THE TRIALS- A WALK IN THE WILDERNESS

PHASE IV

THE TRIALS: A WALK IN THE WILDERNESS

“The watchmen that went about the city found me, they struck me, they wounded me, the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me”

                                                                        Song of Songs 5:7

As reenacted in the ancient story of search captured above, the Journey of the Scribe at the fourth stage is fraught with perils and contingencies which will test the faith of the Sojourner severally during the fateful journey to the Grove of Gold. Of these trials the sage sang in trenchant tones in the 28^th Song:

                                            There were long dry weeks

                                            When the streak of sun up

                                            Was but a curse for my cup

                                             Thin and from fruitless seeking made weak

                                                              Cacti (Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides)

The trials of the Sojourner will manifest in various forms during the course which would constitute the tests that must be passed and through which the Sojourner grows in gifts and graces. Just as it customary for every great exploit, a Sojourner must undergo a period of test and trials which prepares the way by opening up hidden charts keyed in the perilous journey to the Grove of Gold. The sage cried of this inescapable gulf in the 12^th Song:

                                              Between us

                                              A wall of the oblivious

                                              Looming large

                                              Like a vacuous ledge

                                                          Interstice (Fairy Prion, Pachyptilla turtur)

At the peak period of this phase, a Sojourner undergoes salient changes in his makeup which finally culminates in the “loss of the veil” meaning loss of innocence. The innocence lost at this phase is the same epiphany Adam of old felt after tasting the Mystical Fruit which illuminates the senses, the absorption of transcendental knowledge that expels ignorance, the ascension to the next phase in the concentric Journey of the Scribe. Hear the sage voicing the Original Destiny of Aves:

                                             I did not desire

                                             To be a scar

                                             So someone made me a star

                                             And a sky to aspire

                                                                         Jades (Green Jay, Cynacorax yncas)

The next phase of the journey beckons……….

PHASE III- THE SEARCH

PHASE  III 

THE SEARCH: DISCOVERY OF LIGHT

‘The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, saw you him whom my soul loves?’

                                                                                Song of Songs 3:3

The third phase of the Journey of the Scribe is the activity stage which requires zeal and dedication of the Sojourner. Because after awakening from the great sleep of yester years, a Sojourner, to move forward must do so in valiant search for higher knowledge and divine direction to the Grove of Gold. The eminent sage sang of the search in the 6^th trope of the 6^th Song thus:

              

                     Know the thing

                 To know

                 Because what sets us above the low

                 Is our innate search of nothing for something

                                                        Indigo (Skylark, Alauda arvensis)

The search of the Sojourner is conducted in the Spirit in tune with nature, probing into the recesses of existence to know and become a higher being. It is this craving for knowledge, wired into all aves, that inspired the sage to sing melodiously of extant inheritance in the 3^rd Song that:

                      Cells in cycle

                  About a globe

                  Pregnant with a probe

                  That will carve out a chronicle

                                                       Amoeba (Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus)

This search leading to acquisition of ethereal knowledge of immanent things imbues the Sojourner with extra ordinary wisdom with which the puzzles of existence are easily solved. The Sojourner, in the course of the search, when done in the Spirit of Truth and Faith, finds his path being led to a place of green pastures as it was promised in Psalm 23, traveling through mountain passes and stony ridges and desert sand and dunes, finally leading up to the Grove of Gold where tree flourish in seasons and fountain of light feeds the fishes in the ceramic pool of the Divine. At finding this glorious road and sighting the golden gate of the Grove from distance, a Sojourner feels an overflowing joy at heart, as the sage sang in the last trope of the 63^rd Song :

                          I was lost

                     In the winding way

                     Till night rescued me from day

                     Setting the hand of my clock at six

                                                   Cobalt (Common Nighthawk, Chordeiles minor) 

 

In joy and overflowing gladness of heart the Sojourner’s travel continues……

                 

THE AWAKENING-STAR-RISE

PHASE 2

THE AWAKENING:

‘ I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, open up to me, my sister, my dove, my perfect one: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night’

                                                                                                             Song of Songs 5:2

The Journey of the Scribe continues into the 2^nd phase which is the Awakening stage. For the sage sang of creation in the 2^nd stanza of the 5^th Song thus:

                                      Sweet sound

                                Broke the boundless bound

                                Of blood and brine

                                To mold me a sonorous spine

                                                                                     Sonance (Pipit, Anthus spidetta)

The Sojourner after hearing the Call emerges from sleeping state into state of consciousness like a bird leaving the eggshell, taking first tentative steps upon the earth, expectant of flight into the Cycles of Light on the way to the Grove.

