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albionspeak: a draught of language (1.4)
SESSION 15: 3RD SESSION, 7/1/93
[Aside from Session 10, Sessions 14 & 15 are the only other “early” sessions I provide in albionspeak. Most of the early sessions are quite choppy, requiring 30-60 minutes just to warm up and establish a clear signal. At the time of this session, we’d learned of the Jewel Net, our karass, and we knew of three members by name, [an early albion], Josef, and Blake. (Our Guide is not a member.) Two other members were mentioned in Session 14, though only Jane by name. Apparently they were even present during this session, though silent. Don & Vilansit were not introduced to us until 1994. This session also is choppy—I ask the reader’s patience—but there are several key concepts introduced here which are shown to be quite important in the arc of our curriculum. My advice, then: Read, but don’t worry about making full sense of this. I will explain in time.]
The Nature of Evil
9:55 PM (original transcripts are one hour off)
1. Question: [Guide], are you with us?
Answer: [YES] I HEAR YOU
2. Q: What would you like to talk about?
A: FLAME UNDER
3. Q: Tell us about the “flame under.”
A: FLAME IS DESTINATION OF HELL
Oh boy. Here we go again with the fire and brimstone locutions. It is
important to mention that [Scribe] and I had been discussing the nature of evil
immediately prior to our session. This is a subject where we are philosophically
at odds, and we agreed we would ask at some point.
4. Q: Please continue.
A: FLAME DESTROYS FABRIC OF SPACE & TIME
5. Q: What is this flame?
A: FLAME IS PATHWAY TO INFERNAL GATES AS DANTE SAYS
Is that what Dante says? I confess I still haven’t gotten to Purgatorio with
him, although he’s high on my list. In fact, after this allusion Dante becomes a
part of my summer reading.
6. Q: Is the flame another name for evil?
A: EMANATION OF EVIL
The word “emanation” plays such a major role in Blake’s prophetic
vocabulary [though in 2020 I still don’t understand this term].
7. Q: Is evil only wholly destructive or are its results part of a beneficial master
plan?
A: GOOD QUESTION
EVIL IS NEITHER
ITS [NO]T…
8. …LINEAR NOT PLOTTED
ITS A RIFT A TEARING…
9. …A SUNDERING OF LAYERS OR
FABRIC AS I CALL IT
This is not Dante. Q#7 represents [Scribe]’s and my opposing views to evil:
He sees evil only as evil; I see it also as instruction from a divine source of
Good. [Guide] tells us we’re both wrong. Here, the “flame” seems to be more of
a natural phenomenon, seemingly devoid of personality. A Star Trek analogy
might be useful here: [Scribe] and I speak of evil the way we might of Klingons
or Romulans, who are formidable foes (Milton portrays Lucifer as having many
admirable qualities, for example). [Guide]’s evil, however, more closely
approximates the Borg, simply beyond our comprehension.
10. Q: We think of you as a good daimon, a spirit of light. Are there evil or fallen
daimones?
A: [YES] FLAME IS THEIR MEDIUM
“MEDIUM”, as it is used here, appeared much earlier in our sessions.
“Time is medium of will.” (cf. 91: 7.34).
11. Q: Since that’s so, are these evil daimones in any way responsible for some
of the evil in our world?
A: [YES] & [NO] ANSWER IS [NO]T AS SIMPLE AS ALL THAT
12. Q: Can you elaborate?
A: EVERY TEAR IN FABRIC HAS EFFECTS IN NET
13. Q: Is there a conscious force which threatens the Jewel Net?
A: FOE OF YOURS YOU MEAN
Suddenly the planchette was moving very very slowly. We felt that another
spirit, probably Josef, was on the line.
Josef to [Albion] on Germany
10:35 PM
14. Q: That last response felt odd, [Guide]. Is there someone else there who’d
like to address that?
A: DREAMER ASKS TO SPEAK TO YOU BOTH
15. Q: Joseph, please go ahead.
A: JOSEF HERE
I LISTEN IN SOMETIMES
I AM SERVANT OF THE JEWEL LIKE YOU
16. Q: Joseph, do we have a foe? If so, who?
A: FOE IS NOT THE JUST WORD
RISK IS WHAT I AM MEANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT
Presumably the “risk” each member incurs upon entering the Jewel Net.
