Michael Hoffman 7:53 a.m. Feb. 17, 2026
Contents:
links work on desktop Edge/Chrome:
- Citation and Link: Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) (Davis, 2005)
- Page 118: Astral Ascent Mysticism
- Page 122: The Egodeath Theory
- Search this Website for Davis’ Book
- From Page: idea development 28
- Audiobook: Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) (Erik Davis, 2005)
- From Page: thrice ninth
- Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) Audiobook Format (Erik Davis, 2005) Forthcoming April 29, 2025
- From Page:
- In 2005, Erik Davis and I Were Both Fumbling Between 2-Level vs. 3-Level Model: Enlightenment = Determinism vs. Transcending Determinism
- From Page: Against Freedom, Liberty, & Freewill: Leveraging the Clue of Maximum Offense Against Egoic Premises of Value
- YI hand-shape pair analysis [YHSPA]
- YI hand-shape analysis [YHSA]
- the medieval YI hand-pair language [MYHPL]
- Egoic Assumptions & Attitudes Toward Personal Control Freedom and Presumed Branching Possibilities: The Assumed Selling Point that Transcendent Knowledge Gives You Control Power and Freedom in an Open Future
- From Page: People Want a Substitute Instead of Transcendent Knowledge as the Revelation of Eternalism, Which Threatens and Neutralizes Egoic Power
- From Page: Progress on the Hanegraaff Front
- From Page: Late Antiquity Confusingly Transposed Valuation onto the Move from Eternalism to Post-Eternalism
- From Page: Late Antiquity Transition from Worshipping Heimarmene to Worshipping Transcending Heimarmene
- From Page: Hanegraaff’s Gnostic Anti-cosmic Negative Repression Attitude against Fate/Heimarmene Going so Far as to Remove the Very Stars from the Heavens
- From Page: Ideas of Spiritual Ascent and Theurgy (Kirsty Pattison 2020)
- From page: Hanegraff Book Review Notes, “Fixed Stars Climax of Spiritual Cosmology”
- From my Hanegraaff Book Page
- From page: Dionysus & Ariadne Victory Parade Mosaic: the Marriage & Wedding of Possibilism & Eternalism
- p. 118, Zep 4 (Davis) on Astral Ascent Mysticism
- p. 122, Zep 4 (Davis), About the Egodeath Theory as Pure, Exclusive Eternalism, as if Get Rid of Possibilism
- The Dominant Christian Interpretation Is by Psilocybin-Initiated, Transformed Artists Spotlighted in the Greatest, Most-Mainstream Cathedrals and Illuminated Manuscripts
- Motivation for this Page
- See Also
Citation and Link: Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33⅓) (Davis, 2005)
Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3)
Erik Davis, 2005
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826416586/ —
Blurb:
“In this wickedly entertaining and thoroughly informed homage to one of rock music’s towering pinnacles, Erik Davis investigates the magic-black or otherwise-that surrounds this album.
Carefully peeling the layers from each song, Davis reveals their dark and often mystical roots-and leaves the reader to decide whether [FOUR SYMBOLS] is some form of occult induction or just an inspired, brilliantly played rock album.”
Excerpt:
“Stripping Led Zeppelin’s famous name off the fourth record was an almost petulant attempt to let their Great Work symbolically stand on its own two feet.
But the wordless jacket also lent the album charisma. Fans hunted for hidden meanings, or, in failing to find them, sensed a strange reflection of their own mute refusal to communicate with the outside world.
This helped to create one of the supreme paradoxes of rock history: an esoteric megahit, a blockbuster arcanum.
Stripped of words and numbers, the album no longer referred to anything but itself: a concrete talisman that drew you into its world, into the frame.
All the stopgap titles we throw at the thing are lame:
- Led Zeppelin IV,
- [Untitled],
- Runes,
- Zoso,
- Four Symbols.
In an almost Lovecraftian sense, the album was nameless, a thing from beyond, charged with manna.
And yet this uncanny fetish was easy to buy.”
Page 118: Astral Ascent Mysticism
p. 118, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
Page 118 Transcribed
todo. search this site for key phrases from photo
I probably already transcribed the paragraph(s).
Page 122: The Egodeath Theory
p. 122, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
Page 122 Transcribed
todo. search this site for key phrases from photo
Michael Hoffman, Contemporary Mystic
I probably already transcribed the paragraph(s).
Search this Website for Davis’ Book
https://egodeaththeory.org/?s=%22Erik+Davis%22+%22Led+Zeppelin%22
3 pages of results.
