I really appreciate reading your writing, partially because I like the way you think about online spaces/community/communication (I love this tavern vs temple idea), and partially because you connect me to things I find delightful that I likely would not have found on my own (weird suns!!! I love this!!)
Really enjoyed the ending. I quite like your substack essays, I feel like there’s already been a couple of them where you have started in a chaotic way, rambling in an artistic way where it’s unclear where you’re going, and then halfway through it seems that you discover where you’re going yourself and you’re able to piece it all together. I really enjoy both the start, where we’re exploring and it’s unclear where we will end up or if we will end up anywhere but I enjoy the journey. And I really enjoy the final part, where the destination pays off.
But mostly, what I wanted to point out is that whenever I read your long form writing you manage to make me super excited and motivated and to start working on my own project right now and for a hundred years.
Keep it up!! I’m excited to read about what comes next!!
thanks cez!! i'm really glad that you see what's happening, that's roughly exactly what I'm going for (unclear → clear). and it is always an honor to motivate/excite another person to write, thank you for telling me 🥰🙏🏾
I feel like there's something about capturing human archetypes so well, and something about calling on ancestors—calling on ancient legends,even—that makes Visa's writing so motivating.
Here we learn of all the things we can become, all the people we already may be:
- merry drunkards at the local tavern,
- monks at an ancient temple,
- explorers whose home is outside the gates of the village.
We weigh the odds, and decide we may be—or may have already been—either one of these archetypes. It is possible to travel all these different paths, even all of them in one life time.
Talking about these possible paths reminds us of the treasures hidden beyond the visible realm, hidden somewhere between the shades of reality.
You don't notice you can one day become an explorer of distant, strange lands, but when Visa starts talking to you about the bar, the temple, and the voyager, and when they all make sense... becoming an explorer suddenly seems just as possible as going out with friends on a friday night.
~~
Two, we hear the call to the Ancients. Who else is likening The Hypertext Protocol, working on an online canvas like this blog, to ancient gateways in front of sacred temples? HREFgopuram. By invoking the image of a Gopuram, We are struck with the intensity of a thousand years of human civilization development.
Only if you can really understand (or actually, feel) the intensity of what the ancients built, can you recapture it and strike your readers with its full force.
We are struck, and born anew.
---
I see this in Visa's "we were voyagers", which ends with theparagraph:
///
"To paraphrase David Ogilvy, let us strive for the company of immortals.
Valhalla awaits. Let’s. Fucking. Go."
///
Okay, David Ogilvy, who was this guy? some advertiser, okay, nice quote, "let's strive for the company of immortals".
yeah, it's a strong statement to end an essay on, but then,
"Valhalla Awaits...
let's.. fucking.. go.."
Do you see what i mean? the company of immortals. Let's not leave it at that, who were these immortals? it's the immortal fighters, the Einherjar, who rise up each day to fight again, in an endless, legendary combat, in front of the hall of ancient Valhalla, up in the nordic heavens.
This is a great medium to unpack your thoughts and feelings about twitter, because its shielded from the meta-critique-show that everyone is playing in over there. Over here, on Substack, you can discuss it objectively. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this!
I could unpack so much of what you write here. I'll have a go at some of it, and share a concept that might interest you.
I'm definitely a fellow-fool, doing stuff in my village that might come to fruition or not, at the moment I think it would be a miracle if it came to fruition but I don't give up (yet); I feel a flow, although I also notice resistance, in myself and 'out there'.
I overcome it by going through it.
Anyway, I found the centre between tavern and temple, or at least that is what I think when I read your newsletter. ☺️
When my world fell apart in 2005, as it often does because of my determination to go deep into the extremes of life experiences where I usually find hidden truths, I received the name Okeko, the joining of two okay's written in Dutch (oke), and when I finally got a few brilliant chances to experiment with what I thought to be the concept behind this palindrome, it was interesting and exciting to play with it, but I didn't attract people who were willing to leave the teacher-student dynamic behind, like in totally, which I perceive to be of paramount importance in order to reclaim the power of infinite consciousness.
After the first experiments, I added to Okeko the words: 'learn & share' to emphasize the flow of information, i.e. the energy in formation, leading to healing and the rise of consciousness that automagically happens when people gather, one way or another, even when not aware of this flow. Obviously, it all goes faster when curious people (like you) come together, or as you say "on the road, where merry drunks don't dare tread".
Yes, I also want it all... "gather with my friends; go on grand, go in challenging adventures of exploration; learning interesting and useful things that I can bring back and share with people; sacredly cultivating the wisdom and sensitivity required to know what’s the right thing for me to do at each moment".
You also "want to earn the companionship of those who want the same thing"...
well, you earned mine 🤩
Funny that I also quote Leonard Cohen's 'crack', and the link to insanity when, as you say we "don't keep up with writing". In my essay 'the power of art', I relate madness to our unseen innocence, our inherent drive to rise consciousness and the lack of support and acknowledgment of other people (withholding the flow of love) which we deeply crave, so there's always a lot of tension, and despair... (the separation between desire and outcome) that can be 'paired', or repaired again, potentially, when we keep going.
