“I saw and was silent, I saw and pondered.”

– Hávamál 111

Introduction

Meditation is a vast topic with a huge amount of cultural trappings. But in essence it is extremely simple. It is often associated with its results—peace, wisdom, and clarity of mind. But these results do not come without practice, and that practice, while simple, is difficult.

It is simple because the actual steps required are very basic and minimal. It is difficult because meditation involves looking at one’s own mind and gradually coming to terms with what is there. In an externally-driven society that is always on the move, where attention is a commodity, meditation seems altogether foreign. But it is worth the journey.

Meditation is difficult in the beginning, yet it becomes easier with practice. Practice takes time and cannot be forced or rushed. It cannot be bought or bestowed. The only way to arrive in meditation is to do it properly—there are no shortcuts, and those who pretend are only cheating themselves. Those who meditate effectively experience greater inner clarity, focus, stillness, depth, energy, meaning, and purpose.

I began meditating 30 years ago and have maintained it as a daily practice ever since. It began as part of my journey into Eastern philosophy—Buddhism, Daoism, and Vedic Yoga—which extended into shamanism and various other paths. I studied Western philosophy, literature, history, and art and explored Druidry. I then returned home to my ancestral Northern ways. With my journey, I adapted meditation practice to new contexts, like a river crossing the land, and I found the essence of meditation to be a reliable daily practice, regardless of cultural background. I may have missed the occasional day, but I also had several years where I would sit for up to 3 hours a day. Eventually, I became the practice—steady, focused, clear awareness—in every moment. Meditation has been the most beneficial activity across my entire life.

Meditation and wizardry

This article is an introduction to meditation as a foundational practice of wizardry. By foundational, I mean it provides a foundation upon which other practices can be built. Even though the technique described here is basic, it is not something only beginners do. Meditation takes a lifetime to master and requires continual reapplication.

Mastering basic meditation creates the proper framework for wizardry as a practice of self-mastery and the development of wisdom. Why? Because meditation done well helps resolve the internal knots of the mind and it builds deep peace and stability. Ultimately, meditation facilitates clear self-awareness, which is essential for wisdom.

Some may say that this article outlines an Eastern practice of meditation. Certainly that is how I first came to learn meditation. But the essence of the technique is universal. Meditation is found in various forms around the world. Wizardry Sphere is focused on wisdom for the emerging world, and is willing to learn from that which best facilitates such, while adapting it to the Northern ways.

Making meditation a central practice of wizardry provides a solid technique for self-transformation and the cultivation of powers of awareness. One does not become a wizard without first undergoing an alchemically transformative quest. Meditation, while not the only approach for such transformation, is among the best.

Disclaimer: This article shares general educational practices for self-transformation. It is not medical or professional health advice. Please read the full disclaimer1 and our Terms and Conditions before trying any practices. By continuing, you agree to both.

The ultimate art for cultivating awareness

Meditation is essentially the cultivation of awareness. Here I will outline the basic practice.

Time and location

Start with a set duration (10 to 15 minutes is good), ideally at a regular time each day. If you can only practice every second or third day, or once a week, this is better than nothing, but daily practice at a regular time promotes a steady rhythm.

Morning is best—at dawn or just before is even better. Evening is also good. Work within your existing schedule. Some people find they tend to fall asleep at such times, especially after eating—choose the time that works best for you. If you do feel sleepy, do some exercise or movement for a minute or two beforehand, to get your energy circulating.

Try to find a location where you won’t be interrupted. Put the phone in another room, or on silent. If possible, have fresh air entering the room, and natural or gentle lighting. Avoid using the same place as where you sleep, particularly if using a laying down posture (see below). Some people like to play music in the background; better to have a quiet natural place. Music can end up becoming an external distraction. Having a dedicated room or corner where you can sit helps with associating that place with meditation practice.

Posture

The most important point with posture is to have the spine naturally straight. If you can sit cross legged on a cushion, that’s good. Otherwise, use a chair. You can also lay down, on your back if possible. Place your hands on your knees or lap if sitting, or by your sides if laying down. Some types of meditation involve walking or moving—these are a different practice from what is explained here.

The purpose of the posture is to facilitate energy flow. It should be comfortable, not rigid. Let the body soften and relax; keep the spine straight, but not rigid. The aim is to be comfortable and alert for the duration of the practice.

Technique

This simple technique is one of many. Some people may swear by certain details—a specific mantra, visualisation, or breathing technique—as the best meditation. But in reality, these techniques are only useful to the degree they enhance the practice of steady concentration.

Steady concentration is the key to all meditation. These days, concentration is a very under-exercised faculty. Meditation is essentially the practice of concentration.

To concentrate requires an object of concentration—something you focus on. Here we will make the object one’s breathing. It could be anything, but choosing the breath as an object of meditation has benefits: breathing is innately connected to both your body and mind; it is essential to being alive; and when focused upon, it integrates body and mind.

Begin in your meditation posture, close your eyes, relax your body, gently draw in a breath and release it slowly, letting go of whatever occupied you before starting the practice. Then bring your attention to your navel—the belly button. As you breathe in and out, your navel will move slightly. Just gently place your attention on your navel as it moves with each breath (this is true navel-gazing).

If your mind wanders away (and it will), gently return your attention back to your breathing at your navel. You are likely to not notice that your mind has wandered away (into thoughts, feelings, memories, imagination, or external sounds or sensations). Become aware of this ‘not noticing’, and gently bring your attention back to your navel.

Just watch your breath at your navel. Don’t get caught up in thoughts, sensations, feelings or anything else that arises. When these arise, notice them, then gently remind yourself to return your attention back to the object of meditation—the breathing at your navel.

Whenever the mind wanders, become aware of that and gently return your attention to the object of meditation.

That’s it. That’s the entire practice. I told you it was simple.

Duration

As mentioned above, start with 10 to 15 minutes. Keep to this duration—don’t over-extend yourself. It is far better to practice regularly for a shorter set duration than to build up, thinking longer is better, only to quit because it was too hard. An irregular practice duration is also not so good. Steady consistency helps form the right habits for long-term practice.

After 10 to 15 minutes each day for a month, if you feel you can extend the duration then try 20 or 30 minute sessions. Going beyond 30 minutes a day often requires good health and additional lifestyle practices—such as diet, exercise, and breathing techniques—to support it.

Deep meditation, an hour or more a day, means being able to sit comfortably and still for that time. The body needs to be prepared for this (that’s the original purpose of yoga postures). Deeper meditation may also bring various internal and energetic experiences, and this level of practice is not suitable for beginners or for people who don’t live in a way that is conducive for such internal transformation.

Finishing up

When ready to finish, do it gently and slowly. Tell yourself (in your mind) that it’s time to finish the practice and gently return your awareness to your entire physical body. Scan your body with your mind and gently open your eyes. Become aware of your surroundings for a few moments, then gently move your fingers and toes. Gradually move your arms and legs (roll on your side first if laying down), and after 10 to 20 seconds, when you’re ready, slowly stand up. Congratulate yourself for completing the practice session.

Additional points

I also said meditation is difficult. This is because our minds are usually not trained to remain attentive to a single object in our awareness for a long period of time.

Like the body, the mind is a living organism. Be gentle with it. Your practice should become natural, effortless, simple, and vivid.

Focus is not force. Don’t force the attention; don’t try to rigidly hold it in place. This will only stir the energies of the mind up more. Stir up a pond with silt at the bottom and it becomes cloudy. Let the pond be still and the silt naturally settles to the bottom, leaving clear water. When the water is clear, one can see clearly what is in the pond.

Another analogy is riding a horse. If you’ve ever tried this, you will know the horse has a mind of its own. The rider needs to learn how to harmonise with the nature of the horse, rather than force it, in order to get to where they need to go. The mind is similar. There is an art to mastering the mind.

