My mother is a radical evangelical. We attended a Lutheran church when I was little, then in 1982 she had a mystical experience, found Jesus, and within a year we were politely asked not to come back to Bethesda Lutheran. My mother had gone too far, haranguing the pastor with questions about his beliefs, explaining to him he was not going to heaven. I was happy to leave. It was embarrassing, the church singing gospels while seated, my mother standing, arms raised, speaking in tongues.
I thought New Testament was amazing. They had a band! A lot of people were standing, arms raised, dancing, singing and speaking in tongues. The four or five hours of church and Sunday school was a bit much, not least because of the cruel behavior displayed by some of the kids in Sunday school, that no adults questioned. Then my mom started haranguing the leadership - you are not going to heaven! - they were not so polite in exiling her.
So we found a church in a building formerly housed by a farm implement business, out by the freeway, pastored by a woman (and her husband) who lost their farm in the 80’s farm crisis, a bitter apocalyptic woman, with about 150 parishioners, just this side of a cult. I was 14 by that time, I didn’t hide my skepticism very well, she wasn’t shy with her evil eye, and I was unceremoniously barred from attending. I was happy to oblige. My mother stayed another several years, before she started haranguing the pastor, leaving in a tempest.
I remember thinking at the time, my Mom’s Christianity is so radical there are about 6 people on planet earth who are going to get into heaven.
So maybe now you have some idea about how I came to be writing on Substack about Anarchy and Magic? I get my radical mystical nature from Mom. Thanks Mom.
Actually, I don’t believe in heaven. Not least the kind of gilded place where all is love and you are with the people you loved and you understand everything, that looks more or less like life on earth except more magnificent and bright and the streets to God’s castle are laid with gold pavers, clankety clank go the chariots pulled by unicorns. I don’t pretend to know what comes next, except I’m pretty certain it doesn’t end here, and it may very well be about coming back again and again.
I have all my life, irrespective of my mother’s radical beliefs, believed this life to be a good deal more mysterious than anyone led me to believe. As an adult I know this life is a great deal more mysterious than the vast majority of people believe, and it gets weirder the more you look under the hood, so to speak.
At this point, I don’t really see any separation between life and magic. Magic is older than Western Civilization. Magic is the Word, the Word is creation. It is as old as homo sapien. It is possibly older.
I have prayed all my life, in various forms, to various things. It took me a long time after my indoctrination to get right with God, and now I think of Him simply as the One, or the Divine, or the creator. One day about 9 years ago I was reading a book about Japanese painting when I saw a quote under the image of a goddess from the painter, “Call out to the goddess and she will answer.” I started then and I have not stopped. I started seeing a novel, I called out to Venus and asked for the ability to write female characters and then I wrote 40,000 words in eight days.
After I reached 50,000 I saw the ending but not the 50,000+ in between, lost confidence and didn’t pick it up again for eight years. Then a seven year relationship I was in collapsed, I worked through a training from the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy, I started reading widely of occult works, I started calling out more intentionally, then I wrote another 50,000 pages in about three months. I continue to work on it, intending to finish it this year. I also imagined selling my house and moving to the 80. I imagined this Substack page.
I am now the Librarian of the Octagon Society.
I intend to read more, write, meditate and train. Magic I realize is mostly about imagining the life I want and manifesting it with will. There are many ways to train how to do that. As a quick primer, the astral realm is the great arcanum, it is the creative energy of the universe flowing like an immeasurable stream becoming all that is, everything that is. The world around us is a continuous act of creation; tapping into that with our imagination, we see what is possible, we manifest what is possible with our will.
It is not effortless. It is work. Magic is like anything worth doing, it takes dedication, diligence, sustained effort, training. It is helpful to be passionate about it. It is necessary to believe. Some people are stronger practitioners than others. When Joe Rogan talks about the process of becoming who he is, he sounds to me like a magician. What would be possible for him if he truly believed! Many creatives talk of the mystical act of creation, without knowing what is truly possible, or even willing to do the work for what is their potential. (Also, just because I can imagine it does not mean it is possible. Magic is also knowing, accepting and embracing limits.)
