albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (15.4)
SESSION 86: 4TH NIGHT, 8/7/03
Our invocation: “Blake” by Jorge Luis Borges (translated by Robert Mezey).
10:08 PM
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: I AM COME INTO…
2. [THE] MIDDLE OF [THE] CIRKLE
Following the previous days’ precedent, we decided to check in with [Guide] on our riddle work.
3. Q: We are missing (but have thought about) the middle of our line. “ac…ca.”
A: I I I [vertical, indefinite, illegible]
4. I AM HERE TO HELP
5. Q: We’re guessing the line can be read in two ways:
1) from the center out (both to the right & left)
2) as a story in five steps (left to right)
A: GOOD GUESS
[THE] RESPONSE FITS BOTH [YES]
That’s all we were after, mere confirmation that we’d done good work and were still on track.
6. Q: Have you an exercise?
A: IT IS SIMPLY TO SEE [THE] LINE AND ITS MISSNG ◊ I [not sic]
7. Q: Clearly, this involves a discontinuity (missing center).
A: HAIL ALIAH
A palindrome somehow seems more continuous, and this one marks Vilansit’s signature entrance.
8. Q: Hail, many-colour’d messenger. [Vilansit’s epithet]
A: I GREET YOU FROM ONE END OF [THE] LINE OR FIBER
9. Q: We’ll try to hold up our end (absence).
A: ABSENCE ALWAYS CONNECTS IN OUR K
Could “k” here stand also for kite?
My apologies, dear Reader, but a necessary review of vowels:
Our ouija board consists of an outer circle of consonants and two inner arcs: the lower & longer arc consists of punctuation; the higher arc, the five vowels: O, U, I, E, A.
Two years ago (after a dozen years of serious use) [Scribe] & I learned our board -- itself an artefact of flight -- encoded more than mere spelling. We learned that each of our “cirkle’s” eight members is graphically represented on this board, often as single letters, and that among the vowels lie the letters which stand for Duncan & [Scribe] respectively, U & E. (There are, of course, reasons why we are depicted in this manner; but we do not know the full story yet, and these issues do not arise in the discussion below.)
We also learned that I represents an absent member, a contemporary of William Blake, one of our fellowship who “fell.” His tragic depiction, left by our higher selves outside of time (and as the most central letter of the board), serves as a warning to ourselves in time.
Last year, to my surprise, we learned O and A not only represent members in the k., but that they are currently alive! Suddenly, to my utter astonishment, I knew the identity of O. O is Oliver Sacks, the famous neurologist and writer, recently called “the most curious man alive.” A, on the other hand, is someone [Scribe] knows and has as a task to identify.
I spent the year sensing O, reading those books of his I had missed, even reading in content areas matching Sacks’s many own areas of interest. For example, I read an entire encyclopedia on the chemical elements (& enjoyed it thoroughly!) after reading his childhood memoir Uncle Tungsten, which also is a brief history of the Periodic Table. I returned to my readings on the Holocaust when I learned how his parents and extended family were deeply involved with the Zionist movement (including his cousin, Abba Eban, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, a central figure at the time of the creation of the Jewish state).
[Scribe], in his own interim, spent the year with A, although interestingly never pinned down A’s identity beyond that of four younger friends: all male, all in their twenties. Each dropped [Scribe] distinctive clues which indicated the possibility of k-linkage, but [Scribe] never got the definitive signal. The net result: not one, but rather four individuals received [Scribe]’s serious attention and mentoring -- clearly an ambiguity with an intended effect.
For the sake of documentation here I use bold-face print to indicate when these vowels actually name a person (rather than act merely as vowels). I realize that sometimes our friends play ambiguous games with these letters, so the reader will have to look for such double readings.
Notes on O and A
10. Q: Vilansit, we have concerns about another 5-part line: “OUIEA.” We’d like to discuss the “ends,” outermost members. Is it meet to do so?
A: I LISTEN
11. Q (Duncan): Vilansit, one of the few k. “tasks” I felt I progressed in was getting to know O’s work and by extension a little of O personally.
A: KEEP THIS WITH YOU AS AN IDEA OF MEETING & SENSING
12. Q (Duncan): Yet sensing clearly is more than knowing O’s work and interests. Can you help me see what else I learned?
