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| Oh, Blogger...where are your photo enhancement tools? |
p. 220 AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar (1973)
PHASE 257 (SAGITTARIUS 17°): AN EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE DRAWS A LARGE CROWD.
KEYNOTE: The culturally stimulated longing for group participation in a process of rebirth.
Since the very early days of man's evolution, religions and cults of various types have used the most significant periods in the year's cycle to dramatize the deepest longings of human nature, thus giving them direction, meaning, and through group action, a greater dynamic intensity. Easter is the Christian way of celebrating the coming of the spring and the rebirth of life on this earth after the hardships of winter.
At this second stage of the five-fold sequence we see, in contrast to the first, man discovering in nature's cycles great movements that stimulate his spiritual quest for the psychic and mental equivalent of solar light and warmth. The obvious Keyword here is REBIRTH.
Girlcapsule's Response:
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| From Edward Gorey's Fantod Pack: The Black Doll |
I feel this is a good moment to revisit my intention for this blog-series. I want to explore the possibility of a cross-pollination of the kinds of conversations we have been having around topics such as Tarot, Astrology, or any such divination practice. So much of what I read now is more about bridging these ways of knowing with a more scientific-materialistic outlook. Making the links where possible, and otherwise pointing to deep mystery. I want to move past this foundation and reinforcement process, and begin to hear more accounts of a phenomenological nature. What are you experiencing that is magical? How does the Soul of the World speak to you?
I've added a shot here of a card from Edward Gorey's Fantod Pack. This card The Black Doll is the only card in a deck of twenty that does not have the title of the card included with the image. That is the reason I've chosen it. The guide book for Gorey's The Black Doll says: In the words of the old rhyme. What most you fear Is coming near. Some of the things I noticed: breaking lines of the script in the photo, irregularities of capitalization and punctuation. About the image I noticed The Black Doll looks as if it is made out of stones, also its shadow suggests standing in the light of mid-day.
I feel The Black Doll will have an on-going presence in the developing conversation. To my mind The Black Doll represents the universal force of cataclysm—or any expression of the process of taking things apart by destroying their material structure, or so drastically changing it that something entirely new springs forth. This is the time of dissolution and gestation. The old is passing away too too quickly. Humans are in need of trans-dimensional collaboration, for processing differently—perhaps discovering simply our purpose in light of the cataclysmic cresting wave that is this moment rising up in front of us.
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| One of these special stones appeared to me recently in a dream |
Sometimes I like to fantasize that the mystery schools of antiquity are alive and well and establishing friendly bonds now cross-culturally. These secrets in Gorey's deck...could it be sending some kind of message out to those who may be looking for such things? Is it possible that could be happening even unconsciously? What does our structural knowledge, now enhanced by the added study of physics at the quantum level, tell us about this possibility?
I sometimes pretend on a walk that I've wandered into the Imaginal Realm with my eyes open. By allowing my imagination to roam into wondering I began to entertain playful possibilities:
- Imagining that something like a 'sign' could pop out magically. FREE LEONARD! (Apparently the Eucalypti at Indian Rock are currently on board with social justice activism)
- Imagine one day our clothing will be capable of roiling out image and text, maybe some algorithm creatively tracking some beautiful whim (i.e. meme generate: Tributes to Lewis Carroll!)
- Entertaining the idea that the Berkeley Pathways are wormholes into a depth of trans-dimensional labyrinth where also other sentient species dwell, shape-shifters and beings with trans-conscious resonance capacities
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| Jabberwokian Meme{style Algorithm |
In any case, my playful (if poorly formulated) metaphysical ponderings are done in the spirit that Rudhyar so beautifully describes: "...[girlcapsule] discovering in nature's cycles great movements that stimulate [her] spiritual quest for the psychic and mental equivalent of solar light and warmth." I hope Rudhyar would take no issue with this slight reformulation of his words.
I spent a week at Esalen in Big Sur recently. This is the fifth year in a row that I have been able to attend this annual retreat of my program: Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (PCC, CIIS). Early on in the week one of the others said to me that they had an experience of seeing stone people. I've learned not to ask too many questions in such a moment, I just drink in what is offered. The more magic I experience, the more I learn to keep quietly inviting it forward, as I might a new friend.
My imagination was sparked to the memory of a vivid lucid dream I had, a year or so before, I found myself at a beautiful out-door market on a rise overlooking a beautiful valley backed by mountains rising in hues of blue. I became distracted with the spectacle of a magenta-skinned blonde-haired female taking one of her customers to task as she worked the register. A movement in the field beyond caught my attention. I was astonished to see a female giantess made of stone making her slow way across the field. Her height was in competition with that of the mountains from my dream-scape perspective. I remember seeing her pause to look up into the sky. She stood transfixed for half a minute before coming back into herself and moving on.
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| PCC Esalen Retreat 2012 |
I will boldly draw a link here to notice the gathering of consumers at the outdoor market as an echo of today's symbol: An easter sunrise service draws a large crowd. In the case of my dream, the new religion is represented as one involving supply and demand in the most material of ways, though I'm happy to report that the market of my dream-scape's atmosphere felt healthy and balanced. There was no anxiety in the crowd, no sense that one wouldn't be able to find what was needed. The focus seemed rather on the possibility of discovering something that called out to be brought into circulation.
Random Note:
Rudhyar leaves the word easter in as lower-case. It struck me as being quite intentional, perhaps in order to allow an inclusiveness that might otherwise seem co-opted by easter-capital-E.
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