Alchemy - a Language for Emergence

I had determined to go as far as declaring in abstruse and puzzling utterances the future causes of the 'common advent', even those truly cogent ones that I have foreseen. Yet lest whatever human changes may be to come should scandalise delicate ears, the whole thing is written in nebulous form, rather than as a clear prophecy of any kind - Nostradamus - Letter from Salon to his son Cesar (March 1555)

Index

Elements - kinds of relationship

Elements - kinds of paradox

The Example of Numbers

Alchemy - changes and more emergence

Four Titans

The Alchemy of Emergence

Mandala - a map of all possibilities

Constructing the Mandala Zodiac - why it has to be this way

The Modes of the Zodiac - why they differ

Elements - kinds of relationship

A relationship is a virtual connection that exists between any two nodes that have some sameness and some difference. A relationship forms a vector between the nodes, which may align with existing dimensions or cause novel dimensions to emerge. Also any relation defines the potential for an orthogonal dimension that may, or may not, emerge as an actual dimension.

There are four possible types of fundamental relationship, each of which forms a distinct ontological category, and I find that equating each to one of the Pl;atonic elements works well, in many ways, not least in giving an easy label with which to refer to the relationship. The possible relationships are:

Fire - Objective similarity, wholeness, facts, truth, numbers, laws, shared awareness, connection, love.
Earth - Objective difference, parts, reality, space, mass, energy.
Air - Subjective difference, change, messenger particles [photons/light], sensation, mind, icons, consciousness.
Water - Subjective similarity, individual, self, emotion, heart, attitude, self-awareness.

Using the Platonic elements to label the fundamental relationship types is exactly like labelling the 'charge' properties of gluons as red, green, and blue. There is no actual colour to gluons, but there are three states, so RGB makes a convenient and useful way of referring to something that otherwise would be too abstract and cumbersome to manage smoothly. Fire, Earth, Air and Water, all act in the same way in relationg , but also, I think that these relationships exactly match what the ancients were referring to, even though they didn't know it, and they certainly match how the elements have come to be used in Astrology, even though most modern astrologers would not realise this.

A relational state is mode that has certain features, and those features are properties that lead to specific behaviours that are consequences of the paradoxical nature of each state. Because paradox is not well tolerated by anything, paradox has a tendency to causal of change.

Elements - kinds of paradox

Each of the four possible types of relationhip come about as a consequence of paradox, of one kind or another. Each paradox produces a new type of emergent existence, and each is based on a mathematical transformation that creates new dimensions by rotation and reflection. Reflections create extrinsic dimensions, but after 3 reflections a rotation must occur, and the rotation is a transformation inwards, creating intrinsic dimensions.

Fire - Factuality is everything that has been - the orthodox consequences of every paradox - History, the Past. But facts are formed both by things that are, and yet are different, this lead to hyperdox in demand of some kind of resolution, and resolution presents hypodox because each potential resolution presents a choice that is different from other possibilities, and the choice emerges orthogonal to the hyperdox, as relations between the different possibilities.
Earth - Reality is the space forming separation that results from hyperdox.
Air - Causality at Tier 1, Mentality at Tier 2, is the action of hypodox, where the under-determined nature of air allows change and the formation of patterns and holograms.
Water - Personality, the consequence of partial definition is anodox, the definition of that which is not. Overall the product of rearranging and recreating the parts of self is to redefine the whole as the subjective fact. The subjective then becomes objective by addition to the realm of facts as shared awareness. The big difference between the water of self-awareness, and the fire of collective awareness, is hinted at by Sartre's Huis Clos/No Exit - Hell is not just other people, but the people we are connected to by sameness.

The Example of Numbers

The facts of the matter are truths about things, whole things - even when they are parts of other things, and facts may unite or differentiate, by being of similarity or difference. From these concepts it is not too difficult to see that elemental fire corresponds to not just the laws of Nature, but specifically all quantum laws [as opposed to theories which are human understanding of Nature's laws], and all classical laws. Fire exists as the numbers and the rules that derive from those numbers.

