albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (16.5)
SESSION 92: 5TH NIGHT, 8/5/04
Our invocation, a surprise to me since it came neither from a poem nor, for that matter, from any literary source: From [A--]’s tarot deck, Three of Wands:
Collaboration. Progress toward a common goal. Disparate energies becoming harnessed to work in unity. Cooperation & help from others.
11:00 PM (late, but we were feeling strong)
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: I AM & ATTEND YOUR LEISURE AMID [THE] STARS
2. Q: Is there an exercise?
A: MEDITATE ON [THE] LADDER ALL THREE PLEASE
& [THE] TRIPOD STIRS
3. Q: We begin now.
A: I JOSEF ADDRESS YOU MY DEAR SONS
Mother Vilansit for [A--]’s first night; Father for Night Two.
4. Q: Greetings, Josef. What should we know this evening?
A: OUR ENERGIES MESH HERE
MEASURE & YOUR CONCERNS ARE LINKED
BE AT EASE
Measure, of course, was our guide word for the evening.
5. Q: What shall we discuss first?
A: OUR FIRST CONCERN IS FOR A WHO HAS MADE [THE] LONGEST JOURNEY TO ARRIVE HERE
ALL IN OUR CIRCLE GREET HIM THROUGH ME
[A--] was prepared for Josef, our dreammaster; this conversation was assured. And [A--] had much to ask, having long developed his own dreaming practices.
I am hesitant to describe [A--]’s dream life or his world of d-dreaming (diagnostic); but it is probably important for the Reader to know at least the following: that [A--] returns regularly (and lucid) to the same dream port, a mediæval castle world of which he is ruler, and within which he travels to survey his kingdom.
First Teachings for [A--]
d-dreaming
6. Q ([A--]): Josef, will you confirm a level of lucid dreaming called d-dreaming: [d = diagnostic] a “tutorial” in which the dreamer stays in his own “house” in the village?
A: [YES] IT IS A KNOWN MODE OF PROTECTION & PREPARATION
AND NOW FOR YOU THIS TIME OF PREPARATION HAS ENDED
I ASK YOU TO GO FORWARD INTO [THE] VILLAGE
7. [THE] EXIT IS NEAR AT HAND
GO TO A CROWDED PLACE IN YOUR ENCLOSURE
IT MAY BE A FAIR A MARKET A BAZAAR -
SOME WHO CLUSTER [THE]RE…
8. … ARE TRAVELLERS IN DISGUISE
AS IS THEIR WONT
THE DOOR IS JUST PAST WHERE [THE]Y ARE STANDING
NEXT…
9. …LEARN [THE] STREETS & SQUARES OF [THE] VILLAGE
AND LOOK FOR OR CALL FOR AN OBJECT
SUMMON IT TO YOU
IT TAKES [THE] FORM OF A WEAPON
WILL YOU NOW NAME [THE] WEAPON YOU INTEND TO SUMMON -
I WAIT
Wow. Extraordinary. Neither [Scribe] nor I have ever received such a batch of direct instructions at one time. [A--] seemed to be making up for lost time.
All of us, even I who’d only just met [A--], knew [A--]’s weapon was a sword. Mediæval d-world, samurai blacksmith, tarot: There was no doubt. Therefore, Josef presents [A--] not with a riddle, but with an enactment: [A--] brings the sword to life by voicing his choice aloud at the board.
The Daimonic Sword
10. Q ([A--]): I would summon forth a sword, not only for battle but also to focus the sharpness of my many minds.
A: I ACCEPT THIS GESTURE OF INTENT & NOW OFFER THE NEXT PART OF OUR TEACHING IN DREAMING
11. Q ([A--]): What is the next part?
A: [THE] INTENDED SWORD IS A SWORD IN FORM ONLY
THIS FORM IS A VESSEL FOR [THE] BODY OF [THE] DAIMON
IF YOU VOICE TO IT YOUR INTENT TO DEPART FROM [THE] VILLAGE…
12. [THE] DAIMON OF [THE] SWORD WILL PULL YOU OUT OF [THE] VILLAGE ALTOGE[THE]R
13. I ASK YOU TO COMPOSE [THE] PHRASE IN WHICH YOUR INTENT IS TO BE VOICED - I WAIT
Josef’s advice to [A--] echoes similar words offered to [Scribe] (cf. 96:40:56).
