Slowly, methodically.
Field Notes 20260815 - Saturday
As recovery marches on, slowly, methodically, a little more energy day by day, I’ve found it difficult to focus on anything other than the metamorphosis of Field Notes (what you’re reading right now). The lamp that normally burns brightly, fueling meditation, trance, and immersive altered states, is still dim, but it won’t be like this for long. In the meantime something that I’ve wanted to engage with for a long time has come back to the surface, and this time I’ve recognized that it’s been coming up and here already for quite some time.
Percept Index has validated that I have the capacity to run a long project. I’ve emulated others’ workflows before to no avail, but once I cast all of that aside and approached it from my own position it finally clicked. I’m in the part of my life where finding and making time is difficult and comes at a cost. My family is young and growing; with every year this elusive time becomes ever so slightly more abundant.
At first I tackled my health and fitness with an hour here and a half hour there. That grew into an early morning routine on weekdays to support large volumes of running distance and strength training. I used to think it was impossible, but I am writing here to tell you that this night owl became an early bird and after years of this schedule I’m not looking back.
Then came Percept Index, which slowly unfolded from a private collection of writing to public weekly posting. In retrospect, Percept Index was my incubator and framework for non-physical and non-local practice, satisfying my nature of logical and systematic documentation and organization. From within this framework a spark for once forgotten and neglected visual creative work ignited and Reverie Compendium became part of the overall process.
Reverie Compendium eventually slowed down and transformed into Field Notes, which were already running a month or so ahead, yet another pivot. The foundation behind this move was to immerse myself in remembering my mind-to-hand connection by instituting daily “fancy sketches” to accompany the written Field Notes. The sketches morphed from pen in sketchbook to Isograph pens and color pencils, then brush pens on Bristol, then markers entered the chat, and today gouache and ink on Bristol remains the preferred traditional method.
I’m not listing out the progression to say that we’re done or moving to the final chapter but rather to illustrate the process of remembering my drawing hand again. All of the changes were gradual and in many instances unconscious. A new pivot is on the horizon; in fact, it’s been peeking through the work for weeks.
Field Notes illustrations, once “fancy sketches” (honestly I still view them that way), are already a sort of “proto” series. The subjects of the compositions have been Western esoteric symbolism, dominated by tarot card renditions. Another major aspect of how I choose my subject is the experience itself: if an immersive altered state is interesting to write about, I also illustrate it. I’ve now done this with astral projections (or simply “projections”), lucid dreaming, Liminals at threshold and “in-between” states, etc.
So where are the Field Notes going now?
The simple answer is that Field Notes are transmuting into a slow and methodical (word of the day) worldbuilding series.
A more honest and therefore longer answer is that building a world in which we follow a central figure as they traverse new landscapes and meet challenges has been a dream of mine for a long time. I could never get myself to “get off of zero” and just do it because I lacked the discipline.
I want to be careful here and bring back the reality of my life into the picture. My family always comes first, the career that supports this family follows next, then my practice, and ultimately Percept Index walks into the frame. So the unfolding of this pivot will take time, and you’ll see the changes happening live. I hope this on its own will be of interest to some.
Finally, to reiterate, don’t expect major changes overnight. The cadence of 3 to 4 entries a week remains. An essay here and there will arrive no matter what. In fact the format of Field Notes will move visually more than the written work itself. I’m still documenting and narrating my altered state experiences, but the composition and subjects of Field Notes illustrations will take the shape (over time) of a wordless, or near wordless, graphic novel. Each week, a panel per entry and a full page by Monday’s retrospective.
One thing I can say with certainty is that the bone marrow behind Field Notes remains. Western esoteric traditions, occult symbolism, consciousness exploration, altered states, magick, non-physical and non-local, stillness, Christ Consciousness, all that good stuff remains as bedrock, for it is all firmly embedded in the Percept Index DNA.
