* it's sane to ask questions of trees, and insane to do so of machines. i don't know why but it's true. there was a time when if you said Roderic or Bernard or Michael everyone knew it meant famous king and brave bear and he who is like god. i choose to name my characters in this way, as if i was translating into english the names of tribal peoples. this is what names are. they aren't arbitrary. but i think we in the west have forgotten it. every story you read, and indeed write, has a certain duration. if the actual story takes place over a whole year, and you take it seriously, it's an extra year of life crammed into however many hours it took to read or to write. thus those who read are much older than they look. entire ages count for something of course, but you only actually live the story in certain moments and actions. if it's a large chronicle of generations, the emotional investment is not the same, you haven't lived all those years. you know about them only. what i mean is that it's like real life. you are not really living most of the time. but you can live a year in a week. so of course you age more in those times, because you grow. and it's the same with books. except there you have those special moments condensed. now that i've finished the book i don't know what to do. i was so immersed in it, and it was so intense, that now there's an empty space in both my heart and my mind. and it cannot be filled with anything else, not another book, not another project. now it's all trapped in the page, and it lives on its own. it no longer needs me. there's also an energy element. throughout i couldn't really read meaningfully, so i didn't even try. now i'm trying, but i find my mental and spiritual energy depleted, i can't give new things the attention they deserve, the best i can do is browse old favorites to ground me. but it takes time. something moving that doesn't insult the intelligence. this is what i try to do. i still have hope in the chinese. there's no way the spirit of their ancient civilization is completely gone, it's too brilliant and it lasted too long. after so many years of secularism in china, my perception is both of great damage, but also a certain continuity, as if the chinese people could not but settle into certain patterns. thus, it is a sleeping dragon. soon there'll be a new Kung Fu Tzu and a new Lao Tzu, and it'll start the renaissance. even if it has to be in another world, i have faith in the continuity of chinese culture and way of being. strange to think that america has none of the baggage and weight of rome or the middle ages. of course it has its own baggage built into the soil, from all the blood and sweat and tears. but it's another planet. nothing more trivial of course, hence the moniker new world. but it's hard as a european to wrap my head around, even after all these centuries. writing is soothing, it calms me down, and winds me up, it gets me going, and infuriates me, and gives me chills and causes me pain, and it heals, and fills me with gladness, and leaves a scar, and gives an itch that i must scratch. writing is soothing, it calms me down, and the age of the Father ended with the Flood. the age of the Son ended with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. now the age of the Holy Spirit is ending too, and the age of the Mother is beginning. i don't understand reading in public spaces full of people. or being in public spaces full of people. the 80s were no doubt the decade where anything was possible. only then could anyone think David Bowie and Depeche Mode were good. incredible times. there are some things which are pleasurable to hate you are not admitted into heaven unless you understand that it's under development and you're meant to help develop it you don't even need war or natural disasters, any reason and none will do, and it's supposed to be normal like a nomad the ascetic seeks the monad embarrassed by his aching gonads respect tradition, embrace modernity, reject stupidity and evil your religion is what you do i, do not care, i do, not care, i do not care the Lord saves for the same reason people do. to have it later. and he's smart, so he only saves that which has lasting value, or the potential to become even more valuable. the Divine Feminine will always be a secret, and there are reasons to guard it from the masses, for they defile everything, and to defile the Mother is so much worse than defiling the Father. in fact, the only way to defile the Father is to defile the mother. i'm feeling that recurring urge to go on an adventure with captain Nemo. i hope the river up here can hide the nautilus aggrandizement is such an ugly word. i would never apply it to my self. everything is history, but without theory you wouldn't know it i have a fundamental problem with secret societies. and it's not the secret rites. i do secret rites all the time. but i'd rather do them with my wife than with a bunch of dudes who are into esoterica. i'm a simple man, everything to me is a secret rite, especially if it involves my wife a couple in love, a couple in a couple. i have doubts about that guy Thomas
it was about time we got new staffs. olive branches this time. i may or may not have already used mine to cast a spell, first over my fields, and then, because i felt fancy, over this whole region. and the spirits may or may not have responded. admittedly it was too soon. i haven't mastered the instrument, and it still needs a lot of work. but sometimes the most striking solo comes from the fingers of an amateur playing a slightly out of tune guitar.
*
“something moving that doesn't insult the intelligence. this is what i try to do.”
I feel moved and not insulted, so mission accomplished. With this reader at least. We’ll see how the next one hits.
That last little verse about staffs was powerful, beautiful and magical. I loved it.
Also the one about writing.