1.2.1.1.1 Things falling apart
Things decay, break, get worn out, erode. However saddening, that is the way things are. Without being looked after, maintained and repaired, they tend to fall apart. That integrity is lost, can be an annoying fact of life, but moreover, the preservation of integrity is pretty well much what life is all about at a base level. Ashes and dust return to their origninal states, and we are ceremonially consoled that the intermittent times is merely fleeting. The substance remains the same however its structure is modified.
Life, then, is the preserve of structure. Maintaining viable order in the face of disintegration is the concern of all lifeforms – it is what they do. People are included here, albeit set at a higher tier of complexity. Herein lies the Human Condition that we are all familiar with; the roller coaster over the camel-backs of life: of suffering and joy, of love and hate, and of the other myriad of dichotomies we face. The Human Condition then concerns problems of self-preservation and their solutions whatever the details.
That things fall apart is a problem for life: for all life. In a sense, life is the solution. But for many fortunate people, civilization has taken care of much of the basic survival needs in Maslow’s sense. Modern human life though has generated its own problems more or less serious; it’s most likely that everyone has them at one time or another. Some are simple annoyances, some are devastating, some might be called “first world problems”, some are struggles with lifestyle, or finances, or relationships, some are just coming to terms with being a life-form and the prospect of not being a life-form for that long.
Not withstanding the intricacy, ideosynchracy, or severity of any particular problem, much is about order and disorder, in a structural sense. When things are in the right or moving in the right order, the right sequence, the right structure, then there is a perception of wellness. On the other hand, when they move opposed, becoming out of order, then that becomes a problem, and left alone, without attention, then things tend to disorder: some solution is demanded.
This brings me, and I will elaborate further, to the Solution Centred Tarot and its role in approaching the Human Condition of getting our lives in order in the face of adversity.
1.2.1.1.2 Things Come Together
Generally, when things are ignored and not attended to, there is a tendency towards disarray. However, there had to be some means of formation at some point for that structure to have existed. In many cosmogenies, all that is eminates from nothing or chaos. Modern physics posits the big bang which spewed out the primordial sub-atomic substancies that would be moulded into the universe. These basic building blocks coalesed into stars, and the tremendous forces of heat and density became the forges of denser atoms. Blasted into the firmament through supa-novae, these heavier atoms became the material that acreated into planets. We know for sure that at least one planet, the our Earth bathed in the engery of the sun, provided suitable conditions for the elements to come together in ever more complex molecular structures, sculpted across unimaginable timescales, through evolutionary forces, into life.
Under unrelenting selection pressure the biodiversity and complexity of lifeforms continued. Anatomical structures of dedicated organs, nervous systems, sensory apperatus developed. This is how ashes and dust were raised, stepping up on ever higher platforms. Evolutionary forces are still present and ongoing and will continue to shape life, but right now, here we are, as humans, one of the products of natural selection.
The human world is one immersed in culture, in the widest sense. The emergence and development of culture: artifacts, language, technology, finance, food distribution, organisations, laws and so on, are like layers upon layers of clothing, they buffer us against the elements and improve our chances of survival. In most cases, not all, we hold onto the more useful aspects of culture, and disgard the passe. Culture, too, evolves; it is an extension of our biological evolution, and is borne through the pressure of need. Culture serves to bring things together, and prevent them from falling apart.
Culture is a solution. However, culture presents its own attendent problems, and while most of us do not face death on a daily basis as our ancesters might have, the ubiquity of culture imposes its own pressures upon us. Climate change, war, inequality and other cultural maladaptations are at the extreme. For most of us, particularly in the west, cultural problems tend to revolve around money, relationships, wellbeing, and a million other discomforts associated with lifestyle, where our perochial cultural ecology had fallen out of order and is in need of attention.
therapy etc.
problem is only a problem in the absense of a solution
problems are often subjective, though still very real to the subject
1.2.1.1.3 The Entropy and the Extropy
Rutherford said that, “all science is either physics or stamp collecting.” That reduction might seem a little greedy, but it does provide a useful point of entry in looking at the human condition, of problems and solutions, in relation to the universe. If we were to trace it all back then it would come down to the laws of thermodynamics. Of course, thermodynamics doesn’t provide much direct insight into fixing what is broaken, or building a better life for yourself. But a few terms drawn from physics and systems science, and wihtout needing to deep-dive into the science itself, help us to understand the meaning of solutions.
