I’m a compulsive reader and an aspirational writer, so books are pretty much what I do. Specifically, I spend a lot of time untangling weird ideas relating to esoteric Platonism and the powerful magic of symbolism – but if you’re at all familiar with those topics, you know that that can end up covering a lot of ground.
A while ago I started to feel kind of weird about all that. I’m working on a sprawling, ambitious writing project about metaphor, and every time I finish one book on my research list I end up having to add two or three more. I worried: Am I literally making this process impossible? Also, if these ideas are so important to me, am I constantly missing out on chances to make them relevant to my life – or possibly even to someone else’s?
In short, I wondered: How can I take the magic of the books I read more seriously?
I’ve been participating in a Sufi group doing imaginal work, and I decided to apply that work to my relationship with books. Pretty quickly it became clear that what I need to do with all those books I read is…basically anything. I committed to apply an inspiration from every book I read in some way: written work of my own, visual art, ritual, or possibly even just conversation.
One month and about five books later, I’ve been steadily applying this idea and the results have been even more transformative than I hoped. In response to what I’ve read so far, I’ve started a dream journal and a fairly stable daily meditation practice and drawn tarot cards more regularly. I’ve made two pretty cool finished drawings and one piece of total trash, revived an old blog, and now apparently started a Substack. Also, the synchronicity has been through the roof, to the extent that about two of those five books were selected for me by…my higher self, I guess?
In one case I was having trouble settling on my next book, so I drew The Star (inner guidance) for inspiration and decided to look for The Kabbalah of Light, which I knew had been in my Random Fun Stuff stack. When I found it, I realized that there was a picture of a star on the spine, and a description of The Star as a symbol of intuition (for the holiday season!) inside.
Readers, this is the kind of numinous experience I was secretly hoping for, and the kind I wish for you as well if you’re into that kind of thing. If you do want to jump in, there are two practices I recommend getting started with: dream journaling and adopting a similar practice of responding to every book you finish in some way. These two ideas are not entirely unrelated, as, in a way, you could think of the books themselves as a kind of public dream you can engage with.
All of that is recommended, but of course totally optional. You’re also welcome to follow along just to see what I’m reading and making, and, if you want, let me know what you think about it.