Moonlight Shaken from a Crane’s Bill

Note to viewers on iPhone, animations don’t load well on Safari…sorry for the inconvenience this causes.
Chrome on computers handle graphics pretty well.

Time for a Zen poem by Dogen about the art of living in the Now.


First Stanza

To what shall
       I liken the world?

First Archetypal Animation

To what shall I liken the world? | Music: Distant Worlds | Purrple Cat | Lunar Eclipse

Second Stanza

Moonlight, reflected
       In dewdrops.

Second Archetypal Animation

Moonlight reflected in dewdrops… | Music: Dew Drops On Spider Webs | Verne Langdon

Third Stanza

       Shaken from a crane’s bill.

Third Archetypal Animation

Shaken from a crane’s bill… | Music: Twisted & Shaken | Oscar Hollis

                    –    Dogen, 1200 – 1253
The Zen Poetry of Dogen
                         Translated by Steven Heine


The Eternal Now

Alan Watts refers to Dogen quite often in his lectures. I know so very little about Zen or Dogen, but I want to learn more.

A synchronicity as I was thinking about this blog, a Watts lecture, the book I am writing, and this poem t occurred on Wednesday, February 17, on 1A: Going back to the ’90s with Chuck Klosterman who says:

“What I mean by that is that it’s the last ten-year calendar span that seems to have immutable values, and immutable old fashions, and immutable ideas that make it seem separate from the period that it came previously. I think we are now more in a period of perpetual now where the difference between 2009 and 2019 seems almost impossible to perceive outside of discussions about politics.”

Watts talks about the eternal Now, which Dogen taught about as well centuries earlier, and yet today living and acting in the Now is harder than ever before. To describe how to do this to anyone tethered to modern Western man’s linear view of time and progress, teachings that have made us compulsive creatures ever seeking the big reward and perfection we were taught we should obtain, if we work hard enough for it, only to get towards the end of life and it never ever quite showing up.


Space-Time Isn’t Straight

And another fantastic synchronicity to the theme of this blog is from The Takeaway (NPR) and the interview with Physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Expands How We Look at the Cosmos and her new book Black.Queer.Rising that talks about the work she’s done to rethink our understanding of the cosmos and make space for more Black, queer people in STEM!

In the interview she talks about how amazing it is that we are even here since most of the universe is made out of something invisible, light goes right through it, scientists call it Dark Matter, which has taken on an entirely different sphere of meaning for many black people. She also says, “Space-time isn’t straight…” and so does Watts in many of his leturces from the 1960s. He too echoes how amazing it is that we are here. My book also explores these ideas.

Feature Archetypal Animation

Meditation Man Meditate Quiet Yoga Moonlight Moon | Myriams-Fotos | Deutsch  •  Member since Nov. 10, 2015

Dragonfly Dew Spider Web Cobweb Web Dewdrops | AdinaVoicu | Adina Voicu  •  Age 42  •  Oltenita/Romania  •  Member since Oct. 4, 2014

 Dandelion Seed Dew Dewdrops Droplets Wildflower | iemlee | myungho lee  •  Age 60  •  seoul/korea  •  Member since June 25, 2017

 Earth Moon Space Planet World Blue Planet | qimono | Arek Socha  •  Stockholm/Sweden  •  Member since Jan. 27, 2016

 Migratory Birds Cranes Moon Flock Of Birds Birds | Lolame | Melanie  •  Age 45  •  Niedersachsen/Deutschland  •  Member since June 2, 2013  •  #274

Music: [15] Chants of Native Earth    3:11 | Shamanic Moon – Native American Drums for RelaxationNative Classical Sounds


First Archetypal Animation

Just Assumption Summer Solstice Just Flower | Ri_Ya | Ri Butov  •  Israel  •  Member since June 29, 2019

Water Lily Flower Botany Aquatic Plant Bloom | Couleur | IlonaF❤️🍀❤️🍀  •  🇩🇪Deutsch🇩🇪Land🇩🇪  •  Member since July 11, 2015

Fractal Digital Art Computer Graphics Abstract | Inactive account – ID 189748

 Earth Planet Space World Blue Planet Outer Space | WikiImages | Deutsch  •  Member since Dec. 13, 2011

Music: Distant Worlds | Purrple Cat | Lunar Eclipse


Second Archetypal Animation

Hot Air Balloon Lake Balloon Sky Clouds Night | Bessi | Besi  •  Age 36  •  Podujevë/Kosovo  •  Member since April 4, 2015

Night Moon Night Sky Moonlight Blue Trees Dusk | susan-lu4esm | Susan Cipriano  •  Buenos Aires/Argentina ♥  •  Member since Nov. 11, 2017  •  #65

 Flower White Flower Dew Dewdrops Petals Bloom | Myriams-Fotos | Deutsch  •  Member since Nov. 10, 2015

 Leaf Droplets Reflection Grass Water Drops | ju1959jjj | ju Irun  •  Age 62  •  Irun/Guipuzcoa  •  Member since April 5, 2017

Music: Dew Drops On Spider Webs | Verne Langdon


Third Archetypal Animation

Crane Bird Animal Zoo Wilderness Feather Plumage | KRiemer | Kerstin Riemer  •  Greifswald/Deutschland  •  Member since April 13, 2015  •  #246

Crowned Cranes Birds Animals Cranes | strh | Kassel/Deutschland  •  Member since Feb. 2, 2021

Peacock Feather Dewdrop Dew Colorful Water Liquid | michaelcalumross | Michael Ross  •  Age 44  •  Forres/United Kingdom  •  Member since April 11, 2021

Music: Twisted & Shaken | Oscar Hollis


Check out my Big Sky Series all about how nature grounds, nourishes, and sustains us during the most stressful times.

The Tyger

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

First Archetypal Image
Tyger Tyger, burning bright… | Music: Tiger King [1] Tigers are Forever    0:42

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the forests of the night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 


Second Archetypal Image
In what distant deeps or skies… | Music: In What Distant Deeps Or Skies | Kabanjak

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
On what wings dare he aspire? 
What the hand, dare seize the fire? 


Third Archetypal Image
And what shoulder, & what art… | Music: Tiger (Extended Version) Joon Moon

And what shoulder, & what art, 
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 
And when thy heart began to beat, 
What dread hand? & what dread feet? 


Fourth Archetypal Image
What the hammer? what the chain… | Music: [12] The Blacksmith Stomp – Radio Edit  (4:19)| Noble Jacks

What the hammer? what the chain, 
In what furnace was thy brain? 
What the anvil? what dread grasp, 
Dare its deadly terrors clasp! 


Fifth Archetypal Image
When the stars threw down their spears… | Music: Tyger Qntal

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water’d heaven with their tears: 
Did he smile his work to see? 
Did he who made the Lamb make thee? 


Sixth Archetypal Image
Tyger Tyger burning bright… | Music: Priviet (Easy Tyger Remix) | Pierce Fulton [1] Priviet – Easy Tyger Remix  

Tyger Tyger burning bright, 
In the forests of the night: 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?


To hear it read, go to The Tyger BY WILLIAM BLAKE (The Poetry Foundation)

Sources for Archetypal Images

Feature Archetypal Animation:

Tiger Predator Fur Dangerous Big Cat Feline | Alexas_Fotos | Alexa  •  Steh über den Dingen  •  Member since Jan. 6, 2015  •  #62

 Tiger Siberian Tiger Big Cat Zoo Predator | Joachim_Marian_Winkler | Deutsch  •  Member since May 2, 2016

Tiger Siberian Tiger Snow Predator Carnivore | Pixel-mixer | Marcel Langthim  •  Age 74  •  Regio Bodensee/Schweiz  •  Member since July 12, 2015

Tiger Swamp Big Cat Wild Cat Jungle Water | andibreit | Andreas Breitling  •  Himmelkron/Bayern  •  Member since June 14, 2016

Tiger Head Face Feline Wild Cat Big Cat Animal | blende12 | Gerhard G.  •  Deutschland  •  Member since March 25, 2014  •  #144

 Tigers Cub Tiger Cub Mother Snow Snowy | WikiImages | Deutsch  •  Member since Dec. 13, 2011

Music: William Blake’s The Tyger | Charles Szabo Music

First Archetypal Image

 Tiger Animal Wildlife Mammal Sumatran Tiger | No-longer-here | English  •  Member since Jan. 25, 2013

Tiger Swamp Big Cat Wild Cat Jungle Water | andibreit | Andreas Breitling  •  Himmelkron/Bayern  •  Member since June 14, 2016

Sparkler Lightbulb Spray Candle Spark Star Splatter | Myriams-Fotos | Deutsch  •  Member since Nov. 10, 2015

Forest Path Lights Nature Trees Night Woods | jplenio | Joe  •  Munich/Deutschland  •  Member since Jan. 9, 2018  •  #420

Eye Manipulation Galaxy Creative Artificial | VISHNU_KV | vishnu vijayan  •  Age 28  •  kerala/India  •  Member since Aug. 29, 2016

 Architecture Skyscraper Perspective Glass Windows | Pexels | English  •  Member since March 26, 2016

Music: TIGER KING | Tiger King | [1] Tigers are Forever    0:42

Second Archetypal Image

Fantasy Clouds Woman Castle Sun Heaven | KELLEPICS | Stefan Keller  •  Deutschland / Germany  •  Member since March 22, 2017  •  #239

 Fantasy Beautiful Dawn Sunset Sky Cloud Women | peter_pyw | Peter  •  KUALA LUMPUR/Malaysia  •  Member since July 19, 2016

Tiger Feline Savage Wild Animal Zoo Animal | WenPhotos | wendy CORNIQUET  •  Age 61  •  Parly/France  •  Member since Dec. 21, 2015

Barn Owl Bird Flying Wings Owl Bird Of Prey | dannymoore1973 | danny moore  •  Age 48  •  hawick/scotland  •  Member since Dec. 25, 2015

Hand Fire Finger Burn Flame Light | Inactive account – ID 12222786

Fire Flame Burning Combustion Heat | Hans | Hans Braxmeier  •  Neu-Ulm/Deutschland  •  Member since Nov. 24, 2010

Music: In What Distant Deeps Or Skies | Kabanjak

Third Archetypal Image

Female Long Hair Back Shoulder Lips Nose Girl | garyporephotography | Gary Pore  •  Age 41  •  Adelaide/Australia  •  Member since April 21, 2017

Mountain Colors Paint Colorful Art Abstract

Mountain Colors Paint Colorful Art Abstract | Leolo212 | Antonio López  •  Murcia/Spain  •  Member since Jan. 23, 2020  •  #453

Hands Heart Red Paint Heart Shape Art Group Paint | Pexels | English  •  Member since March 26, 2016

Angel Ali Heart Aquila Clouds Fly To Dream Float | Inactive account – ID 6557056

Pirate Seafarer Captain Sailors Evil Halloween | sik-life | Felix Lichtenfeld  •  Age 32  •  Jever/Deutschland  •  Member since March 6, 2016

Tiger Cat Predator Carnivore Wildlife Animal Wild | tony241969 | Age 53  •  London/England  •  Member since April 17, 2017

Music: Tiger (Extended Version) Joon Moon

Fourth Archetypal Image

Hammer Sledgehammer Mallet Tool Striking Hitting | stevepb | Steve Buissinne  •  Age 72  •  Sedgefield/South Africa  •  Member since June 4, 2014

Chain Security Metal Iron Metal Chain Chain Link | analogicus | Tom  •  Andernach/Deutschland  •  Member since Feb. 25, 2018  •  #178

Metallurgy A Ferro-Alloy The Electric Arched Furnace | kepinator | Slovenčina  •  Member since March 10, 2017

Brain Anatomy Abstract Art Branches Computation | GDJ | Gordon Johnson  •  USA  •  Member since June 3, 2015  •  #51

Anvil Ironworks Blacksmith Forge Tool Rust | nightowl | USA  •  Member since Dec. 21, 2010

Forest Dark Magic Surreal Trees Mysterious Nature | jwvein | J.W.Vein  •  Konin/Polska  •  Member since June 8, 2017  •  #453

Dry Head Skeleton Fear Death Die Dead Head Dry | Engin_Akyurt | Engin Akyurt  •  Age 41  •  Türkçe  •  Member since Nov. 1, 2016  •  #21

 Tiger Head Face Feline Wild Cat Big Cat Animal | blende12 | Gerhard G.  •  Deutschland  •  Member since March 25, 2014  •  #145

Music: [12] The Blacksmith Stomp – Radio Edit  (4:19)| Noble Jacks

Fifth Archetypal Image

Manipulation Monkey Animal Fire Wire Shooting Star | janrye | janrye  •  Denmark  •  Member since Feb. 20, 2017

Mermaid The Sea Maid Mythical Creatures Ocean | Mysticsartdesign | Mystic Art Design  •  Deutsch  •  Member since July 3, 2014

Heaven Clouds Cloud Shape Swelling Cloud Weather | geralt | Gerd Altmann  •  Freiburg/Deutschland  •  Member since Sept. 15, 2012  •  #45

Water Drops Blue Liquid Clear Macro Wet Splash | InspiredImages | UK  •  Member since Sept. 27, 2013

Shiva The Hindu God Shiva India Rishikesh | InspiredImages | UK  •  Member since Sept. 27, 2013

Kyoto Japan Statue Jizo Japanese Religion Culture | JordyMeow | Jordy Meow  •  Age 39  •  Tokyo/Japan  •  Member since April 16, 2015

 Tiger Animal Wildlife Mammal Sumatran Tiger | No-longer-here | English  •  Member since Jan. 25, 2013

Music: Tyger Qntal

Sixth Archetypal Image

 Tiger White Tiger Asleep Big Cat Wild Cat Feline | Pexels | English  •  Member since March 26, 2016

Forest Trees Mystical Light Mood Mysterious | pixel2013 | S. Hermann & F. Richter  •  Germany  •  Member since April 9, 2016

Diwali Navratri Religious Worship Holiday Hinduism | vinnyspice | English  •  Member since Oct. 22, 2018

Music: Priviet (Easy Tyger Remix) | Pierce Fulton [1] Priviet – Easy Tyger Remix  

Happy Year of the Tiger!

A Stormy Moment

The wind’s in the willows

My heart is in two.

The wind’s in the willows…my heart is in two| Music: 50 Shades of Purple | Songs For the Brokenhearted by Maria Paloma

I sit being billowed

Thinking of you.

Thinking of You… | Music: Molly (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco) | Lil Dicky

The wind’s in the willows

It’s starting to rain.

It’s starting to rain… | Music: Thunderstorm & Rain (Sleep & Mindfulness) | Sleepy John

I sit getting drenched

Both with droplets and pain.

I’m getting drenched… | Music: Pain PinkPantheress | [1] Pain    1:39

Poet unknown, but I found a copy of this very same poem in Chapter 55 of a Timeless Place.

For a dear friend who shared this poem recently. I love its imagery and was inspired to animate parts of it with Archetypal Animations.

Have a beautiful and soulful day.


Following are sources for the images and music used to create each Archetypal Animation. All images for this blog come from Pixabay and all music is from Spotify. To hear the music, just click the little sound box in the upper right-hand corner of each animation.

You can follow my Pixabay account to see collections of spectacular photos I have encountered in my searches for images for Archetypal Animations. And follow my Spotify account for meditative and powerful playlists of musicians I have discovered in my search for musical soundtracks for Archetypal Animations.


Feature Archetypal Animation:

UnderWater Fashion Woman Art Water Tank Fine Art | Engin_Akyurt | Engin Akyurt  •  Age 41  •  Türkçe  •  Member since Nov. 1, 2016  •  #25
Willow Tree Winter Light Color Sky | elvina1332 | Эльвина Якубова  •  Age 29  •  Каспийск/Россия  •  Member since Jan. 22, 2018  •  #869
Match Smoke Match Head Sticks Matches Burn | roegger | Deutsch  •  Member since Nov. 25, 2014
Girl Nighttime Lantern Oil Lamp | Greyerbaby | lisa runnels  •  Age 59  •  magee/united states  •  Member since Jan. 13, 2012
Love Heart Valentine’s Day Red Affection Hearts | marcosaasilva | Marcos Silva  •  Age 58  •  Macaé/Brasil  •  Member since Nov. 19, 2016

Music: Day 28: Mantra for Moving Forward (So Dar Keha) | Meditative Mind


First Archetypal Animation:

Weeping Willow Willow Tree | MabelAmber 👀 who will one day  •  make you hide…/your face in your hands 👀  •  Member since Sept. 6, 2015
Heart Broken Nature Love Leaf | Modman | Kevin McIver  •  Age 59  •  English  •  Member since April 22, 2015
Hourglass Shattered Broken | Heather_Ann | Heather Plew  •  Age 32  •  Grapeview/USA  •  Member since Jan. 25, 2018
Heart Crack Broken Pain | chadkrue17 | Chad Krusenstjerna  •  Age 25  •  Lynnwood/United States  •  Member since Aug. 24, 2015

Music: 50 Shades of Purple | Songs For the Brokenhearted by Maria Paloma


Second Archetypal Animation:

Abstract Background Grey Billow | yadiyadi | English  •  Member since Jan. 28, 2013
Background Abstract Etherial Billows | yadiyadi | English  •  Member since Jan. 28, 2013
Paraglider Leisure Sports Free Flight | JACLOU-DL | JackieLou DL  •  La Baie du Mont saint Michel/France  •  Member since June 10, 2017  •  #72
Woman Face Light Painting | Inactive account – ID 19833603

Music: Molly (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco) | Lil Dicky


Third Archetypal Animation:

Weeping Willow Willow Tree | MabelAmber 👀 who will one day  •  make you hide…/your face in your hands 👀  •  Member since Sept. 6, 2015
Window Glass Water | Pexels | English  •  Member since March 26, 2016
Rain Umbrella Pavement Red Black | nikondian | Souvick Ghosh  •  Age 32  •  Kolkata/India  •  Member since July 22, 2017
Cloud Heart Love Wind | Kranich17 | Michaela  •  Germany  •  Member since Jan. 6, 2019  •  #332

Music: [1] Thunder & Rain Sounds, Pt. 01    1:05 | Thunderstorm & Rain (Sleep & Mindfulness) | Sleepy John


Fourth Archetypal Animation:

Hand Hyperhidrosis Sweating | BarbaraBonanno | Barbara Bonanno  •  Massa (MS)/Italia  •  Member since Feb. 20, 2015
Scream That Weather Breath | Engin_Akyurt | Age 41  •  Türkçe  •  Member since Nov. 1, 2016  •  #25
Under Water Fashion Woman | Engin_Akyurt | Age 41  •  Türkçe  •  Member since Nov. 1, 2016  •  #25
Under Water Fashion Woman Art | er Water Fashion Woman | Engin_Akyurt | Age 41  •  Türkçe  •  Member since Nov. 1, 2016  •  #25
Under Water Fashion Woman Art | er Water Fashion Woman | Engin_Akyurt | Age 41  •  Türkçe  •  Member since Nov. 1, 2016  •  #25

Music: Pain PinkPantheress | [1] Pain    1:39

My small insight in animating parts of this poem is:

Keep moving forward no matter the weather inside or outside.

Every emotion, feeling, and mood is rocket fuel powering us ever forward through new beginnings and endings on our endless and indestructible journey through the feeling of being.

It is only through the dark that we know the light.

It is only by descending to our deepest depths that we can reach our highest heights.


One more insight, actually it is a synchronicity between working on this poem and a movie that my husband and I watched last night. We saw a BBC version of Great Expectations. Neither of us had ever read Charles Dickens book nor seen any of the movies made about it.

Both of us were spelled bound by the convoluted beautiful tale Dickens weaves through all his stories. We were particularly captivated and appalled by Miss Havisham.

"Humiliated and heartbroken, Miss Havisham suffered a mental breakdown and remained alone in her decaying mansion Satis House – never removing her wedding dress,..." -- Wiki

Here is a sense of the depth of despair she has descended to and refuses (or cannot) let go of in this complicated story.

great expectations | miss Havisham
57,082 views, Jan 2, 2012

Her endless pain bends and distorts her until she appears more dead than alive, more witch than beautiful maiden, which she was. Still she clings to her unendurable pain, the consequences of which ripple through and define the rest of her life and beyond.

I listen to a lot of Alan Watts, and he talks a lot about letting go because there is no way to hold on to it. It can be pleasure, pain, money, status, whatever it is a person is tempted to hold on to. He also talks about peaks and troughs. You can’t have one without the other.

I immediately sought to find an example of what would happen to a human being who only held onto pleasure. A person who refuses to see, feel, or know their own pain. I could not think of a literary example, but my mother-in-law sprang to mind.

I realized a person who holds on to pleasure also is beaten and battered into more of a monster than a human being by this force–for pleasure is an energy just as pain is energy. We feel these energies as emotions inside of us.

A person who clings to pleasure becomes dim, shallow, and cruel. They become a person who takes pleasure in other people pain, misfortune, and sorrow. They have forgotten their soul needs food to grow and that consuming someone else’s pain is a pretty poor substitute for their own.

To grow, a soul needs to sink into the depths of being a mortal being. Denying their own pain and suffering, cuts them off from other people and slices themselves in half. A person who clings to pleasure becomes the same type of pitiful monster that Miss Havisham becomes due to clinging to her pain.

You can follow my journey in exploring what happens to a person who clings to pleasure through my Big Sky Series.

Traveling to Big Sky Country — September 22, 2021 — Moab — Junction
26 views
Premiered Oct 15, 2021

Have a beautiful day!

Human | Heaven | Hell

To Be in Heaven is to walk through love-filled lands ruled by no one and existence unfolds in endless goodwill and harmony.

