The grail knights fly into this heaven with "God's full power" garlanding their neck. They are conflicted about the Almighty infinite divine power of their 'Lucifer' craft. Mastery of the secret art of Omnipotence, dominion over the Universe and the capacity to fulfil all desires turn even navigator O Who Ru's normally level head. For once she ignores her Hafiz flight guide (the prefix couplet), with its calm metaphor about walking humbly instead of proudly riding. Agent 00Heaven (Adam in a Bond) has to intervene to save her in her overweening pride from the terrible Fall he describes.
Form and technique
The gathering spirit-power of Heavens 002 and 003 peaks in the hysteria of the opening and returns at 'black hole tipping point' moments especially at the crisis of this ghazal - almighty power- but the overall mood is growing mental control. The almighty power is mastered by love. These wild horse moments are brought under the bridle of a steady beat.
The subtitle place name 'Lucifer Falls' is an alternative name for the Khuber Pass in which this action is set. A calm Hafiz couplet is followed by a screaming dialogue between the high flying pilot and navigator, one urging caution the other swept away by the almighty power available in this heaven. An epic ghazal describes the two ways this can go, almighty power misused (for self) or guided though to safety (by love). Allusions to Lucifer (the name of the craft, which is all-powerful but has controls missing) and Khuber (the King of heaven - and hell) symbolise the danger of a catastrophic Fall. Shiva's all desire-fulfilling divine cobra around the neck extend these associations. Puns on voo-'doing' (voodoo) convey the perils of acting on almighty powers without the guidance of divine love and knowledge. Biblical and Koranic references to Christ reinforce the lesson of refusing the powers offered on high by Lucifer/Satan. The Khuber echo/ delay vocal is 'legion' - many tongued - like the voo-doing self.
Allegory
This is the crisis of the story. The climax of its conflict between protagonist (Love) and antagonist (Self-interest, Ego). Heaven 004 is the only place - in the entire evolution of the soul through Creation and then its 'involution' through the heavens - where it can regress. Using the divine powers of this heaven for selfish ends is the ultimate self-love (suggested by the MOI kiss) and self-aggrandisement and this time O Who Ru is tempted. In Heaven 002 it was the boy racer Dr Who Am I interminably delayed and seduced by the powers of the craft but, in Heaven 004, it is O Who Ru and alarmingly the misuse of powers here is terminal. Such misuse precipitates a 'fall' all the way back to the level of stone. Though it's not an eternal regression as the whole process then begins anew, to have to re-navigate all those aeons of time and effort is still a catastrophe to be avoided.
lyrics
Heaven 004: At The Khuber Pass: (Lucifer Falls)
Tu dastgu shu ay khizr I pay khujastih, kih man
Piyadih miravam o hamrahan savaranand (Hafiz)
“O august master, lead me by the hand because I am travelling the Path on foot (helplessly) as compared with other companions who are riding along it.”
I see Lucifer didn’t fall – he was Pushed, by God's Whim;
God’s full Power garlands my neck, Shiva’s cobra coiling.
Closely guarded Key to the spirit world - top secret art
of omnipotence In the locked gate of heaven, turning.
Nothing can stop him, this endless serpent, desire-unbridling
King of creation, his Potency can do anything.
King of All, except himself, at black hole tipping point
Of falling every moment, roving proud eye all desiring.
King of all except himself, at black-hole tipping point of
Falling every moment, roving-proud-Eyed, All-desiring.
Owning everything there is; Eyeing everything he owns, he
Locks me with his black-hole glance, and into dust I’m crumbling.
Caught between two worlds, my screen’s locked on both, my ace fuel low.
Humming occult energy eclipses thought, risks Grail’s destroying.
‘Lucifers’ have Omnipotent Divine Power, but no
Directions for use; a Joy-stick that’s stuck, controls missing.
Can Adam in a bounden shake the Bond from bondage or
Will the bondage in the Bond in-stir and gorgon-Eye him.
Khuber's Eye thinks Earth’s destruction, and the Earth’s doom starts there
Straight away: All-anger, he wastes lands by thought’s dark willing.
He farts chaoses, new worlds, usurps the afterlife, makes suicides
Enter new corpses, possesses men, beasts haunts the living.
Voo-doo peaks, HOT FEELING HARD-WIRED, ALL-SUBLIME-THOUGHT KISSING:
MOI!- gone– thinks he’s stone now, lies flat on the floor in ruin.
Fierce flaming jalalis, Shiv-combusted from light-winged merlins
Flown by lesser masters, roar up the limitless ceiling.
Light flows from within - without, above, below, all round me,
Streams behind, before, the white rose of a bright noon’s shining.
Shielded thus, ‘Lancelot’ soars, high as an archangel’s sword
Sheathed in spells Morganna sings, Mother of All-healing.
Cutting edge, State of the Ark, pure simple light, Christ to sky
Risen; as a hundred rays to the Sun connecting.
Voodoo isn't Who, Who's the voo-doo left undone, Vooddoo's legion,
Who's the One, dragon slaying, demon-laying, dissing, dissed and done dissing.
O ace, the King of Spades would club a diamond from your heart
But Love's the higher suit, sends you dark side Khuber-flushing.
O ace, the King of Spades would club a diamond from your heart
But Love's the higher suit, the same is up, lay down your cards.
Contrary to an absent minded mistake in that book, it's Perseus not Jason who out-snaked the Medusa. Jason would have no such such comprehension of her, just as he cannot comprehend Medea. Perseus is the son of Zeus and the mortal Danae, whom the god seduced in a shower of golden rain. Half god, half mortal, Perseus is said to be founder of Persia.
credits
from Dr Who Am I and the Zen Trails of Hafiz (album),
released July 10, 2021
Voices, vocal effects, beatbox, drums, tambourine, percussion, thunder, soundscapes.
The picture (by Tony Rafferty) is from the stage show.The tambourine of power the steering wheel of the ship in Heaven 002 and Zeus' crown in Heaven 003 - is now the Shiva-snake garlanding Dr Who Am I's neck. It will be surrendered at the end of 004.
Source books for all seven heavens are "God Speaks" by Meher Baba; "The Nothing and the Everything" by Bhau Kalchuri/ Meher Baba.
See garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/6-degrees-of-separation-7-degrees-of.html
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