perspective - Waking Spirals

I Have Only Come Here Seeking…

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h3>”The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
— Stephen Hawking

Save me from surety. It is so easy to ‘know’ things. We decide that the universe is a given way and immediately it conforms to our view. Anyone who thinks differently is either foolishly wrong or mendaciously evil. Very little will happen in contradiction to our world view that we cannot explain away or ignore until it goes away. When contradictions arise that are too difficult to explain or ignore, we can distract by pointing out what someone else is doing wrong. If we cannot see any evident wrong-doing, we can invent it and add it to our body of knowledge. We can become so busy pointing out wrongdoers that soon we will never have to explain anything and our ‘knowledge’ of the universe will remain pristine.
At least during my more cynical times, that is how the world appears.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

The UnMapped Labyrinth by G A Rosenberg

Reality Bubble by G A Rosenberg

Coat of Arms by G A Rosenberg

It’s All Done With Internal Mirrors

“The difference between magick and therapy is that, for magick, truth lies in experience, whereas therapy is concerned with questions of “meaning” and “interpretation”. The therapist traces the meaning of symptoms back to the unconscious, over and over again. In other words, issues on the surface are exposed as being the product of issues hidden at a lower level. It is all “about” issues. Magick, on the other hand, enables us to experience issues directly as something else—as a “demon”, an “angel”; as something other.”
— Duncan Barford

Symbolic battles actualized
the gods battle outside
I side with demons
so I can understand their ways
and realize their nature’s illusion.
No sides exist but perspective
The energy is in the realization
I tear down my internal walls
and seek what lies beyond
as the universe spins me in place
— G A Rosenberg

Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Angel of the Morning by G A Rosenberg

Tesseract Unraveled by G A Rosenberg

See You in a Mile – An Experiment in Understanding

“You don’t really understand an antagonist until you understand why he’s a protagonist in his own version of the world.”
— John Rogers

I have always believed that there are few actual villains in this world and those who would describe themselves as villainous or evil believe that they are justified in their actions and behaviours. This isn’t to say that we all believe we are doing the right thing. Our reasons for doing wrong can be quite interesting. Even when our actions go beyond what most people see as excusable or acceptable in anyway. Trying to understand peoples’ motivation and reality tunnels can be enlightening to say the best. At the very least it frees us from blind hatred. Especially if we can put ourselves even momentarily in the shoes of someone we would normally despise.
Some examples:
1) If you consider yourself conservative, try to see the world from the perspective of Bernie Sanders.
2) If you see yourself as liberal or left-leaning try to perceive the world the way Ted Cruz or Donald Trump sees it.
3) If you are black, jewish or gay try seeing the world from the perspective of a white supremacist.
4) If you are homophobic, try to see life from the point of view of someone who is gay or trans.
5) Try understanding why a member of ISIS would act the way they do. What do they aspire to?
6) If you are Jewish, try perceiving Israel the way a Palestinian does.
7) If you are Islamic try perceiving Israel and Palestine the way that Netanyahu does.
Just for the hell of it even if you don’t fit into any of the above categories, try to adopt each of the above views for an hour each, you might find afterwards that your own viewpoint has become a lot more malleable.
Blessings, G

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She Watches and Waits by G A Rosenberg

R’lyeh Wonderland by G A Rosenberg

Fresh Perspective

“”I wear the universe backwards. I imagine putting stars in my coffee, and sugar in the sky. I imagine going fishing in clouds, and watching the sun hide behind lakes. I’m too busy dancing with my imagination to even tip toe with reality for a second. They say I’m going mad. They’re right.”
— D. Antoinette Foy

I danced with a dream in the daytime
I sang silent songs in my head
I grieved at the grave of the living
and had dinner and tea with the dead

I marvelled at colourless rainbows
I got drunk on tap water last night
I played children’s games with little old ladies
how they loved when I gave them a fright

Yet through all my cleaver reversals
I find that a balance comes through
Looking at things from angles unseen
makes the commonplace world seem like new

— G A Rosenberg

Click on images to see full-sized:

Desert Manifestation by G A Rosenberg

Turbulence by G A Rosenberg

Changing Perspectives

“Two men looked out from prison bars,
One saw the mud, the other saw stars.”
— Dale Carnegie

Down does’t work for me
spent too much time there
staring at my feet
Morose, lonely, angry
screw that noise.
How about up?
Nah, I’ve had my head in the clouds
smiling benignly at those below
amazing from the outside
rectal cranial inversion
a perversion I don’t want to share
In, Out too lateral
a locked one sided view
I’m working on a new vision
True vision
where down keeps me humble
and up keeps me light
in keeps me honest
and out grounds me right
the left gives me knowledge
and the right gives me hope
The sun shows direction
and the moon sets the dream.
— G A Rosenberg

Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Vision of Ma’at by G A Rosenberg

A New Matrix by G A Rosenberg

Reframing the Tale

“If you change the way you tell your own story, you can change the colour and create a life in technicolour.”
— Isabel Allende

What is your story? Are you the hero, the villain or the victim of your tale? Do you face challenges or do you bear burdens? Do you have relationships that end when they are ready and learn lessons from them or are you love’s bitch ever suffering from the choices you make? Do you allow joy and humour in your tale? Do you allow for sadness? Do you accept the gifts that life has to offer you or do you throw them away for a handful of beans?
So much of who we are in our lives depends on how we tell our stories especially in our heads. If you feel beaten by life and feel justifiably beaten then maybe what you need is a change of perspective and a reframing on how you tell your tale.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Strange Dance by G A Rosenberg

