Tag: meaning

Four Pillars Society Tarot: Justice

 

Notes on Justice

(It Comes and Goes)

 
Artist’s Notes on the Card:
The wheel is in motion and we chose to either spin it or spin on it. The question is this. Are we willing to take the consequences of our actions? For me, the concepts of Justice and Personal Responsibility tend to be entwined. Everything we do has consequences and none of our actions takes place in a vacuum. That being said, we all have the freedom to do anything we want. As long as we are willing to take responsibility for it. In the end, everything becomes part of the balance.
Yes, there is humour in this card. The Goddess of Justice is shown to be a chameleon, still blind and if you want to know her name, pay attention to the colours of the card. Those are the colours of this particular dream.
The ancient Egyptians believed that after they died, the jackal-headed god Anubis would weigh their hearts (representing their sin) against the weight of a feather. If the heart was too heavy, the afterlife would be rougher. Interesting how the only sins that count are the ones that weigh heavily on our hearts. Here, in place of the heart is a pregnancy test showing positive. Given how messed up, the average person in today’s age is around topics of sex and pregnancy, it seemed an appropriate representation of those sins.
 
 
About the Archetype:
 
When we find ourselves on our own in this world we are faced with a number of choices. Even the smallest decisions can have lasting ramifications on our life. Occasionally we will make ones that seem to damage us in some way. We choose the wrong job or partner or develop habit-forming indulgences. We end up having to face the consequences of these decisions either circumstantially, emotionally, or mentally. Do we learn from our past missteps and take more responsibility for our choices armed with that knowledge? Do we overcompensate by choosing the exact opposite only to suffer a different set of consequences? How do we find a balance between the two and take full charge of our lives? This is the lesson of the Justice card.
 
In the long run the decisions we make really don’t matter as much as our willingness to claim them. Life will work with whatever we give it to teach us the lessons we need and growth is unavoidable. The greater our ability to take on the responsibility for our own spiritual and emotional growth, the faster it will happen. By accepting what life has taught us so far and using that to govern our further actions we find that balance within ourselves.
 
There are certain things that will happen to us such as natural disasters, injury, or sickness that we aren’t responsible for yet still have to deal with. Part of learning responsibility is realizing what is and isn’t our fault. While we might not be able to control these events, we can still control our response to them instead of falling into pits of self-pity or remorse. It is both in the act of response and how we respond to everything that we face in life that determines our growth. How fast can we adjust to the changes and regain our equilibrium?
 
 
Astrological Correspondent:
 
Libra (♎︎)-Libra, symbolized by the scales, is the sign of harmony and balance. The Libra energy wants things to stay in balance and on an even keel and will do anything possible to reestablish things that have gone awry. Libra works best when it is in tandem with another. The Libra energy is intensely curious, especially about others and can be extremely charming. At times tho there is a tendency towards gossip, perhaps causing a bit of disharmony that can later balance out. Libra’s planetary ruler is Venus and love and beauty are strong motivators. The sign is the diplomat of the zodiac and works hard to find the best compromise between disputing factors. As an air sign communication is one of Libra’s gifts and it will talk its way out of difficulty.
 
 
In a Reading:
 
When Justice turns up in a reading it can often mean that things are working out in a fair and balanced way. The querent is facing the natural consequences both positive and negative of his actions. It would benefit them to realize exactly how their past choices have brought them to this point. It can also mean that the querent is facing a decision that will have both major and minor consequences for them and they need to be very conscious of the direction that they choose. Justice means that it is time to be honest with oneself and others and encourages the querent to be fair in their dealings. It is a great opportunity for self-knowledge. It can also mean that there are legal issues at hand for the querent and that the outcome will be a fair one.
 
Inversed or badly aspected, the Justice card may indicate that there are ways in which the querent is being dishonest with himself and others. It may mean that they are refusing to take responsibility for what is happening and seeking to place the blame elsewhere. It may mean tho that the querent is facing dishonesty or unfairness from an outside source and is trying to deal with it as best as possible. Reversed Justice can mean that they need to take the high ground and act honourably even if others around them aren’t. It may also mean a legal decision that is not in the querent’s favour.
 
