For the grappling inclined, Devotion JJ is on Telegram after the recent banning from IG.

Having a blast getting introduced to De La Riva these past few weeks.

I’ve never had any coaches show me this over the years, and I’m now seeing the disservice they did me.

As a taller competitor, this guard is already changing my game, and giving me such a great new tool when it comes to guard retention, sweeps and back-takes.

Paul showed 4 different techniques this week from DLR.

Try this super simple, easy sweep on your partners tonight!

Alright y’all -

There’s only 29 of these left in the first run.

Get one now if you want one.

Next pressing is gonna be a few weeks at the very least, and won’t include the patch or signing/numbering of the first run.

https://paulwaggener.gumroad.com/l/emptygrail

Abundance and sun here at the homestead.

Berries are fully loaded, the wife’s plants are pleased and popping, Il Duce is unimpressed.

Rolling into an excellent weekend with the gang, wishing you all a killer Friday.

Good morning y’all!

Weights and Jiu Jitsu this morning with Wolves from all over the east coast.

Later, feasting, ritual, readings, recitations, singing and time with (most of) the whole family.

Keep your crew strong by setting an example for each other, and do in private what you say you’re about in public.

Much love to all friends and supporters worldwide.

Have a great day guys, I’m pulling for ya.

Songdog and I playing some Appalachian folk and country music for the next generation yesterday.

In a time when our history and the mythology of the places we live are under assault, and our enemies want the total erasure of our stories-

Songs, art, poetry, and the telling of those stories to the young is how we keep our heroes from dying the final death - that of being forgotten.

Happy early 4th.

“I don’t want no pardon for what I was and am.”

https://youtu.be/fT50xE1TMIo

A review of my book my closest and oldest friend, Sam Carnes, who incidentally is also the person who gave me the inspiration and confidence to try my hand at a work of fiction.

Thanks, Sam - for everything.

The Empty Grail.

When my brother Paul Waggener told me he was going to write a fiction story, I was expecting something far different.

Something in his usual idiom....hulk muscled barbarians sewing a crop of violence across a post apocalyptic wasteland or a similar breed in a setting of Danes and Norsemen.

Perhaps a deep dive into a character half musclebound warrior / half esoteric philosopher.

What I was not expecting was... The Empty Grail.

I had the good fortune to be hanging out at our clubs private lodge one evening shortly after he had finished writing the story when he offered to read it at us.

It is not a long story.

But its style is like no prose I've ever heard before. Somehow poetic and crude at the same time, dark and emotional. Characters commit murder and suicide in the name of justice or right.

The story is alternative Arthurian legend picking up in Camelot after the death of Arthur. The throne usurped by his alleged bastard son of incest, Mordred.

It carries the reader down a dark road of violence, sexual intrigue and self sacrifice for the greater good, all told through the eyes of the Knight Gawain.

"Damn! this story hits hard!" I was at a loss for anything better to say.

If Bill Shakespeare, Jack London and Joe Abercrombie got mashed into one person and took on the challenge of writing a sequel to Excalibur you might get something like this.

But ultimately it is nothing you could get from any combination of storytellers living or dead.

It's Paul Waggener at his best....finally arriving at the place he belongs...fiction!

The book itself is a work of art arranged sort of like a graphic novel, printed in full color with tons of beautiful illustrations.

Even a blind man can see that....well maybe not but he could always hope for an audiobook.....or ....The Empty Braille??? Lol.

You can get your first edition copy here if any of the 300 are left. I'm sure there's a crowd the size of Xerxes army laying siege to his site trying to get their hands on one.

https://paulwaggener.gumroad.com/l/emptygrail

The Empty Grail collectors ed. is now sold out.

Thank you all for the support.

I’ll be doing another printing of it very soon for those who missed out on this one.

Field notes on spiritual technology to hand on to a young friend interested in various forms and functions.

Enjoying a quiet day at the homestead with wife and dog, and hope you all have a pleasant one.

“Thoughts are free and subject to no rule.

On them rests the freedom of man, and they tower above the light of nature...

create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy from which new arts flow.”

- Paracelsus

Some days, it feels like life has it out for you.

Like every admonishment to “keep your chin up” is an invitation to get strangled.

But it doesn’t - not really.

This kind of mindset is one of victimization and, at the same time, narcissism - the universe itself “has it out for you?”

Take a deep breath.

Maybe put your chin down today, and just stay focused on the work rather than worrying about the result.

Put one foot in front of the other.

And then, after a while, once things settle down…put your chin back up.

Everything is transitory - the good and the bad. Whatever you’re going through won’t last forever…

You’ve got this, like you’ve weathered everything else in the past.

I’m pulling for ya.

