On Becoming a Second William Mistele
If you follow me on Facebook, you're probably aware that this whole month has been a massive shitstorm of deadlines and that all of my free time has been replaced with last-minute scrambling to meet deadlines for various projects and proposals related to my work.
Despite this, I couldn't help but take a break today to catch up on some of Camelia Elias's latest posts. One of them, titled Parallel and Oppositional, was quite interesting.
In that post, Elias discusses remaining parallel to the world and ignoring those who are oppositional to you. One thought that popped into my mind while reading this was that it's difficult to act in a perfectly parallel manner if you are oppositional to yourself.
In many modern esoteric circles with ties to the chaos magic movement, individuals are not seen as individuals, but as sets of individuals. In PsyberMagick, Peter Carroll writes the following.
"You do not have to sell your soul to succeed with off-white magic. You merely have to recognize the existence of your other seven."
If you consider an individual to be eight individuals that share a body, then needless to say, it is not so far-fetched to believe that some of those individuals are oppositional to each other.
Some authors like Jan Fries really dig this idea and discuss it extensively. While I understand this idea and even see how some might find it useful, it usually doesn't resonate well with me. In rare cases, it helps me come to an understanding of some other concept that is of importance to me, like the idea of people being oppositional to themselves.
When I first began my magical training, I wanted to become a second Bill. I mean, come on, Bill is pretty fucking awesome. He's studied with the masters of many esoteric disciplines and the heads of many spiritual traditions. He has extraordinarily heightened psychic abilities. He isn't the slave of dogma and is completely comfortable expressing and sharing his views, even if they contradict traditional or widely held views. Also, with the guidance of Cigila, he's used magic to stop a nuclear war from happening.
At some point in time, I realized what Elias states in her blog post.
"If you do YOUR shit well, perform it in virtuous and virtuoso ways, and according to what YOU know is the best manifestation of what you do, then the key to your success is simply to KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING. In other words, just KEEP GOING."
Bill is awesome because he does what he does best. That's one of the biggest keys to success. Learn what you do well and do it. Maybe you do something well because you have a natural talent for it. Maybe you do something well because you spend a lot of time and effort practicing it. Maybe it was some combination of the two. In any case, Bill does certain things well and I do certain things well. Well-being and success come from doing what you do well; not from doing what Bill does well.
Consider the following line from Elias's post.
"There’s NO such thing as ‘niche,’ ‘my people’, ‘my tribe’, ‘customer service’ and so on."
When it comes to my writing, I don't write about the six-pronged attack because it is my "niche" as a magical author. I don't write about the six-pronged attack as a way of serving the Bardon community because I view them as "my tribe" or "my people." I write about the six-pronged attack because it is something I do well. Bill writes fairy tales and essays about the water element and the void because that's what he does well.
At the end of the day, when you come to understand the process of acting parallel to the world and navigating those oppositional to you, you find a stronger and more genuine you. Or as Elias puts it.
"YOU doing YOUR shit, fearlessly, unapologetically, and blissfully at ease with YOURSELF, and hence the world."
That's what I do as an author. I do my writing shit fearlessly, unapologetically, and blissfully at ease with myself. I don't do Bill's shit. At this point in time, this isn't just about part of me wanting to be a great magician making a positive difference in the world like Bill. I regularly get messages from people asking me to do Bill's shit. Every now and then, I get a message from someone who wants to know if they are an incarnated undine. Why are you asking me? Reading peoples' auras to determine their elemental balance is a part of Bill's shit, but it's not a part of my shit. Regardless of whether or not it's something I can do, it's not something I do do.
So in summary, the world doesn't need you to do Bill's shit. It needs you to do your own shit, and to do it fearlessly and unapologetically while blissfully at ease with yourself and the world. Maybe your shit will overlap with Bill's shit. Maybe it won't. It doesn't matter. Just do your shit.
Despite this, I couldn't help but take a break today to catch up on some of Camelia Elias's latest posts. One of them, titled Parallel and Oppositional, was quite interesting.
