No, Poetry this time. When I first created this picture a few years back, it was in the early days of my tarot picture project. I was trying to imagine what the Hanged Man trump might look like and was finding the elements that would go along with it. At some point, as tends to happen with my pictures, it started becoming something else. It became a totem of sorts.
I’ve always identified with the Hanged Man. The idea of sacrificing myself to myself for the sake of wisdom, or perhaps a better way to say it is, sacrificing who i am now for who I am in my deepest highest self, the man behind the mask. Amazing how being hung upside down can become so liberating.
In this picture instead of hanging by a rope, the central figure is caught in release of a dive, hanging in mid-air at the moment of freedom. Included in the picture are tricksters (the raven), messengers (the Owl) wisdom (the snake and the crone) and playfulness, another form of wisdom (the dolphin). Also included was the crocodile representing Sekhmet the eater of the part that dies). Almost everyone of these beings are in motion as is the plant.
This picture represents so many qualities I wish to elicit more and more in myself and many that I have. It remains one of my favourites of all the pictures I’ve done
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
― Marcus Aurelius
One of the easiest things to do when someone has hurt us is to want to pay them back in kind. To do unto them as they do unto us, an eye for an eye and all the rest of the Old Testament reactions. Even sadder, far too often in the cases of abuse,the one abused becomes an abuser in kind expanding the cycle of pain and victimhood. There seems to be a lot of pain out there and healing takes time.
George Herbert said that “living well is the best revenge” and I find amazing truth in that. If someone intently wants to make you unhappy (usually as an extension of their unhappiness) the best way to thwart them is to have as happy a life as possible. Be the happy that they cannot. At worst, you will frustrate people who see you as their enemy. At best they may actually want to have what you’re having and learn how to get that happiness for themselves. Joy and good feeling can be as contagious as pain if we let it.
“Nothing is generous. New knowledge is a valuable commodity. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we are.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
Perhaps its such a valuable commodity because its a seller’s market? So many people avoid knowledge like the plague and to them you can’t give it away. There are those of us tho hungry for new knowledge and it is on us that knowledge brokers survive. Even there, some of us are more like gourmets in nature, only accepting the good stuff, knowledge that’s proven to harmonize with universal principles and erudite material that one must have the equivalent of three university degrees to understand. Others of us are gourmands and will consider any flight of fancy and love pushing ourselves if not outside the box into whatever boxes possible. When it comes to knowledge I am one of the universal dumpster divers willing to leap in and look over whatever anyone is throwing out. Thus breadth is added but also an amazing depth when all the sources end up weighed and sorted through.
Blessings, G
“As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.”
― Ernest Hemingway
Harder? I seem to find heroes everywhere I go. Oh they may seem mundane to most, insane to some but for me heroes, nonetheless. The single mother who has worked to raise her children and provide for them who advocates for the one with a disability. The man who after a long period of homelessness starts a non-profit to help others and to show others how capable they are of helping. The musicians and artists who turn down prestigious gigs in countries with horrible records of human rights. The teacher who hides her first grade students away before a gunman comes in and kills her. Anyone out there who offers hope to another. People who show the beauty of their being in astonishing ways big or small. I have many heroes and discover new ones every day. New stars appear in my sky nightly.
Blessings, G
“Your children are not your children.
They are sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For thir souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the make upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness.
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He also loves the bow that is stable.”
― Kahlil Gibran
Click images to see full-size
Parenting can be a tough gig some times. As my son (now 13) gets older, I start realizing some of the ordeals, choices and discussions I put my parents through and I am appreciative for the grace and support they were able to show me. Even more perhaps the amount that they were able to show each other.
“No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I’m not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.”
― Bill Cosby
Still I don’t think I’d trade the gig for anything. My family as I have said before has both grounded me and given me amazing wings. I hope that in the long run that that is what we are providing for our son.
Blessings, G
“Everyone does magic all the time in different ways. “Life” plus “significance” = magic.”
― Grant Morrison
Empowerment. To invest with power? That seems silly. Aren’t we all pretty powerful? Sometimes we need to be reminded of it, tis all. Like the song says “Oz didn’t give nothing to the tin man, that he didn’t already have”. In the Hindu Ramayana the deity Hanuman has many abilities but he can only use them when others believe he can. Ultimately we all have amazing abilities and powers. Most of us tell ourselves we are powerless. We even come up with elaborate stories to explain why we are powerless and who it is to blame for our lack of power.
That isn’t to say that we’re not capable of doing pretty horrible things to each other. Unfortunately many of us know what its like to be scarred by another. Of course, many of us also know what its like to scar in return.
Empowering tho is different. Somewhere inside of us we realize what we’re capable of and it scares us witless. If we have these abilities, isn’t it our responsibility to use them to help each other? Responsibility can be a pretty frightening thing, can’t it. So we put our fingers in our ears and sing “la la la” very loudly whenever someone dare tells us what we are capable of.
What would it be like if we all took things in our hands, woke up from our complacency and started using our powers to help and heal each other? That would be pretty significant in itself, wouldn’t it?
Blessings, G
“We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.”
― Santosh Kalwar
I believe I like the converse of this statement even more. As we change our thoughts, we change our life. I don’t necessarily mean in a Law of Attraction type way that the book the Secret talks about. Oh in many cases that works as long as you keep in mind that there are other universal laws that figure into the mix, The Law of Karma etc. Still its amazing how much of our lives derive from our views. It may be as simple as do we see a beautiful flower growing in the sun or do we see a noxious weed cutting off our tomato plants? Is that woman over there a wrinkled old bag or a wise elder with a beauty highlighted by the lines of experience on her face? Is that guy over there weird or delightfully different. Even something as simple as does my life suck or am I a bit unhappy at the moment tho my life is great overall? All of the above examples were extremes where there is a wide spectrum of other possibilities within each of them. How many different viewpoint can you adopt at any given point of your day. Try shifting your viewpoint and see how your reality changes.. Out of such exercises comes a foundation of magic.
Blessings, G
“You meet a new person, you go with him and suddenly you get a whole new city…you go down new streets, you see houses you never saw before, pass places you didn’t even know were there. Everything changes.”
― Samuel R. Delany
A new city (or country or universe) exists for each person we meet. I find that to be amazing and true. If we allow ourselves to be open to another person’s point of view than even something we’ve seen hundreds of times before becomes new or different. Things like a particular flower or tree that we’ve never noticed becomes something unique and wonderful when its shown to us by an enthusiastic gardener. Even the way we walk or the direction we walk in can change through exposure to someone else’s vision.
Not every country or view that comes from another will be a happy one. Some will disturb us and some may even disgust us. When that happens I try to get to know the other person and immerse myself in their world even more. There is gold there to be mined if only that of gaining new perspective on the land we come from. Of course there are times when the land another shows us may be too much for us and therein lie the largest lessons of all
Blessings, G
