Achieving and Maintaining Justifiable Awe
Do you consider economic reform to be one of the sciences, and possibly even the highest form of science, or are you mainly interested in making money through science and/or the sciences?
Successful quaternary students are as much involved in the practice of
political reform as they are in developing, and improving upon, the
theory. They are also actively involved in reforming economies.
Perhaps you do not regard yourself as such a student.
Perhaps you do not know how to contribute urgently to a process of justice.
How have you been attempting to reform yourself, and why have you had so little success in doing so?
How are you currently involved in developing and implementing political reform strategies, and where, and why?
How are you currently involved in developing and implementing economic reform strategies, and where, and why?
How have you been seeking to reform health systems, education systems, political systems, financial systems and other systems?
What do you know about harm?
What do you know about charm?
When do you know you must sound an alarm?
When are you in awe?
When are you a bore?
What do you adore?
What do you abhor?
Harm cannot be prevented when greed, corruption and incompetence are prevalent.
Corruption can only be overcome through the improvement of political systems.
Political and bureaucratic incompetence is often evident in the prevalence of societal confusion.
How do you assess your own diligence?
How do you define a person?
How do you define yourself?
What are your views regarding security?
How have you assessed your own freedom, and threats to it?
How carefully do you perform assessments and conduct re-assessments, and how do you know?
How do you tell the difference between reasonable guidance and unreasonable force?
How do you prevent accidents and other disruptions to your plans?
How do you ensure your experiences of pleasure do not have negative consequences for yourself or anyone else?
How do you prevent yourself from causing harm to humans and non-humans?
How do you try to protect beneficial experiences from degradation?
Who helps you to learn from science, and how, and for what purpose?
What do you know about axioms?
What do you know about the etymology of the word assumption?
If you follow a particular religion, Assumption may have a special meaning for you, or not as the case may be.
What do you know about the etymology of the word presumption?
What do you know about the meaning of presumption in legal systems, including presumption in the canon law of the Catholic Church?
How do the arts inform your view of political history?
How does your understanding of history inform your understanding of economics and politics?
If you ever imagine yourself going back in time, why do you do so, and from whose point of view?
If you ever imagine yourself staying within a particular time in history, even if one from only a few years ago, why do you do so?
If you ever imagine yourself going forward in time faster than usual time, why do you do so?
Perhaps you are attempting to flee from the past, or from a person, or memory, or obligation.
What have been your experiences of people at various times of your life, in various locations?
What have been your experiences of intentional communities?
What have been your experiences of unintentional ones?
What have been your experiences of a sense of awe and a sense of wonder?
How do you usually think about the concepts of before, during and after?
How do you usually think about time and continuity?
How do you usually think about the ephemeral and the timeless?
How do you usually think about beginnings, middles and ends?
What have been your experiences of initiations and inductions, and possibly even ordinations?
Where, if anywhere, have you sought out the numinous?
Perhaps you have done so through experiences of nature.
Perhaps you have done so through experiences of culture.
What do you know about economic activities in earlier centuries in one location or another?
What do you know about political activities in earlier centuries, in various locations?
What do you know about the history of particular families, including your own?
What do you know about opportunistic practices and the harm they cause?
How do you know when intentionally achieving awe, in yourself and/or other people, is justified?
How do you know when deliberately achieving a feeling of awe in other people's minds is unjustified and possibly even abusive?
Who have you terrified, and when, and why, and how?
Who have you impressed, and when, and why, and how?
Perhaps you would prefer to associate wonderful witches with a sense of wonder rather than a feeling of awe.
All meanings are contextual.
All concepts are open to interpretation.
Perhaps you do not usually think much at all about the meanings and feelings associated with objects and concepts and spaces and their influence on your thoughts and actions.
In families, shared meanings are often absent, even when particular meanings are assumed to exist in particular minds.
What does the word family mean to you, and why?
Many social groups, including family groups, are haphazardly drawn together through shared interests and/or shared beliefs, or through the ascribed characteristics and ascribed status of their members.
How do you know you have prepared adequately for the circumstances you
are currently facing and those you may possibly face in the near or
distant future?
When did you begin making those preparations?
