[The past few weeks have brought a great shuddering. The ground is shaking beneath me! Large movements, upsettling — making new mountains, new continental terranes. All good, I would say. All oriented around going to school again — to Harvard Divinity. Interestingly enough, HDS (Harvard Divinity School) has become something of a nexus for mystical poetry, and their MTS (Master of Theological Studies) program has a fantastic “Focus Area” called Religion, Literature, and Culture, described as “Recognizing the intersectionality of religion and cultural production such as literature, calligraphy, art, iconography, music, and dance, this area combines literary and cultural criticism with theological and religious analysis. It also recognizes the aesthetic dimension of religion as a basis for understanding such themes as myth, ritual, and transcendence in much of world literature, art, music, dance, and other cultural expressions” — exactly my speed. And the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at HDS has also been doing some amazing research on mysticism, psychedelics, chaplaincy, and the ‘peripheries’ of visionary experience. I understand why I’m being summoned there. Of course, nothing is written in stone (yet, that I’m aware), and a few more pieces remain to fall into place; but if all keeps going in the direction it is moving, I will be starting fall 2027. It’s a bit bewildering to think of going to graduate school after 11 years, but everything about it is clicking. We cannot know the end results, but we can go headfirst into the next necessary unknown.
Otherwise, this past week saw a wonderful poetry & music event in Portland, where I was invited to read some of my own work in a ~10 minute slot. I ended up offering a full Goddess-wash — GREAT GODDESS and GODDESS, with a short language invitation between them: to drop the definite article from ‘The’ Goddess and add it to God. Pray to the Goddess → Pray to Goddess; Pray to God → Pray to the God. Note how the feeling changes~ If anyone ever wants to organize similar events, I love doing these! Always happy to collaborate on a vision~~ ] Received 8/15/2026 | 3:16-29pm
Companion Missive #37 - PROGNOSIS (3/5/2024)
PROGNOSIS
[Beautifully, the title of this missive and its first couple lines arrived in a dream, which then awoke me and instructed me write. I have often been woken by dictations, or else hypnagogically redirected from sleep; but rarely has a dictation begun in a dream and continued seamlessly through waking. It creates quite a remarkable feeling effect of conti…
Listen to the Recitation:
MURMURIES A murmurandum Walking appeal I cannot recall, when? Lashing out, a ripple Across the surface of the sun Flares internal blinding me 8 elements in one body Tightly packed, to focus Light and unlight through One end to the other, recording Some flash of feeling, an insight From something unexpected Unforeseen ordinary, I catch Myself looking, a bit more closely At myself; she cannot know Cannot not know — I'm staring Again, I come back to the feeling Reverberating, a pulse of life Across my skin Too tight to tell, I sense A tremor grumbling inside me Shaking my heart to sleep To wake, and rush back Into the flower downturned, where The nectar hides waiting My long face is not made for This strange ritual, yet I bend down and move close To look more carefully At what's inside.
~
Beautiful collection of photos!