The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends.
Now, we all know that if you have a companion, things can get complicated; when you add a child to the mix, things can easily go from complicated to downright problematic.
This was the issue facing Sa, also known as Death. He, his wife, and his daughter were (apparently) the only beings in creation. Not just that, they were the only “things” in an eternal darkness. Verily, Sa, his wife, and daughter were the only forms in a formless void, beings adrift in the Great Empty.
Sa, however, had Magic on his side; words that could be used to speak existence into being.
“I can fix this”, he thought to himself.
And so, using his incantations, he invoked a river of mud.
Aesthetically pleasing? Probably not.
Practical – well at least for the (non)-time being.
On top of this river of mud, he built a hut big enough for the…
Once upon a time, when magic did not hide from human eyes as thoroughly as it does today…
“The Mill That Lost Its Pond”
You know the words.
Once upon a time.
So many fairy tales begin this way. Like river stones bridging shores, we travel with those words from our world to another, eager to see what lies beyond.
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been luring his audiences to cross reality’s river for years, but this summer he and author Cornelia Funke did more than lure us over the river. They led us through the hills past Grandmother’s house into a forest where past and present seemingly grow as one.
According to IndieWire,del Toro had wanted to expand on the folklore within his fantasy film Pan’s Labyrinth, and I’m so very glad he did. The book’s a beautiful reading experience from cover…
Today is Leonard Cohen birthday. The Canadian artist was born in Québec on 21 September 1934.
He began his career as a poet and novelist, then he ventured into music when he was in his thirties, and is now remembered for both his literary works and his musical creations.
The year before his death (7 November 2016), he began working on a new album, although he was suffering from health problems and intuitively knew that the end was near. This album, which focused on issues like death, God, and humour, was released in October 2016, when Leonard Cohen was dying.
🎵 There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. 🎵
“Anthem” (from the 1992 album The Future)
(C’è una breccia, una breccia in ogni cosa È da lì che entra la luce)
“No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend’s were. Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.”
Please believe me that I don’t want to be a sad messenger here but just an ambassador of faith.
It has just reminded me of this poem, which I and many others would know this from the novel; For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway when I got to know the sad news about my wife’s brother who had died the night before.
He was ill I must add this here; he was actually an unlucky boy; born as the last child (my wife has or had ten siblings) of a working-class family, with a humpback and was also epileptic. It was not enough, he had often got hardly beating by drunk father now and then.
Anyway, he’d grown up with his miserable fortune and became also an alcoholic, like his father. When I’ve got to know him I was a professional musician and he became a true fan of mine!
In any case, he’d lived alone in the supervised home almost all his life and after getting some hard psychological seizure, he had brought to a hospital till his last hours.
Of course, his death was not a loss in our life because of fewer connections in the last years, and when I’ve got the news by my wife, I’ve just thought; it was surely as a salvation or redemption for him at last. Truly, I wish I never live in this condition!
It just remembers me when I was in the hospital with my brother in almost a state of coma for about ten days, and I have mentioned in the last day his hands and feet getting thicker, I asked the nurse; what’s happening? His body doesn’t work well anymore, she said. Then I got to the balcony at the very evening to smoke a cigarette; I just tell heartily; Oh my lord, please take him to you. Don’t let his beautiful body get worst, save his beautiful soul, take him now!
Anaximenes puts the air that is an infinite principle as arjé, as the apex of Anaximating; but determined, like Thales water. Air as arche replaces Thales’ water, but at the same time incorporates some of the properties of Anaximander’s Apeiron. In Anaximander, the arche is infinite and indeterminate. For Anaximenes the air, as I arche, is an apex (infinite) but determined.
Anaximenes has probably found in the empirical air a series of properties that would perform better than other elements the functions of arjé.
First of all the invisibility and the infinity of the air. According to news from Hipólito (Ref. I 7, 3), the air “when it is perfect is imperceptible to the eye”. The air is infinite but determined. But the determination of air is more abstract to the senses than that of water: it is invisible like the apex.
Secondly, the air has a divine character (“Anaximenes says that the air is a god”, Aecio, I 7, 13) and is compared to the soul. The air is related since ancient times with the psychic powers (Aecio, I 3, 4): “Just as our soul (yuch ‘) being air keeps us together, so also the breath (pneûma) or air encompasses the entire cosmos”.
