​​​​albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (13.2)

SESSION 72:  6TH NIGHT, 8/3/01                         

            Another S/Div day, modeled on the first.  Again we made speckled yogurt smoothies. Again we hurried to the same parking space above [the college’s] northern beach—and smoked.  And again we walked the length of the beach and retraced most of the same paths we’d walked before, including primarily the newly-discovered bluff and the side trail just above the creek bridge.  There were, of course, important differences between the two S/Div days, making each its own event.
            First, I don’t think we just quite had as strong an experience, which disappointed me slightly.  (Then again, that part of me which could feel disappointment is precisely the many-minded noisy part I wanted to still.)  There were indeed important moments of stillness, but the cricket, detached from these experiences, connected only the noise between. Nonetheless, I recall an  overcast day, the colors quite subdued.  We brought rain gear; but leaving the car, we decided rain was unlikely, so our umbrellas (et al.) remained behind.  I noticed how the green forest was not really very green, but rather dull.  We hit the beach, whereupon I (I think [Scribe], too) was “hit” by a hanging madrone, particularly its deep orange bark.  This struck me as a clear beholding experience in the colour orange.  Much further down the beach was another madrone which, while it didn’t quite grab me the same way, seemed to reinforce the initial orange experience.  Together we studied the contrasting oranges and greens in bark and leaves.  The bluff was not particularly remarkable in the absence of sun and color.  We smoked and noticed (rather abruptly) that it was raining across the inlet.  I knew the rain was coming our way.  
            And then it was upon us.  This caused initial consternation, but we didn’t seem too wet in the trees; and there was no way to get our gear in any event. [Scribe] took a brief stroll down the path, while I had an absent moment which culminated in an amazing sight:  a tree, a great maple, many-trunked and distant in the darkened forest, which, along with a couple of neighbors, seemed to hold up the forest itself. That is, a forest consists of many trees; but I had no idea how dominant one tree could be.  I showed [Scribe] and then immediately raced to track it down (about 150 yards away).  Earlier we had talked about finding a power tree; I felt this could be one (except I saw it from so far away).  Finding the actual tree proved harder than I thought, though not hard.  It appeared initially that what I took for one tree may have been several disconnected trees along my line of sight.  But then we found a truly great tree, five trunks in all, although one of them a snag.  [Scribe] found what he felt to be the tree’s navel—for it had to be a power tree—and went to touch it, whereupon he found the spot “beheld” a beehive!  [Scribe] jumped back, very allergic to bees, while I remained close. The rain intensified, and we moved on.
            Later on our journey we took a side-path, one we had not taken on our first S/Div day, and found ourselves at the creek, where both of us were equally “grabbed” by orange again:  This time it was a needle-covered space on the forest floor which appeared almost to glow in a subtle orange beauty.  In actuality, there were as many green needles as orange (dead) ones, but the scene was so dominated by the one colour in contrast.  No sooner had we commented than we found our first (and only) plastic ball.  Of course it was orange.  It should be stated again for the record that this was a different spot from where we’d earlier been, and interestingly those other spots seemed to have “lost” their plastic balls.  
            Shortly after this experience we had another, non-S/Div, event worth mentioning.  Walking north, we suddenly heard at our backs a loud rush of wind and rain.  I’d never heard anything quite like it before.  It came at us with total intensity and inevitability.  Suddenly we were in a downpour, one powerful enough to soak us regardless of where we stood.  The thickest cedars were soon dripping; the dry path became a muddy obstacle course.  It was quite dramatic.[Scribe] was not happy, especially in his streaked glasses and no hat (I wore contacts suspecting rain).  We hurried home.
            Arriving, three miles distant, I helped [my wife] in the front pasture load some wood, as the sun beamed and steam rose from everywhere.  I say this to document the brevity of the weather, as well as the brevity of S/Div.  Later, I napped while [Scribe] discovered the benefits of S/Div tea and enjoyed the stillness of our back property in bright sun and shadow.  He declared this subsequent experiment to be a success.

