Mon Dieu et Mon Droit: Entheogens

Seeing as how the top three search terms for my site are ‘drugs, black men, charmed,’ – and I’ve no idea what to say about that combination – I do have a fairly strong interest in talking about the matter. What if we legalized drugs?  Even if they’re legal or not, people are going to use them. Though legalization of a few would probably increase public coffers and take a lot of people out of jail, not to mention create new jobs. But that is not the focus. I don’t work for NORML.

I ran across this article, What if we legalized drugs? I thought first about the legalization, but then my thoughts turned to the effects of drugs, why people use them and what they can learn from drugs. Some have wonderful lessons to offer, if practiced with care and guidance.

I do write about drugs quite often, admittedly. Hence the reason why the number one search for my site (to my chagrin) is drugs. Also black men and charmed. Go figure. First, I should define what I think a drug is. When I think of drugs, I think of mood altering substances. Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and marijuana. I also lump in psilocybin and LSD. In the words of Baudelaire and Leary : Get Drunk (Enivrez-vous). Light up. And Tune Out.  Albeit slightly changed. (Fully- Turn on, tune in, drop out.)

I sat down to write a post until it turned into multiple, multiple pages. Hence the decision to break it into series. Look, I have a lot of time here in my office, and when I’m not busy dancing to “Get Me Bodied” , “Proud Mary” or “Livin Your Life,” I write. But I digress.

I’ve no idea how to structure this series, so I’ll do my best as I learn along the way. Here is my take on drugs viewed under the perspective of an entheogen:

ENIVREZ-VOUS; to use the drugs and have a vague understanding of their effects. Get drunk on wine and every pharmaceutical delight

LIGHT UP;  to take what one has learned and find it within oneself. Get drunk on poetry, or in other words get drunk on life.

And finally, to TUNE OUT; To master the drugs within while enhanced with the drugs from outside. Get drunk on virtue and the pursuit of self idealization.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Not every moment can be poignant…

….and there’s no need to try and make them.

Dear Eternal Abyss,

This weekend marked the complete end of an era. Waterford Palace had its humble beginnings in Boggs Hall at the University of Georgia, and culminated with one of the best life experiences ever.

Holding Court at Waterford P(a)lace

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

So, I admittedly spend a lot of time thinking about love, being gay, and what to do with my life. All three somehow revolve around each other in ways I’m not sure I want to begin to understand. Today’s grab from the hat is brought to you by thoughts on: gay.

I’ve wondered this for at least half a year now, but why does it seem so many of The Gays are vindictive, petty, and self-absorbed. By no means all, but it gives the rest of the lot a bad name. I guess I’m inspired by the quote – Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds events. Small minds, people. – Where are the great minds amongst The Gays. I’m by no means a snob, nor consider myself a great mind; none of my grandparents completed high school. Well, my maternal grandmother completed her degree when she was 50^ish (dedication to education.) The only reason I bring up that is I’m comfortable talking on all levels. I prefer to discuss ideas (I’m striving to be a great mind, not in the mindset that I am one), and events are easier for most people to discuss. While every now and then I do divulge in discussing people, I feel karmicly dirty and gross, as though I had been playing in the mud and slinging it on someone’s name. Afterwards, I feel disgusted with myself.

And yet, with quite a bit of the gays I know conversations inevitably center on “—- is a slut, a big cock lovin bottom” or “Well, he does x,y,and z not to mention snorted q so hah! I’m better” (No one should feel flattered, I’m not mocking anyone. Well, I take that back and use Perez Hilton as prime example.) On another note of self reference, this in itself is talking about people, but I’m trying to get at the idea behind this, and I’ll take feeling a bit dirty karma wise. The idea being why? I can understand it’s in human nature to talk about people. We’re social creatures, and it helps to share information, especially information on people.

There’s talking about people, whether positive or negative, with no malicious intentions, and then there’s talking about people, slander intended consciousl or subconsciously. To slander someone’s name, with only hearsay and rumors, is in a reprehensible realm and always makes me feel nauseous whenever I partake or am around others who do partake. Of course, there are different levels of these discussions, but assume one isn’t talking about friends. Someone who is but an acquaintance. Someone brings up Gay Dickler, and everybody dishes on all the rumors heard about Dicklerlovin Mc Gay.

This is but a rant, and isn’t really going anywhere, but I do wonder. Also, I think that inspires me for a short story:

Thoughts on the Genii: Pt. II

“Cheer up sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean to a daydream believer and a homecoming queen”

Before I begin to rant and ruminate, I couldn’t decide between keeping order and titling this something applicable. Now:

The illusion of choice. Deciding what would … ? In other thoughts, I’ve been ruminating on the nature of my friendship with Maclean and other friendships. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize one of the similarities that exist is we’re constantly searching to craft our own, independent vision of reality. Perhaps nothing but mere vanity, but I think of us in terms of visionaries. Sometimes, I view myself as crazy just because not everyone sees the world as I do, this animated realm where every object and being have lives and intricacies of their own. No one else witnessing this? Perhaps it is why I label myself an artist, a more palatable form of madness. I’ve more to say on that subject, but that is what my paper is for.

As for Maclean, Ricky, and myself (I’ve mentioned this very topic before, and I bring up these two because of the interest in the humanities, by proxy philosophy), there are difficulties in being a visionary, a crafter of reality. We know it won’t be readily palatable to everyone, there’s a select few one can let into the private realm one’s created. Ideally, I’d like for everyone to exist cohesively involved in a pure positive manner. Perhaps this only accounts for those I consider positive, but even those that contribute negatively crafty my vision of reality by what I would not like it to be. I’d even dare to say anyone with a dream, so long as one hopes, crafts a reality.

