Archive for new age
Death of Marat: Wizardry of Images
(Simon Schama’s Power of Art, PBS, Mondays, 10 p.m.)
“The Power of Art” with Simon Schama was a good diversion into the art history world for a Monday evening. But I take issue (and what else would you expect)…? Yes, I dare criticize the latest PBS art history guru in a way I would never DARE talk back to Sister Wendy.
The first installment in this 8-part series was regarding Jacques-Louis David, the so-called propaganda painter of the French Revolution. Above, his painting of the revolutionary icon and tyrannical figure Marat portrays the subject in Messianic light.
And Schama HATES David for propagandizing. Doesn’t forgive him one bit. One simply can’t use art for that purpose, he states, but why not? I ask. So what if he did, I ask. David was a product of his environment and his own mind, which was horribly scarred and humiliated. Of course he would become a devoted, if terrible, protector of those who would challenge the status quo which disabled him…of course David would paint Marat to look angelic, martyred.
That the image became associated with Revolutionary virtue attests to the mindset of the time, not necessary any artistic villainy. How can we place the artist under the jurisdiction of authenticity — when has art ever been done for art’s sake, purely, and not filtered by the response of the artist’s mind?
Of course it’s despicable. If David had painted Marat as he was: ugly, tyrranical, and plagued with a skin disease instead of milky-white, it would have been a different picture. But that wouldn’t have been true to what was going on in David’s mind, and THAT would have been a breach of art, in my opinion.
I’m guessing Sister Wendy might have something more interesting to say about David. Let’s bring her back, shall we…?
What’s more interesting about all this is the power of image to create reality. The artist, in this case, created an image with resounded with the desires of the French collective in 1789. David’s image of Marat may have been manipulative, but only so far as the collective allowed it.
Which just goes to show: be careful what you wish for…or what you dwell on…the universe may just hand it to you.
The Sacred and the Profane, on a map
The more I contemplate the work of Chuck Pettis and the Geo Group, the more I appreciate Seattle.
According to the website, “This project made Seattle the first city on Earth to balance and tune its ley-line system. The project received front page coverage in The Seattle Times. Five years later, the April 1993 issue of Seattle Arts reported:
“Some artworks start life in fiery controversy and eventually find enthusiastic acceptance. When in 1987 an artist working with individuals from other disciplines cre- ated an artwork tracking the invisible ‘ley lines’ in the Earth’s surface – imposing a grid of lines over a satellite photo of the Seattle area and placing crystals at significant junctures, then beautifully framing the whole thing to hang on the wall – it sparked a brief but nasty battle over the separation of church and state, art and faith. The (Seattle) Arts Commission was accused of funding a New Age, pagan sect. Now the work hangs happily on the wall of a new home the DCLU (Department of Construction and Land Use in the Dexter Horton Building), where many visitors figure it must somehow relate to the City’s zoning policies.”
A quick overview of ley lines: cosmic energy lines come into the earth at a perpendicular angle, turn to travel along the surface of the earth for several miles, then drop down to travel through the earth, and exit on the other side from where they entered. The part where the lines travel the earth are Ley Lines, and where they drop into the earth are called “Power Centers.” Many sacred sites (such as Stonhenge) are lined up with Ley Lines, or mark Power Centers.
I LOVE that the Geo Group has made visiting Power Centers an easy activity: the website has photos and graphic instructions on how to approach each one. Namaste, and thank you.
I marvel that I’ve been able to put this routine into my bag of tricks, when I’m feeling down, low on energy, or in need of a creative boost. My favorite power center is in the Washington Park Arboretum, near the UW. There is a power center near the baseball field and swings, and Chuck Pettis has left detailed clues (down to how many paces you need to take, from a certain tree) to find it.
When I am here, I feel like turning cartwheels and being generally silly. I leave, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, creative, and back to myself. I also know that my feeling better helps the earth feel better.
It makes me regard our ever-constant stretch toward divine awareness, and how we feel we must distance ourselves from our egos, our fears. Most of us learned to be horrified at our bodily functions, and we definitely don’t want the Earth Self to be our Whole Self. I think this fear of our Earth Self is part of what happens when we do not regard the Cosmic energies which are working in tandem with Earth. When we disregard these energies, it makes it easier for us to spoil our landscape. This attitude also spoils our own bodies, and makes life a living hell. As Caroline Myss writes in her new book “Entering the Castle,” identifying wholly with the Outer Self is Hell.
And I would agree. We need to acknowledge the Cosmic energy working within our Earth energy. And visiting earth power centers is one way to palpably feel it. Looking at the map above is a way to SEE it, to remind ourselves that YES, Virginia, there is a Cosmic Santa, and it is sending beams of energy to animate our Earth. It is a beautiful thing. I don’t think the Ordinary World, (or the Outer Self) and the Cosmic World are alien to each other. The ley lines prove that the twain can, and do, meet, that they work together in a beautiful pas de deux. And when we visit these power centers, we help heal ourselves, the earth, and bless the cosmos.
Bowing Kitten: the trickiness and secrecy of grace
I gave a bowing kitten to a woman on Sunday, telling her I loved him, because he jumped out at me when I was really focused on anxiety and being upset. There he was, in a sea of people (the Saturday crowds at Uwajimaya). Just bowing, with a serene smile and closed eyes.
Soooooooooooooo CUTE!
And mysterious, and…I just said “oh!” and I was happy. And that was grace.
I spent most of Sunday with a group of women calling in the Four Directions, being smudged, beating drums, giving gifts, and being generally cozy with the shaman population. When Rev. Elke MacCartney pulled junk out of my aura and threw it into the fire with a snarl, I felt strong. Someone even said my eyes got bluer.
My hair still smells of sage smoke and I feel…happy. Someone handed me a silver ring with a labradorite stone, which looks muddy until sometimes, the light makes it gleam green-blue. In fact, there is an airy quality inside this mud, which fits me perfectly.
Someone else gave me my very own drum they had made, saying it needed to go home with me.
I now have met my roots…and I get to do this again in two weeks.
