The ability to be aware of yourself is a skill that must be learned and practiced like any other. The following are tenets and techniques for spirit control. They are largely based on conquering fear and learning how to be honest with yourself. Fear and doubt block spiritual clarity and make it difficult to understand who you are, what you want, and how to change for the better. To embody these ideas, they must be learned through experience. Reading alone will not yield a deep comprehension of any spiritual philosophy.

These ideas are not truly novel. What makes this roadmap useful is having a clear and concise list of thoughts to pay attention to when trying to accelerate personal growth. By no means is this the only method of doing so. This journey should be personalized, and as an artist I am sharing what I have found useful and important to me thus far.

The Cardinal Sin of Betrayal

The Cardinal Sin of Betrayal represents the balance between desire and humility. It is reminiscent of eastern religions and Freudian psychology.

Betrayal stems from broken trust. Trust is an expectation, (which is a form of desire), that results in virulent disappointment and insecurity when unmet. The paradoxical lesson of the Cardinal is to trust without the absolute expectation of being cared for. In other words, trust in anticipation of betrayal, which is different from mistrust if you have premeditated forgiveness.

Accepting that you can always be disappointed by life, no matter what promises were made, is part of the essence of humility. Silencing ego, choosing to forgive and not to blame, these are skills best learned in a state of betrayal.

Betrayal is eased by humility, and humility is disrupted by ego, this is why they are not opposites, but two halves of the same whole. Betrayal’s importance is in its ability to recognise when forgiveness is necessary, which is not as trivial as it sounds. It is practiced by accepting your own mistakes without judgement or regret.

The Cardinal is the primary iconography of Wonderful Bad Attitudes, because the album is about learning that you do not love people in spite of their worst qualities, you love them for those qualities, because it’s a part of their whole. The Cardinal Sin of Betrayal [Song] itself is about the moment I learned humility, persisting through a fear of imminent heartbreak to choose giving love that was undeserved. I honestly wanted to give that love to humbly honor its beauty, regardless of the outcome.

Belonging

Loss is a feeling of aimlessness, and to not belong is to feel lost. When one abandons their need to feel belonging, they are free to see the world uncategorized, as nothing more than perspective and symmetry. Symmetry is essentially anything that stays the same when you change perspective, which is just another way to define truth. When you think of the world as different expressions of the same singularity, the similarities between perspectives become more significant than the differences, and thus truth will naturally rise to the top.

Truth is impartial and it does not have any dependencies. This means you must stop adding intrinsic value to any one point of view (particularly your own). All orientations are structured around the same bit of truth. So, the more perspectives you understand, the more of the whole truth you will find. The value of your own point of view will be transferred to the greater structure. This harkens back to humility, as Loss is a consequence of Betrayal. 

Rather than being of religious origin, Belonging is an epiphany drawn from physics. In theories of spacetime, there are some properties of reality that must remain optimized (balanced) and constant (symmetric), however there is no mechanism for ensuring that all perspectives agree on reality, it’s quite malleable as long as the proper transformations are applied. Our ability to understand the importance of equivalent experiences is called empathy, and it plays the same roles in our lives as transformations do in physics.

Though partly random and chaotic, the universe’s modus operandi is taking the path of least resistance towards equilibrium. This adds profound meaning to the structure of reality, as this optimization implies that all actions which flow towards balance “happen for a reason”. This is the intrinsic truth that unifies all perspectives.

In theories of unification, fundamental fields are seen as different expressions of the same singular mechanism (although only theories of partial unification are fully formulated and widely accepted). Philosophically, there is light in the dark and dark in the light not because they are eternally linked, but because they are just two different ways of looking at the same thing. Which one you see depends on how you look. Being aware that perspectives are fragments of some greater whole, tied together by symmetry, means that you will never feel lost, because you can always find somewhere you belong if you change your point of view.

The Bluebird’s Song of Apathy

The Bluebird’s Song of Apathy was originally created as a meditative technique to exhaust the pain of betrayal. Its origins are of Buddhist/eastern influence. The song is a mantra to remind you that when love is indifferent, do not resist, become like love and flow with its indifference. Apathy is a weapon that uses love’s own weight against itself.

The core understanding of apathy is that the only true feeling of security is being comfortable with vulnerability. One must become so vulnerable that they, emotionally, no longer have anything left to lose. They then relinquish desire and become blissfully apathetic and free. The mindset focuses on remaining neutral and allowing balance to restore itself without intervention. The purpose of Apathy is not to remain empty indefinitely, doing so is why some say apathy is a tragedy. The goal is to become transient and receptive in a state of clarity where answers come to you, rather than you struggling to search for them.

