Guerilla Wizardry: DIY spiritual pat(c)hwork
Mainstream religious thought is rife with oppressive doctrine, patriarchy, and bigotry. Global history is colored by the death that deity worship has caused, yet many of those who deny spiritual practice have adapted or acknowledged the beneficial tenets that are professed by most faiths. That is to say, in all things there is balance if you look past what is presented TO you and instead create something that is made FOR you. Towards this end it helps to dissect the process of spiritual work, utilizing what rites and practices most apply to understanding of the self while discarding or re-purposing the things that are detrimental to personal growth. The result of understanding this process is a personal method of access to an intangible force of nature. More frequently this method of access is used in ritual and energy work termed as “magick”, not in communicating with a cast of characters enforcing rules as professed by many religious institutions.
Anarcho-Spiritualism is not a religion, it is not a doctrine, it isn’t even a collection of “good ideas”, Anarcho-Spiritualism is a political and spiritual practice that encourages the study of theology and the occult outside of any institution or system to further our self-knowledge and effect. Unfortunately the term “spiritual” is so poorly defined that the designation often feels meaningless, spirituality has become a catch-all term for any practice outside of an individuals native culture. In using the term this way, individuals can digest foreign practices while keeping them at arm’s length and avoid having to investigate the practice for themselves. This is a missed opportunity to test the viability of these practices toward personal growth, encouraging mimicry instead of understanding. Anarcho-Spiritualism seeks to find those bits and pieces of learned truth and apply them to the individuals personal, spiritual (non-tangible) practice as they were intended, focusing on integration and avoiding the more surface methods of appropriation. In finding personal connection to esoteric concepts we empower the term “spiritual” as it is shaped by our experience.
With a little help from my friends…
Religious institutions, the feared and derided vehicle of most spiritual thought, have become hollow in their modern incarnation. Their adherents are often ignorant to the nuances of faith and use religion as another facet of nationalism instead of as a vehicle towards connection with themselves and one another. If these institutions are now hollow structures then Anarcho-Spiritualists are the squatters of these structures, take from them what is most beneficial and leave the rubble where they have crumbled. Religion itself is a very small part of what we have done with this important evolutionary trait. Our dreams, inventions, expressions of creativity, our senses, our society, are ALL born of this same connection to the collective potentiality and experiences outside our sphere of sensation.
It was by delving into this connection that I first came upon Anarcho thought. Both political and philosophical arguments seldom address their common source, drawing lines in the sand and refusing to acknowledge that all parties are still on the same beach. I sought like so many others to find what I considered to be the larger truth and this led me to anarchy, this led me to believe that freedom from rule is our souls most pure desire and that all beings are connected and inseparable. It seemed that the philosophers and politicians who most feared themselves and their own freedom were the ones most concerned with creating structures and methods of enslavement that prevented the freedoms of others. Personal liberation is the framework that Anarcho thought builds on as the issues and culture change over time.
Within Anarcho-Spiritualism the focus is on self-knowledge, regardless of the innumerable problems we can find outside ourselves it is more important to understand our own perception, bias, and limitation before trying to solve the issues we find in the world-at-large. Fortunately our ambitious attempts to remove the hooks of oppressive systems is itself a form of understanding, it is the understanding of the role we as individuals play in the collective unconscious, in our communities and families, and within society and social circles. Psychological visibility is a reactive image of the self that confirms our existence by responding to our presence. Countering the passive and reactionary function of psychological visibility is the concept of “will”. Will can be described as active desire, it is the force that carries desire outside of the conscious mind of the individual and into the unconscious. This communication has the important function of manipulating the more subtle energies that allow desire to manifest into the physical world, a result of collaboration between our conscious and subconscious minds. If actions really do speak louder than words it is because of our inherent connection to will. Both intentional and unintentional messages can be discerned through an individuals actions, picking up on these cues is an important part of our survival instinct and over time non-verbal communication has taken up a much larger portion of our daily interactions.
That’s the ticket!
Free thinking individuals are far and away the best at detecting the stark differences between what is said and what is done. Honesty and integrity are paramount within both anarcho and spiritual communities, those who harbor ill intent are often outed and pushed for clarification lest they be expelled and marked as unwelcome. This communal decision-making is a trademark of these communities that sets them apart from the more popular “follow-the-leader” style groups, and is both their greatest strength and weakness. Movements and actions are too often stymied by a chaotic battle between the wills of just a handful of individuals. Those who are less aggressive become marginalized and their wills are pushed aside for the sake of a dramatic argument to take place by wills seeking dominance as a result of fear for their survival. Within these environments the noble tenets of equanimity, inclusiveness, and tolerance are thrown out the door in favor of semantics, accusation, and petty argument. The structure of the Corporate class ensures cohesive decision-making through forcing the wills of the many to submit to the fascistic orders handed down by a select few. This structure is similar to religious institutions, the difference being that the God of the upper economic classes is capital and the most influential or wealthy members act as their priests. A model that is this deplorable, brutal, and effective requires an equally cohesive communal force to oppose it. Even though we are not prone to submission and do not run from these conflicts, progress is slow. Most of the damage that is done to capitalism is self-inflicted due to the systems inherent flaws.
I have not found a code of ethics more beneficial to all life than the ethics of anarcho philosophy, Anarchists have taken responsibility for the role our species has in this world and have tasked themselves with diminishing harm and increasing global cooperation without national, economic, or imperial intentions. If there is no cooperation between equal wills then the chance of appealing to those who stand on the side of capital is nil. Adding a spiritual practice to anarcho philosophy allows greater communication through increased conceptual understanding of human interaction and self-knowledge. Political involvement should not be the primary characteristic that makes a person “complete”, nor should they define an individual’s personality. What is needed are complete individuals coming together to create a whole movement. This is a requisite for any healthy relationship to grow, yet this “wholeness” is commonly lacking even in interpersonal relationships between empathetic actors. Spiritual exploration reveals the strongest threads that support the interconnection of all life, in understanding ourselves we will understand one another and reinvigorate the desire to preserve life and grow towards a common aim.
While popular religious currents serve to separate us from one another and from our true self, there are some modern environments which facilitate this growth. In studying and utilizing historical methods of connection to a force outside ourselves we find the tools of change that best suit our personality without allowing them to become our identity. It is a wide gate that leads to a narrow path, Anarcho-Spirituality encourages walking our own path until we find the clearing that encompasses all of humanity. Humans posses a unique evolutionary ability to manipulate invisible forces that make real change in the physical world our bodies inhabit. Ignoring this trait does not lessen its ability, only the ability of the individual to take part in the constant creation of objective reality. In the case of the Anarchist, who espouses equality and community above all else, a diluted will is a detriment to the battle for life itself. In knowing ourselves we will know the machinations of the universe, in knowing the universe we will change the world.
All Gods – No Masters!
Guerrilla Wizardry 