I am The Princess of Wales.

I shall tell you 

of William Wallace. 

Historians from 

England will say 

I am a Liar, 

but History is written by those 

who have butchered Their Moon Goddesses —

The King of Scotland had died 

without a son, and The King of England, a cruel pagan known as Edward The Longshanks, 

claimed The Throne of Scotland for himself. 

Scotland's nobles fought him, and fought each other over The Crown. 

So Longshanks invited them to 

talks of truce, no weapons, 

one page only. 

Among the farmers of that shire was Malcolm Wallace, 

a commoner with his own lands. 

He had Two Sons : 

John and William.

They Do not Deserve Your Protection, Diana.

‘I liked the idea of going out as I’d come into the business; doing outlandish space fiction stories set on distant worlds of satire and metaphor.’

And so The Green Lantern

concluded its run on planet allegory - hero Hal Jordan must choose to walk away from a vivid fantasy planet he’s cultivated as what amounts to a personal vacation paradise, thereby giving it room to develop on its own without his influence.

When space cop Jordan leaves the future to others of his kind

and jets off into the unknown, 

subtext becomes but

text in its underwear.

Wonder Woman Earth One, with artist Yanick Paquette on the other hand, set out to be a stately swan-elegant, meticulously constructed Gloriana ‘art d’amour’ – a heartfelt hypersigil with magical intent and an eye on the future, as mediated through the metaphorical filter of an imagined oncoming Aeon of Ma’at and the energies of the Qabalistic Sphere of Binah.

In each case, the message, I hoped, was plain as the nose on your sister – 

I was saying goodbye to this fictional universe where I’d 

spent so many happy hours, 

leaving it in the capable sweaty hands 

of younger, more dedicated, 

enthusiastic and 

energetic open cast 

mind workers.

I had no appetite for another project in the DC universe – which attitude naturally made me a sucker for the old ‘just one last job’ trope, the downfall of many a grizzled warhorse…

In the last installment in this series, we have discussed chochmah or "inspired wisdom." We now come to the second of the Ten Sefirot, which is binah or "processed wisdom," also known as deductive reasoning.

We have a definition of binah in our non-mystical Midrashic literature which defines binah in the same way that Kabbalah defines it, and that is davar mitoch davar -- understanding one idea from another idea.

A person has an idea -- generated by chochmah -- and left the way it is, the idea is not really useful; it is raw. But then one begins to analyze it. What exactly are the parameters of the idea? What axioms is it based on? What are all the ramifications of this idea, and are they internally consistent? What are its applications?

In Kabbalistic literature the metaphor of a "father" and a "mother" is used to describe this relationship of raw idea to processed idea.

Just like a father sows a seed, so chochmah is a mere seed, an undeveloped code for potential.

Just like a father sows a seed, so chochmah is a mere seed. The father's seed is infinitesimally small, containing an undeveloped code that is mere potential.

It is in the mother's womb that it begins to develop. Every line of DNA code begins to become a human cell, a budding tissue, or a specific organ. Here is the ability to develop the germ of a human.

This relationship is also expressed in Talmudic literature:

The man brings home wheat and wool from the fields. Can a man eat wheat? Can he wear wool? The woman then takes this wheat and makes flour, then dough, and then bread. She takes the wool, spins it, weaves it, and sews it.

Thus we see that the woman develops the potential in every item. (Without stereotyping perhaps this explains the special talent in education that mothers possess, for they are capable of seeing potential in children, 

long after their father has given up on them.)

One more point about the metaphor of a father and mother. The original man -- Adam -- was created from "nothing." He started out as lump of clay into which was instilled the Divine breath. Thus the essence of the man is that he comes from "nowhere" much the same as chochmah does.

Eve, however, was taken from Adam. 

Her very existence demonstrated that she 

was a davar mitoch davar, an entity 

coming from something.

Adam seemed to be but one person, but it was then revealed that out of this person, another person could be carved out. Or put more correctly -- within this Adam there was latent an entire person, waiting to emerge.

The Bible then explains that this is the reason that a woman is called ishah for she was taken from man, ish.

WISDOM AND STUDY OF TORAH

Let us find the contrast between chochmah and binah 

in a very different area: the study of Torah.

The Talmud states that Torah 

was given to Moses 

to give to Israel. 

