Exhibiting Clarity - Part One

 How do you exhibit clarity?

 

 

How do you attempt to encourage clarity?

 

 

What do you know about Esclarmonde by Jules Massenet?

How do you interpret the music and images of ghosts?

Perhaps you have attempted to exhibit clarity theatrically.

 

 

What do you know about the Exposition Universelle of 1889?

What do you know about Esclarmonde of Foix?

 

 

What is your acquaintance with Sibyl Sanderson?

What is your acquaintance with Joan Sutherland? 


 

If you intend to invoke the Spirit of Enlightenment, please be aware that all relevant incantations must be performed through the acceptable exhibition of clarity.

If you intend to evoke the Spirit of Enlightenment, please ensure you have been properly trained beforehand.  

Without proper training, an evocation is almost as impolite as encouraging provocation. 

How do you compare 1889 with 1989, 1789, 1689 and 1589?

How do you imagine the world will be in 2089, and with what evidence?

Perhaps you do not care how the world will be in a future you may not personally experience.  Yet the Spirit of Enlightenment is immortal.

Perhaps you do not care how the world was in a past you did not personally experience.

Perhaps you do not even care about the world in the present apart from the parts you personally experience. 

The Spirit of Enlightenment will ignore you if you fail to display necessary ethics.


 

What is your acquaintance with articulate experiences?

What is your acquaintance with inarticulate experiences?

What is your acquaintance with the story of Cupid and Psyche, and how did you acquire that acquaintance? 

What is your acquaintance with coloratura, fioritura and other musical embellishments?

All embellishment, ornamentation and decoration is a matter of taste, of course, whether in music or costume or cosmetics or set design or interior decoration or architectural features.

Whatever is absolutely necessary tends to depend on the purpose.

How do you know you have been exhibiting clarity of purpose recently, and from whose point of view?

How, if at all, have you been supporting the remarkably purposeful activities of the Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee?


 

You may be hoping this grimoire will help you to identify the real thoughts, motives, feelings and intentions of people rather than merely their outward expressions as indicated through social media, the mass media and various other forms of communication.

Even highly articulate persons habitually hide their true intentions.

Do the names Denis Pyramus and Huon of Bordeaux mean anything to you?

Perhaps you are in the habit of mistaking one person for another.

Perhaps you are even in the habit of mistaking one factual or fictional event for another.

Perhaps you have difficulty separating fact from fiction.

Perhaps you have difficulty separating fact from opinion.

Perhaps you have poor diction.

Perhaps you have poor taste from the point of view of well-informed persons.

Even if you do not know the difference between a staccato, an obbligato and a pizzicato, the facts about such matters happen to exist independently of the perceptions of any particular person.

How clear are the definitions you use, and how do you measure that clarity?

Facts exist even if you have no knowledge of them.

Facts also exist whether you do, or do not, have any particular beliefs about the associated circumstances. 

Facts are the only basis of truth.

Reality is the sum of all facts.

What is your acquaintance with reality?

How do you tell the difference between an enlightened education and an unenlightened one?

How do you convey your descriptive knowledge of the world, and to whom?

How do you convey your beliefs about the world, and why do you do so?

How do you convey your procedural knowledge, and for which purposes?

What is your descriptive knowledge of knowledge at present, and how do you know?

What do you currently know about the procedural knowledge followed by wonderful witches, and how do you know it?

What is your acquaintance with explicit/expressive knowledge?  

What is your acquaintance with implicit/tacit knowledge?

What do you implicitly know about one image and another and another and another and another and another, and how did you acquire that knowledge?

What do you know about the skills required to perform trills?

Perhaps you have a tendency to pursue thrills, like a voluptuary.

Perhaps your reason for observing non-verbal communication is not necessarily devoted entirely towards mutual understanding.

What do you know about the past and present popularity of chivalric romances and similar stories?

What do you know about the logic and linguistics of propositions? 

What do you know about lifting the veils of ignorance, and of secrecy, and of privacy?

Perhaps you know something about lifting the corporate veil.

If you have ever worn, or otherwise used, a veil, why have you done so?

If you have ever sought seclusion, why have you done so?

What is your acquaintance with the cultural uses of curtains?

What is your acquaintance with the psychology of ownership?

What is your acquaintance with the concepts of personhood, legal persons and corporate personhood?

What is your acquaintance with the history, psychology and sociology of popularity and unpopularity?

What is your acquaintance with the philosophical aspects of objects and subjects?

What do you know about the psychology of post-truth practices? 

What do you know about the stupidity of post-truth politics?

The Revolutionary Climatological Needlepoint Committee exhibits clarity through demonstrations of needlework and other handicrafts. 


 

The wonderful witches on the committee also exhibit clarity through visual imagery, music and language.

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of existence? 

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of matter?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of energy?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of space?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of time?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of spacetime?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of chronobiology?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to the matter of climate change?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to objects of the mind?

What, if any, is your interest in the story and poetry within Partonopeus de Blois?

Perhaps you have a scholarly interest.

Perhaps you understand the language within it adequately enough to read and comprehend it.

Perhaps you know the story well enough to be able to compare it knowledgeably with other, quite similar stories. 

Perhaps you understand its historical and cultural context quite well.

How do you acquire, use and build knowledge to construct various versions of past, present and future reality?

How do you reflect upon your experiences? 

How do you identify wisdom in yourself and other people, and other species?

When, if ever, have you listened to the Méditation from Thaïs?

What, if anything, do you know about the associated operatic plot and the original novel by Anatole France?

How do you compare one mythologised life with another?

How do you compare one actual life with another?

How do you compare one potential life with another?

What do you know about European folklore and the influence of mythology upon it?

How, if at all do you attempt to gain insight into a past, present or future experience?

When, if ever, have you participated in a tableau vivant?

What is your acquaintance with plausibility, and from whose point of view?

What is your lifeworld?

What is your worldview?

This grimoire can be interpreted in various ways, with or without the contributions of intuitions.

But how do you know whether your interpretation is accurate?

How do you interpret the art of very necessary news?

What does the word relate mean to you in various situations? 

What does the word eloquent mean to you in various situations?

What does the word artistic mean to you in various situations?

What does the word expression mean to you in various situations?

What do you know about attributed arms? 

You may or may not have much knowledge of plausible and implausible stories from various texts.

You may or may not be well acquainted with frame stories, narrative hooks, unreliable narrators and the sociology of plausibility.

You may or may not know what it means to be an effective performer.

You may or may not know about comparative studies of language and literature, including those relating to Partonopeus de Blois.

You may or may not know how best to assess technology, or images, or texts, or techniques, or human artistic performances, or human needs.

Are you in the picture?

Do you usually regard rituals as artistic performances?

Do you know much about grisaille?

Are you acquainted with the history of the Galerie des machines?

Are you acquainted with the history of the Eiffel Tower?

Are you acquainted with architectural articulation?

Are you acquainted with performance art?

Are you acquainted with self-plagiarism as a form of art and as an educative service and self-educative tool?

Some knowledge can be best acquired through repetitious acquaintance.

Some skills are best developed through repetitious practice.

How do you assess the influence of familiarity and similarity?

How do you interpret the reinterpretation and retelling of old stories?

What do you know about the halo effect?

How do you interpret the Storming of the Bastille?

What is your acquaintance with Jean d'Arras?

What do you know about Wynkyn de Worde and the nominative determinism associated with his name?

What is your acquaintance with articulatory phonetics?

What do you know about articulation in music? 

How have you interpreted the history of world's fairs and world expositions?

How do you interpret the chance to become very well-informed indeed? 

How have you interpreted the history of summit meetings and international conferences?

How have you interpreted the history of performative turns?

How do you compare Partonopeus de Blois with The Distaff Gospels, Mélusine, The Knight of the Swan and Gingalain?

How do you compare intergovernmental organisations?

