ein großer Dichter, Maler und Naturmystiker Englands

wurde am 28. November 1757 in London geboren.

Flickr Foto von andrewafoley2005.

“Wenn die Tore der Wahrnehmung gereinigt wären, würde der Mensch alles so sehen wie es ist, nämlich unendlich…Alle Gottheiten wohnen in der menschlichen Brust”.

schrieb William Blake.

****

Er war der Sohn eines Strumpfwirkers James Blake und seiner Frau Katharine. Sein Biograph Sheldon Cheney schrieb:

“BLAKE ist als Mystiker sowohl Künstler wie Verkünder einer Botschaft.

Seine Gedichte und Zeichnungen gehören zu den unmittelbarsten. kristallklarsten und freudigsten, die man kennt.

In ihnen verbindet sich Tiefe mit Einfachheit, sie verzichten auf äußere Wirkung und besondere Erklärungen.

Er ist der echteste und überzeugendste britische Mystiker und es gibt während seines Jahrhunderts in der westlichen Welt keinen, der sich mit ihm messen könnte”.FLICKR FOTO von Jessicamulley. Es zeigt ein Mosaik aus der Centaur Street in London. William Blake arbeitete von 1790 bis 1800 in der Nähe – im Herkules Gebäude.

Fortsetzung folgt.

Draupadi.

On November 28:

1520 Three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1582 William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway paid a £40 bond for their marriage licence.

1628  John Bunyan, English cleric and author. was born.

1632 Jean-Baptiste Lully, French composer, was born.

1660 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray at Gresham College decided to found what became the Royal Society.

 Mace of the Royal Society, granted by King Charles II.

1757 – William Blake, British poet, was born.

1814  The Times in London was for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered   presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1820 Friedrich Engels, German philosopher, was born.

1821 Panama separated from Spain and joined Gran Colombia.

1829  Anton Rubinstein, Russian composer, was born.

1843 The Kingdom of Hawaii was officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.

1893 Women voted in a general election New Zealand for the first time.

1904  Nancy Mitford, British essayist, was born.

1905  Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.

1912  Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

1919  Lady Astor was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She was the first woman to sit in the House of Commons.  (Countess Markiewicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit).

1933  Hope Lange, American actress, was born.

1948  Beeb Birtles, Dutch-Australian musician/singer-songwriter; co-founding member of Little River Band, was born.

1960  Mauritania became independent of France.

1961 Martin Clunes, British actor, was born.

1962  Matt Cameron, American drummer (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, was born.

1964 NASA launched the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.

1975 East Timor declared its independence from Portugal.

1977 Greg Somerville, New Zealand rugby union footballer, was born.

1979  Air New Zealand Flight TE901, a DC-10 operated sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

1987 South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

1991  South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia.

2008 An Air NZ Airbus A320 crashed off the coast of France.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live
Or if I die.

La muerte vista así dimensiona la muerte humana como algo intrascendente en el universo; o la muerte del más pequeño insecto es una suceso equiparable a la vida humana; o toda vida es semejante ontologicamente, su acabamiento no tiene valor jerarquizable, es como cualquier otra: existe (y felizmente se vuela, se camina, se vive) o se coexiste, lo más mínimo y lo más grande, lo que parece  insignificante y nuestra propia vida (la más  importante). César Vallejo tiene un relato muy poético sobre la muerte injusta de una araña, y me recuerda a este poema.

Here are Ways #s 4 and 5 from the last post which promised you 5 Ways to Be More Great-full (Boost Your Gratitude Attitude)…

#4: FAMILY (or couple’s) GRATITUDE BOOK
We just spent a very pleasant hour doing this great art & writing interactive project. So simple and yet so meaningful and fun! Quality family time!

We do not watch television, nor do our children. We are dedicated to parenting consciously and strive to support a vibration of love in our household. Yet, given that my husband and I are both entrepreneurs, with seven businesses between the two of us, and given that our children are still quite young, we know how important and sometimes challenging it can be to come up ideas (not to mention time, energy and materials) for positive family experiences.

I myself am about the least craftsy person you will ever meet and can draw a stick figure on a good day! So believe me when I tell you: Yes, you CAN do this project, and probably with what’s already available in your home. It really ranks high on simple, high on fun, high on memorable, and low on expense. (I can NEVER do those Origami things, puuleeeeeazzze, can we talk?)

Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect time to do this Family Gratitude Book…but of course so is any day that ends in “y.” Monday, Tuesday…. Enjoy!

Materials:

All you need is:

Some blank paper (we used printer or copy paper, white)

Construction paper

Ribbon or brass brads to secure the book

Markers, pencils, hole punch and/or scissors

Optional: Stickers, stamps, other art supplies, scrapbook, photos

Definitely: A little bit of time and lots of love!

We started by making a brainstormed list of everything we are grateful for. You can do this any way you like; follow your own creative impulses & inspiration. We have four family members, so I decided to color code what we wrote on this collective page or you could just all write and draw without attributing who said/drew what, or make a chart, have sections of the page, etc. The things my 6-year-old called out first were written in yellow, my 10-year-old chose blue, I picked purple and my husband green. We made a color key on the page and wrote and drew various things we are thankful for: Our dog came first, followed by a lovely torrent such as family and friends, food, a good home, music, the Earth, music, health, God, life and so on.

Then I gave each family member a separate page on which to do whatever they like, the only requirement being that whatever is on the page relates to or represents what they are thankful for. We stuck in some more blank pages, so we can add more later as we are inspired.

The kids each got to pick a color for the front and back covers. The older did the words, the younger did the drawings. We punched holes, added brads, all signed the masterpiece and voila! A Family Gratitude Book.

Not only a wonderful way to spend part of our Thanksgiving Day, but a precious keepsake, and, I trust, a new family tradition as well. We will be sharing this book with family all weekend long and inviting them to add to it as well. And of course, it can be done any day! Every day bears its own gifts if we just open the package.

Today we focused mainly on what we are thankful for in our current lives (now), but we could also include wonderful memories (past) and gratitude for all the blessings on the way! (future)

Alternative for Couples: You can also do this as a Couple’s Gratitude Book or Journal, a beautiful way to show appreciation and deepen connection. So few marriages last or are happy, as we all know, and I am blessed to have a deliriously, deLIGHTfully ecstatic marriage, 12 years strong and better every day. One of the reasons is of course, the selection of the right mate; but in order to do so, we had to do the necessary self-healing and inner preparation to bring whole, healthy individuals to the relationship. Much of this work is presented in my book: The Radical Self-Love Workbook. But it is also essential to nurture even the best of relationships, and my husband and I do so daily in many creative ways such as this.

More tips on love and relationships are at

www.LoveandSpirit.org

and at my love blog: loveandspiritblog.wordpress.com.

Whether you do the Gratitude Book as a homemade book like we did today, like a scrapbook or journal, and whether you do it as a family activity or a couple’s relationship-enhancer, it will help you see your life through the eyes of love and gratitude, and bring you even closer with those you love. Enjoy! And I welcome you to send me a comment or email to share your experience.

#5: Honor the 4 Directions and 4 Sacred Elements:

Earth, Air, Fire, Water

You do not have to be Native American to appreciate one of their traditions, which is to honor the Medicine Wheel, facing each of the four directions, thanking each one for their gifts. This is also a tradition in all indigenous cultures including pre-Christian Europe (a.k.a. Wicca, Druidry, paganism, et al.), Africa, Australia, Hawaii and South America.

In fact, if you scratch the surface beneath contemporary religions on any part of the Earth, you will find an ancient shamanic tradition that honors all the directions and all of nature as sacred.

All things follow this cycle of birth, growth, fruition and quietude, whether we are looking at seasons, a lifespan, a day, or a garden. The beauty of Medicine Wheel ceremony and the paradigm itself is that it can be applied to our lives in so many ways.

So how do you honor the directions and elements, to give thanks for what they give to us so generously? Here are a few ideas:

* Altar: Create an altar to each direction or a Medicine Wheel altar encompassing all the directions/elements. This can be in your home or outside. My husband specializes in creating Medicine Wheels as a sacred practice on the land, and has helped others to do this as well.

* Cherokee Dance of Life – You would need to learn this in person from someone who has learned it, oral tradition. This is an incredible moving meditation to all 4 directions, peoples, and elements which also honors Mother Earth and Father Sky, balances their energies as sacred partners in our hearts, and helps us give away the gifts of Spirit that are our special medicine to share with the world through our right work and service. Occasionally my husband and I share this Dance with our community. If you live near Sacramento, and would like to experience this dance, let us know so we can invite you. Or perhaps Spirit will guide you to another teacher of this beautiful tradition.

