What do divine madness, erotic innocence, and self liberation have in common?

or: have you gone stark raving mad?!

they call me crazy and / i drink delicate bitterness / from a gold rimmed teacup / do they know that / every whisper of attention / only fuels me?

the truth is / i have gone mad / utterly / completely / in love with / constant changing / whispering sweetness through / contradictions / so what if / they don’t see / the way i / swipe glitter / across my eyelids and / caress my skin in the / gold rimmed mirror / and purr and purr and purr because / i am in love / in love / in love / with beauty they will not / let themselves see

they call me crazy and / i am the prophesy / a glittering vision / of what i seek / do they know that / every whisper of a mirror / only fuels my knowing?

the truth is / black silk / drapes cross my warmth / in reverence of / aphrodite / who looks upon me / from her perch / on the nightstand / and i breathe / knowing / the ordinary / is anything other / than what it seems / and i breathe / feeling / their hands upon me / and i breathe / hearing / the songs / of the sirens / and i breathe / you breathe / we breathe / the unseen

am i breathing you / or are you breathing me?

“'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
‘How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here'"

— Alice in Wonderland

There are a lot of new faces here (hi!) — a magickal happening that just so happens to be happening (how many happenings can you fit in one sentence?) on the edge of a recalibration of this space — so I invite you to slow down, sink in (perhaps with a warm bevvy?), and listen to what’s coming. I am tempted to say, the oracle implores you, yet as you’ll learn, in this space, you are free to do as you wish: take what works, leave the rest. But I digress. Well, not really.

As I was saying, what better time to re-introduce this space than now?

Though being seen is a deep pleasure, I have never been one for “about me” posts, so instead, I’ll share the story of my most recent prophesy. The prophesy of divine madness. Theia mania, this publication’s namesake.

Now, before you go all, “this woman is absolutely mad (I am!) how dare she say she’s receiving prophesies?!” I believe we are ALL writing, breathing, thinking, moving, becoming prophesies, moment by beautiful moment. Not the kind of prophesies that predict the apocalypse or other people’s love lives (unless, of course, they invite you to, but that’s a different story).

What I mean when I say prophesy is: we are the creators of our own lives and stories. After all, I don't believe in fate. Per the brilliant Carl Jung, “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” And so it is.

Now comes the task of relating this to divine madness. Which will be quite simple. If you are an artist or an aspiring artist (of any sort - writer, painter, dancer, photographer, homemaker, marketing maven, scientist, engineer, etc, etc, etc…), chances are you’re a bit mad. And I have a question for you: have you ever stopped yourself mid-creation because you thought you were being too mad or too out there or, our perennial favorite, too much?

I bet everyone’s hands are raised right now. Mine included. Which is exactly what led to my latest prophesy of divine madness.

With all the talk about “healing” and “self development” that circulates the interwebs, I haven’t seen much (any?) chatter of madness — at least not directly. Sure we talk about the inner child and becoming more playful and embracing our “cringe,” but none of that is the same as MADNESS.

And I’m here to tell you, YOUR MADNESS IS YOUR GENIUS, my dear brilliant friend.

Madness is the path of the visionary. You see it before anyone else does. And that is a gift to behold.

According to Taylor Swift (who’ s said some pretty good stuff) “every time you call me crazy I get more crazy, what about that?”

Lately I’ve been called crazy more than usual — not surprising, since I started talking about being fucked by Alan Watts and and becoming an intergalactic stripper — alas! Rather than resist the madness within, I embraced it, and thus, a new universe was borne. You’re inside it as we speak.

This, my love, is the space you’ve been searching for if ever you’ve longed for the biggest permission slip on the face of the planet to embrace, explore, and celebrate your madness, with a big dash of erotic intelligence and poetic perspective woven in.

According to Plato (who also said some pretty good stuff) there are FOUR types of divine madness also known as theia mania:

1. the prophetic frenzy of the Oracle of Delphi and the priestesses of Dodona (the gift of Apollo)

2. mystical revelations and initiations, which provide "a way of release for those in need" (the gift of Dionysus)

3. poetic inspiration (the gift of the Muses)

4. the madness of lovers (the gift of Aphrodite and Eros)

I won’t be writing prophesies for you (unless you want to take my invitations as such…) and as for mystical revelations - well I’m sure you’ve had quite a few in your lifetimes, yes? These will be fuel for your explorations.

Re: initiations? I'm a believer in self initiation; the practices in theiamania will offer you a series of pathways into your own initiatory process, which will be revealed to you as you move through the journey.

If you’ve been here a while, you know poetry is the breath of this space, which is often sparked by love’s madness; it is my experience that the realm of the erotic (sensuality, sexuality, love, pleasure, poetry) is a direct path to self liberation, because in navigating our erotic nature, we directly interface with our unconscious, and I’m sure you remember what Jung said about that several paragraphs ago. Much, much more on that to come in future posts. Suffice to say, these elements shall remain an anchor in the new iteration of my teachings.

If you’re new to this space, WELCOME! I know your attention is your most precious resource; it is an honor to have you here. My intention is to make every moment you spend exploring more than worth your while.

A few logistical items before we go:

All readers will receive weekly offerings of poetry, some essays, and previews of paid posts.

Paid subscribers will, in addition my full writing archives, receive Feed the Muse, a monthly (sometimes more) offering rich with embodiment practices, guided visualizations, pleasure explorations, creative practices, and all other manner of pathways into the sanctity that is theia mania.

Talk to you soon, my friend,

xx Faye

P.S. If you want to explore deeper, this older post is my first foray into taking the abstract, often invisible threads of divine madness, and coaxing it into form: