05-13-2011, 12:00 AM
"The clarity of a sorcerer may be taken as madness in the ordinary world." (Orlando, 2010)
All states of being are essentially positions of the assemblage point. This would include clarity, madness, dreaming, stalking, love, grief, and so on. The sorcerer who is operating from a position of clarity will quickly see that the vast majority of humans are, by strict definition, far more "mad" than any sorcerer, for they are living in a world of beiefs, illusions and delusions to which they have agreed (the consensus), but no matter the number of followers to a belief system, it does not make the belief itself a reality. A hundred million people may truly believe the earth hangs in a void suspended on the backs of giant turtles, but that does not make it so. What it does, however, is to create a powerful consensus - even if the consensus itself is madness by strict definition.
Some of the most powerful agreements in your world are utterly insane, of course. The belief in a supreme being who hands out reward and punishment. The belief that war is justified when that supreme being is on one's side. The belief that one race is superior to another by virtue of skin color or physical stature. The belief that anyone who does not share your belief is a heretic and must be destroyed. The belief that the money you carry in your wallet has value or meaning.
There are so many "little" beliefs strung together to form a culture that one tends to lose sight of the underlying structure unless and until it begins to fall apart in some way - as it did when it was discovered that, despite the prevailing belief system of the day, the Earth wasn't really flat, just for one example. Another might be to consider the essential collapse of the economy in the US. For as long as the illusion of well-being could be maintained, the economy was strong. When the illusion began to unravel, so did the economy. Too simple? Not really. Your world is held together by little more than ideas strung together into consensuses and agreements. Pull one string too hard, the whole thing begins to unravel, and usually not slowly or tenderly.
So where is the madness? Put simply, it lies within the false belief systems which have been accepted for so long that they have become "reality" - even though that reality is largely false and, by definition, a delusional reality in itself.
The sorcerer *sees* this, but also sees that s/he is altogether powerless to change it. And, keep in mind that the goal is not to change it nor even attempt to understand it, except to the extent that may be required for a full and absolute comprehension of the statement, "The world is a nuthouse and the lunatics are running the asylum." You cannot tear down the asylum - and why would you want to? You cannot free the inmates - for freedom is already theirs if they are willing to take it.
The goal is simply to navigate the tonal - the goal is survival and, if you seek it, success in whatever you are attempting to accomplish. Though never forget that what a sorcerer might consider success, an ordinary man may label as madness, and vice versa.
Clarity is considered a enemy of a man of knowledge largely because even sorcerers may become fixated on WHAT they are seeing to such an extent that it becomes mesmerizing. The key is to *see* the world in all its madness without getting pulled back into the madness itself. This is simply how the human hive creates itself. Clarity gives one the ability to *see* that with unwavering certainty, and power gives one the ability to exist apart from the consensual hive even when surrounded by it.
All states of being are essentially positions of the assemblage point. This would include clarity, madness, dreaming, stalking, love, grief, and so on. The sorcerer who is operating from a position of clarity will quickly see that the vast majority of humans are, by strict definition, far more "mad" than any sorcerer, for they are living in a world of beiefs, illusions and delusions to which they have agreed (the consensus), but no matter the number of followers to a belief system, it does not make the belief itself a reality. A hundred million people may truly believe the earth hangs in a void suspended on the backs of giant turtles, but that does not make it so. What it does, however, is to create a powerful consensus - even if the consensus itself is madness by strict definition.
Some of the most powerful agreements in your world are utterly insane, of course. The belief in a supreme being who hands out reward and punishment. The belief that war is justified when that supreme being is on one's side. The belief that one race is superior to another by virtue of skin color or physical stature. The belief that anyone who does not share your belief is a heretic and must be destroyed. The belief that the money you carry in your wallet has value or meaning.
There are so many "little" beliefs strung together to form a culture that one tends to lose sight of the underlying structure unless and until it begins to fall apart in some way - as it did when it was discovered that, despite the prevailing belief system of the day, the Earth wasn't really flat, just for one example. Another might be to consider the essential collapse of the economy in the US. For as long as the illusion of well-being could be maintained, the economy was strong. When the illusion began to unravel, so did the economy. Too simple? Not really. Your world is held together by little more than ideas strung together into consensuses and agreements. Pull one string too hard, the whole thing begins to unravel, and usually not slowly or tenderly.
So where is the madness? Put simply, it lies within the false belief systems which have been accepted for so long that they have become "reality" - even though that reality is largely false and, by definition, a delusional reality in itself.
The sorcerer *sees* this, but also sees that s/he is altogether powerless to change it. And, keep in mind that the goal is not to change it nor even attempt to understand it, except to the extent that may be required for a full and absolute comprehension of the statement, "The world is a nuthouse and the lunatics are running the asylum." You cannot tear down the asylum - and why would you want to? You cannot free the inmates - for freedom is already theirs if they are willing to take it.
The goal is simply to navigate the tonal - the goal is survival and, if you seek it, success in whatever you are attempting to accomplish. Though never forget that what a sorcerer might consider success, an ordinary man may label as madness, and vice versa.
Clarity is considered a enemy of a man of knowledge largely because even sorcerers may become fixated on WHAT they are seeing to such an extent that it becomes mesmerizing. The key is to *see* the world in all its madness without getting pulled back into the madness itself. This is simply how the human hive creates itself. Clarity gives one the ability to *see* that with unwavering certainty, and power gives one the ability to exist apart from the consensual hive even when surrounded by it.