Elizabeth, my partner and I watched a speech of yours awhile back at something called the Realization Fest. I return to it at times, along with Martin's relay of his experience in a ancient church housed in a strip mall, anytime I feel tempted to allow my own experience of Christendom to begin to sit in for the church entire. In Camus' Letter to the Dominicans he expresses an expectation that in the end the Church as a whole might never join the forces of dialogue in the fight against the forces of terror. I have for sometime found it almost impossible to imagine a Church that might defy that expectation of if not outright complicity but at least absence. When hear you describing your world in that talk I am brought about to see that there are things in the cathedral older and stranger and more wonderful than our found in my apostacy. Thus the hurried thanks back below.
"This is a signal fire looking for Company. It’s makeshift and more stammer than song but I hope it is a bottled note that finds a shore somewhere"....Andrew, I see your signal fire with my own wonder at the inland sea of heartmind that I am discovering. Thank you for lighting the fire!
I've recently been intrigued by deer as well. Specifically a Scythian deer tattoo found on the shoulder of a woman unearthed at an archeological dig in Altai. I am enamored by the ancient Scythians because the provide a lineage connecting my interests in southern Siberia, my maternal Hungarian heritage and my paternal Irish heritage.
I've also been mulling over Eli, eli lama sabachthani, specifically verse 21 where it talks about G_d saving with the horns of the auroch. Interestingly, this is the same imagery when Balaam's intended curse rebounds as blessing; "G_d is for them like the horns of the auroch". G_d seems to prefer to embody the auroch; at least when acting as protector and rescuer.
Been digging Martin Shaw lately as well. He wrote this great line about how G-d calls us to the wild, but the church merely peddles the feral.
And fair words sit heavy, a feather with the weary weight, bramble torn shedding of fur and skin. I wept and treasured tears stream down the stony crags of a mountain face. I light a fire out of the branches of my understanding, the antlered smoke crossing the ocean of air to her. Even here your smoke signals are seen, your bottles have become a warming wall that lets the light in, that shelters from the tearing wind of the roaring forties.
Beautiful and haunting work Andrew.
A great mix of personal story woven with myth and exquisite poetry. I love this weaving, its intimate and generous, revealing and mysterious at the same time, a shoreline where the ancient dance trips easily down the salt rimed strand of time and tide. Thank you!
When I read writing this good and this true, I find myself swearing like Joe Pesci playing Captain Haddock (cussing like a fish?) just at the wonder of it all. "But I know a return to the ambivalent and ambiguity of story is the only map to a ground sure enough to raise a sanctuary..."
Man it was a rough day out here, and coming across kind words like these after such a one is really lightening. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, Jack. Deeply felt.
A fellow Shaw fan shared this with me today- powerful and beautiful and as a religious Jew discomfitting but in a way that is invigorating and I want to engage with. Im excited to read more of your work
Yosef! I am sure there is much in my handling of these words that might reflect how new I am to so much of our people's living storehouses of full observance and the buried reefs beneath that Black Sea called kabbalah. Rabbi Arthur Green speaks of broken tablet and whole tablet Yids. I am maybe more dust of the broken tablets that slipped past collection and was caught up in the fur of a desert Hare. I hope my respect isn't lost behind my willingness to risk handling. At least know that I know I am way out of my depths jumping into the Zohar and all of the rest as I do. I have no doubt of my belonging in these waters but I also have no doubt my form is closer to drowning than swimming. I am glad you will be coming by. I am sure any engagement will change my approach, hopefully, toward a learning.
If all the seas were ink and the seas of Talmud and kabbalah less stormy.... It's funny you mention broken tablets and whole tablets. I haven't read Rabbi Green on them but I use them constantly - they are a microcosm of so much. The fragility of the infinite in finitude, teshuva/metanoia, the origin of the congratulation yasher koach, their parallel with the Sota ceremony, and Creation being a result of the human-divine co-creative process from which the process itself is to be treasured..... A lot to unpack from that ark, hopefully we can do so without melting our faces off lol
Your flipping the drinking of the Calf dust such that it was absorbed in their gut was one of those discomfitting moments for me. Have you come across Seekers of Unity on YouTube? The channel's host just did an amazing series of interviews including one that may be of particular interest - the one with Dov Elbaum
Oh, I love Zevi's stuff. Great soul. He agreed to a podcast interview but I have fallen behind in life's demands and need to catch up with him. Haven't see the last months worth of stuff. Will try this weekend to catch up.
