As alluded in my previous post, there are many changes headed my way – or vice versa – this year. I have moved home, will commence another round of postgraduate study and face significant changes in my life circumstances.
All of this seems to be part of the alchemical process I have involuntarily been consumed by, and among other things this year I hope to educate myself more about alchemy, since it has so forcefully entered my life. Not at the expense of my Heathenry of course! But then I am a chaos Heathen – to be “tru” I cannot be orthodox. I am learning to embrace and celebrate my own ignorance.
I want to take a moment to reflect on this journal. When I started it I posted 19,000 words of older essays. Since June 2008 I have written over 44,000 words of new material, managing an average of 1,700 words a week.
Elhaz Ablaze has awakened a deeply prolific tendency within me, as well as encouraged me to practice magic more regularly and with more commitment than I’ve ever known. Thus far this journal has met all of my goals and hopes.
However change must come through. Apart from my study commitments I have just joined the underground music webzine Heathen Harvest as a reviewer. HH run a tight ship, and this is necessarily going to reduce the energy I have for Elhaz Ablaze (though I will link my reviews to the Elhaz site for those who are interested).
But do not fear! While my productivity may be less prolific for this journal in 2009, I still have a lot to say, experiment with and explore. Current interests include an expanded notion of honesty; new ways of overcoming fear; a return to the work of Friedrich Nietzsche; and a desire to develop more effective operant/results magic.
Meanwhile as part of my desire to become a better vessel for the waters I will be undertaking a 10 day Vipassana Meditation Retreat in February. More on that later, but this should prove a worthy spiritual and psychological challenge.
Finally, after four years on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean I got to spend an evening with Clint. Although there are so many common threads between us – as you can see in our journals – it was nevertheless astounding to realise how closely run our individual evolutions have been. I hope, via the wonders of Skype, to have richer exchanges with Clint in the coming year.
Whereas I have posted one article a week every week for the last 6 months, I expect to fall back to something more in the order of one post every two weeks for the next 6 months. After that I will reassess.
Ultimately I hope to develop this journal into something with more direction and shape than just my chaos Heathen rambling, but that will come with time – Woden, send me inspiration!
Oh, and many thanks to those who have commented, corresponded and made contact in the last six months. Keep it coming folks – I really love feedback. Oh yes, and guest submissions! More please!
Oh, one more thought. Regular readers will notice my posts are peppered with typos. Yes, I know about them. No, I won’t fix them. Somehow it seems important to have them. Rather like how many of the runic finds made by archaeologists have mistakes. Or so I choose to think, anyway…
Hope you are up for joining me on the journey to wherever I am drawn!
Tags: Spirituality
I’m definitely up for the journey, still reading (created an RSS feed for LiveJournal). This is one of the more interesting (and relevant) sites on modern Heathenry, and the essays here always make me think.
Funny how having a website induces prolific writing. ;)
Well said – a Socratic openness leads to infinite developmental possibilities and challenges! And may the ninth year of this new century be a good year for all heathens!