Forest Wizard

Tag: reality

Back to Blog Home
  • The Devil and the Terror of the Threshold

    The Devil and the Terror of the Threshold

    When I started my journey into Rosicrucianism, I was made familiar with the concept of the terror of the threshold. It was brought up in the Neophyte degrees, as a warning that crossing the threshold into the inner chambers of the Order would be terrifying. A Dweller at the Threshold, or sometimes a Guardian of the Threshold would be there waiting for us, attempting to convince us not to proceed.

    In modern Rosicrucian orders, this guardian is one of many roles played out in elaborate scripted rituals intended to create an atmosphere of magic for the postulant. The script requires the guardian to yield to the postulant; otherwise the ritual would end, and the postulant would not be admitted into the given grade.

    However, because my own experience with Rosicrucianism has not yet involved a Temple or Lodge, and solely happens in my own private home sanctum, my understanding of thresholds as a concept has not had the benefit of elaborate plays and group study. Despite learning the material and advancing in the degrees, I had not internalized the importance of knowingly moving into another place.

    As is always the case, what needs to be understood is understood, at the right time, and in the right place.

    (more…)
  • Reality, Magic, and the MAGA Mindset

    Reality, Magic, and the MAGA Mindset

    Concepts

    Reality

    Studying Rosicrucianism introduced me to the concept of actuality vs reality. The problem in using the concept of reality as a measure of truth, they say, is that none of us can experience the reality of another person or being. The reason for this, of course, is that each of us can only interpret the environment around us with the help of sense organs integrated into our physical bodies.

    I use my eyes to identify a color or shape, for example. You use your eyes to do the same. We can communicate and agree that what we see is a given shape or color. However, we cannot literally see through another set of eyes. We cannot interpret that visual stimuli in the way another does. In short, we have no way to know if the way we interpret the world around us is the same way another does.

    Of course, there are methods of dealing with this, if there weren’t, we’d have a much harder time creating stuff like language and society. In fact, we have all agreed (by way of early childhood socialization) on foundational Truths, such as the real-ness of the physical, and the un-real-ness of the non-physical.

    Despite these large-scale shared Truths, they are still, at the end of the day, a part of our own, unique, personal reality.

    Actuality

    So, if we all experience our own unique reality that no other living being can experience, what, if anything, exists outside of that? What holds our shared realities?

    (more…)
Back to Blog Home