Category: Digital Art

To Destroy is to Create

“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”
― Pablo Picasso

 

Destruction and creation are inextricably tied together. What is change if not destroying what is so that something new can take its place? If you want to destroy something utterly what you want to do is create openness where that thing currently exists. Every moment of every day, we destroy something in ourselves in order to create something new. On a physical level, its how our digestive systems work. On a mental level its part of the decision process. What is a choice but a destruction of options? For every song created, silence is destroyed. For every piece of art made, a blank canvas, paper or screen is no more. We tend to think of destruction as a negative thing and yet without it, we’d be stuck.
Blessings, G

 

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Many Paths TakenMany Paths Taken by G A Rosenberg

 

WhirlpoolWhirlpool by G A Rosenberg

Rambling Intelligence — A Thought Stream

“An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. “Can they be brought together?” This is a practical question. We must get down to it. “I despise intelligence” really means: “I cannot bear my doubts.”
― Albert Camus

 

Every idea followed to its end will eventually lead to a paradox. I believe its possible that a symptom of various types of maturity is one’s ability to be comfortable with paradox. The witness watches it all. Our thoughts flow and chase each others’ tail and the witness sees. We cry because our own sense of personal injustice came into conflict with that of a loved one and the witness sees that too. We have so much knowledge at our finger tips and we spend so much time clinging to ideas and thoughts to the exclusion of others, trying to decide right and wrong rather than to try to integrate and learn from it all. Lewis Carroll had it right. Believe six impossible things before breakfast. But then ask. Why do I believe that these are impossible and does believing them affect how possible they are? Perhaps that would be a question best asked of your local clergyman tho the answer may be lacking. My thoughts tonight bounce around like a pinball tho occasionally the machine lights up.
Blessings, G

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Night ShadingNight Shading by G A Rosenberg

 

Atomic CentreAtomic Center by G A Rosenberg

Tarot Post – Prince of Pentacles

 

Prince / Knight of Pentacles (Air of Earth)

 

Prince of PentaclesPrince of Pentacles by G A Rosenberg

 

The land’s protector
shows us all life is sacred.
We can live in peace.

 

Step by step
I carry on.
I know my path
and I will see it through
This routine is
but one step
and I can see the top.
I’ll follow as
so many have
this road to my future
Let others dream
but they count on me
to be steady
as they cannot.
They fall by the wayside
where I cannot be stopped
When i reach my destination
I will be the one they ask
for I stayed true.

 

The suit of Pentacles refers to the element of Earth and of practical matters such as money and partnerships both of a business nature and of the home. They can also represent nature, the Earth itself as well as our bodies. Princes deal with the transmission and the endurance of the energy, the result of the union of the King’s Force and the Queen’s generative and nurturing of the energy. When it comes to practical matters, the Prince of Pentacles is the “go to” member of the court cards. He can follow a game plan and will get it done. He does not like thinking abstractly and probably will become quite irritated if you try to engage him in intellectual conversation yet if you contracted him to paint your house or fix your car or any one of a number of day to day matters, he will follow through on it and get the job done. It may feel at times as if he is too cautious and methodical but that is because in his mind, if he is going to do something, he is going to do it right. He can be quite stubborn but in general tends to be fairly easy-going. Tho when he does lose his temper, it is best to get out of the way. He loves nature and is at his best when he can be out in open spaces.

 

Astrological Correspondence: 21° Aries – 20° Taurus Elemental: Air of Earth-
This energy combines the Aries drive and push with Taurus caution and practicality which moves people forward but at a very slow steady pace. Those with this energy tend to love to learn new things and put what they have learned to use. They tend to be friendly and outgoing and love to be helpful in practical matters. They have very strong wills and won’t back down easily. They know how to have fun and they have a strong taste for life’s pleasures. They are highly success motivated and a strong desire to enjoy the things that money can buy.

 

I Ching Correspondence – 53) Chien – Gradual Progress / Development –

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The trigram for Wood is over that of the Mountain. When a tree grows, it influences all the life surrounding it. It does not sprout up and send out roots overnight but does it over time gradually. When we wish to accomplish something, it is best to proceed gradually as opposed to a lot of short starts and stops. Perseverance and patience are also needed as when things progress slowly but steadily, its all too easy to let them fall by the wayside if progress is not immediately recognized. </h4?
 

When the Prince of Pentacles comes up in a reading, it may be telling us that is time to be practical and not to rush into anything as tempting as it may be. The card may also represent someone in our lives who can help us accomplish something of great practical use. He knows how to work hard and get things done but always remembers to have fun and enjoy life afterwards. The Prince of Pentacles may also be telling us that it is time to ground ourselves by getting out in nature. Another meaning can be that it is time to find more appreciation and enjoyment in our lives and the paths we have chosen.