* Drum, chant, play flute to each direction

* Give offerings such as cornmeal, tobacco or sage smoke to each direction

* Speak aloud from your heart to each direction and give thanks

* Sweat lodge

* Vision quest

If you do either sweat lodge or vision quest, please do so with the guidance of a Native elder to be sure you do it properly and safely.

* Journal or journey (shamanic meditation) to discover what power animals comprise your personal Medicine Wheel of your own energy field. I love to lead these meditations when I am called to do so. Honoring your own inner Medicine Wheel supports a strong aura and keeps you connected to your spirit guides, if this resonates for you.

Associations with Each Direction

Depending on which culture or even which tribe you consult, there are somewhat different associations with the directions, colors, elements and meanings, the medicine or power that direction helps us receive and embody. The one I am most familiar with follows but this is not dogma, merely a summary of what I have found to be the more universal associations. Follow your own heart and work with any spiritual practice in the way that resonates for your own heart and inner truth.

While I have a small amount of native blood, I was adopted and was not raised in that tradition. I discovered shamanism after my initiation and spiritual awakening 15 years ago. I do not claim to be a tribal elder or teacher of any one tradition. I am an interfaith minister, meditation teacher, hypnotherapist, energy healer and intuitive life coach. I have been on the path of Spirit, studying, practicing and sharing healing and wisdom teachings from many cultures for several decades, so I offer here a simplified summary as a starting point for your discovery journey. You would do well to study more in depth with a local teacher steeped in the particular tradition that calls to your spirit, and of course feel free to research further on the Web, in books, classes, and listen to your own inner guidance. I always say the best way to pray, do ceremony or ritual is the way that feels best to you, with harm to none, of course. But we do need to honor the specific traditions so they are not all diluted through multiculturalism.

From the East we have the yellow people (Asia) and the gift of Air, Brother Wind, clarity of vision, inspiration, the new day, new beginnings, establishment of purpose and intention, and springtime.

From South, we receive the wisdom of the black people (Africa), Fire. The tools, strength, perseverance and energy to follow through and manifest, midday/ noon, summer, also humor and passion, innocence and trust.

The West gives us the culture of the Red people (such as Native Americans), the setting sun, Water, emotions, the fall season, self-evaluation toward completion, looks-within time, peace, rest and healing.

And the North represents the White (European) people and all their cultural gift. The sacred mountain, winter, midnight, time to slow down, go within and be still to receive guidance for what comes next. Completion, what you keep from the past cycle and all that you have accomplished and learned. It is also associated with the Spirit and wisdom.

Note: You can also honor the other 3 directions: Earth (below), Sky (above) and Center (within).

I hope you enjoyed these five creative ways to give thanks and I wish you abundant blessings on your journey!

Finally, in the spirit of Sufi mystic poet Rumi, I invite you to kiss the ground. Blow kisses to the sky. Bow to everything. Everything is sacred.

With Love,

Sage

More resources for your path, including free special reports on abundance, love, transformational classes, soul and energy healing sessions, intuitive readings, matchmaking and more are at:

www.LoveandSpirit.org

Taylor@LoveandSpirit.org

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

- Rumi

Happy Thanksgiving!

“The eye, altering, alters all.” – William Blake

I recently saw the movie Up with my family and we were touched by the sweet message that it is the most simple moments that have the most meaning for us. I call those moments, like when Russell sits on the curb counting red and blue cars with his dad and then with his new (grand)father figure at the end of the movie, the “pearls on life’s necklace.” Individually, they are precious and delicate, yet strung one after another, they form a true treasure.

In an earlier post, I shared several reasons why it is so essential to enhance our gratitude attitude. So now, as promised, here are some fun, practical ideas for how to become even more grateful (great full), how to count more of those pearls and value them with your heart, while they are in your hands:

1. My Feet Touch the Earth.

A Native American custom is to give thanks to Mother Earth each morning upon rising, when your feet first touch the floor or ground. This helps us remember that the land we live upon is alive and sacred, worthy of our deepest respect and greatest appreciation. It also helps you receive her bounty, through food, health, abundance and every good thing you can touch or experience through your senses, and to feel more grounded and “in your body.” Another thing I love about this practice is it takes zero extra time; it’s just a shift in consciousness, and isn’t that what we are most striving for?

2. Write a (different kind of) Thank-You Letter.

Well, you already know about the traditional thank-you-for-the-gift kind of letter. I believe it’s on the Endangered Species List. (When’s the last time to sent or received one of those?) I highly recommend we resuscitate these as they bring and spread so much joy, especially the kind of letters, cards and notes you can actually…what’s that called?….Oh, yeah, TOUCH with your actual hands and reread over and over without having to go online. What a concept!

In addition to writing to give thanks for specific gifts or favors you have received, I propose you explore writing Thank-You Letters to:

* Your loved ones…just because

* Yourself

* God/The Universe

* Your Body

* Money

* Your Ancestors

* The Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Sun, Moon, Stars…

You see, the possibilities are as infinite as your abundantly grateful heart.

3. Take a Gratitude Walk.

Dedicate a walk to the awareness of thankfulness. This is a walking meditation and is best done in silence or punctuated only with your statements of appreciation or a simple mantra such as:

* Thank you, God, for all that is.

* Right here, right now, beauty all around me.

* I give thanks.

* I am thankful.

Your gratitude mantra can also just run in your mind without being spoken aloud. You can rhythmically coordinate the mantra to your steps, or not; follow your own guidance and what your body tells you to do.

Another option is to think or praise something with each step or everytime you notice something you are thankful for, such as: “Thank you for my feet that I may walk. Thank you for these trees I see…. Thank you for the air I breathe. Thank you for my children (husband, wife, etc..). Thank you for my home. Thank you for my dog. Thank you for my car. Thank you for my work. Thank you for music….”

While you are walking, you may give thanks for gifts from Spirit which you can see and hear and touch in the present moment, or other blessings in your life, counting your pearls, but the key is to keep every step, every breath, every moment focused on hearful, mindful appreciation.

This is an excellent exercise which combines nourishing your body through the movement itself with nourishing your mind, heart and soul by returning your awareness to what is precious and good, all around you and within you.

As a meditation teacher for the past 11 years, I have frequently met beginning students who lament, “I can’t meditate because I can’t sit still so long. My body hurts and gets fidgety.” Some meditation disciplines and teachers simply reply to this: “Just sit. Let the distraction of the mind chatter and body aches just fade away and just sit anyway. They are all illusions, and your mind will eventually clear as you ignore the ‘monkey mind.’”

This is true for some people, some of the time, as with so much wisdom. However, some people really do need to move more often. This can be due a medical condition, a tendency toward being highly kinesthetic, and/or a need to move energy and remember they have a body through touch and motion.

I am solidly in the latter category myself and find that I benefit optimally from a kaleidoscopic, multicultural meditation practice, drawn from Eastern and Western traditions – like the Meditation for Busy People course I designed for and taught at Kaiser Permanente. Sometimes still, some moving, sometimes silent, others with chanting or music or sacred sounds, sometimes focusing on the heart, third eye, or other chakra, other times aware of the whole body and energy field, sometimes open-eyed (gazing meditation is called “tratakam” in India), sometimes closed, focused on the inner space. Let me know if you would like to me to share more of my knowledge of meditation in this blog column. I teach many methods in my workshops, teleseminars and private practice and share them also on my meditation audios.

For whatever reason, if you do not enjoy an extended sitting meditation practice, you will likely give up on it, so I highly recommend exploring moving meditation such as Tai Chi, Chi Gun, Native American Dance of Life (Dance to the 4 Directions) and even some dynamic forms of yoga, or simply authentic body movement and dance as a meditation. Walking meditations like this gratitude walk is another wonderful way to integrate Body, Mind, Heart and Spirit, so give yourself permission to move while you meditate, and give yourself credit for “meditating” if you are moving consciously and feeling a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefit.

Anything you do that brings your awareness to the present moment, that cultivates mindfulness and what I call heartfulness, is a form of meditation, be it walking, stretching, drinking a cup of tea, even cooking or cleaning.

As Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nat Hanh says, whatever you are doing, even if you are washing dishes, it is the most important thing in the world.And it can be done joyfully and gratefully. Absolutely anything and everything is a meditation when done with focus and appreciation. Right here. Right now. Love.

So I invite you to join me in striving to live Life as The Grand Meditation. The Prayer of Thankfulness that Never Ends. The moment of choice, the moment of change, the moment of power, healing and grace, is now.

∞

As for me, time to go practice gratitude with my family. Right here. Right now. We are about to create a Family Gratitude Book! I’ll let you know how it turns out, and I suspect that may become Gratitude Tip #4.

Your life can change in a moment’s notice.

And the moments you notice can change your entire life.

So, my friends, have a beautiful day…and another…and another…Keep adding to, and treasuring those precious gifts of moments of simple pleasure, in oneness, and in the company of loved ones, the pearls on your necklace of life.

