K

'The letter K means: of god, to god, because of god. In the east it means the terror of god as felt by man' Leo

I'll tell you something, you'll end up taking more and more. And more. Why? Because its like its trying to tell you something. But every time you work out what it is? You come out of it and its gone - like you're shooting holes in the veil of illusion - but they close up quick as you can make 'em. Eventually a few of the holes stick. And now? You can't hear it, not exactly, 'cause its your own voice, its you - but its saying to you, or you can feel it,

"I got something to tell you, I GOT SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!"

You gotta know what its gonna say, you gotta know! So you end up taking more and MORE - 'til finally the sheet is all shot through with holes and it falls away - and you didn't meditate yourself here, you've still got your old model of reality, you've still got your EGO, yer BAGGAGE - but its trying to co-exist with the sphere of universal archetypal characters and narratives buried deep in your unconscious. Your self has splintered in two & you will realise you haven't been born yet, when you comes face to face with yourself, ancient, unchanging One. The Singularity that expresses itself through a myriad masks of a shifting panoply of subselves - and this other is asking you this riddle,

"Who am I? Can you guess who I am? Who do you think I AM?'.

For a while this ancient, universal part of you might be stronger than you are, you're possessed by it - you're still there, but some OTHER is calling all the shots - until you work out the answer - "I AM YOU". Now, you might not be who you were before, not exactly, though that's in the mix, but there's AN OTHER veil, another riddle, yet it is the same riddle - "WHO AM I?". You keep on shooting holes, more and more holes, 'til this veil, too, it falls away - you've solved the riddle.


'Now I understand! What a relief,' you think, 'now I can stop putting this fucking white stuff up my nose, now I can stop speaking like an old bluesman, now I can start rebuilding my tiny life, my tiny life that The Celebrated Mr K so casually tossed away, this great small life, this life that once seemed like a river, long and winding - but with a beginning and an end - this life, that now seems life a drop of rain, with infinity within - a single snowdrop that has found the ocean.'

"There is no God where I AM"

TONTO, 1971-2009, THE CALLING TO BE A CLOWN

"THE calling to be a clown is a high and special calling. The clown mocks convention. The clown turns truth on its head. The clown looks at important things in a radically different way. The clown is a nuisance. The clown refuses to fit into ordinary boxes. The clown is a prophet who challenges, not a priest who reconciles. For all this there is a price to pay.

Tonto or Matt, Matt or Tonto, this man has not grown old like the rest of us. The shelf-life of the clown is different. He wasn’t a man much given to looking after himself. In fact he wasn’t much given to advertising who he was : this was the man who liked wearing someone else’s ID badge; and some of you haven’t heard of Matt, and others of Tonto. He sat on the margins, except he
didn’t. He brought the message of the margins into the mainstream, which is what clowns do. Without such people the rest of us are diminished.

If I’m anything, I’m a bad comedian : I’m not brave enough to be a clown. But Jesus Christ was. There’s a deep strand of the fool in the Christian faith, and it starts with Christ, the crucified God. He didn’t make people laugh, but he did make them think. He shews that the universe must be seen through different eyes. It is not static and inexorable and impassive. It is moving in strange and elaborate ways towards the God who made it. All things, all events, in time will come together for good, in Jesus, in the Lord of the Dance, in God almighty himself. Though the dance goes through dark places and light places, the rhythm is unbroken, and the destination sure.

It’s the joker in the pack who transforms your hand. It’s the vagabond jester in Charles Williams’ great novel, The Greater Trumps, who gives meaning to all the other figures on the cosmic board, by moving so quickly he is always at its centre : if you have eyes to see him. My brothers and sisters, let us open our eyes, to the deep wisdom beneath the apparent waste of Christ’s death : for without that death there would have been no resurrection, no hope, no
joy."

Revd. John Thewlis, Memorial service for Tonto, The [other] Jester
Carshalton Rectory
26 May 2009

LOOKING INTO THE GIFT HORSE'S MOUTH

What makes a successful social netwroking site? If the interface is unproblematic and user-friendly the main selling point is the number of users, so ultimately users of specific networking applications congregate together, as they have done on Facebook and MySpace. Time and again we see that, in information and communication technologies, monopolies are often inevitable, even desirable - computers are frustrating enough without having to try ten different search sites, we are glad that Google is often good enough, and we are grateful for the convenience of the software compatibity that ubiquitous operating systems and applications allow.

But is it right that any private individual or corporation should own such a resource? This is why all web-services offering access to information should be collectively owned co-operative services based on open-source technology - developed by the people, for the people and owned by the people. They are not just another commodity to be exploited by fatcats, they are an extension of human consciousness, and this needs to be understood and recognised in international law.

GLOBALISE OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION

In addition to the obscene discrepancies in wealth that these inevitable monopolies perpetuate there is the question of who holds the data that is collected and how it is used and by whom - individuals are increasingly losing control over the data that is collected about them, they realise that they are doing this, but have no alternative if they want to use many of the emergent information and communication technologies. They are reluctantly prepared to sacrifice control of their personal data in order to keep in touch with their friends and contribute to the global meta-conversation. It is essential that we explore means to return an individual's control over their personal data, I am sure that technological alternatives can be found that would not compromise the functionality of the applications from the perspective of the end-user. We can phone any other phone in the world from our telephone, we can post a letter anywhere in the world from a postbox - if Facebook, for example, were to approach this level of saturation, it would be very worrying that so much data was held by a single privately owned business. We need to find ways to restore control of the data to the users, remembering that the data and the applications are discrete, while still ensuring standards and protocols are homogenised to maximise interoperability.

