A Spiritual Explorer's Journal

expect a blend of mysticism and magic, psyche and soul, everyday wisdom, and the esoteric.

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Expect a blend of mysticism and music, psyche and soul, everyday wisdom, and the esoteric. One day, I might be waxing lyrical about Nietzsche’s eternal return, and the next, uncovering the wisdom of the tarot. It’s all up for grabs on this pod.

So, if first-person confessional style podcasts are your jam, subscribe to mine wherever you get your podcasts.

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About the Blogger

In the spirit of making up titles for one’s self in the postmodern world of work, I self-identify as a rogue spiritual explorer and personal growth advocate, among other things.

I’m on a mission to refactor perceptions and explore the subconscious mind through fragmented, spontaneous prose.

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a cup of coffee on a notebook

Voice, Ink, and the Shape of Thought

March 22, 2025 No Comments

This morning, I traded my keyboard for my voice.

Instead of typing out my morning pages, I hit record and let my thoughts spill out in a stream-of-consciousness monologue. What came out wasn’t just more—it was different. The ideas had a rhythm. The insights were rawer. And strangely, I found myself pausing not because I was stuck—but because I needed a moment to process what I had just said.

It felt less like journaling and more like channelling.

That experience sent me down a rabbit hole—one that wound through neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and personal insight. What I discovered wasn’t just useful—it was revelatory.

The Brain Has Two Voices

Cognitive scientists have long noticed a subtle but powerful difference between how we write and how we speak. You can feel it if you’ve ever tried to draft an email and then abandoned it to just send a voice note instead. It’s not just a shift in pace or medium. It’s a shift in how we think.

Here’s the heart of it:

  • In writing, you often hear yourself think first. You form the idea in your mind, then transcribe it onto the page. There’s a delay—a space between cognition and inscription. It’s rehearsed, refined, and rendered.
  • In speech, you think by speaking. The words arrive on the wind of your breath. They’re born as they’re spoken. Sometimes you only understand what you’re trying to say after it’s already out in the world.

This might sound obvious, but it opens a profound distinction—one that philosopher Andy Clark frames beautifully in his theory of the “Extended Mind.”

Extended Cognition vs. Embodied Thought

Clark suggests that cognition doesn’t just happen inside the head. The mind, he argues, extends into the tools we use. Your notebook. Your keyboard. Even your voice recorder. These are not just accessories to thinking—they are extensions of your thinking process itself.

Here’s how that plays out in our journaling experiment:

Extended Cognition (Writing)

Writing is a form of external scaffolding. You use symbols—letters, words, sentences—to organise and refine thought. The tool (pen, paper, keyboard) is a shaping force. It slows you down, forces you to choose, filter, and arrange.

You become a kind of inner architect, sketching blueprints for ideas that haven’t fully formed yet.

This is why writing can feel meditative. Or maddening. Or like editing your soul one keystroke at a time.

Embodied Thought (Speaking)

Speaking is immediate. Your body becomes the instrument—your voice the vehicle for raw cognition. There’s no filter, no drafting, no hovering cursor.

You are the tool. The breath, the mouth, the mind—all operating as one continuous system. Speaking is embodied cognition in motion.

This is why speech can sometimes feel like improv, sometimes like prophecy. You’re hearing yourself become aware in real time.

Why It Matters for the Rogue Learner (and the Modern Mystic)

What this reveals is that journaling—whether written or spoken—isn’t just self-expression. It’s self-creation. A practice of becoming.

Writing lets you sculpt thought. Speaking lets you summon it.
Writing invites structure. Speaking invites surprise.
Writing edits. Speaking exorcises.

Both are valid. Both are powerful. But understanding their differences allows you to use them intentionally.

So the next time you sit down to “write”, ask yourself—

Do I need to build a thought? Or do I need to release one?

And if you’re feeling bold, try a dual-mode ritual:

  1. Speak your truth first—raw and unfiltered.
  2. Then write to interpret what you said—slow and structured.
  3. Compare. Reflect. Notice which you emerges in each.

You might find that you’re not one self, but a chorus—and each voice has something to teach you.

Your Mind is a Myth

I’ll leave you with this thought:

Perhaps the mind isn’t a machine, but a mythic instrument—a lyre strung between silence and sound, inscription and incantation.

Some days it wants to sing. Other days it wants to scribe.

The real magic lies in learning to listen for which voice is calling—and knowing how to answer.

