Asking questions and finding answers

I’m an occultist, artist, poet and self-published author. Or rather all of these things are facets of me, part of the identity that I share with the world around me. I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. First it was bad poetry, and then it became short stories and then I started writing books about my magical practice. More recently I started writing fiction again, this time in the form of books.

I only recently began my journey as a self-published author, but I’ve been traditionally published for a while and all along I have had people support my work and follow my writing and magical work. I have a newsletter I send out each week and regular blog and video articles, but that content isn’t really why people follow me.

They follow me because I don’t sugar coat my approach to magic, writing, art, or life in general. I let people in on my journey and I do it purposely because I want them to see they are not alone. I want them to see someone who makes mistakes and learns from them, who doesn’t always have his act together or have everything figured out.

The world has become this giant fishbowl (pardon the cliché) with everyone getting caught up in their image that they want to project to everyone else. The problem is that so much of those images are just illusions, people trying to present a very filtered view and perspective of themselves. I suppose its natural in a social media world where the wrong thing said can cause you to lose a job and become alienated because people are so afraid to offend each other or speak their truth.

For me that’s never really worked. I write and I create and maybe not everything I put out there makes people happy. Maybe it offends some people. Maybe it upsets some people. That isn’t necessarily the intent. I’m just sharing my journey, sharing my fallibilities and flaws, as well as my successes and virtues. Yet I think we can only have genuine connection when see we past the carefully presented image and really discover the person underneath and the journey they are on.

That’s what I share with my writing, my magic, my art and all the other content I put out there. My readers follow my work because what they see is a person they can relate to. They read my fiction because the characters aren’t perfect people. They make mistakes and they express the very real fears all of us feel. I share that in my non-fiction as well, because I’ve found that if you genuinely want to connect with people you have to let down the constructed walls and let people experience the organic reality of you.

That reality may not be for everyone, but whoever it is for will be drawn to it because it speaks to something within them that they are seeking. People support the work of other people because it speaks to and through them. It touches them on all levels of their being and when something touches you on every level of your being, you want to support it. You want to share it. And you want to apply it to your life.

Whether I’m sharing a magical experiment or a story or a video, what I’m really sharing is a taste of embodiment, an experience and expression of connection that fundamentally moves the people I connect with and in some way I hope helps them on their journey. I don’t have all the answers. I actually have a lot more questions, but I share all of that because I want people to know they aren’t alone. We all have questions we’re asking and maybe if we put down the image and open up the reality, we can actually help each other find some answers.

The sharp stab

of the needle

scissors into my skin

bringing with it

alchemical transformation

of what was

into what is becoming.

I take the K and transform it

while still honoring it.

I choose the words

those words that speak me

and speak through me

and imprint them on my skin

an eternal reminder

to never give up

who I truly am

and what I truly need to do.

I am the bard

the poet

the writer

turning potential

into reality

with my written

and spoken words.

I am the mage

the farseer

the futurist

who sees what could

become and transcribes it

into words

to guide the paths

of others who choose

to follow after me.

I speak and I embody

the reality of me

writer

bard

magician

artist

These are my realities

my identities

my ontological shifting

that transforms

the potential

into the reality