101. No less than we can morally distinguish between different types of literature, so a like-distinction can be drawn between different approaches to the word, ranging from the alpha of noumenal selflessness (outer essence) to the omega of noumenal selfishness (inner essence) via the phenomenal selflessness (outer appearance) and phenomenal selfishness (inner appearance) of the feminine/masculine world.  Hence distinctions, on the one hand, between the spoken word as noumenal selflessness and the written word as phenomenal selflessness, outer essence and outer appearance, but distinctions, on the other hand, between the read word as phenomenal selfishness and the thought word as noumenal selfishness, inner appearance and inner essence, with all due moral and ideological implications.  For no less than the spoken word, corresponding to outer essence, is immoral in relation to the negative amorality of the written word, so the thought word, corresponding to inner essence, is moral in relation to the positive amorality of the read word, speech and thought thereby corresponding to a sort of autocratic/theocratic antithesis flanking the rather more democratic (above) and bureaucratic (below) antithesis between the read word and the written word, which, in their phenomenality, pertain rather more to the world than to either the alpha or omega extremes such that, logically, are both anterior and posterior to it.  Thus, in the diagrammatic traditions of this work, we may sum up as follows:-

 

SPOKEN WORD/READ WORD/THOUGHT WORD

(the Father)(the Son)(the Holy Ghost)

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WRITTEN WORD

(the Blessed Virgin)

 

reserving to the spoken word a connotation with fiery naturalism, to the written word a connotation with earthy realism, to the read word a connotation with watery materialism, and to the thought word, the word of words, a connotation with airy idealism.  Verily, 'T' is for Truth, and Truth is never as true as when thought or, better still, meditated upon!  For a writer is neither a saint nor a scholar, but someone who falls morally short of each.

 

102. I do not write for the mere sake of writing; only a fool or a scoundrel would do that!  I write to be read, and, in being read, my writing is redeemed, much as a woman's sexuality is redeemed through the act of procreation, of bringing forth children.  Writing-for-writing's-sake would be no better than sex-for-sex's-sake, a sort of negative amorality with no real positive consequences.

 

103. Musically, the People have not yet achieved Social Democracy; for Social Democracy is tied-up with musical literacy, and for the most part the People are still musically illiterate, living in the inner darkness of a memorized and improvised music which, whether ass rock or jazz, soul or dance, conforms to a sort of Social Autocratic (communistic) barbarism ... symptomatic of pop music in general.  Only when groups begin to use computerized scores and show themselves to be locked into an optical redemption (through musical light) ... will the darkness of pop music be eclipsed by the light of a superclassicism heralding the age of proletarian civilization.  Yet musical Social Democracy is not the end but the beginning of People's civilization, a secular precondition of a religious culmination which, issuing in Social Theocracy, will consign to musical oblivion not only all instruments - guitars, drums, xylophones, etc. - requiring reactive playing techniques, but the whole declamatory tradition of vocals, which, rooted in the poetic alpha, can have no place in the philosophic omega, in which only the airy essence of a noumenal selfishness will figure.  Thus will the Social Autocratic tradition of vocal music be consigned to the rubbish heap of musical history as, growing even beyond Social Democratic compromises between reactive and attractive instrumentation (whether relatively in regard to a centrist balance or absolutely in regard to right- and left-wing distinctions), as well as to the continuing recourse to vocals, the ultimate People's music converges to a musical omega in which a synth-based instrumentation will be put to the service of the Holy Spirit and accordingly defer to the computerized score as a sort of musical manifestation of the inner light.  Naturally, by then, and even to a certain extent before that, i.e. in the Social Democratic middle ground, the outer lights of the 'heathen' light shows would no longer obtain.  For outer light is no less correlative with inner darkness than outer darkness (relatively) correlates with inner light, and the full attainment of the latter must logically exclude the former, rendering the need for extensive stage lighting superfluous to the point of an immoral irrelevance.

