G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 111

A Dream

I dreamed a dream

that everything was me

There was no you

because you were me

I was a circulating void of energy

Carrying a stream of visuals

Everything was one

And that one was me

I felt sadness and joy

Sad that you don’t know

That you are really me

that the you-me fights me

Mistreats and abuses me

But joy that me is eternal

And will not end

I am a stream of energy

I am a sound

I am All there is

I am a crowd

I am me and me is you

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring….

You have to hand it to life sometimes for piling it on. Sometimes it seems as if fate decides you have had too easy a time of it recently so it will now go ahead and shower you with shit. I’m sure everyone reading this can instantly relate to what I am saying as it appears to be a common feature of human life. One minute, you are sailing along thinking things really aren’t that bad and then…pow! Everything happens and all at once.

I have often heard people tell me in this context that ‘God only gives you as much as you can bear”. That may be true but it doesn’t make it any easier!

In fact, I happen to believe that we do this to ourselves. We are experiencing life and it’s the ultimate in mystical and magical journeys. We are in charge – or we should be. The problem probably is that we don’t consciously drive ourselves much of the time. It’s one of my themes I guess, and I visit this topic quite often, that it us we who do this to ourselves. Perhaps ‘God’ doesn’t overburden us because, to some extent, the God here is, in fact, Us.

I have also had conversations with other practioners along the lines of ‘why are we always so tested? I know many in the area of magic and mysticism that really do seem to have extremely full and challenging lives; where the idea of a God burdening them with stuff as some form of punishment is an easy concept to take onboard. But actually I have come to believe and understand that it is us that burden ourselves, test ourselves, and seek experience at a faster pace. We invite adversity into our lives in order to endure and experience. It is the way I suppose and understanding this, I guess I should quit moaning.

After all, by comparison to many, I have little to moan about and so much to be happy and joyful about.

That Little Face

That little face

Impish, childish grace

That growing sense of self

The words you use

The toys you chose

To play with

Your little hand in mine

Those sweet kisses at bedtime

The smell of your hair

How you ask for me at night

And how you hug me tight

How you steal my iPad

You playing with your dog

Sleeping like a log

This is true love

This is ‘give my life’ for you

Can’t be without you

love

Prague Spring?

Occasionally, a pattern sets up in life and you wonder what could be the meaning. Recently, say since November last year, if my daughter isn’t sick then I am. Colds, flu, pneumonia etc. You name it, it’s been a visitor here. Unfortunately, this causes all kinds of problems. Hoe do you keep an executive level job where your signature commits the company when you are mostly at home?

When our daughter is sick, it means one of us must stay at home and be ‘mum’. I love doing it actually. I really feel much closer to my daughter these days but how much holiday time can I take before I am in trouble. For Gabriela, the issue is in some ways worse, she is rather new at her job and has a week less vacation than me. You see, we have no family here in Prague and our search for baby sitters has been fruitless. The woman who claimed she could do two days a week has been unavailable ever since! So, after two weeks with granny, one week with auntie miles away, we are stuck.

I’m beginning to think that someone is trying to tell me something…….but what? Maybe the job simply doesn’t agree with me?

Anyway, there are other benefits. Like I said, spending time with Deni is a pleasure and helps form a deeper relationship. I also get to think, meditate and read a bit more than normal which is all good.

Today, for the first time in ages the sun is shining and the sky is blue. Out of the back window I see spring flowers. a change is in the air. Hopefully, as the seasons change, our battle with minor ailments will also change? I already feel something. Hope? Anticipation?

Spring is coming to Prague.

Reality Quotes

To support some of the concepts explored in The Last Observer, I have been posting and will continue to post, quotes from people on the nature of reality and magic. It’s actually quite amazing when you start looking for these quotes, how much agreement there seems to be between widely diverse people on the topic of reality……….

Let’s explore a few;

[I can't accept quantum mechanics because] “I like to think the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.”

Albert Einstein

We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

J. K. ROWLING, speech to Harvard Alumni Association, 2008

“Every man lives in a world of his own creation, built in accordance with his own imagined mental pattern. Change the pattern and you change the world,”

Paul Foster Case

In other words, the visual world that we perceive, the phenomenal world of experience, is actually internally generated by the brain. Well, by the brain is the wrong term. Even by saying it’s the brain suggests that consciousness is an active phenomena of the brain. Consciousness exists in a field and what the brain does is it eschews into that field.

Anthony Peake

“The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment.”

Bernard d’Espagnat

“In the beginning there were only probabilities. The universe could only come into existence if someone observed it. It does not matter that the observers turned up several billion years later. The universe exists because we are aware of it.”

Martin Rees

“All is one and reality is consciousness experiencing itself”

Edward – in The Last Observer

Interesting eh????

Science and magic converge… and, to some extent, that is what The Last Observer is all about.

