Second Page
© 2003 Tristan A. Arts
"...I am as deep as an ocean, and
as shallow as a mirror. I am stuff of the stars, and I am excrement. I aspire to
be greater than the sum of my parts, and worse than the wholeness of my being.
I am all that is pleasant and all that is repulsive. All living things are
proof that paradox is necessary. I cannot embrace the light without
acknowledging the darkness. I am at once everything, nothing, both, neither
and I am boldly going nowhere. Isn't that something?"
---Lord Random Hearse (Delphiforums membername "TANSTAAFL28")
The Challenge of Shao-Kehn's Gaze
Once ages long
gone when Ahndahn did face
Shao'Kehn in Her Realm, that Chaotic Place,
From the flames of Shadow Work came Her Eyes burning bright,
Filling Ahndahn with a terrible fright,
Challenge She did with the gaze so fierce,
Daring the danger Ahndahn to pierce;
Threat of possible death from Chaos worse than a sun,
But secretly, evolution beyond imagination;
Ahndahn was scared, but forward went She,
Fought with Shao'Kehn long, now together they be;
Both Ahndahn and Shao'Kehn became more than thought possible,
Now they show us that nothing's impossible;
Face You the challenge of Shao-Kehn's fierce gaze,
And explore the wonders beyond for all of Your days.
Shoikinistic Terms
The Shoikinistic Language, known as Trai'Pahg'Nan'Og, is a great
new language. It is a simple language; easy to pronounce once you know the
special sounds, spelled phoenetically, words describing similar things are
similar. For example, the word for "water" is "gweblahr,"
and these are the words for: river= gwebgoriah, lake= gwebylyn, water wave=
gweb’zahvahr, wet= gweblaya, rain= piic-gwebar. And new words are easy to
make--just combine existing words.
Charecters underlined are said with a throat-clearing
sound. And sound, "ii" is like "ee."
carnal= traiúlg [tray-oolg] carnality= traiúlgyl
[tray-oolg-uhl] spiritual= zirrovahg [zear-oh-vog]
spirituality= zirrovagyl [zear-oh-vog-uhl] carnal+spiritual
at once= zirro'traiúlg [zear-oh-tray-oolg]
carnality+spirituality at once= zirro'traiúlgyl [zear-oh-tray-oolg-uhl]
wholeness= kohraig-kez [koh-rayg-kez] Your Self=
Kriiah Shihbahn [kree-uh-shih-bahn]
The Self= Sahn-Shihbahn [sahn-shih-bahn]
Zah'Hkah'Shao'Hkai= The Heart of the Chaos, from whence
Shao'Kehn came.
I am Divine= Thiio Pah'Twai'Ah [pah-tway-uh] Deity=
Pah'Tuu'Ah [pah-too-uh]
Holy/Sacred= Ahnai [aan-ay], Ahn [aan], Ahna [aan-uh]
Splendor= Tay'Kwii'Ah [tay-kwee-uh]
Power= Zah'Vah'Shah Be= Baina [bane-uh]
All= Kohrain [koh-rain]
Many= Vahzii [vaa-zee] All+many at once=
Kohrai'Vahzii [koh-ray-vah-zee]
Spwiióhk= Spirit of Entropy. Thii'pah'twai'ii'kursh=
"I have remembered My Divinity."
Chaos= Shaokehnzah [shao-kehn-zah]
About
Mahl'Shoikahlah seh Benpoh Sahn-Shihbahn (Defense of The [Grand]-Self)
Or, the importance of "I Am."
All religions, all philosophies
deal in some way with The Self (Benpoh Sahn-Shihbahn). Unfortunately,
most are Right-Hand Paths, and thus make us deny, subdue, destroy, or otherwise
ab-use (mis-use) Our Self. They claim Our Ego gets in the way of enlightenment,
that We must bend to the will of "God," as in Christianity, destroy
Our Self, as in lots of Buddhism, or think ourselves as no better than just
fancy animals in a world that's comprised only of things that can be measured
with scientific instruments, as in much of Atheism. Those of the Right-Hand
Paths, even Atheism, tend to destroy the Self--to make humans (and other
creatures) as somehow inferior beings. Well I tell you what: Beings that have
the power to either preserve or destroy the Earth are not inferior, though neither
are they superior. And as long as we continue to believe that we are limited,
inferior, stupid creatures, we will continue to head toward extinction, taking
the Earth with us. We must stop denying the Self. When we acknowledge the Self,
we can pave the way towards understanding of others, and a better human race.
