“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”
― August Wilson
I look into the mirrored
eyes of my friends
and want to be better
than the reflection I see before me.
Oh I’m OK
but to live the love reflected
I want to be even more
more honest, braver
and more open
More and more I find that conversations take courage. Oh not the chatty every day ones tho to initiate them with strangers takes its share. I mean the ones where ideas and ideals get discussed and debated. First of all to even engage with someone when you disagree with their point of view can be daunting. After all, perhaps they are correct and I may have to change what I believe. So many people seem to have trouble with that. It is amazing how often we conflate a viewpoint that we hold with our own identity and find a challenge to one to be a challenge to the other. If we are truly open to learning and seeking a higher understanding then doesn’t that mean we want to know when there is a better way of looking at things? If the price of a clearer vision, is merely giving up what we previously believed isn’t that a small one to pay? I believe so. Yet there seems to be much fear over surrendering who we are for who we may become.
Another thing that takes courage is being willing to engage with those who may debate differently than we do. Perhaps they become a bit more aggressive than we are comfortable with and we find that off-putting. Does that mean they are wrong? Not necessarily, they could simply be passionate about the subject under discussion or perhaps they find our communication mode just as off-putting. Is tone really that important? Isn’t what is being said more important than how? Does the problem lie with the other person or does it lay with us? In my experience, when I have a knee-jerk reaction to something, it is normally a reflection of my own stuff. Again if greater understanding is our aim, isn’t a new perception of ourselves and our ‘buttons’ an amazing gift. Why do so many people appear afraid to accept it?
I ask for the courage to accept each lesson of self-knowledge and the compassion to see not only my reflection inside each discussion but also an understanding of the others involved as well. May I be able to teach and learn, to listen and communicate to the benefit of all.
Blessings, G
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.”
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.”
“A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.”
“A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.”
“When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.”
“A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one’s suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.”
“So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”
― Hermann Hesse
When I was a boy I was lucky enough to have a few special relationships with trees. There was an oak in my next door’s neighbours yard that I would sit beneath whenever I had something deep or painful on my mind or when I wanted a bit of quiet. The neighbours who were somewhat elderly (maybe about 15 years older than I am now) and if they noticed a thin young kid with his face buried in a book leaning against their tree than they did not object.
The old Oak showed me the changing of the seasons. It invited me to climb and perhaps helped me overcome my fear of heights a bit. It was always there. Friendships came and went and returned and the tree was always there. My parents got separated and divorced but the tree was there. My older sister became a teenager and had less time to hang out but the tree was there. I even shared her diary with the old oak that I borrowed to read one day. I learned Change and constancy from the tree. I learned how to stay grounded and how to appreciate quiet and a small breeze.
Blessings, G
Joy has brought you here
The gates of wisdom beckon
Begin your climb now
Long have I stayed here
drinking deeply of the pleasures offered
Now my soul longs for more
Cups lie empty strewn around me.
Surely there must be more!
I look out and feel a yearning
a calling- some message
telling me…what?
that I can be more than this mundane creature
with neither needs nor ambition
that there is purpose and meaning
once I give it such.
I know I will be changed
by what lies ahead
Do I have a choice?
Stay here and become not
bur remain that which I’ve been
or follow the pull
on mind heart and being
no choice at all
I reach out and
I’m gone
– GAR
The suite of Cups deal with our emotional nature including love, both that as in a relationship between two (and rarely more) people and that of friends and companions. Eights deal with recognition of boundaries and a focus of the energies to move on and continue. Sometimes we stay a little to long at the party. This can be a literal party or a relationship or a job where things have been great, they’ve been good and we settled and now things have gone stagnant. We have stopped growing which can quickly poison any situation. Water left standing too long becomes unfit to drink.
We know that there is something out there that can renew us, a new adventure in the offering with new challenges Something that can motivate us to be better than we’ve ever been. All we need to do is find it in ourselves to leave what we’re used to in order to pursue it.
