Quote of the Day – December 25 2012

“When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin

Dear Spirit of the Season (commonly known as Santa),
What an amazing year it’s been since we’ve last talked. Thank you so much for the magic that I found in my stocking last Christmas morning. It was a small thing but watered with Dreams and Intent grew into a wonderful fire of the imagination.
It allowed me to imagine myself inside the heads and hearts of others and taught me further lessons on the difference between sympathy and compassion and how to truly help others.
It taught me to see the world in different ways than I was raised to see it and how to break free of my conditioned upbringing and understand the world that much better..
It allowed me to stretch my mind to accept that many more views of how the world work and look at each of them critically
It gifted me with the ability to convey my visions in art and writing….
So for this and many gifts that came from that one seed of imagination
Thanks…
I can’t wait to see what comes this year…
Some requests:
Greater understanding felt by all. Sometimes feeling understood is all that’s needed to be able to give it to others.
That everyone at some time feel hugged and loved at least once a day.
That the world leaders smarten up and step down and the world’s followers realize that they don’t need leaders.
Most of all that we realize we’re all in this together
Sincerely,
G
Blessings, G

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Solstice with the triple goddessSolstice Campfire With The Triple Goddess by G A Rosenberg
Journey Mandala
Journey Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 24 2012

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
― Carl Jung

 

Interpersonal alchemy is quite possibly my favourite kind. Meeting someone with a whole new set of values and intricacies, who has learned to deal with their lives in totally different ways than I have. Someone with whom in both qualities I enjoy and qualities I don’t will show me a fun house mirror of myself that we will both have to accept for things to continue. Of course I will be showing them the same. But in the relationship, a new kingdom waits to be explored..
Blessings, G

 

On a somewhat heavier personal note, my mother-in-law tonight faced some medical complications bravely. She was operated on and it looks like she will pull through just fine. I am grateful to the universe. As cliched as it sounds, hold your loved ones tight, you never know when your mutual exploration of each other’s country will come to an end…..
 

 

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Crystal Blue Persuasion

Generator by G A Rosenberg

 

Amonite Persian RugAmmonite Persian Rug by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 23 2012

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
― C.G. Jung

 

A friend of mine on Facebook has started a new group. He is encouraging each person who joins to repeat (well type) the mantra “I AM THE NEW DAY”. I find this amazingly empowering. I have written before on my view of self-victimization and being stuck on the moments in the past when we have been hurt either by ourselves or by another. Too often, this results in an inability to move forward. Society seems to reward this behaviour. Our victims get book deals and run the interview circuit. Everyone wants to feel sorry for someone and too often sympathy can become a drug.

 

By my saying this, please do not think that I am discounting ANYONE’S pain. I have cried from the things I’ve heard that friends and family have gone through. When I hear or read about some of the truly creative ways that we have found to be destructive towards each other it hurts. At the same time I try very hard not only to know the pain of the person whom it has been inflicted on but to know the pain of the persecutor also. I would love to build a world where such pain does not exist. Who would like to help? Any ideas?

 

So yes, we have gone through a lot and we may still go through more but do we cling to the pain of the past or do we become something more than a victim, an object of pity not just for others but for ourselves. What do we want to become? How do we heal? I believe these two questions are intimately intertwined.

Blessings, G

 

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Black Light Mandala

Black Light Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Page of PentaclesTarot – Page of Pentacles by G A Rosenberg

 

Quote of the Day – December 22 2012

“Of course there are robots among us. There are also Magicians among us. I think we take turns playing each role, as a matter of fact. The Magician defines a reality-mesh and the robot lives in it. Grok?”
― Robert Anton Wilson

 

Most of the time I see reality as being the best playground imaginable.  We decide the boundaries. We choose what we allow ourselves to perceive out of a staggering amount of input to our senses and out of it we build what we think of as real. We then live in this reality often quite mechanically ignoring that which doesn’t fit and doing much the same things with what does. Occasionally something comes along that reveals that our take on things is merely a subset of all possibilities and our lives get turned upside down. We then get to choose another subset and start building again.

 

Occasionally some of us become aware that that is what we do and we start to intentionally choose the subset that works the best for us and we change it quite often. This insight also protects us from getting thrown by reality conflicts as we accept that reality is bigger than any concept we can have of it.  What reality have you chosen today?

Blessings, G

 

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Page of Cups

 

Tarot – Page of Cups by G A Rosenberg

Dimensional Calling Card

 

Inter-Dimensional Calling Card by G A Rosenberg

Quotes of the Day – December 21 2012

“Remember tonight… for it is the beginning of always”
― Dante Alighieri

 

“…and in fact the only way I can deal with this eerie situation at all is to make a conscious decision that I have already lived and finished the life I planned to live – and everything from now on will be A New Life, a different thing, a gig that ends tonight and starts tomorrow morning.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

 

I think Hunter S Thompson would have been amused at being teamed up with Dante or he would have threatened me with a gun depending on his drug of choice of the moment. While I haven’t jumped fully into any kind of “the future will be like this” bandwagon, I do believe that this day will start a new cycle. Too many people both believe and want to believe this for it not to happen. But then those of you who have been here with me for any length of time know that I believe that any moment can start a new beginning. What is a new year but an ‘official’ time of new beginning. In Mayan terms we are having a rather extreme form of New Year. Make a resolution. What do you hope to start? What would you like to stop? In what way would you like to transform going into this new age? Make a wish, a dream, a resolution, water it and make it come true…
Blessings, G

 

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Page of Wands

 

Tarot – Page of Wands by G A Rosenberg

Abstracted K9

 

Abstracted Canine by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 20 2012

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
― Andy Warhol

Funny, I could hear this in Warhol’s characteristic voice and I find myself smiling and wondering why I haven’t quoted Andy Warhol a lot more in this blog. He had some amazingly profound sound bites. Did he intend the depth that pondering on them brings? I don’t know. I prefer to believe that in this case he did. After all, I don’t see time as the cause of change merely the medium in which it happens. Consciousness causes change. Whether it is the consciousness of a plant that follows its cycles, the consciousness of a puppy tearing through clothes and furniture looking for the perfect chew toy, the consciousness of a planet or a universe that contains us all and sets the templates for the cycles we follow or our own consciousness.

That last is the tricky one. So often we claim to want change but we are unwilling to make it happen. Sometimes this happens out of fear, sometimes out of complacency and sometimes because we actually enjoy having a life with enough specific known hassles that we can complain about in it that we really don’t wish to change.

Change after all can be intimidating. It can also be an amazing adventure. As Mr. Warhol stated, it is up to us.
Blessings, G

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Seeking Shelter

Seeking Shelter by G A Rosenberg

spread light mandala

Spreading Fire Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 19 2012

“We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn’t stop us from wiping it away with a wet sponge. The Divine doesn’t disappear; it’s transformed into the clean surface.”
― Paulo Coelho

 

Transformation is constant. It may sound cliche but I feel like I’ve spent more time becoming than I have spent being anything. Tho through everything, the good times, the bad times, the disasters, the blessings (and with good reason Carlos Castaneda says to see both of those as merely challenges rather than assign value judgements), the horrible acts that people do to each other and the wonderful acts of kindness and heroism that take place every day. There’s no part of any of it that’s not divine. If you think of the universe perfect and complete beyond time and space there are no disasters merely a different spot of colour in a multi-dimensional tapestry.
Blessings, G

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Queen of Pentacles

 

Tarot – Queen of Pentacles by G A Rosenberg

Starry Night Mandala

Starry Night Mandala by G A Rosenberg