Jesus, Grant. You don't do the charging AND you don't do banishing. I'd say what's left is writing but you actually remove half of that! ;-)
Granted, it looks to be for a cause and I'm kidding, mostly. It's just that if what you're doing is supplying the intent, I know I have a surplus of that and it sure looks like most of your work is overflowing with untapped intent too. I know every time I read anything by you, I end up going off and writing half a gig of notes for things nobody will publish coming from me and it sure seems like nobody else wants to grow anything from the roots you plant either!
Sometimes, being a fan of your work is like watching a master line up a billion dominos in a tantalizing formation like some kind of hyper dimensional stone henge and before you or anybody else can have the satisfaction of knocking all those dominos over or at least witnessing the calendars they form as the daylight dances through them, your editors encase it all in glass and whisk it away to be stored in a warehouse with the Ark of the Covenant and Jimmy Hoffa's bones. I feel sometimes like you must have been itching to pay things off at a certain point in your career and are now used to the toys being carted off into storage before you're finished with them! Now it's just a load of time capsules and ephemera that your lack of offspring will be unliving for generations waiting for in hopes of an inheritance that time forgot. Maybe somewhere in the multiverse, your dreams have endings and sequels. Alas!
A postscript: Norm Breyfogle was a friend and he's been heavy on my mind today for various reasons.
I believe he indicated to me that he never met you, Grant, but he was an enormous fan. He would talk about his appreciation for you deepening with time. He actually had a lot of ideas in your vein although I don't think he got to express them.
But something you might not know is that he dealt in sigils and chaos magick and was very interested in your own practices, having fallen into it all his own way and discovering your approach later.
I was talking to him online when he had his stroke. We were raging about politics and power structures. His heart and mind positively ached at the state of the world. His stroke and heart attack were in direct response to right wing politics in a way I've never seen before. Like his soul just poured out in righteous fury against oppression until it killed him.
I actually don't know your thoughts on ghosts and I suspect that you, like me, do a certain dance of ambivalence about the unreal aspects of reality. Personally, I've long blamed devotion and belief for many of the world's scars and I've always felt my "holy guardian angel" as it were was always more in tune the more ambivalent and indecisive I position myself. To get results, I had to commit 50% of myself to the idea that anything extraordinary that I was entertaining might be bullshit.
That's Hamlet, yeah? The indecision. That's Querl Dox grieving Kara after Crisis, second guessing himself and losing the name of action.
But if my approach is Hamlet's, then I know Norm Breyfogle's approach would be to act as an angry ghost, haunting us with a chiaroscuro of righteous fury, crying for revenge from the shadows.
You don't need me to tell you that. It was in his artwork!
But with him on my mind and you talking magick, I felt the nagging urge to tell you how very much he wanted to talk to you about sigils.
The next time you decide to channel the essences of the departed, throw up a mood board of Norm's Batman. I know he desperately wanted to talk to you, particularly about sigil magic, and even a brooding, cerebral, vengeful spirit like Norm needs a bit of encouragement and love, just a bit of comfort between cries for revenge.
GODDAMN!!! honestly the read you have on work being left unfinished, both for Grant and Norm, is beautifully tragic in so many ways. Thank you for sharing this incredible piece of insight!
Weve been finding ourselves in the same exact position, and I too found that the Hamlet paradox of "manifestation" if you will is exactly on the nose. every day we all hurdle closer to a new moment that keeps us anchored, whether it be in fulfillment of dreams or reality, its our intention to make a move at all that makes all the difference. (and bonus is learning sometimes the move is to not make a move at all.)
making a little setup for Norm, as I know theres so much we would've had been able to relate to or rally around at least.
I haven't seen the movie yet. Looking forward to it.
One question I have- I've been reading the recently concluded run of the Krakoa era of X-Men comics (I know Cassandra Nova turns up there on I think the second Marauders run). Have you read any of these? One of the interesting things is they openly turn Scott/Jean into a Scott/Jean/Emma/Wolverine polycule. It works quite nicely.
Cassandra Nova was my fav part of the movie, very much felt like the Morrison & Quitely creation come to life! If not the actor, somebody somewhere did their homework.
Psyched for Magick Show, backed and ready to go :)))
Kind of an interesting cultural trend for the "occult" or "hidden" ideas to inch, ever so slowly, but ever so surely, into the mainstream.
Oh! I just got that "Pop Magick" is an oxymoron :))) Coincidentia oppositorum!
Presumably it portends some variety of societal change, but probably also some other discipline or subject matter gets hidden as another comes to light? Or maybe not, maybe we can sustain a grander, even a glorious, transparency? IDK.
For any of the RAW / Discordian folks wandering the halls of Xanaduum, make sure to check out this year's Maybe Day smorgasbord of oddities and delights: https://maybeday.net/
My oft flogged Tales of Illuminatus! Comic gets an extended preview and modest kickstarter launch, along with an interview with Michael Johnson about the original Illuminatus! Trilogy that has been knocking socks off the world round, or this year's Maybelogues discussion where a panel of illustrious esoteric scholars try to teach me about the Tree of Life, and that's just for starters!
Until Alan Moore invites me over to tea, make mine maybe!
