View allAll Photos Tagged accomplishment
Color week begins - the color is brown. It's amazing that the tiny acorn grows into the mighty oak! That's quite the accomplishment!
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment ~Jim Rohn ~
Are you willing to do what it takes?
Artist: Jules Breton, French
b. 1827, Courrières, France; d. 1906, Paris, France
Most of Breton's scenes feature rural workers engaged in everyday tasks. His subjects – like this young woman gathering a late bouquet from a snowy garden – approach their chores with simple joy and pride in accomplishment.
Cincinnati Art Museum
DSCF4538
Accomplishments have no color.
Golden statue British museum. London. UK
Canon 450 D. canon 70-300 mm lens. F/5.0 1/30 iso 400
My son contimplating the beauty of the setting sun over the Central Oregon Coast. ( I have dedicated this photo to my son whom is in the foreground of this image. He is going to be graduating from Dental School this coming May. We are so very proud of him for all of his hard work and accomplishments. :)
Explore. March 28, 2009.
~ African proverb
Fences: Monochrome
Gulfshores, Alabama
Copyright © All Rights Reserved.
Interestingness: #226.
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A spark is struck, a light is lit and then by will of whit a symbol stroke becomes a token fashioned a sigil charged to form what cannot be spoken. The language of the angels charms the elements into creation. The messengers of old came forth delivering wisdom in concentration and knowledge in extraction. Of the moment we have our hand in symmetry by eye guided to give our moulding the cunning charm of making. We stand with all that we have and we charge ourselves to fulfil the accomplishments we want, need, desire and fortuitously find. The path is full of new bright opportunities that have the potential of rising further and filling out with the hearty breath of life, a vehicle for the biddable pneuma that makes without question answers all test and fuels all visions of likeness of man and mechanical of beasts in chariot alignment to deliver the ways we will ever wander and seek and find and hold true and dear as we range in and over, hovering and burrowing through air and earth within the essence of fire and of water at times without time and at no time out of time.
One drop of fire into a philtre held in air’s embrace til given all earth’s meeting place. Nothing straight except the angles, nothing divisible apart from the pairs and all within the flowing flowering feeling of of the curve that holds the arc from which nought shall depart and nothing keep from completing as all of everything comes together at once that eventually is not as one, but rather is one.
Keep your quill sharp, your reed flexible, metal honed and polished for pressure that births a creation of idea set down in legible information. A millennia ago the story writ was rare and now we are finding archivally permanent almost everywhere upon a new man made Eden an electronic body with a billion, billion eyes even more than the angels messengers of yore. We looked and we looked out as we lucked and writ ourselves a new world in order to fulfil our latest craze, craving and that most current fashioned amongst us. The eyes of old that were said to have foretold the end may have the strikes and strokes, the key functions and screen movements that mark us in name and number as we password on dangerous safety in others we must trust to connect our value and out worth in sums of money, sizes and shapes of dwelling and transport and images that we post to showcase our glories and our challenges in closer contact and further distance of apart than ever before.
Take an ink, have a keyboard either virtual, or real, use a picture, choose an icon create a symbol structure and make more far reaching messengers than there ever were before. There needs no letterbox within the door no welcome mat upon the floor. If lettering be your thing then look to shapes and style your communication with either much florid grace and most fanciful flair, or strip it bare and back to basics all fonts answer their linguistical mother creatrix. A light within the hand can illuminate the sky and reveal a darkened land if you wish it can cut a theme and share a dream. The message of the here and now can all die and yet somehow it might in on and off in zero, one and none with notions of the twain find a canvas to out strip time upon. One letter bright, lost into the night if caught in camera’s sight might in course of history beyond imagining be either a cluster of information regarded as worth saving, or accidentally overlooked deleting and so be held in a messenger’s repository for longer from this light extinguished on that night has as a history whilst we emboldened make our life in strikes and strokes that form our message and make our creative passage the journey that we choose for it to be.
First button on, second button half power and third button off. We have all the light we need. We are our own seed and are our own rising and walking column of fantastic stardust. A biological marvel, a chemical wonder and physical conundrum. Take your light, write your iconic impressions and make the world as you will have it without destroying this amazing habitat for others.
Also ignore this comment. Too much tea has adversely affected me. Before I float away I go to throw biscuit rafts into the oceans of brewed delights to salvage what is left before my diluvian debacle has me in a phantasmagorial flood searching for hollow pillars of wisdoms set down in iconic symbol structures.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Clava Cairns Near Inverness, IV2 5EU
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
A Visitors’ Guide to Balnuaran of Clava a prehistoric cemetery
www.archhighland.org.uk/userfiles/file/Sites/Historic%20S...
Balnuaran Of Clava, North-east
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east
Highland Historic Environment Record
Clàr Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil na Gàidhealtachd
Dillard University athletes and suppourters are celebrated for their accomplishments at the Athletic Award Ceremony on April 24, 2023.
(Photo by Sabree Hill/ Dillard University Photographer)
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This is a satellite image from the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite of Tropical Storm Andrea that was captured today, June 7 at 12:10 p.m. EDT- as Andrea makes its way up the U.S. East coast. At this time, Andrea was centered over North Carolina.
Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Part of a series on women of size also being achievers. Award winners in life and at the job.
A young single mom, a woman of accomplishment everywhere.
When I asked to be part of Toledo National Train Day (NTD) years ago, my role was as an Operation Lifesaver presenter for the children's safety class. I made 5 presentations throughout the day to packed houses, probably averaging 100 parents and kids for each session. This is where I earned the moniker "Engineer Steve" which has stuck to this day. It was a great success which continued for a few years.
One year, it escapes me now, I had a little bit of free time between presentations and walked around the exhibit. The main concourse is filled with everything train. Whether it be models, books, paintings, or photographs, it is a good place to be for those who like trains.
Downstairs, there is a track side exhibit. As I looked at the one and only locomotive available for display, at that moment it was like a lightning bolt hit me- Maybe I can help make this better!
And with a lot of support and assistance from some very good people across several railroads, the next few Toledo National Train Day track side displays were awesome. But they do not come easily.
Around the preceding November, I would begin the process of soliciting railroads for locomotives. I start with emails and follow them up with phone calls and personal visits to the officers in charge. I enjoy visiting these railroads and have made some great friendships as a result.
Toledo does not have access to many carriers other than Class Ones. The only non Class One with facilities in the city is the Ann Arbor. They have been an integral part of the event for the past three years. I am so happy and proud to have the Annie be showcased at NTD. Watco is a great supporter of the event.
The Wheeling and Lake Erie has been involved in two events, sending a GP40 the first year and freshly remodeled SD40-2 the second year. They have supported our Boy Scout railroad merit badge class for years by sending various materials for the scouts to take home. The Wheeling is a great great railroad.
While the Great Lakes Central does not physically serve Toledo on their own property, they are an important interchange partner for the Ann Arbor. Several years ago, myself and another Train Day member visited the GM of the line and made a presentation hoping to get the railroad involved in NTD. They committed on the spot and sent a freshly washed GP38-2 for display.
Now, these locomotives just don't magically show up for NTD. Once they have committed to sending equipment, I begin to make transportation plans. This is an involved process consisting of many phone calls and emails. I have to ensure timely interchange before and after the event, also guaranteeing that all moves are free of charge. I personally take care of this from start to finish!
Norfolk Southern has been a pivotal supporter of Toledo NTD. Over the years, several Division and Terminal Superintendents have provided me a very long leash to get these locomotives in and out of town. For this, I am very grateful.
Norfolk Southern has also been very generous in allowing me to request specific locomotives for display. The highlights of this list include the New York Central Heritage unit, the GoRail unit, and the 911 First Responders unit. Other years have included SD40-2s and GP38-2s.
This picture was taken on Friday evening just after I arranged and secured the freight locomotives for display. The Amtrak display train coming in from the east end and is spotting up across the break of the platform.
After I closed the shutter several times, I just stood there and admired the engines all by myself. Tomorrow 8,000-10,000 people will be here, taking pics, video, and just having fun.
As I look at this photo, I know that it most likely will never happen again. The financial environment that the carriers now work in has changed dramatically. Precision Railroading and the Operating Ratio are focal points that drive the operating plans. Both do not mesh well with donations of equipment. While I try to remain positive about future events, this is a reality in railroading today that will influence future events.
I am very proud of this locomotive lineup. It was definitely worth the effort!
"The early development of the human brain
is extremely important for setting the table,
if you will,
for potential future accomplishment."
~ Dannel Malloy ~
"Driftwood and Daffodils" was one blockbuster exhibit that was never intended to tour world capitals. So briefly do spring flowers flourish that the event lasted only two days.
The exhibit was a remarkable accomplishment for a fishing village in decline that had only 936 inhabitants in 2010. In fact, it's unusual for a town that small to have a well-run and well organized historical society that puts on a number of exhibits every year.
Like spring bulbs, institutions of this kind need tender loving care if they're to survive from one season to the next!
=======================================================
"Driftwood and Daffodils" – March 31 & April 1, 2023
By Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum October 15, 2022
The exhibit "Driftwood & Daffodils" was hosted by the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco, Washington, from March 31 to April 1, 2023.
In October, 2022, the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum posted a piece on its website to promote the exhibit and encourage gardeners interested in participating to plant their spring bulbs right away. Here is the relevant portion of the announcement:
The driftwood creations contest will revive a popular event from the mid-20th century. The juried daffodil show is inspired by all the beautiful displays of spring bulbs on the Peninsula over the years.
Registration for the event will be in January, but now is the time to get your daffodil bulbs planted and start combing the beach for that perfect piece of driftwood. More information along with contest rules will be announced soon. Watch the CPHM website (columbiapacificheritagemuseum.org) and Facebook page for updates.
Daffodils have long been a popular flower in local gardens. In addition to being deer resistant and one of the first signs of spring, they were grown commercially in the 1930s at the north end of the Peninsula. John Morehead was a well-known peninsula pioneer. He owned the Morehead store in Nahcotta and had an active farm off Sandridge Road where he raised cattle and grew peas and daffodil bulbs. This photograph by local photographer Charles Fitzpatrick shows the Morehead daffodil fields in bloom. Today daffodils are a symbol of the Ocean Park Village Club as they planted thousands of bulbs along Bay Avenue.
1956 was the first year for the Annual Driftwood exhibition held at the Long Beach Grange. Each year brought hundreds of entries in both the Junior and Senior divisions. Local crafters scoured the beaches for interesting pieces of driftwood. Some just cleaned them up and presented their find, others modified the pieces by adding paint, rock, netting, glass floats etc. In 1967, the last year of the show, the grand prize was awarded to a hanging driftwood mobile that was surely the highlight of a beach cabin living room!
Old-timers, if you have stories or photos of your award-winning driftwood art from days gone by, the museum would love to hear from you!
accomplishment
well first of all im very happy with this shot, mainly because i made the light leaks myself instead of using some pre made ones. the majority of my shots before this one used this, and all the credit for those light leaks go to mr.rabon. im very grateful that he posted that for novices like me to get used to working with light leaks before attempting them on our own. thank you!
anyways, i havnt even started my mounds of homework (which are due monday) :/ oh well, ill get it done some way or another....spring break starts in less than a week!!!!!!!
hope everyone on flickr is enjoying life
press "L" to view on black, please.
"These are not the Extraterrestrials we're looking for."
Extraterrestrial Culture Day exists “to celebrate and honor all past, present and future extraterrestrial visitors in ways to enhance relationships among all citizens of the cosmos, known and unknown.” It was established with the passing of House Memorial 44 by New Mexico’s legislature on March 21, 2003. (Memorials do not have the force of law, and do not need to be passed by both houses or be signed by the governor.) Although the day is specific to New Mexico, it has been celebrated by those beyond its borders.
