I’ve only recently discovered podcasts, and have been listening to the Hermit’s Lamp podcast like it’s my job. Each guest has been engaging for different reasons. Their history with tarot, their personal experiences as a professional reader or author, and some really cool theories about divination, spirituality and the world and whatnot.

NOW – there was this one fella – I’d recently heard about him from Briana Saussy and Theresa Reed. How nice he was and funny, etc. Then I listened to his podcast. This was the first time I’d heard a disclaimer before the show –there was going to be swearing. My kind of conversation.

I loved the podcast, and commenced to stalking him on facebook. He’s got the kind of antagonistic protagonist energy that catches me every time. His name? Fabeku Fatunmise. What does he do? From his site, “I work with creative supernovas – artists, writers, coaches, consultants, yogis, doctors, research scientists and web wizards.  People who want to shift their inner terrain + capture the pure essence of their purpose + rev up to full-throttle momentum + awesomize their entrepreneurial enterprises.”

From what I can gather, he’s a Spiritual Gunslinger. He’s smart as hell and you gotta get to know him better. 

LFT Questionnaire

 1.     What you appreciate the most in your friends.

Loyalty. Love. Respect. Trust + trustworthiness. Good hearts. Fiery spirits. The fact they’re kind humans who also take no shit. Their capacity to accept who I am. The manymany times they’ve had my back. The way they get my dark humor. The older I get, the more mission critical these relationships become to me.

2.     Your idea of happiness.

Practically: my cat + Big Sur + amazing food + my cabal of dear wizard friends + that thing she does when she smiles and drops her head at the same time.

Existentially: when I’ve managed to transcend my own bullshit + love more, even – especially – when that feels hard or scary or counterintuitive (which, to be clear, remains an ongoing practice).

3.     Your idea of misery.

Practically: heat + humidity. Or IKEA. (Sorry, IKEA. But not really.)

Existentially: feeling lonely while surrounded by a sea of people.

4.     Your favorite colors and flowers.

My favorite color is black. I essentially wear all black, all the time (with my shoes being the notable exception).

Flowers. Hmmm.

There’s a type of Calla lily that’s near black called the black star lily, which I love as much for the color as for the Saint Bowie reference.

I’m also oddly fascinated by the butterfly pea flower.

5.     Your favorite poets.

Neruda. Bukowski. Burroughs. e.e. cummings. Neruda. Baudelaire. Rimbaud. Anna Akhmatova. Chelsea Wolfe. Robert Desnos. Morrissey. Neruda. Apollinaire. Joey Ramone. Virginia Woolf. Wilde. Bowie. Oh, and Neruda.

6.     Your heroes/heroines in fiction.

Batman (by which I mean Mr. Adam West, the one true Batman). Wonder Woman. Gandalf. Yoda. Optimus Prime. Boba Fett. Clem Snide. Sydney Bristow. Darth Vader. Boy George (who I’m convinced is a fictional character).

7.     What role does divination play in your life?

It’s huge. I don’t make every little decision based on divination. Not hardly. But I divine in some way everysingleday. Whether it’s getting perspective on something or mapping a strategy or checking for blind spots or having a late night conversation with a deck, asking the Big Existential Questions™ over a glass of Mourvèdre, divining is an everyday thing for me. And I never leave the house without a deck or some oracular something-or-another on hand.

8.     Your heroes/heroines in real life.

Joey Ramone. Morrissey. Dalí. Poly Styrene. My first love. Patti Smith. Everyone who gets their heart shattered + loves again anyway. The artists + poets + musicians + magicians of the world.

9.     What is your present state of mind?

Slightly over-caffeinated. A little melancholy. Happy about the work I’m doing. Amused by my internet famous cat trying to meowscream his way through a relationship issue with his plastic dinosaur BFF.

10.  What is your favorite tarot deck or divination tool?

I work mostly with Tarot + some divination systems from a specific ATR + playing cards + a dice oracle I created back in the mid-90s.

On the Tarot front, I’m a collector. So I have an obscene heap of decks. But, when it comes to divination, there are only a handful I regularly work with. Though I started with the Thoth deck, I’m a Tarot de Marseille guy at this point.

The Dodal (as done by Flornoy) is my favorite TdM deck when I read for other people. It’s simple + clear without unnecessary noise. But, for reading myself, the Viéville is actually one of two favorites. The Viéville deck is like that weird über eccentric uncle who creates taxidermy mashups + studies obscure occult texts + is probably drunk at least half the time, but always gives you the weirdest-but-wisest-and-absolute-best answers. My other favorite for reading for myself is the Soprafino deck by Il Meneghello, which, to me, is simply one of the most exquisite decks ever produced (and a polar opposite to the Viéville).

11.  Your favorite songs?

Jesus, take the wheel.

“And he started talking about songs + just never stopped…”

I can’t do favorites. So, here’s a peek at what’s currently in heavy rotation.

“Color Of Blood” – Chelsea Wolfe
“Harper Lewis” – Russian Circles
“Bird Set Free” – Sia
“Ring Of Fire” – Johnny Cash
“Didn’t It Rain” – Sister Rosetta Tharpe
“La Vie en Rose” – Édith Piaf
“There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” – The Smiths
“The Ship Song” – Nick Cave
“House Of Metal” – Chelsea Wolfe
“Don’t Drag Me Down” – Social Distortion
“Nessun Dorma” sung by Pavarotti specifically
Anything-and-everything by The Ramones, alwaysandforevertheend
 

12.  What is your favorite word?

Wow. There are so many. Too many maybe. I’ve been in bed with a million words over the years. But one I’ve had a particularly torrid love affair with is denouement. Terence McKenna introduced us. I instantly felt my face flush + it immediately got hot in the room. It’s elegant in a way that makes me swoon.

13.  What is your least favorite word?

O*****l. Satan’s cereal. The abomination in a bowl. That sloppy wet chunky gruel. I can’t even write the actual word out. It should always be redacted. Horrible fucking stuff. I also can’t be in the room when someone’s eating it. I’ll literally – I mean the real kind of literally – throw up. I’m fun at breakfast.

14.  What sound or noise do you love?

That half-sigh/half-“hmmm” sound a creature you’re romantically connected to makes right after you kiss them.

15.  W
hat sound or noise do you hate?

Metallic buzzing grating sounds (unless they’re in an Einstürzende Neubauten song).

16.  What turns you on?

Eyes full of fire. Iconoclasts. A clear sense of style (no matter what that style is). Tattoos. Mutuality. Emotional maturity. Unapologetic affection. Coherent transgression. Tenderness. A smile I can feel in my bones. Kindness. Post-metal. Loving more. Abandoned buildings. Creative rebels + ontological outlaws. St-Germain liqueur. Non-metaphorical magic. A sense of awe. People who’ve unfucked themselves from their history (or are willing to die trying). Elie Saab’s couture. McQueen’s couture. Couture in general. Hair-pulled-up-wearing-jeans-and-a-t-shirt-eating-Indian-takeaway-on-the-couch. Vetiver. Tonka bean. Panna cotta. Maria Callas on a rainy evening.

17.  What turns you off?

Beige. Entitlement. People who play games. Superficiality. Liver. Cruelty. Caged creatures. Fake friends. Fake lovers. Fake anything. Unsolicited “psychic” feedback. Giant crowds. Emotional unavailability. People who only talk about themselves. Three of Swords. Judging people based on appearances. Most tapioca pudding.

18.  What is your favorite curse word?

Fuck. FUCK. f-u-c-k. FuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK.

(Was this a trick question? There aren’t other curse words, right?) (Totally a trick question. Gotcha.)

 19.  If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

“You were always enough.”