Fire and ICE
Facing the music
This afternoon in Minneapolis, MN, a definite line was crossed by an as-yet unidentified ICE agent who shot 37 year-old resident Renee Nicole Good several times in the face as she attempted to drive away from the scene of an enforcement action. According to DHS, the agent in question had been previously dragged by a vehicle, a fact which is apparently being used to justify the decision by the officer to open fire. I’ve seen the video of the incident, and frankly, I call bullshit. So did Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, using that exact term in a press conference.
People all over the country (myself included) are fuming. Governor Tim Walz is preparing the National Guard, having stated (rather ominously), “We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”
All of this is incredibly upsetting for all sorts of reasons no one needs to point out. It was more upsetting to me still, for reasons that will make sense to anyone who’s been paying close enough attention to my recent livestreams.
Video Killed the Blogosphere Star
For those of my readers who don’t follow me outside this Substack, I’ve been putting most of my energy lately into my new YouTube channel, where I am now streaming Daily Divination sessions every morning at the crack of dawn. I recently re-committed to this daily schedule in the wake of Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela, which literally occurred as I was doing my Wolf Moon stream, Reigning In Hell, on January 3rd.
I recall that during that stream, I was visited in the Twitch chat by some viewers who drew attention to the dormant lava lamp on the bookshelf behind me. I let them know that normally, I keep that lamp lit constantly, like my very own “eternal flame,” but that the bulb had burned out that very morning.
Documenting incredible instances of synchronicity has basically been my wheelhouse from the very beginning of Dark Twins, and eventually reaching the point where I was doing it on video was always part of the vision, so that it’s no surprise at all that I’ve been putting so much more effort into that aspect of my work than most others of late. However, that livestream—the aftermath of which shook me pretty good and caused me to hide away for a couple of days—marked a notable turning point characterized by a major ratcheting up of the urgency of my work. The frequency and intensity of these synchronicities is increasing, as is their concentration around themes related to the authoritarian takeover of the United States. In yesterday’s Tears of the Kingdom livestream (in addition to Daily Divination, I’ve also started recording playthroughs of various games to capture even more of the magic), I spent a good chunk of the hour relating to my viewers how the uncanny synchronistic connection between Donald Trump’s actions and my own poses personal challenges that haunt me every day.
In light of today’s cruel slaying in Minneapolis, my edgy statement around the 31-minute mark, regarding a pack of cave-dwelling Horriblins, that “I like getting face shots on these bitches. I really do,” makes me grimace.
Those who have been keeping up with my socials and these streams probably don’t need me to spell out, here, the bigger picture that is emerging; I don’t need to explain to them that a big part of the reason I am now streaming Daily Divinations is to give others the best forewarnings that I can (since it seems to be the case that it’s my actions which are later being mirrored by these events), and also to help other witches, spirit workers, magicians, etc. attune to the Word of Hermekate so as to join in my efforts in whatever way the spirit moves them. This is, after all, all about a global shift in human consciousness—and the upheaval that will be sure to accompany it.
However, it does occur to me that due to the timing and the evidence I’ve been gathering (a train horn is sounding outside right now), this event in particular makes for an opportune moment to pivot back into writing as well; this post, all by itself, will serve as an accessible place for people to start their Dark Twins journey (my mother just coughed in her room on the opposite side of this wall).
We Matter
Keeli was the one who informed me of what had gone down this afternoon—and she wanted to know if it would lead to a civil war (I had spent some time seriously and unironically talking about how we might be on the brink of one, and Keeli used the same verbiage in her post when she shared the stream to her own News Feed—nevermind what Tim Walz himself said). I told her that I’d pull a card. Instead, I pulled two.
Acat is a Mayan god of tattooing and scarification; the sacred art of spiritual tattooing was so important to the Mayans that they had an entire deity devoted to the art. Acat blessed the hands of the tattooists and the needles that they used to carry out their art. In this oracle deck, “Dedication” is the attribute indicated (presumably as an echo of the dedication one must feel in order to commit to having a design permanently etched into their flesh). It was notable that such a unique and culturally idiosyncratic deity turned up here, since I was discussing the ways in which individual gods and goddesses are deeply interwoven into their respective pantheons in this morning’s Daily Divination recording (watch it here).
Pomona was a wood nymph in Roman mythology (and she did not have a Greek counterpart—one more notable example of the same theme mentioned above). She dwelled alone in her own private “walled garden",” spurning all lovers until the god Vertumnus successfully wooed her, convincing her to allow him to join her and make her garden all the more fruitful.
At first glance, neither of these cards really seems to offer a direct answer to Keeli’s question; however, I’ve established pretty firmly that nothing happens in my life by accident, so I needed to start digging.