How do you compare interpretations of religious ideas?

How do you compare centennial experiences?

How do you compare the performance of textiles and the waste of textiles?

How do you interpret the performing arts?

What do you know about the North American Ghost Dance?

What do you know about the history of colonialism and imperialism?

What do you know about the historical conflict between monarchies and republics?

What do you know about the history, sociology, economics and politics of urbanisation?

What do you know about Romantic music and its ironic association with cities?

What do you know about the history, sociology, economics and politics of industrialisation?

What do you know about the development of, and consequences of, industrial societies?

What do you know about opéra comique and the Opéra-Comique?

What do you know about the Comédie-Française and the Salle Richelieu?

What do you know about the Belle Époque and the Third French Republic? 

Perhaps you have a romantic view of the past rather than a realist one.

Perhaps you have a romantic view about the present, and possibly even the future.

Perhaps you regard yourself as having a civilising mission rather than a duty to exhibit clarity.

But what is civilisation, and to whom?

What is enlightenment and how does it relate to civilisation?

 


What have you discovered about domineering individuals, domineering groups, domineering organisations and domineering sovereign states?

What have you discovered about appropriate freedoms, human rights and the reasonable rule of law?

What do you know about moral universalism and the rule of the higher law? 


 

If you are seeking to complete the initiation process associated with this grimoire, what are your expectations, your motivations, your intentions and your ambitions, and why?

 

 

Wonderful witches often act alone.  Even so, they also sometimes form semi-secret scholarly societies for the clear expression of enlightened practices throughout the world.  They do so with a clear sense of purpose.  And they act as effectively and unobtrusively as possible for reasons of safety.

What do you know about the history of learned societies and secret societies? 

How do you assess political cultures in various contexts?

What do you know about the political cultures directly and indirectly associated with Manon and its source material?

What have you discovered about New Imperialism and Neocolonialism?

What do you know about multinational corporations and transnational corporations?

What do you know about ship registration and flags of convenience?

What do you know about tax havens and lax financial regulations and other money laundering facilities?

How do you assess a hegemony?

How do you assess the ethics of military practices, especially military interventions?

What do you know about purportedly humanitarian interventions?

How do you assess geopolitics? 

What have been your personal experiences of bureaucratic bullying?

What have been your personal experiences of unjust military and/or police coercion?

What do you know about the political encouragement of white-collar crime?

In many societies, and possibly all societies, suitably democratic practices are often undermined and usurped by bullies for their own purposes.  Wonderful witches therefore act to prevent anyone from gaining and/or maintaining excessive power.

What do you know about globalisation and its history?

What do you know about the causes and consequences of the scramble for Africa?

What do you know about the history of unjust privileges in France and other societies, and between societies?


 

How do you distinguish between the reasonable rationalisation of nature and the unreasonable exploitation of natural resources?

How do you distinguish between the reasonable supervision of employees and the cruel exploitation of labour?

How do you act to prevent environmental degradation, dehumanisation and all forms of oppression?

If you ever purchase internationally-grown, plastic-wrapped cut flowers, why do you do so?

If you ever purchase internationally-produced, plastic-wrapped fruits and/or vegetables and/or meat and/or fish and/or dairy products and/or condiments and/or junk food, why do you do so?

If you ever purchase clothing, footwear and headwear you do not really need, why do you do so?



What do you really need, and why do you need it, and how do you know?

How do you assess other people's needs and desires?

How do you assess cultural movements and spiritual movements and social movements, and how do you identify their origins?

How do you identify, and respond to, incidents of unjust discrimination and unjust preferential treatment?

How do you interpret popular stories, whether those stories are presented in literature, or through opera, or through any other medium, or directly?

Perhaps you have composed a blog or a series of online videos or a various songs or other artistic expressions of your experiences of the world, possibly in much the same way as an epistolary novel.

Perhaps you have a non-scientific attitude towards the physical universe. 

Perhaps you are not at all interested in compositions by Jules Massenet.

