an extended faq for aspiring timeseers

I chose twelve because this number is a bit special mathematically. Simply put, it is small enough to hold in your mind, but big enough to yield enormous complexity. When you build a lens for reality, you want to be able to distinguish between different things without getting lost in specifics. This is explained in depth in the Thought ‘Introduction to Crystal Vision’.

I looked at patterns in nature to find the ‘highest’ or ‘simplest’ shape. Everywhere you look, you end up with a cyclic shape (life-death, beginning-end, planetary orbits...) or an infinite shape (the ever-expanding universe). The circle is the simplest representation that holds both cyclicity and infinity.

This question is a bit difficult to answer. In one way, I am not convinced the Codex can ever be finished. I know a lot about biology, chemistry, psychology and astronomy. But more specific domains can add more knowledge to the Codex as you apply it there. The Codex is open to expansion. I invite anyone with expert knowledge to expand the Codex in their domain with new Maps.

But in another way, the structure was finished at the very beginning. Once you understand the Base-1 lens, you have arrived at the beginning and the end. Most of the work was in understanding the different divisions into higher bases. The grammar is mostly complete; the sentences are infinite.

This is difficult to answer... I read a lot and also not much. I did not read all the philosophers, or great thinkers. Actually very few... I mostly learned from old systems such as Ancient Chinese and Hellenistic philosophies. Then, I tried to synthesise all of that into a coherent system by starting from scratch. So, I don’t know what was discovered and what was invented. I guess it was a bit of both. Nearly all of it comes from my own thinking – if I ever took something over directly (like the Circle Meditation in Codex and Sex) I will cite my source. That’s why I cite so few sources – there are almost no direct ones.

The question contains a false dilemma... I think the particularity of my brain is that my intuition is analytical and my reasoning is fluid. So, the short answer is that the Codex emerged equally through both.

Another difficult question. I do not know what counts as ‘major discovery’. Some things that might look like a poetic line from a fever dream can contain a deep discovery. The Riddle of the Pyramid from the Codex is a real riddle with a real answer. To make it more mysterious: although I know the answer to the Riddle, I do not fully understand it. So, there is no real chronology to give except for the first idea, which was a Base-1 Universe divisible into higher resolutions. That part was the beginning of this mad rabbit hole.

Honestly, it has nothing to do with the system. What took me the longest to understand is how to write it up so it can become accessible to others. I often joke that I wish I could upload my brain to transfer the knowledge. It would be much easier than writing and reading all of this :)

Again, the format. I think I have drafts dating back 9 years for books, websites, and tutorials. In 2777 AUC, I had a mental breakthrough which was also a personal breakthrough. I simply couldn’t hold it all in anymore. The Codex is in a way deeply tied to my personal development. I waited one more year and I began spewing out the Codex on Tumblr in 2778 starting with the Rules of Sunlight. Yes, the Codex was born on my poetry blog. It ultimately took a few months to write the Codex.

Since the beginning of publication in 2778, most texts have not changed. Before that, everything changed iteratively. In the early phases, I would start from scratch again, and again, and again... At some point, you realise you start to converge on a shared architecture.

I would say:

1. reality is real
2. reality is ordered
3. reality is infinite in combinatorial complexity, but finite in elementary complexity
4. reality is always observer-dependent

I hope I didn’t miss any :)

You should learn to see them as shapes that repeat everywhere. But instead of physical shapes like a triangle or a square, the Elementals are more spacetimey – they describe a specific process or a property more than a simple shape.

Thinking you understand it all. Even I don’t. And using it inappropriately as a replacement for reality. Humans are biologically built to have spiritual experiences and the Codex will likely activate that channel inside of you. This is why I constantly try to bring my writing back to common everyday reality.

When the context is clearly chosen, there should be only a single valid mapping. But in practice, choosing a crystal clear unambiguous context is harder than the mapping itself. Take something high resolution, like the country ‘Russia’.

Geographically, it is very large. This context would map Russia to E9 (Gold). But if I change the context to something more cultural (which is also more diffuse and subjective), we could map Russia to E10 (Dust). Russia has a fatalistic current running through its culture – the idea that life is hard and you have to carry it on your shoulders. The language itself is highly structured. Society has a tendency towards adherence to hierarchy. Overall, Russia has a ‘strict’, ‘classical’, ‘imperial’ feeling compared to other countries.

And that is the key here: ‘compared to other countries’. When mapping something complex, you are always comparing it to other things within that same context. If we switch our lens to look at ‘the culture of the United States of America’, we can easily defend the claim that Russia is more E10 than the US. Conversely, the US is much more E9 than Russia, culturally speaking of course. Americans value growth, giant houses, and oversized things.

The example in the earlier question shows when a mapping would be wrong. Even in something as high-resolution as ‘human culture’, saying ‘US culture is more E10 than Russia’s’ is wrong to me. However, since None can hold One, we should discuss and explain our positions rather than just saying “I’m right”.

