There were, however, literally dozens of “Saint Valentines.” The name was awarded to martyrs by the early Catholic Church, meaning very simply, that the man was worthy to be a saint.

Arguments have been made that Valentine’s Day was never a holiday of any sort, until the writings of Geoffry Chaucer, after which, it began to appear in many works of fiction.

Valentine is generally regarded as the patron saint of lovers, thus the holiday.

So there you have it. A very brief, and fairly uninformative generalization about this day’s festivities. Either way, if you’ve got someone, hold on to them. But, what do I know? I just listen.

Jack.
I Listen.
Saint Valentine

Way off-topic.

And So He Walked
—-

They were roused from a light sleep around 7:30pm by the ring of Minus’ phone. It was Kotoko. Minus answered.

“What the Hell, dude,” Kotoko was clearly frustrated. “I’ve been driving around for almost an hour. The street you said you lived on. It’s not here! I’m fairly certain it doesn’t even exist!”

“It’s alright, Kotoko,” Minus seemed very calm, and this calmed her down. “Do you know anything about synchronicity?”

She started to answer, but someone was opening the passenger door to her car. She reached for her purse, scrambling for the mace.

“Hi, I’m Minus. I think you’ve heard about me.”

“How the.. What? Where did you come from?” She wasn’t as confused as she should be. It seemed almost normal that Minus was now sitting in her passenger seat.

“My place. Go ahead and pull out of this parking lot, and go the right.”

Kotoko did as she was told.

“There will be a road on your left, the sign will say, ‘King’s Lane.’” Minus was directing her to his house and Jane.

When they approached the street sign, Kotoko was astounded. She had driven by this area a dozen times, and there had been no King’s Lane. She was certain. But there it was. A gravel driveway. She turned on to King’s Lane.

“My place is the only house back here. You can park next to my truck. Jane will be waiting for you at the door. I’ll take care of the groceries.” Minus said as Kotoko parked her jeep.

He got out of the jeep and reached into the back seat, picking up some bags. Kotoko went to the door, where she saw Jane peaking out. Minus could see them hug each other, and the tears that followed.

Kotoko went in, and Jane bolted all the locks behind them.

“What about Minus?” Kotoko was no stranger to magic, but she was clearly confused at the situation.

“It’s okay,” Jane said through the tears, “he’ll meet us in the basement.”

They continued through the house and into the basement door. Jane turned all the locks and knobs, locking them in again.

As they went down the flight of stairs, Kotoko was surprised that Minus was standing there, pouring three glasses of wine. She could see all of the grocery bags on the small counter he stood next to, and the luggage full of Jane’s clothing was by an opened closet on the other side of the room.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kotoko. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ve heard a lot about you. Jane tells me you have interest in the occult?”

He reached into the drawer of pills and pulled out two tiny blue capsules.

“Take these.”

And Kotoko did. She swallowed them with a large drink of wine. She was startled again for a moment, as she realized that she did not drink and had never taken drugs. Why had she done what he said without thought or question? As soon as these thought passed through her, her mind was quieted. She felt calm, and relaxed, and at home.

“Wait, you’re a straight, aren’t you? You must be. Jane said you were good at divination,” said Minus. Both of the girls looked confused.

“Like, you don’t drink, or take any kind of drugs, right?”

“No.. I mean, yeah, I don’t do anything like that.. But I just did, didn’t I? Why am I not bothered or worried?” Kotoko tried to look stern, but she wasn’t really able to.

“Okay, no worries. Those pills. Not drugs. Not real drugs anyway. It’s a metaphysical relaxer. Opens your senses, and leaves you calm. No dangers or addictions. Now had you actually been into pills, I’ve got stuff around..” Minus trailed off.

“No, I feel great.. It’s like my soul let go of my fears and pretensions.” Kotoko was surprised at how easily she understood things, and how clear and fluid her thoughts were.

