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OPENING SALVO From the beginning of Operation Werewolf, it was clear that this was not for everyone. This exclusivity was by design. From the look, to the message, to the way in which it was presented, my aim was true: to disseminate a distilled and fiery sermon of lupine strength that would ignite a blaze within those it was intended to find. This has been successful in many ways, and yet at the same time, its wider reach has allowed the borders to become indistinct, and diluted. Interlopers have adopted the symbols and speech to propagate their own message, often political, or sometimes simply imitative- a cheap copy of a copy of something that was once sharp and dangerous. The intent and direction has been dulled and polluted by thousands of pretenders, as well as apologists who try to soften the blade of our philosophy and message to make it more palatable to all.

These, above all, deserve the harshest of judgements. Operation Werewolf is not for all. It is not egalitarian. It does not recognize halfway, or nearly there. It is not a pat on the back to say “good job” for your mediocre efforts.

It is representative of the yawning abyss that exists between wolf and man, and the transformative efforts that occur there, in that darkness, that howling and terrible void of separation from the mundane. The Great Work must never be forgotten or diluted, and within those who carry its true fire in their hearts, it hasn’t.

But from time to time, the tree must be shaken by the storm to be freed of dead wood. The fields must be laid to waste by the:H:ail, so that the weaker crop dies off, and only that which has strong and deep roots can survive. In order to foster this, official content will undergo a shift. Articles and video will still be produced and broadcast on our wider network for those unaware as yet of this growing legion, and for those who support us at a distance- this has been done from the beginning and will not change. However, the majority of my efforts will be poured into a monthly communique project-named “The Inner Circle,” that will include material from across the spectrum of Operation Werewolf’s multi-layered philosophical attack strategy.

Articles and essays, reviews of important reading material, interviews with powerful individuals within the network, guidance for Divisions and Solo operatives alike, videos on topics that will range from weight training to business strategy and more. This approach will allow me to be more effective with material, as well as to present it “under one roof,” so to speak, without the watchful eyes of Empire determining what is and is not protected by their ever narrowing concept of “free speech.” This material will be honed and sharpened each month through interaction and discussion in a private group which only subscribers to the Inner Circle will be allowed membership in, to facilitate a free-flowing reciprocity of information among concerned parties. This concept of reciprocity is also crucial to what we are doing. Access to this Inner Circle will be neither free, nor costly. I recognize the importance of the premium each individual places on their personal finances- I place the same premium on my time. If this information and distillation of the essence of Operation Werewolf is valuable to the individual, then they will understand that it does not come from nothing. It comes from the combined forces of total life experience, training, execution of long hours of planning and deep thought, networking around the world, travel around the world, and endless days spent living the tenets of this Operation to the very hilt- I have made this endeavor my entire life’s work.

In addition to these energies, production each month of this project will include the obvious conceptualizing, writing, film work and editing, graphic design, presentation and delivery, and so on, none of which come free on my end. Everything in this life is something for something. Enough feeding of leeches and ticks. The first offering of the Inner Circle that follows is obviously completely free, in order to show you exactly what it will look like. Some months will be heavier and others lighter, but every single issue will be pure and unadulterated, and will improve daily through listening to those within its reach. The price going forward will be 10 US dollars per month- less than the average price of a movie ticket or two pints of craft beer- information on how to subscribe will go out through all channels when it becomes ready in early 2018. The decision, ultimately, is yours.

In 2018, the Operation moves forward with or without you. NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE FIELD REPORT In October, a group of Operatives from around the United States met up with us to train, exchange information and expertise in various areas, and to enjoy each other's company. First, we hit up Sky's gym, Vengeance Strength Kult, in Nashville on Saturday morning to do some work. Sky imparted some great info as usual, as anyone who was at Winter War to witness his Squat and Deadlift workshops can attest. Kyle from Iron and Blood SC in Indianapolis shared some kettlebell and mace stuff that he's been working on under the watchful and keen eye of Greg from Wolf Brigade Gym in Rochester. My brother Seth worked on the snatch and some Olympic lifting with Sky and a few others, while Matthias and I demonstrated a few of the finer points of the bench press. Operation Werewolf's official mistress of yoga and the kettle bell, Leilah, went over some basics with us and shared some knowledge from her wide experience- we will be presenting a lot of what went down in the coming year as part of our upcoming 'Lupus Ludus' video workshops.

Following this, the entire crew assembled at a clandestine locale to discuss business and direction for 2018, and to strengthen our growing network, as well as make the first steps toward some new friendships. Craig Williams made an impact on me with a great discussion of the Chinese philosophical concept of 'De,' an individual's inner power and integrity, something we will be exploring at length in future issues. That evening, after my brother and a few others worked with me to prep my presentation for a group of entrepreneurs the next afternoon, we hit the town and saw some of the wildness and weirdness that Nashville had to offer. All in all, a phenomenal time, and exactly what a meet-up of strong minds and personalities should feel like. Here's a little video of some elements of the experience. The music in the video was provided for us by Temple of Void- some members are friends of ours- go check them out.

THE MASTER LOG PT II It’s no secret that I am a proponent of writing things down in order to increase both personal effectiveness as well as a visual connection with your long term goals. I’ve written articles (read the first part of this series ) and included the concept in speaking engagements, but I wanted to hone in on a few key concepts of journaling that I use in order to keep not only my day organized, but to help me accomplish those larger goals in my life as well. If life is war, then any good commander needs to know his strategy backwards and forwards. The master log is a way of doing this and more, as it will not only help you to distill your “campaign” goals, but your daily actions and tactics, in addition to functioning as a visual record of the progress you’ve made over time, as the notebooks find their way onto your shelf after being filled with successes, triumphs, defeats, re-groupings, and more victories. Any successful and focused individual needs to keep a few things in mind at all times: - Long term goals • Smaller objectives and tactics needed to achieve these • Daily rituals and routine • Time expenditure A good Master Log will do all of this for you, and essentially act as an auxiliary brain, freeing up space in yours to accomplish all the important and creative things you need it for, without it being weighed down by massive amounts of data and minutiae.

Although I will be coming out with one of these Master Logs all set up for you in the near future, for now, I want to show you how you can take your favorite brand of notebook (I like the slim softcover Moleskine journals with totally blank pages, because I tend to sketch a lot) and turn it into your own Master Log. Start out by using a notebook that you will fill up in about three months.

This may take some trial and error, and will vary from person to person, especially depending on how wordy you are or how much you draw and brainstorm. Alternately, you can just use one in which you will start over the process each time you hit the three month mark. I think in the long run its better to use a dedicated book for every 3 months, so that you can come back to specific dates and time periods in an organized fashion. For starters, the opening few pages are going to be where we set our course, or “plan the campaign.” Knowing where we are going is crucial to figuring out what our daily lives should look like, so its a no-brainer that we start with our result and work backward from there. Genghis Khan eventually founded the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history, but in order to do so, he had to start out by taking over his immediate locale. In order to do that, he had to perform an even smaller set of actions, and enact strategies that would ultimately lead to being one of the most powerful rulers the world had ever seen. We break the Master Log down into three month increments in order to set for ourselves on these first pages between one and three Goals, that is, results.

Those Goals will be headers, and beneath them, we will list Objectives, that is landmarks of visualized progress on the way, and beneath them, Tactics, which are the actual nuts and bolts needed to attain the Objective. To extrapolate further, if a Goal is a long term end result, or a war, then the Objective is a battle. A tactic is anything from a skirmish, to setting up a supply line, recruiting soldiers, arming them and so on. It is every little thing that leads to taking an objective, and allows us to break these big goals apart, shattering a monolith into manageable sized stones. So, first, we will write out one of our clearly defined long term goals.

Obviously, some of these will not be attainable in the three month time-frame, but we will write them down, and break them up into Objectives and Tactics that can be accomplished in this time. Some of these Goals will appear in the beginning of many notebooks in a row. Other Goals will be achieved in one or two, depending on their complexity, difficulty, and your dedication to accomplishing them. We want to use as much specificity as possible when doing this. For example, a long term goal could be “Bench Press 300 pounds,” but shouldn’t be “Get Stronger.” From there, we would break this Goal into Objectives, such as “Bench Press 225,” and “Bench Press 275.” Our Tactics will then read like “Follow lifting program 4x a week, every week,” and, “Plan out macros and nutrition,” “set up a meal plan,” “prep meals each day,” and so on. All these smaller Tactics are going to be part of what will make up our daily order of operations, or our “to do” list, which I call my Mission Plan. I give things these types of names and terminologies so that I don't forget their importance.

Every single day is important. Every single hour is an opportunity for us to either close the gap between us and our larger goals, what we want out of life, or to widen it with inaction or wrong action. Determining the difference between right and wrong action occurs over time, with experience, but is often forgotten if not recorded- this is another reason I stress the importance of a well organized Master Log.

It will show us where we have been, what has worked, and allow us to distill strategies and concepts from our own time in trenches. Without a record of this, all this data must live in our heads- and no matter how smart we think we are, this is a finite space. After we write down our Goals, Objectives, and Tactics, the next pages will be given over to the daily Mission Plan for the week. Every day should have one page that acts as a timeline list of things that need to be accomplished. I always write these down the night before, in order to begin my day on point, with a clear understanding of what needs to be done from the time I wake up.

I mark the date at the top of the page, and make my list around a basic timeframe, allowing a little leeway. I use a system of one, two, or three dots in the left margin next to the action in order to define its importance, or its urgency. One dot means its something I’d like to get done that day but its ok if it has to happen tomorrow. Two dots means it’s a pretty substantial lynchpin in the day, and three dots means it is a high priority target. I try to get these done first, if timeframe for the day is less important.

For example, if my day has very few engagements based around other people’s schedules, I will start with the three dot items, and work downward in importance from there. I always write in things that have to happen at specific times, and fill the hours around them with the other things needing completion, so that I can keep a good internal audit of my time throughout the day.

Following my action timeframe, I dedicate a page to my Training Log. Here, I date the page, list my workout exactly as it is meant to be performed, and leave a section for notes beneath it. I leave another space to record martial arts or conditioning work done that day, and maybe a few words on the training to help me remember any important lessons or hang-ups. Following this is a blank page or two for my brainstorm sessions.

I write down everything as it comes to me, from possible art ideas for a shirt I want to have made, to article and video ideas, things I’d like to do that week, people I need to communicate with, drawings of important ideas I’ve had, and so on. The value of this cannot be overstated- I go back through Master Logs from previous months and years, and there is often a goldmine of unused ideas that the time wasn’t quite right for, but is now.

Re-reading these brainstorm sessions can also jumpstart my mind a year down the road in an exciting and fresh direction. These pages are like sigils for me, that wake up and energize my mind in a creative direction. Once you have filled up three months, take a moment to write a few pages after some reflection. This is sort of a 90 day re-cap. Major challenges?

Strategies that broke down or areas you need to improve discipline and focus? What will the carryovers be for the next 3 month Master Log? What victories were had, and what Objectives were captured? Mark the outside of the book with an easy to read date or coding system, and shelve it. Open the next one, and plan the next day. Life and success happens through daily focus and attentiveness. There are way too many guys out there who randomly walk through their day, going to work, coming home, doing “whatever.” This type of person is unlikely to achieve great things.

I hope that you can take this concept of the Master Log and apply it to your life in order to attain a higher level of focus, dedication, discipline, and vision, in order to accomplish your long term goals. Let me know how its working out, and what your tips and tricks in your own Master Log look like- I look forward to seeing your success with it. WINTER WAR III FIELD REPORT This November marked the third year in a row we have held 'Winter War,' and the second in a row it has been in Virginia. Before the event, we said that we wouldn't give away much of what went on there. If you were present, you know how powerful and excellent the weekend was.

That being said, here is a short presentation I gave on goals and leadership at one point on Saturday. I wasn't aware it was being filmed, so I am in a more 'relaxed' form than normal. (translate: I say 'fuck' about 666 times.

Sorry.) It also references a little bit of what is laid out in the preceding article, and I hope you enjoy it. Next year we will be doing a few 'official' meet ups, which will be announced in this newsletter.

TRAINING AS RITUAL According to Merriam-Webster, a ritual is: “a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and performed according to set sequence.” On that bastion of internet wisdom known as Wikipedia, the etymology of the word is described thusly: The English word 'ritual' derives from the ritualis, 'that which pertains to ()'. In Roman and usage, ritus was the proven way ( ) of doing something, or 'correct performance, custom'. The original concept of ritus may be related to the ('visible order)' in, 'the lawful and regular order of the normal, and therefore proper, natural and true structure of cosmic, worldly, human and ritual events”.

