luxe et vanités

VERONICA IBARRA / X-RAY EYEBALLS

2012-02-01T06:39:00.000-08:00

Descartes / la volonté et la maîtrise des passions

« C’est par le succès de ces combats que chacun peut connaître la force ou la faiblesse de son âme. Car ceux en qui naturellement la volonté peut aisément vaincre les passions et arrêter les mouvements du corps qui les accompagnent ont sans doute les âmes les plus fortes. Mais il y en a qui ne peuvent éprouver leur force, parce qu’ils ne font jamais combattre leur volonté avec ses propres armes, mais seulement celles que lui fournissent quelque passions pour résister à quelques autres. Ce que je nomme ses propres armes, ce sont des jugements fermes et déterminés touchant la connaissance du bien et du mal, suivant lesquels elle a résolu de conduire les actions de sa vie. Et les âmes les plus faibles de toutes sont celles dont la volonté ne se détermine point ainsi à suivre certains jugements, mais se laisse continuellement emporter aux passions présentes, lesquelles, étant souvent contraires les unes aux autres, la tirent tout à tour à leur parti et, l’employant à combattre contre elle-même, mettent l’âme au plus déplorable état qu’elle puisse être. Ainsi, lorsque la peur représente la mort comme un mal extrême et qui ne peut-être évité que par la fuite, si l’ambition, d’autre côté, représente l’infamie de cette fuite comme un mal pire que la mort, ces deux passions agitent diversement la volonté, laquelle obéissant tantôt à l’une , tantôt à l’autre, s’oppose continuellement à soi-même, et ainsi rend l’âme esclave et malheureuse ».

© All texts, images & photographs are under copyright of their owners, artists, gallerys, foundations or museums. Texts & Images may not be reproduced, transmited, published without the prior permission from their authors.

Doten Dantz mit Figuren

2012-01-31T06:53:00.000-08:00

Doten Dantz mit Figuren

printed by J. Meydenbach in Mainz around 1490 /1495

This very rare work - there are only five copies - has several features that distinguish it from the other dances of death. These are the first three scenes that frame the set : the first show, in a cemetery - «house of dance» - to the exclusion of all living things, rotting corpses, some animated, begin to dance in front of an ossuary and invite us to join them remained inert while we address the terrifying memento mori, the last dance is over, contemplate the corpses pile of skulls from the ossuary while a voice Anonymous launches a nice call to humility.

Doten Dantz mit Figuren

imprimé par J. Meydenbach à Mayence vers 1490-1495.

Cette oeuvre très rare – il n'en existe que cinq exemplaires – présente plusieurs particularités qui la distinguent nettement des autres danses macabres. Ce sont tout d'abord les trois scènes qui encadrent l'ensemble : les premières montrent, dans un cimetière – « maison de danse » –, à l'exclusion de tout être vivant, des cadavres en décomposition, dont certains s'animent, commencent à danser devant un ossuaire et nous invitent à les rejoindre tandis qu'un resté inerte nous adresse son terrifiant memento mori ; dans la dernière, la danse est finie, des cadavres contemplent le tas de crânes de l'ossuaire tandis qu'une voix anonyme lance un bel appel à l'humilité.

FIONA KRÜGER VANITAS

2012-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

BLUES STAY AWAY FROM ME

Recorded by The Delmore Brothers

Words and music by Alton Delmore, Rabon Delmore, Henry Glover & Wayne Raney

Blues - Stay Away From Me

Blues - why don’t you let me be

Don’t know why - you keep on haunting me.

Love - was never meant for me

True love - was never meant for me

Seems somehow - we never can agree.

Life - is full of misery

Dreams - are like a memory

Bringing back - your love that used to be.

Tears - so many I can’t see

Years - don’t mean a thing to me

Time goes by - and still I can’t be free.

THE RED QUEEN

2012-01-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

With a motif of Through the Looking-Glass being representations of the game of chess, the Red Queen could be viewed as an antagonist in the story as she is the queen for the side opposing Alice. Despite this, their initial encounter is a cordial one, with the Red Queen explaining the rules of Chess concerning promotion — specifically that Alice is able to become a queen by starting out as a pawn and reaching the eighth square at the opposite end of the board. As a queen in the game of Chess, the Red Queen is able to move swiftly and effortlessly.

Later, in Chapter 9, she appears with the White Queen, posing a series of typical Wonderland/Looking-Glass questions (« Divide a loaf by a knife: what’s the answer to that? »), and then celebrating Alice’s promotion from pawn to queen. When that celebration goes awry, Alice turns upon the Red Queen, whom she «considers as the cause of all the mischief», and shakes her until the queen morphs into Alice’s pet kitten. In doing this, Alice presents an end game, awakening from the dream world of the looking glass, by both realizing her hallucination and symbolically «taking» the Red Queen in order to checkmate the Red King.

The Red Queen also said "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. "

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS

2012-01-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

Sulpicia : Six Poems

Many women, we know, wrote poetry in ancient Rome. The works of only one have survived. These six poems by Sulpicia, the niece of the distinguished statesman and patron of letters Valerius Messalla Corvinus, allow us to hear an aristocratic female voice from the late first century B.C. and the Augustan milieu of Horace and Vergil. Sulpicia's work has been handed down as part of the Corpus Tibullianum, a collection of poems by Tibullus and other poets affiliated with Messalla.

At last. It's come. Love,
the kind that veiling
will give me reputation more
than showing my soul naked to someone.
I prayed to Aphrodite in Latin, in poems;
she brought him, snuggled him
into my bosom.
Venus has kept her promises:
let her tell the story of my happiness,
in case some woman will be said
not to have had her share.
I would not want to trust
anything to tablets, signed and sealed,
so no one reads me
before my love--
but indiscretion has its charms;
it's boring
to fit one's face to reputation.
May I be said to be
a worthy lover for a worthy love.

Birthday's here and I hate it--
of all the days to be spent in gloom
out in the dreary country
without Cerinthus.
What is sweeter than the city?
Is a house in the country
on the banks of that frigid stream in Arretine country,
any place for a girl?
Now Messalla, do take a rest--
you've always looked after me too well.
There are times, you know, when travel's
a bad idea.
I'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED I'VE LEFT BEHIND
MY MIND MY FEELING VIOLENCE
DOESN'T LET ME BE MY OWN
MISTRESS.

You know the dreary trip contemplated for a girl?
Now I can be at Rome for your birthday.
May that day be celebrated by us all,
which now comes, perchance, as no surprise to you.

Thank you for taking such pains over me,
for keeping me from making a fool of myself.
I do hope you enjoy the bimbo.
Her flashy clothes
do cast a subtly shabby light on
Sulpicia Servi Filia.
(They are a little worried about me,
afraid I might trip up,
marry a nobody.)

