A HOLY GRAIL MOMENT

A hallmark of human consciousness is ‘The Quest” which IT exhibits endlessly, in great variety, from the mundane to the collective and mythic.

Now a personal aspiration or ambition can be a type of quest, requiring commitment and purpose, in selling the outrageous act we present in demonstrating to society “ I know what I’m doing”. This is also called “whistling in the dark” or “Scoopy Doo where are you”.

On a deeper collective level quests originate from dreams and ideals. Often they are impossible ideas; and they can take a long time. Consider for example “Flight”. How many people, over how many millennia, dreamed of taking to the air in flight; both literally and metaphorically? It was an illogical, impossible dream that defied common sense and experience (it being manifestly much easier to fall down than to ascend). Yet, we are now the heirs and beneficiaries of “air travel” as a contemporary fact of life. Our children take it for granted in having known “we can fly” all their lives (thank you Peter Pan). The same can be said for our digital technologies that can move images, sounds and ideas about the human world at near the speed of light. These were once impossible notions that are now current realities and even needs.

At an even more fundamental level is the human quest for meaning. The “Vision Quest” instinct to know: who are we and what are we doing here; how will we find our way … This instinct to transcend the known outer reality by exploring the inner landscape of the possible is not only as old as human consciousness but is synonymous with IT. Every great culture hero was “on a quest” and their success is what defines them as mythic cultural heroes: Eve, Innana, Isis, Gilgamesh, Moses, Buddha, Christ, Beowulf, Joan of Arc etc. etc. Each is a visionary living out a dream to solve “the unanswered question” to the satisfaction of their tribe, mob and people.

Among the greatest quests is the one known as the search for the Holy Grail. A mythic, redemptive “object of obscure desire” that is traditionally to be found in the wasted kingdom of a wounded and impotent king. This potent image of a healing and transcendent talisman is a story older than history and deeper than known human time. IT IS a shaman’s quest of power and meaning in service of the people for the highest good of all. We know it from stories of the Knights of the Round Table and Parsifal’s quest into the wasteland presided over by the failed Grail King who does not know the answer to the paradoxical question: “Whom does the Grail serve?”

This week we have witnessed a contemporary Holy Grail moment. Barak Obama accepting the mandate of his people as the first African American president of the United States. The “dream” articulated by Martin Luther King:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”… I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

That day has come. The impotent Grail King “W” presiding over the wasteland of American ideals is to be succeeded by an innocent everyman who took on the quest by saying: “Yes We Can” (with acknowledgment and thanks to “Bob the Builder”). A wise fool whose reply to the question “Whom does the Grail serve” is a brave and compassionate one:

“... Its the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.”

The “spear of destiny” becomes “the will of the people” in healing the land, the sacred law and the hearts of its people. A better day is possible and “the best is yet to come” because:

“… above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to –
IT belongs to You.”

“The One” who expressed “The Audacity of Hope” in undertaking the quest succeeded through empathy and inclusiveness in an outrageous victory over fear and division, control and domination.

Or, as Frank Zappa once said:

These things don’t happen very often. I had my nerve didn’t I …”

THE MAN FROM HOPE

Hello, welcome to:
Intelligence Test 08’
(aka: the US Federal Election)

There’s Something Happening Here
What IT IS Ain’t Exactly Clear…

Stop Children - What’s that Sound
Everybody look what’s Going Down…

For What It’s Worth
Buffalo Springfield/ S. Stills

Epic is the word that comes to mind in appreciating this ‘date with fate’ that the US Presidential election contest represents. Playing like Ravel’s Bolero it has been a very long, drawn out, crescendo of repetitive phrases that grows in novelty while slowly and steadily grinding to a climax. It issues are monumental: war, health, global crises, human rights, ethics and morality; sustainability and prosperity.

Obama, the anti-Bush political and social phenomena, grows in maturity and esteem in the heat of the process by being the cool, calm and collected everyman for the season of choice America holds every four years. Ignoring the fear wedge and speaking to “the people” Obama, refuses to take IT personally by reminding US of our dreams. I imagine that his boyhood hero was Kane in Kung Fu – a cool, unfazed and deadly agent of the spirit acting in the pursuit of peace with justice; a half-caste initiate on a hero’s journey of discovery and ethical purpose.

