radical druid Posts

How like a mirror is what we see as “us”, how we define and describe the “I” we see reflected there, either watching vigilantly to ensure no dust obscures the surface, or letting the patina of time slowly blur the image at its own natural pace. It is us, certainly. And like that magic Mirror of Erised of Dumbledore’s, what you see is what you want to see. How you think the world sees you. Everyone, everything, every minute of your life is reflected there.

Well, not exactly. It is reflected there, but it also happens there. In fact, that’s the only place it does happen.

Because it’s a reflection, it’s not the object being reflected. The You you’re looking at is NOT YOU.

You’re actually keeping the mirror clean, aren’t you? So that in the mirror life, love, job, nationality, gender, language, ethnicity, sexual preference, education, knowledge, culture, religion, all of it, isn’t you either.

That’s what emptiness means: there’s nothing there in the mirror.

That’s the first step.

The next one is getting rid of the mirror altogether. Physically, maybe. Donate it to a politician.

But that’s not a real solution. And obviously if you’ve been following along, it’s not the answer either. There isn’t an answer, because we don’t have a question. Or maybe there isn’t an answer so there is no question. But you have to know that answer before you stop asking. Human nature is just LIKE that, isn’t it?

So on with the pointless searching. It’s all in the mirror.

Everything you actually need you already have. What’s actually essential to you is not reflected.

Starting to get the point?

Well, that’s ok too.

Consider that a good time to start over at the beginning.

Sit on that a while. What ever that means to you, whatever partial filter you put over your whole life that happens to fit at the moment.

Don’t worry. That won’t last very long either, at the beginning. But the time you’re there, and the time it takes to get there, get proportionally longer and shorter respectively.

That’s what they ALL say, innit?

You’re NOT the screen either. Nor the theater. Nor the neighborhood. And so on. Another point scored there for everyone. For those keeping, worried about, driven by, remotely interested in, the score. Because the “game” metaphor is the same game. Rinse and repeat.

So what’s the “way”?

Why the fuck do you need one?

Exactly who do you think you are? Really? As a naked motherfucker dropped on the face of the earth. One of billions daily. Who is THAT?

That’s just step two.

LOL.

01 SEP 26

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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It is what it is
It is why it is
It is how it is
It is where it is
It is when it is

But it is not. 

The tricky part is telling the difference. 
The honest part is not knowing. 
The awakened part is everything else. 

When someone tells you a lie, believe them. 
When someone tells you the truth, believe it. 

Let go of letting god. Growing up means taking some responsibility, no matter who your parents are. Being an adult means actually considering someone else’s feelings and needs as more important than, and an essential component of, your own needs and feelings. 

Everything that isn’t a contradiction is disagreeable. Our minds hate an overwhelming preponderance of evidence. Circumstantial evidence of course. In circumstances each of us imagines differently. 

But there is nothing to it. 

A whole LOT of nothing. 

What more do you actually need? You come into this world with nothing, and that’s how you leave it. 

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Not the body not the mind not the emotions not the feelings not the experience not the job not the religion not the child not the parent not the partner not the rebel not the musician not the poet not the man not the human not the culture not the indoctrination not the front not the back not the side not the seen not the unseen not the permanent not the change not the actor not the thoughts not the hand not the foot not the brain not the heart not the self not anybody else not anything not nothing not spoken not whispers not words not colors not pictures not past not future not awake not asleep not good not evil not right not wrong not up not down not left or right not karma not energy not chaos not order not something not there not gone not separate not equal not free not enslaved not burdened not unladen not connected not disconnected not what not how not when not where not why not me not you not us not them not it not that. not one not two not anything.

So what is left?

There is no known. There is no unknown. There is only. But not exclusively. Irreverently impermanent impossible infinity.

This. Now. Here.

23 Aug 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Just because you can read the map,
have bought travelogues and visitor guides
to the well-preserved brick-lined avenues
of tradition and ritual,

and believe you know which way is north,
doesn’t mean you know a thing about the terrain,
the weather, the likely hazards on the road,
the speed traps that lie in wait for unwary travelers.

Just think: what good is a description of a place
already right here and now,
beneath your feet, underneath your fingertips,
on the edge of your seat and the tip of your tongue?

How will you get there?

Those gurus, teachers and intrepid explorers
who have gone before:
how beautifully they describe what you’ll find there.
How is that possible?

How do you know you have arrived?
You are just a pill of salt
dropped off the end of the boat
unceremoniously plopped in the ocean;
your feet are melting, little one,
into the surf from whence all comes:
wave, crest, trough, and spray
touching all things with no edges.

It’s all so much talk, this discussion of other worlds,
of universes and devas, gods and monsters.
If everything is simply an arbitrary convention of reference,
who is teaching?

What is the lesson?

Once the schoolhouse has burnt to the ground,
do we still need our notes
to pass the exam?

If you struggle, remember this:
everything is an open book test.
You just must be present to win.

19 AUG 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Somewhere a song of victory is waiting
for someone brave enough to write it down,
once they slip past the barricades downtown
where both sides are engaged in pointless hating.

Until such time, what good is celebrating?
Such tunes will just distract us as we drown,
and occupy the mourners gathered round,
licking their lips. They are salivating.

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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As Danny Kaye asked in a fabulous number from White Christmas: “The theater, the theater, what happened to the theater? We can no longer call it dance, we call it choreography!”

If life is in fact nothing more than musical theater (and I can hear now the strident booing from the box seats, suggesting that the ideas of “mere” and “musical theater” were of such diametrically opposed stuff as to fill a chasm of disbelief so vast it would out span the 84000 kingdoms. Or some other outlandishly ordained measure of meritorious measurement), I repeat, and perhaps clarify if all life IS musical theater, then how can we communicate anything at all across an endless void if our longest single utterance is limited to 255 characters?

See above for perfect example of why social media length restrictions are a good idea. LOL.

15 AUG 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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I don’t need to hold the whole moon.

I’m the pond.
I am the dewdrop.

A reflection is more than enough.

Let me worry about holding a whole satellite
once I’ve reached the ocean.

Then the moon and I will be in sync, anyway.

I’m good with that.

11 AUG 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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