For when you see the "demons" inside of yourself, and face them
through Shadow Work, you know that there is no clear-cut good and evil, just
“what serves you” and “what does not serve you,” (and anything that hurts you,
the environment, others, or living beings needlessly does not serve you).
Shadow Work opens your eyes to the truth of your Self, which opens your hearts
to other people.
Shao'Kehn teaches that Self is reality. Without ego,
without Self, there would be no reality—I mean by this that Ego-Self is what
defines The Divine, and thus for there to be a Divine (and, therefore,
reality), there must be Ego-Self. All of everything is defined by its Self-ness
(Sahn-Shihbahn-maak). The
only thing keeping reality existing, the one phrase upon which all of existence
has as its foundation (which was hinted at in the Christian Bible) is "I
am." If the Omni-verse suddenly
converted to a Self-denying religion, and destroyed its Self, saying "I am
not," then all would cease to be. The soul with no Self is non-existent. Destroy your Self and you
destroy yourself. Bend your Self to the Will of another, and you are broken;
not whole. You'd be affirming their Divinity but not Your Own.
When you, for example, form a piece of
"formless" clay into a pot shape, you are destroying its old Self and
creating a new one. When you die, your body's Self dies and, through rot,
scavengers, and other forces, becomes parts of countless other beings' Selves. Kill
Your Self before physical death happens and you become undead. Just
beware—sickness can seep into any spiritual path. Denial of Self is a sin no
one should commit, if only because it is unhealthy. This unhealthy Self-denial
is why people crack under peer pressure and get involved in drugs and other
unhealthy activities. Their sense of Self is sick, so they force their body to
match it. Then by the time they realize their mistake, they're hooked, and
there's a long hard road to escape. Thus, the Shoikinist's biggest test of
security with one's Self is their ability to not cave in to peer pressure.
When surrounded by "sickness," the Self-secure Shoikinist is healthy,
and no amount of peer pressure would change that.
Every single thing with form has a Self—some are just more
aware of it than others. Most beings are Self aware to a point. What makes
humans different is that we can ponder the meaning of our existence. A chimp
looks in a mirror, and after a while, he realizes that he's seeing a reflection
of himself. It goes no further than that for chimps (so far). A human sees
himself in the mirror, recognizes who it is, and then starts wondering how he
came into existence. As I see things, in the Christian bible, Adam and Eve
started out as innocents (like animals), then ate of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, becoming "as gods." Then they were cast from Eden. I
think this is symbolic of evolution—humans started out as simple animals like
any other on Earth, then through evolution "ate of the tree of
knowledge," thereby losing their innocence, becoming as gods in the sense
that they could then ponder their own origins. The human perspective is one of
constant questions. Animals generally don't question the world—they may be
confused at times, but generally about fairly simple things.
Accept your Self and You accept Your Divinity—Your power
that evolution gave You to ponder the past and plan for the future. We as a
species are the only beings on this planet that can plan past our
lifetimes. Sure, some animals make things that they will never see, for the
future generation, but we humans can start things that will not be finished for
many generations. It doesn't stop there--We can plan far beyond what we've
tried so far. We have it within ourselves to divine our universe's roots and
make the world better for the humans of a million years from now. We can be
worthy of contempt, or we can be awe-inspiring. We need to all become Self
affirming. We must fight to defend our Self against all those who would try to
break our spirit. Not just physical self-defense, but Spiritual Self defense.
Defense of Our Essence. The destroying of self-created boundaries---de-fence
(un-fence) against all that binds us. THAT will be the salvation of our race,
of our planet, and all who depend on us to shape up. It's all summed up into
one simple phrase: "Be Your Self."
