The Twelve Dimensions of Siblinghood
A framework for doctrinal coherence and growth for the Grey Robes order.
There is a paucity of spirit in our times. Once, we came together through multiple dimensions that were the sources of siblinghood. Today, we live in digital Skinner Boxes created by the proxies of corporations and states. The proxies lie to us, herd us, and milk us for taxes and profits.
Yet, we have gotten comfortable.
Those who seek to manipulate and control us are working at a clip to keep us blind, numb, and vaguely amused. Living under censors and controllers means the contours of our invisible prison are almost perceptible. They will lure us with carrots and threaten us with sticks, treating us as good little milk cows.
We cannot let them get away with it.
But what can we do? We must start with a spiritual revolution. We must build an Empire of the Mind. Crudely put, today’s paucity of spirit is an opportunity. We will grow if we provide spiritual nourishment for each other. And if you have felt so starved, consider how we might transform lives through what follows.
Twelve Dimensions
The twelve dimensions of our secular siblinghood correspond to the months of the year. Being secular does not mean we lack spiritual vectors. Instead, our Mission demands that we are ecumenical—even syncretic—in accepting and integrating people and ideas from various traditions. We shall weave their wisdom with ours in pursuit of liberation.
The following dimensions represent the thematic framework for our order.
Spring
Mystery
Life, the universe, and our inner worlds are endless sources of wonder.
The mystery keeps us humble. It keeps us searching for answers—eyes to the cosmos, outer and inner. Without curiosity’s pull, we become dull, dogmatic, and sclerotic. While the Twelve Dimensions require a doctrine that will settle into dogma, we never cease to inquire. We are curious. We are open. And we will forever bask in the mystery.
Metamorphosis
We embrace continual change and growth.
The path of the Grey Robe is one of constant metamorphosis—shedding skins and old habits to emerge renewed. Stagnation is the enemy; we must evolve continually or risk becoming indistinguishable from the bleating herds. Change and growth, with all its suffering, allow for cycles of rebirth into higher versions of ourselves.
Mastery
We will improve until we die.
Mastery involves ceaseless striving—a willingness to cultivate skill, knowledge, and wisdom. It means continuously improving. You must be willing to approach mastery, though perhaps never achieve it, and show the scars you have earned. You must be willing to fall in love with your fate—amour fati—to serve our order along these twelve dimensions. Master yourself in equipoise. Radiate in self-sovereignty. Self. Community. Country. World.
Summer
Mission
We are dedicated to bringing about a worldwide consent-based order.
Without a mission, a siblinghood such as The Grey Robes would be little more than a social club. While we will smoke cigars and drink whisky in leather chairs, we will put the mission comes first. That mission is to revive “the consent of the governed,” a Jeffersonian phrase for a decentralist age.
Morality
We commit ourselves to the virtues and the eschewal of vices.
It’s not merely that we will be little without a moral core—that is, we’ll have fewer common values to bind us—but moral doctrine and practice help us construct an Empire of the Mind. Our example makes us a force for good. Ours is not the morality of the tutting schoolmarm or pillar saint, but rather the practices of a people who are strong, creative, and free.
Means
We employ means such as subversive communication and innovation.
What we believe is essential, but what we undertake will make all the difference. Subversive communication means developing a messaging memeplex to change how people think, feel, and act. We shall be as shamans, monks, and missionaries. Subversive innovation means using creativity to make it easier for people to cooperate, make life harder for predators and parasites, and make it easier to exit systems that no longer serve us.
Autumn
Meaning
We will make meaning in the void.
Meaning is about the significance that siblinghood adds to the lives of those in our order. Grey Robes make meaning like others practice an instrument or meditation. Meaning is a source of spiritual nourishment, which includes a sense of belonging, fulfillment, and sublimity—higher forms of happiness. Encouraging members to make meaning strengthens their loyalty and fuels their ambitions.
Mutualism
We will expect you to stand firm, but we will lift you when you fall.
Imagine having two families. One connects you to others by blood and marriage. The other connects you to others by vision, values, and strength in virtue. As so most have outsourced their sense of community to distant capitals, they have forgotten how to live in a community. We can neither afford to be oppressed by collectivism nor atomized by individualism. We must be free in dynamic interdependence—to find and look out for one another.
Memory
We honor our roots while planting seeds for the future.
Even as we transform, The Grey Robes remain tethered to our origins by the unbroken threads of memory. We preserve our ways as a legacy for those who follow. We drink from wisdom’s well, then add our drops later so those who come after can drink, too.
Winter
Malevolence
We stand vigilant against those who would corrupt or control us.
The path of virtue is narrow. Malevolent forces have plans for us. Of course, we must know ourselves, but we must also know our Enemy. We remain alert to manipulators, deceivers, and dominators and are prepared to confront their evil. We steel our defenses and sharpen our discernment against this adversary with many faces.
Mortality
We number our days to make them count.
Life is a candle in a wind storm compared to a burning star. So, complacency is vice. Even if we exist after death, what use is it to haunt our children as ghosts with chains? We must leave traces. Each breath is life’s currency to be spent with care. Our eventual demise is not a morbid obsession but a call to purpose.
Mythos
We are writing an eternal narrative.
Sometimes, greater truths live in stories. Through our works and words, we write the texts and tell the tales that will set imaginations alight. Animated by our myth and narrative, the order shall go on after you and I are dust.
E Pluribus Unum. Ex Uno Plures.