Like a hero and their sidekick? Yes, basically. A virus, as aggressive and seemingly predatory as it is, is actually seeking circumstances that will allow for optimal survival which means not killing the host. Even the predatory mechanism serves a symbiotic function, killing the weak and feeble so that the host species will produce optimized offspring.

Events are just as material and “living” as objects are, but they exist as a cross or interpositional entity. Their “bodies” are formed by the combination of beings or objects involved in the event. Events consume energy and they even reproduce. We typically think of event reproduction as “causality.” In the case of the more intelligent event based beings, they can even produce experiences that we attribute to supernatural entities, like elementals and fairies, hauntings, things like that.

Can I breed them? How much can I get for a rare one on the open market? You do breed them, because everyone does, but your participation in the selection process is questionable.

I suppose that’s what good celebrities do, breed rare events to get rich.

What we do today breeds what happens tomorrow? Yes, exactly. And events will even act in self defence,  self-preservation, and they can differentiate from the parent entities that first gave rise to them. This is the origin of the “twelfth monkey” or critical mass effect.

So all this being at least figuratively true, why do we experience things as being “risky”? You would think that perfect harmony would be optimal for all beings involved, no?

Fear makes things risky to our perceptions. Things actually do have risk, and ignorance breeds fear. Fear as we know it. Fear as a social construct.

Why do they say high risk is high reward? Ah, because high energy events have high yield outcomes. Event entities with greater energy are more creative and productive, so increases the odds of our experiencing benefit from the outcomes generated.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Do we change our perceptions? We change the object of our perception, even the pattern of our perception, but not the process itself. That remains consistent which means we project our own body image out into the world, our own life processes. The malfunction of a computer registers much the same as pain in one of our limbs. We interpret events personally, and thus we hit a wall in our comprehension.

There is a difference between actual experience and perceived experience, likewise there is a difference between actual self and perceived self. We all form a perceived self in the process of growing up. We impress on our parents and other significant figures, or rather they impress on us, and we come to identify with them. This happens instinctively. It is not a conscious philosophical choice. Our brains are hard wired to network socially first and foremost.

Is that animal instinct? Basically, but animal instinct infected with a great deal of cognitive noise. We assess threat through a filter of our extended or projected self-image which is often mistaken for self-awareness. Some people insist that this is actually self-awareness. So because of how the perceived self is formed, we project not only our own flaws and shortcomings out into the world, but those of our parents or significant care givers as well. We interpret these insights as “facts of life.”

Like when someone proclaims they can’t bear something to happen? They think that is self-awareness when it’s really a filter? Exactly. So it’s like we are all born with a caul, a bag of skin over our heads, and left to our own devices we keep it. We insist that it’s a vital part of our bodies, rather than an artefact of the birthing process meant to be left behind.

We are meant to “move” in the world. We are meant to take risks. But how can we effectively avoid harm if we don’t have a clear awareness of what it is being harmed or what actual harm will be done?

We are born. Being born is risky but I think nature does not give us more than we can handle. Nature doesn’t give us more than we can handle, humans do.

Evolution is what makes us handle risks? Evolution does no such thing. For myself, I do not subscribe to the commonly held theory of Darwinian evolution. We seek events like we seek our mothers. Our minds can’t even effectively distinguish between events and people. We personalize things and take our experiences personally. This is instinct. It’s the way our brain can make any real sense of things, but nothing is faulty.

Is that experiencing our lives? It’s how we normally experience our lives, like walking around under the influence of a powerful anaesthetic.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

A course of action that has a low probability of being successful.

Acting despite any danger to your or someone else’s physical or spiritual being.

Participating without knowing the results?

Simply existing in space is a huge risk. We are always in danger of strikes from orbiting objects.

This is all true in one way or another. What this means is that everything is a risk. Simple statement but still true. But there is a subtle facet to this observation.

What is the difference between an event and an object?

An event involves objects in motion?

What is the difference between motion energy and matter energy?

Matter energy needs motion energy? Is that not like physics? They are the same.

Matter energy is perhaps motion energy but just less perceptible to the eye? Exactly.

