Of course. And Do You Know HOW You Know That?

“I have to say I did come to the 'end' of all magic as I'd known it and been practising for 25 years and, like a man standing blinking and dazed, ears ringing at ground zero of a nuclear blast, I'm trying to find novel ways to explain what has happened and present it to the world in the form of Blank Magic. 

The Filth was written from the eye of the experience. 

All the really good stuff is still to come. 

For anyone who cares to keep up with these things, 

(and I'm sure many of my readers are practitioners), 

the Qabalistic wisdom I carried home from The Filth Working 

is very simple and profound and is expressed by Greg Feely 

in the scene behind the flower shop - 

The Crown is in The Kingdom, 

and 

The Reverse is Also True. 

And for Enochian magic enthusiasts, 

Greg can be read as Nemo tending his garden if you like.

Of course it took me a long time and a lyric from the new Monster Magnet record to finally get 

The Real Message of The Abyss :

'Shut your mouth, 

you big fucking baby!' 

So I will and Horus, 

crazy Child-God of The Aeon, 

will too, 

if you tell him. 

IAMIUHUAMI

Well hopefully you're over that, still hurts I know 

but you can't freely climb The Tree 

if you confine yourself to The Dirt. 

Of course. I feel a whole lot better now 

but times were fucked up for a while 

and it's shaken me right down to my boots.”

“I guess I have to do The Only Thing I CAN Do — ACCEPTANCE.

 

And 

Forgiveness — 

It’s The ONLY Tools We’ve Got Left.

 

And Evolution, 

if yer interested in it."   

CLARA: 

It's no good, Bonnie. 

You can't win. 

CLARA-Z: 

I don't care. 

DOCTOR: 

Hi! Hello! Hello! 

(The two Zygons seize Clara.)

DOCTOR: 

Oh, hello! Hi. Hi. 

Stop this. Stop this, please. 

Let me take both of these boxes away.

We'll forgive, we'll forget. 

And the ceasefire will stand. 

CLARA-Z: 

No. 

Kate goes to the red box.

KATE: 

Doctor, which of these buttons do I press? 

Doctor, which one? 

Truth or Consequences? 

Bonnie aka Clara-Zygon 

stands at the blue box.

CLARA-Z: 

Truth or Consequences? 

DOCTOR: 

This is the Moment 

we've all been waiting for. 

Make your mind up time! 

He goes into American Game Show Host mode

DOCTOR: 

One of those buttons 

will destroy The Zygons, 

Release The Imbecile's gas.

 

The Other One detonates 

The Nuclear Warhead under The Black Archive. 

It'll Destroy Everyone in London.

Bonnie. 

Bonnie, sweetheart! 

One of those buttons 

will unmask every Zygon in The World. 

The Other One cancels their ability 

to change form. 

It'll make them 

Human Beings for ever. 

normal

There are safeguards 

beyond safeguards. 

I did this on a very 

important day for me 

and this ceasefire will stand. 

CLARA-Z: 

This is Wrong. 

DOCTOR: 

No, it's not. 

CLARA-Z: 

You are responsible for all the violence. 

All of the suffering.

 

DOCTOR: 

No, I'm not. 

CLARA-Z: 

Yes. 

DOCTOR: 

No. 

CLARA-Z: 

Yes. You engineered this situation, Doctor. 

This is your fault. 

DOCTOR: 

No, it's not. 

It's your fault. 

CLARA-Z: 

I had to do 

What I've Done. 

DOCTOR: 

So Did I. 

CLARA-Z: 

We've been treated like cattle. 

DOCTOR: 

So what.

CLARA-Z: 

We've been left to fend for ourselves. 

DOCTOR: 

So's everyone. 

CLARA-Z: 

It's Not Fair. 

DOCTOR: 

Oh, it's not Fair! 

Oh, I didn't realise that it was 

Not Fair! 

Well, you know what? 

My TARDIS doesn't work properly 

and I don't have my own personal Tailor. 

