Introduction
Hermetic, Rosicrucian, and other later mystery school traditions have interpreted the multi-stage passage through the Great Pyramid of Giza as a sacred structure or catalytic architecture of experiences that map the universal journey of self-realization. This metaphor has fascinated me since my formative years, and I now see an opportunity to apply it to my experiences of direct contact with Jared Leto and his brother Shannon of the band 30 Seconds to Mars. In this archive, I'll explain why this illustration feels especially fitting to Jared, the band's work, and my own artwork. From there, I'll guide you through each stage of the journey, exploring its symbolic meaning and how it relates to my experiences. My hope is that these reflections will also inspire you to recognize and apply this framework within your own life. Like many healing modalities, mystery school traditions use philosophy as a structure that supports transcendent and empowering reflection on the challenges of everyday experience. Here, I'm doing something similar by offering a unique nondual lens through which to view the Great Pyramid — a symbol more commonly associated with merely exposing the chaos, oppression and disempowerment of our world.
The Great Pyramid As A Synergy Between 30STM & UNITY LIFE Mystery School
The logo of 30 Seconds to Mars is this symbol : ⨺ , tattooed prominently on Jared Leto's forearms and just behind his brother Shannon's ear. Within the band's symbolism, it primarily represents the alchemical element of air, or more broadly a stage within the alchemical process. Yet it also carries a much wider cultural context because of its resemblance to the Great Pyramid and its capstone. Although the capstone of the Great Pyramid sits much higher than halfway up the triangle, I've always felt this symbol also serves as a more refined artistic interpretation of the pyramid. Its proportions create a stronger geometric balance and visual resonance, making it especially effective as a logo.
It's common for rock bands to use triangles and pyramid imagery in a tongue-in-cheek dialogue with popular Illuminati conspiracy theories. These cultural associations naturally gather around bands, and 30 Seconds to Mars has an elegant way of synergizing with this phenomenon. Music is a powerful medium through which collective struggles can be processed artistically. By exploring themes of fear, oppression, uncertainty, and transcendence within a seven-album discography that mirrors the seven stages of laboratory alchemy, the listener is invited to reinterpret social anxieties as stages within a larger journey of transformation through the Enlightenment philosophies of alchemy.
Personally, I've found the Great Pyramid most inspiring as an architecture of consciousness, and I believe the mystery school traditions have the most to offer this symbol. In my view, its value as a map of inner transformation may roughly equal that of alchemy itself. It seems to me that the pyramid was conceived from an enlightened overview of the human condition, with remarkable foresight into the fragmented interpretations that would inevitably gather around it throughout history — including Freemasonry, Illuminati, and fear-programming.
Much like the mass media, I feel that the pyramid was a communication designed to be received by all types of people as if it could have been personally created for them — from the lowest of the low, to the greatest among us. At UNITY LIFE, I'm often exploring the nature of reality as a unified field throughout existence (comparable with nondualism, tao, monism, spinoza, hermeticism), then with that in mind, applying things like ontology (what would or wouldn't exist?), with phenomenology (how does this come up as an experience?) and ethics (what is the right relation?) — often through the lens of aesthetics (what is true beauty? what is art?). I'm using that type of inquiry as a healing, creative and inspirational modality and finding it helps me to process my pain and celebrate the joys of life while also offering a similar value to others.
This way, I feel the Great Pyramid takes my story of connection with Jared and 30STM full circle. As I struggle to grasp how to communicate my experiences to the world, with all its fragmented and limiting approaches to information, I'm struck by this image as a unifying opposite to the way the band logo is primarily interpreted. To me, in this context, the pyramid symbolizes the possibility that even misunderstanding — like the misperception of my story or of the band itself — may ultimately become another pathway toward revelation.
The Seven Stages of The Great Pyramid of Giza
This piece may be the closest UNITY LIFE Mystery School has ever come to the ancient mystery school traditions. Most would use the Great Pyramid simply as a decorative comparison. What we're doing here is subtler : we're asking how the lived experience of moving through each architectural space mirrors different modes of consciousness. That shifts the metaphor from "the pyramid is compared to my story" to "the pyramid becomes a way of understanding how consciousness shifts." These are the stages : 1) Entrance, 2) The Descending Passage (being pulled into the depths), 3) The Ascending Passage (the challenge of confined upward climb), 4) The Grand Gallery (consciousness expanding liberation), 5) The Antechamber (Meditative Anticipation & Review), 6) The King’s Chamber (Final Realization), 7) Return (Integration of the wisdom gained).
