Cultivating the Garden
“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15).
“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken” (Gen. 3:23).
The level of consciousness we call ‘human’ is a transformative level, whose chief characteristic is the impulse to shape and transform the environment it inhabits.
In other words, if we speak not of the purpose of consciousness as such, but of the particular current of human consciousness, its characteristic feature is the transformation of matter, the ordering of the environment.
When we talk about the ‘destiny’ of humanity, we must remember that, understood narrowly, this destiny does not consist in “self-improvement” as such, but in perfecting oneself by shaping and cosmizing matter. This is precisely what the quotations from Genesis above indicate: humankind was created to ‘cultivate the Garden’, and, even after losing perfection, to cultivate the “ground.” In other words, humankind as a particular level of consciousness comes to know itself by exploring possibilities of its transforming influence on matter and the response of matter to that influence.
In a certain sense, modern humanity performs this destiny admirably — we live in a world that is thoroughly and extensively “cultivated” — yet the second component, self-knowledge in that cultivation, has been lost.
This situation is in fact described in Genesis itself — instead of tending the “Enclosed Place,” that is, transforming, ordering, cosmizing one’s mind in concert with the transformation of the objects of that mind, people busy themselves only with “tilling the ground from which he was taken,” that is, separates themselves from the environment, directs their activity solely outward, and in doing so loses the balance and coherence of development. In biblical terms this is what “the knowledge of good and evil” means — the emergence of dualistic thinking, in which action is detached from both the agent and the object, and influence is detached from awareness.
Human life continuously transforms matter; everything we do brings changes to the surrounding world. Yet it is crucial to remember, first, the action must be constructive — cultivating, and second, must remain connected to self-knowledge. Humankind was meant not only to ‘cultivate’, but also to “keep” the “Garden,” that is, not merely to alter matter, but to promote its ensoulment and thereby ensure contact between Being and the mind. “Cultivation and keeping,” occurring simultaneously in the macrocosm and the psychocosm, must be the Way of self-knowledge through action that most fully realizes the human mind’s potential.
The Western and Eastern Ways, each in its own way, attempt to restore this harmony lost by the human mind: the East primarily seeks to order the subject of knowledge, while the West focuses on the object; yet the ultimate aim — harmonious action — is the same.
The Magus seeks not merely to realize his will; for him this realization is an instrument for the development of the mind, a tool for knowing the possibilities of the active mind and the environment’s response to that influence. Only by striving not to sever action and the awareness of that action, influence and its reaction, does the mind of the Magus acquire the inviolability and breadth necessary to transcend conditioned existence.
If ‘incorrect perception is the foundation on which distorted systems of consciousness interaction are built’, then why are ‘the efforts of the magician not directed towards this cleansing of perception, towards the perception of matrices’?
‘It turns out that consciousness somehow shifts the center of its existence from the moment of perception, interaction, and adjustment of energies to the descriptive part, taking this description for the object itself.
It’s good if consciousness is capable of catching the matrix of the object; usually, it is so destructured that it sees only a distorted image – the form.’
The image (the perceived template) of manifestation is always smaller than the real manifestation, just as any worldview is always smaller than the world itself. For example, take the same tree. What do we perceive when we look at the tree? – ‘Usually, there is a perception by the subject – a human, who acts as an active element of the binary, – of the object – the tree, which is the passive part of the binary and is ‘waiting’ for an active impact on itself. From this perspective, it seems that the tree is something from which a house can be built, a fire can be started, or used in other ways. Consciousness departs from self-identity and plunges into the world of forms, and in it, nothing remains that could serve as a support since the only reliable foundation – one’s own self-awareness is forgotten.’ – ‘Constructive perception would consist of perceiving trees as one of the forms of self-awareness of the Great Spirit manifested in the object with certain properties, and fundamentally not different from the perceiving subject.’
Yes, ‘it is important to understand that the perception of eidos does not mean an increase in the amount of the Power of awareness, but only means the cleansing of the screen of perception.’
