Ep. 4 In Praise of Crookedness

We're back with the great Swami Moriarty – Ireland’s Ram Dass, our very own Terence McKenna. Wondering what Yeats would have made of him. Would he have thought he had stumbled upon an actual druid? Had him plucked, stuffed and mounted in the National Museum?
So many big questions in such a short space of time, such as are there bulbs of emerald green consciousness within us? And what to do with a woman from a wagon dressed in a shawl of all her chakras?

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Martin took out his pipe, and then he took out the, the matches and he light a match. And this was a December night now, dark, calm, calm December night, and Martin light the match. And he held it for a while. And there it was this little flame in the dark night. And it was so vulnerable and so tender in some way. And it didn't seem to illuminate the dark. It didn't turn the darkness into itself, or it didn't even desire to turn the darkness into itself to transform the darkness. It had no imperial intentions in relation to the dark. It stood just sat there, this little flame in the night, and it merely pushed the darkness as it didn't even push the darkness away. The darkness almost backed away a little bit and gave it room. And I thought of the wonderful vulnerability of the light.

Speaker 1 (00:42):

And then Martin lit light his pipe and was puffing away. And after a while, then out comes, I knew what was gonna happen. Martin would pull out his little bottle, a bottle of whisky that he was bringing home with him. So he started drinking that. And um, I have, I had a few drinks of that. Then Martin said, you hammi kilt John. Now, not K-I-L-L-E-D at all, but KILT, you hammi kilt, John, you hammy kilt. You are a grand man and a fine man, and you're a great neighbor. And we are delighted. We are delighted to have you live in where you live in abroad, there amongst us. Ami

Speaker 2 (01:20):

Yes, you've guessed it, you're back at the altar of county Kerry's meandering Mystic Babaji himself, John Moriarty, Ireland's major Swami Sr. And Sadhu, whose books, recordings, and radio programs made such an impact in Ireland in the 1990s. But he was sadly less celebrated. Now his gorgeous way of describing things in trees, the magic number in so many cultures, reminds me of a story he tells of a friend in Kamara describing a woman.

Speaker 1 (01:53):

And he said, wasn't, she was talking about a girl then in the bar who had ung song and wasn't she a fine girl and a grand girl then a mighty girl? Do you know, in the old days, in fi you can't just say she's ungenerous to say that her, you know, a woman is a grand girl, Christ, you have to go on and on and on. She's a grand girl and she's a fine girl and she's a mighty girl. And she with the Lord TM from the wind, she took her. Wasn't her father a mighty man? Her grandfather, they're grand people. And that song she sung, John, wouldn't you stand naked in the snow listening to it, you know? And he said, sing me one verse of that song. So I had to stand there and sing Martin one Versa, luck Sheen side. And how proud was I of my girls so tall, I was envied mostly by young men, all when I brought her brushing with bashful pride to my cottage home by luck, sheen side.

Speaker 2 (02:40):

Brilliant. I just wonder what Yates would've made of Moriarty I'd give anything to see that encounter. Would you have thought he had stumbled upon an actual drut had plucked, stuffed and mounted in the National Museum? But my feeling is that in this, the fourth episode of this mini series, we're ready for some deeper Moriarty material. How would you feel if I dropped a solid four minute piece on you for maybe five minutes of soaring, searing circuitous Moriarty meanderings about crookedness? In a world of the straight edged slide rule, I think you can handle it. If you've got this far on this oral journey with me, I'm confident you're gonna sail through though if you are just joining jumping on raw and uninitiated, you may want to track back a bit through earlier episodes, but don't let me be the boss of you. It's entirely your own affair.

Speaker 2 (03:38):

If you feel you can handle it even without the precursors, you're entirely welcome to stay with us here on the journey with Guruji, with a great swami Mariachi, Ireland's Ramdas, our very own Terence McKenna to set the scene. He's been talking about his time working washing dishes in BH Castle in Kamara, and how he saw a local handyman who wasn't known for his neatness, laying a bit of non-slip flooring in the kitchen to make it safer for staff. Moriarty begins to judge the man's work thinking it wasn't straight, that he wasn't using his slide rule correctly. And that set him thinking about his own straightness and his crookedness.

