Friday May 6th 2005
Dear Friends,
Hoping all is well as the Winter approaches. I am currently at Redhouse, on
the Swartkops River, just outside Port Elizabeth . . . and plan to return to
Cape Town A.S.A.P. Previous to this a period in Johannesburg and the
Soutpansberg.
THE ANNE BARING VISIT TO CAPE
TOWN has come and gone - with various components emerging out of the
visit . . . a radio Interview with Hilary Reynolds was broadcast,
but sadly I did not get the date in time to inform you . . and likewise
I do not know when the FREE SPIRIT Interview will be televised either. .
In the meanwhile, do visit her excellent Website at: www.annebaring.com
STEVEN KARCHER RETURNS TO CAPE TOWN IN SEPTEMBER -
Steven has asked me to put my finger in the organizational pie, which I will
do from the vantage point of my laptop. There are plans for a weekend workshop
in NIEU BETHESDA on the first weekend of October . . . a magnificent Karoo
setting for a few days . . . let me know if you want to be there . .
.there is already interest . . . now for a ramble through the recent
pre-occupations of my mind . . . with not much structure but with a wealth of
interesting material
Love and Peace
Samten [ And remember! Click on the Blue Bits when Online!]
ART HISTORY
For
years, the research that has inspired a mere mortal such as muself, has always
emerged from the WARBURG INSTITUTE
in London . . FRANCES
YATES was an idol of fascination for many years,
and JEAN
SEZNEC is always at my side in the form of his great
work: here are a few resources to point in the direction of the interface
between culture and spirituality . .
Fritz Saxl was almost a legend for
his creative “tilling [of] the soil on the borderstrip between art history,
literature, science and religion” (to use his own words) ……
…..Abby
Warburg’s vision of an historical
psychology of expression devoted to antiquity’s persistent strains of
knowledge and image affecting both Orient and Occident.
Jorn Barger October 2002
A
SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF JEAN SEZNEC
By
Mathias Bruhn. An excellent introduction to Aby Warburg and the History of
the Warburg Library
A
Brief History Of Paper
This
is here because I developed an interest in this subject and have a wonderful
article - if you wish on Chinese Paper . . ask . .
FABRIANO PAPER
The first official document recording the presence of
paper manufacturing in Fabriano dates back to 1283, and is the deed of a public
notary recording the purchase of a house by a "carthaio" or paper
maker, with another six paper makers called as witnesses.
This paper was written by Andrew
Wiesner and submitted to the classics department of the Colorado College
in May of 1994. For those with some Euclidian proclivities plus myth . . .
TALES
OF APOLLO . . . see the Sun God Apollo and His/Her Myths!
R. B. ONIANS, as M.L. von Franz saw, is a mine of extra-ordinary
information . . . Norman O. Brown,
in his book Love's Body, writes this:
- "In
the unconscious, cerebral is genital. The word cerebralis from the
same root as Ceres, goddess of cereals, of growth and fertility; the same
root as cresco, to grow, and creo, to create. Onians,
archaeologist of language, who uncovers lost worlds of meaning, buried
meanings, has dug up a prehistoric image of the body, according to which the
head and genital intercommunicate via the spinal column: the gray matter of
the brain, the spinal marrow, and the seminal fluid are all one identical
substance, on tap in the genital and stored in the head."
And here you can see how to get the Onians book:
The Origins of European Thought : About the Body, the
Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate
by R.
B. Onians "How do Homeric notions of the main
processes of conciousness differ from our own?..." (more)
THE
DESMOND TUTU PEACE CENTRE
A
superb website . . .
MOVIES!!!
Recently seen on DVD
a Movie though not new - K-PAX
- British director Iain Softley's
first Hollywood movie, with Kevin Spacey & Jeff Bridges. There is a
wonderful scene where a patient in the ward asks Prot the Hero: “What’s
my last test.” And Prot
answers:
“To
stay here and be prepared for anything.”
I
thought that wise enough advice to add to a signature. Then, be prepared to
go somewhere in the Edges
of the Lord (2001)
Directed
by Yurek
Bogayevicz also available on DVD at the moment . .
.
Our
dear old friend Anderson
Bakewell - donated his collection of 55 tapes from Balochistan (Pakistan), Chinese
Turkestan, Yemen, Turkey, and Xianjiang (China), made by Anderson Bakewell
between 1983-1991 to the BLSA. A selection of the recordings from Balochistan (Pakistan) are
released on Topic/IMC as TCSD916 Music of Makran: Traditional Fusion
from coastal Balochistan.
The
British Library Sound Archive - World
and Traditional Music: South Asian ethnographic collections
THE
GOVERNMENT OF TIBET IN EXILE
Dear
Sam, maybe this is of interest for you! Love Chris. January
19, 2005 1
GANORA KAROO GUEST FARM
Hester Stetnberg of GANORA GUEST
FARM, in the Karoo, outside Nieu Bethesda, is keen to open
her facilities for workshops, spiritual groups and others . . . the Farm
is set in an ancient telluric depression,
with Dinosaur fossils, going back 20 million years, and sacred Bushmen
sites. This Project needs help to give the energy some shape, but we would
need geomantic and fengu shui consultaion. . . perhaps Stephen
Karcher would advise in October . .
Dr. Joscelyn Godwin, author of a
wide range of marvelous books, has kindly sending me a copy of his
latest book, entitled: "The Real Rule of Four" - we met
in Prague and keep in touch through similar interests, especially
esoteric currents in the Renaissance.
Deeper journies into the Da Vinci Code Area! So see:
Quotron.
The Da Vinci Code. Myth Making for the Second Coming
- presented
by Kenneth Warren , May 2, 2004
SOME BATS IN THE BELFRY
This from last year: Turin, Italy: October 10, 2004
Then
something very strange also happened a few weeks ago. As you know, I am
a great believer in synchronicities . . .
[1] firstly, I went with Ugo Fama, my Jungian therapist friend to
the Staffardia Abbey, south or Turin, beautiful 15th century
Cistercian cloisters, where in one of the cellars, a rare colony of
migrant bats hang out, so to speak. They are even protected by a World
Wildlife Foundation poster on the medieval door, and within the darkness
we could hear a lot of shrill tittering going on.
[2] A few weeks later, we went to an artist friend, Sergio Minero,
in the courtside north of
Turin, and he had painted four bats
on the corners of one of the frames of a new painting. Recently,
[3] I did the Jamie Sams Medicine Cards, up came BAT, on the left
hand side. [4] The exiting
bit: I woke up one night, with a strange sound and felt that someone
might be intruding downstairs. . . I even smoked a cigarette out of the
window . . . with the unidentifiable sound still
no closer to clarification. Eventually, back in bed, I realised
the sound was coming from in the room, so I switched the
bedside lamp on . . . and then, flying around the ceiling in some panic,
was a BAT! Well, I immediately put the light out, and draping one of
those printed Indian bedspreads over my head, in case it got entangled
in my hair . . . opened the windows wide . . . and lay back in the bed
to observe what would happen. Eventually, it circled the room lower and
I could see it silhouetted against the light coming in from the window .
. . then I clearly saw a second bat coming in through the window,
and slowly the two of them circled the room, both passing in
front of the window. At that point, I could see that the one was small
and the other bigger, and I knew that a pup had come into the room and
his mother was there to help him out! Eventually after a few
minutes they both flew out of the window, like ships in the night with
their sails unfurled. The room was pervaded with a great sense of peace
and I fell asleep.
That
night I dreamt of inspecting a old house that I was going to rent. My
mother was with me and she approved of the decision. But she said
nothing. In fact she was more like a shadow, radiating a great warmth, a
comfort, a protective veil, that only mothers can offer.
As the days passed, I came to understand that my mother
and the Bat Mother, were one and the same. She was an archetypal shade,
bringing necessary germination from the warm of the unconscious. There
is a key in the words: “…she said nothing . . .” because the gift
that she brought was no …’thing’ ..ness.
The anima does not bring “things’ for it is the no-‘things’
that are the profound activators of the psyche.
TONY
VAND DER VEEN SUBMITTED: Subject: Phillips Digital Arts
Festival Winner
Wait for the web page to load and then pass your mouse over
the image a few times, hold it on him and see what
happens!!! Finally, leave the mouse over the nose of
the image. This website won first prize in the
Phillips Digital Arts Festival.
A
PRAYER
Heavenly
Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic
last night, is a single mother who worked nine hours that day
& is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework,
do the laundry & spend a few precious moments with her
children.
Help
us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young
man who can't make change correctly, is a worried
19-year-old college student, balancing his
apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his
student loans for next semester.
Remind
us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the
same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a
slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst
nightmares.
Help
us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow
through the store aisles & blocking our shopping
progress, are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on
the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the
last year that they go shopping together.
Heavenly
Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us,
the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that
love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just
those who are close to us, but to all humanity.
Let
us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy
and love.
"Love
me when I least deserve it, because that's when I really
need it."
In the
world at large and in these regions in particular,
May not even the names 'sickness', 'despair' and 'war' be heard.
May the meritorious qualities, honour and prosperity of those
who act in accord with Dharma greatly increase,
And may there always be an absolute perfection of good fortune,
happiness and auspicious circumstances.
"The human mind is
essentially clear and lucid, but we forget its true nature under the
influence of various negative emotions and desires. Only when the mind is
tranquil and calm can one see through the illusory. It is only then that
one can realize the truth and meaning of existence."
His Holiness Orgyen Trinley Dorje, The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa
At this time it would be merely speculation to say what Pluto will be like
in the signs Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, but as the last three universal
signs, there could be transformations through large social and collective
movements.