Descriptions:
Video Description
This episode is staged as the serving of a trans-dimensional warrant. Ammon Hillman casts the viewer as an officer of the justice department belonging to the Saturnians, and he opens by saying the person being indicted does not need a name. What matters is the technique, because the real subject is how religious studies handles the ancient sources. Nothing is said for profit, and the charge is announced as a public service in the name of the muse. The audience is asked to watch the method, not the personality.
The evidence is in the way the unnamed speaker uses Greek, and it is read word by word. The speaker pronounces Iamblichus as Yamblichus, which Hillman takes as a pass through the Latin or continental line, and he uses words and phrases Hillman marks as errors, such as treating the goddess physis (φύσις) inside a phrase as a single compound and smoothing the noun antinomianism out of its adjective. The reported claim is that these small slips reveal where a teacher was trained, and that religious studies can throw Greek without carrying its weight.
The deeper accusation is that the mystery is being sold rather than read. The contrast is drawn between the classicist, who works the primary text, and the religious studies scholar, who borrows the aura. In the clip, the speaker warns that a source will require swimming lessons before anyone dives into it, and the argument in response is that gatekeeping appears when the text is not actually being allowed to speak. The remedy offered is direct, to read Iamblichus on the mysteries in a good translation, and the episode closes by saying the court is working upward through the organization, not stopping here.
Full Video Transcript
Welcome back to the Lady Babylon. This is a special edition. Tonight we’re here on business.
We are here to enforce a trans-dimensional warrant. Someone is being indicted. Someone is
being indicted, and we are here to enforce that indictment process. That’s all we’re here to do.
This has to be professional. It has to be straight up. There is no personal interest in this.
I will not be profiting. I do not take bribes. Tonight, we will look at the public’s interest,
and you and I will be officers of the Justice Department that belongs to the Saturnians.
Welcome. Thanks for coming. Everybody get suited up. I know that you’re ready to get into this.
I know that you want to be a part of this action. I understand that. And I thank you for your
attention so tonight we’re gonna go in and it’s a knock warrant yes mm-hmm and
what we’ll do is we will notify and of charges we will notify them you know
announce the charges things are a little bit different we’ll read the Miranda
rights that you don’t have. And we’ll proceed picking into the very words of the person
themselves. Kids, this is to keep off the street those that are ready and waiting for you. I’m
telling you, my beloved brothers and sisters, yeah, these tactics are being employed against
you um and so the trans-dimensional court has decided that it’s our it’s our time to break up
the conspiracy what do we do we go in for a conspiracy a trans-dimensional conspiracy you
won’t remember now we have to start at the bottom and we have to move our way up right you only get
to the top of the conspiracy um after you’ve worked the bottom because the bottom will give
you all the information you need to get to the top right okay fantastic fantastic so
without further ado i want to set us a theme tonight just to burn some incense if you will
just to hallow this place what you’re about to see are a few lines taken from iamblichus
I am. Isn’t it nice to see the poetry of the old institution? Yeah, it’s nice to see that civilization. We have to remember that when we go on one of these missions that we’re doing this in honor of that tradition. Yes. Yeah. In order of that, right.
so we’ve uh here we are here we are let’s um give me a second open up this is the trans-dimensional
authority you do not have a right to remain silent everything that you say is being used against you
in a trans-dimensional court of law you do not have the right to an attorney nor will one be
presented for you. Your words will be your judge. I like that last part. It’s not, you know, come on,
that’s the, that’s what you need to go in with, right? That’s what you need to enter. Bring him
in. Now, just to let you know, Bad Cop has been put on temporary duty for now. So we’re going to
go with this thing full steam. Bring him in. Bring him in. I want you to watch now. We don’t even
need to get into names names are not important this individual is not important his identity
is not important what is important is for me to show you how to enforce that space where reality
is everything yeah i we want the most precise science possible and i don’t want you fooled
I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to say it. But as we are handed this process to enforce,
as we find it’s our duty as servants of the muse to keep those waters clean, I would be remiss
in my duty if I didn’t show you what is going on so that you can find someone that may
sound like they’re saying good things but they may end up taking you which happens a lot academics
are the worst at this they can take you somewhere dark you can end up somewhere dark and then next
thing you know there’s going to be some sort of something dropped into a drink you’re going to be
coming to with all sorts of memories that you’re not even sure are reality. Yeah. That’s what can
happen. I am trying to prevent you from falling into the hands of this type of tactician. This
is called the Larry Nassar. Yeah. The category of our warrant today is called Larry Nassar. Yeah.
yeah one who can use deception one who can use deception based on an appeal to authority
right get that right he was a do who was nasser remember we’re bringing the past and the future
into the present who is nasser he’s that um do doctor of osteopathy who who ended up raping
generation of gymnasts. Yes. Yeah. His appeal to them was an appeal for salvation.
His manipulations, things that you and I and they know were molestations, right? His manipulations
were going to give them, don’t worry, don’t trust me. I’m the authority, right? He’s a D.O. I just
want to say one thing I got to sit in surgery in Guatemala repairing the foot
of a young girl that a DO from America had come down to and almost killed so I
was with a team of surgeons I’m not a surgeon I was carried supplies did
grunt work but I was with an orthopedic surgeon who rescued her
who rescued her. Yeah. So MD is to DO as classics is to religious studies. Okay.
If we’re going to go in and serve this warrant, we have to know our stuff. We have to be well
within the trans-dimensional law. We have to know exactly what we’re going in for, what we’re doing.
This can’t be sloppy. So I’m going to give you my perspective today. And today we’re just going to
see, okay, what, you know, just because somebody tells you they’re an authority and they watch if
they use we, that made up we is supposed to be we scholars. That’s not you dummies. Cause you are
dumb, dumb. That’s why you can’t get this stuff on your own. You have to come to me. When you
come across that attitude, what do you know? You’re not in the museum anymore, right? You’re
in an auction. Somebody is buying something. Do you smell it? Everybody here smells it in the
congregation. I know you do. Okay. All right. Get your uniforms on. We got to go in and meet the
witness here. Let’s question him. Let’s start right now. We’re going to suck his words right
out of his mouth. Again, doesn’t matter who it is. I want you to pay attention to technique.
go ahead this solution is known as theurgy and was developed most profoundly by the syrian
platonic philosopher iamblichus in this episode i want to explore the philosophy behind theurgy
why it developed and its lasting impact even today into christian sacramentalism if you’re
interested in magic hermetic philosophy alchemy kabbalah or the history of the occult make sure
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the video you can also just buy like a pretty boss black metal esoterica shirt over at our
merch channel so check that out as well boss boss merch is this the sacred knowledge is this what
to the to the one that receives the esoteric is this what happens no you cannot operate the
mystery my friends and you know you can’t you cannot operate the mystery as a carnival show
that’s all you are if you are selling it your free coverage of the material right if you are
selling it where are the plates do we get the where’s paul’s buttocks just a minute i’ll be
right with you mister i just got something here who is this it’s paul the apostle take off your
pants paul take them off no i said take them off all the way all the way paul all the way okay
it’s not yamblichus he persistently does that why would that be a big deal look you’re investigators
right you’re investigators the fact that he’s using that why tells you a lot it tells you where
he was educated it tells you continentally where he was educated yes and if you know the classics
right here’s the scale that we’re working on tonight one to ten a ten is your classicist
a one is not and among classicists you could rank them too some are good some are great some are
like legends right so um yeah and they all have different arts right some are good at this some
are good at that right it’s fantastic fantastic but tonight we’re going zero to ten let’s get in
he’s going to talk to you about theurgy and specifically iamblichus not yamblichus he’s got
a western tradition through the latin isn’t that interesting i can already tell this person is full
don’t don’t i haven’t watched hardly any of this person but let me guess kabbalah do you smell it
It’s medieval influence, movements that we’re trying to say language is power, therefore our language is the language of God.
Yeah, we don’t go to that medieval stream.
Have you noticed that we shoot for the original on the classical side of the cosmos, right?
When I say cosmos, I don’t mean it like universe, which you’re going to see here in a second.
You’re going to see here in a second.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Let’s get to it.
Speak up, buddy.
Tell me.
Tell me something.
Give me your name, rank, and serial number.
Go ahead.