Do you think kindly of your girl, Cerinthus,
now that a fever attacks my limbs?
I wouldn't wish to get well except on one condition:
that I could think you wished it too.
But what would be the good in getting well, if you
can bear my sickness with unfluttered heart?

May I never be, o dawn of my life, as warm a care to you
as I seem to have been a few days ago,
if --fool that I am-- I've done anything in all my short life
that I might admit to regretting more
than leaving you alone last night--
passionate only to hide my passion.

ALYZ VANITAS

2012-01-23T06:27:00.001-08:00

Remember / Jimi Hendrix

Oh, remember the mocking bird, my baby

He used to sing for his supper, baby Yes he used to sing for his supper,

babeHe used to sing so sweet

Since my baby left me he ain't sang for two long days

Oh, remember the blue-birds and the honey bees,

They used to sing for sunshine

They used to sing for the flowers

They used to sing so sweet

But since my baby left me they ain't sang in two long days

Hey pretty baby, come on back to me

Make ev'ry body as happy as can be

So, baby, if you'll please come home again you know I'llKiss you for my supper,

You know I'll kiss you for my dinner, yeah!

But, ah, if you don't come back you know I'll have to Starve to death

'Cus I ain't had one kiss all day now

Please rememberYou've got to remember

You've got to remember our love

Come on back, baby, come on back in my arms,

I'll make ev'rything that better

Come on, baby, hurry up now

Can you hear me calling you back again now?

Come on, baby, stop jiving around, hurry home, hurry home

TABULA SMARAGDINA & VANITAS

2012-01-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

Tabula smaragdina Hermetis Trismegisti

« Verum, sine mendacio, certum et verissimum : quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius; et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius. Et sicut omnes res fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione. Pater ejus est Sol, mater ejus Luna; portavit illud Ventus in ventre suo; nutrix ejus Terra est. Pater omnis telesmi totius mundi est hic. Vis ejus integra est si versa fuerit in terram. Separabis terram ab igne, subtile a spisso, suaviter, cum magno ingenio. Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis gloriam totius mundi. Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas. Hic est totius fortitudine fortitudo fortis; quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit. Sic mundus creatus est. Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus est hic. Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes philosophiæ totius mundi. Completum est quod dixi de operatione Solis.

La Table d’émeraude d’Hermès Trismégiste, père des Philosophes

(traduction de l’Hortulain)

Il est vrai, sans mensonge, certain, & très véritable: Ce qui est en bas, est comme ce qui est en haut; et ce qui est en haut est comme ce qui est en bas, pour faire les miracles d'une seule chose. Et comme toutes les choses ont été, & sont venues d’un, par la méditation d’un : ainsi toutes les choses ont été nées de cette chose unique, par adaptation. Le soleil en est le père, la lune est sa mère, le vent l’a porté dans son ventre ; la Terre est sa nourrice. Le père de tout le telesme de tout le monde est ici. Sa force ou puissance est entière, si elle est convertie en terre. Tu sépareras la terre du feu, le subtil de l’épais doucement, avec grande industrie. Il monte de la terre au ciel, et derechef il descend en terre, & il reçoit la force des choses supérieures et inférieures. Tu auras par ce moyen la gloire de tout le monde ; et pour cela toute obscurité s’enfuira de toi. C'est la force forte de toute force : car elle vaincra toute chose subtile, et pénétrera toute chose solide. Ainsi le monde a été créé. De ceci seront & sortiront d'admirables adaptations, desquelles le moyen en est ici. C’est pourquoi j'ai été appelé Hermès Trismégiste, ayant les trois parties de la philosophie de tout le monde. Ce que j’ai dit de l'opération du Soleil est accompli, et parachevé. »

La Table d’émeraude d’Hermès Trismégiste, père des Philosophes (traduction de l’Hortulain)

« Il est vrai, sans mensonge, certain, & très véritable: Ce qui est en bas, est comme ce qui est en haut; et ce qui est en haut est comme ce qui est en bas, pour faire les miracles d'une seule chose. Et comme toutes les choses ont été, & sont venues d’un, par la méditation d’un : ainsi toutes les choses ont été nées de cette chose unique, par adaptation. Le soleil en est le père, la lune est sa mère, le vent l’a porté dans son ventre ; la Terre est sa nourrice. Le père de tout le telesme de tout le monde est ici. Sa force ou puissance est entière, si elle est convertie en terre. Tu sépareras la terre du feu, le subtil de l’épais doucement, avec grande industrie. Il monte de la terre au ciel, et derechef il descend en terre, & il reçoit la force des choses supérieures et inférieures. Tu auras par ce moyen la gloire de tout le monde ; et pour cela toute obscurité s’enfuira de toi. C'est la force forte de toute force : car elle vaincra toute chose subtile, et pénétrera toute chose solide. Ainsi le monde a été créé. De ceci seront & sortiront d'admirables adaptations, desquelles le moyen en est ici. C’est pourquoi j'ai été appelé Hermès Trismégiste, ayant les trois parties de la philosophie de tout le monde. Ce que j’ai dit de l'opération du Soleil est accompli, et parachevé.

HERACLITUS & THE CENTAUR SKELETON

2012-01-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

L'apparence des Centaures montre qu'il y a eu "péché originel" : Ixion convoitait les charmes d'Héra. Pour voir jusqu'où il irait, Zeus, volage lui-même mais jaloux de sa femme, lui envoya un nuage qui avait la forme d'Héra. Ixion n'hésita pas à s'unir à cet être : il en naquit les Centaures, mi-hommes mi-chevaux, peu hospitaliers, d'humeur brutale et violente, vivant loin du monde civilisé.

Le nom des Centaures est attaché à plusieurs épisodes : Invités par Pirithoos, roi des Lapithes, à son mariage, les Centaures s'enivrèrent et l'un des leurs essaya d'abuser d'Hippodamie, la propre fiancée de Pirithoos ! Une bataille générale s'ensuivit, qui vit alors la défaite des monstres qui n'avaient pas su réfréner leurs pulsions.C'est encore un Centaure, Nessos, qui, après avoir tenté d'abuser de Déjanire, la fiancée d'Héraklès, lui fit ensuite cadeau de la fameuse tunique qui causera la mort du héros.

Les Centaures périrent massacrés par Héraklès, à qui, avouons-le, il arrivait parfois de manquer un peu de patience.

Pendant qu'Héraklès (encore lui !) était l'hôte de Pholos, le seul bon Centaure (avec Chiron), l'odeur du vin qui était servi attira les autres Centaures, que le héros pourchassa de ses flèches impitoyables : ainsi prit fin cette engeance.

Heraclitus - the hidden harmony of the world

The sun is new every day.