 

104. Of course, what I have said above, concerning the perceptual/conceptual dichotomy in music between pop on the one hand and the envisaged 'superclassicism' of a more civilized age on the other hand, is no less applicable to the other arts, where we may note a like-dichotomy, potential if not latent, between the barbarous perceptual, germane to the autocratic alpha, and the civilized conceptual, germane to the theocratic omega, with all due gradations of compromise coming in-between.  Thus, in art, we may note a distinction between photography and/or light art on the one hand and computer art on the other; in literature, between film on the one hand and computer literature, read via VDU, on the other; and, in sculpture, between light sculpture and/or holography on the one hand and computer sculpture on the other hand.  Clearly, the computer is the medium through which the conceptual can be made manifest, and especially is this true of literature, the most conceptual of all the arts.  For literature touches the spirit like no other art, and it is towards the spirit that all religious idealism tends, an idealism which transcends both the soul and the senses ... as light transcends fire and flesh.  Only the spirit itself transcends literature, but the highest, most philosophic literature will ever be in the service of the spirit, as it strives to bring conceptual truth to the door of Heaven itself.

 

105. In relation to our T-like design, we had broadly established - at any rate prior to an experimental re-evaluation - that soul is of the Father, dance music of the Mother, rock of the Son, and jazz of the Holy Ghost, considering that soul is naturalistic, dance realistic, rock materialistic, and jazz idealistic.  We have yet to establish that, like Christ, rock can approximate to the 'Three in One', to the extent that it is divisible, either side of pure rock, into soul-rock and jazz-rock alternatives, the former right wing and the latter left, while soul extends, via rock-soul, towards soul-rock, and jazz extends, via rock-jazz, towards jazz-rock, as the Father and the Holy Ghost respectively approach the Son (see diagram). 

 

SOUL/ROCK-SOUL/(SOUL-ROCK/ROCK/JAZZ-ROCK)/ROCK-JAZZ/JAZZ

(the Father)(the Son)(the Holy Spirit)

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DANCE

(the Mother)

 

Hence rock-soul is still of the Father and rock-jazz still of the Holy Ghost, the only difference with soul and jazz being that they are relative rather than absolute, and are thus contiguous with the Son.  Put politically, this means that both rock-soul and rock-jazz are on the fringes of democracy and may even desire a compromise with democracy which brings them into contact with soul-rock and jazz-rock within a broadly Social Democratic framework.  For while soul is communistic and jazz transcendentalist, rock is decidedly centrist and thus susceptible to pluralistic distinctions.  One might argue that rock-soul would be theoretically in favour of Social Democracy and rock-jazz likewise, though neither of them is strictly of the Son.  In fact, while rock-soul and soul-rock will liaise between the autocratic left and the democratic right, rock-jazz and jazz-rock will be in liaison between the theocratic right and the democratic left, rock-jazz using the democratic platform in the interests of jazz, and hence the assumption of pure theocracy in the extreme-left context of Transcendentalism.  For although there is a radical side (jazz-rock) to Social Democracy, Social Theocracy must prevail on the People (through rock-jazz) to achieve Transcendentalism (jazz) and thus come fully into line with the Holy Ghost.  The interests of the left democratic (jazz-rock) are sufficient unto the needs of the Son and not directly connected with those of the Holy Ghost.  Thus to sum up, we may speak of an absolute antithesis, paralleling Communism/Transcendentalism, between soul and jazz; a relative antithesis, paralleling Social Autocracy/Social Theocracy, between rock-soul and rock-jazz; and an antithesis, within a broadly Social Democratic framework, between soul-rock and jazz-rock; pure rock being a centrist middle-ground in between the democratically right-wing (conservative) and left-wing (radical) alternatives.  However, before I abandon this subject, I should like to remind the reader that all the above-listed types of modern music, not to mention their less-elevated derivatives (like rap, punk, funk, hip-hop) pertain to the age, culture, society, and class of the Holy Ghost, so that soul is never as musically of the Father as, for example, opera or plainsong, any more than rock is as musically of the Son as, say, classical symphonies.  Soul is simply of the Father in relation to the autocracy of the Holy Ghost, the patriarchal manifestation of the Holy Ghost which is at the opposite extreme to its musically truer, and therefore theocratic, manifestation in jazz.