First Archetypal Image | Love-Filled Lands

Love-Filled Lands | Music: Clear Your Mind | Deep Sleep Hypnosis Masters Tranquil Sleep | Spotify

To Be in Hell is to walk through infinite hate-filled lands ruled by vengeful hate-filled hearts.

Second Archetypal Image | As the Apocalypse Draws Near

As the Apocalypse Draws Near | Music: Sign of Evil | Andrey Avkhimovich

To Be Human is to walk a narrow path between the Esses.

Third Archetypal Image | To Walk Between the Esses

To Walk Between the Esses | Music: London Grammar – Who Am I (Áudio)

Some choose infinite hate.

Fourth Archetypal Image | | Dark Hearts

Dark Hearts | Music: UNSECRET X CECE AND THE DARK HEARTS – DARKNESS FALLS

Some choose endless goodwill.

Fifth Archetypal Image | | Land of Kindness, Tolerance, Understanding, & Love

Land of Loving Kindness | Music: Loving-Kindness · Vimassana

All are rivers of light weaving intersecting tangled webs of effervescent, fading light momentarily reconnecting the lost Heaven with the lost Hell through thoughts, words, and deeds.

Sixth Archetypal Image | | Weavers of Light — Creatures of Fate

Weavers of Light | Creatures of Fate || Music: Lost in Space · Bellows

It is a timeless dance remembering the primordial illustrious indivisible whole broken long ago so light could ride alongside the never-ending night.

Feature Archetypal Image

Image from: Axis Mundi ~ Understanding the Connection Between Heaven & Hell by Sonali Bansal | October 29, 2015

“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven, unless its roots reach down to hell.”

~ Carl Jung

Image from: Angelica Zambrano 3rd Testimony of Heave and Hell | May 27, 2016 / Excerpt:

Evangelist Angelica Zambrano lives in Ecuador in South America. It was around midnight when her near-death experience & revelation of heaven and hell began.”

Image from: Does Heaven and Hell presently exist or not?  | September 29, 2015/in Religious Questions / Excerpt:

In accordance with Quranic verses and traditions, the promised Heaven and Hell are presently in existence and will be completely shown in the hereafter where man will be given his everlasting abode in relation to his beliefs, actions, and ethical traits. But, there has been another form of Heaven and Hell which can be seen in this world through mystical experiences (shahūd) or they will manifest themselves for mankind in the inter-world which will result in either pleasure or pain. There are differences of opinions in regards to the form of influence and relation that one’s beliefs and actions have on his condition in the hereafter and also in the explanation of Heaven, Hell, and their forms.”

Image credit: Heaven and Hell by

Jim Warren Studios
Studios | Recent Paintings

Image from: Get Here Judgement Day Images of Heaven and Hell | Other images from this blog:

Image from: It’s The Dog In You~ | Aug 15, 2016 | By Anthony Cloe Huie (Medium) Excerpt:

(The 3rd piece in our 6th mini series, “The Antagonist!”)

Your love is like a knife to the heart and 
a dagger to my soul. 
You will not be happy until I have lost 
all control
You see me in calm waters after drowning me
in your river of drama
So you continually…


Music: Meditative Dreamer by James Kenneth |Shamanic Journey 

Music: Meditative Dreamer by James Kenneth |Shamanic Journey (Healing Flute, Wind, Fire & Drums) | Available on Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, and other streaming services.


First Archetypal Image | Love-Filled Lands

Image credit: sasint / 224 images

Image by Pixabay: 165106/2168

Image by Pixabay: 165106/2168

Image credit: sasint / 224 images

Image credit: sasint / 224 images

Image credit: sasint / 224 images

Image credit: sasint / 224 images

Music: Clear Your Mind | Deep Sleep Hypnosis Masters Tranquil Sleep | Spotify

Second Archetypal Image | | As the Apocalypse Draws Near

Image Pixabay: War Destruction Armageddon | TheDigitalArtist/ 7630 | Other images by Pete Linforth

Image Pixabay: Apocalyptic War Danger | hucky | Other images by Hucky

Image Pixabay: Disaster Apocalypse Apocalyptic | tomasvl

Image Pixabay: Man Mask Gas Mask Atom | artbox_at

Mysticsartdesign/ 1093 images

Image Pixabay: Apocalypse Neural Invasion | hucky | Other image by Hucky

Image Pixabay: Apocalypse Destruction Portrait | Mysticsartdesign/ 1093 images

Image Pixabay: Gothic Goth Fantasy Dark Apocalypse | darksouls1 /1362 images | This image was suppose to replace the children playing soccer | Other images:

Music: Sign of Evil | Andrey Avkhimovich | 15,353 views, Sep 7, 2015

Third Archetypal Image | | To Walk Between the Esses

Image Pixabay: Landscape Change Weather Nature | ELG21 (Enrique  •  Lorca/España  •  Member since Nov. 15, 2016) | Other Images by Enrique:

Image Pixabay: Lighthouse Starry Sky Universe | Kanenori, JAPAN, Member since March 7, 2017 | Other photos:

Image Pixabay: Halloween Fantasy Witch Horror | Tabor, Reinhold Silbermann, Deutsch

Image Pixabay: Fairy Tale Fantasy Forest House Queen Child | KELLEPICS, Stefan Keller, Germany

Image Pixabay: Fantasy Portal Man Statue | KELLEPICS, Stefan Keller, Germany

Image Pixabay: Fantasy Book Cover Skull Snail Butterfly | KELLEPICS, Stefan Keller, Germany

Music: London Grammar – Who Am I (Áudio) | 696,642 views, Jul 14, 2017

Fourth Archetypal Image | | Dark Hearts

Image: Félicien Rops, Satan Sowing Tare (Satan semant l’ivraie), Belgian, 1833 – 1898

Image from: They reveal the secret of the concoction that turned the Viking elite warriors into crazy and lethal, February 20, 2020

The sagas, a mixture of history and Norse mythology, describe Berseker with special ferocity. They affirm, with devotion, that they were “those whom iron cannot harm.” 

Image from: ‘Double standard’: Biden, Black lawmakers and activists decry police response to attack on US Capitol | Grace HauckDeborah Barfield Berry | USA TODAY | Photo Jerry Habraken, USA Today

Trump rioters storm the U.S. Capitol Wednesday afternoon as lawmakers inside debated the certification of the presidential election.”

Image from: This Viking Berserker Spirit Will Help You Out Of Adversities

“The answer to the question whether the Viking berserkers are historical or not remains a mystery. What we know about these figures lie in very few materials. The Viking berserkers are the ones who would wear no metal armour and enter the battlefield. They were armorless and still willing to join the battle to sacrifice not only for their clan but also for Odin the Allfather. Legend had it that the berserkers would howl and scream when they fought against their enemies. They were completely different when they joined the battle. These warriors would know no pain and no fire and flame could burn them.”

Image from: US Capitol riots: Police officer’s death intensifies Capitol siege questions | Jan 8, 2021

“Trump supporters near US Capitol where they stormed the historic building, breaking windows and clashing with police. They also erected a noose in the Capitol grounds. Photo / Getty”

UNSECRET X CECE AND THE DARK HEARTS – DARKNESS FALLS [OFFICIAL AUDIO]
25,965 views, Nov 1, 2021

Fifth Archetypal Image | | Land of Kindness, Tolerance, Understanding, & Love

Image Pixabay: Mountains Hills Sky Clouds Sunset | ID 12019 (Inactive | 10,259 pics)

Image Pixabay: Peru Woman Old Market | lauraelatimer0 | English  •  Member since Feb. 18, 2015

Image Pixabay: Buddhist Monk Novice Buddhism Bird | truthseeker08 🆓 Use at your Ease 👌🏼  •  English  •  Member since April 18, 2016

Image Pixabay: Monk Pilgrimage Path Sunset | josealbafotos
Jose Antonio Alba  •  Age 75  •  Lleida/España  •  Member since Nov. 10, 2015

Image Pixabay: Motherhood Kiss Romantic | iqbalnuril | iqbal nuril anwar  •  Age 27  •  Jakarta/Indonesia  •  Member since June 22, 2019

Loving-Kindness · Vimassana | 6,161 views, Sep 17, 2019

Sixth Archetypal Image | | Weavers of Light — Creatures of Fate

Image Pixabay: Nature Panorama Geology | jplenio | Joe  •  Munich/ Deutschland  •  Member since Jan. 9, 2018

Image Pixabay: Aurora Borealis Northern Lights Forest | ID 12019 (Inactive, 10,259 photos)

Image Pixabay: Aurora Sea Man Sunrise | AdelinaZw | Deutschland  •  Member since Sept. 4, 2013

Image Pixabay: Sea Sunset Boat Sailing Dusk | PublicDomainPictures |
English  •  Member since Dec. 11, 2010

Lost in Space · Bellows | 624 views, May 2, 2015

Happy New Years — 2022 | May your journey through space and time be blessed with kindness, wisdom, and balanced healing that brings grace and benefit to all.

Winter Solstice | Light & Time

Behold, the Power of the Fading Light

I recently finished watching  Wallander  on my local PBS station that playback back to back episodes for over a month for their Thriller Thursdays. I had begun watching Wallander years earlier (probably 2016 when it first came out), but due to public television fundraising or something like that, I never saw all the episodes until now.

The final episode is called The Troubled Man where Kurt is in a race against time as he embarks on his final case — the disappearance of his daughter’s father-in-law. It is a complex convoluted mystery that starts and ends with this poem: Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Tranströmer. Ever since hearing it, I have not been able to get it out of my mind. I found this reading of the Half-Finished Heaven by the London Buddhist Centre.

Life with Full Attention | Awareness-raising poems | ‘Half-Finished Heaven’ by Tomas Tranströmer
438 views, Feb 25, 2021

I decided to animate key lines of this poem by creating moving musical archetypal images–the ones that have become my signature artwork on this site. Archetypal images as explained by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. He suggests archetypes are archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors. Kendra Kelly writes in an article for the verywellmind, “Jung believed we inherit these archetypes much in the way we inherit instinctive patterns of behavior.” Indeed, Jung further postulated that archetypes are mirror images of instinctual responses that have been modified by conscious awareness. An archetype is an unconscious collective reservoir of information of what happens to people each time they make a choice to act different from what nature would have otherwise dictated through instinctual responses.

Indeed, archetypes form a psychological body much in the same way that ears, eyes, nose, arms, liver, spleen, and heart form a physical body. Just as individuals can choose to treat their bodies in different ways (e.g., some people recreate by doing drugs while others find joy and relaxation hiking outdoors), individuals fill the void of possibilities that an activated archetypes opens up inside of them in different ways (e.g., some people act on violent, criminal impulses others choose to direct their anger and rage in less violent and destructive ways).

See this well-written article about Carl Jung’s views on Crime and the Soul. And so without further ado, here is the Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Tranströme along with my individual interpretation of images activated by each line.

The Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Tranströme

  1. Despondency breaks off its course.

First Archetypal Image for First Stanza

Despondency | Music: NKOHA – My friend | See below for attributions of images used to create animation

2. Anguish breaks off its course.

Second Archetypal Image for Second Stanza

Anguish | Music: AND ONE.”ANGUISH.”.(DEVIL AIRLINES.)(12” LP.)(1991.) [PHONOS by D.J. JOSE GIMENO & D.J. EDU SOLER. 90’s] | See below for attributions of images used to create animation

3. The vulture breaks off its flight.

Third Archetypal Image for Third Stanza

The vulture breaks its course | Music: PURPLE EYES ~ Pachislot Akumajo Dracula Lords of Shadow | See below for attributions of images used to create animation

4. The eager light streams out, even the ghosts take a draught.

Fourth Archetypal Image for Fourth Stanza

Even the ghosts take a draught… | Music: ALBUM: SPOOKY MALL | LIL Runners |
10 SONGS • 10 MINUTES • NOV 14 2021 on Amazon Music

5. And our paintings see daylight, our red beasts of the ice-age studios.

Fifth Archetypal Image for Fifth Stanza

Watch out for raptors! | Music: The Velociraptor Song | 1,812 views, Jun 4, 2019

6. Everything begins to look around. We walk in the sun in hundreds.

Sixth Archetypal Image for Sixth Stanza

They walk in the sun by the hundreds | Music: Thomas Bergersen – Cry (Sun)

7. Each man is a half-open door, leading to a room for everyone.

Seventh Archetypal Image | Seventh Stanza

I Am the Door! | Music: The Doors classic Break On Through (To The Other Side)

8. The endless ground under us.

Eight Archetypal Image | Eight Stanza

Endless ground | Music: Music for the 8th archetypal image is from Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days.

9. The water is shining among the trees.

Ninth Archetypal Image | Ninth Stanza

Shining Waters | Music: Shining Water by BUIWUI on Spotify

10. The lake is a window into the earth.

Tenth Archetypal Image | Tenth Stanza

At the end of the world | Music: At the End — A mix for the end of the world (part. 1) The National Parks

Winter Solstice | Ancient Pagan Day of Ritual for Peoples of the Northern Worlds

While the winter solstice marks the “beginning of winter” in the Northern Hemisphere as marked by the longest night of the year. The same day is marked by people in the Southern Hemisphere as the beginning of summer as they experience the longest day of the year.(See article in Business Insider for a full view of the nature of time and light as experienced by life on Earth).

Across the Northern Hemisphere, peoples of all times and cultures and religions took note of when the dwindling light finally relented its steady march to darkness and turned the other way. Earth probably owes this time honored pattern to a collision with another planet thought to be about the size of Mars. This colossal collision s a hypothesized to have occurred way, way back at the dawn of the creation of our solar system when an ancient planet called Theia collided with early Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The impact knocked ancient Earth off its axis titling it so that it wobbles back and forth with the Northern Hemisphere facing towards the sun for six months and then the Souther Hemisphere. It also is thought to have created the moon and could have been a critical conveyor of water to our planet. [Image from Universe Today | A Cataclysmic Collision Formed the Moon, but Killed Theia by Evan Gough | 2/2/16]

Due to our fantastic ability to focus consciousness like a beam of light, humanity has built up a vast reservoir of knowledge like this, but our ancestors were no less clever–they simply had different ways to explain what they were experiencing. Especially significant events such as the dwindling of sunlight that made food hard to find and increased the need of ancient man to find shelter. If Earth one day never wobbled back to warm the Northern Hemisphere, it would spell doom for millions of living organisms that inhabit these realms of the planet.

Just a small representation of the diverse celebrations marking the return of light to the Northern Hemisphere include:

  1. Saint Lucia’s Day, Scandinavia.
  2. St.Lohri, Northern India.
  3. Dongzhi, China.
  4. Newgrange, Ireland.
  5. Soyal, Hopi of Northern Arizona. .
  6. Yule, Northern Europe.
  7. Santo Tomás Festival, Guatemala.
  8. Stonehenge, England.
  9. Saturnalia, Ancient Rome.
  10. Toji, Japan.

There are many more Winter Solstice celebrations in the Northern Hemisphere besides these. In my previous blog, Satan’s Sister & Santa Claus, I explore the colonization of these vast, diverse Winter Solstice celebrations as the ancient roots of Western Civilization stretched far into the northernmost regions of Europe, and then far beyond to become a dominating force around the world imposing a worldview that “sees humans as dominant over nature and feels natural resources should be used for the benefit of humanity. The western worldview puts man first and declares human beings as superior to all other living and non-living things in the environment. ” — Environmental Worldviews: Western & Deep Ecology

Feature Archetypal Image for Satan’s Sister & Santa Claus
First Archetypal Animation from Satan’s Sister and Santa Claus

For the ‘civilized’ Romans colonizing northern Europe long ago, this is where the barbarians lived. Even today, their fear mixed with disgust and desire to control and gain more loot for themselves looms large in the psyche of modern Western man. Conduct a Google search of barbarian, and you will find tons of images of primal Germanic-Nordic warriors.


All this is a long way of saying that we are complex beings with written histories that are highly biased to glorify the conquering tribes. Or if not completely conquered, the assimilation of whole groups of people into a larger and/or more technological advanced group. But we also have psychic histories that are stored in the collective well of consciousness, the one Carl Jung helped to bring into the sphere of the long, narrow beam of Western consciousness.

Here, nothing is lost or forgotten. Here, a completely soft-spoken, normal, well-adjusted modern man can turn into a barbarian in a split second when some sleeping archaic archetype is trigger into action. When we fail to grow as conscious beings, we can easily succumb to the power of our sleeping psyche.

Consider Robert S. Palmer, 54, of Largo, Fla. who pleaded guilty in October to assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon during the Jan 6 assault on the Capitol. The Washington Post reports that he had thrown a fire extinguisher — twice — a large plank and then a four- to five-foot pole at police before he was struck with one rubber bullet. At his sentencing, Palmer said, “I’m really, really ashamed of what I did. I was horrified, absolutely devastated to see myself on there.” — Fla. man sentenced to 5 years for attacking police, the longest Jan. 6 riot sentence yet by Tom Jackman, 12/17/21

He will now serve 5 years in prison for his actions that he himself is ashamed of committing almost a year ago. How does an average, law-abiding citizen go from a normal man to a berserker capable of murder?

The Old Norsemen knew how. They cultivated and embodied a whole class of warriors known as berserkers. Men who put themselves into a trance-like fury making them furiously violent and out of control.Wiki Berserker | Images from Wiki and Google Berserker search

Got to admit that there are striking similarities between depictions of ancient Norse berserkers and the Jan 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol–mainly furious white men in a rampage. This is the ugly under belly of Western Civilization beaming brightly for all to see. The barbarian is alive and well in modern times. It has not been vanquished nor destroyed in the minds and psyches of modern men and women. It only needs to be tripped or triggered to roar vividly back to life.

And so, here we are back to the barbarian. This is why I choose the poem by Tomas Tranströme for on this shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere we are reminded of our finite time on Earth and the question begs to be asked what kind of life do we wish to choose for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for everyone else. It is all connected–individual actions are connected to collective actions that are connected to our shared reality.

I like Tranströme’s poem because it mines the deep archaeological cervices where valiant, cowardly, noble and ignoble parts of our all-too-human-soul lie forgotten but very much ready to take over control of the reins guiding our thoughts and actions in the world. His poem helps modern men and women who scarcely have a moment to think a thought for themselves anymore to pause and sink deeper into who they really are as living, conscious beings on a miraculous planet chock full of life.

This is what ancient Winter Solstice celebrations paid tribute to–the miracle of life on Earth. This is something all humans everywhere and through all times felt and perceived and celebrated. It is what the early Christian missionaries understood and so moved the birth and celebration of Jesus to this time of year to harness and redirect this powerful flow of collective human consciousness. It is what Tranströme’s poem hints at, very delicately but in a dynamic, compelling, numinous way. This shortest day of the year is an opportunity to feel and remember who and what we really are.


Archetypal Analysis

The interpretation of Half-Finished Heaven by the London Buddhist Centre is different from my interpretation as captured in the animated musical images above. However, rather than negating my personal interpretation, the Buddhist Centre’s interpretation widens and broadens the archetypal image that offers a glimpse into a room for everyone as captured by Tranströme’s seventh stanza of his poem. This room is the rich reservoir of humanity’s collective consciousness–as illuminated by the light of our collective conscious attention and as sleeps in the depths of our collective unconsciousness.

What follows is not a detailed analysis of the images above but rather an accounting of what used to create them. The power of an archetype always lays inside of you and what is evoked in your heart and mind. [Note: My division of Tranströme’s poem does not necessarily conform to his original publishing of this poem as available in The Half-Finished Heaven: Selected Poems and other publications featuring Tranströme’s work.]

Feature Image

Image from:

The Candle

 / GRACI

“It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

Image from:

Shutterstock | Child with Candle

Image from:

Baby’s first party trick! Little boy celebrates his first birthday by trying to eat the flaming candle on his cake

Image from: Peakpx

Also reminds me of Shadow and Bone book and TV series on Netflix, which was a super great story!

Image from: Cloud land by stevemidkiff | Blogs about faith

“If we want to know what clouds of affliction mean & why they are sent
we can’t flee away from them in fright with closed ears & bandaged eyes.
Fleeing from the cloud is fleeing from the God’s love behind the cloud.”

Image from: Wheel of the Year: Yule

“What is the meaning and symbolism of Yule on the Wheel of the Year? Yule is the time of the rebirth of the Sun at the winter solstice, a time for parties, gift-giving, and more. Join our virtual discussion group on Zoom or follow our livestream on your YouTube channel.”

Image from: Pagan Solstice Rites Lurk in Holiday Celebrations

“The confabulation of pagan and Christian symbolism for the Winter holiday. “It is not the birth of the Sun but rather that of the Son.”

When the Church became ascendant in the Empire, it did all it could to squelch the festival, but like many popular pagan customs, it was so integrated into many daily lives that it inevitably influenced how Christmas, by then assigned to the same calendar day, was observed.

Music for the Feature Archetypal Image is Magic Forest — Winter Solstice on Ice. This is a beautiful song filled with mystery, wonder, and magical being in a world full of life.

Magic Forest
2,245 views, Apr 9, 2017

First Archetypal Image | First Stanza

Despondency breaks off its course.

Album cover for Despondency by Dead in the Manger — available on amazon music

I was drawn to the image first. The parallel to this poem, the winter solstice, and Christmas is very interesting. I hadn’t expected these connections when I selected this image.


Despondency

Published: Dec 23, 2008 by Celeosia on DeviantArt | Pencil

This is simply a beautiful piece of art that captures the feeling of despondency inside of me. Please visit Celeosia’s site to see this piece and more of her work.


Despondency Poster by Sergej Bag as shown and available for purchase on

Fine Art America - Buy Art Online

Another beautiful and compelling piece of art that captures the feeling of despondency for me.


