Chapter 17

Psychedelic Prayers
TjT/ SycheddiC poetry, like all psychedelic art, is / ^"^ crucially concerned with evolution, flow, ^ change. Each psychedelic poem is carefully tailored for a certain time in the sequence of the session. Sim- plicity and diamond purity are important to the "turned on, " intellectual flourishes and verbal pyrotechnics are painfully obvious. To the static intellect these sutras are simply another sequence o{ lifeless words. But to con- sciousness released from imprinted statics, these prayers can become precise bursts of trembling energy and breathless meaning.
Why Prayers?
You will wonder, perhaps, at the use of the term "prayer" to label these sutras. Prayer is ecstatic commu- nication with your inner navigational computer. You cannot pray to an external power; that is begging. You cannot — without regret — communicate during the ecstatic moment in static prose.
When you are out beyond symbols , game communi- cation seems pointless, irrelevant inappropriate. There is no need to communicate — because everything is already
74 Yojr grain Is God
in communication. But there are those transition mo- ments of terror, isolation, reverence, gratitude. . . when there comes that need to communicate with the energy source you sense in yourself and around you — at the highest and best level you are capable of.
There is the need, at exactly that moment, for a straight, pure, "right" — i.e. , non- game language. This is prayer, mantra, lyrical harmony, verbal mathematics. This need has been known and sensed for thousands of years. All prayers are originally communications with
^^^^^^ higher, freer energies — turning yourself in to the energy dance.
J, j,j Conventional prayers, for the
communication ^^^'P^.^^' have degenerated into With your inner P^^^^^.^^^-^l^' slogans, mimicked navigational verbalizations appeals for game rrs^ n-^K* ^^IP- ^^t' w^^^ ^^^ ecstatic cry is mmmmLmg/mm Called tor, you must bc ready to address Higher Intelligence, to contact energy beyond your game. You must be ready to pray. When you have lost the need to address the Higher Intelligence, you are a dead man in a world of dead symbols.
Each poem in this volume was exposed to several dozen appraisals by lysergized nervous systems. A ruth- less polishing and cutting away took place. The most blatant redundancies and mentalisms were pruned. Most psychedelic pilgrims found 5 or so poems in this collec- tion which vibrate in tune to their deepest resonances. The rest did not pass inspection.
Timothy Laary
75
Sheathing the Self
The play of energy endures
beyond striving The play of energy endures
beyond body The play of energy endures
beyond life Out here float timeless
beyond striving.
le Your drar\h God
The Manifestation of the Mystery
Gazing, we do not see it we call it empty space.
Listeningy we do not hear it we call it silence or noise.
Gropingy we do not grasp it we call it intangible.
But here ... we ... spin through it dectriCy silenty subtle.
Timothy Leary 77
Pkase Do Not Clutch at the Gossamer Weh
G^ll in Heaven and on Earth
below is a crystal fabric ...
delicate gossamer web Grabbing hands shatter it Watch closely
this shimmering mosaic
silent ...
glide in
harmony.
70 Your Brain Is &d
The Serpent Coil o/DNA
(Q/e meet it everywhere
but we do not see its front We follow it everywhere
but we do not see its back. When we embrace
this ancient serpent coil We are masters of the moment
and feel no break in the
curling back to primeval
beginnings. This may be called unravelling
the clue of the life process.
Timothy Leary ^
The Seed Light
The seed light shines every- where, left and right
All forms derive life from it.
When the bodies are created, it does not take possession.
It clothes and feeds the ten thousand things and does not disturb their illusions.
Magical helix ... smallest form and mother of all forms
The living are born, flourish and disappear without knowing their seed creator Helix of light
In all nature it is true that the wiser, the oldest and the greatest resides in the smaller.
eo Your dra\nh God
The Touch Cakra
Extend your free nerve endings .,, trembling
Fine tendrils wove in skin feel my finger touch soft landing on your creviced surface
Send sense balloon drifting up through fifty miles of spindle-web skin tissue atmosphere
Electric thrill contact soar free through million mile blue epidermal space of cotton candy
Fragile web of nerve wire shuddering fleece of breathless pleasure.
Timothy Leary ^1
The Sex Cakra
JXainbow
Can you float through the universe of
your body and not lose your way? Can you lie quietly engulfed in the
slippery union of male and female? Warm wet dance of generation? Endless ecstasies of couples? Can you offer your stamen trembling
in the meadow for the electric
penetration of pollen while birds sing? Writhe together on the river bank,
waft soft-featheredy quiveringy in
the thicket? Can you coll serpentine while birds sing? Become two cells merging? Slide together in molecule embrace? Can yoUy murmuring^ lose all ... fusing Rainbow
8'2 Your^rainlsGod
The Heart Cakra
Scarlet
Can you float .., through
the universe of your body ...
and not lose your way ....^ Can you flow ... with fire-blood
through each tissued corridor...? Throb ...
to the pulse of life ...? Can you let your heart ...
pump you ...
down long red tunnels ...? Radiate ... swell ... penetrate ...to
the bumpy rhythm? Can you stream ...
into cell chambers ...?
Timothy Leary ^
Can you center ..,
on this heart" fire of love ,,,? Can you let your heart ..,
become central pump-house ,
for all human feelings? Pulse for all love? Beat for all sorrow? Throb for all pain? Thud for all joy? Can you let it ...
beat for all mankind? Burst ... bleed out ...
into vuarm compassion
flovuing ... flowing ... pulsing
out ... out ... out? Bleed to death
Ufe ...
blood Scarlet
g4 Your drahh God
The Moment of Fullness
Grab hold tightly,
let go lightly. The full cup can take no
more. The candle burns down. The taut bow must be loosed
the razor edge cannot long
endure. Nor this moment revived. So...
now grab hold tightly. Now ...
let go lightly.