I have just discovered your Substack and read the first 4 chapters of your book Tenacious Magic, signed up, and loved the synchronicity of how very soon after I signed up for your Substack, you sent out Chapter 13 last night.
Anyway, i'm enjoying reading your story very much, appreciate the craft of your writing, and the content I find intriguing which you will understand if you check out my own Substack, The Rising of the Divine Feminine, which I am observing happening all over this planet right now.
Regarding the above that I just read, "What strikes me for both women is how they achieve some degree of power in “a man’s world” by being man-ish or playing the masculine game. Both sacrifice something of themselves to do this, though they also gain. They get a taste of the high, the power."
I also had this experience through working in publishing in corporate America for 20 years. It wasn't until several years after I'd quit that I gained insight that I was completely identified with my own Inner Patriarch (Dr. Sidra Stone writes about this extensively in The Shadow King.)
I'm also deeply interested in power and the best use of it - Thich Nhat Hahn's book The Art of Power is a beautiful investigation on this topic. He rightly asserts that the one right use of power is to alleviate suffering in ourselves, and then in others.
In any case it's great to connect with you through your writing! Thank you for doing the work that you are doing in the world, and I also have to say that I love how you are opening up your writing to community participation too. This is what I also need to learn, and you're showing me how. Thank you so much! ✨🌟💖🙏🕊️😘
Nice to meet you through your comments and participation in the story. I also had that experience in Corporate America and spent many years after leaving detoxifying all of the bad habits I picked up there. A purge of the patriarchy--internalized--was a big part of that. Sounds like you know of what I speak ;) I like that term ... shadow king. I have that guy. He was a tyrant within! And yes...it's important to find the power in him, too. Later, much later, I had to go through a process of initiating my inner masculine. He'd become that tyrant because of a lack of good male role modeling and proper initiation. Sounds like our world...no?
Anyway...WELCOME...I already see you commented further into the story so I will go there to meet you ;)
“She’s jealous of her innocence, inflated by her adoration, and wants to devour her whole. She thinks perhaps she can recover her own innocence or youth by taking her. So, the attraction is mutual, though neither is really seeing the other at all. And both will be disappointed in the end.” So good.
The Katherine parts feel so fluid/fluent to me while the first person accounts feel more… reserved? I can’t help but wonder what it might be like if you wrote those in 3rd person and maybe gave yourself the freedom of saying it was inspired by your own story but not beholden to it? Just a thought. But totally enjoying this journey with you.
Hi Kathy! Yes...this is something I have thought about a lot and even tried a bit when the story was first written. At that time I continued on this track of them being stylistically different because that was exactly how they were coming to me. And I thought it might be nice to distinguish them. But, I think there's something deeper arising for me now as I read your suggestion (which feels like a loving prod and I appreciate it!).
Katherine's story, when it came, was coming as fresh material, as if I was living it vicariously through her and I was just meant to write it down quickly, to capture it. In this way, it felt immediate. Hence, third person (I am the observer) and present tense. I am literally describing what I am seeing. "She stands near the window, she is wearing xyz, she says..." etc.
My piece, when I wrote it, was memory. It was something that happened to me "in the past." And so it felt first person and past tense. I think you're right that it is more reserved. I'm afraid to see in a way and afraid to be seen in this experience. I am not afraid for Katherine in the same way. The act of her giving me her story felt like a plea, an imperative. For me, it's a bit more of a...confession?
But things are already different for me. For one thing...more time has passed. I have integrated more. I am standing much more firmly within myself and I WANT to integrate this. I want to understand it and share it. I'd also love to have a bit more permission to play with the facts and so maybe you're right. Maybe it's time to SEE myself in the experience (from where I stand now) and really immerse myself again. I think I will try it this Friday and see what we think. I will play with it tonight. Thank you...I feel your support.
I loved the meta Dialog between Flora and Katherine is a beautiful nugget!
It's so healthy and sophisticated when people do that reframing to 3rd person perspective.
It helps to not take oneself too seriously and have more compassion. It's that wise teleological self talking back from the future right now. And the fact that ironically, they are part of this fiction is a great tong and cheek to us readers. It feels so sincere to receive that moment unwinding to me in almost "real time"
Thank you!