Matter is denser. Yes. We do perceive matter to be denser, at least with some of our senses.

Now here is a simple observation. Your mind recognizes only things that are in keeping with its own nature. You recognize a familiar face by comparing it to an average face in your mind. This is why you can point out differences so easily. You perceive events in the same way. You aren’t naturally aware of events as movements of matter and energy.

Faces are what babies learn to see as their first pattern. Indeed. They love expressive faces. Expressive faces are clearer faces for them, thus inspire more security.

Do we have an event recognition function like we have a face recognition function? We use the same function, so bingo. We don’t even use separate systems, same one, and we detect trouble by calling on a set of samples that our instincts tell us indicate trouble.

So people that can’t discern faces also can’t discern events? They can’t in the same way we do. They are left with strictly associative analysis, conceptualization, rather than the simulation we experience as an event.

It must be very hard for them. Yes, it is, because they still experience pain. Risk is the possibility of pain, of one flavour or another. The mind doesn’t really distinguish between what we might consider abstract forms of pain, like shame or worry, and physical pain, like from a broken limb. They register in essence as the same thing.

Some pain is pleasurable like the adrenaline rush. Some love it some don’t. Perspective on experience can change, but the mechanism of experience doesn’t really change drastically in any person’s lifetime. It would require a compromise of vital life functions that a person could not endure.

So what does this mean for the case of risk? Events generate a “body language.” Each event has a face, and you evaluate these events by comparing them to an average face or average event, and deviation from this form or face registers as stress.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Heka is gnostic in nature, and likely was a heavy influence on Greek Gnosticism. In Heka, one of the reasons you work to awaken the Ka is that it shares in the omniscience of the gods. Not only could the Heka discern the proper condition for Maat at any given time, but they could even foresee future incidents of chaos and set down guidance to provide for that.

Mystics of all traditions seem to seek “union” with their gods. In Heka, they seek union and also individuation. There were rites for establishing oneself as an “elder” on the council of Maat, sort of a demigod if you will, but it did require purification to rid yourself of excessive Isfet or disorder.

Like the Greek “Titan.” Yes, becoming like a hero god to your descendants, and well, your entire culture. It’s what makes Heka spooky to orthodox thinkers. The equal reverence shown to the self as well as the gods.

The animistic imagery associated with alchemy also arose in part from the view of Egyptian Heka. The action of even the smallest things arose from their Ka, and alchemy was just awakening the Ka of that herb or animal part. So the description of watching the fire or the mixture as if it were a creature was likely heavily influenced by Heka.

What we know of Heka is mostly what it has left as traces either in the Egyptian culture and their ancestral ruins, or in the influence they exerted through contact with other cultures, like the Greeks and Romans.

As I awaken the Ka, do I also imprint my intention on it for a desired outcome to enact a change I want? Ah, interesting question. Heka works more like cabalism. In cabalism, you practice the meditations and rituals that reveal the various sephiroth to you, and through your having witnessed and come to understand those levels of reality, you gain insight into how best to influence and gain from “ordinary” reality. In Heka, through walking the path of Osirus or Horus, and thus awakening those parts of your personal Ka, you gain insight into the parts of the world they govern, and thus influence over them.

So more about finding it in the world and drawing it to you? Finding the sense in you and seeing the “unseen” in the world, and thus by seeing the infrastructure being able to interact with and influence that.

So perhaps an example. Name something you would seek to understand and thus get a handle on? Inter relationships with people. Ah, this would be one of two paths. The path of Isis or that of Osirus. The two blend into each other, and by initiation into the path as well as enacting the rites of let’s say Isis, you awaken the omniscience of Isis in your own Ka. You come to know as she knows.

It’s fully within the spirit of the original Heka to reconstruct and elaborate upon it as there were many traditions and they all arose as observation of the world seemed to require. And as for the Hekau, well we all have innate conceptual associations anyway, so like dream messages you can describe your understanding of one of the many gods and thus attune yourself more to that god.

I was thinking you could use a modern icon/person/character in the same way. You indeed could, as long as this image allowed for Maat. It couldn’t effectively be used if it denied the unity of the Ka.

