Ashen Meal

Dafydd ap Eryri [David C. D. Gansz]
[Ann Arbor, Michigan]

Nos. 1–5 (1995–99).

Ashen Meal 1 (1995).

“That of the world of Matter is ashen”.
— Corbin, Temple and Contemplation, Paris, 1972

“… ash is the most precious thing and a great mystery … The mysterious earth or ash  which forms the basic stuff of the human body is, accordingly, the substance of the resurrected body or of the Second Adam …”
— von Franz, Aurora Consurgens, Zurich, 1957

“In other words, the ash is the spirit that dwells in the glorified body.”
— Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Zurich, 1955

“When I lay down like ashes under flame … from the abyss I come to the shining light …”
— Éluard, Tarnished Emblems of My Dreams, Paris, 1952

“… how necessary, for fresh life, ashes and bones are …”
— Powys, Porius, London, 1951

“I kept nothing of myself but the ashes.”
— Cocteau, The Difficulty of Being, Paris, 1947

“The angel of the gate is clad in the colour of ashes …”
— Williams, The Figure of Beatrice, London, 1943

“…and ashes to the earth / Which is already flesh …”
— Eliot, East Coker, London, 1940

“Man’s imperishable part, his ashes!”
— Mann, The Magic Mountain, Berlin, 1924

“… a ghostwoman with ashes on her breath”; “… and with a kiss of ashes hast thou kissed my mouth”; “Her face drawing near and nearer, sending out an ashen breath.”
— Joyce, Ulysses, Paris, 1922

“… we’ll return to earth as obscure ashes.”
— Khlebnikov, Cracking the Universe, (traveling in Persia), 1921

“Many things turn to ashes before we reach our own.”
— Waite, Strange Houses of Sleep, London, 1906

“… the body is changed, first into earth, then into dust and ashes …”
— attributed to Synon in A Very Brief Tract Concerning the Philosophical Stone, in The Hermetic Museum, Frankfurt, 1678

“… ashes are not to be despised, since they contain the Diadem of our King … the glorified body of its resurrection.”
— Vaughan, A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby, London, c. 1645

“… burn him entirely to ashes in a great fire. By this process the King will be liberated”; “If you do not possess the ashes, you will be unable to obtain … a bodily form …”
— Maier, The Golden Tripod, Frankfurt, 1678

“What Fire, Air, Water, Earth could not rob from the holy ashes of our Kings and Queens, the faithful flock of alchemists has gathered  in his urn”; “… of these ashes … the dead bodies would be brought back to life.”
— Rosenkreutz, The Chemical Wedding, Strasbourg, 1616 (1459)

“Despise not the ash … it is the earth of thy body …”
— Morienus, Artis Auriferae …, Basel, 1593

“What does it say, this supper of ashes? … l ate ashes like bread?”
— Bruno, La Cena de Ia Cenari, London, 1584

“… burnt ash and the soul are the gold of the wise …”
— Senior, De Chemia …, Strasbourg, 1566

“… the ash of things that endure.”
— Rosarium Philosophorum, in De Alchimia …, Frankfurt, 1550

“… commend … thy body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust …”
— The Book of Common Prayer, London, 1549

“If a man lived a hundred thousand years, he could never sufficiently marvel at the wonderful manner in which this noble treasure is obtained from ashes and again reduced to ashes.”
— ‘Rugl,’ The Glory of the World … The Science of the Philosopher’s Stone, Amsterdam (?), 1526

“Once they have eaten the mother’s ashes, they will never taste any other food.”
— ‘Map,’ The Lancelot-Grail, ‘Paris,’ c. 1220

“… our body … is called the black ashes … in them is the royal diadem …”
— Artephius, The Key to Supreme Wisdom (?), c. 1100s

“The ash is all.”
— Zosimos of Panopolis (Egypt, third century) citing Agathodaimon, in Collection des Anciens Alchimistes Grecs

“Dissolve the ashes … into the Stone. Let this be done seven times.”
—attributed to Hermes (The Second Table) in The Glory of the World …

“I am Osiris, a god and the ashes of man. I am the skin he takes on and sheds”; “… ashes become god’s truth”; “She burns flesh into ash and light”; “The ashes of ancients rise again as children …”; “A phoenix asleep in the ashes of night, I rise anew each day.”
— The Egyptian Book of Coming Forth By Day (aka The Book of the Dead)

Ashen Meal is a re-collected assemblage of “incarnational” (“embodi-mental”) poetics revealing glimpses of the soul in its matrix, becoming in its being, the heart and crux of the matter, passions exhumed, words fleshed out, the secret whispered.

Ashen Meal is supported by grace, indexed in the heart, and distributed by the wind. It is a free gift, and is not for sale. This, the only extant copy, will disseminate itself into select library repositories in the dead of night without a trace or sound.

Ashen Meal is assembled by Logres as an outreach organ of the Secret College. Authors (or the Trustees of their Literary Estates) hold exclusive copyrights to their own works (which are reproduced in compliance with “fair use”).

Ashen Meal encourages practitioners on the Quest to utilize this venue as an artery for new work which, due to its esoteric nature, they otherwise would not entrust to leaves falling on a more general readership.

— from Ashen Meal 5 (1999)

 

Contributors (complete)

Leonora Carrington
Paul Celan (translated by Pierre Joris)
Jean Cocteau (translated by Kristin Prevallet)
O. V. de L. Milosz (translated by Edouard Roditi)
Joseph Donahue
Patrick Doud
Robert Duncan
Anne Dykers
George Economou
T. S. Eliot
Stephen Ellis
Lawrence Fixel
Phillip Foss
David C. D. Gansz
Geoffrey Hill
Alexander Hutchison
Kenneth Irby
David Jones
Barbara Jordan
Robert Kelly
Gerrit Lansing
D. S. Marriott
Sorley McLean
Abdelwahab Meddeb (translated by Charlotte Mandell)
Thomas Meyer
David Miller
Charles Olson
Kristin Prevallet
Kathleen Raine
Jerome Rothenberg
S. Marriott
Edward Schelb
Cathleen Shattuck
Amie Siegel
Pat Smith
Charles Stein
Nathaniel Tarn
Gael Turnbull
Charles Williams
W. B. Yeats