The Light Stone

Social Transformation

2011-10-03T05:53:00.001-07:00

Monday, 03 October 2011

I was watching Roseanne Barr on the Kaiser Report on RT News, she mentioned that the Occupy Wall Street protest reminded her of the 60’s, and by a co-incidence, the same night I saw Ang Lee’s recent film Taking Woodstock. The event is beautifully reconstructed, through the lens of a Jewish family who lived in the area, and in its own way, celebrates the peaceful and gentle qualities of the Festival. Other statements that Roseanne Barr made, almost exactly parallel the astrological analysis of Richard Tarnas, relating to the configurations of Saturn, Pluto & Uranus, in particular. Personally, I find an extraordinary precision and clarity in this paradigm – for example, on the 60’s period, Tarnas writes:

“ . . the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s and early 1970s, coincided with that volcanic eruption of revolutionary and emancipatory impulses, accelerated historical change, social and political turmoil, and heightened creativity and innovation in all spheres of human activity that has shaped the global zeitgeist ever since.”

And on the present alignments, he writes:

“Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square configuration will present the human community with major challenges on many fronts. The Uranus-Pluto square that will continue through 2020 could well represent something like a combination of the 1930s and the 1960s in a twenty-first-century context, a sustained period of enormous historical change requiring humanity to radically expand the scope of its vision and draw upon new resources and capacities in ways that could ultimately be deeply liberating. Whatever form this coming era will take, I believe that the great global transformations and emancipatory movements that have coincided with the long sequence of axial alignments of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto surveyed in this book, as well as the deep human suffering and moral evolution that took place during the Saturn-Pluto, Saturn-Neptune, and other such challenging alignments, have prepared the world to enter this critical threshold with a collective awareness that could make a significant difference in its outcome. . . . “

This all makes sense to me. But how do we put this information into practical action patterns. This involves a deeper exploration of the astro-mythological material, excavating imaginal ideas for inspiration creative social action. I am convinced of this, but setting this process into motion, needs human interaction - always difficult to achieve when individual and group ego/self structures [the Saturnine] dominate.

We have ourselves to blame if we fail to act on the Uranian [change] energies that are available, in embryo, so to speak. A recent query to the I Ching produced this:
"After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns. There is movement, but it is not brought about by force. The upper trigram K’un is characterized by devotion; thus the movement is natural, arising spontaneously. For this reason the transformation of the old becomes easy. The old is discarded and the new is introduced. Both measures accord with the time; therefore no harm results. Societies of people sharing the same views are formed. But since these groups come together in full public knowledge and are in harmony with the time, all selfish separatist tendencies are excluded, and no mistake is made."
The I Ching - 24 Fu / Return (The Turning Point)

I was delighted, as this Hexagram suits the situation perfectly. The general consensus is that in many organizations at the moment, the shit is hitting the metaphorical fan. I think this is also because we need to completely refresh our paradigms. All indications are that this is a period of great organic change, for us as individuals, and as organizations.

Samten

The White Hat

2011-07-03T17:03:00.001-07:00

Many have heard of the famous black hat of the Karmapa and the red hat of the Shamarpa, maybe the lotus hat of Padmasambhava and the yellow hat of the Gelugpa Tradition. What about a white hat that is identical to the black hat of Gyalwa Karmapa? See: THE WHITE HAT OF THE KARMA KAGYU.

The Shattered Heart Bursting with Seed . . .

2011-02-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Federico Garcia Lorca, a great Poet and Visionary was murdered by the Fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. This beautiful Homage by another great Poet, Pablo Neruda - brought to mind the refrigerated trucks filled with corpses headed for Saudi Arabia, filled with corpses of people murdered by their own Government in Bahrain, because they want a piece of the pie. Just a little piece. Mubarak is gone. But there are still too many Mubaraks – and as Wikileaks is proving, they have devastating power, wielded through Plutocracy.

Pablo Neruda:

“There are two Federicos: the real and the legendary. And the two are one. There are three Federicos – the poet, the man who lived, and the man who died. And the three are a single being. There are a hundred Federicos, each of them singing. There are Federicos for the entire world. His poetry, his life, and his death have spread across the earth. His song and his blood are multiplied in every human being. His brief life is not ended. His shattered heart was bursting with seed: those who murdered him could not have known that they were sowing the seed, that it would send forth roots, that it would sing and blossom everywhere, in every language, ever more resonant, ever more vivid.”

Pablo Neruda, Passions and Impressions, p. 96, in : Noel Cobb, Archetypal Imagination. Glimpses of the Gods in Life and Art, Lindisfarne Press, Hudson, New York, 1992, Chapter 3, Dionysos and Duende, p.126.

And to continue the theme of Change, which is central to the next few years:

“The essential quality of life is living; the essential quality of living is change; change is evolution; and we are part of it. The static, the enemy of change, is the enemy of life, and therefore our implacable enemy.”

John Wyndham,. The Chrysalids, 1955.

“There are two great powers,” the man said, “and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn from one side by the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.”

Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife, Scholastic, London, 1997.

“Nothing is constant but change! All existence is a perpetual flux of "being and becoming"! That is the broad lesson of the evolution of the world . . . Substance alone is eternal and unchangeable . . . It reveals itself to us in an infinite variety of forms, but ... its essential attributes, matter and energy, are constant.

E Haeckel, The wonders of life, tr. J McCabe, London, Watts, 1904, p. 100.

Shame on those, who continue to cling to the Old.

Peace, Samten

THE GODDESSES OF LIGHT

2011-01-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

The material here gathered, is part of a larger work process. Seeing that the Moon is in Cancer, it would be suitable to contemplate this particular Lunar energy through various cross-cultural examples. Firstly, we have an initiatory experience from an Isis devotee of the Roman world; followed by a vision of an English Alchemist; then a text on the Tibetan Green Tara, and some examples of Marian visions of Fatima, which I think can be compared to the luminosity in our examples, and finally, as a comparison to the Robert Graves translation, the version of the great 17^th century Jesuit Scholar, Athanasius Kircher.

Peace - Samten

In The Golden Ass of Apuleius, which was written by a Roman citizen of Madaura, North Africa, in the 2^nd century C.E. Lucius is transformed into an ass through meddling with an unsavoury magical practices, and undergoes many trials and tribulations in jackass form, until he is transformed back into human form, at the end of the novel, and experiences this vision of the Goddess Isis:

This is the Robert Graves translation:

“I had scarcely closed my eyes before the apparition of a woman began to rise from the middle of the sea with do lovely a face that the gods themselves would have fallen down in adoration of it. First the head, then the whole shining body gradually emerged and stood before me poised on the surface of the waves. Yes, I will try to describe this transcendent vision, for though human speech is poor and limited, the Goddess herself will perhaps inspire me with poetic imagery sufficient to convey some slight inkling of what I saw.

Her long thick hair fell in tapering ringlets on her lovely neck, and was crowned with an intricate chaplet in which was woven every kind of flower. Just above her brow shone a round disc, like a mirror, or like the bright face of the moon, which told me who she was. Vipers rising from the left-hand and right-hand partings of her hair supported this disc, with ears of corn bristling beside them. Her many-coloured robe was of finest linen; part was glistening white, part crocus-yellow, part glowing red and along the entire hem a woven bordure of flowers and fruit clung swaying in the breeze. But what caught and held my eye more than anything else was the deep black lustre of her mantle. She wore it slung across her body from the right hip to the left shoulder, where it was caught in a knot resembling the boss of a shield; but part of it hung in innumerable folds, the tasselled fringe quivering. It was embroidered with glittering stars on the hem and everywhere else, and in the middle beamed a full and fiery moon.”

THE GODDESS TARA IN A 17TH CENTURY VISION

"I could see between me and the light a most exquisite, divine beauty - her frame neither long nor short but of middle, decent stature. Attired she was in thin loose silk but so green that I never saw the like, for the colour was not earthly. In some places in was fancied with white and silver ribbons, which looked like lilies in a field of grass. Her head was overcast with a thin, floating tiffany, which she held up with one of her hands and looked as it were from under it. Her eyes were quick, fresh and celestial but had something of a start, as if she had been puzzled with a sudden occurrence. From her black veil did her locks break out, like sunbeams from a mist. They ran dishevelled to her breasts and then returned to her cheeks in curls and rings of gold. Her hair behind her was rolled to a curious glove, with a small short spire, flowered with purple and sky-coloured knots. Her rings were pure, entire emeralds - for she valued no metal - and her pendants of burning carbuncles. To be short, her whole habit was youthful and flowery: it smelled like the East and was thoroughly aired with rich Arabian diapasons. "

Vaughan, Thomas. Lumen de Lumine: Or A new Magicall Light discovered, and Communicated to the World By Eugenius Philalethes... London, Printed for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corne-Hil. 1651.

The Blessed Lady, the Holy Tara

Then he should meditate on the Blessed Lady, the Green Tara, as proceeding from the yellow germ-syllable TAM, which stands on the spotless orb of the moon, which again is inside the filament. of the full blown lotus, which is within the lunar orb originally established on the heart. He should conceive her to be of deep green colour, two-armed, with a smiling face, proficient in every virtue, without defect of any kind, adorned with ornaments of heavenly gold, rubies, pearls and jewels; her twin breasts decorated with lovely garlands, her two arms decked with heavenly bracelets and bangles, her loins beautified with glittering rows of girdles of flawless gems, her two ankles beautified by golden anklets set with divers gems, her hair entwined with fragrant wreaths made of the flowers of the paradise tree and others of that kind, with the figure of the Lord Amoghasiddhi, the Tathagata, in her resplendent jewelled headdress, - a radiant and most seductive similitude, in the prime of her youth, with eyes of the blue of the autumn lotus, her body robed in heavenly garments, in the Arddhaparyanka posture, within a circle of white rays on a white lotus as large as a cart wheal, her right hand in the sign of generosity (varada) and holding in her left a full blown blue lotus. Let him develop this likeness of our Blessed Lady as long as he wishes.

