A few years ago, Zazen Sounds approached me for an interview about my life and my writing. Since that was published by the magazine, I have contributed an article to most issues (which are released roughly every six months).
Zazen Sounds is dedicated to Black Metal and Dark Ambient music. I don’t know much about the former, especially, but I have been able to contribute articles on symbolism and ancient mythology and esoteric practices that are quite specialized.
My article for the most recent issue is on dreams. My next article will briefly explore the appearance of supernatural women in literature and dreams. This is also the theme of an upcoming book of mine.
Other contributors include author Dr. Christie Smirl (Doctorate of Ayurvedic Medicine) and esoteric author Sean Woodward.
If you’re wondering about the book underneath the magazine, it is Underworld, published by Theion Publishing. The book is an exploration of, and a thoughtful reflection on, the underworlds and conceptions of mortality and life after death in ancient religions. I’m thrilled to say that I was given this copy by David Beth, the co-owner of Theion, when we met in New York City recently.
Esotericism is not Respectable
I know that “esoteric” spirituality has become very popular over the last two decades. There are numerous “101 books” on Wicca, astrology, spells, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and similar subjects. Many of these are aimed at teenagers and twenty-somethings.
The fact is that most “esotericists” want to appear respectable, even more respectable than the average person. They want to appear upright, moral, and concerned with the social issues du jour. Mostly, they are hypocrites.
I contribute to Zazen Sounds because I am able to explore mythologies, and my own experiences, that I would not discuss elsewhere. This shadowing little journal is a forum for discussing what lies outside the aforementioned traditions. It is a forum for discussing real magic.
Indeed, I am concerned not with traditions but with the real. And the real is illuminating to such a degree that it casts a dark shadow before it.
Why We Read
For me, as an author, reading is not entertainment. I read in order to think deeply about things, to contemplate, to entertain new ideas or information, and to get to the deeper truth.
I want to have my views challenged.
Just as Mixed Martial Arts absorbs techniques from different styles of martial arts, I read widely (as well as deeply).
I do not write “101” books. I do not like (and I do not write) books that are a copy of a “winning formula” of some other book (these tend to be personal growth, professional growth, and business books).
We must challenge ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. We must read.
Why I write
Writing helps us to know what we know.
I sometimes hear people say that they could “write a whole book” on a particular subject. Translation: They could write a page on the subject… maybe.
What we’re prepared to say and what we’re prepared to write and have read and reviewed by tens of thousands of people are two different things.
Writing with confidence, battling for the truth, saying things as they are requires supreme confidence in public and total humility in private.
Writing is training.
We write like we fight.
We have to battle our fears and our own inner demons.
Writing is not respectable.