A Dancer in the Infinte - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The Veils of Negative Existence and the Octave of Epiphany

 

Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.- Lewis Carroll

 

 

For before there was equilibrium, countenance beheld not countenance.-  Kabbalah Unveiled,

 

The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Parmenides taught that the only things that are real are things which never change... and the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus taught that everything changes. If you superimpose their two views, you get this result: Nothing is real. – Philp K Dick

 

 

     Joshua was bored at dinner.  He had come, in the last few years, to hate all that distracted him from his work, The Veils of Negative Existence.  That which was before and beyond the beginning, that was all that was worthy of his consideration, of anyone’s, he felt.  But, Count Raymond was his friend, and no one could say that Joshua Ben Cohen was not loyal to his friends.  And Raymond knew how to spread a feast. This even when it was considered bad taste to have a Jew attend a feast day, let alone the Octave of Epiphany But Raymond cared not for such convention.  In fact, this was his third excommunication, which was why the Catholic Holy-man was there at the Count’s castle, St. Gilles.  Raymond had told Joshua that he was trying to get the Church to allow him back into the fold, as they had previously done.  Though he and this Peter fellow did not get on well whatsoever.

     Joshua paid no attention to the music of the Troubadour, a well know fellow and another friend of Raymonds, Peire Vidal, but ate in solemn silence.  He did not want to be there, but he owed Raymond.  It was the Count who outlawed the practice of “Strike the Jew” which had become quite the popular activity at the Christian Holy Day Easter.  It was Raymond that allowed him and other Jews, against the orders of the pope, to own land and hold public office.  Without his vineyards, Joshua would have no time for his work, he would be too busy lending money or working in the temple.  No, he owed Raymond of Toulouse, and he would never forget it.  He ate some pheasant and washed it down with Raymond’s finest wine.  And his thoughts returned to his obsession.

     Before, even the beginning of everything, there was the Limitless Light, before that Infinity, and before that, the deepest Nothingness.  These were the veils the Arab in Toledo had written about so eloquently.  The Veils of Negative Existence.  That which the Arab claimed, in his preface, existed before God himself.  The translation was moving ahead slowly.  And each night, Joshua would meditate on the words he had translated during the day.  Each night, incredible dreams would envelope him and carry him to places beyond imagination.  In few more years, he would have the final secrets.  This is what he lived for.

     But, now Joshua was distracted, by two things, Vidal’s words, in Occitan caught his ears:

     “D'omes honratz, per qu'ieu fatz
Tal chanso viatz,
Bons reis, que prec qu'aprendatz.
E si.m demandatz:
Tan soven per que chantatz--
Quar es enuegz als malvatz
E gaugz a nos envezatz.”

 

     Then, he heard the loud voices coming from his host’s table.  It was this after all, and not the troubadour who had gained his attention, he simply did not realize it at first.  First he could hear the papal legate screaming, “He who dispossesses you will be accounted virtuous; he who strikes you dead will earn a blessing!”

     His face was crimson, but Joshua had little time to pay attention to such details, as it was now Raymond’s turn to rage.

     “You will leave my lands at once, or it will be I that shall strike you dead!  And be I blessed or sent straight to hell, I care not.  Guards!  Remove this villain from my sight!  From my house!  Now!”

 

     The next day Joshua heard the news.  Peter of Castelnau had been killed by a masked horseman while awaiting the ferry crossing on the Rhone.  He knew in is heart, this would not sit well in Rome.  The doom that would befall Languedoc began to manifest in the Veils of Negative Existence on the Octave of the Epiphany.  Joshua felt this in his being, bowed his head, and cried.

copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt