Merkabah

[Skarekrow]

Secrets in Plain Sight

[video=youtube;JTA_EkGwUE0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTA_EkGwUE0&index=1&list=PL5680DDCC23C0216A[/video]​

The question is - was some kind of secret symbolism purposefully encoded within these buildings, art, cityscapes, monuments, or is there a more fundamental universal symbolism within the works that exists because they are beautiful and put in powerful spots not because of some grand understanding that we are missing out on, but a collective consciousness level that then is revealing itself through these works?

 

[Sinny]

The question is - was some kind of secret symbolism purposefully encoded within these buildings, art, cityscapes, monuments, or is there a more fundamental universal symbolism within the works that exists because they are beautiful and put in powerful spots not because of some grand understanding that we are missing out on, but a collective consciousness level that then revealed itself through these works?

I'd say that both happen.
I really want to expand.. but I've got some dudes chewing my ear off... Are you more inclined towards the latter?

 

[Skarekrow]

I'd say that both happen.
I really want to expand.. but I've got some dudes chewing my ear off... Are you more inclined towards the latter?

Type something out...grabbing my Son later so I may be busy but I’ll get to it.

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

But let’s keep fighting over fetal cells and creationism, not mention many church’s outright denial of climate change.
It’s hard to justify that private jet you just bought to land at your McMansion and also live the teachings you supposedly “teach”.​

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

What a fun fucking month that was!! Oh boy, let’s do it again!!
*severe sarcasm*​

 

[dang]

What a fun fucking month that was!! Oh boy, let’s do it again!!
*severe sarcasm*​

True dat. April pretty much kicked my ass. May better be better or I am in trouble.

 

[Skarekrow]

True dat. April pretty much kicked my ass. May better be better or I am in trouble.

Yep...everyone has been feeling run down lately....some cosmic event that is unleashing some kind of new energy.... HELP - @Kgal
(she can explain it)
At the very least I feel that the collective consciousness last month was fucked up...which isn’t necessarily bad...perhaps more people are becoming aware of this reality and what the grander implications of a “soul” are, or their third eye is opening? IDK...just that it seemed to be very disrupted.

 

[Skarekrow]

Shadow People
Ghosts, Daemons, or Inter-Dimensional Beings?

​

Look on any ghost hunting or paranormal site, or ask any investigator, and alongside ‘traditional’ ghosts and dust-orbs, there is another, far more unusual and much creepier facet of paranormal research – Shadow Figures.

According to Ghost Study dot com (http://www.ghoststudy.com/) , there are three types of Shadow entity:

Type A - Appear as a small dark misty cloud and are almost always under two feet in length, but can hover or float up to 8 feet high.

Type B - Appear as a huge glob of thick cloudy mass.
They typically range from 2 to 8 feet in height.

Type C - Appear in human form and some may be seen wearing a hat.
They typically appear up to 8 feet in height.

One major difference between recorded cases of 'Shadow People' and 'ghosts' is that whereas ghosts usually haunt one particular location and somehow repeat their former existence there, Shadow People have been known to 'interact' in as much as they observe and then disappear when noticed.

Possibilities of just what these Shadow Figures might be are:

a) Daemonic (given my hobbies, it's plausible )

b) Paranormal, e.g. ghost

c) Alien

d) Dimensional Seepage

e) Inter-dimensional beings

f) Spirit (as in domovoi)

g) Astral entities

h) Time travellers

i) Echoes of the Self

For reasons that will be explained momentarily, c, d, e, g, h, and i are the most probable explanations.
Judging by the extremely brief nature of encounters and experiences with Shadow People it is apparent that these episodes are limited heavily in time factor - for what reason is unclear.

The lack of synchronicity of reproduced sound occasionally associated with their visitation and the indistinct, yet clearly human/hominid appearance of Type C Shadow People suggests that either only the projected aura can travel or that in order to travel through time/interdimensionally, the frequency of what we call reality must be increased massively causing poor reception at the destination point.