 

The Prince of Pentacles reversed in a reading may indicate that things have grown stale for us and that we crave something that will break us out of our routine. A project that we have been working on may have come to a standstill and we need some impetus to get it moving again. There may also be a need for thinking outside the box a bit and having more flexibility. The reversed Prince of Pentacles may also refer to someone in our lives who cannot move beyond their fixed view of things. The card may also mean someone may have become over-indulgent, more focused on partying than getting the job done.

The Road Not (Really) Taken

 

“What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?”
― Jack Kerouac

 

Our lives are determined by our choices. Large and small we come to crossroads daily, knowing that any decision we make may have lasting consequences. Years later we may reflect on life’s crossroads and wonder “What if?” We may spend time reflecting on what our lives would be like if we had only turned right rather than left.
Back in my younger days I used to try to cheat this. I’d stand in the crossroads trying to look down the roads of any possible choices as far as I could. I would then with loud HOORAHs choose a course go down it a short ways until something felt off and then would curry back to the centre thinking that NOW i would make my REAL choice. I did that for years with many many decisions and misfires. Eventually it dawned on me that those choices did count and the act of choosing them changed me so even when I went back to the centre, I was not the same one who had chosen the first time. For it is each choice that determines our life and our path is EVERYTHING that we do, even and perhaps especially the misfires.
Blessings, G

 

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Serpentine Web2Serpentine Web by G A Rosenberg

 

Gosamer DreamGossamer Dream by G A Rosenberg

Finding our Inner Chaos

“Chaos is what we’ve lost touch with. This is why it is given a bad name. It is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, which is Ego, which clenches because its existence is defined in terms of control.”
― Terence McKenna

 

Where does creativity come from? Oh with order you get pretty designs. There’s a lot you can do with the building blocks of sacred geometry. Things organized with shape and form with rigid lines. Imagination tho is not orderly. Imagination fully expressed has very few clear lines. We go deeply inside of ourselves and draw from a well of chaos where everything and anything that we’ve ever encountered either awake or asleep lies. A concept bubbles up and we seek to express it. Not capture it because ideas don’t take kindly to being caged up. We impress our own internal order on these shapes and something begins to form. It may be a poem or it may be art. It may simply be a new way of looking at life that has not been encountered. It begins tho with that seed of chaos. Even fractal designs are a form of order emerging from a primal chaos. Without that link to chaos nothing new is created.
Blessings, G

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Dark Sun LizardDark Sun Lizard by G A Rosenberg

 

Four Dimensional Cross RoadsFour Dimensional Cross Roads by G A Rosenberg

The World According to Jean Valjean

 

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin

“I’ve tried to become someone else for a while,
only to discover that he, too, was me.”
― Stephen Dunn

 

Who am I and who am I in relation to other people? At my core what do I contain and what contains me? We draw other people into our lives and interact with them and with each interaction the question becomes both clearer and more muddied. Tonight My son took us for Father’s Day to see the Canadian touring company of Les Misérables, a musical that’s well-loved by my family. At its core, aside from the historical milieu it shows a series of interactions between people that changes one or both of them. The more adaptable the person is to circumstances, the better they are at integrating the exchange and becoming more themselves. This is personified best in the characters and interactions between the two main characters Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. Jean Valjean portrays a man unjustly imprisoned for a crime who is freed and then pursued by his jailer Javert. Javert sees things as absolutes. A criminal is always a criminal and society must be protected by them. He sees nothing wrong with acting dishonestly himself to catch criminals because he is on the ‘right’ side of the law. Jean Valjean is more concerned with doing the right and honourable thing and finds his true identity through his choices. Each encounter between Valjean and Javert transforms both as more and more Valjean chooses honesty over his societal role and Javert choosing his moral (as opposed to ethical) absolutes. Javert when forced to go beyond his societal identity and his rigid sense of right and wrong finds himself unable to live in a world where a thief can have more honour than an officer of the law.
Are we defined by our society or by our inner being? How do we test this if not through other people? This question has come up for me a lot in my life. Ultimately I may pick up much from the viewpoints and being of those around me but all my attempt to live according to some label has proved more and more laughable. My interactions with both Valjean and Javier have driven home that point. But then I have always interacted well with fictional characters, no matter how real they may be.
Blessings, G

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Holographic2Holographic by G A Rosenberg

 

Thunder MandalaThunder Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Tarot Post – Queen of Pentacles

 

Queen of Pentacles (Water of Earth)

 

Queen of PentaclesQueen of Pentacles by G A Rosenberg

 

Lady of the maize
Everything is born from you
Centred Creation

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Mother’s love nourishes the seed
and feed us so we can thrive
She provides our needs
and dreams of better lives

 

Joy in life she teaches
she guides us in the dance
We her children know of love
we’ve seen in it in her glance

 

Her heart provides her knowledge
More than book or class ever could
Her dreams have taught her what she needs
to guide us through her woods

 

Lift your cup and toast her well
our mother of the Earth
She has seen and loved it all
and has shown us its worth.

