Final Initiation 2000-2005: What Georgia Did
is, I find, impossible to describe directly. Here I attempt to explain what happened with Georgia through the art that was produced during and since that five years and a few episodic statements. Three of my five trips to Egypt were taken with Georgia. In this period I received a direct teaching from Georgia. Darshan. Living with her and taking care of her in her 80s allowed a wordless transference from her of an inner landscape of great light and depth. It was my final and most advanced level of spiritual initiation in this world.
From NEPSIS FOUNDATION Conclusion:
What Georgia Did
Georgia, on the other hand, convinced her husband, Robert, to move into “the country”, to a property north of L.A., in 1949, twenty years before the “back to nature” movement became so popular in the‘60’s. This move was to get away from the restrictive, materialist, status-predicated attitudes of sub- and urban neighborhood populations exploding after World War II in L.A. But something else happened out there as well—amidst the sage, lupine and golden poppies. Best as I can figure, years of exposure to nature and the clean, clear skies now rare in the area, developed inner sensitivities, spiritual clarities, a kind of unprotected innocence. She became the expression of the spirit of that place.” I don’t know how else to say it. This was acknowledged, and proven to me, by the remarkable, paranormal, reaction to her from the ‘seraphim’ at Eagle Rock. (I.e., we were translocated from one point on that dusty, gravel, desert road to a point several miles distant without passing through the distance in-between. See Introductory section of NEPSIS, Section I, under the title, “Eagle Rock”.) –And by Georgia’s immediate recognition, on a previous visit there, of the sacred and pure nature of the Spirit that dwells there. She was prepared, I believe, by years of much solitude and the high intentions of mid-20th Century American ideals of the time. (See the novel, Desert Solitaire, for a similar, more accessible example of such ideals.)
This move to “the country,” left her children altered as well. I was born there. Spent my first twenty years there. Left us (me) curiously unprepared for the dominant middle class values of the society we moved into. Georgia still reminds me of the solitary rose on that small planet in the book, The Little Prince. A beautiful blossom, but only one thorn to defend herself. She doesn’t like that book and might yet mount a deeper defense…negotiating as she does with webs that trap and webs for traveling…
I had a dream once in which people used to come out to visit us on our little rancho when it was way out, a wilderness it seemed to city people. They would come out to participate in our sport. This consisted of swinging out on a pulley attached to a long cable that stretched from the hill where our house was, to another hill, half mile across our largest pasture. The cable was many hundreds of feet above the pasture land below. The sport was to swing out on the cable via the pulley as far as one could, then drop, hopefully, into the glacial river below. In reality, the “river” was a usually dry arroyo about a half mile to the west. Yet, somehow one could make the drop successfully. One wore heavily padded leather garb because of the cold of the heights, and because of the water. That was our sport. That was our reason for being. Georgia was the best at it….
198 [128] Lilies on the Nile
Second Cataract
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 18″ 20
195 [125] Lilies on the Nile
Night Cataract
Acrylic on Canvas 20″ x 16″ 2004
HUACHUCA–EGYPT/MAZATLAN–PAINTINGS: “These paintings are inspired by literally hundreds of hours spent on or within view of the Nile River in Egypt. It might be said that such time spent was in part to ‘sense the spirit and moment’ of this important flow in the currents of human history–even tamed as it is by the High Dam at Aswan. ‘Sensing the spirit’ of natural phenomena is not usually a criteria in any scientific consideration. Suffice it to say in this case, there are certain salient facts about this observation that provide the final form for this long project about aesthetic and religious initiation. One is the constant, languorous flow of the river Nile. This is said to be a nearly consistent three miles an hour. The second issue of significance is that there are floating upon this easy but unrelenting current, islands of flora. Sometimes individual bouquets ripped from their roots, other times continents of gathered flowers, water lilies and hyacinths mostly, I think, perhaps other abandoned debris of attractive grace insistent of their own flood of importance. These ply their charms at the mercy of current, barque or faunal appetite. It is this interplay of river and plants that has rested in my mind over the last twenty years and comes to the fore now to suggest a resolution for not only the nearly ineffable topics of my concern, but the final form of the project’s presentation itself. I noticed this interplay at the time of my visits to Egypt–usually on my way somewhere else–but did not focus upon the pleasurable view in particular. It’s only after many years that these memories have inspired a lively new series of my paintings and now offer a way to conclude this overall Nepsis presentation. These works evoke the delight of these memories and this resolution for the whole Nepsis project….” See WWW.NEPSIS.COM, Introduction.