Facets complicate the matter because they expose the complexity of the context. For example, the US’s culture does have E10 Facets – any culture has. In fact, every culture has Facets of all the Elementals. What matters when mapping is trying to find out how strongly a specific Facet is expressed compared to other Facets.

A lot. Because we experience a high-resolution reality, we can see Facets anywhere. One helpful exercise to train yourself is to force a mapping (and yes, I hear the scientists flinch now). But, what you do is basically say something wild like ‘US culture = highly E3’, and then try to defend that position. It does not ultimately matter whether the mapping is wrong or right. What matters is the thought process that increases your ability to handle uncertainty, to change frames, and to become flexible when dealing with abstraction.

Yes, of course. Just like scientists, philosophers, artists... However, the Codex is clear on one point. As a Timeseer, you do not let that disagreement collapse Order. You try to find Peace, and when in disagreement, you still try to build an Order around it. Basically, it tells you not to stay stuck in fruitless conflict.

I am really opposed to the opposition between ‘intuition vs reasoning’. A mathematician likes math because he is intuitively drawn to that type of thinking. Newton had to see an apple fall to realise what gravity was.

Yet, within the Codex, Crystal Vision is the more reasoned practice. Timesight is the intuitive version.

Yes, and no. I have been inside the system for a long time. Speaking from experience, I still need to consciously think about my maps. But, the brain has a way of making pathways to facilitate thought. Once you start training the muscle, insights become quicker and quicker.

Everything. :) But if I had to say one thing, maybe the beauty of it all. The E3 Facet of the Universe has become so profoundly ingrained in everything. I would never want to lose that perception.

Because that is what you get when you derive the possible relationships between twelve Elementals on a circle. It is mathematical.

The Codex is built on the premise that reality is observer-dependent. This means that sometimes you want to look at something from a specific angle. It allows for the idea of a POV, which is important in an observer-dependent system.

All of them. Links are perhaps the most complex part of the Codex. I admit that at the time of writing this section is underdeveloped.

The Link that fascinates me most is the Capture Link. It explains something that is present in very few systems: a Universal principle of complexity and hidden chains.

Another Link that is fascinating is the Embrace. It surprised me how strong this Link is to explain the idea of ‘fundamental pillars’. The interaction between two Elementals in Embrace is fascinating and can keep me thinking for days.

Yes. You can always choose to go higher in resolution to find more Links. I stick to Base-12 for all the reasons explained elsewhere. I don’t think it is worth becoming more complex at the moment. The seven Links are incredibly complex already.

To this subjective question, I give my subjective answer: it feels like magic. It feels like being in direct relation with the world around you. I would say almost more like an animal consciousness than the human rational experience of the world. I think older societies accepted and did a lot more Timeseeing. Science and institutions that make the rules for our contemporary mind did not exist; there was more space for the forest.

Timesight is tied to Crystal Vision. I don’t think there is a mechanistic difference between intuition and Timeseeing. It is the cognitive context that changes the notion. Timesight is done within the Codex’s frame. Intuition is not constrained.

Often. But, I would like to note something essential. Failure implies strict norms to adhere to. The key to correct Timesight is being able to hold uncertainty. So, if you are never 100% certain, you will never ‘fail’. (For experts, this is basically Bayesian thinking).

Well, you probably feel a bit stupid and the desire to hide your failure and a human need to save face.

By training it while holding it loosely. Let it guide decisions on small things only – do not throw away money, time or your health based on Timesight!

No. Not more than you can become dependent on poetry, or mathematics.

A River is not a narrative at all. A River is something real, something you could point to if you lived in a four-dimensional plane. You could see the path of the tuna in your sandwich, and trace it all the way back through the sea, and even beyond that to the birth of planet Earth. You could also go forward and see how the tuna molecules leave your body one by one. Some of that tuna might stick around until you die.

River-Dweller matters because the Codex implies that anything has a Base-2 reality. Your active perception and reality awareness must have a Base-2 opposite. By definition, it would be nearly unreachable by your active awareness. The Codex gives you the Bridge to access your Dweller (this is a very deep statement).

I don’t know. I think it is almost impossible to know. The Codex only says it exists. It does not say how. Or at least, I haven’t thought that through yet.

That is difficult to point to but the core of the Ice Trap is fear for survival – something very Darwinian.

I cannot say that. I think for each Earthborn the Ice Trap is equally difficult. Obviously, some may have a more advantageous configuration. But even as you escape one Ice Trap, even when you become Timeseer, you tumble straight into a new one. We love the Universe nonetheless. Without Ice Traps, the Circle breaks and Truth would collapse to Void.

I have to break your question a bit here... Which personalities? We don’t have a viable way to represent personalities currently. The definition of personality is fuzzy. So, I will not answer that question.

I can point you to the Reverse Capture Link. E4’s Ice Trap is mathematically defined as E11. So, if you have a strong E4, you should watch E11.

How far it stands from modern therapy.

I think I make a strong case against an overly analytical approach. The endless labelling, the desire for neat categories and definitions, the protocols... I understand why they are necessary. But they give rise to a strange paradox.