 

106. The transcendent mind does not stare at others or think about others in consequence of perceiving them.  On the contrary, the transcendent mind is preoccupied with its own thoughts, which may or may not serve as a springboard to inner perceptions, whether in terms of visionary experience or pure contemplation.  For spirit is not a concept so much as an inner perception, the spiritual perception of the higher self, and if the world begins with outer perceptions, the sensuous perceptions of phenomena, it must end with the inner perceptions of spiritual noumena, the goal and essence of the Holy Spirit.  Thoughts about external phenomena may be said to conform to an outer conceptual; thoughts about internal noumena, by contrast, will conform to an inner conceptual; and thoughts about thought ... to a neutral conceptual, neither of the subconscious nor the superconscious but of the egocentric conscious alone.  Of course, the phenomenal can be external or internal, apparent or essential, and whereas it is external in the Blessed Virgin (outer appearance), it will be internal in Christ (inner appearance).  Likewise, the noumenal, as we have seen, can be external or internal, apparent or essential, and whereas it is external in the Father (outer essence), it will be internal in the Holy Ghost (inner essence).  Hence there is what one might call a devolution from the noumenal to the phenomenal on the one hand (that of the Father and the Mother), but an evolution from the superphenomenal to the supernoumenal on the other hand (that of the Son and the Holy Ghost).  Thoughts relating to the noumenal and to the phenomenal appertain to the outer conceptual; thoughts relating to the superphenomenal (inner appearance) and to the supernoumenal (inner essence) appertain to the inner conceptual.  The former appertain to the old brain and the latter to the new brain.  Or, more correctly, thoughts relating to the noumenal appertain to the backbrain and thoughts relating to the phenomenal appertain to the right brain; whereas thoughts relating to the superphenomenal appertain to the left brain and thoughts relating to the supernoumenal appertain to the forebrain.  The backbrain is the subconscious of the old brain and the forebrain the superconscious of the new brain.  The right brain and the left brain are both conscious, the one in relation to external phenomena and the other in relation to internal phenomena - the Blessed Virgin (Catholicism) and the Son (Protestantism) of a phenomenal axis germane to the World.

 

107. Whether the individual exists for society or society for the individual ... will depend on whether one is in a civilized or a barbarous age, insofar as the individual corresponds to phenomenal divisibility and society to noumenal indivisibility.  Hence the individual will exist for society and/or God (to refine upon) in a civilized age, but society will exist for the individual (to exploit) in a barbarous age, like, for example, the feudal and capitalist phases of Western so-called civilization, when exploitation of the collective by a capitalist elite is rather more the prevailing tendency than service of the collective by the individual and/or a particular class of individuals.  Of course, the distinction between society and God is a valid one, and in primitive civilizations of the Agrarian/Fundamentalist type it is rather more to serve God (the Creator) than society at large that the individual exists, whereas in the inceptive phase of Socialist/Transcendentalist civilization the individual exists rather more for society (which, in its extreme humanism, is officially atheist vis-à-vis the Creator) than for God.  Which isn't to say that God (the Holy Ghost) can't eventually come back into the frame when the People are ready to assume deification, in the interests of full noumenal salvation, through the intermediary vehicle of the Second Coming.  But, by then, the exceptional individuals will be serving society rather less than the People as God (the Holy Spirit); for in this service of the Many by the Few, society will have been absorbed into God, its eclipse by God no less certain than the much earlier eclipse of the competitive individual by co-operative society, the divisible phenomenon by the indivisible noumenon, in the interests of true civilization.

 

