The Griffin & the Mock Turtle- 3rd June 2007

...the Mock Turtle said: "no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise."

"Wouldn't it really?" said Alice in a tone of great surprise.
"Of course not," said the Mock Turtle: "why, if a fish came to ME, and told me he was going a journey, I should say "With what porpoise?"
"Don't you mean 'purpose'?" said Alice.
"I mean what I say," the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone. And the Gryphon added "Come, let's hear some of YOUR adventures."

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

WITHIN the Chinese culture of the Dao, Spirit is everywhere, manifesting through the elements, throughout Nature, underpinning all. Folk often misrepresent or mistake the Dao, by leaving out the actual Spirits behind the forces that they sense; believing that there is something of a spiritual perception without deity or entity infilling their concepts. Whereas in truth, the Spirit moves through all elements, all life, in all ways, and is bindingly one with it - and yes it is simply not spoken of.

And it was in the past that the student of the Mysteries would not speak openly of the Spirit, or of God, that Divinity was held to be too sacred to be written of or called forth in voice. More than that, this was no rule, but rather felt - an experience itself, which maintained that one simply did not call upon the higher Spirits in speech or word at all (unless in private prayer which spoke directly to them rather than of them).

But they are there: beyond the dragons and fairies, further than Bodhisattva or Cherub, Spirit moves beneath and above Creation; and through the Wind, the Water and the Sunlight, Spirit is present. There is no absence of Spirit.

Up until just recently it could be said for all spiritual and religious cultures, that this was so. That conversation or text around Deity may have been guarded, but it was not obsolete. Anyone who maintained it was, simply did not understand the higher creed of their faith or their doctrines. The black hole of Atheism is but a non-notion - something which would not occur to the men of the past, in concept or kind.

So why did the shift come, from the numinous to the naught? (And why do we labor this so?) In point of fact, the whole notion of the unspoken sacredity has also departed, whereas before, the Mysteries and the Divine were regarded, and guarded as well.

Firstly there is the intrinsic soul knowledge, which the senses of the spirit can interpret and remember through, and then there is the Causal Soul which interfaces the world and mind during birth and life, and then there is the Astral house, whereupon the astrality of a man or woman draws down and filters the influences permeating from the planetary stations without; then there is the Anima-magi (being the majestic and holy animal body that we incarnate in); and then there is the Muse...

The Muse 

There is a Griffin and a Mock Turtle that accompany each other, and Alice for part of her journey - and as a depiction of the ever wondering muse, they are excellent travel fellows worth a study of.

The Mock Turtle is consistently whining - sometimes reminiscing, sometimes doubting, or questioning in a complaining demanding way - he is melancholy and difficult to shift from mood or attitude.

The Griffin is the yet more sober of the two - he is stern and sometimes impatient, trying to retain a point, and steer them well - he has a voice of calm and sometimes, reasoning. Alice tries amongst the two to be affable and adaptable, and is taken on a journey of thought and questioning that is sometimes whimsical, sometimes associative but nonsensical, and at other times as an indirect cause of it, most reflecting.

Within a thinking mind, a considering mind, this interjection of 'outside' musing enters in with a juxtaposition for the prior thoughts and ideas we have had. Thought itself is a living material. It cannot remain still as it presents within a memory. Memory itself is not composed of living thought, and often when people reflect on a memory in words, they are apt to repeat the same words that go with the memory time and time again. The memories themselves can be very vivid indeed - and truly within their own realm are three dimensional and experiential. Yet they are not alive because they can go no further than what they are or have been. 

To be live is to be actively, currently renewing and improving - it is to be: able to evolve, adapt, interact and change afurther. It is not static, morbidly composed, without vitality and momentum, ceasing and drawing back, retrogressive or moribund.

By this measure, we can find that the thoughts themselves, that we are entertaining, could be quickly considered as static. By reasons of practicality, they cannot all go further in our company; some by necessity needs be ended and discarded.

If it were not for the Mock Turtle and the Griffin within our thinking, our thoughts would become flaccid all too quickly. For some there is a fall back into the quarters of memory and repetition, or for others there can be a familial mode - which is thinking that is not contested at all.

Example: familial thinking goes over plans which have been thought of previously and have been reenacted before:

"I must go to the shop, and take my shopping bag; and buy two pounds of chops, and then be home at three to start boiling the carrots, and put them in the frying pan, to make dinner by five. We will finish in time for the news at six."

Within familial thinking there is little or no deviation from the prior set of thoughts before, there is an uninterrupted stream in planning, a monologue of repetition. There can be the occasional query - about the price of the meat on the day and so forth - and it might appear that there is some variety and newness to the thinking, but it is quickly brought back to the level of the moribund even so. For in this instance the familial is the key tone to set the constant.