Thereupon our eternally perfect Blessed Lady is led forth out of space, in her intelligible aspect, by means of the numerous sheaf’s of rays which illumine the triple world, and which issue from the yellow germ-syllable TAM, which is in the filaments of the lotus in the moon of which the orb was established on the heart, and from that Blessed Lady (herself). When he has led her forth and established her on the background of the firmament, he should offer an oblation at the feet of that blessed Lady, with scented water and fragrant flowers in a jewelled vessel, and should offer a respectful welcome (lit. worship) to her in many ways, with heavenly flowers incense, scents, garlands, unguents, aromatic ponders, garments, umbrellas, flags, bells, banners, and so forth. After he has thus again and again worshipped, and lauded her, he should exhibit the appropriate finger-sign called 'the open lotus flower'. After he has, with this mudra gratified our Blessed Lady's intelligible aspect, he should develop the incantation ( mantra) in relation to her contingent aspect. And he should resolutely believe in the non-duality of these two aspects.

Thereupon the rays which issue from the germ-syllable TAM that is upon the spotless orb of the moon within the filaments of the blue lotus in the lunar orb, - rays that are of unlimited range, proper to the divine Tara, and that illuminate the ten quarters of the triple world, - now take away the poverty and other ills of beings who live in this triple world, by means of showers of manifold jewels which rain down from above, and they refresh them with the nectar of the teachings of the Dharma, which reveals all things as impermanent, without self, and so forth. After he has thus concerned himself with the divers needs of the world, he should evolve also in his meditation the cosmic aspect of Tara. Again he should meditate, until tired, on whatever has come to be in the yellow germ-syllable TAM, in the stages of expansion and contraction. If he gets exhausted from his meditation, he should murmur the mantra which is here OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SWAHA, This truly royal mantra is of great power. All Tathagatas have honoured, worshipped and revered it.

When he has emerged from the trance, the Yogin, who has seen the whole universe in the form of Tara, should dwell at will conscious of his own identity with the Blessed Lady.

JETSUN DOLA (ARYA TARA) in her green form, symbolising the Perfection of Wisdom. "She is the remover of hindrances and obstacles." The Mother of Compassion in Bodhisattva form, has the seed syllable TAM (in green), standing on a moon mat in a lotus. Her root mantra is

OM TARE TUTTH TARE TURE SWAHA.

THE HOLY MOTHER AT FATIMA & OTHER VISIONS:

"Rogo said, "... The sun dimmed, and a kaleidoscope of colours bathed the Cova. ..." ... Around noon they saw the sun become dim and they could see the stars in the sky. They also so a globe of white light settle on the tree ... . ... the vice-general of the town of Leiria, said, "... I saw clearly and distinctly a globe of light advancing from east to west, gliding slowly and majestically through the air. ...". On this occasion there was also a rain of white flower petals, which mysteriously disappeared before they reached the ground." [falling through the air of spectral flower-petals is an commonplace of Buddha lore] ...

"People who looked ... saw a glowing slivery disk. Some researchers believe this was a UFO. Others believe the movements were those of the sun itself. {when I have seen (on several occasions) the sun move around erratically in the sky, it was always coloured (yellow or blue); when the sun did not move except to set at its usual rate it was uncoloured (black); when there was something silvery in the sky (on various occasions) I deemed it a flying saucer} The glowing disk revolved on its axis, sending rainbow-coloured beams of light in all directions. This continued for twelve minutes. Then the disk, moving in zigzag fashion, plunged earthward. ... Suddenly the disk rose back into the sky. ...

"I ... saw it looking like a well-defined disc, bright but not blinding. ... This chequered shining disc seemed to possess a giddy motion. ... It turned on itself with an astonishing rapidity. ... The sun while keeping its swiftness of rotation, detached itself from the firmament and, blood-red in colour, rushed towards the earth ... .

"... I looked fixedly at the sun, which appeared pale and did not dazzle. It looked like a ball of snow turning on itself. ... Then suddenly it seemed to become detached from the sky, and rolled right and left, as if it were falling upon the earth. ... During the long minutes of the solar phenomena, the objects around us reflected all the colours of the rainbow. Looking at each other, one appeared blue, another yellow, a third red, etc. [these colours which the people became may have been manifestations of their auras, or rather, perispirits ] ..."

From D. Scott Rogo: Miracles : a Parascientific Study. New York, Dial Press, 1982, pp. 376-377

The Goddess: Isis and her various other names and symbols: from Athanasius Kircher: From Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652-4) Based on Apuleius, The Golden Ass, Book 11, chapter 47:

Then by little and little I seemed to see the whole figure of her body, mounting out of the sea and standing before me, wherefore I purpose to describe her divine semblance, if the poverty of my human speech will suffer me, or her divine power give me eloquence thereto. First she had a great abundance of hair, dispersed and scattered about her neck, on the crown of her head she bare many garlands enterlaced with flowers, in the middle of her forehead was a compass in fashion of a glass, or resembling the light of the Moon, in one of her hands she bare serpents, in the other, blades of corn, her vestment was of fine silk yielding divers colours, sometime yellow, sometime rosy, sometime flamey, and sometime (which troubled my spirit sore) dark and obscure, covered with a black robe in manner of a shield, and pleated in most subtile fashion at the skirts of her garments, the welts appeared comely, whereas here and there the stares glimpsed, and in the middle of them was placed the Moon, which shone like a flame of fire, round about the robe was a coronet or garland made with flowers and fruits. In her right hand she had a timbrel of brass, which gave a pleasant sound, in her left hand she bare a cup of gold, out of the mouth whereof the serpent Aspis lifted up his head, with a swelling throat, her odoriferous feet were covered with shoes interlaced and wrought with victorious palm. Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertile Arabia, disdained not with her divine voyce to utter these words unto me: Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers hath moved me to succour thee.

"I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven, the principal of the Gods celestial, the light of the goddesses: at my will the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the seas, and the silences of Hell be disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in divers manners, in variable customs and in many names, for the Phrygians call me the mother of the Gods: the Athenians, Minerva: the Cyprians, Venus: the Candians, Diana: the Sicilians Proserpina: the Eleusians, Ceres: some Juno, other Bellona, other Hecate: and principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustom to worship mee, do call me Queen Isis.

The depth and limits of words

2010-05-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

The depth and limits of words

The Net of Nets . . .

2010-01-16T04:54:00.001-08:00

C.G.Jung wrote:

"We live today in a time of confusion and disintegration. Everything is in the melting pot. As is usual in such circumstances, unconscious contents thrust forward to the very borders of consciousness for the purpose of compensating the crisis in which it finds itself. It is therefore well worth our while to examine all such borderline phenomena with the greatest care, however obscure they seem, with a view to discovering the seeds of new and potential orders." [1]

I would like to suggest that these “borderline phenomena” – are usually ignored, because of the condensed, nuclear space in which they often gestate. Put in other terms, these borders, or liminal states are ignored by the monolithic beams of our conscious mind. Small Things are overlooked, and the Gods of Small Things – are driven to extinction.

It is said that Jain monks sweep the ground in front of them to avoid tramping on insects. It is a Buddhist practice to buy animals that are destined to be slaughtered and eaten, and release them. But there are some living creatures that we find difficult to show compassion to, for example, spiders and snakes.

"...the family was also respectful of spiders: Mary Berners-Lee hung cotton threads down into the bath tub so fallen spiders could scale the smooth sides." [2]

I have personally seen spiders caught in the bath. I usually use a towel or a cloth to help them to escape. This story would not be so unusual – unless we know who Mary Berners-Lee was, or to be more exact, who she mothered. Her son, is Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of World Wide Web. I find the connections rather fascinating. Born and raised in London, [ruled by Gemini] - Tim Berners-Lee is an unsung visionary. His book: Weaving the Web. The Past, Present and Future of the World Wide Web by its Inventor -[3] published 10 years ago is an important read for everyone involved in the digital/virtual/world web. He writes:

“Link by link we build paths of understanding across the web of humanity. We are the threads holding the world together.”

These are very beautiful words, of wisdom, and point towards what we have to work towards, in these terrible and promising times. How extraordinary then, that another great visionary of the 20^th Century gives us an almost identical . . .

"Everywhere on earth there are people of our kind. That for a small part of them, I can be a focal point, the nodal point in the net, is the burden and the joy of my life." [4]

As these are quotes from a larger work on the Symbolism of the Net, I will only continue with one more example here:.

“Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness, or a cell, or an atom. Each jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel.” [5]

From this elevated perspective, we more back to Tim Berners-Lee:

“Hope in life comes from the interconnections among all the people in the world. We believe that if we work for what we think individually is good, then we as a whole will achieve more power, more understanding, more harmony as we continue the journey. We don’t find the individual being subjugated by the whole. We don’t find the needs of the whole being subjugated by the increasing power of an individual. But we see more understanding in the struggles between these extremes.” [6]

These interconnections are very important in a Buddhist approach to life. Ideas of networking –preceded the actual emergence of the World Wide Web. In the little magazines I published from 1972 – the word ‘network’ appears consistently. [See Appendix 1] It is thus appropriate, that on this edge of a new decade, and in the midst of an ongoing crisis of confidence in politicians and businessmen - we might re-examine our own networks – even though the sense of co-operation and sharing has been shot down along with the concept of a Rainbow Nation. It is not merely enough to network.

