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The Psycho-Historic Mechanism of the Aeons, by Pete Carroll
(The Book of -ists and -isms)

A superficial examination of the paradigms which have dominated
aeons of cultural development indiicates that three major world
views have arisen to dominance in succession. These are the magical,
transcendental, and materialist paradigms. A simple picture of these
views rising successively to prominence has a certain descriptive
use but it lacks explanatory or predictive power and cannot account
for the persistence or resurgence of a particular paradigm at some
other point in cultural development. For this a more sophisticated
model is required which includes a consideration of the various
opposition philosophies which invariably complement the prevailing
cultural paradigm. If the linear time frame of materialism and
transcendentalism is combined with the cyclic or recurrent time
frame of magical philosophy a graph can be derived which represent
both the dominant and opposition paradigms in a form which exhibits
considerable explanatory and predictive power, the Psychohistoric
Model.

The Psychohistoric Model
(Imagine these curves round and smooth...)

Mat. .      .  *   .      .   +  .      .   -  .      .  *   .
(-)   -          *          +   +          -  -        *   *
       -    *      *      +       +      -     -      *      *
                        +          +   -        -
     .  - * .      . * +  .      .  +-  .      .  - * .      .
        *-           +              - +             -
          -         +  *           -   +          * -
Magic.*    -       +              -     +            -
(*)         .     +.     *.    - .      .+     .*     .      .
             -   +         *  -                       -      +
              - +            *            +   *        -    +
               -             - *           +            -
     .      .+   - .      .-    *.      .   +* .      .  -+  .
                  -                        *           +  -
           +       -      -       *      *    +       +    -
Trans.+   +          -  -           *  *        +   +        -
(+)  .  ++  .      .   -   .     .   *  .      .  +   .      .
      Animi- Spiri- Pagan   Mono- Athei- Nihil- Chaoi-  ???
      st     tist           theist st    ist    st
     .  SHAMANIC   .  RELIGIOUS  . RATIONALIST .  PANDEMON   .



This model is qualitative, a quantitative treatment would imply a
non-linear calibration of the time axis with dates specific to
particular cultures. At the time of writing, various human cultures
can  be identified as passing through a particular aeon and it can
be observed that cultures have varied considerably in the length of
time they have to progress from one aeon to the next. In cultures
where aeonic development has been rapid it is usual to find both
remnants of previous aeonic paradigms and evidence of impending
aeonic paradigms amongst various individuals and sub-cultures. This
is particularly noticeable in western industrial nations at the time
of writing. The ebb and flow of the magical, transcendental and
magical paradigms appears to be partly due to competition between
them and partly due to certain features of the paradigms themselves.
Each has a tendency to become an awesome tyranny at its zenith
whilst at its nadir its absence creates such difficulties that it
inevitably persists as a rediculed, barely tolerated, or outright
illegal opposition philosophy.

Each paradigm expresses itself with a particular physical
technology. Thus the shamanic aeon is characerised by hunter-
gatherer technologies, agrarian technologies characterize the
religious aeon and the rationalist aeon is characterized by
industrialism. The paradigm of the coming aeon will complement post
industrial cultures.

There seems little value in extrapolating the psycho-history model
backwards in time beyond the shamanic aeon for animistic beliefs
appear to characterize the earliest forms of anything that can be
called human culture. The aeons tend to divide quite neatly into two
smaller phases each as the paradigms underlying them gain or loose
ground relative to each other. The animist phase of the shamanic
aeon is dominated by magic and materialsm. Magic supplies the
insight that all phenomena embody a particular power or mana which
can be transfered or used to manipulate or anticipate the actions of
those phenomena. The system is a perfectly rational extrapolation
from the initial mana hypothesis and it is entirely empirical.
Certain magical procedures are performed and certain results usually
follow, apart from that the world is conceived in a simple
materialistic fashion, as it presents itself to the senses.
Transcendentalism plays no part in pure animism which has no
pretences beyond assisting its practioners through this life. There
would appear to be no purely animistic cultures left on this world
but anthropologists have observed a few remote cultures in the
spiritist phase of shamanism into which animism is prone to decay.
In this phase magical theory becomes baroque as the decline of
rational empiricism leads to a progressive divorce between magical
procedures and their desired effects. Magical theories and
procedures tend to proliferate for a time as their effects and
explanatory power become less certain. Thus ritual, myth, fetishism
and taboo come to the fore and begin to accrete transcendental
overtones.