Space is Hyper Indeed by G A Rosenberg

Mountain Perspective

“Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. At bottom, mountains, like all wildernesses, challenge our complacent conviction – so easy to lapse into – that the world has been made for humans by humans. Most of us exist for most of the time in worlds which are humanly arranged, themed and controlled. One forgets that there are environments which do not respond to the flick of a switch or the twist of a dial, and which have their own rhythms and orders of existence. Mountains correct this amnesia. By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage, mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made. They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes. They induce, I suppose, a modesty in us.”
― Robert Macfarlane

I spent the greater part of today in Whistler, BC visiting friends and enjoying the mountain view. Whistler, besides being the site of the Winter Olympics in 2012 is renown for skiing and hiking. Outside of the resorts it also has become something of a large picturesque shopping mall. On a busy holiday weekend, thousands of people could be seen shopping and milling around. Many were attending a yoga festival and in the main field of the tourist park mall there were around fifty people, impressing lookers on and their friends with the way that they could contort their bodies. There were kids running and lots of dogs and people generally having a good time but moving quickly from one place to another.
It felt good to look to the mountains and see the unmoving. They have been there way before there was an Olympic village and way before there was a native fishing village. They preceded humans and may very well be there way past the time when we are not. I look to them and find patience and acceptance of everything that happens and a will to observe the hurry-scurry with tolerance, forbearing and humour even as I participated in it. Like the mountains I will forbear what comes my way tho unlike them I find times when action is necessary and even preferable. A mountain view always strengthens me tho as I realize that little that seems traumatic and important in the moment truly matters from another perspective.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Whistler Mountain By Day

Tantalus Mountains in the Evening

Why So Serious?

“You should not take old people who are already dead seriously. It does them injustice. We immortals do not like things to be taken seriously. We like joking. Seriousness, young man, is an accident of time. It consists, I don’t mind telling you in confidence, in putting too high a value on time. I, too, once put too high a value on time. For that reason I wished to be a hundred years old. In eternity, however, there is no time, you see. Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.”
— Hermann Hesse

In the pool of eternity laughter echoes. Oh the humour may be slightly black and the joke is often on us. We are quite comical you know. A given moment of rudeness from a stranger can ruin a day or a week for us. From the long view it is inconsequential but the majority of us must look like either beasts raging for no reason over things that a few time ticks later won’t matter at all. Still by that time we will find something else to unleash our Daffy Duck tempers against, equally as inconsequential. From the longview even things fairly major that might cause months of depression must seem like small potatoes. After all ten years down the road, chances are our lives look totally different where joy exists and yet we get so stuck in our present woes. Would that we could gain either the eternal view of our dramatic moments from outside time or even more the view from outside space where we can see our situation in relation to others who have it much worse. Those others always exist somewhere in space, somewhere in time.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Benediction From Another Mythos by G A Rosenberg

Appearing Within the Pattern by G A Rosenberg

Filling the Gap With Laughter

“I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me.”
— Tracee Ellis Rose

I want to have the time and space for myself and others. I want to make good use of my time and energy so that I am producing and meditating, calm, silent and when I wish to be active. I wish to have more of myself to share but to do that I need more time to gain myself. Part of that is utilizing those 1440 minutes every day, sleeping some and meditating some and goofing off some and working some and sharing some. How to find the correct proportions for that has eluded me so far but it will happen. Part of it is avoiding pits and pitfalls including social media. Part of it is discipline and not getting down on myself when the discipline falls through. I see the road ahead (well most of it and I value the surprises) and I will follow through. Ultimately, and this is the trick, I intend to enjoy the trip and I can’t do that if I am beating myself up. Thus I will fill the gap between where I am and where I wish to be with laughter and enjoy even the missteps along the way.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

In His Keep by G A Rosenberg

Elemental Ripples by G A Rosenberg

Pagan For the Holidays

“To be pagan and claim personal affront at the idea of Christmas more so than at Ramadan, Yom Kippur or any other Abrahamic or Eastern religion is not an indication of free thought. Indeed it indicates that one is still a slave to one’s upbringing.”
— Randall Wolfe

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the idea of holiday celebrating this past few weeks. I tend to find much about this time of year questionable. Roads and stores are crowded. People seem a good deal crankier and less likely to smile as they look for the perfect way to express to their loved ones in a material way how they want to be perceived as caring about them. People try hard to maintain their roles in each year’s extended family drama. Kids seem more anxious and stressed about what they are getting and whether they have lived up to some perceived standard of behaviour and will be thus rewarded. The list can go on and on and that doesn’t even touch on some of my religious objections.
I freely admit that I do not subscribe to the Jewish, Christian or Islamic faiths. If I had to describe my beliefs at all it would be as wildly eclectic with strong pagan and thelemic leanings. As most who read this blog know, when it comes to faith and universal understandings I have many many questions and relatively few answers. This is not from lack of knowledge of the different options out there, indeed I have studied many of the world’s religions in farther depths than most of their adherents. Thus the questions arise.
Still I try to find meaning in every day I am alive and I applaud others who do the same. If they do this by connecting within a cultural framework and it means something to them that is awesome. Thus I have no problem exchanging “Merry Christmases” or “Happy Chanukahs” or “Joyful Kwanzas” with those who celebrate and I do not trod on their traditions. It is not my business what anyone else chooses to believe and any reason is a good one to celebrate. I graciously accept presents as tokens that someone thought me worthy of their time and I give such tokens as I have because for some a gift at a particular time of year means “I love you too” in a language that they can understand. If this is hypocrisy than it is a small one that I can live with.
The Northern Hemisphere is about at Solstice. The time of least light and greatest darkness. Many cultures celebrate the return of the light and the progress of the seasons no matter what mythology they attach to it. I wish all a pleasant Yule and solstice and a wonderful re-manifestation out of the dark in whatever form it takes.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Lord of the Glade by G A Rosenberg

Drifting Through the Fractal Spaces by G A Rosenberg