18 May - (Air) Liber LXV, 2:17-19
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17. Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue.
18. Between its wings I sate, and the æons fled away.
19. Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went. -
Reminds me of some flashes I've been getting while meditating on the Chariot Atu. Take a look at the card; goldie is sitting on a white (I currently imagine clam shell), in a field of blue. He doesn't seem concerned with the time. And while his wheels are red and "singing", he looks comfortably at rest in Silence.
But that wasn't my first impression was. I suppose it was triggered by the line "Also the Holy One came upon me..."
and got me first meandering down the thought-ways of DNA consciousness, which certainly "perceives" time differently then us (the shells it puts on in it's continuing diving and soaring). The last line was a bit of a square into circle hole, as it's my uneducated opinion that DNA does evolve...... but yeah, check out the chariot atu.
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"and the æons fled away."
The stories fall away. The great, rolling-forward, ever-evolving, neurologically necessary meta-narative is transcended - What? Christianity? What? Thelema? What? Aeon? What? The tangled knots of Time's story fall away.
Ahh... Rest. Respite from the endless transformations and recalculations and considerations and explanations. Let the Story fall away and remind me what I am - what it is - as it is!
"yet no whither we went."
Ah, yes..., the Story.
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19. Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went.**It recalls the vision of the arrow from the fifth Aethyr: the source of all motion, infinite motion, and yet it moves not.
17. Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue.
18. Between its wings I sate, and the æons fled away.In light of the last few days, today's selection is an essay on the nature of will, perhaps.
Or rather, an essay on art: All art can be reduced to an analysis of form and content: it's form is ever, always, in every instance an image of death; it's content is the gesture of absolute freedom, the unconditioned potential inherent in pure being. More bluntly, if you make a piece of art, it doesn't matter what you represent, it is ultimately an instance of the main obsession of all art—it is an attempt to give shape to the invisible god, death (see the meditations of the past few days). At the same time, the impulse to make anything is a rehearsal, a reaching and an homage to the absolute freedom that is our true nature.
Hence, the winging in the blue heaven of Jupiter.
Love and Will
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@Jim Eshelman said
"17. Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue."
Parable #2 begins.
The "Holy One," in the context of Liber LXV, is the HGA... but the language is different than has been used previously. It strikes me more in the sense of abstract Spirit, as if "touched by the Holy Ghost," etc. Possibly this is the first Kether 'identity' in the book thus far. In any case, it inspires the vision of pure, floating, serene ecstasy.
"18. Between its wings I sate, and the æons fled away."
Timeless. (Though archaic, "sate" is the simple past tense of "sat." A more contemporary reading keeps trying to intrude, but I let it go. It adds complexity when simplicity is warranted.)
"19. Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went."
Continual going... distinguished from "going someplace." We saw time drop away in the last verse, as space does in this one.
Ahh. I need to take the time today to set everything aside and sink into this. Just hanging with Adonai, lying still together.
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I feel strongly about what I connected with in today's selection, so I'm going to spam this thread with one more attempt to make a point that is affecting me deeply.
First we have this:
7. Moreover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little boat thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. Also the river was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream.
8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many days and nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.
9. Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.
10. But she stirred not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to blackness before me.
11. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of the flower of my youth.
12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream.
13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of the midmost sun.
14. Then rose she up from the abyss of Ages of Sleep, and her body embraced me. Altogether I melted into her beauty and was glad.
15. The river also became the river of Amrit, and the little boat was the chariot of the flesh, and the sails thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me, that beareth me.
16. O serpent woman of the stars! I, even I, have fashioned Thee from a pale image of fine gold.And then we have this:
17. Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue.
18. Between its wings I sate, and the æons fled away.
19. Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went.Like a thunder clap they combine two, seemingly opposite ideas I have had about art on and off for the last forty years... But more than just the sub-heading of art, it also speaks to every attempt we make to conceive and represent anything about this world, about reality, life, and it can be seen in the pairs of sepheroth all the way up the tree:
Hod and Netzach
Geburah and Chesed
Binah and ChokmahForm and Content, or the idea and the reality it seeks to express—the analogies are endless...
A practical example from my own career is the actor on stage. They may be playing Portia in the Merchant of Venice, and that is generally the level of the reality that we focus on as audience members, but the secret of the actor and the real spiritual message of the actress in this instance, and in every other part in any play she will ever be in is this: during these two to three hours, the actress is showing us her body—and in those few hours she/it ages and approaches the mystery of her own death! In fact, whether we are aware of it or not, we go on this little journey with her. She lives that dying! This is the story of the boat and the image made of gold, the image that corrupts as a result of out attentions!
And yet, and this is important: the impulse to image, to imagine, is an act of ballsy freedom. You may not be free, but in making anything you assume the god form of the creator! It is an act of light, and is as magical in its way as the consumption of the cakes of light during the Gnostic Mass, and proclaiming the affirmation that 'there is no part of me that is not of the Gods!'
@Jim Eshelman said
"The "Holy One," in the context of Liber LXV, is the HGA... but the language is different than has been used previously. It strikes me more in the sense of abstract Spirit, as if "touched by the Holy Ghost," etc. Possibly this is the first Kether 'identity' in the book thus far. In any case, it inspires the vision of pure, floating, serene ecstasy."
Yeah, that's what art celebrates, even if it must, by necessity speak in the language of decay—a symbol system that is subject to the gunas, the birth and death cycle of Ayin and Nun.
EDIT: 'celebrates' is the wrong word. Art celebrates death and failure in all its forms; it emulates the Kether perspective...
Love and Will
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Float on!
In my limited periphery and experience there have been glimpses, moments, and almost insanity that have lifted me beyond. These short stints still fuel my desire to find out what the heck is really going on here.
@Jim Eshelman said
"Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went."
Doing things for the sake of doing it. No grand purpose or goal of a masterpiece. Just enjoy the trip...
Reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite movies: "You say 'why?'....I say 'why bother?'"
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Glad to see these are back... with this seeming to fit how I feel at the moment. Aeons pass, but everything remains the same.