We are being lived by powers we pretend to understand W. H. Auden
Casual Alchemy a summary mid 2025 Daniel Mack
Zen Bulls Eye Story Find It!
Draw YOUR BullsEyes!
Tell yourself new stories: “Life is Flow,
a river bed. The Self is fluid, No Single Self,
It (We) depends and changes
“I’m not a man, but a mob.”
Time is Kairos, not Chronos. Circular.
We are in several dimensions at once.
Learn to flow -with grace- between them.
“Time is not a line but a dimension. You don’t
look back along time, but down through it, like
water. Sometimes this comes to the surface.
Sometimes that. Sometimes nothing. Nothing
goes away.” Margaret Atwood, Cats Eye (1988)
Autobiography in Five Chapters
By Portia Nelson Find It!
Find your other Streets, your Other Ways
of going, of expressing/refreshing old truths
on hats, in jars, mobiles, toy boats
Find CLAN PlayDate Model
There are Others, new and old, for this part of your life
LEARN James Hillman, Thomas Moore,
Rachel Remen, Marion Woodman, Lewis Hyde,
John Holloway, Rumi, Mary Oliver, Basho,
Marcel Duchamp, Celia Rabinovitch, Ed Yong
WANDER Notice what parts of the natural
world keep appearing Bluejays?
MAKE a Cord Cutter. For What, for Whom?
EMPTY containers, jars, blank cards, CVS bks
Keep It Casual, Playful. Avoid the Useful.
Host some chancy FLOW event.
SHARE Skills, Earned, Learned insights, Service,
Potlatching, Potlucking, Gifting
ELDERING is the time to “Dwell in Timelessness,
Give yourself away and Be with Children” Andy Fisher
“WALKING IN THREE WORLDS”
Photo by David Horton
Creative Aging from The Casual Alchemist 2018-25
Creativity is not about “art” but about finding ways to keep making our lives meaningful.
In what ways can we become regenerative for ourselves, our families and our community?
Practicing creativity eases the difficulty of the many, tidal transitions of being human
from birth through growing up, aging; the bumps of jobs, war, physical and spiritual wounds.
SYMPTOMS of Transition: PORTALS SHIFT. There's an Imbalance.
There are changes in mood, sleep, body, vision, hearing, memory, centrality, responsibility, visibility.
A hunger for something more, yet different. The Third Eye blinks The Top Chakra Opens
Who am I when I am no longer doing, no longer productive,
no longer indispensable to so many others?
No longer wearing the masks? Where does my attention go?
Am I shedding objects, clothes, books, body?
Am I grumpy, angry, annoyed, foggy, sad?”
That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight.
Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower.
We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind. William Wordsworth
WHAT TO DO? There’s been a loss, yes, but what’s opened up, awakened?
Needs are Changing. There’s a Spiritual Hunger. It can be fed, adjusted. You Can Do It.
Trust Curiosity. Distrust Discourse. Trust the Body.
Be with Children. Be with Nature. Make Things.
Take Small Risks. Make Order. Make Time for The Holy.
EARTH guides this time of Aging from the North
"the time to give yourself away, to learn to dwell in timelessness and to tend the youth." (Andy Fisher) .
The Time of Balance, Autumn/Winter, Body, Material Abundance, stability, health, hearth, home and Quietness.
Earth Energy is Cool, Dry, Feminine: Venus, Saturn, Earth, onyx, jade,, amethyst, lead: Dull, no sparkle, heavy
Evoked by any stone, dish of soil, salt, ochre, ivy. brown-black-green, darkness, thickness, bile, melancholy
Divinities Demeter, Ceres, the Horae, Persephone, Proserpina, Hades, Pluto.
Spirits: gnomes, Fauns, Goblins, Satyrs, Dryads Sylvestres
Animals: Owl, Cat, sphinx, bull, stag, dragon, wolf,
Plants: earthy-smelling, Grains grow near or in the soil: nourishing, hi-calorie, stored a long time
Try this Four-Fold Approach Start Anywhere!
Be Quiet: introspective, interior, patient. Remember dreams. This is private, meditative activity. It’s a form of Mindfulness.
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Be Active: intuitive, expressive. Find things to make, fix, build, care for. Learn a new skill. Use your Body
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Be Public: engaging, explorative; Work and Play with others; Mentor, Volunteer. Share a skill you know.
