Arcane Series PT2: King, Prince, Senex, Puer

The spiritual experience of Ti in a person I call Alin, as distinct from Ti the information metabolism process.

Alin: The Myth of the Void



The Buddhist concept of Sunyata essentially captures the hyper-deconstructive expression of Ti; with Alin being the nature of Ti taken to its utmost extreme and eliminating all contradiction until nothing remains. First it starts by questioning society, one's behavior, one's job, one's aspirations, one's purpose. Along the way, more and more things are found to be rationally unjustifiable. Based on something else; something other than truth. In the search for the kernel of truth beneath all things, Alin pushes the person into a disassembly of all constructs and concepts.

It may seem bizarre for a judgment process to produce an apparent "cessation of striving" or what seems like a lack-of-trying. But in fact, Alin is very much still striving; striving to remain away from the corrupt. It is hyper-aware of logical fallacies of every sort; of asymmetries. Of flaws. What lies at the root of the myth of Alin is the desire not to self-identify with imperfection or untruth. It is a type of cleansing exercise. And so while it is not a function that affirms a positive direction or ordering... it doesn't want disorder, and as such is an ordering process in the double-negative.

As untruth is eliminated with such fervor, all that's left is absence. And in this nothingness there is perfection. In non-assertion, one cannot be flawed. In defeat, there is no chance of being wrong. Impermeability. And so there is a bittersweet comfort felt in this hollowness; Alin considers this ignorance the true condition of our being and what lies behind all our attempts at greatness and personal delusions of purpose. The agnostic mind is the only one that is right and pure. All who claim wisdom are false; I know only that I know nothing. And Alin, as Prince, retains his integrity and purity by staying away from err.

From the neutrality and dispassion of Alin, there is also a life-denying quality. This life-denying quality can become excessive and lead to nihilism in some cases, and more than a few existential questions.



Dark as these qualities may seem, they are not necessarily bleak to the Alin mythholder. They may be wonderful, refreshing, liberating and even fascinating in the way that existentialism can be if properly understood.




When the myth of Alin is paired with some life-affirming principle, it cleans the slate and allows for a more unadulterated morality to emerge. And it continually offers revision and correction (removal of imperfection). So long as Alin can be run/played within certain accepted parameters (choosing not to dismantle.. but instead to allow ethics, for example) then it works adamantly to defend one's paradigms from untruth or inner frailty.


Another application of this myth is in meditation, as it relates to a cessation of worry -- an awareness that all your worries and strivings are self-caused. And that one can surrender such ideas and ambitions at any time, and return again to Stillness; the one true reality. This application of Alin is sometimes hybridized with other energies such as Vin's sense of cosmic unity, or with Edin/Aler's life-affirming ethos.

The spiritual experience of Fi in a person I call Edin, as distinct from Fi the information metabolism process.

Edin: The Myth of Sacred Life




The myth of Edin is the principle of life in its purest form. To Edin a plant or tree is a living, conscious entity just as a bird is conscious and sacred, just as a human is sacred. Whether it's pain felt by an insect, or a fish, or a human... all have a common experience. Axiomatically, the pain oneself may feel is no more real than the pain a pig might feel as it's slaughtered. And as such it's no less cruel. Because Edin approaches all matters of life from the empathetic projection into the individual, the experience is considered no different from the inside-out. It understands that anything with even the most minimal capacity to experience Life, joy and pain, is conscious.

It is an equalizer of value, by virtue of all things being participants in the experience of life. Nothing alive can be robbed of its right to be here; of the privilege of existing. All is pure and correct in being what it is. "All equally deserve to exist." And delving further, Edin holds a belief in the sacred soul; the immaterial and unalienable essence of life in things. Some call this essence Love. Some call it Consciousness. Some call it the spirit of Gaia or the Great Mother.



Perfection for Edin is being exactly what you always were all along; which first takes discovering/finding yourself, trusting it, then living always in alignment to what you discover constitutes your nature. Being the animal you are, Running with the Wolves. Letting your flame shine without reservation or apology.

Ooh, very interesting! I have a very similar reaction to the idea of AI, although I actually am quite opposed to it. I think for me it's because it grates against my personal version of Min, the Si myth of the earth. In my version of Min I see the earth itself, or at least the biosphere, as sort of like a giant, conscious organism. Each part of the biosphere is distinct--just like the billions of microbes and other life-forms within my own body--but all parts communicate with eachother, interact and combine to form a living whole. To me, creating a strong AI would be like creating some foreign microbe in a lab and then introducing it into my body as an experiment. It might be completely benign, but it could just as easily prove harmful or even lethal. Its way of functioning might not be in harmony with the needs of my body, just as an AI's agenda might not be in harmony with the needs of the biosphere.