A: I CANNOT TELL YOU WHAT YOU DID
ONLY TO TAKE…
13. IT AND USE IT…
14. TO FACE FORWARD INTO TIME
15. Q (Duncan): Can you tell us anything of Oliver Sacks’s experience of this relationship?
A: [YES] ALL MEMBERS MUST HAVE A SENSE OF [THE] NET
OF INDIVIDUALS THEY HAVE TO LEARN
SO O DOES NOT SENSE U AS SUCH
A Shape That Can Stand for the K
16. Q: Vilansit, can you clarify: “must have a sense of the net.”
A: A DEEP INTUITION OF [THE] LIMITED STRUCTURE THAT…
17. Q: Sorry, Vilansit, we missed that.
A: OF FIBERS…
18. LINKING MEMBERS NOT IDENTITIES BUT A SHAPE
19. Q: [A] shape?
A: [YES] IN LOOKING FOR A I ASK YOU TO LOOK FOR…
20. HIS - IT IS HIS - SENSE OF A SHAPE THAT CAN STAND FOR [THE] K
THIS IS AN AID IN RECOGNISING HIM
I don’t know what shape [Scribe] gives the Jewel net. My own, as I’ve noted elsewhere, is something akin to a solar system and/or a fractal image.
21. Q ([Scribe]): A shape is visual and quasi-spatial.
A: [YES] DO [NO]T ADMINISTER A TEST -
IT MUST ARISE ARISE UNASKED FOR
22. Q ([Scribe]): Not knowing A’s identity has conferred this benefit. I’ve paid particular attention to four friends (“candidates”) and come to know them in a somewhat different dimension.
A: ALL [THE]SE ALLIANCES AID YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE?
Notice the words beginning with “A.”
23. Q ([Scribe]): Yes, indeed.
A: THEN KEEP UP YOUR SEARCH AND KNOW YOU HAVE WASTED
NOTHING AT ALL
A FLYER NEVER DISCARDS HE ONLY GAINS EVEN IN ABSENCE
At this point [Scribe] and I took a break. [Scribe] later reminded me that I commented on the session so far: Apparently I remarked that Vilansit didn’t seem to have much to say. Seldom have we been more wrong.
Vilansit’s Discourse
24. Q: Thank you, Vilansit. What else should we know?
A: LETS TALK ABOUT SOME OF OUR NEW WORDS
Thus begins our longest continuous response since Vilansit’s Story seven years ago. This is not strictly a lecture -- and it’s certainly not a story -- but here Vilansit presents us with a large block of information, where the breaks between responses chiefly satisfy logistical concerns (the physical limits of ouija), and are rarely to dialogue. Because Vilansit’s discourse is structured around the new vocabulary, I highlight these words along the left margin.
I will add here that for the sake of “fun” [Scribe] & I spontaneously chose to keep me entirely in the dark throughout this discourse. Even when we took a break, I did not glance over the transcripts, nor did [Scribe] divulge any content.
My only inklings of subject matter came from [Scribe]’s voiced questions; and these, when I listened to them, just led me down worrisome avenues I was forced to suppress. Though I had no idea what kind of content was being related, I was sure that something serious, something very important, was going down.
Continuity
25. Q: Let’s! May we start with continuity?
A: I DO NOT WISH YOU TO MISTAKE CONTINUITY FOR AN END
IT IS A MEANS OR SET OF MEANS FOR LINKING
IT IS [NO]T [THE] SAME AS ALIAH
IT IS RA[THE]R A LINE THAT ESTABLISHES ORDER & [THE]REFORE
AN AGENDA
26. I MENTION IT ONLY NOW THAT YOU BOTH ARE READY TO JOIN SEVERAL PARTS OF [THE] TEACHING TOGETHER & WORK IN SEVERAL AREAS AT ONCE -
IN [THE] MIDDLE IS [THE] WORK OF LEARNING YOUR MEDIUM
Discontinuity
27. AS YOU HAVE LEARNED YOU ARE - IN TIME - A DISCONTINUITY IN [THE] MIDST OF AN UNBROKEN WHEEL AN UNSHATTERED RIM
28. NOW YOU ASK WHAT MUST I DO
FOR YOU CANNOT BE THAT RIM & YOU MUST [NO]T STAY WHERE YOU ARE AMIDMOST YET…
29. Q ([Scribe]): What, Vilansit?
A: WOUNDED? INCOMPLETE? UNWORKABLE? [note punctuation]
After Response #28 [Scribe] ran out of writing room on the page and had to flip the steno pad, causing an interruption & Vilansit to break off. And yet it’s clear from Response #29 Vilansit uses the inevitable break as a “teachable moment,” here packing an emotional punch.
30. Q ([Scribe]): Harsh words.
A: ONLY WHAT WE ALL - SAVE [THE] BUTTERFLY - MUST KNOW
AND SO WE CONCENTRATE ON PARTIAL LINKAGES SPOKES IF YOU WISH
BUT ONLY NOW
Cost
31. Q ([Scribe]): Why only now?
A: EVERY TASK IS ALSO A POSSIBLE KNOT - ASK ALBION
SO CONSIDER COST
She means that no sooner am I assigned a task I find myself incapable of accomplishing it.
