The Doctrine of Signatures
The Doctrine of Signatures is a fun topic of taboo biology that gets me all giddy.
This idea that there are plants within nature that heal us, and these plants actually resemble the disease or body part they heal. With the way evolution works, it isn’t too far-fetched. (But I’ve included an article here that is intended to dismantle the idea — even if it does a bad job of that).
You have: runaway sexual selection, for example… or Fisherian as I am learning it is technically called. I’ll tell you what a predator calls it: easy meal. That tail is absurdly long (and as far as we can tell) not very safe. This guy would be much better off with a short tail and better camouflage, BUT that would limit the number of chicks he can produce offspring with. There is a battle between moving his genes into the future (a need he satisfies by putting himself at risk) and his own survival. Turns out, this is the underlying struggle of biology. If you produce viable offspring, you essentially win the game. In order to win, you have to be able to play, meaning: you have to stay alive.
Other examples of Nature’s creations include: mimicry, symbiosis, and yes… every single medication we’ve ever taken. I think from the perspective that all that humans do is natural. To include building computers and non biological products and substances. To me, the only problem is that we have yet to figure out a way to efficiently dispose of the by-products from those endeavors. But nothing that we make is unnatural. Everything is natural and that’s my opinion. Of course, I also mean our production of allopathic treatments.
However, I am much more interested in the long process of evolution, than I am in our ability to synthesize quickly That which takes Nature hundreds and thousands of years to create. I am less obsessed with why and more intrigued by How. How the fuck? How the fuck does all of this work? I’m naturally sitting here with blood pumping, breathing, thinking, all without trying. In every moment I spend, I am training my brain to perform functions and carry out operations. Whatever I decide is a homeostasis is the goal.
The very fact that I am alive is worth every second of fascination. Even when things are easy to explain, they should be no less magical. The perfection of this closed system is remarkable. I don’t know if or how the Doctrine of Signatures would work. (Could work?) I just know it isn’t too far outside the realm of possibility because what the fuck is? In a world that continues to surprise me, how can I be certain that what I’ve experienced will forever continue on? There’ve been several times its been proven to me that comfort is an illusion. Its meant to sedate us. To incubate us. To allow us to transform. To create pathways of efficiency with the goal of finding the comfort again. Walking back to the source.
I’ve had a somewhat unnerving thought cross my mind about video games a few times lately. Particularly, first person shooter/character games. Particularly, the detachment from death and also from life. When you die in the video game, it doesn’t matter. You’ll get a new life. I think this explains some of the developments in our Collective Psychology. So many people have the option to disossiate. Somehow this capability is affecting more than just those who are playing the game. If that person that plays the game has any interaction with others, they are experiencing the person that meditates over this game. The energy of that person that plays the game is altered and any person they interact with experiences an exchange with that person. Its subtle, but its like the butterfly affect. A ruthless and detached persona is present, but repressed away in public.
As a child, I remember my concept of time was such that I needed to grow up in order experience the real world. It felt hurried but delayed. Nothing could happen fast enough. When I was 16, I couldn’t wait to be 18. When I was 18, I couldn’t wait to be 21. There was so much to see. I was mesmerized by the far away and foreign lands because I had been exposed to them early in life. I thought, “If only I was old enough to make my own decisions, I could do everything I want to do and go everywhere I want to go”.
Becoming an adult has made me slow down and realize how things fall into place. I would argue that I had to separate my mind from technology to realize that. There is something very significant about the time I chose to switch from Android devices to Mac products. I changed my operating system just as Saturn moved into my 9th House of Aquarius. This technology is ingrained, it has somehow genetically altered me. When I notice the power this technology has, I can use it to my advantage. I can program myself. Seeing the algorithm means manipulating the algorithm. Notice the perennial patterns so that they become tools.
