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WHEN WE STOP ASSUMING THAT WE OWN, POSSESS, AND CONTROL THE MANIFESTATIONS OF LIFE ON EARTH, 'THE REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR' REMINDS EACH HUMAN BEING THAT WE ARE AN ECHO SOUNDING VIBRATION'S VARIATION FROM INFINITE PARALLEL DIMENSIONS...WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE AND YET EVERYTHING IS RELATIVELY NEW AS IF IT IS THE FIRST TIME BEING HERE! STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN TO LIFE'S IMAGINATION AS IT CONCRETIZES THE EXPERIENCES OF A HUMAN EXISTENCE INTO A WORLD OF ILLUSION. THE HUMAN THOUGHTS ARE SPECIFIC AND VAGUE. THE PICTURE IS CLEAR AND BLURRED. THE AUDIO IS SILENT AND NOISY. WHAT A DILEMMA TO PASS THROUGH UNAFFECTED AND UNIMPEDED BY THE FALSIFIED NEEDS, DESIRES AND WANTS FOR FINALITY OR PERMANENT ILLUSIONS OF REALITY. THIS ISN'T THE NATURAL OPERATION OF THIS PRESUMED STAGNANT REALITY BUT ITS FOREVER CHANGING CREATION CREATING CHANGES...

Featured Myth Book

Artemis

ALL COLOR BOOK OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY
by Richard Patrick
Introduction by Barbara Leonie Picard
102 color Illustrations

Since that stage in evolution when man ceased to be an animal and became homo sapiens, it has been inherent in his nature, on looking at the world about him with wondering and puzzled eyes, to ask the questions "Why?' and 'How?' It is the results of his groping attempts throughout the ages to find the answer to these questions which we call religion–or mythology: for we are inclined to consider our own beliefs–if we have any–as religion, and other people's beliefs as mythology.

A myth then is firstly, man’s attempt to explain the world and the things he sees in it, and to make intelligible to himself the natural phenomena which condition his way of life in that world. His beliefs will vary according to this way of life and its needs. For example, to nomadic herdsmen, wandering about and disputing grazing territory with rival tribes, a strong, belligerent sky-go will be the best protector; while to a peaceable and settled agricultural community it is the fruitfulness of the earth-mother which is all important.

Sun God

Sun God

Secondly, and at a later and somewhat higher stage of human culture, a myth seeks also to justify ann established social pattern together with its traditions and ritual; and it records, as it were dramatically, the historical invasions and migrations, changes of leadership and foreign influences, which combined to establish that social pattern. This second type of myth will tend to produce a hierarchy of gods which parallels the society of its believers: for instance, the gods of ancient China were members of a divine bureaucracy resembling in almost all respects the political administration of their worshippers.

At some stage in the long, slow development of these two types of myth, there will come a priest-poet, often semi-legendary, who will rationalize his people’ beliefs and give a formal shape to their myth, as did Homer and Hesiod for the Greeks, and in this manner is a national religion established. And later, much later, though still based on the same primitive beginnings, will come–as they did for the Romans–the elegant sophistications of an Ovid with his Metamorphoses, or of an Apuleius with his charming allegory of Cupid and Psyche.

Eros

The precise difference between a myth and a folk-tale has long vexed scholars, because in many examples the theme and content of both are similar enough for their stories to be in essence the same. Just where exactly do the traditions of a people cease to be myths and become merely folk-tales? It is now generally agreed that if a story tells of a happening which affects the whole world, or all the members of a certain community, and is set at a time before a pattern of everyday life has been established, it is a myth. If, on the other hand, a similar happening affects a n individual living in a roughly identifiable historical or modern age, and in a setting recognizable to the hearers of the story, then it is a folk-tale.

It therefore follows that myths tell stories of the beginnings of things, and concern mainly the gods and those semi-divine culture heroes who often stand for abstract qualities-courage, kingship, warrior's strength, and so on-while folk-tales tell of individual human beings and their personal adventures, and often of anthropomorphic animals and their doings. A myth explains and rationalizes and is, for those who believe it, perpetually and repeatedly true; a folk-tale seeks only to instruct and to entertain. Thus in Jewish tradition, Adam the First Man for whom a mate was created from one of his ribs, and the Welsh solar hero Lleu whose wife Blodeuwedd was formed for him from flowers by the magician Gwydion, are part, respectively, of the Jewish and Celtic mythologies. But Cinderella's prince, wandering the land with the glass slipper in search of a particular, once-glimpsed bride is the protagonist in a folk-tale.

Zeus

The myths of the ancient Greeks can be divided into three groups; firstly, myths of the Olympian gods–that is of Zeus the father-god, and of the more important of his fellow-deities; secondly, myths which explain natural phenomena; and thirdly, the hero-myths which relate the deeds and adventures of mortal heroes who were often of semi-divine parentage or ancestry, and many of whom were later deified and became numbered amongst the lesser gods of the Greek pantheon.

Greek religion followed a usual pattern of development, progressing from the simple fertility rites practised by the individual either on his own behalf or on behalf of his family, to the established state-religion with its public festivals and formalized procedures. As it developed, it shed or altered some beliefs and encompassed and adapted others. Sometimes it seemed to advance along more enlightened paths, and at other times it seemed to fall back again into a more antiquated usage, with its attendant barbarities. Yet gradually those early barbarities will have been entirely suppressed or else superceded by rites more in keeping with a higher level of culture. Religious emphasis will have varied from locality to locality; sophisticated ritual evolved more fully in the cities and larger centres of communal life; while among the primitive country folk–such as in rural Arcadia–the old superstitions and crude practices will have persisted alongside simplifications of the newer, polished forms.

