The Portals: Symbol and Myth

paul laffoley, from the Phenomenology of Revelation (transcribed by bibble - errors mine!)
Language
Symbolism and mythology are essentially the same. Neither can be totally understood ithout a
theory of language, nor can they be totally appreciated ithout recogni!ing a basic difference in
their realities" their aspects of being static and dynamic, respectively.
#ne of the pioneers of semiotics, $ac%ues &acan, states"
Instead of saying that Freud anticipates linguistics, I introduce the following formula: The
unconscious is the condition of linguistics.... An analyst, on the contrary, who bathes in the
procedures of the university and who is infatuated by it will be captured by its discourse and will
make the blatantly erroneous statement that the unconscious is the condition of language. Those
who say this make themselves into authors by disregarding what I told them, what I incanted to
them, which is that language is the condition of the unconscious... Freud proposed the
following evidence to sustain the ordering he called the unconscious: 1 The sub!ect is not one
who knows what he is saying. " #omething is said by the word the sub!ect cannot remember. $
The sub!ect behaves oddly and believes that his behavior is his own.
'(panding &acan)s incantation a bit e can say that language is the something essential to the
appearance or the occurence of the unconscious. *e seems to be saying hat +en,amin &ee
-holf said about the nature of language and its relationship to the universe. -horf claimed that
language possessed a relativity principle such that unless their linguistic bac.grounds are similar
or can in some ay be correlated, no to observers are led by the same physical evidence to the
same picture of the universe. / cosmology, therefore, is a creature of the language that
describes it, and so nature is not something sub,ect to a model of creativity that cannot be at least
partly delineated (as sustained by the theory of cretio e( nihilo), but rather something that is said.
0he mathematician Rene 0hom has also developed this idea in his study of catastrophe theory,
hich has implications in biology, topology, and linguistics. *e declared" 1/s far as life and social
sciences are concerned, it is difficult for me to ,udge hether my present ideas may be of interest,
but in riting these pages 2 have reached the conviction that there are simulating structures of all
natural e(ternal forces at the very heart of the genetic endoment of our species, at the
unassailable depth of the *eraclitean logos of our soul, and that these structures are ready to go
into action henever necessary.1
&ogos is the 3ree. ord for 1ord1. 0he ancient 3ree.s used to related ords to amplify logos"
eido, meaning form, and mythos, meaning speech. 0he logos (or form-ord) as the utterance
of the fates or the moerae. 0he statements &acan uses to describe 4reud)s evidence for the
e(istence of the unconscious could ,ust as easily describe a hierophant)s inspired seating at the
oracle of 5elphi or the current model of someone sub,ect to the creative process ithout critical
feedbac..
2f &acan)s attempt to absoluti!e language into a universal creative principle is to be considered
viable (as the cliche of the universe as information ould have us believe), then there must be a
ay of uncovering in the nature of language an infinitely self-referential %uality that is encoded in
the process of the unfolding of the information being delivered. 0his self-referential element is
necessarily inherent in a system that depends on it for its function, because if it ere not inherent
the entire system could conceivably cease to continue. +ut the self-referential %uality itself cannot
be totally predictable in its results.
2n recursive (recursive meaning relating to a procedure that can repeat itself indefinitely or until a
specified condition is met) function theory, a branch of mathematics .non also as computability
theory and as the theory of algorithms, there e(ists the so-called creativity theorem, hich states
that if there is a computable function f such that hen ever sub6 7 8, f(i) e%uals 8, but f(i) does
not e%ual sub6. Roughly translated, this means that if there e(ists a recursively enumerable
but not recursive set 8 that embodies an ob,ect that is forever un.noable but of such a nature
that e can continue to .no it to be un.noable, then any recursively enumerable set having
the property asserted of 8 is called a creative set.
0he creativity theorem is a lin. to understanding the ancient concept of fate and the propulsion of
fate)s core of un.noableness into manifestation hile that core continues to be protected from
being .non. 4ate, therefore, e%uals language, and the description of fate)s protection finds its
e%uivalent in the various systems that have been outlined above.
2 believe that inspiration embodies the idea of being possessed by an entity that is un.noable
but hose un.noability passes through oneself in a manner that produces action as a by-
product of the passage. Such an interpretation of inspiration has never been part of, on the one
hand, the easy agnosticism of the aristocratic notion of creativity, hich does not %uestion the
origin and hierarchy of ability, or, on the other hand, the constant democratic attac. on the source
of ability in an effort to produce an e%uitable distribution of it. Rather, the traditional association of
creativity and language has been an attempt to understand ho hat e call religious symbolism
and mythology or. and hy they have the poer that they do.