While reading these descriptions one morning, I was struck by the fact that they could easily be applied to lifting weights, martial arts, and other forms of physical training (and for that matter to most everything else, but I’ll get to that in the next issue). When we train, we are going to a place set aside for it, and engaging in a sequence of actions that are dictated by a proven way of doing them, whether this is for bodybuilding, powerlifting, or jiu jitsu. But more than this, we are partaking in a re-ordering of our world- an act of literal self-creation as we deliberately and consistently change not only our physical form through training, but our minds as well. There have been numerous studies done on the effect of training (both basic exercise, weightlifting and martial arts) on the human brain, and the data is definitely indicative of a positive outcome on the mind as well as the body. We sacralize items through their use in these rituals- the favorite barbell or squat rack. The jiu jitsu gi, or boxing gloves. The embroidered weightlifting belt, and so on.

This idea of making things holy, or set apart for specific use is very much in keeping with the human history of ritual and ceremony, and there is a further appeal in the sacrificial nature of training. In his excellent article “All Training is Sacrifice,” my friend and brother Jack Donovan says: “To train successfully, you must be willing to sacrifice portions of your present self-concept to a future, higher version of the self created by your ego. It is your ego, god-like, that is initiating and driving the process of self-transformation and becoming. This process requires you to exchange something you have for something you want.

Nothing worth anything is truly free, and everything worth having requires some kind of sacrifice. Instead of “killing your ego” — instead of fighting yourself — approach training as a sacrifice of a part of yourself to a higher self.” This approach to training is appealing to our human need for ritual. To place our actions within a larger, mythological context in order to give our lives meaning in the grand scope of space and time- to reimagine ourselves as legendary heroes and initiates into the eternal mysteries of cosmic creation!

If we are not training as an act of ritual, why not? If our training is informed by simple vanity, or to “look good naked,” it takes on a smaller, meaner aspect, and those combined hundreds or thousands of hours spent in the gym, or in ritualized combat with other men become a massive expenditure to feed our lower ego. We will also never approach our training with the level of force and focus required to attain “Vidya,” a Sanskrit word referring to a true knowledge of something gained through direct experience of its depth. If we are invested in the creation of our own myth through deliberate, ritual action- what kind of mythology are we creating? What does our approach to our personal rituals and ceremonies say about us as a human? When we approach the mysteries of self-creation, it should not be with a half-hearted dedication, or with a mind that is elsewhere- thumbing through social media or texting between sets, or ignoring the cues our coach is giving us to improve our sweep or strike.

If we do this, we have set ourselves up to fail, rather than to perform another critical ritual in the process of our ongoing myth. Each rep is a prayer, every technique learned is a stepping stone, all the hours combine into a holy yes to strength, and to self improvement- to creating a legend of ourselves, and understanding on a deeper level that to train is to make ourselves like gods- that in-dwelling force representing ourselves in our absolutely highest capacity, which is the truest kind of divinity a hero can aspire toward. “But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?” - FN.

ULTIMATUM I enjoy studying language, and the etymology of words can be a fascinating rabbit-hole, leading to a deeper grasp and more personal understanding of the sounds we use to communicate. Choosing the correct words for an idea you are trying to manifest is only as good as the understanding of those you are communicating with- this is a defining factor of the concept of mythology. When we adopt a tribal language of symbols, words, meanings, and myth, what we are really doing is agreeing to a group definition of reality. For this reason, tribes must remain smaller expressions, tighter-knit groups who share these agreements or certain accepted truths about our existence and value system. Operation Werewolf spans continents, but within it, there is an ever-developing set of shared concepts and group-inspired verbiage and narrative.

One could say that we are building our own mythology. Historical “fact” is the subject of much disagreement. Yesterday morning as I walked into my home gym area, I noticed that something was out of place.

A wooden plaque, carved for me many years ago by my friend, that has made many journeys with me, lay there on the floor- quite a ways from where it should have been hanging across the room on the wall. Picking it up, I turned it over in my hands, as I had done a hundred times before, and read its hand-painted face. “Whereupon a river of everything-ness and nothing-ness flowed forth from my skull bathing me in Pain and Wonder. The screaming of silent songs unto a pale, morose, celestial orb: Tide of time and way of world.:ALU ALU ALU: Rending and ascension of mournful mind, weighted heavily by bitter thoughts- signs to darkness and flesh.” The whole piece is shot through with symbols and bindrunes, and refers to a shared experience the two of us had years ago, one I will never forget.

The friend who made this gift for me died January 7th, 2016. I had known him since he was 15, and watched him grow up around the Wolves, prospect, patch in to our organization. His death had a hard impact on all of my friends- we all had known him for a long time, and loved him very much. Seeing a young man who all considered to be a brother, as close as blood, die- life unrealized, full of potential that would never be made manifest, is a difficult thing.

He had done so much, but there was so much more undone. A select few of us were allowed to view the body, to say words to him, and place a few items with him for his cremation. That day, and those moments are burned into my brain forever. The way his body looked, so unlike him, solemn, something not quite “right” about the way he was positioned.

I shed a lot of tears with my brothers that day, and exchanged stories, and stayed at the wake to play his favorite songs on the guitar for his mom and dad, and extended family. Some time later, we threw a show in his memory at Ulfheim, the Appalachian Wolves’ tribal property. His father attended, drank with us, and gave us ash and bone from the cremation to place inside a stone cairn at the foot of our altar- a piece of our little brother there, where he liked to be the most.

My brother Coyote and I began a tradition, to go down there in the dark when we spend time at the land together- we take down a drink for Njal, or some smoke, and we sit together and tell stories and play songs that he loved, and converse with him, because we know that in some way, he is there. During one of these conversations, with my brothers Hjalti, Galdr, and Coyote, we discussed death, loss, grief and tradition within our tribe. Njal is the first of the Wolves to die in our time as a tribe, but we know there will be more. The feeling of loss is sharp, and the grief at first is overwhelming. For the first few weeks after he died, there was a feeling of such unbelievable sorrow that had settled over the tribe, it was hard to see moving past it. Slowly, as stories were told, toasts made at our ritual drinking rounds in his honor, and traditions began to spring up around his death, we could see that organically, the way we dealt with death and loss was making itself ritualized, and becoming part of the greater expression of tribal life. His name became a thing that meant something more than it did in life, and in many ways, his death had brought the brotherhood together closer than it was before.

Through this painful experience, the group of men who went through it together were different than they had been. We have laughed and cried together telling stories, and we imagine our brother there with us still, painted in the ritual ash, walking with his strange, crooked-footed walk, his big, larger than life presence there at the edge of the firelight. The grief is now a “sweet sorrow,” softened by time, but despite the modern admonition, we have not “let go.” We choose to believe he is there with us- that he followed the silver sun placed in his coffin back home, so that he can sing those songs in the woods with us, and be spoken of as something more than a man.

Through death, my brother has become an ideal, a concept of togetherness and shared pain, and fellowship so strong that it often hurts. I paraphrase my brother Galdr, saying that, Valhalla and immortality are just a man’s greatest stories being told by the voices of his sons and brothers after his death. Tribes like ours, and yours, who are reading this, owe it to their brothers to make a better thing of a man’s death than the modern world- tearful men and women around an expensive casket as it is lowered into the earth. Hushed voices at a wake, and a few stories over the years. The cult of the dead should be alive in our tribes, vital and strong- because our friends, our brothers, fathers and sons will die. When they do, what will we make of them? Corpses in the earth, or legends?

We should light the fires for them each year on the anniversary of their death, and sing their songs, tell their stories, laugh and cry for their passing- celebrate them as gone beyond a mere life and become a tribal hero, eternal. What should the hero cult look like, when it honors those who have died? What will your rituals and traditions be surrounding these concepts? How will you ensure that these names live forever? What better place to die than within a cult who holds the dead as living among them?

What better way to live than to make certain there are more stories about your life than can be easily be told? Hail the dead, who have lived a life worth telling of. Here’s a friendly heads up and a reminder for all of you reading this right now who are taking no prisoners on your way to living a strength-filled life of purpose: When you start to get stronger, more successful, wealthier, healthier, or better in any way- there is a certain type of individual who can’t stand it.

Any positive change you make, there is going to be someone who hates you for it. These people are ruled by resentment, jealousy and anger. Their life is driven by a feeling inadequacy, so their ego creates an external enemy in order to insulate them from the truth: their only real enemy is THEM. When they see someone doing more than they are, it creates a venom-release within them. This bile rises up and they spew their vitriolic poison anywhere they can do so, as long as they can do it safely and anonymously.

These people have many terms attributed to them- you’ve all seen them, right? Internet warriors, keyboard cowboys. What they really are, though, truly, at their core- are cowards. These are people who have not been able to succeed on their own at whatever it is they wanted to do in life, whoever they wanted to be, down in those places they were too embarrassed tell anyone about, and too pathetic to go out and achieve: Leaders.

They couldn’t become this, because they are their own worst enemies. They couldn’t get it together enough to make it happen, for whatever reason. Lack of willpower, dedication, or intelligence. They see others receiving praise that they want for themselves. Others leading people that they wished they could have led. Giving up habits that they never had the strength or determination to give up. Putting in sweat equity to look and feel the way they can only imagine.

Making the money they desperately wish they had- and the venom rises, and they lash out. They use the weakest possible formats available to them.

Safe, anonymous, protected places in order to work their weak will from behind a mask against those who wear no such protection against the world, because they do not require it. Their arguments against strength are always the same, and make their resentment transparent every time. If you are muscular and fit, they will call you vain, or vapid. If you are charismatic, they will call you a conman. If you are financially successful, they will call you greedy and unscrupulous. They will more than likely not use terms like this- their reckless anger and feelings of inferiority manifest in drooling, wild condemnations, and long, rambling outlines of all ways they feel you live life wrong. Somehow they imagine that their petty words and verbal stone-throwing will result in some kind of change.

They imagine that you, like them, are a coward, and that you will be swayed by their poorly spelled rhetoric. They think that those who support you will see their evidence, and come over to their side of things. In reality, they don’t believe any of these things, truly.

They know that their words are hollow. They know that no matter what they do, they cannot stop your meteoric rise to meeting challenge and overcoming it. Those who must crawl will always despise those with wings- this knowing of their own impotence is the very thing that makes them hate you so much in the first place. You have, and are doing, everything they want to have and do. So they will hate. If you find yourself falling into this trap of envy and jealousy and resentment, take a moment and consider: Would you be better served by being jealous of someone with an enviable life, or viewing them as a teacher and yourself as a student who could be learning?

Every successful person’s rise to where they are now can be seen as a puzzle, a narrative to untangle in order to see the patterns and steps that they took to get where they are now. When I spend time with someone who has more success in the gym than I do, or has a business plan that I admire, or is a high level martial artist- it doesn’t evoke resentment from me. It evokes respect. It makes me want to emulate whatever character trait they possessed or unlocked within themselves in order to be more like them in the ways that I wish I was.

I have taken to using the phrase “None Ascend Alone.” What I mean by this is that somewhere along the way, all of us modeled ourselves after someone else that we admired, or took advice from someone smarter than we were, or emulated an individual who had already achieved what we were looking for. Success and achievement does not happen in a vacuum, and within Operation Werewolf, I believe it is fostered through challenge and networking with people who are accomplished and live lives worthy of emulation. Strong people admire and emulate, until they are admired and emulated. Cowards resent, sabotage, and ultimately- fail. View every day as an opportunity to learn, to improve, to succeed. Against the reckless hatred of lesser men, your success is the boiling oil poured down on their heads, from the high walls of the castle that is your utter indifference to their very existence. Always remember: I’m pulling for you.

In Yoga, there are 8 different pathways, or “limbs” that make up the various elements the yogi believes to be necessary for a strong practice. Within this eightfold blueprint of transformation, these limbs have their own branches, twigs and leaves that grow from them and hone down these bigger concepts into smaller sub-groups. Of these greater limbs, one is called Niyama, a sanskrit word that means “observance.” The five Niyamas are all connected in their own way, and of these, one is called Tapas- austerity. The philosophy behind tapas is simple, minimalist, and beautiful- just like the lifestyle it calls for. At its core, tapas is about doing things that you don’t want to do, or not doing things that you do want to do, in order to create a positive impact on your life through the consistent practice of self discipline. It is not about torturing or harming oneself, but exercising control over ourselves, our habits and our desires in order to create a more highly functioning individual through mastering our relationship to passion, desire, and comfort. I have adopted and adapted many elements of this concept into my life and utilize a three-fold method that I have taken to calling “Discomfort Inoculation.” My brother Jack Donovan has semi-joked with me before that I have the tendency to fetishize discomfort.

In a way, he is not incorrect- for me, deliberately choosing minimalism, simplicity, and forcing myself to do things that I don’t necessarily want to do, but know will make me stronger or more focused, makes up a large part of the bedrock of my personal philosophy. I have isolated and identified in this article three of the structures that form the architecture of my method: Solitude, Austerity and Trial. Together, they make up a foundation that I believe is crucial to the formation of a powerful, self controlled and self reliant individual.

