Monthly Archives: January 2023

To Face the Truth

I’ve been a mystic all my life. Some say the gift of truth is a blessing. But it is also a curse. For I have sight into the truth of my soul, and am unable , like others, to tell a lie to myself. This is as much a curse as it is a blessing, one I will have to suffer the reset of my days. I am only human, and all truth is relative, relative to the perspective I choose. I have chosen to be a honest person, and yet I know the truth. I lie like all people, and yet must accept this as part of who I am. Hence I must accept that what I truly am is a hypocrite. This is the truth I can not escape.

To be a truthful I must choose to accept the truth of who I am.. Only then will I be an honorable man

On Top Of The Mountain

One thing required of The Mystic of Cascadia is the climbing of all major mountains in the range. They must scale these peaks on their own with the only help being the outfitting of climbing gear by locals. Which peaks are considered major is determined by the priests of the order. The fastest anyone had succeeded in climbing all peaks had been twenty-one years. The current Mystic of Cascadia, Falcao, was on pace the get them all scaled in three.

Falcao had ruffled many feathers by climbing the mountains one right after the other. The conservative faction of the order wanted him excommunicated for not following the traditional number of vision quest between each climb.

“I don’t need as many quests, ” Falcao had argued. “Each of my quests are ten times as intense as anybody elses. Others simply could not survive.” This was accepted by the vast majority of priests, but the conservatives boycotted projects that support The Mystic. Without the added powers of the conservative priests some projects simply couldn’t be completed. To appease the priests Falcao agreed to make his last climb a vision quest, a feat none had every attempted.

On top of the mountain The Mystic was to conduct his communion with his spirit helper. The problem was the risk that the spirit that would commune with him may be that of the mountain itself. As it turned out this is exactly what happened. Nobody could conceive of the power this paring with the mountain spirit would bring. Even the caustic conservatives conceded the significance of this paring, and they threw their support behind The Mystic.

With support unanimous Falcao assaulted the mountain, and reached the summit in record time. He started his vision fire and sat, waiting for his spirit helper to arrive. But as it turned out the spirit was already there. The mountains spirit came to The Mystic and merged with his spirit. When Falcao started singing his spirit song, thunder and lighting danced around the whole peak, and the mountain shook with it’s approval of the pairing.

From the day that the mountain shook no one questioned the Power Of The Mystic, greater than the power of any mystic that preceded him.

Interview with a mystic, #1

Reporter (R): I just want to thank you again for doing this interview. Most others in your position won’t get near an interview.

Mystic (M): The deal is, and we’ll probably keep coming back to this… I don’t give a shit. And by that I mean I don’t give a shit about everything, not just what’s right in front of us.

(R): That seems a little melodramatic, I mean, after all, you have to care about something.

(M): I didn’t say I don’t care, I have my preferences, values, beliefs, etc., I just know that ultimately it all comes down to choice, and we are free to choose whatever we want. Given that, you realize what ever a person chooses is valid, but it also has consequences. So I say I don’t give a shit what someone chooses, but I do care that they take the responsibility for that choice. Hence, I really don’t give a shit, but people need to be held accountable for their decisions.

(R): Wow, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense… could you try to explain it from another angle?

(M): I would except it would be equally confusing. The best thing is to keep in mind I don’t really give a shit, and that I’ll hold you accountable for your choices.

(R): So if I went out killed someone you love are you saying you wouldn’t give a shit?

(M): Exactly, but I would expect you to be arrested and serve the appropriate sentence.

Prologue to The Way of the Mystic of Cascadia Multiverse Stories

I’ve decided to try writing in first person and see if that’s any easier. Well, here goes nothing:

My name is Falcao, and I am the Mystic of Cascadia. I have lived a very long life, full of adventure. As is required by my order, at this point in my life I am required to write my memoir so as to pass on my knowledge to the next Mystic of Cascadia. I fulfill this obligation gladly. Though I will tell both of the good times, and the bad, I will at least know it will not have been for nothing.

My story begins when I was but five years old. It was then that I was discovered by the Priests of Cascadia and brought to live in the temple forest of Wy’east. My story begins in the mountain temple of Wy’east and my initiation into the Way of the Mystic.

All of the initiates were brought info the great hall and given a branch from the trees of life. We were taught how to transform the branch into a staff, a walking stick. For some, their staffs would be transformed into a great talisman. It is here, with the story of my talisman that I will begin the story of my life.

The impossibility of Forever

There is one question I’ve asked myself ever since I was diagnosed as “bipolar”. I use the term “manic depressive” myself. It is a more accurate label for what I have. The question is “can this high last forever. i.e., last as long as I’m still alive?

There is no answer to the question because you can’t prove what may happen in the future. But experience tells me it’s very, very rare for mania not to lead to depression.

The longest any mania has lasted for me is 9 to 12 months, usually followed by a multi-year (3 to 5) depression. This time you can guess I’m hoping this mania/hypo-mania lasts forever.

So the answer for practical purposes is no, but my high flying mania thinks the answer is I hope so…

Mania and the Weather

One thing is that, as is not uncommon for a manic-depressive, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. This means my moods are affected by the changing of the seasons. The sun of the summer elevates my mood, while the long dark hours of winter make me feel depressed. Many people have SAD without being manic-depressive, and only a percentage of manic depressive people have SAD. I guess I just got lucky to have both.

So technically speaking at this time the lack of light for a big chunk of the day should be making me feel sad. The problem at this time is that I’ve been hypo-manic since August. In the past SAD would bring my mood down from hypo-mania, but this bout of hypo-mania seems to be impervious to the light.

Another factor in this bout of hypo-mania is the impact of the weather. Weather, like the wintry storm weather we just had, provides a lot of energy that is impacting my mood almost directly. High winds like we had, tosses a lot of energy out into the environment. When I went outside that energy did a number on my hypo-mania number, to the tune of 8 on a 0 to 10 hypo-mania number. So besides lingering hypo-mania from this summer, I was also getting a double whammy from the weather (not only high winds but ice/snow on the ground). The ice/snow is a trigger for me because my hypo-manic brain wants to go out and shovel all the ice/snow off of everything. Not a healthy attitude to have given how slick things were outside.

Sorry but I’m going to have to cut this post off short because being 8 out of 10 on the mania scale actually makes me manic, not hypo-manic. And I know I’m manic because I feel like I’m stoned as hell. I have that “mania is a better high than cocaine” feeling I know oh so well.

The only thing I can say is I hope the weather we had goes away and quits triggering my mania. Maybe then I could get back to the middle (5 on both my mania and depression numbers).