Yours sincerely

Samten de Wet

14 January 2010

[1] C.G.Jung, The Psychology of the Transference, p. 160.

[2] Scientific American, December 1997, Vol. 227 No.6. p.21.

[3] Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web. The Past, Present and Future of the World Wide Web by its Inventor, Texere, London-New York, 2000. [1999]

[4] Hermann Hesse, private letter, 1955.

[5] Mitchell, Stepen, The Enlightened Mind: Harper Perennial, New York, 1991.

[6] Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web. The Past, Present and Future of the World Wide Web by its Inventor, Texere, London-New York, 2000. [1999]

Gye Nyamehu

2009-11-12T03:18:00.001-08:00

The PRESENCE OF GOD Ikon is an Adinkra symbol called Gye Nyame, which is a symbol of the omnipresence and omnipotence of god. It comes from an Akan aphorism that can be translated:

“This great panorama of creation dates back to time immemorial: no one lives who saw its beginning and no one will live to see its end, except God”.

Adinkra are symbols common in West African societies that represent concepts and aphorisms. There are seventy to eighty core symbols. They provide a framework of moral virtues and lessons for the good life. See: http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra/aya.htm

“THE PERFECT ANIMATE BEING is one possessing sense and intellect. This being should be thought as a cosmographer who has a city with five gates, which are the five senses. Through these gates messengers enter from all over the world, announcing the disposition of the entire world in the following order: those who bring news of the world’s light and color enter through the gate of sight; those who bring news of sound and voice through the gate of hearing; those who bring news of odors, by the gate of smell; those who bring news of flavors, through the gate of taste; and those who bring news of heat, cold, and other tangible things, through the gate of touch. The cosmographer should sit and note down all things that are related to him, in order to have a description of the entire perceptible world represented in his own city. But if any gate of his city always remains closed — the gate of vision, for example—then the he will be a defect in the description of the world because the messengers of the visible did not gain entrance. The description would not make mention of the sun, the stars, light, colors, or the forms of men, animals, trees, cities, and the greater part of the world’s beauties. And the same holds true for the other gates. The cosmographer therefore tries as hard as he can to keep all the gates open, to listen constantly for the reports of new messengers, and to bring his description ever closer to the truth.

Finally, when he has made a complete representation of the perceptible world in his own city, he compiles it into a well-ordered and proportionally measured map lest it be lost. He then turns to it, sends away the messengers, shuts the gates, and transfers his inner understand to the creator of the world, who is none of those things that he understood and recorded from the messengers, but rather the maker and the cause of all of them. He considers that the creator was prior to the entire world, just as he himself was prior to the map. And from the relationship of the map to the true world, he beholds in himself, in so far as he is a cosmographer, the creator of the world.”

Nicolas of Cusa, Compendium, VIII. 1464

Italo Calvino On the City

2009-07-24T13:33:00.001-07:00

“This idea of the city as an encyclopaedic discourse, as the collective memory, is part of a whole tradition: think of the Gothic cathedrals in which every architectural and ornamental detail, every space and element, referred to notions which were part of a global wisdom, was a sign that found echoes in other contexts. In the same way we can ‘read’ the city as a reference work, just as we read Notre-Dame, capital by capital, pluvial after pluvial. And at the same time we can read the city as the collective unconscious: the collective unconscious is a huge catalogue, an enormous bestiary; we can interpret Paris as a book of dreams, an album of our unconscious, a catalogue of horrors.”

Italo Calvino, Hermit in Paris. Autobiographical Writings, Vintage, London, 2004, p.173.

SUFFERING

2009-01-30T12:52:00.000-08:00

“To free ourselves from suffering fully and finally we have to eliminate it by the root, and that means to eliminate ignorance. But how does one go about eliminating ignorance? The answer follows clearly from the nature of the adversary. Since ignorance is a state of not knowing things as they really are, what is needed is knowledge of things as they really are. Not merely conceptual knowledge, knowledge as idea, but perceptual knowledge, a knowing which is also a seeing. This kind of knowing is called wisdom (pañña). Wisdom helps to correct the distorting work of ignorance. It enables us to grasp things as they are in actuality, directly and immediately, free from the screen of ideas, views, and assumptions our minds ordinarily set up between themselves and the real.”

Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Noble Eightfold Path. The Way to the End of Suffering, The Wheel Publication No. 308/311 (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1984), second edition (revised) 1994. Transcribed from a file provided by the BPS. Online at:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html

The Moment Being

2008-12-11T08:40:00.001-08:00

Jami, in the Law'ih, summarises the doctrine of the Moment (or "interior Time") according to Ibnu'l-'Arabi: "the universe consists of accidents pertaining to a single substance, which is the Reality underlying all existences. This universe is changed and renewed unceasingly at every moment and every breath. Every instant one universe is annihilated and another resembling it takes its place... In consequence of this rapid succession, the spectator is deceived into the belief that the universe is a permanent existence...

The being of the world's a wave, it lasts

One moment, and the next it has to go...

In the world, men of insight may discern

A stream whose currents swirl and surge and churn,

And from the force that works within the stream

The hidden working of the Truth may learn...

Thus, it never happens that the Very Being is revealed for two successive moments under the guise of the same phenomenon".

From: Ananda K. Coomarasway, Time and Eternity, Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 8, Time and Eternity, (1947), pp.98-100

New Births

2008-12-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

It is only the full realization of our shared self-destructive behaviour, whether of Eastern or Western bloc, northern or southern hemisphere, which can adequately move us to change. I have called this change a time to bloom.

Beyond the mainstream of global social and economic disintegration, this change appears to be already happening. A vibrant minority is engaged in birthing a new social order, one which will be sustainable into the foreseeable future and one which will more equitably distribute wealth, power, knowledge and services within the human community.

This book deals with the death-throes of the constricting nation-state society and provides motivation for allowing the new and more fruitful human phase to unfold and come to birth. The present national constraints to life and growth in the developing world - hunger, poverty and repression - and those in the developed world - unemployment, cancer and nuclear threat – are clearly interrelated.

The present dangers to the foetal stage of the new social structure are extreme. Yet we find hope and joy in the growing global consensus among ordinary people that war is as anachronistic as cannibalism, slavery and colonialism. New international relationships based on justice and law must be forged. A new technology in harmony with life and earth, and a new social order which assures a secure future for the world's children must be developed.

Although I can point the way and identify the promising directions, I cannot spell out the nature of this new social order. A mother cannot sketch a picture of her child-to-be-born. We do not plan a flower. It is our part to nourish the good growth and to provide a welcoming environment. We must neither give birth in fear nor abort through cowardice. It is necessary to trust the creativity and vitality of the life process itself.

Rosalie Bertell, from her book 'No Immediate Danger', The Women's Press, London, 1985, p.ix:

The Magic Mountain

2008-10-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

I recently re-read Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice' - a great Platonic masterpiece - especially the Dionysian dream. And at the same time, read his 'Tristan' which is loaded with the most superb layerings of meaning. Then, I found this small piece and share it here with you.

Thomas Mann wrote:

"The seeker of the Grail, before he arrives at the Sacred Castle, has to undergo various frightful and mysterious ordeals in a wayside chapel called the Atre Périlleux. Probably these ordeals were originally rites of initiation, conditions of the permission to approach the esoteric mystery; the idea of knowledge, wisdom is always bound up with the "other world," with night and death.

In The Magic Mountain there is a great deal said of an alchemistic, hermetic pedagogy, of transubstantiation. And I, myself a guileless fool, was guided by a mysterious tradition, for it is those very words that are used in connection with the mysteries of the Grail. Not for nothing do Freemasonry and its rites play a role in The Magic Mountain, for Freemasonry is the direct descendant of initiatory rites. In a word, the magic mountain is a variant of the shrine of the initiatory rites, a place of adventurous investigation into the mystery of life. "

From: Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, Seker & Warburg, London, 1980, p. 728. The author’s note on "The Making of The Magic Mountain" first appeared in the Atlantic, January 1953.

Historical Tarot Decks

2008-10-07T02:42:00.001-07:00

The Cary-Yale Visconti Tarot Deck

Perhaps the first Tarot deck, this hand painted deck from Italy has an unusual structure, containing 6 court cards per suit and the additional Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Deck

The most complete 15th Century Tarot deck. The deck has 74 of the assumed original 78 cards, the missing cards are The Devil, The Tower, three of swords and knight of coins.

The Mysterious Cary Sheet

Housed in the Cary Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is a rare find... an uncut sheet of Tarot cards, probably produced in Milan, dating as far back as possibly the year 1500. This sheet has come to be known as the “Cary Sheet”. Is it the "missing link" between the hand-painted Italian decks and the Tarot of Marseilles?

Tarot Picture Page

The Archetypal Tarot

The Artwork of Modern Tarot Project

This site focuses on the artwork and symbolism found on modern tarot decks.

Gumpenberg Tarot, ca. 1810.

The Mind of the Magus ...The primary function of the magus in history, whether the exemplar is Hermes, Jesus Christ, Faust or Paracelsus, is to open a path between Heaven and Earth, and then lead worthy human souls along it, back to our origins in God...

