February 23, 2005

"Portable Desert"
9:57pm

Words laying all around me, words to read, words to write, words to rewrite, and I just want to play with doodles!

ERM! Automatic drawings! It does sound fancier if I call them that!

(note of December 2006, this is the colored version, back in 2005 I had only a black and white version.)

February 26, 2005

"Dolly, the Mega Cat"
1:51am

I have taken the 'Draw the Mega Cat' challenge! When it was suggested to 'The Old Grey Poet' that he turn his artistic skills towards painting the image of his Dolly, the Mega Cat, he declined, but offered the challenge to anyone else if they got "itchy fingers".

I am not the first to find this irresistable.

After observing Her Royal Regalness at length, I have concluded her 'Mega' qualities come from enormous amounts of FUR!

Dolly, the Mega Cat

March 3, 2005

"Slow Progression"
1:25am

The weather's getting warmer. We don't need the heat on at night. I rolled my shirt sleeves up and shed my camisole at work yesterday. Spring is on the way. We must get out in nature this weekend. We absolutely must. That and reading Serpent In The Sky! I'll simply have to plod though the number symbology stuff. It's not a good way to read the book by flipping here and there, reading this and that, which I've been doing. But this little bit caught my eye:

"Schwaller de Lubicz notes the similarity in form between scarab and human skull"(pg 85)

My large silver scarab

Skull top, dividing lines accentuated somewhat

Were the ancient Egyptians aware of that when they picked the scarab as symbol for becoming (Xeper)? West is implying they were.

Meanwhile, I found this from Tapio Kotkavuori's journal: "Seek to be an honorable physical Temple for your psyche in individually meaningful way."

I'll drink to that!

Water, that is. Lots of water. It's the only thing of Oprah's marvelous weight loss secrets that I've been able to do. Not much of the physical exercise she (and Tapio) recommends. However, yoga I might actually be able to do. But at least I've been drinking lots of water. I've also fairly determined that milk products aren't the best for me. As highly touted as they are, I'll have to get my calcium from other sources. The great quantities of cheese I'd been ingesting are largely responsible for the sinus and lung congestion I'd been suffering. Also, my joints seem to ache less now that I'm not consuming so much milk products. Years ago, my Aunt June thought I had a milk sensitivity. But I regarded her advice as nonsense. Surprise, not everything one's family tells them is nonsense!

Also, I keep trying to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and cutting back on sweets. Happily, my clothes seem a little looser these days. Progress is slow, but it's coming.

March 5, 2005

"The Persistence of Rain"
5:06pm

The persistence of rain, a puzzle to the usual standard, is not unpleasant. However, those wanting to enjoy the antique car show here in Yuma are no doubt disappointed. But I do not care, having been ensconced in a warm house with a good book. I applied great diligence to the West book and have gotten through page 126, over halfway. I've taken a fair amount of notes, to apply to a synthesis at book's end.

Here is one quote which parallels nicely with the quotes in my last entry:

"Man is the sum of the principles that pervade and organise the universe; he is the self-perfecting product of the grand experiment that is organic life on earth, embodying within himself the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. His body is the temple designed to permit him to carry out the rite of self-perfection - the only legitimate human goal. All other goals lead to apathy or disaster, as is obvious from any daily newspaper." pg 123

While man may be the only being that is capable of Xeper, I don't wish to downgrade those other varieties of organic life on earth. They have a consciousness of their own that has its own grace and nobility. Any harm to them diminishes humankind, as well. The news is once again filled with reports of harm to animal and marine life. In particular, I am much saddened by the plight of dolphins off the Florida Keys. Sixty eight dolphins beached themselves and so far over twenty of them have died, despite best efforts to save them. The strong suspicion of cause was a sonar exercise during a Navy Seals training. The sonar disorients and scares "marine animals, causing them to surface too quickly and creating the equivalent of what divers know as the bends -- when nitrogen is formed in tissue by sudden decompression, leading to hemorrhaging." AP

These beautiful animals have suffered so much and so needlessly.

