by Monde Mdodana
“The Kingdom of Heaven is a condition of the Heart, not something that comes upon the earth or after death.”
Friedrich Nietsche
1. Innocence, Sin and Redemption
As I write this letter, I hope to reach the peak where the Spirit takes over my Left Hand, and I write -without the interference of my mind. One should attempt to imitate The Perpetual Raising in the stages of one’s art, be he a Poet or a Dancer. But The Perpetual Raising is more like a perpetual sinking, because here one retreats from mental consciousness; psychic energy sinks and concentrates around the Centre of The Belly. Here the personality or the ego is no more. This is not because it is denied, annihilated or repressed; the personality is redeemed through re-admission into the psyche, so as to achieve psychic wholeness. The ego or the personality is not the whole of the psyche, it is its product. We do not know what the psyche really is, but Intuition tells us that its seat is not in the head but in The Centre of The Belly.
When a child is born, he can not think; except for the temperament to which the nature of his Blood predisposes him, his mind is blank. But even without the use of his mind, he is able to cry when he is hungry and suck when he is being fed. This “knowledge” is enabled by the unconscious psychic activity at The Centre of The Belly, which was the first “mind” to be formed during pregnancy. The unconscious psychic activity at The Centre of The Belly, that is man’s first “mind”. When an Individual descends to the seat of his psyche, he ceases to Be an Individual; he Becomes Original Man, he Becomes everyman or he Becomes the Son of The Creator. When a Poet speaks from The Centre of The Belly, he ceases to Be an ego; he Becomes a vessel for the Spirit. When a Dancer dances from The Centre of The Belly, he ceases to Be an ego; he Becomes a vessel for the Spirit.
But I must add that the infant, even though he lives from the seat of his psyche- has no conception of the Redemption undergone by the authentic Poet or Dancer. In order for the infant to know Redemption, he first has to move from Innocence to Sin or from ignorance to knowledge and guilt. If Adam had not eaten from the Tree of Knowledge and gained knowledge of him-Self, there would be absolutely no possibility of man ever knowing Redemption. Redemption is possible only after Sin; what exists before Sin is not Redemption but the ignorance Innocence.
So the authentic Poet or Dancer is different from the child in that he had to move from the ignorance of Innocence to the guilt of Sin to the Enthusiasm of Redemption. In other words, the Individual had to rise from unconsciousness and form an ego, or Adam had to eat from the Tree of Knowledge!
2. Rank Order
There is a rank order according to which I classify these Huntsmen in The World of Spirit; I rank them according to the degree of Spirit which manifests itself through their different arts. But before I proceed with this classification, I should point out that every mode of expression -although it does not manifest the Spirit “absolutely” or in its entirety- is absolute in its Existential and Spiritual aspects. Existentially, the Poet and the Dancer are equals, their mode of expression is one; they are artists. Spiritually, they are man of White Blood; they are Huntsmen in The World of Spirit.
So I rank them thus:
The Poet, in his expression of Spirit, uses words and images, and the beauty of his expression depends on how skilful he is with them. It is the same with the Dancer, but it is also different in that relative to words and images, rhythm and motion are far more superior in portraying the Incommunicable Mysteries of Existence.
3. The Great Paradox
So The Perpetual Raising is this sinking of psychic energy to The Centre of The Belly. Here the original connection with The World of Spirit is restored or psychic wholeness is achieved through the Redemption of the ego. At this point we come across a paradox; in Becoming whole the Individual Becomes a vessel, he achieves psychic fullness but also Becomes a vessel for the Spirit. In sinking mental consciousness the Individual raises Spiritual consciousness. That is the meaning of our Perpetual Raising, with the Dancer as its Highest Priest.
I must reiterate and reiterate; the centre of The Perpetual Raising is this paradox: In order for the Individual to see the Light of Spirit, he first has to sink into his own Individual Darkness. But sometimes this Individual Darkness is terrible to behold, so Man looks away. Courage and stamina are needed to sustain a Gaze on one’s own Individual Darkness, because it is a long time before one sees that beyond the Individual Darkness dwells Universal Light.
4. Nxele contra Ntsikana
Indeed, very few Men possess this courage and this stamina, so we must forgive the majority when they look for Redemption outside themselves. More and more Men of White Blood are converting to the Christianity of the missionaries, because the Gaze is hard to sustain. These Men now want to “bow the knee” and pray for Grace!
One such man is Ntsikana. Ntsikana was courageous enough to attend a Perpetual Raising of Diviners and Dancers, but I am told that he was so shaken by the Gaze that afterwards he washed off his red imbhola (ochre) and declared “this thing which has entered me, it says ‘Let there be Prayer! Let everything bow the knee!'”. I am told that he put special emphasis on the word “bow”. Then he said “let everything submit”, putting special emphasis on the word “submit”. If I were one of the spectators of this spectacle, I would have thundered on his embarrassing display of submission and cowardice with these words; let everything survive, struggle, evolve and Triumph, according to the will of uMdalidiphu! He says, “I am only like a candle. Those who were Lords will remain Lords because they were given [the honor of their rank] by Him [Thixo or the Christian God] and only he can take it away; I have not added anything to myself; I am just as I was, Nxele is wrong in saying he should be saluted; he is not a Lord.”
Ntsikana considers himself a speck of dust, so he takes revenge on those of us who joyfully struggle to Become Huntsmen in The World of Spirit. He secretly hates those of us who still possess uncontaminated White Blood, he hates Men who consider themselves Lords and Kings in The World of Spirit.
In singing his Christian God, he says:
He is the One who brings together herds which oppose each other.
He is the One who has led us.
He is the Great, the blanket which we put on.
But I sing The Creator of The Deep thus:
He is the One who Redeems the Individual from the herd.
He is the One who exhorts every Individual to let his own conscience lead him
He is the Great, the Fire that warms from Within!