That is Self defense.
Selective Worship
People throughout history have been guilty
of a sin that Christianity preaches, but it frequently gets misinterpreted.
People all through history and into today have been consistently
"worshipping false idols." They're guilty of putting stock in things
other than themselves to take care of life's details. I'm not talking about
worshipping golden cows, I mean an idol as in ANY being that does not affirm
one's own Self. Any being
or thing that does not tell You that You are Divine, that You are capable of
being more than You could even imagine, is a false idol. People have always put their faith in
this God or Goddess, or that one, or spirits, or the power of God. People have
been inherently lazy throughout history and into today. They pray to their God
or Gods to do things that they feel they can't do. Little do they know, that
when a prayer to heal (for example) actually heals them, what they think is a
miracle of God is actually another kind of miracle: a miracle of the Self. They
healed themselves without even realizing it. By their very faith in God,
they healed themselves. What doesn't make sense to Me and to many others is why
they don't recognize this, and then merge with their Deity, to bring the power
they gave that Deity back to themselves. I know the answer: First off, they've
been told all their lives that they are "just human" and "no one
is perfect" and "you're not God." Secondly, they have been
conditioned to not think independently, and thus wouldn't recognize their own
power if they saw it staring them in the face. And third, they're lazy. For all
too often we see people who know their own power, but don't use it. Those who
know their power but ignore it, they continue to live a lie, worshipping their
false idol even though they know it's meaningless except as a focuser of their
power. Why? Because it's safe. Because they're afraid to explore that
power, afraid that it will overwhelm them and they'll get drunk off it. They're
afraid of the possible risks, so they end up dying without knowing what they
could've become.
Good thing about Shoikinism is, we have our own language
that says so much more than English. Let me now define some Shoikinistic words
for "worship" that come in handy here:
1. Taek'Pahtuu'Ehg--"Loving the (external) Divine." Means that
they bow and tremble before some "Higher Power." There’s nothing
wrong with that, though, if it serves your needs.
2. Taek'Pahtuu'Flo--"Love of the Divine inside." This is
saying the Divine is in all things.
3. Taek'Shih'Pahtuu--"Love of the Self Divine." Means that the
Self, in all forms, is Divine. This is the Self-empowering word Shoikinists use
the most. That the Divine IS All, and thus We are All Part of The Divine.
Thus, we can now say that the Shoikinist does not Taek'Pahtuu'Ehg
false idols, but instead Taek'Shih'Pahtuu Our Deities. (In other words,
Our Deities ARE part of Us, and We are part of Our Deities.)
Going on, let's forget false idols for now, and focus on
choosing the right Deity to merge with. Because not all people can just start
off throwing away all Deities and worshipping their Self, as I myself know
well. No, most people just getting into a Balanced Path need a Deity, or at
least an archetype or role model to help them find and tap Their Divinity. The
Setians have Set, who (according to them) was the first human to reach full
Godhood potential, and apparently lives on, immortal in some unfathomable
sense. He is their Deity, their role model, and their archetype. They live to
reach their full potential by using him as a guide. Most other Satanists have
Satan or Lucifer. Shoikinists can have whomever they want (part of the benefits
of Shoikinism's Discordian heritage), but obviously Reverend Beautiful Pyre,
the founder of Shoikinism, has chosen Shao'Kehn because their personalities
most resemble each other, but with differences still.
Yet choosing who is a good candidate for Taek'Shih'Pahtuu
is difficult, and must be up to You. So let's focus, instead, on bad
role models, bad candidates for Taek'Shih'Pahtuu.
For one thing, there is a growing tendency in the world
today of worship of celebrities. And why not, some people say. They're
obviously successful. The only problem is if the worship of that celebrity is
usually Taek'Pahtuu'Ehg instead of Taek'Shih'Pahtuu. When
worshipping someone in the Taek'Pahtuu'Ehg sense, the worshipper often
doesn't give a darn about the flaws of the object of worship. It is the
kind of worship that gets people into slave religions, cults, and abusive
religions. It is also the kind of worship that keeps them in those situations.
