albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (16.2)
SESSION 89: 2ND NIGHT, 8/2/04
Our invocation: “Ah, sunflower” (by Blake). ([Scribe]’s noted parenthetically in the originals “(again),” then asked rhetorically “Can you think of another poem of ascent?”
Ah, Sun-flower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done:
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
10:42 PM
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: I AM & AGAIN WE RETURN TO OUR LAKE
The Ladder’s Lowest Step
2. Q: We’ve been thinking about the ladder today.
A: KEEP THE STEPS IN FRONT OF YOU
ANAND & JANE §
A night with our contacts; this followed precedent. What was perhaps a little unusual was our human friends’ identifying themselves before we’d completed an exercise (visualization).
3. Q: Greetings, Anand & Jane! Again, did we miss an exercise?
A: WE ARE GOING TO SEE [THE] COMPASSES [NO]T IN [THE] LAKE BUT…
4. BY ENACTING [THE]M
THIS WILL EMERGE IN NIGHTS TO COME -
FOR NOW TAKE A MOMENT & CONTEMPLATE OUR LADDER
5. Q: This is a meditation, not a visualization.
A: [YES] INDEED YOU CANNOT SEE [THE] LOWEST STEP UNTIL YOU ARE ABOVE IT
Immediately we knew this was an important clue. We explored.
6. Q: But can’t you see the higher steps from below?
A: DEFINE SEE -
YOU CAN GUESS OR REPEAT A MAXIM
BUT STEPS ARE ESSENTIALLY ENACTMENTS
A word repeated (enactment) becomes an important word.
Again, “maxims” are for times when one lacks connection/conviction, and maxims alone will not take you anywhere.
7. Q: What about seeing from a vantage outside of time?
A: THAT IS A MOMENTARY LINK ALIAH USE OF A FIBER
8. Q: By enacting (a given step), the seeker becomes a (somewhat) different person.
A: EXACTLY EACH STEP INVOLVES ACTING UPON ONES OWN MEDIUM
Accomplishment without personal transformation cannot count as a step.
9. Q: At such a moment one is linked (by aliah) to resources outside (or beyond) the self-in-time.
A: O[THE]RWISE NO NEED FOR [THE] ETERNAL CENTER & [THE] NET
I’m sure the Jewel & its net have other purposes as well. That is, undoubtedly the net exists to save us each from the erosion of eternity; but certainly it is more the case that we exist to serve the Jewel than vice-versa.
Of course this was not our first curriculum which involved ascending steps (cf. 95:33:38). How was this different? What from our previous lessons would we use as touchstones?
10. Q: We have, in the past, often spoken of steps on a pyramid -- why is ladder the new metaphor?
A: DONT FORGET THAT WE ARE ASKING A FIVE PART RIDDLE
AT ONCE SIMPLER & MORE PROFOUND THAN [THE] PYRAMIDS
While at the board what we call “pyramids” are mostly of the Mayan archetype, in this response those at Giza seem to fit at least as well. Regardless, pyramids play no further role in our discussions.
11. Q: Is the goal of ascent arrival?
A: [YES] BUT A SPECIFIC FORM OF ARRIVAL & A SPECIFIC FORM OF VISION
IT IS [NO]T WHAT MY TEACHERS CALLD ENLIGHTENMENT
- ANAND
[Scribe] & I took “teachers” to mean those he knew in life (& not his karass teachers. Recall, Anand was during his brief life a practicing fakir.)
I began speculating on arrival, but [Scribe] recognized that steps, by design & by definition, are sequential. Arrival marks the last step.
Beginning & Beginners: on A and W
12. Q: Anand, obviously we want to -- and must -- know about Step 5, but we sense that we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
A: [YES] LETS GO BACK TO [THE] BEGINNING & [THE] BEGINNERS WHO ARE ON YOUR MINDS
This came from out-of-the-blue, or so it seemed to me, though I knew this conversation was necessary & inevitable. Of course [A--] marked one beginner on our minds -- and there would be much to learn about/from him -- but my mind had been much more preoccupied with [M--]'s status in the k. I really wanted this issue settled (perhaps so I could just move on).
13. Q: That sounds like you, Jane. What face this time?
A: I AM SPEAKING AS V V V
An echo of her “accenting” our second Yes-&-No game. V in this game emphasized immediate lessons or knowledges needed to connect with other living members in the karass. Triple V is an exclamation point.
14. Q: As V, you’ve been on our minds for many years. This year W has been on [Albion]’s mind; A has been on [Scribe]’s mind.
A: IT IS IN LIGHT OF ALL THIS THAT WE NOW SPEAK OF ASCENT
CONSIDER [THE] CLUES LEFT IN YOUR ATTIC IN [THE] FORM OF LETTERS
An old illustration for us: What one “leaves in one’s attic” are letters (correspondence) from persons outside of time (including one’s own overseer) to persons living in time (possibly any time). In Response #14 our “letters,” however, correspond to our board’s alphabet, both the graphical symbols and the overall letter arrangement.
15. Q: Please go on, Jane. We now know the very letter-shapes themselves encode messages to ourselves.
A: SO FOR INSTANCE A A LADDER A LESSON IN ASCENT & SOMETHING & SOMEONE E IS NOW FACING
ALSO [THE]N A BEGINNING BOTH FOR A [THE] BEGINNER & IN A WAY FOR E [YES]
16. Q ([Scribe]): I hypothesize: The lesson on ascent is directly connected to A’s appearance & his plan to come here to the board.
A: ISNT IT MUSICAL?