            One note before going on:  After these sessions, on 8/8/01, I made the remaining S/Div into my own tea and ran (literally) over to [the same campus forest]. (What an awful taste!  No, sugar did not help.)  I don’t think I had quite enough S/Div to sense much, although I did have an interesting series of visuals.  What I wish to report here, however, is that I returned, naturally, to the bluff, where the Sound is indeed particularly beautiful.  And from that spot I returned to where I had first spotted the great maple six days prior, where, to my surprise, I could not even distinguish it!  Clearly, the time of day and lighting make a huge difference from this perspective.  What had been so awesome as to have me run 150 yards in the forest, tree-hunting, now was utterly invisible.  After walking the trail to where I knew it was located, I did attempt to see the tree at its base, of course; and I had some success feeling its pull & draw and watching its incessant bees at work.

            Regarding our evening, [Scribe] & I had a clear agenda of three items:  the S/Div day, debrief & learn what we could from & about The Yes-&-No Game, and specifically address the [FLOWER] responses, those which indicated we should “ask later in these sessions.”  The Yes-&-No Game, we knew, was necessarily an exercise in two parts (play, then discuss).

            Our invocation:  [Scribe’s own], “Snowflake” from 4 Blue on Green Street.

  1.       Q:        [Guide], are you there?
            A:        [YES]   I  & DON & ANAND AWAIT YOU -
                                    EXERCISE?

  2.       Q:       We guess:  see the YES star, the CUP star and the planet ◊ that is almost  

                       on the diagonal between them. 
            A:       [YES]   DON & ANAND &  I  AWAIT YOU AFTER STILLNESS ◊

                                   [Scribe] wrote down the question before consulting with me, and I  

                       was briefly surprised by his star alignment.  A diagonal is not something I

                       would have considered.

  3.       Q:       We begin now.
            A:       DON IS HIGHER
                    ANAND IS LOWER
                    I  AM

                                   [Scribe] questioned whether this, like many of these sessions’

                       responses, was incomplete.  Aware only of the feel of each message, I

                       insisted otherwise.  [Guide] signed off with the proper left-&-down motion.

  4.       Q:       Greetings, Anand.  We have not yet spoken to you directly.
            A:       I  HAVE BEEN ADDRESSING INDIRECTLY FROM BELOW   [CUP]

On The Yes-&-No Game

  5.       Q:       Don, it’s good to talk to you again.  As [Albion] mentioned (orally), we

                       enjoyed last night’s game.
            A:       [YES]   A LITTLE CHANGE   [NO]?

  6.       Q:       We know you do nothing in vain, so we offer twin hypotheses on the game.
                       1)  Its minimal language suggests our new emphasis on stillness.
            A:       [YES]   MUCH CAN BE LEARNED FROM LITTLE MEANS

  7.       Q:       2)  The game is an image of—or even example of—one’s speech with a

                       higher “daimon”:  eg. [Albion]’s speech with Albion.
            A:       [YES]   DO BEGIN SIMPLY  & LET [THE] LARGER THINGS FOLLOW

                                   Recall I had been advised to begin my conversation with Albion at

                       the simplest level:  yes/no, now/later—certainly not complete sentences.

  8.       Q ([Albion]):  Do you suggest an acoustic conversation with Albion?
            A:       [YES]   WITH [THE] FOLLOWING PROVISO

Talking with Albion

  9.       Q ([Albion]):  Namely?
            A:       PUT [THE] TWO STARS BEFORE YOUR INWARD EYE  

                       & REINFORCE  [THE]  ACOUSTIC [YES] WITH [THE] [YES] STAR -
                       SEE & HEAR AT ONCE - BE DOUBLY SURE

10.       Q ([Albion]):  To be doubly sure:  reinforce NO with the  [NO] star.
            A:       EXACTLY   & THIS IS ACTUALLY EASIER THAN RELYING

                                   ON A  SINGLE SENSE

11.       Q:       [Albion]’s voices, according to Josef, are to subside for now, but may he  

                       begin “at will” on his Yes-&-No game with Albion?
            A:       [YES]   IT WILL AID HIM AT ONCE

