Why I am not a teacher.
For as long as I’ve been writing about magick, alchemy and esotericism, people have regularly asked if I’ll become their teacher. They want someone to guide them through the rituals, explain the symbolism, answer every question, and reassure them that they’re doing everything correctly. I understand the desire because I felt exactly the same way when I first began. I wished there had been someone with decades of experience standing beside me, someone I could ask every question that arose, someone who could tell me if I was on the right path.
My answer is always the same: no.
That answer isn’t meant to discourage anyone. It’s because I’ve come to believe that nothing could be more damaging to a person’s practice than becoming dependent on another human being to carry them through it. The Great Work isn’t about collecting information, memorizing correspondences, or performing rituals perfectly. It’s about change and becoming someone different. That kind of transformation cannot be borrowed from another.
We live in a culture that wants shortcuts. We assume that if someone already knows the way, we should simply follow behind them. That may work if you’re learning something like how to repair an engine or build a house, but it doesn’t work with inner transformation. The struggle itself is part of the initiation.
Imagine someone helping you lift weights every time the bar became heavy. You might complete the movement, but you wouldn’t become any stronger. The resistance isn’t an obstacle to strength - it’s what creates strength. Every difficult repetition changes your body in ways that would never happen if someone else helped carry the weight for you.
Alchemy and magick work the same way.
The confusion, the frustration, the periods where nothing seems to make sense. The nights spent wrestling with a symbol or a passage that refuses to reveal itself. These aren’t signs that something has gone wrong. They ARE the Work itself. Every sincere effort to understand changes something inside you. It develops intuition. It sharpens discernment. It teaches you to trust direct experience instead of constantly looking over your shoulder for someone else’s approval.
People often mistake information for wisdom. They are NOT the same thing. Wisdom is information that has been lived. It has been tested. It has survived doubt, failure, persistence, and experience. No one can hand that to you.
It’s like watching a baby bird struggle to hatch from its egg. Out of compassion, someone may want to crack the shell open for it. But doing so would rob the bird of the very struggle that strengthens its body enough to survive. The effort of breaking through the shell is not an unfortunate inconvenience. It’s the process by which the bird becomes capable of flight.
The shell has to be broken from the inside.
That’s why, when I write, I don’t think of myself as teaching in the traditional sense. I’m simply drawing maps. I share what I’ve found in source material , what I’ve learned through decades of practice, and what direct experience has taught me. If something on those pages helps someone orient themselves, then I’m grateful. But I have no desire to walk beside them, interpreting every signpost or reassuring them after every step.
Because that isn’t my path to walk.
Every serious practitioner eventually reaches places where no one else can accompany them. There are thresholds that cannot be crossed with another person holding your hand. There are questions no teacher can answer because the answer isn’t verbal or intellectual. It has to emerge from your own practice, your own failures, your own persistence.
The Great Work has always been solitary in this sense. Not because we reject community or friendship, but because no one else can perform your transformation for you. Others can inspire you. They can encourage you. They can point toward the mountain.
But the climb belongs to you and you alone.
@damienechols Hey D do you remember this? probably not, but it came across my television screen. since I’m now with Amazon, it automatically connected my pictures to my TV. This is in Atlanta, Georgia the Peachtree District.
For years I’ve written about magick, alchemy, meditation, and the inner path. Alchemy of the Broken Blade is where all of those streams finally come together. This is the book I’ve been working toward my entire life. It brings together everything I’ve learned from nearly two decades on death row, to Zen, internal alchemy, and the discipline of the sword, all into a single path of transformation. It’s about taking the broken places within ourselves and forging them into something new and unbreakable. If you’ve ever found meaning, encouragement, or inspiration in any of my work, I truly believe this is the book you’ll want to read. Alchemy of the Broken Blade is now available for pre-order, and you can find it here:
https://t.co/vq9yhSx0Yw
Most spiritual seekers never find enlightenment because they don’t have the slightest idea what they’re looking for. They’ve confused it with a fantasy. They imagine enlightenment means becoming some perfected being who never experiences anger, grief, fear, frustration, or uncertainty. They create an image in their minds of what a “spiritual person” should look like, then spend their lives comparing everyone they meet against that image. The moment someone’s behavior fails to match their expectations, they conclude that person couldn’t possibly be enlightened. In reality, they’re not measuring enlightenment. They’re measuring conformity to their own fantasies.
Enlightenment is not perfection. It doesn’t transform you into a mush-brained bodhisattva who spends all day wringing their hands over the world’s imperfections. It doesn’t erase your humanity. It doesn’t make you passive, weak, or incapable of recognizing nonsense when you see it. Enlightenment is simply seeing reality clearly, without the distortions created by the ego’s endless stories and projections. The enlightened person still lives in the same world as everyone else. They still experience the full range of human emotions. The difference is that they are no longer lost inside those experiences. They are awake to what is happening, exactly as it is, and can respond consciously rather than react unconsciously.
@monkey67129@ScottBaio Prove it! Prove everything you just said. Prove that our President is a pedophile. You can’t. At least Scott can prove everything that he says. You people out there just phlegm flamming and don’t even know what you’re talking about.
@monkey67129@ScottBaio You are the sad pathetic loser. Don’t you have anything better to do with your time than to follow celebrities and troll there pages. Scott has continued down his own path. He takes care of his family, which is more than I can say for most men.