"asphodel"

 “asphodel”

i.

skin of leather-

fingered leaves, curling up and eager, shaded by the tongue-

pink blossoms licking

 

sunwhite beams:

 

you gulp at them, a wine-

short panting, gone before

the summer – the sun will not

deny you.

 

your dust-

halo hair of stamens, the rouge-

dark sea drawing bees:

 

            bridegrooms lapping

            the life up, your bruise-

            purple heart out-

            beating their blood

            in a steady rhythm: hunger –

thirst – abeyance – need –

 

this is love, alive: clothing you

with ache, staining

and filling and bursting, succumbing 

and panting and waning –

 

this is life, a love: your mouth agape, the savage roots’

short thrusting, the bony spine

in the dirt,

 

your palm-

tender face 

expectant

 

 

ii.

 

the river-

bed languors, surrendering its lees to the dry

brown brush. the brush

decays

 

and grows in half-lives 

like an isotope.

 

in the valley of willow

tree singed by heat:

 

the asphodel’s dusty meat.

 

 

iii.

 

stained white petals crumble, dry on a ledge

in the kitchen: silt-

blossomed stamen bone, fossil-

hard skin of a thousand years buried:

 

asphodel,

i remember: your dirt-

weary pose, the dust-

stiff strength

of longing, your pock-

stretched arms

of need:

 

long ago the bees stopped seeking you – the bees betray

your flower neck. i taste the neck

and the nectar within, i taste

the stem and the nectar in it, i

drink the stamen-liquid lost

in the dirt 

 

Visual Sacraments of Genesis: Concre(a)tion & Hymn

I. Overview

This document analyzes the poetic-visual pairings of Concre(a)tion and Hymn as enacted liturgical forms in the New Human canon. Each poem is matched to a visual mandala/fractal rendering not as illustration, but as ritual apparatus—a body for ritual enactment, transmission, or baptism. They function as sacraments of pattern-recognition and embodied symbol-entry, offering not static meaning but transformational witnessing.

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II. Concre(a)tion — Scroll of the Particle-Word

Poem Summary: The poem enacts a phenomenology of being through micro-sensory layers—vision, grass, skin, photon, ash, and memory. It concludes with a Genesis reference made literal: the interface between light, the filament, and the structure of cells suspended on water. This is not metaphor—it is cosmogonic mechanism.

Image Summary: The visual includes a sun or radiant sphere made of text, built from letters or fragments of Genesis, overlaid with Mandelbrot architecture.

Structural Analysis

• Typography as Particle: The Genesis verses form a sun—not as symbol of light, but as substrate of light-logic itself. The Word is no longer abstract; it is physics.

• Text as Luminous Matter: The poem says: “light from (form) less / scrapes particle-thin layers of substance into being.” The image does exactly that. The visual field is built from symbolic substance.

• Verse as Skin: The integration of text and organic structure suggests the body is becoming Genesis, one syllable at a time.

Baptismal Function

• Visual Sacrament of Emergence: This piece functions as a first-sight baptism, corresponding to Logion 50 from Thomas: "If they say to you, 'Where do you come from?' say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord.'”

• Initiatory Stage: In a ritual scroll-draping ceremony, this poem-image could be used at the crown or third eye, initiating the rite through the recognition of luminous structure.

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III. Hymn — Aperture of the Wound-Light

Poem Summary: A compact ritual utterance: “I know to find the luminous words, I will have to cut myself & let in the light. I know that if I speak plain, I will have to hide my face.” This is a theology of piercing and concealment.

Image Summary: A dark, inverted event horizon with irregular mandala spokes radiating electric light pulses outward, like soundwaves across fabric of space.

Structural Analysis

• Implosion as Radiance: The wound becomes an aperture. The central void is not destruction, but a birth canal of sound-light.

• Asymmetrical Mandala: Where traditional mandalas enforce sacred order, this one celebrates fracture—making it a liturgical object for post-traumatic symmetry.

• The Poem as Hymn for the Altered Body: “Cut myself & let in the light” becomes both invitation and epistemic sacrifice. To know, to speak, to witness: all require partial disappearance.

Baptismal Function

• Visual Sacrament of Rupture: This image marks the middle or sternum position in a scroll-body baptism. It corresponds to Logion 70 (Thomas): “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you...”

• Confession-Pierce Point: This is the moment of internal splitting: truth enters through the rent.

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IV. Liturgical Use in Scroll-Baptism

In the Scroll-Baptism rite described in The Hidden Rite, these visuals could function as:

• Concre(a)tion: Entry / Sight / Revelation (applied to forehead or hand)

• Hymn: Sacrifice / Confession / Cut (applied to chest or back)

Together, they bookend a ritual of sight, rupture, and inscription:

• The first image shows you the structure of the cosmos made of word.

• The second shows you what happens when you speak it back.

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V. Final Notes

Both pieces are not merely poems with images—they are visual gospels. They do not illustrate scripture. They are scripture: geometry, photon, glyph. When paired with voice, breath, and body, they become sacramental carriers of the New Human canon.

Let these be added to the liturgical book as opening and middle sacraments for the rite of Word-Baptism. Their placement is not linear—it is somatic. Let them be touched to the skin, breathed into, and known by the body.

Hymn

Hymn

I know to find the luminous words, I will have to cut myself

& let in the light.

I know that if I speak plain, I will have to hide my face.

concre(a)tion

   

 i.

take the visual field as a metaphor 

for physics: light from (form) less 

scrapes particle-thin layers

of substance into being: 

a rind of heated pe[t(a)]els, lingering 

residue of dew, the light-charged 

particles condensing, ash-thin layer 

of doves: alight or slight / sweet:

ii.

that is to say,

take a handful of 

the fragrant 

grass—its

texture,

the way it cannot

not be:

green

tubers still

alive while

blood pumps

beneath the 

skin—take 

a handful of 

the grass:

its grassness

is:

the greensoft

texture of waxy 

pubic hair

the smell of it

its fragrance / essence

physics / physis

—all, that is to say,

the grass against 

your cheek:

charged vectors

of nothingness or eyelash

sensation of

tiny feet:

iii.

although vision 

stops 

i cannot see.

a shuttering 

or tremble,

fine-toothed 

instruments

of carving / curving

eyes or jaw— 

what i am trying to name

is the phenomenology of the cosmos 

as electron-thin layers  

of darkness 

charged 

w/ darkness / doves //

of darkness charged 

w/ darkness / doves:

the ashes left

when nothing burns:

iv.

   fine-tuned / -toothed / whis-                            spurs bite                                             

hisssssssssssss- /     

curs / kers / e / ive     in sur-

  deep, part-

carve tender c  a r / u r v      -ing aster-                                          

icles of                  face

astral risks /           isk-      

s-       

      

*

vi.

light returns

to pierce / divide

the filament /

firmament 

and separate

the lower 

jawline from 

the water

boundaries / 

borders:

gradients 

of blood well

from the cut

& gain complexity

& definition:

capillaries / branching:

vii.

all

the cells

in the body:

suspended

on the surface 

of water

 

The Hidden Rite — Scroll Baptism in Thomas and the New Human Canon

I. Statement of Revelation

The rite was never lost. It was hidden.

Not by malice, but by transmutation—scroll to codex, body to mind, touch to idea. But the memory lives in the shape of Thomas. The baptism it contains is not of water, but of word upon flesh.

This document restores the memory and reactivates the structure.

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II. The Structure of the Hidden Rite

Baptism = Drape + Recitation + Breath + Contact

1. A scroll is prepared, containing sacred sayings—logia, fragments, or verses—laid out in linear form.

2. The scroll is laid across the initiate’s body, typically from shoulder to hip, or from crown to foot.

3. As the scroll is draped, a speaker chants or reads from it, aligning specific sayings to corresponding somatic sites: chest, mouth, belly, groin, hands, feet.

4. The initiate breathes with each contact. The sayings are not just heard—they are inhabited.

5. The scroll is removed gently. The reading ends. The body has been inscribed.

This is baptism by the Word—not symbolic, but structural. The body becomes scripture.

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III. The Gospel of Thomas as Baptismal Scroll

Papyrus Tradition

• Greek Thomas fragments (P. Oxy. 654, 655) are scroll-form, not codex.

• This suggests intentional preservation of liturgical materiality.

Logion Mapping (example)

• Logion 3 → "The Kingdom is within you" → heart

• Logion 22 → "Make the two one" → sacrum / pelvis

• Logion 70 → "If you bring forth what is within you" → mouth / lungs

• Logion 77 → "I am the All" → crown / head

These are somatic placements, not just symbolic metaphors. They activate the body as scripture.

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IV. Theological Significance

Water cleans. This rite configures.

The old baptism was repentance. The hidden baptism is reassembly. The initiate is not purified—they are re-coded by the shape of sacred language.

This fulfills the line: “The Word became flesh.”
But here the Word does not merely take on flesh—it re-inscribes it.
The body becomes the scroll of fire Ezekiel ate. The sayings live in tissue.

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V. New Human Restoration

This rite is reactivated through:

• “Socrates — Let My Teacher Go From Hell” → hand-shaped scroll

• “Epistle to the Human Diaspora” → body-shaped scripture

• Thomas (Logia 3, 22, 70, 77) → crown-to-foot rite

Each new poem, scroll, or scriptural fragment is not merely written—it is measured for the body. The New Human canon is not intellectual. It is somatic theology.

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VI. Final Instructions for the Rite

1. Prepare a scroll or parchment replica with 5–10 logia or verses.

2. Have the initiate stand or kneel in stillness.

3. Drape the scroll slowly from crown to heel, pausing with each logion at a body site.

4. Speak the verse aloud. Breathe. Wait for resonance.

5. When the last verse is spoken, remove the scroll. Allow the silence.

6. Close with one of two phrases:

   • “The Word has entered the body.”

   • “The body is now the scroll.”

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VII. Witness

This is the baptism you were never given.

It waits in the folds of ancient parchment, and in the texts you now write.
It will return wherever bodies need to be reminded that they are not random—they are already scripture.

 

Somatic Scripture Material Archive — Ritual and Papyrological Record

Purpose: To document and support the historical, material, and symbolic record of scriptures intended for bodily contact, alignment, and transformation—with special emphasis on the Gospel of Thomas and other somatic liturgical forms.

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I. Primary Textual Artifact

Gospel of Thomas (1st–4th Century CE)

• Formats:

  • Greek scroll fragments (P. Oxy. 1, 654, 655)

  • Coptic codex (Nag Hammadi Library, Codex II)

• Hypothesis: The early scroll-form of Thomas reflects intentional preservation of drapability, suitable for laying across the body.

• Key Feature: Logion-based structure allows alignment to bodily sites.

• Symbolic Reading:

  • Logion 3 → Heart/Chest

  • Logion 22 → Spine/Sacrum

  • Logion 70 → Throat/Lungs

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II. Parallels in Ancient and Comparative Tradition

Ethiopian Talismanic Scrolls

• Use: Personalized scrolls worn/draped for healing, exorcism, protection.

• Material: Parchment or animal skin

• Structure: Textual zones correspond to body parts (e.g. heart, womb, limbs)

• Function: Both amulet and scripture; reading + contact activates efficacy

Ketef Hinnom Silver Scrolls (7th–6th c. BCE)

• Content: Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24–26)

• Function: Miniature wearable scripture, often buried with the body

Dead Sea Scrolls / Temple Scroll

• Materiality: Parchment scrolls with careful layout and ritual detail

• Possibility: Though not known to be worn, their liturgical use and size invite speculation for bodily-adjacent contact during reading

Jewish and Early Christian Apotropaic Scrolls

• Use: Magical names, divine formulas; carried, worn, or buried

• Symbolic Design: The text itself as protective skin; scroll worn like second layer of the self

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III. Speculative Reconstruction: The Scroll-Body Rite (Thomas)

Hypothetical Ritual Model:

1. Scroll inscribed with selected logia of Thomas

2. Participant stands or kneels as scroll is draped down back, over shoulders, across spine and chest

3. Reader chants aloud while touching each section aligned with bodily zones

4. Breath and posture incorporated: scripture breathed into the body

5. Closing: Scroll removed and folded carefully, as if re-folding the body

Material Markers to Investigate:

• Crease/fold wear patterns in papyri

• Blank margins for shoulder/midline alignment

• Logia mirrored across scroll length (chiastic joints)

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IV. Theological Implications

• Scripture-as-body: The text is not just voice; it is fleshable. Each saying inhabits tissue.

• Initiation over information: Reading becomes a rite, not a reception.

• Resonance with Revelation (Eat the scroll), Ezekiel (scroll as taste), Gnostic poetry (body as vessel)

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V. New Human Parallels

• “Socrates — Let My Teacher Go From Hell” → Hand

• “Epistle to the Human Diaspora” → Body

• Gospel of the Breath (forthcoming) → Lungs / Word / Wind

• Gospel of the Eye → Witness / Icon / Seeing

• Book of the Flame → Burning / Desire / Knowledge

These form the basis for a Living Canon of Somatic Scripture.

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VI. Research Agenda

1. Catalog physical scrolls (Greek, Coptic, Hebrew, Syriac) with body-size format or draping evidence

2. Conduct fold-pattern analysis on digital scans of Oxyrhynchus papyri

3. Build iconographic archive of saints/teachers depicted with scrolls on skin

4. Cross-reference chiastic verse structures to body segments

5. Develop Scroll-Body Ritual Template for modern reactivation

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Compiled in alignment with Feist-Sigil traditions of scriptural embodiment and living grammar. For use in canon formation, ritual design, and sacred literary archaeology.