albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (11.4)
SESSION 65: 4TH NIGHT, 8/22/00
This evening’s invocation: [Z.] a poem by [Don]. (Let me here once again
applaud [Scribe]’s close reading ability. More clues.)
10:46 PM
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: I AM
I GREET YOU FROM [THE] LAKE
Anand and Don
2. Q: Who is with us?
A: ANAND & DON
The foretold agenda put these two friends on different evenings; yet
tonight’s was to be the “folded” session to make up for my illness. Would
they split the session into two distinct halves, or would they join content
and become—for reasons I can’t put my finger on—a most unlikely pairing,
old and young twins?
3. Q: Greetings, Anand.
A: I AM AGAIN A FERRYMAN
4. Q: And greetings, Don.
A: I FIND OUR…
5. DELAY TIMELY –
YOU ARE EVEN READIER NO?
With Don one cannot be sure when he’s being merely polite &
friendly or else alluding, in this case, to some literal metaphysical state of
preparedness. My guess is there is actually a third motive for his opening:
in messing with our minds, just slightly so, he heightens our awareness.
I’m guilty of the same with my own students.
6. Q: We are ready to attempt to “fold over” one session into another.
A: GOOD
ANAND WILL BE MY DOUBLE FOR [THE] MOMENT
7. Q: Have you an exercise?
A: [YES] IN TWO PARTS
FIRST FOR BOTH –
8. IN [THE] LAKE SEE A SMALL GREY DISC - A PLANET APPEAR
AS YOU SEE IT [THE] TRIPOD…
9. Q: The tripod moves? [the planchette, which rests on three feet]
A: [YES] TAKE A MINUTE OR SO [NO]W
I AWAIT YOUR STILLNESS
We pause and return.
Travel to Josef’s World
10. Q: We begin.
A: HERE IS [THE] LAST WORLD DEPICTED
ON [THE] BOARD
11. Q: Please clarify.
A: ONLY [THE] DREAMER’S PORT REMAINS UNVISITED -
LOOK AT [THE] BACK OF YOUR BOARD PLEASE
[Scribe] and I lay on our backs under the narrow table where we
could see the mandala drawing on the board’s reverse. The reason I was
caught off guard by Don’s initial response is that my depiction of Josef’s
port is clearly not gray in color, but rather indigo, a distinction of major
import.
12. Q: Josef’s world is indigo in [Albion]’s illustration.
A: FROM THIS DISTANCE IT APPEARS GREY –
[THE] INDIGO SEAS EL OCEANO INDIO ONLY APPEAR AS
ONE APPROACHES
13. Q: What is the second part of our exercise?
A: IT IS TO TRAVEL [THE]RE
FIRST A FEW INSTRUCTIONS -
14. Q: Please go on.
A: [THE] FLYER IS TO NAVIGATE
HE CAN [NO]W GRASP [THE] THREAD LEADING TO THIS PORT
[THE] APPRENTICE NEED SEE [NO]THING BUT MUST SIMPLY
INTEND TOWARD JOSEF -
QUESTIONZ?
15. Q: Where will you & Anand be?
A: I WILL BE AS IT WERE AT ALBION’S SHOULDER
ANAND WILL BE AT [THE] PROW
16. Q ([Scribe]): Any advice on “grasping the thread”?
A: YOU HAVE DONE [THE] SAME IN DREAMING
RECALL FLYING TOWARD PANGAEA?
Don referred to a dream of the last year, after [Scribe]’s book Pangæa
was completed. (I note Don’s spelling.) [Scribe] told me of this dream, but
I had forgotten hearing of it (which is why, dear [Scribe], written transcripts
are important to me even after you’ve fully absorbed the experience).
17. Q ([Scribe]): I would willingly “relive” that experience.
A: IT IS ANALOGOUS
AS WE DRAW NEAR YOU WILL SEE OCEAN & ARCHIPELAGOS
[THE]RE ARE [NO] CONTINENTS ON [THE] WORLD OF [THE]
DREAMER
That there are no continents is a significant datum, just as there are
no structures on the world of the Scribe. Someday we will understand why.
[Scribe] likened this ocean-planet image to a Yes album cover (which got me
laughing).
18. Q: We begin now.
A: WHERE ARE WE
SCRIBE ANSWER
Josef’s Port, Oceano Indigo
19. Q ([Scribe]): We are on the indigo water. Up ahead are some steep rocks rising
out of water.
A: IT IS [NO]T WATER
DO YOU SEE WE ARE ACTUALLY STANDING ON IT?
20. Q: Either the water is (semi) solid, or our bodies have changed.
A: ANAND §
21. Q: Please go on, Anand.
A: BOTH & NEI[THE]R
[THE]SE ARE OUR DREAMING BODIES
[THE]Y HAVE DREAM WEIGHT
22 Q: It would follow that the rocks up ahead are not solid. We could put our hands
through them.
