I began this blog knowing vaguely what I wanted to do but without a clear sense of how to do it. As the writing begins to tell its own story to me, I want to define the mission more clearly. In the spirit of exploration, the mission may evolve over time, but a point of origin anchors the beginning of the journey.

Ultimately, I write as a form of introspection. After years of studying, observing, and thinking, I have a few well-considered ideas and a number of open questions with incomplete framing. I need to move the most clear ideas into something I can read, and I need to pose and explore the open questions in order to build frameworks that can supply answers.

In particular I want to unify a few disparate themes in my formative influences. Each theme has given me traits or beliefs that structure my approach to life, but I sometimes feel that I live in different worlds. Revived Pagan traditions informed my most closely held religious beliefs. The practice of witchcraft and occult color my perspective on the relationship between self and abstract phenomena such as culture. Formal ethical philosophy and political theory shape my political attitudes. In each area, I have studied, learned, and unlearned enough to develop a distinct perspective on some topics and to ask interesting questions on others.

Thinking across these domains has given me insight into each of them, but formulating those insights has been difficult. The message feels like it comes from the outside to other members of the discipline. The blog allows me to work these ideas out, free from disciplinary constraints. Nevertheless, I want to maintain intellectual rigor. I hope to fill in the elements of a general framework that spans these domains and then show what we can infer when setting the frame around specific questions.

If I can make my perspective understood to others as well as myself, I will feel successful. The ideas discussed here have provided guidance to me in difficult times, so I also hope that it helps other people who need something similar. I would rather not engage with readers directly on the blog to leave it free of distraction. Instead, follow @grimnircat on Twitter to engage to me and see the less refined versions of the ideas posted here.