Welcome to an ongoing series entitled Haunt Manual that is both an audiocast and column on wethehallowed.org, with the full chapter on substack. In this fluid, multi-media grimoire I will document my ongoing praxis to commune with my contradictory ghost, to rediscover and reveal the tenets of our anarchic collective We The Hallowed, and discuss all artistic and magickal practices involved. The music beneath is an improvised audiomancy liminalstream I will be conjuring for each installment, you can view it in full at youtube.com/c/pragmagick
Artwork by Eric J. Millar of No Gods But My Own
Read the full chapter on the brand new substack:
https://keatsross.substack.com/
∴ Intro
I am haunted.
I find myself in a static stasis, reverberating in place. Like the Tower Card, it’s as if I’m always exploding foundations and rebuilding in a constant loop. I often compare myself to the Dharma Bum, a beat-ific idea of anarchic freedom, snickering at the rubble and ash beneath, never tied to what came before. But the thing is, I am haunted. I am haunted by extremes – whether it‘s being an aloof instigator of a creative community, or a dogma-less routine-driven magician. I have never given proper communion to this ghost, this tether to all things pragmatic and artistic, this innate contradiction within all that I do.
I would balk and run from memory, and find myself arrested as to where and how to move forward with nothing truly gained. In hindsight, it’s an old tale about doomed repetition. But I know this ghost simply yearns to be both, or something different altogether. How do I commune with this specter of self? How do I find the “third mind” of energetic revelation between the opposites I find myself forever wrestling. How do I, as a spontaneous creative, become a stable magician? Is it possible?
The past few months I caught a whiff of being in front of the oncoming Tower. I can see the revolutions of self before me, whether it be behaviors and actions, or environmental interactions. Where will I be next year? Will anything be resolved? Will I continue to churn and burn through habitual sabotage and struggle? Perhaps it is time to finally consort the elements that birthed my contradictory ghost.
My habitual process during these times of existential stress finds myself lamenting on all that I need to rid or exorcise. I find myself hitting black mesas and shallow plateaus looking and looking outward, and I get disgruntled and bungled even more so. But I aim to go about this differently this time: I need to remember and invoke/evoke why I’ve created servitors such as Dakota Slim, Pragmagick, and We The Hallowed. It is time to investigate the inspirations and machinations that have brought me my muse. And it has occurred to me that this same ghost, the one howling underneath, has been both my poison and antidote all along…
Read the full chapter on the brand new substack:
https://keatsross.substack.com/
I want to give a big thanks to Eric J. Millar and Michelle Embree for their input concerning this piece. And of course, all the amazing patrons that have stayed with me as I swayed these past couple of months. Thank you Brittany Brown, Bibi, CW Chanter, Jonicide, Jilly Beans, Michelle Embree, Corrie Anne, Spooky, Derek Hunter, Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, Carl Abrahammson, Tony Davis, Vanessa Kindell and Arnemancy for your ongoing support.
I have almost weekly patreon livestreams that act as sort of a magickal and mental health be-in for friends and patrons, as well as unreleased music, documenting my Taos plans with cohort Logan Ford, Haunt Manual drafts, watch parties, the WtH discord and plenty of musings. I am far more prolific there, and you can join for just one bone at patreon.com/pragmagick
Next article: Nostalgiamancy and the Hauntology of The Self…
∴ Audio Chapter Notes & References:
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This “House Of God” essay on the Marseille deck’s (my favorite deck) Tower card illustrates many of its interpretations:
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The Dharma Bums By Jack Kerouac
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The Third Mind by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/830060.The_Third_Mind
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Bleach Blanket Bingo IMDB
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The Beatles’ Help! IMDB
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Timothy Carey’s IMDB
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The Dakota Slim WordPress which archives all releases 2003-2018
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“Dim The Tzim-Tzum” and introduction to Audiomancy Video Essay circa 2019
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World’s Greatest Sinner film trailer courtesy of TimothyCarey.com on YouTube:
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Dakota Slim’s “Lackluster Songs” says it was released around 2005, but all my early recordings, some as early as 2000, are a haze due to heavy output on mp3.com, and could have been earlier. The collection of those recordings is listed on the (not current) Dakota Slim discography here:
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Here is a very young Zappa on the Steve Allen show in 1963 to promote his original score for World’s Greatest Sinner by bowing bicycle wheels. A very influential film for me across all artistic mediums.
