The Table of Contents below is too long to display fully. If you click to the right of these Lessons, you'll see the primary source documents displayed under each. These original sessions are a world treasure.
albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (12.1)
SESSION 67: 1ST NIGHT, 7/29/01
[Scribe]’s flight got in at dinnertime, and we closed C. Restaurant before arriving home around 10:00 PM, 1:00 AM [Scribe]’s time. Apparently [Scribe] hadn’t left T. Bar & Restaurant until 4:00 AM the night before, so he was operating on little rest. I recall we went right to work, knowing the session would be short.
Our invocation: a poem by [Don], translated by [Albion].
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: I AM IN [THE] LAKE AND BELOW [THE] STARZ
2. Q: Did we understand you correctly: “in the lake”?
A: I AM TONIGHT’S EXERCISE IN SIGHT
The lake, our grotto, our meeting place. [Guide] does not address
our question on prepositions, but jumps immediately into a visualization
exercise. In the past, of course, we have been asked each evening to picture
a scene or symbol, a pyramid or arch. Yet here our daimonic butterfly
seems to indicate that he isn’t just guiding us in the exercise; he is the
exercise itself.
The Butterfly Constellation
3. Q: Shall we try to see you, as our exercise in stillness?
A: I WANT YOU TO SEE A CONSTELLATN WE CALL [THE]
BUTTERFLY
4. Q: Please give us instructions.
A: SEE [THE] REFLECTED STARZ WHOSE…
5. POINTS SUGGEST
[THE] SHAPE OF [THE]…
6. Q: Butterfly?
A: TWO WINGS ABOVE ALL
Note the pun. Though [Scribe] undoubtedly caught it at the time, I
did not. Over the years our grotto has included several such constellations.
7. Q: The constellation is above us: we look down & see it, reflected in the
Lake?
A: EXACTLY & SLIGHTLY TREMBLED
8. Q: We hypothesize that the stars form roughly a quincunx. Confirm?
A: [YES] EIGHT TOTAL BUT FIVE ARE BRIGHTER
[Scribe] had to define “quincunx” for me. It’s five points arranged
in an “X” formation, the center and four tips.
9. Q: Do we begin now, or do you have further instructions?
A: NEARLY I…
10. Q: Sorry, [Scribe] could not read that.
A: MERELY LOOK DOWN [THE] STARZ WILL APPEAR NOW
11. Q: We begin.
A: OLD FRIENDS AWAIT YOU IN [THE] WINGS
§ DON
Another pun: Don, naturally.
12. Q: Hello, Don. We’ve missed you.
A: OUR STARS OCCUPY [THE] SAME PART OF HEAVENS
Don quotes [Guide] from 1990, Session 6: 43.
Considering Among the Stars
13. Q: Eight stars: the eight of us?
A: YOURS & JANES ARE…
14. FAINTER AS YOU ARE STILL IN TIME
& SHE HAS TIME TO COME
15. Q: We think we can guess the pattern. [Guide] is near the center.
A: HE IS SO TO SPEAK OUR GUEST STAR
A PLANET OCCUPYING OUR CONSTELLATION?
Puns double the content. Don refers to [Guide]’s being a member
of our mandala, but not a member of our karass. Recall, daimones must
work “outside their sphere.”
16. Q: [Albion] & [Scribe] see themselves as the fainter antennae.
A: ANTENNAE WHICH MUST LEARN TO SENSE & RECE[ive]
17. Q: Confirm “receive”.
A: [YES] & ALSO TO FEEL
CONSIDER -
18. SEEING ENERGIES BY DAY
RECEIVING DREAMS AT NIGHTS
FEELING THE ALIAH OF OTHERS
19. Q: Primary, but difficult, tasks.
A: [YES] AND NATURALLY OUR TOPICS IN [THE] NIGHTS TO COME
CONSIDERING AMONG [THE] STARS
The grammar seemed off: I took “considering” for a participle; it is
in fact a gerund.
20. Q: Please continue.
A: AN ETYMOLOGY I AM FOND OF
[Scribe] had no trouble remembering: “con” = “with”; “sidera” =
“stars,” as in “sidereal.”
21. Q: “Consider” = “among the stars” (Latin), mentioned in [a lecture by Don].
A: ILLUMINATING [THE] ETYMOLOGY IS OUR WORK TO COME
22. Q ([Scribe]): What is super sidera (above the stars)?
A: [THE] JEWEL IS ABOVE [THE] STARS
23. Q: To return to the butterfly, our four teachers are the cardinal points.
A: EXACTLY IN [THE] SENSE OF BEING BASIC POINTS OF
REFERENCE
24. Q: Last year, Josef spelled out a curriculum for us in advance. Are you to do
the same this year?
A: I THINK IT IS MORE AMUSING SIMPLY TO LET [THE] PLAY
UNFOLD MISHAPS & ALL
Recall, the previous year’s agenda had been disrupted by my
sudden, violent illness, fortunately short-lived. We assumed, therefore,
from this response that Don was referring largely to this earlier event. We
could not know—as in retrospect our friends clearly did—what mishap lay
in store for us at the end of our upcoming week.
25. Q: This is our now-traditional short session. Have you other words for us
before we close for the night?
A: FORGET DON & CONSIDER [THE] WATERZ FALLING AWAY
AS WE SPEAK OUR FAREWELLS
26. Q: Good night then, Don. And good night, [Guide].
A: GOOD NIGHT - DON
I AM ABOVE YOU TILL TOMORROW - [Guide]