The Journey of the Sphinx/ "twice-born"

There are some journeys which are difficult to narrate/ explain.... here is one which I took (or which took me!) back during mid-'87... I had tried to sketch it as it was happening





















Around the same time, I had written these verses:

The solitary migratory bird
with a fire in the heart
burns itself out.

And so,
I tell myself:
learn a new way to fly,
a new way to sing...

For,
how long,
how often
you will re-enact
this eternal drama
of
rising from the ashes...

...and thus, I guess, around that time, I became a "twice-born"/Dwij... in the sense as William James described in his "The Varieties of Religious Experiences"

"The once-born souls go through life with an un-self-conscious attitude, happily ignorant of their own human frailties and mortality. They accept life as it comes, and suffer and prosper without pausing to reflect on forces - within them or outside them - which chart their destinies. The twice-borns, on the other hand, have experienced the taste of death, and emerged wiser and humbler to face life. Having become aware of their own mortality, they are accutely conscious of themselves and as separate and alone ... they consciously reflect upon, and critique and question their own choices."

amen!...