Chapter Eleven


    IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD II
    ~ In the Court of the Crimson King ~




    - chapter 11 index -
    pg. 1 - Moonchild | pg. 2 - The Dream The Illusion
    pg. 3 - The Court of the Crimson King | pg. 4 - The Purple Piper
    pg. 5 - Three Lullabies | pg. 6 - Orpheus
    pg. 7 - The Keeper of the City Keys | pg. 8 - The Pilgrim's Door
    pg. 9 - The Gardener | pg. 10 - The Yellow Jester
    pg. 11 - The Dance of the Puppets | pg. 12 - Dionysus
    pg. 13 - The Fool | pg. 14 - Logos
    pg. 15 - The Magician | pg. 16 - Finis


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    "Contemporary culture's reliance on reason and it's commitment to scientific optimism had rendered the modern individual largely oblivious to the Dionysian character of reality - character which engulfed all individuals in the flow of life but which also rendered everyone subject to death and devastation."

    - The Birth of Tragedy by David Andrew Molloy

    "The paradoxical combinations that he embodies bespeak an utter strangeness. A god of blissful ecstasy and savage flesh-eating terror; a god described as ‘effeminate’ and yet also the bull-horned and phallic god of male potency; an untamed god of wild mountain rites who brings pandemonium in his wake, yet also a benefactor honored for his gifts of viniculture and theatre, key elements of Greek civilization; he was a fertility god, sometimes considered the life force itself, yet in his myths he was a dark and liminal figure, frequently involved with the spirits and realms of the dead; a subversive god whose myths tell of his incitement to riot and the destruction of kings..."

    - Orpheus by Denise Durance


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    The Fool Tarot Card


    "I walk a road horizons change
    The tournament's begun."

    "First and foremost, the Fool is the base of the Neoplatonic hierarchy: man in his misery, without spiritual meaning. He is the symbol of the spirit trapped in matter. He is the dumb ox, the unawakened man. He is also the redeemed initiate, returning to society to save others."

    - O’Neill's commentary on the tarot     		"In the medieval pack, the title of the card is Le Mat, adapted from the Italian Matto, madman or fool;
    It is necessary, in order to understand the Tarot, to go back in history to the Matriarchal (and exogamic) Age, to the time when succession was not through the first-born son of the King, but through his daughter. The king was therefore not king by inheritance, but by right of conquest. In the most stable dynasties, the new king was always a stranger, a foreigner; what is more, he had to kill the old king and marry that king's daughter. This system ensured the virility and capacity of every king. The stranger had to win his bride in open competition. In the oldest fairy-tales, this motive is continually repeated.


    The ambitious stranger is often a troubadour; nearly always he is disguised, often in a repulsive form.


    Beauty and the Beast is a typical tale. There is often a corresponding camouflage about the king's daughter, as in the case of Cinderella and the Enchanted Princess. The tale of Aladdin gives the whole of this fable in a very elaborate form, packed with technical tales of magic. Here then is the foundation of the legend of the Wandering Prince---and, note well, he is always "the fool of the family". The connection between foolishness and holiness is traditional. It is no sneer that the family nitwit had better go into the church. In the East the madman is believed to be "possessed", a holy man or prophet. So deep is this identity that it is actually embedded in the language. "Silly" means empty-the Vacuum of Air-Zero-"the silly buckets on the deck". And the word is from the German selig, holy, blessed. It is the innocence of the Fool which most strongly characterizes him.

    In the case of this comprehensive symbol of The Fool, there are, within actual knowledge, several quite distinct traditions:

    the "Green Man" of the Spring Festival,
    "April Fool."
    and the "Great Fool" of the Celts (Dalua):

    The world is always looking for a saviour, and the doctrine in question is philosophically more than a doctrine; it is a plain fact. Salvation, whatever salvation may mean, is not to be obtained on any reasonable terms. Reason is an impasse, reason is damnation; only madness, divine madness, offers an issue. The law of the Lord Chancellor will not serve; the law-giver may be an epileptic camel-driver like Mohammed, a megalomaniac provincial upstart like Napoleon, or even an exile, three-parts learned, one-part crazy, an attic-dweller in Soho, like Karl Marx. There is only one thing in common among such persons; they are all mad, that is' inspired."

    - The Book of Thoth

    "Under the charm of the Dionysian not only is the union between man and man reaffirmed, but nature which has become alienated, hostile or subjugated, celebrates once more her reconciliation with her lost son, man. Freely, earth proffers her gifts and peacefully the beasts of prey of the rocks and desert approach. The chariot of Dionysius is covered with flowers and garlands; panthers and tigers walk under its yoke. Transform Beethoven's "Hymn to Joy" into a painting; let your imagination conceive the multitudes bowing to the dust, awestruck- then you will approach the Dionysian."

    - The Birth of Tragedy (pp37)

    "Because reason is a purely Apollonian force, it cannot on its own offer hope of salvation. We can only be saved from the complete enervation and trivialisation of our culture by a strong infusion of the spirit of Dionysus as manifested in music."

    - Introduction to Nietschze



In the Beginning was the Word II ~ Dionysus return to
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In the Beginning was the Word II ~ Logos



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