Agreed about all of the above. Much common ground I suspect. Yeah, I knew the calf thing was not gonna be invited home for Shabbat dinner most Fridays. More on that deserves to be said. I work construction. My mind is beaten today. Gotta sleep. More later. Thanks for the connection.
Wow! I’m famous!? I’m honoured you are watching! I can’t tell you how your writing washed over me. I honestly haven’t read something as beautiful as this. A Jewish friend sent me the piece you are referencing from the Zohar. I have yet to read it.
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I find the talks on the Grail Country to often be in home territory. That portion of the Zohar is among my favorite. I am more scavenger than trained scholar in those woods of course. Alot to learn.
“None of this here pretends to be for everyone or even sufficient for those it does reach with. This is a signal fire looking for Company. It’s makeshift and more stammer than song but I hope it is a bottled note that finds a shore somewhere.”
Funny what trips a person up. Amidst all the beauty which you write, this raw little cry for connection caught me by surprise and drew a tear from my eyes. But there it is: the heart of it all is the innocent call for connection to the many and the One, the animate Divine that is the Deep Blue Sea that the bottle dances with.
I recognize your struggle to follow the Doe through the cutthroat overwriting, as I, too, follow a serpent-woman’s coiling, in-between, and often underground path through ages of hatred, back to reverence. I wish you blessings of Salmon wisdom on your winding journey.
Salut the Under-road, K.! And a raised glass to your continer of herbs, feathers, and all the Salmon-speech She might offer. Thanks as always for the return fire.
I receive your smoke signal.
Gosh
Thank you
Elizabeth, my partner and I watched a speech of yours awhile back at something called the Realization Fest. I return to it at times, along with Martin's relay of his experience in a ancient church housed in a strip mall, anytime I feel tempted to allow my own experience of Christendom to begin to sit in for the church entire. In Camus' Letter to the Dominicans he expresses an expectation that in the end the Church as a whole might never join the forces of dialogue in the fight against the forces of terror. I have for sometime found it almost impossible to imagine a Church that might defy that expectation of if not outright complicity but at least absence. When hear you describing your world in that talk I am brought about to see that there are things in the cathedral older and stranger and more wonderful than our found in my apostacy. Thus the hurried thanks back below.
Back at you, Sacred Digger.
"This is a signal fire looking for Company. It’s makeshift and more stammer than song but I hope it is a bottled note that finds a shore somewhere"....Andrew, I see your signal fire with my own wonder at the inland sea of heartmind that I am discovering. Thank you for lighting the fire!
I've recently been intrigued by deer as well. Specifically a Scythian deer tattoo found on the shoulder of a woman unearthed at an archeological dig in Altai. I am enamored by the ancient Scythians because the provide a lineage connecting my interests in southern Siberia, my maternal Hungarian heritage and my paternal Irish heritage.
I've also been mulling over Eli, eli lama sabachthani, specifically verse 21 where it talks about G_d saving with the horns of the auroch. Interestingly, this is the same imagery when Balaam's intended curse rebounds as blessing; "G_d is for them like the horns of the auroch". G_d seems to prefer to embody the auroch; at least when acting as protector and rescuer.
Been digging Martin Shaw lately as well. He wrote this great line about how G-d calls us to the wild, but the church merely peddles the feral.
And fair words sit heavy, a feather with the weary weight, bramble torn shedding of fur and skin. I wept and treasured tears stream down the stony crags of a mountain face. I light a fire out of the branches of my understanding, the antlered smoke crossing the ocean of air to her. Even here your smoke signals are seen, your bottles have become a warming wall that lets the light in, that shelters from the tearing wind of the roaring forties.
Beautiful and haunting work Andrew.
