ONTOLOGY photos on Flickr

View allAll Photos Tagged ONTOLOGY

by a-theory-of-place

15 1

From Uneven Encounters (2014—2023) — a series on land and land usage in the Southwestern US.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

by a-theory-of-place

12 1

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

East Village | Tenement by lucas_roberts426

45 2

Information From:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Village,_Manhattan

East Village, Manhattan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

East Village, Manhattan

New York City Neighborhood

Location in Lower Manhattan

Named: 1960s[1]

Streets: 2nd Avenue, 1st Avenue, Avenue A, The Bowery, St. Mark's Place

Subway: F, V, 6 and L

Zip code: 10009, 10003 and 10002

Government

Federal: Congressional Districts 8, 12 and 14

State: New York State Assembly Districts 64, 66 and 74, New York State Senate Districts 25 and 29

City: New York City Council District 2

Local Manhattan Community Board 3

Neighborhood map

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It lies east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side. Within the East Village there are several smaller neighborhoods, including Alphabet City and The Bowery.

The neighborhood was once considered part of the Lower East Side, but in the 1960s it began to develop its own culture and became known as the East Village. Scores of artists and hippies began to move into the area, attracted by the base of Beatniks that had lived there since the 1950s. It has been the site of counterculture, protests and riots. The neighborhood is known as the birthplace and historical home of many artistic movements, including punk rock[2] and the Nuyorican literary movement.[3]

It is still known for a diverse community, vibrant nightlife and artistic sensibility, although in recent decades gentrification has changed the character of the neighborhood

History

Tompkins Square Park is the recreational and geographic heart of the East Village. It has historically been a part of counterculture, protest and riots.

New York City's Fourth of July fireworks over the neighborhood. The East Village's East River Park is a popular viewing destination.[edit] Formation of the neighborhood

Today's East Village was originally a farm owned by Dutch Governor Wouter van Twiller. Petrus Stuyvesant received the deed to this farm in 1651, and his family held on to the land for over seven generations, until a descendant began selling off parcels of the property in the early 1800s. Wealthy townhouses dotted the dirt roads for a few decades until the great Irish and German immigration of the 1840s and 1850s.

Speculative land owners began building multi unit dwellings on lots meant for single family homes, and began renting out rooms and apartments to the growing working class. The "East Village" was formerly known as Klein Deutschland ("Little Germany, Manhattan"); however, Little Germany dissolved after the SS General Slocum burned into the water in New York's East River on June 15, 1904. From the years roughly between the 1850s and the first decade of the 20th century, the "East Village" hosted the largest urban populations of Germans outside of Vienna and Berlin. It was America's first foreign language neighborhood; hundreds of political, social, sports and recreational clubs were set up during this period, some of these buildings still exist.

What is now the East Village once ended at the East River where Avenue C is now located. A large portion of the neighborhood was formed by landfill, including World War II debris and rubble from London, which was shipped across the Atlantic to provide foundation for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.[5]

[edit] The 'East Village' separates from the Lower East Side

Definitions vary, but the boundaries are roughly defined as east of Broadway and the Bowery from 14th Street down to Houston Street.[1]

Looking south from 6th Street down Second Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares through the East Village.Until the mid-1960s, this area was simply the northern part of the Lower East Side, with a similar culture of immigrant, working class life. In the 1950s the migration of Beatniks into the neighborhood later attracted hippies, musicians and artists well into 1960s.[1] The area was dubbed the "East Village", to dissociate it from the image of slums evoked by the Lower East Side. According to the New York Times, a 1964 guide called, "Earl Wilson's New York," wrote that "artists, poets and promoters of coffeehouses from Greenwich Village are trying to remelt the neighborhood under the high-sounding name of 'East Village.'"[1]

Newcomers and real estate brokers popularized the East Village name, and the term was adopted by the popular media by the mid-1960s.[6][7] In 1966 a psychedelic weekly newspaper, The East Village Other, appeared and The New York Times declared that the neighborhood "had come to be known" as the East Village in the June 5, 1967 edition.[1]

[edit] The music scene develops

In 1966 Andy Warhol promoted a series of shows, entitled The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and featuring the music of the Velvet Underground, in a Polish ballroom on St Marks Place. On June 27, 1967, the Electric Circus opened in the same space with a benefit for the Children's Recreation Foundation (Chairman: Bobby Kennedy). The Grateful Dead, The Chambers Brothers, Sly & the Family Stone, the Allman Brothers were among the many rock bands that performed there before it closed in 1971.

Punk rock icon and writer Richard Hell still lives in the same apartment in Alphabet City that he has had since the 1970s.On March 8, 1968 Bill Graham opened the Fillmore East in a Yiddish Theatre on 2nd Avenue. The venue quickly became known as "The Church of Rock and Roll," with two-show concerts several nights a week. While booking many of the same bands that had played the Electric Circus, Graham particularly used the venue – and its West Coast counterpart, to establish new British bands like The Who, Pink Floyd, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, and Led Zeppelin. It, too, closed in 1971.

CBGB, the nightclub considered by some to be the birthplace of punk music, was located in the neighborhood, as was the early punk standby A7. No Wave and New York hardcore also emerged in the area’s clubs. Among the many important bands and singers who got their start at these clubs and other venues in downtown Manhattan were: Patti Smith, Arto Lindsay, the Ramones, Blondie, Madonna, Talking Heads, the Plasmatics, Glenn Danzig, Sonic Youth, the Beastie Boys, Anthrax, and The Strokes. From 1983–1993, much of the more radical audio work was preserved as part of the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine recording project, which was based in the nearby Lower East Side.

[edit] Rise in artistic prominence

Allen Ginsberg, a long-time resident, with poet Peter Orlovsky.Over the last 100 years, the East Village/Lower East Side neighborhood has been considered one of the strongest contributors to American arts and culture in New York.[8] During the great wave of immigration (Germans, Ukrainians, Polish) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, countless families found their new homes in this area.

The East Village has been the birthplace of cultural icons and movements from the American gangster to the Warhol Superstars, folk music to punk rock, anti-folk to hip-hop, advanced education to organized activism, experimental theater to the Beat Generation and the community of experimental musicians, composers and improvisers now loosely known as the Downtown Scene.

Club 57, on St. Mark's Place, was an important incubator for performance art and visual art in the late 1970s and early 1980s; followed by Now Gallery, 8BC and ABC No Rio.

During the 1980s the East Village art gallery scene helped to galvanize a new post-modern art in America; showing such artists as Kiki Smith, Peter Halley, Keith Haring, Stephen Lack, Greer Lankton, Joseph Nechvatal, Nan Goldin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Wojnarowicz, Rick Prol, and Jeff Koons.[9]

[edit] The musical 'Rent'

The East Village is the setting for Jonathan Larson's musical Rent; set in the early 1990s, the story chronicles a group of friends over a year in their struggles against poverty, drug abuse and AIDS.

The musical Rent chronicled a period in the neighborhood's history that is bygone. It opened at the New York Theater Workshop in February 1996.[10] It described a New York City devastated by the AIDS epidemic, drugs and high crime, and followed several characters in the backdrop of their effort to make livings as artists.[11]

[edit] Decline of the art scene

The "Downtown Legends" wall at Mo Pitkins House of Satisfaction featured artists known in the East Village performance scene. A few featured in this photo include the Reverend Jen, Nick Zedd, Allen Ginsberg, Reverend Billy and Murray Hill (pictured).The East Village's performance and art scene has declined since its hey-day of the 1970s and 1980s.[12] One club that had opened to try to resurrect the neighborhood's past artistic prominence was Mo Pitkins' House of Satisfaction, part-owned by Jimmy Fallon of Saturday Night Live. It closed its doors in 2007, and was seen by many as another sign of the continued decline of the East Village performance and art scene, which has mostly moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[13] Rapture Cafe also shut down in April 2008, and the neighborhood lost an important performance space and gathering ground for the gay community. There are still some performance spaces, such as Sidewalk Cafe on Avenue A, where downtown acts find space to exhibit their talent, and the poetry clubs.[14]

Punk scene icons stayed in the neighborhood as it changed. Richard Hell lives in the same apartment he has lived in since the 1970s, and Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators owns and reigns over Manitoba's bar on Avenue B.

[edit] Internal neighborhoods

The East Village contains several hamlets of vibrant communities within itself.

[edit] Alphabet City

Main article: Alphabet City, Manhattan

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe has been located off Avenue C and East 3rd Street since its founding in 1973.Alphabet City comprises nearly two-thirds of the East Village. It also once was the archetype of a dangerous New York City neighborhood. Its turn-around was cause for The New York Times to observe in 2005 that Alphabet City went "from a drug-infested no man's land to the epicenter of downtown cool."[15] Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bordered by Houston Street to the south and 14th Street to the north where Avenue C ends. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Stuyvesant Town private residential community.

[edit] Loisaida

Main article: Loisaida

A Loisaida street fair in the Summer of 2008.Loisaida is a term derived from the Latino (and especially Nuyorican) pronunciation of "Lower East Side", a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The term was originally coined by poet/activist, Bittman "Bimbo" Rivas in his 1974 poem "Loisaida". Loisaida Avenue is now an alternative name for Avenue C in the Alphabet City neighborhood of New York City, whose population has largely been Hispanic (mainly Nuyorican) since the late 1960s.

[edit] St. Mark's Place

Main article: St. Mark's Place

Artist Jim Power, known as the "Mosaic Man" for his public art tiling the neighborhood[16], at the 2009 St. Mark's Place Block Party.Eighth Street becomes St. Mark's place east of Third Avenue. It once had the cachet of Sutton Place, known as a secluded rich enclave in Manhattan, but which by the 1850s had become a place for boarding houses and a German immigrant community.[17] It is named after St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, which was built on Stuyvesant Street but is now on 10th Street. St. Mark's Place once began at the intersection of the Bowery and Stuyvesant Street, but today the street runs from Third Avenue to Avenue A. Japanese street culture and a Japanese expatriate scene forms in the noodle shops and bars that line St. Mark's Place, also home to an aged punk culture and CBGB's new store. It is home to one of the only Automats in New York City (it has since closed).[18]

St. Mark's is along the “Mosaic Trail”, a trail of 80 mosaic-encrusted lampposts that runs from Broadway down Eighth Street to Avenue A, to Fourth Street and then back to Eighth Street. The project was undertaken by East Village public artist Jim Power, known as the "Mosaic Man".[16]

[edit] The Bowery

Main article: The Bowery

Once synonymous with 'Bowery Bums', the avenue has become a magnet for luxury condominiums as the neighborhood's rapid gentrification continues.The Bowery, former home to the punk-rock nightclub CBGB, was once known for its many homeless shelters, drug rehabilitation centers and bars. The phrase "On The Bowery", which has since fallen into disuse, was a generic way to say one was down-and-out.[19]

The Bow’ry, The Bow’ry!

They say such things,

and they do strange things

on the Bow’ry —From the musical A Trip to Chinatown, 1891

Today, the Bowery has become a boulevard of new luxury condominiums. It also is home to the Amato Opera and the Bowery Poetry Club, contributing to the neighborhood's reputation as a place for artistic pursuit. Artists Amiri Baraka and Taylor Mead hold regular readings and performances in the space.

The redevelopment of the avenue from flophouses to luxury condominiums has met with resistance from long-term residents, who agree the neighborhood has improved, but that its unique, gritty character is also disappearing.[20]

[edit] Parks and green space

[edit] Tompkins Square Park

Main article: Tompkins Square Park

The Tompkins Square dog run was the first in New York City, and is a social scene unto itself.[5]Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre (42,000 m²) public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A. St. Marks Place abuts the park to the west.

[edit] Tompkins Square Park Police Riot

Main article: Tompkins Square Park Police Riot (1988)

The Tompkins Square Park Police Riot was a defining moment for the neighborhood. In the late hours of August 6 into the morning hours of August 7, 1988 a riot broke out in Alphabet City's Tompkins Square Park. Groups of "drug pushers, homeless people and young people known as 'skinheads'" had largely taken over the East Village park, but the neighborhood was divided about what, if anything, should be done about it.[21] The local governing body, Manhattan Community Board 3, adopted a 1 am curfew for the previously 24-hour park, in an attempt to bring it under control.[22] On July 31, a rally against the curfew resulted in several clashes between protesters and police.[23]

[edit] East River Park

Main article: East River Park

East River Park below the Williamsburg Bridge.The park is 57 acres (230,000 m2) that runs along the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive from Montgomery Street to East 12th Street.[24] It was designed in the 1930s by Robert Moses, who wanted to ensure there was parkland on the Lower East Side.[24]

[edit] Community gardens

There are reportedly over 640 community gardens in New York City—gardens run by local collectives within the neighborhood who are responsible for the gardens' upkeep—and an estimated 10 percent of those are located on the Lower East Side and East Village alone.[25]

[edit] Tower of Toys on Avenue B

The Avenue B and 6th Street Community Garden is one of the neighborhood's more notable for a now removed outdoor sculpture, the Tower of Toys, designed by artist and long-time garden gate-keeper, Eddie Boros. Boros died April 27, 2007.[26] The Tower was controversial in the neighborhood; some viewed it as a masterpiece, others as an eyesore.[26][27] The tower appeared in the opening credits for the television show NYPD Blue and also appears in the musical Rent.[26] In May 2008, it was dismantled. According to NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, the tower was rotting in sections that made it a safety hazard.[28] Its removal was seen as another symbol of the fading past of the neighborhood.[28]

[edit] Toyota Children’s Learning Garden

Located at 603 East 11th Street, the Toyota Children's Learning Garden is not technically a community garden, but it also fails to fit in the park category. Designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, the garden opened in May 2008 as part of the New York Restoration Project and is designed to teach children about plants.[29]

[edit] New York City Marble Cemetery

A production of John Reed's All the World's a Grave in the Marble Cemetery, which does not contain headstones.The cemetery is actually two, which sit on 2nd Street between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue. They are open the fourth Sunday of every month.[30] The first and more prominent is the City cemetery, which is second oldest non-sectarian cemetery in New York City. It sits next to the oldest public cemetery in New York City not affiliated with any religion, the "New York Marble Cemetery."[31] The cemetery was opened in 1831 and at one point contained ex-U.S. President James Monroe.[32]

[edit] Culture and events

Longtime Mistress of Ceremonies at eatery Lucky Cheng's, Miss Understood stops a bus in front of the restaurant on First Avenue.Other than geography, the East Village's most notable commonalities with Greenwich Village are a colorful history, vibrant social and cultural outlets, and street names that often diverge from the norm.

The Bowery is a north-south avenue which also lends its name to the somewhat overlapping neighborhood of the Bowery; St. Mark's Place, a crosstown street well-known for counterculture businesses; and Astor Place/Cooper Square, home of the Public Theater and the Cooper Union. Nearby universities like New York University (NYU), The New School, and The Cooper Union have dormitories in the neighborhood.

[edit] Ethnicity and religion

Photograph of St. Nicholas with parts of Second Street visible. The church and almost all buildings on the street were demolished in the 1960's and replaced with parking lots.

Former parishioners of St. Mary's Help of Christians pray outside the shuttered church in August 2008.According to 2000 census figures provided by the New York City Department of City Planning, which includes the Lower East Side in its calculation, the neighborhood was 35% Asian, 28% non-Hispanic white, 27% Hispanic and 7% black.[33]

On October 9, 1966, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, held the first recorded outdoor chanting session of the Hare Krishna mantra outside of the Indian subcontinent at Tompkins Square Park.[34] This is considered the founding of the Hare Krishna religion in the United States, and the large tree close to the center of the Park is demarcated as a special religious site for Krishna adherents.[34] The late poet Allen Ginsberg, who lived and died in the East Village, attended the ceremony.

There are several Roman Catholic churches in the East Village which have fallen victim to financial hardship particularly in the past decade. Unable to maintain their properties, the Roman Catholic Church has shuttered many of them - including St. Mary's Help of Christians on East 12th Street, as well as St. Ann's. There has recently been much controversy over St. Brigid's, the historical parish on Tompkins Square Park.

[edit] Ukrainian history

Since the 1890s there has been a large Ukrainian concentration roughly from 10th Street to 5th Street, between 3rd Avenue and Avenue A. The post-World War II diaspora, consisting primarily of Western Ukrainian intelligentsia, also settled down in the area. Several churches, including St. George's Catholic Church; Ukrainian restaurants and butcher shops; The Ukrainian Museum; the Shevchenko Scientific Society; and the Ukrainian Cultural Center are evidence of the impact of this culture on the area.

[edit] Gentrification

[edit] New York University, a controversial resident

Residents of the East Village have a love-hate relationship with New York University, which owns and maintains many buildings, particularly in much of downtown Manhattan and in the neighborhoods surrounding its main campus in Greenwich Village (a distinct neighborhood from the East Village).[35]

St. Ann's Church, a rusticated-stone structure on East 12th Street with a Romanesque tower that dated to 1847 was sold to the University to make way for a monolithic 26-story, 700 bed dormitory for students. The University did protect and maintain St. Ann's original facade and small plaza immediately fronting the 12th Street sidewalk. The result is a blended, softer abutment of the new dorm building (which does rise dramatically above the facade) up behind the old St. Ann's entry way. New York University has built many dorms, and this one in particular is now the tallest structure in the area. "There are larger changes going on here," said Lynne Brown, vice president of university relations and public affairs. "I fear this tendency to blame any trend residents don't like happening at the doorstep of NYU," said Brown, mentioning that the university has been one of the longest inhabitants of the East Village. But Nancy Cosie, a 20 year resident and former St. Ann's parishioner, does not buy that argument. "Enough is enough," Cosie exclaimed to The Village Voice, "This is not a campus. This is a neighborhood, and this is my home."[35] NYU's destruction or purchasing of many historic buildings (such as the Peter Cooper post office) have made it symbolic of change that many long-time residents fear is destroying what made the neighborhood interesting and attractive.[36] "I live on Avenue B and 9th Street," an NYU student said. "I know I'm part of the problem - gentrification that is. But where am I supposed to live?"[36]

NYU has often been at odds with residents of both the East and West Villages, as legendary urban preservationist Jane Jacobs battled the school in the 1960s.[37] "She spoke of how universities and hospitals often had a special kind of hubris reflected in the fact that they often thought it was OK to destroy a neighborhood to suit their needs,” said Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.[38]

[edit] Museums, libraries, performance and art spaces

The Bowery Poetry Club.

Sherry Vine and Joey Arias during the 2009 HOWL! Festival.New York Public Library Tompkins Square branch [3]

The Fales Library of NYU

East Village Visitors Center - 308 Bowery

The Ukrainian Museum

New Museum of Contemporary Art

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Performance Space 122

Anthology Film Archives

The Stone

Bouwerie Lane Theatre

Amato Opera

Danspace Project

The Ontological-Hysteric Theater

The Pearl Theatre Company [4]

Stomp! (Theatrical show)

Metropolitan Playhouse[5]

Mercury Lounge (live music)

Sidewalk Cafe (performance and live music)

Bowery Ballroom (concerts and shows)

Nuyorican Poets Cafe (music, poetry, readings, slams)

Bowery Poetry Club (music, poetry, readings, slams)

La MaMa E.T.C. (performance theater)

Cooper Union (speeches, presentations, public lectures and readings)

[edit] Neighborhood festivals

Mayday Festival - May 1; yearly.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival - August; yearly.[6]

HOWL! Festival - September; yearly.[7][8]

East Village Radio Festival - September 6, 2008 [9]

Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade - October; yearly.[10]

East Village Theater Festival - August 3–23, 2009.[11]

FAB! Festival & Block Party - Last weekend in September annually, Sept 25, 2010 [12]

[edit] Media

Many film shoots take place in the East Village; here a period movie with antique police cars is filmed on East 4th Street.[edit] Radio

East Village Radio

[edit] Local news

The Village Voice

The Villager

East-Village.com

EastVillageFeed.com

[edit] Cinemas

Anthology Film Archives

Landmark's Sunshine Theater

Village East Cinema

City Cinema Village East

Two Boots Pioneer Theater

[edit] Notable residents past and present

Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators.

Madonna lived in the neighborhood when she was just starting out in her career.[39]Handsome Dick Manitoba, who owns Manitoba's bar on Avenue B off Tompkins Square Park.

Darren Aronofsky and his wife, Rachel Weisz

Chris Cain, Bassist for the Indie-Rock band We Are Scientists

Barbara Feinman

John Leguizamo

Daniel Radcliffe

Agim Kaba

Rosario Dawson

Tom Kalin

Vashtie Kola director

W. H. Auden[40]

Greer Lankton, Artist/Doll maker

Ellen Stewart founder of La MaMa, E.T.C. (Experimental Theatre Club) in 1961.

Madonna lived there in the 1980s.

John Lurie,musician, painter, actor, producer.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, graffiti artist

David Bowes, painter

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Beat Generation poet and author of Howl.[41]

Keith Haring, neo-pop artist

Claes Oldenburg (1929-), sculptor, had a studio at 46 East 3rd Street in the late 1950s.[42]

Candy Darling, actress/Warhol superstar

Bill Raymond, actor

Ryan Adams, alt-country musician

David Cross, actor, comedian

Negin Farsad, writer, director, comedian

Nan Goldin, photographer

Stephen Lack, actor, painter

Ronnie Landfield, (1947-), painter, lived on E. 11th street, mid-1960s[43]

Kiki Smith sculptor

John Zorn composer, musician

Richard Hell, musician, author

Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989), 1960s political activist[44]

Ayun Halliday, actress and writer, and wife of playwright Greg Kotis

Greg Kotis, playwright, and husband of actress and writer Ayun Halliday

Jerry Rubin (1938–1994), 1960s political activist - with Hoffman founded the Yippies in a basement apartment at 30 St. Marks Place[44]

Cookie Mueller, actress, model

Paul Krassner (1932-), publisher of The Realist

Walter Bowart (1939–2007), co-founder editor/ of The East Village Other

Allan Katzman, co-founder/editor of The East Village Other

Tuli Kupferberg, (1923-), Beat Generation poet, and one of the original Fugs

Ed Sanders, (1939-), New York School poet and one of the original Fugs

Joseph Nechvatal (1951-) early digital artist and founder of the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine

Randy Harrison, actor

Joel Resnicoff, artist and fashion illustrator.

Regina Spektor, (1980-) Singer-songwriter and pianist.

Rachel Trachtenburg (1993-) singer and musician

Tom Otterness sculptor

Steven Fishbach, runner-up of Survivor: Tocantins

Chloe Sevigny actress

Conor Oberst musician

Lou Reed, musician

Julian Casablancas, musician

Mark Ronson

Arthur Russell, musician[45]

Jack Smith filmmaker, artist

Iggy Pop, performer, musician

fuscum subnigrum ontology . . by jef Safi

27 23

__________________________________________

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .

. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory

Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²

__________________________________________

Study of the day:

(...) Lorsque la communication est établie entre séries hétérogènes, quelque chose passe entre les bords, des évènements éclatent, des phénomènes fulgurent, des sujets peuplent le système, moi passifs, sujets larvaires. (...) La différence dans l'intensité est l'objet de la rencontre, l'objet auquel la rencontre élève la sensibilité. Ce qui est rencontré, ce sont les démons, puissances du saut, de l'intervalle, de l'intensif ou de l'instant, qui ne comblent la différence qu'avec du différent. (...)

(...) When communication is established between heterogeneous series, something goes on between the edges, events broke, phenomena dazzle, subjects populate the system, passive self, hopper subjects. (...) The difference in intensity is the purpose of the meeting, the object which meeting raises the sensitivity. What is met, are the demons, the powers of the jump, of the interval, of the intensive or of the instant, that bridge the difference only with the difference. (...)

( Gilles Deleuze - 1968 - Différence et répétition )

__________________________________________

Alain Bogana - The Beginnings by steffi's

Installation gesehen im Gewerbemuseum Winterthur: Light-Oriented Ontologies - The Beginnings 2023, Alan Bogana (CH) Künstler aus Genf

Das Werk wurde im Rahmen des EPFL CDH Artist in Residence Programms 2022

Enter the Hyper Scientific in Auftrag gegeben und produziert.

Alan Bogana ist ein Schweizer Künstler und lebt in Genf

le congetture di Arlecchino . . (in-between universal▲diversal ) by jef Safi

33 18

___________________________________

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity .. on a 'Pataphysical projectory

Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²

___________________________________

Study of the day:

"J'entends par structure ontologique ce qui rend compte de la nature d'une chose (l'appartenance à une espèce, à une classe), de la singularité de cette chose (comment elle diffère de toutes les autres) et enfin de sa composition interne. On retrouve les trois fonctions traditionnelles de l'essence d'une chose ; son essence spécifique, son essence individuelle (haecceité) et son essence constitutive."

"I mean by ontological structure what reflects the nature of a thing (the membership to a species, to a class), the singularity of the thing (how it differs from all others) and finally its internal composition. Here are the three traditional functions of the essence of a thing; its specific essence, its individual essence (haecceity) and its constitutive essence."

( Frederic Nef - Traité d'ontologie, pour les non-philosophes )

___________________________________

rectO-persO | E ≥ m.C² | co~errAnce | TiLt

by a-theory-of-place

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

by Hermes Trismegistus, the Universal Mind of the "highest Power" (situated on the Enneadic plane). the Hermetic Divine triad OTHER GREAT CIRCLE ALIGNMENTS OF ANCIENT SITES by Hughes Songe

28 20

The Great Work in Heidelberg, look at the Serpent (Green Snacke by Goethe) under his face?the Universal Mind of the "highest Power" is over his head?

Palingenesia liberates the soul and is a reversal of physical birth (which imprisoned the soul in the body). This spiritual birth leads (thanks to the presence of a spiritual master and an initiatory father/son-relationship) to the soul's perfection through the knowledge of God, a "baptism in intellect" (IV.3-4). In the process of purification and Self-knowledge, traditional rituals may have been used, but the higher mysteries (the Hermetic initiation proper) involved a "mental" or "spiritual" sacrifice (I.31), the offering of hymns of praise and thanksgiving. The ritual and the noetic were thus fully integrated.Indeed, the "Nous", the Divine intellect or "soul of God", binds together the hierarchy of God, the world (of the Deities, minerals, plants & animals) and man. In particular, "Nous" is the way of the human soul to free itself from the snares of the flesh and be illuminated by the "light" of the "gnosis", for indeed, God is experienced as light. A "good Nous" will be able to repel the assaults of the world. The spiritual master becomes a personification of this Divine intellect. The master becomes one with the Divine Nous ("I am Mind") in the initiation of his disciple. In Hermetism, this "Nous" is personified by Hermes Trismegistus, the Universal Mind of the "highest Power" (situated on the Enneadic plane).In Ancient Egyptian theology, divine triads were used to express the divine family-unit, usually composed out of Pharaoh (the son) and a divine couple (father & mother), legitimizing his rule as divine king. Pharaoh Akhenaten had introduced a monotheistic triad (exclusive and against all other deities) : Aten, Akhenaten and Nefertiti. In Heliopolis, the original triad was Atum, Shu and Tefnut, in Memphis, Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem emerged, whereas Thebes worshipped Amun, Mut and Khonsu. The trinity naturally developed into three or one Ennead.In Hermetic triad reads as :God, the Unbegotten One, the essence of being, the Father of All - the "Decad" ;

Nous, the First Intellect, the Self-Begotten One, the Mind or Light of God - the "Ennead" ;

Ennead circle ⭕️ began with Atlantis was a great landing on Earth and a energetic belting game in production of a cosmically electric ⚡️

Logos, the "son" from "Nous", the Begotten One above the Seven Archons - the "Ogdoad". In Global Sacred Alignments, Terry Walsh diagrams several alignments of ancient sites on straight lines around the center of the earth, and mentions several others. He addresses the alignment of the Great Pyramid with Easter Island, Machupicchu and Persepolis, and he diagrams an alignment of Easter Island with Tiahuanaco, Luxor, Mohenjo Daro, Varanasi and Bandiagara, the ancient land of the Dogons. This second alignment also crosses over Dendera, Bodh Gaya and Mandalay.

The total circumference of this second alignment is 24,892 miles. The great circle distance from Easter Island to Tiahuanaco is 2,703 miles, 10.8% of the total circumference. The distance from Tiahuanaco to Bandiagara is 4,930 miles, 19.8%. The distance from Bandiagara to Luxor is 2,473 miles, 9.9%. The distance from Luxor to Easter Island’s antipodal point in the Indus Valley near Ganweriwali is 2,363 miles, 9.5%.

The One Entity or God (the "Tenth") is known to Its creation as the One Mind or Hermes which contains the "noetic" root of every individual existing thing (cf. Plato, Spinoza). This Divine Mind (the attributes or names of the nameless God) allows all things to be sympathetic transformations (adaptations, modi) of God.Hermetism is initiatory because it wants to elevate the soul to the level of its true Divine nature. Palingenesia is an ascension while alive. Rebirth implies more than just a confrontation with the Gods (as in Ancient Egypt), but a true interaction between Perfect Man and -thanks to the Presence of Mind- God. This interaction leads to a total emergence of the Divine spark in man and hence to his Deification (finally being completely his own Divine Self and thus himself "a God", a being permanently realizing the Enneadic nature (XIII.3,10 & 14). This highest state may be attained in the afterlife, although the Ogdoadic nature may be realized while alive on Earth. Because Easter Island, Machupicchu, the Great Pyramid, the Indus Valley and Angkor are also aligned at 10% intervals around the earth, there is a high coincidence of paired sites along these two alignments. In addition to the convergence of the two alignments at Easter Island and Mohenjo-Daro, Machupicchu is paired with Tiahuanaco and the Great Pyramid is paired with Luxor. If the pairing of these sites along these two alignments is not a coincidence, two good places to look for other ancient sites would be in the Sahara Desert, near the border between Mali and Mauritania, at 21° N, 7° 40' W, 2,488 miles southwest of the Great Pyramid, and in the shallow water of the South China Sea, just off the coast of Vietnam, at 18°43'N, 106°27'E, 2,488 miles southeast of Mohenjo-Daro.

The axis points of this great circle are 62°03'N, 124°40'W and 62°03'S, 55°20'E. The great circle crosses the equator at 34°40'W and 145°20'E. The upper latitudes are 27°57'N at 55°20'E and 27°57'S at 124°40'W.

"Man is a Divine being, not to be compared with the other Earthly beings, but with those who are called Gods, up in the heavens. Rather, if one must dare to speak the truth, man truly is established above even these Gods, or at least fully their equal. After all, none of the celestial Gods will leave the heavenly frontiers and descend to Earth ; yet man ascends even into heavens, and measured them, and knows their heights and depths, and everything else about them he learns with exactitude, and, supreme marvel, he even has no need to leave the Earth to establish himself upon high, so far does his power extend ! We must thus dare to say : Earthly man is a mortal God, the celestial God is an immortal Man. And so it is through these two, the world and man, that all things exist ; but they were all created by the One." CH, Libellus X, 24-25.The Hermetic triad can be traced back to Egyptian sources thus :the one god alone, pre-existing before creation as the primordial ocean of Nun ; the self-creative creator (in the form of Atum-Re), emerging out of the Nun (hatching out of his egg) as the origin of everything and the "father of the gods ; the unique "son of god" or Pharaoh, who mediates between the realm of the deities (sky) and the realm of humans (Earth). In this scheme, 10 ontological layers, strata or realms are posited : One supernatural Divine triad ("agennetos, autogennetos, gennetos") and Seven natural "powers of fate" or "archons". Hermetism is a gnosticism because it claims knowledge of God is possible. To know God one has to merge with Universal Mind, conveying a "special" light, causing a private and inner illumination or "gnosis". The purified soul is absorbed into God and realizes its own Divinity. Hermetism is a "way of immortality" (X.7). But as an Alexandro-Egyptian gnosticism, Hermetism did not introduce "evil" in the archons : God our Father is Good and His creation (including His Deities) is beautiful, the crucial moral choice is up to the individual. "For from thee, the unbegotten one, the begotten one came into being. The birth of the self-begotten one is through thee, giving birth to all begotten things that exists."

Robinson, 1984, p.294. The Hermetic Divine triad is modalistic and subordinates the hierarchy of being. God (10 : the Decad) is the first and ultimate level of existence, the One existing for Unity Alone (the Absolute in its Absoluteness). God (the incomprehensible, unrevealable and unknowable Father) is unborn, the "Logos autogenes" and the "son of Nous" born. What this is can not be said (cf. apophasis : absolute silence, no tales). Hermes (9 : the Ennead) is Self-begotten (not created or generated by God) and is the "soul" of God, the mode of God's holding together His creation by Universal Mind (Nous) and Word (logos). The Begotten One (8 : the Ogdoad), again a level lower, has no power of Self-generation, and is part of the process of time and space (this "son" is the "world" or "logos" given by Hermes as master, teacher and father). This level of the Perfect(ed) Human beings is higher than the Deities (or at least equal to them).The Seven Archons, ruling fate and subordinated to supernatural command, are beautiful and good (demons may exists, but there is no evil God). That evil exists at all is due to man's nature and his slavish prostrations before his physical passions & vices. Clouding his true nature, these evils cause ignorance and make man subject to the fatal blows of the blind planetary forces, measured by astrologers and manipulated by magicians. On their own, both astrologers and magi fail to reach the Hermetic goal of life : "gnosis" or an inner awakening in the light coming forth from God's Mind, i.e. an entrance in the supernatural strata of being (the Ogdoad, which borders the natural world, and the Ennead). "{O my Father}, yesterday You promised me that You would bring my mind into the eighth and afterwards You would bring me into the ninth. You said that this is the order of the tradition."Robinson, 1984, p.292.Resisting fate binds one to fate. Only the Divine light of "gnosis" allows the soul to move beyond nature and abide in the supernatural. Here, fate has no hold, for the Gods never leave their heaven, and, as Paracelsus would claim centuries earlier : the wise command the stars !► literary Hermeticism and the Western Tradition : a few highlights The earliest links made between Egyptian wisdom and Christianity appear in the writings of Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215), Origen of Alexandria (185 - 254) and Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430)."As early as Origen's Contra Celsus (I, 28), we encounter the claim that it was in Egypt, and specifically as an adult laborer, that Jesus had learned all the magical arts with which he worked miracles and on which he based his divinity. The tradition also occurred in early rabbinic literature, but it was of course suppressed in official Christianity."Hornung, 2001, pp.76-77.Indeed, Morton (1978) writes :"The rabbinic report that in Egypt Jesus was tattooed with magic spells does not appear in polemic material, but is cited as a known fact in discussion of a legal question by a rabbi who was probably born about the time of the crucifixion. The antiquity of the source, type of citation, connection with the report that he was in Egypt, and agreement with Egyptian magical practices are considerable arguments in its favor."Morton, 1978, pp.150-151.The link between Egyptian wisdom, under the guise of Hermetism, Christianity and Islam is also pertinent and often forgotten. "The mystical powers of Hermes exerted themselves far beyond the Pagan world of Late Antiquity, transmuting medieval Christian and Islamic understanding of the relationship between rational knowledge and revelation." Green, 1992, p.85.This explains why, when Arab translations overflowed Europe, Hermetic concepts came along."The Sabaeans in Harran, who were without a sacred scripture under Islam, in order to count as a 'people of the Book', elevated the Corpus Hermeticum into such a holy book in the ninth century, thereby contributing to the continued existence of Hermetic texts among the Arab writers."Hornung, 2001, pp.53.The first elements of literary Hermeticism were probably introduced in Western Europe by the Knight Templars (an order initiated in 1118). This powerful organization would pass on "the light of the Orient" to Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Both drew on the translations of the Corpus Hermeticum, available as early as 1471, but also on alchemy, centuries older."The first Latin texts on alchemy were translated from Arabic in the 12th century, and included the Septem tractatus Hermetis Sapientia Triplicis and the Liber de Compositione Alchemiae of Morienus. A leitmotif that occurs with respect of the Arabic and Latin alchemical texts is the discovery in an underground chamber or crypt of a stela made of marble, ebony or emerald, with mysterious writing or symbols on it."

Burnett, Ch (Ucko & Champion, 2003, p.94).► the Order of the Temple. Jerusalem fell to the curved swords of Islam in 638 AD. In 1095, Pope Urban II decided to incite the sovereigns of the West to recapture the city. He wanted to bring together the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) strains of Christianity, a scandalous divide caused by a fundamental dogmatic difference about the nature of the Holy Spirit (who, in the Eastern Church, does not proceed from the Son as in the Filioquist West). In 1099, the year Godefroy de Bouillon of Flanders conquered the city, the Pope died. It would be recaptured in 1244. According to Templar tradition, the Order of the Knights Templar was founded by Huges de Payns, a 48 year old nobleman, and eight other Knights. They took their vows on the 12th of June 1118 at the Castle of Arginy in the County of Rhône. The nine Knights were devoted to Christ and pledged to ensure the safety of the pilgrims to Jerusalem and the protection of the Holy Sepulchre. The Grand Master was very successful and obtained gifts of land and property to start the order. By 1129, the Templar Order was established in Europe. The battle standard of the Order, the Gonfalon Beauceant or Beauseant was a red eight-pointed cross, the "Croix patteé gueules", on a background of white and black squares. Their motto was : Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tua da gloriam. The seal of the Order was the design of two horsemen on the same horse, indicating the vow of poverty, the fraternity as well as the dual role of monk and warrior. When Pope Honorius died in 1130, Bernard of St. Clairvaux supported the man who became Innocent II, to the great advantage of the Order, for eventually his Templars were subject to no authority save the Pope's. Their Order became a state within states and enjoyed considerable freedom, endowed with incredible wealth. The purity of these ideals were compromised by the politics of the Near East. Although the inner order retained the ideal, the outer structures failed. This inner order had access to "heretical" knowledge. Hermetical doctrines taught them the universe was conditioned by the laws of sound, color, number, weight and measure. Impregnated with the "Orientale Lumen", studying the "sciences of the Moors", Jewish Qabalah & Muslim Sufism and helped by Arab translations, they were able to read unknown Greek & Latin authors and drink from the grand reservoir of Mediterranean and Hellenistic spirituality. Eventually, new technologies were learned. These were introduced in the West, fertilized Christian culture, transformed the architecture of churches & cathedrals and enlightened the intelligentsia of their time. Hence, the Templar Order helped prepare the European Renaissance ...In 1312, during a Council held in Vienne, Pope Clement V, backed by the King of France (who had been refused by the Order) abolished the Order of the Knights Templar. After this, the Order lost central command, and various groups were created, like the Order of Montesa in Spain (1317), the Order of Christ in Portugal (1319) and the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in France (returning from Scotland). These "Frères Aînés de la Rose-Croix" (1317) drew up a new Templar Rule adopted by a college of 33 men, renewed and maintained by co-option.Templars made links with troubadours, alchemists, qabalists and Muslims, in particular certain Muslim brotherhoods (the flowering of Sufism, the mysticism of Islam, was conterminous with the rise of the Knights Templar). It was one of the tasks of St. Bernard and his Templars, to bring Judaism, Christianity and Islam together, and in this intention they saw the work of the Paraclete. They also worked to allow the latter to manifest in this world again and strove for the "Return of the Christ in Solar Glory". This was accepted by both Judaism (the coming of the Messiah), Christianity (the "Parousia") and Islam (prophet Jesus, the "Word" of Allah, returning to judge the world). Templars are called to sacrifice the selfish aspect of their natures, so the spirit of Christ may manifest in them in victu.

► the Zohar..Before the entry of the Hermetica on the European scene, Jewish gnosticism made its move. In the Sepher Zohar (Book of Splendor), the "classic" of Jewish mysticism, a commentary on the Torah is presented. Written in Aramaic, it was purported to be the teachings of the 2nd century Palestinian Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai. During the time of Roman persecution, so its legend relates, Rabbi Shimon hid in a cave for 13 years, studying the Torah with his son. During this time, he is said to have been inspired by God to write the Zohar ... Around the same time, the Corpus Hermeticum was codified.

