The Quest for Serenity, Courage and Wisdom
One could argue that the stained glass window was a form of “Medieval Television”: After all, it tells stories, it glows, I rest my case! And, in medieval days, stained glass windows reminded church goers of stories they had already heard told from the pulpit. In other words, “reruns,” in a manner of speaking! It’s
Once upon a time, a beautiful princess sat at the edge of a clear, ornate pool in her castle grounds. She often liked to gaze at her reflection in the pool, admiring both her own beauty and her magnificent crown. (Selah.) One afternoon as she leaned over to gaze at her reflection, she leaned too
“The One” (τὂ έόν (“tah EH-on”)) is a major theme of the Greek philosopher Parmenides (late sixth or early fifth century BCE). For Parmenides, everything is One — indeed, any appearance of variation or movement in the cosmos is illusion. Later Greek philosophers — beginning with Plato (c.428–348 BCE) and Aristotle (384-322 BCE) — instead
A question I’ve been asking myself is: “what would ‘musical sacred geometry’ be like? “Sacred Geometry” includes the idea that sacred spaces such as cathedrals are built on very deliberate geometric ratios, and are geometrically/arithmetically informed generally. (See https://mandalashop-online.com/en/blog/the-sacred-geometry-of-cathedrals-n53 ). A parallel idea is the Islamic prohibition on human images in mosques: “the creation of
A good friend of mine (Maarten) is an astrophysicist and scientific film-maker. The European Space Agency (ESA) is building a probe called JUICE (JUpiter ICey moons Explorer) to explore three of Jupiter’s moons. They’ll be launching it next year. ESA hired Maarten to video the story, so he’s been producing a series of short videos
A new piece for glass armonica and organ. The video consists of a series of stained glass windows.
We just looked at the ‘Logos’ — an idea that goes back to the Greek philosopher Heraclites around 500 BCE. Heraclitus (and his intellectual heirs) said that Logos is the organizing principal that turns the cosmos and everything in it (including you and me) from a pile of atoms into the magnificent dancing structures we
Since we’re beginning a new year, I thought we might consider the Mother of All Beginnings — namely “In The Beginning…”. The Gospel of John famously begins “In the beginning was the Word…” Now, the Greek word for ‘Word’ here is LOGOS. ‘Word’ is actually a terrible translation for LOGOS — but there isn’t really
With ‘Rubedo’ we pull together the Darkness, the Winnowing, and the Surprise of the first three steps and put them together into a completed Wholeness. When talking about Spirituality, we’re talking about things that are literally Not Of This (Physical) World. Thus, in order to talk about them at all, we have to rely on
The last two weeks we’ve discussed the transformation of lead into gold in Medieval Alchemy, including the metaphorical transformation of the human heart from its default ‘leaden’ state into the ‘gold’ of Enlightenment or Oneness with God. Commonly this was described as taking place in four steps. The first step is ‘Nigredo’ — darkness. One
