Denise Levertov - The Metier of Blossoming

The Métier of Blossoming

Fully occupied with growing--that's
the amaryllis. Growing especially
at night: it would take
only a bit more patience than I've got
to sit keeping watch with it till daylight;
the naked eye could register every hour's
increase in height. Like a child against a barn door,
proudly topping each year's achievement,
steadily up
goes each green stem, smooth, matte,
traces of reddish purple at the base, and almost
imperceptible vertical ridges
running the length of them:
Two robust stems from each bulb,
sometimes with sturdy leaves for company,
elegant sweeps of blade with rounded points.
Aloft, the gravid buds, shiny with fullness.
One morning--and so soon!--the first flower
has opened when you wake. Or you catch it poised
in a single, brief
moment of hesitation.
Next day, another,
shy at first like a foal,
even a third, a fourth,
carried triumphantly at the summit
of those strong columns, and each
a Juno, calm in brilliance,
a maiden giantess in modest splendor.
If humans could be
that intensely whole, undistracted, unhurried,
swift from sheer
unswerving impetus! If we could blossom
out of ourselves, giving
nothing imperfect, withholding nothing!

Denise Levertov

found at http://www.poemhunter.com/denise-levertov/poet-6681/

Marc Chagall - Joy

Quan Yin

The Absurd Art of Charlotte Mutsaers /De absurde kunst van Charlotte Mutsaers

My favorite artist in the Netherlands is Charlotte Mutsaers, with her absurd stories and images. She is the only artist who can make me laugh out loud. Or do you know of anyone else?

Mijn favoriete kunstenaar in Nederland is Charlotte Mutsaers, met haar absurde verhalen en beelden. Zij is de enige kunstenaar die me hard aan het lachen kan maken. Of weet jij er nog een?

I.M. Hilde Krikke 17 april 1950 - 26 august 1992

Today was the birthday of visual artist Hilde Krikke, who unexpectedly died one night in the arms of her lover Pino. She was the first person in my life who died so suddenly, which had a great impact on me. It turned my whole perspective upside down. Now I find myself searching for her on the internet, only to find her name on the list of a few dance productions by Wies Bloemen http://www.aya.nl/ for which she made the decors. A link brought me to a mysterious photo site full of portraits, and suddenly there she was, brought back to life again.It's not clear to me who has the credits for this compilation, but I want to thank Wies Bloemen for the link http://www.portraits-of.nl/ on her site that brought Hilde back to life again, if only in memory.

Tuesday 18 april 2006
I received an email from Wies Bloemen telling me that Peter Janssen created the Portraits and that he is thinking about organising an In Memoriam to honor Hilde's art work.

Egg In A Basket - V for Vendetta

V showing his Egg In A Basket dish

Yesterday I saw the movie V for Vendetta which I enjoyed very much. I have learned that I am not the only one, many people have seen the film many times, because there is so much to see and to understand, many stories within the big story. The Internet Movie Database site http://us.imdb.com/ gives a lot information about V and there is even a complete website dedicated to the movie which you can find at http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/
Funny, but the thing that intrigued me, was a small breakfast dish that was made twice during the movie. It is called Egg In A Basket and it looks like a beautiful abstract painting, with a brown square, a white square and a yellow circle. Here is the recipe so you can make it yourself and see what it looks like. I am certainly going to make it too, and will photograph it in such a way that you will wonder what kind of painting it is. http://www.netcooks.com/recipes/Breakfast/Egg.In.A.Basket.html

Wikipedia writes the following about it:

An egg in the basket, or egg in a basket, is a fried egg cooked within the confines of a piece of toast whose center has been removed.

Preparation typically begins by cutting a circular hole in the center of a piece of toast. The toast is then fried in a pan with butter. When browned satisfactorily, the egg is cracked into the "basket" cut into the toast. The egg is then fried to the desired consistency. When eaten, the bread and egg yolk mix readily, giving this egg dish its special quality.

Alternate recipes, for those preparing this simple dish and do not have access to a stove, call for the bread and egg to be microwaved. Some people will say that cooking this egg recipe is easier than cooking eggs alone, because the bread adds stability if the cook wishes to flip the egg. Some people put the cut-out circle of bread back on the finished toast and egg, adding a type of "lid" to the "basket".