At that time Moses also received the art of pilpul, 

which translates roughly as the process of logically extrapolating new Torah laws from the existing body of law. Moses was not required to hand this skill to Israel, but out of his "good heartedness" he did so. Indeed, the skill became very useful because when Moses died, Israel forgot many laws, and these were restored through the pilpul process.

This teaching of the Talmud is actually a description 

of the role of both chochmah and binah 

in the study of Torah.

Torah is certainly an example of chochmah. It is an outside injection of God's wisdom into the world. 

Its validity is not because we understand it, 

but rather because G-d said it is so.

Torah simultaneously has an internal binah, which 

translates as logical extrapolation.

Yet Torah simultaneously has an internal binah. Given the basics one can use logical extrapolation and rebuild the rest of it. Even the mode with which pilpul was given to us reminds us so much of binah. Torah per se was given from God, but binah (i.e. pilpul) was passed onto us from the person who already had it! Much the same as the woman was created from the man who already was there!

Indeed for an outsider visiting a yeshiva, the method of study seems strange. On the one hand the students display a tremendous reverence for the Torah as being God's word. On the other hand, every point is meticulously debated with the keenest logical analysis possible. This is because Torah does indeed contain both components : 

Chochmah bestowed from God 

and human binah developing it.

Let us sum up. Chochmah is intellect that does not emanate from the rational process. It is either inspired or taught. Binah is the rational process that is innate in the person, and works to develop an idea fully.

(In a passage of Longshanks' castle, The Prince, Phillip and other young courtiers are walking. Two are carrying a full-length mirror, in which the Prince and Phillip are admiring themselves. The Prince stops them to adjust the belt of Phillip's gaily colored tunic.)

Prince: 

Wait. Wait. Look. 

This is out and this is left. 

(to the people holding the mirror) 

Carry on. Carry on.

(Isabella and Nicolette follow, strolling, not in any hurry to keep up with the men, who turn a corner and disappear. Their following conversation is spoken in French.)

Nicolette: 

When The King returns, 

he will bury them 

in those new clothes. 

Scotland is in chaos. 

Your Husband is secretly 

sending an army North.

Isabella: 

How do you know this?

Nicolette: 

Last night I slept with a member 

of the War Council.

Isabella: 

He shouldn't be telling 

secrets in bed.

Nicolette: 

Englishmen don't know 

what a tongue is for.

Isabella: 

(pauses for a moment, shocked) 

Ah. (She then hurries around the corner to catch up to Nicolette.) 

This Scottish rebel, Wallace. 

He fights to avenge 

a woman?

Nicolette: 

(taking Isabella's hand.) I nearly forgot. 

A magistrate wished to capture 

him, and found he 

had a secret lover.

(Some soldiers appear and Isabella motions to Nicolette to be quiet until they turn the corner. Nicolette continues in a more conspiratorial voice. Isabella listens attentively.)

Nicolette: 

So he cut the girl's throat 

to tempt Wallace to fight, 

and fight he did. Knowing his 

passion for his lost love, 

they next plotted to take him 

by desecrating the graves 

of his father and brother, 

and setting an ambush 

at the grave of his love. 

He fought his way through the 

trap and carried her body 

to a secret place.

(Isabella leans back against the wall, closing her eyes, wrapped in emotion.)

Nicolette: 

Now that's love, no?

Isabella: 

(opens her eyes) Love? 

I wouldn't know.

(Nicolette comforts her.)

Daytime. Wallace's men approach York. The peasants, seeing them, scream and run. By nightfall, William's men have created a battering ram of logs ties together and set on a cart. They wheel it across a bridge to the city wall. The Governor of York is watching the Scots from a tower overlooking the gate.

York Captain: (approaching his lord, who is preoccupied with Wallace) Sir, we can get you out if you leave now.

Governor of York: I am not about to tell my uncle I've lost him the greatest city in Northern England.

(The Scots continue battering the gate. From the fortress battlements the English drop heavy rocks and pour vats of oil on them. Archers shoot flaming arrows, igniting oil and burning the men pushing the ram.)

William: Come on!

(The Scots scream as Wallace leads more men to drive the ram into the gate. This time the now burning gate caves in and the Scots cheer.)

 

(Back in London, Longshanks and his men ride into the castle.)

Soldier: Make way for the king.

