<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title>SUBLUNAR SPACE - artifact</title><link href="https://sublunar.space/" rel="alternate"/><link href="https://sublunar.space/feeds/tag-artifact.atom.xml" rel="self"/><id>https://sublunar.space/</id><updated>2019-04-22T18:00:00+02:00</updated><entry><title>Olympus Mons</title><link href="https://sublunar.space/2019-04-olympus-mons.html" rel="alternate"/><published>2019-04-22T18:00:00+02:00</published><updated>2019-04-22T18:00:00+02:00</updated><author><name>T. F.</name></author><id>tag:sublunar.space,2019-04-22:/2019-04-olympus-mons.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is a detailed report of synchronicities and personal gnosis that followed my initiation into the sphere of Jupiter during a one week trip to the area of my hometown in the South of Germany. I experienced Jovial energies during a stroll through the city, another evening I received a …&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This is a detailed report of synchronicities and personal gnosis that followed my initiation into the sphere of Jupiter during a one week trip to the area of my hometown in the South of Germany. I experienced Jovial energies during a stroll through the city, another evening I received a symbolic gift, and a few days later I found myself on a nightly quest through the forest of an enchanted mountain.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="titanic-origins"&gt;Titanic Origins&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The day after &lt;a href="/2019-04-into-the-spheres.html"&gt;my initiation into the sphere of Jupiter&lt;/a&gt; I had to travel to &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim"&gt;Mannheim&lt;/a&gt; for a job. I stayed in a shabby hotel in &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwigshafen"&gt;Ludwigshafen&lt;/a&gt;, the other part of the twin city across the Rhine river. Let's be honest, &lt;em&gt;Ludwigshafen ain't pretty&lt;/em&gt;. It is mainly known for hosting the chemical industry giant &lt;em&gt;BASF&lt;/em&gt; and the city is dominated by a &lt;em&gt;dystopian industrial landscape&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;BASF&lt;/em&gt; was a co-founder of the notorious "&lt;em&gt;IG Farben&lt;/em&gt;" conglomerate responsible for &lt;em&gt;Zyklon B&lt;/em&gt; (the gas used in the concentration camps), and other &lt;em&gt;chemical research&lt;/em&gt; during the Nazi war effort.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="BASF" src="/assets/images/basf.jpg" title="BASF" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Obviously Ludwigshafen was razed to the ground by Allied bombers during the Second World War and you can still feel it. In the shadows of industrial chimneys the cityscape consists of rectangular 60s and 70s buildings that had seen better days and everything looks somehow moldy and rotten and uninviting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I walked around the inner city and I could not stop thinking about how &lt;em&gt;Saturnian&lt;/em&gt; everything felt. I walked past a yellow brick building hosting a high school and the sculpture that adorned its front was a black metal object with sharp edges depicting &lt;em&gt;Prometheus&lt;/em&gt; after his fall. What an odd choice for an educational building. What a strange coincidence walking through a &lt;em&gt;Saturnian&lt;/em&gt; place after a &lt;a href="/2019-04-into-the-spheres.html"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jupiter initiation&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and seeing &lt;em&gt;Prometheus&lt;/em&gt;, who had betrayed both, first his Titan kin Saturn by siding with the Olympians around Zeus in the &lt;em&gt;Titanomachy&lt;/em&gt; and then his king &lt;em&gt;Zeus&lt;/em&gt;, to bring fire to his beloved humans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Titan" src="/assets/images/titan.jpg" title="Titan" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I entered a very depressing shopping mall that maybe had its golden days some time during the early 80s and been in decline ever since. I had to find a shop to buy a cable. It made me chuckle to find a branch of the consumer electronics chain "&lt;em&gt;Saturn&lt;/em&gt;" while I was thinking about &lt;em&gt;Prometheus&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanomachy"&gt;Titanomachy&lt;/a&gt;. In front of it was a giant Transformers robot statue, a metal "Titan". Wondering if all of this was already meant for me to think about or if I am just a mythology nerd I wandered through the shop and found my cable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I left the mall I walked by a stand of &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany"&gt;Germany's far right wing party AfD&lt;/a&gt; which was depressing but suited the overall atmosphere of this abomination of a place. I walked down the wide pedestrian shopping mile that looks exactly the same in every average German city, flanked by generic mobile phone and fast food stores - here it was just a little bit more rotten than elsewhere. I was hungry, but nothing looked inviting. I had known that Ludwigshafen was notoriously unappealing, but not expected to be dragged down into such a depression. I just wanted to go back to my hotel.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Mall" src="/assets/images/ludwigshafen.jpg" title="Ludwigshafen" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the way back along the shopping mile the grey Saturnian vibes surrounding everything suddenly got shattered by the piercing sounds of a &lt;em&gt;Zurna&lt;/em&gt; (Middle Eastern woodwind instrument that sounds a bit like an oboe or bagpipe) and a &lt;em&gt;Davul&lt;/em&gt; bass drum. Shivers went down my spine and I intuitively followed the music. On the next street corner was a crowd of people dressed in festive clothes and I realized it was a Middle Eastern or Turkish wedding. Some of the young men started dancing and the music became louder. It caused tears to well in my eyes and I felt like a blanket of lead was suddenly lifted off me. The depressed feeling that had dominated my stay in this city had vanished immediately and even the overcast sky was suddenly flooded by sunlight and patches of bright blue sky.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now I was completely certain: &lt;em&gt;Kingship and betrayal, Zeus' Titanic ancestry, family gatherings, weddings, music and dance&lt;/em&gt;; Spirits of the Sphere of Jove were teaching me about their powers and energies!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here's a YouTube video I found that captures the same vibes quite well:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"&gt;