Because of the nature of this thinking, there is very small capacity to learn ideas outside of its own patterning. The individual has difficulty shutting down the cycle of thoughts also. Generally one cycle will replace another, yet it will be equally as familial in content. Activities that do not require a contest in thought back to them, are preferred; i.e the watching of television, playing machine games, gambling with machine games, or hobbies of repetition.

Familial thinking may sound simply naive or merely evolved, but is far more sinister than that sadly - it is as a cancer to the thinking itself. And as a cancer it takes over the healthy responsive tissue of thought and replaces it with matter that is of no assistance to the system whatsoever.

In the not-to-distant future there will be very definite diagnostic evidence that can measure this condition, as it has physical properties as well. It is certainly not a healthy condition or one which lends well to further development out from itself.

Yet all children do begin with lively thinking and questioning, and the contesting of thought. If they are born with familial thinking they are Autistic, and some are very capable in practical terms, and some are very handicapped - however the common thread to their condition is that they have not the contest within thoughts, but rather they have a monologue instead.

For example:

The contested thinking of the Mock Turtle and the Griffin, generally speaking, brings us back to a solid sense of who we are amongst this dialogue. Added to this, we come to know from it over time, that we can and do, survive contest in our thinking. We go on to survive it within the world also. The flexing and the wrestling with ideas - with who we are, with imaginations and who we are not - this is an incredibly strong process all up, out of which we are usually still intact and all the stronger.

If we were to be honest about ourselves, there have to be many points in a day and a life where the world feels like nonsense to us. Primarily this is because we do not have the ability to grasp and grapple with all truths at once, particularly when we do not have a firsthand prior knowledge of them. In other words, there are so many scenarios we are placed in that we cannot consciously connect with knowingly in the immediate.

Now, to the Autistic individual or the Familial thinker the world in its constant contest is very frightening. If you do not practice responding to outer stimuli in your thinking, you feel the pressure of anything or anyone different or unexpected as extremely painful. Such a person does not have the capacity to deal with the different, and you will often see the poor Autistic cover their ears and cringe in a corner, whilst the Familial thinker mentally does the same.

Many folk become concerned that the inner dialogue that they experience is somewhat schizophrenic. However schizophrenic individuals are also familial thinkers (with monologue, the inability to listen, relate or respond; habitual, moribund, repetitive etc.), yet they have the dialogue, but with no level of contest.

So sadly they are open to all kinds of input without a sense of place or self to settle into after the conversations. There is little sense of the 'I' amongst the treacherous voices that then frighten them into a corner.

Child pre age 7

• prepared for the unknown,

• imaginative,

• challenging thoughts,

• instinctive,

• questioning,

• rhyming,

• connecting,

• arguing,

• complaining,

• saying no!,

• desiring,

• striving,

• achieving,

• dreaming,

• hoping,

• intuitive,

• affectionate,

• tactile,

• exploring,

• persistent,

• not fearful of being 'wrong',

• happy disposition,

• astrally impressed and sometimes oppressed by the astrality of those around them,

• drawing vitality from everywhere,

• healthy food tastes as though it nourishes,

• unhealthy food deadens the sense for nourishment,

• has humor,

• has a sturdy sense of the 'I' even though they might not know it.

Child pre age 12-14

• fierce,

• passionate,

• exploring,

• contesting,

• complaining,

• confused - yet accepting the confusion,

• connecting,

• recoiling,

• thoughts are congealing,

• perception is self-orientated,

• ashamed,

• self-conscious,

• humor becomes abstract,

• rebellious,

• cunning,

• struggling,

• senses likes and dislikes quickly,

• identifies,

• self-pacifies,

• imagines intensely,

• self denies,

• empathizes,

• questions authority.

Youth

• ablaze with life (unless it has been extinguished)

• seeking justice,

• experiencing a measure of past life karma,

• arguing with little self argument,

• justifying,

• exploring,

• yielding,

• contesting,

• inner dialogue is melancholy (exceedingly Mock Turtle);

• nervous,

• cautious,

• sensing the sense of the 'I' but not the 'I' itself as yet,

• sensing the senses with different experience,

• seeking approval through grandiose affiliations,

• needing affection,

• half hoping (a reduced disbelieving hoping),

• self calming.

Lively Thinker

• relieved to have survived youth,

• calm but excitable,

• pondering, contemplative,

• stern (enter the sagely Griffin)

• questioning,

• contesting - self and world of thought around,

• learning,

• acquiring,

• laughing,

• accepts not-knowing with a confidence,

• accepts contest with a confidence,

• has now a sense of the sense of the 'I', along with the solid sense of the 'I' as it is to refer to;

• thoughts have a three part analysis (Mock Turtle, Griffin & personable),

• views all people in caricature,

• holds solid friendships,

• risks over-doing things (eating, sleeping, working, sporting etc.),

• feels magnetic attractions,

• empathizes,

• imagines well,

• imagination blends with curiosity,

• desires to know, voracity to learn,

• experiences reverence and devotion,

• is humble,

• is arrogant,

• protests injustice,

• protects,

• is affectionate,

• responsive, sympathetic,

• socially responsible,

• articulate,

• kind,

• appreciative,

• considerate,

• creative,

• dedicated,

• inspired,

• repelled,

• guilty, repentant,

• strong in voice without over-powering,

• conducive.