Join what is complete and what is not, consistent and what discord, which is in harmony and disagreement of all things one and one, all things.

To those who descend into the same rivers occur always other and other waters.

This world has been done by any of the gods or by any of the men and has always been and always will beeternally living fire, lighting and extinguishing measure by measure.

They do not understand how that struggle with oneself can agree.

The harmony of the world is opposing tensions, as the lyre and the bow.

There is a concealed harmony, better than the apparent, and where the god has mixed and deeply hiddendifferences and diversities.

The crowd to master Hesiod, she takes to the greatest scientist who does not know what day or night, for it is the same thing.

Same way up at the bottom. The sea water is the purest and most polluted, safe and wholesome fish, it is not drinking and fatal for men.

The immortals and mortals are mortal, immortal life is the death of each other, the death of some, the lives of others.

Same thing that lives and what is dead, which is awake and the sleeping, which is young and what is old, because the change of one gives the other and vice versa. You can not go twice into the same river.

It is the disease that makes health sweet and good, it's hunger that makes even poor satiety, and fatigue, rest.

Héraclite - l'harmonie cachée du monde

Le Soleil est nouveau chaque jour.

Joignez ce qui est complet et ce qui ne l'est pas, ce qui concorde et ce qui discorde, ce qui est en harmonie et en désaccord; de toutes choses une et d'une, toutes choses.

À ceux qui descendent dans les mêmes fleuves surviennent toujours d'autres et d'autres eaux.

Ce monde n'a été fait, par aucun des dieux ni par aucun des hommes; il a toujours été et sera toujours feu éternellement vivant, s'allumant par mesure et s'éteignant par mesure.

Ils ne comprennent pas comment ce qui lutte avec soi-même peut s'accorder. L'harmonie du monde est par tensions opposées, comme pour la lyre et pour l'arc.

Il y a une harmonie dérobée, meilleure que l'apparente, et où le dieu a mêlé et profondément caché les différences et les diversités.

La foule a pour maître Hésiode; elle prend pour le plus grand savant celui qui ne sait pas ce qu'est le jour ou la nuit; car c'est une même chose.

Un même chemin en haut, en bas.

La mer est l'eau la plus pure et la plus souillée; potable et salutaire aux poissons, elle est non potable et funeste pour les hommes.

Les immortels sont mortels et les mortels, immortels; la vie des uns est la mort des autres, la mort des uns, la vie des autres.

Même chose ce qui vit et ce qui est mort, ce qui est éveillé et ce qui dort, ce qui est jeune et ce qui est vieux; car le changement de l'un donne l'autre, et réciproquement.

On ne peut pas descendre deux fois dans le même fleuve.

C'est la maladie qui rend la santé douce et bonne; c'est la faim qui fait de même désirer la satiété, et la fatigue, le repos.

De la nature, Fragments traduits du grec par Tannery

© All texts, images & photographs are under copyright of their owners, artists, gallerys, foundations or museums.

Texts & Images may not be reproduced, transmited, published without the prior permission from their authors.

BLACK ELK SPEAKS

2012-01-21T02:06:00.000-08:00

BLACK ELKS SPEAKS - CHAPTER 22 - VISION OF ANOTHER WORLD

So I dressed myself in a sacred manner, and before the dance began next morning I went among the people who were standing around the withered tree. Good Thunder, who was a relative of my father and later married my mother, put his arms around me and took me to the sacred tree that had not bloomed, and there he offered up a prayer for me. He said: "Father, Great Spirit, behold this boy! Your ways he shall see!" Then he began to cry.

I thought of my father and my brother and sister who had left us, and I could not keep the tears from running out of my eyes. I raised my face up to keep them back, but they came out just the same. I cried with my whole heart, and while I cried I thought of my people in despair. I thought of my vision, and how it was promised me that my people should have a place in this earth where they could be happy every day. I thought of them on the wrong road now, but maybe they could be brought back into the hoop again and to the good road.

Under the tree that never bloomed I stood and cried because it had withered away. With tears on my face I asked the Great Spirit to give it life and leaves and singing birds, as in my vision.

Then there came a strong shivering all over my body, and I knew that the power was in me.

Good Thunder now took one of my arms, Kicking Bear the other, and we began to dance. The song we sang was like this:

"Who do you think he is that comes?

It is one who seeks his mother!"

It was what the dead would sing when entering the other world and looking for their relatives who had gone there before them.

As I danced, with Good Thunder and Kicking Bear holding my arms between them, I had the queer feeling that I knew and I seemed to be lifted clear off the ground. I did not have a vision all that first day. That night I thought about the other world and that the Wanekia himself was with my people there and maybe the holy tree of my vision was really blooming yonder right then, and that it was there my vision had already come true. From the center of the earth I had been shown all good and beautiful things in a great circle of peace, and maybe this land of my vision was where all my people were going, and there they would live and prosper where no Wasichus were or could ever be.

Before we started dancing next day, Kicking Bear offered a prayer, saying: "Father, Great Spirit, behold these people! They shall go forth to-day to see their relatives, and yonder they shall be happy, day after day, and their happiness will not end."

Then we began dancing, and most of the people wailed and cried as they danced, holding hands in a circle; but some of them laughed with happiness. Now and then some one would fall down like dead, and others would go staggering around and panting before they would fall. While they were lying there like dead they were having visions, and we kept on dancing and singing, and many were crying for the old way of living and that the old religion might be with them again.

After awhile I began to feel very queer. First, my legs seemed to be full of ants. I was dancing with my eyes closed, as the others did. Suddenly it seemed that I was swinging off the ground and not touching it any longer. The queer feeling came up from my legs and was in my heart now. It seemed I would glide forward like a swing, and then glide back again in longer and longer swoops. There was no fear with this, just a growing happiness.

I must have fallen down, but I felt as though I had fallen off a swing when it was going forward, and I was floating head first through the air. My arms were stretched out, and all I saw at first was a single eagle feather right in front of me. Then the feather was a spotted eagle dancing on ahead of me with his wings fluttering, and he was making the shrill whistle that is his. My body did not move at all, but I looked ahead and floated fast toward where I looked.

There was a ridge right in front of me, and I thought I was going to run into it, but I went right over it. On the other side of the ridge I could see a beautiful land where many, many people were camping in a great circle. I could see that they were happy and had plenty. Everywhere there were drying racks full of meat. The air was clear and beautiful with a living light that was everywhere. All around the circle, feeding on the green, green grass, were fat and happy horses; and animals of all kinds were scattered all over the green hills, and singing hunters were returning with their meat.

