Posted on by Kyle Roques

Mystery School’s – What Are They?

“Mystery School’s, the ancient Mysteries, Mystery traditions” – what does “Mystery” mean, and why is it sometimes capitalized?

I had the question myself the first time I heard the term. I use the term often when speaking about Freemasonry and it’s a term you’ll see often when studying esoteric/occult teachings. It’s definition is quite vast and can’t really be articulated, but I’ll attempt to be as succinct as possible here, with a few quotes to aid in understanding.

Taken from Wiki:
“Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai). The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy associated with the particulars of the initiation and the ritual practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders.”

“A ‘mystery’, as it was originally defined in ancient Greece and used in the Orphic and Eleusinian mystery schools, is a type of divine revelation that can only be conveyed by experience and is incomprehensible to reason. The revelation initiates or begins a cognitive change in the recipient – also known as the initiate – that alters the way he or she sees and interacts with the world. It is not based on information or even feelings and therefore, it cannot be put into words.” – Kirk C. White

Simply put, what all Mystery schools have in common, is that they just offer a circumstance dedicated to giving the necessary space one needs to start to understand who they really are, for one to discover their real Self. So it’s the study of the Self, as an individual endeavor, and cannot be learnt/learned from anything/anyone outside of yourself.

Some of the documented, original, most ancient Mystery School’s that some may know are the Greco-Roman Mysteries (ie. Eleusinian, Samothracian, Mithriac, Dionysian, etc.)

Historically, “Their primary mission was to protect and preserve the ancient systems of enlightenment, healing, manifestation, transmutation and transformation so that they can be continually used by humanity for its collective progression. Mystery School teachings are imparted by an oral tradition. Rooted in shamanic and mystic ways of wisdom, these teachings are handed down unbroken from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage that has withstood the test of time. … To understand GOD, we must first understand ourselves who were made in their image. Mystery schools exist to empower us to ‘Know Thyself’.

As you can see, the term Mystery, when used to speak about the ancient tradition of the Mystery School’s, is not defined as most people use the word ‘mystery’ today.
Hopefully this helps one to understand what the ancient Mysteries are and what the Mystery School’s impart. But like I stated above, the “Mysteries” can only be known and felt by the individual. No one can explain to you what it is. You have to have direct contact with diety to truly understand.

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Operative Freemasonry

…Freemasonry is exceptional. That is, I believe that Freemasonry is something special. It isn’t the same as the Rotary, Lions, or any other civic group. Nor is it equivalent to your bowling team. It is a very specific system designed to effect the moral and spiritual transformation of its members. When done conciously and properly, it should actually change the men who join. It should set them in a lifelong journey of spiritual, moral, and mental growth that the average person can’t get anywhere else.

Kirk C. White
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Freemasonic Worship

It was a huge honor and quite the experience for me to work side by side with Missouri’s Most Worshipful Grand Master and other Grand Lodge officers, in this temple.

Since it’s relevant — and I’m sure many have the question, as did I — I’d like to clarify and explain the naming convention of “Worshipful Master” we use in Freemasonry.
Firstly, we do not worship any man. The term Worshipful comes from ancient England and was an honorary title that simply meant “respected” in the past. The structure of each individual lodge/temple consists of a Worshipful Master at the top and a few offers that support him. Basically, the WM (Worshipful Master) serves as the chief officer and oversees all lodge functions, lodge officer duties, and presides over each lodge meeting. He ultimately has the last say on matters but we are all considered equal.

Now, if you define worship as what most people see in the Abrahamic religions (ie. singing, prayer, sermon, praising God directly, etc.), I’d say Freemasons do not worship anyone or anything period. I know this was my definition of worship, basically just praising/kneeling to God directly, in different ways.

My definition of worship has expanded though. If you define worship as: a wide-ranged avenue to give adoration and respect to diety, a personal act of the heart rather than outward actions, and that worship can be expressed in all areas of life — then you could argue we do worship.

