Today, I want to share my thoughts with you, the Ones which concern me lately. I don’t want to talk about any conspiracy or whatsoever likes. It is only this all stuff about Coronavirus, the Vaccine, and the subjects of matter of terrifying. Please read this carefully, and I hope I can explain my point of view clearly.

Hi, dear friends, before you read this post, please don’t be upset, because it is not a usual post of me, and it maybe looks too strange before your eyes. And I don’t claim anything except my rights of free choice. And I think that it has to do with all of you, your personal freedom, your personal rights, please think twice about what prejudice before you do.

Of course, I am not talking about Bill Gates with George Clooney and Hillary Clinton, who want to control the world and drink children’s blood!! It is all about me myself. I just wanna say: I don’t want to get vaccinated. I can’t do the same as the mass do! I did it always, all through my life, and I was not alone. Al, my brother, has been in the same way, though everyone in his own style.

Al was silent, as hermit and recluse. I was curious and rebel, and more in the public, might because of my working as a photographer. I uttered my thoughts always loud and clear, with no fear and with my head raised. That might sound crazy, but I was crazy (and still am, though, got older). After the 1979′ revolution in Iran, there was rarely a day in which I walked through the streets without being observed or forced into the police car for investigation.

I don’t know the reason why they were so fixated on me, perhaps, because, every time they have observed me, I have looked back at them! And I have never made their investigation easier as I complained that they’d have no right to inspect me. I knew about my right, and it made them angry. And finally, one day, they took me to jail without any reason. There, I had learned about their way of torturing. It is, of course, another story.

Let’s get back to the present. Last year, as this virus appeared, everything looked so easy. I speak about the situation in Germany, as I am living here. I have read a lot about the conditions in the other countries, but I should judge better, where I have a direct overview. And I think that it stinks high to the sky!

The German government, first, meant it’s all under control. Then, after all, it was clear that it’s not! Later, as the word (lockdown) became a lovely word, running through the mouth of every minister, they began to make mistakes one after another. It was because they did know nothing about what to do, but they didn’t want to concede that, and they still don’t know. This made me unsure about their skill and competence to solve the problem, and from the beginning, I didn’t care about their advice. I was working every day, with many peoples in close contact, but until now, I have got no diseases. I do not deny this virus. It exists among the other different virus, and I am not afraid of them all.

Some years ago, when Influenza made a fuss in Europe, I had almost every day someone infected in my car, and those days we had no mask to protect ourselves. But I had no fear because I believed (and still believing) in my own immunity (antibody). Everybody told me, those days, that I should let myself vaccinate for protecting from influenza, but I didn’t do that, and I don’t want to do this also against Covid!

As we might remember, influenza killed over ten thousand every year in the world. It is only this year that it takes a break because the Covid makes it instead! In my opinion, it is the same danger and nothing more. But as we see, there are a lot of chances to make money out of it. They do it in the form of shipment shops or, like in Germany, the lobbyists sell masks with a little help from the politics and the ministers, and all make an immense profit.

After this long prologue, I want to ask you if I have the right to say: I DO NOT WANT TO GET VACCINE! You may answer, of course, I have. But there is a mean problem, it is that every step one wanna undertake, like going to the cinema, restaurants, concerts or travels, will be conditional. The Vaccination certificate!

Please listen! You may not know how is it to live under a dictatorship. But I know it, as I lived over thirty years under two totally different ones. I Just want to say that every government or regime in the whole world, no matter where, just all want to enjoy ruling totally. As Aristotle said, (as he damaged the beautiful world of his master Platon!): The politicians must earn enough money, not to get the temptation of any corrupted idea. But as we see today, there is no limit and their thirst.

You know! I don’t want to compare Europe (EU) with the Islamic Republic of Iran but, when Khomeini came to power, he made a referendum about if the people of Iran want the Islamic Republic or not: Yes or No! Al and I didn’t take part in this referendum because we knew there is all fraud. There was no coercion to take part in this election, we were free, but the trick was that the people, who took part in it, had got a stamp in their pass, and this stamp was not just a thing, it was the acceptance of your being alive. We had not this stamp, therefore, we were not alive! We couldn’t get a job or insurance or everything that had to do with the government, and unfortunately, I feel the same right now; we are allowed to reject the vaccine but, we can’t do anything we like to do! We, the not vaccinated, do not belong to society.

Anyhow, for many years, I got accustomed to my loneliness or swimming against the stream but, it is also calming to share my thoughts, the forbidden thoughts, with my friends. As we might know, the German peoples were one of the beginners of the fight for freedom. Here is one of the most famous song all thereabout. Enjoy and have a wonderful and safe time. 🙏💖🙏👍

I got to know Hermann Hesse’ works in Iran in the 1970s. There were only a few books which translated from him. It was when I came to Germany, I’ve got to know him better. He was not just a poet; he was a great thinker, philosopher, and painter.

I remember well when I had a customer whom I drove to the next city for an eyes-OP (injection) once a month. She’s a wise woman, and we talked a lot about many different things, among them literature. One of her favourites was Hermann Hesse, and once, she gave me a book of him (Freude am Garten) to have a look at when I had to wait for her. There I found out how soft and deeply he narrates about thoughts, love and life.

Here one of his peoms:

And now, I want to present a brilliant article by Sandra “Eshewa” Saporito, about this master of the muse. She is a holistic operator specializing in transcultural shamanism and Mindfulness. For more here. Translated from Italian. 💖

Hermann Hesse: Cosa Ci Insegna La Sua Vita

Di Sandra Saporito -14 Luglio 2019

Hermann Hesse, artist and Nobel Prize for literature, was born on July 2, 1877, in Germany, into a pietist family that gave him a very rigid education, where art did not have its place and was considered superficial.

Hermann Hesse one day wrote to his sister Adelaide about it: “It often happened that mum and dad expressed approval for a poem or a musical composition, adding immediately however that all this, of course, was the only atmosphere, only empty beauty, only art, without ever drawing a high value such as morality, will, character, etc. This theory has ruined my existence and I detached myself from it without the possibility of returning “.