The two opposites (hot and cold) that Anaximander extracted from the abrupt ex-Apeiron, Anaximenes builds them through condensation and rarefaction: «the compressed and condensed is cold, and the weird and lax is hot (Plutarch, Frigid cousin, 7, 947 F.
Anaxímenes pone como arjé el aire que es un principio infinito, como el ápeiron de Anaximando; pero determinado, como el agua de Tales. El aire como arjé sustituye al agua de Tales, pero a la vez incorpora alguna de las propiedades del ápeiron de Anaximandro. En Anaximandro el arjé es infinito e indeterminado. Para Anaxímenes el aire, como arjé, es un ápeiron (infinito) pero determinado.
Probablemente Anaxímenes haya encontrado en el aire empírico una serie de propiedades que desempeñarían mejor que otros elementos las funciones de arjé.
En primer lugar la invisibilidad y la infinitud del aire. Según noticia de Hipólito (Ref. I 7, 3) el aire “cuando es perfecto es imperceptible a la vista”. El aire es infinito pero determinado. Pero la determinación del aire es más abstracta a los sentidos que la del agua: es invisible como el ápeiron.
“Happy of him who obtained the wealth of divine thoughts, miserable, on the other hand, he who is only occupied by an obscure opinion about the gods” (frag.132; Péri Physeos).
Love/Hate
The world for Empedocles is settled between Love, Hate, phase in which the separation of the elements predominates.“These elements never cease their continuous change. Sometimes they unite under the influence of Love and in this way everything becomes the One. Other times they disintegrate by the hostile force of Hate and have an unstable life. ” (Fr. 17)
The cosmic cycle consists of four stages, two extremes represented by triumph, be it of friendship, be it of discord, and two intermediates, of transition from one to discord; or vice versa: “Something double I will say: Once it grew to be One only from many, and again it separated from many to be one” (frag. 17). It is, therefore, the two cosmic forces of “Love and Hate” that move the elements. The movement of composing and dissolving cyclic“All of this occurs through a double cycle of history, both of the world and of living beings; “Double is the generation of mortal beings, double their disappearance” (frag. 17).
This cyclicity, so specifically archaic, is shown, according to Empédocles, in the future of the world (kosmos), which presents a clear Heraclitean influence. But, by demand of his own reasoning, with an obvious Parmenidean influence, he will sustain eternity and immutability of being.
“Felíz de aquél que obtuvo la riqueza de los pensamientos divinos, miserable, en cambio, aquel a quien sólo lo ocupa una obscura opinión sobre los dioses” (frag.132; Péri Physeos).
Amor/Odio
El mundo para Empédocles se dirime entre el Amor, el Odio, fase en la que predomina la separación de los elementos.
“Estos elementos nunca cesan su continuo cambio. En ocasiones se unen bajo la influencia del Amor y de este modo todo deviene lo Uno. Otras veces se disgregan por la fuerza hostil del Odio y tienen una vida inestable”. (Fr. 17)
El ciclo cósmico consta de cuatro etapas, dos extremas representadas por el triunfo, sea de la amistad, sea de la discordia, y dos intermedias, de transición de lo uno a la discordia; o viceversa: “Algo doble diré: Una vez creció hasta ser Uno solo desde muchos, y otra vez se separó desde muchos…
I have a new addiction and how!
It’s Australian.
It’s sassy.
Capricious.
Stylish.
Witty.
Sexy.
Murderous.
The Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has a hit in the fearless and funny Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. This Whodunit from Down Under is a beaut.
I love a good murder mystery and if you think the private detective genre had seen it all, it’s never seen anything like Miss Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis). Independent, open-minded, of a certain age, caring, compassionate, rollin’ in the dough, swanky, and a private detective to boot!
I have to praise the costume designer, Marion Boyce. This won’t happen often, you may notice a lack of fashion in my writings, but I practically drool over the Roaring Twenties costumes in this series; they’re exquisite, almost like a character unto themselves. If I ever became rich, I would probably dress as if I was in the 1920s
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