From Vectors of Mind - images at original.

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

Previously on Vectors of Mind#

If I follow this trajectory, by next year my titles will be full paragraphs. For those who missed the chatbot piece, I’ve been hanging out on the SenpAI Discord server to discuss the latest in LLM therapists. Including, of course, OpenAI’s impressive new voice mode.

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

Friend of blog started a podcast with a fascinating first episode on parenting. Listen, subscribe, check it out. Some may remember that Stetson helped me record the first VoM podcast.

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*Views from Cleve-Mandu Episode 1: DadsplainingTo launch Views from Cleve-Mandu podcast, Manjul and I discuss parenting in personal, philosophical, and sociological terms. We’re both relatively new to fatherhood and want to do our best for our kids… Listen now9 months ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Stetson and Manjul

The primordial labyrinth#

Neurophysiologist argues that rock art was due to repeating patterns in the visual system common with migraines, hallucinations, and near-death experiences:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

The hole in the center is interesting, as it could have been used to rotate the spiral. Readers of the blog are familiar with this artifact for the other side:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

This is the earliest Snake Cult artifact I’ve identified, associated with the Mal’ta Buret culture 24,000 years ago in Siberia. At the same site, there were dozens of Venus figurines. Jungians identify the spiral or labyrinth with the path of individuation. But I want to point out the spiral is often connected with another symbol we’ve explored on VoM, the squatter. Here’s an example from Valcamonica, Italy, 8,000 years ago

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

And here in Columbia (undated).

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

I keep stumbling on more examples, including in the academic literature. Most recently, two subject area experts of rock art (Great Lakes region and the American Southwest) pondered the similar use of the symbol worldwide. They are sympathetic to multi-continental diffusion. I make that case in these articles:

On the meaning side of things, in the Eve Theory piece, I used a New Age graphic featuring the labyrinth to sum up EToC:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*“Tell me, how did Odin lose his eye? To learn the secret magic of women. Never seek the secrets of women, but heed them always. It is women that know the mysteries of men.”

Part of the fun of EToC is that many different religions, including New Agers, are “right.” It’s a “yes, and” that makes improv (and conversation) flow.

Ancient enemies#

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*Snake dancer with rattlesnakes in his mouth. Sun Journal, 1916.

Many Puebluan tribes such as the Hopi, Zuni, and Tiwa have versions of the snake dance, pictured above, and discussed in EToC v3. The bullroarer is part of the ritual, and is the hero image I used for the bullroarer piece:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

Such practices among the Puebluans seem to be ancient, as there are dozens of shamans drawn holding snakes throughout the Southwest going back thousands of years. In Moab, Utah there is even a figure with a snake in his mouth:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

As a child when I learned about the ancestors of the Pueblans in the Utah core curriculum they were called the Anasazi. Since then, this term has been replaced with “Ancestral Pueblan” because Anasazi is Navajo name meaning “ancient enemy.” This sentiment has not entirely subsided. Consider the YouTube channel Navajo Teachings, which usually features life wisdom and educational content. Typical is this video explaining Navajo belief about the Holy People who established their most important rituals:

However, when it comes to the Anasazi:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

According to the Navajo Teacher, the Anasazi put themselves above the Holy People, even saying they were the Holy People. Eventually, that led to their downfall. There is so much oral history recorded in old books by anthropologists, and now with channels such as Navajo Traditional Teachings. Part of the promise of AI is that it can digest orders of magnitude more of it than any human, getting fragments of stories from many angles. In the future, this will be a valuable source for understanding the past.

Odds and ends#

Long and popular. If you never got around to it, worth a read:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*Astral Codex TenMatt Yglesias Considered As The Nietzschean SupermanRead morea year ago · 713 likes · 1073 comments · Scott Alexander

Similarly, if you like the genre of self-help cults gone wrong:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*Ecstatic IntegrationThe invention of European bee shamanismThis is a long, strange story, so make a cup of tea, find a comfy seat and dive in. It’s free for a month - you can support my work by sharing and subscribing…Read more9 months ago · 5 likes · Jules Evans

Forgive the clickbait title:

Share

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*