In the overall platonic process of enosis, well, in a sense, that’s part of a long tradition
of platonic intellectualizing and even, frankly, religious antinomianism.
Okay.
Now, we’re done.
We know where we are, right?
I just realized.
I’ve been in this room before.
I’ve been in this room before.
Okay, number one, just for the sake of,
for the sake of, you know, method.
There’s a French judge here.
We can’t, we’ve got to hit the landing, right?
It’s not antinomism.
That’s not a word.
Antinomian can yield antinomianism.
Why is it important to say that?
am i saying you’re not this or that no no i’m saying as an investigator look what that means
that’ll tell you exactly where you are with this person education wise and what they’ve been
exposed to okay that’s number one sloppy philology right me and the guys and gals from classics
we’re going to take a mark off as judges yeah deal with it yeah otherwise he’s throwing greek
at you henosis henosis okay and that’s how i know where we are that’s how i know where we are
and i have flashbacks all of a sudden and i’m getting sweaty you know why because i have to
go to philosophy. Graduate course philosophy. Two professors, an Aristotelian and a Platonist.
Both of them philosophy PhDs. Little bit of Greek. Just enough Greek admittedly to be able to work
through Plato and to be able to work through Aristotle. Two professors, one conference room,
20 philosophy PhD students at various stages in their program and one classicist. I was the token
classicist. Why do you need a classicist? Do you know what these classes were for me? I had the
text of what they were reading and I would sit there with the text and they would talk across
for 52 minutes, and then asked me a question. Hey, what does it say in the Greek? And I would tell
them, and they would say, oh, and then back to another 52 minutes of continuous word salad.
And the whole time, I couldn’t help but think Plato was getting somewhat shorted. Yeah, ideas.
ideas are not for the museum i don’t want your ideas and you don’t want mine or i’d be passing
around the plate and i’d be telling you to put money in it i don’t want your ideas you don’t
want mine they all suck anyway right what do we deal with we deal with the evidence right can i
get an amen we deal with the evidence okay play them get give them some more let speak up please
Let’s hear. Remember technique. We’re looking for technique. Go ahead.
Honestly, it is not surprising to me in the least that the Platonists were hounded
as something akin to ancient heretics by the conservative Hellenist establishment.
I mean, Plato was ultimately a cosmic monotheist
who held that mathematical principles were ontologically primary.
Ditto. Aristotle held that a fundamentally unified, unmoved mover
composed of pure mental activity, was the source of all causation in the cosmos. But Tynus and
Porphyry, more or less, they carried that tradition straightforward, paying some lip service to the
traditional cult, but ultimately arguing that only an intellectual, an inward intellectual turn could
ultimately prove redemptive. Wait, wait, wait. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. That was rude of me. I just
kind of drifted off there into my own world um just a couple of comments number one redemptive
no doesn’t fit the context number two right listen to the words that are being used right
the conservative hellenic establishment what are you smoking yeah what are you smoking
you’re sure that they had problems with the conservative okay i thought i was confused i
thought this was um i thought this was something about the day mysteries i thought we were going
in that direction right i don’t care about what you think right neither does anybody else we do
not care about your ideas but if it makes you feel better ours either yeah why don’t you pull out
some texts and let’s look at some texts instead of what you’re doing because you’re taking me back
to philosophy grad school and i know there is an edification for you people i know i know
philosophy doctors of philosophy if you’re one of them i get it i get it it’s like a communal
cognitive coitus foundation you just check in and slide your card and you get complete coital
satisfaction in a room full of people i get that i understand your drug hey we’re here with the
languages though and we’re just interested in what is being said right so can we get to that
go ahead chewy maybe this will get through to him go ahead and when porphyry attacked the
extraordinarily ancient cult of the Egyptians, even by Greek standards extraordinarily ancient.