They had dream temples, not unlike the Greeks, though perhaps being less “urban” about things. In fact, the cynic “dogs” could easily be seen as Heka aligned with Anubis.

Dogs? Yes, it was a symbol in cynic philosophy. They believed much of human establishment and behaviour was unnatural and foolish, full of hubris. They believed real wisdom was found in nature and human nature. Though they were originally called dogs by other philosophers, they liked and adopted the name, and even started barking at those who they felt were just engaging in empty intellectual pretense.

The cynic “dogs” as Heka aligned to the dog god of death? Interesting thought, no?

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

In Heka, they believed that their culture had to hold to its traditions, as the introduction of foreign policies and practices would disturb Maat. Perhaps an early model of what they feel they are just now discovering? To me, it seems our leading edge scientists are doing a lot of reinventing the wheel, though unearthing the physical basis for these things will likely have benefits as well.

Some quick catch up… Heka is Egyptian magic. Egyptians had no word for religion. Though Egypt is now Islamic, their culture still influences even those views. Ka is the broad domain of being or soul, and Heka practices are activating or reawakening the soul. The motivations and goals behind Heka are all understandable on a scale between order and chaos, Maat or Isfet.

There have been many traditions of Heka through Egyptian history and what we might consider prehistory. Heka practice is primarily pragmatic. The whole world is viewed in the terms of Maat, which could be compared to the world view of empirical science if modern science had a less restrictive view of things, and ritual and prescribed remedies for circumstances and conditions were derived from observation of the balance of things in the world around you.

There could be terrific application of these ideas in treatment of psychiatric “disorders.” Thinking specifically of schizophrenia and “borderline” personalities, but also think that the secrets to the “cure” might best be revealed by those with the “disease.” I fully agree. Some people I have met in person are somewhat amazed by how well I seem to handle the “insane.” But I can influence these people for the simple reason that I just see their world, see the world as they see it. I find how their statements and observations and behaviours make sense. It’s not very complicated, because their world was already there even before they “got sick.”

I had exactly the same experience with adults with profound mental retardation and psychiatric diagnoses as well. It should be used more often.

The core of empathy and compassion. Yes. Awakening ones Ka could be said to be a profound act of compassion as well as an ambitious power grab. The way to awaken the Ka was to walk the path of the gods, which were more like primordial parents than supernatural lords and masters. Basically the advice would be, walk a mile in the shoes of the cat to grow in your understanding of your own Ka.

I ponder cat-whisperer. Well, a practitioner of Heka is basically an everything whisperer.

Would a ritual be like the Native American shamans and their animal masks? Definitely would have things in common, but less ecstatic and more analytical. More like a priesthood in that sense than the Native American shamans were.

I ponder Cosmos-whisperer. They did make offerings to the gods, but those were just as much for the purposes of putting you in the shoes of that spiritual power as they were any effort to appease that god. You offered Anubis anise seed based incense to awaken that part of your Ka, as well as to contact and communicate with Anubis.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Could you give us a bit of an historical time-frame for this way of thinking? Are we talking ancient Egypt? Like 4000-5000 years ago? Well, the chronology is spotty, but it ended more or less with the Roman subjugation.

Is the cosmology represented in hieroglyphics then? It is indeed and differently in different necropoleis. There were multiple traditions of Heka even when it was a current tradition, and it shares something in common with Native American practice. Heka was a word used synonymously with medicine. One reason for engaging in Heka rituals was that they were healing. They could restore balance between you and the god that you have Isfet with.

I ponder Native American healing circles, mandalas. Hieroglyphs could be compared to mandalas easily, just without the circle motif.

People considered these “gods” to be very, very close, didn’t they, not just some lofty entity far, far away? Exactly. The gods weren’t hiding in the machine. They were the machine, not beyond it. The only thing beyond creation in the Egyptian tradition is chaos or meta-creation. In fact, Egyptian traditions likely did migrate to the Greeks and beyond.

A Heka, which was also the name of their priests, was a student of astrology as well as mathematics and medicine. Pythagorean mathematics to be specific. Of course as with many migrating deities, the male god Heka, as concepts were gods also in the Egyptian tradition, became the female goddess Hekate, and went from a pillar of the community to a spooky foreign power. Though to describe Heka as male is generally incorrect. Gender identity is rather mysterious in Egyptian lore.

