Here is my latest praying mantis caricature. A holiday greeting from long ago ancient times.
Attis brings Liberte’
At the darkness time of the year, the longest night, the winter solstice… here comes some ancient anthropomorphism… and praying mantis is here to make life so meaningful.
After the Woolsey Fire Dec. 17, 2018
A restoring appeal bound for
the Santa Monica Mountains
The highway moves by way of serpentine.
Black mountains and summative clarity of once
Overgrown trees and sage,
Wild Promethean fennel and yucca plants.
Fog embraces
The black burned earth hills
Holy sprinkles of rain upon the concealed seeds.
Watercolor Rendering by Hudley
(Azoth-1613-Basilius-Valentinus-Beatus-Georg-rebis)
Ritual is good. Songs bring in the seasons. In this dark time ‘song ritual’ help to ease the scorn and unbelievable with something sane and consistent. The skins of my large white beans are shedding away as they boil in the pot. There are times when I feel like these large white beans.
Today during my heart-focused breathing I was surprised to feel a pinpoint of joy dance upon my heart. Faces of love smiled before me and I was grateful. I cried for those released from this Earth, this planet.
What a mystery it all is. I talked to my oldest son. He said he was listening to a tape about the Ten Hermetic Keys of Hermes Trismegistus.
The mental origin of the world and of man. 2 Corresponding harmonics. 3 Dynamics of alternation. 4 Bi-polarity and complementarity. 5 Cyclic repolarizations. 6 Cause and effect. 7 Gender. 8 The astrology of the Ogdoad. 9 The magic of the Ennead. 10 The alchemy of the Decad.
This caught me off guard. So, I looked it up. I showed him my watercolor that contains this in a kind alchemical way.
“‘…from that moment [he] declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against [Frankenstein] who had formed [him] and sent [him] forth to this insupportable misery.’”
Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 16, p. 12
Once upon a time I found the novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, the new Prometheus. I became friends with Frankenstein’s monster. He was not the film version because I looked to the quality of his brilliant soul.
I authored a short story entitled, Who’s Soul did Frankenstein’s Monster Have? I put the story in a folder and took it with me wherever I went. I was inspired and torn by my insight.
I felt I may have understood something no one else ever dared to wonder about. This was back in the 1980’s. Then, as busy, and as careless as a young punk might be, I lost the folder at a Mexican restaurant up-town Whittier, CA.
This loss haunted my nights. Back then backing-up-files was not so easy. This may have been before floppy disks. I did not make a copy of my short story of a monster’s revelations.
I did keep the little doodles about the story which I will share today. I did not misplace the folder. Someone took it and still, has it?
As one gets older time seems to bend backwards. It comes towards you so you can say hello again to those times of youthful inspiration.
I looked through all of my plastic boxes to find these images in my art closet. So glad the doodles were safe and not lost.
My 4th favorite song is Vandals – I Want To Be A Cowboy .
As a young punk all the words were being thrown around. Anarchy, chaos, discord and mayhem.
It rang around me via songs, voices and written lyrics and published fanzines. and punk friends. I never thought the ideals I supported would manifest via a gangster presidency?
These words were used as ways to inspire creative freedom. This words for me meant the ability to do things on your own terms to help others not to tear them apart.
To confront cruel authority, not to create a foundation for dictatorship or fascist tendencies.
So much for deconstructionist if born again AA punks’ side with the enemy. It is a wake up call for us all.
How to keep a conversation going is not always possible.
Humor as, it was only for a fun experience, can be thrown in there. Yet I am keeping my integrity at my hip. My mind set to do it myself. As always, it may not be popular.
A Brave Woman.
Audience members stand up to listen during a Senate Judiciary Committee markup hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 28, 2018, for the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. – Kavanaugh’s contentious Supreme Court nomination will be put to an initial vote Friday, the day after a dramatic Senate hearing saw the judge furiously fight back against sexual assault allegations recounted in harrowing detail by his accuser.
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
The name Diotima means one who honors or is honored by Zeus, and her descriptor as “Mantinikê” (Mantinean) seems designed to draw attention to the word “mantis”, which suggests an association with prophecy.
“Then at last man will behold beauty with the eye of the mind and will be able to bring forth not mere images of what is good for man but realities… Would that be an ignoble life Socrates?”
~Diotima of Mantinea
Something is in the air here at Flopside Comics ! Whirling power ramp-up takes down the EVIL! Bring down the power of assholes of highest degree ! Bring clarity to the opposing chaos and negative propaganda! A direct and focused SUPER FUCK! It’s real magic!
You know what I’m talking ’bout!
I used to see anarchy & chaos much differently.
Today I see it as something I will not agree to.