Iamblichus just seemed to have had enough of it. His counteroffensive against his own teacher and
really the hitherto history of platonic religious antinomianism was his reply to a porphyry in a
text that we now know as the De Mysteriis. That’s the Latin title given by Ficino in the Renaissance
when he translated it. Now, I’m not even going to try to attempt a summary of the De Mysteriis in
this episode. It’s honestly an extraordinarily complex text, which is just full of philosophical
insider baseball. It assumes a sophisticated understanding of philosophy up to that point,
the inner workings of debates within Platonic philosophy specifically, the religious and ritual
landscape of the time, and the particular elements of Porphyry’s mostly lost criticism of Egyptian
rituals. So you know that I usually recommend people just, you know, dive into primary text
whatever possible but i gotta be frank with you this one is gonna you’re gonna need swimming
lessons before you dive into this okay this date is not going well yeah i’m i’m thinking i know i
want to pull out bad cop but okay um what was the advice kids when you get any advice to not
do something i want you to know that you should immediately run and do that this is a satanic
principle okay why okay is it just me tell me should we try to pay attention to this tell me
guys do you feel stupid because he just said that you are too stupid to figure out how to read this
text you are too stupid and since he’s throwing greek around surely surely he must be a classical
philologist no he’s not he’s a religious studies guy yeah yeah and right away you know okay okay i
know i know you know a high percentage a high percentage of these guys that end up in academia
these guys that end up in the trials right you know it’s part of a team your honor we’re just
part of the team right these are the tactics that are reaching out and grabbing you don’t even
realize it this is mental you need to be able to see the invisible thing that’s going on the
watchers call him fingers i think that’s a little bit inappropriate yeah hit it chewie because his
concept of theurgy. Thus, Iamblichus maintains three distinct registers. Philosophy, which is
logical and discursive. Theology, God-talk, which is discursive, but whose origins are actually
super logical. And theurgy, which is neither bound by logic nor expressive discursively at all.
The De Mysteriis captures this distinction really well. He argues philosophically in the text.
He discusses theology systematically, but it has its origins in the non-discursive experience
of religious revelations, of various kinds of experiences, such as rituals, sacrifice,
divination, the epiphanies, or the appearances by supernatural beings. And yes, while it’s now
in vogue for whatever reason to argue that the idea of the supernatural has its origins in
Abrahamic religious conceptions or early modern Christian conceptions of a natural and a
supernatural world, this concept really originates in Iamblichus, for whom the gods, daemons, heroes,
etc. literally exist huperfusis. That’s the word he uses. They’re above nature. So ontologically,
just above this physical cosmos, and thus their appearance as an epiphany is just literally
supernatural in character literally Hooper Fusis. Hooper Fusis okay now just as a technician
as an artist who does this that phrase is not a word it’s a prepositional phrase it’s two words
number one number two it means on behalf of because Fusis is a goddess and by the way
Hooper doesn’t take a nominative. Any of my beginning Greek students would know that.
Yeah. So what can we tell about this authority? He’s about to say we. First of all, you’re too
stupid to understand what the source is saying. That’s a big mistake. Number one, go right to the
sources. As soon as somebody points out you’re too stupid for this, the way you should react is
thank you for pointing out what i really should dive into thanks they told me the drugs are not
there they’re not using the drugs why would they do such a thing all right what did i know run
right there all right right there in that pool and you’ll find it you’ll find it um
uh gorgeous yeah so his greek where do i give him on a greek as a full-fledged phd in classics
yeah um i would put him as a non-classicist probably a philosophy or religious studies
and i would say despite the fact that his greek is terrible his ancient greek is terrible
despite that despite the fact that he uses it like a philosopher philosophers phds are like people
imagine giving a lightsaber to somebody who you know might use it to i don’t know turn the oven on
you know um maybe they might try to fix part of their house with it right you don’t give that
samurai sword to a child right and that’s what philosophy and religious history scholars are like
I’m sorry, but it is we read texts all day, right? It’s just the way it is. You can’t get by that
That’s our strength. All right, so his he’s not even on scale so so far, you know, he’s like two