108. Where women are concerned, the ponytail corresponds to the noumenal indivisibility of alpha-oriented Fundamentalism and is therefore effectively a pre-Western allegiance, especially germane to the traditional Orient.  Where men are concerned, on the other hand, the ponytail corresponds to the noumenal indivisibility of an omega-oriented Transcendentalism; although distinctions relative to the Trinity can, I believe, also be drawn between one ponytail and another on the basis of length, a long ponytail being more symptomatic, it seems to me, of the Father than of the Holy Ghost, which, by contrast, would require recourse to a short one, the Christic omega ... of Protestant theocracy coming somewhere in-between.  Now if my contention relating to the respective symbolism of ponytails on men and women is correct, i.e. corresponds to reality, then it stands to reason that women with ponytails will be 'beneath the pale' of men with ponytails, since alpha and omega are incommensurate and the one necessarily excludes the other, fundamentalism and transcendentalism being absolutely antithetical.  Hence as soon as a man evolves into a ponytail, particularly as applying to the Holy Ghost, he will be affirming an antithetical orientation to women in ponytails and can logically have no truck with such women, there being no point of contact between two contrary extremes.  Only a man whose hairstyle is 'square', i.e. hanging straight or in curls, can logically have relations, whether sexually or socially, with women whose hairstyle signifies a fundamentalist allegiance.

 

109. Whilst on the subject of ponytails on men, it should be noted that a partial ponytail co-existing with hair which is predominantly straight (as defined above), will indicate a Social Radical allegiance, and thus be germane to Social Democracy.  Only a complete ponytail hairstyle will correspond, if relatively short, to a Social Theocratic allegiance, i.e. to that which mediates between communistic Transcendentalism and Social Democracy, since such a hairstyle will signify a centripetally curvilinear norm ... symptomatic of a radically omega-oriented theocracy.  Where the communistic Transcendentalism of the 'Kingdom of Heaven' is concerned, as germane to the assumption of religious sovereignty by the masses in a properly Centrist context, the ponytail would probably undergo a more radically transcendental transvaluation, issuing, in splendid isolation, from the crown of a head that had otherwise been completely shaven and was thus more intrinsically centripetal than in the preceding ... Social Theocratic context.

 

110. A pudding-basin hairstyle on women, while centrifugal, is less alpha orientated than alpha stemming.  By which I mean that it corresponds, as on men, to an autocratic absolutism largely germane to Western civilization, and is thus rather more heathen than fundamentalist.  In fact, such a centrifugal openness is precisely what oriental fundamentalism strives to avoid, insofar as theocratic fundamentalism is quasi-centripetal in character (in relation, in all probability, to the central star of the Galaxy), for which the ponytail on women is far more relevant, since it corresponds to a quasi-centripetal alignment and is thus theocratic rather than, as with the pudding-basin hairstyle so often found in the West, autocratic.  Hence my distinction between the ponytail as alpha orientated and the pudding-basin hairstyle as alpha stemming.  Now, in regard to the latter, it could be maintained that, as in the case of ponytails on men within the omega-oriented contexts of Western civilization, the length of the hair in this centrifugal style is of crucial significance in any attempt to determine whether a royalist, a parliamentary, or an extreme republican allegiance was being signified, the longest corresponding to a royalist, or monarchic, allegiance, the shortest ... to an extreme republican, or 'communist', allegiance, and anything in between which could be described as medium length corresponding to a parliamentary, or 'Cromwellian' allegiance.  Hence whilst a long-length pudding-basin hairstyle would suggest autocratic royalism, a medium-length one autocratic liberalism, and a shorter-length one autocratic communism, it could be argued, with no less justification, that a long-length ponytail on men is suggestive of theocratic royalism (catholicism), a medium-length one of theocratic liberalism (protestantism), and a short-length one of theocratic communism (transcendentalism), and that these extreme Western styles flank, as alpha and omega, the rather more conventional hairstyles which, whether parted or unparted, suggest an allegiance to democratic and/or bureaucratic plurality - an allegiance no less subject to manifold evaluation on the basis of length.  Naturally, such phenomenal hairstyles will be rectilinear (and 'square') rather than curvilinear (and 'hip'), and in women such phenomenality will usually take the form of hair hanging loosely down their back in what is, I guess, a broadly worldly form of the phenomenal, a form rather more selflessly centrifugal than (as in the democratic context above) selfishly centripetal.

