THE EARTH

...Ere Babylon was dust,
The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child,
Met his own image walking in the garden.
That apparition, sole of men, he saw.
For know there are two worlds of life and death:
One that which thou beholdest; but the other
Is underneath the grave, where do inhabit
The shadows of all forms that think and live,
Till death unite them and they part no more;
Dreams and the light imaginings of men.

—Prometheus Unbound, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1820

The modern world is a desert that exists by a marginalization of the sacred. We stand not at the end of history, but removed from it. Without the middle pillar, the golden chain of being, Man should have collapsed into sodomic solipsism in the first generation. The unnatural distance traveled under this void regime is due to the piloted rotting of the modern mind, which does not consist of thoughts, but engages a tactic of delayed schizophrenia, it follows a circle of hallucinoglyphs, spiraling into Nothing. That psyche which rejects the symbolic tradition can only become necrotic, yet we organize ourselves here in the sterile chambers of our imagery.

We create a false Double World, assemble an android daemon, and pass our days under the strong delusion of coherent reality, a dissacoiative fugue afforded through the logistics of vision. Thus, we externalize our state of psychosis by the instancing of a spectacular Flood—shallow at first with the World’s Fairs, then deeper with Cinema, now abyssal with the Internet. This tide initiates a parasitic form of psychic life, and we become Circe’s pigs, obese on sea foam. Though the world has ended, and Man has gone mad, we are circumscribed by a hallucination of civilization. There it sprawls, a vast, tessellating phantom, constantly confessing its illusions.

It appears the purpose of the modern world is to annihilate the sacred. It fictionalizes the paranormal, then uses parafiction to supernormal effect. It expels Mystery to the four corners, there to rule as archons, and thus squares the circle. The current World-Image is a headless tyrant on a throne of burning gold, ruling a grid of desecration, empowered by the dissolution of Fate and Order. A self-contained, self-consuming Demogorgon. Those with Second Mind intact, or even a fragment repaired, are able to see it instantly, all around them. The half-perception of this situation is often called 'paranoid schizophrenia.'

The engineering of the modern psyche was achieved by first razing the Second Mind. Its organs stolen and buried, “underneath the grave,” in a great phylactery called Progress. All its emanations are hijacked, concretized, and used to substantiate the clown-lichocracy. “This thing, born of alchemy and dream visitations, this we call Technology. We made this.” Anything can be claimed, anything justified. What man can discern copy from original with half a mind?

And with this foul act, our second sight was robbed, our sacred twinning of vision, the Other-gaze which implies a Doubleman, indeed, an entire lost Double-earth. There is, in truth, a world superimposed over this one, but of a matter less dense than corporeal matter, yet having all its shape and features. Man was once possessed with, alongside his two hands and two eyes, two minds with which to behold this dual world, but now is lop-sided, a cripple grasping at flat images. When the double world does come through, it is shadowy, volatile, and airy, eluding his half-vison. Man stands at the bottom of a well, and seeing the dim aperture above, calls it cosmos.

The original terra duplex cosmography is evident in all things, in all ancient traditions, from Egypt to Babylon. In the dualisms of Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism we find its resonance. Man himself is curiously wrought of flesh and phantom, ego and daemon; his brain hemispheric, his bodies divided into male and female. In truth, all is a confluence of dualities, a flux between dyads. This earth is yet a divine double-construct, but appears to us collapsed in a pit of fell geometries, in our vice and forgetfulness we perceive a world halved. What man can behold the spheres of heaven with his perception bisected?

In The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, psychohistorian Julian Jaynes concluded that ancient people did not think introspectively or “logically” as modern individuals do. Instead, they experienced so-called “auditory hallucinations,” like modern schizophrenia, which is a regression to an earlier mentality. Such hallucinations often seemed to come from idols or statues, representing gods, and were thought to originate in the brain's right hemisphere—associated with art and creativity. Now the voices come from the Screen.

