The Emerald Tablet

1.Tis true without lying, certain most true. That which is below is like that which is above that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.

2.And as all things have been arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.

3.The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,

4.The wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.

5.The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.

6.Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
 -Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.

7.It ascends from the earth to the heaven again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior.

8.By this means ye shall have the glory of the whole world thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.

9.Its force is above all force for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created.

10.From this are and do come admirable adaptations whereof the means (Or process) is here in this.

11.Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.

12.That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended.

Translation by Sir Isaac Newton

Culture is your Operating System - Terence McKenna

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

School of Athens by Raphael - 1510

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

[Glaucon] I see.

[Socrates] And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

[Socrates] Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

[Glaucon] True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

[Socrates] And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

[Glaucon] Yes, he said.

[Socrates] And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

[Glaucon] Very true.

[Socrates] And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

[Glaucon] No question, he replied.

[Socrates] To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

[Glaucon] That is certain.

Terence McKenna's Final Earthbound Interview

 By John Hazard

In this last video interview before his untimely death, Terence McKenna describes Novelty Theory to director John Hazard with an elaboration of its core principles involving hyper-complexification and the compression of Time. He holds forth on the correspondences between the structure of the DNA molecule and the Chinese I-Ching, then shows how his notion of an Archaic Revival leads from the theories of mind and the art movements of the early 20th century to the Shaman as the quintessential figure of the 21st century, with psychedelic substances being the bridge between these worldviews.

By way of explaining why he's finally releasing this footage, Director John Hazard has the following to say:

"On meeting Terence: I had just finished shooting a film which profiled George Wallace for American Experience, and I was looking for a subject for a film that I might make that would engage me in a compelling way. I stumbled upon Terence and Novelty Theory, and I liked the correspondences between his work and the Mayan calendar.

Terence agreed to work with me, and I went to his home on the Big Island of Hawaii to conduct what I assumed would be the first of several interviews. We were just beginning to work together when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

I’ve always believed that my interview with Terence worked especially well as a long form conversation, because of his gifted way with language.

With the psychedelic movement undergoing a renaissance, many in the new generation were children when Terence conducted his interview with me. I think this audience may consider his remarks to be prescient." 

John Hazard's website: http://www.hazarddp.com/

The Case Against Henry Kissinger

The making of a war criminal    

by Christopher Hitchens 

Harpers magazine, March 2001

 

THE 1968 ELECTION * INDOCHINA * CHILE

 

It will become clear, and may as well be stated at the outset, that this is written by a political opponent of Henry Kissinger. Nonetheless, I have found myself continually amazed at how much hostile and discreditable material I have felt compelled to omit. I am concerned only with those Kissingerian offenses that might or should form the basis of a legal prosecution: for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for offenses against common or customary or international law, including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture.

 

Thus, I might have mentioned Kissinger's recruitment and betrayal of the Iraqi Kurds, who were falsely encouraged by him to take up arms against Saddam Hussein in 1972-75, and who were then abandoned to extermination on their hillsides when Saddam Hussein made a diplomatic deal with the Shah of Iran, and who were deliberately lied to as well as abandoned. The conclusions of the report by Congressman Otis Pike still make shocking reading and reveal on Kissinger's part a callous indifference to human life and human rights. But they fall into the category of depraved realpolitik and do not seem to have violated any known law.

 

In the same way, Kissinger's orchestration of political and military and diplomatic cover for apartheid in South Africa presents us with a morally repulsive record and includes the appalling consequences of the destabilization of Angola. Again, though, one is looking at a sordid period of Cold War and imperial history, and an exercise of irresponsible power, rather than an episode of organized crime. Additionally, one must take into account the institutional nature of this policy, which might in outline have been followed under any administration, national security adviser, or secretary of state.

The Empire Lovers Strike Back

by Gore Vidal

First published in The Nation in 1986
 
Recently, Norman Mailer and I chatted together at the Royale Theatre in New York, under the auspices of PEN American Center. Part of what I said was reprinted in these pages on January 11, under the title, not mine, “Requiem for the American Empire.” I gave a bit of a history lesson about our empire’s genesis, and I brooded on its terminus last fall, when Tokyo took over from New York as the world’s economic center.

My conclusion: for America to survive economically in the coming Sino-Japanese world, an alliance with the Soviet Union is a necessity. After all, the white race is a minority race with many well deserved enemies, and if the two great powers of the Northern Hemisphere don’t band together, we are going to end up as farmers–or, worse, mere entertainment–for the more than one billion grimly efficient Asiatics. In principle, Mailer agreed.