Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Saturday, March 4, 2023

The Light of the Silver Moon


XVIII


From time to time I select something from my book The Other Road Ahead and write a brief comment to expand on the ideas in the book. dsr


February 15 Moon

Some calendars turn on the phases of the Moon and the tides rise and falls because of its motion. The metal silver is attributed to the Moon as are the Owl and the Cat. Various behavior is explained by Lunar movements. There is mystery in how it seems to be larger when it rises at different times of the year. The Moon also tells us secrets about ourselves.


February 28 Silver

One of the metals of the ancient world, silver, the bright white reflective substance has been mined and treasured for centuries as the queen of metals. Often associated with the Zodiac sign Cancer, the Moon, the Archangel Gabriel (Aah), and clarity of vision. This precious metal wards off evil while attracting the wisdom of Divine Sophia which is the Holy Spirit to some people.

◼   ◼  ◼

Within the pages of my book The Other Road Ahead there are many examples of seeing the miraculous hidden in plain sight. It is one of the reasons I wrote it. There are insights available everywhere which do not require a special certification to view. If we want to see our world more fully this can be accomplished by just paying close attention to what is in front of us.

Embedded in our culture are many signs and symbols that arise from our imagination but we are barely aware of it consciously. In visual art, poetry, and song there is often a level of meaning that comes to the creator both rationally and through the unconscious mind. Fragments of thought that crop up involuntarily but add meaning to the work.

The playful tune "By The Light of the Silvery Moon" was a popular love song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and covered numerous times over the years. An excerpt follows:

By the light of the silvery moon,

I want to spoon, to my honey I'll croon love's tune,

Honeymoon keep a shining in June,

Your silvery beams will bring love dreams, we'll be cuddling soon,

By the silvery moon.

The two February readings have an eerie resonance to the 1909 song about the relation between "silver" and the Moon in a very mystical manner. The energy of the metal wards off evil making room in the material world for the Divine Sophia who embodies the Holy Spirit of wisdom that shapes our concept of love. Without the intersession of Sophia in our world it would just be potential and form without the virtues that make life bearable.

The song also references "Honeymoon....in June" the traditional wedding month which includes the magic concept known as the union of opposites; the Bridal Chamber in Gnostic Christian terms where the possibility of a resolution dwells. Here in a mystical "honeymoon" light and dark, good and evil, are dissolved into their original forms and return to the Source. The "...silvery beams..." of light energy emanating from a beneficial moon bring forth love and companionship.

Do I think the lyricist E. Madden studied mystical thinking? Maybe not but he was deeply dipped in the creative world of poetry and songwriting in early 20th century New York City. Ideas were flying and discussion ranged widely he was always dealing with human emotions and impressions. The unconscious mind is a permeable membrane that is constantly transferring information up and down, in and out. Existing just below the surface of our world are great perennial wonders that outcrop in the most mundane and wonderful places.


👉  Order the book HERE   ðŸ‘ˆ














STOP THE WAR ☮☮☮>>>PEACE NOW<<<☮☮☮



👇 👇 👇

YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN THIS GRAND EXPERIMENT CLICK HERE


👆 👆 👆


Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Ultimate Kingdom






I borrowed the title for this painting “The Last Kingdom”, (Das Lezte Konigreich”) from a line in a poem written in 1801 by the famous German writer Novalis (Fredrich von Hardenberg). When I read it there was an immediate resonance with the concepts involved.

The last kingdom struck me as the “ultimate kingdom” rather than the “final kingdom”. This is not the description of the eschaton but of the ideal pinnacle where we strive for the understanding that Jacob Boehme pointed too. A scene of dynamic resolution not a vision of destruction.

Boehme’s writings are a blueprint of the spiritual universe. However, understanding the mechanics of nature is not enough. Later writers who surreptitiously fed off Boehme work (Kant, Hegel, Marx) misunderstood Boehme’s processes and their descendants would interpret their work to see the universe as a grand device. Once all the inputs, programs, knobs, and gears were mapped and subjected to taxonomy then it could be manipulated to enhance the personal power of the technicians.

Von Hardenberg intuitively grasped the “meta” program that was running underneath the words of Boehme and in his poem “To Tieck” he introduced the concept of “the abundance of being”. This acknowledged the true mission as mystical. Understanding the mechanisms of God’s universe was not an exercise in positivism or philosophical materialism rather it was the search for fulfillment not affluence.

D S Reif



The original extended essay (and translation) about the painting refereed to above can be viewed on the website of the International Jacob Boehme Society,   CLICK HERE





                                Donate