Low energy, high energy, and oscillating energy

The mind will tend to either become low or high energy, or oscillate between these. Low energy means sleepiness, dullness, lethargy or moodiness. The practice of returning your attention to the object of meditation (the navel) helps move your energy out of these low-energy states. Aim to remain alert. If you find yourself tending in this low-energy direction, some movement before meditation can help circulate and activate your energy. Healthy diet and sleep habits also help.

High-energy states include an over-stimulated mind, excessive thinking or imagining, feelings of excitement, restlessness, impatience, or similar. This is the stirred-up mind. The aim here is to let the mind settle. Don’t force it—allow it naturally. Just watch, and continue gently returning your attention to the object of meditation whenever your mind wanders.

Oscillating energy means the mind moves from low energy to high energy, then back again. The aim here is to cultivate stability over time. Just continue the practice of placing your attention on the object of meditation, noting when it wanders, and returning your attention to the object.

Stages of awareness

Meditation progresses from attention through to concentration through to absorption. The practice of placing the attention is the first stage. The attention will wander, but as practice progresses, you will become better at catching the mind when it wanders and returning it to the object of meditation. Eventually, this results in more sustained attention. The mind rests more on the object of meditation (in a relaxed manner, not strained) and wanders less often or for shorter times before you catch it.

Once the attention becomes steady like this, it becomes concentration—the mind is steadily focused on the object. As practice improves, concentration on the object will extend for longer periods without the mind wandering. The mind becomes more still. The things that make the mind wander may be more subtle—thoughts beneath thoughts, subtle experiences or feelings, or similar. The mind can enter deeper states of focus, but the technique (described above) remains the same.

As concentration extends, there will be a more obvious stability in practice, which allows subtle movements in the mind to emerge. To use an analogy, the big waves in the pond have become calm, making the tiny wavelets or ripples more obvious. Meditation at this stage progresses into noticing these subtle movements and gently returning the wandering mind to the object of meditation.

Once concentration becomes steady and attention becomes more finely tuned, awareness enters a state of absorption in the object of meditation. This is experienced as total focus on the object, such that any distinction between you and the object of focus disappears. You become so absorbed in the object that you forget all else. A sense of serene unity arises. This is an alert, stable, clear-minded state of awareness. The mind may present things that would cause it to wander, but awareness is no longer pulled away by them. It remains attentive to the object, and under the practitioners control.

Absorption is an advanced stage of practice that often takes many practice sessions, many years, and a suitable lifestyle, to achieve in a sustainable way. Once in that state, maintaining focus on the object becomes effortless. The practitioner has mastery over their own mind.

As practice progresses through each stage, awareness becomes increasingly steady, clear, focused, and energised. And these results carry over into daily life. Merely existing becomes a higher-quality experience.

Conclusion

There is much more to meditation practice than what we’ve covered here, but this is a foundation. If this interests you, I encourage you to explore the topic further, seek out appropriate guidance, and take your own practice seriously.

Wizardry is very individualistic. As a foundational wisdom practice, meditation should be applied naturally, not rigidly or dogmatically, and should be adapted appropriately to individual circumstances.

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It’s a novel about wizards and their quest for self-mastery and greater wisdom. Set in a parallel world in an earlier age, it tells of the journeys of the fox alchemist Loquilian and the two wizards who join him along the way. It’s unusual, it’s lyrical, it’s visionary, it’s nostalgic, and you can purchase a copy here.

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The valley of Ideeni

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Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Technologies in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are accelerating, and are now beginning to augment our mental and physical capacities. This is possible primarily because humans have understood mathematics and physics—logic, mechanics, and other disciplines. We now use these sciences to manipulate and control matter and energy at an unprecedented level.

But if humanity is to truly flourish, we need wisdom as a counterbalance. Unfortunately, wisdom in these times is lacking, forgotten, gestured, misunderstood, dogmatised.

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A high-tech society without wisdom is a nightmare. With wisdom, paradise becomes possible. That is why wisdom is now more important than ever before.

But wisdom is a process of reflection. It takes patience, sacrifice, and deepening honesty to build self-awareness and broad pragmatic understanding. Its result: the reduction of problems born of foolishness, stupidity, and hate. It begins with each individual, and only then expands to the collective.

It can be painful to truly face reality. But once a foundational honesty is solid, its gifts endure. Only a society built upon wisdom can survive the vicissitudes of nature, can endure the ages, can birth themselves into a space-faring civilisation. Lacking wisdom, we will perpetually sink into the quagmire of history, for archaeologists of the future to study and puzzle over.

Many cultures have endured millennia because of their wisdom, but none had the technology the world has today. As technology accelerates, the potential for large scale, hard-to-reverse problems increases.

We saw this with the invention of the atom bomb. Einstein’s famous equation E=mc² contributed to the underlying physics for this weapon. In 1939, as World War II was expanding across Europe, Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging the United States to develop nuclear technology before Germany. After the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, Einstein deeply regretted sending the letter to Roosevelt. He spent the rest of his life advocating for nuclear disarmament and international controls.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, which built these weapons. After the Trinity test (the first atomic detonation, in the Jornada del Muerto desert, New Mexico) on 16 July 1945, Oppenheimer is said to have recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”1 That Oppenheimer leaned upon ancient literature as a response says something about the timeless role wisdom plays in our society. It seems human nature to return to sources of wisdom during difficult and devastating times.

The atomic age was several generations ago. But do you notice anything similar with the current global race for AI?

Elon Musk has warned against the dangers of AI since at least 2014, and has repeatedly said it is more dangerous than nuclear weapons. He developed the company xAI to build a primary truth-seeking AI model, with the aim to understand the truth of the universe, and to counter risks from profit-driven pursuits, recklessness, training bias, political correctness, and developmental opacity.

This is not to say AI doesn’t have beneficial uses—it certainly does. But we cannot afford to be blind to its dangers. We need to apply it wisely.

Technological progress will most certainly continue to accelerate and expand in scale, both in the world at large but also deeper into our own humanity (via AI, humanoid robots, cyber-neural augmentation, etc.). This is why wisdom is so important—both for individuals and for our culture. A culture of wisdom provides the buffer against our own individual and collective folly. A wise society has stability, depth, long-term intelligence and broad-minded consideration.

Only a wise society can endure extreme technological power. If we want to solve our problems on Earth and become a space-faring civilisation, we must reawaken the innate wisdom at the centre of our humanity. This wisdom is not dogma or ideology. It is natural and unique to each individual. It is deeply encoded from our ancestors as a living, thoughtful, open response to life. And it is timeless, as seen in the patterns of nature. Its essence is self-awareness.

With wisdom, technology can be applied beneficially.

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If this topic interests you, you may also be interested in Northern Wisdom, our personal transformation app for cultivating wisdom and self-mastery—currently being built. To receive updates, free early access, and a special founding member discount, join the waitlist.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Copyright © 2026 Genius Authoring Pty Ltd trading as Wizardry Sphere | ABN 85 669 120 978

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Background music: ‘Spaekona - Viking Background Music’ by OB-LIX Original Music via Pixabay.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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We are drowning in information, disparate opinions, and productivity hacks, while collective discernment, long-term thinking, and genuine self-mastery seem absent. Our collective lack of wisdom brings polarisation, short-term thinking, unexamined lives, and a growing sense that progress is fragmented and confused.

Folly is having its heyday.

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Stay wise. We will keep you updated.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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This is not wispy thinking. These ancient Northern concepts are pragmatic tools for a life on your terms. By Northern, I mean the heritage of the Anglo, Nordic and Germanic peoples, ranging from the earliest humans of Northern Europe during the Paleolithic period through to the present day, wherever on Earth such culture may be found. Anyone can make use of these concepts, regardless of background. They are an integral part of the Northern cosmology, with pragmatic implications for developing personal wisdom and self-mastery.

