Tag: H P Lovecraft

Dancing In and Out of the Abyss

 

“The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination.”
— H.P. Lovecraft

 

Dancing from light into dark and dark into light
seeing how far the pendulum swings
Becoming your shadow to see how it feels
revelling to see how deep they go
when perceptions can’t be trusted
and then reversing it
jumping from the darkness into the day
feeling the sun and the surface
enjoying the senses and the joy
and that rising feeling
and then reversing it
the push and the pull
the false and the real
the depths and the shallows
the flow and the ebb tide
as you’re washed to the sea
and crushed beneath the waves
and then rise up surfing the next crest
only to sink again
making the dance a conscious one
bringing wisdom in its sway
— G A Rosenberg

 

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Tearing Through the Reality WallTearing Through the Reality Wall by G A Rosenberg

 

Welcoming VisitorsWelcoming Visitors by G A Rosenberg

 

Drifting Thoughts on Some Eve….

 

“It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind.”
— H. P. Lovecraft “The Festival

 

I make no claims on this holiday nor does it make any on me. Oh there will be presents yet this day in my youth was what my friends did rather than light candles and eat chocolate coins. I’d see their trees and eat their cookies but felt an odd disconnect. We had a fire in our fireplace and no one was gonna brave that to put toys under a nonexistent tree.
For the past several years, I did the family thing. Tho my personal beliefs (long shed of menorah rituals as well tho some of mine still used candles) did not encompass this night, my partner did so I played the pretend game for the kids tho they seemed to worship the man in the red suit and I laughed at the dyslexic joke and I decorated trees and gave tribute to my kids and the spirit of familial warmth and material avarice.
Now the kids are about grown, well beyond beliefs in reindeer and the disconnect returns. I pay honour to the changing seasons and the annual balance and swing of light and dark. Yet this particular day I still feel a bit of a disconnect. it seems more construction and the motions that people go through not very joyous as much as a need for completeness. I tend to prefer a bit more authenticity in my rituals. I know that that is my responsibility to find it and I do yet that was days ago.
I will not force myself into joy or connection. I take joy in moments and not in dates and I wish everyone the joy of the moment. Still in the quiet echo of my thoughts, I let the day drift by observing but unobservant.
Blessings, G

 

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Playing the AnglesPlaying the Angles by G A Rosenberg

 

Aztec SunAztec Sun by G A Rosenberg

 

RepercussionsRepercussions by G A Rosenberg

 

Courage in the Dark

“Creativity takes courage.”
― Henri Matisse

 

I’ve done a lot of writing about shadows and personal darkness. Yet looking at the vast majority of my art, conversation and writing it all verges on brightness and aspiration and positive energy. When I get into discussions where I disagree with people I tend to pull my punches. Part of the reason for that is that usually I can see where they’re coming from. Part of it is to avoid conflict. I have some fear in that area. Not only what amount of anger or negativity may come out of the other when I’m talking to them but what I may reveal to them about my own negative side.
My temper tends towards the sharp and vicious. When I was younger and much less discriminate and I grew angry at someone, all too often I would clue into their area of greatest personal insecurity and attack them there. I had almost a preternatural instinct for where that was. I hurt a few people deeply and ruined a few friendships and relationships before I gained anything like control. Now if only I could learn a way to combine that control with the insight I could / can help people a lot. To do that I have to not be afraid of my own shadow.
In art and writing as much as I love beautiful things that inspire, I also have a fondness for horror. Oh not so much the slash, slash splatter serial killer Friday the 13th type (tho Freddie who dwells in Nightmares can touch some interesting triggers for me) but the more psychological gut-pulling horror of Edgar Allen Poe or Stephen King. Stephen King has this ability to show the dark side of human beings. The side made even uglier because it is repressed. I also have this enjoyment for stories and art that show the underside of creation, the type of art that H. P. Lovecraft wrote about and Hieronymus Bosch drew.
Yet aside for the occasional picture full of eyes I’ve resisted that in my own art. Part of that it’s been dawning on me has had to do with the same type of fear that keeps me in the ‘nice guy’ role in discussions. Am I that worried what people who enjoy my art may think? That is partly it. Partly there has been a fear of what may happen when the bottle is uncorked and the genie come out. I have a strong suspicion tho that it may just unlock further creativity and growth in me. Facing one’s fear and leaving one’s comfort zone tends to do that.
Blessings, G

 

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SalutingSalute by G A Rosenberg

 

He Lives There TooHe Lives There Too (DarkSide) by G A Rosenberg