With Love, Sage

P.S. Please share in comments:

What part of this article did you most resonate with?

What are your favorite ways to deepen your gratitude attitude?

And what are you most thankful for this season?

(what are some of your precious pearls)

Just click on the article title to add a comment if the box is not visible below. Thanks for visiting!

www.LoveandSpirit.org

Coffee Art Updated

I Know I have Blogged It Before But …I dont care…The Funk Brothers are my hero’s and these clips are from my all time favourite film

19.2 million people watch Donny Osmond win

NEW YORK — An estimated 19.2 million people watched Donny Osmond win “Dancing With the Stars” — the smallest audience for the show’s finale since the first season. This was the ninth edition of the contest, one of television’s most popular shows. The Nielsen Co. says ratings have been down all season for the show, an indication that viewers weren’t as attached to the contestants as they had in the past. Osmond said the show has been a highlight in a career of ups and downs. He competed during the show’s finale Tuesday against singer Mya and Kelly Osbourne, daughter of rock star Ozzy Osbourne.

Donny Osmond was declared the new champion of “Dancing With Stars” on Tuesday night, taking home the show’s mirror ball trophy in the season finale of the ABC contest reality program. Osmond, the former teen pop star of the singing Osmond family, said the show has been a highlight in a career of ups and downs. “I did it!” Osmond exclaimed. He promptly rushed to the audience and plucked out his wife, Debbie, whom he carried across the stage. Helping push Osmond over the top was the tango he performed Tuesday with his professional dancing partner, Kym Johnson. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba hailed it as “artistry in motion.” It earned the top score of the final performances. Three celebrities made it to the finale of the show’s ninth season — Osmond, Mya and Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. The show picks a winner with a combination of judges’ scores and viewer votes. Mya entered as the favorite, having won the highest scores on Monday’s show. Dancing with Dmitry Chaplin, she performed a jive. “I’m just so happy to have made it to the finals,” Mya said after the loss. The 30-year-old singer is most famous for collaborating on the Grammy-winning hit “Lady Marmalade” from the soundtrack of 2001’s “Moulin Rouge!” Osbourne was the first of the three eliminated. With her famous family — Ozzy, Sharon and Jack — looking on, Osbourne and professional partner Louis Van Amstel danced to a cover of Ray LaMontagne’s “Trouble.” The 25-year-old was clearly moved and began crying after her last dance She thanked the audience and said she had “grown so much” during the show. Co-host Samantha Harris said Osbourne had become “a swan.” The finale culminated a season of good ratings for “Dancing With the Stars,” which consistently ranked as one of the most-watched shows of the fall. The contestant who grabbed the most headlines, former Congressman Tom DeLay, had to withdraw in the third week of competition because of stress fractures in both feet. A healed DeLay returned Tuesday night to dance the Texas two-step routine he had hoped to perform. All former contestants returned, including former Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin, who performed a dance-off to the theme of “Monday Night Football” with another NFL receiving great, Jerry Rice, who was a contestant on the second season of “Dancing With the Stars.” The judges declared Rice the winner. Pop singer Aaron Carter, voted off this season, performed a dance to the theme of “The Muppet Show.” Animal took the drums, while Miss Piggy lurked backstage. Mistakes on the dance floor weren’t the only missteps of ABC’s live broadcast. At the top of the show, as highlights from Monday’s show ran, the video froze on shot of Miss Piggy, prompting host Tom Bergeron to remind viewers that the broadcast was live and send the show to an early commercial break. Whitney Houston also made a guest appearance to perform her “Million Dollar Bill” and the fitting “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Gymnast Shawn Johnson won last season’s “Dancing With the Stars.” ABC can expect high ratings for Tuesday’s finale. Last week’s results show attracted an audience of 16.2 million.

Amazing !!!

Astounding !!!

Was Jesus taught by the Druids of Glastonbury? New film claims it is possible he came to England

As a book of record the New Testament doesn’t do too well on the early life of Jesus Christ. The large holes may explain why so many outlandish theories have been able to build up about what the Son of God got up to as a boy. But among those myths most perpetuated is that he visited Britain  -  an idea immortalised in the opening lines of William Blake’s Jerusalem.

But did Jesus build a chapel beneath Glastonbury Abbey (pictured here), as a new film suggests?

Now a film has sought to add flesh to the fable by claiming it’s perfectly plausible the Messiah made an educational trip to Glastonbury. And Did Those Feet explores the idea that Jesus accompanied his supposed uncle, Joseph of Arimathaea, on a business trip to the tin mines of the South-West. Whilst there, it is claimed he took the opportunity to further his maths by studying under druids. Unsurprisingly, the documentary stops short of concluding the visit did take place, noting ‘Jesus’s shoe has not turned up’. However, the makers insist that while the visit is unproven, it is possible. The theory is that he arrived by sea, following established trading routes, before visiting several places in the West Country. In the film, Dr Gordon Strachan, a Church of Scotland minister, says it is plausible Jesus came to further his education. The country is thought to have been at the forefront of learning 2,000 years ago, with mathematics particularly strong. Ted Harrison, the film’s director, said: ‘If somebody was wanting to learn about the spirituality and thinking not just of the Jews but also the classical and Greek world he would have to come to Britain, which was the centre of learning at the time. ‘Jesus was a young man curious to find out about all sorts of things. ‘We know there is a huge gap in the life of Jesus between when he was born and when his ministry started.

‘He would have come to learn what was being taught about astronomy and geometry which was being taught at “universities” run by druids at the time.’Mr Harrison, a former BBC religious affairs correspondent, says Jesus may just have been a boy when he left the Middle East for England.Tresanton St Mawes in the west country which looks towards the Roseland peninsula, where the film claims Jesus spent some time He said: ‘He started the ministry at about the age of 30. There is only one mention in the Bible between his birth and the start of the ministry.’That is when he was around the age of 12 and went to the temple and astounded the learned experts with his knowledge. One could speculate he had just come back at that point.’ Alternatively, he may have made the visit when in his teens or 20s and used his earnings as a carpenter to fund it. Jesus is said to have built a chapel in Glastonbury  -  and when theologian St Augustine heard of it 1,400 years ago, he wrote to the Pope to tell him about it. Mr Harrison said: ‘The concrete evidence is this reference by St Augustine that at Glastonbury there was a small building or church that was put up by Jesus.’He added that Blake’s hymn Jerusalem refers to the visit with its opening lines: ‘And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pasture seen?’Mr Harrison said there were ‘no archaeological finds’ to back up the myth, but ‘by exploring the legend, we are opening up a fascinating new insight into early Christianity’.

How much would you spend to spice up your love life? Sales of luxury lingerie costing up to £900 rocket in the run-up to Christmas

I Love To See A Woman In Exquisite Lingerie….But Im Sorry….The Feather One Does Nothing For Me

Despite the unstable economy and looming expense of Christmas, it seems couples are determined not to neglect their love life – whatever the cost. Women across the country are snapping up luxury corsets in a bid to add a touch of spice in the bedroom, a leading retailer said today. Selfridges said sales of its luxury fashion corsets were up 70% as stocks of Bordelle’s £900 feather girdle sold out in 24 hours at its Oxford Street store in central London.

Beat the boredom: The Bordelle £900 feather girdle sold out within 24 hours

Luxury lingerie sales were up across the country, with the average spend increasing by 16% compared with this time last year at Selfridges’ stores in Birmingham, London and Manchester. British designer Alex Popa, 27, said: ‘The items are more flexible than the traditional pieces,’ said Miss Popa. ‘If you are daring enough you could pair a corset with a pair of leggings and go out clubbing or to a party, but they can also be worn in the boudoir. ‘It is more of a mix between outer-wear and underwear. There was nothing out there that was doing in-between. Lingerie was very static but my designs focus more on design. ‘It has helped a lot that we are popular with celebrities. We made one of our designs for Lady Gaga, and we have made items for Shakira as well as pieces for Christina Aguilera’s new movie Burlesque.

Wrapped up: Shoppers are desperate to snap up Bordelle’s Angela Cage £365 bandage dress

Tie me up: A more modest monochrome version

‘Everything is made in my workshop in London. We don’t out-source anything and make it with a technique which is unique to us. The pieces are expensive, but we have had people who have wanted to get stuff from us for some time and they have saved up to buy a piece.’ With winter drawing in and nights getting longer, women are choosing to invest in quality lingerie rather than spend on nights out. And British luxury lingerie brand Myla is cashing in on the new trend – with the launch of a £350 silk ‘Christmas’ corset, which will be unveiled by queen of burlesque, Immodesty Blaze, in Selfridges’ Oxford Street window tomorrow morning. Helen Attwood, Selfridges’ head buyer for lingerie, said: ‘The trend for underwear worn as outerwear is more popular than ever with customers investing more in fashion that adds a touch of spice to everyday life.’