                                   This question illustrates a subtle shift in our questioning process

                       during these last few sessions.  Starting primarily with the Yes-&-No Game,

                       but continuing this night as well, the process of formulating and phrasing

                       questions properly became much more challenging.  These were just tougher

                       subjects to get a grip on, especially when the answer was to be so minimal.  I

                       often voiced aloud my thoughts, in my standard monotone monologue,

                       whereupon [Scribe] phrased the question succinctly. What was new to the

                       process was that it soon became easier to have [Scribe] then voice the question

                       orally.  In the past, that is, I would look over [Scribe]’s written question and

                       then try to repeat it aloud from memory.  This often led to my rambling and

                       sometimes to differences between the oral and written versions.  Now, with

                       our questions occasionally reaching small paragraph length, I just let [Scribe]

                       do the asking—even, as in this case, when the question referred solely to me.

12.       Q:       Is there anything else you wish to say at this moment about last night’s game?
            A:       FINALLY YOU ARE LOOKING AT YOUR OWN ROLES AND

                                   INTERPRETING   RATHER THAN BEING TOLD – 
                       ISN’T IT…
13.                                     TIMELY?

                                   Before I could read the response, [Scribe] quoted the punchline from

                       one of our long-running jokes:  
                                   Q:  “What’s the secret of all good joke-telling?”          
                                   A:  (too abruptly) “Timing!”

The Board as an Attic

14.       Q:       Yes & No.  We did not choose our graphic symbols.
            A:       [YES]  YOU DID & YOU ASKED US TO INCLUDE [THE]M

                                   AS [THE]Y ARE ON [THE] BOARD CIRCLE -
                       YOU LEFT [THE]M FOR…

15.       Q:       “…Yourselves to discover”?
            A:       [YES]    [THE] BOARD IS A[NO][THE]R  ATTIC

                                   So, as logic should have indicated long ago, the board is an inspired

                       artifact, one which contains much information we still don’t understand.

                       Outside of time we left it to & for ourselves in time.

16.       Q:       If follows that we placed other symbols on the board for purposes we have

                       not yet discovered.
            A:       [YES]    [THE] SCRIBE PLACED LETTERS
                       ALBION ASSIGND COLOURS

17.       Q:       The vowels on the board are not coloured.
            A:       [YES]   ALBION MADE [THE] DETERMINATION TO LEAVE [THE]M

                                   OPEN AND APPARENTLY NEUTRAL

                                   For the record, despite its appearance the calendar photo which 

                       occupies the board’s interior (Oregon’s Sandy River in snow) is indeed a  

                       color photograph.  I know this only because I studied it carefully before

                       cropping and inserting it; no color today is visible.  At the time, by the way,

                       I chose little color for the board’s interior because I felt it could be distracting.

18.       Q:       The area between YES and NO is (apparently) neutral.
            A:       [YES]   & YOU ASKED FOR YOURSEVES IN TIME TO BE PLACED

                                   BETWEEN YOUR TE[eachers]…         [sic]

19.       Q:       Is there anything we should now know about I?
            A:       IT IS NOT TIME FOR I OR O OR A -   LATER

20.       Q:       O and A are also persons?
            A:       [YES]   &    [NO] 

                                   We never queried after O or A, but obviously their status is most

                       interesting.  We took a break, and returning, did not pick back up with our

                       game’s debriefing.  S/Div, of course, was another clear agenda item, and we

                       wanted to include Anand in our sessions.

21.       Q:       Anand, with all respect, you are the hardest for us to address at the board.

                       Nonetheless we think we see connections between today’s S/Div experience

                       and counsel you might give us.
            A:       I  AM GLAD TO FERRY YOU ALONG

Advice on S/Div

22.       Q:       We’ve established the following.  S/Div’s excellence lies in promoting

                       Steps 1 & 3 (of the Lore of Colours):  1) beholding colours, and

                       3) becoming still.
            A:       [YES]   &  NOTICE [THE] GAP -
                       WHERE IS MEMORY?