My old Socks

Multicolored footwear beset with many holes. But no one else can see the terrible state of my treasured old socks. You see these socks were bought by a very special friend and they hold so many memories within their crushed and worn fabric. When they were new they were the talk of all my friends. Who would dare to wear such socks they said rather shocked. But now my faded foot threads are replete with holes and extruded toes and destined for the trash. Such a shame my treasured old socks will never walk again.

Is it me?

Is it me or is the world actually falling apart?

And, if it is, what does that say about me? Since I create my own reality, it must surely reflect something going on in how I observe and process the world.

It doesn’t much matter whether it’s the mess with horsemeat, the story I read about the four young people that lured and murdered, by strangulation, two young guys so they could have sex on top of some dead bodies (I kid you not!), or just the general global political mess around us. Something seems wrong. The systems have failed. Kids are unemployed and mostly couldn’t care less, often expecting everything handed to them on a plate. In the US, people vote for their free phone, free healthcare, free housing, free meals (not just the US but everywhere it would seem) apparently not caring who has to pay for all the free stuff so long as it isn’t them. I read a story just a few days ago about a radical Islamist in the UK who aims to jihad by having all radical Muslims simply claim benefits there to break the system! Apparently, the UK government pays him 25,000GBP a year in benefits.

I mean I could go on but why should I? Everyone knows the world seems to be a more evil, corrupt, and stupid place than it did thirty years ago.

I mean, I am sick of reading criticisms of the Catholic Church, by example. The Catholic Church is what it is. It defines itself through its dogma. So why do people criticize it and expect it to change? If it changes its views on sex, abortion, and other such issues, it is no longer true to itself and its beliefs. It would no longer be the Catholic Church! Instead of criticizing it and trying to change it simply forget it – it’s increasingly less relevant anyway. There seems to be so much energy dedicated to nonsense these days. Religions are a prime example. It would be funny except people get so worked up and manipulated by these religions, they actually go out and kill people.

Then we have global warming. Please don’t get me started on this one. The biggest con ever conducted on man, promoted by mega rich folks, and discussed by people flying around in private jets! Don’t tell me the science is proven because it’s all about the politics not science. The world’s climate changes – all the time. It did before we arrived and it will after we have gone. It’s that simple. If you live on a 1 foot high island please don’t try to get me to pay you damages for something that happens naturally – just move somewhere higher (see – people wanting free stuff again).

Everywhere, people want something for nothing or for no effort. They have expectations that simply cannot be sustained. There is no humor anymore either is there? If it’s not racist, then it’s sexist or ageist, or some other bloody-ist. We are not allowed to laugh or poke fun at anything.

To me, it also seems like everyone has become more fixated on survival. Almost every week, there is a new end of the world theory or story. Those that propagate this nonsense make money while those that believe it … why do they believe it? Just how gullible are these people? Do they actually want to believe these things? Having lived among right wing Christian nut jobs in Texas the answer I am afraid to say is yes – some of them do. They are the ones that think they will be plucked from the face of the Earth and sent directly to heaven while the rest of us evil bastards are punished and annihilated. I have two things to say about this; first, if people like that are in heaven, I don’t want to be there and second, anyone arrogant enough to actually believe they will be ‘raptured’ is condemned to hell anyway.

I am constantly amazed by people I really am. Just yesterday, in the course of five or ten minutes, I witnessed someone passing illegally on the inside causing people to swerve and almost causing mayhem. They couldn’t care less – rules are for the rest of us plonkers. Next, I saw someone almost mowed down on a pedestrian crossing – same issue. Rules are not for people in a hurry – just for the rest of us. Finally, I saw two homeless people. The male beating the crap out of the female, kicking, thumping and beating her. No one did anything at all but looked the other way and walked on by.

So it’s a bit of a negative post isn’t it? Is it my fault that I created this reality? I don’t know – I sure hope not. Other’s co-create with me too so maybe it’s our fault? We plainly must all try harder to create a better world.

Looking for Likes

Its a strange world. Here I am looking for likes on Facebook. It’s all about social networking and marketing you see. I’d like to get 500 likes before my new novel is published in around 3 months time. Trouble is, without the book, a cover, or anything other than a description, its tough to attract people to like the page. As time goes on, I can start to unveil some details, a cover, an endorsement, the first paragraph etc. but for now all I can do is ask people to like it on faith….

You can help me out and like the Last Observer page here. Many thanks….

And, if you feel really generous, here is the FB page for my last book – The Mystical Hexagram – written with SC Vincent….

And, just to be totally complete – for this blog!!!

Let me know if I can return the compliment……..

Magic and Science

A common theme of mine on this blog is the nature of reality and how Gnostics and occultists knew this long before modern scientists created their glorified Theories of everything. In fact, those very same scientists are only hinting at what is already known and has been through milenia. In fact, it takes others like Anthony Peake, for example, to take that science and analyze it in a holistic manner to start to draw some startling hypotheses. The fact that anthony has found some modicum of support for his work among mystics and magicians should be no surprise for he is simply rediscovering things that, for a few, where already well known.

Take a read of Eliphas Levi for example.