And the driving force behind the sudden surge? Hollywood of course.

Sales of Bordelle’s Angela Cage £365 bandage dress also soared by 90% after 21-year-old Rihanna stepped out in a similar white leather bandage catsuit at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles earlier this week. The Bajan singer flashed the flesh on stage in a futuristic white catsuit with white shoulderpads, which shot lasers across the stage. Copies of the more modest version will no doubt be available on the High Street soon as teenagers scramble to covet the barely-there look. Women certainly appear to be doing their bit to boost the economy as high-end cosmetics are also bucking the recession with a surge in sales, according to recent figures. And what better way to cheer her up than some sexy underwear and a bit of red lipstick?

The look was made popular by Rihanna on stage at the American Music Awards

 “Vi a las mejores mentes de mi generación destruidas por la locura, hambrientas histéricas desnudas, arrastrándose por las calles de los negros al amanecer en busca de un colérico pinchazo,”, dicen los primeros versos de Aullido (traducción de Rodrigo Olavarría), poema emblemático del pontífice beatnik Allen Ginsberg. Una de esas mentes destruidas fue la de Jim Morrison (1943-1971), el último sex symbol, el último poeta, el ultimo chamán, el Rey Lagarto (the lizard King), el último bardo, el último Dionisio en pantalones de cuero, líder y vocalista de The doors (1965-1971).

Awake, shake dreams from your hair my little sweetheart. Choose the day, choose the sign of your day. The day’s divinity. Ver The doors (1991) de Oliver Stone es sacudir polvo de sueños que amenazan con destronar a la divinidad del día. De cualquier día. Vista en su momento de estreno resultó toda una experiencia sensorial. Verla ahora, con más calma, es poner a un documento visual donde debe de estar: es un homenaje sentido a un grupo emblemático de los sesenta, sobre todo a su líder James Douglas Morrison.

La entrada de The Rolling Stone Enciclopedya of rock and roll  (2003), en la página 278, tiene el siguiente preámbulo en las dos páginas dedicadas al grupo californiano: “Sexo, muerte, reptiles, carisma y una variante única de blues eléctrico dio a The Doors un aura de profundidad que no solo sobrevivió sino que ha durado más de treinta años después de la muerte de su vocalista. Las letras de Morrison se leían como delirios adolescentes pero muy cargados de sexualidad deliberada. El seco órgano de Manzarek y la guitarra jazzística de Robby Krieger se convirtieron en una leyenda poderosa con una música que era casi una invocación chamanística a fuerzas familiares y al mismo tiempo demoníacas, y en el caso de Morrison una obsesión por el exceso y por ende con la muerte”.

Nunca mejor dicho. Bien resumida el alma de este grupo paradigmático. Las letras de Morrison eran verdaderos poemas en un estilo simbolista que recordaba a Rimbaud y William Blake. De este último tomaron el nombre del grupo. En Matrimonio entre el cielo y la tierra Blake pregonaba que “si las puertas de la percepción se abrieran, cada cosa aparecería ante los ojos del hombre como son, infinitas. Pero el hombre se ha encerrado sobre sí mismo hasta que logre ver las cosas a través de las estrechas grietas de su caverna” (traducción de Marcelo Báez).

El encargado de la biopic  (biographical picture) de The doors es Oliver Stone, ex veterano de la guerra de Vietnam, terrorista por naturaleza, subversivo del lenguaje cinematográfico. Un experto en crear escándalos, un provocador profesional, eso es para algunos este cineasta de apellido de piedra. Su disección del asesinato de  JFK (1991) fue piropeado como “una relato político contado por Costa Gavras y montado por Eisenstein”. Su Peloton (1986) fue galardonada con cuatro Oscars de la Academia (lo que sea que eso signifique ya que dicho premio no es precisamente un honor en estas épocas). Fundamentales en su filmografía son Wall Street  (1987) con Michael Douglas y también Salvador (1986), con James Woods.

Asesinos por naturaleza (1995), escrita por Quentin Tarantino, fue celebrada como una narrativa alucinógena y una crítica acérrima a los mass media, sobre todo a los reality y talk shows.

Después de estos seis filmes (The doors incluido) la carrera de Stone ha ido cada vez más en picada con filmes insulsos carentes de la fuerza inicial de su carrera.

Revisada después de dieciocho años, el filme de Stone sigue siendo una apología no tanto del grupo sino de su vocalista de quien se incluyen poemas en el metraje. Se interpolan, además, imágenes surrealistas y realmente sugestivas. Loable el intento de aunar la lírica de Morrison con la poesía visual de Stone. El problema con esta biopic es el concentrarlo todo en el joven vocalista que siguió el precepto de James Dean: “Live fast, die young”. Comienza en las playas de California donde conoció a Manzarek (ambos eran estudiantes de cine de la UCLA) y termina en París, con aguacero, para ser enterrado en esa versión francesa del Olimpo que es Pére-Lachaise. La intención es darle al personaje esa aureola mítica pero el abuso resulta poco soportable después de casi veinte años de haberla visto. Hay cosas que realmente sobran como la apología de la satiriasis de Morrison. La responsabilidad mayor del filme recae en Val Kilmer (nominado al MTV award por este rol) quien se arriesga a cantar con voz propia algunos de los temas musicales. Igual sigue siendo el único filme de ficción, hasta la fecha, sobre el grupo que ahora tiene nuevo vocalista. Destacan Meg Ryan en el rol de Pamela, la esposa del cantante y Kyle McLahlan como Ray Manzarek. Vale.

Here’s the Blake image I referred to in my Sunday sermon

I mentioned that the shafts of light emanating from the fingers are reminiscent of a compass, which calls to mind Milton’s description in Paradise Lost of God creating the universe:

Then stay’d the fervid Wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden Compasses, prepar’d
In God’s Eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things:
One foot he centred and the other turn’d
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just Circumference, O World. Paradise Lost VII.224-231

The image of the golden compass has itself become quite familiar in contemporary culture, most prominently in Phillip Pullman’s novel of that name, recently made into a movie.

O sono da razão produz monstros, 1799  da série:  Os caprichos

Francisco Goya (Espanha, 1746-1828)

—

Já tive a oportunidade, aqui neste blog, de usar a palavra zeitgeist .  Esta é uma palavra alemã [pronunciada: ‘zaitgaist’] que engloba o conceito de um espírito de época. Originalmente ligada a um movimento do romantismo alemão, com o tempo esta palavra tornou-se a maneira taquigráfica para historiadores explicarem certos fenômenos, atitudes, preocupações que parecem surgir simultaneamente em diversos lugares e culturas diferentes mas que não teriam sido relacionados, apesar dos muitos pontos em comum que apresentam.  Foi justamente este conceito de zeitgeist que primeiro veio à minha mente ao ler Viva Chama [não gosto desta tradução do título inglês: Burning Bright, porque perde a ênfase em português], o mais recente livro de Tracy Chevalier traduzido no Brasil. (Rio de Janeiro, Record: 2009).

Não sou, nem nunca fui, uma especialista do século XVIII, mas conheço o suficiente para me lembrar que uma grande preocupação intelectual do final deste século e  início do século XIX baseava-se nos contrastes, nos opostos.  Intelectuais consideravam seriamente aspectos entre a razão e o sonho;  consideravam os limites do racionalismo em oposição às infinitas possibilidades do inconsciente.  Um dos maiores símbolos para a época, que parece representar fielmente as considerações mencionadas foi a série de oitenta gravuras do pintor espanhol Francisco Goya, chamada de  Los Caprichos, publicada em 1799.  E dentre estas gravuras, uma em particular: O sono da razão produz monstros, se tornou emblemática das preocupações desse fim de século.

—

Pietà, 1795

William Blake ( Inglaterra, 1757-1828)

Tate Gallery,  Londres

—

William Blake (1757-1828), poeta e pintor inglês, contemporâneo de Goya e também um dos personagens do livro de Tracy Chevalier foi um dos intelectuais da época,  mais  preocupados com a dualidade dos elementos.  Blake, que parece no romance um personagem de pano de fundo, tem, no entanto, suas idéias cristalizadas no tecido do romance.  Assim, questões que poderiam ser reduzidas e polarizadas, como razão x sonho; bom x mau; crença x materialismo, encontram no romance a linha de união que as une; a linha de união que preocupava Blake e que ele, através da autora explica:

 – Sim, minhas crianças.  A tensão entre os opostos é o que nos faz ser como somos.  Não somos apenas  uma coisa, mas o oposto dela também, misturando, se chocando e faiscando  dentro de nós.  Não apenas luz, mas escuridão.  Não só paz, mas guerra.  Não só inocência, mas conhecimento.  – Ele descansou o olhar um instante na margarida que Maisie ainda segurava.  – É uma lição que precisamos aprender: ver o mundo todo numa flor… [p. 230].

