Housekeeping, Late Winter 2024

Wrapping up my spiritual alchemy series, discussing a replacement: creative visualization. And some news.

I started writing about spiritual alchemy and the Octagon Society training last October. Every two weeks or so I dropped a new post, 12 total. I had some reservations when I began, the work of spiritual alchemy is for everybody but few take to it; there is always a bit of trepidation talking about spiritual traditions that are not monotheistic, for historical reasons. I’m glad I did though. It seems a few of my readers even took the further step to actually go through the training. That is gratifying.

All of the work is collected here:

This was my second time through the process, though I have periodically looked at the work since I first started it two years ago. Spiritual alchemy is a life long process, the transmutation of negative to positive energy is an art that takes practice. A true musician never stops learning. A true artist never stops making art. A spiritual alchemist never stops transforming mental and spiritual difficulty into spiritual gold.

You’re invited to revisit the Eight Laws and engage in the suggested tasks again at regular intervals in the future. The second time through this process you’ll learn even more about yourself and the Divine. In fact, we encourage you to go through this process a total of eight times. The Octagon Society is built on the number eight:

I probably won’t go through the process seven times, here on Substack. I will probably allude to the work from time to time, but otherwise the work will remain in the header of this Substack as long as it is a Substack. For those who are going through the process, there is some final information to peruse on the Octagon Society website.

Otherwise I have been wondering what to fill that void with. I don’t mean this Substack to be merely a deconstructing of the madness of the times. There is too much deconstructing going around as is.

Megha Lillywhite

wrote about that recently, so many are obsessed with dystopia, so few are talking about solutions. It matters, because you are what you eat so to speak. If we are spending most of our time consuming takedowns of the various pathologies leading us to destruction, where are we headed? It is an important point, and I mean for this substack to be about solutions, about building, not just tearing down the current Regime.

The Black Magic of Dystopias

As I said recently on a

Neoliberal Feudalism

post, on Ernest Junger:

I agree. I don't care about changing society, I am more interested in ways for individuals to improve mental, physical and spiritual strength. Enough individuals make such change, then society will.

Ernst Jünger: The man with no hands

Quoting Thomas Friess, who translated Junger’s The Adventurous Heart:

Jünger wants his readers to think for themselves. The same applies to the underwater connections between the islands—the translation should not try to explain the meaning; that is the reader’s task….

But although there is much in his thought that academia could engage with and society benefit from, its main audience is the individual; it seeks not to improve the world in general, which Jünger saw as a vanity, but to help the individual discover and develop himself—and thereby gain a position to help others do the same for themselves.

That is what I want for you, dear reader, for you to be mentally, physically and spiritually strong, that you will make good decisions and we together can change society, or at least help others mitigate imperial decline.

Creative Visualization for Meditation

Mulling over how to replace that bi-weekly Spiritual Alchemy post, I am thinking, as much of the basis of the study and practice of magic is creative visualization, what about a periodic post about creative visualization for meditation?

Eastern meditation is a challenge for Westerners. There is not such a focus on the individual in the East as there is in the West. Eastern meditation is about quieting the mind, on the path to no-mind. That has value, even for the Western individualist, but it is not the emphasis. The Western tradition of meditation is more discursive, sitting upright rather than on the floor, meditating on a specific topic. That is more active, about the expansion of consciousness, opening up consciousness to change it intentionally, for deeper understanding. That was Dion Fortune’s conception of magic, the art of changing consciousness in accordance with will. That is what Spiritual Alchemy is about, changing consciousness, opening it up to expand it. That is more about the primacy of the individual, as separate but responsible to society, while the East puts primacy on society, clan, family, or the collective, before the individual.

Meditation can be intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be. Whatever I am as a writer, I like to think I am not boring. I wouldn’t offer up meditation exercises to bore you. Or like Sam Harris, turn you into an authoritarian Covidian, lol.

To start, so you will have some understanding of where I am coming from with this, consider the Ace of Swords.

Swords are a tool of protection, but they can also be like a talisman, or a symbol of something other than protection, it is a symbol for writers, it is also a symbol of the mind, clarity of mind, cutting through the mess to the core of things:

Swords represent Air (earth, air, fire, water), which in this context is synonymous with mind, with thinking, and specifically reason and logic, wielded like a sword to cut through to the truth of things. Air as mind is synonymous with ideas and intellect, in relation to the sword, think of phrases like, “his mind is sharp,” “words can cut like a knife,” or “writing is more powerful than the sword.”

The ace of swords in the tarot is like the middle pillar of the Tree of Life, extending from the base, sephiroth Malkuth at the feet, Yesod at the groin/solar plexus, Tippareth at the heart/chest, Daath at the throat, through the spine to Kether, the crown.

Swords are also related to the moon, the ruler of the astral realm, swords associated with dreams and imagination.

Sit in a chair, feet firmly on the floor, hand resting relaxed on your thighs, your back upright. Take a few deep breaths, pausing briefly after each exhalation and inhalation, without closing off the lungs. You might consider saying a prayer of gratitude and asking for assistance in your meditation, though it is not necessary. Once relaxed, imagine your spine as a sword. First imagine the sword pointing down, the cross guard like your shoulders, the pommel at the base of your brain, your head like the moon, the energy of the moon flowing down through the sword into your base, filling you up throughout.

The alternative is, and this is up to you, whether you would prefer to isolate the meditation in separate meditations or combine them, but imagine the sword upright, the pommel the base of the spine, the cross guard like the top of the hips, energy flowing up from your core lighting up the top of your head like a luminescent crown. I prefer to keep the meditations separate.

There is a tangible energetic difference between the two meditations. I encourage you to explore how. Five minutes is all you need, stretch it to ten if you can. Pay close attention to your attention, it will wander, if you have little experience meditating. Bring it back to the sword. Remember what other imagery comes up, keep a journal, ponder it. Come back to the meditation whenever you like. Try to sustain it for a week or two to start.

The spine is also like a metaphor for courage. To have a sturdy spine is to be strong in the face of difficulty or conflict. To be spineless is synonymous with cowardice. You surely have seen people whose shoulders are collapsing, their chest sunken. This meditation can facilitate better posture, more upright and confident stature. Also, one wants a flexible spine, not a rigid one, so don’t take the spine as sword too literally.

It might behoove you to have a strong spine for the trouble coming, what seems inevitable, based on the state of the State. Learning how to meditate on the sword is in part, learning how to handle the metaphorical swords coming at you in life, be they from the government, media, employment, community or family. Piercing through the propaganda and abuse is like an art form, these days.

I hope this is useful to you.

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To finish, I had a little milestone on the guitar recently. Fifteen months in, a friend texted me, saying he and a few of the guys would be at the VFW open mic. I let them know I was already planning on being there. I got there and one of the guys says, btw you are playing rhythm guitar for us; you said you wanted to play. I said I wanted to practice, in your house. You’re playing, you said you wanted to play.

I look a little grim. I sucked. But it was fun.