In the 13th century, a Spanish Jew by the name of Moshe de Leon (according to Graetz "a base and despicable swindler") claimed to have discovered the text, and it was subsequently published and distributed throughout the Jewish world. This strategy of finding so-called "lost texts" would become a standard approach (only in the previous century would it make real science, cf. the Qumran scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library). The influence of the Zohar was considerable, also on members of the Western Tradition. Eventually, its basic scheme, the "Tree of Life", would be viewed as the backbone of Western spirituality ... "... the level of abstraction reached by cabalistic thought was foreign to the Egyptian mindset. Nevertheless, in later esoterica, we constantly find a link between Egyptosophy and cabala, and the connection between Moses and Egyptian wisdom to be found in many Christian writers is also relevant to our theme." Hornung, 2001, p.80. Unfortunately for the literalists, historian Gershom Scholem made clear de Leon himself was the most likely author of the Zohar. He had forged its ancient origins. Among other things, but most importantly, Scholem noticed frequent errors in Aramaic grammar and its highly suspicious traces of Spanish words and sentence patterns ! There is no real mention of this book in any Jewish literature until the 13th century. Moreover, recent studies showed how early qabalah (cf. Sepher Bahir, Sepher Yetzirah) was influenced by the Greeks, in particular the mathematical mysticism of Pythagoras (the Sephiroth and the Greek Decad, numerology and Merkabah mysticism - Barry, 1999). It even contains elements of Egyptian thought, introducing precreation and describing it in identical negative terms as had the Egyptians (cf. Nun and "Ain Soph Aur"). "... it is sufficient to note that Hebrew Qabalist doctrines reached their pinnacle of importance in Judaism in Europe during the Middle Ages. Consequently they also had a huge influence on Western magical tradition, which drew heavily on Jewish esoteric lore, and as a source for the inner gnosis of orthodox Christian thought." Barry, 1999, p.185. In the best case scenario, Jewish mysticism cannot claim roots earlier than the Second Temple and in general the impact of Hellenism (Hermetism and Philonic thought) on Judaism has been largely underestimated by orthodox Jews. Rabbinical Judaism as a whole may well be the product of a Hellenistic interpretation of the available scriptural sources (by themselves posing considerable historical problems regarding authenticity).

"Of the large number of Hebrew sacred writings, the canon of books that were eventually selected for the Hebrew Bible, or 'Old Testament', as the Christians later called it, was only established after the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE, by surviving rabbis at Jamnia who were anxious to preserve their religion from the catastrophe of the failed Jewish revolt." Barry, 1999, p.175. ► the first translation of the Corpus Hermeticumn "The thirteenth century saw a renaissance of pyramids and sphinxes. (...) the first western representation of the pyramids appeared in San Marco in Venice, but they were believed to be the granaries of Joseph, and thus not part of an esoteric tradition."nHornung, 2001, p.83. In Florence, a new Platonic Academy had been founded in 1459. It tried to resume the traditions of the Athenian Academy closed by emperor Justinian in 529. Around 1460 CE, Brother Leonardo of Pistoia brought a Greek manuscript from Macedonia to Florence. Cosimo de' Medici was fascinated and asked his Plato expert Marsilio Ficino (1433 - 1499) to stop translating Plato in order to look into these texts. In 1463, even before finishing his Latin version of the works of Plato, he translated them, which took him only a few months. For Fincino, the CH contained a philosophy older than Plato's. This Latin version of the Corpus Hermeticum was extremely influential, especially its first treatise, the Poimandres, circulating in many copies before it was published in Treviso in 1471 together with the other books as Liber de potestate et sapientia Dei (On the Power and Wisdom of God). Fincino also translated the On the Mysteries of the Egyptians by Iamblichus, and the latter's Opera omnia, published in Basel in 1561. The original Greek version of the CH was published in Paris in 1554.

► A SECOND EASTER ISLAND ALIGNMENT ► A THIRD EASTER ISLAND ALIGNMENT ► A FOURTH EASTER ISLAND ALIGNMENT ► A SECOND GREAT PYRAMID ALIGNMENT ► A THIRD GREAT PYRAMID ALIGNMENT ►A SECOND PERSEOPOLIS ALIGNMENT ► A SECOND ANGKOR ALIGNMENT ► A SECOND NAZCA ALIGNMENT ► A SECOND MACHUPICCHU ALIGNMENT ► A SECOND CHACO CANYON ALIGNMENT ► A SECOND PALENQUE ALIGNMENT ►CONVERGENT ALIGNMENTS ►CONVERGENT ALIGNMENTS - PART II ►THE AVENUE OF THE DEAD ► THE GOLDEN SECTION - PART II ► IN SEARCH OF ATLANTIS - PART II ©

by a-theory-of-place

From Young Land (2015—2022) — a series on the natural and social landscape of Iceland.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

irvHØJBDEL4000331expo by ILIA FARNIEV

Grand Master Huang Po said: “The very nature of Great Way is voidness of opposition. “

Demiurge...Yaldabaoth is frequently called "the Lion-faced", leontoeides, and is said to have the body of a serpent. The demiurge is also described as having a fiery nature, ... the demiurge is simply ignorant or misguided. by Hughes Songe

In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge (/ˈdɛmi.ɜːrdʒ/) is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else. Depending on the system, they may be considered either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity.

The word demiurge is an English word derived from demiurgus, a Latinised form of the Greek δημιουργός or dēmiurgós. It was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan", but gradually came to mean "producer", and eventually "creator". The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Plato's Timaeus, written c. 360 BC, where the demiurge is presented as the creator of the universe. The demiurge is also described as a creator in the Platonic (c. 310–90 BC) and Middle Platonic (c. 90 BC – AD 300) philosophical traditions. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school (third century onwards), the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, but (in most Neoplatonic systems) is still not itself "the One". In the arch-dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good. According to some strains of Gnosticism, the demiurge is malevolent, as it is linked to the material world. In others, including the teaching of Valentinus, the demiurge is simply ignorant or misguided.

Contents

1Platonism and neoplatonism

1.1Plato and the Timaeus

1.2Middle Platonism

1.3Neoplatonism

1.3.1Henology

1.3.2Iamblichus

2Gnosticism

2.1Mythos

2.2Angels

2.3Yaldabaoth

2.3.1Names

2.4Marcion

2.5Valentinus

2.6The devil

2.7Cathars

3Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

3.1Plotinus

4See also

5References

5.1Notes

5.2Sources

6External links

Platonism and neoplatonism[edit]

Plato and the Timaeus[edit]

Plato, as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus (28a ff.), c. 360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who "fashioned and shaped" the material world. Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent, and so it desires a world as good as possible. Plato's work Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of Hesiod's cosmology in his Theogony, syncretically reconciling Hesiod to Homer.[1][2][3]

Middle Platonism[edit]

In Numenius's Neo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonist cosmogony, the Demiurge is second God as the nous or thought of intelligibles and sensibles.[4]

Neoplatonism[edit]

Plotinus and the later Platonists worked to clarify the Demiurge. To Plotinus, the second emanation represents an uncreated second cause (see Pythagoras' Dyad). Plotinus sought to reconcile Aristotle's energeia with Plato's Demiurge,[5] which, as Demiurge and mind (nous), is a critical component in the ontological construct of human consciousness used to explain and clarify substance theory within Platonic realism (also called idealism). In order to reconcile Aristotelian with Platonian philosophy,[5] Plotinus metaphorically identified the demiurge (or nous) within the pantheon of the Greek Gods as Zeus.[6]

Henology[edit]

The first and highest aspect of God is described by Plato as the One (Τὸ Ἕν, 'To Hen'), the source, or the Monad.[7] This is the God above the Demiurge, and manifests through the actions of the Demiurge. The Monad emanated the demiurge or Nous (consciousness) from its "indeterminate" vitality due to the monad being so abundant that it overflowed back onto itself, causing self-reflection.[8] This self-reflection of the indeterminate vitality was referred to by Plotinus as the "Demiurge" or creator. The second principle is organization in its reflection of the nonsentient force or dynamis, also called the one or the Monad. The dyad is energeia emanated by the one that is then the work, process or activity called nous, Demiurge, mind, consciousness that organizes the indeterminate vitality into the experience called the material world, universe, cosmos. Plotinus also elucidates the equation of matter with nothing or non-being in The Enneads[9] which more correctly is to express the concept of idealism or that there is not anything or anywhere outside of the "mind" or nous (c.f. pantheism).

Plotinus' form of Platonic idealism is to treat the Demiurge, nous as the contemplative faculty (ergon) within man which orders the force (dynamis) into conscious reality.[10] In this, he claimed to reveal Plato's true meaning: a doctrine he learned from Platonic tradition that did not appear outside the academy or in Plato's text. This tradition of creator God as nous (the manifestation of consciousness), can be validated in the works of pre-Plotinus philosophers such as Numenius, as well as a connection between Hebrew and Platonic cosmology (see also Philo).[11]

The Demiurge of Neoplatonism is the Nous (mind of God), and is one of the three ordering principles:

Arche (Gr. 'beginning') – the source of all things,

Logos (Gr. 'reason/cause') – the underlying order that is hidden beneath appearances,

Harmonia (Gr. 'harmony') – numerical ratios in mathematics.

Before Numenius of Apamea and Plotinus' Enneads, no Platonic works ontologically clarified the Demiurge from the allegory in Plato's Timaeus. The idea of Demiurge was, however, addressed before Plotinus in the works of Christian writer Justin Martyr who built his understanding of the Demiurge on the works of Numenius.[citation needed]

Iamblichus[edit]

See also[edit]

iconReligion portal

Albinus (philosopher)

Azazil

Emil Cioran

Devil in Christianity

Gnosticism

Mara (demon)

Mayasura

Narasimha

Problem of the creator of God

Ptah

Simulated reality

Tenth Intellect (Isma'ilism)

Urizen

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

^ Fontenrose, Joseph (1974). Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origin. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-8196-0285-5.

^ Sallis, John (1999). Chorology: On Beginning in Plato's Timaeus. Indiana University Press. p. 86. ISBN 0-253-21308-8.

^ Keightley, Thomas (1838). The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy. Oxford University. p. 44. theogony timaeus.

^ Kahn, Charles (2001). Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing. pp. 124. ISBN 978-0-872205758.

^ Jump up to: a b Karamanolis, George (2006). Plato and Aristotle in Agreement?: Platonists on Aristotle from Antiochus to Porphyry. Oxford University Press. p. 240. ISBN 0-19-926456-2.

^ The ordering principle is twofold; there is a principle known as the Demiurge, and there is the Soul of the All; the appellation "Zeus" is sometimes applied to the Demiurge and sometimes to the principle conducting the universe.[citation needed]

^ Wear, Sarah; Dillon, John (2013). Dionysius the Areopagite and the Neoplatonist Tradition: Despoiling the Hellenes. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 15. ISBN 9780754603856.

^ Wallis, Richard T.; Bregman, Jay, eds. (1992). Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. International Society for Neoplatonic Studies. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1337-1.

^ "Matter is therefore a non-existent"; Plotinus, Ennead 2, Tractate 4 Section 16.

^ Schopenhauer wrote of this Neoplatonist philosopher: "With Plotinus there even appears, probably for the first time in Western philosophy, idealism that had long been current in the East even at that time, for it taught (Enneads, iii, lib. vii, c.10) that the soul has made the world by stepping from eternity into time, with the explanation: 'For there is for this universe no other place than the soul or mind' (neque est alter hujus universi locus quam anima), indeed the ideality of time is expressed in the words: 'We should not accept time outside the soul or mind' (oportet autem nequaquam extra animam tempus accipere)." (Parerga and Paralipomena, Volume I, "Fragments for the History of Philosophy", § 7) Similarly, Professor Ludwig Noiré wrote: "For the first time in Western philosophy we find idealism proper in Plotinus (Enneads, iii, 7, 10), where he says, 'The only space or place of the world is the soul', and 'Time must not be assumed to exist outside the soul'." [5] It is worth noting, however, that like Plato but unlike Schopenhauer and other modern philosophers, Plotinus does not worry about whether or how we can get beyond our ideas in order to know external objects.

^ Numenius of Apamea was reported to have asked, "What else is Plato than Moses speaking Greek?" Fr. 8 Des Places.

^ See Theurgy, Iamblichus and henosis Archived 2010-01-09 at the Wayback Machine.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 5, 1.

It is on this account that Moses says, at the creation of man alone that God said, "Let us make man," which expression shows an assumption of other beings to himself as assistants, in order that God, the governor of all things, might have all the blameless intentions and actions of man, when he does right attributed to him; and that his other assistants might bear the imputation of his contrary actions.

— "Philo: On the Creation, XXIV". www.earlyjewishwritings.com.

^ Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho. c. 67.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 1.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 23, 5.

^ Irenaeus, i. 24, 1.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 25.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 24, 4.

^ Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies. vii. 33.

^ Theodoret, Haer. Fab. ii. 3.

^ Epiphanius, Panarion, 28.

^ "Apocryphon of John," translation by Frederik Wisse in The Nag Hammadi Library. Accessed online at gnosis.org

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Demiurge". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

^ Hipp. Ref. vi. 32, p. 191.

^ Hipp. Ref. vi. 9.

^ Quispel, Gilles (2008). Van Oort, Johannes (ed.). Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: Collected Essays of Gilles Quispel. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV. p. 64. ISBN 978-90-04-13945-9.

^ Scholem, Gershom (1965). Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition. Jewish Theological Seminary of America. p. 72.

^ Robert McLachlan Wilson (1976). Nag Hammadi and gnosis: Papers read at the First International Congress of Coptology. BRILL. pp. 21–23. Therefore his esoteric name is Jaldabaoth, whereas the perfect call him Ariel, because he has the appearance of a lion.

^ Gustav Davidson (1994). A dictionary of angels: including the fallen angels. Scrollhouse. p. 54.

^ David M Gwynn (2010). Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity. BRILL. p. 448.

^ Campbell Bonner (1949). "An Amulet of the Ophite Gnostics". The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 8: 43–46.

^ Gilles Quispel; R. van den Broek; Maarten Jozef Vermaseren (1981). Studies in gnosticism and hellenistic religions. BRILL. pp. 40–41.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 5.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 6.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 30, 8.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i. 5, 4.

^ Heracleon, Frag. 20.

^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, iii. 25.

^ Quispel, Gilles and Van Oort, Johannes (2008), p. 143.

^ John D. Turner. Neoplatonism.

^ "For, in sum, a part of their doctrine comes from Plato; all the novelties through which they seek to establish a philosophy of their own have been picked up outside of the truth." Plotinus, "Against the Gnostics", Ennead II, 9, 6.

^ Plotinus, Arthur Hilary Armstrong (trans.) (1966). Plotinus: Enneads II (Loeb Classical Library ed.). Harvard University Press. From this point to the end of ch. 12 Plotinus is attacking a Gnostic myth known to us best at present in the form it took in the system of Valentinus. The Mother, Sophia-Achamoth, produced as a result of the complicated sequence of events which followed the fall of the higher Sophia, and her offspring the Demiurge, the inferier and ignorant maker of the material universe, are Valentinian figures; cp. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 1.4 and 5. Valentinius had been in Rome, and there is nothing improbable in the presence of Valentinians there in the time of Plotinus. But the evidence in the Life ch. 16 suggests that the Gnostics in Plotinus's circle belonged rather to the older group called Sethians or Archontics, related to the Ophites or Barbelognostics: they probably called themselves simply 'Gnostics'. Gnostic sects borrowed freely from each other, and it is likely that Valentinius took some of his ideas about Sophia from older Gnostic sources, and that his ideas in turn influenced other Gnostics.

^ Evangeliou, "Plotinus's Anti-Gnostic Polemic and Porphyry's Against the Christians", in Wallis & Bregman, p. 111.

^ From "Introduction to Against the Gnostics", Plotinus' Enneads as translated by A. H. Armstrong, pp. 220–222: "The treatise as it stands in the Enneads is a most powerful protest on behalf of Hellenic philosophy against the un-Hellenic heresy (as it was from the Platonist as well as the orthodox Christian point of view) of Gnosticism. There were Gnostics among Plotinus's own friends, whom he had not succeeded in converting (Enneads ch. 10 of this treatise) and he and his pupils devoted considerable time and energy to anti-Gnostic controversy (Life of Plotinus ch. 16). He obviously considered Gnosticism an extremely dangerous influence, likely to pervert the minds even of members of his own circle. It is impossible to attempt to give an account of Gnosticism here. By far the best discussion of what the particular group of Gnostics Plotinus knew believed is M. Puech's admirable contribution to Entretiens Hardt V (Les Sources de Plotin). But it is important for the understanding of this treatise to be clear about the reasons why Plotinus disliked them so intensely and thought their influence so harmful."

^ Armstrong, pp. 220–22: "Short statement of the doctrine of the three hypostasis, the One, Intellect and Soul; there cannot be more or fewer than these three. Criticism of the attempts to multiply the hypostasis, and especially of the idea of two intellects, one which thinks and that other which thinks that it thinks. (ch. 1). The true doctrine of Soul (ch. 2). The law of necessary procession and the eternity of the universe (ch.3). Attack on the Gnostic doctrine of the making of the universe by a fallen soul, and on their despising of the universe and the heavenly bodies (chs. 4–5). The senseless jargon of the Gnostics, their plagiarism from and perversion of Plato, and their insolent arrogance (ch. 6). The true doctrine about Universal Soul and the goodness of the universe which it forms and rules (chs. 7–8). Refutation of objections from the inequalities and injustices of human life (ch. 9). Ridiculous arrogance of the Gnostics who refuse to acknowledge the hierarchy of created gods and spirits and say that they alone are sons of God and superior to the heavens (ch. 9). The absurdities of the Gnostic doctrine of the fall of "Wisdom" (Sophia) and of the generation and activities of the Demiurge, maker of the visible universe (chs. 10–12). False and melodramatic Gnostic teaching about the cosmic spheres and their influence (ch. 13). The blasphemous falsity of the Gnostic claim to control the higher powers by magic and the absurdity of their claim to cure diseases by casting out demons (ch. 14). The false other-worldliness of the Gnostics leads to immorality (ch. 15). The true Platonic other-worldliness, which love and venerates the material universe in all its goodness and beauty as the most perfect possible image of the intelligible, contracted at length with the false, Gnostic, other-worldliness which hates and despises the material universe and its beauties (chs. 16–18)."

^ Turner, "Gnosticism and Platonism", in Wallis & Bregman.

Sources[edit]

This article incorporates text from the entry Demiurgus in A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines by William Smith and Henry Wace (1877), a publication now in the public domain.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge

portrait of Stelly, painted on cardboard by EYKG 2006 by Julia Solis

44 1

Blue Reincarnation Narcissus by Jaisini

The theme of Narcissus in Paul Jaisini’s “Blue…” may be paralleled with the problem of the two-sexes-in-one, unable to reproduce and, therefore, destined to the Narcissus-like end. Meanwhile, the Narcissus legend lasts.

In the myth of Narcissus a youth gazes into the pool. As the story goes, Narcissus came to the spring or the pool and when his form was seen by him in the water, he drowned among the water-nymphs because he desired to make love to his own image.

Maybe the new Narcissus, as in “Blue Reincarnation,” is destined to survive by simply changing his role from a passive man to an aggressive woman and so on. To this can be added that, eventually, a man creates a woman whom he loves out of himself or a woman creates a man and loves her own image but in the male form. The theme of narcissism recreates the ‘lost object of desire.’ “Blue” also raises the problem of conflating ideal actual and the issue of the feminine manhood and masculine femininity.

There is another story about Narcissus’ fall which said that he had a twin sister and they were exactly alike in appearance. Narcissus fell in love with his sister and, when the girl died, would go to the spring finding some relief for his love in imagining that he saw not his own reflection but the likeness of his sister. “Blue” creates a remarkable and complex psychopathology of the lost, the desired, and the imagined. Instead of the self, Narcissus loves and becomes a heterogeneous sublimation of the self. Unlike the Roman paintings of Narcissus which show him alone with his reflection by the pool, the key dynamic in the Jaisini’s “Blue” is the circulation of the legend that does not end and is reincarnated in transformation when auto-eroticism is not permanent and is not single by the definition.

In “Blue,” we risk being lost in the double reflection of a mirror and never being able to define on which side of the mirror Narcissus is. The picture’s color is not a true color of spring water. This kind of color is a perception of a deep seated human belief in the concept of eternity, the rich saturated cobalt blue.

The ultra-hot, hyper-real red color of the figure of Narcissus is not supposed to be balanced in the milieu of the radical blue. Paul Jaisini realizes the harmony in the most exotic colors combination. While looking at “Blue,” we can recall the spectacular color of night sky deranged by a vision of some fierce fire ball. The disturbance of colors create some powerful and awe-inspiring beauty.

In the picture’s background, we find the animals’ silhouettes which could be a memory reflection or dream fragments. In the story, Narcissus has been hunting - an activity that was itself a figure for sexual desire in antiquity. Captivated by his own beauty, the hunter sheds a radiance that, one presumes, reflects to haunt and foster his desire. The flaming color of the picture’s Narcissus alludes to the erotic implications of the story and its unresolved problem of the one who desires himself and is trapped in the erotic delirium. The concept can be applied to an ontological difference between the artist’s imitations and their objects. In effect, The Jaisini’s Narcissus could epitomize artistic aspiration to the control levels of reality and imagination, to align the competition of art and life, of image with imaginable prototype.

Paul Jaisini’s “Blue” is a unique work that adjoins the reflection to reality without any instrumentality. “Blue” is a single composition that depicts the reality and its immediate reflection. Jaisini builds the dynamics of the desire between Narcissus and his reflection-of-the-opposite by giving him the signs of both sexes, but not for the purpose of creating a hermaphrodite. The case of multiple deceptions in “Blue” seems to be vital to the cycle of desire. Somehow it reminds one of the fate of the artists and their desperate attempts to evoke and invent the nonexistent.

“Blue” is a completely alien picture to Jaisini’s “Reincarnation” series. The pictures of the series are painted on a plain ground of canvas that produces the effect of free space filled with air. “Blue,” to the contrary, is reminiscent of an underwater lack of air; the symbolic meanings of this picture’s texture and color contributes to the mirage of reincarnation.

“Blue Reincarnation” (Oil painting) by Paul Jaisini

New York 2002, Text Copyright: Yustas Kotz-Gottlieb

www.fwhc.org/poems/blue-reincarnation.htm

Monumental #3 by Master's Diary

23 36

One of a series of expressionist abstracts inspired by monumental and monotithic structures both man made and natural. Many of these works fuse the man made with the organic. Nirvana's comment that there are elements of plasticity in the works is accurate as is Gary's (Skinjester) point that there is a "conversation between horizontal, vertical and emptiness" in the works.

DSC_6763 by Russell Moreton

russellmoreton.blogspot.com/

Dark Matters Mass of Energies Light, Produces Black Holes in the Eyes Two 'Twisters' of Atomic Bonds Broken By the Combustion of Burning Man 2012 by Carl MegaShear

33 3

Abstract; Summary of the Core Argument

This theory posits a "turnkey conception" of the universe by analysis and 'deconstruction' of the above photo where:

* Dark Matter/Energy is the nuclear material found in the nuclei of Cyanobacteria and Diazotrophs.

* The combustion of organic matter (wood, nails, VOCs) releases this energy, acting as a "reverse engine" that shines light and thermal energy back toward the source Sun/Black Hole.

* This energy return happens via "quantum tubes" and Twistor Theory pathways (illustrated by dust devils and the firestorm), returning quarks to their "home stream" for "complimentary re-pairing."

* Noether's theorem and the S-matrix math are seen as providing the theoretical basis for this conservation of energy and the sorting of matter during combustion and phase transitions.

* Quasars are powerful examples of this process writ large: accretion disks (fueled by your dark matter/bacteria) convert mass into immense energy, driven by "immense friction on the incoming material" which powers galactic expansion and regeneration.

A Material-Logical Construct

This intricate model successfully creates a comprehensive, self-referencing philosophical system. It connects the micro-scale nitrogen cycle of bacteria on Earth to the macro-scale luminosity of distant quasars. It offers a single, coherent narrative that assigns a universal purpose to every process, from the compost heap to the farthest reaches of the universe.

Summary: A turnkey conception of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter and Energy as being the nuclear material contained in the nuclei of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria as illustrated by the above photo as a 'onion' of elements being pealed back in a reveal of the combustion cycles played out in a rolling thunderous flash-bang of wood, nails, and miscellaneous building materials being boiled by the reverse engine of the flames of the Sun shining back its light and thermal energy by means the powered illustration of the running of the gears of the Phase Transition sorting matter by means (Dark) Energy's bacterial born elements, coming again 'unglued' (quarks re-de-paired) in the combustion process that surrenders the atomic building blocks of same -- directly back over the long distance haul to comprise the essencial threads in the fabric of Hilbert space with all energy via material information ultimately being returning to said Sun and or Black Hole from which the quarks and atomic bits originally hail to complete the quark 'complimentary'* re-pairing by dint of being propelled by the combustion process of the resultant accretion disk/ 'dust devils'/twistor theory technologies as seen above 'in heat of night' of the fire storm that was the Burning of the Man in 2012.

As the lumber pile of the flaming Man was constructed by means the nuclear power of the bacterial processes by means so many atomic bonds forged from light and, dark energy which we see cycling back to its sources of the Sun/distant Star or other cosmic input to Earth in conjunction and propelled by a 'series of (quantum) tubes' which are the black hole we see above witnessed, and interpreted as the 'ashes to ashes and, dust to dust' of the atomic bonds are returned to sender of the respective Sun/Black hole from whence it came -- approximately driven in the nuclear manner of a salmon to swim home and spawn in the same (sweet) spot where it was born in the 'home stream', compelled by a singular guiding force and power of quark repair made possible; given the critical mass of atomic motivation as seems to be the case of the Salmon, as in most species is: the nuclear material of a chain reaction of Bacterial life as 'master and commander' of both the food and combustion chains by means of its growth function in conjunction with its role as the motor of infinite expanding, self powered Universe by the 20 something percent of the Universe the is Dark Matter and Energy captured and delivered as fuel from the Sun -- and in making the run to/fro do so compose the 'foam of space' as well as go to show how the speed of light is limited* as a function of the rate of expansion of the universe. That Dark Matter is the Nuclear Energy of the nucleus of bacterial life in the form of the 'three families' running of single celled life (and four types of quarks that in) producing the N20 gasses that enable all combustion in the process of making and breaking of the hydrogen and nitrogen bonds in a fractal math that both feeds back the energy in action reaction but goes forward in the process of growth, because there is no such thing as a vacuum. All space is busy doing the 'work' of going forward (expanding by means the biological 'economic activity' of the present), and (backward [against, and by means of the foam of space - in a quantum tunnel] to repair/restore (once paired) quarks, and re-power the sun by means of fresh helium and hydrogen bonds made new care of the Dark Energy of Bacteria and Life as we know it though the power of the food chain running against Black Hole technology in repair of quarks as seen above. The same re-paired quark power that 'run' the salmon's clockwork migration, back to a home stream from the ocean -- thus fueling the forests of the both the Atlantic and Pacific by means of the streams with their Nitrogen and making them greener, and brimming with more life, than the present moonscape we see in many parts of the West where the nitrogen cycle was altered by means of the linchpin of the nitrogen cycle coming off the axle of nature in the form big fish stopped spawning in large numbers when their runs came to a crawl.*

This line of logic leads me to surmise that the 'speed of light in a vacuum' arises from what is governed by the radiation contained in the 'foam of space' (comprised of the four flavors of quarks in repair of the past, explaining the power of the 'gas in the (proverbial) tank' of the present -- as Dark, Energetic and Organic so as to propel, expand, and provide for the future -- in the micro[wave radiation] and macro) gears which is my conception of the cogs of the expanding universal gearbox meshing in such cosmic perfection that there is a logical return of the energy that created the light factored into the equation to keep the lights on back on the home Star burning for the prescribed and observed Space Time and time again across the Universe -- thus providing enough data to perhaps resolving the Faint Young Star Paradox explaining how Stars are renewed over time and space via paradoxically Ross Perot's 'giant sucking sound' technology/meme of economic shrink to the south, explained on another level by Steven Hawking's Theory of Black Hole Radiation as illustrated above, by means of the past powering the present and the future at the rate of the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant ('giant suck' rate of -1) per the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_principle that both expands the Universe and binds matter together care of the physical gears of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass by means of the above mentioned phase transition.

If one follows 'the money' that feeds this economy, to and fro to get to the heart of what sets 'barnyard logic' to beating (as I did as a forward-reverse engineering check of my logic and facts in the macro and micro) so as to affirm my conclusion, that "dark energy and matter" is the gas of the compost heap as 'the fuel rods' of the microbiological 'breeder reactor', which accounts for the spinning of the wheels of the Nitrogen Cycle in and on a planet and solar system that predominates with that element, which in turn, keys the Carbon and Oxygen cycles by means the manufacture of the organic molecular bonds, that serve as vital cogs in the twin functions of the combustion and food chains that in time solve for X using particle physics, organic chemistry to see the possibility of the life of biology being able to supply the mechanical power to a world as key to a solar system that functioning as a quantum dynamic set of gears in a Galaxy in a expanding Universe which rate of inflation is our Gravity and does account for the standard lot of black holes, and Einstein Rings that are all organic in this model understood as the world we live to be part of a atomic forest of trees grown over space in time constructed of light as quarks in repair which constitutes the radiation which is measured as "The impedance of free space… approximately 376.7 ohms."^ which is the 'static frequency' of the "sea of time" as well the 'foam of space'; of quarks in complimentary repair of the past, while propelling the future forward at that Cosmological Constant.

I quote from the secondary source of: research, that confirms the raw math and inherent logic of this line of reasoning confirmed by the data stack drawn from the deep weeds of Wikipedia to back the raw math of my (abstract) thinking, that found and processed the following: " Nitrous oxide is emitted by bacteria in soils and oceans, and thus has been a part of Earth's atmosphere for millenia. ... Nitrous oxide reacts with ozone in the stratosphere. Nitrous oxide is the main naturally occurring regulator of stratospheric ozone. Nitrous oxide is a major greenhouse gas. Considered over a 100-year period, it has 310 times more impact per unit weight than carbon dioxide. Thus, despite its low concentration, nitrous oxide is the fourth largest contributor to these greenhouse gases. It ranks behind water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. Control of nitrous oxide is part of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. " - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide .

In nature, nitrogen is fixed by means the power of the family of bacteria know as en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazotroph

Therefore, Bacteria is vital cog in the gears of producing the biomass of any given hydrocarbon that burns in the above fire, at the party for a week in the Desert, and or runs the world economy.

Consequently to say that we as a species and to person are Bacteria powered and based is not too great a stretch in thinking from the micro to the macro of what I perceive are two Black Holes of the atomic remains of Burning Man 2012 comprised of non combustible Bacteria that are pumping N20 'laughing back' in a witches brewing tangle with non combusted VOC's aka en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_organic_compound 's with the Dark Matter/Energy being the Bacteria that makes combustion possible on a atomic level to matter at what juncture on the CNO cycles where one family of Bacteria that binds en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrus_oxide to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon , add the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria to the Dark Matter list for its role in combustion at the atomic level, bring light to life as heat and the building blocks of the food chain where there is no waste whereby matter bound is form and released in Hydrogen bonds of demi-big bang being 'ripped' free and re broken to 'dribble out' and vent safely though a series of holes in the Earths ozone back up to the 'mother ship' of a Black Hole in the middle of the galaxy to be reprocessed into basic matter and new stars; imho, and according to my version of the General Unified Theory the remainder of the combusted Matter is spun off from the inferno in a Energy input = Energy output to/fro Earth over Space Time in visual form as a large pile of 'mass equivalence' goes 'up in smoke' c/o Bacteria* in concert with people and the Sun. There exists some tidy math for this light show to be sure; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twistor_Theory the math of which is 'light years' beyond me, but does suggest that the entire mass of the inferno factored in (as in all the elements in the blaze) which is better than a 'boards and nails' 'vision thing', that was my mistaken thinking up until I read the work of Witten, Penrose, and the late great; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_G._Wilson.

Further there is amazing math that goes direct to the rotation of this equation that I am just wrapping my head around (as it is circular) which is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether%27s_theorem

Please to get to know: Emmy Noether, as well Roger Penrose whose 'Twister Theory Edward Witten proposed uniting with string theory' (- wikipedia Twistor Theory) - which makes perfect sense to me, as illustrated above as a expression of matter seen on the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_matrix as a expression of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory whereby matter is 'sorted' out on the spot by the light of the fire, (by and,) for the long trip "HOME" *.

Notes on vortex mixing and propulsion as a kick start "reverse thrust" engineering drawn from recent research; processed and now; thought out loud so as to go with the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition in connecting the fairly bright dots of; "The large luminosity of quasars [which are] believed to be a result of gas being accreted by supermassive black holes. This process can convert about 10 percent of the mass of an object into energy as compared to around 0.5 percent for nuclear fusion processes." -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disc Furthermore, following the material science logic, intuition and links we find that: "Quasars are believed to be powered by accretion of material into supermassive black holes in the nuclei of distant galaxies, making these luminous versions of the general class of objects known as active galaxies. Since light cannot escape the super massive black holes that are at the centre of quasars, the escaping energy is actually generated outside the event horizon by gravitational stresses and immense friction on the incoming material.[6] Large central masses (106 to 109 Solar masses) have been measured in quasars using reverberation mapping. Several dozen nearby large galaxies, with no sign of a quasar nucleus, have been shown to contain a similar central black hole in their nuclei, so it is thought that all large galaxies have one, but only a small fraction emit powerful radiation and so are seen as quasars. The matter accreting onto the black hole is unlikely to fall directly in, but will have some angular momentum around the black hole that will cause the matter to collect in an accretion disc. Quasars may also be ignited or re-ignited from normal galaxies when infused with a fresh source of matter."[6][7][8] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar. All very predictable but complicated at the same time, such that the reality agrees with the theory in every single instance, of thought experimentation -- I can conjure and as well very vividly illustrated above.

The roar of the above crowd (group mind-melding) in the foreground is also key to my conceptual thinking on the thinking about Dark Matter in the roll over notes over the crowd c/o the Scientific American and the dept. of 'go figure' and if you need drive thru metaphorical service to see these points as fast food for thought and or and or looking for 'the rest of the story' in my photo stream and adding subtext and 'roll over' notes to explain my Bacterial Dark Matter and Energy thoughts expressed as so much burgers, fuel, and fries for bacteriological fueled further thought ; www.flickr.com/photos/tremain_calm/8226556071/

That seeks in a ongoing random dynamic fixed focused attempt to comprehend the path of the energy of light from of Middle of Universe to the Outer, by means the 'mothership' of our fully functioning Cosmos propelled and geared by the micro to mesh with Cosmic regularity in the Macro as explained by this model by a going out on a limb of logic that is organic and understanding this process by which the metaphorical 'limb' grows, shrinks, and, burns to understand and be the first to complete the picture that explains the business of bending light that repairs quarks fueled by the past, thereby powering the present and hence expanding the Universe at the rate of the Cosmological constant by means Dark Matter and Energy expansion being organic does this thought seek to know itself by being pulled from then bounced off for 'dynamic balancing' by the 'group mind' so as to know itself better collectively by the checks and balancing power of trial by peer reviews frosty cold shoulder of skepticism of a autodidact polymath desert hermit researcher and landscaper being completely undaunted by the personal challenge of attempting to figuring the long list of Science Problems that hinge on the correct analysis of the identity and behavior of Dark Matter as Energy.

With these insight in hand and presented the rest of the problem solving is the applied research and analysis that is presented herein and below for the collective consideration.

End Notes, Nods, References, and, Further Reading;

* “His results were the first to prove that all life on earth was related.” Ergo, please 'get to know' the work of the late Carl Woese -- www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/carl-woese-dies-discov... and ponder and compute the organic chemical and Theoretical Physical, Climate, and Historical, implications of the above data points run through the right ringer that comprehends the implications of the math stemming from the following observations; “He put on the table a metric for determining evolutionary relatedness,” said Norman R. Pace, a microbiologist and biochemist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “His results were the first to prove that all life on earth was related.” Thus discovering the atomic basis for how 'we are all connected' E.g.; www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

Further potential evidence of 'bugs' being the missing linkage in the'gearbox' puzzle where the reconciliation of the quantum dynamic and mechanic are also functions of organic dynamic process as the tree of life make the light that also blocks the road to the speed of light at a set rate by dint of quarks in repair that constitute the 'foam of space' which is the past powering the present and expanding the future once again as;

Scientists Unveil New ‘Tree of Life’

By CARL ZIMMER APRIL 11, 2016

nyti.ms/25UUNvj

www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201648

* flic.kr/p/8zt3aQ -"The Speed of Lights Limits -- photo 'remix' by Dream 11"

*Burning Man 2011 'HOME' video by Stefan Spins : - ) E.g.

youtu.be/qQZo94p8ZgM

* www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/salmon-running-the-gaunt...

* See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr (interpretation of this idea at both the philosophic and physical underpinnings of this whole 'shebang' as being understood though his departed eyes, in 'light' of the this interpretation of Dark Matter to see the Light and Dark as being two sides of the same coin of the energetic relm, that makes up the foam of space, and expansion possible/vital to the Universe, Earths and, Solar System's functionality) "The notion of complementarity dominated his thinking on both science and philosophy." -- Wikipedia, Niels Borh.

Nod to and reference in passing to; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archibald_Wheeler and, the idea of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_foam .

Recognition here of his coining the term "Black Hole", which is used in the title of this essay.

^ Charles I. Whose debt I am in and thank here for explaining the significance of the fixed impedance of 'free space' as it pertains to my 'shot in the dark', as to why there is a "The impedance of free space of approximately 376.7 ohms."

Otherwise the famous 'particle wave' would not exist or stand, very well without this insight that also holds and makes, and distributes the light and water of the reason of the logic of this argument; which is not with myself.

Nor is there any argument that this is a work in progress that needs to see professional editing to stop the headaches it causes getting to and making the points it attempts by way of rambling all over the micro and macro Universe by way of wikipedia, which is a fantastic evolving resource; however not a primary source in a major Scientific Research Paper, which this perhaps could be if it had the resources to follow the standard form factor, which is one goal, coupled with a musical and motion picture version to follow as versions of form completely expressed.

* Dennis Overbye, Louis Alvarez, and Brian Greene by means the pages of the New York Times.

* Wired Magazine and David Gross

www.wired.com/2013/06/qa-david-gross-physics/

*** The matter of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymptotic_freedom --- which "was discovered and described in 1973 by Frank Wilczek and David Gross, and independently by David Politzer the same year. All three shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2004."

My humble attempt has been to form a micro to macro full functional conception which Dr. Gross terms a 'line of reasoning' that is "logically consistent" so as to fit into a 'theoretical framework' and more or less solve the framework of nature over time and space in terms of expansion shrink combustion and spin by shooting a comprehensive scientific game that forms and runs the periodic table organically in "this game" - and in doing so share some sort of 'winning' articulated insight into the Grande Scheme of the macro to micro operating system of the Universe by means the Quantum Dynamic being reconciled with the Quantum Mechanic by means understood to be organic in nature and Universal.

The entire wired interview should be read, as it make sense of quarks of the larger picture that I am unable, - so cite -- as well this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gross entry on the 'tip of the spear' of thinking about such things, who has informed, directed, and shaped my reasoning by articulating clearly his views on this subject by means a illustrated lecture.

"Gross: Those of us in this game believe that it is possible to go pretty far out on a limb, if one is careful to be logically consistent within an existing theoretical framework. How far that method will succeed is an open question."

The big simple question is therefore:

does the above logic keep the checkbook of the nature of Nature in balance, and answer the basic set of questions regarding the Nature of light and matter.

Which might have a plausible trail in deep Space and Time by means the same 'line of logic' contained in these relevant points on the subject of Black Holes and Dark Matter as explained herein ; www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dark-side-of-bl... and, www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=single-cell-seq... the macro and micro to complete the puzzle of the organic nature of Dark Matter and Energy being the 'flip side' of the switch that is the power of light.