This did not prevent him from becoming an Artist, with a capital “A”, not so much because he was a writer, poet, aphorist and painter at the same time but because his art was rich in meanings that went well beyond the purely aesthetic aspect. of the work: imbued with moral, philosophical and psychological meanings that exalted both the disturbances and the profound transformations of which his inner life was rich, some of his works, markedly influenced by his psychoanalytic sessions with CG Jung, described the inner journey to the discovery of the Self and the mysteries of existence.

→ Read also: Siddhartha by H. Hesse, 12 precious teachings of the book https://www.eticamente.net/62394/siddharta-di-hermann-hesse-12-insegnamenti-preziosi-del-libro.html

His works are full of teachings, but today I would like to talk to you about the life of this great writer and the lessons that his life has left us as a legacy.

Search for your identity, your vocation: it is what elevates the human being

“THE TRUE VOCATION OF EVERYONE IS ONE ONLY, THAT OF COMING TO HIMSELF.”

Hermann Hesse matured a vision of art totally different from that of his parents, to the point of making it the pillar of his life. Although he had little hope that art could change society, he felt that it could profoundly change the man.

“Art, the fulfilment of inner satisfaction, meant connecting with a deep and essential meaning associated with the term ‘home’. This house, however, was not the house of her parents. It was rather a return to something intangible, linked to intuition, but unique for each individual. It was a return and a journey at the same time and could only be reached through art, or rather through the strenuous formation of oneself. “Barbara Spadini writes on the relationship between Hermann Hesse and art.

It was through this medium repudiated by his family that Hermann Hesse developed a visceral desire to discover his identity and to discover the mysteries of the world: which he did thanks to Jungian analytical psychology, the study of Buddhism, Hinduism and Gnosticism, art and philosophy.

Although he behaved in stark contrast to his parents’ ideology, his family background had a great influence on him: he was aware of the influence his family tree had on his life. https://www.hermann-hesse.de/it/biografia/famiglia/albero-genealogico

He was in fact influenced by the life of his grandparents, whose name he bore: “To tell my story, I have to start from the distant beginning. If it were possible for me, I would have to go back much further, to the earliest years of my childhood and even further into the distant past of my origin.”

Art helps you become better human beings

Through his novels and poems, filled with autobiographical elements, Hermann Hesse recalled the episodes of the past that had caused him pain by making writing a tool for self-analysis, reflection on the world and inner evolution.

“I KNOW HOW MUCH INNER LIFE AND HOW MUCH ALIVE RED BLOOD EVERY SINGLE VERSE GENUINE MUST HAVE DRINK BEFORE YOU CAN STAND UP AND WALK ALONE.”

Its protagonists lived in the imagination what the author had experienced: the fears about the future linked to war and the violence perpetrated on human beings in the name of ideologies of power, the inner tensions linked to religion and its prohibitions, existential questions on the meaning of life and the search for inner peace despite the inner evils that did not give him peace: he had been suffering from depression for years.

The plot of his works often highlighted how much the individual and the collective were linked, the reflection on identity moved back and forth towards a collective dimension that in turn influenced the individual for good or bad, leading him to both virtue and vice, with the awareness that life is made up of these two antagonistic forces.

The most beautiful works can be born from the crisis

“I WAS A PARTY OF NATURE THREW TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN, MAYBE TOWARDS SOMETHING NEW OR MAYBE EVEN TOWARDS NOTHING, LET IT DEVELOP FROM THE DEEP, OBEY MY DESTINY AND DO ITS WILL, THIS WAS MY TASK.”

Through art and writing, in particular, Hermann Hesse gave voice to those inner storms that he managed to govern thanks to the movement of his feather: writing became a tool to express the hidden side of identity, art became a bridge between invisible and manifest that allowed to channel and sublimate the impulses of the unconscious: pain was transmuted into art thanks to ink.

In Demian, a coming-of-age novel in 1919, Hermann Hesse wrote passages from his conversations with Dr Lang, collaborator of C. G. Jung with whom he made a psychoanalytic path to get out of a state of profound crisis. This path inspired him to write the novel: “But all [the conversations], even the humblest, hit with light and constant hammering the same point inside me, all contributed to form me, to break eggshells from each of which I raised my head a little higher, a little freer until the yellow bird with the beautiful head of a bird of prey erupted from the shattered shell of the world.”

This painful feather allowed him to develop a literary style that earned him a Nobel Prize in 1946 “For his inspired writing which, growing in audacity and penetration, exemplifies classical humanitarian ideals, and for the high quality of the style”.

In hindsight it is curious to note how much his works have influenced the minds of his readers, dispelling his initial belief: art actually, by changing men, can really help change society. A tree will certainly not be able to change the face of a forest, but its fruits, the potential trees, will certainly be able to do so over the course of many seasons.

Sandra “Eshewa” Saporito
Autrice e operatrice in discipline bio-naturali
www.risorsedellanima.it

https://www.eticamente.net/65670/hermann-hesse-cosa-ci-insegna-la-sua-vita.html

By SearchingTheMeaningOfLife

When I read these sentences, I heard my heart beating the same words. There is a truth in them if we just take a look around and think twice. And yet, we can read between the lines.

Jorge Bucay (Jorge Bukai) is an Argentine gestalt psychotherapist, psychodramatist and writer. His books have sold more than 2 million copies around the world, and have been translated into more than seventeen languages. http://Wikipedia

Let’s read his words, with great thanks to our Greek wise friends. https://searchingthemeaningoflife.wordpress.com/

The truly wise man does not escape from society, he just tries to give up the remnant of identity that others have assigned to him […]

For thousands of years, men and women have somehow been imprisoned within our identities, our cultures, our limitations, our fears and our guilt. The prisons that close our inflexible personalities are not called “prisons”. We have christened them with more beautiful and deceptive names: they are called temples, religion, political parties, ideology, culture, civilization, fame, power and honours […]
however, do not be unjustly frightened. You never went to jail. You were born inside, and you were ordered to stay there – like me – before you became conscious (and perhaps neither of us has yet acquired it).

