The Watchtower

The Beaded Thread and Event Horizons

This is an entry from my personal record of dreams, visions and active imagination sessions. It may appear mysterious, but it is not hard to understand with the right set of conceptual tools.

The vision begins with an ‘ascent of the Watchtower,’ the process of silencing, which I have seen many times. This is consistently how it is represented — the removing of the outer layers that conceal deeper meanings. Here, the ascent appears to reach a very high level, perhaps one accessible only to angels.

This may be why what they were saying came through so vaguely, I may have no good frame of reference with which to understand the content of the exchange.

In order to unpack this, we have to go back to December 21, 2024.

The Vision of the Beaded Thread

December 21, 2024. I was in a small, remote cabin I’d rented for the night. The only warmth came from a little old gas stove in the corner of the living room. In the rest of the cabin, you could see your breath and everything was icy to the touch.

After long prayers of preparation, the angel and I began speaking. With my permission, he set to work fashioning an image in front of me. He drew it in the air using my hands as instruments. This had never happened before, and it was quite surreal because even though it was my hands making it, I did not know what it was going to be until it was completed.

At the end, it looked like this:

Then, in the third person, I saw myself with this beaded thread going down to the base of my spine and reaching up beyond my head all the way to heaven with an infinite succession of these beads along its length. Turning around each of the beads was a shining wheel of eyes orthogonal to the string. Higher up the string, the wheels became larger and larger.

I saw angels going up on one side of the string and going down on the other side to bring messages from one wheel to the next. Each wheel watched over the circle that corresponded to its respective bead, and each circle encompassed an area of space around me. The lowest bead for instance simply formed a circle around the place I was standing, whilst much higher beads extended far beyond the horizon.

The wheels then took on a new shape, appearing as bowls of brass. Each bowl contained a flame. I saw that each of the bowls in the column was watching over its respective circle. Each one was an angel and each angel had the power to permit or refuse entry to the interior of the circle which was given to it.

Each bead represented a telos, and the angel charged with its guardianship was tasked with seeing that purpose fulfilled. When it was not time for a thing to enter the circle which the angel was protecting, it would keep that thing out. But when it was time, the angel would allow the thing to enter.

The lowest beads represented things to occur in the next few minutes. Higher ones represented things to be fulfilled many years from now. Thus, my entire life was a segment of this string with a given length. The beads beyond that were purposes to be fulfilled by my descendants as the purpose of their lives are above mine, those of their children are above theirs and so on and so forth ad infinitum.

Symbolism

This is not as arcane as it might first appear. It’s just very dense and steeped in context. It is the structure of what I called the ‘solar temple’ in Contact 2020.

The first thing one needs to understand is that the vision is symbolic, which is to say: psychocentric. This means it isn’t literal, but it isn’t not literal either. It uses imagistic processing, the native mode of cognition, as a primary frame of reference.

The image is ultimately a circumpunct — a solar symbol — with some added complexity: a third, orthogonal axis and several concentric circles instead of just one.

Here, the dot is the ego and the circle represents the unconscious which encompasses the ego. This is because the outside world is veiled by projected background processes. Therefore, the macrocosm: human in the midst of the world, is internally mirrored in the microcosm: ego in the midst of the unconscious.

The dot and circle together represent the totality of the mind; what Jung called ‘the Self.’ In the conical framework, that totality is represented by the ‘bead’ which contains both the circle and the dot within itself.

To simplify: the ego is the protagonist. The unconscious is all the other characters in the story. The ‘bead’ is the author, who is above the story, works through all the characters and steers the story toward the fulfillment of a preconceived design.

The story itself is thus a composite character — the person of the author. This transcendent unity, however, is usually invisible to the characters in the story.

The pattern is recursive and it exists at every level. The ‘author’ is also the protagonist of a higher drama in which the lower drama is contained. This structure was revealed to be ‘the Watchtower’ that had repeatedly been alluded to.

Long time readers will recognize that this Watchtower is both the ‘angel’s pyramid’ and the ‘five shells’ simultaneously. The vision formally solved a long standing problem I’d been banging my head against for the entire previous year, namely: why the capstone of the angel’s pyramid corresponds to the outermost shell rather than the innermost.

