Month: May 2015

Holding the Attention — A List

 

“Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”
— Jose Ortega y Gasset

 

My attention tends to shift amidst many different areas and I never know which facet of my being will come into play. Here are some of the things that tend to capture it these days:

 

      • Whispered words and Loud conversations
      • How the light falls on the leaves – Light in general and darkness and the interplay between the two
      • People’s hearts – People’s eyes, spirits and stories as well.
      • My Family
      • Art- Both creating my own and enjoying that of others. Favourites: Dali, Escher. Alex Grey, Austin Osman Spare, Caravaggio, Vincent Van Gogh, Bosch, and lots of others including that of many friends on Tumbler and Face Book.
      • Bad Jokes and Good Wordplay- I love playing with language and making it dance.
      • Books- Favourite writers are Charles deLint, Spider Robinson, Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Michael W. Ford, Robert Anton Wilson, Ken Wilber,Neil Gaiman and an almost endless list of others.
      • Archetypes-Myths, Legends, Songs and of course Comics.
      • Music– Of all kinds. My tastes tend to change and evolve. Some favourites currently and perennially: ELP, Queen, Behemoth, Metallica, Neil Young, Dana Owens (Queen Latifah), Watain, Bob Marley, Animals as Leaders, Walk Off the Earth, Acherontas, Postmodern Jukebox, Emme Ya and again I could keep going endlessly
      • People’s conceptions of the universe. I prefer to hear people’s unique takes on spirit as opposed to prepackaged ideas that they gained either at their parent’s knee or their latest conversion. I want to hear the kernel of truth that I believe each of us carries within.These days my studies have taken me more towards the goetia and left-hand path topics tho I am always interested in hearing and discovering truths as each person knows them.

I am always interested in learning more about the people who read this blog. Feel free to share what captures and holds your attention these days
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Questions Asked and AnsweredQuestions Asked and Answered by G A Rosenberg

 

Galactic Building BlocksBuilding Blocks Towards A Cosmic Fractal by G A Rosenberg

Come With Me Inside My Universe

 

“And I realize that no matter where I am, whether in a little room full of thought, or in this endless universe of stars and mountains, it’s all in my mind.”
— Jack Kerouac

 

My mind encompasses the world I’ve seen, the world I’ve yet to see and everything that I can imagine. There are gods and demons, heroes and villains and everything in between. We may all be crazy here and that helps but then the world can be a crazy place where sanity is more and more arbitrarily defined. Is it lonely inside my head? Not really I have all of you in here with me or my perceptions of you anyway. It’s easy to be lonely in a crowd but then there are always connections to be made. It is all a matter of choice. Travel with me for awhile and learn the universes you carry inside. The view won’t look exactly the same but then it never is. Remember tho, that you carry it with you always or perhaps it carries you so the more you understand what you contain, the more it can flourish.

Blessings, G

 
 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

AhrimanAhriman by G A Rosenberg

 

Field TheoryField Theory by G A Rosenberg

 

A Goofy Proposition

 

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid…because I’m not MYSELF you see…I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly…for I can’t understand it myself to begin with…”
— Lewis Carroll

 

Every so often my mind goes to some pretty strange places. An idea pops into my head and I just run with it even tho many may find it off-putting. At the very least I entertain myself.
Someone tonight happened to say to me “Be careful what you wish for.” For some reason I was taken with the notion of a weird combination of Micky Mouse in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia with the banquet story from the New Testament. Imagine if once Jesus started the loaves and fishes coming, he couldn’t stop it. People buried under Fish and Bread, suffocating, not to mention the smell. From there, I started imagining the New Testament as done by Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse as J. C., Donald Duck as Judas, etc. The sermon on the mount in the voice of Micky had me giggling like crazy. I would love to see it done. Nah… the real thing wouldn’t be half as entertaining as the version in my head. Oh well on to the next idea. All the President’s men done with Loony Tunes…
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

SolaceSolace by G A Rosenberg

 

Seeking the Night's SacrificeSeeking the Night’s Sacrifice by G A Rosenberg

 

Jamais Vu.