Yet the will of an individual can be applied for the benefits of all or for only oneself.
To harm others without caring.
I used to think it was to bring all others to the table and to change and make new ways of seeing the world creativity and imaginatively.
An individual can uniquely inspire a generation, or a few people, to be good human beings.
Or the opposite can happen when an ego causes dark chaos & we are witnessing this now.
It is a time to consider this all, …. as very important parts of who we all are!? So much for August… it does this to me.
July moves into August. A time of justice and heat, a time of foresight and deep. For me it is about the news… some bad and some good news. I know this time of the year to be delirious dark and forbidden. Today it has reached an illuminating place of thanksgiving.
Between our psyche and the cosmos is magic. Magic moves between our hidden unconscious coming forth from our dreams. Yes, that Magic coming with psychic foresight of knowing. Real causality or synchronicity does not matter to me. Natural magic! I live in all combinations.
Yesterday we went to Naval Air Station Point Mugu. Driving to Ventura from the San Fernando Valley can be harsh on a Sunday. We found a little farming street to follow down to Point Mugu. Its romances are the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Which is why we were there.
My dad was a WWII Veteran. As kids we enjoyed fishing on the pier that is located on this naval base.
My husband and I sat in our car for some time. Wondering if we could approach and visit the pier for old memories. We did. A tight solider asked for husband’s driving-license. As the soldier was taking the license from husband, I explained my family story. Before you could think we were quickly told to make a U-turn. No goodbyes or safe journeys.
Point Mugu has since merged with nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme to form Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC).
We ended up at Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum. A sweet little place that smelled pleasantly old! The building was filled with old women and older history items. Outside the rather small building were many monarch butterflies. Hub bobbing around ourselves like best friends. We were then told the story.
It sounds like a magical potion. Milk weed, Cosmo flowers and chrysalis. It was the story of how someone took the time to love the process of this lovely butterfly. All it takes is a little love and a few nasty weeds to attract the attention of nature’s finest beauties.
Today upon waking up I enjoyed a particularly good dream. A dream I have been waiting for since my mother’s death. It was a closure dream. In this dream, the husband opened the front door to the usual UPS knock. There was another package, another calculus book, or similar book, for the kids. Then we heard another knock on the front door. This time I opened the door. From top to bottom the front door was filled with packages. My husband gave me a guilty look. A pouting praying mantis face.
“It is not Christmas time,” I said.
I pulled out one of the packages. A large white one. A box that might conceal a dress or new pants. Then I saw on top the name ‘Holly’ written in cursive.
“How could mom give me this after her death?”
A wonderful gift from her. That is what mom would do. Write our names on top of our gifts. It was her writing…. I know it by heart!
Today has reached an illuminating place of thanksgiving.
My oasis
And cave.
Not reaching out
But reaching within.
Agathos daimon holds my heart
Humidity holds me back.
“Coninuctio” “in mercurio”
Planting seeds
Which do not ripen.
Outside my oasis
Seeds dry in the heat.
Inside the cave
I listen to Mercurius speak.
“The desires of the mind
Will take you nowhere.”
Griffith Observatory
It feels heavy this summer. We got our first donuts in months. One from Blinky’s and it was OK. Been going there for 27 years and the place is not holding up to its once ambitious standards.
Too expensive. They use Pine Sol now and it smells more like an old sleazy bar than a donuts galore bakery. The corner of Topanga Canyon / Dumetz is not holding up either.
Not the place of red-hot love, hippies hitchhiking or getting a cold tall glass bottle of Doctor Pepper on the way to the Whisky A Go GO to see some small-time punk bands of a small-town punk scene.
My Muses are in the South of France leaving me dry as the sun here this summer.
Azoth is “all-inclusiveness” and the spiritual ray of Neptune which is the higher octave of Mercury.
How this all came together is a current event of our times. Alchemical symbols and studies are something I do. I have worked with images and ancient insights for years. Not always understanding the full meanings yet trying to embrace them with a current and contemporary heart and mind-set.
I believe as the ancient Egyptians taught, that to understand these ancient alchemical symbols one must “think with the heart and feel with the mind.”
A Grand Trine is a call to see the influence of cosmic realities. To observe the world around oneself and try to make sense of it.
We are all in this together even if we are unbelievable.
I’ve been working with this image for some time. I put my praying mantis spin on the study. The alchemical symbol is based on a sixth century woodcut from the series in Basil Valentine’s Azoth.
Neptune is speaking loudly… I think we all might listen!
A hierarchy of Neptune. Azoth is the measureless spirit of life. The original spiritual fiery water comes through Eden (vapor) and pours itself into the four main rivers of four elements. “Elixir-vitae.”
The spine, a gas that is like steam which may be condenses when exposed to outside atmosphere.