I/we resisted him for a while, being unwilling to be sucked into yet another politicians populism screening an impotent power trip (‘ah Bill, we got to know you too well’). Or worst yet, experiencing another visionary being cut down by the right, in another well reported violent act. Regardless, Barak patiently wore down our cynicism, and became “The One” we have been waiting for, by passionately speaking to all of US who have been seeking each other at the edge of possibilities and potentials.

IT has been as long as both the Trojan War, the Odyssey and more, since the last “great communicator” Ronald Reagan seduced America with his “voodoo economics” sales pitch of a “trickle down economy”. Indeed, IT IS a Saturn Return* of 28 years since the Republican landslide of 1980 (here we go again - one more time with feeling people).

Of course the real genesis of our disillusionment was generations old even by then and before being dangerously turbo charged with the murders of JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby and many others calling for progressive policies, or those suffering the consequences of that optional but aggressive, pre-emptive war in Viet Nam (watch out for the dominos). We also remember Nixon and the dark places he shared with US in his paranoid quest for power – in life, Nixon imitated art; no better Gulum ever existed than in the twisted mind of Tricky Dicky (“ ... my precious, my precious ...”).

Of course we cannot forget George HW Bush I with his promise of a “New World Order” and the pain unleashed by the organized global cartels and mafias it spawned. Indeed, where would we have been all these years without say the “War On Drugs” and its criminalization of culturally important plants and activities, the creation of black markets (abetted by the CIA while in the process of installing dictators like Sadam and war lords like Bin Laden) or the monstrous, record breaking, prison populations, renditions and torture. Who benefited – then and now – in these bogus wars of every description, of the Darwinian attitudes to progress as strictly the survival of the fittest or the re-invention of Casino Capitalism – Google: ‘Tulip Mania’ or ‘South Sea Bubble’ (“its déjà vu all over again”).

With all this in mind, and in our living memory, is it any wonder than many of US liberal and progressive souls are ambivalent, if not skeptical, about the potential for success with Obama. We would be foolish not to be suspicious after the last two elections for the US president being stolen in broad daylight. But also foolish not to be dreaming, once again, “the dream” revived by this latest prophet from the “no coincidences department”. By being almost too good to be true, Obama challenges our individual and collective realizations of our own power and purpose. He rallies the weary, wary citizens of a lost Great Society to grasp the power of the possible – of the ‘what if it is’ … the time for the best and the brightest to be also those who are responsible, caring and devoted to the world, ITS people and the highest good of all.

“Yes We Can. ”

We must. The “End of Days” trajectory that “W” has fronted for the neo-cons, fundamentalists and haters is a darkness too deep to be plumbed by trusting to “the same old same old”; of continued “ right is might, I’m the sheriff of the world” delusions.

So, it is an intelligence test. An opportunity to get IT right by moving left; of healing the wounds created by the misuses of power and the arrogance of might.

Passing this test and electing Obama is “just the first part, just the start”. It will be like having a successful birth, a right of passage resulting in new life; and, like having a new born babe, it will be just the beginning.

*
“Saturn is symbolically/astrologically associated with time, challenge, fear, doubt, confusion, difficulty, seriousness, heaviness, unwanted burdens and hard lessons, among other more positive things such as structure, significance, accomplishment, reflection, power, prestige, maturity, responsibility and order – this is why astrologers believe that the thirtieth birthday is such a major rite of passage and is considered by many astrologers to mark the "true beginning" of adulthood, self-evaluation, independence, responsibility, ambition, and full maturation.”

Wikipedia

Big Al has departed...

Albert Hofmann died last week at the age of one hundred and two.

Albert Hofmann in 1993
(January 11, 1906 – April 29, 2008)

He is the other “big Al” of the twentieth century; along with Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein in 1905
(March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955)

Both Al’s changed our perceptions of the world in almost accidental, middle class, Swiss precision. Albert Einstein, at the opening to the century, and Albert Hofmann, at its mid-point, during WW II. Both of them made IT look easy and natural to look beyond the surface of "things" and find new meanings.