“Everyone dreams,” you may say, but not this kind of dreaming. Not the sleep induced dreaming or even simple fantasizing, but the kind of dreaming in a sense the way a craftsman draws up blueprints for the object he needs to craft. It is in this manner of dreaming I speak of, in an active sense that isn’t easily cast aside unless the possibilities of translating that dream into reality don’t exist yet. It can involve dreaming of relationships, goals in life, what to make for dinner; the essence being whatever one dreams about should inspire passion, a desire for life. Part of that essence involves crafting a personal philosophy, code of ethics, morals or what have you. I view this necessary as a sort of outline, building the frame for which one constructs their reality. My philosophy involves art, the difference between perception and ideal reality, and my purpose in being here. Not my complete philosophy, but part of the framework in crafting reality.

It is hard work to bring dreams into reality, which is why I dwell in fantasy so often. Passions are easily mistaken for insanity or other mental defects these days. When I stare off into space, sometimes I wonder if I appear to have left this realm. Slightly joking, but not really. I’m reminded of the song “Daydream Believers.” The point being on the process of creating. I know, and I suspect others with a visionary inclination know, that in order to create, one must withdraw into a different world, at a different level of consciousness.

In crafting the reality of a relationship, the idea of the honeymoon is necessary; not the actual honeymoon but that phase. Free from the input of the outside world, two can join to form a one even while existing as two. I like to think of the idea similar to atoms and molecules. Using hydrogen as an example, missing an electron in orbit, the atom isn’t stable until the two form H² . As people, we are not complete until we find our other, part of the implicit social contract of entering humanity. The easiest bond to form once out of the family unit is a pairing, and from there change can be effected.

I think positive and negative forces (seen and unseen, physical and metaphysical, et al) also exist, that in turn mold people. We are but a reaction to the environment around us, yet we have choice in deciding how to react, whether positively or negatively, (neutral not being an option of the living.) Free will without psycho-actives – depressant or stimulant one will depress and one will elevate basic instincts, and one will simply explore within the realms of hallucinogens.

Psychedelics deal with this by providing a choice in how to react to the realities presented; one can have a negative experience, believing it will never end and will continue indefinitely in the case of positive feedback, or ironically and conversely, have a positive experience in knowing this is but one form of reality, knowing it will end due to the nature of negative feedback. The feedback ideas haven’t been hammered out just yet, but if I give my subconscious enough time it can work through many things. Then again, I’m simply trying to make sense of the crazy world around me through any means necessary.

In the case of my group of friends from Waterford, we have the interest of bettering people, or at least I’d like to hope. Perhaps this is only my goal, to mold potential into applied realities, and why I support people’s dreams as fiercely as I do. To not dream is a scary reality, on some level a complete declaration of mortality and no desire to leave some impression. My principle is everyone has some vision; everyone has some dream one wants to achieve. My vision is to be a positive force in the world, a catalyst for change. Sometimes I like to view myself as a muse and genie given free will, not bound by obligation but a conscious decision to serve. Then again, perhaps I’m merely delusional.

Thoughts on the Genii: Pt. I

Arriving like dawn’s red shifting light,
fading blue hue of midwinter’s night.
I’ve accepted my fate,
nothing more than the son of Georgia.My blood runs like crimson petaled passion, colored by the clay of this state.
No more, no less, only and simply this.

While I have dreamt of escaping, some call it leaving
The roots I’ve here will always bind me
sometimes against my will.
More than dreamt between the stones of Piedmont
and sweeping, hypnotic flat coastal plains.
No less, no more, Chattahoochee and Atlantic shores.

From every part of the state, I’ve known, seen and tasted
the noxious but tolerant air of Atlanta, and her suburbanites,
To her doppleganger Athena less than sixty miles
Due east! An eclectic and eccentric blend of the cosmos.
Where society girls interplay with psychonauts on Broad and Lumpkin.
No more, not less, craving only and simply this

Made from the clay of this state,
Crafted into the person, of I-85, living now way down I-75.
A product cognizant, origins known,
journeying just as the stars unfold.
Indigo of the creeping night,
or as red as dawn’s shifting light.
No more, no less, not only but simply this.

On the idea of Genius, in turn genii, I can’t remember the Arabic but combine the idea of genius, genial and genie. Genius is about creating, about being independent, about knowing how multiple systems work and working around and within those systems to expand the possibilities of man. Genius and the modern term self actualization go together, I reason, because genii are known for creating. Genius communicates through what they create, and often the ideas and possibilities aren’t mere dreams but something that one could possibly craft into reality. Hence the term craftsman. At times it seems quite obvious, but to a “wordsmith,” it’s hard to appreciate the material. Was it Buffalmacco who commented the artists appreciates the pig not for its qualities of a pig but because bristles were made from pig hair.

With all of this said, genii are a resource to the community they’re in. “We must protect our best and our brightest.’ In earlier times it was easy to identify a genius, the world was smaller. Now, with more interdependency and globalization, we’ve only begun to measure and assess the needs of the global community, in the hopes of working in unison.

At times, with the ideas I’ve contemplated and written down, I can only ascertain if I didn’t explore the ideas in a logical manner I’d be quickly committed, or just homeless.

 

Signed,

Patrique