On Death and Suffering, but mostly Death, from an Illuminated Hermetic Perspective, because it's that time again.

Already Dead Anyway

Ah, autumn! Tis the Season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la

DEATH.

It's a fucking blessing, goddamn it. It's a sign that you did your time, finished what you meant to, and you're moving on. It's a right, a privilege, and an honor. The folks left behind have some issues to deal with, sure, but my death is mine, and I'll take it when and where I will, even if I haven't let myself in on that fact just yet.

That's the conclusion I've reached (at this point) regarding death, and that's after having created the philosopher's stone, accomplishing the great work, and attaining Illumination through the Hermetic practices of Western esoteric magics.

Your mileage may vary.

My friends are reaching the age when their parents die. Mine are old, and getting older. I send them money each month now to pay their mortgage, and their cell phone bill. They are on my MicroSoft Office plan, so they get Office for my $10 a month. And they are Christians.

I visited my Grandmother this summer, with my kids. They are 12 and 13 at the moment, and they never met her before. My grandmother's house hasn't changes since I was 12.

She's 92.

They could go any time. Any fucking time. Intimate parts of my life that affect me on a weekly and daily basis, just gone. Leaving me empty and desolate. Leaving me wondering about whether I lived enough with them the way I'd wanted to while they were alive. It's that time in my life where I have to think about that.

But then again, they could live another 20 fucking years. Or more. Who knows? How much of my life should I spend on them, knowing they could go any time, or they might be here after I'm gone?

So: family, and loved ones, and death, and shit. How does it matter, what's the impact on our lives?

The best person I ever saw deal with death was +Christopher Bradford. If I ever go through anything similar, I expect to do as well, and if I don't, I'm an asshole. See, he's a magician, and he gets it. He understands magic, spirits, and the axis that goes from here to there, from here to where we come from, and he believes it and acts as if what he knows is true.

And if I don't, god save me from my very own wrath. And contempt.

Death sucks for people left behind, if they don't get it.

For the rest of us, it's a celebration. Dude's getting a break, ffs. Halleluiah!

Oh, sure, life's harder for the rest of us, sucks to be sad missing them and shit, but damn, that one's got a chance at leveling up, moving on, leaving behind the bullshit of each sphere, and becoming a power, if that's their Will. Or they come back and do something different... if they want.

Or they go to some valhalla or some heaven or some hell for a while. Whatever they're into, that's awesome.

Or they don't. Whatever, they had their time... it's cool.

Because...

Existence is pure joy.

There's a thing in the spiritual paths we tread that is expressed in that phrase that people choke on. It's not a fun thing to face or deal with, that even the worst suffering on Earth is actually secretly wonderful in some way. The ultimate blaming of the victim, the inevitable shrieks that such a thing, if true, would somehow justify the worst atrocities committed.

Hogwash.

To say that suffering is pure joy is simply to point out that even the worst experience of existence is better than not existing at all. It doesn't excuse anyone from anything, it doesn't make anything better, really.

But frankly, it doesn't have to "make anything better." If you read "existence is pure joy" and can't comprehend it, you have never understood nonexistence. If not existing were preferable to the suffering the most miserable of us go through, brothers and sisters, we wouldn't be here.

We aren't stupid.

Ok, we aren't that stupid.

I'm certainly not, anyway.

Harper and I were talking the other day about illuminated enlightened understanding of the world, and how it's basically a matter of understanding existence from an eternal perspective.

People caught in the body-mind-current-experience-of-the-moment can't even appreciate what they're going through, because they're all afraid. People who get it from an eternal perspective aren't afraid, they're thirsty for experience, because they see that if nothing else, this is the one chance they get to taste the universe the way it is right now from their perspective.

Live like you're dead already, and you got a chance to be alive again.

That's basically what we're doing, imho.

And if I'm wrong, who gives a shit? My way is a lot more fun.

And besides...

You're already dead.