We hear that "everything you know is a lie" so often in alternative communities that it has become cliché. And whilst I am not so small-minded to assume that the statement being made is meant to be taken literally, the effects of it's assertion are, to the collective and unconscious mind especially, insidious.
One of the great dangers of the “everything is a lie” ideology, is that it denies and brings suspicion to the firm (and civilised) foundation on which we stand. This all-encompassing & broad-cutting, nihilistic & cynical view is to show utter disrespect for the great philosphers, thinkers, myth-tellers, visionaries & artists, without whom we would have no signposts leading us back to Truth.
What the "everything is a lie" lie accomplishes is to dissuade & dis-courage people from looking for themselves into the pioneers of the past - the "Freud is a lie so I'm going to discount everything the man said" mentality.
If we were to hearken only to "everything is a lie" we would cast out, without a second's thought, so much of the accumulated wise-dome of ManKind. Though much of value has indeed been obfuscated, "discredited", or simply allowed to pass into historical amnesia, we would never have a psychological, philosophical, spiritual, or even a physical foundation from which to ponder "Truth" if it weren't for the civilising process.
Foundations are not only material, they are philosophical.
Rug pulling
We see clearly the way The Enemy tries to keep us in a psychological state of uncertainty with their continually shifting and often contradictory narratives : "fat is the enemy!", now "it's salt!", next it's "climate change!", or "drugs!", or "the whites!/ yellows!/ blacks!/ left-wing!/ right-wing!" etc. etc. etc.
There's always a war against something: War-time breeds obedience.
So "rug-pulling" amounts to inflicting trauma as a way of control.
Just as pernicious then is "it's all a lie".
"Everything is a lie" ungrounds you in that it makes you question the very ground (your roots) on which you stand. It pulls the rug from underneath you and very few - as all amateur magicians will demonstrate - have the poise to remain from falling flat on their face when such statements are made and then believed unquestioningly.
Only with equipoise, maturity and insight are we able to see clearly that where we stand now is only possible because of the beautiful truths and solutions that have been expressed & realeyesd, in so many different ways, throughout history and the through the journey of consciousness' evolution and individuation.
Yes, there is an age of deception, but to make such broad and immature statements is not helpful and is in fact damaging.
"Everything Else is a Lie"
Perhaps even more dangerous (if that's possible) than the constant psychological pulling of the rug - that un-nerving sense of having nowhere solid on which to place one's convictions - is the sometimes implicitly asserted (sometimes explicitly) message underlying "everything else is a lie": that a one - usually portrayed as "infallible" - person has the truth, all the answers, and only through them can one achieve salvation.
Despite if they are consistently proven wrong, or flip-flop over and again on previously held "certainties", having to resort to gaslighting people if they don't immediately switch their views to the "now-official-doctrine", such purveyors of "truth" hold onto their "flock", because they promise to offer a firm place on which to stand and in which to plant their flag.
That is, until it's time to pull the rug again...
This is the basis of all cults and all forms of mind control.
Let's get (meta)physical
This is where things get super serial in terms of your spiritual evolution.
Every "thing", every narrative, every story being woven is God/ The Divine/ Brahman having an experience in form.
"Everything is a lie" engrains that dualistic, divisive, non-wholistic & religious worldview that there is a God, that you and "it" are separate & that the Dream of God is somehow flawed.
Even the Loki's of this world (without whom the gods have no magick) are The One/ God in drag, playing their role perfectly, and so the deception is simply a beautiful (often painfully so) way of providing contrast so that you may find (and sometimes stumble upon) Truth. This doesn't mean we should applaud the deceivers, or not call them out, but rather that we see their purpose.
Grace is the gift of wholistic, rather than polarised vision.
So if you do feel yourself shaken & ungrounded, firstly know that this is a vital process in the Hero’s Quest. The Tarot’s Tower portrays the necessary (& usually violently) collapse of all that is false within us & the seemingly separate world around us.
Secondly, although it can be deeply disturbing & make us question our very foundations, know that you do have a firm place from which to gather strength. You are not adrift in a sea of confusion & lies; there are solid buoys on which to make your stand. Look to mythology and philosophy, but most of all look to your Self… the deep down you that has come here for exactly this Hero’s Journey you find yourself on.
~ A.J. Dunbar