I will soon be releasing a NFT magazine focussed around literature, philosophy, spirituality and art to enrich, inspire and be full of lessons to help people in life.
Below is a sample of two pages of the story.
In italics are the footnotes that are found in the story giving a small philosophic interpretation
After the two pages are found a full philosophic writeup of some of the themes contained within the pages
The magazine will also feature art from NFT artists including writing about what art means to them and what it can give to the world.
The first edition will also feature a limited edition cover.
This is going to be a rare chance to own a limited edition story, piece of philosophy and art work all in one NFT which you can enjoy, learn from and make money from.
In a deep sleep a familiar paralysis besets me. But instead of a heaviness weighing me down, I am pulled forward by a will not of my own. Stunned, I manage to catch a breath before being pushed back down. As I fall back, everything slows. It wasn’t just time that had slowed down, it was as if the fabric of the universe had grown thicker. Then, I hear the most familiar voice. So softly it spoke, soothing me back into a dream and floating my eyes closed in perfect synchronicity with my descent. Before they seal shut, with divine authority a message comes through. So clear I heard it..
"Enjoy your descent my child, for I am here to support you now. Follow the process and do not let them push you around anymore, only your willpower can take away the pain. You are not to blame, for the fallen angels stole your imagination. After your imagination they claimed your freedom, with your freedom they took your time and with your time they took your dreams. But I am with you, I have always been with you and I leave clues for you everywhere, for my hand is ever outstretched to pull you out. Rise up star seed.”
For the first time I found myself awake and alert in the morning. My curiosity over my dream had charged my mind. The hairs on my arm bristled and the sensation of goosebumps were met with a pleasant shiver electrifying my spine, filling me with energy and taking me to my feet. And the vision? it would not dissipate from my memory. What did it all mean? Why did she sound so familiar? I tried to remember … if only I could picture her face! Did she have one? I tried to picture her but no images would come to the forefront of my mind, I tried to picture my mothers face, nothing. Then it dawned on me, with dread accompanying recognition; rushing through my nervous system and stiffening the joints between my bones. I had an imagination as a kid, I'm sure of it, but now that I think about it, my capacity for imagination departed a long time ago. I only see images when I dream. Is that what she meant by the fallen angels? If so, what angels? I pulled myself away from the weight of my thoughts and looked around the apartment… perhaps for the first time in what felt like years. Is this really how I’ve been living? And the smell…. The stench of stale coffee and spilled cans of energy drinks filled the air, the bin was overflowing and the flies were enjoying their slice of heaven. Stains were more commonplace on every surface than clean spots and the crusty pizza ends matched in number with the crusty… Socks. The morning sun, just high enough to highlight the shame of this environment. Dream chasing would have to wait for a bit, I had never noticed the way I lived until now. It’s as if I haven't been present for years…
The unconscious wanderer was a wanderer no more, the ache and longing - while still pointing to an imbalance - now had direction. Purpose had been found. But the journey to wholeness is not a path full of light. For those that know God knows Abraxas is waiting.2
(2The above is important and can be referenced in many ways. It is essentially hinting that the main character in the story is going to go on a Joseph Campbell-esque journey of self discovery. 'The hero's Journey' Our reader may be interested in researching this as it is a helpful tool to orient one's life. Abraxas is a Jungian interpretation of the true god (it is also found in many early occult writings).
This god incorporates Both good and evil. The message here for our reader is to expect the rollercoaster of life, there are lessons in both the good and the bad as there is both good and bad in ourselves. What is often missed out in a message to people going through their own hero's journey or anything alike is that you will encounter a darker side to yourself. The whole point of self improvement is one of self-knowledge and self-knowledge is scary. Be prepared to meet Abraxas.)
After that fateful night, my inability to consciously visualise images and emotions plagued me. And for the first time in a while I found myself imbued with a purpose. How must one reclaim their imagination? Especially one who cannot see with their eyes closed. I discovered, through pondering on the knowledge that images only come to me during a dream, both wakeful and not. When the lines of my consciousness blur distorting reality in a haze and my attention drops into that childlike state. I no longer look at anything, through anything or past anything. I become a watcher, an audience to my own show. To figures and concepts unfamiliar to my memory. But as familiar as that voice. Are these images the key to regaining my imagination? I had to know more, but I didn’t know where to look. Mercilessly I scoured the internet to try and find some answers to regaining my imagination but I found too much. It was an overwhelming flurry of potential answers and none of it stood out or resonated with me. Until I remembered the girl under the lamp, holding a book.
