Walkabout with The Chaplain

"Hugh Nibley

"In his dreams Lehi finds himself wandering 'in a dark and dreary waste,' a 'dark and dreary wilderness,' where he must travel 'for the space of many hours in darkness,' lost and helpless (1 Nephi 8:4-8). Of all the images that haunt the early Arab poets this is by all odds the commonest; it is the standard nightmare of the Arab; and it is the supreme boast of every poet that he has traveled long distances through dark and dreary wastes all alone. Invariably darkness is given as the main source of terror (the heat and glare of the day, though nearly always mentioned, are given second place), and the culminating horror is almost always a 'mist of darkness,' a depressing mixture of dust, and clammy fog, which, added to the night, completes the confusion of any who wander in the waste. Quite contrary to what one would expect, these dank mists are described by travelers in all parts of Arabia, and al-Ajajj, one of the greatest of early desert poets, tells how a 'mist of darkness' makes it impossible for him to continue a journey to Damascus. In its nature and effect Lehi's 'mist of darkness' (1 Nephi 8:23) conforms to this strange phenomenon most exactly." (Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaredites, p. 47-8)." 

Morning adoration.

The compass. 

Push off the path and carve your own. Walk out and wide, one step at a time. In the hills notice the Yin and the Yang. Are there hills or mountainous terrain? 

You select and forage along the way and see what grows in each element. The Ouachita Mountains are plentiful in some parts. Before you continue find a quiet sequestered spot and do a prayer to obtain invisibility. You grab your cutting tool.

Baal or Bael should be evoked. Invisibility requested. You will be able to hunt under this premise so stay alert. You grab your maps and your book. Checking and evaluating your lists. 

Now you can depart. It will take 72 hours to get your destination, and you won't be required to travel the whole time. Two miles an hour. For 7 hours. 14 miles. A break every hour. You look around and decide to fashion a staff and even make it a spear. You reach to your side and take your Gerber LMF2 blade out and find a suitable baton. 

 You get a good staff and lash the LMF2 to the wood creating your spear. 

Your pack weighs forty pounds. You set the spear down and check your kit. The cache is located about half way. Everything is put away. It is time to go. You shoot an azimuth. In the distance you spot a significant feature among the point shot. You put the compass down and bring your arms up to begin wide angle vision. Splatter vision as it is sometimes called. 

You bring your hands out in front of you about a foot apart facing horizontally. your bring them wide apart to the sides at the edge of your peripheral vision. Then you wiggle your fingers. The with arms outstretched in front of you again, with hands one verticle one horizontal, creating a box, spread out wide and wiggle your fingers again. Now the field of perception is open. Now you are the Hunter. 

" A hunter knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn't worry. To worry is to become accessible, unwittingly accessible. And once you worry you cling to anything out of desperation; and once you cling you are bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever you are clinging to.
      I've told you already that to be inaccessible does not mean to hide or to be secretive. It doesn't mean that you cannot deal with people either. A hunter uses his world sparingly and with tenderness regardless of whether the world might be things, or plants, or animals, or people, or power. A hunter deals intimately with his world and yet he is inaccessible to that same world. He is inaccessible because he's not squeezing his world out of shape. He taps it lightly, stays for as long as he needs to, and then swiftly moves away leaving hardly a mark."

The writings come to mind. You are not yet the Warrior Don Juan describes. You are the Hunter. They are synonymous at times and interchange. There is no way to escape the doing of our world, so what a warrior does is to turn his world into his hunting ground. As a hunter, a warrior knows that the world is made to be used. So he uses every bit of it. A warrior is like a pirate that has no qualms in taking and using anything he wants, except that a warrior doesn't mind or he doesn't feel insulted when he is used and taken himself"

Your pace count has started. It becomes your mantra. 
Your hands reach to your chest and pulls up the pace counter beads. 

You have no firearm nor ammunition. This descends into a primal mode of thought. You reach back at the bottom of your spine to make sure your secondary knife was secure. There are three blades carried by the Order. They are of various designs and choosing. Several reasons may be given. A blood letting device is needed for offerings of devotion. This could even be a scalpel. The premonition to facilitate the use of several knives comes from the Sikhs and Sayoc Kali. 

• A kirpan resembles a knife or sword. There is no prescribed length or sharpness for a kirpan in Sikhism; they are determined by the individual religious convictions of the wearer. Kirpans are typically sheathed and worn with a gatra (a strap) underneath clothing.

In Sayoc Kali, multiple blades are used to train. The Kukri knife has significant multipurpose attributes. It killed Dracula. A dagger is useful for a single purpose but executes this function with excellence. 

You feel the dagger at the center of your waist. 

There is water along the way. You will stop and purify before moving along. You have several systems with you that can help you do this. Redundancy is key when it comes to kit. You will be like John the Baptist, eating insects and drinking from sacred waters. You may need to use an incantation to exorcise the water you collect. This book has a suitable prayer:

You sip your reserves for now and move along to the next point. The pace count beads start collecting the distance. 

 

Viking Navigation and the sun compass

Something you do have the fortune of not having to use.

There is fog. Sunstones are a better option. In your kit you have an Iceland Spar. Along with your obsidian. Calcite and Obsidian for each hand during orgone recharge. The sun travels in the heavens and you make your stops. You are at the watering hole collecting now. It is time to eat and rest and do your noon solar adoration to the South. You regroup and hydrate. 

You set off again this time to your destination for the night. Night travel is too compromising at this point. You walk with the sun headed west and into the afternoon heat you have your second wind. Shelter is the next development but one should consider the site first. Then go about calling the quarters into the circle. For now you make your way looking for shelter and fire materials.

