Imagine by Sammy Slabbinck
Benzodiazepines
Higgledy-Piggledy Sleepwalking
I am allusion, illusion, a figment of beautiful:
yesterday’s forty-ninth parallel, the anniversary
march of one thousand predestined millenniums yet to be.
I am the distance between a lone point and a counterpoint:
righteous red dissidence. When dark, I am the cosmic weight of
an imploding black star and the buoyancy of nothing, the
separation immeasurable, its equivalency:
the gravity of silence — heavier than Uranium,
the element of unfounded intention that eludes the
square seventh face of a cube and the fourth primary color.
Copyright © 2018 Mia Pharaoh. All rights reserved.
I think you deserve a place in occult LA with this piece Miss Cranes…4,7,49…takes one to know one. Brilliant…weirdly enough (or not, there are no accidents) I was reading about bennies the other day.
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Thank you, Mr. Cake. Would that be Parsons, Crowley and Hubbard on the fringe?
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Let’s not forget Cameron, Anger and Deren…quite a crew. I certainly meant it as a compliment.
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Kenneth Anger and I share the same home town, and Marjorie “keep the drinks coming” Cameron along with her Moon Children, “The Children”, is truly out of my league, weird beyond looking back. And why am I thinking Deren, whom I adore because of her personal loathing of Hollywood (my hero) was much more into Haitian Vodou, maybe frightening stuff. I know, Mr. Cake, I take it as a compliment. This is truly an interesting assortment of people, are they people?
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Deren book on Vodou is excellent, scholarly yet beautifully written. Avant garde circles back then were fascinated by Vodou for its Dionysian elements. Agreed they were so weird and so larger than life it hard imagining them going to the supermarket to pick up some groceries.
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True, thank you for the laugh, I wonder if they would have shopped at Gelson’s?
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If they went on a joint expedition that would have been a sight to behold!
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I can only imagine, of course with a smile.
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Well they would have to bring Anais Nin with that birdcage of course, then Deren would bring along a Vodou houngan while Crowley would be talking to Hubbard about the best way to run a long grift and Parsons and Cameron wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other. Man Ray would photograph it and Duchamp would say about either Deren or Cameron or Nin…LHOOQ
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Hahaha! What a scene that would be to capture on film! Could you even imagine if you had those negatives, let alone what they would be worth?
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I can actually imagine it…I have actually posted inauguration of the pleasure dome here somewhere….I am particularly mental this week… as my posts show… going all deep and philosophical then a mini neo noir with a psychic detective then the vowel poems…hold me back Miss Cranes
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I read your piece with Al, I’ll be over tomorrow to leave you a comment. I too have been particularly mental as evidenced by my poem. Originally I was going to add a subtitle, Leary’s Little Helpers.
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Well Leary said at one point he was just finishing what Crowley started…at one point I think he tried to recreate one of Crowley’s expedition with Victor Neuberg (who discovered Dylan Thomas) on which Crowley said he was the reincarnation of Edward Kelley, the medium to John Dee.
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Leary has said a lot of things, I don’t think he’s nearly as creepy as Crowley, but looks can be deceiving. That certainly would be a package.
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Yeah Crowley was creepy…hardly anyone was the better for meeting him…strangely enough Henry Green’s brother was close with Crowley, even became his literary executor and was one of the few people who didn’t come to harm. Still I do love the do what you will bit, though he got that from Rabelais
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Your alter ego, Henry Green. Henry’s brother, what was he like? No harm to him, he must have done something right.
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Henry Green’s brother was Gerald Yorke, was immensely popular and successful at Eton, he played cricket for Gloucester but dropped out and did the hippy trail a good half century before the hippies. He fell under Crowley’s spell but didn’t suffer any psychic damage. He become an army major, married and had two daughters. He did spend two months a year in a cave in Wales. When Henry’s alcoholism got worse he took over the business for a short while, caretaker until Henry’s son took over. He become the emissary of His Holiness the Dalia Lama to Great Britain and edited occult books for Routledge. Fascinating character is his own right.
