Intolerance tried to duck to the left or right; Balance cut off any retreat. Intolerance, her eyes prized opened and forced to look upon herself, now knew defeat. The remaining four dancers, now in pairs, circled closer until they were within arms reach of Balance. Once Intolerance had succumbed to the truth, Balance reached out to take Rage’s hand in her Left, and Greed’s in her right. On the far side of them were Love and Compassion, respectfully now as the two pairs were inseparable, the five of them fairly glowing. The lights in the room seemed to come from the dancers, auras brighter than the lights they danced among. There stood Intolerance, eyes darting from left to right looking for an escape, her shoulders slumped in resignation. Love and Compassion held out their hands to her. With a look of disdain, imbued with false superiority, Intolerance took their hands. Then the circle was joined and deosil they moved, slowly at first and, as if gaining strength from each other, they moved and pranced faster and with more energy; now no longer five distinct emotions but one driving force. “Now is when I say I told you so… “ I found myself laughing and my tears of absolution caused the lights to blur and shift; in that capacity I saw her for the first time. In my peripheral vision she was there, bathed in the pure light of understanding and forgiveness. I kept my eyes fixed on the same point and felt sublime grace and now knew what I always felt to be true.
New Circle of Friends, continued from p. 27
These players also taught me that Rage tended with Love creates an inner fierceness: temper that with Greed and you achieve a heightened Passion; add to that Intolerance and you find that you will seek what makes you happy regardless of how others feel about it. Combine all that with Compassion and you discover the tenderness that makes you want to be, and find what it is you yourself are seeking. I do not know if the players did or did not realize how prophetic their portrayal was, what they gave to us was a parable on the Pentagram itself. They gave us five emotions, each dependent on the other to provide stability. If you can picture Greed as the first line in the pentagram from 7:30 to 12:00 and apply another emotion to the next line and so forth then you may have an inclination as to how powerful this whole experience was for me. Remove Greed and you create apathy Remove Love and you foster self gratification Remove Intolerance and you won’t follow your own heart Remove Compassion and you create existentialism Remove Rage and you lose the passions that drive you If you bring two of the lines together, you are lacking three of these five emotions and achieve the emotion at the intersection of those lines…
“Silly boy. I am you. And apart from you. And within you. I have always been here only you haven’t been willing to see me…”
d ce la on isp ti M ula Ad
acio usn ess
Love
Rap
ce
er an
I
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io
Ob
s
es s
Wisp e-zine
nt ol
JANUARY 2009
ge
28
nce
1 deosil, or sunwise, i.e. following the course of the sun; would be clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.
le Vio
To thine own self be true… Shakespeare, Hamlet — (Act I, Scene III).
BALANCE
on assi
Adversity may be one external factor but integrity is the manner in which we face it:
Greed
p Com
I learned that night that confusion only rises from not accepting ALL of your emotions, from not being willing to understand that we are a composite of our desires and influencing factors. It arises from our inability to utilize our intelligence to see the greater picture, a denial of the Balance that has to be achieved, to accomplish harmony. If any single emotion takes control then all that is left to us is frustration and ineffectuality, leading to further loss and emptiness. To fill the void that remains one has to look no further than one’s own emotions and sensibilities, for all of our compositeness and all the negativity that we experience comes from within. You have to look no further than within to discover the reasons for any negativity that abounds.
Blind Faith
Ra
The dancers still deosil1, their hands joined and held high, moving as one, and breathing as one. My heart moved and danced with them, now filled with intoxicating joy. I could now see myself as Balance, and I was there in the midst of them. I could feel all their arms about me as they collapsed inward upon Balance, giving up their individual influences to the overwhelming power of Balance. They stood and began moving deosil again as one unified force, Balance’s work done. She stepped out from the middle of the still dancing group, still joined in an unbroken circle… and I was there.