But I would say what we worship more specifically, isn’t diety per se, but the divine spark that resides in each of us. So worshipping the sanctity and power of the individual. Something I clearly support and stand behind.

So, long story short: Missouri has many individual temples/lodges (city to city), in each, a Worshipful Master presides over it. Each state in the U.S. has a Grand Lodge, which is the overarching governing body over all the individual lodges in the state and functions just as the rest of the lodges do. So, the Grand Lodge’s Worshipful Master title is “Most Worshipful Grand Master.”

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Freemasonry and Healing Trauma – Analogy/Metaphor

Since I’ve been quiet with my blog post/writing lately I’d like to explain why. Most of the content for my blog post come from the books I read and I was reading at least 5 days a week. I haven’t really been reading much due to the time I’m investing into Freemasonry. Instead of reading, in the last 7 months, I’ve learned the bulk of all 3 degree ceremonies. I’ve learned the lines and floor work for big roles in these plays – a total of around 5k-6k words in different chunks. This includes learning/mastering a 3,000 word lecture (20+ consecutive mins of talking). The ceremonies don’t really change so once you learn everything then you’re set and can perform in all the ceremonies. I’m trying to get to that point.


With books, it’s easy to extract information from what you’re reading. The insights I’m gaining from Freemasonry come much slower. Partly because right now I’m too busy learning lines, floor work,  getting over nerves, etcetera to extract deep meaning from the teachings. You really have to get proficient and confident with the ceremonies to be able to focus on extracting deeper meaning from them. What I’m learning is also very repetitive, so I’m not really learning anything “new” so to speak. The information comes slower but, perhaps, more rewarding. Such is the nature of any esoteric teachings but more so with Freemasonry than any other esoteric teachings I’ve engaged with.


There is something very profound about Freemasonry that I’ve uncovered with my therapist about what Freemasonry is doing for me. One of the core aspects of counseling is that the therapy session is a safe place you can express your feelings/emotions and explore your thoughts/desires. A safe place to speak your truth – safe meaning both physically and emotionally. 
This is one reason I advocate for everyone needing therapy. We have to have a safe place to explore our minds openly. Most people use their spouse, friend, family, and the like for their safe place(s). But there is nothing like having a professional to help you better navigate your internal world. 


In mitigating trauma, having a safe place is absolutely essential for healing and growth. This safe place allows you to explore your trauma in a healthy and controlled way. Instead of your triggers controlling your thoughts and behavior. Because when you’re in that state, it’s almost impossible to explore your feelings in any constructive way.


One of the roadblocks I face right now, in relation to therapy and my personal development, is that underneath my anger/rage I have a fear driving those emotions. I know this logically, but I can’t explore the fear underlying my rage. I can’t explore my fear because I do not physically feel it in my body at all. I really need to be able to explore my anger and fear in the moment, which is really hard to do. This is because not too many things trigger this emotion, and when it does, it puts me in a state of fight or flight so I’m not thinking cognitively to watch it.
Freemasonry is very nerve-racking for me. With performing in the ceremonies you have to speak/lecture to strangers while looking them in the eye, while a crowd is watching you, knowing that everyone is criticizing your every word and action. It’s very much out of my comfort zone. The fear I feel when performing is the closest feeling I’ve ever gotten to my anger/rage feeling, while still being in control. 


With all that in mind, Freemasonry is giving me a safe place that I can explore my fear. A place that I can conquer, master, and get curious with my fear. They say metaphor and analogy are the key to life. This Freemasonry fear analogy is helping me to unlock my fear and empower myself. I think this is a big reason why I enjoy Freemasonry so much. 
So find small and manageable ways to explore your trauma via analogy. This is how you “sit with your demons”, talk to them, ask them questions, find out what they want/need so you can integrate them into your being – shadow work essentially. There is a lifetime of secrets to unlock in Freemasonry and I’m just hitting the tip of the iceberg. 

