𝐌𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐳

Visiting my childhood home in Bellerose, Queens.

In this unprecedented five-day event we explore the real possibilities and unresolved inconsistencies of manifesting and Law of Attraction—which I term selection—arriving at a mature and ethical vision of the causative agencies of the psyche. New Thought has historically proven more adept at popularizing than refining itself. These five days in New York’s historic Hudson Valley at @omega_institute will change that—and the change will arrive from seekers. We will reach a new vision and practice, together. Info + registration: eomega.org/workshops/mind…

We live and die within fantasies of self. Self-certainty of rightness, goodness, judiciousness, ethics, sensitivity, and clarity are our sleep. I write this from within that state. I commit grave errors from within it. So do you. “Disorder observed is already order,” wrote philosopher Jacob Needleman (1934–2022), a student of G.I. Gurdjieff’s ideas, in his 1970 The New Religions. He referenced inner experience. Certainty—the epitome of disorder—cannot withstand observation. But danger lurks: where analysis begins, observation ends. Observation is a subtle—and unsustainable—state. Can you sit for ten minutes? Can you? How about two? We lay claim to abilities belied by even the slightest effort . . . substack.com/home/post/p-19…

.@ConnerHabib reflects on his relationship with Gordon White: I have never read a meditation of this kind on friendship, occultism, politics, and loss. “If you want to be friends with someone, to really see them, then friendship is sometimes less something to be enjoyed, and more something to be endured.” patreon.com/posts/on-gordo…

The most deeply enslaved people are often the ones who believe themselves completely free, because they never stop to question what controls them. They mistake their impulses for freedom, their compulsions for individuality, and their addictions for pleasure. They are pulled around endlessly by advertising, algorithms, appetites, political tribalism, fear, outrage, and the constant need for distraction….yet call it “living.” A person who cannot sit alone in silence without reaching for stimulation is not free. A person whose emotions are controlled by headlines, social media, or the approval of strangers is not free. Chains are most effective when they are invisible. Real freedom only begins once you become conscious enough to see what governs you. Most people are not making decisions, they are just reacting out of conditioning. They inherit beliefs, desires, fears, and habits from the world around them without ever examining them. That is why discipline, meditation, martial arts, ritual, and presence matter so deeply. They interrupt the mechanical nature of unconscious living. They force you to confront yourself directly. Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want. It is the ability to remain sovereign over your own mind in a world designed to capture it.

Amid occultism’s late-1960s entry to bestseller lists, how-to guides, and even toy aisles—Ouija anyone?—it could be fairly asked: were the “dark arts,” or their most popular variants, growing grandmotherly? Not if Anton LaVey (1930-1997) had anything to say about it. “There is always a risk to underestimate LaVey,” writes sociologist Massimo Introvigne of modernity’s best-known Satanist. The carny-philosopher is as self-made a figure as any in modern life—and his aesthetics, writings, and “pop-Nietzscheanism”—the framing of Carl Abrahamsson—look like an atmospheric layer over Western culture. Kvetchers be damned: Anton LaVey is here to stay. On the evening of April 30, 1966—Walpurgisnacht, a Christian holiday that coincides with pagan rites of spring and sometimes considered the witches’ sabbath—the goateed San Francisco transplant shaved his head and declared the founding of the Church of Satan, designating 1966 “the Year One,” Anno Satanas. In the Year Two, secular New York City novelist Ira Levin (1929-2007) published his classic Rosemary’s Baby—soon widely known for Roman Polanski’s screen version—with coven leader Roman Castevet declaring at a New Year’s celebration: “To 1966, The Year One!” The six-sided die was cast. With his founding of the Church of Satan, or CoS, Anton became the first spiritual rebel to attain superstar status since Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). No one since Anton’s death in 1997 has filled that role. New Agers and self-helpers have hit bestseller lists, run for president, and attracted millions of screen viewers. But no outsider occult figure—one unfit for weekend seminars or headset-wearing TED talks—has upended our cultural assumptions, exposed moral hypocrisies, and embraced outcast iconography as he did . . . mitchhorowitz.substack.com/p/anton-lavey-…

@MitchHorowitz has done a tremendous service in repeatedly reminding all those interested in the paranormal of just how prescient and seminal the work of Charles Fort was on this frontier of human understanding.

