/lit/ - Literature

>>18659793
Not that Anon, but for me it was a similar feeling; herein lies a school of thought which was almost hidden from mainstream perception. I had to study the Hermetica and other associated texts for two years before I could confidently say what the subject was about.
And in it is something beautiful, it is the warm embrace of the Father, and a coda of the Son. It is not a road necessary for all, but for some it is a call impossible to deny. I do not know yet if I am fortunate enough to be counted among them, but since I have discovered the way I cannot turn from it

>>18618231
The Red Book by Jung
>>18615889
Apathy and Other Small Victories

Beginning with this as a prelude, I will say that I have been researching the subject of Hermeticism and it's substrates like Alchemy and Thaumaturgy for a few years now, and, in combination with Christianity, hold it as my religious faith. To be short, even though I feel conflicted in my worthiness to it, I have had religious experiences from it as a tradition. I will, using knowledge from, and as needed, the core Hermetic texts (The Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius, Emerald Tablet, and the Kore Kosmu), Meditations on the Tarot, the reference book of Alchemy and Mysticism by Roob, A Suggestive Inquiry Into The Hermetic Mystery, and some works of Manly P. Hall, among other assorted books, to give background to part of the Christian-Hermetic worldview that hones on what is relevant to Blood Meridian, and then how the Judge relates to what I described earlier.
To begin, the universe as we know it, the Cosmos, was formed from the works of God with man as a helper
Quoting the Scott translation of the Corpus on the matter of creation, spoken after Hermes Trismestigus receives divine knowledge from the agathodaemon/angel Poemandres
"And I beheld a boundless view; all was changed into light, mild and joyous light; and I marvelled when I saw it. And in a little while, there had come to be in one part a downward-tending darkness, terrible and grim....And thereafter I saw the darkness changing into a watery substance, which was unspeakably tossed about, and gave forth smoke as from fire; and I heard it making an indescribable sound of lamentation; for there was sent forth an inarticulate cry. But from the Light there came a holy Word, which took its stand upon the watery substance; and methought this word was the voice of the Light" [Libellus I, 8A]
After this the vision of a world ordered by the Lighted Word, which is the Son of God, and the Powers, or Ideals, which emanated from God. There is then, from God, spawned the second Mind, or the Demiurge (very different from the Gnostic one) and the Seven Administrators (see the parallel to the Gnostic Archons, though in Hermeticism they are either relay stations for the word and action of God (The Demiurge, as described) or overseers of aspects of the newly made material realm).
The distinction is then made even further into Nature, from which is formed the elements and unthinking animals: fish and birds and the like.
Next, after all of this, comes the creation of Man.
"But Mind the Father of all, he who is Life and Light, gave birth to Man, a Being like to Himself. And He took delight in Man, as being His own offspring; for Man was very goodly to look on, bearing the likeness of his Father. With good reason then did God take delight in Man; for it was God's own form that God took delight in. And God delivered over to Man all things that had been made." [Libellus I, 12]
1/?

>>16400615
Read Plotinus. Read the Hermetica. Fuck the nihilists and get ripped. By virtue of consuming the apple of knowledge man has been doomed to live in a material, horizontal existence by virtue of simply becoming aware of it. By being meat creatures we are bound to live as meat. But the beauty of possessing a human soul is the facet of attaining some meaning by extension of mastery of the self. Asceticism, the study of man's history and philosophy, the creation of art. These are the ways by which man may go beyond merely existing as flesh and become transcendent.
And if you would go even further beyond, learn the ways of prayer and meditation, and feel the merest glance of something infinite brush against the thin veneer of you consciousness. The way out of life's inherent repetitiveness is by self-imposed study into this and more. The physical world is not evil, but by virtue of being physical is inherently flawed.
As such, we all sit at the threshold of animal and human. Even living as righteous men we must eat, but there is a difference between eating to live and living to eat. Even living as righteous men we have the call of the flesh. But there is a difference between fucking for pleasure or fucking as an expression for love.
You'll only be as human as you not only choose to be, but purely work towards being.

>>16273629
The current whip which flays at the human soul is a cat o' nine tails composed of varying braided coils. There is technology, economic stagnation, the death of culture and with it a greater meaning/religion falling out of favor, and the acceptance of post modernism. None of these are solely responsible, but flow into each other and find common root in the same soil, like a hydra of old.
Technology pacifies to prevent change and exacerbates the issues prevalent from socioeconomic decline, which are in turn caused by market devaluation from mass immigration, in turn flowing forward into the effects of culture and identity itself being commodified because people are increasingly able to only buy baubles and necessities, all of which is in turn connected to the acceptance of relativism throughout the west.
As far as causes, sources, and solutions go, the current way in which we find the modern world would require several posts, likely complete diagrams and reference images.
In the end, the best thing you can do is to slip the weight of everything from your shoulders and reduce it down to your specific sphere of influence. How can you help develop yourself? How can you secure your future?
These are the kind of things which must be asked and actuated upon. Everything else is preparation and waiting for when the tiger tires enough to be strangled.

Also as for books, Fahrenheit 451 comes to mind immediately, that and anything by Kafka.