Ram Dass said: "when I don't know who I am, I am your servant. When I do know who I am, I am you." or somebody said that and he repeated it.... you know how it goes. . How we are the grinder and the ground, well and also the third aspect, the one in the middle of it all... dancing on the razor edge of perfect imperfection......the one and the One, the beloved and the Beloved and the other thing, the besotted!.the fool the goof the devil... oh, to dare to love that which can and will be lost.... (lost)*
our heart breaks for what it loses, while the spirit laughs for it gains.... the terrible lovable comedy. Yikes, at times like this, the heat is on.
Even though i have heard this story before, your telling has me on the edge of my seat , leaning in to hear the next dive and twist. Sat watching swathes of Siberian confetti falling adds an atmospheric touch that befits the tale too.
Thank you Martin a wonderful story experience. I Listened to your conversation with Jonathan as well and I thought it was full of so much richness I hope to listen again. I like how you said the “care package” it made me laugh but feels spot on. Rudolph Steiner said lucifers gift to humanity is art. Seems to sync up. Also in the Waldorf school they teach Wolfram’s parzival in 10th grade. God knows we need it then and then of course to carry it with us.
“This is when we – as humans rarely saints – enter the story. And it sets the scene (we’re not quite there yet) for the quality not of perfection but forgiveness, something far more needed in most of our lives. Of messing up, confessing, and starting afresh. A Liturgy of the Wild would have such forgiveness at its centre.”
I have also listened to this same story told over the weekend by Jay Leeming of the Great Mother...
I am interested in the discussion, a small sliver in the story, that differs in you two tellings.
We all know that saying , "it is a slippery slide," sigh, dang-it...... and before you know it, well, just ask Forrest Gump.....
Who is kissing who?
This is that question, the comedian, Bill Burr, took up in one of his specials. In the age of suspicion, and violence and rape, where does the 'ravish' fit in....... to Gawain challenge......
the unrequited queens, often the first wives of the selfish kings, are concerning characters.
also, I think of that Sufi story, the one where the lover is hidden in the chest (or not), and the king and queen without opening it toss it overboard..... either sure fidelity, or heartless murderers.... yikes.
so much to consider in the tantra of storybook love!
oh, I feel a song from the Princess Bride coming on ....
I love this Martin. What a treat as we run up to the Solstice/Christmas. The green fuse that ignites the whole stylised cycle of the structure of the poem, the ritual action, the courtly behaviours and the temptation to be human rather than an idealised knight. Power to you!
It is tempting to think of Merlin as the story form of the shore place where land meets sea, animism meets Jerusalem. It is also tempting to imagine that though the Green Knight is called Bertilak "in this land" that maybe he was called Merlin elsewhere. Certainly this being is more strange than a neighboring noble in thrall to the dark Mother. He acts from some bound place but he speaks from some wisdom and concern housed in his own self, yes? Interesting point in a paper I saw that Merlin is often described as enchanted in a crag of a cave somewhere and that is just as we hear the Green Chapel described.
Is there something similar in the need for the Fall to make music/art and the need for clutching at the green sash to make a full human as opposed to the merely perfect knight?
At the center of being does everything just go strangely towards unexpected wholeness like the way the greatest anathema to Judaism, the worshiping of idols, is strangely a wholeness in the holy of holies where the ark is held beneath the golden curves of the cherubim?
On the other hand, it turns out that with Lady Hautdesert being neither autonomous as a woman (all of this is beneath the eye of Bertilak) nor necessarily acting as her true self (all of this is manipulated by Morgana) then the only free woman, the shekinah as it were, would be Miriam of the inner shield. I would like to find myself in the woods some night with some one or some thing who might tell me of the nature of the distance/kinship between Miriam and Morgana.
These are interesting questions Andrew - did you ever read Nikolai Tolstoys 'The Quest for Merlin'? , I come back to it every few years. Merlin is certainly the hinge-dweller between the old gods and the new one. As I wrote here a few months ago, I do think the Fall tends to create interesting art as a response to the all the hireath/nostos floating about. This Green Knight story never quite settles down (provokes these kind of questions), creating just the right kind of disruption at our interior round table.
