The Burning Babe.
-By Robert Southwell,
From St. Peter's Complaint, 1595
As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow ;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear ;
Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
Alas, quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I !
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns ;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.
With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.
1. Our prayer - The Beach Boys
2. Wise man in your heart - Daevid Allen
3. Child is father of the man - Brian Wilson
4. Bumper ball dub (karmacoma) - Massive Attack (remix: Mad Professor)
5. Knights Templar - Steve Hillage
6. Space between your ear - Ozric Tentacles
7. Emotional slaughter - Black Uhuru
8. Exposure - Robert Fripp
9. 1000 years - Sting (remix: Bill Laswell & Karsh Kale)
10. By this river - Brian Eno
11. Stella Maris - Einsturzende Neubauten
12. Greensleeves/What child is this? - Jethro Tull
13. Sweet child - Pentangle
14. Wise man in your heart - Gong
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
How to stay alive
Pixies in Tokyo
Shibuya Crossing
Some of you may be familar with Shibuya Crossing in downtown Tokyo, if not by name then perhaps from photographs you've seen (you know the ones pedestrian crossings going every which way), it's the Times Square or Piccadilly Circus of the city, and like both those places neon signs and video screens abound. Well somehow by some means, all this week the Gong 'How to Stay Alive' animated video is part of the loop of films and adverts playing above the heads of the thronging crowds. Will any stop and have a PHP interlude, wonder what all that was, then scurry along? Strange times indeed. Maybe there are some Shibuya web-cams on the net where we can catch it happening live?
Released to coincide with the band's 40th Anniversary, 2032 continues Gong's famous Radio Gnome album trilogy which includes the milestone psychedelic progressive rock albums Flying Teapot (1973), Angel's Egg (1973) and You (1974). The band line-up on the album includes Daevid Allen (guitar, lead vocal): Steve Hillage (lead guitar), Gilli Smyth (Space Whisper and poetry), Miquette Giraudy (synthesiser), Mike Howlett (bass), Chris Taylor (drums), and Theo Travis (sax and flute).
"2032 is full of risk-taking, which is always a double edged sword, but these quirky songs might seem fresh and even bring a new blood in the Gong planet..."
"There are so many great moments on 2032, it becomes difficult to catalog them all. Taylor’s drums on “Pinkle Pockle” are outstanding, and the token straight-ahead rocker “Guitar Zero” is also something to hear. The electro-funk of "Robo-Warriors" is the most surprising sound to appear on 2032. It could have been a track left off of Funkadelic’s 1982 LP The Electric Spanking Of War Babies.
Fittingly, it is the final song that commands the most attention. The instrumental “Portal” is Steve Hillage at his finest, and Didier Malherbe’s sax solo serves to contrast and complement the song as well."
Shibuya Crossing
Some of you may be familar with Shibuya Crossing in downtown Tokyo, if not by name then perhaps from photographs you've seen (you know the ones pedestrian crossings going every which way), it's the Times Square or Piccadilly Circus of the city, and like both those places neon signs and video screens abound. Well somehow by some means, all this week the Gong 'How to Stay Alive' animated video is part of the loop of films and adverts playing above the heads of the thronging crowds. Will any stop and have a PHP interlude, wonder what all that was, then scurry along? Strange times indeed. Maybe there are some Shibuya web-cams on the net where we can catch it happening live?
Released to coincide with the band's 40th Anniversary, 2032 continues Gong's famous Radio Gnome album trilogy which includes the milestone psychedelic progressive rock albums Flying Teapot (1973), Angel's Egg (1973) and You (1974). The band line-up on the album includes Daevid Allen (guitar, lead vocal): Steve Hillage (lead guitar), Gilli Smyth (Space Whisper and poetry), Miquette Giraudy (synthesiser), Mike Howlett (bass), Chris Taylor (drums), and Theo Travis (sax and flute).
"2032 is full of risk-taking, which is always a double edged sword, but these quirky songs might seem fresh and even bring a new blood in the Gong planet..."
"There are so many great moments on 2032, it becomes difficult to catalog them all. Taylor’s drums on “Pinkle Pockle” are outstanding, and the token straight-ahead rocker “Guitar Zero” is also something to hear. The electro-funk of "Robo-Warriors" is the most surprising sound to appear on 2032. It could have been a track left off of Funkadelic’s 1982 LP The Electric Spanking Of War Babies.
Fittingly, it is the final song that commands the most attention. The instrumental “Portal” is Steve Hillage at his finest, and Didier Malherbe’s sax solo serves to contrast and complement the song as well."
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Cognitive dissonance
“Bruno’s speech to the little Foxes. ‘Now, little Foxes, you’re going to have your first lesson in being good--I’m going to put you into the hamper, along with the Apples and the Bread: and you’re not to eat the Apples: and you’re not to eat the Bread: and you’re not to eat anything--till we get to my house: and then you’ll have your supper.’ "
“The little Foxes’ speech to Bruno. The little Foxes said nothing.
“So Bruno put the Apples into the hamper--and the little Foxes--and the Bread--” (”They had picnicked all the Milk,” Bruno explained in a whisper) “--and he set off to go to his house.” (”We’re getting near the end now, said Bruno.)
“And, when he had got a little way, he thought would look into the hamper, and see how the little Foxes were getting on.”
“So he opened the door " said Bruno.
“Oh, Bruno!” Sylvie exclaimed, “you’re not telling the story! So he opened the door, and behold, there were no Apples! So Bruno said ‘Eldest little Fox, have you been eating the Apples?’ And the eldest little Fox said No no no,’ " (It is impossible to give the tone in which Sylvie repeated this rapid little ‘No no no!’ The nearest I can come to it is to say that it was much as if a young and excited duck had tried to quack the words. It was too quick for a quack, and yet too harsh to be anything else.) “Then he said ‘Second little Fox, have you been eating the Apples?’ And the second little Fox said ‘No no no!’ Then he said ‘Youngest little Fox, have you been eating the Apples?’ And the youngest little Fox tried to say ‘No no no!’ but its mouth was so full, it couldn’t, and it only said ‘Wauch! Wauch! Wauch!’ And Bruno looked into its mouth. And its mouth was full of Apples. And Bruno shook his head, and he said ‘Oh dear, oh dear! What bad creatures these Foxes are!’ "
Bruno was listening intently: and, when Sylvie paused to take breath, he could only just gasp out the words “About the Bread?”
“Yes,” said Sylvie, “the Bread comes next. So he shut the door again; and he went a little further; and then he thought he’d just peep in once more. And behold, there was no Bread!” “What do ‘behold’ mean?” said Bruno. “Hush!” said Sylvie.) “And he said Eldest little Fox, have you been eating the Bread?’ And the eldest little Fox said ‘No no no!’ ‘Second little Fox, have you been eating the Bread?’ And the second little Fox only said ‘Wauch! Wauch! Wauch!’ And Bruno looked into its mouth, and its mouth was full of Bread!’ ( It might have chokeded it,” said Bruno.) “So he said ‘Oh dear, oh dear! What shall I do with these Foxes?’ And he went a little further " (”Now comes the most interesting part,” Bruno whispered.)
“And when Bruno opened the hamper again, what do you think he saw?” (”Only two Foxes!” Bruno cried in a great hurry.) “You shouldn’t tell it so quick. However he did see only two Foxes. And he said ‘Eldest little Fox have you been eating the youngest little Fox?’ And the eldest little Fox said ‘No no no!’ ‘Second little Fox, have you been eating the youngest little Fox?’ And the second little Fox did its very best to say ‘No no no!’ but it could only say ‘Weuchk! Weuchk! Weuchk!’ And when Bruno looked into its mouth, it was half full of Bread, and half full of Fox!’ (Bruno said nothing in the pause this time. He was beginning to pant a little, as he knew the crisis was coming. )
“And when he’d got nearly home, he looked once more into the hamper, and he saw--”
“Only--” Bruno began, but a generous thought struck him, and he looked at me. “Oo may say it, this time, Mister Sir!” he whispered. It was a noble offer, but I wouldn’t rob him of the treat. “Go on, Bruno,” I said, “you say it much the best.” “Only--but--one--Fox!” Bruno said with great solemnity.
“‘Eldest little Fox,’ " Sylvie said, dropping the narrative-form in her eagerness, “‘you’ve been so good that I can hardly believe you’ve been disobedient: but I’m afraid you’ve been eating your little sister?’ And the eldest little Fox said ‘Whihuauch! Whihuauch!’ and then it choked. And Bruno looked into its mouth, and it was full! (Sylvie paused to take breath, and Bruno lay back among the daisies, and looked at me triumphantly. “Isn’t it grand, Mister Sir?” said he. I tried hard to assume a critical tone. “It’s grand,” I said: “but it frightens one so! Oo may sit a little closer to me, if oo like,” said Bruno.)
“And so Bruno went home: and took the hamper into the kitchen, and opened it. And he saw--” Sylvie looked at me, this time, as if she thought I had been rather neglected and ought to be allowed one guess, at any rate.
“He ca’n’t guess!” Bruno cried eagerly. “I ‘fraid I must tell him! There weren’t nuffin in the hamper!” I shivered in terror, and Bruno clapped his hands with delight. ‘He is flightened, Sylvie! Tell the rest!”
“So Bruno said ‘Eldest little Fox, have you been eating yourself, you wicked little Fox?’ And the eldest little fox said ‘Whihuauch!’ And then Bruno saw there was only its mouth in the hamper! So he took the mouth, and he opened it, and shook, and shook! And at last he shook the little Fox out of its own mouth! And then he said ‘Open your mouth again, you wicked little thing!’ And he shook, and shook! And he shook out the second little Fox! And he said ‘Now open your mouth!’ And he shook, and shook! And he shook out the youngest little Fox, and all the Apples, and all the Bread!
“And then Bruno stood the little Foxes up against the wall: and he made them a little speech. ‘Now, little Foxes, you’ve begun very wickedly--and you’ll have to be punished. First you’ll go up to the nursery, and wash your faces, and put on clean pinafores. Then you’ll hear the bell ring for supper. Then you’ll come down: and you wo’n’t have any supper: but you’ll have a good whipping! Then you’ll go to bed. Then in the morning you’ll hear the bell ring for breakfast. But you wo’n’t have any 6reakfast! You’ll have a good whipping! Then you’ll have your lessons. And, perhaps, if you’re very good, when dinner-time comes, you’ll have a little dinner, and no more whipping!’” (”How very kind he was!” I whispered to Bruno. “Middling kind,” Bruno corrected me gravely.)
“So the little Foxes ran up to the nursery. And soon Bruno went into the hall, and rang the big bell. ‘Tingle, tingle, tingle! Supper, supper, supper!’ Down came the little Foxes, in such a hurry for their supper! Clean pinafores! Spoons in their hands! And, when they got into the dining-room, there was ever such a white table-cloth on the table! But there was nothing on it but a big whip. And they had such a whipping!” (I put my handkerchief to my eyes, and Bruno hastily climbed upon my knee and stroked my face. “Only one more whipping, Mister Sir!” he whispered. “Don’t cry more than oo ca’n’t help!”)
“And the next morning early, Bruno rang the big bell again. ‘Tingle, tingle, tingle! Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast!’ Down came the little Foxes! Clean pinafores! Spoons in their hands! No breakfast! Only the big whip! Then came lessons,” Sylvie hurried on, for I still had my handkerchief to my eyes. “And the little Foxes were ever so good! And they learned their lessons backwards, and forwards, and upside-down. And at last Bruno rang the big bell again. ‘Tingle, tingle, tingle! Dinner, dinner, dinner! And when the little Foxes came down--” (”Had they clean pinafores on?” Bruno enquired. “Of course!” said Sylvie. “And spoons?” “Why, you know they had!” “Couldn’t be certain,” said Bruno.) “--they came as slow as slow! And they said ‘Oh! There’ll be no dinner! There’ll only be the big whip!’ But, when they got into the room, they saw the most lovely dinner!” ( “Buns?” cried Bruno, clapping his hands.) “Buns, and cake, and--” (”--and jam?” said Bruno.) “Yes, jam--and soup--and--” (”--and sugar plums!” Bruno put in once more; and Sylvie seemed satisfied.)
“And ever after that, they were such good little Foxes! They did their lessons as good as gold--and they never did what Bruno told them not to--and they never ate each other any more and they never ate themselves!”
The story came to an end so suddenly, it almost took my breath away; however I did my best to make a pretty speech of thanks. “I’m sure it’s very--very--very much so, I’m sure!” I seemed to hear myself say.
-Lewis Carroll: The Little Foxes
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
“The little Foxes’ speech to Bruno. The little Foxes said nothing.
“So Bruno put the Apples into the hamper--and the little Foxes--and the Bread--” (”They had picnicked all the Milk,” Bruno explained in a whisper) “--and he set off to go to his house.” (”We’re getting near the end now, said Bruno.)
“And, when he had got a little way, he thought would look into the hamper, and see how the little Foxes were getting on.”
