My whole life has been a quest for knowledge, and for so long I've believed science to be the way of gaining knowledge of the universe. But this Contract I went on a few weeks ago has shaken me to the very core with the notion that there is far more to reality than what science alone can explain.

At first I hardly believed any of it was real- even while I was experiencing the journey I went on in this Contract, I barely believed its reality. But afterward I realized that there is no escaping it; if I will trust my own observation, I must believe it. And that means that there are huge gaps in my knowledge of the universe. All this mystical, supernatural, religious junk I had dismissed as nothing but woo-woo superstition for five decades, I now realize may contain truth. How much, I don't yet know.

To learn more, I reached out to another contractor I met on the last Contract, Hilde Jensen, a heathen priestess. She had obviously known far more than I did about the supernatural elements in what we experienced. She seemed like a good place to start trying to learn about the occult. So I got in contact with her, and we met.

I soon realized my hunch was right, she knows more than anyone I've met before about the occult and supernatural. So I asked her to teach me. But this came at a price- to learn much more than the basics, she said I needed to join her cult. Well, I've come this far trying to learn all I can about the world, I'm not going to let some spooky initation rituals stand in my way. Besides, these people are hospitable, and becoming one of them meant I got to live off more than potatoes and microwave Ramen. So I joined, and learned more.

I spent the next week reading and listening, learning all I could. I've become decently well aquainted with the basic tenets and texts of the religion, as well as more general knowledge of the occult and supernatural. But to go deeper into some of the most interesting areas of study, namely, magic and runes, I needed to go through another ritual. And it turns out, this one's a real doozy.

Apparently the ancient scandinavians believed that Odin sacrificed himself to himself, hanging himself on the world-tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, pierced by a spear. The deprivation ritual I endured was a mock version of that- I spent nine days and nights strapped to an especially large tree in the forest, sacrifing myself to Odin, the chief of the gods. In exchange for this, I am to recieve his aid in my quest for knowledge and wisdom. I saw strange things -visions- as I hung. All around me the cult memebers chanted rituals and spells. I have come away knowing many of them myself, although whether by means of magic or mere repeated exposure to them, I do not know. 

I am glad to be down from that uncomfortable tree, and even more glad to have a flask of gin back in my hand. I am embarking on a great supernatural journey, a quest for hidden wisdom, with the aid of Odin. And when the inevitable day of my death comes, I will fly to him on the wings of valkyries, to Valhalla.