I began writing poetry in the 8th grade attracted by the image-casting (phanopoetic) power of words. Language as a window of the imagination has been a primary fascination ever since. However, as I was to discover, finding and solidifying a voice would take many years. Wandering on Course, and the long-poem in progress Intersecting Visions Intersect* are the only 2 books of poems I have released. This gradual pace has been intentional.
Duration also has played a key role in the gestation and completion of the initial draft of The Sacred Alignments Sigils. This project took over 30 years to complete and that is because it was not just a product of verbal composition. I found it was necessary to back my findings up not only with research but experimentation. I came to agree with John Dee’s stance that there is no replacement for experimentation through experience. Composing a methodology in line with my practice and then expressing it was the challenge that expanded my view of precisely what I was working with. One such result was addressing the matter of how magical art interfaces with magickal practices and perspectives which I began to address in chapter 10 of The Sacred Alignments and Sigils. Over time I have come to discover much more concerning visual art and its connection to magick. Subsequently, I will be addressing this topic from time to time in my blog.
When I set out to finally commit The Sacred Alignments to paper I was concerned that without proper scholarly research into the history of elements related to The Grid Sigil, that the book may not be set on a stable foundation. I felt I need to be the devil’s advocate the entire time. But as I began composing the book I discovered that the act of writing, researching, and formulating ideas about the notion of alignments and sigils was expanding thus leading me down avenues I never would have initially considered. I found myself actively engaged in gnana yoga, one of the branches of the Ashtanga school initially established by Pantanjali. In my case, gnana, or union through philosophical speculation provided a rare fuel for the fodder. The act of contemplation as a key to understanding, and not just meditation, became clear. Writing the book itself became a sort of spiritual / intellectual exercise enabling me to catch glimpses of a unification of sorts that I do not believe would have been faclitated otherwise.
The synthesis that took place in the Sacred Alignments has not remained confined to the book in and of itself. After all, a printed book is merely a projection of the internally composed utterance. My magickal novel, Beyond the Lens of Time of which I am in the process of editing is one off-shoot of The Sacred Alignments and Sigils. Both books tend to inform one another. In fact, it is now possible to peruse an excerpt of Beyond the Lens of Time on the Yarns page of this site.
An intentionally elusive and allusive thread twists about the interstices of all my writing aligning and realigning their fluid message.
*Note: When visiting abullhead.com/books scroll to the bottom of the page where you may download the pdf for Intersecting Visions Vision Intersects for free. However, this is a small press and if you can afford a hard copy it is only $10 dollars plus shipping. The book is hand-bound and produced with a high degree of TLC.