Page 2 of results:
https://egodeaththeory.org/page/2/?s=%22Erik+Davis%22+%22Led+Zeppelin%22
Page 3 of results:
https://egodeaththeory.org/page/3/?s=%22Erik+Davis%22+%22Led+Zeppelin%22
From Page: idea development 28
the copypaste below:
Audiobook: Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) (Erik Davis, 2005)
Released today Apr. 29, 2025
Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3)
Erik Davis, 2005
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826416586 – print
https://www.amazon.com/Led-Zeppelins-Zeppelin-IV-33/dp/B0DY2YDF88/ – audiobook
From Page: thrice ninth
Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) Audiobook Format (Erik Davis, 2005) Forthcoming April 29, 2025
Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) (Erik Davis, 2005) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826416586
ed05
“Thank you for choosing this title.
Your pre-order title will be available upon release.
Thank you for choosing Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV: 33 1/3.
Your audio book will be available for download on April 29, 2025.“
From Page:
https://egodeaththeory.org/2025/02/25/idea-development-page-25/
good page eg excerpt, see more:
As Erik Davis says [Led Zeppelin IV, 2005, p. 118], there are variants of astral ascent mysticism.
The best variant of astral ascent mysticism is that which starts by assigning fixed stars = heimarmene.
If Late Antiquity switches that mapping all up (as in Hermeticism per the book Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, by Wouter Hanegraaff, 2022), I resent and reject that perversion and destruction of astral ascent mysticism.
A parasitic, destructive revision of astral ascent mysticism in 150 AD to change it to “fate fate fate fate fate fate fate fate then transcend fate”, divorces astral ascent mysticism from its proper helpful useful role as analogy helping to clarify and explain how the mind transforms from Psilocybin.
History of the earth-centered cosmos model: 310 BC Greek guy, then another guy, then latecomer Ptolemy who is given too much credit for inventing scientific (not mystical) astral ascent mysticism model.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model – Aristarchus (c. 310 – c. 230 BC) developed a heliocentric model placing all of the then-known planets in their correct order around the Sun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparchus discovered precession 162 – 127 BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy
- 310–230 BC Aristarchus – spheres cosmos model – no precession of equinoxes.
- 162-127 BC Hipparchus – adds precession.
- 150 AD Ptolemy — adds precision.
Early systems enable astral ascent mysticism – they had the simple concept “beyond the stars”,
In 2005, Erik Davis and I Were Both Fumbling Between 2-Level vs. 3-Level Model: Enlightenment = Determinism vs. Transcending Determinism
p. 118, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
Error in Davis p. 118: “Beyond these seven heavens lay the empyrean [sic], the eighth “rung” of the fixed stars.”
NO! If any system says empyrean = eighth (fixed stars), it’s a bad system & a failed use of analogy.
‘Empyrean’ needs to be reserved for the 9th level, higher than 8th/ fixed stars.
Empyrean is per Ulansey hypercosmic which should mean beyond fixed stars boundary of fate-ruled cosmos. ‘pyre’ means hypercosmic fires above fixed stars zodiac constellations.
“This model was interpreted in different ways [yeah some shtty failed bad harmful ways], but for many gnostics, the planetary [1-7] rulers were essentially demonic: they imprisoned the soul through the machinery of fate, an oppressive system of astral control …”
That is bad to equate level 1-7 = fate.
Yes, fate underlies all Psilocybin-driven developmental levels, but we need to be discussing mental models and their transformation, from possibilism-thinking to finally, after great effort, retaining grasp of eternalism-thinking, then transcending the revealed fact of eternalism.
Not simply saying “every level less than 9 = 100% fate” – that is not helpful & is a WASTE, a failure to helpfully explain mental model transformation starting from, in fact, possibilism-thinking – never mind that naive possibilism-thinking has hidden, not-yet-revealed fate underlying it under the hood.
What are we trying to accomplish via analogy?
Just complaining about fate?
Or helping map the move from thinking in terms of childish possibilism-thinking, to reveal fate, and then t’d fate in some way?