State Representative Daniel Foley of Roswell introduced the day with House Bill 766, and through various amendments, the observation of this day is now the second Tuesday in February. According to the memorial, the day was created because “extraterrestrials have contributed to the worldwide recognition of New Mexico through their many and ongoing visitations, sightings, unexplained mysteries, attributed technological advances, experimentations, expeditions, explorations, intrigues, provision of story lines for Hollywood epics and other accomplishments of alien beings throughout the universe.”
How have extraterrestrials contributed to the worldwide recognition of New Mexico? It all goes back to 1947, to a spot about 75 miles from Roswell, where rancher Mac Brazel found debris in his sheep pasture. After finding metallic sticks held together with tape, a glossy and heavy paper-like material, and pieces of plastic and foil reflectors, he called the local sheriff. The sheriff called Roswell Army Air Force Base, and they came and took the debris away in armored trucks.
On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Daily Record ran a front-page story titled “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” The following day, the Roswell Army Air Force put out a statement saying that it was not a flying saucer that had been found, but rather, it was remnants of a weather balloon. But by looking at the debris, it was pretty clear that it wasn't a weather balloon, and many people didn’t buy the story, with some even believing that it indeed was a flying saucer.
In the decade that followed, many “dummy drops” to research ways people could survive high drops were done in New Mexico. Dummies with skin made of latex and bones of aluminum were dropped from the sky and military vehicles retrieved them. People found this quite odd, as it looked like aliens were falling from the sky, and some thought that was the case and that the vehicles that picked them up were taking them to get experimented on by the government. This did nothing but increase speculation that there had been a conspiracy and cover-up in Roswell in 1947.
In 1994, the Pentagon declassified most information about the dummy drops. They also declassified information about what they claimed had really been found in Roswell, which they said had to do with something called Project Mogul—a top-secret atomic espionage project. The General Accounting Office also released a report titled “Report of Air Force Research Regarding the ‘Roswell Incident.’”
According to the government, Project Mogul was started during World War II and stationed at the Alamogordo Air Field, being made up of geophysicists and oceanographers from New York University, Columbia University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The project placed balloons with low-frequency sound sensors in the tropopause, the area between the troposphere and stratosphere, where sound can travel thousands of miles. The hope was that they would be able to pick up information about nuclear tests taking place in the Soviet Union.
The report said that the debris was made up of 700 feet of neoprene balloons, radar reflectors, and sonic equipment. Some new materials were invented for use in Project Mogul, so it made sense that some of the materials weren't recognizable and looked otherworldly. According to the report, the Roswell Army Air Field didn't have any knowledge of the project. They weren't exactly sure what had been found, with some thinking the debris may have been from a Russian spy plane or satellite, but they just said it was a weather balloon because that made the most sense. Those at Project Mogul couldn't step up and say what it actually was, as that would compromise the project. In the present day, many don't believe the government's story, and some make trips to Roswell to be near the spot where they believe extraterrestrials crashed to earth. On Extraterrestrial Culture Day, we honor these and other extraterrestrial visitors.
AND some people still believe this!
20200211 042/366
The accomplishment here is that I (finally[*]) figured out how to install the G'MIC (pronounced "gimmick"?) package on my computer. I'd seen some very clever and interesting applications of the G'MIC Paunt Daub filter (eg, see here), and wanted to try it out myself.
This image started out as a picture of my shadow against a leafy bush. What I ended up with is a merge of two separate paint-daub runs, each with different "swirl" sizes[**].
[*] I say "finally" because I spent several hours trying to do this. But I may have actually succeeded on the first try. I was just about to give up, after the n'th try, when I realized realized G'MIC /had/ been successfully installed, but that I had been looking for it in the wrong place.
[**] The only way I could get those 3x larger swirls was to run the filter on an image that had been scaled to 3x smaller; maybe there's a better way? I'm still experimenting...
go with it
“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
~ Arnold Toynbee ~
--
Between documenting a project at work and experiencing the unprecedented (in my lifetime) flood levels of the Missouri River, I have been taking LOTS of photos in the past couple of months. The work project has consumed my time and energy, but has been intensely rewarding. However, I have not had time to do any artistic shooting or capture anything of beauty. When I spotted this patch of foxtail along the river the other day, I decided to take a break from recording history in the making. The "weeds" were dancing madly in the breeze and I knew it would be a travesty to freeze their action. So I stopped down the lens for a slow shutter speed and even panned across as I shot, hoping to convey their unabandoned sense of joy. The above shot is from the camera, only breaking the border for a soft edge. The following two have been further processed to soften them even more. Please click to view large...
“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
~ Arnold Toynbee ~
I have been trying to capture movement with no succeed. I used TV mode for this and was hoping to get one clear balloon and overall movement of the ride. Totally failed, but I kinda like the color after post processing. I used Savory Ginger from Vintage Tea Tone actions.
In honor of Amestris's accomplishment of being the first nation in the world to have have an industrial rating of the international standard of 1,000 pp, the Fuhrer has organized a series of parades across the nation. This one in particulartook place in Resembool, a mid-sized town located in South-East Amestris known primarily for its sheep wool exports. The military band at the front of the parade played this song during the proceedings. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Dc3aLG1Xs
The series of parades is planned to culminate in a final grand parade at the official Amestrian Parade Grounds located on the outskirts of Central City
(4rth wall, I take no credit for the buildings beyond modifying them, they are a part of lego's modular building series)
If being an unapologetic homosexual, alone, regardless of any other characteristic, accomplishment, selflessness, kind and gentle nature, service to mankind, or any other number of Christlike attributes humans are capable of having, will buy a person's ticket to hell rather than heaven, I'm not sure that's a heaven I'd ever want to know.
I am blessed to have been alive on the day that has brought our country closer to greatness, with regard to human rights, since desegregation. Throughout my life, I've inquired and my mother has told me about her memories of the fear, ignorance, prejudice, she was subject to at a very young age during the 1950s. I've always thought about the black people I know and love when we've talked about her experiences. I can't imagine growing up in a world that encouraged such intolerance. I'm glad I didn't have to. Not that we are, as a country, a prime example of racial equality, because I do know that even now, we are very far from perfect, but I also count myself lucky to have been raised in the most stereotypically racist state in the nation, to be color blind. I'm glad my parents were hippies. I'm glad their parents are some of the kindest people I've ever known. I love that I have never been outright ordered or even gently nudged, by anyone in my family, to not befriend a person based on their color or sexual orientation. I am certainly one of the lucky white, straight, southern women out there.
One of my proudest moments as a parent was yesterday when I rolled out of bed, and the first thing my daughter said to me was, "Mom, did you hear? The Supreme Court ruled to legalize gay marriage!" With a huge smile on her face, she talked and talked about how wonderful she felt for those people who are so closely effected by this change. She was truly and sincerely happy for others because she saw that this really is a big deal. They are suddenly free to express our purest and most treasured emotion: love.
Folks who were doing just fine on June 25, are suddenly absolutely and overwhelmingly the happiest they've ever been on June 26. All because they can love whomever they please and commit themselves to one another, the way many of us have been allowed to do since forever. Many of us who are married would list our wedding day as one of the happiest in our lives, and take that for granted all day long. Now we can all know that feeling, the memory of which, even as I write this, gives me butterflies. I love that, and I love that we can all have it, know it, reminisce on it, and keep it close to our hearts, now that that one thing changed. It changed everything for so many.
We are all members of the human race, and we are all entitled to love the way we were biologically wired to love. I cannot do anything about the fact that when it comes to romantic love, my heart, mind, and body long for the opposite sex. I absolutely can't imagine not being legally allowed to call my husband just that. I will continue to pray for tolerance for the intolerant and strength for all those subjected to hate, whether it be due to gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. The struggle for peace is so real, and we are, as a species, changed by this event.
Congratulations, humans, for fighting the good fight.
O acontecimento que marcou a Lacey nos últimos dias foi descobrir o estilo Mori Girl... ela decidiu que quer se vestir apenas assim a partir de agora... coitada de mim!!! =D
______________________________________________________________________________
Lacey's most recent accomplishment was found the Mori Girl style... she decided she wants dress herself this way for now on... poor of me!!!
Bata e short feitos por mim! ^^
Clothes made by me! ^^
Young blond fitness girl getting ready for a fitness workout. Taken with a Nikon D300 and 28-105mm Nikkor lens. All my published books, available world wide, can be viewed here:
www.amazon.com/stores/Paul-Moore/author/B0075LNIO2?ref=ap...
Satellite image captured Feb 2, 2011
The image shows the storm on Feb. 2 at 14:45 UTC by the NASA GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The GOES series of satellites are operated by NOAA.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project
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“AND THE BUILDING BECOMES MAN”: MEANING AND AESTHETICS IN RUDOLF STEINER’S GOETHEANUM
Carole M. Cusack
Introduction
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of the Anthroposophical Society, is renowned for his work in widely varied fields including education, biodynamic agriculture, politics, banking, poetry, and drama (Hammer 2009: 209). His accomplishments in architecture are among his less well-understood cultural productions. His two greatest achievements – the buildings known as Goetheanum I and Goetheanum II (the latter built after the destruction by fire on 31 December 1922 of the former structure), in the small town of Dornach near Basel in the canton of Jura, Switzerland – have been described as “sculptural architecture,” of a kind similar in Expressionist form to works by his contemporaries Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), Hermann Obrist (1863-1927), and the younger Hermann Finsterlin (1887-1973) (Sharp 1966). The focus of this chapter, Goetheanum II, is a giant sculpted concrete form four stories high, with sweeping lines that give the effect of a monolith. It is headquarters to the Anthroposophical movement, and contains a one-thousand seat auditorium in which religio-spiritual performances of Eurythmy (Steiner’s movement art, which he initiated in 1912) take place. Contributors to a 1960 issue of the Swiss architectural magazine
Werk featuring the building agreed that its design required “a uniform worldview and lifestyle” (quoted in Steinberg 1976: 4). This is the case: to understand both incarnations of the Goetheanum, built as “Schools for Spiritual Science,” requires an understanding of Anthroposophy and of Steiner himself. Richard A. Peterson has posited that the main “symbol-creating domains most often identified [are] art, science, and religion” (Peterson 1976: 673). Anthroposophy, as developed by Steiner, is a philosophy that integrated all three of these domains, and which formed the basis for an enthusiastic programme of cultural production. This chapter considers the meanings embedded in the aesthetic choices of Steiner in the design and construction of both Goetheanum I and Goetheanum II. Steiner thought that Western Europe needed to re-orientate its Weltanschauung
as a spiritual priority and that art was a crucial part of this regenerative process. David Brain’s argument that cultural production creates society itself is relevant here. Brain states that “[t]he social construction of cultural artefacts entails the production of practices which, in turn, enact their own status in broader social contexts by inscribing both the boundaries of cultural domains and the social status of the author in qualities of the artefact” (Brain 1994: 193). Expressionist artists, some of whom (for example the Russian Wassily Kandinsky) shared Steiner’s Theosophical background, shared his vision for the spiritual renewal of Europe. Steiner could not have been unaware of a range of significant Expressionist philosophies and artistic forms present in Europe during his lifetime, and particularly at the time he was developing Anthroposophy. As a lecturer he travelled extensively, and came into contact with many artists and writers who shared mystical ideas about art. His vision for the headquarters of Anthroposophy was grandiose, like that of many other Expressionists, though unlike most of them he had the opportunity to construct his vision himself. Goetheanum II has also been referred to as a
Gesamtkunstwerk (‘total work of art’), a term associated with Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and with architects such as Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, who influenced the interiors as well as the exteriors of their buildings (Adams 1992: 182). Yet Steiner wanted something specific for his group; “[n]ot to build in a style born out of our spiritual world view, would mean to deny Anthroposophy in her own house” (quoted in Steinberg 1976: 82). The Goetheanum embodies Anthroposophical ideals, and Anthroposophy inhabited the entire cultural life of its adherents. For Steiner this came in the form of cosmological insights, which could best be achieved in the sculptural shapes and organic forms, derived from the natural world, of the Goetheanum (in both its first and second incarnations). This chapter first considers Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual quest, Anthroposophy, the teaching he developed, and the place of art and cultural production in his vision for a transformed humanity. The creation of seventeen buildings between 1908 and 1925 in Dornach, which in the twenty-first century is a community of approximately six thousand, was a major achievement in embodying the Anthroposophical ideal of revealing a “logic of life” deriving from Goethe’s writings on the natural sciences and esoteric Christianity, in physical forms, and transformed Dornach into something of a pilgrimage centre for Anthroposophists and spiritual seekers (Reese 1965: 146). The meaning and construction of Goetheanum I is explained, then the chapter’s focus shifts to the realised Anthroposophical theology of Goetheanum II, which was designed by Steiner in 1923 but not completed until 1928, three years after his death. This magnificent building is a magnet for tourists and architecture enthusiasts, as quite apart from its Anthroposophical significance, it is a remarkable and beautiful example of Expressionist architecture.
Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in Donji Kraljevec, a village in what is now Croatia but was then Hungary, in the Austrian Empire. He was educated by his father, the provincial stationmaster at Pottschach in Lower Austria, and at the local school. In his uncompleted autobiography, Steiner claimed that by the time he turned eight “the reality of the spiritual world was to me as certain as that of the physical,” and that he was able to communicate with the spirits (Davy 1975a: 12). He was heartened to discover that geometry (and mathematics more generally) was about invisible realities that had been discovered by humans. From 1879 to 1883 he studied mathematics and physics at the Technische Hochschule (Institute of Technology) in Vienna. Steiner funded his studies by working as a tutor, chiefly in philosophy, classics, and literature. During this time he met two people who would significantly affect his development; “an old peasant herb-gatherer … [who] possessed faculties of spiritual perception which allowed him to see deep into the secrets of nature and know, for example, the curative properties of herbs” and “Professor Karl Julius Schroer, the great Goethe scholar” (Davy 1975a: 14). After graduation he was employed at the Goethe Archive in Weimar, where he worked on Goethe’s scientific writings under the direction of Joseph Kürschner, who was preparing a new edition of Goethe’s works (Landau 1935: 50). In 1891 Steiner received his doctorate in philosophy from Rostock University and the next phase of his intellectual and spiritual quest began. This was concerned to relate the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) to that of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1742-1832). From 1897 to 1900 Steiner resided in Berlin, where he edited the
Magazin für Literatur
, “visited Nietzsche, [and] wrote introductions to the works of Schopenhauer” (Schwarz 1983: 11). During this period
he became deeply interested in Theosophy and was a key player in the establishment of the Nietzsche Archive. In 1902 Steiner became head of the Theosophical Society in Germany. Yet, his orientation shifted in the first decade of the twentieth century as he embraced a combination of natural science and esoteric Christianity, partly through the influence of Marie von Sivers, an actress and artist of Russian extraction (Davy 1975a: 20). Von Sivers became his second wife in 1914 after the death of Anna Eunicke, whom he had married in 1899 and separated from a few years later. In 1901 von Sivers had asked Steiner “[w]ould it be possible to create a spiritual movement based on European tradition and the impetus of Christ?”
The Theosophical Society had always looked to Hinduism and Buddhism, to the East, for spiritual inspiration; Madame Blavatsky’s “Masters” were Tibetan lamas, and Annie Besant, her successor, and her colleague Charles Webster Leadbeater promoted Jiddu Krishnamurti as the next World Teacher (
Maitreya in Buddhism, also known as the “Cosmic Christ”). It was Theosophy’s endorsement of Krishnamurti that caused Steiner to leave the movement, and to form the Anthroposophical Society late in 1912. The first meeting was convened on 13 February 1913. Steiner was convinced of the crucial and unrepeatable nature of the “Christ impulse,” which was introduced into the human soul through the “Mystery of Golgotha” (Steiner 1976: 63). Christ, for Steiner, was the paradigmatic Being, and a human being at that. Anthroposophy means “the wisdom of man,” and is therefore explicitly contrasted with Theosophy, “the wisdom of God.” Steiner thought that modern
spiritual knowledge should depend, not upon external revelations, but rather upon the development of human mental powers … He claimed to teach nothing he had not himself known through … methods of “spiritual scientific” research … Until his death in 1925, he worked … to develop examples of practical applications of anthroposophy in diverse fields, including education, agriculture, economics, medicine – and architecture (Adams 1992: 185).
Steiner taught that modern humans, influenced by empirical science and logical reasoning, had lost the consciousness possessed by ancient humans, in which the individual was understood to be a microcosm of the universe, and life had meaning accordingly. He advocated the gaining of “Initiation knowledge” of “Mysteries,” which involved developing the human will; and cultivating active thinking, which becomes “an organ of touch for the soul, so that we may feel ourselves thinking in the same way that we walk, grasp or touch; so that we know that we are living in a real being” (Steiner 1991; 13-14). Steiner continued to employ Theosophical concepts, including: the notions that human beings have an etheric body beyond the physical, and an astral body beyond the etheric; the existence of higher beings,
karma
and reincarnation, and the essential unity of religion and science. He placed great emphasis on the cultivation of Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition, which are creative capacities in ordinary human life. Yet Steiner argued that, like the capacity for love, quotidian experiences of imagination, inspiration, and intuition were only “dim promptings,” a “shadow- picture[s]” of highest cognition, the attainment of which humans must strive toward (Steiner 1991: 25). Like his near contemporary G. I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949), Steiner spoke of the radical discontinuity between subjective human states, and “objective”
love, art, and so on. Both men, following Madame Blavatsky’s lead, presented their esoteric teachings as occult science, a comprehensive system that restored to modern humans their ancient spiritual birthright, and which had the capacity to create a true self, delivering moderns from the splintered identity they customarily experienced. Both systems were cosmological in orientation, presented the physical world as alive, and engaged in processes of transformation. Steiner argued that sleep and dreams were access points to the supersensible world, where spiritual beings could be encountered, and that these beings could waken dead matter, transforming it into living nature:
[a]ll … in those hills, is expecting that one day it will be able to dream, and so with dream- consciousness to take hold of lifeless matter, and from these rocks and hills to conjure forth once more as embryos, seeds, living plants. It is indeed these beings who bring before our souls a wonderful magic of nature, a creating from out of the spirit (Steiner 1991: 77).
Anthroposophy understands all within the physical world to be evolving into higher forms, and in humans the development of spiritual senses enables the “digestion” of experiences by the soul. With this digestion, certain cosmological realisations are possible; for example, recognition of the interrelatedness of the human being with the whole of creation will lead to the person “becom[ing] a living Zodiac” or absorbing the wisdom of the dead (Steiner 1975: 37). It is crucial that humans learn that “the world [is] a book which the Hierarchies have written for us, in order that we may read in it, then only do we become Man in the full sense of the word” (Steiner 1975: 77). For Steiner, becoming “Man” fully involved the realisation that the human was a microcosm of the macrocosmic cosmos. The logical consequence of this is that the human being is the model for everything; the system that offers the key to all other systems. In 1911, Steiner wrote a poem for Marie von Sivers, which began, “Shaping the world in the self/ Seeing the self in the world/ Is the breath of the soul” (Steiner and Steiner-Von Sivers 1988: 121). The centrality of Christ in Anthroposophy follows from this teaching, and Steiner’s teaching contained many examples of this “fractal” structure in which each component is broken down into components that are smaller models of the whole. The layering of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and Ego is similar, though the underlying principle is not one of size but spiritual development (King 1987 [1986]: 360). Anthroposophists often use homeopathy, a form of holistic treatment developed by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), which operates on the same principles of intensification through breaking down to minute quantities, reflecting the occult teaching of the
Emerald Tablet
of Thoth (or Hermes), “as above, so below” (Shumaker 1972: 165). Hahnemann believed that like substance should be employed to cure like ailment, and Francis King states that, “[h]ighly dynamized or potentized medicaments are possessed of qualities pertaining to non-material modes of being” (King 1987 [1986]: 64). The cosmological dimension is not neglected either; cosmic data, such as planetary events, are also factored into the process of making remedies within Anthroposophy. Steiner’s debt to his master, Goethe, is everywhere apparent; Goethe had spoken of coming to understanding through “the inner sense” and had asserted that, “every living thing is not an isolated being, but a majority” (quoted in Pehnt 1991: 9). He was notably influenced by Goethe’s notion of metamorphosis; if the archetype of a plant was located, “out of that conceptual archetypal plant one could think out countless numbers of special forms” (Steiner 1938: 3). Chapters in this
volume by Liselotte Frisk and Alex Norman treat other aspects of Steiner’s Anthroposophical teachings.
Steiner’s Teachings on Art
Due to his concentration on the human development of Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition, Steiner accorded a prime place to artistic endeavours within his system of esoteric development. He understood that the imaginative capacity was engaged when human consciousness was clear of physical “pictorial impressions” and filled with “etherically pictorial impressions.” When these were cleared from consciousness and the person was aware of the void, “into that state of voidness pour astral impressions” (King 1987 [1986]: 37). This signalled that the inspirational capacity was engaged. When the intuitive capacity was engaged, Steiner claimed that the spiritual has been “brought to full consciousness and has been born to a new life in which he or she is a spirit being dwelling amongst other spirit beings” (King 1987 [1986]: 38). Steiner himself worked in a wide range of creative arts with notable success; he was a poet, sculptor, painter, and architect, “the creator of a new art of movement,” Eurythmy, and a dramatist (Klingborg 1975: 48). Steiner himself allied the arts very closely with true religion, saying “Anthroposophical Spiritual Science is from the beginning so placed, that it flows as one stream from a source out of which both art and religion in their origins can also flow” (Steiner 1938: 7). Steiner’s ideas on the spiritual function of art reflected a wider concern in European society just prior to the outbreak of World War I; for example, the Theosophically-inclined Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), a member of the art movement
Der Blaue Reiter
(“the blue rider”) published the hugely influential
On the Spiritual in Art
(1912), which called for a return to the spiritual as the fundamental inspiration for art and the principal aim of artistic production (Fant, Klingborg and Wilkes et al 1975: 9-10). Steiner commenced writing a series of Mystery Plays in 1909 with Marie von Sivers, who as mentioned above, was an actress. The four resulting plays were pictorial scenes intended to convey spiritual truths, and were performed in theatres. The four titles were “The Portal of Initiation: A Rosicrucian Mystery” (1910), “The Soul’d Probation: A Life Tableau in Dramatic Scenes” (1911), “The Guardian of the Threshold: A Series of Soul Events in Dramatic Pictures” (1912), and “The Soul’s Awakening: A Drama of the Soul and Spirit” (1913) (Steiner 2007). Drama is an embodied art, and in Steiner’s lecture series
The Arts and Their Mission
(1923) he placed great emphasis on the fact that ancient peoples in Greece, Rome, India, and other countries were at harmony with their bodies and did not suffer from the mind- body dualism that plagues modern people. As important as the unity of the mind and body, Steiner asserted, was the “unity of spiritual life and art,” which Goethe deeply apprehended but which is no longer experienced (Steiner 1964: 15). Unsurprisingly, Steiner was critical of mimetic art, claiming that it could only reproduce things in nature, whereas true art could express “kinship with the spiritual world” (Steiner 1964: 16), and was experiential; it was not sufficient to see the colour red but it was necessary to experience “red or blue in the spiritual world” (Steiner 1991: 21). In art, as in spiritual exercises and authentic life experiences, humans were enabled to be truly themselves. Therefore Steiner paid close attention to the body, teaching on food and diet, clothing and costume, and art forms that partook of bodily experience.