Good thoughts from Dave and Marcus that’ll be familiar to listeners of my own podcast.

Glory abounds for all, and you don’t have to be “the boss” to be rad.

I'm not sure if TGO was inspired by my previous talks about this or if it's simply convergent thought. But I big time agree.

The "alpha/beta" sociosexual hierarchy theory has been absolutely toxic to male social cooperation. This is a hierarchy prevalent among pack beasts with simple minds.

No man wants to be labeled as a "beta". So this results in competition where there should be cooperation.

Among men the "beta" is the number two, the right hand man, the consigliere and the counselor. A role absolutely necessary for the leader to succeed. A position of honor and status.

The sociosexual hierarchy theory is an amateur expression of liberalism and corrosive individualism. It has done nothing but sew distrust among masculine groups.

Now everyone fancies themselves an "alpha" when there can only be one alpha. But now alphas can't succeed because no men are willing to take the honor of a supporting role, lending their skillsets and talents to the victory of a group.

Being a supportive role isn't less masculine. Being a floating individual with no tribe is less masculine. Also, "sigma" is a funny meme but that's all it is. Even among beasts the sigma is a psychologically problematic and often diseased male. A danger to the pack.

https://youtu.be/X5p8vrZRvug

From this morning’s Power Aesthetic email.

You can sign up for it at the pop up on my MAIN WEBSITE


Today, I finished up a writing project I've been working on for some time, for an old/new endeavor.

At the end of it, as I went to type "Epilogue," I typed "Epitaph" absentmindedly instead.

Then, I left it alone, and wrote the piece.

I thought about how excellent it is that you get to write your own epilogue for your life, but you do it with your actions while you're alive.

Your epilogue, the words that go on after the story is over, that's your reputation.

It's what survives you.

Your epitaph just goes on a stone and sits there, but your epilogue is alive. It goes from person to person, and it's spread through stories about who you were.

Here's one sentence to think about today:

"Am I living a good enough example?"

Make sure.

A good epilogue is better than a good epitaph.

Have a great one.

Nice reply to the email I sent out this morning.

Thanks, Ryan.

It must, indeed!

E PLURIBUS, UNUM.

“Out of many, one.”

Good morning, all.

For clarification:

As many of you know, I’ve recently announced the return of a visible Operation Werewolf.

I never stopped, in many ways, but the pieces and articles and events that normally would’ve worn the Werewolf stamp were simply presented in another format, or, many times, privately - directed only to myself.

Power Aesthetic spent its time over the last 2 years exploring the concept of the Four Pillars presented in the Werewolf Manifesto and elsewhere.

Devotion explored the spiritual connections in physical training and the martial arts.

Various individuals close to me during the last few years worked our way through the original Iron Fist qualifications again, added to them, restructured them, and accomplished a great deal together.

More recently, RTACTN allowed me to work alongside a collective of trusted comrades to more deeply explore the Grail myths touched on in older Werewolf writings in a direct fashion - a small order grew from that to observe the Solstices and Equinoxes in a beautiful way.

My podcast received so much positive feedback, for which I am very grateful.

For now, however, my focus must shift from the many back to the one.

Operation Werewolf will be my main focus in the coming months, and years.

This focus means that there will be a re-ordering of some projects and a termination of others.

Many things will be simply absorbed into the greater territory of OPWW.

Personal posts and news will continue here, but anything involved with the Operation will go through the (currently under construction) site, the OPWW email list, and Telegram. Links for those will all be pinned on the OPWW Telegram.

Those currently receiving my weekly emails will be given ample time to get on the new list if they’re not already, after which that list will be terminated.

The Power Aesthetic podcast will remain accessible but new episodes will cease.

A new podcast will be announced shortly under the Werewolf signal, and will be housed appropriately.

I intend to produce the best work I’ve done so far with my life and sincerely hope you’ll remain on board.

XCII.

-PW

Uglier every year and some things falling apart, but plenty of miles left in the motor.

Still reliable, powerful enough when it needs to be, and still up for a good time.

The bike, too.

Wrenchin in 95° heat and jungle humidity- hope y’all are having a good one with slightly less sweating and cuss words!

Physical culture and spirituality are synonymous.

The division of training, art, music, poetry, physicality, ancestry, and the soul is an illusion.

They are all part of the same whole.

The other day my brother posted a video of a Lovato JJ belting ceremony where the individual was compared to the samurai sword.

I enjoyed it and was reminded of a quote I’d heard “the samurai’s sword is the vessel of his soul.”

If we consider Jiu Jitsu our sword and swordsmanship, then to develop our Jiu Jitsu is to develop our soul.

This requires a great deal more than simple physical training.