Dear Curators,
I will not divulge my identity for my own protection. The public uttering of some concepts can lead to social ostracization and attract those best avoided. It is enough to tell you that I am a Professor of Late Antiquity at a small liberal arts college in the American Northeast. As such, it was natural that I came across your website, with writings about the good King Sigmus.
I write you because of what you describe in the leaves of the Book of Sorren and throughout your website. It has been called many things over the millennia: the collective unconscious, enlightenment, the dream of Aristarchus, sympathetic magic. These describe a form of time travel, or, more accurately, a travel outside of time into the realm of essence and insight. You see, the human brain is a complicated system of chemical pathways, electric circuitry, and other universal elements. This system can be acted upon … but the world is much more mysterious than we understand and explanations do not lend themselves well to a reductionist scientific method only several centuries old.
We do not understand the nature of dreams, let alone dreams within dreams, or deeper. What I do believe from my studies, however, is that for at least a thousand years, men have sought to understand and control dreams. There was once an order of alchemists that sought not to transform lead into gold, but to transform their minds, seeking to find and bind the wisdom that can only be found in the collective unconscious. The most expedient method of tapping into this “secondary structure of consciousness,” as you discuss in the Twenty-First Leaf, is within dreams. This wisdom can typically only come in a dream, because dreams allow us to see in metaphor and abstraction without our central nervous system rejecting the experience. With this sympathetic magic, you can hear the Sound of the World. You can speak with ancestors across what you previously thought of as time. You can experience the archetypal, as you identify in the Eighth Leaf, and feel the pulsation of humanity, a rhythm described by Sigmus in the Forty-Fourth Leaf. Or so I have read.
To achieve this state, an Angel Kiss -- a key -- is required. Such a kiss can come in different ways, but does not lend itself to replicable scientific creation, despite the experimentation of these alchemists with ever more complicated machinations, bio-chemical concoctions (including with insect exoskeletons, as you discussed), and paganistic rituals. It may be that such a key can only be created through deep introspection, toil, and an open heart. Perhaps the old man in the Manx woods who first granted the Book sensed that Sorren was endowed with the “empathetic energy” necessary to imbue the book with sympathetic magic, in order create a portal to the collective unconscious. Was he a self-interested alchemist or charitable sage? It is impossible to know. What I do know is that Sorren eventually received (or more accurately, earned) the kiss. As did Sigmus. As did M. As did K. And, now, it appears to be happening to D, and perhaps others.
I do not think this experience is something to be condemned or feared, although it can be harrowing to experience the essence of humanity. In the Twenty-First Leaf you describe the Book transferring sickness over time, but I think you now see that it is also transferring truth, which can be overwhelming and socially destructive. As K points out in his last podcast, clarity can often appear as madness, which is why D was concerned. It is, however, vital that you protect your understanding of yourself and humanity gleaned from such dreams. Yes, aspects of humanity are vile, selfish, macabre, and numb, but, compassion, ingenuity, curiosity, hope, filiality, camaraderie, and passion pale them.
You must defend this wisdom from oblivion and those who would misuse it. When you have knowledge, such as M’s knowledge of the Sound of the World, beasts from the mists emerge to take it. You must be a shepherd of that knowledge. M chose K because he was strong and inquisitive, and would pour his blood and sweat into the Book, unlock the sympathetic magic, and join the fight. K has done well to choose D as his companion in this endeavor.
I commend you both for your bravery in the face of inner turmoil and external pressure. As far as I know, this ancient order of alchemists no longer exists, but the nature of man is to control and consume, so I urge you to remain vigilant.
Be well,
A Friend