Perhaps you have a considerable interest in the Institut de France and/or
Institut Français and/or the Legion of Honour and/or the Collège des Quatre-Nations and/or Paris in the Belle
Époque.

Perhaps you have a considerable interest in the art of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and/or Victor Gabriel Gilbert and/or
Gustave Caillebotte.

Perhaps you have a considerable interest in the history and ongoing practice of cultural imperialism.

Perhaps you  believe you make worthwhile contributions to public interest journalism with or without receiving payments by and/or through large media conglomerates and/or vast technology companies.

 


Perhaps you are mostly interested in the beliefs and practices of the Rosicrucians and/or the composers of nationalistic music and/or theories in international relations concerning the global balance of political power.

Yet where does balance in the world actually reside, if anywhere?

If you are experiencing world-weariness at present, how is that affecting your physical health, your mental health, your morality and your leadership?

When did you most recently experience an exemplum of quality?

Where and how have you been experiencing the opposite?

How do you interpret the story of Griselda, and why, and how does your interpretation differ from the one used by Massenet?

How do you interpret the language of flowers in the age of coronavirus quarantine and extreme weather events and a globalised flower industry?

What is your acquaintance with environmental accounting?



How do you compare the fine arts with the industrial arts and the commercial arts and the healing arts and various other arts?

How do you account for experiences of disenchantment?

How do you define modernity?

How do you account for the development of modernism?

How do you account for various expressions of exoticism?

How do you account for the quixotic?

How do you account for the philanthropic?

How are you attempting to contribute to more pleasantness in the world, whether through the arts or in other ways?



Perhaps you have been examining the art of healing through the apparent healing arts and/or through experiences of, and expressions of, artistic creativity.  Is so, what have you discovered?

How do you examine the psychosocial world?

How do you attempt to exhibit clarity in relation to your findings in that regard?

 


How do you attempt to assess the biocapacity of various areas of the world?

How do you attempt to understand ecotones and ethnic differences?

How do you attempt to understand capitalism and consumerism and commercial art?

How do you measure the human impact on the environment, including your contribution?

What do you know about comparative politics?

You may be aware that the iron cage of bureaucracy is often placed in the dark cupboard of cruelty rather than in the light of understanding.  The goals of bureaucracy are not rational.  They are political.

Anger-related authoritarian order, fear-related chaos and greed-related pestering are all signs of societal failure.

But is the knowledge economy a sign of failure rather than success?

Perhaps you have a slow movement approach to success.

Perhaps you associate rushing, and other sources of stress, to be signs of failure.

How do you compare one moment with another?

Perhaps you enjoy savouring a moment through savoir-faire.

Perhaps you regard such moments as goals in themselves.

How do you decide what is valuable in terms of time and place and purpose?


   

How do you perform a climate risk assessment?

How do you compare events from one year to the next?

 

 

What do you know about France as it was in 1888, 1889 and 1890?

How do you assess the attitudes of particular individuals and groups of people at particular times in history, and in the present?

How do you define such terms as nation, state, nation state, nationalism, ethnic nationalism, athletic nationalism, sovereignty, community, polity and country?

How do you define the terms opportunism, socialism, conservatism, anarchism, liberalism, monarchism, republicanism, radicalism,
expansionism, irredentism, reactionism, feudalism, fundamentalism, restorationism, fanaticism and extremism?
 
How do you define dignity? 

Unless you exhibit clarity appropriately, you will not progress successfully through the initial initiation associated with this grimoire.
 
How do you usually assess purposefulness in relation to meaningfulness, intentions, encouragement, persuasion, expectations and practical problem solving?
  
How devoted are you towards improving your leadership, whether as a guide, a teacher, a moderator, an investor, a patron, a philanthropist, a mentor, a friend, or a problem solver?

Are you sure you are not simply lazy?

Are you sure you are not simply selfish?

How do you attempt to identify well-informed expressions of voluntary initiative in the service of the common good? 

How do you usually assess accomplishments and talents in relation to well-informed kindness?

