Intermission

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY TOUR INTERLUDE - Monday 2nd November 2009

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS TRIP

So before the first lecture Soror L came up to me and whispered in my ear "What are you doing on Monday?" I said I wasn't sure, but could find out, why? "I'm taking Lon sightseeing in the Blue Mountains and there's a space in my car, do you wanna come?" I said I'd clear my diary regardless of what it took. As it happened I had nothing on and I didn't have to clear anything.

I was picked up bright and early - Soror V was also in attendance. We then headed over to the house Lon was staying in and picked him up. Despite having spent several days in the same room as him and listening to him talk it was still just a wee bit awesome to be chatting to him.

We hopped in the car and headed off. Unfortunately I can't remember every brilliant story he related. I do remember one about some astounding cult-leader in America called Shaknar or something who is a large woman confined to a wheelchair who speaks in a rasp between gasps from an oxygen tank. Apparently they were for a time a vaguely Vodou cult until Shaknar woke up one day and said they were now Goetic magicians and that's what they all started doing. Bizarre. We learnt all about their family possum, which was just a beautiful story. I just loved listening to his accent, which he claimed was Mid-West with a bit of hybridisation. His "here", "art", "fight", "learn" and "take" vowels were the main differences. I need to work out how to insert phonetics in this blog - will make things much easier.

We went to the Common Ground cafe in Katoomba (Lon loved this place name, and rightly so) which is run by the creepy Christian cult called the Twelve Tribes. But let's not hold their cultishness against them TOO much - they make great coffee and the food is tasty, plus the cafe itself is just - so - CUTE. As a button. No really. Everything is made of wood in some way. Plus they have random patches of leather riveted to the wall here and there. And you'll suddenly notice two little hand crafted budgies sitting on a rafter nearby. Plus all the women walk with this bowed posture and skirts right down to their ankles in drab colours, and the men all have creepy adolescent beards. They're so friendly! It's apparently made up primarily of three families and "several single members." Anyway, Lon loved it. I related some of my Enochian Reiki vision to him which he loved. He made the completely obvious observation I can't believe I never made that the gesture the Kings gave me for ChoKuRei was basically a Xi-Rho. We spoke about numerous experiences we'd had in magic, which is always fantastic fun when magicians get together - especially when punctuated by Twelve Tribes members entering, eyes downcast, bearing trays of food and coffee.

We then headed down to the Three Sisters. I'd been many times as a child, and a few times since, but not for a few years lately. We could only do the main lookout as Lon couldn't do the full walk down, but that was enough. He was suitably impressed. Luckily Soror L knew the full story off the top of her head - I'd forgotten it years ago. The huge expanse of the valleys opened out before us and we took photos in the hopes of capturing something weird on film. Many many tourists. By this time the day had heated up a great deal and we were standing int he shade of rocks while looking out over the expanse before us. The lookouts in the Mountains always feel like you're standing in the prow of a ship, thrusting out over the sea of green. Mount Solitary looms in front, and the three huge crags to the left, the echo of waterfalls round to the right. Sublime Point encapsulates this feeling most - especially as it's usually so windy up there. Unfortunately we didn't really have the time to go there.

From the Three Sisters we took a bit of a scenic drive to a few more lookouts before heading to the Norman Lindsay Gallery. For those who don't know Norman Lindsay is one of Australia's most famous artists - who was the subject of the movie Sirens starring Sam Neill and Elle Macpherson. Lindsay lived in a gorgeous house in the Mountains with well-laid English-style gardens, including a man made pool complete with statuary. His house is now a gallery dedicated to his work and the gardens are filled with his sculptures. There was always a very Bacchanalian and Pagan (as was a significant part of the artist's life!) theme to his work and it's really one of a kind. We bought him a print of one of his more occult etchings on behalf of the eCT. I bought a print of "Visitants from the Moon." (right)

We had a leisurely coffee and cake at the gallery cafe before heading back down the Lapstone hill way and back to civilisation. A really unique and special day.

The Sorors and I left Lon to prepare for his final lecture that night on Solomonic Magic. We had a drink at the nearby pub before returning to pick him up - he gave us a quick rendition of his new Christmas song "If We Believed... Hilarious.