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Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Monday, December 21, 2020
This Solstice, Solace for the Darkness by Dennis Overbye
This Solstice, Solace for the Darkness
A rare conjunction of planets serves as a reminder that there is more to the universe than just ourselves.
by Dennis Overbye for The New York Times
Dec. 18, 2020
We have now arrived at the longest, darkest night of the longest, darkest year. And yet rarely have the heavens so proclaimed their glory.
In blithe disregard for the activities of the Electoral College and everything else that humans were engaged in, the sun and the moon last week lined up in a perfect cue-ball shot to produce a total solar eclipse. The moon’s shadow slid across Argentina and Chile, and the majestic but shy mandala known as the solar corona revealed itself to crowds who had braved rain and fog in anticipation of the sight.
Meanwhile, the Geminid meteor shower graced the Northern Hemisphere with celestial brush strokes of fire. And as always there is the brilliance of the winter Milky Way, starring Orion.
Now comes one of the grandest events of the sky: a planetary conjunction.
For the past year, Jupiter and Saturn have been dancing ever closer in the night sky. On the evening of Dec. 21, the very nadir of winter, they will be so close — one-tenth of one angular degree — that if your eyes are as bad as mine, they will appear as one blurry, bright planet. With a little optical aid you should be able to discern them as separate orbs, almost kissing, although Jupiter will be 450 million miles in front of the ringed Saturn.
Go out and look southwest in the hour after sunset. According to astronomers, the two planets have not appeared this close to each other in the sky since 1623 — but the sun’s glare then would have rendered them invisible. To find a conjunction that humans could see, you must skip all the way back to 1226, or ahead to March 15, 2080. You might wonder who will be around to witness that event.
Every 20 years, Jupiter and Saturn come into conjunction — appearing within a couple of degrees from each other, about the width of three full moons.
Such conjunctions of planets are fraught with psychic meaning to astrologers. And some astronomers have speculated that a conjunction involving Jupiter, Venus and the star Regulus in the years 2-3 B.C. might have inspired the stories of the star of Bethlehem
The universe is big enough that you can find almost any omen you want there. Yesterday more than 3,500 Americans died of Covid-19. As many may die today, and again tomorrow. And tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Two of the titles on The New York Times Book Review’s list of notable books in 2020 concerned the long-term fate of life and the cosmos: “Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe,” by Brian Greene, and “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking),” by Katie Mack. Both paint the same basic picture, which is either dreary or inspiring, depending on your point of view and psychology.
In the grand scheme of things, the universe is young. It was born in an eruption of energy 13.8 billion years ago. Its future, as far as we know, is endless, but everything interesting that will ever happen is happening now. This is the era of light, stars and galaxies; of creatures crawling around on dust motes, constructing telescopes and other intellectual pyramids, driven at least in part by wonder at the surroundings.
But in a few billion years the sun will engulf and destroy us. If the universe doesn’t collapse in a Big Crunch and disappear, dark energy could blow what remains permanently beyond the event horizon. The universe will become too cold and dead even for thought, let alone life. None of us will be remembered.
Should we curse our fate, or be grateful we were here for the party?
Lately a barred owl has come to live in my Manhattan neighborhood. Nicknamed Barnard after the college a block away, it has become a local celebrity. I saw it most recently in an old knotted elm on the edge of Riverside Park, surrounded by admiring humans with smartphones and telephoto lenses. A flock of crows kept trying to chase it away. For me, Barnard has become an omen, a harbinger of the essential generosity of nature in the low, slanting light of winter, a reminder that there is more going on in this world than just us. Even if the crows or the worsening weather causes Barnard to depart, I will feel blessed to have seen it.
On Dec. 3 astronomers from the European Gaia spacecraft, which has been mapping and measuring more than a billion stars in the Milky Way, released a video showing the projected motions of some 40,000 stars over the next 400,000 years. They looked like bugs swimming in a petri dish, twigs circling in the eddy of a stream, dust motes in a sunbeam.
Wherever those cosmic dust motes are headed, they will go regardless of whether we are here to watch, measure, map or wonder about them. Jupiter and Saturn will continue their dance; the sun and moon will play tag with each other’s shadows.
Odds are, whoever or whatever lives out there will never know that we were here at all, nor will we know them. But we know who we are. We know that we are alive now. We know whom we loved and whom we lost. Maybe that’s enough to ask of any universe.
Link to original article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/science/christmas-star-jupiter-saturn-conjunction.html
A rare conjunction of planets serves as a reminder that there is more to the universe than just ourselves.
by Dennis Overbye for The New York Times
Dec. 18, 2020
We have now arrived at the longest, darkest night of the longest, darkest year. And yet rarely have the heavens so proclaimed their glory.
In blithe disregard for the activities of the Electoral College and everything else that humans were engaged in, the sun and the moon last week lined up in a perfect cue-ball shot to produce a total solar eclipse. The moon’s shadow slid across Argentina and Chile, and the majestic but shy mandala known as the solar corona revealed itself to crowds who had braved rain and fog in anticipation of the sight.
