Blog #4: Imbolc and The Annual Round

If you observe an annual round of festivals–say, as a Christian, or Jew, or Moslem–you already know the value of this practice.  If not, and if you want to try out such an annual round, check out the eight festivals that I observe as part of Tefistry.  These are based on Celtic and other European traditions (quite appropriate for me, since my ancestry is European and I have studied modern Druidism for several years).  To some degree, these festivals can be added to, or merged with, the ones you already observe.  I have sketched out liturgies for my Tefist round of eight festivals, and you can find these here on the Tefistry.com website: Click on the Tefistry page > download Tefist Paths to Nature > go to p.138.  Note that these festivals are partly traditional, partly my own creation.

These festivals serve many purposes; here are two.  First, they give us an opportunity, at least once a year, to re-connect with each step of our experience: the stages of human life, from conception to death and beyond; the grand progression of nature’s seasons, following our leader, the Sun; the agricultural cycle, from dormancy, to planting, to tending, to harvest; and the big picture, the Processes and Products of Perception.  Second, this round of festivals serves as an “engine” of integration.  It ties all the separate themes together, repeats them every year, and gives us ample opportunity to worship: to share in Gladness, Gratitude, Good Will, and Good Works–such that Harmony may prevail in our lives and throughout Tef.  The returning, and returning, and returning of the great cycles, year after year after year, draws out the circularity of the annual round into a grand spiral of time and change, giving our lives comfort and joy.

Today we are approaching one of these eight festivals: Imbolc.  In Tefistry, four of the festivals honor tradition, retaining their old Gaelic names, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasa, Samhuinn, while the other four, to honor their astronomical ties, are named Winter Solstice, Vernal Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumnal Equinox.  Imbolc (pronounced “Im’-molk”) is customarily observed on February 1 or 2 (in the Northern Hemisphere), though I usually wait until February 4, to avoid confusion with Ground Hog Day.  (For more background, look at the Imbolc entry in Wikipedia.)  In my Imbolc liturgy (p.145, as referenced above), there are three main themes: Signs of the Season (the earliest signs of Spring, the waning signs of Winter); Creativity in all its forms (culminating the Gestation that began with Inception at Winter Solstice) and also highlighting Birth, Motherhood, and Midwifery among humans; and recollection of the Celtic goddess Bride (Brigit, Brighid), the “Exalted One” whose neopagan worship is still alive today.  Although I do not worship any of the old deities,  I do honor the memory of Bride, who is so tightly tied to Imbolc and helps to balance the feminine/masculine dimension of the annual round.

You may need to adapt Imbolc and the Tefist round of festivals to the specific place you inhabit and to the needs of yourself and your social circle.  This is exactly what you should do.  And remember, as you are celebrating the grand themes of Imbolc, thousands of others around the world are also celebrating Imbolc at this very time.  Enjoy!

May Harmony Prevail:  Love Thy Tef!

 

Blog #3: Why Tef?

Why employ the central idea of Tefistry: the Total Experiential Field?  Does its use bring us more of life’s good things: love, joy, security, beauty, poise, hope, wisdom, etc.?

People live their lives–more or less successfully–in various ways.  I, too, use various strategies for living, at various times, day in and day out:

  • We can just cope, going with the flow, not seeking to understand or explain or predict life.  This is a kind of stimulus/response approach to life.
  • We can follow an explicit formula.  There are plenty of wise elders and preachers and gurus and experts ready to offer us roadmaps and rules:  “Vote with our Party and you will be a good citizen…”; “Eat vegan (or paleo, or Mediterranean, etc.) and all will be well…”; “Submit to the Holy Writ and you will be saved…”.  Of course, Tefistry might be seen as yet another such formula for life.
  • We can pursue an ideal or a dream.  Such pursuit gives life meaning and purpose and energy and focus.  “Follow your bliss…”; “Climb every mountain…”; “Hitch your wagon to a star…”.

These strategies for living each have their place and time.  Billions of humans across the span of history have invented and tested and refined them.  But I have found that, for me, the coping and obeying and aspiring that I might do can be assisted by adopting and using an awareness of Tef.  Call this by whatever name you want, Tef refers to the Whole of reality.  Every part of the world, including my own body, heart, and mind, is a member of Tef.  All matter, physical energy, emotions, thoughts, dreams, hallucinations, imaginations, and lies–all are parts of Tef.  Tef is reality, One, Whole, and All.  (There is no unreality.)

Actually, there are two contrasting versions of Tef.  One of these asserts that reality is an unbroken continuum.  In this sense Tef is seen as a mass of “goo”.  None of its parts are fully separate, being more like currents in the ocean or like soft lumps in our yogurt.  This notion accounts for why years ago I named Tef the Total Experiential Field (recalling the electrical, magnetic, and gravitational fields that Physicists study).  I sometimes refer to this meaning–the continuum of experience–as the analog idea of reality.

