Mind Tangled Not Stirred

 

“The patterns are simple, but followed together, they make for a whole that is wiser than the sum of its parts. Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle; reinvent. Build a tangled bank.”
— Steven Johnson

 

For some people it’s easy to be organized and focused on one thing to the exclusion of all others. This however has never been my way. I tend to let my distractions grow into new projects of their own and then get distracted from them by what I have to work on in the first place. The different areas of my life overlap and form fractal patterns with odd synchonicities and strange convergences. Thus I think of ways of describing complex ideas using characters from old sitcoms (tho Neil Gaiman came up with the best one when he described Endora-Samantha-Tabitha as a prime example of the triple goddess in literature. Still these archetypal connections do prove useful at expanding awareness of a concept. Conversations with friends tend to evoke blog entries and blog entries connect to conversations and it all becomes a jumble that brings about dividends of understanding. Would I make faster progress and get more done with a more ordered and disciplined mind and work schedule? Quite possibly but my road would not be nearly as interesting nor as fun and I’ll take the sphegetti trail narrow or wide any day.
Blessings, G

 

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MarchosiasConquering Wolf (Marchosias) by G A Rosenberg

 

Keeper of SecretsKeeper of Secrets by G A Rosenberg

Agreeable

 

“So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

 

I often try to be agreeable even when I am challenged by the ideas of another. I tend to go by adages such as Ken Wilber’s that “Everyone is right but partial.” If I listen long enough surely I will begin to understand the ways in which they are right and be able to integrate that into my own world view. I even try to do this in my relationships. I know I don’t hold a monopoly on truth (no one does) so surely there are ways in which I am both wrong and correct in most situations. Until I perceive how I tend to agree. At least it keeps the other person talking and explaining when they feel I am open to what they have to say. Eventually tho I ask questions for clarifications. If something at that point doesn’t feel right, I will examine my own biases in my outlook towards life and also test to see whether the person speaking has put any critical thought into what they are saying. Have they considered that they may be wrong? Have they looked at other viewpoints? If they have, have they just leaped from one fixed point to another without considering how to integrate the two? At that point I either reach agreement within myself and have something new to integrate or I disagree. This whole process usually takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a few months depending on how new the ideas are to me, how fixed the person is in their viewpoint and my willingness and availability to continue the conversation.
Too many people find either a person or a group of people with whom they share some ideas and start agreeing with them no matter what they say. They sometimes take it to the extent that they stop examining their own thought processes in their need for approval from this group or leader. This is the type of machine like thinking that all too often leads to ‘one solution fits all’ or ‘if you don’t agree with us, you’re evil’ type thinking and in the worse cases religious extremism, intolerance and war. At the very least it is a form of mental, emotional and spiritual suicide.
Blessings, G

 

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ReManifestRemanifest by G A Rosenberg

 

Inside the SnakeInside the Snake by G A Rosenberg

 

Star PortalStar Portal by G A Rosenberg

 

Tarot Post – Strength (Lust)

 

XI – Strengt / Lust (♌︎)
 

Strength Strength by G A Rosenberg

 

Surrender the struggle
to her passionate embrace
Strength found through release.

 

Give forth to every yearning
real and imagined
Let yourself go into ecstasy
Ride the Lion with Seven heads
with Bare abandon
Know me through pleasure
Yearn for satiation
yet care less to find it
Abandon yourself to all forms of debauch
and know me there

Drink deep from my grail
and loose yourself
beyond all reasoning.
Let me be whore and mistress
and giver of delight
for in passion’s heights I am found by all
in surrender to every desire
you will drink of my cup
and know madness
and union with my mysteries

True Strength comes not from repression
but through knowledge of the beast within
free yourself in my cup of pleasure .
— G A Rosenberg

 

What does it mean to master the inner self? Does it mean that we clamp down on our every wayward thought, habit and desire? I have met many people like that and they tend to resemble time bombs or pressure valves that will one day lead to a disastrous explosion. We cannot find that kind of inner control by repression. For one thing, it becomes way too easy to lose sight of that which we are suppressing in the first place and where our hungers lie.
True Strength comes from letting our feelings and hungers out and examining them in a loving and compassionate way. It means finding places and situations where we may do this safely. By giving reign to these passions, we learn to name them and work with them and use them. Our wants, desires and wounds that need to be healed are seldom the problem. It is the way we treat them that tends to make them into uncontrollable demons that terrify us. It takes strength and courage to face our demons and find that they may become our greatest allies.
In his Thoth deck Aleister Crowley calls this card Lust. Many people are afraid of the strengths of their lusts. They want or need things that they feel they have to keep secret and lose sight of why and how they lust. The satisfaction of our desires can lead to union with an ecstatic union with our inner selves if we allow them to. There are always ways to do this that do not involve harming others or ourself. In this way we come to wisdom and a greater self-confidence and mastery than any we have known before.
 