Therefore, celebrity worship is okay, as long as it is wisely selected Taek'Shih'Pahtuu.
If your object of worship begins to show aspects that are abusive either to You
or to Their Selves, discard them as an object of worship. Don't ever commit the
sin of justifying their actions, of loving them or respecting them despite
their wrongdoings. If there's abuse of any kind in a relationship, cut off the
relationship. Don't emulate a Self-destructive idol. Remember that no matter
who you Taek'Shih'Pahtuu, remember the middle word shih, the root
for the word Shihbahn, which means "Self."
Of course, then one can see that it would be wiser to
choose an intangible Deity to emulate. Preferably one of Your own making, or a
pre-existing one that is easily molded. Because obviously, you can modify an
intangible Deity if you find you need to, but you can't modify another person
very well. If your intangible Deity is abusive, you can do some Shadow Work
into Yourself and Your Deity, and fix the problem. (And of course you can have
more than one of any object of worship, I just find it easier to talk about one
Deity here in this essay.)
Confusing? Difficult? I don’t think so, but if you find it
to be so, then I mentioned this before, but there's a rather startlingly easy
answer: Just worship Your Self. Obviously, if You feel no need for a tool
such as Taek'Shih'Pahtuu with another, then by all means, don't use it.
If you don't need a hammer because the nails are already perfectly in place, then
it would be silly to get one out. It's just that people tend to admire in
others what they themselves feel they don't have, nor could ever have. I've
said before that Shadow Aspects are often revealed by what we hate in others.
Well, Shadow Aspects can also be revealed by what we love the most in others.
What You most admire in others, but deny You have Yourself, (whether it's a
person, place, thing, idea, or Divinity) is what You already have, and have
failed to acknowledge. Shadow Work, becoming Whole again, should be the FIRST
STEP in any Balanced Path. Should be the first step for any path,
really.
Wrapping this section up now, I close in saying: It's
said that faith can move mountains, but faith is pretty much useless unless you
first have faith in Yourself.
Motivation
to Self Improvement
With our philosophy of "You are Divine," some people,
like members of the Temple of Set, may wonder how we motivate people towards
Self improvement. So, I shall explain.
In the first place, all things are Divine. A rock may not
have much potential, but it is still Divine, because it is a part of the All.
And actually, a rock would have more potential than you might think. Give that
rock to an angry man, and that rock could be the cause of a war. But that's
beyond the point. The point is, while You may be Divine already, so are rocks.
The difference is that, as a human, you have enormous potential. More than you
could currently imagine, even. So what we do for new members is, we ask them, "Do
you wish to improve Your Self?" If they answer a flat no, we send them
packing. If they say, "Well, if I'm already Divine, why should I?" We
tell them the story about the rock. We basically tell them that, without Self
improvement, they may as well be a rock---static, unchanging, doomed to a dull
and fruitless life. That there is the answer.
Also, Shao'Kehn being She Who Challenges, does not let us
stay the same. She challenges us to walk the Fires of Challenge despite the
pain to get the rewards at the other side. And She works for us.
Holy
Texts
The Shoikinist sees Divinely Inspired texts in a hybrid way. The highly Discordian works on the Temple of Shao site have Shao'Kehn telling Us that "Something is True," but that we at this stage don't know what, exactly. (Amendment: "The Book of [She] Who is Both Darkness and Light" tells us that All Contitions and Things are True. Please scroll down for link to that scripture when it gets here--I've not htmlized or even finished it yet) All the sacred texts through all history, known and unknown, all the Inspired texts, are glimpses of The Ultimate Truth. But trying to understand it, at our current stage of evolution, is like an ant trying to fathom a human city. It sees the city from its perspective, and it all looks so big and strange. The ant could travel as much of the city as it could in its lifetime, and still never see enough of it to understand even a little of it (we're assuming that this is a really smart ant). For, it could spend its entire lifespan exploring something as simple as a two-storey building. From the ant's perspective, it will never understand a human city. Likewise, at our current perspective, we cannot fathom The Ultimate Truth. We can see parts of it, but not all of it. This is one reason I like Discordianism---simple truths put humorously stick better. Like the story of the Discordian, the Elephant, and the five blind men:
Five Blind Men and an Elephant
Being by Reverend Loveshade, Episkopos of the Discordian Division of the
Ek-sen-triks CluborGuild who ripped it off from the Hindus/Jainists
(We
realize that, in the era of the very late 20th Century as this is being
written, the title and content of this story are politically incorrect. We
apologize for any discomfort, but ask you to remember that the original story
was created long before political correctness, and is not intended in any way
to be offensive to elephants.)