“So he opened the door " said Bruno.
“Oh, Bruno!” Sylvie exclaimed, “you’re not telling the story! So he opened the door, and behold, there were no Apples! So Bruno said ‘Eldest little Fox, have you been eating the Apples?’ And the eldest little Fox said No no no,’ " (It is impossible to give the tone in which Sylvie repeated this rapid little ‘No no no!’ The nearest I can come to it is to say that it was much as if a young and excited duck had tried to quack the words. It was too quick for a quack, and yet too harsh to be anything else.) “Then he said ‘Second little Fox, have you been eating the Apples?’ And the second little Fox said ‘No no no!’ Then he said ‘Youngest little Fox, have you been eating the Apples?’ And the youngest little Fox tried to say ‘No no no!’ but its mouth was so full, it couldn’t, and it only said ‘Wauch! Wauch! Wauch!’ And Bruno looked into its mouth. And its mouth was full of Apples. And Bruno shook his head, and he said ‘Oh dear, oh dear! What bad creatures these Foxes are!’ "
Bruno was listening intently: and, when Sylvie paused to take breath, he could only just gasp out the words “About the Bread?”
“Yes,” said Sylvie, “the Bread comes next. So he shut the door again; and he went a little further; and then he thought he’d just peep in once more. And behold, there was no Bread!” “What do ‘behold’ mean?” said Bruno. “Hush!” said Sylvie.) “And he said Eldest little Fox, have you been eating the Bread?’ And the eldest little Fox said ‘No no no!’ ‘Second little Fox, have you been eating the Bread?’ And the second little Fox only said ‘Wauch! Wauch! Wauch!’ And Bruno looked into its mouth, and its mouth was full of Bread!’ ( It might have chokeded it,” said Bruno.) “So he said ‘Oh dear, oh dear! What shall I do with these Foxes?’ And he went a little further " (”Now comes the most interesting part,” Bruno whispered.)
“And when Bruno opened the hamper again, what do you think he saw?” (”Only two Foxes!” Bruno cried in a great hurry.) “You shouldn’t tell it so quick. However he did see only two Foxes. And he said ‘Eldest little Fox have you been eating the youngest little Fox?’ And the eldest little Fox said ‘No no no!’ ‘Second little Fox, have you been eating the youngest little Fox?’ And the second little Fox did its very best to say ‘No no no!’ but it could only say ‘Weuchk! Weuchk! Weuchk!’ And when Bruno looked into its mouth, it was half full of Bread, and half full of Fox!’ (Bruno said nothing in the pause this time. He was beginning to pant a little, as he knew the crisis was coming. )
“And when he’d got nearly home, he looked once more into the hamper, and he saw--”
“Only--” Bruno began, but a generous thought struck him, and he looked at me. “Oo may say it, this time, Mister Sir!” he whispered. It was a noble offer, but I wouldn’t rob him of the treat. “Go on, Bruno,” I said, “you say it much the best.” “Only--but--one--Fox!” Bruno said with great solemnity.
“‘Eldest little Fox,’ " Sylvie said, dropping the narrative-form in her eagerness, “‘you’ve been so good that I can hardly believe you’ve been disobedient: but I’m afraid you’ve been eating your little sister?’ And the eldest little Fox said ‘Whihuauch! Whihuauch!’ and then it choked. And Bruno looked into its mouth, and it was full! (Sylvie paused to take breath, and Bruno lay back among the daisies, and looked at me triumphantly. “Isn’t it grand, Mister Sir?” said he. I tried hard to assume a critical tone. “It’s grand,” I said: “but it frightens one so! Oo may sit a little closer to me, if oo like,” said Bruno.)
“And so Bruno went home: and took the hamper into the kitchen, and opened it. And he saw--” Sylvie looked at me, this time, as if she thought I had been rather neglected and ought to be allowed one guess, at any rate.
“He ca’n’t guess!” Bruno cried eagerly. “I ‘fraid I must tell him! There weren’t nuffin in the hamper!” I shivered in terror, and Bruno clapped his hands with delight. ‘He is flightened, Sylvie! Tell the rest!”
“So Bruno said ‘Eldest little Fox, have you been eating yourself, you wicked little Fox?’ And the eldest little fox said ‘Whihuauch!’ And then Bruno saw there was only its mouth in the hamper! So he took the mouth, and he opened it, and shook, and shook! And at last he shook the little Fox out of its own mouth! And then he said ‘Open your mouth again, you wicked little thing!’ And he shook, and shook! And he shook out the second little Fox! And he said ‘Now open your mouth!’ And he shook, and shook! And he shook out the youngest little Fox, and all the Apples, and all the Bread!
“And then Bruno stood the little Foxes up against the wall: and he made them a little speech. ‘Now, little Foxes, you’ve begun very wickedly--and you’ll have to be punished. First you’ll go up to the nursery, and wash your faces, and put on clean pinafores. Then you’ll hear the bell ring for supper. Then you’ll come down: and you wo’n’t have any supper: but you’ll have a good whipping! Then you’ll go to bed. Then in the morning you’ll hear the bell ring for breakfast. But you wo’n’t have any 6reakfast! You’ll have a good whipping! Then you’ll have your lessons. And, perhaps, if you’re very good, when dinner-time comes, you’ll have a little dinner, and no more whipping!’” (”How very kind he was!” I whispered to Bruno. “Middling kind,” Bruno corrected me gravely.)
“So the little Foxes ran up to the nursery. And soon Bruno went into the hall, and rang the big bell. ‘Tingle, tingle, tingle! Supper, supper, supper!’ Down came the little Foxes, in such a hurry for their supper! Clean pinafores! Spoons in their hands! And, when they got into the dining-room, there was ever such a white table-cloth on the table! But there was nothing on it but a big whip. And they had such a whipping!” (I put my handkerchief to my eyes, and Bruno hastily climbed upon my knee and stroked my face. “Only one more whipping, Mister Sir!” he whispered. “Don’t cry more than oo ca’n’t help!”)
“And the next morning early, Bruno rang the big bell again. ‘Tingle, tingle, tingle! Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast!’ Down came the little Foxes! Clean pinafores! Spoons in their hands! No breakfast! Only the big whip! Then came lessons,” Sylvie hurried on, for I still had my handkerchief to my eyes. “And the little Foxes were ever so good! And they learned their lessons backwards, and forwards, and upside-down. And at last Bruno rang the big bell again. ‘Tingle, tingle, tingle! Dinner, dinner, dinner! And when the little Foxes came down--” (”Had they clean pinafores on?” Bruno enquired. “Of course!” said Sylvie. “And spoons?” “Why, you know they had!” “Couldn’t be certain,” said Bruno.) “--they came as slow as slow! And they said ‘Oh! There’ll be no dinner! There’ll only be the big whip!’ But, when they got into the room, they saw the most lovely dinner!” ( “Buns?” cried Bruno, clapping his hands.) “Buns, and cake, and--” (”--and jam?” said Bruno.) “Yes, jam--and soup--and--” (”--and sugar plums!” Bruno put in once more; and Sylvie seemed satisfied.)
“And ever after that, they were such good little Foxes! They did their lessons as good as gold--and they never did what Bruno told them not to--and they never ate each other any more and they never ate themselves!”
The story came to an end so suddenly, it almost took my breath away; however I did my best to make a pretty speech of thanks. “I’m sure it’s very--very--very much so, I’m sure!” I seemed to hear myself say.
-Lewis Carroll: The Little Foxes
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
In Thrall to the Fox-Fire Eidolon
...Love accompanies chaos, precedes the world, wakens the sleeping, lights the dark, gives life to the dead, gives form to the formless, perfects the imperfect.
-Marsilio Ficino: De Amore, Translated by Sears Jayne , 1994
"When men are dead, their ghosts often go to reside in foxes, or use these animals as hacks, riding on them through the air and over land and water for enormous distances and with lightning speed."
-Thomas Watters: Chinese Fox Myths, 1874
"The erotic intention ... presents itself as that which would possess and touch what ought merely to be the object of contemplation, ...its root in the intimate contradiction of a gesture that would embrace the unobtainable"
-Giorgio Agamben: Stanzas, 1993
"When we desire, we desire the phantasm, and purely corporeal pleasure does not exist."
Bin gewohnt das Irregehen,
's führt ja jeder Weg zum Ziel:
Uns're Freuden, uns're [Wehen],
Alles eines Irrlichts Spiel!
[I am used to going astray;
Every path leads to one goal;
Our joys, our woes,
Are all a will-o'-the-wisp game!]
-Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) , "Das Irrlicht", from Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten 2, in Die Winterreise, no. 18-
Translation by Arthur Rishi
...Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
- William Shakespeare: Sonnet 147
"Do you think we were surprised to find that the American Dream was a nightclub that had burned down five years earlier? That we were surprised to find when we tracked it down that it had been the old Psychiatrist's Club? Prior to that its name had been the American Dream. Do you think that we were surprised to find that?"
-Hunter S. Thompson: August 26, 1997
"Nodjimahkwe (Keewaydinoquay's teacher) had a log that glowed with waaswamagagod
(luminescent fungi) set on either side of her doorway. She did this for two reasons. The first was so that people could find her place even on overcast nights. The second was so that perhaps those coming would have more respect for her work. As it turned out, people were more respectful, but they also were more fearful, and some were afraid that Bad Spirits were involved."
(as told to Lois Boisvert on Kitiganing Island circa 1988)
-Keewaydinoquay: Stories from my youth, 2006
"The false fox wol have his part at nyght.
-Geoffrey Chaucer: The Legend of Good Women
In Thrall to the Fox-Fire Eidolon
False fox beckoning away
down footsteps that fall contextual
promising the want of wants
-the attraction might as well be sexual...
A coming fever longing rose
to unmasque the heart's desire
hanging on to shadow
folly's beacon hides
lovesick angels choir
Wish-making star's phosphor caress
with undiminished charms
plays Eris off of Eros
both of them she arms
Were this the prize all wanting,
prize that takes no claim?
What bite of apple tasted-
why waste it on a name...
Alchemists who sought the Forge
to New World's night laid siege
though their moment was at hand
the firefly's synchronicity
lay beyond their reach
They defaced the noble savage
crossed great waters wide
declared a crucifixion
called the continental divide
Along night's mossy banks they comb
& dredge the dross of dream
to pluck burning cold with holy fire
the eldritch splendor, vulpine pome
In imagination's orchard
the law of gravity is fed
outfoxing every doctor
vixen vexed in heart & head
Neath the ruins of those old psychiatrists' club
stir deliriums dark though yet undead:
amor hereos, ilisci
assidua cogitato, al-'ishq
from that sepulchre of American Dream
wakes Bodhicitta in Her garden bed
-John Meador
11/11/09
-Marsilio Ficino: De Amore, Translated by Sears Jayne , 1994
"When men are dead, their ghosts often go to reside in foxes, or use these animals as hacks, riding on them through the air and over land and water for enormous distances and with lightning speed."
-Thomas Watters: Chinese Fox Myths, 1874
"The erotic intention ... presents itself as that which would possess and touch what ought merely to be the object of contemplation, ...its root in the intimate contradiction of a gesture that would embrace the unobtainable"
-Giorgio Agamben: Stanzas, 1993
"When we desire, we desire the phantasm, and purely corporeal pleasure does not exist."
Bin gewohnt das Irregehen,
's führt ja jeder Weg zum Ziel:
Uns're Freuden, uns're [Wehen],
Alles eines Irrlichts Spiel!
[I am used to going astray;
Every path leads to one goal;
Our joys, our woes,
Are all a will-o'-the-wisp game!]
-Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) , "Das Irrlicht", from Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten 2, in Die Winterreise, no. 18-
Translation by Arthur Rishi
...Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
- William Shakespeare: Sonnet 147
"Do you think we were surprised to find that the American Dream was a nightclub that had burned down five years earlier? That we were surprised to find when we tracked it down that it had been the old Psychiatrist's Club? Prior to that its name had been the American Dream. Do you think that we were surprised to find that?"
-Hunter S. Thompson: August 26, 1997
"Nodjimahkwe (Keewaydinoquay's teacher) had a log that glowed with waaswamagagod
(luminescent fungi) set on either side of her doorway. She did this for two reasons. The first was so that people could find her place even on overcast nights. The second was so that perhaps those coming would have more respect for her work. As it turned out, people were more respectful, but they also were more fearful, and some were afraid that Bad Spirits were involved."
(as told to Lois Boisvert on Kitiganing Island circa 1988)
-Keewaydinoquay: Stories from my youth, 2006
"The false fox wol have his part at nyght.
-Geoffrey Chaucer: The Legend of Good Women
In Thrall to the Fox-Fire Eidolon
False fox beckoning away
down footsteps that fall contextual
promising the want of wants
-the attraction might as well be sexual...
