The Casual Alchemist 2025
Current Projects
Casual Alchemy as "Creative Aging"... a free 4-session workshop in Warwick NY on the four Wednesdays of March, 2025
“Pause often, Talk less, Play more”
· In life, Meaning Migrates. It must be found, tended; It goes away, to be found again, and again. Such is the Path. Actually, the Path shows the next step. Just Start.
· Life is a flutter between past, present and future; then, now, coming; The remembered, the experienced, the imagined. Each of those
“Pause often, Talk less, Play more”
· In life, Meaning Migrates. It must be found, tended; It goes away, to be found again, and again. Such is the Path. Actually, the Path shows the next step. Just Start.
· Life is a flutter between past, present and future; then, now, coming; The remembered, the experienced, the imagined. Each of those can free or shackle us. The mix changes. As Auden put it: “We are lived by powers we pretend to understand.”
· Humans have core needs : the need for joy and wonder, to experience Nature, and its feral quality, for Dexterity: making and ordering things, Community and being part of a Story.
· The Universe is a single living substance, composed of interactive opposites, Sacred Pairings or Polarities: Piles and Rows, “The stick has two ends”, “Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise”. This creates a tension, which can be worked with in many ways, mostly involving ordering, disordering and reordering; Putting Materials in some Pattern, over and over. It’s getting more comfortable with “Creative Disruption” or “Wild Order”
· “Mind and Matter are a unified entity”, is a quantum, microbial look at reality.
· Kairos is a key sense of time: Things happen at “the right, critical or opportune moment”. Time has an organic nature that is not chronological, not at all like a clock.
· Imagination is a force that changes Matter in subtle, elusive ways, through intuition, chance, accident. It can be contacted through trance, meditation, experimentation, wandering, contact with nature and especially Play. Be Brave. Put yourself in charm’s way.
· There are Ways to “see” anew. Learn about Koans, Haiku, Mono no aware, Wabi Sabi, Surrealist Games
Spirit Tools, Imaginal Objects
SPIRIT OBJECTS are made in a light trance, free from purpose. They combine the natural, the cultural, the found and the saved, now and then. They are Objects made in the spirit of Haiku, or a Koan
They can act as Path markers, altar objects, gifts or herms.
CORD CUTTER is a tool-like Spirit Object to help your soul move along, by first he
SPIRIT OBJECTS are made in a light trance, free from purpose. They combine the natural, the cultural, the found and the saved, now and then. They are Objects made in the spirit of Haiku, or a Koan
They can act as Path markers, altar objects, gifts or herms.
CORD CUTTER is a tool-like Spirit Object to help your soul move along, by first helping recognize, then,
perhaps, ending -“cutting”- relationships- with people, places, animals, food, drink - which no longer serve
your spiritual development, or which you may have outgrown. Just having one near helps get the task done.
About
We are All Awakening
As a maker and teacher, I can offer you a varied menu of activities to help you kindle the sparks of creativity and imagination. It starts with the core materials in my book, The Casual Alchemist and continues here and in my Pinterest Boards, to let you customize the experiences you need.
The Casual Alchemist a handbook on the act of Making
Making is a non-verbal way of exploring Regenerativity --the recurring need to change Our Story, to refresh, reestablish, re-create ourselves and our places in our family and community.
In this way, the power of making is larger than art, commodity and even "creativity." It is an ancient human act in which we all share.
Benefits
- More skill at Changing The Story
- Greater confidence with your personal aesthetic
- Better comfort with patience and solitude
- Broader technical skills with common materials
- Practicing the "good enough"
- Better skills to participate in cooperative activities
- Experiences with ambiguity, chance, digression, accident and distraction as positive forces
- Develop new creative practices and Tool Kits
- You produce a new collection of images and objects
- You encounter new ways of thinking, poems, and other expressions of meaning
- You will discover Others who share your curiosities and concerns
The Casual Alchemist: Tools, Materials, Objects and Gifts
For the Laboratory
Bench Hooks for the Great Work, and the Lesser Work, too These are portable work areas. It makes any flat surface into a special area. Hardwoods. Various sizes. All made by Dan $25
A Collection of Found Objects suitable for the Casual Alchemy. A Casual Alchemist starter kit or Gift Dan has been collecting for almost fifty years. He is now making these objects available in collections $20
For The Quiet Place
Magical Decoys and Divine Allurements
Since 2000, Daniel Mack has been carving, assembling, arranging many various natural materials into "Imaginal Tools", "Pocket Sculptures", "Spirit Figures"
Anima Bark Carvings $150 each
Imaginal Tool Kits $150 each
Stones/Eoliths $40 each
Rustic Reminders
Child's Rustic Chair 22" tall
very sturdy and barky $450