Arguments for Paganism

0. Preface

1. Concentrating

• 1. From Ancient to Modern Paganisms
• 2. We Welcome Everybody
• 3. Concentrating Rituals
• 4. The Progression of Elements

2. Water: The Zero is Non-Being

• 1. Ouroboros
• 2. The Self-Negation of Non-Being
• 3. The Abyss of Non-Being
• 4. Materiality and Evil
• 5. Fathomless Depths of Power

3. Earth: The Ground of Being

• 1. The One is Being-Itself
• 2. The Ontic and the Ontological
• 3. The Logical Analysis of Being-Itself
• 4. The Two Ways of Negation
• 5. The Earth Emerges from the Sea

4. The Priority of the One

• 1. The Lowest One
• 2. The Wiccan Ultimate Source
• 3. Altars and Sacrifices
• 4. Self-Transcendent Pain

5. From the One to the Two

• 1. The Androgynous Dyad
• 2. Reasoning without any Reasoner
• 3. Emanating the First Beings
• 4. All the Air in the Abstract Sky

6. Air: The Logic of Existence

• 1. The Laws of Logic
• 2. Propositions Emanate Objects
• 3. Reasons For and Reasons Against
• 4. The Rational Ordering of Existence

7. From Simplicity to Sets

• 1. The Simple Initial Object
• 2. Distinct Copies Do Not Exist
• 3. Reasons Against Regressions
• 4. Every Many has its One
• 5. The Iterations of Objects

8. The Axis of the World

• 1. The Axis Mundi
• 2. The Evolution of Numbers
• 3. From the Finite to the Infinite
• 4. The Incantation for Numbers
• 5. The Ecstasy of Numbers

9. The Sky of Sets

• 1. Selections and Rejections
• 2. The Stack of Power Sets
• 3. The Incantation for Sets
• 4. The Axioms of Set Theory

10. Greatness Ever Growing

• 1. The Unfolding of the One
• 2. From the One to the Platonic Atoms
• 3. Value is Distance from the One
• 4. Sacred Arithmetic and Sacred Geometry

11. The Thicket

• 1. The Incantation for Strings
• 2. The Axioms of Unfolding
• 3. All Mathematically Possible Universes
• 4. Cosmic and Biological Programs

12. The Sapwood

• 1. Arguments for Animation
• 2. From Intrinsic Value to Complexity
• 3. The Comparative Values of Programs
• 4. Seeds and Skulls
• 5. The Incantation for Seeds

13. Fire: The One Animates the Seeds

• 1. The Animation of Programs
• 2. The Sources of Animating Reasons
• 3. The Logic of Animation
• 4. The Incantation for Animations
• 5. The Worlds and their Blazes
• 6. Fire Fills the Abstract Sky

14. The World Tree

• 1. The Stoic Conception of Fire-Energy
• 2. Animated Seeds Manifest Cosmic Computers
• 3. The Incantation for Demiurges
• 4. The Biocosmic Analogy

15. The Sexual Aspects of Fire-Energy

• 1. The Hierogamy of Zeus and Hera
• 2. The Closing and Opening Powers
• 3. The Gynomic and Andromic Powers
• 4. The Wiccan God and Goddess

16. Fire-Energy at Work

• 1. Networks of Connected Dots
• 2. The Emergence of Physical Presence
• 3. The Incantation for Universes
• 4. This Tree Stands in Flames
• 5. Universes are Agents

17. The Counterparts

• 1. Things Surpass Themselves
• 2. Plotinus: The Lower and Higher Universes
• 3. Little Trees inside the Big World Tree
• 4. The Incantation for Things
• 5. Possible Futures

18. The First Universes

• 1. A Modernized Great Chain
• 2. The Simple Universes
• 3. The Natural Obligation to Self-Organize

19. Physical Complexity

• 1. The Physical Universes
• 2. The Emergence of Wholes
• 3. The Emergence of Atoms
• 4. The Sun has Beliefs about the Planets

20. Chemical Complexity

• 1. The Emergence of Molecules
• 2. The Thermodynamics of Self-Organization
• 3. Self-Adaptive Systems
• 4. The Emergence of Biochemistry

21. Biological Complexity

• 1. Ancient Evolutionary Theories
• 2. Unicellular Organisms
• 3. Multicellular Organisms
• 4. Better Parts Make Better Wholes
• 5. How Optimization Permits Conflicts

