Third

Darth Vader is The Ultimate Father

The AllFather.

The Bicameral Sovereignty

“Join Me — Together, 

We Can Rule The Galaxy 

as Father and Son!”

That won’t work 

— AT ALL.

This might have :

"Curious. I have brought The Sith to their ultimate victory. Through study, I will soon learn how to defeat death. While I may choose apprentices, I will never choose a successor."

 — Darth Sidious, 

Marginalia in The Book of The Sith, 

in the section titled 

"Selecting an Apprentice"

“I Shall Be President ETERNALLY —

And Rule FOREVER!”

Lord-President Borusa

The Force is a concept

By which we measure

My Power

I'll say it again

The Force is a concept

By which we measure

My Power

I don't believe in magic

I don't believe in Qui-Gonn

I don't believe in Black Scrolls

I don't believe in Holocron

I don't believe in Vader

I don't believe in Grievous

I don't believe in Dooku

I don't believe in Sentirs

I don't believe in Mantra

I don't believe in Jedi

I don't believe in Yoda

I don't believe in Kings

I don't believe in Jabba

I don't believe in Anakin

I don't believe in Sith

I just believe in Me

Emperor Palpatine

That's Reality

The Dream is over

What can I say?

The Dream is over

Yesterday

I was The Senator

But now I'm reborn

I was Supreme Chancellor

But now I'm The Emperor

And so, loyal vassals

You'll just have to 

Obey My Will

The Dream is over...

“Know This : — Your Apprentice Will Kill You.

The Sith Order is Now a Lineage.

Or Do You Believe That You Will Live Forever....?”

The Book of The Sith

Writings

Abhinava tells us that the process of creative contemplation or holistic meditative inquiry (bhāvanā-krama) that leads to experiential knowing of reality is based on these three supports: 

❖ Sound and Careful Reflection on Your Experience (sat-tarka) 

❖ The Guidance of a Great Teacher (sad-guru) who is skilled in meditative enquiry and has attained its fruit 

❖ The Wisdom of The Scriptures (sad-āgama) 

“The Sacred Jedi TEXTS...!”

“Oh? Read Them, Have You....?”

•He hesitates and protests - No, he has not.•

“In this Galaxy, you gotta get The Missing Ancient Scrolls.

Then when you get The Missing Ancient Scrolls, you get The Power. 

Then, when you get The Power, then you get The Criminal Empire of Followers.

And you can do anything you want. That’s Why You Gotta Make Your Own Moves.”

— Snoke

 "Curious. I have brought The Sith to their ultimate victory. Through study, I will soon learn how to defeat death. While I may choose apprentices, I will never choose a successor."

 — Darth Sidious, 

Marginalia in The Book of The Sith, 

in the section titled 

"Selecting an Apprentice"

EPISTEMOLOGY 

One of the central concerns of philosophy is to investigate how we know what we know, if there is such a thing as certain knowledge, and, if so, how it is attained. This is a topic of concern to the Tantra as well, and it is explored in depth by the scholar-sages Utpala Deva and Abhinava Gupta. The difficult and abstruse nature of these discussions invite us to focus on a simpler formulation offered by the second author in his Essence of the Tantras. 

There Abhinava tells us that the process of creative contemplation or holistic meditative inquiry (bhāvanā-krama) that leads to experiential knowing of reality is based on these three supports: 

❖ sound and careful reflection on your experience (sat-tarka) 

❖ the guidance of a great teacher (sad-guru) who is skilled in meditative enquiry and has attained its fruit 

❖ the wisdom of the scriptures (sad-āgama) 

