electric wire stringing them together. Boundaries of the cauldron are unknown, if there be a container at all, and we know not how one thing connects to another. There is no language for this space.

The hierophant is drawing angles in the air, punctuating the vertices of each shape with gentle thrusts of conjoined finger. At his feet, Tweedledumb and Tweedledee watch with open eyes. What is this language of geometry that captivates the young initiates and empowers our man of Knowledge?

Languages of all variety seem to operate on the same fundamental principle of harmonic inclusivity. It is as if each number, letter, word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, chapter, book, and library exists in its own conceptual bubble, willing themselves separate from the “others”, while secretly longing to be skillfully recombined and cross-referenced by the poets of the World.

Astrology is a language describing the relationship between points of energy in space. When a group of points are perceived to exist in close proximity to one another, Mind sends its elves to work, projecting familiar forms onto the Stars and generating endless mythopoeia.

A well-known emblem of hermetic art, the Flammarion Woodcut, depicts an alchemist crawling on his knees through the curtain of our celestial sphere, to peek at the workings of a hidden universe churning just beyond the Veil.

As we cultivate a new language style and attempt to accurately describe the limits of our dominant worldview, something interesting happens. Noticing the Boundary ignites a Force with a Will of its own. Leaning against the gooey membrane of our brain’s reality labyrinth, the skin of that Tunnel begins to stretch (without much effort on our part, I might add), allowing an Awareness of New Territory to enter the Picture.

Perhaps madness is the unfortunate consequence of pressing too hard, too fast, bursting through the delicate walls of our known world, sucking our constructed identity (see: Separate-Self) through the puncture-wound, into a brand new and expansive realm of No Biases. In this scenario, the identity may completely fall apart, leaving us to warp and twist through hallways of endless, psychedelic Space. We either become okay with our dissolution, or we fight it, scrambling like madmen to grab and re-build from whatever astral fragments might be tumbling by.

* * * The Power of Sound to Activate New Patterns of Thought * * *

“… Ego is nothing to be ashamed of or to be cast aside compulsively or judged as being inferior (compared to what ?).”
-Antero Alli, “Astrologik”

The fragile individual who awakens to Divinity and seeks a map that will “sanitize”, or make sane, the messy situation of Hir psycho-spiritual chaos, may enjoy the unique advantage of 21st century info-accessibility. However, without a living teacher to guide the way, it can be very challenging to assimilate these teachings, especially if the native language is excessively linear. The content of spiritual texts may appear incompatible with the multi-dimensional quality of their Awakening.

Take a look at the architecture of the English alphabet:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The very shape of these letters suggests strict angular intent, tending toward 45, 90, and 180 degree openings with few exceptions. Curvature of letters like C, D, G, J, O, S, U may at first appear to be exceptions to the masculine quality of sharp angular letters like A or X, but upon closer inspection, the beginning and ending positions of these curvy letters still adhere to the principles of Traditional Angles.

Sentences in the English language are almost always constructed in a straight line, moving from left to right, top to bottom. The linear quality of these letters and sentence structure often expresses itself in the plot development of fictional and historical works. Books on a shelf are placed side by side, sometimes alphabetically.

Consider the implications of attempting to describe non-linear modes of perception with a strictly linear map. I am of the opinion that this can be achieved, and has been, by a select number of literary giants. However, there is one language that speaks to non-local awareness more directly than any semantic grid could ever hope to.

Organized noise and Music have the unique advantage of being pre-verbal modes of communication. Compare the sound of a word to the event that it attempts to describe. Whereas words are designed to impose meaning onto units of sound, musical communication allows sounds to comingle and express subtle qualities of gesture for its own sake.

Astrology is like the glue binding music to textual languages. It is no coincidence that the Western system of Astrology distinguishes Twelve Styles (Signs) of the Zodiac and the Western system of Musical Harmony contains Twelve Tones (Notes). The Pythagorean conception of a “Harmony of the Spheres” is one of the most common historical reference points from which Western astrological and musical languages express themselves.

Without dwelling on the mechanistic details of how these two traditions overlap, I do wish to point out one interesting commonality.

When a human is born, the planets of our solar system are said to exist at fixed positions in the sky, resembling a photo-snapshot of all that exists above and below the horizon. The zodiacal backdrop provides mythic context for the unique energetic “force” embodied by each of these planets.

If and when the apprenticing astrologer has come to understand the implications of their “Sun in Pisces” or “Saturn in Capricorn”, they may begin to study what Antero Alli calls the Aspects of Interaction. The degree of relationship between planets is measured, as points along the circumference of the Big Pie.

Different lengths of perimeter between two planets on an astro-chart will indicate different qualities of relationship. For example, two signs resting at a 180 degree angle would suggest a relationship of polar opposition. Alli expands upon this idea, explaining that such oppositions exist as “secret conjunctions”, creating an axis of symmetry upon which consciousness may flow and generate energy.

Whether the twelve notes of Western Music are placed chromatically upon a circle or are arranged in the common “circle of fifths” pattern, a similar harmonic opposition arises. The notes C and F#, for example, exist 180 degrees apart from one another. Music theory calls this relationship a tritone.

It is quite interesting to note that in the days of monophonic chant and early baroque music, the Church hired composers to create “uplifting” music to alter the consciousness of those who attended service. Any composition that featured the tritone interval was immediately rejected by the clergy, because of it’s “adversarial” quality. The latin name for this interval was diabolus en musica, or the Devil in Music.

How telling that a religious organization, profiting immensely from the fabrication and compartmentalization of imaginal polarities (Christ vs. the Devil, Good vs. Evil), would actually ban an interval which geometrically and astrologically communicated the occult, energetic virtue of that oppositional relationship!

Why are there so few modern treatises on the relationship between Western music and Western astrology? True, their are a handful of historians and anthropologists wading through ancient Greek, European, and American documents, publishing their discoveries academically, as lists of artifacts and “fun facts”, but who engages the philosophical implications of these rich traditions?

Perhaps musicologists avoid these questions because of the challenges described earlier, regarding linearity of the English language and its impotence in the face of Divine Mystery. I doubt it. There is plenty to be said regarding the science of musical harmony and its roots in the hermetic arts.

Is language a prison? Is it a chariot, guarding the sacred contents of our Inner Life? Strolling through the Neighborhood, do we hop the Fence to rape the tenants or return Home and plant a Secret Garden? And when our deed is complete, be it good or evil, how will we choose to interpret those countless points of light dangling above us in the evening sky?