This condition, known as the “bicameral mind”, involved a division between a 'god side' and a 'man side,' shaping early civilizations from around 9000 B.C. to just after Tutankhamun's era. Each person had a private theophany—the lamassu/etemmu in Mesopotamia, KA in Egypt, and eidolon in Greece—which guided their actions. The Egyptians in particular would physically hear the Pharaoh’s KA as a divine voice commanding obedience, echoed in inscriptions like “I did what his KA loved.” Of course, Jaynes has his own modern hallucinations to contend with. To an ancient, our “introspection” would simply look like solipsism and madness, a spiritual desolation. An ancient Egyptian would see our system of mass media as a cargo-cultish effort to duplicate the voice of Pharaoh’s KA.

The Double Truth of the world leaves its fractals scattered through time, fragments which can be discerned in Carl Jung’s "Conjuctio Oppositorum"—the mystical union of opposites deep within the human psyche, mirrored in deities like Artemis and Apollo or Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, and in the supreme god Ahura Mazda’s divine twins, Mainyu (Holy Spirit), the other Angra Mainyu (the god of lies and darkness).

In folkloric traditions, identical twins are almost universally seen as uncanny or supernatural and often considered as divided parts of a single whole. According to Kingsley’s Travels in West Africa (1897) “twin-killing is a widely diffused custom among the negro tribes.” Then there is the recurrence of the Founding Murder, —Agamenes and Trophonios, Cabiri and Corybantes, Romulus and Remus, Cain (Tubal) and Abel (Habal)— the sacrifice of a pure twin which lays down the bloody foundation of the first cities. Lastly, there is the cult of Dioscuri, or the Heavenly Twins, which is perhaps one of the most ancient and widely diffused in the world (Rendel 1906).

In the antient metaphysics of the Egyptians, each person had a real, para-physical or “subtil” double, known as the KA, which mirrored their figure, clothing, gestures, and movements exactly. This double accompanies a person throughout their life and even after death, residing near the grave and sometimes appearing as a luminous presence called the KHU. We find this Double in its recurrences everywhere in folklore, sometimes called doppelgänger, or named by the Gaelic folklorist Robert Kirk as “Reflex Man,” “Co-Walker” and “living Picture”—

Some Men of that exalted Sight (whether by Art or Nature) have told me they have seen at these Meetings a Doubleman, or the Shape of some Man in two places; that is, a superterranean and a subterranean Inhabitant, perfectly resembling one another in all Points, whom he notwithstanding could easily distinguish one from another, by some secret Tokens and Operations, and so go speak to the Man his Neighbour and Familiar, passing by the Apparition or Resemblance of him. They avouch that every Element and different State of Being have Animals resembling those of another Element; …They call this Reflex-man a Co-walker, every way like the Man, as a Twin-brother and Companion, haunting him as his Shadow, as is oft seen and known among Men (resembling the Original,) both before and after the Original is dead; and was also often seen of old to enter a House, by which the People knew that the Person of that Likeness was to Visit them within a few days. This Copy, Echo, or living Picture, goes at last to his own Herd. It accompanied that Person so long and frequently for Ends best known to itself, whether to guard him from the secret Assaults of some of its own Folks, or only as an sportful Ape to counterfeit all his Actions.

—The Secret Commonwealth, Robert Kirk

The Secret Commonwealth was compiled in the late 17th century. Modern Egyptology would not even begin until a century later, with the first translation of hieroglyphs by the French philologist Jean-François Champollion in 1822. How peasant faerie-shaman in the Scottish Highlands would have a reckoning of the Double Man exactly matching that of an Egyptian thekhereb-priest is a complete and unacknowledged mystery. Of course, the most effective explanation is that they could see it.

To be clear, up until the late 18th century, most of our knowledge of Egyptian metaphysics had been transmitted to us by the Greeks, Romans and the Neoplatonists. There is the daemon, the personal genius and the eidolon, but none of these are portrayed as an exact double, or doppelgänger, of the person, with paraphysical analogue property and appetites.