But it may also be super-heated by the fire of purification and regeneration and become a brilliant and luminous fire.
“Between the gods and the plant kingdom stands man, a being endowed with intelligence, creative power and free-will use it for good or ill.
Between the chaste plant and the pure spiritual gods who both turn their whole creative power upward towards the light.”
Doe: a deer, a female deer, alludes to the first solfège syllable, do.
Ray: a drop of golden sun [i.e. a narrow beam of light or other radiant energy], alludes to the second solfège syllable, re.
Me: a name I call myself [i.e. the objective first-person pronoun], alludes to the third solfège syllable, mi.
Fa’ [i.e. “far”]: a long long way to run,” alludes to the fourth solfège syllable, fa.
Sew: [the verb for] a needle pulling thread,” alludes to the fifth solfège syllable, sol.
La, the sixth solfège syllable, lacking a satisfactory homophone (see below), is directly referred to in the song as a note to follow so[l].
Tea: a drink with jam and bread [i.e. the popular hot beverage made by steeping tea leaves in boiling water], alludes to the seventh solfège syllable, ti.
Austrian composer Hugo Wolf~3 March 1860 – 22 February 1903
I wish I could sing well. In the 1990s I received my AA in Humanities. This gave me an option to take some fun courses. Do some risky stuff. I took two vocal courses. One was basic, ‘learn how to sing,’ with all the fancy techniques like breathing from the diaphragm.
Singing ‘do re mi fa sol la ti do’ repeatedly with one single breath was not easy.
I endured the class and sang the song Blue Moon as my final project. I sang the original “Blue Moon” a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934.
When I joined the chorus as part of a class requirement. I knew my singing was not class “A” stock. We had to perform for Los Angeles Valley College’s Christmas celebrations. I was in the first Christmas singing group. After we sang, I heard a mumble from the audience…,
“OK now we will hear the real singers in the next choir singing Christmas music!”
So, I tortured myself and took the next music class that went from learning only how to sing: to singing operettas in German, Italian and French? I really went all out when I decided to sing my final song written by Hugo Wolf.
“Heut Nacht erhob ich mich um Mitternacht?” or ”Last night I rose at midnight.”
My wings melted! My voice and confidence as well. I left the course before finals because the class was too much for me. Sometimes a good challenge is about the process of just trying. I did find Hugo Wolf!
If I could sing a song. Like a sexy noir dame. It would be the song below.
In music, solfège (/ˈsɒlfɛʒ/,[1] also US: /sɒlˈfɛʒ/, French: [sɔl.fɛʒ]) or solfeggio (/sɒlˈfɛdʒioʊ/, Italian: [solˈfeddʒo]), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach pitch and sight singing of Western music
Number 12 ~ An inspirational FLOPSIDE COMIC…. where is the human mind these days……? Are we only listening to a mad man who is trying to fuck up the world or we going to take some time to?
“Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
Only could get eight of the nine Muses in this bubblegum cOmic… the original post is at the end of this post for referencing. “Muses Nine and Graces Three”
Mr. Timothy Leary I am only pulling your leg up there in the starry sky. Yet sometimes we got to think about the big picture and who is really running the show…. it isn’t LSD it is better than that because it is the Graces and the Muses…. time for some inspiration…. this little bubble gum comic will be on the market soon….
“Alongside this metaphysical transformation, Greek rational thought broke away from magic thought processes, and symbolically transferred the center of creative power from the female womb to the male brain (symbolized by Athene’s birth from the forehead of Zeus), creating the great Western cultural distortion that is still with us today, by giving greater value to culture than to nature, to the abstract Idea than to concrete Life itself.”
~ de Riencourt, Amaury. Woman and Power in History . Honeyglen Publishing Limited. Kindle Edition.
It may seem backwards but not from my mothering heart. My son now faces his first romantic suffering. What can I do but be silent & be there for him as he works and plays. I know his heart is broken. He must endure and become stronger and with empathy move on. To oldest son “he” is the Wild Rose…. and she is the “young boy.” It is OK to change things around…. both are not safe from the pains of love, first love!
“For life moves out of a red flare of dreams
Into a common light of common hours,
Until old age brings the red flare again.”
~ The Land Of Heart’s Desire, William Butler Yeats
Retrospective action is part of a process which helps us find solutions to human problems. So much is going on in the world and in my personal world. Where does one seek or find balance? Meditation maybe? Exercising and eating properly, that might be part of the answer. There is more to hypertension than the human body. It seems a common reality in these dark political times shared by many!
While putting together some positive moves towards balance, I came upon a few old friends. One is a meditation site called freeMedation and an old poem by William Blake entitled Jerusalem. Yes, going back to healthy practices and inspired ideals.
Shocked by the inclusion of this particular rendition of Blake’s poem on this site, it is still very endearing to me. It is a poem set in a place and time that one can transcend using retrospective meditation.
Below is an image, a facsimile, from my Blake collection. It has vast symbolic layers.
“When the morning Stars sang together. & all the Sons of God shouted for joy”
Side stepping biblical perspective, this image holds reference to three important elements: The stars known as the Pleiades, humanity, and the cosmos. Our foresight needs to put roots into the ground as a solid anchor. This need is achieved by reaching with retrospective action. Thus, bringing together the past, present and future. A balance for our crazy times.
The image shows me understanding revealed in meditation. Therefore, I love Blake’s work.
Jerusalem by William Blake
Retrospective
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/afterthought/
Doppelgänger … Shadow
“Thus the connection of the animus with the shadow should be broken despite the fact that one arrives at the animus by way of the shadow. In fact you can never arrive at the animus unless you see the shadow.”
Pg. 9 The Animus Volume One. The Spirit of Inner Truth in Women. Barbara Hannab
At this time last year, we went for a drive. On our way to San Francisco California. Our mission was to see some William Blake at a book library. They also had some Blake facsimiles for sale. Which I found irresistible. We took a roundabout way to get there. We ended up on the mighty Mammoth Mountains staying in a nice off-season hotel.
It was large and even had a kitchen. We went out later to have some sushi and a beer. Walking home at high altitude made me feel strange. The hotel had a fire outside in the courtyard. We sat and moved around the large fire. It felt wildly bizarre.
Then we entered the room and went to bed. I cannot sleep long on my sides, especially with a full belly. I have arthritis. There was a big couch near the fireplace in the hotel room.
I watched the fire and fell into a deep sleep.
I awoke to see myself looking at myself. My doppelgänger looked just like me but was fully dressed in the long dress coat I was wearing the night before.
Sitting down on the table before me, my doppelgänger was looking deeply into my eyes. I looked right back.
A haunting, mysterious overwhelming feeling of depth touched me that morning. A profoundly uncomfortable darkness addressed me as a presence.
“…child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim believed that fairy tales help children cope with their existential anxieties and dilemmas.”
“…individual’s starting point is characterized by what has been called “the existential attitude,” or a sense of disorientation, confusion, or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.”
Ageing and turning sixty is an interesting time. I am reflecting on my life. The metaphor of fitting jigsaw pieces together is the best one that can describe my experience now. I now understand the meaning of existentialism. I thought I had an idea of what it meant. Not until now did I know it truly. It is a jolting reality. Now observing the past is how one can see existentialism alive!
As a child I remember waking up at night with a strange sensation that lasted only a few moments. A surrounding feeling that came to mind. One that I could not touch, access with words, or edify. It was a feeling deep in my teeth of something other. It would go away quickly. I had that same feeling through growth. I always knew when the other feeling was approaching. The other feeling went away as I grew up.
K -12, my whole education experience I was asleep. I realize this now. Existentialism is based on contrary things. Conflict or mindfulness to the absurd world we live in. When I look back at myself, I was experiencing or having an existential experience my whole young life. I was in a shadow world of social pressures and abstract ideals that where strange to me.
Only waking up occasionally to the wind on the hills or the rain while walking home. Playing in green fields with my friends. The smell of the earth and the feel of pepper trees on my skin. The aroma of the eucalyptus tree.
I went through the motions at school. I did not study or bring books home, and if I did, I don’t remember them much. I do remember reading the little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, the King James Christian Bible, and Seven Arrow by Hyemeyohsts Storm. (Native American Myth,) Sherlock Holmes appealed to me. Also, songs on the radio are moments or awareness.
I was in trauma while I was growing up too! I was living in a home with an alcoholic parent and experienced love but also emotional abuse as a regular part of my life.
My point being I was not awake to my human experience until I started waking up later in my teens by the jolt of consensual sex, rape, youthful love, and punk music.
I remember at 18 or so there were times when a light would come on and everything seemed more intense. One time out to dinner with my parents it seemed that the restaurant light above us turned on brighter. I was in an intense illumination. Then the light went out. This is when I was experiencing an awakening an existential conflicting experience.
When I entered the punk rock world in Los Angeles, I experienced this existential conflicting experience increasingly. The people and music really stirred me up. I awoke to the absurdity of life in a clever way. I found my mind, voice, and soul all aligned. I began to acquire knowledge easily. I read ecstatically. I found out that I had an engaging and intellectual mind that had not been touched by the k-12 academia that tried to teach me.
I don’t think we can continue to live in an existential conflicting reality. Yet in these such moments when the existential happens. This is where we can find our authentic self. I am incredibly grateful!!
