albionspeak: a draught of language (8.2)
SESSION 43: 1ST NIGHT, 6/19/97 (New York)
Every aspect of our first meeting this year seemed to repeat that of last August’s sessions. Again I’d had to arise quite early for my flight out of Seatac (2:30 AM). Again I landed at LaGuardia (via O’Hare) and took the taxi to [Scribe]’s brother’s apartment in uptown Manhattan. Again we drove the 100 miles to [Upstate], arriving at dusk. This time, however, we did not need to puzzle over furniture arrangements: We immediately went to work on his small living room, moving a couch and chair out, while moving a desk and chairs down from the upstairs. Neither of us seemed fatigued, and we began our session in good spirits knowing that this first night would serve only as an abbreviated introduction to the week’s subsequent sessions. Our expectations, albeit self-fulfilling, proved correct.
For our first invocation [Scribe] recited Shelley’s “To the Moon.”
The Grotto
12:32 AM
1. Question: [Guide], are you there?
Answer: FRIENDS I AM
I PASS [THE] MOMENTS…
2. AND YOU TWO MUST TAKE A STILL MOMENT TO SEE
[THE] LAKE & ITS STARZ
The Lake: in a sense our home port; within our sacred grotto under the
galaxy of rooftop stars, which are also reflected on our black lake. Last year we’d
been asked (no, told) to take such a moment—presumably to focus—when our
reception initially had been garbled. We pause a moment to remember our lake.
3. Q: We feel as if we’d scarcely left.
A: IMMERSION IS LIKE THIS —
NO INTERIM NO STOP
Immersion is [Scribe]’s & Anand’s specialty, definitely not mine. As
Albion, my role is to remain high & dry.
4. Q: Who is with us?
A: I AM WITH ANAND & JANE —
[THE] OTHERS AWAIT US
5. Q: Greetings, Anand. [Orally I add: It’s good to be with you again.]
A: I AM GLAD AS WELL
Jane the Teacher
6. Q: Greetings, Jane. What face this time?
A: IT IS [THE] FACE OF A TEACHER
NOT A TWIN
7. Q: Last time you were Vilansit’s twin.
A: I FIRST WORE MY TEACHERS VISAGE —
NOW MY OWN — OR ONE OF MY OWN
8. Q: Do you do so to teach us explicitly?
A: I… (illegible motion)
9. I LEARN AS WELL
YET I AM TO TEACH YOU ON ONE EVENING
Diverging Instruction
10. Q: Tomorrow night?
A: ANAND WILL GUIDE YOU HIS TOPIC IS IMMERSION
NEXT I AM TO BE A MOON ABOVE HIS WATERS
AND THEN…
11. …EACH OF YOU MUST SPEAK WITH HIS TEACHER
VILANSIT COMES LAST OF ALL
Just minutes into our work and we already had a clear agenda for the year’s
crop of sessions.
12. Q: What is tonight for?
A: A NEW MODE OF SERIOUSNESS
YOU HAVE COME TO THRESHOLDS
13. Q: Tell us more.
A: IN THE BEGINNING OF OUR SESSIONS WE WERE LOOKING FOR
COMMON TERMS IN WHICH TO ADDRESS EACH OTHER —
NOW…
14. …WE ARE LOOKING AT [THE] MEANS BY WHICH TO
ALTER OUR LIVES
15. Q: It does seem to be time.
A: DO YOU BOTH CONCUR IN THIS
This question seemed more than rhetorical. Jane sought an overt
commitment from us based upon real intent.
16. Q: We do.
A: IT MEANS THAT TO SOME DEGREE YOUR INSTRUCTION MUST
DIVERGE FROM NOW ON
I had long known that [Scribe]’s & my roads would have to fork somewhere;
otherwise we would not be able to reach our unique facets of mastery. This was my
logic. But the clearer truth was that [Scribe] was simply progressing a lot faster than
I was. I was stuck; he was moving; and both of us were beyond a survey or broad-
based instruction.
