Monday 23rd April 2012

We’re a small group of 4 women, Carly, Monika, Margaret and myself who meet (mostly) every alternate Saturday afternoon to study the Black Madonna. We started on ‘The Black Madonna’ by Fred Gustafson on the 8th Jan this year. We read from the book and discuss what we have read. Prior to starting this, we last year had read and studied ‘The Mystery of the Coniunctio: Alchemical Image of Individuation’ by Edward F. Edinger – a now deceased American Jungian Analyst. Rich pickings indeed. Inter alia, the significance of the opposites was much highlighted by using alchemical symbology – the philosopher’s task in extracting gold from base metal.

We decided on ‘The Black Madonna’ for various reasons. Monika has been interested in Lilith for many years. Her many paintings and etchings are about Lilith and her darkness and her relevance for today’s woman in that she represents the Dark Feminine, that aspect of ourselves with which we need to be in touch for individual and collective healing. Many of her paintings are large scale and very powerful oils showing Lilith’s darkness and all her attendant serpents with an understanding of the symbol of the serpent. I have written about Lilith and she is close to my heart. For Carly and Margaret, Lilith exerts her fascination. We thought we would start with the Black Madonna and try to determine her spiritual significance for us today and to see if we could link Lilith and the Black Madonna and learn more about the dark feminine.

There are indeed links … firstly, they are both archetypal figures, yet not that much is known about them. As some of you may know, Lilith, according to the Midrash, was the first wife of Adam in the Garden of Eden, who was expelled for her refusal to submit or be obedient to Adam. She does arise again (as the serpent) and presents her sister Eve with the apple which Eve took – and we know the consequences of that. But a positive and real way of viewing that is that she and Adam, though forced out of the Garden for their transgression, moved from unconsciousness towards consciousness into the real world, albeit one of duality, choice and free will. Heavy but necessary responsibilities.

Ean Begg, in his book, The Cult of the Black Virgin, finds that there about 400 Black Madonnas around the world and writes about the thousands of pilgrims who visit her shrine in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. These pilgrims find that their souls are in some way touched. To quote from Gustafson’s book in the introduction ‘…by an aspect of the feminine embodied by her yet not normally acknowledged. This darker aspect of the feminine has throughout history been both feared and sought after, both hated and admired…that seem to imagistically express their dark side of the feminine in a creative transformational manner for both the individual and the collective’.

I write about the dark feminine in my essay on Lilith in my book and the necessity of being in touch with those aspects for our wholeness, never wholly achieved perhaps; but each little bit of understanding of the dark feminine within each of us, man and woman, brings us closer to wholeness and healing, individually and collectively. The Black Madonna has her counterpart in Kali of India, Isis of Egypt, the Greek goddesses eg Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter and Persephone and many others. These matriarchal myths had Mother Nature as their Supreme Goddess, and were replaced by worship of the monotheistic sun god Apollo who assumed ascent as the matriarchal goddesses began their descent.

The dark aspect of the Mother archetype needs recognition and integration – her light and dark polarities, her wildness and her conformity, her saint and sinner aspects, her giving and taking, the nurturing and the murderous aspects of her, her manic and depressive sides … For too long now we have been too one-sided about living … the forest and its darkness, the wilderness and all its shadows need exploring …

I could write more but this is enough for now.

Thursday 19th April

As someone said the other day, April is one of those months that seems to be neither one thing nor the other. I am trying to recall the exact words but I can’t remember what that person said. So I am just trying to get the sense of those words.

Yes, April is a rather ‘strange’ month. Here in the southern hemisphere it is a harbinger of winter. The autumn leaves are all over; some of the colours of the trees are rather lovely. The trees though are slowly starting to look a bit bare. My garden looks a bit tired, though there is still some colour in the flowers and the grass is still green. . Some of the flowers in the pot plants look a bit straggly. My Monday gardener Lowan (a Malawian) wants me to get 600 primulas for April planting and plenty compost. I am glad he reminded me .. as he said to me this past Monday, I will have to ask my bank manager for a loan. I always say to Lowan when he requests new plants, that I will have to ask my bank manager for a loan – it is always a costly exercise. I am not really glad he reminded me – because of the money outlay – but if I think about it, when I get back from Vietnam in early June, they will probably be flowering and a delight to the eye. So – I mustn’t complain.

