Sunday, October 8, 2006

"Window Shopping"
11:14am


You can see the International Fountain reflected in this store window


Many African masks in one of the antique shops in Pioneer Square...


Carved crocodile in the antique shops...

I did not examine any of those items to see what the cost was. I'm sure it would have been more than I wanted to pay, even if I had the space and the desire. But I did get a small Shiva wielding a sword.

Monday, October 9, 2006

"Cauldron of Change"
5:33am


Passage way at the Woodland Park Zoo...

But I am not going to have more zoo pictures today. I just like that picture as a segue, a passage point. I'm going to instead share a poem. It maybe was inspired by a fresh look at "What is Xeper":

The Cauldron of Change

The cauldron of change,
into it, what do I put?
What pieces of action,
thought, aimed Will,
what will bring about the alchemy?
Life changing stuff here,
not wispy wishes
and worn clichés -
Hard Will and hard test.
I will not know how strong I am
until I am tested.
And yet I need to learn to be my own tester,
push my own boundaries,
push against my limitations,
all my 'I can'ts',
all that would keep me from my goals,
constraints more self made than any.

Fear, doubt,
who said
'Fear is the mind killer'
should add 'Fear is the soul killer',
If I stand on the precipice
and let it consume me.
But I can't fear fear.
That must go into the cauldron, as well,
along with all my dreams and hopes.

And therein, with my long desire,
I stir and stir and stir.

I think now, now is the only time to act.
I act from this moment based on how I acted in the last.
flame to flame to flame are the moments of consciousness.

But to strengthen the flame,
that is the goal of my Will and Xeper.
To break down my barriers,
my limitations.
If I can't go through a wall,
I will go around that wall.
I will get across,
and I know it will take every ounce of Will,
pointing, stirring, every moment.

Is that all it is,
raw determination of brute force?
Ah, but something else enters the cauldron,
and it indeed is of Mystery.
I declare my intention,
and unseen forces enter their gifts into the cauldron.
I do not struggle alone.

I cannot know all that goes into it,
I just am grateful.
But I am the one who stirs the pot,
who tastes the result,
and maybe who can share the result.

What will I cook up?
Today's recipe will not do for tomorrow.
I'll find a rare spice, perhaps,
I cannot know.
Meanwhile, I tend my cauldron pot,
and stir, stir, stir.
Today's dreams,
maybe tomorrows realities.

JAL, 10-9-06

Monday, October 9, 2006 B

"Sphinx"
8:47pm

I've been missing drawing, and so I think enough of photos for awhile, I want to do drawing. It's just a quick sketch of one of the sphinx' which accompany the London Cleopatra's Needle. These aren't actually Egyptian, but Victorian interpretations of what a sphinx should look like. And then I took the sketchy liberties even further:


Click to see it bigger...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

"Celtic Cauldron"
8:49pm

I did not know it before, but after sharing my 'Cauldron of Change' poem, one reader told me the cauldron features in Celtic mythology. I vaguely remembered seeing a cauldron offered at 'Sacred Source', and from there I went to learn more. Of course, Wikipedia has the best pictures of the Gundestrup cauldron, but the Danish museum which houses it has one, too.

One source declares "The Dagda can be seen as an ancient father-god who was symbolically linked to the great mother goddess through his great cauldron of regeneration." Another source explains further, "In the Welsh story-cycle, the Mabinogi, warriors slain in battle are put into it and emerge alive." This cauldron appears later as the Arthurian grail, but there is an transitional old Welsh poem called "Preiddeu Annwfn" in which Arthur goes to the Underworld, Annwfn, to retrieve the same magic cauldron. This "is probably the origin of the Grail Quest, since the cauldron of Annwfn is also an inexhaustible source of food, as is the Grail."

The author of "The Shattered Realm" goes into more depths about these transformative processes, and the Grail as "the symbolic manifestation of the Divine Self." 'Cauldron of Change', indeed!

I took a stab at drawing the Gundestrup Cauldron:


I couldn't capture many of the tiny details, but you can see some griffins there...


Frustrated with the poor capture, I then focused on just one panel...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

"Sleepless..."
1:46am


My spontaneous drawing reflects the reason for my wakefulness...

Tum tum seems to have mostly settled now, I'll return to bed.

Saturday, October 14, 2006 A

"Time Doodle..."
7:53am


'Time doodle', maybe reflects learning that light is 'electrical/magnetic energy', and its waves called photons?

We are watching a teaching series on astronomy. Much of it is difficult to understand, many formulas and such, but other parts serve as fuel for the imagination, perhaps?

Meanwhile as I ponder what directions my art and writing will go in, I seem to get this message:

This moment of confusion, it is good for you. Stay on the edge, stay wired, alert, don't get sleepy. Only in the confusion can anything be brought forth new.

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