How we think shows through in how we act.
Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.
— David Joseph Schwartz
You are what you eat.
Despite what special interests would have us believe, exercise combined with a healthy diet is the first step to improve overall health. While this isn’t an absolute, the idiom has stood firm in our minds throughout time, because it’s commonly known that eating healthy foods is needed to live a healthy life.
If you haven’t had this opportunity, you’re missing out, big time. Find a local butcher selling grass-fed chicken and compare the taste to any conventional grocery store brand. Incomparable, really. Generally speaking, quality inputs yields quality outputs.
Distilling this idea further offers a remarkable insight.
Consider how common anxiety and depression are treated through greenery, especially for urban living. Natural inputs produce a more natural and balanced state. Time spent in a small garden, rummaging through soil, weeds and worms, strangely, if not magically, alters the mental states after a nasty workday and heavy indoor screen time. Unnatural inputs produce an unnatural and unbalanced state.
Social settings share a similar theme, where the attitudes of cliques heavily influence thought and language patterns, much like the idiom that attributes deviant behaviour to “hanging around a bad crowd.” What about a toxic work environment, poisoned by gossip, ridicule and malice, or the success factors of sharing company with influential, motivated and high achievement individuals?
In a sense, our state of being is very much like a reflection.
This isn’t a mystical heuristic.
Every static structure, including buildings and bridges, and every mechanical design, including tools and vehicles, have a similar embedded principle. Newton’s Third Law of Motion, phrased as every force has an equal and opposite reactionary force, is a mirror-like principle that bridges a theoretical idea to practical utility. Every resting gravitational force is paired with an equal and opposite reactionary force, every torque has an equal and opposite reactionary torque, and so on. Balancing all force and energy reflections is a basic principle of physics and engineering design.
From food to attitudes to physics, this principle also has a psychological aspect.
In a way, the ego acts like the dark backing of a mirror, where a shine from the outer world is filtered and reflected back through defence mechanisms, because the ego hides behind a thick glass of “I”s. When defence mechanisms act like a reflection, projections are confessions and displacement redirects unbearable weights, much like a Newtonian reactionary force.
In a superficial world with superficial minds, it’s no surprise how singular ideas easily reflect and propagate from one face to another. Thus, mind reading is not some untenible power, but a disciplined act of listening and observing, because nothing is hidden from the subconscious mind, where most directly state their hidden thoughts through defense mechanisms. Psychological damage is like the shattered surface of a mirror. Void of coherence, and reflects a narrow and fragmented image, capable of unsightly displays under certain lights. Madness as a broken mirror.
But this mirror-like heuristic extends much further.
There are seven Hermetic principles.
Most act like a mirror and its reflections: correspodnece, vibration, polarity, rhythm and cause and effect. This metaphysical philosophy has influenced both superstitious cults and scientific principles, because paradox is a key. Opposing subjective views yields a strategic and impartial observation. Opposing objective views produces analytical statement coverage through disjunctive normal form. Opposites unite.
Hermeticism is a profound yet eerie philosophy.
Its influence reaches far, even into the darkness.
Born in modern Ukraine, Helena Blavatsky was a 19th century Russian and American occult writer who developed the Theosophical world-view, which was influenced by both Eastern and Western esoteric philosophies including Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and Hermeticism.1
Theosophy is a word derived from theos and sophia meaning “divine wisdom,” which encompasses a variety of beliefs, including the ability to directly contact deeper spiritual realities through transcendence of normal human consciousness, a view that reality is composed of a singular spirit or mind substance, and that humans are sparks of divine trapped in a material world gradually progressing through higher spiritual planes of existence.2
Lesser known, Theosophy also refined root race theory.
Based on the Corpus Hermeticism, root race theory claims that human souls progress along a series of seven “races,” ranging from amorphous ethereal bodies, hermaphroditic entities, to gendered ape-like modern humans, where eventually the soul ascends into a divine being. The pretext for this theory is based on Gnostic mythology, where human souls fell into matter and became entangled with a mind and a material-like body.3
There’s an unsettling parallel between root race theory and the beliefs of the Thule Society, the core of Nazi occultism, which focused intently on the origins of the Aryan race: a superior race of human and ancient settlers of Iraq and northern India. The idea grew throughout the 19th century and gradually became associated with the Indo-European ethnicity, despite the origin of the word having its linguistic root meaning “nobility.”4 The Aryans were believed to be part of the fifth root-race, the spiritually highest people on earth through superior physical intellect. However according to these teachings, the fifth root-race was nearing its end, reaching the height of civilization and intellectuality, and would begin progressing towards absolute evil only to be succeeded by men of the sixth root-race.5
Humanity is on the descending pathway of its cycle. The rear-guard of the 5th race is crossing slowly the apex of its evolution and will soon find itself having passed the turning point.
And, as the descent is always more rapid than the ascent, men of the new coming (the 6th) race are beginning to drop in occasionally.6
The nobility of the Nazi party, along with its esoteric and elitist counterparts, saw themselves as a superior race compared to common people, an idea reflected and projected out to ideological zealots during their reign of power.
Unfortunately, the term Aryan has been conflated with white supremacy, which is not etymologically accurate, and should be associated to a different idea: nobility as a distinct race of beings with inherent superiority over their subjects. And despite modern attempts of anti-racism, the opposite has taken hold, like the reflection of a mirror or a force off a surface, and a new age of Aryanism has emerged in the form of modern noblemen, infamously known as the experts and technocratic elite.
Perhaps esoteric ideas are the forbidden fruit itself. Humans may indeed be on a long spent path of higher order evolution, but the ego contorts that image and attempts to force its own ascension through a perverse will, technology and the sacrifice of others.
The inner world and outer world are a hall of mirrors.
In each world we must confront the shadow, buried deep within our subconscious and insidiously masquerading behind physical actors, which is the dark backing to the mirror. The mirrorverse shows us distortions of true reality, both through theatrical political plays and misleading self-images. Understanding the mirrorverse offers great benefits for technological and metaphysical progress, but simultaneously offers wicked temptations and deceptive lures.
A mirror in a dark room leads to a scary place. Don’t turn off the light.
Mirrors hide not only that deep shadowy world, but also illuminates those irresitable desires and reveals our most hideous flaws. When we look out into the chaos of the world, we are more than likely looking at a very ugly aspect of ourselves.
Don’t get trapped in the mirror.
Many minds have been twisted and shattered to reflect an image shown through artificial light, illusions created by the shadows from the inner and outer worlds.
The Gnostics believed the soul had become trapped and subjected to the desires of an evil blind god, the creator of the material world, who was attempting to capture the soul’s divine insight through the attachments and distractions of the physical. A greater allegory for the present day, where modern men and women find themselves attached and distracted by superfluous material delights, focusing their attention into black mirrored devices, connecting them to an etheric illusory realm while their divine insight is stolen by the masters of this material plane.
Sometimes the toughest challenge is to look yourself straight in the mirror.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
— Galatians 5:14
The other is your reflection. Assume the role of a parent and foster the light of unconditional love. Provide protection and nurturing for both the inner and outer worlds. But beware foolishly desiring control, like a tyrant, attempting to transcend material reality through technology and sacrifice, forcing a perceived evolutionary path through lying and illusion. Beware these ideas, because they will reflect deep inside you, tempting you to act in favour of the shadow lurking behind the glass, waiting to show you another false world to pull you deeper into the mirror.
Guard and heal your mind.
We are trapped in a mirror world, both outside and in, and a malignant thing wants to pull you in deeper, turning you into another reflective surface. Our minds must be fortified to prevent those malicious actors from gaining unauthorized access to our divine insight that will create an even uglier false world.
Watch what you consume, both physically and mentally. Avoid emotional bombardments that cause subconscious fight, flight or freeze responses. The crazy and absurd images are meant to invoke an equal and opposite reaction. Instead, be the parent. Protect and nurture, and avoid childish tantrums and indulgence.
Even with an ugly face starring you back in the mirror, do not break it.
Evil is trivial in the mirrorverse, but good deeds are the rarest commodity of all.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2024). Helena Blavatsky. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helena-Blavatsky
Gordon Melton, J. (2024). Theosophy. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/theosophy
Prophet, E. (2018). Hermetic influences on the evolutionary system of Helena Blavatsky’s theosophy. Gnosis Journal of Gnostic Studies, 3(1), 84–111. https://doi.org/10.1163/2451859x-12340050
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2024). Aryan. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aryan
Fifth root-race. (2003). Theosophy Wiki. https://theosophy.wiki/en/Fifth_Root-Race
Helena Blavatsky (1889-1890). Collected Writings vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), p.116.
Nice post, Theodore. I know I certainly spend way too much time staring into this enticing electronic box, reminding me of your post about the Devil showing the knight the mirror of desire. When we consume content, regardless of whether we accept the content or reject it, it leaves an imprint on our minds -- hence the importance of surrounding ourselves with people, ideas, and entertainment that furthers our unique journeys in a positive way instead of detracts from it. The "you are what you eat" message reminds me of this old but great series of Tweets by Zero HP Lovecraft about the NPC meme: https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1051974006406971392 (unfortunately one must be logged into Twitter to see the multiple Tweets)
You also wrote, "But beware foolishly desiring control, like a tyrant, attempting to transcend material reality through technology and sacrifice, forcing a perceived evolutionary path through lying and illusion. Beware these ideas, because they will reflect deep inside you, tempting you to act in favour of the shadow lurking behind the glass, waiting to show you another false world to pull you deeper into the mirror."
Yes, exactly. One of the interesting things is that the way to wealth in this day in age (perhaps any day and age) is generally through helping to increase technology's grip on humanity -- through increased "efficiencies", increased and intrusive data collection, through greater burdens to society/tragedy of the commons. I know a number of people that have chosen a path of material wealth but at the cost of clearly unethical behavior, even if that behavior is not technically illegal. But there is always a price to pay for it in the form of soul corruption... But what is the alternative, to be a weak wagecuck and suffer at the whims of our overlords, "owning nothing", hoping for an undetermined, unknown payoff in the afterlife? The incentive structures of this reality are wrong... I try to avoid putting myself in such situations, although I understand the temptations.
Hi! I saw you listed on a post by Neoliberal Feudalism. I'm officially a fan of this channel! Subscribed and ready for the next dose of sagely advice, hopefully more on occult charms and spells. Let's collaborate and stay ahead of the censorship! Best! T