THE GOLDEN FELLOWSHIP

GROVE OF GOLD

THE FELLOWSHIP- BANQUET OF LIGHT

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love”

                                        Song of Songs 2:11

The Fellowship of Aves at the Grove of Gold is an exclusive experience of magic and discovery. It is to enjoy an intimate communion with the Divine, made through an earnest connection with Nature in her unsurpassed immanence. The sage in the 1^st Song sang glowingly:

                             Come with me

                             Sweet beloved

                             Let’s lead to the idyll

                             Where fragrant roses are red

                                                             Purl (Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea)

By this declaration, it shows that the Fellowship of Aves at the Grove of Gold is one of tranquility, plenty and perfection, in the full glory of Nature. Therefore, for the Scribes at the great banqueting table, ready to dine with the Divine, highest discretion and diligence is required. The sage made a solemn prayer in the 57^th Song this way:

                           Be my watch

                           When I search

                           To find the food

                            In ultimate good

                                                   Lux (Starling, Lamprotornis nitens)

To fellowship with the Divine is to be fed the ambrosia of wisdom imbued in songs. This divine food, given in abundance, fills the partaker with illuminated truth, prompting a curiosity that moves the flight higher in communion with the Most High. Of the celestial meal the sage sang in the 63^rd Song:

                             I was fishing

                             For fish

                             To make a dish

                             When I found pearls

                                                  

                                                     Cobalt (Common Nighthawk, Chordeiles minor)

At the Banquet of Light up in the Grove of Gold, seated in the company of Scribes, the Sojourner, now an anointed Ave is invited to eat with the Divine Presence a six course meal as the sage prophesied in the 4^th trope of the 26^th Song;

                         Searching for sign

                         And supreme secret

                         To temper the blistering heat

                         And make the battle for bread benign

                                                               Photon (Leafbird, Chloropsis sonnerati)

                                                   

To the Scribes sanctified to dine at the banqueting table, let the 6 Course Dinner begin….

TRANSFIGURATION- GLORIOUS EMERGENCE

PHASE VI

TRANSFIGURATION: GLORIOUS EMERGENCE

“Who is she that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners”

                                                   Song of Songs 6:10

The last phase of the Journey of the Scribe is the apotheosis of the Sojourner, which is the elevation of a Sojourner into an Ave, where he is inducted into the Grove of Gold. At this phase, the Sojourner after being born anew is called a new name, the name of an Ave, given by the Divine Presence and symbolic of the newness of being that has now become his life. The Transfiguration of the Scribe, hallowed and alluring, was declaimed by the sage in the 27^th Song:

                   And you will possess me

                   Like light lulled at twilight

                   And it the roseate of your glorious sight

                   I will of the world not despair

                                            Helix (Acadian Flycatcher, Empidonax virescens)

   The beauty of the light that endues the Scribe here shines out to the world, like an asteroid,alluring every eyes drawn to behold it, enthralling Nature to cadent in delight and reverence, satisfying the Scribe from inside to fill his soul to overflow with joy. The sage sang further of this mystical light in the 45^th Song thus:

                    You light a fire in my heart

                    In my ignorance

                    Amidst shades of the starkly dark

                    I ripple with a wondrous radiance

                                                     Corona (Tufted Titmouse, Baelophus bicolor)

After a Scribe has become inducted into the Grove of Gold, a new life begins for the Sojourner, reflecting his new status as a god in the Garden of the Divine. The Sojourner now sees the world as it is, so small when seen from the clouds, actuated by divine prompting to eternity. Hear the sage echoing the silvery prayer of the Scribe at transfiguration in the 61^st Song:

                     Talk to me

                     About the sunset and the sky,

                     The descent of doves

                      Where beginning of starry dreams lie

                                                Afterglow( Whippoorwill, Caprimulgus vociferans)

The Journey just began....still bold enough to follow through...Saturn calleth

BAPTISM-THE MYSTICAL REBIRTH

PHASE V

THE BAPTISM-REBIRTH IN SPIRIT

"His eyes are like dove by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set
                                                            Song of Songs 5:12

The phase of baptism is the most hallowed in the Journey of the Scribe. Because it is here the Sojourner becomes endued with the gift of grace, given immediately upon emerging from the purest rivers of waters flowing from the Grove of Gold and which is the pass to enter through the great gate at the western slope into the banquet holding inside the Grove of Gold. Singing of this beautiful gift the sage in the 45th Song cooed:

                                                     You put a fire in my heart
                                                      In my blindness
                                                      Like gold lights up the desert
                                                      I become filled with stellar brightness

                                                      Corona (Tufted Titmouse, Baelophus bicolor)

 The significance of this baptism can only be imagined as its real essence is really overwhelming. First, after emerging from the wilderness of trials, a Sojourner mired in dirts and scorched of dust feels a rapturous joy in the heart to sight the hallowed river of the Grove. Here, led by the light of the Ave, he becomes immersed in the amniotic fluid of the celestial which purges a mortal being of impurities making him clean and blameless to sit in the fellowship of the sages. The sage sang of this atavistic thirst in the 1st trope of the 2nd Song thus:

                                                         All I ever ask
                                                         Is a pint of water
                                                         From the flowing river
                                                         To fill my flask

                                                                   silt ( Albatross, Phoebastria nigripes)
  
 At baptism stage, the Sojourner have passed through many miles of experience to reach the bank of the river where he will be met with a Seer who will perform the baptismal rites, leading the Sojourner through the purificatory tube where the last remnants of old life is shed like a worn garment to now emerge a new being gifted with sight, voice, wings and grace to fellowship at the Grove of Gold. The sage sang of this glorious baptism in the 35th Song:

                                                     Inside the spinning sphere
                                                     Where living is swift and severe
                                                     Now I know when birds die
                                                     They rise to dream with the moon up high

                                                       Nocturne (Common Crow,Corvus branchyrynchos)

Follow to the last phase of the Journey...