—-

William Blake, 1807

Thomas Phillips ( Inglaterra, 1770-1845)

National Portrait Gallery, Londres.

Tracy Chevalier, astutamente, digere para o leitor a grande temática de opostos se complementando, e o faz em tantos níveis através do romance, que este se torna, para quem o percebe, quase um quebra-cabeças do gênero: quantos quadrados podemos ver neste desenho?  Onde a figura apresentada não só é feita de quadrados como emoldurada por eles.    A trama é difusa e simples, aparentemente centrada nas peripécias de três personagens nos primeiros anos da adolescência.  Uma família sai de um vilarejo na Inglaterra, mudando-se para Londres, a convite do dono de um circo.  O pai, marceneiro, especialista cadeiras, vai para a capital do país ser carpinteiro do circo. Com ele além da mulher vão os filhos: Maisie, uma menina recatada e seu irmão mais velho Jem.   Logo, logo as crianças ficam amigas de Maggie, uma menina de idade próxima à de Jem, filha de vizinhos.  Os três têm muitas aventuras citadinas.  Maggie se aproxima deles feliz por poder mostrar aos “caipiras do interior” sua habilidade e esperteza adquiridas no dia a dia da metrópole.   Um casal — William Blake e sua esposa — que mora no mesmo grupo de casas, é olhado com curiosidade e desconfiança pelos vizinhos.  Assim se torna um elemento de fascinação para os três aventureiros que seguem o casal daqui para acolá e acabam travando uma amizade com o poeta-pintor e sua esposa.

Todos os personagens com grandes ou pequenas participações na trama apresentam duas facetas:  boa e má, inocente e experiente, seriedade e jocosidade.  Anne Kellaway, a senhora sisuda do interior é imediatamente fascinada pelo mundo do circo, onde ela pode se deixar levar por momentos oníricos que não admitia em sua própria vida.  O sério casal Blake é entrevisto nas suas relações sexuais ao ar livre.    Jem, o nosso adolescente do interior luta contra a fascinação e o repúdio por sua amiga Maggie.  Até mesmo as duas meninas, que parecem um o reverso da outra, têm em comum o mesmo nome, Margaret, para o qual cada uma usa um apelido diferente: Maisie e Maggie.  

William Blake é retratado como uma pessoa afável que desperta bastante curiosidade não só por sua impressora, uma máquina que pode ser vista em sua casa, da rua, como também pelos seus desenhos, por suas conversas, por suas poesias e por suas preferências políticas a favor daqueles que no continente apóiam a Revolução Francesa.  E mesmo como um intelectual londrino, William Blake não se esquiva de participar de pequenas discussões sobre uma visão do todo, que inclua seus opostos, com qualquer pessoa que pareça se interessar pelo assunto.   Um exemplo, logo no início do romance, de um diálogo que se desenrola entre ele e o dono do circo Phillip Astley.

Philip Astley

– O senhor cria, não é? – continuou Phillip Astley – Desenha as coisas reais, mas seus desenhos, suas gravuras não são a coisa em si, pois não?  São fantasias.  Creio que.  apesar das diferenças… – olhou de lado para o paletó preto e simples do Sr. Blake comparado ao vermelho que ele usava, com seus botões de metal brilhando, lustrados diariamente pelas sobrinhas  — somos do mesmo ramo, senhor: nós dois vendemos ilusão. O senhor com seu pincel, tinta e buril, enquanto eu… – Phillip Astley fez um gesto para as pessoas em volta — …todas as noites crio um mundo com artistas no picadeiro.  Tiro o público de seus cuidados e preocupações e dou-lhe fantasia para ele achar que está em outro lugar.  Mas para ser real às vezes temos que ser reais.  ….

 — ………………………………………………………………………………………….  —-

– Não desenho pessoas reais – interrompeu o Sr. Blake, que ouvia com grande interesse e falou. Então, num tom mais normal, sem raiva.  – Mas entendo o senhor.  Porém vejo de outra forma.  O senhor faz diferença entre realidade e ilusão.  Julga que são opostos, não?

– Claro – respondeu Phillip Astley.

– Para mim, são uma coisa só.  ….   [p. 115-116]

–

E assim, como numa sala de espelhos, a idéia de opostos unidos num todo, é esmiuçada e explicada, multiplicada infinitamente em diferentes níveis através do romance.  Quando vemos, temos em nossas mãos a verdadeira união de “opostos”,  William Blake que parecia apenas um personagem lateral, quase pano de fundo,  tem suas idéias explicitadas de tal forma que é indiretamente o real e único retratado na narrativa.  

—

Vista da Ponte de Westminster em Londres na segunda metade do século XVIII.

É a habilidade narrativa de Tracy Chevalier que leva este romance à leitura rápida, quase compulsiva da trama.  Como leitores anteriores já haviam comentado –  as citações na capa mostram – a riqueza de detalhes desta Londres do final do século XVIII é impressionante.  A autora parece sempre confiante nas descrições em que os cinco sentidos acabam sendo envolvidos: da paisagem do Tamisa de um lado ao outro da ponte de Westminster, aos cheiros dos becos locais, à delicadeza do tato na manufatura de um botão, ao perpétuo gosto de mostarda para os trabalhadores da fábrica, ao assovio de uma canção.  Neste livro todos os nossos sentidos são acordados para o mundo de 200 anos atrás.   E melhor ainda, nós nos lembramos de que esse mundo anterior, poderia ser particularmente cruel e imundo, de vida difícil, esgotante, para a maioria das pessoas.  

Se você gosta de um romance com clareza histórica e uma conexão literária, não deixe de ler Viva Chama.  Vale a pena.

******

PS:  A Bertrand do Brasil poderia ter sido um pouco mais cuidadosa na editoração do livro.   Há muitos pequenos errinhos, incluindo a troca de personagens, que distraem a leitura.  Uma falta que não se espera de uma das editoras de um grande conglomerado editorial.  Pena.  Muita pena, que a pressa do lucro haja desvalorizado o texto.

Tracy Chevalier

Christ the King

Last Pentecost, Yr B

November 22, 2009

I’ve long been fascinated by the power of visual images. For some odd reason, that power always comes to mind when I reflect on the texts for the last Sunday of the Church Year, what has come to be known as “Christ the King.” In all three years of the lectionary cycle, the texts we read paint vivid pictures of the kingship of God, and of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, the rich and evocative biblical imagery of Christ or God ruling in majesty as a king has inspired equally rich and evocative visual images.

The one I’ve been reminded of all week is “Ancient of Days” by William Blake. Blake is one of those historical figures who is a perennial focus of fascination and debate. His religious views were unorthodox; he was a visionary, a visual artist, and a poet. The print depicts a strong man, with white hair and a long, flowing white beard. He seems to be surrounded by, and standing on the sun. He is bent over on one knee, with an arm stretched out. His fingers are splayed in a 90 degree angle and from them emanate two shafts of light, perhaps even a compass, as he creates the universe.

Blake is depicting another visionary’s image. We heard today from the Book of Daniel the description of the “Ancient one… his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and flowed out from his presence.”

In fact, the reason we heard these verses read was not so much for the ancient of days, but for what is translated as “one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven” who was given dominion and glory and kingship. What is translated here as “one like a human being” reads literally in the Aramaic, “the son of man” and of course that title comes to be used in the NT of Jesus Christ. Much of the imagery in Daniel is repeated in the reading from the Book of Revelation.

A copy of Blake’s print leaned against the back of the rood screen up until last week. I don’t know how it got there or why, nor why it was removed, though I suspect its absence has something to do with the bishop’s presence here last Sunday night. Perhaps no one wanted to give him any ideas.

Images like these exercise immense power on our psyches. We are still, even the most sophisticated and intellectual of us, prone to occasionally conjure up images for ourselves of God with white hair and a beard, in a flowing white robe. On the surface such images may seem harmless, but often they can be fraught with danger. If God is an old man with white hair and a beard, then we may be prone in our relationship to God, to act toward God like we might act toward an old man with white hair and a beard.

This is even more true when it comes to other images, like kingship. Even though few of us have ever lived under a monarchy, and what passes for monarchy these days bears little resemblance to ancient monarchies, our hymns, psalms, and liturgy, is full of language of kingship: Today’s psalm reads “The Lord is king, he has girded himself with strength… Mightier than the breakers of the sea, mightier is the Lord who dwells on high.” To think of God as King seems obvious. When we think of God, we think of power and might, a vast distance between ourselves and the deity. We imagine ourselves bowing before him. Of course that’s a gesture full of meaning itself, as we heard last week of the outrage on the right when President Obama bowed to the emperor of Japan.