“You’re not bothered because it was me who gave them to you. Just like you weren’t all that upset when I got in the car seat next to you. I don’t really know why that is, but Doctor Mancini has told me things like that before. A lot of people have really..

“Anyway, just relax, we’ll fill you in and you’ll fill us in, alright?”

Jane and Kotoko nodded in unison.

The three talked for what seemed like hours. Then there was an odd, snapping feeling, and Kotoko left, and Jane went to sleep.

Twenty minutes later, Minus locked the basement and front door behind himself, and started walking due north.

Jane, Kotoko, Mancini, and Othin would all awake the next morning, around the same time, feeling unusually happy.

At that exact moment, Minus would see two ravens, perched on a tree older than the continent, and feel horrible despair. He did not enjoy this the last time.

—-

Jack
I Listen.

The Cost of Magic
Section #19
End: Part 1
And So He Walked

Sleep til We Die

—–

Minus drove with a fierce determination. He had not asked Jane where she needed to go. He had merely begun the trek back to his own home. Jane was silent the entire way. They pulled in to his gravel drive way after a fast twenty minute drive.

His yard was over run with weeds and flowers that had not been there when he had left. Vines climbed up the porch railings. He actually kind of like this. The heavy mist was present here as well. He told Jane to follow him, and she did so as quickly as she could.

When they had both entered, Minus fasted perhaps a dozen inside locks on the door. He pushed her through to another door, which lead down a flight of stairs into a converted basement. The basement was like a studio apartment with a wine cellar to the side. Again, he locked the door behind them.

“We should be safe here for a while,” he said to Jane, not shaking as much as he probably should have been.

“We’re laying low?” Jane was again confused and frightened. Then she felt the red pills hit. The anxiety washed away from her, now she was merely curious.

“Yeah, we need to be out of sight for a while. Figure out what is going on. Turn on the news, let’s see what we missed in the last three years.”

Minus was handling this very well. It surprised Jane to see the odd, awkward drunk she had met so long ago, acting with such determination and even a little grace. She found that she loved him. The thought had never occurred to her while they were in the bar. But now she knew. She loved him completely, and without question. That’s a pretty scary idea at twenty-two.

CNN hadn’t changed a lot in the last three years. They learned of a new president. They heard about some major advances in technology. But nothing unfathomable. And nothing as devastating as Minus had expected.

“We haven’t slept in three years, Jane. Here’s an Ambien. We can figure out more tomorrow. We’re safe here.” He handed Jane the small white pill, and a glass of red wine.

Without a thought, she tossed her hair back and swallowed the pill and wine in one gulp. Minus did the same, but Jane was almost certain he held more than one pill before they disappeared down his throat.

“Help me roll out this couch. It’s a bed, too. When we wake up, things will make more sense.”

They unrolled the bed. Minus fetched some blankets, and they curled up into a beautiful, dead sleep.

*****

At the end of section five, we see the close of something, and the opening to things very bizarre. Keep reading!

Jack
I Listen.

The Cost of Magic
Section #5
Sleep til We Die

*****

It started off innocently enough, like most things. Especially things in Minus’ life. He often felt like the opposite of King Mitus, since everything he touched turned to shit, instead of gold.

“But it’s different this time,” he thought to himself. He always thought this to himself. He seemed to really like writing an internal monologue.

So, there he was: very happy, very stupid, and very drunk. What was different from every other day? Nothing. Nothing at all. Or so he thought.

It was near midnight, and after several pitchers, when he found himself alone, talking to a girl in her early twenties. The volume was turned down on the rest of the bar. The people moved in slow motion and sound traveled as if through water. Minus loved these moments, when he felt so very at home. These moments seldom lasted, and took much drink to accomplish.

The girl was cute, but young. Minus had already forgotten her name. But this time was different. She had that silken aura glow, like the girl that haunted his dreams. He’d seen her play a dozen roles in his dreams, but she was always obviously the same person. He could always tell by that bright white glow. She was a mother one night, a sister another, a lover more often than anything. In his dreams, Minus never looked the same. He knew who he was, even when dreams happened from odd perspectives, as they often do. And he always knew who she was, even when she was nothing like the night before, or any of the thousands of nights in his life.

