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.
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/
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.
Astraea’s hoped-for return was referred to in a phrase from Virgil’s Eclogue IV:
“Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna”
(Astraea returns, returns old Saturn’s reign.)
~The Star Goddess
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,
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.
That is why I love William Blake because he defines “universal humanity.”
“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.
“To heal Albion and reunite the “Eternal Great Human Divine.”
“A vision of the Last Judgement (pg. 434) “It is an endeavor to restore what the ancients call the Golden Age.”
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
(Update it seems a lighting strike came through my soul and we went to San Francisco the end of May 2017… my joy overflowed… )
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.
William Blake Gallery
http://www.johnwindle.com/shop/windle/WilliamBlakeGallery.html?id=xmZgSBWw
PLaces in europe and the united kingdom to see Blake’s work.
Interesting past exhibition on Blake and who he influenced.
I am not a U2 fan but they always come up in regards to William Blake’s work… I do not judge…
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.
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 in 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.
stars that fell,
“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 then 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 a 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 someones else that saw fashion as I did and 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… ??
*Enjoying “The Book of Thel” by William Blake
Ed Friedlander, M.D.
http://www.pathguy.com/thel.htm
old song that still seems fresh and new ??? How can this be??
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.
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.
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