Both of these images—the ancient of days, and God as king resonate powerfully and seductively. Yet there are dangers when we use such language of God. You may have noted that I used the male pronoun consistently when I spoke of the Ancient of Days and King. I did so deliberately, because both of those images are tied to masculinity. What would you have thought if instead of speaking of God as King, I had begun speaking of God as Queen? No doubt many of you would have been uncomfortable, perhaps some of you would have smirked, even.

The point is that such images are used to say something about God, but in the end, they are inadequate to fully describe God, and it is relatively easy to elevate the image in our mind, to a reality. Thus children often think of God as an old man with a white beard, but as we grow older and mature, we come to see the inadequacy of that image. If we don’t we may in fact fall into the sin of idolatry.

The inadequacy of the image of kingship is glaringly obvious in our gospel passage. Pilate asks Jesus a straightforward question, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus responds finally with those famous words, “my kingship is not of this world.” It’s hard for us to hear these words freshly because of our own history, and indeed our culture’s history, with these concepts. It seems to be a rather obvious and clear distinction between secular and spiritual between political kingship and divine kingship. We tend to blame Pilate, and the Jewish authorities for misunderstanding what Jesus was about. But as we’ve seen this fall while reading through the Gospel of Mark, contemporary notions of messiah-ship were focused on the political, that the Messiah would deliver the Jewish people from the Roman occupation and would restore the fortunes of the Jewish people.

What’s important to recognize is that in the synoptic gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when Jesus rejected the notion of the Messiah as a political deliverer, he was not rejecting the political implications of messiah-ship or indeed of divine kingship. If God is Ruler, there can be no secular ruler. And of course in the Roman Empire, by proclaiming the kingdom of God, the reign or rule of God, Jesus was explicitly challenging Roman rule. That’s why there was so much conflict between the Roman empire and Christianity. In Rome, as the notion of the divine emperor developed, there was no room for another ideology that proclaimed a different ruler or emperor.

All of this may seem rather far from our twenty-first century lives, but it’s not. The temptation to equate the nation with God is a persistent human tendency that has profound, long-lasting, and dire consequences.

Nowhere is this more true than in contemporary America, where many Christians view the United States as uniquely ordained, blessed and protected by God. Perhaps it is especially common in the South, where churches advertise a special patriotic service on the Sunday before Memorial Day or the one nearest the 4^th of July. Instead of hymns of praise, God Bless America, My Country tis of thee, and the like would be sung. There’s often a pageant, and the promise of a color guard, or military presence in the service.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s wrong to be patriotic. It isn’t. It’s wrong to allow patriotism to take the place of religious faith or to equate patriotism with faith in Jesus Christ. To do so, is to commit the sin of idolatry and even worse to see one’s enemies then, as enemies of God, as satanic. Apparently, it has gotten so bad in some places that conservative Christians are advocating praying for the death of our president, because to them he so clearly is going against God’s will. They are apparently using a verse from a psalm as sanction for such desires.

What does it mean to think of Christ as King and ruler of all? What does it mean to imagine God reigning in majesty over the universe? These are political images so it is impossible not to draw out political implications from them. Typically when Christians have done so, they have tended to equate the political system in which they find themselves in light of that political imagery. But we live in a democracy, not a monarchy or empire.

There’s a profound irony at the heart of Christ the King Sunday. It is an irony expressed in Jesus’ words, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” Our king Jesus Christ does not ride in majesty, he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. The purple in which he is clad is a purple that is mocked. The crown he wears is a crown of thorns. He has no palace or throne, but as he said “Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Over the centuries, and even in our own day, Christians have defended and legitimized their power, wealth, and oppression of others with the language and imagery of the bible, of Christ reigning in majesty. But as Jesus told his disciples repeatedly in the Gospel of Mark, and as the gospel of Mark has reminded us all these weeks of the fall, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”

Our ruler is a servant, not a king. His power is the weakness of the cross, not of weapons or armies. His kingdom is not of this world, and if we are his disciples, we should hope and trust in his love, not in the power and might of any government. Thanks be to God.

sobota, 21 listopada 2009

Wielkie liczby

Ist die Zeit das Kostbarste unter allem, so ist Zeitverschwendung die allergrößte Verschwendung.   Benjamin Franklin Podobno każdy widzi inne drzewo Jesli  ma rację William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, zatem każdy ma swoją turbulencję, ale drzewa i..koty, też – medytuję.. ..i powoli wędruję wokół Karczówki ..do Sieci jak Voyager ..ach Blaise Pascal, nie jest ważne, ..czy Pan Bóg jest Matematykiem, ..czy gra w kości,ale jak..gra TAM ..Czynnik Nieokreślony i Nienazwany ..” nigdy..”- jakbym słyszał Co–.. … ..W tak pięknej scenerii okolic Karczówki w istocie medytowałem..nad dolarem; chciałbym pomóc Ami, ale jak..? ..czy jakbym dokupił, czy jakbym sprzedał parę Zielonych – kiedy pomógłbym..? ..czy ONI w ogóle jeszcze kontrolują sytuację, czy też wszystko, to już gra Wielkich Liczb, czyli matematyka chaosu?.. ..ale w takim razie zmierzamy do ściany, co dla Wielkiej Całości jest bez znaczenia – pocieszałem się i tym ekstremum. Jednak zajmowanie się czymś tak odległym jak podróż Voyagera podnosi mnie w dorażnych kłopotach, które wydaja się Wielkim Liczbom takie śmieszne; żadne. ..ach Ami, Ami

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Tracy Chevalier é a escritora que eu gostaria de ser se o fosse.

A luz da inocência

O lançamento mais recente da autora no Brasil chama-se Viva Chama (no original, Shining Bright). O título faz referência a um poema de William Blake. Mais uma vez, Tracy parte de uma personagem histórica e de detalhes de sua época para criar um romance, que me aprisionou por alguns bons dias de férias.

Na época do William Blake, sabe… não tinha Criança Esperança. Eh… na Inglaterra do final do século 18, ninguém achava nada de mais em mandar os filhos menores de 10 anos para trabalhar em fábricas de mostarda, onde eles se intoxicavam com a poeira amarela do condimento e podiam ficar cegos ou com doenças mentais. Não se dava muita importância para os pequenos. Lógico que as crianças de famílias ricas não estavam incluídas nessa história triste. Parece que a humanidade só começou a amar suas crianças muito tempo depois. Esse valor dito universal de que as crianças são o futuro, símbolo da esperança de um mundo melhor só se estabeleceu de verdade após a segunda guerra. Ou seja, tem muito pouco tempo. E mesmo assim, todos sabemos que essa história triste não acabou. Basta caminhar alguns minutos pelas ruas de Copacabana para perceber que o Rio é, em muitos aspectos, como a Londres de Dickens: suja e habitada por crianças que ninguém quer.

Retrato de William Blake por Thomas Philip

Mas a época de William Blake, Byron, Jane Austen, Napoleão e Goya foi contraditoriamente iluminada e sombria. Era o final do século das Luzes. O crepúsculo da era de Voltaire e Rousseau, da independência dos EUA e da Revolução Francesa. Foi quando inventaram o povo. Só que esse povo vivia nas sombras tenebrosas dos quadros de Goya.

Existe alguma sintonia entre as artes de Goya e Blake. Imagens que se expressam como poemas. Blake era um artista sensibilizado pelas luzes da Liberdade, Igualdade e Fraternidade. No romance Burning Bright,  Tracy Chevalier imaginou as circunstâncias da criação de Songs of Innocence and Experience. A obra de Blake reúne poemas e ilustrações que são historias alegóricas sobre as virtudes, a inocência, o amor, a coragem. Vivo escrevendo sobre crianças corajosas. E dessa vez temos Jem Kellaway e Maggie Buttefield. Eles são os pequenos condutores da história e personificam o que teria inspirado em Blake a idéia sobre inocência e experiência como virtudes da vida.

Jem é da família que sai de Dorset e chega a Londres para tentar a sorte com a ajuda de Philip Astley. O conceito moderno que temos hoje do Circo, com picadeiro, acrobacias e tudo o que tem direito, foi popularizado por Philip Astley, outro personagem histórico, que fazia os espetáculos itinerantes pela Inglaterra e França. Thomas Kellaway, pai de Jem, é um fabricante de cadeiras especializado no estilo Windsor. Ele é encorajado por Astley a mudar para Londres, a capital do império britânico, com suas ruas, pontes e becos enevoados e perigosos. A família Kellaway se torna vizinha de William Blake, poeta, gravurista, místico e, para muitos,  louco. Na chegada a Londres, Jem conhece a destemida Maggie, que tem a mesma idade que ele. Juntos, viverão pequenas aventuras pela cidade e aprenderão com perplexidade sobre os mistérios, as maravilhas e as dores da vida, estimulados pelo poeta Blake, que admira a curiosidade e o destemor das duas crianças.