I floated over the tepees and began to come down feet first at the center of the hoop where I could see a beautiful tree all green and full of flowers. When I touched the ground, two men were coming toward me, and they wore holy shirts made and painted in a certain way. They came to me and said: "It is not yet time to see your father, who is happy. You have work to do. We will give you something that you shall carry back to your people, and with it they shall come to see their loved ones."

I knew it was the way their holy shirts were made that they wanted me to take back. They told me to return at once, and then I was out in the air again, floating fast as before. When I came right over the dancing place, the people were still dancing, but it seemed they were not making any sound. I had hoped to see the withered tree in bloom, but it was dead.

Then I fell back into my body, and as I did this I heard voices all around and above me, and I was sitting on the ground. Many were crowding around, asking me what vision I had seen. I told them just what I had seen, and what I brought back was the memory of the holy shirts the two men wore.

That evening some of us got together at Big Road's tepee and decided to use the ghost shirts I had seen. So the next day I made ghost shirts all day long and painted them in the sacred manner of my vision. As I made these shirts, I thought how in my vision everything was like old times and the tree was flowering, but when I came back the tree was dead. And I thought that if this world would do as the vision teaches, the tree could bloom here too.

I made the first shirt for Afraid-of-Hawk and the second for the son of Big Road.

In the evening I made a sacred stick like that I had seen in my first vision and painted it red with the sacred paint of the Wanekia. On the top of it I tied one eagle feather, and this I carried in the dance after that, wearing the holy shirt as I had seen it.

Because of my vision and the power they knew I had, I was asked to lead the dance next morning. We all stood in a straight line, facing the west, and I prayed: "Father, Great Spirit, behold me! The nation that I have is in despair. The new earth you promised you have shown me. Let my nation also behold it."

After the prayer we stood with our right hands raised to the west, and we all began to weep, and right there, as they wept, some of them fainted before the dance began.

As we were dancing I had the same queer feeling I had before, as though my feet were off the earth and swinging. Kicking Bear and Good Thunder were holding my arms. Afterwhile it seemed they let go of me, and once more I floated head first, face down, with arms extended, and the spotted eagle was dancing there ahead of me again, and I could hear his shrill whistle and his scream.

I saw the ridge again, and as I neared it there was a deep, rumbling sound, and out of it there leaped a flame. But I glided right over it. There were six villages ahead of me in the beautiful land that was all clear and green in living light. Over these in turn I glided, coming down on the south side of the sixth village. And as I touched the ground, twelve men were coming towards me, and they said: "Our Father, the two-legged chief, you shall see!"

Then they led me to the center of the circle where once more I saw the holy tree all full of leaves and blooming.

But that was not all I saw. Against the tree there was a man standing with arms held wide in front of him. I looked hard at him, and I could not tell what people he came from. He was not a Wasichu and he was not an Indian. His hair was long and hanging loose, and on the left side of his head he wore an eagle feather. His body was strong and good to see, and it was painted red. I tried to recognize him, but I could not make him out. He was a very fine-looking man. While I was staring hard at him, his body began to change and became very beautiful with all colors of light, and around him there was light. He spoke like singing: "My life is such that all earthly beings and growing things belong to me. Your father, the Great Spirit, has said this. You too must say this."

Then he went out like a light in a wind.

The twelve men who were there spoke: "Behold them! Your nation's life shall be such!"

I saw again how beautiful the day was - the sky all blue and full of yellow light above the greening earth. And I saw that all the people were beautiful and young. There were no old ones there, nor children either - just people of about one age, and beautiful.

Then there were twelve women who stood in front of me and spoke: "Behold them! Their way of life you shall take back to earth." When they had spoken, I heard singing in the west, and I learned the song I heard.

Then one of the twelve men took two sticks, one painted white and one red, and, thrusting them in the ground, he said: "Take these! You shall depend upon them. Make haste!"

I started to walk, and it seemed as though a strong wind went under me and picked me up. I was in the air, with outstretched arms, and floating fast. There was a fearful dark river that I had to go over, and I was afraid. It rushed and roared and was full of angry foam. Then I looked down and saw many men and women who were trying to cross the dark and fearful river, but they could not. Weeping, they looked up to me and cried: "Help us!" But I could not stop gliding, for it was as though a great wind were under me.

Then I saw my earthly people again at the dancing place, and fell back into my body lying there. And I was sitting up, and people were crowding around me to ask what vision I had seen.

I told my vision through songs, and the older men explained them to the others. I sang a song, the words of which were those the Wanekia spoke under the flowering tree, and the air of it was that which I heard in the West after the twelve women had spoken. I sang it four times, and the fourth time all the people began to weep together because the Wasichus had taken the beautiful world away from us.

I thought and thought about this vision. The six villages seemed to represent the Six Grandfathers that I had seen long ago in the Flaming Rainbow Tepee, and I had gone to the sixth village, which was for the Sixth Grandfather, the Spirit of the Earth, because I was to stand for him in the world. I wondered if the Wanekia might be the red man of my great vision, who turned into a bison, and then into the four-rayed herb, the daybreak-star herb of understanding. I thought the twelve men and twelve women were for the moons of the year.

HYDRIOTAPHIA - SIR THOMAS BROWNE

2012-01-18T00:33:00.000-08:00

"And no doubt our time ... prefers the image to the thing, copying to the original, representation to reality, appearance to be ... What is sacred to him, it is only an illusion, but what is profane, it's true. Better still, the sacred in his eyes grew as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the height of the illusion is also for him the height of the sacred. "

Feuerbach - Preface to the second edition of The Essence of Christianity -

« Et sans doute notre temps... préfère l'image à la chose, la copie à l'original, la représentation à la réalité, l'apparence à l'être... Ce qui est sacré pour lui, ce n'est que l'illusion, mais ce qui est profane, c'est la vérité. Mieux, le sacré grandit à ses yeux à mesure que décroît la vérité et que l'illusion croît, si bien que le comble de l'illusion est aussi pour lui le comble du sacré. »

Feuerbach - Préface à la deuxième édition de L'Essence du christianisme

SIR THOMAS BROWNE

HYDRIOTAPHIA

Urne-Buriall.

1658

A Brief Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes Lately Found in NORFOLK.

In the deep discovery of the Subterranean world, a shallow part would satisfie some enquirers; who, if two or three yards were open about the surface, would not care to rake the bowels of Potosi and regions towards the Centre. Nature hath furnished one part of the Earth, and man another. The treasures of time lie high, in Urnes, Coynes, and Monuments, scarce below the roots of some vegetables. Time hath endlesse rarities, and shows of all varieties; which reveals old things in heaven, makes new discoveries in earth, and even earth it self a discovery. That great Antiquity America lay buried for a thousand years; and a large part of the earth is still in the Urne unto us.