22. Social Complexity

• 1. Societies with Cooperating Plants
• 2. Societies with Cooperating Animals
• 3. Virtuous and Vicious Conflicts
• 4. The Triumph of Goodness over Evil
• 5. Humans and their Many Communities

23. On Casting Spells

• 1. How Organisms Communicate Messages
• 2. How Things Throw Charms
• 3. Textures Spirits Ghosts
• 4. Sentences in Magical Languages
• 5. The Grimoires at Universes

24. Birth and Fate

• 1. Welcome to Our Universe
• 2. Genetic Determinism
• 3. Beyond Natal Determinism
• 4. Living in a Network of Signs

25. The Body and the Soul

• 1. The Soul is the Form of the Body
• 2. Matter is Functional Impairment
• 3. Two Kinds of Impairment

26. Alchemy

• 1. Telestic Technology
• 2. Techno-Alchemy Heals Bodies
• 3. Techno-Alchemy Enhances Bodies

27. Mind-Craft: Stoicism

• 1. Solving the Problems of Life
• 2. The Stoic Spiritual Exercises
• 3. The Stoic Sage

28. Mind-Craft: Stoic Exercises

• 1. The Stoic Workout
• 2. Sources of Adversity for Stoic Training
• 3. Stoic Mind-Craft Practices

29. Sign-Craft: Magic

• 1. How Magic Produces
• 2. Some Implications of Spell-Casting
• 3. Magically Programming Physical Systems
• 4. An Illustration of Magic
• 5. The Rationality of Magic

30. Benefactors

• 1. Exchanges of Food and Grooming
• 2. Reciprocate Food with Grooming Avatars
• 3. Teleonomic Benefactors

31. Giving Thanks

• 1. Giving Thanks to Evolution
• 2. Giving Thanks to the Sun
• 3. Giving Thanks to the Universe
• 4. Giving Thanks to Deep Natural Forces
• 5. Giving Thanks to the One

32. The Wheel of the Year

• 1. The Solar Holidays
• 2. Celebrating the Solar Holidays
• 3. The Common Liturgy
• 4. The Great Cycles of Nature

33. Fire-Craft: Sacrifices

• 1. Sacrificial Offerings to the Good
• 2. Simulating Personal Rebirth
• 3. Simulating Cosmic Rebirth

34. Ancient Reincarnation

• 1. Ancient Arguments for Reincarnation
• 2. Retributive Karma
• 3. Problems with Retributive Karma
• 4. Wiccan Reincarnation

35. Naturalizing Reincarnation

• 1. Arguments for Rebirth
• 2. The Emergence of Karmic Laws
• 3. Karmic Laws for Humans
• 4. Rituals for Accelerating Your Ascent
• 5. The Incantation for Your Lives

36. The Divine Animals

• 1. The Deities are Superhuman Animals
• 2. Past Superhuman Animals
• 3. Present Superhuman Animals
• 4. Future Superhuman Animals
• 4. Maximal Divine Diversity

37. Ranks of Bodies

• 1. Sagacious Bodies
• 2. Heroic Bodies
• 3. Tellurian Bodies
• 4. Olympian Bodies
• 5. Celestial Bodies
• 6. Infinite Bodies

37. Shape-Craft: Theosis

• 1. Humans Becoming Divine Animals
• 2. The Way of Theurgy
• 3. The Way of Cosmological Evolution
• 4. Humans Rising through the Divine Ranks

39. Shape-Craft: Shifting

• 1. Simulating Greater Selves
• 2. Shifting via Theurgical Rituals
• 3. Shifting via Ecstatic Dancing

40. The Transcendental Bodies

• 1. How Universes Become Cosmic Organisms
• 2. The Emergence of Infinite Cosmic Organisms
• 3. Plotinus: Infinite Holographic Bodies
• 4. The Ecosystem of Stars
• 5. With Your Arms Upstretched

41. Light: The Good

• 1. The Good is Not the One
• 2. The Holy Light of an Unsurpassable Fire
• 3. The Sun Illuminates the Earth
• 4. The Sky is Filled with Ecstasies
• 5. Mystical Experience

42. Light-Craft: Psychedelic Shifting

• 1. Modernizing the Mysteries
• 2. A Network Enchanted by Fire-Energy
• 3. Hallucinatory Journeys through Logical Space
• 4. Purging and Ego Dissolution
• 5. Transformational Experience

43. The Sun and the Stars

• 1. Striving for Divinity
• 2. The Plurality of Perfections
• 3. The Pentacle

44. Releasing