“Those who know, not only that the Everlasting lives in them, but that what they, and all things, really are IS the Everlasting, dwell in the groves of the wish-fulfilling trees, drink the brew of immortality, and listen everywhere to the unheard music of eternal concord. These are the immortals.”
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
(courtesy of the Joseph Campbell Foundation)
Check this out! Change your view of aging – you’re as old as you THINK you are…
We asked millennials to show us what “old” looks like, and then introduced them to real “old” people. Watch what happened next. #DisruptAging
One of my absolute favorite artists of all time!
“Check out Art Nouveau illustrator Alphonse Mucha’s beautiful occult-inspired art from the turn of the century, which drew on themes from Kabbalah and magick
Source: The Incredible Occult Illustrations of Alphonse Mucha
“Here’s what Century Guild has to say about Mucha:
By December 20, 1899, Alphonse Mucha had experienced four years as the most recognizable proponent of Art Nouveau graphics and the most celebrated illustrator in Paris. The massive output of the artist in his first four years in the advertising and decorative world earned much for Mucha’s publisher but very little for the artist himself.
As the end of the century grew near, Alphonse Mucha insisted upon the release of a deeply personal work, and printed 510 copies of what he for the remainder of his life considered his works-on-paper masterpiece, Le Pater.
Decidedly non-denominational, Mucha’s exploration features a female deity protecting humankind and a number of sophisticated occult themes across a series of images of mystical illustrations.
Unlike the advertising art that had dominated Mucha’s output since his “discovery” by Sarah Bernhardt in late 1894, Mucha described this series of images to a New York reporter as “the thing I have put my soul into.” (The Sun newspaper, 5 January, 1900)
Mucha’s previous artworks were lithographed on numerous mediums ranging from paper to silk, in multiple formats; Mucha’s publisher Champenois saw that Mucha was the most printed artist in Paris in the late 1890s. Mucha’s concern, understandably, was likely that the imagery of his spiritual work would be capitalized upon. By 1899, he had earned the right to demand that the Le Pater images would be produced in an edition of only 510 copies, and subsequently saw the plates destroyed- ensuring the work would never be reprinted for mass-market purposes.
The images from Le Pater are mentioned in numerous Mucha books as his masterpieces and are universally acknowledged alongside his massive Slav Epic paintings as his finest work. However, as a result of Mucha’s forced limitation of the publication of this masterwork, the rarity of the lithographs means that most books are limited to mentioning the images in the text and leaving the reader to wonder what these “lost masterpieces” might look like.
The original promotional materials for the Le Pater series name these artworks as of “rare interest and considerable importance”. Over 115 years later, the description continues to ring true.
If you’d like to see all these artworks in one book, captured in high resolution from the originals, please support our project and pre-order the book!
Check out the Kickstarter here—there’s only a day left to get a copy of the book!”
David Bowie tracing the Tree of Life
I don’t know how deeply David Bowie was in to Magick, but it’s clear in the 70’s he was immersed in it. I’ve read he was having drug and alcohol issues at the time, but I find this period of his life in Los Angeles very interesting nonetheless.
Like many people, Bowie had an enormous impact on my life and he’s one of my favorite artists. I was born in 1964 and I grew up listening to him. He has always been there in my life. I can’t remember any point in my life where I wasn’t listening to his music.
As a teenager I studied movement and I wanted to be a ballerina. When “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” came out in the early 80’s I was there at the Lumiere theater off Polk Street, watching the movie 50 times over. In my late 20’s I studied theater, movement, and world religions in San Francisco. Inspired by Bowie’s example, I became a guitarist and singer for my own rock persona – Bettie Black. I wrote and released my own music – always inspired by him. I find his exploration of magick personal and meaningful. I also study gnosticism and the Tree of Life from Jewish mystical traditions.
I’ve read many observations from various people, and I’ve come across some interesting insights! I thought I’d put them all here to share with interested folks.
http://www.arnemancy.com/articles/david-bowie-was-not-a-closet-occultist/
Source: David Bowie: Closet Occultist!
In 1976 Bowie stated:
“My overriding interest was in Kabbalah and Crowleyism. That whole dark and rather fearsome never-world of the wrong side of the brain.”
From “Bowie on Bowie” by Sean Egan
from Secret Sun Blog: “Apparently David Bowie, despite being heavily interested in the Occult and even referencing Crowley lyrically in the 1971 song Quicksand, was actually of the mind that AC was a fraud (from a 1997 interview in NME):
Q: “So were you involved in actual devil worship?”
A: “Not devil worship, no, it was pure, straightforward, old-fashioned magic.”
Q: “The Aleister Crowley variety?”
A: “No, I always thought Crowley was a charlatan. But there was a guy called [Arthur] Edward Waite who was terribly important to me at the time. And another called Dion Fortune who wrote a book called ‘Psychic Self-Defense‘. You had to run around the room getting bits of string and old crayons and draw funny things on the wall, and I took it all most seriously, ha ha ha ! I drew gateways into different dimensions, and I’m quite sure that, for myself, I really walked into other worlds. I drew things on walls and just walked through them, and saw what was on the other side!”
I really don’t know much about Waite, but in a bit of research (Wikipedia, so you know, take that as you may) came upon the info that Crowley apparently hated Waite and mocked him publically in his writing. Checked, and in Bowie’s list of favorite books, there are none by Crowley. The only Occult book listed is Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual by Elphias Levi.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/david-bowies-final-video-contains-7251101
David Bowie, Lazarus video, 2016
Excellent article by Priscilla Frank, Arts Writer, The Huffington Post:
Imagine getting the opportunity to hold a private photo session with David Bowie at the height of his stardom. We’re talking post “Ziggy Stardust” and “Aladdin Sane,” with “Pin Ups” and “Diamond Dogs” still on the horizon. Imagine you had an entire evening to play dress up with the iconic shapeshifter and capture the manifold personas he embodied so swiftly yet completely.
And suppose, over 40 years later, after the iconic artist’s death, you return to those photos you took so long ago and notice what seems to be a message. A message that reappears throughout his later works, culminating with the “Lazarus” video off his final album “Blackstar,” that perhaps illuminates the artist’s feelings about death and immortality.
This is what happened to photographer Steve Schapiro, who spent one fateful night in 1974 photographing Bowie in his Los Angeles studio. “From the moment Bowie arrived, we seemed to hit it off. Incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas,” Schapiro recalled in a statement. “He talked a lot about Aleister Crowley, whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. When David heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his greatest heroes, we instantly became friends.”
DAVID SEATED DRAWING CIRCLES ON THE BACKGROUND PAPER AND THEN THE KABBALAH TREE OF LIFE DIAGRAM ON THE FLOOR. LOS ANGELES, 1974.The two collaborated on many striking images, each transforming Bowie into a distinct character, as unique and otherworldly as a mythical creature. Yet a particular ensemble, the one pictured above and featured on Bowie’s 1976 album “Station to Station,” holds special significance.
In the image, Bowie dons a navy blue striped body suit and, crouched on the floor, doodles diagrams of Kabbalah’s Tree of Life, a series of 10 spiritual emanations. Lyrics from the title track “Station to Station” echo the language of Kabbalist symbols and beliefs. “Here are we, one magical movement from Keter to Malkuth,” Bowie sings, with Keter (the Crown) and Malkuth (the Kingdom) being the first and last virtues on the Tree of Life.
In his last music video, “Lazarus,” from album “Blackstar” — regarded by many as a cryptic goodbye letter to his fans — Bowie whips out the exact jumpsuit worn in the 1974 image, visible around the two-minute mark. Just as Bowie doodled obsessively in the ‘70s photo shoot, in 2016 Bowie scribbles feverishly in a notebook, heightening in intensity until finally he appears to come to a conclusion, finishing his notes and talking away. (In Bowie style: backward.)
As Albin Wantier interprets in his introduction to Schapiro’s photography book: “He appears to have found the meaning he has been searching for. The connection between both images, 40 years apart, is stunning … He has resolved his enigma, and the curtain can fall at last.”
A close-up of the writing in Bowie’s notebook reveals a trail of symbols. Wantier analyzed these symbols in conjunction with some appearing on a vinyl edition of “Blackstar,” all of which resembled the doodles from the 1974 shoot. The “Blackstar” images, Wantier determined after checking with a friend, were part of a chemical formula depicting the various stages of the nuclear fusion, which leads to the formation of a sun. Or perhaps, a blackstar.
“In the ‘Lazarus’ video, Bowie resolves the enigma of life, which he had been endeavoring to do since 1976,” Wantier summarizes. “His life, which was indistinguishable from his work, led him to enact various characters of his own devising; his life was in itself a work of art. Now that he has finished, Bowie can close the book. However, the last chapter does not end with the artist’s passing — that would be too simple.”
FROM THE PHOTO SHOOT FOR PEOPLE MAGAZINE. WE TOOK PORTRAITS AGAINST A PUTRID GREEN BACKGROUND WHICH WE BOTH FELT WAS THE WORST POSSIBLE COLOR TO USE AS A BACKGROUND FOR A MAGAZINE COVER. LOS ANGELES, 1974While Bowie’s physical body is no longer with us, his creative energy has catalyzed to create a cosmic eruption, felt around the world, that can never be undone. “David Bowie is not the kind to just disappear just like that from our world,” Wantier writes. “The chemical symbols that accompany the ‘Blackstar’ release point where he’s going: an artistic nuclear fusion of two elements that creates enough energy to make a sun.”