Egyptian cosmology posits two hemispheres: the visible, solar one belonging to Re, and the dark, invisible one under the earth, symbolized by Osiris. This dual structure of the macrocosm reflects in the religious perception of humans as microcosms, with components often presented in pairs. The gods, including Ra, Horus, and Amen, also have a KA, capable of entering and animating various objects or beings, thereby imparting divine essence. Pharaoh, perceived as a visible god, receives the veneration due a deity, embodying the qualities of the rising sun and possessing omniscience and omnipotence, with his prophecy he governed the fate of all lands.

The royal double of Pharaoh is a fragment of Horus, awakening in the prince upon his ascent to the throne, transforming him into a living incarnation of Horus on earth. This divine aspect continues even after death, represented not symbolically but as a paraphysical fact, by a rectangular parallelogram enclosing the king's name, indicating the eternal presence of the double in the funeral chamber, by which the KA was meant to pass from the sepulchral vault into the upper chamber, or tomb-chapel. The statues of royalty within the sacred temples were dedicated to the service of the royal KAs, with the many statues of the same king in one temple all intended for his own KA’s ministration. Upon Amenophis III’s reign, he infused his double into a rose-colored granite statue in the temple of Soleb, thus immortalizing his divine Personality.

Though our society marginalizes the paranormal, this need not be so. It is entirely possible to build a magiocratic society. The Double World concept was at the center of the Egyptian state. Egypt was the “double country,” the “twin lands.”

The cosmography of Egypt states that the earth, divided by the sun’s path, comprises two parts: the Northern earth of night and the Southern earth of day, paralleling ancient Egypt's division into two realms. Traditionally governed by four gods—Ra, Shu, Sibou, and Osiris—Egypt saw a division after Osiris's murder by Set and a subsequent war between Set and Osiris's son, Horus. Peace was brokered by Sibou, allocating the valley to Set and the Delta, with its capital at Memphis, to Horus. As Trismegistus states, Egypt is an image of Heaven.

The upper and lower kingdoms, each symbolized by its own crown, plant, and protective goddess—Uatchit the serpent for the Delta and Nekhelbit the vulture for Said—operated under its distinct kings despite their theoretical unity under a singular sovereign from the time of Menes. This union, manifested in the dual-crowned Pharaoh, did not meld the dualistic states. Instead, it duplicated royal and state symbols: the palace known as Piraoui or 'the double great house,' a dual treasury, and separate offerings from each region during ceremonies. Pharaoh with his double crown, did not “symbolize” but was himself, together with his KA, the highest representative of the two-fold cosmos, a living embodiment of the apparent world, a divinely constructed double-reality. Indeed, his uræus was a physical emblem, but was also said to wield mystical protective powers, such as the summoning of fire and destructive faeries.

Pharaoh, both human by body and divine by his royal KA, uniquely serves as the mediator between the gods and mankind. Instead of a mad hierophant tending the fires of consciousness at the margins, he is a wizard-king at the center of civilization. Entrusted with the dual essence, he alone channels prayers to his divine brethren—the gods Osiris, Ptah, and Mentu. Individuals seeking divine favor do not approach the gods directly but through Pharaoh, utilizing the ceremonial proclamation "Souton di hotpou."

The divine channeling performed by Pharaoh extended beyond mere rituals; it manifested through dreams and visions, guiding his royal decisions. An illustrative episode is when Thothmes IV, beneath the Sphinx—partly buried under sand—dreamt of the god Ra-Khepera urging him to clear the sand as a reciprocation for future kingship, a directive he later fulfilled upon ascending the throne. Ra-Khepera is the 'Illuminator of the Double Earth' at its emergence from the shadow-world, great god, and master of the Ma, of the Harmony and Law, the Double Truth, whereby the universe came into being and exists. “So long as the king walked the earth, so long his ‘living KA, lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, tarried in his dwelling, in the Abode of Splendour’; for his KA was himself, independent of him, superior to him, and yet his counterpart and bound up with him” (Wiedermann 1895).