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Masonic Archeology

It is true that Freemasonry is the parent of all religion, the original worldwide cosmic gnosis, diffused in ancient times to the uttermost ends of the earth. Freemasonry is the Pompeii of prehistoric science. All the Masonic ritual, it’s Egyptian signs, it’s Chaldean grips, it’s Sanskirt passwords, is ancient Hebrew symbols, it’s cabalistic allusions and its historical records are supremely scientific and a survival through long ages, by various underground channels, of the knowledge of the universe which was gained by Sabian astronomers from the temple tops of Chaldea, India and China and recorded by the equally learned geometers and mathematicians of the ancient Orient.

Frank C. Higgins
Posted on by Kyle Roques

A Symbolist’s Vision

Partially what has inspired me, and led me to the path that I’m on, is watching and learning from the great Symbolists. People that can readily and pragmatically, extract meaning from, and interpret, esoteric/occult/religious symbolism, art and the like. People that approach dreams, the imagination and spirituality, with a more academic approach. I want to be able to see the world as they do, because they see the world in a completely different way than the lay person.

So one of the main focuses in my study is the development of my intuition, with the intention of being able to understand and interpret the universal language of symbolism. As you can imagine, or know from experience, this is very difficult to do. Partially because symbolism is intentionally vague, yet has to be interpreted through a certain framework. You have to train your intuition and study the roots of the symbology academically.

Starting out years ago, I wasn’t able to extract hardly any sort of meaning, from any kind of symbolism and/or art. I’d look at say a tarot card, and get nothing out of it without looking up what everything means, and relying on other people’s interpretation, which defeats the purpose of esoteric/occult symbolism.

I see a lot of people (and this was myself in the past) ask: “What does this image mean?”. No one can tell you what the image means. Esoteric and occult symbolism is intentionally vague to allow the individual to impart their own personal level of interpretation (again, still limited within a certain framework). The subtle aspects of our nature is what makes us more than who we are, more than just an animal, or just material elements in a meat sack. The things that you can’t quite explain, feelings and meanings you can’t articulate, phenomenon that can’t be explained by material science – it’s these aspects of our being that esoteric/occult symbolism is supposed to communicate with. It’s supposed to invite these divine, subtle aspects of our nature to step forward. The meaning has to come from within.

For years I have had the same problem I described above, about not being able to extract meaning from the symbolism. Finally, after many years of research, study and training, I have gotten to a point where I’m starting to intuit meaning from the art. It sort of just hit me out of no where. I guess a piece of the divine spark has touched me. So I’d like to share one of my recent interpretations. Partly because I’m very proud of myself, but majoraly because I want to let people in on how profound this ability is.

Below will be my interpretation of this image. For people not read on hermetic or qabbalistic philosophy, you’ll likely see most of this as gibberish. A quick Google search on the hermetic principle of the “All”, and a search on the alchemical “magnum opus”, will definitely help and for the most part, get you up to speed.

For me the raven represents sort of the most evolved intelligence in the bird kingdom – specifically noting how social and intuitive they are. Plus all the other traditional meanings birds imply. So in other words the most advanced state of consciousness in the bird kingdom.

Seeing the circle, encapsulated (or perhaps “nested”) in the square, the square in the triangle, and triangle in the circle, represents a totality of the structure of our material and divine constitution within the “All” (the hermetic and qabbalistic concept of the All).

I see the first circle as me (us – humans), it’s the “dot” or “point” (perhaps one individual seed of conciousness), radiating out, unfolded in its highest, most divine form, yet still encapsulated in this material realm.

The square, or us in the four fold material realm, is us realized to it’s most divine capacity, partaking or touching the higher, divine, trinitarian, ethereal realm of spirit.
So that threefold aspect of divine cosmic spirit is nested within the “limitless and boundless” All (again I’m speaking in hermetic and qabbalistic terms).

