I had a thought as I left work on Saturday lunchtime; “I really need a new phone”. I promised myself that if I had time in the next couple of weeks I’d update my slow and very basic Samsung A12. So you can guess what’s happened.
It’s not broken completely but no matter how I try I can’t get the video I’ve recorded to transfer from my phone to my pc for editing. I do record audio directly to my pc as well though so I have that for you now. So just for today its going to be a switch back to the old way of doing things - no video, no transcription, just audio. Fingers crossed normal service will be resumed next week.
[ I do talk on and off about how the video looks and I did record it in my priest garb. But as it’s just audio none of that will make any sense. Sorry. ]
Anyway, to the things I mention;
We Don’t Know What This Is
David Johnston and Thomas Sharp convene on Hackney Marshes four times a year at sunrise on the Solstices and Equinoxes. This coming Friday 21st June the Sun is getting up very early at 4.43am. So either stay out and join us straight from your party, or get up mega early.
Follow We Don’t Know What This Is on Instagram. And join the Whatsapp group using this link for the latest updates. There is room if you want make ritual or join in with others or do some singing or create art. It’s very free and easy but do hook up on that Whatsapp to get the feel of it, ask questions, etc.
Hopefully, Hackney Marshes will be beneath The Staff [All Hail, The Staff] and the Sun will appear to honour The Staff’s corporeal majesty. And maybe we’ll burn a few quid too. I’m really looking forward to it to be honest. Feels like an age since the last communion. If you want to join the Burn you’ll be very welcome but I think its going to be an early one as I’d like to do it just on the cusp of sunrise. It’ll be the first outing for my new priest outfit I think.
There’s usually tea, coffee, vegan sausages, flapjack and other goodies for sustenance. All will be well so long as it doesn’t rain.
Suzanne Taylor’s ‘How We Saved The World’ Group
We talked a lot about Capitalism this time and how consciousness and capitalism need to change. Obviously this is my sort of thing. Suzanne just posted today and if you scroll down you’ll see she’s open to new people if you fancy a cosmically inclined but very diverse group of people trying to figure out what to do next.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Jonathan Rowson posted his piece on this today, too. If you prefer to just dive straight into the BBC audio documentary then just go here.
I loved ZAMM but in the audio I grumble on about how no-one (well nearly no-one) from Pirsig’s camp seemed prepared to look at the ‘special’ relationship between value and money.
I mention David Graeber’s magnificent book (my fav) Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value - it’s quite expensive (even my poor secondhand one was pretty dear back in 2013) but worth every penny.
If you read ZAMM (and maybe Lila - Pirsig’s other book) and then Graeber’s Value book you will know more about value than the totality of economic thought for the last 300 years. This I guarantee. (A safe bet because much of ‘knowing’ about value is realising that we don’t ‘know’ much if anything about it at all).
As ever the welcome email series working document is here. It’s still a mess but its getting there. I’ll put the text of the first three of seven below. I read them out in the audio at about six minutes.
Thanks so much. Have a wonderful week.
Jon Xx
First Email
SUBJECT: Welcome to Church of Burn, {first.name}!
PREVIEW TEXT: Email 1 of 7. What and who is Church of Burn? How can there be a Church for money burners? And Why?
Hi {first.name} Reverend Jonathan, here. I’m the High Priest and founder of Church of Burn. Thanks for registering.
The seven emails in this welcome series will give you a much better idea about the what, who, how and why of Church of Burn. We’ll also give you a few freebies along the way. Click here if you prefer to have me read this to you.
Let me start with this claim. We are a real church.
We might not be associated with any traditional Religion. We might not own a building with a pointy roof (yet). And faith in God - Christian or otherwise - is definitely not a requirement to join our congregation.
But we’re still real. Because at its heart a church is a gathering of people who enact communion.
Our way of communing is to burn money in ritual sacrifice.
Now, in most people the mere idea of this provokes very negative, ‘knee-jerk’ reactions. Over the years, we’ve noticed those reactions divide into roughly three types.
Disgust - Why don’t you give it to charity?
Disdain - Shame on you!
Disbelief - This is a stunt.
Perhaps when you heard about us you experienced one or more of them, yourself? It’s okay. In fact, we encourage members of our congregation to hold on to their misgivings. And bring them into the Ritual, itself. Transgression is a really important aspect of what Church of Burn does.
Most of us work so hard to earn our money that wilfully ‘wasting’ it - by burning it - can be a difficult thing to get your head around. And even if money comes easy, its ideology is so dominant that destroying it feels like a boundary we shouldn’t cross. Confronting the world’s most powerful symbol and acknowledging the hold it has over us demands moral courage.
So I’m very grateful you’re being open-minded and bold enough to find out more about our Church and the ideas behind it. Eventually, I hope you become part of our congregation. And ultimately join us in Ritual. For now though, I just want to make the case that there’s something worthwhile here. Something profound, wonderful and full of potential.
At Church of Burn we believe a lot of what’s wrong with the world has to do with money. And our mission is to change money by changing our relationship to money. We think this is vital and urgent work. In my final email I’ll tell you how we think we can do this. But the foundation of our mission is not a political purpose. We’re not a monetary reform group disguised as a Church.
The very core of what Church of Burn does is offer each member of our congregation an intimate, immersive and authentic experience of ritual sacrifice. I burned my first tenner in 2007. Since that initial experience I’ve never doubted that I’m engaging with some very powerful forces. Call them psychological. Call them magical. Call them spiritual. The point is they open up a space outside of normal, day-to-day, secular life. And in doing so they create the possibility for transcendence.
By 2015/2016 it was clear that others were finding this possibility within the ritual sacrifice of money burning, too. So with some talented and visionary creatives and ritualists I set about developing Church of Burn. Or it might be truer to say that Church of Burn decided to come into being and we all hopped on for the ride.
My next email will be with you in 23 hours. There’ll be a change of tone as I tell you about Church of Burn’s mythological and magical praxis!
Jon Xx
Second Email
SUBJECT: Acting yourself into a new way of thinking is easier than thinking yourself into a new way of acting (pt. 1).
PREVIEW TEXT: Email 2 of 7. Acting as if you believe something is more powerful than believing something you think.
So, {first.name}, yesterday I promised I’d tell you about our Church’s mythology and magical praxis. Click here if you prefer to have me read this to you.
One of the themes of my book The Money Burner’s Manual is the joy that comes from ‘living magically’. What that phrase means to me is using imagination and creative energies in the way I perceive the world. And then living as if that perception is true. Probably easiest if I just give you an example. Btw, if you fancy reading the digital version of TMBM or listening to the audio version please enjoy it with £4 off using the code WELCOMEOFFER-1.)
Before Church of Burn, as a magician-cum-priest ministering to my own acts of sacrifice, I felt in need of a magical Staff. Then in 2012 a really nice stick just appeared. It was the perfect size for walking. So not too ostentatious and it looked cool. All gnarly and crooked. No-one at home knew where it came from. It may have appeared in a flash of heavenly light or the dog might have brought it in. I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that a little bit of genuine uncertainty over something’s or someone’s origin story is a great basis for myth-making.
So I set about convincing my grown-up kids that this crooked stick was actually a sacred, powerful and magical Staff. And that The Staff was so special, so magical and of such significance that the mountains of Great Britain demanded to be put beneath it in order to honour its corporeal majesty. Over the next three years, after an initiation at Dinas Emrys, myself and my kids made that happen.
As time went on we stopped calling it a stick and always referred to it by its proper name, The Staff. And I also began to insist that whenever we referred to The Staff we should follow-up by saying ‘All Hail, The Staff!’ To keep their Dad happy my kids would grudgingly play along.