The movement art of Eurythmy shared certain qualities with the Mystery Plays, in that both art forms were externalisations of “innermost laws” that were perceived through bodily actions. The first Eurythmy classes were taught in 1912, and by 1919 two courses of training had been developed and Steiner’s eurythmists had toured Europe giving public demonstrations. Marie von Sivers and Lory Smits, an early teacher of the art, contributed significantly to its development. The esoteric meaning of Eurythmy was emphasised by Steiner:
[w]e are setting the human organism in motion; we are making its limbs move. The limbs, more than any other part of the human body, are what pass over into the life of the next incarnation. They point to the future, to what comes after death. But how do we shape the limb movements we bring forth in eurythmy. In the sense realm and in the supersensory realm we study how the larynx and all the speech organs have been brought over from the previous life and shaped by the intellectual potentials of the head and the feeling potentials of the chest. We directly link what precedes birth with what follows death. In a certain sense, we take from earthly life only the physical medium, the actual human being who is the tool or instrument of eurythmy. But we allow this human being to make manifest what we study inwardly … Eurythmy shapes and moves the human organism in a way that furnishes direct external proof of our participation in the supersensory world. In having people do eurythmy, we link them directly to the supersensory world (Steiner 2006: 17).
Eurythmy is thus explicitly cosmological and anthropological, linking the human person’s body as it manifests in this lifetime with their previous and future lives and with the universe of which the person is a microcosm. In Anthroposophical circles Eurythmy has been referred to as the speech of the soul. Steiner wrote extensively on literature, music, and painting, but for the purpose of this chapter his remarks architecture are most relevant. He stated, “[o]h soul, if you wish to leave the physical body in order to regain a relationship with the cosmos, what aspect will you take on? – this was the question. The forms of architecture were, so to speak, answers” (Steiner 1964: 23-24). From the perspective of the production of culture, “the symbolic elements of culture are shaped by the systems within which they are created, distribute, evaluated, taught, and preserved” (Peterson and Anand 2004: 311). In the case of Steiner’s buildings in Dornach, the ‘system’ is Anthroposophy. For Steiner, buildings (like all art forms) should not slavishly imitate forms witnessed in nature, but should rather exhibit organic forms like living nature, and stand in the same mirror relation to nature as the human body does to the macrocosmic universe. For Steiner, in a very real sense, buildings were alive. His application of Goethe’s notion of metamorphosis to architecture meant that, to quote Rex Raab, “the transformation of mass and shape according with a recognisable motive or theme appropriate to the task, creates ‘the appearance of consciousness’” (Raab 1975: 70). For Steiner, the building and its natural setting created “landscape,” which was creative and active, and spiritual power (for example, from the cardinal directions or the heavenly bodies) could be tapped through the strategic design of buildings (Bockemühl 1981: 42). This made environments like Dornach able to facilitate the spiritual development of those people who lived there and interacted with the architecture. In short, human creativity was intimately connected to divine creativity.
Goetheanum I at Dornach .…
During World War I, Steiner and his followers began constructing Goetheanum I on a hill in Dornach. Wolfgang Pehnt observes that, at that time, the Birs valley was open country, “half cultivated nature and half a little world of buildings” (Pehnt 1991: 7). Steiner’s architectural ambition for the Anthroposophical headquarters was initially to erect a twin-domed meeting hall, provisionally called the Johannesbau, in Munich. This was conceived as a Theosophical structure, as he had decorated the interior of the Tonhalle in Munich for the 1907 European Theosophical Congress, and there was enthusiasm for a building in which Steiner’s Mystery Plays, discussed above, could be performed in (Schwarz 1983: 14-26). Architect Carl Schmid-Curtius was engaged to realise Steiner’s design concept. But in May 1913, after Steiner broke with the Theosophical Society, his friend Dr Emil Grosheintz donated land in Dornach to be the site of the building, now to be called the ‘Goetheanum’. There was only one structure on the hill at the time, in which Steiner resided. The foundation stone, which was aligned east-west, was laid with great ceremony (in which Steiner invoked spirit guides and protectors, and noted the stone’s formation “in accordance with the cosmic picture of the human soul”) on 30 September 1913 (Schwarz 1983: 36). Nearly two hundred of Steiner’s pupils, from seventeen different countries, worked on Goetheanum I in 1913 and 1914. The building was 272 feet long, 243 feet wide, and 111 feet high, with a sixty-five thousand cubic metre interior space. It was oriented east-west, with the stage beneath the smaller of the two domes and the seating area beneath the larger. Rex Raab notes the “domes were clad in Norwegian slate, which shone silvery in the Jura landscape” (Raab 1975: 63). A major sculpture,
The Representative of Humanity
, nine metres high and sculpted of wood, by Steiner and his collaborator Edith Maryon, depicted the dark and light aspects of being (which he named for Ahriman, the Zoroastrian “Evil Spirit” and Lucifer, the Biblical angel and “Light Bearer”), stood in the Goetheanum. These figures represented the closed self and the open self, and were united by the central figure of Christ, “The Representative of the Human” (Klingborg 1975: 50). The acoustic qualities of the structure were important in that it was intended for performances. Goetheanum I was built of wood; Rom Landau says that, “Steiner used for its construction the same seven different kinds of wood which are used for the construction of a violin, and the ceiling of the main hall was as buoyant as the walls of a violin” (Landau 1935: 71). In a 1921 lecture, Rudolf Steiner repudiated the idea that Goetheanum I should be read symbolically, rather asserting that it was built according to laws that made possible the “revelation of the supersensible world in the sensible” (Steiner 1938: 9). He further claimed that the organic forms of the structure were an attempt to explore creation itself, in the manner of Goethe’s idea of metamorphosis. The macrocosmic-microcosmic principle described above was present in the first Goetheanum; at one point Steiner, describing the stair-hall, says;
I arrived, through feeling, at the development of these three semi-circular canals standing in the three directions of space at right-angles. If you go up this staircase, you have this calming sensation. It is not copied – that it certainly is not – but afterwards I remembered that the three semi-circular canals of the ear also stand in these three directions of space. When they are injured, man falls down in a faint: they are therefore closely connected to the laws of balance. It did not arise out of a naturalistic desire to copy, but from experiencing the same element by which the aural canals are arranged (Steiner 1938: 12).
This quotation makes it clear that, for Steiner, mimetic art (that which seeks to copy nature and produce “life-like” artistic products) is an inferior, or perhaps entirely
illegitimate form of art. Spiritual art, which brings people into contact with the supersensible through the sensible, is, rather, the production of artworks that embody certain laws that resonate with the embodied viewer. He does allow that the first Goetheanum featured some occult symbolism (for example there were five pointed forms that could be interpreted as pentagrams, though they could also be seen as leaves), but in general the building’s effect was intended to be emotional rather than intellectual. The building’s interior featured just one inscribed word, “Ich.” Of this, Steiner said it referred to “Faust striving towards the fully-conscious ‘I’ – towards the ‘ICH’ embodying itself in the word. The older languages had ‘I’ incorporated in the verb; in this epoch it is right that a separate word for it should appear” (Steiner 1938: 16). The interior of the Goetheanum was flooded with symbolic colours, facilitated by huge red and yellow glass windows and “luminous wall paintings” that exemplified the colour theory of Goethe (Adams 1992: 200). By the time the Goetheanum I was finished, Schmid-Curtius was no longer involved, and the team of Ernst Aisenpreis (who also worked on the Goetheanum II) and Hermann Ratzenberger, assisted by Albert von Baravalle, oversaw the final stages of construction (Schwarz 1983: 51). Goetheanum I was sited among other early buildings at Dornach, including Haus Duldeck (now the archives), the Boiler House (with its dramatic “flame” chimney), and the Glashaus, all constructed between 1913 and 1916. The latter two also featured twin domes, and all exhibited an absence of straight lines and a preponderance of curves and organic forms (Adams 1992: 187-188). On 31 December 1922, New Year’s Eve, a Eurythmy performance was held in Goetheanum I at 5 PM, and at 8 PM Steiner delivered a lecture to the audience. At the close of the evening most people left; shortly after, the building was discovered to be on fire (Anon 1923). It was not possible to save it, and Goetheanum I was destroyed after eight brief years. Anna Samweber, in her memoir of life with Steiner and his wife, describes the rescue of the sculpture, “The Representative of Humanity,” from the flames. She also notes the fear that the nearby Schreinerei, a building “with the halls and Rudolf Steiner’s studio,” might also catch alight (Samweber 1991: 30). Although it was never proven, many Anthroposophists believed that the fire was arson; that “non-Anthroposophists could not bear the beauty that was created for such a unique spiritual group” (Steinberg 1976: 57). Steiner was deeply distressed by the destruction of Goetheanum I, and his health began to decline. He decided that the second Goetheanum would be built entirely in concrete to render it more durable.
Haus Duldeck. There was considerable opposition to the erection of Goetheanum II by the local council, probably motivated by hostility to Steiner and Anthroposophy, despite the movement’s considerable contribution to the local economy (Steinberg 1976: 61-62). Conformity to the building permit resulted in a reduction of height of the west front and a widening of the horizontal wings. The vital importance of the second Goetheanum is evident in the fact that nowadays Anthroposophists call it simply “the Building” (Sharp 1963: 377). Steiner’s considerable talent as an amateur architect is richly evident in the second Goetheanum. The exterior sculptural mass has a plain east end, almost a flat wall, and develops towards the west, with the west front as the “face” of the building opening onto the landscape. It is radically different from the earlier building; some Anthroposophists regard it as a poor substitute. This is partly because Goetheanum I had been funded through donations, whereas Goetheanum II was largely funded through an insurance payout. Additionally, the concrete structure, although larger, spelled “the relinquishment of detailed work by hand, the farewell to a vast sun of invested creativity” (Pehnt 1991: 21). Steiner and his wife acknowledged the tragic loss of Goetheanum I but stressed the need for a second School of Spiritual Science to be erected swiftly, and Steiner’s design for the concrete building utilised the same notion of metamorphosis and transformation from Goethe. Sharp describes it as “a piece of living sculpture” (Sharp 1963: 378) and Hans Hasler, in his discussion of the major conservation operation undertaken between 1993-1996, emphasises the plasticity and dynamism of concrete as a building material (Hasler 1999:9-11). Hagen Biesantz notes that the ground plan retains the cruciform shape of Goetheanum I, but the double space created by the two cupolas has given way to a threefold space, which relates to Steiner’s theory of the “threefold division of the social and human physical organisms” (Biesantz 1979: 59). Only the windows provide some indication of the function of the rooms concealed within the building; for example “the three high side windows tell us that the great hall is behind them” (Pehnt 1991: 7). Writers on the Goetheanum constantly stress its organic forms, and Wolfgang Pehnt argues that the group of Anthroposophical structures in Dornach exemplify Steiner’s theory, taken from Goethe, of “architecture and architectural ensembles as societies of biological species … a biotope” (Pehnt 1991: 9). Although Steiner did not design the interior of Goetheanum II in the same detail that he did for Goetheanum I, Anthroposophical teachings inform the general scheme. The Great Hall has four long windows, which are coloured “as in the first Goetheanum … green, blue, violet and pink” (Biesantz 1979: 69). The Great Hall was actually completed by Johannes Schöpfer, a Stuttgart architect, chosen by competition in 1957. Georg Hartmann’s study of the windows notes that Goetheanum I had nine coloured glass windows, two sets of the above-mentioned four colours, and the central red window over the west entrance. He claims that, “the motives of the coloured glass windows deal with the experiences of the human being, searching for spiritual knowledge” (Hartmann 1972: 17). In Goetheanum II, the huge red window in the west wall features the human face, the four evangelists’ symbols from the New Testament (the lion, bull, eagle, and the man), and occult symbols such as the lotus, the swastika, and planetary images, such as that of Saturn. Olav Hammer notes that when writing about the significance of colour, “Steiner informs us that purple is the color of mysticism, blue calms the soul, red gives a feeling of festivity, while green is associated with the earthly domain” (Hammer 2009: 214). Anthroposophical poet.
As Steiner had no formal training as an architect, Anthroposophists have been inclined to treat his achievements in the field as evidence of his extraordinary creativity and spiritual development. Within Anthroposophy it is not acceptable to speak of Steiner being influenced by other architecture of the period, although Dennis Sharp has made an excellent case for the inclusion of Steiner within the category of Expressionist architecture, a sub-field of the broader Expressionist movement in art
(Sharp 1963). Sharp argues that Steiner was influenced by the Art Nouveau style, the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde (1853-1957), and the exuberant Catalan Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), whose own creations were inspired by his passionate though rather unorthodox Roman Catholicism. Sharp contextualises Goetheanum II with the works of Hermann Obrist (1863-1927) and Hermann Finsterlin (1887-1973) (Sharp 1963). The title of this chapter, “And the Building Becomes Man,” is a motto written over the south window of the model of Goetheanum II on display in Brodbeck House, a house that predated the second Goetheanum and which now has the Eurythmeum built as an addition to it (Turgeniev 2003: 61). It is a romantic notion, yet one that encapsulates the core of Steiner’s Anthroposophical teaching that the human being is the basic unit of the cosmos, the fractal model on which larger and smaller structures are based. Steiner’s architecture, though striking and beautiful and appreciated by architectural experts, casual tourists, and Anthroposophists alike, cannot really be understood without reference to the Anthroposophical worldview and Steiner’s “spiritual science.” Pehnt notes wryly that, “Steiner’s inspiration seems always to be productive in architects who apply his methods without feeling committed to the results achieved at the time” (Pehnt 1991: 39). Brain has argued that “the production of cultural objects can be more closely tied to the to the conditions of possibility for social action in general – not only at the level of meaning, but at the level of the capacity to conceive and enact strategic action” (Brain 1994: 218). Goetheanum II in Dornach is a structure of crucial significance for Anthroposophists the world over, and visiting it (whether to study Eurythmy or some other aspect of Steiner’s spiritual science, or simply to feel close to Steiner and the transformational philosophy of Anthroposophy) is a deeply meaningful experience. Brain continues that cultural objects such as Goetheanum II (and the practices that take place within it, including the visual arts and Euythmy) illuminate “the making of the social world that goes on in the practices through which culture producers inscribe intentions in artefacts, and social actors, generally, make sense
with
things” (Brain 1994: 218). Steiner, of all esoteric and new religious teachers of the early twentieth century, was acutely aware of the peculiar value of cultural production, an activity with which he engaged with tireless energy, and considerable (amateur and professional) skill and achievement. It is true that the majority of architects inspired by Steiner are not Anthroposophists, and have only a limited understanding of the underlying principles of Goetheanum II, being enamoured of its aesthetic qualities alone. This, however, still confirms Goetheanum II as a consummate cultural product of Anthroposophy, and one that continues to amaze and delight all those who are fortunate enough to visit Dornach.
www.academia.edu/738542/_And_the_Building_Becomes_Man_Mea...
The whole of the Gospel of St. John culminates in that event in human history which we call the “Mystery of Golgotha.” To comprehend this Mystery of Golgotha esoterically predicates also the ability to decipher the deep significance of this Gospel. If we turn our attention to what exists at the very central point of this Mystery and wish to express it in occult terms, we must contemplate the moment of the Crucifixion when the blood flowed from the wounds of the Saviour, and at the same time we must remember something which has often been said in the course of these lectures, that for one who knows the spiritual worlds, all material, substantial, physical objectivity is only the outer expression, the external manifestation of something spiritual. Now let us permit the physical event to arise before our souls: Christ-Jesus upon the Cross, the blood flowing from His wounds. What does this picture, the content of which is a physical event, express for those who are able to understand the Gospel of St. John?
This physical event — the occurrence on Golgotha — is the expression, the manifestation of a spiritual event which stands at the central point of all earthly happenings. Anyone interpreting these words according to the present materialistic world concept will not be able to make much out of them, for he will not be able to imagine that at that time something occurred in this unique Event of Golgotha which differs from some other like event, or from one perhaps physically similar. There is a very great difference between all the earthly occurrences which preceded this Event of Golgotha and those that succeed it.
If we wish to picture this in the soul in all its detail, we must say that not only has the individual human being, or for that matter any other individual creature, a physical, ether and astral body as we have described it from many aspects in the foregoing lectures, but that cosmic bodies likewise do not consist only of physical substance as they appear to the astronomer and to other physical researchers. A cosmic body has also an ether and an astral body. Our earth has its ether and astral vehicles. If our earth did not possess its own ether body, it would not be able to harbour the plants; if it did not possess its own individual astral body, it would not be able to shelter the animals. If we wish to visualize the earth's ether body, we must imagine its central point exactly at the center of the earth where the physical earth body also has its central point. This entire physical earth body is embedded in its own ether body and these two are again embedded in an astral body. If someone had observed clairvoyantly the astral body of the earth during the course of the earth's evolution, during the course of long epochs of time, he would have seen that, as a matter of fact, this astral body and ether body of the earth have not always remained the same, that they have changed. In order to represent the matter quite pictorially, let us in spirit transplant ourselves outside beyond the earth to some other star, and let us imagine a person with clairvoyant vision looking down upon the earth from this star. He would not only see the earth suspended there as a physical planet, but he would see an aura about it, he would see the earth surrounded by an aura of light, for he would be perceiving the earth's ether and astral bodies. If this clairvoyant person were to remain a long time on this distant star, long enough to have observed the pre-Christian periods of the earth pass by and the Event of Golgotha approaching, the following spectacle would have presented itself to him. Before the Event of Golgotha the aura of the earth, the astral and ether bodies offered a certain aspect of colour and form, but following a particular, definite moment of time, he would have seen the colour of the entire aura changing. What was this particular moment of time? It was the very moment when the blood flowed from the wounds of Christ-Jesus upon Golgotha. All spiritual earthly relationships, as such, changed from this moment.
It has been previously stated that what is called the Logos is the sum total of the six Elohim who, united with the sun, present the earth with their spiritual gifts, while externally the physical sunlight is falling upon the earth. Therefore the light of the sun appears to us like the outer physical body of the spirit and soul of the Elohim or of the Logos. At the moment of the Event of Golgotha, that force, that impulse which formerly could only stream down upon the earth as light began to unite with the earth itself. And because the Logos began to unite with the earth, the earth's aura became changed.
We shall now consider the Event of Golgotha from still another point of view. We have already reviewed the evolution of the human being and of the earth from various standpoints. We know that our Earth, before it became the Earth, passed through the three embodiments of Saturn, Sun and Moon. Therefore the embodiment just preceding that of our Earth was that of the ancient Moon. When a planet has attained the goal of its evolution, something happens to it similar to what happens to a human being who, in a certain incarnation, has attained his life's goal. The planet passes over into a different invisible existence, a state called a “Pralaya” and then after a time it embodies itself anew. Thus between the previous embodiment of our Earth, the Moon Evolution, and the Earth's present embodiment, there existed an intermediate state. Out of a sort of spiritual, self-animated, externally invisible existence, the Earth gleamed forth in its earliest state and out of this state developed those states which we described yesterday. At that time, in that early age when our Earth gleamed forth, it was still united with all that now belongs to our solar system. It was then so large, that it reached to the furthest planets of this solar system. All was unity, for only later individual planets became segregated. The present earth up to a certain point of time was united with our present sun and moon. Thus we see there was a time when sun, moon and earth were a single body. It was as though you were to take the present moon and sun and stir them together with the earth and thus make one large cosmic body. This was our Earth once upon a time when your astral body and your ego were floating about in a vapour-like form. Even earlier than this the sun, moon and earth were joined together. At that time the forces which are now in the sun — the spiritual and physical forces — were bound up with the earth. Then came a time when the sun separated from the earth; but not only did the physical sun with its physical light which can be seen with physical eyes depart, but with it all its spiritual and soul beings at whose head stood the Elohim, the real Spirits of Light, the denizens of the sun. What was left, was a mixture of the present moon and earth. Then for a time the earth, though separated from the sun, was still united with the moon. It was not until the Lemurian period that the moon separated from the earth, when, as a result, there arose that relationship between these three bodies, sun, moon and earth, that exists today. This relationship had to occur. The Elohim had to act from without. It was necessary for one of them to become Lord of the moon and from there reflect the powerful force of the other Elohim. We live at present upon our earth as though dwelling upon an island in cosmic space which has separated from the sun and moon. But the time will come when our earth will once more unite with the sun and again form one body with it. Then human beings will be so spiritualized that they will again be able to bear the stronger forces of the sun, able to receive them and unite them with themselves. They, together with the Elohim, will then occupy the same field of action.
You will ask, what is the force that will bring this about? Had the Event of Golgotha not occurred, the earth and the sun would never be able to reunite. For through the Event of Golgotha, which bound the force of the Elohim in the sun to the earth — in other words the force of the Logos — the impulse was given which will again eventually impel one Logos-force toward the other, and finally once more unite them — sun and earth — in one body. Since the Event of Golgotha, the earth, spiritually observed, is possessed of the force to draw the sun again into a unity with it. Therefore it can be said that through this great Event, the force of the Logos, which formerly radiated down upon the earth from without, was now taken up into its spiritual being. The question may be asked, what existed previously within the body of the earth? It was that force which streamed down upon it from the sun. But since that time, what exists there within the earth? The Logos itself which through Golgotha has become the spirit of the earth.
As truly as your soul and spirit dwell within your physical body, do also the soul and spirit of the earth dwell within the body of the earth — that earthly body which consists of stones, plants and animals and upon which you tread. This soul and spirit, this earth spirit is the Christ. Christ is the spirit of the earth. When the Christ spoke to His most trusted disciples on an occasion which can be numbered among the most intimate of such occasions, what did He say to them? With what mystery had He occasion to entrust them? He was able to say to them: “It is as though you can gaze into your own soul from your physical body. Your soul is within. It is the same when you observe the whole earth-sphere. That spirit which for a time now stands here before you in the flesh is also the spirit of the earth and will always continue as such.” He had occasion to point to the earth as to His real body and ask: “When you behold the cornfield and then eat the bread that nourishes you, what in reality is this bread which you are eating? You are eating My body. And when you drink of the plant sap, it is like the blood in your own body; it is the blood of the earth — My Blood!” — These were the very words that Christ- Jesus spoke to His most intimate disciples and we must take them very literally. Then when He called them together and expounded to them symbolically what we shall call the Christian Initiation, He uttered those extraordinary words which we find in the 18th verse of the 13th Chapter of the Gospel of St. John, where He announced that one among them would betray Him:
“He who eats My bread treads me under foot.”
These words must be taken literally. Men eat the bread of the earth and tread upon the earth with their feet. If the earth is the body of the Earth-Spirit, that is, of the Christ, then men tread with their feet the earth's body, the body whose bread they eat. An immense deepening of the idea of the Last Supper as presented in the Gospel of St. John is granted us, when we learn about the Christ, the Earth-Spirit, and about the bread which is taken from the body of the earth. Christ points to the earth and says: “This is My body!” Just as the muscular human flesh belongs to the human soul, so does bread belong to the body of the earth, that is to the body of the Christ. And the sap that flows through the plants, which pulsates through the vine stalk, is like the blood pulsating through the human body. Pointing to this, the Christ says: “This is my blood!” That this truthful explanation of the Last Supper can cause some of the sanctity to be lost which has always been associated with it can only be imagined by someone possessing no understanding of it or who has neither desire nor capacity for such an understanding. But anyone who wishes to understand will acknowledge that this does not cause it to lose in holiness, but that through it the whole of the earth-planet becomes sanctified. What powerful feelings can be engendered in our souls, if we can behold in the Last Supper the greatest mystery of the earth, the connection between the Event of Golgotha and the entire evolution of the earth; if we can learn to feel that in the Last Supper the flowing of the blood from the wounds of the Saviour had not only a human, but a cosmic significance, that is, it gave to the earth the force to carry forward its evolution.
