Rollercoaster Analogy, Mundane dualism verses a Sorcerer's Dualism
Typically, dualism sets things in opposition to each other. Theologically there is good and evil. Philosophically, Mind and Matter. On a mundane level, day and night, hot and cold, high and low, etc. For the Sorcerer, there is only one true dualism. Inside and outside. Why? Because mind is composed of matter, as is spirit. Day and night, hot and cold, left and right, can be likened to riding on a Rollercoaster. You go up, you go down, you go left, you go right, you go fast, you go slow. All on one track. They are parts of a flow that goes one direction, hence there is no opposition. Merely a change in pressure. Expansion and contraction through time creates the flow. For a Sorcerer, there is standing on the platform watching the ride, or sitting in the car, experiencing the ride one has just seen from the outside. The zone of separation between waiting and commitment is where all choices exist. It is also the seat of imagination. Standing on the platform is outside. Sitting on the ride is inside. There is no nature flow from one to the other. In fact many are those who have run from the platform without taking the ride. For the Sorcerer, opposition occurs at right angles, and creates a null zone. Two forces meeting each other at right angles cancel each other out, as opposites should. For the Sorcerer, outside is the seat of knowledge. Inside is the fulfilment of knowledge. This is a core teaching. In the time before the Rollercoaster existed, one might have chosen a river raft as an example. I happen to prefer the image of the Rollercoaster. Addendum: As tradition has it, this part is added as reflection, as returning to the gate to exit the platform. It should be second nature to do this and quite often it happens by accident and thus things progress through no fault of their own. The subject of this letter was, opposites. How they're precieved and what they really are. Hot and cold, light and dark, the Sorcerer handles these as variations of a theme. The key word is handle. The Sorcerer handles things in accord with a set of known laws which make up the "lot" of the Art of Sorcery. The dichotomies and oppositions handled by the Sorcerer are made up of force rather than matter or state of being. Depending on how force is applied or has been applied determins existing oppositions and a thing can oppose itself and thus appear to contain it's own opposite. This is all that need be added to this piece. It's the force that matters. Not the substance or phase. It is force that is studied, force that is harnessed and directed. Action and reaction occur within the cell of an event but they do not mold the event.