CLARA-Z: 

The things don't equate. 

DOCTOR: 

These things have happened, Zygella. 

They are facts. 

You just want cruelty to beget cruelty. 

You're not superior to people who were cruel to you. 

You're just a whole bunch of new cruel people. 

A whole bunch of new cruel people 

being cruel to some other people, 

who'll end up being cruel to you. 

The only way anyone can live in peace 

is if they're prepared to forgive. 

Why don't you break the cycle? 

CLARA-Z: 

Why should we? 

DOCTOR: 

What is it that you actually want? 

(After a long pause.)

CLARA-Z: 

War. 

DOCTOR: 

Ah. Ah, right. 

And when this war is over, when you have a homeland free from humans, what do you think it's going to be like? 

Do you know? 

Have you thought about it? 

Have you given it any consideration? 

Because you're very close to getting 

What You Want. 

What's it going to be like? Paint me a picture. 

Are you going to live in houses? 

Do you want people to go to work?

Will there be holidays? 

Oh! Will there be music? 

Do you think people will be allowed 

to play violins? 

Who's going to make the violins? Well? 

Oh, you don't actually know, do you? 

Because, like every other 

tantrumming child in history, Bonnie, 

You don't actually know What You Want. 

So, let me ask you A Question 

about this Brave New World of yours :-- 

When you've killed all The Bad Guys, 

and when it's all Perfect and Just and Fair, 

when you have finally got it 

exactly The Way You Want It --

What are You Going to Do with 

The People Like You? 

The Troublemakers. 

How are you going to protect 

Your Glorious Revolution from 

The Next One? 

CLARA-Z: 

We'll win. 

DOCTOR: 

Oh, will you? Well, maybe, 

maybe you will win! 

But nobody wins for long. 

The Wheel just keeps turning. 

So, come on. 

Break The Cycle. 

CLARA-Z: 

Why are you still talking? 

DOCTOR: 

Because I Want to 

Get You to See, 

and I'm almost there! 

CLARA-Z: 

Do you know what I see, Doctor? 

A Box. 

A Box with Everything I Need. 

A fifty percent chance. 

KATE: 

For us, too. 

Both women have their hands poised 

over the buttons. 

The Doctor resumes Games Host mode.

DOCTOR: 

And we're off! Fingers on buzzers! 

Are you feeling lucky? 

Are you ready to 

Play The Game? 

Who's going to be quickest? 

Who's going to be luckiest? 

KATE: 

This is not A Game! 

DOCTOR: 

No, it's not A Game, sweetheart, 

and I mean that most sincerely. 

CLARA-Z: 

Why are you doing this? 

KATE: 

Yes, I'd quite like to know that, too. 

You set this up. Why? 

DOCTOR: 

Because it's not A Game, Kate. 

This is a scale model of War. 

Every war ever fought, 

right there in front of you. 

Because it's always the same —

When you fire that first shot, 

no matter how right you feel, 

You Have No Idea Who's Going to Die! 

You don't know whose children 

are going to scream and burn! 

How many hearts will be broken! 

How many lives shattered! 

How much blood will spill until 

everybody does what they were always 

going to have to do

from The Very Beginning -- 

Sit Down and Talk! 

(sigh) 

Listen to me. 

Listen, I just, I just want you to think. 

Do you know what thinking is? 

It's just a fancy word for changing your mind. 

CLARA-Z: 

I will not change my mind. 

Dr. Disco : 

Then you will die stupid. 

Alternatively, you could 

step away from that box, 

You can walk right out of that door 

and you could stand 

Your Revolution down. 

CLARA-Z: 

No! I'm not stopping this, Doctor. 

I started it. I will not stop it. 

You think They'll let me go, 

after what I've done? 

Dr. Disco : 

You're all the same, you screaming kids.

You know that? 

"Look at me, I'm unforgivable."

 

Well, here's the unforeseeable : 

I forgive you. 