You were restricted (limited) to study, work, fall in love and get married in prison.
They trained you and hypnotized you (like me) so that you could not see the railings.
They pushed you (and pushed me) to believe that only there will you be protected.
They told you (and we believed them) that, in the end, it would be the best you could have hoped for.
The day you realize where you are and try to shout it out loud, they, your inmates in prison, will tell you that the others are lying, that the real prison is outside these walls. All those who tried to show you the truth will mourn and curse. And they will tell you that there is no freedom and that hell is outside.
They will show you that inside you can truly have what you want (except your freedom, of course). They will try to entice you with prizes and applause to stay, they will offer you money, sex, luxuries and “special” conditions, because (they will tell you that) you are also “special”.
And to prevent you from leaving, they will threaten you with punishments and tortures that you will suffer if you do not accept their offer.
And if you still leave, I want you to know that… they will go out looking for you. Because outside prison you are a threat.
They will run to bring you back, you or your corpse, to prove to everyone that life is impossible out there.
But do not despair, and do not be frightened…
From the moment you are free, no one will be able to imprison you if you do not want it either “

“Give up the remnant of identity that others have set for you, take the reins and live in the present intensely, with devotion and truly”

Excerpt from the book “From ignorance to wisdom”, Jorge Boukai.

source:  http://www.psychorropia.gr /

He has something to say which are worth reading and understand for sure. I must, somehow, think about Dr Jung’s Collective Unconscious. He says: I learned that “consistency” means “continuity of speech”, “heritage”. In other words, consistent means faithful to the past, faithful to what others (our own history?) have put into it.

“Small praise to inconsistency”. Jorge Boukai

By SearchingTheMeaningOfLife

For a long time, I defended the right to be contradictory.
I was saying that it was logical and expected that you would change your mind and that what mattered was not the contradiction itself, but the consequence.
By reading and listening to the teachers, I learned that “consistency” means “continuity of speech”, “heritage”. In other words, consistent means faithful to the past, faithful to what others have put into it.

Now I do not try to be consistent with logic, and I would love if you did the same.

What I would like is to harmonize, as much as possible, with logic and, if possible, to help others achieve it.

If we are consistent with our past, then we are necessarily tied to it, and that means that we live like someone from the past, someone who once existed and left us his traces.
Yes, but as far as I can say, it brings me no peace of mind.
If I insist on being consistent, then I insist on living a constantly repeating story, and that means that I do not allow life to offer me anything new, nor do I ever offer anything new.
The knower is someone who knows who he is, yet he shamelessly admits that he cannot predict his future actions, nor does he have the criteria to properly assess what will happen in the future and how he will react to events.

Martha Morris rescues these traditional tips:

If you stay still, you are no longer a river,
you become a swamp,
and life does not flow through you.
Flowers will always open in spring,
but if you do not open your window you will
never smell their scent.

The birds will always return after winter,
but if you do not look up at the sky,
you will not even get it.
The sun will surely rise tomorrow morning,
but if you leave your doors closed
the rays will never, ever
illuminate your room.

On the way to wisdom, we will learn that if we are trapped in some of our own thoughts, we are likely to suffer. And we may admit that life is a struggle between our desire and the reality which is imposed on us, but it is also a struggle between our own consistent identity and authentic spontaneous existence.

If we do the following mathematical operation:

What I think I am

+


My harmful habits + The orders I accept

+


The limitations I have assimilated


+

All my influences


+

The emptiness of what I denied

Or we take out the sum, without the need for verification, we will get our identity as a result.

Our memories from the age of ignorance, enclose in themselves all the pressure we have received to end up consistent, predictable and identical with those who defined the identity of our upbringing.

In recognition, society says of the consistency that it “shows character.”
A teacher who approaches wisdom does not show character, not because of the weakness of spirit, but because he does not need to prove anything. His behaviour is beyond character because he knows he does not have the luxury of always giving the same answer. And as we said, the character is only gained if we give up on change. A connoisseur discovers that it is important to be harmonious, free at all times to be as he/she is, free to find the behaviour that suits the time, free to become unpredictable without feeling guilty if he/she disappoints others.

From the book by Jorge Boukai : “From ignorance to wisdom” , opera / animus publications.

source: https://psycheandlife2.wordpress.com /

In ancient Egyptian religion, Menat was the name of the goddess Hathor. The artefact, whose name was slightly different in hieroglyphic spelling than that of the goddess, was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a rattle by Hathor’s priestesses. The form of the amulet is like an Aegis (shield from Greek) to protect the carrier.

Here is another brilliant article by my adorable friend, Marie Grillot 🙏💖. Happy Easter everyone, enjoy.

http://Écoutons ce collier “menat” : il a tant à nous dire !

https://egyptophile.blogspot.com/

This necklace called “Menat” is composed of a multitude of threads loaded with pearls of several shades of blue, among which are distinguished rare threads composed of multicoloured pearls. All the threads are then gathered together (perhaps even twisted or braided) at each end to form a single cord. It is on this one that is then strung, on both sides, coloured beads, much larger and of very varied shapes. They are mostly round and long, but the assembly is different, on one side and the other. Glass, agate, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, the pearls come together, without obeying, it seems, a defined harmony, except perhaps for a reason of balance in the final part which hang on the hook to the counterweight.

This significant part of the collar seems to have been added later; indeed: “if the name of Menat already appears in the Middle Kingdom, the representations that we have then show the necklace finished by pendants, and not by the counterweight. It seems it has been since the XVIIIth dynasty only that this one exists. ” (Paul Barguet)

Almost 15 cm long, it is carved in bronze. If it is sometimes indicated that it takes on the aspect of a “keyhole”, this interpretation on its form, issued in particular by Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, seems to us most relevant and seduces us – once again! – by the imagination and the symbolism of ancient Egypt: “It has been shown without difficulty that this one, close to that of certain“ dolls ”found in Theban tombs of the Middle Kingdom, is only the stylization of ” a female torso reducing the woman’s body, whose hair is evoked by the mass of pearls, to her pelvis (circular part) and to her bust (trapezoidal part), that is to say to its two essential functions: childbirth and breastfeeding. “

If this necklace could be worn as an adornment, it would be, like the sistrum, an attribute of the goddess Hathor. “The Menat, formed from a heavy bundle of pearl threads joined in cords at both ends and was Hathor’s favourite attribute, and one of the most common accessories of his cult.”

