Pleasure and Necessity
Since the meaning and purpose of manifested existence is the actualization of the mind’s potentials through its interaction with being (“matter”), there must be within the mind a certain mechanism that allows it to assess the effectiveness of that interaction. This mechanism takes the form of the feeling of “pleasure,” that is — subjective enjoyment, which originally serves to indicate that a given interaction is successful and effective.
In its original meaning, we find “tasty” the food that supplies the substances we currently lack; we find “pleasant” the people whose interaction can positively affect our mind; we find “blissful” those spiritual experiences that lead the mind to growth and expansion, and so on. At all levels of manifested reality, the feeling of more or less intense pleasure is meant to serve as a beacon indicating that the chosen mode of interaction or direction of movement is right, corresponding to the system’s internal needs.
Thus, a being’s striving — both at the level of the body and at the level of the mind — for pleasure is, in its original nature, its desire to confirm the rightness of its path, of the effectiveness of its interactions. A creature deprived of pleasures easily becomes disoriented, loses its sense of direction and is prone to despondency and loss of Power.
At the same time, it is clear that pleasure is not a standalone driving force, and although it does motivate certain choices, it is based on need, a necessity for particular resources or interactions. Nevertheless, being by nature an adaptive stimulus, pleasure easily becomes an end in itself, losing its “positive” context in the case of “excessive” interaction with a factor that is useful in a “small” dose but, in excess, leads to impairment of free action.
It follows that every action of a manifested being occurs under the influence of two interacting drives — the drive to satisfy needs and the drive to obtain pleasure, which, although interdependent, can be experienced as different motivational schemes.
A tilt toward either of these components reduces the system’s effectiveness. If a being begins to strive solely for the attainment of pleasure, striving, once a “guiding star,” becomes destructive, a pursuit of pleasures and reinforcement. On the level of the body this may manifest in various forms of gluttony, alcoholism or drug addiction; on the level of the mind — in a race for “states” and “effects” — and it can result in a loss of freedom and the destruction of the body (in the form of obesity or other pathology), or in a dulling of the mind’s flow (or even its damage by “strikes of light”). This immersion into the destructive abyss of the Dionysian principle is traditionally symbolized by the figure of the “Prince of Pleasures” — Asmodea. No “overeating” — neither at the level of the body nor at the level of the mind — is beneficial; it always leads to a loss of health, of body or mind.
At the same time, if a being completely rejects pleasures and strives only for practicality, it loses zest for life, the depth of the mind’s engagement with being, merely skimming the surface of “unclean” matter with the mind, and thus loses effectiveness in interacting with it and the vigor of its development. Such “sticking” in the Apollonian light is traditionally described as slavery to the “Demon of Rationality,” Astaroth. Restricting non-destructive interactions is counterproductive — neither at the level of the body nor at the level of the mind — is effective; it is accompanied by a loss of depth in manifested existence and a devaluation of existence.
For the Magus striving for maximizing interaction effectiveness between the psyche and macrocosm, it is vitally important to maintain a balance between the two stimulus systems: on the one hand, the Magus must not become an ascetic who rejects the manifested world, sliding into a denial of the value of the manifested world in any of its aspects; but on the other hand he must not be driven by pleasure, chasing it, understanding that the primary goal is to realize the maturing interactions, their recognition and actualization.
Isn’t it too great a simplification to reduce Sensuality and Rationality to a binary? Imho, they form two lines of the quaternary.
The conversation is not about binaries and quaternaries now, nor about the structure of consciousness as such. The conversation now is about two groups of stimuli – homeostatic and hedonistic, and their mutual importance. Only about that.
