Return Of The Lost City – by Clive James
How far was Plato free of that “inflamed
Community” he said we should avoid?
Sofas, incense and hookers: these he named
Among the habits not to be enjoyed,
And if you did, you ought to be ashamed.
But can’t we tell, by how he sounds annoyed,
That his Republic, planned on our behalf,
Was where his own desires had the last laugh,
If only as the motor for his sense
Of discipline? Even the dreams were policed,
By the Nocturnal Council. Such immense
Powers of repression! What would be released
Without them? The Republic was intense:
The fear of relaxation never ceased.
Hence the embargo on all works of art,
However strict in form, that touched the heart.
No poetry. No poets! No, not one —
Not even Homer, if he were to be
Reborn — could be admitted, lest the sun
Set on the hard-won social harmony,
And that obscene night-life which had begun
In man’s first effort at society,
Atlantis, should come flooding back, the way
The sea did, or so story-tellers say.
But Plato knew that they’d say anything:
For money or applause or just a share
Of an hetaera, they would dance and sing
And turn the whole deal into a nightmare.
The very prospect left him quivering
With anger. There is something like despair
Haunting the author of the ideal state,
A taunting voice he heard while working late:
Atlantis made you. It is what you know,
Deep down. Atlantis and its pleasures drive
Your thoughts. Atlantis never lets you go.
Atlantis is where you are most alive —
Yes, even you, you that despise it so,
When all mankind would love it to arrive
Again, the living dream you try to kill
By making perfect. But you never will.
(Weekend Australian, June 3-4, 2006)
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Tags: Astrology, astrology blog, astrology myth, astrology poems, astrology poetry, Atlantis, Atlantis astrology, Atlantis poem, Clive James, Clive James astrology, Homer, Plato astrology, pleasure astrology
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Atlantis was supposed to be after ‘MU’ & Egyptians after Atlantis.
This is the idea of Nivana, Utopia, land of the Lotus Eaters……….
Apparently we are wired to believe in an Utopia, somewhere in our brain chemistry.Symbolic of our ‘higher mind’, that we know deep down how totally beautiful we can
be & how re-evolved we can be?SweetPea, you have lots of inside info on Atlantis.
I like the story of the exploding giant crystal that shattered because of mis use, & Atlantis then
was scattered & survivors went to Egypt.-
pretty sure thats an Edgar Cayce hypothesis, its a great read “Edgar Cayce on Atlantis” I have it and can send it to you if interested Peg.
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Is that where it is from? Edgar Cayce.
Thanks, David, did read lots of his stuff eons ago when fascinated
by Atlantis.Mystic has covered Atlantis & Egypt here & activated thoughts iether from books or genetic
memories of both places & the connectivity.Hello Kim,
Lovely to see your face.
x
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I only know what I learned through my teacher and believe me, at times some of that seemed like a fairy tale but much has held up for me personally over the years.
On mention of the crystal, also, huge crystals were buried in the earth and the High Council of Atlantis could hold a soul inside the crystals as punishment. Crystals were also buried (of course the world was not as physical then), but crystals were buried at the major votices of the earth and dark magicians gained power of dimensional realities through utilizing the crystals via power over nature. Peeps ever wonder why there is so much war in the middle east? Egypt area is a major one of course and certain things are buried over in the Iran/Iraq areas.
Maybe good ‘ol George Bush lookin’ fer buried weapons of mass destruction was not just a fig newton of his imagination but he lookin’ where he left his stash! lol.. (Hey, never thought of that until now)
Lemuria was of nature and the Goddess being access to the source of power the Atlanteans sought. This was eventually what the “war in heaven” was about.
No remnants of Lemuria will ever be found on earth as it was not a physical world. The great palaces that certain devas resided in were “ideas” , not structures as we or even Atlantis knew them.
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Just to throw in a tid-bit about why Atlantis was more physical than even Lemuria….Lemuria utilized 12 frequencies of light, the earth was reduced to seven and the additonal five had to be hid as they contain the keys to creaton and certain powers could not have that power. Those five additional will eventually be rediscoverd within each individual along with access to higher dimensions as like Pegs mentions we “re-evolve’.
Meanwhile, the Goddess protects the five additional powers and they will remain hidden until it’s safe to be revealed.
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Oh Mystic, I love this Clive James Poem. Thank you for posting it (and so glad to have you back!)
James reminds me of Oscar Wilde here–you know, the way he would trivialities the important and make much of the trivial. It lilts the reader into a kind of trance until you awaken with this sudden realization that our ideals, our ‘perfect republics’ our ideal states (of being?) are contrived. When they exclude the uncontrolled (the poetic) and the flawed (art as an imperfect representation of the divine, so Plato felt) they exclude us–heart and soul.
The kind of circular thinking that Plato got himself into–the divine world as perfect and all else a poor copy–unfortunately relegates everyone and everything, including himself, into the ‘poor copy’ bin. In his effort to revere the divine, to leave it pristine and untouched, he repressed the only glimpse we have of it. He stamped out its expression.
What’s that Woody Allen joke? ‘I would never join a group that would have me as a member?’ Clive captures this quite profoundly.
…There is something like despair
Haunting the author of the ideal state,
A taunting voice he heard while working late:Atlantis made you. It is what you know,
Deep down.When we deny our desires, our creativity, our impulses our ‘source’ for some idealize concept of perfection, we suffocate the soul.
Clearly Mr. James suffers no such suffocation.
Beautiful
Thank you!
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Well put, Kim. Yes, what a great poem!
Reading it reminded me of Richard Dawkins’ deprecation of any human faculty that is not reason or rationality, as if those can be separated from our soul’s yearnings, creativity, intuition, sense, sensuality…What a crap existence it would be in Dawkins’ cold world where nothing is valid beyond that which can be measured or be made to fit a theory of human making.
Thank Goddess for Art and Astrology and Cuddly Clive James.
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I so absolutely agree with you Uber in regards to Dawkins – he and he of his ilk – are no better than the fundamentalists they see as being “the problem”. Narrow minded, bigoted opinions polarised to extremes never got us anywhere regardless of whether they come from fundamentalist fascism or fundamentalist socialism or fundamentalist religion – basically these blinkered ideologies wind up with the same result anyway – chaos and more confusion. What makes life beautiful and amazing are its mysteries, contradictions and paradoxes. The fact that quantifying it continues to elude scientific inquiry and only opens up a whole host of new questions and paradoxes is brilliant.
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Atheist dogma be damned. Dawkins has no inkling of what he’s missing.
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Wow Ubs,
You hit it on the head as the Goddess is basically not ~rational~, in that she does not have to ~think~ about things so much, but live them.
“cold world where nothing is valid beyond that which can be measured”
Sounds very much like the Atlantean world.
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“In his effort to revere the divine, to leave it pristine and untouched, he repressed the only glimpse we have of it. He stamped out its expression.”
That is beautiful Kim! (Think Plato might have been talking of direct memory of Atlantis as they were obsessed with perfection)
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Oh I just love Clive James! He is so eloquent in his speech and writings. I am an avid fan.
Thanks Mystic. I must’ve missed this in that edition of the W/E Aus. I haven’t read it before.
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Could be a metaphorical place …..the land of the subconscious……Atlantis rising is what ever pops up from the dream state ?…theta zone ?
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