DANTE ALIGHIERI in QUEST of PARADISE
A Series of talks in celebration of the 700-year anniversary of Dante’s death in 1321 Presented by Anne Maria Clarke

Journey to the East
'All Along Down the Ancient Highway'

“Once in their youth the light shone for them; they saw the light and followed the star, but then came reason and the mockery of the world; then came faint-heartedness and apparent failure; then came weariness and disillusionment, and so they lost their way again, they became blind again.
Some of them have spent the rest of their lives looking for us again, but could not find us. They have then told the world that our League is only a pretty legend and people should not be misled by it. ”
― Hermann Hesse The Journey to the East

We moved toward the East - he tells us - but we also travelled into the Middle Ages and the Golden Age; we roamed through Italy and Switzerland, but at times we also spent the night in the tenth century and dwelt with the patriarchs or the fairies.

I also walked alone at times, he tells us - without a tent, without a leader, without a speaker.

 During such times I often found again the places and people of my own past. Sometimes my company consisted of the beloved characters of my books; Almansor, Parsifal, Witiko or Goldmund rode by my side, or Sancho.
When I found my way back to our group in some valley or other, heard the league songs and camped by their leaders' tents, it was immediately clear to me that my excursions into my childhood and my ride with Sancho belonged essentially to this journey.

For our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country and something geographical, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and nowhere, it was the union of all times.
― Hermann Hesse,  Journey to the East

“Everything becomes questionable as soon as I consider it closely, he explains, everything slips away and dissolves.”
― Hermann Hesse,  Journey to the East

Once and for all, it must be made public that Hesse is a classic example of how the Jew can poison the soul of the German people. For if at that time, when he took no delight in the war…he had not fallen into the clutches of the Jew Freud and his psychoanalysis, he would have remained the German writer we all loved so well. The warping of his soul can only be ascribed to this Jewish influence.
The Jewish Press

The Tiger's Eyelash
a story about returning from war
Adapted by Anne Maria Clarke

The Transformation of Achilles' Rage

Sing oh muse the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to the dreary House of Death.

Begin. Muse, when the two first broke and clashed; Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.What god drove them to fight with such a fury? "
― Homer, The Iliad 

“ one after the other, and the shafts .....ranged everywhere throughout the wide camp of the Achaeans” (1.382-384).

“...constantly the pyres of the dead burned thick”
(1.52)

....since Phoebus Apollo robs me of Chryses’ daughter, a ship and crew of mine will return her, but I’ll pay your quarters a visit myself, and take that prize of yours, fair-faced Briseis, so that you know how my power exceeds yours.....’

 the son of Peleus was gnawed by pain, and the heart in his shaggy breast was torn; whether to draw the sharp blade at his side, scatter the crowd, and kill the son of Atreus, or curb his wrath and restrain his spirit.

....from the Greek word for spectators, theatai, the later philosophical term “theory” was derived, and the word “theoretical” until a few hundred years ago meant “contemplating,” looking upon something from the outside, from a position implying a view that is hidden from those who take part in the spectacle and actualize it.
 The Life of the Mind: Investigation on How We Think : Hannah Arendt

 "Fail us now? What grief it will be to you & through all the years to come. No remedy, / know to cure the damage once it's done"
(9.301-3)

 All our best men lie by the ships wounded by arrow or spear thrust: The healers, skilled in the use of herbs, are busy trying to cure their wounds, while you, Achilles, remain intractable. May such anger never possess me as grips you, you whose useless valour only does harm to all. How will posterity benefit, if you fail to save us from ruin?
....at least let me take the field ....leading the ranks of Myrmidons, .... And let me borrow that armour of yours, so the Trojans might take me for you and thus break off the battle. Then ....we may win a breathing space: there are few such chances in war. We who are fresh might easily drive a weary enemy back to their city from the ships and huts.
Illiad BkXVI