This was a long dream. It haunted and beckoned. It tore at his heart strings and played death metal in his rotten soul. Minus was not a bad person, but a person consistently forced into bad situations. He couldn’t really grasp how at least half of his life had actually happened. But it had. Dreams through a Seconal haze. Hadn’t there been another dream-girl a few years(or a lifetime) ago? The Thorazine year that followed that instance had taught him that, no, there had never been a girl in his life with this aura. Even though his pineal gland would ram itself around to try and break free from the anti-psychotic’s numbing embrace.

But the pineal gland survived for moments like this. Brief glimpses at reality on the other side of the vale. And it shouted as he talked to this girl.

Minus fought a little when he felt the vertigo pulling him in. He was never very good at fighting this falling feeling, even though it almost always lead to pain directly. So he funneled down in to the synchronicity that surrounded this girl.

Her name, it later turned out, was Jane. Jane was 22, not really old enough to know better. Minus knew better, he just didn’t care. If Jane had known better, she would not have cared either.

——–

Jack.
I Listen.

The Cost of Magic
Section #1

We are going to talk just a very little about the idea of “Gnosis.” Gnosis is the state of enlightenment that some believe can be achieved through knowledge. At one time, there were many Gnostic sects for many religions, but in present day, very few still exist. We are not going to concern ourselves with where they are and what they do. Instead, we will focus on the idea alone.

The idea of Gnosis, or enlightenment though knowledge, is similar to other things we have talked about, such as Zen and Existentialism. I often find that these three philosophies are more closely tied that most would like to admit.

Gnosis encourages learning and compassion. And as such it also encompasses the “Live in the Now” ideas of Zen and Existentialism.

So, let’s add this brief part of the ideas to our shamanic thoughts. Knowledge is power. That has always been true. Living in the Now gets rid of things that stop human advancement, such as anxieties. If you live in this present moment, and realize that was has past is just a story book, and what is to come is merely science fiction, it becomes easier to make this, and every, moment count.

There are hundreds of ways to say this, and it has been said over and over for centuries, but really understanding the idea is what matters. Understand that the you that is reading this is only you for that moment. After this moment has passed, it is not you anymore. You are already on the next moment, gleaning more information further down the page.

Convert your idea of time into still frames, or seconds, or motions. You can break it down to the most basic thought, and then when you run through all of those thoughts it becomes the flipbook that we call memory. And just like a real flipbook or film reel, sometimes pages, or slides become lost or damaged.

I’m starting to ramble a bit, so let’s pull this together. It’s hard for me not to ramble, knowing this is the end of a class that I’ve taught for more than a year now.

So, if we can gain knowledge, and remain fully aware of our past and future, without letting it hinder our abilities here in the Now, we might reach that state of Gnosis or enlightenment. Sounds pretty difficult, right? Well, you’re the one that wanted to be a shaman. :p

-Jack
I Listen.
Developmental Theology 089
Lesson #52 – End of Class

You are almost finished with your early path. The path of the shaman is long and hard, and stretches far beyond the confines of my little class. With this lesson you will become all that you are and all that you ever shall be: Infinite. Speak these words with me. Don’t let desire overcome you. Speak with me as I drum.

• I AM.
• I am a shaman.
• I am the source of all dreams, including this one.
• I am the universe, and the universe is me.
• I am the rain, and all that it cleanses.
• I am the sin in every man.
• I am the salvation in every heart.
• I am the shaman.
• I am all that is forgotten.
• I am all that will ever be remembered.
• I am my Dreaming.
• I am Zen.
• I am the flow of synchronicity.
• I am the river and the mountain, the ocean and the beach.
• I am so much more than I could ever list.
• I am a shaman.
• I am free.
• I am.

