weirdway

The default names we're given, the ones our parents gave us, are slave names. Why do I say this? I say this from the perspective of someone who hasn't completely moved beyond convention and who has to, on some level, still bow to it. My parents are the two people who ushered me into this prison world, and the name they assigned to me is a prisoner's number. It's not a name. It doesn't reflect my liberated essence.

So should I legally change my name? Of course not. Legalities are maintained by the slavish institutions that lack meaning in an enchanted life.

Instead one possible solution is to give yourself a magical name and you can even keep it a secret. But the trick is to regard your magical name as a true name, and your "real" name as a bogus name, a fraudulent name. This is a powerful statement you make inside your own mind if you do something like this.

Of course these are just ideas. Why have one name? You can develop for yourself a suite of 10 personas, each with its own name, and swap them in and out on as-needed basis. Or you can become cognizantly anonymous. A nameless person. And there probably are lots of other possibilities.

A lot of people are happy and proud of their given names too. If you're one of those, then I want this message to be some nice cold water on your face. You can't be free if you can't name yourself as you wish. If in your hearts of hearts you go by an assigned name, then you have the heart of a slave and not the heart of a liberated person.

This also brings to mind some long gone traditions I've read about. Like I've read that in some American Indian tribes boys had to go on a quest to earn their names once they came of age, and that's how they became men. This makes a lot of sense to me, regardless if it's historically accurate or not. However in the spirit of modern times this should be extended to women too, if you ask me. So if I were in charge of a tribe, I'd make everyone go on a quest regardless of sex/gender. I'm just dreaming here.

I haven't always been "Nefandi." I've gone by so many different names in so many places. But each of those names is more me than whatever my "real" name is. That I know for sure. I spit on my given name.