The Words Running Through My Mind
Leonard Cohen/Buffy Sainte-Marie and Octavia Butler
I always have a phrase or concept running through my mind on repeat until it has done its work on me.
Lately, the phrase is “God is Alive, Magic is Afoot.” I know the words from Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song, but I learned yesterday that they originated in Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers.
The concept that has been with me for longer because the work has not yet sunk in fully or been applied is “Positive Obsession” from Octavia Butler’s essay, which was originally published as “Birth of a Writer” in the May 1989 issue of Essence. The idea of positive obsession also appears in her novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.
I had the urge to share Cohen and Butler’s words this morning, so here we are.
I found a fan-made merging yesterday of Leonard Cohen and Buffy Sainte-Marie by the YouTube channel wirewehear.
Here it is:
Leonard Cohen & Buffy Sainte-Marie - 'God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot' (Duet)
And here is the poem:
God is alive, magic is afoot
God is alive, magic is afoot
God is alive, magic is afoot
God is afoot, magic is alive
Alive is afoot, magic never died
God never sickened
Many poor men lied
Many sick men lied
Magic never weakened
Magic never hid
Magic always ruled
God is afoot, God never died
God was ruler
Though his funeral lengthened
Though his mourners thickened
Magic never fled
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
Though his words were twisted
The naked magic thrived
Though his death was published
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe
Many hurt men wondered
Many struck men bled
Magic never faltered
Magic always lead
Many stones were rolled
But God would not lie down
Many wild men lied
Many fat men listened
Though they offered stones
Magic still was fed
Though they locked their coffers
God was always served
Magic is afoot, God is alive
Alive is afoot
Alive is in command
Many weak men hungered
Many strong men thrived
Though they boast of solitude
God was at their side
Nor the dreamer in his cell
Nor the captain on the hill
Magic is alive
Though his death was pardoned
Round and round the world
The heart would not believe
Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
Police arrested magic and magic went with them
Mmmmm.... for magic loves the hungry
But magic would not tarry
It moves from arm to arm
It would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But magic is no instrument
Magic is the end
Many men drove magic
But magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
They only passed through magic
And out the other side
Many weak men lied
They came to God in secret
And though they left Him nourished
They would not tell who healed
Though mountains danced before them
They said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh within my mind
This I mean my mind to serve
Til' service is but magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself
The magic length of God
© 1966- Leonard Cohen
Now, to Positive Obsession. I’ve been in search of positive obsession, which is arduous, circuitous internal and external looking. We need positive obsession right now. Yours and mine. Mine and yours. Everyone’s genius.
Oh, yes, here’s another sentence running through my mind brought to me yesterday by Michael Meade and Carl Jung: “Genius hides behind the wound.” To get to obsession, I’m trying to understand the wound and how it translates to calling. These words are intertwined and also a map. I digress, but sometimes that’s necessary in the process of stringing ideas.
Back to Butler (full essay here):
I’ll share some quotes from Butler’s essay and novels:
“An obsession, according to my old Random House dictionary, is “the domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.” Obsession can be a useful tool if it’s positive obsession. Using it is like aiming carefully in archery.
…Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts. Positive obsession is dangerous. It’s about not being able to stop at all.” - from “Positive Obsession”
"Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all." - from Parable of the Sower
“God is Change,
And in the end,
God prevails.
But meanwhile…
Kindness eases Change.
Love quiets fear.
And a sweet and powerful
Positive obsession
Blunts pain,
Diverts rage,
And engages each of us
In the greatest,
The most intense
Of our chosen struggles”
- from Parable of the Sower
You know what the words on repeat were in my mind up until a few days ago?
“I’m searching. I’m searching.”
These are the first two sentences of The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector. Deceptively simple words.
I was searching, and I always will be. But the formless and dreamy. The careful and unsure has turned into a hunt—energy high and wild, coupled with audacity.
I’m searching. I’m searching for
magic
obsession
and ultimately, what comes before and after to these ways of being:
surrender.