albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (17.1)
SESSION 95: 1ST NIGHT, 7/27/05
My family & I arrived in [Scribe's East Coast town] on July 27, 2005, thirty days into our epic American roadtrip – we’d already driven most of the coast from New Orleans to New York (9,000 miles out of the 15, 524 miles we’d eventually cover). We arrived early enough to tour the heart of the [downtown], walk [N.] Street nearly to [A.] Avenue, and check out [M.] bookstore. Very nice, we all agreed.
After checking in to our hotel, we met [Scribe], later [A--], for dinner at [Scribe's neighborhood pub]. (It was the first time my daughters had ever set foot in a bar.) Just as [C. Restaurant] has become a part of our ouiea ritual in [my town], [Scribe's neighborhood pub], which serves as [Scribe]’s second home, can now take its place in ouiea lore. All indications are there will be future gatherings in [Scribe's town]. After dinner, I took the family back to our cheap hotel (not an easy drive, especially in the sudden weather at night on winding, trafficked roads), said farewell, and returned to [A.] Ave. for ouiea. The next morning [my wife] & the kids were off to D.C. for some obligatory national heritage (which I was happy to skip). [My wife] had prearranged her itinerary through our congressman, including White House & Supreme court tours. Meanwhile I would stay at an upscale B & B at the other end of town, nearly a mile from [A.] Ave. Messy logistics, but easy with practice.
Readers may note from all our previous sessions how meticulous [Scribe] & I are in proper preparation. It did not surprise me then that when I first entered [the house where Scribe and A-- live in rented rooms], the ouija setting was already neatly laid out: board, chairs, candles, water dish, [A--]’s music system, and [Scribe]’s beautiful starglobe. Of course it seemed a little strange to have such occult furnishings on display when fully half the house is not part of the process and could only have gotten an inkling of our conversations but a short time before. But all was cool – that is, except for the actual temperature, which at high humidity was just barely tolerable: one part ouija, two parts dripping sweat is not a potion most suitable to spirit contact. Then again, as we quickly discovered, neither is physical discomfort an obstacle. I suspect we could now do our “ouija thing” in the center of peak hour at [Scribe's neighborhood pub] and, not relying on acoustic transmission, could probably carry on better than most in the bar attempting conversation.
For me the most interesting specific element of our new setting was the ouija board itself – not our standard board, but in fact my first draft ouija board which I’d given to [Scribe] many many years before and had not seen since. Though the letter arrangement is exactly congruent to our “official” board, it places both the board and mandala on the same side, where the mandala itself shows many major differences (along with its ancient age). I studied it carefully, feeling strange pity and the conviction that my subsequent draft was inherently better. In the end, and despite my willingness to give this Lilith a fair try, it proved in the dim candlelight unsuitable, as the letters had faded too far to be visible. No problem, for I had transported our other board the 9,000 miles to its spot.
Of course all our sessions begin with set & setting; and before any questions are ever asked, [Scribe] & I proceed with a short but necessary “dry run” over the letters. We get in our positions; I close my eyes; and [Scribe] leads the planchette meticulously around the board several times, making sure I can comfortably reach all the letters, especially the most distant [NO] at the extreme upper-right. Past experience shows that but a few microns’ change in the positions of our chairs can make all the difference in [Scribe]’s ability to view messages easily. The fine-tuning is indeed extremely fine and, at this point, most refined.
It was quite a surprise then – unprecedented – when, in this new setting & with [A--] still walking around the house, getting things ready, that the planchette “took off” on its own and spelled out its first unprompted message – indeed, the first of several unprompted openers over the series of nights.
11:05 PM
[during dry run with no prompt]
0. Q: I AM AMONG [THE] STARS
[Guide 2]
1. Q: [Guide], we know you are there?
A: I AM AT YOUR SERVICE & I PRESENT MY COMPANTION [Guide 2]
A FELLOW VISITOR TO YOUR GROUP
An immediate event: not only a new voice, but a new daimon. We understood this immediately, because [censored stuff that discusses Guide and Guide 2's names].
2. Q: Greetings. Are you the daimon associated with [A--]’s mandala? (cf. 92:24)
A: I AM [THE] BRO[THE]R OF [THE] ONE WHO IS CALLED [Guide]
3. Q: Do you call yourself [Guide 2]?
A: I AM CONTENT TO BEAR [THE] NAME MY BRO[THE]R GIVES TO ME
So right off the bat, with an unprompted response and only our second daimon to grace the table, we knew we were in uncharted territory. Excited, we nonetheless proceeded methodically.
4. Q: To both brethren: Is there a meditation?
A: [YES] 1T IS EASY YOU SEE [THE] THREE POINTS OF
COLLABORATION & AMIDMOST TWO PLANETS
THESE ARE YOUR FRIENDS
Our own three stars and the two daimonic planets in our constellation.
5. Q: We begin now.
A: COME TOWARD US & SEE [THE] LARGER WORLDZ
[slow, oracular]
6. Q: How to begin?
A: FIRST LET ME KNOW [THE] MEANING OF MY NAME [Guide]
[Questions 7 and 8 are censored because they discuss [Guide]'s name.]
9. Q: XXX [Censored]
A: XXX [Censored]BY ANCIENT CUSTOM WE ARE CALLED YOUR KARASSMATES.
Technically speaking [Guide] & [Guide 2] are not members of the Jewel Net, but rather come from [--name of other karass--], which is “orders of magnitude” larger in its composition. Both karasses included daimones and humans (possibly other beings ), but by necessary design daimones operate outside their own karasses, as a kind of exchange. In part this necessity stems from the nature of daimones, specifically their many-minded multi-presence, which demands extending themselves into other, alien domains (lest, I suspect, they bind themselves into something closed & finite, thus losing the thread of eternity). We help [Guide] understand language and human blindness.
