Latest / Mythic Mind Games / 20 - Vivec’s Lessons: Morrowind’s Manifesto of Postmodern Heroism
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey there, I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, and what you're about
- 0:02Speaker 1: to watch or listen to if you're going through the
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- 0:08Speaker 1: six Lessons of a VEC. This is part of my
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- 0:26Speaker 1: As I am recording and posting this, we're currently in
- 0:30Speaker 1: our Oblivion unit and so we just had our main
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- 0:54Speaker 1: Mythic Mind Games podcast to access all this Elder scroll
- 0:57Speaker 1: stuff as well as some other things along the world.
- 1:00Speaker 1: But now let's get to my philosophy video on the
- 1:03Speaker 1: morowind unit on the thirty six Lessons of the Vech.
- 1:06Speaker 1: Here we go today, I want to talk to you
- 1:27Speaker 1: about a figure who really shouldn't exist in any sane cosmology,
- 1:31Speaker 1: yet through all of his esoteric meanderings and poetic ramblings,
- 1:37Speaker 1: he ends up in quite a similar place to the
- 1:39Speaker 1: secular postmodern existentialist of our own world. And of course
- 1:43Speaker 1: I speak of the Vec, the warrior poet, supposed god, king, liar, lover, murderer,
- 1:49Speaker 1: and possibly midwife of his own mother. He is the
- 1:53Speaker 1: golden enigma of the Tribunal Temple cult, simultaneously a transcendent
- 2:00Speaker 1: god but also one who is born of a land
- 2:03Speaker 1: of ash and mushrooms. And today we're gonna be talking
- 2:06Speaker 1: about his thirty six sermons, although we're not going to
- 2:08Speaker 1: get to all of them. In fact, this is not
- 2:10Speaker 1: at all going to be a deep dive analysis into
- 2:14Speaker 1: the sermons of a VEC. The reality is I don't
- 2:17Speaker 1: have the capacity to that. Frankly, I don't really have
- 2:19Speaker 1: the interest in doing that. I think this is worth
- 2:22Speaker 1: talking about in a general sense if you want to
- 2:24Speaker 1: get more detailed. You can go on YouTube. You can
- 2:26Speaker 1: find a seven hour literally, you can find a seven
- 2:28Speaker 1: hour commentary on the thirty six lessons of a VEC.
- 2:31Speaker 1: If that's something you really want to do, that's not
- 2:33Speaker 1: really something that I want to do. Instead, we're just
- 2:35Speaker 1: gonna be looking at a few sections here and there
- 2:37Speaker 1: in order to pull out certain themes. And the reality is,
- 2:41Speaker 1: I mean, if you spend too much time starting into
- 2:43Speaker 1: the abyss, it's going to stare back at you. And
- 2:44Speaker 1: there's a lot of abyss in these thirty six sermons,
- 2:47Speaker 1: which are filled with the profundity of a Tsujama filled
- 2:50Speaker 1: fever dream. All right, so let's go ahead and begin
- 2:53Speaker 1: with less than one. He was born in the ash
- 2:56Speaker 1: among the Vela Thee. So already we have something of
- 2:59Speaker 1: a paradox, something of a contradiction here. Here we have
- 3:03Speaker 1: the god Vivek who is born. And so we know
- 3:07Speaker 1: that Vivek is not the God who is. He's not
- 3:11Speaker 1: the I am that I am. This is not the
- 3:13Speaker 1: transcendent God that condescends. And so this is certainly a
- 3:17Speaker 1: break from anything like Christian religion, but even a break
- 3:20Speaker 1: from the classical mind. Well, Vivek would direct worship toward
- 3:24Speaker 1: himself and as with the other members of the tribunal
- 3:26Speaker 1: right that that's really what drives al maluxia mad as
- 3:29Speaker 1: we talk about in the next unit, looking at the expansions.
- 3:33Speaker 1: But Vivek who would direct people toward himself for worship,
- 3:37Speaker 1: you know, he is breaking from the classical mind such
- 3:39Speaker 1: as Plato, who would not have us look to something
- 3:42Speaker 1: that comes out of this world of change, this world
- 3:45Speaker 1: that is inherently given over to chaos. Plato would say
- 3:48Speaker 1: that we ought to direct our minds, direct our souls
- 3:50Speaker 1: toward the eternal form, which are like the blueprints for reality.