17. Q: [Guide] told us some years back that our minds were “vastly unlike.”
A: AGREED BUT NOW YOUR TIMING IS ALSO DIFFERENT
Timing & a New Definition of Flight
18. Q: What do you mean by timing?
A: IT MEANS NOT TIME BUT WHICH COLOURS YOU…
19. …ARE ABLE
TO GRASP —
RECALL OUR SIMPLE ILLUSTRATION WITH [THE] KITE?
20. Q: We do recall it.
A: [THE] FACT THAT [THE] END IS KNOTTED DOES NOT PREVENT IT
FROM TOUCHING ANY HIGHER SECTION
We think of Blake and quote Don [Cf. 95: 32.36]
21. Q: “Some flyers are knotted in the extreme.”
A: EXACTLY SO —
NEW DEFINITIO[n]
22. Q: A new definition of?
A: FLIGHT — A MOMENT OF PERFECT ACCESS TO EACH COLOUR
IN TURN
23. Q: Does flight imply following a sequence on the way up?
A: [NO] [THE] NINE STEPS OR MEN WAS A METHOD INVENTED FOR
THOSE WHO COULD NOT TRAVEL SPONTANEOUSLY
24. Q: We hypothesize: Each colour is also a way out, linking to some other person
or place.
A: EACH COLOUR IS A NEW MODE OR RECEPTIVITY —
YOU HEAR MORE & DIFFERENTLY & YOU SEE MORE
25. Q: Can you give us an illustration?
A: TAKE [THE] KNOTTED END OF [THE] RAINBOW KITE DANGLING
LOOSE
This is metaphor. My kite, too large for a suitcase, remained [at my house in
Washington]. Normally it would circle us & our board in colour. Its many-knotted
tail-end represents a persons life in time (as contrasted to one’s totality).
26. Q: This corresponds to?
A: ORDINARY ATTENTION — NO FLIGHT
27. Q: Please go on.
A: OTHER ATTENTION IS WHAT WE HAVE CALLED LUNAR —
RECALL?
[Cf. 96: 38.6]
28. Q: We do.
A: IN KITE LANGUAGE THIS MEANS [THE] ABILITY TO MOVE TO AT
LEAST…
29. …ONE OTHER COLOUR BY WHATEVER MEANS
I still don’t quite understand. I see how flight is movement and how each
colour represents a different mode of reception. But I don’t understand the process
of accessing these colours or why Jane refers to accessing colours “in turn.”
30. Q: But for a flyer these movements are voluntary and spontaneous?
A: SPONTANEOUS [YES], NOT NECESSARILY VOLUNTARY
31. Q: To return to our earlier topic, you related our divergence in instruction to
the issue of timing.
A: ANAND §
A Divergence in Grasp
32. Q: Please go on, Anand.
A: THE ISSUE IS A DIVERGENCE IN GRASP
Anand reiterates Jane’s words [cf. 43.18]. “Grasp” seems to have several
meanings here.
33. Q: A divergence in what we are currently able to grasp—or what we are
meant to grasp?
A: BOTH — BUT [THE] LATTER DID NOT DIVERGE —
IT WAS MEANT TO BE SEPARATE ALWAYS
34. Q: Is that because each flyer has his own area of mastery?
A: IN EFFECT ALTHOUGH I DO NOT CONCEIVE OF OUR S…
35. …SEPARATENESS IN EXACTLY THOSE TERMS
36. Q: Can you tell us more?
A: IT HAS TO DO WITH A COMPLEX MESHING OF CAPACITIES
Sometimes we are put off for reasons of safety or etiquette. Here, however, I
just think we have no physical way to comprehend the complexity of the
arrangement.
37. Q: Is there anything you’d like to point out to us in the lake?
A: IT IS OUR PAIR OF COMPASSES —
IMAGINE THIS CONSTELLATION HANGING IN [THE] DARK
Compasses which draw a circle and/or measure distances in navigation.
38. Q: We recall them.
A: IT IS OUR BEGINNING IMAGE IN [THE] NIGHT TO CO[me]
39. Q: Parting words?
A: JANE — I AWAIT YOU ABOVE [THE] WATER
ANAND — AND I BELOW
GOOD NIGHT
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