 

111. From the external light of noumenal selflessness to the external darkness of phenomenal selflessness (as from the superstar to the star, the Father to the Blessed Virgin), and from the internal darkness of phenomenal selfishness to the internal light of noumenal selfishness (as from the cross to the supercross, Christ to the Holy Spirit).  The external light is apt to be autocratic and the external darkness bureaucratic.  Conversely, the internal darkness is apt to be democratic and the internal light theocratic.  The light of the Father, being external, is centrifugal; the light of the Holy Spirit, being internal, is centripetal.  Alpha and omega flanking the external darkness of the world and the internal darkness of its purgatorial antithesis, the former pertaining to the Virgin Mary and the latter to her lunar Son.  Hence noumenal naturalism and idealism flanking phenomenal realism and materialism.  Fire is the element of the Father; earth the element of the Blessed Virgin.  Water is the element of Christ; air the element of the Holy Spirit.

 

112. To distinguish between cinema and television on the basis of a Jehovah/Father dichotomy, with cinema (especially in its pre-talkies black-and-white guise) a modern parallel to Jehovah, and television a modern parallel to the Father.  As to a parallel with the Mother, one need look no further than radio, which corresponds to an external darkness, whereas in the distinction between video tapes and audio tapes, one has the basis, it seems to me, for a parallel with the Son, Who comes in-between the external light of the Father and the internal light of the Holy Ghost, and precisely as an internal darkness, the darkness, most especially, of audio tapes (when used musically).  However, beyond the internal darkness of Christ there can only be the internal light of the Holy Spirit, and for the modern parallel to the Holy Spirit one need look no further than computers.  Yet no less than we distinguished between cinema and television on the basis of a Jehovah/Father dichotomy, so a distinction can be drawn between computers and hallucinogenic drugs on the basis of a Holy-Ghost/Inner-Light dichotomy, since contemplation of the superconscious mind signifies a superior degree of noumenal selfishness than can be achieved vis-à-vis the rather more materialistic realm of personal computers, even when they are being utilized in a more perceptual, and hence noumenal, way, as regards games and, especially, graphics.  In fact, even an LSD trip is less than purely noumenal, given its partly aural and colourful properties, and one is obliged to admit that, although of the Inner Light, it is less truly of the Inner Light than meditation, and therefore stands to meditation as colour talkies to the pre-talkie black-and-white films of the early cinema, which approximate more closely to a parallel with Jehovah, i.e. the alpha divine.  Hence while both LSD trips and meditation are of the omega divine, meditation is more truly and completely of it, and therefore the closest parallel of all to the Inner Light.

 

113. Of course, one could also draw distinctions in relation to the above media in terms of political as opposed to religious parallels, contending, for example, that cinema and television are autocratic, and hence Marxist, media, whereas radio is bureaucratic, and hence socialistic; video and audio tapes democratic, and hence Social Democratic; and computers and LSD trips theocratic, and hence Transcendentalist (in the Social Theocratic and properly communistic sense).  But while this is doubtless no less valid than the religious parallels, such distinctions could only be drawn in relation to particle as opposed to wavicle contexts, i.e. with regard to the content of, particularly, films and trips being less self-transcending than self-asserting, less musical than verbal, and therefore of a relatively secular nature such that more usually connotes with the political than the religious.  It is not the media so much as how they are utilized that enables us to project material or spiritual parallels; for that which parallels the Father one moment can parallel a Marxist tyrant the next.  And, conversely, that which parallels the Son one moment can become, if utilized in a less self-transcending way, a Liberal demagogue the next, depending on the content, in this context, of the audio and/or video tape.  Broadly speaking, music, the most idealistic of the arts, will maintain a wavicle, and hence spiritual, bias; the spoken word, on the other hand, is more likely, on account of the particle nature of speech, to maintain a secular bias, especially when used in a non-narrative, journalistic or factual sort of way.  The ratio of the one to the other will determine, as a rule, the nature of the context in question, and accordingly allow us to draw either religious or political, spiritual or material parallels in regard to the medium being used and its particular mode of utilization.  Hence a film with a lot of music will more easily lend itself to a religious parallel than one which is predominantly or entirely verbal.  Music tapes will likewise lend themselves to a religious parallel, as will computer games and graphics, whereas spoken tapes and verbal compact discs will more easily connote with the secular, even when employed in a religious context, since the word has a particle connotation when spoken but a wavicle one when sung, or used in conjunction with music.  Soul may be religious but rap, its spoken counterpart, is predominantly secular, and hence political.  Both are alike alpha, albeit of the Father and the 'Leader' (Ruler) respectively.  Religion transcends politics, but very often it depends upon politics for support and adversity.  We cannot live entirely in either realm, although we should seek, if wise, to subordinate the particle to the wavicle in pursuit of an idealistic goal.  For, ultimately, it is the wavicle which leads to salvation - salvation, above all, from the World and its political undertakings.