But what if... we would choose with more scrutiny, who to repair with?
At the moment I'm wondering if I truly move forwards in the pace that I love (quick). It feels as if I'm climbing mountains with people who seem to overestimate their fitness or underestimate a healing crises, people who immediately lose track when they hear somebody shouting, and avoid questions about why it, to use a fancy word, triggered them, people making choices but can't remember that they made them, who willingly run into brick walls and hold others responsible, and so on.
Ok, you also mention this in making a distinction between the two taverns in your essay, one where friends and fellow psychonauts, vagabonds etc. gather and one where people avoid what they're suppose to be doing (by drinking too much alcohol).
So, what if you agree with me, that Okeko could be a 'place', maybe even a middle ground, between tavern & temple?
Then, we could explore whether its concept can grow roots in the online world. I invite you to have a look at okeko.org, it's only one page.
In 2019, the website was parked for a few years as part of a dispute with the host. Because of my patience I got it back and just recently decided to start it all over again, from scratch.
In 2018, I organized 17 trial gatherings, once a week, in the village where I live, and this week we'll have the 9th meeting, with different people.
As you say:
"we are all bound and constrained by our erroneous assumptions. I myself too am surely fettered by my own thinking in ways that I am currently unable to perceive. And a big part of why I write and think and talk so much is that I am hoping to encounter other people who can notice the subtle patterns I’m unconsciously repeating, and point them out to me. And of course, it’s quite likely that my initial reaction to having those patterns pointed out would be denial!"
This is why I share the Okeko concept with you. We all have blind spots, and we happen to see them very clear in other people, but it is much harder to find them in ourselves. That's where we can help each other, learning to point them out in a loving way, as a service; learning to receive them without immediately jumping in the curtains 😉 helps us to grow up,
at a quicker pace...
OK, I see that I need patience, allowing the ripening of concepts, but I also learn to understand the need for collaboration with people in a similar intent, that is why I participate in various meetings, although flavoured very differently, organized by people who also want to give and receive support in our community.
Another reason why I reach out to you, is that maybe in the online 'space' we can have gatherings with people who love to commit to this; who want support (give & receive) and learn; who have so much to share that when they don't (write for instance) they go insane... and connecting them with people who know that they need brand new information to grow.
In short and to say it Okeko-style: 'learn & share, learn to share, share to learn or have our presence appreciated'.
How does this sound to you?
Would you be interested to exploring this; have a chat about it?
I really appreciate reading your writing, partially because I like the way you think about online spaces/community/communication (I love this tavern vs temple idea), and partially because you connect me to things I find delightful that I likely would not have found on my own (weird suns!!! I love this!!)
Thank you :)
💪🏽❤️
Really enjoyed the ending. I quite like your substack essays, I feel like there’s already been a couple of them where you have started in a chaotic way, rambling in an artistic way where it’s unclear where you’re going, and then halfway through it seems that you discover where you’re going yourself and you’re able to piece it all together. I really enjoy both the start, where we’re exploring and it’s unclear where we will end up or if we will end up anywhere but I enjoy the journey. And I really enjoy the final part, where the destination pays off.
But mostly, what I wanted to point out is that whenever I read your long form writing you manage to make me super excited and motivated and to start working on my own project right now and for a hundred years.
Keep it up!! I’m excited to read about what comes next!!
thanks cez!! i'm really glad that you see what's happening, that's roughly exactly what I'm going for (unclear → clear). and it is always an honor to motivate/excite another person to write, thank you for telling me 🥰🙏🏾
I feel like there's something about capturing human archetypes so well, and something about calling on ancestors—calling on ancient legends,even—that makes Visa's writing so motivating.
Here we learn of all the things we can become, all the people we already may be:
- merry drunkards at the local tavern,
- monks at an ancient temple,
- explorers whose home is outside the gates of the village.
We weigh the odds, and decide we may be—or may have already been—either one of these archetypes. It is possible to travel all these different paths, even all of them in one life time.
Talking about these possible paths reminds us of the treasures hidden beyond the visible realm, hidden somewhere between the shades of reality.
You don't notice you can one day become an explorer of distant, strange lands, but when Visa starts talking to you about the bar, the temple, and the voyager, and when they all make sense... becoming an explorer suddenly seems just as possible as going out with friends on a friday night.
~~
Two, we hear the call to the Ancients. Who else is likening The Hypertext Protocol, working on an online canvas like this blog, to ancient gateways in front of sacred temples? HREFgopuram. By invoking the image of a Gopuram, We are struck with the intensity of a thousand years of human civilization development.
Only if you can really understand (or actually, feel) the intensity of what the ancients built, can you recapture it and strike your readers with its full force.
We are struck, and born anew.
---
I see this in Visa's "we were voyagers", which ends with theparagraph:
///
"To paraphrase David Ogilvy, let us strive for the company of immortals.
Valhalla awaits. Let’s. Fucking. Go."
///
Okay, David Ogilvy, who was this guy? some advertiser, okay, nice quote, "let's strive for the company of immortals".
yeah, it's a strong statement to end an essay on, but then,
"Valhalla Awaits...
let's.. fucking.. go.."