Learning to control Apathy is difficult because it requires you to let go of a need for self preservation. It is not the same as swallowing your feelings and being brave, there is no facade. You have to truly not worry or react in moments of tension. You can practice this by letting bad things happen and realizing that it was only the fear of change that made it seem bad. This does not mean taking risks and tempting fate, bad things will happen on their own as they always do. It is an exercise in letting go of worries and becoming appreciative of peace.

True Apathy is non-hypocritical by its nature. If you are unbothered by negative experiences, then you cannot be excited by positive ones. Letting go of positivity is an equally important facet of Apathy. Detachment without lethargy, satisfaction without expectation, fade out and let all pass through you to achieve balance and unity.

The Mockingbird’s Dream

The Mockingbird’s Dream refers to a state of mental obscurity caused by haunting thoughts and dreams. These persistent memories can drive one mad if allowed to consume too much attention. This state is not conducive of personal growth, it is a mental sand pit trap. The Mockingbird gives an identity to this trap so it can be recognised and escaped. Understanding these thoughts as nothing more than illusions is what makes them controllable, even if you feel like they tell the truth (which is part of the illusion). You are the one who chose (usually unknowingly) to be in a cage, and you have the power to let yourself out. The difference between suffering and mercy is a simple choice; look past your own self pity and be free, or remain in the endless loop of wallow.

Mental illnesses are as varied as physical ailments. Some conditions will heal themselves, other wounds and infections need to be tended to. The more you understand about yourself and explore new parts of your mind, the greater your psychic immune system will be. Fearlessness and honesty will take you anywhere within yourself that you want to go. Madness is when you wander in your mind with fear and lies. Be honest, be strong, and be merciful to yourself.

The Angel of Doves

The Angel of Doves represents love. It’s the desire to share life, to learn, grow, and bind with another soul; an intoxicating state of euphoric beauty. It is an obsession with thoughts that bring happiness, a technique in which one reflects their self love off of thoughts of another to love themselves while bypassing self doubt. And if it’s true that all consciousness is connected, perhaps all love is just self love from different points of view.

Though a clever trick, the mechanism requires a truly real and special connection. It also has the ability to override torment from the Mockingbird, though the Angel itself can be difficult to control, as it is not a feeling one wants to end.

The skill to practice is to not get consumed by your own desire. The Angel challenges you to have restraint and discipline. She weighs heavily on you to lose yourself in your passion. If you fail to keep grip on your emotions, there is the risk of driving away the very things you love. Unfortunately, a good way to learn this lesson is by making that mistake.

There is much to be said about love, but I don’t think anyone who has ever lived can say they truly know what it is. I think it is more than a chemical reaction, that is simply one manifestation of it. I believe love is a fundamental part of the universe and consciousness that we are not yet equipped to understand. It is the remnants of unity that ties all things together when they are separated by perspective. Love exists between all things, and it can always be found. It is the illusion of love’s scarcity that makes one obsessed.

Although both a painting and a song exist for the Angel of Doves, neither have been formally released, as they are part of a future project.

The Blood of Fear

The Blood of Fear is an appendix to The Bluebird’s Song of Apathy, which refines Apathy’s ability to subside the Mockingbird’s madness. The technique invokes fear to shock the mind into taking control, thus gaining the courage to shatter illusions and regain a stable mind. As Apathy is well suited to do, the ritual uses fear against itself. As a more extreme measure, it requires fundamental fear that stems from pushing the boundaries of your beliefs. The ritual involves doing something you did not know you were capable of. There is no need to do anything dangerous, violent, or illegal. The important point is that you feel as though you don’t recognise yourself. Though it is a messy process, if done properly, there will be no shame, you will feel relieved, peaceful, and in control. The technique is seldom used, being reserved for extreme cases of mental disclarity. 

You are capable of any great good or great evil. Fear acts like a buffer to keep you from making great sacrifices or horrible mistakes. While yes, it does obscure a true understanding of one’s self, its restrictive nature keeps things safe and practical, just as pain prevents you from touching all the dangerous things you hypothetically could.

Courage is the ability to move through this buffer and push yourself beyond limitation. It is understanding that you can always be greater if you so choose to be. You can only stray so far into fear before realizing this is true, and that is how the Blood of Fear makes courage out of terror.

The vial itself contains the blood of a bluebird named Fear, giving the name a double entendre. This song is also part of a future project.