Xenofact

Connection, Contemplation, and Useful Bullshit

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Connection, Contemplation, and Useful Bullshit

Remember when your spiritual interests led you to discover correspondence charts? The wild experience of associating flowers and planets and minerals and days of the week to gods or elemental powers?. The appreciation – if not admiration – for the effort that went into them? The sense that “yes, some of this seems weird, but . . .”?

Correspondences are a core part of a lot of occult, religious, and spiritual practices. From the Sephiroth to the Hexagrams of the I Ching to the Planets, it’s everywhere. Even when you don’t think it’s there, it may well be there just disguised a little bit. Humans like their correspondences, and I’m here to advocate that Correspondence Charts are pretty damn useful in our spiritual endeavors.

They can also be fun and not a little bit goofy, but I think there’s value there, so I will joyfully advocate for them.

Firrst, what do I call a “Correspondence Chart?” Pretty much anything that attempts to align some kind of “Power” to manifestations and parallels in our world. For instance my interest is in the I Ching, so the Trigram of Heaven relates to metal and to sun and circles. Planetary correspondences like the Ibis, the Hare, and Hazel being “Mercurian.” You’ve probably seen plenty of them, but I figure some examples can’t hurt.

Me I like to contemplate correspondence regularly. My preferred methods are to do so when walking, relating things I see to the I Ching. Sometimes it’s in quieter contemplation of symbols, meanings, and the changes of the world. It’s an erratic but regular part of my practices.

In time, I found the following values in Correspondence Charts.

First, when you contemplate these things, you may find actual powerful correspondence. You know the one where you suddenly realize there’s something there to, say, realizing just how appropriate it is to associate a certain god with a certain food. There’s that feeling, almost that synchronicity, of understanding something that seems to thrum beneath the skin of the world.

I can’t describe it perfectly but you probably know what I mean.

Secondly, as you contemplate correspondence, you also find associations that may not be “true” but are useful and interesting. Yes you didn’t have some deep sense of connection by, say, realizing what snack foods correspond to what Planets, but it was still interesting. It might not be deep or universal but you learned something and felt some inspiration and you see things differently.

Essentially you got creative and though you didn’t find a universal truth, you found a personal one. You also may have learned some things about yourself.

Third as you contemplate correspondences you’ll have ideas and intuitions that you realize are completely made up and probably total bullshit even if they seemed relevant for a while These bullshit ideas are also extremely useful as well. I consider them part of the value of Correspondence charts.

When you have some deep insight that turns out to be you having one over on yourself, you understand yourself a lot more – you know how you can make stuff up. In turn you also understand how people themselves can make stuff up. It may even give you a better bullshit detector over time. Plus even if it’s bullshit, maybe it’s interesting.

So yes, Correspondence Charts and contemplation of them has value. From deep insights to creative thought to utter bullshit you learn from, they’re valuable in many ways. You might be able to cast an I Ching better or realize you can think some incredibly wrong stuff in the right conditions. Either way you’re actively engaged with connecting to the Universe and yourself.

As a closing example, let me share an experience that was part of what shaped this essay. On one of my walks, I saw a flag, and thought how in my work with the I Ching it was Fire (visual) and Wind (blown by the wind, naturally). Suddenly I recalled how I considered books to be Fire and Wind (which is also Wood in the I Ching). A flag was a Book written on the wind!

Of course after that rush of thought I also realized some flags just hang, so some are written on gravity. In fact what had inspired my whole rush of insight was a flag that was just hanging there. So I guess that was the hexagrams of Fire and Mountain, or maybe Fire and Earth. I felt both very clever and also a bit of a doofus at the same time.

This cleverness and dofus-ness inspired me to write this essay. So something came out of my insights and my bullshit.

–Xenofact

Threads and Validity

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Previously I’d written on ways people tried to claim spiritual authority – Ancient Tradition and/or Initiation – and the flaws of both. I’d mentioned a bit on how I validate spiritual teachings and advice, and wanted to share that next.

And considering I get into things like “did this 3000 year old sword hilt indicate breathing exercises” yeah, this kind of thing interests me. Well, I also like breathing exercises.

So as regular readers know, Taoism is a large part of my spiritual practice. Taoism has a convoluted history going back thousands of years, of which the famous Tao Te Ching is a major milestone, but not the only milestone. Taoism includes breath work, philosophy, psychological exercises, folk religion, I Ching commentaries, a sprawling collection of immortals, mystics, and weirdos, and more. It also includes what I call “Taoist Diss Tracks,” and trust me you have to see what kind of snark people who emphasize “doing by not doing” can get up to in order to appreciate it.

Note that Taoism isn’t particularly restrictive, and my spiritual practice includes many other elements. But I’ll just focus on Taoism for now.

The question is how I make sense from my Taoist readings and learn useful techniques and teachings? I mean there’s a lot so there has to be something there, but also there are also Taoists poetically accusing others of being weird perverts, so you gotta do some sorting.

The best way I’ve found to describe my methods are Threads and Validity.

When studying such a sprawling tradition, I look for Threads that endure throughout the various teachings. Is there something that persists between enough of the works I read and over a note able time period that represents A) a teaching with a history, and B) that is applicable and can be actioned.

Note that I say teaching with a history. This may mean a consistent practice, but also means a practice that you can see discussed, analyzed, and maybe even evolving. It may be argued about, it may be relatively unchanged, but you can look at it and say “yes, I can see what that is and why it is.”

Also, note it should be actionable. You can have some kind of consistent or evolved teaching but if you can’t do anything with it then it’s sort of hard to try out.

A few examples from my interest in Taoism:

  1. Breath exercises seem to go back very far in Taoism, predating the Tao Te Ching. Slow, even breath seemed to be a major part from the start.
  2. Post Tao Te Ching teachings that involve “spiritual alchemy” have some pretty consistent metaphors for mental elements and psychological effects of meditation – or at least the authors I have an interest in (which seem to come from the same school so not surprising).
  3. Political and social advice for Taoists seems pretty consistent, from avoidance of greed to a mistrust of intellectualism. There’s debates over implementing that, but the Tao Te Ching seemed to embody and promote some teachings that stayed relatively consistent for people who you know cared.

But all this aside, this history and ability to action things doesn’t matter if you can’t find some Validity in the spiritual works. You have to put them into action and see what happens.

And that’s where you have to get to work, try it out, and see if it works. Does the breath meditation seem to work for you? Do ethical teachings help you out (which requires a lot of self introspection)? Do you connect with this god or that?

Spiritual practices require you to actually dive in and try out what you’ve found. Which also requires you to ask what do you expect to happen, what are your goals? This is challenging, since the answer may be “to see what happens” – in fact in some meditative techniques that’s kind of half the goal. Sometimes having a goal actually messes things up, like forms of meditation, which makes it more a challenge.

Yes, I include ethical and social practices in this as well. Thinking about your ethical choices, how you act, and what happens really helps you grow. Even if sometimes it’s growing by confronting things about yourself and your society.

But it’s up to me to learn, to apply things, and see what happens. I take responsibility for what I’m doing so I can learn, put things into practice, and be better. My regular readers know there are some things I don’t comment on as I’m not sure I know enough to do so safely and effectively. You gotta dive in to learn.

So that’s how I validated spiritual teachings. I look for histories and consistencies that I can put into action then I give them a try. It also means putting in the work and taking the responsibility.

–Xenofact

Thoughts On Spiritual Validity

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I was discussing assorted spiritual issues with a friend during one of our regular calls.* We specifically discussed attempts by people to claim spiritual authority and out of the discussion two ways came to mind that I wanted to discuss. Now that I see them, I really see them, and thus I share my insights and the opportunity to call me on my bullshit.

The first is what I call the Ancient Tradition method. People claim their spiritual path is valid as it’s an Ancient Tradition. The endurance of said tradition over time is a marker of its validity. In addition, those who follow or say they follow the Ancient Tradition thus claim spiritual authority. It’s “old-is-good” essentially.

Of course there’s a few flaws with this method, the first and foremost of which is, if you’re aware of any systems or organizational theory, it’s that time is not a measure of validity. The ability for something to survive is a measure of its ability to survive. There indeed may be other valid reasons for its survival, and in cultural areas it gets fuzzy, but it’s not an immediate measure of actual truth.

But there’s more. The idea that there are unchanging traditions is on the face of reality, pretty laughable. People change, cultures change, ideas change, spiritual leaders change. What you see of a tradition today is not what it was a thousand years ago, or perhaps even ten years ago. Maybe said Ancient Tradition survives because it did change – which might give it more validity if you admit it.

And, of course, plenty of people claim to be the bearers of said Ancient Tradition that are liars, frauds, or self-deceiving. If you follow any “spiritual history” you’ve read about things made up of whole cloth more or less and treated as ancient. Ancient Tradition isn’t what it used to be in some cases, because it never was anything.

The other form of Spiritual Authority I saw was Initiatory Authority. Someone claims a direct revelation, often through great suffering, that granted them power and authority. In modern times, it took on an almost masochistic flavor.

The amount of people I’d see studying modern cults that claimed some horrific trauma that granted them a kind of religious or spiritual insight was disturbing. There was the usual “survivor of satanic abuse” story which was almost disturbingly pat. But there were also refugees from alien-controlled Secret Space Programs, or those claiming to have been mind-controlled by nefarious forces until they broke free. It was validity through suffering.

I mean you get the occasional people who just had deep revelations, but it felt like in modern times suffering was validation. This is why I honestly think some conspiracy theories and cultic behavior are substitutes and declaration of a need for therapy.

(Plus, note how these Initiatory Authorities often tie into Conspiracy Theories in modern times? That also seems to be getting a bit of Ancient Tradition going there.)

Either way, the idea of some kind of Initiatory experience or revelation giving someone authority was common, but also needed validation. Usually these days you just get charisma instead, or at least rage and sarcasm. But validation? Nope.

As we discussed these ideas, I felt I had a better sense of the modern (and perhaps not-so-modern) spiritual landscape. People were trying to claim authority from Ancient Tradition or some kind of Initiatory experience, perhaps both. In the age of the Internet Influencers these seemed even more amplified.

But what was missing was the thing that matters most – does the spiritual tradition actually help out? What good is it? What is it doing for you, for others, for the world? Are there useful techniques that make you saner, happier, calmer, provide insights and practical experiences? Does it work?

The people in charge, the authorities, the initiated, need to prove what they’ve got works. I wasn’t seeing a lot of proof, but I was seeing a whole lot of trying to claim it. Maybe because if you’ve actually got some spiritual goodness going on you don’t need to get flashy (says the Taoist guy).

This is where I get things like people joining religious traditions for community and support – theologically things may be questionable but the community is real. This is where I get why some Buddhists and Taoist practices have endured as they work – the Four Noble truths are helpful and Golden Flower breathing has results.

In the end, I’m interested in results. Those I can understand I can use. Sometimes they surprise me . . .

But when I see Ancient Tradition and Initiatory Authority pop up? I get suspicious. For good reason.

* If you and a friend are busy, or you’re physically distant, try a regular phone chat, like every two weeks or once a month. It’s very helpful and it’s not being on the computer (he writes, on a computer).

–Xenofact