Soulful stuff
We all need to revive our enthusiasm, feel peace, remember happiness and have moments of transcendence. When I encounter something that gives me a taste of these things, I will share it with you. My art is present here but not all of these are mine. They just made me feel better when I saw them.
Caravaggio
1- The Entombment of Christ 2-Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 3-Crucifixion of Saint Peter 4-The Beheading of St John the Baptist 5-Judith Beheading Holofernes 6-Flagellation of Christ 7-The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew 8-Annunciation 9-Rest on the Flight into Egypt 10-Narcissus 11-The Raising of Lazarus 12-Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy 13-Bacchus
Who makes these changes?
I shoot an arrow right.
It lands left.
I ride after a deer and find myself
Chased by a hog.
I plot to get what I want
And end up in prison.
I dig pits to trap others
And fall in.
I should be suspicious
Of what I want.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
-Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
The act of eventually telling the truth about something bad and shameful is an interesting bargain.
We willingly exchange the state of being a worse person who is seen as better one, for the state of being a better person, who is seen as a worse one.
That is, we go from being an immoral person whom everybody trusts, to a moral person who everybody condemns and scorns.
We downgrade our reputation and suffer social losses for the deeply soulful result of living in truth once again.
There is something about living a lie that is a bit like holding your breath underwater or going around caked in dirt no one else can see. It’s pure relief then, simply to breathe or finally get clean.
The outrage people feel, on learning they were lied to, is also interesting.
I want to clarify what harm was done.
A lie places the victim in a false location. They are lost but they don’t know it. The lie supplies them with a broken compass and a map of someplace they are not.
A lie steals their autonomy and volition to choose for themselves and assert their will. It prevents self-defense. A lie is a way to lead someone around on a leash.
A lie, when revealed, repudiates ALL those moments when it seemed… but only seemed, that we were loved. It retroactively pollutes and poisons them all, even the ones where maybe we actually were loved.
A lie exposed reveals our true value to the liar: Convenience, not treasure. An assistant, not a partner.
While the lie was believed, it gradually became the same thing as our life: A life now partially made of toxic, low grade materials.
It’s terrifying to consider.
They might as well have thrown us in a sack, driven us far away, and left us there, calling out to them in growing alarm.
Quotes from Carl Jung
Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
“On the Psychology of the Unconsciousness”, 1917