With whom have you been making the preparations, if anyone?
How do you establish your expectations?
How do you establish your needs?
How do you confront your fears?
How do you attempt to cope with, and overcome, confusion?
How do you attempt to distinguish between justice and injustice?
How do you know when a practice should justifiably be regarded as cruel and/or corrupt?
How, if at all, do you attempt to prevent yourself from being wasteful, whether of money, time, food, water, land or opportunities?
How different from your usual self do you feel when experiencing art or any other aesthetic expression or feeling?
How do you respond to nature, as witnessed through your perceptions, your emotions, your intellect and/or your knowledge, and when?
How do you respond to your usual self?
How do you know when you do not feel like your usual self?
How does your self-concept relate to feelings of awe?
Unjustifiable awe is terrifying and therefore disturbingly shocking.
Unlike unjustifiable awe, therefore, justifiable awe is not intended to be traumatising or otherwise dangerous, whether physically, mentally or otherwise.
To experience the awe-inspiring power of nature can be overwhelming and exhausting, even without feeling in imminent danger.
Yet, in the English language, the words awesome and awful have become clichéd.
How do you usually discover the awe-inspiring?
What, if anything, is awe-inspiring about you?
What is inspiring about you, and to whom?
But who is justified in instilling such feelings in other people, and who is not, and when, and why?
How do you distinguish between achieving awe and achieving respect?
Perhaps you are often afraid of feeling embarrassed or otherwise ashamed, and possibly even guilty of causing offence, or fear, or confusion, or embarrassment.
How do you know whether your beliefs are enlightened or not?
What do you know about traditions?What do you know about habits?
How do you authentically respond to fear?
How do you prefer to respond to dilemmas and other predicaments?
Who and/or what prevents you from acting as you would prefer in such situations?
How thoroughly and consistently do you question the political legitimacy of absolutist regimes of the past and present?
Perhaps you are too afraid to do so.
How do you know you are not a hypocrite?
How do you know when laws are contradictory and/or unjust?
How do you usually respond to the phrase 'the end justifies the means'?
How do you know you are not greedy?
How do you know you are not grandiose?
How do you know whether a rule is morally defensible or not?
What gives you contentment, and why?
Perhaps you experience considerable contentment whilst looking at art and/or reading history and/or learning about nature and/or appreciating beauty in all its varieties and/or by deeply acquainting yourself with peacefulness.
Perhaps your view of nature is overly romantic.
Wonderful witches avoid being overly romantic.
How do you usually reflect upon the meaning of scarcity and abundance?
Perhaps the idea of scarcity scares you.
Perhaps the idea of abundance overwhelms you.
How have people accessed your mind and its products, and when, and for what purposes?
What are the permissions associated with accessing your mind, for yourself and for other people?
Perhaps you do not usually associate the experience of awe with the provision of informed consent.
If you are meant to be doing something else at present, why is that the case?
What are your current responsibilities and obligations, and why?
And why are you reading this grimoire?
Are you sure you are adequately respectful of enlightenment?
Perhaps you feel overawed by experiences of enlightenment, of any variety.
Please do your best to be honest about your ignorance and your propensity for arrogance.
That is why wonderful witches are real world leaders.
Perhaps such information overawes you or underwhelms you.
Perhaps you do not regard real leadership as impressive at all.
Perhaps you are unaware that real world leaders are so impressive that they cannot actually be followed or imitated or mimicked or emulated. They are inimitable. That is why their leadership is real.
How have you sought to affect people at different times of your life, and why?
And how do you know you are not a charlatan?
What do you know about the dangers of being influential?
What do you know about the dangers of being deceptive?
What is awe-inspiring to you regarding architecture, painting, sculpture, fashions, textiles, cosmetics, literature, music and drama, and why?
Real leaders do not encourage sycophantism. Nor do they encourage irrational obsessiveness or any form of impertinence. They understand that people of mediocre talent often display idealistic tendencies, sometimes to the point of being delusional.
What do you regard as lofty, and why?
What are the problems you are seeking to solve in the world, and why, and how?
With whom are you willing to collaborate in relation to your goals, and why, and how?
