albionspeak 2: the gates of dis (15.1)
SESSION 83: 1ST NIGHT, 8/4/03
[Scribe]’s flight got in at dinnertime, and following a recent ritual, we ate and shed the day’s itinerary at [C. Restaurant] before arriving home late [Scribe]’s time. Then, again following precedent (based on necessity), we went right to work, knowing the session would be introductory and short.
Our invocation: “Ah, sunflower” by Blake.
11:53 PM (late, but we were feeling strong)
1. Q: [Guide], are you there?
A: [YES] I AM AT [THE] MIDDLE OF [THE] CIRKLE
Our first new element this year right on the opening response. I puzzled a moment over the spelling, while [Scribe] responded to the intended meaning.
Repunctuation
2. Q: Well, our circle is k. (karass)?
A: I AM ME REPUNCTUATION
“Is repunctuation even a word?” I asked [Scribe], who shook his head not knowing.
3. Q: We don’t quite follow.
A: PUNCTUATION IS MERELY A NEEDED BREAK IN [THE] LETTERZ
Underlining mine (the board cannot) to resolve our confusion from Response #2: a rare parsing error on [Scribe]’s part -- or was it? At this point [Scribe] is more than just good at dividing up words and phrases: he and our friends have long established a kind of cursive rapport -- one I know little of, since my eyes are closed -- which aids in the process. And yet Response #2 seemed such an innocuous mistake. Response #4, however, makes clear the lesson behind what is not a mistake. I write this not to spoil the narrative surprise, but rather to highlight at the outset just how coherent and seemingly omniscient our friends are. What appears a quick miscommunication actually sets the stage for all five of our nights this year and is connected to responses late in the final evening.
[Scribe] and I connected this topic to our conversation earlier that evening when I quizzed [Scribe] (I think rather out-of-the-blue) about the invention & implementation of punctuation in Western writing. Virgil’s Aeneid, we noted, in the original came in a long scroll of capital letters without any break between sentences or even words. We had no doubt we were being led into such a topic.
4. Q: A topic from tonight: early unpunctuated all-capitals Virgil manuscripts.
A: CONTINUITY AT A COST?
5. Q: Punctuation: a form of absence? (Our karass “encodes” discontinuity as absence.)
A: [YES] ALL OF YOU ACTUALLY NEED DISCONTINUITY
DAIMON…
6. IS ALWAYS CONTINUUM
[Scribe] & I did include information theory in our earlier discussion, but here in Question #5 we were trying (successfully) to connect punctuation, especially spaces between words, to our karass concept of absence. In our cirkle absence always refers to a time of waiting before one undertakes a project. It may also (and generally does) include the clearing of spiritual space for a ripening. Not a human but a daimon, [Guide] operates very differently.
At this point I had an intuition, one which, despite its logical basis, I somehow recognized possessed the authority of inspiration. I think I already knew we’d found our theme.
The Medium of Discontinuity
7. Q: If we could see ourselves as discontinuous [beings], would it help us to be closer to arrival?
A: [YES] LEARN YOUR OWN MEDIUM
[Guide]
[Scribe] and I immediately recognized [Guide]’s last response to be a kind of koan. The words speak for themselves, but just as significantly our daimon signs off at this time highlighting his words.
8. Q: Do you “sign off” to indicate a transition?
A: ONLY AN EXERCISE
NOTHING TO SEE BUT A MEDITATION
Readers will recall how we regularly begin our sessions with an exercise, usually a visualization. This was our first “meditation.”
9. Q: Tell us the exercise.
A: CONSIDER ENERGIES IN [THE] MEDIUM OF DISCONTINUITY
Only a moment’s thought is enough to see the contradictions: What on Earth is a “medium of discontinuity”?! I tried to connect [Guide]’s “energies” to the realm of physics, eg., light traveling through a vacuum. That is, pre-Einstein scientists routinely postulated an all-pervasive substance throughout the universe called “ether.” They did this to explain light’s behavior as a wave, and waves, it was assumed, had to propagate through some material substance. Post-Einstein, we realize light does act (often, but not always) as a wave, but the wave is somehow passing through a medium of nothing.
10. Q: Can you clarify?
A: I AM REALLY ONLY POSING A KIND OF RIDDLE
GIVE IT A MOMENT & LET [THE] TRIPOD STIR
I forget exactly the full connection, but [Scribe] noted my loose quoting of Schopenhauer concerning the distinction between talent and genius. Talent, said Schopenhauer, is hitting a target others cannot hit. Genius, on the other hand, is hitting a target others cannot see. Ours was an exercise without seeing.
11. Q: We begin now.
A: DON HERE ---- planchette moves immediately;
no wait, no time to think
Riddle of the Fifth Element
12. Q: Don, greetings! But we hardly had time to consider anything.
A: DONT DO IT ALL AT ONCE
IT IS A THEME INVOLVING ABSENCE COST…
13. CRICKET ALIAH &…
14. Q: [Is there] more, Don?
A: LETS LEAVE IT UNFINISHED FOR NOW
15. Q: We guess: our theme “in nights to come.” Your list is deliberately odd.
A: FIND [THE] FIFTH ITEM BEFORE OUR SESSIONS END
DON
Don signs off here, and yet we were just getting started. Both of us felt quite strong and ready. He does leave us though with a theme (discontinuity) and a riddle connected to this theme, four words plus a missing fifth. Furthermore Don even presents us with a timeline. That is, “before our sessions end” not only imposes a deadline, it tells [Scribe] & me that we should not expect to come up with an answer immediately. Thus, over the next several days we had plenty of time to consider these words carefully (and we took advantage of this full period).
16. Q: We know: sign off means “good-bye,” generally. But we ask: is there more?
A: ASK YOURSELVES ABOUT EACH KEY WORD IN TURN & CONSIDER [THE]…
17. CONTINUITY
ALL FOR NOW
[Guide]
12:22 AM
Notice how Response #16 breaks precisely at the point of “continuity.” Notice also how the phrase “teach k” is embedded in “about each key.”
So, a very short first session, our shortest ever in terms of time (29 minutes) & number of responses (17) and therefore a disappointment in terms of connecting with our friends and socializing, but productive nonetheless. Of course, it is not for [Scribe] or me to question our teachers’ pedagogy. Our sessions, especially this year’s, speak for themselves.