 

 

The suit of Pentacles refers to the element of Earth and of practical matters such as money and partnerships both of a business nature and of the home. They can also represent nature, the Earth itself as well as our bodies. Queens are the receptive and nurturing form of the energy.The Queen of Pentacles cares and nurtures life and has a strong maternal nature. She is sensual and lush, intuitive and instinctive and has a strong connection with the Earth and is best when surrounded by nature. She loves to provide sustenance for others and is usually known for her cooking skills. She tends not to be intellectual or well-read but she has never found that a lack as she knows what she needs to know when she needs it. The Queen of Pentacles tends to be reflective, ever bringing the internal outward to best take care of the life around her.

 

Astrological Correspondence – Astrological Correspondence: 21° Sagittarius – 20° Capricorn Elemental: Water of Earth- The energy here becomes a mix of Sagittarius intuition and creativity with Capricorn’s warmth, power and stoicism. The people represented by this energy are loyal and dependable and give everything they can to provide for others. Their advice tends to be more of a practical rather than an intellectual nature.They may become depleted at times especially when they are out of their natural element or when their bounty is taken for granted with no appreciation returned. When their gifts are acknowledged and appreciated they become a constant cornucopia of sustenance and support.

 

I Ching Correspondence – 31) Hsien – Influence / Wooing –

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The Trigram of the Lake is over that of the Mountain. The water of the lake is quieted and serene by the influence of the mountain. In turn, the moisture of the lake sustains the mountain causing life to spread and expand. It is a constant meditative mutual seduction. This hexagram speaks of having a calm still nature within and a joyous happy exterior. It cautions us to hold onto our still centre when we deal with others and not let any influence slip by which seeks to alter our own true selves. It may not be the fault of the person influencing as they may be acting according to their will or being but the combination may not be a good one.

 

Quite often when the Queen of Pentacles turns up in a reading, she represents someone who has cared and provided for us in ways that we were not able to do for ourselves. She has a loving caring nature and a strong creative element and is very helpful. This care is freely given. She may also be very sensual and somewhat indulgent with a wonderful sense of humour. It may also represent a time when we are providing for others and are enjoying and appreciating our ability to be of use. The card may be telling us that things are going well in our lives and that we have few wants and to recognize the nurturing of others that have brought us here. This card upright almost always represents a time of enjoyment and well-being.

 

The Reversed Queen of Pentacles may refer to someone who feels that they are out of their element and are not sure how to proceed. They lack confidence in the given situation and may need to be reminded of what their strengths are and how to utilize them in the situation. This card may also refer to us feeling this way and be suggesting that we connect more with our true selves to see whether this is indeed the right situation for us to be in. It may represent a time when we need to get into nature to ground ourselves. The card may also refer to a time when we have been spending so much time caring for others that we have neglected our own health and or home environment

Moving Forward in Awe

“In marriage you are not sacrificing yourself to the other person. You are sacrificing yourself to the relationship.
You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.
Life will always be sorrowful. We can’t change it, but we can change our attitude toward it.
Awe is what moves us forward.”
― Joseph Campbell

 

I feel like writing that sentence down a hundred times. Awe is what moves us forward. It may be awful and it may be awesome but at the extremes the impetus to move may always be found. It is in the middle the doldrums when we don’t feel the awe that our life hovers along or as I use to say ‘circles the runway’. When we have ceased to find the new, the exciting either within or without. When someone complains to me about how they’re stuck and how they feel no forward progress in their lives I ask them to do an exercise for me, each day notice something beautiful and write it down. Believe me no matter how bad life can get, there are very few days in anyone’s life that does not contain at least one moment of beauty. Realizing that tends to revitalize the awesome very quickly.
Blessings, G

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Weighing of the HeartWeighing of the Heart by G A Rosenberg

 

Weighing VariationWeighing of the Heart (Variation) by G A Rosenberg

 

CrossoverCrossover by G A Rosenberg