{Catastrophe Theory [continued (3)]}[26th September 1988]

[Redbook5:360-361][19880926:1545c]{Catastrophe Theory [continued (3)]}[26th September 1988]

19880926.1545

[continued]

If, on the other hand, the purpose* is to express such ‘soft’ sequences in a qualitative [sic] way which is easier to comprehend than any other, then one can only say that this is a matter of taste (and experience). It may be easier for Mathematicians: not necessarily for those used to working with qualitative concepts. We have to remember that some Mathematicians seem to behave as though qualitative methods of working do not actually exist, despite the fact that they use them all the time themselves – in life, whether or not in work.

*[of Professor Thom’s Catastrophe Theory – see last 2 previous entries]

[continues]

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{Catastrophe Theory [continued]}[26th September 1988]

[Redbook5:360][19880926:1545b]{Catastrophe Theory [continued]}[26th September 1988]

19880926.1545

[continued]

If the purpose* is to express such ‘soft’, fuzzy or woolly phenomenal sequences in a form suitable for some sort of quantitative manipulation, then it is open to the usual objection: that the impracticability of precisely measuring the phenomena of the sequence will render the quantitative results subject to arbitrary distortion – or in other words, if you get it right, it was probably because your judgement in assessing and quantifying the parameters was so good that you didn’t actually need to quantify them at all, and could have continued to work by qualitative methods.

*[of Professor Thom’s Catastrophe Theory – see last previous entry]

[continues]

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{Catastrophe Theory}[26th September 1988]

[Redbook5:360-363][19880926:1545]{Catastrophe Theory}[26th September 1988]

19880926.1545

Professor Thom’s Catastrophe Theory,* so far as I can understand it, puzzles me in ways which perhaps have implications for Circles Analysis. Although he says that his theory or method is more qualitative than quantitative, it seems to me that what it does – in applications in the ‘soft’ sciences – is to make qualitative assumptions based on observation about the way things happen, and then to apply to these assumed phenomena or chains of events the ‘best fit’ from a limited number of geometrical (topographical) forms which can be represented in a quantitative fashion. But the usefulness of this is not obvious.

*[See [Redbook5:293][19880815:1628]{Cusps}[15th August 1988], including main explanatory footnote** & diagram]

[continues]

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{The Serpentine, the Zodiac, and the Disc}[24th September 1988]

[Redbook5:359][19880924:1235c]{The Serpentine, the Zodiac, and the Disc}[24th September 1988]

19880924.1235

[continued]

[Due to the vertical wording and overlapping columns (representing the night sky) the ms diagram shown above is too complex for even the wording to be represented in tabular form in this typescript.]

[See eg [Redbook5:232][19880727:1120]{The Sphere [continued (25)] – The Zodiac in the Sphere}[27th July 1988]; & [Redbook5:265][19880808:2005]{Manipulating Zodiacs}[8th August 1988]]

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{Emotions}[24th September 1988]

[Redbook5:359][19880924:1235b]{Emotions}[24th September 1988]

19880924.1235

[continued]

I have been aware for some time of a need to be more precise in my understanding of emotions in relation to the Circle pattern. (This sort of awareness often arises out of imagined interviews or discussions, in which my fictional interlocutors ask me awkward questions, often pinpointing gaps in my apprehension of the pattern.[)]

*[But cf [Redbook6:7][19881015:1255c]{Unrecorded Thoughts}[15th October 1988]]

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{Auriga}[24th September 1988]

[Redbook5:358][19880924:1235]{Auriga}[24th September 1988]

19880924.1235

I have managed to pick up my work on the Booklet again – after a 3+ week lapse around [s]’s Christening – at the half way point of the Outer Circle, just after A~ and before J~: with the speculation that Auriga, the Charioteer or Herdsman (a young man driving a chariot, holding a she-goat followed by two kids) is Dionysus, who also drove a chariot and was accompanied by goat-people. In the Circle pattern, this signifies the period of Dionysian madness which must be channelled by Persean purpose.

