Reclaiming your Mind

This post title is referential to Jason's new blog, but only tangentially, because he picked an awesome approach to his new blog and it's in my mind now, festering, and memetically challenging me.

And it's a good thing, that blog title. It's neat. I like the idea a lot. Take back your mind, that's the goal of the magician. Yeah, it's given away and it's your own fault, but also, yeah it's stolen and the bastards have no right to it.

A major push of mine in magicalness is to get people to reclaim their divine Race and recognize their Value. It's a Plotinus thing. It hit me at a sensitive point in my life, that is, I came across the reclaiming Race and Value piece of Plotinus' Enneads at a time in my life where I was understanding new concepts, fleshing out the symbolic map from fundy Christian to Esoteric Ipsissismis of the UNIVERSE. You know, standard practice. I came across the phrase, the concept filled in some gaps, and I still use that push in my magical work, "Reclaim your Race and your Value, and you will receive the Key to the Kingdom."

Pretty catchy, eh?

That state of mind that I was in is a lot like when I was in college. My mind was open to new ideas, I was figuring things out, receiving wisdom and symbols. It was a fun time. I was smoking a lot of pot, tripping on LSD, and my whole universe went through a reframing expeience.

Something else was going on at the same time. It was 1992, Autumn, and we were alll poor college kids. Different fast food services were offering special discounts. By far the cheapest and tastiest food we could easily munch down on was from the 59, 79, and 99 cent menu at Taco Bell.

The people I was with, the drug experiences I had, and the general sense of freedom and liberation of being 18 and away from my parents, it all must have some how gotten mingled together and framed Taco Bell as part of the goodness from that time in my life.

I must have associated Taco Bell with good times, because to this day, every few months or so, Taco Bell begins to appeal to me. I get hungry and get these impulses for what would feel good to eat, what would be fast, cheap, and open late. Mmmm, flashing through my mind, Taco Bell...

And I know it must be some kind of thing that I imprinted or something, I know it's got to be something that I need to take my mind back from, because honestly folks, Taco Bell food full on fucking sucks. It is the ass rumblings of the fast food industry. Their food all tastes the same, like generic, vaguely Southwestern gloop squeezed out of a tube. With Lettuce. Iceberg lettuce!!!

Fuck Taco Bell. They don't get that piece of my mind anymore. It's mine.

Taco Bell, I'm talking to you: Your food sucks. It tastes bad! The texture combinations are nauseating. The beef is so obviously not beef it quit being funny in 2002. You guys have either A) RUINED your recipes with cheaper ingredients that have no flavor, or B) YOU ALWAYS SUCKED.

I'm beginning to suspect you always sucked. Fuck Taco Bell!