Explanation of the Tiger

01 / The figureA multitudinous symbol

The Tiger is a multitudinous symbol. It has multiple meanings depending on which angle of approach one takes. At once, it displays anthropomorphism, the question of supermanhood, the principle of evolution in general, metageometry, and the esoterism of cardinal directions and sacred geography. None of this is immediately possible by substituting the Tiger for a man.

Moreover, a man would require a commitment to a particular appearance that the editor is unwilling to make. The Tiger is then transcendent of merely human identifiers like race and nationality. And in doing so, the Tiger points directly at spirit. Yet it is anthropomorphic so that the reader can identify themselves in the scene.

And this is where the next constellation of meanings appears. The Tiger is wearing 3-D glasses representing the gulf between lower realities and higher realities, and the process of bridging them. Explicitly, it calls into question the superman built by technology. Implicitly, it calls into question the emergence of higher life and higher consciousness from an involved status.

The Tiger is a symbol of the student and the aspirant, the beginner and the devotee, the learner and the apprentice. Yet, it is also a symbol for those who have attained, as the 3-D glasses can be equally representative of an acquisition. The Tiger wearing 3-D glasses then really describes in a single image the process of metaphysical development of a lower-being into a higher station.

02 / From Volume IIn the magazine’s own words

The Tiger also has the characteristic of being a particular animal among other animals. This description is contained within the opening pages of the first issue of Avataric Ambitions:

Tiger is a symbol of the metaphysical East, as well as of the jungle, which itself is representative of the unknown, adventure, and even of the metaphysical South—especially in terms by which the South, by virtue of either its intrinsic fate or its circumstantial position, highlights inversion and injustice. The 3D glasses which the tiger is wearing are symbolic of metageometry, of Hinton’s “higher space sense,” which is the equivalent, only cast in terms of a future physiological guarantee, of the third eye of religious esoterism. The 3D glasses on a tiger emphatically suggest a lower-dimensional being augmented to perceive a higher dimension, which it physiologically would not have the capacity to do. Hence, it is representative of the state of man who, while a step above in intelligence over the beast of the jungle, and henceforth physiologically capable of advancing his powers of perception with technological augmentation, is still incompetent—by default, or by racial and collective developmental standards—of intelligizing or perceptive reach, whether by intuition or otherwise, into next-dimensional knowledge, becoming and reality. The tiger wearing a suit is also symbolic of the ideal of archetypal conformity to that which is beyond—which is the nature of Truth when the soul is guided by metaphysical Infinity.

Namely, the present-being, in understanding its temporal state of development, when intuitized by higher metaphysics, identifies, like the tiger wearing 3D glasses and a suit, with the archetype of the next dimension—that is to say, with beyondness, as a principal, not as an ineffable and out-of-reach imagined ineffability, but as an adventuring wonder, enchantment, and crossing of the miraculous sea.

The tiger is further symbolic of instinct, ferocity, and territoriality. Instinct finds correspondence in the evolutionary difference between human eyes and the animal wearing 3D glasses. The human has acquired instinct as a result of the experientially integrated knowledge of the beast, which has, through the processes of metaphysical development, advanced into him. Instinct then represents what our present knowledge will look like for the overman or the superman. Our enlightened wisdom and intellectual achievements will be but an instinct for the next-dimensional being. Ferocity is partly instinctual yet mostly indicates, in the spiritual sense, the transposition of the struggle of early organismal survival to the warfare of the mind in its pursuit to discover the soul, on its own terms, and its own frustration in finding achievement. This is similar to the frustrations brought on by the initiated brahmins of the lower metaphysics upon intuiting the limitations of lower metaphysics to reach a metaphysical finality. The mind likewise battles impotently and fruitlessly, attempting to avoid admitting that the soul is mentally inexhaustible. The mind can get so far as to identify its own reality in the splendor of the soul, and it would like to, seemingly, give back and show its generosity by offering, childishly, to reveal the soul to the soul. But, only in mental terms, as that is all it can offer, and yet the soul cannot be satisfied by a mere mentalization of itself.

03 / The sequenceStruck by the calling

We can elaborate further on the specific depiction of the Tiger throughout the frames of the first issue. We see the Tiger on the Table of Contents page appearing rajasically non-sattvic and in the midst of an evolution, like a werewolf transforming. He has been caught mid-transformation. His tail might be growing feet, his mouth is agape and his limbs are crooked. It is very clear that this creature in his Air Force Ones casual streetwear is being possessed by Nature for better or for worse. Whether it has succumbed to a lower order or it has met a descending Divine, we do not yet know. It is not determined yet what is going on with this Tiger.

