How could this genius have quickly died? Like all authentic geniuses, earthly life has no real flavor, the real world seemed too insignificant for an unequal struggle with the astral cares of a body associated with the nourishment of the mind. This explains too well the representation of the digestive systems and a body diminished by its impulses connected with the members of its body, as for example with the members of an elitist circle, these members must pass into a principle of uniqueness: the monad.
Basquiat is unfortunately described as a suffering being, the incomprehension of his commentators is sad because it is superficial and without spiritual foundations. The analysis of the tortured artist is only a projection of phantasms without any mystical analysis.
"There is a graphomaniac quality to almost all of Basquiat’s work. He liked to scribble, to amend, to footnote, to second-guess and to correct himself. Words jumped out at him, from the back of cereal boxes or subway ads, and he stayed alert to their subversive properties, their double and hidden meaning. His notebooks, recently published in an exquisite facsimile by Princeton, are full of stray phrases, odd combinations. When he began painting, working up to it by way of hand-coloured collaged postcards, it was objects he went for first, drawing and writing on refrigerators, clothes, cabinets and doors, regardless of whether they belonged to him or not…
…A Basquiat alphabet: alchemy, an evil cat, black soap, corpus, cotton, crime, crimée, crown, famous, hotel, king, left paw, liberty, loin, milk, negro, nothing to be gained here, Olympics, Parker, police, PRKR, sangre, soap, sugar, teeth.
These were words he used often, names he returned to turning language into a spell to repel ghosts. The evident use of codes and symbols inspires a sort of interpretation-mania on the part of curators. But surely part of the point of the crossed-out lines and erasing hurricanes of colour is that Basquiat is attesting to the mutability of language, the way it twists and turns according to the power status of the speaker. Crimée is not the same as criminal, negro alters in different mouths, cotton might stand literally for slavery but also for fixed hierarchies of meaning and the way people get caged inside them." At The Guardian, Olivia Laing, the eminently readable author of To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring, and The Lonely City, on artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Can we find this analysis a little literalistic or superficial? Hughes Songe offers you another reading option:
Basquiat's painting can be seen in Genesis (3:24), when God drives Adam out of Paradise, he establishes two cherubs with a sword leading to the Tree of Life. Revelation I, 16 describes a two-edged sword coming out of the Word's mouth: "He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth came a two-edged and sharp sword; his face was as bright as the sun in its strength. »
We can also pursue Genesis as two knight men who draw a symbolic battle, the one on the left comes from the East, so he is already initiated and probably in connection with the astral as indicated by his crown of christic thorns or as the statue of liberty, his sword is a blade, or a soul, that is to say that he carries the light. The right-wing knight comes from the West and reminds us that the Western Knights Templar were initiated in Jerusalem. The Knight Kadosh is the synthesis of the two men who clash to become immortal. Venerable Master of Ceremonies, invites them to meet on the square in front of a temple and at the Areopagus Gate the Knights of the Sun who are seeking admission to the thirty-third degree. The first recorded representation of the degree "Knight Kadosh" can be linked to the Council of Eastern and Western Emperors in 1758.
Here is a possible reading grid to understand this painting by JM Basquiat. Perhaps we need to come up with ethnocentric analyses on voodoo or Amerindian rites or worse on the life of a neurotic, even drugged person, all this is told by the guides to reassure us better to be in the norm.
A genius is necessarily not readable in a grid formatted for art journalists?
The numbers on the painting could be understood? Is this just a hypothetical version for those who believe in a higher life?
1
It is necessary to be aligned to connect with the astral, blue is its color, a blue square is under the sword to find its verticality. the Sufi's fight is not a horizontal fight against the other, for a material conquest, but an inner vertical fight, for a spiritual quest; which leads to the one of them, for the benefit of the other. In esotericism, some groups use a sword without a point as a symbol of balance. The orange sun of the background illuminates and burns, the light of the Spiritual Principle is the purifying fire materialized by the lightning, archetype of the sword. The flash is lightning... so the Truth lightens the error by cutting through the darkness of ignorance. The Knight Kadosch will understand that this sword can only be for him the sword of the Spirit, this force that will allow him to separate Good from Evil, Justice from injustice and to make sure that the Light of Truth guides all his actions. It is this unifying force, this One that is consubstantial to us and that we finally manage to make shine. Only a complete universe, responsible before our conscience and rich in knowledge and love, will we be able to act and perform our role as soldiers of the universal and the Heavenly.
2 The sword of the Western Redhorse is tilted at 33 degrees to indicate his request, he is not in balance and may be wearing a slipper. The sword is the divine word, it is the Word and it is the greatest gift since to have the sword is to have the Word of Life which is the instrument of justice which comes to skin the bottom of the painting. The scythe of death is just above....
3 The sword is the symbol of the Logos, the Word, having a double edge, therefore the double power, the knight no longer needs a mouth to express himself because he uses telepathy.
4 He has a big mouth that comes to him from the bottom world, his words are too human to access the planes of higher consciousness.
5 The corpus of Knight Kadosh is squared as the symbol of the Earth, it is also squared to be perfect. His heart became his soul.
6 The Western Knight still has a scale of 7 steps to climb before freeing himself from the slavery of his own inner body.
7 he must move on a chessboard or mosaic paving stone to balance his thoughts
8 the arrows symbolize the action of Time, they are in
opposition to mean that Real Time no longer exists, we are already in eternity (ether n T)
9 a black phallic symbol can indicate a first act of the transmutation work, followed by white, red and finally yellow (4 essential colours of the painting with astral blue)
10. The Great Architect of the United to Heaven (Universal) has left his compass and put his square upside down, for the true World lives hidden beneath the Earth. To the Glory of the coronation the Grand Knight Kadosch to his investiture of the duties, charges and dignitaries related to this quality and confers on him the faculty to enjoy all the rights and prerogatives attached to this rank. (He successively strikes the right shoulder and then the left shoulder of each new Knight with the blade of his sword) Knights, rise up and receive, in the name of all the Kadosch Knights, the fraternal embrace. (The standard bearer puts the standard back in its place and the Master of Ceremonies decorates the new Knights with the attributes of their rank. (The Commander takes his place in his throne and then, addressing the new Knights: Knights, you are now armed for your battle. Your weapon is not the dagger of the Sicarius, nor the knife of the executioner, nor the stylus of the calumniator, because the means of your action are located on a higher plane. Your weapon is the flaming sword of Michael Saint, the inflexible spear of George Saint, the Caduceus of Mercury. What you touch with its tip must be ennobled and placed at your side in the service of the cause for which you are fighting.
11 you have to climb the first 13 ranks to reach the 33rd, no step on the ladder is the same, the human experience is carried out in two different and, in many ways, incompatible ways. Here they are represented by the two amounts of this mystical scale. On the one hand, the disciplines of intelligence, science and technology that assume and affirm determinism. Venerable Master of Ceremonies, have two of our recipients symbolically walk through them (the Master of Ceremonies makes the recipients read, step by step, the names of the sciences inscribed therein: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy)
12 A for Alchemy or Amorous and Astral ( SPIRITU ASTRA ERA), it is still a ladder to climb towards the High Grades. The symbol of the scale must be linked to the meaning of the weapons that Knight Kadosch has at his disposal to carry out his fight successfully. The scale that will allow her to access the highest level of metaphysical knowledge and in this sense, she becomes almost mystical. The aim here and now is to ensure that the binary that manages its destiny, which is the main characteristic of daily existence, is resolved, integrated into the unitary principle, into the Creative Principle. This can only be considered as something ineffable, only conceivable on a level that exceeds us, on a supra-human level. It is in fact the concept of the original Light, the very Light that prevails in all our endeavors on the initiatory path since we once knocked at the temple door and gives meaning to this quest. The scale nowadays is therefore double, stable, composed of two uprights and seven steps on each side. It is possible to climb it indifferently from one side or the other, but the process, in the initiatory progression towards the Principle, resembles the ascending path, that of Love, the ultimate goal of our process. Look up there it reads A a a a.......
13 Knight Kadosh has achieved his decorporation and now he is levitating above his ghost feet (white). We can also say that there is shade because an obstacle stands in the way and prevents the passage of light. The first awareness of the dark side is the shadow that each person takes with them. No matter how much we run, this shadow follows us everywhere. The only way to remove them is by light: the sun must reach us in such a way, for example when they are plumb, and the shadow must then remain under our feet.
14 The Western Knight: Knight, for a long time with different degrees ( 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 28th and 30th) who refer to this distinction. It is linked to the lower ranks and to Earth's gravitation, it rotates on itself and around the golden background that symbolizes humanity's central star: the sun.
We can also note that the background is golden like an integral transmutation, becoming this light is the quest of Knight Kadosh, he no longer needs the apron of learning...
The ceremony is coming to an end, Knights of the South Camp, I invite you to recognize now for Grand Chosen Knights Kadosch, the Knights present between the two camps... Knights of the North Camp, I invite you to recognize from now on Grand Chosen Kadosch Knights, the Knights present between the two camps. Since this action seems to be the finality of the journey of a mystic, in general, and that of the Knight Kadosch, in particular; why does it take, then today, the form of combat, for the one who has reached the end of his individual initiation, and fight for Life what is more?
While trying to provide an answer to this question, we will try to bring the struggle of the Kadosch Knight closer to that of the Sufi mystic, as a "wali" knight, that is to say, Saint, adept of the futuwa, this spiritual knighthood of the Muslim world.