&lt;iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OvO5NZIVkhI" frameborder="0" allow="encrypted-media;" allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;h3 id="squares-and-mercenaries"&gt;Squares and Mercenaries&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After my job I travelled to my hometown &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg"&gt;Heidelberg&lt;/a&gt; which is just a few kilometers away from &lt;em&gt;Mannheim&lt;/em&gt;. My wife T. and daughter E. came down from Berlin by train to meet me there and we wanted to spend a week with my sister and my parents. At past visits we usually stayed at my parents house, but this time we had booked an AirBnB for five of the seven days.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The AirBnB was a small one room studio apartment, so when T. took E. to bed around 7 p.m. I went outside for a stroll in the neighborhood. It was unknown to me because it was just recently built and used to be a freight trainyard and industrial area back in the days when I had still lived in the city. I aimlessly strolled along a shallow water canal with inviting benches and I sat down on one, enjoying the evening air. I noticed something lying beside me and picked it up. It was a cardboard box with a board game in it, labelled "&lt;em&gt;Go für Anfänger&lt;/em&gt;" ("Go for beginners"). I was excited! &lt;a href="https://tinyurl.com/9az852h"&gt;Go&lt;/a&gt;, the "&lt;em&gt;Chinese Chess&lt;/em&gt;"! I took it with me and continued walking until I reached a small bridge. I crossed it and wandered down a small road with modern duplex style family apartment buildings that reminded me a bit of suburban Tel Aviv. The street ends at an intersection with a paved pedestrian and bicycle road along pasture and farmland. I looked into the distance across a green field and noticed three strange looking shapes moving slowly across. It realized they were three very large birds, three &lt;em&gt;storks&lt;/em&gt;! I stared at them and a thought popped up in my head: &lt;em&gt;black and white like the Go game&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Weiqi" src="/assets/images/weiqi.jpg" title="Weiqi" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At that moment it hit me again: I was meant to find the game. &lt;em&gt;It's Jupiter again&lt;/em&gt;! A quick online search on my phone confirmed what I had already anticipated: &lt;em&gt;storks&lt;/em&gt; are associated with &lt;em&gt;Jupiter&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Chess&lt;/em&gt; too. I went back to our apartment and started researching about &lt;a href="https://tinyurl.com/9az852h"&gt;Go&lt;/a&gt;. The name is derived from the Japanese name &lt;em&gt;igo&lt;/em&gt;, which is derived from its Chinese name &lt;em&gt;weiqi&lt;/em&gt;, which roughly translates as "&lt;em&gt;board game of surrounding&lt;/em&gt;". It is a 3,000+ years old abstract strategy game for two players and the goal of the game is to surround more territory than the opponent. In antiquity it was considered one of the &lt;em&gt;four essential arts&lt;/em&gt; of the cultured Chinese aristocrats besides mastering a string instrument, calligraphy, and painting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;"The board has to be square, for it signifies the Earth, and its right angles signify uprightness. The pieces of the two sides are yellow and black; this difference signifies the Yin and the Yang; scattered in groups all over the board, they represent the heavenly bodies. These significances being manifest, it is up to the players to make the moves, and this is connected with kingship. Following what the rules permit, both opponents are subject to them; this is the rigor of the Tao." - &lt;em&gt;Pan Ku, 1st century historian&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I unpacked the game and noticed that instead of the standard 19x19 line grid, this one had just 9x9. Go boards have 4 to 9  decorative dots on symmetrically chosen line intersections. They help you not get lost between all the lines and intersections and have other minor functions in variants of the game. This board had four dots and I immediately noticed that the dots form a large square of four by four small squares - like the &lt;em&gt;kamea of Jupiter&lt;/em&gt;! That made me pay more attention to the empty squares instead of the grid of lines around them and I noticed that the whole board has 8 by 8 squares, like a &lt;em&gt;chess or checker-board&lt;/em&gt;. With the black and white pebbles one could even play checkers on this board! I found this similarity curious and I dove into the rabbit hole of the &lt;em&gt;history of checkers&lt;/em&gt; - and it suddenly all started to make &lt;em&gt;even more sense&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Petteia" src="/assets/images/petteia_vase.jpg" title="Petteia" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Long before &lt;em&gt;Chess&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Checkers&lt;/em&gt; existed, the ancient &lt;em&gt;Greeks&lt;/em&gt; used to play a popular game called "&lt;em&gt;Petteia&lt;/em&gt;" which &lt;em&gt;Plato&lt;/em&gt; claimed &lt;em&gt;originated in Egypt&lt;/em&gt;. It was played with black and white pebbles on a board divided in squares, mostly 8 by 8. The exact rules are unknown, but it was about capturing the opponent by surrounding them. It very likely survived into the &lt;em&gt;Roman Empire&lt;/em&gt; under the name of "&lt;em&gt;Ludus Latrunculorum&lt;/em&gt;" or "&lt;em&gt;Latrunculi&lt;/em&gt;": "&lt;em&gt;The Game of Mercenaries&lt;/em&gt;." Based on various mentions of the game throughout the history of the Roman Empire, various attempts to reconstruct the detailed rules have been made, but the &lt;a href="http://www.academia.edu/2135714/Latrunculi_ein_verlorenes_strategisches_Brettspiel_der_R%C3%B6mer"&gt;most accurate reconstruction was made by Ulrich Schädler in 1994&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The game is for 2 players. Before the game begins the players decide how many pieces each of them is going to have. The allowed range is 16-24 pieces per player. The pieces start off the board. The first turn is decided by lot, such as toss of a coin. Then, each player takes a turn to place one piece onto any empty square on the board. Once all of the pieces have been placed, the players take turns to move their pieces. Pieces can be moved horizontally and vertically to any adjacent square. A piece can jump over another piece of either color, if the square behind the piece being jumped over is unoccupied. Several jumps can be made in one move, just like in checkers. A player can trap enemy pieces between two of their own pieces. A trapped piece cannot be moved, but stays on the board. Once an enemy’s piece became trapped, on their next turn, the player can capture it and remove it off the board, as long as both pieces that are trapping it are still free and did not become trapped themselves on the opponents following move. Once a piece is removed off the board it does not return into the game. If the opponent surrounded one of the enemy pieces trapping their trapped piece, then theirs is made free, where as the enemy trapped piece becomes trapped. A player can move their own piece between two enemy pieces only if by doing such a move will trap one of the enemy pieces. Such a move is called Suicide. The player who remains only with one piece on the board loses the game.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.ancientgames.org/ludus-latrunculorum-latrunculi/"&gt;Check this website for more information&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Go&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Petteia&lt;/em&gt;. Games of &lt;em&gt;strategy, conquest, kingship, capture and expansion&lt;/em&gt;. Game as cultural art for &lt;em&gt;pleasure, leisure, and fun&lt;/em&gt;. Thanks for this gift, &lt;em&gt;Jove&lt;/em&gt;! It is not only a clear pointer for me to act more &lt;em&gt;strategically&lt;/em&gt; in my life, but I also already have a ton of ideas of how to apply concepts and elements of "&lt;em&gt;Latrunculi&lt;/em&gt;" in &lt;em&gt;magical operations and sigil creation&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Petteia" src="/assets/images/petteia.jpg" title="Petteia" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="mons-omnium-sanctorum"&gt;Mons Omnium Sanctorum&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thursday&lt;/em&gt; evening I spontaneously decided to go for a hike to release some of the tensions that usually build up when hanging out with my folks. I had an urge to just enjoy nature and connect with some spirits of place of my hometown. I wanted it to be a bit adventurous, so I chose to walk up to the top of &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiligenberg_(Heidelberg)"&gt;Heiligenberg&lt;/a&gt; ("Holy Mountain"), a 449 meters high hill on the opposite river-side of the &lt;em&gt;Königstuhl&lt;/em&gt; ("king's chair") that rises above Heidelberg's old town.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Heiligenberg" src="/assets/images/heiligenberg_stich.jpg" title="Heiligenberg" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiligenberg_(Heidelberg)"&gt;Heiligenberg&lt;/a&gt; is a special place. It is a quite high elevation from which you can look far across the &lt;em&gt;Rhine valley&lt;/em&gt; and parts of the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neckar"&gt;Neckar&lt;/a&gt; valley. It was inhabited since the &lt;em&gt;Neolithic era&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Celts&lt;/em&gt; had built a double walled fort around its peaks around 500 BC. During the &lt;em&gt;Roman era&lt;/em&gt; the hill was a sacred precinct with a North-facing &lt;em&gt;temple to Mercury&lt;/em&gt; on its summit. Archeological finds include votive stones with Latin inscriptions to &lt;em&gt;Mercurius Cimbrianus&lt;/em&gt;, "Mercury of the Cimbri",suggesting a place of worship of the &lt;em&gt;Germanic god Wodan&lt;/em&gt;, who was identified with Mercury by &lt;em&gt;interpretatio romana&lt;/em&gt;. In the 9th century a church dedicated to the &lt;em&gt;Archangel Michael&lt;/em&gt; was built on top of the Roman temple, incorporating its rocks and it was expanded to a monastery in 1023. There is a second smaller monastery of &lt;em&gt;St. Stephan&lt;/em&gt; below the peak from aorund the same era and next to that is the infamous &lt;em&gt;Heidenloch&lt;/em&gt; ("heathen hole"), a pit 55 meters deep, of unknown age and purpose. It has been suggested that it is a Roman well or cistern, but most likely it had some kind of &lt;em&gt;cultic function&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During his travels along the Rhine river in the mid 19th century, &lt;em&gt;Victor Hugo&lt;/em&gt; even visited the &lt;em&gt;Heiligenberg&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;Heidenloch&lt;/em&gt;. I found out about this &lt;em&gt;after my journey&lt;/em&gt; and I added some &lt;em&gt;quotes of his report&lt;/em&gt;, because he describes the aura of the place in a very fitting way.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During the &lt;em&gt;Third Reich&lt;/em&gt;, a &lt;em&gt;Thingstätte&lt;/em&gt; ("Thing place") open-air theatre was constructed on the &lt;em&gt;Heiligenberg&lt;/em&gt; for propaganda and cultural events. In my teenage years I remember that it was a tradition to celebrate the night before Mayday, &lt;em&gt;Walpurgisnacht&lt;/em&gt; or "witches night" by getting drunk on the river beach and then hiking up to the &lt;em&gt;Thingstätte&lt;/em&gt; with thousands of other people and partying all night with giant bonfires and drumming sounds. It was always a quite psychedelic experience that felt very pagan and it was the "largest inofficial event of the year" in Heidelberg.