Yet, we see the characteristic 3-D glasses which tells us that the symbolism is in place. This is a being that is in the early phase of the brahmin-to-be calling. The image dramatically illustrates the being’s reaction when struck by an occult lightning bolt, and hostile forces begin to provoke terror throughout one’s nature.

Whenever a person begins a spiritual pursuit, they must open themselves up, at least a little, to a higher power. And inevitably, hostile forces also take advantage of this opening. And so, in this Nike-wearing brahmin-to-be we see a jarring reaction occurring just like what the reader experiences when their eyes land on him. This image is to be contrasted with the unmarked closing page, which concludes the development of this particular issue.

04 / CorrespondenceThe Editor

The next three pages, we find the Editor illustrated. This is the transmission of the brahmin-to-be signal personified as a Tiger exchanging correspondence. This Tiger displays sattvic composure and brahmin literary talent. He is clearly in a more advanced state of development. In fact, he has achieved the capacity to produce and disseminate enlightening communications for others. This Tiger is the Editor, according to the title, but is also the correspondee on the other side who participates in the E:MP.

On page 4 we see a premonition of pages 10 and 25 wherein the kshatriya-brahmin ideal is hinted at. We find the italicized text on page 4 (“warfare of the mind in its pursuit to discover the soul”) overlaid directly on top of hands loading a gun.

The climax of this frame is that of an implied pivot or possibility of a fork in the road, just like on the Table of Contents. The Tiger on the ToC was helplessly in mid-transformation. The Tiger on page 4 is showing calm deliberation and yet must choose a path. The gun can be literal, if it chooses the lower path, or it can be a metaphor, if choosing the higher path. Yet the placement of the gun in the hands of the Tiger is necessary to infuse realism into the scene, as well as to foreshadow the warfare that is to come later.

05 / MetageometryMusic and movement

The next three pages alternate between sattvic calm and rajasic aggressiveness. Again, the Tiger called to a higher vocation.

On pages 8-9 we have a spread of the Tiger dancing as the text gives an example of musical notation to offer a metageometry metaphor. We also get the line: “We can thus see in the image a soul behind which is in the process of terraforming the beastly nature.”

The soul is related to music, standing for a higher ordering principle aesthetically received by the vital being and expressed in movement before it is properly assimilated. We will see the Tiger later integrate all of these spiritual influences better. We also see him in a still unfinished transformation, with one barefooted leg sticking out of his pants.

06 / RealizationThe later pages

Page 10 gives us the ideal of the superman. And page 11 gives us a royal king wearing a crown in addition to the 3-D glasses. He also has a rail cannon on his shoulder and a giant sword. According to the text on the page, this Tiger has achieved immortality and knows how to move the temporal to eternal notes.

Page 12 finally brings us the fully transformed Tiger as he rests outside beneath the moon, with text describing the curtain between life and death and the possible transmission of realities between them. Which, for the Tiger, corresponds to his own present status as a now-evolved being with unpracticed capacities.

The remaining pages of the magazine now concern what these capacities are. Pages 14-15 show the developed Tiger practicing in daily life the phenomenological practice described on the page as the Great Clue.

Page 16 is another climax of the story showing that even with the developed body, darkness has not been eliminated and must now be confronted. There is no repressing darkness any longer as before. Page 17 is the exit from the darkness. Page 18 alternates again with the encounter of stress but also its hidden possibilities for development. Page 19 again recalls the difficulties of pages 16 and 18. Pages 20-23 are the exit from this tamasic state and showing the new adventure that consciousness embarks upon.

Page 24 brings us another scene of the superman. The interruption of this into our text again represents the descent of divine grace in our world.

The remaining pages show the higher development of the Tiger as it rises on its path of proper metaphysical realization. Included on pages 34-35 is a reference back to the Editor from earlier. Only this time, it is not the Editor in the frame, but the developed being, having completed its transformation and having acquired discipline through asceticism and wisdom through spiritual practice. We also see this Tiger speaking with others and even leading them in the final pages. In the closing pages and on the back cover, we get encoded messages for the brahmin-to-be to bring the journey full circle.