After all you've done, I forgive you. 

CLARA-Z: 

You don't understand. 

You will never understand. 

Dr. Disco : 

I don't understand? 

Are you kidding? Me? 

Of course I understand. 

I mean, do you call this a war? 

This funny little thing? 

This is not a war! 

I fought in a bigger war 

than you will ever know.

I did worse things 

than you could ever imagine. 

And when I close my eyes 

I hear more screams 

than anyone could ever 

be able to count! 

And do you know what you do 

with all that pain? 

Shall I tell you where you put it? 

You hold it tight 

'til it burns your hand, 

and you say this :

"No one else will ever 

have to live like this. 

No one else will have to 

feel this pain. 

Not on my watch!"

(Kate closes the lid of the red box and steps back.)

Dr. Disco : 

Thank you. 

Thank you.

KATE: 

I'm sorry. 

Dr. Disco : 

I know. I know. 

Thank you. 

(to Clara-Z) 

Well? 

(Long, LONG pause.)

CLARA-Z:

It's empty, isn't it? 

Both boxes. 

There's nothing in them. 

Just buttons. 

DOCTOR : 

Of course. 

And do you know 

How you know that? 

Because you've started 

to think like me. 

Clara-Z drops her hand away 

from the buttons.

DOCTOR: 

It's Hell, isn't it?

 

No one should have 

to think like that. 

And no one will. 

Not on Our Watch. 

Their eyes meet

Gotcha.

CLARA-Z: 

How can you be so sure? 

DOCTOR: 

Because you have a disadvantage, Zygella. 

I know that face. 

KATE: 

This is all very well, 

but we know the boxes are empty now --

We can't forget that. 

DOCTOR: 

No, well, er, you've said that 

the last fifteen times. 

He sonics the memory filter 

in the ceiling. 

Bang!  

Osgood leans an unconscious Kate 

against a rack of stuff. 

Clara-Z closes the blue box. 

Now — Let’s Go Get Your Daughter.

“ I thought, 

"Where is The Mythic Heroine’s Story?" 

In Ishtar Rising, Wilson talks about the myth of Inanna, and how she goes down into Hell and has to give up •everything• of •herself• to gain the Wisdom and Experience she can 

Bring Back to Her Tribe. 

[ Which is The Story of Alice in Wonderland, actually. And, of  Star Trek : Discovery ] 

Privileging The Network 

rather than 

The Sovereign Individual.

And so, as I thought about the differences between The Hero’s and The Heroine’s Journey, it gave me a bunch of different modes to work in. 

Finding ways to avoid telling The Boy Hero story again was quite liberating. 

It just gave me a bunch of new ideas, an interesting new way of telling stories that didn’t rely on the framework of The Hero’s Journey that Campbell talks about.”

There is no Death. 

There is only a transition 

to a different 

Sphere of Consciousness. 

Carol Anne is not like those she's with. 

She is a Living Presence 

in their Spiritual 

Earthbound plane. 

They are attracted to 

the one thing about her 

that is different 

from themselves - 

Her Life Force. 

It is very strong. 

It gives off its own illumination. 

It is A Light that implies 

Life and Memory 

of Love and Home 

and Earthly Pleasures,

 something they desperately desire 

but can't have anymore. 

Right now, she's the closest thing to that, and that is a terrible distraction from the real light that has finally come for them. 

You understand me?

[Diane shakes her head] 

These souls, who for whatever reason are not at rest, are also not aware that they have passed on. 

They're not part of Consciousness as we know it. 

They linger in a perpetual dream-state, a nightmare from which they cannot awake. 

Inside The Spectral Light is Salvation, a window to The Next Plane. 

They must pass through this membrane where friends are waiting to guide them to new destinies. 

Carol Anne must help them cross over, and she will only hear her mother's voice. 

Now... hold on to yourselves.

[brief pause] 

There's one more thing. 

A terrible presence is in there with her. 

So much rage, so much betrayal. 