or three
Max, right and all the people we talk about i’ll give ratings
So, you know, I have to I have to give you my just input
Um hit us again. We’ve got a couple more of these hit us again. Not only does this ego driven
selfish endeavor further enmesh their souls in their bodies but it also attracts malevolent
beings which seek to further manipulate those sorcerers and goes often dooming them the
sorcerers and goes really you know it’s the same thing right you know it’s the same thing but no
he doesn’t he’s throwing at you a greek word because he’s trying to capture the authority
you’ll believe him and you’ll say yes yes give me the procedure that will take me to the esoteric
divine give it to me is what you’re saying right when he’s got you at that point when he has the
authority remember right the priests have authority you’re not supposed to object it doesn’t matter
right when when parts start burning and you know that this is not a place that you should be it’s
the authority of the priest or the gymnastics coach you know the national gymnastics coach
it’s their authority that keeps you servile keeps you within that service yeah right that’s why he
threw a go ace at you because you don’t know i know most of you i know 99 of you don’t do any
greek i know you don’t i could have just said something that means clownfish right you wouldn’t
know it’s a game right go look at the merch go look at the merch as soon as somebody mentions
merch right you know you know you’re right there so see this is you know this warrants is a public
service right for her we do this for her okay give us another one this way yamblichus and augustine
are actually surprisingly on the same page even for kind of similar reasons these are quasi
theoretical acts not done for the greatest good yeah what was that you had a theory about so and
so and so and so being like, yeah, blah, blah, blah. And this will put you under the ground
because you have yet to hear a single primary source. Bam. And that’s how we get them with
the warrant, right? Every time we go in to one of these warrants, no, there is a primary source
right here, this target is primary, and I am going in, if somebody comes around, they’re talking
this way, and that way, and Plato, and Aristotle, and this, and we’re that, wait, wait, wait, I thought,
isn’t this, are we supposed to hear Iamblichus, is that, why don’t you let him speak, why don’t you
let him speak, I’ll tell you why he doesn’t let him speak, I’ll tell you why, because we’re going to get in,
we’re going to get into the apartment, and when we get inside that apartment to serve this warrant,
this trans-dimensional warrant right he’s gonna have somebody there with him you say what it’s an
academic thing right it’s an academic thing look for the one that’s with him when he gets arrested
are we talking about jesus yes yeah we are love it kiss again with mr esoteric again these are
accounts of devotion not showing off to your homies that you can summon a water dime on
don’t show off your theurgical powers because you will lose them and other diamonds will kill you
yeah okay i think that was it was kind of funny like huh i guess that’s irrelevant this guy can
whoever he is can whoever we’re watching can be funny or not that’s irrelevant good good for
somebody to try to introduce a little joking you know what i mean that’s nice kind of like it i
know if i’m with his sense of humor or not shout out by the way to the comedian who’s using the
material he’s using this material for comedy that’s got to be the most difficult gig on the
planet nice job nice job um so uh the very last thing he said um not the diamond do you know what
what a daimon is? He’ll give you some definition. Something Ficino came up with after translating
one of the classical authors that ended up being some kind of school movement. Yeah. You guys know
how it works? We all end up in the gymnasium, right? But that word that he used, he tried to
make a plural, the daimons. You just made it, took it. This is a violation, linguistic violation.
this is this will get you five to seven in a linguistic penitentiary what are you going to do
by marrying a greek word to an english to an english s what is that doing for you everybody
knows that’s not everybody in classics knows right that’s not so again what does it tell you
it tells you that he’s not good with the sword he is swinging a samurai sword and somebody is
gonna get hurt right one of his audience members is gonna get a psyche shaving of the psychic lobes
right i know he’s just a kid he can’t swing it very hard right but that thing cuts that’s a
sword he’s cutting with yeah so you may get you may get hurt all i’m saying is when we’re on the
playground. Everybody needs to work together to keep an eye out for this type of activity.
This is stranger danger. Stranger danger, right? What is the offense? What is the real charge?
The charge is a type A felony. Yeah, it’s a type A transdimensional felony.