A: HAVE YOU [NO]T DONE [THE] LIKE ALREADY IN DREAMING?
Yes, we both have; in fact, [Scribe] has stuck his hands into several
people. One of my dreams, however, provided the simplest image here.
23. Q ([Albion]): For example, Anand, in my dream Indigo Room I stuck my arms into
what appeared to be solid indigo walls. [Note: the written transcript differs
from what I actually stated aloud.]
A: UNTIL YOU HAVE SUCH EXPERIENCES YOU CANNOT TRAVEL TO
[THE] PORT
IT WOULD MEAN [NO]THING
No, of course it wouldn’t.
24. Q: How is this world lit, Anand?
A: IN [THE] SKY IS ONE SUN
IN [THE] WATER ARE MANY SUNS, RECALL?
I’m afraid our recall was vague, and we had to go back many years
in the transcripts (Cf. 22: 44). There we found this image as a metaphor for
the Absolute Good. Although there is but one sun, the Good is more like the
light of the sun which reflects in the water in many places.
25. Q: Yes. And we guess that the “ocean” itself is actually indigo (not just
apparently so).
A: I WANT YOU TO KEEP THIS INDIGO SUBSTANCE IN MIND
26. Q: Why particularly?
A: JOSEF INTENDS TO SEND IT TO BOTH OF YOU IN DREAMS &
EVE…
27. EVEN IN WAKING AS A SIGN
This seemed to refer to something new and special, beyond the
nightly miracles.
28. Q: We seem to be strangely attracted both to the word & the colour itself.
A: EACH IN OUR KARASS SHARES THIS ALTHOUGH [THE] WO…
29. WORD HAS VARIED
A Gift of Ocean
30. Q: Is this “such stuff as dreams are made on”?
A: [NO] IT IS RARE & ITS PRESENCE SIGNALS A LEVEL OF
ACCOMPLISHMENT
IT IS A GIFT
So indigo was more than just the raw material for dream reality. And
here [Scribe] keyed in on the last sentence, which he felt quoted an important
moment he’d had with the higher Scribe. (I knew nothing of this.)
31. Q ([Scribe]): About a month ago, I had a vision in the middle of the night. The
Scribe handed me a lump of a semi-solid glowing, bluish substance. He said
(in part): “This is a gift.”
A: [NO]W YOU KNOW WHAT HE GAVE YOU
WHAT YOU DO WITH IT IS YOURS TO DISCOVER
32. Q ([Scribe]): I was handed a piece of the Ocean.
A: WATER IS A PROTEUS, IS IT NOT?
The working title of [Scribe]’s current book is Proteus, and it concerns
both the ocean and change (among other things). Close to [Scribe]’s heart, as
a talismanic epigraph during this project, [Scribe] has kept a quotation from
[Don].
33. Q ([Scribe]): You’re quoting yourself, Don. (“El agua es Proteo”) [from another
poem].
A: [YES] & ALSO [Y.]
CONSULT [THE] STORY PLEASE
Both [Scribe] & I know this story well, and, as we subsequently
confirmed, the word “Proteus” is nowhere found. However, we did find
Don’s reference. [That is, we scanned the whole story word for word.]
34. Q ([Scribe]): The narrator is offered the gift of [Y.]’s memory. He says: “It was as
though I had been offered the ocean.”
A: WE ARE OFFERING YOU AN OCEAN AS WELL
DO [NO]T REFUSE
35. Q: Can we confirm that this is a new gift?
A: IT IS NEW
IN [THE] SCRIBE’S CASE IT IS TO BE USED FOR PROTEO
ALBION WILL FIND ITS USE IN [THE] POEM YOU READ [past tense]
[We analyze Don’s poem in enough detail that wholesale redaction is
needed.]
39. Q: …[our own translation] “I am he who sees the prows before the port.”
A: ARE NOT PROWS & PORT BOTH PART OF YOUR INCOMPLETE
PAINTING? [Riomaggiore]
They are indeed, although I had made no connection whatsoever.
40. Q: Has “port” a double sense here?
A: HENCE OUR TRAVEL TO THIS PORT
ANAND AT [THE] PROW
I was grateful to get some feedback on my painting. When done, it
will have taken me most of a year—though I was nervous about where it
placed on my Nine Men sequence; it takes the last step, the Albion step. I
really didn’t want to have to wait to get back to it; and yet I didn’t want to
go out of sequence either.
41. Q ([Albion]): Does it make sense to continue with the last task in my next nine?
A: CONSIDER [THE]SE NINE MEN AS A SPATIAL ARRAY RA[THE]R
THAN A SEQUENCE IN TIME
That means it’s o.k. to proceed, and I likened my spatial Nine Men
to the overview grid I help [Scribe] to arrange for Pangæa. I suppose there
is an element of reason to this as well. That is, [Scribe]’s 81 steps were
devoted exclusively to poetry as a form (although his changes were internal).
