Broken Homes Build Towers

Where Digital Reality and Physical Reality intersect

Deku Tree : In the vast, deep forest of Hyrule... Long have I served as the guardian spirit... I am known as the Deku Tree...

* - A boy named "Link" is seen sleeping inside of a treehouse.

Deku Tree : The children of the forest, the Kokiri, live here with me. Each Kokiri has his or her own guardian fairy. However, there is one boy who does not have a fairy...

* - Link dreams of Hyrule Castle Town amid a rainstorm. The town's drawbridge lowers, allowing a horse carrying a girl and a woman to leave. The girl looks at Link, who stands outside of the town walls, as the horse gallops out of sight.

Soon, a man emerges from the town atop a horse. He raises his left hand, and directs the palm thereof toward Link.

The dream ends.

From the opening of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time." Script courtesy of Neoseeker.

In the previous two posts, I tiptoed around the symbolism of the three-way crossroads confronting Link as he prepares to leap from the Northeast Corner of The Great Plateau. The purpose of this post is to do the best I can to paint an accurate picture of the real-life crossroads—a nexus where many threads of Wyrd come to meet—symbolized by that crossroads within the domain of my Subjective Universe.

We left Link at Riverside Stable to take a breather from some intensive and repetitive training. As it happens, his sleep was fitful, and full of dreams. This reflects the real-life Riverside that figures so prominently (though quietly, in the background) in everything unfolding here. I have debated whether Riverside will get its own tag or its own devoted category, so numerous are the stories that I have to tell surrounding that place which are important to understanding the Big Picture I am painting. In this post, I will tell selected stories spanning the course of my magic(k)al path to serve as a "constellation" of sorts: Data points we can connect to begin interpreting the galaxy of information out there.

Prophetic Dreams

I can't exactly remember when I first got to know Riverside personally. I can say that my fist trip to a mall to visit Santa Claus was at North Riverside Mall despite the fact that I lived in Colorado at the time. Little did I know, I would one day attend high school just across Harlem Ave., at Morton West (Go Mustangs!). That was it, yes: Freshman year in High School, or the 9th Grade. My mom and I lived on S. Scoville in Berwyn, but later moved to Harlem Ave.

I had family who lived in Riverside at the time; an aunt, uncle, and three cousins. Trips with my mother to go visit them were probably my first conscious exposure to the township of Riverside.

Riverside has a fascinating history, especially for a young man who grew up in various subdivisions, and also learned magic(k) in one: Riverside was the first such community—the prototypical American suburb. No joke! Its winding, labyrinthine streets were specifically laid out so as to confound potential burglars trying to escape from the cops.

My adolescence was really dark and terrifying. I'm lucky I survived it. Things were at their darkest while I attended Morton West. I got so out of control that I wore out my welcome in my own home. There was a period of time when, attempting to get sober, I was rooming up with my sponsor from Alcoholics Anonymous in Lyons, just south of Riverside. This was actually a "repeat" of sorts, because I also lived in Lyons a couple years prior, with the family of my friend from high school. I wore out my welcome there, too. While living there, I was Christened with the nickname, "House," for reasons I'll explore in another post.

I was supposed to have been looking for a job; my sponsor worked one job while madly seeking another. However, instead of doing that, I spent most of my time tying up my sponsor's phone line, hanging out for hours on end in a set of strange chat rooms where the lines between fantasy and reality were very blurry and children were playing with philosophical fire. I would often go to visit my cousins up in Riverside, and to get there meant taking some back roads through a wooded section of Lyons to reach a footbridge that crosses the Des Plaines River into Riverside.

This all sets the context for the dream I had. Over the years, I have changed my interpretation of it numerous times, but I always knew it was important and I still do.

I dream that I am walking through the Lyons Woods at night to cross into Riverside. There is a point at which Stanley Ave. comes to a dead end delineated by traffic posts that keep automobile traffic out. As I reach that spot, a terrible, green vortex opens up in the skies above Chicago, with green fireballs spewing forth. What it reminds me of is the opening sequence from "WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos." Notably, that opening scene is, itself, a dream sequence of the Orc's main hero in that game. Soon, there is a limousine parked, blocking that pathway into the woods. The back door opens to let me in, and I hop into the car. The door closes and locks. Only then do I realize that I am in the car with Dread Lords from the same game, WarCraft III...who are also Freemasons. They have abducted me.