When these three come together in agreement, Abhinava suggests, we know we have arrived at truth. One or two of them is insufficient for certainty. In fact, allowing ourselves to abide in uncertainty about anything not supported by all three keeps us open and in a process of learning that closes down if we prematurely decide that we know. Usually in Indian philosophy, the first two valid means of knowledge that are argued for are direct perception and valid inference; here they are combined into sat-tarka, which means the process of drawing sound conclusions based on one’s experience. In logic (both Western and Indian), a conclusion is “sound” when the premises are true and the structure of thought leading to the conclusion is valid. To give a slightly modified version of the standard Indian example of a logical argument: Premise 1: Where there is smoke, there is fire (axiom based on the aggregate of one’s experiences). Premise 2: There is smoke on the mountain over there (direct observation). Conclusion: Therefore, there is fire on the mountain. The argument is called valid structurally because if the premises are true, the conclusion must also be true. But it is only sound (= correct) if the premises are in fact true. And this particular argument is an example of inference because there is no way to be one hundred per cent sure that there is always fire whenever and wherever there is smoke. The standard argument in the Indian system of logic is not deduction, which seeks to establish irrefutable certainty, but inference. Unlike in Western philosophy, in the Indian system you never decide that you know for sure, and so you never completely close yourself to unguessed possibilities. Thus the sense of wonder and openness that is the foundation of all philosophy is maintained. The problem of direct experience as a means of knowledge is that people often draw conclusions based on their experience that are logically invalid. They don’t realize they are doing so because their assumptions and the process by which they draw their conclusions usually go unexamined. Even more basically, they are often unable to separate their experience from their interpretation. People can get ruffled when their interpretation of their experience is questioned, saying, “But that’s my experience!” In fact, anything you can say in words about your experience is an interpretation, not the experience itself. On the path of inquiry into truth, we never devalue or dispense with reflection on our personal experience (note that Abhinava mentions it first), yet since we cannot be one hundred per cent certain about the conclusions we draw or how universally applicable they are, we soften our iron grip on our apparently safe and comfortable sense of certainty and seek to corroborate it with trusted authorities: the teacher and sacred scripture. To some Westerners, having the spiritual teacher and scripture as the other two legs of the tripod seems redundant. But this system of checks and balances is well worked out. Scripture exists as a representative document of a whole community; because even if a given scripture was written by just one person, it is transmitted (copied and recopied) for centuries if and only if some of its contents are effective for a wider group of people. As a document of collective wisdom perpetuated by community, scripture protects you from an aberrant teacher who preaches his own idiosyncratic experience as if it were universal, thereby potentially leading you astray. Of course, for this setup to work, you must read a scripture with your own judgment, not solely on the basis of the teacher’s interpretation of it. On the other hand, though scriptures are presumed to have been written by an awakened master, a healthy skepticism is maintained by requiring their wisdom to be corroborated by the other two sources of knowledge. Further, the requirement of the living teacher means that you are protected from an off-the-wall interpretation of scripture you arrived at in your own head. Such an interpretation might make sense to you, might even feel good, but is seen by the teacher with clear long-term view to be one that will eventually take you off track. Such a teacher will rarely say, “You’re wrong,” but will more likely challenge you to contemplate deeper, beyond your conditioned mind. This system of double corroboration for valid knowledge allows us to come up with seeds of wisdom that we can count on and build a spiritual life on. But the process is not completed until these seeds come to life as living, vibrating wisdom within us. That is, in the Tantra, we seek not just to know wisdom but to fully embody it. The evidence that you have done so is that you no longer need the external form of the teaching (the words or concepts); it has simply blossomed into living experience, unsupported by any reminders. When this happens, then no matter how beautiful the words of the teaching are, they seem to be flat or pale or inadequate in comparison with the actual experience.

Laertes Cheated and Did The Blade Envenom!

Can you imagine Hamlet if he'd decided to avenge his Dad's murder by dressing as Batman  and fighting crime in Downtown Elsinore?

Hamlet’s Father’s Name is ‘Hamlet’ — 

He’s Hamlet, Son of Hamlet

The Son of The Dane

And he isn’t The King — 

Why Not?

Because 

He’s Insane 

(maybe)

The Exorcist :
Colonel, do me a favor? Please?

Explain to this moron here that in none of the plays of Shakespeare can there be a part for Superman.

SUNSHINE-SUPERMAN :

There could be, the way I explained it.

The Exorcist :

The way you explained! Jesus!

You know what he wants? You want to hear?

When the conspirators draw their knives, he wants to rescue Julius Caesar!

Ready? Swoop down like a rocket, pick him up and go hurdling mighty temples in one single, incredible bound!

Jesus, Nammack. Are you crazy?

KANE :

Maybe we do need a few restrictions.

The Exorcist :

Colonel.

Colonel.

I'm in trouble, I need help. Immediate help.

Take an enema; call me soon.

Dr. Fell, you're wanted in surgery.

I've been having an argument, a monster... and I'll like you to settle it once and for all.

Some Shakespearean -

Hold this please.

Some Shakespearean scho -

Thank you.

Some Shakespearean scholars say, that when Hamlet is pretending he's crazy... 

