Wizardry Sphere

9 – Learning magic

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:33:27 GMT

Here is the next instalment of my novel Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox. 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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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 lyrical and visionary, mixed with humour and adventure, and you can purchase a copy here.

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Learning magic

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 9

8 – North

Dr Todd William Dearing — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:10:35 GMT

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North

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 8

A review of my novel—Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox

Dr Todd William Dearing — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:57:58 GMT

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7 – Awaken and rise

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:51:24 GMT

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Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 7

Journaling

Dr Todd William Dearing — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:20:32 GMT

“The greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)

Introduction

Writing is an extension of thinking. Learning to write is learning to think, and when you write well, you not only think well, but you think for yourself, as the Schopenhauer quote implies. Because as much as one believes themselves to be free in their own thoughts—and the choices and actions that follow from these—until the patterns of one’s mind have been thoroughly examined, self-determination may be an illusion.

Journaling is one practice that can enable this deeper introspection. It can also enable external activities such as goal setting, planning and strategising, problem solving or reflecting on the world. In all such approaches, journaling provides a technique with the potential to increase self-awareness and self-determination.

Self-awareness is the insight and understanding you have into your own thinking, emotions, habits, assumptions, biases, and other internal patterns. Self-determination is your capacity to determine and direct your own life, to overcome obstacles and challenges and achieve desired outcomes. Journaling is a useful practice for activating both self-awareness and self-determination, such that both approaches support one another.

6 – The northern wizard

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 03:03:54 GMT

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The northern wizard

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 6

Mythos and symbolism of the Northern Sun cross

Dr Todd William Dearing — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:34:32 GMT

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5 – Jeom's beginning

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 10:35:41 GMT

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Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 5

Cultivating luck

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 10:24:49 GMT

Here, we explore the Northern concepts mægen and hamingja as keys to awakening greater agency and success in the world. Mægen is the Old English term for personal power. Hamingja is the Old Norse term for personal luck. These are important concepts within the ancient cultural traditions of the Anglo, Nordic, and Germanic peoples—adapted here to the current and emerging world.

This article follows from a previous article where I explored the ancient Northern concepts of orlæg, wyrd, and fylgja as keys to empower you to better align to your purpose in life. The material here avoids both scholarly pedantry and dogmatic traditionalism. Instead, I focus creatively on these ancient concepts as pragmatic tools and knowledge for self-development (see the disclaimer at the end of this article).

Mægen is personal power, strength, might, force, and vigour and encompasses one’s entire being—physical, psychological, and spiritual. Hamingja is luck, not in the modern sense of chance happenings (as I will explain soon), but as a personal force that can be cultivated. Mægen and hamingja are closely connected through the individual’s önd (vitality). A person with high mægen and hamingja will have great vitality, power of action, resilience, and often success in their chosen pursuits.

Let’s go deeper into these concepts.

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Harnessing personal power

Think of mægen as a single quality that pervades your entire being. It should not be isolated as only physical might. It includes psychological strength. It also includes spiritual power. Everything in the universe has its own mægen, its own personal power. You are born with a certain mægen and carry this through life, building upon it or diminishing it through your actions. Noble deeds increase it, misdeeds decrease it. Who you associate with shapes your mægen—powerful positive individuals and groups will expand it, while negative associations will reduce it.

In the Northern mythos, mægen underlies the power of great wizards, seers, kings and heroes. Strong mægen brings success, effectiveness, and prestige. While modern culture tends to avoid directly talking about personal power in this way, it has always been a key to any successful human life.

Think about our modern heroes—those who courageously put themselves in danger to protect others; the soldier in battle, our police and frontline emergency services personnel, the random bystander who stops an attacker in a public shopping mall (and becomes famous overnight). We naturally respond to such courage with great honour and respect. We exalt such people because they have demonstrated their mægen. Mægen is honourable power. It is not brutish force or mere muscle.

It is also psychological strength. Ernest Shackleton and his team survived 633 days in and around Antarctica before returning to civilisation. Survivors of the 1972 Andes flight disaster endured 72 days of starvation and extreme cold in the mountains. J. K. Rowling persevered through poverty, depression, and multiple rejections when starting the Harry Potter series. These individuals realised their own power—their mægen—through such ordeals, while those with less would have quit. Any great endeavour requires mægen to endure the challenges, overcome obstacles, and succeed despite the odds.