17. Q: Please tell us about the risk.
A: JOSEF SENT YOU DREAMS [Albion]
YOU DID [NO]T READ THEM ARIGHT
My Germany experience was to provide the case study for the lesson. Well,
I still inexplicably feel some shame and embarrassment from the episode; and up
to this point I had not gotten any outside confirmation that I hadn’t just made up
the whole mess on my own. This was important to me.
18. Q ([Albion]): How should I have been able to interpret the dreams you sent me?
A: DO [NO]T FORCE A READING
MEANING MUST ARISE IN YOU EASILY LIKE A FLOWER
I hope someday I will again be able to read the word “flower” and see only
a flower. We have now a universe of references to “flower” as a metaphor.
19. Q ([Albion]): Joseph, when you sent me those dreams, did you suspect that I
would react as I did?
A: I KNEW BUT I OBEY
[Albion] CHOSE IN TIME
20. Q: Whom do you obey?
A: JEWEL IS FOR ME A LENS OR WINDOW
21. Q ([Albion]): Was it for the good of the Jewel that I misinterpreted the dreams
you sent me? Was this a lesson?
A: LESSONS ARE USEFUL FOR CHILDREN
DO THEY DO WRONG FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR FATHER
A profound response.
22. Q ([Albion]): Can you tell me how it would have been now if I had not
misinterpreted the dreams?
A: I KNOW NO RESPONSE TO QUESTION YOU PUT
23. Q ([Albion]): I feel I failed a test. Will I have the opportunity in the future to
redeem myself and take other similar tests?
A: [Albion] JOSEF IS TESTING YOU NOW
It’s been over eleven years since Germany, and my life now is almost
unrecognizable from the one I led then. Clearly, nothing Josef told me here struck
me as new information; in fact, it seems as if I had learned the lesson rather well.
But the value of overt confirmation [—that I wasn’t entirely self-deluded, that I
indeed had tapped into something outside myself—] here is enormous. Also, I feel
swirling emotions arising from Josef’s response to Q#23. My past errors may be
irrevocable, but I myself am not irrevocable. The wording here, too, could not be
any more tender.
24. Q ([Scribe]): I feel you sent me the dream of the red silk field & I want to thank
you for it.
A: I WAS DIRECTED TO HELP YOU WITH DREAMS
I AM GLAD TO OBEY
I asked [Scribe] to send two dream summaries for their verbatim inclusion in
this transcript. These are [Scribe]’s words:
Red Silk Field
I was standing at the edge of an immense expanse of bright red silk stretched level before me for acres. It was heavy, shiny, Chinese-looking silk. Every square inch of it—both of what I could see and (I knew of what I could not—was covered with elaborate embroidery. The embroidery was in an abstract pattern of arabesques. I thought at the time that the pattern was neither beautiful nor ugly, but so terribly busy it was somewhat disconcerting (certain East Asian religious paintings strike me in exactly the same way). I bent down and touched the silk and was at once pressed in upon by innumerable anxious and resentful thoughts. I understood in that moment that it was I who had carried out every bit of the painstaking work of embroidering the field of silk. When I took my hand away, the thoughts vanished: it was like the arrival of a cool breeze or a cool draught of water. I wondered why, why in the world, anyone would bother to occupy himself so intently and so long with such a task.
I will only add here that [Scribe] told me that at the time he was sent the
dream he was going through his perennial troubled period. The “anxious and
resentful thoughts” of the dream reflected what seemed to him to be a large
portion of his waking life. The advent of this dream marked for [Scribe] the
beginning of an upward turn in his emotional life.
Knowing [Scribe], I can only say that everything's’ relative; his troubled
times might for another be the best of times. [Scribe] is not particularly of
melancholic nature, although he’s hardly a Pollyanna, which tends to be more
my outlook on life.
[Scribe] had a significant sequel to Red Silk Field just after the completion
of our 1993 sessions.
The Absolute Good
11:22 PM
25. Q: [Guide], just as c (the speed of light) is considered absolute in our
4-dimensional universe, is there an absolute Good?
A: [YES] I AM HAPPY TO SAY THERE IS
JEWEL SERVES IT
Bye-bye, Aristotle! Apparently the Jewel serves the Good, and Josef serves
the Jewel.
26. Q: Can this Form be quantified in a value analogous to measuring c?
A: FORM HAS NO FORM IN YOUR SENSE
“The Tao that can be told…”
Hierarchy
27. Q: In Q#25, you are giving us a picture of a hierarchical—almost mediaeval—
world.
