THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
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Subject: EMAIL WITHOUT TEARS Volume 2 Issue 1 9301.01 e.v.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The word of Sin is Restriction.

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Moderator's Note:

We received two contributions this month.
One from Havoc23 ('As to a Veil They Broke') and
one from yours truly ('Introduction to Sufism: Osho')

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Greetings!
I found this particularly nice, and thought I'd share it with the list:

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As to a Veil They Broke

Thence Jurgen came with Anaitis into a white room, with copper plaques
upon the walls, and there four girls were heating water in a brass tripod.
They bathed Jurgen, giving him astonishing caresses meanwhile, - with the
tongue, the hair, the finger-nails, and the tips of the breasts, - and
they anointed him with four oils, then dressed him again in his glittering
shirt. Of Caliburn, said Anaitis, there was no present need: so Jurgen's
sword was hung upon the wall.

These girls brought silver bowls containing wine mixed with honey, and
they brought pomegranates and eggs and barleycorn, and triangular red-
colored loaves, whereon with formal gestures they sprinkled sweet-smelling
little seeds.  Then Anaitis and Jurgen broke their fast, eating together
while the four girls served them.

"And now," says Jurgen, "and now, my dear, I would suggest that we enter
into the pursuit of those curious pleasures about which you were recently
telling me."

"I am very willing," responded Anaitis, "since there is no one of these
pleasures but is purchased by some diversion of man's nature.  Yet first,
as I need hardly inform you, there is a ceremonial to be observed."

"And what, pray, is this ceremonial?"

"Why, we call it the Breaking of the Veil." And Queen Anaitis explained
what they must do.

"Well," says Jurgen, "I am willing to taste any drink once."

So Anaitis led Jurgen into a sort of chapel, adorned with very
unchurchlike paintings.  There were four shrines, dedicated severally to
St. Cosmo, to St. Damianus, to St. Guignole of Brest, and to St. Foutin de
Varailles. In this chapel were a hooded man, clothed in long garments that
were striped with white and yellow, and two naked children, both girls.
One of the children carried a censer: the other held in one hand a vividly
blue pitcher half filled with water, and in the left hand a cellar of salt.

First of all, the hooded man made Jurgen ready. "Behold the lance," said
the hooded man, "which must serve you in this adventure."

"I accept the adventure," Jurgen replied, "because I believe the weapon to
be trustworthy."

Said the hooded man: "So be it! But as you are, so once was I."

Meanwhile Duke Jurgen held the lance erect, shaking it with his right
hand. This lance was large, and the tip of it was red with blood.

"Behold," said Jurgen, "I am a man born of a woman incomprehensibly. Now
I, who am miraculous, am found worthy to perform a miracle, and to create
that which I may not comprehend."

Anaitis took salt and water from the taller child, and mingled these. "Let
the salt of the earth enable the thin fluid to assume the virtue of the
teeming sea!"

Then, kneeling, she touched the lance, and began to stroke it lovingly. To
Jurgen she said: "Now may you be fervent of soul and body! May the endless
Serpent be your crown, and the fertile flame of the sun your strength!"

Said the hooded man, again, "So be it!" His voice was high and bleating,
because of that which had been done to him.

"That therefore which we cannot understand we also invoke," said Jurgen.
"By the power of the lifted lance," - and now with his left hand he took
the hand of Anaitis, - "I, being a man born of a woman incomprehensibly,
now seize upon that which alone I desire with my whole being. I lead you
toward the east. I upraise you above the earth and all things of earth."

        Then Jurgen raised Queen Anaitis so that she sat upon the altar,
and that which was there before tumbled to the ground. Anaitis placed
together the tips of her thumbs and of her fingers, so that her hands made
an open triangle; and waited thus. Upon her head was a network of red
coral, with branches radiating downward: her gauzy tunic had twenty-two
openings, so as to admit all imaginable caresses, and was of two colors,
being shot with black and crimson curiously mingled: her dark eyes
glittered and her breath came fast.

        Now the hooded man and the two naked girls performed their share
in the ceremonial, which part it is not essential to record. But Jurgen
was rather shocked by it.

        None the less, Jurgen said: "O cord that binds the circling of the
stars! O cup which holds all time, all color, and all thought! O soul of
space! not unto any image of thee do we attain unless thy image show in
what we are about to do. Therefore by every plant which scatters its seed
and by the moist warm garden which receives and nourishes it, by the
commingling of bloodshed with pleasure, by the joy that mimics anguish
with sighs and shudderings, and by the contentment that mimics death, - by
all these do we invoke thee. O thou, continuous one, whose will these
children attend, and whom I now adore in this fair-colored and soft
woman's body, it is thou whom I honor, not any woman, in doing what seems
good to me: and it is thou who art about to speak, and not she."

        Then Anaitis said: "Yea, for I speak with the tongue of every
woman, and I shine in the eyes of every woman, when the lance is lifted.
To serve me is better than all else.  When you invoke with a heart wherein
is kindled the serpent flame, then you will understand the delights of my
garden, and what joy unwordable pulsates therein, and how very potent is
the sole desire which uses all of a man.  To serve me you will then be
eager to surrender whatsoever else is in your life; and other pleasures
you will take with your left hand, not thinking of them entirely: for I am
the desire which uses all of a man, and so wastes nothing. And I accept
you. I yearn toward you, I who am daughter and somewhat more than daughter
to the Sun. I who am all pleasure, all ruin, and a drunkenness of the
inmost sense, desire you."