While many acknowledged the poetry in Bowie’s final album, his requiem, and its tremendous impact as his final work of art on this earth, few pieced together the fact that the roots of “Blackstar” trace back to 1974, when a photographer and the world’s biggest rock star became fast friends and spent a single evening creating, contorting and doodling away. As Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti put it: “His death was not different from his life — a work of Art.”
See the image that started it all, as well as the many other never before published images captured that night, in Bowie. A preview of the book is featured below, with all photographs by Steve Schapiro and published by powerHouse Books.
“The Apparition”, Gustav Moreau
“The Sun and Moon are the foundation of life.
Each month they fuse in an alchemical marriage of yin and yang, substance and consciousness. Like a light through a movie projector, the new moon energies unfold through the lens of the zodiac sign. The planets present at the new moon form the structure and weave the threads in support.
From Empowering Astrology
Yesterday’s Aries New Moon and its close connections to Uranus and Pluto mean that the tapestry unfolding before us is a bit raw, teeming with electricity. It’s provocative and designed to spur us to action as well as make a dramatic change. (Read more here: http://empoweringastrology.com/new-moon-in-aries-the-line)
You are part of the tapestry of light and, depending on your own natal chart, you’ll discover the role that the Aries New Moon will play in your life.
Let’s break the new moon down sign by sign.
Aries and Aries Rising — The self, personality, vitality, new beginnings. The new moon will active a renewal of self, a need to completely change and transform, grow and evolve. There will be a stark divide between old you and new you. Don’t be afraid to start a revolution.
Taurus and Taurus Rising — Retreat, rest, recuperation, surrender, endings. The new moon will activate a need to withdraw, let go, and find answers within. Use the lunar month to meditate and get quiet. You’re preparing for a rebirth and a new personal year. This would be a good time to journal about what you’ve learned about yourself over the last 12 months.
Gemini and Gemini Rising — Friends, groups, community, society, humanity, the future. The new moon will activate rebirth in friendships as well as your connection to others. Time to have a completely new vision for the future and surround yourself with the people and partners who will help make it happen.
Cancer and Cancer Rising — Career, direction, status, the world. The new moon will activate your career. Time for a new job or new direction in life, one that may make for a sharp turn to the left or the right. You can’t keep going the way you were going before. Break out of the mold.
Leo and Leo Rising — Travel, higher education, teaching, philosophy. The new moon will activate your passion for knowledge and a need to express your ideas and beliefs. You may be looking to start new with your education as well as embark on a new journey. Publishing, faith, and law will also be highlighted.
Virgo and Virgo Rising — Finances, intimacy, sharing, the psyche. The new moon will activate finance and over the coming days you may be looking into making a fresh start with a bank, how you take on debt, and how you use the resources at your disposal. You may also feel spurred to do a lot of emotional digging and releasing.
Libra and Libra Rising — Relationships, partnership, collaboration, other people. The new moon will give you a fresh start in a relationship or partnerships but not before a total transformation. If a new person comes in, it will be someone completely different than the normal, one who inspires new ways of thinking. You may also feel confronted to leave a relationship.
Scorpio and Scorpio Rising — Health, wellness, work, colleagues, day-to-day life. The new moon will give you a restart with how you take care of your body. Time for new habits, a new diet, or a new workout. Don’t be afraid to shake up your routine. Work and money will also be highlighted.
Sagittarius and Sagittarius Rising — Self expression, creativity, children, leisure. The new moon will activate a passion to create and express your talents. If you are a performer, time to get up on stage. Even if you’re not one for the spotlight, how will you show the world your talents?
Capricorn and Capricorn Rising — Home, family, foundation, emotional connections. The new moon will activate the very foundation of your life. You may feel spurred to make a total transformation at home, from a move to a renovation. You also may be more emotional than usual, digging into themes of security and trust. In the midst of a storm, retreat from the world, get still, and listen to your intuition.
Aquarius and Aquarius Rising — Tavel, movement, communication, learning. The new moon will activate all forms of communication. You may be awash with news, information, and new ways of thinking as well as texts, emails, and phone calls. The coming weeks will be busy and full of movement and travel. Siblings and friendships will be highlighted as well.
Pisces and Pisces Rising — Income, value, stability, material life. The new moon will give you a fresh start with your money and how you make it. Even your value system may get a complete overhaul as you take on new consciousness about what you want in life to make you feel stable and secure. You may be looking at new jobs or a career change that are either more in alignment with your spiritual values or gives you the money you feel you deserve.”
From Empowering Astrology
Source: White City: The new urban blight is rich people
Ha Ha!! This is a funny way of looking at things! And SO TRUE!!
