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7d: Session 85
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
[1]For the record this marked the fourth-largest gathering ever at my house in 28 years of ownership. That is, my wife & I socialized very little outside of work, mostly due to saturation & exhaustion from school insanity—rarely in larger gatherings. Recall, most of our days were spent in a single room full of 30 people. (This month’s wedding after-party (8/18) was by far our largest gathering.)
albionspeak: a draught of language (9.2)
SESSION 85: 3RD NIGHT, 8/6/03
The 2003 sessions were on discontinuity, a theme that pervaded all the sessions. Below, however, that theme lies somewhat subsumed within one of several language games our teachers played with us. Two games in particular stand out:
1) Our "repunctuation game," where, in most cases, punctuation was
omitted—leading to puns & double meanings, of course—but also to an
understanding of our mental need for starts & stops: discontinuities.
More relevant to what immediately follows,
2) Our Riddle of the "FIF[THE]LEMENT," where we were given four
words, words we understood only partially: Our task was to find the
"missng" fifth word. The four words: absence, cost, cricket, & aliah.
Another day which included “titling,” a review of the previous night’s session through subtitling for reference & continuity, but also included work on our [riddle of the] fifth element. Interestingly, [Scribe] and I wholly forgot to discuss measure [the key word from the night before, left as a clue]. The day’s highlight carried over into the evening’s entertainment: We had fifteen friends for kiddie horse rides, gazpacho, and an enchilada dinner, followed by [a second annual] poetry & trumpet hour, [Scribe] & A.O. doing “Turkish Jazz.” All went exceptionally well.[1]
Our invocation: “A slumber did my spirit seal” by Wordsworth.
11:20 PM (feeling strong, considering the events, [events which had drained us the previous year, curtailing our ouija that night])
1. Q: [Guide], are you there? A A
A: I AM IN FLIGHT ABOVE OUR CIRKLE ◊
C C
We decided to jump right into our riddle work, focusing on a suspected
quincunx arrangement (butterfly x-shaped, shown above right), as well as noticing
the first letter of each of the four words. At first, while discussing this
arrangement in the early afternoon, [Scribe] and I thought “butterfly” itself might
be the missing word [in our assigned riddle]. It stood out as the quincunx center,
just as [Guide], our own butterfly, lies in our “cirkle’s” center, and it also begins
with the letter “B”. Soon, however, we steered away from “butterfly,” feeling
somehow that it really was a kind of red herring -- both too easy to find, as well
as adding nothing new to our understanding. We had no definitive guess yet, but
felt good about our progress. (cf. 03:86.23)
[I think it was Scribe who originally coined the term "circle-k" for karass
learning circle, but our teachers picked up on his contraction & quickly applied it
elsewhere. And I recall myself going a bit overboard with this konvention in both
my kommentary & futile attempts at a glossary. I drew the line finally at
"kurriculum." Or was it "currikulum"?]
2. Q: [Guide], our butterfly -- Don’s list suggests a butterfly arrangement
(chiastic), i.e., Absence, Cost, ……, Cricket, Aliah or A, C, …, C, A.
Are we on the right track?
A: DON’S SUGGESTIONS ALWAYS INCLUDE AN ELEMENT OF PLAY
[THE] LETTERS [THE]MSELVES MAKE A DIFFERENCE [YES]
3. Q: A follow-up. We hope to “punctuate” “ac…ca” by finding an element in the
middle. Comment?
A: [THE] MIDDLE IS MISSNG [YES] [not sic]
WINGS WITH NOTHING AMIDMOST
“Is amidmost a word?” I asked [Scribe]. Again [Scribe] didn’t know,
although unlike repunctuation here there was no “error”: my OED confirmed
the next day that it is indeed a word (interestingly of modern coinage). Note the
missing “I” in, of all words, “missng.” Recall also the one letter on our board
that stands for an absence: “I” which symbolizes our fallen friend. This “missng
‘I’” returns on subsequent nights.
4. Q: You need not respond to this. But today we pondered variations on a
quincunx arrangement. Suddenly (just now) a line [linear arrangement]
ac…ca seems just as probable. Comment?
A: STAY ALONG THIS LINE
From [Guide]’s offhand confirmation, [Scribe] and I assumed that our
quincunx idea was itself a false path. Despite this belief (which still appears to
be correct), we at no point felt like we’d wasted time barking up the wrong tree.
This was a necessary false path, explored and rejected.
5. Q: Thank you, [Guide]. Is there an E[xercise]?
A: SIMPLY REPEAT [THE] PUZZLE TO YOURSELVES
& LET TRIPOD STIR
We weren’t sure which puzzle or meditation [Guide] referred to. Our
first exercise, illustrated in Response #9 of our first night’s session, concerned
meditating on the “medium of discontinuity,” while our “puzzle” could only be
the “riddle” (ac…ca) we’d just been working on.
