Tag: perception

Another’s Perceptions

 

“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

 

It’s all in our minds
except when its not
Senses, perceptions we create
to make sense of it all.
Yet we all need
reception of another’s perception
reality checks and balances
that is if we intend to coexist
and maintain control.
The distorted mirror of another
helps us perceive how others see us
and understand the footprints
we leave behind
without it we are actors
in an empty auditorium
who take our bows
to the sound of no applause.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Strange ButterflyStrange Butterfly by G A Rosenberg

 

Enveloping PoppyEnveloping Poppy by G A Rosenberg

 

Transforming Perception

 

“The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man. The objective world remains what it was, but, because of a shift of emphasis within the subject, is beheld as though transformed. Where formerly life and death contended, now enduring being is made manifest—as indifferent to the accidents of time as water boiling in a pot is to the destiny of a bubble, or as the cosmos to the appearance and disappearance of a galaxy of stars.”
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces

 

The world is shaped by our experience of it. Any two of us can have a day where we experience the same events, practice the same activity and see the same things yet have two very different descriptions of it.
“Wow I got to interact with so many people today and got to respond to their needs!”
“What a day! So many people kept bothering me with their problems!”
“The weather was beautiful. The sun kept shining through the window and it brightened my day”
“That f*king sun kept shining in my eyes and it was so hot.”
“The music was so great! I just closed my eyes and let it take me. I was in a meditative state for hours.”
“I was so bored”
Imagine then when we go through experiences that transform our lives. Where once we experienced life in one way, we now experience it in another. What in one context is a problem in another becomes an opportunity or a challenge (occasionally this happens in reverse). Our experience of people changes as well. The more we come to know ourselves, the more we come to understand others and can relate better to them. It’s the same world on the outside yet it is our perceptions (and our choices) that make the difference.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

The Cave You Fear to EnterThe Cave You Fear to Enter by G A Rosenberg

 

Dropping Into the FlamesDropping into the Flames by G A Rosenberg

 

Changing Symbols

 

The Magician will always be looking for opportunities to create his own magickal system of the world. He will always be looking for ideas and the simplest of elements, to be found anywhere, from which there will emerge a picture of reality, his reality. The creative energies of spider-magi, who are true practicioners of this art of this art of cosmic creation, are collected from here and there and fused together into a very wonderful picture of being. This is the basis of magick — your imagination is making the world to be as it is in itself.

– Michael Bertiaux, “Voudon Gnostic Workbook”

 

If we create our realities than what do we create them from? What are the symbols we use to represent the elements of which they are comprised? Do we choose them? Do they choose us or is it some combination plus hidden keys that are part of a deeper reality that we all share? By manipulating these symbols, weaving them into new patterns we can alter our lives. The most common symbols most of us use our words. Think how much our language affects our day to day lives. It can be overwhelming. Simple changes such as what we say and what we wear can make huge ripples in both how and what we perceive and how we are perceived by others. Changing our personal symbols such as the animals we relate to or the deities we pray to or invoke can cause even greater changes. The more we learn to manipulate our symbols, the greater control we have over our reality and the more we become conscious (rather than unconscious) magicians.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Spider ReachingSpider Reaching by G A Rosenberg

 

Teaching Fools to Fly (Zagan)Teaching Fools to Fly (Zagan) by G A Rosenberg

Facing It

 

“Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.”
― Joseph Conrad

 

Facing my own ignorance rather than arguing for it.
Facing my own lack of discipline rather than justifying it.
Facing my odd turns of thoughts and accepting them
Facing the things I don’t want to face.
Facing the injustices in front of me rather than decrying those in the world.
Facing my own inaction.
Facing my own joy in hopeless situations
Facing my partner with honesty and an open heart.
Facing my son through good and bad
Facing the sunset.
Facing the young children at play.
Facing the random acts of kindness performed by strangers.
Facing the joy in an old woman’s face watching her grandchildren
Facing lovers walking arm in arm
Facing the animals at play
Facing that their are good things in this world.
Sometimes it is as difficult to face the good as it is the bad. The difference between the two is not a constant but a variable and where the line falls can vary according to both the perceiver and the context in which they are perceived.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Within the PatternWithin the Pattern by G A Rosenberg

 

EncroachmentEncroachment by G A Rosenberg

The People We Don’t See

 

“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.”
― Neil Gaiman

 

