CYCLE TWENTY-TWO: CONTRARY ORDERS OF PERFECTION

1. Perfection of the self or of the unself - that is the question! For whereas the self will be perfect in metachemistry (beauty) and in physics (knowledge), the former noumenally objective (diabolic) and the latter phenomenally subjective (masculine), the unself will only be perfect in chemistry (pride) and in metaphysics (joy), the former phenomenally objective (purgatorial) and the latter noumenally subjective (heavenly).

2. The female side of life, being objective, offers woman a choice between perfect power and perfect glory, the metachemical id and the chemical soul, and leaves her free, in general terms, to enact the struggle between barbarity and civility, evil and good, fire and water, crime and punishment, cruelty and adroitness.

3. The male side of life, being subjective, offers man a choice between perfect form and perfect content(ment), the physical ego and the metaphysical mind, and keeps him bound, in general terms, to the struggle between nature and culture, folly and wisdom, vegetation and air, sin and grace, stupidity and kindness.

4. Thus whereas the perfect noumenal woman, effectively upper class, is evil in her barbarous preference for perfect power through the beauty of metachemical id, the perfect phenomenal woman, effectively lower class, will be good in her civilized preference for perfect glory through the pride of chemical soul.

5. However, since nothing is ever completely 'cut and dried', as they say, we have to allow for the relativity of power and glory in each context, whether noumenal or phenomenal, the metachemical 'above' or the chemical 'below', which means that not only does barbarity and civility exist on each axis, whether in 'once-born' or in 're-born' mode, but that perfection will be a 'whole' measure and imperfection a 'part' one, as germane to evil and goodness.

6. Hence in the metachemical distinction between perfect barbarous (instinctual) power and imperfect civilized (emotional) goodness, the perfect noumenal woman will be wholly evil and partly good, fully vicious and half-virtuous in her objective adherence to beauty and love respectively, whereas in the chemical distinction between imperfect barbarous (instinctual) power and perfect civilized (emotional) goodness, the perfect phenomenal woman will be partly evil and wholly good, half-vicious and fully virtuous in her objective adherence to strength and pride respectively.

7. Therefore whereas the perfect noumenal woman, whether superfeminine (in sensuality) or subfeminine (in sensibility), will be wholly evil and partly good, fully vicious and half-virtuous, the perfect phenomenal woman, whether upper feminine (in sensuality) or lower feminine (in sensibility) will be partly evil and wholly good, half-vicious and fully virtuous.

8. Now whereas, on the male side of life, the perfect phenomenal man, effectively lower class, is foolish in his natural preference for perfect form through the knowledge of physical ego, the perfect noumenal man, effectively upper class, will be wise in his cultural preference for perfect content(ment) through the joy of metaphysical mind.

9. However, since once again nothing is ever 'cut and dried', we have to allow for the relativity of form and content(ment) in each context, whether phenomenal or noumenal, the physical 'below' or the metaphysical 'above', which means that not only is nature and culture on each axis, whether in 'once-born' or in 're-born' mode, but that perfection will be a 'whole' measure and imperfection a 'part' one, as germane to folly and wisdom.

10. Hence in the physical distinction between perfect natural (intellectual) form and imperfect cultural (spiritual) content(ment), the perfect phenomenal man will be wholly foolish and partly wise, fully vicious and half-virtuous in his subjective adherence to knowledge and pleasure respectively, whereas in the metaphysical distinction between imperfect natural (intellectual) form and perfect cultural (spiritual) content(ment), the perfect noumenal man will be partly foolish and wholly wise, half-vicious and fully virtuous in his subjective adherence to truth and joy respectively.

11. Therefore whereas the perfect phenomenal man, whether lower masculine (in sensuality) or upper masculine (in sensibility) will be wholly foolish and partly wise, fully vicious and half-virtuous, the perfect noumenal man, whether submasculine (in sensuality) or supermasculine (in sensibility) will be partly foolish and wholly wise, half-vicious and fully virtuous.

12. Thus the choice, as ever, is between perfection of the self (whether as id or ego) and perfection of the unself (whether as soul or mind) in each gender case, with the one quite probably leading to the other on the female side of life, but only possibly leading to the other, providing certain Christian-type preconditions have been met, on its male side.

13. One thing we can be absolutely sure of is that power and glory are not connected to God and Heaven but to the Devil and Hell on the noumenal planes of space and time, and to woman and purgatory on the phenomenal planes of volume and mass.

14. Only form and content(ment) are connected to God and Heaven, truth and joy, superego and superconscious mind, metaphysical not-self and selflessness on the noumenal planes of time and space, as also to man and earth 'down below' on the phenomenal planes of mass and volume, where knowledge and pleasure, ego and conscious mind, physical not-self and selflessness have their vegetative place beneath the airy realm of metaphysics.