Deeper Into Mystery

Well, if you’re still with me after that last one then we can talk ...

The essence of what fascinates me as I said last - the “Work.� Its essence ... the mystery. Somehow, most likely a product of my generation, I was awoken to something, let’s call it an idea in the very early 1970’s - ‘71/’72 – and began thinking about something beyond the edge of my experience, my very world, up until then. It was a catching of the vibration of the times ... the search for a “New Age� ... that was pursued by many as a letting go of many of the markers of the previous age ... the post-war, Baby Boomer, 1950’s, Dwight Eisenhower, Doris Day, Donna Reed America they knew. Men weren’t rushing out to become “Organization Men� so quickly, and women weren’t rushing to charm school so they could find the Perfect Man either. The roles were a’changing ... men were being carted off to Southeast Asia to fight in a war that few understood and began making less and less sense to many, women were burning bras and just about everyone else was looking for their place in the American landscape and trying to understand how the country had forgotten them ... or just plain left them out of its plans ... so they burned down the cities in ‘67 and then had a “summer of love� in ‘69. This was the milieu of my youth ... there in a nice two-storey white house with a garden at the edge of Newark, NJ. When I was jumping from rooftop to rooftop playing Hide-and-Seek or Ring-a-lere-o with friends, I was visiting Grandma and Grandpa at the farm (in central NJ) or goin’ to the Shore.

Then it was right around 1971 that I found a book on “Alternative Healing Practices� in the library at school that turned my young life around. I read it, I tried out what it said – things like Meditation, Yoga and Breathing Techniques – right there on the floor of the living room of that two-storey house of mine ... and it blew my mind ... I mean I had my first true, full blown mental orgasm ... which maybe someday I’ll give you all some more details about ... but for now just let’s say when I got back into my body I knew there was more to the world than I’d been privy to up until then. That’s pretty much when my search for Her began.

I plowed through the book stacks at the library ... and turning those pages became among my favorite pass-times. Before I was out of Elementary School I’d read just about every book that library had and every one they could order for me that in any way, shape or form seemed to touch on my search. Then in my Sophomore year in High School (that’s Secondary School for some of you out there) I found a book “The Judoka� by W.D. Norwood “a martial arts classic� ... and his main character was living the life I was dreaming about ... someone who was living with a commitment to penetrating the mystery. This book opened up a possibility in my mind that had until them only been fermenting with the weakest of currents ... the possibility of a life built around finding and committing myself to Her. Now I was underway again ...

The search began again in earnest ... the practice renewed with vigor ... among the places I worshipped ... the gym and the playing fields ... and I found success and reward ... I found that much of what I’d learned sitting and kneeling ... stretching and humming quietly on the floor of my home ... still following in the old recipes found in that book I’d read so long ago, could be replicated there in the gym and on those playing fields ... I didn’t know it then, but I think I do now that I’d found one of Her favorite positions ... Flow ... the position of engagement in this moment ... and the commitment to act in accordance with it ... only present to the NOW ... and only aware of the HERE ... letting go ... letting go ... letting go ... surrender ... and submission ... letting go ...

Then in 1978 I found another searcher who had found a most terrible way to court Her ... a fellow student of the Way ... Carlos Castaneda ... and read his tales of teaching ... of the hours spent in the desert inviting her into himself ... I was again fascinated ... and repelled ... I understood how “this� could be a way ... and knew without question it was not my way ... that my way of finding Her would be much gentler ... and yet no less demanding ... less convulsive ... and yet just as enraptured ... just as seized by Her coupling ... and then as always the release into Her. My way seemed much less direct ... much longer ... more circuitous ... and in many ways much less rewarding ... and then there was Roye.

Carlos had found his Mexican warrior in the desert of Sonora ... I found my own teacher ... fresh from the desert of Sinai ... a warrior as well ... and knew he could teach me Her ways ... and yet did not know if he would. I applied in the only way I knew how then to the role of apprentice ... and I was rewarded with the teaching. At each of our lessons I would sit and listen ... watch and observe ... and he would show me the spells and incantations to call Her forth ... to invite Her in ... and he called her by a new name ... mostly whispered in reverence ... “Hypnosis� ... and told us She was the Mistress ... and that while She herself was a most jealous lover ... she had many lovers of Her own. He taught me how to become a lover myself.

Now the way of the lover remains my path ... and I follow it with diligence as I know She allows no straying ... but the rewards are many although Her attention She shares. I’ve found that although She uses the name “Hypnosis� when She chooses ... there are other names She goes by as well ... Dionysian to the core and a daughter of Diana ... She .. “Mystery� ... remains as ever ... alluring.

While the men of Science seek to unlock Her secrets ... and think they’ll find her lair by trial and error ... mistake by mistake ... little do they seem to notice that those who do are just as often ensnared and engulfed by her ... as are offered a token of reward for finding Her. Like Calypso on her island, She takes no prisoners ... only lovers ... as Ulysses found out for himself ... while the bleaching bones of unbelievers lay as scattered evidence of the futile quest. These men of Science who dare probe Her windings in the minds of man think to capture Her essence in a bottle ... to patent Her secrets ... or even to talk Her into submission ... and yet she remains feral ... wild ... and free. She is not there when they look ... of even where they look ... but most how they look ... defeats them before they begin. Rather than beginning with the required supplications to learn Her prayers and hymns ... they want to set a trap ... and catch Her unawares ... not knowing another of Her names ... “Awareness� and another beyond that one as well ... “Attention.�

The “Work� ... by any name ... Yoga ... Zen ... the “Generative Imprint™� as Roye called his own ... or the “MythoSelf™ Process,� derived at his knee, as I call mine ... can be distinguished ... by the essential characteristic of inviting Her in ... on Her own terms ... by Her own designs ... and by the utter lack of hubris in attempting to unveil Her. This singular aspect of the Work defines it ... as apart from psychotherapy ... or in fact therapy of any kind ... in refusing to relinquish or refute the mystery ... and instead court the relationship with Her ever more ardently ... deepening the draw and pull ... the resonant form ... and desire to commune with Her ... on Mystery's own vital terms. The desire for the deepening defines this sacred Work ... and justifies the “...spiritual� part of the reference I make in calling it a “psycho-spiritual� way. The willingness to do this while remaining in the world proper ... living, working, loving ... mark this way as unique ... or what has been called a 4th way path - a path of neither the hermit ... nor the monk ... nor the yogi ... but rather the path of the ordinary human living the extraordinary life.

This way is Mystery's way ... the opening unto Her ... the unrobing of one’s self ... standing naked and vulnerable ... waiting ... breathlessly waiting ... the willingness to become transparent to Her gaze ... the unfolding of the essence ... all these mark Her followers and the many ways that lead to Her. The demands are unrelenting ... the rewards compelling ... and the path as narrow as they come ... to visit Her in the depths of Her lair ... to inhale the perfume of Her breath ... to ingest the ambrosia from Her lips ... to know the ecstasy of Her touch ... if even only to have Her gaze upon you in passing ... fanning within you the flames of desire ... quenching the thirst and ache to know Her ... if only for a moment ... an acknowledgement to the lover in us all.

That’s it for now ... until next time ... Joseph Riggio