This is how it is found in the hands of certain goddesses, priests, but also women – especially in the New Kingdom the singers of Amun – who agitated it during religious ceremonies. Indeed: “after having folded the mass of pearls on the counterweight, it was used as a liturgical musical instrument, the friction of the two parts against each other producing a crackle, a sort of rhythmic clicking which must have been comparable to that of the sistrum: it is, therefore, often seen in the hands of singers and musicians, or in those of queens and princesses, who play the role of priestesses, alternately shaking the two instruments while raising them towards the gods. “

The “sound” emitted was magical and could “appease a god or a goddess”; as for the “gift of Menat”, it meant protection. So, quite naturally, it comes to mind the image of the magnificent relief that Jean-François Champollion brought back from the tomb of Seti I, which is exhibited in the Louvre. It represents, in a gesture that reveals infinite tenderness. Hathor is giving this Menat necklace to the pharaoh. “Hathor could not grant his followers a favour, greater than extending his Menat and having them touch it, to assure them of his protection.”

This necklace, dated to the New Kingdom, from the reign of Amenhotep III. It was discovered in 1911-1912 during excavations, carried out by the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the west bank of Luxor, south of the Theban necropolis, more precisely on the Malqatta site.

Christian Leblanc thus enlightens us on this place: “The palatial city of Malqatta covered a very large area: it had to start where the temple of Aÿ-Horemheb is located in the north and extend to Deir el-Chelouit in the north. It was a real city with its infrastructures, including a huge lake (± 2.5 km long x 1 km wide), known as Birket Habou, artificially dug and fed by a canal coming from the Nile. This aquatic structure, more than ± 5 m deep, which also served as a port, provided the city’s water supply and also could be used, on certain occasions, for religious ceremonies. The city was founded by Amenhotep III, perhaps long before his first jubilee, as certain “jar labels” found on the site seem to attest. The royal court lived there, surrounded by its dignitaries and its officials. The young Akhenaton and Nefertiti must have stayed there with their first maids before leaving Thebes for Tell el-Amarna. “

The Metropolitan expedition excavated the site for five seasons, from 1910 to 1921, under the direction of Herbert E. Winlock. “Members of the Egyptian Expedition” cleared sections of the palace that had not excavated by Tytus and Newberry, and the remains of the palace grounds that had not been destroyed by cultures. They also excavated and mapped much of the surrounding area, including the North Palace, several groups of private houses, a glass factory, a large ‘village hall’ and a mud-brick temple dedicated to the god Amun. “

It was in “Private House B” that this discovery took place. This miraculously preserved menat necklace and two single strand pearl and amulet necklaces were found in the corner of a room in a private house near the King’s Palace. in a canvas bag, traces of which were still visible. ” The presence of this “protective” bag certainly reflects the strong attachment that their owner devoted to these jewels …

It was in 1911, under the reference 11.215.450 which, this Menat entered – with the other two necklaces – at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, thanks to a donation from the Rogers Fund.

Marie Grillot

Source:

“ Menat necklace from Malqata ” (MET)
“ Excavations throughout Met History, 1870-present ”
Ancient Egypt and its gods – Illustrated dictionary, Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, Fayard 2007
“ The origin and the significance of the counterweight of the collar-menat ”, BIFAO 52 (1952), p. 103-111, Paul Barguet
“ Thebes, Malkata To Thebes, the Ramesseum (Archeology of Ancient Egypt) ”
“ Recent Work at Malqata Palace ”
“ The statue of the” royal servant “Nofirronpit (Louvre Museum) ”, Charles Boreux, Monuments and memories of the Eugène Piot Foundation Year 1933 33-1-2 pp. 11-26

Or I might dare…

You might call it; an inconceivable or an unusual concept, as I try to write something which weighs heavily on my heart.
I am, as I have found out newly, for about eight years in this platform. I have about over 650 followers, I’d say wow, but I don’t!

Let me tell you the purpose of this post: First, it is an old post which I had written once but sent it resting in my drafts section. The reason why was that I found it a little bit raw because, when I wrote it, I felt somehow hurt and maybe too emotional. Therefore, I didn’t share it instantly.

And now, my adorable friend Deborah Gregory had made a point in her comment on one of my posts: “A word of nostalgia” She had interpreted my dream in a very fascinating way, and it made me think about myself, and what I try to definite my efforts all in my life.

I am a perfectionist, without a doubt. It is not good at all, as I once talked to a psychologist coincidentally when I had him in my taxi bring to the train station. He told me that I had to stop it. He’s right though, you know, I had a lot of versions in my life. I had to change many variations as the situations changed, and I think it was my power of surviving or keep the existence of my intellectual-being. Of course, it is a long story which I will be back on it again.

Let’s back to my dream. I don’t want to get into the details if you might take a look at that, but the main thing was about a break, and Deborah put a question, which made me thinking: if I need a break. And I could shout at her back: Yes! I need it, since I was born! But as a perfectionist, taking a break is very difficult. I noticed it as I found out about the death of my father and the secret of why! I am in a feeling, all through my life, that I miss something. Therefore, I must try it. The only thing which calms me is the last words of Leonardo Da Vinci in his dying bed: There are a lot of works unfinished! I might say them soon.

Sorry, please don’t be misunderstood. I feel like in heaven. I had never expected to be so acceptable, as an amateur, being welcome. The reason may be my modesty and humility, or my courage to share the good articles so easily and without fear in the media. With the fear, I mean defeating your own egoism and staying relaxed (apart from my ability to write, of course 😉😂). But what actually disturbs me, is the smell of business, which is crowded everywhere and even here. I know; life is hard and we must try to make the best of it, but I am someone who never belongs to this kind of folk of business, no idea what is it; making money! Oh, of course, don’t compare me with “Harold Skimpole” from Bleak House, by Charles Dickens; I’d never say that. I have no idea what the money makes, I see it only to be spent and not be to kept.

