posted August 13, 2008 09:30 PM            

The Marriage of the Soul (from The Secret Rose Garden)

Descending to the earth, that strange intoxicating beauty of the unseen world
lurks in the elements of nature.

And the soul of man,
who has attained the rightful balance,
becoming aware of this hidden joy,
straightaway is enamored and bewitched.

And from this mystic marriage are born
the poets' songs, inner knowledge,
the language of the heart, virtuous living,
and the fair child Beauty.

And the Great Soul gives to man as dowry
the hidden glory of the world.

juni

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What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted August 14, 2008 08:19 AM            

Yes... but, Scotland has computers too!

juni

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~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted August 14, 2008 11:55 AM              

K, Nosis, where are you then?

Seems he's put us all on the back burner.

posted August 14, 2008 12:35 PM            

Hey NosiS, have a journel ready to share!!

I`ve missed you 26!

juni

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~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted August 17, 2008 10:11 PM            

juni

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~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted August 18, 2008 03:28 PM            

Wow!
I didn't expect to have a thread waiting for me! This is quite a lovely surprise!

Thank you, juni! That poem is a definite ringer.

I just got back from Scotland. It was amazing. I can't even begin to start writing about it. I think I still need to digest a bit and I am a bit tired from the lag and the trip. I will be posting soon, though. I forgot my camera's USB chord at my mom's house so the pictures might have to wait for a bit.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

posted August 19, 2008 08:51 AM            

Did you get anywhere near Tongue, Sutherlandshire ? (the home of my ancestors).

So looking forward to photos and journel sharings.

juni

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~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted August 19, 2008 02:22 PM            

I had an amazing time in the U.K.! It was, as they say, "brilliant"! lol

As I've mentioned, I'm unable to upload my photos ATM. I forgot my USB cable in Miami and my family should be mailing it to me but they might not be able to send it for a while.
I made some drawings over there that I feel really great about. I feel that the trip really heightened my artistic skill. It was truly a great experience. Scotland is a beautiful land.

juni, I stayed in Edinburgh and I visited the coastal city of North Berwick. Both are in the NE of the UK but they are neither as far north as Tongue, Sutherlandshire. I would have loved to have gone further and taken a tour but I had to be a little cautious with my money. The dollar is a bit weaker than the pound at the moment so the trip quickly became very expensive. Nonetheless, Edinburgh had a lot to offer for the two weeks that I was there, especially being that the one-of-a-kind Fringe Festival was taking place during my stay. Even with a two week stay, I still wasn't able to see everything.

I did go to several museums and galleries where I saw some great paintings by the masters. Gainsborough, Rembrandt, Titian, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Raphael, Goya, Cézanne, Gauguin, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec...Oh I can't even remember all of them! They had a gallery in one of the museums that was reserved for the Scottish artists and that was truly impressive. Sir Henry Raeburn, Sir Joseph Noel Paton, the Irish-born Phoebe Anna Traquair and many others made for an unbelievable display of talent and skill. It left me beside myself, so to speak.

There is so much more to share, but I shall leave it at this for now. I'm looking forward to posting pics whenever I get that chord. :/

!

posted August 20, 2008 11:43 AM            

I just want to emphasize how deeply grateful I am for all of your posts in this thread. I really didn't think that anyone would notice my absence, especially since it was only for two weeks. It's just really surprising to me since I feel like I give more effort reading than I do posting here at LL. Again, I send a great, gigantimous THANKS! to all of your ways.

posted August 20, 2008 12:57 PM            

I haven't really talked about London much and that city was overwhelming. The fact that I could ride the Underground all day, inexpensively, was very helpful. My first visit there was the Rudolf Steiner House. That was a sacred experience. I found myself having to will myself out of there because I was getting lost in peace and quietude of the building and the rarity of selections in their bookstore. It was a little smaller than I anticipated but it was more than I had hoped. That sounds like nonsense, doesn't it? They had an auditorium for special lectures and speakers and they had their own library for their members. There was also some sort of school there for anthroposophical studies. Again, I had to force myself out so that I didn't use up all of my one and only day in London.
After that I decided to go to the Tate Modern and visit the Cy Twombly exhibit. That was intense. I saw an M.C. Escher exhibit once, here in FL, but this was my first modern abstract artist experience. There are probably other abstract artists that I would've chosen to see but it seems that destiny had chosen for me. Cy Twombly I have heard of vaguely, but seeing his art up close was like an initiation. I don't want to get too lost in my rambling but I will give attention to the last works that I saw there for a brief window into my experience.

These are from another exhibition but they are of his Bacchus works:

They are not the same ones I saw but they are very similar. The effect these had on me was very powerful. I use a lot of red when I work with ball-point pens and I make a lot of markings that are similar to this. It's difficult not to judge this work as overly simplistic. You can't see it from the photo, but there is a calculated thinking and a significant power of ideas in the process of these works. Up close, if you pay attention, you can see that the artist re worked the "scribbles" by re-applying the background color into certain areas. There is a certainty in the definition and the clarity of the artist's designs that are paradoxical to the randomness it suggests. It also impressed me with the importance of the relationship between the inner (scribbles) and outer (background) worlds. The message behind the painting seems to contradict common wisdom by suggesting that the inner world forms a more poignant, profoundly fertile and powerful relationship with the outer world when the outer world becomes a part of the inner world and not when the inner world impresses its exclusive nature into its environment. Needless to say, the exhibit had a very strong effect on me. lol

After Cy Twombly's show, I went and saw the London Bridge. I also got to see St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, and by that time I became so hungry that I went back to my hostel to wash up and find a place to eat. The city is giant. I was no match for it. If only I had a few more days, my bout against time would've been much better. Alas, I will have to savor the few things I was able to and keep London in mind and heart until a later year.

Well, I'm going to have to continue again later.

Hearts all around!