SOLITUDE “Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve.” ― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf “Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.” ― Aristotle The importance of time spent alone cannot be overstated. In this day and age, we are constantly under bombardment from a thousand sources of stimulation at all times, and if one considers the elements of social media and technology use, we are almost never truly “alone.” One of the reasons for this constant noise is for the individual to avoid this very thing- most people are both uncomfortable and disinterested in this solitary state, as there is nothing to do when we are in it but to explore the self and face the vast, tangled wilderness of the within. The exploration of this wild frontier is a daunting and dangerous one, and its pay-off is not immediately visible or “shareable,” making it of seemingly limited value in this age of oversharing and premature enlightenment. It is easier to just quickly share a “meme” of the Buddha or the Dalai Llama with a quote beneath it, so that people know you are already enlightened.

For the intrepid, the internal exploration is a dark and endless journey and requires consistency and will. This makes time spent in solitude crucial, in order to become familiar with those deep, unknown places of ourselves, and to be able to take a critical and unattached look at our weaknesses, fears, inconsistencies and illusions- we absolutely cannot improve ourselves if we do not take the time to do this, and it must be done alone, in silence. This involves taking the time to create a regular practice of meditation- my suggestions is to start simply, by waking up 5 minutes earlier than normal and starting the day in a quiet place of contemplation. Even this 5 minutes of self exploration and quiet before the madness of the day begins will have a positive impact on you as a human being, and allow you to build up a more in depth practice from there. Remember that starting is the important thing- we can always innovate later. Just pick a time and place an start doing it.

Worry about the details as you go. Solitude for longer periods of time has the other benefit of reducing chatter. The famous magician Aleister Crowley once said “The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.” From the newspaper to the “newsfeed,” many of us have the bad habit of beginning our day by feeding the brain a mainline of sewage, chatter, useless words, garbage thoughts. Like a diet of sugar and trash, this will serve to make the mind sluggish, fat, weak and unhealthy. What we put into our brains matters, and when we open up the floodgates to the lowest common denominator of humanity in the form of too much social media, comments threads, television, or otherwise, we are washing the walls of the inner temple with the excrement of the masses. Instead of opening your day with this storm of negativity and chatter, take the time to instead create silence.

To establish calm and inviolability. To strengthen the walls that keep out negative thoughts and patterns, and to give power to your own mantras and prayers instead. Extended periods of solitude in the form of days, weeks, or months spent in retreat should be sought out as well, when possible, but even a weekend camping trip by oneself with the phone turned off can be a massive current of clean energy reintroduced into one’s life.

AUSTERITY “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment.And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” ― Leonardo da Vinci The word austerity derives from the Latin “austerus,” which translates as “severe.” It refers, in this case, to the concept outlined earlier, of self-discipline in the form of both living without the unnecessary and choosing those things which make us uncomfortable as a dedication to strength and self-mastery. The meaning of austerity or tapas is not simply “discipline,” but “to burn.” It is a fervor for transcendence and transformation, quite literally a burning need to become more than we were. It becomes a conscious choice to limit ourselves or undergo some deprivation or hardship without complaint, emotion, or attachment in order to see what we are made of- how much control and mastery we have, and where our priorities lie.

We are offering something up as a blood sacrifice, a prayer to our higher selves in order to become that which we are meant to be, rather than what we exist as in the present time. We are acknowledging and giving ourselves wholly over to improving, to strengthening, and to overcoming our fear of discomfort, difficulty, pain, and adversity.

Each time we undergo one of these austerities, we become more able to operate under stress, more capable of functioning at a high level in less than optimal conditions, and more in control of our selves- the masters of the temple. This “severity” of praxis makes itself known even in our aesthetic and surroundings. Austerity includes the way we approach our personal possessions- a discarding of the unnecessary and the cluttered in favor of a streamlined, simple and minimal style.

However, this severity does not mean we must be humorless and grim at all times- far from it! When we can strip away that which is not needed and that which does not add value to our lives, and isolate those things that truly matter to us, we can laugh easily, free from the stress of distraction and overstimulation, the jumble and disorder of too much everything.

We remove this bedlam from our lives with the scalpel of austerity and create a singularity of existence and experience which allows us to live in the most effective way. Right action does not mean more effort in more directions- it means quality of effort in the correct direction. Each day, we must ask ourselves, what is necessary for our highest value, and what is detracting from it? Both in our physical surroundings and the mental and emotional landscape, we are ready with torch in hand to create the fires of tapas and burn away the things that keep us bound to dissatisfaction and distraction.

We can begin with basic austerities- whether that means consistency in the gym, waking earlier for meditation, ice baths and cold water plunges, whatever- these discomfort inoculations lay the groundwork for other acts of devotion and fire, and allow us to start on the road to the high mountain of self mastery. TRIAL AND ORDEAL “War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free.” - Heraclitus What follows in this section is taken from the working manuscript of my “Werewolf Method,” and appeared for the first time in the Reaver Training Protocol, available in e-book format on this website under the Equipment tab. This life is war. The entirety of an individual’s progression to the higher levels of self is based on the twin pillars of Trial and Ordeal. It is from these principles that the triad of Physical, Mental and Spiritual strength are created.

These towering and awful monoliths are the altar upon which we sacrifice our lower self daily, in order to give everything we are now for everything we know we can become. Without the trial of our developing abilities through resistance, experienced both internally and externally, there can be no honest assessment of ourselves and our progress, and without true ordeal, we cannot know how hot the inner fire burns, or if there is ash in a hearth that we thought burned brightly.

What differentiates the two is that a trial is something to be looked forward to, a real chance to pit oneself against some kind of resistance or opposition and overcome it. If he fails, he must reapply himself to his training and attain victory when his next opportunity arises. Trials come in a variety of forms and can be anything from a powerlifting meet to a street fight, a public dissertation or performance to martial arts competition. They are not to be confused simply with training, as all training and practice is, by its nature, done in preparation for trials or ordeals. Let’s clear something up now, while we are on the subject: physical training does not make you a martyr or a “lion”- just showing up to lift weights in order to look better naked is not some towering accomplishment. All across the world right now, soccer moms are waking up in the pre-dawn hours to run through a workout before loading the kids up for school.

Your participation in what is for most essentially a hobby does not land you in the ranks of the immortals. No, it is trial that makes legends of men. If you use that time spent in the gym to compete, to push yourself, break records held by those who exemplify the sport, and bring glory to yourself and those bound to you- then you are beginning to understand the great divide between entertainment and real trial. An amateur performs something, whether a writer or a martial artist, out of pleasure- he shows up and does the work when he “feels like it,” and does so largely out of a lesser form of self gratification that is not in itself a bad thing. Trial, however, is sought out by the strong for a satisfying feeling of true power when it is overcome.

Those who seek trial put in the work day after day, with consistency and focus, in order to achieve greatness in their chosen fields. Not to simply write for enjoyment, but because he wants to master the craft and change lives. Not to carve wood or stone from a distracted place of occasional dabbling, but to bring images forth from the raw material that will outlive generations to come. An ordeal, in contrast, is some heavy and almost always extremely painful experience, something that will push the individual to his absolute limit, where he will either endure the pressure to the end, coming through invariably transformed- or it will break him, possibly for good. No one necessarily goes looking for Ordeal- they will find you at various times throughout your life in diverse forms and threaten to crush you beneath their weight. When they do so, it will be our fire built up from overcoming trial after trial that will save us from being extinguished.

Our personal force has to become strong as we would build up a bonfire- from small stick to entire tree, one piece at a time until that fire is capable of consuming anything placed within its roaring heat. This fire, when it exists, is recognizable even to those who do not understand its source.

For those who are initiated, and hear the call of this path themselves- they will know when they are in the presence of greatness. Oftentimes, an inexperienced individual will mistake a trial for an ordeal. This usually comes from what has been termed a “victim mindset,” one of the greatest enemies of personal overcoming and empowerment that exists. A victim mindset always seeks to tell us that any resistance in our path, no matter how mundane, is “out to get us,” that the universe is somehow slanted against us.

Usually, these same people exhibit poor decision making and extremely unproductive behavior with an emphasis on a lack of discipline and foresight, but blame all this on “bad luck,” or some other vague force that is holding them under its weight. We see this in present day humans chronically blaming others for their lot in life due to oppression based on race, creed, orientation or otherwise, to the always popular “economic environment” argument for an individual’s poor decisions or ineffective lifestyle. These same individuals are the ones constantly shouting for equality, as though by throwing enough tantrums they will miraculously become “equals” in the eyes of those they believe to be oppressing them. Only the inferior strive for equality- those seeking to make more of themselves are not interested in the concept of egalitarianism or “fairness,” and reject that as a childish notion. In this life, we will have either what we can attain and hold for ourselves, or what those stronger than we are decide to allow us. Getting caught up in victimization is something that we should be incredibly wary of and never tolerate in ourselves or those with whom we keep company.

If we believe that we shape our own lives, as both the hammer, the anvil, and the material that lies on it, we have no time for such luxurious and poisonous self delusions. This is a way of sight and truth, and has no desire to assign blame elsewhere for our own failures. They belong to us and us alone, and should all be seen as either learning experiences to build from in the future, or false paths we have taken but are now wise enough to see for what they are. Every individual who is working through this manual must absorb the concept that Trial and Ordeal are holy to us- sacred rituals that are also landmarks in this wild frontier of self creation.

They are precious to us, both our victories and our failures, our great moments of pride and our depths of pain and suffering. These are the tools we hold dear, and our embrace of them is what ultimately will set us apart from the hollow ghosts who are content to live as slaves and victims. Back by popular demand, this essay can be found in 'The Complete Transmissions Volume 1' by Paul Waggener, available on this site. Millions of people right now are glued to a screen watching their fantasies play out in front of them; toned, muscled bodies on camera performing just for them – sweating and grunting with exertion. The viewers are totally invested in the action, waiting with baited breath, their sweaty hands moist with anticipation of the main star making penetrationinto the endzone. This similarity between professional sports and porn does not end there – both take in billions of dollars each year, both create celebrity status for their participants which they use to market product, and both contribute to a sickness that is weakening (predominantly) males across the world.

That sickness is mediation. This is not the life we were meant for: to wither or bloat like drowned corpses as the over-minds dangle pretty distractions in front of our milky eyes, working for our whip-holders for a pitiful wage or a massive sum, either way to be spent on frivolous trinkets or bourgeois comforts. We were meant to bite that hand that seeks to distract us! To tear free of that leash of mediation and docility, to rend the throats of those who would keep us in thrall! Next time you sit down to play-off or jerk-off, consider what that time might be better spent doing – are you content to live in the cage that they’ve constructed for you, or would you rather bed down tonight after a real fight and a real fuck, with blood in your mouth, rebellion in your mind, and glory in your heart? All photos by Andrea Pagan This weekend I had the honor of attending an Operation Werewolf event hosted by Leonardo of the “Dire Dogs” in the Venetian countryside.

This was my second time as a guest in Europe, and just as before, every single mile and moment spent was one I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. To be present at the beginning of a new legend is a true privilege, and this is what I believe I was witness to in my time there. As someone who has been a member of a tribal organization for over a decade now, seeing these sparks roar to life as new tribes are built, new traditions are founded, and new members howl out their oaths to crew, gang and tribe around the fire beneath the bright moon takes me back to the beginnings of my own. When the four founders of the Wolves (myself, my brother Matthias, and the Carnes brothers Sam and Nathan) decided to form our tribe some 11 years ago, it started from a tiny seed within which dwelt a vast and eternal need- to form a brotherhood that went beyond the bonds of the families we had been born into and to extend outward to men who we found worthy to speak an oath to.

We wanted to create something legendary. For us, the need arose from its lack of existence- there was nothing in this world that we knew of that was like what we wanted to build. From motorcycle club to esoteric order, there existed nothing that held both brotherhood and ritual, blood and earth, violence and love, loyalty and myth within its boundaries. Therefore, we set out to create it, and the Wolves were born.

Oaths were conceived straight from the heart, and rituals were envisioned and enacted, growing and developing over years of practice and experience. Throughout the years, men have come and gone- those who have left our tribal boundaries have had their names erased from our histories, and those who have remained have grown in strength and character, and have had their actions spoken of and given honor to in countries all over the world by other strong men. This is the soul of what we do.

Our rites and rituals come not from the dusty pages of a book, to reconstruct what our ancestors have done, because we do not need to wonder what they would have done. We know what they would have done, now, here, in our time- because their voices sing and tremble through the blood in our veins, and their words have shattered the silence again. They have seen these new lands and this new age through our eyes, and breathed once more the cold night air with our lungs.

There is no division between them, and us- just as there is no division between our gods and us. They are all living, inside our blood and hearts, and only those who have stood with us around the fire and shed their blood with us will ever know these truths.