violation of the sacred and honorable space of the muse this is a violation of the muse
yeah it is it’s 63 counts of violations of the muse what greater teacher would you want
than somebody who was that pure cosmic storyteller whose words when she sings them
make creation yeah you want that source and that source is real that source is not sloppy
right she gets the crown the crown is for her achievement her arate right good dorian value
her arate that’s her achievement that crown is not crown of england just a marker for potency
coming from so no that crown is the performance the winning performance right that is coming
from the sources that this um individual whose name doesn’t matter and who’s i wish the best
with his uh career um this gentleman um is measuring up to a non-trustworthy source
of information yeah yeah why okay this is my field i am telling you guys from 30 years experience
in several universities lots of papers right and a book and a book that was several books but a book
that went to a level of you know where the london times was saying this is the last wild frontier
of classics right this kind of research is the last wild frontier of classics we need to hold
this ground and we’re not going to hold this ground as sacred if we’re listening to word salads
of people that are not properly trained yeah we don’t need ideas just so you can see the
invisible side and i’m going to play the video one more time just so you can see the invisible
side of all of this. You’ve got to ask yourself, what does the direction take you to? Where do you
end up? Where do you end up? If your teacher does not have good technique, you’ll never surpass
them, which is what every good teacher wants. They want to send that student up on their
shoulders up to that next level right so yeah so um that’s all that’s all we’ve served um he’s he
uh this type of approach has been served for for our benefit let us stay with those who maintain
principles of reason and science and a dedication to the gods so that we know we will always fall
on the side of justice always let’s watch that video one more time chewy this is actual this is
actual for tonight this is the one bit of iamblichus that you’re actually going to get
these are hit chewy has something um that was that was my translation and that was actual
that was actual iamblichus and i recommend to every one of you as a matter of fact now i will
take it personally if you don’t i would appreciate it if you can find a good copy of iamblichus
and take a look at it on the mysteries right and take a look at it and let me know what you think
fantastic fantastic depth in the work and you will love to go there you will love to go there
um chewy wanted me to did you want me to play another clip here throw throw another one up
there i don’t know let’s see what happens here go ahead noetic theurgy is maybe the final
combination of the spiritual and the intellectual something i began suspect but i don’t know that
is perhaps related to the mathematical spirituality a la pythagoreanism meditating perhaps on the
ultimate most abstract ontological nature of the cosmos as the dialectic of the one the hen the
limit the pair off and the unlimited the the apparel okay if if you guys don’t feel it yeah
i feel distinctly where’s the doll can anybody give me the doll i want to show chewy where i
feel like i’ve been touched yeah hit another one come on that way this is an extraordinary text
from a religious studies point of view as well he inhabits three different identities at some level
as he’s working through this text so how does one know when one’s theurgy is effective well
primarily by supernatural manifestations especially mantic or prophetic knowledge of the future
he didn’t say the we yet but he’s about to the fact that we can get it and you don’t right i
can’t i can’t that’s enough right he said enough it’s all it’s all perfectly you know we’re gonna
send in the cleaning crew you know what i mean this is this is the way it is um people
let us all stay protected within that capacity for reason let’s be technicians who are experts
let’s be the samurai who know how to use those swords right let’s not stumble all
over the place and hurt ourselves and other people with that with brain
cutting with brain cutting instruments yeah um next time we have an indictment
I may not be able to give you as much as as much notice but I’ll let you know
know we’re working up up keep that in mind we’re working up the organization to the top we’re going
right to the top so everybody’s pleased they’re waiting they’ve been asking me when are we going
to start bringing people in we started um thank you very much for maintaining your professional
demeanor chewie did you want to slap up there any comments that anybody said that um for somebody
who asked about my name um my name is almond right it’s my middle name david charles almond
hillman that’s my full name i don’t mind giving you my full name it’s out there in print anyway
but they’re asking about the david i don’t use david because david was a murderer right and
there’s something about murderers that you can’t bear the name the name is everything within the
the magic right and if you bear the name of a murderer you bear that blood so you know i didn’t
want to name my kids adolf for a reason right they’re ghosts associated it’s corruption so
that’s why i use my middle name um i i like it i like it um fantastic fantastic were there any other
comments yes it’s just it’s a video where he’s saying okay give us a couple throw a couple up
there anything that was really i wanted people to have a i just want to see what people having
concerns about you know what i mean i’m telling you yeah okay anyway we’ll sort this out um i
don’t want to waste your time thank you very much and i want to give a shout out to chewy
who’s doing fantastic video work and keeping production going so thank you for coming to the
cosmic court do you see how we need to be professional and not approach this as a
personal problem this is not we’re not here as psychologists right we’re here enforcing the
dictates of the trans-dimensional court right we are the museum we are defenders the last line
of keeping that connection open.
Hail Satan.
Source: Lady Babylon