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Art ★ Oracle ★ Myth
Apr
24
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Ostara
Ostara, the Goddess of Dawn (Saxon), who was responsible for bringing spring each year, was feeling guilty about arriving so late. To make matters worse, she arrived to find a pitiful little bird who lay dying, his wings frozen by the snow. Lovingly, Ostara cradled the shivering creature and saved his life. Legend has it that she then made him her pet or, in the X-rated versions, her lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly because of his frost-damaged wings, the goddess Ostara turned him into a rabbit, a snow hare, and gave him the name Lepus. She also gave him the gift of being able to run with astonishing speed so he could easily evade all the hunters. To honor his earlier form as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less), but he was only allowed to lay eggs on one day out of each year. Get the whole story
Tags: Ostara
Apr
12
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TALE OF TWO PYRAMIDS
Pyramids seem to be making a comeback in contemporary art. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino’s monumental “Montagna di Sale” (Salt Mountain)––literally a mound of salt in the shape of a pyramid, 114-feet wide and 27-feet-tall––has been installed in the Piazzetta between the Dom and the Palazzo Reale in Milan. The work, which was first made twenty years ago in Gibellina and fifteen years ago at the Piazza del Plebescito in Naples, was recreated for the Mimmo Paladino retrospective taking place at the Piazza Reale and the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery Octagon. The exhibition continues until June 26.
Meanwhile at Berlin’s KW Institute, French artist Cyprien Gaillard also opted for a pyramid, albeit made out of boxes of beer. The Recovery of Discovery features hundreds of stacked boxes holding 72,000 bottles of the Turkish beer Efes, which were especially imported for the work. Unlike visitors to Paladino’s pyramid, visitors to Gaillard’s are invited to sit on the structure and to consume it––not grain by grain of salt, but beer bottle by beer bottle. According to another report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Gaillard linked the steps of the Pergamon Altar, an archeological find that was shipped from Turkey to Germany and which now stands in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, and his own drinkable altar. The exhibition continues, at least until the beer lasts, through May 22.
Tags: pyramids
Mar
28
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Da Qin Monastery
Pagoda of Jesus Sutras
Da Qin Monastery was a Nestorian Christian establishment
Tags: nestorian
Mar
23
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Rainbow
In some Tibetan tangkas, the circular rainbow stands for the actual presence of Buddha Samantabhadra, the All-good.
n many cultures the rainbow is a distinct deity. To the ancient Greeks, she was Iris the brightly gowned, winged daughter of Thaumas, god of wonder, and the sea goddess Electra, who was a messenger to Hera, Zeus’ lawful wife. Iris’ attributes are a staff and a pithos or jar. In her role as Hecate, Iris travels to the Underworld to testify to the oaths of the dying and she also has the power to detain their souls.
The Mayans used to make offerings of gold and silver to Ix Chel, goddess of the moon, water and the rainbow, who also ruled childbirth. She was depicted with clawed hands and her skirt was decorated with crossbones. She controlled the rain and her attribute was the jug of deluge which could visit devastation on the land. She also manifested as a sky serpent.
In China, it is a sky dragon uniting heaven and earth — the union of Yin and Yang. In Australia, it is the mother-source of all creation.
In Buddhist iconography, the five colours: blue, white, green, red and yellow stand for the five Buddha families. Orange is the hue associated with Bodhisattva, Manjushri. Light purple is associated with the protection afforded by Tara. Get the whole story
Tags: rainbow
Mar
23
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Primary colours/ triangles
as in Rene Guenon (d. 1951). Fundamental Symbols:: . . . . 2004.
If we put the three primary colours on the vertexes of a triangle pointing upwards and the three composed colours on the vertexes of a reverse triangle, so that each fundamental colour stands opposite its complement, we get a Solomon seal. This seal defines seven zones composed of six coloured triangles and a central non coloured hexagon. As the rainbow spectrum can be viewed by refraction of sunlight through a prism, the central zone may only represent the source of the manifestation (of colours), namely the “white” light.
