The Belisama Quest Poem by HOWLIN' DERVISH

THE BELISAMA QUEST
… so that the light may enter.

Pendle, Summer Solstice Vigil,20/21 June 2005

Upon the eve of Yahya of the Living Water, with no other in sight, I went abroad when all the valley hushed. I silence, at dusk up the hillside stair I crept, O venture of joy, when all around at length to slumber fell, O sweet caress.

I stood upon the summit mound beneath which the ancients slept. For companionship a cold wind blew out of the north, O happy enterprise on such a primeval of nights.

Sitting shrouded by a woollen cloak, blackthorn clasped between my hands, I pondered over those places and people life had led me to and what may lay before me on a road unknown: on what pull is it that draws one back to high hilltops, to the vastness of the open sea to the waste of polar ice, to the emptiness of steppe, to the oneness of desert sand, and all those other places to a lesser or greater extent where life is only one of harshness with the grey shade of unknowing always near at hand? It is the very harshness itself and the liberty of submission above self will that is the draw. To move freely over the landscape of Nature beyond that of human delusion is true liberty and pure illumination.

Take one step inside yourself hat you may arrive at your self.

Save for a few sheep I began a lone vigil on this night of measurement and wonder as the orb of life sank beyond the fells of Bowland to circumnavigate the ocean of Ultima Thule. The spread of mystical light and colour left in its wake slowly traversed the northern horizon holding one fro the draught of day’s toil.

Eyes lifted I south Vega, the pole star, in the vulture of Lyra – an old friend to the wanderer. Once found I turned to Denheb, the tail of the swan Cygnus, then to Cassiopeia of the daughter lost mourned by the candles of Cepheus. The once red great Cappela now shone a blue light in the wagon of Auriga the bringer of the first indo-Europeans to the West. Beyond, Ursa and her cub tilled the heavens.

For those who can interpret the constellations a story unfolds of a great trek from a remote corner of the Talkamakan desert to the highlands of Brigantia over a period of thousands of years, that great folk movement of noble peoples who gave name to Ireland and Iran – the Aryans.
O people, where are you wandering?
The life that you seek is closer at hand.
Lay down, then wake from the dream.
In the presence of the Moon grow joyous of life.

The enigma within the deepest recesses of on e person’s self is the enigma within every person’s self. None is alone in the locus in which the Eternal abide. In the kernel of self, along with the Eternal, abide all living things and the order of the cosmos. There all times are present; the past, the present, the future, the very evolution of the universe is there. To realize this nucleus of being within a oneness is to arrive at immortality – the Timeless Moment from which goodness and pure love joyously flow.

Vibration brings forth movement.
Movement in harmony, moving.
Motion, light, life, evolution, motion.
Locus motion, a place Eternal.

As my moon-shadow stretched itself across the summit plateau, Seline began her leave-taking over Ogden Clough; the orbed maiden with white fire laden’ in a sky of amethyst and turquoise, descending in total majesty on waves of deep blue and indigo.

At that time of the ‘last stars’ an infusion of tea is always welcome and for this water must be brought from the spring of earthly peace and harmony.