Post by I AM the Way on May 21, 2012 14:00:46 GMT -6
Knowledge and Understanding
'Common sense is not always common.' ~ Anonymous
One can argue that there is no definite and precise definition of the word knowledge. But to break it down, the word could simply said to connote information: the Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes it as ' to know.' The man who asserts that he knows an occurrence to be a fact means that he is so certain of it as to have no doubt concerning its reality.
But knowledge is incomplete without understanding. A subject is known when its principles, methods, and conclusions are understood; the various truth and rules referring to it coordinated and explained. It then means that understanding is the application of the knowledge.
Knowledge is very important and, though contestable, very easy to come by. But understanding this knowledge or applying this knowledge is most difficult.
Sure, we can know without understanding just Mouravieff stated, but can we understand without knowing (knowledge)? It therefore follows that understanding is knowing to which something ponderable is added. The ability to use the acquired knowledge differs amongst Cultists. It is a fact that the capability of man to show understanding (application of knowledge) to acquired knowledge differs.
Someone once said that simplicity is not foolishness just like simple ideas are quite often the most difficult to grasp. It is a maxim that simple things escape us because the extreme complexity of our mind makes us complicate everything.
The acquisition of knowledge like money is not without danger in the wrong hands. It makes pride swell in the feeble heart of man, and this pride makes all esoteric evolution impossible. How true the saying - pride comes before a fall. Humility is thrown out the window, learning, and acknowledgement of ignorance becomes impossible. Stooping to conquer becomes confined to the dust bin of tales of a thousand nights, making learning an uphill task.
The track leading to knowledge is narrow and runs along a precipice. Only personalities disciplined in the way of the Cult of Cthulhu and other like-minded, dedicated esoteric schools, and magnetized, in the words of a Buddhist, by a sufficiently developed magnetic center can start forward on this way without great risk to his being in particular and the universe in general. Anyone in position of knowledge but lack the right understanding can be likened to a loaded gun in the hands of a drunk. He is not only a danger to himself but others. In the words of Priest of R'lyeh Yrreiht, 'Dispose such a one'.
Master Jesus (a Left Hand practitioner) once told his disciples 'I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot contain them now.'
Does this statement ring any bells? The importance of careful dispersion of knowledge was further hammered on by another follower of Jesus in the person of St. Paul in his epistle to followers in Corinthians, he wrote:
'I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.' 1Cor.3:2 , Heb.5:12
This gives credence to the idea that knowledge should be dished out piece-meal (milk before strong meat) to Cultists because the capacity to use it (understanding) differs hence, that's why we have the Cult of Cthulhu hierarchy of madness. At each level, knowledge is given and encouraged fitting for such level and as the Cultist evolves in this emerald paradigm and his capacity increases as it flows from his tentacles. We pass from knowing to understanding to the measure that we assimilate knowledge. Indeed the capacity for assimilation has its limits.
Take a glass cup, for an example. It can only hold water to its capacity anything more than that overflows becoming a waste. But if you must add more, one will have to get a bigger cup, so also man's ability to contain and make use of knowledge depends surely on his evolution at that point, as his being evolves his capacity increases and more is assimilated and understood. When there is right understanding, application shows.
A beginner in the Left Hand Path who seeks to create change through Viridian Sorcery, yet lacks the basic knowledge, would not be in good stead. Instead, he should ask himself the basic questions as taught by Ipsissimus Venger...
- Is my intention in keeping with the Left Hand Path?
- Is my attention focused on the right things?
- And, most importantly, if I change this portion of reality, what will I do in order to correct any adverse imbalance my projection may cause?
The knowledge and right understanding of the above reasoning can go a long way towards putting one out of harms way, rather than taking the knowledge of conjuring a demon without that right understanding for granted - which could spell doom for the sorcerer.
The importance of knowledge cannot be over-emphasized. But most important is the right understanding. For such to materialize in the Left Hand Path especially, evolving is imminent. Exterior man, under influence A, must lose the preeminence he has held until today in favor of interior man. Without such freedom from the slavery of wrong knowledge and skewed understanding which man lives in, true knowledge and right understanding will remain 'a bridge too far'.
Ia Ia Ipsissimus Venger As'Nas Satanis
Ia Ia Cthulhu Fhtagn
Oola'Groag
Wizard of the Terrible Darkness
Cult of Cthulhu