Though if Adam were made out of an extract of the Earth, all parts might challenge a restitution, yet few have returned their bones farre lower then they might receive them; not affecting the graves of Giants, under hilly and heavy coverings, but content with lesse then their owne depth, have wished their bones might lie soft, and the earth be light upon them; Even such as hope to rise again, would not be content with centrall interrment, or so desperately to place their reliques as to lie beyond discovery, and in no way to be seen again; which happy contrivance hath made communication with our forefathers, and left unto view some parts, which they never beheld themselves.

Though earth hath engrossed the name yet water hath proved the smartest grave; which in forty dayes swallowed almost mankinde, and the living creation; Fishes not wholly escaping, except the Salt Ocean were handsomely contempered by a mixture of the fresh Element.

Many have taken voluminous pains to determine the state of the soul upon disunion; but men have been most phantasticall in the singular contrivances of their corporall dissolution: whilest the sobrest Nations have rested in two wayes, of simple inhumation and burning.

That carnall interment or burying, was of the elder date, the old examples of Abraham and the Patriarchs are sufficient to illustrate; And were without competition, if it could be made out, that Adam was buried near Damascus, or Mount Calvary, according to some Tradition. God himself, that buried but one, was pleased to make choice of this way, collectible from Scripture-expression, and the hot contest between Satan and the Arch-Angel, about discovering the body of Moses. But the practice of Burning was also of great Antiquity, and of no slender extent. For (not to derive the same from Hercules) noble descriptions there are hereof in the Grecian Funerals of Homer, In the formall Obsequies of Patrocles, and Achilles; and somewhat elder in the Theban warre, and solemn combustion of Meneceus, and Archemorus, contemporary unto Jair the Eighth Judge of Israel. Confirmable also among the Trojans, from the Funerall Pyre of Hector, burnt before the gates of Troy, And the burning of Penthisilea the Amazonean Queen: and long continuance of that practice, in the inward Countries of Asia; while as low as the Reign of Julian, we finde that the King of Chionia3 burnt the body of his Son, and interred the ashes in a silver Urne.

The same practice extended also farre West4, and besides Herculians, Getes, and Thracians, was in use with most of the Celtæ, Sarmatians, Germans, Gauls, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians; not to omit some use thereof among Carthaginians and Americans: Of greater Antiquity among the Romans then most opinion, or Pliny seems to allow. For (beside the old Table Laws of burning or burying within the City, of making the Funerall fire with plained wood, or quenching the fire with wine.) Manlius the Consul burnt the body of his Son: Numa by speciall clause of his Will, was not burnt but buried; and Remus was solemnly burned, according to the description of Ovid.6

Cornelius Sylla was not the first whose body was burned in Rome, but of the Cornelian Family, which being indifferently, not frequently used before; from that time spread, and became the prevalent practice. Not totally pursued in the highest runne of Cremation; For when even Crows were funerally burnt, Poppæa the Wife of Nero found a peculiar grave enterment. Now as all customes were founded upon some bottome of Reason, so there wanted not grounds for this; according to severall apprehensions of the most rationall dissolution. Some being of the opinion of Thales, that water was the originall of all things, thought it most equall to submit unto the principle of putrefaction, and conclude in a moist relentment. Others conceived it most natural to end in fire, as due unto the master principle in the composition, according to the doctrine of Heraclitus. And therefore heaped up large piles, more actively to waft them toward that Element, whereby they also declined a visible degeneration into worms, and left a lasting parcell of their composition.

Some apprehended a purifying virtue in fire, refining the grosser commixture, and firing out the Æthereall particles so deeply immersed in it. And such as by tradition or rationall conjecture held any hint of the finall pyre of all things; or that this Element at last must be too hard for all the rest; might conceive most naturally of the fiery dissolution. Others pretending no natural grounds, politickly declined the malice of enemies upon their buried bodies. Which consideration led Sylla unto this practise; who having thus served the body of Marius, could not but fear a retaliation upon his own; entertained after in the Civill wars, and revengeful contentions of Rome.

But as many Nations embraced, and many left it indifferent, so others too much affected, or strictly declined this practice. The Indian Brachmans seemed too great friends unto fire, who burnt themselves alive, and thought it the noblest way to end their dayes in fire; according to the expression of the Indian, burning himself at Athens, in his last words upon the pyre unto the amazed spectators, Thus I make my selfe Immortall.

But the Chaldeans the great Idolators of fire, abhorred the burning of their carcasses, as a pollution of that Deity. The Persian Magi declined it upon the like scruple, and being only sollicitous about their bones, exposed their flesh to the prey of Birds and Dogges. And the Persees now in India, which expose their bodies unto Vultures, and endure not so much as feretra or Beers of Wood, the proper Fuell of fire, are led on with such niceties. But whether the ancient Germans who burned their dead, held any such fear to pollute their Deity of Herthus, or the earth, we have no Authentick conjecture.

The Ægyptians were afraid of fire, not as a Deity, but a devouring Element, mercilesly consuming their bodies, and leaving too little of them; and therefore by precious Embalments, depositure in dry earths, or handsome inclosure in glasses, contrived the notablest wayes of integrall conservation. And from such Ægyptian scruples imbibed by Pythagoras, it may be conjectured that Numa and the Pythagoricall Sect first waved the fiery solution.

The Scythians who swore by winde and sword, that is, by life and death, were so farre from burning their bodies, that they declined all interrment, and made their graves in the ayr: And the Ichthyophagi or fish-eating Nations about Ægypt, affected the Sea for their grave: Thereby declining visible corruption, and restoring the debt of their bodies. Whereas the old Heroes in Homer, dreaded nothing more than water or drowning; probably upon the old opinion of the fiery substance of the soul, only extinguishable by that Element; And therefore the Poet emphatically implieth the totall destruction in this kinde of death, which happened to Ajax Oileus.

The old Balearians had a peculiar mode, for they used great Urnes and much wood, but no fire in their burials, while they bruised the flesh and bones of the dead, crowded them into Urnes, and laid heapes of wood upon them. And the Chinois without cremation or urnall interrment of their bodies, make use of trees and much burning, while they plant a Pine-tree by their grave, and burn great numbers of printed draughts of slaves and horses over it, civilly content with their companies in effigie, which barbarous Nations exact unto reality.

Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though they stickt not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives, detested that mode after death; affecting rather a depositure than absumption, and properly submitting unto the sentence of God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust againe, conformable unto the practice of the Patriarchs, the interrment of our Saviour, of Peter, Paul, and the ancient Martyrs. And so farre at last declining promiscuous enterrment with Pagans, that some have suffered Ecclesiastical censures, for making no scruple thereof.

The Musselman beleevers will never admit this fiery resolution. For they hold a present trial from their black and white Angels in the grave; which they must have made so hollow, that they may rise upon their knees.