Astrological Correspondence – Saturn in Pisces – The Saturn in Pisces energy tends to be very sensitive to everything that doesn’t work about a situation. This can be amazing as it can inherently understand and communicate the failings (and feelings) of others. This can lead to being overwhelmed by all the incoming emotional data and lead to freezing up. However, there is also a core of courage and resolution that called upon can help the Saturn in Pisces energy continue onwwards. Channeled correctly this energy can bring one far in terms of art and music and other forms of self-expression.
I Ching Correspondence – 46) Shêng – Pushing Upwards –
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The Trigram for Earth is over that of Wood. To break through the packed earth, the growing wood must use some effort to push upwards. There is progress in this hexagram but only if one perseveres. With the proper push, much direct progress can be made. Indeed the only thing that stands in the way of growth and prosperity is the inertia of whatever lies on top. So how to get past that? Only with courage and resolution is this possible. One large push past the obstruction and there after without limits
When the Eight of Cups turns up in a reading, it often shows that there is some disillusion with one’s present circumstances. It is the feeling that there is something better out there somewhere if only we had the courage to get up and leave and pursue it. The card may also refer to a sense of failure when really it is just that our current situation has run its course. The energy of this card is not a tragic one as much as it is a call to action. This action is not necessarily jumping into a new situation, whether it be living situation or relationship as much as leaving the current one to take stock of what we learned and from there start anew thus it is often a solitary enterprise. This card may also mean a time to accept the aid of others.
When the Eight of Cups comes up reversed, it may mean that even tho we may feel its time to leave our current situation, there is still more joy and knowledge that we can gain from it. It can also mean coming to terms with our current situation in a way that we haven’t before. This card may also mean that one is refusing to leave the party when it is time either out of laziness or fear of the unknown
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
― Ernest Hemingway
Tonight I had reason to think and write out a few principles of what listening to someone means to me and I thought it would make a decent posting.
Debate rather than dialogue… do we debate each other or do we champion the debate of ideas… thesis and antithesis bringing us to a synthesis..which becomes in turn a new synthesis…
Do we identify so much with our beliefs and hold so rigidly to them that we are unable to separate an attack on something we think from an attack on our being?if greater understanding is not our goal, than why are we here? This definition of debate as between people rather than ideas, an important distinction and tends to be a misapprehension fostered by American politics,
What if when we listen to each other and to ourselves, and we hear something that causes an emotional reaction, we look at why rather than assume ill intention or incorrectness on the other persons part? Can we learn to listen not just to words but to intent.What if the meat of the issue involves looking at your own reaction to what someone is saying? Listen to the space between their words and their phrasing. Do you listen to answer or do you listen to understand?
I know I would rather be incorrect and gain new insight and growth rather than be right and grow stagnant in my correctness.
Blessings,
The Art Gallery- 2013 page has been updated with the pictures from March. Please browse through and if you have an interest in purchasing any prints please contact me at rambled@mac.com
Click on image to go to the 2013 Art Gallery Page:
“People where you live,” the little prince said, “grow five thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for…
They don’t find it,” I answered.
And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water…”
Of course,” I answered.
And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Why can what we find be found in one rose but not in five thousand? Why is it that we pass hundreds of people every day and yet there is only one that makes our heart sing in a certain way? How can we read every holy book, every self-help manual and every book of philosophy out there and yet one question from a child can reveal more universal secrets than any of them?
There is no answer to these questions that cannot be gainsaid or argued. The true answer is in the asking itself. There are questions that the heart asks out of its experience that the brain is not equipped to answer for it is far beyond the mind’s subjectivity.
I am just at the edge of knowing courage enough to write about these questions and returning to the heart’s vision. I have owned my inner scarecrow and inner tin woodman, the lion has been on his way. Our inner depths stir calling to us, and we fear their shadows. Yet we can steer through them also when we are guided by our heart’s voice and vision.
Blessings, G
Fast movement forward
Purpose has sped you on your way
Destination calls.