What a weird dream, right? I think I had that dream at least 15 years ago. At the time, I knew almost nothing substantial about Freemasonry: Most of what I knew came out of books by David Icke. This dream, of course, would take on a whole new meaning once I joined The Eastern Order of International Co-Freemasonry years later. As you can see, I didn't let David Icke's ideas sway me, even after entertaining them to see where they might have led.

Many plot threads lead to and through the circumstances of my Co-Masonic career, but I will pass over them for now and skip ahead.

Making Dreams Come True (AKA Self-Fulfilling Prophecies)

So, I had that scary dream, then I went and joined the Freemasons. What else did I do to run straight into that bewildering vortex?

Perhaps 10 or so years later, I started my second WordPress blog: Hermekate. I was into a DIY sensibility, so I used my own surroundings to visually illustrate the meanings I was trying to convey through the blog. Since I was living in Berwyn again at the time, I use a photograph of that spot as the main background of the site's banner. The below photo is not the actual photo used for it, but is another photo taken from the same spot, peering through the dark path that joins that threshold with the bridge on the other side:

This photo was taken on October 17th, 2017. Note that this is after the core Breath of the Wild game was released, but before The Champion's Ballad EX was released.

Crossing The Rubicon

This is about where my work with the Hexorian current (read my review of its Operations Manual here, and please support the movement by buying a copy) begins in earnest. I performed one working here back in August, and I'll get to explaining that one because it's part of this picture; however, for now, I can get by without it and time is of the essence.

Early on the morning of December 8th, I just knew it was time. Time for what? You see, somewhere in those woods stands an old, abandoned ruin that was once a house, but is now just a brick foundation sitting in the middle of the woods. By the looks of things, it burned down. I stumbled across it one night—literally (I'd been drinking)—while on a walk through those woods. In recent times, you see, those woods have become my own little "Axis Mundi;" I go on walks there when I feel called and I always leave with something I didn't have before I went. I had sought out that ruined house on many of my return visits, never to find it.

Anyway, the morning of December 8th, I didn't even really know where I was going, but I started putting on my shoes and I grabbed my backpack. By the time I was out the door (earbuds firmly in place and Kula Shaker's latest album, 1st Congregational Church Of Eternal Love & Free Hugs, playing on Spotify), I had decided to go to my spot and I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll find that house today."

Lo and behold, I found the house that day. It turned out to be right at a crossroads: The intersection of Gladstone and Bismark St. in what is technically North Riverside. It was right there. I had walked right past it virtually every time I had been out there and just never noticed it again. I had been looking in other places, more off the beaten path. This time, I spotted it from a distance out of the corner of my eye.

I approached it and started taking pictures. Now this is weird; I had been out there at all times of day and night, and never been bothered by anyone. However, now that I'd found the house, a silver minivan pulled up beside it just as I started taking photos. It wouldn't leave. It was clear that whomever it was, they were likely signaling to me to get moving. Too bad; I'd wanted a brick for my magic(k)al work.

However, then I went home and did something for the sake of curiosity involving this newfangled AI art, just to see what happened. I'll post about it separately, but it ties right back to this post.

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Well, on January 1st, things just seemed to be lining up again. I went into the Facebook Group for the Hexorian Movement and shared a song, Crossing The Rubicon by Enter Shikari, along with a story about a synchronicity pertaining to the same general area of the Chicago suburbs.

Then, I went on my drift to go get my brick.

I started my drift with the CunninLynguists album, Oneirology. First song: Predormitum.

As I reached the house, my blood was boiling. I was about to walk right up to that house in broad daylight and take my brick no matter who saw me; and I did. As I reached its periphery, I found a symbolic gift under the tree. Foolish me, not having learned previous lessons, I did actually try to take it, as the resident of a nearby home watched me:

I circled the ruined foundation for a bit, then I spotted my brick: It was sitting on the rim of what was left of the house's Western wall. I picked up the brick and moved it to align with the Northeast Corner of the house's foundation, in keeping with certain symbolism. Then I lined up my selfie:

I walked over to the threshold previously discussed, where I had taken the Hermekate photos before and where I had dreamed about the "Dreadlord Freemasons" kidnapping me in a limousine. This time, there were 3 tires (read: "wheels") stacked on the middle post. Given my posts here and other work surrounding wheels and axes, this was...interesting. Hey, what song was playing at the time?

This one:

Postscript

Where is the "tower" in this story? Well, I included it as a hook to encourage you to read future posts. However, the tower in question is Hofmann Tower in Lyons, located in the same area as this post. You can read about it here at Atlas Obscura.