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Working with Yoda

rising and revolving

16:02 / 26.05.05

Fuck it. The other thread has fallen prey to man with two watches syndrome, and decisions need to be made. So I've made one. For me, and everyone else is welcome to tag along! For those who wanted to do Gandalf, or Barbelith, or Max Payne, go make a thread and I'll possibly join in the fun over there, too.

Anyhow. I'm not really proposing a group working, because it's too much hassle to organise and I don't really care too much. I'm proposing that we each do our own thang and post the results / experiences here. For me, I'm going with a "Let Yoda be Yoda" pov - and it's all about building a relationship sans too many pre-conceptions of how that relationship will build.

As my first piece of devotion, I'm going out hunting trance-style for an appropriate article - shouldn't be too hard to find, but my quick lunchtime drift didn't snag anything. I'll check the comic shops this evening, which should provide a broader range of appropriate Yodas (the only one I found this arvo didn't feel right - was a mini superdeformed version ..) - after that, I'll see about putting together a nice big invocation, as I like to do things with style for first meetings. I'll post the proposed structure up here and any results I get.

Why am I doing this? Good question - I have perfectly satisfactory relationships with a few old Gods, although nothing as awesome as Mordant has experienced. I've done *no* pop culture work in the past. And I'm interested in any noticable differences in texture, and whether they're apparent at this level of interaction. Also, Yoda gave me a call, so I figure it would be poor form of me to ignore it.

May the force be with you.

--

23:35 / 26.05.05

Well, good luck: All I have to add here is that I was really taken with Yoda's speech to non-attachment in "Revenge of the Sith". Gave me a lot to think about. His philosophy does seem rooted in the East, though he seems to wax Gnostic in "Empire": "Luminous beings are we, not this gross matter", or something along those lines.

23:40 / 26.05.05

I haven't yet seen Sith but I was going to recommend using the Empire-era Yoda. Lot's of good stuff there defining a really powerful-yet-peaceful warrior priest. It would be great to see a post in this thread listing many of his quotes while Luke is hanging with him in Dagoba. I'll see what I can find. Maybe we can flesh it out with quotes from Sith...

23:46 / 26.05.05

"Yes, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will..."

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."

"Ohhh. Great warrior.Wars not make one great."

"You will find only what you bring in."

"[Luke:] I can’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail."

"Do or do not... there is no try."

01:21 / 27.05.05

Yup. Agreed. Count me in. I do agree that the Empire era yoda is the one to work with, but I would bet that those aspects have melted into each other. Probably a good idea to watch the early movies to hook back into those aspects.

The interesting thing about this is that I spent a little time over at the Unified Jedi Academy. They seem to be doing some interesting things, but it seems that they've been a bit influenced by the under the table stuff that has pervaded the more recent mythos.To me, it's a good example that unintended effects can be caused by pop culture workings as well as traditional ones. I had the feeling that I had stepped into a saloon in the old west. I decided that it was best to back away slowly before the light sabers get drawn........

Well, off to the video rental......

Personally, I think that this is a good idea. There isn't as much group personality invested in this icon...

15:35 / 27.05.05

I'm in...

Y'all may not want to do a group working (I've yet to participate in an online working that felt like a group), but there might be a little more juice to it if we were celebrating some Yoda qualities in common.

The power of the small against the large comes to mind, as does wisdom. Nimbleness... What else?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

16:26 / 27.05.05

(NB: I'm not going to be involved with working with Yoda, coz I'm all pantheoned out right now. I'm butting in out of sheer buttinfullness.)

What else? Playing the fool for fun and profit; appearing to be an object of amusement to others in order to bring out some hidden quality or lull them into a false sense of security.

In Empire, when Space Wuss first meets Yoda, Yoda goes into that giggling-annoying-little-green-fool routine. We come to see that this is merely a test; he's pulling this shit just to see how Luke will respond, to see if young Skywalker has sufficient patience for the whole Jedi gig. Later (or earlier, depending on your POV) we see him tottering around, leaning on his stick like a geriatric--only to leap into gymnastic action as he battles Count Dooku.

Be more than meets the eye...

rising and revolving

16:28 / 27.05.05

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."

So, last night was my hunt for a Yoda fetish. Which worked, but completely not after the fashion I expected. I drifted off in the direction of the various comic stores hoping to find an appropriate Yoda, but with no success - however, I did get a strong sensation of Yoda sitting on my shoulder and muttering as I went. Even so, nothing of note occurred, so I went to my doctors appt and then on to the pharmacy. While in the pharmacy I heard an Oz accent (an unusual thing, in these parts) and wandered over to say hello to my fellow antipodean. Who was a small (5', max) man with hairy ears and the strangest eyes I've ever seen. We had a brief chat (he was a tourist here with his wife for the next few days) and he bent down and grasped off the street (we were outside at the time) and picked up a broken umbrella handle. He passed it to me, said "You need an umbrella" and trotted off.

