*
*
albionspeak: a draught of language (2.4)
The Table of Contents below is too long to display fully. If you click to the right of these Lessons,you'll see the primary source documents displayed under each. These original sessions are a world treasure.
3b Images & Attributions (in order of appearance)
1. Banner: Rhiannon C. 2016
a) Jewel Mandala (2): D.C. Albion 1994
b) Jewel Ouija Board (2): D.C. Albion 1994
2. Mickey Mouse as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," Walt Disney, ©The Disney Company
3. Photos of Albion's magic rainbow kite (a-l): D.C. Albion 2017
a) rainbow head
b) navy blue w/ moon & stars
c) magenta
d) pink
e) vermilion & f) knotted blue tail
g) orange
h) yellow & i) knotted blue tail
j) green
k) knotted blue tail
l) knotted blue tail
4. Mickey Mouse as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," Walt Disney, ©The Disney Company
5. Photo of Kate Bush By Permission obtained from the creator here (Archived here) - Philip Chappell aka squidneyImage courtesy of a user of the Kate Bush News & Info Forum, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2027491
Kate Bush
1958 -
SESSION 25: 2ND NIGHT, 6/22/95
The first night of most years' ouija sessions tends to be shorter, introductory. After airports & jet lag take their toll, Scribe's energy is a factor. But more, first nights are an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with friends & process and set an agenda for the coming nights, one open to serendipity. Session 25, as you can see above, is a second night, normally the big night in any given year's sessions, when we get our most mind-blowing news. (Then subsequent nights help us cement these revelations into their new paradigm.) Session 25, however, reads more like a first night, as we slowly wander through new settings and barely seem to get to business.
That we might appear to "waste" valuable ouija moments dithering on fanciful settings and nautical metaphors can irk the impatient apprentice. Let's get down to the business. And I confess I heard this voice in a corner of my head before I knew to call it the cricket. But Scribe—because he is a scribe—loves fancy, loves the flowers & fruits of imagination, so setting settings was his brain child, starting with scenes from Keats's "On the Sea." Clearly Scribe saw what I did not, for our teachers then pounced on his suggestion and ran with setting. I knew we were doing more than playing "pretend." I saw at once, for instance, how setting connects to the profound concept of ports. But it's taken me decades to grasp why my teachers (including Albion, my overseer) felt that setting was pedagogically necessary to our curriculum. It's more than window-dressing (and will now have to be addressed in a future lesson).
Session 24, the first night, was nearly devoted to settings. Jane led us from a seashore to a cave in a cliff and eventually to our Grotto—not some small weeping wall with icons & offerings—rather an expansive underground lake, silent and illuminated only by a galaxy of dim stars on the ceiling. The Grotto is a place all Jewel members come to for contemplation, and all are represented in the deep stars. Conjunctions & constellations were identified & discussed, themes to come. Importantly, we are not the stars. Rather the stars mark the points where two members meet & collide. As Anand poled our boat across the shallow cavern lake, we followed our stars reflected in the still water.
9:40 PM
A Look Back
1. Question: [Guide], are you there?
Answer: [YES] I AM IN [THE] BOAT
ARE YOU READY TO DISEMBARK?
2. Q: Yes, we are.
A: SAME CAVERN ONLY [THE] SHORE IS NEW –
ONE LAST LOOK BACK?
3. Q: Please.
A: JANE –
I AM STANDING HERE ASHORE
BEHIND A NIGHT SKY
AND BEFO. . .
4. FORE A NARROW PASSAGE
5. Q: Shall we proceed?
A: [YES] ANAND HAS TO FASTEN OUR BOAT
6. Q: Anand, will we be needing it for a return trip?
A: [YES] ALMOST CERTAINLY
Was there a plan after all? A significant datum. [The
previous night we'd learned that "we need not to plan," something
Scribe just discovered in composing poetry.]
7. Q: Will we be returning to the grotto, or the harbor outside the cliff?
A: TO [THE] CAVE OF MANY LIGHTS
8. Q: Does the passage lead to the ship?
A: [YES] ITS AS NARROW AS ONE PERSON
GO ONE BY ONE BY ONE
(cf. 94: 22.75) This reference, in turn, quoted my poem
“Sleep Talk.”
The Narrow Passage
I understood that we were being led through this narrow
passage for a reason, so that we might discover something. (That
is, I don’t believe in the spatial necessity of such a passage.)
Therefore, it was logical to explore what little one could.
10:00 PM
Markings on the Threshold
9. Q: Are there markings on the walls?
A: [YES] OUR FOREBEARS ON [THE] THRESHOLD OF TIME
10. Q: Made the markings, or are represented by them?
A: BOTH MADE & DEPICTED
11. Q: Are there any that any of you would like to point out?
A: HERE IS A TREE
HERE A FLOWER
HERE A CUP
We were quite familiar with the flower and the cup, and
last year we did learn of Kteresh, a living tree sacred to one of our
early forebears; but Kteresh was never held up as a metaphor of our
karass. I now suspected that our talks would at some point turn
to the subject of the tree; yet when they finally did, I’d already
forgotten about its image on the wall.
12. Q: Why did they make these markings?
A: JANE -
I SPOKE OF [THE] FEARSOME PASSAGE
IT IS MARKED FOR OUR BENEFIT
13. Q: What is there to fear?
A: TELL ME PLEASE WHY WE FEAR THE DARK?
14. Q: Isn’t it largely because our primary sense modality has been
rendered useless?
A: SO HERE IN INTELLECT & WE PROCEED BLINDLY
If our intellect were turned off, how could we communicate?
Q#14 is a good illustration of how Scribe often phrases questions
in ways I would never consider. I can be articulate, especially if
given a moment; still I’d have never asked this question in this way.
15. Q: More so here than in the grotto?
A: THERE WE HAVE TWIN COMFORTS
[THE] STARS [THE] MIRROR
HERE WE FALL BACK ON OUR SELVE
16. Q: Isn’t it enough that we can trust ourselves?
A: CAN WE?
17. Q: If the passage is so narrow, how could we go wrong?
A: ITS BECAUSE IT IS NARROW THAT WE FEAR
We never tried to find out why apparently we’re instinctively
claustrophobic. I tend to think that on an allegorical level, we were
walking through our birth: The Grotto is the womb; we pass through
the narrow passage, fearsome & constricting; then we enter the
outside world. (This insight did not come to me until late in our
sessions, however.)
18. Q: Our forebears are depicted on the walls; is our mandala also here
somewhere?
A: [NO] BECAUSE SIGNS INVOLVE OUR NET RATHER
THAN CIRCLE
19. Q: Is the Jewel depicted somewhere?
A: BY AN ANCIENT RULE [NO] IMAGEZ OF [THE] JEWEL
ARE TO APPE[ar]
Obviously to keep members from making the Jewel into
an idol. (This is so Old Testament.)
20. Q: Please lead on.
A: I WANT TO SHOW YOU ONE MORE IMAGE
10:27 PM
The Flying Man / The Falling Man
21. Q: Please do, Jane.
A: I CAN DESCRIBE OR SHOW OUR SCRIBE DIRECTLY
Scribe was given three direct visions last year (the linen
napkin, the tree of Kteresh, & the terrible Loom). It seemed just
a matter of time before he’d be sent another one this year. Scribe
now quoted the instructions for receiving such visions as they
were presented to us last year (cf. 94: 18.18).
22. Q (Scribe): Halt session? Stand in darkness? Or should I lie under the table
again?
A: DARK IS NOT NEEDED
BOTH MUST WORK TOGETHER AGAIN –
[Albion] LOOK DOWN & [Scribe] LOOK UP AT [THE]
SAME POINT –
I SHOW
[Over the years Scribe and I were asked to focus our intents
through a variety of exercises, generally in tandem, but with distinct
& complementary roles. The vision described below was sent
after we had assumed a position that allowed each of us to look
at a different side of the ouija board/mandala. Thus, Scribe had to
lie under the glass dining room table (immersed) to look up at the
mandala, while I looked down (from my peak) onto the ouija board
face. And to be clear, while I had constructed the ouija board, I
hadn't really looked at it deeply. Recall, my eyes are closed during
messages. Conversely, the mandala, which I know on the most
visceral level, Scribe had barely looked at, though he knew the
ouija face intimately. We each gazed on the side most foreign to
us. As to what these exercises actually do, I have no idea. I
know that intending is really hard and physically taxes me as much
as running wind sprints. But I have no rational explanation.]