Hey...I have that book by Tolstoy and forgot all about it. Will jump it to top of the stack. Along with some other more lyrical stuff I have been making m way through that Fornari business. Strangely depressing book whose view of both the human and the gods I think I balk at but like you said, a fair few seal holes to look in or up from.
Yeah, I think from what I gather from the scraps in your writings and podcasts your view of the Fall is more Yid than Goy, more of the tablets than Moses smashed than the ones left whole if you follow. It's part of the fucking pirate code and why I trust the bread of your crumbs more than most maps. Salut!
It feels hopeful to think about phases of green .. in the knight, chapel, magic sash, woods, love, tests, games.. (some of which I personally feel regret around)…not only being forgiven but supported too.
Thank you Sophie, some wonderful lines here, especially when read aloud. I'm on an advent meat-fast up to Christmas Day like many Christians. A friend of mine asked me what I was living on and I replied 'loaves and fishes'. A feeble pun, but also quite true.
Thanks Martin, I often feel like Yeshua is always turning up at the strangest times he seems to have the keys to every door I try to bolt up behind. The way he is, it feels like he's somehow been everywhere already. The advent fast has never really happened very much for me, I'd quite like to bring it into my year as I've always really found lent to be a very profound time and I think many years ago great lent was what got me started with being a vegetarian. There are some old traditions where there is a complete food fast from Maundy Thursday evening through to the mass on Saturday night.
There are truisms that cannot be ignored. One of them are: Romantic Love beats Friendship just as surely as a royal flush beats a full house at poker. Luckily, The game of Gawain is of a higher order than poker. It is the sacred game of integrity, impeccability, and of creating a hierarchy of such. The creation of order with depth. A hierarchy of integrity and impeccability. There is luck, of course, always, life ain’t fair. However…. Leaning towards higher orders of integrity and impeccability in all bio-spiritual matters will create a trajectory towards LOVE. Grand Masters will emerge. As games go, Gawain’s game is is more like bridge than chess. More an intention of fluid integral mutual success than of ‘might is right’ sovereign world domination. His is more the long game where the winner and the loser settle down and consider the bigger picture, and nar one can decide who was great benefactor in the exchange. Jordan Peterson the oft reviled Canadian media personality and redirected professor of psychology, a prairie boy with Nordic lines, calls this: reciprocal altruism. Teilhard called it Christogenesis. I call it keeping your eyes on the prize of a happy and kind world.
Thank you Martin, for this long reach of the Green Knight - the Viriditas knight. It is soul stirring, soul warming. Wishing blessings for you all over Christmas, Happy holidays - and may hope galvanize all of us to hang onto the brave shields of forgiveness, and compassion. (Even if it's only the strap of the sandal connecting us to these things - like in the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.) Take care. Take heart.
surrendering to the little death,
the green knight....
the servant king.
Ram Dass said: "when I don't know who I am, I am your servant. When I do know who I am, I am you." or somebody said that and he repeated it.... you know how it goes. . How we are the grinder and the ground, well and also the third aspect, the one in the middle of it all... dancing on the razor edge of perfect imperfection......the one and the One, the beloved and the Beloved and the other thing, the besotted!.the fool the goof the devil... oh, to dare to love that which can and will be lost.... (lost)*
our heart breaks for what it loses, while the spirit laughs for it gains.... the terrible lovable comedy. Yikes, at times like this, the heat is on.
thinking of Leonard and Alexandra Leaving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41hbdsyqhro
Even though i have heard this story before, your telling has me on the edge of my seat , leaning in to hear the next dive and twist. Sat watching swathes of Siberian confetti falling adds an atmospheric touch that befits the tale too.
Thank you Martin a wonderful story experience. I Listened to your conversation with Jonathan as well and I thought it was full of so much richness I hope to listen again. I like how you said the “care package” it made me laugh but feels spot on. Rudolph Steiner said lucifers gift to humanity is art. Seems to sync up. Also in the Waldorf school they teach Wolfram’s parzival in 10th grade. God knows we need it then and then of course to carry it with us.
