Sense Nonsense Doggrel

 

“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”
― C.G. Jung

 

The unforgiving reason
the cursing of because
the illuminating question
seeing the future that was

 

Finding sense in nonsense
and somewhere in between
I seek to find you seeking
the me I’ve never been

 

No reason in my rhyme
the clock is unforgiving
my verse is unrehearsed
is there life in living?

 

The dream that I had waking
the distance seen up close
the paradox unraveling
along the path I chose

 

Yet in this senseful nonsense
the centre may be still
I may find you peaceful
if that is my will

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 
 

Images Shifting in Multicoloured FlamesImages Shifting in Multi-Coloured Flames by G A Rosenberg

 

Ye Artist Melting into the BackgroundYe Artist Melting Into the Background by G A Rosenberg

 

Dreaming Darkness Awakenings

 

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
― Carl Jung

 

Out of darkness I create
luminous pictures
without the void emptiness
that empty place inside
what could come through
my fingers and mind
to entertain
Everything comes from the shadows
and awakens
and shines
Without shadow there is not substance
so I will continue to draw
and invoke and invite whatever may come
so I may create beauty and understanding
and conscious shadow
that may awaken dreams within us all
and awaken in dreams’ shadow
a higher calling…
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-size:

 

A SummoningA Summoning by G A Rosenberg

 

Propagating EmanationsPropagating Emanations by G A Rosenberg

 

Dreams and Shadows

 

“Nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by the day.”
― C.G. Jung

 

In our dreams we see wonders. Some of them give us positive feelings. We dream of loved ones or walk in fantasy realms. Others are more unsettling. Our own personal symbols of darkness come and threaten us in some way. Our fears play out and we wake up haunted. Yet what one person finds deeply unsettling another might find entertaining. Is it because some of us have darker shadows than others and a greater list of what we are unwilling to face? WIf we can look at our fears in the light of day than our dreams may become lighter. Perhaps tho its easier to externalize our shadows in dreams and work them out there. I guess it all depends on what we’re willing to face.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

I Dreamt a Skewed LandscapeI Dreamt a Skewed Landscape by G A Rosenberg

 

Guardian of Dark DreamsGuardian of Dark Dreams by G A Rosenberg

Of Virgins, Brothels and Understanding

 

“Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar’s gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world. There, in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul.”
— Carl Jung

 

Can a virgin ever understand a brothel? He can come to know how the business works I suppose. He (or she) could come to understand the clientele, how the bookkeeping works, who has to be paid off and when and even know the workers by name. But to understand viscerally what really goes on, one has to plunge right in and experience the needs that are met and the physicality of the act involved.
Academia can be pretty dry. On the one hand a university education can teach and encourage critical thinking. On the other hand it can encourage a constant dissection of ideas without a visceral feel for whatever is being studied. It is easy to become so involved in critiquing the form an argument takes that the point of it gets lost. Analyzed and examined but not understood much like our poor virgin.
Sometimes the only way to fully understand an idea is to inhabit it and see how it fits. Otherwise we remain on the outside looking in and critiquing without getting the full gist.
<Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Emotion of the ShadowEmotion of the Shadow by G A Rosenberg

 

Lighting the WayLighting the Way (Blue Yods) by G A Rosenberg

Treating Myself With Compassion

 

“What if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and the most impudent of offenders are all within me; and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I, myself, am the enemy who must be loved — what then?”
― C.G. Jung

 

A strange thing about actively seeking one’s own shadow self is how difficult it becomes to criticize others. I see in myself the cynical jaded parts, the sarcastic parts, the parts that may wish another ill or wish to take advantage of others. I seldom, if ever, act on these impulses but still I know they’re there. I also have a painful awareness of the criticism I have cast upon others for this very trait. At times I catch myself becoming critical of someone else’s unkindness. I have the temptation to be derisive until I sense the echo of myself and realize that the unkindness is something that has come up for me too. Oops.
As I said I catch myself. I cannot deny the negative parts of myself because all too often denial is the nourishment that the shadow thrives on. Still if I come down too hard on myself it is no good either. How can I learn compassion for others if I have not yet learned compassion for myself? So I step back and observe the process. I practice kindness, if not gentleness on myself..acknowledging even the rough parts that will one day shine.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Origami MandalaOrigami Mandala by G A Rosenberg
 

intertwinedIntertwined by G A Rosenberg

A Conversation With My Future Self

 

“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

 