This dish is also known as a "spit in the eye," an "egg in a hole," a "popeye," a "bunkhouse egg," and, inaccurately enough, an "egg with a hole in the middle". They are also known as "bullseye eggs" because they appear to have three rings; one ring made by the bread, one by the egg white, and one by the yolk.

The meal appeared in the recent Warner Brothers movie "V for Vendetta".

Astrology & Music by Zahi (Frans Nouws)

Music composed by Zahi (Frans Nouws) for all the planets.
I especially like the Sun: http://www.zahi.nl/xSUN.html

and Mercury: http://www.zahi.nl/xMERCURY.html

A magic dwells in each beginning - Hermann Hesse

Found this e-card on the site http://www.gratefulness.org/ which is always a delight to visit.

Dedication for a Meaningful Life

Inspired by a reading I attended this week about 'Having Faith and Being Without Fear' by Kaye Miner of Maitreya Institute, I came upon this beautiful dedication, written by the spiritual director of Maitreya Institute http://www.maitreya.nl/

Whatever actions I do -- eating, walking, sitting, sleeping, working, and so forth -- and whatever I experience in life -- up or down, happy or unhappy, healthy or sick, whether I have a terminal disease or don't, whether my life is peaceful and harmonious or with discord and difficulties, whether I am successful or fail, rich or poor, praised or criticized; whether I am living or dying, or even born in a horrible rebirth; whether I live long or not -- may my life be beneficial for all beings. The main purpose of my life is not simply to be rich, respected, famous, healthy, and peaceful. The meaning of my life is to benefit all sentient* beings. Therefore, from now on, may whatever actions I do be beneficial for all sentient beings. May whatever I experience in life -- happiness or suffering -- be dedicated to actualizing the path to enlightenment in my mind. May my actions and experiences cause all sentient beings to attain full enlightenment quickly.
by Lama Zopa











found on the website http://www.thubtenchodron.org/

*sentient: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentient

Who was Phaedrus?

The other day I awoke from a dream with the words 'Phaedrus and history' in my mind. I vaguely remember that Phaedrus is the name of the philosopher in the Book 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. And I learn from internet sources that:

Phaedrus lived in ancient Rome and was the first person to translate into Latin and put into verse whole books of the Greek prose fables then circulating and attributed to Aesop.

Phaedrus was a slave by birth. He went to Rome early in life and became a freedman in the household of the Emperor Augustus. Phaedrus was familiar with the works of Greek and Roman writers. Though others before him had rendered fables into verse and used them in their work, Phaedrus considered himself a pioneering artist, and believed his poems would give him immortal fame. His fables include favourites such as 'The Fox and the Grapes' and 'The Wolf and the Lamb.'



Phaedrus became extremely popular in Europe during the Middle Ages.

In the 18th century, a manuscript was discovered in Parma that contained 64 fables of Phaedrus. 30 of these were new. Another manuscript was found in the Vatican and published in 1831. Later research identified 30 more fables as written by Phaedrus.

http://www.longlongtimeago.com/llta_fables_phaedrus.html

I found the following quotes by Phaedrus, more than 2000 years old! Some of them are very well known in our everyday language.

You will soon break the bow if you keep it always stretched.

An alliance with a powerful person is never safe.

The mind ought sometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking.

First appearance deceives many.

Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.

Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.

The humble are in danger when those in power disagree.

http://www.quotationsbook.com/authors/5678/Phaedrus

Dayna Kurtz, Isabella Rosselini and Charlotte Rampling

What have these three women in common? They were on Dutch tv today and are all three women who interest me. Dayna Kurtz has a voice that catches you immediately. The following link takes you to an interview with her and 5 live songs from her and her guitar: http://www.vpro.nl/programma/ochtenden/artikelen/17705788/ Dayna Kurtz

Isabella Rosselini has a fascinating face and she made a movie about her father Roberto Rosselini who would have been 100 this year, called My dad is 100 years old. Isabella Rosselini

and Charlotte Rampling used to be one of my favorite actresses, especially in The Nightporter, with Dirk Bogarde. Charlotte Rampling, The Night Porter

A Visual Meditation Through the Seven Chakra's

http://www.myss.com/vismed.asp

A Labyrinth to Experience

http://www.mymaze.de/schwan_english.htm

When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be

Another beautiful poem by one of the Romantic poets, John Keats:

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And feel that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

John Keats

Excerpt from Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth

Though absent long,
These forms of beauty have not been to me,
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,
And passing even into my purer mind
With tranquil restoration: -- feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps,
As may have had no trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life;
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world
Is lighten'd -- that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame,
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.

