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Image for the poem Thou Shall Be Illuminated

Thou Shall Be Illuminated


Do you believe in reincarnation? Transmigration of souls.  Do you believe in the signs?  The strangers and the signposts.  Things that seem to emerge from an existential scaffolding that challenge the powers of the perception and defy the powers of language?  Do you believe in synchronicity?

Do you believe in the supernatural?  An all encompassing term.  The far out.  That which is reminiscent of an acid trip.  A grouping of disparate things that researchers propose are all connected.  What?  From ghosts to UFO’s to cryptozoological creatures and beyond.  WTF+W in the F=Strange.

High Strangeness.  Or High Weirdness (as coined by Author Eric Davis).

So...  I live by Lake Michigan.  Have all my life.  Other then temporary/extended excursions to far away lands.  Lake Michigan, unbeknownst to many, is a strange body of water.  There is actually an area on the body known as the Lake Michigan Triangle.  There is an air flight mandate, requiring planes flying over to check in every 5 minutes (approximately).  Not to mention sightings of strange lights and events that belong in the Missing 411 documentary, amongst other things.

There was a time when I had never really visited the areas by the lake.  Growing up, I worked summers for my dad, on a concrete crew, and basically stayed around my area of town.  “The Lake” seemed like something…  Other.  Basically out of sight and out of mind.

I think I was a junior in high school, when I met someone who knew about these areas.  I very exuberantly insisted she show me the house where the writer of the Wizard of Oz purportedly lived.

The house was built on a sand dune.  From the vantage point of the road, the view was like looking up at a Chicago skyscraper.  Wow.  I was awestruck.  Even though the idea, of this being the house, was a rumor, not confirmed by official sources, I believed.  (I recently saw a documentary, that my mom recorded for me while back, showing that in fact the author did live there).  The idea occurred to me that maybe I could write books like that, someday.  I was filling notebooks with poetry at the time.  Like writing all the time.  Ideas perpetually bursting forth in my mind.  Learning to watch the unfolding of a thought, and falling in love.  

Around this time, I started frequenting local areas that I would consider to be sacred locations.  I felt a strange energy.  I believe there is a spirit that inhabits locations.  A numen, if you will.  It was just a feeling.  Later confirmed by the idea of Shinto shrines and quantifiable energy vortexes.  Or the genius of the desert/mountains.  Or presiding deities.
*.  *.  *
The Wizard of Oz always held a certain fascination for me, as I am shore it did with you as well, Dearest Searchers.  For me, the fascination was coupled with an unnamable apprehension, as well.

My maternal side of the family (3 uncles/3aunts) used to gather at my grandmas big-beautiful house to watch the annual broadcasting.

Given the fascination that Oz inspires, it is no surprise that there are a plethora of meanings ascribed to the production.  (From gold standard conspiracy thoery to MK Ultra/Project Monarch to Occult initiation).

As a child, of course, you and I watched with open hearts and open minds, pure.  And yet.  There was something about it.  Calling out from behind the veil.  Perhaps a state of recognition, like gods with amnesia.

I would later go on to study story structures, the hero’s journey, and the Occult, which provided a language of thought that permitted me to analyze things in a more refined way, now, having the potential to pull things from behind the veil, where the Wizard resides.

Recently, I was looking at a first draft manuscript that I wrote, placed upon a shelf.  In the past I described the contents as Alice in Wonderland meets The Wizard of Oz meets Star Wars.  The story has elements in the basic structure of the physiological effects of a DMT trip (lol).  I wrote the book (my first novel?) for my son, who I have not had a chance to interact with (a long story of course), so that someday he would know that I was thinking of him.  I put his name in the title and wrote it after hearing about the sorts of things he was interested in, which reflected my interests in many ways.  (Writing 1000 words a day,  it took me about 8 months to complete).

I had seen references to alternative points of view, regarding Oz, but never had a chance to really look into it.  What I found was astounding, and illuminating.

Essentially, Frank L. Baum had a path that was similar to mine, in regard to esoteric interests and attraction to letters.

I trod the areas that inspired the yellow brick road.  I parked at night by the castle that inspired the emerald tower.  I conferred with the same numen, as I sat high atop a sand dune, gazing at the stars.

The same sacred locations that inspired the Wizard of Oz inspired my ideas for books.

As I looked further into the matter, a new piece of the illumination came to me, in the strange land of this rabbit hole:  I have the same date of birth as Frank L. Baum.

WTF+W in the F=Strange.

High Strangeness.  High Weirdness.

Do you, Dearest Searchers, believe in coincidences, as they become increasingly-mathematically-less probable?  Do you believe in coincidences at all?  Do we exist in a magical universe.  If so, imagine the possibilities.

May the universe communicate with you in the most beautiful language about the most beautiful things.  May you receive these things with an open heart and an open mind.  May you be fortified in all circumstances.

- O
Written by Cipher_O (WarlordoftheWrittenWord)
Published
Author's Note
I have a thing for the mysteries. I believe in the magic.  And I think that in sharing such things we may all perhaps develop deeper connections to the source of...  whatever you choose to call these things...  I just say: High Strangeness.  I believe this includes a diverse array of totality.  Maybe you have seen such things.  Maybe you have seen and believed or not believed.  Maybe you have not seen yet still believe.  I think there is this truth that takes precedence from the background, and surfaces at times, in our perceptions, which may contribute more to our experience than we realize.  I hope you enjoy this strange glimpse into the strangeness as experienced by myself.
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