Crossroads Dispatches

issa & renaissances & something from nothing

" When a tailor cuts the cloth for a garment piece by piece,
does anyone strike him, saying, "Why have you torn this choice satin?"
Whenever the builders repair an old building,
don't they first ruin the old one?
Likewise the carpenter, the blacksmith, and the butcher - with them too there is destruction before restoration.
The pounding of the myrobalan
becomes the means of restoring the body to health.
Unless you crush the wheat in the mill,
how will there be bread on your table?"
- Rumi, Mathnawi IV:2348-2353, version by Camille and Kabir Helminski, Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance (via Nonduality Salon Highlights newsletter #3039)

Related themes follow. Connect the dots...

I was reading the other day that NASA predicts that New Orleans will be most likely kaput, dissolved into a brackish soup I'd suspect, by the year 2100 (if arrow of time continues as is, which is a big if). Although, wetlands scientists say it is an estuary's vital nature to constantly change, lately that change hasn't been exactly guided by the eternal Tao and its flow, but rather the manipulation of forces.

"Song, as you teach us, is not a grasping,
not a seeking for some final consummation.
To sing is to be. Easy for a god." - Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

Since I arrived in New Orleans two weeks ago, I've been feeling that whatever my dreams were for me and New Orleans might have been, there was too much of that brute-force "manipulation of forces" and it's high time to feel the flow, and let some of those ideas I've tried to prop up like a wooden puppet run its natural course, in preparation for what wants to birth itself of itself and take its first gulp of breath (no need to prop up the living).

"Dump the garbage. It is time. Imagine planting a seed in an area  that was littered with trash and cluttered with things that were not conducive to the nurturing of a brand new life. This is what our minds are like. We need to clear them out." - Stephanie Azaria, January 7, 2008

"The High Priestess is the initiatrix. Initiation means "beginning."" - Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

When I was still rummaging through the remains of my latest chapter's close in the book of this bodily incarnation, I stumbled onto an article (via @MarilynM) on the reinvention of the musician Issa. Thankfully it was just the thing as I was able to finally rally myself into letting bygones be bygones. I gifted away much more to the cosmic circulation, and in the process freed much raw material, than I would have without reading this story, below:

"what can I let go today?" - Issa's Fridge, early January 2008

"In 2006, she emptied and sold her house in Toronto, even shredding her old letters and photographs. And she renamed herself Issa." - "Issa Reinvents More than Music Sales", NPR All Things Considered, January 4, 2008

In the same vein, in a town where art shows are a dime a dozen, this is one that intrigues me the most of late as making something from nothing is the essence of all creation. All something from nothing.

"They've been invited to New Orleans to participate in Something from Nothing under one complicated condition - they should arrive empty-handed. Nearly resembling the plot of a reality show, the purpose of the exhibition is to demonstrate art's ability to operate as a form of social communication. Not completely on their own, the artists will be given a pre-established set of contacts. These people may include members of the CAC [Contemporary Arts Center], family, or friends they know in New Orleans. These Samaritans will supply them with anything they need to create their new work. All of their art equipment and much-needed materials must be borrowed. Money should not be used." - "Irreplaceable and Unforgotten," Where Y'At magazine, February 2008

Art credits Rebirth © by nellmckellar; Letting Go by cosmosue aka Susan McKivergan

blithe oracles

"All this hurrying
soon will be over.
Only when we tarry
do we touch the holy." - Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

In the end, I was thoroughly racing to arrive in New Orleans, quite ungallantly. A thoroughbred on steroids. Pulling all-nighters packing and cramming as if for a very important date with a college exam. According to "the" schedule, I left too late. Finally pulled out of the stable exactly 4:44 a.m. on January 10, 2008 (oh, and a 1-1-1 stargate unbeknownst to me at the time).

Racing feels so much the old ways and old highways and byways and old days.

I made it as far as a desert border town straddling the two states of Kali and Zones before the rear axle gave way on the car.

""In this card," Crowley points out, "is the one link between the archetypal and formative worlds. The Abyss she traverses is, quite literally, the desert of the soul, and like the desert camel, she is the only vehicle capable of crossing that terrible wasteland." - The High Priestess card section, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot

And thus was I stopped dead in my tracks for two days entire in a town named after a word dripping in meanings "of a lighthearted and carefree nature." {Blithe: Etymology: Old English bliþe "joyous, kind," from P.Gmc. *blithiz "gentle, kind" (cf. O.S. bliði "bright, happy," O.N. bliðr "mild, gentle," O.H.G. blidi "gay, friendly," Goth. bleiþs "kind, friendly, merciful").}

They say that oracles are layered in riddles and difficult, obscure, hidden, mysterious meanings. That may have been so perhaps in ancient eras. Now oracles are more like a feeling - talk of light/dark, or negative/positive doesn't register here. Either I sense heaviness, weighted down, or that which is enlightening my load, bouyant and free. Like a child's innocent exuberant fresh voice:

The Oracle of the Gods is the Child-Voice of
Love in thine own Soul! hear thou it!

Heed not the Siren-Voice of Sense, or the
Phantom-Voice of Reason: rest in Simplicity,
and listen to the Silence. - Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth

Art credits Young Oracle in Repose by Yuni

p.s. A twitter friend writes of my tweets lately:   @eve11 Sounds like you're living out Joni's "Hejira" record, NOLA style.

Yes. The album itself's a journey truly and metaphorically and horizontally and vertically, and "prominent imagery including highways, small towns and snow. 