"Knight, my Brother, You are armed now for the fight of Life"
Certainly; each term has its importance, in this affirmative sentence, and undoubtedly contributes to give it its power, depth and dynamism. However, the adverb "now" is, in my opinion, the key to its front door. Because not only does it indicate a real limit in space; (where? At the 30th degree of the pyramid of the Rite, the end of the ascending realization, of the adept,) and in time (when? At the end of the consecration ceremony, of the knight), but thus placed just after the adjective "armed", it implicitly means that before having reached the 30th degree, and before having been dubbed there; the adept is not really armed to lead a fight, and even less to fight the fight of life.
And yet; the adept has carried many different weapons and fought many battles during his evolution on the scale of the Rite. Indeed, from the 11th degree; Sublime Chivalry Chosen, Excellent Emereck, "True Man in All Circumstances", armed with the sword of justice, by King Solomon, whose motto is "to win or die." he had engaged, in a singular struggle, his life to death, for a noble and just cause. It is precisely for a just purpose that, with the sword in one hand, the trowel in the other; Knight of the East and of the Sword, he was called upon to build the Temple with one hand and to defend it with the other. His motto was "freedom to pass", which is why he had to fight to cross the Gandhara bridge and thus pass from the material world to the spiritual world. His struggle, although physical, was ultimately of spiritual significance. Armed with his sword; Knight of the East and West, conscious of the need to fight the misdeeds of intolerance, prejudice and fanaticism; Kadosch was the pilgrim Knight, working to be recognized as the son of the Light. He fought to reconcile extreme opposites; East and West, shadow and light and thus try to overcome duality. Although his only material weapon was his pilgrim's staff, symbol of the axis mundi and the inner struggles, he took the oath, as a Knight Rose Cross (return to the point), on the sword of justice, promising to defend the weak and relieve the afflicted. He proposed as his goal to "fight pride, selfishness and ambition, to make devotion and Charity prevail in their place". In the defense of the True, the Good and the Righteous, prowess, generosity, such was his chivalrous ideal. If it is true that the struggles that Kadosch has fought so far are a necessary condition, although insufficient to lead the struggle of life, the accomplishment of this journey, made in the practice of Chivalric Virtues, fully contributes to his qualification and to that aptitude, which the Most Powerful Grand Master recognizes in him, and this by considering him worthy to fight, finally, in the ranks of the Militia of the Temple.
If any fight involves a certain preparation, and a certain skill, it requires, however, weapons.
"You're armed now."
The weapon, for the fight of Life, of the Knight Kadosch, who adorns his ribbon, is certainly not the dagger with which Johabert, thirsty for revenge and blood, killed Abairam, Hiram's murderer, by beheading him.His weapon being of a different type, his fight will necessarily be of a different nature because, led on other levels.
"In the name of God, Saint Michael and Saint George, I make you a knight"
Thus, three types of weapons are suggested: the Caduceus of Mercury, the sword of Saint Michael, and the spear of Saint George. On the other hand, the main weapon of the Grand Knight Kadosch is clearly designated to him and presented by the Mighty Grand Master as soon as he descends the Mystical Scale:
"Behold, behold, the Caduceus of Mercury, everything you touch with the tip of this weapon shall be transformed into pure gold.
Is it three in one? For his weapon will be at the same time, his "magic wand that will conjure up the spell of matter, his flaming sword that will transform the events, his Kherub's sword that will reopen the gates of Paradise to him." The injunction given by the Most Powerful Grand Master to the Knight Kadosch, who has just been consecrated, "works. Go to the mode. The road is clear," he said, leaving no doubt as to where his fight would take place. His action, as a collaborator of the Great Architect of the Universe "my rights consist in not submitting myself to the decrees of Divine law but, to collaborate in them" has no meaning unless it is carried out in the world of manifestation.
His action will be carried out, in accordance with the motto of our Order "ORDO AB CHAO DEUS MEUMQUE JUS", an Order that he first began to carry out in himself, because it is necessary to "Defeat our passion" by rectifying himself, by freeing himself, after having won the fight against his ego, this Holy War that the Sufi calls: the Great Jihad.On this level, the two Knights are fighting the same battle, because the Sufi's fight is not a horizontal fight against the other, for a material conquest, but an inner vertical fight, for a spiritual quest; which leads to the one of them, for the benefit of the other. It is this passage from the heroic to the mystical epic that constitutes, for the Sufi knight, the passage from the small jihad to the great jihad, the true "holy war".
