A luminous cosmic burst against deep space — nebula, stars, and threads of light.
Portrait of Oriya Pollak.

oriya pollak

helping creators remember
who we are.

Abra / Cadabra

The story you tell yourself is the story the world tells back to you.

The legend says Abracadabra means: I create as I speak. Two syllables, one breath. Abra is the story inside. Cadabra is the story you speak out loud. The order is the teaching. Inside first. Then out.

I spent thirty years exhaling only. All Cadabra, no Abra. Waiting for the world to tell me who I was, then repeating whatever it said. That's the loop. Every addiction lives in it.

My job is to help you get back to the one telling the story.

For the ones who don't quite fit

You're not broken.
You're just tired of pretending.

Tired of the shame around what you use to feel something. Tired of hiding the parts that woke you up. Tired of being the most aware person in the room and the loneliest.

You want to make things. You want to be awake. You want to stop needing the thing that helps you get there.

Good. That's the beginning.

The map I use

Four parts. Four stories.

Body. Mind. Heart. Spirit.
One story about your power, one about yourself, one about other people, one about the mystery.
Each one is either Cadabra only — all exhale, rented from the world — or Abra first: you say it inside, then the world says it back.

The wheel. Four relationships around one center.
four parts. four stories. one you.
  • Body.

    Recover Power

    the here-and-now story

    Cadabra only
    you hand your aliveness to substances, screens, the couch.
    Abra first
    you feel it in the body first. Then you move.
  • Mind.

    Recover Story

    the self story

    Cadabra only
    you live a story someone else wrote to help you fit in.
    Abra first
    you write it inside first. Then you speak it out.
  • Heart.

    Recover Love

    the others story

    Cadabra only
    you wait for someone out there to rule on your worth.
    Abra first
    you say it to yourself first. Then you give it away.
  • Spirit.

    Recover Playfulness

    the mystery story

    Cadabra only
    you outsource the mystery to gurus, dogma, shortcuts.
    Abra first
    you meet it inside first. Then you play with it out here.

the fifth relationship

The Center. The breath.

Abra on the in-breath. Cadabra on the out-breath. The four stories play on the rim. The center is the one breathing them. You can't say a word on the inhale — the body already knows the order. Inside first. Then out.

It's the hardest work I've ever done.

Which one is running you?

The arc

Four acts.

Every relationship moves through the same four stages. You are not stuck. You are just somewhere on the map.

The four acts around the wheel: forgetting, seeking, autocorrect, remembering.
  1. Act 1 · Forgetting.

    You learned to fit in. It cost you the truth. This is where the pattern starts.

  2. Act 2 · Seeking.

    You look for the fix out there. Money, love, highs, answers. Nothing out there is the fix.

  3. Act 3 · Autocorrect.

    Life turns you around. Something breaks or wakes you up. The grip loosens.

  4. Act 4 · Remembering.

    You remember what was already there. And you choose it this time.

Which act are you in right now?

Oriya Pollak teaching the wheel.
Developing since 2009 · teaching since 2019
Portrait of Oriya Pollak in the woods.

I was the medicine the whole time.
I just wouldn't say so.

I spent thirty years chasing the magic outside myself. First it was money: dot-com, then real estate.

Then it was spirituality: I ran with the law-of-attraction crowd, the big names.

Then it was the medicine: I trained as a facilitator, I ran the ceremonies.

Thirty years outsourcing my own magic to a substance, to a story, to God, to money. All Cadabra, no Abra.

That's what I teach now: how to stop renting your magic and remember you are it.

Very High Priest: Remembering Who I Am — a micro-memoir by Oriya Pollak.
Originally published · Jan 2025

The book · the series · the proof

Very High Priest.
Remembering Who I Am.

Very High Priest is the true story behind the map. A man who built a spiritual empire, burned it down, and had to remember who he was.

It's about what happens when devotion and addiction look the same — and what it costs to tell the truth about it.

"Breaking Bad meets Shtisel."

In development as a 12-episode series. Registered with the WGA. A new edition is being rewritten with readers; the original is offline while it takes shape.

Read the serialization for free before it hits the printer.

Start here

Two questions.

Which part is making the noise?

Where are you on the map?

Send me a voice note with your two answers.
I'll do a flash reading: what's going on, which part to fix first, and what to do next.

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