Meneleus and Hector

The history of the development of Greek worship may be said roughly to cover, like the Christian, around 200 years; but unlike the Christian faith Greek religion had no clear cut body of dogma, no sacred and supposedly god-inspired writings of the nature of the Jewish and Christian Bible or the Islamic Koran, and no compulsory creed, binding upon its worshippers. And this is probably why it could put up so little resistance to the spread of Christianity: its tolerance and its respect for the adaptations and the varieties of belief of the individual were its own downfall. To the Greeks the word hairetikos–heretic–meant ‘able to choose’ and had no derogatory implication. Admittedly one of the charges brought against Socrates amounted to that of blasphemy–but then Socrates’ enemies were short of ammunition and in need of every weapon, however blunt, upon which they could lay their hands. The idea of any fanatical, suppressive and persecuting religious body in the nature of the Christian Holy Office would have been not merely repugnant, but unthinkable to the the Greeks, one of whose best-known maxims was “Nothing to excess’.

Odysseus and Circe

Except perhaps for the later, secret, mystery cults which spread to Greece from the east, Greek faith was primarily materialistic and practical. It was a religion of everyday life unconcerned with other worldliness and the Greeks knew their deities and the accepted attributes and appearance of those deities, not through any supposed mystical experience, but through poetry and art. Poets contradicted each other in their works, as did Homer and Hesiod in some respects and art changed its style from age to age and from place to place but to the Greeks all was acceptable.

Leda and Zeus in guise of a swan

It is generally presumed today that in the pre-historic European communities, as in those of Asia Minor, Syria and Libya, the organized worship of a mother-goddess preceded that of a father-god. Man might have been taller, stronger and swifter, but it was woman who was the awe-inspiring mystery, with her strange monthly cycles, corresponding to the cycles of the moon by which man first learnt to reckon time in periods of more than a single day; it was woman who suckled and reared the young of the tribe; and above all it was woman who, alone or by the grace of some unseen supernatural power, perpetuated the race. Granted that front the moment when man first discovered the all-important truth, namely, that a child, so far from being conceived parthenogenetically, or being sired by a spirit of the wind or the waters of a stream, needs a human father for its existence, then the supreme power of woman–and with it the spreme ower of the goddess–began to decline. But it was to be many ages before the Great Goddess was forced to yield her foremost position to the father-god. And in the ancient world she was never entirely ousted, never relegated to a place of no importance. In Greece, the protector and patron of Athens, even at the height of its political and military glory was the goddess Athene; and even in historical times there were religious festivals exclusive to women, such as the Thesmophoria, celebrated in Attica during the month of October, from which men were forbidden–a stiuation which the dramatist Aristophanes, in his Thesmophoriazusae uses to such splendidly ribald comic advantage.

Poseidon

Early in the second millenium BC the Hellenic invasions fo mainland Greece began. At first they will have been on a small scale and far less destructive than those which followed them. These early so-called Aeolian and Ionian invasions were probably little more than the infiltration of armed bands of nomadic herdsmen who pressed southwards in search of a more settled existence. They probably spoke an early form of Indo-European language and worshipped the Aryan trinity of sky-gods, Indra, Varuna and Mitra. After initial skirmishes, they will no doubt have settled down peaceably enough and intermarried with the pre-Hellenic agricultrual peoples whom they found in Thessaly and central Greece: and their gods will have been accepted by these goddes-worshipping farmers as new children of the Mother.
After the Acolian and Ionian invasions the more destructive and far reaching Achaean and Dorian invasions as they are called came from the north. This time the invaders were larger bands of experienced warriors rather than herdsmen and peaceable settlement and intermarriage were less to their liking than conquest and appropriation of territory and the slaughter or enslavement of those whose lands they invaded. The initial uneasy relationship between conquering invaders and conquered native inhabitants, might still be observed unchanged in classical times in Sparta, where the pre-Dorian population had been entirely enslaved and formed the Helots, an unprivileged class which performed all menial tasks and was utterly subservient to the ruling warrior class, by whom it was never assimilated.

The Shaft Graves at Mycenae

At a time when the Greek mainland was still in a state of barbarism, there was already a flourishing and mainly peaceable civilization on the island of Crete, with strong trade connections with the East and in particular with Egypt. This civilization is known as Minoan from the name of its legendary founder, King Minos. Around 1600 BC its influence spread to the mainland, having its strongest effect in Argolis, where it resulted in the so called Mycenaean civilization, centred around the town of Mycena. In about 1400 BC the Minoan civilization on Crete collapsed probably as the result of a natural disaster–an earthquake, or the eruption of a volcano–which was followed by a successful invasion from the mainland of a powerful army which took full vasion from the mainland of a powerful army which took full advantage of the chaos and disorganization brought about by the recent disaster.
The history of the development of Greek religion shows it to have been influenced by beliefs from many other lands, including Babylonia, Egypt, Palestine and Phrygia but it is in Crete that its true beginnings are to be found. There, as elsewhere, the first forms of worship will have been the veneration of natural objects such as rocks, trees, and animals; and of stylizations of certain man-made objects of vital importance to man;s survival such as weapons, the hearth, a supporting roof-pillar and so on. the chief amongst these cult objects will have survived into the period of anthropomorphic deities to become attributes or symbols of the deities.

Ritual Vase

In Crete the special survivals were the Minoan doubleheaded axe, now well known from its many representations in Cretan art; the bull, a symbol of virility in several religions; the dove, a bird much given to mating-display and therefore associated with fertility; and the snake which periodically sloughs its skin and may from this be said to annually reborn. The snake in particular became much venerated in Greece in the classical period; and to this very day in certain country districts it is the subject of reverent superstition amongst the Greek peasants. Votive statuettes from shrines and tombs in crete and depictions in art of these three creatures and of the doubleheaded axe are common, so also are the numerous representations of the Cretan Great Goddess in her several forms. Probably one of the best-known figurines from the ancient world is that stature of the so-called Minoan snake-goddess–the Great Goddess, or her priestess, dressed as a fashionable Cretan lady with bared breasts and flounced skirt, holding one of her sacred snakes in either hand.