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Does he deserve a post? Gerald sounds fascinating and too good to be true. What went on in the cave for two months?
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Mediating and magic I presume…he does make an appearance in Robert Irwin’s novel Satan Wants Me as well…he does but information is rather limited
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Did Gerald used his magic to do good? Imagine that, how was that allowed? I thought the idea was to fleece the wealthy, naive and unsuspecting.
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He was wealthy and charismatic himself…I don’t think he could become the emissary to the Dalai Lama back in the day if his character was suspect…Henry idolises him as a schoolboy
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Mr. Cake, Gerald is a fascinating character!
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He was…he was always kind to Henry, who wasn’t the easiest character. Henry had an affair with one of Dylan Thomas’s girlfriends, and Thomas was discovered by one of Crowley’s circle… wheels within wheels.
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What a web of who’s who.
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Well you know I like to make spurious connections…it’s a vast intrigue…
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You are the King of Connections, which is right next to the King of Cats.
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Thank you!
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Always. You’re welcome.
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Although I have never written directly about Crowley he pops up all over the place in Cakeland…usually up to no good
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That’s the first thing that comes to my mind, no good.
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Like Hubbard though he had the power to make people do what they didn’t want to do, charisma or something.
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I’m leaning towards something.
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Be careful you don’t fall over.
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I just tend to lean into static, I haven’t fallen over yet, that might be a preference though.
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Hehe… well this was a very enjoyable chat. Must be off to bed now.
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Rest well.
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😴
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Thank you, very enjoyable.
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It was.
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Of course I could be barking up the wrong tree…I do tend to see my own obsessions pop up everywhere.
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No you’re not barking needlessly. A lot of symbolism and misdirected intent. Our obsessions drive us at every turn. Glad to be of service.
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Well the impossibility of the numbers suggest a hidden realm, but that could just be me.
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Or is it just you?
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Yep it is probably just me.
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To tell the truth, it’s not just you.
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I am both relieved and disappointed… relieved that I am not some cracked actor who totally just reads into things what I want too… disappointed by the fact that I haven’t reached the giddy heights of say a Philip K Dick or William Burroughs in believing the most bonkers paranoid shit that other people hadn’t thought of
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I’m glad you’re relieved, try not to be too disappointed, you know what they say about frowning. Dear Mr. Cake, maybe it’s time to break out the tinfoil thinking cap!
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Really I need very little help with the paranoia…I won’t even get Alexa in the house… I have read by Ray Bradbury and J G Ballard and I know what happens when a house starts controlling itself… it’s not good
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Mr. Cake! Ray Bradbury has been on my mind for a least three days, very strong. I can’t believe you mentioned it, and it has very much to do with what you had just wished for. . .
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A fine writer… I am particularly given to those science fiction writers from that period
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Likewise. The far out, is not so far out.
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Not nowadays…he wrote some very fine short stories… the playground is another one
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He did, I adore, “A Sound of Thunder”.
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I think I have that… if not I will get it!
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If you haven’t read it, please do. It’s rather short, I hope you enjoy it.
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I will hunt it out… I do have a collection of his somewhere… the Martian Chronicles were excellent as well…he took those low grade pulp concepts and made high grade art
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I wouldn’t be surprised if you have it. I read it in school and have always remembered it. Funny the things we hold onto.
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I read him when I was younger but he stays with you.
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He does, and visits occasionally too.
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You are funny
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You think?
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I knows
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Hahaha! Will you be in the audience for my stand-up?
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Of course… if you send me the airline tickets.
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You need a plane?
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Please
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Haha, of course.
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Can’t wait.
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Thank you!
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Remote viewing in that case?
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Ok if you can’t stretch to a plane.
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What about your untapped talents? What would Leary say?
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Bi-locate… worth a try.
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I remember a story in which the house turned against the occupiers
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Didn’t you post a story to something along those lines, the occupants couldn’t leave the house?