The realities of the matter are always derived from the truths about things, from the elemental fire, and that is what then gives elemental earth when the facts differentiate between one another. In this regard numbers are both fire and earth, in that every number that exists is whole in itself - is a fact - and every number that exists is real in that it is different from each other number. Numbers are unique, but in Virtualism each number that exists also has an internal structure that is all numbers that exist. This must be so; in order that numbers behave as numbers; but also because of the manner in which numbers come into Existence.

The internal structure of any number, being all numbers [at least of the same kind, or containable kind], forms the internal parts of that number, and internal parts are defined as elemental air. For flat numbers the elemental air is identical with the fire of the external facts of those numbers. So we see that there is a fundamental dual nature to numbers that means that they are both quantum and classical in nature. Flat numbers are unique in that their individuality is entirely derived externally, from the relationships that they have to other numbers. NB. In Virtualism all integers are flat, and may also be square etc. while primes are just a subset of flat numbers.

The complement of any number is defined both by what it is, and by what it is not. From this we get elemental water, the element that gives us the subjective fact of the number, which being a number is also an objective fact and so is also elemental fire. However, the possibility of a different internal truth, or fact, for the flat numbers, gives rise to the possibility of square numbers for all non-primes. So while 3 must be flat, and forces a flat 4 into Existence, that 4 has a potential to be square; a probability of some internal structure uniquely its own, and so notably unlike the facts of the flat numbers.

When the internal facts of such square numbers are shared, they become more than simple individuality, there then exists a shared nature that brings us back to elemental fire. So it is that the square in 4 also exists as a square in 8, when 8 attains the state of being cubic.

All this preamble about numbers, is to explain by example the circular nature of elements, and why elements and alchemy are useful tools for explaining the functioning of Emergence.

Alchemy - changes and more emergence

Change means a change in relationship, i.e. in all but the first instance, there must be an initial state [relationship], and then a subequent state, so every change is either within the same kind of relationship type, or to one of the other three; there is no other possibility. A change in elemental type is obviously an alchemy, albeit this was never how Paracelsus could have thought of it.

Neither should we be distracted by ideas of Hegelian synthesis, nor even the Marxist view of exchange as unity having foreground, background, and tension, although that comes closer. Rather, what is under consideration is every potential manner in which one thang may transmute into another thing as a process of emergence. That is, one thing, in being acted upon, emerges as a part of some new thing, as some changed thing.

The actual process of alchemy may appear to be a claim for magic, for 'woo', but this is not really the case. What is claimed is that whenever a change occurs; there is a thing changing and a cause of change, i.e. two things in combination, and those two things may be of any of the four abstract types - any of the four elements, but each will either have come from somewhere, or will be going somewhere, i.e. both cause and result are processes of becoming; that is, the change is actually composed of two changes, the change that is the cause, and the change that is the result.

If A' is the cause, A being the causal object, and B' the result, with B being the result object, we can see that A' may be a change that is either the whole of A changing because of external rearrangement, or because of internal rearrangement, i.e. because of a gravitation or momentum change; a change we could call first order, or second order. Also, the change could be mediated by a particle such as a photon, i.e. A loses or gains a quantum particle, typically the numerical values of a photon.

Macroscopic change is underpinned by microscopic change, i.e. when a big [compound] thing changes, it is the same as all its parts changing. From an abstract perspective, i.e. considering the abstracts, it does not matter what the scale is, the abstraction is always of the abstract types, whether a single particle is involved, or millions are transferred.

Four Titans

There are four fundamental Titans that come from the root elemental order, and each of which is elemental change - an alchemy. Together they produce a cycle that is inherent in all life. It may be tempting to see the Titans as identical with the elements, but this would be a mistake, because everything is about change, even the past - which only exists virtually, but also recedes, gaining the perspective of smallness. The Titans have more in common with some of the twelve planets, however titans have a universal quality that should really be seen as creating elements, or rather the process of changing from one pure element to another, a process that creates quadrants; Titans run clockwise, while signs run counter-clockwise.

Another way in which to consider Titans is as the product of twoness, upon which the product of threeness builds to become signs. That is, there are four Titans because of two dualities - those of whole and part, and those of inner and outer. That gives four possibilities. NB. Whatever they are, just like the gods they are not personalities.

The theology of the gods evolved throughout history, and I see no reason to suppose that the Ancient Greeks had necessarily to have had the last word on the matter. Although, because they observed the gods through people, they did come pretty close to what I'd consider to be true.

The four fundamentals, the Titans, forerunners to the gods, are as follows. NB. I have indicated their similarties in terms of mythology, as I see them, but these are not 'standard' attributions.

The point is that these four Titans, represent the fundamental changes that bring about the four quadrants, the four realms of exitence. Each occurs out of necessity due to the resolution of some paradox occurring in the immediately prior ream. Thus it is that the four Titans have an order of priority .

From Water to Fire - Creation - Gaia - like Venus

From any void comes the emergence of something. This is the defining of existence as truth - whatever is true must start to exist as true facts, and these are the eternal spirit of all things.

Leads to an ontology - a state of being, of being factual. The paradox that leads to this is the monodox of non-being, and then the anodox of defined non-being, both of which paradoxically add to the factuality of being.

From Fire to Earth - Necessity - Pluto - Hades

From truth follows necessity, the way that the effect of truth is to produce laws of the nature of things - literally the laws of nature, of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology. All become necessary based on the facts of what has emerged.

Leads to a realology - a state of being real that derives from the hyperdox of number that necesitates boost and separation. Earth is the reality of difference.

From Earth to Air - Change - Saturn - Chronos

Whenever anything changes, some thing produced from the laws of its nature transfers from one object to another object, producing change.

Leads to an iconology - a state of being information, literally the inner formation of some thing's parts. Not just how the parts relate toone another, but also how they relate externally. The information may be replicated on any subtrate, not just in reality, but as icons that form mind. Icons may be produced by any machinery capable of creating wholes, and with the right connections can form a mind as we know it.

From Air to Water - Possibility - Rhea - The Moon

Whenever anything changes, it changes in itself, creating some new possibility as a potential. It may not yet have form, nor substance, but it has the silhouette of a shape, from which emergence can occur. The space so formed is essential for the informational form to permit rearrangement.

Leads to an ipsisology - a state of being hollow, of defined void. Being able to forget is essential to being able to change, whether for better or for worse.

Fire

Fire is a whole relating externally through sameness, in much the same way that all numbers are in some ways the same as all other numbers, enabling mathematics to take place. Fire means facts, specifically objective facts; these can be numbers, or the laws of nature, or quantum wave functions, or more emergent wholes such as the qualia of consciousness [once they have become objective awareness]. In short, fire is oneness. It may change as fire, or to earth, air, or water:

Fire to fire

- Maybe this should be considered last, but for now it seems like no change, but properly this is a change to a fact such that everything must conform to that change. i.e. the whole is now a new whole. If we were considering pure fire, we would be talking about numbers ticking; about a new integer coming into existence, that consequentially changes every number. If we were considering a macro-level object - fire compounded from other things - we'd be saying that the facts about some object were changing. The kind of object under scrutiny may vary, but the fire is its factuality, its ideal in an Aristotelian sense. If we consider a history, we may better see how this works:

When the Roman Empire collapsed, at some point Rome ceased to be the ruling power in Britain. No material change would immediately be felt, but at that point the facts would have changed for Rome, so the facts would have changed for Britain. This is fire changing fire - at a macro scale. That click of numbers, that is also time emerging as a universal truth. An inescapable fact.

Fire to earth

- When numbers change - grow - an extra division emerges in the whole, causing each and every thing, everywhere, to move on. This is the relentless push of the bow of time. Properly speaking, nothing changes, but everything changes to adopt a new position in regard to every other thing. One consequence for objects with mass is that gravity occurs, i.e. their imaginary boost causes their new relative positions to be affacted as by the laws of General Relativity. This is not just gravity according to Einstein, but momentum as per Newton. In fact, this explains Newtons laws of motion, and their application to the orbits of planets around the Sun, modified by Einstein's laws when as close as is Mercury.

