Theatre of Memory

The Church Key

In ancient days, before pop-tops or tabs, admittance to a beer can required an opener designed for the purpose. Though I had once thought that calling it a “church key” was just glib audacity, I came to feel that, for my Dad’s generation, a beer buzz could get you “out of the box” in a way that twice-born Dionysus, god of wine, might understand. I suppose that in the army one night I did have a lower level analog of a cosmic experience when, for a brief time, the universe seemed a hospitable, happy place, ruled by a deity of intelligence and heart, whose garment was beauty. I never got that feeling while raised as a Congregationalist. I have certainly seen people be reborn through substances AND be reborn in quitting, but my father’s own church key sings of a time when a few nice cold ones made him feel closer to heaven.

In opening my blog, I learned that I didn’t have that much to say, though it’s hard to shut me up when I’m on stage.  In interactions I am often more inclined to listen than to talk, and I learn a lot from my friends. I realize that this might be the key online as well.

I am asking my friends to contribute a photo and a paragraph to an online museum.  The object would be to build a virtual museum – a theatre of memory – from objects of any place or time that might illuminate an aspect of life or culture or history on our beautiful planet. Let this evidence be first-hand observation of an object or document, for individual awareness is our greatest possession, though it is often put aside in favor of second-hand goods.

It is my wish that this museum be worthy of The Muses – a place of inspiration and uplift, an antidote to the current spate of media that deals in the dark, depressing and dispiriting. And though we acknowledge that very darkness as counterpoint, it needs to find another home. We seek to deal in light.

I will lead off with an artifact and a paragraph that holds memories and musings, in hopes of setting an example that comes from the world we inhabit.

Please visit www.theatreofmemory.com and click on  “blog”  to add your musings.

Nothing solid represents lasting quality like precious metals and gems wrested from the earth to adorn humanity and its creations. Small wonder then, that the so-called “Nine Jewels” script from the Katmandu Valley is to be found  delineating some sutras of the Tibetan Buddhists – this in an area of the world where the written word is physically placed in a higher position than icons.

The pages themselves are painted and polished to a deliciously slick black. Ink is then made by crushing gold, silver, copper, steel, coral, pearl, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and mother of pearl and suspending them each in liquid. Then a profoundly practiced hand renders words and aphorisms of The Buddha in a script akin to Sanskrit. That precious ink suspends lights over the perfect void of the prepared paper.

Then, for a century or two, monks take down the silk-wrapped book, reverently unwrap it, chant the magic words and then rewrap it with the greatest care, and store it again for the next time that the words are to live in acoustic space and conscious attention. Then, apparently, it comes into my keeping for a short while. What touches me as I gently move the pages is that anyone would go to that much trouble. The impulse to abstract the sacred into formula is not to be denied.

As Buddhists are not prone to violence, I make bold to suggest – and The Buddha will back me up on this – that those beautiful floating glyphs are beside the point.  The objective and goal of the teachings is that Void beyond all the words and clouds of color. Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a book without the words – more like a Zen joke designed to jolt you past the realm of words (sound of no rim shot). A blank black book would probably sell well though, as nihilists and Goths would enjoy it too. But it’s really none of my business, I’m not a Buddhist – I just LIKE the guy and the careful artistic attendance upon his words compels me to a book of sutras translated into English hoping for a fundamental quote. I open to:

The First Utterance

I have discovered a nectarlike truth,

Deep, calm and simple, lucidly awake and unformed,

Whomever I explain it to, no one will understand;

So I will remain silent in the jungle.

Accidental Artifacts

In the Greco-Roman world documents often consisted of a papyrus scroll sealed with a bit of clay. When stamped with an impression of the writer’s personal seal it became a bulla. These particular bullae survive only because the documents were destroyed - burned - which inadvertently ‘fired’ the clay, making in quite hard. Details of the stamp seal as well as ridges from the papyrus and even finger prints are still visible two thousand years later.

Illustrated here are bullae from The Levant (Eastern Mediterranean) spanning the late Hellenistic – Roman Period, 1^st Century BCE – 3^rd Century CE. The list of images, easily recognizable by people of the time, includes:

1). Venus standing rt., leaning against a column; 2). Laureate head of Zeus lt.; 3). Head of male to rt., late Antonine style; 4). Hygieia and Asklepios flanking an altar; 5). Diademed male head lt. 6). Facing head of Medusa. 7). Zeus seated rt. 8). City-Goddess standing lt., holding a cornucopia; 9). Female head rt.; 10). Radiate head of Hadrian rt.

In seeing these exotic, but once common images, It is hard to keep from imaging an archaeologist, two thousand years hence, showing bits of metal and hard plastic – key chains, souvenirs and refrigerator magnets from our time – and explaining: “The sailor’s hat on this stylized duck and an expression of outrage indicate that this is indeed Donald Duck, not to be confused with the chubby-cheeked, squinty-eyed, false-haired icon known as THE Donald…    These very red, exaggerated lips and lolling tongue represent some variety of very aged rock or stone. Experts disagree as reports are ambiguous and contradictory… And finally, this yellow disc was known as “The Smiley Face.” The inclusion of a bloody projectile wound between the eyes indicates that the wearer was not always of the sunniest disposition.”

I’m trying to decide what icon I will contribute to our archaeological layer. Personal identity is tricky. I am reluctant to leave it to some lucky accident to be properly represented so, along with faking my personal papers to be discovered after my death, I am working on my icon. A problem arises because it is written “The Tao that can be put on a refrigerator magnet is not the eternal Tao.”

To my untrained mind, one of the greatest inventions in all of recorded history is the ushabti. These symbolic pieces were servants for the afterlife. Until the advent of these funerary devices the servants were often killed to be interred with the master when he died so as to serve him in the beyond. Continuing speculation that ushabtis were invented by a servant seems reasonable though it cannot be proven. Though their efficacy in the afterlife is still unknown, their contribution to this life is undeniable.

The ushabti is mummiform in appearance though the hands are left free to do the work expected of them, which, in this highly agrarian culture, was expected to be primarily agricultural. The first of these magical devices were inscribed with the name of the deceased, but later, magic spells were inscribed to ensure their "coming to life" to answer the call to work. Ushabti means "answerer". A typical hieroglyphic spell would read: "O shwabti if the deceased is called upon to do work in the next world, answer 'here I am'. Plow the fields, fill the canals with water and carry the sands of the east to the west". Apparently even in the Egyptian afterlife sands shifted around a lot. In fact, most ushabtis are faience and hence made of sand.

The sand or crushed quartz was made into a paste and then pressed into molds. During the firing process a glaze would migrate to the surface and color the piece in a glassy blue, turquoise or green of varying intensities depending on the impurities in the sand that lent the color to the glaze.

Ushabtis are remarkable in that they remained virtually unchanged in form and function for 2000 years, though artistic styles changed them superficially.  This particular ushabti is from the Late Kingdom circa 600 B.C.E.  It is a buff color with traces of green still visible and is approximately 5" tall.

It is worthwhile to note that due to the periodic fascination with the Egyptian mystique in the west, entrepreneurs in modern Egypt have created many more “ancient” artifacts in the last century. Short of thermo-luminescence testing, it is difficult to tell true from faux without a very practiced eye. It is best to know your antiquities broker well before investing.

Afterthought:

I don't wish to cast ancient Egyptians as superstitious dummies, for even then there were those who "got it". For, they have reported that their god Thoth told them:

Hark Ye oh man and list to this wisdom:

Where do name and form cease?

Only in consciousness invisible,

an infinite force of radiance bright.

The forms that ye create by brightening

thy vision are truly effects that follow they cause.

So, happy brightening!