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Be Digestive: reflective, incorporative; Revisit these other activities. How did they work and feel? Keep a record. This is a “Book of Shadows” Look it up. |
Find Activities that feed you: ASK, if what you are doing or who you are with:
1. Quiet Musings
via curiosity, memory, imagination, patience, solitude, hunches, accidents…
Do a Thumbnail Description of Yourself: Just 50 words, or less
YOUR earned history. Take responsibility. For better and worse
Be with Nature Wander Bare Feet? Notice Seasonal Changes:
“the enticing beauty and repellent brutality of nature” Francis Jammes
Explore Organic language (vs non-organic, heroic, egoic technical, binary)
Where Mysteries, confusions, anomalies, ambiguities not Problems but normal growth:
a Fruiting. Ripening, decaying, a dormancy, Welcoming Experience with:
The Chthonic of the Earth, below, hidden, alive, decay/compost. Just outside Ego control
The Feral = Illicit, marginal, outsider, animal, off-center, out of comfort zone
CHAOS: rising/falling action, disorder, decay, through which the next form emerges.
Transformative All are affected. There are no sidelines
Stay casual This is an exploration, not a debate or argument or sales pitch.
Recall Stories of your experiences in Nature: with animals, insects, weather…
The gods are in the diseases Your Symptoms? What Spectrum are you on?
Follow Present Threads: What’s presenting? What lingers, vexes, haunts, peeves, annoys ?
Welcome Them as Directional,s Clues, Puzzle Pieces to your Unconscious.
They are not “Problems”. They are Your Familiars.
Survey Needs: for Story, Awe, Feral, Making,
Consider New Ways, Models for Thinking: The Mosaic, The Kaleidoscope, The Loom, The Tapestry,
Organic Thinking, Browsing, Cooking, The Ellipse, Tides
Review your Lineages: Who are your people? Ethnic, family, spiritual, karmic, archetypal, clan.
What tasks were you born with? What doe you know about your Birth Experience?
2. Matterings: A wordless language of Material into Meaning via pattern and re-pattern
to bolster/adjust/materialize Stories from The Unconscious,
Allow for the power of the indistinct to emerge as tips, clues, hints.
It’s cooperative participation, not control of the process. This is MAGIC:
ways to access playful, provocative, hidden energy
Make Marks Use Pounded Pigment from stones, mud or flowers. Try Rubbing on various textures;
Try: mark-making with the smoke of a candle.
Make Tools (Wands/Talismans) Find 2-3 Things: feathers, shells, leaves, sticks,
Connect with yarn, dental floss, rubber bands; Add color,
Make Things to Wear Particularly Hats, Masks, Jewelry
Make Gifts for friends, family, enemies Just Leave Them Somewhere
Use Fragments and Empties: Blocks, Jars, Envelopes. What can you put in them?
Simple Activities : Twist ties, Blocks, Rubbings, Balancing, Make Piles, Bundles
3. Launchings: Public Ways to share discoveries, Make The Story Visible;
Find Ways to Share Your Stories Vlog? Website? Pinterest? Give Gifts to kindle Others.
Find others who share your sensibilities?
Find a Community Volunteer Project a mural or a deck of cards that many people contribute to?
Go Visit 3 Pines at the Community Center and see how you can engage
4. Review/Digest Often
What’s Repeating/Appearing? Are familiar themes appearing?
Do Family members/memories appear? Remember, it’s all about MAterial/PAttern
Light Touch! not full arguments, but allurements. Take Small Risks
Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance. M.C Richards
Try Small Scale Objects: How little of something is needed to make meaning?
Find Your Surreal name an anagram of the letters in your name.
Start a Grimoire: your record, journal of your Casual Making. Your discoveries.
In what Ways are you a Legacy Carrier? What Talents Emerging!
Recognize/Welcome Emerging CLAN Your Greenman, Caretaker Archetypes
PLAY! Seek Children as Guides But Aging is not a return to being a child.
Let Go of Words try Maps, Images, What’s on your cellphone?
Instagram, Pinterest Try Haiku Now-mood-contrast- with Objects
MORE GUIDES/PRACTICES to the powers of the Creative Unconscious
Suggestions for play/work at Home
Ikigai the source of value in one's life; the things that make one's life worthwhile see visual
hikeintohistory MakingMeditations. CreativeAging
David Brooks, The Second Mountain aarp.org/health/dementia
www.thecasualalchemist.com James Hillman, The Force of Character
Donald Hall, The Third Thing Robert Frost, The Road not Taken
Robert Atchley, Everyday Mysticism Andy Fisher, https://andyfisher.ca/