Meanwhile, the Geminid meteor shower graced the Northern Hemisphere with celestial brush strokes of fire. And as always there is the brilliance of the winter Milky Way, starring Orion.
Now comes one of the grandest events of the sky: a planetary conjunction.
For the past year, Jupiter and Saturn have been dancing ever closer in the night sky. On the evening of Dec. 21, the very nadir of winter, they will be so close — one-tenth of one angular degree — that if your eyes are as bad as mine, they will appear as one blurry, bright planet. With a little optical aid you should be able to discern them as separate orbs, almost kissing, although Jupiter will be 450 million miles in front of the ringed Saturn.
Go out and look southwest in the hour after sunset. According to astronomers, the two planets have not appeared this close to each other in the sky since 1623 — but the sun’s glare then would have rendered them invisible. To find a conjunction that humans could see, you must skip all the way back to 1226, or ahead to March 15, 2080. You might wonder who will be around to witness that event.
Every 20 years, Jupiter and Saturn come into conjunction — appearing within a couple of degrees from each other, about the width of three full moons.
Such conjunctions of planets are fraught with psychic meaning to astrologers. And some astronomers have speculated that a conjunction involving Jupiter, Venus and the star Regulus in the years 2-3 B.C. might have inspired the stories of the star of Bethlehem
The universe is big enough that you can find almost any omen you want there. Yesterday more than 3,500 Americans died of Covid-19. As many may die today, and again tomorrow. And tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Two of the titles on The New York Times Book Review’s list of notable books in 2020 concerned the long-term fate of life and the cosmos: “Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe,” by Brian Greene, and “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking),” by Katie Mack. Both paint the same basic picture, which is either dreary or inspiring, depending on your point of view and psychology.
In the grand scheme of things, the universe is young. It was born in an eruption of energy 13.8 billion years ago. Its future, as far as we know, is endless, but everything interesting that will ever happen is happening now. This is the era of light, stars and galaxies; of creatures crawling around on dust motes, constructing telescopes and other intellectual pyramids, driven at least in part by wonder at the surroundings.
But in a few billion years the sun will engulf and destroy us. If the universe doesn’t collapse in a Big Crunch and disappear, dark energy could blow what remains permanently beyond the event horizon. The universe will become too cold and dead even for thought, let alone life. None of us will be remembered.
Should we curse our fate, or be grateful we were here for the party?
Lately a barred owl has come to live in my Manhattan neighborhood. Nicknamed Barnard after the college a block away, it has become a local celebrity. I saw it most recently in an old knotted elm on the edge of Riverside Park, surrounded by admiring humans with smartphones and telephoto lenses. A flock of crows kept trying to chase it away. For me, Barnard has become an omen, a harbinger of the essential generosity of nature in the low, slanting light of winter, a reminder that there is more going on in this world than just us. Even if the crows or the worsening weather causes Barnard to depart, I will feel blessed to have seen it.
On Dec. 3 astronomers from the European Gaia spacecraft, which has been mapping and measuring more than a billion stars in the Milky Way, released a video showing the projected motions of some 40,000 stars over the next 400,000 years. They looked like bugs swimming in a petri dish, twigs circling in the eddy of a stream, dust motes in a sunbeam.
Wherever those cosmic dust motes are headed, they will go regardless of whether we are here to watch, measure, map or wonder about them. Jupiter and Saturn will continue their dance; the sun and moon will play tag with each other’s shadows.
Odds are, whoever or whatever lives out there will never know that we were here at all, nor will we know them. But we know who we are. We know that we are alive now. We know whom we loved and whom we lost. Maybe that’s enough to ask of any universe.
 |
| Saturn and Jupiter have been inching closer to each other all year and on December 21st, 2020, will be close enough to appear as one. Photo: Ted S. Warren/Associated Press |
Link to original article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/science/christmas-star-jupiter-saturn-conjunction.html
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Sunday, November 3, 2019
BEAUTY: Ceramics--Sophie Woodrow
English ceramic artist Sophie Woodrow creates gorgeous little dream figures who remind me so much of the nature and animal spirits from Miyazaki films like "Spirited Away." Each one is an intrigue, but as a group, they have great impact. Together, they look like they just stepped from the other side and are waiting with curiosity, ready to interact, to help...
http://sophiewoodrow.co.uk/
http://sophiewoodrow.co.uk/
Thursday, March 22, 2018
BEAUTY: Digital Collage--Luis Toledo
Luis Toledo. Graphic artist. Maximalism.
"Death, spirituality, necessity, beginning and end.
Death is just one more step in which we abandon the skin to continue our existence with another form. The liberating end. Another aspect of life, so vital and necessary as life itself.
The mirror that our eye escapes from, but nevertheless, charges against without remedy in these images.
The other side becomes visible, evident, melted with the reality from which was never separated.