Familial

• Constant,

• determined,

• opinionated,

• single thinking Mock Turtle melancholy

• or single thinking solemn irate Griffin (not single thinking from the 'I'),

• habitual,

• uncomfortable,

• selfish,

• not empathetic,

• unlikely to change,

• protests change,

• quotes truisms,

• lives memories,

• likes definite answers (like Trivial pursuit), 
• wears the same colors,

• has difficult sleeping properly because cannot connect to the spiritual worlds,

• little or no spiritual imaginings,

• has astral imaginings,

• has fearful imaginings (all self orientated, not for the world),

• socially reliable (even in the context of a criminal in criminal surroundings he will live to the norm of his immediate society),

• rarely tests self, does not admonish self or reflect on own behavior,

• justifies,

• accuses others with voracity,

• admonishes others with intent to dispel own sense of failure,

• feels inadequate at the core but does not know why,

• privately is frustrated, cranky and miserable.

Autistic

• Single threaded thinking from the 'I' without contest or opportunity for self appraisal.

• Unpracticed and uncomfortable with flexible challenging thinking.

• Cannot comprehend the concept of challenge or success, striving or surviving.

• Experiences oppression everywhere, is mentally out of synch with temperatures, noise, air pressure, etc.

• Loves repetition, finds refuge in the familiar.

• Does experience affection but does not demonstrate it.

• Holds a strong sense of the sense of 'I', experiences their 'I' but cannot remain strong enough within it to combat the influences outside of themselves.

• Cannot distinguish dreams from reality.

• Does have imaginative cognition, but does not use it to create thinking, cunning, or learning - just perceives with it.

• Can be empathetic and can learn that way, but it is far from obvious.

• Is not selfish, just entrapped in self.

It is a strange observation that the outer personality of the familial thinker is more alike to the inner personality of the Autistic person, and vice versa, the outer Autistic personality really portrays quite well the inner personality of the familial.

Schizophrenic

• Familial patterns in thinking but exposed to the imaginative ramblings and ravings of demoniacally destructive Mock Turtles and Griffins.

• Cannot find the sense of the 'I' or the 'I' itself, and is understandably horribly afraid.

• Has little or no ability to empathize,

• is fragile to contest,

• too interrupted to find comfort in routine,

• wants a strong affiliation in an effort to strengthen self and so is drawn to the grandiose,

• little or no self calming,

• protests injustices,

• can be self absorbed and selfish,

• cannot differentiate imaginings,

• most planning is unproductive although appears to have a working purpose (has a mock/fake quality to it).

Contemplative

• A lively thinker who can calm the Mock Turtle and drift into a gentle Griffin discourse.

Imaginative

• A lively thinker who works with a creative Mock Turtle and phantastical Griffin.

• Is perceptive,

• can forecast events,

• can be creative, and

• tries to understand the spiritual worlds as well as the physical.

• Can gain much vitality through exercising the imaginative complexities.

Cognoscenti

• A lively thinker that endorses his own thinking after the weighing and the contests have subsided.

• Logic on its own is not enough when deciding truths and knowledge, there needs to be decisions as to when to start and stop. An opening premise and closing summations are known to the 'I' of a man who can sort through and cognize his thinking well. So there is a very firm ability to strengthen the thinking through exercise, and as well as this there is the ability to stop. Within the patterning of nature there are always the two governing impulses - that of projecting forth and that of containment.

• The Cognoscenti individual may be imaginative or not, he may be able to switch to Contemplative or not. His strength lies in not being afraid to hear out the Griffin and the Turtle and sort through the arguments with patience and perseverance.

We began today speaking of the peculiar mindset which cannot sense or acknowledge Divine Deity within Nature or the supporting Universe about them. It was also discussed that this is a modern problem, which hitherto has not been experienced by Man.

The cause of this inability to intuit or acknowledge Deity is familial thinking corroding the lively connections. Familial thinking stultifies the heart as well as the brain, and interferes with the arterial knowledge that the individual can come to know himself by.

Needless to say also, that 'death' forces are introduced into the thinking with the consuming of narcotics and alcohol. These substances promote death to thought, and cause familial pathways long after their poison has drained from the system. 

As for the Griffin and the sobbing Mock Turtle: our companions in thought are innocent of their own promptings, and the truth of their truth. In our next discussion we will examine what they are and how they came to be, and how they can travel with us.

"And how many hours a day did you do lessons?" said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock Turtle: "nine the next, and so on."

"What a curious plan!" exclaimed Alice.

"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked: "because they lessen from day to day."

This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little before she made her next remark. "Then the eleventh day must have been a holiday?"

"Of course it was," said the Mock Turtle.