A coming fever longing rose
to unmasque the heart's desire
hanging on to shadow
folly's beacon hides
lovesick angels choir
Wish-making star's phosphor caress
with undiminished charms
plays Eris off of Eros
both of them she arms
Were this the prize all wanting,
prize that takes no claim?
What bite of apple tasted-
why waste it on a name...
Alchemists who sought the Forge
to New World's night laid siege
though their moment was at hand
the firefly's synchronicity
lay beyond their reach
They defaced the noble savage
crossed great waters wide
declared a crucifixion
called the continental divide
Along night's mossy banks they comb
& dredge the dross of dream
to pluck burning cold with holy fire
the eldritch splendor, vulpine pome
In imagination's orchard
the law of gravity is fed
outfoxing every doctor
vixen vexed in heart & head
Neath the ruins of those old psychiatrists' club
stir deliriums dark though yet undead:
amor hereos, ilisci
assidua cogitato, al-'ishq
from that sepulchre of American Dream
wakes Bodhicitta in Her garden bed
-John Meador
11/11/09
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
that elusive...
"My genial spirits fail;
And what can these avail
To lift the smothering weight from off my breast?
It were a vain endeavour,
Though I should gaze forever
On that green light that lingers in the west:
I may not hope from outward forms to win
The passion and the life, whose fountains are within."
-Dejection: An Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
"...we stared out the bus window, and there it was, from three miles down the valley -- the green orgiastic fist, lighting up the mountain. Jay Gatsby's green light at the end of the pier had moved west to Hunter S. Thompson Territory. It glowed in the darkness like a long-ago lighthouse on loan from Haight-Ashbury, blinking a sentimental farewell, a bizarre hallucinogenic symbol soon to flicker out forever."
And what can these avail
To lift the smothering weight from off my breast?
It were a vain endeavour,
Though I should gaze forever
On that green light that lingers in the west:
I may not hope from outward forms to win
The passion and the life, whose fountains are within."
-Dejection: An Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
"...we stared out the bus window, and there it was, from three miles down the valley -- the green orgiastic fist, lighting up the mountain. Jay Gatsby's green light at the end of the pier had moved west to Hunter S. Thompson Territory. It glowed in the darkness like a long-ago lighthouse on loan from Haight-Ashbury, blinking a sentimental farewell, a bizarre hallucinogenic symbol soon to flicker out forever."
Friday, October 16, 2009
Leer & Frothing on Mt. Peekaboo
" Presumably, [Al] Hubbard was working under the direction of High Priestess [Tuesday] Weld in distributing LSD to the cultural elite in order to change society along Illuminati lines."
Tuesday Weld Is Watching You
" It is possible that some of the "high priestesses" of the Psychedelic Venus Church drifted into the the Mitchell Brothers' sex empire"
- Linda Grant: Sexing the Millenium, 1995
The Psychedelic Venus Church:
"a triple combination of drugs, sex and pagan spirituality... would give the Woodstock Nation a Mother Church".
-Marinacci, M. 1998. Sex, Drugs and Hindu Gods: The Story of the Psychedelic Venus Church.
"It has been known in prostitution rings for decades that prostitution plays a fairly large role in the parties inside the private club. For years it had been rumored that that the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre in the Tenderloin red-light district of San Francisco was a primary source of strippers and high-class call girls. Several prostitutes have come public with claims they worked in the Grove, and these allegations come with no surprise to those close to the case.
The four Mitchel Brothers dancers Mike Hanson interviewed for his book [Mike Hanson: Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy , 2004)] confirmed that prostitution was the accepted “unofficial” policy at Bohemian Grove, and that the girls were expected to “perform” sexually for the patrons. One such interview by Hanson uncovered more startling allegations about the club."
and from: Who Killed Hunter S. Thompson?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Horcrux
Horcrux
-to Venus Anadyomene
There's danger in handling Samsara's diary; gambling with fictions. And what, afterall are the odds here of waking? Ardor loaded in the thurible roulette, Desire's consuming centrifuge -death hidden in the chamber. Reduced in the crucible of hours, sentenced to this cannibal casino.
Saturated in the febrile pretension of sleep, locked in the ordeal with the Dakini. She is real. Real as dynamite & she will rock your world, Methusaleh. But the pillow is a damp stone and swamps drag behind, encroaching. Never under-estimate the prowess of the goblin.
The Rot set in. Maldoror & suffocating. Avails thee not try though strike a light against the blot. And She at the end of all things who ignited our dreams combust, just a waterlogged matchbook with "for a good time call" scrawled across the inside cover?
Behind the masque yawns the abyss. May sanity set your shoes along the endless roadside dancing. Seek there mind the spark & secret seed.
-9/26/09
-to Venus Anadyomene
There's danger in handling Samsara's diary; gambling with fictions. And what, afterall are the odds here of waking? Ardor loaded in the thurible roulette, Desire's consuming centrifuge -death hidden in the chamber. Reduced in the crucible of hours, sentenced to this cannibal casino.
Saturated in the febrile pretension of sleep, locked in the ordeal with the Dakini. She is real. Real as dynamite & she will rock your world, Methusaleh. But the pillow is a damp stone and swamps drag behind, encroaching. Never under-estimate the prowess of the goblin.
The Rot set in. Maldoror & suffocating. Avails thee not try though strike a light against the blot. And She at the end of all things who ignited our dreams combust, just a waterlogged matchbook with "for a good time call" scrawled across the inside cover?
Behind the masque yawns the abyss. May sanity set your shoes along the endless roadside dancing. Seek there mind the spark & secret seed.
-9/26/09
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
revery of an express check machine
Poinsetta Muffnutkin and her Shadow lurch forward, drooping laudanum goth droplets across the swath of confessional drivel strewn in the booth. She whispers something about absolution... honey, this ain't no closet of the weeping bard.
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude...why, you couple of baboons!...what makes you think I'd marry either one of you!...Strange how the wind blows tonight... It has a tintity voice, reminds me of poor old Moslin. How happy I could be with either of these two if both of them just went away! Here I am talkin' of parties. I came down here for a party. What happens? Nothing. Not even ice cream. The gods looked down and laughed. This would be a better world for children if the parents had to eat the spinach.Living with your folks. Living with your folks. The beginning of the end. Drab dead yesterdays shutting out beautiful tomorrows. Hideous, stumbling footsteps creaking along the misty corridors of time. And in those corridors I see figures, strange figures, weird figures, Steel 186, Anaconda 74, American Cane 138...
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude...why, you couple of baboons!...what makes you think I'd marry either one of you!...Strange how the wind blows tonight... It has a tintity voice, reminds me of poor old Moslin. How happy I could be with either of these two if both of them just went away! Here I am talkin' of parties. I came down here for a party. What happens? Nothing. Not even ice cream. The gods looked down and laughed. This would be a better world for children if the parents had to eat the spinach.Living with your folks. Living with your folks. The beginning of the end. Drab dead yesterdays shutting out beautiful tomorrows. Hideous, stumbling footsteps creaking along the misty corridors of time. And in those corridors I see figures, strange figures, weird figures, Steel 186, Anaconda 74, American Cane 138...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
goao
But Orpheus the gods sent empty away, and presented to him an apparition only of her whom he sought, but herself they would not give up, because he did not dare to die for love, but was contriving how he might enter Hades alive.
-Plato: Symposium 179d
[…] If only he might
turn once more (if looking back
were not the ruin of all his work)
-Rainer Maria Rilke: Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes, 1904
...he has been trying to sing
love into existence again
and he has failed...
-Margaret Atwood: Orpheus 2
Not Chaos, not
The darkest pit of lowest Erebus,
Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out
By help of dreams—can breed such fear and awe
As fall upon us often when we look
Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man—
My Haunt, and the main region of my song.
-William Wordsworth: "Prospectus" to The Excursion, 1814
Eurydice, Orpheus & One
-for M.A.S. & One
He probably didn't know her any better
than a dewdrop
trembling, pure
soul of goodnatured
and alchemically solvent
but she made herself his
To hear himself tell her he was
sorry, he wanted for that One
ideal legend caught in lyre & tangled lineage
his version that came not to pass
& whose spell once perfected
he could not pronounce
not that any of it was false / untenable
but his was the enchanted voice of Youth
embryonic, sprung of Vision incurable
a kiss that bade but curse to beasts;
Curse they bore back
upon his head in the clouds
& his "Baby, Let's Play House"
not so much due to the rankling
domesticity of his affections
as to the intolerable fable told the blind brutes
disclosing the Bright Tapestry of the Unseen,
vivid in his eyeshine
Taming the Wild Kingdom-
- that never happened
in his own head
he saw it that way
but the Savage gets even
He wanted to tell her he was
sorry with his belly full of remorse
belching in Hell just loud enough
to get their attention
gone all the way down
Orpheus in the Dark, forgotten promise
that had to keep
but nothing can be
kept in the godawful Dark
past knowing gone
all the way collapsing
numb to name
upon the desolate throne of Grief
hewn from the age-old skull of Atlas clutched
in both skeleton hands
agonized & gray
She might have come to him then
or so it is told by the tellers of Tale
and feeling her hand on his
there in the terrible
dark led them forth
orphaned voice gone ahead of them
mumbling incoherent imprecations
moaning misery's blessing
rent from the very bonemarrow of the blues.
Last Resort of the Lost,
Erebus' amenities include
complimentary asphodel, long black Lethean limo
where the shadow of nightingales hover,
even a pro-shop & club for avalanche extreme sport
but any climbing in this party
costs
and every gain here strips
you down to your Alighieri undies
til all that remains
is the Dantesque masque that mocks your guilt
& the obolus you got in with
I'm not sure Orpheus ever really emerged...
for the further on he got
his guilt glowed with a heat such that
he could begin to see things
-things he hadn't aught to see
"...you can look back babe,
but it's best not to stare."
Last I heard
he was torn all to pieces,
depictions survive;
some aged auditor perhaps
in prayer, holding his head & silent lyre
that One perfect legend still waiting to
Spring
-John Meador
7/11-7/17/09
-Plato: Symposium 179d
[…] If only he might
turn once more (if looking back
were not the ruin of all his work)
-Rainer Maria Rilke: Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes, 1904
...he has been trying to sing
love into existence again
and he has failed...
-Margaret Atwood: Orpheus 2
Not Chaos, not
The darkest pit of lowest Erebus,
Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out
By help of dreams—can breed such fear and awe
As fall upon us often when we look
Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man—
My Haunt, and the main region of my song.
-William Wordsworth: "Prospectus" to The Excursion, 1814
Eurydice, Orpheus & One
-for M.A.S. & One
He probably didn't know her any better
than a dewdrop
trembling, pure
soul of goodnatured
and alchemically solvent
but she made herself his
To hear himself tell her he was
sorry, he wanted for that One
ideal legend caught in lyre & tangled lineage
his version that came not to pass
& whose spell once perfected
he could not pronounce
not that any of it was false / untenable
but his was the enchanted voice of Youth
embryonic, sprung of Vision incurable
a kiss that bade but curse to beasts;
Curse they bore back
upon his head in the clouds
& his "Baby, Let's Play House"
not so much due to the rankling
domesticity of his affections
as to the intolerable fable told the blind brutes
disclosing the Bright Tapestry of the Unseen,
vivid in his eyeshine
Taming the Wild Kingdom-
- that never happened
in his own head
he saw it that way
but the Savage gets even
He wanted to tell her he was
sorry with his belly full of remorse
belching in Hell just loud enough
to get their attention
gone all the way down
Orpheus in the Dark, forgotten promise
that had to keep
but nothing can be
kept in the godawful Dark
past knowing gone
all the way collapsing
numb to name
upon the desolate throne of Grief
hewn from the age-old skull of Atlas clutched
in both skeleton hands
agonized & gray
She might have come to him then
or so it is told by the tellers of Tale
and feeling her hand on his
there in the terrible
dark led them forth
orphaned voice gone ahead of them
mumbling incoherent imprecations
moaning misery's blessing
rent from the very bonemarrow of the blues.
Last Resort of the Lost,
Erebus' amenities include
complimentary asphodel, long black Lethean limo
where the shadow of nightingales hover,
even a pro-shop & club for avalanche extreme sport
but any climbing in this party
costs
and every gain here strips
you down to your Alighieri undies
til all that remains
is the Dantesque masque that mocks your guilt
& the obolus you got in with
I'm not sure Orpheus ever really emerged...
for the further on he got
his guilt glowed with a heat such that
he could begin to see things
-things he hadn't aught to see
"...you can look back babe,
but it's best not to stare."
Last I heard
he was torn all to pieces,
depictions survive;
some aged auditor perhaps
in prayer, holding his head & silent lyre
that One perfect legend still waiting to
Spring
-John Meador
7/11-7/17/09
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sooey. Sooey!
Ragnarokettes do a mean goose stepping can-can while they pillage Valhalla. Through the smoking carnage you can see dimly their prim petticoats by the low spark of them high heeled boys wending their way through the charnel grounds still seeking fresh kill; certain of your relatives desperately seeking asylum...
