By Lugh Suthain

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One of these shapes is named Keeky, and the other is named Buuba. Which is Keeky?

This is actually a long standing experiment, first devised by the Damaran scholar Wolfgang Kohler. While there is deviation, a clear majority of people will say that the shape on the right is the one named Keeky, while the one on the left is Buuba. Asking participants why often results in very figurative language being used. For example, the shape on the right looks 'sharper'. To which I might ask if they think that picture can cut me? Because it's sharp, right? Well, no. Obviously. And they know that. But it's not what they 'literally' said. Which is precisely why this demonstration begins to show the primacy of symbolism within one's experience of the world.

Let's explore another example.

Let's say you are a village mute. You cannot effectively vocalize communication beyond murmurs and the like, and it's your job to milk the cows. Fortunately cows don't seem to need talkings to, and you like animals, so great. It's a good fit. And you are going about your normal day. You pass a friend in the street, while carrying a pail of milk. This friend, well they are a lumberjack. They hand you a small section of log, covered in slash marks, and they say, "This is firewood. I know it's been cold." If this is true you'll likely accept the log, and really pay attention to your friend, making sure they know you are thankful. Eyes go wide, brow softens, a vulnerable smile spreads. Give them a hug, or maybe shake their hand. Kiss perhaps! If that's the kind of friend they are. Because gosh. It's just so cold, and your aged parents can't work anymore, so this really takes a load off your shoulders, metaphorically speaking, because obviously it's putting a literal load on your shoulders as you now have to carry a log, maybe on your sled. So you take it in some way that makes transportation less of a burden, and you both go on with your village duties.

BUT.

Passing you by, a stranger points to those slash marks? They tell you this log has a hidden power. That those slash marks are an esoteric language. That this log is a magical device. They urge you not to waste it, by destroying this log in fire. For this is a lucky find! Use it for the betterment of the village, or sell it to them perhaps, eh? Suddenly, your perspective will not be as much on the stranger, like it was with your friend when you wanted to express gratitude. Now you are looking at this log. You will be trying to turn it about, spin it around, and REORIENT your perspective of the thing. You are trying to glean a new insight into the log. To find for yourself evidence of a hidden power. And let's say sure enough, you find that evidence. You have that epiphany; you grasp the insight. It seems to bear fruit. With the stranger's aid, you are able to realize all this. Would you not view the log as something more than firewood now? You might carry it more tenderly. Maybe more excitedly! Or maybe instead more thoughtfully as you tried to figure out what to make of this new situation. Maybe you still want to burn it. But still there is a new appreciation. Not because it's a new log, though you are treating it that way, but because your perspective of that log has fundamentally changed! And it changed due to language. Communication.

As you can no doubt see from this allegory, and the title of this lecture, we will be exploring the importance of language. Especially as it pertains to consciousness, and therefore, magic.

Now, I'm going to mention various books throughout this 'lecture'. The Language of Existence... The Art of Naming, one and two... The Anatomy of Magic... All About Runes... Runology? And lastly, the Fate Matrix: Finding Truth.

As no doubt many of you are aware, language plays a very integral role in magic. Both written and verbal. The right symbol, inscribed with the proper medium, can endow physical items with fantastic properties. Similarly, speaking the right words in the right way, can realize fantastical effects in the world around us. This practice, of 'expressing' desires into manifestation, is obviously Magic. The close relationship here between those trends reality readily plays out, and the language used to call upon those trends, is what books like The Language of Existence, or The Art of Naming series, both attempt to describe. Seeing as all of you present are no doubt familiar with spellcasting, I trust this is well understood so far. We are merely laying the groundwork.