Do you see what i mean? the company of immortals. Let's not leave it at that, who were these immortals? it's the immortal fighters, the Einherjar, who rise up each day to fight again, in an endless, legendary combat, in front of the hall of ancient Valhalla, up in the nordic heavens.
Such astral imagery you'd never expect.
This is a great medium to unpack your thoughts and feelings about twitter, because its shielded from the meta-critique-show that everyone is playing in over there. Over here, on Substack, you can discuss it objectively. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this!
thx Caelan! me too. "shielded from the meta-critique-show" is a great way of putting it
Wow, Visakanv, you've nailed it.
I'm so impressed.
I could unpack so much of what you write here. I'll have a go at some of it, and share a concept that might interest you.
I'm definitely a fellow-fool, doing stuff in my village that might come to fruition or not, at the moment I think it would be a miracle if it came to fruition but I don't give up (yet); I feel a flow, although I also notice resistance, in myself and 'out there'.
I overcome it by going through it.
Anyway, I found the centre between tavern and temple, or at least that is what I think when I read your newsletter. ☺️
When my world fell apart in 2005, as it often does because of my determination to go deep into the extremes of life experiences where I usually find hidden truths, I received the name Okeko, the joining of two okay's written in Dutch (oke), and when I finally got a few brilliant chances to experiment with what I thought to be the concept behind this palindrome, it was interesting and exciting to play with it, but I didn't attract people who were willing to leave the teacher-student dynamic behind, like in totally, which I perceive to be of paramount importance in order to reclaim the power of infinite consciousness.
After the first experiments, I added to Okeko the words: 'learn & share' to emphasize the flow of information, i.e. the energy in formation, leading to healing and the rise of consciousness that automagically happens when people gather, one way or another, even when not aware of this flow. Obviously, it all goes faster when curious people (like you) come together, or as you say "on the road, where merry drunks don't dare tread".
Yes, I also want it all... "gather with my friends; go on grand, go in challenging adventures of exploration; learning interesting and useful things that I can bring back and share with people; sacredly cultivating the wisdom and sensitivity required to know what’s the right thing for me to do at each moment".
You also "want to earn the companionship of those who want the same thing"...
well, you earned mine 🤩
Funny that I also quote Leonard Cohen's 'crack', and the link to insanity when, as you say we "don't keep up with writing". In my essay 'the power of art', I relate madness to our unseen innocence, our inherent drive to rise consciousness and the lack of support and acknowledgment of other people (withholding the flow of love) which we deeply crave, so there's always a lot of tension, and despair... (the separation between desire and outcome) that can be 'paired', or repaired again, potentially, when we keep going.
But what if... we would choose with more scrutiny, who to repair with?
At the moment I'm wondering if I truly move forwards in the pace that I love (quick). It feels as if I'm climbing mountains with people who seem to overestimate their fitness or underestimate a healing crises, people who immediately lose track when they hear somebody shouting, and avoid questions about why it, to use a fancy word, triggered them, people making choices but can't remember that they made them, who willingly run into brick walls and hold others responsible, and so on.
Ok, you also mention this in making a distinction between the two taverns in your essay, one where friends and fellow psychonauts, vagabonds etc. gather and one where people avoid what they're suppose to be doing (by drinking too much alcohol).
So, what if you agree with me, that Okeko could be a 'place', maybe even a middle ground, between tavern & temple?
Then, we could explore whether its concept can grow roots in the online world. I invite you to have a look at okeko.org, it's only one page.
In 2019, the website was parked for a few years as part of a dispute with the host. Because of my patience I got it back and just recently decided to start it all over again, from scratch.
In 2018, I organized 17 trial gatherings, once a week, in the village where I live, and this week we'll have the 9th meeting, with different people.
As you say:
"we are all bound and constrained by our erroneous assumptions. I myself too am surely fettered by my own thinking in ways that I am currently unable to perceive. And a big part of why I write and think and talk so much is that I am hoping to encounter other people who can notice the subtle patterns I’m unconsciously repeating, and point them out to me. And of course, it’s quite likely that my initial reaction to having those patterns pointed out would be denial!"
This is why I share the Okeko concept with you. We all have blind spots, and we happen to see them very clear in other people, but it is much harder to find them in ourselves. That's where we can help each other, learning to point them out in a loving way, as a service; learning to receive them without immediately jumping in the curtains 😉 helps us to grow up,
at a quicker pace...
OK, I see that I need patience, allowing the ripening of concepts, but I also learn to understand the need for collaboration with people in a similar intent, that is why I participate in various meetings, although flavoured very differently, organized by people who also want to give and receive support in our community.
Another reason why I reach out to you, is that maybe in the online 'space' we can have gatherings with people who love to commit to this; who want support (give & receive) and learn; who have so much to share that when they don't (write for instance) they go insane... and connecting them with people who know that they need brand new information to grow.
In short and to say it Okeko-style: 'learn & share, learn to share, share to learn or have our presence appreciated'.
How does this sound to you?
Would you be interested to exploring this; have a chat about it?
I also would be very grateful for feedback ;)
Love,
Pascalle
Friend, you speak to my condition. 🙏
Beautiful