Knowledge and Mystery
The world is a confusing place in many ways. It is a dangerous one, too. It makes perfect sense that the evolutionary process would promote curiosity and the ability to discover and understand—by learning about the workings of the world, our ability to survive and even dominate nature increased exponentially. Eventually, our curiosity led to the creation of science, a highly effective, if imperfect tool for figuring out what things are, what they do, and how they do it.
A popular refrain states that science cannot answer all questions. That is undoubtedly true. Embedded within the universe are processes and events that will be forever beyond our ability to analyze, predict, or understand.
The part of us that desires to know things seduces us into thinking that there is a deeper level of reality that can be grasped by a special tuning process of the mind. After all, the brain is the only real mediator of experience (and therefore of all knowledge), so it must be possible to manipulate that tool to perceive and grasp this hidden reality that sits beyond the keen eye of scientific examination. An extension of this perspective argues that some people in the past have indeed achieved this and developed translation systems that allow every day people to have access to this hidden wisdom—astrology, tarot, gematria, Cabala, goat entrails, tea leaves, entheogenic ritual, bibliomancy, augury, palmistry, scrying, Ouija, runecasting, and any other number of countless methods.
Employing these practices can have numerous etiologies and consequences. As stated, the foundation of them all is certainly the desire to know things, which itself derives from our common need to seek safety and reduce existential anxiety. It matters not one whit if the “knowledge” they provide has any objective veridicality—all that is important is that they produce the feeling of knowing.
The “feeling of knowing” is a somewhat poorly understood psychological phenomenon. In general, it is hypothesized to be a function of the familiarity process in memory. Key components include cues and target familiarity, which would perhaps explain why working within certain memorized systems (e.g. the Tree of Life or Tarot) might produce such strong feelings of knowing, because they provide numerous cues for highly familiar symbols. The key here is that such methods are closed systems—the data that they produce are only relevant to the system itself, and to nothing else in any objective sense.
But this is all academic. Nothing can explain away the intense desire people have to know things. On top of this, believing that one has an inside track to the secrets of existence can lead to feelings of pride and exceptionality. If one harbors deep doubts about one’s self worth, then indulging in such systems can also provide profound relief. Likewise, if one has developed inadequate skills for dealing with every day life—especially in regards to predicting consequences and developing the necessary resources to thrive—then retreating into an occult world with relatively easy-to-follow rules might seem like a better choice.
Of course, this is certainly not true of everyone who is involved with occult/supernatural systems of knowing. Some simply have wonderful imaginations and take great pleasure in believing they live in a world described by mystics and prophets. These are the romantics, and I was certainly counted among their number at one time.
I must make something very clear here—there is infinite room in our lives for symbols and metaphors, for tools that inspire and focus. Life is hard and if a charm, horoscope, or ritual helps one to find greater meaning, fulfillment, and joy, then that is a good thing. A love amulet can help keep a mind open to potential partners; a prayer for employment might influence a person to keep looking when despair is near; a baptism often helps people to feel emotionally integrated into a new community. The allegorical perspective recognizes that symbols are doorways to emotional depths that are otherwise difficult to access, and as such, they have a vital role to play in our lives.
But there will always be things that are beyond knowing. This is not because there is a hidden world, mysterious powers, or unseen intelligences that care about our individual lives and manipulate events for some Grand Purpose. Mystery is simply intrinsic to reality. The emergent nature of the universe is such that a certain amount of randomness is inherent to existence. This is what gives things the wiggle room needed to change and produce variety. If randomness didn’t exist, we would not have galaxies, planets, or people, only a homogeneous cloud of elementary particles.
All knowledge is provisional. But this is not because all theories have equal value. When something is thought to be known, it takes a great deal of evidence to supplant it with new understanding. As things stand, we now know a great deal about the origins, functions, and workings of nature. As new information comes in, what we now know will change or disappear. This is philosophy of science 101.
But supernatural systems don’t follow the same rules. They do not allow for better ways of seeing things. They demand a static view of the world. If science is brought in, it is twisted to try to confirm existing conclusions. This is what makes supernatural systems completely inadequate as tools for exploring and understanding the natural world.
At some point, we need to accept the fact that there will be things we will never know. In some cases, that will be because they are beyond our ability to examine (e.g. what happens after death?). In other cases, it is simply because there are no Answers. Is there a Grand Purpose to Life? Not only is there no answer to that, it is the wrong question. Instead, try asking: how do we make life more meaningful, more fulfilling, and more joyous? Part of the answer to that is to make peace with Mystery, to realize that there will be some things we can know and other things we can’t, and to be okay with that. What will the next moment bring? Who knows.
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