Einstein revealed the “relativity” of mass and light in 1905, leading to the creation of previously un-dreamed of energy and power by the end of the same, above mentioned, world war. He proved theoretically that matter and light were “variations on a theme” with light actually being a “thing” - a “photon” - a packet of energy interacting with other forces such as mass/gravity.

This insight also gave a shock to “Time”, which lost its straight arrow “thing-ness” to became a mutable "point Of view" (POV). We can observe our energetic past now with the Hubble Telescope; looking back, deep into IT, to within minutes of the so called “big bang” . Producing digital images of that “primal light” at the beginning of Time/ Now. Einstein’s “thought experiment” becomes our contextual conundrum.

The “bending of light”
observed in this 1919 eclipse image
helped to prove Einstein’s
“Special Theory of Relativity”

Albert Hofmann, (while looking for a natural synthesis of a fungus ergot, in investigating possible medicines to assist with post partum bleeding in mothers) accidentally absorbed a tiny amount of LSD25 on a fingertip and effectively proceeded to demonstrate the “special relativity” of our human consciousness. That day, April 16, 1943, has become known as “bicycle day”, in the mythology of LSD, in an ironic twist on things/ events not being “business as usual” while experiencing the "glamour" of this novel molecule.

LSD 25

At first, LSD was appreciated as a medicine, that was tested and embraced by serious scientific and psychoanalytic communities, both in Europe and America. Popular exposure lead to indiscriminate use and abuse by the public, the US military and the CIA coinciding with dominant political and social agendas to demonize LSD. Official doctrine collided with “word on the street” about what was also being experienced as an opening to “the doors of perception” and a modern version of mystical experience; a holy grail.

Indeed, it was Albert Hofmann’s thesis that "a properly conduced LSD experience" was comparable to a “soma” type of induced ‘vision quest’, known as the ‘Eleusinian Mysteries’; sacred rites conducted in Greece for over two thousand years and a foundation experience of western civilization.

“…at Eleusis, the mystical vision, the healing, comforting experience, could be arranged in the prescribed place at the appointed time, for all of the multitudes who were initiated into the holy Mysteries. This could be accounted for by the fact that a hallucinogenic drug came into use; this, as already mentioned, is something that religious scholars believe. The characteristic property of hallucinogens, to suspend the boundaries between the experiencing self and the outer world in an ecstatic, emotional experience, makes it possible with their help, and after suitable internal and external preparation, as it was accomplished in a perfect way at Eleusis, to evoke a mystical experience according to plan, so to speak.”

Albert Hofmann
My Problem Child, LSD

This ancient, yet revolutionary notion of there being “sacred initiatory substance” is both a promise and a threat to the “progressive” and “reactive” segments of human consciousness. The ancient clash of world views between Dionysian freedom vs. Apollonian control “needs” experienced by both ends of the consciousness string. These classical antagonists reactively engage in a tug of war; rather than, the making of interesting loops and knots, created by the inter woven perceptions of both an informed and relativistic point of view. There are many examples of the contrary mode of perception to be found in synthesis and union. ITS language is art. How else did certain ancestors imagine those “Celtic knots” and “Persian rugs” that we marvel at yet today; than by reconciling the "inner" worlds of intuition and imagination with the "outer" experience of "Right Here/ Right Now" in order to enter the “gates of heaven”.

Dr Hofmann discusses this point in his memoir, My Problem Child, LSD Experience and Reality

"...Today a type of "meta-medicine," "meta-psychology," and "meta-psychiatry” is beginning to call upon the metaphysical element in people, which manifests itself as an experience of a deeper, duality-surmounting reality, and to make this element a basic healing principle in therapeutic practice. In addition, it is most significant that not only medicine but also wider circles of our society consider the overcoming of the dualistic, cleft world view to be a prerequisite and basis for the recovery and spiritual renewal of occidental civilization and culture. This renewal could lead to the renunciation of the materialistic philosophy of life and the development of a new reality consciousness. As a path to the perception of a deeper, comprehensive reality, in which also sheltered, meditation, in its different forms, occupies a prominent place today. The essential difference between meditation and prayer in the usual sense, which is based upon the duality of creator/ creation, is that meditation aspires to the abolishment of the I-you-barrier by a fusing of object and subject, of sender and receiver, of objective reality and self. Objective reality, the world view produced by the spirit of scientific inquiry, is the myth of our time.