A lot of the early magical work is clearing away past trauma, of the pain we hold onto, of the blame and bitterness, the shame, the lies, all the things that hold us back from knowing our true selves.
What do you suppose marketing is? Black, or dark magic, most of the time, preying upon your weaknesses, those things you do not truly understand about yourself. That is why there are so many chronic alcoholics, drug and sex addicts in advertising. Marketing is terrible for many souls who do it for a living. Hollywood is like that, if you want to talk about some truly awful people practicing dark magic. What tangled webs has Pharma/FDA/CDC/NIH/Fauci weaved? The soul is a very real thing, if you want to talk about the depths of damage they have done, manipulating us.
But forget them. Let’s talk about the Tarot. Speaking of a tool of magic, let’s do a reading.
“My Goddess, My Goddess, My Goddess, my name is William Hunter Duncan and I am in service to you. My creator, I am in service, my helping spirits, I am in service, the good, helpful spirits of these cards, I am in service. These are very challenging times, the changes are quickening, it is very hard to make sense. What is the message you would give to me and my readers, about how to face these trying times? I thank you.”
Three cards, the 10 of Swords, the 8 of Coins, the Slave of Swords inverted.
The present, the challenge, the outcome.
The Present:
Commentary for the 10 of Swords: “This is the only instance in the numbered cards where we find the ankh enclosed inside a symbol; in this case, it is contained inside a large sphere. The ankh here is a tool or weapon; its end becomes an arrow with an impaled snake.”
Interpretation: The ankh with the snake is similar to the caduceus, symbol of medicine. But there is only one snake, it is impaled, and there are 10 swords aligned behind it like a cage. The circle around the ankh is like a bubble hiding the truth. Ten is the number of completion; it reduces to 1 and begins again. The swords are like all the institutions of America protecting the Official Narrative and woke globalization. Here is a symbol of not just Covid Policy, but also Trans ideology, identity politics especially about race, and climate change doctrine. It has impaled science, weaponizing it - but it has come to a kind of completion.
The Challenge:
Commentary for the 8 of Coins: “Two double squares are aligned. The cube with the sign of Mercury suggest the full potentiality that the intellect could achieve in the density of matter and manifestation.”
Interpretation: Mercury is the messenger. He is also like the trickster. This is interesting he shows up here, because that is part of what is missing in the ankh and snake in the 10 of Swords, to make it a caduceus, Mercury’s wings. The other thing missing to make a medical caduceus is a second snake. It appears here in the 8, the ouroboros, the symbol of eternity and mystical transformation, the snake swallowing its tail. The four is a strong foundation, here are two such foundations, connected. The challenge is gathering the full power of intellect, while building two solid foundations side by side (left and right?) to fight the faux-scientific tyranny represented in the first card, to restore science and health care to their proper place. These foundations could be the left/right of society, the self or both.
The Outcome:
Commentary, the Slave of Swords, inverted: “The ankh of eternal life pierces the solid cube of manifestation. The sword is rendered here useless. Mind, body and soul need to be properly activated in the dense, material realm of the senses to form and manifest creation to its highest potential.
Interpretation: The slave, upside down, has broken his chains, his sword is at the ready and his mind, body and soul are prepared to “form and manifest creation to it’s highest potential.” A reminder that you are eternal, having an earthly experience. (But if the challenge {the second card} is not fulfilled we remain slaves and the system will renew.)
These cards suggest we, or much of humanity, has become like a slave to pharmaceutical companies, the Health Care industry generally and to woke globalization. We will need all of our intellect, to build solid foundations side by side to fight this. If we succeed, we will break our chains and overcome.
Not precisely the message I was anticipating. But there it is.
What on earth am I talking about? Using magic to fight tyrants? To be most prepared for the fight, to find the courage? I would rather talk about gardening. But mostly, again, magic is about the Great Work. To know thyself. To achieve your greatest potential, which I can assure you is far greater than you probably believe, surely greater than anyone has led you to believe.
Magic is making yourself strong as possible, to sharpen your intellect, intuition and instinct, to strengthen your will, to imagine and create the life you want.
I’m still working on that for myself. But I am on the path of the Great Work. I am deeply grateful for this life, and everything and everyone, especially those who read this far.
WHD