Fire to air

- When numbers change, all of the internal parts must also change. Just as gravity affects massive objects, because of change, someting similar affects internal parts, at a human level the body and mind. But the body is objectively real, hence earth, so it is a different kind of change that occurs, mediated through photons [generally], and in people that equates to electrical activity, and that has the capacity to cause mind to emerge, through the activity of the brain [and nervous system]. NB. while material objects may also contain information, that information is not subject to the same effects of time. The photons do not really exist, they emerge, the same as time, but coming from subjective changes to objective things, i.e. from internal changes to real objects. Brain activity is real [subject to time], and objective [measurable], but mind that emerges from the patterns of brain activity, while also real [subject to time] is not objectively measurable, except by inference.

Fire to water

- When numbers change it is not just the mind that changes; its totality that is the self also changes

Earth

Earth is a relationship of difference, so between two things, so earth is a relationship that is duality.

Earth to earth

The change of earth to earth is a change of rotation to the imaginary dimension that equates to an increase or decrease in boost, accompanied by a change in differences which corresponds to a change in position.

Earth to air

- When differences change.

Earth to water -

Earth to fire -

Air

Air is a relationship of inner difference, it is subjective, but also it is a multiplicity, because there may be many parts that are internal to any whole thing. The thing to appreciate about the relationships of air is that they are not reality, otherwise they'd be earth. Rather they are the building blocks of the conscious self - icons [in the religious sense] of objects that may themselves be of any elemental kind. Thus air is the realm of ideas and information.

Air to air

Air to water

- When icons change

Air to fire - .

Air to earth -

Water

Water is a silhouette, rather than a photographic negative. It is an empty space that has shape, for which something specific will be the perfect fit. These can be seen best in the illustrations of Arthur Rackham's Sleeping Beauty, that influenced the final credits of the film Enchanted. Water is both the vessel and the vestibule, both the cup and the cavity, the space contained by the cup. As such, any change to water is a change to what is, a change to the subjective self of the entity. That means a change to its heart, to its centre of being. I am not talking of merely a spatial change, or change to the material parts of anyone, or anything, rather a change to the virtual nature of the internal arrangement of the thing, such that the heart itself is altered.

Water to water

- When emptiness changes due to some other emptiness, there is a

Water to fire - When emptiness changes to truth we get the equivalent of passing Go in Monopoly, a new turn around the board collecting some novel thing to fill the gap created by our individuality. It is arguable that as Sartre argued with the Look, we can only do this with the presence of otherness to define the heart of what we are individually. That is, we can only form a centre within our self, a heart in the water, in relation to something external that defines our abstract shape by being something that we are not. This is a long-winded way of saying opposites attract - they are not really opposite, but are different.

Water to earth

-

Water to air

- .

The Alchemy of Emergence

Whenever incompatibilities are forced together, then something new must emerge, so each alchemical step in the Mandala can only change when confronted by some thing of a different nature, otherwise the elemental pattern is not challenged, no paradox occurs, and if any change does occur it is just more of the same. This is the explanation of the difference between strong/hard emergence, and weak/soft emergence, i.e. paradox forces something new to exist, but hard emergence requires that the element type changes, and that hard case is identical with the changes associated with chakras and planets.

The alchemy of change is just the patterns of abstraction that emerge from ordinary life, but the labels used are sometimes the names of planets, and sometimes the names of chakras. In essence these are the same thing. So, the function that is labelled planet may occur in a number of ways, but elementally it can only add to what exists, and can only do so by the action of the thing that is being added.

The examples of alchemy are properly described by astrological terminology, i.e. as transits, although for now I am attempting to piggyback on the terminology, without the baggage that comes with that territory. Indulge me, please.

Follow this link for the academic paper on Emergence that I submitted for publication in a proper academic journal.

Paradox as the Engine of Strong Emergence

Mandala - a map of all possibilities

A note on tradition: The elements were only incorporated into Astrology and applied to the signs of the Zodiac in the Roman period of Ptolemy, for the Babylonians who originated Astrology two thousand years earlier, there were no elements, but they divided their twelve signs across their four neighbouring countries, three signs for each, and joined each group of three signs by the qualities of the equilateral triangle and its 120 division of the circle.