Tracy Chevalier, capa de Songs of Innocence and of Experience, O Ancião dos Dias (gravura), cadeira Windsor e botões Dorset

Como sempre, Chevalier faz um retrato encantador e detalhado de época. É fascinante a descrição da complicada tarefa de impressão de gravuras, das técnicas de fabricação das cadeiras Windsor, dos graciosos botões Dorset feitos pelas mulheres da família Kellaway e do mundo do circo na época de Phiip Astley. Um cenário riquíssimo para uma história apaixonante e singela.

Tyger Tyger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Trecho de The Tyger, de “Songs of Innocence and of Experience (copy A, 1795 – British Museum)”

Leitura paralela

William Blake

Songs of Innocence and Experience

História do Circo

Mais História do Circo

Cadeiras Windsor

Dorset Buttons

Remarkable Creatures: novo livro da autora

dalla rubrica “Musica, musica, musica!” de “Il Taglio”

Identity is a funny thing. It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset of you are what you do. In college, I was a Journalism major who was also a barista. Immediately after college, I was a freelancer who was also a caretaker. I’ve been a magazine editor, financial advisor representative, waitress, and now I’m back to being a writer&barista. That seems to be my lucky combination.

Western culture puts so much of an emphasis on individual and self. You’ve got to do something, be something, create something outside of yourself to have meaning in life. There’s a continual process of micro-evolution, of analyzing, trouble-shooting, and always carefully reshaping your life.

 ”I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: I must create!” — William Blake

That seems to be the mantra of my generation. Everyone is an artist of some sort.  I know a few engineers and accountants (who are pretty cool, not very artistic but awesome just the same) but for the most part, we’re in the art business. Everyone is a writer, photographer, fashion designer, graphic designer, actor/model, singer, musician, or aspiring filmmaker. Many are their own blend of the above – once you’re into the arts, the lines get blurred. Everyone wants to be different, just like everyone else.

One reason that identity is so fascinating is that while you let it define you, you can also define it. For instance, the life of a starving artist sounds glamorous. My friend K and I were talking about this last month. She brought up the point that no one shows the mundane parts of their life. The bad hair days, the acne flare-up days, or the days when you don’t look glamorous, you just look like yourself. Managing personal PR has never been easier.  If you’re part of the artist set, it isn’t hard to begin with. We create ourselves by the photos we edit, the textures we put in our films, and the words that we choose. Work and play often intermingle for us so we know how to weave our skills into public imagine.

All of us live magical lives, at least on Facebook and other social media sites. We play, we sparkle, we talk about the many wonderful things we do but never really what we are. You’ll see plenty of status updates like:” Caitlin Muir is soooooo happy because life is wonderful and everyone loves her.” Well, not exactly like that. But you almost never see things like: “Caitlin Muir is feeling overwhelmed and slightly insecure.” Or “Caitlin Muir bombed the test. She should have studied instead of wasting her time online!”  Everyone has great or amazing times. It’s like the emotional roller coaster is always climbing higher. Nothing is so-so.

So if we’re all living these glamorous virtual lives, what do our real lives look like? If we’re writing our own scripts, does that make us actors in our own lives?

Sometimes, I take issue with my life. I have a notion of what I should do based on how I want people to see me. I get frustrated that I don’t own a home or a nice car. That I’m still in the US when I wanted to go back to Europe for a year or two. And that I’m back working as a barista, which is actually a very nice job, when I want to be a full-time writer with major publishing houses fighting over my manuscripts. You can’t say that I don’t dream big. I may also have entitlement issues but that would be another post for another time. Or maybe never.

Another quote has been running in my head lately. I saw it on a friend’s facebook page of all places and it’s been stuck, rattling around and challenging me.

“We’re in grave danger when we let our accomplishments become the ground of our confidence.”
- Leonard Ravenhill

 That’s been tweaking my thinking. Or rather, reshuffling it back to where it was before I went to college and got started in this crazy journey of doingvs. being and real life vs. carefully cultivated identity. It’s easy to think that if my resume looks nice, my life must be nice as well. But resumes are for jobs and not for life. Things that look good on paper don’t always translate well in the real world. You can’t photoshop or spell-check life. My character isn’t defined by where I’ve been or what I’ve accomplished. My character is defined by who I am, what I believe, and who I love.

See,nI told you it was rambling.

I’m writing this post because so many well-meaning, conscious, spiritual people are missing some significant information and tools when it comes to Law of Attraction and being a conscious cocreator of your life with Spirit.

One of my wonderful Facebook friends recently wrote a post:

“If you examine your history, you cannot help but repeat it! Law of Attraction says it is so:

‘Whatever I am looking at, I am including in my vibration.’ — Abraham”

This sparked a controversy with 19 people weighing in, many fully agreeing and many others, myself included, objecting to this as an oversimplification and stating that, even though it is true that our focus does permeate our vibration and thus create, it is actually NECESSARY to understand and heal our past in order to learn what we need to from it and be able to truly free ourselves from its hold on us and move on into something even better.

We have to put our attention on our intention BUT if we are not aligned strongly and consistently enough with our intention, if we are trying really hard to make it happen but it’s just not working, that’s a sure sign we need to do some inner healing work before we do any more manifesting and attracting and creating. It’s inner, not, outer time, first.

I feel so strongly that so many New Age, metaphysical folks are so hyped up about positive thinking and “just focus on what you want,” they are missing something vital:

For most people, with most long-term issues, simply striving to be positive and focus on their intentions is NOT enough to bring about the desired results. We need to learn from our past, and use that wisdom to create our best future, while living in and enjoying the present.

So here I go on my soap box again.

The Abraham work and all the other good Law of Attraction stuff out there is not intended to be interpreted as “Ladeeda, we can just be positive 100% of the time and only good things will come to us. All that yucky stuff from the past – I’m done with that now and all I have to do is think good thoughts and I will attract all my desires. Abracadabra!”

So allow me to bust that myth and empower you with a much more in-depth and practical approach:

1- Our past is important. Just as our current emotions are indicators of the distance between where we are at and where we want to be, our past is one of our teachers as well. We can – and indeed need to – turn our wounds into wisdom. Some of our life experiences we may label “good” or “positive,” we feel we were successful and these we can apply to continue to utilize and build upon what worked for us, while the so-called “negative” experiences or failures are also useful in several ways.

For one thing, we can clarify more clearly what, exactly we DO want by contrasting it with what we do NOT want anymore. This applies equally well to health and lifestyle choices, work, home, community, as well as relationships.

Secondly, we can learn psychologically and spiritually: What was my lesson in this?

Thirdly,we can discover, with proper reflection, which may include prayer, meditation, journaling, counseling, or even insightful conversations, that there was truly a silver lining, a gift in every experience we have had. Sometimes we don’t see it at the time, it feels horrible, we may even be devastated that that relationship or career didn’t work out, that we had that disability or lost our house, but ultimately, when we see through the eyes of Spirit and Love, we will always find that everything happened for a reason and we can find something to be grateful for, even if it’s just the ability to make a different choice next time.

2- Until we learn our lessons from the past, we are going to UNCONSCIOUSLY repeat them. This is true of humanity when we look at larger societal choices as well as on the personal level. Ignoring our past and zapping it like it didn’t even happen is not the solution. In fact, ignoring our past and stuffing it over there, oh, that’s too messy, I don’t want to deal with that right now, does not free us from it, it actually dooms us to repeat it.

3- The Abraham work says that our DOMINANT thought is the one that runs the show, and I agree with this. The catch is: Our dominant thought is seldom a conscious thought, so we cannot expect to simply push a button and “There, I’m only going to think good thoughts, feel good feelings and make good choices from now on.”

We have to heal all those billions of subconscious beliefs that we are carrying around which arose out – what? Our past experiences and programming, of course.

I do agree that many people spend far too much time simply repeating their “story,” which actually keeps them stuck in it and keeps giving it energy. There is a big difference between looping an old version of a reality we no longer want, whining about it, being a drama king/queen, vs. actually being willing to visit the past (with support if necessary) with the intention of looking in the mirror, releasing what no longer serves, with forgiveness, finding the lesson and gift in it, and moving confidently forward into a better life we are creating for ourselves, from the inside out.

Do we need to look at our past? Absolutely.Do we need to keep telling it over and over? Absolutely not.

4- We need to process stuck emotions. Sometimes we need to move some rage. Shake off some old energy. Sometimes we need to express ourselves to someone, forgive, be forgiven, and it doesn’t matter if they’re alive or dead or whether their human self is willing to hear a word we are saying. We just talk to their Higher Self, soul to soul. We look in the mirror and show them a mirror as well. I have an extensive guided meditation and energy healing journey that I guide people through called the Healing Past Relationships Journey (soon to be available as a CD/MP3 audio) which facilitates this soul-to-soul communication, energy exchange, forgiveness and healing. Or you may be able to do it for yourself, perhaps by writing a letter or through ceremony. We need to visit our past just enough to learn from it and to heal it, not rehash it or keep talking about it for decades.

