The S T A R

Th e   S  T  A   R

blossomd with crowded
orbits of these shining jewels,
the whole sky

became visibly
a l i v e
with myriads of worlds .


Each peopled with unique
intelligences
united in community,

each system
was itself
a communal being.


And the whole string
strung from end to end
in a single telepathic

mesh network was
an intelligent
and loving being,

common spirit of
countless
diverse individuals .

. . .

"It may be relevant that
Charles Fort (Persinger and Lafreniere, 1977)
frequently noted the "coincidence"
of mass human events and environmental oddities
at the time that "new" stars were first observed ..."

. . .

Valorize all / forms of life

Valorize all
forms of life
that
preserve

culture
holding open
human
possibilities

Holy Fire

1

The early seer sages perceived
these Powers, contemplated
the mysteries of creation
(the successive aspects assumed
by earlier solar systems)

The magi of Chaldea
the priests of Egypt
to them the stars were alive,
in the stars they saw
the gods

So the planets became
the gods of mythology


2

The central doctrine of occult science
is the F I R E Principle

substance of the universe,
instrument of the gods



AGNI
who was Fire hidden in all things
who was universal agent and substance

the Aryans revered the FIRE of Agni
for they saw in it the substance
and vestment of the gods



FIRE is an elemental first form of matter
the garment and the body of the gods,

the medium thro which
the gods acted upon the world



This doctrine of HOLY FIRE is an ancient doctrine
illuminated in the poetry of the Vedas,

formulated scientifically by Heraclitus
"FIRE is genesis
from whose transformations
all things are born"



FIRE is not only a vivifying principle
FIRE is also a destroying principle

planets, moons, created in fire
will be destroyed by fire


3

The gods are dead

There is only this
unending torrent of phenomena
following one another flowing
like w a v e s around
the circle of the sun

All things united
by sympathy or antipathy,
the whole of creation
held and linked together
is living and animated


[...]

1. circa 806 to 670 BC
2. circa 806 to 670 BC
3. post 670 BC

Gathering . . .

George Quasha on the late Jackson MacLow:

"We get different results when we listen or read for something—something we think we want and already know how to hear (poetry!)—than when we allow language to freely talk to us, perhaps through us, or indeed to guide our thinking according to an unknown axis. . . .

"Jackson went on beyond procedure, as mentioned, to a new order of spontaneous composition, which also performatively changed the physical dimension of poetics. (I for one have never recovered from hearing them: the responsive alteration of ear-mind is unidirectional.) This is hard to explain; one has to listen “deeply” (to use Pauline Oliveros’s term for transformative listening) to the performance voices of both Cage and Mac Low to register the magnitude of the event inside the voice. It can alter our whole sense of the poetic vehicle and what it tells us about language. . . . 

"There’s a reciprocity between language and mind that we can feel but hardly understand. It seems to give, for one thing, direct access to the state of mind that is the release and receptivity of the poetic act .  . . . "

Quasha: MacLow and Root Poetics

More on MacLow's practice of "gathering," a core principle of projective verse (cf. Charles Olson):

". . . he composed from the field of language wherever he was (at home, out in the city, traveling abroad), drawing words, phrases, even whole sentences from language he read, saw, heard, or thought in the moment of writing. He called it “gathering,” not “chance” . . ."

MacLow's "Gathering"

3100 BC

After some confusion of mind

we realized we were looking at the solar system
in an earlier stage of its life
in fact

a time before it was really
much of a regular and ordered system
at all


It was clear that we had traveled back thro time


to the west
tangled tresses of star-streams spread
abroad on the darkness


to the north
two long whirling tassels
like spinning tops swayed


their currents sometimes
interpenetrated

neonhot filaments of noonlight
interweaving

streams crossing one another's paths
pulled one another

moving in great sweeping curves
as they pass from one to the other

each from each
swung round away

or more rarely
came together

and together
united

. . .


"Merkelbach began from such passages
to form his theory that all ancient novels
were intended by their authors as coded ritual
texts for use in Mystery Religions"

. . .