Meanwhile I've more suffering to report. I got a call from Laura's mother concerning Laura's son Larry, aka Kippy. He isn't doing too well. He's in the hospital with only 1/2 of a working kidney. Any medicines he might otherwise take would endanger his vulnerable heart, but they are hoping dialysis three times a week will keep him going. She's going to keep me posted. Larry at 45 is only a little bit younger than I am, and it's a shame he is in such bad shape. If Laura were around, she'd really be taking it badly. I hope the doctors discover some new way to help him.

Meanwhile, Julia and I continue to plug along. I really am quite fortunate health wise, with only the beginning stages of arthritis and the occasional sinus trouble. And with discovering the milk allergy, even these are improving. It stands to reason. Joint pain can be a symptom of allergy, as per my reaction to sulfa based drugs. I may not be able to lift a five gallon bottle of water any more than I ever could, but at least it doesn't hurt so much to hoist and pour a three gallon bottle of water. So this is a definite improvement.

We celebrate another improvement in this household, although it's not quite so dramatic as that. Julia has at last got both computers rigged up to the DSL line! It wasn't easy, as clear instructions weren't readily available, but with some good local advice, she got a router and a long cable. A long, narrow blue snake borders the edges of ceiling and wall now, bringing the fast browsing speed to both computers.

It is so much easier to surf now, and shop now. I've sent for another pendant, this one incorporating both the scarab and the ankh, as well as a lotus:

I like the pyramidal shape to it, as well, which gives it a good sense of balance. I'll enjoy wearing this piece.

Shopping in the comfort of one's house is a fun thing to do on a rainy day. As it continues to get chillier outside, the heat roars loudly, as the fan pushes the warmth through the house. It's good to be inside today.

March 7, 2005

"A Sense of Accomplishment"
9:32pm

Julia's exulting over the ability to download mpg music files easily. The web is like a candy store for her now. She especially likes the Classical Music Archives.

I finished reading "Serpent in the Sky" and found it rich food for thought, indeed. I find his evidence that the Sphinx is much older than the Dynasty creations convincing. Overall, I have a deeper understanding of how the ancient Egyptians went about creating their culture, and how co-ordinated and sophisticated the cohesive totality of it was.

There were only a few things with which I don't agree.

West has the resolute RHP idea that "man's purpose on earth was to return to the source." (Pg 83) He mentions two routes of this, the Osirian way and the Horian way. He doesn't even mention the route of SET, which concentrates on retaining one's individuality and not merging to join 'the source'. But despite his bias, a translation he made of an old Kingdom text gives some insight.

In spell 316, "The power of Ba-bi is invoked to open the two shutters to heaven (as opposed, perhaps, to its being used in the generative sense of compelling reincarnation and the return to bodily existence).(pg 144) Later, he explains Ba-bi's connection with Set, "Going back to our Pythagorean principles, the Primordeal Scission results in duality, and each new entity partakes of the nature of the 'one' and the 'Other'. Set is a principal aspect of the 'Other', and Ba-bi may be a generative aspect of Set, opposed as such to the reunion with spirit, or One."(pg 142). So even here in his skillful translation of what others garbled, he is showing there is an alternative route.

West was able to render meaning from the very early text, because he understands the unique nature of the Hieroglyphs.

Modern language makes it difficult to see the connections between things, whereas the Egyptian does not The ""names of things often [contain] clues to their inner relatedness. So, ais is the word for the physical mass of the brain tissue. And the word sia (ais spelled backwards) is the word for consciousness; thus language embodies both the connection and the distinction." (pg 125)

Other examples of this are:
'Hotep' is the reverse of Ptah, which shows the creator of forms vs realization and completion of those forms. (pg 100)
Akh = spirit, or to become spirit; khat = corpse (pg 136)
ben = negation, also the 'primordial stone', that is to say, the first state of matter; neb = gold, (also master or lord) (pg 136)
'Seben' is a fish that turns its fact to the sky, whereas 'nebes' is a tree that bends its head to the ground (pg 143)

I recommend the book highly if you have the slightest interest in ancient Egypt.

Earlier this evening, I felt in the mood for one of my odd 'automatic' drawings:

Food for Thought

I think my book reading figured into it. Maybe there is also the question of when I'm going to get back at book creation of my own, as well. I haven't forgotten about that.