true will - Waking Spirals

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 Expansion by G A Rosenberg

Snake’s Lair by G A Rosenberg

Nuclear Coral by G A Rosenberg

Our Guiding Passions

“Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping… waiting… and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir… open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us… guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love… the clarity of hatred… the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we’d be truly dead.”
— Joss Whedon

Where is your passion? Where is your bliss? What is it that makes you come alive? Focus on that beyond all the distractions and beyond the fields of good and evil, right & wrong and watch how your life changes for the better. Our passions drive us in the direction of our will and place in the universe. They are the pipers of that interior music that only we can hear and communicate through our art. The more we follow what we feel passionate about, the more we develop in the directions we were meant to go.
Blessings, G

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Apep in the Field by G A Rosenberg

Weaving a New Reality by G A Rosenberg

None of My Business

“What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.”
― Martha Graham

Not only does it not matter what people think of us but its none of our business. Its a truly subversive thought in today’s society yet its true. So many of us get caught up worrying about what other people may think or say about us that we put on a mask of social acceptability and stop being ourselves altogether. Yet why should it matter? The only thing we are accountable for is to be true to ourselves and the only person whom we are accountable to for that is ourselves. People will have opinions. They always do. They may even say them but in the long run there opinions are not our stuff. If we could but live by that think how liberating that would be.
The corollary to that that what we think of others is none of their business also feels true to me. I tend to chant both of these as a mantra whenever I start to tell someone what I think of them or about something they’ve done. It’s human to have opinions about what people do and say. We have judgement and we use it. However when it comes down to it who are we to interfere with the will of another?
Of course there are exceptions to this rule, if I see an adult beating on a child or someone beating on someone smaller I will put a stop to it. I will try to do so keeping my opinions to myself tho. As to what they may think of me stopping them, well that’s none of my business.
Blessings, G

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Turning Wheels Within Wheels by G A Rosenberg

Solve et Coagula by G A Rosenberg

Worlds and Words Compressed

“I think we are worlds compressed into human form.”
— Jeanette Winterson

Stars, worlds and words made flesh
and set into orbit
We are so much more than we believe
and oft so different too
Significant in our potential
more so than in what we present
both to ourselves and others.
To transcend form and function
to free the worlds, nay the stars that we are
is the aim
tho not if we lose sight of why we compressed ourselves here in the first place.
The lessons we came here to learn and the interactions we need to have.
Besides that purpose its all smoke and mirror games
we dream up to keep it interesting.

Funny, I misread Ms. Winterson’s quote originally saying that “we are words compressed into human form” and I rather liked that notion. We are all the word made flesh, the spirit cloaked in matter. We recreate ourselves with words all of the time, accruing stories and carrying them around like the Ancient Mariner and his albatross. Of course we have the freedom to change our stories at any time but not that primal word that we manifest. I tend to believe that that word is our purpose and on some level it is the quest of each of us to find it.

Blessings, G

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Star Chamber by G A Rosenberg

Caught Up in the Machine by G A Rosenberg

Compassion and Paradox

“Toast, toast, toast…nothing trite, nothing corny, nothin crude. There went most of my repertoire. I remembered once I’d heard a wise old barkeeper say once, and used it: “To the ones who weren’t as lucky.”
–Spider Robinson

I recently thought of a paraphrase of the old capitalist motto: “He who dies with the most joys wins”. By this, I mean that a life measured in moments of joy, love and wonder seems much more worthwhile than a life measured in things acquired. Of course, to really up our joy levels, it helps if we discover and live our life’s purpose, our true will for a life filled fulfilling one’s purpose would almost naturally be a life enjoyed.
I have had friends challenge me on this. They ask me how I can enjoy my life when there is so much misery around. The very planet itself suffers from the rather horrible things being done to her. People live in terror and poverty and shame. Where is their joy and how can I possibly be happy without turning a blind eye to all of the pain. The simple answer is that I can’t turn away. I feel the suffering of others and feel it acutely. I do what I can and it is never enough.
Like so much in life there is paradox involved. Can I help others best by wallowing in misery with them or can I do more by radiating the joy of a life lived to its fullest? Compassion can often mean that our heart hurts and we feel the joy of existence simultaneously. This is seldom an easy balance but a worthwhile one to find.
Blessings, G

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Projecting From the Centre by G A Rosenberg

Humaniform by G A Rosenberg

Multi-Wheels by G A Rosenberg

Breaking Rules

“You are remembered for the rules you break.”
–Douglas MacArthur

Often in order to live our lives in the way that is truest to our selves we have to break the rules. It may be by how and who we love, how we learn or sometimes just by the act of being in countries that would rather we didn’t. Oh there are more prosaic rule breaking that happens every day. If laws are passed telling us we can’t collect fresh rainwater or that we can’t grow certain kinds of food on our property, then chances are that if that is what we wish to do that is what we’ll do. There are so many laws and ordinances in the countries in which most of us live that it is nigh impossible to go a day without violating one rule or another. Thus is life in a world where “Everything not forbidden is compulsory and everything that is not compulsory is forbidden” seems to become closer with each passing month. Yet the most important rule to me is that of living according to one’s truest nature. As long as we do this than any other rule becomes secondary. As Bob Dylan said, “To live outside the law, you have to be honest.”
Blessings, G