My role in this episode seemed insignificant: I have
nothing to report. Here’s Scribe’s side of the story (the underside):
The Flying Man:
As long as my eyes were open, I could see only the pattern on the
dimly-lit underside of our board. It was when I shut my eyes that I saw a
human figure, carved in bas-relief on a ground of grey rock. The figure was
rough, stylized, head-downward with arms outspread, in an inverted Y. The
figure’s back and the back of its head were toward me. Seen from a low
vantage, the figure appeared to loom from the rock wall.
23. Q (Scribe): Jane, I saw a person (a man?) falling toward me with his arms
outstretched.
A: FALLING OR FLYING?
24. Q (Scribe): Please tell me, Jane. To me, the vision was disquieting.
A: FLYING
BUT ONE ONLY FLIES IF ONE MUST
25. Q: Who is the man?
A: [THE] FLYING MAN WAS MEANT FOR [THE] THREE OF
US IN PARTICULAR
26. Q: Please go on.
A: [THE] ART IS TO FLY WHILE STILL IN TIME
Here we are given a goal. This must be attainable for
us; yet phrased in this way our goal sounds superhuman.
27. Q: Why must we fly?
A: BECAUSE OTHERWISE WE FALL
28. Q: Is that true of everyone?
A: [YES] BUT SOME ARE BORN INTO FLIGHT & WE ARE [NO]T
Clearly, a lot of people are falling if this is all true.
29. Q: Can you tell us of someone who was “born into flight”?
A: [YES] DON VILANSIT JOSEF
30. Q: That means they could achieve effortlessly what we must work
to acquire?
A: [YES] DIRECT SEEING & DIRECT TRAVEL
Whatever flight is, it’s not freedom from struggle; it’s not
enlightenment; it’s not clear knowledge of one’s place in the
scheme of things. We know from their own words that both Don
and Vilansit were suffering humans, as we all are.
11:09 PM
31. Q: From what we’ve heard, Don did not know he possessed direct seeing.
A: DON IS MODEST & ALSO GOOD AT CONCEALING
Had Don deceived us? Just how much did Don know when
he was alive, and why the deception? These questions were raised,
but never with any hint of betrayal attached to them. Now that we
were discussing “direct seeing,” it seemed like a good time to
introduce – and put to rest – my experiences in April of “automatic
writing:”* I was stoned on marijuana and by myself for the first
time in almost seven years. As was generally the case back when I
smoked regularly, I heard voices. That is, I found myself able to
hear the natural conversations which go on all the time in my head:
some of the voices being my own, some most definitely not (women,
children, old men, etc.). I had written down such conversations
in the distant past and was generally disappointed with the results
the next day. On this occasion, however – the first since we started
at our board – I found myself writing in the same Question/Answer
format found in these transcripts. In fact, when I repeated this
experience the following night (having more dope than I’d thought),
I went straight to the computer and experienced something like
“automatic typing.”
Now by strict definition this was not automatic writing,
since my hand was controlled by me. I knew what I was doing.
However, I did my best to write down what I heard, word for word.
The content of the material is spiritual and karass-based. I believed
I was speaking with our friends in the mandala, and I did gain
some valuable insights, especially some detailed information about
my drawing of our mandala and specific correspondences within it.
Was the whole experience authentic? Was it direct hearing? Or
was it hubris-inspired delusion? I had to find out.
The Kite’s Higher Colours
32. Q: Was Albion’s experience of “automatic writing” authentic? If so,
was this direct seeing?
A: [Albion] YOU SPOKE [NO]T TO US
33. Q (Albion): Was I speaking to anybody?
A: [YES] YOU SPOKE WITH YOURSELF AS YOU ARE
BEYOND TIME
Naturally, I was pleased to have my experience confirmed
(and by extension, literally hundreds of like events from my college
days), even if my reading of the experience was incorrect.
34. Q (Albion): It seemed as if I were speaking with voices not my own. Does
the me outside time include voices such as yours?
A: ILLUSTRATION?