Also, it is worth noting that in both Vedic and Harmonic Astrology there is a system that divides the Zodiac into nine groups of twelve, which therefore divides each sign by nine, a feature that will become more relevant as we go on.

Nevermind what colours are chosen for each element, each element can be treated a little like a numeral, a digit really, and so a kind of numeric code can be built, counting to a base four instead of base ten. Just as every 0 - 9 gives another 10 [as 10, 20, 30 etc.] each Fire to Water gives another emergent layer of elements. The difference between numbers and elements, as each emerges, is that numbers are all pretty much the same, while elements, being relationships, cannot be treated exactly like numbers. The main thing is that more of the same kind of element is just more of the same, it does not create the paradox that produces emergence. Hence we end up with a model that only gains a new layer with elements that are different from the previous layer, i.e. Fire can only emerge into Earth, Air and then Water, otherwise we'd just have more Fire.

All of that means that with four elements we gain three emergent possibilities from any given element, if there is to be some kind of change going on. Therefore, dividing one element by three at each layer gives all the possible outcomes as an elemental code. This code can be used to produce a kind of fractal-like image that maps all the possible emergent relationship permutations, leaving no room for anything to be omitted. The fractal could even be called a Julia Set, because the repeated pattern that emerges has a circularity or spin, that repeats in the same way throughout the image. That all makes the Mandala, as I call it, a map of all possible abstract relationships. That makes it a map of the facts of Existence, which really is a map of Heaven, or as I'd like to think, the Djeser Djeseru - the Holy of Holies, the Holy Grail.

Constructing the Mandala Zodiac - why it has to be this way

Because the Mandala is an image of all abstract possibilites, it is also an image of the Zodiac, and from it we can see how the Zodiac should properly be constructed and interpreted. Also, we can see that it can only be constructed in this specific manner, if it is to avoid gaining or losing some of its abstract meaning along the way [gaining in this context would mean repetition of some sort, because the method already caters for all possibilities.]

Because I came to this via Astrology, I am starting the explanation of the construction with the elemental pattern of the twelve zodiac signs, using the colours red for Fire, yellow for Earth, blue for Air, and green for Water. The order of the elements has to be that, otherwise the elements would not be ordered in the same manner as which they emerge in practice. Each sign has 30 degrees, because we have a tradition of 360 degrees to a circle - probably from counting with 5 fingers on one hand and 12 knuckles on the other, combined with 365.25 days in a year and 13 lunar months, all being rounded down. From the perspective of the Mandala, base 3 would be an easier counting system, leading to 324 degrees in a circle and 27 in each sign. NB. This is not base 4 as per four elements, but base 3 for the three different elements at each new level.

The Mandala maps the paths from the fundamental to the particular, and from the group to the individual. In all of this we need to bear in mind that the emergent Mandala is a 2D image of something that on the one hand becomes evermore complex, as each level builds on and adds dimension to the preceding layers, but also that properly speaking the whole image is an inversion of what is, i.e. that Existence is fundamentally a whole, and that all parts of existence are necessarily internal to Existence. Still, if we remember this, the flat image provides a good guide to all possibilities, so is actually a very useful tool.

Working backwards from the twelve zodiac signs, we see the foundational quadrants formed from each pure element. These have to be ordered as they are, otherwise they would not match the four groups of three signs, and those signs must each be different from the root quadrant that they emerge from, otherwise no emergence would be taking place. The quadrants could be thought of as titanic in nature, while each sign can be thought of as like an Olympic god. Where quadrants are akin to the seasons, i.e. are broad but simple categories that are there in everything, so affecting atoms to whole species, smaller sector are not really smaller, but are more highly dimensional, so become more specific and detailed, hence signs are more like the very large groups of nations, or even multinational organisations, large, yet simple, while much smaller sectors might be like a human brain, smaller but much more complex in nature. In the full Mandala I also like to include the Yin Yang Taijitu , just as a reminder that all things are mixes of all elements.