Terracotta Figurine

     Though something may be conjectured, we know little of the actual practices of Cretan religion or of its myths other than what has survived in an adapted form in later Hellenic practices. We do not even know the names of the Great Goddess, though one of them, in her aspect as Mother, was probably Rhea; and as the springtime Maiden she seems to have sometimes been called Britomartis. But under whatever names she was worshipped she will undoubtedly have been at first, all-powerful and revered throughout Crete in her three aspects as Maiden, Mother and Old Woman and she presided in one or other of her three forms, over every phase of human life and every occurrence in the daily round.
     The pattern of annual worship in early Crete will probably have been similar to that offered to the Great Goddess in every place where she was supreme. She was represented by her high priestess, whose chosen consort was the father of the child which she bore annually–her fruitfulness being both the outward sign of the goodwill of the goddess towards the worshippers, and an encouraging reminder to the fields to give good yield that year, and to the flocks and herds to multiply. At first this consort will have been slain annually and replaced by a successor, probably at seed-sowing time when the sacrificed consort’s blood and the pieces of his body will have been sprinkled and scattered on the fields to fertilize them.
     From place to place the method will have varied by which the consort was slain: but on mainland Greece and in some localities of Asia Minor we can guess at it from clues given in myths concerning local deities and heroes who will, originally, have been consorts of the goddess. For instance, in Mysia the consort, like Hylas was drowned; in Thrace he was torn in pieces by the women worshippers or the priestesses, as was Orpheus; around Mount Ida in Asia Minor where the Great Goddess was worshipped as Cybele, we can tell that he was bled to death from the fate of Attis; and in Elis he was probably flung from a moving chariot, as was Oenomanus. We cannot be sure how he was slain in Crete, but perhaps he was dispatched by means of the doubleheaded axe.

Orpheus and the beasts

Gradually the position of the consort will have increased in importance. There will have been occasions during his year of office when, wearing the sacred robes of the goddess-priestess and temporarily invested with her magical power, he will have acted as her understudy. Also as time went on, it became the custom to kill each year not last year’s consort, but a youth chosen in his place. And so from these adaptations and variations of earlier practice, will have arisen the first concept of kingship.

In Crete the Great Goddess’s consort–the corn-youth, the priest-king, the dying-god-was from early times associated with the bull, and association which owed much to influence from the bull-cults of the East, such as those of Sumeria and Elam. Later, after the destruction of Minoan power, this Cretan bull-god was equated with Zeus, the sky-god from the mainland, and his attributes were assimilated with those of the newcomer. The fact that Zeus, supreme god of the Greek pantheon in later times, was originally a fusion of two important gods (for a moment we may here disregard the many minor, local mainland deities whose cults were swallowed up by his) is clearly displayed by the divergence of sites claimed as his birthplace. These sites include Arcadia. Messenia and Olympia–this last claim being made in a tradition which offers an explanation of the founding of the Olympic Games. But none of these mainland sites has the importance of Crete, form where comes a full and detailed version of the story of his birth as the son of Rhea–one of the Great Goddess’s names as Mother. ‘Cretan-born’ was a stock epithet of Zeus. Moreover, if further proof is needed that Zeus, who became the immortal, never-aging, supreme god of historical times, was once the annually-dying consort of the Great goddess, it is offered by the existence of the several sites revered as his burial-place, both on Crete–at Knossos and at Mount Dicte–and on the mainland.

Zeus enthroned

After the fall of Crete, the leardershp of the Aegean world passed to Mycenae in Argolis, where a culture very different from that of Crete had grown up over the years, though it had originally owed much to Cretan influence. Compared with Knossos, that splendid, largely unfortified Cretan city, with its peaceable, luxurious way of life and its pre-eminent Great Goddess, Mycenae was little more than a huge armed fortress of god-worshipping warriors, lead by a strong priest-king.
The power of the Great Goddess was now everywhere being superceded by the power of the god. But she did not surrender without a fight. Those myths which tell of the too-frequent quarrels between Zeus and Hera, his sister and queen, may appear undignified to us at first sight, but are simply allegories of the struggle between the old worship and the new–as indeed, are most myths which tell of divine revolts. Similarly, the tales of Zeus’s numerous amorous adventures that are linked with specific districts in so many parts of Greece, are a euphemistic statement of the old enforced ‘marriage’ between the conquering god and the local form of the Great Goddess–a union which, in many cases, will actually have taken place between the war-leader of the victorious invaders and the queen or high priestess of the captured district.

Delphi

Also at about this time the old system of matrilineal succession died out and its place was taken by the custom of the invaders–a son now succeeded his father and no longer, as under the old order, left his father’s home to marry into the family of his bride. Instead it was she who left her father’s house and went to live in the house of her husband’s father; while it was her brother who inherited the lands and rights which would, in earlier days, have been hers and her husband’s. But in many myths the old order live on. To mention but one of these; Menelaus leaves Argolis to go to Sparta where he marries Helen, the (supposed) daughter of the King, and in due time becomes himself the ruler of Sparta by virtue of his marriage. Small wonder then, one might think, that he so readily forgave Helen’s adultery! An example of later custom is seen in the marriage of one of Helen’s unsuccessful suitors, Odysseus. Rejected by Helen he woos Penelope, the daughter of a Spartan Chieftain and in spite of her father’s objections, persuades her to leave Sparta and go with him to his own home on the island of Ithaca.

