Month: November 2014

Shared

 

Shared joy is increased,Shared pain lessened and thus we refute the law of entropy.”
–Spider Robinson

 

There are very few things better than sharing a good time with people whom we care about. We rack up memories of golden moments, of laughs and pure enjoyment of a day. We remember most the sunrises, sunsets and walks under the stars that we have shared with others and few things can be as wonderful as pure laughter of a joke shared. The joy of the moment is more than doubled.
Likewise when we are hurting, little helps more than being able to unburden ourselves on those we love. We can cry and cop to the things that we did wrong in the situation and ways we have hurt others and the pain that we allowed them to give us and find release where in solitude the pressure would just build up until we surrendered to it. It is important to have friends with whom we can do this and not fear the response, knowing that we will find understanding and solace and possibly a kick in the ass when we wallow in it. It helps also to know that we can be there for other people when they are hurting and be that sounding board they need, helping them find solution and absolution.
I have been lucky in my life to have people with whom I can share both joy and pain. They have taught me the true meaning of friendship and caring. I hope that I will have the chance to share this lesson with many others.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

A Space in my HeadA Space in My Head by G A Rosenberg

 

Gaze DeeplyGaze Deeply by G A Rosenberg

 

Better Off Than We Started – A Cheesy Country Type Song

 

“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and forgiving heart. Be the one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.”
— Marvin J. Ashton

 

I came into the town a loner
looking for questions to answers I lost
Messed up by past misgivings
just like a salad just needing a toss
I found you, we both at our bottom
you were so sweet in need of a way
we climbed up the rung together
It was never in my plans to stay

 

we grew our lives like a flower
we watered and weeded and gave them good care
struggling with both our demons
it seemed to be one more thing that we shared
you brought out the best in me
you dealt with the rest of me
I held you through the night
I thought you were awesome
and loved when you blossomed
making up after each fight

 

When it was time for the parting
we did it with sorrow but without any hate.
We both felt the time had come
we were happy to leave the methods to fate
I found a job in the next state
your family called they needed you there
The morning we said our goodbyes
we were grateful for all of the magic we shared.

 

We brought out the best in each other
A best that we never remembered to see
Both better off than we started
We now knew what it meant to be free.
I know that we’ll both find a new love
someone with whom our spirits will soar
I sent her off with my blessings.
Each of us now will find a new door.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

SitriSitri by G A Rosenberg

 

Spirits Moving Over and Through the WatersSpirits Moving Over the Water by G A Rosenberg

Expanding Our Symbols in a Rebellious Way

 

“The occult, as both a collection of practices and beliefs as well as overarching symbolic language, has long provided artists and composers with a grammar for realising a means of pushing up against the mainstream, of creating music and art that is not bound by convention. Just as occult practices provided people a more direct and immediate way to engage with the divine, it made sense that avant-garde and experimental artists would feel a kinship and an inspiration in occult ideas and symbols. Satie and Ravel were Rosicrucians, Mucha was a theosophist, Pierre Schaeffer was follower of Gurdjieff, and William Butler Yeats was a member of the Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn. The list goes one. As rock musicians experimented with sound and performance, turning towards alternative spiritual practices and images made perfect sense. It was not enough to be socially and politically rebellious. A spiritual rebellion was needed for a foundation. The occult imagination is one that is heterodox, sometimes heretical. What better way to feel as if your art is charged with a deeper spiritual meaning than to attach it to a spiritual identity that itself has often been about rebellion?”

— Peter Bebergal

 

If we wish to see and understand what lies beyond the everyday, we need to expand our symbolic repertoire. Symbols are the language of our deeper consciousness and the more we expand our language base, the deeper our knowledge becomes. Expansion may be something as simple as learning a new language. The letters and words we use our symbols so by making the shift to a new language we shift and expand how we talk and think. Another powerful source of symbolic language is in the stories we tell and the types of beings that reoccur in them. Learning the mythology of another culture and how it relates to our own expands our way of expressing ourselves even more. Occult means nothing more or less than hidden. When we bring hidden things into the open we expand. This is true whether we are talking on the level of our unconscious shadow selves or the material we culturally refer to as occult. Operating on these deeper levels is a rebellion since everything in our day to day culture including the religions most of us were raise in tells us that this is taboo. Of course the last thing any authority wants is to have its foundations questioned. That can lead to the horrific practice of thinking for ourselves.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Goat StareGoat Stare by G A Rosenberg