Skulls, skeletons, insects, fungus, bodies with no face and solitaries expressions, abstract and geometric forms, all in an unmaterialized arsenal.
The reality ( material ) is obvious, monotonous and predictable. It is easy than to understand the fascination of the author for the none-material and spiritual part of life and how they are related and represented.
Time, past, present and future and eternity.
The definitive illusion follows its path in a clock-time rhythm.
We run desperate after each second trying to stop it, trap it, take it, use it. “ Time is gold” they say, but in reality is only a measure like weight or height. Your life is not the time that has been until the moment, of course not. It is necessary that we are conscious of the present moment, taste it, enjoy it.
This is an idea that is developed in each work with fraction complexity inviting the spectator to stop and appreciate with care each detail.
An attention call for the consumer society, and even more, for the constant images designed to use ans throw. Something that the author calls out : “ hurry kills”.
The brief instant becomes the key of eternity.
The use if images and aesthetics picked up from the past, mixed with abstract and contemporary forms, transport us into a un-timed territory; and in here, present, past and future mix in a symbolic reality."
Top to bottom: Offering Ritual; Portrait; Thangka; The Secret; Logic of a Dream; The Mushroom Garden
http://laprisamata.es/
"Death, spirituality, necessity, beginning and end.
Death is just one more step in which we abandon the skin to continue our existence with another form. The liberating end. Another aspect of life, so vital and necessary as life itself.
The mirror that our eye escapes from, but nevertheless, charges against without remedy in these images.
The other side becomes visible, evident, melted with the reality from which was never separated.
Skulls, skeletons, insects, fungus, bodies with no face and solitaries expressions, abstract and geometric forms, all in an unmaterialized arsenal.
The reality ( material ) is obvious, monotonous and predictable. It is easy than to understand the fascination of the author for the none-material and spiritual part of life and how they are related and represented.
Time, past, present and future and eternity.
The definitive illusion follows its path in a clock-time rhythm.
We run desperate after each second trying to stop it, trap it, take it, use it. “ Time is gold” they say, but in reality is only a measure like weight or height. Your life is not the time that has been until the moment, of course not. It is necessary that we are conscious of the present moment, taste it, enjoy it.
This is an idea that is developed in each work with fraction complexity inviting the spectator to stop and appreciate with care each detail.
An attention call for the consumer society, and even more, for the constant images designed to use ans throw. Something that the author calls out : “ hurry kills”.
The brief instant becomes the key of eternity.
The use if images and aesthetics picked up from the past, mixed with abstract and contemporary forms, transport us into a un-timed territory; and in here, present, past and future mix in a symbolic reality."
Top to bottom: Offering Ritual; Portrait; Thangka; The Secret; Logic of a Dream; The Mushroom Garden
http://laprisamata.es/
Sunday, September 10, 2017
BEAUTY: Illustration--Jenna Barton
Animals and mysteries. That is what artist Jenna Barton says she draws.
Top to bottom: Interstate 15; It came through the yard again; Mountain spirits see and love you; Shrine; There was something in the pool last night; Familiar
Her blog:
http://dappermouth.tumblr.com/
Prints and clothing:
http://dappermouth.storenvy.com/
Top to bottom: Interstate 15; It came through the yard again; Mountain spirits see and love you; Shrine; There was something in the pool last night; Familiar
Her blog:
http://dappermouth.tumblr.com/
Prints and clothing:
http://dappermouth.storenvy.com/
Friday, August 8, 2014
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Spiritual Thinking Is Poetic Thinking
“Philosophy begins and ends in wonder.”
“Steer away from high metaphysical beliefs because humans do best when they realize they don't know all that much.”
“Wonder is the spiritual stance or disposition which renders us humble in the face of things, and also thankful.”
“There is no way the human imagination can fathom the ultimate.”
“The spiritual mind is always metaphorical.”
“Spiritual thinking is poetic thinking.”
“If you have an idea of God you think is adequate, it's not.”
“We have to trust ourselves to reside in the darkness of not knowing.”
--Sam Keen
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Winter People
Visually apropos of the last post (Active Child's lovely snowy-floury video), and of the winter season upon us, here are gorgeous portraits of Swedish celebrities posing as magical, mystical Snow Queens, Snow Kings, Snow Angels, and Winter Folk, captured by the talented photographer Caroline Roosmark.
Top to bottom: Retired Swedish hockey player Jorgen Jonsson, singer Martin Rolinski, actress Eva Röse, actor and author Erland Josephson, alpine skier and gold medalist Anja Pärson, actress Josephine Bornebusch, actor Per Graffman, and actor Mikael Persbrandt.
http://www.roosmark.com/
Top to bottom: Retired Swedish hockey player Jorgen Jonsson, singer Martin Rolinski, actress Eva Röse, actor and author Erland Josephson, alpine skier and gold medalist Anja Pärson, actress Josephine Bornebusch, actor Per Graffman, and actor Mikael Persbrandt.
http://www.roosmark.com/
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