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Walpurgisnacht" src="/assets/images/walpurgisnacht.jpg" title="Walpurgisnacht" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I left our AirBnB around 8pm and took a tram to where I knew a hiking path to the mountain begins. The sun was about to set when I walked up the forest route. I walked quickly because I wanted to reach the top before complete darkness. It did not work out quite as I thought. It got dark fast and I soon noticed that I was a city guy now. Every tiny &lt;em&gt;shuffling or cracking sound&lt;/em&gt; in the trees and bushes around me freaked me out a bit, not knowing if it came from a mouse, bunny, a boar, or worse.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I had left the town about noon by a path known as the Philosopher's Walk, which leads nobody knows where, as befits a philosopher's walk, — I found myself in a small valley; and after exploring it leisurely for awhile, I set to work climbing the side of a steep hill by one of those old paths one often finds in this region, — staircases paved with stone, one might truly call them. Twilight was slowly settling down upon the valley behind me, and as I turned when about midway up the ascent I beheld one of those weird, evening landscapes in which the mountains that border the horizon remind one of a long procession of immense snails, and the mist-veiled rivers and streams the silver track they leave behind them. --&lt;em&gt;Victor Hugo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Forest" src="/assets/images/heiligenberg_forest.jpg" title="Forest" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My first destination was the "&lt;em&gt;Bittersbrunnen&lt;/em&gt;", a very &lt;em&gt;ancient spring&lt;/em&gt; that had already served the Celtic settlers as a water source in the &lt;em&gt;fifth century BC&lt;/em&gt;. It was night when I reached it and the moon shone brightly from above. The spring had been covered by erosion for centuries, but was restored in 1980 and stabilized by a stone construction, a small tunnel and a basin. I recited &lt;a href="http://www.angelfire.com/sc/majick/elemprayer.html"&gt;Eliphas Levi's "Prayer of the Undines"&lt;/a&gt; and left an &lt;em&gt;offering&lt;/em&gt; of a handful of &lt;em&gt;almonds&lt;/em&gt; I had taken with me as a snack. I wanted to take some of the spring water with me, but I did not want to sacrifice my bottle of drinking water for it. The almonds I had brought were kept in a glass jar, so I decided to use that and poured all the remaining almonds into my backpack and filled the jar with water from the rock basin of the spring. I noticed that the lid of the jar did not fit tightly enough and leaked water, so I could not put it into my backpack but had to carry it in my hand. It was a bit annoying, but worked.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Bittersbrunnen" src="/assets/images/bittersbrunnen.jpg" title="Bittersbrunnen" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Around 15 minutes later I reached the summit and I could already see the black silhouettes of one of the monastery's ruined towers through the trees. When I reached the &lt;em&gt;St. Michael's ruins&lt;/em&gt; the starry sky and bright moon were overwhelming. It was a very magical atmosphere. I climbed the tower and looked around. I could see city lights of towns all around and gazed forever at the night sky, enjoying the moment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From the broad summit, covered with a thin growth of heather and pitilessly swept by the wind, the country below looked, not like a landscape, but like a huge, nearly round geographical map similar to that which Christ must have beheld when Satan took him up into a mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the earth. --&lt;em&gt;Victor Hugo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then I walked over to the remains of the &lt;em&gt;ancient Roman temple&lt;/em&gt;, faced North and recited the &lt;em&gt;Orphic Hymns&lt;/em&gt; to the ruler of the day: &lt;em&gt;Zeus&lt;/em&gt;, and to &lt;em&gt;Hermes&lt;/em&gt;, the ruler of this place. I closed with a short prayer to &lt;em&gt;Wotan&lt;/em&gt; and did a cycle of &lt;em&gt;Qi Gong&lt;/em&gt; exercises and a &lt;em&gt;meditation&lt;/em&gt;. I took a thin branch of a hazel tree that grows in the middle of the old monastery as a souvenir and apologized to and thanked the spirits of place for this memorable visit up here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I left the sacred site and checked the map on my phone to orient myself and to find the shortest and easiest to walk path downhill. It was around 10pm and pitch black and I wanted to go home as quickly as possible. The fastest way was via the &lt;em&gt;Thingstätte&lt;/em&gt; open air theatre, so I walked down the giant stairs facing the rocky stage area and memories of my teenage times popped up in my mind: my first ever high from some dubious legal ecstasy herb mix with 17 up here during Walpurgisnacht had definetly been a night to remember. How old I've become so quickly. Right below the &lt;em&gt;Thingstätte&lt;/em&gt; is a small restaurant that was just in the process of closing and at a spring fountain next to it I refilled my drinking water bottle, put a jacket on and reorganized my backpack a bit for the hike down.