The Crannog Musings

Meditations, Blogs, Stories, Pictures, and Reflections on an Earthen Life.  I am a Poetic Naturalist with deep roots in spiritualities from Paganism and Celtic Myth to western Monastic mysticism and contemplation.  Born 1957, he/him.

[montaguewhitsel]

A Journey in Remembrance, Recollection and Resourcement - [A Dialogue in Four Acts]

For me, The Four Friends, as a whole, captures and explores what Caitlin Matthews said in The Celtic Book of the Dead (1992):

“There is no greater healing than to be told a story that answers our present condition or predicament.  Each of us has a story to which we can respond whole-heartedly and which will teach us wisdom.  The repetition and ‘giving’ of that story may provide us with clues about the purpose and direction of our own life, as well as imparting initiatory teaching to others.” (13)

[montaguewhitsel]

“The sources of Art are enthusiasm and inspiration; if society mocks and derides these, it is society that is mad, not the artist, no matter what excesses the latter may commit.” (13) ‑ Northrup Frye, in Fearful Symmetry (1947)

[montaguewhitsel]

 Setting: The Wickersfeld Railroad Station, on the first day of its first full weekend (5 June 1991, Friday)   John Smith had arrived in Wic

The Postlude is now finally posted, bringing this tale; this dialogue of remembrance,  recollection and resourcement to a denouement; not a final end, but one of those moments when a transition or some kind of shift is sensed in one's being-in-becoming; in one's self and in relation to significant others.

This last scene -- at the Wickersfeld Railroad, on the first day of its first full weekend of renewed operation -- is like the four friends themselves; who came back together after thirty years and have grown and become strong with one another; in love's reign--holding love's reins.  

A quote that came to mind as I re-read the Postlude tonight just before posting are these words from the American Jewish Philosopher-Theologian Abraham Joshua Herschel (1907-1972) who said:

“The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe, but a will to wonder.”

As I wrote the story of these four friends over the last few years, I was cognizant of their openness to wonder, and I hope that the happiness they experienced in the moments of wonder expressed in this dialogue; in their own selves and in communion with each other -- shines herein; in this text--out of the journey that is theirs,  and theirs alone.   Only you as the reader can tell me if I have succeeded.

Theirs is a friendship at the soul level; it is -- I would characterize it as -- "True Friendship" in Aristotle's terms; which are explored by Octavia and her interlocutors in Act IV.  Being "four souls in one; and one in four," these words from the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c. 54- 480 BCE) came to mind tonight:

“You could not discover the limits of soul, not even if you travelled down every road. Such is the depth of its form.”

So mote it be! -- or Hurrahya! -- or Amen! _to that!  It is a journey worth taking, I believe.

Sincerely, Montague Whitsel

[montaguewhitsel]

Act IV - Returning to Deer Hill

            Setting : Werner House on Deer Hill, 1 June; 9:45 AM Scene : The friends have arrived after driving down from Robert’s curre

 Act IV is now posted.  (https://montaguewhitsel-4friends.blogspot.com/2026/06/act-iv-returning-to-deer-hill.html)

Thinking about this last part of the story, I recalled these words by John Dunne in his old book The Way of all the Earth (1972), wherein he described a process in which people get to know one another--

“The technique of passing-over is based on the process of eliciting images from one’s own feelings, attaining insights into the images, and then turning insight into a guide of life.  What one does in passing over is to try to enter sympathetically into the feelings of another person, become receptive to the images which give expression to his feelings, attain insight into these images, and then come back enriched by this insight to an understanding of one’s own life which can guide one into the future.” (53)

This describes the art of listening, in which the four friends are engaged, and much more.  Attentiveness to the 'other' with whom you are engaged, the practice of empathy and sympathy, being aware of another; one anothering, and coming, in the end, through knowing another to a better knowing of your own self.

This is what I hope to have portrayed as going on throughout this dialogue.

Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Montague Whitsel

[montaguewhitsel]

A Journey in Remembrance, Recollection and Resourcement - [A Dialogue in Four Acts]

Another possible epigraph to Act III:

“There is no way, now or ever, to have strange truth directly."

Sallie McFague Speaking in Parables (1975)

[montaguewhitsel]

Setting : Robert Werner’s house, 1 June 1992, Monday 7:15 AM Scene : After sleeping-over at Robert Werner’s house, the gathered-together a

An epigraph:

"We learn who we are through the stories we embrace as our own. ... The story of my life is structured by the larger stories (social, political, mythic) in which I understand my personal story to take place."

-- Sallie McFague Speaking in Parables (1975)

[nostalgiaforinfinity]

misty and moody in the fanal forest

[montaguewhitsel]

Setting: Robert Werner’s house, 31 May 1992; 9:15 PM Scene: The gathered-together have all just arrived at the Poet’s house .   After a lo

Act II is now posted.

I had long wanted to set a story at Robert's house outside Wickersfeld, but the right moment had not come, until I was writing Act I of what has become The Four Friends, and I realized that the dialogue was 'moving' to this second setting.

