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Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

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Carpe diem! 22 Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search Open links in a New Window

Today is

Ecology is the seductive dinosaur science that will lead most of the post-human species to conform to terrestrial conditions, become reasonably comfortable, passive, robot-conditioned cyborg insectoids directed by centralized (ABC, NBC, CIA, CNN, MAO, KGB) broadcasting systems.
Timothy Leary; ibid

My advice to people today is as follows: If you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.
Timothy Leary; The Politics of Ecstasy, 1968

Facts and news are reports from the current TV drama.
They have no relevance to your 2-billion-year-old divinity.
Myth is the report from the cellular memory bank.
Myths humanize the recurrent themes of evolution.
Timothy Leary; 'You Must Know Your Mythic Origins'

You will find it absolutely necessary to leave the city. Urban living is spiritually suicidal. The cities of America are about to crumble as did Rome and Babylon.
Timothy Leary; ibid

Put it into historical context. The use of sacramental vegetables has gone back, back, back in history to shamans and the Hindu religion and Buddhist religion. They were using soma. It's an ancient human ritual that has usually been practiced in the context of religion or of worship or of tribal coming together. I didn't pioneer anything. The use of psychedelics for spiritual purposes was started in the 50s by Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.
Timothy Leary

The problem person in the cybernetic society of the 21st Century is one who automatically obeys, who never question authority, who acts to protect his/her status.
Timothy Leary, The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot

Since God #1 appears to be held hostage back there by the blood-thirsty Persian Ayatollah, by the telegenic Polish Pope and the Moral Majority, there's only one logical alternative. You "steer" your own course. You start your own religion. The Temple is your body. Your mind writes the theology. And the Holy Spirit emanates from that infinitely mysterious intersection between your brain and your DNA.
Timothy Leary; 'Load and Run High-tech Paganism Digital Polytheism'

Through storage of one's belief systems as data structures online, driven by desired programs one's neuronal apparatus should operate in silicon basically as it did on the meatware of the brain, though faster, more accurately, more self-mutably, and, if desired, immortally.
Timothy Leary; ibid

When in the course of organic evolution it becomes obvious that a mutational process is inevitably dissolving the physical and neurological bonds which connect the members of one generation to the past and inevitably directing them to assume among the species of Earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent concern for the harmony of species requires that the causes of the mutation should be declared.
Timothy Leary, opening paragraph, 'The Declaration of Evolution'

We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the twenty-first century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s. On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art.
Timothy Leary

Science is all a metaphor.
Timothy Leary (attrib.)

Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.
Timothy Leary

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
Timothy Leary

You can always pick up your needle and move to another groove.
Timothy Leary

You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.
Timothy Leary (attrib.)

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.
Timothy Leary (attrib.)

In the information age, you don't teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he'd have a talk show.
Timothy Leary (attrib.)

There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third.
Timothy Leary (attrib.)

We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they've got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.
Timothy Leary (attrib.)

Think for yourself and question authority.
Timothy Leary; track on Sound Bites from the Counter Culture, Atlantic, 1989

The supermind interpretation of the evolutionary direction of the radical cybernaut is countered by an alternate, more individualistic approach, best typified by Timothy Leary's notion of the cyberpunk.  In his 1991 "The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot", Leary anoints the cyberpunk as the digital-age evolutionary guide: "Every stage of history has produced a name and an heroic legend for the strong, stubborn, creative individual who explores some future frontier, collects and brings back new information, and offers to guide the gene pool to the next stage" (529).  Leary uses a variety of highly individualistic descriptors to characterize cyberpunks: "maverick[s]… with super self-esteem" (529); "self-assured singularities"; "loners"; "freelancers"; "independents" (530); "self-reliant" (534); "free agents" (535) "self-directed" (537); "toward his/her own private goals" (535); and perhaps most tellingly, "the 'Individual who Thinks for Him/Herself'" (538).  Leary reminds us that "cyber is the Greek word for pilot" (531) and harkens back to the "self-reliance" of ancient mariners: "Sailing the seven seas without maps or navigational equipment, they were forced to develop independence of thought… the Athenian cyberpunk, the pilot, made his/her own navigational decisions".
Jane McGonigal on Timothy Leary

