why writing is a drug, a medicine, a poison
Most folks think of writing as something rather neutral and benign.
Just words on a screen or on a page, nothing much to think about, right?
In our modern world we tend to take writing for granted, but the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, in the Phaedrus, referred to writing as a pharmakon.
What's a pharmakon? It's a medicine, a drug, a poison. Something that can be used to heal or to harm.
In brief, a pharmakon is something that can make you trip balls.
That's right.
Think about it: writing alters your consciousness.
A novel can put you in a delighted trance. An essay can change the way you see the world forever, transforming your politics, your diet, your spiritual direction.
A poem can make you feel expanded and open, as if the top of your head has popped off.
And bad writing? Or writing filled with lies? It can poison you and distort your perception. It can evoke reactive emotions and physically weaken you with stress hormones.
Writing is a form of magic by which we shape meaning in the minds of others, and change them at a physiological level.
The ancients, Plato among them, understood that writing is a potent and even dangerous psychedelic medicine.
Saint Terrence McKenna, a guy who knew a thing or two about psychedelic medicines, and who spoke fondly about witnessing DMT machine elves who make the universe out of language, thereby echoing the sentiment of philosopher Martin Heidegger: "Language is the House of Being."
As such potent magic, writing is chief among the Hermetic arts.
What exactly are the Hermetic arts?
They're the arts of magic, divination & meaning-making that the great god Hermes (aka Thoth / Mercury / Odin / Logos / Christ)...
... taught to humanity.
The Hermetic arts also include Tarot, Astrology, Alchemy, Philosophy, Psychology, and Commerce (all things a leader, influencer, and creative truly needs to know in order to thrive in this world).
My husband Taia and I have decided to make writing instruction one of the principle pillars of WEALTH: the alchemical community where leaders, influencers, and creatives come into their full power via the Hermetic arts.
In the meantime, if you're looking for a pharmakon to change your life for the way-better...
... I invite you to go ahead and buy my new book Existential Kink: unmask your shadow and embrace your power, which officially came out yesterday.
In reading Existential Kink: unmask your shadow and embrace your power, you'll have your consciousness radically expanded into the fertile underworld, as if on ayahuasca or a heroic dose of mushrooms.
I promise.
And, you'll learn:
- How To Stop Being Broke
- How to Stop Sucking at Love
- How to Stop Pretending You're Not Enlightened Already
- How to Feel Your Real Feelings, and Not Your Fake Ones
- How to Get Off on Every Stroke the Universe Has to Offer like the Shameless Kinky Divine Freak that you are
Oh, and did I mention there's an Audible version?
I hope you check it out, my voice is easy on the ears, I've been told. ;)