GREEN SCRIBE: 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)