The MNINB challenge is really quite something. I veer between hope and despair. Hope in that I can do some of the daily challenges, despair in that I am so green about so much. Hash tags?? But Robert Lee Brewer is evidently a kind and patient man and encouraging in every challenge. The comments made by those who meet the challenges and by those who don’t are always interesting and helpful.

Some other thoughts on April .. the month after March which held the equinox – seasons start to tip in the other direction. April is for me also the month before I set off for travels and the speed at which this month is going by, it will be here before I know it. Arrive back in Johannesburg in June which will mean that we are advancing towards the longest night and shortest day. And then 6 months of the year will be over…

So, mission accomplished. The blog for today done. But how to post it so that others doing it can see? Shall I twitter? FB? FB I am still a bit anxious about … I read something about pininterest today and it seems that using this may well infringe on privacy rights.

I attended art circle at Monika’s lovely home yesterday morning. It has been a long time since I last attended; sometime last year. It was so nice to re-meet the others and to meet Marita for the first time. Many of them are serious artists with their MA’s in Fine Art and continue to create on an ongoing basis. Monika herself is a most acclaimed and revered artist; she uses her dreams as her source of inspiration. She inspires us with her wise comments when works on display are criticized; others also comment and for me it always enlivening to come away from these meetings feeling and believing that I ‘saw’ more than I saw before in these works, or connected a bit better with others’ representations and I felt a little more in touch with my own inner processes. Valuable time indeed!All the works that were on display touched me on the level of psyche and it is this that I want to blog about today. The art works were representative of archetypal themes (The Great Mother inter a lia). > > > > > > Marita explained that she is attending an animation course and that she is a 60 yr old among 20-ish yr old students and the leader of the course is no more than 24 yrs old. > > > She photo-shopped a drawing that she did on a tablet (an unfamiliar term to a few of us). The painting she put up on the lectern showed a winged (wings of a bird) woman with claw like feet, and a lion. She said that some years ago she was at The British Museum and saw a Sumerian tablet that was about 5000 years old. It depicted the descent of Inanna into the underworld (or the Nether World) to meet her twin sister Ereshkigal down down down at the very bottom of this harrowing journey. Innana withdrew a piece of clothing at each gateway so that by the time she has descended to the ‘end’ (the 7th gate) she was naked, turned into a corpse and was hung upon a stake. She said that she knew that one day she would attempt to make her own art work about this as it spoke to her.This spoke to me too in that the symbolism is powerful and struck a chord in me – that descent into the underworld not knowing where it will lead. Innana contains all the opposites within her – vengeful and gener ous; love and rage; Sometimes one has to sacrifice one’s self in order to emerge from one’s own darkness. This myth is a great one – and is worthy of study. > > > > > > Marguerite’s painting of water based oils (I didn’t know there was such a something) on a large canvas, was fascinating. It showed feet descending from the top slightly towards the right hand side and touching a curve, which brought to my mind the feet of G.d touching the earth – heaven meeting the earth. For me it was very powerful. In the middle of the curvature were a pair of eyes – or so it seemed to me. Towards the bottom right hand side was the face of a woman with frog like eyes. Marguerite explained that in the Koi tradition frogs have a particular meaning and we discussed the symbolism of the frog. Many images came to my mind – eg the tadpole becoming a frog, like the butterfly emerging from its cocoon, fertility. There was also a hand emerging from the bottom right hand side that touched the centre of the earth which I liked so much … making real contact. On the left hand taking up about a third of the painting was a nude woman with her hands on her hips. I liked th is painting so much as it showed for me feminine strength in amongst the light and dark shadows. > > > > > > Anita’s lovely composition of shells, twigs, forest, stone, dark and light paint and the outline of a woman with an arm raised it seemed to me in a hailing gesture illustrated the shadow tracking the shadow-a very powerful psychological concept. Her eyes werebarely discernible but they were there – watchful, perhaps apprehensive. We had a good discussion about this. It brought home to me the shadow that we each contain within us, with which we need to become familiar if we are to become more whole, in the knowing of our darkness. The shadow tracking the shadow I thought was extremely clever and insightful. > > > > > > Diana’s models of rhino horns – there were 4 of them made from different substances, and were life size. The destruction of the rhino is very close to her heart as has been evidenced in paintings of hers I have seen in the past. They have been vivid, disturbing large scale pieces. These rhino horn facsimiles seen yesterday were works of art, made as they were from iron, glass, wool – and I forget what the 4th one was made from. She also presented two oil canvases of beetroot – those vivid colours with stems apparent. If I think back on these 2 canvases, the blood of the beetroot is synonymous with the bleeding agony of the rhino. > > > > Lastly, I believe that Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ was recently on auction somewhere … I caught a quick glimpse of a clip on TV. But the curator at the art gallery said how this painting spoke to the existential crisis of man and for him personally, when the sky became blood red as he was walking along, he felt inexplicably tired and anguished. I will look this up in due course, but my seeing this on TV as I did just recently, seemed synchronous with my own experience at ‘art circle’. > > > > Thank you to all at art circle .. > > > > My damp newspaper is still in process … I do not know quite what I will fashion with it. I will bring it along next time.