When we mix salt with water, the solid chrystals seem to vanish. The salt is called a solute, the water is the solvent, and the resulting coctail is a solution, whereby the salt is disolved in the water. Another sense of the word solution refers to dealing with a difficult situation. It is metaphorical, perhaps alchemaic, in that the problem had an immovable solid structure that was made fluid and moveable. Baking soda and vinager are both metaphorically and literally solutions to the problem of a blocked sink: they dissolve the solids clogging the pipes such that they can be flushed away.
human problems and solutions – dissolving blockages; interactions
Returning to basic physics might help us understand the sense of dealing with that which is out of order, and why things fall apart, and the act of putting things back in order. Thermodynamics is concerned with the flow of energy, or heat. In taking a hot roast out of the oven, and leaving it to cool, the energy put into cooking the food will dissipate. The cooler air surronding the roast will take on the heat and warm up and the food will cool down. This will go on until the food gets down to the same temperature of the kitchen – all the heat has levelled out and no more heat can be transferred, as nither the room nor the roast are hotter than the other. Better eat it while its warm! Heat flows from hotter to cooler, so cold food might be reheated by exposing it to a heat source; putting it back in the oven for a bit. In physics of thermodynamics, this flow from hot to cold raises what is called entropy, localised concentrations of energy (hot food) get flattened out (cool off); concentrated, structured energy dissipates and becomes unstructured.
A closed system is where there is no fuerhter input of energy, and so, as it is left alone, eventually the energy will equalise – entropy will increase. The flow is one way, so any energy concentrations are only temporary. Without the introduction of external energy (ie as an open system), such concentrations don’t come together, they only fall apart.
In one theory of the universe, as a closed system, where matter is just a form of sticky energy, eventually all that energy will dissipate to what has been called heat death.
The roast will go cold and not reheat itself; a watch will wind down and not rewind itself; a battery will go flat and not recharge itself. Countering such entropy requires external input. While structural decay of energy is termed extropy, the formation of energy structure, may be called extropy.
If entropy is where things fall apart, extropy, then, is where things come together. Photosynthesis in plants is a prime example, this is where the energy of sunlight is trapped in the cellular strucure of plants. Chlorophyl in the plants is involved in a complexed chemical reaction whereby the structure of the atoms present in carbon dioxide and water are catalised, through the energy in light, into the structure of organic compounds, like sugars: glycogen, cellulose and starches, while releasing oxygen as a byproduct. The carohydrates have chemical energy because the energy, from the sun, creates chemical bonds that required more energy to form. This energy is held in the chemical bonds is released through combusion – an exothermic reaction of carbohydrates with oxygen, which gives out CO2, H2O and heat. Fossil fuels such as coal and oil, originated in the carboniferous forests whereby sunlight was stored by plants some 300my ago. There is extropy in photosynthesis as the formation of more energetic molecular stuructures present in plant cells, requires energy, in the form of sunlight, to be introduced into the system.
In chemistry, some chemical bonds are more stable than others, and the effect of entropy is to move towards the more inert structures. Water, carbon dioxide, methane for example are more stable than TNT, which is explosivly unstable. TNT is a moleculre synthesised by creating more energetic bonds among its atoms, In other words, its more complex and unstable structure is down to extropy. On detination, the molecule breaks down to simpler molecules whereby energy release if notoriously rapid, usually bringing disorder to anything around it.
The evolution and continuation of Life is the result of extropy in the face of entropy. The culmination of changes in molecular structure into such as DNA that facilitates reproduction (with variation) and survives the demise of the individual. Against the pressures of natural selection, these structures adapted and became more sophisticated, resulting in the biodiversity we are surrounded with today. Hence, we might say that extropy is about structuring the energy from the sun.