Let’s make it short: I don’t like to sell “likes” or to buy “likes”! I know it is hard or even almost impossible to read and giving feedback to so many followers. (My followers are minimum in comparison to some friends here in WP. I have seen some of the great auteurs with over thousands of followers.)

I mean, it is nice to get some good critical feedback, which will encourage everyone. But we are not fooled either! I don’t know about you but I can feel and can’t ignore it when someone follows me without have even a short view on my works, or there are also a few who waiting until I like their works, and then they like mine back… Ridiculous! No other options. Believe me! It all makes me think. I might be too sensitive, but it is a sign of being an artist; isn’t it true? 😁

Of course, the best answer to all these is; Take it easy! I am happy to be here and very honoured to have such great Authors, Thinkers, Wise, with heartfelt souls as friends, who praise me and my littleness. It is an inspiration for me with a lot of gratitude.

You might have a look at this article: Here posted in here This may explain well, some situation of some peoples around. A well-done page, full of wit and satire and truth.

It is a fact without a doubt. But, I might be new in writing; (Al, my brother, was a professional writer,

Images or the Symbols. The magic of the Alchemy,

When I first saw these paintings, It suddenly reminded me of some old Persian (or oriental) style.

They are picturing the Myths with telling poems and, or the famous love stories, like Layla & Majnun.

• 

• 

But I can’t decipher the writing on these paintings. I don’t know Latin! Once a friend told me that I’m so naive, and I unbosom or reveal my inner secrets easily. I just wanna tell you I don’t give a damn! I think I have nothing to lose to say “I don’t know” and believe that man never stop learning.

Though it is not so important, I’ll try to understand the symbols with a little help from Dr Jung. No wonder, It is Alchemy. And my alchemy was not always good at school! But anyway, the paintings tell their own stories, and that’s what I can understand.

First, I might explain that the word “Alchemy” comes from the Orient language, and it is Al-Shimi: Al is the Arabic article, and Shimi is the opposite word of Physic. Something which not material but soluble.

And as Master Dr Carl Gustav Jung means, it has the same substance as the soul.

Here are some interesting discoveries about manufacturing this painting. Let’s get some knowledge of these all about:

The Aurora Consurgens is an alchemical treatise of the 15th century famous for the rich illuminations that accompany it in some manuscripts. While in the last century, the text has been more commonly referred to as “Pseudo-Aquinas”, there are as well arguments in favour of Thomas Aquinas, to whom it has originally been attributed in some manuscripts. The translated title from Latin into English is “Rising dawn.”

Alchemical miniatures of the «Aurora Consurgens».

The images are from the s. XV and, the book is falsely attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas. Edition Raimon Arola. The argument against the authorship of Thomas Aquinas is that the style of Aurora consurgens does not correspond to that of Thomas Aquinas (except in the Fourth Parable, which in style and content is similar to the “Expositio” in “Symbolum Apostolorum”, which is an oral lecture of Thomas of Aquin). According to von Franz; the following arguments support the hypothesis of Thomas Aquinas being the author of Aurora Consurgens: Its author knows both the Bible and liturgy intimately, he quotes rather little of classical alchemical texts and mentions neither chemical recipes nor technical instructions, which indicates a clergyman to be its author. His praising of the poor is typical for a Dominican or a Franciscan. The passionately style of being gripped could result from an intrusion of the unconscious which – as psychological experience tells – might have compensated a rather intellectual consciousness dominated by logic. The biography of Thomas Aquinas fits this, as, before his death, Thomas Aquinas is said to have had a disturbing vision, the content of which is not authenticated. But he is said to have interpreted the Song of Songs on his deathbed. Thus this treatise might well represent his last seminar or his last words.

Medieval alchemical texts reflected the “Christic” mystery and, in this sense, we would like to highlight the famous Aurora Consurgens, attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas, although it is very unlikely that it was the work of the Italian theologian. The Aurora Consurgens owes its celebrity to a series of illustrations found in the oldest known manuscript, dating from the first decade of the 15th century, although everything seems to indicate that it was a text from the 13th century.

The discovery of the manuscript has a curious history. When C. G. Jung became interested in alchemy in 1930, he read a compilation of ancient texts, made in 1590 by Conrad Waldkirch and entitled Artis Auriferae. This compilation contained the Aurora Consurgens, but Waldkirch suppressed the first part arguing that the constant relations between the sacred Scriptures and alchemy discredited the sacredness of the revelation, Jung looked for the censored part and found it in manuscript form in the Zurich library. Thus, contrary to Waldkirch’s intention, the first part of the Aurora Consurgens has been extensively studied, while the second is practically unknown, although it is not without interest.

The first part consists of a small treatise in which the author weaves the biblical quotations together with the alchemical operations. The translation of the title would be ‘The rise of the dawn’ because, according to the author: “the dawn is like the golden hour; thus this science [alchemy] has an hour whose end is golden for those who operate according to the straight path », also because:« the dawn is called the end of the night and the beginning of the day or mother of the sun. Thus, in its extreme redness, our dawn is the end of all darkness and the flight of the night ». To argue his claim, the author uses various passages from the Psalms, such as: “And the night will be illuminated like the day” (Psalm 139, 12). The dawn is the mother of the philosophical sun as Mary is the mother of God.

[Excerpt from R. Arola’s book, The Kabbalah and Alchemy in the Western Spiritual Tradition] The book with the images we have presented is kept at the Glasgow University Library.

https://www.arsgravis.com/la-aurora-de-la-gran-obra-alquimica/

And here at the end, I wanted to present you an excellent video on a botanical mind or a thousand mellion-year WWW in Nature.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_consurgens#:~:text=The%20translated%20title%20from%20Latin%20into%20English%20is%20%22Rising%20dawn.%22

https://www.designboom.com/art/magical-spiritual-significance-plants-human-life-botanical-mind-02-26-2021/

Today is the beginning of Spring, accurately at 10.37 AM! I know it because at the same time begins the Persian new year. In the Islamic/Persian calendar, it is the year 1400. And in the old kingdom calendar, it is ca. 2570. The Islamic/Persian date begins with the Hijrat (move or escape) of Muhammad, the prophet, from Makkah to Madinah. And the only difference with the Arabic calendar ​is that the Arabs count their time lunar and not solar.