"The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money"
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Café Americain
"Life had given Americans so much by the mid-sixties that we were all a little drunk on possibility. Things were speeding out of control before we could define them. Those who cared most deeply about the changes, those who gave their lives to them, were, I think, the most deceived. "
-Robert Stone
"Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final."
—Hunter Thompson: The Great Shark Hunt, 1979
"When the last red man has become a myth among the white men, when your childrens children think themselves alone in the field, upon the highway or in the silence paths of the woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets ofyour cities are silent, and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land."
-Chief Seattle, 1786-1866
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Fatherhood
Wasn't that, like- Robinhood's Old Man???
I meant to start this post off lightly, with this bit about our President's regard for Fatherhood:
President Obama at an event on Friday intended to start a national conversation on fatherhood.
In his memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” Mr. Obama describes his father, who died when Mr. Obama was 21, as “a myth to me, both more and less than a man.”
Obama told teenagers and community leaders in the East Room of the White House, beginning what he called a “national conversation on responsible fatherhood
student Larry Holmes from St. Albans School, asked Mr. Obama: “Traveling from state to state, country to country, being the president, which one is funner? Being a father or being a president?”
“There’s nothing more fun than being a father,” Mr. Obama said, then quipped, “Now, my kids aren’t teenagers yet, so I don’t know whether that will maintain itself.”
but the day grew dark, and my momentum slipped; my gray beard grew wet with the same old tears that dripped
A young sixteen year old woman died in the streets of Iran yesterday, shot in Tehran 19:05 June 20th on Karekar Avenue, at the corner crossing Khosravi Street and Salehi Street amidst protestors against the regime; her Father reportedly holding a simple sign saying " Freedom"
Her name was ندا (#Neda), which means voice or call in Farsi-now, voice of the people, a call to freedom.
I'm here to tell you my sister died while in her father's hands I'm here to tell you my sister had big dreams... I'm here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person... and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind... and like me read "Forough" [Forough Farrokhzad]... and longed to live free and equal... and she longed to hold her head up and announce, "I'm Iranian"... and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair... and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib... my sister died from not having life... my sister died as injustice has no end... my sister died since she loved life too much... and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people... my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come... the very end of your last glance burns my soul.... sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.
"A reader who couldn't quite make out what her father was saying in the video understood after learning that her name is Neda. He sent in the transcript: "Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. (There is yelling and screaming.) Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"
Children of the New World - daevid allen
Tell me what's it all about
What is this funny old world that
We can't do without
Tell me why we argue like we do.
We rob & rape & kill & still don't understand
We only rob ourselves
& then we wonder why we suffer like we do
soon we'll remember
& understand
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD
& THE DIFFERENT GAMES THEY PLAY
cos we made love all the night time
turned out to be the right time
now there's children everywhere
Tell me where you're really from
What is this funny old world the human race has won
Tell me why to die fills us with fear
Its not the first its not the last time we'll be born
Our turn will come again
Pick up put down those clothes of human flesh we wear
Slowly we're learning
To understand
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD
ARE THE CHILDREN OF TODAY
Soon they'll begin
Revolutionizing
& reorganising
As the old world fades away
Lets start today
I meant to start this post off lightly, with this bit about our President's regard for Fatherhood:
President Obama at an event on Friday intended to start a national conversation on fatherhood.
In his memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” Mr. Obama describes his father, who died when Mr. Obama was 21, as “a myth to me, both more and less than a man.”
Obama told teenagers and community leaders in the East Room of the White House, beginning what he called a “national conversation on responsible fatherhood
student Larry Holmes from St. Albans School, asked Mr. Obama: “Traveling from state to state, country to country, being the president, which one is funner? Being a father or being a president?”
“There’s nothing more fun than being a father,” Mr. Obama said, then quipped, “Now, my kids aren’t teenagers yet, so I don’t know whether that will maintain itself.”
but the day grew dark, and my momentum slipped; my gray beard grew wet with the same old tears that dripped
A young sixteen year old woman died in the streets of Iran yesterday, shot in Tehran 19:05 June 20th on Karekar Avenue, at the corner crossing Khosravi Street and Salehi Street amidst protestors against the regime; her Father reportedly holding a simple sign saying " Freedom"
Her name was ندا (#Neda), which means voice or call in Farsi-now, voice of the people, a call to freedom.
I'm here to tell you my sister died while in her father's hands I'm here to tell you my sister had big dreams... I'm here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person... and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind... and like me read "Forough" [Forough Farrokhzad]... and longed to live free and equal... and she longed to hold her head up and announce, "I'm Iranian"... and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair... and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib... my sister died from not having life... my sister died as injustice has no end... my sister died since she loved life too much... and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people... my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come... the very end of your last glance burns my soul.... sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.
"A reader who couldn't quite make out what her father was saying in the video understood after learning that her name is Neda. He sent in the transcript: "Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. (There is yelling and screaming.) Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"
Children of the New World - daevid allen
Tell me what's it all about
What is this funny old world that
We can't do without
Tell me why we argue like we do.
We rob & rape & kill & still don't understand
We only rob ourselves
& then we wonder why we suffer like we do
soon we'll remember
& understand
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD
& THE DIFFERENT GAMES THEY PLAY
cos we made love all the night time
turned out to be the right time
now there's children everywhere
Tell me where you're really from
What is this funny old world the human race has won
Tell me why to die fills us with fear
Its not the first its not the last time we'll be born
Our turn will come again
Pick up put down those clothes of human flesh we wear
Slowly we're learning
To understand
THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD
ARE THE CHILDREN OF TODAY
Soon they'll begin
Revolutionizing
& reorganising
As the old world fades away
Lets start today
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Iran, midsummer's eve
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tales of the Perilous Lands
Captain Bing
Captain Bing was a Pirate King,
And sailed the broad seas o`er;
On many a lark he sailed his bark
Where none had sailed before,
And filled his hold so full of gold
That it would hold no more.
The sea was smooth, and so, forsooth,
They took a bit of leisure,
And all the crew good men and true
A hornpipe dance for pleasure
And had their fling, while Captain Bing
Kept watch above the treasure.
The wind it blew, and all the crew
Were sorry that it blew so;
If they were wrecked they might expect
To share the fate of Crusoe,
And ride the spars like jolly tars--
All shipwrecked men must do so.
The gale it roared, and all on board
Began to say their prayers,
And Captain Bing commenced to sing,
To drown his many cares
But when he found that he had drowned,
It took him unawares.
- Lyman Frank Baum: Father Goose, His Book, 1900
THE KING OF OO-RINKTUM-JING
DAINTY Baby Austin!
Your Daddy's gone to Boston
To see the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
And the whale he rode acrost on!
Boston Town's a city:
But it's such a pity!
They'll greet the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
With never a nursery ditty!
But me and you and Mother
Can stay with Baby-brother,
And sing of the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
And laugh at one another!
So what cares Baby Austin
If Daddy has gone to Boston
To see the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
And the whale he rode acrost on?
-James Whitcomb Riley, 1894
The Holly Tree
Highty, tighty, paradighty clothed in green,
The king could not read it, no more could the queen;
They sent for a wise man out of the East,
Who said it had horns, but was not a beast!
Captain Bing was a Pirate King,
And sailed the broad seas o`er;
On many a lark he sailed his bark
Where none had sailed before,
And filled his hold so full of gold
That it would hold no more.
The sea was smooth, and so, forsooth,
They took a bit of leisure,
And all the crew good men and true
A hornpipe dance for pleasure
And had their fling, while Captain Bing
Kept watch above the treasure.
The wind it blew, and all the crew
Were sorry that it blew so;
If they were wrecked they might expect
To share the fate of Crusoe,
And ride the spars like jolly tars--
All shipwrecked men must do so.
The gale it roared, and all on board
Began to say their prayers,
And Captain Bing commenced to sing,
To drown his many cares
But when he found that he had drowned,
It took him unawares.
- Lyman Frank Baum: Father Goose, His Book, 1900
THE KING OF OO-RINKTUM-JING
DAINTY Baby Austin!
Your Daddy's gone to Boston
To see the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
And the whale he rode acrost on!
Boston Town's a city:
But it's such a pity!
They'll greet the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
With never a nursery ditty!
But me and you and Mother
Can stay with Baby-brother,
And sing of the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
And laugh at one another!
So what cares Baby Austin
If Daddy has gone to Boston
To see the King
Of Oo-Rinktum-Jing
And the whale he rode acrost on?
-James Whitcomb Riley, 1894
The Holly Tree
Highty, tighty, paradighty clothed in green,
The king could not read it, no more could the queen;
They sent for a wise man out of the East,
Who said it had horns, but was not a beast!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
where the roses glow
Yes Truth may be, but 'tis not Here; mankind must seek and find it There,
But Where nor I nor you can tell, nor aught earth-mother ever bare.
Enough to think that Truth can be: come sit we where the roses glow,
Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to 'unknow.'
- Sir Richard Francis Burton:
The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)
But Where nor I nor you can tell, nor aught earth-mother ever bare.
Enough to think that Truth can be: come sit we where the roses glow,
Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to 'unknow.'
- Sir Richard Francis Burton:
The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)
Thing # 19
Drupal & Content management systems. This is what that is. At the public library that currently has me in its diabolical clutches, that is.
"A Content Management System makes this possible by providing a number of capabilities that the traditionally managed web sites cannot deliver. Some of these enhancements, such as rapid authoring and streamlined approval, have already been mentioned. Others include:-
Like, I'm just doing my job, man....
"A Content Management System makes this possible by providing a number of capabilities that the traditionally managed web sites cannot deliver. Some of these enhancements, such as rapid authoring and streamlined approval, have already been mentioned. Others include:-
- categorisation to improve searching and to allow information to be targeted at users according to their interests
- enabling organisations to personalise the user experience
- internationalisation to ensure the appropriate presentation of information on sites spanning economical, political and cultural borders
- integration with other enterprise systems
- syndication of content to sites with similar market interests
- simplified application integration through the use of shared code, delivered via templates, that also enables up-front integration costs to be spread across many web site application implementations."
Like, I'm just doing my job, man....
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Light your window
"From my early reading of Faery Tales, & Genii &c &c — my mind had been habituated to the Vast ..."
- S.T. Coleridge: Letter to Thomas Poole (October 16, 1797)
- S.T. Coleridge: Letter to Thomas Poole (October 16, 1797)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Of Eastern Intrigue
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890): The Secret Agent Who Made the Pilgrimage to Mecca 1853
"In time, by dint of plain living, high thinking, and stifling generally the impulses of his nature, Burton became a Master Sufi, and all his life he sympathised with, and to some extent practised Sufism."
He introduced the words pajamas and safari to the English language.
While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys in the hopes of learning their language.
"...he appeared in the bazaars of the Sind cities as Mirza Abdullah of Bushire, a rich merchant, a vendor of fine linen, calicoes and muslins..."
"... the "Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe, and
the Barber's son"...The tale is magical and Rosicrucian"
"I was careful to inquire about the occult sciences, remembering that Paracelsus had travelled in Arabia, and that the Count Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo), who claimed the Meccan Sharif as his father, asserted that about A.D. 1765 he had studied alchemy at Al-Madinah. "
According to Sir Richard Burton, "Sufi-ism [was] the Eastern parent of Freemasonry." (See, F. Hitchman, Burton, Volume 1, p. 286)
"The pilgrim is urged by the voice of his soul "
O thou, toiling so fiercely for worldly pleasure and for
transitory profit, wilt thou endure nothing to win
a more lasting boon ? "
Hence it is that pilgrimage is common to all ancient
faiths. The Sabaeans, or old Arabians, visited the
Pyramids as the sepulchres of Seth and his son
Sabi, the founder of their sect. The classical philo-
sophers wandered through the Valley of the Nile. The
Jews annually went up to Jerusalem. The Tartar
Buddhists still journey to distant Lamaserais, and
the Hindus to Egypt, to Tibet, to Gay a, on the
Ganges, and to the inhospitable Caucasus. The
spirit of pilgrimage animated mediaeval Europe,
and a learned Jesuit traveller considers the proces-
sions of the Roman Catholic Church modern vestiges
of the olden rite. "
WANDERINGS IN THREE CONTINENTS
-BY THE LATE CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, K.C.M.G,
"The Arab-Islamic legacy informed not only the prisca sapientia, but the prisca sapientia's Hermetic, Rosicrucian and alchemical offshoots...Rosicrucians recognized Arabia as the source of their inspiration"
In his Thousand Nights and a Night - notes re: Djinn
Sir Richard F. Burton has a fair amount to say about them in the footnotes including:
" Jinni - The Arab singular (whence the French "genie"); fem. Jinniyah; the Div and Rakshah of old Guebre-land and the "Rakshasa,' or "Yaksha," of Hinduism. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection, by no means "accidental," of "Jinn" with the "Genius" who came to the Romans through the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive from "Gignomai" or "genitus." He was unknown to the Greeks, who had the Daimon, a family which separated, like the Jinn and the Genius, into two categories, the good (Agatho-daemons) and the bad (Kako-daemons). We know nothing concerning the Jinn amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs: the Moslems made him a supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtle fire (Koran chapts, xv. 27; lv. 14), not of earth like man, propagating his kind, ruled by mighty kings, the last being Jan bin Jan, missionarised by Prophets and subject to death and Judgement. From the same root are "Junun" = madness (i.e., possession or obsession by the Jinn) and "Majnun" = a madman. According to R. Jeremiah bin Eliazar in Psalm xli. 5, Adam was excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years during which he begat children in his own image (Gen. v. 3) and these were Mazikeen or Shedeem - Jinns.
