Exploring the site. . .

Welcome to Weirdo Camp: a curious website! Weirdo Camp has pages most people don’t find until they know to look for them. The site (which is safe for work), while being nonfiction, functions as a philosophy game (not entirely unlike an ARG), using site structure and curious links. I update various parts of it often. I update and expand on the main page articles often. Weirdo Camp is trying to convey something profound in a very interactive way.

Much of the content on this site is written and maintained to be evergreen, including many of the main page articles. I sometimes call the extra pages that you have to search for Easter egg pages, and they are major parts of the site. Read different sections when you feel like it; some go better with different moods. See what you find…

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scroll up or down and start exploring
(mobile users may find the site sidebar below the first page of articles) . . .

Existentialism

It’s a popular idea these days that each of us must decide for ourselves what’s important, what things mean, etc. One example that’s often cited is the meaning of life, and the claim that it is especially virtuous to ascribe a creative meaning to your own, as if it has no intrinsic meaning otherwise. Another example is that you can decide your own destiny, or which romantic partner is the right person for you as if you can decide someone else’s characteristics. This isn’t really how myths work, though. It doesn’t actually even hold up to the basic scrutiny of reality.

In fact, this idea of deciding so much for yourself about that which actually has objective factors involved is a hallmark of a philosophy called existentialism, which is essentially a philosophy built around coping strategies. One idea behind it is that some points in time are actually so mundane that you really have to use your imagination to get through them.

Conversely, in myths a person is often born for a purpose, a community exists for a purpose, people are born to come together and marry, destiny strikes like lightning. Many people throughout history have seen life this way, and it can evoke a feeling of partnership with larger forces and the mystical.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

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The Monomyth

The hero’s journey, or monomyth, is an idea extensively detailed and explored in author Joseph Campbell’s work, and notably his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The hero’s journey is a narrative pattern informed by a syncretic analysis of numerous myths and folk tales from all over the world. It is a foundational layer of story that generically explores how a person could become a hero.

“Hero” is an archetype. Pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung talked a lot about archetypes, which are somewhat mysterious in nature, but they are essentially, like the hero’s journey, something like mythic templates. Unlike the hero’s journey, which is a template for a story, archetypes are usually templates for characters. But not all characters are archetypes, which have a particular kind of power that’s hard to come by. Real and fictional heroes actually both have something of this in their nature, being larger than life because of rare and particular achievements, as well being of very good character.

Deconstructing a hero within fiction too much leaves you with something less inspiring, and you usually lose the archetypal nature of the character. You’ll just have a protagonist, then, or possibly even less. They still might be referred to as the hero of the story, but they are usually not an archetypal hero.

I like archetypes a lot as a subject, in part because the more alchemy I’ve practiced, the more a doorway into their arcane mysteries has opened up to me. When I was in eleventh grade, I remember asking my English teacher if there was a list of all the archetypes I could find somewhere. He said there wasn’t one that he knew of, which was the right answer. An exhaustive list is actually probably not available, but nor are archetypes up to the discretion of the writer or audience. They are more objective than that. There’s something about them that’s like those mineral compounds that can be polished into gems. Some may still be unknown, but there are quite a few we know of, and their luster is predictable if they are pure enough.

So what happens to a hero? Campbell’s proposed monomyth contains seventeen steps, which I’ll add concise original descriptions of, according to how I’ve come to understand them after exactly the amount of alchemical work I’ve done plus the sheer amount of suffering I’ve gone through by the time I’m writing this.