The innumerable sightings of beings and entities throughout history described variously as angels, demons, spirits, etc (not to be confused with the ‘Man in Black’ of the Black Goat of Le Messe Niger fame) - along with a whole plethora of modern cryptozoological specimens - do hint towards the abovementioned possibilities.

Lack of interaction on any concrete level and for any extended period (excluding the observation, 'babble' and then disappearance that is the hallmark of these types of paranormal occurance) suggests that SPs perhaps do not originate from the Demonic Planes or the Astral Planes of our own Reality/Time (unless the work of amateur astral Travellers).

Skeptics generally brush Shadow People and Shadow Animals aside as 'microsleep'.
Driving home through the Carpathian hills I've had many occasions when I've had to swerve because of a 'Microsleep' running in front of my car.

I've also had these Microsleeps standing in the hallway and then going around corners.
One of the best means of testing if a Shadow Entity is 'real' or not is if it crosses an open doorway and still retains shape.

This implies that it is not the sleepy mind distorting ordinary shadows because in an open doorway the shadow has no place to form.
The Shadows (mostly animals but also a few people) I have seen on the road have always started running across my path when there was zero chance of me avoiding them.

Because I drive so much - approximately 4 hours per day - and in some of the worst weather imaginable and on very bad roads - I am careful to keep conscious and focused.

These Microsleeps (and their non-hitting of my Mitsubishi at N kilomteres per hour which would be fatal otherwise) whack my heart out of rhythm and it takes a good while to calm down and establish normal breathing again after the shock of the Non-Collision.

I'm not talking blurs but fully formed, shadowy versions of animals such as deer.
The entire road network is dotted with roadside memorials and huge roadsigns saying how many people have been killed and injured on that stretch in the last few years.

It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to predict that there will be a few hauntings but Shadow People do NOT repeat these pointless actions of running into a road and dying ad infinitum.

These I would count as ghosts.
The Shadow People who could qualify as inter-dimensional entities are renowned for lurking - you know the sensation you get when your neck hairs stand on end and you just KNOW someone is standing behind you and watching you and when you turn around you see a blurred movement which your sanity dismisses as a trick of the light?

These peripheral vision Shadow Figures are brushed away in psychiatric terms as an aspect of Peripheral Vision Psychosis.
According to the Center for Paranormal Research and Investigation, low sound waves can even be the cause.

However, in the case of Shadow figures seen standing at the bottom or top of staircases (a common form of sighting) or the figure watching you in the bathroom, these cannot qualify as they are not peripheral.

I, even though long exposed to psychology and its attempt to demystify the world, still don't believe that every single phenomenon can be dismissed as a psychosis (or, in the case of Saintly visions, the consumption of mouldy rye bread).

The fact that these shadow Figures are often noticed BECAUSE they are observing (the human mind and body has many in-built self defence mechanisms stemming from our days as prey rather than predator).

We KNOW when we're being watched or talked about (warm earlobe as a superstitious example).
These figures are often recorded because the object of their study notices them and turns around, and THEN sees them in peripheral vision - but the sensation of being watched precedes this, therefore negating the psychosis in many cases.

It's not a pleasant occurrence - especially if it's a lone female loading clothes into her basement washer and begins to feel prickles on the back of her neck because she FEELS someone watching her.

She turns around and sees a blurred movement in her peripheral vision and her heart leaps.
How can she explain it (as I've never encountered one with red glowing eyes like Mothman I can't comment)?

She'd say "I saw something out of the corner of my eye - like a blur - and then it was gone."
Unless she kept going on and on about it and started wearing tinfoil hats, it's unlikely that she'd be shipped off for Electro Shock Therapy and instead would be offered a number of mundane explanations, which she would accept as, culturally, Shadow People have no place in suburban 21st century reality.

An example of a Shadow Figure watching from Ghost Study dot com (http://ghoststudy.com/new6/shadowpics/page114.htm):
Shadow Figures are often reported by magic users following a ritual.

It's extremely important before and after any ritual to 'cleanse' both the environs and oneself - not only from what was deliberately invoked/evoked but what may have also been attracted by Reality Frequency Disturbances.