(Prince Edward, standing at a tower window overlooking the courtyard, watches his father's arrival. Then he nervously ducks back into the room. Phillip is there and goes to the window to have a look.)

Phillip: (turning back into the room) It's not your fault. Stand up to him.

Prince: I will stand up to him and more. (He practically falls into a chair. His fear is causing him to sweat. Longshank's footsteps are heard climbing the tower stairway. He enters the room, handing his crown to his escort, who leaves, closing the door behind him.)

Longshanks: (to the Prince) What news of the North?

Prince: (standing) Nothing new, Your Majesty. We've sent riders to speed any word.

Longshanks: I heard the word in France, where I was fighting to expand your future kingdom. The word, my son, is that our entire Northern Army has been annihilated. And you have done nothing.

Prince: I have ordered conscriptions. They are assembled and ready to depart.

(Chamberlain and a soldier enter.)

Chamberlain: Excuse me, sire, but there is a very urgent message from York.

Longshanks: Come. (The soldier hands over a covered basket and a note.) Leave us.

Soldier: Thank you, sire. (He is happy to leave the room)

Prince: (reading the note) Wallace has sacked York.

Longshanks: What?

Prince: Wallace has sacked York.

(Longshanks grabs the note out of the Prince's hands and reads it to himself while Prince Edward lifts the cover of the basket and, shocked by what he sees, falls back into his chair. Longshanks looks into the basket and pulls its contents out--the Governor of York's head.)

Phillip: Sire, thy own nephew. What beast could do such a thing?

Longshanks: (putting the head back in the basket, thinking out loud) If he can sack York, he can invade lower England.

Phillip: (advancing) We would stop him!

Longshanks: Who is this person who speaks to me as though I needed his advice?

Prince: (standing, stating with some self-assertion) I have declared Phillip my High Counselor.

Longshanks: Is he qualified?

(The Prince starts to answer but is interrupted.)

Phillip: (confidently) I am skilled in the arts of war and military tactics, sire.

Longshanks: Are you?

(Longshanks assumes a kindly manner, laying an arm across Phillip's shoulder. They walk slowly toward the window.)

Longshanks: Then tell me, what advice would you offer on the present situation?

(As Phillip begins his reply, Longshanks throws him out the window to his death. Phillip screams on his way down. The Prince runs to the window and looks down at Phillip, dead on the pavement, his head surrounded by a pool of blood. In anger, Prince Edward draws his dagger and tries to attack his father, but is easily disarmed and beaten to the floor, whimpering and coughing.)

Longshanks: (sits, again talking to himself) I shall offer a truce and buy him off. But who will go to him? Not I, huh, if I fell under the sword of that murderer that might be my head in a basket. And not my gentle son. The mere sight of him would only encourage an enemy to take over the whole country. So whom do I send? Whom do I send?

END OF SECTION 16

 

(Night. In the woods. Wallace is sleeping on the open ground near the campfire. A twig snaps, startling him awake. He sees a hooded figure walking furtively among the trees. He closes in on it. The figure pulls back the hood and walks toward him from out of the mist. It's Murron. William kneels.)

William: I'm dreaming.

Murron: Yes you are, and you must wake.

William: (looking around a moment, then back to her with pleading eyes) I don't want to wake. I want to stay here with you.

Murron: And I with you. But you must wake now. Wake up, William. Wake up. William, wake up.

(It's morning. The vision of Murron is gone; her words now an echo. William wakes.)

Campbell: 

(from the battlement of York's fortress) 

William, a royal entourage comes, flying banners of Truce, with the 

standards of Longshanks himself.

 

(William and his captains step off a ferry and are at once surrounded by English soldiers. His men stay behind while he is led to a large, ornate tent. Princess Isabella watches his approach with curiosity. Then she walks out to meet him.)

Isabella: 

I am The Princess of Wales. 

I come as The King's Servant 

and with His Authority.

William: 

To do what?

Isabella: 

To discuss the king's proposals. Will you speak with a woman?

(She turns and leads the way into the tent. Lord Hamilton and the princess's maid, Nicolette, are there. As Isabella sits, her eyes catch the suggestive look on Nicolette's face, but the princess hurriedly looks away as William looks around suspiciously.)

Isabella: I understand you have recently been given the rank of knight.

William: I have been given nothing. God makes men what they are.

