excerpted from . . .
The Shadow Tarot
© Linda Falorio, 1995, 1998
The image is of the Void from which all manifestation proceeds,
disguised as Nyarlathotep—Mad God of the Necronomicon/Lovecraft mythos, Dark-starred
Crawling Chaos at the heart of matter lurking just beyond the brink of rational
consciousness—Messenger, and Servant, of the Great Old Ones. Here is the Black Hole at
the center of the Universe where lies the Great Inane, surrounded by idiot flute players
piping the quixotic music of the spheres, as reality, that primal slime, the nuclear chaos
of Yog-Sothoth churning beyond human space-time froths into existence.
The quintile
mathematical traditions of the Great Old Ones have transformed the swastika into an
inverted five-armed Dorje thunderbolt streaking through the Void, rupturing seamless
reality with high voltage electrical blasts. Mole-like hands of the Faceless One, Wordless
Utterer, the Voice of Silence, dig deep, penetrating the caverns of the mind with wormlike
tendrils, dragging consciousness into Vishudda Chakra to be torn apart by mindless
whirlings. This Daäthian violet Gateway to the Inner Void is infested with the nether and
averse aspects of erstwhile beguiling fairies. Vampyres, they haunt these chasms of inner
space, imprisoning the minds of foolhardy magicians in transparent cells floating through
the Void like immense soap bubbles blown by the Fool of the dayside Tarot.
The trance
of this tunnel is "The Universal Joke," i.e.: There is no meaning in existence,
the universe is pure caprice, it is nothing more nor less than an immense practical
joke played on its hapless victims. Here, the irrational, taken to the limits
of absurdity results in perfect freedom. "Loosening the girders of the soul,"
the normal chains of cause-effect that bind us to mundane reality, that bind us into the
conscious life of the human species, no longer obtain. Thus we float airily above reality
freed of prejudice, unclouded by illusion, and able to objectively perceive pure Essence.
MEDITATION:
A need to work with the energies of Amprodias may be signaled by our experience of
sorrow at the cruelty of Nature, by our feeling of despair at its inherent
meaninglessness, and by our lacking of perspective and humor when faced with grim reality.
On the other end of the scale we may encounter in ourselves or others feelings of contempt
for the unenlightened masses, a detachment from ordinary human sorrows, and aloofness from
mundane concerns. Thus feeling bored, stuck, restless, and rootless, yet fearing change,
we feel apprehension of the future which results in blind clinging to the security of
mundane routine.
Too much unbalanced working
here may ultimately result in fragmentation of the ego, in brain-fevered deliriums,
perhaps addictions to hyped-up, hypertrophied manic states, which result in high blood
pressure, burn out, and exhaustion, especially of the type associated with the effects of
repeated extraterrestrial contacts upon the human nervous system.
Yet if
allowed to flow unimpeded by such destructive attitudes, the energy of this 11th Tunnel
accelerates our vibratory vitality, enabling us to glimpse alien consciousnesses resident
in parallel dimensions, operating at such velocities that we are normally unaware of their
existence. Through such accelerated vibratory consciousness, we achieve greatly heightened
powers of perception, giving insight into outré mathematics and alternative non-Euclidean
geometries and transdimensional realities.
In the Tunnel of Amprodias
we are able to mind-meld with transhuman entities, and to "speak in tongues. Here is
true laughter, which is the safeguard of sanity; here is healthy release of tension
through the bioenergetic circuit of excitation> tension> release> relaxation>
JOY! Here is freedom of thought, energy, courage, and the independence to pursue one's
Will.