The Staff has now presided over every ritual sacrifice at Church of Burn. At our 2019 event - with my kids in the congregation - without saying a word I raised The Staff over my head. As I then thrust it into the air the 150-strong congregation proclaimed as one “All Hail, The Staff! ” My kids couldn’t argue with that sort of evidence. The Staff was now officially a magical and sacred artefact. And no longer just another of their Dad’s flights of fancy. [All Hail, The Staff! x 4]
I wanted to share this story with you today because after yesterday’s email you might be forgiven for thinking that we’re deadly serious about everything we do. It is true that the Ritual at the heart of Church of Burn is undertaken with great solemnity. But while the Service aspect of our Synod, Service, Ritual format does draw from traditional religion, it's a very very radical reinterpretation.
In fact, now might be a good time to remind you that Church of Burn is definitely for 18+ only. And if you are easily offended by nudity or sexual content it's probably better you unsubscribe today.
I’ll email again tomorrow and then after that prepare yourself for an email from our Goddess Melusine.
Jon Xx
Third Email
SUBJECT: Acting yourself into a new way of thinking is easier than thinking yourself into a new way of acting (pt. 2).
PREVIEW TEXT: Email 3 of 7. Time for Magic!
Hi {first.name}
In the hallway of my tiny flat is a signed print from the late Jamie Reid. Jamie was famous for his Sex Pistol’s artwork. My print consists of some symbols and patterns around the words ‘Time for Magic’. Having it as the first thing I see when I get home and the last thing I see as I leave serves to remind me to be open to the possibility of magic every day.
The late David Graeber who was a Church of Burn Bishop in our 2019 Synod famously said that “Direct action is, ultimately, the defiant insistence on acting as if one is already free”.
The subject line of these last two emails points to the power of acting as if you are free. It points to the fact that if we want to bring a better tomorrow into being, our actions today must be seeded with joy, playfulness and magic.
So although our Church’s Ritual indisputably involves the pain of loss, it’s not the whole story. Indeed, for me it’s the opposition between the seriousness of our praxis and the playfulness of our mythology that helps create Church of Burn’s magic.
We’ve been blessed to have a lot of academic interest in Church of Burn. We’ve even exhibited an artefact at Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum. We’re hugely grateful to our academic friends who have inspired and contributed to our events. But intellect alone is not enough. Transcendence does not require qualifications. Ritual, veneration and worship are embodied actions. It's when we feel it that we believe the magic to be real.
So, if you prepared to momentarily suspend your rationalism and materialism and just dial down the intellectual and analytical part of your brain I know you’ll be totally sold on the following:
If you attend a Church of Burn event you may be lucky enough to;
Be in the presence of The Staff [All Hail, The Staff!] which presides over and guides our congregation through the Ritual, itself.
To hold the Thanatos Stone which absorbs and focuses negative emotional energy. For reasons of Health and Safety it is kept atop the Crowley Stone (from Crowley’s cottage near Zennor, Cornwall).
Contribute to the Holy Pot of Ash which contains and overflows with all the sacrificial Ash created by Church of Burn rituals. It was a facsimile of the Holy Pot that we loaned to the Fitzwilliam Museum.
As the officiating High Priest, I also place personal items on the Altar that have particular resonance and meaning to me and to the Company of Church of Burn. At moments of intense and immersive ritual these little ‘memento moris’ remind us of those we’ve lost and of the transience of life. Congregants who wish to can add to the collection of coins (old and new, worthless and valued) that adorn the Altar.
Now if the rationalist part of your brain has had enough and is demanding dominance once again you might set it the task of working out how all that I’ve talked about here is related to money. Here’s a clue.
Thank you for reading. I'll see you again for email number seven.
For now though prepare yourself to be blessed by the presence of the Goddess Melusine. Her personal message to you will arrive in your inbox in 24 hours. #TopTip - best turn down the rationalism again. She’s not a fan.
May Her blessings be upon you!
Jon Xx
As I heard you reading I had a thought, maybe it would be a good idea to add a link to the audio and video version of the email for those who prefer to receive transmissions that way