In that post, Elias discusses remaining parallel to the world and ignoring those who are oppositional to you. One thought that popped into my mind while reading this was that it's difficult to act in a perfectly parallel manner if you are oppositional to yourself.
In many modern esoteric circles with ties to the chaos magic movement, individuals are not seen as individuals, but as sets of individuals. In PsyberMagick, Peter Carroll writes the following.
"You do not have to sell your soul to succeed with off-white magic. You merely have to recognize the existence of your other seven."
If you consider an individual to be eight individuals that share a body, then needless to say, it is not so far-fetched to believe that some of those individuals are oppositional to each other.
Some authors like Jan Fries really dig this idea and discuss it extensively. While I understand this idea and even see how some might find it useful, it usually doesn't resonate well with me. In rare cases, it helps me come to an understanding of some other concept that is of importance to me, like the idea of people being oppositional to themselves.
When I first began my magical training, I wanted to become a second Bill. I mean, come on, Bill is pretty fucking awesome. He's studied with the masters of many esoteric disciplines and the heads of many spiritual traditions. He has extraordinarily heightened psychic abilities. He isn't the slave of dogma and is completely comfortable expressing and sharing his views, even if they contradict traditional or widely held views. Also, with the guidance of Cigila, he's used magic to stop a nuclear war from happening.
At some point in time, I realized what Elias states in her blog post.
"If you do YOUR shit well, perform it in virtuous and virtuoso ways, and according to what YOU know is the best manifestation of what you do, then the key to your success is simply to KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING. In other words, just KEEP GOING."
Bill is awesome because he does what he does best. That's one of the biggest keys to success. Learn what you do well and do it. Maybe you do something well because you have a natural talent for it. Maybe you do something well because you spend a lot of time and effort practicing it. Maybe it was some combination of the two. In any case, Bill does certain things well and I do certain things well. Well-being and success come from doing what you do well; not from doing what Bill does well.
Consider the following line from Elias's post.
"There’s NO such thing as ‘niche,’ ‘my people’, ‘my tribe’, ‘customer service’ and so on."
When it comes to my writing, I don't write about the six-pronged attack because it is my "niche" as a magical author. I don't write about the six-pronged attack as a way of serving the Bardon community because I view them as "my tribe" or "my people." I write about the six-pronged attack because it is something I do well. Bill writes fairy tales and essays about the water element and the void because that's what he does well.
At the end of the day, when you come to understand the process of acting parallel to the world and navigating those oppositional to you, you find a stronger and more genuine you. Or as Elias puts it.
"YOU doing YOUR shit, fearlessly, unapologetically, and blissfully at ease with YOURSELF, and hence the world."
That's what I do as an author. I do my writing shit fearlessly, unapologetically, and blissfully at ease with myself. I don't do Bill's shit. At this point in time, this isn't just about part of me wanting to be a great magician making a positive difference in the world like Bill. I regularly get messages from people asking me to do Bill's shit. Every now and then, I get a message from someone who wants to know if they are an incarnated undine. Why are you asking me? Reading peoples' auras to determine their elemental balance is a part of Bill's shit, but it's not a part of my shit. Regardless of whether or not it's something I can do, it's not something I do do.
So in summary, the world doesn't need you to do Bill's shit. It needs you to do your own shit, and to do it fearlessly and unapologetically while blissfully at ease with yourself and the world. Maybe your shit will overlap with Bill's shit. Maybe it won't. It doesn't matter. Just do your shit.
And here we see a young William Mistele in the act of not giving a fuck about other people's shit. :)
ReplyDelete"Apollo was landing on the moon during those three days, but I had my own inner journey taking me back into the world of nature where humans existed before sowing crops led to the creation of cities. "
Original post:
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'Trick's
It may seem very strange ... but I prefer your writing style much more than Bill's.
ReplyDeleteIn Bill's texts, which are undoubtedly of great value, I sometimes get lost in metaphors.
You go straight to the point. And that's what I appreciate about you and your work.
Keep going with your "shit" (Guido)
Thanks Guido :)
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