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Mercurius" src="/assets/images/cimbrianus.jpg" title="Votive Stone to Mercurius Cimbrianus" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I walked down the paved mountain road that connects the restaurant to civilization and passed by the ruins of &lt;em&gt;St. Stephan's monastery&lt;/em&gt;. I wanted to pay a quick visit to the &lt;em&gt;Heidenloch&lt;/em&gt; before descending, so I walked over to the small circular hut that houses the ominous pit. I spontaneously decided to recite the &lt;em&gt;Orphic Hymn to Hermes Chthonios&lt;/em&gt; because it felt appropriate and I threw some &lt;em&gt;almonds&lt;/em&gt; down into the depths as an &lt;em&gt;offering to whoever dwells here&lt;/em&gt;. The pit is covered by a metal grill and fine wire-mesh to keep people from falling down there or dropping their trash into it, but the mesh was wide enough for almonds to pass through. I listened to them falling and bouncing off the walls on their way down. The sounds seemed to not stop, just fade out very slowly. It was mesmerizing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was only an old cistern perhaps, but the hour, the place, and the moonlight imparted a strange weirdness to this mysterious chamber buried in the ground with only the sky for a roof. What can it be? Pushing aside the tall weeds and briers with my cane, I seize hold of a young sapling, and leaning over the side of the opening, peer eagerly down into the depths below. Just then I hear a sad and quavering voice behind me distinctly utter the word "Heidenloch." [...] I turn, but no human being is visible.
Though I know very little German, the meaning of this term is familiar to me. It means the pagans' dungeon.
I turn, but no human being is visible. The soft sighing of the wind is the only sound I hear. [...]
I confess that I remained gazing down into the pagans' dungeon a long time, imagining it the empty tomb of some giant, perhaps, or a temple of the Druids, or the reservoir of some ancient convent, or even the site of a demolished gibbet whose grim sides had been sprinkled with human blood or piled high with lifeless bodies. --&lt;em&gt;Victor Hugo&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I collected my stuff to go I almost kicked the glass jar with the spring water I had collected earlier and I left the hut to finally head home. It suddenly felt &lt;em&gt;colder&lt;/em&gt; than before and there was also &lt;em&gt;strong wind&lt;/em&gt; blowing through the treetops. Time to get going. I checked my phone again to make sure I would take the right path and suddenly my &lt;em&gt;phone just turned off&lt;/em&gt;. I could not turn it back on as if the batteries had just died. It was weird because I knew I must have had at least 20% of power left when I last checked 10 minutes earlier. Fortunately I had my &lt;a href="/2017-11-routines-in-theurgy.html"&gt;little yellow wand flashlight&lt;/a&gt; with me and I searched the side of the road for the beginning of the footpath I had wanted to take. But I could not find it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I freaked out. No map, unexpected stormy weather coming up, no idea where to go. I oriented myself towards the city lights of Heidelberg, took my flashlight and just walked straight through the forest that wasn't very bushy and fairly easy to cross in this part of the hill. I reached a wide footpath and turned left walking parallel to the river. I remembered that a lot of paths follow around the hill and lead downwards in a zigzag fashion, so I just kept going. I noticed that I suddenly couldn't see very well anymore. It seemed like the air had become very &lt;em&gt;dense&lt;/em&gt; and opaque, as if there was &lt;em&gt;fog&lt;/em&gt;. I kept walking for 15 minutes but there was no path leading down, no curve, nothing. I decided to walk back into the other direction. I felt lost and scared. Was all this a result of me stirring up things in the creepy &lt;em&gt;Heidenloch&lt;/em&gt;? Why did my phone die? Why is there suddenly fog and wind although it was clear sky before? Am I getting superstitious and paranoid?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Night" src="/assets/images/dore_forest.jpg" title="Gustave Doré - Man in Forest" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I finally reached a crossroads with directions carved into a large rock. The arrows were not very clear, so I decided intuitively which way to go. It seemed to get darker and I could barely see anything but at least I got used to all the animal sounds around me by now without freaking out. I found another sign pointing to "Hirschgasse" ("Buck's alley") and I faintly remembered that name. It might be the small alley with stairs that lead down to the old bridge that crosses the river to Heidelberg. I followed the sign. What felt like an hour later I finally reached a paved footpath that led straight downhill. I followed it, but it dawned on me that Hirschgasse was not what I had thought it was. I saw streetlights and houses but I came out at the &lt;em&gt;wrong end of the city on the wrong side of the hill&lt;/em&gt;. I didn't care, I was back in civilization!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I left the tree-branch I had used as a hiking stick at a crossroads, thanking it for its help, and walked towards the river. Under the streetlight I noticed something floating in the spring water glass jar I was still carrying in my left hand. It was a leaf. I opened the jar and took the leaf out, thinking it was a good idea to not drink the water on my way down. Then I noticed that there was &lt;em&gt;something else&lt;/em&gt; floating in the jar. I held it up to the light and looked more closely. I almost dropped it when I saw &lt;em&gt;two small creatures&lt;/em&gt; floating in it, with arms and legs, and fins and long tails. What the hell? I had accidentally taken two &lt;em&gt;amphibian larvae&lt;/em&gt; with me from the ancient &lt;em&gt;Bittersbrunnen&lt;/em&gt; spring! What did it mean? Was I supposed to take them home with me?