The human mind has a strong Strange Texture. This Texture by definition does not fit categories. It is intrinsically vague. Modern therapy tries to squeeze you into boxes, but fails to capture the full reality in doing so. What is left is confusion around everything that did not fit the box. So, the whole stayed as vague as before the therapeutic analysis, but now you have named a few floating features. It gives an Illusion of Knowledge.

The Codex does the same thing by the way; we name a few things inside a vague space. The difference is in how the Codex employs labels, categories, and analysis.

Well... Going through all twelve of the Elementals... No?

I don’t know. I did not conduct a study – I don’t think that is important though. I think integration is personal. No one can judge it from the outside. Furthermore, integration requires you to acknowledge it is never complete. There is no light bulb that switches on to tell you ‘hallelujah, today you have become integrated!’

Finally being fully alive.

Because I like Magic. Wielding Magic feels like magic. This is Strange territory.

The Codex is metaphor. The Thoughts are not in most cases.

There is no direct link because those are two different things. Imagination is a human thing. Causality is a principle. If you meant “Can imagination cause things to happen?”, the answer is yes. Anything has an effect on everything. Whether the imagined thing becomes true depends on your Timeseeing.

Yes. Anything can become dangerous. Read the warnings I put next to it :)

Yes. A ritual is just a way to quickly access Blue.

Because it is part of the Circle... You cannot ignore the shadow because it looks scary.

Because it looks scary. We have a tendency to hide the scary things. Take drugs. Many countries make them illegal. That never solved the problem. They just hid the problem. If you want to integrate, you have to integrate the dark parts too.

I don’t think consciousness holds a particularly central place. But it might have to do with its assumed Base-1 property. The Codex looks at reality, so talking about consciousness would be inevitable.

Because matter thins at the edges. Zoom in far enough, and particles become waves. Zoom out, and the Universe becomes limited. Consciousness transcends everything.

Too many to name here, but I will try. The idea of a Base-1 reality convinced me that consciousness might be a central feature of reality itself. Looking at Life and the evolutionary drive to survive, consciousness seemed a fitting central property. And also the observation that other definitions of consciousness are flimsy.

Hmm... I don’t know? Do not attack me or my work with vague criticism.

Yes.

Because I like chemistry.

Because I like astronomy.

Because I like music.

Because I am not very good at mathematics.

When there are more Elemental mappings that seem unstable than there are stable mappings.

All of them.

All of them.

I think it is not my place to map out the entire Sapphire City. What would you change first?

The advanced Stone extraction from people who just want to be happy.

I don’t know... Again. I don’t think I should be the sole judge of this. But maybe we keep the porn? Maybe even make it free and normalise it? It is kind of a human need, no? Haha.

I don’t know.

Because that is the label people put on the way I wrote. I did not purposely write in myth language. This is how my brain wanted it written down after years of trying to find a way to write it down.

Because that is boring.

Because I believe the Universe is intrinsically poetic. And it is pretty.

Because it goes back to the root of language itself. Before pens, books, and bytes, people had to remember things without support. In ancient cultures, memorability was key to transmitting your ideas.

The Codex has changed me profoundly. Every Facet of me has become sharper and clearer. I guess that is why people think I am ‘intense’. I’ll take that as a compliment.

Oh, so many. But to pick a few, I would say:

• that all hope is lost
• that there is no meaning
• that the Universe is bad
• that I cannot change the world because the world is too big

None, because sometimes I still edit them. They are finished in the sense that the ideas are there. But sometimes my words are really sloppy or imprecise. I reserve the right to call them ‘mostly finished’.

I don’t know.

The transmission of the Codex is the discovery I am focused on now.

Oh, so many things. If I had to choose, as said before, the Links could use some deeper digging.

I don’t use it consciously that often. The nice thing is that the Codex kind of installs itself. So, there is no perfect manual. You kind of discover it as you go.

Again, not that often. Unless I am mapping or making an Artifact, I don’t think in Elementals. There are times when my brain will automatically make the connection. Like, I hear something in the news and my first thought will be ‘oh, another Crimson City game’.

Most of the Codex is burrowed deep into my thinking.

The mapping definitely requires effort.

Yes, and no. I do not spend my days thinking about the Codex. But once integrated, the pathways in your brain become Codexy. So, in that way, it never really leaves. You can compare it to your native language: how often do you think about using it?

I don’t know. I want to see a Sapphire City, but that is just the beginning.

Then, I will have made a beautiful poem for myself to enjoy. But I think it is already too late – people other than me have adopted the Codex. And even more have taken parts of it.

Haha, my Fire made sure that that won’t happen. Crim Crimson forever, baby.

The core of it.

Maybe some names? Although... I do really like those too haha. Like ‘Moon-Master’ and ‘River-Dweller’ are perfect synonyms. I could drop one, probably ‘Moon-Master’... But I couldn’t, so I didn’t. Also, we have to think about translating the Codex together. I speak only French, Dutch and English fluently. Having multiple names will be unavoidable as we translate.

Truth, Love, Peace, and Order for themselves and all they love.