The Call to Adventure
The hero is more or less a normal person at this stage, but there’s something about them, or there’s something about the world they’re in, that has the potential to explode into an incandescent adventure. Human condition, I guess you could say.
Refusal of the Call
But the hero would prefer to live some version of the life they can see all around them, thank you very much.
Supernatural Aid
Not so fast, says something genuinely abnormal. To the hero, it is possible that this stage feels very far from what they would recognize as “aid”. Maybe it feels worthwhile, and maybe it doesn’t. It can be a mentor with a certain spiritual connection, or a mysterious happening, or a mystical experience.
The Crossing of the First Threshold
The hero can’t stay where they are, doing what they probably thought they wanted to do when they were refusing the call. They have to get moving.
Belly of the Whale
The bad news is, that this endeavor isn’t going to be quite as easy as the hero probably deserves. A problem arises, and the hero faces it, more or less alone. This moment probably proves something about the hero: maybe that they’re a good person (which heroes have to be), or that they have the right idea (which is helpful for a hero), or that they have skills or potential or fortitude (which heroes have to have).
The Road of Trials
The hero has to keep moving, and alas, the way is arduous. Difficulties arise along the way, defining the adventure as a quest, as opposed to a mere travel log.
The Meeting with the Goddess
This one is rather confusing when you’re doing literary analysis, as most stories do not feature a meeting with any actual goddesses. This is a reference to finding something special. Perhaps it’s adapted from the theological theory that the manifest universe is the domain of the Goddess in a particular way. At this point, the manifest universe somehow seems to have a pinnacle to show the hero. It can be an item, a goddess, a splendid city, or something else, but it is worth seeing.
Temptation
Here is where the question “Why continue?” or “Why go anywhere else?” comes up in one way or another, but it is not wholesome in contrast to the hero’s actual destiny. Once the hero comes to realize this, the hero rejects the temptation to halt the quest, and continues on.
Atonement/Abyss
Something happens that brings up a new idea: someone or something might have a quarrel with the hero based on the hero’s history, nature, or conduct, or based on the nature of reality itself. Suddenly there is a problem that cannot be solved so directly as the prior challenges. The hero must confront something about themselves here, and understand who they the hero are, what they’ve done, and how they feel about the world, all well enough to navigate this stage.
Apotheosis
Oh good, the hero did a good job navigating the last stage! Now they’re the bigger person, compared with before. They are something larger than life, and their instincts will from now on be to do the very right thing.
The Ultimate Boon
Now the hero reaches a key objective, getting something they needed or at least wanted very much and are not entirely undeserving of.
Refusal of the Return
There is likely something on the journey or at the end of the journey that the hero doesn’t want to leave. But one thing the hero has learned is that not everything can stay exactly the same all the time. What we see here is actually usually much more like reluctance than refusal, though stories may vary. A hero at this stage can move forward if they know they’re supposed to. They just can.
The Magic Flight
The hero starts on the journey home, usually with the ultimate boon or something gained from it.
Rescue
The hero deserves help, and sometimes they really need it by now. It’s usually help from someone or something powerful, and this is where it comes in.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
At this point the hero often returns in some way to what one could call the real world, which is at least semi-distinct from the more single-minded existence of the quest. This is where that shift occurs. The hero may be reunited with previous companions, locales, or pursuits.
Master of the Two Worlds
This is where the hero integrates back into that real world, but this time as a person who has developed new abilities, new understanding, and the right instincts. The world is lucky to have a person such as this. They have the education and life experience that faithfully following the quest offered them, and they are better for it.
Freedom to Live
Life can be good, and the hero is ready– and well-equipped– to live it. Sometimes the status quo even changes because what came before was so pivotal in the world, and part of the hero’s great reward is this: it’s a better status quo.

For real life heroes, hewing to the best in themselves can take them into and through some of these steps rather naturally, sometimes in this order, sometimes in a different order.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

PLEASE DONATE TO WEIRDO CAMP. Do you enjoy and/or enrich yourself with Weirdo Camp and its unique, original content? Please send a donation via Paypal (see site sidebar) or to $alchemylynx on Cash App.
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The Mahabharata and numbers

I’m about 1,500 pages into the illustrious Mahabharata. It is an historical epic known in the history-loving Hindu tradition, daunting in size and sweeping in scale.

The story is very old, some of it clearly much older than the text itself. Some believe that parts of it date from an extremely early hominid migration into the Indian subcontinent. Much of the Mahabharata takes place so long ago that it seems (in some translations) perhaps to refer to women going into oestrus instead of having the ovulation and menstrual cycle that modern humans are currently understood to have.