At this point, it is worth asking, ‘So what?’ How do the natural sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology, relate to the Solution Centred Tarot. Well, in this context, the Tarot is offered as a relief to some of the difficulties that the human condition imposes upon us. At its heart, the human condition is about extropianism, about getting our lives in order when they appear to be coming apart that the seems. The Tarot is about the yin-yang of persistance and change, about the will to power, about garnering insights. Perhaps, though, it relates to the metaphysical aspirations of the alchemists in their extropian quest for transformational solutions.
So far, I’ve made it sound like entropy is the villain, while extropy is to be praised. As with such generalisation about life, such is not entirely the case. That things are good or bad is contextual and subjective, and it is the function of intellegent beings to make this appraisal, and where capable, act to correct the sutuation accordingly. It may be that the demolition of old, condemed buildings is beneficial while the subsequent construction of a polluting eyesore is not. Entropy for one person may be good for one person, and bad for another; as may entropy. Within society, localised concentrations of energy and structure may lead to a conflict of interests, disputes, emnity. In the grand scheme, such quarrals are perocial and temporary, as when heat death finally occurs, and humans are extinct, non of this will matter to us.
Heat death is a long, long way off yet: longer than imaginable. And so, our present and impending problems may loom large in our minds. And so it is that localised concentrations of order and disorder, those that benefit the person, are what are of concern. A problem has similarity to the definition of a weed: a plant growing where you don’t want it to grow. What constitutes a weed (or a problem) is down to a person’s point of view.
This detour into thermodynamics gives us purchase on the fundamental properties of difficulties that we face, be those, money, relationships, work, legal wranglings, neighbour issues, health and the whole gamut of specifics. The detour has been taken as this fundamental understanding provides insight into how those difficulties may be resolved: by acting to reorder the situation.
Causes Aristotle
the ancients like Aristotle were fond of slicing things into four quarters. Matter was of four elements: earth air fire water rather than the 100+ in the periodic table today. Matter then was seen as one of the four causes aitia: material formal efficient and telelological , or end cause, or purpose. This quintessence is very much embedded into the symbolism of the Tarot the four suits ; and the fundaments of alchemy something that will be retired to several times throughout this volume.
while alchemy and the like may have seen superseded by modern science some of its basic principles are still Illuminati’s today in terms of practical change and problem solving. The four aitia, aristotles causes, are relevant, as an abstraction, to the processes of business management , engineering and generally to human endeavors. We have already seen the that structure, the formal cause, refers to the arrangement of things, the material cause.
Efficient and final causes, as agency and purpose, are philosophically contentious for the meaning of life. What is the purpose of a bee, who or what made it? Evolutionists and fundamentalist creationists would only agree on the formal and material aspects.
among human affairs, purpose and agency are a little more apparent. People do things because they want some result. They are persons acting with agency and intent manipulating material arrangement in order to get some greater benefit. It is then a part of the human condition to act with intent in controlling the entropy and extropy in our environments.
Stable and unstable equilibrium
Relationship with the environment
Entropy and extropy are conditions of the environment. Individuals exist in an environment, it is essential for life. For humans, this is complicated by our socio-cultural environment and includes other people and artifacts. It is the relationship, our fit, within our environment that determines whether we are satisfied or frustrated. If we were wholly satisfied, then we are befitting of our environment and there really is no pressing need to change. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement, and instigating change may be beneficial. On the other hand, our environment itself may change thereby imposing a threatening situation upon us. To restore our fit with the environment there are a few types of change that we may attempt:
Firstly, we may attempt to change ourselves. To adapt to the circumstances. Evolution through natural selection, on a genetic level, enables life on earth to persist by adapting species to be more fitting to their environment and its fluctuations. For many individuals of simpler species, this is is fatal as they have limited capacity for adaptation. However, nature has produced the brain, which enables those individuals to adapt their behaviours in their own lifetimes, thereby providing them with better survival odds. For us humans, particularly, our larger brain is an organ that enables much more rapid adaptation have become rather proficient at modifying their behaviours as such brains allow for individual learning and the imitation of sucessful behaviour of others.
The human environment is also social and cultural and invariably involves other people. Though rarely so life threatening nowadays, there is still pressure to fit within social norms ranging from conforming in some fasion to adhering to the law. Being a misfit, an oddball or eccentric, is about personal values and tolerance to societal consequences. Sometimes self-adjustment may take the form of ‘like it or lump it’, which means that the individual reappraises their values, or raises their tolerance.