Odysseus and Cyclops

Gradually, over the centuries there evolved a similar pattern of worship for all Greece, and a pantheon of deities was established, though inevitably divergencies and inconsistencies remained for all the efforts of the ancient poets and mythographers who sought to explain and reconcile them.
Foremost in this Greek pantheon in historical times were the so-called Twelve Olympians–the elite amongst the gods and goddesses. They were believed to dwell with Zeus, their lord–and for some of them, their father–in palaces surrounding his stronghold on Mount Olympus, though they did not always live in amity with him. Now and then one or another of them, including Hera, his queen, would rebel against his authority. This situation was a reflection of the conditions prevailing in earlier times since in just the same manner did the chieftains of a king sometimes challenge his authority; and the lesser kings of Greece flout the leadership of the high King Agamemnon in Homer’s Iliad.

Hera and Hebe

The list of the Twelve Olympians was modified from time to time, but they are most frequently given as Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Athene and Hestia. Latterly Hestia was usually replaced by the important newcomer from Thrace, Dionysus.
In spite of that deposition, however, Hestia was highly revered by all as a very ancient and important aspect of the Great Goddess. The hearth where she was believed to preside was the very heart of the home, and was moreover, like the altar of a medieval church, a safe asylum where a suppliant might beg the protection of the householder. Sacred oaths were sworn by her name and since she was not only the fire of the hearth, but also the sacred fire of the temple altar, the first portion of every sacrifice was offered to Hestia. In most towns she had public sanctuary with its own hearth fire from which emigrant Greeks, setting off to found a colony, would carry embers to kindle the sacred fire in their new home.

Aphrodite

Just as Greek mythology has been affected and modified by cults from other lands, so the most important of the Greek gods exerted a strong influence on both the gods of the Roman pantheon and the earlier, native Etruscan deities. The chief Roman gods in their latest forms are usually equated with the Twelve Olympians. In western Europe from the time of the Renaissance, when there was an immense revival of interest in classical art and Liling, until comparatively recently the deities of Greece have been referred to by the names of their Roman counterparts (except by Greek scholars). And even today, though we may differentiate between the two groups of deities and call the gods of Greece by their own Greek names, we still latinize the spelling. For the convenience of any reader to whom the Roman gods are more familiar than those of Greece, the principal deities (and one famous hero) of both mythologies are listed here, each one named being paired with his or her counterpart.

Heracles and the Hind of Ceryneia

Greek		Roman

Zeus		Juptier
Poseidon		Neptune
Hades		Pluto
Hera		Juno
Demeter		Ceres
Persephone		Proserpina
Hestia		Vesta
Apollo		Apollo
Artemis		Diana
Aphrodite		Venus
Eros		Cupid
Ares		Mars
Hephaestos		Vulcan
Hemes		Mercury
Dionysus		Bacchus
Asklepios		Aesculapius
Heracles		Hercules

There were sceptics and atheists amongst the intellectuals, but to the average Greek of the classical period, as to this ancestors, the gods were present everywhere, though unseen. In appearance they were thought of as being like men, only far more beautiful and with infinitely nobler minds, and that is how they were depicted in art–idealized and perfect. As well as being more beautiful the gods were immeasurably more skilled than thier worshippers. Indeed, over whatsoever craft or skill–artistic, domestic, military or any other–a deity presided, he was unquestionably the greatest of all the practitioners of that craft or skill. If a man possessed any talent or rejoiced in any measure of skill it was reckoned as a gift from the gods and therefore the Greeks believed it fitting that he should not waste it, but use it to the best of his ability, so that he might, in a modest way, resemble the gods themselves. However, if was imperative that it should only be in a modest way, since to think oneself too like a god was to offend against the gods and to be guilty of hubris–reckless pride. Once again that favorite Greek maxim admonishes: ‘Nothing to excess’.

Appollo with his lyre

Just as their beauty and their skills were far beyond any to which a man might attain, so the gods were so above the restrictions which governed human behaviour and were not expected to follow the rules of conduct which had been laid down for man. This attitude to divine morality prevailed largely unchanged throughout the whole age during which the Greek gods were worshipped. Even at the latest period, when high standards of human morality had long replaced the early unenlightened ways, the gods were still not expected to conform; and in the popular conception only two gods developed to show any ethical improvement in attributes and characteristics. These two were Zeus and Apollo, the two deities who had the strongest influence on every sphere and aspect of Greed life and thought. Because they believed their gods to be everywhere and in everything, and because they were bound by no inflexible dogmas or doctrines, the Greeks found no difficulty in reconciling science and religion. All scientific discoveries were merely attributed to the God’s powers.

Hermes with the infant Dionysus

Though the Greeks felt reverence for their gods, they could laugh at them as well and see no sin in it. As early as Homer they were laughing–the Homeric Hymn to Hermes contains humourous anecdotes of some of Hermes’ merry pranks–and in the Iliad, Homer makes several of the gods and goddesses look very foolish indeed on the battle field, when they interfere in the conduct of the war. In later literature there are frequent divine appearances in drama. Often the god enters only towards the end of the action–as the original deus ex machina, in fact–and resolves the difficulties of the protagonists and closes the drama on a suitably uplifting note. But sometimes he plays a longer and more important role–and a role, moreover, which is not always dignified. It is hard to recognize the beautiful and rather terrifying young Dionysus of the Bacchae of Euripides when we meet him again as a figure of fun in the Frogs of the comic poet Aristophanes–who was no liberal-minded ‘modern’ like Euripides, but an unashamed reactionary who hankered after the good old days. If we worshipped Dionysus, the divine protector of theatres and the deity who presided over dramatic art, we would hardly dare to show him as an absurd, cowardly dilettante, with less dignity than his own slave. Yet it is all very entertaining and laughable, and the Greeks saw no blasphemy in it.

