Continuing with Cultist of Ecstasy work . . .

[kiya]

This is exceedingly free-associational and I'm not including half the context.


Continuing to do Iron Pentacle work using musical tools, and thinking about what lady_and_lion mentioned about patterns.

Add to Sex pattern: most of these songs are from the POV of a dominant or contain some level of d/s sentiment. "You're such a pretty boy, let me show you what to do and you'll do it." I did not do this intentionally, but it pretty much figures, now, doesn't it. (lady_and_lion points out that they're all wildness songs.) "Burning angel wings to dust . . ."

Pride: "No day, no night no moment can hold me back from trying." Claims of place, independence, freedom. Flight imagery and the mending of broken wings. Despite adversity, I am not defeated; I have held this territory. "Take these broken wings and learn to fly." "And did you think this fool could never win? Well, look at me I'm coming back again." Teach well and reciprocally; that was a really good choice for this list -- know strengths, know where I can learn. This is an interesting centering pattern, actually. Align! ...holy shit, the Covenant song is also a broken-wings imagery song.

Some say life will beat you down
Break your heart
Steal your crown
So I started out for God knows where
I guess I'll know when I get there.

I'm learning to fly
Around the clouds
What goes up must come down

Know limits! Also, playing with boundaries easier when one knows where the damn things are.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

-- T. S. Eliot, a bit of "Little Gidding"

Self: "Born on the breeze and die on the wind." Heh. Nice flow out of the wings of Pride. And wow, is the energy on this list a lot gentler and more flowing than the other stuff. All very intense and energetic, but softer, with fewer edges. This is being the first list I feel able to sit down for. "Take it, don't turn away -- I've been waiting all my life." Identity and prejudgement; identity and sacrifice. Several of these songs are in the list because of explicit personal resonances, others because they fit the sense of identifying the threads of selfness in the universe. "Every move just for herself and that's so right."

Power: "Can you feel the resistance? Can you feel the ... thunder?" "We won't let you kill the laughter." Hmm, 'None of the Above' also suits Pride, probably better than Power even. It is, however, good enough for this; it has the sense of centered personal capacity that I'm going at here. "Realise I never need to use no one." Also, "Freedom puts my faith in none of the above" bumps up to Pearl's Liberty point in a weird way. "And with the power of conviction there is no sacrifice." And with Power, also, there is reaching back to Pride's imagery: "My soul is free, I've got wind beneath my wings; yesterday's gone, my heart sings."

Passion: It's odd how gentle this one is, in some ways. Gentle and largely spiritual. Intense and . . . quiet? "There is a love in me raging, alegría."

There was every fearful smile
There was every joyful tear
There was each and every choice that leads from every there to here
There was every cozy stranger
There was every awkward friend
There was every perfect night that left initials in the sand
There was every day that's filled so full the weeks would float away
And there was all those days spent wondering what to do with all those days
There was every lie that's ever saved the truth from being shamed
And every secret you could ever trust a friend to hide away
There was the fortune of discovering a new face you might adore
And the thrill of coming home to find her clothes upon the floor
And the prideful immortality of children in the home
That the storm can't grind the mountain down, it can only shift the stones
And there was everything your mouth says that your lips don't understand
And every shape inside your head you can't carve with your hands
And every slice of glass revealed another slice of life
Emblazened imperfections in a perfect stream of light

It all flooded through the window
Like rapids made of fire
And then God rode through on sunshine and sat down 'cause he was tired
He was tired.

Meanwhile, in random accidental divination moments, I was cleaning up and picked up my book of Rumi poetry and opened it to a page that said:

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

Hello, Black Heart.

Comments

[arianadawnhawk.livejournal.com]

Interestingness. I'm just beginning to explore the Pentacles. (I assume you're making a playlist based on each point, plus ones for other Feri concepts, right?)

I know someone who's scarily close to a real-life Cultist of Ecstasy. :)

[kiya]

Yup. Seven songs per playlist. At this point I've just done the IP -- it was hard work, too, but clearly being worthwhile. (I've written about this to my class list, talking about the energies of the individual playlists.)

I spent some of yesterday just playing with the Sex playlist because I'm insane. :P Today I ran through all five of them in invoking order to see what that felt like, and this post is the result.

One of my short self-descriptors is "Cultist of Ecstasy with sphere inept Time." That's 2nd edition sphere inept flaw, though, not third.

[arianadawnhawk.livejournal.com]

Heh, I don't know the difference between 2nd and 3rd ed much. Almost all the books I have are 3rd. And then there's the new Mage, which I haven't really explored.

I highly approve of linking music with stuff, but then you probably knew that. ;)

[kiya]

3rd edition sphere inept: You can't learn it.
2nd edition sphere inept: You're really bad at it and pay, like, double experience to improve at it.

I don't so much "approve" as "consider inevitable". :}