Saturday 14th April 2012.

I came home a few hours ago after attending Monika’s art circle at her home in Bryanston, my first attendance in a long while. It was so nice to see old friends and meet a new person. It was altogether lively and lovely, discussing inter alia a few art works that were presented by those who had brought their art works for criticism. I may comment later on a different and separate blog on those art works and what they expressed – for me – but for the moment just to say that the artworks were mostly to do with the descent into the unconscious; re-claiming the feminine; acknowledging the shadow, inter alia. I felt much enlivened when I left around midday.

When home, I had the pleasure of listening to a 9 minute audio on my computer by Michael Bernard Beckwith on ‘Breaking the Arrangement with Mediocrity’, courtesy of ‘Sounds True’ to which I subscribe. It was a wake-up call for me, speaking as he does about the status quo and how many of us get caught in it – I felt as if he was speaking to me. So I am blogging about this, this afternoon – do comment if you wish.

Mediocrity is like an insidious poison; it creeps silently like a snake in the night into one’s soul. Slowly, the status quo takes up permanent residence; my brain gets dulled; I feel enfeebled; I care less; I feel indifferent … I feel so stuck in this mediocrity and I have to wonder what my fear is towards getting out of it. That feeling of being stuck in the status quo is a feeling that I have experienced before (and written about) in my life – it is simply awful. I know that this is when I feel I have not a single creative spark in me. I feel deadened, dull, unable to move physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually, in an agony of impotence, fearful of making the first step towards getting myself out of the quagmire. I feel as if I have struck a bargain with the Devil no less when I try to put those dismal thoughts aside and reach out for some comfort usually by way of food .. it is all so unconscious and I am so often quite unwilling to confront this in an honest way.

As Michael Bernard Beckwith says and as I see as valid and true, there is a collective tendency to mediocrity, evidenced in society on many levels. If I look at the ‘Shorter OED on Historical Principles’ definition of ‘mediocrity’, it says, inter alia (point 5) ‘the quality or condition of being mediocre. Now chiefly disparaging. 1588’. The word ‘mediocre’ is defined inter alia as ‘of middle height’ … ‘of middling quality, neither good nor bad; indifferent’. Carlyle is quoted: ‘It is thus that mediocre people seek to lower great men’.

This tendency of our society towards mediocrity has been punted before in the press and on the radio. We have a few lively independent radio and TV stations as well as the press – at the moment. It is always refreshing to realise that there is awareness of mediocrity in many levels of society; but awareness is one thing and action is another. We actually do put up with poor service, poor delivery, unsatisfying relationships, uncreative lives, ‘living small lives in our sheltered and comfortable boxes’ to paraphrase Michael Bernard Beckwith. It is almost a conspiracy to keep things stuck in the status quo – don’t rock my boat and I won’t rock yours. If you do, you will be alienated in some subtle way.

He contrasts this with the impulse towards the evolution and unfolding of our souls, the impulse towards excellence and our ‘…conscious participation in the evolutionary impulse that governs all creation’. And it is on this hopeful note that I want to end. Doing something ‘out of the box’ is a great step in moving away from from mediocrity and towards that spark of creativity within ourselves, which yearns for ever unfolding and boundless expression.

On my side, I have placed torn strips of old newspapers into a large bowl, dampened thoroughly with water – and I plan to make something out of this. I am not quite sure what .. I think I will have to make a flour paste or something and let the newspapers and goo harden – and then just see where my fingers take me in fashioning something. It will be my attempt at striking a blow towards my inner tendency to mediocrity.

http://www.gardenofedenblog.com – my personal blog

On Saturday 07 April 2012 at 4:16 PM, Susan Scott wrote:

> Sat 7th April 2012…. > > Pesach and Easter – both occur over the weekend of the full moon. At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD it was agreed that both would be linked to the full moon on or following the vernal equinox (in the northern hemisphere) and thus would fall on any Sunday between 22 March and 22 April. > > Chag Sameach to all of you – may it be a blessed time. And the same to all of you for Easter, may it be a blessed time. > > Just some thoughts from me about Easter and Pesach. I have undoubtedly bitten off more than I can chew but I do want to share a few things on this blog. > > Someone on the radio recently, took exception to people saying ‘Happy Easter’. That person said it was not a happy time because of Christ’s death. There was a brief discussion – this was not the topic of conversation on the radio – but the anchor did say that it was also a time of redemption and renewal. He captured this very well in a few words. > > Pesach or the Passover has a different focus to Easter. Pesach is what it says .. a Passover. > > Pesach is a time for ‘looking back to the going forward’, whereas Easter is inter alia a remembrance of Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection. > > Pesach commemorates the Exodus (Greek : going out; second book of the Bible) of the Israelites from Egypt who up until then had lived as slaves since the time of Joseph. Four hundred years after the end of Genesis, Moses leads the children of Israel to the land which God promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Moses and the Israelites had lived as slaves under the rule of Pharaoh and the Pharaoh refused to release them. God sends 10 plagues upon Egypt, the last of which was the slaying of the first born in any home. But, God told Moses, none of the Israelites would be killed – their homes would be passed-over. Pharaoh pleads with Moses to end the plagues and so lets the Israelites free. They flee their homes with unprepared and unleavened bread and also after slaying their lambs. The Pharaoh reneges on the deal and chases after the Israelites but Moses strikes the Red Sea which parts and the Pharaoh and his army are drowned > > And as Joseph requested on his death-bed: > > Moses took the bones of Joseph with him for Joseph had surely sworn to the children of Israel, saying: God will surely remember you, and you shall carry my bones away with you. > -Exodus 13:19 > > This amazing story tells of the birth of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea under Moses, and their arrival at Mt. Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments. There is much much more by way of narrative to this story but it is not my aim to re-tell it. On their journey from Egypt to Israel, their hardships are great and many. My aim is rather to focus a bit on what this annual and very religious time means at least in terms of my (probable) limited understanding; and also in a way that has nothing to do with my being Jewish or non-Jewish. I like to think back and wonder what it all means in terms of me, today; and indeed the relevance for all of us today. > > And indeed, it is curious is it not, that Easter and Pesach overlap … and for me it is, as I write this, a duty almost, to look briefly at the symbolism of these two events. > > Christ’s act of His descent into Hell after the crucifixion is the ultimate act of individuation. It is in preparation for His ascension into Heaven. The scriptures tell the story of Jesus and His life and they are beautiful beyond imagining. Every word, every setting, every moment is painfully poignant. They are also very challenging – to take in the words of the scriptures in a meaningful way, is to enter into the story and feel it. From all points of view, from every angle, I can’t help but see that the scriptures are very psychological indeed – they speak straight to the psyche. How can He not be celebrated, not least for sacrificing His own life that our sins be forgiven; but also for His unconditional love, His sympathy and empathy; His poetic justice; His showing us that the spirit alone is of value; His love for the sinner who repented … so for me the time of Easter is a remembrance of Jesus’ life and message. > > The Pesach means for me the end of slavery and finally reaching the Promised Land; it is a remembrance of the fulfilment of God’s promise that is joyfully celebrated. In terms of my world today, it is timely to remember freedom from slavery which can take many forms .. being a slave to lust, material wealth, being trapped in so many ways and looking to myself to try to discern where I am a slave or trapped in my complexes. Joy in the possibility of being free from all forms of slavery; pain in Christ’s death – yet also a fulfilment of God’s promise and joy in that too. > > Well, I think I have bitten off more than I can chew … both Moses and Jesus long dead but their message lives on. > > All best wishes, > > Susan