“Some there be that shadows kiss; Such have but a shadow's bliss”(The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene IX)
​

To use an example: You're trying to raise a daemon (whether or not the ritual is successful is irrelevant).
What you're basically doing is calling out (or down, if that's your hypothesis) in such a manner that you'll attract its attention.

The same goes for Ouija and other means of Clairvoyance (except they go upwards in traditional Belief systems, unless you're Vodun...then I still haven't worked it out and haven't had chance to ask Baron Samedi yet).

You're basically opening up a means of communication or, much worse, a door.
One reason why the Simon Necronomicon was so terrifying (and the entire principle of Lovecraft's Mythos) was that doors could be opened but not closed again.

It doesn't matter, on principle, if - in the case of the Simon - you're just spouting quasi Sumerian gobbledygook - you are 'opening doors' from your location and your reality to ‘others’.

It is the experienced practitioner who knows how to open a door, do the deed and close it again and go to bed at night not wondering if he or she left the light on...

The Sixth Sense covers an immense area of pseudo-science (as psychology was known until recently); ESP and precognition are just two of many documented aspects that do not fit within the strict structure of the scientific 5 senses yet are clearly seen in some animals.

Who knows what else is in our capabilities?
After all, we managed to attain sentience.

To go back to the doors, imagine if you will that within our 'mind' (or soul, etc) we have the ability during ritual to create a harmonic that breaches the boundaries of this reality and probes others.

We have no way of knowing if this opens a direct line to our intended summonee or contactee, or if it threads its way through countless other planes and realms, attracting the attention of whatever denizens might overhear it.

As I have oft stated, Daemonology is similar to primitive psychology - much of magic is - in that it is isolating and focusing one aspect of our minds using symbols, chants, metals, times and dates (which is where astrology comes in handy).

We set the scene to put out a call to a daemon listed in some ancient tome or - and this is one reason I heartily recommend against this method for beginners, e.g. the Chaos Magick version - one of our own creation.

Not only do we open ourselves up to whatever is listening in but in the case of 'Homemade Daemons' there is no direct end to the link.
The practitioner has no idea whatsoever what will answer the call - or how to deal with it when it arrives (if...if....)

Shadow People, as can be seen in the various personal experiences that have been recorded, appear to be attracted to environs and people that have been involved with magic.

It is eerily like sharks smelling blood in the water.
The fact that these Shadow People apparently do nothing once they arrive - apart from lurk and watch - does not label them as either harmless or harmful.

I've never heard of anyone summoning them directly.
Even mediums don't count them as successful contact with the Afterlife - they're more of an unwanted side-effect.

Quite often when communicating with various entities, one realises that their speech is somehow distorted as if coming through a filter; eg too fast, too metallic, too 'bubbly'.

This really leads me to believe that in order to cross planes/time-space, there has to be frequency adjustment.
Anomalous Voices, such as that which inspired me to begin research intro EVPs and Reversed Speech, are often associated with the appearance of Shadow People – and both are clearly ‘out-of-sync with this reality.

One theory I formulated many years ago concerning déjà vu, but which applies equally well to the appearance of Shadow People (I get really scary-arsed episodes of déjà vu, usually prior to something bad happening to me) was the Lag Theory.

This is a bit Acid-esque but is basically based upon the theory that each decision has a number of possibilities, each of which creates another number of possibilities with different consequences, and so on virtually ad infinitum (the reason why it's not possible to travel to the future and return again as you'd never find your way back through the 'choice-labyrinth'); an extension of this is the parallel universe theory whereby at the point of each decision a new universe/reality is created in order to fulfil the possibility chosen by Self A, Self B, Self C, etc.

In the Lag Theory, Alpha Self (e.g. the you reading this) chooses the reality that I am currently in tune with, however, Alpha Self is still Beta Self and Gamma Self up to the point where their choice-route takes them on an utterly divergent course than that chosen by Alpha Self (we'll just ignore the even more Leary-esque type thinking whereby 'Am I Alpha Self or Beta Self, etc'? as that argument goes on forever).