... a black cloud of grief shrouded (him). Grasping handfuls of dark sand and ash, he poured them over his head and handsome face, soiling his scented tunic. Then he flung himself in the dust, and lying there outstretched, a fallen giant, tore and fouled his hair.
Bk XVIII:1-77  Achilles’ sorrow

...his divine mother Thetis heard him, deep beneath the sea where she sat beside her ancient Father.....and all the daughters of the deep gathered to her.... (and)...the bright sea-cave was filled with nymphs, beating their breasts,
Bk XVIII:1-77 Thetis responds to Achilles’ sorrow

One after another, they trod the shore, where the ships were beached in lines around swift Achilles. His divine mother reached his side, while he lay groaning there, and with a piercing cry took his head in her hands, and spoke to him winged words of sympathy...

"They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again." 
Troy (film): 2004

"I have endured what no one on earth has endured before. I kissed the hands of the man who killed my son."
(Troy, 2004) Peter O'Toole, Brad Pitt, Priam, Achilles, Homer's Iliad

“Divine Achilles, remember your father who is, like me, on the grievous door step of senility. Maybe he, too, is all alone in sorrow and no one is there to defend him. But when he hears that you are alive, his heart is filled with joy. Because he still hopes that one day he will see his beloved son returning from Troy. But I, I am utterly unblest, seeing I begat sons the best in Troy, yet of them not one is left…”

“Ah unhappy man, too many are the evils you have endured in your soul. How did you find the courage to come here all alone and meet the eyes of me that have killed your sons? Your heart is truly made of iron! But come here, sit on the throne and despite our pain, let our suffers lie quiet in our hearts. For no profit comes with lament!

… and Priam was admiring of Achilles. He was so great and comely, like a god! But Achilles also was looking at Priam with admiration, for he was so noble and hearkening to his words!

Queen of Heaven

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Rev. 12:1

‘the most significant event of the twentieth century.’    
Carl Jung

Healing the Wounded King

Health of the King

Order & Blessing

  He holds audience, primarily, not to be seen, but to see, admire, and delight in his subjects, to reward them and to bestow honours upon them.”
Moore & Gillette -

Mufasa: A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king.

The Wounded King / The Shadow King

The King in Sleeping Beauty

The Wounded King at the heart of the Grail Quest

In Camelot the wizard Merlin cries out that a king lays terribly wounded at the heart of that place - and will never be cured until a knight -  foremost amongst those seated at the round table has done mighty deeds of alms, of bounty and of nobility - and only when he has asked, what one does and whom one serves with the Grail, will the King be cured and the enchantments fall which are at present in the land of Britain.

But of the many brave knights who took up willingly this most high and holy challenge, three alone were destined to succeed and these were Sir Galahad, Sir Bors & Sir Percival, the perfect fool, whose story we shall take up briefly here.

The story tells that it was to him that a pathway to the lost castle was first revealed and that soon after he arrived at a small chapel within where the wounded king cried out in his torment. And there he witnessed a mysterious procession during which a bleeding spear and carved stone dish were carried through the interior of that place, led by a damsel of pure and matchless beauty who bore the Holy Grail itself, veiled beneath a cloth of silk. And the light that shone forth from that vessel was so bright that even the stars in the night sky were put out by it.

But Sir Percival remained silent and straightaway the castle and all its inhabitants vanished and the young knight found himself all alone once more in the desolate wastes of forest where very soon after, the beautiful damsel who had borne the Holy Grail appeared to him. Though her countenance and her form were much changed and it seemed to our hero that all the weight of time had come suddenly upon her and she rebuked him saying that his failure to ask the essential question has much prolonged the agony of the Wounded King who can now neither die nor find relief from his torment. Nor can the wasteland or her own lost beauty ever be restored until that question is finally asked.

Well for seven years thereafter Sir Percival wandered the forest, seeking endlessly to retrace his steps. And trial and tribulation met him at every turn and all his good intentions were tested to the hilt in otherworldly adventures too numerous to mention here – but let it be understood that often times he was brought to the brink - and that which was light appeared darkly to him and that which was dark shed out abundant light and in this way he was put severely to the test and helped and hindered according to his need, until finally, when the seven years were passed and gone there dawned a wisdom in his heart and he was enabled to arrive at the dwelling of a hermit who presented him with a golden key, a silken cloak embroidered with the image of a golden dove….and directed him to the mysterious castle, which surprisingly was very close by.