Astrological Correspondence-Leo(♌︎)-The Leo energy has immense self of itself and its power. It is as enthusiastic and courageous as its symbol the Lion. It is ruled by the sun and takes its pride of place in leadership and holds it through its sense of dignity and honour. The Leo energy is great for friendship but needs to know it has control. It likes to have the spotlight and can be very dramatic. Leo has an immense capacity for enjoyment of life in all of its forms but wants to both make it fun for everyone and wants everyone to know that it comes from its largesse. Leo is amazing at group dynamics especially when it is at the head of the pack. Leo is an innovative energy and dislikes few things as much as routine.

 

Runic Correspondence-Uruz(“Aurochs”)uruzUruz is the rune of sexuality and health. It is associated with the wild boar or aurochs. Uruz is unrestrained health, strength and energy and there is very little repressed about it. While the force of the rune may seem threatening, it offers an opportunity if one flows with it and learns to master the force through learning its ways. This is the rune of the warrior and also of the wanton. Other runes attributed to Strength are Wunjo and Sowilho

 

Path on the Tree of Life 19-Teth-The meaning of Teth is Serpent. It is known as the intelligence of the secrets of spiritual activity. It represents both control of wild animals and discourse with spiritual beings. Since the serpent is the serpent of wisdom, it does not represent a control of the control but rather control of the heart. It connects the sephiroth of Chesed (grace or mercy) and Geburah (Strength or Severity). It takes the devotion of Chesed to harness the strength of Geburah, a willingness to understand the wildness within rather than to try to surpress or repress it. Teth’s number is 9 and represents the feminine energy of the triple goddess.

 

When the Strength card turns up in a reading, it may indicate that it is in a time when we feel that the querent has things under control. Things that have been stressful have been mastered and the querent has confidence in their ability to deal with anything that may come up. The card may also indicate that there have been inner struggles that have been resolved not through brute force or through repression but with compassion towards themselves and others. Perhaps the querent is undergoing some form of inner test where they are attempting to master either an addiction or some perceived weakness. The Strength card could be leading them towards the hunger that the weakness is feeding and show that they have it within themselves to satiate the hunger without the addictive behaviour. This leads to true mastery of the situation rather than repression. If this is a present struggle than the querent can be assured that this mastery will come in time and that they will find the inner strength they need.The Strength card can also indicate that the querent needs to present a stronger more self assured face to the world.

 

Inversed the Strength card may show that the querent feels week and that they can no longer continue the struggle. They may feel like they are the victims of their inner demons and lack confidence. It may indicate addictive behaviour that has been triggered in some way or it may represent a long term struggle. The Strength card reversed may indicate that they are in a relationship that is destructive and where the passion is out of control in a negative sense. The querent may need to be reminded of struggles they have overcome in the past and mastered and need to be more compassionate towards themselves.

 

Every Day A Pilgrimage

 

“A pilgrimage is not a conquest, it is a surrender. It is a way of getting yourself out of the way.”
–Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 

Getting out of my way…Not second-guessing or build up rationalizations for the emotions I’m feeling but just letting it flow. Giving up worries and rationalizations and concerns about how others are seeing me. Surrendering to myself and listening to what my spirit is saying. Stepping back. Too often when I try that I tend to trip over my feet. How can I make each day a pilgrimage of understanding; of growth? It means surrendering my world or at least my world view. So difficult yet so so necessary. What new vistas can open up in our understanding and awareness if we could only live in flow.
Blessings, G

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Bathing in the CurrentsBathing in the Currents by G A Rosenberg

 

Midnight FlowerMidnight Flower by G A Rosenberg

 

Fiorenze’d Movement (Tuscany, Italy)

 

“Ancora Imparo

(Yet I am learning)”
― Michelangelo

 

Today we were in Tuscany. We went to Fiorenze (Florence), Italy and at breakneck speed, saw Michelangelo’s David at the Academia and then at a forced march pace went to the jewellery district and then to the Uffizi gallery where we saw so many famous and favourite works of art such as the Birth of Venus by Botticelli and too many others way too fast. Our tour guide zoomed along with us following in her 4’8” wake as she held up her sign just high enough to get a glimpse with her voice receding into crackles on our head phones. She marched us to the bus where we went to an amazing meal at a resort on the Tuscany countryside and from there to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Pisa is fascinating. The tower and church that it is adjacent to is in the middle of a rather rough area that is filled with refugees from a few different countries trying desperately to eek out a living selling souvenirs manufactured elsewhere, sunglasses or umbrellas to tourists passing by. The tower, church and ground has thousands of people walking in and around, taking pictures where they are either propping up the tower or having it jut between their legs. We had twenty minutes free time there and then walked back to the bus and returned to the ship
Tomorrow we hit Rome at a similar breakneck pace. I have a new appreciation for the meaning of cruising speed and need to figure out pacing better. It is an amazing gift to be able to see so much of Western Civilization and getting to meet people from all over the world on this trip.
The Statue of David is amazing to see and walk around. I don’t know that I have ever seen the statue shot from behind.
Blessings, G