The Theatre at Delphi

     In their towns and cities the Greeks worshipped their gods in the beautiful temples which they built to honour them–most often on some ancient hallowed site. Though any individual might approach any of the gods on his own behalf, by archaic and classical times worship was principally communal and public. The most elaborate rites and ceremonies were those observed by the state on behalf of all the people; but each small township, as well as every local clan of family of importance, also had its own particular observances.
     Human sacrifice was abandoned in Greece as unworthy and degrading from about the sixth century BC, though animals continued to be offered to the gods, as well as fruits and flowers. An integral part of the public religious ceremonies was a solemn procession through the streets of the city to the temple of victims and objects sacred to the deity concerned. There, with hymns and prayers–often written by the most famed and respected poets and musicians of the day–the victims would be sacrificed in an elaborate and orderly ritual, and the ceremony would end with the worshippers partaking of a feast of the flesh of the sacrificed animals.
     These public, civic cults were fixed according to a state calendar and though many of anthem were connected with the vital affairs of agriculture, through the years they had come to be celebrated on days which did not always correspond with the real seasons of the farming year. This was not so much the case in country districts where, then as now, work was ruled by weather conditions and the harvest was celebrated at the time of its gathering.

Ruins of the temple of Demeter

From around the end of the fifth century BC the cult of a latecomer to the Greek pantheon–Asklepios, the god of medicine–grew in popularity. The swift advance of his worship coincided with a development in philosophical ideas about the importance of the individual; and even those thinkers who were inclined to feel sceptical towards the Olympian deities paid respect to the gentle healer and acknowledged the worth of his cult. By Christian times his worship was widespread and strong and of all the gods of the Greeks, Asklepios was the only one whose cult presented any danger to the march of Christianity. As paganism was crushed out, yet still the loyal worshippers of Asklepios resisted, while many of his shrines were appropriated and given to wonder-working Christian saints. And thus, not quite everything that was good in the religion of the Greeks was lost and destroyed by the intolerance of monotheism; a little–albeit a very little–was for a time preserved to bring comfort to men.

Available at Amazon: Greek Mythology

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"The word 'aware' may be ambiguous. There is a kind of subjective awareness of oneself, interpreting oneself, adding ideas to what one is aware of, to the facts. This kind of awareness is hindered from discovering the truth because one's reflection on the truth are seen – like pictures on a screen instead of the screen itself. Only when the pictures disappear is the screen seen. There is then objective awareness, and this is the awareness which leads to the understanding of reality. In objective awareness we are free from ideas, or at least we clearly observe our reactions to what we are aware of. Accumulated knowledge is cleared away, revealing the truth." - Dhiramamsa

What is the innate impulse producing responses and reactions from birth to death according to the 'Human' Being? This is an insightful creation at play from moment to moment. There isn't anything permanent about the creative process or it wouldn't be creating creation. It is insistently changing all definitions, stereotypes, stigmatism, categories, labels, etc., into obsolete, trivial and insignificant matter. The illusions of reality are at work bringing forth whatever is imagined 'to be' or 'not to be' based upon the concepts of past, present and future psychological experiences. Thereby the excessive documentation about the 'Human' species is genuinely filled with contradictions of the very essence of existence in the first place. How beautiful it is!

We, 'Artists' acknowledge that there is a struggle to be who and what one truly is by nature's design. The unique essence of life's manifestations regardless of impositions and presumptions to restrict all possibilities of 'Human' Being is extremely powerful. It will not be compromised and/or controlled by superficial inebriation of the psyche configuration. We are gravely mistaken to continue to pursue this 'Human' discourse in lieu of Creation's natural unfoldment. Whatever is within one will come out! The essence of life thinks, feels and does the effects from the unknown realms within space's timeframes allotted for the very purpose of discovery and exploration. Therefore, we 'Artists' must pose the question to 'Humanity', "why have we misused this creative energy?" What is the excuse for ignorance to prevail with such knowledge, intelligence and wisdom accrued through the annals of time? In order to handle the primitive plight of 'Human' Beings throughout 'The Evolutionary Expressionism of life Energy', we 'Artists' must deliberately remove the psychological barriers that challenge the natural creative process 'to be' or have; we are the means to break away from delusion through conscious awareness and practical application of supreme revelation.

We 'Artists' understand that the material, physical and spiritual appearances are limited to the form. These qualities are transformed through evolution which substantiates that there actually isn't any struggle for survival in this universe or any other dimension. We know and understand the temporal progressions of all things in creation as illusions are momentary expressions within reality. The secrets we keep professing are not secrets at all, otherwise we wouldn't be trying to cover them up with a determination to control the recognized and inevitable destiny. The infinite scenarios of 'Human' existence are hi-stories unfolding in pursuit for a quest of the principle that life feeds off of life where no form of energy is ever wasted or lost during the recycling processes of creation. The thought to struggle is only in the mind's eye and subsequently survival is an automatic reaction to Creation's inception. The extinction of any living organism is a part of an evolutionary concept but not factual in essence. Everything is designed and orchestrated to flourish, excel and reach maximum and/or optimum levels of creative expression then disappear into the vast space from whence it came.

