Why do we keep Venice alive? Why do we continue to put energy into something that has died or is dying? It is literally crumbling away before our eyes and yet we spend so much life force trying to patch her up, keep her memory alive, keep the story going. Why? Because we just cannot let go! Isn’t that why we are here, to let it ALL go or is to allow the realities of time to change us because we are going towards something even greater! Moving beyond the dimensions of time and iterations of the Self into eternal life to see as and live as the Pure foundation from which all is born. Each I, even Venice, evolving and transforming at it’s own pace.
What I see around me is old, an old story, decay, a city literally dissolving before my eyes – crumbling back into the ocean. Is that not the separate self dissolving, crumbling back into the ocean of Pure Consciousness once and for all? Who fights to keep her memory alive? Who is trying to “patch” her up with a new look, new façade? Who is the one who will not let her go? Let things just be what they are? LOOK! SEE! It is the perception of the I! This is happening inside and therefore outside of me. I see a city crumbling, an old Venice, once a grand republic, now extinct. Old churches carrying religious distortions – YET – I perpetuate this story and still visit them! Why? The energy there is bound within time! Why go there? I have nothing to do there! Why fascinate with the history of Venice – this is just living in the past! Which is separation! LET IT GO! BE HERE NOW! What is VENICE NOW!
Who is she to me now? There is nothing real here anymore – this place is an illusion, a façade of the old, the past hiding as a phantom, empty behind the mask, a selfless interior. It is a show, a play, an eternal carnevale where all wear masks! Is this not what we are trying to release once and for all? To put down the mask, higher, lower, and all that we ever wore! So why do I continue to allow myself to see the masked Venice, the mistress of the Adriatic, a sanctuary of churches whose messages perverted the Light, a republic contrived of fear that was lost and humiliated before the world allowing perpetual debauchery to be it’s final act? Why do I see palaces, cathedrals and alleys and continue to look into them searching for the past? Is that not trying to look to the past to keep the memory of that Venice alive?
OPEN your eyes to the truth! SEE REALITY! Look beyond the illusion, beyond time, do not perpetuate the dream. Let go! The reality of Venice is that the VENICE we cling to is DEAD! The life has been drained from her very existence, bled out in revelry through an eternal carnevale, exploited by those who could find any way to lift her skirts for the satisfaction of man. She has been lost, corrupted, and paraded before the world as the ultimate courtesan! Until slowly, painfully and ignorantly, the real Venice faded away into a bloviated and perverted memory. Once a majestic, mysterious and mystical creature, she has become but a shadow of man’s downfall! What does Venice mean to me now?
Must I continue to see Venice? Or shall I look beyond the veil and see the REAL energy of this place, that is to say, to see La Serenissima, The Most Serene. The eternal ONE from which ALL emanations of this “place” manifest. Can I let go of Venezia, the Republic of Venice and the mighty lion of St. Mark, the Dodge and his elevated status as the only Divine being in town, the melancholy energy from the fall of the empire and the numbing debauchery leading into the epitomized selfishness that followed? Or even now, can I let go of the chintzy shops with fake merchandise, the hawkers shamelessly siphoning energy from ignorant tourists, the façades of cold and crumbling palaces, and the entire physical city that remains standing? Can I let go of the shallow illusion of Venice and pierce deep into the heart of La Serenissima, to the eternal fountain from which this Venetian Lagoon and stone city spring forth? In the heart of the Venetian Lagoon this Divine being has manifested and she has evolved through space and time and continues to evolve through space and time until the true Serenissima, the ONE of Pure Consciousness, manifests in this very point within eternal space. THIS is the Venice- NO! THIS is LA SERENISSIMA that I must feel, see and BE as I walk the alleys and ride along the canals! When I can let go of my own distorted view of “Venice”, the stories, the illusions, the façades that masquerade as the truth, the melancholy that exudes ice from the people. When I can see, BE and exist solely as La Serenissima, The Most Serene, eternal, sovereign being, then I will see the true reality that is, was, has and will always be the foundation from which the “floating” city La Serenissima rises from.
I will see not the Adriatic and it’s mistress but instead will see the entire ocean of Pure Consciousness blooming in this city, this fiore dell’Universo (flower of the Universe) taking form from the flow of the very waters (consciousness) that flow through her! I will see the dilapidated buildings as patinaed with Divine character, the streets filled of tourist as masked Gods, the shops selling Universal wisdom in the form of trinkets of Light, the hawkers as Divine Jesters giving lessons in life and the city herself as the jewel in the lotus. Transforming and evolving as time plays on to the cadence of consciousness, marching this entire place towards eternity, towards serenity, towards Divinity, towards the ultimate expression of this being, La Serenissima! The Most Serene, Sovereign, expression of Pure Consciousness that flows from this point in space into the entire Universe! What I will see is me, the Alpha and the Omega, the Universe and the Source of the Universe, Creator and Creation, Venice and La Serenissima dissolved into the fabric of existence itself as Pure Consciousness. What I will see is Unconditional Love allowing itself to express itself in all forms and ways throughout all space and time until alas it is in full bloom, timeless and infinite as the entire eternal holographic Universe!
What I see is Il Fiore dell’Universo!