Our greatest honor is to be remembered. To be spoken of by men who we respect, to have our names shouted to the night sky as others raise hands in salute of our deeds. This is because we know that all life is temporary, but that our deeds can live on forever- through the blood, through the stories of our lives as we weave them into the stories of others- and to do this so strongly and full of vitality that we are never forgotten.

And here’s the thing- those who always stay home are never remembered. As I walked onto the plane in Milan to return home to America, there was this little sticker on the wall, that read “This Is Only Temporary,” and the hairs on my neck stood up.

Images of the weekend flashed back through my mind, and I felt the shock up my arm as I punched Chris, a “Wuduwasa” prospect from England in the face during his “jump in” after ritual, saw the dark blood shining on his teeth in the moonlight. The buzz of the tattoo machine as I made tattoos with Tatiana’s machine, and the sound of laughter and fellowship around us. The overwhelming feeling of pride and honor in my heart to sing the ritual galdr with Marius from Norway’s “Ulvepels,” and Darko, the Serbian cannon-ball. 6 am conversations about truth, honor, and loyalty with Thorwald, Max, Svante.

Every time I see someone make the choice to stay home rather than to do whatever it takes to go forth and seek these experiences, these friendships worth crossing the oceans for, these times that will never be forgotten- I feel a brief and passing pity for them. Time is fleeting, and we will never be here again. This is all temporary. Only our legend will last- and in my life, every action is a prayer to send my names and the names of my brothers into eternity. Written for Operation Werewolf by Terence Mitchell Every single day, throughout the day, we are faced with options; these are either soft options or hard options; and it's our choice in the matter that determines our trajectory.

It's our choice wether we continue along our evolutionary paths toward a greater knowledge of self and exploration of potential via a revolution of spirit, or if we stagnate and further entrench ourselves within a quagmire of self-sabotage and self-deception, thus culminating in self-loathing. Soft options are instantaneously gratifying; they petition to our perversities by appealing to our epicurean tastes, our shameless desire for comfort, ease, and first-world convenience. Soft options delay the inevitable; they hold us hostage to an ideal that cannot be maintained; they anchor us to an ideology that will eventually weigh us down and facilitate our demise. Soft options perpetuate that which we wish to overcome: addiction, apathy, obesity, disease, dependency, toxic relationships, eating disorders, and even personality disorders. Soft options are weekend-long Netflix binges that offer zero value to our lives, and junk food binges that offer zero nutritional value to our bodies; they raise our cortisol levels, increase our estrogen, and lower our testosterone. They render us weak and incapable; they make us less than men by forcing to the surface that which is most deplorable in men.

But there exists another option, albeit a less popular one. An option that demands discipline; an option that is unwavering and thus unwilling to negotiate with resistance- an option whose only desire is to destroy it. One choice at a time. One day at a time. This is the hard option. And this is the option we must choose. The hard option is choosing to live vigorously while the overwhelming majority live vicariously through the lives of other men and fictional characters.

It's the choice to move daily, without exception. It's the choice to eat nourishing foods that heal and repair our bodies, despite the preparation required, and inconvenience thereof. It's the choice to make the time to write down our thoughts and ideas so as to bring them into existence, and to read real books when it would be much easier to watch something mindless on TV. Men are defined by the options they entertain. Hard options make harder, more resilient men; and it is these options that provide unlimited potential for physical, mental and spiritual growth, along with a deeper knowledge of Self. It is this knowing that leads to further doing; and so we do what we must.

We do this in the seemingly insignificant battles that belong to a greater war, fought in the dark and uncomfortable places- during the lonely hours while our loved ones sleep, and the rest of the world dreams. I- What are sigils? Simply put, a sigil is a representation of a specific intention or concept given form in a symbolic way. This symbol is then used as a focal point for the mental energies, sometimes called the Will, or many other things in various schools of psychology or “magic,” as a kind of mental shorthand for a larger concept. In many ways, if we may use a modern technological term, the sigil is like a “zip file,” a small, condensed container inside which very large and complex information and data can be stored. The sigil helps us “access” these pieces of data through a lengthy process of association, in which we “charge” the sigils by using them for specific purposes and meditating on their given meanings until we begin to grow something from them that could almost be termed a personality. They start to take on a life of their own, in a way, and when we think of them after years of usage and connected experiences, they are heavy, filled with meaning and power, capable of jump starting our brain in certain directions, or pulling us immediately into a set “feeling” or type of perception.

In this way, our own personal sigils can be used for anything from meditation and calmness to summoning up the depths of mental or physical strength from deep within ourselves to apply when the situation calls for something extra. They can help us feel confident, or eliminate fear, bring us to a place of positive mood by connecting the sigil with those neurological pathways that we strengthen through repetitive use. For example, we might create a sigil that we bring into our mind’s eye and hold there every morning when we perform our private rituals of calm and strength- after months or years of this, when we simply bring the symbol into our mind, we are immediately flooded with all the associated time spent using this sigil in the aforementioned way.

I believe that the creation and repeated use of sigils can be used to great effect, and essentially gives us a toolbox of situation specific “gates” or “vehicles” that through continued work with and use of, will eventually act to take us immediately from one “mode” to another. I believe that this type of “magic” is very real, and can be quantified and proven through science, since we know that neurons adjust their activity in response to changes in environment, new situations, and so on, and that new pathways can not only be created in the brain in this way, but strengthened like a muscle. Effectively, I believe that sigils used in the way discussed in this piece can change the interaction in the brain in a real and tangible way, but that it must be done in the same fashion as changes in the musculature. Gli Stagisti Download Ita Dvdrip Movies.

Through dedication, discipline, and the slow and steady building of these “muscles” through correct exercise and proper nutrition, in this case, what we do with the brain, and what we feed the brain, both literally, through what we consume physically and with careful consideration to what we put into it via external stimulation and information. Using this explanation, we could give modern examples of “profane/mundane” sigils as anything from corporate branding (BlueTooth technology even uses a sigil that is two runes combined together into one symbol, or “bindrune”), band logos, specialized artist signatures and so on. These are the “common,” everyday uses of sigils that we see around us in the world, and perhaps give little thought to- but how powerful or iconic is the Nike symbol, and what images does it convey when you think about it? How about the McDonald’s “M”? Do either of these evoke a feeling in you when you bring the image to mind? If so, it has functioned in some way to act as the sort of mental shorthand we are referring to, a simple set of lines that start a process in the mind in a specific direction- in this case, to concepts of athleticism and competition, or “food,” or whatever.

Obviously, some may feel more drawn or repelled from these symbols and what they represent based around our specific and personal relationship to and experience of them- and this is what makes the creation of personal sigils a much “purer” and controllable form of this art. In medieval magic, sigils were considered to be the true name of the angels and demons they represented- the knowledge of this true name or “total knowing” of the being in question giving the magician complete control over them. I think there is a truth that can be extracted from this, in that if we use the terms “concept, habit, thought process, mode” instead of “angel, seraphim, demon,” whatever, we can see that a full knowledge of them is needed in order to obtain control over them. We cannot control ourselves without self-knowledge that stems from deep contemplation, meditation, and a dedicated practice to creating ourselves in the image we see fit. The more time we spend in contemplation of certain ideas with great scope and depth, the more “offshoots” are created, the more complex pathways our brain will go down in connection to them, almost like circuitry- we build these roadways with our thoughts, and connect them through experiencing these inner dialogues or by putting these ideas into practice and having “real life” images and situations plug into the core idea.

This is how sigils are made powerful, going above and beyond the simplicity with which they are created and becoming living giants, “archangels” holding a fiery sword at the gates of our consciousness, operating at the speed of thought as our messengers and servants, if we know their true name. II- The Creation of Sigils The ways in which sigils can be created are myriad. We have historical examples of magical squares, or kamea, which use a square layout in which letters are paired with numbers in order to create a pattern on the square, then connected by lines which are used as the sigil.

Modern so-called “chaos magicians” often use a method in which they spell out a specific intention such as “I AM STRONG AND HEALTHY,” and then remove all vowels from it, in this case forming “MSTRNGNDHLTHY.” They then remove “doubles” or multiples of the same letter, so now this becomes “MSTRNGDHLY.” These letters are finally used to create something similar to a “bindrune,” effectively weaving together the letters in an artistic or pleasing way to the individual and creating the final sigil. Runic concepts can be used, as well as numeric ones. Other systems of “magic” or science can be pillaged for methods, and complex mathematics or binary could be applied. The point is, it will be personal to you. Your methods should be your own, in whatever way speaks to you the most- these will be your tools, and you want them to fit your hand, so to speak. Most importantly, one must put in the time.

Without time spent meditating on a specific intention before creatingthem, and then countless hours associating practice with the sigil itself, whatever you create will just be lines on paper. Inert, devoid of any true depth or use, no matter how beautiful or complex the art is. Certainly, the creation of nice art is an end goal by itself, but in this case, we are creating something much bigger, and our aim is not “just for nice.” In the words of a heavy hitter, “Success is your only proof.” No matter what, these are intended to do a job. They cannot do the job if you do not grow them through constant use and application. Provided here are two of my own, which you are welcome to use, as well as dissect in order to better understand my process for creating symbols of specific intent. Understand that you can absolutely use another person’s tools, and use them to great effect, but only if you refer back to the last paragraph, and put in the time to make them your own. No matter how powerful they are to me, or how effective they are, for you, they are only a starting place- lines of potential, connected to some ideas I will share with you in order to begin the germination process.

I hope that should you choose to use them, they spread their wings and become mighty, to function one day like the push of a button or the pull of a trigger. If the following explanations seem “too complex,” or filled with language or references that seem deliberately obstructed, understand that these symbols are created with the entirety of my experience and relationship to runic ideas, numeric concepts, visual representations of ideas, places, times, and “separate realities.” They are provided here as reference material, and for you to get a grasp on how my process works- but also to potentially spur you toward the “unlocking” of them through study and use.

IGNITER SIGIL. At its core, the Igniter sigil is a spark plug. By design, it looks like a spark plug, even, and this is to reinforce its intended use even on the visual level. The intention of the Igniter Sigil is to act as Day-Opener, Power From Heaven, Expansion of the Holy Fire. It is the spark at the beginning of consciousness, that which awakens and turns the fuel within the mind into the fires of combustion and directed action. At the top, a stylized:FEHU: rune, the receiver of the spark from our higher consciousness, our higher self, that is, who we are at the peak of our human potential.

The concept of our personal god, or God Himself, if you like. The next line down on the sigil is visual, and represents power drawing down the central axis, or our spine, and being pulled toward the next set of processes, like gasoline moves from the tank to the carburetor to the cylinder. Following this is an indicator of “expansive expression under load” (from my notes on the sigil), power under pressure going outwards on ahorizontal line which represents the plane of existence, or “that which is becoming.” A concept of will under direction, and active force.

Now comes a numeric cipher, the 2 hashmarks on each side representing:URUZ: numerically, together all 4 indicate:ANSUZ:, and visually, they are bound to the ninth rune:HAGALAZ:, pictured here as a bind rune of:U: and:H: from the younger Futhark. We have here the combined forms of Primal Might, Elevated Consciousness and The Cosmic Seed, taken together to indicate a powerful wholeness, a streamlined process of deep power, understood and applied toward the act of self creation. Three more smaller “pulling” lines, a refinement, a distillation of what has gone before, 3/:THURISAZ: Focus, making one thing from many- a perfect, monomolecular point of the “thorn.” At the bottom of the stave/sigil, the triple:TIWAZ. This is the “crown” of the sigil, and the “root.” Direction, mastery, dedication. All systems go, the direction known, mastery the goal, dedication the only way to achieve. DEATHLESS TRANCE SIGIL.

For me, ritual is an important time to reconnect to not only that which has gone before, but to those things that live inside me, brought out only at times and places when their expression is needful. At ritual for my tribe, I speak words of power and sing songs of strength to make my brothers more powerful- in order to do this without preparation, notes, or memorization of any kind, my mental state must sink into the depths and pull from the source at the heart of all things. The sigil is, again, visual, and represents the “magician/tribal leader/shaman” whatever word you use. He is standing with his arms extended out from his body, hands describing the:YR: rune, arms the:T:, the correlation between life, death and sacrifice, with the altar before him. This central, curving line also indicates the burial mound, or the grave stone.

Beneath it is the crossed bones of the mighty dead, all those men of power and legend that have gone before. It is also:GEBO: the X of exchange, the crossroads between this world and the other. Above us, around us and within us resonates the sacred note of the eternal- that which transcends and calls on us to become the stuff of legend- the sigil’s “head” is a triple:TIWAZ: rune, also indicating direction, vibration, this sacred note moving through the octaves, forever. Beneath our feet, within our veins, and in the deep recesses of the hidden places are the bones and blood and words of the dead; still there, speaking the sudden intuition, the quick flash of inspiration, the knowledge that we stand on the deeds of dead men. At the bottom of the stave is another:T: rune, bringing the total number in the sigil to 5,:R:, movement in the right direction, but also a quickening, a hint toward the “necromantic” use of the:T: rune, to bring the dead to life and speak with them. The ritual experience brings our consciousness in line with this resonating note earlier mentioned, and an ecstatic state is reached where those dead ones, not gone, may speak agin with our tongues and see again with our eyes.