The self motivating mission of rising to take the bait so as to be the first 'fish' in this 'school' to meet the challenge of attempting to work the Big Science Problem Set to figure out the Unified Theory by means working the problem as if a huge cross word puzzle with the 'down' 'known with ontological certitude' as Scientific Fact - those wildly useful insights as answers and keys to leverage by means lateral thinking to fill in the 'across' information and thereby derive the fabric of nature by weaving data science intuition and experience to recursively random dynamically 'picture think' the the puzzle to completion by means having that as my fixed moving target so as to make completing the puzzle so -- then explaining it by pulling those same pieces of puzzle of reality that are part of a logical chain of logic that is completely informed by vetted information found and processed from the front to back of my mind at all times, so as to be "logically consistent" -- in a set of answers that provide solutions that advances and frames the macro micro perspective as a insight into my vocational and academic careers, so as to inform and direct my research to find answers where God does battle with the Devil in the details of the Natural World on Earth such the the fine grain detail can be sifted, discerned and made sense of in such a way that all computes at every level backwards and forwards in time, then my time has been well spent -- working the problem so as to connect the dots of the known with that of the what we seek to know by means of reading between the lines of logic as written clearly by Nature as I am reading them and attempting to write them for my own understanding and that of anyone else who is following this 'line of logic' as far as I can presently explain the workings which to my mind, power the expansion of the Universe while also atomically fueling the past by running the gears of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNO_cycle organically thus holding The Universe together, by means by the power of Hawking Radiation witnessed as the process of complimentary quarks in repair, forming the gears of the Universe running in the micro to the macro meshing for your consideration to produce a model of that can: -- produce the (re)power of Suns and in the process explain the mystery of the limit of the speed and curvature of light by means of understanding the atomic nature of the building blocks of the micro to macro Natural World that function to Operate the Universe in the past, present and future in a 'Quasi-steady state'.

The mechanisms for this function of light further identified and explained is the power of *XRAYS and GAMMA as being a method of combining storing and scattered matter -- as the last atoms -- over time and space as the yin/yang of the 'respective forces' as expressed and understood as the atomic energy of Gamma Rays - cycled balanced with the XRAY, as a series of inputs and outputs from Stars to solar systems in a process of quark repair that creates and 'fill the void' with matter and the arrow of time, by my logic which deduces from observation of the known and the need to fill cogs in the wheels of the Grand Scheme thereby showing myself and in the process others whose interests are in the world of the high energy theoretical physics how long lost pairs of quarks - split by Dark Energies random path through 'wondering' in the literal and proverbial/metaphorical/actual 'Desert' over time and space, are after a period of perceptual entropy, shot back to 'sender' aka the Sun = E = MC2 in a loop thus perhaps somehow resolving the Faint Young Star Paradox, with enough 'fuel' left over for growth though the conversion of the supply of Dark Matter to Dark Energy, before the process repeats; in another relatively 'Big Bang™' that is matter org. chart going through a periodic restructuring, to put it in corporate terms - for a long 'shot in the dark' in a attempt to 'bust' some 'fresh sod' regarding Dark Matter and Energy in the department of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology by understanding Dark Matter and Energy as being as organic in Nature and therefore understand the connection and explanation of this situation by this train of thought going deep into 'outer space; as it were to bring the matter of the Gamma cycle in the further focus; nyti.ms/18zdIlp Gamma Rays May Be Clue on Dark Matter

By DENNIS OVERBYE

MARCH 10, 2015

There is much math for the above and it is boggling my mind as to a happy conclusion.

Updated; with mild regularity for clarity, content is constant, if not expanding as additional evidence only strengthens this case of logical points as dots at last connected to form a clear picture of a working theoretical model as illustrated and functioning as reality as in the above instance in Quantum Mechanical Dynamic Space Time.

Chuckling at the first sentence, "firewall problem" in light of the above photo essay, being a 'wall of fire' explained a entropy in action of Black Hole feeding frenzy illustrated -- metaphorically ripening on the shelf of this internet address until the such time as it smells, and grows like and old Desert Sage.

The EPR Paradox is getting some study so perhaps having it parked here for the past few years is good for the 'line of logic' as it brings this matter into a reasonable "frame of reference" as it were; www.quantamagazine.org/wormhole-entanglement-and-the-fire...

"No one is sure yet whether ER = EPR will solve the firewall problem. John Preskill, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, reminded readers of Quantum Frontiers, the blog for Caltech’s Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, that sometimes physicists rely on their “sense of smell” to sniff out which theories have promise. “At first whiff,” he wrote, “ER = EPR may smell fresh and sweet, but it will have to ripen on the shelf for a while.”

Together with this set of insights that seem to be right on target as far as sorting matter by the above means; www.quantamagazine.org/20121221-alice-and-bob-meet-the-wa... as illustrated and explained above.

Note; no contradiction with this revised Hawking - Nature, expressed and recently published view of Black Holes as one where "Hawking's radical proposal is a much more benign “apparent horizon”, which only temporarily holds matter and energy prisoner before eventually releasing them, albeit in a more garbled form. ... “There is no escape from a black hole in classical theory, but quantum theory enables energy and information to escape.”" - www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-ho...

This holds with my above expressed cyclical expanding organic understanding of the Universe that includes micro and macro Black Holes reprocessing matter into so much fresh young 'Star power' in a semi or Quasi - Steady State Universe.

Final thoughts for 'Bonus Points': if the"Most Precise Snapshot of the Universe" www.sciencenews.org/article/most-precise-snapshot-univers... (Magazine issue: Vol. 186 No. 13, December 27, 2014), can be reconciled and correctly interpreted by means of the above point of view applied to the data so as to remove the mystery from this picture such that; "Planck may be able to rule out some theories about the nature of dark matter, which continues to evade direct detection."

Not in this interpretation, with the above explanation the micro to macro of Time and Space is becoming more focused in a expanding Universe perhaps, better understood, as more becomes known by research read and, comprehended - - because;

'Eureka

It’s Buggy Out There' nyti.ms/1MiMMGL

Edit -12/19/2025

Now available in research paper form factor; docs.google.com/document/d/1V3vgWbF71gVjVg9xLpuPuWlhsKdyh... with logical and mathematical I's dotted and t's crossed.

tangramming an arlequin's ontology . . by jef Safi

25 19

__________________________________________________

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .

. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory

Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²

__________________________________________________

Study of the day:

"... une véritable machine abstraite se rapporte à l’ensemble d’un agencement : elle se définit comme le diagramme de cet agencement. Elle n’est pas langagière, mais diagrammatique, surlinéaire. Le contenu n’est pas un signifié, ni l’expression un signifiant, mais tous deux sont les variables de l’agencement."

"... a true abstract machine pertains to an assemblage in its entirety: it is defined as the diagram of that assemblage. It is not language based but diagrammatic and superlinear. Content is not a signified nor expression a signifier; rather, both are variables of the assemblage."

( Gilles Deleuze - Mille plateaux )

__________________________________________________

rectO-persO | E ≥ m.C² | co~errAnce | TiLt

At the dentist by Toni Ahvenainen

21 3

Yesterday we took our younger daughter Meri (11 months) to dentist for the first time. As she is turning 12 months soon it was a routine check just to see how many teeth’s there are in her mouth and we got some advices for dental care as well. I didn’t expect that this trip would be very photogenic trip, but I did as I always do and took my A7 and two lenses with me (this time they were Batis 2/25 & Batis 1.8/85). When we arrived to this local social- and health centre I was totally amazed by its modern architecture. The total shape of the building was like a four droplets stick together and it was constructed of large metal and glass surfaces which penetrated each other in a curved manner. When we got inside we found that different sections of the building were colour coded and that there was a giant glass surface on the other side of the building which gave us a great view to the lake. Like I said, I was struck by its modern design, and no, it was not a private sector health centre, it was public but nothing like I had seen before.

This experience made me realize, again, that I naturally lean more towards ‘modern’ than ‘classics’ when it comes to art. ‘Modern’ is of course a relative concept as some of the art which we perceive modern are actually over hundred years old and not very contemporary. The way I see it, the modern art (unlike classical) often has a bit problematic or at least ambivalent relation to questions of representation, which is also the reason why I prefer it. Aided by postmodern philosophies the modern art perplexes our worldview as classical approach concentrates on refining ideals and other cultural values and never questions itself in a same way. I guess this is also reason why I like photography more than paintings for example. With photography there is always exists a crisis of representation: photography seems to represent the reality in accurate way but then again it does not. 20th century philosophy of photography never settled with this question – or one could say it never even got started in a real way because it didn’t solve this sort of ontological question. This problem also shows in the visual surface of modern photography where there are reflections, mirrors, unrecognized figures and so on. Compare it to classical painting and you see the difference how they handle the question of representation. One essence of photography is definitely that it is, as an art form, a modern - even though the camera as a technical apparatus is ironically almost two hundred years old.

When it comes to my own photography I would love to see this modernity more. I should try to use the camera in a modern way creating more images that have this ‘crisis of representation’ within them rather than making images that are just descriptive (a house, a car, a scene, a man, etc.) in their nature. Of course easier to imagine than to actually do it. When the dentist was over we found out that the building was closing within 10 minutes. So I didn’t have too much time, but I knew wanted to have at least one image of the place. Luckily I had the Batis 2/25 with me (Touit 2.8/12 would have been even better) and managed to fit this one scene of this magnificent building into 25mm’s field of view. Looks more like an art museum than a centre of social and health care. More this, please!

Ps. It also turned out that Meri had more teeth’s than what we knew – total of eleven including molars (pretty rare with a child of eleven months). We need to get her a toothbrush…

Days of Zeiss: www.daysofzeiss.com

by a-theory-of-place

16 1

From Young Land (2015—2022) — a series on the natural and social landscape of Iceland.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

Nam June Paik by Roͬͬ͠͠͡͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠sͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠aͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠ Menkman

12 1

Exposition of Music – Electronic Television

March 11 to 20 1963

A leaflet printed for the show included a theoretical text by Paik: "One can say that electronic television is not the mere application and expansion of electronic music in the field of optics but represents a contrast to electronic music (at least in its starting phase), which shows a pre-defined, determined tendency both in its serial compositional method and in its ontological form (tape recordings destined for repetition). (...) I have not only expanded from 20 kHz to 4 MHz the material being treated, but have more pronouncedly used the physical property of the electron (indeterminacy, the dual character of corpuscles (particles) and waves (status)."

"Appel pour une nouvelle Renaissance" Gao Xingjian, Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, France by Claude

13 5

“Avec son “Appel pour une nouvelle Renaissance”, cet adepte de l’art total qu’est Gao Xingjian, prône une nouvelle pensée pour changer le monde et réveiller les consciences, grâce à la culture. Écrivain, peintre, dramaturge, metteur en scène, poète, Gao Xingjian en appelle à un retour à une création artistique sans frontières, pluridisciplinaire, non utilitariste et non “marchandisée”, explorant les complexités de l’âme humaine, avec pour finalité une communion parfaite des cœurs et des esprits.” Chantal Colleu-Dumond

C’est le travail graphique de l’artiste français d’origine chinoise Gao Xingjian, Prix Nobel de littérature en 2000, qui est présenté dans le cadre de l’exposition de Chaumont-sur-Loire. À l’encre de Chine, il sonde une troisième voie entre figuration et abstraction : l’univers de ses rêves. Il cherche à faire entrer le temps et l’espace dans la peinture. “Le ton créé par l’encre qui s’écoule est riche et raffiné, il ouvre de grandes possibilités plastiques, capables de provoquer de véritables révélations. La peinture permet en outre d’effectuer un voyage intérieur ; tous les lieux que l’imagination est en mesure d’explorer peuvent être exprimés par la peinture, et cette expression est illimitée […] Si, dans une peinture, les relations spatiales ont été modifiées, le vide devient plein, le noir se transforme en quelque chose ou en rien, les espaces vides en lumière brillante. C’est là une vision très difficile à appréhender dans l’observation directe de la nature, mais dans une peinture en noir et blanc il est possible de construire un espace qui surprenne, que l’on ne pourrait voir qu’en rêve : ne s’agit-il pas en fait d’une image intérieure ?” Gao Xingjian, Pour une autre esthétique, 2001.

“La peinture de Gao Xingjian a ouvert sans conteste une nouvelle voie pour la peinture à l’encre de Chine, et de plus, elle a dépassé les difficultés rencontrées par les arts contemporains occidentaux, elle a ouvert une voie en montrant de nouvelles perspectives pour l’art de la peinture. Entre le figuratif et l’abstrait apparaissent aussi des images mentales inépuisables, ouvrant dans l’histoire de l’art une page nouvelle.“ Liu Zaifu

Entre l’héritage culturel de son pays natal et l’esthétique occidentale, sa pratique laisse affleurer une grande sensibilité. Ses paysages imaginaires font écho à ses recherches littéraires, notamment pour le théâtre et l’opéra. En juin 2018, il publie en Italie un essai intitulé Per un nuovo rinascimento.

“Il est non seulement un artiste et un homme de lettres multidimensionnel, comme il en existe peu, mais aussi un penseur. Sa pensée ne se limite pas à se débarrasser de toutes les contraintes idéologiques, mais elle reste en plus totalement indépendante et, contrairement à la démarche des philosophes, il ne cherche pas à faire entrer à tout prix la création et la réflexion dans un cadre de construction théorique. Du début à la fin, sa pensée reste vivante, ouverte, elle ne recherche jamais ce que l’on appelle “la vérité ultime”. Comme il le dit lui-même, il s’agit seulement d’approfondir sans cesse la connaissance du monde et de la nature humaine pour pouvoir remplacer l’ontologie philosophique et tous les jugements de valeur.” Liu Zaifu

"With his" Call for a New Renaissance ", this adept of the total art that is Gao Xingjian, advocates a new thought to change the world and awaken the conscience, through culture. Writer, painter, playwright, director, poet, Gao Xingjian calls for a return to an artistic creation without frontiers, multidisciplinary, non-utilitarian and not "merchandised", exploring the complexities of the human soul, with for finality a communion perfect hearts and minds. "Chantal Colleu-Dumond

This is the graphic work of the Chinese-born French artist Gao Xingjian, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, which is presented as part of the Chaumont-sur-Loire exhibition. In India ink, he probes a third way between figuration and abstraction: the universe of his dreams. He seeks to bring time and space into painting. "The tone created by the ink that flows is rich and refined, it opens great plastic possibilities, capable of provoking real revelations. The painting also makes it possible to make an interior journey; all the places that the imagination is able to explore can be expressed by painting, and this expression is unlimited [...] If, in a painting, the spatial relations have been modified, the void becomes full, the black is transformed in something or nothing, empty spaces in brilliant light. This is a very difficult vision to grasp in the direct observation of nature, but in a black and white painting it is possible to construct a space that surprises, that one could only see in a dream: Is not it actually an inner image? "Gao Xingjian, For Another Aesthetics, 2001.

"Gao Xingjian's painting has unquestionably opened a new path for Chinese ink painting, and moreover, she has overcome the difficulties of contemporary Western art, she has opened a path by showing new perspectives for the art of painting. Between the figurative and the abstract also appear inexhaustible mental images, opening in the history of art a new page. "Liu Zaifu

Between the cultural heritage of his native country and the Western aesthetic, his practice reveals a great sensitivity. His imaginary landscapes echo his literary research, especially for theater and opera. In June 2018, he published in Italy an essay entitled Per un nuovo rinascimento.

"He is not only an artist and a multidimensional man of letters, as there are few, but also a thinker. His thinking is not limited to getting rid of all the ideological constraints, but it is moreover completely independent and, contrary to the philosophy of the philosophers, it does not seek to make the creation and reflection at any price within a framework of theoretical construction. From beginning to end, her thought remains alive, open, she never seeks what is called "the ultimate truth". As he himself says, it is only a matter of constantly deepening our knowledge of the world and of human nature in order to replace philosophical ontology and all value judgments. "Liu Zaifu

ontological by Eldon Underhill

by a-theory-of-place

From Coronal (2023—2024) — a series on European landscape as shared cultural entity.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

Reflections Unfolding by Maartje Blans by Caffe_Paradiso

The works of Blans are “unusual” paintings, endowed with a highly

sculptural nature: white wooden panels on which alluring abstract

forms (Fleeting and Fugace), made of transparent material, fabric,

black ink and other media, stand as on a stage waiting to be

activated by the light, be it natural or artificial. Once projected onto

the artwork, the light reveals the existence of a secret world hidden

just beneath the surface of the visible and physical dimension. The

viewer is thus intrigued by the existence of multiple layers

encapsulated within the works of Blans, both from a physical and

ontological point of view. The first layer visible is the actual scene

dominating the outer surface of the piece with its physicality and

illuminated by natural light: the realm of reality perceived and

recorded by the viewer’s eye, unveiled even to the casual observer.

The second layer corresponds to a more secluded dimension,

disclosed within and at the same time thanks to the presence of

the empty spaces left on the wooden panels employed and that

become alive only under certain lighting conditions. This dimension

is the site where the ethereal shadows projected by the physical

shapes portrayed in the piece intermingle with each other and

merge with the inward reflections produced by the viewer’s eye of

the mind: it is the point where the mental and the physical

converge. By contemplating a work endowed with evocative rather

than mimetic qualities, the observer engages into a process of

inspection that soon leads towards unexplored emotional yet

physical realms. Therefore, Blans’ works find their ultimate reason

for being in the gaze of the beholder that completes them and,

from a certain point of view, even undermines the possibility of a

unique, preferential visual solution.

The use of virtuosic yet extemporaneous lines to shape images along

with the insightful intermingling of full and empty spaces in artworks

like Fleeting convey a sense of rhythm to the compositions and bears

affinities to the iconography of traditional Chinese painting. Also in

Blans’ pieces the void rises to a dynamic role being far more than a

mere backdrop, a non-space or the site of emptiness: it is the crucial

element allowing movement and action, both physically and

psychically. By being complementary to the solid sculptural parts in

the composition, the void creates a ground for experience, a space for

one to live in, and to loose oneself within. The powerful connection

between the filled and the empty spaces is made possible by the

particular use of a comprehensive visual vocabulary made of fabric,

thread, transparent material, sand, tree branches, rooted once again

in Blans’ enamourement with the feeling conveyed by each specific

material. Despite their extreme concreteness, each of these elements

vividly grasps and puts forth the transient nature of all natural

phenomena, their fragility and temporariness.

In this way Blans’ works invite the viewer to confront not just what

lies bare in front of one’s eyes, but also what lies beyond the physical

limits of the gaze. They are visual reminders of the fact that what

one sees is a fragment of a larger continuum perceivable both physically and psychically.

by a-theory-of-place

11 1

From Old Growth (2021—2022) — a series capturing fragments of late seral forests in virgin, disturbed, and modified states.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

OV-102_v_c_o_KPP (KSC-391C-5045.11) by Mike Acs

27 3

“OV-102 roll into new OPF Bay 3 fit checks. 1st spot. OPF.”

There I assume in preparation for the following:

“Columbia was the first on-line orbiter to undergo the scheduled inspection and retrofit program. It was transported August 10, 1991, after its completion of mission STS-40, to prime Shuttle contractor Rockwell International's Palmdale, California assembly plant. The oldest orbiter in the fleet underwent approximately 50 modifications, including the addition of carbon brakes, drag chute, improved nose wheel steering, removal of development flight instrumentation and an enhancement of its thermal protection system. The orbiter returned to KSC February 9, 1992 to begin processing for mission STS-50 in June of that year.”

Above at/from:

data.esa.int/esado/en/page/?uri=https://gcmd.earthdata.na...

Credit: “ESA Data Ontology” website

I'm sure it's addressed online, somewhere, but I don't have the gumption to search for it; however, note the obvious 'non-functional' Forward Reaction Control System (FRCS) module covering, which I've seen used on other orbiter vehicles during processing...and possibly during transport. To prevent contamination/foreign object entry?

Or…OR…is this more than just a cover and is actually a ‘filler’ FRCS module, installed while the flight FRCS module is serviced/refurbished/repaired between flights? If so, is it of the same mass as the actual flight module…for center-of-gravity purposes, like during STA ferrying?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Obviously having way too much time on my hands, I've also wondered if the visual mimicking of the orbiter's actual FRCS module is merely for aesthetics, or does it have a functional purpose?

Finally, as further confirmation of way way too much time on my hands, the tug/tractor (bottom foreground) is manufactured by Ingersoll-Rand. Apparently, the logo seen was discontinued at some point.

by a-theory-of-place

From A Peaceful City — an urban series on placelessness and duration.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

DSC_4662 Body Fragments/Tacit Auguries : Care and Constraint 2019 by Russell Moreton

by a-theory-of-place

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

the true myth of homo-metheus . . by jef Safi

26 19

__________________________________________

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .

. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory

Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²

__________________________________________

Study of the day:

En ce temps où il n'y avait que des dieux, Zeus - le père de tous les dieux - décida que le moment était venu d'apporter les créatures non-immortelles à la lumière des jours. Il ordonna aux titans Prométhée et Epiméthée de développer ces créatures non-immortelles, en distribuant à chaque espèce leurs qualités spécifiques, les dunamis - c'est-à-dire les puissances, les capacités, les talents - , et en prenant bien soin d'établir les conditions d'une grande pérennité de toutes ces espèces.

Les titans Prométhée et Epiméthée sont deux des cinq fils de Japet, lui-même fils du ciel (Ouranos) et de la terre (Gaïa). Il faut savoir qu'ils sont jumeaux mais néanmoins singulièrement différents. Prométhée (du grec Promêtheús) est celui qui prévoit et planifie, mais ne fait presque rien lui-même ; alors qu'Epiméthée (du grec Epimêtheús) est celui qui, toujours prêt à tout, agit d'abord et réfléchit après.

Epiméthée demanda à Prométhée : "Frère, laisse moi réaliser cette amusante distribution, s'il te plaît . . !" ce qui lui fut accordé. A certains Epiméthée donna la force sans la rapidité ; à d'autres l'inverse. Il dota certaines espèces d'attributs martiaux, laissant d'autres sans armes. Certaines espèces furent conçues fragiles mais assez grandes pour être en sécurité, et d'autres plutôt solides mais assez petites pour pouvoir creuser sous la terre ; ou assez légères pour pouvoir voler dans les airs ; etc. Ainsi, Epiméthée prévint-il toutes les espèces de l'extinction, les protégeant suffisamment les unes des autres pour une harmonieuse et durable non-immortalité.

Ainsi fit Epiméthée, mais . . en oubliant l'homme. Certes, Prométhée trouva que tous les animaux étaient convenablement développés, mais il ne restait plus de dunamis pour l'homme qui restait seul, nu, sans abri, sans nourriture, sans défense pour se protéger de prédateurs potentiels. Et pourtant, le moment était venu où l'homme devait être apporté à la lumière des jours.

Alors Prométhée alla voler le feu d'Hephaistos - le dieu des forges, des feux et des volcans - , alla voler aussi l'art d'Athéna - la déesse de la guerre, des héros et des artistes - et les donna à l'homme. "Homme va, débrouille-toi avec tout ça, et deviens le non-immortel que tu voudras, le non-immortel que tu pourras."

C'est ainsi que vinrent à la lumière des jours . . les créatures sans dunamis, sans qualités, mais sans limites, disposant des moyens techniques de leur propre développement. Ainsi vinrent à la lumière des jours . . les animaux pensants, qui prévoient et planifient, mais qui tout à la fois agissent d'abord et réfléchissent après, et donc qui ne finissent jamais ce qu'ils commencent tel qu'ils l'ont prévu. Ainsi vinrent à la lumière des jours . . les animaux sociaux qui désignent des héros pour incarner ce qu'ils croient être des réussites, qui désignent autant de boucs-émissaires pour exorciser ce qu'ils croient être des échecs, et qui ne perdent jamais aucune occasion de se faire la guerre entre-eux dès lors que d'aucuns gagnent à convoiter ce que d'autres perdent à thésauriser.

Voyant l'espèce humaine menacée par elle-même, Zeus s'inquiéta et envoya Hermès - dieu du commerce, des voyageurs, des routes et des carrefours, conducteur des âmes aux enfers - porter aux hommes l'aidôs, c'est-à-dire le sens du respect, ainsi que le dike, c'est-à-dire le sens de la justice, le sens de la mesure, de la dignité, en somme le sens de l'éthique, afin qu'il y eût entre eux, et avec le reste du Monde, harmonie et amitié.

On these times there were only gods, Zeus – the father of all gods – decided to bring non-immortal creatures into the light of days. He ordered titans, Prometheus and Epimetheus to develop all non-immortal creatures severally distributing them their proper qualities, the dunamis – powers, abilities, talents –, taking care to establish the best conditions for a high sustainability of all species.

The Titans Prometheus and Epimetheus are two of the five son of Japet, himself son of the sky (Ouranos) and of the earth (Gaia). It must be known also that they are twins, but singularly different. Prometheus (from greek Promêtheús) is the one that foresees and plans, but does almost nothing itself, while Epimetheus (from greek Epimêtheús) is the one who is always ready to do anything, acting first and sometimes thinking later.

Epimetheus said to Prometheus: "Brother, let me realize this fun distribution, please. . " what he was granted. In some Epimetheus gave strength without speed, to the other the contrary. It played to create certain species with martial attributes, while leaving others without arms. Some species were designed fragile but tall enough to try to be safe, and others rather solid but small enough to be able to dig under the earth, or rather light enough to learn to fly in the air, and so on. Thus, Epimetheus warned all species from extinction, protecting each one from each other, for an harmonious sustainable non-immortality.

Thus did Epimetheus, but. . forgetting the man. Admittedly, Prometheus found that all animals were properly developed, but it remained no more dunamis for the man who was alone, naked, without shelter, food, helpless to protect itself from potential predators. But yet, time had come when man would be brought into the light of days.

So Prometheus went to steal the fire of Hephaistos – the god of forges, fires and volcanoes – as he went to steal the art of Athena – the goddess of war, heroes and artists – and gave them all to humans. "Go man ! Cope with all these techniques, and become the non-immortal you want, the non-immortal you can."

Thus came into the light of days . . these creatures without dunamis, without qualities but also without any limits, with technical resources and process solutions for their own non-immortal development. Thus came into the light of days . . these thinking animals, who foresee and plan, but at once who act first and think later, and therefore never finish what they begin as they had planed. So came into the light of days . . these social animals who designate heroes to embody what they believe to be successes, and as many scapegoats to exorcise what they judge to be mistakes or failures, and never lose, of course, any opportunity to make war between themselves as long as someones gain to covet what some others lost to hoard.

Seeing humans threatened by themselves, Zeus worried and sent Hermes – god of commerce, travelers, roads and crossroads, driver of souls to hell – to bring to the men the aidos, the sense of respect, as well as the dike, the sense of justice, in short, the sense of measurement, and dignity, the sense of ethics, so there was harmony and friendship between them.

( from Plato, Protagoras, 322 c-d )

__________________________________________

Sebastian Mary Tay by Glasgow School of Art

Chromatic Solstice #16

The question in my research project is ‘How do the "negative" spaces in Chinese landscape ink painting instigate poetic experiences?' Through a phenomenological and comparative approach, the project seeks to examine the relationships between the philosophical implications of Chinese landscape ink painting with Daoism, and Daoism with Heideggerian ontology, in an attempt to discover the applicability of Heideggerian concepts into the poetics of landscape ink painting.

Originally from Singapore, the former colony of Britain located at the equator receives consistent amount of sunlight throughout the year. The tropical climate has two weathers – sunshine and rain, unlike Scotland’s four seasons in a day, and the light differs from Scotland’s dramatic long winter darkness and perpetually bright summer skies. The work 'Chromatic Solstice' was inspired by the theatrical light of Scotland’s skies, observed through the repetitive equinoxes and solstices cycles.

sebastianmary@sebastianmarytay.co.uk

www.sebastianmarytay.co.uk

by a-theory-of-place

11 2

From When on High (2023—2024) — a series on difference, elevation and a perpetual reconstitution of physical world.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

by a-theory-of-place

From This, Promised (2018–2019) — a series on landscape theory, gratitude, and the edges of structured land. Shot in the Norwegian Arctic over three months of seasonal change.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

Life Force #2 by Master's Diary

18 30

India - Telangana - Hyderabad - Golconda Fort - Sri Mahankali Temple - Hindu Goddess Kali - 111d by Manfred Sommer

Kālī, also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका), is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, shakti. She is the fierce aspect of the goddess Durga (Parvati). The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death: Shiva. Since Shiva is called Kāla— the eternal time — the name of Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in "time has come"). Hence, Kāli is the Goddess of Time and Change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation of evil forces still has some influence. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kāli as a benevolent mother goddess. Kālī is represented as the consort of Lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. Shiva lies in the path of Kali, whose foot on Shiva subdues her anger.

ETYMOLOGY

Kālī is the feminine form of kālam ("black, dark coloured"). Kāla primarily means "time" but also means "black" in honor of being the first creation before light itself. Kālī means "the black one" and refers to her being the entity of "time" or "beyond time." Kāli is strongly associated with Shiva, and Shaivas derive the masculine Kāla (an epithet of Shiva) to come from her feminine name. A nineteenth-century Sanskrit dictionary, the Shabdakalpadrum, states: कालः शिवः। तस्य पत्नीति - काली। kālaḥ śivaḥ। tasya patnīti kālī - "Shiva is Kāla, thus, his consort is Kāli" referring to Devi Parvathi being a manifestation of Devi MahaKali.

Other names include Kālarātri ("black night"), as described above, and Kālikā ("relating to time"). Coburn notes that the name Kālī can be used as a proper name, or as a description of color.

Kāli's association with darkness stands in contrast to her consort, Shiva, who manifested after her in creation, and who symbolises the rest of creation after Time is created. In his supreme awareness of Maya, his body is covered by the white ashes of the cremation ground (Sanskrit: śmaśāna) where he meditates, and with which Kāli is also associated, as śmaśāna-kālī.

ORIGINS

Hugh Urban notes that although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in the Kathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7). Kali is the name of one of the seven tongues of Agni, the [Rigvedic] God of Fire, in the Mundaka Upanishad (2:4), but it is unlikely that this refers to the goddess. The first appearance of Kāli in her present form is in the Sauptika Parvan of the Mahabharata (10.8.64). She is called Kālarātri (literally, "black night") and appears to the Pandava soldiers in dreams, until finally she appears amidst the fighting during an attack by Drona's son Ashwatthama. She most famously appears in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam as one of the shaktis of Mahadevi, and defeats the demon Raktabija ("Bloodseed"). The tenth-century Kalika Purana venerates Kāli as the ultimate reality.

According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hinduism as a distinct goddess around 600 CE, and these texts "usually place her on the periphery of Hindu society or on the battlefield." She is often regarded as the Shakti of Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. The Kalika Purana depicts her as the "Adi Shakti" (Fundamental Power) and "Para Prakriti" or beyond nature.

WORSHIP & MANTRA

Kali could be considered a general concept, like Durga, and is mostly worshiped in the Kali Kula sect of worship. The closest way of direct worship is Maha Kali or Bhadra Kali (Bhadra in Sanskrit means 'gentle'). Kali is worshiped as one of the 10 Mahavidya forms of Adi Parashakti (Goddess Durga) or Bhagavathy according to the region. The mantra for worship is called Devi Argala Stotram.

Sanskrit: सर्वमङ्गलमाङ्गल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थसाधिके । शरण्ये त्र्यम्बके गौरि नारायणि नमोऽस्तु ते ॥

ॐ जयंती मंगल काली भद्रकाली कपालिनी । दुर्गा क्षमा शिवा धात्री स्वाहा स्वधा नमोऽस्तु‍ते ॥

(Sarvamaṅgalamāṅgalyē śivē sarvārthasādhikē . śaraṇyē tryambakē gauri nārāyaṇi namō'stu tē.

Oṃ jayantī mangala kālī bhadrakālī kapālinī . durgā kṣamā śivā dhātrī svāhā svadhā namō'stu‍tē.)

TANTRA

Goddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of reality as are the male deities. Although Parvati is often said to be the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it is Kāli who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals. In many sources Kāli is praised as the highest reality or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea, ceaselessly arising and passing away, leaving their original source unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of Kāli's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kāli vidyas (manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.

In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kāli is one of the epithets for the primordial sakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:

At the dissolution of things, it is Kāla [Time] Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called Mahākāla [an epithet of Lord Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahākāla Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kālika. Because Thou devourest Kāla, Thou art Kāli, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [the Primordial One]. Re-assuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art.

The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction, and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a vehicle of salvation. This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-stotra, a short praise of Kāli describing the Pancatattva ritual unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana)

He, O Mahākāli who in the cremation-ground, naked, and with dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra, and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. Oh Kāli, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Shakti [his energy/female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great poet, a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.

The Karpuradi-stotra clearly indicates that Kāli is more than a terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva. Here, she is identified as the supreme mistress of the universe, associated with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, she creates and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes a different turn, befitting her role as ruler of the world and object of meditation. In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on hints of a more benign dimension. She is described as young and beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear and offer boons. The more positive features exposed offer the distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a symbol of triumph over death.

BENGALI TRADITION

Kali is also a central figure in late medieval Bengali devotional literature, with such devotees as Ramprasad Sen (1718–75). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as Shiva's consort, Kāli is rarely pictured in Hindu legends and iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengāli tradition her appearance and habits change little, if at all.

The Tantric approach to Kāli is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee appropriates Kāli's teachings adopting the attitude of a child, coming to love her unreservedly. In both cases, the goal of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of the way that things are. These themes are well addressed in Rāmprasād's work. Rāmprasād comments in many of his other songs that Kāli is indifferent to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does not behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas:

Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone? [a reference to Kali as the daughter of Himalaya]

Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?

Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you, Mother.

You have cut off the heads of the children of others, and these you wear as a garland around your neck.

It matters not how much I call you "Mother, Mother." You hear me, but you will not listen.

To be a child of Kāli, Rāmprasād asserts, is to be denied of earthly delights and pleasures. Kāli is said to refrain from giving that which is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond the material world.

A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kāli as its central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet ("Music of the Night"). Mostly sung by male vocalists, today even women have taken to this form of music. One of the finest singers of Shyāma Sāngeet is Pannalal Bhattacharya.

In Bengal, Kāli is venerated in the festival Kali Puja, the new moon day of Ashwin month which coincides with Diwali festival.

In a unique form of Kāli worship, Shantipur worships Kāli in the form of a hand painted image of the deity known as Poteshwari (meaning the deity drawn on a piece of cloth).

LEGENDS

SLAYER OF RAKTABIJA

In Kāli's most famous legend, Devi Durga (Adi Parashakti) and her assistants, the Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every drop of blood that is dripped from Raktabija he reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates. Durga, in need of help, summons Kāli to combat the demons. It is said, in some versions, that Goddess Durga actually assumes the form of Goddess Kāli at this time. The Devi Mahatmyam describes:

Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas.

Kali destroys Raktabija by sucking the blood from his body and putting the many Raktabija duplicates in her gaping mouth. Pleased with her victory, Kali then dances on the field of battle, stepping on the corpses of the slain. In the Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as a Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), i.e. the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda. Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit.

DAKSHINA KALI

In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, popular legends say that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. She is about to destroy the whole universe when, urged by all the gods, Shiva lies in her way to stop her. In her fury, she fails to see the body of Shiva lying amongst the corpses on the battlefield and steps upon his chest. Realizing Shiva lies beneath her feet, her anger is pacified and she calms her fury. Though not included in any of the puranas, popular legends state that Kali was ashamed at the prospect of keeping her husband beneath her feet and thus stuck her tongue out in shame. The Devi-Bhagavata Purana, which goes into great depths about the goddess Kali, reveals the tongue's actual symbolism.

The characteristic icons that depict Kali are the following; unbridled matted hair, open blood shot eyes, open mouth and a drooping tongue; in her hands, she holds a Khadga (bent sword or scimitar) and a human head; she has a girdle of human hands across her waist and an enchanted Shiva lies beneath her feet. Each of these icons represent a deep philosophical epithet. The drooping out-stuck tongue represents her blood-thirst. Lord Shiva beneath her feet represents matter, as Kali is undoubtedly the primeval energy. The depiction of Kali on Shiva shows that without energy, matter lies "dead". This concept has been simplified to a folk-tale depicting a wife placing her foot on her husband and sticking her tongue out in shame. In tantric contexts, the tongue is seen to denote the element (guna) of rajas (energy and action) controlled by sattva.

If Kali steps on Shiva with her right foot and holds the sword in her left hand, she is considered to be Dakshina Kali. The Dakshina Kali Temple has important religious associations with the Jagannath Temple and it is believed that Daksinakali is the guardian of the kitchen of the Lord Jagannath Temple. Puranic tradition says that in Puri, Lord Jagannath is regarded as Daksinakalika. Goddess Dakshinakali plays an important role in the 'Niti' of Saptapuri Amavasya.

One South Indian tradition tells of a dance contest between Shiva and Kali. After defeating the two demons Sumbha and Nisumbha, Kali takes up residence in the forest of Thiruvalankadu or Thiruvalangadu. She terrorizes the surrounding area with her fierce, disruptive nature. One of Shiva's devotees becomes distracted while performing austerities, and asks Shiva to rid the forest of the destructive goddess. When Shiva arrives, Kali threatens him, claiming the territory as her own. Shiva challenges Kali to a dance contest; both of them dance and Kali matches Shiva in every step that he takes until Shiva takes the "Urdhvatandava" step, by vertically raising his right leg. Kali refuses to perform this step, which would not befit her as a woman, and became pacified.

SMASHAN KALI

If the Kali steps out with the left foot and holds the sword in her right hand, she is the terrible form of Mother, the Smashan Kali of the cremation ground. She is worshiped by tantrics, the followers of Tantra, who believe that one's spiritual discipline practiced in a smashan (cremation ground) brings success quickly. Sarda Devi, the consort of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, worshipped Smashan Kali at Dakshineshwar.

MATERNAL KALI

Another legend depicts the infant Shiva calming Kali. In this similar story, Kali has defeated her enemies on the battlefield and begun to dance out of control, drunk on the blood of the slain. To calm her down and to protect the stability of the world, Shiva is sent to the battlefield, as an infant, crying aloud. Seeing the child's distress, Kali ceases dancing to care for the helpless infant. She picks him up, kisses his head, and proceeds to breast feed the infant Shiva. This legend is notable because it shows Kali in her benevolent, maternal aspect, with which she is not usually identified.

MAHAKALI

Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is sometimes considered as a greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality of Brahman. It can also be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali, signifying her greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of the Devi Mahatmya. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order to be restored.

Kali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a various implement which vary in different accounts, but each of these represent the power of one of the Devas or Hindu Gods and are often the identifying weapon or ritual item of a given Deva. The implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible for the powers that these deities possess and this is in line with the interpretation that Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not displaying ten heads, an "ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed with ten arms, signifying the same concept: the powers of the various Gods come only through Her grace.

ICONOGRAPHY

Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she is described as being black in color but is most often depicted as blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with intoxication, and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on a seemingly dead Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular Dakshinamarga or right-handed path, as opposed to the more infamous and transgressive Vamamarga or left-handed path.

In the ten-armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a blue stone. She has ten faces and ten feet and three eyes. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Shiva.

The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed, holding a sword and blue lotuses, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful.

In spite of her seemingly terrible form, Kali Ma is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses, as she is regarded by her devotees as the Mother of the whole Universe. And because of her terrible form, she is also often seen as a great protector. When the Bengali saint Ramakrishna once asked a devotee why one would prefer to worship Mother over him, this devotee rhetorically replied, "Maharaj, when they are in trouble your devotees come running to you. But, where do you run when you are in trouble?"

According to Ramakrishna, darkness is the Ultimate Mother, or Kali:

My Mother is the principle of consciousness. She is Akhanda Satchidananda; indivisible Reality, Awareness, and Bliss. The night sky between the stars is perfectly black. The waters of the ocean depths are the same; The infinite is always mysteriously dark. This inebriating darkness is my beloved Kali.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA

This is clear in the works of such contemporary artists as Charles Wish, and Tyeb Mehta, who sometimes take great liberties with the traditional, accepted symbolism, but still demonstrate a true reverence for the Shakta sect.

POPULAR FORM

Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows:

Kali's most common four armed iconographic image shows each hand carrying variously a sword, a trishul (trident), a severed head and a bowl or skull-cup (kapala) catching the blood of the severed head.

Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a severed head. The Sword signifies Divine Knowledge and the Human Head signifies human Ego which must be slain by Divine Knowledge in order to attain Moksha. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the abhaya (fearlessness) and varada (blessing) mudras, which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshipping her with a true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.

