I was born with foresight. It was a natural part of my DNA, and it cursed me because no one from my family explained it to me. I found the answers through books, TV and others with this value of seeing life.
A curse because there are things in our lives that hold certain degrees of pain that cling to us. For me it was foresight. Knowing things before they happened. An intuitive knowing that plagued me without being able to put words to what it was.
Then in time I learned to hold on to my foresight. Waiting for found explanation to my confusion. Other friends and family looked at me cross-eyed with wonder or doubt.
Now that I am 65 years old, I see it as a gift of foresight, for that is what it is now, it reveals to me that I was OK.
I can use my active imagination to go back and be the person that listens and tries to understand. Because the youthful me needs to be heard.
It has come around to be a blessing that I will confirm as good. Now is a time to reap what I have sown. Building on this magical nature that many of us share.
It is my Cornish character, maybe. I hope to encourage others here to listen to their foresight. It is so human and feminine. An honorable part of who we are.
To bend back and embrace all the past, present and future.
The good bridge of balance.
William Blake is a friend who helped me along the way to believe…
My heavenly shower is a sacred place of hot, warm or cold water. It is there for me in worst of times bones ache and chills of fever cleaning a dark soul quality away. I sing, talk and compose there I talk to my medicine animals there and say my prayers. It is an old shower with a whacked head yet the water cleans me inside and out my holy shower that sings me sweet words.
“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.
The poem speaks to us. For is not Jerusalem the palace [place] of our heart’s desire?
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.
A layperson’s study of William Blake and other reflections….
“The darkness of our world
Is not knowing and understanding;
Light can only come, when we
Make it our business to find it.”
~ Socrates ca. 470-399 B.C.
“A vision of the Last Judgement. It is an endeavor to restore what the ancients call the Golden Age.”
The above image is the star goddess. She is part of the earth and the sky. She is like many images of justice, Aquarius and the golden stars of the night sky. I find she is an archaic image that echoes of a Golden Age. If you do much reading of myths or ancient stories, you’ll find the Golden Age mentioned there.
Astraea is the bright star that reveals our insight into the Golden Age. She is needed in helping to restore our “universal humanity.” Of brighter days ahead in the dark times we face.
As Virgil says,
“Astraea returns, returns old Saturn’s reign”
And maybe she does. Like a spiral the same and something different. The continuity of the stars and planets in the cosmos reflect in our watery psyche. If we become aware of this, very possibly, hopefully and surely, the two circles of psyche and cosmos meet within us. We will find the bright star there.
Albion William Blake
“In his late works, he embodied these and other ills in the nightmare ridden figure of the cosmic giant Albion, or universal humanity, who has fallen into deadly sleep of mundane existence. In humanity’s coma, the divine is a remote and forbidding sky-god: nature a sterile heap of atoms, lovers and family members, enemies; and one’s own innermost being, an unrecognized alien.”
~Blake’s Poetry & Designs ` A Norton Critical Edition.
Albion Rose!!
“Here Albion as shown as a joyful and vigorous young man freeing himself from the shackles of materialism. In Blake’s world view, Albion could still be saved by the triumph of individual liberty, imagination and spirituality over social, political and religious oppression.”
1880-william-blake-1757-1827-albion-rose.html
My visit to the Los Angeles Getty Museum to see William Blake~ A short Documentary by Hudley Flipside
Melancholy William Blake Date: 1816 – 1820 Style: Symbolism Series: Illustrations to John Milton – L`Allegro and Il Penseroso Genre: religious painting
I thought we would be driving up to San Francisco to see some of William Blake’s art at The William Blake Gallery located at the John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller. My pilgrimage to see Blake’s work has taken a big reprieve. Time to rethink this again.
Planning a journey to the United Kingdom, in a few years, might be the best way to see his work. A well planned out journey can be done. Giving us plenty of time to research museums and places to stay in the U.K. I will start a Blake fund/budget. Setting goals, reading, and planning are wonderful ways to take on a reprieve from my need to see his real authentic work
Besides today is a cloudy cool day in May. My kind of weather. Almost as if San Francisco has come to us, this weekend, instead of us going to San Francisco.
