MOONBIRD for Jhonn
When I sleep
I am awake
When I see your eyes
Ferocious like a Saint's
You are a Moonbird
And have gone to circle those planets
On which you tried to live on earth
Always a great joy
Always a great pain
I saw in your great soul
Moonbird
You have taken the time
To empty time
While you emptied wine
Throwing yourself into life and then death
Your spirit was utter chaotic beauty
Tangible
Unsustainable
I always saw something
Terrifyingly immortal in you
Ready to crash through your body into lights and forests and seas
Moonbird
You are not the only broken one
But a break enough to break hearts
A savage slide
Beyond the limnal time we all know here
You have taken the time
To take our time
Into you
One final time
And you are now translucent
In the stars
Laughing
Painless
Joy
* Back to mundanity:
I had intended the majority of the text on this update to go out last week but the shocking and untimely death of our
beloved friend BALANCE has skewed everything. The 2LP Current 93 album that is released very soon on Beta-lactam Ring
Records was to be entitled HOW I LOVED THE MOON. As a result of his going to God, David Tibet and Steven Stapleton have
changed the title of the album to HOW HE LOVED THE MOON and dedicated it to the Great Heart and Great Soul of Jhonn Balance.
* David Tibet: new website imminent:
In the next 2 to 3 weeks we will be activating www.davidtibet.com,
which has until now been dormant.
I will be using this website for more personal projects and thoughts. Original artwork by myself-both new as well as
earlier material, including images I have created for C93 album covers and so on-will be available for purchase from this
site, as well as other specialised musical and literary projects I am starting/presently working on.
I have also decided to release more of my artwork for purchase and consequently will soon be accepting commissions for
Hypnagogic Portraits, showing my Hypnagogic impression of the subject. I will be doing these only of HUMANS and CATS, at
least initially. I will also be making available my Hypnagogic Calligraphic Texts. Typically these consist of a particular
passage from SCRIPTURE which is written thousands of times hypnagogically and is then sealed as alpha/omega mouth.
I will also be occasionally posting thoughts on subjects that are coming for me; as with durtro.com, there will be a
facility to automatically receive regular updates.
* Forthcoming concerts for Current 93 and friends:
We hope to have more details soon of shows in 2005 for Current 93 and special guests. The below are presently being arranged:
Athens, Greece: very early April 2005
Toronto, Canada: 21/22/23 April 2005
Venice, Italy: whenever the promoters ask me to do it
London, UK: whenever I am told by the clouds to do it
Glasgow, UK: autumn/winter 2005
* Simon Finn live shows in Denmark:
Friday 10 December at The Lab, Vesterbrogade 107b, Copenhagen. Doors open at 8.30pm. Tickets cost 70 Danish Kroner (
approximately €10/ £7). Support band is yet to be confirmed. For more details email mads@bragagild.dk
Sunday 12 December. A show will take place in Aarhus. We do not yet know the venue; email jon@it-snedkeren.dk for details.
* Baby Dee ready for action and to play more concerts:
Baby Dee has recently resumed recording and playing shows; as many of you will know, she is fantastic and supreme, as
well as the official accordion player and backing singer for Current 93 now and always. She is now very keen to play more
shows, especially during the months of November, December, January, February, and into March. People wishing to book her
can email her at deeinatree@aol.com
* Marc Almond recovering well:
I am delighted to say that Marc's condition has improved substantially, and he is now recovering and in contact
with friends and family, and has posted a message to his website. More information on his excellent website here: www.marcalmond.co.uk
* Priscilla Paris: rest in peace:
On a sadder note, I have just discovered that one of my favourite singers of all time, PRISCILLA PARIS, died this
year after a fall in Paris, France where she has been living for many years. She was 59, and went to GOD on the same date
as my birthday, March 5. I was introduced to her work by Boyd Rice many years ago and since then have treasured her albums
and singles. Her work tends to be scarce, especially her finest solo album PRISCILLA SINGS HERSELF, which features mainly
self-written material including "Stone Is Very Cold" which was covered by Spell (Rose McDowall & Boyd Rice), and FROM THE
GLASS HOUSE by the Paris Sisters.