Inspiring docudrama about The Romantics on BBC2

Saw the first part of a brilliantly acted and narrated documentary about a few of my favorite philosophers and poets, such as Rousseau, William Wordsworth and Coleridge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/

With these people I share my birthday 27th April / Met deze mensen deel ik mijn geboortedag 27 april

1737 Edward Gibbon, Engels historicus Schreef 'De Opkomst en de Ondergang van het Romeinse Keizerrijk' (269)
1759 Mary Godwin/Shelly, Schrijfster van de roman 'Frankenstein' (247)
1791 Samuel Morse, Uitvinder van de Morse code (215)
1822 Ulysses S Grant , Voormalig (18de) President van Amerika (184)
1896 Wallace Hume Carothers, uitvinder van nylon (110)
1904 Cecil Day Lewis, Engelse dichteres (102)
1922 Jack Klugman, Amerikaanse acteur (84)
1928 Alan Pakula, Amerikaans filmregisseur producent en scenarioschrijver (78)
1932 Anouk Aimeé, actrice (74)
1940 Pina Bausch, Duits choreografe (66)
1941 Tineke de Nooij, presentatrice. Begon ooit bij het illigale Veronica. Heeft jarenlang haar eigen talkshow gepresenteerd "Tineke" (65)
1959 Sheena Easton, Zangeres (47)
1963 Shae Harrison, Actrice (Bold and the Beautifull) (43)
1965 Vincent Bijlo, Nederlands cabaretier (41)
1967 Willem Alexander, prins van Oranje Nassau jonkheer van Amsberg (39)
1970 Kylie Travis, actrice (36)
1975 Marsha van de Berg, Zangeres (Close 2 You) (31)

(bron / source: http://www.radioshow.nl/birthdays/search_birthday.asp)

Tiffany works

I also enjoyed a wonderful exhibition of Tiffany works while I was at the Met. This museum has a great website with loads of information about art and art history: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Tiffany/menu.html

Mark Rothko Painting nr. 13

Saw this painting of Mark Rothko in the Metropolitan Museum (http://www.metmuseum.org/) in New York City and it brought tears to my eyes. Don't know why, it was the first time that I saw work of Rothko in real, after having admired his paintings only in books and on the internet.

When Perception is Stronger Than Mindfulness

When perception is stronger than mindfulness, we recognize various appearances and create concepts such as "body," "cat", "house," or "person". . .
On some clear night, go outside, look up at the sky, and see if you can find the Big Dipper. For most people that is a familiar constellation, easy to pick out from all the other stars. But is there really a Big Dipper up there in the sky? There is no Big Dipper up there. "Big Dipper" is a concept. Humans looked, saw a certain pattern, and then created a concept in our collective mind to describe it. That concept is useful because it helps us recognize the constellation. But it also has another, less useful effect. By creating the concept "Big Dipper" we separate out those stars from all the rest, and then, if we become attached to the idea of that separation, we lose the sense of the night sky's wholeness, its oneness. Does the separation actually exist in the sky? No. We created it through the use of a concept. Does anything change in the sky when we understand that there is no Big Dipper? No.

--Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation

Marc Mulders' Coping with the 'hip, empty world' / Marc Mulders' verweer tegen de 'hippe, lege wereld'

Today while browsing through a lot of Dutch art sites I found the site of Dutch artist Marc Mulders which philosophy of life inspires me. Here is a fragment from an article by Wilma Suto about his work and vision. Click for further reading on the title of this posting to go to Marc Mulders' website. There you will find the whole article under the section Articles. It's the first one on top.

The painterly tradition is an important source of inspiration to an artist who wants to cope with the ‘hip, empty world’ around him. Mulders has often reacted sharply in interviews, particularly when he noticed that his religion-buttressed morality was regarded as regressive. His strong aversion to social ‘banalization’, including an art which subsidies rendered ‘unmercifully artificial’, has earned him the reputation of a crusader blinded by dogmas. That hurts. ‘Because I do believe in the freedom of art’, he says, ‘for formulating a counterbalance.’ Because: ‘Religion and art both have a Weltanschauung. For example, a detached reflection on innovation for its own sake which, while we are on the subject of dogmas, characterizes postmodernism. I compare that sparseness with the wealth of religion, tradition and trade, to which I relate as heir and apprentice. This necessitates a training in humility on my part. Not a popular concept, I know, but nonetheless one of my magic words. It’s how I exorcise disorder: in a disciplined fashion, with the aid of a hierarchy’.

Vandaag trof ik tijdens het surfen over een groot aantal Nederlandse kunst websites de website van Marc Mulders aan, wiens kijk op het leven ik inspirerend vind. Hier volgt een fragment uit een artikel van Wilma Suto over zijn werk en visie. Om het hele artikel te lezen, klik je op de titel van dit stukje, om naar Marc Mulders' website te gaan. Onder het kopje Artikelen staat dit artikel helemaal bovenaan.

De schilderkunstige traditie is een belangrijke inspiratiebron voor de kunstenaar, die zich teweerstelt tegen de ‘hippe, lege wereld’ rondom. Mulders heeft zich daar in interviews vaak scherp over uitgelaten, temeer wanneer hij merkte dat zijn door de religie geschraagde moraliteit als regressief werd opgevat. Zijn uitgesproken weerzin tegen de maatschappelijke banalisering, inclusief de door subsidies ‘ongenadig artificieel’ geworden kunst, kwam hem te staan op de kritiek dat hij een kruistocht voerde, verblind door dogma’s. Dat steekt. ‘Omdat ik de vrije ruimte van de kunst juist huldig’, zegt hij, ‘voor het formuleren van een tegenwicht.’ Want: ‘Religiositeit en artisticiteit houden beide een kritische wereldbeschouwelijkheid in. Een afstandelijke reflectie op de vernieuwing om de vernieuwing bijvoorbeeld, die, over dogma’s gesproken, het postmodernisme tekent. Tegenover die schraalheid stel ik de rijkdom van religie, traditie en ambacht, waar ik me toe verhoud als erfgenaam en leerling. Dat vraagt van mij een training in nederigheid. Geen populair begrip, ik weet het, maar het is wel een van mijn toverwoorden. Zo bezweer ik de wanorde: gedisciplineerd, met behulp van een hiërarchie.’

The History about His Master's Voice

Trip to Oostende ended with Left Foot in Plaster

The trip to Oostende ended in a fall in which I bruised my left ankle a week ago. Luckily we had already seen all the nice things in Oostende, especially the house of James Ensor. This was a three storey high old house full of old furniture, interesting wallpaper and lots of reproductons of his paintings. Lots of masks, shells and fossiles too.
Oostende is a nice town right on the seaside with a beautiful boulevard, a big fishing harbour and pleasant shopping area. What remains a mystery is why the town is called Oostende (East End in English) as it is situated on the west coast of Belgium. I have found the explanation of this mystery on Wikipedia. Oostende used to be on an island in front of the Belgian coast, situated on the east, there was also a Westende.
Anyway, for me it was definately the end of my trip to Belgium. So tell me, what's in a name?

Click here to read the Wikipedia article

James Ensor

I am going to James Ensor House in Oostende, Belgium next week.

Marc Chagall, another joy of mine

Looking at his work always gives me so much joy...

The Navaho Sandpaintings

Other drawings that are among my favorite are Navaho Sandpaintings, made by the Navaho Native Americans. I never saw one in reality, but some art books have pictures of them, and I always find myself looking at them in awe and admiration. The strange thing about them is that they are not made as art, but as a healing device, used in a ritual to heal someone. When the healing ritual is finished, people wipe the sandpainting away, leaving no trace of it. These images I found on http://www.snowwowl.com/naartsandp.html where I also stumbled upon an internet radio station which broadcasts native american music, but also jazz, blues and country 24 hours a day: http://www.gatheringofnations.com/gonradio/
I am sorry that I can't give you direct links to these sites here. The link function is not working properly right now. You can find the direct links however in the Links section on the right of this weblog, right beneath my profile.

The Mysterious Drawings of Robert Fludd

I came upon the amazing drawings of Robert Fludd again, when I was browsing through pages about alchemy and I want to show you a couple of them. They are among my favorite drawings, because they are mysterious, geometrical and mystical. There is something about them that takes my breath away.Robert Fludd was a Renaissance scholar who was a doctor with his own pharmacy, a physician, astrologer and philosopher all in one, and an artist as well when you look at his pictures.This combination of professions is regarded as weird nowadays, but in the Renaissance science and spirituality were not so far apart, and to be specialised in just one area wasn't the thing to do.

