This second quarter of the year has been devoted to writing, reading and being outside in nature. Still emphasizing my own contemplative work, I’m working with a few clients on three new books coming in the future, not including my own Project Wunderkabinett.
Spring and Summer on Salt Spring Island
The solar season has opened up into the beauty of summertime and the quiet pleasures of this ocean-bound place, and I have been enjoying it as much as I can. Daily walks show the shift in all the green foliage, from daisies to foxgloves, and now to the dry grasses of near-drought summer heat. Early mornings and late evenings, with the great call of the sun wiping out all contemplative brooding.
Reading
More on my bedside stack of books and open browser tabs that I pop in and out of from time to time.
- Surrealism and Operative Alchemy:The Secret Language at the Origins of the Surrealist Movement by Patrick Lepetit – re-reading this led me to some esoteric sources that I’ve been exploring this past few months.
- Voyages in Kaliedoscope by writer and film-maker Irene Hillel-Erlanger brings to life a cinematic vision of early 20th century surrealism conveyed through a visually stimulating novel. Alchemical and surrealist.
- The Mystery of the Cathedrals and The Dwellings of the Philosophers by Fulcanelli, explores and decodes the alchemical instructions and meanings held in stone and wood carvings of cathedrals and other buildings. The idea being that this work is hidden in plain sight, and not confined to the decay or misuse of parchment or writing. Fulcanelli was a favourite source for Breton’s group – so I had to check it out.
- The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia by Moshe Idel opens another door entirely to the study of the imaginaire, in the influence of kabbalah. I’ve been connecting the dots in this work in relation to other mystic teachings. A vast study awaits.
- Alone with the Alone by Ibn Arabi – Henry Corbin’s full book is still waiting for me, but I’ve connected to quotes and selections that are available online. Like this one: I believe in the religion of love whatever direction its caravans may take, for love is my religion and my faith. Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else for much good would elude you, indeed the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another.
- Hermias: On Plato Phaedrus gives me so much direction on how to analyse text in intuitive detail.
- Memory House by Elaine Kraf. Finally, a regular somewhat contemporary novel. Or is it? Seems connected to Voyages en Kaliedoscope, and centres around where imagination and reality blur and intersect in the creative mind.
The Substacks
The Substack for the Sufi Circle Canada is going strong. An extended publication, it comes out very two weeks, and is packed with research, interesting details and lots of good inspiration about the people and places involved. Lately the focus has been on news articles related to Inayat Khan in his first years in the West. This publication expands on earlier postings from Heart to Heart Newsletters, as well as new material gathered by David Murray and others.
Transcribing the news articles showed me how unreliable even sophisticated AI can be. The originals are hard to read, still legible but I thought perhaps AI could do a better job. So wrong. It produced some odd artifacts, and the worst was the last paragraph that was completely opposite of the original and its intention. Check this out:
Instead of “The cobra dance which we call a Nautch is the most difficult dance of the Orient. The girls of India study a captive cobra to catch every movement and I have seen it often and I have never heard of it being performed outside of India until I saw Miss St. Denis do it so perfectly. It is a sinister dance and trying on the dancer.”
AI said: “The Robes dance which we call a Nautch is the prettiest dance of the Orient. The girls of India study a lifetime to perfect it. I have seen it often and I have never heard of it being performed outside of India. Miss St. Denis has imitated it with wonderful dexterity. It is a quieter dance and it differs in the degree.”
I’m keeping my Substack, Personal Papers, up to date monthly, and the three most recent are usually posted on the front page of this website. Meanwhile, issues of the Shamcher Bulletin come out intermittently as usual.
Writing
I am in process with the final draft on Project Wunderkabinett. Any of you who have written a book will recognize that the last phase seems to take almost as long as the entire writing did!
My writing has had a real boost from the ongoing Writing in Community activity at the Salt Spring Island Public Library. For the past year and a half, writers of all stripes and phases have been meeting for silent 2 hour write-ins every Saturday morning from 10 to 12 in the community program room. It’s been sustaining to sit and focus so intently with other writers. Every library should offer this opportunity. No comment, no critique, no charge, just writing. We declare our intention, then write for 40 uninterrupted minutes, take a 10-minute break, and continue writing for another 40, with a short wrap-up together at the end. High focus. High context. It is amazing what can be accomplished.
Cautious Experiments
I’ve continued my study of AI potentials. I’m especially enjoying the discoveries through slide decks of key concepts held in my writing, and all the images in this Seasonal Dispatch are examples based on this article.