This is my work. You can see how I used it in Tribute to Cider

Tribute to Cider | 105 views, Jan 1, 2020

This video is a Tribute to Cider. She is our beloved dog who we lost suddenly and tragically two days before Christmas of 2019. She was 11 years and 1 month old. She was a senior dog, but she was full of life and acted like a puppy always. Our illusions about reality can break and shatter into millions of tiny pieces so suddenly, and how they prevent us from really seeing reality. Hang on to all those who you love be them people or pets or our beloved planet Earth. I began these drawings 7 months before Cider’s death.


Music for the archetypal image of despondency is My Friend by NKOHA, which is beautiful, haunting, and enchanting–capturing the sweet silence of despondency and the betrayal of something sacred that often leads to this powerful emotional force within us.

NKOHA – My friend | 342,298 views, May 16, 2018

Second Archetypal Image | Second Stanza

Anguish breaks off its course.

Digital album cover for Anguish by Anguish
Design and Layout by Paul Romano
Sculpture by Darla Jackson


This is art created Jerry Yi Chang who describes this piece as:

This drawing depicts anguish as an all-consuming emotion that is difficult to detach from.

Found on Dr Becky Inkster’s website.


The Thing in Tribute to Cider

Tribute to Cider | 105 views, Jan 1, 2020

Anguish 180, 2016

Stainless chain

Created by Seo Young-deok, South Korean, b. 1984

This is a stunning work of art that absolutely captures the feeling of anguish in me. This piece has sold, but visit his gallery to see more of his brilliant work.


Another one of Seo Young-deok‘s pieces that is both stunning and haunting.


Anguish 18, 2013

Stainless chain

Also by Seo Young-deok

The missing face of this figure is especially poignant and evocative of the powerful emotional currents of anguish.

Music for the archetypal image of anguish is Anguish by Devil Airlines. It is particularly chilling and haunting as it captures musically the terrible cycle of captors and captives that leaves so many people in warped and mangled states of anguish.

AND ONE.”ANGUISH.”.(DEVIL AIRLINES.)(12” LP.)(1991.) [PHONOS by D.J. JOSE GIMENO & D.J. EDU SOLER. 90’s]

Third Archetypal Image | Third Stanza

The vulture breaks off its flight.

Image from: Why African Vultures Are Collapsing Into Extinction | National Geographic


Image from: Ruby the Turkey Vulture | Portland Aududon — In 2007, a woman called the Wildlife Care Center to report that a friendly Turkey Vulture was hanging around her property near McMinnville, Oregon. It had flown down to the ground and thrown an acorn at someone’s feet, slept on the woman’s porch, followed her around and into her barn, and jumped onto her arm.


Image from: Absurd Creature of the Week: The Magnificent Bearded Vulture Only Eats Bone. Metal, Dude | Wired Magazine

The beautiful bearded vulture feeds almost exclusively on skeletal fragments.


Image from: Vultures, tongue orchids: why are rare species here in UK? | Birds | The GuardianVisit | The Guardian

The Egyptian birds are one of a number of foreign visitors, but why have these continental drifters fled north?


Image from: Why we should all love the vulture by Matilda Battersby | BBC Earth

Have a bone to pick with the scraggy vulture? Just remember they’re vital as nature’s waste disposers – which is why their decline is very bad news…


Music for the archetypal image of the vulture breaks off its flight is OST: PURPLE EYES ~ Pachislot Akumajo Dracula Lords of Shadow. I chose song for its sound, which is edgy, uncanny, unearthly, eerie, which are all qualities that an image of a vulture can evoke–after all they are a bird strongly associated with death. And so is count Dracula come to think of it. Perhaps this stanza of the poem suggests even death breaks off its path in the light of life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5q2b2QeWP0
OST: PURPLE EYES ~ Pachislot Akumajo Dracula Lords of Shadow | 117 views, Apr 20, 2018

Fourth Archetypal Image | Fourth Stanza

The eager light streams out, even the ghosts take a draught.

Image from: How To: Remove a Broken Light Bulb

If a light bulb breaks in the socket, we’ve got three tricks to help you safely extract it, without damaging your light fixture.

By Katelin Hill and Bob Vila | Updated Oct 30, 2020


Image from: How To: Remove a Broken Light Bulb

If a light bulb breaks in the socket, we’ve got three tricks to help you safely extract it, without damaging your light fixture.

By Katelin Hill and Bob Vila | Updated Oct 30, 2020


Image from: Red Stage Means Beam Of Light And Drama

Red Spotlight Indicating Stage Lights And Illumination

iStock Photos Photographer:

StuartMiles


Image: Ghosts Alcohol GIF


Music for the 4th archetypal image is from Spooky Mall by LIL Runners (Available on Amazon Music). I felt the sample I found to have the perfect mix of mysterious, spookish, and uncanny, which felt right for this 4th stanza of Tranströme’s poem. I am afraid you have to have Amazon music or listen to the sample embedded in the animation above.

ALBUM: SPOOKY MALL | LIL Runners | 10 SONGS • 10 MINUTES • NOV 14 2021

Fifth Archetypal Image | Fifth Stanza

And our paintings see daylight, our red beasts of the ice-age studios.

The Fortune-Teller — probably 1630s by Georges de La Tour French

Darting eyes and busy hands create a captivating narrative between otherwise staid figures, each of which is richly clothed in meticulously painted combinations of color and texture. La Tour has taken on a theme popularized in Northern Europe by prints and in Rome by Caravaggio: an old Roma (traditionally known by the derisive term “Gypsy”) woman reads the young man’s fortune as her beautiful companions take the opportunity to rob him. — Visit the Met Museum online to learn more about this painting


I lost this one… sorry


Sun Painting

Sunlight–reflected and refracted–paints an ever-changing color composition.

Created by artist Bob Miller, this classic Exploratorium exhibit is a “live” painting that uses light from the Sun as its palette.


Image from: Why Is Northern Light Best For Artists?

  • Post by Chris Chalk on 29th January 2017 about painting

The confluence of light and paint seemed important in this stanza.


Image from Ice Age Wiki: Rudy is a Baryonyx that lived in an underground world during the Ice Ages. He makes his appearance in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs where he is the main antagonist.
I am pretty sure this stanza is referring to cave paintings but something adorable and deadly caught my attention with this image, and so it found its way into this animation. Perhaps a nod to man’s deadly ice-age, dinosaur side laying asleep deep inside his psyche until something triggers it wide awake!


Another image of Rudy who appears through mist to Buck.

I really love this red dinosaur!


Music for the 5th archetypal image is from The Velociraptor Song from Press Play Picture House. Watch out! This song really gets in your head!!! I love it, and I feel it really does speak to a feeling buried deep in this stanza of Tranströme’s poem. I think he is hinting at the ancient, primal parts buried deep inside of us and barely illuminated by our individual small flickering flames of consciousness. They really can catch you inside the deep recess of your soul, the parts hidden in the dark.

The Velociraptor Song | 1,812 views, Jun 4, 2019

Sixth Archetypal Image | Sixth Stanza

Everything begins to look around. We walk in the sun in hundreds.

Image from the Facebook community:

Randomly pointing up at the ceiling/sky just to see how many people look.

Pretty funny!


Image from article in The Atlantic:

The Exhausting Work of Tallying America’s Largest Protest

A pair of political-science professors are combing through news stories and individual reports to estimate the number of people who demonstrated on Saturday. By Kaveh Waddell — I was there:

Sustain the Flame | 84 views, Mar 26, 2017 | Promo

Sustain the Flame – Full (Best Version) Women’s March on Washington 2017 | 211 views, Apr 19, 2017

Image from The New Yorker: The Wisdom of the Crowd By Hendrik Hertzberg, September 22, 2014

“Don’t follow leaders,” the bard of Hibbing once advised. “Watch the parking meters,” he added.

Teens – People’s Climate March — DC | 6 views, Mar 23, 2019

Image from Wired:

Why Women (and Men) Are Marching Today, According to Twitter Data

An analysis of tweets based on 40 march-related keywords and hashtags reveals the topics marchers are prioritizing.

I interviewed over 30 people at the DC Women’s March that took place in 2017.

Sustain the Flame — Part 1 | 31 views, Apr 17, 2017 (The full version got blocked… investigating this)

Image from article in Elle: Portland Protester ‘Naked Athena’ On Why She Stripped Down
My nakedness is… my expression.”

And don’t miss my blog about Naked Athena and her power.

Naked Athena
Feature archetypal animation for Naked Athena

Image from Crowd Png Image File – People Crowd Walking Png, Transparent Png
I liked the long and endless feeling that this image adds to the animation


Music for the 6th archetypal image is from by Thomas Bergersen – Cry (Sun). This is a powerful, compelling, hair raising symphony of voice and musical instruments that captures an endeavor, which is what this stanza makes me think of and feel.

Thomas Bergersen – Cry (Sun) | 1,478,514 views, Feb 4, 2015

Seventh Archetypal Image | Seventh Stanza

Each man is a half-open door, leading to a room for everyone.



Image from An Open Door

Photo credit: Brad Smith, “An old door in an abandoned log house”
An old door in an abandoned log house uploaded to Flickr on January 31, 2007, by Brad Smith.


Image from A Half-Opened Door is Half-Opened Happiness

Everyone who lives life intensely has, at one point or another, experienced what I like to call a half-open door. We know it can get complicated, but we only get one shot at life and at finding what really makes us happy while living it. Part of our happiness depends on knowing which doors to shut and which to fully open. It’s extremely healthy to remember that a half-opened door is half-opened happiness.


Image from: Door | Spremberg, Germany, Urban Exploration

Here are some other spectacular photos on this site —


Music for the 7th archetypal image is from The Doors classic Break On Through (To The Other Side). Definitely works for this image!

The doors – Break On Through ( To The Other Side )
33,341,576 viewsMar 6, 2013

Eight Archetypal Image | Eight Stanza

The endless ground under us.

Image from: Endless Facebook Group | Party Entertainment Service

Image from: Fine Art | Endless Dream (International Awards Winner)

Image from: Abortion and the People Seeds Thought Experiment | Philosophical Disquisitions

Wow — the source of this image really surprises me. I didn’t expect this one! Never heard of the People Seed thought experiment.

Or I got it here: Floating dandelion seeds

Music for the 8th archetypal image is from Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days. Honestly, this is the best darn song for the feeling I got from this line in the poem.

Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days [FULL ALBUM STREAM]
4,665,008 views, Apr 11, 2017

Ninth Archetypal Image | Ninth Stanza

The water is shining among the trees.

Image from: Sunlight through trees images | Shutterstock — a few others from this site are:

Image from: Sunlight Through Trees | Pinterest

Image from: Sunlight Through Trees | Pinterest | Other images from this site

Image from: Liquid Light Tools | Denis Smith | A few other photos from this site —

Music for the 9th archetypal image is Shining Water by BUIWUI on Spotify.


Tenth Archetypal Image | Tenth Stanza

The lake is a window into the earth.