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Salamanders" src="/assets/images/salamanders.jpg" title="Salamanders" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I walked by the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neckar"&gt;Neckar river&lt;/a&gt; towards the old town of Heidelberg, pondering about what to do now. There was no way for me to take these creatures back to Berlin! When I reached the &lt;em&gt;Old Bridge&lt;/em&gt; and walked across towards the town's gate I stopped and did an impromptu &lt;em&gt;prayer to the river spirit&lt;/em&gt;. I told him I cannot take these water creatures with me and that I will give them into his care. I asked him to protect them, let them grow and show them the world downstream. I opened the jar and flung the contents down the bridge into the waters of the &lt;em&gt;Neckar&lt;/em&gt;. I felt sad about losing the ancient spring-water I had so carefully carried down Heiligenberg. I had wanted to use it for magical operations. But I also felt somehow &lt;em&gt;relieved and liberated&lt;/em&gt;. It was a curious emotion and I walked through the city gates and greeted the "&lt;em&gt;Brückenaffe&lt;/em&gt;" ("bridge monkey"), a little bronze sculpture of a baboon like monkey holding a mirror towards the spectator. It made me chuckle. Yes, I am such a fool!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Brückenaffe" src="/assets/images/bruckenaffe.jpg" title="Brückenaffe" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I bought myself a Kebab and walked through the old town to Bismarckplatz where I luckily caught the last tram to where our AirBnB was at and I arrived home safely around midnight. What a trip!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="olympic-alchemy"&gt;Olympic Alchemy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Before &lt;a href="/2019-04-into-the-spheres.html"&gt;my initiation into the sphere of Jupiter&lt;/a&gt; I had expected mainly that I might learn lessons about &lt;em&gt;earthly manifestations, material wealth&lt;/em&gt;, something I have never been good at, or about the &lt;em&gt;expansion of my own sovereignty&lt;/em&gt; in terms of my life as a &lt;em&gt;freelancer and entrepreneur&lt;/em&gt;. I was surprised that the main topic that suddenly unfolded was about very personal &lt;em&gt;family matters&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sachiel&lt;/em&gt; had pointed me to some quite painful issues regarding my &lt;em&gt;relationship to my parents&lt;/em&gt; that I had assumed were resolved a long time ago. But they were not and they bubbled up again. I did not get into details in my report due to their private nature. All I can reveal is that it was an unpleasant confrontation in several episodes and I was not able to reconcile with them about fundamental elements of my life and our relationship - but eventually that was perhaps the &lt;em&gt;quintessence of the Jovial teachings&lt;/em&gt;: Zeus had Titan parents and he had to defeat them to gain sovereignty and the throne of the world!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My afternoon in &lt;em&gt;Ludwigshafen&lt;/em&gt; had presented me with the &lt;em&gt;Saturnian melancholy&lt;/em&gt; and depression, suddenly broken apart by &lt;em&gt;Jovial optimism&lt;/em&gt;, joy of music and dance, and the founding of a new sovereign family all represented by the image of a Middle Eastern wedding.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was gifted a &lt;em&gt;board-game of strategy and conquest, expansion and sovereignty&lt;/em&gt; that immediately sparked a ton of ideas and interpretations without even having played it yet. There will be a lot of things to unpack from this in the future for sure, and food for thought about my role in the world and my approach to life. I am excited to embrace it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My &lt;em&gt;nightly pilgrimage to the holy mountain&lt;/em&gt; of my birthplace unexpectedly turned into a small "&lt;em&gt;Hero's Quest&lt;/em&gt;" that reconnected me with the &lt;em&gt;spirit of place&lt;/em&gt;. I visited and honored the god who was once worshipped at this place and when I recited the hymns to Zeus and Hermes I realized that they both are parts of &lt;em&gt;Wotan's nature (Jovial and Mercurial)&lt;/em&gt;. I was illuminated and left in awe by the moon and the stars &lt;em&gt;above&lt;/em&gt; and haunted and cursed by dark forces from the &lt;em&gt;below&lt;/em&gt;. I had unknowingly (unconsciously) carried two &lt;em&gt;amphibian larvae in my hand&lt;/em&gt; from an &lt;em&gt;ancient source&lt;/em&gt; in a &lt;em&gt;dark forest&lt;/em&gt; up to the summit and all the way down to the valley where I became &lt;em&gt;conscious of their existence&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;flung them into the raging waters&lt;/em&gt; of the river of my hometown. Right after that, a &lt;em&gt;monkey&lt;/em&gt; showed me a &lt;em&gt;mirror&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;mocked me a fool&lt;/em&gt;. That whole evening is already so dense with potential meaning to unravel, it will take a while to fully comprehend.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Jupiter" src="/assets/images/jupiter.jpg" title="Brückenaffe" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What seems to have &lt;em&gt;shifted in my consciousness&lt;/em&gt; after my &lt;a href="/2019-04-into-the-spheres.html"&gt;initiation ritual&lt;/a&gt; is the constant feeling of having been taken out of 3D reality and forced to become an &lt;em&gt;observer of my own life&lt;/em&gt;. I've had this feeling occasionally every since I started practicing rituals, but now it feels like I &lt;em&gt;levelled up&lt;/em&gt; and can't stop seeing everything from that perspective. It does not mean that I have difficulties being present in the moments of my life - quite the opposite actually. It was rather a shift in general &lt;em&gt;awareness of life itself&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another very profound difference is that now - especially after my nightly journey - it feels validated to me that my own mind and objective consensus reality are &lt;em&gt;not two separate worlds&lt;/em&gt;, but rather different points of one spectrum. It has become difficult to separate my mind from a dark forest with a bottomless pit and ruined monasteries. &lt;em&gt;As above, so below&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A smaller yet peculiar observation is that from the beginning of my preparations and research for the &lt;em&gt;Seven Spheres&lt;/em&gt; initiation I had noticed a recurring synchronicity: Almost 70% of the time I looked at my phone throughout the day to check the time, it presented me some kind of interesting number combination. Double numbers, like 14:14 or 21:21, mirrored ones, like 12:21 or 15:51, as well as triplets or quadruplets, like 23:33 or 11:11. After the &lt;a href="/2019-04-into-the-spheres.html"&gt;initiation&lt;/a&gt;, the probability of those has risen to over 90%. Now I am actually surprised when it does &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; happen.