Islands of Sanity in an Ocean of Unreality

I have been thinking about this post for a long time. A very long time. This post has been fermenting in my brain in one form or another for at least 10 years, if not more. I am sure it may end long and rambly, but there you are. Bear with me if you can, I got something to say.

We Are Collectively Crazy

In the future, people will look back at the 1950s through today and into, at the very least, the short term future and we will be condemned as a Society gone mad. We aren't notable for our Wars, conflict being so germane to the human condition that our International squabbles are only notable for their brevity. No, we live a life of mass hysteria with all the other little rats in this collective dream/nightmare we call "life".

What we have is not life. It's an existence, wrapped up in a human lifespans worth of greed, gluttony, waste and lust. I don't say all this as some pontificator holding himself above the fray, I am as guilty as any and maybe more then most. We have all been sold an existence that is so divorced from reality, we are all treading water in an Ocean of Unreality.


What am I really talking about. We work more, and harder, then we have to, to buy things we don't need. We sacrifice our friendships and families, creativity and passion, for plastic. As a Society, we have become incredibly divorced from Nature. This is one I have struggled with my whole life, until the last few years when I learned to take a new passion from being in the world. The Real World.

We Have Been Sold A Lie

I have spent the greater part of my life being unhappy. I blame books.

I grew up without a lot of friends, reading books on all my breaks and lunches. I lived in a lot of small towns as well, so their libraries were definitely not up to date. What that means is until I reached my teens and started buying books, I probably had never read a book written after 1960. Those books contained stories of people and relationships that existed in a harder world, but one that was infinitely more real then my own.

This lead to years of disillusionment, but I never could take the next step to figure out what I should be doing differently. I made my way through life doing the things I was told I should: school, college, work. All I knew is that they didn't fit me, and the lifestyle I was living didn't fit me.

It's easy to be unhappy, it's much harder to change things. Especially when you don't know what should change, just that something should be different.

Reasons To Change

I have always wanted to visit Europe. I grew up moving around a lot and never lived by any of my family. Genealogy became a refuge for me, and I was interested to hear about these far-flung places my ancestors had come from. Most of my relatives couldn't care less, and this only drove me to find out more.

Some of this had a tangible affect on how I viewed myself. All of my ancestry came from Northern European roots that I knew of, and to find that I had ancestors who were Native American and Jewish changed things. I don't claim to be either of those, I wasn't raised in those lifestyles and I would never try to coopt their culture to assuage my own loneliness, but to learn that part of them was in me was still a big deal.

This lack of connection with our own past is another one of the problems our modern material obsessed culture has. How could someone from a hundred years ago have any bearing on our lives unless there was a tv show made about them?

In any case, even before I cam to my new paths, I wanted to trod the old sod. Once I came to desire to see the holy spots of Europe as well, I seriously started to plan. I started with the idea of taking several trips to different spots, and then the realities of our lives started to set in. Oh, my job wouldn't give me that much time. Oh, this could negatively affect my chances of getting a better job, or a new place to live.

I have learned a couple important lessons lately, and one is this: There will always be a reason to quit, to not go, to put it off. It's the same reason I muddled through the rest of my life doing what I was told was the way we were meant to live. It's the same reason i worked a job I hated to live an existence I could barely stand.

Then it came to me, I didn't have to buy the lie. People in my life like GreyerJane helped me see, I didn't just have to have an existence, I could have a LIFE.

Put The Burden Down

Possessions Possess You. Intellectually, I think most modern western people understand this. I certainly understood it when I was 16 and put it into a punk song. We all get it, but what do we do about it? Nothing, right? I'm not judging, most people buy into our modern life and never look back. Those who do look back, well, maybe they shouldn't have.

Because it's a hard life to leave. Many people have houses, pets, kids, hobbies. It's hard to just... set it aside. But that's what I am going to try and do. When I leave for Europe, I will have sold everything I own of value. I will have quit my job, and said goodbye to my friends and family. I am trying to put aside the material things I so craved, that now taste of ashes.

I am going to camp my way across most of Europe. Oh yes, I have plans to make some money while I am on the road, as much as we try it's hard to live on bread and water. But what I am doing is attempting to get to know myself, and the world around me, as one who has set aside attachment. In a lot of ways, I find buddhism to be very fatalistic, but the way they view attachment has come to be more of my oen mind lately.

Raison d'Etre

I think as a magickal practitioners we stand on the outskirts of society already. Many of us have a connection to nature, or humanity or the worlds beyond that allows us to not be fully consumed by the modern doldrums of a technological age. I am hoping by setting aside the drives and desires that make modern life such a soul sucking experience that I can be the Island of Sanity for someone in this Sea.

Sticking up through the surface of it's chaotic chopping waves, I want to remind people as they sail through life that it's not just the endless ocean out there, there is more to us then an existence. I just want to encourage, as I have been encouraged.

P.S.: Yes, this did get long and rambly but I'm not going to edit it. This is like the edge of a wave of thought and feeling and it deserves to be experienced raw. I am super excited to speak with anyone who has questions, concerns or criticisms.