Reading the interpretation of Pomona, I noted the following words from the headline: “Nourish yourself and the earth.” I told Keeli that it made me think of my comments in this morning’s Daily Divination about the idea that the Earth occasionally needs to be fed with blood.
Meanwhile, she sent me words she found about Pomona that were all about peace, joy, and safety. That’s when I read about her Shadow Side:
Needless to say, I handed this one to Keeli.
There are more personal resonances to the appearance of this name. Specifically, I recalled that just around the corner from the first house I ever lived in was Arvada, CO’s Pomona High School, which was the only other place in my entire life that I’ve seen that name outside of this oracle deck. I recalled how my friend Daniel Cabala and I used to pass it on the way to school in my mother’s car—often while listening to our favorite song, Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning.
Of course, I had told bits of these stories before; I wrote about my friend Daniel in a post called The Dark Twins of Yarrow St. I’ve been ashamed of that post ever since I wrote it, mainly because I cut ties with the Loresraat pretty much immediately after posting it, and I felt that I had rendered the entire thing into a self-indulgent project in narcissism. I couldn’t clearly see how anything in that post really contributed to any bigger picture.
Today, of course, the post takes on a different valence.
Putting it all together, I concluded that the message here was for me to take this as my clearest sign yet that it’s important to finish writing my Left Hand Path Vices and Virtues book (train horn outside), because it’s actually going to matter.
I have a very hard time believing that this book is really going to make a difference for anyone outside a fairly small and insular community.
(The East Enders theme song just began playing loudly in my mother’s room).
The oracle is telling me the book is going to matter far more than I can see from where I’m sitting right now, just like The Dark Twins of Yarrow St. did. And what this tells me is that the book is likely going to result in a true flowering, an expansion, of the Left Hand Path community.
Stay Lit
Soon after that, a package arrived at the door: A brand new lava lamp. Not just a bulb. A whole-ass lamp. It’s the same colors as my current “night lamp” (though the magenta wax is more translucent and throws off way more light), but the wax tends to hover near the top of the old one and because that’s a fairly recent development, I’ve thought it might be because the wax is getting old.
Previously, I owned two lava lamp bottles, but only one base. With a new lamp, I now have two bases, and thus I could be running both lamps simultaneously if I wanted.
The phrase “burning the candle at both ends” entered my mind.
I also noted that, in contrast to my existing base, the base (and the cap) of this new lamp are especially shiny chrome.
I could not help but to think of the collection of short stories, Burning Chrome, by William Gibson—from which we get the term, “cyberspace.”
Given some of the various themes involved here at Dark Twins (not to mention the fact that my friend Oberon Osiris just posted about Nostradamus yesterday), my very own words came to mind—from a poem I wrote in Freshman year of high school. It’s entitled Wars and Earthquakes and I think it delivers a somber but hopeful message (train horn) about the “apocalypse” through which we’re living. I close this post with those words, marking this turning point in the amount of confidence I have that A Working for One and All will indeed make a difference.
Wars and Earthquakes
As I live and breathe
things are happening in the world
that were once the stuff of fiction
or of prophecy
Whether uttered by the lips of
Andy Warhol
or allegedly alluded to
by John of Patmos
from the forward-looking gaze of Gibson
to the scrambled quatrains of Nostradamus
in the hectic play of our today
such notions are now truth
When I was a child
I saw a future world of hurt pending
if history’s course could not be swayed
and half of the nightmares
that troubled me then
have come true
the other half
once laughed off as paranoia
or at best, melodrama
are now the pressing issues
being planned for by our leaders
But with each passing day
I am happier than ever
to be alive
for as menacing as is the threat
that humanity’s ills will
overwhelm us
just as promising is the prospect
that together
we will cure them
In our world
there have always been
wars and earthquakes
plagues and famine
and an inequality that
wrenches at the heart
The bogeymen of today are
different from yesterday’s
primarily in scale
and in the fact that
we have nowhere left to run
Up until now
in the face of widespread panic
there has always been some new
frontier, rich and full of promise
and the allure of escape
But today, there’s scarcely
room to breathe
It’s sink or swim
and the way to swim
is to really and truly
solve
our problems
in a way we never have
The horrors of today are rivaled
only by its marvels
and every shadowy specter
points
to the light that will disperse it
Yes, there is hope for the birth
of a humanity renewed
tried by fire and galvanized by its struggles
and when you look upon the world
know that giving birth is painful
but this, too, shall pass
think of it
reach for it
live it
and this, too, shall pass
Beautiful, sadness. Thank you, Dani, always 🙏🏻❤️🔥