albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (14.7)
SESSION 78: 4TH NIGHT, 11/4/02
Not an easy day for me, since I had to arise early, get Deirdre off to school, finalize sub-plans, attend to the Sears guy who installed the new range-top, grocery shop for dinners with [Scribe], and then retrieve Deirdre back from school. All went fine, but there was a toll; and I knew I’d be paying a cumulative toll over the days to come.
Before sitting down to the board, [Scribe] and I reviewed not only the previous night’s work, but last year’s YES-&-NO game session. It was valuable for us to see again how such a conversation proceeds: what’s successful, what proves less so. No question that this time together was not only beneficial, it was, in fact, already time at the board: we were doing the essential boardwork such a game entails, only we were sitting just a few feet away in the relative comfort of my living room.
Our invocation: the 23rd Psalm.
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: [YES] I AM ◊ I ◊ I
The ◊ represents [Guide]’s own symbol in the game (diamond/daimon).
2. Q: We know tonight is the game. What Exercise will aid us?
A: IT IS YOUR NIGHT OF FACING ASTERN
SEE [THE] K MEMBERS & ME
JANE IS PRESENT AS [at?] POSITION V [“s” & “t” are adjacent; both fit]
3. Q: Are we to see I?
A: [NO] ONLY OUR CIRCLE
4. Q: Is V now a possible response (as [CUP] & [FLOWER] are)?
A: § JANE
In our previous game [CUP] denoted “cannot say” (for whatever reason) while [FLOWER] meant “ask more later.”
5. Q: Yes, Jane?
A: I AM GOING TO ADD MY SIGN AS AN ACCENT MEANING THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR OUR LESSONS ON FEELING
6. Q: Are the rules the same otherwise?
A: [YES] BEGIN AFTER YOU VISUALIZE OUR BUTTERFLY [THE] ANTENNAE
U E
[YES] [NO]
◊
V
[FLOWER] [CUP]
8. Q: We begin now.
A: [YES] & [NO]
I ◊ I
Our most obvious line of questioning was to return to topics first (and perhaps uniquely) addressed at last year’s Yes-&-No Game, particularly the encoding and arrangement of other members at our board. Yes, we’d heard something about I, but both A and O remained mysterious. Additionally, it seemed clear that just as E faces A, but U does not face O, we’d be dipping into our new topics of asymmetry.
9. Q: E faces A. Is A, inter alia, a member of the karass?
A: [YES]
10. Q: Is A currently living?
A: [YES]
This really surprised me. Although [Scribe] & I had discussed our line of questioning extensively and had mapped out several different approaches, this was one question I had not remotely considered. And then a “yes”!?! Already we’d hit paydirt, and I knew we were about to find out something quite important, encoded in our board, hidden all these years.
11. Q: Is A someone that E is acquainted with?
A: [YES] & [CUP]
12. Q: Does A raise in a deep way the problem of one’s willingness to be faced?
A: [YES] & [NO]
13. Q: Are E’s radii at present for the most part aligned?
A: [YES]
We found out at last year’s game that [Scribe]’s ideal configuration takes the form of the letter E, meaning (somehow) that three “radii” radiate from him at different vertical levels (creating an asymmetry) and that furthermore these radii ideally should be “aligned,” which, I assume, means on parallel vectors facing A. I personally claim little understanding of this, especially since this is not my own ideal; but [Scribe] made this alignment his last year’s principle task and seems quite at ease with these metaphors.
14. Q: Does it follow that E now faces something that he could not have faced last year when the radii were not aligned?
A: [YES]
15. Q: Is A the object (or one of the objects) that E currently faces?
A: [YES]
16. Q: Does A raise, for E, the vital issue of “feeling the aliah of others”?
A: [YES]
17. Q: Does A face E?
A: [NO]
18. Q: Is the fact that the letter A graphically appears to stand sturdily on its two legs something you want us to notice?
A: [YES]
On our board the shape of the letter A is exaggerated, broader and rounder and stronger, than that which I can show here. Why? I can only say that when I made the board I copied [Scribe]’s letters -- on our first draft -- as closely as possible. I cannot say why [Scribe] chose -- in a matter of seconds -- this particular font.
19. Q: Is it significant in the present context that A is the first letter of the alphabet?
A: [YES]
[Scribe] had moved quickly through the program, so to speak; but he was slowly running out of obvious questions. I suggested we move to O, where easy questions yet remained, hoping that some answers there might generate new avenues.
20. Q: Is O a member of the karass?
A: [YES]
21. Q: Is O currently living?
A: [YES]
Not a hard question to formulate after learning A’s current status. Here the symmetry was preserved, and one or two tasks were clarifying.
22. Q: Is O someone U is acquainted with?
A: [NO] [CUP]
No symmetry here.
Note: Here the numbering goes off. In the original transcripts there are two #22’s.
23. Q: Is the position of ObehindU something you want us to notice?
A: [YES] [YES] [YES]
Thrice affirmative for emphasis. Yet wasn’t Jane’s symbol supposed to serve as the exclamatory function? (Yes, but only regarding “lessons on feeling,” although I’m not sure there is a distinction here.)
24. Q: Therefore O raises, for U, the vital problem of sensing?
A: [YES] V
There’s our first Jane-mark.
25. Q: Does O face U?
A: [CUP]
Hmm… As we discussed at the board, this response means “cannot say” and doesn’t necessarily mean we hit the censor.
26. Q: Is E acquainted with O?
A: [NO]
27. Q: Don told us [last year] that we represented I on the board in order to remember him. Did we similarly represent O & A in the central band [of vowels] in order to encode their importance to us?
A: [YES] [FLOWER]
28. Q: Especially their importance to us in time?
A: [YES] V
29. Q: O and A at this moment suggest specific tasks (sensing, facing) for U & E respectively?
A: [YES]
30. Q: These letters are to remind us, inter alia, of an agenda.
A: [YES]
31. Q: Are there other letters on the board that encode other tasks for us?
A: [YES]
32. Q: I is unique in the central band in that we used the symbol to encode an absence.
A: [YES]
33. Q: Does I also encode a warning to ourselves?
A: [YES]
34. Q: Does the warning specifically have to do with seeing the aliah of others?
A: [YES] & [NO]
35. Q: Did I break the vow E & U took years ago?
A: [YES]
36. Q: Is it significant that we learn the above at the same moment that we are learning of our tasks vis à vis O and A?
A: [YES] [FLOWER]
Credit [Scribe] again for connecting proscribed aliah-seeing to I to our tasks in time. I knew, of course, I had fallen, but I had not considered the possibility that he might have abused his gifts in this fashion.
37. Q: Is the letter V’s position on the board with respect to I something you want us to notice?
A: [YES]
38. Q: Is Jane’s expertise on fear connected to her relation to I?
A: [NO]
I suppose I felt some relief at this, although it’s easy to magnify one’s fears within near-total ignorance. Not knowing how to continue here, we did note that Jane is not actually directly below I; she technically lies just to the right, paired along the board’s y-axis with the letter W.
39. Q: Is W a person?
A: [YES]
40. Q: Does W’s position adjacent to V represent something important to Jane?
A: [YES]
41. Q: Should we inquire further about this?
A: [NO] [CUP]
42. Q: An aside: The symmetrical letters are of special importance to us. Does this include letters exhibiting rotational symmetries, such as N, Z and S?
A: [YES] [FLOWER]
43. Q: Are O and U engaged in what Anand last night called “a silent conversation”?
A: [YES] V
44. Q: This is a conversation of particular relevance, or immediate pertinence, to O and U?
A: [YES]
45. Q: Is it a task for E to discover the identity of A?
A: [YES]
46. Q: Is it a task for U to discover (by sensing) the identity of O?
A: [YES] & [NO]
Here we were getting to some important tasks, finding other k members in the world. I forget the exact moment, but it may have been at this time in the game when suddenly I knew who O was! I had but a few good clues, the sum of which could not possibly have added up to my deep suspicion. I can’t really say even now how I knew; however, I wouldn’t, for the record, call such a spontaneous insight a “task.”
I said nothing initially, thinking wish-fulfillment to be more likely than the truth. Not to spoil the narrative, I leave the unveiling for Appendix A.
47. Q: We hypothesize: you are indicating to U the importance of the task & skill of sensing. We are not yet ready to learn an exact “expected” outcome. Is this correct?
A: [NO]
48. Q: Is it the case that O has something particular to teach U?
A: [YES]
49. Q: Is it the case that U cannot receive this teaching if he does not work on sensing?
A: [YES]
50. Q: This mode represents a new channel for learning?
A: [YES] V
51. Q: Does E have something particular to teach A?
A: [YES]
52. Q: We recently learned that it takes more than two points to “make a line” when it comes to facing. We need the “carrier wave” of energy (represented by [Guide]). Confirm?
A: [YES]
53. Q: Analogously, the day task (receiving) and night task (dreaming) need to be supplemented by a third thing: “feeling the aliah of others.” Confirm?
A: [YES]
54. Q: So is it appropriate to extend the illustration thus: Jane is facing Vilansit (day mode); Vilansit looks off into the dark lake (night mode); the butterfly represents the aliah of joining.
A: [YES]
The last three questions were entirely [Scribe]’s, so much so that I really barely recall his asking them. Aside from the fact that they are longer -- requiring him both to write & voice them (while I sat waiting) -- my mind was pacingly preoccupied with the identity of O. I could not lay the issue aside.
55. Q: U is not acquainted with O. Is U acquainted with O’s work?
A: [YES]
56. Q: In light of this, is it time for Duncan to tell [Scribe] what he is thinking?
A: [NO]
57. Q: We’ve learned a great deal from this game. We guess that you are wishing us good night.
A: [YES] [NO]
◊
V
[FLOWER] [CUP]
Each signs off; and because [Scribe] in the original transcripts showed the diagram above, I can’t say here what order our friends went in. (I was aware only that the planchette was all over the board.)