*********************************
One day five blind men, who knew nothing of elephants,
went to examine one to find out what it was. Reaching out randomly, each
touched it in a different spot. One man touched the side, one an ear, one a
leg, one a tusk, and one the trunk. Each satisfied that he now knew the true
nature of the beast, they all sat down to discuss it.
"We now know that the elephant is like a wall,"
said the one who touched the side. "The evidence is conclusive."
"I believe you are mistaken, sir," said the one
who touched an ear. "The elephant is more like a large fan."
"You are both wrong," said the leg man.
"The creature is obviously like a tree."
"A tree?" questioned the tusk toucher. "How
can you mistake a spear for a tree?"
"What?" said the trunk feeler. "A spear is
long and round, but anyone knows it doesn't move. Couldn't you feel the
muscles? It's definitely a type of snake! A blind man could see that!"
said the fifth blind man. The argument grew more heated, and finally escalated
into a battle, for each of the five had followers. This became known as the
Battle of the Five Armies (not to be mistaken for the one described by that
Tolkien fellow). However, before they could totally destroy themselves, a
blind, self-declared Discordian oracle came along to see what all the fuss was
about. While they were beating the crap out of each other, she examined the
elephant. But instead of stopping after one feel, she touched the whole thing,
including the tail, which felt like a rope. "It's just a big animal with
big sides, ears, feet, tusk teeth, nose and a skinny tail," she thought.
"What a bunch of fools these guys are."
She then said "Stop! I have discovered the truth. I
know who is right." She being an oracle and all, they stopped and listened
and said "tell us!"
"I have examined the elephant with mine own two
hands," she said, "and I find that you are all right."
"How can this be?" they asked. "Can an
elephant be a wall and a fan and a tree and a spear and a snake?" And they
were sorely confused. She explained "the elephant is
a great Tree, and on this tree grow leaves like great Fans to give most
wondrous shade and fan the breeze. And the branches of this tree are like
Spears to protect it. For this is the Tree of Creation and of Eternal Life, and
the Great Serpent hangs still upon it.
"Unfortunately, it is hidden behind a great Wall,
which is why it was not discovered until this very day. It cannot be reached by
normal means.
"However I, in my wisdom, have discovered a Most Holy
Rope, by which the wall may be climbed. And if one touches the tree in the
proper manner which I alone know, you will gain Eternal Life."
They all became highly interested in this, of course.
She then named an extremely high price for her services
(Eternal Life doesn't come cheap), and made quite a bundle.
Moral: Anyone can lead blind men to an elephant, but a Discordian can charge
admission.
Now what We must decide is whether We use Inspired texts either as clues to try to figure out The Ultimate Truth from Our current perspective (which is fruitless), or use them as one of many tools to change Our perspective--to evolve beyond our current static Selves into Chaotic, Evolving Selves. This is where chahm'shih'day'voh works in, for it is Our philosophy of Self-Change. We have many tools for this process, and Inspired Texts are one of them. But by far the best tool is Inspiration itself. We don't cling desperately to one set of texts, proclaiming them to be all of Truth---Our Discordian heritage forbids it. Change is essential to human survival. The Neanderthals could not change, and look what happened to them. Change is Life. To base your whole life on any sacred text alone is deadly folly. The reason that there are so many Sacred Texts is that humanity's genes are trying to force us to change, to Evolve. We were Created so that We could Evolve. It's in Our blood, Our genes, it is Our very essence... what makes us different from other animals. To deny change is to deny Our Selves, which is to deny Life. Sacred texts are tools, nothing more or less than that.