I also take with me the cool back and forth teasing, showing how socially smart they are like between both Virginia and Lawrence and K.
Speciale honorable mention for getting "to shine your inner cunt". I will share it here in my circles and quote you (your punk friend) for royalties.
HAHAHA I am dying about that last bit. It IS so punk rock. She is my most truly punk rock friend...well-spotted! Yeah - I had a great time writing this chapter. I could really feel the atmosphere at Garsington on these literary summer weekends. And the whole Flora scene arose very spontaneously (or through Katherine). I really love that Katherine had a reputation for being quite promiscuous before she got very, very ill. She had a big sexual appetite for both women and men. I wanted to capture her in the position of power because later she is in the Flora position...we all get to play all the roles.
Thank you for this link, walkaway. The post is extremely helpful. I appreciate #6 especially as I hadn't come across any mention of G's interactions of a sexual nature with students and I have been reluctant to go there, though Katherine seems to want me to (or there is a strong intuition that the story wants to go there). I will study this more deeply.
Deep respect for your time with the work. As I revisit it now (12-14 years later), I am seeing more clearly where it seems to fit in terms of the meeting of Eastern philosophy and Western esotericism, trauma healing/awareness, and collective healing/coherence.
I know I won't do it justice as I only had the exposure I had with H and through the writings. I was deeply interested for a time and I am calling on that knowledge to reconstruct some of what I *think* happened at the Prieure for KM. What I sense is coming more through her, and maybe needs to focus more on her experience. I know there are many intimate accounts written by people who were there or visited there. Feel free to write or contact me again if you choose to stay engaged with the story and you have corrections to my understanding or portrayal of the work. I would be interested to hear as much as you care to share. I should probably include a caveat in my next chapter about not being an expert in The Work.
Finally, forgive me but I don't see the typo you mention in the intro sentence here. It's not a very well contructed passage, but I'd love to fix what's wrong...can you point it out to me? Thank you!
Dear Schuyler,
I have just discovered your Substack and read the first 4 chapters of your book Tenacious Magic, signed up, and loved the synchronicity of how very soon after I signed up for your Substack, you sent out Chapter 13 last night.
Anyway, i'm enjoying reading your story very much, appreciate the craft of your writing, and the content I find intriguing which you will understand if you check out my own Substack, The Rising of the Divine Feminine, which I am observing happening all over this planet right now.
Regarding the above that I just read, "What strikes me for both women is how they achieve some degree of power in “a man’s world” by being man-ish or playing the masculine game. Both sacrifice something of themselves to do this, though they also gain. They get a taste of the high, the power."
I also had this experience through working in publishing in corporate America for 20 years. It wasn't until several years after I'd quit that I gained insight that I was completely identified with my own Inner Patriarch (Dr. Sidra Stone writes about this extensively in The Shadow King.)
I'm also deeply interested in power and the best use of it - Thich Nhat Hahn's book The Art of Power is a beautiful investigation on this topic. He rightly asserts that the one right use of power is to alleviate suffering in ourselves, and then in others.
In any case it's great to connect with you through your writing! Thank you for doing the work that you are doing in the world, and I also have to say that I love how you are opening up your writing to community participation too. This is what I also need to learn, and you're showing me how. Thank you so much! ✨🌟💖🙏🕊️😘
Dear Camilla,
Nice to meet you through your comments and participation in the story. I also had that experience in Corporate America and spent many years after leaving detoxifying all of the bad habits I picked up there. A purge of the patriarchy--internalized--was a big part of that. Sounds like you know of what I speak ;) I like that term ... shadow king. I have that guy. He was a tyrant within! And yes...it's important to find the power in him, too. Later, much later, I had to go through a process of initiating my inner masculine. He'd become that tyrant because of a lack of good male role modeling and proper initiation. Sounds like our world...no?
Anyway...WELCOME...I already see you commented further into the story so I will go there to meet you ;)
S
“She’s jealous of her innocence, inflated by her adoration, and wants to devour her whole. She thinks perhaps she can recover her own innocence or youth by taking her. So, the attraction is mutual, though neither is really seeing the other at all. And both will be disappointed in the end.” So good.
