Butterfly Awareness

 

“Perfectly selfless, the beauty of it, the butterfly doesn’t take it as a personal achievement, he just disappears through the trees. You too, kind and humble and not-even-here, it wasn’t in a greedy mood that you saw the light that belongs to everybody.”
~ Jack Kerouac

 

Surrendering to change
Being while becoming
expansion without thought
of what comes next
or what came before.
Living every moment
in the present.
Effortless magick
Being one’s true self
beyond any illusions.
Letting it happen
without making it happen
It all sounds so simple
not a matter of doing more
but less.
Less thinking
Less Dwelling in the Past
Less second-guessing.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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New Forms of ExpansionNew Forms of Expansion by G A Rosenberg

 

Snake's LairSnake’s Lair by G A Rosenberg

 

Nuclear CoralNuclear Coral by G A Rosenberg

 

Method Acting Myself

 

“The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.”
— Jorge Luis Borges

 

“Determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain.”
— Paracelsus

 

According to wikipedia, “In the dramatic arts, method acting is a group of techniques actors use to create in themselves the thoughts and feelings of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances.” Yet how often in life do we act as our true selves? Too often it seems that we spend so much time worrying about the effect of our words and actions that they become more of an expression of how we wish to be perceived and not who we are. Even that tends to change depending on whom our perceived audience maybe.
I would play my true being and self consistently in all the moments of my life. Even more I would play the person I wish to be, unfettered by the expectations of others or the emotional dross and baggage that make up so much of my actions and reactions, Perhaps by adopting the form of my true self I could become my idealized self and thus become the stage for future becomings.
Blessings, G

 

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Howling at the NightHowling at the Night by G A Rosenberg

 

43-SabnockSebnock (#43 in Goetia series) by G A Rosenberg

 

Transformation

 

“The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”
— W.E.B. Du Bois

 

Transformation continues to fascinate me. On the one hand we all have infinite potential with infinite possibility to change and grow. On the other hand most transformations are surface. We can change our appearance, our lifestyle and our beliefs but all of those are masks that cover up who we are at our inner core. The best changes of course are the ones that bring us closer to that inner core, our true being. Yet how can we know what will do that unless we are willing to experiment and explore and allow ourselves to see which things may resonate the most.
So I resolve to learn and try everything possible. I will indulge in life’s banquet and partake of any outlook or activity that speaks to me and never refrain from trying something I never have before. We each owe it to ourselves to live a life of becoming until our time is done.
Blessings, G

 

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In a Shadowed LandIn a Shadowed Land by G A Rosenberg

 

VanitasVanitas by G A Rosenberg

 

Masks

 

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

 

We become what we pretend to be. This is at once both wonderful and terrifying. It means we have power to recreate ourselves in the image that we want. It also means tho that all too easily we can become trapped in roles that we once needed but have outgrown. If in our past we have been hurt by others, we adopt a mask of being invulnerable. We act callous and indifferent and allow no one to touch us. What happens years later when we meet someone whom we could love? However in order to love we have to make ourselves vulnerable. It seems that damn mask won’t come off. Luckily with work, we can show the vulnerabilities are there, revealing them to those whom we wish to be close to. Oh we still have our mask but by pointing out where the weak parts are, the mask can crumble. It does take work tho and a willingness to overcome fear.
What happens when we aspire spiritually but have lost our way? We have adapted a mask of worldliness that we have become stuck in. Could we adopt the same principle? We meditate and genuinely challenge ourselves to act without masks until we truly have lost them all. This may be the most important work we have ever done in our lives.
Blessings, G

 

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Silent VoiceSilent Voice by G A Rosenberg

 

Fire and Water RipplesFire and Water Spiral by G A Rosenberg

Letting Go – A Punching Walls Story

 

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go”
― Hermann Hesse

 

“You people always hold onto old identities, old faces and masks, long after they’ve served their purpose. But you’ve got to learn to throw things away eventually.”
–Neil Gaiman

 

When I was 19 and had a mishap with the law my father came down on me like a ton of bricks. He told me that he didn’t know what it was but it almost felt like I had something missing in me and he did not feel I was a good person. Insecure at the best of times and somewhat floundering at that point in my life it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was devastated.
For years after that, I found myself either trying to live up to whatever image I had of what my father thought a good person should be or playing against that image in rebellion. With each victory or setback I experienced I asked myself, “So am I a good person now?” I did not have the courage to ask my father.
At some point when I had come close to hitting bottom, it finally occurred to me that I had to let it go. For one thing it had way too many layers
1) what a good person is qualitatively
2) what my father saw as being a good person
3) what I perceived my father saw as being a good person
4)who I was in relationship to 1, 2 or 3
The absurdity of it had me laughing and crying at the same time. I realized that the most important thing was to be myself in the world for good or bad, doing what best reflected the person I am. If I tried to live up to a yardstick especially someone else’s it would not be as meaningful as living up to myself. From that point on, I decided that I would no longer be as concerned with being good as doing right and expressing my being. But I could only do that when I was able to let go of that conversation with my dad and take responsibility for my own actions.
At some point after that, my father had cause to tell me what a good person he thought I was. It felt a touch anti-climatic.
Blessings, G

 

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Guardian and GuideGuardian and Guide by G A Rosenberg

 
The Spiral Moves FasterThe Spiral Increases by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 23 2012

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
― C.G. Jung

 

A friend of mine on Facebook has started a new group. He is encouraging each person who joins to repeat (well type) the mantra “I AM THE NEW DAY”. I find this amazingly empowering. I have written before on my view of self-victimization and being stuck on the moments in the past when we have been hurt either by ourselves or by another. Too often, this results in an inability to move forward. Society seems to reward this behaviour. Our victims get book deals and run the interview circuit. Everyone wants to feel sorry for someone and too often sympathy can become a drug.

 

By my saying this, please do not think that I am discounting ANYONE’S pain. I have cried from the things I’ve heard that friends and family have gone through. When I hear or read about some of the truly creative ways that we have found to be destructive towards each other it hurts. At the same time I try very hard not only to know the pain of the person whom it has been inflicted on but to know the pain of the persecutor also. I would love to build a world where such pain does not exist. Who would like to help? Any ideas?

 

So yes, we have gone through a lot and we may still go through more but do we cling to the pain of the past or do we become something more than a victim, an object of pity not just for others but for ourselves. What do we want to become? How do we heal? I believe these two questions are intimately intertwined.

Blessings, G

 

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Black Light Mandala

Black Light Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Page of PentaclesTarot – Page of Pentacles by G A Rosenberg

 

Quote of the Day – October 22 2011

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
–Anais Nin

and so the dance continues..No state can hold any of us forever. We can have the most profound mystical experience of our lives, achieve satori for one brief instance and yet eventually we find ourselves somewhere, if not back where we started (backwards never seems to work, one of my interpretations of “You can’t go home again”. You can rise and rise towards a higher state of being ,tho sometimes it seems we slide backwards, we never return to that state from which we started –G A Rosenberg

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Expressions by G A Rosenberg