> Susan Scott > — > http://www.gardenofedenblog.com – my personal blog >

Sat 24th March

If any of you have visited my blog post in the last 2 weeks and seen nothing there then I can only apologise. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

It is strange perhaps, to consider *why* the procrastination … I speak for myself but I am coming to realise that it is oftentimes that which is most important to me, is the very thing that I do not attend to. The resistance on my side is great … the more important it is to me, the more I do not pay it its due or give it attention. It is almost a self-destructive act. Me against my own-self. Dear heavens.

I am so very keen to get a good blog going – one that serves me and serves you .. and there is a part of me that knows I have been procrastinating. Avoiding putting myself out there …

But procrastination has a purpose in some instances. It is like a cooking … a stewing … a simmering and a plotting and a planning even if a little haphazardly.. lying fallow for a bit and then a bit of a spurt of energy and writing some thoughts down and making other connections – but still resisting in some very real yet ineffable way.

The ‘why’ is always important. Sometimes the question is more important than the answer. The ‘why’ is always a philosophical question and as such is an endless debate, as it should be.

But it is the ‘what’ that is a question that needs to be answered first, before the ‘why’ … I have to ask myself *what *is the resistance to my getting a ‘good blog going’ and *what* does that resistance stand for … and then perhaps to seek the ‘why’ .. and attempt to get to the bottom of the complex for my own psychological health or health of my psyche asserting that this is task worth doing

Anyway, now I AM posting something. I want very much to get a serious blog going. Once a week. It is a task that I have set myself. It will be a two-fold possibly more approaches with a goal or goals in mind. It is a little too soon to explain any more at this stage. I have a lot of work to do in finding out EXACTLY how to go about this. I know nothing and don’t want to make unnecessary mistakes. I have quite a bit of useful info on my computer that I’ve received from various sources that I have not as yet looked at in any depth. I hope to collate all this information over the next several days and to use it professionally. I really hope that you will join me in this at a later stage …

I asked my son David if I could post something to my blog of his that I came across I think on his FaceBook as I thought his message and music was magical (and of course he is my son and I am proud of him …). He gave me permission so that is on my blog. I had such an interesting response to Davey’s ‘philosophical ramblings’ (that was the title he gave it) and music in an e mail from Gillian who lives in Durban. Gillian I would so like it if you would post what you said on this blog??

We are off to Plett tomorrow back next Saturday. This coming week will see me paying valuable attention to the construction of my blog and maybe web page – though I think the blog and web are already connected but I am not sure. Son Mike will help me this coming week …

I look forward to more soon.

My son David posted the below on his Facebook Wall the other day and this is what I am posting as my blog for today.

Philosophical Ramblings by Dave http://www.thekiffness.com/author/david on MARCH 10, 2012 in RANDOMNESS http://www.thekiffness.com/category/randomness

Was playing guitar today, and I had a random thought: what if I was playing a G, but then the guitar decided to play an F instead? Like it just decided it’s not gonna obey the laws of physics and just do it’s own thing. It would be flippen crazy! Or if you dropped a pen, but then it decided it’s not going to obey gravity today, and just hover in mid air. MADNESS!

Imagine a world where there was no uniformity, where everything could just do what it wants. Imagine you could say ‘hmmm, screw gravity, today I’m flying Peter Pan style to freakin Japan!’ It would be flippen kiff!

