" Across the horos there stretches a great veil or curtain ( Katapetasma), which bears the secret pattern of all things....For this reason the whole panorama limned on the curtain is spoken of as the ontological world of really existing things, depicting innumerable multitudes of creatures in all their diversity, and through all their vicissitudes.(p.34/35.Walker: 1983.)
The Picture of himself that a man is familiar with on earth is nothing compared with what is drawn upon the changing tapestry above. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus remarks, 'when you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you will see your image ( eikon) which came into existence before you, which neither dies nor is manifested, how much will you endure?"
The door that usually remains closed until death called Neirika. This is the cosmic portal between ordinary and non-ordinary reality. Both a passageway and a barrier.(P.4.Halifax:1982.)
All thought process forms a texture. A physical thing, a body of understanding and perception which cannot be limited by any prior conceptions. This is the construction of reality and is possibly far more physical and material than some may have thought. There is no conclusive verification for this point of view. Only recent discoveries in physics and psychology point towards this area. But these research discoveries provide a texture in-the-making, composed of many strands from physics to painting. This texture of thought can be understood through the Shamanic construction of death.
If one takes all of the developments in modern tech-culture, from holography to music, then it seems that there is an underlying configuration which points to the emergence of something new… a new texture which we cannot recognize as yet, being as we are, blinded by the textures and constructions of the cultural dependencies that we have inherited and continually recreate.
These textures are not easily describable according to the dualistic notations of thought and language that are our tools. What is needed is the alchemical change, the transmutation to find the prima materia. But this must take place within the modern context, which cannot afford nostalgia or the unearthing of old symbols to cling onto once again. Hence the meaning and significance of death for the development of a new consciousness.
Joy, joy(p.146.Kalweit:1988.)
Joy, Joy,
I see a little shore spirit,
A little aua,
I myself am also aua,
The shore spirit's namesake,
Joy, Joy!
"These words I would keep on repeating ," he recalls, "until I burst into tears, overwhelmed by a great dread; then 1 would tremble all over, crying only, 'Ah-a-a-a-a, joy, joy! Now I will go home, joy, joy!
Then I sought solitude, and here I soon became very melancholy. I would sometimes fall to weeping, and feel unhappy without knowing why.
Then, for no reason, all would suddenly be changed and I felt a great, inexplicable joy, a joy so powerful that I could not restrain it, but had to break into song, a mighty song, with only room for the one word: joy, joy! And I had to use the full strength of my voice. And then, in the midst of such a fit of mysterious and overwhelming de- light, I became a shaman, not knowing myself how it came about. But I was a shaman. I could see and hear in a totally different way…."
In order to go any further in this discussion we would have to leave the comfort of this form of discourse and enter into the poetic. The realization of the imagination of death brings another mood with it. Each culture, each individual has his or her unique entrance into this reality. Here we could begin to talks of the agent. The visceral engineer who is an entrance and exit from this world. We could begin to talk of the textual figurations who are like angels and who also have the quality of technological machines. But this would, in a strict sense, fall outside of the ambit of this these essays.
