Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 160

DYSTOPIAN DREAMS

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The dystopian art of Danielle Tunstall has to be seen it to be experienced.  (WARNING: IT IS NOT FOR THE MEEK. )  Masterful visual arts cannot not be described by words except by imbecilic, self-annointed art critics — persons who are not able to create art, but who attempt to destroy the creations of others with snide verbal deconstructions.  Here is the link to her Flickr photo stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielle-tunstall/

HUMAN AUTOMATON

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SUGAR VENDING SHARK MACHINES

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So which is safer, a shark or a sugar vending machine?

Choose the waves. The odds a person will die from a soda vending machine accident in a year are 1 in 112,000,000, while the odds that a person will die from a shark attack in a year are 1 in 251,800,000. This means that a person is more than twice as likely to be killed tipping a soda machine than to end up as food for a large toothy fish.  Admittedly these are both rare occurrences, but in the United States 2-3 people per year die as a result of being crushed by vending machines. It’s common, on the other hand, to have a year with no recorded fatal shark attacks in the US.

However, sugar-filled soda pop (and all other refined sugar products) contributed to a total of 231,404 deaths in 2007  alone.

Total prevalence of diabetes

Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.

Diagnosed: 18.8 million people

Undiagnosed: 7.0 million people

Prediabetes: 79 million people*

New Cases: 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.

PASSAGE HOME

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(Image by Cornelia Kopp)

“There is another dimension which is our home. In truth we are not here but there.
This is our shadow.”

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī and more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi.

(30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persianpoet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.Iranians, Turks, Afghans, Tajiks, and other Central Asian Muslims as well as the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy in the past seven centuries. Rumi’s importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats. In 2007, he was described as the “most popular poet in America.”

ETERNAL

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The Tao is infinite, eternal.  Why is it eternal?  It was never born: thus it can never die. Why is it infinite? It has no desire for itself; thus it is present for all beings.

~ Tao Te Ching ~

COMMANDER ANTI-CLAUS

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Wizards In Science Fiction

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Here are a few of the thousands of  ‘Wizards’, ‘Magical Beings’, Renegade Spirits, Mad Scientists that appear in modern science fiction stories, films and TV.  There are many, many more powerful, mysterious and mystical than those listed in this article from ‘i09’, but it’s a start:  Ten Wizards Who Found Themselves In Science Fiction Stories.

A few other more powerful examples can be found in my book PAN-GOD OF THE WOODS ( http://lawrencerspencer.com/pan-god-of-the-woods/ )

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THE KYBALION

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The Kybalion was first published in 1908 by the Yogi Publication Society and is now in the public domain. The book purports to be based upon ancient Hermeticism, which has been sought after by many of the great thinkers and heretics of history, including the Italian martyr Giordano Bruno.

The Kybalion was authored by William Walker Atkinson.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_Atkinson)

Here is the Wikipedia index of the “Seven Principles” which embody the content of The Kybalion:

2 The seven Principles2.1 Principle of Mentalism2.2 Principle of Correspondence2.3 Principle of Vibration2.4 Principle of Polarity2.5 Principle of Rhythm2.6 Principle of Cause and Effect2.7 Principle of Gender

 

NIGHTMARE DREAMER

PAINTING LOVE AND LIGHT

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This documentary film (below), narrated by Meryl Streep, is a academic analysis of many of the paintings of the Dutch master artist, Johannes Vermeer. Throughout the film the question is asked of the “expert” commentators, all of whom are technical experts in the mechanics of oil painting, “What makes a Vermeer painting a Vermeer painting?” Ironically, none of the “experts” know the answer to this simple question. In my book Vermeer: Portraits of a Lifetime“, I reveal the simple, yet profound answer to this question. 

Vermeer and his wife, Catharina, had 15 children. All but one were daughters. The subjects of Vermeer’s paintings are almost entirely of his wife, and daughters. Nearly all of his paintings were created in his own house, owned by and shared with his mother-in-law, Maria Thins.  The male subject of many of his paintings is his best friend and neighbor in Deft, Holland — inventor of the microscope and the camera obscura — Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. (seen in the paintings The Geographer and The Astronomer, et. al.)

Technical analysis notwithstanding, what the “experts” fail to comprehend is that Vermeer painted his beloved family members and dearest friends in his own home.  In addition to technical expertise, the visual aid of the camera obscura — which revealed the hidden patterns of light in objects — Vermeer painted love of his family, his home, his life, his personal universe.  What makes “a Vermeer a Vermeer”?  Love and Light.

I will be traveling to visit the home of Vermeer in Delft for the first time in a few weeks.  I am very much looking forward to seeing and feeling his love and light.