So I see this image sort of as a reminder of what is possible with our “baser” self(s). The raven also intimates towards the alchemical philosophers stone or the magnum opus. A reminder that with just base elements you can create something evolved to its highest potential (ie. the raven), something that takes part in, or something that becomes divine. That with mastery over the material and spiritual realms, we can bring ourselves back to unity with the All.

But the deeper meaning this image has for me, I can’t articulate. This is why I love esoteric and occult symbolism. Partly because with just some simple symbols you can convey truths and realities that cannot be articulated. As I stated above, just as the subtle parts of the raven is what makes it divine, and the subtle parts of our nature is what makes us divine, occult symbolism speaks to that higher more ethereal parts of our nature. It stimulates and invites out our divine nature to step forward. The universal language of symbolism is a direct path to diety and brings you closer to divinity with every step. This is a Symbolist’s vision.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

A Breakthrough in Therapy

I’d like to share a recent breakthrough I’ve had in therapy. You’ll need just a quick background of my symptoms from childhood trauma to understand the break through. Basically I exhibit an irrational rage to any emotionally charged situation. So the closer people are to me and the more emotionally charged the situation, the more I rage. Anger is largely a learned behavior. While my dad wasn’t ever abusive towards us kids, he did have anger issues, he would react with anger to high stress situations. I learned how to react with to the world with anger by watching my father. My abusive mother is what ingrained triggers in me that will provoke an angry response to things that seem to be not at all connected to my trauma.

So these triggers induce a rage in me. What I’ve learned is that I’m not really angry. With humans, anger and rage are almost always a cover for much deeper feelings. In situations that relate to my triggers, I found that what is at the core of my anger is fear. When I get afraid my unconscious reaction is to get angry. The anger and rage completely cover any fear I feel. I know this logically, but I cannot separate the fear and anger internally. I don’t feel afraid at all, just mad, I only know this intellectually because it’s the only thing that explains my over the top reactions I have to everyday minor situations.

Part of my breakthrough is this: In a therapy session, when I was talking about my current feelings, I started to feel the rage build in me. I was guided by my therapist to “walk through” my anger so to speak, to interact with it, ask it questions, investigate it. In doing that, she actually enabled me to separate my anger from my fear. I was able to physically feel my fear separate from my anger in my body. Something that has never happened to me yet, even after a few years of pretty intense therapy.

So in doing this it enabled me to investigate my fear. Again, something I’ve never been able to do. I was able to ask myself what I’m still afraid of after all these years. My mother was physically (and emotionally) abusive when I was a child, back then I was obviously afraid of her in a physically sense. She’s 4 foot 10 inches, so I haven’t been physically scared of her for a long time. What I found is that the same physical fear I used to have, morphed into a fear I have that is wrapped up in guilt. I’m afraid I’m making the wrong decision with my mother. For those that don’t know, about a year ago I cut my mother off completely, like absolutely 0 contact with her at all. Even though my 3 other siblings are still very much involved in her life.

I’m afraid I’m making the wrong choice here. I now have to learn to separate the guilt from the fear. Because the guilt I feel about cutting off my mother is inducing the same fear I felt as a child, which is causing my rage in everyday situations.

That’s the breakthrough I had. Firstly, I was able to actually separate my anger from the fear, to be able to investigate my fear. Then I found that my guilt is wrapped up in my fear, something that is constantly looming over me. I obviously still have a lot more work to do, but now I have a direction to go, I can try to untangle my guilt from my fear.

This is what therapy is for. This is the tough spiritual work one has to go through for real change. You can understand how the human mind works on an intellectual level all you want, but you have to actually put these things to practice in your own mind. You have to have a rich inner life to look into the depths of your soul, to investigate the things that you’re not in control of. This is wisdom. This is gnosis.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Walking with God

*disclaimer – a lot of this post was taken from a couple different Jordan Peterson biblical series lectures. They aren’t exact quotes, I would blend his sentences and his words with mine, it would of been impossible to accurately cite his work. Just know much of the main body of this post comes from his mouth. I just combined a lot of different points he made, in my own way, into one cogent post for the thought I had about trust.

I’d like to talk about trust. I’m seeing the erosion of trust happen in many different aspects of society right now (personal/private/individual, institutions, government, corporate, etc.). I think this is an ignorant, naive, ego inflated, and dangerous trend. I’m not saying there isn’t good reason for the erosion of trust in theses various areas, and I’m not saying to trust naively.

Let me clarify here. Many people think that putting trust in strangers or with individuals and/or institutions that have warranted a lack of trust is dumb and naive. I agree that blind trust is naive and am not recommending that. But placing trust in someone, while understanding how you can be hurt in the situation is not dumb or naive, it’s brave. This is the sort of trust I’m advocating for.

Placing trust in individuals (while understanding/preparing for how you can be hurt) is partly how you “walk with God”. It’s to take part of the transcendent aspect of Being. To understand this, there is a few things I need to explain. It has to do with with how you interact and conduct yourself towards the “strange” (so stranger(s), strange people, strange ideas, and/or that which is not you, etc. – so interacting with things that your first instinct isn’t to trust).

To walk with God means to elevate your aim and to move towards Him, or the highest ideal you can possibly think of. As you do this you create a judge, the “new you”/the new ideal becomes the judge, because it’s above you, directing you. This thing that’s above you, judging you, is useful because it tells you what’s useless about yourself so that you can dispense with it. As you keep doing this you create a higher and higher judge, which means more and more of you is being dispensed with. The idea here is that you eventually come up with the ultimate judge. The archetypal imagination of human kind has come up the ultimate and perfect judge, and man, which is Christ. This judge tells you to get rid of every part of you that isn’t perfect.

This is what God tells Abraham, to be perfect, to pick an ideal high enough and move towards it. Whats great about this idea is that this is something you can do on your own terms, although you do have to have some collaboration with others. You don’t have to pick an external ideal (such as Christ), you pick an ideal that fulfills the role of ideal for you. You ask yourself “If things could be set up for me the way that I need them to be,  and if I could be who I needed to be, what would that look like?” In doing that you instantly form a judge, this is partly why people don’t look up and move ahead. Because it’s easy to feel intimated in the face of your own ideal. This is what Cain does to Abel, it’s easier to try and destroy the ideal instead of moving towards it, because then you get rid of the judge. This is why you lower the judge if you need to, because maybe the ideal you created is crushing you and is playing the role of the tyrant. Tap down your ambitions if needed, not destroy them.

I think this idea is beautiful, because this process of recapitulating yourself over and over again is a Phoenix like process. And as you’re doing this you are shaping yourself ever more precisely into something that can withstand the tragedy of life and as a person that can act as a beacon to the world. This turns you into someone that can be reliable in a crisis, someone to look up to. The people you know that are like that and you look up to, you can consider them partial manifestations of the archetypal messiah.

So if you want to thrive in life, to not live in isolation inbittered, lonely and resentful, this is how you treat or interact with the “strange” and/or unknown. Ask yourself what do I want make friends with more? What do I want to be more comfortable with? Do I want to be more comfortable with that which I already know? (The circumscribed territory you have already mastered) Or do you want to be comfortable with all the things you don’t know? The right answer is that you want to be more comfortable with the things you don’t know.  Because you are going to encounter a lot in life that you do not know. You want to be the person that can act where they don’t know.

You don’t know who the stranger is when you encounter them. And It depends on if you’re thinking about it in the normative or transcendent manner. With each person you meet they’re just a person, people like to shield themselves, so what you know about who they are is what they choose to reveal to you. But then they’re also something of great metaphysical potential. You may ask if this is something you actually believe, and the answer is yes. Because you generally expect alot out of people and get very upset if they betray you.

