Hey Friends,

At the heart of the Visionary Cartography ethos is the movement towards mastery.

Why explore the deep inner terrain? The reason is simple: to bring back the vital mojo of revelation for the benefit of all.

Terence McKenna, the renowned psychonaut, described it beautifully:

“My notion of what the psychedelic experience is for, is that we each must become like fishermen, and go out onto the dark ocean of mind, and let your nets down into that sea. And what you’re after is not some behemoth, that will tear through your nets, foul them, and drag you and your little boat into the abyss. Nor are we looking for a bunch of sardines, that can slip through your net and disappear, ideas like ‘have you ever noticed that your little finger exactly fits your nostril’ and stuff like that. What we are looking for, are middle-sized ideas, that are not so small that they are trivial, and not so large that they are incomprehensible, but middle-sized ideas that we can wrestle into our boat and take back to the folks on shore, and have fish dinner.”

So there you have it.

We are in the business of nourishing life through our work.

And it’s okay to be clear about the fact that the best way to serve life excellently is to develop and express mastery.

So, let’s pivot to a great idea, “repetition is the mother of mastery,” and contrast that with the study of “repetition compulsion.”

It is the skillful repetition of a practice that brings about the ideal result.

Any great of any field will readily admit that consistency is the key to success.

However, the key difference between a practice leading towards the fruition of the goal and a practice that is misguided and results in a bad habit and outcome…

Feedback.

Feedback by a mentor, a guide, a teacher is the key.

Basic fact: Humans trend towards myopic cognitive biases that are often self-serving or self-defeating.

misguided effort results in repetition compulsion…where your habit towards excellence ends up looking more like a self-coping, isolating, masturbatory self-aggrandizement strategy.

You might intensly be “doing the thing,” but without the loving and wise guidance of a friend… You can, in fact, be going fast in the wrong direction, and end up with bad habits difficult to correct and en ego structure calcifying around you that pushes genuine connection and insight away.

The right stuff involves becoming available to feedback. Being seen by a wise, and loving mentor is an inherently growthful, healing, and transpersonal journey of including more beneficial information and transcending false constructs.

In this way of practice, where mastery and altruistic service is king…The craft, the aim, the gift is prioritized over our petty and fallible human quirks… And the teaching-learning relationship gets us out of our way to constantly innovate on the more interesting aspects of life itself… Most importantly, expressing excellence to ultimately help everyone.

So, check in today on your vital practices – are you getting the feedback you need? Do you have the right eyes and vision on your project?

Is there a block to the nourishment of connection which could bring you to the next level?

Let’s encourage – stop at nothing to achieve the aim. We need it,

~DHR