Fate’s Whisper:
 
Karma originated as a force to assist the agents of death in judging souls after they died. This being would later be adopted in many cultures as many reincarnated souls would tell their recount in their encounters with this being. Born as one of the many tools the Spider of Fate used to enact change in its wake. While controversial among the higher brass nothing could be done since it was used within the confines of Energy’s Will.
 
If you will notice a pregnancy test took the place of the heart on the Scales of Judgement. In modern times this became the object of determining a time-chosen responsibility. Regardless of how it was made, just like Karma’s position to its creator, it is time whoever is involved it faced with a choice. To take responsibility for your actions and take the current state of consequences, or run and potentially make the end result better or worse based on your actions. Look at your options before you act after all justice is watching you carefully.
 

Shaping Words – Shaping Worlds

 

“Words don’t change their shape, they change their meaning, their function … They don’t have a meaning of their own any more, they refer to other words that you don’t know, that you’ve never read or heard…you’ve never seen their shape, but you feel … you suspect … they correspond to … an empty space inside you … or in the universe …”
— Marguerite Duras

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Dragon ArchDragon Arch by G A Rosenberg

 

Lost in Fractal PerspectiveLost in a Fractal Perspective by G A Rosenberg

 

Space For Brilliance

 

“The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop people from expressing themselves, but rather, force them to express themselves. What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, or ever rarer, the thing that might be worth saying.”
— Gilles Deleuze

 

Forced to speak,
to produce mediocrity
“Shit sells” they say
and then they buy it
push it, produce it
get all to try it
yet still the scream
from deep within
“Give me the space for some wisdom”
a brilliant piece from week to week
a rarer use for my art
yet they’d rather use me constantly
draining the juices
finding the uses
of garbage, words meaningless
Speak your truth often
so mickey mouse
yet if I can wait
my words will be brief
and wondrous
yet still they come
yet still they come
— G A Rosenberg

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Window Into Another ExistenceWindow Into Another Existence by G A Rosenberg

 

ShimmeringShimmering by G A Rosenberg

 

Three Archetypal Aspects

 

“A symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the ‘sense’ and the ‘meaning’ of the symbol. It seems to me perfectly clear that all the great and little symbolical systems of the past functioned simultaneously on three levels: the corporeal of waking consciousness, the spiritual of dream, and the ineffable of the absolutely unknowable. The term ‘meaning’ can refer only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols but of signs. The ineffable, the absolutely unknowable, can be only sensed. It is the province of art which is not ‘expression’ merely, or even primarily, but a quest for, and formulation of, experience evoking, energy-waking images: yielding what Sir Herbert Read has aptly termed a ‘sensuous apprehension of being.”
— Joseph Campbell

 

We build new symbol systems on the roots of the old. The same archetypes show up again and again whether they be Emperor, Fool, Mother, Thunder, or Death. Each time they arise, new aspects of their universal selves are described and no one can encompass their full meaning. More than ever before we have access to the symbol systems of the past. We know that the messenger god Hermes was seen as Thoth in Egypt, Eschu in Santeria culture and Legba in Voudon. There is always a messenger between man and the gods who stands at the crossroads and tricks our minds into being able to receive the message. We can roll these similar archetypes into one yet still there will be something missed. It seems that archetypes like T. S. Elliot’s Cats have three names or aspects, The Face we give them, the face they give themselves and a universal ineffable face that is beyond understanding as a full facet of multiversal existence.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Towards a Deeper AwarenessTowards a Deeper Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

PlexusPlexus by G A Rosenberg

 

Three Archetypal Aspects

 

“A symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the ‘sense’ and the ‘meaning’ of the symbol. It seems to me perfectly clear that all the great and little symbolical systems of the past functioned simultaneously on three levels: the corporeal of waking consciousness, the spiritual of dream, and the ineffable of the absolutely unknowable. The term ‘meaning’ can refer only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols but of signs. The ineffable, the absolutely unknowable, can be only sensed. It is the province of art which is not ‘expression’ merely, or even primarily, but a quest for, and formulation of, experience evoking, energy-waking images: yielding what Sir Herbert Read has aptly termed a ‘sensuous apprehension of being.”
— Joseph Campbell

