Ezekiel Wheels:
Intro:
This is one of those old stories…
I have stayed away from sharing these ones, except to a few over the years. No one likes the awkward silence, and brooking these territories often brings as “that” gift. Now, I am ready to share it out. I have had this sitting in a folder for many years, and this is the time to let it fly.
Hope you enjoy,
G
Newport Beach
At the end of the Summer of 67 after many adventures, I began to pull away from Psychedelics/Drugs… finding myself spending time contemplating what I had discovered. One of the things that came to mind was that I had a vast thirst for spiritual matters, and with the discoveries of the last year and a half, I was primed for new explorations. I took up with the studies of magick, continued with the Theosophical studies that I had entered into earlier in my life, and began to work/study within a fourth way school.
I began sitting in meditation again, and found that doing so profoundly helped me in all kinds of ways. I was initiated into tantric sex practices, which opened up new vistas as well. I began to feel what I call "the pressure of the future", which for me was a state of expectation and yearning commingled in such a way it is hard to describe. (I still have that pressure to this day!) I knew there were a host of challenges and concepts that I had to deal with in my life. My use of Psychedelics had turned up a treasure trove of issues, problems, and opportunities for me to address. It seemed like it was insurmountable; in many ways I didn't have the tools to work with. Language for the experiences that I had was just beyond vocalizations. I could touch that place with emotions, and fleeting thoughts, but all was beyond me at that point.
I started exploring all several different disciplines for some kind of path to follow. It wasn't easy, and I was just beginning to develop concepts and to become familiar with all of the new territories. My budding work with magick was encouraged by a family friend, who had a background in the studies. She introduced me to the concept of intuition and basic spell craft. I took to it like a bird to the air. I started to get clarity, and with all of this the beginning of self-observation started to rear its head.
Life at this point became a bit less complicated. I went to the beach, got high on occasion, spent time with friends and my girlfriend. It wasn't perfect but I was catching a breather before I plunged back in to the churning ocean of change that marked the times.
Once in awhile, friends would show up from either San Francisco, or Denver. They would stay for awhile, and we would discuss what was going on out in the world and with our mutual friends. Hearing the stories, I began to get the urge to head out on the road again. It seemed like great changes were underway, and I was perhaps pulling to far from what was going on. I started to make plans to visit friends in San Francisco, but first I had to head back to Denver to touch bases, say some goodbyes and to close a few doors in my life. I set up some travel plans, and was ready to go again. I had one more visitor coming in to see first though, Jason.
Jason arrived for a couple of days. We went down to Laguna Beach, hanging out for awhile at The Mystic Arts Bookstore (If I had only known!) and our conversations slowly evolved over the days and evenings. It was nice to have the companionship.
On the evening before he left we sat up talking all night. No drugs, just tea. We talked long and deep into the night and the conversations eventually coalesced into the topics of spiritual longings. We kept going with this until the early morning. I felt myself getting high just from the conversation. He was feeling it as well. We laughed a bit about it, and then we noticed that the world was deeply quiet around the little duplex we were in. Slowly, a sound was edging in on the conversation and the quiet. It sounded like a combination of creaking and singing. It was hard to describe what it was, but these elements were certainly a part of the deepening sound. We could feel it beginning to vibrate the windows, and it deepened future. "Let's go outside and see what is going on" I said... He assented , and we walked out. We walked to the edge of a bluff, leading down to the bay. The sun was rising behind us as we looked to the west from where the sound was emanating from. The sky was a tumult of clouds, it looked much like the trade winds, with clouds scuttling and piling on high. In the clouds, coming through the clouds and behind them were immense wheels, much like old carriage wheels, and gears connecting them all together. The wheels went on into infinity, turning slowly and in doing so creating the sounds the drew us out. The wheels and cogs reflected the sunlight, and absorbed it. They were semi-transparent at first as we stood on the bluff transfixed by the glory before us. The wheels became more visible, louder and brighter. Soon, they covered the whole horizon, and faded far off and above. It was a glory. Eventually after about a 1/2 hour, the wheels and gears began to slowly disappear. The sound, the hum and singing slowly died away, and the noise of machines and people rose up around us and enveloped what remained from the vision as the wheels and cogs dimmed and vanished.
(A painting I did in the early 2000’s trying to capture the experience. Not successful, but an attempt. I don’t think it is finished…)
We still stood there transfixed. Neither of us could fathom what we had witnessed, but we knew we had witnessed it. We talked about it, and were positive about what we had experienced. Eventually we went inside and caught a few hours sleep. Jason left later that day. We never saw each other again, and lost touch along the way.
I can only think that our long and deep conversation primed us for witnessing the vision that we saw. I have talked to many people over the years, and no one has reported anything similar happening to them. It happened, I can't offer up why, this occurred to two young people on the rim of the Pacific on that morning. I do know that the vision marked me deeply. I have tried to reproduce it several times with my art with limited success. I still see the wheels behind my eyelids sometimes, and during times of stress the memory wells up unbidden. What ever it was, or whatever caused it, I cherished that moment in my life. It has been hard at times to summon up the emotions and the belief of what transpired that morning, but it reasserts itself. Something greater, that is just beyond reach of what we are, and how we think, something beyond the self, is there. We close our eyes to these visions, we can even deny them. Still they come unbidden.
(A classic interpretation of the experience. Much closer than what I painted above. This originally was a black and white woodcut, executed by Camille FlammarionParis 1888, for Flammarion's 1888 L'atmosphère : météorologie populaire which someone lovingly coloured…. )
Outro/Coda
Thank you as ever for reading this. If you have time, please visit the other tales I have put up on SubStack so far. You might find them of interest.
As you know, I am an artist. My calendar is located here: Gwyllm Art Calendar-2022 If you want to see the illustrations first, please check out my long running blog, “The Hares’ Tale” at my site: Gwyllm's Blog I have been posting the blog and it’s earlier iteration as “Turfing” for 19 years.
More tales coming soon. I just finished editing the new Invisible College Magazine’s 11th edition “Alchemy”, which is now at the new publishers. It was a task, but I think worth it. Stay Tuned.
Enough. Be Well!
Bright Blessings,
Gwyllm
Another journey into your imagery Great colors!