Reality is something much bigger than our ordinary senses are capable of perceiving, and learning to be in relationship with it requires us to enter the imaginal realm. Mysticism, magic, and animist frameworks are ways of doing that, so I write a lot about those topics.
my go-to definition, that comfortably dismisses much the nonsense that often gets caught up in ‘woo’, is “experiences that cannot be articulated by the part of the mind that can only understand experiences by articulating them”
I know that some annoying-sounding things that mystics or Zen teachers say, about cosmic oneness or the flow of the Dao, are actually just straightforward descriptions of what the world looks like from a certain point in the contemplative path. “The original face you had before your parents were born” is a phrase that will make perfect, undeniable,... See more
The realm of the esoteric, properly understood, is the dimension of depth. It is to analytical, rational consciousness what dreaming is to waking consciousness. The realm of the esoteric is the realm of ideas in all their living intensity, which can only be fully encountered not in concepts, but in living symbols.
this idea that divination is real, but that it has little to do with what system you use. Some people will prefer tarot, others astrology, others the I Ching, or cracked tortoise shells, or bird signs or dice or just about anything else. All of it works, not because there’s anything inherent to the images of the tarot, or the position of the stars... See more