“There exists a force in nature which is far more powerful than steam, by means of which a single man who can master it and knows how to direct it, might throw the world into confusion and transform its face. It is diffused throughout infinity: it is the substance of heaven and earth, for it is either fixed or volatile according to the degrees of its polarization. The agent is precisely what the medieval adepts called the First Matter of the Great work. When it produces radiance it is called light. It is substance an motion at one and the same time: it is a fluid and a perpetual vibration. The will of intelligent beings acts directly upon this light, and by means thereof, upon all nature, which is made subject to the modifications of intelligence.”

As Paul Foster case wrote “Men of science laughed at him in 1886. Today their grandchildren paraphrase his doctrine but ignore his genius.”

Actually, I think Mr. Case stated things even more directly than Levi… “Every man lives in a world of his own creation, built in accordance with his own imagined mental pattern. Change the pattern and you change the world,” and “it is the Being of all that you are, the Thinker of all that you think, the actor in all that you do.”

There is just One Thing. That One Thing can be described using many words but they are insufficient to describe the One Thing. It has been called light, love and many other terms but the One Thing describes it most aptly in my opinion. The funny thing about the One Thing is that it has always been described as a form of vibrational energy. e.g. The Word, the Logos, the Light. You see, sound and light are both forms of the One Thing operating at a different vibratory level. That One Thing is also known as matter to the observing consciousness but as quantum physics seems to tell us, energy and matter are both the same ONE thing. Perhaps the only difference is that a conscious observer can collapse the waveform into a particle. Everything is energy. All is the One Thing.

Here is the big difference though. While science continues to burrow deeper and deeper into the externality of the One Thing (either in seeking to break things down into more and more constituent particles or explore the nature of space), the occultist has understood that the outside is on the inside and the real field of study is oneself. The mind. The One Mind.

A New review of the Mystical Hexagram

By Alienora Taylor – our thanks to her for this…

At the start of this remarkable book, and referring, in this instance, to symbols, the authors wrote, ‘…reaching into the viscera of humankind,’ a phrase which struck me forcibly – and which, to my mind, encapsulates beautifully what Vasey and Vincent have achieved in their writing.

Part intellectual journey, part esoteric exploration, at all times eminently readable, this short book takes us on a voyage of discovery through the deep seas of The Tree of Life, symbolism, Tarot, planets/metals, numerology, astrology, psychology, and alchemy.

Centring upon the Great Work – a concept which can be understood both exoterically and esoterically – the chapters examine, in commendable depth and detail, the manifold connections contained within these two triangles, six sides and Solar middle point.

Starting with an overview of the historical context, the authors trace the importance of the symbol to mankind, from its manifestation in early caveman art right through to the present day. This link to our common mythology, our global history, is both warming and, in a sense, poignant. The hexagram can be seen to represent something we forget at our peril: That we are all one, are all part of the totality of experience.

Moving on to the history of, and many associations with, the hexagram itself, Vasey and Vincent provide a detailed analysis which is absorbing, moving and, in every sense, enlightening. They also, in this section, refute the demonic rumours with which it is surrounded – and, in so doing, make us think about our own prejudices and preconceptions, not just about the hexagram, but about symbols generally.

Polarity and the reconciling of opposites, Fire and Water, Man and God, ‘As above, so below’: Without wishing to spoil the pleasure in store, let me just say that all of these form a vital part of the equation. And, the further on one reads, the clearer it becomes that the hexagram is a key to connection rather than division: That it has the potential to unlock our Higher Selves.

I was enormously impressed with the sections dealing with the deep, and enduring, connections between metals, Planets and the individual Sephirah of The Tree of Life.

That reach into the gut was given a startling kick on page 41, with, ‘…we were created to create…’

So true – and, sad to relate, so easily forgotten in the often destructive tide of life – the above phrase is a salutary reminder of something at the heart of all human lives.

The second part of the book consists of practical exercises in the form of a series of meditations. I shall certainly be setting aside time in which to do these. They would, I feel, fit in well with any of the mainstream esoteric courses – and, for those not esoterically trained, would be of enormous value in terms of personal growth and relaxation.

The final two chapters are, in my opinion, extremely helpful. The overview of the Tree of Life Sephiroth is invaluable revision for those of us already familiar with the basics, and a clear guide for those who have not yet experienced them.

The detailed Qabalistic Cross chapter provides a clear framework for all meditation work, regardless of one’s individual religious beliefs.

The book’s cover is wonderful: The black background reminds us of mystery, the absence of light, the nothing before the world, whilst the orange-gold colour of the Hexagram speaks of warmth, fire, Sun, Solar strength and courage. The sub-title is extremely effective: 7 is a resonant and symbolic number; stars are always something to reach for and aspire to, and the word ‘Power’ is inevitably a brilliant hook!

I have now read the book twice, and fully intend to dip in again at the earliest opportunity. The combination of the authors’ writing skills, S.C. Vincent’s artistic talent and their wonderful visionary abilities make this a fascinating and thought-provoking read.

Alienora Taylor. 16.2.13