[1] Not long after writing this Homo sapiens fossils in Morocco were found to be 300,000 years old, a complete shattering of the scientific model !
a) all that exists (in any dimension)
b) a descent into infinitesimals
c) direct travel & direct seeing
d) threads that tie us to our projections
e) immerses in a grain of sand
f) where we aim to find ourselves
g) our first family in eternity
h) the modern name of our wampeter
i) watcher of the skies
j) an eternal union of unlike souls
k) the easiest soul in eternity to locate
l) memory of who you might become
m) one who calls on inspiration routinely
n) magic moved by pure Good
o) vertiginous Infinity, unassailable
1. ________ albion
2. ________ aliah
3. ________ caring
4. ________ contact
5. ________ eternity
6. ________ flight
7. ________ flyer
8. ________ the Good
9. ________ immersion
10. ________ the Jewel
11. ________ karass
12. ________ knots
13. ________ the loom
14. ________ mandala
15. ________ scribe
When I've asked classes—without prompt or warning—to draw in the corner of their homework a quick, "five-second" tree, one finds upon comparing papers generally two basic tree forms: a deciduous stick-tree (namely a trunk topped by a cloud) or a stick-Christmas conifer. The key here is that these two drawings, mere kindergarten caricatures, don't look like each other at all. Someone who has never seen a tree would not recognize that the pictures mean the same thing. And this is not like comparing the word tree in English to der Baum in German or el árbol in Spanish. It's the mental model that is different. Change the word, and the picture remains the same. And yet what could be more concrete, more tangible & tactile in our minds, than a simple tree?
Midterm
Images & Attributions (in order of appearance)
1. Banner: Rhiannon C. 2016
a) Albion Glyph: William Blake, "Glad Day" or "The Dance of Albion," c.1794
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/William_Blake_-_Albion_Rose_- _from_A_Large_Book_of_Designs_1793-6.jpg
2. Photo of Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1930, by Moritz Nähr - Austrian National Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46116699
3. (faint background) Close-up of clover patch (source unknown)
4. (a & b) D.C. Albion 2017
5. Bust of Socrates in the Louvre (artist unknown)
By Sting, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3569936
6. Photo of Albion immersed within a single tree: Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru, D.C. Albion 2015
Albion immersed within a single tree that is a forest (2015)
Of course, all common nouns represent categories, not one-to-one correspondences with any particular thing or item (unless otherwise specified). So it takes many trees, a small history, to grasp the necessary & sufficient essence of treeness, where language acquisition features inductive data-sorting by each of us individually, but also collectively through culture, allowing us to compare data from other people's experiences. (Plato need not be invoked here.) Imagine, then, how much harder it is to define and come to terms with abstract nouns for which we have no common conscious experience. A single
definition or application of a new word at the ouija board can rarely prove sufficient.
Thus, this is a test. Why not? I'm presenting a curriculum, and tests need not always prove stressful. In fact, as a teacher I insist my own tests both measure student knowledge and teach at the same time. This midterm, therefore, is more than just a quick vocabulary quiz. It highlights what I consider important in the curriculum so far and gives me an opportunity to restate my abstract terms in new ways. As in all academic subjects, vocab must come first.
I. Matching: Write the letter of the definition in the right column next to the term that best matches it on the left. Each letter is used once.
Socrates
c.470-399 B.C.E.
II. Multiple Choice: Circle the letter or letters next to the best
answer(s).
16. Infinity includes
a) the physical universe along its entire lifespan, from Big Bang to final
entropy
b) imagination: thoughts, dreams, inarticulate pangs, monsters
c) chaos, order, paradox, the Good as a single point
d) "the nothing that is not there and the nothing that is"
e) all of the above
17. Flight describes all of the following except:
a) artistic or athletic excellence, which, even if routine, defies explanation
b) dumb luck (if you dunno no better)
c) a fiber that links an event in time to eternity
d) achieving the impossible through focused incremental steps
e) turning wine into water, then walking on it
18. Eternity is all except which of the following:
a) captured in an instant
b) beyond space and time
c) outside objective reality
d) immortality
e) inside every person
19. Complete the sentence (circle all that apply)
Free will…
a) …is an illusion.
b) …marks the original source of flame.
c) …is fashioned by our teachers without our knowledge.
d) …is all we are both in & out of time.
e) …becomes less relevant as we approach the Good.