35. Q: Please.
A: TAKE HOLD OF [THE] KITE’S END
[I have to remind the reader that my kite is 33 feet 5 inches
long and, following explicit instructions from our teachers, encircles
the entire dining room table. The head and tail meet to my left,
where we open or close our "door." Somehow creating and entering
a circle enhances energies needed for focused work (and our teachers
recommend it for any such work: writing, painting, playing piano,
etc.) Very simple in design, the beautiful silk kite is comet shaped,
consisting of descending planes of solid color, roughly 2' x 3.5',
before tapering imperceptibly to a thin blue triangle Notably the
tip of my kite has six or seven knots that mysteriously tied themselves
during the kite's maiden voyage (another whole story*). In an
earlier session we were told to think of our lives in time as "our
knotted days" and that the 9 inches of knotted tail is a fair image of
our lives compared to the rest of our soul, the other 32+ feet.]
36. Q (Albion): I have it.
A: GOOD -
NOW TOUCH [THE] END TO A COLOUR HIGHER IN THE TAIL -
I WAIT
37. Q (Albion): I have done so. [blue against yellow, skipping green]
A: NOW TELL ME WHAT THE KNOTTED END. . .
38. …CONCEIVES
OF ITSELF AS DOING?
39. Q: From its point of view, it is talking to someone else.
A: GOOD - NOW MOVE [THE] END YET HIGHER
40. Q (Albion): I have done so. [blue skips over orange and touches red]
A: GOOD - WHAT DOES [THE] END EXPERIENCE NOW?
Although we did not know it at the time, in choosing
yellow and red I chose the colours which correspond to me and
to Scribe respectively (cf. 27.47).
41. Q: Yet another voice.
A: ONE WITH MORE AUTHORITY MAYBE?
42. Q (Albion): So it follows. But at that higher level, might I not include
Vilansit, say?
A: NOT IN [THE] SENSE YOU MEAN
This illustration, which involved my twice getting up and
adjusting the kite, seemed slightly excessive. Couldn’t Jane have
just told us? But I’ve come to view everything we do at our board
as necessary; therefore, there was method to this illustration.
Besides planting this event more firmly into consciousness, moving
the kite’s tail further validated my experience of writing in April.
43. Q (Albion): When I spoke to my “higher” selves, was this a form of flying
or direct seeing?
A: FOR FLYING [THE] KITE MUST [NO]T BE FOLDED
BACK ONTO ITSELF
So “flying” necessarily implies accessing outside information
(persons, places, & events included).
On the Scribe’s Visions
44. Q: When the scribe sees images, is that direct seeing?
A: NO THAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT SUCH SEEING
IS LIKE IF HE…
45. …COULD SEE THEM WITHOUT OUR
SENDING THEM WITH OUR ALIAH
46. Q: But surely all such seeing depends on the aliah of others in the karass?
A: [YES] BUT ITS [THE] DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
DISCOVERY & BEING TOLD
It may also be the difference between flying like a bird
and flying in an airplane.
Jane’s Warning
47. Q: When speaking with one’s higher selves, is there a danger of narcissistic
idolatry or of being lost within a house of mirrors?
A: [YES] IT IS VERY DANGEROUS I THINK
Here I return to my concern of the last several years
(cf. 94: 21.53; 93: 13.38). In the net of Indra, since every jewel
reflects all the rest, then each can see itself reflected everywhere -
a danger. This is one reason why I believe a karass is a union of
unlike minds. Because we’re different, we can find each other
in the Loom; and we don’t get lost in ourselves. However, travelling
up the colours of the kite presents a possible threat. One sees only
oneself, and one can be dazzled by self-vertigo.
48. Q: Do you advise against it?
A: I AM NOT FORBIDDING
I ONLY MAKE YOU AWARE OF RISKS
49. Q (Albion): Can’t I trust my higher selves to watch out for me?
A: ITS [THE] KNOTTED END I AM CONCERNED ABOUT*
Our first use of the period. Because it is so easy for a reader
to miss its deliberate use and emphasis, I feel it is necessary to use
the “*” in place of the small dot. Frankly, after so much consideration
into what punctuation Scribe & I should include on our new board,
the period now seems unnecessary. It should be noted that I did
have a third “automatic writing” session. This one, however, was
cut short from above. That is, I was receptive enough to get a couple
of clear responses, responses which told me there would be no further
message.