Elsewhere in his translation, Burton notes that Jann is usually taken as the plural form of Jinni.
Classes of Jinni include the Ifrit ("pronounced Aye-frit", fem. Ifritah) and the Marid (fem. Maridah) who are usually, but not always, hostile to mankind."
The cemetery of St Mary Magdalene's Church in Mortlake contains the tomb of Sir Richard Burton. buried in a remarkable tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent at Mortlake in southwest London
The Funeral at Mortlake, 15th June 1891.motto had been “Honour not Honours.”
The sum of £700 having been raised by Burton’s admirers, a mausoleum, made of dark Forest of Dean stone and white Carrara marble, and shaped like an Arab tent, was erected in the Catholic Cemetery at Mortlake. Over the door is an open book inscribed with the names of Sir Richard and Lady Burton, and below the book runs a ribbon with the words “This monument is erected to his memory by his loving countrymen.”
"In time, by dint of plain living, high thinking, and stifling generally the impulses of his nature, Burton became a Master Sufi, and all his life he sympathised with, and to some extent practised Sufism."
He introduced the words pajamas and safari to the English language.
While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys in the hopes of learning their language.
"...he appeared in the bazaars of the Sind cities as Mirza Abdullah of Bushire, a rich merchant, a vendor of fine linen, calicoes and muslins..."
"... the "Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe, and
the Barber's son"...The tale is magical and Rosicrucian"
"I was careful to inquire about the occult sciences, remembering that Paracelsus had travelled in Arabia, and that the Count Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo), who claimed the Meccan Sharif as his father, asserted that about A.D. 1765 he had studied alchemy at Al-Madinah. "
According to Sir Richard Burton, "Sufi-ism [was] the Eastern parent of Freemasonry." (See, F. Hitchman, Burton, Volume 1, p. 286)
"The pilgrim is urged by the voice of his soul "
O thou, toiling so fiercely for worldly pleasure and for
transitory profit, wilt thou endure nothing to win
a more lasting boon ? "
Hence it is that pilgrimage is common to all ancient
faiths. The Sabaeans, or old Arabians, visited the
Pyramids as the sepulchres of Seth and his son
Sabi, the founder of their sect. The classical philo-
sophers wandered through the Valley of the Nile. The
Jews annually went up to Jerusalem. The Tartar
Buddhists still journey to distant Lamaserais, and
the Hindus to Egypt, to Tibet, to Gay a, on the
Ganges, and to the inhospitable Caucasus. The
spirit of pilgrimage animated mediaeval Europe,
and a learned Jesuit traveller considers the proces-
sions of the Roman Catholic Church modern vestiges
of the olden rite. "
WANDERINGS IN THREE CONTINENTS
-BY THE LATE CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, K.C.M.G,
"The Arab-Islamic legacy informed not only the prisca sapientia, but the prisca sapientia's Hermetic, Rosicrucian and alchemical offshoots...Rosicrucians recognized Arabia as the source of their inspiration"
In his Thousand Nights and a Night - notes re: Djinn
Sir Richard F. Burton has a fair amount to say about them in the footnotes including:
" Jinni - The Arab singular (whence the French "genie"); fem. Jinniyah; the Div and Rakshah of old Guebre-land and the "Rakshasa,' or "Yaksha," of Hinduism. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection, by no means "accidental," of "Jinn" with the "Genius" who came to the Romans through the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive from "Gignomai" or "genitus." He was unknown to the Greeks, who had the Daimon, a family which separated, like the Jinn and the Genius, into two categories, the good (Agatho-daemons) and the bad (Kako-daemons). We know nothing concerning the Jinn amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs: the Moslems made him a supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtle fire (Koran chapts, xv. 27; lv. 14), not of earth like man, propagating his kind, ruled by mighty kings, the last being Jan bin Jan, missionarised by Prophets and subject to death and Judgement. From the same root are "Junun" = madness (i.e., possession or obsession by the Jinn) and "Majnun" = a madman. According to R. Jeremiah bin Eliazar in Psalm xli. 5, Adam was excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years during which he begat children in his own image (Gen. v. 3) and these were Mazikeen or Shedeem - Jinns.
Elsewhere in his translation, Burton notes that Jann is usually taken as the plural form of Jinni.
Classes of Jinni include the Ifrit ("pronounced Aye-frit", fem. Ifritah) and the Marid (fem. Maridah) who are usually, but not always, hostile to mankind."
The cemetery of St Mary Magdalene's Church in Mortlake contains the tomb of Sir Richard Burton. buried in a remarkable tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent at Mortlake in southwest London
The Funeral at Mortlake, 15th June 1891.motto had been “Honour not Honours.”
The sum of £700 having been raised by Burton’s admirers, a mausoleum, made of dark Forest of Dean stone and white Carrara marble, and shaped like an Arab tent, was erected in the Catholic Cemetery at Mortlake. Over the door is an open book inscribed with the names of Sir Richard and Lady Burton, and below the book runs a ribbon with the words “This monument is erected to his memory by his loving countrymen.”
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sister Ray
"The Monas is discussed as a "stella hieroglyphica," as Yates points out, in the promise of more secret philosophy... Lunar Mercury, with a cross transformed on its ends into Jupiter and Saturn and topped with an arrow for Sagittarius, as in the great conjunction in Sagittarius of December/ January 1603/4, the year of the reopening of Christian Rosenkreutz's grave. "
"Dee... shows by geometry how a cross flows from a single point creating four arms, thus at the crossing point of two lines. Dee joins the cross (and Mercury) to the sign for Aries, the Ram, in itself formed by a conjunction of the shifted signs for Jupiter and Saturn. Taken in this way the Monas speaks of the new entry of the conjunctions into the fiery trigon, marked by the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the celestial sign of Aries in 1583. The "fiery trigon" is the pattern of passage of the planets in the zodiacal signs of Aries in 1583, to that of Sagittarius in December-January of 1603/4, and, significantly, to that of Leo in 1623."
"Dee's Monas was intended to be an index and, in this function, it was probably unique among Renaissance emblems, since it not only symbolised the process of transmutation, but displayed that process in its very form. In other words, Dee believed that the form of his Monas was identical to its physical referent, for, as the alchemist worked through the geometrical proofs of his Monas, he simultaneously engaged in "real" alchemy in a very special way.
Through the Monas, in fact, the alchemist operated the occult powers of the heavens themselves, forcing the stars to enact transmutation without involving himself in practical toil.
Dee explained the difference between the indexical function of the Monas and his earlier practical methods, stating these had been crude in comparison of his new system in which the Monas replaced the mirrors of conventional catoptrics. The Monas, effectively,could be used to make a perfect mirror, without the previous mental and mechanical tedium. In this concept, Dee may have been influenced by Ficino's account of the manner in which the Magus could turn his own spirit into a theurgical "mirror" through the esoteric application of optical geometry and Pythagorean ratios."
"... part of the Monad suggests that “the subject which is to be transmuted in the process symbolized by the monad is the artist, or magus, himself, and that it is his soul which, in a mystical sense, has to be separated from its body: When the terrestrial centre of the monad (which centre may here well mean the human body) has been united in a perpetual marriage to a certain supernal influence of solar and lunar quality, the monad can no longer ‘be fed or watered on its native soil’, and he who fed it will himself undergo a metamorphosis as a result of which he will henceforth only rarely be beheld by mortal eye.” Yet Josten also notes that “in Dee's view, the chances of alchemical success in the external world are diminishing as that world, by progressing in time, descends into spiritually darker ages, and that any palpable success in the transmutation of metals may, if at all, be hoped for only after the successful completion of a most unusual and dangerous work.”[59]
This writer suggests that the “unusual and dangerous work” Dee and his circle start attempting in 1580, and continue from 1583-1588 on the continent, is the transmutation of an Age, to perform what Kabbalists might call a cosmic restoration of the Sephiroth via Tikkun haolom (the repair and restoration of the world). Bridges argues that the three-fold transmutation of some alchemical works is 1) the inner transformation of the body’s energies, 2) the external transmutation of using those energies to effect physical states, and 3) the transmutation of time itself, “from the darkness of the Iron Age to the Splendour of the Golden Age.”"
Saturday, May 16, 2009
In the Deep Abode of Darkness
"This idea of 'a point in the sun' at the very center of the earth is at first sight both paradoxical and bizarre ...the strange idea of the sun growing out of the middle of the earth was fundamental to alchemical doctrine."
"Kelly did have the red powder. It is attested to by Dee
in both his personal diaries and in the Spirit Diaries."
In the home of the emperor's private physician Thaddaeus von Hajek (Hagecius) a special display was organised for a collection of highly placed individuals. With a single drop of blood-red liquid Kelly changed a previously heated pound of mercury into pure gold. On top of that a small dark red particle, like a ruby, remained, indicating that this small amount of tincture had still been too much. This success has been reported by various authors (6).
A detail in the above story could lead the reader to doubt its veracity, since it talks about a red liquid, whereas up to now Kelly was supposed to have owned a red powder. One could presume that the powder was of a liquifying nature and applied in its liquid state. A better explanation for this apparent inconsistency is that the powder was probably added to a liquid or gel.
Emperor Rudolf then invited the Brit and the experiment was repeated successfully in his presence. Being excited about the prospect of finally having the long sought secret, Rudolf named Kelly Knight of Bohemia, invited him to stay at his court and showed him many favours. Kelly did not contradict Rudolf's understanding that he was indeed an adept and knew the secret of making the tincture and Rudolf expected to learn this secret from him eventually. Kelly had placed himself in this predicament, since the old manuscript did not contain this secret and worse: Kelly had wasted his complete supply of powder by now. For a while he could escape the emperor's wrath with vague promises, but when, in 1591, it appeared that he was trying to flee, he was imprisoned in castle Zobeslau. "
"His deeds are described by De Delle in a short verse which is not included here. From these lines, which have been copied from the Manuscript, and are also found in Edelgeborne Jungfrau Alchimia, p. 68, it is clear that Emperor Rudolf was convinced of the power of Kelly's tincture, and believed that the owner knew the secret of its production. In addition, it appears that it was believed that some quantity of the powder still existed somewhere, and that this was searched for in vain (8). "
MERCURIC PYRO-ANTIMONATE
"According to the most consistent accounts it is a viscous amalgam of mercuric pyro-antimonate containing a small (~4%) amount of an actinide. This is used as a neutron provider and mirror whilst acting to compress the deuterium-tritium content of a 'pure fusion bomb' above its critical mass under the influence of trigger charges, producing a blast with a destruction radius of about 600 metres for a 500 cc bomb, flooding the area with fast neutrons, the fallout lasting for only about 2 days. Essentially, it would represent a strategic advance over the neutron bomb. Although the principal compound is almost completely undocumented, the metallic elements involved loom large in the history of alchemy and the descriptions of it bear an uncanny resemblance to those of the Philosopher's Stone (PS), right down to its being a form of 'fixed', i.e. thermally stable, mercury which can then be 'projected upon', i.e. amalgamated with, liquid mercury. The product in both cases is supposed to be remarkable for its high density, 20.20 g/cc in the case of RM 20:20. "
"My hypothesis concerning the utilisation of this substance as an agent for cold fission relies on two mechanisms. One is muon induced atomic fission (initiated by cosmic radiation) and the other is a neutron cascade due to the neutron mirror effect of mercuric ions trapped between antimony and lead atoms at temperatures in excess of mercury's normal boiling point. The analogy between the densification of tinted lead in the (so-called) alchemical gold and that of mercury, amalgamated in a 5 MW reactor with the pyro-antimonate, also represents an important condition for and strong constraint upon this hypothesis. It is the point at which RM and PS become crucially codependant on each other's existence. If the one never existed then, in all likelihood, the other never can.
Fortunately, at least one sulphide exists in the form of a mineral that combines mercury and antimony whilst the proximity of deposits of those metals in certain areas of China, the great antiquity of Chinese alchemy and the tendency of sulphides to form oxides as alteration products provide an, admittedly circumstantial, origin for the legend of the PS. According to my hypothesis it never required to be invented (always a dubious proposition given the universally acknowledged difficulties surrounding its production) but was originally found with, and mistaken for, cinnabar."