At one point in his final delirium, he spoke the words "Why not." He uttered the phrase repeatedly, in different intonations: as a question, as a statement, softly, loudly, thoughtfully, ruefully, and confidently. He died soon after, and that was the last thing he said out loud.
Timothy Leary website on the last words of Timothy Leary (d. May 31, 1996); 'Tim's Last Trip'

More Timothy Leary quotes at Wikiquote

At this my soul was filled with horror, and madness seized my brain. I cried to the rocks to hide me from him whom I had thus rejected. But rocks were deaf. I then fled to the mountains, and called on them to fall upon me, and hide me in the bowels of the earth, or crush me into non-existence. But mountains had no pity on a wretch like me.
'A Scene of the Last Day', by William Miller, c. 1843; American religious leader Miller predicted that the world would end on October 22, 1843

In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.
Doris Lessing, Persian-born British writer, born on October 22, 1919, Martha Quest, pt III, ch. 2

Small things amuse small minds.
Doris Lessing; 'A Woman on a Roof', in A Man and Two Women

I find myself increasingly shocked at the unthinking and automatic rubbishing of men which is now so part of our culture that it is hardly even noticed. We now have pretty much equality at least on the pay and opportunities front, though almost nothing has been done on child care, the real liberation … I was in a class of nine- and 10-year-olds, girls and boys, and this young woman was telling these kids that the reason for wars was the innately violent nature of men. You could see the little girls, fat with complacency and conceit while the little boys sat there crumpled, apologising for their existence, thinking this was going to be the pattern of their lives …This kind of thing is happening in schools all over the place and no one says a thing. It has become a kind of religion that you can't criticise because then you become a traitor to the great cause, which I am not. The most stupid, ill-educated and nasty woman can rubbish the nicest, kindest and most intelligent man and no one protests … Men seem to be so cowed that they can't fight back, and it is time they did.
Doris Lessing, at the Edinburgh Book Festival, August 13, 2001   Source

That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.
Doris Lessing; The Four-Gated City, 1969

In the writing process, the more the story cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest. I find dreams particularly useful …You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.
Doris Lessing; The New York Times, April 22, 1984

What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate, that you don't need love when you do or that you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.
Doris Lessing

Under a Communist government, South Africa will become a land of milk and honey.
Nelson Mandela, who went on trial as a terrorist, on October 22, 1962

At the beginning of June 1961, after long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I and some colleagues came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.
Nelson Mandela at the 'Rivonia trial'

Throughout our struggle for liberation, one of the many things that we learnt from the Communist Party was the importance of international solidarity; that no struggle could be waged effectively in isolation …
… the distinct identities of each and every component of the Alliance and MDM formations needs to be properly outlined. The delegates to this Congress must go back to their localities knowing precisely what makes a Party branch distinct from an ANC branch, from a SANCO branch, from a League branch, from a Cosatu local. The delegates of this congress must go away with a clear understanding of how we strengthen one another not only in theory, but in actual practice.
Nelson Mandela, Speech to the 10th Congress of the South African Communist Party

The existence of a Murder Incorporated in the heart of the American left is something the left really doesn't want to know or think about. Such knowledge would refute its most cherished self-understandings and beliefs. It would undermine the sense of righteous indignation that is the crucial starting point of a progressive attitude. It would explode the myths on which the attitude depends.
David Horowitz, former member, on the Black Panthers; 'Black Murder Inc.'; in Hating Whitey, Spence Publishing Company, 2000; Panther leader Bobby Seale was born on October 22, 1936

So your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing
In a land that's known as Freedom
How can such a thing be fair
Won't you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring
Graham Nash (Crosby, Still, Nash and Young) on Bobby Seale; 'Chicago'

October 22 is the 295^th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (296^th in leap years), with 70 days remaining.
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Festival of Perpendicular Sun

Illumination the Inner Sanctum of Ramses II, Abu Simbel Temple, Egypt (also February 22)

"The archaeological complex of Abu Simbel comprises two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of the Nile. It is a part of the Nubian Monuments UNESCO World Heritage Site, which runs from Abu Simbel downriver as far as Philae.