50. Q: Have Scribe or Albion ever flown before?
A: OH [YES] MANY TIMES IN MOMENTS OF INTUITION -
I SPEAK OF MAKING IT CONSTANT
Intuitive moments are for me the breath of life. I drool at
the thought of a constant breeze under me.
51. Q: Anand, will you tell us of your experience of flying?
A: [YES] I WAS NOT BORN TO IT
BUT CAME TO IT VERY SUDDENLY
52. Q: Tell us more.
A: ONE DAY I WAS IN MID AIR OR MIDSTREAM?
BUT I DO NOT THINK. . .
53. …YOUR WAY IS LIKE THIS -
ALL OR NOTHING
Scribe & I have a hard time distinguishing this experience
from what we’ve always considered “enlightenment.” And we had
already acknowledged that the sudden path (as some zen schools
teach) is not ours. Although I might desire my own road to Damascus,
I’m being timed-released, like a capsule in the bloodstream. I think
the reason for such a gradual progression is so I can survey all the
steps along the way, that I may empathize with others on their own
paths, and that perhaps I can help others with obstacles I have
personally overcome. Who is better able to counsel an alcoholic,
for instance, one who’s never known vice or a recovered alcoholic?
(Obviously any world needs both kinds of teachers.)
54. Q: Jane & Anand, we are grateful for what you have shown us in the
narrow passage. Will our butterfly now lead on?
A: [YES] FOLLOW ME -
ITS GROWING LIGHTER AHEAD
The Gathering Port
Before the Falcon
55. Q: We’re right behind you.
A: I JOSEF GREET MY DEAR SONS
We’d been called “children” before, and [the first Albion]
had said he was like a father to me, the latest Albion (cf. 94: 18.37);
but never had we been recognized in this manner.
56. Q: Greetings, Josef. Thank you for the dreams you’ve sent in the last year.
A: THE MORE YOU RECEIVE THE HIGHER I WILL LEAD YOU
An important response, though easily passed over. Josef
never wastes his breath.
57. Q: Josef, where are we?
A: WE ARE STANDING ON ONE OF. . .
58. …OUR PORTS
I was confused about the preposition “on” here. We soon
learn more.
59. Q: Will you describe the view?
A: THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE EXCEPT OUR VESSEL
WHICH DON ONCE CALLD THE FALCON
(cf. 94: 23.58) This was our winged ship.
60. Q: Shall we board?
A: DON §
61. Q: We are glad to hear from you again, Don.
A: DO YOU FORGIVE ME FOR DECEIVING TWO FRIENDS?
62. Q: Of course, but why did you feel you needed to?
A: BECAUSE IT SOUNDS SO PROUD TO SAY I AM FLYING
63. Q: So your knowledge of the Net was more specific than you allowed
(cf. 19:10-11)?
A: IT WAS –
BUT LIKE BLAKE I DID NOT KNOW NAMES
& LIKE HIM I SAW A GREAT DEAL WITHOUT SEEING
MY OWN ROLE –
I DO NOT SEE IT EVEN NOW
I'm still not sure what to believe, but I like and trust Don
completely.
[At this point, having confirmed that my clairaudience
was authentic—though along my own axis of selves, not others—
I wanted to confirm the content I'd received. Were we each indeed
represented on my mandala drawing? Did I get it right?]
Other Ports Confirmed
64. Q: Is the brown planet we located on our board indeed you (or yours)?
A: [YES] YOU WERE QUITE ACCURATE, ALBION
65. Q: Accurate in each of the correspondences?
A: DOWN TO [THE] LAST –
OH BUT ONE THING
“Down to the last.” This is total confirmation of my
automatic writing contact with higher selves. Prior to this experience
I had never even considered correspondences. And to go eight-for-eight
in my first at bats!
“Oh but one thing” is signature Don (cf. 94: 23.68).
66. Q: Yes, Don?
A: [THE] PLANET IS [NO]T ME EXACTLY
67. Q: Please explain.
A: IT IS RATHER A PLACE WHERE MY POWER TO SHOW
IS MOST ACUTE
THIS IS CALLD A. . .
68. …PORT
I’m always interested in terms to which we have no reference.
