the Envoy Mystique

sometimes the collective imagination coughs up some amazing ideas, and thought interacts with the gravitas of the moment

The Envoy Mystique

A meditation of certain remarkable ideas developed by the mind of the writer Richard K. Morgan, as part of his three Takeshi Kovacs Novels.

Morgan imagines a world in which, via technology, immortality is possible. Of course, money and power take advantage. Humanity in this vision is spread all over the galaxy, and able to needle-cast human consciousness across space instantaneously. The body one gets varies, some bodies are natural, and others modified, … for example a soldier’s body might be crafted with “neurochem”, Morgan’s name for enhancements in speed, senses, strength, endurance, mental faculties and do forth.

The first novel takes place 250 years after an attempt at a revolt against money and power. That rebellious army was called: Envoys. It was totally wiped out except for one consciousness, whose name is: Takeshi Kovacs. His consciousness was in “storage”, and he is against his will awakened from storage into a new body (called a “sleeve”) in the first novel: Altered Carbon, 250 years after that “war”.

The people of that more modern time only know of the Envoys as a doubtful legend. They were/are not prepared for the reality of who he is and what he does – a strength of character and intelligence unimaginable. The TV Show: Altered Carbon can be seen on Netflix. Most who reviewed this series did not understand what an Envoy is/was either, although the writer and main actor knew exactly what was involved.

To convey what the teacher of the Envoys trained them to understand was done in the films 10 episodes via voice-overs and flashbacks. I watched this show several times, and took notes. I arrived then at thirty-three rules, which I will next list, with certain additional nuances that come to mind given my own background.

Richard K. Morgan is not responsible, except for a genius whose imagination is unlimted, for what I have interpreted/seen of this instinctive wisdom is applicable to all of us.

Why?

Because we humans are already immortal beings, living lives in sleeves, which we call a biography, during which whenever we sleep, we again leave our avatar body/sleeve behind, until waking later. These rules therefore apply to our biographies, and to our daily lives. Each birth and death we resleeve, and each night and morning we resleeve. Don’t think so?

Look past the individual aspects of the Way of the Envoy Mystique, and think of it as a spiral, whose beginning disappears into its ending.

Many are the implications, and the Envoy Mystique can apply to us, should we find it/them useful. The individual rules/laws/Ways of seeing are ours …. we who lived trapped in the prison of the Now, and the Cycle of Day and Night — think about it … is life a prison, or something much more remarkable?

{My commentary will take this form – brackets and italics}

1) The first thing you’ll learn is that nothing is what it seems

{the Earth is alive – the avatar body of the holy mother, fairies are real, and we come into each incarnation from our star home, which via faster than light instantaneous-jumps of consciousness allows all to be interconnected. We are the aliens that are already here.}

2) Ignore your assumptions

3) Don’t trust anything

4) What you see, what you hear, … what people tell you, what you think you remember, [demonstrations of examples in the books and film]

5) We are Envoys … we take what is offered

{yet, what we see, we modern humans, is not atoms or even light (we see color) – a decent name is “experience”, and as to that: “the appearances”. Phenomena to the poet/scientist Goethe, and as every shaman knows: What you see is what you get, but if you attend to it carefully, it is a wonder filled story.}

6) Let experience wash over you

7) Absorb it like a sponge

8) Expect nothing

9) Only then can you be prepared for anything

10) Your body is not who you are

{bears repeating … yet life is suffering proclaimed a sage of the East … so pain is real … but what is pain, if you are not your body?}

11) You shed it like a snake sheds its skin

12) Leave it forgotten behind you

13) Make it personal. It is. You are the weapon

14) You are the killer and the destroyer

{with what poetry do you paint the world of experience?}

15) One thing I can promise you is that coming back from the dead is a bitch

{for everyone}

16) Every single time

17) When you wake up the world will not be what it was

18) … and neither will you

{when you realize that karma and reincarnation are real, serious problems appear, … and their related mysteries}

19) They have forgotten who and what we are

{all the oldest earth-religions are true. the male patriarchies of the three major monotheisms murdered the goddess religions in a flight from the powers of hearth and home, needing dominion-over at the expense of communion-with … an this too shall pass}

20) Make them remember

21) There will be places where they’ll wait. The people left behind

{fear of an unknown future, wherein the absence of simple gods, with pliable rules makes change comfortable or not – traditions are safe, sins forgivable}

22) This enemy you cannot defeat … you can only drive it deeper inside you

23) Envoys finish the mission

{which begs the most important question unless you review rules five through nine}

24) You must learn the weakness of weapons

25) The strength of a wolf is not of fangs but of speed and skill, which is the pack

26) Whatever world you go into, build a pack

27) The sleeve {the avatar body} is a tool, and it does not control me, I control it

28) Find ways to inspire loyalty in a few capable locals, even if ultimately many of them will be expendable

{you can’t act with such caution as assumes there is no risk to others}

29) We are Envoys, and we take what is offered and use it

30) Your enemy is not the pain, it is the despair

31) They control the construct

{any society is ruled by certain habits of thought – conformance is sometimes required at threat to lives – you can see through the context imposed by others, and notice that for them it is a prison}

32) Find their weakness and then get to the next screen

{the prison of another’s point of view is not informed with Envoy practice of rules five through nine} &&& {you can go to the next screen by simply blinking your eyes and looking without remembering – the next Now is always new, regardless of how similar it seems}

33) We are patient, and then we endure