So the lessons which follow are coordinated with (indeed reserved for) [A--]’s appearance. His discovery then has set a wheel, our curriculum, in motion (though we cannot trace whence our first mover moved). [A--]’s inclusion in Circle k introduces a third instrument into this fugue or invention.
Jane’s “musical” response, since it asks nothing specific from us, also serves to steer the conversation to W.
17. Q: What can you tell us about W?
A: LETS PLAY A GAME ON THIS [THE]ME AGREE?
I was nervous for three reasons: 1) It was time I found out, one way or the other, [M--]’s status: either a yes or no would be important knowledge, for each could potentially affect how I managed my life in the coming year. But 2) I suspected a trick at the outset, something designed to “deny” me at this time. True, “games” were precisely the method we’d recently employed to obtain information, specifically information on living k. members -- so I should have had high hopes -- but I knew immediately I could lose my chance by agreeing to restrictive game rules. Finally, 3) an interesting accident: I wanted to know -- and I was prepared to ask after specifically -- the status of [M--] in the k. [Scribe] heard my thoughts but phrased the question slightly differently: He asked after the status of W -- a negligible difference, unless [M--] and W are not the same person. It’s funny, but as soon as he showed me his written version -- and before I’d seen the response -- I already had my sinking feeling. I knew logically that his question was fine: besides, we could ask as many questions as we needed, couldn’t we? I just knew I’d come away frustrated.
The No-&-Yes Game
18. Q: Let’s! How do we start?
A: I WILL ASK QUESTIONS
YOU GIVE ONLY [YES] & [NO] AS ANSWERS
FOLLOW?
Of course this was the Yes-or-No Game in reverse: (cf. Session 71, 2001). Very little clarification was necessary.
19. Q: Jane, both [Scribe] & [Albion] will play, but we will record [Albion]’s answer. ([Scribe] will enter any sign of disagreement as a note later.)
A: [YES] BECAUSE THIS ISSUE CONCERNS U MORE CLOSELY
20. Q (Duncan): Please begin.
A: DO WE AGREE THAT SOME LETTER SHAPES ARE AS IT WERE GRAPHS OF A JOURNEY IN TIME?
21. Q (Duncan): Yes
U, we knew, suggests among other things a temporal graph of my life. (cf. 01:71:60)
A: WS SHAPE SUGGEST A MORE COMPLICATED GRAPH THAN SAY U OR V? [sic]
22. Q (Duncan): Yes
A: AGREE THAT W GOES AWAY COMES BACK GOES AWAY COMES BACK OR PERHAPS VICE VERSA?
23. Q (Duncan): Yes
It took me a moment to understand what Jane was referring to. I immediately thought of how [M--] visits my life, my sphere of affairs, somewhat periodically, returning older, wiser, etc. I didn’t immediately see the graphical W, which obviously displays its own turns & returns.
A: IS IT NOW POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO TELL WHERE YOUR CANDIDATE IS ON [THE] GRAPH?
24. Q (Duncan): Yes (w/ [Scribe] dissenting)
A: ARE YOU READY TO STATE WHAT YOU GUESS?
25. Q (Duncan): Yes
A: DO YOU ACCEPT THAT WE WILL GIVE NO FURTHER CLUES UNTIL A CANDIDATE ARRIVES OR IS REVEALED?
26. Q (Duncan): Yes [to [Scribe]: And I accept the wisdom of it]
A: WILL YOU KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU ENCODED MEMBERS WHO WILL REVEAL THEMSELVES TO YOU?
27. Q (Duncan): Yes
A: ARE YOU NOW READY TO END [THE] GAME & TAKE A PAUSE?
28 Q (Duncan): Yes(with a heavy sigh)
I sighed, of course, not because I was wrong about [M--] or W, but because I knew I’d be waiting at least another year before I learned more, where uncertain waiting had pained me during the previous year. Somehow though, after this knowledge, I think I can move on to other concerns now.
A few items to clarify:
Q#24, [Scribe] dissenting: [Scribe] felt it would be impossible to pin down where any other member might be on his/her graph. I argued that anything is “possible” and that further it might even be “reasonable” for me to know where on W [M--] lies -- as reasonable as being able to place myself on U. Additionally, I felt that because we were playing such a game an ambiguous answer would be a violation of the ground rules. Jane would not ask a question lacking an available answer: I had to put up or shut up. [Scribe] & I still can’t agree on this (and I don’t feel a different answer would have likely altered what ensued, but we’ll never know).
Beyond any single response, [Scribe] & I both understood that this No-&-Yes game served functionally to keep me from talking, from asking censorable questions. Furthermore, this wasn’t really a game at all, since, with Q#24 as the only possible exception, none of the questions actually was open-ended: every other question not only begged an affirmative, but was largely rhetorical. How or when could I have ever said “no”?
After a lengthy pause:
29. Q: Jane, thank you. what else should we know tonight that might help us think about ascent?
A: ONLY RETURN IN YOUR MINDS TO MY WORLD OF WATERS AND RECONSIDER [THE] BEGINNINGS [THE]RE
ANAND
I WISH YOU BOTH A GOOD NIGHT
JANE
[Scribe] and I were both surprised to receive but a single response after our pause. It was common at this point in our ouija discussions -- not to introduce any new topic -- but to debrief, summarize, or offer clues, before putting us off to bed. Suddenly it was over.
In typing these transcripts nearly a month later (9/1/04) I find my frustration over not learning [M--]’s status has been well tempered by two embedded facts from the game: 1) W, whoever W is, is on my horizon; and 2) I will indeed connect with at least two other k members (beyond [Scribe] & [A--]). This news excites me, and yet is it even news?