On Namaste, and People Whisperers

V(=)IR

Have I not said, Ye are Gods?

-Some Unappreciated Palestinian Social Commentator

I could change that, she thought. I could take away the drug action and make it harmless. But she sensed this would be an error. I'm within a rite of joining.

-Dune, Frank Herbert

People are awesome. I like you all a whole lot.

Hermetics teaches that we're all individual and unique manifestations of the Divine. Konx om Pax, it is written. Light in Extension. L.V.X. Lux, the Light of the True Cross. And that is very true. It's why I get all shiny-eyed and gleeful when I ecstatically proclaim, Thou Art God! I am God, we are Gods! Living Gods!*

A lot of what I focus on in my writings and my efforts in this incarnation is related to reminding people that they themselves are, in fact, gods. That's literally you reading this now. I want to reach out through the computer, grab you by your lapels (google it), stare directly and meaningful into the soul of your being and say, "You! You are GOD! Remember? Wake the fuck up!"

That's how my Great Work looks, in a nut shell.** In case you were wondering why I do this stuff all the time.

So of course that's nothing new. Jesus said it. Plato said it through Timaeus. Heraclitus said it before that. We say this shit because we see people suffering, and we want you to just ... stahp! Snap out of it! Grow the heck up and make adult decisions based on an understanding that choice leads to experience and consequent enjoyment or suffering! Because you can, and you're awesome! You can do better things, and enjoy a better life, if you want to!

And my focus is a lot about you, personally. Because I love you, and I want you to be happy. I really believe all that shit about us being gods, extensions of the same source, and I get that if we were all doing good, we'd all be happy, and it's just that people forget you can do good sometimes and it might not seem great immediately, but then it turns out to be actually fucking great.

So I try hard to remind you you're a god, with worth and value that is ... worthy. And valuable. To you, but also to all of the rest of us. We need you to be cool, ffs. We need everyone to be cool.

Everyone.

And that's what this post is actually about.*** It's not about you, except inclusively. It's about everyone else you interact with, and how you personally interact with them. Those "others." You know, the other gods on the Earth.

Do you recognize them when you see them? I have a hard time in real life seeing the god in others. Because they're assholes, unawakened lazy pink primate motherfuckers. I need a lot of work before I can bow to the god in others instead of honking at the dipshit standing in front of my car blocking my exit from the airport frantically gesticulating to his wife to just cut me off to come and get his entitled ass.

Is flipping the bird equivalent to "bowing to the god in others?" I sure hope so.

That's Namaste, in Hindu, by the way, and it's totally what it says, and if there's a "fuck you" undercurrent to it, it's probably a mystical secret only understood by stoned sufis. You probably already knew what Namaste means.

If not, here's the Wiki explanation:

Namasté is spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest. This gesture is called Añjali Mudrā or Pranamasana.^[5] In Hinduism it means "I bow to the divine in you".

I bow to the divine in you. That's some bullshit, honestly. I have a hard enough time remembering my own divinity, and you know, slogging through your shit to get to your divinity on a personal basis is fucking hard.

Er.

Dammit, I'm really trying hard not to cuss as much, honest.

But here's the thing: when I get you alone and we're just talking, I see it. When we're not trying to end the trip from hell as soon as possible by getting into a safe place with the one person on the planet we can admit to loving without it being weird. When we're not just posting shit on facebook to make each other laugh and to show how cool we are. When we're not cussing in blog posts to cover up how important this shit really is.

I had a great client today ask me for advice and a talisman to get what she wants out of life. She got how this all works, and she knows society would probably try to tell her she's bad for going after what she really wants, and she had the courage to say what she wants anyway. And of course I helped her, because ... Ok, we'll talk about ethics for a sec.

This client was so cool. She wanted to be with a guy who's in a relationship that's bad for him. She doesn't know if it will work out between the two of them, if they ever might have a chance to connect like a bulb and socket, all slowly screwing deeper and deeper until they can't go any further and become, for the moment, a hot glowing thing that illuminates the world. She just knows she wants him. And that he wants her. And that he's not happy now. And that everyone would be happier if they screwed. Her desires were pure, she wanted the god in him and the god in her to unite for a bit and to see what happened next.

That's all we get, folks. It doesn't get any better than that. And it's perfect.

So here's the thing.

When you start to see the god in other people, and recognise that thing with them that you have in common, you get what they need. What they want. What they're after.

I think my "gift," my "charisma" in this life is to see that in other people. I can spend five or ten minutes talking to you and know more about what you are after in life than you do. That's why I want to go full time offering Hermetic consultations for a living. God-on-god therapy, you know? I grok people, and who they are, and what they want, and why that's ok. I have an intrinsic understanding of the nature of the being that is you, the divine you.

I think that's because I spent so much time learning to know myself, but ... what do I know?

I recently had the opportunity to consider horses, and the "horse whisperer" phenomenon. Horses are huge, strong, and super intelligent manifestations of god. They are unique beings, from their smell to their hooves to their hearts. They love, they feel, and they understand in ways that are similar to, yet entirely different from human beings.

A horse whisperer is someone who can see to the heart of the horse, and see the divinity of that being, and commune with it in language it needs to hear, in the moment. They can put off their humanity enough to be the god who sees the god in the horse, the same god that is in all other aspects of existence, and to commune with it meaningfully in ways it can understand.

Can you imagine being treated that way? To feel the love, the sacrifice, the willingness to shrug off the differences, just for a moment so they can be with you in a way that makes you feel safe, valuable, worthy... Loved?

Makes you want to be a horse, huh?

People, all of us, are little sparks of the divine holed up in flesh suits with brains and emotions and autonomous reactionary protective circuits that have evolved to keep us alive. We feel things, and say things as a result that aren't really cool. Useful, to an end, but robotic. Programmed, genetic, societal. Most of our lives we spend in that state, garbage in, garbage out. It takes something pretty special to knock us up and out of that realm of interacting with the world, to become mindful, aware, awake with another person. It takes intimacy, trust, love, and friendship. Camaraderie.

It's rare, among people. We have these shells up that keep us separated from one another, a hardened lacquer of protective armor. A chitinous layer, a thick skin. It takes something special to get past that layer, to be the solvent that is necessary to open up a bit. Solvents are important in the Great Work.

You know that "I love you man!" moment people get to when they're drunk? That's the point at which their CNS is suppressed enough, and their inhibitions are lowered enough that they can say to people they care about, "Hey, I care about you, I appreciate you, and I am glad to get to hang out with you, because you're cool, and that means something, coming from me." It's the moment when you can admit that your personal value of another person is meaningful, to yourself and to them. And it takes booze to do that. For a reason.

Ethanol is an amazing solvent. So is love. So are mystical exercises, and daily practices. Digging deep into the essence of you is the key to be able to appreciate that essence in others. shutting down the CNS, the inhibitions, the distractions and seeing the divine within you as the same divinity in others. The Great Work is a process that lets you get to that point and appreciate others. It helps you, and in turn it helps everyone else.

So whether you are a people whisperer, or are perhaps a people whisperer in training, or even a person in need of a people whisperer, the things we pursue are the solvent you need. Magical practice is all about that, ultimately. The knowledge of the self. The knowledge of God. The recognition of that and what it means in your life, and in the lives of everyone else.

That is the Great Work.

That and total domination of your world, for the good of all mankind.

* And then people remind me that phrase was taken.

** Not a nut sack. Those look different. And I haven't even made a dick joke yet.

*** My 10th grade English teacher, if he ever reads this, will probably think it's the worst essay ever, introducing the thesis this late, but everything else was the hook, and the elaborateness of it will become apparent in a minute.