This way you build a beautiful philosophy for years, like Ananda – the main goal, to justify your wild desire for wild pleasures, and then suddenly realize that it’s ‘just’ the influence of Asmodeus… A very effective method of ‘goetic psychoanalysis’. You check, trying to be as honest with yourself as possible, each demon for the degree of its influence. And you understand that many demons have influence, but it is often situational and not always heavy. But two of them have almost constant and unyielding influence: Nahemoth and Asmodeus. By the way, they have ‘family ties’ between themselves. And if you start to suppress your desires for pleasure (Asmodeus), Nahemoth immediately kicks in with her terrible fears of the future and the desire to crush everyone who looked askance. And also with the regret that in the inner struggle against Asmodeus, suppressing your wild desires – in the best case, you create no discomfort for anyone outside, but you lose your irretrievably departing time and all your energy. You create nothing. But at least you fight… It’s better to strive for pleasures, only in a maximally controlled way, probably. But how.
I dare to publish a piece from my diaries. “People help each other for the release of endorphins. People kill each other for the release of endorphins. People sacrifice themselves for anyone and anything, rationalizing this ‘for’ as high and beautifully as possible, but in reality it is all for the release of endorphins. People torture each other for the release of endorphins. People love for a long or powerful process of endorphin release (and oxytocin). People do everything or don’t do anything, understanding this or not understanding, that in the end it is all exclusively far away – for the release of endorphins. The Hosts just planned it that way…”
A lighthouse shows the way, but the lighthouse is not always the goal of the way. The goal is determined by the master or the captain of the ship, sometimes this does not coincide.
The Way is the Goal. And the end point is the same for all, no matter which captain you serve – Death.
Death is not the end. For understanding death, the word inversion fits well. Death worlds are an integral part of nature. Everything alters, breaks down, transforms and continues to exist.
A beautiful Tale. Sometimes I envy the storytellers. But there is not a single empirical proof, only faith and a series of dubious facts used to support this faith. But I do not want to argue with the storytellers. It’s better to continue my Path regardless of everything. I am increasingly only interested in empirics.
The world is already cracking at the seams from the amount of empty words. And almost no one dares to experiment. It’s scary. It’s easier to click keys. And I attribute this primarily to myself. What I once liked about Chaos Magic is that the approach is absolutely empirical. Set the clearest task, define markers by which it will be possible to determine the solution of the task. Picked specific rituals. Recorded the initial data and the planned list of changes to reality. Conducted the rituals. Waited for the latent period. Using observation, captured what happened in the world afterward. Wrote everything down. Compared the previously recorded initial data with the current processes in reality. Drew conclusions. That’s how everything should be researched. But this is linear. Life is nonlinear, and Death is even less understandable. But this is not a reason to stop.
One more addition regarding Tales and Faith. In fact, there is nothing wrong with Tales. I’m not talking about that. Tales are just wonderful within a stable world because it is also an aspect of pleasure, cheaper than the chase for expensive trendy material gadgets, and it is a wonderful way to escape from gloom caused by some often contrived problems. Here, it is raining outside, slush, darkness. You can walk down the street and curse the weather, the mud, pity yourself, pay attention to how the splashes from puddles dirty your clothes, get angry at the whole world and plunge into depression, etc. Or you can feel and then see in all this an amazing Mystery of Nature. Feel and understand how behind every stone a fairy hides, how in puddles reflections of blurry images of tours arise, and see an eternal, unchanging meaning addressed personally to you, in how streams of magical rain flow, filling with incredible power and inspiration from all this… This way you can build entire worlds, quite stable in your consciousness, filled with absolutely real inhabitants for you and high meaning. I myself engaged in such activities; it brings a lot of pleasure and is inexpensive. And then suddenly objective reality comes to your world and leaves no stone unturned. And then, for five long years, you recover. Although in other countries, where the world is more stable, there are social guarantees – you can easily live long and be happy… But the problem is that wherever you live and whatever you do – Death will still come. War, famine, bankruptcy, even demons and early diseases can fail to show up. You can protect yourself from many things and avoid contact, just wrapping up warm with a scarf, avoiding bad neighborhoods, etc., and continue to be happy in a Magical Tale. Which, I repeat, will be absolutely real and perhaps even tangible for you. But even if (theoretically) you do not encounter anything objectively destructive throughout your life – in the end, nonetheless, without options! comes It – Absolute Objectivity. You can argue long about objectivity and subjectivity. Maybe indeed beyond the Threshold of Death we will all wake up and laugh at our fears. I just don’t know. But I have encountered things that I could not stop simply by the force of my thought. Perhaps the level of development is still low. That’s why I say that I have no choice – but to simply move on.