Anyone who understands the profound meaning of the Gospel of St. John will feel not only united through his physical body with the physical body of the earth, but as a psycho-spiritual being will feel united with the psycho-spiritual being of the earth which is the Christ Himself, and then he will feel how the Christ, as the Spirit of the Earth, flows through his body. When we have this experience, we are able to ask: what illuminated the writer of the Gospel of St. John at that moment when he was able to behold the profound mysteries which have to do with Christ-Jesus? He beheld the forces, the impulses which are present in Christ-Jesus, and he perceived how these impulses must be active in mankind, if only mankind will receive them.
In order to understand this quite clearly, we must once more bring before our souls the way in which human evolution actually takes place. The human being consists of physical, ether and astral bodies and an ego. How does this evolution occur? By the ego gradually working through the other three members, purifying and strengthening them. The ego is called upon gradually to purify the astral body, to cleanse it and to raise it to a higher level. When the entire astral body has been purified and strengthened by the special forces of the ego, it becomes Manas or Spirit-Self. When the ether or life-body has been thoroughly worked over and strengthened by the force of the ego, it becomes Budhi, or Life-Spirit. When the physical body has been fully overcome and conquered by the ego, it becomes Atman or Spirit-Man. Then will the human being have reached the goal which above all lies in store for him. That, however, will be attained only in the far distant future. Moreover, we wish it to be quite clear that the ego acts in full consciousness in what has just been described; namely, that the human being consisting of the four members — physical, ether and astral bodies and ego — works by means of the ego upon the other three members, transforming them into Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit and Spirit-Man. For the most part this is not yet the case with present humanity which, as a matter of fact, is just beginning, fully conscious, to work a little of Manas into its astral body. The human being is doing this now. Through the help of higher beings he has already, although unconsciously, worked upon his three lower members during this Earth evolution. In ancient times he unconsciously worked over the astral body, and this then became permeated by the Sentient Soul. The ego unconsciously worked into the ether body and this unconsciously re-formed ether body is what you will find described in regular sequence in my book Theosophy as the Intellectual Soul, and that part of the physical body, unconsciously worked upon by the ego, you will find described there as the Consciousness Soul. The Consciousness Soul only came into being toward the end of the Atlantean period when the ether body — previously outside the physical body in the head region — gradually drew wholly within it. Through this the human being learned to utter the word “I.” Thus variously-membered, he gradually passed over into the post-Atlantean period. It is the task of our age to work Manas or Spirit-Self by degrees into what had previously been received unconsciously. The human being must, as it were, develop Manas within himself by means of all the forces he has acquired by virtue of possessing a physical, an ether and an astral body, a sentient, an intellectual and a consciousness soul; by means of all the forces which these various members can give him, he must develop Manas and also, although in a very small degree, the germ of a Life-Spirit or Budhi. Therefore our post-Atlantean age has the important task of helping the human being to develop consciously these higher members of his being (Manas or Spirit-Self, Budhi or Life-Spirit and Atman or Spirit-Man) in the distant future when he will at last have reached his goal. He must from now on, by degrees, develop within himself the force to evolve his higher members out of his lower.
Let us now ask: what has been the condition of the human being that has kept him from already developing these higher members, and what will be the difference in the future? How will the humanity of the future differ from that of the present?
When at last the whole of the higher man has been developed, the entire astral body will be so completely purified that it will simultaneously become Manas or Spirit-Self; the ether body so thoroughly purged that it will simultaneously become Life-Spirit or Budhi, and the physical body will be so greatly metamorphosed that it will, at the same time, be as actually a Spirit-Man, Atman, as it is now a physical body. The greatest force will be needed to conquer this lowest body, hence the conquest and transformation of the physical means the greatest victory for the human being. When mankind has fully perfected the physical body, this physical man will then become Spirit-Man or Atman. All this is at present only in germ within the human being, but a time will come when it will live in him in its fulness. And by lifting his gaze to the Christ Personality, to the Christ Impulse, by energizing and strengthening himself through this Christ Impulse, he draws into himself the force that can accomplish this transformation.
Since humanity of the present has not yet perfected this metamorphosis, what is the result? Spiritual Science makes this very clear. Because this katharsis of the astral body has not yet been accomplished, that is, the astral body has not yet transformed itself into Spirit-Self, selfishness or egotism is possible. Because the ether body has not yet been strengthened by the ego, lying and error are possible; and because the physical body has not yet been fortified by the ego, sickness and death are possible. In a once fully developed Spirit-Self, there will be no more selfishness; no sickness and death, but just health and salvation in the fully developed Spirit-Man, that is, in the fully evolved physical body. What does it mean for the human being to take the Christ into himself? It means that he has learned to understand the forces that are in the Christ, which if taken into himself make it possible for him to become master even of his physical body.
Imagine for example that someone could receive the Christ Impulse fully into himself, that it could completely pass over upon him. The Christ Himself might stand directly in the presence of this person and the Christ Impulse be transmitted to him. What does that signify? If the person were blind, he would yet be able to see by means of the direct influence of this Christ Impulse, for the final goal of evolution is the conquest of the forces of sickness and death. When the writer of the Gospel of St. John speaks of the healing of the man born blind, he is then speaking out of the depths of the Mysteries, he is demonstrating, by means of an example, that the force of the Christ is a healing force when it appears in full power. It may be asked: Where is this force? It is in the body of the Christ, in the earth! But this earth must, in truth, be fully permeated by the being of the Christ Spirit or of the Logos. Let us see if the writer of the Gospel recounts the story with this meaning. How does he relate it?
Standing there is the blind man. The Christ takes some earth, insalivates it and lays it upon the blind man's eyes. He lays His body, the earth, permeated with His spirit upon the blind man. In this description, the writer of the Gospel indicates a mystery which he very well understands. Now laying aside all prejudice, let us talk a little more in detail of this sign — one of the greatest performed by the Christ — in order that we may learn to know more exactly the nature of such a thing and not be disturbed because our very clever contemporaries will consider what has just been said to be sheer madness or folly! There are, however, in the world great and mighty mysteries which mankind is not yet entitled to know. Human beings of the present day, even though they may be sufficiently developed, are not yet strong enough to go through the great Mysteries. They can know of them, they can understand them when they are able to experience them spiritually; but our present humanity, so deeply immersed in matter, is not yet capable of converting them into their physical expression.
All life is, in fact, made up of antitheses and extremes. Life and death are just such extremes. For the thought and feelings of the occultist, there is something very extraordinary in seeing, for example, a corpse and a living human being side by side. When we have a living, waking human being before us, we know that a soul and spirit dwell within him. But as far as consciousness is concerned, this soul and spirit are, as it were, cut off from any connection with the spiritual world; they cannot look into it. If we have a corpse before us, we have the feeling that the spirit and soul which once belonged to it are passing over into the spiritual worlds where consciousness, or the light of those worlds is flashing up within them. Thus the corpse becomes a symbol of what is taking place in the spiritual world. But in the physical world also, there are reflections of what is happening in the spiritual world, but they are of an extraordinary character. When a human being descends again into physical birth, his bodily part must be reconstructed; material substance must, so to say, rush together in order that a body be created for him. For the clairvoyant, this rushing together of physical substance represents the death of consciousness in the spirit world. There it dies — here it becomes alive. In the rushing together of substance to form a physical human body can be seen, in a certain sense, the dying of a spiritual consciousness; while on the other hand, at the moment of decomposition or of the burning of the physical body, when the parts disintegrate and dissolve, the opposite actually becomes manifest in the spiritual world, that is, the awakening of a spiritual consciousness occurs. Physical dissolution is spiritual birth. Therefore all processes of decay and dissolution mean something more than just decay and dissolution to the occultist. A churchyard, spiritually observed, where physical bodies are in the process of dissolution, is the scene of remarkable processes, the continuous flashing up and glistening of spiritual birth; (I am now speaking of what is taking place spiritually in the churchyard itself apart from the human beings there).
Let us imagine for example that a person were to give himself up physically to a certain training — naturally no one would recommend this, for the present physical body could not possibly endure it — to a schooling in which he would train his body to breathe in putrified air for a certain prescribed length of time with the conscious intent of taking in the spiritual processes which have just been described. If he does this in the proper way, then in his following incarnations — it cannot be done in one — he can be incarnated with that force which offers restorative and health-giving impulses. Breathing putrid air belongs to a schooling which gradually gives strength to the spittle, when mixed with the ordinary earth, to become the healing substance which the Christ rubbed upon the eyes of the blind man. This mystery through which a person consumes, eats or inhales death, by which he acquires the power to heal, is the mystery to which the writer of the Gospel refers when he describes such signs as the healing of the man born blind. Instead of declaring without cessation that such and such a thing should be interpreted to mean thus and so, it would be much better were people to learn that such a thing as is described in the healing of the blind man is literally true, that it exists, and that it is possible to have respect for such a personality as the writer of the Gospel and be able to say: “There was such a person who was thoroughly initiated into this mystery about which we must try to acquire an understanding.”
It was, moreover, necessary to call attention beforehand to the fact that we are here in an anthroposophical group in which many prejudices have been eliminated, thus making it possible to speak of such real mysteries as the insalivation of the earth's soil for healing purposes, and to say that such an incident has a literal significance.
However, let us now try to comprehend how, by knowing these facts, we unite with the idea that occupies us today namely, that the Christ is the Spirit of the earth and that the earth is His Body. We have seen the Christ spiritualizing the etheric element in one instance and have seen Him giving up something of Himself in order to perform the miracle we arc considering. Now let us consider something else. Besides what has been said today, let us take what the Christ Himself said: “The most profound mystery of My being is the I AM, and the true and eternal might of the I AM or of the Ego which has the force to permeate other bodies must flow into human beings. It dwells within the Earth Spirit.” Let us hold this clearly in mind and take very earnestly, quite seriously, the fact that, because the Christ wishes to bestow the true ego upon every human soul, He will awaken the God in it and gradually enkindle the Spirit of the Lord and King in everyone. What does this signify? We have here nothing more nor less than the fact that the Christ brings to expression, in the highest sense, the idea of Karma, the karmic law. For when anyone fully understands the idea of Karma, he will understand it in this Christian sense. It means that no man should set himself up as a judge of the inner soul of another human being. Unless the idea of Karma has been understood in this way, it has not been grasped in its deepest significance. When one man judges another, the one is always placing the other under the compulsion of his own ego. However, if a person really believes in the “I AM” in the Christian sense, he will not judge. He will say: “I know that Karma is the great adjuster. Whatever you may have done, I do not judge it!”
Let us suppose that a transgressor is brought before a person who really understands the Christ-Word. What will be his attitude toward the transgressor? Let us suppose that all those who would like to be Christians were to accuse him of a terrible sin. The real Christian would say to them: “Whether what you maintain has been done by him or not, makes no difference, the I AM must be respected; it must be left to Karma, to the great law which is the law of the Christ-Spirit Himself. Karma is fulfilled in the course of earthly evolution. We can leave it to this earthly evolution to determine what punishment Karma shall inflict upon a human being.” He would perhaps turn to the earth and say to the accusers: — “Pay heed to yourselves, it is the duty of the earth to inflict the punishment. Let us inscribe it then upon the earth where it has, moreover, been registered as Karma.”
Jesus went up to the Mount of Olives.
And early in the morning He came again into the temple and all the people came unto Him and He sat down and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery; and they placed her in their midst.
They said unto Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned; but what sayest Thou?
This they said, tempting Him, that they might accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
So when they continued asking Him, He lifted Himself up and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
But when they heard this, being convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted
“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
~ Arnold Toynbee
(i'm workin' on it...with a little help from my friends.)
best on black
Igarashi: “How many physical kills?”
Dusksmoke: “6, one indirectly got his head smashed.”
Igarashi: “How many were killed in the compound?”
