Someone once told me there were no answers, just things that allow you to ask more precise questions. Back then, I was studying Philosophy, so it sort of made sense.
Actually, I say that it sort of made sense, what I actually really mean is that it made total and utter sense. Bolt from the blue kind of sense. The kind of ephiphany usually reserved for soon to be prophets and/or religious zealots of any particular stripe.
I went so far as to grow the long hair and beard, of the kind associated with with Old Testament patriarchs. Sadly, at that point I lacked the requisite gravitas, and instead looked like a man who lived in a bush.
However, my lack of Old Testament chops withstanding, I soon realised that I was in somewhat of a minority. Most people, I am informed, like as little ambiguity as possible. It helps to plan your day, to determine right from wrong and that sort of thing.
And I'm not against planning things out, far from it. But, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men...something, something. But here you see what we're up against, because we automatically revert to tried and trusted ways.
Humans are fundamentally conservative. Even the most neophillic of you has a certain way they like to view the world, or some sort of framework for whatever it is they do.
So when a work raises more questions than answers, what then? When things get weird, and unpredictable, do you try and seek out a way to discover the sense of them? Do you build, try, test and model? Try to connect what you're experiencing with what you know, with what you understand?
Or do you let it wash over you, and experience it as-is?
You might think the first is more useful, and perhaps it is, but the fact is, the world is far vaster than your experience. There are always going to be things which raise more questions, for perfect modelling is not possible with our human hardware, and not even with our most advanced technology.
As it is, we're still limited to estimating, to shortcuts and best-fit lines. Which means there's always going to be a place beyond the edge of the map, a crazy, uneasy place where you're not sure what's going to happen.
FoolishPeople live there, in that place. In coming to experience our works, there's every possibility you'll go beyond your map, into an experience which won't conform to the standard question and answer set.
In this, perhaps magick and phantasy are more real than what you think of as reality. More quixotic, chaotic, unpredictable and open to undreamt possibilities.
Why not come and find out for yourself?
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