History of Tarot

mundus imaginalis

2008-09-02T06:03:00.001-07:00

It is not as though we escape into a passive state of fantasy, like drug addicts who cannot function in ordinary life. The past distills itself into the mundus imaginalis, which surrounds us like the resources of our memory, deepening our responses, showing us myths and archetypes which give meaning and focus to our individual destinies. It also bestows a sensitivity to beauty, that quality most spurned by the century that is thankfully past. Children are naturally aware of this, and eager to absorb wisdom through mythology and the encounter with archetypes: hence the success of Disneyland. But we can offer something better than a commercialism aimed at the lowest common denominator. The creative wealth of the ages, the arts and music once reserved for an aristocratic elite, are now open to all who have the ears, eyes, and inclination. While the collectors and artists of the Renaissance seized at every fragment of classical antiquity, to weave it into their own being and their creations, we are infinitely richer in potential. In a stroll through a museum we can appropriate both classical antiquity and its Renaissance revival, nor do we have to reject the Middle Ages that came in between. We can contemplate the Christian myths as well as the pagan ones, and appreciate the values that each brought into the world. We are free to believe, or not to believe, in any of them. And this is to say nothing of the non-European cultures whose legacies are spread out before us. Yet in gratitude for this plenum, this superfluity of the past and the overwhelming superiority of its treasures, we may sometimes wonder what we will leave to our descendants, five hundred years from now. Are we creating anything of lasting value, or are we, for all our material success, mere spiritual parasites living off the capital of our ancestors? What is today’s equivalent of the pagan dream, what riches of the imaginal world are we revealing for the future delectation of our kind?

Joscelyn Godwin, The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance, Thames and Hudson, London, 2002. Chapter 11, p.260- 61.

Phoenix

2008-09-02T04:18:00.001-07:00

Within the context of the Phoenix in the Harry Potter books, my own obsession with gathering material on the Phoenix – over the years, does not seem so strange. The following superb articles surfaced today during my session at the University Library . . . and may I add, that my Phoenix material, is generally indexed under FIRE SYMBOLISM, and of course also relates to Alchemical Imaginal Tradition, as well as having strong ancient Egyptian roots, thus locating the Phoenix, in the History of Religion of Africa. We seem [whoever the “we” may be] to forget that Ancient Egypt was African. Then of course, there are the Pictures! But then a Google of the word PHOENIX – will bring up a real can or worms . . Here are today’s items . .

Harrison, Thomas P., Bird of Paradise: Phoenix Redivivus, Isis, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Jun., 1960), pp. 173-180

McDonald, Mary Francis, Phoenix Redivivus, Phoenix, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Winter, 1960), pp. 187-206

Niehoff, M. R., The Phoenix in Rabbinic Literature, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 89, No. 3 (Jul., 1996), pp. 245-265

Priest, Alan, Phoenix in Fact and Fancy, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Oct., 1942), pp. 97-101

Suhr, Elmer G., The Phoenix, Folklore, Vol. 87, No. 1 (1976), pp. 29-37

There is also a more technical Phoenix Bibliography at:

Medieval Bestiary : http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastbiblio149.htm

And elsewhere - the resources are vast . .

EGYPT & THE TAROT

2008-08-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

There is no real sense in which we can call the Egyptian Tarot, Egyptian. Yet there is a lineage that can be followed, like the silver trail of a snail across a piece of black velvet. Besides this silver analogy, there is also the Golden Thread, or The Thread of Ariadne. Which can be traced through the ages, the millennia as an unbroken transmission, that still contains a message for us today, and most likely, a message for tomorrow. Why is the Tarot Egyptian, and how has it traced its lineage across time? Buried under the surfaces are other discourses. The outer form is exoteric . . .

For examples, Francis Yates writes:

"Giordano Bruno was to take the bolder course of maintaining that the magical Egyptian religion of the world was not only the most ancient but also the only true religion, which both Judaism and Christianity had obscured and corrupted."

Francis Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, p.11

An important book, recently published is:

Erik Hornung, The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West, translated by David Lorton, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001, 229 pp., hardcover. Read a review Lee Irwin, of Religious Studies, College of Charleston HERE.

Also important for following the thread:

Dannenfeldt, Karl H., Egypt and Egyptian Antiquities in the Renaissance, Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 6, (1959), pp. 7-27

Griffiths, J. Gwyn, Allegory in Greece and Egypt, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 53, (Dec., 1967), pp. 79-102.

al-Suyūṭī, Jalāl al-Dīn, and Leon Nemoy, The Treatise on the Egyptian Pyramids (Tuḥfat al-kirām fī khabar al-ahrām), Isis, Vol. 30, No. 1, (Feb., 1939), pp. 17-37.

Ezra Pound - Some Gnostic Clues

2008-08-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

In Canto LXXXV, Pound implies that each generation has an obligation to pass along the wisdom of the past to the next generation. The poet gives the Chinese ideogram for […]"teach, instruct," and next to that he gives his own made-up Germanic word, Sagetrieb, for "pass on the tradition" (Pound, Cantos 557; Terrell 478-9). Beneath these two commands, Pound places two Chinese ideograms, which translate as "It depends on us" (Pound, Cantos 557; Terrell 479). Finally, the poet writes: "We flop if we cannot maintain the awareness" (Pound, Cantos 557). All of these fragments combine with others in which Pound says in The Cantos that education is failing in modern times, and they work together to assert that the modern world is not meeting its obligation to pass on valuable knowledge about our cultural roots to our children.

At the same time that Pound paints a bleak picture of widespread ignorance, he also presents individuals he perceived to be intellectual heroes, some of whose actions exemplify or promote intellectual development. For example, Domencio Malatesta, brother of the 15th century ruler of Rimini, Fano, and Cesena (in what is Italy today), transported hundreds of ancient Greek manuscripts to the West during the fifteenth century. The risks involved in this effort are illustrated by Pound's mentioning in Canto XXIII that an entire cargo of books had to be chucked overboard during one trip to save the ship in a storm (Pound, Cantos 107). In spite of such setbacks and risks, Domencio founded a library at Cesena, making him one of the intellectual heroes of The Cantos without whose efforts many valuable classical writings about our cultural roots would not have made it to the West (Terrell 39 [see note 31]).

A contemporary of Domencio Malatesta serves as another worthy intellectual model in Canto VIII, Gemisthus Plethon. He was a Byzantine Neo-Platonist philosopher, who served as a representative of the Eastern Christian Church at the council that convened in Italy to attempt to heal the split between what were then the two major branches of the Christian Faith. The Emperor of the Byzantine Empire initiated this effort at reconciliation because he hoped ultimately to enlist European assistance in fighting the Turks, who were threatening the conquest of Constantinople (Terrell 39). Plethon, in spite of his connection with the Eastern Church, was so learned in the classics that he was passionately devoted to Greek mythology. His influence during his visit to the West resulted in the founding of the Platonic Academy of Florence. This institution became a center of the revival of ancient Greek culture in Europe, and Plethon becomes another one of Pound's heroes of learning (Terrell 39).

**The Importance of Cultural Learning in the Cantos of Ezra Pound**

Alan Kelly (English Department, Millersville University)

http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/05_02/kelly15.htm

Ibn 'Arabi and the Tarot

2008-07-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Occult Tradition of the Tarot in Tangency with Ibn 'Arabi's Life and Teachings

Jereer El-Moor

Most researchers today would probably agree that playing cards were introduced to Christian Europe as an importation from the Arab world, however, the details of this are not well-established. In the first part of this long article, the author reviews the known facts of the history of playing cards (and the related history of the Tarot). He sets out to present "a credible case for regarding the Tarot as of Near Eastern provenance", and gives a personal view of its interpretation through the centuries. In the second part he goes on to interpret one of the trumps in the light of Ibn 'Arabi's 'Anqa' mughrib. Both parts of this article are big pdf files of about 480kb, and each will take some time to download.

al Mandala

2008-07-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting piece of evidence of the word mandala, in Arabic. David Pingree was such a great scholar. I wrote to him once, and he kindly answered. I was desperate to obtain a copy of an article that he was about to publish in the Journal of the Warburg Institute in London – but this did not take place, and the article has appeared in a very rare Journal – and I can only find ONE copy of it here in Italy in Venice . . . so I am sulking over this . . . but this article in MICROLOGOS . . . is also full or rich and fragrant fragments uncovering the hidden tradition . . .

"Finally, the three treatises at the end of the Florence manuscript are all representatives of Salomonic magic. The first two concern almandal of Salomon. This mandal is in shape and inscriptions completely conformable to an Indian mandala; it is remarkable to see the Sanskrit word transmitted so purely through Arabic, in which it is still used to refer to a magical object, to Latin. The figure is a square "wall" with a circle in the center and spokes pointing to the four cardinal directions (indicated by "gates") and to the four intermediate directions. On each of the four side walls are inscribed the names of angels. The whole al-mandal is engraved on a talismanic plate, which is suffumigated and exorcized. It then can be used for various magic acts including the expulsion of demons from the possessed and four exorcisms of the jinn and the shaytān. Subsidiary sigils moulded from Toledan wax reveal the place where our versions of this text were concocted.

The first of these two versions is entitled Liber in figura almandal et eius opere; ^[1] it is perhaps the Almandal Salomonis of Albert, ^[2]and the almandal referred to by William. ^[3]The second book is the Liber de almandal which is called the table or altar of Salomon; this has the same incipit as Albert's De figura almandal. ^[4] Here the four exorcisms are attributed to Icmile (Ishmael) "Arhginemem". I have so far observed no mention of almandal by Michael Scot."

David Pingree, " Learned Magic in the time of Frederick II ", in Le Scienze alla corte di Federico II. Sciences at the Court of Frederick II. Micrologus, 2, 1994, p.48.

A basic introduction to the work of David Pingree is at WIKIPEDIA.

The Article mentioned above is published by:

International Journal of the Classical Tradition

David Pingree, "The Sabians of Harran and the Classical Tradition," IJCT 9 (2002-2003), pp. 8-35.