But we could have another date, namely from the beginning of the Persian empire, 550 BC. Therefore, I had added an astronomical year, may someone give any prize!

Actually, I don’t care much about it. It is the beginning of Spring, and it is the point! Although, by the way, I’m in a twilight feeling, at the same time, I have a funeral case behind me without “the four weddings”! The second brother of my wife’s family passed away because of the old known enemy: cancer. The relationship was not so strong, but a loss is a loss, and there is grief.

Yesterday, when I came home from the funeral, I felt absolutely empty. It was a strange feeling because I was not sad or missing something, just vacuum. Fortunately, it was my turn to cook the supper and, as I began, I got released my mind.

At night I had a dream. It’s stunning that I can keep my dreams lately because I forget them usually when I wake up.

In my dream, we were all living in a community, and we knew that we must keep being creative. There was a God! She/He had told us that we had to stay creative, and we did our best. There was a friend too, and she helped me to stay creative.

In the background, there were running Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata repeatedly. But, suddenly, many people stopped being creative, and I was much concern. Even my friend, as she has also, lost her interests. And there was God again and said: if you are not creative anymore, I will destroy you all! I said to my friend: come on! We must do something, and she had made a figure, a keynote and said: it must be enough!

I was afraid that it’s not enough. Therefore, I put every key from the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, one after another, one by one, again and again. Then I woke up!

Anyway, that was a very odd dream. And now, back to the new year celebration. I have a beautiful song to present to you from a traditional, Armenian-Persian archive. It is not only a song about the beginning of Spring. It is a song for freedom, freedom all over the world.

Hppy New Year. 🤗💖🙏

This time, we will have a modern fashion in old Egypt. An Alexandrian/Roman pose from AD. It has its fineness for sure, but I may like the ancient masks a little more. Here I’d like to present another brilliant description by the wonderful Lady, Marie Grillot.

With the Macedonian dynasty of Alexander the Great, with the Lagids and their retinue of Ptolemies and Cleopatra, with the Roman emperors, Egypt became the “receptacle” of new populations … If they assimilated well to the country, they did not fail to import a new way of life, as well as traditions and customs …

Daily life, and of course culture and the arts, were impacted. This is felt on an important scale in architecture but also in a more “intimate” way in this perpetual quest for eternity which is reflected in particular in funeral rituals …

In “Ta Set Neferou” (volume 5), Christian Leblanc gives us his interesting reading: “What strikes the mind when we arrive precisely at this late period, it is this necessary need, not to say this will, of wanting to preserve the essence of Egyptian thought, as if one sensed its imminent disappearance “. And he adds: “For its part, the concept of immortality, which has lost none of its vitality, is perpetuated and the ‘Osirian becoming’ no longer affects only the elites of society. Now, as a kind of ‘ democratization ‘, any individual can claim an eternal life “…

If the new “masters” of the country have “adhered”, as a whole, to the practices of mummification, they have also modified certain aspects, adapting them to their own aesthetic canons.

Thus, after the sobriety and meditation of the masks of mummies or sarcophagi from the “pharaonic” period, we are faced with new representations of the deceased.

If the so-called Fayoum portraits fascinate us with their deep gaze and their presence sublimated by a true pictorial technique, we do not fail to be surprised by this type of mummy mask …

Eugène Grébaut expresses it very well as follows: “We know how much, from the first century before our era, the decoration of coffins and mummies changed under the influence of Alexandrian taste. While at Fayoum the traditional mask was replaced by a portrait, painted in wax on a wooden panel that was fixed above the place where the mummy’s head was located, elsewhere the use of relief was retained, but the Osirian representation of the dead his bust dressed in the ceremonial habit “.

Dated from the 2nd century AD, this female mummy mask is 52 cm high, 34 cm wide and, with its backsplash, 44 cm deep.

It is in canvas and painted plaster and its design is of a very particular style, as Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian (Official Catalog Egyptian Museum of Cairo) translate: “The technique is curious. The whole portion as the head one or more layers of coarse cloth stretched over a light wooden frame, built in such a way as to generally represent the shape of the upper half of the mummy. A thin layer of fine plaster or earth was covered with whitewash. Two mediocre protrusions, raised symmetrically, simulated the breasts of women in a more than summary fashion, but the parts of the body which are usually uncovered. Hands and face were executed with real care. They were prepared separately and applied to the desired location, the left hand stretched out on the hollow of the chest, the right hand closed, a little above of the left hand; we gave the mask the resemblance of the living as much as possible, and, after having fixed it firmly in its place, we applied around it the accessories of hairdressing, toiletry, or crown that the model included.

Even if the expression of this portrait is difficult to qualify. There is no note of sadness in the gaze, nor the feeling of questioning relating to an unknown beyond.

Her face is a smooth milky white with some traces of pink on her cheeks. “The eyes are of rather complicated construction. The globe is decorated with a line of a dark reddish-brown, which shows the free edge of the eyelids; beyond, the eyelid itself is thickened with broadband. Of a slate blue turning to black, and which simulates the ordinary kohol band. The cornea is a clear white; the pupil comes out in black red on the iris of a dark red-brown. The eyebrow is accentuated by three lines of a blue-black, two on the outside which specify the curvature, one in the middle which follows the ridge of the brow bone “analyzes Gaston Maspero with precision.

The eyebrows are thick, materialized by a wide black line and treated as if they were “brushed” with small crisscrossing strokes.

The nose is ordinary and the mouth is small. The thin lips are “made up” in pink and the corners show a curious fold of expression. The ears are well-drawn. As for the hairstyle, it suffered and fell apart… The hair, which hangs down on each side of the neck, was composed of vegetable fibre, painted black. There is a crown on the top of the head, made of thin twisted pieces of plaster (like rose petals) attached to a roll-shaped ledge, and tinted pink on top “(Edgar Campbell Cowan, Graeco-Egyptian coffins, masks and portraits).

The throat is adorned with two necklaces. The first is a two-row choker while the second is long and goes down between the breasts. It is made up of various round and elongated pearls of different colours, punctuated with green squares.

At the bottom of her garment, a red chiton decorated with black bands, are plated her two hands. The folds of the fingers and the outline of the nails are painted red. A snake-shaped bracelet is wrapped around each wrist. The left little finger and ring finger wear a ring. The jewellery is painted yellow to restore the appearance of gold.

What remained purely Egyptian, specify Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian: “It is the decoration of the ‘cushion’ which supports the mask and encloses the head of the mummy. We see there protective deities such as Osiris, Isis and Horus, Anubis, Sokar and Nephthys and at the head, a falcon with outstretched wings “…

The provenance indicated for this mask from the Roman period is Nazali Ganoub, which is located about twenty kilometres from the necropolis of Meir, on the west bank of the Nile, in Middle Egypt. In “The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt: Art, Identity, and Funerary Religion”, Christina Riggs brings us these precious indications: “The site is especially known to Egyptologists for its tombs from the Old and Middle Kingdom, decorated in a lively way, carved into the stone escarpment that rises steeply from the desert plateau. Parts of the Meir necropolis continued to be used in Roman times, and between 1888 and 1914 several masks and mummies there were discovered. During the year 1888, ten mummy masks were sent from the nearest station, Nazali Ganoub, to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which was then located in Boulaq “.

No more precise indication is given on the place of the discovery, nor the identity of the deceased … This mask was registered in the General Catalog of the Cairo Museum under the reference CG 33130.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Ta Set Neferou “(volume 5), Preface-introduction by Christian Leblanc – Authors: André Macke, Christiane Macke-Ribet and Jacques Connan, Ed. Dar Namatallah Press, Cairo, 2002 The Egyptian Museum. Collection of monuments and notes on excavations in Egypt, Eugène Grébaut, 1890-1907 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5808100r/f35.item.r=MASQUE

The Egyptian Museum – Collection of monuments and notes on excavations in Egypt, Ministry of Public Works, Gaston Maspero https://scholarship.rice.edu/jsp/xml/1911/9294/701/MusEgyp.tei-timea.html

Official catalogue Egyptian Museum of Cairo, Mohamed Saleh, Hourig Sourouzian, Verlag Philippe von Zabern, 1997 Graeco-Egyptian coffins, masks and portraits, Edgar, CC (Campbell Cowan), Egypt. Maslahat al-Athar, 1905, French Institute of Oriental Archeology https://archive.org/stream/graecoegyptianco00edga/graecoegyptianco00edga_djvu.txt

The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt: Art, Identity, and Funerary Religion, Christina Riggs https://books.google.fr/books?id=5pLX9rLqelQC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=Meir%2C%20Nazali%20Ganoub&source=bl&ots=RVwZsXPpYt&sig=ACfU3U2801t5sajfmaH4y8aGu35VmsfPiQ&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJg6KnxpvtAhUO2BoKHZpWB1QQ6AEwAHoECBAQAg&fbclid=IwAR3ik0x979L4iLGMS0Uq0mo1umwmAB__GDkxqTbUQXOZdkmFRLhVI2NxDTQ#v=onepage&q=Meir%2C%20Nazali%20Ganoub&f=false

Hi friends. I concede this is an extra sheet at an unusual time for me, but it is an old traditional Persian celebration, and as I believe, we must keep our traditions and cultures, not as rules but as our tribe, to learn the best of them.

It is the end of Winter, and Spring is approaching in our Northern Hemisphere. And in ancient Persia, it is the beginning of the new year. But what I want to share with you is the celebration of the latest Wednesday of the year, ( I am not sure if I did it once!?) in which the Persians, making fires, and jump over them singing: My jaundice for you, Your redness for me. It means somehow, to give all the disease up to the fire and take the health back.

This celebration might be similar to the Easter Feast because there is also an Easter fire. As in the Persian New Year feast, there are also colourful eggs as presents, but it is another story!

There are many interpretations of this festival. Chaharshanbe Soori (Suri) means literally “Chaharshanbe: Wednesday, Soori: Red” and it is a Fire Festival. This feast festival history is going back to ancient Persia during the early Zoroastrian era. During that era, people believed that water, fire, soil, and air are sacred. These are also the four main elements of nature. The fire has been the most blessing among Zoroastrians because, fire is purifying and never gets polluted. Zoroastrians celebrated the last 5 days of the year in the honour of the spirits of the dead (Source: Wikipedia). Of course, this tradition has been changed a lot over time, and the reason is probably because of the various invasions Persia have had in the past, and the blending of various cultures that influenced the way we celebrate the fire festival.

But another version, which I’d prefer, is the Saga by Ferdowsi, the great Persian poet in his famous Shahnameh: Book of The King, and it is about a forbidden love between “Siavash and Sudabe”.

Siavash is one of the most oppressed figures of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (The King Book), whose stepmother, Sudabeh, fell in love with him but, he didn’t want to reciprocate her love.
Until this audacity, on another form, reached his father Kikavus and he became very angry with him.
Siavash asked his father to go through seven tunnels of fire, to prove his purity and innocence, and if he came out safe, the father must consider it the reason for his innocence.
This fire test ended on the last Tuesday of the year, and he came out victoriously.
It was ordered by the father to give it to all the people the next day, Wednesday, in the middle of the main square of the city, a great celebration with a big fire, which became Wednesday Fiesta. (Chaharshanbe Suri) This day was recognized as a national holiday. We celebrate the last Tuesday of the year, in memory of purity and humanity by jumping over the fire. The Wednesday Fiesta is in fact, a sign of purity.
It has a beautiful philosophy which means, taking the purity of fire into our soul.