...to be continued...

Pagan or polytheistic cultures arise with a more settled
agricultural and city state civilisation. Magical theories and
practices decline as the powers recognised in shamanism become
anthropomorphized into human deities, synonymous with an increasing
transcendentalism as the shamanic view of personal power becomes
elaborated into a personal soul. Ritual negotiation with the gods
comes to replace direct magical procedures. Materialism is largely
absent from pagan metaphysical thought wherein the world is
conceived in largely magical and transcendental terms. Such
technical progress as occurs develops on a trial and error basis and
any advances are more often given a mythological rather than a
rational interpretation. The limited materialist theorizing about
the world that does occur in pagan cultures invariably begins or
ends with mythic premises. It is frequently a proscribed activity
and not a few pagan philosophers paid dearly for their speculations
if their conclusions differs from priestly orthodoxy.

Paganism tends to decay into monotheism during the religious aeon as
magical theories are replaced by transcendental ones. A number of
factors are at work here. Monotheism equates with the growing sense
of individual self that transcendentalism stimulates. At the same
time monotheism readily allows for more widespread and effective
social control. It is also far easier to train a monotheistic
priesthood or maintain a monotheistic theocracy. For the magic often
expected of pagan priests is inherently difficult and unreliable
except in the most talented hands and is not generally expected of
monotheistic priests. As the monotheist phase progresses there is
some increment in materialistic theories of nature but except where
these are heavily circumscribed by theology such researches are
conducted at great peril. Indeed, because both material and magical
theories are in opposition to the prevailing orthodoxy, science and
sorcery are often inseperable both to their practioners and to the
priesthood which persecute them in this period. Peculiar hybrids of
materialism and magic such as alchemy are frequently found in
opposition to monotheism and magic often disguises itself as theurgy
partly as protective camouflage and partly out of pure metaphysical
confusion.

The gradual ascent of materialist philosophy towards the end of the
religious aeon is coupled with technological developments. These in
turn lead to a further decline in the mythical aspects of religion.
Thus in the first atheistic phase of the rationalist aeon
transcendental theories are giving ground to material ones. Such
cultures usually remain nominally monotheist as religion recedes in
the face of technological achievement and the ascendancy of material
descriptions of reality. Purely magical theories virtually disappear
during this phase although some spiritualist occultism often rears
its grotesque head. This phenomena bears little relationship to
magic. Any magic which manifests within it is explained away in
terms of the transcendental materialism of which spiritualism
consists. Freemasonry is characteristic of the increasing
materialism and declining transcendentalism of this sub-aeon. Whilst
nominally monotheistic, freemasonry seeks a mild transcendence
through reason in its virtual worship of the rational archtect of
the material universe. It is essentially a child of the old European
enlightenment and persists on a clubbish basis although its original
anti-clerical and anti-monarchist purposes are long forgotten. The
philosophies of humanism, communism and capitalism also have their
roots in the material transcendentalism of this aeon.

Atheism is prone to decay into nihilism as the rationalist aeon
progresses. Transcendentalism becomes progressively less sustainable
as a world view whilst the explanatory and technical power of
materialism grows. As the materialist paradigm peaks it becomes
sterile and tyrannical in its attempt to quantify all things in
material terms. At the time of writing, many of the world's current
problems are due to large segments of the dominant Western culture
entering their nihilist phase. The initial optimism of capitalism,
science and socialism is fading as faith in the products of these
systems diminishes and no alternatives seem to present themselves as
we accelerate into global ecological squalor.

...to be continued...

