Wednesday, January 11, 2012

wind water sun




Another time lapse film for you which I made recently on the 5th of January. An odd film really as it starts out more dramatic than it ends up, maybe I should reverse the whole thing. This was filmed on a very windy afternoon with the winds gusting up to about force eight. Being a bit untogether I forgot to secure the tripod to the beach properly and as a result the tripod blew over when I was off pottering about by the edge of the sea, hence the edit in the middle. Whoops. Luckily the camera is undamaged, but I should know better by now.

Although our awful overlords have done their best to ruin the environment, along with our helpful and willing blind conformity, the sea sky and sun thing can still be very beautiful. So far there is no tax on natural beauty, although the appreciation and observance of this is very much discouraged, even by modern philosophers who maintain that because beauty cannot be quantified and is a subjective experience it doesn't exist. Good for them. No profit in it you see, standing around looking at natural things and not spending money. The best thing to do is to concentrate on working very very hard as much as you can and then one day you might be able to have the time to stand around looking at stuff, if you can still see at that age or haven't died prematurely by working yourself into the early grave. Rest assured the taxes will continue after you're dead. I am fortunate in that I have many places I can go to see such stuff and I appreciate that not everybody is able to do this.

I don't know if anyone has seen this Renaissance 2.0 series of videos on youtube but I was quite impressed with these, as they offer a good summery of how we got to be where we are today, from an American viewpoint. If you are a clever clogs and already know it all, skip to part five and you will find the place that we are just about to come to. In part six there is even an explanation of what tactics we could use to possibly find a way out of this mess. Ever hopeful me. See what you think.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

beautiful beauty
calm warming hold
who whispers the sea
of essence unfold
plays through the clouds
hearts melt to sky
walking the way
where the birds fly
climbing on feathers
moon lighted streams
wilds of the oceans
deep earthly green
dreaming on sentiment
harmony rides
sun wind and water
livening life

..peace..

Anonymous said...

its funny,,, with one sweep of fatal beauty everything seems to be fixed,even if it is only for a moment,

I like to think,if the whole world could just embrace that beauty together
just for a moment,greatness would take place on this earth...

as usual top qualitys john

respects...neil

john said...

Thanks very much for the poem and the comment Neil. I was listening to a program about peoples' individual transcendental experiences on Radio 4 the other day. One interviewee recounted that during their experience, which lasted about two months, everything that surrounded them was filled with an unusual amount of significance and rightness of being or existence.

When they looked at a dirty mark on a wall, it seemed as if it was as perfect and as right as everything else, and that the divisions between beauty and ugliness were human constructions and as such didn't really apply at all when things were encountered in this altered condition. This could also seem to make moral choices a bit uncertain, but I don't think this is what they meant at all, so maybe it doesn't apply to behavior or our sense of good and evil, although these would also seem to be constructions of a human viewpoint. Is there balance somehow? Are all good and evil acts supposed to be there for some reason we cannot fathom, however peculiar or wrong this might feel?

Anonymous said...

maybe it could be the pathway thats walked to the transcendental experience that defines the underlying perception of it,,,some people of a religous background will use religous words to describe their experience,where as others not religous describe it in non religous words,,,definately each culture that has existed has noted this experience in their own way....

from my own experience,I was left in a state that words just cant really explain.a wow factor off of the charts..a deep deep feeling the same as the person described on the radio,a sort of greatness massive peace and understanding and a huge respect and love of everything....
I could also see although that state of conscious was perfect...the great wide world was not,I suppose due to not experiencing this particular state....I sometimes think maybe that state of conscious is what origonal man may have felt when he first walked the earth,written through the very fabric of us,,
I am not sure,I do know the more I hear of these experiences the more clarified I become and the easier it is to release all that gundge that all of us absorb every day,
I am really sorry I'm just not very good at explaining things john...

anyway springs coming,lets see what it brings.....

respects to your goodself....neil

john said...

You seem to be explaining things fine Neil. I agree that the different pathways or backgrounds could alter the experience as they are passed through our cultural filters. Something of a higher nature would still need to be understood by the experiencer so it would represent itself in familiar cultural forms, this isn't always the case though. The inability or difficulty of words being able to express such events satisfactorily might actually be an integral part of the experience. Sometimes we come up against the limits of language and this can be where art takes over as a means of expression. However difficult it is to communicate such things we are still left with the remaining feeling of the experience and the sense of how it can affect and change our lives.