But this is running ahead of ourselves. The initial disc is just the 2D flat circle that emerges from the number line, and has no other dimension because no other dimension has yet emerged. The circle is formed by both extrinsic reflection of the number line, as far as it goes, and intrinsic rotation of every part in the number line into the modal state allowed by the reflection. The initial 2D structure is described loosely by those words, and more precisely but no more completely, by the mathematical rotation mapped by complex numbers and Euler's Identity. NB. Nature does not use mathematics, Nature creates mathematics from these raw constituents that start with a simple non-descript partitioning of being, and emerge as more complex inevitible natural constructs. Yet the modal states described by the flat circle embody all four paradoxical ontologies, that together form a 360 degree process of rotating the elementary being of the number line to form extrinsic emergent area, emergent subtraction as change, emergent inverted area as demergent or intrinsic, and emergent addition as the completion of the turn. The circle is in fact a process.

At this point, it serves to recap why paradox is causing these states to be, and how each kind of paradox acts of necessity to bring each state about: The anodox of nothingness defines and is defined by the orthodox state of being, but between them the hyperdox of their relationship is more than unity, and defines the hypodox of potential for a dimension to emerge between non-being and being. That first dimension is the number line, which never resolves but must always increase, yet as a dimension it must also define the potential of an orthogonal dimension, the hypodox possibility of which must be filled in a probabilistic manner by those natural numbers that are capable by virtue of not being prime.

The circle can be considered a turning, but the concept of into and out of do not properly apply to a 2D world, there being such a symmetry to the entire state of 2D area. But the next emergent consequence moving on from 2D is the 3D world of volume and a variety of Euclidean objects, sometimes thought of as ideal Platonic facts. However, the 3D world emerges by reflection that can be considered extrinsic to the first quadrant as fact, and it is the intrinsic turn of the circle that is forced by the 4D reflection becoming a turning into volume, due to the reduced 3D nature of 4D objects, in comparison to their solely 3D counterparts. The natural 4D hypersphere has a radius half that of an ordinary 3D sphere, and so its 3D shadow is smaller than its own corresponding 3D state, paradoxically causing some numbers to form a hyperdox modal state that requires the 3D to intrinsically rotate into themselves, forming an emergent 4D state of boosted reality. Continuing this novel rotation brings 3D being to each mode of the 2D circle, altering the possibilities of rotation to a 720 degree non-commutative range that describes multiple different pathways around the 3D sphere. Because of all of this we see the four quadrants of the 2D sphere extend as 12 emergent states, composed of the potential inherent in each mode as it emerges extrinsically as higher dimensional states that I refer to as signs, this being in keeping with the description of elements, and the Mandala forming what I would call a rational zodiac. This may be a contentious move for some, but I regard it as essential for understanding Emergence properly. Consider this, if suffering from doxastic anxiety; astronomers perpetuate the tradition of constellations; this part of defining a rational zodiac makes no claims for astrology, only that this is a useful and coherent method of description that in following rules allows some reasonable extrapolation.

Note also that the elemental sequence of signs forms a counterclockwise sequence for the elements. This is not strictly necessary, as the whole Mandala represents an abstraction that is not guaranteed to be circular even. However, this way of laying out the sectors allows a continuity of elemental order at each level of emerging states, one that causes the extending mandala to emulate mazes as found in many cultures worldwide.

12 Signs

Firstly it is important to grasp that the move to a new sector does not represent the emergence of a novel dimension. Q1 as the first sector establishes 3 dimensions from a null Q4 that has zero dimensions initially. The 4 quadrants are drawn to emerge clockwise, but the 12 signs, that could also have been drawn clockwise, are found to make more sense drawn anti-clockwise, which preserves the elemental sequence that is the rationale for emergence being able to take place. Howeer, because all sectors ought to be regarded as abstractions, the sequence is the post hoc structure that orders the signs counter-clockwise. This means that the signs can be seen as rooted in extrinsic reflection, incorporating rotation from each quadrant, but overall representing the possibilities of a spherical world that is augmented by modes that are each a different perspective on what exists at this level, a Tier of being that is comparitively simple, having fewer dimensions, yet has broad applicability due to that simplicity.