0he history of this attempt to uncover the nature of symbolism and mythology, primarily as
aspects of religious rites and mystical e(perience, is as old as human.ind. *ere the archaic is
sought for its on sa.e. 9et Rudolf /rnheim neglected to ta.e this into account in an observation
he made in the mid-6:;<s"
Today in both psychology and the arts there is a danger of confusing the elementary with the
profound. %ultures in their late, refined stages seem to develop a weakness for primitism, and
one of the forms this inclination takes in our own case is the temptation to believe that the areas
of the mind farthest away from consciousness harbor the deepest wisdom. This belief strikes me
as a romantic superstition. The elementary or, to use a fashionable term, the archetypal
statement has the simplest strength of a primitive icon, but in its raw state it is acceptable to the
developed mind only as an escape from the confusion of comple&ity or as a spice for the tired
palate. It is a mediation rather than a revelation because, in order to meet the re'uirements of
our intricate civili(ation, the fundamental image of human e&perience must be modulated by the
conditions, traditions, memories, and thoughts that make us what we are.
2t ould be intellectually obtuse, hoever, to apply /rnheim)s remar.s to or. of the last of the
pre-Socrates li.e Pythagoras or to Plato, ho lived at the end of the Periclean age. -eltschmer!,
or ennui, could not be properly attributed to =osimos of Papopolis, the third-century alchemist
ho brought 3nosticism to a close. -ould one say of 3oethe, ho suddenly became the first
1modern man1 after the Renaissance cycle faded ith the Rococo, that he became immediately
afflicted ith Post->odern malaise?
2n the tentieth century alone there have been many people both ell .non and not so ell
.non ho have dedicated their or.ing lives to the e(amination of aspects of the archaic for
clues to .eeping the process of symbolism and mythology alive in the present. 0o name a fe, 2
ould mention the philosopher R. /. Schaller de &ubic!, ho discovered the content of the
symbols of ancient 'gypt@ the e(istentialist philosopher 8arl $aspers, ho developed a semiotics
of mysticism@ >ircea 'liade, ho by his studies in comparative religion revealed patterns of
symbols and myths that e constantly reenact@ 3eorge $ 3urd,ieff, a modern alchemist and neo-
Pythagorean, ho revived the initiation into the esoteric@ R +uc.minster 4uller, the engineer
hose vision of a dynamic geometry has become a universal dimensional language@ and $ohn
>icheil, ho has rediscovered the ancient science of the cosmic canon of proportions and
symbolic numbers. /nd there are many, many more, all contributing to this effort hether or not it
as their stated intention to do so.
Symbols and Myths
/s 2 see them, symbols and myths constitute the active aspects of fate. 2f fate e%uals language,
then fate at its most comple( and sophisticated is the ever groing, ever changing, multitudinous
language that e(ists throughout the universe in every conceivable and inconceivable form. +ut
fate as language, in its most primordial form, is a dimensional system. 0he simplest dimensional
system consists of e(foliation into states of the absolute aliveness of the one into the many of
absolute death, the kenosis of being@ conversely through the meta-death of the many emanates
the infoliation bac. into stages of consciousness toard the one, the gnosis of becoming.
Symbols and >yths are the portals beteen the e(treme stages, or dimensions, of kenosis and
gnosis.
0he full octave of portals is composed of natural singularities that act li.e message unites. 0he
portals that e human beings can e(perience have often been altered to fit our understanding, in
hich case they are called altered portals or structured singularities. -hile Symbols and >yths
are the general terms for the to entire octaves of dimensional portals, they specifically describe
only the interface beteen the fourth and the fifth dimensional realms.