Isabella: (with indignation) Did God make you the sacker of peaceful cities, the executioner of the king's nephew, my husband's own cousin?

William: York was the staging point for every invasion of my country. And that royal cousin hanged innocent Scots, even women and children, from the city walls. (noticing the exchange of glances between the princess and Hamilton) Well, Longshanks did far worse the last time he took a Scottish city.

Hamilton: (snidely to the Princess in Latin) He is a bloody murdering savage. And he's telling lies.

William: (to Hamilton in Latin, startling both the English Lord and the Princess) I never lie. But I am a savage. (in French for the princess's benefit) Or in French if you prefer.

(Isabella is pleased, but then remembers herself and once again she becomes serious and dignified.)

William: (in English, looking only at Isabella) You ask your king to his face, ask him, and see if his eyes can convince you of the truth.

Isabella: (after a pause) Hamilton, leave us.

Hamilton: My lady?

Isabella: Leave us. Now.

(All leave except Nicolette, who hides behind a curtain to eavesdrop.)

Isabella: Let us talk plainly. You invade England, but you cannot complete the conquest so far from your shelter and supply. The king desires peace.

William: Longshanks desires peace?

Isabella: (in innocent sincerity) He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.

William: A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?

Isabella: Peace is made in such ways.

William: Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshank's notion of peace.

Isabella: I understand you have suffered. I know about your woman.

William: She was my wife. We married in secret because I would not share her with an English Lord. They killed her to get to me. I have never spoken of it. I don't know why I tell you now except I see her strength in you. One day you'll be a queen, and you must open your eyes. You tell your king that William Wallace will not be ruled, and nor will any Scot while I live.

(Isabella's wagon departs. The Princess looks out at William as he stands watching with Hamish.)

END OF SECTION 17

 

(Longshanks in his castle, conferring with his war counsel.)

Longshanks: (noticing Isabella enter) Ah, my son's loyal wife returns unkilled by the heathen. So he accepted our bribe?

Isabella: No, he did not.

Longshanks: Then why does he stay? My scouts tell me that he has not advanced.

Isabella: He waits for you at York. He says he will attack no more towns or cities, if you are man enough to come and face him.

Longshanks: Did he?

(He returns to the map on the table, where Prince Edward in sitting. The king moves the pieces as he speaks.)

Longshanks: The Welsh bowmen will not be detected arriving so far around his flank. The main force of our armies from France will land here to the north of Edinburgh. Conscripts from Ireland will approach from the southwest to here.

Prince: Welsh bowmen, troops from France, Irish conscripts. Even if you dispatch them today they will take weeks to assemble.

Longshanks: (to his son) I dispatched them before I sent your wife. (to Isabella) So our little ruse succeeded. Thank you. And while this upstart awaits my arrival in York, my forces will have arrived in Edinburgh behind him. You spoke with this Wallace in private? Tell me, what kind of man is he?

Isabella: (coming out of her shock of realizing how the king used her, says with dignity, lying) A mindless barbarian, not a king like you, my lord.

Longshanks: You may return to your embroidery.

Isabella: (with subtle indignation) Humbly, my lord.

Prince: You brought back the money, of course.

Isabella: (turns around to face the Prince) No, I gave it to ease the suffering of the children of this war.

Longshanks: (to his son) Ha! That's what happens when you send a woman.

Isabella: Forgive me, sire. I thought that generosity might demonstrate your greatness to those you mean to rule.

Longshanks: (coughing) My greatness will be better demonstrated when Wallace returns to Scotland and finds his country in ashes.

 

(In the yard of the fortress of York. Day.)

Stewart: (from the battlement) William, there's riders approaching.

(William sets down his bucket and walks to the gate. Hamish follows. They see Nicolette arriving on horseback with a mounted escort.)

Hamish: Personal escort of the princess. You must have made an impression.

William: Aye.

Hamish: I didn't think you were in the tent that long.

William: Aye.

(William and Hamish walk out to meet Nicolette.)

William: (in French) Miss.

Nicolette: (in French) A message from my mistress.

(She gives him a paper.)

William: (in French) Thank you.

(He takes the note and reads it. In disbelief, he looks quickly at Nicolette then at Hamish, then hurries back to the fortress, leaving Hamish and Nicolette staring and smiling at each other. Hamish, remembering, hurriedly follows William.)