Some compare this legend with Tristan and Izout” written by Joseph Bédier, the French writer. Though I think that the story of Tristan and Iseult is a two-way love story, and here, it is only a one-way love!

Anyway, I wish and hope that it will be a feast of health and happiness, and a long life freedom in the future.

Yes! There are again my old friends. They are to many’s old friends, for sure. And for us, Al and me, it was a lifelong companion.

This time, it is about a specific song which is sure a Masterpiece: The Bridge Over Troubled Water. Their songs all are Masterpieces, as we listen to its melodies and the lyrics, which are the ones that remain as such beautiful poems.

But now, let’s have a look at this very song. Honestly, there was a time that I couldn’t hear this song anymore! The reason, of course, was not because it might be a bad song. It is a great song. It just might because I’ve heard it too many times, I might say. And yet, after so many years, I have listened to it again, and I got know the making of. It takes my soul inside floating, hovering with the poem, the words of friendship and sorrow: what a wonderful feeling.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water”

When you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all
I’m on your side
Oh when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you’re down and out
When you’re on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I’ll take your part
Oh when darkness comes
And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on, silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
Oh if you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

So, let’s have a look at this making-of: Paul got some idea from J.S.Bach, isn’t it great?! And he took some more from a Gospel band, though, the song is not a gospel song at all. And how the Americans needed consolations those days.

It takes a certain amount of hubris to write a song like “Bridge Over Troubled Water”—to write, that is, a secular hymn, a non-religious gospel hit for burned-out sixties’ folkies. Maybe only a tragic flaw could inspire a composer “coming off the back of four hit albums and two number one singles in four years” to soothe the disaffection of down-and-out Americans who could see the bottom from where they stood in 1969, a year notorious for its cultural disaffection and political gloom.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s status as superstar hitmakers at the end of the decade perhaps made it harder for viewers of Songs of America—the television film in which “Bridge Over Troubled Water” debuted—to take them seriously.

When the duo first appears on screen in the musical documentary, of sorts, Garfunkel “brings up the subject of America’s imminent bicentennial,” writes Dorian Lynskey for the BBC, and “a camera-conscious Simon gazes into the distance and asks solemnly: ‘Think it’s gonna make it?

Directed by Charles Grodin with over half a million in CBS money, the film’s “mood of pensive pomposity comes to dominate.” It won few converts, despite the showstopper of a song. “The average CBS viewer didn’t want to see the world crumbling,” again, in Songs of America.

The heaviest sequence was a dark twist on the film’s travelogue theme, juxtaposing clips of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King on the campaign trail with footage of mourners watching Bobby Kennedy’s funeral train go by. The musical accompaniment was unfamiliar: a kind of white gospel song, stately and hymn-like, building to a shattering climax as the long black train sped through America’s broken heart. One million viewers responded by turning the dial and watching the figure skating on NBC instead. Some sent hate mail. Songs of America wouldn’t be seen again for over 40 years. 

While the movie failed, the song, and album, became instantly classic and rose to No. 1. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” also entered the cultural lexicon as though it had emerged from the misty pre-recording history of the 19th century, when songs were written and rewritten by anonymous folk claiming divine inspiration. “The celebrated New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint liked to say: ‘That song had two writers: Paul Simon and God.

The real story involves no supernatural intervention—it does involve a kind of “love and theft” (as Bob Dylan admitted, alluding to a book on blackface minstrelsy), through the influence of the Swan Silvertones’ recording of the 19th-century spiritual, “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep.” Simon listened to the record “over and over again in his Upper East Side apartment… thunderstruck by a line improvised by lead singer Claude Jeter: ‘I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name.’” (When Simon met Jeter two years later, he apparently “wrote him a cheque on the spot.”)

Inspiration flowed through him. “I have no idea where it came from… It just came, all of a sudden,” he remembers in the clip further up from the 2011 documentary The Harmony Game. “I remember thinking this is considerably better than I usually write.” He recognized right away that he had penned what he would call “my greatest song”… “my ‘Yesterday.’” The comparison is notable for its contrast of attitudes.

Paul McCartney’s mega-ballad extols the virtues of nostalgia and pines for simpler times; Simon’s channels Black American gospel, looking beyond personal pain to the plight of others. It also takes its chord progression from a Bach chorale adapted by 19th-century hymn writers. That’s not to say “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” doesn’t evoke the personal. The lyrics “Sail on silver girl” speak directly to his soon-to-be wife Peggy Harper, “who had recently fretted about finding her first grey hairs.” The rest came from traditions of religious music.

Simon gave the vocal to Garfunkel because he thought “only Artie’s choirboy voice could do justice to the song,” Lynskey writes. Garfunkel felt intimidated by the song and “liked the sound of Paul’s falsetto.” Simon took his hesitation as an affront. “Such was the state of their partnership in 1969.” It’s clear in the opening minutes of Simon’s solo 1970 interview with Dick Cavett at the top that the iconic folk team would soon be parting ways, for a time at least. Cavett has some fun with Simon about the authenticity of his songwriting. “Maybe I lied… a couple of times,” he answers, some good-natured Queens defiance arising in his voice. “I was pretending to be someone else.”

Cavett then (at 5:25) asks the “impossible question”—how does one write a song like “Bridge Over Troubled Water”? Simon pulls out his guitar and obliges, showing how the chords first came from Bach. He gets big laughs and applause for his definition of feeling “stuck” before he discovered the Swan Silvertones. “Everywhere I went led me to where I didn’t want to go.” It’s maybe as universal a feeling as has ever been put in song.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” turned 50 in January of 2020, a month or so before so the nation Simon eulogized prematurely in Songs of America fell into seriously troubled waters. In our stuckness, maybe his classic ballad, and especially its call to reach beyond ourselves, can help get us over like nothing else. See Simon and Garfunkel play it live just above in their first Central Park reunion concert in 1981.

And now, I’ll reveal the artist’s secret: we learn from our past melodies to continue to beautify life. Enjoy 😉🤗💖

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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

https://www.openculture.com/2021/02/paul-simon-tells-the-story-of-how-he-wrote-bridge-over-troubled-water-1970.html