Thanks to your preorder support x amazon.com/Esoterika-Form…

Witness @MitchHorowitz delivering insightful commentary on The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd season 3 episode 14 Out of This World on @HISTORY!

"We begin to suspect that this is not so much a book we’re writing as a sanitarium for overworked coincidences."—Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned, 1919 In the annals of American letters, early twentieth-century paranormalist writer-philosopher Charles Fort (1874–1932)—once dismissed by critics and publishers—ranks in influence today with a handful of literary anchors including Poe, Emerson, and Twain. Like Poe, Fort invented a genre. This genre is so unclassifiable yet omnipresent that we call it by the author’s adjectivized name: Fortean. Across four books, the cartographer of the unexplained drilled holes in the straight story of materialist science and created the modern framework for documenting anomalies and the unknown. Fort’s work has not only endured into our age, but the outcast intellect foresaw our quantum-­entangled, binary-­coded, multiversed—simulated?—conceptions of reality. Fort’s writing on strange phenomena—starting with The Book of the Damned in 1919, followed by New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and Wild Talents (1932)—drove readers to ponder bends in time and space, alternate dimensions, objects falling to earth, fossils in meteorites, mysterious airships (in an age before UFOs/UAPs), floating islands and oceans, anti-gravity, lights on the moon, and, most famously, raining frogs. The same books, stylistically elliptical and philosophically esoteric, drove many critics to ponder why anyone would read Fort at all. Reading—and recently narrating—Fort counts among the most confounding literary experiences I have known, ranking in purposeful disorientation with Burroughs and Gurdjieff. Through his pioneering of paranormal reportage, Fort did for weird facts (or alleged ones) what Edgar Allan Poe did for horror literature: created a genre where none was recognized. The two authors led strangely similar lives of near-­penury, uneven but notable literary praise during otherwise struggling careers, and elevation to iconic status after death. If Fort possessed a singular goal, it was to displace industrial-age man from his presumed pinnacle: to indicate that we—not they—are exceptions or errant and ever-shifting wrinkles in the cosmic order . . . mitchhorowitz.substack.com/p/philosopher-…

Do you want an immediate step to feel happier, improve your self-image, sense of power, and comfort in your own skin? It is so simple and so readily available, most will reject it. We do not want the things we say we want. For the few who do wish for self-development, here it is: desist from trash talk. Don't spread it. Don't read it. Don't write it. You will avert the unseen humiliation that redounds to you when degrading another. We subvert humiliation, like addicts, by taking another hit of what's killing us. "But what about . . . ? What do you mean by . . . ?" Don't delude yourself that you're combating injustice. All that "what about" means is: you don't want to do it. Then don't. The world is filled with unhappy people. Stick with them. For the small fraction who wish for something greater, follow this.

@MitchHorowitz Good luck on the new release, Mitch. It looks like another winner full of actionable occult ideas. Thanks for continuing to push the boundaries of modern esotericism.

@MitchHorowitz Mitch, literally every one of your posts is a resource that makes my life better.

Mitch’s work has been transformative in my life. He encourages a kind of practical spiritual search grounded in your own experience. He takes nothing for granted, every approach is researched, considered and rigorously tested against actual outcomes. As he might say, try it for yourself.