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What is orlæg?

Orlæg is the accumulation of the past upon the present. It includes past actions, ancestral deeds, surrounding circumstances, and nature’s patterns. It spans from the present all the way back to the primordial origin of existence, known as Ginnungagap (‘yawning void’) in Old Norse, the ancient equivalent to the Big Bang of theoretical physics.

The word orlæg is from Old English (the Old Norse equivalent is ørlög). Its etymology is or (‘primordial, ancient, original, fundamental’) + læġ (‘that which is laid down; law’).

Orlæg is the inertial structure of the past imposing upon the present. This is not a static imposition, because the universe is dynamic; circumstances shift as life changes. As an example, if a person exercises every day, their past becomes a stable habit of strong muscle development and good health, which then exerts upon their present. But if they stop exercising for several months, they add a new layer to their past, which will then exert itself upon their present, likely resulting in poorer health, potential for injuries, and so on. In both cases the laws of nature operate upon the person’s present state, and that present state is built upon the accumulations of their past.

Orlæg is applied through natural law

Describing orlæg as the fundamental laws of the universe, in the same sense as the laws of physics or mathematics, is not entirely accurate. Orlæg is the weight of the past, which affects the present through various natural laws. It is not in itself these laws, though it operates through them. And it is not limited to the physical universe; it encompasses all existence and all experience, including also the psychological and spiritual aspects.

Orlæg is layered

Orlæg includes many layers at various scales. It includes patterns that span immense realms of space and time (such as our galaxy’s structure and its gravitational pull). It includes patterns that endure for significant times around the Earth (for example, the effects of the Industrial Revolution). And it includes more localised patterns (for example, the events of last Tuesday). All these and everything in between. A myriad layers combine in orlæg to bring about its complete effect. When examined in this way, it is infinitely complex. But put simply, it is the effect of the past upon the present.

Orlæg is both shared and unique

Orlæg applies differently to each living being or object in the universe, even while they may share many aspects of orlæg in common. Humans, for example, all share in hunger because of our common biology (a very fundamental layer of our shared human orlæg), yet each human will experience different levels of hunger in the present based on when they last ate (an effect from the more immediate past, forming part of the orlæg of each human). Or, take the example of a dog that is taught many tricks when young. It will carry that in its orlæg, giving it the foundation for actions in the present, such as sit, fetch, and roll-over. A dog not trained in such a way does not have the same foundation in place (in their orlæg) and will need to learn the tricks before it can do them. Likewise, a plant that has been cared for, with adequate water, sunlight and nutrients, will carry these patterns in its orlæg. When a frost comes, that plant may have a better chance of surviving. Finally, orlæg applies to objects as well. A well-made hammer has a different orlæg to a poorly-made hammer. When the well-made hammer hits the anvil, its orlæg ensures it will not break as easily.

To summarise, all factors of the past shape how living beings or things exist in the present. Yet the nature, habits, and circumstances of each living being or thing differ, giving each a unique orlæg, for good or otherwise.

What is wyrd?

Wyrd is existence forever becoming. While orlæg is the accumulation of the past, wyrd is centred on the present. The word is from Old English and is often linked with the Old Norse equivalent urðr (‘fate’). Its Modern English descendant, weird, echoes the ancient term in the sense of the mysteriousness of existence—how things come to be what they are is indeed strange, though we have become quite naturalised to this process.

Wyrd is a dynamic process (or web) whereby your present choices and actions add new layers to orlæg. The web metaphor highlights the interconnected nature of the universe, where one’s actions can have ripple effects. Likewise, the web suggests the past patterns (one’s orlæg) that may restrict or support one’s actions in the present. Mastering wyrd (the art of becoming in the present moment) is the key to shaping one’s destiny.

Destiny is not rigid or predetermined

While orlæg is built from the layers laid down over time—whether personal, familial, natural, or even primordial—that shape the present, there is always room for agency in the present moment. Some circumstances may appear fixed, such as the time of death or certain ancestral (genetic) patterns, but what you do matters—your decisions and actions will add to your orlæg and ripple outwards. This makes the present moment extremely powerful; wyrd is the ultimate pivot for one’s fate. And this is why awareness—being conscious in the present moment—is so important.

Orlæg and wyrd interweave

Orlæg is already built into the past, though it perpetually spills into the present. Wyrd is the centre in the present, the ‘eye of the storm’, from which all can be now shaped. While you cannot change the past, you can change the present—if you have the awareness, knowledge, and skill to do so. And how you change the present influences future possibilities. But the orlæg and wyrd of all beings and things is interwoven in various ways, like a web. This means that your actions will not only shape your circumstances but may also affect every other being or thing you interact with, in various ways. This interconnectedness highlights the art of interaction with others and the significance of different people, events, places and things for a person’s life.

Know the past to awaken the present

You always live in the present moment, never the future or the past (though the mind may wander into memory and imagination). Yet if you do not fully understand your past (your orlæg), you will likely be at odds with it in one way or another. You will be blind to its influence on your present, which will limit your ability to act upon wyrd. The same applies to understanding the past of others. Being clear-eyed about the past, but not in a fatalistic way, liberates the present. Understanding your personal history, family history, national history, global history, and other histories will give you useful maps for navigating the world in its present becoming. Similarly, being grounded in your awareness of the present, fully present in reality as it is (not as you think it is or would like it to be), is essential for acting upon wyrd to shape your destiny.

We do not clash with the present moment; we clash with the consequences of the past. Even if those consequences arise from causes microseconds prior, they are the waves of the past impacting upon the present moment. Yet the past comes at us in different ways, not always bad. It can be strengthening, supporting, and empowering for us in the present.

Unlike some Buddhist or Hindu philosophies, where the aim is to liberate oneself from all karma of the past and transcend the world, the Northern approach is more about working with the patterns of the past meaningfully—to live a meaningful life aligned with one’s destiny. The promise of paradise in a world beyond means nothing if life is not lived meaningfully here and now. The popularised Viking conception of the bright halls of Valhalla—where chosen warriors feast and drink and battle, slaying one another in glory, and repeat this anew each day—may be the ideal afterlife for some (I do wonder who?). But it’s a metaphor for how one group of people during one period in European history idealised life. I very much doubt it reflects the afterlife for everyone outside of that Viking culture. More likely, a wide range of individual and cultural values shape the various dreamscapes of the afterlife. Ultimately, the afterlife is a spiritual distillation of how you lived your life on Earth and whether you were true to your innermost self. A meaningful life on Earth, aligned to your true purpose, is more important than seeking to escape the world.

Meaningful engagement with the world means that how you respond to the effects of the past in the present is just as important as what you build in the present. As humans we are more than merely spectators and consumers. To create in alignment with your true purpose, to bring your innermost vision into the world, reflects the creative power of the universe itself. If you live in a house, that house was built in the past, yet it provides shelter in the present. And if it is a good house it will continue to do so into the future. Someone, maybe you, built that house. Likewise, what you build within yourself—the values, knowledge, skills, discipline, awareness, and so on—in the present will become your future foundation. All things are created in wyrd, in the eternal becoming of the present.

An awakened fate

The Northern mythos has a powerful understanding of fate through an aspect of the self known as fylgja (Old Norse, ‘to accompany’). While often appearing as an accompanying spirit, a spirit animal, or a guardian angel in Northern folklore, the fylgja is better understood as a part of oneself. It is that in us which brings intuitions of the future, spontaneous insights linked to a memory, gut instinct, or guidance in dreams. The fylgja, much like the Western concept of the daimon, bridges the individual with the world beyond this one and guides them to align with their true self and realise their true destiny. It is that inner voice whose instinct, intuitions, and longings shape the individual’s journey across their life, often in particularly pronounced ways at crucial times.