It also seems like my Si myth prizes values of temperance, wisdom and stability. It seeks to harmonize itself to the interests of the earth itself, and to the proper role of humans within the biosphere. There are so many technological endeavors--AI, human-animal hybrids, CRISPR, biohacking--that I find quite disconcerting.

By the way, I also very much relate to this as well, and I often think of myself as a human tribalist:


Edit: Oops, I noticed/remembered that some folks here are quite directly involved with AI, so I apologize for trashing it--especially in such a strongly worded, yet unsubstantiated way. I recognize a lot of people who work on developing these sorts of technologies do so because they genuinely believe in their potential to create positive change...my criticism was not directed at the people themselves but more toward general cultural values and attitudes. While I do feel an instinctual discomfort toward AI, in pragmatic terms there are so many other threats to life on earth that are far more serious--climate change nuclear war, pandemics, authoritarianism, etc. With something like AI, it's always possible that it might actually be helpful toward addressing some of these threats.

Auburn "Right; the eventual conclusion was the same to me. After all meaning is stripped away, one reaches alignment with the nakedness of reality. But what then? It is ultimately a path of infinite directions - each no more justified than the last. I had a conversation with Aler, wherein she asked me if she could pursue a direction. Alin could not come up with any reason not to allow it, as to try to interfere itself would take an agenda. And so I decided I would see what this existence could offer; if for no other reason then simply because it's something to do. Even now I live this way - always viscerally aware at some background level that all my ambitions are, well, echoes in the vast nothingness. But I am content."

Yes, I agree. Alin could at best act as a mirror for Aler, to see if Aler is truly satisfied; but Alin cannot be self-sustaining in a positive sense.
What I found interesting about your description is that you referred to Aler as a female. The first time I read your statement, I thought that by 'Aler' you were referring to Alerith, and the whole idea ("she asked me if she could pursue a direction") seemed a bit odd. But then it occurred to me you were speaking of Aler (Fe), which also seems odd: Aler is female to you? Of all my functions, Aler is the only one that has been almost exclusively male.

"Continuing the anime references...
This is even depicted in Death Note's opening scene (the show is about Ti-lead (L) and an Ni+Fe (Light) mystic) with the Shinigami world:"

I see what you're saying, and I agree. I'm curious, though, if you think Ryuk could be a distorted version of some type? Obviously, he's not meant to represent any real human psychology, yet there's something oddly Pe about him.

"The show actually starts from a nihilistic place
And the entire drama of the show is based on the whims of two nihilistic souls whose boredoms intersected. From there Light Yagami is overtaken by the myth of Aler towards Heroics, Righteous Judgment and ultimately even to Ascension (the apex J myth)."

My impression was that Light was captivated by the Aler myth all along, but deflated into nihilism by not being able to satisfy it. In contrast, Ryuk really had no purpose other than seeing how things play out - so long as something, anything, happened.
L also struck me as highly nihilistic. I could not find any principles that drove him to want to stop Light. There did seem to be some vague "letting Kira kill whomever he pleases is wrong", but this notion was more pronounced among the police characters; coming from L, it seemed like it was more of a game (and perhaps finding some companionship in an adversary ... I won't spoil more). Then again, I haven't seen the series in over 2 years, so perhaps I should give it another look.

@typy,
That makes sense. Out of curiosity, how do you type yourself?

This, precisely.

I'm surprised you noticed  o.o

This song was composed by a part of me (but never finished) some years back... the voice that speaks is roughly 'darkness/stillness', or perhaps 'entropy' which is a return to that cessation. and how everything (people/stars/worlds) are fighting in futility against entropy; the power of silence which pulls/dismantles everything toward a return to that pure state. Origin.

The last stanza describes how everything will return to that inescapable silence; an allusion to the "big freeze" in cosmology. and this Origin/nothingness is the place from which something-ness arose, momentarily, as an anomalous spark in an eternal emptiness before and after.

"your universe will slowly fall apart at the seams" --> is thus a double meaning, true at the personal and cosmic level simultaneously.

so the universe itself is a metaphor for the human life cycle.
and yes, there is relief/peace/rest felt here, not morbidity.

Maui, demigod of wind and sea (Disney's Moana)

Authenticity! You stole my heart! My kids love Moana, and I was tempted to explain the Trickster archetype to my son. Hehe. I was also thinking to volcano lady was Fi, but I wasn't sure. THe folkson Discord were saying Moana is Fe. I can definitely see a SeTi trickster stealing the Fi's heart. I suppose it's the Fe side that returns it.

We need a separate thread for Moana and then some other Disney movies.