Lately I have been attending a webinar life coaching series. One of the exercises in it is a guided meditation to talk to my future self. In it I evoke that best possible self and engage in conversation with him. I imagine it would be something like this.
I start out walking on the beach in Tofino, BC. Tofino has always been a magical spiritual place for me tho I have not known many beaches that aren’t. There the land, sea and air meet beautifully and there is a sense of peace. Especially at night. In this walk, I pass by a campfire and there is someone sitting there watching the flames. I know this man somehow tho we haven’t met. I can tell he is older than me but there is a joy and peace in his eyes that somehow make him look younger.
“Are you going to sit down or what. I’ve been waiting for you and we don’t have a lot of time.”
I look at him again and of course I catch on pretty quickly. Between the science fiction I’ve read and the spirit visions I’ve known both my own and that of others. Besides the face may be slightly different but it is close enough to the one I see reflected in the mirror.
“What year are you from?”
“Oh not too far ahead but enough that when you called I came to help.”
“How has it been going?”
“For us and those around us not too bad. Believe it or not, we’re still here and things have gotten better. I can’t say how. Spoilers you know.” We both grin at the Dr Who quote.
“How are Zev and Aaron?”
“They’re both doing great. Oh Zev still knows how to push our buttons yet the communication improves quickly from the point you’re at now. We do a lot of laughing. Aaron is doing great. He has actually learned how to take and enjoy down time and we’ve done a lot of travelling. We’ve come a long way together in many ways. Like you always tell people, ‘shovel the shit out of the communication room and good things will happen.’The rest… Well let’s save some mystery.”
“Well what can you tell me? Do we manage to focus on art? Was the tarot book published? How about web design? What have you learned?”
“Well which deck and book are you working on now? Oh yes, still the first one… well that one goes over well tho didn’t set the world on fire. Still people said your poetry made the cards clearer for them…We do work on the more complex one that you are so worried about. Listen you’re on the right path. Yes we meander but we always end up exactly where we need to be. Our combination of dumb luck and internal guidance still stands. I do recommend more time spent meditating. The time I’ve spent paid off well on helping me focus. Play to our strengths and you’ll be fine. You have an amazing ability to communicate in various ways and you can and will help many. Believe it or not, you’ll second guess yourself a lot less as time goes on. Remember there are no mistakes. Just lessons we give ourselves on the way”
“Wow all the things I tell other people.”
“Yes, don’t you think its time you listened to yourself…”
“Obviously.” We both laughed. I liked the confidence I saw in this older me. I also liked it that he had kept himself in shape. He was at least 20 lbs lighter than I am and was well toned. The fire started burning down.
“It’s time for me to leave.”
“Wait I still have questions.”
“Do what you do now. Keep the question in mind and then go get busy doing something else. Take the dogs for a walk. Do dishes. Listen to music or meditate. You’ll get the answers the way you always do.” He started to fade into shadows.
“Any last words?”
“Take Neil Gaiman’s advice, trust yourself and trust your story. You’ve already done more than you realize. It’s not going to be all joy and laughter but you already know that. Keep your sense of humour, try to do something productive, crossing a few things off your list each day and you’ll be fine. Goodbye, I love you.” He was gone.
I sat by the remains of the fire, lost in thought and smiled.

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Another Land Another TimeAnother Land, Another Time by G A Rosenberg

 

Dark FountainDark Fountain 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

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

Self-Creation — A Consciousness Stream

 

“But, if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself.”
― C.G. Jung

 

Of What do I create myself? Out of the sunrise I see in the morning, pink clouds and fiery majesty? out of the smiles of little children? out of the complaints online and off of how the government, entertainment industry, world, lives of people do not suit them and why (rarely how) they need to be different? Out of the satisfaction of my elderly neighbour as she manages to reaffirm to herself that she can still do little chores in the garden? out of teenage frustration? out of joy in the company of my loved ones? out of the walk in the grass running with my dogs? out of cyberspace whisperings and ceremonial art? of bad puns and old song lyrics and wordplay? out of the mountains overlooking the shore? out of the influence of deities? Of my lover’s embrace as we sleep at night and the back rub that feels so good? Out of the night skies?
Each day I create myself anew out of all of this and so much more and feel both full and replenished.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

True ExpressionTrue Expression by G A Rosenberg

 

Gossamer MandalaGossamer Mandala by G A Rosenberg

A Shadowed Word Walk

“I must also have a dark side if I am to be whole”
— Carl G. Jung

 

Casting shadows
Auditioning everything
that I’ve discarded
so it can play its part.
If I deny it
it clings to me
If I claim it
it sings to me
that I / Not I
the parts I defy
yet at night
I know they’re there
my fear
that people will know
what I contain
it throws my meter off
Acceptance rises
and so must I
and make a plan
and make a stand
and face
what I cannot erase
that hidden self
for as I’ve been casting my shadow
it has been casting me…
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Give It A SpinGive It a Spin by G A Rosenberg

 

Cosmic TimepieceCosmic Timepiece by G A Rosenberg