The Jewish Nation, though they entertained the old way of inhumation, yet sometimes admitted this practice. For the men of Jabesh burnt the body of Saul.And by no prohibited practice to avoid contagion or pollution, in time of pestilence, burnt the bodies of their friends.And when they burnt not their dead bodies, yet sometimes used great burnings neare and about them, deducible from the expressions concerning Jehoram, Sedechias, and the sumptuous pyre of Asa: And were so little averse from Pagan burning,that the Jews lamenting the death of Cæsar their friend, and revenger on Pompey, frequented the place where his body was burnt for many nights together. And as they raised noble Monuments and Mausolæums for their own Nation,so they were not scrupulous in erecting some for others, according to the practice of Daniel, who left that lasting sepulchrall pyre in Echbatana, for the Medean and Persian Kings.

But even in times of subjection and hottest use, they conformed not unto the Romane practice of burning; whereby the Prophecy was secured concerning the body of Christ, that it should not see corruption, or a bone should not be broken; which we beleeve was also providentially prevented, from the Souldiers spear and nails that past by the little bones both in his hands and feet: Not of ordinary contrivance, that it should not corrupt on the Crosse, according to the Laws of Romane Crucifixion, or an hair of his head perish, though observable in Jewish customes, to cut the hairs of Malefactors.

Nor in their long co-habitation with Ægyptians, crept into a custome of their exact embalming, wherein deeply slashing the muscles, and taking out the brains and entrails, they had broken the subject of so entire a Resurrection, nor fully answered the types of Enoch, Eliah, or Jonah, which yet to prevent or restore, was of equall facility unto that rising power, able to break the fasciations and bands of death, to get clear out of the Cere-cloth, and an hundred pounds of oyntment, and out of the Sepulchre before the stone was rolled from it.

But though they embraced not this practice of burning, yet entertained they many ceremonies agreeable unto Greeke and Romane obsequies. And he that observeth their funerall Feasts, their Lamentations at the grave, their musick, and weeping mourners; how they closed the eyes of their friends, how they washed, anointed, and kissed the dead; may easily conclude these were not meere Pagan-Civilities. But whether that mournfull burthen, and treble calling out after Absalom,had any reference unto the last conclamation, and triple valediction, used by other Nations, we hold but a wavering conjecture.

Civilians make sepulture but of the Law of Nations, others doe naturally found it and discover it also in animals. They that are so thick skinned as still to credit the story of the Phœnix, may say something for animall burning; More serious conjectures finde some examples of sepulture in Elephants, Cranes, the Sepulchrall Cells of Pismires and practice of Bees; which civill society carrieth out their dead, and hath exequies, if not interrments.

AETERNE PUGIT & EPICURUS

2012-01-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

Aeterne pugit. Cito volat et occidit.

Le temps fait souffrir eternellement. Il vole et tue vite.

Cette inscription latine que l'on retrouve dans un magnifique tableau dont je parlerais plus tard d'Antonio de Pereda, Le rêve de l'homme vers 1670 de la collection du Musée des Beaux Arts de Madrid vient à ma mémoire en contemplant ce magnifique et délicat travail sur la dualité.

Aeterne pugit. Cito volat et occidit.

Time made us suffer eternally. He steals and kills quickly.

The Latin inscription found in a beautiful picture which I will later describe, by Antonio de Pereda, The dream of man circa 1670 from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Madrid comes to my mind while contemplating the magnificent delicate work on the duality.

The Principal Doctrines of Epicurus

(also sometimes translated under the title “Sovran Maxims”) are a collection of forty quotes from the writings of Epicurus that serve as a handy summary of his ethical theory :

1. A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness.

2. Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences no sensations, and that which has no sensation is nothing to us.

3. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.

4. Continuous bodily pain does not last long; instead, pain, if extreme, is present a very short time, and even that degree of pain which slightly exceeds bodily pleasure does not last for many days at once. Diseases of long duration allow an excess of bodily pleasure over pain.

5. It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.

6. In order to obtain protection from other men, any means for attaining this end is a natural good.

7. Some men want fame and status, thinking that they would thus make themselves secure against other men. If the life of such men really were secure, they have attained a natural good; if, however, it is insecure, they have not attained the end which by nature's own prompting they originally sought.

8. No pleasure is a bad thing in itself, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail disturbances many times greater than the pleasures themselves.

9. If every pleasure had been capable of accumulation, not only over time but also over the entire body or at least over the principal parts of our nature, then pleasures would never differ from one another.

10. If the things that produce the pleasures of profligate men really freed them from fears of the mind concerning celestial and atmospheric phenomena, the fear of death, and the fear of pain; if, further, they taught them to limit their desires, we should never have any fault to find with such persons, for they would then be filled with pleasures from every source and would never have pain of body or mind, which is what is bad.

11. If we had never been troubled by celestial and atmospheric phenomena, nor by fears about death, nor by our ignorance of the limits of pains and desires, we should have had no need of natural science.

12. It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure.

13. There is no advantage to obtaining protection from other men so long as we are alarmed by events above or below the earth or in general by whatever happens in the boundless universe.

14. Protection from other men, secured to some extent by the power to expel and by material prosperity, in its purest form comes from a quiet life withdrawn from the multitude.

15. The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

16. Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life.

17. The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance.

18. Bodily pleasure does not increase when the pain of want has been removed; after that it only admits of variation. The limit of mental pleasure, however, is reached when we reflect on these bodily pleasures and their related emotions, which used to cause the mind the greatest alarms.

19. Unlimited time and limited time afford an equal amount of pleasure, if we measure the limits of that pleasure by reason.

20. The flesh receives as unlimited the limits of pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the mind, intellectually grasping what the end and limit of the flesh is, and banishing the terrors of the future, procures a complete and perfect life, and we have no longer any need of unlimited time. Nevertheless the mind does not shun pleasure, and even when circumstances make death imminent, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the best life.

21. He who understands the limits of life knows that it is easy to obtain that which removes the pain of want and makes the whole of life complete and perfect. Thus he has no longer any need of things which involve struggle.

22. We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion.

23. If you fight against all your sensations, you will have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means of judging even those sensations which you claim are false.

24. If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to distinguish between opinion about things awaiting confirmation and that which is already confirmed to be present, whether in sensation or in feelings or in any application of intellect to the presentations, you will confuse the rest of your sensations by your groundless opinion and so you will reject every standard of truth. If in your ideas based upon opinion you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well as that which does not, you will not avoid error, as you will be maintaining the entire basis for doubt in every judgment between correct and incorrect opinion.

25. If you do not on every occasion refer each of your actions to the ultimate end prescribed by nature, but instead of this in the act of choice or avoidance turn to some other end, your actions will not be consistent with your theories.