“This is when we – as humans rarely saints – enter the story. And it sets the scene (we’re not quite there yet) for the quality not of perfection but forgiveness, something far more needed in most of our lives. Of messing up, confessing, and starting afresh. A Liturgy of the Wild would have such forgiveness at its centre.”
Thank you and God bless.
What a cliff hanger!
How long are we going to have to wait to find out what happens, Martin???
Is it just me, or does anyone else think Lady “hot dessert” every time Martin says her name and crack up. 😆 🔥
I am really enjoying this story.
Thank you, Martin!
Happiest of holidays to everyone! ❤️
The next and final episode will be out on Christmas Day Sarah! It can be on in the background as the feast is prepared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyTVyCp7xrw Here are the Pointer Sister Queens singing to our lovely Gawain...... seriously, ya gotta admire the guy!
There are the wonderful sisters!
I have also listened to this same story told over the weekend by Jay Leeming of the Great Mother...
I am interested in the discussion, a small sliver in the story, that differs in you two tellings.
We all know that saying , "it is a slippery slide," sigh, dang-it...... and before you know it, well, just ask Forrest Gump.....
Who is kissing who?
This is that question, the comedian, Bill Burr, took up in one of his specials. In the age of suspicion, and violence and rape, where does the 'ravish' fit in....... to Gawain challenge......
the unrequited queens, often the first wives of the selfish kings, are concerning characters.
also, I think of that Sufi story, the one where the lover is hidden in the chest (or not), and the king and queen without opening it toss it overboard..... either sure fidelity, or heartless murderers.... yikes.
so much to consider in the tantra of storybook love!
oh, I feel a song from the Princess Bride coming on ....
https://www.google.com/search?q=our+love+is+like+a+storybook+story&oq=storybook+story+our+love+is+like+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i22i30l3j0i390l4.13917j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:d47359bc,vid:svbv0ArjPGU
I love this Martin. What a treat as we run up to the Solstice/Christmas. The green fuse that ignites the whole stylised cycle of the structure of the poem, the ritual action, the courtly behaviours and the temptation to be human rather than an idealised knight. Power to you!
Thanks David, check your inbox on Christmas morning for the final instalment! It's snowing here.
My favorite part of this tale of darkling kings with blood ties is your marvelous animal drawing.
Thank you Lucy. Yes, I do like that beastie too, bounding about. Somewhere between dog and wolf.
https://youtu.be/zMpokKl2emY
Here is a link to our latest video. The graphic I did titled Light Came Down references your forest illumination. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks for this series, Martin. Great stuff this.
It is tempting to think of Merlin as the story form of the shore place where land meets sea, animism meets Jerusalem. It is also tempting to imagine that though the Green Knight is called Bertilak "in this land" that maybe he was called Merlin elsewhere. Certainly this being is more strange than a neighboring noble in thrall to the dark Mother. He acts from some bound place but he speaks from some wisdom and concern housed in his own self, yes? Interesting point in a paper I saw that Merlin is often described as enchanted in a crag of a cave somewhere and that is just as we hear the Green Chapel described.
Is there something similar in the need for the Fall to make music/art and the need for clutching at the green sash to make a full human as opposed to the merely perfect knight?
At the center of being does everything just go strangely towards unexpected wholeness like the way the greatest anathema to Judaism, the worshiping of idols, is strangely a wholeness in the holy of holies where the ark is held beneath the golden curves of the cherubim?
On the other hand, it turns out that with Lady Hautdesert being neither autonomous as a woman (all of this is beneath the eye of Bertilak) nor necessarily acting as her true self (all of this is manipulated by Morgana) then the only free woman, the shekinah as it were, would be Miriam of the inner shield. I would like to find myself in the woods some night with some one or some thing who might tell me of the nature of the distance/kinship between Miriam and Morgana.
These are interesting questions Andrew - did you ever read Nikolai Tolstoys 'The Quest for Merlin'? , I come back to it every few years. Merlin is certainly the hinge-dweller between the old gods and the new one. As I wrote here a few months ago, I do think the Fall tends to create interesting art as a response to the all the hireath/nostos floating about. This Green Knight story never quite settles down (provokes these kind of questions), creating just the right kind of disruption at our interior round table.