I used to believe that people could be divided into those who were asleep and those who were awake. I used to feel, beneath the surface perhaps but still there like I was better than the majority of humanity in their slumber concerned about what seems to be inane things. At some point and I don’t even recall that this point had a defining moment it dawned on me that awareness is not a binary on/off switch but something akin to a dimmer switch. Everyone who I have ever met is somewhere on this continuum. I don’t know that I have ever met anyone either completely 100% asleep or anyone who was 100% awake. I doubt I ever will. In people who seemed the deadest and dimmest to me, I have seen glimmers of perception and kindness that astonished me. In those whom I have found the most ‘enlightened’ I have seen pride, arrogance and self-deception. I suspect that a fully turned on consciousness and a physical body are basically incompatible much like an adult trying to fit into a uniform or costume that they wore as children.
I have also found that while it may seem relatively easy to discern the point someone has reached on their path, appearances can be and often are deceiving. I have seen people who espouse ideas that seem relatively naive in a political sense or in terms of their interests yet they hold this deep compassion and understanding of others that I have not always seen in those who aspire to be spiritual teachers. This could of course be a fault of my own perception yet it has taught me to be weary of snap judgements. This is another example perhaps of seeing others not as they are but as I am.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Purple and Teal WheelPurple and Teal Wheel by G A Rosenberg

 

Atomic Blue2Atomic Blue by G A Rosenberg

Beauty

 

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
― Confucius

 

Today on my FB feed I saw something that troubled me a bit. A friend reposted a picture of a girl with Down Syndrome that her brother had posted. The brother was upset that the girl did not consider herself beautiful and he wanted to convince her she was. The friend (well acquaintance, you know how these FaceBook things go) demanded to know why people think its ok to lie to others and that the girl knew the truth so why should he let her think otherwise. This struck me as wrong on so many levels. Yes, the fact that aesthetics is subjective is a cliché at best yet even without that being a consideration it occurred to me what a narrow definition of beauty my acquaintance had. I believe that any combination of features can produce beauty. It may be a smile or a moment of strength through adversity that shines in the eye or even sorrow. The prettiest person can give ‘ugly’ looks.
Even beyond people you can find beauty anywhere. A raging fire or gunshots in the night can appear beautiful. A deadly micro-organism seen through a microscope may as well. I don’t know but if its between looking for the beauty in something or seeing a marred surface, I know what I would choose every time.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

LeapingLeaping by G A Rosenberg

 

ObservantObservant by G A Rosenberg

What You See….

 

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
― Edgar Degas

 

The other day someone commented on one of my pictures and told me that she had seen a wolf there. I admired her perception and when I looked, I could see it tho I had put no wolf in. This has happened a number of times. People see things in my art that I have not potentially put in. Now it is given that I tend towards the abstract yet this tends to surprise me. On another level it also humbles and gratifies me. People are interacting with my paintings and getting from them symbols that are meaningful to them. When this happens I remember a quote that said something along the lines of “What do I know what it means, I’m just the writer?” I create my images and I pull together both intention and mood from the inside and a variety of materials (stock photos, filters, brush work, etc) and it often feels like a collaboration with the universe. Just because I didn’t put something in does not mean it isn’t there.
Blessings, G

 

Still time to enter contest for a free art print of your choice:
a) go to the Art Gallery 2013 page (link above)
b) Look through the art I created last year (clicking on the thumbnails gives you a full screen view of the pictures.
c) either comment or message me with your favourite.
d) Somewhere on or around January 15th I will randomly draw one of the entries and the winner will get a signed 12″ X 18″ print of the art they like the best.

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

WorshipAdoration by G A Rosenberg

 

Atomic PsychedeliaAtomic Psychedlia by G A Rosenberg

 

Quote of the Day – September 10 2011 Perspectives

“Intelligence is the capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently. Stupidity is blockage of this process at any point. Bigotry, ideologies etc. block the ability to receive; robotic reality-tunnels block the ability to decode or integrate new signals; censorship blocks transmission.”

   –Robert Anton Wilson

 

Thinking about perspectives
part of it still seems to involve how to act
when interfacing with other people’s reality tunnel’s
(most of the time if we’re not hermits)
and yes, how they interface with mine..
i do believe there are limits to how much rudeness
one should be willing to accept from another
By rudeness, I mean someone who insists on trying
to supersede my world view with their own by insisting
that theirs is the only way….
I become weary when i hear terms like “should” and “should not”
“always” and “never” tend to make me a bit queasy also
Tho i realize my own hypocrisy with the first. I have used the word should
but then I too am greatly ignorant
I have yet to meet a person whom I can learn nothing from
So many wonderful teachers
but then one thing I have been slowly learning.
If I see the world as being beautiful and interesting
more and more it becomes so
The more love I conceive and perceive
the more I receive
The more open i become to others, the more my life opens…
Little things, perhaps obvious
yet so easily taken for granted at times,
I know I have…
— G A Rosenberg

Click on image to see full-size

Eye Wood by G A Rosenberg