[A--]’s Phrase of Summoning
14 Q: [Censored: [A--] composes and declares his phrase of summoning]
A: I REMIND YOU AND ALL DREAMERS THAT [THE] FOREST IS PERILOUS
SAVE FOR [THE] DAIMONIC SWORD ALL PROTECTION IS GONE
I MAY NOT AID YOU IN [THE] FOREST
15. Q ([A--]): Have you more to say?
A: A IS FOR ADVENTURE
ASK ANY OTHER QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ON DREAMING
To summarize: [A--]’s mediæval d-world appears to have been a port (even a cocoon) of his own making wherein he could practice certain dreaming skills -- particularly lucidity, flying, and transformation. Already, so Josef asserts, travellers --namely, semi-benign alien beings attracted to [A--]’s burgeoning energy -- crowd the exit and thus highlight the way to the village, the collective human dream domain. [A--] is to begin wider adventures within the village and to practice summoning the daimon, his guide, in the form of a sword. With the guide’s help [A--] then can make further sojourns into the infinity beyond human consciousness, outside the village, into the forest.
Transformations & Circles of Dreamers
16. Q ([A--]): Is it proper for me to change my energy body for faster travel through environs & also for protection?
A: [YES] IT IS A SKILL THAT BELONGS TO YOUR CIRCLE OF DREAMERS
I CAUTION YOU THUS
17. PRACTICE TRANSFORMATION IN [THE] VILLAGE ONLY
IT IS TOO SOON TO ATTEMPT TO CHANGE YOUR BODY WITHIN [THE] FOREST
18. Q ([Scribe]): Once A can transform reliably within the village, he may travel to the forest in the new form?
A: [YES] BUT FOR NOW HE NEEDS A FORM THAT CAN HOLD & PERHAPS WIELD [THE] SWORD
In one of [A--]’s dream transformations A became a fish. Of course, Josef is well aware of this. Dry humor.
19. Q: Is a circle of dreamers the same thing as a teaching circle (a mandala)?
A: [NO] IT REFERS TO A STYLE OR SET OF POWERS PRACTICED IN
COMMON & SO CUTS ACROSS [THE] MANDALAS
WE ALL ARE DREAMERS
ONLY SOME HAVE [THE] POWER…
20. …TO TRANSFORM
21. Q: [Scribe] flies without wings in l-dreaming (lucid dreaming); A grows wings to fly. We conclude that both of these techniques are valid, but are functions of belonging to different circles of dreamers.
A: [THE]RE IS NO SINGLE BEST WAY TO FLY -
CULTIVATE YOUR OWN GIFTS
22. Q ([A--]): I have had some difficulty in dreaming during the last months. Can you help me understand why?
A: IT IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN PREPARING FOR THIS TEACHING
& BECOMING READY TO LEAVE BEHIND YOUR PROTECTION
23. Q ([Scribe]): [Guide] is our circle’s visiting daimon. A is from another circle. Is he then to summon a different daimon?
A: [Guide] §
24. Q: Yes, [Guide]?
A: A IS TO CALL ON ONE OF MY BRETHREN IN [other named karass]
Ten years ago (cf. 94:23:51) we were told that among our mandala (or learning circle) while humans (Josef especially) may belong to more than one mandala, [Guide] was “ours alone.” Q#23 represents less an exploration than a request for confirmation. The news then is not that [A--] belongs to a different mandala at whose center is a different daimon; the news is that both [A--]’s daimon and [Guide] belong to same karass, [name censored].
We then turned the topic to the overseer, [A--]’s word for what [Scribe] and I have (poorly) called “the higher self.” I had already, and rather autocratically, included [A--]’s lexicological contribution to k-speak. But when a new word is uttered at the board -- especially by our foremost elder, Josef -- then it is blessed and merits contemplation.
The Overseer
25. Q: Josef, by our shared terminology, [Scribe]’s overseer is the Scribe, Duncan’s is Albion. We hypothesize: the name of A’s overseer will convey A’s role in the karass.
A: [YES] [THE] OVERSEER IS [THE] ENACTMENT OF [THE] ROLE OUTSIDE OF TIME
Enactment again, not to be forgotten.
26. Q ([A--]): Is it possible to contact my overseer before my role has been defined in time?
A: [YES] I COUNSEL YOU TO DO SO IN WAKING LIFE
& IN RETURN [THE] OVERSEER WILL HELP YOU TO SEE YOUR ROLE…
27. CALL ON [THE] OVERSEER DURING YOUR MEDITATIONS BY DAY
& DO [NO]T ATTEMPT TO SEE HIM IN DREAMING PRACTICE
This echoes Josef’s advice to me on seeing Albion in my own dreams: Don’t. Josef is unequivocal on this point (cf. 99:58:34).