Our entire culture is predicated on the idea that each person has an indefinite intrinsic worth, and I’m not talking about self esteem. “What I’m talking about is the implicit presupposition in our legal stucture that no matter who you are (even if you’re a condemned murderer) that there is something about you that is of transcendent value that has to be respected, by the law and by other people. You may not think you believe that but you do, because you follow the law.”

So this is where trust comes in again. Abraham, in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when strangers come to his door he welcomes them with open arms. The lesson here being this is how you should conduct yourself. In doing so, you hold out your hand in trust to someone and you evoke the best from them, if that’s there to give. It’s an act of courage, it isn’t just me meeting you, it’s the transcendent part of me making a gesture to you that allows the transcendent part of you to step forward.

This happens all the time in normative discourse. Because sometimes you can have a real casual conversation with someone that is shallow and just goes no where. Or now and then you can actually make contact with someone, where you’re both enlightened and enobled by the conversation. And for reasons we don’t quite understand we call that a “deep conversation”, because we made a deep connection, whatever that means. We know it doesn’t mean shallow, we aren’t sure what these metaphors mean. But it atleast means that it reaches deep inside of you, you make direct person to person contact. These sorts of conversations are replenishing, they provide you with that sort of “bread” that isn’t material bread. That’s the information you need to thrive and put yourself together. So it does matter if you extend out your trust, and how you first meet people and treat them.

You have to trust and act on the presupposition that people have something of great interest to reveal. When people tell you their idiosyncratic stories they tell you something you didn’t know. So that means you can treat the landscape of strangers as and endless vista of places to learn things you didn’t know. If your life is insufficient and you’re suffering more than you want to, and everything isn’t what it should be, then you need to look where you haven’t looked, for what you don’t have. So you can look outside, beyond yourself, and make friends with what you don’t understand.

People get what they evoke, so ask yourself, if you’re not getting from people what you need (others are not honest, distrustful, mean, etc.) then there is some possibility that it is you. Especially if the same bad thing keeps happening to you across multiple people, then it most certainly is you. It’s either you or the world, and better it be you, because you aren’t going to change the whole world.

Being the person that extends out trust first, that can act in the unknown, that takes the best part of themselves and invites out the best in others, will live a fuller life in every way imaginable. It will equip you to prevail over the tragedy and suffering of life. I see this as a requirement in life to trust others, to take part in the replenishing, transcendent aspect of Being. Without that we will live a lonely, bitter, and paltry life. So be courageous, “walk with God”, and act as a beacon of light to your family, friends, and thus, the world.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Why Esoteric Traditions Veil Their Truths

Many people look down on institutions or organizations that openly claim to keep secrets. Christians have been one of the harshest critics about this and baselessly claim Masonic secrets are kept for nefarious reasons. Yet even Christianity veils truths in their scripture and their teachings. Just about every esoteric and/or occult group, practice veiling their deepest truths in symbolism and allegory. Even nature hides Truths in plain sight.

Below are some quotes on the subject, one even coming from the bible.

Masonry, like all the religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals its secrets from all except the adepts and sages, or the elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it. Truth is not for those who are unworthy or unable to receive it, or would pervert it.

Albert Pike

Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not cast your pearls before swine, or they will trample them underfoot and turn and mow you.

Matt 7:6

There are a few reasons this is done and it’s not done for any nefarious reasons. Though, obviously a corrupt institution can do it for nefarious reasons.

One of the main reasons this is done is to prevent people from perverting the truth for their own gain. I can use the mainstream accepted “Truth” about Lucifer, from the Bible, as an example. The veiled truth is that Lucifer (as stated in the Bible, he is the Light Bringer) is to be thought of more as a force, not an existing personified demon. Understanding Lucifer as a force means that as an individual, seeing evil in their heart, has to take responsibility for that evil. Because it is a force that stems from them and that they partake in. If the uninitiated, profane, and/or unworthy find out this truth they would pervert it. They would rather think of Lucifer as a personified demon, as something separate from them, so that they can avoid all responsibility for that evil. “It’s not me, it’s the devil, it’s his fault!”

