Up, Up O ye gods! . . . the dawn of a new day of justice invites us.—Stobaeus (c. 5th century A.D.)

I am going to propose something fantastical.

I hope that you can engage it as a thought experiment, if nothing else.

I write this article to reverse the primary emphasis of the spiritual and therapeutic search, which for many overlap. I write it to suggest the reality of power and agency unrealized, unseen, unused, and uncomplicated.

Presently, the ethical, therapeutic, and spiritual search is, as I see it, too focused—in matters of sorrow and suffering—on resolving trauma. On making peace with, emotionally digesting, or otherwise accepting loss or want—including rejection, paucity, abuse, or disappointment.

This general approach is, in my view, neither a reach for greater values nor a bow to pragmatism. We effectively surrender—“accept the things I cannot change”—and hence seek consolation much sooner than we ought.

And we ought never.

I propose a finer approach. By finer, I mean: realizing and experiencing that which you as a mature being want. You have good reasons. Do not allow them to be taken from you. Backing those reasons are greater inner and cosmic agencies than you may realize.

In my view, our spiritual, by which I mean extra-physical, capacities should be directed less toward resolution and more toward—some will deplore my word—victory.

Victory entails altering reality—via a deeply held, well-defined wish.

There exists the warranted possibility that invisible faculties deliver you to soaring solutions and actualities. Deliver you to your wish. And hence happiness. I back my chin-out claim with experience, historicism, erudition, effort, and argument.

In pursuing my contention, I consider humanity’s ruptured encounter with Hermeticism, the late-ancient Greek-Egyptian thought school.

Do not misread me. If you want a confectionary fix, you are in the wrong place. This article is more rigorous than you may expect. If you are cynical about my proposition, stop reading—idealism is not for you.

But—for those unafraid of a little experimental religion: you are in the right company.