Many people are not particularly aware of their fylgja, hence can be said to have a sleeping fate, and may only act upon its guidance unconsciously, if ever. Those more attuned, either naturally or due to lifestyle practices, may have a subconscious fate, whose stirrings are sometimes felt, sometimes forgotten, and sometimes ignored. And those who have done the inner work will have an awakened fate; they are conscious of this aspect of themselves and actualise their destiny accordingly.

Having an awakened fate is essential for living your true purpose in the world. Indeed, the calling within you that you feel you must become is the voice of your fylgja. Many may not consider it this way, and it really doesn’t matter how you describe it. What matters is that you live it.

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Your fylgja provides the intuition, foresight, wisdom and vision to live your true purpose and achieve your destiny. To achieve your destiny also requires having the right relationship with your orlæg—not being tangled in the past in a way that prevents you from achieving your vision, but instead building a past that supports you toward your destiny. It also requires mastering wyrd—having the knowledge, skills and awareness to shape the present toward your destiny.

If you look at people in the world who have actualised their dreams, they are very likely to have followed an inner calling to get to that point—it was not random luck or outside forces, although these probably played a part. (Luck is another Northern concept, perhaps for a future article.)

While orlæg relates to the past, and wyrd relates to the present, fylgja relates to the future. All three interweave to create the tapestry of your journey through life. Mastering these three brings greater capacity to engage your past so that it supports and enhances your present, to awaken your autonomy in the present moment, and to become clear about your direction moving forward.

Their fates were awakening in the style of the Elves, where clear vision and autonomy of action was the norm, rather than being forced to live through a pre-determined, externalised system, where one’s vision was limited and often the nature of the system itself was not fully known. … Most humans preferred certainty and routine over the openness and uncertainty of total freedom. And most avoided the self-discipline and self-reliance that is a prerequisite for that freedom, preferring instead reliance upon those with greater power for their needs, at the cost of their diminished freedoms.

– From Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox, by Todd William Dearing (purchase your copy here).

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Copyright © 2026 Genius Authoring Pty Ltd trading as Wizardry Sphere | ABN 85 669 120 978

It’s a novel about wizards and their quest for self-mastery and greater wisdom. Set in a parallel world in an earlier age, it tells of the journeys of the fox alchemist Loquilian and the two wizards who join him along the way. It’s unusual, it’s lyrical, it’s visionary, it’s nostalgic, and you can purchase a copy here.

This is the first instalment. Over the coming year, all 46 chapters of the novel will be published here. I will release a new chapter each week—available exclusively to paid subscribers. So, if you’re not yet a paid subscriber, upgrade below.

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Here’s the first chapter for free. Enjoy!

~ PART 1 ~

Solve

A fox on the road

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 1

“Is it final?” asked Loquilian.

His question faded into the silence as he looked at Katarea, waiting for an answer.

Loquilian was a fox-veremir (a fox with humanoid appearance and qualities). He was short, being four feet tall, dressed in a mid-blue cloak, full-length grey boots, and a dark tan suit. He carried a silver rapier on his belt. He appeared elegant and nimble, and though having some skill in fencing, his main craft was alchemy; not to be misunderstood as rudimentary chemistry but as the ancient tradition of individual transformation using the spiritual qualities of metals, plants, animals, celestial bodies, and other natural forces. His sword was also an alchemical symbol, representing the pinnacle of his Art—a vivid, agile awareness. As an alchemist, he was skilled in smithing, chemistry, healing, herb-lore, star-lore, survival training, hunting, stealth, and, in his view, conversation.

The space around him seemed to expand, or rather he became more aware of the room they were in—the great hall within Katarea’s castle. It was large, with stone-cobbled floor and a high ceiling. The walls were lined with patterned carpet hangings containing images of golden lions, rampant regardant, on red backdrops, or a silver crescent moon and stars on midnight blue. Between them were several tall windows shaped to pointed arches at their top. Their glass was dark, stained red and white in diamond shapes. Night lay outside and nothing but the reflection of the shifting candlelight was seen in the windows. A fireplace held a steady fire, burning logs of ash wood. Silence was the background to this place, an old and regal silence in the stones; the noble ancestors kept watch, as they had for hundreds of years. In the current mood, noise, be it a footstep or a gentle cough, stood out almost painfully.

Katarea was tall and arching, with pale skin contrasting her blood-red robe, which was hooded—though she kept it off—and hemmed with a black and white chequered pattern. She was still and thoughtful, but when she moved, it was with swift certainty. Her features were angular and her demeanour detached, but not insensitive. Her smile was slight, her expression poised and attentive to Loquilian.

“Yes,” Katarea replied.

“Then what will I do from now on?”

“That is for you to decide. I have released you from your service to the Goddess. What you do is your choice, and your responsibility.” Her face was fixed on the fireplace, her eyes cold in contrast to both his hope and the dancing flames.

They sat in silence. Time rolled into the night. The fire crackled and a glowing log crumbled into several smaller pieces.

He was about to say what his heart felt, but she anticipated it and spoke first. “Do not say what you feel. That is your opening to the world, those feelings. Keep them, cherish them, and let them lead you to where you need to be. They will show you a way from here.”

She turned toward the window. “And that is all the advice I can give. Please pack your belongings and leave this place.”

He caught his words, composed himself, and walked over to the fire, staring for a moment. He walked out of the room, heading down the hallway, to pack.

She let his footsteps echo her feelings further away from her heart as he left. Her secret feelings left her, no longer hers. She could not reveal anything more, not now. It was crucial in her training as a guide to have such self-control. She knew he was still a little too tender for the world, but she also knew it would shape him.

Sometimes our destiny is more than we are able to withstand. Yet afterwards, we are more than we thought ourselves to be.

Loquilian trod along the snow-clothed road. The wind was chilled, yet gentle, and the sky was clear of cloud and Moon. The Moon was new, a day from the dark moon, and it had already set, as had the Sun. The great arc of the Milky Way hovered over Loquilian. Its glow was comforting; he felt it moving with him, ushering his new beginning. Around it, a myriad stars covered the sky in their brilliant song of glittering awe. It felt like his sky; he felt a new sense of being at home under it.

Thus he wandered for many nights this way, comforted by star light. He began to grasp a sense of their supra-rational logic, their logos, as the elders would say. During the day he would rest in the wilderness, locating a warm sheltered place, and he would gather his meals in the morning and at dusk, often finding berries or tubers, and catching fish, or trapping small animals.

His attitude to his food, as he was taught, was to be deeply respectful for the life he was receiving. He knew the plant or animal would leave behind a portion of itself, the physical and vital aspects, and return to the greater world of Spirit. He was a skilled hunter, from which he could sustain his form in the physical world. He saw this exchange of life for another’s death not as something he kept for himself, for he would one day die and gift his form as food for other beings. He saw the life he had taken into his being as a sacred responsibility; it was received not merely for himself. He regarded his energy, emotions, deeds, words, and thoughts in terms of how he affected the world he lived in. His responsibility was not simply for himself or those around him, it was for the balance of the whole world, through his practical daily endeavours.

Understanding the nature of the Spirit World as encompassing and being much vaster than the Ordinary World, he saw how life was unity—it flowed into and out of forms as part of the natural cycle. Hunger and thirst, desire and need; these were forces inspired by the life-force, by Life itself as natural to its flow. To counter these forces with unnatural processes or actions was to create a dissonance between Life and his individual life-force. But to acknowledge the unison of life and death, and their ever-cycling nature, was for him to honour and respect the greater world that is both physical and spiritual. He was never cruel or tortuous to the living beings he fed from; he honoured them as sacred and honoured the sacrifice they were brought to experience so that he may continue his sacred living of life. He could feel the destiny they faced as he cut them from their physical being, and for this sacrifice, he knew they would not suffer in pain beyond their death.