There is an excellent and concise website about her and the Paris Sisters here:
www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/parissisters/index.html
And the Paris Sisters' beautiful EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN album has been remastered for CD by Eric Records with
extensive notes by the remaining Sisters. Click here www.ericrecords.com
for more information.
* Hand-drawn sleeve edition of "The Starres are Marching Sadly Home":
Another hand-drawn sleeve by Tibet has been added to the Durtro online shop. As with the two previous releases,
it comes in a black sleeve with a drawing by him and numbered also by him. There are 31 copies of this item. Orders
are processed strictly in the order they are received. Please note: the fact that you have been able to order it online
is not a guarantee that you will obtain one, as the number of orders received always exceeds the number of copies, and it
is not possible to take it out of the shop as soon as it has sold out. It costs £49 plus postage and packing.
* Hand-drawn sleeve edition of "Musikalische Kürbs Hütte" test pressing by David Tibet and Steven Stapleton:
This hand-drawn sleeve has an elaborate drawing by Steven Stapleton and David Tibet and has also been added to the
Durtro online shop. It comes in a black sleeve and is numbered and signed on the back by Tibet and Stapleton. There are 16
copies of this item, which is a white label black vinyl (as opposed to the released album, which was clear vinyl) test
pressing of the vinyl version of MUSICAL PUMPKIN COTTAGE, which differed dramatically to the CD version. Orders are
processed strictly in the order they are received. Please note: the fact that you have been able to order it online is
not a guarantee that you will obtain one, as the number of orders received always exceeds the number of copies, and it
is not possible to take it out of the shop as soon as it has sold out. It costs £93 plus postage and packing.
* Time lines/Christ manifests against dragon old serpent head arising/Endsigns/Paradise regained
I often get emails from people asking me about my beliefs, especially in view of my earlier connections with Aleister
Crowley/OTO, Tibetan Nyingma Buddhism, and Christianity.
Whilst growing up in Malaysia, my interests were Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism (initiated by the bizarre and wonderfully
spurious writings of Lobsang Rampa), Aleister Crowley and Christian doctrine, especially the Gospels, Revelation and New
Testament apocryphal writings.
I became interested in the occult and especially Crowley/Thelema around the age of 10 after seeing a copy of the UK
Sphere paperback DIARY OF A DRUG FIEND at Kuala Lumpur airport, especially after reading he was "the wickedest man in the
world" in the blurb on the back. What pre-pubescent could resist? His face was shells and moons horizoned to the stars.
I continued to investigate him and other occult teachings from then on, and also loved Dennis Wheatley books. I was
also a member of the International Order of Kabbalists, though I don't have the slightest idea why. All of this was between
1970-1973 when I was suffering the usual insanity of the classic English Preparatory School education at Red House School,
Moor Monkton, Yorkshire. Unfortunately this was the first time that all my mail was intercepted and opened by the
authorities, who objected to "Satanic catalogues" I was receiving from the very respectable Sorcerer's Apprentice shop in
Leeds. It gave me a foretaste of having all my mail opened yet again, and police waiting in unmarked cars outside my house,
during the anti-PTV/TOPY witch-hunt hysteria over the FIRST TRANSMISSION video. Fun. Fun. Fun.
I was accepted into an organisation usually referred to as the Typhonian OTO after leaving university at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, having commenced my nine-month Probationary Record whilst still there. It consisted of a work on
Netzach. I took the name Frater PAVO 93 (Pavo being Latin for a PEACOCK) on the basis of an intense dream I had after
my acceptance.