Image from: DreamsTime Photos

Image from: { stars falling down } | Random Musings | Other images

Music for the 10th archetypal image is At the End A mix for the end of the world part. 1 The National Parks. This is an awesome song and perfect, absolutely perfect for this last stanza of this amazing poem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dGMEjWOldk
The National Parks – Introducing “A Mix For The End Of The World – Part 1” | The Record By USRN
46 viewsOct 6, 2021

We Are Indeed Tranströme’s Half-Finished Heaven

We the people of this beautiful Earth. And winter’s fading light is a stark reminder of our own fading life–for no living being exists forever. Each of us has a limited amount of time to be (truly be) in this Half-Finished Heaven or this Half-Finished Hell for both are possibilities inside of us. And we choose, as conscious living beings, which one to inhabit moment by moment.

It is because of this dwindling light of life that each of us must face that I would like to dedicate this post to my dear friend Brian Bergman. He passed away suddenly 4 months ago to this day. I only found out last week that he had died. This is a video that he helped me make back in 2016. We always talked about making more. Life is precious and fades too fast, just as the setting sun almost disappears during the winter months.

The Persuaded | Last DJ on Earth | Mini series

Be well. Take care. And Happy Winter Solstice to you on this good and longest night!

Satan’s Sister & Santa Claus

Field of Souring Souls

Satan’s sister slithers through fields of drying, souring souls…

Satan’s Sister | Music: Dance with the DeadMoon Runner | Images: girl pyramid head; Pyramid head woman on the field; Lady Pyramid Head (Cassandra W); Sorceress/Witch

Sundering Sinners

Seeking sinners to pluck and pulverized into a poison…

Hel Feasts Tonight | Music: Al Bid-Aya — Jedi Mind Trick | Images: HEL goddess of by LeneMa7991; Morrigan, Goddess of Death; Hel- The Norse Goddess of Death; Morrighan – Celtic Goddess of Death; Delire- Goddess of the Fallen

Santa’s Spiked Glögg

That she uses to spike Santa’s holiday Glögg.

Santa’s Spiked Glögg | Music: Evil Christmas Carols (Panda Smash Presents). Sean Wesche. Album. 2006. | Images: Santa Claus Having a Christmas Drink (Free Photos); Dumbledore (The Ending Of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince Explained); Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) suffers in excruciating pain (Division and Disloyalty: Ignoring Our Friends’ Wishes – and Our Own); Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, played by Richard Harris
 (Warner Brothers); Smashed Santa Claus (Too Much to Drink)

Archetypal Image Analysis

First Archetypal Image:

Is Satan’s sister good or bad?

Your answer is unique and utterly up to you based on your attitudes, beliefs, upbringing, and current circumstances. At first, as I searched for images of what Satan’s sister might look like, I had no idea of what I might be looking for.

I wondered whether she should look ugly like a wicked witch, gender neutral, or bewitchingly beautiful.

I stumbled upon Félicien Rops (a Belgian artists who lived between 1833 – 1898) finding his uncanny image of Satan. I found it on a poetry website and immediately thought–sure this could be what Satan’s sister looks like–sinister, sterile, and scary.

Satan Semant l’Ivraie’ – Félicien Rops (Belgian, 1833 – 1898) | National Gallery of Art

I felt I was definitely on the right track, but sought a clearer image. As I searched for one, I stumbled upon Pyramid Girl. I knew at once this was a better rendering of Satan’s sister. She is beguilingly beautiful and utterly alien at the same time–a spine-chilling duality exists about her.

Then, I found another Pyramid Head Woman in a field. This was the next line of my poem, which sealed the deal this was the image I was searching for.

Pyramid head woman on the field [1920 × 1080]

I have never encountered Pyramid Woman before, but obviously she is well-known by others and depicted as a victim and an invincible warrior. I felt this duality was another key aspect to be embodied by Satan’s sister. I found two more images embodying these qualities created by an artist at the Stan Winston School of Character Art. Here I learned her apron is made of human skin, very creepy indeed and a perfect outfit for Satan’s sister.

The last image used in the archetypal animation just grabbed me. I suppose it is all the gold and skeletons. Satan’s sister would certainly be involved in collecting the dead. She would also be a devilish seductress–beautiful and scary at once.

Sorceress, witch, art, skeleton, golden, stairs, yannick bouchard, woman, fantasy, mayan, girl, skull, HD wallpaper

So this is the process for how the first archetypal animation was created.

What does it mean?

That is something for you to fill in.

During his life, Carl Jung came to understand all human beings share common archetypal patterns of behavior and belief as demonstrated through customs, rituals, and myths. Certain recognizable psychological patterns and images appear over and over again between cultures and times. They live deep inside the psyche of all human beings and contain collective memories that pop into action when of specific circumstances and situations are encountered. They act much like instincts do, but archetypal patterns are more like instincts altered by consciousness.

Jung described archetypes as empty templates ready to be filled by the psychic forces triggered into action by external events. These invisible templates provide imprints of all the possibilities and consequences of choices and actions triggered by the situation.

The music for this archetypal image provides vital context and background like a fantastic fabric for space-time beings to experience things. This music is fabulous, providing texture, vibrance, and life to the image. It is Moon Runner by Dance With the Dead.

DANCE WITH THE DEAD — Moon Runner | 76,253 viewsMar 1, 2014

Second Archetypal Image:

Does she sunder souls for pleasure?

Again, the answer is up to you.

In creating this image, my search took me into the realm of mythic goddesses. It did not take long to understand many of the goddesses associated with death carry the blade of time with them. Death is inevitable as a mortal being and the goddesses associated with death embody this reality.

The Goddess Kali is the Divine Mother in Hinduism and known to be fierce and cause destruction of all evils, including ignorance. She is considered to be the master of death, time and change. When I found this image of Morrighan, my search focused in on the Celtic and Nordic goddesses of death.

Morrighan — Celtic Goddess of Death

“Morrighan is also known as Phantom queen or Morrigu. In Irish mythology, she is known as the Goddess of Death, who is associated with mainly war, battle, and death. She is also famous because of her foretelling death in the battle. Because of her association with war and battles, she is also known as a great warrior who determines which warriors walk off the battlefield.” — 21 Gods & Goddesses of Destruction, Death & Underworld

Hel is another goddess of death rising from the myths of the Nordic peoples.

Hel — The Norse Goddess of Death

“She is the ruler of the underworld and death. She is the daughter of Loki and Angrboda. Her appearance is pretty hard to explain, but it is half blue and half flesh-colored with some gloomy texture downside. She has a hall called Eljudnir, and it is a strong belief in Norse Mythology that it is the hall where mortals go who do not die in battle but of natural causes or sickness.” 21 Gods & Goddesses of Destruction, Death & Underworld

This is another compelling rendering of Hel drawn by LeneMa7991.

Germanic Gods: HEL goddess of death

And this is another depiction of Morrigan that I found on the website of The Druid Way.

The Irish Morrigan, Goddess of Death and Guardian of the Dead

Another goddess of death I found was Delire. She is not the goddess of Death in general, but instead the goddess of the Fallen, much like the valkyries of Norse mythology.

Delire | “You have served well soldier. It’s time to retire.”

Back to the Eastern Mind

The last element of the archetypal animation is the music, which circles us back to the eastern mind and the wisdom of the upanishads that are treatises on Brahman-knowledge, which is knowledge of Ultimate Hidden Reality. I chose the song Al Bid-Aya by Jedi Mind Tricks from their album The Bridge and the Abyss. It is haunting and beautiful and utterly perfect for this topic if you listen to their official video of this song.

Al Bid-Aya | 122,715 views, Jun 21, 2018

Third Archetypal Image:

Why is Santa’s Glögg spiked?

For the third archetypal image, I baffled myself with its own imagery. Why is Santa popping into this otherwise dark and haunting poem? And why is Satan’s sister spiking his holiday Glögg with the broken up bits of sinners?

Perhaps Santa is serving somewhat like a cosmic hero of goodness and good cheer. He has so much of it, he is able to consume dangerous amounts of collective sin down to the dregs on behalf of all of us to ease our misery and allow for a time of good cheer. This though made me think of Dumbledore who drank the poisoned water so Harry could destroy a ‘horcrux’–a thing of great evil that if not destroyed would led to the downfall of everyone they know and love.

This last archetypal animation is the most elusive to take accounting of for it veers straight into the Christmas season–a time when many people make a considerable effort to show a spirit of good cheer and collective good will. Why? Because it is a time when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus; however, as an excellent Washington Post article points out, ‘Dec. 25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus’s birth; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year  when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth.

This article further states the first celebration of Jesus’ birth took place ‘around 200 A.D. — to have taken place on Jan. 6. Why? Nobody knows, but it may have been the result of “a calculation based on an assumed date of crucifixion of April 6 coupled with the ancient belief that prophets died on the same day as their conception,” according to religionfacts.com.’

It was moved to December 25 to piggy back on pagan celebrations (such as “The Golden Bough”) that occurred during this time. Especially as practiced by the fierce and wild tribes of northern Europe–the Celtics, the Norses, and many other germanic tribes who celebrated the shortest day of the year, which signaled the return of light to their barren and frigid northern lands.

Good Olde St. Nick

Christmas underwent a further transformation with the elevation of St. Nicholas as a patron saint of Christmas. He was a real man, a Bishop, who lived in the fourth century in a place called Myra in Asia Minor (now called Turkey). He was known for helping the poor and giving secret gifts to people who needed it.

Image from the St. Nicholas Center | www.stnicholascenter.org | The Man Behind the Story of Father Christmas/Santa Claus

Christmas took another dramatic turn with the popularization of Santa Claus as the legendary man who encircles the world in one night flying in his sleigh to give good boys and girls around the world presents and delights. Holiday specials such as Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, which showed the transformation of the real man St. Nicholas into the superhero Christmas giver of cheer and goodwill worldwide.

Santa Claus Is Coming!

It is a delightful Christmas story. One I watched every year as a child for Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Frosty, Rudolph, and Santa Claus!

Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town — The Full Movie | 7,476,556 views

So what is up with this spiking Santa’s tea with the broken up bits of sinners, obviously people who were not on Santa’s Good List to get toys and presents at Christmas time.

Santa and Dumbledore

Is this image referring to the self-sacrificing ability of some individuals who are capable of far more good deeds than the rest of us to ease our burden for a time?

This idea reminded me of Dumbledore drinking the poison water so Harry could destroy another ‘horcrux’. Perhaps Santa and Dumbledore represent a certain type of individual, or better yet, these characters are archetypes of a powerful curative force that lives inside of us and allows a human being to endure pain and suffering, even unto death, for the good of others.

This seemed to be on the right trail and so the images I found included these.

Image from Freepik: Santa having a drink

This definitely could be Santa enjoying a holiday Glögg left out for him. Then, images of Dumbledore to establish the connection between the two.

Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, played by Richard Harris
 (Warner Brothers) | JK Rowling defends Dumbledore on Twitter: Seven things you might not know about the Hogwarts headmaster — A look beyond the half-moon glasses at the Harry Potter franchise’s most enigmatic character
Image BY SYDNEY BAUM HAINES/JUNE 15, 2021 10:05 PM EST | The Ending Of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince Explained

The Purpose of the Poison

And of course Dumbledore drinking the poison, which turns out to be the most important image and article of everything explored here.