32. Q ([Scribe]): Tell us what you mean by that.
A: WE CAN POINT TO A SPOKE OR PATH BUT IN SO DOING WE SEND YOU AWAY FROM ANOTHER
WE LENGTHEN [THE] JOURNEY BY TELLING YOU IT IS A JOURNEY EVEN ONE WITH A SHRINE AT [THE] SUMMIT
WE DELAY YOU BY MAKING YOU LEARN DELAY
33. Q ([Scribe]): May we take a break, Vilansit?
A: [YES] I ATTEND YOUR LEISURE
Such a long series of responses really is quite taxing.
* * *
34. Q ([Scribe]): We’re back. It seems we’re learning of cost.
A: SAY I TELL YOU DREAMING IS VITAL -
THEN YOU CAN & DO LOSE DREAMING
SAY I TELL YOU LUCIDITY IS A HIGH ADVENTURE -
THEN YOU MAY SPEND YEARS ON A LONELY ISLAND OF ANGUISH
Duncan’s story, then [Scribe]’s. We provide the cases in point.
(Appropriately we are interrupted by Mozart’s A-minor Sonata K.310 -- quite dramatic, but not conducive to ouija.)
35. Q ([Scribe]): But the gains surely outweigh the costs.
A: INDEED?
DO YOU INTEND TO SAY THAT TO A WHO IS ALMOST SURELY NOT GOING TO THANK YOU FOR [THE] KNOWLEDGE OF CIRKLE
[Scribe] has his work cut out for him.
Medium
36. Q ([Scribe]): I don’t know what to say, Vilansit.
A: BEFORE THIS YOU WERE READY TO HEAR OF RIMS DISTANCES ENDS
ONLY NOW IS [THE] TIME FOR [THE] MEDIUM THRU WHICH & IN WHICH TRAVEL OCCURS
IT IS AS YOU KNOW YOUR MINDS & AS YOU KNOW THEY ARE…
37. Q ([Scribe]): Discontinuous.
A: WE HAVE AGREED THIS CAN BE WORKED WITH
& NOT CONTROLLED BUT LEARNED
Cricket
38. Q ([Scribe]): So you’ve established.
A: [THE] COST?
LEARN DISCONTINUITY
AND FEED [THE] CRICKET
WITH EVERY NEW ACCESS OF ENERGY
IT BECOMES MORE AGILE AND HUNGRY
LEARN A NEW TACTIC
AND FEED IT AGAIN
39. IN SHORT IT IS WE WHO IMPERIL YOU
ALBION CASTS D’S LIFE IN [THE] BALANCE
[THE] SCRIBE CUTS INTO [THE] SUBSTANCE OF [Scribe] WITH EACH LINE
“Line” of poetry, that is, while “balance” refers to Duncan’s talent for ma’at. All help, all intervention is fraught with peril. The Prime Directive, so to speak, can be violated with even the smallest interaction.
40. Q ([Scribe]): We accept [your representation, Vilansit].
A: THEN LEARN THAT IT IS YOUR MEDIUM
THAT YOU MUST SHAPE IT EI[THE]R WITH US OR [NO]
AND IT IS TIME FOR BOTH OF YOU TO TAKE IT AS YOUR OWN
41. O IS TO PREPARE ALBION FOR V - JANE
THIS IS [THE] TIME OF [THE] SCRIBE FOR [Scribe]
WHAT MEASURES?
I really have no idea what to make of Albion’s preparation, although I suspect it concerns Albion, my higher self, more than it involves me, Duncan-in-time. I am struck, however, by what seems to be shaping up as a near-term timeline. That is, I had long felt that Jane’s arrival on Earth wasn’t going to occur for perhaps decades. This preparation has what feels like a present-tense note of impending eventuality.
[Scribe], on the other hand, has just begun a new nine-poem sequence presided over by his higher self, the Scribe.
42. Q ([Scribe]): We don’t know, Vilansit.
A: IF I SAY YOU MUST KNOW THEN WHAT -
YOU CAN DO MUCH BUT CAN YOU TRAVEL THRU THIS MEDIUM?
Aliah
43. Q ([Scribe]): Some of our k. have done so and will do so.
A: ALIAH IS [THE] RIM
CONTINUITY IS ONE OF MANY SPOKES*
Vilansit ends her discourse with the only period [*] of these sessions (so much for punctuation!).
[Scribe] quotes Erinch quoting the Tao Te Ching.
44. Q ([Scribe]): [“Thirty spokes meet at the hub, but] Absence makes the wheel.”
A: I BLESS YOU BOTH BUT WE MAY NOT SAVE YOU
SLEEP WELL & WAKE RESTED
[FLOWER]
The flower drawing at the lower left of our board is Vilansit’s personal symbol and signature.
Only after the final response did I finally view what Vilansit said. Twenty-one often-lengthy responses with my eyes closed: I got a full reading.
12:53 AM