The Awakening of the Sojourner which follows upon hearing of the Call is the phase of molting. By molting, it means the shedding of old skin of a Sojourners’ past life which becomes purified in the water of life to emerge a new born filled promise of Light. The sage sang on:

                                          Such a true

                                Love to own

                                In the dew

                                Of a new dawn

                                                                   Quartz ( Brant, Branta bernicla)

Just like birds sing gaily at dawn to celebrate a rising sun, the Awakening of the Sojourner, much akin to the beauty of sunrise, fills the Sojourner with a new strength and vision and propel the journey forward through the perils and joys of the road. Upon awakening from mortal sleep like the Adam of old, after knowing the Mystical Tree, a Sojourner becomes endued with extant wisdom to discern the truth of the path to the Grove of Gold and to become intimate with nature, knowing things by their name, understanding the meanings behind phenomena, having been illuminated in the dark of the unknown being. Of this Illumination the sage sang in the 18^th Song:

                                      A leaf led me

                               In my minstrel’s wandering

                               Along slanted frieze

                               Towards the meaning of a thing

                                                                        Module (Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrorum)

The Awakening of the Sojourner, stirred by the Call of the Aves, heralds light as it unfolds in the sky, opening up vistas of delight, magic and new discovery as the Sojourner progresses along the concentric course of Destiny. The sage called sweetly in the 2^nd stanza of the 1^st Song beckoning on the Sojourners thus:

                                           See the gentle glides

                                And their azure murmurs

                                Flow along with the tides

                                Into the grey core

                                                              Purl(Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea)

And so the Journey plows further....

THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGUS

MAP TO AFRICA- THE JOURNEY OF THE SCRIBE

‘Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go up the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense’

                               Song of Songs 4:6

The Journey of the Scribe is a trip fraught with perils and trials and only the bold and courageous can stand till the end. But this should not be cause for despair as other Sojourners have traveled the road before with testimony of success just as the sage sang in the 3^rd stanza of the 46^th Song:

                    I have trod this path

                Before today

                Walked its rugged way

                In my hapless traverse to rebirth

                                                              Friday (Tree Sparrow, Passer montanus)

To the Sojourners invited the latin maxim ‘ad astra per aspera’ meaning ‘To the stars through diffculties’ should be their mantra as they trudge along the tortuous road to the Grove. The Journey, mostly taken in the night, is in six phases and I will set them out in ascending order to be keenly seen by the discerning eyes gifted with the Light as the sage sang in trenchant tones of the sight thus:

   

                          As I gaze

                   In a purple haze

                   Upon concentric cones

                   Of somnolent shades and tones

                                                                  Column ( Pyrrhuloxia, Cardinalis sinuatus)

  

PHASE 1

THE CALL:

             ‘O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is lovely’

                                                                                                             Song of Songs 2:14

The Journey of the Scribe begins with the Call. The Call, which is a message from the Divine, is the beckoning order that activates the search and is not heard with the mortal ears but in the heart of being. The sage, singing of the Call in the 50th Song, chanted:

                                            Hear the hallowed contralto

                                     The surging refrain

                                     Of its intimate strain

                                     Coming from the remotest hollow

                                                                      Saturn (Bird of Paradise, Paradisaea apoda)

By this verse it is told of the Call to be of six elements which I will set out for the Sojourners’ understanding serially.  The first element of the Call is its sacredness. The Call, being of the Divine, is pure and perfect in delivery and abhorrent of insincerity. The Hearer of the Call, upon the explosion of the Song, feels its holiness in the Silence that accompanies it. The Silence forms an halo around the Call making it clear and unmistakable, piercing into the depth of the soul. The sage sang:

                                          When the night falls

                                  On the western sky

                                  I will rise to the call

                                  Spoken in the silence of sound

                                                                                        Helix (supra)

The second element of the Call is its tenor which is said to be a contralto. By contralto it means the call will be gentle, sensuous and alluring-the voice of Mother Earth. When the Hearer of the Call hears the Song, its sound stirs his soul to rise to the sky in search of the Grove as the sage sang in the last song of the corpus thus:

                                        Lead me on

                                Up through the haphazard hills

                                And low of labyrinthine valleys

                                To the nest for why I was born

                                                                            Id (Common Gull, Larus canus)

Further, the third and fourth elements of the Call are fused together. The twin element contained in ‘surging refrain’ translates to the persistence of the chorus that rings in the Inner Ears of the Hearer of the Call. This ‘surging refrain’, particular to each Sojourner, becomes a thought constant on the mind , like a mantra or motto, suffusing the psyche to the exclusion of every other thing.  Of this the sage sang in 1^st stanza of the 27^th Song thus:

                                         When the sun sets

                               In the evening sky

                               I will merge with the call

                               Heard in the deep of heart

                                                                                  Helix (supra)

The fifth element of the Call is in its intimacy. When the Hearer of the Call perceives the Song, there exists a kind of kinship with it ingrained in the gene like an ancient trait. The sage sang further in the 11^th Song:

                                   In one of these

                             Dark droplets

                             Is the chart of my course set

                             Swimming the timeless sea to six

                                                                     Cells (Bulbul, Pycnonotus barbatus)

The sixth element of the Call deals with its source-the remotest hollow of being. The Call, being divine in nature, is sourced in the deepest depth of being and because of its ancestry is composed of all knowledge existent. Singing of the immanence of the Call the sage regaled thus:

   

                                      Before the beginning

                             Of origin

                             Africa was the reason

                             That gave meaning to a measureless nothing

                                                                         Nebula ( Hummingbird, Calothorax lucifer)

Having seen the six elements of the Call, the Sojourner by these parameters will be able to discern the path of destiny upon the calling of the Song. Because the Call is the beginning of the Journey, it is at this threshold of faith that the will of the Sojourner will be tested to know its strength and weakness and to give direction to the Sojourner’s course in line with the song of the sage that goes thus:

                                             Quickening my wings

                                  Toward the track

                                  Where travels the flock

                                  Heading to the helicoids of rings

                                                                                              Saturn(supra)

 The Journey continues.....

The 4 Keys to the Map- The Cardinal Points

1^ST KEY

               ‘By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him but found him not.’

                                                                                                                        Song of Songs 3:1

OBJECTIVITY

The latin maxim ‘Vide, quare, dubita’ is the epigraph to the book 'SIXTY-SIX SONGS' which in English translates to ‘ Find, question, doubt’. This aphorism which foreshadows the Journey through the book enshrines the principle of objectivity as a means to knowing the Truth embedded in the myth of the Journey of the Scribe. Because the way to the Grove is mostly traveled at night , every invited Sojourner must cast off the cloak of subjectivity represented by myopia, intolerance, narrow thinking which limits the vision and obscures the course and instead adorn the garb of objectivity through which facts are sifted through the sieve of Reason to arrive at a clear substrate of Truth whose tincture fills the psyche with Light. The sage sang of this gracious anointing thus:

          I say a prayer

          For the piper

          In the crack

          In whose note will lay the tincture for our trial

                                                          Nuclei(Kingbird, Tyrranus vociferans)

Thus, upon attaining an Objective Mind which searches into the deep things of being, a Sojourner of Light, like Rene Descartes of Methodic Doubt, will be able to come to the ultimate realization of Truth, akin to the Descartian epiphany in the expression ‘I think therefore I am’ and become free as it was foretold of old that ‘Truth shall set you free’.  The finality of Truth, as the destination of the Sojourner, is candidly put in the wisdom of the sage in the song that says:

                                     Before the beginning

                                     Of origin

                                     Africa was the reason

                                     That gave meaning to a measureless nothing

                                                                                              