The Mahabharata presents many excellent examples of how numbers in ancient texts and oral histories may not necessarily always translate directly into modern numbers. An extremely long time ago, a word like a hundred would’ve often been closer to the idea of “too many to keep track of easily” than ten groups of ten, and a word like a thousand would’ve been closer to the idea of “effectively uncountable, especially considering the fact that a comprehensive number system has not been invented yet” than ten groups of ten times ten. It was hard to conceive of numbers when we didn’t really have them.

What is still very important to understand is that a looser numerical system would not diminish the text’s portrayal of placing high value on extravagant generosity and prosperity, and the scale of riches it sometimes suggests does become staggering almost beyond imagination.

Our current standard system of numbers used throughout the world today was probably invented about 4,000 years ago or so in North Africa, according to Earth Logos. The Mahabharata in its current form was compiled and transcribed within the span of this time, but the following passage, which occurs near the beginning of the text, before Vaisampayana begins narrating, gives some idea of how numbers were a subject of specialization and how they seemed to fit into oral history.

“Sauti said, ‘One chariot, one elephant, five foot-soldiers, and three horses form one Patti; three pattis make one Sena-mukha; three sena-mukhas are called a Gulma; three gulmas, a Gana; three ganas, a Vahini; three vahinis together are called a Pritana; three pritanas form a Chamu; three chamus, one Anikini; and an anikini taken ten times forms, as it is styled by those who know, an Akshauhini. O ye best of Brahmanas, arithmeticians have calculated that the number of chariots in an Akshauhini is twenty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy. The measure of elephants must be fixed at the same number. O ye pure, you must know that the number of foot-soldiers is one hundred and nine thousand, three hundred and fifty, the number of horse is sixty-five thousand, six hundred and ten. These, O Brahmanas, as fully explained by me, are the numbers of an Akshauhini as said by those acquainted with the principles of numbers.’” – Mahabharata, section II (Vyasa, translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli)

Keep in mind that at the time the text was codified thus, these sums probably represented the narrator’s mastery of arithmetic in front of his audience, which it’s easy to assume may have been very much in vogue at the time in terms of demonstrating intellectual prowess, almost like a magic trick.

In the Mahabharata, which depicts the lives and lineages of the Pandavas and the Kauravas as well as a war that ensued once between them, the text describes eighteen Akshauhinis meeting on a battlefield, while the fact remains, the kingdoms described were actually most likely city states. It is extremely unlikely that ancient kings fielded, for example, 393,660 elephants all in one place to do battle, and a fortunate unlikelihood it is at that. And indeed, earliest versions of the story may not have defined these things numerically at all. But the numbers thus being stylized seems rather to be an arcane reference to the scope of how epic these matters must’ve been and felt at the time.

Numbers are admirably objective, but their objectivity is actually subtly finite. Chaos theory is a theory that involves the fact that modern numbers and mathematics ultimately break down and get confusing because we made them up. It essentially deals with what happens when they do.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

PLEASE DONATE TO WEIRDO CAMP. Do you enjoy and/or enrich yourself with Weirdo Camp and its unique, original content? Please send a donation via Paypal (see site sidebar) or to $alchemylynx on Cash App.
Want the coolest tax deduction in the world? Donate to Terra Thesis Institute.

Welcome to the straightaway

Technically speaking, we’ve run out of Kali Yuga. As such, we’re now experiencing the earliest part of the Satya Yuga (also called Krita Yuga; Satya means “truth”, and Krita means “perfect”). This is in terms of galactic positioning, as we’ve just navigated a very sharp corner (or type of corner) that’s been associated with the Kali Yuga and the transition into the Satya Yuga at least once before. It is still essential for people to bring humanity and civilization into this highly favorable time by promoting dharma, but the corner appears to be turned, which means that we are officially clean out of the Kali Yuga (and in a Satya hyperimperative), in terms of spacetime and its odd characteristics.