He really IS crazy,

Correct?

KANE :

That's right.

The Exorcist :

Now, other Shakespearean scholars say, that when Hamlet...

Other Shakespearean scholars say that when Hamlet is pretending to be nuts... he really isn't nuts, its an act.

Please give me your opinion.

KANE :

I would like to hear your's first.

The Exorcist :

[ To the dog, Sir Lawrence, who is the one he is having the argument with. ]

Terrific psychiatrist.

That's class.

Dr. Fell (No, really, he did) :

Pretty...

The Exorcist :

Why don't you go inoculate a fucking armadillo, Fell?

Doctor Fell (No, Really, he did.) :

No really, I'm interested. 

I'm terribly interested.

The Exorcist :

Your interests are coextensive with on Nero's ass on Sunday morning.

Heady concept, Frankie.

Now listen, Colonel — 

Considering how Hamlet is acting... is he really and truly crazy?

Kane :

Yes.

Fell :

No.

The Exorcist :

You're BOTH wrong.

Now think what happens:

First the father dies; then his girl leaves him flat.

Then, there's the appearance by His Father's Ghost...

Bad enough, but then The Ghost says he was murdered.

And by whom?

By Hamlet's Uncle, 

who recently married Hamlet's Mother!

Now that by itself is a helluva hangup — 

because Hamlet LIKED His Mother... a LOT!

Kane :

But then we agreed than Hamlet's insane.

The Exorcist :

No, he's not.

He is pretending, but...

If Hamlet HADN’T pretended to BE crazy, 

he would have GONE crazy.

See, Hamlet isn't psycho.

He's hanging on a brink.

A little shove, a little teensy eensy little eensy push, and the kid's gone! Bananas! Whacked out!

So his unconscious mind makes

him do what keeps him sane... 

namely acting like he's nuts!

See 'Cause acting crazy...

...is a way to let off steam; a way to

get rid of your fucking aggression. 

A way to get rid of your fears and your terrors...

If I did what Hamlet does in this play, they'd lock me up; 

They'd put me in prison.

They'll punish me, sure!

But him? 

Prince Royal Garbagemouth gets away with murder. 

And why?

Because nuts are not responsible!

Meantime, the crazier Hamlet acts... the more he indulges himself, the healthier he gets!

Kane :

Yes. I think...

The Exorcist :

I'm waiting.

Kane :

I think I agree with your theory.

The Exorcist :

Yes! There!

You see? You understand that now,

you dumb stupid idiot?

From Now On, We Do The Scene My Way!

Come On, Sir Lawrence!

God bless your veins and your arteries, Colonel.

Sir Lawrence, you don't know shit...

Astronaut Capt. Billy Cutshaw :

Did he buy it?

The Exorcist :

Did he buy it?

Hell, I bought it.

Billy, I think there is something wrong with us.

Kane, The Killer :

Groper, get off the line.

The Hamlet theory is correct.

Twin Pylons

“In Traditional Western occult symbolism, the gateway to the lunar realm of imagination is flanked by twin pylons, or towers. 

If you look at most versions of the tarot trump number 18, the Moon, you will see these towers. They represent the door that separates the world of fantasy from material reality.

The descent of the kabbalistic thirty-second path of the tree of life describes an apocalyptic event involving the merging of two distinct spheres: the earthly and the lunar. The lunar sphere is the imagination, the world of thoughts and dreams. The earthly sphere is of the mundane, solid and heavy. In short, not only does real life become more like a story, stories must pay the price of this exchange by becoming more real and allowing the rules of the material world to impinge upon their insubstantial territories.

I can think of no more potent image of this union of real and imaginary than the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

How many times had we seen those towers fall? How many times had this soul-wrenching vision been rehearsed in our imaginations, and repeated in our fictions, almost as if we were willing it to happen, and dreaming of the day?

From the moment the towers were completed in 1973, they became a target for a sequence of imaginary demolitions.

King Kong was the first to climb them in Dino DeLaurentis’s pointless 1976 remake of the giant gorilla classic. They’d been smashed by tidal waves, blasted by aliens, shattered by meteor strikes, and pulverized by rogue asteroids. The terrible fall of the World Trade Center towers on September 11 had the curious inevitability of an answered prayer or the successful result of a black magic ritual.”

Grant Morrison, 

SuperGods

GUNDAN: 

There are 3 Physical Gateways and The 3 are 1. 

