Aberjhani's encouragement to post a title of this essay of her own prompts Sage Sweetwater to post a title from Sage's commentary on Aberjhani's A MOTH TO THE FLAME

Authors Note: Below, is a commentary in the form of a short essay which I left on Author/Poet Aberjhani's recent A MOTH TO THE FLAME - one of the strongest book reviews I have ever read, quilled by Author/Poet Aberjhani.  It pulled me in and I was drawn like a moth to the flame-[Sage Sweetwater]

PART 1: Rumi, Rushdie, and Jung -
Whirling Dervishes, The Satanic Verses, and the Philosopher's Stone.


Being a staunch follower of Jung, myself, my comment of note on Author/Poet Aberjhani's Reading Rumi after September 11 will take on an expanded commentary in the form of an essay where I will merge, yes, Salman Rushdie, of which I am both a fan and follower of; the recent controversy of his knighthood and his controversial novel, of which I have read many times, a great writing, "The Satanic Verses," and merge Rumi's importance as to transcend national and ethnic borders.

After Rumi's death, his followers founded the Mevlevi Order, known as the Whirling Dervishes. Their belief is to perform their worship in the form of dance and music in a ceremony called the sema.

So what I know of Rumi's teachings is union with the beloved primal root, which the "Masnavi" weaves fables and scenes from everyday life. Rumi is considered insan-e-kamil - the perfected, whole human being, which is quintessential Jungian metaphysics - and so Rumi believed that through music, poetry, and dance, was a path to God. Intensely, his beliefs that through these things, the soul was both destroyed and ressurected. This is my thoughts on his connection to Jung, the equivalent to alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone. So Rumi, through the founding of the Whirling Dervishes, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the "Perfect" then returns from this spiritual journey with greater maturity, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination against beliefs, races, classes and nations. 

My belief is that Rumi and Rushdie, both men, transformed themselves, as creative writers, through dreams, which is what I say links Jung, who dated his own intellectual life from a dream at the age of three. When I've read Rumi and Rushdie, it appears to me that they write from residual memories, and even perhaps ancient myths.

From the very first chapter, The Angel Gibreel in Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," an abridged line quotes, "To the devil with your tunes...in the movies you only mimed to playback singers, so spare me these infernal noises now." - "Gibreel the tuneless soloist."

Salman Rushdie, who still lives under an Iranian religious death sentence for writing "The Satanic Verses" for supposedly "blaspheming" Islam in his novel. I think that this novel is nothing more than the hallucinations and Jungian inner imagery of dreams, not blasphemous at all.

Rumi's opening eighteen lines of his Masnavi begins with, "Listen to the reed and the tale it tells, how it sings of separation." The next twelve years of his life he spent writing six volumes and when he fell ill, he predicted his own death and composed these lines, "How does thou know what sort of king I have within me as a companion? Do not cast thy glance upon my golden face, for I have iron legs." These lines, to me, have such alchemical meaning, once again linking to Jungian philosophy. When Rumi died in 1273, his epitaph read, "When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men." Rumi's epitaph, a revelation, I say, has a prediction of what was to happen on September 11, 2001.

To Be Continued...the power of philosophical enlightenment - Rumi, Rushdie, and Jung - Sage Sweetwater's essay with a tie-in to Author/Poet Aberjhani's recent A MOTH TO THE FLAME. Please follow this link to Author/Poet Aberjhani's recent A MOTH TO THE FLAME.

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=33673&AuthorID=25279


Copyright 2007 Ms. Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist

Evolving our Vision...


SAGE SWEETWATER'S
DOMAIN JETT DURANGO.BIZ


http://www.myspace.com/jettdurango

The Lavender Outlaw is in the House!
The Firebrand Rocks!
Sage Sweetwater's Authors Den poetry being transcribed to song by Iceland Songwriter Finnur Bjarki
Sage Sweetwater Lesbian Songwriter Inducted into Porterhouse Music
http://porterhouse.aiminghigh.is/??


THE BUCKSKIN SKIRT OAR TRAVELER

http://www.booksforchristians.com/bk_detail.asp?isbn=1420821601


FROM THE CONVENT TO THE RAWHIDE: THE SAGA OF SADIE CADE AND VI MONTANA

http://www.booksforchristians.com/bk_detail.asp?isbn=1425926339





Sage Sweetwater Profile Page on Nextcat.com