Welcome to Empyrean
Thanks for being here! The Empyrean Project is the central repository for several closely related initiatives, all dedicated toward helping us figure out how to be human.
Being Human isn't a category: it's an activity that depends on various social, cultural, and spiritual foundations. Unfortunately, most people don't actually do it very well, because our culture (modern Euro-American patriarchal capitalism) simply isn't teaching us the skills and practices we need to become who we are. This culture is the product of corporations and institutions which are more interested in their financial self-preservation than in our well-being. We learn well how to work, buy, sell, own, and be owned. We don't learn how to steward the transformation of our souls.
The Empyrean Project is one effort among many to retrieve the wisdom of the ancient traditions, and make that wisdom available to those who think differently. This project has four dimensions: The Empyrean Deck, The Transformation Engine, Valley Wind Breathwork, and Ecstatic Naturalism.
The Empyrean Deck
The Empyrean deck is the first and signature offering of the Empyrean Project. Based on an original systematization of the archetypes, it contains 66 unique cards, organized into eight houses, plus a pair of 'wild cards.' The deck can be used in two different ways. First, it can be used as an oracle or self-reflection deck: the method is simple and intuitive, with a question for self-inquiry printed on each card. Second, it can be used in the construction of the Transformation Engine.
The Transformation Engine
The Transformation Engine is spiritual diagnostic instrument. Through playing a special solitaire game with the Empyrean deck, you generate a diagram of the energies and powers at work in the soul. These energies and their precise interrelationships describe the ongoing process of the transformation of the soul, a process that continues through your lifetime (and possibly beyond.) Building the engine requires that you (or someone you know) is familiar with the rules of the game, as well as the standard interpretations of the archetypes as captured in the cards.
Valley Wind Breathwork
I also have begun leading workshops on a modern form of Daoist meditation, called Valley Wind. Starting with a series of movement and breathing exercises, this meditation system is designed to create a no-space within your consciousness, a place in which the voice of the sacred may be heard. By regularly sinking into this silent inner sanctuary, you learn how to trust your intuition, strengthen your core, and recognize the difference between your authentic self, and the more or less crippling thought- habits that you have learned growing up in and acclimating to our vicious society.
Ecstatic Naturalism and Neurodivergent Daoism
For philosophers and scholars only, Ecstatic Naturalism is the theoretical foundation of the Empyrean Project. Devoloped in a series of books and articles by Prof. Robert Corrington and his students, EN is a pluralistic, post-sectarian spiritual framework that explores the ontological depths of the unconscious, takes science seriously, and abhors any kind of tribalism, including nationalism, racism, and xenophobia in all its manifestations. Archetypes of the Great Mother figure prominently in the work, along with encounters with Advaita Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Theosophy. In my own work developing and expanding Ecstatic Naturalism, I have sought to incorporate Daoist and Neo-shamanistic elements, as well as focusing on its practical applications for the Neurodivergent and Genderqueer communities.