 

We build new symbol systems on the roots of the old. The same archetypes show up again and again whether they be Emperor, Fool, Mother, Thunder, or Death. Each time they arise, new aspects of their universal selves are described and no one can encompass their full meaning. More than ever before we have access to the symbol systems of the past. We know that the messenger god Hermes was seen as Thoth in Egypt, Eschu in Santeria culture and Legba in Voudon. There is always a messenger between man and the gods who stands at the crossroads and tricks our minds into being able to receive the message. We can roll these similar archetypes into one yet still there will be something missed. It seems that archetypes like T. S. Elliot’s Cats have three names or aspects, The Face we give them, the face they give themselves and a universal ineffable face that is beyond understanding as a full facet of multiversal existence.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Towards a Deeper AwarenessTowards a Deeper Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

PlexusPlexus by G A Rosenberg

 

Meaningful, Meaning Less

 

“The poet…is the man of metaphor: while the philosopher is interested only in the truth of meaning, beyond even signs and names, and the sophist manipulates empty signs…the poet plays on the multiplicity of signifieds.”
— Jacques Derrida

 

Use my words
to find their meaning
play with their tone
to find their truth
concepts, shadowy but obscure
may only come from images
reflected in the mind’s eye
I use my meaning
to find my words
rolling from tongue to song
to ear to hear
what resonates
and is returned
Sense the tense
in words and truth
Release it
and it changes.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Guarded ReactionGuarded Reaction by G A Rosenberg

 

Marsh TulipMarsh Tulip by G A Rosenberg

 

A Truer Gift

 

“There is no meaning in life. The meaning is in sentences, meaning is in symbols that symbolize life. Life itself does not have a meaning because that’s what meaning refers too, meaning refers to life. To look for meaning in life is like looking for trees on a map. You can find squiggles that represent trees but you won’t find the trees there. The squiggles only represent the trees or the rivers. You can’t wash in a river on a map, you gotta find a real river”
— Robert Anton Wilson

 

Do you know what I mean? Do you grok what I’m saying? Do you stand under my words and comprehend them? When you look at a picture or read a poem what does it reveal to you? Is it what the author or artist intended to convey or have you found something independent of their intentions that allows you to take ownership because it has brought you to something or something to you that no one else has seen?
I get real pleasure when someone points out something in my pictures that I had not consciously put there. Oh often when they point it out, I see it but somehow they have taken something that I created and breathed new life into it. In this small way my art has grown beyond me. So when someone says “I love the face that you put in there”. I smile and thank them for being so observant. They have revealed to me something that I had created without realizing it. I can’t image a truer gift.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Power From the CentrePower From the Centre by G A Rosenberg

 

MurmurMurmur (#54 in Goetia Series) by G A Rosenberg

 

Pagan For the Holidays

 

“To be pagan and claim personal affront at the idea of Christmas more so than at Ramadan, Yom Kippur or any other Abrahamic or Eastern religion is not an indication of free thought. Indeed it indicates that one is still a slave to one’s upbringing.”
— Randall Wolfe

 

