The picture which the world presents to the naked human eye can hardly seem anything but a battleground of contradictions, with opposing forces colliding without apparent resolution. Yet, in brief moments, these conflicting parts seem to fold into a mysterious harmony, suddenly imbuing the image with a revealing clarity. An unusual eye color, the elegant design of a complex machine, or a moving piece of music, may evoke, in the observer, a lucid vision of coherence and meaning. As though teasing us, just as we fix our gaze on this hopeful picture, it quickly slips away. We define these ephemeral moments as alignment.

We propose that the curious source of these alignments lies in pre-existent resonances between one’s inner nature and elements of the external world. To exemplify this, consider pieces on a mid-game chessboard. While a strategist may find himself immersed in the plurality of possible positions, an aesthete may instead be fascinated by the elegant finish of the bishop, a fantasist inspired by a cataclysmic battlefield, a chess player reflective on a lost game. These widely divergent responses are unique in all but one factor: they share an equal emotional wealth in the beholder. Suppose the fantasist were to adopt the strategists’ perspective and aim at winning the game. Their face would feign interest while the distant sounds of clashing swords would fill them with guilt for abandoning their loyal soldiers at such a crucial time. It is precisely this raw, instinctive correspondence between one’s inner landscape and the elements surrounding them that give rise to moments of alignment. We define these inherent connections as affinities.

Our central claim is that these affinities crystallize into moments of alignment under a necessary condition: authenticity. In accepting rather than concealing our inner nature, our identity unfolds as a collection of resonances that we have allowed to materialize. Meet our friend. A bull in the boxing ring, sweating, bleeding, pounding their chest. The next day, as if by some miracle, they are seated on the theater stage under the glimmering spotlight, uttering “to be, or not to be”. By the end of the week, they look out at the vast, silent sea, patiently waiting for a fish to be caught in their bait. Allowing the raw, unique parts of themselves to surface in the external world, they become unanchored from static constructs of identity built around careers, interests, or hobbies. Their identity becomes a dynamic, living architecture, freely navigating the world in search of structures that may host the multiplicity of their resonances. In the spontaneous laugh that escapes them, the involuntary rush in their eyes when they recognise love, the inevitable worry in their pursuit of something bigger, their authentic pulse opens up a space, allowing them, for a brief moment, to be aligned.

Our publication hosts a growing archive of our collective affinities. In undertaking this exercise, we aim to explore and articulate our connections, carving them into the shape that may best evoke moments of alignment when revisited. Less selfishly, we hope to create an environment where your own resonances might reveal themselves too. Our structure takes form in three vessels: Literature, Characters, and Tones. Whether a passage in Goldmund & Narcissus, an archival interview with Frida Kahlo, or the sight of a hopeful bouquet of flowers in a tube elevator, these vessels each ignite unfamiliar, coherent trails of thought in us, inscribed into our published pieces.

We sincerely hope you enjoy our collection!

Ska & Paul