He was also taught how often people are very afraid when it comes to pain, injury, and death. Most other existences, be they plants, animals, minerals or spirit beings, are, in the end, comfortable with this natural and necessary process. It is necessary because Life must grow through both pleasure and pain, birth and death, light and dark. Life is a deep process that cannot exist in a one-sided manner. The majority of non-human living beings are more connected to Spirit, and so are not encircled by a fearful view that this life is all there is. Many people, even religious believers who speak of life after death, do not wish to cross that threshold. But often they have no experience of their beliefs in reality, and have not explored their own fears around this. They remain falsely confident, until death’s reality meets them. Often then do they realise the freedom of living Life fully, but it is too late. Loquilian was trained to live the fullest possible existence, as his sacred responsibility.

Days and nights rolled on as Loquilian roamed freely, with no set destination. Eventually, early one morning, he came to a spring. It was a traditional pilgrimage site for many kinds of people, though was not widely known within the Tunglenol mountains to the east, where he was raised. A signpost informed him of the site: ‘Naerend’s Well’.

Offerings were seen around a grey stone pool, built many generations ago, which was shaped to meet flush with the curves of the hillside and hold the waters as they flowed. Willows hung their long strands into the stream that flowed on from the lip of this pool. Bird droppings and footprints of deer were seen nearby. The spring bubbled out steadily.

Loquilian then heard the talk of others nearby. He hopped a little up the hill to hide behind an ash tree and watch. Two figures cloaked in earth-brown robes came strolling to the well. One placed a basket on the ground near the well while the other took off her robe, revealing a dazzling green costume. It was made of thousands of emerald-green metallic scales, tightly fitting her slender form, a single piece from neck to wrist and down to her ankles. Golden fish earrings hung from her thin petite ears and a tiara of green-tinted gold studded with emeralds rested above her vivid almond eyes. She looked directly at Loquilian, who was smiling in appreciation for her sharp awareness.

The other figure then removed his hood only, showing his shortly shaved black hair and weathered face. His eyes were large and pointy, his nose was also large and bulbous. The lady motioned to him with her arm, indicating they were not alone. The man looked up towards where Loquilian sat, taking some time to recognise his presence, and let out a groan. “We’re not going to do you any harm, brother,” he said.

Loquilian knew they were trustworthy. They had the air of noble-folk, yet he felt no inclination to move from where he was. “Just having a rest before I move on,” was his response.

The man and the lady exchanged some words which Loquilian could not pick up, but he sensed their talk involved him.

“Come here and introduce yourself friend,” spoke the lady.

She began to unpack the basket, which looked to contain ritual implements: a vase, a lantern, incense, stones and a sky-blue cloth.

Loquilian remained there.

She looked at him again. “Come down here if you want to join us fox, or go elsewhere. There are no spectators in ritual.” They continued unpacking and began to set up an altar on the wall around the spring.

Now Loquilian was curious. He sat up, somewhat dazzled by the lady’s directness, and noticed the vase had the image of a blue dragon on it. He spoke as he stood and stepped towards them, “What’s that vase?”

Coming closer, he noticed there were several dragons encircling the vase, connecting their tails together in tight knot-work, while their mouths met the lip of the vase, spaced evenly around it—three dragons in total.

The man turned to face Loquilian, gaining his attention. Then the lady spoke, “We are travellers on an important journey. Please regard us before our treasures, young fox.”

Loquilian found her tone a little cutting, almost dominating. Feeling a little spritely, he ducked to the left to take a better look at the vase. The man stepped forward to intercept, at which point Loquilian twisted back to look straight up at the man, who was much taller than him. Collecting himself and lightly dusting himself off, Loquilian spoke, “I am Loquilian, a wanderer. I have no purpose other than to learn the ways of wisdom, and so to be of benefit to the world.”

“I am Tairesea of the court of Og’oreal, maiden of the Star-Elves, daughter of Queen Kistral,” spoke the lady.

“I, Quandal, am at the service of the Lady,” spoke the man.

Tairesea continued, “It is a noble ideal you hold, but in this world, ideals are seldom reached. What skills do you have? Where have you studied? Which lord or lady are your loyalties lent to?”

Quandal stared down at him, now with greater seriousness. Loquilian felt under interrogation. This he could understand, being a stranger to these two, in a world full of many strangers, but he had no fear under the gaze of this man. Loquilian’s main concern was to stay on their supportive side. He was curious about their reactionary nature though, and could see through Tairesea’s directness, which was obviously hiding a natural gentleness. Their ears now eager to hear, he opened his mouth to speak, “I have the skills of an alchemist, apprenticed for seven years to Baroness Katarea.”

He was impressed with himself, having answered all three questions in one sentence.

She was quick to respond, “Katarea, she is of the Natural Alchemy school, yes?”

Loquilian nodded.

She continued, “then you have a broader training than a scholar, though less able in the wild than a ranger, but more capable in pursuing research unaided, and still without the sense to keep some things secret before strangers. You appear young, and no doubt are fresh in your wandering. The world is not at all something you are ready for, that I can plainly see. How do you plan to adjust yourself in order to survive?”

He felt pressured again by her questions, forced to respond, and felt like a fool before her; would he reveal something else to embarrass himself? “Sometimes our destiny is more than we are able to withstand. Yet afterwards, we are more than we thought ourselves to be,” he quoted the well known verse from The Book of Regal Shadows.

Tairesea return an amused smile, and he knew her heart had softened. His apparent naivety was obvious, a weakness she felt sympathy for. Quandal relaxed; he went to some fallen branches nearby, and began to break them up into smaller pieces.

Loquilian now felt he was off the hook. He didn’t realise the seriousness of the quest these two were on though. In his spirit of casual wandering, he just stood there watching, waiting for something to happen.

Tairesea then spoke, “I was serious when I said you either join us or go elsewhere.”

Loquilian, not willing to commit to their ritual, excused himself, “Very well, then I am to head north-west. There are pleasant lands to that way I have heard.” His tone was a subtle mocking of her courtly speech.

She didn’t seem to notice, or, was it, mind. “That is well then, those valleys are indeed the dwelling place of many beautiful creatures, and contain many delicious fruits from many generous trees. I wish you well on your wandering, young fox.”

“Indeed that does sound ideal,” responded Loquilian.

Quandal merely looked over to him, giving a slight nod.

And with that, Loquilian began his wandering into the valleys to the north-west.

Next—Chapter 2, ‘The valley of Ideeni’

Exclusive to paying members.

Read Chapter 2

For the complete novel, purchase your copy of Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Copyright © 2026 Genius Authoring Pty Ltd trading as Wizardry Sphere | ABN 85 669 120 978

For those interested, this review provides a good summary of what the novel is about. Enjoy.

— Todd William Dearing

Dr Todd William Dearing’s Loquilian the Alacritous Fox (2026) is a distinctive contribution to contemporary fantasy that privileges inner alchemy over epic battle. Framed by the ancient maxim “Sometimes our destiny is more than we are able to withstand. Yet afterwards, we are more than we thought ourselves to be,” the novel tests this wisdom through the intertwined journeys of a fox-veremir alchemist and two wizards. It succeeds in its aims: to dramatise solve et coagula—dissolution and recombination—as both narrative structure and lived philosophy, while exploring liminality, responsibility to the greater whole, and the quiet expansion of self that follows overwhelming experience. In doing so, it invites comparison with, and gentle divergence from, touchstones of transformative fantasy and allegorical literature.