This was previously counterintuitive because symbolically, the outside part of something is usually considered the most profane or impure and is thus the ‘lowest.’ In a temple for instance, interiority is synonymous with sanctity.

How the ‘highest’ (the pyramidion) could also be the ‘lowest‘ (the outermost sphere) was difficult to wrap my head around.

It’s obvious in hindsight, but this is a consequence of a parity between verticality (vertebrae) and horizontality (horizon) — that is, if you attain a higher vantage point, the horizon expands. You perceive more of the world.

This parity is contained in the vertical and horizontal cross in which ‘Christ the king’ (highest/esoteric) and ‘Christ the criminal’ (lowest/exoteric) are one and the same.

The largest and most inclusive circle is the fullest and most complete picture of reality, but also the most complex and confusing. It requires a very high vantage point to see correctly. This relationship between the exceptions and anomalies and the highest principle is why the rejected stone becomes the capstone. That which is not circumscribed by a framework reveals the existence of something higher.

The two manger animals, the ox and the donkey which appear in nativity images represent clean (ox) and unclean (donkey) animals, corresponding to the inner and outer nations (the Jews and Gentiles) which are joined in Christ.

I was curious why the image used ‘beads’ (or at least why I instinctively named the octahedra ‘beads’), so I looked up the word’s etymology. It turns out ‘bead’ means ‘prayer,’ as beads are often used to count prayers on prayer ropes, which the watchtower seems to be an image of. This suggests a strong and unsurprising link between teloi sent down from Heaven and prayers sent up from Earth.

The watchtower also seems to be a quite transparent reference to Jacob’s ladder.

This image, revealed two years earlier, represents a single unit of the Watchtower.

The watchtower is esoterically an almond tree. This connection in like manner appeared through etymology. The two words for ‘almond’ in Hebrew are luz/לוּז and shaqed/שָׁקֵד. Both words have more than one meaning.

Luz refers to the almond, but is also the ancient name of the city of Bethel — the place where Jacob’s vision of the ladder took place. In later Judaic tradition, the luz bone is a mythical, indestructible bone in the spinal column from which the body will be regenerated at the resurrection. Although the luz bone is not of our own tradition, it grew out of patterns in scripture which we can see in the symbolism of the almond in scripture

The almonds which budded on Aaron’s rod reiterate this link between the almond and resurrection — new life out of death.

The word shaqed likewise refers to almonds and the almond tree, but also to watchfulness and vigilance. This double meaning is used by God in Jeremiah 1:11-12.

“…The choice of this symbol for the purpose given is suggested by the Hebrew name for the almond tree, שׁקד, the wakeful, the vigilant; because this tree begins to blossom and expand its leaves in January, when the other trees are still in their winter's sleep…“

- Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The almond tree is related to the menorah, the seven branched lampstand in the temple as seen in Exodus 25:32-33

“Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other. There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms on the first branch, each with buds and petals, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches that extend from the lampstand.”

Looking at the shape of the menorah, we can see that it alludes to the same concentric ring structure. Here is the meaning of the bowls of fire, which represent a union of Heaven and Earth: the fire is the luminous and immaterial heavenly principle (the bead) and the brass bowls, being round and metallic represent earthly vessels (the circles).

Exegesis

So what exactly does this image mean?

The Watchtower is both a cosmological and psychological schema. I have gotten into some trouble for talking about things I understood intuitively but not intellectually, so I’ll try not to make the same mistake here. I will not go any further into detail than I am presently able.

We will examine the cosmological and psychological significance in separate sections, although it must be remembered that the two are inextricably linked.

Cosmology

There was another vision a few weeks ago that helped me to understand the Watchtower better:

I was wandering through a maze, and happened upon an image painted on a wall. It looked like a Celtic shield knot.

I stood a while studying it. I was then lifted up and hovered above the maze. When I looked down, I saw the exact same image painted on the maze’s upper surface. Then the perspective shifted; I was no longer floating nor looking down, but standing as before, still gazing at the picture on the wall. Now I could see the whole maze superimposed over it and could precisely locate the place I was standing.