🧭 Voice & Ink: A Journaling Practice for Rogue Learners

Some thoughts need to be written slowly by hand, as if carving them into stone. Others arrive hot and breathless, needing to be spoken aloud before they evaporate.

This practice—The Dual-Mind Method—invites you to explore both. It’s a simple two-day ritual designed to help you discover the different selves that emerge when you speak your thoughts versus when you write them. Inspired by cognitive science, mythic imagination, and the rogue learner’s path, this is more than a journaling technique—it’s a conversation between your inner scribe and your inner oracle.

Start with your voice. Follow it with your pen. Notice what changes.

If you’ve ever felt like you think differently when you talk than when you write, this practice will help you listen more deeply to both.

Start Practice

Once you’ve completed the practice, I’d love to hear what emerged for you. What surprised you? Did your speaking self and writing self feel like old friends—or strangers meeting for the first time? Any insights, resistances, or revelations along the way are welcome. This is a living experiment, and your reflections help shape it. Feel free to drop me a note, reply to the blog post, or share your experience in your own space and tag me.

photo of woman holding brown book with her child

The Return of Story

March 20, 2025 No Comments

For centuries, we’ve been conditioned to believe that logic is king and story is its court jester—entertaining but ultimately frivolous. From the moment we step into a classroom, we’re trained to think in bullet points, equations, and neatly categorised facts. We’re rewarded for linear reasoning and penalised for wandering too far down imaginative paths.

But here’s the thing: our brains don’t work that way. We are creatures of story. We make sense of the world not through cold, mechanical logic, but through myths, narratives, and meaning woven from experience. Storytelling is the oldest and most natural way of learning, yet it has been systematically erased from education in favour of rigid logic, industrial efficiency, and standardised thinking.

In this episode, we crack open the foundations of this system and ask: Why were we taught to think against our nature? What happens when we reclaim storytelling as our primary way of knowing? The answer is more than a return to an old way of thinking—it’s a quiet revolution, a break from the machine, a reawakening of something ancient and powerful.

The world was never a machine. It was always a story. And it’s time we remember how to tell it.

I want to hear from the logic thinkers. What are your thoughts on this primacy of story? How does the world look through your lens?

brown cup on wooden tray

The Alchemy of Lemon and Ginger Tea

March 20, 2025 No Comments

Blogger’s Note: The Alchemy of a Simple Cup of Tea

Why just have a simple cup of tea when you can activate your mythic imagination and transform the act into a mindful ritual?

In a world that rushes past the sacred in favour of the efficient, we often forget that even the most ordinary moments can be portals to transformation. A cup of tea is not just a beverage—it’s an invocation, an alchemical process that turns heat, water, and botanical essence into something greater than the sum of its parts.

When you slice fresh ginger, you’re not just cutting a root; you’re awakening the fire within, summoning warmth and vitality. When you squeeze a lemon, you’re not just adding flavour; you’re inviting clarity and purification into your mind and body. And when you pour the steaming water, you’re watching base elements merge, dissolve, and transmute—a miniature Great Work, happening right in your hands.

This is the power of mythic imagination—the ability to see beyond the mundane and engage with life as if it were a living ritual, a personal mystery school, a work of art in progress. Whether it’s a tea ceremony, a morning journal entry, or a quiet moment of breath, every small act holds the potential for alchemy—if we choose to see it that way.

So let’s begin. The kettle is boiling. The transformation awaits.

A Potent Elixir for Transformation

There’s something ancient and alchemical about steeping a cup of lemon and ginger tea. The elements themselves feel like they belong in a hermetic text—fire, air, water, and earth converging in a simple but potent brew. Ginger, the fiery rhizome, awakens the senses and stokes the digestive furnace. Lemon, the golden orb, purifies, clarifies, and brightens. Together, they form a transformative elixir, capable of shifting the body’s internal balance, much like a well-placed sigil or an alchemist’s stone.

But let’s take this beyond mere folk remedies and into the deeper alchemical and philosophical dimensions of this brew. What happens when we approach this simple tea as a spagyric potion, a liquid philosopher’s stone that catalyses internal transformation?

I. The Prima Materia: The Core Ingredients and Their Properties

Ginger: The Fire Element and the Mercurial Catalyst

In alchemical terms, ginger is ruled by Mars—a planet of action, heat, and intensity. It represents the sulphur principle, the active, fiery essence that stimulates circulation, digestion, and energy flow.

