Quotes, More Quotes and a Few Stray Thoughts

Tonight some rapid fire quotes and comments just to mix things up a bit:

“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.”
Robert Anton Wilson

So many reasons for working on our shadow selves and this is one of the best.. What good is it to love the universe (love universally) if you become irritated at little things that parts of it do and say? The cognitive dissonance that this can bring up alone makes it a good idea to deal with those raw parts of ourself.

“It is a thousand times better to make every kind of mistake than to slide into the habit of hesitation, of uncertainty, of indecision.”
— Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears

Uncertainty and Hesitation tend to be parts of my own shadow. When choices seem equal and they almost always do, it becomes difficult to choose. Still gradually I am learning to lead with my chin and choosing rather than leaving it to others or to the universe. It is my own learning to take responsibility.

It’s done by hurling yourself into the abyss, and discovering that it’s a feather bed.
There’s no other way to do it.”
— Terence McKenna

In combination with the quote above, it is sometimes better to take that leap towards self-knowledge and empowerment and be willing to risk the changes that it may bring rather than to stall out at the edge. It might be a featherbed or I might end up like a Loony Toons character running on air and falling but I will make those leaps and if I fall I will rise again.

Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:
In Search of Lost TreasureIn Search of Lost Treasure (Valac)  by G A Rosenberg
Abstracted Vision 62Abstracted Vision 62 by G A Rosenberg

Toulon, France

 

“The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas.

It is the night sea journey, the lone fisherman on a tropical sea with his nets, and you let these nets down – sometimes, something tears through them that leaves them in shreds and you just row for shore, and put your head under your bed and pray.

At other times what slips through are the minutiae, the minnows of this ichthyological metaphor of idea chasing.
But, sometimes, you can actually bring home something that is food, food for the human community that we can sustain ourselves on and go forward.”
― Terence McKenna

 

Since we have set sail last night I have felt amazingly meditative. I had forgotten how comfortable I am on the water. There is a calmness and familiarity to the rhythms of the sea that seems to echo for me of times past. I love walking around the ship at all hours and being at peace.
Toulon, France is a pleasant seaport. I have learned that my French in France is not as passable as my Spanish in Barcelona. Tho the Farmers Market was amazing.

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

On the Water. Toulon FranceOn the Water, Toulon France

 

Le Genie De Navigation StatueLa Genie De Navigation Statue–Toulon, France

 


 

Today You’ve Shown Your Power

 

“We tend to disempower ourselves. We tend to believe that we don’t matter. And in the act of taking that idea to ourselves we give everything away to somebody else, to something else.”
– Terence McKenna

 

So mighty
each one of us
anyone of us
capable of wonder
writing songs,
Planting gardens
wiping tears away
from the face of a child
building bridges
singing songs
that will echo in the throats of many
Never forget we are mighty
you’ve made a difference today
in the words you have said to a stranger
in the heart that you held of a friend
in the wake of something created
you’ve shown your power
rejoice in it
and know it can never be taken away…
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Getting Myself Together Before I Go OnGetting Myself Together Before I Go On by G A Rosenberg

 

HyperSpace AwaitsEntering Hyperspace 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

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Dark Sun LizardDark Sun Lizard by G A Rosenberg

 

Four Dimensional Cross RoadsFour Dimensional Cross Roads by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 2 2013

“We tend to disempower ourselves. We tend to believe that we don’t matter. And in the act of taking that idea to ourselves we give everything away to somebody else, to something else.”
― Terence McKenna

 

Why do people feel so disempowered? We carry so much inside of us and have so much potential to create beauty, our lives, the lives of others and still we tell ourselves that others have the ultimate power over us. Have you ever told someone they messed up your life? Have you  ever thought it? I know I have and it took me years to realize that I was giving them power that they never had. We build our own lives. Yes, we have been influenced by our parents, by our educational systems, by the media and by society itself but we NEED to claim our own power now. We can create magic. If we don’t like the lives we live, we can change them. No one said it was easy but we have that power.
I wish to learn how to help people claim their power. I see so many people thinking they need something special to do it when it is a matter of choice usually. I hear people say derisively “What about starving children, do they choose to starve? Can they just choose to eat?” I know the answer to that is no and that’s gutting. There are too many other factors at work. Are there ways to empower them beyond their starving? Most probably and I wish I had those answers. Let’s ask the questions and work together to figure them out. But first, if you are not starving, if you are not sick or in jail then claim the power you can claim. If you’re unhappy change it. We live in a world of abundance. The more we can change ourselves and claim our power, the more we make it easier for others to claim theirs. First tho, we need to make a difference in our own lives.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized

 

The Cracks are Where the Light Comes In
“The Cracks Are Where the Light Comes In” by G A Rosenberg

 

Cascade
Cascade by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – August 10 2012

“The imagination is the goal of history. I see culture as an effort to literally realize our collective dreams.”
― Terence McKenna

Activating the imagination…allowing people in my head on the monitor to flip through, like Alice knowing that you are all a deck of cards tho I include myself in that and the cards are tarot…combining possibilities and potentialities in archetypal memories…I was asked whether I am in an altered state when I create my art. Answers both yes and know… yes, altered from when I do my day to day living, a bit more drifty and meditative, know in that none of it is externally chemically induced — at least not chemicals i’ve taken in recent memory…Do certain parts of the psyche stay activated once they are turned on ever after able to come aglow not always at desired times but you can’t always get what you want but life tends to give you what you need. Does that work even for those suffering? To be honest I have no idea tho I hope and pray so to the depth of my being. May all beings be freed from suffering as the saying goes especially that which we tend to inflict on ourselves.
Interesting night, A friend is doing a project with the tarot cards and asked me for my input and its like an archetypal mafia, every time i get out i get dragged back in but we do tend to carry our dream images around with us dont we? Containing multitudes but none of us see these multitudes exactly the same way. Excuse the consciousness stream tonight but I decided to let whatever wanted to escape through my fingers escape tonight. Tomorrow perhaps I’ll be back to cogency but tonight we swim in the stream but don’t worry I’ve brought life preservers for the unweary and I vow to leave no man nor woman behind =)
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full-size
In a God-a de Vida by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – June 11 2012

““Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed.”
― Terence McKenna

Bits and Pieces tonight.. Random Thoughts… Wool gathering from the abyss…

NOW is the eternal Phoenix ever reborn from its own ashes as its consumed….
Universe, please let me be the person my friends on the internet believe me to be…
How Freudian is it that Jack had a beanstalk and Alice had a rabbit hole…Both of those are coming of age analogues as well as Campbell mono myths…and both involved either a climb or a leap of faith…

Sometimes the best way to clear your head is by breaking a taboo, even if its one of thought…What is it that you have been taught culturally or tribally not to think about or question? How does reality change for you if you question it? That in itself  becomes another rabbit hole or beanstalk trip doesn’t it?  And so the reality kaleidoscope turns…

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-size

Purple Blue Mandala by G A Rosenberg

IdylAbstract by G A Rosenberg