Albert Hofmann
LSD, My Problem Child

"St Albert"
by Alex Grey

There is a profound and essential instinct in humanity that both “knows" and is also "known" by energies and forces outside our normal experience. IT is known by observation. We see them by their effects. Wind in the sail. The “attractiveness” of our planet to an apple as it falls from a tree. We Know IT when we see it. Or, like with a current, when we feel it.

People have always sought information and knowledge of the ‘un-seen” forces; from a "time" outside of any known human recall. It is a basis of all culture, religion, government and science. This is a form of direct knowing, through experiential means, by observation and psychological/ intuitive methods of discovery. IT IS how Albert Einstein came up with E=MC2

It is the art of shamanism, or for want of a better word today, ‘Neo-Shamanism', to continue these investigations at the edges of reality. As technology and consciousness push beyond all known boundaries at an ever accelerating rate of change a “meta-medicine” to aid in the effort of moving beyond the materialist dilemma is precisely what Dr Hofmann discovered.

IT IS for us to learn how to make use of the gift.

Today, in 2008, LSD is getting a second look, with new scientific medical studies planned to be under taken soon in America and Europe. IT IS also still assisting in traditional “lower world” investigations by adventurous healers and contemporary shamans. While LSD is not required or useful to everyone, or even recommended to anyone, this shamanic “power tool”, is an important and promising “skillful means” in exploring consciousness enhancement and expanded metaphysical understanding. To not investigate ITS potentials would be a generational "failure of nerve" and serious mis-understanding of the human need for consciousness growth and development to take place in "showing the way" by ecstatic means.

As the Greeks taught in the Eleusinian Mysteries:

Know Thy Self

Do No Thing to Excess

Do as Thou Wishes

Blessings to you on your continued journey Albert Hofmann.

Albert Hofmann Foundation

... and as Douglas Adams would say, “thanks for all the fish …” mate.

THIS IS IT

Thanks for coming along ...

Today’s post is when I begin sending this link out to as many friends and associates as feels appropriate.

Then, beyond today, through the virus of the internet, to all of the people who can benefit and enjoy these messages.

Pass this link along to whoever may be interested in a practical and earthy shamanism, intellectually based and amusingly presented.

“Information wishes to be free”

Today I Launch:

WHATIF-ITIS

I hope and expect that a dialog can develop as new posts come along, so we can develop this topic in useful and positive ways with: Links, Images and Sounds that I will be sharing.

You are also invited to enhance this discussion with ideas, questions, stories
-

"What-Ever"

You are welcomed and encouraged

To get stuck into IT

As IT happens

I have been busy

Responding to recent experiences

By constructing a BLOG

a proverbial

21st c “message in a bottle…”

Cast out,

Into the digital domain of 0’s & 1’s
Charged by the electrons that run through them.

IT seems an ingenious and timely way to share

A creative "peace offering" of insight and experience

An empathic, intuitive response

that is

Philosophical

Psychological

Artistic

Metaphysical

neo-Shamanic

'SLOWED DOWN'

IT IS

offered,

in a state of:

Humor

;-)

YES

;-)

An ironic and metaphoric excessive humor
in which the truly gonzo are prone to rave.

;-) !!!

No apologies for IT

As in Life & Death

You will just have to work IT out

There IS no help for IT

We take IT seriously

Be-cause

IT IS

Funny
Paradoxical
Compelling

Last month, I reached the age of sixty (shock horror ... nothing changed ;-).

The surf was still up and the Mojo still running …

So, I embarked upon an intuitive three part adventure that saw me travel from the Blues & Roots Festival in Australia to the UK and on to Ireland ('as you do if you can' ;-).