I believe strongly that the sole measure of any ethical, spiritual, or therapeutic philosophy is conduct and experience. I discourage shying away from terms like success, failure, and result. I am bothered by disparaging expressions like “lust for result.” Or the taking of your question—“What do you mean by happiness?” You know what you mean. Such conventions, in their lowest iteration, avert your search and obfuscate your needs. They are often positions of convenience for the soi disant teacher. I am not a teacher. I am a seeker—like you. And, like you, I recognize the precious grains remaining in the hourglass. The hour is late—for all of us. We need workable ideas. My path is not for everyone. Nor should it be for everyone. It is a descending octave. And it works. Test me. If I am wrong, you’ve lost the price of a cheeseburger. Is your life worth that? Esoterika is out June 16 in print, digital, and audio. Your preorders matter. Link below. I could not be more honored: Cover art by John Newsom Portrait by Sante D'Orazio Poster by @joshhyde666 amazon.com/Esoterika-Form…

I introduced my favorite comics anti-hero, Mr. Unpronounceable *** Anti-Hero of the Multiverse Make friends with your nightmares. That is what Mr. Unpronounceable does. That is what his creator Tim Molloy does. And that is your invitation in these pages. Mr. Unpronounceable is a riddle—maybe the riddle of human nature. He sows and flees destruction. But he is likeable. Because he always carries with him a question. Our bespectacled seeker through chaos harbors no unwarranted confidence. His anti-heroics make him no better than his surroundings, which bewilder him. Tim’s creation reminds me of another suited hero, Will Eisner’s the Spirit. I grew up loving the Spirit because, well, finally here is a crimefighter who gets knocked around. Who is vulnerable to a baseball bat over the head. And returns for more. Mr. U is likewise scrappy, seeking, and vulnerable. He behaves unconscionably in an unconscionable realm. But—always with a question. And then there are the glasses. Always present, like the Spirit’s hat. (Or almost always.) I am told that during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, people with glasses were targeted for death because they were considered corrupt intellectuals of the old order. Mr. Unpronounceable’s glasses are just enough reminder that he is out of step with the horrorscape multiverse he occupies—even as he contributes to it. I am reminded, too, of another anti-hero: Henry in David Lynch’s Eraserhead. “I always say,” David told me in 2006, “it’s my most spiritual movie. No one understands me, but it is.” Like Henry, Mr. Unpronounceable is sentenced to a netherworld without purpose. In a suggestion of Gnosticism, Henry’s domain is ruled by a rotting, sclerotic deity who pulls creaky levers. Tim has accomplished what many artists reach for but rarely grasp: he has created a world. It has clockwork lunacy and anarchic lack of why—but it is a world as consistent, or inconsistent, as ours. It is mythical, occult, terrifying, apocalyptic, cruel, Lovecraftian, and endlessly morphing like the landscape in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, another great work Mr. Unpronounceable stands among . .

It is said that myth is truer than history. Myth reveals our fears and motives. But—myth without facts becomes mirage. And mirage repeated becomes history. This historical article separates record from rumor around one of the sixties’ most misunderstood spiritual movements. mitchhorowitz.substack.com/p/the-process-…

With son Caleb and wife Jacqueline in D.C.

New banner by @joshhyde666

Have you been thwarted, fired, or humiliated? I have. I know the way out, at least for a determined few. -M- x __________ As a child, adolescent, and into adulthood, I often felt ill at ease, locked out of the mainstream, and uncomfortable, literally, in my own skin. I had to create a world where I could experience power and ability—on my private terms. In pursuit of selfhood—by which I mean self-expression—I suffered numerous failures and setbacks. Some were intensely painful. All produced refinement. No one wishes to suffer. But—nothing of worth arises from ease. In darkness, we stumble. We are also born. I abide the principle of ruling in Hell—of making a personal stand amid loss. It has burnished and redeemed me as a writer, seeker, husband, and parent. It may do the same for you. Professionally, my three-plus decades as a writer and publisher make my case. I have labored at prestigious places and low-rent ones. I have been feted. I have been fired. Loss has led me to victory—the defining fruit of which is: expressive freedom. Wherever I experienced the liberty—or neglect—to most fully chart my path, I was not only happiest but also most artistically successful and financially stable. The latter cannot depend on the former. But when they meet, take note. Personally, I have found it easier to function in a dynamic and self-directed fashion in stations outside mainstream respectability. Peers have sometimes wondered at my choices—or, if I am being plain, at my accidents recast into choices. mitchhorowitz.substack.com/p/rule-in-hell