This experience lights fires, illuminates, and removes the fear of death. As many of you know, I have spent the last month on the back of a motorcycle, traveling, writing, and absorbing a lot of experiences. During that journey, although much of my writing was aimed at a specific project, I had a great deal of raw time to simply think. In a lot of ways, this trip was like a monastic retreat, and on all those thousands of miles, the mind wanders down myriad pathways.

As I prepare to put out the Complete Transmissions Volume 2, I wanted to get down on paper some of the thoughts I had while I was out there, although most of this will be contained within what is tentatively being called “Book 4.” Book 4 will be equal parts travelogue, introspective, and grimoire, and has been one of the most rewarding pieces of writing I have done to date. In the meantime, here is the third installment in an ongoing series of articles I have done for Operation Werewolf. I call the following list, “The Eleven Pathways,” and I believe that by following these rules, one can avoid many of the pitfalls of modern life, especially the directionless or unmotivated existence that befalls so many.

I hope you will find them useful, and be able to apply them in your own greater mission. YOU ARE ALL YOU HAVE. At the end of the day, the only thing that truly belongs to us is us. But what makes us who we are? What is it that defines us as humans? I recently had a long discussion with my friend and brother Jack Donovan regarding this concept, and the idea that only by creating do we actually become.

We can only be known to others by our body of work, and we can only make something of ourselves by making something in general. Those who do not produce merely consume, and those who do not build up are only capable of tearing down. We must realize this and begin to understand our lives as a cross section of our body of work, whatever that may be. Consider the difference between an artisan who can be known by his blacksmithing, or a carpenter whose houses stand for hundreds of years, as opposed to someone who is known by 16 vapid posts a day on social media. Who is creating something lasting, something of value? Once we begin to think in this fashion, we can “start the world,” so to speak, and begin cultivating, maintaining, and protecting that body of work which we present to the rest of the world.

One of the ways in which this is done is by maintaining dignity. This word is one that I hear very little in this day and age, but its meaning is “the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.” When we engage with the outside world, we should do so with consideration to how we are presenting ourselves at all times, and to ensure we are doing so with dignity. Allowing ourselves to be physically unkempt, lacking discipline, becoming obese or frail, all damages not only our own dignity, but that of our peers and families. Showing the world the inner workings and problems of your personal relationships, airing dirty laundry on the internet or other public forum, being drunk and obnoxious- all of these sorts of things work against our dignity. That dignity and respect is something that we can only damage so much before it becomes irreparable- we must view it as a priceless thing, to be manicured, upkept, fed, and cared for as we would a prize horse. It is all we have with which to work. TIME IS FINITE I have heard people say “I don’t have the time,” so many times, I don’t have the time to hear it one more time.

Mostly in relation to exercise or some other type of training, but also to many other endeavors, as in, “I’d love to do that one day, but I never have the time.” Usually, this is complete and total bullshit. In a recent example a friend of mine was encouraging an acquaintance of his to take up jiu jitsu, to which the individual replied with the above excuse. The guy in question is single, works a normal nine to five, and has no children. My friend is a husband, a father, owns his own business, is in the process of building his own house, and still manages to practice “the bloodless art” at 6 am each day, and often makes time in the evening as well, and this is the key: time isn’t infinite, it must be allocated. Everything we choose to do is at the cost of every other thing we didn’t. This means that all endeavors come at the sacrifice of every single other action that wasn’t performed instead- this makes time a precious resource and one that we must spend wisely and budget with intention and discipline! Instead of saying we don’t have time, we should be honest and say “I don’t care enough about that or don’t have the discipline required to sacrifice other, more attractive things in order to make the space in my life for it.” Those who want to conquer the world must first conquer their own schedule.

If something is important, sacrifice for it. Cut out things that are less important, and watch the sacrifice “buy you more time.” Understand the meaning of sacrifice in a direct way, and utilize it as a tool to bring more meaning into your life. 3.YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS When you set sights on your life mission, your Great Work, it must consume you.

The mission must be all encompassing, all important. You must love it enough to never burn out or fade away. In this life, you can either do what you want to do, and follow your dreams, or you can take orders and make someone else’s dreams a reality.

If you choose to be your own master, you can never lose focus of this- all of your actions and decisions must become consonant with this and constant as well. You have to become obsessed with your goals, and reject anything, any relationship, any concept that stands in the way or detracts from this. To do anything else is to attempt to serve two masters. If you cannot maintain your own mission, at least be a good soldier in a better man’s- I would rather be an excellent second than a terrible first. DON’T PLAN YOURSELF INTO NEVER STARTING Planning is good, overplanning is the worst. Often, I have seen good ideas derailed by two things: overplanning and over-talking. Overplanning becomes a Gordian knot of worry, too much detail and specificity, and ultimately can lead to never beginning the endeavor at all.

Best to get started and maintain fluidity than to never start. The best time to do something is always right now. The second enemy is too much talking. When we talk too much about an action before we have launched into it, we crack open the container- we lose explosive force, like a motor with a crack in the cylinder, there is no compression because we have let it out too early.

Knowing when to keep things to yourself to generate more force and fire, and when to crack it open and unleash it is key to getting things done. WILL BEATS MIND An iron will trumps a brilliant mind. It may be best to have both, but determination and the ability to be tireless is better than a rapid fire intelligence. Both can be cultivated to a degree, but the will is more receptive to improvement than the brain. Set yourself up for success by taking on challenges both great and small and seeing them through to the end.

If you can set this idea of always getting through to the finish line with everything in life, you will be able to outwork those who may be smarter than you but less capable of pursuing the kill over hill and dale, inexhaustible, like a blood hound. Break habits, work out, get up early, take cold showers, defeat your fears. All these things lead to an increase in the willpower which will serve you time and again. One good idea in the hands of the tireless is better than a thousand million dollar ones in the hands of the chronic quitter. CHOOSE SOCIAL CURRENCY OR TRUE POWER If you want to be popular, be popular- take care that you say nothing wrong, do nothing wrong, and spend no time with people who say and do things that are “unpopular,” and always be aware of the moving goalposts that determine this.

Cultivate within yourself the thirst for acknowledgement from all and sundry, and make statements often that are applaudable and very safe. Seek out friendships that are based on a mutual need for recognition and acceptance by the largest amount of people, and carefully watch what people are saying about you, in order to apologize or correct your behavior wherever necessary so that it falls in line with what the in crowd wants from you.

Never tie yourself to any belief, but maintain an ironic aloofness from anything too serious- being serious and unironic is a sign of conviction, and conviction is dangerous! Try to change what you do and like and listen to and wear as often as needs be to keep abreast of what new fads are going on around you, and spend a lot of your time on educating yourself on these things by watching TV, listening to popular music and feeling out the current narrative you need to uphold. Alternatively, you can seek real power.

You can say what you feel, when it is appropriate, or keep your motives hidden, when it serves you best. Spend time with powerful people who motivate you and educate you.

Disregard the moving goalposts and ever changing scenery and laws of political correctness and blaze your own trail. Associate with outlaws. Cast aside the need for respect or love from those you do not respect or love. Ignore what people say about you, and instead, be the best at what you do and allow your work to speak for itself. Choose your convictions carefully, and then adhere to them with an iron will and a heart of fire. Never let down your peer group, and never surrender to the narrative of the day- create your own mythology and live it.

CONSTANTLY SELF EXAMINE Place the same attention on the within as the without. We must thoroughly know ourselves honestly, and without guile or self deception. In order to do this, we must make the time for it. We have to explore our negative attributes and work toward fixing them, or turning our devils into our servants by making our weaknesses into strengths. Mostly, we must turn a merciless gaze inward and never accept from ourselves what we would not accept from anyone else.

Be ruthless, and be consistent. Know yourself. GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT Before you put something into your body or mind, ask “why?” The things we consume are absorbed into our person, our physical form, our personality- avoid poisoning yourself with useless trash, and put in high octane instead. The same goes for our output- before we speak, do, or punch the “enter” key on that comment, post, text, whatever- ask yourself WHY? Does this serve a positive function that is consonant with the Mission, or is it a frivolous act with no true purpose or motivation? Take in quality, become quality, produce quality.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS When it comes to figuring out “what you should do with your life,” the most obvious answer is the correct one. Don’t agonize over what the “right thing” is. You already know it, you are more than likely just avoiding it because it seems too obvious. The same goes for people, places, things. The more you put in quality, the more tight the filter becomes, the more you can trust your worldview and instinct, until you naturally choose the consonant thing every time.

Remember the mission at all times, and act in accordance. BE LIKE WATER A commonly repeated quote from Bruce Lee, it bears repeating and remembering. Rigidity doesn’t often work for a battle plan as well as fluidity because it doesn’t account for change in the movements on the battlefield.

Strategy leads to success- rigid planning doesn’t. We have to leave ourselves the option of flow, and to know when to adhere to the plan or to go off course and move like water, acting in the best way possible for the current situation. What makes or breaks a good leader is their ability to act under pressure in adverse conditions. When water is placed into anything, it flows, it fills, it occupies space, and makes itself fit into the situation, knowing where to go and how. KNOW WHEN TO BE LIKE STONE In your life, you must be the commander of your destiny, not its lieutenant. There are times when the previous rule must be abandoned in favor of a hard approach.

Knowing the difference between the need for flow and the need for violent refusal to go with that flow is crucial. Sometimes we must remain like the oak, and resist with everything we have, in order to not be swept away- our conviction and loyalty to ourselves and our chosen peers must be monolithic, immovable, unbreakable, eternal. At times, for many of us, the modern world and its population density, neon trappings and sonic surroundings can leave us cold- feeling empty, “drained,” or beaten down.

Even for those who dwell in a rural or semi-rural environment, the stagnation of daily schedule and lack of movement can create and reinforce this same feeling. When we are in stasis, it can be difficult to break out of a static mindset and back into a place where creativity and strength flow from the deepest wells of spirit. The cure for this is physical motion produced by a journey into the unknown. These retreats into the wilderness are often necessary for the would-be man of power in this day and age- a medicine journey out on the perimeter of populace and consciousness.

Restoring the strength and energy that has been leeched from him in this world of hungry ghosts. To silence the constant noise of the day to day world around him- his responsibilities to tribe and training can at times overwhelm and require separation- and to disconnect for a while from the constant technological bombardment that assaults his senses and fragments his focus. In his excellent latest work, “Entering the Desert,” author Craig Williams writes: “ Upon entering the desert, one does not have the luxury of possessions or excuses, the praxis must be efficient and sustained. The modern world prizes the “more,” the desert demands the minimal.

The journey into the Soul is a pathway into the Sun, burning away all the dross and obfuscations of the temporary and mundane, in an alchemical combustion. The journey into the inner desert exposes the spiritual nomad to this radioactive black light and demands the abandonment of all except the elemental.” Mr. Williams is speaking here about a metaphysical journey into the unknown realms of the internal, but his methodology and reason is applicable in the physical world as well. When we take a spiritual expedition in the 'real world,' our external actions combine with our internal intention and creates this alchemical process of change, both within and without, on a deeper and more connected level than when we choose one or the other. It is my suggestion that the physical journey be combined with the metaphysical one in a modern day expression of pilgrimage. We choose our destination (or lack of one) with purpose, and experience each mile not as a simple a distance marker to be rushed through on the way to a definable “end of the trail,” but as a drop of blood in the sacrificial act of ritual motion.

As we move by foot, by motorcycle, vehicle or other means, our souls unshackle the weight of the mundane piece by piece- our daily lives left behind for a time in order to once again discover and feed the burning flames at the center of our being. A holy wanderlust, a time in the desert, given over to silence and self-examination, punctuated by periods of the Dionysian ecstasy, a re-feeding of our joy to live as we taste from life’s hidden waters and turn it to wine with our will. This pilgrimage can be done in many ways, but should perhaps follow a few essential rules: It should be for longer than three days. The weekend camping trip can be enough to top off the energy stores and make one “feel better,” but for it to truly be a withdrawal and a reset, it needs to be longer than that. One must allow the mind to fully decompress without thinking about the return journey, and embed itself in the present; a long enough timeframe to not think about its own termination.

