March 4 - King of Swords

Intellectual drive, clarity, calling for authoritative action. A go-for-it type of thing.

Timothy Leary certainly was a sort of intellectually driven, though more of a “question authority” type. Likewise, looking it up, the Eight-circuit Model of Consciousness here is generally thought to have little actual scientific credibility. Still… what model of consciousness does? Despite being how all of our “information” comes to us, it’s kind of ambiguous what this thing actually is, much less if there’s any systemic patterns that determine how it works.

I find it kind of inspiring to contemplate a multi-part model of consciousness that is both inward and outward looking. Leary was also of a period where there was optimism about space exploration, and the possibility of making contact with other species, from Earth or beyond. Now we seem to find this idea kind of embarrassing, because the idea of explaining ourselves feels embarrassing. Which in a way is it’s own kind of constantly-reinforcing self-centeredness.

There’s nothing more self-centered in the irritating way than how psychedelics as self-help, a “miracle” mental illness cure, the one weird trick to go 10x or come up with that sick disruptive business deal or chill out your bitch wife, have kind of become mainstream now. It’s all very inward-looking to the point that there’s nothing besides inward-ness. What’s the point of a honed mind if you can’t, like the king of swords, point it outwards?

(NB: in the process of looking up info on Timothy Leary for this post, I learned about possibly the most unnerving edible ever invented.)