The story opens with Loquilian, a four-foot-tall fox-veremir dressed in cloak and boots, carrying a silver rapier that symbolises “vivid, agile awareness.” His alchemical craft is no laboratory chemistry but a spiritual art of transformation drawing on metals, plants, stars, and the living world. Released from service to the Goddess by the poised wizard Katarea, he steps onto a snow-clothed road under a new moon and the Milky Way. What follows is not a single hero’s quest but a multi-threaded tapestry: Loquilian’s wandering trials intersect with the awakening of Sainell-nairè (the ancient man) from stellar compression into an old wizard’s body and the long apprenticeship of Jeom (the bright boy) at the emerald palace of Colodia. The two-part division—Solve and et Coagula—mirrors the alchemical process exactly. Dissolution arrives through loss of certainty, sorcerous traps, realm crossings, and the raw demands of survival and magic; recombination appears in hard-won balance, dream-plane connections, and a deeper attunement to spirit and nature.

The quoted line functions as both epigraph and dramatic engine. Early, it is narrative reflection after Loquilian’s departure; later, he recites it from The Book of Regal Shadows when pressed about his future. The novel robustly embodies its logic. Loquilian begins tender and somewhat naïve, skilled yet untested beyond his prior service. Destiny—release, wilderness, trap, fire, lower realms, and encounters with greater powers—stretches him beyond what his earlier self could have borne. He emerges not triumphant in a conventional sense but enlarged: more alacritous (eager, lively, quick), more philosophically grounded, and more integrated into magical circles while remaining true to his independent fox nature. Parallel arcs reinforce the pattern. Sainell-nairè’s star-to-body compression and northward journey test ancient power in new flesh; Jeom’s nineteen-year training and daimonic dream relationship with Taerise alchemise personal loss into world-healing balance. Each character withstood more than prior limits suggested, becoming “more than we thought ourselves to be.” The quote is therefore not decorative but structural: the narrative repeatedly enacts the crucible of destiny and the expansion that follows.

In its emphasis on personal transformation through alchemical metaphor, Loquilian the Alacritous Fox most obviously recalls Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (1988). Both treat alchemy as inner journey and destiny as a force that first dismantles then reconstitutes the seeker. Coelho’s Santiago follows omens toward his Personal Legend in a spare, parabolic style; Dearing’s Loquilian moves through a fully realised secondary world of castles, stained-glass halls, and dragon lines, his growth registered in concrete skills (herb-lore, star-lore, fencing) and philosophical realisations about life-death cycles and responsibility to the whole. Where Coelho offers concise wisdom, Dearing offers immersive experience—yet both insist that true transformation requires surrendering what one thought one was.

The novel also converses with Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle, particularly A Wizard of Earthsea (1968). Le Guin’s Ged learns that true magic lies in knowing and integrating one’s shadow; equilibrium, not conquest, defines power. Dearing’s alchemical framework performs analogous shadow work: Loquilian honours the beings he hunts, accepts pain and death as necessary to Life’s flow, and navigates liminal thresholds between ordinary and spirit worlds. Both authors reject dualistic “good versus evil” for a more ecological and psychological vision. Yet Dearing’s multi-threaded structure and explicit solve et coagula architecture give the theme a ritual formality Le Guin achieves through subtler Taoist-inflected balance.

Comparisons with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings illuminate further contrasts. Both depict ordinary (or seemingly ordinary) beings—hobbits, a fox-veremir—rising to meet destinies larger than themselves. Frodo’s burden and Aragorn’s kingship enact the same expansion the quote names. Tolkien, however, embeds growth within a grand teleology of eucatastrophe and return; Dearing offers cyclical continuation. Loquilian does not destroy a Ring or claim a throne; he walks onward, alacritous, carrying transformed awareness. The novel’s open road at the end feels closer to the perpetual becoming of Le Guin or even Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) than to Tolkien’s restorative close.

Anthropomorphic perspective links the book to Richard Adams’s Watership Down (1972), where rabbits undertake an epic journey whose stakes feel mythic precisely because they remain animal. Loquilian’s veremir identity—humanoid yet fox—similarly grants an outsider’s clarity on human (and wizardly) foibles while rooting his wisdom in embodied, predatory, and star-gazing realities. Unlike Adams’s more political allegory, Dearing’s focus remains spiritual and alchemical.

Liminality supplies another productive contrast. Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013) and the Narnia chronicles use crossings between worlds to explore childhood’s end and the porousness of reality. Dearing makes liminality central and adult: dream-plane unions that heal dragon lines, star-compression into flesh, and the ‘gap in the world’ all serve the same end—awakening consciousness to what lies between binaries. The novel’s back-matter connection to Dearing’s own Musing the In-Between underscores this lineage: it is fantasy in service of literary humanism and the daimonic tradition (Blake, Goethe, and others) rather than pure escapism.

Stylistically, the book’s strength lies in its atmospheric prose and philosophical interludes, which slow the pulse of adventure just enough to let meaning settle. Weaknesses are minor: the interwoven threads occasionally diffuse focus, and readers seeking relentless plot may find the reflective passages demanding. Yet these qualities serve the novel’s deeper purpose. Like the best transformative fantasy, it does not merely entertain; it enacts the very expansion it describes.

Ultimately, Loquilian the Alacritous Fox achieves what it sets out to do. Through Loquilian’s arc and its parallels, it demonstrates that destiny’s crucible—whether release from service, sorcerous trap, or star-compression—can break what we were and reveal what we might become. In an era of grimdark and chosen-one sagas, Dearing offers something rarer: a fantasy of patient, alchemical becoming, where the fox walks on, alacritous, and the reader is invited to consider how their own destiny might enlarge them beyond previous imagining. It is a novel that honours the quote not as slogan but as lived, hard-won truth.

Purchase your copy of Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Copyright © 2026 Genius Authoring Pty Ltd trading as Wizardry Sphere | ABN 85 669 120 978

While in Copenhagen, I visited the National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet). There was an exhibition on the ground floor, ‘The prehistory of Denmark’, that showed the development of human culture in the region across 15,000 years of history from the Stone Age to today. It included many artefacts from these periods, along with well-made printed and digital displays, exploring key themes such as tools, weapons, diet, trade, craft, traditions, culture, and more.

This article is not a review of the exhibition—though if you are visiting Copenhagen, I highly recommend it. My approach here is to focus on a single motif from the exhibition: the Sun cross.

As a symbol, the Sun cross is found all around the world. The Sun is the most significant stellar body for life on Earth and shapes the various cycles of development, growth and decline, daily, annually, and over larger cycles. It is literally the source of light, energy, and warmth. It is no wonder every culture on Earth has given it great importance.

This importance is ancient. As our distant ancestors faced the world, the Sun’s movements were a reliable measure for activity, for hunting times, gathering wild plants, planting and harvesting agricultural cycles, and for the seasonal festivals and sacred ceremonies. The Sun’s reliability made it benevolent—it brought life through the seasons and daily rhythms—yet it could also bring great heat, drought, and in extreme dry climates, death. The Sun was recognised as sacred, a source of power to be respected and honoured.

Yet the Sun is also important in current times and for our future. We still shape our daily routines by it; we often enjoy going outside on sunny days, and we miss its presence during long dark winters. While many today view the Sun as a material object, our lives are never far from its power and its absence we would quickly and drastically notice. For decades humans have sought to harness the Sun’s energy through solar power technologies. The Sun is seen as a pure source of energy. And more recently, there has been talk of using its energy from space, to power artificial intelligence. There is even the idea of harnessing its entire power to one day become a Type II Kardashev civilisation—where we have settlements across our entire solar system, and beyond. Our civilisation’s expansion, and our survival, is directly reliant on the Sun.

The Sun is also important for health. Studies show children who receive 1-3 hours of sunlight daily tend to have better eyesight, sleep patterns, memory and learning ability, bone growth and immune systems than those who receive less sunlight. While this needs to be balanced to prevent over-exposure, and depends also on the environment, diet and many other factors, the health benefits of the Sun are clear. This mirrors ancient views of the Sun as a symbol of intelligence, health, and vitality.