[Joni] Mitchell said of the album: "the whole 'Hejira' album was really inspired... I wrote the album while traveling cross-country by myself and there is this restless feeling throughout it... The sweet loneliness of solitary travel.""

This feels like a self-mastery year, 2008, to me? Does it to you?

welcome to the real world

"Whether or not we realize it each of us has within us the ability to set some kind of example for people. Knowing this would you rather be the one known for being the one who encouraged others, or the one who inadvertently discouraged those around you?" - Josh Hinds, Syndicated Columnist 

The beginning of the year and I see much reflection and rumination of the last year and its lessons learned everywhere online and off. I don't spend much time reflecting on the past. Like Story Waters I "have a healthy disrespect of the past". The more I can do that type of attention and witnessing and observation in real-time as it's happening (or close on its heels), the better all around.

So if I had to share a "lesson" that was underscored for me over and over in 2007 it is exactly as John Mayer croons: "I just found out there's no such thing as the real world, Just a lie you've got to rise above." In these lyrics, the popular young singer-songwriter pens his own life story.

As typical, there's always folks bickering about any artist's works (you see it with companies like Apple too) - both detractors and fans tearing it apart or vociferously defending.

One YouTube commenter writes the greatest testament on Mayer's Say video: "He does what comes to mind and probably doesn't give a crap about what any of us are saying." Amen to that.

So when anyone tells you to stay inside the lines, now you can think of John Mayer's story, and you can just smile.

"No Such Thing" (Extended Live Version)
by John Mayer

Freshman year,
Mom asks "What do you want to do
when you get out of here?"
I said, "Well, gee, I'm only 13,
but I think I'd like to play my guitar...
be a star."
"Well," she said, "that's NICE,
you got time to go.
Good sense will kick in anytime, you know.
I'm not worried, I'm not worried."

Sophomore year,
she asked the same old thing,
my answer had remained unchanged.
I saw her fidget with her thumbs.
She said, "You like computers, John,
you like computers, don't you?
Yeah, I USED TO always see you with a computer...
you like computers
maybe you could do something with computers.
Yeah, wouldn't that be nice?"

Junior year,
It's a little more intense,
She says, "What do you want to do with your life?"
I'm not on the fence, I know exactly what I AM to be,
and I'm only 17.
She said, "Well, all I ask, is that you pay attention in class,
so if you happen to change your mind in time,
you can still go somewhere reputable...
do us proud."
So I went downstairs,
and I played guitar loud.

Yeah, senior year,
Same old question,
She said, "What do you want to do?"
I said, "Play my guitar and sing."
BUT She said, "There's no such thing."
She said, "There's no such thing..."
(GUITAR SOLO)
(speaking: I love you Mom)

"Welcome to the real world", she said to me
Condescendingly
Take a seat, take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well, I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I'd like to think the best of me
Is still hiding
Up my sleeve

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something's better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you've got to rise above

So the good boys and girls take the so called right track
Faded white hats
Grabbing credits and
Maybe transfers
They read all the books, but they can't find the answers
And all of our parents
They're getting older
I wonder if they've wished for anything better
While in their memories
Tiny tragedies

They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
Well, well something's better
On the other side

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you got to rise above

I am invincible..
You are invincible.. (yeah you are)
We are invincible..
As long as we're alive

I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you've got to rise above

I just can't wait til my 10 year reunion
I'm gonna bust down the double doors
And when I stand on these tables before you
You will know what all this time was for

Art credits Neverland by dianux (prints available);  Neverland by lejahn; obviously Neverland was stirring in my I-Magi-Nation tonight. And yes, I adore the movie, Finding Neverland.

what shall you birth?

greetings eARThlings of the upperworlds, of the manifest I-Magi-Nation,

the abbess of the Abyss greets you at
the threshold
of the new aeon,

of the new year

of the portal of 1- 1-1
(yes, 2+0+0+8=10=1+0=1 in sumerology) so
it is thrice beginnings all around, renewal
renaissance

shall 1-1-1 be the year that William Blake's City of Imagination, Golgonooza, takes firmament in reality?

is it any wonder that Wikipedia greets the new dawn with this image of the day 1-1-1 captioned: "A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet..."

what shall u birth? ohhhh, and be vigilant with the cradle...

p.s. i am still actually in san jose, where miracles rained and now i have transport to new orleans effortlessly arranged (friend needs her ex-car delivered to sister in Texas...so it works for all of us)

keywords: effortlessly, tao = action without effort

shall leave on the symbolic day of epiphany and MAGIc and 3's
wizened wizards
and stardust of
jan sixth twothousandth oooo seven

Bonus: These two resources are extraordinary accompaniments to midwife our creations, especially whenever we wonder "yes, but how"? Weave into a song, sew into your quilts, breathe into you being, marinate with the motto: "The answer to how is yes."

• Conscious Creation, a 6-minute video, by Story Waters. Story Waters is actually my favorite "teacher" of late (teach in quotes 'coz I consider us all peers here). Totally will rock the known universe if applied.
  
• Using Energy to Propel Your 2008 Goals, a free e-book (download free through Jan 10, 2008), by Elyse Hope Killoran. At first it seems like all the rest of the Law of Attraction and The Secret pile-on, I mean do YOU need yet another Ferrari in your garage? But stick with it and you'll see it goes beyond.

Art credits I'll Sing You A Song, by Coey Kuhn