As promised in the last post, I will now jot down what i have glimpsed so far of the ‘once and future’ school of the perennial wisdom.
I was walking in Albert park by the university while raewyn did her psychology seminar. It is a mythic place, with great trees and a fountain in the middle. And lots of potential wizards walking and talking in it and sitting on the grass. Poppy the doglet loves it too. (Note to self: make sure it isn’t highly ‘illegal’ to walk doglet in said park.) I was intending to read ebook on ebook publishing, on my phone (how cool is that? Smartphones are like libraries too). But the trees seemed to trigger the inner conversation about the school. That and the flashcards Rae was talking about for concept learning in autistic children. We are all autistic, sleepwalking through life, part or nearly all of the time. To awaken, we need to see our life (and all life) as a limited whole, like a tree, with a beginning a growth flourishing and fruiting, and a death. So, i got that the school can be simple. it can be like what it teaches: that life is a tree. So the school and the curriculum is a sign of itself, displayed fractally as a tree of process. But wait, said my higher self, there’s more! I saw how the tree of life Staff, the vertical axis of all humans, made in the image of the tree of life, gives us the two remaining pieces, added to the Five Aspects of all process, of a simple Diagram of Everything:
1 THE STAFF The vertical axis, trunk of the Tree of Life, rests in the Earth, the Immanent actual divine unfolding. The Universe. Gaia.
2-6 THE ‘TREE OF LIFE’ ROUND TABLE (and Game, aka the Wheel of Wisdom). The five aspects of the unfolding entity (ourselves, societies, all life) grow from and within it, and are of course part of it. the roots go into the Earth (Love and receptivity), the branches form the beautiful framework (Beauty, novelty), the leaves diversify and articulate the potential of the tree (truth, logic and planning), the fruit (Freedom, action, output, fulfillment) is the output of the tree and its reproduction and defense against extinction; and finally the Fifth Element is the sum of all these four dynamic phases – the status quo, growing and thriving in balance.
7 The staff, at its ‘crown’, links the tree with the Sky, the infinite Continuum of Possibility, possibility space. And that itself is contained within the Absolute Infinite (Cantor’s phrase) of the Neccessary Reality, which is logical and ethical truth. (As Wittgenstein says in the Tractatus, ‘Logic is transcendental… Ethics is transcendental.)
The curriculum simply traces these seven aspects of Reality, and can be drawn as a simple diagram of a staff and a table of five sectors. Then each sector and level can be explored in depth, as suits the individual. The Red individual will focus on the Red phase, the Green on the Green, and so on. Thus there will be five main Houses in the school.
LOVE: Blue House.
BEAUTY: Green House.
TRUTH: Yellow House.
FREEDOM: Red House
THE BALANCE: Purple House.
The other two, EARTH and SKY, I see as serving a minority:
Earth for the true empaths/poets/intuitives of the immanent divine, Gaia, the Goddess.
Sky for the natural mystics, the visionaries and prophets.
But all these must know and experiance that we are ALL needed, the Tree of Life needs all seven. That is why the school is a Wisdom school – it is about the Balance, all present and in right order, so that it actually works as life is meant to work, unfolding powerfully and creatively, not at war with itself, but synergising at all times in a constant flow of creation, love and beauty.
If such a Tree is to be demonstrated at this time of threatening chaos and the downfall of the West, it will surely be a School. A tree that the birds of the air and can shelter in and build their nests and weather the storm. And carry the seeds to the four corners of the Earth. Perhaps then there will be a new vision of civilisation, and the True West may return – or emerge from the ashes of the false. We have never yet really seen a true Renaissance. As C.S.Lewis says in That Hideous Strength (Christian but respectful of much pagan wisdom too i feel, and well worth reading), all lands are ‘haunted’ by their true potential natures. In the case of Britain, he calls that haunting ‘Logres‘. It almost broke through at the time of Arthur and Camelot (in his story), and when it does break through in any land, then Spring will have come at last…
If you are moved by this vision of the school, contact me! or comment here. Or come to the Story Ark and see me. Also, see my epic which has a lot of the vision in it, including (as I see clearly now!) the model of the school. In the Apples of Aeden it is called the hidden faery refuge and school of Urak Tara. The ebook of Volume one, the Girl and the Guardian, is now only 99 cents at the Kindle store: http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Guardian-Apples-Aeden-ebook/dp/B003FMUXPM/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
As to the How of it, at the WOW gathering I had a great lesson from young Adam, who expounded the Why What Who When Where and How sequence. (and challenged me to state my Why and What there and then. It was Be a real wizard, know the wonders of it all and my own place in it, and Teach others to be the wizards of their own lives…)
Note that the How comes last, and is not reachable at first. We have to go through the other stages first… I have got my Why and What, I think. And the Who in a way – ME! But there have to be others, of course! And I don’t know Who you are – yet. As I say, if you want to go to this School, or help build it, or just follow it, help name it, donate books, whatever, do get in touch! For a start, subscribe to this blog. I will start another one for the School when I know what to call it… So meanwhile, this is where to come! (Now it is the 8th of May, and happily I have a name AND a logo. And a website: Eutopian School of Wisdom and Wizardry http://www.schoolofwisdomandwizardry.com
here is the logo:
and my PJH ‘stamp’ for good measure
Peter Harris wizardgifts.wordpress.com.
Wizard Gifts 