And the Sun’s importance is recognised universally among humanity. Ancient civilisations, from India to China to Mexico, all attribute significant symbolic value to the Sun. In the Vedic culture of India, the Sun is Surya, Savitr, Pushan, the Ādityas, among other figures. Surya drives his chariot across the sky, pulled by seven horses. He is the eye of the universe and dispeller of darkness. In ancient China, the Sun is Xihe (羲和), the Sun goddess who drives a chariot pulled by dragons across the sky, carrying one of her ten sons. Her sons are often depicted as three-legged crows that reside in the Fusang (扶桑) mulberry tree in the East Sea. There were once ten Suns in the sky, which scorched the Earth until the hero Hou Yi (后羿) shot down nine of them with his bow. In Mexico, Mayan mythology involves creation cycles and the Sun god Kinich Ahau, who journeys across the sky by day and through the underworld by night as a jaguar.

The Nordic mythos is similar to those of other ancient cultures. Artefacts, such as rock carvings (Figure 2), Bronze objects (Figure 4), and the Trundholm Sun Chariot (Figure 6), show the journey of the Sun on ships or pulled by animals. The cycle goes as follows. At sunrise, a fish pulls the Sun up from the night ship into the morning ship, and into the upperworld. The fish then rides with the Sun in the morning ship until late morning, when the fish is eaten by a bird of prey. Sun horses stand ready at noon to pull the Sun out of the morning ship, and land with the Sun in the afternoon ship to carry it across the sky. Later in the afternoon, a snake takes the Sun into the evening ship. The snake hides the Sun in its coils at sunset and takes it below, into the underworld. The Sun, extinguished and dark, then sails in a night ship through the underworld. Throughout this journey, a fish accompanies the Sun and towards dawn is ready to lift the Sun into the morning ship, repeating the cycle.

These stories of the Sun’s journey across the sky all share an obvious common theme—animals pull the Sun. Animals embody the primal vitality of the natural world, mirroring our own human instincts, senses and energies. The Sun being pulled by different animals at different times of day and night highlights the energies of these times. What these specific animals and times may represent can become a focus for meditation or art, to explore and understand them more deeply. I won’t go into this here.

The Sun’s journey is cyclical, as it oscillates between day and night, above and below. It’s oscillation brings light and dark to our world, and this duality brings other correspondences. Light is life, while dark is death, and light is knowledge, while dark is ignorance. However, I won’t go as far as saying that light is good while dark is evil, because both light and dark have their beneficial and detrimental aspects, much like the branches and roots of a tree each serve a purpose. Being cyclical, relative forces, there is always a hidden light in darkness and a hidden darkness in light.

These Sun stories often share the motifs of the upperworld and underworld. The underworld in traditional cultures is typically a place of transition, challenge, reflection and renewal for the soul—as for the Sun—unlike the realm of eternal damnation for sinners that the Christian mythos presents. Ancient cultures also share similar conceptual frameworks for the upperworld—being a realm of the gods, illumination, and celestial order—though the details can vary.

The Sun as the traveller between the upper and lower worlds thereby is the shamanic hero, having power over the circle of life and death. It is the primordial wizard, bringing the wisdom of this circle to the world. And this archaic symbol is reflected in the natural world, where the Sun causes both the growth and desolation of life on Earth. The Sun’s journey is a transcendent yet immanent circle, and can be encapsulated in the symbol of the Sun cross.

The cycle of the Sun also extends across the larger cycle of the seasons, where Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter facilitate the phases of growth, fullness, harvest and decline. These seasons are geometrically connected through the Spring and Autumn equinoxes to Earth’s East-West compass points, and by extension, to the North-South compass points, which are emphasised by the Summer and Winter Sun respectively (and the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere). Thus we have the four compass points around a circle. This provides a geometric (from geo, ‘earth’ and metric, ‘measurement’) equivalent to the time-based circle of the seasons. The time-based seasonal circle reflects the cyclical nature of life—from birth to maturity, to old age, and death, as it traverses the geometry of the Earth. The cosmos in this way is layered within various geometric cycles, and the Sun is central to these.

These cycles of the Sun have a special significance in the far northern (or southern) parts of our Earth, where there are extended light and dark seasons of the year. In Tromsø, Norway, for instance, there is 24 hours of daylight for 1-2 months in Summer and 24 hours of darkness, where the Sun does not rise above the horizon, for a similar 1-2 months in Winter. Where the Sun never rises or sets for long periods, these regions have an enduring twilight. The liminal period of the day, which is relatively short in regions closer to the Equator, is expanded. The natural effects and symbolic meaning of this liminality is a topic to ponder further—or for something to experience for yourself if you visit such places. Add to this the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and Southern Lights (Aurora Australis)—also caused by the Sun—and such parts of the Earth are magical indeed.

The mythos of the Sun in Northern culture goes much deeper than the diurnal and seasonal cycles, but that will do for now. If this article has interested you, I encourage you to explore the topic further.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

www.wizardrysphere.com | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy

Copyright © 2026 Genius Authoring Pty Ltd trading as Wizardry Sphere | ABN 85 669 120 978

To intellectualise wisdom is to mistake the map for the terrain. Better to experience wisdom, cultivate it, and live it. So while we will explore some ideas about wisdom, and settle on a definition, the focus here remains pragmatic. I am ultimately interested in the individual practice of developing wisdom, and the results that come from this. While acknowledging there are many different approaches to developing wisdom, here we emphasise a specific approach that connects the ideas Wizardry Sphere explores.

Even in practice, wisdom can be elusive. The wisest people can fall prey to folly. And sometimes, wise actions appear foolish in the eyes of the unwise—as the trickster archetype demonstrates, teaching wisdom by acting in questionable and mysterious ways. To be a wise person is not a simple matter. Wisdom is not an end state—a goal to be achieved. It is a lifetime journey that requires continual re-application, like a boat adjusting course as the currents turn.

Wisdom is the fruit of a well-lived life. This, however, implies it is the possession of the elderly. Such is true in many cases, but not all old people are wise. Play your cards right and time and experience may bring you wisdom. But neglect the body and mind, make poor decisions and learn little from them, and no amount of time will wisen you.

Regardless of how you live, experience is the play-realm for developing wisdom. Life’s difficulties and obstacles can become opportunities to grow, adapt, and evolve. You can consciously direct your growth, challenge yourself, test your insights, better understand your limitations—and overcome them where you can. Living with full awareness in your present experience, making sound decisions, learning from everything, and developing your potential in alignment with your true purpose are some of the ways to develop wisdom.

But wisdom is also more than life experience. It is access to something beyond all experience. Here we enter the domain of genius—that innate creative power that we each have within us, which may be active or dormant.

A genius may overflow with penetrating insights about the way the world works, beyond what the average person can understand. Yet their insights still need to be applied to be useful. Practical wisdom is the complement to genius-level understanding. The ability to act in the world to achieve a definite result comes with a whole swath of challenges. It requires skill, knowledge, patience, persistence, and many other resources. While wisdom exists beyond the tangible world—in the hidden secrets of nature, which genius spontaneously illuminates—it also belongs squarely in the everyday, concrete world. Both these aspects of wisdom—transcendent insight and immanent pragmatism—must be mastered to bring real success. Wisdom requires both an understanding of the universe and the ability to act upon that understanding. It is the capacity to turn great insight into practical results.

While the concept of wisdom is universal, expressed differently in different cultures, the word ‘wisdom’ and its variants is found among the Anglo, Nordic and Germanic peoples. The word ultimately reaches back to Proto-Indo-European, *weyd. Its original meaning is ‘to see and to know’.