{Contra (NB) TVII}

*{In fact, taking all the Dionysian references I can find (Boötes, Leo, Cancer, Taurus, Auriga), Auriga seems to be the culmination of an off-right semicircle as the Dionysian development – the beginning and end of which (Taurus** being a passing reference to childhood) is the Charioteer, whether Boötes or Auriga. This roots the anticipated madness and breakdown of Auriga/Perseus firmly in the initial actions; but Schizophrenia is not included,*** suggesting that it is a malfunction of the system.**** }

**{in the Hyades} [daughters of Atlas, who held up the Heavens in Greek mythology]

***{(except by implication?)}

****(or that it was not regarded as madness) <891011>

[See next entry but one]

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{Trust in the Spirit}[20th September 1988]

[Redbook5:357-358][19880920:1235b]{Trust in the Spirit}[20th September 1988]

19880920.1235yesterday

[continued]

A brief restlessness yesterday – Am I missing Something?* Am I doing what I should[?] – perhaps exacerbated by a cold, and certainly resolved by: ‘Nevertheless not my will, but your Will.’ – leads me to an awareness that I have to become completely trusting [sic] in the** Spirit. In terms of money, I have enormously improved: I worry far less about money now that we have little of it, than I did when we had far more. But I need to learn not to worry about what I should be doing: about whether I am doing enough; not to be disappointed by apparent set-backs, nor to drive myself into ‘forcing’ actions with regard to the subject of this Journal.*** Just be at peace, and carry on.

*[sic, apparently]

**[Note ‘the’, so not ‘trusting in spirit’]

***[Which is?]

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{Love Of and For [continued (3)]}[20th September 1988]

[Redbook5:357][19880920:1235]{Love Of and For [continued (3)]}[20th September 1988]

19880920.1235

This idea* that a sense of duty is basically selfish, or at least self-centred, may come as a surprise to those aware of the assistance given to (for example) the poor since Victorian times which appear to arise out of a sense of public (and Christian) duty. ** But we are concerned not with results, nor even with actions, but with qualities of mind. And, after all, we cannot be certain what motivates public benefactors – particularly those of a century ago.

Christian duty is not to be confused with Christian Love, not can it be claimed that the former is inspired by the latter. Duty has a resistance to overcome: the conflicting desires of the Self, with which it must compete on their own terms. Love*** knows no inner resistance, but proceeds straight to the action. Love inspires Men and their Actions:**** not {their} duties. Duties are burdensome: pure Love, never.

On a mundane level, I feel a sense of duty or obligation to maintain my house and garden, and earn money. The primary motivation for this, in my own case, is what my neighbours will think of me.# But Love draws me to reveal the Spirit.

*[See last previous entry but one, [Redbook5:355-357][19880919:1722]{Love Of and For}[19th September 1988]]

**Or is this just a secular interpretation? <891011>

***(I mean pure, and self-less, Love)

****The Actions may also fulfil legal or other duties, of course; but that is not their purpose.

[See main fn to last previous entry]

#[Oh!]

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{Love Of and For [continued]}[19th September 1988]

[Redbook5:356][19880919:1722b]{Love Of and For [continued]}[19th September 1988]

19880919.1722

[continued]

This* gives the lie to the old cynicism which I think I remember being taught at [my secondary-level school], and which was implied in part of the Jurisprudence course at Cambridge, that we only help others for the benefits which will be returned to us, whether by them helping us in turn, or by the satisfaction we obtain merely from knowing that we are helping others. This socio-ethical view fails to take account of the pure Quality of Love of the Spirit, which, working always against Separation, forgetting the Self, concentrates all that it is on the other, and just does it.

*[See last previous entry]

**[There are other, perhaps complementary, ways of countering the ‘old cynicism’: for example, that the satisfaction is the result of the action, not its cause, in the sense that the action can happen without the satisfaction but not the other way round, so any anticipation of the sense of satisfaction is simply a part of that result in any particular instance, but does not account for such actions generally; and that only conscious calculation justifies the ‘old cynicism’, so that any action which is primarily justified by Love may be permitted a lower-level awareness of the satisfaction to be gained from the action, without impugning the motives for the action. After all, Love itself is pleasing, even if often difficult to feel and to put into effect. (& see final fn to next entry.) <20190304>]

[continues]

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{Love Of and For}[19th September 1988]

[Redbook5:355-357][19880919:1722]{Love Of and For}[19th September 1988]

19880919.1722

The distinction between love of another for oneself, and love of another for the other, is useful. It enables one not to fall into the traps of those who use declarations of love as invisible grappling-irons to draw you and bind you to them. As we cannot generally read other minds, a good way of judging the type of love is by the actions it motivates. For example, assistance inspired by love of another for the other’s sake is genuinely disinterested, detached, from the assistant’s self-interest; but assistance inspired by love of another for one’s own sake almost invariably results, or is intended to result, in benefits to oneself. These benefits may be subtle, even psychological: for example, the satisfaction of a feeling of obligation or duty.

A sense of duty often goes with self-centred love, love of or for oneself. Self-less Love needs no sense of duty, or even of conscience in the moral sense: it helps the other out of pure Love for the other, thinking only of the other, which is an example of con-science, knowing-together, in the spiritual sense.