0he litany of portals, therefore, ould be as follos"
The Octave of Temporality
beteen < and 6 - &ist
beteen 6 and A - /necdote
beteen A and B - 0ale
beteen B and C - &egend
beteen C and D - >yth
beteen D and ; - 'piphany
beteen ; and E - 8ratophany
beteen E and F - *ierophany
The Octave of Spatiality
beteen < and 6 - Sign
beteen 6 and A - 2nde(
beteen A and B - 2con
beteen B and C - /rchetype
beteen C and D - Symbol
beteen D and ; - 7ypher
beteen ; and E - 7ipher
beteen E and F - Sypher
0hus the dimensional interactive litany rising from absolute death ould be &ist-Sign, /nectode-
2nde(, 0ale-2con, legend-/rchetype, >yth-Symbol, 'piphany-7ypher, 8ratophany-7ipher, finally
reaching absolute life in *ierphonay-Sypher.
'ach realm of the dimensional portals represents aspects of the consciousness that dells ithin
each dimension. &ist-Sign, for instance, represents the atom of consciousness of the ego, ,ust as
>yth-Symbol represents the integrated self, and *ierophany-Sypher the so-called higher self or
universal soul.
+ecause consciousness passes through every aspect of the universe from the ob,ective-
mechanical to the sub,ective-living, in both the physical and the metaphysical realms, hat e as
humans call e(perience is the consciousness of consciousness, bound by the to limits of
perception and revelation. /nd as such, e(perience is naturally an anthropocentric vision of the
universe, a universe that becomes divided into three parts" the macrocosm, or that part of the
metaphysical aspect of the universe that is inaccessible to human e(perience, hich contains
forms of consciousness that completely transcend human consciousness@ the mesocosm, or that
part of human consciousness, including the so-called transcendent aspects of human
consciousness and the microcosm, or that part of the physical aspect of the universe that has
become inaccessibly to human e(perience because as humans e have evolved beyond this
aspect, not in the 5arinian sense of evolution but in an epistemological and primordial sense.
The Mesocosm
0he mesocosm, then, is the total realm of human e(perience and involves the symbology and
mythology of three physical dimensions and one metaphysical dimension. it is by neither the
ob,ective %uality of perception nor the sub,ective %uality of revelation but by the pro,ective %uality
of the human imagination that e inhabitants of the mesocosm .no of the e(istence of the
macrocosm and the microcosm of the universe. 4or instance, hat e call a line by imaginative
pro,ection is in reality an abstraction from the profile of a shado, the final limit of human
perception. this pro,ection of the imagination ma.es us reali!e the e(istence of the microcosm.
2n li.e manner the mystical e(perience - the limit of human revelation - is pro,ected by the
imagination to have its source in the divine orld, or the macrocosm. -ithin the mesocosm the
semiotic rise of consciousness to revelation involves an actual inversal of the nature of the basic
epistemic entity. 2n the presence of the revelation, that hich .nos and that hich is .non
e(ist in a mutually interdependent relationship. 0he epistemic progression that begins in the
microcosm as Sign-&ist is first manifest in the mesocosm as 2nde(-/necdote, then moves to 2con-
0ale, ne(t to /rchetype-&egend and finally to Symbol->yth. 8noledge advances from the
absolute arbitrariness of information to its absolute nonarbitrariness. -e recogni!e the change in
.noledge forms first by convention, then by logical evidence, ne(t by homoeomorphism and
isomorphism of structure, and finally by revelation. 0his epistemic change is also indicated by the
manner in hich the relationship beteen the .noer, the individual, ho is at first active, and
that hich is .non, at first passive, is inversed in revelation, ith that hich is .non becoming
active and the individual-.noer becoming passive.
0he inversion of the epistemic model may not be noticed until an individual confronts - .nos - an
authentic Symbol->yth as a sub,ective e(perience. 4rom the point of vie of ob,ective
e(perience such Symbol->yth dimensional portal e(amples as blac.Ghite holes and orm holes,
the velocity of light at the center of a photon, the still center of a moving heel, or the states of
rest of the to ends of the invariant plane of oscillation of a pendulum system may still seem to
be scientific curiosities until a first mystical e(perience ma.es the connection for an individual.
The Symbol-Myth as Subjective Eperience
Symbol->yths are energy portals beteen the fourth and fifth dimensional realms. 0ime-Solvoid
and 'ternity-7osolid, and in the epistemic ran.ing of human consciousness they are of the first
order in the %uest for meaning and conte(t. +eing in their presence is li.e facing something totally
beyond yourself. 0hey appear as beings of greater maturity, aliveness, and internal comple(ity
than you. 0heir capacity to generate an energy of a different and more intense nature than you
are capable of generating elicits the classic sublime response, hich transcends beauty" ,oy
combined ith horror at the rush to the infinite. 0his response has led to their being interpreted as
divine and anthropomorphi!ed as gods and daemons.