• Metaphysical Properties: Ginger has long been associated with protection, passion, and vitality. In magical traditions, it is used in spells for success and to accelerate results, much like how it speeds up circulation in the body.

• Physical Properties: Scientifically, ginger is rich in gingerols and shogaols, compounds that have anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea effects. It heats up the body, aiding digestion, reducing bloating, and stimulating the immune system.

• Energetic Effect: Ginger warms the internal cauldron of the stomach and solar plexus, making it ideal for times when one feels sluggish, heavy, or emotionally blocked.

Ginger, then, is the catalyst, the fire that stirs transformation. It wakes the system from stagnation, just as sulphur acts in alchemical processes to bring about change.

Lemon: The Purifier and the Lunar Quintessence

Where ginger is fire, lemon is both air and water, a perfect mercurial and lunar substance. It has an illuminating, clarifying nature, like the white stone of alchemy, which dissolves impurities and refines substances to their purest state.

• Metaphysical Properties: Lemon is associated with purification, clarity, and mental sharpness. It is often used in magical and spiritual work to banish negativity and open mental pathways.

• Physical Properties: The citric acid in lemons stimulates bile production, aiding detoxification. The vitamin C boosts immunity, while its alkalising effect balances the body’s pH levels.

• Energetic Effect: Lemon cuts through emotional and physical stagnation, much like how a philosopher’s stone refines base metals into gold. It lifts the spirits, sharpens the mind, and removes the murkiness that clogs intuition.

Lemon, then, acts as the mercurial dissolver, breaking down barriers, clearing toxins, and purifying the internal landscape.

II. The Alchemical Process: Brewing the Potion

To truly make lemon and ginger tea an alchemical elixir, we must consider the three stages of alchemical transformation:

1. Nigredo (Blackening): The Breakdown Phase

When we chop fresh ginger and squeeze lemon, we are in the nigredo phase—the breakdown of substances to their fundamental essence. This is the death stage, where the old form dissolves. The cutting of the ginger root and lemon peel symbolises the breaking of old structures, much like the dark night of the soul in spiritual traditions.

2. Albedo (Whitening): The Purification Phase

As the ginger and lemon steep in hot water, they enter the albedo phase—purification and extraction. The water draws out the active compounds, just as an alchemist would extract the essence from plants. This is the clarification stage, where the body and spirit begin to lighten, detoxify, and find balance.

3. Rubedo (Reddening): The Integration Phase

The final phase, rubedo, is where transformation is complete. The brew, now rich and golden, is consumed, bringing its alchemy into the body. This phase represents embodiment and mastery, where the effects of the tea integrate into the system, activating both physical vitality and spiritual insight.

III. The Effects of the Elixir: How It Transforms the Body and Mind

By drinking lemon and ginger tea, we initiate a process of internal transmutation. The effects are multi-layered:

Physical Effects:

• Detoxification: The combination of ginger’s thermogenic effect and lemon’s cleansing properties supports the liver and kidneys in filtering toxins.

• Digestive Boost: Ginger stimulates digestive fire (Agni) in Ayurvedic medicine, while lemon enhances enzymatic function, aiding smooth digestion.

• Immunity Activation: With its high vitamin C content and antimicrobial properties, this tea fortifies the immune system, much like a protective talisman.

Energetic Effects:

• Mental Clarity: Lemon, ruled by Mercury, enhances mental acuity, while ginger’s Mars energy awakens the will. This tea is perfect before intellectual work or creative rituals.

• Emotional Alchemy: It lifts the mood, dispelling lethargy and emotional stagnation. In times of depression, confusion, or apathy, this tea acts as a golden spark to reignite one’s spirit.

• Energetic Cleansing: Both ingredients have purifying properties, making this tea ideal before meditation, spellwork, or intention setting.

IV. Making the Potion: A Ritual for Transformation

To maximise the alchemical effects of lemon and ginger tea, you can approach its preparation as a ritual act:

1. Gather Your Ingredients with Intention

• A fresh ginger root (Mars, Fire)

• A lemon (Mercury, Air & Water)

• Boiling water (Spirit, Universal Solvent)

• (Optional) Honey (Venus, Sweetening and Harmonization)

2. Infusion as a Hermetic Process

• Chop the ginger mindfully, recognising that you are releasing its fiery essence.

• Squeeze the lemon, visualising purification and clarity entering the mix.

• Pour hot water over the ingredients, imagining the elements merging and transmuting into an elixir.