Melancholy is a type of reprieve or realization. Time is given to focus within ourselves. Where we can be participating with our imagination and become creatively involved. That is, if we engage our Sun and Neptune in the right way, astrologically speaking of course.
Something within is stirring. I don’t know what is going to happen? I can wait and see what the future will bring. It is a good bright hope that will be born from an inward reprieve.
Headaches, no sleep and a palpitating heart with rain and thunder and the dark of an endless night. Today the wind makes sounds ancient and whispering as the Celtic Bards of long ago.
He has a rich character, our dear Joseph Campbell. His insights into myth, history, art, religion, and our unconscious are telling us such old stories. A book that is a necessity for every person to read is Goddesses, Mysteries of the Feminine Divine.
For anyone who wants to know where they came from and solutions to the problems of our current modern times. I recommend this book. But be careful and beware, this book is not a fairy-tale ride at Disneyland.
It is deeper than our DNA contained in a place beyond time. As above so below, this knowledge is mystical and enchanting. Which is to say between life and death. It moves one into another place beyond time as the Celtic Bards did. Stories are real and part of all our history. A lovely escort to any study of art, history, science, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and religion!
“When Dante was going through the stages of hell, the first and least horrendous was that of the carnal lovers. Among them were Tristan and Iseult and Lancelot and Guinevere, all the great lovers of all time. And he recognizes one couple, Paolo, and Francesca, and like a good sociologist he called Francesca down and asks,
“How did you get into this condition?”
In the most poignant line in the whole poem [The Divine Comedy], she answers,
“We were reading the book of Guinevere and Lancelot. And when we came to the meeting of the eyes, we looked at each other and read no more in the book that day.”
There they are in what looks like hell to us but the wonderful wise miracle man, William Blake, said in his book of aphorisms, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,
“I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyment of Genius, which to Angels look like torments and insanity.”
I think that’s the answer. So, what Tristan accepted was the fire of this agony that is love for eternity, and that will be his life in eternity. “
~Pg. 245 Goddesses, Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, Joseph Campbell.
William Blake Image form The William Blake Tarot Cards. ~ Ed Buryn
I captured this very small image on a William Blake Tarot Card. I enlarged the image on my iPhone camera. I have a magnifying glass to look over all of his images. There is always something on the cards hiding. This is on the card entitled “EXPERIENCE.”
It is inevitable that I will accumulate experience by living my life. Moving forward even if only sitting in a chair. I value experience over anything.
I have learned that part of growing as a human being is living with paradox, polarity and something more.
That is why I love Blake, he gives me something more. A vast view of life where opposites blend. I then understand my own limitations. There is an inevitable message Blake puts into his work. If I look close enough I joyfully grasp his messages.
“The urge to cure the incurable keeps us from recognizing the essence of our limitations, and the limits that come with the psychopathic essence of personality.”
~ Praxis Pg. 167, The Dream and the Underworld – James Hillman
An inevitable experience was hearing this song played on the Drive In Speaker between movies in the 1970’s. Glad I found it.
Renewal of hope. Feeling connected with cosmic or universal energies. As Above, So Below. Opening your eyes to the highest potential or your situation. Getting in touch with your own creative powers. Self-esteem. Far-reaching effects. Receiving recognition for your abilities. “Doing your own thing,” no matter what.
“I have a different idea of elegance. I don’t dress like a fop, it’s true, but my moral grooming is impeccable. I never appear in public with a soiled conscience, a tarnished honor, threadbare scruples, or an insult that I haven’t washed away. I’m always immaculately clean, adorned with independence and frankness. I may not cut a stylish figure, but I hold my soul erect. I wear my deeds as ribbons, my wit is sharper than the finest mustache, and when I walk among men, I make truths ring like spurs.”
― Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
Years ago, when I read Cyrano de Bergerac, I have attended to his words with passion. It makes it hard for me to dress. But I dress in a comfortable honest fashion. Since I was a child, I have always loved boots, hats, and jackets.
Always containing and holding the passion of my soul within them. Until I read Rostand’s book, I never knew that there was someone else that saw fashion as I do. Words too are a type of clothing for me with the same regards as “I hold my soul erect.”
The creative process as well. Ideas and passions are “deeds as ribbons.” I tend to make a mockery of what is cool or fashionably beautiful. “Threadbare scruples, or an insult that I haven’t washed away.”
Green or black tennis shoes, straight leg pants and t-shirts and my Jester outfits hanging in my closet are my “different idea of elegance.” Inside me are goals that do not aspire to the latest fashions but instead inspire to the sensations of my mind, heart, and soul.
I have been thinking about William Blake a lot lately. If I could address the inspiration of his “thought body” and “creative soul,” I would dress like him because this is what pulls me. The perfection of his creative dress. I ponder on this and think about how it might be possible to dress to that place of his soul? To be covered by such a sensational creative sense of fashion?
“Blake was not just the author. He also illustrated it, engraved the entire text and the pictures by hand on copper plates, printed it, and hand-colored every copy so that no two were alike. He had even developed the process by which his books were produced and had prepared his own paints.” *
Sad to say here I do dress like a “Fop.”
Yet I am trying to better myself. You see Blake and Bergerac inspire me to make my “truths ring like spurs.” Did I get that right…??
As a baby boomer from the Jones generation I get sick when it comes to the idea of a war machine. Like prostitution it is one of the oldest rights of man; and unfortunately war is now for women.
When we hear about Ezekiel’s Vision of Divine Glory we most likely think about some strange and wonderful images. William Blake even illustrated them. Very remarkable and inspirational. Yet if one takes a closer look past all the inspiration one finds a testimony of war and war machines. Ezekiel’s glory turns to the horrors of religious war.
1“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword; take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair. 2“One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city, and one third you shall scatter to the wind; and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. 3“Take also a few in number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. 4“Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire; from it a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.” ~ Ezekiel Five
My Dad was shot down near the shores of New Guinea. On a last flight as a Captain. He survived the water with a broken back. Every year my mom made a beautiful cake with his plane crashed on the New Guinea cake coast in remembrance of that day. I did not get it as a kid and was only interested in the blue and green frosting.
All this weaved tightly together means when as a child of a WW II veteran I found out that my dad was the recipient of a Purple Heart; I still held no glory for war. I just liked the purple heart as a play thing.
The suffragette movement was a real good war. The right to vote and be heard.
Not to be as a man but new and powerful as a lady.
I think we should take the focus off glorifying war and its veterans and focus on the ones in control. The war machine. Take the few and put them on an Island like New Guinea and have them fight their wars. (yes, this is not a new idea). Most likely that would come down to about 5 or 6 men. Powerful war hungry men and corporate heads who search & destroy for profit, land resources and religious or political insanity.
Yes, even though I love William Blake’s illustrations of Ezekiel’s Vision of Divine Glory, Ezekiel was fucking insane. If you have not taken the time to read this from any Gideon’s bible… prepare to be amazed.
Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.
~ Cree Prophecy
O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love, Does thy life destroy. ~William Blake
I did not take becoming a mom lightly. Growing up in the 1970s sex was rampant, provocative and held secrets. We had Planned Parenthood to help us out! During the 1980s I was too wild to have children and ended up leaving a punk rock music scene in order to find a lifestyle where I eventually could have some kids.
The world my kids are growing up in is now so diverse. Gangs, sex and racism is something they handle with goodness and insight that amazes me. They have come into a technological world that is self-motivating and profoundly enriching. Not to say that technology is perfect because it can be addictive and time-consuming . I find it better than sitting around a circle smoking pot and listening to the same vinyl records over and over again… like the guys I grew up with!
Two things happened today that made me sick to my stomach. The first was finding out that a club on Facebook that looked very inviting and cute shamefully turned out to be an exclusive club for colored women. The second thing that happened was a woman rewarding other women for not being mothers.
Time to think !!
I don’t know why a young colored woman would want to put a tattoo on herself supporting a club that is racist against white woman? I don’t know why a woman from my own generation would sarcastically humiliate other women for making the decision to have a child.
When I was a 19-year-old punker I wanted to be sterilized! Considering over population, my own sexual abuse experiences, and the need to control my own body; made me aspire to this.
Time to think !
Two abortions, three miscarriages and two baby boys later I am grateful that I decided to have children. It is my body and the opportunity to bring children into this world has been my greatest gift.
I have come to the profound conclusion that life is a mystery. I know that this mystery must know a great deal more of what is going on than we do…
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul? Job, 3. 20
I am the kind of person that likes to be alone. The sounds of nature outside and the sounds of the house inside bring familiar ways to the reality of life. All seems good. Only when people get involved in my living equation do I get the feeling of being lonely. Those past and preset friends and family I sometimes am lonely for, do show their faces in my heart. I had my first Art show. I was lonely for support. With loneliness comes disillusionment.
I have an image by William Blake. It is a small image in a pretty golden frame. The image is of Job. Above Job are four beautiful angels with their hands and wings ascending upwards. With Job is the adversary and below him is a cave of desperate people. They are all looking up.
We have just finished remodeling our kitchen. I put this image in the new kitchen. I am waiting to properly hang it there. This morning I am amazed to see a ray of light from the morning sun shining on this image. Job is illuminated as well as the Angels above him. The light is perfectly aligned with this part of the image.
When ever I am truly lonely I have images/ paintings around my home that inspire me to look inward: penetrating an image until it starts to speak to me and so enlivens my sometimes lonely soul. I can not think of a character more lonely than Job and like Job sometimes we just have to endure our loneliness for a while.
I would be a fool to say there is one time. so far in my life, where I have been the most lonely. Loneliness is a common feeling we all share…which I do not wish on anyone.
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is – infinite ~ William Blake
This is a poem I created on a triangular form for a fellow student in a poetry class at Los Angeles Valley College. Abraham was a wise mature student taking a course with a bunch of young adults, and his presence added a unique dynamic to our discussions. With a twinkle in his eye, he often teased us playfully, bringing laughter to the classroom, while his occasional use of Yiddish added a rich cultural layer to our learning experience. His arms bore the marks of history, as he displayed Holocaust tattoos that were faded yet powerful, telltale signs of a life filled with both suffering and resilience. He was a survivor, embodying the strength of those who had endured unimaginable hardships. Abraham once graciously invited the class to his modest yet warm apartment in Van Nuys, where we shared not just lessons in poetry, but also stories of our lives, dreams, and aspirations, creating bonds that went beyond the classroom walls.
Every wall was covered with bookshelves filled with a variety of books. I found a book by William Blake there that day from one of the dusty shelves! I made this to remember Abraham, a simple man of extraordinary insight and purpose! I still have this and it is now sitting on my hearth.
Triangular Poem By Holly D. Cornell
“Future…A a ABRAHAM invited a bunch a kids to his apartment to… dayyyy… aroom fulla books and paintings SATURATION… And the helicopter flew overhead, transforming into A a ANGEL.”
“Abraham’s books in his apartment are filled with magic. I picked one up it told me what I was thinking. What is a mystic, yesterday and today, about life and death, and a soul that lives on… Masters hold on to the books they’ve created I know this to be true.
I had a lesson from “Blake” today, he said “inspired seers and prophets-where the imagination is most alive.” He said, “To keep the Divine Vision in times of trouble.” Is this who you are Abraham? Is this what you do?”
“Your homes like mine- a block from the river- A cottage filled-with many… Books and paintings and images and things most precious to you near the sound of the racing cars. I’m embarrassed to share mine. Linked, yes linked, I know we are linked someplace, where helicopters fly overhead… I have Neptune in mine like yours, I have a mother and a child in mine like yours, I have imagination and the future like yours, and the link that binds is love.”
Singed by Abraham Pesah Lenkawicki 3-11-1998
Yiddish – PLAY BALALAIKAs. A young lad is thinking, thinking all night Would it be wrong, he asks, or maybe right, Should he declare his love, dare he choose, And would she accept, or will she refuse? Chorus: Tumbala, tumbala, tumbalalaika, Tumbala, tumbala, tumbalalaika tumbalalaika, play Balalaika, tumbalalaika – let us be merry. Maiden, maiden tell me again What can grow, grow without rain, What can burn for many years, What can long and cry without tears? Silly young lad, why ask again? It’s a stone that can grow, grow without rain, It’s love that can burn for many long years, the heart that can yearn and cry without tears.
“Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.”
~ William Blake
The colors became dark. The night air and clubs filled with dark colors and darker tattoos. She remembered when bright colors expressed the vibrant nights in contrast to the dark nights and loud music. To bring the bright colors back was a problem for her.
Bright lipstick and red pants. The joy of watercolors on paper brought the essence of the flowers to life. Why not on her round body, green, purple, and red were the colors she wanted to wear!
She would put the colorful colors of clothing on her body before going out, but at the last-minute took them all off, slipping into her dark cloths again. She put on her old ripped and torn clothing to blend into the crowd. She was hiding her light and cravings for color.
Her friend told her once,
“don’t be afraid to show yourself, and don’t care what anyone thinks…it is you that you have got to please!!”
Tonight, is the night she wore her red pants, black shoes with open toes and a black shirt with a bright red logo. She put the red lipstick on her pale lips.
Another friend told her once to wear lipstick.
“Wear lipstick no matter what. You can get away with skipping all the other makeup, but lipstick is a must. It brings color to your face, and it makes you look finished.”
The night was dark, but her red pants, lips and band-logo were anything but!!
Evil and the Devil are two different things. The Devil is how humans like to imagine evil, with horns and a tail. Evil is part of our personality. I’ve never believed in occultism or the Devil, and I’m not at all religious. I’d rather read science books than something about occultism. When it comes to cinema, evil is simply a form of entertainment to me. ~ Roman Polanski
We all have our personal style that we project to the world around us, which, as in my case is often counter-productive to the general and personal world around me: Being loud when others are quiet or being quiet when other are loud. I think William Blake and Samuel Clemens write about the concept of being contradictory.
Do what you will, this world’s a fiction and is made up of contradiction. ~William Blake
To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.~ Mark Twain
I let my personal style out like colorful balloons filled with colorful paint which are projected and exploited on a four-dimensional wall. Only a few at a time: then back into my cave of safety. That is my contradictory self and my personal style.
It is passionately manifested and a bit too fiery at times… but with age I can redirect it but will never control it. I embrace it as my own unique personal style.
I am still riding the wave of the flu. Today I am drinking some Burgundy wine in a small crystal glass. The warmth of the drink warms me along with the fire in the fireplace. Even though a son follows me around the house and laughs as he touches my arm with his cold “living dead hands”… we laugh and I have time to write the daily WordPress prompt.
When I reflect and look over the vast amount of ways to learn I focus on individuals more than an educational system. The people I respect and learn from are those that learn by their own means. I often reflect on the MASTERS OF HUMAN LIFE… William Blake, Thomas Paine and Carl Jung.
Though Carl Jung had a vast and strong academic education he also had a separate very independent education going on at the same time.
“Reading and reflecting” is what suits me best because social stimuli and peer pressure both turn me off. I read books by many different authors on many different subjects. I like it this way best because I can set my own inward goals. I am not studying to be a doctor, nurse or accountant or engineer. I am a philosopher.
My chosen field is love, I am a philosopher of love.
I have been through university study and I learned a great deal. I find that politics get involved as one climbs higher in the education system.
Child’s play. I guess one has to really desire it. If the love of your chosen field is a love that is worth the sacrifices ; such as your identity. At times it is… but for me it is not a valid argument anymore. I say no,
The greatest reward is to study on ones own and come to knowledge on your own terms. A good grade, an acknowledged pat on the back from a friend is just not the same. I never feel alone while reading a book, researching a subject, listening to music or when writing… but I often feel alone and frustrated around people because they are awkward at loving what they say they love and are so darn weird.