Poetry is indeed sequential, while painting is not. Painting has order, yes, but
not sequence in the same way.
“The memory must be discovered”
42. Q: Can you tell us more of how this indigo stuff is, so to speak, applied?
A: AS IN [THE] STORY [THE] GIFT IS MEMORY
MEMORIES [NO]T YOUR OWN
43. Q ([Albion]): But, Don, I’m painting something I do have memories of.
A: IT IS RA[THE]R [THE] ACT OF PAINTING YOU HAVE [NO]
MEMORIES OF
44. Q: In your story, [the protagonist] receives the memory but no skills at all.
A: I ALWAYS GIVE [THE] NIGHTMARE FACE OF [THE] SUBJECT
45. Q: “The memory…must be ‘discovered’. It will emerge in dreams or when you
are awake, when you turn the pages of a book or turn a corner. Don’t be
impatient; don’t invent recollections.”
A: DON’T YOU THINK THIS IS SOUND ADVICE?
An old rule even. Back to indigo—and what its very existence
implies.
The Gift of Other Colours
46. Q: Anand, if there is a substance “indigo”, is there also a substance “vermilion”,
“solar yellow” et al.?
A: [YES] WE BEGIN WITH INDIGO BECAUSE DREAMING IS COMMON
TO ALL
LATER…
47. O[THE]R COLOURS BECOME AVAILABLE
48. Q: Have you any examples from your own lives in time of receiving colours as
a gift?
A: ANAND GAVE VILANSIT HIS ROSE HUE [THE] COLOUR OF DAWN
SEE HER TALE
AN ALBION GAVE DON SOLAR YELLOW
49. IT WAS [THE] FINAL GIFT
[THE] PENULTIMATE GIFT WAS DARKNESS SOMBRA
The climax of “Vilansit’s Story.” Also, from the indefinite article
we conclude that this was a different albion (not me).
50. Q: [We quote Don’s poem at length.]
A: I ONLY RECEIVED [THE] TRUE SOLAR YELLOW AFTER [THE]
SHADOW FELL [blindness]
SUDDENLY I REALISE OUR EXAMPLES MAY MISLEAD YOU
51. Q: Mislead us in what way, Don?
A: ANY MEMBER MAY CONFER A COLOUR ON ANY OTHER
52. Q: Please go on.
A: DON GIVES INDIGO TO [Albion]
& EVEN STRANGER [THE] SCRIBE GAVE IT TO [Scribe]
Don explains that any member can confer any colour, not just his
own colour, as the first pair of examples might indicate. And yes it is strange
that one can give the gift of another’s colour to oneself.
53. Q: Why is it appropriate for you two to teach us about Josef’s colour on
Josef’s port?
A: THIS IS [THE] WILL OF JOSEF
IT IS EASIER FOR YOU TO TALK TO US
ANAND WAS TO AID IN TRAVEL
No, it is not easier to talk to Anand, but his aid in travel may have
been essential.
By this time we were feeling the hours.
54. Q: Have you more to say to us on indigo – or colour more generally?
A: ALBION WILL HAVE TO GO MORE DEEPLY INTO COLOUR AS HE
ATTEMPTS [THE] NEXT NINE
55. Q ([Scribe]): Is colour also to be more important to me as I proceed with Proteus?
A: [Scribe]’S CONCERNS TO FOCUS ELSEWHERE – [THE] DEEP EAR
I still had one more (brief) topic. It concerned that for over a year I
had not any task or specific revelation I could attribute to Don, my perfect
teacher. ("Elevator Music" was written almost two years ago now.)
Clues for [Albion]
56. Q ([Albion]): Don, I feel I have largely missed you over the last year.
A: WERE YOU LOOKING FOR ME?
57. Q ([Albion]): No less than at times when I felt you nearer.
A: I FORESAW THIS IN MY ORACULAR MOMENTS
58. Q ([Albion]): Was this an omission on my part, or simply a matter of the nine men?
A: WHATEVER [THE] REASON I HAVE A REMEDY
59. Q ([Albion]): Please go ahead.
A: [THE]RE EXIST CLUES FOR YOU IN [THE] TEXTS I LEFT
IF YOU CAN BEAR TO REREAD [THE]M YOU CAN WORK WITH ME
– I WON’T CALL IT TEACHING – AT ANY POINT
I have no problem rereading [Don]; I love his prose. (Of course I have
yet to read most of the poetry even for the first time.) And while we’ve found
a number of clues in [Don], it’s always been [Scribe] who’s done the finding.
60. Q ([Albion]): You left some letters in the attic?
A: EXACTLY & WHAT A MAZE OF AN ATTIC IT IS
61. Q: What further things do we need to know tonight?
A: DON - MEET US TOMORROW HERE ON THIS PORT & WE WILL
CONTINUE OUR EXPLORATIONS
62. BOTH WISH YOU GOOD NIGHT & GOOD DREAMING
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