For the sake of argument, we are Alpha Self.
Okay, Alpha Self is in Reality 1, Beta Self is in Reality 2 (until the next branching of possibilities - over simplified I know, and not taking into account the innumerable realities caused from birth onwards).

Let's say that Beta Self (who diverged from Reality 1 several years back but has followed a similar course with only minor differences) encounters a personal disaster after choosing one possibility in his/her own Reality.

Example - Beta Self's friends ask him to come for a drink. Beta Self says he feels tired so declines the offer and goes home instead.
On the way home he has a car crash and dies.

This (either deliberately or as a Reality Impulse) sends a shock wave back along the branches and interacts with whichever other Self is currently in a near-identical situation.

On a minor scale, this is like Gut instinct or Female Intuition - where the Self knows instinctively, although for no quantifiable reason, why something 'feels right or wrong'.

In the case of Shadow People, it's possible that they are either emanations of Delta or Epsilon Selves whose Reality has somehow crosswired with Alpha Self's, or - and this is where it gets scary - something else entirely that has come along to watch just which possibility your Alpha Self chooses at a particular moment, knowing that the consequences of this choice (and it could be something as simple as eating an apple or not eating an apple) will create a Butterfly Effect further down the Time Line.

In this sense, they could be construed as 'Monitors'.
When they appear after a magical ceremony (remembering that the limit of their interaction is usually running off when noticed - or, perhaps giving a grin and then running off), it's possible they're there merely as spectators waiting to see just what mess Alpha Self has caused throughout the planes and what the consequences will be.

Whatever they are, they show intelligence that is unknown in ghosts; they do not fit the criteria of the plethora of recorded daemons, they do not appear as fully formed entities swaying me against the alien argument.

That leaves two main possibilities : Time and Dimensions.

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Kgal]

Amazing! I was just telling a friend I wanted to haul out a bunch of crap in my house...make it in to a big pile...and set that sucker on Fire!
I LOVE this pic! Woot. Makes me want to dance.

 

[Kgal]

"I'm so much larger than life...."

[video=youtube;PBAl9cchQac]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBAl9cchQac[/video]

 

[Kgal]

Yep...everyone has been feeling run down lately....some cosmic event that is unleashing some kind of new energy.... HELP - @Kgal
(she can explain it)
At the very least I feel that the collective consciousness last month was fucked up...which isn’t necessarily bad...perhaps more people are becoming aware of this reality and what the grander implications of a “soul” are, or their third eye is opening? IDK...just that it seemed to be very disrupted.

Yep.... I'm feeling disgruntled myself...albeit not as intensely as I used to.... ...which makes it easier for me to deal with others who are very angry.

The cosmic event unleasing? Are you talking about our current planetary journey through the photon belt? Yes... the energies are at an all time high level now...and will remain that way. Every one and every single thing is being affected by this Light. [yawns widely]. The Light is affecting the DNA which in turns affects the body and the world etc etc....

I'm currently a Zombie .... in the Void.... feeling unplugged and variable.

I saved all your recent pics and shared them on facebook for some of the Lighworkers. They LOVED them....especially the trite spiritual shit one. Hahahahahaha.... thank you for the boost in spirits.

 

[Skarekrow]

Jaw and mouth seem to be healing up okay...still quite difficult to eat some foods...I am so fucking sick of Ensure, and jello, and popsicles, and refried beans and rice, and mashed potatoes....eeegghghhgh!
I want a hamburger (sorry vegans)...I want crunchy salad too...god do I want salad and cashews, and crackers and cheese...
Had to watch Sensiko eat Subway last night as I slurped a cup o’ noodle.
They do make these fantastic frozen smoothy drinks (dole I think?) where you just add juice and shake it up for half a min. quite good!