The other meaning of Tef asserts that reality is a collection of individual, distinct entities, “marbles”, if you will.  Here, the Whole is the sum of all these myriad entities.  Now, when the individual parts or particles are small enough, a sum of “marbles” can be indistinguishable from a mass of “goo”: sand flows like water; gasoline molecules flow as liquid gasoline.  I sometimes refer to this meaning–the collection of entities–as the digital idea of reality.

One thing I have discovered about my Perception is that it sometimes priviledges the analog “goo” (processed by the Intuition Sector), and at other times it priviledges the digital “marbles” (processed in the contrasting Intellection Sector).  And sometimes–actually all the time, since both the Intuition Sector (L.2) and the Intellection Sector (L.3) operate concurrently–I use both approaches:  Life sometimes looks like a continuum, and at other times it can look like a collection.  Personally, I sense that the continuum is the more basic, more original, more true picture, but I also recognize that life lends itself to analysis as a seemingly infinite number of separate things (and that this view is immensely useful in engineering the outcomes we want in life).

But we don’t have to choose!  We can benefit from an idea of the Whole, without choosing whether reality is “goo” or “marbles”.  What are those benefits?

  • Beholding the Whole gives us an ultimate context.  It gives us a reference framework, a placed to stand, as it were.  We know who we are because we belong to that Whole.  We are part of the Total Experiential Field.
  • Moreover, we can rest in this idea.  At some fundamental level we can feel complete, not fractured, not at war with anything else–because there is nothing else!  In Tef nothing is left out or declared illusory or unreal.
  • And perhaps most important of all, the Whole is an ultimate object for expression of our Gladness and Gratitude.  We can worship or honor or reverence, or just respect, that which is everything.  Although I can’t prove or defend this orientation toward life and living, I think it is simply better and more useful than are the notions of incoherence or personal isolation in a hostile or indifferent world.  This is a pantheistic stance, without being a full-blown pantheism.

As to the question I posed at the top of this blog, I have personally found that using the Tef concept does indeed help in gaining more love, joy, security, beauty, poise, hope, wisdom, etc.  I can’t fully demonstrate this, so for now it remains a “take it from me” sort of recommendation.  But I think your can prove it for yourself.

So, I say:  Embrace and honor the Whole (regardless of whether it is “goo” or “marbles”).  Using it, you can love something greater than yourself.  (But while loving the Whole, do not forget to love every part of it, including yourself!)

 

May Harmony Prevail:  Love Thy Tef!

Granitic Whales (along the PCT at Mt. Ashland, OR)

(By Vern Crawford, July 2015)

Plumes and foams of montane greenery

Spray upward from these undulating soil-seas

And bursting through both sea and spray

The humps of broad-backed granitic whales,

Dappled over with crusty lichens and crystal barnacles:

Great granitic whales rolling up from hidden depths.

The Zone of Unknowing

(By Vern Crawford, June 2014)

 

Where, exactly, does the Inner tip over
To the Outer and become that place?

Where do the Other Worlds in me
Meet and merge with This World?

How, exactly, do our Actions arise
From our Passive Perceptions?

Is any one place truly continuous
With the next-by place or space?

How, exactly, goes the flow, This into That?
What lies obscured within that linking zone of ambiguity?

Yes, what lies obscured there:  A blank and unknown bridge?
A blindspot, simply?  Or a true and empty gap?

Does it matter that I might learn these things?
Would I love you more, or less, if I knew?

Were ever I to learn the where and how of this,
Would I seek to become lord of the world?

Or am I simply a wondering, curious person,
One whose Intellection yearns to learn?

At Hobart Bluff in Late Summer

(Poem by Vern Crawford, written in September 2013)

 

We hiked up near the top of the world,
Isaac and I.
Botanized along the dusty way–
Green leaves and dry bark and sun-fried flowers.
We climbed up Hobart’s stony slopes
And relaxed on ledgy rocks up near the sky.

He’s somewhat younger than I, I am rather older,
Isaac and I.
We were full of questions, seeking understanding:
What’s this?  Why is that?  I rather do feel…
We hiked up Hobart’s stony trail
To share the views and the views we share.

He’ll outlive me, perhaps already has,
Isaac and I.
But through him I will linger extra seasons
For I shared a bit of my knowledge and osmosized a bit of calm,
Up there, near the sky, on Hobart Bluff.
And isn’t that what life is for: botany, sky, and care?

 

Realities and the Ant

Poem by Vern Crawford, written in Summer, 2015

 

Only one reality is.  It is “mine”.
It is part Inactual, part Actual.
The Inactual part includes you.
(Not your body, Silly!  I mean your Mental Realm:
Your Heart and Mind, as these are known to me). . .

–I had wanted to write something
Profound in this poem,
Something that might change history,
Something that every living soul could use.

–But instead, an ant is tickling inside
My left pant leg, I can’t shake it out.
And persistent biting flies are
Loving my face way too much.

So:  History and grand acclaim will simply have to wait. . .

Blog #2: Orthoreality and Metareality

(The first part of this Blogpost is rather heavy stuff.  Skip to the end of this post, if you prefer something lighter.)

When I look at life from a detached or elevated Standpoint–which is what philosophers do, after all–I can divide (analyze) the totality of my experience (aka Tef) into a seemingly unlimited number of humongous dyads.  Thus, I can find in Tef a host of Major Dyads (or dualisms, binaries, pairs, couplets–call them what you will).  For example, there is the Outer Experience/Inner Experience Dyad; the Self/Not-self Dyad; the Earth/Sky Dyad; the Past/Future Dyad; the Harmony/Disharmony Dyad; the Material/Spiritual Dyad; and so on, and on.  Each Major Dyad splits Tef, or a vast region of Tef, into two, contrasting members.  Many of these Major Dyads partly overlap with each other.

In today’s Blogpost I want to aim the spotlight upon the Orthoreality/Metareality Dyad (O/M Dyad).  Using this dyad, I find that the totality of my experience (aka Tef) has the following descriptors.

Orthoreality: more intense, more vivid; nonrepresentational (nonsymbolic); authentic; Actual; Original; Given; Sensible; firsthand; the Outer, plus some Inner; roughly coincident with the Sensation Sector and its Material World, which is to say, coincident with “This World”; Herenow.

Metareality: less intense, paler; representational (symbolic); faux; Inactual; Additional; Mental; secondhand; entirely Inner; roughly coincident with the Intuition Sector and its Story World, and with the Intellection Sector and its Idea World, and with the Archives of Memory, which is to say, coincident with the “Other Worlds”; Therethen.

Examples?

Orthoreality: all Outer, Sensible percepts, such as light, sound, touch, smell; Outer material things, such as ice and stones, water, air, human flesh; Inner Body experiences such as a full stomach, fear of injury, hallucinations, and pure, nonrepresentational fantasies.

Metareality: Inner, Mental percepts, such as my thoughts and realistic daydreams, my symbols and names for things; empathized other souls; inferred other Bodies and things; reconstructions (the Past); predictions (the Future).

Roughly, then, Orthoreality is my Body and my emotions, whereas Metareality is my thoughts and visualizations.  But when I cease being the philosopher and go ahead and live my life, I find that my Orthoreality and my Metareality are intertwined, even merged, making reality into an alloy.  And I also discover that I often treat my Metareality as being as real as (or even more real than) my Orthoreality.  For instance, your Inner life may become for me as real as my own (orthoreal) Body, even though my experience of your Inner life is solely metareal for me.  This is a shocking realization!  Perhaps some people never achieve this realization:  They have never heard of the O/M Dyad.  Nevertheless, I recognize that we all must believe–we must believe–in the Inner life of others, for doing so is necessary if we want a strong sense of community.  And we do want, and need, community.  Thus, we live a perceptual “lie”, often giving to Metareality the status of Orthoreality, simply because we are social creatures.

Don’t fault yourself for living this perceptual “lie”.  I certainly don’t.  Just be prepared to see through it for what it is–when you need to.

***

Okay, enough heavy stuff!  I am feeling Glad today for my breaths of fresh Winter air; feeling Grateful to my loving, caring wife; feeling Good Will toward environmentalists (unsung heroes!) around the world; feeling like doing some Good Works, that Harmony may prevail, as in writing this Blog.  Despite much Disharmony in the world, I still hold that we–every one of us–heeds the Vector of Value, prefers Harmony, seeks the Good.  It’s just that my own heeding and preferring and seeking may sometimes harm myself, or you, or the world.  Thus, I need to learn how to be a Tefist who actually increases the H/D Ratio.  This learning, I have found, is lifelong and not always easy.

May Harmony prevail:  Love Thy Tef!

Blog #1: Welcome to Tefistry.com!

Tefistry.com offers you a map of reality, as well as wisdom for living a more harmonious life.  I call my map Tef Theory, and I call this wisdom Tefistry.  Tefistry.com also offers you a selection of my poems, photographs, and other creations.

I hope you don’t actually need any of the above–if you already have an effective map of reality, and you already live a very harmonious life!  But if you choose to use what you find here, I will be pleased.  And if you care to share comments, questions, or suggestions–especially those aimed at making Tef Theory and Tefistry even better and more useful–please contact me.  (See the Contact page.)

This is the very first Blog post of tefistry.com!  It coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of my Awakening, when, at age 13 in early January, 1958, my heart and mind began to blossom and to engage the world.  (In retrospect, my Awakening was probably in part the bursting flames of adolescent hormones!)  I feel that one of life’s prime duties, at any age, is to keep faith with what has gone before.  So maybe my adolescent Awakening was in part a way of keeping faith with my concluding childhood, and now this new website is a way of keeping faith with my Awakening and with decades of adulthood.

I hope you find my ideas and creations helpful.  As I have written in Tefist Wisdom (see the Tefistry page), we need to “strengthen courage and encourage strength”.  I hope Tefistry.com can do that for you.

May Harmony prevail: Love Thy Tef!