Large Fierce Mammal

Written in Wind, Miguel Santos (Click to enlarge. Source: Deviantart)

When last we met, I introduced Master At Arms Jim Keating’s excellent new book, Places, Power, and MAAJAK (MAAJAK pronounced “Magick”), and most particularly its 13th Chapter treatment of wind; both as an element of weather, and a different animal one may come to meet that superficially shares some traits of Natural wind but is something else entirely. For purposes of our discussions here, I will simply call it the Other.

You will recall that I quoted Jim in his apt reference to the Other as, “… A wild animal found only in wild places …” that ” … seems to be ‘wind’, but it is not …” and that, “… It feels different ….”, and replied to that quite accurate assessment by saying that, “My experience with the Other mirrors this, with but a few slight divergences in manifestation ….”

Indulge me as I clarify these aforesaid mirrorings and divergences.

As you will learn from our progress through this topic, I have more than entry level experience both with wind, and the Other. I have spent many days of my Life in places that may be accurately called Wild in the sense of being free from anything other than historical attempts at human tampering, are physically remote from any human habitation, or both. Yet you will discover, Goode Reader, that many of the tales I will be relating as we ride these Winds of Change together played out in places where people were nearby and numerous. This does not in any way contradict Jim’s words because as any serious student of the Way of the Wild will know or at least come to learn, while one may yearn to be immersed in a wild place in the physical sense, the rest of the time it is carried within the Seeker. Mountaintop, deepest Forest, mid-Ocean, or inner City — the venue matters not. If the Seeker is worthy, the search for a Wild place will not need to go beyond his or her own skin.

I have previously written and spoken extensively about worthiness and its fundamental role in what comes to be revealed as one goes abroad in the world. In some recent correspondence we exchanged, Jim encapsulated this beautifully when he wrote:

“One of the first precepts is that ‘The vessel must be worthy of what it is to contain’ – otherwise the experience is rather depleted and never has a chance to ‘set up’ – or properly cure over time into a true enlightenment.”

For many, what is placed before them and what comes to be revealed, are not the same and will only come to be realized as Convergent for those attuned to “… the mini-miracles, the odd synchronicity and sublime messages that walking this new path brings to us.” This may be simplified as “context” — or “the clarity of distance” where it may be said that the significance of an occurrence suddenly gelled only after enough water had passed under the bridge. “If I knew then what I know now,” in the vulgar tongue.

It is the realization of such a Convergence — that for something to have happened requires you to have been part of a previously unseen sequence of events that brought you to a particular place and time, notwithstanding any seemingly self-imposed starts, stops, speed ups, slow downs, bathroom breaks, work stoppages, or any other delay effected by “free will” along the way — that is the common epiphany for the newly attuned, and the point from which the difference between this and simple coincidence starts to become obvious.

This may seem like a lot o’ philosophizin’ ahead of getting to “the point”, and to that I will say that these are not trivial matters, for the distinctions between coincidence, Convergence, and Direct Attention must be understood if we are to tune in the Other and sort it from the background noise. In fact, everything you have been reading so far is a big part of “the point”. Nevertheless, rest assured Goode Reader that your indulgence will be rewarded, for my legendary style of storytelling in the service of enlightenment will be resplendent at our next meeting when I promise to sprinkle a healthy dose of its brain droppings upon your eager heads.

Consider this the sound of a long, deep, indrawn breath before the blast, and meditate upon the wording of that until next time.