This article addresses questions concerning the characteristics of the paganism of Harran, its eclectic sources, and its development by examining the relationships — real, possible, and fictitious — of various personalities with the city of Harran from Assyrian times till the Mongol attack in 1271. It is suggested that the Sabians used Neoplatonism, which, if Tardieu's analysis is correct, they originally learned from Simplicius, to develop, explain, and justify their practise of astral magic, and that their interest in the Greek astronomy and astrology that astral magic required served to maintain the study and to preserve the texts of these sciences during the centuries in which they were ignored in Byzantium. It is further shown that the Greek philosophical and scientific material available to them was mingled with elements from ancient Mesopotamia, India, Iran, Judaism, and Egypt to form a syncretic system of belief that they could claim to be mankind's original and authentic religion.

1. F ff. 74V-77.

2. Speculum XI 25, though this is more likely to be the next, derivative treatise.

3. Thorndike, History, II, 351.

4. Speculum XI 80-81.

Self and Selflessness

2008-07-11T09:59:00.001-07:00

“For realizing one's inner divinity, Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad-Gita, "The Supreme Reality is revealed in the consciousness of those who have conquered themselves." Thus, one's spiritual quest begins with cultivating self-control, detachment, truthfulness and nonviolence, and culminates in realizing the ultimate reality within oneself and in all of existence.”

The problem here, as usual . . is that they think they have a ‘self’ to conquer – and note the word: conquer - as in the war against cancer, the fight against aids &c. Not to mention the crap about where or where not the Supreme Reality is to be found, as if when discovered, it can then be rubber stamped, or cut and pasted into yet another trap . . Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche gives a few fresh words on the subject:

“Even when we speak of selflessness, the mind goes to “me?’ We think, “I’m selfless:’ but everything is selfless. Saying “everything is selfless” is like calling that stone “dogless?’ It might give the impression that a dog was there at some point, but it never was. It was our idea of a dog that was there. Similarly, we say that everything is selfless, but the self was never there. There was only our idea of a self. When we realize that we have always been selfless, what is missing? The conceptual mind that centralizes into “me” and then projects a world out there that is solid and separate. Who we think we are and what we think of the world is a concept that we are creating with our mind. We create a concept in our mind and we believe that concept. Our belief in a self is the most obvious example of this fundamental ignorance.”

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, The Mind of the Dragon, Shambhala Sun, November 2005, pp. 33 ff.

"No man from outside can make you free... No one holds the Key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity . . .".

-- J. Krishnamurti

Here it is again - the Self . . .yet from Aryadeva:

“Whatever arises by dependence

Can never be independent,

And as all are non-independent

The Self has no existence.” ^[1]

And back to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche:

“We can start by contemplating what the Buddha said: the self we imagine to be solid and continuous is really just a gathering of ingredients—heaps. It is the conjunction of blood, bones, memories, emotions, thoughts, and perceptions. When we experience this conglomeration of elements, ignorance says, “I think I’ll call this ‘me.” We are creating an illusion and giving it a name. Not only is the illusion transparent and dreamlike, but the things we make it with are the same. It’s like watching clouds form into the shape of a dragon. We know it’s not a dragon. We know the clouds themselves are not really solid. But when we see that form, we give it a name—something recognizable.” ^[2]

One of the best lessons I have learnt in being a Buddhist is “Do not take your self too seriously.” But being a human being, or being sentient, is a serious business. But Life is not a business as yet. On the downward plunge into the material condition, we gather the seriousness, similar, as I always say, to dropping a lead anvil on a butterfly.

I think that this quote by Charles Asher decidedly adds to the discourse that I am trying to amplify - i.e. a deconstruction of views of the self - and it is interesting to see this happening within the Jungian matrix, albeit the James Hillman facet thereof.

"The theological foundations of Jung's self concept are sick unto death. I would hasten their death." [^[3]]

Like James Hillman, and his "Psyche as Big as the Earth' - [anima mundi] - Asher posits a "communitarian self":

"A communitarian self has important implications for psychotherapy, and more broadly for education and our life together. The social, communal images of our life together become worthy of cultivation and attention. I find such a vision critical to our survival as well as to the possibilities for our common life." ^[4]

Asher ends his discourse with a quote from Jung [no reference is given]:

"The phenomenology of the psyche," said Jung, "is so colorful, so variegated in form and meaning, we cannot possibly reflect all its riches in one mirror."

This quotation fulfills for me, a clear pointer to the new nature of our appreciation of consciousness. We do not want definitions of the self, the ego - the de-finite-imprisonings. We have had enough of those calcifications. The image of the mirror, with its Mercurial associations, the quicksilver, is in itself Hermetic. The Mind. Mind. Consciousness. Chit.

Samten

^[1] Aryadeva in the Catuhsataka-sastra-karika.^[2] Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, The Mind of the Dragon, Shambhala Sun, November 2005, pp. 33 ff. ^[3] Asher, Charles, The Communitarian Self as (God) Ultimate Reality, Spring 54, a Journal of Archetype and Culture, June 1993, ^[4] Asher, Charles, The Communitarian Self as (God) Ultimate Reality, Spring 54, a Journal of Archetype and Culture, June 1993, p.97.

Two Illuminations

2008-07-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

CHAPLIN ON FATH –

“As I grow older I am becoming more preoccupied with faith. We live by it more than we think and achieve by it more than we realize. I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas. Without faith, there never could have evolved hypothesis, theory, science or mathematics. I believe that faith is an extension of the mind. It is the key that negates the impossible. To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces.

“My faith is in the unknown, in all that we do not understand by reason; I believe that what is beyond our comprehension is a simple fact in other dimensions, and that in the realm of the unknown there is an infinite power of good.”

Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1966, p.287

ILLUMINATIONS BY RIMBAUD –

“The Illuminations are an attempt to blow up all appearances, all orders, all forms of the world, which make our happiness. They are an attempt to blow up all happiness and make a work of pure unhappiness out of the debris and fragments of the explosion. But how strange! These fragments are not pieces of dirt and ugliness. They are not disgusting like pieces of blown-up body. They have a strange, fascinating beauty. They are like precious stones and broken tender whispers . . . This heap of fragments from all possible orders, which should reveal to us what lies beyond all orders of the world, beyond all happiness, rises before us like a glorious rainbow speaking to us of the sweetness of pleasure . . . How they shine, how they sparkle before us, all these diamonds and this foam, these drops of sweat and these eyes, these rays and their floating hair, these flames and this herbage of steel and emerald, these white, burning tears and these ringing, flashing dream flowers, these swarms of gold leaves, these balls of sapphire and these angels of the Illuminations!

From an essay on Rimbaud’s Illuminations by the Greek poet Demetrios Capetanakis, in: John Lehmann, Three Literary Friendships, Quartet Books, London, 1983, p. 93.

W. B. Yeats on Magic

2008-07-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

"I believe in the practice and philosophy of what we have agreed to call magic, in what I must call the evocation of spirits, though I do not know what they are, in the power of creating magical illusions, in the visions of truth in the depths of the mind when the eyes are closed; and I believe in three doctrines, which have, as I think, been handed down from early times, and have been the foundation of nearly all magical practices. These doctrines are

(1) That the borders of our minds are ever shifting, and that many minds can flow into one another, as it were, and create or reveal a single mind, a single energy.

(2) That the borders of our memories are as shifting, and that our memories are part of one great memory, the memory of Nature herself.

(3) That this great mind and great memory can be evoked by symbols.

W.B.Yeats: Ideas of Good and Evil, London 1903.

Samten comment: The third and last point of Yeats, describes in a nutshell, the functioning of the Tarot. And Yeats himself worked with the Tarot cards in his poems and other writings.

The Path

2008-05-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

“You, traveller, there are no roads,

Only wind trails on the sea.”

Antonio Machado

Recently, when I was availing myself of a friends collection of books on the Kabbalah – I had something of an epiphany. Without excavating the profusion of details, the essence of the matter involves two interpretations of the Hebrew word for ‘path’. I have a tendency to siphon lexical interpretations into the experiential and subjective realm, as was the case in this instance.

These experiences are in essence ‘gnostic’ in the sense they involve, evolve and revolve around specific ways of ‘knowing’. It is difficult to transmit these ways of knowing in words. And difficult outside of specific conditions or modalities. Words are very inadequate. I would suggest it is also very connected to the ‘seeing’ of the SEERS! Like the satori of the Zen koan, you either get it or you don’t. Boiled down to basics, what I’m saying is there exists a specific ability to ‘see’ the path that one’s life takes. It is a matter of direction. Of discovering the gestalt. And in clumsy, dualistic terms, of self-actualization. {Without the self!] I also have the unfortunate proclivity of ‘seeing’ how other people have not found their ‘path’ in life. They are floundering around like fish in water. And this applies to most human beings, who only wallpaper over the existential uncertainties. Animals, by contrast, live their path, on an intrinsic, instinctual level.

The hidden core of this emerging essay, depends on an analysis on the two Hebrew terms for ‘path’ - which will be forthcoming in due time . . . for the moment, what I have the audacity to say is that I feel at this moment, more certainly than ever before, that I see the direction of my life’s path more clearly. And it is not even a case of ‘seeing’ . . . . pieces of the puzzle just fall into place, rather in the sense of synchronicity. One feels that there is a Puppet master behind all this. As my mother used to say and live by the saying: “Thy Will Be Done.” The least we can do of this “will’ on earth, seeing that we have no opportunities, as yet, of doing this “will” in Heaven . . . or perhaps merely in the sense of “storing treasures” for some future eventuality.