People would rather deny the torture of understanding their baser yearnings in self deceit. The more the actual truth is pushed on certain individuals the more they push back. Self deceit turns into denialism and a whole new way of seeing the world. These people build a new a better truth for themselves, at the detriment to the world around them, so it’s better to veil these deeper truths from the profane.

Another main reason the truth is veiled is because truth is actually a very subjective thing. “Truth is the aim of belief” and we all have different beliefs and aims.

Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality. In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, propositions, and declarative sentences.

Wikipedia: Truth

Just telling an individual the Truth doesn’t work, they have to find the Truth for themselves. So you veil the Truth in such a way that it leads people on a journey to discover it for themselves, in their own way.

Without this method people will never understand the Truth on their own. This is the main reason Masons hide their Truths in symbolism and allegory. This is the philosophy of a Freemason, to attempt to lift the veil of reality into the deeper Truths that lay hidden in plain sight.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

No Redemption in Equality

Many people have a time or period in their life where they feel their life lacks purpose, meaning, direction, and take on a nihilistic world view. Some people live like that and never escape. When I started my career after school is when this period came for me – which is a very common time for most people.

I felt lost so to speak and became very nihilistic without any purpose, meaning, and direction. In life there is this philisophic principle or idea about “quality”. This idea of “quality” basically says that there are qualitative distinctions between things and that as humans, we have an instinct to make qualitative distinctions. A qualitative distinction is just saying that “this” is better than “that” or vice-versa. So a qualitative distinction is a judgment.

There is this modern idea that we are to accept ourselves and that we are OK just as we are. Many people (especially the younger generations) are conflating what this means and take it literally. They accept themselves and don’t work towards bettering who they are. Jordan Peterson thinks this is an insane idea and couldn’t be more nihilistic. This is because you are NOT ok, and the reason you’re not ok is because you could be WAY more than what you are. So do you want to be ok as you are? Or do you want to strive towards what’s better?

I’ve come a very long way from my nihilism. I have filled my life with copious amounts of purpose and meaning, and have gained plenty of direction in doing so. The turning point for me was because I knew I wasn’t happy with my current mode of Being. I didn’t consider the manner in which I conducted myself to be sufficient. To do this you have to understand the notion that you CAN make “qualitative distinctions” and that there really is a difference between “good” things and “bad” things, or “great” things and “evil” things etc.. This gives you direction and the possibility of moving upward. You have to maintain the idea that we as humans are insufficient as we are and need the movement upward. So you have to conceptualize something like the “highest good” and then strive towards that.

This is what Christ is in the Bible (the highest good) and why the biblical story gives people so much direction and meaning – something to strive towards. There is an idea in Revelations that the “redeemer” and “judge” are the same thing. Christ comes back with a flaming sword in his mouth to judge the people of earth. Most people were damned and some were saved.

There is no difference between conceptualizing the good and being judged. Because to conceptualize the good and move towards it, means that you have to separate from yourselves all the things that aren’t good and leave them behind. This is why “redeemer” and the “judge” are the same thing.

That’s the problem in the modern world with how we are rejecting qualitative distinctions, to not offend anyone/hurt anyone’s feelings, because we are just fine as we are and don’t want to say one thing is better than the other. Sure, it’s not any fun to be casted off with the damned, but if people are insufficient in their present condition (which seems to be the case, try finding someone who is not) and you deny the possibility of qualitative distinctions, because you want to promote a radical egalitarianism, then you remove the possibility of redemption – because there is no movement towards the good. Sacrificing the “good” for the “equal” is catastrophic, because if we were all equal, we’d all be equally un redeemed and miserable.

So to live a life full of meaning, direction, and purpose, you to understand that you are insufficient as you are. You have to conceptualize the highest good and strive for it – the continuation of our species depends on it.