newkid13

Is the Philosopher King elitist as a concept? Absolutely. All beings are beloved, not equal.

The American Left coerces equality of character and result, not of opportunity. They should use suspicion of elitism as a guard against their own tyranny, not as a moat against merit.

To be replaced in his old situation emphasizes the recurrence of the sacrificial solar- son cycle across human cultures and eons, and is especially reminiscent of the prodigal son motif.

His eyes full of darkness is a personification of coniunctio, for eyes are refractors of light. A solar manifestation of pure light, with eyes �full of darkness,� is thus a hybrid, a mutant, a walking paradox. He is a redeemed demon, a salvaged angel, the goat led home from desert night, scorched eyes piercing what is occulted, counterfeit, sealed.

To have one�s �eyes full of darkness� also suggests wrath. What would be the disposition of one of the ancient solar heroes � say, Jesus of Nazareth � were he to return to the citizenry and planet that had so unfailingly mocked, betrayed and slaughtered him? Would he rejoice at the behavior of the Powers on Earth? At our War on Evildoers?

Night-vision eyes not only suggest ability to penetrate the occulted, but also identify a being who has internalized and made visible -- made conscious -- his own darkness, and the shadow aspect of all Creation.

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

No question, he said.

[T]he prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world�.

[Y]ou must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural.

The text then references the typology of the Philosopher Kings. Their character recalls Marie Louise von Franz� intimations of, and reflections on, the puer aeternus. He is the eternal boy, electric with mojo, charred black as obsidian and winged, hovering between spirit and matter. He is the sol niger ascended, an aspect of the Fallen Host. He urges Earth to rise and meet him halfway. Always he longs to fly, yearning for the Upper Halls, even as he waits at the earthly altar for his Bride.

Ascent arises from primordial bases, from chthonic, libidic energy, whether in human beings or features of the natural world. Ascent experiences grow from descent experiences, which at personal levels are grounded in the terrors and ecstasies of the body.

Even to the Paleolithic, ascents often were �launched,� usually with sonic impetus, from the crypts, caves and other sites of power that underlie later �heavenly� structures: the pyramids of Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan, the Giza Pyramids, the Mayan pyramids, Stonehenge, many burial Downs in Great Britain, and other sacred sites around the planet. The foundations of many European churches cover such sites. We see only the �platform� or �launching pad� of group ascent artifacts. The generator, the shamanic power plant, the dynamo of ascent, is hidden underground, at the center of the Earth.

Although the fundament was material, maternal, and earthly, with the beginning of the Western esoteric tradition the energy of the species focused on ascent, through entheogens, asceticism, sonic and dance trances, ecstatic masochism (e.g., the Sun Dance), spontaneous out-of-body experience, and other techniques.

The vanguard of the species sped decidedly, super-consciously AWAY from the bodily, earthly, and feminine in its mission to extend the opposites. Today, the scientific arm of this energy is focused on space exploration and travel, which � like physics and mathematics -- ultimately will neither supplant nor disprove mystical experience, but instead affirm and augment it.

At the center of the Western esoteric tradition is Gnosticism and alchemy, and at their center is the raising of matter to spirit, or the liberation of spirit from matter. While Gnostics aimed to free the (male) spirit imprisoned in matter, alchemy sought to raise, or liberate, matter itself, by wedding it with spiritus. Alchemy, by including all material form and process, thus seeks to make extinct the Scapegoat in human hierarchical structures, from the most "negative" micro-organism to the most heinous "criminal."