Month: November 2013

What are the Rules? A Consciousness Stream

 

“If Life is just a game…

What are the rules?”
— Vajra Krishna

 

Kindergarden rules yet most adults lose the simplicity. Kindness works but when it doesn’t learn to accept and deal with it and others according to our truest natures (the law of Thelema)…. oh yeah discovering those natures would be high on the list. As would most of what Richard Bach put in the Messiah’s Handbook in the book Illusions (http://jungian.info/library.cfm?idsLibrary=14) and what Johnny Depp said about confusion (“I cultivate confusion because I like what it does to my face”). Above all first use the fear and then lose the fear. It may be a friend but it all too easily overstays its welcome.. Remember that the people in our lives are there because we drew them (and the image i get is at least two meanings of draw both with a pen and with a deck of cards), They are here to both teach and learn from as we are to them. Did I mention be kind? If so rewind and here it again. Not only be kind to others but save kindness for ourselves. Let’s add the law of Callahan’s as stated by Spider Robinson (“Shared joy is increased, shared pain is lessened and thus we refute entropy). Oh yeah and most of all, the game is kind of like Special Olympics, everybody wins tho it may be a very long blink of an eye game.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Stop and Smell the FlowersStop and Smell the Flowers by G A Rosenberg

 

Shapes that pass in the nightTravelling Towards Escher Land by G A Rosenberg

Building the Tower

 

“From the beginning I felt the Tower as in some way a place of maturation–a maternal womb or a maternal figure in which I could become what I was, what I am and will be. It gave me a feeling as if I were being reborn in stone. It is thus a concretization of the individuation process”
— Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

 

In my work with the tarot, I tend to focus on the Tower archetype as the Blasted Tower, where our false reality collapses under the weight of its own preconceptions when confronted by that which is greater and more authentic. In the above quote Carl Jung describes the positive aspects of the Tower and how and why we construct it in the first place. When we reach a certain point in our adolescence many of us realize that the reality that our parents and our teachers have described to us no longer fits. We react to this by building our own edifice out of the materials at hand. In this process of individuation we tend to make our reality as different from our parents’ as we can. Often it is only after experiencing the flaws in our own reality tunnels firsthand that we can appreciate parts of what has come before and incorporate it into our own models.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-size:

 

Bard Travelling to Interdimensional CastleBard Travelling to Inter-dimensional Castle by G A Rosenberg

 

Exploding Dark Star MandalaExploding Dark Star Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Rewriting Anew Tale….

 

“I suppose the other thing too many forget is that we were all stories once, each and every one of us. And we remain stories. But too often we allow those stories to grow banal, or cruel or unconnected to each other.We allow the stories to continue, but they no longer have a heart. They no longer sustain us.”
― Charles de Lint

 

Writing a new tale
with new ink
on a page that has never been written on
yet the story’s shape seems way too familiar
i need to break this mould
and twist a plot more to my liking
and write myself storied
in a new image
one that expresses the becoming me….

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full sized:

 

Blessing of the Triple GoddessBlessing of the Three Goddesses by G A Rosenberg

 

Blessing of the Triple Goddess (I)Blessing of the Three Goddesses with Altered Colours by G A Rosenberg

 

Spinning Fan BladesSpinning Fan Blades by G A Rosenberg

Rewriting Anew Tale….

 

“I suppose the other thing too many forget is that we were all stories once, each and every one of us. And we remain stories. But too often we allow those stories to grow banal, or cruel or unconnected to each other.We allow the stories to continue, but they no longer have a heart. They no longer sustain us.”
― Charles de Lint

 

Writing a new tale
with new ink
on a page that has never been written on
yet the story’s shape seems way too familiar
i need to break this mould
and twist a plot more to my liking
and write myself storied
in a new image
one that expresses the becoming me….

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full sized:

 

Blessing of the Triple GoddessBlessing of the Three Goddesses by G A Rosenberg

 

Blessing of the Triple Goddess (I)Blessing of the Three Goddesses with Altered Colours by G A Rosenberg

 

Spinning Fan BladesSpinning Fan Blades by G A Rosenberg

Buttons

 

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning do to do afterward.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

 

It is so much better to laugh at frustration. Otherwise if I can’t laugh or walk away the temptation is to rage or cry and then beat myself up about it. It can become terribly messy and leave scars on those around me but slowly I am learning. There will always be people and situations that can press my buttons and that is a good thing. It shows me where my buttons are. If I have a difficult time respecting myself in certain situations then I will react strongly when I feel disrespected by others. Despite the fact that I know that respect cannot be begged borrowed or even earned… and ultimately is an inner dialogue and not an outer one. Those who show me disrespect do me the favour of pointing this out in a very real way.Too bad I find it so difficult being appreciative at the time. I see people react similarly to with emotions of guilt or unworthiness. So I thank those who show me the areas I still need to work on. Slowly I am getting to the point where gratitude has a stronger balance than anger, sorrow or frustration. Perhaps someday….
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Woman of the WiseThe Lady and the Serpent by G A Rosenberg

 

Interference PatternsInterference Patterns by G A Rosenberg

Accepting My Own Madness

 

“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life…If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature…Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
― C.G. Jung, The Red Book

 

When I was much younger, I realized how out of step I seemed to be with the world at large and questioned my sanity. As I grow older, I realize that most if not all of the people I know have their own flavours of insanity. We all have windmills that we tilt at and believe they are dragons. Many of us repeat our actions and methods endlessly expecting different results each time. I no longer question my sanity or lack thereof as much as embrace it. How I differ from each person brings an endless flood of self-knowledge and confusion. Now my main concerns tend to be around how much my words and my behaviour reflect my authentic self and with time even that concern fades for it seems more and more to be something that can’t be done and worried at at the same time.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized

 

Dreaming Under Red SkiesDreaming Under Red Skies by G A Rosenberg

 

Tie Dyed WebTie-Dyed Web by G A Rosenberg

A Snapshot in Amber

“- Why me?
– That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?
– Yes.
– Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

 

When I was eighteen I met an amazing woman. She was the mother of a friend of mine and I met her about a year and a half after her doctors told her she had a year to live. Delores had an amazing sense of humour and an amazing grace about her and she helped me through what was one of the rougher years of my life.
Among other words of wisdom that Delores imparted to me
“Why me, you say? Why not you? What is so special about you that you don’t get the same amount of shit in life that everyone else has to deal with.”
“Nowhere in any spiritual text does it say that you have to like or even love your family. It says you have to honour your parents.”
“Nothing is more important than finding someone to speak your heart too”
I was to know and keep in touch with Delores for about ten years and she lived on another ten years after that. I only hope she got to pull some of the cool poltergeist tricks she had planned for her funeral.
Blessings, G

Click on images to make them get bigger:

 

Stilling the MindStilling the Mind by G A Rosenberg

 

EmergingEmergent by G A Rosenberg

Masks Revealed

 

“Don’t you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?”
― Søren Kierkegaard

 

It’s always midnight somewhere
Past masks ripped off the present moment
leaving us bare in moonlight’s glance
At least my mask looks like my face
the only difference the blemishes
I try to keep hidden
yet why?
those who might care
for any reason but the moment’s sport
will love the man blemish and all
any others would better be concerned
with saving their own faces
I will tear off my mask
or try, it’s tenacious after all
and fear makes for messy spirit gum.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full sized:

 

Masqued ExpressionsMasqued Expressions by G A Rosenberg

 

Crimson StrawCrimson Straw, Violet Mist by G A Rosenberg