// turifumy is the divination by smoke;
// umbromancy is the divination by shade;
// metagnomy is the divination by magic.
If you’re a spiritual person, I very much envy you. I’ve had a conturbed relationship with spirituality ever since I was a child, and even my poetry, at least normally, shelters itself from meddling with that aspect of life. Regardless, the composition intends no harm whatsoever; it’s merely an exploration of (part) of the issue, which, in my view, is the abnegation of a formative perspective of the world. To kill ourselves as the gods of our world and replace ourselves with carcasses of gods that do not inhabit our world, as a buddy of mine once said. If you have a stellar relationship with spirituality, seriously, please, leave me some advice.
(And Paul, I’m aware, it’s even worse, an authentic mess; last one, I promise)
Thank you for reading!,
João-Maria.
(CALIATH) 
Your phraseology is mind-bending as always… nice to see your work again! Yours and many other favourite works I follow are not automatically showing up in my feed. Strange glitch in WP. Very glad I came to look….
As for spirituality, I feel it most when I’m honouring something, or someone, or some breath… it’s more a kind of deep gratitude. The terminology for god is tricky since there are so many negative associations. But to me god is something more like a basic building block of the universe, which connects us all, than a person or a deity to be worshipped.
Hugs, and loving your lit, João-Maria. 🙏💛 xoxo “Lia”
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Thank you, Lia!, and do not fret; having you remember me is already blessing enough.
I’ve fiddled with that unified idea of monadism and henosis; that “oneness” in all; and it does satisfy me, to think I’m of the same fabric as the universe. It’s soothing, and beautiful, and a very benign way to look at things, which makes it compatible with me.
Thank you so much for reading and stopping by.
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🥰❤️🌌🤗✨🌻
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I liked the emotion of it, though parts strike me as somewhat dense, and some feel part of a private conversation that we’re not privy to. Anyway, this borrowed line is really profound: “To kill ourselves as the gods of our world and replace ourselves with carcasses of gods that do not inhabit our world.” That is a mind-blowing statement, clear and bold. Spirituality, meh. If there’s any spirituality, it’s our connection to others outside of ourselves. Those are powerful real things.
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Oh, all of it is dense, I’m not the most lucid of individuals. I keep saying that maybe with time things will clear up, become more defined. I’m not so sure anymore, since it seems to be going in the opposite direction.
Thank you for that last part of your comment; I do agree with you completely, but those who find spirituality elsewhere do so for a reason, it seems. We chose to place our faith in volition and volatility; in ourselves and others, both dangerously unstable things. Those who find a mythology to cling to, a doctrine, well, they have the assurance of structure at the expense of growth.
I’m not regretful of choosing growth, but I am, sometimes, a bit lonely.
Thank you for reading too, and I hope it wasn’t too painful of an experience!
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Not painful. My mind is a bit lazy before coffee.
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Ah, Terry. I’m glad I never got that caffeine vice.
Or, perhaps, that’s precisely what I’m lacking!
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Spirituality …
For me, I feel my deep relationship with God began with acknowledging my mortality and tendency toward disorder. I reached a point where I was at the end of myself and I had tried everything I could on my own, and it all fell short. The only thing I could do was surrender, and God was there, waiting for me. He healed my brokenness and paid for wrongdoings. Everything fell into place in such order I could only acknowledge that it was God.
I am a Christian and I was baptized last year. The journey (life, and my own personal growth) is not over, nor is it easy, but I have a purpose and different mindset than when I started. I don’t claim to know everything, but I know that I’m am taken care of and every event is part of a Master plan.
I hope you find what you are looking for. I believe we, as humans, are all meant to worship Someone, and that longing you feel is embedded in the human soul. We all share it, and only God can fill that longing. He built us to live for Him.
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I grew up environed by a very dense and rooted Catholicism, which is common of Southern Europe, especially in the states of Iberia. I suppose that having a pre-molding, not only in the very doctrine and christian mythomanias, but also in those individuated religions perceptions that perfused those around me (family and the like), made me a bit disenchanted with that particular path of spirituality, if only because I identify Christian aesthetics and mythologies with such dark, miserable periods of my life.
In your case, it seems that you generated and developed that relationship with the Christian God on your own, and sought after Him and his doctrine, which allows you, at least, to make your own spiritual memories and symbologies, untainted from those of others. I really respect that, and I think your spiritual journey will indubitably be fruitful and strong!