3. Drink with Awareness

• Hold the cup and set an intention. Are you seeking mental clarity, digestive healing, or energetic purification?

• Drink slowly, consciously, allowing the warmth to move through your system.

• Pay attention to its effects—how does it shift your body, emotions, and mental state?

Conclusion: A Simple Yet Profound Act of Daily Alchemy

Lemon and ginger tea is more than just a soothing beverage; it is an alchemical process in miniature, demonstrating how simple substances can undergo profound transformation. In this brew, we find the fire of sulphur (ginger), the dissolving mercurial essence (lemon), and the integrating water (the universal solvent).

By engaging with this simple elixir with presence and intention, we participate in the timeless practice of alchemy, transforming not just our health, but our energy, our awareness, and perhaps even our destiny.

close up photo of a map

The Curriculum is Not the Knowledge

March 18, 2025 No Comments

📜 The Map is Not the Territory. The Curriculum is Not the Knowledge.

Formal education hands us maps—structured pathways meant to guide us toward understanding. They come in the form of syllabi, textbooks, standardised tests, and approved reading lists. These maps tell us what’s “worth knowing,” what’s “important, and what’s “tested.” They are designed for efficiency, predictability, and control.

But here’s the thing: a map is not the territory it represents.

A map simplifies, compresses, and abstracts reality—it leaves things out. It cannot capture the richness, the depth, the hidden paths, or the unexpected wonders that exist in the real landscape. It cannot prepare you for the feel of the terrain under your feet, the changes in weather, the landmarks only visible from certain angles.

And just like a map is not the land itself, a curriculum is not the full scope of knowledge.

A Rogue Learner knows this.

We understand that true learning happens outside the sanctioned routes, beyond the approved lessons, in the detours, the unexpected connections, the places no one told you to look.

It happens:

  • When you stumble upon a concept in an old book and chase it down a rabbit hole.
  • When a half-heard idea in a conversation sparks a question that won’t let you go.
  • When you take a skill you learned in one field and apply it in an entirely different context.
  • When you test, experiment, and explore—not to meet a requirement, but because curiosity is an unstoppable force.

The greatest thinkers, innovators, and pioneers—Leonardo da Vinci, Richard Feynman, Virginia Woolf, Buckminster Fuller—they all knew this secret. They didn’t just follow the map. They ventured beyond it.

So today, I challenge you:

🧭 Where in your learning are you simply following a map instead of exploring the territory?

🔍 What knowledge have you overlooked because it wasn’t part of a curriculum?

🛠 How can you engage with learning today—not as a student following instructions, but as a creator, a builder, an explorer?

Because knowledge is not a trail to be followed—it’s an ever-expanding world to be discovered.

So today, go where the map ends. 🚀

The Art of Rhetoric: Cicero’s Superpower

March 17, 2025 No Comments

Cicero—Rome’s master of words, the man who turned rhetoric into a weapon sharper than any gladius. If history had a hall of fame for persuasive speech, Marcus Tullius Cicero would have a prime seat, right next to Socrates and Churchill. His story is a masterclass in how language, when wielded with precision and strategic intent, can shape the fate of nations.

Table of Contents

The Art of Rhetoric: Cicero’s Superpower

Born in 106 BCE, Cicero wasn’t a general, nor was he born into Rome’s ruling class. In a world dominated by patrician bloodlines and military prowess, he was an outsider—an ambitious equestrian with only his mind and his words as weapons. But oh, what weapons they were.

By the late Republic, Rome had become a dangerous chessboard of power struggles. Political survival required not just alliances and military might but the ability to shape public perception. Cicero recognised this and made rhetoric—ars dicendi (the art of speaking)—his pathway to dominance. He studied under the best teachers in Greece, including the Stoic philosopher Diodotus and the famed orator Apollonius Molon of Rhodes, who also trained Julius Caesar. Cicero mastered every trick in the book: irony, invective, logical precision, emotional appeal. His speeches were not just arguments; they were symphonies of persuasion.

His big break came in 70 BCE with the Trial of Verres. Gaius Verres, a corrupt governor of Sicily, had looted his province and thought he could escape justice by bribing his way out. Cicero took the case against him, demolishing Verres with such relentless eloquence that the man fled into exile before the trial even finished. The Romans loved a good courtroom drama, and Cicero had just become its biggest star.