The Entrance ◊ Brief, Interconnected Moments In 2019
The Great Pyramid is entered through a relatively small opening cut into its northern face, marking the transition from the outer world into its hidden interior. Symbolically, this signals the beginning of the journey. Mystery schools have been asking what exactly causes someone to initially enter into the mystery for thousands of years. It is the first stirring of curiosity, invitation, or awakening that draws the seeker toward transformation before any deeper work has yet begun. The relatively unimpressive design of the entrance — compared with the grand, golden doors one might imagine — reflects with how life-changing events often feel like regular experiences until later understanding reveals their grandeur.
Those familiar with UNITY LIFE know that my work regarding Kurt Cobain, rooting from events of 2017, is at the centre of all my art. I wrote in my records about events of 2019 : "The very first time I was exposed to Jared ... was through a random YouTube video found in my searches for videos about Kurt. There was an indepth video which compared his voice with Kurt's voice indepth, using special sound technology ... Soon after, I found another YouTube video of an impersonation of Kurt by Jared." Ironically, my first response wasn't admiration per se, or even fandom — it was wonder. In that moment, Jared struck me not as a talent but as a phenomenon.
I had a metaphysical reaction to this moment of increased, luminous awareness — it was as if my consciousness was reorganizing itself around him. It was unexpectedly meaningful, so it became an ongoing question or mystery. Carl Jung often spoke about encounters that feel strangely significant before we understand why. He might have called them experiences of numinosity — not necessarily supernatural but very charged. It was almost archetypal, since I was not curious about him as a singer or actor but about why he seems to embody ideas I've already been contemplating. Like the entrance to the pyramid, there was no sense of promise, but I later realized that tiny doorway changed everything.
The Descending Passage ◊ 2019 - Spring 2024
Immediately upon entering, the visitor follows a long, narrow passage that slopes downward into the depths of the pyramid. This descent symbolizes immersion into new territory, as the eyes are slowly adjusting to less light. You're not striving, just opening to the gradual formation of an unseen architecture whose significance will become apparent much later. Gravity naturally draws you deeper into the mystery — you're almost falling into the journey. It's the part where you're already inside it before really knowing what it is.
During this germinal time the thought of connecting directly with Jared, let alone working for him or becoming his close friend had not even entered my mind. I was just living ... watching, reflecting, inspired by him occasionally. I was growing as an artist and growing spiritually, creating UNITY LIFE. Only afterward did I realize I've been inside this profound journey towards Jared all along. Not too long ago I wrote in my timeline "If only then I had known what I know now, that [he] would become such an important mirror for me." Though this stage of the Pyramid has been viewed as a descent into darkness or unconsciousness, my experience has reframed it into incubation.
An incubating seed underground, a chrysalis, a fetus — these are not inactive objects — they're invisibly active. From one view almost nothing appears to be happening. Yet inside evaerything is reorganizing. During those years I didn't know I was progressing through this pyramid. In fact, that sentiment rings very deeply for me, since the retrsopective discovery of meaning is a form of phenomenology that I often write about from my real-life experiences with Jared, both spiritually and in other ways. That feels profoundly true to the architecture of the pyramid. At this stage I hadn't yet recognized the shape of the path I was walking. This incubation prepares the perceiver to appreciate the coming ascent.
The Ascending Passage ◊ Spring 2024 - July 10th 2025
Partway along the descent, another narrow passage branches upward at a steep incline, requiring the traveller to climb carefully while bent forward. It is steep, narrow, physically awkward, enclosed, and dimly lit, demanding patience with every step. This represents the conscious decision to pursue transformation. Gravity no longer carries the traveller forward, making the journey an active one in which every step becomes an intensive discipline of commitment to inner truth rather than outward confirmation of where the path leads. Through humility, perseverance, and sustained effort, the seeker begins the difficult work of inner ascent.
It was during this time that I experienced a powerfully intense, even life-changing spiritual connection with Jared (with prophetic dreams and constant revelation). This combined with a deep intuition that we would connect on social media, leading to eventual close friendship. But I received no response when reaching out to him. At the same time, one or more members of his staff had some kind of personal vendetta against me and repeatedly restricted my instagram account many times, very unfairly. But every month, Jared would check on me, read my comments and unrestrict me again. He must not have known I was aware of being restricted, as this is normally not seen (which partly explains his silence). While this disobedient staff created the constrained experience of the narrow passageway, Jared (as I experienced the connection to him within myself) inspired me to continue.