Now no one knows exactly how he proceeded from that place - some say it was by way of a perilously narrow bridge that appeared then before him - yet others proclaim that magically, the great golden wings upon his cloak quickened and stirred to life and he at once borne upward and onward to the castle of the grail ahead. 
And there a place is already prepared for him at a great round table, where sit the seekers and the keepers of the Grail, from all the centuries of the quest including Sir Galahad and Sir Bors from Camelot and elves and fairy folk too and men and women strangely clad, from times still yet to come.

And all there feasted together as one company and each had a tale of wonder to impart - then the young Sir Percival, with the knights of his own time was led to the small chapel within, where still the wounded king cried out in his torment and he witnessed again the magnificent procession of the Holy Grail, the mysterious bleeding spear and carved stone dish - and when at last he asked
What one does and whom one serves with the Grail, it was immediately given into his hands and he understood that he must offer it to the wounded and long suffering king. And as he placed the holy vessel to the parched lips of that man, he was at once completely healed, and wasteland burst forth into a glorious flowering of spring. 

Now the legend tells that afterwards, the three knights of the Grail were spirited away on the Ship of Solomon, to the High City of Sarras where a final mass of the quest was celebrated midst a great company of angels. And at that time it was given unto Sir Galahad to bear the hallow of the sword to the high alter of that place followed by Sir Bors with that of the Spear.

But she who proceeded them all and who bore the Holy Grail itself, unveiled at last to the heavens, was the once dis-honoured maiden, whose beauty was now so restored that all who looked upon her imagined a glorious rising of the sun.... and unto her it was given to offer up the Holy Vessel - whereupon a wonderous being of light appeared from within saying.

"My Knights & my servants & my true children,
Who are come out of mortal life into spiritual life.
I will no longer hide from you.
But you shall see a part of my secrets & my hidden things,
Now hold: and receive the high meat you have so long desired."

Then he took he himself the Holy Vessel & came to Galahad, who kneeled down & there received his Saviour. And after him, so received all his fellows. Then He took He Himself the Holy Vessel & vanished.
Now it is said that then Sir Galahad expired 'in an odour of sanctity' whilst Sir Bors returned to Camelot with stories of the great quest - but Sir Percival - the perfect fool - remained at the Castle of the Grail - until the next hero of the quest, arrives to take his place.
Quest for the Grail - adapted: Anne Maria Clarke 1994

Renewal of the King

It is one of the prime mistakes of many interpreters of mythological symbols to read them as references - not to the mysteries of the human spirit - but to actual or imagined historical events....such as a newspaper reporter might have witnessed. Whereas it is one of the glories of the Grail Tradition, that in the handling of religious themes, it retranslates them from the language of imagined facts into a mythological idiom; so that they may be experienced, not as time-conditioned, but as timeless; telling not of miracles long past, but of miracles potential within ourselves, here, now, and forever.
Joseph Campbell: Hero with a Thousand Faces

As Jung prophesied, an epochal shift is taking place in the contemporary psyche, a reconciliation between the two great polarities, a union of opposites: a hieros gamos (sacred marriage) between the long-dominant but now alienated masculine and the long-suppressed but now ascending feminine.
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View
Richard Tarnas

....the masculine must undergo a sacrifice, an ego death.
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View
Richard Tarnas

Profane space...has no fixed point or centre from which to gain orientation. Profane space has no axis mundi, no cosmic tree or pillar leading to the heavens. This is the experience of modernity. People unable to locate a centre.
Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion

Truly liminal space, truly transformative space, truly sacred space in the sense that tribal peoples used it for transformations - always has ritual leaders.
Moore - The Archetype of Initiation