Dusksmoke: “15, sir.”
Igarashi: “You know, it triumphs me over how you can do such things....it is an accomplishment.”
Dusksmoke: “Numbers aren’t anything major or particular.”
Igarashi: “For me, it is. I total it up for the amount.
Dusksmoke: “Should I be dismissed while I leave you to your accounting?”
Igarashi: “Yes. Arigato. You may leave.”
I tipped my hat as I stepped out of the private office of Igarashi. The night was surely long after I arrived. Knowing the fact that we are restless, and we don’t sleep much. Maybe if you’re on a higher rank, then that works. I get an average of 10 hours, so I’m lucky to regain energy. Meditation too.
Just so as I thought, I spotted a buddy down the hallways....
***
Oddcrow: “¿Como estas hermano?”
Dusksmoke: “Estoy bien.”
Oddcrow: “I heard you managed to pull that off in under 5 hours. That’s cool.”
Dusksmoke: “The job? Nah, it’s probably not as fun as it’s used to. It happens. Might feel like an achievement sometimes but it isn’t.”
Oddcrow: “Hey, you’re the one who gets praised more than me, hermano.”
Dusksmoke: “I know. Thing is, not a whole lotta people speak Spanish here around. Maybe it’s just the two of us.”
Oddcrow: “Plus you and I are American too. As much as they’ll still keep looking down at us, we might even be more fluent in their native tongue.”
Dusksmoke: “Haha, that’s a fact. So, qué estás mirando?”
Oddcrow: “There. I just got into contact with a chef near the mall. He runs a sushi shop. While you were away with helping your friends out, I spent some time getting info from him.”
Dusksmoke: “Do you pay him tons for in exchange for getting better sashimi and info?”
Oddcrow: “Heh, no. I didn’t. I could have, but he’s got respect.”
Dusksmoke: “Mutual feelings and agreement.”
Oddcrow: “Sí, hermano. So, wanna race down to see who’s paying for the beer? Like the old days?”
Dusksmoke: “El gusto es mío.”
***
We arrive quickly. Guess how it’s travelled? Zipline. That’s how I traverse towers and skyscrapers. You can easily get lost in a urban, densely populated city, especially at night when it can be dangerous sometimes. Who won? Of course, it’s me. A fun bet with my buddy, he’s totally paying for the beer. And that’s how I’m getting my midnight snacks too.
Oddcrow spends a good amount of time joking with me and the chef. It’s a moment of happiness that I haven’t felt in a long time, but it feels good to be like that, until….I had to get my techno shurikens ready.
Woman’s voice: “Buki o süte te te koufuku shi ro.”
Then the cops come in. It’s definitely the NPA, lightly armed but they still look like they’re rocking the cool gear, probably lesser than Paladin. Me and Oddcrow slip our gears away.
Dusksmoke: “Hello Mina.”
Mina: “Please, call me Detective Tatsugami.”
Dusksmoke: “Keeping it professional then. You wanna call your men off first before we talk? At least I need my saké.”
Mina: “Alright. I’ll wait.”
She waves her hand, directing her underlings out the door. I quickly finish another glass and put my mask back on. Oddcrow gets the notion that my detective friend is here. They know each other as well, and he makes up a quick joke to usher the chef out. He nods to me, seemingly as if I’ll get to know more things later.
***
Duskmsoke: “So, what’s urgent?”
Mina: “Nothing actually.”
Duskmsoke: “Nothing? What do you mean nothing? Just for that little stunt you pulled back there?”
Mina: “I knew I had to keep an eye on you. Don’t think of it as stalking, but lately you know how the crime rates in Tokyo have been up. Your guild’s been involved, as secretive as it is, the gangs like the Yakuza have been committing much crimes.”
Dusksmoke: “I’m aware. But you know the fact I spent a few weeks off to help my friends overseas.”
Mina: “I’ve heard rumours about the big explosion on Cyprus was much more than that.”
Dusksmoke: “I can’t deny your suspicions, you’re right. I was fighting there. Guess that’s as far I can tell you with this piece of info.”
Mina: “Thanks for the nice piece. Any more scoops?”
Duskmsoke: “Killed some rebel Yakuza guys, a couple of em. You’ve probably went to the crime scene already.”
Mina: *sighs* “Yes. We’re cleaning up after you. Stuff happens like that. But honestly, it’s becoming a liability—how long before can we expect it to stop? And how much threats will this country even face?”
Dusksmoke: “You know the saying, crime never sleeps. There’s always heroes everywhere. Till tis day, you’ve never actually apprehended me at once, given my status as a vigilante as well...
Mina: “Of course I do. I held back. Maybe it was all just for you...all those years.
Dusksmoke: “Yes, you’re right. By the way I got a piece of tech. Hope you can analyze this. That’s another scoop I got for you.”
Mina: “Ok, I guess this is it. My team’s going to call me in 5 seconds….”
Duskmoke: “I’ve kinda missed you like that. Mina.”
Mina: “Well, me too. But responsibility comes first, right?
Dusksmoke: “Definitely. Same for me. I’ll see you later.”
Mina: “Alright.”
I jump off the roof and land on my feet first. Not a very tall building, considering the fact it’s just about one story high. Mina must have taken the stairs, giving excuses to her coworkers that we escaped. They probably know I’m an ally too, but we’ve been so secretive that nothing or the guild, except Oddcrow, knows we’re somehow affiliated.
I join him up later, listening to what he’s about to tell me. But in this instant, seeing my former flame this recent date makes me a bit uneasy. She knows who I am, who I used to be….I guess I do miss her somehow.
She’s quite exquisite, coming from a multiracial family—Japanese on her father’s side and French American on her mother’s. Just like me, I’m a foreigner but she was born here, receiving dual education and eventually, worked her way up to law enforcement. We’re about the same age, in our mid 20s. She’s probably about two months younger than me if I recall.
Something tells me it’s not as right as it seems, as tough as she looks….what if the guild know we’re connected? What if they could target her? So many possibilities and questions left unsolved….
Which is why this isn’t a normal vacation at all.
Plume from Zavodovski volcano, South Sandwich Islands.
Aqua/MODIS 04/27/201216:20 UTC
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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So even though i was doing photography for a lot of years i didnt have it on paper / certification so i opted to do it and im very happy with my grades a bit shocked but awesome.
Felt like sharing my accomplishments with the world ... yup still happy.
Now all i need is some testimonials on my work lol
Easter Sunday AND we got a family photo! Seems like a big accomplishment! Spring is finally here.....but wondering if I should photoshop out the lingering snowbank in the background!
After Arakawa race.
This picture is part of a small series. You might take a look at the album for some better understanding of the idea.
Tokyo, Japan
“People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. Instead, they go out and happen to things.” – Leonardo da Vinci
Edited with Lisa's Black & White & Grey from Renaissance Studios Vintage Photoshop Actions www.rsblog.ca/photoshop-actions
On Oct. 9, 2013, Hubble observed comet ISON once again, when it was inside the orbit of Mars, about 177 million miles from Earth. This image shows that the comet was still intact despite some predictions that the fragile icy nucleus might disintegrate closer to the sun. The comet will pass closest to the sun on Nov. 28, 2013.
If the nucleus had broke apart then Hubble would have likely seen evidence of multiple fragments. Moreover, the coma, or head, surrounding the comet's nucleus is symmetric and smooth. This would probably not be the case if clusters of smaller fragments were flying along.
This color composite image was assembled using two filters. The comet's coma appears cyan, a greenish-blue color due to gas, while the tail is reddish due to dust streaming off the nucleus. The tail forms as dust particles are pushed away from the nucleus by the pressure of sunlight.
Credit: NASA
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More details on Comet ISON:
Comet ISON began its trip from the Oort cloud region of our solar system and is now travelling toward the sun. The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving Day -- 28 Nov 2013 -- skimming just 730,000 miles above the sun's surface. If it comes around the sun without breaking up, the comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye, and from what we see now, ISON is predicted to be a particularly bright and beautiful comet.
Catalogued as C/2012 S1, Comet ISON was first spotted 585 million miles away in September 2012. This is ISON's very first trip around the sun, which means it is still made of pristine matter from the earliest days of the solar system’s formation, its top layers never having been lost by a trip near the sun. Comet ISON is, like all comets, a dirty snowball made up of dust and frozen gases like water, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide -- some of the fundamental building blocks that scientists believe led to the formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago.
NASA has been using a vast fleet of spacecraft, instruments, and space- and Earth-based telescope, in order to learn more about this time capsule from when the solar system first formed.
The journey along the way for such a sun-grazing comet can be dangerous. A giant ejection of solar material from the sun could rip its tail off. Before it reaches Mars -- at some 230 million miles away from the sun -- the radiation of the sun begins to boil its water, the first step toward breaking apart. And, if it survives all this, the intense radiation and pressure as it flies near the surface of the sun could destroy it altogether.
This collection of images show ISON throughout that journey, as scientists watched to see whether the comet would break up or remain intact.
The comet reaches its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving Day -- Nov. 28, 2013 -- skimming just 730,000 miles above the sun’s surface. If it comes around the sun without breaking up, the comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye, and from what we see now, ISON is predicted to be a particularly bright and beautiful comet.
ISON stands for International Scientific Optical Network, a group of observatories in ten countries who have organized to detect, monitor, and track objects in space. ISON is managed by the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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In genere, quando si scende su pendii un po' ripidi, per sicurezza si va uno alla volta. Così, non si sa mai. E succede che puoi goderti da spettatore la discesa del tuo compagno, ci si dà i turni per decidere chi scende per primo, così una volta lo vedi dal basso e una dall'alto. E, di solito, non ci sono altri rumori che lo swish della neve, il tuo respiro e poco altro. E poi ci sono quei compagni, quelli più fidati, ma anche quelli con cui basta uno sguardo per capirsi. Oggi, giù dal Sises, era così. Prima Guglielmo, il puntino giù in fondo, poi Filippo, con la tavola. E io, per ultimo, sorridevo mentre li vedevo scendere.
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Moscow. Wilhelm Peak Street. park The garden of the future
Day of the city in Moscow in 2017. Fragments.
Camera: Samsung Vega 77i QD
Film: Lucky SHD 100 New Black & White 35mm film
Photo taken: 12/09/2017
Scanner: Noritsu LS-1100
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Obama Popular Despite Challenges
By David Zussman (*)
The United States is a great sporting nation and, as a result, Americans like keeping score and handicapping most public events. The performance of their presidents is no exception and, since the early days of the Roosevelt presidency, the media have marked the first 100 days by providing a report card based on their performance.
It is generally acknowledged that no other U.S. president has arrived in office with higher expectations than Barack Obama, and more difficult problems. It is, therefore, not surprising that he has been subjected to a steeper learning curve than his predecessors.
By the time Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20, the U.S. financial system was in freefall, the credit markets were becoming unglued, house prices were tumbling, and a half-dozen foreign hotspots required presidential attention. It is difficult to imagine how it could have been more challenging.
Since the 100-day mark is an artificial marker, the White House staff was reluctant to join in on the rating game but their efforts proved futile.
Once they realized that it was going to be impossible to blunt the media's interest in rating the administration's performance, some senior staff tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to lower the public's expectations regarding Obama's early accomplishments by assigning themselves a B-plus. And finally, the White House embraced the 100-day anniversary, with the president appearing at last month's 100-day town hall celebration in St. Louis.
At this point, given all of the challenges and difficulties encountered by Obama, he remains a very popular political leader. In fact, according to the Pew Foundation, his personal popularity is higher than the ratings for his individual programs.
However, there is a very wide gap in the perceptions of Democrats and Republicans, suggesting that he might be one of the most polarizing presidents when compared with his predecessors. This may foreshadow future political tensions in the United States.
While not popular with Republicans, Obama appears to have precipitated a dramatic shift in attitude in favour of a greater role for government in the United States and may be giving a new name to the notion of activism.