I left this Order after my increasing unhappiness and disillusionment with much of Thelema. I had also renewed my
interest in Tibetan Buddhism, and later helped bring over Chimed Rigdzin Lama Rinpoche from India to give teachings in the
UK; he had been, for many years, the teacher of my friend James Low, under whom I was studying Classical Tibetan. I was
involved in printing and publishing many practice texts of Rinpoche's Nyingma texts from his Byangter (Northern Treasure)
tradition.
During these periods, my interest in Christian Revelation and Apocalyptic not only remained but became far more intense.
Eventually I realised that I no longer believed Buddhism to be a system of thought that I felt to be true or meaningful
for myself. Some time prior to this, I had come to the conclusion some years before that occult teachings and traditions
could be destructive to the soul, often glorifying the ego (as I undoubtedly glorified mine) above all else. I maintain a
great deal of respect for Buddhist teachings, and for my departed teacher Chimed Rigdzin Lama Rinpoche. I also became (and
have remained) close friends with the head of the OTO, Hymenaeus Beta. I continue to admire his profound knowledge and
intuitive glory, and our friendship has deepened, partially as a result of our discussions on religious thought, both
exoteric and esoteric, including on the topic of Christian doctrines. I also deeply love sacred Hindu writings such as the
Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads; since I was a child I had a great love for the brother deities Ganesh and Subramaniam,
the sons of Shiva and Parvati.
I do believe that Christ was the one and only manifestation of God in the world in the specific sense of being His Son.
I believe in the Virgin Birth (though this particular article of dogma's veracity doesn't worry me), the Crucifixion, the
Resurrection. I believe we are living in the Last Days, and that many AntiChrists have already arisen and the final is
about to appear. I believe in both Hell and Heaven and the Company of the Saints. I try always to remember the FOUR LAST
THINGS: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. And a FIFTH THING: LOVE. I have a particular respect and love for Saints Rita,
Lazarus, Padre Pio and Francis. I am a great admirer of John Bradburne, whom I hope to be beatified soon. Outside of the
Bible and the Gospel of Thomas, the writers that have influenced me the most are Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Julian of Norwich,
TS Eliot, CS Lewis, Pascal, Bede Griffiths, Kierkegaard, and Watchman Nee (whom I was introduced to by my friend James
Hunt); but of all of these, Kierkegaard has meant the most to me. At the moment I particularly love reading St. Paul's
EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. I believe most things through faith and not reason and have a particular fondness for
Patripassianism, which could briefly be defined as the Father suffered with/as the Son on the Cross. I carry around with
me when travelling the Gospel of Thomas-it may be heretical but speaks with a profound beauty-as well as the Bible in both
English and New Testament Greek. Around my neck I wear a cross, and three blessed medallions-those of the Sacred Heart,
the Miraculous Medallion, and the Holy Shroud of Turin (the first two of which were given to me by my friend William
Christopher Hoag), and a dancing Ganesh given to me by my beloved wife Dri. I am Gospel-fixated and Christocentric,
Catholic in some things but not all, and quite fundamentally Scriptural in other things. I am a worshipper of icons
and stories, and I believe almost everything I am told. I sometimes feel I have wasted most of my life chewing on shadows;
but this was all part of a process, that long road which leads to clarity and faith. I have found beauty and wisdom in
almost everything I have studied and learnt from, from Crowley's system to the Buddha's. But I have come to believe that
a story born in blood and death has led to rebirth. It is more real than the sun and moon, and bigger than the Space that
will gobble us up at the end and send us to the Judgement Seat, Throne of Timeless Mercy and Love. Mercy. Love. Joy.
It is important for me that what I now believe is stated as clearly as I can. And I consider barcodes to be the
eyebrows of AntiChrist. Some people think this makes me unbalanced. I think I see the future and I strive to understand
what I see approaching. It will lead finally to the building of the Heavenly Jerusalem, after great sorrows and pain, and
we all shall know it is time to take off our masks: "All the many faces we have worn/All the many faces we have borne".
Then there will be no more starless realms, and I and you will see all whom we loved again, including cats, in the
Mystery of Christ.
godislove
david michael +++
14 XI 2004