Hg2Sb2O7
Kelley's discourse on Terrestrial Astronomy, in which the planets are replaced by metals, and instead of an account of stellar influences we have the laws governing metallic conversion.
"Dee finally resolved the issue of the applicability of observable phenomena to occult phenomena through Bacon's contention that radiation was the root of all natural causation, and could explain both the manifest and the occult properties of light. Bacon's theories of radiation thus could account physically for the occult for the occult influence of celestial bodies in the terrestrial world."
" Dee was not solely interested in what we might call the physics of light; he was preoccupied as well with the metaphysics of light."
"The powers of the rays are determined by the bodies from which they flow, as well as upon the ones which they act, and the rays are known only through the effects they produce."
"Concerning Dee and the use of mirrors or light. John Dee had
a great interest in catoptrics, as is demonstrated in Roberts and
Watson's catalogue of his library which contains many Arabic
and scholastic resources. Catoptrics was a branch of the science
of optics initiated by the ancient Greeks and defined by
Archimedes as the study of the refraction and reflection of light-rays
by mirrors or prisms. In the medieval period, Roger Bacon, in
particular, dispersed and popularised catoptrical science through
his treatise "De speculis comburentibus". These optical theories
were important for the development of Dee's astronomy, but there
was one particular idea which may also have affected Dee's alchemy.
Bacon had stated in "De multiplicatione specierum" (I, i) that every
point on a luminous or coloured body sent forth the image of its
visible qualities as "species" in a succession of "multiplications"
which were transmitted through a medium such as light, or air,
to the eye of the viewer.
Dee's optical and astronomical treatise "Propaedeumata Aphoristica"
explains that by means of optical instruments it was possible to
collect the occult virtues of the stellar radiations, particularly
recommending the use of catoptrics in the making of theurgical sigils.
According to Dee, mirrors could imitate planetary influences,
increasing and decreasing the intensity of their radiations catoptrically
and imprinting their influences on matter."
"If you were skilled in 'catoptrics', you would be able, by art, to imprint the rays of any star much more strongly upon any matter subjected to it than nature itself does".
-John Dee: Propaedeumata Aphoristica , aphorism LII
"rays of celestial influence could have different effects in different receivers"
"The Consideratio quotes from the first thirteen theorems of the Monas Hieroglyphica, where Dee describes the composition of his hieroglyph, although Dee himself is never cited, and the word monas is replaced by “stella,” perhaps, as Susanna Akerman suggests, alluding to the woman holding the star at the end of the first edition of the Monas Hieroglyphica, and certainly, as Clulee indicates, developing the connection between astral optics and alchemy with quotes from Dee’s Propaedeumata Aphoristica."
John Dee: terrestrial astronomy = alchemy
Friday, May 15, 2009
Of Red Mercury & Spirituall Creatures
"It is the Red Tincture which enters into the most intimate union with metals, because it is of their own nature, mingles with them indissolubly in all their smallest parts, and, being homogeneous, naturally adheres to them. "
"... it is mentioned that a mysterious book and two ivory spheres of powder had been found (or perhaps just sold on?) together - so this book is surely the "Boke of Dunstan" that was being referred to."
"Dee was anxious to reclaim, before going to his new home, an Arabic book lent to some friend in Oxford. He had written to Mr. Harding and Mr. Abbott several times for its return about a year and a half before. Now, on October 20, he sent his man Richard Walkden to Oxford to find and bring it. The man returned from a fruitless errand, but on November 19 "my Arabic book was restored by God's favour.""
Edward Kelley, along with John Blokley found the Book of Dunstan, along with a scroll (treasure map), and a "red congeled thing in the hollow stone" also referred to as "the red powder" on March 12, 1583, long after he had entered Dee's service. This is mentioned in the first "action" (scrying session) recorded in Liber Mysteriorum Quintus, the first such action after a long
hiatus (the previous action is dated Nov 21, 1582.)
"Anno 1583 Martij 23. Saterday a meridie.
D: EK being come, with Mr John Husey of Blokley. (on the 22 day of marche) and EK being desirous to understand somwhat of our spirituall frendes as concerning such matter as had falln out very strange to him and Mr Husey: abowt a certayne moniment of a boke and a skroll fownd in Northwik hill [In
marg: The boke fownd in Northwik hill.] by the direction and leading of such a spirituall Creature, as when they had gotten the same, and they endeuored by art to haue some exposition of the skroll, written in strange characters, they wer willed to repayre to me, and there they shold be answered: &c. which thing now they did."
This is referred to as the "Book of Saint Dunstan" in a footnote to the following day's action:
"Vide sup. Lib. 4: Ao. 1587. Circa Maiu: Quidam Ben, (spiritualis Creatura) dixit ipi EK, se custodinisse illum pulverem et librum Dunstani, &c. -D."
("See above in book 4. Around May 1587 one Ben (a spiritual creature) said to EK that he himself had guarded that powder and Book of Dunstan.") See TFR Actio Tertia, May 23, page 27 (pages separately numbered).
And this appears in an action dated Mar 28:
"EK: Now is the Skroll with the Characters browght in, which was fownd by spirituall direction this month, the 12 day, abowt 10 ? after none by Mr Kelly and Master Husy [In marg: The finding of the skroll, of the Treasors.].
He semeth now as like our good frende, as may be. Our frende cam with a sponge and annoynted the wicked spirit his lipps.
A voyce: -- Els could I not speak.
D: Seing now thow canst speak, answer me.
The wicked, sayd: -- Ask quickly.
D: What is thy Name? -
- The wicked answered, Gargat.
D: What is the sentence of that skroll? -
- Gar: I know not.
D: In the name of Jesus, I charge thee to tell me the truth as concerning
That roll here shewed. -
- Gar: I haue cownterfeted this roll, and browght
it: for it is not the true roll.
D: After many words betwene him and me, and the more, bycause he denyed
that he knew of any Glorie belonging to God, I urged him so, at length with
short and euident argument, that he answered, he must confess the powre and
glorie of god: and sayd, that he was damned for euer: and did wish
damnation to me. And I requested God to use his Justice on him, for the
glory of his name. Then he entreated me somwhile, and somwhile derided me,
saying, Art thow so lusty? &c.
D: All the Cumpany fell on him, and hewed him in peces: and digged a hole
in the earth, with theyr swords, and he fell in, and after that was a myghty
roaring hard.
A voyce: -- Sic soleo iniustis ["So I am accustomed to unrighteous
people"]."
Between these two actions the "angels" through Kelley reveal the so-called angelic characters, the alphabet that the Angelic Book (aka Liber Loagaeth) appeared in. This is the same book the bulk of which appears in Sl. 3189.
Kelley seems to have kept it secret from Dee as seen from the following passage (April 18):
"He advised EK to comunicate to me the boke, and the powder, and so all the rest of the roll , which was there fownd: saying, True frends use not to hide any thing eche from other.
D: An old proverb it is. Amicorum omnia comunia.
unde, Deo soli omnis exhibeatur laus honor et gloria ["Everything is shared between friends; therefore, to God alone are offered all praise, honor, and glory"]."
"... it is mentioned that a mysterious book and two ivory spheres of powder had been found (or perhaps just sold on?) together - so this book is surely the "Boke of Dunstan" that was being referred to."
"Dee was anxious to reclaim, before going to his new home, an Arabic book lent to some friend in Oxford. He had written to Mr. Harding and Mr. Abbott several times for its return about a year and a half before. Now, on October 20, he sent his man Richard Walkden to Oxford to find and bring it. The man returned from a fruitless errand, but on November 19 "my Arabic book was restored by God's favour.""
Edward Kelley, along with John Blokley found the Book of Dunstan, along with a scroll (treasure map), and a "red congeled thing in the hollow stone" also referred to as "the red powder" on March 12, 1583, long after he had entered Dee's service. This is mentioned in the first "action" (scrying session) recorded in Liber Mysteriorum Quintus, the first such action after a long
hiatus (the previous action is dated Nov 21, 1582.)
"Anno 1583 Martij 23. Saterday a meridie.
D: EK being come, with Mr John Husey of Blokley. (on the 22 day of marche) and EK being desirous to understand somwhat of our spirituall frendes as concerning such matter as had falln out very strange to him and Mr Husey: abowt a certayne moniment of a boke and a skroll fownd in Northwik hill [In
marg: The boke fownd in Northwik hill.] by the direction and leading of such a spirituall Creature, as when they had gotten the same, and they endeuored by art to haue some exposition of the skroll, written in strange characters, they wer willed to repayre to me, and there they shold be answered: &c. which thing now they did."
This is referred to as the "Book of Saint Dunstan" in a footnote to the following day's action:
"Vide sup. Lib. 4: Ao. 1587. Circa Maiu: Quidam Ben, (spiritualis Creatura) dixit ipi EK, se custodinisse illum pulverem et librum Dunstani, &c. -D."
("See above in book 4. Around May 1587 one Ben (a spiritual creature) said to EK that he himself had guarded that powder and Book of Dunstan.") See TFR Actio Tertia, May 23, page 27 (pages separately numbered).
And this appears in an action dated Mar 28:
"EK: Now is the Skroll with the Characters browght in, which was fownd by spirituall direction this month, the 12 day, abowt 10 ? after none by Mr Kelly and Master Husy [In marg: The finding of the skroll, of the Treasors.].
He semeth now as like our good frende, as may be. Our frende cam with a sponge and annoynted the wicked spirit his lipps.
A voyce: -- Els could I not speak.
D: Seing now thow canst speak, answer me.
The wicked, sayd: -- Ask quickly.
D: What is thy Name? -
- The wicked answered, Gargat.
D: What is the sentence of that skroll? -
- Gar: I know not.
D: In the name of Jesus, I charge thee to tell me the truth as concerning
That roll here shewed. -
- Gar: I haue cownterfeted this roll, and browght
it: for it is not the true roll.
D: After many words betwene him and me, and the more, bycause he denyed
that he knew of any Glorie belonging to God, I urged him so, at length with
short and euident argument, that he answered, he must confess the powre and
glorie of god: and sayd, that he was damned for euer: and did wish
damnation to me. And I requested God to use his Justice on him, for the
glory of his name. Then he entreated me somwhile, and somwhile derided me,
saying, Art thow so lusty? &c.
D: All the Cumpany fell on him, and hewed him in peces: and digged a hole
in the earth, with theyr swords, and he fell in, and after that was a myghty
roaring hard.
A voyce: -- Sic soleo iniustis ["So I am accustomed to unrighteous
people"]."
Between these two actions the "angels" through Kelley reveal the so-called angelic characters, the alphabet that the Angelic Book (aka Liber Loagaeth) appeared in. This is the same book the bulk of which appears in Sl. 3189.
Kelley seems to have kept it secret from Dee as seen from the following passage (April 18):
"He advised EK to comunicate to me the boke, and the powder, and so all the rest of the roll , which was there fownd: saying, True frends use not to hide any thing eche from other.
D: An old proverb it is. Amicorum omnia comunia.
unde, Deo soli omnis exhibeatur laus honor et gloria ["Everything is shared between friends; therefore, to God alone are offered all praise, honor, and glory"]."
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mushaf al-jama'a
Discord and strife had surreptitiously invaded the exhalted Assembly of the Sages; reknowned for convening at times propitious for working harmonies into the fabric of the moment. Some say it was the work of malevolent djinn.
"YOU! THE JINN COMMUNITY, YOU HAVE TAKEN THE MAJORITY OF THE HUMANS UNDER YOUR DOMINATION.” simply proves that majority of the humans make their decisions consciously or unconsciously under the dominance of the ‘JINNS’ who disguise themselves under various definitions, which in return proves that the humans are obsessed by false ideas. The verse continues as follows:
“THEIR ADHERENTS AMONG THE HUMANS SAY: ‘OUR LORD, WE HAVE BENEFITED FROM EACH OTHER AND WE HAVE REACHED THE TIME THAT HAS BEEN ORDAINED FOR US.
THEN ALLAH (declares): THE FIRE IS YOUR DWELLING PLACE! YOU WILL DWELL IN IT FOREVER EXCEPT THOSE THAT ALLAH WILLS!”
Why do the JINNS take the majority of people under their possession and cause them to go astray? "
Perhaps it is because they perceive us as the fools we actually are...
However, in regards old sewing machine needles and summoning of the djinn, if you really must know, you will need SEVEN needles!
"... I have knocked, I have knocked at the hall doors of Earth to summon the Jann, and the Jann have knocked for the Jann against the Shaytan. ..."
The Existence of Spirits Created from Smokeless Fire (jinn)
Translations of the Qur'an, Surah 72:
AL-JINN (THE JINN)
"O’ Chief of this wilderness, I seek refuge in thee, against the mischief of any of thy wicked subjects."