How have you established your standards in relation to expressing well-informed kindness, and how do you attempt to maintain, and improve upon, those standards?   
 
Perhaps you benefit too much from the hard work of other people, whether in terms of renovations or in terms of your attire or in terms of the fine arts.
 
Perhaps you tend to view the world entirely through the bubble of your biases, and attempt to encourage other people to do the same.
 
Where have you been investing in improved political practices, and where, and how do you know? 

Who is most likely to benefit from such improvements, and how?

Who is most likely to be adversely affected by improvements in political practices and/or constitutions, and how?
 
Where have you been investing in improved constitutions, and how, and why, and for whose benefit? 
 
How do you tell the difference between serving the cause of enlightenment with free will and being excessively servile to a hidden agenda?

How do you tell the difference between self-gratification and mutual satisfaction?

Do you mostly enjoy exploring the usual or the unusual?  

Are you capable of clearly documenting when the unusual becomes usual and when the formerly usual disappears?

When do you believe it is most necessary to give people the benefit of the doubt, and when do you know it would be foolish to do so?

If you are currently an agent of some sort, are you sure you act with enlightened self-interest rather than greedy self-interest? 

If so, are you also sure you act with adequate compassion?

What do you know about revenge and retributive justice?

How have you been attempting to prevent yourself from contributing to selfishness and other forms of individual and collective narcissism? 

How do you prefer to assess grievances? 

How carefully are you investing in awareness, and how can you be sure?

What is your acquaintance with technology, and how much clarity is involved in that acquaintance?

What is your acquaintance with engineering?
 
What is your acquaintance with social engineering?

What is your acquaintance with revanchism?

What is your acquaintance with bankruptcy?

What is your acquaintance with perfect competition and imperfect competition? 

What do you know about the history of international trade and the development of big business?

If you believe you are investing in civility perfectly well, where is your evidence?

What is your acquaintance with compatible and incompatible management? 

What is your acquaintance with compatible and incompatible technologies?

What do you know about loneliness in relation to incompatibility?

What do you know about sleepiness in relation to incompatibility?

What do you know about adaptation and maladaptation? 

What do you know about counter-revolutionaries?

What do you know about obscurantism and obfuscation?

What do you know about corporate services?

What do you know about the Panama Scandals and the Panama Papers?

What is your current net worth, and why?

How do you know you do not equate net worth with worthiness?

Perhaps you do.  Over thousands of years, many people have been duped into doing so.

What do you know about French Ultra-royalists, Legitimists, Orléanists and Bonapartistes? 

What do you know about the ideology of Ultra-nationalism?

What have you discovered about
palingenesis, and how?

What do you know about the
Convention of Constantinople of 1888?

What do you know about the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition in Melbourne in 1889?

What do you know about the Volpini Exhibition in Paris that year?

What do you know about the opening of the Moulin Rouge?

Perhaps you mostly associated Paris with the can-can.

Perhaps you mostly associate 19th century France with the writings of Jules Verne.

Perhaps you mainly associate the year 1889 with the Mayerling incident.

Perhaps you mainly associate that year with the coup attempt of the Boulangists.

Perhaps you associate 1889-1890 with the trip around the world of Nellie Bly.  Her journey took her mainly on steamships and steam trains but not steam planes.

How did her contributions to warming the planet compare with your own?

What do you know about 19th century fossil fuel use?

What do you know about investing in the delights of adequately ethical compatibility?

What do you know about the history of industrialisation?

What do you know about biotechnology?
 
What do you know about the next pandemic? 

What do you know about the 1889-1890 pandemic?

What do you know about France in the long 19th century?

Are you acquainted with the Second International?


Perhaps you associate 1889 with The Starry Night.

Or perhaps you associate that year with Down on His Luck.

But do you exhibit clarity when conveying your knowledge of the history of climate change science? 

Perhaps you are more interested in examining the history of far-right movements in France and other countries.

What do you know about the history of political thought?

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