As the four Friends journey further -- and deeper -- into remembrance, engaging in recollection and moving toward resourcement, I am reminded of these words by Carl G. Jung, who said--

“To live fully, we have to reach down and bring back to life the deepest levels of the psyche from which our present consciousness has evolved.” (45)

- Carl G. Jung The Structure and Dynamic of the Psyche

This is facilitated by the growth we experience in friendship with others; listening to and with them, to each other, to ourselves in listening and being listened to--in the best of those 'longest hours' that can never really be forgotten.

NOTE TO READERS: A "Search" function is now added to allow the reader to go to different parts as needed. The individual parts of the story are being posted in such a way that a reader can read the story in order from the Prelude to the Postlude just as in a published book.

[montaguewhitsel]

A Journey in Remembrance, Recollection and Resourcement - [A Dialogue in Four Acts]

“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”

-        Aristotle [“Or perhaps four?” – Vincent Lyman]

I would like to invite you to read and experience this story, which is a conversation; a dialogue – about friendship.  I offer it here (blogspot: https://montaguewhitsel-4friends.blogspot.com/) in the hopes of sharing it with a wide range of readers. 

These four friends have been ‘with me’ since the early 1980’s when I wrote a story about a hike they took down to an old, well-known but abandoned house_ the remains of the first Whittier House.  They have been central to the development of the fictional world in which I have come to set almost everything I have written since then; from stories and poems to poetic and philosophical dialogues.  The current story -- which begins and ends at the Wickersfeld Railroad -- began to take shape in 2018 and has come to fruition in its present form in the last couple years or so.  It now feels 'matured' enough, to me, to want readers.  So I am setting it free_

The Four Friends explores the workings of this particular friendship; the ways in which these four individuals came together in the 1940’s and the forces that then tore them apart; 'keeping them' separated—and then how they came back together again.  The stories they tell are all 'conjured' through a vivid process of remembrance, recollection and resourcement over the course of one night and the next morning.  The 'conjuring' is instigated by Octavia Winslow; a friend and colleague of Geoffrey Whittier; his family’s historian and chronicler--a central character in my imagined world of 'Deer Hill.'

These stories have themes ranging from vivid recollections of their early experiences together to stories of mysterious encounters, most revolving around the Whittiers; in whose world the four friends came together.  The stories they tell deal not only with the joy and the love between friends, but also loss, personal tragedy and the struggle to make one’s way in the world.  Each of the friends has their own stories to tell; and are glad to share them.  The conversation that unfolds here through four 'Acts;' going deeper and deeper into memory’s troth—starts in one location, then moves to two others before the process of remembrance, recollection and resourcement comes to an organic and satisfying resolve for the friends.

If you choose to read The Four Friends, please feel free to leave comments or ask questions.  First and foremost, though, I hope you enjoy it.  The main theme I have come to embody in this dialogue is how friendship contributes to our living of these brief mortal lives in which we find ourselves.

Blesséd be!

I hope that we all may be able to be, as Lori Ann Grayson says, “fortunate,” in the sense of “having had good friends.”

Sincerely, Montague Whitsel

[montaguewhitsel]

“The Way is as Olde as Creation, and as Fresh as every newborn creature.” ‑ Kerric, Elvenkrieg There is One Rose for the One I love_ and a

A Song For Musing in the May! This poem dates back to 1989, when my self-understanding as a poetic naturalist was just coming together and I had imagined the Muse as Four-Fold; as four "Ladies of the Moon." (Okay, I was still in my twenties). The poem still touches on a seminal moment for me. I hope you enjoy it.

Frolick in the Springtides!

[vintagecamping]

We cannot destroy man to protect nature any more than we can destroy nature to further man. - Ansel Adams Merced Canyon, Yosemite

1950

[dailyclassicart]

Joseph Magnus Stäck - "Italian ruin landscape in moonlight" (1850)

[mervynbunter]

Charles Dickens’s Bleak House (1852–53) illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”).

[montaguewhitsel]

Perhaps my favorite Dickens

[montaguewhitsel]

I have gone Faery-ing at Ross Falls, twindle-too-la-ley-hey-nune— with magic in leathery fingers. I have sought the Foxglove residen

This was the third poem in the series on Ross Falls, taking place at a time when we were experiencing the strangeness of the environs and eventually beginning to imagine that we were not only being faery-called to the place but even faery-visited.

[montaguewhitsel]

Treading mortal upon the dew, still irradiated by the Sun in her descent, I crossed fresh-frosted fields drawn into a brown sylvan

Now that I've posted one poem about Ross Falls_

Here was the first one, from 2018; ambling as a poetic wanderer, I recollected having been to the secluded, rustic falls ten years earlier_ and wrote this 'response' to the 'spirit' of the falls_ my spirit cascading in the waters, falling into flying!

[montaguewhitsel]

Tell them I have gone to Ross Falls, to hearken to the crows and listen to the whoosh of the waters along the swift brook above.    

Last in a series of poetic narratives focused on an out-of-the-way rustic waterfall called "Ross Falls" (in-world). This was an ecstatic culmination of the various 'visits' I'd imaginatively made to these and mysterious, secluded falls.

[Follow the tag on the blog to the other three poems about Ross Falls]

[butmyloveyouhavewings]