Hey...I have that book by Tolstoy and forgot all about it. Will jump it to top of the stack. Along with some other more lyrical stuff I have been making m way through that Fornari business. Strangely depressing book whose view of both the human and the gods I think I balk at but like you said, a fair few seal holes to look in or up from.
Yeah, I think from what I gather from the scraps in your writings and podcasts your view of the Fall is more Yid than Goy, more of the tablets than Moses smashed than the ones left whole if you follow. It's part of the fucking pirate code and why I trust the bread of your crumbs more than most maps. Salut!
It feels hopeful to think about phases of green .. in the knight, chapel, magic sash, woods, love, tests, games.. (some of which I personally feel regret around)…not only being forgiven but supported too.
Something stirs me deep within
Could this be the answering
Fear by fear I know it well
Secret place where none can dwell
Soft about the furrowed ear
This one creaks when no one's near
All of aught I should not say
For if I do I'll lead astray
And so it goes with all my love
I'll find a place in he'aen above
To pour libations on the earth
And see profound thy newest birth
But stirred in me the mighty rack
Still it pulls and holds me back
I have nought now I would not share
Yet in the sharing sheer my hair
Till naked walk I on the land
With heavy heart and empty hands
To dine within the deepest sea
The ocean depths are all for me
So on the shore I set my heart
And for the drowning make my part
But there beside me sits the lord
And in his lap the fullest board
Of bread and fish abundant meal
A final supper on the reel
But as I eat I feel it strange
That I might be so fully changed
And so I lay with belly full
And sleep and dream of nought at all
When I awake now he is gone
I turn and walk and follow on
Thank you Sophie, some wonderful lines here, especially when read aloud. I'm on an advent meat-fast up to Christmas Day like many Christians. A friend of mine asked me what I was living on and I replied 'loaves and fishes'. A feeble pun, but also quite true.
Thanks Martin, I often feel like Yeshua is always turning up at the strangest times he seems to have the keys to every door I try to bolt up behind. The way he is, it feels like he's somehow been everywhere already. The advent fast has never really happened very much for me, I'd quite like to bring it into my year as I've always really found lent to be a very profound time and I think many years ago great lent was what got me started with being a vegetarian. There are some old traditions where there is a complete food fast from Maundy Thursday evening through to the mass on Saturday night.
Yep, as The Lord said, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”
There are truisms that cannot be ignored. One of them are: Romantic Love beats Friendship just as surely as a royal flush beats a full house at poker. Luckily, The game of Gawain is of a higher order than poker. It is the sacred game of integrity, impeccability, and of creating a hierarchy of such. The creation of order with depth. A hierarchy of integrity and impeccability. There is luck, of course, always, life ain’t fair. However…. Leaning towards higher orders of integrity and impeccability in all bio-spiritual matters will create a trajectory towards LOVE. Grand Masters will emerge. As games go, Gawain’s game is is more like bridge than chess. More an intention of fluid integral mutual success than of ‘might is right’ sovereign world domination. His is more the long game where the winner and the loser settle down and consider the bigger picture, and nar one can decide who was great benefactor in the exchange. Jordan Peterson the oft reviled Canadian media personality and redirected professor of psychology, a prairie boy with Nordic lines, calls this: reciprocal altruism. Teilhard called it Christogenesis. I call it keeping your eyes on the prize of a happy and kind world.
considering also what is needing 'forgiveness' in this story.....
When stricken with the trauma of infidelity, a pandora's box of romantic wounds gush forth...
for many of us anyway.... it is worth considering this also in the liturgy....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBPmZJEsaAA
Thank you Martin, for this long reach of the Green Knight - the Viriditas knight. It is soul stirring, soul warming. Wishing blessings for you all over Christmas, Happy holidays - and may hope galvanize all of us to hang onto the brave shields of forgiveness, and compassion. (Even if it's only the strap of the sandal connecting us to these things - like in the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.) Take care. Take heart.
Martin (and others), have you seen David Lowery's recent "The Green Knight"?
I'm sorry if this has already been covered in an earlier thread.