10. Q: We feel that [censored, still discussing Guide's name]. You’ve come both to
study & aid us.
A: [YES] IT BEGINZ WITH WANDRING & ENDS WITH A
METAMORPHOSIS IN BOTH MORTAL & DAIMON [sic]
All proper collaborations are mutual transformations. And yet here the word “metamorphosis” is used for the first time. Although the kinesthetic ‘feel” of this message was not particularly different, [Scribe] the language flyer, believed the locution indicated a change of speaker.
11. Q: Was that [Guide 2] speaking?
A: [YES] I AM BEGINNING TO WORK ALONG WITH ALL FOUR OF YOU
I AM HOVERING
Not to be overlooked, [Guide 2] indicates he’s available to [Scribe] & me, despite his being part of [A--]’s circle. Then again, [A--] had already spoken (via [Scribe] & me) to [Guide] at the board. That is, daimones in neighboring circles are now within our reach; and we understood that [Guide 2]’s presence among us signaled new collaborations between circles, as well as lessons on the architectures of such collaborations, a glimpse of the Jewel Net’s network.
At this point, I believe we took a break; and [A--] did what I’ve come to regard as his “thing”: he went out on the stoop for a smoke (a frequent occurrence during the sessions, though less frequent normally) and returned with a pronouncement. [Censored, discusses Guide's name.] That is, [Scribe] & I are sometimes blessed with insights. [Scribe]’s tend to be linguistically based – clues in texts and contexts that he uncovers – while mine tend to be deductions & inductions of occult systems & their structures, the wheels of the machinery. These we announce & explain & hammer out, and generally we’re able to trace for the other the thread of these insights, since each of us, in his own talent tends not to regard the small leap he makes. [A--], on the other hand, just leaps directly – no thread, no trace. A cigarette, a leap; and when asked how he came up with x, or in this case [xxx], he can’t really explain. “How did you get that?” I might have asked politely. “How does this work/explain/help us? What are you saying?” And [A--] (in only his fifth session and twenty years our junior) would try to explain, drawing pictures which seemed obvious enough to him, but left me scratching.
To my credit and [Scribe]’s practiced silence, I did not particularly doubt [A--]. That is, I could find no fault with anything he claimed, although neither could I see the design of necessity. Yet everything about [A--] shines talent like this. Where I just wanted a thread, both of us were left shrugging, almost amused by the vast abysses traversed. Bottom line: during the course of these five ouija sessions each of [A--]’s impossible leaps was greeted at the board with immediate confirmation.
12. Q: Now we must ask about Y – and our guess is it means “what I go toward.”
A: Y IS YOU DO [NO]T TAKE IT LITERALLY
LOOK AT Y STOP & REFLECT A SECOND MEDITATION
13. Q ([Albion]): We should not have “go toward,” but “extend into” atemporally.
A: NOW YOU ARE SPEAKING AS WE DO YET BEAR IN MIND WE ALSO
METAMORPHOSE
3: Y: the Shape of the Daimon
14. Q: We begin our 2nd meditation. On the shape of Y.
A: TO DO OR SERVE
IN WHAT CAPACITIES? [oracular]
15. Q: Well – as your question implies – the Y (y = you) differs according to the circle.
A: EXACTLY IT IS ONLY AN IMAGE OF [THE] DAIMON BODY
& WE ARE [NO]T TO APPEAR [THE] SAME WAY IN SEPARATE CIRCLES
ELSE YOU COULD NOT TELL ME APART FROM MY KINDRED
16. Q: [Censored, discusses Guide 2's name.]
A: [YES] THAT IS OUR INTENT YOUR ENERGIES RAISED TO A DAIMONIC LEVEL
IS IT WHAT YOU CALL A RITE OF PASSAGE?
In k[arass]-work we have now found a number of such rites. Seeing the daimon at all is a rite, while lucid dreaming is perhaps the clearest threshold. Now we know that distinguishing among the daimones marks yet another.
17. Q: Could [Scribe] or [Albion] ever see [Guide 2]?
A: OF COURSE JUST AS BOTH DAIMONES SPEAK NOW
OUR CIRCLES ARE LINKED BY AGREEMENT AND KINSHIP
SEE A [censored 1] AND YOU SEE ME
SEE A [censored 2] AND YOU SEE MY BROTHER
THIS IS THE MEANING OF [THE] SHAPE Y
ALL CAN SEE
[Commentary censored, again discussing Guide and Guide 2's names.]
18. Q([Albion]): [Guide 2], Josef belongs to many circles – how does he see you?
A: I JOSEF SPEAK
I ASSIGND [THE] BODIES OF DAIMONES [THE]IR VARIOUS…
19. FORMS IN [THE] LINKED CIRCLES
I SEE THEM ALL
Josef’s preeminence reconfirmed.
20. Q: Josef, we greet you.
A: IT IS MY TASK & MY BOON
EACH SHALL ASSIGN HIS FORMS IN TURN AS LONG AS HE EMBRACES HIS STRENTHS IN [THE] CIRCLE
NOW I BID ALL GOOD DREAMING
THRIVE MY SONS
The word “thrive” returns in these sessions and actually echoes something I said to [Scribe] just prior to this session. [Scribe], who’s always labeled me & mine as Celtic (especially my family’s Scottish frugality), made some comment that affirmed his belief. In my rebuttal, I explained that while I appreciate my Celtic ancestry, I don’t live by it, as [A--] or, say, Deirdre might. I said, “I don’t particularly thrive in the lore.” As I said it, it sounded strange & uncharacteristic of me, maybe a little magical. Even [Scribe] acknowledged this in a rare, “Well said,” which stamped the moment with memory-weight. (Normally I can’t quote anything verbatim.)