 

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David's BackDavid’s Back

 

Dat Leaning TowerLeaning Tower

 

Mediteranean SunsetMediterranean Sunset

 

Water ColoursWater Colours

Taking the Ride

 

“When you are on the dancefloor, there is nothing to do but dance.”
― Umberto Eco

 

How often do sign up for something such as a relationship, a job or even an outing with friends and then when things get rough we either complain or bail? One of my favourite expressions is “I bought ticket so now we take the ride” tho Umberto Eco says it more elegantly in the above quote. In other words, if I engage in something than I need to take responsibility for how it turns out whether that be good, bad or otherwise. That doesn’t mean staying in a bad situation as much as it means accepting what comes and making informed decisions based on the highest good for all.
Blessings, G

 

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HypercubeHypercube by G A Rosenberg

 

Jeweled StarburstJewelled Starburst by G A Rosenberg

 

Spinning the Wheel of Self

 

“Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again. That is why every man’s story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross.”
― Hermann Hesse, Demian
 

Reaching inside
yet barely breaking through the surface
so much more to see
so much more to be
the journey takes a lifetime
and the wheel stays in spin
the king falls and rises
the queen nourishes
and sometimes yes sometimes the demon at the bottom
I’ve been him too
I ride the wheel
and turn it
while exploring the nature
and the nurture
the soul behind the curtain
watches, witnessing all
in love
Curious as the spiral spins anew..
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Eagle Spirit AscendingEagle Spirit Ascending by G A Rosenberg

 

Bubbles Encroaching on Infinite SpaceBubbles Encroaching on Infinite Space by G A Rosenberg

I Course My Corse Course

 

“Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly upon the self, and partly upon the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly.”
— Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears

 

I course my corse course of course
through effort of strengthening will
I find my way
tho oft go astray
I find the path in distance or underfoot
conflicting shadow selves abound
tho their voices help me to be found
I careen in mad orbits about my sun
merely to find I’ve only begun
insights, slights
even a touch of delight
guide me through dark night
for in darkness I may gain
that seed of self
thought hidden on some dusty shelf
and so I find my way
distraction won’t hold sway
I seek to find my one true will
holding still, holding still
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Will To ChooseWill To Choose by G A Rosenberg

 

Fuchsia ShockFuchsia Shock by G A Rosenberg

Encouraging Candles in the Darkness…

 

“Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
― Plato

 

To my mind we are all progressing upon our path. Some of us may stay willfully ignorant for weeks, months or possibly even decades but then something happens that shakes their world view and perhaps in the smallest way they open up. Perhaps they are willing to understand a point of view they never have before. Perhaps they (and by they I almost always mean we for I have yet to meet anyone fully free from ignorance. I know that I have my share and possibly more) have found an iota of compassion for someone whom before they withheld any understanding. Funny thing tho how much difference such a change can make. It is something akin to lighting a candle in a dark room as opposed to one with all kinds of sunlight streaming in. The candle may be as bright in most cases but in the darker room it stands out a lot more…
If we are all progressing even at the rate of a candle every thirty years, then how can we discourage anyone in their growth. The realization that we all progress has been one of those candles for me.
Blessings, G

 

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Lava GuardianLava Guardian by G A Rosenberg

 

MarbleGameMarble Game by G A Rosenberg

 

Path or Direction?

“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

I have reread this passage many times and put a lot of thought into it. Tonight it struck me in a new way. If as I’ve talked about before, our path is not one that we follow as much as one we choose each step of the way then maybe it is not so much about choosing a path with heart as choosing to have heart in every part of our path. That is choosing each step we take with commitment and yes with love. The distinction may be a fine one but of late I have been investigating the concept of responsibility. Maybe I’m just paraphrasing the line from Sondheim that it is not so much do what you like as like what you do. To me that also ties in with the Thelemic law of ‘Do what Thou Wilt’. If we are making choices according to our true will than those choices will by their very nature be ones that are heart-filled.
Blessings, G

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Buffeted by Cosmic WindsBuffeted by Cosmic Winds by G A Rosenberg

 

Answer His Question2Answer His Question by G A Rosenberg