“WE SHALL NOT CEASE FROM EXPLORATION

AND AT THE END OF ALL OUR EXPLORING

WE ARRIVE AT THE PLACE WHERE WE STARTED

AND KNOW THE PLACE FOR THE FIRST TIME.” T.S Eliot

 

 

 

The great poets have always touched upon this

subject, have written about it and have been

obsessed by – not just death, but what happens

beyond death – what goes on before we are born

and after we die.

*

The question is what transcends death

and what few proofs do we have about such things

*

“OUR BIRTH IS A WAKING AND A FORGETTING.”

*

Wordsworth said this, and being a profound nature

poet, he knew what he was talking about…

*

“TRAILING CLOUDS OF GLORY DO WE COME.”

*

Is the glory ours? Not necessarily. But glory is

something we have bathed in before we were

born. We partake of glory, and then our lives

tend to be a long forgetting… of:

*

“THAT PRIMAL SYMPATHY, WHICH HAVING BEEN

SHALL ALWAYS BE.”

*

The poem I’m remembering is called:

*

‘INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY”

*

which is a pretty terrific title for any poem.

I tend to confuse the words and works of

Blake and Wordsworth. Back at the University

this would be considered a great sin. But in the

mind of a mystic, it doesn’t matter so much

who said what.

*

When Hildegard of Bingen said:

*

“I AM THAT LIVING AND FIERY ESSENCE THAT SHINES

IN THE GLORY OF THE FIELDS”

*

she wasn’t worried so much about quoting

chapter and verse.

*

“We shall not cease from exploration

and at the end of all our exploring

we arrive at where we started

and know the place for the first time.”

*

We start out as a child. As a child

we are imbued with that primal

sympathy. We see one shining world

and we are part of it.

*

Then adolescence comes, the mad

obsession with romance and sexual

completion – a wonderful and desperate

time, but a confusing time

in our lives.

*

Puberty is not a time known

for clarity of mind. No, we are too

busy procreating or at least attempting

to procreate.

*

I think of that whole period of

my life almost as if I was underwater.

A passionate time of pursuing and

defending, of plunging deep into

the wonders of the underworld.

And pursuing again, and being

pursued.

(I certainly did enjoy the swim)

*

Yes, a confusing time – a time of

love, passion and procreation – and

after the babies are born, well

it is a noisy time, and we are busy,

busy, busy – buying and spending

and trying to impress the neighbours?

*

Well maybe we don’t go that far,

but the time when we’re raising

children, that’s not always a quiet time…

Not always a time for silent contemplation.

But we can grab a few moments.

*

The burning desire to be one with the

universe never quite goes away. We seek

the glory from whence we came,

we need spiritual completion. The mystic

may go through all kinds of arcane

practices in order to achieve this unity…

but we all have a similar need.

To get back to that place which is called

“the dream time”, that place called

Eden, which we were apparently cast

out of.

*

We seek the place where we can learn:

 

“THE EXPANDING OF LOVE BEYOND DESIRE”

 

To a poet, mythology and the use of

metaphor and symbol, this is the highest

form of human thought. I use the word

“thought” loosely, for the myths take us

to a place that is deeper than thought.

*

The place that is deeper than thought.

This is where the quest

for unification actually begins. The place

that is beyond the intellect but which is

remembered in dreams, the place

of spiritual completion, the feeling

we used to have when we were

a child.

*

We seek it and we may find it –

the divinity of our source. We

are on a quest to return home,

and when we find home once again,

we remember it, we recognize it;

it is the answer to all our yearning…

*

“AND WE KNOW THE PLACE

FOR THE FIRST TIME.”

*

 

 

(C)2016 by W.G. Milne

 

 

NOTE: I use this * between paragraphs so that

all the paragraphs don’t merge.