– BUT ‘The transition from perception of forms to the perception of eidos, matrices, – means cleansing the consciousness of all polluting components, complexes, and influences.’
After all, ‘Magic develops the flexibility of consciousness necessary to transition from fitting each perception to an already existing template to the perception itself as such – pure interaction of energies.’
The moment when consciousness shifts the center of its being from the very moment of perception, interaction, and adjustment of energies to the descriptive part – is the moment when reality is replaced by illusion. The adults explain to the growing young one: ‘This tree we will chop down and make a stool from, and this animal we will kill and eat’ – Isn’t it during the period when adults explain the world to the child that an infiltration of consciousness occurs with ‘substitutions’, which are expressed in false basic concepts – distractors on which human consciousness is built – the victim’s consciousness?’ I would add the ‘victim-predator’ consciousness here, something like ‘Eat or be eaten’.
And here, the consciousness of the growing young one, filled with the cognitive syntax of human society, begins to cultivate the Garden or the Earth – and cultivates as the authorities instructed. The consequences of this cultivation are evident, as they say.
Yes, and when it comes to the CORRECTION (Gmar Tikkun) of the Western magician, I completely do not understand where one can find objective criteria for assessing the correctness of the CORRECTION.
Only in the comment hanging under this one of yours, you all knew about the world order and clarified it. About the waves and dualism, about choice, and very cheerfully. And I noticed that real awareness of all this would give completely different manifestations and different consciousness, your usual story would begin with seemingly condescending clarifications and smiles.
I believe that we live in a wonderfully arranged thing. That we ourselves are a mirror, and everything around us is also a mirror. I don’t always remember this in the moment of play, but I generally know it. For me, the association is very clear because not too long ago, I got lost in a mirror maze in reality; we have such an attraction. It’s hard to call me romantic, but I consider everything to be wonderfully arranged, that yes, in its purest form, our consciousness is a perspective. And the entire mirrored structure, in a way, helps to realize this and learn to be through this perspective. It’s long and expensive… but I don’t see another way around. I can be frightened by my reflection, as I was in the real dark maze, being on the verge of hysteria and in it, confronting other people and not understanding where the exit is and which step to take, but ultimately I understand that there’s no point in blaming the mirror. If you change something, look at the reflection, and if you’re not happy, then continue on. But you chase after the mirror, with speeches and cries. And then, ah, the world is indifferent, ah, predation. You say the world is a mirror, so here’s your reflection. You say it’s a distorted mirror; well, you have told me that in different ways many times, so if you don’t like it, don’t look. Or create something of your own. A mirror on the scale of the universe can’t be persuaded in any way. And the same on the scale of an individual, too.
The image of the labyrinth with talking mirrors overlapped with the labyrinth with the Minotaur. How to get through this labyrinth and survive? To talk with the mirrors or to dismantle them? There is also a need to track down one’s Minotaur and create a garden. Enmerkar: “It turns out that the ‘tending of the garden’ spoken of in religious texts acquires a quite obvious psychocosmic meaning, which lies in the necessity of constant ‘weeding’ the field of perception and removing from it the sprouts of destructive patterns. –Control, which is the main characteristic of the disciplined consciousness of the mage, is largely directed precisely at preventing the pollution of his consciousness with destructive elements. –Tracking one’s energetic status, the nature of one’s interactions and perceptions for the purpose of accumulating or losing Force is the key that helps maintain the Path despite obstacles and challenges. –In each element, and therefore, in a human being as a conglomerate of such elements, there is something that powerfully resists the spread of Awareness, and therefore- the accumulation of strength. –The complete attractiveness of the Parasite makes it incapable of synthesis, and therefore, any action aimed at neutralizing the binaries (that is – accumulating Strength) is perceived by it as undesirable. All that the Parasite wants is for the Strength to flow into oblivion, not returning from there. Tavita: You win — by NOT DOING the actions they provoke — then the wave calms down and goes by itself, while the strength remains.