‘Interiorating’ huh? I think that might be a cooking term.
Anyhoo, welcome back! As you may remember from May’s “Update,” in a few weeks I am heading into extended retreat… and taking my toys with me:
“Through 2024 all [of the Eleusian Epiphanies] will be drawn back into my heart-center. As this experiment began in 2017, we might think of this fall-back as a sabbatical ["and in the 7th year, she rested"].”
As things are going, I will have to settle quickly after arriving to . . . Albania? Greece? Tunisia? Or Mexico again? I have tickets, but events are in flux.
Before I pull the Eleusian Epiphanies completely off the table, I’d like take a moment to review its contours:
i. This experiment is something of a triptych. The first panel contains the Peripateos (sanctuary circuits) undertaken in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. The idea was to visit seven oracles tested by King Croesus. Story goes that the Lydian basileus found only Delphi to be accurate (though he did say that the Theban oracle of Amphiarus was ‘unlying’). I wanted to hear for myself.
Arriving to Thesprotia in early 2017, it was with no small surprise that I discovered not just Croesus’ seven but many more oracular centers in Illyria/Greece/Thrakia/Anatolia — though some lay under (or inside!) churches built from the 4th C on. That first year I only managed four of the Croesus-tested, but I went to nine others not on his list. What did I do in these holy precincts?
I learned to listen.ƒ
ii. The result of these visits/discussions/auditions are the practices (a/k/a :: yogas, tantras, creative/cognitive games) of the Eleusian Epiphanies themselves.
This upcoming retreat is to make sure that the EEpiphanies (e.g. the 33 Names of Goddess; Yoga of the Purified Senses; Demetæra & Krodharpana sadhanas) don’t just produce a pleasant little buzz, but are in fact able to instigate & stabilize Samadhi. The S-word is not a vague blissonym for me. It signals a definite, testable†, recurrent state that I’ve been able to scry in half a dozen humans* this lifetime, and my travels have shown me that it is of great interest to Those-Who-Abide in the Sanctuaries.
Samadhi arises in three waves: first, there is a weakening or recession of the craving/anger continuum which underwrites the conventional senses. Second is the emergence of prajnaindriya - the wisdom-senses that spontaneously arise when anger, craving, fear (and all their stepchildren) stop running the table. Third is stabilizing the ongoing alchemy between the Poisons and the Wisdoms so that you remain connected to your own humanity. Floating off to Nibbana ain’t it.
Addendum: despite the neutralizing of the Poisons (‘Klesas’ or defilements) that signals the onset of Samadhi, a pleasant personality, ‘niceness’ or even loving-kindness(metta) is not the goal. The appearance of kindness is too easy to simulate while still embedded in the karmic circuitry that keeps us enthralled. To get stuck in the ‘my religion is kindness’ trope is to forfeit the 2nd and 3rd stages outlined above. Caveat Luditor.
iii. The third aspect of the Eleusian Epiphanies is really so pervasive as to be environmental, and that is the Ghantayana, the 5th Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. You’ve probably seen my notes on this…
What I finally understand is that the gradualist approach to phasing out the depredations of Wheels I-IV is futile. There is a structural —foundational— problem with any religion/philosophy/cognitive-framework that subjugates women & the natural world; then requires an authority to mediate Those-Who-Abide. Yes, yes, the gods (whom N. Gaiman has aptly named ‘the Endless’) were perfectly happy to go along with that story for a while, but even 3, 4, 5 millennia ago there were dissenters in Their ranks (cough ~Dionysus~ cough).
That is to say, there is more at stake than just humanity’s education. This 5th Turning will also underwrite more conscious relationships between humanity and its collaborators in the animal, elemental and demiurgic worlds.
How? People, I am going on retreat to find out. My discoveries may well lead to more retreat. Or an unholy book. Or choirs of sea-mammals crooning us into a 1000-year sleep. Or a trampoline big enough to launch yoginis into orbit. We’ll see.
§§§
Needless to say, I have a few critics. Three of my favorites recently declared their “disbelief” in this project. Once I picked up my jaw from the floor, I had to enquire: Just when did I ask you to believe anything? I share only a (very small) portion of what I have done/seen/known. I then expect my peers and dears to find a correspondence in their own experience. As I walk around embodying one hemniscience§ or another, people tend to recognize their own Weirding Ways. Who needs belief when we have mirror neurons?
All Hail the Master Monkey!
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Footnotes:
ƒ. It has never occurred to me to think of the temenos as ‘decommissioned,’ nor the information we are provided therein as somehow unreliable. The condescension of modern skeptics — their inability to perceive Those-Who-Abide— just marks their anaesthesia, not their intelligence or ‘rationality’ — which is mathematically-situational. Change the metric and you’re in another room.
†. By people who have been or are in it.
*Not one of those humans call themselves rishi, lama, guru, swami, reverend or ‘just an humble monk.’
§ ‘hemniscience’ is just a polite word for ‘half’(hemn)’wit’(iscient). Hah.
