💌 Springtime Magic 💐🐝

In this museletter I shall risk the evocation of a consternated frown—and maybe even a tut—from the staunch patriarchal rationalists amongst us. For I shall soon posit the notion of a genuine and earnest rekindling of Magical Thinking. Or, more aptly, magical beingness. Or is it mythical? Mystical? Something inbetwixt, or a combination thereof, to be sure.

Spring has—in theory, at least—arrived here in The Antipodean realms. This season has, for a long time, heralded an odd kind of melancholy within me. There’s something about the realisation that we are three-quarters of the way through a calendar year and yet still so many projects and important quests remain un-progressed. This, when contrasted with everyone else seemingly having Such A Great Time, seems to compound the effect.

But I am happy to report that This Time Is Different™️—for me, at least—thanks to a ꧁profound healing꧂ retreat I recently experienced (along with a break from social media and computers, time in nature, good company, a campfire, the glimmering cosmos, the warmest meta-shaman I’ve ever did met, and _{∾other things∾} besides). I shan’t directly write of the experience (so as to preserve some ⩫mystique⩫)—but I shall share with you the following stance I am bringing to this season, in the hopes it may enliven something in you.

But zing! Before I do, let me share with you a podcast episode that came out moments before I ventured into the mists to begin my retreat.

At Work with The Ready

Clients of mine will know: I am quite a fan of the Organizational Design & Future of Work consultancy known as The Ready. Nary a strategic nor leadership offsite goes by without me quoting the OS Canvas framework-of-questions that founder Aaron Dignan shares in Brave New Work. These folk are the real deal, and their approach to organisational efficacy remains evergreen. I think you’ll enjoy this conversation.

Here’s a social tile I pilfered from LinkedIn.

Okay, so: I suspect that, by now, it is quite evident that I do like to indulge in a bit of prolixity. A florid and loquacious kind of pleonasm, it would seem.

And so I am delighted that The Ready chose to share my use of ‘-ness’. It’s a favoured morpheme.

Adding ‘-ness’ to any spell (as in, the magical words we spell, via sequential glyphs) transmutes a word into an abstract noun; elevating it to the state of a nebulous ~quality or ~essence.

For example, I have long loved the quality of ‘cleverness’—particularly as a precursor to wisdom. But, by the same token, I don’t quite love the word ‘clever’ on its own. Nor do I like ‘cleverer’ or ‘cleverest’—such forms reduce cleverness to a mere ranking, stripping it of its richer, more nuanced qualities. ‘Cleverest’—as with most words that end in ‘-est’—carries a bleak kind of finality to it, as if there is an end point beyond which no further insight is possible.

But cleverness! Now we are talking.
So too: livingness! Aliveness!

My goodness. These are great words.
And words have power.

A season of “Magical Thinking”
—a stance (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

_{My main concern in sharing the following is that it might inspire a naïve, solipsistic narcissism, beckoning a deranged and inflated sense of individualism and ‘specialness’—rather than a move towards integration, alignment, healing, enchantment, contribution, and infinite wholeness. But, so be it!}

The dangerlam and I are subtly embarking upon a month—maybe a season; maybe a lifetime—of ꧁Magical Thinking꧂ (by which I mean: magical beingness).

This is done with sincere-irony and ironic-sincerity—but the sincerity is there, and irony is in the back seat. It’s “why not?” earnestness coupled with an amused witnessing of whatever ~unfurls.

Am I abandoning intellect and reason? Nah. But essentially, I shall be (am) letting intuition and whim be the guide—as they often are—whilst also easing up on the overly-conservative reasoning that often seeks to override such guidance. Such reasoning is clever—but often misses the deeper poetics at play, and the subtler melody to the music. Sure, reasoning might help to surface bias, fallacy, distortion and more—but reason alone leaves us caged.

Much of the work I do when speaking/facilitating is in the space of generative ambiguity. As a complexity practitioner my role is to cultivate for emergence. Sometimes this means playing the part of trickster; inverting paradigms, transgressing taboos and whatnot. Sometimes it’s the role of jester; telling truth to power, inverting hierarchy, and so on. Sometimes it’s the role of wizard; finding form amid complexity; opening portals and Ways of Seeing, etc. Often: it’s the role of being a friend; of warming, softening, encouraging. Being the one to say fuċk yeah!—you got this. And I gotchu.

But all of these are emergent properties of the context we are in.

The few rare times I go into a context with “A PowerPoint & A Plan” often end up being an underwhelming success. Something that merely ticks all the boxes. But the times I am Prepared To Wing It—actually prepared—often end up brilliant. Transcendent, rather than transactional. “Not what we expected but exactly what we needed,” clients say.

I suspect I can apply this “magical beingness” approach to more-of-life.

I wonder: where, in your world, do you experience similar? And: would you like to join us for a month, a season (or more) of Magical Thinking?