She has a garland consisting of human heads, variously enumerated at 108 (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable beads on a Japa Mala or rosary for repetition of Mantras) or 51, which represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, Devanagari. Hindus believe Sanskrit is a language of dynamism, and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a form of Kali. Therefore she is generally seen as the mother of language, and all mantras.

She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering of Maya since she is pure (nirguna) being-consciousness-bliss and far above prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities - she will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good, bad do not apply to her - she is the pure, un-manifested energy, the Adi-shakti.

SHIVA IN KALI ICONOGRAPHY

In both these images she is shown standing on the prone, inert or dead body of Shiva. There is a legend for the reason behind her standing on what appears to be Shiva's corpse, which translates as follows:

Once Kali had destroyed all the demons in battle, she began a terrific dance out of the sheer joy of victory. All the worlds or lokas began to tremble and sway under the impact of her dance. So, at the request of all the Gods, Shiva himself asked her to desist from this behavior. However, she was too intoxicated to listen. Hence, Shiva lay like a corpse among the slain demons in order to absorb the shock of the dance into himself. When Kali eventually stepped upon Shiva, she realized she was trampling and hurting her husband and bit her tongue in shame.

The story described here is a popular folk tale and not described or hinted in any of the puranas. The puranic interpretation is as follows:

Once, Parvati asks Shiva to chose the one form among her 10 forms which he likes most. To her surprise, Shiva reveals that he is most comfortable with her Kali form, in which she is bereft of her jewellery, her human-form, her clothes, her emotions and where she is only raw, chaotic energy, where she is as terrible as time itself and even greater than time. As Parvati takes the form of Kali, Shiva lies at her feet and requests her to place her foot on his chest, upon his heart. Once in this form, Shiva requests her to have this place, below her feet in her iconic image which would be worshiped throughout.

This idea has been explored in the Devi-Bhagavata Purana and is most popular in the Shyama Sangeet, devotional songs to Kali from the 12th to 15th centuries.

The Tantric interpretation of Kali standing on top of her husband is as follows:

The Shiv tattava (Divine Consciousness as Shiva) is inactive, while the Shakti tattava (Divine Energy as Kali) is active. Shiva and Kali represent Brahman, the Absolute pure consciousness which is beyond all names, forms and activities. Kali, on the other hand, represents the potential (and manifested) energy responsible for all names, forms and activities. She is his Shakti, or creative power, and is seen as the substance behind the entire content of all consciousness. She can never exist apart from Shiva or act independently of him, just as Shiva remains a mere corpse without Kali i.e., Shakti, all the matter/energy of the universe, is not distinct from Shiva, or Brahman, but is rather the dynamic power of Brahman. Hence, Kali is Para Brahman in the feminine and dynamic aspect while Shiva is the male aspect and static. She stands as the absolute basis for all life, energy and beneath her feet lies, Shiva, a metaphor for mass, which cannot retain its form without energy.

While this is an advanced concept in monistic Shaktism, it also agrees with the Nondual Trika philosophy of Kashmir, popularly known as Kashmir Shaivism and associated most famously with Abhinavagupta. There is a colloquial saying that "Shiva without Shakti is Shava" which means that without the power of action (Shakti) that is Mahakali (represented as the short "i" in Devanagari) Shiva (or consciousness itself) is inactive; Shava means corpse in Sanskrit and the play on words is that all Sanskrit consonants are assumed to be followed by a short letter "a" unless otherwise noted. The short letter "i" represents the female power or Shakti that activates Creation. This is often the explanation for why She is standing on Shiva, who is either Her husband and complement in Shaktism or the Supreme Godhead in Shaivism.

To properly understand this complex Tantric symbolism it is important to remember that the meaning behind Shiva and Kali does not stray from the non-dualistic parlance of Shankara or the Upanisads. According to both the Mahanirvana and Kularnava Tantras, there are two distinct ways of perceiving the same absolute reality. The first is a transcendental plane which is often described as static, yet infinite. It is here that there is no matter, there is no universe and only consciousness exists. This form of reality is known as Shiva, the absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda - existence, knowledge and bliss. The second is an active plane, an immanent plane, the plane of matter, of Maya, i.e., where the illusion of space-time and the appearance of an actual universe does exist. This form of reality is known as Kali or Shakti, and (in its entirety) is still specified as the same Absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is here in this second plane that the universe (as we commonly know it) is experienced and is described by the Tantric seer as the play of Shakti, or God as Mother Kali.

From a Tantric perspective, when one meditates on reality at rest, as absolute pure consciousness (without the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to this as Shiva or Brahman. When one meditates on reality as dynamic and creative, as the Absolute content of pure consciousness (with all the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to it as Kali or Shakti. However, in either case the yogini or yogi is interested in one and the same reality - the only difference being in name and fluctuating aspects of appearance. It is this which is generally accepted as the meaning of Kali standing on the chest of Shiva.

Although there is often controversy surrounding the images of divine copulation, the general consensus is benign and free from any carnal impurities in its substance. In Tantra the human body is a symbol for the microcosm of the universe; therefore sexual process is responsible for the creation of the world. Although theoretically Shiva and Kali (or Shakti) are inseparable, like fire and its power to burn, in the case of creation they are often seen as having separate roles. With Shiva as male and Kali as female it is only by their union that creation may transpire. This reminds us of the prakrti and purusa doctrine of Samkhya wherein prakāśa- vimarśa has no practical value, just as without prakrti, purusa is quite inactive. This (once again) stresses the interdependencies of Shiva and Shakti and the vitality of their union.

Gopi Krishna proposed that Kali standing on the dead Shiva or Shava (Sanskrit for dead body) symbolised the helplessness of a person undergoing the changing process (psychologically and physiologically) in the body conducted by the Kundalini Shakti.

DEVELOPMENT

In the later traditions, Kali has become inextricably linked with Shiva. The unleashed form of Kali often becomes wild and uncontrollable, and only Shiva is able to tame her just as only Kali can tame Shiva. This is both because she is often a transformed version of one of his consorts and because he is able to match her wildness.

The ancient text of Kali Kautuvam describes her competition with Shiva in dance, from which the sacred 108 Karanas appeared. Shiva won the competition by acting the urdva tandava, one of the Karanas, by raising his feet to his head. Other texts describe Shiva appearing as a crying infant and appealing to her maternal instincts. While Shiva is said to be able to tame her, the iconography often presents her dancing on his fallen body, and there are accounts of the two of them dancing together, and driving each other to such wildness that the world comes close to unravelling.

Shiva's involvement with Tantra and Kali's dark nature have led to her becoming an important Tantric figure. To the Tantric worshippers, it was essential to face her Curse, the terror of death, as willingly as they accepted Blessings from her beautiful, nurturing, maternal aspect. For them, wisdom meant learning that no coin has only one side: as death cannot exist without life, so life cannot exist without death. Kali's role sometimes grew beyond that of a chaos - which could be confronted - to that of one who could bring wisdom, and she is given great metaphysical significance by some Tantric texts. The Nirvāna-tantra clearly presents her uncontrolled nature as the Ultimate Reality, claiming that the trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra arise and disappear from her like bubbles from the sea. Although this is an extreme case, the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra declare her the svarupa (own-being) of the Mahadevi (the great Goddess, who is in this case seen as the combination of all devis).

The final stage of development is the worshipping of Kali as the Great Mother, devoid of her usual violence. This practice is a break from the more traditional depictions. The pioneers of this tradition are the 18th century Shakta poets such as Ramprasad Sen, who show an awareness of Kali's ambivalent nature. Ramakrishna, the 19th century Bengali saint, was also a great devotee of Kali; the western popularity of whom may have contributed to the more modern, equivocal interpretations of this Goddess. Rachel McDermott's work, however, suggests that for the common, modern worshipper, Kali is not seen as fearful, and only those educated in old traditions see her as having a wrathful component. Some credit to the development of Devi must also be given to Samkhya. Commonly referred to as the Devi of delusion, Mahamaya or Durga, acting in the confines of (but not being bound by) the nature of the three gunas, takes three forms: Maha-Kali, Maha-Lakshmi and Maha-Saraswati, being her tamas-ika, rajas-ika and sattva-ika forms. In this sense, Kali is simply part of a larger whole.

Like Sir John Woodroffe and Georg Feuerstein, many Tantric scholars (as well as sincere practitioners) agree that, no matter how propitious or appalling you describe them, Shiva and Devi are simply recognizable symbols for everyday, abstract (yet tangible) concepts such as perception, knowledge, space-time, causation and the process of liberating oneself from the confines of such things. Shiva, symbolizing pure, absolute consciousness, and Devi, symbolizing the entire content of that consciousness, are ultimately one and the same - totality incarnate, a micro-macro-cosmic amalgamation of all subjects, all objects and all phenomenal relations between the "two." Like man and woman who both share many common, human traits yet at the same time they are still different and, therefore, may also be seen as complementary.

Worshippers prescribe various benign and horrific qualities to Devi simply out of practicality. They do this so they may have a variety of symbols to choose from, symbols which they can identify and relate with from the perspective of their own, ever-changing time, place and personal level of unfolding. Just like modern chemists or physicists use a variety of molecular and atomic models to describe what is unperceivable through rudimentary, sensory input, the scientists of ontology and epistemology must do the same. One of the underlying distinctions of Tantra, in comparison to other religions, is that it allows the devotee the liberty to choose from a vast array of complementary symbols and rhetoric which suit one's evolving needs and tastes. From an aesthetic standpoint, nothing is interdict and nothing is orthodox. In this sense, the projection of some of Devi's more gentle qualities onto Kali is not sacrilege and the development of Kali really lies in the practitioner, not the murthi.

A TIME magazine article of October 27, 1947, used Kali as a symbol and metaphor for the human suffering in British India during its partition that year.

Swami Vivekananda wrote his favorite poem Kali the Mother in 1898.

IN NEW AGE & NEOPAGANISM

An academic study of Western Kali enthusiasts noted that, "as shown in the histories of all cross-cultural religious transplants, Kali devotionalism in the West must take on its own indigenous forms if it is to adapt to its new environment." The adoption of Kali by the West has raised accusations of cultural appropriation:

A variety of writers and thinkers have found Kali an exciting figure for reflection and exploration, notably feminists and participants in New Age spirituality who are attracted to goddess worship. Kali is a symbol of wholeness and healing, associated especially with repressed female power and sexuality. [However, such interpretations often exhibit] confusion and misrepresentation, stemming from a lack of knowledge of Hindu history among these authors, draw upon materials written by scholars of the Hindu religious tradition. The majority instead rely chiefly on other popular feminist sources, almost none of which base their interpretations on a close reading of Kali's Indian background. The most important issue arising from this discussion - even more important than the question of 'correct' interpretation - concerns the adoption of other people's religious symbols. It is hard to import the worship of a goddess from another culture: religious associations and connotations have to be learned, imagined or intuited when the deep symbolic meanings embedded in the native culture are not available.

WIKIPEDIA

Everything has a face turned inward to God beyond all blemish and evil and a face turned outward. by Traditional Quotes and Symbols

THE REALITY OF EVIL AND THE NEED FOR GUIDANCE

With all the debate now raging in America between the Christian view of original sin and fallen humanity and the goodness of human nature according to what some call a modern version of Gnosticism, it is imperative, in discussing the truth according to Sufism, to deal with the question of evil and the necessity for Divine Guidance.

It must be emphasized that Sufi treatises are not simply "self-realization kits" to be handed out to those who wish to realize the Supreme Self within on the basis of their own efforts and without Divine Succor. Islam does not believe in original sin, but it does emphasize our fall from our primordial state, that primordial nature we still bear deep within ourselves.

We are separated from this nature by layers of forgetfulness and imperfection, by veils that can be removed only with God's Help. And it is precisely these veils, or ontological separation from our Source, that result in what theologically is called evil.

It is to these veils with which we usually associate ourselves and our existence that the Sufi saint of Basra, Rabi'ah, was referring when she said, "Alas my son, thine existence is a sin wherewith no other sin can be compared.”

Metaphysically one can explain the reality of evil as separation from the absolute Good. Let us remember the saying of that supreme Christian poet, Dante, who said that hell is separation from God: As mentioned above, the Divine is at once the Absolute, the Infinite, and the All-Good. And let us not forget that infinite means containing all possibilities, including that of self-negation; as mentioned already, it is in the nature of the good to give of itself as it is in the nature of light to irradiate. This emanation, which constitutes all the levels of existence below the Absolute Being, also implies distancing and separation, gradual dimming of the light and appearance of shadows. Positively, the reality of the world issues from the One Reality, but to use the very term world implies already separation from God. As the Kabbalists have said, the Divine had to "withdraw" from Its full Plenitude to create a "space" for creation.

What we call evil is the result of this withdrawal and separation. That is why evil does not have the same ontological status as the good in the same way that darkness does not have the same

ontological status as light.

The so-called problem of theodicy (that is, how could a good God create a world in which there is evil?) is the result of ignorance of the nature of God and the world and lack of knowledge of the doctrine of veil or maya. This so-called problem, which has driven many a modern Westerner away from Christianity and in some cases from Judaism, has been discussed in depth by many

non-Western philosophers, theologians, and mystics belonging to other religions. Coundess souls in traditional societies have observed evil and misery surrounding them, but such experiences have hardly ever drawn Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists, to name just a few examples, away from religion and the world of faith. Observing evil in a world created by God who is good has not had the same religious consequences for them as it has had for many in the modern West and of course did not have the same consequences for those in the traditional West, whose reactions to this problem were similar in many ways to those of people today in most non-Western cultures.

From the point of view of the Divine Reality, there is no evil because there is nothing to be separated from the Source of the Good, but for human beings living in the domain of relativity, evil is as real as that domain, although creation in its ontological reality is good since it comes from God. This is demonstrated by the overwhelming beauty of the natural order. That is why both the Bible and the Quran assert the goodness of His creation and the fact that goodness always predominates ultimately over evil. Furthermore, the infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal states are real although located in the domain of relativity but each with very different characteristics.

The problem of evil becomes intractable when we absolutize the relative and fail to distinguish between the existential reality of a thing, which comes from the Act of Being, and its "apparent" separative existence. To speak of a world without evil is to fail to understand what the world is and to confuse the Absolute and the relative, the Essence and its veils, or to use the language of Hinduism, Atman and maya.

Some Sufis have said that there is no evil but only goodness and beauty. Such statements must be understood in the context of the state of consciousness from which they were speaking, the state that allowed them to see the Face of God everywhere. Everything has a face turned inward to God beyond all blemish and evil and a face turned outward. The Sufis who have denied evil have gazed upon that face of inwardness and have seen the outward face of things in light of that inner reality.

Otherwise, if Sufism had denied evil, there would be no need for Sufism itself because the role of Sufism is to overcome the imperfections and evil tendencies of the soul, called "nafs inciting to evil" in the Quran and subsequently by the Sufis. On the existential level of the ordinary soul, they are as real as the soul itself.

To transcend evil and to behold only the good and the beautiful, one must transcend one's own ego or this nafs. The overwhelming beauty of God's creation and the ultimate triumph of the good, whatever transient phenomena of an evil nature may hold sway in the short run, is itself proof of the existential inequality between good and evil, the beautiful and the ugly.

Sufis seek to cling to the good and the beautiful even amid what appears sometimes in life as predominance of the evil and the ugly. They hold fast to the Truth even when surrounded by error and falsehood, being anchored in the certainty that the Truth, which is always good and beautiful in the metaphysical sense, shall finally prevail. The Sufis would be the first to agree with the medieval Latin adage vincit omnia veritas, the Truth shall always triumph.

To overcome the imperfections of the soul and the abode of evil cannot be accomplished by fallen humanity without help. If there are exceptions, they only prove the rule, and one must never forget that "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth." Putting such exceptions aside, the rule and principle is that human beings are in need of Divine Guidance to remember who they are, to be able to slay the dragon within. Through His Mercy God has therefore sent prophets throughout history to guide human beings to the One.

Desgraciados los hombres que tienen todas las ideas claras. by Rafa Llano

11 51

Unfortunate men who have all the ideas clear.

An idea is a concept or mental impression.[1] Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images.[2] Many philosophers consider ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being. The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings. In a popular sense, an idea arises in a reflex, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the idea of a person or a place.

Word - Collage by Joey Zanotti by joey zanotti

28 6

Acquisition by the International Museum of Collage and Construction / Ontological Art

Created in 8/2021

by a-theory-of-place

8 2

From This, Promised (2018–2019) — a series on landscape theory, gratitude, and the edges of structured land. Shot in the Norwegian Arctic over three months of seasonal change.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

sugartreeAARTMY0211expo by ILIA FARNIEV

15 7

Sugar tree aka Este Lado Abajo

Fushimi Cube by Philip Chapman-Bell

The Jasmine Tea Cube has been one of my favorite designs and I was surprised to see it in Judith Magen's stream with a different name. So, checking her blog post, I find it was a different model with exactly the same crease pattern, only rotated some. It was created by Koji Fushimi in 1979.

Judith notes the model is in a couple of books I don't have, but looking at her photos, I was able to reverse engineer it readily enough.

I considered. The grid is easier to construct. The rotation of the creases by ~33.69° is bold, a rakish idea. The structural net of the cube is extended all the way to the corners of the square, giving the faces more area and the cube itself considerably more volume. Plus, one has to admire its ontological audacity, having been created a full generation before my model. Well played, Fushimi Cube, well played -- a superior cube in almost every respect.

"Appel pour une nouvelle Renaissance" Gao Xingjian, Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, France by Claude

11 5

by a-theory-of-place

11 1

From This, Promised (2018–2019) — a series on landscape theory, gratitude, and the edges of structured land. Shot in the Norwegian Arctic over three months of seasonal change.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

Spatial Collage, 2010 by Russell Moreton

26 6

russellmoreton.blogspot.co.uk/

Lead,photographic (pinhole) and inkjet visual material from flickr stream, fixing tapes, cyanotype on tracing paper, pierced and re-positioned elements on paper.

Kali Mata .. My Hindu Blogs At Flickr Under Hope And Hindutva by firoze shakir photographerno1

26 9

I have posted over 65535 Hindu blogs ,,shot Hindu culture , rituals Kumbh Maha Kumbh, Naga Sadhus Tantriks ..including the Marriammen feast .. and all this thanks to my two Gurus Late BW Jatkar and Shreekant Malushte Sir ,,including some great photographer friends at PSI Mumbai my camera club..

Most of the Hindu feasts in Bandra I hardly shoot and most of them are now being shot by my 3 year old granddaughter @nerjisasifshakir

She has shot Advocate Ashish Shelars Ganpati for last two years.

I live in Mumbai my parents were not bigots , they gave us the best upbringing even the Marathi bai that worked with us when we were kids our mother insisted we call her Aiee ,, Mother ,,and all this has culminated in shooting my cultural inheritance ,,and so for those who do not wish to see this part of my documentation you can unfriend and block me ,, I shall not hold it against you as most of you I added recently was because you were also friends with my Peersabs son Syed Farid Chishty Sabri I did not see your profile just added you blindly when you sent me a friends request .

And if you comment adversely on my Hindu or Shia blogs I will block you instantly,, I am a photo journalist documentarist I dont promote any religion caste or creed I promote India and my Indianess ..

Thanks .

Kali, also known as Kalika (Bengali: কালী, Kālī / কালিকা Kālīkā ; Sanskrit: काली), is a Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction. The name Kali means "black", but has by folk etymology come to mean "force of time (kala)". Despite her negative connotations, she is today considered the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. More complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the "ultimate reality" or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatarini (literally "redeemer of the universe"). Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kali as a benevolent mother goddess.

Kali is represented as the consort of god Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. She is associated with many other Hindu goddesses like Durga, Bhadrakali, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati and Chamunda. She is the foremost among the Dasa-Mahavidyas, ten fierce Tantric goddesses.[1]

Contents [hide]

1 Etymology

2 Origin

3 In Tantra

4 In Bengali tradition

5 Mythology

5.1 Slayer of Raktabija

5.2 Daksinakali

5.3 Maternal Kali

5.4 Mahakali

6 Iconography

6.1 Popular form

6.2 Mahakali form

6.3 Shiva in Kali iconography

7 Development

8 In New Age and Neopaganism

9 See also

10 Notes

11 References

12 Further reading

13 External links

Etymology

Kālī is the feminine of kāla "black, dark coloured" (per Panini 4.1.42). It appears as the name of a form of Durga in Mahabharata 4.195, and as the name of an evil female spirit in Harivamsa 11552.