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The night after my &lt;em&gt;journey to Heiligenberg&lt;/em&gt; I had an intense and vivid nightmare in which I was haunted by a &lt;em&gt;demon named Samael&lt;/em&gt;. I bound and &lt;em&gt;defeated&lt;/em&gt; him, but it triggered some interesting &lt;em&gt;synchronicities&lt;/em&gt; I will get into in a future post. But besides that, I have a hunch that my &lt;em&gt;next initiation&lt;/em&gt; will probably be into the &lt;em&gt;sphere of Mars&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(Victor Hugo's quotes taken from an &lt;a href="https://archive.org/details/therhine02hugo/page/36"&gt;English translation of his travel report "Le Rhin"&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;</content><category term="Journal"/><category term="seven spheres"/><category term="jupiter"/><category term="synchronicity"/><category term="gnosis"/><category term="hero's quest"/><category term="family"/><category term="artifact"/><category term="ancestors"/><category term="psychogeography"/><category term="spirit of place"/></entry><entry><title>Inorganic Demons</title><link href="https://sublunar.space/2017-09-inorganic-demons.html" rel="alternate"/><published>2017-09-08T15:15:00+02:00</published><updated>2017-09-08T15:15:00+02:00</updated><author><name>T. F.</name></author><id>tag:sublunar.space,2017-09-08:/2017-09-inorganic-demons.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;I finally had some time to read the awesome speculative realist, theory-fictional, post-horror masterpiece &lt;a href="http://re-press.org/books/cyclonopedia-complicity-with-anonymous-materials/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cyclonopedia&lt;/em&gt; by Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani&lt;/a&gt; in which the Middle East is a sentient entity and crude oil is an underworld demon infiltrating humanity. It's occult animism galore packed into a thrilling and mindbending Lovecraftian manuscript …&lt;/p&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;I finally had some time to read the awesome speculative realist, theory-fictional, post-horror masterpiece &lt;a href="http://re-press.org/books/cyclonopedia-complicity-with-anonymous-materials/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cyclonopedia&lt;/em&gt; by Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani&lt;/a&gt; in which the Middle East is a sentient entity and crude oil is an underworld demon infiltrating humanity. It's occult animism galore packed into a thrilling and mindbending Lovecraftian manuscript of greasy alchemy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In its appendix Negarestani presents a very precise definition of what the magical community knows as enchanted artifacts who have their own inherent mission - with a pinch of Commodity fetishism. He defines them as "Inorganic Demons":&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;"Pulp-horror, archaic science fiction and the darker aspects of folklore share a preoccupation with exhumation of or confrontation with ancient super-weapons categorized as &lt;em&gt;Inorganic Demons&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;xenolithic artifacts&lt;/em&gt;. These relics or artifacts are generally depicted in the shape of objects made of inorganic materials (stone, metal, bones, souls, ashes, etc.). Autonomous, sentient and independent of human will, their existence is characterized by their forsaken status, their immemorial slumber and their provocatively exquisite forms. Their autonomy alone marks their outside-ness to the human and to its ecology, the planetary biosphere; this is why they are frequently associated with alien life forms and defined by the prefix xeno- (outside). Emerging from one common lineage — that of demons from the possessing class — artifacts or inorganic demons contribute their cryptic outsideness to the human host through a series of generalized but consistent lineaments and symptoms. The mask in Kaneto Shindo’s &lt;em&gt;Onibaba&lt;/em&gt;, the Medallion (the real inorganic demon) unearthed next to the statuette of Pazuzu in William Peter Blatty's &lt;em&gt;Exorcist&lt;/em&gt;, the cube in Clive Barker's &lt;em&gt;Hellraiser&lt;/em&gt;, the Frostmourne sword in &lt;em&gt;Warcraft 3&lt;/em&gt;, the lamp in Aladdin. the Turin Shroud and the Chains of Saint Peter (relics in Christianity and other religions), the artifact in &lt;em&gt;Doom III: the Resurrection of Evil&lt;/em&gt; and, as third-class relics, pieces of fabric or cloth that have touched a reliquary — all these are examples of inorganic demons which share common peculiarities and vectors of contagion. Artifacts or inorganic demons are usually categorized under three classes: First-class relics or inorganic demons denote the full body of a relic. Second-class relics are the parts and pieces of a disintegrated full relic, which sometimes need to be fused with others in order for their xenolithic properties to be awakened or discovered. The rite of reintegration of second-class relics is called &lt;em&gt;gathering&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;homecoming&lt;/em&gt;. The gathering usually needs to be accompanied by an external force or a process of purification of the pieces before reunion, or even the geomagnetic arrangement of pieces in a certain configuration. Third-class relics are relics by contamination. They are born out of contact with other relics, mostly of the first class. An inorganic material touching a relic or house of relics (reliquary) can under certain conditions become a third-class relic, less potent than the first two classes yet still contaminative. These three classes of relics or artifacts can be traced to a common demonological framework determined by basic idiosyncrasies and specifications shared by Inorganic Demons:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Hellraiser" src="assets/images/inorganic_cube.