Some of My favorites,
though:
The
Book of [She] Who is Both Darkness and Light (Coming soon, excerpts to be found
on third philosophy page)
"What
Once Was Coloured" A Discordian Fable by Pope Fay-----NEW!
"Why The Stars Don't Dance
Anymore" A Discordian Fable from the Devia Discordia-----NEW!
"Rain of Flowers" A
Discordian Fable
Shao'Kehn in Ritual
Shao'Kehn being what She is, rituals involving work with Her (a tool
Shoikinists may use for Shadow Work and for other reasons) can be intense. Tapping into the powers of the All that are Shao'Kehn, She will
find inside You what You need to deal with, help You with what You want and/or
need to work on. She is those Aspects of Self that are chaotic,
changing, and protective. Those aspects which seek to improve the Self so that
the Self in its current form becomes immortal, and reaches to its greatest
potential. Within Shao'Kehn, within the Shao'Kehn aspect of human
consciousness, is the desire to break free of safe confines, borders, the
known, and to break out into the unknown. She is raw passion and power---working
with Her will never leave You the same. You will come away from a Shao'Kehn
experience sometimes feeling safer and stronger (if She's helped You with
Shadow Work). She is Challenge--that's why the eyes are on the splash page of
the site. She is the drive to go beyond what is safe into what is unknown. She's what drives humans to explore not only their world but
themselves, She gets the baby past its fear of leaving the womb, drives the
bird to hatch itself from the egg, and pushes life to continually go beyond
what is comfortable. Challenge, pain, frustration, anger, sorrow, and
fear are tools towards change for the better. She rarely lets You get anything
easily. The reason humanity tends to hate change is because they generally
don't like challenges. Who does? But today's
safe boundaries were yesterday's unknown frontiers. If those before us
had cowered in fear of change and remained where they were, where would we be?
Just think---it may hurt to push against Shao'Kehn as The Challenger, but the rewards
for succeeding can be greater than you could possibly imagine!
Some examples of Shao'Kehn use in ritual:
1. Sitting quietly in a darkened room, with only a few
candles for light (any color, but likes black candles because black is an
all-accepting color since it absorbs light to exist) and chanting to invoke Shao’mor’shain. This
ritual is done to start Shadow Work. You call upon Shao'Kehn in this ritual to
see within Yourself at what makes up Your Shadow, and what needs to be worked
on. The Shao’mor’shain
Aspect of Shao’Kehn will not spare Your feelings-She'll use Her “Knife” to “cut
through” delusions and denial to get to the truth. In a poem I, Rev. Pyre,
wrote, it's said, "She [took] out My heart, showed it to Me," which
of course symbolizes showing Your soul to You. She does that as a Shadow Work
tool.
2. Invocation of The Wyld Womun. In a large, dark, open
room (no clutter to obstruct You), light candles. Then either play fast-paced
music with no words, or chant, as You dance quickly and passionately. The
purpose of this ritual is to feel the life beating through Your body so hard
that You don't consciously think. Your unconscious opens up, and Shadow Work,
Inspiration, and other great mental states can come from this. Ritual often
does not end until You can't dance anymore. Or running for long periods of time
can be used in place of dancing.
3. Sometimes, doing the opposite of Your instincts (within
reason and safety) can invoke Her, and be used as a ritual tool. One that has
been tried: going outside underdressed when it's cold outside, or when it's
raining, or both cold and raining, and staying outside despite the cold and
wet—even reveling in it. (But not to the point of hypothermia.) Fasting could
be tried, and maybe also purposeful (but safe) fights, like wrestling.
4. Pleasure can be used to invoke Her. Eating, bathing,
drinking, relaxing, or anything that gives You pleasure can invoke Her.
However, this form of ritual doesn't do much as far as Self-work.
But by all means, these are not the only ones. The whole point of the Temple of
Shao'Kehn is to find all kinds of ways and rituals to expand humanity's
possibilities and perspective--and Shao'Kehn, Insane Goddess of Chaos,
Protection, and Limitlessness, shall be Our prime tool.