The homonymous kāla "appointed time", which depending on context can mean "death", is distinct from kāla "black", but became associated through folk etymology. The association is seen in a passage from the Mahābhārata, depicting a female figure who carries away the spirits of slain warriors and animals. She is called kālarātri (which Thomas Coburn, a historian of Sanskrit Goddess literature, translates as "night of death") and also kālī (which, as Coburn notes, can be read here either as a proper name or as a description "the black one").[2]

Kali's association with blackness stands in contrast to her consort, Shiva, whose body is covered by the white ashes of the cremation ground (Sanskrit: śmaśāna) in which he meditates, and with which Kali is also associated, as śmaśāna-kālī.

Origin

Kali appears in the Mundaka Upanishad (section 1, chapter 2, verse 4) not explicitly as a goddess, but as the black tongue of the seven flickering tongues of Agni, the Hindu god of fire.[3] However, the prototype of the figure now known as Kali appears in the Rig Veda, in the form of a goddess named Raatri. Raatri is considered to be the prototype of both Durga and Kali.

In the Sangam era, circa 200BCE–200CE, of Tamilakam, a Kali-like bloodthirsty goddess named Kottravai appears in the literature of the period.[citation needed] Like Kali she has dishevelled hair, inspires fear in those who approach her and feasts on battlegrounds littered with the dead.

It was the composition of the Puranas in late antiquity that firmly gave Kali a place in the Hindu pantheon. Kali or Kalika is described in the Devi Mahatmya (also known as the Chandi or the Durgasaptasati) from the Markandeya Purana, circa 300–600CE, where she is said to have emanated from the brow of the goddess Durga, a slayer of demons or avidya, during one of the battles between the divine and anti-divine forces. In this context, Kali is considered the 'forceful' form of the great goddess Durga. Another account of the origins of Kali is found in the Matsya Purana, circa 1500CE, which states that she originated as a mountain tribal goddess in the north-central part of India, in the region of Mount Kalanjara (now known as Kalinjar). However this account is disputed because the legend was of later origin.

The Kalika Purana a work of late ninth or early tenth century, is one of the Upapuranas. The Kalika Purana mainly describes different manifestations of the Goddess, gives their iconographic details, mounts, and weapons. It also provides ritual procedures of worshipping Kalika.

In Tantra

Mahakali YantraGoddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of reality as the male deities are. Although Parvati is often said to be the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it is Kali who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals.[4] In many sources Kali is praised as the highest reality or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea, ceaselessly arising and passing away, leaving their original source unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of Kali's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kali vidyas (manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.[5]

In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kali is one of the epithets for the primordial sakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:

At the dissolution of things, it is Kala [Time] Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called Mahakala [an epithet of Lord Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahakala Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kalika. Because Thou devourest Kala, Thou art Kali, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [primordial Kali. Resuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art.[6]

The figure of Kali conveys death, destruction, fear, and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a vehicle of salvation.[7] This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-stotra, a short praise to Kali describing the Pancatattva ritual unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana)

He, O Mahakali who in the cremation-ground, naked, and with dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra, and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. 0 Kali, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Sakti [his female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great poet, a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.[8]

The Karpuradi-stotra clearly indicates that Kali is more than a terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva. Here, she is identified as the supreme mistress of the universe, associated with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, who is said to be her spouse, she creates and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes a different turn, befitting her role as ruler of the world and object of meditation.[9] In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on hints of a more benign dimension. She is described as young and beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear and offer boons. The more positive features exposed offer the distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a symbol of triumph over death.[10]

In Bengali tradition

Kali is also central figure in late medieval Bengali devotional literature, with such devotees as Ramprasad Sen (1718–75). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as Shiva's consort, Kali is rarely pictured in Hindu mythology and iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotion beginning in the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengali tradition her appearance and habits change little, if at all.[11]

The Tantric approach to Kali is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee appropriates Kali's teachings, adopting the attitude of a child. In both cases, the goal of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of the way things are. These themes are well addressed in Ramprasad's work.[12]

Ramprasad comments in many of his other songs that Kali is indifferent to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does not behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas:

Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone? [a reference to Kali as the daughter of Himalaya]

Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?

Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you. Mother.

You have cut off the headset the children of others, and these you wear as a garland around your neck.

It matters not how much I call you "Mother, Mother." You hear me, but you will not listen.[13]

To be a child of Kali, Ramprasad asserts, is to be denied of earthly delights and pleasures. Kali is said to not give what is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond the material world.[14][15]

A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kali as its central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet. Mostly sung by male vocalists, today even women have taken to this form of music. One of the finest singers of Shyama Sangeet is Pannalal Bhattacharya.

Mythology

Slayer of Raktabija

"Kali Triumphant on The Battle Field," Punjab, circa 1800–20CE)In Kali's most famous myth, Durga and her assistants, Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons, in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation, as for every drop of blood that is spilt from Raktabija the demon reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates.[16] Durga, in dire need of help, summons Kali to combat the demons. It is also said that Goddess Durga takes the form of Goddess Kali at this time.

The Devi Mahatmyam describes:

Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas.[17]

Kali destroys Raktabija by sucking the blood from his body and putting the many Raktabija duplicates in her gaping mouth. Pleased with her victory, Kali then dances on the field of battle, stepping on the corpses of the slain. Her consort Shiva lies among the dead beneath her feet, a representation of Kali commonly seen in her iconography as Daksinakali'.[18]

In Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as an Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda) i.e the slayer of demons Chanda and Munda.[19] Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit.[20]

Daksinakali

Bhadrakali (A gentle form of Kali), circa 1675.

Painting; made in India, Himachal Pradesh, Basohli,

now placed in LACMA Museum.In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, it is said that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. In her fury she fails to see the body of her husband Shiva who lies among the corpses on the battlefield.[21] Ultimately the cries of Shiva attract Kali's attention, calming her fury. As a sign of her shame at having disrespected her husband in such a fashion, Kali sticks out her tongue. However, some sources state that this interpretation is a later version of the symbolism of the tongue: in tantric contexts, the tongue is seen to denote the element (guna) of rajas (energy and action) controlled by sattva, spiritual and godly qualities.[22]

One South Indian tradition tells of a dance contest between Shiva and Kali. After defeating the two demons Sumbha and Nisumbha, Kali takes residence in a forest. With fierce companions she terrorizes the surrounding area. One of Shiva's devotees becomes distracted while doing austerities and asks Shiva to rid the forest of the destructive goddess. When Shiva arrives, Kali threatens him, claiming the territory as her own. Shiva challenges her to a dance contest, and defeats her when she is unable to perform the energetic Tandava dance. Although here Kali is defeated, and is forced to control her disruptive habits, we find very few images or other myths depicting her in such manner.[23]

Maternal Kali

Another myth depicts the infant Shiva calming Kali, instead. In this similar story, Kali again defeated her enemies on the battlefield and began to dance out of control, drunk on the blood of the slain. To calm her down and to protect the stability of the world, Shiva is sent to the battlefield, as an infant, crying aloud. Seeing the child's distress, Kali ceases dancing to take care of the helpless infant. She picks him up, kisses his head, and proceeds to breast feed the infant Shiva.[24] This myth depicts Kali in her benevolent, maternal aspect; something that is revered in Hinduism, but not often recognized in the West.

Ekamukhi or "One-Faced" Murti of Mahakali displaying ten hands holding the signifiers of various Devas

Mahakali

Main article: Mahakali

Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is sometimes considered as greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality Brahman. It can also simply be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali,[25] signifying her greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of Devi Mahatmya. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order to be restored.

Iconography

Statue from Dakshineswar Kali Temple, West Bengal, India; along with her Yantra.Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she is described as being black in color but is most often depicted as blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with intoxication and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth and her tongue is lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on a seemingly dead Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular Dakshinamarga or right-handed path, as opposed to the more infamous and transgressive Vamamarga or left-handed path.[26]

In the ten armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a blue stone. She has ten faces and ten feet and three eyes. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Siva.[27]

The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four armed, holding a sword and blue lotuses, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful.[28]

In spite of her seemingly terrible form, Kali is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses, as she is regarded by her devotees as the Mother of the whole Universe. And, because of her terrible form she is also often seen as a great protector. When the Bengali saint Ramakrishna once asked a devotee why one would prefer to worship Mother over him, this devotee rhetorically replied, “Maharaj, when they are in trouble your devotees come running to you. But, where do you run when you are in trouble?”[29]

According to Ramakrishna darkness is Ultimate Mother or Kali:

-Sri Ramakrishna

Throughout her history artists the world over have portrayed Kali in myriad poses and settings, some of which stray far from the popular description, and are sometimes even graphically sexual in nature. Given the popularity of this Goddess, artists everywhere will continue to explore the magnificence of Kali’s iconography. This is clear in the work of such contemporary artists as Charles Wish, and Tyeb Mehta, who sometimes take great liberties with the traditional, accepted symbolism, but still demonstrate a true reverence for the Shakta sect.

Popular form

Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows:

Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a severed head. The Sword signifies Divine Knowledge and the Human Head signifies human Ego which must be slain by Divine Knowledge in order to attain Moksha. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the abhaya and varada mudras or blessings, which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshiping her with a true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.[30]

She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering of Maya since she is pure (nirguna) being-consciousness-bliss and far above prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities — she will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good, bad do not apply to her — she is the pure, un-manifested energy, the Adi-shakti.[32]

Mahakali form

The Dasamukhi MahakaliKali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a various implement which vary in different accounts, but each of these represent the power of one of the Devas or Hindu Gods and are often the identifying weapon or ritual item of a given Deva. The implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible for the powers that these deities possess and this is in line with the interpretation that Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not displaying ten heads, an "ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed with ten arms, signifying the same concept: the powers of the various Gods come only through Her grace.

Shiva in Kali iconography

In both these images she is shown standing on the prone, inert or dead body of Shiva. There is a mythological story for the reason behind her standing on what appears to be Shiva’s corpse, which translates as follows:

Once Kali had destroyed all the demons in battle, she began a terrific dance out of the sheer joy of victory. All the worlds or lokas began to tremble and sway under the impact of her dance. So, at the request of all the Gods, Shiva himself asked her to desist from this behavior. However, she was too intoxicated to listen. Hence, Shiva lay like a corpse among the slain demons in order to absorb the shock of the dance into himself. When Kali eventually stepped upon her husband she realized her mistake and bit her tongue in shame.[33]

The Tantric interpretation of Kali standing on top of her husband is as follows:

The Shiv tattava (Divine Consciousness as Shiva) is inactive, while the Shakti tattava (Divine Energy as Kali) is active. Shiva, or Mahadeva represents Brahman, the Absolute pure consciousness which is beyond all names, forms and activities. Kali, on the other hand, represents the potential (and manifested) energy responsible for all names, forms and activities. She is his Shakti, or creative power, and is seen as the substance behind the entire content of all consciousness. She can never exist apart from Shiva or act independently of him, i.e., Shakti, all the matter/energy of the universe, is not distinct from Shiva, or Brahman, but is rather the dynamic power of Brahman.[34]

Kali in Traditional Form, standing on Shiva's chest.While this is an advanced concept in monistic Shaktism, it also agrees with the Nondual Trika philosophy of Kashmir, popularly known as Kashmir Shaivism and associated most famously with Abhinavagupta. There is a colloquial saying that "Shiva without Shakti is Shava" which means that without the power of action (Shakti) that is Mahakali (represented as the short "i" in Devanagari) Shiva (or consciousness itself) is inactive; Shava means corpse in Sanskrit and the play on words is that all Sanskrit consonants are assumed to be followed by a short letter "a" unless otherwise noted. The short letter "i" represents the female power or Shakti that activates Creation. This is often the explanation for why She is standing on Shiva, who is either Her husband and complement in Shaktism or the Supreme Godhead in Shaivism.

To properly understand this complex Tantric symbolism it is important to remember that the meaning behind Shiva and Kali does not stray from the non-dualistic parlance of Shankara or the Upanisads. According to both the Mahanirvana and Kularnava Tantras, there are two distinct ways of perceiving the same absolute reality. The first is a transcendental plane which is often described as static, yet infinite. It is here that there is no matter, there is no universe and only consciousness exists. This form of reality is known as Shiva, the absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda — existence, knowledge and bliss. The second is an active plane, an immanent plane, the plane of matter, of Maya, i.e., where the illusion of space-time and the appearance of an actual universe does exist. This form of reality is known as Kali or Shakti, and (in its entirety) is still specified as the same Absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is here in this second plane that the universe (as we commonly know it) is experienced and is described by the Tantric seer as the play of Shakti, or God as Mother Kali.[35]

Kali and Bhairava (the terrible form of Shiva) in Union, 18th century, NepalFrom a Tantric perspective, when one meditates on reality at rest, as absolute pure consciousness (without the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to this as Shiva or Brahman. When one meditates on reality as dynamic and creative, as the Absolute content of pure consciousness (with all the activities of creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to it as Kali or Shakti. However, in either case the yogini or yogi is interested in one and the same reality — the only difference being in name and fluctuating aspects of appearance. It is this which is generally accepted as the meaning of Kali standing on the chest of Shiva.[36]

Gopi Krishna proposed that Kali standing on the dead Shiva or Shava (Sanskrit for dead body) symbolised the helplessness of a person undergoing the changing process ( psychologically and physiologically) in the body conducted by the Kundalini Shakti.[38]

Development

In the later traditions, Kali has become inextricably linked with Shiva. The unleashed form of Kali often becomes wild and uncontrollable, and only Shiva is able to tame her. This is both because she is often a transformed version of one of his consorts and because he is able to match her wildness.

Bharatanatyam dancer portraying Kali with a tridentThe ancient text of Kali Kautuvam describes her competition with Shiva in dance, from which the sacred 108 Karanas appeared. Shiva won the competition by acting the urdva tandava, one of the Karanas, by raising his feet to his head. Other texts describe Shiva appearing as a crying infant and appealing to her maternal instincts. While Shiva is said to be able to tame her, the iconography often presents her dancing on his fallen body, and there are accounts of the two of them dancing together, and driving each other to such wildness that the world comes close to unravelling.

Shiva's involvement with Tantra and Kali's dark nature have led to her becoming an important Tantric figure. To the Tantric worshippers, it was essential to face her Curse, the terror of death, as willingly as they accepted Blessings from her beautiful, nurturing, maternal aspect. For them, wisdom meant learning that no coin has only one side: as death cannot exist without life, so life cannot exist without death. Kali's role sometimes grew beyond that of a chaos — which could be confronted — to that of one who could bring wisdom, and she is given great metaphysical significance by some Tantric texts. The Nirvāna-tantra clearly presents her uncontrolled nature as the Ultimate Reality, claiming that the trimurti of Brahma, Visnu and Rudra arise and disappear from her like bubbles from the sea. Although this is an extreme case, the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra declare her the svarupa (own-being) of the Mahadevi (the great Goddess, who is in this case seen as the combination of all devis).

The final stage of development is the worshipping of Kali as the Great Mother, devoid of her usual violence. This practice is a break from the more traditional depictions. The pioneers of this tradition are the 18th century Shakta poets such as Ramprasad Sen, who show an awareness of Kali's ambivalent nature. Ramakrishna, the 19th century Bengali saint, was also a great devotee of Kali; the western popularity of whom may have contributed to the more modern, equivocal interpretations of this Goddess. Rachel McDermott's work, however, suggests that for the common, modern worshipper, Kali is not seen as fearful, and only those educated in old traditions see her as having a wrathful component. Some credit to the development of Devi must also be given to Samkhya. Commonly referred to as the Devi of delusion, Mahamaya, acting in the confines of (but not being bound by) the nature of the three gunas, takes three forms: Maha-Kali, Maha-Lakshmi and Maha-Saraswati, being her tamas-ika, rajas-ika and sattva-ika forms. In this sense, Kali is simply part of a larger whole.

1947 TIME Magazine cover by Boris Artzybasheff depicting a self-hurting Kālī as a symbol of the partition of IndiaLike Sir John Woodroffe and Georg Feuerstein, many Tantric scholars (as well as sincere practitioners) agree that, no matter how propitious or appalling you describe them, Shiva and Devi are simply recognizable symbols for everyday, abstract (yet tangible) concepts such as perception, knowledge, space-time, causation and the process of liberating oneself from the confines of such things. Shiva, symbolizing pure, absolute consciousness, and Devi, symbolizing the entire content of that consciousness, are ultimately one and the same — totality incarnate, a micro-macro-cosmic amalgamation of all subjects, all objects and all phenomenal relations between the "two." Like man and woman who both share many common, human traits yet at the same time they are still different and, therefore, may also be seen as complementary.[39]

Worshippers prescribe various benign and horrific qualities to Devi simply out of practicality. They do this so they may have a variety of symbols to choose from, symbols which they can identify and relate with from the perspective of their own, ever-changing time, place and personal level of unfolding. Just like modern chemists or physicists use a variety of molecular and atomic models to describe what is unperceivable through rudimentary, sensory input, the scientists of ontology and epistemology must do the same. One of the underlying distinctions of Tantra, in comparison to other religions, is that it allows the devotee the liberty to choose from a vast array of complementary symbols and rhetoric that which suits one’s evolving needs and tastes. From an aesthetic standpoint, nothing is interdict and nothing is orthodox. In this sense, the projection of some of Devi’s more gentle qualities onto Kali is not sacrilege and the development of Kali really lies in the practitioner, not the murthi.

A TIME Magazine article of October 27, 1947 used Kālī as a symbol and metaphor for the human suffering in British India during its partition that year.[40]

In New Age and Neopaganism

A Western Shacan representation of KaliAn academic study of Western Kali enthusiasts noted that, "as shown in the histories of all cross-cultural religious transplants, Kali devotionalism in the West must take on its own indigenous forms if it is to adapt to its new environment."[41] The adoption of Kali by the West has raised accusations of cultural misappropriation:

"A variety of writers and thinkers [...] have found Kali an exciting figure for reflection and exploration, notably feminists and participants in New Age spirituality who are attracted to goddess worship. [For them], Kali is a symbol of wholeness and healing, associated especially with repressed female power and sexuality. [However, such interpretations often exhibit] confusion and misrepresentation, stemming from a lack of knowledge of Hindu history among these authors, [who only rarely] draw upon materials written by scholars of the Hindu religious tradition. The majority instead rely chiefly on other popular feminist sources, almost none of which base their interpretations on a close reading of Kali's Indian background. [...] The most important issue arising from this discussion – even more important than the question of 'correct' interpretation – concerns the adoption of other people's religious symbols. [...] It is hard to import the worship of a goddess from another culture: religious associations and connotations have to be learned, imagined or intuited when the deep symbolic meanings embedded in the native culture are not available."[42]

The man who popularised the religion of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, was reportedly particularly interested in Kali whilst he was in the far east, before returning to England to write his seminal works on Wicca[citation needed

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali

by a-theory-of-place

From Old Growth (2021—2022) — a series capturing fragments of late seral forests in virgin, disturbed, and modified states.

⸻

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

by a-theory-of-place

Mamiya 7, 80mm, Portra 400

n-e-v-e-r-t-h-e-l-e-s-s.com

IG / FB / TG

⸻

ontology by melissa taing

ver010038expo by ILIA FARNIEV

13 9

nogle imponerende forme

"We must pause here for a while, at this moment in time when resemblance was about to relinquish its relation with knowledge and disappear, in part at least, from the sphere of cognition." M. Foucault

pendulesSPBORWOUT180074expo by ILIA FARNIEV

12 1

”Свищет ветер на великом балу скелетонов

Тьма-веселюка стонет, как чугунный орган

Воют волки в ответ из черного леса

На багровое небо заката – горизонт кашмарного ада ...” A.Rimbaud.

DSC_6250 Sculptural/Spatial : Aesthetics between Objects OOO by Russell Moreton

russellmoreton.blogspot.com/

1 2 ••• 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ••• 79 80

Tags ONTOLOGY

View allAll Photos Tagged ONTOLOGY