We 'Artists' are getting unstuck from the bob-wired fence of belief systems embedded in the mire and the mud of psychological deprivations and conditions. We keep discovering presumed impossibilities that's possible in the making. No longer taking things for granted, we are the one and only energy field known, as conscious Being empowers us. When we 'Artists' concentrate upon letting go of the outcome of things, events, situations and circumstances we begin to experience a freedom we have always had innately. The 'Human' tasks are merely tasks and continuously pass into complete oblivion's light. The unquestionable freedom experienced through total detachment from the world illusions which are spinning out of whack is exhilarating. We 'Artists' have the endowment to stop the world and get off. This freedom is an essential affirmation that no longer accepts the standards of anything or anybody attempting to inflict controls to prevent life from expressing it's uncontrollable energy. LIFE IS SIMPLE, COMPLEX, COMPLETE AND TOTAL! It is our nature to let everything return from whence it came as we travel back into the future now. We understand that life itself never struggles to survive it's creations, although the manifestations out of it's abyss persist in struggling to survive under the delusion that things are separate, divided and independent of 'LIFE'. This is unlikely given the actuality of 'Human' existence.

We 'Artists' have learned not to get caught up in the illusion's reality of temporal mechanics in any way but to enjoy the process, shape or form and allow life's energy to keep flowing without stopping at every juncture on the path. We are that energy. The pulse of a heartbeat doesn't interfere with life's sojourn. The things that happen in life we accept as tangible occurrences, no more and no less. Whatever is felt at one point is incorporated into another integrated point of experience unfolding. We 'Artists' mustn't be too serious about the outcome, instead we must focus on the income of life's biggest picture. The extreme self-indulgence regarding the concepts of struggle for survival must decease and desist. The fear, pain, sorrow, guilt and shame combined with intense abuse causes 'Human' Beings to punish themselves mercilessly, then wage wars and personal battles upon one another during the most difficult periods of the 'Human' sojourn.

"...most people think according to what they live with. I should like to use the word "sleep" with – because we sleep with our beliefs, opinions and views. We are very attached to them, and dislike anyone opposing them. But the truth cannot be measured, and we must be intelligent when measuring the "progress" we make. We tend to measure things all the time, even in meditation, yet we don't have the right means of measurement. There may appear to be no progress, and frustration and depression occur because of this. When we drop the idea of measuring and comparing, truth can come – we begin to see with the EYE OF WISDOM.

When we discover this and are free from deception, the truly religious mind is revealed. WE can easily be deceived by knowledge and patterns of thinking. If you are certain of something because you know it, you are described as 'coming to a conclusion" – you cannot go any further, and then the truth is far away." - Dhiravamsa

It is through 'Human' consciousness that the ideas constituting the foundation for 'People' to live healthy, wholesome lives upon this earth are no longer constantly being violated. The 'People' herd that's being lead to the slaughter house by believing in the lies recorded in camouflage hi-story instills and assures the way to repeat the mistakes of 'Humanity'. We 'Artists' cannot lay down exhausted and get up tired in the night and morning stars of time and space anymore, so we pledge to deal with this 'Human' mess! Yes, we all struggled psychologically with the reality believed to produce successes for surviving the hardships experienced in the clutches of fear. But now that is over!

When an inquisitive child observes and contemplates the world of parents, family, friends, people, places, things, he/she wonders why everybody is having a difficult time, until the moment when this child's fun of enjoying life turns into punishment for Being a free child in a grown up world is stopped by conformity. Then one begins to understand that the world is believed to be cruel, harsh and unsympathetic to the 'Human' Beings which is enforced by rules, regulations and guidelines used to control the masses of free spirits through conditioning. We do know how to change this conditioning and yet we grasp onto it without question or further investigation to determine that this isn't how it is supposed to be. The delusions of society have persuaded, conjoled, convinced and manipulated it's inhabitant to accept another setup for survival. The promise of a good life never seems to come for the believers of concepts, ideas and behaviors by 'Mankind' to build a better world. This misdirected energy seems to keep the majority of 'Humans' spinning into self-destruction based upon the concept of struggle for survival.

NO! NO! NO! We do not struggle, for life is eternal, and the things of life are temporal, transient and momentary. Letting go of all fragmented components of belief systems frees the mind, body and soul from all attachments. We are free spirits. Yet, how many times have we been told to bring it down, to hide the 'Radiant Light Being' from others who have agreed to lessen their dynamic light energy in order to fit into the mundane, boring, watered down version and/or gray area of 'Human existence. This planet initiating a living dead organization ensconced with 'Humans' is trodding earth like shadows covering over every bright spot through deceptions trickery. This is society's construction again dictating the pros and cons of life and what it is supposed to be through interpretations requiring never to be questioned, answered or changed..., if a 'Human' Being complies with this authority, then someone must be punished, forced or destroyed by this very society of Humankind..., such are the strange days!

"...we have to transcend the old – even the language we use; we should not use words just for convenience. The only way to reach a new culture is to remain in constant revolution – not aggressively, politically, but with a truly revolutionary awareness, investigating all ideas and objects freshly, in order to understand them for what they are. If we can free ourselves from attachment to views and knowledge, anything we come across, any challenge presenting itself to us, can be dealt with through a new approach. So we must not bring an old method with us. But a lot of people are afraid of meeting the challenge anew, or of going into a new situation. When something is unknown, fear is very powerful. Why is that? Because we are attached to a system and are ignorant. Fear is nothing really if you actually understand it. We have to look into fear and see how it operates and how it comes to be. Then we can understand fear as it really is, and it will no longer arise. The true spirit of enquiry is different from that of watching television or reading newspapers. I do not mean that we should not do these things, but it should not be confused with looking into reality. We can learn a lot from them, but if we are wise we will not become attached to them, or drunk by what we encounter in life. As we learn the tricks of the minds play, we also learn about those of other people's minds, and can see the motives behind society – freeing ourselves from them when necessary or taking responsibility for them. For a society to improve, its culture must be renewed all the time, being re-born just as we must be reborn. We need to look into the causes that give rise to the problems of society, and we will find that individuals must improve themselves. In looking for a solution to the difficulties within our culture, we must look towards ourselves; and then the solution will be found within the problem itself." – Dhiravamsa

We, 'Artists', the outcast, abolished and abandoned 'Human' Beings who refuse to struggle to survive within society are blessed. This is a good thing. YES! YES! YES! We are not mad as hell anymore, because we don't take any abuse anymore. We have proven to live freely without depending upon the lies, pretenses and facades instituted to persuade anybody to join any societal group criterion to demolish freedom. Freedom inevitably brings infinite blessings that transcend this presumed struggle for survival mentality. There are infinite ways for 'ArtWorks' to reach the one direction towards and into the center and beyond. When freedom is not auctioned, sold or bought by captors of the soul, the inalienable rights of the 'Human' species are truly in effect without jeopardy, sabotage and/or politics. We are born free!

