One Dead among the Living - Part I

Questions that come from the mind are dead questions. It doesn’t mean they have no value, or interest or should not be pursued. But I am personally unable to answer them. There are questions that are alive in you. They are immediate and real burning like hot coals.

Living questions are about you. They are not carefully constructed and beautifully symmetrical. They are about something that you are stumbling over, hitting your head on or something that’s throttling you at the moment. They are alive. They are raw. Dead questions are fantastic for intellectual discourse. But that’s not what we are doing here. Magick is about what’s raw and alive. It’s stripped down. There is a kind of alchemy that happens when you interact with what’s alive and work with that.

Let’s take an example, free will. What about free will are you struggling with right now, in your life? Not intellectually or conceptually. Strip it down to the real question that is meaningful to you, that is biting at you, that won’t let you go.

It’s always the same, at the core, after you’ve peeled away all the mind-stuff, it’s going to come down to you. Not the topic. Not even the answer. It’s about the question and the place from which you ask it.

I feel like I’m dead. Like I’ve died and now I am a ghost, haunting my former life. My house is my own mausoleum, complete with grave goods, like some Egyptian Pharaohs tomb. I have all I need for this, my afterlife.

Do I sound morbid? Probably, but none of this feels morbid, just peculiar. Without feeling in any way morose, I do feel like I’m dead. It’s not upsetting or disturbing. It’s weird and somewhat liberating. All those aspirations, tensions, desires, personal narratives…completed. I’ve come to the end of that book and closed it. All I feel is admiration for the protagonist and the author. What a spectacular adventure. I was engrossed in the story, it was that good. At times it took my breath away, and there was never a dull moment. Well done! So, what does one do in one’s afterlife?

LVX - Patrick Gaffiero