Magic and transcendentalism exist in opposition to the dominant
materialist paradigm and often become confused for this reason, much
as magic and science were often confused together in their
opposition to monotheism in the religious aeon. Magical theories
tend to proliferate partly in response to the tyranny of materialism
and partly because although materialism is self evidently
incomplete, the holes cannot be patched with a transcendentalism
that is tinged with increasing absurdity. Thus in opposition to
nihilistic materialism we find the remains of a monotheistic
transcendentalism which we find the remains of a monotheistic
transcendentalism which is on the way out and a purely magical view,
manifesting, for example, in the growth of parapsychology, which is
on the increase. Strange admixtures of magic and transcendentalism
in various proportions arise at this time. Neo-paganism, witchcraft
and white light occultism are characteristic rebel philosophies
during the cultural dominance of nihilism. Charismatic revival
movements on the fringes of a decaying monotheism attempt to
perceive and invoke the supposed magical powers of their deities in
an immediate way to bolster a transcendentalism which is inexorably
fading into obscurity. Similarly in the initial phase of the revival
of magic, transcendental or neo-religious themes tend to become
mixed with magic. However the psycho-history model predicts that
they will part company and that the surviving magical traditions
will be those with no religious components. The model further
predicts that the nihilist phase of the rationalist aeon will give
way to a new aeon in which the relative strengths of the three
paradigms will be in a similar configuration to that of the shamanic
aeon. Materialist and magical beliefs will dominate the culture of
the new aeon initially and then magic alone will come to dominate.
The new aeon has been dubbed the Pandaemonaeon and its first phase
the Chaoist sub-aeon in recognition of the non transcendental magic-
materialist theories which will characterize it.

From the standpoint of the popular rational materialism which
dominates the nihilist phase it may appear absurd that the
philosophy of magic will arise first to complement and then surpass
that of science and materialism. However the most advanced
scientific theories are already beginning to exhibit magical
features in their new descriptions of reality. Both in particle
physics and cosmogenesis a fundamental acausality, indeterminacy and
observer dependence is now ascribed to reality. These are, properly
speaking, magical theories, not material ones. It also appears that
in biology, psychology and medicine materialist theories of strict
causality must give ground to some form of emergent vitalism for
organisms are evidently more than the sum of their parts. This
co-emergent vital principle or morphic field is equivalent to the
intrinsic power or mana of magical theory.

The prevailing orthodoxy of the coming chaoist age will represent
something of a truce between magic and science; although the magical
aspects may take on heavy scientific camouflage first to make them
more acceptable. Transcendental theories will virtually disappear
and magical phenomena will no longer be acknowledged as proof of
anything spiritual. The word "God" will be both objectively and
subjectively meaningless except to a few cliques and cranks;
although towards the end of the pandaemonaeon new forms of magical
transcendentalism will arise but it would be premature to speculate
on their precise manifestation. The model does not predict the
nature of the characteristic post-industrial technology of the
impending aeon. The decline of materialistic theories throughout the
aeon does not in itself imply the loss of advanced technology. As
technology becomes progressively more complex and less
comprehensible there is a tendency to conceive of it and use it as
though it were a magical phenomenon. Devices incorporating quantum
mechanical or direct psi-interactive components may well make any
distinction between magical and material systems meaningless in any
case. So the impending pandaemonaeon may be characterized by an
extremely complex yet rationally incomprehensible high technology.
Alternatively the model will equally well accommodate a post
catastrophe technology sufficient to support a new hunter gatherer
tribalized society resembling the first shamanic aeon when the
relative strengths of the paradigms were similar. At the time of
writing it is too early to speculate on the character of the second
phase of the pandaemoneaon which has been left nameless. It remains
to be seen whether humanity will spend this phase out amongst the
stars or squabbling over tinned food in the smoking ruins. Yet any
credible form of stellar travel will have to be based on principles
more akin to those currently under investigation in magic than in
science. Some form of machine enhanced teleportation might suffice,
reaction-thrust vehicles plainly will not.

...to be continued...