I admire your statement: Life is Nonlinear, Death is Less Comprehensible, but all this is not a reason to stop. …and regarding the algorithm of actions you described – it may be applicable not only in the context of Chaos Magic but in Magic in general. There is an operator and a ritual, there is the coupling of Consciousness with the fabric of reality – as a result, the energy whirlwind is directed towards the goal of its realization, and the operator observes the consequences, and if the intention is strong enough, and the purity of energy is high enough, then the consequences will not be long in coming.
Some will call conversations with the dead a fairy tale, a figment… And for some mediums, communicating with the dead is like going out for bread))) Some think within the bounds of ‘create a world’, others within the bounds of ‘create a whirlwind’. For someone, reality is ‘the specifics of the physical world’, a table is a table, a tree is a tree, and not some mythical world tree or an intelligent energy network. What is not proven by science and does not rely on physical laws does not exist. And for someone, the world goes beyond the bounds of physics. And this is experience, a psychically experienced real experience. Have you not thought about how valuable our experience is? It grows into our world, into the fabric of our reality. For someone else, it may be a fairy tale, empty words, while for some it is a list of possibilities)) We want to understand what death is… But what are we? The body? The body belongs to nature, we will dissolve in it, decompose into microelements, soak into the earth, into the water… Into new life. Our death is not in vain; we will become good fertilizer))) But maybe we are something more than just a body? I recently read an article about the power of randomness, if you measure the average speed of RNA synthesis in individual cells, it will ‘wander’ randomly from side to side, but if you measure the same speed, for example, in an entire liver, you will get a constant and clearly defined value. Millions of random events align with each other, creating the impression of ‘non-randomness’ from a distance. This is how we are like separate cells of one organism. And our death differs in our understanding and that of this organism. It is not death that needs to be understood, but life. To value it. The eternal question – why does the sun rise if it still sets, why live if we will all die anyway, why strive to meet someone you will ultimately part from? To appreciate the moments, to gain experience…
What a wonderful comment. How I adore altered states of consciousness (some lucky ones are in them constantly, the dead only help – I know), when everything flows as a single stream, when it doesn’t matter to physical laws because the experiences of experiences go beyond the boundaries of boundaries. Experience here and now becomes an irreplaceable and main value. Fragments of thoughts create the most beautiful roundelay of words and actions. Everything is determined by deep individual aesthetics. As Aleister Crowley said – these are rituals in which every action becomes an orgasm… And then morning comes…
What would you think if I said that there is no Higher Meaning in life? Rather, it was invented by us. There is a game. The rest is an illusion of meaning.
There is no meaning; the evening sunset looks through the windows. There are no thoughts, there’s only tea and its aroma. I drink the moment, looking the world straight in the eyes, And what is this meaning, if the world fills me? # I do not know to whom this question is addressed, Numen, but I will say that perhaps it is not necessary to think, invent, assign importance to ‘meaning’, but just to be. Then there will be no illusions 🙂 And not just to be, but to be inspired)) It doesn’t matter who, how… Each in their own way)) Inspiration is the overflowing creative fire of power from within, intertwining simple words into vibrant patterns of poetry, filling spells with power, filling actions with life)) Then properly understood dissatisfaction leads beyond the bounds of boundaries, beyond the limits of comfort into new horizons. No, this is not done by endorphins; they are just a consequence and reaction of our organism. This is done by……
I certainly agree with you. But after the previous night, when suddenly my soul restored the lost elements and Nigredo finished – I can no longer say that everything can be predicted and controlled. Someone helped me, or the internal mechanism just worked that way…
I sincerely apologize, but the attempt to write responses initially on another site, so as not to accidentally send unfinished comments, was unsuccessful))) I would be grateful if you delete my unsuccessful copy.