26. All desires that do not lead to pain when they remain unsatisfied are unnecessary, but the desire is easily got rid of, when the thing desired is difficult to obtain or the desires seem likely to produce harm.

27. Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship.

28. The same conviction which inspires confidence that nothing we have to fear is eternal or even of long duration, also enables us to see that in the limited evils of this life nothing enhances our security so much as friendship.

29. Of our desires some are natural and necessary, others are natural but not necessary; and others are neither natural nor necessary, but are due to groundless opinion.

30. Those natural desires which entail no pain when unsatisfied, though pursued with an intense effort, are also due to groundless opinion; and it is not because of their own nature they are not got rid of but because of man's groundless opinions.

31. Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.

32. Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm.

33. There never was such a thing as absolute justice, but only agreements made in mutual dealings among men in whatever places at various times providing against the infliction or suffering of harm.

34. Injustice is not an evil in itself, but only in consequence of the fear which is associated with the apprehension of being discovered by those appointed to punish such actions.

35. It is impossible for a man who secretly violates the terms of the agreement not to harm or be harmed to feel confident that he will remain undiscovered, even if he has already escaped ten thousand times; for until his death he is never sure that he will not be detected.

36. In general justice is the same for all, for it is something found mutually beneficial in men's dealings, but in its application to particular places or other circumstances the same thing is not necessarily just for everyone.

37. Among the things held to be just by law, whatever is proved to be of advantage in men's dealings has the stamp of justice, whether or not it be the same for all; but if a man makes a law and it does not prove to be mutually advantageous, then this is no longer just. And if what is mutually advantageous varies and only for a time corresponds to our concept of justice, nevertheless for that time it is just for those who do not trouble themselves about empty words, but look simply at the facts.

38. Where without any change in circumstances the things held to be just by law are seen not to correspond with the concept of justice in actual practice, such laws are not really just; but wherever the laws have ceased to be advantageous because of a change in circumstances, in that case the laws were for that time just when they were advantageous for the mutual dealings of the citizens, and subsequently ceased to be just when they were no longer advantageous.

39. The man who best knows how to meet external threats makes into one family all the creatures he can; and those he can not, he at any rate does not treat as aliens; and where he finds even this impossible, he avoids all dealings, and, so far as is advantageous, excludes them from his life.

40. Those who possess the power to defend themselves against threats by their neighbors, being thus in possession of the surest guarantee of security, live the most pleasant life with one another; and their enjoyment of the fullest intimacy is such that if one of them dies prematurely, the others do not lament his death as though it called for pity.

ALICE LUKER

2012-01-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

Alice Luker is a photographer with

a delicate vision of woman, her work can be see in different Fashion revues like Vogue,

I-D..., here she gives us another side of her great sensibility & talent,

a Vanitas still life where maybe if we want, we can read a representation of the death of Adam & Eve married here for eternity, only the snake survive.

As a reminder, the title of Vanity and design are from Ecclesiastes, a book of the Old Testament: "הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים הַכֹּל הָֽבֶל" (vanity of vanities, all is vanity). Vanity literally means "light breath, vapor ephemeral." The message is to meditate on the nature transitory and vain (hence "vanity") of life, the pleasures of the world face the death that awaits. If there is still life for Greece (rhopographie) and Rome (mosaics of Pompeii), it disappears for a millennium of pictorial representation as classic Byzantine art does not use it.

In the Middle Age, in the vanities, the objects represented are symbolic of the fragility and brevity of life, of time passing, of death. Among these symbols, the human skull, symbol of death, is one of the most common. We find the memento mori in the symbols of human activities: knowledge, science, wealth, pleasure, beauty ... The vanities denounce the relativity of knowledge and the vanity of the human race subject to the passage of time, death. The first vanity of the history of Western painting, dated 1603, and is the work of Jacques de Gheyn the young.Renaissance humanism and continue the representation of vanity cabinets into the intimate (studiolo) of educated and powerful men. The still life genre appears as the seventeenth century, vanity sets in Tables moralized become necessary for the devotion of Europe in ways and with different intentions to the north and south, for Catholics andfor Protestants.Time and death are constantly wanting to be picked up by the artists. Found through this desire to capture the elusive link between the classical and contemporary vanities.

Like a response to Alice Luker picture, a beautiful text from - Les Contemplations -

Horror - Victor Hugo

Esprit mystérieux qui, le doigt sur ta bouche,

Passes... ne t’en va pas ! parle à l’homme farouche

Ivre d’ombre et d’immensité,

Parle-moi, toi, front blanc qui dans ma nuit te penches !

Réponds-moi, toi qui luis et marches sous les branches

Comme un souffle de la clarté !

Est-ce toi que chez moi minuit parfois apporte ?

Est-ce toi qui heurtais l’autre nuit à ma porte,

Pendant que je ne dormais pas ?

C’est donc vers moi que vient lentement ta lumière ?

La pierre de mon seuil peut-être est la première

Des sombres marches du trépas.

Peut-être qu’à ma porte ouvrant sur l’ombre immense,

L’invisible escalier des ténèbres commence ;

Peut-être, ô pâles échappés,

Quand vous montez du fond de l’horreur sépulcrale,

O morts, quand vous sortez de la froide spirale,

Est-ce chez moi que vous frappez !

Car la maison d’exil, mêlée aux catacombes,

Est adossée au mur de la ville des tombes.

Le proscrit est celui qui sort ;

Il flotte submergé comme la nef qui sombre.

Le jour le voit à peine et dit : Quelle est cette ombre ?

Et la nuit dit : Quel est ce mort ?

Sois la bienvenue, ombre ! ô ma soeur ! ô figure

Qui me fais signe alors que sur l’énigme obscure

Je me penche, sinistre et seul ;

Et qui viens, m’effrayant de ta lueur sublime,

Essuyer sur mon front la sueur de l’abîme

Avec un pan de ton linceul !