Beyond the physical and psychological, mægen is spiritual power. Often less understood, spiritual power comes from individual integrity, self-awareness, and universality. Those rare individuals—the genius, sage, mystic, yogi, shaman, philosopher, or artist—who develop a direct conscious connection with existence become centred in the depths of their being, unshakeable in their true self. They access insights beyond the normal human range and create brilliant works to benefit the world. Such mægen is universal, bridging humanity with the eternal and the infinite.

This deeper mægen is applied pragmatically through attunement to natural law—to orlæg—where being is in accord with the greater patterns of nature. The wizard cultivates such power through self-awakening and their direct connection to the universe. This is the power of self-mastery, and provides a foundation for action and success in the world. At this level a person can appear almost magical, but this is more the result of understanding orlæg and having the capacity to act skilfully among it—known as wyrd, the art of becoming. We see this in stories where a wizard lives in harmony with the universe, speaks of things that may come to be, senses distant occurrences, has greater freedom to act, and so on—examples are the Brythonic tales of Merlin, Gandalf in Tolkien’s mythos, or Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Today, we see similar power in the engineer who understands the laws of physics and is able build things that harness these laws to create seemingly magical effects—like a mobile phone to communicate over a distance.

Mægen is the root of all aspects of personal power. While it may be developed physically, psychologically, or spiritually, and expressed in many different ways, it abides at one’s core. The balance of great physical, psychological and spiritual power in an individual is extremely rare, and shows a complete, integrated mægen.

The modern dismissal of luck

That luck can be cultivated may seem an unusual idea to us moderns. Since the scientific revolution of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, we have come to view the universe as a chance arrangement of matter and energy set in motion 13.8 billion years ago, where we humans just happen to live on the one planet that met the right conditions for life, where that life has survived to this day through random natural selection. Astronomer Fred Hoyle gives the likelihood that matter could somehow arrange itself out of randomness into living beings as effectively zero, comparing this to the chances of a tornado ripping through a junkyard to create a perfectly made aeroplane. Biologists then countered this idea by stating that the evolution of life is not completely random, but builds (randomly) upon those traits that increase the chances of life surviving over billions of years.

Both these views are within the modern mindset, where the official narrative is that life in the universe is a meaningless, purposeless accident (with notable exceptions among some scientists and philosophers). In this framework, all your experiences of life’s richness and beauty—the insights, the pain and joy, the deep yearning, dreams, and reminiscing—along with those of billions upon billions of other people, are officially pointless. In a word: nihilism.

While some parents may be reluctant to tell their child that his or her birth was an accident, one must ask: Is the universe also this way?

Before you sink into existential ennui, recall how things once were. The notion of life as the result of randomness is a far outlier among the 300,000 year history of sapient humans. Every culture but the modern seems to have always considered the universe as purposeful, ordered, and sacred—with a few exceptions among schools of philosophical thought here and there. Even today, while a nihilistic worldview tends to dominate collectively, modern society itself is intermixed with many different worldviews from various religions, cultures, subcultures, and individuals. So while we may think that the modern view is just how things are, such thinking is limited to a single culture across a narrow slice of time.

How then did other cultures view the world? The creation stories of great civilisations tell how the world was made from the body of an original being—the Norse Ymir, Babylonian Tiamat, Vedic Purusha, and Chinese Pangu are prominent examples. But to really understand this requires stepping out of the modern framework and its reductionist view of mythology. Myth is closer to story, like a profound movie or book. It need not be taken literally for it to inspire, guide, build understanding, spark insights, and shape our world.

Furthermore, indigenous cultures worldwide—including Northern cultures—consider the universe to be widely populated by non-human people, spirits and forces that animate the natural world, including the land, sea, plants, animals, and celestial bodies, with whom we humans have an ancient kinship and reciprocal obligations. The indigenous worldview is often that of a living, inter-related universe whose existence is innately meaningful and built on individual and collective responsibility.

So when it comes to luck, the modern world teaches us to think of it as chance. Luck is just a random thing that happens to you. So when a rock falls off a cliff and hits you right on the head, that’s pure chance—and bad luck. The very concept of luck is treated suspiciously—it’s not something any rationalist would take seriously. Luck is replaced with randomness in the modern world, stripping the universe of agency and reinforcing its meaninglessness and our pointless role within that.