I’m sure I posted about this book before; search site for: davis “led zeppelin”
https://egodeaththeory.org/?s=davis+%22led+zeppelin%22
p. 122, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
From Page: Against Freedom, Liberty, & Freewill: Leveraging the Clue of Maximum Offense Against Egoic Premises of Value
Against Freedom, Liberty, & Freewill: Leveraging the Clue of Maximum Offense Against Egoic Premises of Value
https://egodeaththeory.org/2022/09/18/against-freedom-liberty-freewill-leveraging-the-clue-of-maximum-offense-against-egoic-premises-of-value/
8:35 Feb. 17, 2026 – YI hand-shape analysis:
YI hand-shape pair analysis [YHSPA]
YI hand-shape analysis [YHSA]
- king L hand: IY
- king R hand: IY’
- king hands pair: [IY’, IY]
- L woman: L hand: IY
- L woman: R hand: Y’
- L woman hands pair: [Y’, IY]
- R woman: L hand: Y’I’
- R woman: R hand: Y’I
- R woman hands pair: [Y’I’, Y’I]
This is significant: Seeing again this pic today, but THIS TIME, THE HANDS LEAPED OUT COHERENTLY, UNLIKE BEFORE. Feb. 17, 2026
To me, this proves how TOTALLY STANDARD AND UNIVERSAL the hand-shape language was.
the medieval YI hand-pair language [MYHPL]
Con of making headings for keyboard shortcut/ acronym/ concept-label/ concept/ lexicon term: lowercase vs uppercase.
Egoic Assumptions & Attitudes Toward Personal Control Freedom and Presumed Branching Possibilities: The Assumed Selling Point that Transcendent Knowledge Gives You Control Power and Freedom in an Open Future
Eve is not a weak-willed woman … she is a courageous spiritual guide who leads humanity to exercise free will and achieve higher consciousness.Brown & Brown. Page 7 of 2019 article. Entheogens in Christian art: Wasson, Allegro, and the Psychedelic Gospels. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, Special Issue on Psychedelics in History
and World Religions, re: Plaincourault
[in Late Antiquity, the spirituality industry’s “I Hate Fate” theme of hermetic spirituality & of Late Antiquity – find ‘free’, “liberty”, “liberate”, “the Ogdoad, above the heimarmene”[sic!]]Wouter Hanegraaff, page n, Hermetic Spirituality, 2022
[Davis’ framing and narrative, assuming a selling point, that the purpose and end-goal project and objective of the Egodeath theory is to provide transcendental freedom and “a way out of the matrix” of block-universe determinism ]Erik Davis, page 122, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
From Page: People Want a Substitute Instead of Transcendent Knowledge as the Revelation of Eternalism, Which Threatens and Neutralizes Egoic Power
Erik Davis’ book Led Zeppelin IV p. 118 & 122 emphasizes the two-level model: the mind switches from possibilism to eternalism, as an experiential mode and mental worldmodel in the loose cognitive association state that comes only from psilocybin and exactly equivalent plants.
Added Feb. 17, 2026:
Caution in wording:
The mind changes from possibilism to eternalism – as a state.
BUT by the end of the initiation series, the mental model changes from possibilism to modified possibilism + eternalism.
The mind does not change “from possibilism-thinking to eternalism-thinking” permanently.
From Page: Progress on the Hanegraaff Front
Progress on the Hanegraaff Front
https://egodeaththeory.org/2022/09/04/progress-on-the-hanegraaff-front/
As any Erik Davis type of explorer in the late 20th century knows, the true actual mental developmental trajectory is from Free Will possibilism to frozen-in-rock eternalism, as he accurately and clearly writes in page 118 and 122 in the book Led Zeppelin IV, 2005.
From Page: Late Antiquity Confusingly Transposed Valuation onto the Move from Eternalism to Post-Eternalism
Late Antiquity Confusingly Transposed Valuation onto the Move from Eternalism to Post-Eternalism
https://egodeaththeory.org/2022/08/28/late-antiquity-confusingly-transposed-valuation-onto-the-move-from-eternalism-to-post-eternalism/
Revealed in the altered state is that we are imprisoned in no-free-will prison iron block rock king turned to stone helplessly per Erik Davis page 118 122 in book Led Zeppelin IV book re Stairway song.
From Page: Late Antiquity Transition from Worshipping Heimarmene to Worshipping Transcending Heimarmene
Late Antiquity Transition from Worshipping Heimarmene to Worshipping Transcending Heimarmene
https://egodeaththeory.org/2022/08/18/late-antiquity-transition-from-worshipping-heimarmene-to-worshipping-transcending-heimarmene/
Erik Davis: Stairway to Heaven, per the Egodeath Theory & 2-Level Geocentric Cosmology
Book:
Led Zeppelin IV
Erik Davis
2005
http://amzn.com/dp/0826416586/ –
Astral ascent 2-level possibilism to eternalism per the Egodeath theory – pp. 118-119 & 122 are regarding the song Stairway to Heaven.
David Ulansey – The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology & Salvation in the Ancient World
This is a science book more than a spirituality book – provides a trustworthy foundation unlike the “scientific historian” Wouter Hanegraaff who struggles to prevent the fixed stars from being in the Ogdoad (8th sphere).