A: [YES] I MENTIONED LAYERS EARLIER AND TEARS IN THOSE
LAYERS
HIERARKY IS LAYERS
28. Q: Isn’t a black hole a tear in the fabric of space time?
A: IT DESTROYS HIERARKY OR INFORMATION OR…
29. Q: Please complete.
A: FORM OF HIERARKY IS LOST IN TEAR
I BROKE OFF ON PURPOSE
More spirit humor! I left standing Q#29 for obvious reasons. Black holes
held an interesting place in our 1992 conversations. They were analogues of
“damnation” (cf. 92: 9.34) and returned in a later session in our discussion of
“gravity” (cf. 92: 12.17).
30. Q: In some forms of mediaeval medicine, all jewels were thought to heal
sickness. Comment?
A: I SPOKE OF HEALING ONCE I CALLED IT
RESTORATION RESTORATION
Obviously I have played with line breaks here for effect. More humor.
[Guide] is quoting himself here. In 1990 he said [Scribe] and I were witnesses
to “restoration restoration” (cf. 90: 5.10).
31. Q: Can the flame which tears the layers (to mix a metaphor) be harnessed for
the Good?
A: [YES] FLAME IS LOSS
BUT SOMETHING DOES COME OUT OF IT
When proposing the question, [Scribe] pointed out the mixed metaphor. So
caught up in the language, I took awhile to find the error.
32. Q: Is Good the author of evil?
A: FLAME WAS ONCE SOMETHING ELSE THAT WAS GOOD
IT FLAME IS NOT GOOD NOW
IT IS LOSS OF INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
I still don’t feel that I got an answer to my debate with [Scribe] regarding the
nature of evil; however, muddied waters may also be illuminating.
The next question was proposed by [Scribe]’s friend M.
33. Q: [Guide], a question from [Scribe]’s friend M. “If I have a personal myth that
informs who I am and become aware of it as a handicap, can I—by
changing the myth—change who I am?”
A: HANDICAP IS A KIND OF MYTH I AM CRIPPLED
HEALING MEANS IN PART BELIEVING IN HEALING
34. Q: Aside from technology, what differentiates 1993 from all other eras?
A: COG IN A HUGE WHEEL
THEY ALL SEEM ALIKE FROM HERE SORRY
What a view of human history! Apparently the human condition does not
vary with the age.
12:05 AM
The Fakir’s Story
35. Q: Will you, if permitted, tell us more of the fakir in India [that is, Anand,
of whom we first heard just the night before]?
A: [YES] FAKIR DWELT ON A SACRED GANGES
HIDDEN FROM CITIES ALONE
WITHOUT FRIENDS OR KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR KARASS
HE DIED IN HIS TWENTI SECOND YEAR
AND HIS BODY WAS CARRIED TO SEA BY THE GANGES
Our longest message to date. An interesting choice of biographical facts,
especially the post mortem.
36. Q: Each member of a karass contributes something unique. Can you
characterize the fakir’s contribution?
A: — response illegible —
37. Q: Repeat Q#36.
A: LIKE FLOWER AGAIN
HE IS A FIBER A STRENGTH OF LEAF
[Scribe] and I had been speaking of our union within the metaphorical
(karass) flower. Last year we learned how other members contribute to the flower:
[Scribe] gives “fragrance”; I give “colours”; and Blake gives the flower its “bite
of thorns” (cf. 92: 12.29).
38. Q ([Albion]): Is [my wife] in our karass?
A: I KANT SAY THAT YOU KNOW
Yes, but I had to ask anyway.
[The next three exchanges are censored.]
42. Q: Can you tell us about the hierarchy within the Jewel Net?
A: JOSEF IS THE FOREMOST IN BROTHERHOOD
43. Q: Please tell us more.
A: [YES] HIERARKY…
44. …IS A MEANS OF EXCHANGING NEEDED
INFORMATION
JOSEF IS CALLD YOU KNOW TO DISTRIBUTE DREAMS
OTHERS HAVE ANOTHER…
45. …FUNCTION
BLAKE AGAIN IS CONCERNED WITH IMAGES
NOT WORDS AS YOU MIGHT THINK AND SO ON
This is our flower. Somehow, Josef’s preeminence did not surprise either one
of us. The information about Blake might turn a few heads though.