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153644322433475&set=a.166065038474.145936.632298474&type=1Propelling SpiritPropelling Spirit by G A Rosenberg

Class Time

 

“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”
— Eartha Kitt

 

Everywhere I go becomes my classroom and each being I meet a teacher. I learn sitting by a campfire staring at the fire singing songs and sharing wine and stories with friends. I learn lessons of power play in boardrooms where the interplay of information and psychology takes precedence. I learn in the bedroom the meaning of intimacy and the magick that can be shared between people. I learn from the homeless and the rich. I learn from friends, lovers and even and possibly even especially from people with whom I share a certain animosity. They show me my shadow and I am grateful. I learn from my interplay online and from books. When I am in meditation, I learn from myself as I touch the part of myself that will graduate and move on to other classes.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

A Mirror For ObservingA Mirror For Observing by G A Rosenberg

 

Before the GateBefore the Gate by G A Rosenberg

 

Character Study

 

“It is quite possible—overwhelmingly probable, one might guess—that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology.”
— Noam Chomsky

 

I have spent most of my life in the pages of books. I have befriended characters in the stories I’ve read and had conversations with them that have lasted well into the night. They have taught me so much. Psychological case histories are all well and good yet the diagnoses always follow the case studies and then tend towards the theoretical. In a well-written book or a good story (the two overlap but aren’t identical) different characters with various mindsets interact and through the interactions of their personalities there is incalculable value to be found. Fictional characters can be at least as real as the average person you meet (and far more than most online personas).Different branches of psychology work well for various people tho in the long run too many of them adopt a “one size fits all” solution and believes that it can benefit anyone. Encountering different mirrors of yourself both in fiction and in life can accomplish a lot more if we open ourselves to the experience.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Travelling AdriftTravelling Adrift by G A Rosenberg

 

FocalorFocalor by G A Rosenberg

 

Fractal InversionExplosion Across Dimensions by G A Rosenberg

 

Owning My Stuff

 

“You’ve got to know yourself. You’ve got to know what ignites your magic, what fires your soul into performing majestic acts of love. You’ve got to know yourself so much that not even a hundred voices will drown yours. You’ve got to own yourself, this journey is all yours. All yours. No one can do it and you decide whenever you are ready to embark on it. Unlearn, learn, master yourself and love yourself or else they will define you and that’s a poisonous kind of life. That’s death.”
— Ijeoma Umebinyuo

 

I will not be a victim. Oh there have been times in my life where I’ve been hurt by the actions or thoughts of another and I have faced betrayal. In some cases I saw it coming and I let it happen anyway. Even when I hadn’t tho I learned to move on. I cannot let myself be haunted and poisoned by the actions of others. I have seen that happen too often. Not that I necessarily forgave them. There is for me a space of acceptance in between acceptance and continued self-victimization from the deeds of another. Not so much “I forgive you” as “It happened. You had your reasons and the script was played out. I hurt but I won’t carry the hurt because neither you nor I deserve it.” Finding this space has been a hard won victory for me. Yet for me to live in the realm of past pain is to deny myself both the present and the future. Likewise I have learned that past triumphs neither guarantees nor entitles me to present and future ones. Each moment is a new test of the spirit that requires coming to it as clean as possible.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Rainbow GoddessRainbow Goddess by G A Rosenberg

 

Wheel on FIreWheel on Fire by G A Rosenberg

 

En-Vision Art

 

Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.”
― Ansel Adams

 

What images in your day have made your heart sing? What have you looked at that has brought a smile to your eyes? What today for the briefest moment lit your world and made the day just that much better? If we try every day for that one moment, that one snapshot of joy our lives become qualitatively better? Perhaps it is something in the sky, there are always fascinating things to see there. Perhaps it is a never before seen flower? The face of a loved one, the smile of a child, dogs and cats and other pets acting goofy tends to be snapshots I continuously add to my daily roll. When I see an act of kindness such as someone doing something unexpectedly wonderful for a stranger in need or people being helpful when they don’t need to be that tends to be a picture I take and cherish.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Cavern of Ice and Strange FireCavern of Ice and Strange Fire by G A Rosenberg

 

Reach the Centre and OutReach the Centre and Out by G A Rosenberg

 

AgaresAgares by G A Rosenberg