Now I’m trying to find out if the fucking dentist that is doing this bridge/implant hybrid thing needs to cut back into my gums where they sutured it in the back to put on the locators that fit on top of the 4 implants I have already in....he says - “I’ll call you next week.” when I saw him last Wednesday.
Wants it to heal another week okay...but if you have to cut back into my gums to find the tops of the implants to screw on the locators that the bridge will then snap into then I NEED to fucking know...I have already pushed off my IV arthritis infusion by two weeks...there has to be a two week window before and after any type of surgery, illness, etc. before I get the infusion.
So I called them first thing this morning...explain what I just told you, and ask them....(on hold for 15 mins), the office manager will have to ask him and we will call you back.
UGH!!!
So now I’ve already postponed the infusion (already two weeks overdue) that was scheduled tomorrow (the automated appointment verification thingy called yesterday and I had to push 2 to reschedule ((which of course it can’t because it’s Sunday)).
AHH!!
(deep sigh)
(deep breath)

At least Wednesday I see my pain doctor and if this infusion business doesn’t happen soon then he can probably add something short-term until I can.
Ibuprofen is great for swelling...doesn’t do shit for my pain.
Weed helps somewhat...it’s funny...but as some of you know I was jumped on figuratively by someone on the forum for advocating the use of weed.
Firstly, it’s legal in my state...my pain doctor has even encouraged me to use it...hmmmm? But I’m the guy who didn’t know what he was talking about apparently.
Secondly, the main reason I even use it is NOT for my pain (though like I said it helps - especially when it’s out of control), but I use it for the most unglamorous of reasons, to help control IBS symptoms related to my arthritis...wooo-hoooo!!
Getting wild with the weed!
People are so misinformed...and then choose to remain so when you give them proof they are wrong...well remain ignorant then.
Won't keep me up at night.

 

[Kgal]

Interesting stuff. I see myself as more of an apatheist when it comes to deities. Whether there is one or not, I don't care. I have no desire to worship a god, real or fake. Just as I don't need one to give my life meaning or comfort me when life gets hard. It was one of the biggest problems I had with Christianity.

Unless by god, you're using an atypical definition. Such as seeing god as an alternative meaning for interconnecting consciousness or as the spark that begun the creation of the universe. That, I don't have such huge problems with.

You pretty much summed up my views. I have no desire to worship anyone or anything.

...unless of course we're talking about me. [bats eyelashes seductively] :lol:

PS. Did I mention the rise of the Feminine Energy is in progress now? Do not be surprised if you start noticing your selves getting all mushy inside.

 

[Skarekrow]

Would you eat the possessed steak?​

 

[Kgal]

Would you eat the possessed steak?​

Grilled medium rare and served with a growler of chocolate stout??? O hayell yeh.

 

[Skarekrow]

The Four World Theory: Not to Alarm You, but You’re Going to Die

“In the landscape of extinction, precision is next to godliness” — Samuel Beckett

Well, it was good while it lasted…


​

As humans have only been around for a few hundred thousand years, we don’t like to think about the seeming inevitability of the rise and fall of civilizations.

Plus we have so much cool stuff these days, it’s hard for us to think on the scale of total destruction.
It would make buying the latest iphone seem a little too inconsequential.

I’m sad to report that no matter what we do, the odds are not in our favor.
After all, something routinely wipes out the bulk of life on the planet Earth.

We have plenty of mythologies that assure us the gods periodically whip up a good old global smiting with extreme prejudice, and wipe the slate clean.

Sadly, for once, the scientists agree.
You have your Ordovician—Silurian extinction event (450 million years ago) that wiped out about 70% of life on the planet.

Then there’s the Late Devonian extinction that knocked off another 70% of those who were left or managed to be fruitful and multiply.
Then between about 250 million and 200 million years ago, you’ve got your Permian—Triassic and the Triassic—Jurassic extinction events (they tend to separate these events, but because another 70% of life since the Late Devonian died off and it took vertebrates some 30 million years to recover, they sort of blend together).

Finally, there was the Cretaceous—Paleogene extinction event some 66 million years ago that left mammals in charge of things.
That amounts to roughly four major cycles of death and destruction for living critters on Earth.