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(a) Inorganic demons are parasitic by nature, they themselves give rise to their xenotating existence, and generate their effects out of the human host, whether as an individual, an ethnicity, a society or an entire civilization. Their infiltrating military capacities and systems of possession are fostered by a certain range of human activities obsessed with artifacts, relics and inorganic entities (realism of objects). The fascinations of archeology, religion, capitalism and their hybrids with ancient weaponry and principles of inorganic entities are instances of such activities connected to humans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(b) Inorganic demons induce xeno-excitations in their wielders or human hosts ('Wisdom').&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(c) Psychosomatic responses or side effects of this Wisdom (wielded ancientness) begin to develop, in the form of incurable afflictions or progressive maladies in their host (commonly known as the price). These obscure allergic reactions to inorganic demons are either programmed by the demon-artifact as it embeds itself within the human host (reprogramming the logic of organism), or are produced by the human host in its overreaction to the xenotating existence of the inorganic demon, its unfolding inhumanity and its qualitative state (that is, its inorganicity). Another reason for these cataclysms in the host is the incoming data from the Outside which is inherently overwhelming for the anthropomorphic capacity, and therefore triggers a recoiling mechanism in the host from within, in the form of a flood from without.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(d) Once inorganic demons infiltrate an anthropomorphic agency (a silent incursion which is usually affirmed by the human side, whether consciously or not), they embed their inorganic sentience within the human host. The instant this embedding or implantation process is completed, the inorganic demon cannot be plucked out or extricated from the neural, social or even membranous networks of the human host (an individual, a society, an ethnicity or a civilization). Forcing the inorganic demon away without deactivating it imposes fatal irreversible consequences upon the host, at catastrophically rapid rates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(e) The parasitic sentience of inorganic demons is triggered, or the inorganic demon starts to interact with its human host, when the nervous system of the inorganic demon is stimulated. The nervous system of the inorganic demon is in fact a 'spiritual matrix'. As a part of a process of possession or communication with the demonic object, this spiritual matrix must be charged by sufficient external stimuli from the human host. These external stimuli are immaterial, qualitative and can. in a certain sense, be classified as spiritual (examples include faithlessness or faith, doubt, apprehension, piousness, hunger and pain). Upon activation by these spiritual, carnal, sensual or intellectual stimuli, the inorganic demon begins to encroach upon the human host Since the inorganic demon's sentience is inaccessible to the human, this demonic possession can only suggest the absurdity of human openness or access (intellect and sense). The external stimuli from the human host always play the role of an incentive (&lt;em&gt;incantare&lt;/em&gt;) or a strategic Call for the Inorganic Demon; or to put it differently, these stimuli feed the soul of the inorganic demon, whose folds move and force the demonic sentience out to the human host, supporting the demon in finding its way in the human sphere."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Onibaba" src="assets/images/inorganic_pazuzu.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(f) Inorganic demons cannot be destroyed completely, other than by exerting the power of another inorganic demon on them. Such an action inevitably evokes in its turn yet another inorganic demon. This is similar to the theme of the resurgence of evil or demonic return in horror stories. The discovery of an inorganic demon heralds a sequence of ruination for individuals or entire civilizations. Once the inorganic demon itself succumbs to the hibernation mode (known to humans as 'forsaken status'), a civilization or another human host finds the opportunity to rise. The hibernation of the inorganic demon is usually caused by the closure of the demon's spiritual matrix or its readiness for developing to another spiritual phase. In any case, the supposed human sovereignty can only be exerted during the hibernation of the demon-object — but this is not the same as its inexistence. In fact, the rise of a civilization or human host is a symptom of an inorganic demon's hibernation, and is synchronous with the emergence of a new host and the reawakening of the demonic object.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(g) Human hosts dispose of inorganic demons not by burial but by returning them to their potential lairs (inorganic weapons as ancient super-weapons vs. treasures in videogames). While inorganic demons belong to the possessing class in reliquology, treasures are from the slave class, much like humans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</content><category term="Theory"/><category term="demon"/><category term="cyclonopedia"/><category term="negarestani"/><category term="philosophy"/><category term="book"/><category term="artifact"/><category term="talisman"/></entry></feed>