As Luther H. Martin’s 2018 book (Studies in Hellenistic Religions) writes, scholars have disrespected Hellenistic-era religion and have been blind to astral ascent mysticism; spiritual ascent cosmology.
https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Mithraic-Mysteries-Cosmology-Salvation/dp/0195067886 –
From Page: Hanegraaff’s Gnostic Anti-cosmic Negative Repression Attitude against Fate/Heimarmene Going so Far as to Remove the Very Stars from the Heavens
Hanegraaff’s Gnostic Anti-cosmic Negative Repression Attitude against Fate/Heimarmene Going so Far as to Remove the Very Stars from the Heavens
https://egodeaththeory.org/2022/08/15/hanegraaffs-gnostic-anti-cosmic-negative-repression-attitude-against-fate-heimarmene-going-so-far-as-to-remove-the-very-stars-from-the-heavens/
Egodeath Mystery Show Ep211 start, I give a really great analysis of how we need to embrace, include, and THEN transcend no free will, fatedness, heimarmene, that which Erik Davis’ book Led Zeppelin IV reports on page 118-119 & 122.
Enlightenment is of no free will personal noncontrol or helpless dependence on the uncontrollable source of our control thinking.
From Page: Ideas of Spiritual Ascent and Theurgy (Kirsty Pattison 2020)
Ideas of Spiritual Ascent and Theurgy (Kirsty Pattison 2020)
https://egodeaththeory.org/2022/08/07/ideas-of-spiritual-ascent-and-theurgy-kirsty-pattison-2020/
That particular passage, in isolation, partly appears to support Erik Davis’ Led Zeppelin IV book page 118 about spiritual ascent cosmology levels.
Davis’ 2005 book lowers the Empyrean down from level 10 to level 8 (fixed stars/ eternalism) and halts, with (like my 1997 Core theory) no level transcending no-free-will. His concept of the Emperian is a block universe no-free-will model, not transcending that to reach (we can say) qualified possibilism-thinking; “transcending eternalism”. The spirit transcends Heimarmene, where the soul remains.
From page: Hanegraff Book Review Notes, “Fixed Stars Climax of Spiritual Cosmology”
Davis Led Zep IV Book Is Eternalism-Only Cosmology
Erik Davis cites my “no-free-will transformation then full transcendence” theory and misstates: “level the 8 fixed stars is called the Empyrium , where the Elect reside”- writers crash and burn at the transcendent levels, need to go back to school.
no-free-will is not highest cosmological spiritual level.
From my Hanegraaff Book Page
At the climax of Erik Davis’ book Led Zeppelin IV, he discusses astral ascent mysticism (p. 118), relevant to Hanegraaff’s chapter The Source, complementing Hanegraaff’s coverage, though you really have to read Ulansey’s hypercosmic cosmology too.
On page 122, Davis discusses the Stairway to Heaven (cosmology levels 1-8), heroic doses’ experience of absolute determinism, illusion of autonomous personal control agency, the divine will controlling the block universe, the peak intense altered-state experiencing of block-universe Eternalism, and pre-existing control thoughts.
Hanegraaff twice (pp. 4, 139) recommends Erik Davis’ concept of “high weirdness”; see Davis’ book High Weirdness[https://www.amazon.com/High-Weirdness-Esoterica-Visionary-Experience/dp/1907222871].
Hanegraaff agrees with Davis’ call for something between crude materialist or social scientism reductionism, and vague abstact idealist mystical haze.
The section (p. 140) with the nested egg diagram of levels of spiritual importance of the various Hermetic texts is titled “Weirdness at the Center”, referencing Davis’ idea. When discussing the climactic song Stairway to Heaven, Erik Davis’ book Led Zeppelin IV [https://www.amazon.com/Led-Zeppelins-Zeppelin-IV-33/dp/0826416586] (pp. 118-199 & 122) presents the geocentric mystic cosmology together with the heimarmene-focused Egodeath theory.
Except for the phrase “transcendental freedom” tacked-on from out of the blue, Davis’ model lacks levels that represent transcending block-universe Eternalism (heimarmene, no-free-will; fatedness).