The wise one is the wizard (from Middle English wysard), or the Old Norse vitki. The wizard is a philosopher and sage, in the ancient sense. The archetype of the wizard is often associated with magic in the collective imagination, as reflected in mythology and the fantasy genre. But what is magic to some is more likely skill and knowledge to the master.

Consider the computer wizard or the finance wizard—as two contemporary examples. Yes they can do magical things with machines or money, but this is not magic in the fantasy sense. Wisdom as clear vision and true action is more fundamental to the wizard than anything fantastical. For more on the archetype of the wizard as a practitioner of wisdom, see our article, ‘What is wizardry?’

In practice, wisdom connects knowledge and vision to earthly life experience and sound practical results. Having the vision and wit—the knowing, sense, and cleverness—to turn insights into practical results is magical in a different way. Wisdom is also grounded in who one is and how one lives. It is patient, thoughtful, and enduring. It is sound judgement and noble character. It is timing and measured action. And in the broadest sense, it is the timeless principles of the natural world.

Those with wisdom see the world more clearly than most and know how to extend their insights into actual results that are widely beneficial. Thus we can define wisdom:

Wisdom is the capacity to perceive and apply universal truths within specific contexts to create purposeful beneficial outcomes.

There is goodness in this. Age, knowledge, and folly may either help or hinder wisdom, but wisdom is ultimately something behind all these. A wise person has greater insight and practical sense. They have height, depth, and breadth. The have access to something transcendent and the ability to work this pragmatically into the world, across a wide range of circumstances.

In a mediocre society, conventional wisdom is just reinforced mediocrity. Though such may be useful and generally considered good, it lacks height, depth, and breadth. It will not help evolve humanity or prevent larger civilisational disruptions. Real wisdom, in contrast, includes but goes beyond the commonplace world, so often appears unconventional. This is seen in entrepreneurs with a great vision, who take risks, act boldly, and succeed—even as they fill out mundane paperwork. Great entrepreneurs are often unconventional. Yet they succeed despite the conventional doubts, opposition, and resentment of people around them.

Such traits are also seen in the archetypal wizard. While the wizard can enjoy the simple pleasures (and paperwork) of the ordinary world, they also go beyond this into vaster realms of becoming.

Wisdom is, as the ancients have always said, mysterious.

Wizardry Sphere explores what it means to develop wisdom and self-mastery in the present and emerging world. We draw creatively from both ancient and modern sources.

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Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Wizardry is the practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery.

A wizard is one who is wise (from Middle English wysard, a wise one).

Wisdom is the capacity to perceive and apply universal truths within specific contexts to create purposeful beneficial outcomes.

A wizard is not by definition a magician, contrary to popular belief. The notion of a wizard as a practitioner of magic came later, around the time of the English Renaissance, and flourished through the fantasy genre. A wizard may or may not be involved in magic or the occult, as these do not define them as a wizard. Rather than a magic user, the wizard is much more akin to the philosopher (Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος, ‘lover of wisdom’) or sage (Latin sapere, ‘to taste, discern, be wise’) of Mediterranean cultures. However, this similarity has to be taken in the ancient sense: the wizard is on a quest for wisdom. Furthermore, in contrast to most accounts of classical philosophers, the wizard is much more visionary and they are also men of action—more on these to come. Finally, a wizard may be a genius in a particular field (finance, business, technology, engineering, a particular art or sport), but not necessarily. This common usage of ‘wizard’ is closer to the literal meaning, but if a highly talented individual lacks wisdom, they cannot be a wizard.

What defines a wizard is their wisdom

The word wizard (’wise one’), and its Old Norse equivalent vitki (’a wise man’, from vitr, ‘wise’), both relate to wit (as mental sharpness and agility) and vision (both literal and visionary). They relate to the Sanskrit विद् (vid, ‘knowledge, wisdom, science, philosophy’) and वेद (veda, ‘knowledge’), Polish wiedza (’knowledge’), Russian vedat’ (archaic ‘to know’), German wissen (’to know’) and many similar terms across the Indo-European language family, through to the Proto-Indo-European *weyd-, ‘to see’. For to see is to know is to be wise.

Seeing in this sense refers to heightened awareness and deeper knowledge, which come from inner transformation and development through training, lifestyle, and various endeavours, over a long period of time. The wizard aims to develop true seeing, so to speak. This seeing is in contrast to what most people do, which is merely to look at things and replace what they saw with a simplified, often limited, biased, or mistaken set of their own thoughts about what they saw, or to superimpose an ideology, dogma, or system of thinking. While there can be many useful systems of thinking (such as the scientific method), mistaking the method or the theory for the reality is the quickest way to cease to perceive reality. The wizard, in contrast, trains in the direct perception of reality.

Wisdom combines vision and action

Wizards are men of action. They are adventurous, for no wisdom is earned by sitting on the couch. They embark on great endeavours, projects, businesses, and other quests. They single-mindedly pursue and hunt their life’s purpose, to fulfil their greatest destiny. They are not passive theorists, armchair philosophers, or mere intellectuals. Nor are they only talkers; their actions speak louder than their words, whether or not they are seen by others. Wizards apply self-discipline to transform and develop themselves, and through their actions they test who they are, what they know, and what they are capable of by engaging boldly with the world, both natural and man-made. They learn from their endeavours and iterate to improve themselves.

Northern heritage

The wizard predominantly draws from the Northern heritage—the wisdom, experience, and achievements of the Anglo, Nordic, and Germanic peoples. This heritage spans from the earliest humans of Northern Europe during the Paleolithic period all the way to the present day, anywhere on Earth that such heritage may be found. The Northern heritage is complex—it is vast, layered, and nuanced—and is a living thing, not merely a concept.

Out of this complex heritage comes a broad tradition of wisdom. Wisdom is defined as ‘the capacity to perceive and apply universal truths within specific contexts to create purposeful beneficial outcomes.’ This wisdom can take various forms: pragmatic, anecdotal, reflective, inspired, personal, or others, and it can be embedded in culture, society, and organisations at all levels and in various ways. Wizardry is the practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery. Such wisdom is not insular—that is, it does not isolate itself from the wider world, nor from other peoples, places, periods, or perspectives. The wizard recognises and respects all that is learnt from and exchanged with other peoples, with the natural world, and with the vast universe all around us. The wizard is open to existence, yet simultaneously honours their own nature and ancestral heritage. The wizard, like an evergreen spruce, draws deeply from their roots while expanding their metaphorical branches to engage wisely with the entire world.

Traits of the wizard

While the ways of wizardry are many and there is no overarching dogma as to how to develop wisdom—each path is individual—wizards generally share in common the quest for greater awareness, knowledge, creativity, nobility in conduct, and self-improvement, as ways to develop wisdom. Wizards embody a spirit of mastery and adventure and are self-determined, self-reliant, and good natured. There are no evil wizards as evil doings indicate a lack of wisdom.

Wizards may be generalists (polymaths) or may be specialists in a particular field of endeavour. They are often intelligent, creative, highly curious individuals, as these traits naturally facilitate wisdom. They are also often independent, and may become entrepreneurs as this path best allows them to fulfil their destiny. The underlying foundation of everything a wizard does is wisdom, meaning whatever they spend their time mastering or creating, the ultimate goal is wisdom. This means much of what they do also involves shaping or building things that are valuable and good for humanity and the world.

Disclaimer: Wizardry Sphere content and tools support the personal practice of developing wisdom and self-mastery through reflection and philosophical exploration. They are educational and inspirational in nature. Individual results vary and no specific outcomes are guaranteed. This material is not a substitute for professional advice.

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Copyright © 2026 Genius Authoring Pty Ltd trading as Wizardry Sphere | ABN 85 669 120 978