It was only as I was standing there, looking at the chromed handle in my hand that I realised it would make a perfect Lightsaber/Wand for the work I'm planning. And a more appropriate Avatar of Yoda I couldn't have imagined in order to hand it over.

So! It begins!

16:56 / 27.05.05

Cool! (But it should have been, "An umbrella you need"...)

I'm busy with something else at the mo', but might be interested in this in the future.

Right after reading this thread yesterday, I walked out the office door and almost bumped into a guy in a t-shirt bearing a stylized sketch of Yoda, and the slogan Judge me by my size do you? (Of course, everyone and their dogs are Star-Warsing out right now, but it gave me a chuckle.)

16:58 / 27.05.05

And Mordant: Playing the fool for fun and profit; appearing to be an object of amusement to others in order to bring out some hidden quality or lull them into a false sense of security.

... Sounds a bit like someone else you know.

09:26 / 28.05.05

I've begun evoking yoda. Still, I can't really tell whether the results are at all solid. I had a bad injury recently, (torn nerve), and haven't slept for a few days. I'm backing off on any further work til I can get some stability. A visit to the pan management center near where I live had some success, so I'm just going to rest. Yeah, Yodas talking to me, and he does make sense, but I don't know whether I'm just hallucinating at this point..... of course, maybe everything's a hallucination...... off to rest..... I do hope that we continue this,though...

09:28 / 28.05.05

ah, that's PAIN management center, not pan management center. I'm in control of my pans.... honest.....

16:58 / 28.05.05

[grin] Never known Pan to be that controlable...

alejandrodelloco

18:54 / 28.05.05

That story is great, by the way. A little human manifestation of Yoda.

Can anyone think of any other dieties/figures that could be tied to Yoda?

19:21 / 28.05.05

Jesus. My first time checking in with Barbelith for months and the top thread is bang on where my head is at today.

My wife's a big star wars fan so she got the first lot for us to watch en famille. We kicked off with Empire, which I've never seen (can ya believe that?

). I liked it. And the older boy, Felix, went apeshit over Yoda, absolutely loved him, thought he was really funny. So we decided we'd use Yoda and the idea of Jedis and the force a little bit as a way to give him some ideals. (Felix is 4.) I spent a good hour play-fighting with him in the garden and up the street, him wielding his new toy light sabre (it lights up! it makes noises!) and me using his old medieval knight sword with the button that makes the "chang" noises. It was great.

So when it comes to working with Yoda, I'm in, I'm there.

Yoda's the bomb.

All that new agey Star Wars stuff about the Force and that is kind of facile and rubbish on one level, but at the same time... well, that stuff is actually how I think about the universe. A force that binds trhe universe together that is the expression of life itself -- makes perfect sense to me.

The wife tells me that according to UK census results there are 32,000 people who put "Jedi Knight" down as their religion. Cool.

But you knew that anyway...

Unconditional Love

12:05 / 29.05.05

390,000 world wide

Unconditional Love

12:53 / 29.05.05

yoda and yoga

It is interesting, too, that Yoda locates the source of the Jedis’ strength as flowing from “the Force,” which he essentially defines as the ground of all being. Indeed, Yoda tells Luke that all ability comes from the Force, but that this is especially true of the Jedis’ supernatural powers. The Gita also says that all power flows from the “Force,” i.e., the metaphysical source of all that is: “Of all that is material and all that is spiritual, know for certain that I am both the origin and dissolution. . . .Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. . . . I am the ability in man.” (7.6-8)

14:51 / 29.05.05

Just about to settle down to watch Return of the Jedi, which again I've never seen before. Just spent an invigorating few hours in the park trying to instil jedi values in my young knight, which mainly consisted of "You be dark fader daddy!".

390,000 worldwide? Wow. They need a jedi pope.

20:46 / 29.05.05

So, last night was my hunt for a Yoda fetish.

I have a Yoda fetish, but I can never persuade my girlfriend to wear the green ears.

"Having an orgasm I am"

Unconditional Love

23:26 / 29.05.05

20:00 / 30.05.05

Great thread. Great idea.

Unconditional Love

12:49 / 31.05.05

star wars and hinduism

the whole site is yoda focused.

rising and revolving

14:34 / 31.05.05

Did some trancework last night, that happily led its way largely unintentionally towards being Yoda work. I got a whole cross section of information filled in via solid info-dumps - the most relevant of it to the discussion here being some further insight into the reasons that working with Yoda is such a good choice for me, personally. Although I've never been a die-hard SW fan, it's been every present for me - and a whole bunch of my childhood fantasy world is tied into Empire and Jedi and running around playing X-Wings and Lightsabers as a wee tacker. Not to mention all the time spent in my teens playing X-Wing and Tie Fighter video games - I've always found that if I spend large chunks of time playing games (something I do rarely these days) then it stretches into my dreams. Pulling together these threads of dream and fantasy world into an actual connection is a good place for me to be at the moment - good space to be moving in.

17:19 / 10.06.05

"Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter!"

Was he wistfully remembering the "past," when he was a bright and weightless CGI, instead of the clunky old muppet he became during his exile?

-Delacroix