Most observers attribute the positive rankings to Obama's personal style. He offers calm leadership that is heavily dependent on teamwork.
It is generally acknowledged that his eclectic team of advisers has two characteristics. First, they represent a wide range of ideological beliefs that appears to have broad appeal, and they seek a consensus among key decision makers before they act. In addition, he prefers to signal his intentions and his overall policy direction, but is reluctant to dictate how the policy will be implemented. At this point, he is perfectly willing to allow Congress to sort out how his policies will be implemented.
Ironically, some observers have noted that his approach to governing is the one used by Ronald Reagan more than a generation ago.
Former Clinton labour secretary, Robert Reich, may have captured best Obama's "cool" approach to governing when he described the president as being "the serene centre of the cyclone -- exuding calm when most Americans are petrified."
While management style is obviously an important factor, America has also changed its attitudes since George W. Bush was first elected in 2000. The American population is aging and appears more predisposed to accept an increased role for government.
Given the obvious failure of the Bush administration to buffer Americans from the impact of unfettered markets, it is not surprising that Obama has been very effective in changing the conversation with Americans and bringing in a new paradigm about governing that includes a broader role for government.
The swine flu epidemic that is sweeping across the world is a good example of how events can upset the best plans of newly elected governments. The American political system replaces its senior managers after each change of administration but this time it has been severely handicapped during this crisis period.
More significant, the epidemic has also exposed the weaknesses of the American transition process that requires it to replace the top 7,000 public servants.
The complex vetting procedures in addition to the generally cumbersome appointment process has created a backlog of appointments that is undermining the government's ability to respond to its various challenges.
For example, at this point, the Obama administration has still to fill around 15 senior executive health jobs, with a similar number of vacancies at the Treasury department.
One observer noted that "we're setting up a system where the only people who qualify to work in government are the ones who never actually left government."
Trapped between retaining the former Bush-appointed administrators or following a lengthy search process to find suitable replacements, the government remains leaderless in too many important departments.
While the first 100 days are not a very good predictor of what's to come, it's clear that the public is currently content with Obama's performance.
He has introduced a new vocabulary and style to governing and he evidently understands Prof. Drew Westen's observation that citizens want to hear values-based and emotionally compelling narratives from their political leaders.
As in Canada, Americans want to be reassured that their leadership can feel their pain and is working in their interests.
(*) David Zussman holds the Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.
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--> This article appeared on www.windsorstar.com
On Nov. 13, 2012, a narrow corridor in the southern hemisphere experienced a total solar eclipse. The corridor lay mostly over the ocean but also cut across the northern tip of Australia where both professional and amateur astronomers gathered to watch.
During a solar eclipse one can see – using appropriate instruments to protect the eyes since you should never look at the sun directly – dim structures around the edges of the sun. These structures are the sun's atmosphere, the corona, which extends beyond the more easily seen surface, known as the photosphere.
In modern times, we know that the corona is constantly on the move. Made of electrified gas, called plasma, the solar material dances in response to huge magnetic fields on the sun. Structural changes in these magnetic fields can also give rise to giant explosions of radiation called solar flares, or expulsions of solar material called coronal mass ejections, CMEs – which make the corona a particularly interesting area to study.
Credit: NASA/Cirtain
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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:) Like these railway tunnels , who would have thought many many years back that a Train could go into a mountain !!! but men tried tried tried and tried a little more and achieved that.
Sunday is not a typical day to motivate :P but then this sure is the day to enjoy the accomplishment of human kind :) so enjoy ur Tele, that cozy sofa, movie in theater ! or go on a nice drive :) its all those accomplishments which make our life more entertaining at times :)
Have a great sunday :) like i always say "There is hope you are not alone" even in a dark tunnel :)
Canon 40D, Canon 10-22mm USM, 1/40s f/4.5 ISO800 22mm
Part of a series on women of size also being achievers. Award winners in life and at the job.
Standing with the governor. Well done, girl!
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. - Two McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B "Harrier's" with Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 311, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, follow a KC-130J "Super Hercules" with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron (VMGR) 352, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, during the 2018 Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show on MCAS Miramar, Calif., Sept. 29. This year's air show honors "100 years of women in the Marine Corps" by featuring several performances and displays that highlight the accomplishments and milestones women have made since the first female enlistee, Opha May Johnson, who joined the service in 1918.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B "Harrier II" is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier Jump Jet family. Capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL), the aircraft was designed in the late 1970s as an Anglo-American development of the British Hawker Siddeley "Harrier", the first operational V/STOL aircraft. The aircraft is primarily employed on light attack or multi-role missions, ranging from close air support of ground troops to armed reconnaissance. The AV-8B is used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the Spanish Navy, and the Italian Navy. A variant of the AV-8B, the British Aerospace Harrier II, was developed for the British military, while another, the TAV-8B, is a dedicated two-seat trainer.
The project that eventually led to the AV-8Bs creation started in the early 1970s as a cooperative effort between the United States and United Kingdom (UK), aimed at addressing the operational inadequacies of the first-generation Harrier. Early efforts centered on a larger, more powerful Pegasus engine to dramatically improve the capabilities of the "Harrier". Due to budgetary constraints, the UK abandoned the project in 1975.
Following the withdrawal of the UK, McDonnell Douglas extensively redesigned the earlier AV-8A "Harrier" to create the AV-8B. While retaining the general layout of its predecessor, the aircraft incorporates a new wing, an elevated cockpit, a redesigned fuselage, one extra hardpoint per wing, and other structural and aerodynamic refinements. The aircraft is powered by an upgraded version of the Pegasus, which gives the aircraft its V/STOL ability. The AV-8B made its maiden flight in November 1981 and entered service with the USMC in January 1985. Later upgrades added a night-attack capability and radar, resulting in the AV-8B(NA) and AV-8B "Harrier II Plus", respectively. An enlarged version named "Harrier III" was also studied, but not pursued. The UK, through British Aerospace, re-joined the improved Harrier project as a partner in 1981, giving it a significant work-share in the project. After corporate mergers in the 1990s, Boeing and BAE Systems have jointly supported the program. Approximately 340 aircraft were produced in a 22-year production program that ended in 2003.
Typically operated from small aircraft carriers, large amphibious assault ships and simple forward operating bases, AV-8Bs have participated in numerous military and humanitarian operations, proving themselves versatile assets. U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf named the USMC Harrier II as one of several important weapons in the Gulf War. The aircraft took part in combat during the Iraq War beginning in 2003. The "Harrier II" has served in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan since 2001, and was used in Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya in 2011. Italian and Spanish "Harrier II's" have taken part in overseas conflicts in conjunction with NATO coalitions. During its service history, the AV-8B has had a high accident rate, related to the percentage of time spent in critical take-off and landing phases. USMC and Italian Navy AV-8Bs are to be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35B "Lightning II", with the former expected to operate its Harriers until 2025.
Development
Origins
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the first-generation "Harrier's" entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Marine Corps (USMC), but were handicapped in range and payload. In short takeoff and landing configuration, the AV-8A (American designation for the Harrier) carried less than half the 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) payload of the smaller Douglas A-4 "Skyhawk", over a more limited radius. To address this issue, Hawker Siddeley and McDonnell Douglas began joint development of a more capable version of the "Harrier" in 1973. Early efforts concentrated on an improved Pegasus engine, designated the Pegasus 15, which was being tested by Bristol Siddeley. Although more powerful, the engine's diameter was too large by 2.75 in (70 mm) to fit into the "Harrier" easily.
In December 1973, a joint American and British team completed a project document defining an "Advanced Harrier" powered by the Pegasus 15 engine. The "Advanced Harrier" was intended to replace the original RAF and USMC "Harrier's", as well as the USMC's A-4. The aim of the "Advanced Harrier" was to double the AV-8's payload and range, and was therefore unofficially named AV-16. The British government pulled out of the project in March 1975 owing to decreased defense funding, rising costs, and the RAF's insufficient 60-aircraft requirement. With development costs estimated to be around £180–200 million (1974 British pounds), the United States was unwilling to fund development by itself, and ended the project later that year.
Despite the project's termination, the two companies continued to take different paths toward an enhanced "Harrier". Hawker Siddeley focused on a new larger wing that could be retrofitted to existing operational aircraft, while McDonnell Douglas independently pursued a less ambitious, though still expensive, project catering to the needs of the US military. Using knowledge gleaned from the AV-16 effort, though dropping some items—such as the larger Pegasus engine—McDonnell Douglas kept the basic structure and engine for an aircraft tailored for the USMC.
Designing and testing
As the USMC wanted a substantially improved "Harrier" without the development of a new engine, the plan for "Harrier II" development was authorized by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) in 1976. The United States Navy (USN), which had traditionally procured military aircraft for the USMC, insisted that the new design be verified with flight testing. McDonnell Douglas modified two AV-8As with new wings, revised intakes, redesigned exhaust nozzles, and other aerodynamic changes; the modified forward fuselage and cockpit found on all subsequent aircraft were not incorporated on these prototypes. Designated YAV-8B, the first converted aircraft flew on 9 November 1978, at the hands of Charles Plummer. The aircraft performed three vertical take-offs and hovered for seven minutes at Lambert–St. Louis International Airport. The second aircraft followed on 19 February 1979, but crashed that November due to engine flameout; the pilot ejected safely. Flight testing of these modified AV-8s continued into 1979. The results showed greater than expected drag, hampering the aircraft's maximum speed. Further refinements to the aerodynamic profile yielded little improvement. Positive test results in other areas, including payload, range, and V/STOL performance, led to the award of a development contract in 1979. The contract stipulated a procurement of 12 aircraft initially, followed by a further 324.
Between 1978 and 1980, the DoD and USN repeatedly attempted to terminate the AV-8B program. There had previously been conflict between the USMC and USN over budgetary issues. At the time, the USN wanted to procure A-18s for its ground attack force and, to cut costs, pressured the USMC to adopt the similarly-designed F-18 fighter instead of the AV-8B to fulfill the role of close air support (both designs were eventually amalgamated to create the multirole F/A-18 "Hornet"). Despite these bureaucratic obstacles, in 1981, the DoD included the "Harrier II" in its annual budget and five-year defense plan. The USN declined to participate in the procurement, citing the limited range and payload compared with conventional aircraft.
In August 1981 the program received a boost when British Aerospace (BAe) and McDonnell Douglas signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), marking the UK's re-entry into the program. The British government was enticed by the lower cost of acquiring Harriers promised by a large production run, and the fact that the US was shouldering the expense of development. Under the agreement BAe was relegated to the position of a subcontractor, instead of the full partner status that would have been the case had the UK not left the program. Consequently, the company received, in man-hours, 40 percent of the airframe work-share. Aircraft production took place at McDonnell Douglas' facilities in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, and manufacturing by BAe at its Kingston and Dunsfold facilities in Surrey, England. Meanwhile, 75 percent work-share for the engine went to Rolls-Royce, which had previously absorbed Bristol Siddeley, with the remaining 25 percent assigned to Pratt & Whitney. The two companies planned to manufacture 400 Harrier IIs, with the USMC expected to procure 336 aircraft and the RAF, 60.
Four full-scale development (FSD) aircraft were constructed. The first of these (BuNo 161396), used mainly for testing performance and handling qualities, made its maiden flight on 5 November 1981, piloted by Plummer. The second and third FSD aircraft, which introduced wing leading-edge root extensions and revised engine intakes, first flew in April the following year; the fourth followed in January 1984. The first production AV-8B was delivered to the Marine Attack Training Squadron 203 (VMAT-203) at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point (MCAS Cherry Point) on 12 December 1983, and officially handed over one month later. The last of the initial batch of 12 was delivered in January 1985 to the front-line Marine Attack Squadron 331 (VMA-331). The engine used for these aircraft was the F402-RR-404A, with 21,450 lb (95.4 kN) of thrust; aircraft from 1990 onwards received upgraded engines.