Image from: Division and Disloyalty: Ignoring Our Friends’ Wishes – and Our Own | Featured image: Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) suffers in excruciating pain in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) as he swallows the harmful potion he made himself drink. ‘This potion might paralyse me, might make me forget why I’m here, might cause me so much pain I beg for relief. You are not to indulge these requests. It’s your job, Harry, to make sure I keep on drinking this potion, even if you have to force it down my throat.’ Like Dumbledore, we make promises which we go on to contradict, creating fascinating ethical dilemmas for those around us. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

This article, Division and Disloyalty: Ignoring Our Friends’ Wishes — and Our Own that was written by James Clark Ross and published 21 April 2020, is what my psyche was trying to convey to me as I assembled the final animation for this very short and not very good poem. He writes:

We like to think of ourselves as unified agents. With apparent clarity, we take ownership of who we are and the decisions we make. But we are misled. Clarity assumes consensus; and, underneath ‘ourselves’, motivations divide us.

Of our conscious thoughts, we form beliefs which immediately retreat, dematerialise, or mutate beyond recognition into new tokens. Of our unconscious desires, feelings pass by and vanish, having never really existed. Who we are—what we believe and what we desire—is unstable, uncertain, and transient.

This is troubling. For how can we be sure that one part of ourselves persists through time? We can only claim who we are on unsteady ground.

More, are we in conflict? If we don’t coordinate our motivations with unity, disloyalty will always be within us: we will always be fighting ourselves.

Who will your friends side with?

Welcome to a lesson on division and disloyalty.

Division and Disloyalty: Ignoring Our Friends’ Wishes – and Our Own

by James Clark Ross, 21 April 2020

Who Are We Really?

Clark is getting at the division raging inside of ourselves. Jung also spoke of this inner divide saying:

The greatest sin is to be unconscious.”

— C.G. Jung quotes from Quotefancy.com

Our world is very complicated and most of us are taught to operate in it like very small, spoiled children. We are taught to not question the system but to go to work at nine, come home at 6, squeeze all the housework, time with children, spouse or friends into 4 or 5 hours, go to sleep, wake up and do it again. Why? So we can be good consumers for the system that we must depend upon to sustain us or else we can’t go on.

But should we really want to go on? Is our current system of a modern life really so great? Is it so glorious and so out-of-this-world that we are willing to commit to most of our adult life to being good and obedient consumers? Is that what we really want?

Alan Watts often posed this question, what do you really want? Do we really want to play the social games of who is the boss, who can have more and who should have less, going to work at places that are mind numbing and super boring only to get laid off when we get too old or its not convenient (Nomadland captures this reality brilliantly).

NOMADLAND | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures |7,704,318 viewsDec 14, 2020

What Do We Really Want?

For most of us living in modern Western societies, we wake up one day (at the far end of 50 something) and realize–my life has been a great big drag.

Dopedreamz & Alan Watts – Life’s A Drag ft. Ty and Nick Swan | 179 views, Jul 1, 2013
Happiness is NOT the Meaning of Life – Alan Watts | 1,183,376 views, Feb 27, 2018

If we ever wake up, we may realize we’ve been consuming and entertaining ourselves to death. Thus, the passed out Santa Clause by the fire place.

Image from People are leaving Santa milk over traditional sherry because he’s changed his ways

The final element of this archetypal animation, a musical piece with a diabolical edge –the Evil Christmas Carols.

Frosty’s Death March | 179 viewsOct 28, 2015

Nevertheless — Please Have A Very Happy Holidays However You Celebrate

And know it’s never too late…

A Christmas Carol 2009 Christmas Day Scene | 162,224 views, Jul 1, 2019

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti and the Buddha

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti | Just What is Reality

This show originally aired on Mar 24, 2017 on Snap Judgment. A description of it appears below. I have chosen to highlight this story here for two reasons: 1) schizophrenia runs in my family and because of this understanding another person’s experience of reality is essential, and 2) what is real anyways?

Western culture’s understanding of reality is severely (even fatally) lopsided. To successfully navigate the collective challenges our world faces in the coming decades (e.g., climate change, political upheavals, economic reversals and hardships, pandemic, water shortages, food insecurity due to climate change and unfair economic conditions, etc., etc.), we need to reconnect to our inner worlds, to who we really are deep, deep down beyond the fading illumination of our fragile ego’s consciousness rays of knowing.

Description of The Three Christs of Ypsilanti: In 1959, psychiatrist Milton Rokeach brought together three schizophrenic men who believed they were Jesus Christ, hoping to cure them of their delusions. But over time, his methods became dangerously amoral.

Thanks to Richard Bonier and Ronald Hoppe for their help.  Additional thanks to Peter Shyppert as the voice of Milton Rokeach.

You can buy The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, Rokeach’s book, right here.

Producer: Stephanie Foo

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti and the Buddha | Animation by Genolve

The Map to the Disappeared | Just What is Truth

Before The Three Christs Of Ypsilanti aired on Snap Judgement, a tragic and compelling story about a mother’s quest to find her disappeared son aired. Glynn Washington introduced this story with a quote everyone likes to say when they are trying to one up someone else’s reality. The infamous quote is:

The truth! You can’t handle the truth!”

But no one remembers where this saying was first said. Glynn tells us where it was first said and that what was said after this notorious saying was said, the more important idea followed and this is what we have forgotten… what everyone has forgotten when we get into arguments over The Truth.

The Map to the Disappeared is essential listening if you are at all interested in understanding truth at the deepest levels of being.

Map to the Disappeared | JULY 22, 2021 | Artwork by Teo Ducot

God As Reality | Just Who Is God

Carol Anthony touches on the same relativeness to reality as the psychiatrist Milton Rokeach came to realize in his misguided experiment devised to cure the three schizophrenic men of their delusions that they were each Jesus Christ (The Three Christs of Ypsilanti ). In her book The Philosophy of the I Ching, Anthony writes:

"The entire business of the I Ching is to re-affirm our knowledge of God as the higher power, not only as a vague, intuitive knowledge, but as a conscious, practical, intimate, everyday knowledge. This means that we materialize the reality of God out of the mists of our unconscious into the full reality of consciousness. We may know intuitively that someone we love is unfaithful to us, but when this knowledge surfaces by evidence into consciousness, it produces such a shock that it is hard to understand the difference between these two sorts of knowing. We may know someone is dying of cancer for a long time, but the fact of their death produces an unexpectedly strong emotional response. How do we explain this? When the ego leads our personality, the conscious mind disbelieves what we intuitively know; moreover, the ego insists that conscious reality is the only reality--in this case it does not want to believe that death exists. When death, the objective fact happens, the conscious mind is unprepared, and the ego disappears in the ensuing shock. One's knowledge of God is similar. In the beginning of self-development, we know about God intuitively and theoretically; we may have occasionally experienced the higher power, but afterwards we gave rationalized the experience as some quirk of our imagination; soon, it seems it never happened at all. Our intuition of God, through this process has become dimmed. Through self-development, however, we come to experience the reality of God as an everyday fact of life. We experience God directly, not only in small ways, but in big ways, so that even the smallest errors of perception are swept away. This daily relating to the higher power gradually erases every particle of doubt." -- p. 60-61
And God said, “Let there be light.”

Tribute to Carl Jung | Just Who Are You

Drilling even deeper down on the relativeness of reality that we experience as human beings, Alan Watts beautifully illuminates just how profound relative reality is between human beings in his Tribute to Carl Jung, who had just died on June 6, 1961. Watts and Jung knew each other and were friends. Despite pursuing very different vocations, both men shared profound understandings of deeper truths hidden inside the heart and soul of all men and women, regardless of when in time they existed or where they existed in the world. These deeper, darker truths are a result of man becoming conscious in the sense that he knows when he is happy or sad enabling him to focus this self-reflective form of consciousness like a spot light or a laser to do things in the world and to take very focused, specific action to achieve narrowly focused goals.

In his tribute to Jung, Watts focuses on a speech Carl Jung gave to clergy men. While Carl Jung was not a pastor, his father had been, and so he knew the doctrines of the Christian faith and religion in a very cognizantconsciousheedfulmindfulsensible, and sentient way. In a gentle but enigmatic way, Jung challenges the pastors to think beyond the bible stories and Christian doctrines they preach about every day.

He invited the clergy men to step beyond the pale of their Christian beliefs and traditions and onto a new bridge of understanding he had helped to build in the Western world as one of the early pioneers of psychoanalysis (Freud) and analytic psychology (Jung). Carl Jung understood that Western mind needed this new science of psychology to understand things that the Eastern mind had understood for centuries.

Watts understood this too. This is why he focused on this speech Jung gave to the clergy men. Watts reads most of this speech in the video below and explains why it was probably the most important work Jung left behind for his fellow human beings. Watts understood how important it was (and continues to be) to challenge the percepts and premises upon which the modern Western world is based upon. The Western mind remains incredibly focused and fixated on its abilities to perceive, apprehend, learn, discover, and figure out how the outer world works, and this is a powerful ability that has enabled Western culture to gain dominance in the world and emboldened its belief that Western man was meant to reign supreme over all living beings and things. However, this is an exceedingly lopsided system of belief that will end in disaster for all living beings on Earth as the whole world stands on the precipice of existential threats capable of producing mass extinction events that could take out the human race forever.

Tribute to Carl Jung — 1961 — Alan Watts | 234,071 views | Premiered Aug 21, 2020

The Eastern mind holds the key to our global existential predicament. This is what Jung came to know through his work as a psychologist and was confirmed when he came to know Richard Wilhelm who was the West’s foremost translator of the I Ching. And this is what Alan Watts emphasized in countless lectures. And it is the meaning behind the title of this blog The Three Christs of Ypsilanti and the Buddha. We need each other to survive in the coming century that is going to require great outer knowledge of the world (which the Western mind has excelled) as well as require great inner knowledge of the world and human nature (which the Eastern mind has excelled).

The world today needs skilled consciousness astronauts just as much as it needs astronauts of the cosmos. The challenges inside (especially for the Western mind) are just as great, if not far greater and unpredictable as the challenges of exploring and understanding outer space.