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the idea of holiday celebrating this past few weeks. I tend to find much about this time of year questionable. Roads and stores are crowded. People seem a good deal crankier and less likely to smile as they look for the perfect way to express to their loved ones in a material way how they want to be perceived as caring about them. People try hard to maintain their roles in each year’s extended family drama. Kids seem more anxious and stressed about what they are getting and whether they have lived up to some perceived standard of behaviour and will be thus rewarded. The list can go on and on and that doesn’t even touch on some of my religious objections.
I freely admit that I do not subscribe to the Jewish, Christian or Islamic faiths. If I had to describe my beliefs at all it would be as wildly eclectic with strong pagan and thelemic leanings. As most who read this blog know, when it comes to faith and universal understandings I have many many questions and relatively few answers. This is not from lack of knowledge of the different options out there, indeed I have studied many of the world’s religions in farther depths than most of their adherents. Thus the questions arise.
Still I try to find meaning in every day I am alive and I applaud others who do the same. If they do this by connecting within a cultural framework and it means something to them that is awesome. Thus I have no problem exchanging “Merry Christmases” or “Happy Chanukahs” or “Joyful Kwanzas” with those who celebrate and I do not trod on their traditions. It is not my business what anyone else chooses to believe and any reason is a good one to celebrate. I graciously accept presents as tokens that someone thought me worthy of their time and I give such tokens as I have because for some a gift at a particular time of year means “I love you too” in a language that they can understand. If this is hypocrisy than it is a small one that I can live with.
The Northern Hemisphere is about at Solstice. The time of least light and greatest darkness. Many cultures celebrate the return of the light and the progress of the seasons no matter what mythology they attach to it. I wish all a pleasant Yule and solstice and a wonderful re-manifestation out of the dark in whatever form it takes.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Lord of the GladeLord of the Glade by G A Rosenberg

 

Drifting through the Fractal SpacesDrifting Through the Fractal Spaces by G A Rosenberg

 

Words Shape and Art Portrays… A Consciousness Stream

 

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.”
― Philip K. Dick

 

“There exists, for everyone, a sentence – a series of words – that has the power to destroy you. Another sentence exists, another series of words, that could heal you. If you’re lucky you will get the second, but you can be certain of getting the first.”
― Philip K. Dick

 

It all comes down to words doesn’t it? “In the beginning was the word…”The word is spoken or writ and reality forms around it..Words of power..words of control…and we and the universe manifests the words in form and actions.A picture may be worth a thousand words yet it is the words that come to mind . We move beyond words into silence which is broken by a new word that comes even from the deepest of meditations. What’s the word? What will the word be today?
Say the magic word…I have been sentenced twice according to Dick… and yes one tore me apart and the other healed or came close to it…It’s only words yet they have power…or maybe I am just having one of my spells. If you can discover the words that can destroy or heal before they are used on you than you have a powerful talisman indeed tho there is always the next sentence…
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

The Gold Dragon AwaitsThe Gold Dragon Awaits by G A Rosenberg

 

Mind Drifting in Totemic SpaceMind Drifting in Totemic Space by G A Rosenberg

 

Do I Know what I Mean?

 

“People have a very firm conviction, or belief, that they speak the same language, that they understand one another.
Actually this conviction has no foundation whatever. The language which they speak is adapted to practical life only. People communicate to one another information of a practical character, but as soon as they pass to a slightly more complex sphere they are immediately lost, and the cease to understand one another, although they are unconscious of it.”
— G I Gurdjieff

 

Language is a tricky business. People talk at each other and seldom realize that they are using the same words to mean two or more different things. Words like war or freedom or love or concepts like free will, acceptable losses, faith, religion, or meme. The words that people use in conversation with each other without sharing meaning is nigh endless. What’s even stranger is how often we use these words without having a full understanding of what we ourselves mean when we use it and how for many of these ambiguous terms, our meaning changes from day to day, conversation to conversation or hour to hour. When we say God do we mean an all-knowing guy in a white beard strolling through the sky? Do we mean an archetype, one of several that is part of the shared unconscious of mankind, an all-loving compassionate being, an angry vengeful parent. Is he internal or external? Then we can talk about love. I love you. Do I mean by that that I feel affection towards you and am trying to elicit whether you feel affection back? Do I mean it in a general sense that I love all of mankind and since you are part of that you share in my love? Does it mean I want to make love to you? Does it mean I would lay down my life for you or put your needs above my own? What if I’m not sure and it just seems like a good thing to say at the time? It always seems somewhat miraculous that any of us are able to communicate with each other at all. I guess we should thank god (or gods or goddess) for small miracles.
Blessings, G

 

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Butterfly TrailsButterfly Trails by G A Rosenberg

 

Dark DreamingDark Dreaming by G A Rosenberg