We also need to forgive ourselves. And forgive God!

The work I do as an energy healer, intuitive, hypnotherapist and life coach focuses on identifying the current condition of your Body, Mind, Heart and Soul and creating a complete, intuitively guided healing program that empowers you to remember who you really are, to love and heal yourself completely, and to clarify your vision and reawaken your passion, power and life purpose — to create the life and love of your dreams. I am a Law of Attraction coach, and people often begin working with me when they realize (see with Real Eyes) that they are working so dang hard on themselves, have been for years, yet something is still stuck. They are willing, finally, to do what it takes to really succeed, so we go places, often in the first session, that completely amazes them.

5- We need to heal core issues and heal on all levels.

For example, some of my recent clients have improved their relationships, found lasting love, launched their heart-centered business, created more harmony in their parenting or other family relationships…..In every case, we needed to do some deep CORE ISSUE healing at the level of the SOUL and the ENERGY FIELD, the kind of healing that is more difficult to do by one’s self when we are emotionally caught up in our “stuff,” scared, frustrated and depleted.

I do sometimes have clients who try to turn the sessions into talk therapy and keep going on and on about their problems. They are stuck in their story. So I ask them, “Do you want to talk about it or do you want to heal it?” If they keep wanting to talk about it, they are not ready for the kind of healing I do. If they want to heal it, I can help them heal themselves but we have to go much deeper than just talking. Deep omnidimensional energy healing at the soul level i.e. soul retrieval, regression, rebirthing, hypnotherapy/NLP, ceremony, forgiveness work, can be extremely helpful, especially if a person is unable to break free of an old belief/energy. We shift the energy & belief at the original cause and core. I channel empowering self-healing techniques they can do on their own to continue the healing and keep building the positive energy.

We don’t ever have to be 100% healed, nor is that even possible so long as we are human. But we need to be healed enough to be free to focus on what we do want, move forward and create from an aligned, clear, positive state of being and love.

6- ALIGN, ATTRACT, ACT.

People so caught up in the Law of Attraction who simply read a few books, go to a few workshops, watch a couple of movies, often fail to understand that trying to get into ACTION mode before you are ALIGNED does not work. Law of Attraction works – once we are aligned with our desires. If some part of our subconscious mind or energy field is still playing the tape of a limiting, negative belief, we are not going to be able to just attract what we want, no matter how many affirmations we say or vision boards we make!

7 – I want to make one more point about the past and this concept of time. We can only live in one time: the present. We need to heal and learn from our past and draw upon its power, we need to envision and align with our best future, and yet we can only live right here, right now. All times exist in this moment of choice: now.

I personally feel we need to spend MOST of our attention right here, where we live. In this body. On this planet. Enjoying this life to the fullest. Mindful. Heartful. Soulful. Bodyful. Beautiful! When we work with the concept of time as fluid and simultaneous and quantum rather than linear, we find that every moment is a portal home.

We can also change our past shamanically, redream it. This helps us create our best future as well. This can be done through shamanic trance healing and/or conscious dreaming.

We each have the power to facilitate miraculous healing and success beyond our wildest imagination. We don’t have to spend years healing the past. We can heal it in an instant, or it may take several months or longer, but if we go deep enough and work at the level of the soul, core beliefs and original causes, the quantum and cosmic fields and on all levels, if we do this work with a vibration of love for ourselves and all beings, we will grow into being who we came here to be.

I love the Abraham work but sometimes a phrase taken by itself does not present the complexities of the spiritual nature of the Universe. True healing and conscious creation of our lives will always involve navigating the territory of our past with loving kindness and forgivness, with an open mind and a willingness to learn and grow so we can create an even better future. And we can do this today.

If you would like more information about Omnidimensional Healing of Core Issues blended with intuitive life coaching, and a free Special Report on Law of Attraction Graduate School – Abundance Affirmations with Ooompf!, please visit my main website at:

www.LoveandSpirit.org.

This poem was written for Read Write Word Prompt #101: P-P-P-Poetry. This is a Wordle prompt in which all of the words begin with the letter P. I used some of the words and added a few of my own in this poem, which is inspired by William Blake (the quote in the poem is from his work “Proverbs of Hell”), Langston Hughes (“I, Too, Sing America”), and one of my own poems that I wrote earlier this year. Enjoy!

-Nicole
—————————————————
I, too, say Amen.

I am having an early Sunday morning vision
of prophecy:
our bodies slapping together,
sweat running in rivers and casting shattered tributaries
off of our skins. We are somewhere
sequestered, and yet more sacred than the backseat
of my car. We sing Hallelujahs, composed in the key of carnal –
a polyglot of grunt, hiss, and shuddering breath
against a harmony of moan,
countermelodies of our whispered directions, and a
climax of screams in fortissimo. We sound
antiphons to each other, utterances in counterpoint
as we co-create again and again. This
is worship – and I, too, say
Amen.

I used to think
that it was almost sacrilege, darkening Sunday’s sacred dawn
with desire. Church mornings. I used to sit
in audience of those sermons extolling prudence and purity and
warning against the pernicious trap of lechery. Those sermons,
delivered to my ears with a shuddering violence
of black baritone boom reborn from
an ancestral African shaman’s throat. I used to sit, walled in
by a shouted chorale of response pulled up from
the prowess of the preacher’s petitions: “Can I get an
Amen?” I used to sit and conjure you up in privacy, in my
theater of you hidden behind my eyes, while
I responded up to him only in my native tongue of
silent stare. If they had only known what ran rampant in
my hills,
my hollows,
what burns sacral below my stomach. That inferno
still tumbles down into the deep and secret hollow somewhere
below my navel – and when it lands, it convulses and blooms outward
into feathers of fecund flame. The explosion upon impact
is always brilliant orange, a spectral phoenix in my flesh
roaring and screaming on a clandestine pyre. He is reborn in your
presence, evoked in your absence. And I, too, say
Amen.

In my holy vision, we are
hidden in hermetical,
teenaged neophytes,
intending to school each other in the esoteric – this mystery religion
without a doctrine or name except for the breaths in our lungs
and the rivers of golden I AM that have replaced
our own blood. I am captivated, held suspended in wonder by
your gilt letters, by your
illuminated manuscript, vibrating, laid open before me to
read. I touch your shoulder, trace the outline of your collarbone, and
try to read your sacred scripture,
following your bone lines with my fingers
over sternum,
past rib lines, over the crescendo and decrescendo
of your hips. My fingers find glory at the
meeting of your thighs. I read intently the
chapter and verse of your sighs. And I, too, say
Amen.

And now, from the cloak of the past, I hear a proverb:
“The nakedness of woman is the work of God.” And
a procession of souls comes forth –

the poets,
the prophets,
the painters and the sculptors;
the woodsmen, the miners, and the jackhammer jockeys;
the steel mill denizens and the footfall field citizens –
running backs, halfbacks, fullbacks, and quarterbacks –
the lesbians, and the thespians echoing their practiced lines
in the halls of our high school theater;
the choir geeks, and the art freaks;
the stoners, the loners, and the Deadhead owners of
honey, black, and blonde dreads grown against
the wild and fiery or quiet and smoldered disdain
of their parents; and I,

your disciple,
your devotee,
your sacred shaman uttering incantations filled with
nothing but your name,
your dervish whirling and warping my own reality until
it becomes our shared and holy space,
your Saint Catherine of Sienna,
your Radha to your Krishna –

I, too, say Amen.

Written 11/17/09
© 2009 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.

Stumble It!

Una exposició sobre Jane Austen a la Morgan Library & Museum de Nova York , A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy (fins el 14 de març del 2010), intenta explicar per què ella i els seus escrits segueixen captivant i inspirant-nos gairebé dos-cents anys després de la seva mort.

L’exposició, feta a partir del nombrós material d’Austen que es guarda en aquesta institució, comença amb una carta escrita en 1796, quan Austen tenia vint anys, i acaba amb un curtmetratge sobre el seu llegat.

La versió en línia de l’exposició, amb la que ens hem de conformar els que no la podem visitar a NY, inclou:

• El vídeo The Divine Jane: Reflections on Austen, un documental produït especialment per a l’exposició, examina la influència de la narrativa d’Austen i la seva fama a través d’entrevistes amb destacats escriptors, acadèmics i actors.

•Les set primeres cartes de l’esborrany de la novel·la epistolar ‘Lady Susan‘, l’únic complet de les seves novel·les que es conserva.

• Per acabar podem veure una selecció d’imatges de l’exposició presencial.

També a la Morgan Library es pot visitar l’exposició William Blake’s World: “A New Heaven Is Begun”, amb una part d’exposició en línia.