20. Complete the sentence (circle all that apply)
Sovereign Good is…
a) …within each of us.
b) …beyond our understanding.
c) …not on any continuum.
d) …the opposite of evil.
e) …the foundation of all karasses.
21. Which of the following is not true of knots?
a) In eternity all knots can be untied.
b) Once you untie your knots, you become a flyer.
c) On one knot others gather.
d) Parents often damage children with their own knottedness.
e) Like it or not, knots are inevitable & necessary.
22. Flame…
a) is another name for evil.
b) is not calculated, has no purpose.
c) exists only in time & space.
d) arises from the Good.
e) is pure ego.
23. Using my 33-foot 5-inch rainbow kite (and its 9 inches of knotted tail) as a
model for a single human soul, which of the following correctly frames our
existence?
a) The tail is one's life in time; the rest is overseer.
b) Each color represents a different person.
c) Different colours mean distinct voices.
d) The knots are our flaws & errors which beg to be untied.
e) A torn kite cannot fly.
24. Which of the following is an example of flight?
a) having a photographic memory which allows you to ace this test
simply by "looking up" the answers in your mind
b) creating freely—engaged, egoless, and malleable
c) receiving a profound dream from your dream master
d) receiving a vision sent by your teachers
e) clairaudience
25. We enter a karass for all of the following reasons except
a) to serve the Good
b) to survive eternity as ourselves unchanged
c) to serve others
d) to learn & grow into beings we can't recognize
e) to teach & love & nurture those who lack in time
III. Critical Thinking:
26. Given: a) Souls live & die in life and also exist in eternity.
b) Eternity lies outside time & space.
Prove: Eternal justice (i.e., Heaven & Hell) is pure bullshit, logical
nonsense.
Neither dead guru nor abstract flight is needed to derive these contradictions. This is logic only, and I state all that's needed right here.
The implications, of course, are rather staggering: All religions which believe in rewards & punishments in eternity for specific thoughts & actions in life are fundamentally flawed (incoherent, frankly). The same logic equally disproves most beliefs in reincarnation. (Thus, most of the world…)
(Hint: Consider causality.)
27. Kurt Vonnegut, who gives us our word karass, also gives us duprass, which is a karass consisting solely of two people (represented in Cat's Cradle as a dreadfully boring couple from Indiana). As funny as this is—and as prescient as Vonnegut is on karasses in general—no duprass can exist. It's a fundamentally flawed structure. Why?
Since karasses—even the "tiny" Jewel Net—undoubtedly include millions of souls (considering 150,000[1] years of humanity on many historical lines), let's reduce the concept to something more test-tube sized, a mandala. In my mandala, which is known as Circle Cup, Jane is my contact; Scribe is Jane's contact, while Anand is Scribe's.
Why can't two people, Jane & I, for example, be each other's contact?
I think most students should intuit the error here. That is, most students should just know that contacts—whatever they are—can't work like this. Most students additionally will provide good (linear) answers, especially if they go back to my Letter to Jane and pick out examples. But I ask this question because it highlights a greater metaphysical law, something that, like gravity, applies universally at all scales, even to karasses of billions. Just as a person (or any animal) on Earth must "get" how gravity affects everything around us—which means unconsciously drawing parabolas every time something moves—if you live in eternity, you must grasp this law. (Now what do I call it?)
Midterm answers & explanations will be provided in Chapter 3.7, while Chapter 4.2 offers insight into Part III’s critical thinking questions above.
Aliah hail
4/17
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albionspeak: a draught of language (3.6)
Home Midterm 1: Lessons 1-3
"'Red' cannot be the name of something private."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
1889 - 1951
Socrates asserted that he would gladly listen to a tree, "provided it spoke the truth."
Strangely, the English words tree and truth are, in fact, cognates, as are dryad, the Greek spirit of a tree, and druid, a Celtic priest known to have held certain trees sacred.