Philosophy Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Maier Files Series Tidbits and Articles-

The problem of consciousness

The problem of consciousness, alternatively put, is the problem of finding out how mental phenomena, such as thoughts and feelings, are related to physical occurrences in brains. This way of stating the problem assumes that some such relation exists, an assumption not always made in the history of philosophy. Since Descartes the debate has become more sophisticated, and in our own time the use of scanning devices to monitor living brain activity has enormously advanced...

Kybalion: Masterwork of Esoteric Wisdom?

The short book called The Kybalion, published in 1908, is probably the most popular and, probably, most important occult work of the twentieth century. The book is rivaled in significance only by a much longer and very different work, Manly P. Hall’s magisterial encyclopedia arcana, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, which appeared twenty years later. The landscape of mythical and esoteric philosophies that the scholar Hall curated, illustrated, and documented in his volume are, in a sense, distilled...

We all walk in Mysteries

Giordano Bruno and Heresy

He who desires to philosophize must first of all doubt all things. He must not assume a position in a debate before he has listened to the various opinions, and considered and compared the reasons for and against. Never judge or take up a position on the evidence of what he has heard, on the opinion of the majority, the age, merits, or prestige of the speaker concerned, but he must proceed according to the...

How conscious are you?

Meister Eckhart (the thirtheenth-century German mystic) once said, “if you fight your death, you’ll feel the demons tearing away your life, but, if you have the right attitude to death, you will be able to see that the devils are really angels setting your spirit free. In the ancient belief systems, the being who guides the human spirit through the underworld and helps negotiate the way past the guardian demons is the god of planet...

Is this reality?

Embrace Paradox to find Truth

Ulva Naumann stated in Maier files: “Knowing Ultimate Truth is only possible when you’re able to embrace paradox.” Your logical mind may find this impossible, but life itself has no problem in being paradoxical regardless. Good fortune always seems to bring happiness, but deceives you with her smiles, whereas bad fortune is always truthful because by changing she shows her true fickleness. Good fortune deceives, but bad fortune enlightens. Dualists hate paradox but in the...

Revolt against the Modern World

With unflinching gaze and uncompromising intensity Julius Evola analyzes the spiritual and cultural malaise at the heart of Western civilization and all that passes for progress in the modern world. As a gadfly, Evola spares no one and nothing in his survey of what we have lost and where we are headed. At turns prophetic and provocative, Revolt against the Modern World outlines a profound metaphysics of history and demonstrates how and why we have...

The Quest for Truth

Projekt Nornir

We take it for granted that the past is fixed and time is linear. History always happened the way we remember it happening. But how do we know for sure that that’s the case? Otto Maier started to work on a project called “Nornir” in the 30ties and 40ties. To understand project Nornir and its goals you need to step into a forgotten old Germanic worldview and its concepts about Time and Destiny … Many...

Wagner and Schopenhauer

When reading Otto Maier’s journals and stumbling on his musical (harmony) ideas, the illusionary world and the references to the division “Parzival” one will meet without doubt Wagner and Schopenhauer. Philosophical ideas profoundly inspired Wagner. Not in a dilettante fashion, but out of genuine interest, passionate need, and deep study. In early adulthood he was a real revolutionary socialist and a comrade of Mikhail Bakunin, in whose company he manned the barricades in the Dresden uprising of...