The 12 signs extend the 2D circle that is the basic rotation defining elemental, hence paradoxical, progress. They also extend the 3D sphere that is just as much a part of the facts of Q1, but in Q2 the mode being extended is reality, while Q3 has perception extending as some of the consequences of quantum change, and in Q4 we get a unification of perceived parts, creating an outline of a subjective self, that with completion of the turn adds to Q1's objective facts. The level of signs though, rotates out of each quadrant, at Tier 1 commencing with Q1, but at Tier 2 commencing with Q4 as the walking of the maze turns counter-clockwise. In this way, signs follow clockwise with the sequence of quadrants, but in their own right proceed anti-clockwise, and the same switchback will be seen at subsequent levels of the Mandala. What derives from any layer of sectors is dependent on which sector is emerging extrinsically to give an extending mode. In Tier 1 we consider the signs as emerging from the quadrants, while in Tier 2 we would consider the signs as gaining detail through the emergence of the decans.

In Quadrant 1 - orthodox fire, the fact of being of the Number Line, extends firstly as hyperdox earth, and yet it is paradoxically true that what this means cannot be determined until the next layer of sectors has emerged as decans. Also, it is apparent that the signs emerge in reverse order, so Q1 may not be the best place from which to start.

Question
All quests start with a definition in Q4, and the clearer the want, the more detailed the desire, the more urgent the need, then the more precise the addition to awareness that is the mental icon of awareness. It is this coming together of the perception of NCCs that is why the experience of mind functions as a process of downward causation. That is, the mind is formed from the perception of one's own brain activity, and that activity is necessarily incomplete, i.e. lacking in detail. It is the whole that contributes consciousness as an unlit holographic whole, and it is only the conversion of this to objective fact that is achieved by forming the shape of prior experiences and this hauling in the detail provided by recall, that identifies the actuality and meaning of the NCCs, encouraging the brain to amplify those recollections.

Recall
Whatever Q4 outlines as not being, will automatically be recalled to mind by the inversion that takes place with observation forming the final rotation to Q1. But at Tier 1 there is no mind, no intra-relation, only the simple inter relation exemplified by the photon subtracting from one object as rotation out, and adding to another object as rotation in. Here recall occurs as the addition of the objective fact of momentum perceived from the perspective of the receiving electron, say, so is better called recoil - not just the addition of intrinsic value, but also of an extrinsic vector originating from the source electron.

Amplification
The Tier 2 rotation from Q1 to Q2 has the objective fact recalled to awareness [from wherever it is that memories are stored, be it the 'past' or the network of dendrites in the brain, or both, or neither of these] contributes as additions to the facts that govern the next iteration of the strange loop that forms brains activity and a new pattern of NCCs. But at Tier 1 there is no brain, no complex of extrinsic relations to be perceived as a whole. Rather, we have the change in boost that alters the reality of each particle, resulting in gravity and the concommitant changes in momentum that go with it.

Perception
The Tier 2 rotation from Q2 to Q3

Imagination
The full circle of 'walking the maze' of the Mandala operates naturally in the same way that a wave propagates through a medium. The starting point will be the abstract location of any disturbance, which at Tier 2, the function of mind could be a disturbance rising up from Tier 1's simple receptions of photons, or could be a downward causation of a meaningful fact as memory - the inclusion of facts into perceptions of NCCs that alter the course of activity by the brain.

One thing to realise of quarternion rotation is that the non-commutative nature means that the rotation can follow any path over the surface of the sphere, so is not limited to the simple backwards and forwards rotation of the 2D wheel.

The consequence is a freedom of the paths at higher tiers of meaning guiding the mind. Perception and action may form a two way road in and out of the self, but the routes open to thought are varied and guided by our past as much as our present.

36 decans

Moving on from the signs, the next emergent layer divides each sign by three, giving decanates of 10 degrees each. Again, these follow the elemental order, which defines exactly what each sector has to be. The decan can be thought of as the larger group, perhaps a tribe, a town or city, even a football club.