23.       Q:       Does S/Div provide any help with Step 2, embodying?
            A:       NOT AS SUCH -
                       THIS MUST BE PROVIDED BY YOU    

                       HENCE [THE] NEED FOR PRACTICE

24.       Q:       It seems so simple:  eg. today, orange object in “orange” pocket.
            A:       IDEALLY ALL ONE SWIFT GESTURE
                       IN FACT IT REQUIRES PRACTICE   AS DREAMING DOES

Power Trees & S/Div

25.       Q ([Scribe]):  Can you confirm my experience of today?  S/Div may be an aid to

                      seeing power trees.
            A:      [YES] &  I  ADVISE YOU TO REMEM…
26.                                                                                   BER THIS ANCIENT PRACTICE
                      [THE] TREE AWAITS

27.       Q:      Is it time for [Albion] to identify power trees on his own?
            A:      IT IS WITHIN HIS ABILITIES NOW  [YES]   IF HE MAINTAINS

                                  STILLNESS

28.       Q:      Will you confirm [Albion]’s intuition about today’s tree (that he located a

                      power tree)?
            A:      [NO]   BECAUSE [Albion] IS TO RAISE THIS ISSUE WITH

                                  ALBION BY HIMSELF

                                  I felt I was being assigned my first Albion-task:  Ask Albion via the

                      [YES] & [NO] dialogue for confirmation.  (I was mistaken.)

29.       Q:      Is there anything you would like to address regarding today?
            A:      [YES]   IT IS [THE] PRESENCE OF SUNLIGHT AS AN AID TO

                                  STILLNESS 
                      IT INVOLVES [THE] IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT & SHADOWS

                                  Recall from my day’s summary that our time spent at [the college]

                      was overcast, although [Scribe]’s later (tea) experiment did include light &

                      shadow.
                                  Here, however, we also have a clue.

30.       Q:      Rain, however, is an acoustic aid to growing still.  (The sound of rain is

                      calming to us.)
            A:      [YES]   BUT S/DIV SPEAKS TO [THE] EYE RA[THE]R THAN EAR

                                  We return to our debriefing.

E Facing A

31.       Q:      We were just speaking of layers or simultaneous modes of consciousness. The

                      symbol E suggests these parallel layers or levels.
            A:      IT DOES - AS WELL AS [THE] DIRECTEDNESS OF ATTENTION
                      FACE A [NO]T I  FOR INSTANCE

32.       Q ([Scribe]):  “Facing A suggests to me:  Facing the beginning (A, alpha).
            A:      [YES]   ALSO FACING A [CUP]

33.       Q ([Scribe]):  The cup is your symbol, Anand.  [You are first in my nine men.]
            A:      I  AM YOUR ALPHA    AM  I  [NO]T?

34.       Q ([Scribe]):  Our roles differ, but [Anand & I] share the idea of immersion [in the]

                      river.
            A:      [YES]   IMMERSION AS A MODE OF INTENT
                      E  TOWARDS  A

                                  I noted that if A, on the right, is alpha, then O, on the left, is omega. 

                      [Scribe] then showed how our vowels, when viewed in this reverse order,

                      correspond exactly to those in Rimbaud’s synesthetic poem “Vowels,”  one of

                      just a few Rimbauds [Scribe] has translated.  At first this seemed to me to be

                      pure coincidence; but once I realized that the board’s letters were truly our

                      arrangement, I saw the connection was fully deliberate. What was indeed

                      coincidental—rather “a circle observed”—was how synesthesia as a discussion

                      topic, without prior planning, had become a running theme this year,

                      particularly our close listening of Scriabin’s unique work The Fire of

                      Prometheus, a work composed for orchestra & color-producing instrument

                      (I forget the exact term). 

35.       Q:      Don, might [a composer’s] Lore of Colours correspond to—or be interpreted

                      by him—as a lore of pitches in the musical scale?
            A:      CONSIDER THAT [THE] TONE A WOULD HAVE TO BE AS ABSOLUTE

                                  & UNEQUIVOCAL AS  SAY YELLOW

                                  “Unequivocal” here, when parsed into components, deepens Don’s

                      meaning.  [Scribe] wrote down the follow-up… question below, but then I

                      articulated what came to me in a single insight, but what here seems rather

                      lengthy.  After I finished, [Scribe] immediately turned to this new subject.