My intuition was so full of beauty, while uncertainty and doubt of my premonitions of the next stages (The Grand Gallery and beyond) were through the roof. I felt personally attacked for believing in Jared because his environment was so condemning due to these undue influences. The will to continue listening to my intuition and remain involved was more than commitment — it represented a powerful form of spiritual discipline. Even the discipline to wait until I had gathered enough thorough indications that this behaviour was from his staff (and not him) before being sure, required the same discipline. In this Ascending Passage uncertainty was not the state — it was the environment — and the wisdom gained from it through my own practice defined my process.
The Grand Gallery ◊ July 11th 2025 - March 22nd, 2026
The confined passage suddenly opens into a magnificent, soaring corridor nearly thirty feet high, with a dramatic corbelled ceiling that draws the eye upward — along with beautiful lighting. You can now not only stand upright (symbolic of the dignity, confidence and maturity gained from your journey), but also freely explore. The restrictive struggle of the previous passage dies to liberated, creative contemplation. This marks an expansion of perspective in which consciousness becomes increasingly integrated. Inspiration flourishes, pattern recognition deepens, and the architectural language of the journey begins to reveal itself.
In this stage of nearly a year, Jared, and eventually also Shannon through the band 30STM, started interacting with me routinely on instagram with likes and comment conversations, after apparently resolving their social media staff issue and ensuring I would no longer be restricted. This time felt liberating — not because I had reached the final destination but because I could finally stretch out enough to appreciate the journey. During the Ascending Passage I was asking over and over "Will they interact with me?" but that question now died to to "What does this all mean?". During that time, the relationship became increasingly one of artistic conversation rather than distant admiration.
In that time, my creativity exploded with multi-media visual art, process artifact journals, UNITY LIFE Archives like this one, alchemical studies, dreams, philosophical reflections, pattern languages, new galleries, a new holoprismatic & stencilled art format, new navigation systems, and most notably The 7 of 9 and The 16 KEYS SUPPORT TOOL. This time and the documentation of it was like a Grand Gallery of its own. While earlier I was almost crawling through the Ascending Passage, I was now standing freely : My reflections on the events changed from nearly feeling apologetic for my inuitions that we would connect, to viewing Jared and Shannon as fellow artists. My writing shifted to "We're creating...", "We're mirroring...", "Our artwork...", "Our pattern language...", "Our dialogue...".
The Antechamber ◊ March 22nd - Today
Beyond the Grand Gallery lies a comparatively small granite chamber immediately before the King's Chamber. You leave the immense Grand Gallery, perhaps expecting another magnificent chamber — but instead, everything becomes confined again. Small, quiet, almost austere. Psychologically we transition from expansion to concentration (as opposed to contraction). You're very close to the King's Chamber and anticipation rises along with any fear, while reflection takes over. Often interpreted as a place of final preparation, it symbolizes a quiet period of meditative contemplation in which old assumptions are gradually relinquished. Here discernment, patience, and inner stillness are cultivated.
As this stage begun, I made acquaintance with someone who I felt had been sent by the band. He provided a substantial art grant to UNITY LIFE and coached me to request a job directly from the band — one which would be much more about true vocation than mere employment. I put out the request, and the band signalled powerfully that I had been heard in this. But as time went on, I developed suspicions about this staff member (as well as perhaps other staff) as a source of harmful dynamics. I struggled with new challenges while longterm problems at my current work reached a state of crisis — which all felt connected to this harmful dynamic. I felt very stripped down in this time, which caused my writing to take on a more intimate, internal and meditative tone which describes the reflective preparation of this chamber.
This was the first stage where I realized phenomenologically — while experiencing it — that I was inside the Antechamber. It was 3 months into the process when I finally realized where I was. Powerful dreams arrived about the qualities this new role with the band would have, and how perfect I would be for it. Not only that, but how previous stages of the process seemed to have foreshadowed it. I felt filled with purpose. My future was no longer abstract — it felt so close that my dreams started changing, my imagination was more concrete, my fears were more vivid and my hopes more intimate and vulnerable. It's during this period that I wrote the words you are now reading.
