Ten Theses on Spiritual Anarchy

1. "The secret is to really begin." Anarchy is a leap into the unknown, into the void, into uncertainty and chaos. It does not provide ready-made blueprints or answers, but rather a different way of asking questions: what do I have the power to do in this situation, and who else can I call on for help? Direct action and magic are the same principle.

2. To call oneself an anarchist does not require one to adhere to an identity or an ideology. It is to situate oneself within an ancient ancestral lineage of others who have called themselves that before, as well as those who lived anarchically but did not call themselves anarchists.

3. Anarchy, the beautiful idea, the Black Flame, is a being and force in the world that is both external to and embodied within us. There is no separation between ends and means. Anarchy is here and now, not in the distant past or future or some other place. We are neither determinists nor voluntarists: we make offerings and invitations to Anarchy without being controlled by it or trying to control it.

4. Anarchy is a spiritual war with the forces, thought-forms, and egregores of domination and control. We take up arms in that war and recognize no separation between spiritual and material attack.

5. We honor our martyrs and all those who have shed blood for Anarchy. Our flag is black for mourning and death, but that is because we affirm our choice to participate in the eternal process of destruction-creation.

6. Anarchy is a practice of joy in the face of death, a joy that will remake the world, a joy that will surge out of the earth and stamp a different rhythm onto this life of ours. We celebrate the ecstatic component living in every revolutionary act. The aliveness and enchantment of the world is not lost to us.

7. Anarchy is a practice of continual spiritual cleansing and liberation from the ancestral, societal, and personal chains that bind us. Fire purifies. Destruction releases spirits and energies that are trapped and frees them to take new form.

8. As we cast away our old chains, we reject remaining in a perpetual state of severance. We weave new webs of affinity, commitment, solidarity and mutual aid, and non-biological kinship.

9. We will join our anarchist ancestors one day. The choices we make now will shape how we are remembered in the future by our descendants. We fight for the continuity of our lineages of resistance and to avenge the struggles of those who came before us.

10. Anarchy is an initiation, a transformation, a becoming. We look into the mirror that allows us to see our true selves and don the black mask that allows us to embody our anarchist ancestors and Anarchy itself.

Addendum: Anarchist Martyrs' Night, November 11

The Galleanists commemorated three holidays each year: the anniversary of the start of the Paris Commune on March 18, May Day, and the anniversary of the Haymarket executions on November 11. Some of us have been commemorating November 11 as Anarchist Martyrs' Night for the past four years, and we propose a more widespread revival of this tradition within the anarchist galaxy. Gather with friends, read aloud the words of our anarchist ancestors who died for Anarchy but more importantly those who lived for it, make offerings of fire and beauty.