The Reification of Time - II
Space and time are merely tools – techniques for organizing cognition – which evolved as sentient beings evolved. Just as the sense of vision is a cognitive tool which evolved as animals evolved; and visual acuity is more pronounced in predatory animals such as eagles than it is in e.g. blind cave fish; so too are the sense of space and time cognitive tools which are sharper (more highly evolved) for humans than for “lower” animals. The belief that they are centered in space and time enables beings to focus attention upon one thing at a time instead of everything at once. What time really is, is not how we perceive it to be in our normal, everyday consciousness. Although human perception and cognition make sense to humans, the universe itself doesn’t make sense in the way that humans believe. There is no space or time out there.
Where materialistic science sees time as linear, magic sees time as rhythmic. Materialistic science measures points and intervals along a well-ordered continuum, whereas magical science measures cycles upon cycles. This is what astrology is all about: the moment of birth can be viewed as a point along a linear continuum, as it is in materialistic science; or, conversely, it can be viewed as a stage in the unfoldment of potentialities on various levels – i.e. as the intersection of many different interpenetrating cycles, as it is in astrology. It is more accurate to describe time as an emanation of birth – death – rebirth. The so-called real number system has no model in nature: the universe is not continuous, but rather explodes into being and dissolves into nothingness with every passing instant of “time”. What we take to be linear time is but a fragmentary way of apprehending and dealing with this phenomenon, which has evolved in tandem with human consciousness.
While animals are vaguely aware of the passage of time – i.e. while animals also organize their cognition temporally – animal consciousness is far less focused than human consciousness. Animals have far less sense of being separated individuals than humans have – they have less awareness of a separated self, are less “there” than humans feel themselves to be; and as a result their experience of time is less “there” as well. We humans – especially we modern humans, are in a big hurry. Being in a big hurry is how we define ourselves. “We” are something that is in a big hurry; being in a big hurry is what “we” are made out of. Linear time is a completely human invention, like golf or the latest Paris fashions – a set of rules which have no reference to anything outside of human experience. Linear time is predicated on linear thinking. When linear thinking stops – when the constant internal dialogue which most people engage in from the minute they awaken to the minute they go to sleep ceases – then so too does linear time.
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