I've never sensed anything like it. 

I don't know what hovers over This House, but it was strong enough to punch a hole into This World and take Your Daughter away from you. 

It keeps Carol Anne very close to it and away from The Spectral Light. 

It lies to her, it tells her things only a child could understand. 

It has been using her to restrain the others. 

To her, it simply 

is another child. 

To Us -- it is 

The Beast.

[long pause] 

Now — Let's go get 

Your Daughter.

INDRA

 So, I thought, what if you made a computer network that required human brains to run on? 

It wouldn’t make sense to kill us. 

It wouldn’t want to kill us. 

But what it might do is organize us more efficiently.

— Grant Morrison

Joseph Campbell – The Story of Indra from the Brahmavar Upanishad

 

 Swervin’ back to Brave New World. One other thing I liked about that show was the AI system called Indra which must be a reference to the concept of Indra’s Net.

GM: And as you know the drug in the show is Soma, which is Huxley’s creation. I just figured if Huxley named the drug Soma… if he had predicted AI, which is one thing he didn’t predict, I think he would have stuck with the Sanskrit and called it Indra.

Indra was my notion for explaining a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense in Huxley’s book. 

Why are there Epsilons? 

Why does the World State need a labour force? 

The book is about the consequences of capitalist mass production, mass consumption, mass destruction, because Huxley had moved to Hollywood and he’d seen the consumer society in full flood and witnessed the world of glamorous unreality — the talkies — which was happening. The whole thing is his attempt to deal with the impact of Ford and Hollywood. As I said, the one thing he didn’t think of was AI. So, the question became how could you make sense of a lot of the things he didn’t make sense of? 

And the idea came up of having a computer network that ran on human brains. We have all those neurons and all that capacity there. So instead of having a central server, the computer is a distributed network that runs on the brains of everyone in the World State. That was designed to solve the problem created by Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking who were both terrified that AI was going to rise up and take over, steal our jobs, and occupy our homes in a kind of immigration nightmare gone sci-fi.

So, I thought, 'What if you made a computer network that required human brains to run on?' It wouldn’t make sense to kill us. It wouldn’t want to kill us. But what it might do is organize us more efficiently. So that might explain a lot of the stuff Huxley didn’t bother to deal with.

The network starts to self-organize and it creates this homeostatic caste system, like a hive. It stratifies people and what it gives them in return is happiness. 

In Brave New World, the ultimate commodity is happiness. There’s no love, no money, but if you could make everyone happy even if they’re up to their necks in shit, then you’ve won. That was the idea. To create a computer network that doesn’t want to kill people. 

So, the reason why there are Epsilons — the reason people do jobs and manual labor, is because the computer needs its components to be fit and healthy. Rather than mechanize them, with everyone just slobbing out, it needs citizens to be super fit. 

So, they are always having sex, they are always playing sport, they are always working. They have pointless jobs that encourage them to be fit and healthy. That was the idea. The Indra network solved a lot of problems and I think it was one of the elegant additions to Huxley’s original.

Then who created the network in the story? Who gave birth to the AI?

GM:  Well, that was the original ten Controllers who started the World State. In Huxley’s book, there’s an anthrax pandemic that kills 2/3 of the world population and there’s only a couple of billion or whatever left. 

And everyone else gets together and forms a world scientific, anti-religious state because the killer plague was largely caused by political and religious conflict. So suddenly the World State arises to ensure that people won’t screw up so badly ever again. In our version, America is the only country that secedes from the World State. In Huxley, the Savage lands is just a Santa Fe reservation, a pueblo culture. 

In this version, the Savage Lands is all of North America. The idea was to imagine America 300 hundred years after The Fall. 

People are sick, and the environment is fucked and there’s been six presidents in the last five months, and it costs three thousand dollars to buy a Mars Bar! America’s decision not to join the World State has brought the country to the brink of ecological, economical, and societal collapse. In this version, I think we got a richer background than even the original.