Welcome to another issue of Personal Papers, where I obliquely tell you all that has been going on, if not in my daily life, then in my imagination.
I’m not making things up for no reason, as this quote from Novalis affirms:
“To romanticise the world is to make us aware of the magic, mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite.”
Inside this issue:
Shamcher Institute
Poem to the Moon
Recommended Book
Riffing on Eternity - #1
For a long time now, I’ve played in the idea of the Liminal Shamcher Institute. If you’ve been following along in past years, you’ve seen me mention this as an imaginary location from which to launch various ideas and researches. I made AI dream images of it, and even had an imagined residency there.
Well, last week it came to me that I can give it even more of a physical reality boost by just putting a sign on the door, giving it a name. Now when I go into my office for writing, research, zoom calls or meditation, I walk through this portal and enter the Shamcher Institute. It is both real and not-real.
Yes, now I work in my office, the Writing and Communications Department of the Shamcher Institute. Still an ideal, an iteration of potential thought, a fun interplay.
Of course, in writing, whatever my pen addresses is touched into life. Ideas are awakened, brought forward in full form. It is like a sci-fi hologram turning on the table as the crew members look on, where the life-sized pre-recorded hologram speaks the history of its planet, the details of its ancient doomed mission, the plans for the communication that had been stored until this one day when it can be told, revealed, understood and acted upon.
A Promise to the Moon
I made a vow to the moon
but I’m not sure how to keep it.
Here on earth,
in daylight, all that seems far away.
When the eclipse comes
I’ll wish I’d done her bidding
on time
performed those long-promised ablutions and incantations
Is it too late this morning
for me to continue?
Or have she and I both forgotten
my moon face?
Her circling mirror recalls me
I break and renew,
hide and then shine,
all over
again.
Recommended!
I just read this beautifully written memoir - from our little free library down by the mailboxes. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.
This personal book moves slowly, with much snail lore and poetic snail references. Speaking of snails, I’m reminded of the sweet animated movie, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Both have a way of touching our hearts.
Riffing on Eternity
Last year I began studying Platonism in earnest. I jotted down notes during the Prometheus Trust zoom classes and later used those phrases as writing prompts. I just went page by page, opening up selected notes in playful improvisation - like a dance. I called it Riffing on Eternity.
In this way of expanded study, I unfold core ideas, but sometimes the writing goes in another direction than the first phrase. Not strictly Platonic. I regret that I didn’t add the original sources from the talks or readings when note-taking - not very scholarly of me. Still, I thought it would be worth sharing, so this past month I went back to it and based AI images on prompts from the text.
Through exploratory writing and image play, my Riffing on Eternity project combines my current big interests: AI images and Platonism. Since this is what I’m working on these days, I’ll be sharing more with you in the next few newsletters.
“See the Material World as an outpouring of the Gods”
This morning as I opened the drapes I saw the sun brilliantly shining and reflecting on the water below, creating a second sun to dazzle my eyes. After days of cloud and rain, this was a welcome greeting.
And as I picked up the notebook the first phrase caught my eye - “the material world as an outpouring of the Gods.”
This is my watchword or my motto for the day. It is a way to rise up from the denseness of the earth and the burial of the soul in the body, and look up to the sun of life and live a new life. The life of the soul.
When I live the life of the soul, surely this is an offering to the gods, all toward the One.
The reflection of the light of the sun creates a shimmering path along the sea, marking a visible way toward a plane of light near the horizon. Beyond is the edge of the island across the bay, where clouds still hover.
I see all this through delightful branches of the evergreen trees of this area of the earth. This place was home to the first peoples here, before we settlers came and called it ours, at their great expense, and sorrow And at the expense also of the meaning and consciousness of the trees. Today I wonder: what is the relationship of the old original gods of place in light of Platonic theurgy?
We can reconcile it all, even if the language of the old gods seems unknown to us.
As we nose forward in our fiberglass canoes, the ovoids on the surface of the water speak their truth. The same ovoids are seen on the surface of the water on the other side of the globe, or at another earlier time, or in the future.
These are only differing in name and form, just as humans are only different in name and form. Yet we are all seeking to do the great work and, to be in touch with our inner purpose, the purpose of the soul.
Just as various beings and groups of people form cities and towns, markets and places of worship, pyramids and sacred temples, ceremonies and festivals, all thinking they are the only ones, yet these are all actions and activities of humanity that have been recurring for centuries, and more. Down through the ages, there is a single form that we are all in touch with.
The Sundance and the Candombley ceremony, the centre pole, the theatre and the altar: respect, learn, synthesize and understand. Anthropological differences are particularizations of being that the “souls” of various peoples have been given to expand upon, to contribute to the whole of this endeavour of creation. All nurtured by the same sun. A universal worship.
Happy to see that James K-M’s work is in the Spring Art Show here on Salt Spring Island! If you are nearby, please join us at the opening on April 12, 6-9pm.
I had fun making the illustrations for this issue with AI. It goes something like this:
I really appreciate you taking the time to read, share and comment. And to you dear supporters with paid subscriptions, big gratitude!
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I look forward to see more from Riffing on Eternity... Platonic philosophy seems to be an amazing source of inspiration for lots of artists and writers, I am eager to see where its flights have taken you
Thank you Carol!