        Now Jurgen held his lance erect before Anaitis.  "O secret of all
things, hidden in the being of all which lives, now that the lance is
exalted I do not dread thee: for thou art in me, and I am thou. I am the
flame that burns in every beating heart and in the core of the farthest
star.  I too am life and the giver of life, and in me too is death.
Wherein art thou better than I? I am alone: my will is justice: and there
comes no other god where I am."

        Said the hooded man behind Jurgen, "So be it! But as you are so
once was I."

        The two naked children stood at each side of Anaitis, and waited
there trembling. These girls, as Jurgen afterward learned, were Alecto and
Tisiphone, two of the Eumenides.  And now Jurgen shifted the red point of
the lance, so that it rested in the open triangle made by the fingers of
Anaitis.

        "I am life and the giver of life," cried Jurgen. "Thou that art
one, that makest use of all!  I who am but a man born of a woman, I in my
station now honor thee in honoring this desire which uses all of a man.
Make open therefore the way of creation, encourage the flaming dust which
is in our hearts, and aid us in that flame's perpetuation! For is not that
thy law?"

        Anaitis answered, "There is no law in Cocaigne save, Do that which
seems good to you."

        Said the naked children: "Perhaps it is the law, but certainly not
justice. Yet we are little and quite helpless. So presently we must be
made as you are: for now you are no longer two, and your flesh is not
shared merely with each other. For your flesh becomes our flesh, and your
sins must be accounted our sins now: and we have no choice."

        Jurgen lifted Anaitis from the altar, and they went into the
chancel and searched for the adytum. There seemed to be no doors anywhere
in the chancel: but presently Jurgen found an opening screened by a pink
veil. Jurgen thrust with his lance and broke this veil. He heard the sound
of one brief wailing cry: it was followed by soft laughter. So Jurgen came
into the adytum.


Excerpted from Jurgen by James Branch Cabell
(Copyright (c) 1919, 1928 by James Branch Cabell)

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Enjoy!
(My thanks to Acna Ix Chel for sending this my way!)

havoc23
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Introduction to Sufism:

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                       OSHO

Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) was born in India.  He obtained a
master's degree in philosophy and held the post of Professor of
Philosophy until 1966.  He devoted the rest of his life and self
to the spiritual awakening of others.  His writings encompass
Zen, Sufism, Tantra and interfaith mysticism the world over.
The excerpt below is one of a series from his book on Sufism.
_____________________________________________________

There are religions and religions, but Sufism is *the* religion -
the very heart, the innermost core, the very soul.

Sufism is not part of Islam; rather, on the contrary, Islam is part
of Sufism.  Sufism existed before Mohammed ever was born, and Sufism
will exist when Mohammed is completely forgotten.  Islams come
and go; religions take form and dissolve; Sufism abides, continues,
because it is not a dogma.  It is the very heart of being religious.

You may not ever have heard of Sufism and you may be a Sufi - if you
are religious.  Krishna is a Sufi, and Christ too; Mahavir is a Sufi,
and Buddha too - and they never heard about the word, and they never
knew that anything like Sufism exists.

Whenever a religion is alive, it is because Sufism is alive within it.
Whenever a religion is dead, it shows only that the spirit, the Sufi
spirit, has left it.  Now there is only a corpse, however decorated -
in philosophy, metaphysics, in dogmas, doctrines - but whenever
Sufism has left, religion stinks of death.  This has happened many
times.  This is happening already almost all over the world.  One has
to be aware of it, otherwise one can go on clinging to a dead corpse.

From _Journey Toward the Heart: Discourses on the Sufi Way_,
by Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), Harper and Row, 1976; page 3.

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Remember this: Sufism is not a church.  It doesn't belong to
any religion.  All religions, when alive, belong to it.  It is a
vast sky of a particular quality of consciousness.  How does it
happen?  How does one become a Sufi?  Not by belonging to a
particular order, but by dropping from the head to the heart,
one becomes a Sufi.

You can exist in two ways.  Either you can exist as a head-oriented
person - you will succeed in the world.  You will accumulate many
riches, prestige, power.  In politics you will be a successful man.
In the eyes of the world you will become a pinnacle to be imitated.
But in the inner you will fail completely, you will fail utterly -
because  into the inner the head-oriented person cannot enter at
all.  Head moves outwardly; it is an opening to the other.  Heart
moves inwardly; it is an opening to yourself.  You can exist either
as a head-oriented person, or you can exist as a heart-oriented
person.  When your energy, your life-energy, falls from the head
towards the heart, you become a Sufi.

Ibid, page 5.

Email Moderator for more excerpts, if desired.

*****

Moderator's Note:

The deadline for submissions for Vol. 2, #2, February 1 edition, is

JANUARY 23, 1993.

Send to the email address below.

This publication is archived on Alamut, Slopoke, Netcom.com and
echoed to 93-net.

Invoke me under my stars.   Love is the law, love under will.

I am I!

Frater (I) Nigris (666)
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