User:Bohemian Alchemyst

This user is a washed up resting actor.

This user likes cats.

This user is a Christian.

This user worships
Beauty.

This user is a Leo.

This user is a gay man.

YThis user is a member of
Generation Y.

This user lives in England.

This user is of French ancestry.

This user is of Italian ancestry.

This user teaches at a university or other institution of higher education.

PhDThis user has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History.

This user is critical of postmodernism and its effects on the academy.

This user studied or studies at the University of Bristol

This user attends or attended UCL

This user is interested in the Renaissance period.

This user is interested in occult history.

This user is interested in
art history.

This user is interested in Ancient Greece.

This user is interested in Late Antiquity.

This user is interested in the
history of Christianity.

This user is interested in ancient Persia.

This user is interested in Zoroastrianism.

This user is interested
in Manichaeism.

تصوفThis user is interested in Sufism.

This user is interested in the counterculture of the 1960s.

This user is interested in the belief that death is an acceptable part of life.

Like many prematurely woken to the horrors of the world, I began life seeing the stars, glowing and untouchable, amidst the darkness and I wanted to join them. After a little success, I discovered that my favourite role was that of "washed-up actor". The bitterness, the cruelty, the endless narcissism for a face ravaged by time and countless, secret, night visits to disreputable houses; these things are all forgiven by one's friends who, amidst furtive, awkward glances whisper to each other "Terribly, terribly sad, but it's understandable; you should have seen him when he was younger".

In my reclusion, the roles that I have played have been on the stage of my own mind. Living a belief familiarises one with the mechanics of that belief in a way otherwise inaccessible. Armed with this, I have seen myself "believe on purpose" in the mode of a Traditionalist Catholic, a hedonist and a misanthropic transhumanist, sometimes for years, sometimes forgetting to leave a trail of breadcrumbs that could help me to escape. All I have learnt from these roles is that the most refined experiences are often beyond rational analysis, that beauty is the revelation of the divine in this world and that experiencing it requires only an open heart and a desire to live from that part of oneself which cannot be touched by conditioning.

Consumed by these thoughts, I woke one morning to discover that I had been awarded a doctorate. As so many others have done, I drifted into the ivory tower from which I watch the world confused and thrilled and horrified.