Clair Noto is something of a favorite, as you may have gathered. At the time (1977), the emblematic fragments of "Red Lace" came under fire from no lesser a personage than Cat Yronwode herself.
The blood imagery.. pulls deep chords in any woman, yet I was again left wondering why. Why did the centaur smear his blood on Sonja's eyes? Why did Narca kill the Big Birds and tumble them into a vat of blood? Why did the heart's blood of one of the birds cure Sonja's blindness? (#13)
At the time (rehsongcycle, suspended) I think I may have related the centaur's artisan work of filigree roc-eggs to Vulcan, and the lordly rocs to the primordial cycle of blood and clay that their death rejuvenates (along with Sonja's eyesight.)
Apart from the symbolism, the city of Skranos has no overriding authority as the dynastic family is riven. Suumaro, the exiled prince, is beloved of his mother the sorceress Apah Alah, and enemy to his brother, lord of the behemoths.
The city is in schism, symbolised almost literally by the accursed palace of wood-turned-stone reared by the spurned Apah Alah. Most of the action takes place in the accursed palace.
Those who criticize the emblematic fragmentation of the narrative seem to miss the point that most beliefs do have that element of fragmentation. The obscurity of it is part of what makes it a belief.
The feminine aspect of Noto, the revival through blood and clay, has the strength and purity of strong (red) wine.
The raw, physical power of renewal constitutes beliefs which have these obscure or obscene sides (see Yaple, prev.) This frees the psyche from the reins of logic (Apollo) to the festive, fertile area of Dionysian abandon.
There is a ruinous side to revival which I think Noto captures in the root-entangled, fiery decadence and ultimate destruction of the accursed palace.
The cycles of schism and even schizophrenia followed by revival have no place in modernity where the straight lines of logic are the only authority.
The successes of logic and science are undeniable, yet the price is a psychic weakness of numbing infidelity. Where there is no room for renewal, the Dionysian urge cannot be satisfied.
The end-product of that society is efficiency with no meaning or joy. Modern work creates the habitat where that work is possible that becomes successful - the mirror of illusions, or straight-line programming.
Advance (of the Muskian order) is an illusion without the sophistication and taste that are matters of psychic belief. A dictatorial reality cannot have these, nor can it have a schizophrenia of body and mind, or schisms of society.
Instead of schism we have similarities, such as was noted in P185 of the robotic Taliban to the ultra-ordered West. We have pure social-media clichés and trolls; the Taliban are emblematic of Trolls from the ancient world.
The Taliban are only believers in money, as is the West, because this is equated with robotic success. When the monetary system came into play (with the maritime powers, prev), schizophrenic belief and schism were outlawed.
This culminated in the establishment of the Vatican as an independent state in 1929, meaning that the temporal authority of the church was at an end. The spiritual/temporal dichotomy was outlawed.
To see exactly what this means, one has to recognize the overlap that occurred between ecclesiastical and secular authority throughout the Middle Ages
Papal conflicts were the order of the day, owing to favors bestowed by the Pope - or 'king of kings' - on one kingdom or another.
For about a hundred years Rome was in fact occupied by the Holy Roman Empire or its vassals, and the Pope resided at Avignon where mostly French were elected.
When Rome was retaken by the Papal army, the French contingent created an anti-Pope at Avignon. This ultimate Western schism of having two pontiffs was finally resolved in about 1415.
Schisms are normal where temporal power is also held by spiritual authority. The conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire took the form.of regular excommunications for acts of physical expansion.
In Italy, local 'vicars' were more like hereditary lords little different to princes. The only difference was that they were obligated to Rome as the temporal authority.
When temporal authority is lost to the spiritual dimension, there is no possibility of having schisms since the dictatorial authority of monetary and managerial economy is overwhelming.
The Taliban are as much under that authority as is the West. Both sides are robotic ally successful - mirror images of logistical illusions.
One has to have some freedom.from dictatorship to recognize the psychic freedom of belief and taste, as opposed to simply wealth.
The ego can.only be tamed by humility. If the success of such work is a success for the ego, the ego itself creates the work that creates the habitat that creates the work.
It's an.illusory system that serves only the cravings of the ego as opposed to a reality that is strong and pure. This reality is both sexually schizophrenic and schismatic, a product of body and mind, female blood and male muscle.