Another way of representing primary and composed colours consists in drawing six radiuses joining the centre of the hexagon to the six vertexes of the seal and to attribute to them the colours of the six triangles. The “white” light stands then at the intersection of the six radiuses and symbolizes the Centre.
The Centre represents the Principle, the “white” light, source of primary and complement colours. In fact, it portrays the seventh ray of the sun, the meaning of which has been lost along the ages and come back under the toned down form of the seventh colour of the rainbow (indigo).
The colour perception corresponds to a way out of the non coloured Principle into the manifested; the resorption of the colours into their Principle sounds like a way back to the Centre. This double movement between the non coloured Principle and its coloured manifestation gives all its meaning to the number seven.
Mar
22
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Constellation. Phenomenology
The German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger (born 16 December 1925, in Leimen, Baden, Germany as Anton Hellinger) is associated with a therapeutic method best known as Family Constellations and Systemic Constellations. In recent years, his work has evolved beyond these formats into what he now calls Movements of the Spirit-Mind. Several thousand professional practitioners worldwide, influenced by Hellinger, but not necessarily following him, continue to apply and adapt his original insights to a broad range of personal, organizational and political applications
Mar
22
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Skull
Never understood the fascination with it, until I saw a birth through the skull.
Mar
21
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Drisana-
I was introduced to the energies of Drisana- the daughter of the sun in Tibetan and Indian, today in Xuhui.
Tags: Drisana
Mar
20
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Seven Jewish female prophets
Symbolic significance of seven female prophets: Sarah, Miriam, Devorah, Chanah, Avigail, Chuldah, and Esther. Each prophetess is linked to a Sefirah on the kabbalistic Tree of Life: from creation (Sarah) through learning correct moral action (Devorah) to the promise of redemption and ultimately resurrection (Esther). Using the stories of their lives and teachings, Hieronimus reveals the relationship of each prophetess to the seven days of the week, the seven sacred species of Israel, the human body, and Jewish holidays and rituals.
This book Hebrew Goddess presents the kabbalistic teachings of these holy women and what they reveal about the initiatory path of individual development and redemption. The seven prophetesses show that every person has a part to play in the repair of the world, and Hieronimus gives a practical set of maps and spiritual guidelines for that journey. Get the whole story
Tags: Judaism
Mar
20
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Shekhinah
and its relation to Esther, Bride of God, which in Jewish tradition manifests as the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) . The Shekhinah manifests itself as a form of joy, connected with prophecy and creativity.
The Shekhinah does not rest amidst laziness, nor amidst laughter, nor amidst lightheadedness, nor amidst idle conversation. Rather, it is amidst the joy associated with a mitzvah that the Shekhinah comes to rest upon people, as it is said: ‘And now, bring me for a musician, and it happened that when the music played, God’s hand rested upon him’ [Elisha] [2 Kings 3:15]” (Pesachim 117a). Thus the Shekhinah is associated with the transformational spirit of God regarded as the source of prophecy. Get the whole story
Tags: shekinah
Mar
15
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Lotus
Lotus bud
Pink Lotus (Skt. padma; Tib. pad ma dmar po): This the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity. Thus naturally it is associated with the Great Buddha himself.
Gautama Buddha was born with the ability to walk, and lotus flowers bloomed everywhere he stepped. Hindu goddess Lakshmi sits upon this pink flower and is said to have been born of it.
From ancient times the lotus has been a divine symbol in Asian traditions representing the virtues of sexual purity and non-attachment. Hindus revere it with the divinities Vishnu and Lakshmi often portrayed on a pink lotus in iconography. In the representation of Vishnu as Padmanabha (Lotus navel), a lotus issues from his navel with Brahma on it. Goddess Sarasvati is portrayed on a white-colored lotus. In Hindu iconography, other deities, like Ganga and Ganesha are often depicted with lotus flowers as their seats.
Tags: lotus
