The Wit of the Staircase

Their Smile Is The Coldness Of The Grave: P. K. Dick On Soul Slavery

We of Wit would say that Gnostic Christian P.K. Dick's warning in his work was more about mental technologies--consumerism, cults and incipient fascism--than actual physical technology.

"Androids in much of science fiction are cast as entertaining house pets. Dick’s androids are sinister and potentially dangerous, because they lack the leavening spark of humanity. By creating them, he writes, we would produce a race of cold and detached beings who would share no more with their makers — or with other androids — than one coffee maker shares with another. Of these machines, he writes 'their handshake is the grip of death, and their smile is the coldness of the grave'.”

Link: Philip K. Dick: A Sage of the Future Whose Time Has Finally Come - New York Times.

Bellmer-esque doll girl, above.

Goodnight, Children.

Sleep softly world, Wit is here, in New York, where as so often these days we will be out all night.

Sunny Saturday we will reconvene.

Lovely Gena Rowlands Slide Show

"The Wisconsin-born blond-haired, blue-eyed actress studied theater in Washington, D.C., and New York before nabbing the role of Edward G.Robinson's co-star in the Broadway play Middle of the Night at 25.

Within two years, she headed for Hollywood with her husband, the director and "father of independent film" John Cassavetes. Their relationship produced ten movies, two Oscar nominations for her (for A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria), and a trio for him, as well as three children.

This summer, Rowlands stars in Broken English, her daughter Zoe Cassavetes' first feature-length film and
a Sundance Grand Jury Prize contender...."

Link: Gena Rowlands: Beauty Icon on Style.com.

Above, Gena Rowlans reads a script.

Beauty And The Beast

"Beauty and the Beast might be interpreted as a young woman's coming-of-age story. Content with a pure love for her father, she finds sexuality bestial, and so a man who feels sexual desire for her is a beast. Only when she is capable of regarding the desire of sexual relationship as human is she capable of achieving happiness...."

Link: Beauty and the Beast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Paranormal Phenomena Have Been Regular Occurrences For Years

"Paranormal phenomena have been regular occurrences for years at the 75-year-old courthouse. Lights and elevators have been known to turn on and off without explanation, courthouse employees have reported hearing footsteps in deserted hallways, and security personnel have spotted a black-robed figure whisking out of the Division 2 courtroom..."

Link: Sierra Vista Herald | The Bisbee Daily Review.

Via: Professor Hex.

More Free Fun With Your Pussy: The Kabbalah On 'Magic Potion'

Wit was reading the philosopher Slavoj Zizek and came upon the phrase ".....as in the famous passages on vaginal juices in the Kabbalah...." Naturally we had to investigate.

"The Mass of the Holy Ghost, or the sacramental supper, involves the imbibing of commingled male and female essences. To smell, taste, and ingest this elixir is said to confer magical powers and be the true meaning of the stone of the wise or elixir of life. The particular charge of the elixir is varied through the particular state of the emanations involved, for both the male and female. Kalas are described as the female emanations (or vaginal juices).

Kala is a Sanskrit word meaning star and also perfume. At different times of the month (the cycle of existence) the kalas vary (after menopause as well as before.) This is true also for male scent and bodily fluids. The perfect elixir is said to be sweet smelling like the finest honey, and is the closest human equivalent to the emanations that pour from one sphere to the next on the Tree of Life in the creative process. This has particular relevance to the 14th Path which, joining as it does Chockmah and Binah, can be considered the primary holding force of the universe. Treat your breathing, smelling, and tasting with the same significance, and come to your senses!"

Link: The Path of the Nose and Mouth (Kabbalah).

Web Synchronicty And Reciprocity: The Female Weaver In Myth

We of Wit know the arts of the Wyrd, the Word and the Wild. And naturally, we know the Web.

"For the Norse peoples, Frigg was the goddess of spinning, household management, and domestic arts.

Spinning is also a theme of the sacred narratives of triune goddesses the Norn ("The Fates"). The Norn are the spinners of the Wyrd, which may be translated into English as 'The Web Synchronicity and Reciprocity'.

Urd, whose name may be rendered 'Origin Of Existence', is the elder and is oft-depicted as an aged grandmother or crone. Verdandi, whose name may be translated as 'That Which Is Becoming', is oft-depicted in the guise of a mother. Skuld, whose name may be understood as 'That Which Should Be' the youngest and oft-depicted as a shapely maiden.

Urd, Verdandi and Skuld are often rather simplisticly attributed as personfications of Past, Present and Future, respectively. Though this is partially true it is also erroneous in its simplicity: though three, the Norn are understood to be one and primodial. In the shade of the canopy of Yggdrasil (amongst whose roots they live and tender) the Three work the Wyrd as One: Urd spins, Verdandi allots, Skuld shears.

The Scandinavian 'Song of the Spear', quoted in Njals Saga, gives a detailed description of Valkyries as women weaving on a loom, with severed heads for weights, arrows for shuttles, and human gut for the warp, singing an exultant song of carnage."

Link: Weaving (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Flicker, The Flame, The Seized Bowels: An American Poet's Life

"Born to a wealthy family in Maine, Robinson identified himself from childhood as a poet and seemed qualified to do little else except drink, though eventually he gave that up. In the sonnet George Crabbe, Robinson composed a sort of epitaph for himself:

Whether or not we read him, we can feel

From time to time the vigor of his name

Against us like a finger for the shame

And emptiness of what our souls reveal

In books that are as altars where we kneel

To consecrate the flicker, not the flame.

Doubtless, unreconstructed Freudians will revel in Robinson’s drinking, his bachelorhood, his gloominess, his visits to brothels, even his perennial constipation. Donaldson dutifully chronicles the poet’s efforts to unseize his bowels, including his use of Swiss Kriss, his “elixir for life,” much favored by Louis Armstrong..."

Link: Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life by Scott Donaldson - PopMatters Book Review.

There Is A Country To Cross

For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid
by William Stafford

There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot--air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That's the world, and we all live there.

Link: ::: wood s lot ::: "the fitful tracing of a portal".

Werewolves Of London

If you hear him howling around your kitchen door
Better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again
Werewolves of London

--Warren Zevon

"A police force is to put more officers on the streets during full moons because they believe the lunar cycle may be linked to violent behaviour, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Sussex Police have found that drinkers in the seaside city of Brighton and Hove are particularly aggressive during full moons, despite mixed findings from researchers who have examined the issue previously.

'I compared a graph of full moons and a graph of last year's violent crimes and there is a trend,' Inspector Andy Parr told the Brighton Argus newspaper.

'People tend to be more aggressive generally. I would be interested in approaching the universities and seeing if any of their post-graduates would be interested in looking into it further. This could be helpful to us.

The announcement has led some locals to joke that werewolves -- humans who, according to myth, turn into wolf-like creatures during a full moon -- may be loose on the city's streets..."

Link: The Raw Story | Police find 'werewolf' link to violence.

Link: Werewolves of London - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Via: Professor Hex.

Above, origami werewolf.