 

“There’s an opposite to déjà vu. They call it jamais vu. It’s when you meet the same people or visit places, again and again, but each time is the first. Everybody is always a stranger. Nothing is ever familiar.”
— Chuck Palahniuk

 

The landscape is changing
from moment to moment
things getting strange
and rather peculiar
is nothing familiar?
well close to that’s not it
everyday things
seem a bit exotic
with faces so strange
calling me family
they seem nice enough
tho haven’t gotten to know them
I see them as new
much as the scenery
never been here before
but maybe been close.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

She Moves Through DreamsShe Moves Through Dreams by G A Rosenberg

 

Chaos Sweeps ThroughChaos Flows Through by G A Rosenberg

 

Three Archetypal Aspects

 

“A symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the ‘sense’ and the ‘meaning’ of the symbol. It seems to me perfectly clear that all the great and little symbolical systems of the past functioned simultaneously on three levels: the corporeal of waking consciousness, the spiritual of dream, and the ineffable of the absolutely unknowable. The term ‘meaning’ can refer only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols but of signs. The ineffable, the absolutely unknowable, can be only sensed. It is the province of art which is not ‘expression’ merely, or even primarily, but a quest for, and formulation of, experience evoking, energy-waking images: yielding what Sir Herbert Read has aptly termed a ‘sensuous apprehension of being.”
— Joseph Campbell

 

We build new symbol systems on the roots of the old. The same archetypes show up again and again whether they be Emperor, Fool, Mother, Thunder, or Death. Each time they arise, new aspects of their universal selves are described and no one can encompass their full meaning. More than ever before we have access to the symbol systems of the past. We know that the messenger god Hermes was seen as Thoth in Egypt, Eschu in Santeria culture and Legba in Voudon. There is always a messenger between man and the gods who stands at the crossroads and tricks our minds into being able to receive the message. We can roll these similar archetypes into one yet still there will be something missed. It seems that archetypes like T. S. Elliot’s Cats have three names or aspects, The Face we give them, the face they give themselves and a universal ineffable face that is beyond understanding as a full facet of multiversal existence.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Towards a Deeper AwarenessTowards a Deeper Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

PlexusPlexus by G A Rosenberg

 

Three Archetypal Aspects

 

“A symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the ‘sense’ and the ‘meaning’ of the symbol. It seems to me perfectly clear that all the great and little symbolical systems of the past functioned simultaneously on three levels: the corporeal of waking consciousness, the spiritual of dream, and the ineffable of the absolutely unknowable. The term ‘meaning’ can refer only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols but of signs. The ineffable, the absolutely unknowable, can be only sensed. It is the province of art which is not ‘expression’ merely, or even primarily, but a quest for, and formulation of, experience evoking, energy-waking images: yielding what Sir Herbert Read has aptly termed a ‘sensuous apprehension of being.”
— Joseph Campbell

 

We build new symbol systems on the roots of the old. The same archetypes show up again and again whether they be Emperor, Fool, Mother, Thunder, or Death. Each time they arise, new aspects of their universal selves are described and no one can encompass their full meaning. More than ever before we have access to the symbol systems of the past. We know that the messenger god Hermes was seen as Thoth in Egypt, Eschu in Santeria culture and Legba in Voudon. There is always a messenger between man and the gods who stands at the crossroads and tricks our minds into being able to receive the message. We can roll these similar archetypes into one yet still there will be something missed. It seems that archetypes like T. S. Elliot’s Cats have three names or aspects, The Face we give them, the face they give themselves and a universal ineffable face that is beyond understanding as a full facet of multiversal existence.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Towards a Deeper AwarenessTowards a Deeper Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

PlexusPlexus by G A Rosenberg

 

Night Regrets

 

“The winds that awakened the stars
Are blowing through my blood.”
— W. B. Yeats

 

Winds blow through my night vision
and awaken my twilight dream.
I seek surcease for the weary
and an end to care.
Night Thunder sing the praise
of evening’s gone awry
Intentions avoiding action’s tongue
and sadness taking hold.
Lightning brightens the sky
and my words lay broken
Exposed and open to scrutiny
and my lips silent
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

38-HalphasHalphas (#38 in Goetia Series) By G A Rosenberg

 

WaitingWaiting by G A Rosenberg