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Somewhat Platonic Fractal Campfires by G A Rosenberg

Origami Plant by G A Rosenberg

Breaking Social Restrictions (or perhaps just Bending them a might)

“No person of quality ever remembers social restrictions save when considering how most piquantly to break them.”
― James Branch Cabell

It started in my Junior year of High School. My parents sent me to a private school that had an amazing number of rules that seemed to govern every aspects of our time and behaviour. It seemed so much more restrictive than the public school I had been in the year before. Fairly early on tho I began to gain a new understanding. Because there were so many rules to keep track of, the part of the faculty responsible for discipline were kept on their toes. As in any bureaucratic system the more rules there are, the easier it is to manipulate the system. Because I showed an aptitude for math, they wanted to move me up one class. They told me it was up to me to decide where I felt most comfortable. I could take the lower class third period and have fourth period free or I could take the more advanced class forth period and have the third period free. It really was an easy decision. I told my forth period teacher that I was taking the easier math and the third period teacher, I was taking the advanced class and for three months, I enjoyed a double free period. By the time they had caught up to me and decided to keep me in detention for quite awhile, I had left to see if there was life outside of high school. Five months later when I came back, the heads of the school were rather dumbfounded and allowed me to take two classes during the summer and graduate with my class the next year. To be honest they didn’t know what hit them..
Since then I have learned that breaking and bending rules social and otherwise have consequences, yet not all of them are necessarily negative ones. Its a matter of self-honesty (Bob Dylan said that if you lived outside the law you have to be honest and he was correct) , understanding the reasons why the rules are there in the first place (not all rules are bad–there are as many rules are in place to promote safety as there are rules that benefit the convenience of those in charge). If we rebel for the sake of rebellion only than we are still being controlled by others, in that we are reacting to them rather than following what is right for us. Figuring out what is right for ourselves and following that is of primary importance. Didn’t William Shakespeare say “Above all else to thine own self be true”
Blessings, G

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Pulling the Moon by G A Rosenberg

The Beating of Wings by G A Rosenberg

Something Good Beneath the Stars

“On soft Spring nights I’ll stand in the yard under the stars – Something good will come out of all things yet – And it will be golden and eternal just like that – There’s no need to say another word”
— Jack Kerouac

What lies untouched
stays pure,
the self behind the curtain
that we are just echoes of
masks, educational toys
that play out these dramas
to us so real
then put away at days end.
So we play our part
yet hear whispers of
life beyond this stage
and wonder
at fantasy’s construction
while discovering our will
and playing it out
as only artists can
our intent to know eternity
made manifest in our toy lives.
— G A Rosenberg

Blessings, G

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Red Blue Crystal Vision by G A Rosenberg

Distortion in the Signal by G A Rosenberg

Trust Your Inner Demon

“Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant -you just don’t know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you’d mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place.
Trust your demon.”
― Roger Zelazny

When I read quotes about writing or other forms of creating art, I often pause and consider how it may apply to the art of living itself. For aren’t we creating our lives as we go along? We may be inspired by various thing but ultimately our lives are our creations. Oh we can play it safe as Roger Zelazny here suggests and follow along either the path encouraged by others or by our younger selves. Occasionally tho life manages to surprise us with opportunities or possibilities we’ve never envisioned. Do we jump at them and take the chance or do we say, “No, this is my plan and I’m sticking to it” The choice is ours but it is always good to listen not to the voice of ‘reason’ (not to knock reason, it is what stops us from dancing blindfolded through traffic among other things, but if we did naught but listen to our reason we would miss out on so much) but to our inner voice, that inner spark that guides us. Whether we call it our True Will or our intuition or ‘Divine Guidance’, it tends to bring us the lessons we most need.
Of course, when we take the responsibility of choices made by our own inner guidance, we need to be willing to accept the consequences that may arise. Every decision has consequences tho including the decision not to act.
Blessings, G

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Origins by G A Rosenberg

Spreading His Wings by G A Rosenberg

Owning Yourself

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
–Friedrich Nietzsche

Going along with the crowd is easy. You get strokes of approval from those around you. You get to feel appreciated and heard. You get to feel powerful because a group of like- minded individuals working towards a goal are more powerful. It’s awesome.
But what happens when you find yourself disagreeing with the prevailing opinion? How do you handle it when everyone arounds you says that you’re wrong in what you believe or what you do? Do you cave under collective disapproval? What about when you are certain that you are correct in what you believe (especially when what they disapprove of is how you are living your life) or at least more considered than they are? As Nietzsche said it can be lonely and frightening but it is necessary. For each time we stand up as individuals we are doing our part to liberate all. Living according to our authentic selves (or our true will as some have called it) becomes one of the highest responsibilities we have as adults.
Blessings, G

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Charged by G A Rosenberg

Opal Landscape by G A Rosenberg