THEY WANT TO OWN MY INFORMATION AND USE IT AS A COMMODITY

AT THE END OF TIME ALL INTELLECTUIAL PROPERTY WILL BE THEFT

the jesTer x

ANGELS & DEMONS

ANGELS&DEMONS

illus., The Jester, 'Tim's Real Dream', 1980, aged 6

If you're hanging out in Heaven
or crying out in pain

If you're driven into solitude
or you drive yourself insane

Meditate upon The Lord
focus on his name

Angels and Demons 
have always been the same

The Jester, 1989, aged 15

AN INFINITE NUMBER OF LLAMAS IN A CUPBOARD

A selection of pages from The Jester's 1989 anthology 'An Infinite Number of Llamas in a Cupboard'

LAZY BASTARDS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!

The collapse of the economy brings with it a rising tide of poverty, which could all too easily escalate to a point where the underclass are the majority.

Progressively financially disincentivised by the increasing worthlessness of our currency we are witnessing a steep decline in the living standards, health and well-being of the population.

Forget second gear - the once Wild West could be at risk of lurching head first into 'The Third World'. You understand what The Third World means?

ALL THE WORLD IS IN COMPETITION AND YOU HAVE COME THIRD!

Yes, it's true - money is ACTUALLY the root of all evil - simply a reminder of a broken promise to pay the water-bearer his dues.

The Beast could be about to get a taste of his own medicine.

HEY, BULLY-BOY! WHAT YOU LOOKIN' AT?
IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AND SNIFF YOUR OWN ARMPITS!

Some of us will still toil for paper and metal spoils - the old oil reign rules, we'll be working longer hours, cracking harder and harder to stay afloat - only to find our money worth less and less.

Those without jobs will see fewer and fewer reasons for getting one. We'll watch TV, inbetween filling in endless forms to get our paws on those elusive pounds that'll benefit us less and less and less.

Advances in technlogy mean that the temptation to escape into passive escapist entertainment will be huge - it is our responsibility not to allow ourselves to surrender ourselves absolutely into a collective technological or narcotic stupor, or our physicality will be lost and our spirits will not flourish.

We have a choice.

On the one hand - we could become a more and more fractured society, increasingly riven and paranoid, distrustful, unloving, uncaring and alienated, racial and cultural tensions deepening as we all turn our backs on the world in horror and escape into fantasy worlds that add nothing to the sum total of our human stock.

What is the alternative? Ask yourself this question - 'what is the best possible way we could be?'. Join in the conversation.

What is increasingly clear to me is that many of us are relatively united about the kind of world that we want to live in. However, those of us who have yanked themselves away from their precious television screens (at least as far as our beloved computer screens!) seem to spend too much time arguing about conspiracies, the end of the world, floods, flares, meteors, aliens and 2012 - I myself have been guilty of this - but what does any of this matter?

The secular man and the mystic alike agree that radical change is on the cards, and whether the shocks that precipitate this are economic, environmental - or a plague of fu*king super-intelligent mutant prawns - is hardly the point.

Okay, we can all do our bit in preventing the spread of the next crazy super-virus by using a hanky - and we can prevent the plague of prawns by recycling plastic and wearing solar-panel hats - this is a given, this is how we can play our individual roles in 'saving-the-world-and-all-that'.

But there has to be a way of getting our COLLECTIVE voice heard, a way of uniting our fractured online community to create a truly global voice. I believe we will see the emergence of a global online hub, uniting people who want to see positive change achieved in a peaceful manner. This collectively owned co-operative hub will give US a world voice - a voice for those who are committed to discussing and developing sustainable alternatives to consumerist capitalism, striving to entirely transcend the spiritual/secular and left/right divides, focussing instead on developing practical and ingenious solutions for the future. Being a co-operatively owned international organisation petitions made en-masse by its members could be of significant political influence.

‘Countries are shocked – by wars, terror attacks, coup d’états and natural disasters. And then .. they are shocked again – by corporations and politicians who exploit the fear and disorientation of this first shock to push through economic shock therapy. People who dare to resist [these] shock politics are shocked for a third time – by police, soldiers and prison interrogators.’ Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine

The world is experiencing wave after wave of global 'shocks' - it is time for collective positive engagement in the global meta-conversation - if we do not get our voices heard the super-rich and powerful minority will use their influence to utilise these shocks, slipping in emergency measures and systems that perpetuate global inequity, continuing to set each man against each other for their personal gain in the much heralded and feared 'New World Order' - there is an alternative, a co-operative global community. We need to work closely together, inter-promoting activities and resources and developing channels for the cross-fertilisation of ideas.

THE BOOK OF REVELATION AGAINST CAPITALISM

'The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood - idols that cannot see or hear or walk. [Revelation 9:20] Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. [Revelation 9:21] The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come.. for destroying those who destroy the earth. [Revelation 11:18] Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come! [Revelation 18:] The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn ... because no one buys their cargoes any more. [Revelation 18:9] All your riches and splendour have vanished, never to be recovered. [Revelation 18:14] Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. [Revelation 18:23]

SONGS OF INNOCENCE & EXPERIENCE

1. The Doves of Darkness will come

heralding the turning of the corner

2. Revealing themselves to be White Doves
when the corner has been turned

3. The Reaper will come on a dark, dark horse
heralding the arrival of a change in direction

4. And upon the direction's change the horse will be seen as it really is -
The White Horse.

5. The Destroyer has come to rescue you.
That which you most fear is Love.