You remember what Don Juan said about finding a place." 'You have found the spot,' he said. I did not understand him at first, but he assured me again that the place where I had fallen asleep was the spot in question. He again asked me how I felt lying there. I told him I really did not notice any difference.

He asked me to compare my feelings at that moment with what I had felt while lying on the other spot. For the first time it occurred to me that I could not possibly explain my apprehension of the preceding night. He urged me in a kind of challenging way to sit on the other spot. For some inexplicable reason I was actually afraid of the other place, and did not sit on it. He asserted that only a fool could fail to see the difference.

I asked him if each of the two spots had a special name. He said that the good one was called the sitio and the bad one the enemy; he said these two places were the key to a man's well being, especially for a man who pursuing knowledge. The sheer act of sitting on one's spot created superior strength; on the other hand, the enemy weakened a man and could even cause his death. He said I had replenished my energy, which I had spent lavishly the night before, by taking a nap on my spot.

He also said that the colours I had seen in association with each specific spot had the same overall effect either of giving strength or of curtailing it."Then you look for a spot to circle. You can build a shelter. Dig one. Or suspend a hammock like the Viet Cong. It is time for socialization on the pyramid.

you start to set up camp. Hellcat ALICE ruck. It was that or the Camelbak. 

Setting up a fire take note of direction with the wind first. Lay out a wooden triangle where the fire will be lit. At the top of the triangle is where the wind should be headed most of the time. This will host the spirit and inflame the spirit. 

You put on some water to boil for coffee. Smell isn't going to be a problem out here. You gather some stones at your feet. You place them in your pocket then set up your chair. Yes. You get some sort of chair. This is important for morale reasons. A stool might suffice but isn't recommended. It kills your back. You set it up and walk to gather wood and shit before the coffee is done. 

Your shelter is a lean to.

You have The center pole with your staff. You re-sheath your Gerber LMF2. Your army bivy cover lines the base of the structure. Your pack can lean over the doorway for protection. 

You go back to your chair and coffee. You have your cartomancy book on hand and a deck of cards. Now is for the spiritual component of the afternoon and evening. You decide on a three card spread, a five card spread, then the whole deck. You reach into your pocket and draw out the stones you collected earlier. You place a stone over the cards drawn to hold  them steady against the wind. 

The Sun if setting. It is time for another adoration. West. The Stars will be up soon. It is time to eat. 

Ma is also important to the Aghori rites. 

It is time to prepare by grabbing the red headlamp and your planisphere. You will need to find The constellation of the Great Dog.

You see the Moon and do your prayer. 

Aum! Tat savitur varenyam,

Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Dhiyo yo na pratyodayat.

(translation: "May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god:
So may he stimulate our prayers."

—The Hymns of the Rigveda (1896), Ralph T. H. Griffith - Then you tend the fire one last time. You sit down with your headlamp and journal and write. Pausing to look into the flames. You take note of the phase of the Moon and decide to write a smoke letter. You paraphrase an invocation you read. 

O triple form of darkness! Sombre Splendour!

Thou Moon unseen of men! Thou Huntress dread!

Thou crowned demoness of the crownless dead!

O breasts of blood, too bitter and too tender!

Unseen of gentle spring, Let me the offering

Bring to Thy shrine's sepulchral glittering!

I slay the swart beats! I bestow the bloom

Sown in the dusk, and gathered in the gloom

Under the waning Moon,

At midnight hardly lighting the East;

And the black lamb from the black ewe's dead womb

I bring and stir the slow infernal tune

Fit for Thy chosen priest.

Here where the band of Ocean breaks the road

Black-trodden, deeply-stooped, to the abyss,

I shall salute Thee with the nameless-kiss

Pronounced toward the uttermost abode

Of Thy supreme desire. I shall illume the fire

Whence Thy wild stryges shall obey the lyre,

Whence Thy Lemurs shall gather and spring round,

Girdling me in the sad funeral ground

With faces turned back,

My face averted! I shall consummate

The awful act of worship, O renowned,

Fear upon Earth, fear in hell, and black

Fear in the sky beyond fate!

I hear the whining of the wolves!

I hear the howling of the wolves about Thy Form,

Who comest in the terror of Thy storm,

And night falls faster,

Eere Thine eyes appear

Glittering through the mist.

O face of Woman unkissed

Save by the dead whose love is taken ere Thy wist!

Thee, Thee I call! O dire One! O Divine!

I, the sole mortal, seek Thy deadly shrine,

Pour the dark stream of blood,

A sleepy and reluctant river.

Even as Thou drawest, with Thy eyes on mine,

To me across the sense-bewildering flood

That holds my soul forever!

The Aboriginals have a ceremony called the "walkabout". It can take up to 6 months and is generally used as a rite of passage for boys. They travel up to a 1,000 miles solo living off the land without a compass. You date your journal and note the ritual and events for the day. Distance traveled. Then you take out your map. You have another two days left. You plot everything and make adjustments to your course for the next day. Then you will be in camp. 

You open your wallet and remove your photographs and a copy of Liber Oz. This absolves you from your code of conduct. To a higher purpose. 

You look at your photographs and feel connectivity. You even consider writing letters to them. The dead one's are read by the fire when cast into flames. You do not long for them or home. 

The conditions of a solitary bird are five: The first, that it flies to the highest point; The Second, that it does not suffer for company, not even of its own kind; The Third, that it aims its beak to the skies; The Fourth, that it does not have a definite color; The Fifth, that it sings very softly.

It is a vow you took years ago. You say your solar adoration before sleep and crawl into your bivy sack. You will wake at dawn and repeat the day. One day and a wake up as it was once said.