Palinode (platelets, sign, color)

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red

Palinode (platelets, sign, color)

Cloistered, it circulates and combats, feeds, heals
and defends, destroying, at times, its host, and thereby
itself. Extracted, it congeals into a dark symbol,
resembling our innermost facade. The reddened
moon, incorruptible and estranged. A bull’s eye.
I pressure it daily, measuring flow and constricting
elements. Numinous river, source of strength, the internal flood.

The internal flood summons bitterness,  application
of the embodied life, rubedo. I inscribe my name in
three strokes: the upright, the downward curve, the
encompassing circle, omitting the between: as above,
so below. The color-blind more accurately perceive
texture, alleviating the effects of spectral sensitivity.
We build from within, flowing outward in unison.

Flowing outward, split asunder, I assume the neural
response. Color, as expression, as survival factor,
attractant and warning. As symbol. The ancients
buried red pigment with bones to hasten renewal.
Life energy, passion and rage. The force in bodies,
in spirit, in blood. Shade of the alchemist’s sulfur,
glowing embers, ash, the transitory energy of human desire.

 

This first appeared, in slightly different form, in ditch, in January 2014.

29 thoughts on “Palinode (platelets, sign, color)”

  3. “The ancients buried red pigment with bones to hasten renewal…”

    Yes, at some stage of our development as conscious, spiritually connected beings, we hailed the life-death-life force, and dwelled equally in the “above” and the “below.” What unnatural treachery of alchemy would transform wholeness into evil, un-write the signifier of lifeblood into the mark of condemnation? And yet, here we are, drowning in the dark, congealed, post-postmodern backlash of ignorance that must course out of the vainest (as in, most arrogant and most futile) pseudo-intellectual posturing: Nietzsche was right when he asserted that we murdered God, unawares… Unfortunately, he was dead wrong to believe that such a thing as a Superhuman rising up to fill the gaping void (middle) could ever be viable.

    Anyhow… you would have known I would love this gorgeous piece, no?

    Liked by 3 people

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    • i think Nietzsche took the ‘murdered God’ thing from Judaism, in which it is Adam & Eve who drive God out the garden of Eden with their mis-behaviour. i am recalling from memory something i read somewhere, so correct me if i am wrong. what i am driving at is that Nietzsche was saying something that had happened a long time ago, not something recent, so the spiritual decay of man didn’t begin with the post modern, or Nietzsche, i don’t think.

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      • I’m sure there was more than one impetus for the “God is Dead” concept. I was thinking in particular about the parable of the madman (Der tolle Mensch), which was referring primarily to forays into metaphysics that cropped out of the Enlightenment era. I wrote a paper on the topic in a graduate course on Heidegger, but this was two decades ago, so my understanding of the whole might well be frayed at the edges. Now, I’m interested to revise my sources. Thanks!

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