Who is "The Esoteric Butcher"
Selene's Initiate: First Draft
Who is Selene’s Initiate?
First Here’s a Bio I used to use for Poetry Events:
“Born in the center of Oregon. Devon Malone was raised in Bend while it was still a small town. After being raised by blistering wildfire summers, Desolate yet peaceful white winters, and overall walking through one Bob Ross landscape painting to the next. They decided to move to Portland where they have now resided for almost 10 years.
Devon also spent most of his youth at the harbor of leaving where he helped Charon fill boat after boat with friends and family that passed on to everything else that’s out there. Year after year. Suicides, overdoses, drowning’s, A.L.S., cancer, heart attacks, car accidents, bicycle accidents, hit and runs, murder, and natural causes. All of these (and possibly a few more) have been ways that Devon has seen loved ones shipped from the harbor of leaving.
Through their long struggle with the shroud of depression. Devon has used poetry to find a sense of healing. They’ve learned to use Their words as a way to love, listen, and care even deeper for strangers, friends, and family alike.
Devon’s has shared their poetry on many stages through the competition known as Slam. Though has never been nationally acclaimed, published, or televised. However, Devon is proud to say that they’ve seen many tear shed on street corners in the middle of the day.”
Here’s the “About Me” from the website I’m working on “Selene’s Gateway”
Who is Selene’s Initiate?
Currently, Selene’s Initiate is Devon Malone (aka @the_esoteric_butcher).
I am a child of Saturn: I am a lifetime proletariat. I am a highschool dropout. I have been in the servant class since I was 15 years old. I was raised by the failing lumber industry in Oregon and by the devotional practice of long haul trucking. I’m currently a full time butcher. I’ve slept on the streets, hitchhiked, and couch surfed. I have been to many funerals.
I am a child of Jupiter: I have a deep love of philosophy and spirituality. I’ve been scorned by contemporary “Born Again” christianity. I am a wonderer through the minds of thinkers. I have a deep respect of the multitudes of beliefs and ideas that cultures have defined over time and memorial. I currently practice “Astrolatry”. As defined as the “Worship of the Stars”.
I am a child of Venus and Mars: I love poetry, music, and stories. I love cutting, slicing, cooking, and fermenting. I love feeding people and making them feel welcomed. As they are.
I am a child of Mercury: I love to write, read, talk, and debate. I love to learn. I am curious. I am not funny (though I pretend to be).
I am a child of Helios: I love to warm and nurture. I love to lift and support. I love to be a resource to others.
I am a child of Luna: I have a deep reservoir of emotions. These are felt strongest when I find myself helping others learn and grow.
I am a devotee to Selene and my Scorpio Luna. Together she’s taught me how to nurture both myself and others around me. I continue to explore her movements as we dance together. She is quick and wild. She is ever changing and accommodating. She delivers both the good and bad news. She is our vitality and capacity.
By joining us on this journey we hope to help you explore and nurture your relationship with time. You will not find a conversation about ascension or a higher self. You will find an adventure of integration back into what the western world deems as “Chaos”. Because the natural order can not be contained without being forced into assimilation. reduced in size, and strip mined of complexity.
Our goal is to stoke the individual gift of fire stored inside all of us. From Prometheus to Coyote and many more across the globe. Fire was stolen from the gods and gifted to the hearts of people. We hope to help you use this fire to find both yourself and your interconnected place of being with your earthly relatives in abundance of rock, plant, and animal.
May the fire inside guide you,
Devon Malone
Selene’s Initiate
About my background and practice:
My preferred lens for astrology is rooted in the Hellenistic and Islamicate periods. However, I also use the more contemporary discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in my analysis. As well as attempting to contextualize the past with the present. My astrological goals are founded in the concept of reaching into the past and linking with the authors that predate the “enlightenment” period that shapes our world today.
My strongest foundation to date has been spent in the Austin Coppock “Fundamentals of Astrology” course. Currently a second year graduate and moving onto the third and final chapter of the course. In Austin Coppocks curriculum he not only teaches the bones and structure of how to read and understand the body that is the “Natal Chart”. He also supplies a strong philosophical framework to hold and understand those pieces as a greater whole. Not only in the context of the chart but also in the lives we live today.
Through the “Fundamentals of Astrology” course (F.O.A. for short) I’ve become well versed in reading Natal charts, understanding timing techniques such as Profections, Zodiacal Releasing, and Transits. However there is a third thing that Austin Coppock weaves into our understanding and that is the current of Astrological Magic. Here he teaches his personal way of building a relationship not only with our charts but also the current and ever changing tides of the cosmos.
I am also a student of many texts that have recently been translated. As well as a patron of the “Head on History” Patreon built by Dr. Ali A Olomi. Through Dr. Olomi’s translations, lectures, and essays. I’ve been able to sharpen my astrological tools and dig my roots deeper into the Islamicate period and its rich astrological tradition.
Most importantly to me though is that my “Astrology” is more of an “Astrolatry”.
Astrolatry or “Star Worship”: “The worship of heavenly bodies is the veneration of stars (individually or together as the night sky), the planets, or other astronomical objects as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these systems of practice may be referred to as astral cults.” - Wikipedia
We believe in a living and experiential cosmos. Where not only do we have consciousness but so does everything around us also have consciousness. Sometimes described as “Animism”. We believe in a universe that is built on the idea of relationship. That we are here to have relationships not only with other Humans but also foster a relationship with everything around us. Astrology helps us understand our relationship to both time and space. Our relationship to the time we were born into as marked by where the Sun, Moon, and Planets were situated at our birth. As well as our relationship to the place we were born as expressed by the rising sign ascending in the east.
Through the process of living in the moment and exploring our charts we can reconnect not only to the living sky but also the living world around us.
May the fire inside guide you,
Devon Malone
Selene’s Initiate