"The twin temples were carved out of the mountainside by Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13^th century BC to intimidate his Nubian neighbors and as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari.

Relocation

"Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was dismantled and reassembled in a new location – 65 m higher and 200 m back from the river – to save the temples from the rising water levels caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam."

Source: Wikipedia

"Ramses II, in a fit of precision and despotic architectural egotism, carefully angled his temple at Abu Simbel so that the inner sanctum would light up twice a year: once on the anniversary of his rise to the throne, and once on his birthday. The combination of human endeavour and natural phenomena provides what must be one of the most spectacular sights in the world.

"Crowds pack into the temple before sunrise and watch the shafts of light slowly creeping through the stone. Eventually, statues of Ramses, Ra and Amun are illuminated in the inner sanctum (the statute of Ptah – the god of darkness – remains in the shadows). When they have recovered their breath, spectators can join celebrations outside, including a fair and music demonstrations. However, nothing can really impress you immediately after witnessing such a sight.

"The Abu Simbel temple was built by Ramses II (1279-1213 BC) to demonstrate his political clout and divine backing to the ancient Nubians. On each side of the temple, which was carved into a sandstone cliff overlooking the Second Cataract of the Nile, sit a pair of colossal statues of him, more than 65 feet tall. Though the statues have been damaged in earthquakes since their construction, they remain an awe-inspiring, tremendous sight. The temple is aligned to face the east, and above the entrance sits a niche with a representation of Re-Horakhty [Ra – PW], an aspect of the sun-god.

"In the early 1960s the entire temple was moved to higher ground, a task requiring considerable international engineering resources, when the Aswan Dam caused the Nasser lake to rise and inundate the area. For this reason, the sun now strikes a day later than Ramses had originally planned, though the event itself is no less stunning."   Source

"The most remarkable feature of the site is that the temple is precisely oriented so that twice every year, on 22 February and 22 October, the first rays of the morning sun shine down the entire length of the temple-cave to illuminate the back wall of the innermost shrine and the statues of the four gods seated there. ... Precisely this same effect was apparently also fundamental to the design of the artificial cave of Newgrange in Ireland."   Source

"Abu Simbel was first reported by J. L. Burckhardt in 1813, when he came over the mountain and only saw the facade of the great temple as he was preparing to leave that area via the Nile. The two temples, that of Ramesses II primarily dedicated to Re-Harakhte, and that of his wife, Nefertari dedicated to Hathor, became a must see for Victorians visiting Egypt, even though it required a trip up the Nile, and often they were covered deeply in sand, as they were when Burckhardt found them."  Source

"The main temple was dedicated to Ramesses II and to the four universal gods Ptah, Re-Harakhte, Amun-Re, and to Ramesses II himself. Of the seven temples he built, Abu Simbel is considered to be the most impressive …

"Above the doorway in a niche stands the sun god, a falcon headed representation of Ramesses, holding a war-scepter which shows the head and neck of an animal which is read as user, in his right and a figure of Ma'at in his left. This cleverly creates the Kings throne name of User-Ma'at-Re. At the top of the facade is a row of baboons which are thought to be greeting the morning sun and indeed the monument looks best at that time …

"A Solstices [sic] occurs twice a year on or about February 20-22nd and October 20-22nd when the rays from the sun enter the front of the temple and bathe the statues of the Gods 200 feet inside the temple with light. Interestingly enough, all but Ptah, the source of Chthonian life."   Source

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