It also requires forethought and planning, a mapping out of both where one will go in this mundane realm, and where he will look to go in the frontiers of the spirit. It should center around the natural world, or involve another kind of wilderness, that of the unknown. This can mean a new city, a never before visited country, or simply the green cathedral of the deep woods. I personally prefer a combination of both, and believe that motorcycle camping gives both time and space to effectively isolate the mind and spirit, not to mention the “vehicle zen” that comes from a long time spent on the back of a bike, feeling the strange connection between man and machine, mind and motor. Those who do not ride a motorcycle can just as easily go by vehicle, bicycle, or on foot- there is no one pilgrimage, and there is no one way to set out. It can certainly be done with friends, fellow pilgrims on the road to salvation, but ideally only a very few, and those companions should be aware of the reasoning behind the journey, so they give enough space and silence especially in the evening to facilitate internal work, and walking the pathways within.

Technologies should be limited to certain times of the day, and otherwise kept off. The distraction produced by mindlessly surfing the internet or social media is anathema to exploring the massive vistas within. External chatter should be reduced and time given over by all pilgrims to reflection during the wayfaring. Again, from Craig Williams: “The mind and body are constantly bombarded by external stimuli, which, in the modern world are typically represented by artificiality: artificial light, artificial sound, artificial smell, artificial touch. All of these artificial stimuli feed into the visual cortex, brain and nervous system on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons mystics of the past sought to escape the so-called “civilized” to find solace in the forest or desert.

Yet this was not to escape the “human experience,” but rather to enhance it!” The spiritual pilgrimage will take you through the kaleidoscope of civilization and wilderness; from gas station to ghost town, inner city, open range, concrete chaos to campsite. The roar of the motor or the sound of the wind acts as a relentless mantra of emptiness and openness, driving out thoughts of the mundane and banal, or allowing them to arise and be destroyed by its single heavy note. On the road, you will meet people and go places that you never would have a reason to otherwise- seeing all those strange lines and legends on the map come to life in the worn out face of a truck driver under the harsh light as you fill up your tank. Exchanging a glance and a look of understanding with another traveler who might be out here for the same reason as you, or having a beer at a nameless campground while you stare up into the stars and let the awe overwhelm you. The inner terrain, too, will begin to open itself to you as time goes by in stillness and reflection, both during the movement and in the times between, where the engine or the rain can still be heard like a phantom echo. Memories will rise up out of the unconscious sharp and vivid while you rinse off in a mountain stream somewhere, a conversation long forgotten, suddenly remembered and brought back into the present.

At journey’s end, we may find ourselves looking into a dusty mirror and seeing a different set of eyes staring back at us than we are used to. Our long sojourn on the path to awakening never ends, and on the map that shows us the self within, there are no edges. I hope you find what you are looking for- just remember: in order to find it, you have to actually look. Written for Operation Werewolf by Joshua Buckley Love trumps hate. Love is all you need. And most grating of all, “live, laugh, love!” (The latter, it would seem, is now something like the battle cry of the basic bitch.) To hear people talk, you would think that we live in the most loving society that’s ever existed.

Of course, people today are no more loving—and certainly no more lovable—than they’ve ever been. Moreover, if you listen closely to all the love-mongering, it will become clear that when the Establishment and its educational-political-media apparatus talks about “love,” they want us to understand them in two very specific ways. First, we are supposed to love everyone equally (“love sees no color”).

Somehow, we are expected to summon up the same level of concern for other people’s children, in countries whose names we can’t pronounce, and whose boundaries we can’t pinpoint on a map, as we would for our own families. This is “universal love” of a sort that would make Jesus blush. It’s also almost always disingenuous. Just as “some animals are more equal than others,” the powers-that-be clearly find some people more lovable than others. Nevertheless, the idea of universal love is sufficiently appealing to the amorphous sensibilities of modern people, that it has become the Establishment’s go-to argument when it needs to morally manipulate the public—and politics now seems to consist primarily of moral manipulation.

Second, our society puts a tremendous premium on sexual love, especially sexual love of the more promiscuous variety. There’s not actually a lot of lovemaking going on, but there’s plenty of fucking. Monogamous marriages may be a quaint relic of the past, but the Establishment has never run across a fetish or deviant sexual practice that it can’t get behind (so to speak). There are organized advocacy groups for Adult Babies, scatophiliacs, and people who fuck in cartoon character costumes. I am hardly a prude and could care less if people are into feet or rubber outfits, but why are these things treated as if they have redemptive societal value?

Part of it is the fact that in a capitalist society, marginal sexual identities have become commodified, just like everything else. Even plain old-fashioned hetero-sex can now be ordered up like pizza on dating apps like Tinder. As with any other consumer product, the approach seems to be one of quantity over quality. Why try to cultivate meaningful relationships or start a family when you can download instant sexual gratification from the internet?

Still, the commodification of sexuality does not explain everything. The Establishment has a vested interest in promoting an entirely sexualized conception of love, just as it has a vested interest in promoting a “universal love” that purports to embrace all of humanity. So what do these two conceptions of “love” have in common? The answer is that neither of them requires commitment. Imagining that you love all people everywhere, without distinction, and screwing random strangers while never committing your heart to any of them, means never having to choose sides. That’s because choosing sides is dangerous.

And real love is dangerous. “When we want to read of the deeds that are done for love, whither do we turn?” asked the playwright George Bernard Shaw. “To the murder column.” When you really love someone, the implication is that you’re willing to fight for them. Everyone knows that a mother bear with her cubs is the deadliest animal in the forest. It’s also true that some men—often unhinged men, sometimes genuinely heroic men—can be induced to fight and die for an ideal or principle. But even ordinary, seemingly unheroic men, will fight to the death if their wives or children are threatened.

Most of the soldiers who have fallen in Iraq or Afghanistan didn’t die or get permanently maimed because they believed the propaganda about spreading democracy and defending “’muh freedoms.” They died to protect their brothers-in-arms, who they love in a way that non-combatants can probably never comprehend. (When I talk about “love” between men, I mean it in a completely non-sexual way. This should of course go without saying, but in our homo-centric, sex-obsessed society, it probably bears repeating.) Uprisings and revolutions are fomented by bands of men whose loyalty to one another can overthrow existing nations, and found new ones. Similarly, families and extended families can provide for each other and support each other in ways that no government can ever compete with, and can even grow into dynasties that can challenge State power. The cognitive scientist Steven Pinker once opined that the family is the most seditious institution in human history, precisely because it will always favor its own members over the claims of unrelated fellow citizens. This is why the government is such a shameless promoter of single motherhood, child “protection” agencies, and feminist initiatives to destroy the patriarchy.

It is also why a phenomenon like “slut-shaming” is now regarded as a dire political crime. These ideas are reflected in the two greatest dystopian novels of the twentieth century: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. In Huxley’s soft-totalitarian World State, families have been abolished. Children are engineered and raised in institutions like the “London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.” Indiscriminate fucking is encouraged, but monogamous relationships and even words like “mother” and “father” are considered taboo. In the hard-totalitarian society imagined by Orwell, the Party is fully aware of the dangers of meaningful human attachments that stand outside the State’s orbit. “Already we are breaking down the habits of thought that have survived from before the Revolution.

We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends.” In the book’s final act, Winston Smith is captured and tortured by Big Brother. But Winston’s interrogator does not consider him sufficiently broken—and ready for re-integration into the Party—until he denounces Julia, the woman he loves. If libertarians, anarchists, or other anti-statists want real independence from the System, they should be working to form strong brotherhoods, tribes, and families, which are the only true alternative to the State’s hegemony. Instead, these are often the very same people most susceptible to the pernicious myth of the “rugged individual.” We have all heard some variant of the quote from Henrik Ibsen: “The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.” While this may be true in some circumstances, or in certain matters of conscience, it completely ignores the reality that human beings are by nature almost entirely social—there has never been a time when people were able to truly go it alone. When modern men tell themselves that they are “self-made,” they are almost certainly deluding themselves about the degree to which they are relying on support systems provided by the government.

Our goal, then, should not be to isolate ourselves as individuals (as if such a thing were even possible), but to cultivate relationships of interdependence with people who we actually care about, and who actually care about us. The State would quite naturally be excluded from this equation.

Furthermore, while Ibsen might have thought that being alone is “strong,” for most people this kind of thinking is just a tepid self-justification for weakness. You might tell yourself that you’re a “pick-up artist” because you fuck lots of strangers, but you’re probably just an asshole. Ditto for “MGTOWs” (you can Google it if you need to), who are almost certainly making a virtue out of necessity. Likewise, refusing to open yourself up to real, deep friendships, probably just means that you’re a coward who’s afraid of being “hurt.” There is also nothing strong about adopting the Establishment’s empty platitudes about “one love” that “doesn’t build walls.” Loving all of humanity is pretty much the same thing as loving no one. Real love gains meaning when it chooses its object to the exclusion of all others.

Real love, in other words, is about loyalty. It is a powerful antidote to the spirit of ironic detachment, rootlessness, and the lonely, creeping emptiness, that are the hallmarks of the modern condition. Through my personal time with the Operation I have done my best to exemplify its tenets, and to be an example of how its declared aims and methods can have a positive effect on an individual’s life. These individuals need pressure. If they exist within a peer group, it is the peer group’s responsibility to bring them up to speed through “tough love,” or, in the end, to purge them from the body if they resist all attempts to reforge them. Operation Werewolf is not an acceptance philosophy.

It is exclusive, in that it only accepts those individuals who are demonstrably on the path to greatness. But on the path means consistent effort, not haphazard application and grandiose claims. That way lies only self delusion and sickness. These individuals must be tried in the fiery crucible, tested, and if found wanting, issued an edict of strength- an ultimatum that when next encountered they must be better than they were today.

If they are not, they must be cast aside to make way for those who are receptive to confrontation and a philosophy and praxis of might. At periods in my life, and especially in recent years as I have dedicated myself wholly to the task at hand, I have been approached by those closest to me and told that my current best was not good enough. I had a choice to either accept this judgement of my chosen peers with a certain amount of humility and grit, and prove to them that I was capable of more, or to thrash and moan like a child and reject their statement with an ego-driven vision of myself. I am honored to have friends and brothers like this, and am proud to say I chose the former. Had I not, I would not be writing this now. Those men in our peer group who fear confrontation or are too uncomfortable to demand this strength from their brethren are cowards, and no true friends- they create an environment of tolerance for unhealthiness, and they are agents of a cancer that spreads insidiously throughout an organic structure.

Konvertor V3 46 4 Incl Keygen Par Triph4z3 Rar Extractor here. In many ways, they are worse than the problem itself, as they can see it, and know what steps need to be taken, but choose not to for the sake of their own comfort. Within Operation Werewolf, it is my hope for the future that this positive pressure will be seen more often in the coming year. By “donning the hide,” so to speak, an individual is not only making a contract with himself, but with all of you.

Anything that marks someone as part of this ongoing Operation is also signifying an openness to be tested, to prove himself- it matters only that he is on that road to betterment, and that he can demonstrate improvement when he is next encountered. There are those who have been loudly proclaiming from the technological minarets of the modern Empire those words “Iron and Blood,” while their physique remains the same or worse, their strength does not increase, their technical proficiency stagnates or is non-existent- these individuals must be challenged and pressured to action, or purged from the greater body.

There is no room for dead weight, and each must inspire the other to greater undertakings. Constant pressure from peers does not have to be those directly within your immediate friendship group, or those you spend time with daily.

In this strange and modern world, I have seen it come from competition via Instagram or other social media, where individuals use one another to keep the pressure on and rise to each other’s challenges. This is obviously less desirable than physical, face to face relationships, but for some, any port in a storm must be utilized. Temporary agreements can spring up between those with great distance between them, competitions decided upon between solo operative or division, meet-ups scheduled in order to demonstrate the hard work that has been put in, and great fires lit and celebrations held to honor these victories. Those who do not work, those who do not travel, those who do not inspire: their names will be forgotten like ashes in the wind. We have only this one life to rise and conquer- we must not be distracted by those looking only to feed on us like parasites and ticks.

They must be pulled off and thrown to the fire. Written for Operation Werewolf by Matthias Waggener/ All photography by Colton D'Agostino With all the crazies in the streets heralding the end of the world, and what seems like everyone on the “news” talking about the end of this or the fall of that, some doomsday scenario or another, I find myself looking forward to the beginning of something new. And I’m glad it is just the beginning, because I am just a beginner. I’ve done many things in my life and have had a very broad range of experiences- I’ve even been referred to as a 'Jack of all Trades.” I believe it is good to have a wide understanding of the world around you, to be able to look at it from the broadest scope. I’ve definitely had things that I’ve stuck with for longer than others, jobs that I held for over 10 years, my relationship being longer than 10 years, etc. But the follow up to the moniker of the 'Jack of all Trades,' is 'Master of None.” I look at myself now and see that in all the endeavors that I am currently pursuing- I’m just a beginner. I believe in the value of mastery, and so I can’t aggrandize any of my actions, understanding, or application in these areas as being anything other than at this beginner level.