In the process, meeting and sharing with exciting, alive, smart, switched on people; all seeking their dreams. Inspired humans, each following their individual notions of bliss and imagination towards positive outcomes. IT was empowering, humbling and an honor to be met and BE seen by them.

“Pronoia”

is alive and well
in the worlds I traveled

I was also able to experience new digital technologies that change the way we conceive of our world and our place in IT. Our, so called, “day job” as Alchemica is progressing into exciting new platforms of dynamic information display and advanced entertainment ... “with feeling”…

Stay tuned for IT

Then,

for the first time,
this time ...

I returned to the land of my principle ancestors;
and heard ITS voice deep in my bones.

Ireland is a landscape that can/ will speak to you

IT IS

Another deep and ancient place,
like Australia,
where an a live current of spiritual intelligence
seeks to connect with

US

YES

US

Self Conscious,
Meaning Seeking,
Perceptually dim witted
baby Beings that we are …

IT loves US

IT grows and develops

through OUR consciousness

Our attitudes of

Gratitude

Or

“Whatever”

Feeds and Informs

IT

All right, that’s IT ;-)
The previous 13 Posts can be Read in any order you please:

Conceptually IT runs backwards:
“Introduction” => Here & Now

Read IT

That way if you choose

In theory

IT

doesn’t really matter

You get IT anyway

Good Luck with IT

“I’ll Be Back”

;-)

IF IT WASN'T

So sad ... IT could be funny.

Example:

“Google News”
(27/04/08)

China wants to have “IT” both ways with the Dali Lama by offering “talks” on the future of Tibet while demonizing him in the state controlled domestic press.

Robert Mugabe’s government forces are Jailing babies and children of the Opposition” in order to force their leaders into exile.

“Kim, of the North” in Korea is busy building his own ‘Bat Cave”, to secure his jet fighters from detection, so they can zoom out of the mountain side, in a “Thunderbirds” type launch, to protect “Dear Leader” & Co from ...

Meanwhile, back in the disillusioned USA, Obama and Clinton argue over “gasoline fuel taxes”, while stumping for the Indiana primary, in making crucial leadership distinctions and “common touch” style for the electorate.

WHAT IF

This were a Dream

What would we Think?

TIME TO WAKE UP

In a universe of pure information:

IT IS

BEING & BECOMING

Appearing Now

To US

Every Where / Every When

Here & Now

You Know IT - Life Gives IT to you

“It's a process. I believe that if you open the door to the process, it tells you how to do it and it works. It's a life strategy that I think anyone can employ… We are it. We're the same stuff as stars and galaxies, so we're indivisibly part of it. We're the part that speaks, that plays music and creates abstractions. ”

Jerry Garcia

Making sense of it

“You were born,
so you’re free.
So,
Happy Birthday”

Laurie Anderson

Pop Quiz:

“How did you get here?” Really. How did you get here? Ja, your parents, sure, and if you’re lucky “through love”. Plus you were born in such and such social / historical circumstance. Is that you? Or, perhaps the astrological configuration as you breathed your first air and squawked your first sound with "the shock of the new". Were you that semi aquatics fetus a moment ago, or a baby, or the you "now" who contemplates these thoughts?

Who are you?

What are you doing here?

These are timeless questions.

Zen asks: “What is your face before you are born”

This is related to: ”where, if anywhere, do we go when we die?”.

A child’s question

A philosophical conundrum

or

IS IT

just another theological one way trip to your creator?

What if:

IT IS

Being Becoming

to a purpose yet to be imagined by you-me-us

This has "Juice" and Energy.

A creative sport

recognising:

Any

Body

can break something ...

Being Is

Becoming

Something;

You.

“Have a nice day ”

They

A concept that could not die:

Who are “they” anyway?

What are they doing?

Why did they do it?

You know

Them


There IS no “they”

IT IS only US.

THEY IS WE

We did that …
It felt good, when we …

No,
not in my name we wailed

I didn’t do it,
the children cried:

He, she, they did it!

Did what ?

Did it ...

No, they didn’t.

We did

We did it all

It was us.

Just us

Feel it

Sense it

Embrace it

Love it

IT IS ONLY US.