April 2, 2016
“Have you heard that Pittsburgh is the new Austin? San Antonio, they’re saying, is the new Queens, while Staten Island is the new Brooklyn. Oakland? Totally over—the action is now all in Modesto. Seattle is done, Yuppie Central—better buy in Walla Walla while there’s still time. Portland? Really? That’s so…2011. Edmonton, man, you should check out Edmonton. Though, honestly, I’ll tell you a secret: Hartford, Connecticut. ”
“But any intellectual movement must encounter a backlash, and the one to the New Urbanism is only growing, in part because it’s now mature enough for us to see its effects. On the face of it, the New Urbanism is very pretty: Court Street in Brooklyn looks splendid, as does San Francisco’s Valencia Street. The aforementioned travel section of The New York Times has a column, called “Surfacing,” that frequently resorts to profiling some forlorn, blighted neighborhood suddenly graced by taxidermy shops that double as yoga studios. I am, as a matter of fact, writing this from a Whole Foods in West Berkeley, California, a formerly industrial district that was recently “Surfaced” in the Times. The coffee I am drinking was roasted about 20 feet away from my Apple laptop. How’s that for local?
Problem is, surfacing is usually whitening: Gentrification by any other name would taste as hoppy, with the same notes of citrus peel. There is really only one strike against the New Urbanism, but it’s a strike thrown by Nolan Ryan: It turns cities into playgrounds for moneyed, childless whites while pushing out the poor, the working-class, immigrants, seniors and anyone else not plugged into “the knowledge economy.” Right around the time that Michael Bloomberg was remaking Manhattan as a hive for stateless billionaires, I saw a slogan that captured perfectly the new glimmer of the city: “New York: If you can make it here, you probably have a trust fund.”
Excellent reflection on codependency, which I’ve also suffered from. My personal solution has been to stay PRESENT with myself, and to be clear about my motivations. I’d love to hear your thoughts in my comments section.
“Unfortunately when we live like this nobody wins because we lie to ourselves and those around us; and superficial dishonest relationships don’t last.”
Rasmus Berggreen, Into the Abyss
“An infinitely dark and enigmatic vortex of existential dread has had enough of being watched and accosted by prominent sages and thinkers.
“They all give me this deer-in-the-headlights look when they see me, expecting me to stare back,” it said. “It’s so creepy and inappropriate. I tried but I just kept blinking. And you know what I saw when I managed to stare back? Creeps.”
The swirling singularity of meaninglessness explained that it “wasn’t just a walking revelation” and deserved to be treated with “the same dignity and respect” as any other ontological construct.
from http://www.thebeaverton.com/
The abyss has even tried to raise awareness about the harassing, leering, and sometimes hateful behaviour that philosophic literary devices face everyday with a twitter campaign: #yesallphilosophicalmetaphors, but has stirred up resentment among some academics who have responded with a #notallphilosophers campaign of their own.
“I’m just a guy who appreciates wisdom,” said University of Toronto adjunct philosophy professor William Carrington-Smith. “These uptight epiphanies just can’t take a compliment.”
However, for its part, the abyss was not backing down.
“I swear to God, if I get one more tweed-jacketed pervert glaring at me while licking his lips and asking if I’ve read Kierkegaard, they’re going to know first-hand what I mean when I say that I let Heidegger off easy,” said the swirling anomaly of nothingness as it settled down for a cup of tea in its modest suburban bungalow.”
Wednesday, 20 August 2014 15:18 Written by Tristan Bradley
“Here, in this moment of balance, I honor and recognize the sacred mystery of existence. I am a part of a cosmic dance. A holy and blessed music fills the world. The light and the darkness shift from this moment onward. As it is on the land, so it is in my being. I follow the movement of the Mother, and She works a transformation in me. Be it new beginnings or resolution, the Equinox is a point of transition; of change. I embrace the change.”
For the people of the ancient world, especially those living in Northern Europe, the changing of the seasons was of particularly great significance. The lengthening of the days that began after the winter solstice gave the anticipation of the beginning of the end of what were at times long and perilous winters- which for some…
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Wizards Tarot by Corinne Kenner and John Blumen (Llewellyn)
I’m a firm believer in learning by doing, and getting to know the components of your deck is no exception. This can also be a great daily spread for anyone.
1. Divide your deck into four stacks:
• The 4 Aces
• The 16 Court Cards
• The 36 Minor Arcana Cards numbered 2-10
• The 22 Major Arcana
2. Shuffle the Aces stack thoroughly while asking, “What do I most need to be aware of today?” Draw one card. if a card is reversed, turn it upright for all steps. The Ace indicates an area of focus, general atmosphere or the overall energy at play. (Note: if your suit characteristics differ from those below, then use whatever works.)
• Wands signifies innovative or intuitive energy. It indicates desires, enthusiasm, activity, initiating projects, enterprise.
• Cups signifies emotional energy. It indicates love, relationships, nurturing, imagination.
•
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elizabeth rose psychic and tarot 