The number 23 keeps showing up in TOPY, Discordianism, SubGenius, MOO, Golden Dawn, Bob Wilson, and all manner of other writings. Since so many trustworthy officials agree it's important, it must be true. Right? So what's up with 23?
Wilson tells us, in Illuminatus!, that 23 is the I-Ching hexagram for "Breaking Apart", or chaos. Actually, "Breaking Apart" is hexagram 27 in the traditional King Wen system, and hexagram 32 in the systematic binary system. Behind the front of "chaos", 23 must have a deeper meaning.
In Kabbalah, the 23rd path is called the "Stable" intelligence. Stability in the sense that it operates the same on all levels. This path is regarded as a conduit between the Personality and the Higher Self... AHA! Now we're getting at somewhere!
Furthermore, the tarot card corresponding to this path is the Hanged Man, which represents the symbol of a cross over a triangle. This is the symbol of the Golden Dawn: it represents their central teaching. This form of contact between the Personality and the Higher Self is a rigorous one, a kind of initiatory thing.
The fact that the number 23 keeps turning up in association with ideas involving contact with higher intelligences - aliens from the star Sirius, TOPY ceremonies and shit like that there... This fact must have some significance.
The message hidden in the number 23, for those who are willing to look for it (and willing to give up when they reach precisely this conclusion), is that contact with aliens, Gods, or any other kind of higher being, is just contact with the higher part of your own Self.
Because, in fact, the experience of the "Stable Intelligence" is a feeling of identity with the universe. That's how Jesus, or King Kong, is able to die for everyone's sins. Since everything is inextricably bound together, and we're all part of the same thing, everyone else is part of your Self. Higher beings. Jesus is the Hanged Man archetype. King Kong just as much so. They are both part of the same thing, and part of us, and you.
There is nothing outside of the One Thing.
So that's what 23 means.
You can stop thinking about it now.
Forever.
Failure to comply will result in a visit from the Men In Mauve, and you will learn what makes the Men In Black quake in fear at the mere mention of the word MOO.
Inhale Eris!
Ann-O'Nymous: Speaking of the Kabbalah, it's interesting to note that of the 45 possible pairs of sephiroth on the Tree of Life, only 22 are represented by paths. The remaining 27 are the so-called "Hidden Paths", and probably contain the key to all truth. If you have a calculator, don't use it now.