Jesus, Grant. You don't do the charging AND you don't do banishing. I'd say what's left is writing but you actually remove half of that! ;-)
Granted, it looks to be for a cause and I'm kidding, mostly. It's just that if what you're doing is supplying the intent, I know I have a surplus of that and it sure looks like most of your work is overflowing with untapped intent too. I know every time I read anything by you, I end up going off and writing half a gig of notes for things nobody will publish coming from me and it sure seems like nobody else wants to grow anything from the roots you plant either!
Sometimes, being a fan of your work is like watching a master line up a billion dominos in a tantalizing formation like some kind of hyper dimensional stone henge and before you or anybody else can have the satisfaction of knocking all those dominos over or at least witnessing the calendars they form as the daylight dances through them, your editors encase it all in glass and whisk it away to be stored in a warehouse with the Ark of the Covenant and Jimmy Hoffa's bones. I feel sometimes like you must have been itching to pay things off at a certain point in your career and are now used to the toys being carted off into storage before you're finished with them! Now it's just a load of time capsules and ephemera that your lack of offspring will be unliving for generations waiting for in hopes of an inheritance that time forgot. Maybe somewhere in the multiverse, your dreams have endings and sequels. Alas!
A postscript: Norm Breyfogle was a friend and he's been heavy on my mind today for various reasons.
I believe he indicated to me that he never met you, Grant, but he was an enormous fan. He would talk about his appreciation for you deepening with time. He actually had a lot of ideas in your vein although I don't think he got to express them.
But something you might not know is that he dealt in sigils and chaos magick and was very interested in your own practices, having fallen into it all his own way and discovering your approach later.
I was talking to him online when he had his stroke. We were raging about politics and power structures. His heart and mind positively ached at the state of the world. His stroke and heart attack were in direct response to right wing politics in a way I've never seen before. Like his soul just poured out in righteous fury against oppression until it killed him.
I actually don't know your thoughts on ghosts and I suspect that you, like me, do a certain dance of ambivalence about the unreal aspects of reality. Personally, I've long blamed devotion and belief for many of the world's scars and I've always felt my "holy guardian angel" as it were was always more in tune the more ambivalent and indecisive I position myself. To get results, I had to commit 50% of myself to the idea that anything extraordinary that I was entertaining might be bullshit.
That's Hamlet, yeah? The indecision. That's Querl Dox grieving Kara after Crisis, second guessing himself and losing the name of action.
But if my approach is Hamlet's, then I know Norm Breyfogle's approach would be to act as an angry ghost, haunting us with a chiaroscuro of righteous fury, crying for revenge from the shadows.
You don't need me to tell you that. It was in his artwork!
But with him on my mind and you talking magick, I felt the nagging urge to tell you how very much he wanted to talk to you about sigils.
The next time you decide to channel the essences of the departed, throw up a mood board of Norm's Batman. I know he desperately wanted to talk to you, particularly about sigil magic, and even a brooding, cerebral, vengeful spirit like Norm needs a bit of encouragement and love, just a bit of comfort between cries for revenge.
GODDAMN!!! honestly the read you have on work being left unfinished, both for Grant and Norm, is beautifully tragic in so many ways. Thank you for sharing this incredible piece of insight!
Weve been finding ourselves in the same exact position, and I too found that the Hamlet paradox of "manifestation" if you will is exactly on the nose. every day we all hurdle closer to a new moment that keeps us anchored, whether it be in fulfillment of dreams or reality, its our intention to make a move at all that makes all the difference. (and bonus is learning sometimes the move is to not make a move at all.)
making a little setup for Norm, as I know theres so much we would've had been able to relate to or rally around at least.
Oh man, I love knowing that context for Norm Breyfogle's work! Thanks for sharing :)))
I haven't seen the movie yet. Looking forward to it.
One question I have- I've been reading the recently concluded run of the Krakoa era of X-Men comics (I know Cassandra Nova turns up there on I think the second Marauders run). Have you read any of these? One of the interesting things is they openly turn Scott/Jean into a Scott/Jean/Emma/Wolverine polycule. It works quite nicely.
Cassandra Nova was my fav part of the movie, very much felt like the Morrison & Quitely creation come to life! If not the actor, somebody somewhere did their homework.
Psyched for Magick Show, backed and ready to go :)))
Kind of an interesting cultural trend for the "occult" or "hidden" ideas to inch, ever so slowly, but ever so surely, into the mainstream.
Oh! I just got that "Pop Magick" is an oxymoron :))) Coincidentia oppositorum!
Presumably it portends some variety of societal change, but probably also some other discipline or subject matter gets hidden as another comes to light? Or maybe not, maybe we can sustain a grander, even a glorious, transparency? IDK.
For any of the RAW / Discordian folks wandering the halls of Xanaduum, make sure to check out this year's Maybe Day smorgasbord of oddities and delights: https://maybeday.net/
My oft flogged Tales of Illuminatus! Comic gets an extended preview and modest kickstarter launch, along with an interview with Michael Johnson about the original Illuminatus! Trilogy that has been knocking socks off the world round, or this year's Maybelogues discussion where a panel of illustrious esoteric scholars try to teach me about the Tree of Life, and that's just for starters!
Until Alan Moore invites me over to tea, make mine maybe!
<3<3<3