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That was my translation of a Leon Bloy story… I love that story
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See I remember it. It was a bit ghoulish, personifying the house in a sense.
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Well I like the macabre
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I do too, it’s oddly familiar.
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I think I will repost that… it has been a while.
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Great idea!
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And yeah… needless to say I love the Slabbinck.
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I do too, I adore collages, and Slabbinck’s are wonderful.
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They are. We certainly share considerable overlap in our aesthetics.
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We do, we do.
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Too true.
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You always lay out so much for dissection. Flowers and compliments would do this piece a disservice, so I will just read it again. And again.
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Stories, thank you for a very nice comment. Please have a wonderful evening.
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You’re welcome, you too.
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I am out of my element with this one! Obviously, via Mr Cake’s comment there is underlying symbolism here. Still, even without quite understanding I can appreciate your wordsmithing! 💗
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Hi Meg, thank you! This piece is surreal, it’s an experiment effort with meter and contradictions using metaphors and symbolism that are both otherworldly and out of this world in the place of conventional attributes that one might use to describe themselves. Being that it’s experimental the end result is always questionable. 🙃 I hope you’re having a wonderful evening and please have a terrific Friday. 💗
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Thanks Mia! I always enjoy your pieces. Appreciate the insight. Have a great Friday!
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Thank you, Meg.
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After bennies many
I can high this frequency.
Tuning in with deluded sanity,
where predestination
will never find me.
~ Thanks Mia.
Much coded binary.
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Hi David, thank you for your wonderful ones and zeros, and U’m super glad you can appreciate the hertz. I hope you can feel the love in the following quote, a humorous look at what is, or what isn’t…
“LSD is a psychedelic drug which occasionally causes psychotic behavior in people who have NOT taken it.”
― Timothy Leary
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Once again, Mia, we must be
on the same wavelength.
Timothy only just suggested
to me that I should blog about
a particular incident!?
I reluctantly agreed, but that
it would have to wait till
Ruby Tuesday, so she could
proofread it.
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Timothy, what a guy! David, lucky for you I have a lead on where Ruby Tuesday comes from and where she goes off to. Looking forward to another wonderful read on the horizon. Happy Friday!
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Thank goodness,
I thought nobody knew.
When it comes to Ruby Tuesday,
I was always curious.
Mia, have a Good Friday too.
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Tripping.
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Haha! Thank you, Tim! Still laughing!
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You so got it!
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When I was 9 years old I had surgery on my knees. The pain was intense after the surgery, so they gave me a morphine injection. That first injection gave me a very mellow high that was just delicious. But that feeling only happened after the first injection. All subsequent injections just killed the pain, without the same kind of a high. That experience stuck with me as I could see how people become addicted to just about anything chasing that first high.
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Certainly easy to see how that happens, chasing what can never be duplicated. Glad the experience stuck with you.
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Feels like the reinvention of Darkness. Words like unblocked dominoes. You’re back in some style, PM. Brilliant.
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JGC, thank you for your kindness on what is a very experimental effort. It is rather dark which ever way it’s spun. I hope Friday is being good to you. ~ PM
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I’m in awe in how you can take so few words to create a flood of thoughts in my mind. This piece felt like diving into a cold, dark lake ~ from the peak of the dive, in flight with your “I am allusion, illusion, a figment of beautiful” to the crisp, rapid descent into the depths below. 🙂 Wishing you a great week ahead, Mia.
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Hi Randall, thank you for a wonderfully kind comment on this surreal effort. I adore your thoughts and when I reread your words it feels like the description of a swan dive into the abyss. Wishing you a great week ahead too! I hope Monday has been good to you.
~ Mia
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An excellent piece of writing Mia. As usual.
Every time I visited your site recently, all I could see
was the same post over and over again. A post from 2017. 😐
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Dear Alan, thank you for your lovely words. You are correct, for several months all that was visible was a post created in 2017. I hope Tuesday has been good to you so far, please enjoy the rest of your week. ~ Mia
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