I’ve got to say, it’s not looking good for us on a geologic time scale, not that I’m a pessimist.
The glass is neither half-full, nor half-empty.

It’s just routinely dashed to pieces in a fit of pique.
So, we’ve got a few thousand years of written history and we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves.

Well, stop feeling good.
You’re a dead species walking.

It only took us a handful of millennia to go from running away from tigers on the veldt to American Idol (are these really substantially different activities?), thus our swelled heads insist on telling us that nobody could have accomplished the same feats in comparable amounts of time.

I’m not suggesting that sapient dinosaurs were running around building saurian playgrounds, and bemoaning the fact that the next generation didn’t believe in hatching eggs, rather that the timescales are such that believing that there is something special about man is an act of pure hubris, relying on the scant evidence we have of our own superiority to the rest of life in the universe.

Sample of one, dude.
Now, I’m not saying death is imminent, beyond the obvious fact that death is imminent.

That would be depressing, unproductive, and clearly de-motivational.
I want you to succeed.

Go invent something cool.
Or at least propagate the species.

Good pick up line, huh?
Clearly, I don’t date much.

What I find interesting is that if you start poking around cross-culturally, as anthropologists are wont to do, an interesting pattern emerges regarding our unavoidable extinction.

Roughly speaking, and accounting for the fact that memory is a fungible thing, life has been wiped out at least four times on this planet, corresponding with curious mythologies that appear in cultures unlikely to ever have had any contact (both geographically and temporally) that four worlds have preceded our own.

Each time they got summarily ended, and a new world appears.
We’re just the latest fad.

Folklore abounds with descriptions of the worlds that preceded ours (sometimes the precise number varies).
Rather than catalog them all, I figured in the best tradition of high school English, I would compare and contrast two in particular.

The Navajo Four Worlds Creation myth and the kabbalistic writings of Judaic mysticism.
And all before Happy Hour starts.

Don’t say I never did anything for you.
I might even throw in some Jung, because that’s how I roll.

Onward to our assured mutual destruction.
If nothing else, when the next mass extinction event occurs, I can say “I told you so”.

I’ve found spite to be a better motivator than altruism.
If you want a research tip, use the keywords “four worlds before”.

Then cry in your beer, since our ultimate demise seems unavoidable.
There is some suggestion that both the Mayans and Aztecs had a conception of four worlds preceding our own (wiped out in mass cataclysm), but the fullest Native American expression has been among the Navajo and ethnologically related tribes.

“This is found among all the Pueblo tribes, including those on the Rio Grande and on the Gila, and the Zunis and Moquis and others. It prevails among the so-called wild tribes, the Navajos and the Pimas, and even the Apaches. It will be well to follow up this story as told by these different tribes, and see how much there was in common between them and yet how many things were different. The contrast is due to the ethnic affinities and training of the tribe, and especially to the coloring which was drawn from the scenery, but the resemblance shows that the story was transmitted from tribe to tribe” (Peet, 1898, p277).

And what was the story?
Let’s go Navajo.

Don’t get wiped out by the insurmountable military machine of the white man.
Too late for such eminently reasonable advice.

They hadn’t invented blogging yet.
Rather, read the Navajo creation story.

The genesis-legend of this tribe divides into four episodic tales, the first of which, the Age of Beginnings, narrates the ascent of the progenitors of Earth’s inhabitants from story to story of the Underworld, and their final emergence upon Earth.

The second, the Age of Animal Heroes, tells of the setting in order of Earth, its illumination by the heavenly bodies, and the adventures of its early inhabitants.

The third, the Age of the Gods, recounts the slaying of the giants and other monsters by the War-Gods and the final departure of the great goddess to the West.

The fourth, the Patriarchal Age, chronicles the growth of the Navaho nation in the days of its early wanderings; to this age, too, belong most of the revelations which prophets and visionaries bring back in the form of rites, acquired in their visits to the abodes of the gods.

The lowest of the world-stories, where the Navaho myth begins, was red in color, and in its center was a spring from which four streams flowed, one to each of the cardinal points, while oceans bordered the land on all sides.

Tieholtsodi, the water monster, the Blue Heron, Frog, and Thunder were chiefs in this world; while the people who “started in life there” were ants, beetles, dragon-flies, locusts, and bats (though some say First Man, First Woman, and Coyote were in existence even here).

For the sin of adultery these people were driven out by a flood raised by the Underworld gods, and as they flew upward, seeking a place of escape, a blue head was thrust from the sky and directed them to a hole leading into the next story.

This second world was blue, and was inhabited by the Swallow People.
Here they lived till, on the twenty-fourth night, one of the strangers made free with the wife of the Swallow chief; and they were commanded to leave.

Again they flew upward, and again a voice – that of Niltshi, the Wind – directed them to an opening by which they escaped into the third story.

Here they were in a yellow world, inhabited by Grasshoppers; but exactly what happened in the world below was repeated here, and once more directed by the Wind they flew up into the fourth story, which was all-coloured.

The fourth world was larger than the others and had a snow-covered mountain at each of the cardinal points.
Its inhabitants were Kisani (Pueblo Indians), who possessed cultivated fields and gave the wanderers maize and pumpkins.

The four gods of this world were White Body, Blue Body, Yellow Body, and Black Body, and these created Atse fiastin (First Man) and Atse Estsan (First Woman), from ears of white and yellow maize respectively.

To this pair came five births of twins, of whom the first were hermaphrodites, who invented pottery and the wicker water-bottle.

The other twins intermarried with the Mirage People, who dwelt in this world, and with the Kisani, and soon there was a multitude of people under the chieftainship of First Man.

One day they saw the Sky stooping down and the Earth rising to meet it.
At the point of contact Coyote and Badger sprang down from the world above; Badger descended into the world below, but Coyote remained with the people.

It was at this time that the men and women quarrelled and tried the experiment of living apart; at first the women had plenty of food, but eventually they were starving and rejoined the men.

Two girls, however, who were the last to cross the stream that had separated the sexes, were seized by Tieholtsodi, and dragged beneath the waters.

Guided by the gods, a man and a woman descended to recover them, but Coyote surreptitiously accompanied them and, unperceived, stole two of the offspring of the Water Monster.

Shortly afterward, a flood was sent by the Monster, “high as mountains encircling the whole horizon.”
The people fled to a hill and various animals attempted to provide a means of escape by causing trees to outgrow the rising waters, but it was not until two men appeared, bearing earth from the seven sacred mountains of what is now the Navaho’s land, that a soil was made from which grew a huge hollow reed, reaching to the sky.

The last of the people were scarcely in this stalk, and the opening closed, before they heard the loud noise of the surging waters outside.

But there was still no opening in the sky above.
They sent up the Great Hawk, who clawed the heaven till he could see light shining through; the Locust followed, and made a tiny passage to the world above, where he was met by four Grebes from the four quarters, and in a magic contest won half of their world; finally, the Badger enlarged the hole so that people could go through, and all climbed into the fifth world, whose surface is our earth (Alexander, 1916, p159-161).

Four worlds, huh?
I’m suspicious.

Do we have some sort of archetypal memory of the utter cataclysms that preceded us and likely await us in the future?
Personally, I think four worlds is one world too many, but then again I don’t like to multitask.

Now we might be inclined to dismiss this as symbolic, if the notion of four worlds before our own didn’t keep popping up across time and culture.

Seems like we’re trying to tell ourselves something.
I think we can be reasonably certain that there wasn’t a lot of theological discussion between the Navajo and Jewish Kabbalists.

Nobody had bothered to invent chat rooms yet.
A notable oversight, but probably led to a few thousand extra years of civilized discourse.

Good times.
So sad it’s over.

Curiously, the idea of four worlds preceding our own also rears its ugly head in the creation myth that permeates Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah, for those of you who haven’t been following Madonna’s career).

The cliff notes version is that God is a nice guy and decides to contract himself, making room in the universe for something else, proceeding to emanate his divinity out there into existence in the form of four worlds.