+ut a Symbol->yth is ultimately neither a sub,ect or an ob,ect. 2t is definable only as a portal, an
entity characteri!ed by its capacity to transform. /nd hat is transformed is the nature of
consciousness itself at each dimensional realm. 0he aareness of consciousness in transition is
hat e call the sub,ective aspect of Symbol->yths. 0he transition from dimensional realm four
to dimensional realm five as a conscious e(perience is the mystical e(perience, and as such is
the most comple( e(perience e as humans ill ever .no.
0here is an analogous e(perience of a loer dimensional transition that although often neglected
nevertheless contains the elements of unfolding and astonishment that accompany dimensional
transition)s impact on consciousness. 0he e(perience is popularly called the uncanny. 0his is the
e(perience of /rchetype-&egend, hich can be called the discovery of time. 2 do not mean
observation of the effects of time, such as the atching of cloc.s or the aging process. 2 mean
the sense of coming upon the elusive nature of time itself. '(amples of this e(perience ould be
the sense that time goes by faster as you get older or that it momentarily slos don during
potentially fatal situations such as being in an automobile accident or being shot from close
range@ the feeling of the loss of time as the result of drug-induced blac.outs or from continuous
oversleeping@ the peculiar feeling you get hen you first see a movie run in reverse@ and hat is
called the )bootstrap syndrome,) that odd sensation your voice or appearance reproduced on
mechanical media or an image of yourself at another age.
4inally, there are those e(periences that begin to happen hen someone discovers that they are
ta.ing the first steps on the path to e(periencing a Symbol->yth. 0hese are the so-called occult
or psychic phenomena, and they fall into four general categories. 4irst ould be those
synchronistic events, hich 7arl $ung described as meaningful coincidence of events, that are
acausal and completely private to the individual ho as them. Second are the ell-recogni!ed
conditions of de,a vu, or the feeling that you have itnessed someone, thing, or event before you
came upon it ob,ectively, hile having prior .noledge that you did not, and ,amais vu, the feeling
that you have alays .non and ill alays .no someone through many lifetimes. 0hird are
the more ob,ective or 1ob,ectivi!able1 phenomena, including tele.inesis, pre- and retrocognition,
telepathy, and clairvoyance@ all these particular psychic phenomena have been the sub,ects of
scientific scrutiny since the end of the nineteenth century. /nd fourth are those e(periences li.e
astral pro,ection or soul travel and the near-death e(perience, hich are higher derivatives of
lucid or veridical dreaming, in hich you .no you are dreaming and in hich other people ho
are having veridical dreams simultaneously can ,oin you in the same dream. 0hese fourth-
category e(periences almost eliminate the sub,ect-ob,ect polarity of a.ing consciousness.
The !ormative Structure of Symbol-Myths
Symbol->yths reveal >ystery" they do not act as devices that decode mysteries into something
else. / conundrum, such as the revealed logical plot of a mystery novel, is something that can be
solved, and hen it is solved it ceases to e(ist. 0he true mysteries of e(istence - from the nature
of a color or a sound that is e(perienced directly all the ay up to the mystery of pure being itself
- cannot be eliminated by e(periencing those dimensional portals of Symbol->yths that have as
their sub,ects of focus the mysteries in %uestion. 2nstead e find ourselves at the portal of an
infinite abyss of mystery. #ften e are not prepared for direct revelation of mysteries such as se(,
death, good, or evil, and as a method of self-protection against their infinity e either triviali!e
them by inducing boredom or escape them through insanity. +ut this is here an artistic tradition
of creating structured singularities emerges. 0he creation of structured singularities is not a
strategy aimed at diverting the full impact of mysteries, but rather a step in a process of initiation.
Structured singularities build ritual to allo us to ithstand mysteries until e can pass the critical
barrier of infinity and live in their presence.