At a very conservative estimation, in most fields, it is generally assumed that mastery can be achieved at 10 years of experience. That is at a very “bare minimum” usually reserved for prodigies and “phenoms.” If we look at mastery like a spectrum, you have to be able to gauge where you are on that spectrum, and to exaggerate or let the ego place that point somewhere further along dishonors the true masters and leads to, or is a product of, self delusion. Even with the few things in my life that I have been doing for 10 years or more, I still feel proficient at best. Recently I had to change my routine and start working out in the early mornings at about 4:30.

I remember thinking to myself how this was going to be “hardcore,” because it was going to require the type of discipline that in my mind few possessed. As I walked through the doors the first morning I was shocked to see the gym packed with middle aged soccer moms there for their workouts and morning Zumba classes or whatever it is they do. I immediately came to the absolutely humbling realization that I was only displaying the same dedication to fitness found in your average soccer mom.

At a Jiu Jitsu tournament the other day, Iam a warrior in my own mind, there to forge myself iron hard in glorious combatand I find myself again surrounded by regular, everyday people, computer programmers, construction workers, (more soccer moms!)- some at the highest level of competition- who had dedicated a decade or more to the same endeavor that I put so much stock in. In the gym I’m constantly pushing myself and growing stronger, but the hard fact is: I still can’t even lift half the weight the masters in the sport are capable of. Now, it’s not that I am not proud of my accomplishments, and the sacrifices I have made to get where I am now- I am even satisfied with my rate of progression. It’s just that in order to get where you want to be you have to know where you are going, and an honest understanding of where you are now.

I see a lot of people these days becoming experts on a subject after putting in a few hours on Youtube, or listening to the helper constantly complain about the journeyman, always assuming that somehow with only a fraction of the experience, he somehow knows “a better way.” The white belt, who has to add some tidbit of knowledge to everything the professor says. These types of peopleare the greatest insult to the idea of mastery, by undermining the importance of in-depth study, consistency, dedication and discipline.

It desecrates the idea of the teacher/student relationship, and ultimately seeks to remove the need for humility in a human being- replacing it with the rampant expression of inflated ego, leading to a false sense of pride and self delusion. These, in turn, leave the individual in a state of inability to learn at all, and create a generally disrespectful position towards true knowledge of any kind. For me, it is important that I recognize myself as a simple traveller on the road to mastery, because I don’t want something that is fake, that would break under any true test.

If or when I reach a level of mastery, I want it to mean something. I will want the respect that only true mastery can garner. Most importantly, I will want to have the memory of every moment along that path that contributed to producing a master- a full and complete knowledge of what it actually takes to get there. Even after this, I imagine that if I make it there I will still feel like a beginner, and I hope to always maintain that mindset. I do not consider it to be self-deprecating to minimize my accomplishments in order for them to appropriately fit the scale they should be weighed on. It is not a staggering blow to my ego to admit that somewhere a soccer mom is probably out working me. It is a bar that is set, that in order for me to know I am truly going above and beyond, I must exceed yesterday’s effort in all areas.

Many days I fail, because I am just a beginner- but that might just be the most important step towards mastery. Last week, I went overseas to Denmark to attend an incredible event along with Operatives from several different countries- the experience was one I will never forget.

As I sang galdr under the bright moon with men and women from Norway, Denmark, Brazil, Germany, Serbia, America, Canada, England, Italy, Poland and Wales- I knew that the call Operation Werewolf has put out across the globe is being answered whole-heartedly, and the seeds that have been planted are being watered with blood and dedication. These individuals are, with their very lives, writing the first pages of a new mythology that carries the fire of the old world, but dwells with eyes wide open in the present. A legend of their own creation, these wolf-cults who worship at the altar of Trial and Ordeal are growing stronger and their voices are carrying to one another and being answered in turn. After I returned home, I spent a few days in quiet contemplation as I got back into the swing of my routine. One of the things that stayed heavily on my mind was that in order to move forward, we as humans must adhere to a higher ideal and seek to embody that ideal with our entire being. There were a lot of discussions between those of us who attended the event regarding this concept- how can an individual stay true at all times to what he is seeking to be an archetype of? Is a man a hypocrite if he is incapable at times of living up to what he says he believes?

This sort of religious devotion to a concept bigger than ourselves is something all of us had in common. The desire, or rather, the need, to demand excellence of ourselves and those around us- to make ourselves something that others can believe in, and that their belief in us is the Truth. I have written and spoken quite a bit in the past about this idea of consonance- that everything we do in our lives “makes sense” with the rest of it, each activity and pursuit must ring out in resonance like notes in a scale, or brush-strokes on a larger painting that all contribute to the greatness of the entire piece. Everyone knows how hard it is to maintain discipline at times, to continue to hammer away at our goals day after day after day, without flagging or faltering.

Making our footsteps lead ever in the one direction so that knowing the proper way is ingrained into our nature, and that others might follow those footsteps if they are able. Every road worth walking is one beset with adversity and resistance.

Climbing the mountain is more noble a pursuit than walking on the wide road. It is my belief that one can attain this devotion, this consonant self-creation only by continuous, ritualized action, and that that action must exist within, and be visualized through, a mythopoetic worldview that I feel most modern human beings have lost or become separated from. Our lives are not mundane by nature.

They have become so only through nurture. We have become cut off from living lives of saga-worthy action not by some external force, but through our own stunted concept of the world we live in, or the time we live in. We feel that the age of heroes is over, but the truth of the matter is that the age of heroes is just beginning again. From the grey, a glimmer of newly sparked flame.

A growing rejection of static serfdom and acceptance that the world is explored and all the marrow sucked out before we were born. These ideas are poison, and must be purged from the brain and vein. This world is in flux, a time of chaos and confusion, of conflict and madness. Only those who have lived lives of sheltered silence could possibly believe that theirs is a boring or banal era.

I say that this is the era that will give birth to a new breed of man, warring against himself and the illusions of the age, to re-create himself, to transform from man into wolf and lead his brothers in the struggle against weakness and the horrors of monoculture’s manacles. My brother Jack Donovan and I have spoken at great length in endless conversations about what an individual shows about themselves by how they spend both their time and their money. In comparing notes, we both realized that almost all of our total resources go not into “things” or new possessions, but into what we consider our higher ideals. Training, travel, land, tribal infrastructure. Creating both external and internal environments where what we believe in can thrive and be fed via action that is in direct correlation with who we say we are.

I travel thousands of miles across the United States and back several times a year, and will have been to Europe at least twice by year’s end. I spend half of what I used to pay in rent towards training with weights and martial arts in order to keep my body and mind sharp and ready.

I read and write every day. I support as many others whose work I believe in with my dollar and my network as I am able, in order to give back what I can to those who in turn support me. I pour time and resources into the Wolves and Operation Werewolf continuously throughout my day, week, month, year.

And still, we all must look for ways in which to streamline- to bring ourselves more in line with our own belief structure and to create deeper channels into which we can pour our sweat and blood. This is what makes us. This is what sets us apart- we can never be satisfied, and ours is a work that strives for perfection but will never attain it. The criticism we have received, the shrieking detractions, the condemnations and sarcasm- all must only feed the fire. The experiences I have been able to have through Operation Werewolf and the individuals who have aligned themselves with it, the connections made, the friendships discovered and the brotherhood forged- drowns out all doubt, all negativity, all uncertainty. This is a living and growing organism that gains strength from strength and is sinking deep roots into soil all over the world. Everyone who has ever supported Operation Werewolf has placed their faith and resources into this growing idea, and has my deepest gratitude.

All those who live by the code “Pure Hearts, Strong Limbs, Actions Matching Words,” are men and women that I hope to one day meet around a fire somewhere and shake hands with, to look into your eyes and know that our footsteps have all led us here. That we were made for this- we have given life to a perfect creation. We have gathered here to bear witness to this death of the old world and our old selves, somberly, slowly, in reverence of the new one we will make. As some readers might know, at the beginning of March, my wife and I opted to move out of our full-size house in the city and overhaul an old construction trailer/storage truck into a living space. We had several reasons for doing so, but chief among them were a feeling that we had accumulated too much of two “negative” elements: possessions and comfort. Along the way, I felt the need to articulate in writing my relationship with the idea of comfort and the argument for minimalist living. What follows is my first attempt at untangling some of these ideas to help myself and maybe others understand why someone would move out of a perfectly good house with central air and tons of room, in favor of 240 square feet and no running water.

I begin by admitting that living in the woods in what has been termed a “tiny house,” is a special kind of experience that not everyone is suited for. The drive to do so comes from the desire I’ve always had to experience life at its most “hands on” and primal- I like simple shit, and I’ve always found too much choice to be more of a limiting factor in my life than a rewarding one. What I mean by “too much choice” is really “too much stuff.” Don’t get me wrong, I believe that variety is, as the man said, “the spice of life,” but I tend to look at that as a statement about experience, travel, and different kinds of food. Left to my own devices in a comfortable house with too many options of what to do, what gadget to mess with, or diversion to engage in, is kind of like surfing the internet aimlessly, or going grocery shopping when you’re hungry- without a list. I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I do that, my cart looks like a study in bad choices across the board.

I get less done than I might if those choices were more limited by design. This aesthetic/lifestyle crosses over into everything in my existence, from the motorcycles I dig to the training programs I run. I’m a Wendler guy, not a Westside guy (no offense to the bands and chains crew!). I like stripped down choppers- an uncomplicated, old school machine that is reliable and will take a beating.

The DIY style of life is also very important to me, from doing my own wrenching whenever possible, to stitching my own clothes back together- if it can be done with a heavy dose of motivation and a few YouTube videos, I’m all over it, and so the idea of living in a little house that I did the work on and know every part of directly is massively appealing. I’ve seen a lot of documentaries about tiny house living, and I always have to laugh- I feel that most of the people in these videos have very little in common with me. Many of the males seem to have gentle, effete mannerisms and talk a great deal about “reducing their carbon footprint” and things of that nature, making it sound like they are performing a sacrifice for the greater good of planet earth.

They hold their coffee cups with both hands wrapped around them in a way that I have always associated with females in bourgeois fashion catalogues as they model the new line of jeans and flannel shirts that these guys seem to also be wearing. They’ve spent a pile of loot on these houses as well- some up into 30 or 40 grand for a house that is less than 300 square feet.

These attitudes don’t jive with me very much. I don’t spend a great deal of time these days thinking about my carbon footprint- maybe because that seems hypocritical to someone who uses a cell phone and rides a motorcycle and also owns a car, and shops occasionally at Wal-Mart and eats meat produced by the industrial world, and uses the internet (and run-on sentences), and all these other things that rely on technologies that are produced from slavery, murder, and the awful treatment of humans and other animals. Maybe I feel that its a bit ridiculous to think that simply living in a smaller house gives me some kind of moral high ground from which I can passive aggressively judge others who do not share my lofty world view. Or maybe, on my more nihilistic days, I think that the world will probably outlive humans, and that it is total hubris to believe we as a race could destroy something that is billions of years old- or that it would even matter at all if we did that. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, what’s one planet? In the words of the immortal Russian: “If he dies, he dies.” Most of the time, I just think: I have one short life to live, and I don’t plan to spend it worrying about the fate of the solar system- a thing infinitely older than myself, godlike in its massiveness, and its mysteries.

Wherever my philosophical mindset is that day, one thing is certain- I am not living this way to make a statement to anyone about a moral compass, but to follow my own compass, far and wide. I am doing it to embrace the concepts Speed and Freedom, living fast and dying full of stories- to avoid being static. All these reasons were the spark that led to the fire of immolating my comfort zone and moving back out to the woods (I have done this before, a few years back, for about a year and a half). This deliberate destruction of what I term “comfort addiction” is something that has become central to the entire experience of getting back to basics for me, and moving into a very small space is a great catalyst for this, because of what it demands from you. It requires you to own very little. There is simply no room for bullshit in a place this size- you have what you need and what you use all the time, and really, nothing else. This is one of the most liberating feelings I have ever experienced (both times I’ve done this), and at the same time, actually places a greater importance on and connection with those material items that you do need, or like enough to keep in your life.

(I apply this same principle to friendships and it works wonders!) Having one or two nice knives is better than a drawer full of mediocre ones. You take care of them better. They receive more of your attention, and in my case, I like to personalize my few pieces of favored sharp metal with art on the handles, custom sheaths, and so on. You get the idea. The same goes for any of your other stuff- it ceases to become a throwaway mundane item and transforms into a work of art, a faithful friend- a sacred object in this ritual of existence.

