The story worlds of myth and illusions.
The Dreamtime of the Australian Aboriginal mythology depicts the ideas that some things of spiritual dimension exist outside of regular time or ‘everywhen’, to steal from anthropologist William Edward Hanley Stanner. Traditional Australian spiritual practices include walking song lines and singing the necessary songs to hold the world together. The writer, Alan Moore, argues through much of his more esoteric writings that story itself is magic, quoting everything from the bible to hermetic writings of such occult figures as John Dee. Grant Morrison talks about his encounter with his own fictional creations that he invented to act as fiction suits for himself to transform his life by dragging the fictional version of himself into the ‘real world’.
What does all this mean? Probably not much yet. But the short answer is: fiction is a place. ‘Once upon a time’ is an incantation to open a portal to a timeless land. When this book calls gods, or magick or demons and many other things fictional, do not for a second think that we mean something tricky or fancy. We do in indeed mean fiction in the classic sense of the word. But also do not imagine that just because something is fiction that means that it is not real.
What is the Shadowlands?
We don’t live in the real world. We live in a fantasy world constructed by our mind. How can this be?
Because we can’t access the real world. Our senses are ridiculously limited in their perceptions. Sight is limited to the so call visible spectrum, unable to see infrared or ultraviolet, radio waves or x-rays. We see thirty frames per second, making the very fast and the very slow virtually invisible to our senses. Our hearing is likewise limited, and our sense of smell fails to notice all kinds of deadly vapors. We can’t perceive radiation, except when it sickens or kills us.
In addition, the idea that our sense will function properly is something frequently disproven, near-sightedness, far-sightedness, blindness, deafness, colorblindness, hallucinations and much more reduce our already limited knowledge of the real world.
And what of our assumptions? Humans don’t come hardwired with the knowledge that an adult possesses, and no two adults accumulate the same body of knowledge, the same cultural baggage, the same heuristics and contexts, stories and biases and on and on.
Locations in the Shadowlands
The Shadowlands adds new locations whenever new information must be recorded into it. The Shadowlands also deepens the features of existing locations, with new areas and features appearing as the story needs them.
Excerpt
I notice that you still haven’t put this book down. You really should. There isn’t a book in the world that can turn you into a Magician or let you do magic. This book is a not an instruction manual and could never be an instruction manual. This book is a puzzle box and a trap, designed to mess with your head and force you to think in uncomfortable ways until you stumble upon the truth yourself. This Koan is a book, or perhaps the reverse- designed to force you to confront the impossible logic that forms the basis of the modern world. At this point, I hope I’m not going to have to assign you the task of watching that 1990s classic film “The Matrix”. I hope that you have seen it.
The world you live in is in fact a matrix, but not one created by evil overlord villains, we live in an elaborate collaborative group project. If this world feels like a prison to you, then you have built the walls to your own prison. This is not the real world. The real world is the Bonelands, and like the real world of the Matrix Universe, you would not wish to live there. Further to the point, you cannot survive in the Bonelands, your mind can’t handle it. We humans build worlds made of dreams and shadows in order to survive the horror of the Bonelands, but more on that later. Suffice to say, if you think you’re a prisoner, then you need to do more. You need to reshape your world until it is no longer a prison.
You don’t know how to do that? But the answer is simple: Magick.
You don’t see the connection? Well that’s why this book exists.
The path will not be easy. You have deluded yourself into believing that you live in the real world, when in fact you have been living your whole life in the Shadowlands, unknowingly building your own universe under the direction of others to their preference. Deprogramming and showing you the secret codes will not be an easy task. But it will be worthwhile,
Because, to quote Morpheus, “I’m trying to free your mind.”
– Excerpt from The Ars Holistica
Contributing Authors
Professor Harbinger's School for Villains 