From Advocate to Consul: The Rise of a Statesman

Cicero wasn’t just a courtroom sensation—he leveraged his rhetorical prowess to climb the political ladder. By 63 BCE, he reached the pinnacle: Consul of Rome, the highest elected office. It was here that he delivered the speeches that solidified his legacy.

The Republic was on shaky ground. Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) was plotting a violent coup. Cicero, through intelligence networks and sheer political instinct, discovered the conspiracy and took it down with a series of legendary speeches—the Catilinarian Orations. Standing in the Senate, he thundered against Catiline with lines that still resonate:

“How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?”
(Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?)

With this speech, he didn’t just expose Catiline; he made himself the saviour of the Republic. The Senate gave him near-dictatorial powers to suppress the coup, and he executed Catiline’s co-conspirators without trial. It was a masterstroke of political theatre.

Cicero vs. Caesar: A Rhetorical Gladiator in a World of Generals

For all his eloquence, Cicero was walking a tightrope. The late Republic was a playground of warlords—Pompey, Crassus, and the rising force of Julius Caesar. Cicero, ever the defender of res publica (the Republic), opposed the idea of a strongman ruling Rome. But unlike Caesar, who commanded armies, Cicero had only his voice.

When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BCE, plunging Rome into civil war, Cicero hesitated. He neither fully supported nor opposed Caesar, a strategic ambiguity that left him politically sidelined. After Caesar’s victory, Cicero was pardoned but diminished. He had spent a career using words to control men, but now men of action ruled Rome.

The Philippics: Cicero’s Final War of Words

When Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, Cicero saw a chance to restore the Republic. But there was a new threat: Mark Antony. Believing Antony to be another tyrant in the making, Cicero launched a rhetorical assault known as the Philippics—a series of speeches that savaged Antony’s character, painting him as a drunken, power-hungry thug.

But words, no matter how sharp, can’t stop the sword. Antony, furious, declared Cicero an enemy of the state. In 43 BCE, Cicero was hunted down and executed. His hands and head were displayed in the Roman Forum, a grim warning that rhetoric alone could not save the Republic.

Cicero’s Legacy: The Eternal Orator

Cicero’s death marked the twilight of the Republic, but his influence endured. His works became the foundation of rhetorical education for centuries. Augustine, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams—great thinkers across time—studied Cicero to learn the power of persuasion.

Perhaps the greatest irony of Cicero’s life is that while he failed to save the Republic in his time, his writings became a cornerstone of political philosophy. His On Duties (De Officiis) remains one of the most influential works on ethics and leadership. His letters reveal a mind both brilliant and deeply human—ambitious, vain, witty, and ultimately tragic.

The Takeaway: Cicero’s Power Playbook

  1. Master the Art of Speech – Cicero proved that words can be a weapon, a shield, and a path to power. He understood how to command attention, frame debates, and control narratives.
  2. Know When to Act – While his rhetoric was unmatched, Cicero’s hesitation in the face of realpolitik (especially with Caesar) left him vulnerable.
  3. Build Alliances – Even the greatest orator needs allies. Cicero’s downfall came when he lost political protection.
  4. Never Underestimate the Power of Ideas – Though his body was destroyed, his words lived on. He became immortal not by ruling Rome but by shaping the minds of those who did.

Final Thought

If Cicero had lived in the modern world, he wouldn’t just be a politician—he’d be a media mogul, a bestselling author, a podcasting giant. He understood, better than almost anyone in history, that in the battle for power, rhetoric is the force that moves men.

And in a way, he still speaks to us. Every time we persuade, argue, or inspire, we’re playing Cicero’s game.

Interview with Cicero

The Rogue Learner’s Creed

March 17, 2025 No Comments

You don’t need permission to learn.
No gatekeepers. No credentials. No institutions dictating the syllabus of your mind.

Curiosity is your compass.
Books, podcasts, experiments, rabbit holes—the world is your library, and your education is a lifelong adventure.

The Rogue Learner does not passively consume knowledge.
They hunt it, remix it, wield it.

Today, go down a rabbit hole.
Chase a question. Follow a thought to its wildest edge.

The best investment you’ll ever make is in your own mind.

Own it.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about The Rogue Learner in the coming weeks as I refine the concept and philosophy behind it. The short version? After cracking the identity code of the Logical Levels of Change model and finally naming my true identity – the Philognostic – I felt compelled to build something bigger. This movement weaves together my love of seeking knowledge for its own sake, my insatiable thirst for learning, and the learning experience design half of my current business. Stay tuned.

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