So again, the attention is moved away from the ego, to the idea of some great one Universal Macrocosmic Plan, of which we are microcosmic parts. And this is the true Path of all sentient beings . . . whether they are conscious of it or not. In fact, being conscious of your place in the Great-Scheme-of-Things-Without-a-Schemer . . . makes perfect sense. To me.

And to be honest, the epiphany, the revelation has not been revealed. I am keeping that core, the heart of the matter, under wraps for the time being. As we said, words cannot express these inner observations - but perhaps actions can. Hence:

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them.

And perhaps our revelations, which are far and few between, are not gifted to us to be shouted from the highest rooftops. They remain esoteric, because they are the very energy from which future action is gestated.

Samten de Wet

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The White Flame of Life

2008-05-25T03:39:00.002-07:00

The White Flame of Life

"I dreamt that I was standing at the top of a very high tower, alone, looking down on myriads of birds all flying in one direction; every kind of bird was there, all the birds in the world. It was a noble sight, this vast aerial river of birds. But now in some mysterious fashion the gear was changed, and time speeded up, so that I saw generations of birds, watched them break their shells, flutter into life, mate, weaken, falter, and die. Wings grew only to crumble; bodies were sleek and then, in a flash, bled and shrivelled; and death struck everywhere at every second. What was the use of all this blind struggle towards life, this eager trying of wings, this hurried mating, this flight and surge, all this gigantic meaningless biological effort? As I stared down, seeming to see every creature’s ignoble little history almost at a glance, I felt sick at heart. It would be better if not one of them, if not one of us all, had been born, if the struggle ceased forever. I stood on my tower, still alone, desperately unhappy. But now the gear was changed again, and time went faster still, and it was rushing by a such a rate, that the birds could not show any movement, but were like an enormous plain sown with feathers. But along this plain, flickering through the bodies themselves, there now passed a sort of white flame, trembling, dancing, then hurrying on; and as soon as I saw it I knew that this white flame was life itself, the very quintessence of being; and then it came to me in a rocket-burst of ecstasy, that nothing mattered, nothing could ever matter, because nothing else was real, but this quivering and hurrying lambency of being. Birds, men or creatures not yet shaped and coloured, all were of no account except so far as this flame of life travelled through them. It left nothing to mourn over behind it; what I had thought was tragedy was mere emptiness or a shadow show; for now all real feeling was caught and purified and danced on ecstatically with the white flame of life."

From: J.B.Priestly, Man and Time:

Quoted in Adler, Studies in Analytical Psychology, p. 143; Edward Edinger, Anatomy of the Psyche, Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, Open Court, La Salle, Illinois, 1985, p.129-30; and Marie-Louise von Franz, On Dreams and Death, p. 113-14.

The Castle of the Soul

2008-05-25T03:39:00.001-07:00

Like Godwin I think we need to approach the Hypnerotomachia from the perspective of Henry Corbin’s Mundus Imaginalis . . . what type of esoteric stream was taking place, not merely neo-pagan, or neo-Platonic, more likely Hermetic . . . for example, these clues from Henry Corbin:

“Unfortunately, there are those who can only think in terms of “conversion”; that is, in terms of a process that would permit them to assign you a collective label. No. To speak of “conversion” is to have understood nothing of “esotericism”. A philosopher knows very well that to be a Platonist is not to register one’s self in some Platonic Church, and even less to prohibit one’s self from also being anything else besides a Platonist. Each and every ‘Orafa, whether from the East or from the West, cannot but think and weigh things in terms of interiority and interiorization, which means making in one’s self a permanent accommodation and abode for the philosophies and the religions towards which one’s Quest conducts one. And such a one must keep his or her secret: Secretum meum mihi. A secret that belongs to the Castle of the Soul. It is not through some external sociological choice that he will outwardly manifest this profound internal reality. It is in the “personal” work that he produces, the exteriorization of which results from the concordance of all of his or her “modes of being”. The “community”, the omma of the esotericists, found in all places and in all times, is the “inner Church”, and there is no confessional act of adherence required for one to be a part of it.

But it is precisely this inner connection that is the true connection because it is not such as can be prescribed and is moreover invulnerable, and because it is in this sole case that one may truly say that the mouth speaks of the abundance of the heart.”

Henri Corbin

A World Infused With Divinity

2008-05-25T03:39:00.000-07:00

In the eyes of the Vedic people, everything in the world was infused with divinity, and they saw the gods themselves as belonging to the everyday world of men. Their gods were not entities outside the world, but personifications of the forces of nature. And since nearly everything in nature was personified as a god, or was seen as an attribute of some god or goddess, Aryans lived, in a real sense, in the thick of divine activity.

Vedic Aryans saw the gods not as creators of the universe, but as part of the creation. However, in later Vedic times Prajapati (the Lord of Beings, here identified as Brahma) came to be designated as the creator, but not so much an active creator as the being from whom creation emanated. ‘Prajapati moves in the womb,’ says the Yajur-veda. ‘Being unborn, he is born in many shapes ... In him all the worlds stand.’ As Keith comments, ‘The idea of world creation is always in the Vedic literature regarded in the light of sending out of something already there rather than of mere bringing into being.’ There was really no creation, only evolution — the universe evolved out of its own latent potential.

Abraham Eraly, Gem in the Lotus. The Seeding of Indian Civilisation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2004, p.132

Love Your Neighbour

2008-05-23T01:50:00.002-07:00

We should share the sufferings of our fellow human beings and practice compassion and tolerance, not only towards our loved ones but towards our enemies.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Little book of Wisdom, Rider, London, 1997.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

G.K. Chesterton

We are told on Sundays that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. On the other six days of the week, we are exhorted to hate. But you will remember that the precept was exemplified by saying that the Samaritan was our neighbour. We no longer have any wish to hate Samaritans and so we are apt to miss the point of the parable. If you want to get its point, you should substitute Communist [terrorist] or anti-Communist, [anti-terrorist] as the case may be, for Samaritan. It might be objected that it is right to hate those who do harm. I do not think so. If you hate them, it is only too likely that you will become equally harmful; and it is very unlikely that you will induce them to abandon their evil ways. Hatred of evil is itself a kind of bondage to evil. The way out is through understanding, not through hate. I am not advocating non-resistance. But I am saying that resistance, if it is to be effective in preventing the spread of evil, should be combined with the greatest degree of understanding and the smallest degree of force that is compatible with the survival of the good things that we wish to preserve.

Bertrand Russell, Knowledge and Wisdom

Chopping Wood and Fetching Water

2008-05-23T01:50:00.001-07:00

There is a wonderful old vision - perhaps it originates in Japan, and may actually be seen in a woodcut by one of the Japanese Masters such as Hokusai. It show a burning building, with two rows of people between the fire and the river. One row is passing empty buckets from hand to hand en route to the river, the other, full buckets, en route to the fire.

This is a possible analogy of how we should be working together but it depends of course on whether the fire is near to a river, or any source of water, a well, or a tap. Another image, a sort of visionary image, that has always been imprinted on some back page of my brain, (and I am not sure which hemisphere) - is a image of a vast dam in the middle of a huge dessert. Here, the emphasis is on hydraulics. The water must be brought to the thirsty earth, to the spiritual aridity of humanity. Thus, engineering is necessary, canals, pipes, plumbing. Or if all fails spades to dig the watercourses. All this involves Work, and we are a lazy species. This could be called: social engineering . . .

Another image, comes from the beautiful and mystical novel ‘Mount Analogue’ by Rene Daumal. Here the analogy is Mountain Climbing. Those who have gone upwards, towards the Peak, or Goal, always prepare the Way for those Ascending from Beneath. They chop wood and leave fresh food for those ascending. As Above So Below. Basically, this should be the principle of any Fellowship. It has resonances with the Dream of Jacob, and the Angels going up and down the Ladder. On a mundane level, most people, when they ascend the social ladder, pull the ladder up behind them.

Unfortunately, there is still a greater reservoir of selfishness and greed - even among my personal friends and it has caused me great pain to see how the basics needs of the self have triumphed over any altruistic motives. But then this is an absolute indictment of our acceptance of competition and greed as the ground motivation of our society. People treat one another accoding to their position on the Food Chain. As such, we must accept the inevitable consequences of such behavior, in the Small Picture, and in the Big Picture, it will only lead to a ruination of the species, if this has not already become an irreversible process.

The world is dying, as one old matriarch said, from a lack of love. The world is burnt dry by the selfishness of humanity. There are great reservoirs of resources, of wealth - of plenty - which are held for the few - by the few. The New Visions which are arising at the moment, in the attempt to counteract this materialism, that may, or may not, destroy the planet - have manifested in countless forms, among many which we count as our own forms, the ones which we have spiritually, intellectual and culturally identified with. These forms, include social forms, religious forms or scientific forms to use a few labels. Among these, for example, I can make a list of all the subjects and their corresponding forms, or manifestations that have interested or involved me in action over the decades, e.g. Buddhism, the Tarot, Art, History, Archaeology, Jungian Psychology, Astrology, Literature, Theatre, Music, Ecology and so on. You can do the same. And mostly, we find there are wide areas of convergence that we share, that demonstrate our mutual friendship, our Fellowship, and hopefully, eventually, our commitment to Serving All Sentient Beings in whatever enlightened or suitable Form we find, or Create.

Some Forms have Traditions - and some of these Traditions, for various reasons have been hidden and are in the process of re-emerging in the present time. Or, perhaps they have always been present in the ürgrund of Archetypes, and merely manifest in so-called New Forms, to satisfy the Needs of the Day.