I don’t want to be prescriptive here; the way reveals the way—and you can find your own way. You can. But, if it helps, here’s the wisp of a notion that guides me in what I mean by “Magical Thinking” (beingness):

Cultivating a more nuanced acuity for significance.
Attuning to felt-sense, allowing intuition to guide.

A nuanced acuity for significance means: paying attention to inklings, glimmers, hunches, velleities, omens, signs, portents, coincidences, synchronicities, serendipities, de-ja-vu, etc—whilst not being so swift to dismiss them or override them with cognitive rationalising. Instead, we embrace what the dangerlam’s Butoh teacher Yumi refers to as damasare yasui koukishin—“gullible curiosity”.

Instead of “Oh look, it’s a Sign! No that’s just a random symbol and the ego is making meaning of it so as to maintain the intermittently-continuous illusion of coherent selfhood—best ignore it!” we have “Oh look it’s a Sign! I wonder what that might* mean.” [...]

* The might bit is important here. No meaning is fixed or certain. All is contextual, relational, and contingent (albeit patterned). See my detailed video post on Labyrnths of Reason.

And then, we attune to felt-sense.* And by this I mean we stay with the experience, rather than abstracting/intellectualising it. {Ha! This is particularly challenging for me.} Within the experience we become aware of—and consciously connect to—the subtle, embodied sensations and impressions that arise within us (beneath the level of explicit thought or language). These sensations are often hard to put into words—but they are a source of intuition. Insight that beckons to be heeded.

* The concept of “felt-sense” originates from the work of psychologist and philosopher Eugene Gendlin. A felt-sense is a vague, internal feeling or bodily awareness that holds complex and often implicit information about a situation, experience, or emotion.

Of course, the skill is in cultivating wise-discernment. The salt and vinegar chips that beckon to be consumed might not be of magical, mystical or mythical significance. To quote from my friend Tyson Yunkaporta—“sometimes a pizza is just a pizza”. But! That felt-sense urging you to call the friend who has crossed your mind a few times this past month, seemingly without reason—this might be the kind of significance to which we attune.

There’s plenty more—but that’s for you (and I) to explore.
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Glimmers ✨

I have three glimmers to share with you today.

Dharma Enquiry

If you find yourself in a chapter of life where you do not know what role you feel called to play—it might be time to rekindle your own dharma enquiry. I’ve been fumbling around the edges of this enquiry ever since I began cultivating The Ritual of Becoming. “Dharma” involves your being, doing, and becoming. This inquiry can help deepen your understanding of yourself, and guide your choices towards what might be considered as meaningful progress. The dangerlam and I have these questions planted within our private digital gardens (in obsidian), and we shall be tending to this enquiry over the coming months.

Seeds of Radical Renewal

I think I have an allergy to most leadership programs—which are often just domesticated management programs made by moloch-apologists. But this upcoming leadership program from the wondrous Emergence Magazine looks legit. Seeds of Radical Renewal (UK and US) is gesturing in the right direction.

For generations now, we have borne witness to the destruction created by exploitative, patriarchal systems of power. As we near cultural and ecological breaking points around the world, it’s become clear that this conventional form of authority and action fails us, bringing untold suffering to the Earth and its living beings. If we are to usher in a story different from the narrative of progress and infinite economic growth that continues to darken the future, a radical renewal of our relationship with the Earth and each other is needed. We must summon new models of leadership that are anchored in kinship and care; that stem not only from doing, but a state of being. 

Part of my work as foxwizard is in the gentle unravelling of patriarchal systems of power. There is a vital role for the divine masculine—but we’ve over-indexed in this in modern society. A softening, warmening and unravelling is required. Thus I really quite resonate with the following:

To avoid replicating the systems of power that have so damaged the Earth and its beings, we must move beyond the conventional, patriarchal ideas of authority and action that continue to fail us, and into new models of leadership anchored in kinship and care; that stem not only from doing, but also from a state of being.

I’m personally oversubscribed to online learning right now—and I’ve a book to write for you—but if you’re in a position to take up a leadership course, I suspect this could be a good one. (I get no commission btw; and I doubt Emergence Magazine even know of me—I just really appreciate what they’re about!).

Ritual—new album

I’ve a daily meditation practice which, along with my daily journaling practice, happens once or thrice a week. Just 20 minutes, normally—which isn’t much. But it’s something.

Recently, whilst taking off on a flight and eking what signal I could pilfer for last minute downloads, I found this new album from Jon Hopkins. After successfully downloading it I was able to put my noise-cancelling headphones in and settle into what felt like a ~40 minute musical meditation journey. The arc in this album is splendid, and the ending: sublime. If you’re someone who struggles to stay in the flow of meditation—like almost all of us—maybe find some uninterrupted time to listen through this whole album, eyes closed but with your body moving as it wants to. You might find the experience to be subtly profound.

Thanks friends,
—fw