The Way of the Warrior—A Life Stance for Anyone Who Wants to Lead an Effective and Engaged Life

ROUGH DRAFT   text and photo copyright Jonathan Zap, 2013   Image: Metal capsule and statement of intentions sitting atop a bronze fountain sculpture on Pearl Street, Boulder, Colorado   “The science and art of creating change in conformity with will.” —Aleister Crowley’s definition of magick I’d like to offer a couple of chaos magic practices I created:   I The Capsule of Intentionality   Take a small box, jar, case, metal capsule, etc. —a small, aesthetically pleasing and well made container of some sort, and put a document of thoughtfully written worthy intentions in it. I call this a “Capsule of Intentionality.” Alternatively, you can have a journal book for this purpose only, a book that should also be well made and aesthetically just right.  A both/and variation is that the capsule need only contain words to the effect of: “Follow what I have written in my Journal of Intentionality.” Write things in these sacred linguistic/intentionality containing spaces only when you are in the place of your deepest self— a calm, compassionate spacious place. You can write down intentions that you aim to follow lifelong, but you can also write down the carefully defined practices, disciplines, boundaries, specific guidelines [...]

copyright 2012, Jonathan Zap Status Update August 16, 2012 3:30 am Status Update August 16, 2012 3:30 am Awakened by the Spirits of the High Desert and the Red Book So often I find the muse waking me up between 3 and 4 in the morning, as it did this morning at about 3:10 am, and that can work out very well if I’ve gotten to sleep early enough, say 9pm. The predawn hours are the magical time for me creatively, a window zone where the veil between the realms seems thinner, and most people in the community are in the dreamtime and I have just come from the dreamtime. This morning I’m at 7200 feet in the high desert of Taos, New Mexico at the guest house of someone whose book I’m editing. The muse has been waking me up at 3 something all this week even if I’ve gone to sleep late. When that happens, my brain is just not rested enough and I usually have to go back to sleep. It feels like the muse is reminding me that I should have been ready, and when this happened a couple of days ago the awakening was from [...]

Zones of inner jeopardy (ZIJ) are those familiar times when we are inwardly stressed, our thoughts and emotions are agitated, and we may be enveloped by dark moods. The causes of ZIJ are various, and usually there are multiple causes such as metabolic disequilibria, social/sexual issues, financial hardship, disturbances in the force and so forth.”ZIJ” is used in this essay to refer to both zones of inner jeopardy and a way of dealing with them.

The definition of pushing the envelope I have come up with and will employ here is: Boundary expansion into a zone of novelty previously unexplored by the species or an individual.

One of the most potent of spells or enchantments that can bind you into the matrix is to live under the compulsion of always having to imagine getting more in the future. Under this spell you become a donkey forever hypnotized by an imaginary carrot just up ahead.

A very practical and grounded way to navigate your pathway through a chaotic world.

photo and text copyright Jonathan Zap 2006 I’ve been getting a lot of messages from people that reflect a deep unhappiness with our present condition and a tendency to cling to unnourishing things to support themselves through the difficulties.  For example, a woman in New York City sent the following: I listened to you on X Zone tonight.  Re: 2012, my life has really become sitting around and waiting for 2012.  My job, my relationships, etc.  have all become “something to do while I wait.”  I really don’t like what I’ve become, because I feel that I am not living my life to the fullest NOW.  I am just waiting for something better to happen, waiting for something to save me. I am beginning to think that a lot of people feel the same way, based on stuff I’m reading on newsgroups.  A dissatisfaction with “3-D reality” is developing. But counting down to any date , whether it is the beginning of a vacation or an imagined apocalypse/rapture zone binds you deeper into the unhappy effects of linear time.  See http://www.zaporacle.com/textpattern/article/15/clock-time-metastisizing-toward-2012- and http://www.zaporacle.com/textpattern/article/14/a-splinter-in-your-mind While caught in darkness leave room for that white crow possibility, because life can change in a heart beat, and love can enter [...]

“Mechanical resistance” is one of the great defining aspects of the matrix in which we are presently incarnated. It is a force in our lives as powerful as gravity or mortality and it overlaps and influences almost any area or parameter of our incarnation we can possibly think of—-corporeality, illness, aging, money, sexuality, time, objects, consumerism, computers, technology, art, travel…

Introduction. © Jonathan Zap 2004 Someone once described stories as “equipment for living.” Quality fiction does fit that definition and, of course, so does the right non fiction. The modern Taoist quotes presented here are almost the illustration of this definition. They are like a set of tools, deceptively simple in appearance, but made of an adamantine metal that grows stronger and sharper with long use. Someone else said, “Don’t read a book unless it is like a ball of light glowing in your hands.” When you find the right book, at the right time, it can be a sphere of light in your hands. The writings of Deng Ming-Dao (a contemporary Taoist whom I excerpt here) were, for me, like a large sphere of amethyst with cooling, calming purple depths. Areas of the sphere had a gem quality transparency and clarity while others had natural inclusions, areas that were clouded by carbon and iron oxide. The quotes presented here are the parts that, for me, had gem quality transparency, that sparkled in my mind’s eye like jewels flashing in the night of time. If we were to look into an amethyst sphere we would probably all agree on which [...]

This is chapter IV of my book, The Capsule of Intentionality, in which I present a summary of the warrior stance from personal experience and a variety of traditions.