One of these forms, and a Form of supreme importance is the Web. It has taken me a years of working on the Web – to digest what it has to offer as a tool, as a medium - and so on. A period of testing and trial. It is my idea of a Hermetic Heaven on Earth! But like all tools, it must be used according to its Inner Nature - which in this case, is definitely Mercurial, and therefore Hermetic. So this brings me back to the practical aspects of fires and buckets, and dams and sluice gates, and of Rest Houses, where those, whom we love, leave fresh milk and freshly baked bread - for those coming up the mountainside, whom we love…

So, let us continue with the work that needs to be done..

Samten de Wet: from the Archives: A Letter to a Friend, Turin, I Due Melograni, 14th October 1997.

Hermetic da Vinci

2008-05-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

Professor Martin Kemp of Oxford University, is one of the word’s leading authorities on Leonardo da Vinci.. With Marina Wallace, he is the Director of UNIVERSAL LEONARDO, an absolutely stunning website on da Vinci. Martin Gayford, writing in ARTnews, says:

“To take an example Kemp has written about, what links a map of Tuscan river patterns, a detailed study of a dissected female body, and the Mona Lisa? The answer, Kemp says, is that the veins, arteries, and other sundry tubing in human anatomy and the streams of the Apennines were to Leonardo, not just similar but large and small examples of the same thing. The macrocosm of the wide world—the rivers, mountains, and lakes in the wonderful, cosmic landscape behind the Mona Lisa—was reflected in the microcosm of man (or woman). In Kemp’s reading, Leonardo would have thought of the scenery as a metaphor for the bodily mechanisms of the lady herself.

When Leonardo examined the corpse of a centenarian, Kemp says, he concluded that the old man had succumbed to the “silting” of his blood vessels— exactly the kind of process that would lead a river system to sclerosis. To Kemp, the drawing he labels “Irrigation systems’ of the female body: respiratory, vascular and urino-genital” (1507—8) is a masterpiece comparable to the Mona Lisa. More than that, it is, partly at least, about the same subject.

Of course, the Mona Lisa started off as a portrait of a particular person, Lisa Gherardini. But it became something more and different, and in fact was never delivered to Gherardini’s husband, who had presumably commissioned it. The landscape in the background is a poetic summary of Leonardo’s surveys of central Italian geography, which he had carried out for military and economic reasons. In front of the majestic system of the world, with its rivers and peaks, stands the woman—who Leonardo knew consisted, in part, of an intricate array of capillaries, valves, organs, and liquids. Microcosm recapitulates macrocosm: so there is one Leonardo mystery partly decoded.”

From: Martin Gayford, Decoding da Vinci, ARTnews, March 2007, pp. 134 – 137.

Using the axiom, As Above, So Below, from the Emerald Table, the above points to the essential Hermetic vision of Leonardo da Vinci, in its microcosmic and macrocosmic applications.

BE WHAT YOU ARE

2008-05-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

“The principle of all mystic codes of ethics may be stated in this simple form: Be what you are. That is, be in action what you are in reality.”

William Ernest Hocking, Types of Philosophy, p. 271.

Peace, Love, Joy

2008-03-02T12:00:00.001-08:00

I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this precious little Instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their coverings, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too: Be not content with them as joys. They too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then, to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country on our way home.

And so I greet you. ^[1] Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

— Fra Giovanni 1513.AD.

^[1] The original line reads: “And so at this Christmas time I greet you.” You can restore this when using the text as a Christmas card.

The Elders call for a billion signatures

2008-02-15T11:58:00.001-08:00

2008 is the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

It‘s a time for a global conversation about human rights. To consider the values that unite society as one human family and one global village. But it can be more. For the last 60 years it‘s been governments that have been asked to sign the Universal Declaration. The Elders hope that 2008 can be the year that individuals, not just governments, sign the declaration. The Elders are calling for one billion signatures from across the world. The old generation of leaders wants yours to be one of them. They urge you to embrace the values and goals of the declaration; to protect the rights of fellow global villagers and encourage others to do the same in communities, workplaces and schools. To sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CLICK HERE.

Masonic

2007-12-07T15:37:00.001-08:00

MORALS AND DOGMA by Albert Pike [1871]

This is Albert Pikes' 861 page volume of 'lectures' on the esoteric roots of Freemasonry, specifically the 32-degree Scottish Rite. Until 1964, this book was given to every Mason completing the 14th degree in the Southern jurisdiction of the US Scottish Rite Freemasons. Masonic lectures are standard oral presentations given during initiation to a new degree. Lectures provide background material for initiates and the discuss duties of the degree in general terms. They do not present details of the rituals, gestures, regalia, etc., for which one must consult other books on MASONRY.

Pike states right off that half of the text is copied from other works. Unfortunately none of these quotes are properly cited, and in most cases it is only a shift in style which allows us to identify a quote. There are also lapses of fact and logic. So it would be a mistake to use this work as an authoritative source without additional research and critical thinking. That said, Morals and Dogma is a huge, rambling treasure-house of esoteric data, particularly on the Kabalah and ancient Mystery religions. Whether you just browse these pages or study it from one end to the other, this is a must-read book for anyone looking for long-lost knowledge.

Links from the Victorian Lodge of Research No 218
Masonic research resources. Links to other Masonic Research sites.

Masonic research resources
Masonic research resources provided by the Grand Lodge of British Columbia Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

Hirams Oasis Masonic Files
- Over 4,000 masonic essays and articles stored as compressed (*.zip) files.

The Philalethes Society
'world's oldest and largest Masonic research society'

The Centre for Research into Freemasonry

Angel Millar

Hermetica

2007-12-07T15:36:00.001-08:00

The Hermetic And ALCHEMICAL FIGURES Of CLAUDIUS De DOMINICO CELENTANO VALLIS NOVI
From A Manuscript Written And Illuminated At Naples A.D. 1606

kabbalah

2007-12-07T15:30:00.001-08:00

The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectureship in Jewish Studies by Moshe Idel - are available at this link. Scroll down to Idel1, 2 and 3. These three text files can be saved separately. Moshe Idel is a genius following in the tradition of excellence of Scholem.

Sacred Texts

2007-12-07T15:29:00.001-08:00

The resources for esoteric studies on the internet are expanding rapidly. The Internet Sacred Text Archive Has recently published the full text of: The Hermetic Museum This is the main index for Arthur Edward Waite's Hermetic Museum. This is one of the largest collections of Alchemical tracts, first published in Latin in 1678. Waite translated it into English and issued it in two volumes in 1893. It appears in its entirety here on the Internet for the first time. Full bibliographic information can be found via either one of the volume index pages, (here, and here). Also: The Prophecies of Paracelsus, Translated by J.K. [1915]

Deciphering Egyptian Hieroglyphs in Muslim Heritage

2007-12-07T15:28:00.001-08:00

Dr. Okasha El Daly (PhD), an Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, has written a very stimulating article: Deciphering Egyptian Hieroglyphs in Muslim Heritage For more details see: Okasha El Daly, Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings. London: UCL Press, 2005.And online: Arabic Study of Ancient Egypt

Dr. El Daly writes" Most fascinating among these Arabic manuscripts is a work translated into English, published in London in 1806 by an eminent orientalist, Joseph Hammer. The title of this English translation is: "Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained; with an Account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices in the Arabic Language by Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih".

This text is now available online, from google.books at:

Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained: by Ahmad ibn 'Alī Ibn Wahshīyah, translated by Joseph Hammer-Purgstall , 1806, 136 pages. Arabic and English.

This and That

2007-12-07T15:23:00.001-08:00

Umberto Eco on Cusa/Lull

” The thought of Nicholas is rich in comological metaphors (or models) founded upon the image of the circle and the wheel, in which the names of the divine attributes (explicitly borrowed from Lull) form a circle where each supports and confirms the others. The influence of Lull is even more explicitly revealed when Nicholas notes that the names by which the Greeks, Latins, Turks and Saracens designate the divinity are either all in fundamental accord, or derive from the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (see the sermon Dies sanctificatus).”

Umberto Eco, “The Search for the Perfect Language” 1994.

See: Tarot as Lullian Theorist

Fairfax L. Cartright, THE MYSTIC TOWER.

This intricate allegory is included in Fairfax Cartwright’s The Mystic Rose from the Garden of the King,” and is an essential text for the study of the tarot.

The Hermetic Code

Michael Hayes, author of: High Priests, Quantum Genes. Black Spring Press, 2004, has a powerful website that looks at the Hermetic Code through a cosmic lens. See: The Hermetic Code: A General Theory of just about Everything.

Also along similar lines at the Reality Sandwich website:

Music of the Quantum Lattice In the field of high-energy physics, a rapidly rising theory called “Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics” (Lattice QCD) proposes that an invisible, all-pervasive structure exists beneath atomic structure. As a long overdue replacement for the vacuous space-time continuum, we are now poised for a return to the ancient worldview of a musical universe described by Pythagorean harmonic science.

Michael Maier

A new book by Hereward Tilton on Michael Maier at the Isis Website:

Hereward Tilton. The Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622). (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte, 88.) Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003.

Mike Dickman comments: Not that new and also incredibly expensive, it really is a useful book for anyone interested in the study of Maier, completely replacing the outdated info in both Craven and my own intro to the “Cantilenae Intellectuales”… If you can afford it, get it.

Power Points

“It was said that while Saint Benedict built on the mountain top, the Cistercian built in the valley; flowing water has always been an intrinsic key to the secret of Cistercian sites, not only was running water essential to the material needs of the monastery, but springs and rivers have been associated with magical powers since the dawn of time and in the Christian Tradition streams and wells were always dedicated to the Virgin, as were all Cistercian Abbey Churches.”

Harding, Fra William P. The Origins of The Order of The Temple of Solomon, R.I.L.K.O. Journal, 54, Spring/Summer 1999, p.10.

