This interlude is being written because I'm not all that inspired to finish up the Chalice Lighters series. I will finish it, just not today.
For those who want to know how it came out, and don't want to wait, here it is in a nutshell: the NY Metro District's Chalice Lighter's program was a huge success, the District loved it, the congregations loved it, it helped to bring the denomination together, yada, yada... and outside the District, the bureaucrats at the UUA hated it, and did everything they could to dismantle it. The End.
It's not depressing, it's just sad, and pathetic. Details to eventually follow.
I've mentioned in a previous (ancient) post about the use of pseudonyms. I'm a huge fan. And there is a long, long, historical precedent for the use of literary and artistic pseudonyms. Stage names are as old as theater itself from whence the tradition of stage names was ported over to all the performance arts. There's nothing dishonorable about it: Cary Grant was the stage name of Archibald Leach.
The world remembers Cary Grant while Archibald Leach is just... what exactly?
Aleister Crowley taught several methods for breaking cultural conditioning. (It's one of the things magick is good for.) One method, mentioned in Liber Jugorum [Chapter III, b], is to change one's personality along with an article of clothing. This is more than a superficial acting exercise. It is a sort of deep, deep method acting where you strive as much as possible to become the character. And this means, that you feel what your character feels, you believe what your character believes, you immerse yourself in that character's world. Crowley did it himself regularly.
It's easy when it's a character like the actor.
Very easy, if the actor gets out of his/her own way.
It's much more difficult if it's a character completely unlike the actor. The temptation is to treat it all like shtick -- play act all the time winking and nodding to oneself. But where's the benefit in that?
In becoming a character as much as possible, with the realization one is playing a character as opposed to being psychotic and losing sight of that fact -- but by bringing oneself as close as possible to psychosis, much like the method actor who stays in character for the three months of the film shoot, one may realize some deep benefits.
First off, one's perspective on life changes. Can't say much more about it. Depends on the character. It will be different for everyone. And one's perspective changes with each character. And not so oddly, each character adds to the actor's overall perspective on life.
Imagine being able to understand something from several completely different perspectives. I don't mean half-assed attempts to "understand" another whose position one finds distasteful but rather an understanding that only comes from walking a mile in someone else's shoes, blisters and all.
Secondly, one realizes that the person we think of when we think of "ourselves" is just as much a work of fiction as the "characters" we create. When I say "I," who's there? Short answer: something bigger than "I." "I" becomes just another character.
I can't even begin to describe how freeing this is.
It's also fun... and profitable...
[Continued...Here]
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