Category Archives: ART

Paintings, photography, aesthetic objects, beautiful communication, and anything I consider to be art, artful, artistic, artsy or whatever.
Art is subjective. It is a quality of communication can be contributed to by the viewer through empathy or agreement with its creator.

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THE MEANING OF “LIFE”

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

meaning-of-life

If you have spent any time with animals you should have observed that they experience emotions similar to our own. Animals can communicate between themselves, or with other species, including humans, with amazing sensitivity.  Many experiments have been conducted that conclusively demonstrate extrasensory abilities and perceptions of animals.  Millions of people in India consider that the reincarnated souls of humans inhabit the bodies of every kind of life form.  Therefore, every life form is is “sacred” and entitled to live freely within human society.

However, the “civilized” Westerner does not possess an awareness of personal spiritual immortality.   Instead, human beings in Western “civilization” considers themselves to be the “highest attainment of evolution”.  Or, that humans embody “the image of The Creator”.  There is no concept of “personal spiritual immortality”.  It is virtually inconceivable to the “civilized Westerner” that spiritual beings inhabit and animate life forms.  Rather, the animation of life is a “mysterious and unknowable” phenomenon that is being “studied” by the priests of Western culture: “scientists”.

A “scientist” is a professional academician or “priest” whose “religious belief” is that the “entire universe consists of nothing more than solid matter, energy, space and time”, including living organisms.  These “priests” possess a profound inability to observe the obvious fact that LIFE FORMS ARE ANIMATED BY SPIRITUAL BEINGS!

Question: What is the definition, or meaning of  “LIFE”?

Answer:  A material form or organism which is animated and motivated by a non-material energy source, or “spirit”.

Factually, Western “science” does not have working definition for the word “LIFE”.  As a consequence,  the “average” American and European human view of themselves as a life form is egocentric, myopic, ignorant, self-aggrandizing and pathetically barbaric.  Visit any grocery store or restaurant anywhere in the western world, and it becomes instantly apparent that human beings are carnivorous predators who consider that other animals are a primary and necessary food source!

animal thoughts

This idea is very, very similar to the belligerently aristocratic notion of “great” Britain that “the brown races” are the natural subjects of the white race, and that it is the “manifest destiny” of Caucasians to rule over them and use them as slaves.  Thus, the British Empire, which invaded and conquered all by 22 of the nations of Earth, entitled and bequeathed unto themselves the “god-given right” to murder, steal from, indenture or enslave nearly the entire population of humans and every other life form on the planet!  The Nazis Third Reich was motivated and empowered with a religious conviction that they were entitled, as “the Master Race”, to rule the world!

What is the difference between the philosophy of these genocidal “civilizations” and the philosophy that “humans are the highest life form on Earth”?  In both cases, these philosophies are used by humans as justification to murder, slaughter, enslave or EAT almost every living organism on Earth!  I suggest that human beings are nothing more than stupid savages as regards their awareness and treatment of themselves and every other life form on Earth.

If you would like to “cure” your own ignorance or superstitions on the subject of “LIFE”, I recommend that you read the very excellent book, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell.

From the publishers promo about the book:

“Did you know that ants teach, earthworms make decisions, rats love to be tickled, and chimps grieve? Did you know that some dogs have thousand-word vocabularies and that birds practice songs in their sleep? That crows improvise tools, blue jays plan ahead, and moths remember living as caterpillars?
Animal Wise takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals, from ants to elephants to wolves, and from sharp-shooting archerfish to pods of dolphins that rumble like rival street gangs. Morell probes the moral and ethical dilemmas of recognizing that even “lesser animals” have cognitive abilities such as memory, feelings, personality, and self-awareness–traits that many in the twentieth century felt were unique to human beings.”

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CHANNELING VISIONS OF JOHANNA

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As long as I’m having a Dylan Concert, let’s Channel some “Visions Of Johanna”.  Visions are a spiritual adventure, my friends. Dream on, dream on….

LYRICS:
Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet ?
We sit here stranded, though we’re all doin our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handfull of rain, tempting you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there’s nothing really nothing to turn of
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind.

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman’s bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D-train
We can hear the night watcman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it’s him or them that’s really insane
Louise she’s all right she’s just near
She’s delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna’s not here
The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He’s sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I’m in the hall
Oh, how can I explain ?
It’s so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna they kept me up past the dawn.

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, “Jeeze
I can’t find my knees”
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel.

The peddler now speaks to the countess who’s pretending to care for him
Saying, “Name me someone that’s not a parasite and I’ll go out and say a prayer for him”
But like Louise always says
“Ya can’t look at much, can ya man ”

As she, herself prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev’rything’s been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.

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WITCHES RITE OF RENUNCIATION

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witches renunciation(This article is reposted from “quedavathegrey” on Tumbler)

“The Witches’ Rites of Renunciation are meant to sever the religious ties of your own personal past. This is done (I have found) for two distinct reasons: to shed the preconceptions forced by organized religion, including both the doctrines and the antithetic notion of hierarchal power in regards to Enlightenment, and as a symbol of rebirth. Much like a baptism! Only in this instance, the sin you wash away is the sin of religious indoctrination, hypocrisy and the very human realities that accompany the notion of “church.” It is meant to be a freeing exercise – one that cleanses all the malformed ideologies imbued on you throughout your earlier life. Of course, that is easier said than done and no one ritual can truly clear the slate completely, but it serves as a formal boundary between the past and the future – a future in which you must relearn your understanding of the world at large. One in which the answers presented are not set in stone, but fluid – from which you must come to your own conclusions, test your own theories and tessellate the scattered mythos and ideas into a cohesive faith – you own faith, reliant wholly on none other than yourself.

That is The Witches’ Baptism, and this is one example of how it may be performed:

Ideally, the rite should be done at a Crossroad (of whichever type speaks to you the most) as it is a transformative ritual! Bring with you whatever you need to light a fire in your preferred method – such as wood for a classic bonfire, Sacred Fire to light in a bowl/cauldron/vessel, or alcohol – which can be poured in a circle (note: isopropyl alcohol isn’t fond of the cold or wind, so either plan according to weather or bring a backup solution).

On site, when you are emotionally prepared, build your fire. Depending on your chosen medium, your window of opportunity will differ greatly (the above are listed from greatest to least burn-time), so factor this in as well. For those of you who thoroughly enjoy taking your time, I recommend building a true fire.

The following part should be personalized to fit your taste, as how you wish to release the past is up to you. You can do it simply, by speaking out loud that you rebuke the religion of your youth/past (traditionally, this is done by rebuking the Holy Spirit of Christianity – the unforgivable blasphemy – so as to free oneself from its vice-grip, though the renunciation can extend to any religion [or even no religion]).

A few other options consist of writing these things out – in as long-winded or concise a manner as you wish (these can even be written days in advance) – or burning a symbol of the past. The flames are freeing – allow them to be.

Purge these broken things from the mind and heart, and cast them symbolically into the consuming fire of creation and destruction. It is these things that stand as obstacle – let them be cleansed from you. And when the time has come, when these things have been expressed and used as kindling (carefully) leap the fire (and try not to wear any hairspray!). Then you are free.

Upon the other side, you may douse the fire, allow it to burn out, or use this time to connect with another Spirit or Deity (I said you were free, not that you had to stay free!), Nature at large, or even with yourself – whichever is most befitting your chosen path. Theoretically, this could be done by an Abrahamic witch if only to cleanse the effects of church indoctrination – for those who wish to follow the gospels/tomes in a unique or personal way.”

IMAGE:   “Baptism of fire: Girls leap over flames as part of ancient cleansing ceremony held on the birthday of John the Baptist,”

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BREATHLESS IN 524 FRAMES PER SECOND

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“Experimental film maker Gerard Courant has taken Jean-Luc Godard’s classic  French film from 1960,  Breathless, and sped up it (or compressed it as he prefers to call it) into a four minute movie.

The French title of Godard’s debut film is À bout de souffle which translates to English as “out of breath.” Courant’s compression is most likely a play on the title.

What I find interesting about the compression is the way it brings Godard’s style and the American noir films he was inspired by to the foreground. The nervous energy of the film, the pans and tracking shots, cigarettes smoked, automobiles in motion, zooms, jump-cuts, and close-ups, all create an angular yet fluid motion that seems driven by forces of destiny – the movie is tumbling into a dark void of betrayal and its opposite – yin and yanging to the beat beat beat of a heart in the throes of atrial tachycardia. No time to catch your breath – you’re breathless.

Fucking with Godard’s masterpiece is very Godardian.  If, as Godard claims, “cinema is truth at 24 frames per second” what is cinema at 524 frames per second”

— va Dangerous Minds