Eighteen Miles
The Sequel to Fifteen Miles
Last Monday…it was a Monday in more than one sense of the word. You see the photo of me with the white eyes. Well, those ripped and being without a supplier who can ship those to the U.S. put me shit outta luck on that front.
If anyone knows where I can resume getting fun as hell contacts to stick in my eyes, let me know. Still looking.
Anyway, that was a bummer.
The next came with my vape stick finally ran out. Gotta make a run to the corner store.
This is where everything begins to come apart at high speed. I have a couple of hours before I have to be at work, this should be a quick score.
Down at the corner store, I make my purchase only to find, I still owe a buck. How? My account should have way more than that.
Nevermind that. Not that dude behind the counter’s problem. It’s mine. I paid the buck, closed out the transaction and immediately stepped outside, logged in…my account balance is at $0.00.
WHAT?! FUCKING HOW?!
Oh, there’s a transaction in California for $650. That’s how.
I didn’t order anything and it damn sure wasn’t over this weekend. The only thing I ordered was groceries and they don’t get delivered from fucking California.
I’m on the phone with the bank, walking back home.
Was I flipping out? Better believe it. Not over the phone but in my head, yeah, all hands on deck, red alert, sound the klaxon, all that shit.
To cut a long story short, I had to be on the phone with two people, my card was closed out, I had to get a new one and I was essentially broke for a week at minimum. Excellent…just fucking oustanding.
Now I have to take a walk to the bank. I let work know I was gonna be late.
Got down to the bank, got my new card. Found out, plenty of fraud happening over last weekend. Great…
Now that raises a question. I’ve had transactions flagged before. Text messages sent. What happened? No answer on that one.
Now, realizing how late I am for work, I’m hot-footing it through backstreets to get to my main ways to work and when I was halfway to work, I called again.
I had to go back and retrace. My coupler had failed, dropping the keys. I have no clue where they are now.
I retraced until I was back in town, gave up because there were a lot of backstreents I was basically running.
You read that right. I ran. For blocks.
I was absolutely gassed when I called. My boss thought I was gonna have a break but the fact is, I was out of breath from running trying to get to work.
Back on Merchant Street, I called again. I was calling the search off. No idea where they went. I’d already called the office to let them know that the keys were lost and I hadn’t been able to find them. The rest could be figured out later. There was work to be done.
I was over two hours late and now, no money, no keys. Perfect.
By the time I was at work, I’d logged 12 miles on foot. By the time the night ended, I was at 18.08 miles. My boss was so disgusted with the distance she clocked out early the next day to hit the gym.
The start to the day was fuck awful. Now I’d have to worry about where my stuff through the week was supposed to come from. This was gonna be the very essence of the runes Nauthiz and Hagalaz energies. The lack of money definitely constricted me and the coming week was going to be a struggle for certain.
I took Monday as it came. Just got in there, did the work, went home listening to music as I contemplated what happened. I didn’t ruminate over it. Marcus Aurelius wouldn’t allow it. Seems certain parts of his book Meditations comes at the most timely of manner. Instead, I was planning. Wednesday and Thursday would be Fuel Days which meant tips potentially. I still had some cash in my pocket and a couple of other resources I could tap. It would be hard but I wasn’t out of the game. Now, it was just waiting.
Why wasn’t I more upset about this?
Oh I was. I was insanely furious at the situation. In fact, had you put the thief in front of me, I’d advise you to advise them to have their final will and testament in order because without harming their body, I was ready to strip their souls from their body and then escort it into the darkness myself. I just couldn’t actually do that.
So I didn’t spend my every waking moment worrying about it. I just did what I could and left the rest because there was fuck all I could do about it.
Tuesday came and went as did Wednesday and Thursday…
I shouldn’t say that. Thursday was when everything started to turn around. I’d won a raffle I hadn’t expected to win and had gotten the news. I immediately called back because this is a prize I definitely wanted to claim. It literally solved one of my issues that I was worried about.
The next day, I’m going to pick up my prize from the raffle, not only had the money that had been stolen from me been credited back but my paycheck had dropped on the same day. Thank goodness for that.
Now, today, I had to do another nine miles on foot to get a few things but there was one other highlight to my day.
I stopped into Planet Fitness just to use the scales.
168 pounds…immediately logged into my app. A few more pounds and this thing is over.
If you’re reading my Magnusson Speaks Substack, you’ll know that I’ve put those articles up in order to tell you that you could be spiritually perfect. You could observe holidays, festivals, honor the gods or your God, whatever…you’re still going to catch shit. You’re still going to encounter evil motherfuckers. They still won’t give a shit about you or your well-being. They’re liars, thieves and writers of bad checks and, best believe, you are expendable to those people.
…and you still get to choose how you respond.
For me, responding with a complete breakdown and calling out of work that day would have been an option…about seven months ago.