Speaker 1 (04:20):

If someone were to put that slide rule to me, I'd say, yes, of course I'm crooked. I am crooked. I can see by the slide rule, which you measure me, I am crooked. But it isn't me this wrong, it's the slide rule that's wrong. I'm on top of the Ra hill amai, and I'm looking down at this wonderful crooked world, and I'm looking at the crooked Almore river. And I think as it cheese, it's it, if it, it falls down the side of five different mountains and then it, it congregates into and coheres into ina ina lake. And then it comes through a little garden and it comes down into Decl Lake, and then it comes through another little river and uh, rivers after that and runs into Nch Lake and then flows down in front of my house. But it flows down by the road and it's everywhere.

Speaker 1 (05:03):

It is pitched from one bank to another, and it's broken against this rock, and it's broken against that rock. And it's a great stiff neck, turbulent river when there's a lot of, when there's been three nights or three days of rain, uh, in the mountains. And, but always after coming outta the great brokenness of its folds, um, of its rocky, of its rocky beds. It coheres into a wonderful mirroring. There it is again. And all its woundedness is healed in a new pool. And sometimes a salmon will leap in that pool. You see the ring spreading out to both banks. And sometimes, like I'm walking up the road and I see that mirroring the sky and it's mirroring the birds and it's mirroring Peter Welch. It's mirroring Peter Welch's sheep. And it's mirroring me even though I can't see that it's mirroring me because I would need to be in the other bank to see me being mirrored.

Speaker 1 (05:44):

But then again, it, it goes another direction and it's a very crooked river, but sometimes, but always it is making its way down to the great ocean. Whereas for all its straightness, the royal canal, the Lord's saves Thrive canal leaves Dublin only in order to end up in Mullingar. You know? And why would anyone want ever to leave Dublin only in order to end up in Langar or the engineers freight roads of the, the auto bands in Germany. They leave. You leave dust dorf only interrupt end up in Frankfurt and Maine. And the Lord saves. Why would anyone ever want to leave dust dorf only in order to end up in Frankfurt and Maine? So with all our engineered straightness, I mean the modern one where we eliminate, we rationalize everything, we eliminate all these country contradictions. But maybe it is true that, I mean, without, without countries, without contradictions and countries, there is no growing.

Speaker 1 (06:31):

So I'm up Andra Hill and I'm thinking of that voice that says, make straight the way of the Lord. And I'm looking at the old more river and I'm thinking of Bill Joyce's answer. This is a lovely old castle, John. It's a lovely old place. And in lovely old places like this, the only good way to put anything straight is quite crooked. And now I'm up in this wonderful crooked world, and I think it's beautiful. Kamara is beautiful because of its crookedness. I mean, people don't so often go to meet with all his flatness and <inaudible> with all his flatness in the color with all his flatness. It's the very crookedness of kamara Somehow that, that, that is part of its giftedness. I'm up under right ahead and I'm thinking, will Joyce's answer? I'm looking at the own more river and I'm saying to myself, echoing, bill, this is a lovely old world, John.

Speaker 1 (07:16):

It's a lovely old world and in lovely old worlds like this, maybe, maybe. And I'm only saying maybe I'm not being done nothing here. Now I'm saying maybe, maybe the only good way to be straight in this world is to be crooked, giftly crooked, to accept your crookedness, giftly crooked, marvelously crooked in the way that they own more river is crooked. As a Christian, I can inherit that crookedness because I know now looking down in the own more river that all for all its crookedness, it is going down into the bliss of self loss in the divine ocean. And when it comes into the ocean, the oceans going to say, the j come a straight way where you are wild canal straight and you're coming the j come straight here. Or did you come a crooked way here? The ocean, I think will just open out its, its vastness and let the own more river that we all are in some sense.