Oh, and did I mention that those celestial emanations were too powerful to contain, and per the myth, shattered.
Evidently, God did not build to code.

Wait a second.
Jesus was a carpenter.

Coincidence?
Just saying.

According to a later theorem four worlds proceed by an emanation in different gradations.
This is expressed by Ibn Latif thus:

As the point extends and thickens into a line, the line into the plane, the plane into the expanded body, thus God’s self-manifestation unfolds itself in the different worlds.

In each of these four worlds the ten Sephiroth recur.
The first Sephirah gave birth to the Olam azila or “world of emanation,” containing the powers of the divine plan of the world.

Its beings have the same nature as that belonging to the world of the Sephiroth or to the Adam Kadmon [prototype for man]. This world which is also called the olam ha-sephiroth, i. e., “the world of the Sephiroth,”is the seat of the Shechinah.

From the olam azila proceeded the olam beria or “world of creation,” in which according to Rabbi Isaac Nasir are the souls of the saints, all the blessings, the throne of the Deity, and the palaces of all spiritual and moral perfection.

The olam beria gave birth to the olam jezlrah or “world of formation,” in which dwell the holy angels, whose prince is Metatron.

But there are also the demons, which on account of their grossly sensual nature are called Keliphoth, “shells,” and inhabit the planets and other heavenly bodies or the realm of the ether.

The fourth world is called olam assiya, the “world of action.”
Its substances consist of matter limited by space and perceptible to the senses in a multiplicity of forms.

It is subject to constant changes, generations, and corruptions, and is the abode of the Evil Spirit.
Like the Talmud and the Midrash, the Zohar represents the optimistic view, that the present world is the best.

Thus we read (Zohar, III, 292b: (“There were old worlds, which perished as soon as they came into existence; they were formless, and were called sparks. Thus the smith when hammering the iron, lets the sparks fly in all directions. These sparks are the primordial worlds, which could not continue, because the Sacred Aged had not as yet assumed his form (of opposite sexes–the King and Queen), and the Master was not yet at his work.”

And again we read (III, 616): “The Holy One, blessed be he, created and destroyed several worlds before the present one was made, and when this last work was nigh completed, all the things of this world, all the creatures of the universe, in whatever age they were to exist, before they entered into this world, were present before God in their true form. Thus are the words of Ecclesiastes to be understood. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done” (Pick, 1913, p75-76).

Well, isn’t that curious.
Let’s get Freudian.

Zip up your pants, you degenerate, by “Freudian”, I mean Jungian, since he was a little less into cocaine.
Jung defined the four basic ego functions of human consciousness (or cognitive types if you prefer) as “thinking”, “feeling”, “sensation” and “intuition”, which combine to essentially make you into you.

You may have run into this in the ubiquitous Myers-Briggs psychometric test dichotomies or more likely on your match.com date when he made the unprompted declaration that he was an “ISFP” (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving) as an explanation for why he couldn’t carry on a normal conversation.

Jung was talking about different ways of perceiving and judging the universe around us.
Jung’s concept of the self revolves around these functions, essentially making them central ordering principles for human consciousness.

Or perhaps he was talking about the evolution of consciousness in general, based on the notion that life itself keeps getting wiped out.
Hey, he’s the lad who went on about archetypes.

I’m just speculating.
Perhaps deep in our monkey brains, our folklore has encoded the idea that we are not the first consciousness on the block, nor shall we be the last.

Luckily, we probably have at least a few million years before things go sideways.
But sideways they shall go, for as Carl Sagan once said, “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception”.

I wonder if the next world will have good music?

References
Alexander, Hartley Burr, 1873-1939. North American [mythology. Boston: Marshall Jones, 1916.
Pick, Bernhard, 1842-1917. The Cabala, Its Influence On Judaism And Christianity. Chicago [etc.]: The Open court publishing company, 1913.
Peet, Stephen. 1831-1914. “Religious Life of the Cliff Dwellers”. The American Antiquarian And Oriental Journal. Chicago v20: Jameson & Morse, 1898.