The bhuddist’s have it that change comes from within. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Secondly, we may attempt to make the state of our environment more conducive to our purposes. some species, such as beavers and termites do strucutre their habitats to suit them. Again, we humans with their larger brain capacity, are capable of manipulating our spaces: buildings, cities, infrastructure, as well as providing us with the tools and technologies, healthcare, sanitation, etc. that enable better living. Again, culture is of a higher order of fluidity. George Bernerd Shaw put it that, ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’ So, this second approach, of fitting with our social environment is often down to personal power and ability to influence the thoughts and behaviours of others.
Thirdly, where we don’t have the ability, or maybe the will to adjust ourselves or the world around us, we could simply migrate to a more convivial environment.
It is the social aspect that makes for many of our troubles. It is dynamic; it is a dance. You adjust yourself and influence otehrs while at the same time they are adjusting themselves and influencing you. This interplay of social-psychology concerns the minds of the actors, and the actions their minds play out. It is about the structure of thoughts: about beliefs, attitudes, values, and the fit between the structure of the thoughts of the individual and their surrounding people. It is also about words, information, and communication. The role of the Tarot, in problem solving of this order, is about information and communication, to restructure the relationships between ourselves and the world: self-change and influence. Many, if not all, of the cards throw up this iconography of relating to our cicrumstances: The Tower, Death, Wheel of Fortune, the World, 5 Swords
It is about the maintenence of a vital fit with the world at a core level, which at its Darwinian and Maslowian bases are about survival, but more commonly it is about supporting our most important values provided by such as emloyment, relationships and so on. Preservation of the inner often involves change of the outer. The outer layers are an interface, a protective shell that protects the inner from perterbations. Civilisation has allowed humans much protection against the raw elemental forces of nature.
The outer layers, of which there may be many, between the individual and the rest of the universe, are an interface: one which absorbs shock. However, changes do occur, and so must our protective layers. Such changes to our protection tend to be cyclic, going between construction, destruction, and reconstruction. When the world changes, self-preservation may require the demolation of what we have erected in order to refortyfy ourselfs agains new threats. This cyclic theme is found in the cards.
Types of problems and solutions
The nature of the solution very much depends on the nature of the problem. Taking a leaf from the book of therapy, we might classify the types of problem and solution as follows:
Palliative: the illness has no cure and conditions are likely to get worse. Palliative care then is about easing symptoms, pain management, and trying to give the best quality of life under the circumstances.
Remedial: a remedy attempts to cure the illness. It tries to fix what is broaken, to repear a disorder.
Prophylactic: is an alternative name for preventative medicine. This mode aims at creating conditions where health is maintained, and the illness does not occur in the first place. Prevention is better than cure.
Generative: is rarely considered in the medical model. It is an attitude of “you dont need to be ill to get better”. It is where things are good already, yet excellence is strived for. For example, world class athelites trying to improve their personal best through training.
This classification isn’t restricted to medicine and healthcare; it can be applied to many other personal and organisational problems and solutions. When we think of problems, we tend to focus on those things that are not working for us. People who want a Tarot reading to help with their lives often have a difficuly that they are struggling to deal with by themselves, and so are looking for outside help, or insight into how they might approach the situation.
other peoples intentions – cooperation, competition
houristics
control systems
Once again, a voyage into systems is beneficial: control systems, which adjust behaviour based on conditions, and information systems which gather, process and deliver information. These are of course, best known through information and communication technology: computers, the internet, and mobile devices. But the technology is just one implementation of much more general systems principles. All biological systems, including humans, are control and information systems. Our senses, neurological, endocrene, muscular anatomy are components evolved to respond to the environmental changes, make decisions, and act in our best survival instincts. The human brain, and its mental representation of how we think the world operates, and how we respond, is the example of an information and control system that will be examined.
1.2.1.1.4 Formation and Information
form and function; malformation and malfunction
communication thinking talking
structure and instrument
1.2.1.1.5 Questions and Anwsers
Leave a Reply