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Esowteric

@esowteric.bsky.social

770 followers 570 following 4.1K posts

Interested in Illuminationism; the Sufi Way; Western tradition; Renaissance; Romanticism; Idealism; Panpsychism; Imagination; contemporary depth psychology; resistance; etc. Author of mystical adventure and soft scifi. Blog: mystical-faction.blogspot.com

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · Jul 12

“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. Masked goons are dragging people from the street and throwing them into concentration camps. And there's no end to the cruelty.

“Things are worse than bad. They're crazy.”

Members of the underground resistance movement in a dimly-lit bunker. Three are seated at a workbench using laptops, their faces illuminated by the glow of their screens; at the back, to their left is a member pinpointing something of interest on a large map of Europe mounted on the wall; and to the left, another man sits working on a computer close to a rack full of hi-tech computer equipment. Up above, a single shaded lamp casts a little light in the room.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 11d

[Blog post] The Misguided War on Woke: Part and Parcel of the Culture Wars ...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

#Woke #Wokeness #Wokeism #WarOnWoke #CultureWar #CultureWars #PostTruth #Disenchantment ( #Hyperstition #AltRight #AI #TechnoFeudalism )

The Misguided War on Woke: Part and Parcel of the Culture Wars

With the election of Donald Trump for a second term in 2025, the War on Woke , now officially sanctioned, has greatly intensified. And other...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 16d

Have written a more recent blog post on a related topic:

The Misguided War on Woke: Part and Parcel of the Culture Wars ...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

The Misguided War on Woke: Part and Parcel of the Culture Wars

With the election of Donald Trump for a second term in 2025, the War on Woke , now officially sanctioned, has greatly intensified. And other...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 20d

Follow the breadcrumbs . . .

mystical-faction.blogspot.com

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 20d

Image: Gardening / Victor Gilbert (1847–1933) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Gardening, a painting by Victor Gilbert (1847–1933). A young woman in a long dark blue skirt and light-coloured blouse is standing to prune a flowering bush. She is surrounded by roses and other flowering plants, and standing by a stone cottage with ivy creeping up its walls.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 20d

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been ...

~ Emily Dickinson.

An image containing a poem, with a pink rose and green leaves in the lower left-hand corner. The poem, “There Is Another Sky” by Emily Dickinson, reads:

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields –
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 26d

The Work
~~~~~~~
“The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke.

Image: The Queen of Hearts playing card.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

The dawn of the post-literate society
And the end of civilisation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James Marriott

jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-o...

#Literacy

The dawn of the post-literate society

And the end of civilisation

jmarriott.substack.com

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

3/3 ... Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Image: Denge (“Balance”) / star5112 / Wikimedia Commons (orig. Flickr) / CC BY-SA 2.0.

#MaryOliver #Poetry #Hesitation #Joy

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

2/3 ... is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case ...

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

“Don’t Hesitate”
~~~~~~~
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this ... 1/3

Image: Denge (“Balance”) / star5112 / Wikimedia Commons (orig. Flickr) / CC BY-SA 2.0.

The silhouette of a person balancing with their arms outstretched and one leg lifted high above the ground, perhaps in a moment of playfulness and joy, on a slight and shadowy rise, set against an unfocussed background with what could be yellowy-green water and sepia sky.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

Like It or Lump It
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If you think all soup has lumps in it you will fail to recognise soup without them.”

~ Idries Shah, The Commanding Self.

Image: Vegetable soup 3 / Tiia Monto / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.

A photo of a bowl of vegetable soup, sprinkled with herbs, and with a spoon in it.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

Meet half way: Gironde department is in southwestern France?

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

Image: Autumn colour (10311552835) / Ian Kirk from Broadstone, Dorset, UK / Wikimedia Commons (orig. Flickr) / CC BY 2.0.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27d

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

~ John Keats, “To Autumn”.

Image: Autumn colour (10311552835) / Ian Kirk from Broadstone, Dorset, UK / Wikimedia Commons (orig. Flickr) / CC BY 2.0.

A close-up of autumnal leaves in green, yellow, orange, red and brown, lit up by the sun, with others out of focus further back.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

Image: Hikers enjoy a hike on a wild trail / Hillebrand Steve, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

Seekers After Truth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.”

~ Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment.

Image: Hikers enjoy a hike on a wild trail / Hillebrand Steve, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

A photo of the backs of walkers enjoying a hike on a wild trail, surrounded by trees.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

An excellent article. Thank you kindly, Jim.

Reposted by Esowteric

jimbucktoo.bsky.social @jimbucktoo.bsky.social · 28d

www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/bergson...
The creation of the human species is, like any, a halt on the road of evolution, a check of the current of consciousness by the resistance of matter; but the same creative energy can be continued, beyond what nature “ordained” for our species

Bergson and Intuitive Knowledge

Alan Shepherd examines Bergson’s view of intuition as a key to metaphysical knowledge. Unlike Kant, Bergson believes we can directly access reality through our experience of time, or “duration.” Intui...

www.thephilosopher1923.org

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

Source: Edward Edinger, The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology.

Image: Aeneas in the Underworld / Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

A painting of Aeneas in the Underworld by Peter Paul Rubens. Wearing armour and helmet, he is walking through the darkness of the underworld with a flaming torch in one hand and his sword in the other

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

“[T]he purpose of the descent into the Underworld is to gain something that is missing in the upper world, some piece of information, some wisdom. This is symbolized at times by a jewel or other object of value ...”

~ Edward Edinger, The Eternal Drama.

Discovering Meaning and Purpose:

“[T]he purpose of the descent into the Underworld is to gain something that is missing in the upper world, some piece of information, some wisdom. This is symbolized at times by a jewel or other object of value, but what generally is come upon is a transpersonal principle ... Once the ego has had an encounter with the transpersonal standpoint, it is transformed. Now related to meaning, life is no longer empty or absurd, but is perceived as part of a larger and meaningful pattern. The basic revelation ... is that a spirit sustains all matter and meaning and lies embedded in all experience. ...”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

Going Underground: Building a Caring Alternative Parallel Society – while we are still at liberty to do so ...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/07/goin...

Image: Underground Resistance Movement.

#Resist #Resistance #Underground #CounterCulture #Survival #DarkAges

Going Underground: Building a Caring Alternative Parallel Society

As the poet, dissident, and member of the Czech underground resistance movement during the communist regime, Ivan Martin Jirous wrote, perha...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

The Root Causes of Why We're FUBAR
or “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” ...

mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...

#PostTrust #PostTruth #Materialism #Disenchantment #Resist #Resistance #Underground #Survival #DarkAges

Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.

A painting by Gwabryel, based on H. P. Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu. It shows a man with arms outstretched worshipping a very tall, black figure. To his left and right, victims are suspended upside down from gallows, and in front of the dark figure are several other, perhaps tormented figures.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

Source: Keiron Le Grice, The Archetypal Cosmos: Rediscovering the God in Myth, Science and Astrology.

Image: Galaxy in algeria by yacine / Eni69 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.

A walker wearing a backpack stands on a hill, silhouetted against the night sky which shows countless stars in the Milky Way, and the moon.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28d

“With the rise of our technological consumer society, collectively we have lost a sense of the sacred purpose & the encompassing spiritual context of life. We have lost the awareness that human lives are rooted in a deeper reality ...”

~ Keiron Le Grice, The Archetypal Cosmos.

Image containing a text quotation, with a grey silhouette of the side of a human skull and white cogs in place of a brain, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from Keiron Le Grice, The Archetypal Cosmos: Rediscovering the God in Myth, Science and Astrology, reads:

Disenchantment and the Loss of Purpose:

“With the rise of our technological consumer society, collectively we have lost a sense of the sacred purpose and the encompassing spiritual context of life. We have lost the awareness that human lives are rooted in a deeper reality transcending concrete individuality, an insight that was fundamental to most civilizations, and that gives to human existence a more deeply sustaining sense of meaning and purpose. Although the material conditions of life have improved beyond measure, as a culture we have now come to believe that the universe in which we live is soulless, meaningless, and without purpose. And this disenchanted vision is seen not merely as one possible view of reality, but as an incontestable objective fact supported by science — as the true understanding of the way things really are.”