{"id":527,"date":"2013-02-18T12:11:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T20:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/aidankelly\/?p=527"},"modified":"2013-02-18T12:30:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T20:30:30","slug":"history-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/aidankelly\/2013\/02\/history-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"“History” — Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In December 1963 I had a spontaneous series of altered states that lasted for about three weeks. In the center of it was an ecstatic conversion experience much like what had happened to me at age 14. Most people have no idea that such an experience is even possible. Those who do know about it think that it is always a conversion from one set of beliefs or faith community to another. In my case, and I think in many historical cases, it was a conversion from ignorance to knowledge. Belief became unnecessary; I know what I felt. I thus am and since age 14 have been fundamentally a Gnostic. The writings of the Church Fathers and of the Gnostics themselves seem transparently clear to me. Almost everything I have done in life has been part of a search for adequate ways to articulate and manifest that knowledge.<\/p>\n

A prose description of the 1963 experiences was thoroughly inadequate. I spent the next five years working on the raw materials of the following poem. It was completed during the year that our huge friendship group was creating the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn. It can be read as 22 separate poems, of course, but it is a single poem with an overarching structure, in which the many portmanteau words are necessary elements. Read the title in light of Alice\u2019s conversation with the White Knight.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

\u201cHistory\u201d<\/h2>\n

or<\/h2>\n

Shiny pieces Found in the Ruens of a Mythology<\/h2>\n

(A Catechlysm in Dialectical Sonata Form,
\nWhich Suite Accompanies a Miracle Play):<\/h2>\n

Exploration of an Inscape by Meditation on the Tarot<\/h2>\n

\n<\/p>

Praylewd<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

1. The Juggler<\/p>\n

I wonder what these ruens<\/p>\n

Whirr good for, but only when<\/p>\n

I wander out hear for my recreations<\/p>\n

Of a hypersphear on afternoons<\/p>\n

I could be duing sumthing else.<\/p>\n

Hear\u2019s a pretty peace. I wonder<\/p>\n

How it worked. It\u2019s nicely wayted,<\/p>\n

Good for tossing up and down,<\/p>\n

A skipping stone.<\/p>\n

Maybe it will grow again<\/p>\n

When enjinns clear the ruens away.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I juggle catnip mice<\/p>\n

Or make history mosaics<\/p>\n

Of pieces I like. Someone\u2019s throne<\/p>\n

The picture box away, and mixed up<\/p>\n

Fra Angelico with Hearonymus Bosh.<\/p>\n

But it passes the evening,<\/p>\n

Or is it dawn? Ben, was that sun<\/p>\n

On the back of the Precedent\u2019s chair<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia going up, or down?<\/p>\n


\u00a0First theme<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. The Word: Jove Reversed<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I Am<\/em> says \u201cHippopotamus,\u201d<\/p>\n

And there (oops!) is a hippopotamus,<\/p>\n

And I Am<\/em> sees that it (surprise!) is good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the Prince of Light<\/p>\n

Says, \u201cLord, why do you<\/p>\n

Call that a hippopotamus?\u201d<\/p>\n

And I Am<\/em> says, \u201cBecause<\/p>\n

It looks like a hippopotamus.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after a wile<\/p>\n

The Prince of light says, \u201cLord,<\/p>\n

Were you trying to be funny?\u201d<\/p>\n

And I Am<\/em> sighs and says, \u201cYes, Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the Prince of Light goes off<\/p>\n

To think about that, and I Am<\/em><\/p>\n

Looks at the hippopotamus and says,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble with him is<\/p>\n

He ain\u2019t got no senza hyumah.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the hippopotamus<\/p>\n

Is too busy getting up<\/p>\n

A petition for a female<\/p>\n

Hippopotamus to care about<\/p>\n

Anybody else\u2019s hangups.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyway, the word<\/p>\n

Creates the thing<\/p>\n

It names. Birds<\/p>\n

Are sferic inklings.<\/p>\n


\u00a03. Escapement: The Wheel<\/em><\/p>\n

History: I think<\/p>\n

About it all<\/p>\n

The time, about<\/p>\n

How it tries<\/p>\n

To say it all, but<\/p>\n

As millennia clock\u2019s<\/p>\n

Pendulum empires<\/p>\n

And manespring cities<\/p>\n

Tickle a million<\/p>\n

Possible seconds<\/p>\n

A second, patterns<\/p>\n

Huge or close escape<\/p>\n

The involving eye<\/p>\n

That must implode<\/p>\n

To see how each<\/p>\n

Chosen second<\/p>\n

Shapes itself upon us.<\/p>\n


\u00a04. The Tower<\/em><\/p>\n

I am working at my desk, the same<\/p>\n

Wooden desk I\u2019ve told yew about time<\/p>\n

And time again.<\/p>\n

Wooden: treeness<\/p>\n

Denied, the mind minding itself,<\/p>\n

Leafing an iron-vine-spiraled fence,<\/p>\n

Not painted green,<\/p>\n

Between inside and outside.<\/p>\n

My fingers pass, repass,<\/p>\n

Tracing the invisibell<\/p>\n

Blewprints of our age, the secret<\/p>\n

Tradition all vision has sung:<\/p>\n

To storm the gates of Second Eden.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPoet, this battle hasn\u2019t yet begun.<\/p>\n

Prepare the Quaker canon,<\/p>\n

The Gandhi-dancing gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And playing the Ninth Symphony,<\/p>\n

Of a sudden breaks a cloud, unknowing,<\/p>\n

For Beethoven, realing all that dumb<\/p>\n

Schillering, sings the same Coming:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoy, Godspark, Blyzelandsdatter,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Even in the tower<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The golden shower<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSteps us up firedrunk to havenhome\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In rarified air<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Danaed discharge<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSpells, heals all custom sunders\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From cloud to earth<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A human history<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFeatherbrushes all brotherness\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Civitas Day!<\/em><\/p>\n

The record ends: and Anna desceands<\/p>\n

From our Attic bed to hold me,<\/p>\n

Abstracted from my head,<\/p>\n

Heartswollen in torrents of molten gold,<\/p>\n

Weeping for the organic city<\/p>\n

Unsundered by epicycles;<\/p>\n

Crying, \u201cIf historians were poets,<\/p>\n

They\u2019d run naked in the streets,<\/p>\n

Screaming, `Abolish history!<\/p>\n

Destroy all the clocks!'\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December 1963 I had a spontaneous series of altered states that lasted for about three weeks. In the center of it was an ecstatic conversion experience much like what had happened to me at age 14. Most people have no idea that such an experience is even possible. Those who do know about it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1098,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[375,28,12,1205,103,64,76,1204],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gnostics","tag-conversion","tag-creation","tag-gnostic","tag-gnostics","tag-history","tag-new-reformed-orthodox-order-of-the-golden-dawn","tag-poetry","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n"History" -- Part I<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In December 1963 I had a spontaneous series of altered states that lasted for about three weeks. 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