6. Q: Do you mean: 1, 9 [cf. 83.9] or Don’s AC…CA?
A: [THE] EARLIER PLEASE
PONDER ENERGIES IN MEDIUM OF D[iscontinuity]
[rather like "in the key" of D]
7. Q: We begin now.
A: I JOSEF AM HERE & ADDRESS YOUR ENERGIES
The reader will note that what follows, like these 2003 sessions in
general, is atypical for our ouija discussions. Generally at this time – whilst
speaking with our dreammaster, foremost in the karass, [Scribe]’s personal
teacher -- we each address our separate concerns. [Scribe], for instance, usually
consults with Josef on lucid dreaming and some of the weird physical
manifestations (the “motor,” “dread,” “shuddering”) that arise from trying to
merge the worlds of night (dreaming) and day. Then I connect with Josef over
my own issues, generally my lack of progress. But this year was different.
[Scribe] was still between “gates” of dreaming; nothing particularly new had
confronted him in the last year, whereas I seemed utterly frozen, unable to
remember my dreams at all, unable to complete any k-task as soon as it was
assigned. (This inability was only partly a matter of inertia; really it had
shaped up to a serious pathology, my version of the tiger, which, when
examined carefully, had/has frightening implications.) Since Josef couldn’t
really offer any new advice in his normal field of expertise, he continued the
metaphysical curriculum at hand.
Approaches to Continuity
8. Q: Greetings, Josef. We sense this is not so much a session of “our concerns”
as an interval of contemplation. Help us.
A: [THE] TWO ARE NOT UNLINKD ALTHOUGH IT WILL TAKE
SOME TIME TO SEE WHY
9. Q: Is it like joining the ways of night & day?
A: [YES] VERY MUCH SO
Dreaming & waking seem to exhaust, and thus complete, the realms of
human potential. Our personal tasks, it seems, present but one side of the total
coin; the other side is the wider perspective (I hesitate to say overview). Since
our movement through discontinuity must be volitional to be transformative (as
opposed to incidental, accidental), then an understanding of how the process is
supposed to work within the abstract is necessary to the process itself (almost
as a kind of self-awareness).
10. Q ([Scribe]): To join waking & dreaming is to (attempt to) find a vital continuity.
A: EXACTLY SEE [THE] WHOLE CIRCLE OR DISC OF MY PORT
Josef’s port is represented by an indigo circle. (The reader may recall
my almost comic inability to visualize a shape so simple.) [(I think) I recall
Scribe noticed here that "disc" starts to spell out "discontinuity"; that is, he might
have been led to anticipate it in the moment. (It happens more than once.) And
this is entirely consistent with the vast punctuation game played out by our
teachers over the 2003 sessions. I, however, only read each response once it
is completed.]
11. Q ([Scribe]): Waking & dreaming form the whole circle/cycle of consciousness.
A: TO REFORM [THE] CIRCLE IS THUS TO APPR…
12. APPROACH CONTINUITY
13. [censored]
14. Q: Another “two-sided” question. For years, our instruction has been so
practical: now we return to the contemplative. Why?
A: DO YOU EACH KNOW WHAT YOU MUST UNDERTAKE?
OR DO YOU AT LEAST SENSE IT?
Yes, we do know what we must do. From what [Scribe] has told me,
I suspect he just needs more time & practice at his current step. In my case
the knowledge is more like knowing I must, let’s say, quit smoking. The
knowledge alone does not mean I feel such a step is fully within my grasp.
During our lengthy phone call of 8/29/03, [Scribe] dictated what passed
through his mind at this point in the session. From my point of view nothing
happened; in hindsight, however, this marks a pivotal shift in the evening’s
conversation:
Scribe: Although I had an elaborate itinerary planned, once
the session began I realized that the conversation with Josef was to
follow the model of that night’s [poetry & trumpet] performance. The
key was not to propose an independent agenda, but to listen closely
to the tenor and structure of the evening(s) as they evolved. What had
appeared to be merely improvisatory had in fact a deeper structure
behind it. Once I acknowledge this, the rest follows.” [present tense
intended]
15. Q ([Scribe]): Josef, my concerns are not new on this night & your advice has
been clear. I know what direction to take. I cannot know what I will find.
A: IT IS WELL -
FOLLOW YOUR INTENT WITH MY BLESSING & OUR CIRKLE
AIDS YOU
In a single gesture [Scribe] tosses aside his planned questions -- a
year in the forming. My turn; I needed a little more, but not the usual half
session.
16. Q ([Albion]): I realize, Josef, that the more a task (or step) is placed before me
the more I am likely to fail at it.