***
*Georgia faced nothingness alone, without the cloisters or corporations, traditions or scriptures- proud of a secular education. She bless me with the beginnings of my life and with the conclusions to her own. Fights the battle still…
197 [127] Lilies on the Nile
First Cataract
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 18″ 2004
***
Its hard to explain about frogs, where
it was usually dry, judge grey
gravel dry
sage green weeds, blond and grey tumble, salmon weeds
but for seldom big Nino years[1] when
two inches of clear water would sit Zen
above the little rocks, sand and
thousands of frogs
years hidden
appeared, in the big cottonwood hole singing all night seems
below a turn in the road -they had to spread out
cars had to smash ‘em
one had to miss and aim for the pool
in the hole
But a cottonwood caught it for the longest time.
***
Its hard to explain about Georgia.[2] how
that last year was
when the veil between worlds was so thin
It was payment in full, ‘a blast of pure white light
glancing from a spread of black raven’s wing’
it was better than any-thing, how
on the plane back from that oasis in Egypt
seeping its vast aquifer
in deep cold oracular pools, how
if the plane crashed on its way back, then it would have been ok
with me- and her
-maybe not the rest… stern to bow
*
But now John, ur right, there’s still to do
I’ll follow the streams I always have, to their source. You will too.
You can give charity if you receive it, Steve
for the love of God, Bill!
Steve Frost
September 3, 2013
California
[1] I was a boy child as well as it being a wet El Nino year.
[2] Georgia was my mother who came to live with me when I was Newman Chalplain at SSU in N. California. After 5 year there, I got sick, retired; she at 80, and I took care of each other for another 5 years. The ‘last year’ mentioned in the poem was 2005.
193 [123. and 124.) Lilies on the Nile
(Above the Delta I and II)
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 18″ 2004
196 [126] Lilies on the Nile
Third Cataract
Acrylic on Canvas 20″ X 16″ 2004
Creation at ‘On’ I (Idea of a Pyramid)
Creation at ‘On’ II
183 and 184 [114 and 115] ‘Creation at On’ I and II
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 18″ 2004
“On” is a place in Egypt, once covered by a vast temple complex. It is now Heliopolis where the international airport is located, outside Cairo. There is a single pillar left of the ancient religious observance once active there. This is the place in ancient Egyptian lore where Creation began, where the sacred mound first arose from the primordial waters (of the Unconscious…). The pyramids of Egypt, especially the Great Pyramid at Giza are the sacred mountains that represent this rising.
185 [116] ‘Creation at On’
Above the Sacred Precinct
Acrylic on Canvas 10″ X 10″ 2004
186 [117] ‘Creation at On IV’
Thaumaturge
Acrylic on Canvas 16″ X 16″ 2004
Thaumaturge or Wonder Worker: More common in Greek Orthodox Christianity, but with roots in Egyptian mysticism and the black soil of the Nile Delta, al chem. (Perhaps through Moses).
***
187 [118] The Rift.
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 14″ 2004
MAZATLAN
[#118-121]: Painting these Mazatlan themes in the midst of the Nile paintings draws a mythographic link between two solar deity/guides of On and Mazatlan with hints about the insightful ‘peace of Islam.’ There is also a history about this connection that can be read in Nepsis.com’s LETTER TO A BISHOP, Section III under the “Yemen Experiment.”
***
After Compline,
We continue down a verdant middle way
Having stood in the hot shade
Of telephone poles
All the long road long
During enduring
the day.