The vision presents two distinct states of awareness, and does so plainly. In the first, the picture on the wall only means itself. In the second, the picture represents both itself and the surrounding territory. It is a picture and a map at the same time. In this latter state, you see where you are from the ground and from above at once. Paradoxically the view from both vantage points is the same.

The watchtower provides a complete synthesis of two kinds of causation. The horizontal (mechanical/chronological) and the vertical (symbolic/kairotic).

In order to visualize this, I have prepared this short animation.

It may be easier to think about the circle as a sphere first (technically it is a sphere, not a circle). Once it is understood spherically, we can flatten it back into a circle which allows us to add the extra axis — the beaded thread.

The surface of the sphere holographically encodes all the possible conditions of a point in the future. The radius of the sphere represents a duration; a distance from the present. As more and more of these possible states collapse into actual states over time, this spherical horizon contracts until a single state is realized.

There is no physical ‘force’ like gravity or electromagnetism that causes these processes to come together into symbolic configurations. It is as if there were such a force, but no such force is required.

The more scientifically-minded may balk at this, but I can say the same thing in a different way that might make more sense: there is a force which causes it, but that force is the sum of all natural forces at once. For this reason, it can’t be isolated by subtraction in the way that you can isolate gravity by subtracting other kinds of interaction from your data set.

Therefore I will say: there is no particular force that causes this to happen.

This ‘converging’ behavior therefore, arises out of perfectly normal lines of cause and effect. There is nothing physically anomalous about it. This is why empirically, synchronicity is indistinguishable from coincidence.

For a simple example, we could look at a tarot card reading.

Suppose I shuffle my tarot deck a few times and then pull a particular card; in this case, it’s the World card. We can model what happened in two ways.

In the first case, we examine the deck as a closed system and consider only the deck’s linear progression through a succession of adjacent states. We assign a numerical value to every card and position in the deck and observe the paths taken by each of the 78 cards through the 78 positions from beginning to end.

If we do this, we will see that the World (card 22) moves from position a, to position b, to position c and so on until it finally arrives in the final place whence it is chosen.

This is a perfectly valid way to conceptualize what happened, but only if one understands that in reality the deck is not actually a closed system.

In the second case, we regard the deck as an open system. Now, we consider everything that affects the shuffling. We consider the conversation between me and whoever the reading is for. We have to account for every biochemical interaction in both of us and everyone nearby. We have to factor in the background noise in the surrounding area. We consider the patterns of the wind and the positions of the stars and how their light strikes our retinae and the photosensitive cells in our skin. All of these factors will nudge what takes place, no matter how gently.

From this perspective, the shuffling event is not a line, but a convergence of infinite lines approaching the same terminus in space and time from all directions — this gives us a contracting shape which is topologically spherical.

This collapsing spherical horizon — particularly when it is still distant — is what I call ‘deep-background-patterning.’ The effect of deep-background-patterning upon all events is the basis of the intuitions behind both astrology and all forms of divination.

Here is another example:

Some time in April of 2024, I went to an Airbnb to be alone and speak with Zell without fear of disruption. The same day, a friend of mine sent a photo of Jupiter’s astrological symbol which he saw in a coffee shop.

Then, on my way to the Airbnb, I happened to look at the Satnav. For the first time, I saw a street called ‘Jupiter Boulevard.’

Upon arriving at the Airbnb, I found a complimentary bottle of wine which had been provided by the host. It was an Italian wine, a Sangiovese Cabernet. I looked up the meaning of the name and discovered that Sangiovese is supposed to have come from Sanguis Jovis — ‘blood of Jupiter.’

Jupiter featured prominently in the visions that night.

We can examine these events from two points of view: that of ‘the author’ (vertical) and that of ‘the protagonist’ (horizontal). Of course, the author is in the protagonist and the protagonist is in the author, but we should not confuse the two.

For the author, all the movements in the story world have been designed very intentionally to ‘contract’ toward a specific destination envisioned in advance. There is a conspiracy — a ‘plot’ you could say — to cause events to unfold in a particular way. This is why from the top down, the watchtower resembles a bullseye. When and where the telos ‘lands’ these moving parts meet and click together.

The author decided at some point that visions of the planet Jupiter were necessary for the story to get where it needed to go, and found a way to make them happen.