"YOU! THE JINN COMMUNITY, YOU HAVE TAKEN THE MAJORITY OF THE HUMANS UNDER YOUR DOMINATION.” simply proves that majority of the humans make their decisions consciously or unconsciously under the dominance of the ‘JINNS’ who disguise themselves under various definitions, which in return proves that the humans are obsessed by false ideas. The verse continues as follows:
“THEIR ADHERENTS AMONG THE HUMANS SAY: ‘OUR LORD, WE HAVE BENEFITED FROM EACH OTHER AND WE HAVE REACHED THE TIME THAT HAS BEEN ORDAINED FOR US.
THEN ALLAH (declares): THE FIRE IS YOUR DWELLING PLACE! YOU WILL DWELL IN IT FOREVER EXCEPT THOSE THAT ALLAH WILLS!”
Why do the JINNS take the majority of people under their possession and cause them to go astray? "
Perhaps it is because they perceive us as the fools we actually are...
However, in regards old sewing machine needles and summoning of the djinn, if you really must know, you will need SEVEN needles!
"... I have knocked, I have knocked at the hall doors of Earth to summon the Jann, and the Jann have knocked for the Jann against the Shaytan. ..."
The Existence of Spirits Created from Smokeless Fire (jinn)
Translations of the Qur'an, Surah 72:
AL-JINN (THE JINN)
"O’ Chief of this wilderness, I seek refuge in thee, against the mischief of any of thy wicked subjects."
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Walpurgisnacht
"May I make my fond excuses for the lateness of the hour,
but we accept your invitation, and we bring you Beltane's flower.
For the May Day is the great day, sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did lay will heed the song that calls them back.
Pass the word and pass the lady, pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom, pass the cup of crimson wonder.
Ask the green man where he comes from, ask the cup that fills with red.
Ask the old grey standing stones that show the sun its way to bed.
Question all as to their ways, and learn the secrets that they hold.
Walk the lines of nature's palm crossed with silver and with gold.
Pass the cup and pass the lady, pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom, pass the cup of crimson wonder.
Join in black December's sadness, lie in August's welcome corn.
Stir the cup that's ever-filling with the blood of all that's born.
But the May Day is the great day, sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did lay will heed this song that calls them back.
Pass the word and pass the lady, pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom, pass the cup of crimson wonder."
-Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull
Waelburga and the Rites of May
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Πάσχα
"Lift up your heads, O gates! And be exalted, you everlasting doors, that the king of glory may enter in!"
-Psalm 23 (24)
"Open your eyes! The doors of perception must be opened. That means these young people must learn by their own experience, to see the world as it was before human beings were on this planet. That is the real problem today, that people live in towns and cities, where everything is dead. This material world, made by humans, is a dead world, and will disappear and die. I would tell the young people to go out into the countryside, go to the meadow, go to the garden, go to the woods. This is a world of nature to which we belong, absolutely. It is the circle of life, of which we are an integral part. Open your eyes, and see the browns and greens of the earth, and the light which is the essence of nature. The young need to become aware of this circle of life, and realize that it is possible to experience the beauty and deep meaning which is at the core of our relation to nature."
"...we must also accept that the material world is only the manifestation of the spiritual world. And if we attempt to manifest something, we will have to make use of the material world. For you and I to speak with one another, we must have tongues, we must have air and so forth. All of this is of the material world. If we were to read about spiritual things, it is only words. We must have the experience directly. And the experience occurs only by opening the mind, and opening all of our senses. Those doors of perception must be cleansed. And if the experience does not come spontaneously, on its own, then we may make use of what Huxley calls a gratuitous grace. This may take the form of psychedelic drugs, or perhaps without drugs through a discipline like yoga. But what is of greatest importance, is that we have personal experience. Not words, not beliefs, but experience."
-Albert Hofmann (1906-2008)
"There is no season when you are grown
You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
There is no reason to rise alone
Other stories given have sages of their own.
Every day's another dawning
Give the morning winds a chance
Always catch your thunder yawning
Lift your mind into the dance
Sweep the shadows from your awning
Shrink the fourfold circumstance
That lies outside this house don't pass it by."
-Tommy Hall and Rocky Erickson: Slip Inside This House
from the 13th Floor Elevators: Easter Everywhere album, 1967
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
ἐπιτάφιος
The traps of Eden unreleased
feral fletched a fell game fleest
the heart of man, a tangled beast
aim, dread Huntress
& fetch no priest
Friday, March 20, 2009
charcoal got inside he shoe, Lor bless you honey how de ashes flew.
...I am the red thread
Between Nothingness
And Eternity.
-Sri Chinmoy
Heart burning, still yearning. Walking with a toothache in my heel ...
- Bob Dylan: Ain't Talkin'
Between Nothingness
And Eternity.
-Sri Chinmoy
Heart burning, still yearning. Walking with a toothache in my heel ...
- Bob Dylan: Ain't Talkin'
Monday, March 16, 2009
not just of earth and skin and bone
"Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning."
-C. S. Lewis,1898-1963
“The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power”
-John Ruskin,1819-1900
-C. S. Lewis,1898-1963
“The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power”
-John Ruskin,1819-1900
Thursday, March 12, 2009
GonG is one and one is you
Fri 19 Jun - USA, Bethlehem, PA, Zoeliner Arts Centre, Nearfest - STEVE HILLAGE BAND
'THE' US indoor Prog-fest, also with Van der Graaf Generator and PFM. The first Steve Hillage Band gig in the US for 30 years and the first Gong one since 2000 - there will not be any other US dates on this trip.
Sat 20 Jun - USA, Bethlehem, PA, Zoeliner Arts Centre, Nearfest - GONG
So good that it always sells out - may have already done so.
The Patron Sign Up Window is now closed.
General ticket sales begin on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 10:00am EST.
Tickets for NEARfest '09 will go on sale to the general public Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 10:00am ET. Those interested in getting choice seats early may opt to sign up for our exclusive Patron Program.
(680 mi – about 11 hours 25 mins from Bloomington, In.)
NEARfest 2009 Ticket Prices
Section NEARfest
3-Day Bundle NEARfest
2-Day Bundle NEARfest Friday
Only
Lift $200 $140 $60
Orchestra $190 $135 $55
Grand Tier $180 $130 $50
Balcony $170 $125 $45
3-Day Bundle = Friday, Saturday and Sunday
2-Day Bundle = Saturday and Sunday only
Remaining Friday-only tickets go on sale Saturday, April 11th at 11:00am ET
Prices subject to change
Tickets may be purchased using the following methods:
1. Online from Zoellner Arts Center Online Tickets Website
2. By phone at 610-758-2787 ext. 0 using Visa, MasterCard, or American Express
3. Zoellner Arts Center Box Office, 420 East Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, PA
http://www.nearfest.com/tickets/generalsales.asp
A primer
'THE' US indoor Prog-fest, also with Van der Graaf Generator and PFM. The first Steve Hillage Band gig in the US for 30 years and the first Gong one since 2000 - there will not be any other US dates on this trip.
Sat 20 Jun - USA, Bethlehem, PA, Zoeliner Arts Centre, Nearfest - GONG
So good that it always sells out - may have already done so.
The Patron Sign Up Window is now closed.
General ticket sales begin on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 10:00am EST.
Tickets for NEARfest '09 will go on sale to the general public Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 10:00am ET. Those interested in getting choice seats early may opt to sign up for our exclusive Patron Program.
(680 mi – about 11 hours 25 mins from Bloomington, In.)
NEARfest 2009 Ticket Prices
Section NEARfest
3-Day Bundle NEARfest
2-Day Bundle NEARfest Friday
Only
Lift $200 $140 $60
Orchestra $190 $135 $55
Grand Tier $180 $130 $50
Balcony $170 $125 $45
3-Day Bundle = Friday, Saturday and Sunday
2-Day Bundle = Saturday and Sunday only
Remaining Friday-only tickets go on sale Saturday, April 11th at 11:00am ET
Prices subject to change
Tickets may be purchased using the following methods:
1. Online from Zoellner Arts Center Online Tickets Website
2. By phone at 610-758-2787 ext. 0 using Visa, MasterCard, or American Express
3. Zoellner Arts Center Box Office, 420 East Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, PA
http://www.nearfest.com/tickets/generalsales.asp
A primer
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Jewell and the Lotus
"This is the year we have prayed for
This is our moment sublime
All of our lives we have waited for
For this one perfect time
Barbie, Barbie, others I knew
Can't compare for one moment with you
Everyone loves you, and everyone knows
That Barbie, my Barbie, your love will set me free"
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the uprising in Tibet when The People’s Liberation Army of China surrounded Lhasa and trained artillery guns on the palace. It is also the birth of Barbie. The sacrifice of the Tibetan people has resulted in the jewell of the dharma, the wisdom teachings of Liberation, being bourne around the world in their diaspora. Barbie, the tear Chenrezig wept at the fall of freedom in Tibet, has now reached maturity as a dharmapala dakini; Mattell manufactures a Tibetan Barbie, known as Fuxi Girl.
"How troubling when our daughters reach so readily for those eleven inches of molded plastic; the slender body that fits so easily in their still-dimpled hands; the far-from-lifelike doll that survives every kind of fashion torture, burial in sandboxes, drowning in bathtubs, and disastrous haircuts administered in secret with forbidden scissors. How mortifying when, among all the more sensible offerings, all the appropriate and sanctioned playthings, our daughters more or less universally agree: Barbie is good.
It’s in that rub, the eternal struggle of bad versus good, right versus wrong, that I see the hidden dimension of the icon under the bed. It goes beyond the unassailable ideals of gender neutrality and healthy body image. It’s far subtler than choosing sides with demons or innocents. It’s not us versus them; it’s neither black nor white. It’s dharma, the dharma of Barbie, available for as little as $5.99 at the discount superstore."
"I recognize the classic arc of fable in her tale. I see how densely human she is, how eternal and unknowable her mind. I stop trying to make the game be nice, quiet or amiable. I stop steering it by my own notions of fairness or morality. I let it be."
Now, Chenrezig resides in the tear on the cheek of Barbie.
May the wisdom of compassion & harmlessness speak through the unmoving lips of the dakini to all daughters that they, in turn, may teach us lift the misery of men.
"I can hear so much in your sighs
And I can see so much in your eyes
There are words we both could say
But don't talk, put your head on my shoulder
-
Don't talk, put your head on my shoulder
Come close, close your eyes and be still
Don't talk, put your head on my shoulder
Come close, close your eyes and be still"
Monday, March 9, 2009
Caught in the thralls of a gonzo pollen
"In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver."
-Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness 1902
These misfortunes of immortals...
Such as the recent sneezing ragtime serenade & softshoe proposition to reprise Livery Stable Blues with Jazz Crackson's Muletrain Harem Queue; an opportunity as Livestock Biowaste Relocation Engineer available for a limited time only. Mssr. Crackson, showman of the spiffiest magnitude informed me that union scale wage regrettably would not be forthcoming for the position; however, a tip jar was provided. Now, over the years, I've lost my appreciation for the braying of rank burritos; I'm sure its just my ears, some deleterious result of hearing myself whoop it up big time in the long ago & faraway. I declined. But if I'd only seen the SIZE of that tip jar....
Reminds me of the time I worked at a certain used record store: Crossbone's Rusty Needle Exchange & Espresso Bar, and things went afoul with Biff the narcoleptic bootleg peddlar. Crossbone was a craven rook of a man who would think nothing of foreclosing on the mortgage to your soul; "chump change", he'd snort. He subsisted on the dire endorphin of greed and was chained to his harbor of Marlboro lights; he kept for companion a gargoyle which maintained an unhealthy affection for scouring powder. He thought he had her on a tight leash but repeatedly she furrowed in the register to score more ajax, "its a filthy world", she'd growl.
Biff made sporadic appearances with platters of questionable origins that Crossbone made available to the General Public. On occasion Biff good naturedly threw something my way and thus we gradually became acquainted. I made the error though of entrusting a certain treasure, a rare analogue radio recording from the summer solstice '94 of some unknown eerie cosmonauts allegedly called the Octave Doctors into his hands in order to digitize for me; the sole evidence of their actual existence. Biff disappeared after that; some say the Octave Doctors would not allow such documentation revealed, the world wasn't equipped to handle it.
I miss old Crossbone. He was honest as the grave and just as ruthless. Last I heard he was hawking women's croc shoes in the obituaries of Southern Indiana. His laugh was grisly as a death rattle but his decency preceded him by reputation. Here's to Crossbone: slap on some Boz Scaggs & burn one down to the blister.
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.
But he grew old --
This knight so bold --
And -- o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow --
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be --
This land of El Dorado?"
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied --
"If you seek for El Dorado."
-Edgar Allan Poe, 1849
-Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness 1902
These misfortunes of immortals...
Such as the recent sneezing ragtime serenade & softshoe proposition to reprise Livery Stable Blues with Jazz Crackson's Muletrain Harem Queue; an opportunity as Livestock Biowaste Relocation Engineer available for a limited time only. Mssr. Crackson, showman of the spiffiest magnitude informed me that union scale wage regrettably would not be forthcoming for the position; however, a tip jar was provided. Now, over the years, I've lost my appreciation for the braying of rank burritos; I'm sure its just my ears, some deleterious result of hearing myself whoop it up big time in the long ago & faraway. I declined. But if I'd only seen the SIZE of that tip jar....