Yet our culture still carries vestiges of wiser times. We may talk of a person being born lucky, or that bad luck follows someone. These are ancient ways of thinking, and we must re-examine the modern nihilistic worldview to go beyond the idea of luck as random chance. The ancient understanding of luck opens the door to powerful ways of building beneficial momentum in your own life. This is encapsulated in the ancient concept of hamingja.

Luck is an ancient idea

In the Northern traditions, hamingja is the inherent luck that an individual carries. It is built through self-awareness and noble deeds and is weakened by dishonour, carelessness, and evil actions. It can be inherited or lent, is strongly based on one’s family or clan, and is passed across generations. One is born with a certain hamingja and how one dies reflects what they have done with that across their life.

Similar concepts of luck are found around the world. Luck in the ancient view is built upon relationships with natural and spiritual forces, personal agency and fate, ritual, and ancestral influence. From the Roman Goddess Fortuna to the Tibetan རླུང་རྟ་ (lungta, ‘windhorse’) and the Chinese 运气 (yùnqi, ‘fortune’), to the many terms for luck among the Siberian, Melanesian, African, and Native American peoples, luck was never about random chance. It was always about relationship, balance and how one acts.

While it is easy for us moderns to dismiss these concepts as irrational superstition or magical thinking, we should be careful in ignoring such a widespread understanding of our ancestors that is extremely old, predating written records. Our modern mind tends to want to understand such concepts literally, and when this seems nonsensical, dismiss them. But they are mythopoetic concepts, interweaving powerful stories, primal archetypes, and deep symbolism into a creative, sacred, experiential relationship with our present. We have become so accustomed to thinking in the modern way that we remain closed to other ways of seeing. Put simply, we can consider such concepts as hamingja (and mægen) as creative tools for self-transformation.

Those with greater personal power and spiritual attunement tend to have greater hamingja. They have increased vitality and act with honour. Things tend to go their way, or if not, they have the confidence to face and surmount any obstacles. Such people are often exuberant, have high agency, and uplift those around them.

Hamingja is relational

Hamingja is deeply relational. It is continually shaped by how we act toward other beings (human or otherwise). Luck is realised when those beings respond by offering something beneficial—a physical gift, knowledge, protection, health, or favour. Examples include an ancestral spirit protecting a family member, a plant offering its healing properties, or a friend deciding support you after a hard day.

The realisation of hamingja has two criteria. The first is that someone gives something. The second is that the person who receives that is deserving. Where the gift is tainted, forced, or insincere, or the receiver is not deserving or ungrateful, the luck will not be pure—it will carry some kind of catch or will come at a price. The ancient cosmos works through natural laws, orlæg, which balances all things accordingly.

Those with great hamingja seem to have luck follow them wherever they go. The world bends to them. Because of their actions, they carry an aura of good influence, which others recognise and respond to more positively. Hamingja can similarly be weakened through bad relationships. If you act poorly towards another, you’re unlikely to gain their favour. And if you are filled with hatred and resentment, your ‘bad vibe’ is not going to do you any favours among other people. And in an animistic universe, which the Northern mythos presents, the results of both positive and negative hamingja apply across many layers of relationship, including the natural elements, plants, animals, humans, and other beings (gods, goddesses, giants, wights, elves, dwarves, house spirits, water beings, etc.).

Combining power and luck

Mægen is absolute. It is cultivated through actions aligned to reality. When you act truly and in alignment with the universe, you have the absolute power of the universe behind you. Whenever you act at odds with existence, power is diminished and things tend not to work. The key here is self-awareness—the experiential recognition of yourself as innately and uniquely part of the whole. Meditation is the best practice for self-awareness, and from this comes the capacity to act as your true self.

Hamingja is cultivated through how you act towards others. It is realised in how other beings act towards you. The power of your deeds may be enhanced or constrained by other beings in various ways. Having more power, in the sense of overpowering others, may not be the best way to achieve what you want. Mistreating others will inevitably harm your hamingja and will have broader reputational consequences, which will further diminish your hamingja. Likewise, not committing to action and instead relying on your luck, including the good will of others, to achieve an outcome is more likely to be ineffective. In such passivity, you give away your agency by not exercising your mægen.

