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jackshoegazerINTERVIEWED by merkabamystica
1. How disciplined are you about writing? How do you keep yourself on track?
I think I have to hypnotize myself in order to write something longer than a piece of flash fiction or a short story. When I wrote my first novel, my friend and co-author did a major ritual on an ancient step-pyramid, the goal of which was energy, sustenance, and the foundation for a large creative project. Right after that, we both found ourselves jobless with our rent paid and a great idea for a novel in the works. We wrote like fiends for 60 days, about 8 hours a day, and then we had a manuscript on our hands. Right after it was finished, it's like the spell was lifted and we got jobs and went back to our normal routine. So disciplined, you ask? No, not really. I'm working on that because I feel it would be terribly inconvenient if I had to cast a writing spell on myself every time I wanted to write a book. However, in a way, I see a writers hermit-like retreat to be a kind of magickal retirement, where one does the real work.
2. What did you study in college?
I went to two different schools, first to Madison Media Institute for graphic and web design, with a side bit of video and television production. Then I went to Goddard with an emphasis on psychology, comparative religion and creative writing. So far, I've only gone to school for things I've already studied on my own and thought, Hey, I'll get a degree, I'm studying it anyway. Somehow this never worked out because, I think, having to do it took the fun out of getting to do it.
3. What would you have never done/known if it wasn't for your son that is actually very important to you?
Just about everything. I can't imagine that alternate universe where I am childless, but it can't be a healthy place. Having a child, especially so young, forced upon me all the things we normally don't get around to really thinking about and figuring out until we're much older. I had to come to terms with mortality, the basic questions of existentialism, my place in the world, my psychological issues, my parents and sibling psychological issues, how these things get passed from generation to generation. Suddenly I realized that I was put in the position that I would one day be gone and the only thing that would be left of me, my only true and ab9iding legacy would be my son, and thus, having children is really the only way we can program the future, how we can have any effect beyond the grave. I realized that one of the main problems in the world (minus overpopulation and global warming and nuclear holocaust) was the fact that shitty people raise shitty people. I was going to have no part in it whatsoever. I came to realize that our parents have issues, lessons that they must learn and come to terms with and whatever they do not resolve and incorporate, or just 'get over', they pass on to their children, and the cycle continues forever and ever. So it was having a child that forced me to take that first real step, the first dive into the cold lake of self-knowledge. I couldn't allow my parents issues to continue through me to my son, along with my own issues. I then resolved to "remake myself into a superhuman pattern through which the infinite may more clearly shine". I don't think I even realized it until you asked this question, but I think I may have floundered, like a pig in shit, rolling around in my subconscious, a waste, accomplishing nothing, in that childless alternate universe. Having Ethan was the Universe's way of grounding me, keeping my feet on the ground so I could fly high enough to break through the clouds and let the sun shine through.
4. What is your spiritual worldview/practice?
You have to go and ask the hardest question ever. I call it Jeremyism. Sometimes I call it the systemless system. I just wrote a large paragraph and decided I'd lost my train of thought and realized its too big and non-linear and multifaceted to describe properly. In short, the entirety of existence, the entire universe is consciousness. All matter, light, energy, everything is consciousness. That's why we can't find consciousness when we carve up a brain. Because we're looking for something that just is. Like trying to find a needle in a needle stack. Take part Qabalah, part quantum physics, part Bill Hicks comedy routine, part Tom Robbins novel, part Tim Leary, part Aleister Crowley, part Ken Wilber, part Robert Anton Wilson, a large part of Carl Jung and shake well and pour through the filter of one Jeremy J. Parker and you get Jeremyism. I didn't even use their ideas, but had to describe all this to myself and when explaining to other people, I've found these other people's maps are very good reference points. We're here to move things from unconsciousness to consciousness, from potential to actualization, and make sure it means something.
5. If you could live in any country besides this one, where would it be?
I've often thought of France, since I have strange synchronistic connections to that country, the least of which is being born on Bastille Day. Since I was about 12, I said I was going to be a writer and then retire to a manor in Scotland, on Loch Ness, write my memoirs and watch for Nessie. My British roots and genetic inheritance also beckon for some time in England. Either will be nice, but I plan on all three eventually.