Like an arrow in flight
I travel home
to a place that’s waited so long
There will I find solace
There will I partake
in love’s embrace
I have what’s needed
as I travel
electrically
Days become hours
Minutes become seconds
as miles are covered
as bases are too
gods speed my travel
and clear my way
The lightning guides me
I go today
The suite of Wands deal with force-creative, spiritual, and vital. Eights deal with recognition of boundaries and a focus of the energies to move on and continue. The eight of wands brings us movement often after we have been stuck in place with much to be handled. Often when this happens, either through some intuitive jump of our own and sometimes through a sense of grace things change and the creativity starts flowing again and movement seems possible in almost any direction. One time a friend and I had been hitchhiking through the Carolinas for three days in the rain. It seemed we could not catch a ride that would take us more than 20 miles. We were hungry, cold, wet and tired and I was desperate enough to try anything. I pulled out my deck of cards and started focusing on the Eight of Wands, concentrating on it intently. My buddy looked at me like I was crazy. We stuck out our thumbs again and within a minute a truck pulled over that drove us most of the way to our destination in Florida. It was swift travel indeed.
Astrological Correspondence – Mercury in Sagittarius – This aspect is one of a mind truly alive, creative and active. It allows thoughts to flow almost everywhere on every topic from minor to complex and from deep to shallow. It is an energy that paints in broad strokes, leaving the details for others to fill in as it jumps onto another train of thought. This is a visionary and not a subtle sign that hates subterfuge and will in its pursuit of illumination think nothing of exposing the secrets of a friend. Quick to engage this energy can also be quick to withdraw as it moves on to something new.
I Ching Correspondence – 35) Chin – Progress
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The Trigram of Fire is over that of Earth. Unfettered fire can move rapidly over the earth with ever widening expansion and clarity.As the sun rises, the shadows dispel and everything is seen in a clearer light.This is a hexagram of swift movement and new leaps of understanding and progress with nothing impeding. The movement is often towards greater virtue, understanding and light.
In a reading, the Eight of Wands can mean pulling free from whatever has been stopping us and being able to move again so move fast! It can mean that we have discovered a new direction or purpose and have better understanding of our own inner drives. This card may also mean the beginning of a new relationship with all of the energy and enthusiasm that comes with it. It can refer to plans to travel and new exploration both physically and mentally. It is a time of great enthusiasm as one’s sense of adventure and delight is rekindled.
When the Eight of Wands turns up reversed in a reading, one’s energy and enthusiasm may have become too diffused and scattered. It may feel as if any attempt to free oneself from conflicts and the problems we have landed ourselves in is unsuccessful. When referring to a relationship the Eight of Wands reversed may indicate jealousy and negativity. The card reversed may also talk about hesitating to take action to remove oneself from a situation that we know we should leave.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am busking for knowledge
outside your door.
Just begging for wisdom
on the corner.
Please throw something my way.
Something learned and passed away
I’m starving here so give me some idea.
As I said before, in reality no two of us walk exactly the same path. Oh we may try. We try to emulate our parents or someone else successful who has impressed us. We can do what they did, follow their family pattern and career and study paths but it won’t be the same. The world has moved on since our idols transversed it and dust has obscured their way. That’s not a negative thing. Because no matter how hard we try to follow in someone else’s footsteps or even do the ‘normal’ path, it won’t work. A) Normal doesn’t really exist except on washing machines and demographics and B) We’re not anyone else. We’re unique and even choosing to follow someone else is NOT what the people we are trying to follow has done. They blazed their own.
Seriously tho, trying to be anyone but our true selves will almost always end badly. When I was younger, I tried to imitate the thought patterns and lifestyle of every friend I respected. Amazing how many friendships I lost that way as I found out that most people don’t live up to their own ideals. These days I would rather be who I am with all my good points and bad than be a miserable replica of anyone else. Funny how that decision has led to a great deal more self-respect and how much more I’ve been able to grow.
Blessings, G
Fractal Chambre of the Heart by G A Rosenberg
Industri-Wheel by G A Rosenberg