....John J. Steven Cole

JJSC

"When somebody lies to you, he or she is afraid of you. He is not courageous enough to tell what he feels. Be sympathetic and give the person confidence that he or she doesn't need to lie. Give people confidence, then nobody will lie." - Sri Gurudev

Books of Great Insight and Wisdom

ADAMS CURSE
by Bryan Sykes
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG: ESSENTIAL READINGS
by Emanuel Swedenborg, Michael Stanley
THE FOREST LOVER
by Susan Vreeland
LIVE RICH
by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine
ALL COLOR BOOK OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY
by Richard Patrick
THE NOONDAY DEMON: An Atlas of Depression
by Andrew Solomon
DE KOONING: AN AMERICAN MASTER
by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
UNBOUGHT AND UNBOSSED
by Shirley Chisholm

[Available through CCPI-Booklist]

Click the Door to the Reading Room

William Blake 1757-1827
Jerusalem Plate 31

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HATHA
YOGA WORKSHOPS
CLASSES
Physical, Material and Spiritual Wellness of Being Human!

LONG REACH VILLAGE CENTER COMMUNITY’S "STONEHOUSE"

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WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!

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YOGA WORKSHOPS /CLASSES
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EIGHT WEEK CLASS SESSIONS
MARCH 1 - APRIL 28, 2005
[except March 22 & 24]
EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY EVENINGS
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
$80.00/1cl/8wks • $160.00/2cl/8wks
• $10.00/Per Single Session

HATHA YOGA & MEDITATION
at
LONG REACH COMMUNITY VILLAGE CENTER
8775 Cloudleap Court • Columbia, MD 21045
Contact: (410) 730-8113

Instructor: John J. Steven Cole

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Angel of Revelation

"The Angel of the Revelation"
William Blake

"Creativity represents an innate capacity we each have to enter‚at will‚an altered state of consciousness similar to the one we might entertain on an ideal day at the ocean. The elements seem to conspire to relax and refresh us. Time stands still before the endless movement of waves on the shore, the flight of birds overhead; the rhythmic interplay of wind, water, sand and marine life seems to have gone on forever. And we know it will endure long after we die. For a moment within time, we are not disturbed by its flow but surrender to it in trust. In accord with the will of nature, we experience peace of mind. In that altered state which is so akin to creativity, time moves and stands still all at once. Like a bird airborne, we pause in magical flight beyond time's reach and glide suspended over the uneven terrain of life, uplifted by the coexistence of two realms of being, the physical and the transcendent."
- Source Imagery: Releasing the Power of Your Creativity by Sandra G. Shuman. Ph.D.

Emerson's Writing

REPRESENTATIVE MEN
From Uses Of Great Men, 1849

"Newton"
William Blake
(1757-1827)

Evolutionary Expression

Precipice, 1992.

Poetry #151

TIS NATURE

Nothing is impossible
Cut out of reality
Everything is possible!
You can if you think you can
Transcend with the truth of
Who we are
Come into the light
Be in the light
Move in the light
Have the light in you, through you
Surrender control and fear
Accept light and love
Give light and love
Change direction
"Do the difficult thing first"
Rehearse show
Practice show
Then pace quickens
Toward speed of run of
Finding ones rhythm
As with jobs functions
Scripting, data entry,
Languages, skills, manifesting,
Speech patterns,
Fencing, choreography break downs
To performance level process!
Healing, stretching
Planning, implementing
Appreciate! Not depreciate
As with work!
Finding "right" levels to be
Natural, magical
Right place at right time
Right role at right time in right show
Right gallery at right time
According to Divine plan unfolding
Go and work, just do it.
Attend and fulfill purposes as stated
Seeing scenes, people, directions
Spark the imagination to ignite
Rearranging the field to manifest
From it new directions
Rearrange to align to the field
Altered forms realities.
Does not the spider weave it's web
Countless times by its nature
When the old is destroyed
Or abandoned
It does what it does,
As the scorpion said
To the frog
"It's my nature."
Manifesting the reality of the illusion
The hologram, virtual reality
Becomes thought concretized
Yet lasts but a moment in the eternal.

By JV Harvey

AFRICAN AMERICAN MASTERS

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE
WALTER O. EVANS COLLLECTION
www.walterevansfoundation.org

Cubist Bird
Enamel on steel, c. 1966, 12" x 15"
Sargent Claude Johnson
(1887-1967)

After attending the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and he Boston School of Fine Arts, Johnson developed a unique modernist vision in his prints, ceramics, and sculpture depicting the pride, strength, and beauty of African Americans. His self-contained, geometric forms were influenced by African art, The Mexican muralists, and the desire to promote and define a distinctly African American culture. Johnson was commissioned to create several large-scale public sculptures in San Francisco. After supervising the WPA sculpture division for several years, Johnson expanded his skills to include enameled murals, the universal themes of which allowed the artist to investigate pre-Columbian and Japanese art forms.