The gods' form of presence in temples isn’t only symbolic; their statues, believed to be animated by divine doubles, often interacted with Pharaoh. These statues might offer counsel through gestures: a nod signifies approval, while stillness suggests disapproval. Such interactions were crucial, particularly in major state decisions. For instance, the statue of Amen in Thebes might direct military campaigns or diplomatic engagements. If it remained silent, Pharaoh would consult with his KA.

Trismegistus relates this to Asclepius—

I mean statues ensouled and conscious, filled with spirit and doing great deeds; statues that foreknow the future and predict it by lots, by prophecy, by dreams and by many other means; statues that make people ill and cure them, bringing them pain and pleasure as each deserves.

Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven or, to be more precise, that everything governed and moved in heaven came down to Egypt and was transferred there? If truth were told, our land is the temple of the whole world.”

The sovereign would visit his temple to implore from himself his own protection. He would present his KA offerings of every kind and, in exchange, the KA petitions the gods for gifts, powers, or an alteration of probabilities. As example, after receiving the offering, the KA might reply: "I give unto thee all Life, all Stability, all Power, all Health, and all Joy (enlargement of heart); I subdue for thee the peoples of Nubia, so that you may cut off their heads.”

This reply gives us everything we must know about the relationship between Man and KA, Person and Personality. It can act upon the physical world, but most of its effects are upon the Person. The Egyptians often spoke of it as “my vitality,” or “his will-power.” Everywhere in tombs and temples, scenes depicting the KA receiving offerings are depicted with light symbols, as its main function was the imparting of illumination. This is not a “specter” but a being made of a less dense substance than a human, somewhat like an intelligent plasma. This subtil nature allows the KA to act an intermediary between realms of existence, an agent within the daemonic hierarchy of divine illumination. It could traverse the density gradient, to higher orders of cosmic Intellect.

Plotinus (204/5–270 CE), founder of Neoplatonism, explored the soul's ascent to higher realities in The Enneads, mapping its journey and encounters with higher aspects of oneself. His student Porphyry (234–305 CE) described in Life of Plotinus how Plotinus transcended his physical self during contemplative states, and gained access to his own higher counterpart. Proclus (412–485 CE) examined the soul’s lattices and connections with higher realities during deep contemplation in The Elements of Theology and his commentaries on Plato’s Timaeus. Iamblichus’ (c. 245–325 CE) focus was on theurgy in De Mysteriis, working out rituals to invoke the divine and enable the soul to encounter higher aspects of itself. As noted, these counterparts or aspects are not not described as a semi-autonomous, semi-physical double, but either as idealized, often abstract, forms of the self.

The closest we come to the doppelganger concept is in Plotinus’s metaphysics. His Ennead delineates a triad of foundational principles: the One, Intellect, and Soul. At the heart of his philosophy lies the enigma of how the One, in its sublime isolation, begets other existences. This genesis commences with the "primordial" birth of Intellect from the One, establishing a template for all ensuing creations, each fading slightly in their echo of the original emanation. These emanations take the form of “intelligible matter,” becoming increasingly dense as it approaches the physical plane. The gross matter of our material world then can be thought of as dissolute, concretized light.

From the primordial emergence of Intellect from the One unto the very essence of human selfhood, one encounters diverse and crucial tunnelings into materiality, forming the great chain of existence. This encompasses the revelation of the universal principle, Soul, from Intellect, the birth of time from eternity's womb, and the dual dawn of the world soul with a multitude of individual souls, all fated for corporeal existence. In sum: the dominion of Intellect is an eternity of 'self-reflexive intellection,' whilst Soul steers the course of life within the bounds of time, uniting visions and verity.

Intellect functions intransitively, encapsulated in its own completeness, whilst the office of Soul is transitive, serving as the demiurgic conveyor of Forms unto the tangible sphere. Were it not for the temporal intercession of the Soul, the sensible world would persist as but a static reflection of the intelligible sphere. There would be no fate, no drama of life, no potential for action.