Now, some magi train specifically to cast their spells more silently. So it seems obvious that at least SPOKEN language, as we understand it, is not the sole facet of magic. Perhaps not even the most primary. Let's look at inner dialogue. The thoughts spoken that? usually, only we can hear. The way you conceptualize - mentally describe - something, informs how you interact with the thing bearing those markers, whatever ontological labels you may have given it. Another way to say this is that your understanding of a thing will inform your experience with that thing. Ah! But life is a dynamic system, because not only does your understanding of a thing inform your experience of it, BUT YOUR EXPERIENCE of it in turn informs your understanding of that thing. So there is a cyclical relationship here that transcends language it seems. In fact, that is very often how mystical experiences are unironically 'described'. As experiences more than real, and beyond description. The depths of chaos get plunged, and from without a new alignment emerges. A new orientation bearing fresh understanding. AND YET it becomes very difficult to share these insights with others, because you must then return to the realm of language.

Now what's interesting is how language, symbols, are clearly THE medium by which reality is described. It is always by relationship, rather than by direct description. It's not hard to imagine why this is the case, either. There is so much information flowing through the world. See The Anatomy of Magic. That flow of information - magic - supports the all-encompassing experience that we call life. And quite frankly, there is far too much information there for us to, A.) comprehend, and, B.) even make use of. Some information is simply not relevant to whatever our present desires may be. It's a humorous state of affairs, however, as this clearly useful trait, also has what some consider a downside, and that is how easily it fixates on perspectival relationships of comparatively limited value. For example, you might measure how hot something is based on the relationship between fire and things that either resist, or succumb, to fire. So you might say, this fire is so hot that it consumes four shovels of coal a minute! Let us call that eight hundred degrees, based on eight hundred other things comparatively easier to burn. Ah! And the 'minute' is the seemingly consistent relationship between the sun and our world's axial spin. And oh! Any less than four shovels of coal, per minute of axial spin, to create eight hundred degrees, is not 'hot' enough to smelt iron! What exactly is the ultimate measure of heat in this instance? We have no idea. But we infer useful relationships through neighboring interactions. We communicate through a shared medium of interaction, in order to yield the transformations we desire. Thus we can see the apparent and inexorable relationship between transformation and insight, as performed by 'language'. This is the phenomena of Magic.

Okay. Let's look back at the previous allegory. If you had been told that the log had magical markings, how would you go about validating this claim? What things would need to be realized for you to find the relevant information. For your understanding to transform this log from firewood to artifact? Well, there's a book called the Fate Matrix that claims to be helpful in this regard.

Specifically that book says:

"The Fate Matrix is a logical construction to find Truths. Truths, defined here, are INDISPUTABLE. OBJECTIVE. Facts. Using the Fate Matrix, Truths can be found. Applying the Fate Matrix to difficult situations or to suspected untruths will reveal Truths."

It goes on to add:

"In the Fate Matrix, real Truths are Truths that remove those layers of propositions and reveal what is MEASURABLE and USEFUL underneath."

Okay so it will tell us, indisputably, the measurable and useful truth of our objective to discern this log's supernatural qualities. So let's try to apply some of its definitions.

A categorical truth is listed as "not measurable and not comparable". They are "basic and self evident". Things like grass being green. Eyes being brown. It bids us avoid propositions, which is to say "limited perspectives". So for example, the idea that a particular word - a particular phonetic compound - can mean different things to different people. It's limited, in this way. This one clearly doesn't work for us, because the log is not self-evidently 'magical'. That is the whole point of the exercise. To determine the truth of its supernatural abilities. Let's try the next kind of 'Truth'.

Ordered Truths are those who rely on a hierarchy of values to make judgements on another adjacent hierarchy. For example, that because a military's purpose is to fight, the leader of this military must be the most competent fighter, when in fact this may not be the case, but instead an erroneous extrapolation. It depends on the 'propositional' schema of values a particular military holds. Interestingly, however, while it could be an erroneous extrapolation, it could also be correct, precisely because of that cultural context. This sort of truth doesn't seem to help us either then, because it's the relevant context that we're precisely pursuing. We want to know if the log is magical. While the slash marks may simply be an unknown language, and not actually suggestive of supernatural qualities, this definition doesn't help us determine that one way or another. So on to the next.