Starry, Starry Night...

It's night here in Holland and I am still at the computer at almost 3 in the morning. Was in Amsterdam today, attending a mini astrology congress for the Dutch astrologer Karen Hamaker-Zondag who had her 25 year jubilee as an astrologer and writer of astrology books.
Sounds a bit dry eh, and it was... a bit dry. There were three lectures, with tea, coffee and cookies in between, and a very fast cigarette. First two Australian astrologers who had moved to England, but still had that typical Australian accent which makes you think they were raised in the gutter, sorry to say. And the last lecturer was a German whose language made me revolt inside, I don't really know why. Luckily the light fell out of the projection thing, which wasn't my fault, so there was a 5 minute break in which I never returned.
Of course it was interesting as well. I didn't pay 69 euro for nothing. The Australian women were fast, concise and very eloquent, despite the horrible pronunciation. (I know it sounds very snobbish, but I can't help it. It makes my ears go strange.)

The first lecture was about the place astrology could now take among the latest Chaos Philosophy, with Strange Attractors and Hopf Bifurcations. Interesting words, don't you think? I will leave them unexplained, so you can make up your own meaning. If you want to know what they really mean, just turn to Google. There are lots of sites about Chaos Philosophy on the net, I know, because I just checked a couple of them.

In the words of physicist Paul Davies in his book The Cosmic Blueprint (1988):
There is no detailed blueprint, only a set of laws with an inbuilt facility for making interesting things happen. The universe is free to create itself as it goes along. The general pattern of development is "predestined", but the details are not. Thus, the existence of intelligent life at some stage is inevitable; it is, so to speak, written into the laws of nature. But man as such is far from preordained.
The second lecture was of more interest to me. She talked about Holding On and Letting Go and how our birth chart can tell us more about these important phenomena in our lives. The Moon is a very important planet in the Holding On sector. Not only the sign where the Moon is in, also its house placement, which planet rules the house where the Moon is in, and hard (stressful) aspects to other planets or the Sun.
She said something very useful about Disappointment and Failure. Ask questions such as - Why? Due to? For what reason? Because?- whenever you are confronted with a feeling of disappointment or failure. This rational questioning takes the heat out of the emotional frustration and gives you the opportunity to see things from a wider angle.She also gave a list of Small Things To Change, also in the form of questions.

(The Moon)
1. How did I feel in that situation?
2. What do I feel was the cause of that feeling?
3. What would I have preferred to have felt?

(Mars)
1. What action did I want to take?
2. What is a better action to take?

(Mercury)
1. Is there anything I regretted saying in that situation?
2. Could I have said it better?
3. What do I still want to say to that person?

And she gaves us even more questions about Handling Change:

-What is your perception of the event that is happening? (your Mercury)
-How do you feel about it? (your Moon)
-What fears come up, what control do you want? (your Saturn)
-What small action can you take that would start to let go? (your Mars)
-Can you see yourself in a new and positive way? (your Jupiter)
-If so, how does it feel? (your Moon)
-What messages are you telling yourself about what's happening? (your Mercury)

Lots of other things of course, but I will be brief and finish with the German speaker. He talked about the transformation process using terms and images from alchemy and tarot. The first image he used was The Hanged Man, which he thought of as THE symbol for us human beings, because we are the only creatures that know we are going to die. We can act against our nature and are responsible for it too. Depression also belongs to The Hanged Man.
According to the German writer Karl von Durckheim we have three main fears: 1. Fear of loneliness. 2. Fear of destruction/death. 3. Fear of the absurdity of life and not being able to rise above it.
In the Tarot transformation goes from The Hanged Man to The World and when you lay the cards together, The World above and The Hanged Man under it, you get the symbol of the Ankh.
Then I closed my eyes for a while and dozed off at the sound of German words that felt like a smooth but sticky river (Hermes Trismegistos, der Stein der Weisen, der Caduceus, das Yin Yang Symbol, die Chakra's) and woke up to hear that the projector had fallen out. Relieved I went to take a break and never returned.
The congres had been like a short day at a school I never liked going to, it was too much work and hardly no play. Why are lectures almost always so dry and hardly without any humor?