"All heroes have always fought the snake to defeat it and force it to serve." Then with his flaming sword, like the Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the Celestial Militia, he defeated the dragon to control and control it. And if he spares his life, it is because he knows that if he dies, he will no longer be of any use. It is therefore better to convert it. Thus, victorious over Saton, the adversary; his fight, far from being destructive, is constructive, full of promise and Life. It is in this sense that we can say that the Sword of the Knight Kadosch is the weapon of his holy war, waged against the errors of the corporeal dimension and leading to his reconciliation with the spiritual dimension. It is through this Flaming Sword that the Venerable Master creates, constitutes and receives the Neophyte Apprentice. It is through it that the symbolic passage from the profane to the initiated to chivalry or by analogy to alchemy takes place. His weapon is indeed transformative of its essential nature Now armed with his weapons of Light, the caduceus of Mercury, the flaming sword of Saint Michael and the inflexible spear of Saint George, who left alone in the world, without fear or reproach, the Knight of the White and Black Eagle, remembers that the last journey of any initiation ceremony is always a projection into the future of the initiate's journey. The time has therefore come for him to finally put into action the sentence of the Secret Master's last trip: "What chivalry asks you to do is to promote justice". It is therefore here in the manifested world that he must participate effectively in the restoration of the Order, in his soul and conscience, in accordance with the Divine Plans perceived at the top of the Mystical Scale, and this "NON NOBIS, DOMINE, NON NOBIS, SED NOMINI TUO DA GLORIAM".
If the Knight Kadosch, Being of Light, thus armed, now has the right to initiative to act and fight, it is because he has succeeded in climbing the seven steps of the Mystical Ladder, and purified by Sophie's tire, he has received the supreme initiation. It is because he has conquered, as a result, this freedom of the creature so sought "for those who have overcome the obstacles", the one that is conquered "beyond the limits of the realms of forms".
The Western Knight masters this degree of proximity to the principle, "Nec plus Ultra", separated, he received his mission order, and took, when he turned around at this summit, "the commitment not to suffer the events, but to transform them.
While the Eastern Knight, inspired by Sufi gnoseology, who arrives at this "station of the heart", who becomes protected from God "Wali" and who receives from his Master the secrets of esoteric Knowledge "Gnosis" and the investiture of the "Baraka", submits himself entirely to God.
Their weapons, although both of divine nature: the Caduceus of Mercury for one, the "Baraka" for the other, do not, however, have the same scope. For the "Baraka" received by Knight Wali, as "protected and "friend of God", appears as a reward for "effort given", given to those who have committed themselves to the path of the "Hakika", the Truth, by submitting to the Divine Law. Mediator between God and men, in the service of his fellow men, the Wali, is ready to help the weak and heal the sick by the powers of the "Baraka" of which he is invested, however, his remedy, even if it is effective, will only act on the surface, just on the wound of the wounded, or on the evil from which the sick suffer. While the Caduceus of Mercury of the Knight Kadosch, the intercessor, acts in depth by rectifying and transforming the material. Everything he touches with the tip of his fingers will turn into pure gold. It is by transmutation that he operates on matter by spiritualizing it. His purpose is not limited to healing the patient's wounds or ridding him of his pain, but to make him a doctor, so that he can in turn heal and heal all those who suffer from the evils caused by darkness in order to free them from all oppression and injustice.
Thus he will be entitled to think, like Albert Camus, "I understood that it was not enough to denounce injustice, you had to give your life to fight it".
To fight to conquer Freedom for others, it seems to me, is one of the senses of the Fight for the Life of the Knight Kadosch, a fight he must lead armed with his Caduceus of Mercury, that is, his own spiritual power, resulting from the synthesis of his past experiences and victories.
"In order to allow the infinite irradiation of the pure Being, the true sovereign, to manifest itself"
If there is no doubt, that being continuously at the service of others, in a relationship of otherness, by surpassing the ego, constitutes both the fundamental bases of the knightly ideal of the Kadosch knight and those of the Sufi knight; this spirituality, despite these obvious similarities, and although it leads to the same Principle, differs in certain respects.
The Sufi Knight, who bases his spirituality on his Islamic faith, by placing his destiny entirely in the hands of God, sees his actions guided by a transcendent determinism, and therefore his freedom of action in the world being limited, he directs his struggle essentially against his inner enemies and particularly against "El Nefs", his ego. In his spiritual quest, it is God's love that makes him love man. While the knight Kadosch, who takes his destiny in hand, who bases his spirituality on his alchemical faith and on that which he has in the perfectibility of man, positions himself as a collaborator of the Great Architect of the Universe. And from the moment his action necessarily turned towards the outside, his mission, as a Universal Man, is to transmit his knowledge. And his struggle, armed with his Caduceus of Mercury, who is none other than himself, will be to devote his entire Life to perfecting the world, in accordance with the plans of the Principle.
In this perspective, it is precisely the love of man that makes him love God.
Certainly Love and self-giving are the common vectors that motivate the struggles of the two spiritual knights, but if the knightly behaviour of one is aimed at the future opening of the gates of heavenly paradise for oneself; the goal of the other is the happiness, here and now, of all humanity, in the perspective of the coming of the Holy Kingdom.
Basquiat is now armed for the fight of Life