The Katherine parts feel so fluid/fluent to me while the first person accounts feel more… reserved? I can’t help but wonder what it might be like if you wrote those in 3rd person and maybe gave yourself the freedom of saying it was inspired by your own story but not beholden to it? Just a thought. But totally enjoying this journey with you.
Hi Kathy! Yes...this is something I have thought about a lot and even tried a bit when the story was first written. At that time I continued on this track of them being stylistically different because that was exactly how they were coming to me. And I thought it might be nice to distinguish them. But, I think there's something deeper arising for me now as I read your suggestion (which feels like a loving prod and I appreciate it!).
Katherine's story, when it came, was coming as fresh material, as if I was living it vicariously through her and I was just meant to write it down quickly, to capture it. In this way, it felt immediate. Hence, third person (I am the observer) and present tense. I am literally describing what I am seeing. "She stands near the window, she is wearing xyz, she says..." etc.
My piece, when I wrote it, was memory. It was something that happened to me "in the past." And so it felt first person and past tense. I think you're right that it is more reserved. I'm afraid to see in a way and afraid to be seen in this experience. I am not afraid for Katherine in the same way. The act of her giving me her story felt like a plea, an imperative. For me, it's a bit more of a...confession?
But things are already different for me. For one thing...more time has passed. I have integrated more. I am standing much more firmly within myself and I WANT to integrate this. I want to understand it and share it. I'd also love to have a bit more permission to play with the facts and so maybe you're right. Maybe it's time to SEE myself in the experience (from where I stand now) and really immerse myself again. I think I will try it this Friday and see what we think. I will play with it tonight. Thank you...I feel your support.
I loved the meta Dialog between Flora and Katherine is a beautiful nugget!
It's so healthy and sophisticated when people do that reframing to 3rd person perspective.
It helps to not take oneself too seriously and have more compassion. It's that wise teleological self talking back from the future right now. And the fact that ironically, they are part of this fiction is a great tong and cheek to us readers. It feels so sincere to receive that moment unwinding to me in almost "real time"
Thank you!
I also take with me the cool back and forth teasing, showing how socially smart they are like between both Virginia and Lawrence and K.
Speciale honorable mention for getting "to shine your inner cunt". I will share it here in my circles and quote you (your punk friend) for royalties.
HAHAHA I am dying about that last bit. It IS so punk rock. She is my most truly punk rock friend...well-spotted! Yeah - I had a great time writing this chapter. I could really feel the atmosphere at Garsington on these literary summer weekends. And the whole Flora scene arose very spontaneously (or through Katherine). I really love that Katherine had a reputation for being quite promiscuous before she got very, very ill. She had a big sexual appetite for both women and men. I wanted to capture her in the position of power because later she is in the Flora position...we all get to play all the roles.
Thank you for this link, walkaway. The post is extremely helpful. I appreciate #6 especially as I hadn't come across any mention of G's interactions of a sexual nature with students and I have been reluctant to go there, though Katherine seems to want me to (or there is a strong intuition that the story wants to go there). I will study this more deeply.
Deep respect for your time with the work. As I revisit it now (12-14 years later), I am seeing more clearly where it seems to fit in terms of the meeting of Eastern philosophy and Western esotericism, trauma healing/awareness, and collective healing/coherence.
I know I won't do it justice as I only had the exposure I had with H and through the writings. I was deeply interested for a time and I am calling on that knowledge to reconstruct some of what I *think* happened at the Prieure for KM. What I sense is coming more through her, and maybe needs to focus more on her experience. I know there are many intimate accounts written by people who were there or visited there. Feel free to write or contact me again if you choose to stay engaged with the story and you have corrections to my understanding or portrayal of the work. I would be interested to hear as much as you care to share. I should probably include a caveat in my next chapter about not being an expert in The Work.
Finally, forgive me but I don't see the typo you mention in the intro sentence here. It's not a very well contructed passage, but I'd love to fix what's wrong...can you point it out to me? Thank you!
Argh of course 2017 should be 1917! Wow. The challenges of writing two timelines. Interesting. Thank you...another great link to follow.