The smell of dust entrenched in a million pages filled the air of the library, It was a poignant but pleasurable smell. So quiet and so acoustically hollow, a cough could be heard from one end of the building over at the other. Barely even a human body in sight for a soundwave to bounce off.. But a glowing welcome was served by the librarian, ecstatic to see anyone use this old technology. Her withered skin was no match for the warmth of her invitation and her youthful and engaging spirit still flourished as she enquired as to how she can be of assistance. I found myself so surprisingly comfortable with the situation, that my next words just fell out of my mouth. I spoke tentatively “I’ve lost my imagination” The tentativeness erring towards embarrassment come the final phoneme of my sentence. I paused but before I could rephrase my sentence the librarian smiled and said “follow me”. As s
he walked off I found myself bemused by the situation, Hypnotised, My body followed but my consciousness lagged behind, almost as if my presence was stuck at reception. My anxiety increased as the tether holding my consciousness to my body tightened, The separation stifled me.. Like an elastic band stretching to breaking point until I remembered my dream, I was flung forward back into my body, instantly relaxed by the librarian's spell and a recognition in my gut that I was where I needed to be. Following became effortless as if I had no weight. I took in none of my surroundings as I was escorted through the pages off the hallway before finding myself in front of an overly sized big red book, polished, it stood out. The librarian stated “ You should find your answer somewhere here” then walked off. Without even looking at the other books I grabbed the oversized red lump with two arms and sat down to read. The book was a schizophrenic journey into one and the author's own mind and soul, hidden techniques that I had never heard of were revealed to me… I learned how to have wakeful dreams. I learned that Imagination was something that could be taken away and something that could be practised and enhanced, through a technique called active imagination I was able to produce visions and regain my mind's eye. Where these visions came from I did not know, but what mattered was that, with a little bit of practice I could start to see again! I obsessed over the lessons in the book. When I wasn’t reading I was utilising all that I had learned.
I remember the book forewarned of a ‘shadow’ that could get out of control, unfortunately I learned what was meant by this the hard way… 3
(3 Here we begin a Jungian technique that will be made clearer in the following page. One of active imagination. Essentially it is day dreaming and while one is daydreaming they are letting the unconscious side of themselves come through, it is in this state that the unconscious can give us messages and clues as to what direction we want to be going in our life. Often presented to us in a dreamlike metaphorical form, active imagination is a process that takes analysis and practice. But after a while your true/repressed desires will be made apparent to you. You can also do this by meditating on an actual dream and then allow your unconscious to bring back that dream like state for you to then analyse. But remember “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” — Carl Jung)
2) The hero's journey
Described as a monomyth:
Essentially it was Joseph Campbell's mapping off myths from different cultures into a mythological structure Or ‘map’. This was used to find the recurring themes in ‘the journey of the hero’ that transcended all cultures. From this mythological structure some of the best stories have been created. Including Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings. The metaphor of embarking on one’s hero’s journey does not have to follow the theme quite as strictly as most successful fictional novels seem too. But a lot of the themes can be useful to consider when one finds themself on a hero's journey. Jung found myths and depicted their typical movements to correspond to ethno-psychological development of complexes. The myth of the hero is to become independent from the mother: the incest motif is returning to the mother to be reborn. In other words the myth of the hero or perhaps one of the first hero’s journeys we may partake in life is that of breaking away from the safety of our family and starting our own lives, failure to do this is living in your parents basement forever.
The above Is a slightly simplified version of the hero's journey, with the original containing 17 steps. But all 17 steps were not necessarily found within each story. For use to the reader we want to understand how this can benefit us as it is not only a good map for a mythological story but very useful in a real life cycle of self improvement. A successful journey in real life will often reflect the hero’s journey. You might be able to reflect on this and think of a time when you changed as a person. What events preceded this and see if it reflects the journey. As for people on a journey you might be able to identify where you think you are on the journey and be able to pick up what might help you. For example, encountering trials and failure, but have you considered seeking out a mentor? A lot of what is contained in the hero’s journey psychologically will be reflected in following articles on a lot of Jung’s work. So I won’t go into any more depth. But it will be useful to keep this in mind, try to map it to the story above and to the lessons below.
I have decided to include the writeup on the shadow instead of the process of active imagination as I don't want the reader of this article to go away and practice the techniques without the minimum background knowledge
The shadow
The shadow gets a little misrepresented as the ‘dark’ side of you; it is more accurately the repressed side although this does contain a lot of what you would consider darker elements. For example you may have repressed anger, hatred, ill feelings. But you might also have repressed creativity. As said in the anima/animus section you might have some repression of femininity/masculinity such as a nurturing or logical nature. You can be repressing lust and love. All of this gets contained in your shadow. In the unconscious and it manifests itself if held there too long. If your really good at repressing and holding things down it will manifest physically, into physical anxiety, nervousness, If you are repressing something that your culture is telling you is wrong, for example sexual feelings it might come out as anger against yourself. Or the shadow will make you act up in social situations, it will show you these repressions in the form of dreams. It is inescapable and so integrating your shadow is one of the greatest things you can do. You must be true to yourself.
Let’s take anger for example. Everyone has a bit of anger in them. We are told that it is bad, but it's not. Integration is meant to be discovering this anger and putting it to use in a healthy way. It’s not saying you should, by any means, go out and be angry at undeserving people. But maybe you don’t stick up for yourself as much as you should?
The Story totals around 12 pages long with a further 13 pages of philosophical write up. A 6 page shadow Journal for the readers use as well as featured art and write ups from artists. The first 100 NFT's will contain a limited edition hand drawn cover and will be priced for around $50 so that for the first 100 buyers this is also an incredible investment.
I am still looking for a couple more artists to feature their art in the magazine, you can feature whatever pieces of art you want to advertise. Alongside a writeup of what your art is trying to convey and what you think art can do to benefit the world and then provide links for people to purchase your work. Each artist will also get a free copy of the NFT
To contact me or to follow the project for the release date. Find me on twitter @tombom64 - https://twitter.com/Tombom64
Email - [email protected]
Website - Forstersphilosophy.com (Down for maintenance, check back soon.)
