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- Weekly Zephyr #66: Opalescent Ghost
Weekly Zephyr #66: Opalescent Ghost
When I sat down to write the Zephyr today, I was possessed by this urgent feeling
My hands were flying across the page making notes and my body was coiled, muscles all tense—
this is not my usual Zephyr-making vibe! I would have called it the Weekly Missile or something
—it was wild And so without knowing exactly why or what made it urgent (instead of just food for thought) here it is
ONE
Let's embark on this imaginative exercise:
Somewhere running up your middle is a clear, opalescent ghost* of you
*not ghost as in dead
I don't want to use the word spirit. I don't even mean that word. People fall off or go to sleep instantly with that word. Too much certainty, for or against. And who the F am I to make definitive statements about our spirits? I don't know what those are and neither do you. You have some ideas at best and me too. I'd rather talk on purpose a foot to the left of what I mean and say GHOST and know that I didn't hit it than I would say SPIRIT and think I'm saying something exact that nails it and still miss! but think I didn't.
This Opalescent Ghost is, as far as I can tell, exactly you but the unfiltered one no prism? Anyway: more you than you*
*the walking-around-in-pants-with-this-hairstyle you
The Opalescent Ghost you has the quality of a window open inside you through which some ideal transmission wafts with the best possible ideas for you and your life <——THE URGENT BIT but we'll get to that
there may the the quality there of a bell or some breeze a mild scent a slight-but-detectable cool temperature a refreshing feeling
You know how it's kind of pleasant to be distracted by ideas about what the people in our vicinity should/would be doing if only they had their wits about them? Even though what they're doing is none of our business outside of what we might have to negotiate that directly affects us?
But we have such good ideas for them!
None of our beeswax, yes. And vice versa, how what people have hinted to you or said outright (or you just think they think) you should be doing if only you had your wits about you
"ugh I should probably be doing something else" :(
is none of their business and also none of your business THIS IS IMPORTANT
It is very difficult to hear ourselves. The world is loud. Our minds are loud. Our conditioning is loud.
And the Opalescent Ghost isn't trying to rule over anything or oppress anyone or make demands but it would like to reach into the world through you unimpeded but it can't do that if you can't even hear it and if it can't do it, that's a problem worth caring about
W E A R E G E T T I N G T O T H E U R G E N T P A R T
TWO
THE ENEMY OF YOUR OPALESCENT GHOST IS THE CAPITALIST STREAM OF THE WORLD
it's one of them, anyway, a very powerful enemy also: by capitalist stream I don't mean money itself, no
BUSINESS * MARKETS * A SERIOUS MASK * SUITS * A QUALITY OF WEIGHTINESS * A SUPERFICIAL TIDINESS * A CORPORATE LOOK WITH ALL THE POWER IT'S MEANT TO INVOKE * DISCONNECTION FROM WILD & NATURAL STREAMS OF BEING * DISDAIN FOR THOSE STREAMS, BORN OF FEAR * and then the crushing/silencing of those streams, that violence This is the dominant language of the Western world.
Paradigms of success!
Projected on gigantic screens all around!
This is glamour, glamour magic, like the Wizard of Oz. There's other magic but this is one kind
It's easy to get sucked in and confused and imagine that nothing's more important than rocking it in this paradigm
AND THAT AFFECTS OUR ABILITY AND WILLINGNESS
TO BELIEVE IN, LOCATE, AND HEAR OUR OPALESCENT GHOST
If we listen to it at all, we listen to it impatiently, holding the executioner's axe we get when we’re born into Business Success Winner Land. We give it no time to talk and then demand that it produce something immediately marketable or it can fuck off. Or we just listen to whatever's loudest instead because we don't think anything's there.
It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there *It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there * It's there *It's there * It's really there
NOW LISTEN WE'VE ARRIVED THIS IS THE URGENT PART
THIS ENORMOUS PLANET-KILLING STRUCTURE BASED ON EXPLOITATION—BUILT ON THE LABOR AND SUFFERING OF BILLIONS—COULD COLLAPSE. IT'S NOT SUSTAINABLE. IT ONLY LOOKS INVULNERABLE. IT IS NOT INVULNERABLE. (here was a picture of notre-dame on fire that didn’t make the transfer from tiny letter to substack)
something so old that's come to feel like an eternal fact a locus of such power — the shock of this collapsing spire notre-dame isn't the exact metaphor for the collapse I mean but it's a fitting diorama for the shock
If you're entirely invested in this paradigm, it's going to hurt like a double motherfucker when it does collapse.
But:
T h e O p a l e s c e n t G h o s t o f y o u c a n n o t c o l l a p s e , i s g e n u i n e l y i n v u l n e r a b l e , t h e r e a l t h i n g .
THREE
Respect your Opalescent Ghost.
Respect it. That's what drove my hand across the page so hard. It might seem so soft and small and insignificant or not there BUT YOU DON'T KNOW THATNOT UNTIL YOU REAL-LIFE INVESTIGATE ITand I'm telling you it's your best ticket through this mess and when the shit goes down—which it is already doing but when it does it bigger— you will be glad you established communications. Be willing to try unusual or pointless-seeming exercises to open communication with it. For more than five minutes. Without a goal.
More later but from now on you are to care about:
your dreams your right-brain your imagination silence
and anything that gets you access to any of those things
I DON'T CARE IF ALL OF THIS IS JUST AN IDEA. IT PRACTICALLY THREW ME ACROSS THE ROOM TO GET TOLD TO YOU.
and then maybe go sit in a quiet room and imagine your O.G. talking to you go float down a river with it on some cool boat through fjords or sit under a fat old tree with it or sail around in a hot air balloon together you choose something let it show you pictures whatever you see matters