From the perspective of a heimarmene-centered 3-level model of mental development pictured as cosmology:
o Erik Davis’ model covers levels 1 & 2 (culminating in the heimarmene revelation, which is the central level 8 in the standard model).
o Hanegraaff’s model covers levels 1 & 3 (skipping level 2, the heimarmene-reconciling level). Hanegraaff removes the distinct heimarmene level of the fixed stars (level 8 in the standard cosmology) and leaps up to present only the transcendent levels above heimarmene.
o David Ulansey’s model covers all three levels: 1, 2, and 3 (numbered as 0, 8, and 9 in the standard model).
copypaste:
At the climax of Erik Davis’ book Led Zeppelin IV, he discusses astral ascent mysticism (page 118) and then page 122, Davis discusses the Stairway to Heaven, heroic doses’ experience of absolute determinism, illusion of autonomous personal control agency, the divine will controlling the block universe, spends a page discussing the peak intense altered-state experiencing of block-universe Eternalism, pre-existing control thoughts,
This book approves and cites Erik Davis. Davis’ Led Zeppelin IV book’s climax, about Stairway to Heaven, discusses the Egodeath theory: eternalism no-free-will peak experience like Heimarmene gate.
Hanegraaff expresses uncertainty of Saturn gate vs fixed stars as the gate – mental model transformation gate re no-free-will & learning how to be Reverent fear respect for the Source of All Control Thoughts.
Davis’ Led Zeppelin IV book mis-calls the sphere of the fixed stars the Empyrean. But the sphere of the fixed stars is the realm of fate/Heimarmene (the non-control gate where Saturnus or Time sacrifices the youthful thinking). The level above no-free-will and eternalism and Heimarmene is where God and the elect reside, the empyrean.
/ end of copypaste
From page: Dionysus & Ariadne Victory Parade Mosaic: the Marriage & Wedding of Possibilism & Eternalism
The woman is supposedly Nike w/ wings, but my interpretation of her as Ariadne is better and paid off.
Dionysus & Ariadne Victory Parade Mosaic: the Marriage & Wedding of Possibilism & Eternalism
https://egodeaththeory.org/2026/02/14/dionysus-ariadne-victory-parade-mosaic-the-marriage-wedding-of-possibilism-eternalism/
p. 118, Zep 4 (Davis) on Astral Ascent Mysticism
p. 118, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
Davis’ treatment, Not Reaching Resolution; Failing to Reach Late Antiquity’s “Transcend Heimarmene” Level of Comprehension.
When Davis read Egodeath.com in 2004, I had only started to theorize in terms of 2- vs 3-level model.
It took me until Apr.-Aug. 2025, to really grasp the mind’s actual, final, mature relation between harmonizing in some way, possibilism alongside eternalism as two complementary opposites.
Intense mystic altered state visionary inspiration around that time: voice recording:
I tried to advice ppl how to think, but my speech is polluted:
How can I tell you “you should think about it this way”, when how you think about it is frozen in rock for eternity?
That’s when I realized, WE ALWAYS DO AND ALWAYS WILL employ possibilism-thinking.
It’s nonsense and unreal to think that possibilism-thinking goes away when add eternalism-thinking.
(Which similar Acid Metal album Diary of a Madman lyrics about changing thinking?)
p. 122, Zep 4 (Davis), About the Egodeath Theory as Pure, Exclusive Eternalism, as if Get Rid of Possibilism
p. 122, Erik Davis, Led Zeppelin IV, 2005
The Dominant Christian Interpretation Is by Psilocybin-Initiated, Transformed Artists Spotlighted in the Greatest, Most-Mainstream Cathedrals and Illuminated Manuscripts
Davis does NOT reflect my latest nascent idea of 2004, from Coraxo 2000 Gnosticism Yahoo Group:
In some sense, transcend block-universe determinism (eternalism; heimarmene, fatedness).
The mind learns eternalism-thinking and then in a sense transcends eternalism-thinking, in that the mind retains possibilism-thinking (modified) alongside eternalism-thinking.
Happily for my struggle to articulate this around April 2025, the medieval artists are working hard to communicate the same, specific, sophisticated, mature point:
The mind’s mature end-state after psilocybin transformation (eternalism-driven control-transformation), can be described in multiple ways:
- I-shaped.
End up with eternalism-thinking “instead of” possibilism-thinking.
If define eternalism to include modded possibilism. - I-shaped & Y-shaped.
End up with both possibilism-thinking & eternalism-thinking.
A simplified explanation that we end up with (for the most part) the original world model, with the eternalism model added to it. - I-shaped & Y’-shaped.
End up with modified possibilism-thinking, + eternalism-thinking.
That’s accurate: the new I model + the modded Y model.
Depending how you think about it and define terms:
Shall we say I-thinking (non-branching thinking), INCLUDES branching thinking?!
Motivation for this Page
I was updating Biblio of article for the Journal of Psychedelic Studies
the entry for this book has Amazon url but no local page existed to link to
I am always needing to find this content.
See Also
The Egodeath theory 