Be the Shaman. Be free. Show your faith in your determination. This can be a better world. This already is a better world. Self-realization. What are you? I am.

-Jack.
I Listen.

You cannot be what you don’t believe in.

The answer there is the web service Pownce.

Pownce offers an innovative way to interact with all the different levels of friend or family or colleague.

So here’s some ideas on how to use Pownce to it’s maximum potential.

First, you’ll notice that pownce has a very twittery interface. you can use this just like you would twitter, to leave short notes to your friends or the public. But it offers a unique ability to share files, links, and calender events from the same small interface. You can make these things viewable to 1 friend, all friends, the public, or no one. Targeted file sharing is the main reason I use pownce. I run across a song, or short movie i like, and I just zap it to the people that I know will like it. You can even use the event and message systems with your GTD system.

Now, another thing you might notice about pownce is that it asks you about other social networks you use. You can keep a full list of them on your profile or home page and make a nice centralizer here. Giving yourself and your friends a nice pivot point to take in anything you are doing.

Other than being extremely efficient it also looks pretty damned cool. If you’re running Windows or Mac you can check out the AIR client here. (Hopefully Adobe will get AIR over to linux sometime soon. I really enjoy a lot of programs running on AIR.)

You can also take pownce a little further with a pro account for about $20 a year. Pro comes with a larger file share size, no ads, and customizable CSS.

Loki.
I Listen.
My Pownce
cat: internet

He had the face of a jackal.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: pownce, web 2.0, AIR, Adobe, whoring, jackal, css, file sharing, social networks, internet, computers, TechGeek, GTD, Mac, linux, Windows

——–

Odin saw that the storm was getting closer. He looked me in the eye, grabbing my chin.

“You’re our only hope, my son. Show them what you know to be true. Show them magic. Show them dreams. Show them shamans!” Odin was screaming at me by the end.

“Show who?” Dangling by one foot, upside down on the ancient, gnarled tree, Yggdrasil. The blood has full in my face. I was fairly certain I had an eye hanging loose(This is something that often happens around Odin-One-Eye).

“Dammit all! Show them, boy! The ones that have forgotten!” He held his arms wide and I could suddenly see the people of the world with my dangling eye. Odin was gone completely now. Disappeared as fast as he showed up. And I’m sitting in front of my computer, a little crossed, but no worse for the wear. I’ve gotten kind of used to being the Hanged Man.

———————————

I’m stepping things up a bit with DT089 because I believe more and more people are starting to grasp these concepts. So things may get slightly more complex. As your hopefully soon-to-be spiritual leader(j/k), I have faith in you. I speak of Odin a lot, by many different names, and I encourage you to do research on the themes I talk about.

So today, we’re gonna talk about some basic stuff. Very basic. But somehow we never seem to get it right. It’s time we changed that. The Chamber of Guf is almost empty. There is very little time left to make this the world we need.

1. Don’t Kill People! This is the most basic law, yet we have not been able to master it.
2. Don’t Kill People. See above.
3. Friends are found where we need them most. Soul Magnetism is a profound thing.
4. Don’t ever give up! (The hardest one of all.)
5. Time does not exist. It is a human concept for measurement. Without humans there would be no Time at all.
6. Laugh as much as you possibly can! If you cannot laugh at a situation that situation does not exist!
7. Just be fucking nice people. Come on.
8. There is no Tragedy and there is no Joy. Only impressions of emotional highs and lows.
9. Pick up a book! Read. Knowledge = Power.
10. Listen to good advice. Listen to bad advice. Try your best not to take either.

That’s all for now. I’ll expound upon these ideas more in the future.

Loki.
I Listen.
DT089
Lesson #46
Associated Content

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Tags: ideology, philosophy, theology, odin, norse, Guf, religion, judaism

Loki
I Listen.
Associated Content

Blogged with Flock

Tags: ideology, religion, sufi, sufism, rumi, poetry, sanity, philosophy, theology