• The Whole of This Domain

• The Ancient Arch

• The Mirrors

DOCTOR: 

The thing is, it's not actually a physical gateway that I'm looking for. 

GUNDAN: 

All The Gateways are One. 

DOCTOR: 

Ah. So it is here — 

The Way Out

"Maury Gellman, the Nobel Prize-winner, got his Three-Quark-Model out of Finnegan’s Wake…. 

The Three Quarks are major characters in Finnegan’s Wake — 

The two twins who are opposites, and the third twin who is both twins combined, 

and still a third independent character."

pylon (n.)

1823, "gateway to an Egyptian temple," from Greek pylon "gateway," from pyle "gate, wing of a pair of double gates; an entrance, entrance into a country; mountain pass; narrow strait of water," of unknown origin. Meaning "tower for guiding aviators" (1909) led to that of "steel tower for high-tension wires" (1923).

pylorus (n.)

1610s, from Late Latin pylorus "the lower orifice of the stomach," from Greek pyloros, literally "gatekeeper, porter," from pyle "gate" (see pylon) + ouros "watcher, guardian," from PIE root *wer- (3) "perceive, watch out for." Related: Pyloric.

Thermopylae

narrow land passage along the Malian Gulf in ancient Greece, from Greek thermos "hot" (from PIE root *gwher- "to heat, warm") + pylai, plural of pyle "gate; mountain pass, entrance into a region" (see pylon). In reference to nearby hot sulfur springs. Often simply hai pylai "the gates." Figurative of heroic resistance against overwhelming numbers since the battle fought there between the Greeks and Persians in 480 B.C.E.

Zen Fascism

“Noh-Varr’s power was expressed not in the service of the status quo but as insurrection and anarchy. More frightening than his destructive capabilities were his beliefs.

We imagined our hero’s creed as a strange, unthinkable, untranslatable mix of seeming opposites, described in the text as “Zen Fascism.” We’d all seen what ray guns and flying saucers could do, but what if the alien had a belief system so seductive, so powerful and ultimately corrosive that it could destroy our own social structures? In a move that seems prescient, Jones and I had him attack Manhattan, burning the words FUCK YOU into the street grid, big enough to be read from space.

The third issue introduced Hexus the Living Corporation, an alien entity that arrived on our planet in the form of a mysterious logo. Hexus would root itself in a small office space somewhere and start spawning recruitment flyers —“DO YOU SINCERELY WANT TO GET RICH?”— to attract employees, who would then be swiftly assimilated into its workforce. Hexus traded up to bigger and bigger headquarters as it proceeded through its lifecycle. It was a naturally occurring “wild” corporate intelligence, a superpredator that began to gobble up the market territory of our own synthetic corporations, like Fox and AOL, on its way to devouring our planet’s entire resources before sending out its spores in the form of spaceships carrying Hexus flyers. In the end, Noh-Varr defeated the creature by leaking its secrets to its competitors, who then tore the pretender apart on the international stock exchange. 

With her beloved Noh-Varr banged up in an inescapable superpenitentiary, which he’d vowed with a smile to transform into the “CAPITAL CITY OF THE NEW KREE EMPIRE,” Oubliette was pictured in the bombed ruins of Disneyland with Donald Duck lying facedown behind her, while the voice of Horus echoed loud and clear:

“THIS IS THE END OF THE WAY THAT WAS. COSMIC JIHAD HAS BEGUN. YOU ASKED FOR THIS.”

A horrified President Bill Clinton stroked his chin, perhaps suspecting he wasn’t long for office:

“… IT WAS THE WAY SHE KEPT SHOOTING THE POOR DUCK GUY IN THE BACK LIKE THAT. I DON’T BELIEVE I’LL EVER FORGET THAT IMAGE.”

And in hindsight, Marvel Boy, like The Authority, seems almost to be a transmission from a very different world that was waiting for us all across the millennial barricade.”

Excerpt From

Supergods

Grant Morrison

Stormer

This is What I am Called.

I am called Glad-O-War, Grim, Raider, 

and Third.

I am One-Eyed.

I am also called Highest, and True Guesser.

I am Grimnir, and the Hooded One.

I am All-Father, Gondlir, Wand-bearer.

I have as many names as there are winds.

As many titles as there are ways to die.

My ravens are 

Huginn and Muninn, 

Thought and Memory.