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Crispin Glover IMDB
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Crispin Glover’s album playlist on YouTube:
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Crispin Glover’s bibliography on CrispinGlover.com, it’s funny, I don’t believe his site has changed in 20 years. My autographed Rat Catching haunting is haunting my storage and needs to be unearthed!
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Crispin Glover’s infamous David Letterman appearance that continues to revel in the annals of outsider media:
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Colin Wilson’s “The Outsider” – a transformative text that will be discussed throughout this series:
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John Frusciante’s Niandra Landes and Usually Just A T-Shirt album playlist on YouTube:
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I would like to write more about this time capsule of Frusciante’s career, as it was well documented that he was deep in the throes of and almost lost to addiction. Johnny Depp directed a film called “Stuff” in 1993 that is an artistic look into the detritus that filled Frusciante’s life during the making of Niandra:
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Another harrowing look into John’s years under the decay of the drug, and an interview I often come back to when I need to remember my own struggles in 2011 and how far we both have come since:
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Kazimir Malevich via Wikipedia. Ahhh forgive me! A wiki article!
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Suprematism via Wikipedia. Ahhh, another!
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Malevich’s Manifesto via the Suprematism UK website:
https://suprematism.co.uk/suprematism-manifesto/ -
I have talked extensively on the Third Mind with guests such as Dr. Vanessa Sinclair and Katelan Foisy on my Pragmagick podcast:
Episode “The Third Mind” with Dr. Vanessa Sinclair: https://wethehallowed.org/pragmagick-24/
Episode “Glitchcraft” with Katelan Foisy & Dr. Vanessa Sinclair: https://wethehallowed.org/glitchcraft-foisy-sinclair/ -
The number Three will be prevalent throughout Haunt Manual, not only as my inner communion for a third, but the communion of the self and a community for a third, as well as the structure of the following Haunt Manual chapters. I enjoy this numerological interpretation of Three within the Jewish purview:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2078/jewish/The-Secret-of-the-Number-Three.htm
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A recent livestream, forgive the audio quality, with business partner Logan Ford detailing our plan to develop land recently acquired in New Mexico, “Deserter Psalms”:
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Kenneth Grant’s essay on Austin Osman Spare and the “neither-neither”:
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Was invoking jazz great Max Roach when writing this. He will be popping up in full form in the following chapters. Max Roach’s “Percussion Bitter Sweet” via YouTube:
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An introduction to my Divergent Magickal praxis, an ever-evolving study to commune with brain chemistry as the “other.” I am finding it morph and mutate within this project and will be discussed more thoroughly in proceeding installments.
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A thorough essay on the Pharmakon philosophy:
https://flutuante.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/pharmakon-the-cure-or-the-poison/
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Another dreaded Wiki resource! This time on philosopher Jacque Derrida
Jacque Derrida’s “Dissemination” (1972) in .pdf format:
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The next installment on Nostalgiamancy will be delving further into my hauntological view of magickal and creative praxis. Here is an erudite write-up of Hauntology via The Week:
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Lewis Hyde’s “Trickster Makes This World” (199) will be referenced quite a bit moving forward. Be warned!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56450.Trickster_Makes_This_World
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Preta, or Hungry Ghost, via the New World Encyclopedia:
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Preta -
Bardo Thodol in The Encyclopedia Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bardo-Thodol -
The Dark Triad was used to illustrate behaviors associated with these personality types. I do not believe not communing with this ghost would give gift me with these diagnosed personality types, just shades of them. Here is a dark triad overview via Psychology Today:
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