When hamingja combines with mægen they increase the ‘gifts of the gods’—in the Northern mythos, these are óðr (inspiration), önd (breath), lá (vital fluids), and litu goða (good hue). In large measure, these create heroic power. They empower action and provide the capacity to endure difficulties, overcome obstacles, and persist until the end. The old stories tell of the gods testing heroes, withholding something from them or deliberately making a task harder. We can see this as a metaphor for how the universe responds when you take on a large difficult goal. Rewards do not come easy, they take time, and often the difficulties are necessary to bring out the best in you. If you started a great journey and instantly without effort reached your end goal, you would not have changed and grown as a person. You would not know what you are capable of, and you would most likely not value the result. There is wisdom in the difficult ways of the universe.

And there is an art to cultivating mægen and hamingja, and to combining them wisely. Here, we have explored these two concepts as a basis for personal power, agency, and success. Much more could be written on them, but it is their practice that brings the real experience and understanding.

A practice article on this topic is on the way. Subscribe to Wizardry Sphere for free, or as a paid member for full access.

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4 – In love with the wild

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:15:19 GMT

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In love with the wild

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 4

3 – A storm to be missed

Dr Todd William Dearing — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 23:28:16 GMT

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Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 3

Meditation

Dr Todd William Dearing — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 09:23:04 GMT

As the first practices article, this is available for free to all readers. Future practices articles will only be available to paid subscribers.

“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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Full disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It shares general practices for self-transformation, awareness and well-being. It is not medical, psychological, therapeutic, clinical or professional health advice, and is not a substitute for personalised guidance from a qualified doctor, healthcare provider or mental health professional.

Practices described (including meditation, conscious movement, sensory activities, breathing practices, self-inquiry, and others) may involve physical, emotional, or mental effects. Individual results vary. Always consult your doctor or a qualified health professional before starting any new practice, especially if you have pre-existing medical conditions, injuries, mental health concerns, are pregnant, or are taking medication. Stop immediately if you experience pain, discomfort, distress, or any adverse effect and seek appropriate professional care.

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2 – The valley of Ideeni

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:27:40 GMT

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The valley of Ideeni

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox – Chapter 2

Reframing how we approach wisdom for today's world

Dr Todd William Dearing — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:28:17 GMT

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What is wisdom?

Dr Todd William Dearing — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 15:01:51 GMT

Reframing how we approach wisdom for today’s world.

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The counterbalance to technology

Dr Todd William Dearing — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 02:43:47 GMT

Can we ever create something wiser than ourselves?

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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Oppenheimer’s quote differs from the original. The Bhagavad Gita 11.32 has “kālo ’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt pravṛddho” (“I am time, the great world-destroyer.”) This has quite a different meaning in the context of the Manhattan Project.

Wisdom culture for the emerging world

Dr Todd William Dearing — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 13:19:31 GMT

This original article was first transformed into audio, and now into a video article. Watch it here or on our YouTube channel.

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What is wizardry?

Dr Todd William Dearing — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 15:14:38 GMT

Exploring the wizard archetype for the emerging world.

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Northern Wisdom is coming

Dr Todd William Dearing — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 12:56:14 GMT

The world’s problems are downstream of a wisdom deficit.

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.

Wizardry Sphere explores the living synthesis of Northern ancestral wisdom, self-awareness, and deep philosophical inquiry as practices for self-mastery and a wiser world. And now we’re building a tool that encompasses these.

Introducing Northern Wisdom—a personal transformation app for cultivating wisdom and self-mastery, currently in development.

Northern Wisdom will be your AI-guided sphere for:

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Powered by Grok and guided by Wizardry Sphere, it’s designed for those who want more than generic advice—who want to live with greater clarity, purpose, and depth.

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Northern Wisdom empowers you to live truly and contribute to a wiser world.

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Claiming your destiny

Dr Todd William Dearing — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 08:54:00 GMT

The Northern mythos has a deep understanding of how to engage wisely with the present moment. It teaches how to gain a state of personal autonomy aligned to your true purpose. While concepts like purpose and fate can seem archaic in the modern world, they are actually powerful tools for better understanding how the universe moves and how to free yourself from the hamster wheel of the past. When patterns of the past keep you chained to a life at odds with who you truly are, understanding the concepts of orlæg, wyrd and fylgja can empower you to better align to your purpose in life, so that you can do something you truly love that is beneficial to the world.

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).

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