Numen, Death is the end. The term Inversion does not fit at all for the explanation/understanding of Death. Rather – a being that has lost ‘the taste for life’ decides to commit suicide – that would be inversion. ‘After life’ is not Death. Death is a ‘moment’ – which a normal living being will avoid by all the bright and dark corners of their soul and spirit. ‘After life’ is ‘endorphin release’ under the clicking of keys or the crackling of the fire. But, if we speak from an observer’s perspective – then yes – everything changes, life continues, worlds transform, death can be comprehended. Call the Shaman from the dreams of worlds From deep caves – of thoughts, dreams, Winged creatures – the smiths of my chains. (You have waited long…) Today I am ready to hunt. Bless, Shaman, my weapon (Your voice destroys my peace) – This staff, it is always on the Path with me … (So I don’t forget you, Shaman, for ages). … Today – with Your voice I will sing a song, Today I am the Shaman,… and you are my Call Today – your gaze will open My eyelids. … Today – Spirit, in battle, found Harmony.
Our life is soaked in the sun, The sun warms having absorbed the strength of life. Our vision sees the illusion, That which we create from the imaginary. Where is the beginning and where is the end? Neither the spirit of Creation nor the Exalted One will tell you. When will we understand the sought-after? The devil will tell us with a smirk. And the angel of darkness will issue a lecture, Looking down benevolently at the questioner.
Why is death less comprehensible? Create your own world. To balance so that demons do not feed on it, create a world of death and explore to your health.
“… Create your own world, create a world of death…” but where is the guarantee that this world will survive your death? “… Each has their secret personal world. There is, in this world, the best moment. There is, in this world, the scariest hour, but all of this is unknown to us. And if a person dies, the first snow of theirs dies with them, and the first kiss, and the first fight… All this they take with them. Yes, books and bridges remain, machines and the canvases of artists, yes, much is destined to remain, but something still goes away! Such is the law of the ruthless game. People do not die, worlds do…” © Yevgeny Yevtushenko
You are absolutely right, worlds are born and die, just like everything else. A mage creates worlds to learn interaction and understanding of laws, including our world with you. I see how forces are born, I learn to build balance, I watch how beings develop, and how they are encroached upon. An advanced world exists independently of its creator if its generation is set up properly. Not only do I develop it, but the world, as it develops, also develops me, providing support.
2 Numen, I quite agree with you. In biology, this is called in vitro, and now even more promising – in silico, compared to in vivo. Just don’t mix them up! The worlds for which one does not want to take more real responsibility can be created from more easily destructible matter. For example, hellish worlds, which still exist internally in ‘I’, and as long as they are not manifested and explored explicitly – they will rise their ugly heads at the most inopportune time.
To HELngo: ……..perhaps this is how the Flow becomes physically tangible……….when you realize that someone feels similarly to how you feel.. _ …but about the crackling of the fire – I do not agree – sometimes, in a lonely night forest under the crackling of a fire, amazing things happen, far exceeding the usual picture of the world..
How can one understand the boundary between whim and genuine desire? Suppose there is a desire, and there is a simple and direct way to fulfill it, but something is holding you back, doubts, dissatisfaction, an eternal chase for something better, even more perfect. Does this mean that the suitable option does not correspond to the true will, or is it all just flotsam? Where is honesty, and where is coercion?
Q: It is necessary to draw a vector between acceptable positive background and what you want. If you impoverish your demon, you impoverish your essence; if you give it too much freedom, you lose control over yourself. The line here is very thin, and maintaining balance is crucial. This is a subtle work on oneself.
A whim is the desire of a limited being, stemming from its private goals or inclinations. A desire is an aspiration that arises from the very logic of the flow of awareness, following from its previous states and leading to subsequent ones. Accordingly, to understand whether the attraction we are presently experiencing is a whim or a desire, we must ask ourselves with whom we are identifying at that moment, who is the one in whom this attraction arises? And if we are certain that the realization of this attraction contributes to the development of our consciousness, then it is indeed a desire. However, when the impulse has already arisen, when something is already striving to be realized, when the attraction that seeks satisfaction has already formed, it still needs to be realized, regardless of what its nature is, as any suppressed, unrealized, uncompensated impulse forms a shadow, which is certainly not beneficial for consciousness.