A Story of Vowels

36.       Q:      [censored, though not relevant to what follows]
                      Will you now consider with us a possible insight in the “Lore of Vowels” on

                      our board:  O - U - I - E - A ?
            A:      [YES]   LET US CONSIDER TOGE[THE]R 
                      PLEASE BEGIN WITH O

37.       Q:      Consider O as the world-set.  Creation as imagined, as conceptualized.
            A:      O SUGGESTS IDEALITY
                      [THE]RE ARE NO PERFECT CIRCLES IN ACTUALITY

                                  [Scribe] had just read my opening to “Don Carlos y Yo”, a parody,

                      where UCLA professor, Carlos Castaneda, draws two perfect circles.  Don

                      alludes. 

38.       Q:      U is overview:  a survey of (as yet) abstract possibility.
            A:      U A FIGURE FOR [THE] DEMIURGIC MIND?
                      ALBION IN BLAKE    HIGH PLACE

39.       Q:      I is descent:  an arrow of intention downward (into material, perhaps):
            A:      ALMOST ALCHEMICAL?
                      INTENT ABOVE   & MATERIA[l]  BELOW
                      [YES]   [CUP] A VESSEL OF TRANSFORMATION

40.       Q:      Now we are immersed.  E is exploration of materials:  work on parallel levels.
            A:      EACH E IS INDIVIDUAL   AND FACES ITS OWN OBJECTS

41.       Q:      A is enactment (Goethe:  “In the Beginning was the Deed.”)  A is “planted”: 

                      it is “standing astride the width.”  (Ian Anderson)
            A:      O IS ALL   BUT A IS ACTUALITY
                      IT IS INFINITELY SMALLER   & YET APPEARS TO BE EVERYTHING

                                  THAT IS

42.       Q:      What do you think of [Albion]’s omega-to-alpha story?
            A:      IT IS SUCH A STORY AS  I  USED TO TELL MYSELF
                      RECALL  OUR BUTTERFLY-SHAPED THOUGHTS?
                      O SUGGESTS A       I  AGREE

                                  I feel I must have flown a bit to have captured this insight.  No doubt,

                      however, other stories & interpretations still lay (& lie) buried.  We turned now

                      to our last [FLOWER] (unresolved) issues, at least the last we remembered to

                      ask about.  [Here, as a ma’at master, I need to balance my Big revelations with

                      those that don’t quite measure up. To my knowledge this is the last time my

                      story here is ever mentioned.]

43.       Q:      Don, you and the others indicated last night that one ought to “ask more

                      fully” about E  as exercise.
            A:      I  HAVE AN EXERCISE FOR E  BASED ON [THE] CLUES WE HAVE

                                  GIVEN
                      LET E TELL US WHERE [THE] NEXT E GIFT COMES FROM
                      DONT FORGET TO ASK U

44.       Q ([Scribe]):  I relish the exercise and would like to review the clues and announce

                      my guess tomorrow.  Will that be satisfactory?
            A:      IT IS   & WE ALL WILL ASSEMBLE

                                  That is, our teachers were building the suspense:  Who would be the

                      next gift-giver?  [Scribe] would have to guess on the next night, having

                      consulted with me; and, significantly, clues had been strewn throughout the

                      sessions which would aid us in our guess.  Although I have noted these clues

                      in the commentary, this was at the time a revelation to us:  We had not noticed

                      anything up to this point.
                                  Recall, during the afternoon I had napped while [Scribe] had “drunk

                      tea.”

45.       Q:      [Scribe] is tired.  So we both ask if there is anything further we need to know

                      tonight.
            A:      WE WERE HERE TONIGHT FOR YOUR STORIES  RATHER

                                   THAN OURS -

                      ANAND &  I  BID YOU GOOD NIGHT

                      – DON [YES]


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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​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.