Erratum: As of 13 September 2026 I have realised that the assumption of decan orientation in both the Mandala and astrological charts, ought to be reversed. In short decans and degrees ought to follow the elemental order in a clockwise manner, in the same fashion as the quadrants, i.e. the direction of each tier alternates as we progress outward. I have made appropriate alterations here, and will repeat across the rest of the site in due course.

As far as the theory goes, this is largely cosmetic, the Mandala being a pictoral representation of an abstraction. However, when it comes to charts and deciding on when a sector is active, then it would make a difference. It also explains cardinality much better, and as it is supposed to be a perfect picture it would be much better for it to be perfectly correct.

Dividing the decanates by three gives 'tridegrees', maybe I should call them triplets, actually of 3.333 recurring degrees. As before, with the same logic to the ordering of the elements. The triplet can be thought of as the level of the small group, the family, possibly a football team, ranging down to a couple.

Finally for the Mandala, although not for the process of emergence, we get to the level of the individual. I'd call them degrees, except that they are 1.111 recurring conventional degrees, so maybe qdegrees unless I think of a better name, individuals being kind of quantum in nature, as discrete packages of humanity.

To grasp an idea of the dynamic nature of the Mandala, here is an illustration of the first few tiers up to the decans, showing the elemental pathways.

The Mandala, with the permitted flow shown as white spirals: quadrant through its three signs, sign through its three decans. Note the spiral directions following the elemental order of fire-earth-air-water and returning to fire.

The Modes of the Zodiac - why they differ

Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable, arise purely because of the elemental order of the Mandala. The elemental order arises from two qualities of the Zodiac, and these were both partially recognised by the Babylonians. Firstly that there existed triplicities of signs that shared some qualities in common, and which could then be associated with one of their neighbouring countries. So we have:

Akkad: Months 1, 5, and 9 (roughly Aries, Leo, Sagittarius).

Elam: Months 2, 6, and 10 (roughly Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn).

Amurru: Months 3, 7, and 11 (roughly Gemini, Libra, Aquarius).

Subartu: Months 4, 8, and 12 (roughly Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces).

Secondly, the Babylonians had a system of 'secret signs', these being the forerunners of the idea of planets having signs of exhaltation - corresponding signs where they were particularly powerful, these being:

Jupiter...Near the Crab (Cancer)

Venus.....Near the Fishes (Pisces)

Saturn....Near the Scales (Libra)

Mercury...Near the Furrow (Virgo)

Mars......Near the Goat-Fish (Capricorn)

The elemental order is determined by, or rather determines the signs, so we know our starting point is Fire, then Earth, then Air then Water, and these fit the emergence of Existence [although it could be argued that Water comes first, it being the void, as in nothingness, not even space or numbers and laws].

The theory of emergence calls for each group of three signs to emerge from what they are not, and that determines that Aries emerges from Water, or else it would be Leo, or Sagittarius. This also forces Aries to be the first of a group [Aries, Taurus, Gemini].

The cardinal signs share the feature that the root element occurs as the final decan, the Fixed signs have the root as the middle decan, while the mutable signs have the root as the first decan. This is a rule that only applies at the sign level; thereafter each subgroup is following the same flow of elements as all subsequent subgroups, so the patterns do not become lopsided.

In this picture the first row [pink] represents the occurrence of the sign element throughout the sign. The second to fourth rows show the sign [no colour] with the occurrence of its [quadrant] root element throughout the sign. This is to show why there is a difference between the modes of signs.

The cardinal signs, ending in a root-flavoured decan, have the sign quality of leaning forward, the fixed signs are naturally balanced with the root element central, while the mutable signs start with the same element as the root, but end up changed to the opposite.

That alignment of elements to root, across the signs, means that the cardinal signs have an inbuilt tendency towards the end being similar, so an easier flow to manifesting the self. The fixed signs have no internal dynamic, and so tend not to change when manifesting self, while the mutable signs start with a similarity, but end up being something else, and so have inbuilt changeability.

I apologise for the fact that these mode diagrams don't seem to orient well with the way that birthcharts are drawn, nor the Mandala, for that matter, being somewhat a mirror image, but I don't have the time to prioritise redrawing them yet.

Next > Chakras - the body has its say

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