Carl Jung Quotes | Just What Is Consciousness

“God is a force that acts inside you.” — Carl Jung

“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life…If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature…Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”  ― C.G. Jung, The Red Book: A Reader’s Edition


“Nobody can fall so low unless he has a great depth. If such a thing can happen to a man, it challenges his best and highest on the other side; that is to say, this depth corresponds to a potential height, and the blackest darkness to a hidden light.” ― C.G. Jung


“The erotic instinct is something questionable, and will always be so whatever a future set of laws may have to say on the matter. It belongs, on the one hand, to the original animal nature of man, which will exist as long as man has an animal body. On the other hand, it is connected with the highest forms of the spirit. But it blooms only when the spirit and instinct are in true harmony. If one or the other aspect is missing, then an injury occurs, or at least there is a one-sided lack of balance which easily slips into the pathological. Too much of the animal disfigures the civilized human being, too much culture makes a sick animal.” 
― C.G. Jung

The Great God Pan | Music: Album: Mythical by Dream Black; Song: Mythical

“…the mind that is collectively orientated is quite incapable of thinking and feeling in any other way than by projection.” ― C.G. Jung


Carl Jung never said: “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” 
What Dr. Jung said in two separate and unrelated statements was: “Seldom, or perhaps never, does a marriage develop into an individual relationship smoothly and without crises; there is no coming to consciousness without pain.” ~Carl Jung, Contributions to Analytical Psychology, P. 193



“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 99. 


“It is not I who create myself, rather I happen to myself.” ~Carl Jung, CW11, Para 391


“Only that which acts upon me do I recognize as real and actual. But that which has no effect upon me might as well not exist.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 757.


“Here each of us must ask: ‘Have I any religious experience and immediate relation to God, and hence that certainty which will keep me, as an individual, from dissolving in the crowd?'” — Carl Jung, CW 10, Para 564


“For when the soul vanished at death, it was not lost; in that other world it formed the living counter pole to the state of death in this world.” ~Carl Jung, CW 16, Para 493


“Behind a man’s actions there stands neither public opinion nor the moral code, but the personality of which he is still unconscious.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 390


When Nietzsche said “God is dead,” he uttered a truth which is valid for the greater part of Europe. People were influenced by it not because he said so, but because it stated a widespread psychological fact. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 145.


Yet it [Nietzche’s “God is Dead”] has, for some ears, the same eerie sound as that ancient cry which came echoing over the sea to mark the end of the nature gods: “Great Pan is dead.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 145.


“All opposites are of God, therefore man must bend to this burden; and in so doing he finds that God in his “oppositeness” has taken possession of him, incarnated himself in him.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 664.


“It is quite right, therefore, that fear of God should be considered the beginning of all wisdom.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 664.


“Both are justified, the fear of God as well as the love of God.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 664.


“The East bases itself upon psychic reality, that is, upon the psyche as the main and unique condition of existence.” ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 770.


— All above quotes come from Carl Jung Depth Psychology,


“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. When you gaze long into the abyss, the_abyss_also_gazes_into_you“. — FriedrichNietzsche 03:33 (from Philo Calist on Facebook)

The Abyss | Music: The Abyss by DBMK — Paradise/Intro

Can you handle the truth of who you really are deep down far inside beyond the warm illuminating rays of ego consciousness? I know you can, but it does take work. Time to get to work.

Death Comes… Remembering Sasha

Death comes…

…like a cold winter wind blows leaves from trees

Cold Wind

…like a fire burns wood

Fire Burns

…like a wave crashes onto a distant shore.

Waves Crash

Death does not ask: “Are you ready?”

It comes of its own accord and is as unstoppable as the setting sun whom not even great Hercules could catch and push back to its noon day stance in space and time.

Death Does Not Ask

Death leaves a hole that can never be filled…

…except with love.

Death Leaves A Hole that Cannot Be Filled, Except With

Cherish your beloved ones…

…human, animal, and our living Earth.

Cherish Your Beloveds

Remember Always

Love is the most powerful force in a universe of fragile fading light.

Love is the Most Powerful Force
Wings Will Fly — Remembering Those We’ve Lost

Who are you thinking of today? Have you let them know? Even if your beloved one has passed away, you are just a thought away from their shining love in your life.

There Was An Old Woman

There was an old woman who lived in a Speakeasy.

There Was An Old Woman Who Lived in a Speakeasy

She lived in a Speakeasy because she loved money so much she could cheat people all day and all night saying, “It’s so easy!

Cheating People is So Easy!

She cheated so many people out of so much money for so long she built a great big pile of money that she kept to herself as she smiled like an evil elf tittering all day and all night, “Hee Hee.”

“I killed Santa with my chainsaw!”

She loved this great big pile of money so exceedingly that it leaped to life one day and gobbled her up, whereupon it said, “Hmmmm, that was cheesy!

“Ahhhhh! The Money Monster!”

The End

Be sure to listen to the songs embedded in each of the moving animations above. Just click the sound icon to hear them. I am sure you’ll want to run out and get the song for the evil elf animation!


Postscript

Note: See Mark Wagner’s Wild Scenes Crafted from Currency, which are some the images used to create the last animation above.

Here is another great work of art created by Mark Wagner:

by Andy SmithPosted on December 8, 2018
Mark Wagner — Article by by Andy Smith says, “Wagner’s artwork is an entry point to a conversation extending far beyond the art world,” a statement says. “Decades dedicated to destroying banknotes has provided Wagner with a unique perspective on the nature of money. Modern man’s obsession with finance and our wistful attempts to tame it through economics belies money’s emotional, mercurial… even fictional nature. Wagner addresses these issues in writing, lecture, and interview as eloquently as he does through his artwork.”

Also see Tahiti and the Thing for more on how greed and self-absorption and can do terrible things to a person and everyone around them.

Tahiti and the Thing

Another facet playing into uncontrolled self-absorption and greed along with contributing to an uncontrollable evil willingness to destroy just about anyone and anything is narcissism. There is a reason why Trump chooses orange make up when he goes on camera.

I came across this great series of blogs as I was coming to grips with navigating the complexities of narcissism in my own family tree.

Defence Mechanisms –– This is a spectacular blog on defense mechanisms every human being depends on to navigate life’s complexities. The problem is when we get stuck on the lowest levels, then we are heading into pathological living patterns that don’t end well for anyone, especially the narcissist and their loved ones.

The Money Trap

Is there any way out of the money trap?


Alan Watts said once upon a time about there was an old woman and other matters relating to rampant capitalism and rugged individualism that tilts so far one way or the other that it becomes a pathological way of being in the world and relating to each other. He said:

George Herbert Mead where he called the conceptions that we have of ourselves the interiorized other in other words the sum total of all the things that people have told us we are because you do not know yourself as a self except in a society–just as you do not exist biologically without a father and a mother–you do not carry on an existence without a society.”

The reactions of other people to you provide you with the mirror in which you attain a realization of yourself you know who you are in terms of your relationships with others.”

So then now, uh, when we contemplate this disappearance of privacy and a completely integrated human society we can look at this from two different points of view pro and con.”

Let us first look at the pro point of view how great to have nothing to hide how great to give up all worries about ownership because you could say if somebody says that they would like something you have, and you say, “Please have it,” because you know very well you can go to someone else and say, “Could I have that?” and they’ll give it to you.” — Min 124:49

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_xJRcbENyc&t=7483s
Alan Watts – You are EVERYTHING (Black Screen, No Music) [3.5 hours long] — Just Google the the title… it’s a constant game of whack a mole on the Internet with music and things…

Also, see this blog as another possible antidote to greed and the money trap:

Diamond Body and the Secrets of the Golden Flower

And, check out this blog about being in the world and how we create the world we live in each and every moment of every day:

How to Feel Better and Create a More Beautiful World

What Matters & Reality

Love matters reality just as lack of love matters reality.

What kind of reality do you want to experience today?

And remember, don’t be cheesy.

Tahiti & the Thing

“You’ll see what I’ll do son,” the old woman caterwauls.

Let’s go Caterwaul at the moon tonight!

“I’ll go to Tahiti and buy a thing!

Met Thing T. Thing from the Addams Family. Maybe this is the Thing she wants to buy?!

“I’ll buy a thing so you won’t have anything!”

Nothing…Nothing…Nothing...will keep me from you…except money, money, money

That Won’t Solve Anything

“That won’t solve a thing mom.”

“I don’t care,” the old woman howls as her hands wave wildly in mid-air.

I don’t care

I Don’t Care…Just as Long as You Get Nothing!

“Just as long as you get nothing!

“And your good for nothing brother gets nothing!

“I’m going to spend everything!

“On me!

Me! Glorious Me! I’m so Twistedly Awesome!

What About the Grandchildren?

“What about the grandchildren mom? Don’t you care about them?”

Those brats!”

“I don’t care about them.”

“I don’t care about anyone or anything,” the old woman growls as she devours her vowels.

I only care about me, me, me, me, me…

Feed me more Seymour!!”

They’ll Get Nothing

“They’ll get nothing.”

“You’ll get nothing.”

“Nobody will get anything expect me!”

“You’ll see son!”

“I’m going to go to Tahiti to spend everything on a thing just for me!

The Evil Eye of Zoran

With that, the Old Lady Smiles

With that, the old woman smiles.

She smiles the same old, worn-out smile she’s smiled for 89 years.

She’s smiled that smile so many times, it’s creased permanent lines into her thin, translucent skin.

Even when she’s not trying to smile, you can see that creepy, old, tired out smile.

Gone, gone, Gone with the Wind

The Son Sighs

The son sighs and looks down at his knees.

He watches a dust bunny creep across the floor.

Only silence rebounds in the empty, desolate house full of dust ball for nothing living dare stirs in a place like this.

All he ever wanted was a reasonable mom who could show a smidgen of love, but she had none to give.

The Beautiful, Creative, Powerful Sound of Silence

One Beautiful Moment of Silence

But in that great big beautiful moment of powerful, creative silence, a smile springs to his face.

Then, he pulls out his phone and says:

“OK mom, when do you want leave to Tahiti? I’ll book it one way for you need not return because for you to spend everything on a thing in Tahiti I’ll need to sell the house that way you can spend everything on a thing just for you!”

And That is the End of the Story

And that, my friend, is the end of the story for you see, the son finally knew his horrible mom, the one who’d wrecked his childhood and ruined his manhood, was finally going to be gone, gone, gone, swallowed whole by her insatiable greed!

One More Thing

This is a highly distilled, and frankly absurd, dramatization of something I observed (but then again, maybe not). Real life is always much more complicated than a fanciful story such as this. However, such stories can be useful in identifying archetypal emotions and forces that constantly play inside for every human being (be they still human and not some other thing) has good and fowl forces vying for our time, attention, and action in the world.

The Moral of the Story

The moral of this story is:

If humanity continues to spend tremendous amounts of time and precious reservoirs of conscious attention on matters such as these, then the mounting issues swirling around impending catastrophic climate change will never be addressed, nor meaningful action taken. In the end, we will all be swallowed by our pride, self-absorption, vainglory–be it at the personal-family level or interpersonal-community level or be it between states and nations. We will all suffer the fate of our unconsciousness.

Carl G. Jung writes: “Western man has no need of more superiority over Nature, whether (this nature be) outside or inside (i.e., one’s inner nature). Has has both in almost devilish perfection. What he lacks is conscious recognition of his inferiority to the Nature around and within him. He must learn that he may not do exactly as he Wills. If he does not learn this, his own Nature will destroy him. He does not know that his own Soul is rebelling against him in a suicidal way.” — p. 83, Psychology and the East

What will you do with your precious plot of consciousness today? More importantly, what will you do with your unconsciousness?