Reminds me of the time I worked at a certain used record store: Crossbone's Rusty Needle Exchange & Espresso Bar, and things went afoul with Biff the narcoleptic bootleg peddlar. Crossbone was a craven rook of a man who would think nothing of foreclosing on the mortgage to your soul; "chump change", he'd snort. He subsisted on the dire endorphin of greed and was chained to his harbor of Marlboro lights; he kept for companion a gargoyle which maintained an unhealthy affection for scouring powder. He thought he had her on a tight leash but repeatedly she furrowed in the register to score more ajax, "its a filthy world", she'd growl.
Biff made sporadic appearances with platters of questionable origins that Crossbone made available to the General Public. On occasion Biff good naturedly threw something my way and thus we gradually became acquainted. I made the error though of entrusting a certain treasure, a rare analogue radio recording from the summer solstice '94 of some unknown eerie cosmonauts allegedly called the Octave Doctors into his hands in order to digitize for me; the sole evidence of their actual existence. Biff disappeared after that; some say the Octave Doctors would not allow such documentation revealed, the world wasn't equipped to handle it.
I miss old Crossbone. He was honest as the grave and just as ruthless. Last I heard he was hawking women's croc shoes in the obituaries of Southern Indiana. His laugh was grisly as a death rattle but his decency preceded him by reputation. Here's to Crossbone: slap on some Boz Scaggs & burn one down to the blister.
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.
But he grew old --
This knight so bold --
And -- o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow --
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be --
This land of El Dorado?"
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied --
"If you seek for El Dorado."
-Edgar Allan Poe, 1849
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Such tricks hath strong imagination...
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
-William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act v. Sc. 1.
"The Imago Templi can be seen as the meeting-place of the great families of the Abrahamic tradition, of all the "communities of the Book" (Ahl al-Kitab)."
-Henry Corbin: Temple and Contemplation. KPI, 1986
"...features in the Kalachakra teachings... Specifically, the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac were painted around the walls of the main halls of the Buddhist monasteries in Kabul. This motif was found both in Iranian royal palaces and in the Kalachakra mandala, where deities representing the twelve signs surround the palace. "
"...the Kalachakra Tantra embodies a large conglomerate of Western Asian, mostly Iranian (Zoroastrian, Manichean), elements, Hellenistic and local religious features characteristic of Gandhara and Udyana as well as Vedic borrowings (which interestingly had themselves made their way into India via western Central Asia, though in prehistoric times).6
<Das Kalachakra, die letzte Phase des Buddhismus in Indien. In: Saeculum 15,1964. Siegbert Hummel: Frau Welt und der Priesterkoenig Johannes. In: Zeitschrift fuer Missionswissenschaft und Religionwissenschaft 43/2, (M?ster) 1959). Siegbert Hummel: Notes on the Lamaist Apocalypse. In: Tibet Journal XXII/4, 1997 (Orig. in: Archiv Orientalni 26/2, Prag 1958). >>
Besides that, it shows the marks of Buddhism's struggle against the inexorable expansion of Islam in the region, and bears traces of the Jewish and Christian traditions, also probably mediated into the region by the Arabs.7
<<. Helmut Hoffmann: Kalachakra Studies I. Manicheism, Christianity and Islam in the Kalachakra Tantra. In: Central Asiatic Journal XIII, 1969.
Helmut Hoffmann: Kalachakra Studies I. Addenda et Corrigenda. In: Central Asiatic Journal XV, 1971. >>
"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven." So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel {Beith-El}, but the name of the city was Luz at first... The stone representing the Omphalos could take the form of a pillar like the stone of Jacob, and it is quite probable that among the Celtic peoples certain 'menhirs' had the same significance; and the oracles were uttered close by these stones, as at Delphi, which is easily explained by the fact that they were considered to be the dwelling-place of the divinity, the 'House of God' being moreover quite naturally identified with the 'Center of the World'."
Meanings of the Monad Number One
"The point within a circle, the Central Fire Deity. The lingam, an upright pillar, was its Hindu symbol.:"
- W. Wynn Westcott: Numbers: Their Occult Power And Mystic Virtues, 1890
"The Shekhinah is the image (dimyon) manifest in prophetic visions, for she is the likeness of the anthropos (demut 'adam), that is, the image of the masculine aspect of the divine.170 More specifically, it is evident that in the above passage the Shekhinah is portrayed as the phallus of the divine anthropos. This is alluded to in the depiction of the Shekhinah as the seal (hotam) of the image of the man... The imaginal forms that inhere within the feminine Presence ... locus of the images or forms is in Yesod (Foundation)...that corresponds to the phallus of the divine anthropos...."
"...to Yesod belongs the inner world of dreams, daydreams and vivid imagination, and
one of the titles of Yesod is "The Treasure House of Images"."
Concerning the Hieron du Val d’Or:
"The Abbey of Orval's web site says only that mysterious monks from Calabria came there in 1070, although little is known about their identity, and they were welcomed there by Count Arnould de Chiny. These "pioneers" moved out after forty years, i.e. around 1110. The legend of Orval claims that it was named by Mathilda de Tuscany, who after finding a lost ring declared the place "a Valley of Gold" (Val D'Or.) "
http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/poseur3.html
Zacharias Werner: Die Söhne des Thals (The Brotherhood of the Valley, 1803-4)
"Werner developed an extraordinary theme, representing a great secret, spiritual power behind the Temple, that of the SONS OF THE VALLEY, a Company of Adept Brethren belonging to a Hidden School of Christ which recalls the Secret Church Mystical in Eckartshausen's CLOUD UPON THE SANCTUARY . The Knights Templar are said to have tampered with a sacred knowledge placed in their hands and they were about to reveal it in the world. The providence of the Sons of the Valley was therefore withdrawn, and they were left to work out their own destiny of destruction at the hands of Pope and King."
"Those who remember a dictum of St Augustine, which I have quoted myself often, namely, that Christianity has been always in the world but has not been known always under that name, may perhaps see that a pregnant intimation is conveyed by Werner when he suggests remotely and in words aloof that the Religion of Osiris became in the course of long ages the religion of Christ. In their all-hidden Sanctuary the SONS OF THE VALLEY seem to have stood apart from the ages and to have watched them passing. He Who was called Christ on the circumference of the Templar circle was still named Horus at the point within the circle."
-Arthur Edward Waite: Secret Tradition in Freemasonry
Ludwig Werner's Sons of the Valley came out of the German Masonic Order of the Strict Observance. Werner was a High-Grade Mason and a member of the STRICT OBSERVANCE, the traditional history of which is elaborated in his remarkable work.
"Werner's Sons of the Valley already mentioned, being the existence from time immemorial
of a Secret Order of Wise Masters in Palestine devoted to the work of initiation for the building of a spiritual city and as such the power behind the Temple, as it was also behind Masonry""
THE TEMPLAR ORDERS IN FREEMASONRY
An Historical Consideration of their Origin and Development
in: The Occult Review", Volume XLV, nos.
1 and 4, January and April, 1927.
"...in Werner's Sons of the Valley already mentioned, being the existence from time immemorial of a Secret Order of Wise Masters in Palestine devoted to the work of initiation for the building of a spiritual city and as such the power behind the Temple, as it was also behind Masonry."
-Arthur Edward Waite: THE TEMPLAR ORDERS IN FREEMASONRY, An Historical Consideration of their Origin and Development" The Occult Review", Volume XLV, nos. 1 and 4, January and April, 1927.
"... the ’eben shetiyah, which, in Jewish tradition, marked the center of the earth, the center of the sanctuary, and was the foundation stone of the ancient temple. "
'Ahad al-arkan'; the provided translation there being: 'pillar of the game'
Arkan being = 'pillar', however according to Wikipedia:
ahad= "only." Islamically, ahad means One Alone, unique, none like God.
"a pillar in the temple of my God" (Rev. 3:12), and to enjoy the immediate vision of the divine
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.
"[the imamate] is a spiritual kingship above the visible world that operates incognito, something like the role of the dynasty of the Grail.
The Hidden Imam, like the eternal Parzifal, is a world master in occultation, a Pole, one who upholds the world in his invisibility
"
"The Tzadikim Nistarim or Lamed Vav Tzadikim (often abbreviated to "the Lamed Vav(niks)", the 36) refers to 36 Righteous people, a notion rooted within the more mystical dimensions of Judaism. (In Hebrew gematria, Lamed is the letter representing "thirty", and vav represents "six". Tzadikim is the plural for "righteous")
The Lamed-Vav Tzaddikim are also called the Nistarim ("concealed ones"). In our folk tales, they emerge from their self-imposed concealment and, by the mystic powers, which they possess, they succeed in averting the threatened disasters.
An analogous group of individuals may be discerned within the Islamic tradition of the Kutb and The Abdals.
" It is not surprising that the space inside Titurel's Temple is of a size that makes it the measure of the entire human community... the number seventy-two [the double of Lamed-Vav=36] corresponds to the number of peoples and of human tongues (seventy or seventy-two), as the Ancients traditionally represented them... preeminence is given ...to the relationship of the Temple with the human race."
-Henry Corbin: Temple and Contemplation. KPI, 1986
These men, without suspecting it, are the secret pillars of the universe.
aspectans silvam immensam, et sic forte precatur:
beholding the boundless forest, and thus by chance he prays.
“Si nunc se nobis ille aureus arbore ramus
“If now that golden branch should display itself to us
ostendat nemore in tanto!
from the tree in so great a grove.
"Ev ery 200 years the kutb changes, and there may only be one kutb at a time. Each kutb influences knowledge according to the times and is the pillar of the faith upon earth, the axis of the faith. According to other beliefs, no one knows whether the Kutb are one man, or two men, or four men; they have the supervision of all the saints alive on earth, and are more powerful than kings, though they look like ordinary men. They are often seen yet almost never recognized, and they travel over the earth, mildly reproving the impious and hypocritical." (In fact, Kutb means axis or pole in Arabic, which is similar to the concept of a pillar)."
Q: Master Builder, tell me how you make a temple?
A: Tools and moon stones, you don't really need them, you know...
Q: Master Builder, tell me what the temple's made of?
A: Deep inside you, you can build an invisible temple in your own imagination if you will
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
-William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act v. Sc. 1.
"The Imago Templi can be seen as the meeting-place of the great families of the Abrahamic tradition, of all the "communities of the Book" (Ahl al-Kitab)."
-Henry Corbin: Temple and Contemplation. KPI, 1986
"...features in the Kalachakra teachings... Specifically, the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac were painted around the walls of the main halls of the Buddhist monasteries in Kabul. This motif was found both in Iranian royal palaces and in the Kalachakra mandala, where deities representing the twelve signs surround the palace. "
"...the Kalachakra Tantra embodies a large conglomerate of Western Asian, mostly Iranian (Zoroastrian, Manichean), elements, Hellenistic and local religious features characteristic of Gandhara and Udyana as well as Vedic borrowings (which interestingly had themselves made their way into India via western Central Asia, though in prehistoric times).6
<
<<. Helmut Hoffmann: Kalachakra Studies I. Manicheism, Christianity and Islam in the Kalachakra Tantra. In: Central Asiatic Journal XIII, 1969.
Helmut Hoffmann: Kalachakra Studies I. Addenda et Corrigenda. In: Central Asiatic Journal XV, 1971. >>
"The point within a circle, the Central Fire Deity. The lingam, an upright pillar, was its Hindu symbol.:"
one of the titles of Yesod is "The Treasure House of Images"."
Concerning the Hieron du Val d’Or:
http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/poseur3.html
"
"
-Arthur Edward Waite: Secret Tradition in Freemasonry
"Werner's Sons of the Valley already mentioned, being the existence from time immemorial
of a Secret Order of Wise Masters in Palestine devoted to the work of initiation for the building of a spiritual city and as such the power behind the Temple, as it was also behind Masonry""
An Historical Consideration of their Origin and Development
1 and 4, January and April, 1927.
'
Arkan being = 'pillar', however according to Wikipedia:
ahad= "only." Islamically, ahad means One Alone, unique, none like God.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.
The Hidden Imam, like the eternal Parzifal, is a world master in occultation, a Pole, one who upholds the world in his invisibility
"
An analogous group of individuals may be discerned within the Islamic tradition of the Kutb and The Abdals.
-
beholding the boundless forest, and thus by chance he prays.
“Si nunc se nobis ille aureus arbore ramus
“If now that golden branch should display itself to us
ostendat nemore in tanto!
from the tree in so great a grove.
Q: Master Builder, tell me how you make a temple?
A: Tools and moon stones, you don't really need them, you know...
Q: Master Builder, tell me what the temple's made of?
A: Deep inside you, you can build an invisible temple in your own imagination if you will
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