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<h1>Embracing Mysticism</h1>
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<div class="header-meta">
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<author>Joshua Seigler</author><date>October 16, 2021</date>
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<span class="tags" style="--totalTags: 11"
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><a class="tag" style="--tagIndex: 4" href="/tags/faith">faith</a>
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<a class="tag" style="--tagIndex: 0" href="/tags/ethos">ethos</a>
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<main data-pagefind-body="data-pagefind-body">
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<p>
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Logical arguments no longer work. This has been especially visible in
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the pandemic response in 2020. If you dug even a little below the
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surface of any mainstream narrative in the past two years, you likely
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found points of disagreement. But showing people scientific papers,
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charts, statistical analysis, or other types of evidence accomplishes
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nothing, or worse it invites accusations of being part of the Other
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Team, one of those backwards, wrong, stupid people.
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</p>
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<p>
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In mid-2020 Vin Armani (now Cyprian) started calling this change “The
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Dim Age”<sup class="footnote-ref"
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><a href="#footnote1">[1]</a
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><a class="footnote-anchor" id="footnote-ref1"></a></sup
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>. He suggested that most people still see the world as exclusively
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physical, oblivious to patterns of reality that are plainly obvious to
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more mystically aware people.
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</p>
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<p>
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In an attempt to remedy my newfound illiteracy, I started exploring
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symbolism, which as I understood it dealt with identifying and
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understanding meaning. I found Jonathan Pageau’s project
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<a href="https://thesymbolicworld.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"
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>The Symbolic World</a
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>, which has some very accessible videos breaking down movies and other
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pop culture artifacts from a symbolic perspective
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<sup class="footnote-ref"
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><a href="#footnote2">[2]</a
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><a class="footnote-anchor" id="footnote-ref2"></a></sup
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>. These commentaries did not seem arbitrary or speculative, but pointed
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to cultural trends that I couldn’t un-see once I understood them. I
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binged a bunch more of his material, including eventually a book his
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brother Mattheiu wrote,
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<em>The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis</em
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><sup class="footnote-ref"
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><a href="#footnote3">[3]</a
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><a class="footnote-anchor" id="footnote-ref3"></a></sup
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>. Through this I discovered a side of reality I had been almost
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completely oblivious to, and what’s more, an aspect of my faith which
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had somehow completely passed me by.
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</p>
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<p>
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From there I started listening to the
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<a
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href="https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/lordofspirits"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>Lord of Spirits</a
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>
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podcast. I learned that commonplace, obvious understanding of existence
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as material <em>and spiritual</em> has been mostly lost, displaced by
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modern confidence that the material world is the limit of reality, over
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which sovereign mankind rules. The ancient faith of Christianity, known
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now as “Eastern Orthodoxy”, corresponds with reality, especially
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spiritual patterns of reality as we see more plainly every week, better
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than anything else I know.
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</p>
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<p>
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For a while I think my highest values have been freedom and truth. A
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desire to be solely responsible for myself, and a desire to understand
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myself and the world fully and accurately. But I didn’t realize that my
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chief obstacle is hardly megacorps and governments: I am ruled by my own
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out-of-control desires: for comfort, pleasure, control, satisfaction,
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even self-mastery. In a paradise where my every whim was manifested, I
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would still be a slave to desire, consuming and <em>wanting</em> more
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and more.
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</p>
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<p>
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Investigating eastern orthodoxy, this ancient Christianity, revealed a
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better path to freedom and truth: aiming higher. Every action and choice
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is in service to something. Instead of serving little tyrannical gods
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like comfort or pleasure, or potentially nobler gods like a country or
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even a “liberty movement”, I will attempt to serve the Most High.
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</p>
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<hr class="footnotes-sep" />
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<section class="footnotes">
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<ol class="footnotes-list">
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<li id="footnote1" class="footnote-item">
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<p>
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<a
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href="https://freemanbeyondthewall.libsyn.com/episode-478"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>Free Man Beyond The Wall episode 478: We’ve Entered The ‘Dim
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Age’</a
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>
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<a href="#footnote-ref1" class="footnote-backref">↩︎</a>
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</p>
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</li>
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<li id="footnote2" class="footnote-item">
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<p>
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<a
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href="https://thesymbolicworld.com/videos/symbolism-propaganda-in-popular-culture/"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>Symbolism and Propaganda in Popular Culture</a
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>,
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<a
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href="https://thesymbolicworld.com/videos/the-fall-of-loki-into-the-multiverse/"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>The Fall of Loki (Into the Multiverse)</a
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>
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<a href="#footnote-ref2" class="footnote-backref">↩︎</a>
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</p>
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</li>
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<li id="footnote3" class="footnote-item">
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<p>
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<a href="https://amzn.to/4iBOExr" target="_blank" rel="noopener"
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>The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis: A
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Commentary</a
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>, ISBN 978-1981549337
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<a href="#footnote-ref3" class="footnote-backref">↩︎</a>
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</p>
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</li>
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</ol>
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</section>
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