Goddess of magic? Yes. Memetic influences could be considered gods, including their ability to influence beyond just the individuals holding the concept.

I haz a sacrifice 4 U? Actually appropriate, perhaps Bastet now enjoys cheezeburger sacrifices.

That would explain why people believed some things should not be spoken. You would be creating a god. Or creating a demon. That was another purpose Heka was used for, repelling foreign demons. Interesting and actually true. A lie can spread very quickly. Most public personas ascribed to our celebrities these days would have more of the demonic than the deific, even to the illicit sexualization aspect.

Heka could perhaps be at least intuited these days, if not reconstructed, from the Hekau. Hekau are hieroglyphic phrases. Statements in the picture concepts that illustrated their original world view. When describing an abstract idea involved the more or less direct depiction of elements of your environment, seeing the unity of the Ka probably wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination.

I wonder if it has any relation to haiku. I suppose that is possible. The Asian Kanji are more or less hieroglyphic in nature. Some similar form found throughout nature, and more and more archaeological evidence is pointing to culture having existed well before current reckoning thought it did.

Something like a Jungian archetype? Indeed.

“Unity of the Ka” feels to me like an isomorph. The eye, for example, found in many species of different phyla and orders. Exactly. Even current neuroscience supports a simple observation. The patterns formed in our brain that give rise to our experiences can be reconfigured, and are at times reconfigured in what might seem to be a spontaneous way. We do have “artifacts” or sensory webs that primarily exist only in what we think of as a narrow subset of the animal kingdom. Humans do have an echo location sense, and it can even be reactivated.

“Reptilian brain”? Yes, or Apophis brain? Sobek brain? Seen from the point of view of Heka.

So through Heka, the priest, for lack of a better term, activates or re-activates connections with the natural world, and then can intuit the Maat or order that either currently exists or needs to be restored.

Opens the gates of resonance? Exactly.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~

Maat forms the backdrop for the practice of Heka. The opposite of Maat is called Isfet, the Egyptian word for chaos or disorder.

So Heka is magic? Heka is Egypt’s tradition of magic, and likely did influence the magi, as well as being influenced by them.

So Heka is order and Isfet is disorder? Actually, Maat is order, Isfet is disorder. Heka is activating or awakening the Ka. Ka is personality, sort of like karma. It is the mold of the spirit. The shape ones spirit takes.

The practice of Heka comes from the creation model layed out in Egyptian tradition. The gods in Egyptian tradition are not necessarily any more holy than humans or anything like that. They are older and wiser and more mature, more powerful, but in the Egyptian world everything and everyone is more or less equal. The only thing diverting from that being the measure of Isfet clouding your Ka.

So if you visualize a mandala with the normal world as the center and the Egyptian heavens on the circumference, each figure in the mandala would all have one thing in common. They are all Ka. Ka as a noun, not as an identity. The role of the gods in the Egyptian world view is preservation of Maat, and application of Isfet on a case by case basis. Mostly, Isfet was to be kept to a minimum. If Maat is the ancient Egyptian creed, then Heka is the ancient Egyptian ritual.

A little chaos can add to beauty. Indeed, and Maat is destroyed with a total absence of Isfet. It arose from the chaos so has chaos for its essence or substance if not being governed by that. That’s what sets ones Ka apart from the general mass of spiritual energy, the potential for self-awareness of pseudo-autonomy.

So Heka is the body or insight and ritual derived from observation of Maat that leads to greater awakening of one’s personal Ka. For those possessed of a more awakened Ka, they gain more ability to interact with and influence the gods. But in order to do that they have to walk in their shoes so to speak, thus the origin of the Egyptian mystery rites. By understanding the ways of Anubis through ritual re-enactment, you come into closer contact with, and gain more influence over, Anubis.

Heka would be seen as a left hand path, because of its views of the self and divinity. They would view the effort to abandon or eliminate the self as unwise, even misguided, and their attitudes toward the gods were reverent but not worshipful in the popular sense used today.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~