[continues]

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{‘It wants me….’}[19th September 1988]

[Redbook5:355][19880919:1130]{‘It wants me….’}[19th September 1988]

19880919.1130

The exercise of writing to the Taxman about writing – brings to mind (although I have not used it in the letter) the imaginary exchange:

‘Why do you want to write?’

‘I do not want to write. It wants me to write.’

‘It wants me’ does not necessarily refer to any specific It: it feels more like a literal translation of a foreign phrase* denoting an impersonal pressure felt by, rather than exerted by, the writer – vacant force,** in fact.

*?French: ‘On me veut….’(?) <971011>

**[ref [Redbook5:126-127][19880527:2240e]{The Burden}[27th May 1988]]

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{Speed on the Circle}[19th September 1988]

[Redbook5:354-355][19880919:0026]{Speed on the Circle}[19th September 1988]

19880919.0026

A question of [SX]’s about speed on the Circle – which I did not answer – leads me to speculate – from the nature of the pattern and from my own experience – that progress around the Outer Circle accelerates during each rotation. It does not necessarily follow that each rotation is faster than the last.

It may be that the Inner Circle rotation decelerates. The apparent conflict with Contra-rotation could be resolved if the rate of acceleration or deceleration depended on the dominance of the Outer or Inner Circle (ie if the two were equal, speed would remain constant). But this is all speculation.

… The sort of speculation which later becomes a firm basis for further speculation!

*[See [Redbook5:352-353][19880913:1205]{Feed-back}[13th September 1988]&f]

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{The Role of the Romantic}[14th September 1988]

[Redbook5:354][19880914:1053b]{The Role of the Romantic}[14th September 1988]

19880914.1053

[continued]

It seems as though most governments, and especially Mrs. Thatcher’s,* regard the g~** semicircle as the lowest half of a vertical hierarchy, and useful only as fodder for Distraction. Paying these people, or as many of them as want, a basic social wage to follow their own intuition and inspiration might not only produce dramatic cultural benefits – it might rid the m~** semi-circle hierarchy, and particularly industry etc. at the base, of a built-in tendency towards Revolution among its workforce.***

*[Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. (Wikipedia)]

**[Lower case as in ms]

***Writing is painful today for some reason.

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{Dangers of Tarot-reading}[14th September 1988]

[Redbook5:353-354][19880914:1053]{Dangers of Tarot-reading}[14th September 1988]

19880914.1053

*[NA] has apparently gone back to Tarot cards in a big way, starting every day with a personal reading and planning her day accordingly; not only that, but reading for her eldest daughter [E] and telling her on this basis that [E] is finished, her life wasted.

It seems fairly clear that Tarots, like any other popular method of divination (with the possible exception of astrology, which may be more mechanical), tell you what sub-consciously you want** them to. Only be genuinely clearing*** your mind at all levels of self-centred clutter might you be able to achieve something objective out of this.**** The same is true, of course, of Art – and Religion.

*[....]

**[ie in the sense ‘expect’, not implying that what is told is itself desired as an outcome]

***{Not so easy to do}

****And then you shouldn’t normally need Tarot cards – certainly not for fortune-telling. <891011>

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{Feed-back [continued]}[13th September 1988]

[Redbook5:352-353][19880913:1205b]{Feed-back [continued]}[13th September 1988]

19880913.1205

[continued]

It is hard to over-emphasise the importance to me of [SX]’s personal validation of this pattern.* Although his receptiveness to new ideas of this kind (which was, of course, essential) can in some circumstances appear over-credulous (for instance, of Individuals), he has a good intelligence ** and an excellent memory – the slight deterioration in both of which should, I hope, cease now that he has become less stressed about his work and his marriage and switched from whisky to white-wine-with-mineral-water.

[SX]’s particular interest this time was as to whether it was possible to switch Circles

(a) anywhere other than Crisis; and

(b) without making a decision.

(a) is already covered (above);***

(b) depends (although I did not consider this until later) on what is regarded as a decision.

[SX] is noticeably – to [W], to me, to his daughter (he tells me) and to himself – changed: tired, but the tiredness runs less deep; more relaxed, more interested in other people, generally less intense. Bachelor life suits him.****

*[See last previous entry]

**IV. [[Redbook4:295-296][19880109:0947c]{Birth dates [continued (3)] – A Scorpio}[9th January 1988],] 295

***[Yes, though unclear where]

****At the latest visit(s), this seems to be changing for the worse <891011>

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