Spatial Truths are highly contextual, with a measurable physical element. How comparably hot something is. How comparably distant something is. These are not supposed to rely on any 'propositional' context. To quote, "Water freezes in the Spires and boils in the Nine Hells no matter who is observing." We immediately have an issue here, because there seems to be the contradiction of one person knowing something that another person does not. In that way, it absolutely matters who is observing it, because as part of the mystery of consciousness, we are always filtering out information we deem as not useful. We can become noseblind to common scents. We have literal blindspots in our eyes, that our minds automatically fill-in.

Here: a simple test involves drawing on a blank piece of parchment.

1. On the piece of parchment, draw an O on the left side and an X on the right side.

2. Put your right hand over your right eye.

3. Hold the piece of parchment in your left hand at arm's length.

4. Focus your left eye on the X.

5. Keep focusing on the X, and move the paper toward your face.

6. When you can't see the O, you've found the blind spot in your left eye.

We all have these. And yet, use a complex pattern instead of this fine detail? You could for example look at the wall, a face, or cover your paper in symbols. Your mind will automatically complete the pattern in a fuzzy way, with what it assumes ought to continue. This is built into you. It is a natural part of how you engage with the world. Your mind takes the surrounding information, and fills in the gaps with what it expects ought to go there.

So it does in fact depend on who is observing a thing, because it can very well be the case that many people are NOT SEEING, literally and metaphorically, not observing reality from as an accurate angle as someone else. And it's precisely the cultivation and sharing of that perspective, with other people, that again brings us to communication. Without communication, there is no collective insight upon which to propel life into the web of complex relationships we experience today. Said in another way, this is the reason we can use spells & staves today, rather than the sticks and stones of eons past. So a spatial truth is only as USEFUL as the perspective that carries it. And so we still have not gleaned any method by which to actually describe the process of relevant realization. We still don't know how to determine the USEFULNESS of one 'fact' from another. This obviously isn't disputing that there are normative and reliable qualities to reality. That tends to be what constitutes a 'fact' - or 'Truth'. But it isn't helping us identify what the useful facts actually are. Fortunately we have one more defined Truth that may help us.

This truth is called "Limited" because its applications vary too far and wide - too abstractly, or perhaps arbitrarily - to derive anything meaningful from them. Wealth is the given example, in so far that a single coin could mean food enough to live another day for a peasant, or just another upon a preexisting mountain of coins, and therefore inconsequential to a king. Technically measurable, as wealth is, but also varying so widely as for these measurements to not share any useful 'truth' beyond its specific - or limited - context. To quote, "The unique statistic of a Limited Truth, is that it can truly measure from nothing to everything. This means that the Truth may be divided, multiplied, or otherwise operated on and compared more mathematically than a Spatial truth." Once again, this does not help us. We are precisely trying to determine what relevant truth exists for our objective. Is the log magical or isn't it? Even knowing whether or not there is an element of Limited Truth to the log would be helpful. But the Fate Matrix is not telling us how to actually go about discerning this.

Fortunately, in the following chapter there is a header that reads, "Applying Truth". This will surely satisfy our objective at last! It's at this point I would like to invite you to the secret lecture inside of this lecture, called: The Roasting of Relds Matural. Perhaps unsurprisingly at this point, the book still offers us nothing useful, despite its claim. I quote, "Use Spatial Truths and Limited Truths to find UNKNOWN Truths, but do not be tempted by propositional extrapolations." We have already established that Spatial and Limited Truths are not helping us find the unknown truth of our log's supernatural abilities. In fact, the only way to derive any USEFUL truth from the log, is precisely by propositional extrapolation. The trap of our era - the ideology that Relds has fallen prey to - is viewing consciousness in a purely algorithmic manner. In fact, here is a quote he had to say about 'language' in the very beginning of The Fate Matrix.

"Finding the Truth requires a different way of thinking. Patterns of everyday communication are formed for ease of communication, but not for finding Truth. Applying the Fate Matrix requires engaging with and observing familiar communication outside of familiar patterns. Recognizing the common paths of thinking and applying the methodology of the Fate Matrix instead will be a frequent topic and challenge of the Fate Matrix."