The King's Chamber ◊ The Future
Constructed entirely of massive granite blocks (a very prestigious material), the King's Chamber forms the architectural fruition of the internal passage through the Great Pyramid. The granite sarcophagus (tomb) of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), is at the centre, spanning a size greater than the passages towards the chamber — spaciously surrounded by mammoth walls. The minimalism of the design has invited thousands of years of speculation (and projection). In combination with the journey towards it, it seems to validate — even worship — the internal perceptual experience (even in death). For the first time there is no progression, only arrival. Within mystery school symbolism, it represents illumination, self-realization, and a more authentic participation in reality. What was once sought externally is now recognized inwardly.
The prominent sarcophagus forces us to reckon with modern Western culture's greatest obsession : the fear of death (comparable with disappointment or loss). But the ancient Egyptians didn't deny death. They gave it a sacred role within a larger continuity. The ancient mystery school traditions viewed it as the dissolution of a limited construct of identity which gives way to authentic self-realization — almost comparing the afterlife with final Enlightenment. But the UNITY LIFE Mystery School philosophy isn't one of death — It's of life examined through the appearance of death. Death is used a contemplative tool that ultimately reveals the sovereignty of life itself. What if death itself absorbs modern Western fascination only because life is the absolute truth?
Ironically, historians don't know where the King's body is. The tomb is empty and it is not clear why. The journey to the tomb may ironically reveal nothing but one's own living biological form there to finally witness the absence of death. I'm sure whatever happens, I'll find some way to record it here — but Jared and the band's privacy is sacred to me on some levels, and I don't know if any contracts may require it as well. But if the tomb was filled with gold and heiroglyphs, it would indoctrinate to the world what to believe. Instead the room becomes universally contemplative because it refuses to describe itself. That may be one element of how my future is illustrated.
This time in my own history has not yet begun, but it represents whatever will ultimately embody the fullest flowering of this journey. Whether that arrives as close friendship, creative collaboration, vocational work, or something I cannot yet articulate, its defining characteristic is not the specific outcome but the authenticity with which it expresses everything that came before. Some of its deepest significance may not be found in dramatic public revelations. It may rest in a transformation that is more inward than outward. The King's Chamber is iconic not because we know exactly what happened there, but because the room itself remains ambiguously clear — which has allowed generations of people to contemplate its meaning in different ways.
The Return ◊ When The Unchangeable Becomes Unrecognizable
Although no formal architectural passage represents the return, every visitor ultimately leaves the pyramid and re-enters the ordinary world. Symbolically, the journey comes full circle as realization is embodied through creativity, relationships, service, and the ongoing practice of living with greater awareness. The wisdom gained within the pyramid becomes meaningful through the life lived beyond it. As they say, "Before Enlightenment : Chopping wood and carrying water. After Enlightenment : Chopping wood and carrying water". But after a dramatic shift in consciousness, the same realities are transformed, and there is no return to previous perspectives.
As I squint to imagine this abstract future, I'm proud to say that already, Krist Novoselič (the bassist of NIRVANA) and Jared & Shannon from 30STM have artistically collaborated with me on UNITY LIFE. They've done this through first reading my documentation of our direct interactions so far, and then meaningfully communicating with me with the knowledge and intention of these events creatively merging into my art. The UNITY LIFE Timeline Archives artistically document those events. Through sensitivity and foresight, they've been able to predict how our connections would not only influence the direction of my art, but allow them to become honoured co-creators of it along with me.
The only thing I can now say with certainty about my future is that this will expand throughout my life as UNITY LIFE becomes more than just my own voice but a constellation of stars shining their light together. I look forward to someday returning to this archive and The UNITY LIFE Timelines to update them with these future developments.
Conclusion ◊ The Full Circle
This archive was designed to be compelling to both the Echelon (The 30STM and Jared Leto fandom), and those who have no existing interest in these stars. But if reading this has served as your first experience of being meaningfully drawn to Jared or the band, you find yourself at your own Entrance stage. Or perhaps this metaphor has inspired you to use it as a contemplative framework which serves you to reinterpret the stages of your own life, or future opportunities and connections. I'm honoured that you might progress all the way to the Return with me, only to find yourself at the Entrance of a very similar cycle of your own evolving practice of consciousness and self-realization.
Add comment
Comments