Country Scene
Oil on canvas board, c. 1940, 9" x 11"
Lois Mailou Jones
(1905-1997)

Born in Boston in 1905, Lois Mailou Jones,
painter, teacher, book illustrator, and textile designer, enjoyed a long and prolific career as an artist. Encouraged by her parents, Jones began studying art at an early age. She attended the Boston Museum School and in 1937 won a fellowship to the Académie Julien in Paris. Throughout her career, she lived and worded extensively in France, Haiti, and Senegal. In 1930, she joined the faculty of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she remained on staff until retiring in 1977. She painted French landscapes, Cubist-influenced abstractions, and figures from African American history. Lois Mailou Jones was one of the first female African Americans to depict African imagery in her work.

Funeral Procession
Oil on Board, c. 1950, 13" x 18"
Clementine Hunter
(c. 1886-1988)

In 1940, Clementine Hunter, a native of Hidden Hill Plantation, Louisiana, began painting on anything she could find: cardboard boxes, soap cartons, brown paper bags, pieces of lumber, scraps of plywood, window shades, glass bottles, plastic mild jugs, cast iron pots, paperboard, and canvas board. Her subjects can be divided into three broad categories-work, play, and religion. She repeated many themes, but no two works are alike. A prolific artist with no formal training. Hunter sold her paintings during the early 1940s for as little as 25 cents. By the 1980s, her work was fetching thousands of dollars. Museums and galleries have exhibited Hunter's work frequently since 1945, and by 1987, her paintings had been featured in more than 24 solo exhibitions. In 1986, Northwestern state University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, granted her an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree, Hunter continued painting until she retired in 1987.

The Mirror
Monoprint, c. 1940, 20" x 24"
Robert Blackburn
(b. 1920)

Robert (Bob) Blackburn, best known as the director of the nonprofit Printmaking Workshop in New York, has provided facilities and instruction for young and needy artists for more than 40 years. He studied in New York at the Uptown Community Art Center, the Harlem Community Art Center, The Art Students League, and Atelier 17. While working on a WPA-sponsored project at the Harlem Community Art Center as a teenager, he learned to make lithographs, the medium for which he is most acclaimed. He has taught at such institutions as the College of the City of New York, the New School for Social Research, and Columbia University and has worked as a master printer at Universal Limited ARts Editions. Celebrated for his keen observations and attention to detail, Black burn has selflessly dedicated his time to advancing the careers of countless artists. In 1992, at age 72, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his lifetime achievements.

The Plotters
Oil on canvas, 1939, 36" x 40"
Archibald J. Motley, Jr.
(1891-1981)

Through his sensitive portraits and lively cabaret, pool hall, and street scenes, Archibald j. motley, Jr. sought to portray all aspects of African American life with honesty, realism, and satire. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1918. Motley exhibited in various group shows, earning his first solo exhibition in 1928 at the New Gallery in New York. The success was followed by a gold medal from the harmon Foundation (1928) and Guggenheim Fellowship for study in Paris (1929-1930). Returning to Chicago, the artist focused on African American genre scenes, creating upbeat and energetic images that countered the pervasive malaise of the Depression. In the 1950s. Motley visited Mexico & briefly experimented with Surrealism, but he returned to scenes of Chicago for the remainder of his impressive artistic career.

Staircase
Oil on canvas, c. 1908, 17" x 21"
William A. Harper
(1873-1910)

When William A Harper was ten years old, he and his family moved from Cayuga, CAnada, to Petersburg, Illinois, and then to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1891. Harper enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1895. He graduated in 1901 with second honors and moved to Houston, where he became a drawing instructor,. From 1903 to 1905, and again from 1907 to 1908, Harper lived in Paris. In France he studied with Henry Ossawa TAnner and painted in Provence and Brittany. Harper exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1903 and 1909. Suffering from tuberculosis, he traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 1908 and died there two years later. The Art Institute of Chicago mounted a posthumous solo exhibition in 1910. Harper won numerous distinguished awards and participated in many American exhibitions during his lifetime.

Autumn Landscape
Oil on canvas, c. 1887, 18" x 24"
Charles Ethan Porter
(c. 1847-1923)

Charles Ethan Porter, a native of Connecticut, took his first art lessons while he was in high school in 1862, but his family was poor and could not afford to pay for his art classes on a regular basis. After graduation, he enrolled in the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1871, Porter exhibited Autumn Leaves at the academy. In 1873 and 1875, he exhibited at the American Society of Painters in Watercolor. Porter retuned to Connecticut in 1878, and then studied painting in London and Paris from 1881 to 1884. He took a studio in New York in 1885, and although financial hardship forced him to move back to hartford and later to Rockville, he periodically maintained a New York studio (1886, 1891, 1896). In 1910, he became a charter member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. Porter earned acclaim for his landscape painting but in most celebrated for his still lifes.

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'To Transcendent Spirits of the Flowering Tsunami'

"Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one's eternal peril." ‚ Laurens Van de Post

Appreciation & Gratitude

We sincerely appreciate all the contributions on every level in support of our efforts to collectively bring about joy, happiness, loving-kindness, peace and goodwill to all of Human Kind. Now is the time and the time is eternally now to give thanks, for the whole of creation to continuously bring about an harmonious convergence for the sake of humanity.

Thanks to every one of you individually in our cyberspace community for the constant inspiration, insight, encouragement, support, interest, inquiry, purchases and/or financial contributions to the work of 'The Evolutionary Expressionism of Life Energy' ArtWorks/Poetry by JV Harvey and Colveyco CPI. We are overjoyed to increase public awareness for visitors, patrons, collectors, curators, connoisseurs of Art, to view our Virtual Art Gallery Series and affiliate Artist's Sites in addition to attending Art Exhibition Shows/Events around the world.

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