Unlike aliah, port is at least English. Yet from Don’s response
world or stage seemed to make more sense. Now we knew how one
could be “on” a port.
69. Q: Are we now standing on your port?
A: NO THIS IS A SPECIAL PORT FOR THE USE OF [THE] CIRCLE
IT IS A GATHERING PORT
70. Q: Vilansit, are you with us?
A: I AM & I INVITE ALL ABOARD OUR FALCON
IT IS TIME
[The previous evening, as we established the themes of our
sessions, we were told of our waiting ship. I would be the navigator,
while Vilansit would provide a telescope. Kate Bush's song
Constellation of the Heart was already a touchstone:]
"If we take all the telescopes and turn them inside out
And point them away from the big sky,
Put your eye right up to the glass,
And here we'll find the constellation of the heart."
71. Q: What can you see out of your glass?
A: IN [NO]T OUT
72. Q: In your glass?
A: I SEE A THREAD THAT IS OUR PATH
How to Pull
73. Q: Do we now push off?
A: IT IS MORE A QUESTION OF PULLING -
PULL THE THREAD AND [THE] DISTANCE BETWEEN
THIS PORT & THAT FOLDS UP
74. Q: Is it Anand’s role to pull the thread?
A: [NO] YOURS - I THOUGHT YOU KNEW
I most certainly did not even suspect. I thought navigators
just drew lines on charts.
75. Q: Anand, what is your role?
A: THINK OF ME AS TAKING CARE OF NECESSARY
STORES OR SUPPLIES
76. Q (Albion): Vilansit, how do I pull on the thread?
A: YOU INTEND [THE] FALCON & [THE] FAR PORT TO COINCIDE -
I WILL TELL YOU HOW
77. Q (Albion): Please do.
A: IT WILL BE TIRING IF YOU DO IT CORRECTLY
FIRST SIT OUTSIDE OF [THE] CIRCLE IN YOUR FORWARD
BENDING POSTURE
HOLD THE PLANCHETTE BEFORE YOU
NEXT. . .
78. …FREE YOUR MIND OF ALL BUT [THE] PORT
THEN PULL WITH ALL YOUR FIBERS
[THE] PLANCHETTE WILL BE IN MIDAIR IN FRONT OF
YOU ABOVE YOUR LAP
TELL [THE] SCRIBE OF. . .
79. …ARRIVAL - YOU WILL FEEL IT
I ESTIMATE FIVE OF YOUR MINUTES FOR PULLING
OR FOLDING
What a bizarre task! Clearly, this was an exercise equivalent
to Scribe’s immersion or his being sent visions. Intent seemed to
be a key here; and since we associated intending with dreams, we
decided to ask Josef for help.
80. Q: Josef, can you advise me on how to intend?
A: YOU HAVE INSIDE YOU A NEEDLE LIKE THAT OF A COMPASS - FOLLOW?
81. Q: I understand your words.
A: USUALLY IT WAVERS & FLOATS & WOBB. . .
82. WOBBLES -
YOU HAVE FELT IT
83. Q: How can I point it toward a planet I can’t see?
A: DOES A NEEDLE NEED TO SEE NORTH?
As soon as I asked the question, I knew his response. Still,
I was fishing for something more concrete.
84. Q: Have I missed anything?
A: JANE -
ALBION YOU LINE UP THE NEEDLE SO IT IS STILL
85. Q: Lights? Music? Eyes open?
A: EYES CLOSED OF COURSE
86. Q: And music?
A: IF IT FOCUSES [YES]
IF IT DISTRACTS - [NO]
1:23 AM
87. Q: Shall we proceed?
A: JOSEF SPEAKS FOR ALL
THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU CALL FUN
DEAR SON, WE ALL RELY ON. . .
88. …YOU IN THIS TASK
Very unsure of myself, I chose no music and total darkness.
Albion: "This was no easy task. Much went through my mind,
much of it being visual. Initially, I tried visualizing my depiction of Don’s
planet on the mandala. I found this nearly impossible, and I quickly grew
frustrated at my inability to hold such a simple image. I would capture it;
then a fog would come over my image. After perhaps eight or nine minutes
I noticed that the background to this fuzzy image was no longer black, but
rather purple, the colour Scribe ascribed to Don in “The Partitas.”