I remember Terrance McKenna remarking that when coming back from such an experience the difficulty he had with actually bringing back anything that could be communicated. If the message was too large or complicated it would not be understood but if the information was too trivial it was also of no use, so he needed to bring back something in the middle somewhere. However hard it may be to pass on anything understandable or useful to anyone else the individual is still left with the personal sense of the experience which can be life changing. Maybe such things are meant to work on the individual alone and are not meant for others. Just a few thoughts really.

Anonymous said...

am going to have a good look at terrance mckenna as I havent studied him very much,
he sounds real interesting,,,,i suppose if you feel to speak about the experience maybe you should,if you dont feel that you should maybe you shouldnt,,,mr visible does a pretty good job at explaining things over at origami on occasions,so do a lot of people,and even though each of us differ through our experience,I think it is a good thing to get it out....
thank god for art,that for me is what lives,what would we do without it and its differing forms,I think definately the culture is written through pictures words music crafts through all art,,and a discerning eye cant help but pick up on it...

respects neil

john said...

I would recommend YouTube for Terrance McKenna as there are many interviews and talks that he gave available there. He was a very engaging and entertaining talker with a good sense of humour so it is good to listen to him actually explaining his ideas and experiences. I don't know what to make of his Timewave theory but he was very good at explaining and sharing his experiences. Visible does do a good job at Origami and knows plenty about such subjects from direct experience. Such things should be maintained in the living sphere rather than mouldering books but I am rather fond of books.

john said...

Here is a long quote from a book called The Zelator which relates to the communication of such things.

Those who have journeyed into the other world - the Spiritual world - usually return with insights which are scarcely credible to those who have not made such a voyage. The world may be said to be divided into those who have seen, and who have returned, and those who have not seen at all.

Usually, when an initiate is asked about initiation, he or she wisely says nothing. If they do elect to talk, then it is in poetic terms, or in mythologies, for the higher world lends itself to illuminating commentary only when approached artistically, and through the pictures which are natural to poetry. The secret language is a creative language of pictures.

The difference between those who have seen that, or a similar, vision and those who have not is considerable, and the Schools who control such things have always attempted to regulate intellectual commerce between the two different groups. It is not healthy for the recipient if those who have seen beyond the veil speak too openly to those who have not. Silence
is usually adjured of those who have seen and returned, through the good offices of initiation, because great confusion can be spread by blabbing to those who are unlikely to understand this greater vision.

This concern for silence explains why, until modern times, virtually
every individual who sought initiation had to promise in advance that he or she would not reveal any of the Mysteries they were taught. Some promised that, should they speak out, either with intent or in error, they would, for example, submit to having their tongues pulled out with
white-hot pincers. Such promises are not made lightly by men and
women who understand the symbolism in their vow.

We were never required to make such a promise; even so, we find
ourselves reluctant to speak about what we know. We have no fear of
white-hot pincers, or of what they symbolize: our fear is that, if we do not choose our words with sufficient care, we might mislead those who read them. We cannot reveal all we have learned, for the speech required to describe the Mysteries is not like the speech of ordinary men. Yet, what
we may speak about with impunity will thrown a beam of light on many
things which, for the majority of people, have remained in darkness.

The image of a beam of light is a good one, for it reminds us of the two-edged sword which is said to guard the way back to Eden. In the 17th century, the great mystic Jakob Boehme called such a light the schrack,'the lightning flash'. It was that galvanizing illumination which would
follow on a decision to act. In the Boehmian lore, the schrack was the beamed energy of Mars, which was a dual planet, with positive and negative aspects. The schrack was a flash which could either illumine or burn, and, under certain circumstances, even destroy.

The time is right for such illumination, or burning. It has been recognized by esotericists for a very long time that, as the 20th century reached its troubled end, many of the ancient secrets would have to be revealed. Even as we write, some of the esoteric schools are investigating,
preserving and teaching some of the ancient Mysteries which would
otherwise be lost in the face of changes which are to come. The metaphor of ark-building comes to mind.

john said...

Stay tuned for more comedy capers

Anonymous said...

thats fascinating stuff john,,,,,,neil