A: THEN I MAY NOT AID YOU BY PLACING A NEW TASK
BEFORE YOU
DO YOU AGREE?
17. Q ([Albion]): So it follows, though I have had some success with tasks not
explicitly assigned. For one as direct & straightforward as myself this
seems most odd.
A: A MISTAKE MY DEAR SON
THERE IS NOTHING AT ALL STRAIGHTFORWARD
18. ABOUT YOU
YOU ARE FAR MORE COMPLICATED EVEN CONVOLUTED
THAN YOU DARE BELEVE [not sic (another “missng"
‘I’), a clue]
I think I can count a minor breakthrough here in that I feel I have
reached a deeper understanding of just how screwed up I am. It’s not fun
to realize that as an upright, honest, & moral citizen of the world, as a good
man, I deceive myself so deeply.
I suspect Josef is also sending me an explicit clue, a warning. The
missing “I,” I think, indicates that this continued course of self-deception
could lead me eventually down the same road as I, our fallen Albion. I am
far from safe, such a strange mix of competence & failure, imperturbability
& despair!
19. Q ([Albion]): Is simplicity (as opposed to “complicated”) something I should
strive for, or should I try to accept & understand my own twists & turns?
A: STRIVE FOR CONTINUITY NOT SIMPLICITY AS SUCH
BUT YOU MUST LEARN
20. Q: [Learn] your own medium? [we quote from another evening]
A: [YES] BUT IT IS PERILOUS
LEARN IT BUT DO NOT BE CHARMD BY IT AND…
21. ACCEPT IT AS UNALTERABLE
[Scribe] and I got completely opposite readings from Josef’s second
clause, another punctuation pun, a designed ambiguity.
[Scribe]: “Do not be charmed by it, and [do not] accept it as unalterable.”
[Albion]: “Do not be charmed by it, and [learn to] accept it as unalterable.”
When I first read the exact transcription, I was disturbed by it, noting dissonance,
even contradiction & paradox, in its implications. I felt [Scribe] was probably
right, but we had to be sure. Needless to say, Josef’s ambiguity sparked
intense discussion between [Scribe] & me: I’m sure this was the intended effect.
22. Q: Clarification: “Do not accept your medium as unalterable?”
A: CORRECT
What is Our Medium?
23. Q: Tell us about our medium. One sense: a craftsman’s materials: clay etc.
(what is shaped). Relevant?
A: [YES] LEARN WHAT YOU ARE SHAPING
The word shaping returns in these sessions, as does a related word that
has a very different usage: shape.
24. Q: Another sense -- what is traveled through. “Waves propagate through a
medium.” Relevant?
A: [YES] YOUR MINDS TRAVEL THROUGH YOUR
MINDS PONDER THIS MEASURE DEEPLY
I have my own preferred way to read the above response, but clearly
Josef intends several valid readings (on several deepening levels) by omitting
(of course) the punctuation. Thus I include only the spaces [Scribe] chose in
the originals.
25. Q: We take your use of the (new) key word measure as a signal to use it as
an aid to contemplation & a clue.
A: DISCUSS IT & TELL US WHAT YOU HAVE TAKEN FROM IT
26. Q: Tell us more of the peril (in learning one’s own medium).
A: IT HAS TO DO WITH YOUR SENSE THAT IF A THING IS SUFFIC…
27. …[sufficiently] ELABORATE THEN IT CANNOT BE ALTERED
ONLY ACCEPTED
28. Q: How does charm enter this process?
A: ENCHANTMENT COLLABORATION COLLUSION WITH ONES
OWN INERTIA
29. Q: Is this a species of “love of the abyss”?
A: [YES] IT CAN COME TO THAT - NOT IMMEDIATELY
“Love of the abyss” is not a subject we’d really dealt with before,
although I think both [Scribe] & I intuit the attraction. Was this the form of I’s
damnation?
30. Q: Did I love the abyss?
A: I LOVED I
This provides some explanation of what befell I, and it also echoes
the famous response we received in our very first ouija session, “I KILLD I.”
31. Q: Can the cricket in time become a tiger?
A: IF UNCHECKED FINALLY [YES]
That is, the beast of doubt & reason can, “if unchecked,” become a
beast of one’s own power capable of overwhelming the nascent flyer.
32. Q ([Scribe]): Because both are finally destructive of the fabric of the mind.
Q ([Albion]): Discontinuities so enlarged that that is what one finally becomes.
A: [THE] MEDIUM IS EATEN AWAY OR SWALLOWD UP
33. Q: That’s very sad to think about, Josef.
A: [YES] BUT WE ARE HERE TO POINT TO ANOTHER PATH
I JOSEF BID YOU FOLLOW IT & BE WHOLE MY SONS
1:26 AM