Although it would be awesome to say ‘screw it’ to gravity and fly to Japan, imagine if everything and anything could do likewise… Chaos! Next thing you know there’s a train flying into your face. Imagine you’re playing a concert in front of thousands of people and your guitar decides it’s just gonna play random notes. NOT KIFF MAN, NOT KIFF. You’d have to be like ‘Sorry guys! Seems that the Law of Frequencies is acting up again. You all have comps to my next show.’

And then I thought, wow – the universe is pretty good at sticking to the laws of physics. As far as I know, these laws of nature have stood us in pretty good stead. I can pretty safely say that I can make a sandwich without fear of the butter knife flying randomly into my eye ball.

So I think it’s pretty safe to say that I don’t have a say in whether a pen will float or not if I drop it. It’s going to fall. Gravity has determined that already. But what I think is really interesting is that I DO have a say in what I say and do and that’s pretty awesome. I can choose to lie, or I can choose to tell the truth. I can choose what music I feel like making, or what sandwich I want to make. There’s no law called ‘The Law of Dave will eat a peanut butter sandwich on Saturday’. Screw that! I’m eating a strawberry jam sandwich today.

I do somehow feel that there is another law – a law of the heart, or a law of the spirit that we’re *meant* to follow. I think CS Lewis calls it ‘The Moral Law’. The difference is, we get to CHOOSE if we want to obey it or not! CRAZY! Although, it doesn’t seem so crazy, because people disobey ‘The Moral Law’ so often that it seems normal. What makes me so sure of this?

Well, the proof is in the pudding! The world is in freakin chaos! We might not have trains flying into our faces at random, but I think we can agree that there’s a lot of spiritual, mental, emotional chaos in the world today, and I think it’s as a result of people ‘breaking’ the laws of morality. And then I thought, wow – we’re pretty good at NOT sticking to the laws of morality.

I like to kiss random girls, I like to get drunk, I like looking at naked ladies, I like feeling really important, I like to talk behind peoples backs. I think part of me likes these things because they don’t stick to the laws of morality, in the same way I’d like to fly to Japan because it would disobey the laws of gravity. And then I wonder why my life’s a mess. It’s kiff for a while to ‘disobey’, but I know for a fact that it will come back to hit me in the face like a train that doesn’t want to obey gravity.

I really enjoy what the Bible says. Jeremiah 31:33 tunes that God will put His law in our minds and write it on our hearts. I think it’s so true because you don’t need to tell someone when they’re doing something wrong – they’ll already know it. You can tell by how people always try to cover something up if they’ve done something wrong, or how they’re unashamed if they’ve done something good. In Romans 8:2 it says that through the law of Jesus, the Spirit of life will set you free.

I could carry on but this post is already getting a bit long.

Thanks for reading!

Listen to this song I made to contemplate what you’ve just read.

(David’s song ‘Beatitude’ can be accessed by http://www.thekiffness.com/2012/philosophical-ramblings).

To commit, to make a commitment: a heavily laden concept.

I’ve just had an sms from my sweet sister in Cape Town who said in a word, that she is weeding. I responded to say ‘weed out all those negative thoughts and let the ego take a back seat. Work well … xx’.

I also took a stroll outside to my garden now in the lovely mid-morning sunshine, walked down to the end of it and looked at my secret garden that I fashioned some years ago. Over the years it has been added to, looked at and admired by me. It has a small Ghanian chair on which to sit. The basics of it are still the same with its mandala of bricks and plants planted just so … it is still overhung with beautiful branches and really, it is a delight. One day will commit to sitting on that chair – maybe just sitting, maybe just thinking, or meditating …

It brought me back to my essay “Gardening” wherein I write about this process of creating a secret garden, that no-one could see from any vantage point of my home, even if one goes right down to the perimeter of the garden. You have to know what you are looking for to know that it is there.

I remember writing what hard work this was over many many months, though there were times in-between when the project lay fallow, in part due to seasonal changes .. But what was so interesting and revelatory to me, was that when one commits, the universe seems to support that commitment and the process unfolds.

Somehow, it seems pertinent that this, my first blog, is about both commitment and gardening …

I hope we can get something really interesting and fascinating on the go by way of blogging – about commitment.

Susan