- 3:54Speaker 1: It's the way that things ought to be. And Plato believed,
- 3:57Speaker 1: as we get in his dialogue the timaeis that God,
- 4:00Speaker 1: the great craftsman, saw the perfect design of the forms
- 4:04Speaker 1: and implemented the forms onto the otherwise undfferentiated chaotic matter
- 4:08Speaker 1: that is the material world. And so we as rational souls,
- 4:13Speaker 1: we ultimately are kind of part of this instantiation of
- 4:17Speaker 1: cosmic order on the chaos that's implicit in the temporal realm,
- 4:21Speaker 1: and we in turn, in living out that which makes
- 4:24Speaker 1: us good, we're directed toward that which is good. So too,
- 4:29Speaker 1: Aristotle has the entire cosmos directed toward the unmoved, mover
- 4:34Speaker 1: God who supplies this world with motion. And not even
- 4:38Speaker 1: for Aristotle does this God like directly cause motion. But
- 4:42Speaker 1: it's more like the cosmos eternally moves in a spherical
- 4:45Speaker 1: pattern that imitates the eternal goodness of God. And so
- 4:50Speaker 1: in the classical mind as well as in the Christian mind,
- 4:53Speaker 1: we really have this idea that at the top of
- 4:55Speaker 1: reality is God. At the top of reality is the
- 4:57Speaker 1: good and the way that we achieve goodness by imitating
- 5:00Speaker 1: that eternal, unchanging reality. And so the temporal world in
- 5:04Speaker 1: which we live is ultimately it's derivative of the eternal.
- 5:09Speaker 1: We don't get to the eternal by means of the temporal. Furthermore,
- 5:13Speaker 1: Vivek is not even a born god of classical paganism, right,
- 5:17Speaker 1: I mean, in classical paganism you have gods being born. However,
- 5:21Speaker 1: the pagan gods who are born at least gain a
- 5:24Speaker 1: semblance of transcendent eternality by participating in the timelessness of myth.
- 5:29Speaker 1: Right here we have gods being born and even sometimes
- 5:31Speaker 1: dying who knows when, who knows where, And so there's
- 5:34Speaker 1: a certain timeless quality to these, even these generated gods
- 5:38Speaker 1: of classical paganism. Unlike what we get in Vivek, what
- 5:41Speaker 1: we get in Ravec is not so much classical paganism
- 5:44Speaker 1: as it is postmodern heroism. And so perhaps this is
- 5:47Speaker 1: an evolutionary Darwinian god. Perhaps this is a Sartryan god.
- 5:51Speaker 1: In any case, this is going to be a god
- 5:54Speaker 1: who emerges from the chaos of temporality and invents his
- 5:57Speaker 1: own deity by seizing that which remains in at the
- 6:01Speaker 1: very least morally dubious god Lorcan. Right, he achieves divinity
- 6:07Speaker 1: of sorts by means of the heart of Lorcan. And
- 6:10Speaker 1: so what we have in the sermons of Avek is
- 6:12Speaker 1: a Promethean attempt to usurp the power of the gods.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Or perhaps this is a Nietzschean a Zarathustrian attempt to
- 6:20Speaker 1: transcend supposedly artificial limitations and to become one's own god,
- 6:25Speaker 1: moving beyond the categories of good and evil. And of
- 6:28Speaker 1: course this is all very convenient from Avec, because operating
- 6:31Speaker 1: in a realm of moral ambiguity above the limiting distinctions
- 6:35Speaker 1: of petty mortals will leave room for all kinds of activity, right,
- 6:38Speaker 1: I mean, including deceit, betrayal, and murder, so long as
- 6:43Speaker 1: it makes for good poetry. And is this not exactly
- 6:47Speaker 1: what you might expect from a contemporary postmodern academic who
- 6:50Speaker 1: blurs obvious distinctions in order to create a climate of
- 6:54Speaker 1: so called empowerment. But even that question of empowerment, right empowerment?
- 6:59Speaker 1: For what to do? What? Well, let let's jump forward,
- 7:03Speaker 1: were actually can jump far ahead right now, all the
- 7:05Speaker 1: way to less than thirty one where of Vivek writes
- 7:07Speaker 1: the last time I heard his voice showing the slightest
- 7:10Speaker 1: sign of impatience, I learned to control myself and submit
- 7:13Speaker 1: to the will of others. I dared to take on
- 7:15Speaker 1: the sacred fire. Right, there's that Promethean element. I dared
- 7:19Speaker 1: to take on the sacred fire and realize there was
- 7:21Speaker 1: no equilibrium with thet Ada. And remember from my cosmology video,
- 7:25Speaker 1: thet Ada or the original spirits that would become the
- 7:29Speaker 1: Adra and the Dadra, depending on whether they attach themselves
- 7:33Speaker 1: to the order of a new or the chaos of patame.
- 7:36Speaker 1: But Favec says, there's no equilibrium even with thet Ada.
- 7:39Speaker 1: There are liars, loss roots, and the most I can
- 7:42Speaker 1: do is to be an interpreter into the rational. And
- 7:45Speaker 1: so he's not looking for equilibrium in the at Ada,
- 7:49Speaker 1: in the so called gods that already exists, these original spirits.
- 7:54Speaker 1: He's looking to subvert to maybe to circumvent thet ada
- 7:58Speaker 1: in order to achieve within the monad or something like that. Right,
- 8:03Speaker 1: so he's trying to rise above them. He's really trying
- 8:06Speaker 1: to subvert the entirety of religion and to place himself
- 8:09Speaker 1: at the center. And he's going to do that by
- 8:11Speaker 1: becoming an interpreter into the rational. He himself is a
- 8:15Speaker 1: bridge to truth, or maybe a manifestation of truth. He
- 8:18Speaker 1: himself is a conduit of truth. And so pretty straightforwardly,
- 8:22Speaker 1: if Vivek is a cut leader, right, he is that
- 8:24Speaker 1: he wants to present himself as a bridge to reality.
- 8:27Speaker 1: He is an incarnation of truth. But he says that
- 8:30Speaker 1: even that fails the needs of the people, right, what
- 8:32Speaker 1: they need is not the rational necessarily. They don't just
- 8:35Speaker 1: need someone to communicate to them what is true. He
- 8:38Speaker 1: goes on to saying, I sit on the mercy seat
- 8:41Speaker 1: and pass judgment the waking state and the phase aspect
- 8:44Speaker 1: of the innate urge. Only here can I doubt in
- 8:47Speaker 1: this book written in water, broadened to include evil. And
- 8:51Speaker 1: so what the people ultimately need is not truth, even
- 8:54Speaker 1: though that's something I might be capable of providing them with.
- 8:56Speaker 1: Right what they need is for me to sit on
- 8:58Speaker 1: the mercy seat and pass judge. And here, of course,
- 9:01Speaker 1: we have connections to Old Testament imagery, the mercy seat
- 9:05Speaker 1: being the place where atonement is provided. And so he's
- 9:07Speaker 1: setting himself up not just as a moral teacher, not
- 9:11Speaker 1: just as a philosopher, but as one who is capable
- 9:13Speaker 1: of providing judgment and one who is capable of providing atonement.
- 9:17Speaker 1: This is not just a philosophical movement. This is very
- 9:21Speaker 1: much a religious movement that's seeking to move beyond the
- 9:24Speaker 1: categories of good and evil, as well as beyond the
- 9:26Speaker 1: categories of rationality and irrationality. But again, in his messianic role,
- 9:33Speaker 1: here he is not fulfilling the role of Christ and
- 9:35Speaker 1: reconciling people with God. He's not fulfilling the role of
- 9:38Speaker 1: Socrates and reconciling people with the good. He is, at
- 9:41Speaker 1: least in part, playing the role of the Zerothustrian prophet,
- 9:44Speaker 1: calling people out into the wilds beyond good and evil,
- 9:49Speaker 1: though of course maybe a little bit different here is
- 9:51Speaker 1: that he's placing himself at the center. And while it
- 9:53Speaker 1: may be arguable that needs you did that that would
- 9:55Speaker 1: be more of a possible critique than something that neats
- 9:58Speaker 1: to himself as saying. But then threw his ink on
- 10:01Speaker 1: this passage to cover it up for the lay reader,
- 10:04Speaker 1: and he wrote instead, find me in the blackened paper,
- 10:08Speaker 1: unarmored in final scenery. Truth is like my husband, instructed
- 10:12Speaker 1: to smash, filled with procedure and noise, hammering, weighty heaviness,
- 10:17Speaker 1: made schematic lessons learned only by a mace. Let those
- 10:21Speaker 1: that hear me be buffeted, and let some die in
- 10:24Speaker 1: the ash from the striking. Let those who find him
- 10:27Speaker 1: find him murdered by illumination, pummeled like a traitorous house.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Because if an hour is golden, then immortal. I am
- 10:35Speaker 1: a secret code. I am the partaker of the doom drum,
- 10:38Speaker 1: chosen of all those that dwell in the middle world
- 10:41Speaker 1: to wear this crown which reverberates with truth. And I
- 10:45Speaker 1: am the mingling Messiah. The ending of the words is OMCV,
- 10:50Speaker 1: all right. So there's a lot going on here, And
- 10:53Speaker 1: so he talks about how truth is like his husband,
- 10:57Speaker 1: and in transcending limitations, right, even transcends the limitations of
- 11:02Speaker 1: male and female. And so he identifies as a Hermaphedite,
- 11:06Speaker 1: because again he transcends all distinctions, right, he transcends all limitations,
- 11:11Speaker 1: even that of male and female. And so sometimes he
- 11:14Speaker 1: has a masculine role, sometimes he has a feminine role.
- 11:16Speaker 1: But I suppose he would really say that he is
- 11:19Speaker 1: all things at all times. And so he says that
- 11:21Speaker 1: truth is like his husband, which sometimes is used to
- 11:25Speaker 1: strike down, right with those that hear me be buffeted
- 11:27Speaker 1: and let some die in the ash from the striking.
- 11:31Speaker 1: Perhaps even Nervar is one who will die through the
- 11:34Speaker 1: striking of truth. But again, what is the question? Like?
- 11:37Speaker 1: What is truth? And it does not seem that Vivek
- 11:41Speaker 1: is trying to submit himself to a capital T truth.
- 11:45Speaker 1: But truth is well, it's that which he wet himself to, right,
- 11:49Speaker 1: that what he has attached his will to that is truth.
- 11:52Speaker 1: This seems to me to be a very clearly Nietzschean
- 11:56Speaker 1: idea of will to power. Truth is what I will
- 11:59Speaker 1: it to be, and so truth is that to which
- 12:02Speaker 1: I've attached my will. Truth is like my husband, which
- 12:05Speaker 1: I use to strike down any who would attempt to
- 12:10Speaker 1: impede my quest to divinity. And what gives me the
- 12:13Speaker 1: right to do this? Well, my divinity, of course. But
- 12:16Speaker 1: where does my divinity come from? Well, it comes from
- 12:19Speaker 1: my will. This seems very clearly to be will to
- 12:22Speaker 1: power imagery in almost all, right, thirty five of these
- 12:25Speaker 1: thirty six lessons end with the ending of the words
- 12:29Speaker 1: is AMCV, Now i'm cv is. It's an acronym for
- 12:33Speaker 1: the tribunal for amlexia, sothacil and vivek. Right, that's that
- 12:37Speaker 1: salmciv which is sometimes treated as this unified force. There
- 12:41Speaker 1: seems to be some trinitarian stuff going on here, where
- 12:43Speaker 1: AMCV is its own entity manifested in these three aspects
- 12:49Speaker 1: of vivec, omlexia and sofacil. But Vivec definitely presents himself
- 12:54Speaker 1: as a first among equals in this in these interrelated
- 12:59Speaker 1: aspects of ams. But in saying again and again the
- 13:02Speaker 1: ending of the words is on CV, he's saying we are,
- 13:06Speaker 1: this is I am where all things are directed. He
- 13:10Speaker 1: is placing himself at the center of reality, which again
- 13:13Speaker 1: it's a very postmodern thing to do, and it's a
- 13:14Speaker 1: very cult leader thing to do, but also it's a