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Very nice. I like the word “umbromancy.”
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I’m known for my lucid, down-to-earth vocabulary. I’m practically the adopted son of e.e. cummings and Bukowski.
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Nothing to sneeze at in that lineage.
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I like one, I do not like the other. I suppose we all hate one of our parents.
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For a time, at any rate. You never know, you may grow to appreciate the other one yet.
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Your use of words is brilliant. Lucid absolutely. Precise to a fault. Down to earth? Really? :p
Among the down to earth…Loved asservation of nothingness, gash of sin, bloodied amnesia, pinkish scintilla….
And inspired by your definitely not down to earth vocabulary! Thank you for sharing your wonderful writing. I’d say God bless but …😄
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Oh, thank you so much. I was jesting with DB, I’m fully aware that my vocabulary isn’t down-to-earth, haha.
You’re a fabulous writer yourself, truly. I’m always so warmed by your feedback; and you may say God bless, always; I might not understand God, but I understand the sentiment of kindness and amiability that sources the phrase, and I absolutely return it. Much love.
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Thank you for such a warm response and for expressing your thoughts with powerful grace. Language owes you 🙂
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lots of big words and different themes, but what does it mean? I don’t see any continuity here? Please tell me your inspiration so I might understand your work better? 😀
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Hi Mr.Jonathan!,
I could make a case for continuity, although it is not a narrative poem, thus, I don’t think it would be fruitful; the inspiration for the poem, as the post indicates, is spirituality, and I will give a rough sketch of what I meant and how I built it, to the best of my abilities, without explaining imagery and metaphor and the such:
Hipomenos is a conjured name from the greek words of “hypo”, meaning less, and “menos”, meaning power; the entire first part of the poem explores this first aspect, that of abnegation and abandon, of leaving your god behind for the sake of self-exaltation, of your own pretense of an absolute sensorial wisdom that dispenses godness, since godness is tantamount to absurdity, since to hold all the answers in god is to surrender knowledge to god. “he who dies there(god), that slithers the bricks into the lips of wind(time), and sources the hyalescent fingers of saturnity(conscience)”.
The second part explores reversion, or the reshaping of self in a godless image, or an “imageless image”, since one that has always been made in the image of god cannot be remade in a image that is godless. That’s where “the larches of youth return to saplinghood” and the canary becomes an embrion again, since, in my specific case, to give up godness is to “delete”, per say, a good amount of memories that I have of my youth. It reaches such a point that once is more lost than found in all that profound sacrifice of being, so much so that a tick would find itself with less blood, such is the amount of nothingness left in the abandonment.
The last part is… confused, I believe. It has this conflicted, bittersweet resolution that lies between being at ease with ones own lack of spirit — or lack of faith — and feeling somewhat lonesome in the absence of worship, or empty in the entirety of acquiescence.
I’m not a top-notch author, Mr.Jonathan, so I don’t tend to write very clearly. The language I use is the language I know, since I’m not a native in English, I tend to translate the words I know in Portuguese and use those.
Thank you for reading and reblogging, and I hope I helped you get a sense of what I was trying to say!
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YOU HAVE! 😀 A mighty lot of things going on in this one! I write limericks, myself. Thank you for humoring me and answer my inquiry! You have helped me have a greater appreciation of your complex style!
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
WHAT DO YOU-ALL THINK OF THIS POEM?
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I think that this is lovely, and in its own, spiritual. I think what we worship is much less important than how, and I think that writing poetry, especially wanting, questioning, desirable words… that’s god.
We ask a lot of things and eventually, ideally, we get an answer.
Maybe you’ve already gotten an answer and you haven’t seen it.
Humans are so set on only believing what they can see, and only applying a single perspective.
You already have three. (;
God is within, in my humble opinion. Eventually, I think we build ourselves into our own gods or we die long before our bodies are dead.
I hope you have a chance to choose the former in the future.
All the love, luck, and light.
Scarlet
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Thank you so much, Scarlet, and I agree with you completely.
I do think that’s precisely the conclusion I have reached: to grow into ones own godness, the likeness of which does not mirror our semblance, but is instead the only semblance we can conjure.
It’s being outside of being; our outer selves, our satellite gods, not unlike those formed by Ancient Romans.
Thank you so much for reading!
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