There was a point earlier this year when both the Sun and Moon joined Jupiter in Taurus, which might have signaled the official turning point esoterically. The magnetic signal may have been triggered more recently, probably within the last month.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

PLEASE DONATE TO WEIRDO CAMP. Do you enjoy and/or enrich yourself with Weirdo Camp and its unique, original content? Please send a donation via Paypal (see site sidebar) or to $alchemylynx on Cash App.
Want the coolest tax deduction in the world? Donate to Terra Thesis Institute.

Moloch and the Bible

Moloch (or Molech) is an evil concept that’s plagued Judeo-Christian continuities for quite a long time. Usually depicted as an idol that looks like a minotaur, with a bovine head, there are accounts of people doing atrocities in the name of Moloch. These are grievous to recount, including attacks on very young children.

The word Moloch appears to be related to the word “melech” (Hebrew for king), making it somewhat euphemistic, similar to the name “Baal” being an honorific like “lord” or “master”.

One curious aspect of the tragic history involving Moloch is that in the Bible, the God of Israel repeatedly says “I did not tell you to do this”, “these were not my commands to you”, etc. when commenting on the atrocities associated with Moloch. God expresses hatred for everything to do with what is done in Moloch’s name, and quite rightly calls these abominations, but there’s something very haunting about the insistence that they were not mandated by Him, almost as if there was a misunderstanding on that point somehow.

The semiotics of the bull head may give one clue as to why that might be, considering that a sect of Israelites escaping slavery in ancient Egypt identified with a bovine deity, which they rendered as a golden calf upon their exodus from Egypt.

Something the Israelites would have associated with their main deity at that time was the series of miraculous attacks known as the plagues of Egypt. In one of these plagues, many families were said to have lost their first-born children. This story may have experienced some kind of distortion over time, and become connected with the atrocities of the bovine idol Moloch.

A seemingly more recent association of the name or honorific Moloch with the symbol of an owl may be, among other things, an esoteric hint to exercise wisdom in unpacking any Moloch lore, the owl being a symbol of wisdom.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

PLEASE DONATE TO WEIRDO CAMP. Do you enjoy and/or enrich yourself with Weirdo Camp and its unique, original content? Please send a donation via Paypal (see site sidebar) or to $alchemylynx on Cash App.
Want the coolest tax deduction in the world? Donate to Terra Thesis Institute.

Summer Solstice ’23

The major solar holidays are four, and mark the official beginnings of the four seasons in the Gregorian calendar, which is standard in most of the West and indeed much of the world. The solstices are in winter and summer, predictably marking the day with the earliest sunset (and therefore the shortest day and longest night) and the latest sunset (and therefore the longest day and shortest night), respectively. The spring and fall equinoxes are notable for being midpoints between these. The solstices are even more dramatic when observed from far above the Tropic of Cancer or far below the Tropic of Capricorn (note: which may have to be adjusted on maps at some point due to the current pole shift potentially redefining both poles, possibly hundreds of kilometers from their current positions), and incredibly exaggerated very near or at the north and south poles.

Today is the summer solstice, which means it’ll be summer from now on until the equinox ushers in the fall in September.

Seasons in most climates have the esoteric quality of having very discernible tones, perhaps even moreso than years or months. They are that cyclical, and return to us like something we know, year after year. This is perhaps one of the nice luxuries of time.

My new Spotify concept playlist is called That Summer (part of a seasonal set; note that you may have to refresh the page once before the list actually comes up to play on the web interface; you can search for this list as “That Summer (mix)” on the app). It’s a fairly short listen, compiled with summer’s signature tone in mind, as well as my personal ideas of summer as exciting, warm and rhythmic, sweet at dusk, and full of moments that are hard to encapsulate by description. Check it out. Happy Summer.

──── by Lync Dalton ────

PLEASE DONATE TO WEIRDO CAMP. Do you enjoy and/or enrich yourself with Weirdo Camp and its unique, original content? Please send a donation via Paypal (see site sidebar) or to $alchemylynx on Cash App.
Want the coolest tax deduction in the world? Donate to Terra Thesis Institute.