Our story of the Fall in the Garden sees nature as corrupt; and that myth corrupts the whole world for us. Because nature is thought of as corrupt, every spontaneous act is sinful and must not be yielded to. You get a totally different civilization and a totally different way of living according to whether your myth presents nature as fallen or whether nature is in itself a manifestation of divinity, and the spirit is the revelation of the divinity that is inherent in nature.
Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth p. 99

From as long ago as 40,000 BC, the Great Mother was an image that connected the tiny human self to the greater dimension in which it was embedded. The self was, so to speak, contained within the matrix of the cosmic and Earth Mother, like a child in the womb. The consciousness of this time was largely unconscious and instinctive - what the philosopher Owen Barfield called Original Participation.It was a totally different way of perceiving and relating to life than the one we have now. We lived within the life of the Great Mother who was the Earth and the Cosmos. There was no clear differentiation between ourselves and the ensouled life that surrounded us. Everything had meaning; everything was numinous and alive.
Anne Baring - The Lunar Era - Chatres Presention - www.annebaring.com

The primordial deity for our Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors was female, reflecting the sovereignty of motherhood. In fact, there are no images that have been found of a Father God throughout the prehistoric record. Paleolithic and Neolithic symbols and images cluster around a self-generating Goddess and her basic functions as Giver-of-Life, Wielder-of-Death, and as Regeneratrix.

The multiple categories, functions, and symbols used by prehistoric peoples to express the Great Mystery are all aspects of the unbroken unity of one deity, a Goddess who is ultimately Nature herself.
Marija Gimbutas:The Civilization of the Goddess (1991),

With this myth the cyclical time of the goddess culture ends; linear time begins; death becomes final and terrifying. With this myth creation has a beginning and will have an end. The conflict between light and darkness, good and evil is constellated and this imagery pervades the Old Testament and other mythologies, in India (The Mahabharata) as well as the Near East. The myth sets the paradigm of duality and opposition between spirit and nature, light and darkness for the next 4000 years. This paradigm still controls our own modern culture with its emphasis on the conquest of nature, of space, of our enemies.
www.annebaring.com

.... the evolution of the Western mind has been founded on the repression of the feminine - on the repression of undifferentiated unitary consciousness, of the participation mystique with nature: a progressive denial of the anima mundi, of the soul of the world, of the community of being, of the all-pervading, of mystery and ambiguity, of imagination, emotion, instinct, body, nature, woman - of all that which the masculine has projectively identified as "other."   
But this separation necessarily calls forth a longing for a reunion with that which has been lost -
from the Epilogue, The Passion of the Western Mind, by Richard Tarnas

Consciousness comes first; it is the ground of all being. Everything else, including matter, is a possibility of consciousness.
Amit Goswami - The Self Aware Universe

“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out indefinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel at the net’s every node, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that the process of reflection is infinite.

The Hua’yen school [of Buddhism] has been fond of this image, mentioned many times in its literature, because it symbolizes a cosmos in which there is an infinitely repeated interrelationship among all the members of the cosmos. This relationship is said to be one of simultaneous mutual identity and mututal intercausality.”
~ Francis H. Cook, Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come.
William Wordsworth

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.

... that we are not fallen, sinful creatures, banished from the Garden of Eden to this planet. On the contrary, we are cosmic beings, carrying divinity – the pearl of great price – at the core of our being.
Anne Baring talk at Brahma Kumaris Retreat Centre June 2017

THE MOON BOAT
It is repeatedly recorded that when the moon sent a deluge upon the earth she also provided a means of salvation – a boat that carried her children to a new world where they could live redeemed lives. The boat that she provided was an ark, a crescent moon boat and in this her people were carried to the sun, the place of warmth and light.
 
The arrival of this boat, this crescent shaped vessel of light is of great significance for, says Harding, 'instead of being engulfed by the water’s of the moon, the initiate can embark in her boat and so become one of her company. It is a poetic and religious symbol with which we are very familiar. The salvation being found by taking a new attitude toward the powers of the instinct.’
Esther Harding from Women’s Mysteries