A great mix of personal story woven with myth and exquisite poetry. I love this weaving, its intimate and generous, revealing and mysterious at the same time, a shoreline where the ancient dance trips easily down the salt rimed strand of time and tide. Thank you!
I am sure some of our talks are in the play here, my friend. That it sits well where you are means alot.
When I read writing this good and this true, I find myself swearing like Joe Pesci playing Captain Haddock (cussing like a fish?) just at the wonder of it all. "But I know a return to the ambivalent and ambiguity of story is the only map to a ground sure enough to raise a sanctuary..."
Man it was a rough day out here, and coming across kind words like these after such a one is really lightening. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, Jack. Deeply felt.
A fellow Shaw fan shared this with me today- powerful and beautiful and as a religious Jew discomfitting but in a way that is invigorating and I want to engage with. Im excited to read more of your work
Yosef! I am sure there is much in my handling of these words that might reflect how new I am to so much of our people's living storehouses of full observance and the buried reefs beneath that Black Sea called kabbalah. Rabbi Arthur Green speaks of broken tablet and whole tablet Yids. I am maybe more dust of the broken tablets that slipped past collection and was caught up in the fur of a desert Hare. I hope my respect isn't lost behind my willingness to risk handling. At least know that I know I am way out of my depths jumping into the Zohar and all of the rest as I do. I have no doubt of my belonging in these waters but I also have no doubt my form is closer to drowning than swimming. I am glad you will be coming by. I am sure any engagement will change my approach, hopefully, toward a learning.
If all the seas were ink and the seas of Talmud and kabbalah less stormy.... It's funny you mention broken tablets and whole tablets. I haven't read Rabbi Green on them but I use them constantly - they are a microcosm of so much. The fragility of the infinite in finitude, teshuva/metanoia, the origin of the congratulation yasher koach, their parallel with the Sota ceremony, and Creation being a result of the human-divine co-creative process from which the process itself is to be treasured..... A lot to unpack from that ark, hopefully we can do so without melting our faces off lol
Your flipping the drinking of the Calf dust such that it was absorbed in their gut was one of those discomfitting moments for me. Have you come across Seekers of Unity on YouTube? The channel's host just did an amazing series of interviews including one that may be of particular interest - the one with Dov Elbaum
https://youtu.be/M7gRyMpl7e4?si=ppmayJ_KrnowbePp
Oh, I love Zevi's stuff. Great soul. He agreed to a podcast interview but I have fallen behind in life's demands and need to catch up with him. Haven't see the last months worth of stuff. Will try this weekend to catch up.
Agreed about all of the above. Much common ground I suspect. Yeah, I knew the calf thing was not gonna be invited home for Shabbat dinner most Fridays. More on that deserves to be said. I work construction. My mind is beaten today. Gotta sleep. More later. Thanks for the connection.
I’m speechless. Thank you!
Welcome, Grail Lady. Thanks for your show and for responding to this.
Wow! I’m famous!? I’m honoured you are watching! I can’t tell you how your writing washed over me. I honestly haven’t read something as beautiful as this. A Jewish friend sent me the piece you are referencing from the Zohar. I have yet to read it.
Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I find the talks on the Grail Country to often be in home territory. That portion of the Zohar is among my favorite. I am more scavenger than trained scholar in those woods of course. Alot to learn.
Well then I’m in good company! As are you.
“None of this here pretends to be for everyone or even sufficient for those it does reach with. This is a signal fire looking for Company. It’s makeshift and more stammer than song but I hope it is a bottled note that finds a shore somewhere.”
Funny what trips a person up. Amidst all the beauty which you write, this raw little cry for connection caught me by surprise and drew a tear from my eyes. But there it is: the heart of it all is the innocent call for connection to the many and the One, the animate Divine that is the Deep Blue Sea that the bottle dances with.
I recognize your struggle to follow the Doe through the cutthroat overwriting, as I, too, follow a serpent-woman’s coiling, in-between, and often underground path through ages of hatred, back to reverence. I wish you blessings of Salmon wisdom on your winding journey.
Salut the Under-road, K.! And a raised glass to your continer of herbs, feathers, and all the Salmon-speech She might offer. Thanks as always for the return fire.