”All the sites of the cult of the virgin are at once haunted places with a long, mostly pre-Christian tradition. Deep under the churches of pilgrimage there are in most cases vast cavities, lodes of ore, radioactive springs, or hot or cold springs. Who discovered them, designated them, and ordered that temples should be built over them? And why? In order to prevent man’s graspingness from violating them, to keep these special places of the Earth untouched? We do not know.”

D. Z. Bor, Master Stonemasons and the Light of Divine Wisdom, In: Opus Magnum, Trigon, Prague, 1997, [267-271].

Samson & The Lion in the Tarot

2007-12-07T14:11:00.001-08:00

September 7, 2007:

I agree totally with MARK FILIPAS in this quote:

The name of the eleventh letter kaph (KP) means the power to subdue, corresponding to the allegory of Strength. It is also the root of the word KPP, meaning to force, to conquer.The letterform suggests the gaping mouth of a beast, and some of the earliest decks (such as the Jean Noblet Tarot c. 1660) depict the lion’s mouth facing in the same direction as the letterform.In most of the images the interpretation has been that the mouth of the lion is being opened and/or closed.

Michael Maier says in Phoenix Redivivo: [The Songs of the Resurrection of the Phoenix.]

“The poets say that some fierce animals fell from the moon to the earth. Of these was that furious Lion, rising from the congealed foam of Diana, put to death by Hercules. The fables hide great truths. In this lion’s mouth is hidden a thing highly esteemed by sages. Who will conquer this lion? The strength and club of Hercules are required. Try to know this Lion. He is fed with celestial dew.”

The full title, in French, is: CANTILENÆ INTELLECTUALES DE PHOENICE REDIVIVO. In his recension, J.B. Craven writes: “This singular treatise was first printed at Rome in 1622,” the year that Maier died,” reprinted at Rostock in 1623, and “since then became very rare.” The French edition, the only one I have seen, is issued from Paris, 1758, and is taken from the Rostock edition. “The Songs of the Resurrection of the Phoenix, is translated into English by Mike Dickman.

To paraphrase: It is not only the fables, but also the Tarot which hides great truths. And what is hidden in the Mouth of the Lion?There are some clues. . . .

ICONOLOGY OF THE FORTITUDE CARDS, by Dr. Robert O’Neill

Peacham, Henry, Minerva Britanna, 1612, London. English Emblem Books, No. 5. Selected and Edited by John Horden, Scholar Press, 1969.

H.S.Beham. Series on The Twelve Labours of Hercules. Byzantine silk, Sens Cathedral, France, 8^th Cent. Shroud of St. Victor, Lion strangler, Gilgamesh Translated into Samson. BATTISTA FRANCO, Fortitudo and Patientia, engraving 16^th century. From Wittkower… Wenzel Bible, Prague 1387 – 1400. Cod. 2579-2764, Austrian National Library, Unterkircher Samson and the Lion Boucicaut Master & Workshop. French, Paris, about 1415. Tempera colors, gold leaf, & gold paint on parchment. MS. 63, FOL. 26V Botticelli, Sandro Fortitude1470. Tempera on panel. 167 x 87 cm. Uffizi, Florence Philip Galle - (Dutch 1537-1612). Samson Fighting the Lion. Engraving The Bedford Book of Hours was probably executed to celebrate the marriage of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of English rule in Paris, to Anne, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, in 1423. This minature shows Samuel I, XVII, 34-36.British Museum, Add. MS. 18850.Werboczi-Kolozsvar codice, Hungary. 1571 Albrecht Durer: Samson Rending the Lion Strength ‘La Forza’ from the Tarot Mitelli.

GIOTTO 1 and GIOTTO 2 OTHER 1 and OTHER 2 Columns are obviously associated to the death of Samson: From Tarot of the Bohemians, 1896. Marseilles Deck: From Tarot of the Bohemians

Pagan Mysteries

2007-12-07T14:10:00.003-08:00

“Any attempt to penetrate the pagan mysteries of the Renaissance should perhaps begin with the admission that the term ‘mysteries’ has several meanings, and that these already tended to become blurred in antiquity, to the great enrichment and confusion of the subject.”

Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance.

I have always thought that this is one of the most delicious sentences, with which to start a book. What I love about this sentence is the proximity of the two seemingly opposed words enrichment and confusion. In fact, we are almost in the territory of the language which emanates out of Ven Trungpa Rinpoche, and in particular, the Shambhala Teachings. To lift Edgar Wind’s words, out of their context, may be unforgivable, but any explorations into the subject of the Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance, is both enriching and confusing at the same time. Buddhism does not layer confusion with negative connotations - but sees it as a state in preparation for opening to the Teachings themselves. In fact, confusion has a metaphysical strategy of its own. The scaffold of logic that imprisons thought is loosened - and all manner of rich insights can, and do flood in, when we are confused. Naturally, confusion, would be Dionysian. One would have to search for confusion in The Bacchae of Euripides. A mother must be confused, if she tears her own son to pieces. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphilia of Francesco Colonna is the very essence of confusion, as it should be, set in a dream landscape, replete with surreal ruins. And yet it is this great Renaissance classic, that some of the most profound initiatory secrets of paganism, are released, in a contemporary setting. Of course, we would have to rewrite the use of the word pagan in the light of the work of James Hillman and Rafael Lopez-Pedraza. And the neo and post-Jungians in general. Then there are those unfortunate people who call themselves neo-pagans, who have really missed the boat completely. Or missed the goat! The word pagan itself, is very loaded, and is in need of a thorough, refreshing re-working. Signs of which are already in the air.

Samten de Wet. Monday, 16 July 2001. From the Archives.

“Stay together, friends.
Don’t scatter and sleep.

Our friendship is made
of being awake.”

Jelaruddin Rumi

Great Burning Mountains

2007-12-07T14:10:00.001-08:00

“There is a Hindoo legend that the Lord of Time dwells on a transcendent mountain whose summit glows like a tongue of flame at sunset, and towards which the Seven Stars of the Great Bear turn their eyes. The Slav peasants, who have a fairy-tale about this crystal mountain, say that a fire burns without ceasing upon its summit. Around this fire sit twelve Great Beings - the twelve months - and in the centre of the flame is an aged man with long white beard and bald head. “Man,” said the Ancient of Days, addressing an inquisitive human visitor, “waste not thy life here; return to thy cottage; work, and live honestly. Take as many embers as thou wilt; we have more than we need.” Then having said theis he disappeared, and the twelve Beings filled a sack with embers, which they put on the poor man’s shoulders and advised him to hasten home. [Note1 - Slav tales, 7.]

Bayley, Harold, The Lost Language of Symbolism, Bracken Books, London, 1996, p.219.

A Buddhist Perspective on Garbage

2007-12-05T03:04:00.000-08:00

Garbage can smell terrible, especially rotting organic matter. But it can also become rich compost for fertilizing the garden. The fragrant rose and the stinking garbage are two sides of the same existence. Without one, the other cannot be. Everything is in transformation. The rose that wilts after six days will become a part of the garbage. After six months the garbage is transformed into a rose. When we speak of impermanence, we understand that everything is in transformation. This becomes that, and that becomes this. Looking deeply, we can contemplate one thing and see everything else in it. We are not disturbed by change when we see the interconnectedness and continuity of all things. It is not that the life of any individual is permanent, but that life itself continues. –

Thich Nhat Hanh, in Present Moment, Wonderful Moment

From Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith

The Black Light

2007-10-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Henry Corbin:

"The black light reveals the very secret of being, which can only be as made-to-be; all beings have a twofold face, a face of light and a black face. The luminous face, the face of day, is the only one that the common run of men perceive Their black face, the one the mystic perceives, is their poverty. The totality of their being is their daylight face and their night face" ^[1]

A theophanic conceptual description of creation by John Scotus Eriugena:

“For everything that is understood and sensed is nothing other than the apparition of the non-apparent, the manifestation of the hidden, the affirmation of the negated, the comprehension of the incomprehensible, the utterance of the unutterable, the access to the inaccessible, the intellection of the unintelligible, the body of the bodiless, the essence of the beyond-essence, the form of the formless, the measure of the immeasurable, the number of the unnumbered, the weight of the weightless, the materialization of the spiritual, the visibility of the invisible, the place of the placeless, the time of the timeless, the definition of the infinite, the circumscription of the uncircumscribed, and the other things which are both conceived and perceived by the intellect alone and cannot be retained within the recesses of memory and which escape the blade of the mind.” ^[2]

Within This Darkness:Incarnation, Theophany and the Primordial Revelation by Tom Cheetham

^[1] Henry Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, 1994, p. 112-113.

^[2] Quoted in Sells, Michael, 1994, Mystical Languages of Unsaying, University of Chicago Press, p. 44.

Mansions

2007-10-23T19:24:00.001-07:00

The Mansions of the Moon

Some quotes

2007-10-23T19:06:00.001-07:00

To study the Way means to study the self.
To study the self means to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.
To be enlightened by all things is to have removed all barriers between oneself and what is 'other'.

Dogen Zenji - Genjo Koan

The way to completely liberate all of cyclic existence is to sustain the nature of present awareness with an uncontrived, non-grasping and watchful mindfulness in order to uproot the undercurrent of conceptions.

Dungse Trinley Nobu Rinpoche

How odd to see this garden inside the flame.
My heart has become capable of every form:
a grassland for gazelles, a home for Christian monks,
a temple for idols, the pilgrim's Ka'aba,
the scrolls of the Torah and the book of the Quran.
I follow the religion of Love: wherever Its camels turn,
that is my religion and my faith.

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

'We must strive to be like the moon.'

Luxlapis - BLOG: BLOG TWO: