The idea of animal paths came up in today’s Internetmancy session, and I got a number of interesting results. This whole random process is a great way to discover new philosophical insight, as well as ideas that you never would have thought of before. I know this writing is a bit rough, but its all about using randomness as a catalyst for breaking the stasis of your usual mindset, and joining up with the source where everything arises from.

Occultists and philosophers over the millennia, perhaps forever have wondered where this source of ideas is coming from. They just spring from nothing. Sometimes fully formed, sometimes not. Sometimes they need to be coaxed, but generally when they do they are tainted without mind stuff of pre-conceptions, desires and fears.

When I work up the inspiration and find the time to go for a walk in the evening, I often do so in a large area of forest that is near my house. I have been traversing that forest, alone and with friends, for the past 20 years so I know it quite well. There are a number of known tracks, a number of hidden or less used tracks and then large areas where there are no tracks. Except that in these areas, you do see tracks that go into the bush. Slightly trampled, often with overgrowth so low that a person finds it hard to walk down without ducking. These are obviously animal tracks made by kangaroos, (yes, here we do have them running wild in certain areas), small deer, foxes and wombats.

It just occurred to me then that I wonder what the point is of certain animals using one defined track through the bush, when they really are free to go through the bush at any point. Why use the same pathway over and over again like people would? I understand if they were going towards water but these are near the top and on the side of a hill.  I think that animals can get patterned by behaviours (Pavlov’s dog anyone?) just like humans, and not just domesticated ones. They build up rituals based on things that have gone well before, ie. they found food there before, and then a second time along the same path. You can see the survival benefit of this pattern forming behaviour as it means that they will go back to areas where there are higher probabilities of food being found, or safety, or mates etc. This tendency being innate in most creatures (I see it in birds that we feed bread to on ou back lawn) shows you how deeply it is ingrained in humans. The pattern matching / habit forming matrix inside us is a powerful force, one that can be used for good or for your detriment. You can form habits that help, like exercise and healthy eating, or ones that don’t, like fast food and 6 hours of tv a night.

Train Tracks

Pictures of hidden paths and long forgotten trails are cool don’t you think. They speak of Mystery. They speak of people finding something of interest long ago here, and now if you just follow the trail you may find it. Sounds like a lot of different things when you think about it. Occult practice, Internet money making schemes, mysticism, religion, careers.

path in hill

Maybe we thing that someone else has discovered the truth before us, and all we have to do is find the right path and we will get there. Maybe that’s right, I’m not here to make any definitive statements on this blog. The universe however seems to be a constant unfoldment, A novelty producing and conserving engine ( to quote the great Terrence). The truth is ever changing, and the path built to yesterdays truth now runs into a wall, or goes straight of a cliff.

Tags: animals, pavlov, philosophical insight, randomness, rituals, stasis