2n the final section of his treatise 7on der -ahrheit (7oncerning 0ruth), the philosopher 8arl
$aspers rote about the ideal activity of ma.ing Symbol->yths as structured singularities" 10his
tas. of actually ta.ing hold of being is fulfilled by the symbol. 0hat is nor our theme. 0he cypher
is neither ob,ect nor sub,ect. 2t is ob,ectivity hich is permeated by sub,ectivity and in such a ay
that being becomes present in the hole.1
$aspers describes certain characteristics that these structured singularities must possess to be
true cyphers. 0hey must communicate a philosophical aareness of being and recogni!e that
being is not another reality hidden behind empirical realities. / state of suspension and the
avoidance of false corporealities insure the Symbol->yth)s sense of infinity. $aspers also
maintains that genuine Symbol->yths cannot be interpreted or decoded, and if the attempt is
made they ill fall bac. into empirical reality - superstition, nonreality - allegory, detachment - the
aesthetic attitude, conceptuali!ation - dogmatic metaphysics or hat is intentionally anted -
magic. 4inally, $aspers states that true cyphers are not some means to an end they cannot be
produced at ill. 0hey are found and unconsciously revived by each generation. 0he artist helps
the cyphers unfold of their on nature.
0he unfolding process as e(perienced by the artist is astonishment in the presence of a cypher,
hich leads to a %uestioning of the artist in relation to the cypher, or the structured singularity of
Symbol->yth. Such %uestioning centers around the nature of the mystery presented, and
includes the reali!ation that the cypher is spea.ing to the artist and that there is an ontological
distance beteen the being-that-2-am (e(istence) and the being-that--is-all (transcendence) that
the cypher presents.
$aspers calls the final phase of the unfolding of a Symbol->yth a cypher con,uration. / visual
metaphor for this phase is an infinite series of glass panes placed flat on top of each other and
e(tending bac. into space in the form of a gigantic line in a logarithmic spiral around a focus of
light in an infinite number of revolutions. 0he line of transparent glass panes .eeps moving
toard the light but never %uite reaches it. 0he poer of light e(tends bac. into the initial pane of
glass and prevents any one pane from being observed, an event that ould halt the action of the
con,uration. 2n other ords, the portal of Symbol->yth has the poer to transform the
opa%ueness of phenomena into the transparency of cypher, yielding an infinite series of
transparent panes that revolve indefinitely around the infinitely great and infinitely small point of
pure being ithout ever arriving. 9et in the approach to pure being, the actual distance beteen
e(istence and transcendence is reduced.
Symbols and Myths as Structured Singularities
4or purposes of analysis Symbols and >yths can be artificially separated to e(amine the
differences in their natures as singularities. /ll singularities are ultimately the same@ they simply
present themselves in a different guise depending on hether their conte(t is the #ctave of
Spatiality or the #ctave of 0emporality.
0he portals that deal ith spatiality e(hibit singularities that are dimensional variations on motion
and rest. 0hey are indicated by the geometry of incommensurables li.e phi (the golden section),
pi, or neer additions to the list li.e fractals. 'ach of these incommensurables hovers above a
focus, or 1attractor,1 providing an entity that processes energy of a different nature at each
dimensional realm. 0he various energies give the differing character to each singularity and
signal the ne(t higher dimension. &i.e energy rippling from muscle to muscle during some great
effort, the singularities or spatiality drain the energy of absolute life bac. and forth, up and don
through the dimensions.
0emporality)s portals e(hibit singularities of a slightly different nature. 0hey are not li.e the
graphically definable geometric points of spatiality, but more li.e hiatuses in process of lacunae in
a line of te(t. 0hese singularities are the instants of change beteen possibilities and
manifestations. 0he most obvious are singularities of 0ime - the abyss of transition beteen a
cause and its effect. -hat e call mythology in the storyli.e sense arises from this analysis of
time. 0he timeline of each of our lives, supposedly consisting of a bac.-to-bac. nonreversible set
of causal events, has but one possibility that is manifested for each instant. +ut if e imagine
beyond the confines of 'instein)s and >in.ovs.i,)s orld-line, e .non that e have many
possibilities that e could manifest. 'ternity, the ne(t dimension above 0ime, becomes the
eternal repository of each possibility that as manifested by us. 'ternity, then, allos the critical
path of each of our lives to e(ist in a state that actually transcends the religious definition of
immortality. 0he continuing e(istence of other possibilities that e .no ere ours simply by the
logic of situations ithin our timelines becomes the imperative to fantasy and to social
connections ithin time. /s all personas begin to access one another)s possibilities and to
perform the rituals of mutual actuali!ation of those possibilities friendship, love, nations, countries,
and orlds develop. 0he crescendo results in the hypra(is of the universe - the complete
unfolding and manifestation of all possibilities.