The Harbingers of Light
A Journey Through Love, Battle, and Majesty
Poetry is a language of Aletheia, revealing truth from the liminal space where the divine meets the mortal. Alongside music and art, poetry transcends metaphysics and calculative thought, becoming a final frontier for what lies beyond.
Through myth, we communicate "beyond the gods," navigating the liminal to glimpse the heavens. This poetic and mythological lens moves us beyond Husserl’s phenomenology of consciousness toward Heidegger’s heralding of Being.
Mythic poetry seeks to transcend the confines of subjective and objective thought. It stands before Being, open to grace and the gifts it bestows. By drawing allegories of “the gods,” from their universal archetypes, I aim to reframe them, seeking the liminal, where the light of “God” may be revealed.
My spiritual journey unfolded three understandings of Being in the world. The first was divine love with redeemed “laughter-loving” Aphrodite as the embodied archetype. The second was divine wisdom, guidance, and intellect with redeemed “grey-eyed” Athena as the embodied archetype. The third was Divine Order with “ox-eyed” Hera as the embodied archetype of royalty and majesty. My mythic poetry emerges from a Catholic mind interpreting Being as God has revealed it to me through stories and myths.
The Harbingers of Light
A Journey Through Love, Battle, and Majesty
The fire arose, the hero woke in light
The fields in singing beauty swayed around
Amidst the music rose a voice unseen
Emerging, Aphrodite herald bright
Her voice, a whisper woven through the air
A song beyond the words the world could speak
The hero turned, beheld the shining path
And Aphrodite led him through the veil
Soft meadows waned, the golden hush now past
Before him stood Athena fierce and wise
Beyond her gaze a battlefield arose
Where embers rained and steel met flashing steel
“Now stand and fight and think!” Her voice was fire
Athena seized the weary hero’s arm
A guiding hand, celestial in its pull
Her wisdom burned and lit the harrowed sky
Beyond the fire, a mountain pierced the clouds
Athena, turning, pointed to its peak
Majestic, rousing, shining royally
Queen Hera stood and smiled enthroned in gold
The call of love, the battles fierce now past
“Now rise and rule!” queen Hera’s voice proclaimed
With wisdom, love, and majesty divine entwined
The harbingers of light had made him whole
©Walter Emerson AdamsEnjoy this video presentation of The Harbinger of Light. This is my spiritual journey told not through a religious lens but through my experience of Being in the enigmatic liminal space where God works mysteries of grace. For me, it was a “confrontation” with the “grey-eyed” Being of Joan of Arc. Told religiously, it is a Catholic tale. Told through the experience of Being, however, it is an epic story of transformation with Aphrodite, Athena, and Queen Hera.
The alethic, liminal opening wherein this confrontation with Being occurs is that grasp at by ancient Greek mythology. Athena is the embodiment of “grey-eyed” Being as wisdom, intellect, spiritual warfare, purity, chastity, and creativity. Hera is the embodiment of “ox-eyed” Being as royalty and divine order. Aphrodite is the embodiment of “laughter-loving” Being as divine love and beauty. The three embodied archetypes herald the approaching dawn of redeemed wisdom, majesty, and love.
This is my story of Being, recounting the journey through the liminal space. You can read the religious account on my Walter Emerson Adams page, my About page, and Is this for you? Here, however, is my story as confronting Being in the liminal.
This is a “power” version, so ear buds and a respectable volume will help! I have other versions of this video, but this heavy one is the fairest reflection of the breathtaking real-life story.
Lyrics by Walter Emerson Adams. Music and vocals by Suno. ©Walter Emerson Adams.
This is very powerful. I am especially drawn to Athena! Excellent work.