The dark school.

A man came into the darkness. That man was empty and the darkness kept pulling. The man was suffering so he fell on his knees and prayed. Not knowing where to speak to, not knowing who would listen. But every well has an echo, even the pit of despair. And so every question will be answered, but how to ask the right question? Perhaps only a fool knows what to ask the wise. Only the tree knows what to ask the roots.

In the tarot deck we have the Fools journey towards enlightenment. Often used to predict the future as a form of entertainment, or to guide an individual on the path towards enlightenment in divination. The path of the fool who gains wisdom and experience and eventually becomes the magician. But what about the path of the Magus? There is no greater curse for the one who likes learning than to reach the end of the line. The Magus learns to love his own foolishness and finds in this the best of human potential. Like an empty sheet of paper waiting for an incredible story to tell. Don’t we all start this way when we are young? But some books are more incredible than others. Some books are darker than others. 

A man once came into the darkness and this darkness became his first lesson on the journey of a thousand files. The void became a space, the emptiness became potential, the darkness became a source of enlightenment; A dark school. Most humans associate the darkness with evil. A grower of plants knows roots do not grow in the light, and leaves have no nutricion without decent roots. One cannot exist without the other and only a perfect equilibrium of above and below is what keeps a tree healthy. The ultimate seed is a divine strategy. The ultimate soil is an environment filled with opportunity. It has been eight years since the man came to the darkness, and the beggar became the Solomonar. Slowly an old legend has been regenerated step by step on a journey of a thousand files. In these eight years we have done much research about the origin of the dark school and found some amazing links. The most impressive is the legend of Sæmundr fróði, an Icelandic priest who lived around 1100 AD and proposed writer of the Poetic Edda. Sæmundr claimed to have visited a Dark school at the other side of the ocean, where he was educated by the devil himself. According to the legend the school had no teacher and everyday the writings just appeared on the walls. Sæmundr left the Dark School by tricking the devil and barely escaped. The story of Sæmundr the Learned isn’t the only story we found. When we founded the Dark school of ancient mysteries eight years ago we barely even knew what we started. The only knowledge at the time was that during a certain period in history there was a rise in so-called Mystery Schools in which the philosophers of the ancient world learned their skills. Inspired by this story alone we started a journey into the darkness searching for more information about the position we chose. The more information started surfacing, the more complex and incredible this journey became. Just as with the story of the great flood, multiple different cultures started telling the same story in different words. The story of the Scholomance.

One of the most famous versions of a Scholomance from modern times is the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn. A magic school from the early 1900’s with some very famous members. Like Bram Stoker, writer of the famous novel Dracula or Arthur Edward Waite, creator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck.The grimoire of the Golden Dawn is currently in our mystery library. From reading the grimoire i can tell you the Golden Dawn had a firm belief in Angels and demons. Many of its pages are devoted to summoning these entities. It also holds instructions on how to use the tarot deck for divination, on how to focus your willpower to manifest and more esoteric knowledge. Most people consider this to be fantasy, but then again.. Most people are not as successful as some of these members. Opinion isn’t worth much in a world where results matter.

And then there is the strange story of the university of Salamanca. One quick look at the statues that decorate the walls of this building is enough to see there is definitely some dark knowledge inside. But there is more to this story than just the strange occult symbols on the outside walls. According to an old legend Hercules once visited this cave. He met the local inhabitants of Salamanca and found them to be quite ignorant. He tried to give them more knowledge, but this task kept him from continuing his adventures. So he left a statue that could teach in his absence. Story goes that the cave is still spreading knowledge till this day.
According to other stories, Pope Silvester II once visited one of these dark schools where he was educated in the art of black magic by the devil. He supposedly built a brazen head which was able to answer all of his questions with either yes or no. In Data science this is known as a boolean data structure. A clue that pope Sylvester was aware of some higher type of science, perhaps even creating artificial intelligence. This may sound far fetched, but through the ancient times people were already aware of the existence of artificial intelligence. It was known under the name “Automaton” or “Golem”. Perhaps there is some deeper truth hidden in Arthur C. Clark’s law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from  magic.  This would turn a dark school into a school of sufficiently advanced technology. An escalated science class. Where its students search for forms of science that go way beyond the average human understanding.

Some say you should save the best for last. So the last story is one from my father’s culture. Throughout my childhood many bad stories were told about the Gypsy culture. In search of something good, i stumbled on the old Gypsy poem “The Gypsiad”. This poem describes the gypsies as old allies of Vlad the Impaler. Or is it “The Impeller?”. Every answer gives birth to a new question. It also links the gypsies to the ancient wisdom of King Solomon. Two important details which come together in the old Romanian legend about the Scholomance. The school of black magic located deep beneath the earth where students are scholared in the art of black magic by the devil himself. During this period of seven years they would avoid the sun and dedicate their time to the creation of a grimoire which contains all the acquired knowledge of the student. Once this process is done, the students will become Solomonari wizards. Also called Dragon riders or weather makers. As soon as they leave the dark school their magic will gradually decline, but only one of them is forced to stay inside the dark school forever. He’ll become the master Solomonar and his power will stay with him forever. 

By the time i realized i was already inside the Scholomance, there was no way out. The process of learning in the Svartskoli transformed me throughout the years making me less socially compatible with normal humans. It created “a great filter”. An event horizon that divides perception into two different worlds. Interaction with normal humans is a problem due to a huge difference in understanding of how the world operates. Kings and pawns end in the same box, but during the game they hardly have anything in common. The exception counts more for the Solomonar. He is expected to go beyond the realm of kings and pawns and change the rules of the game. Ruling mortals is a kings game. So as soon as i entered the dark school i disappeared from the stage. Being a former alliance leader in many game communities in the Real Time Strategy genre, a known cannabis grower who worked on a documentary on national tv and founder of a few companies, i had a lot of people to leave behind. Friends, family and even more allies and followers. They say it’s lonely at the top, but it’s equally lonely at the bottom of the pit of despair. Where the most desperate mortals learn their last lesson in life; death is only the beginning. There are things in life worse than death and death is only an escape to the suffering we all learn to endure in life. Where all life ends in darkness, this is where the dark school begins. The hardest lessons are the ones you learn when your life's on the line. Poverty teaches you the value of money, starvation teaches you the value of food, dehydration teaches you the importance of water. And you will never forget. Normal schools have safety precautions, the dark school doesn’t. A near death experience is a required part of your education. Every drop of blood you spill is a simple sacrifice and if you don’t survive you simply didn’t pass the exam. Don’t think this is a joke. The dark education isn’t just reading books and drinking the full cup of poison. In any normal school you would be baptized with water. In here we will baptize you in the fire of combat. Hunting, fighting, shooting, fencing and every form of strategy that supports these talents. The dark school transforms, breaks you down to the dust of the earth and starts reshaping from prima materia. The core is the mind and from the mind the ripples spread across four elements into the material world. An ancient algorithm used to build up a world from a single sentence. As the universe so the soul.. As we build up our society, we build up ourselves.

As we build we start becoming the creator. As we destroy we start becoming the destroyer. As we keep things in perfect balance, we become the divine supervisor.

Therefore i am called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.