 

114i. Music is the most idealistic of the arts and thus the art which, especially in jazz, best approximates to the Holy Ghost.  For it uses air (breath) in the service of internal light (noumenal selfishness).

     ii.  Art is the most naturalistic of the arts and thus the art which, especially in painting, best approximates to the Father.  For it uses fire (paint) in the service of external light (noumenal selflessness).

     iii. Sculpture is the most realistic of the arts and thus the art which, especially in stone, best approximates to the Blessed Virgin.  For it uses earth (clay) in the service of external darkness (phenomenal selflessness).

     iv. Literature is the most materialistic of the arts and thus the art which, especially in novels, best approximates to the Son.  For it uses water (ink) in the service of internal darkness (phenomenal selfishness).

 

115i. Music is the art form of the spirit.

     ii.  Art is the art form of the soul.

     iii. Sculpture is the art form of the will.

     iv. Literature is the art form of the intellect.

 

116i. Music can and does intimate of Heaven.

     ii.  Art can and does depict Hell.

     iii. Sculpture can and does embody the World.

     iv. Literature can and does define Purgatory.

 

117. Each major branch of the arts is of course subdivisible according to our fourfold categories, with approximations to one or other of the competing alternatives.  But, strictly speaking, each art is defined and limited by its original nature, literature being unable, even in philosophy (the most idealistic and hence metaphysical branch of literature), to transcend the intellect for the spirit to the extent that the best, most idealistic music can.  Whereas literature can only speak of or for the spirit indirectly, through the intellect, and hence at a purgatorial remove from Heaven, music can make the spirit directly known through itself, thereby bringing us into closer contact with Heaven, which would be a condition of permanent inner music, the 'music of the (divine) spheres'.  If art plunges us back towards the Devil (painting being the art of the soul), music lifts us towards God, and in music alone do we find cultural salvation.

 

118. If we are damned by art but saved by music, we are half-damned (to the world) by sculpture and half-saved (in purgatory) by literature, since both sculpture and literature are of the phenomenal - the former outwardly (as will) and the latter inwardly (as intellect).  Indeed, to be damned is to be confined to the outer noumenal (soul), whereas to be saved is to be admitted to the inner noumenal (spirit), since Hell and Heaven are noumenal extremes of soulful particles and spiritual wavicles, the alpha and omega of noumenal mind.  Such mind is perceptual rather than conceptual, for perceptions pertain to the noumenal light, whether external or internal, whereas conceptions pertain, in their worldly relativity, to the phenomenal darkness, whether as will (body) or intellect (brain), externally or internally.  The focal-point of the 'Will to Life' is indeed the penis, as Schopenhauer well knew, and in coitus life is conceived (rather than perceived).  If sex begins with a perception (of another's beauty), it ends with a conception (of offspring), passing from the realm of soul (focus of the original - and sinful - perception) to that of the will (focus of the coital conception).  Such a vicious circle - for it is indeed vicious on account of the immoral and negatively amoral natures of the soul and the will, corresponding, in symbolical terms, to superstar and star - can only be broken out of, or transcended, if the intellect is utilized in the service of the spirit, so that, through inner conceptions, the path may be prepared for inner perceptions (insights), and the possibility of full enlightenment (as the positive amorality of the intellect establishes a virtuous circle with the morality of the spirit), pending the eventual 'eclipse' of the former by the latter in a wholly noumenal salvation of spiritual truth.  The cross is a precondition of the supercross, but Christ must eventually be transcended if the Holy Spirit is to come fully to pass, and the virtuous circle of inner conceptions and inner perceptions give way to the omega point of absolute truth, the inner perception of which is the condition of Heaven.

 

       

LONDON 1991–92 (Revised 2011)

 

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