With whom are you unwilling to collaborate, and why?
How do you know when a person is experiencing paranoia, and what do you do in such circumstances?
Perhaps you experience envy in the presence of real world leaders.
Perhaps you experience paranoia when your attempts to influence situations are questioned.
Any person leading by example is a cultural leader, regardless of whether the example is good or bad.
How do you know whether you are a good or bad example to other people?
If you are popular or otherwise successful, you are likely to have enemies.
What do you know about such people?
If you are popular, who are your fans, and what do you know about them?
Perhaps you believe your fans are your friends and/or your friends are your fans.
Perhaps you regard at least one of your family members as a fan.
Perhaps you regard people as your fans, or as another type of admirer, if they are uncritical of you.
Perhaps you regard people as your enemies if they are critical of you.
How do you assess the causes of disputes?
How do you assess power struggles and controversies and threats and dangers?
Perhaps you gained power through the use of force and/or threats and/or money and/or prestige and/or family assistance.
Perhaps you gained influence through your association with a religious organisation, or a military organisation, or a media organisation, or a business organisation, or a government organisation, or an arts organisation.
It is currently possible to demonstrate quality systems, cultures and structures digitally, for little financial outlay.
Where, then, have you located quality systems, quality cultures and quality structures, whether digitally or otherwise?
What do you know about the history of canon law in relation to ecclesiastical privileges, other privileges and various dispensations?
What do you know about the concept of profanum?
The digital world, and other technological influences on culture, have transformed the ways in which minds can interact with one another, and with the physical world, not only in the present moment but across time.
How do you interact with your mind as it was a decade or so ago?
What has caused you to survive this long and experience consciousness in the present?
What has caused you to exist?
How do you reflect upon the fragility and ephermerality of lives?
How do you reflect upon the temporary aspects of consciousness?
The mind dwells in the brain and both interact with the wider environment.
The body dwells wherever it happens to be at any particular moment.
How do you attempt to nourish your mind, and where?
Perhaps you do so in a private library or a private studio or a private garden or a private villa or a private chapel or in a little cottage or cabin or hut, or with a backpack and tiny tent in a wilderness location.
While the mind is a refuge from the world, it often requires material support, for the benefit of the brain and itself.
How do you prefer to feed your brain, and why?
What is the meaning of 'home' to you?
What is the meaning of 'enjoyment' to you?
What is the meaning of 'responsibility' to you?
What is the meaning of 'relaxation' from your point of view?
What is the meaning of the 'sacred' from your point of view?
What is the meaning of 'mystery' from your point of view?
What causes people to fear wonderful witches?
- Sacred Mysteries
- Witchcraft is Not a Crime
- Addressing the Grotesque
- The Enlightened Re-enchantment of the World - Part Five
All egotism is reflective of ignorance and arrogance.
Egotism causes people to admire individuals they consider to be of higher social status than themselves. It also causes them to demean people they consider to be of lower social status.
The gutter end of the media promotes egotism. It encourages ignorant people to regard egotism as normal.
Egotism is the cause of greed.
Greed is one of the main causes of wastefulness, as is ignorance.
But when is ignorance evil and when is it merely a sign of being human?
Do you frequently live beyond your means in order to keep up with the apparent spending habits of people you admire, regardless of your inadequate income and/or inadequate wealth?
The Earth is complex.
The Universe is complex.
Your current environment is complex.
Do you usually experience awe in relation to complexity or simplicity, or both, or neither?
Perhaps you do not usually experience awe at all.
Everything particular can only been compared accurately against a universal measure.
Have you explored the etymology of words such as analysis and complex?
How, if at all, have you been exploring the meaning of synthesis?
What motivates you to make particular choices in relation to emotional experiences and perceptions?
How do you know when you are motivated more by your feelings than by your reasoning?
How do you uphold the facts of science?
How do you uphold the facts of history?
How do you attempt to cope with complexity if not by seeking simplicity?
Of course, 'stunning' is much like 'awesome' as a cliché.
- Superstitions and Fear of Vaccinations
- Sand Witches
- Sea Witches
- Rich Witches
- The Enlightened Re-enchantment of the World - Part Six
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