- 13:16Speaker 1: very postmodern thing to do. The classical mind overwhelmingly sees
- 13:21Speaker 1: that we are thrown into a particular context. There's a
- 13:25Speaker 1: story that's playing out, that has been playing out long
- 13:28Speaker 1: before we were born, we'll continue to play out after
- 13:31Speaker 1: we die. In our role in the path of virtue
- 13:34Speaker 1: is in discovering what our role is and playing that
- 13:37Speaker 1: role well. And so we don't contextualize reality within ourselves. No,
- 13:42Speaker 1: we instead are seeking to contextualize ourselves properly within reality,
- 13:47Speaker 1: within capital our reality. Now, what the postmodern tends to
- 13:50Speaker 1: do is to ask, no, how do I want to
- 13:53Speaker 1: contextualize reality within myself? And so I then become not
- 13:58Speaker 1: just responsible for discerning meaning, but I actually become the
- 14:01Speaker 1: arbiter of meaning. And that's a big distinction here. And
- 14:04Speaker 1: what VEC seems to be doing here is in saying
- 14:06Speaker 1: that all things end with ONCV, he's saying that I
- 14:10Speaker 1: am where all things are directed. I am the context
- 14:14Speaker 1: for reality. Reality is not necessarily my context, but I
- 14:19Speaker 1: am the context for reality itself. Along very similar lines,
- 14:22Speaker 1: in less than thirty five, all the other symbols of
- 14:25Speaker 1: absolute reality are ancient ideas ready for their graves, or
- 14:30Speaker 1: at the very least the essence of such. To me,
- 14:32Speaker 1: that sounds a lot like Nietsch's mad man saying that
- 14:34Speaker 1: God is dead. And he goes on to say that
- 14:37Speaker 1: this should be seen as an opportunity and in no
- 14:40Speaker 1: way tedious, though some will give up for it. It
- 14:43Speaker 1: is easier to kiss the lover than to become one.
- 14:46Speaker 1: And so again this will to power idea that we
- 14:48Speaker 1: have the opportunity to seize divinity. The throne of God
- 14:51Speaker 1: is empty. All you need to do is to have
- 14:53Speaker 1: the strength of will in order to take the seat,
- 14:56Speaker 1: to move in that space beyond good and evil, and
- 14:59Speaker 1: to act as the center of reality to which all
- 15:02Speaker 1: things are oriented and from which all things come. But
- 15:07Speaker 1: he says that many people aren't going to be willing
- 15:09Speaker 1: to do this because it's easier to be kissed by
- 15:12Speaker 1: a lover than to become one. In other words, it's easier,
- 15:14Speaker 1: he says, to passively receive what is offered to you
- 15:18Speaker 1: than it is to be the one who does the offering.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Nische uses this language of the uber bench, the overman,
- 15:24Speaker 1: the superman, that the one who has the strength of
- 15:26Speaker 1: spirit in order to take their place and to be
- 15:29Speaker 1: the one who offers that that is going to be
- 15:32Speaker 1: the stronger individual, the stronger will, the person who rises
- 15:36Speaker 1: above the mediocre existence of most mortals, whereas most of
- 15:41Speaker 1: us are thought to be too weak in the will,
- 15:44Speaker 1: and so we are able to take on that leading role. Instead,
- 15:48Speaker 1: we just want to passively receive. We want to receive
- 15:50Speaker 1: the kiss rather than to become the lover. And now, finally,
- 15:54Speaker 1: less than thirty six leading the armies of the climber
- 15:57Speaker 1: was a slave that would not perish the harded and Nero,
- 16:00Speaker 1: who had traded his axe for the Ethos knife. He
- 16:03Speaker 1: slew Dumac at the Red Mountain and saw the heartbone
- 16:06Speaker 1: for the first time. So to review, going back to
- 16:08Speaker 1: this story of Marowen that laid out, Naravar killed Dumac,
- 16:12Speaker 1: king of the Dwemmer, a red mountain, and this is
- 16:15Speaker 1: when he retrieved the heart of Lorcan that the Dwemmer
- 16:17Speaker 1: had discovered. And notice this wording here Naravar who had
- 16:22Speaker 1: traded his axe for the Ethos knife. Now, the Ethos
- 16:25Speaker 1: knife is another word for keening, which was one of
- 16:28Speaker 1: the tools that was intended for use on the heart
- 16:32Speaker 1: of Lorcan. But its name here as the ethosknife, I
- 16:36Speaker 1: think is important because the point is that Narivar maintained
- 16:40Speaker 1: a path of traditional virtue, right, he had character, he
- 16:44Speaker 1: had ethos, he acted ethically, and so this is somebody
- 16:47Speaker 1: who was bound by the supposed limitations of conventional morality
- 16:52Speaker 1: of virtue, which is why Vivek, as the ubermensch, was
- 16:56Speaker 1: potentially justified in dispatching of him, in betraying him and
- 17:00Speaker 1: murdering him, because things like betrayal and murder, I mean,
- 17:03Speaker 1: these are conventions of traditional bourgeois morality that simply don't
- 17:08Speaker 1: have a place within Vivek's system of beyond good and evil.
- 17:11Speaker 1: And so in short, I mean, perhaps he's kind of
- 17:14Speaker 1: getting at the point that N'ervar had it come in
- 17:16Speaker 1: as the weaker vessel, that he did not have the
- 17:18Speaker 1: strength of will to survive, to do what is required
- 17:22Speaker 1: to survive, but in clinging to conventional morality, he became
- 17:26Speaker 1: a sheep to the wolf. Now, Vivek is never going
- 17:29Speaker 1: to explicitly admit to the fact that he did indeed
- 17:31Speaker 1: betray and kill Nervar, but it's strongly hinted at, and
- 17:34Speaker 1: we know exactly what happened. And I think so much
- 17:37Speaker 1: of these texts, in these lessons of avek I think
- 17:40Speaker 1: so much of this is meant as a justification of
- 17:44Speaker 1: his actions, certainly to the masses and perhaps even to himself.
- 17:48Speaker 1: And then his final words are the beginning of the
- 17:51Speaker 1: words is amciv. So remember, up to this point he's
- 17:53Speaker 1: ended all of his lessons by saying the end of
- 17:55Speaker 1: the words is ALMCV. Now he says the beginning of
- 17:57Speaker 1: the words is almcv. And so he's really in the
- 18:00Speaker 1: point that OMCIVI that ultimately I vivek I am the
- 18:04Speaker 1: first and the last, the alpha and omega. Again, all
- 18:07Speaker 1: of reality is contextualized within myself. Now, for good or
- 18:11Speaker 1: for ill? What are some lessons that seem to be
- 18:14Speaker 1: emerging from these sermons. Well, first, it's this idea that
- 18:19Speaker 1: identity is a story that we tell ourselves, and stories
- 18:22Speaker 1: can be rewritten, but never without a cost. To become
- 18:27Speaker 1: something other than what you are requires sacrifice. But to
- 18:30Speaker 1: become something above distinct, something's altogether, requires the sacrifice of
- 18:36Speaker 1: all particulars, which places you conveniently above even the distinctions
- 18:40Speaker 1: of good and evil. Second, that power that cannot embrace
- 18:44Speaker 1: its own contradiction becomes chaotic. You need to incorporate your shadow,
- 18:49Speaker 1: your seemingly darker tendencies and move them in the direction
- 18:52Speaker 1: of your will. If the unconscious is not brought into
- 18:56Speaker 1: harmony with the conscious, you will inevitably descend into the
- 18:59Speaker 1: monsters and chaotic, because you yourself will be chaotic. You'll
- 19:03Speaker 1: be at war with yourself. And a house divided cannot stand.