What Relds has failed to realize is the intrinsic relationship between Language and Truth, that we described at the beginning of this lecture. The exact point of communication is realizing Truth. This doesn't mean you have to be "truthful" in the common sense of that word. It simply means there is a tangible state of being - or Truth - you are wishing to see manifested on the larger stage of Reality. And as we already stated, reality plays out only in particular scenes. Specific, often hidden, narratives and relationships. So Truth is real - it is reality. The very language is showing us this relationship. Things can very reasonably fall under the category of what we call "fact" but it is the pride of arcanists - it is idolatry - to mistake the symbol for the entirety of the sacred of which it represents. Unsurprisingly, you can see Relds making this same mistake in the very first two sentences of his book, in the lines, "The Fate Matrix is a logical construction to find Truths. Truths, defined here, are INDISPUTABLE objective facts." Perhaps in the far flung future we might be able to reasonably make claims like this, but humanoids as we are now, cannot. We are symbolic creatures. The way in which we interact and measure the world around us is through indirect relationships. Not indisputable direct measures.

In fact, there is a very potent language of relationship that many scientists of the arcane and natural world will use today. Numbers. Numbers to describe degrees of relationship. Numbers, just like words, are a form of communication attempting to utilize the stage of reality. They are attempting to describe our scenes of observation! Such that if we know the series of events as they normatively play out, we might reliably exploit those events, through as of yet undeveloped means and practices - innovation! And this is precisely why Relds cautioning against "propositional extrapolations" is incorrect. Testing our constructs of Willful Design against Reality's Flow, is precisely how we come into contact with Truth. We may not fully comprehend the truth we come into contact with, but it is Truth nonetheless, because it is encountered upon the stage of Reality - that which is real. And it is precisely with that ultimate narrative that we are attempting to grapple with, and discern meaningful relationships therein.

If a relationship cannot be well described, then its meaning is not well understood. The way we conceptualize the world is through language. The transmission of information. How one thing is in relationship with another. If you do not understand how a thing is in a relationship with another, then you won't be able to describe it well. This is the cyclical relationship again, and precisely why language is so important.

For example, one could glimpse great insight, act upon that intuition, and be fortunate enough that the powers align in such a way that they are successful in a given endeavor. But this will be unreliable. The intuition isn't wrong, per se. It's not unreasonable to believe you have touched briefly upon some aspect of 'Truth' - but the fact that one cannot clearly articulate it - the fact that it is unreliable - means one does not yet fully grasp it. The effective use of symbols requires a shared understanding between the involved parties. This shared understanding is their relationship. It is the part of one that mutually exists as a part of another. And this is precisely why language can be so potent when it comes to spellcasting, as seen in The Language of Existence, The Art of Naming series, Runology, and All About Runes.

Reality has reliable forces acting within it - 'facts' or 'truths' that we can take advantage of - and an extremely pervasive, like deep to its core facet of these forces, is that there is some field of interaction, or intersection of interactable fields, that comes together to create the phenomena of observable magic. Symbols, be them mental, physical, or verbal, act as a sort of vehicle, creating a relationship between thought and action. They are ideals given form; a form untouchable, yet that can deeply touch us. Both tangible and intangible. They carry far more than their nominal flesh. Wilder still, is that they evolve! Which I hope won't come as a surprise, when you consider the evolution of our understanding through the ages. Language naturally evolves, and with it, our understanding of the world evolves. Again, in that cyclical relationship. Conceptual framework determining how we interact with the world, and our interactions with the world, informing our conceptual framework.

This poses the fragmentation of language as a natural evolution of local specializations. It is as if reality is growing, realizing itself through the interactions of us, its agents - its limbs and organs of consciousness. But that? is a deeper mystery for which we are not yet ready. Still, if these are things that interest you? If you feel called to this work? If you wish to plunge the depths of chaos, for useful insight? Cultivate a deeper relationship with reality? Experience the full breadth of life? Then please leave a note on The Academy's board, or the Heartwood Board. I will be making a regular habit of checking them, and following up with letters.