Speaker 1 (08:10):

You put a slide rule to the o more river and you put a tour was growing and it sounds should the Lord save us is crooked, but it isn't the o more river that that's wrong. It's the slide rule that's wrong. And to turn the o more river into a canal would be an awful shame. So all the time it's making its way to make a long story shot. It's a lovely old world, John. It's a lovely old world. And maybe the only good way to be straight in this world is to be crooked, gifted crooked, marvelously, crooked in the way that the own more river is crooked. Because all the time the old more river is finding its way down into the bliss of acceptance and self loss in the divine ocean. Okay,

Speaker 2 (08:51):

I want to take you back to the last episode where you might remember Murty decided to walk away from his old life to start afresh. And then as soon as he left, he began to get cold feet. Here. Here's a snippet from that chat just to to jog your memory. So I

Speaker 1 (09:07):

Walk up the road, I have walked out now, I walk up the road, I am poor in spirit. Now I'm poor externally and poor inwardly, now poor doctrinally and poor materially. And I walk up the road having given all, having that all that I am or have fall to the ground and five miles up the road is thin wind blowing. And I think Christ, have I really walked out. And I'm wondering, must I now never again worry where the night falls on me or where the day breaks on me, where the night falls on me. Now, where the day breaks in me must not be a concern of mine. I must no longer ever concern myself with this now, but there's a thin wind blowing as, as, as I walk, continue to walk out and say, I'm, I'm wondering, can I call my own bluff now, have I actually walked out? But this thin cold wind is blowing and there's a wreak of turf, and I sight, I sit down by the Rico turf for a while.

Speaker 2 (09:51):

So he sits there by the Rico turf, the heap of Pete, the bank of brown sods of compacted earth with his whole life ahead of him. And we wonder what's gonna happen to him? Would he soar or sink or both? Or maybe there's a third way. Now, this next piece may not actually be aligned according to the admittedly rather chaotic chronology of his story, but it somehow makes sense in my mind that this piece should come next. It's from a time when he lies back on the earth in the same place, but maybe on a different day. Anyway, here goes.

Speaker 1 (10:25):

And as I lay back there lying on the stick stre leaf strewn chestnut, strewn earth, I was wondering that I was, I was aware that down, deep down and not so deep, but certainly, uh, superficially deep in this soil, now there are all these daffodil bulbs and they are now breaking. They are now budding. And come next April they'll be overground and they would be blooming. But now they're there and they're, they're, they're ceasing to be dormant now they're coming alive now. And here are all these bulbs of consciousness that I'm lying on. And I was just wondering, are there dormancy within me? Are there bulbs of consciousness, bulbs of yellow consciousness, bulbs of sapphire blue consciousness, bulbs of emeral green consciousness bulbs of of seventh heaven consciousness in me? And we know like that, I, when a kitten is born, uh, it's blind for the first nine days, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (11:16):

Now, are there senses and faculties in me that just don't remain dormant for nine days? They might remain dormant for nine lives, or 99 lives are, you know, 99 to the power of nine inclinations that these faculties are, or whatever you'd like to call them, remain dormant to me. I mean, sometimes like I would imagine someone walking down to Bally Bunny and walking down the beach in Bali Bunny and standing ankle deep in the ocean and saying, the ocean is deep, but the ocean is infinitely deeper than it is, than, than than ankle deepness. So are we mostly only ankle deep in our own nature? Are there immensities in our own nature? Now, Hindus and Buddhists and Oriental people, generally they talk about chakras, that there are in fact bulbs, if you like, of consciousness within this. They call them the chakras. And that if you live a particular kind of life, and maybe if you practice Kundalini yoga, that these chakras one by one, beginning with the malara chakra that they will open. And when the, when, when the saha chakra, the thousand petal lo chakra at the crown of the head, when that opens, then you have, you, you, you, you've experienced rad ba if you like, you've experienced bliss then. So are there infinite, infinite reaches of consciousness inside are other modes of consciousness inside of us, other bulbs of consciousness inside of us that we, that never ripen us. Are we, are we largely dormant? Um, in, in, in, throughout most of our incarnations?