Nearby, a furious wasp
Is trapped
In a plastic shopping bag
With its putrefying cut of safeway steak
At night
We fly between
Stars and highwire dive
To deep rapids below
And wait for just the crepuscular
Moment to
‘stop the world’
Rev. Stephen Frost, 2003
Huachuca, Arizona
***
Ancient Tree Blooms in Winter—Talisman- Georgia
199 [129]
We,
Watchers from either shore
Where our river bursts
To the sea
From land like pincers, we observe
A commingling of waters
Fresh and salt
The thrust and back wash
Peaking and waves in every direction
Turquoise and steel
Froth and spray
Colors the day
of undertows and treacherous admonitions
A sloughing flood narrowed from its wide bay– intensified
Capsized to make its passage
We
Watchers know the moment of arrival- steel and turquoise…
Then, languish in torpor
As after a kill.
Christmas 2000
***
BACK LIT GRASSES
Late sunlight
Glints
gold white Brillant off
The wing top
Of gliding black black raven
Watching.
Starts to illumine
Weed wild chaparral and mesquite, full grasses of our last profane exile.
Mother lies dying
And I try to
Remind her of the golden poppies and purple violet lupine
Of my kind infancy
The high wild oats and our secret place hidden amid fresh oats that high
happy retreat.
Weak and wretched, sweet and wise
Now,
she grows to the
‘great departure.’
Huachuca City
December, 2004
Sacred Precinct—Ghats Along Holy Ganga
200 [130] Ghats Along Holy Ganga
Acrylic on Canvas 20″ X 20″ 2004
Sacred Precinct
202 [132] Pau Qua Dragon IV
Acrylic on Canvas 20″ X 16″ 2004
210 [140] Verdant Grass Waiting /Falling Blossom
For A Friend of Ours…
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 18″ 2004
ALSO SEE AT WWW.NEPSIS.COM FOR THE PAINTINGS THAT IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW THE ABOVE AND DESCRIBE THE ‘HORUS SPELL’ FOR CHRISTMAS, 2004.
Spirit of Dark Matter IV—Seeker Returns to the Oracle
(Georgia[1] returns to the Source.)
Acrylic on Canvas 18″ X 18″ 2005
[1] Georgia was my mother who came to live with me when I was Newman Chalplain at SSU in N. California. After 5 year there, I got sick, retired, 50 years of age. She, at 80, and I took care of each other for another 5 years– These are the paintings from our adventure. The ‘last year’ mentioned in the poem was 2005.
***
226 [155] ALEXANDER THE GREAT AT SIWA (Detail)
Alexander the Great went to the trouble of trekking across the Sahara for six weeks, saved by more than one miracle according to the lore, to consult the famous Egyptian oracle at the magnificent Oasis of Siwa. His question had to do with the controversy over the question of what it means to be a Son of God. This is the salient issue over which the Lord Christ split with his own religious tradition. Though there is, perhaps, a different attitude between the two, it is the idea of divine paternity that is of interest here. In a sense, while rejecting his own tradition, the Lord Christ embraces a more universal sensibility–at least in the Mediterranean region.
This reflection and the creation of this bust concludes Nepsis INITIATION. See RESOLUTION in THE XIBALBA BIBLE, THE LETTER TO A BISHOP or HOW DIONYSIUS SAVED HIS MOTHER FROM HELL.
Following upon a consideration of IDENTITY, i.e. what or who is initiated into whom or what!—explored in all the paintings, but especially examples like, 23, 30, 31, 44, 48,70, 93, 94—and a visit to Siwa with Georgia, the artist made a heroic size head of “Alexander the Great at Siwa” where there were many signs that indicated a divine origin for the Hero. (Also, he was declared a Son of God by the priests at that famous oracle…) This notion was not uncommon in Mediterranean Cultures. Jesus broke with his own tradition over this issue… This idea was rife in these cultures on both serious and ironic levels. This reflection on identity and initiation and what to do as the result of deepening understanding about these essential and universal issues, takes the idea and its realization very seriously.
I place this image here to indicate a clarification about IDENTITY after final initiation into ‘What or Whom.’
***
Then from a trip to Egypt we took with a friend, Christmas 1997:
God is smiling
His rapture through
Undulating waters
In
Dark and crystal
Waves behind our boat.
*
God is whispering (her)
Sweet kisses
In tiny breezes across my ear…
*
God is chattering
en
*
thus
*
i
*
asm
*
By
Our friendly talk
*
Sailing past sunset
Down the Nile,
through the arms of life,
and the embrace of stars!