Furthermore, I noticed a distant star near the planet and believed it was
Albion’s sun, no longer close. At some point later I grew near panic, my
legs and arms shaking wildly with the fatigue of maintaining my position.
Perhaps the hardest part in the process was not knowing what constituted
success or failure. I resolved to go until I could go no further, barring some
sort of revelation. In near desperation I saw myself literally pulling on an
endless cable as fast as I could, hand over hand, pulling our boat up to the
stars. Still later, I found myself equally near panic, yet equally determined
to stick it out until physical breakdown (which seemed imminent), when I
noticed Don’s world seem to slide up, over, and behind me, as though it
were two-dimensional, like a coin. Suddenly, I pictured myself hovering, as
if in orbit, over Don’s brown world. Then, after another desperate push - or
rather pull - all my strength doing. . . what? - I found myself and our ship on
Don’s planet. Brown, barren shores were bordered by a purple ocean and
a purple sky with a single star. It seemed serene & beautiful, although lifeless.
My panic was abruptly gone; the image didn’t fade or shift. I knew that
although I could still stress my body for a little while longer, I would travel
no further. Still, I wasn’t at all confident of having succeeded."
After 12 minutes (not five) I called an end, and I had to break
to recover, exhausted.
Don’s Port
1:43 AM
The Result of Abysmal Magic
89. Q: Friends, have we arrived?
A: [YES] DON HERE
[THE] PORT IS BEFORE YOU
PLEASE REST
WHAT FOLLOWS IS NOT. . .
90. …PLEASANT OR EASY
What preceded was not pleasant or easy.
91. Q: Don, please describe your port.
A: RECALL THIS IS NOT MY WORLD BUT WHAT I MAY SHOW
Another disclaimer—signature Don.
92. Q: Show us what you’d like to show us.
A: I WOULD CHOOSE NOT TO IF I COULD
BUT WE HAVE A RULE IN [THE] NET THAT EVERY MEMBER
MUST SEE THE RESULT OF. . .
93. …ABYSMAL MAGIC
I knew this was coming. My prepared list of questions
addressed this topic first, and I knew we were ready for such an
introduction. I suspect Scribe, in contrast, was not thinking along
these lines. Of the members of our mandala, only Don and I show
any fascination with the study of evil. Know thine enemy; study
thine opponent. While Scribe does not shy away from this study, he
seems to pursue it reluctantly and with a heavy heart. He prefers to
look at evil, the fact, whereas Don & I want to understand evil as a
lust and drive, to learn why, why someone would ever choose it.
The others of our group are almost uniformly silent on the subject.
94. Q: It’s better that we know.
A: ALL THE POWERS THAT ENHANCE CAN BE USED TO
COERCE - FOLLOW?
95. Q: We do.
A: IN THIS THREAD WAS A CIRCLE NOT WHOLLY UNLIKE OURS
96. Q: From the Jewel Net?
A: I WAIT TO TELL YOU THAT
97. Q: Please continue.
A: THEY CULTIVATED [THE] POWER
98. IN A WAY THEY WERE BRILLIANT
THEY LEARND NOT ONLY TO SEE INTO OTHER MINDS
BUT ALSO HOW TO ATTACH ONTO THE THREADS OF
THOSE MINDS. . .
Josef Interrupts
99.
DON STOPS NOW AT MY REQUEST
JOSEF
NO PARTING TONIGHT
I WILL BRING US HERE AGAIN NEXT TIME
GOOD NIGHT
ALBION I AM GLAD OF YOUR EFFORT
Whoa! Dramatis interruptus.
Though disappointed, we did recognize the late hour and
the need for a lengthy discussion. We were mostly sorry for
missing out on our nightly poem and parting words. More Castaneda
similarities – disturbing ones. Our main criticism of Castaneda,
now that we have begun our own sorcery apprenticeships, is that his
world is too cutthroat, too predatorial and devoid of love & art. Yet
not only was Don’s to be a tale of evil, it also began with brilliantly
powerful (& presumably ruthless) forebears – hopefully not of our
lineage. This corresponds exactly with what Carlos learned of the
ancient, pre-Toltec sorcerers from his own Don (Juan).
I was very grateful for Josef’s words of approval. It had
been hard.
Hail aliah
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