You also have to get comfortable with the idea that choices become more limited at home for what you will do in that space. My home is not my “castle,” as exterior space becomes more utilized for “hang out areas,” and so on, and I spend less time at home, again, by design. At the last place I lived, I had so much stuff there (maybe not by some standards, but a lot for me!) and so much space to keep it in, I felt I never needed to go anywhere. This kind of thing keeps us landlocked and out of the storyline so to speak, whereas being away from home a lot is one of the entire reasons I chose to go back to tiny house life in the first place. We get too comfortable going from the bookshelf to the internet to the TV to the workshop or garage, to the kitchen, that we can become stuck in this eternal loop of domesticity. Perhaps most importantly, and at its core, it demands that you reevaluate your understanding of comfort, convenience and “hardship.” Living in a little house in the woods is drastically different from living in a sprawling home in the suburbs, obviously, but its the little things about it that seem to have the most impact.

Getting up from reading to turn off the generator before I fall asleep, as well as making sure there is gasoline refilled in order to run it. Not being able to operate every damn electronic device in the house all at the same time.

My experience is different from many in that I am living relatively primitive, with an outhouse and no running water, so even going to the bathroom is something that comes with its own “discomforts.” Having to walk outside in the middle of the night in the rain is a hassle when compared with down the hall. Refilling drinking water jugs from the spring several miles away. Showering, for now, is done at the gym- I find myself missing very few days of my routine when it becomes tied into not only my training but also necessary hygiene practice! All of these things, combined with sharing a car with my wife and running the shipping end of things from a friend’s house for the time being require a sharpened sense of planning and purpose throughout the day- scheduling the next day the night before in my notebook is very important to a productive week. From the outside, I can understand that it might seem strange in a world where we don’t have to live with these discomforts, why I would still choose that life, but for me it comes down to a love/hate relationship with comfort itself. “Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.” I remember seeing these words for the first time when a friend gave me a copy of Thoreau’s “Walden” as I was moving off grid the first time, with this passage by Kahlil Gibran inscribed on the first page. Despite a dislike for some of his work, this passage prompted me to read his beautiful poem “On Houses.” In it, the author conveys a longing for the open fields and woods, and for a return to a more natural way of life that exists outside of the walls of the city, and touches on the nature of comfort as something that eventually enslaves us: “Would that I could gather your houses into my hand, and like a sower scatter them in forest and meadow.

Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments Tell me, have you these in your houses? Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master? Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires. Though its hands are silken, its heart is of iron.” These lines made an impact, and have remained with me since first reading them. The words “it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires,” resonated with me so strongly, the concept that we give up on many plans and actions that might lead us to spiritual strength, inner knowledge, and ultimately, glory, out of fear of the unknown, fear of discomfort, and an addiction to a life of ease.

It is in the human nature to escape pain and seek comfort. Indeed, there are popular schools of philosophy based around the concept that pleasure is good and pain is bad, and that the avoidance of the one and the seeking of the other is what makes a life worth living. I believe that the modern world has taken this fear of discomfort to its extremes, at the detriment of our greater experience.

One cannot be inoculated to discomfort, that is, become undeterred by its effects, if we spend all our time avoiding it. It might do us all some good to explore our relationship with comfort and ease, and ask ourselves what kind of life we might be living without an addiction to it? Would we set off more often on the open road, seeing what there is just over the next rise, a holy “yes” to life in our heart? Would we train harder and deny ourselves the low road more often, our discipline becoming sharpened by this discomfort inoculation? Would we remain the master at home, rather than the servant of all the things we own, all the things we take for granted, and all the things that dull our edge and seek to “make puppets of our larger desires?” For my part, I will always seek out the path that rings the truest to me, and me alone.

I look to make of my life a piece of art in motion, always striving for the perfection and ultimate freedom that I know will never come, but that the mere pursuit of fills me with the fire of purpose and meaning. I will look to the horizon and see in the setting sun a symbol of the transitory nature of life, and my brief time to experience all its joys and sorrows. I will tread my path with friends, sometimes, and alone, often, and know that “the cure for the pain is in the pain,” and I will despise comfort- and seek greatness instead. As we enter into April, those who are walking this path are already entering into the second quarter of their year, adding discipline to discipline and creating a foundation of solidity from which their own work and myth will spring in time.

This time of year is also symbolic of new endeavors, new vistas to explore, and the time of year that many pagan peoples celebrated the concept of victory and conquest. As such, we will be embracing this idea, and putting some of what we have been focusing on to the test.

Firstly, we will begin by moving forward with our meditation into the practice of “Walking the Pathways of Fire,” Laid out in “Vakandibok.” It is dealt with in depth there, so we will not spend much time re-hashing that information here, except to say that this work will lay the base for what we will be working on with our mediation practices for the remainder of the year following. Practice with as much care and dedication as you would any of your training- benefits are only reaped from proper practice, not poorly executed repetition. Second, in the spirit of sacrifice made to the gods of our ancestors, to give victory to those who kept faith/friendship, we will choose one of our pleasure habits (that is, activities engaged in specifically for enjoyment’s sake alone), and we will abstain from it for one month. The concept of sacrifice is one that for the modern man is less tied up with plant and livestock, and resonates for many on a deeper level when associated with time, pleasure, or habitual behavior abstained from as a holy act. In a practical sense as it pertains to conquest and victory, it is often the man who is willing to give up more to attain his prize that will win it. If we are unfamiliar with the concept of deliberately suffering for a higher cause, we will never unlock the inner strength that this practice contains. Choose something difficult, and bleed it out on the altar of discipline.

Third, we will choose one thing to compete in, and during the course of April, we will sign on for that competition. This can be anything from writing challenge, powerlifting meet, jiu jitsu tournament, boxing match, or foot-race with a friend. The format does not matter.

The reason and intention for this is that too often we practice our skills in a vacuum where they go untested. By choosing to put ourselves on the line in competition, we will find truth and honesty with ourselves, and be better able to understand what we need to focus on. The competition itself does not have to be done in April, merely signed up for, a concrete date with destiny laid down to inform the training with purpose. If you have become conformable competing in one arena, use this as a challenge to broaden your horizon and put another skill to the test.

It is only through resistance that man becomes king, and lord over himself. We look forward to a prosperous Spring season, and wish one for you all, filled with trial, ordeal, and the enflaming passion that only hard-won victory can produce. Iron and Blood! Front Toward Enemy This week I had the pleasure of hosting Brian Jones, a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Carlson Gracie, Jr., and owner and head instructor of Valhalla Academy in Kentucky. It is always pleasure getting to pick the brains of guys who have been at their craft for as long as Brian has, and I am always blown away by how applicable the concepts of art are across the spectrum of human experience; whether it is jiu jitsu, painting, music, or otherwise, there are certain principles that find consonance with each other, like notes in a scale. Over the past several weeks, I have been preparing for a move out onto 5 acres of wooded property I recently purchased. The space I will be sharing with my wife and dog is approximately 8x32 feet in total, and must serve as bedroom, library, office, kitchen, and fortress- anyone who has lived in a tiny house or other very limited space knows that the motto “a place for everything and everything in its place” is the holy writ.

Every possession must be weighed and found fit in order for it to deserve its place in this little structure. If it hasn't seen use even for a week, it is probably not essential, and is given away or discarded. This process is, for me, one of extreme catharsis, as my material possessions are whittled down to only those things that I feel are completely necessary, and this act lends itself to a certain simplicity and focus that can be felt in living by the tenets of minimalism. My slogan for the year is “less stuff, more life,” and the decision to move into this space was motivated in large part by the desire to eliminate many of the distractions and illusions that for me come along with “comfortable living.” During our many conversations over the last few days, one of the things that Brian touched on is the concept that as a younger man, it is good to explore and undertake many different things; try out new skills, jump from one activity to the next after a brief exploration of a year or so, and continue to chase a broad spectrum of experience within our lives. This is like the novice and intermediate level of jiu jitsu, in which one is essentially trying to take in as much information as he possibly can, like a sponge, indiscriminately, and trying it all out within the structure of his game.

Later on, like in the in the higher belt levels, the process is about refinement. Just like the alchemical process (which is, of course, what jiu jitsu and any other valuable pursuit is all about), the many different elements are distilled and purified through a series of operations that seeks to bring about a simplicity and unification of all these elements into a single consonant resonation- the human becomes a living shrine to those things that he has deemed holy during his brief time on earth. At one point in the conversation Brian said: “You’re not going to get really good at your jiu jitsu unless you start to cut out some of these other elements. You have to be like a claymore mine- all the explosive power has to be directed toward something, or it just burns up in a flash like a mound of gunpowder.” In my life, I have been and done a lot of different things, even in the thirty two odd years I’ve been here.

I have put on a lot of miles and had the throttle wide open for most of them- from runaway to professional musician, bouncer, writer, artist, aimless drunk, focused leader; my skill set is very broad, but in some of those places, the river doesn’t run as deep as I’d like. I have always pursued a “jack of all trades” approach to life, and am realizing more and more in my thirties that I want to excel at a few things that have become increasingly important to me with time. The physical act of removing unnecessary possessions and people from my life, focusing on a few important ones, and moving forward into a time of simplicity and non-distraction is a note that resonates in my chest these days louder than any other. I want to pursue jiu jitsu as an art form, not just a way to “fuck people up.” I want to deepen my understanding of the writing process and take a few projects that have been wandering the darkened halls at the back of my mind for awhile, and see them to completion. I want to be a more dedicated friend to those who deserve it, and have my full attention on life, feeling the rhythm of the seasons, the changes in the wind, and the little things- like how happy my dog is when I walk in the woods with her.

All these things can only be had at the sacrifice of all the other things. The needless comforts, the lazy approaches, the half assed efforts. I am on the Path With No End, and I know that it is a path “with heart,” to be traversed, breathlessly, Front Toward Enemy. March Challenge • We will begin this month by expanding on our mediation practice. Continuing our discipline of setting aside time, we will increase from 5-10 minutes per day to 10-15 minutes. During this time, we will take a few minutes to simply relax and monitor our breathing and so on, but this month, after we do so, we will be performing some exercises to sharpen the mind for our next phase.

Begin using the Wondrous Items discipline found in Vakandibok. If you do not own a copy, or cannot afford one, begin using what I call the Turning the Gears. I cannot remember where I first heard about this practice, but it is simple and effective. One starts out with a blackened mental image, just void, and places one gear, or cog into the void, and begins turning it. Next, they add another cog, which is turned by the first one. One proceeds in this fashion until they “lose the image,” either due to complexity or lack of focus, and starts over. These beginning practices and exercises are important, because we cannot begin the process of uncluttering/self surgery on our minds and inner universe until our tools are sharpened and oiled.

Even if we are generally mentally active, but we are still relatively new to meditation and to “going within,” or just returning to it, we have to perform some exercise and get the blood flowing, so to speak. In a similar fashion, if I have been out of the gym for a while, I jumpstart my training by doing some full body workouts and hard cardio to get myself worked back up. If you are someone who has practiced meditation for a long period of time, simply use this time to return to the basics, and keep a “beginner’s mindset”- allow yourself to revisit the firststeps of the process from a different approach.

You might learn something, or you might not, but certainly, any time spent sharpening the mental faculties is not wasted. • Second, we will perform a financial assessment. Whether we like it or not, the blood that flows in the veins of Empire is green. In order to attain leverage in that world and be able to be effective there, as much as anywhere else, we have to learn to think of money as a tool, just like a wrench or hammer. It helps us get a job done, and do what we need to, in order to live the lives we want. I have met many intelligent and passionate people whose disdain for money or lack of ability to make it crippled their enjoyment, mobility, time, and freedom.

Everyone has bills to pay, and goals to achieve that will require capital, unless they are an ascetic who lives in a cave or hut and survives only on what they can produce themselves- those individuals have my utmost respect, but they are probably not reading this article. For the rest of us, we must destroy our limiting views of money, and simply view it dispassionately as a means to an end, an energy supply that can be used in much the same way as electricity, to power the circuitry of our temporal (and sometimes spiritual) plans. For now,we will simply write down our total income for the month of March, and track each expenditure of money for the month (spending as we normally would), and WRITE EVERY SINGLE ONE DOWN. This is essential groundwork for what will come next, and just like everything we are doing this year, we will begin basically and work toward more complexity once we have shown we are capable of those basics. • This month, we will again return to our Heroic Blueprint and work on both a positive and a negative.

This is the last month we will mention this, as our blueprint should be in the forefront of our mind at all times- we will begin keeping a journal of our progress towards this archetype if we haven't already done so, and we will write deeper and more experiential pieces regarding our perceptions of those positive and negative traits. We are looking this month to begin building an archetype in our minds that embodies our blueprint, a mythic character, like a god, that is us in potential- representative of ourselves as we Will ourselves to be, but not as we are now. As we improve, the concept of our archetype will deepen, and go beyond us, and create a constant struggle toward further emulation, which we call worship. This is the ritual aspect of the Werewolf method, a creation of a new god, one known only to ourselves, driving us onward as we give it depth, attribute it with deeper meaning, and realize our own mythology through the pursuit of this higher ideal.