The archē or hypostasis of Soul begets two profound entities: the World Soul and the individual Souls—described as 'sisters’. These souls, each mirroring an individual intellect, prepare themselves for descent into corporeal form, where bodies are wrought not solely from matter but pre-fashioned, or conditioned, by the world soul. Plotinus sums it as: “For every human is double (dittos), one of him is the sort of compound being (to synamphoteron) and one of him is himself (autos)”

The first part of the soul, then, that which is above and always filled and illuminated by the reality above, remains There; but another part, participating by the first participation of the participant goes forth, for soul goes forth always, life from life; for actuality reaches everywhere, and there is no point where it fails. But in going forth it lets its prior part remain where it left it, for if it abandoned what is before it, it would no longer be everywhere, but only at the last point it reached. But what goes forth is not equal to what remains. (3.8.5.10–18)

So then the KA would be a manifestation of the undescended intellect, and we, the descended intellect, operating as a pair, named synampho. Such a comparison slightly diverges from the Egyptian KA in Plato’s Timaeus. With a subtle undertone of Gothic horror, Plato’s considerations imply that the undescended intellect, or KA, as "the most sovereign part of ourselves," is our true self,

Now we ought to consider the most sovereign part of our soul (peri tou kyriaōtatou par’hēmin psychēs) as a divine gift to us, given to be our guiding spirit (hôs ara auto daimona theos hekastôi dedôken). This aspect of our soul, as we assert, resides in the top part of our bodies (ep’akrôi tôi sômati). It elevates us away from the earth and towards that which is akin to us in heaven (pros de tēn en ouranôi syngeneian), as though we are plants not rooted in the earth but in heaven. In stating this, we are absolutely correct. For it is from heaven, the place where our souls were originally born (hothen hē prôtē tēs psychēs genesis ephu), that the divine part (to theion) sustains our head, our root (rizan hēmôn), thereby keeping our whole body upright. (Timaeus, 90a)

Hence, it might be said that we ourselves are the doppelgänger, the dim, mirror-image. If we follow Plato’s metaphor, we are like flower-puppets descending into the world, with our roots raising from our heads into heaven. A vision shared by the blind man at Bethesda, who, after being over-cured by Christ, “looked up and said, ‘I see men like trees, walking.’” (Mark 8:24)

Testimony

John Aubrey, in his Miscellanies of 1696, discusses the natural philosophy of the double:

De seipso duplicato
Cardanus, Synes. Somniorum, lib. ii. cap. 12.
In somniis mortis est signum, quia duo fiunt, cum anima separatur a corpore. Est id signum morbi in ipsis aegrotantibus, nec tum aliud quicquam significat.

Of One's being divided into a Two-fold Person
In dreams, it is a sign of death, because out of one are then made two, when the soul is separated from the body. And it is a sign of the disease in sick men, nor signifies it anything else at that time.

To Aubrey, and in much of the folk wisdom of the 17th century, the doppelganger is a sign of death, nothing more. He gives a supporting account:

The beautiful Lady Diana Rich, daughter to the Earl of Holland, as she was walking in her father's garden at Kensington, to take the fresh air before dinner, about eleven o'clock, being then very well, met with her own apparition, habit, and everything, as in a looking-glass. About a month after, she died of the small-pox. And it is said that her sister, the Lady Isabella Thynne, saw the like of herself also, before she died. This account I had from a person of honour.

In Theophilus Insulanus' Treatises on the Second Sight (1819) we find accounts that confirm death quickly follows the manifestation of the doppelgänger:

Barbara MacPherson, relict of the deceased Mr. Alexander MacLeod, late minister of St. Kilda, informed me that the natives of that island have a particular kind of second sight, which is always a forerunner of their approaching end. Some months before they sicken, they are haunted with an apparition, resembling themselves in all respects as to their person, features, or clothing. This image, seemingly animated, walks with them in the field in broad daylight; and if they are employed in delving, harrowing, seed-sowing, or any other occupation, they are at the same time mimicked by this ghostly visitant. My informer added further, that, having visited a sick person of the inhabitants, she had the curiosity to inquire of him if at any time he had seen any resemblance of himself as above described; he answered in the affirmative, and told her that, to make further trial, as he was going out of his house in the morning, he put on straw-rope garters instead of those he formerly used, and having gone to the fields, his other self appeared in such garters. The conclusion was, the sick man died of that ailment, and he no longer questioned the truth of those remarkable presages.

This fits perfectly with the Egyptian KA’s final role as shepherd into the afterlife. Anamnesis is achieved through self-relexion, and the genius KA, the Reflex Man, is our counterpart in this divine discourse. The doppelganger appears when it is Time to remember our Self. In more modern terms, we read from Charles Fort’s unpublished novel, “X,”

The whole thing may have been originated, somehow, somewhere else, worked out beforehand, as it were, in the brain of something or somebody and is now being orthogenetically or chemically directed from somewhere; being thrown on a screen, as it were, like a movingpicture, and we mere dot pictures, mere cell-built-up pictures, like the movies, only we are telegraphed or teleautographed from somewhere else.

—“X,” [original manuscript destroyed, unpublished], Charles Fort

The Chamber of Images

Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath forsaken the land.

—Ezekiel 8:12

Objects, like men or animals, also possess a double, which upon passing into the afterlife retains the properties of its earthly form. Thus, the double of a chair or bed, perhaps even a phone, serves the same purpose for the subtil double of the man in the other world. During festival, the double of Pharaoh partakes in the enjoyment of the etheric double-liqueurs and double-viands, experiencing them as fully as the living guests enjoy the actual liquids and food. While all, both seen and unseen, partake in the feast, the almahs sing and perform their dances.

Statues and images were not dead material shells, mere symbols, but embodiments, or vehicles, of the KA. Egyptians believed that the KA could inhabit sacred statues, which were dressed and fed as though they were living beings. Images had a connection to another form of existence, which was not immediately apparent to the senses, at least in profane atmospheres. This connection was facilitated through rituals and the concept of the false door.

According to Egyptologist Gaston Maspero's (1846-1916) reading of the KA, this Double-earth was not merely a reflection of the physical world but a vital and integral part of an individual's existence. It was created through the presence of the KA and sustained by the rituals and offerings performed by the living (Maspero, 1915). Unlike the underworld concepts found in many other cultures, the Egyptian double world was a newly created fragment of para-reality that began to exist during a person’s life. It was not a common dwelling for all, but a closed realm intended only for its owner and their relatives and servants. It is an instanced virtual environment, a chamber of living images.

The double world was closely connected to the world of images, what Marshall McLuhan would call “mediasphere.” Ancient Egyptians believed that by creating images and statues, artisans were not just crafting representations but were bringing aspects of the double world into the physical realm, or vice versa. For instance, the pharaonic tomb’s false door, as an image, had the property of generating some kind of manifestation of the depicted real door. Only the KA of the tomb owner, generated by the images during the priest's service, could come out through such a door. The false door served as more than a symbolic entrance; it was a functional exit for the KA. It allowed the KA-Personality to interact with the living world and receive the sustenance provided by the rituals and offerings.

Wheresoever the KA was depicted as receiving offerings, it was invariably associated with light, a symbol-portal of life and divine presence. As Proclus discerned, it is Illumination in both form and function—a mirror-self that reflects divine light into the depths of a well. In our present era, such luminescence has been supplanted by the new order of the Screen. Cinema serves as the modern vehicle for mythical transmission, and, as Leach postulated in 1954, "myth implies ritual, ritual implies myth; they are indeed one and the same" (Leach 1954: 13). Myth and ritual foster an experiential quality of transcendence—transporting one beyond the ordinary confines of time and space. The trance-like state induced within the movie theater is a communion with the pseudo-KA, the fabricated "Reflexion Man." As offerings of victuals are known to embody a condensation of both intention and attention, we proffer our two hours of peak affect to the "stars" and "idols." Thus, our deep immersion in the "moving picture" mirrors the ritual trance one would engage with the "Living Picture" of their true KA.

