THE REAL FAKE WORLD & THE FAKE REAL WORLD (Patreon)

Hello, Good People of The Internet!

For the next while at least I will be using Patreon to publish my blog posts rather than the newsletter. There is now a FREE TIER here on Patreon and anyone can join for free if they so choose. Bonus is that it will still arrive in your inbox. Possible downside is that I tend to post a lot on Patreon. Be forewarned. Although you can opt out of notifications, doing so means you might miss out on the good stuff, too.

So yea, this is just one of those, what I have been up to recently, posts. But this one comes with the disclaimer that I am quite unwell, so if this reads like the ramblings of a madman, well, you were warned.

THE WORK OF THE MAGUS

Over on the higher levels of the Patreon we have now moved into month two of THE JOURNEY, which is a year-long adventure of shadow work and self-discovery.

This second month is led by a servitor called THE MAGUS and essentially involves that old magic approach of interpreting “every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my Soul.” Basically, you treat every event around you as if it has happened solely for you to learn something about yourself.

One of the interesting things I have noticed since beginning the Work of The Magus is that it feels a bit like significant events ramped up a fair bit. Now some of that is by design in the sense that when you decide that everything means something significant then obviously things seem more significant, but I do think there is something more than that going on as well.

It's almost as if the magic said, “Oh quick, he's paying attention —now is our window! Send him everything!” and did so.

And honestly, I can't complain — I did sign up for this after all — we all do when we thread the magic path. Magic will upend your life, but remember, that's a feature, not a bug.

It's been a challenging few days.  

THE REAL FAKE WORLD & THE FAKE REAL WORLD  

Last Thursday, my wife, my five-year-old son, and I travelled to Disneyland Paris. I nor my wife had ever been before, and we thought it would be a great memory for the wee man to have. And it will be — he had a blast — though he did mention when we got home that the hotel and the bus to the car park at the hotel were the best bits, so you know — win some, lose some.  

Let me clarify upfront: I understand I'm not the primary audience for Disney World. It's designed for children, which I fully grasp. However, the sheer number of child-free adults wandering around made me question my assumptions about its target demographic.

Anyway, the place is hell.  

Every single person who works there has the “please kill me” eye thing going on. On the surface, everything is overly sweet and cheerful, but it feels dark and bleak underneath.

Walking around, I felt like Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner, right down to the omnipresent, eerie music.

However, I did manage to snag a genuine pirate treasure coin, so there's that.

And then after two days in The Real Fake World I woke up like I had been hit by a train during the night. Everything ached. It was like the worst hangover ever, only like without the excessive alcohol part. But I still managed to walk around Paris in the rain and do all that we planned. I know, I’m such a trooper.

There's definitely some “Work of the Magus” to unpack from this experience. I mean, the superficial explanation is that the “real” world is as “fake” as the fake one, and while that’s hard to argue with, it does feel rather low effort to just stop there. And while there is something pleasing about saying THE REAL FAKE WORLD IS REALLY THE FAKE REAL WORLD, it feels like there is much more to it.

Also, did I mention I’m still quite unwell?

THE ARCANE SCHOOL

Some of you will know that I am often dabble with Theosophy and have an on-off relationship with The Arcane School. My first interaction with the school was a rejection from it back when I was a teenager with the words “Perhaps you need to study more” as a response to my entrance examine.

Last October, I was struggling—spiritually, mentally, emotionally—and shared in my monthly report that I was having difficulty with the meditation practice. It honestly just felt a bit like sitting around thinking about things while doing some visualisations. I mentioned that I was going to give it another big push within the coming month. If I could not gel with the meditation at that point, then maybe the Arcane School was not for me, and perhaps it would be best if I left.

The succinct report came back from my Secretary a few weeks later, basically saying “See you around and good luck on your journey”.

Fair enough, I said. I guess that’s that decision made.

Then a couple of weeks a go while I was hiding out in a forest for a week in Longford, I got an email from Arcane School headquarters asking me to “renew [my] dedication, intensify [my] meditation work and stand with us, as a group, in the common spiritual enterprise for which the School exists”. To which I replied – wait, I thought I’d been let go?

Anyway, turns out it was all some sort of “misunderstanding” somewhere along the lines, and I am of course very welcome to continue as an active member of the School. Which is good, because I do really enjoy all the study element of it. I recently handed in my latest homework and have been given a new meditation practice, which is actually great.

So, a victory on this one.

FACEBOOK ADS and 33% off all Physical Decks.

Today I am attempting to run a Facebook as again, even though I swore that I would not do it again as they are useless. But I guess I have to try something, as the sales of The Forty Servants have slowed considerably the last while. I think the issue mostly is that most people in my social media reach either already have a copy or have no interest at all in them. I need to find new people to annoy about the deck— it's like preaching to the choir to most of you.

So, Facebook Ads it is. I also decided I’d use ChatGPT’s Copywriter GPT to come up with the ad, too. I have to admit I’m not overly confident, but I do hope I am mistaken. Time will tell.

If you want 33% of my decks then use the code ServantValentine at checkout over on Gamecrafter. Find all the decks here: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/designers/tommie-kelly 

MORE INFO ON THE FORTY SERVANTS HERE: http://www.TheFortyServants.com 

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And that’s that for now, Good People.
Be well, and may your best days be ahead!

T