                                                              Nebula ( Hummingbird, Calothorax Lucifer)

2^ND KEY

FAITH:

                        ‘Behold, you are fair, my love: behold, you are fair, you have dove’s eyes’

                                                                                                      Song of Songs 1:15

The significance of faith in the Journey of the Scribe cannot be overstated. This is because man as a spiritual being cannot attain divine knowledge by means of physical intimation alone on the reason of inadequacy of the five senses to represent reality. The sage sang of the gift of faith in the rhapsody that goes:

                                 I was waiting

                                 For fame

                                 To gild a name

                                 When I found faith

                                                                   Cobalt(Night-hawk, Chordeiles minor)

We all are aware of the Appearance/Reality Paradox which discountenances the five senses claim to Ultimate Reality and pushes the argument further to metaphysical comprehension of matter. It is this preternatural ability of man to know through his sixth sense that I term faith. This faith is needed in divining the path of Light amongst many planes claiming to be the way. The sage musing on this guiding light sang:

                  Be my compass

                  When I traverse

                  To know the truth

                  In intricate route

                                                   Lux ( Starling, Lamprotornis nitens)

The faith, likened to a compass, is the innate direction given to the Sojourner in earnest search which manifests in various forms and disguises but known by heart and conviction as if marked with red, seen with the Inner Eyes, that is the dove’s eyes of the endued. The sage sang:

                 Angels are

                 All around

                 Showing the signs

                 Disguised in dreams and divine designs

                                                                        

                                                        Silhouette ( Veery, Catharus furescens)

Just as it is with the belief in angels so is it with this knowledge of the Map to Africa. It is known only by call, heard from within, an invitation to the Banquet of Light in the Grove of Gold high up yonder. The sage rhapsodized:

          

                When the rosy evening

                 Is deep and ethereal

                I will conjoin with the call

                Heard in the deep of heart

                                                               Helix (Acadian Flycatcher, Empidonax virescens)

3^RD KEY

PATIENCE:

        ‘You that dwell in the gardens, the companions listen for your voice: let me hear it’.

                                                                                                              Song of Songs 8:13

Another important factor in the Journey of the Scribe is a virtue called Patience. Because anticipation is a natural component of every journey a Sojourner is ever anxious to hear the word that gives go ahead to the flight. It is of this primal urge that the sage sang:

       

              I feel the fervor

             Of your obstinate longing

             And the anxious waiting

             For the spring flowers to spring out in color

                                                                        Diffraction ( Linnet, Carduelis cannabina) 

                                                

   This urge, however, must be restrained and curtailed with the virtue of patience which consists in having faith in the testimony of old that is replete in immanent Nature which the sage sang of in the 5^th stanza of  the 60th Song thus:

                  It is coming

                  Here to be

                  In its glowing garment of gold

                  And magical sight of old

                                                               Sunset (Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetos)

Believing firmly and resolutely in the promise of Light, aided with diligent search imbues the Sojourner with the prized virtue of Patience which comforts through the trials of the long road to the Grove, steeling the will to drive further and farther till the path leads to the meadow by the rivers of water which flows into the Grove of Gold. Urging faith in this rapturous promise the sage sang in the last stanza of the 1^st Song:

                  Follow me

                  To the grandeur of gray

                  Listen to me

                  Let love take us away

                                                         Purl (Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea)

4^TH KEY

CONSTANCY

‘I will rise now and go about the city in the streets, and in the squares will I seek him whom my soul loves…’

                       Song of Songs 3:2

The fourth and final key lies in constancy. The constancy must cut across categories in the Journey of the Scribe-in the search, in prayers, in sacrifices, in zealousness and in steadfastness to the course. A Sojourner like the beacon of birds, the Star, must be constant in the earnestness to know because the path does not allow ambivalence or insincerity of call or purpose. Of constancy the sage sang:

                                       Be my watch

                                       When I search

                                       To find the food

                                        In ultimate good

                                                                          Lux (supra).

Hence it behooves on all willing to tread this valiant path to brace up for adventure and discovery as I lead you through the Spheres of Light leading to the great Grove of Gold at the West.