My wolves are 

Freki and Geri.

My horse is 

The Gallowed.

I am Odin! 

Odin

The Highest and The Oldest 

of all the gods is Odin.

Odin knows many secrets. 

He gave an eye for wisdom. 

More than that, for knowledge of runes, 

and for power, 

he sacrificed himself to himself.

He hung from the world-tree, Yggdrasil, 

hung there for nine nights. 

His side was pierced by the point of a spear, which wounded him gravely. 

The winds clutched at him, buffeted his body as it hung. 

Nothing did he eat for nine days or nine nights, nothing did he drink. 

He was cold, in agony, and on the point of death when his sacrifice bore dark fruit: in the ecstasy of his agony he looked down, and the runes were revealed to him. 

He knew them, and understood them and their power. 

The rope broke then, and he fell, screaming, from the tree.

Now he understood magic. 

Now The World was his to control.

Odin has many names. 

He is the all-father, the lord of the slain, the gallows god. 

He is the god of cargoes and of prisoners. 

He is called Grimnir and Third. 

He has different names in every country (for he is worshipped in different forms and in many tongues, but it is always Odin they worship).

He travels from place to place in disguise, to see the world as people see it. 

When he walks among us, he does so as a tall man, wearing a cloak and hat.

He has two ravens, whom he calls Huginn “and Muninn, which mean “thought” and “memory.” These birds fly back and forth across the world, seeking news and bringing Odin all the knowledge of things. They perch on his shoulders and whisper into his ears.

When he sits on his high throne at Hlidskjalf, he observes all things, wherever they may be. Nothing can be hidden from him.

He brought war into the world: battles are begun by throwing a spear at the hostile army, dedicating the battle and its deaths to Odin. If you survive in battle, it is with Odin’s grace, and if you fall it is because he has betrayed you.

If you fall bravely in war the Valkyries, beautiful battle-maidens who collect the souls of the noble dead, will take you and bring you to the hall known as Valhalla. He will be waiting for you in Valhalla, and there you will drink and fight and feast and battle, with Odin as your leader.

Thor

Thor, Odin’s son, is the thunderer. He is straightforward where his father Odin is cunning, good-natured where his father is devious.

Huge he is, and red-bearded, and strong, by far the strongest of all the gods. “His might is increased by his belt of strength, Megingjord: when he wears it, his strength is doubled.

Thor’s weapon is Mjollnir, a remarkable hammer, forged for him by dwarfs. Its story you will learn. Trolls and frost giants and mountain giants all tremble when they see Mjollnir, for it has killed so many of their brothers and friends. Thor wears iron gloves, which help him to grip the hammer’s shaft.

Thor’s mother was Jord, the earth goddess. Thor’s sons are Modi, the angry, and Magni, the strong. Thor’s daughter is Thrud, the powerful.

His wife is Sif, of the golden hair. She had a son, Ullr, before she married Thor, and Thor is Ullr’s stepfather. Ullr is a god who hunts with “bow and with arrows, and he is the god with skis.

Thor is the defender of Asgard and of Midgard.

There are many stories about Thor and his adventures. You will encounter some of them here.

Loki

Loki is very handsome. He is plausible, convincing, likable, and far and away the most wily, subtle, and shrewd of all the inhabitants of Asgard. It is a pity, then, that there is so much darkness inside him: so much anger, so much envy, so much lust.

Loki is the son of Laufey, who was also known as Nal, or needle, because she was slim and beautiful and sharp. His father was said to be Farbauti, a giant; his name means “he who strikes dangerous blows,” and Farbauti was as dangerous as his name.

Loki walks in the sky with shoes that fly, and he can transform his shape so he looks like other people, or change into animal form, but his real weapon is his mind. He is more cunning, subtler, trickier than any god or giant. Not even Odin is as cunning as Loki.

Loki is Odin’s blood brother. The other gods do not know when Loki came to Asgard “The other gods do not know when Loki came to Asgard, or how. He is Thor’s friend and Thor’s betrayer. He is tolerated by the gods, perhaps because his stratagems and plans save them as often as they get them into trouble.

Loki makes the world more interesting but less safe. He is the father of monsters, the author of woes, the sly god.

Loki drinks too much, and he cannot guard his words or his thoughts or his deeds when he drinks. Loki and his children will be there for Ragnarok, the end of everything, and it will not be on the side of the gods of Asgard that they will fight.”