Speaker 2 (12:42):

Are we largely dormant through most of our incarnations? That's the question. God Moriarty would've been great on TikTok. He would've had followers and worshipers from here to, I dunno, to Timbuktu. His problem was that he was ahead of his time and like every good guru or du he didn't have a clue how to edit himself, when to stop, how to shape his wisdom into bite, bite-sized nuggets of brilliance. I'm gonna leave you with one final piece, an encounter John had with a traveler woman who knocked at his door. Now, there's so much I wanna say about this piece, but there's really no need to say anything at all. No lame editorializing by me. It's gonna add any additional light or worth to his account. I'll just leave it with you. For what it's worth, you've been listening to the Bob Prophet Manhan on Murti. As with the three previous episodes, I urge you to check out more of his work if you've cut the bug in any way.

Speaker 2 (13:42):

There's a wonderful biography titled Not the Whole Story by his close friend, Mary McGillicutty, as well as his own books, his radio programs recordings. There's also an illuminating profile documentary Dream Time Revisited by Donal <inaudible>, available from Annu Pictures and Lorna Hill's conversations with My Godfather, which you can see on YouTube. There's also an increasingly large gathering of Moriarty material being amassed at the John Moriarty Institute for Ecology and Spirituality, which can be found at www John Murty, ie. Anyway, that's my lot for the moment. Take it handy here. I'm gonna leave you with John telling you one more story for the road.

Speaker 1 (14:33):

Sometime in the late afternoon. It was a November day, a gray November day in Kamara. I had a brisk tiptop of hooves coming down the road and I looked out as the drew, I looked out the window and there was five gypsy caravans moving beautifully past my window. And there was a lovely, lovely motion in that movie as they moved past. And I knew where they were going. This wonderful color now has come into the, to the, to the townland. And they were going up to the common edge, just beyond the well field. So this was a quiet, quiet day, Sunday afternoon in Kamara. But now there was great color in the village and there was a great life in the village. Um, there was, there was, there was a feast for hearing and seeing in the village. 'cause up the road, now I could hear the, the, the young gypsies shouting and crying and banging and fighting and ponies banging and dogs barking.

Speaker 1 (15:19):

So there was great life in the village. And uh, after a while I had a knocking at my door and I said, come in. And the door opened and there was a woman dressed in a tart and Shaw. And I dunno whether I was half hallucinating or what I was doing, I wasn't actually, but, um, sh there was an immense radiance. It was a woman, but she was dressed in this tart and shaw and it was like a wonderful radiance standing there in the door. And she said, good evening, your Honor. And I said, good evening to you. Come in. And she came in and we were talking and, but there was most of my mind and most of my psyche was trying to find a name for what was standing in my door and what, for what the reality that had come through my door.

Speaker 1 (15:59):

And you know, sometimes your mind is doing two things at once. You're actually the surface. Part of your mind is talking to the woman. But at the deeper levels and at other levels, I was trying to find a name for her because this was, there was some kind of need to name her. And because I'd been thinking about chakras and inner immensities at the time, and the opening of chakras, opening of these other kinds and types of consciousness, suddenly, um, almost without seeking it, I found myself saying, the woman standing at my door is dressed in the shawl of all our chakras. In most of us, the chakras, the chakras that are asleep. But in her, they have opened. And not only they have come to the surface and they've come out and she's wearing them like a shawl. And it's a shawl of immense and tremendous radiance.

Speaker 1 (16:38):

And sometimes I remember in, in Northern Canada, in Canada, when I was there, I would see sometimes you'd go out in the night and you would see your chance to see happen, to see and be delighted, to see the, the northern lights, these great our auroras. They would call them, um, you know, these great curtains of light, the northern lights moving there across the sky. And, um, you, but you would say there, these are cosmic external, our auroras. But there are also our auroras of soul. Our auroras of inwardness, mostly they are so far away that we aren't aware of them. And sometimes I imagine that the people who built Shark Cathedral, they were building soul. Our auroras, there is soul in us. And those soul can put on an immense display. And in some sense, she was wearing, she was wearing the shawl of all her chapters that night. She, that, that evening she was, that afternoon, she was wearing the shawl of our inner soul, our orders that day. So this great radiance, this great light was standing and had come into my room.