The KA’s fragment of para-reality, the instanced chamber of imagery, is remarkably consonant with Tolkien’s realms of sub-creation, or Henry Corbin’s mundus imaginalis. It is probable that parafictional extended universes—such as the Gernsbackian Continuum or the Disney Ideosphere—would act as an artificial, occlusive simulacrum of this divine eidolocosmos We are meant to project ourselves, see ourselves, in these intentionally flattened, archetypal, anti-mythical hero-stars. In fact, “seeing yourself represented on-screen” now seems to matter more than any other aspect of the film as art or product.

The more plugged into the Hollywood logistics of vision one is, the more one would draw inspiration, not from the KA, but from the parafictional continuum. Of course, no one can live without KA, so the simulacrum would act more as an overlay, an interstitial control grid made of light and images.

From the Wikipedia article, Star Wars Sources and Analogues:

The Star Wars science fiction media franchise is acknowledged to have been inspired by many sources. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, Qigong, philosophy, classical mythology, Roman history, Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, parts of the other Abrahamic religions, Confucianism, Shintō and Taoism, and countless cinematic precursors. Creator George Lucas stated "Most of the spiritual reality in the movie[s] is based on a synthesis of all religions. A synthesis through history; the way man has perceived the unknown and the great mystery and tried to deal with that or dealing with it".

A startling article, truly. It tells you plainly that the Star Wars franchise is an analogue to the Pulp Comic Era ( Flash Gordon is an extension of the Gernsbackian Continuum), and also that George Lucas, inspired by Joseph Campbell, self-consciously aimed to create a “modern mythology.” It is generally accepted that much of the plot and characters were taken whole cloth from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. In addition, the film is laden with recursions of Hollywood’s hypermedia codes, and the lore, as is the case with most popular science fiction, is in super-syzygy with ancient, medieval and modern history. The article provides an amazingly convenient display of the Star War’s parafictional skeleton.

Of course, every single “great” Hollywood film apes the sacred, in one way or another. But the case of Star Wars as modern myth is uniquely troubling. Science fiction is the definitive visionary medium of liberal progressivism, it represents the invitation to Elsewhere, a world that is wholly other and, therefore, sacred. Many of us watched these films as children, and unconsciously absorbed their nostalgia for a future past, and were inspired by their processed, denatured anti-mythos. Some fragment surely lingers in our mundus imaginalis. Unfortunately, for those poor souls fully invested in the “pop mythology” of Star Wars, its mythological continuum was perhaps influencing their KA’s “Living picture” paracosm. (Imagine a situation where their double is surrounded by black-eyed Funko Pop idols.)

What then would be the effect of a deliberate, spectacular demolition of that construct? The inversion of values, the destruction of mythos, the ritual humiliation of heroes? It points toward the desecration of the KA, a simulated death, a destruction of genius— a cognitive holocaust.

All is not lost. The reason popular anti-myth is produced constantly, and now has become a “streaming” firehose of transgressive ‘hallucinoglyphs’, requiring constant fine-tuning and rebooting, is because it wears off in short order. The current estimate is about three days to two weeks for the psychometabolism to repair itself. The roots of man are in heaven, his flowers can regrow, his temples rebuilt.

If you want to make contact with your double, we must only follow a few simple instructions: Do not look at profane images for some days or weeks. Go walking alone at night. Since you are not a Pharaoh, your KA will share your name. It will look exactly like you. It’s been with you from your birth. Make Friends. Imagine your self walking beside you. Say your name.

Thou art my genius (KA), who art by me (in my KHA-T), the Artist who givest soundness to my limbs. Come forth to the bliss towards which we are bound; let not those ministrants who deal with a man according to the course of his life give a bad odour to my name. Pleasant for us, pleasant for the listener, is the joy of the Weighing of the Words. Let not lies be uttered in the presence of the great god, Lord of the Amenti. Lo! how great art thou (as the triumphant one)."

—Renouf's translation, as stated on the mummy case of Panehemisis

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