1:00 AM
46. Q: May we ask our functions (i.e. [Scribe]’s & [Albion]’s)?
A: [YES] YOU MAY
BUT I CANT GO ON SORRY
“For what?” The more we probe, the more we circumscribe the limits of
allowable information. Eventually, by testing the censor enough, we will have
mapped the domain of the forbidden. Spiritual sonar, maybe even ultra-sound.
47. Q: Does our “cup of language” refer specifically to the English language?
A: CUP HOLDS SEVERAL LANGUAGES FOR YOU TO MAKE USE OF
The cup of language here, likened to the [Jewel], was a major theme last year,
coequal to the Jewel itself. Having already “quaffed” from it, [Scribe] and I “bear”
the cup, so that “infants” may drink from it and “speak.” The references are too
numerous to list.
I think it safe to assume that non-verbal languages, music, math, chess,
maybe soccer, qualify here. [Scribe] is not motivated to be a Becket or Nabokov
[who wrote in more than one language]. I’m barely motivated to be a [Scribe].
48. [#48 needs to be censored.]
Josef on the Abyss
49. Q: Josef, were you the first member of our karass on Earth?
A: FIRST TO KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORIES [YES]
THERE WERE MANY BEFORE ME BEFORE START O
“Before start of history” is clearly echoed here (cf. 90: 6.35). A good guess
for me, I guess. That is, Josef was first at something important, but not the first
body.
50. Q: Please elaborate.
A: HISTORY IS WHAT STORIES CAN TELL
BUT OUR NET STRETCHES DEEPLY THROUGH ABYSS
FAR BEF…
51. BEFORE THE STORIES
I NEED DREAMS TO RELATE THE ABY…
52. ABYSS TO YOU AND GRANT
KNOWLEDGE BEYOND HISTORY
My speculations here are as yet unfounded.
53. [censored]
54. Q: Thank you, Josef. [Guide], is there anyone with our session with whom
we haven’t spoken before & who would now like to speak?
A: [YES] THERE ARE FOUR OF US
BUT ITS NOT TIME YET PATIENCE
The Galaxy Karass
55. Q: [Guide], will you now clarify your role in our karass?
A: [YES] FLOWER NEEDS PROPAGATION INSECTS
56. Q: Do you connect with each of our karass members as you connect with us?
A: BUTTERFLY MOST NEEDS COLOURS AND FRAGRANCE
He’s a butterfly, not a bee. Butterflies don’t need “bite of thorns” or “strength
of leaf” [i.e., Blake & our as-yet-unnamed fakir, Anand].
57. Q: [Guide], can you tell us something about your karass?
A: [YES] A LITTLE
58. Q: Please.
A: IT IS BUILT AROUND GALAXIES OUR CENTER\
IT IS LARGER THAN J NET BY MANY MAGNITUDES
IT HAS SEVERAL DIFFERENT KINDS OF PERSONS IN IT
LIKE YOURS
[Guide] has told us he “observes,” “reads about,” and “plays theoretically”
with “stars.” Is this metaphor? Or are these real stars and galaxies? Are “persons”
people?
59. Q: Will our flower become fruit?
A: FLOWER IS FRUIT
“That sounds like the first line to a poem,” said [Scribe] immediately, and he
wrote it down as the next question. Orally, however, I embellished it quite a bit,
basically issuing a challenge to [Guide] to write such a poem.
60. Q: That sounds like the beginning of a poem. (Orally I add something like,
“OK, [Guide], are you up to a challenge? Please compose a poem
beginning with the first line, ‘Flower is fruit.’”)
A:
FLOWER IS FRUIT
CLOUDS ARE SEEDS
IN THE ABYSS
BLOOMS ARE GALAXIES
HOWS THAT
61. Q: That’s nice. Tell us more about clouds.
A: GALAXIES START AS CLOUDS
CLOUD IS SEEDBED OF STARS TO BE
Oh, those kinds of clouds! If a flower’s fruit scatters its seeds like a cloud,
a galaxy might be another metaphor for a superstructure composed of many
karasses, another “ocean” or “forest.”
By this time we were quite tired and punchy, and we had largely exhausted
all pressing questions.
62. Q: Tell us something out of the blue.
A: [NO]T TONIGHT I SHALL SOON
GOOD SLEEP TO YOU BOTH
2:30 AM
63. Q: Any parting words?
A: JOSEF HERE
LOOK CAREFULLY TONIGHT
ILL SEE YOU TOMORROW
[Scribe] and I both took this to mean Josef was going to be sending us at least
one important dream. We agreed we’d work on remembering.