Page 15 - GALIET THE KING AND THE CORPSE: The Four Cardinal Corners and the Quest of the Blue Cloak, the Mask and the Sword IV GALIET THE KING AND THE CORPSE: The Four Cardinal Corners and the Quest of the Blue Cloak, The Mask and the Sword

Without this intuitive listening, within the space of silence, human beings are mere corpses living off the gifts of nature as a Vetala, without logos, is a mere corpse that hangs from the Sisso tree. For King Trivikramasena to take Vetala out of the Sisso tree, he must ascend from darkness in silence as if in prayer and the corpse-spirit must descend from its heights as if in reply. O how King Trivikramasena’s silence speaks! His silence is presence, reverence and plenitude! Phosphorescence. Metaphor. Love. King Trivikramasena knows, intuitively, the sacred power of the corpse which he has awakened and resurrected, for Vetala is that which expands and is expanded 3⁄4 the ultimate cadence of one’s being 3⁄4 that which must be sought, held and carried on one’s shoulders, at whatever cost, at whatever price, until one’s quest is fulfilled, for one has journeyed into the pit of darkness, of sorrow, of suffering to find him. No. Vetala was not to be found in the idyllic beauty of King Trivikramasena’s Kingdom by the rivering Rivers of Godavari 3⁄4 but in-the-shadows-there, where Monk Ksantisila has summoned him, in-the-shadows-there, where the pit of “ghastly fogs” and “frightening flames” roam, in-the-shadows- there, where the pit of very existence and suffering roves, in- the-shadows-there.
It is precisely in the obscure and torn places where we meet Vetala, the one who knows, the one who speaks to us in riddles
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