For the protagonist, however, things are quite different. Objects moving through chance travel along apparently independent trajectories and don’t look like they are going anywhere or aiming at anything.

The protagonist usually sees effects as ripples which radiate from a cause as when a droplet hits a pool of still water. He sees the impact and the outward ripples, but arbitrarily ignores the inward ripples that caused the droplet to fall in the first place.

From the protagonist’s perspective, these appearances caused the planet Jupiter to be on his mind — and he is not mistaken in thinking this. If he should investigate any of these Jupiters, he will find nothing mysterious behind them. The friend sending symbolic curiosities was a normal occurrence. Jupiter Boulevard is one of several streets named after planets in the same neighborhood of Niagara Falls. The Sangiovese Cabernet was a Tavernello, a cheap brand of wine and so a likely choice for a complimentary bottle.

The same phenomenon understood spiritually and materially

This conception does not really upend the idea that all effects are results of past causes, it simply supplements it with the inclusion of a ‘why-axis.’

A consequence of the encoding of the future within the present is that the vertical string of beads represents not just a hierarchy of purposes, each more abstract than the last, but at the same time, a sequence of future events where those purposes are fulfilled — each more implicit and less formed than those below.

Psychic

So we have moved from understanding causation as a chain of incremental events, to understanding it as a continuous spherical convergence of cascading effects collapsing into the present. From here, we can see the human mind and body as a sort of transceiver which these event horizons are constantly contracting into and radiating out of. Imagine these transceivers as nodes in an intelligent network communicating with itself and now you have a model of the collective unconscious.

Consider then that if we could organize the structure of our nervous system, by integrating its various parts into a cohesive whole, the coherence of these messages would seem to increase as internal signaling begins to interfere constructively instead of destructively.

The result would be increased clarity, optimized cognition and a highly meaningful experience of the world. We should also expect a vastly improved capacity to recognize patterns and see things on the horizon.

Now imagine the inverse of this. We disrupt the coherence of the mind and body. What would be the result? Fragmentation, confusion and the corrosion of identity. The individual becoming unable to effectively coordinate with the larger network.

Now, the most important fact about identity is that it is received.

You are named by someone above you, you do not arbitrarily name yourself. If you try to define yourself artificially, you will craft a persona designed to serve a lower drive such as the desire for acceptance, validation, power or romantic love. In doing this, you will repress and dissociate from every aspect of yourself that does not further this purpose. This is a downward movement, not an upward one. Disintegration, not integration. It is both a form of idolatry and anti-individuation.

What this fact reveals is that identity and teleology are two sides of the same coin. There is a circular relationship between identity and purpose. If you have more of one, you will have more of the other.

This means that by extension, one’s purpose is not artificially contrived either, but received from above in like manner, hence the link between name and destiny.

Identity is stratified, and the beads on the inner thread are the strata of one’s received identity. Thus, the more conscious you are of your inner world (which is reflected in the outer world), the more coherent your identity becomes and the higher up the thread you go. However, this is not just an upward movement. In the same way that Christ on the cross is both ultimately humbled and ultimately exalted; death precedes resurrection, and the harrowing of Hades precedes the ascension.

The knowledge of what is above comes only through the knowledge of that which is below. The two, as we have seen, are inseparably connected.

The lowest beads are you right now: I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I want to go outside, now I want to look at my phone. The higher beads are you across time. They are the more transcendental purpose-identities.

For a rudimentary example, consider the following:

Hungry-me has a telos: eat something. Above that is a supervening identity: health-conscious-me. This identity’s more complex telos is: make sure that hungry-me doesn’t eat unhealthy things. Above that is another identity: time-manager-me whose telos is: make sure hungry-me and health-conscious-me don’t spend too much time deliberating, cooking and eating.

Higher up, the identities are more holistic and self-aware and their teleology is more abstract and long-term-focused. But this is because each subsumes a greater multitude of lower drives, and represents a greater degree of harmony between them.

If I write much more, I run the risk of exhausting the image of its mystery. I do not want to deprive anyone of the opportunity to contemplate it for themselves. This vision was the culmination of everything I have done thus far. I hope it is as illuminating for you as it has been for me.