Today, no. Life might come at you fast but it still goes on. This isn’t some article to tell you that I faced something daunting and made it through, it’s just to show you what happens when you have control over a situation such as the one I went through this week. It’s why we need control over our minds and emotions. You’re still human, you’re still gonna feel all that shit but it’s what you do with it that counts the most.
Listen, if Hermetism (Hermeticism as it’s known colloquially) taught me anything it was that you don’t push. You have to understand that you could be the most spiritually-enlightened person. You could impart wisdom onto someone younger, make bold impacts or even smaller ones only noticeable to you…someone is still gonna try to scam you, steal from you or even try to hurt you in other ways. The storms are still coming.
There’s Matthew 5:45 that lets us know that it rains on both the just and unjust.
Fun fact, Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on this particular sentiment. Let me show you. The concept that Matthew 5:45 espouses predates Christianity and nearly every spiritual text agrees with this concept in some form or another, just have a peek at the following:
Christianity
Matthew 5:45: “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Luke 6:35-36: “Love ye therefore your enemies... He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil... Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11: “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise...”
Islam
Qur’an 2:155-157: “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits... Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy.”
Qur’an 13:11: “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.”
Qur’an 57:22: “No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah - He will guide his heart.”
Hadith: “The believer is like a fresh green crop; it cannot stand against any wind, but it bends with each wind. The hypocrite is like a cedar tree that stands rigid until it breaks.”
Buddhism
Dhammapada 127: “Not in the sky, nor in the midst of the sea, nor by entering into caves of mountains, is there known a spot in the whole world where one could escape the result of an evil deed.”
Dhammapada 226: “At all times should the earnest apply themselves with mindfulness, so that they may reach Nirvana.”
The Four Noble Truths: “Suffering exists. Suffering has a cause. Suffering can cease. There is a path to its cessation.”
Law of Karma: “Karma is not punishment or reward—it is simply causation. Good actions produce good results, bad actions produce bad results, inevitably.”
Hinduism
Bhagavad Gita 2:47: “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities.”
Bhagavad Gita 3:27: “The spirit bewildered by the modes of nature thinks, ‘I am the doer.’”
Yoga Sutras 2:15: “To the discerning, all is indeed painful because of the anxiety, suffering, habits, and the fluctuations of the gunas.”
Manusmriti 4:176: “A man should not speak ill of others, nor injure them in any way; this is the law of dharma.”
Taoism
Tao Te Ching 5: “Heaven and Earth are unkind; they treat all things like straw dogs. The sage is unkind; he treats the hundred families like straw dogs.”
Tao Te Ching 23: “Do less, and more becomes yours. Do more, and less becomes yours.”
Zhuangzi: “The perfect man uses his mind like a mirror—going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.”
Principle of Wu Wei: “Action through non-action. Flow with what comes, don’t resist the storm.”
Stoicism
Marcus Aurelius: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Epictetus: “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Seneca: “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
Meditations 4.49: “How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
Occult & Hermetic Texts
The Kybalion (Principle of Vibration): “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.” (Physical reality operates by universal law, not personal favor.)
The Kybalion (Principle of Polarity): “Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites.” (Just/unjust are degrees of the same thing; the universe sees both.)
The Kybalion (Principle of Rhythm): “Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall.” (You cannot escape the swing of life—both gain and loss come impartially.)
The Kybalion (Principle of Cause and Effect): “Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; nothing ever merely happens.” (Chaos isn’t random—it follows law. The thief steals because of cause; your response is your cause.)
The Emerald Tablet: “As above, so below; as below, so above.” (The microcosm mirrors the macrocosm; both operate by the same impartial rules.)
Corpus Hermeticum: “While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in ALL.” (The divine energy flows through everyone—just and unjust alike.)
Galdrabók: “If it has power, use it.” (Pragmatic syncretism—tools work regardless of whether you believe they should.)
Hermetic Axiom: “Transmutation, not presumptuous denial, is the weapon of the Master.” (Don’t deny the storm—transform it into fuel.)
Now you know what I’ve been spending months studying. Yeah, this is from my notes, y’all. What I don’t have in my physical library, I’ve delved into my digital library for the rest. You can all do the same things. This isn’t super-powers or mutant abilities a-la Marvel Comics fare. This is how you reclaim the most important thing you have, your mind.
The point of listing so much was to illustrate one thing: We have more in common than not and it’s about time we started to acknowledge it because if one dude can make it through a week as shitty as this and still function as a minister without anyone knowing save for the few who needed to immediately know then I only have one question to ask.
The fuck is your excuse?
I’ve already eliminated them. You don’t have to do what I do out of the gate, stop thinking that. You just have to do what I did and work up to it.
No more excuses, get on it, dawggone it!
I have to close this out with one message. Not for you out there but, Angie…thanks for letting me activate in your car that day without getting nervous. You have no idea what the few minutes meant to me. All I can say is going in fully-activated after a brutal morning, really helped me get through these last few days. I didn’t do it alone. I did it all with your amazing help and for that, thank you.
Even though it didn’t physically rain on me, it still rained. You opened an umbrella and I can’t express gratitude enough for that.