28. Q ([Scribe]): Josef, I hypothesize that further “gates” or levels of dreaming exist beyond -- or within -- f-dreams.
A: [YES] I LEFT THIS TEACHING FOR YOU TO DISCOVER
WHAT IS YOUR NAME FOR LEVEL F PLUS 1
f = “forest dreams”: Forays beyond the village, beyond the finite limits of human consciousness. The forest is infinite, even dangerous, but beautiful beyond words. We number f-dreams as Gate 3 of dreaming.
I confess to a certain amusement over Josef’s locution “F plus 1.” Would someone in ancient Egypt speak this way?
Outpost Dreaming
29. Q ([Scribe]): I propose calling it O (for Outpost). Its criterion is the dreamer’s ability to create & return to one place in the forest, marked by a simple structure.
A: [THE] DIFFICULTY IS TO RETURN RELIABLY TO A SPOT OUTLINED BY YOUR PERSO…
30. PERSONAL INTENT
31. Q: But with practice & energy, one can do so.
A: INDEED CONTINUE ALONG THIS LINE & DISCOVER [THE] NEXT GATE -
I TRUST YOU TO DO THIS
I can only hope [Scribe] will document his discovery of o-dreams. As a matter of record, [Scribe] had already marked one such dream spot (using a large letter O of blue stones). Quite recently [Scribe] has just managed to return to it.
32. Q: Is there anything further you’d like to say on topics already raised, before we turn to the ladder?
A: ONLY TO REMIND ALBION OF WHAT HE ALREADY KNOWS DEEPLY
FIND DREAMING AGAIN & AID FROM DREAMING ARRIVES
I know [Scribe] was frustrated that I let pass my chance to speak with Josef: I cannot explain myself. I can only say it was not by choice; I could not think of a thing to ask. I have not progressed in dreaming for yet another year; I really have not dreamt. What could Josef possibly add? I didn’t want to waste Josef’s precious time with us.
Thus ended our lengthy and important lessons on dreaming; it already felt like a thorough & satisfying session. It took me a moment to remember that we hadn’t even begun our evening’s riddle vocabulary lesson! Clearly Josef timed his “big” dream lesson to coincide with our “easy” riddle night, the only one where we didn’t have to guess a word. Still, we knew with certainty that measure would be no cakewalk; at the center of two years’ crosswords this was vital information.
Step 3: Measure
33. Q: Step 3 = Measure. In wave mode, many, many soundings are sent out, but mostly -- in a sense -- blindly. But the mind must intend a wave to reach measure.
A: [YES] IT IS LIKE ARRIVAL AT A SHORE
[THE] BREAKING WAVE SURRENDERS ITS ENERGY
& ENERGY REARISES IN A NEW MODE
34. Q: Intent may or may not travel along a wave. To arrive at -- & be within -- the mind of measure, intent is necessary.
A: [YES] IN THIS SENSE
MEASURE INVOLVES A NEW COHERENCE
YET ONCE THERE [THE] MIND FINDS A NEW EMPTINESS
A focused mind is one emptied of misdirected & mislaid thoughts. Since such thoughts have been with us our entire lives, it is natural to note their absence on many complex levels. Another aspect of emptiness comes during the “down” times of one’s measured life, when one’s faith is tested. If one has correctly employed measure to cross the gap to oneself, during these times when, for whatever reason, we can’t stay on task or target, emptiness is more poignant, because we have no distractions, no other ways to channel ourselves. We are alone.
Fundamentally, I think, emptiness arises because measure is not the end, even if, in the mind of an individual, it may have been held out as such.
35. Q: Is this because the “noise” of many waves has now been silenced?
A: WAVE MIND IS ALWAYS IN COMPETITION WITH ITSELF
MEASURE INVOLVES [THE] UNWAVERING MIND
36. Q: As Duncan said today, [in measure] “you are the plan.” [italics added]
A: [YES] & THIS IS WHAT ALLOWS A PARTICULAR MODE OF TRAVEL
Our minds travel through our minds. This gives us choice, gives us power to affect the process. What, then, in this wave-to-measure transition can we do to aid in our ascents?
37. Q: Reconfiguring one’s shoreline, so to speak, might ease the wave into its next mode.
A: THAT IS [THE] NECESSARY TRANSITION & CAN BE PREPARED BY KNOWING THAT MEASURE EXISTS
YET…
38. [THE] MIND OF MEASURE IS ALWAYS SEEKING BEYOND ITSELF INTO [THE] NEXT STEP - PONDER
I JOSEF BID MY SONS GOOD NIGHT & GOOD DREAMING
2:02 AM