You may be familiar with the Seven Hermetic Principles — namely, the 4th principle, which discusses polarity:
"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."
This statement, of course, comes from The Kybalion, a book that has quietly worked many of its beliefs into several magickal systems today, despite the fact that its legitimacy and origins have been questioned since publication. Regardless of where it came from, it’s an interesting statement. Some of the lines almost seem to contradict themselves. It is rather paradoxical to say that all paradoxes can be reconciled, is it not?
The principle of polarity, where all extremes meet, is often explained with a drawing of a thermometer. With a straight line, you can see cold is measured at one end of the thermometer and hot at the other; therefore, these two “extremes” meet somewhere in the middle.
But have you ever touched something that is so cold that it burns? That would seem to imply that it isn’t a spectrum, it’s a continuum. Extremes meet each other at both ends.
And these are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. Is it possible to be so good that you eventually become evil? At what point does strength become weakness? Can selfishness turn to generosity?
For years, I have searched high and low for measurable, empirical data to support my personal thoughts of a polarity continuum. It’s always existed more as a feeling in my gut, something that starts to lose meaning as soon as you start to put it into words.
Until now.
I’ve finally found proof and I’m overjoyed to share it with you. It comes in a form that you might not expect.
Exhibit A, photo by DebStevo90, CC BY-SA 4.0. Courtesy of Wikimedia.
If I may, I’d like to now turn your attention to Exhibit A – Peggy, a five-year-old Pugese. Peggy has won a competition for being Britain’s ugliest dog.
Peggy is so ugly, she has become adorable. You can read more about her here.
Extreme ugliness crosses into extreme cuteness. Everything exists on a continuum.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
(please do not attempt to take this very seriously)
Good morning and happy monday, friends! Can’t believe we’re in August already.
Selene and I celebrated Lughnasadh earlier in the week with our coven family. On Saturday, we went to prison to celebrate with the inmates. I’d say it went pretty well despite the fact that we’re still getting some pushback from the administration about what we can and cannot bring for religious services and that this maybe the 5th of 6th time in a row we haven’t had access to keys to properly unlock portions of the chapel. We’re working on it.
I posted the start to a short series on Color Magick last week, as well as the written portion of Jack Chanek’s interview.
I made some short videos, one of which is of a squirrel and naturally jumped to over 1000 views.
If you view my site on the web and not through the WordPress reader or Jetpack, you may have noticed it’s gotten a fairly big overhaul over the past week or so. My first version lacked any sort of organization. Now I’m making pages within pages, an actual navigation system, and a proper list of categories. I think it’s all headed in the right direction, but am still finding it very time consuming.
Coming up soon on M3, I’ll be having Alexian as a guest. I was on his show a couple of months ago, so it should be a lot of fun!
In mundane news, we saw the new Deadpool movie and it was awesome, hilarious, and fun.
I’ve got lots of writing to do, so that’ll be most of my focus this week.
Stay tuned for more!
Right. Fine print. Can’t forget that. There is an Amazon affiliate link on this page. If you use that link to make a purchase, Amazon will pay me a small commission. Also, did you know that Dog spelled backwards is God?
Aerik Arkadian 
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