The Painter

When The Painter, from Something Solid, went up on PennSound this June, it carried an insignia that some might consider curious. My interest in the occult dates back to my adolescence; my interest in Aleister Crowley, and his Book of the Law, began in the early Aughts. In the poem, Book of the Law acts as a totem or talisman, connecting me to my higher Self, and the possible manifestation of my True Will (potentialities the book adumbrates). At the time of the inception of my relationship with Mary H, this was a difficult and messy procedure. Book of the Law, Satanic reputation aside, helped. For a time, my occult preoccupation became formalized in the mid-Aughts: I joined the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn. I'd already asked for, and received, access to their files earlier. Mary H witnessed me doing Bringing Down the Light, and other Golden Dawn rituals, many times, including blessings and incantations to her. The point of the E Sequence, from Something Solid, which includes The Painter, is that, through a manifestation of collective True Will (doing our Will), many of us in Aughts Philadelphia were able to achieve a sense of oneness with the cosmos, or universe. On a profound level, we were there, in Philly, to manifest divine energies and co-mingle in divine ways. The reward we were giving for following through Higher Law was a shielded, deep-set sense of being at home, both in our own skins and in our own lives.