- 19:07Speaker 1: And so what you need to be properly integrated is
- 19:10Speaker 1: unity of will. As Carekeguard says, purity of heart is
- 19:13Speaker 1: to will one thing. However, for caurke Guard, the one
- 19:17Speaker 1: in question ultimately is God. But for the likes of
- 19:20Speaker 1: the VEC, as well as for the postmodern philosophies of
- 19:23Speaker 1: self creation that really echo his mantras, purity of heart
- 19:27Speaker 1: is simply to will what we might will, and in
- 19:30Speaker 1: so doing we plant the egg of our birth into
- 19:34Speaker 1: our own mother, so to speak. Sorry for that weird imagery,
- 19:38Speaker 1: but that is exactly what the VEC gives us. And
- 19:41Speaker 1: now he seems to approach it in something of a
- 19:43Speaker 1: literal sense, as he claims to transcend even time, and
- 19:47Speaker 1: so you know, he talks about how he has a
- 19:49Speaker 1: role to play even in his own birth. But I
- 19:51Speaker 1: think more philosophically, I mean, this is exactly what postmodern
- 19:55Speaker 1: secular existentialism proposes that you've become your own parent, and
- 19:59Speaker 1: lastly that the divine is not found uncertainty, but in
- 20:02Speaker 1: the courage to be questioned. Faveckus not Christ. He doesn't
- 20:06Speaker 1: sacrifice himself in love that we might be reconciled to
- 20:09Speaker 1: the source of love in goodness. And he's not even
- 20:12Speaker 1: as Socrates, who desire to see his conversation partners give
- 20:16Speaker 1: birth to the truth that is eternally true. He's no
- 20:20Speaker 1: Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, who encourage us to embrace fortune
- 20:24Speaker 1: with reason and virtue befitting of creatures bearing the divine image. No,
- 20:29Speaker 1: he's much more like Nietzsche' Zarathustram, who forces us to
- 20:32Speaker 1: ask the questions that neither the Christian nor the classical
- 20:35Speaker 1: pagan mind, at least for the most part, really have
- 20:38Speaker 1: a context for asking. What if the gods, or even
- 20:41Speaker 1: like Divinity itself as is presented to us. What if
- 20:44Speaker 1: that is wrong? What if it's weak? What if it
- 20:47Speaker 1: is downright deceitful? What if we, in fact are the gods?
- 20:52Speaker 1: What if we have always been the gods, or at
- 20:55Speaker 1: least the potential gods? And what if the only salvation
- 20:59Speaker 1: is to admit that we never had the answers in
- 21:01Speaker 1: the first place, and that they are instead discovered only
- 21:04Speaker 1: as we create them. Now, as we conclude, I think
- 21:08Speaker 1: we need consider some of the concealed words of Avec himself.
- 21:13Speaker 1: If you read the first letter of each paragraph of
- 21:15Speaker 1: Sermon thirty six, you see the hidden message foul murder. Furthermore,
- 21:21Speaker 1: if you work through the cipher of Sermon twenty nine,
- 21:24Speaker 1: you find the admission he was not born of a god.
- 21:28Speaker 1: His destiny did not lead him to this crime. He
- 21:31Speaker 1: chose this path of his own free will. He stole
- 21:34Speaker 1: the godhood and murdered the hoarditor. Vivek wrote this so
- 21:39Speaker 1: right here, hidden in plain sight, Vivek reveals the fact
- 21:43Speaker 1: that he was not born of a god, that he
- 21:45Speaker 1: was born of dust and ash, and the only way
- 21:48Speaker 1: he got to where he is is through the will
- 21:51Speaker 1: to power. Everything else is a myth. It is poetry
- 21:54Speaker 1: that justifies his actions. But in the end, the only
- 21:57Speaker 1: true justifier of Avek's actions is vec himself. Everything else
- 22:02Speaker 1: is just smoking mirrors. And I think that there's an
- 22:04Speaker 1: important lesson in this by his own admission that he
- 22:08Speaker 1: could not admit Vivek was no god. He never could be.
- 22:12Speaker 1: He was a would be Promethean usurper who grew out
- 22:16Speaker 1: of the chaos implicit and temporal, dust and ash, And
- 22:19Speaker 1: in the end, dust and ash is what he leaves
- 22:22Speaker 1: as his legacy. Thank you for listening, and next time
- 22:25Speaker 1: we turn our attention to blood, Boon and tribunal. Until
- 22:28Speaker 1: next time, godspeed,