The magician's stance towards the aeonic cycle depends on his
attitude towards change. Progress is merely the mechanism whereby
humanity exchanges one set of problems for another, often larger,
set. To campaign for or against change is necessarily to draw
oneself into strive and conflict. Yet it seems that by nature we
find it more stimulating to engage in turmoil and contention than to
abstain. The advantages of having history on one's side are that one
may enjoy the company of radical rather than conservative minds and
one may even enjoy the satisfaction of being proved right in one's
lifetime. The satisfactions afforded by the defense of orthodoxy and
the bittersweet appeal of vainglorious defeat should not, however,
be underestimated. Politics, being a mere squabble over the
secondary codification of the primary values of a society, has
little effect on the aeonic cycle. All it can do is effect the
timing. Democracy for example is entirely due to industrialism,
military technology and the weaking of monotheism; it is not
something which arises out of politics itself, nor is it by any
means the ultimate form of social organisation. If there is a tide
in the affairs of men then it is caused by deep changes in our views
of self and reality and politics are mere eddies and ripples on its
surface.

Armed with the Psycho-historic model of aeonic change the magician
can readily see what factors he should work on to hasten impede or
reverse aeonic development in a particular culture or sub-culture.
For example it is necessary to encourage both materialism and
transcendentalism and to undermine magical theories when engaged in
monotheistic missionary work with pagans. Conversely to help combat
the effects of such missionary work or to revive a pagan cabal
within a monotheist or atheist culture one should do just the
opposite. However, one hopes that the primary concern for
contemporary magi is to ensure the safe and speedy birth of the
pandaemonaeon from within nihilist culture. To assist in this
transition, magical philosophy must strive for three things.
Firstly, it must strive to eliminate any remaining transcendental or
religious concepts which still contaminate it. These are destined
for the dustbin of history for a long while and when they eventually
re-emerge it will be in a completely different form anyway. No
useful part of magic ought to be thrown away with them. Secondly, it
must seek to present its ideas and techniques using maximum
camouflage. Magic must enter popular consciousness using a series of
Trojan horses. Thirdly, as a precautionary measure magic should
attempt to undermine the decaying remnants of monotheism without
offering itself as a target in the process. For example,
parapsychology presents an enormous and unacknowledged threat to
fundamentalism; although the existence of various idiotic satanisms
is surely a great comfort to it.

Dangerous times lie ahead. Millennial apocalyptic beliefs present in
monotheism may still yet trigger disaster during the death spasms of
transcendentalism. A fierce rearguard action may be expected from
materialist philosophies as they slide further into a nihilism whose
adherents will, for a while, demand ever more of what is not
working, ever more luxury and sensationalism in an ecology unable to
support it. The birth of the pandaemonaeon as a generally accepted
paradigm could be a long and bloody business. If things go badly it
could be preceded by a catastrophe which precipitates us into a new
stone age rather than an interstellar age. Although there will be
important niches for magicians in either situation, I would prefer
my descendants to perform their sorceries amongst the stars, rather
than huddled in the ruins.

Appendix
Eastern Traditions in the Psycho-Historic Model

The origins of Buddhism lie in rebellious speculation during the
late pagan sub aeon in the orient. Similar developments during the
first millennium B.C. led to Taoism in China and certain allied
pre-Socratic speculations in Greek civilisation, notably those of
Heraclitus of Ephesus. The core principles of these essentially
non-theistic metaphysical systems have some relevance to an emerging
magico-meterialist synthesis. However, during their subsequent
histories, both Taoism and Buddhism have been heavily coloured by
competing philosophies whilst the Heraclitian philosophy has faded
into obscurity. Taoism has exhibited a strong tendency to regress
into mere superstitious ritual whilst Buddhism has, at times,
appeared in monotheistic guise with the Buddha as a de facto God. At
others it has presented itself as a form of virtual paganism
overlaid with abstruse transcendental theories, whilst the Zen
manifestation of Buddhism attempts to recover the original teachings
by severe austerity measures. In Tibet the fusion of Buddhism with
indigenous Shamanic traditions has led to a graded system of beliefs
called Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism. At various levels this
incorporates features from most of the aeons. Within it one can find
sorcery, shamanism, polytheism, transcendental monotheism, doctrines
of material causality and nihilism. It is presumably the benign
ethical system developed in response to the harsh Himalayan
environment which has prevented any one of these traditions from
violently asserting itself over its rivals. The rigours of climate
and geography seem to have the development of a high technology; yet
the monastic tradition and the endless winters allowed the flowering
of an extraordinary culture in which the influence of all the aeons
exists simultaneously to some degree.