GEORGES DE LA TOUR & JOHN MILTON

2012-01-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

PARADISE LOST - JOHN MILTON

1667

Farewell, happy fields,

Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,

Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,

Receive thy new possessor-one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less than he

Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice,

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell :

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Book I

A.CLARIS

2012-01-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Ozymandias -

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear :`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

BRUYN

2012-01-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

DITA VON TEESE , LADY IN BLACK

2012-01-05T13:32:00.000-08:00

She came to me one morning, one lonely Sunday morning

Her long hair flowing in the mid-winter windI know not how she found me, for in darkness I was walkingAnd destruction lay around me, from a fight I could not winAhh Ahh AHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh AHHH ahh ahh AHH ahhShe asked me name my foe then, I said the need within some menTo fight and kill their brothers, without thought of love or GodAnd I begged her give me horses to trample down my enemySo eager was my passion to devour this waste of lifeAhh Ahh AHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh AHHH Aahh ahh AHH ahhBut she wouldn't think of battle that, reduces men to animals So easy to begin and yet impossible to endFor she the mother of all men, had counceled me so wisely thatI feared to walk alone again and asked if she would stay Г ?hh AhhAHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh AHHH ahh ahh AHH ahh Oh lady lend your hand I cried, oh let me rest here at your sideHave faith and trust in me she said, and filled my heart with lifeThere is no strenght in numbers, have no such misconceptionBut when you need me be assured I won't be far awayAhh Ahh AHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh AhhAHHH ahh ahh AHH ahhThus having spoke she turned away, and 'though I found no words to sayI stood and watched until I saw her black cloak disappearMy labour is no easier but now I know I'm not aloneI find new heart each time I think upon that windy dayAnd if one day she comes to you, drink deeply from her words so wiseTake courage from her as your prize and say hello for me--- Ahh Ahh AHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh AHHH ahh ahhAHH ahh--- Ahh Ahh AHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh AHHH ahh ahh AHH ahh--- Ahh Ahh AHHH, Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh AHHH ahh ahh AHH ahh

URIAH HEEP SONG 1971

LOVE & HATE

2012-01-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

Ce 16 octobre, à 4h1/2 du matin.

C’est à vous, ma sœur, que j’écris pour la dernière fois. Je viens d’être condamnée, non pas à une mort honteuse, elle ne l’est que pour les criminels, mais à aller rejoindre votre frère. Comme lui innocente, j’espère montrer la même fermeté que lui dans ses derniers moments. Je suis calme comme on l’est quand la conscience ne reproche rien. J’ai un profond regret d’abandonner mes pauvres enfants.

Vous savez que je n’existais que pour eux et vous, ma bonne et tendre sœur. Vous qui aviez par votre amitié tout sacrifié pour être avec nous, dans quelle position je vous laisse! J’ai appris, par le plaidoyer même du procès, que ma fille était séparée de vous. Hélas ! la pauvre enfant, je n’ose pas lui écrire, elle ne recevrait pas ma lettre. Je ne sais pas même si celle-ci vous parviendra. Recevez pour eux deux ici ma bénédiction. J’espère qu’un jour, lorsqu’ils seront plus grands, ils pourront se réunir avec vous et jouir en entier de vos tendres soins. Qu’ils pensent tous deux à ce que je n’ai cessé de leur inspirer : que les principes et l’exécution exacte de ses devoirs sont la première base de la vie, que leur amitié et leur confiance mutuelles en fera le bonheur. Que ma fille sente qu’à l’âge qu’elle a, elle doit toujours aider son frère par les conseils que l’expérience qu’elle aura de plus que lui et son amitié pourront lui inspirer ; que mon fils, à son tour, rende à sa sœur tous les soins, les services que l’amitié peuvent inspirer ; qu’ils sentent enfin tous deux que, dans quelque position où ils pourront se trouver, ils ne seront vraiment heureux que par leur union ; qu’ils prennent exemple de nous. Combien, dans nos malheurs, notre amitié nous a donné de consolation ! Et, dans le bonheur, on jouit doublement quand on peur le partager avec un ami ; et où en trouver de plus tendre, de plus uni que dans sa propre famille ? Que mon fils n’oublie jamais les derniers mots de son père, que je lui répète expressément : qu’il ne cherche jamais à venger notre mort !

J’ai à vous parler d’une chose bien pénible à mon cœur.Je sais combien cet enfant doit vous avoir fait de la peine. Pardonnez-lui, ma chère sœur. Pensez à l’âge qu’il a, et combien il est facile de faire dire à un enfant ce qu’on veut, et même ce qu’il ne comprend pas. Un jour viendra, j’espère, où il ne sentira que mieux tout le prix de vos bontés et de votre tendresse pour tous deux.Je vous embrasse de tout mon cœur, ainsi que ces pauvres et chers enfants. Mon Dieu, qu’il est déchirant de les quitter pour toujours ! Adieu, adieu ; je ne vais plus m’occuper que de mes devoirs spirituels. Comme je ne suis pas libre dans mes actions, on m’amènera peut-être un prêtre ; mais je proteste ici que je ne lui dirai pas un mot, et que je le traiterai comme un être absolument étranger.

Il me reste à vous confier encore mes dernières pensées. j’aurais voulu les écrire dès le commencement du procès ; mais, outre qu’on ne me laissait pas écrire, la marche a été si rapide que j’en aurais réellement pas eu le temps.Je meurs dans la religion catholique, apostolique et romaine, dans celle de mes pères, dans celle où j’ai été élevée, et que j’ai toujours professée. N’ayant aucune consolation spirituelle à attendre, ne sachant pas si il existe encore des prêtres de cette religion, et même le lieu où je suis les exposerait trop si ils y entraient une fois. Je demande sincèrement pardon à Dieu de toutes les fautes que j’ai pu commettre depuis que j’existe ; j’espère que, dans sa bonté, Il voudra bien recevoir mes derniers voeux, ainsi que ceux que je fais depuis longtemps pour qu’Il veuille bien recevoir mon âme dans sa miséricorde et sa bonté.Je demande pardon à tous ceux que je connais, et à vous, ma sœur, en particulier, de toutes les peines que, sans le vouloir, j’aurais pu leur causer. Je pardonne à tous mes ennemis le mal qu’ils m’ont fait. Je dis ici adieu à mes tantes et à tous mes frères et soeurs. J’avais des amis ; l’idée d’en être séparée pour jamais et leurs peines sont un des plus grands regrets que j’emporte en mourant ; qu’ils sachent du moins que jusqu’à mon dernier moment j’ai pensé à eux.

Adieu, ma bonne et tendre sœur ; puisse cette lettre vous arriver ! Pensez toujours à moi.

Dernière lettre de Marie-Antoinette

BARTHEL BRUYN THE ELDER, PORTRAIT OF A NOBLEWOMAN, CIRCA 1530-35

2011-12-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

Temperatures rising

Fever is highCant see no futureCant see no skyMy feet are so heavySo is my headI wish I was a babyI wish I was deadCold turkey has got me on the runMy body is achingGoose-pimple boneCant see no bodyLeave me aloneMy eyes are wide openCant get to sleepOne thing Im sure ofIm in at the deep freezeCold turkey has got me on the runCold turkey has got me on the runThirty-six hoursRolling in painPraying to someoneFree me againOh Ill be a good boyPlease make me wellI promise you anythingGet me out of this hellCold turkey has got me on the runOh, oh, oh, oh

Double face, double skull - PENN

2011-12-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

When what is mortal shall be clothed with that which is immortal, and

that what dies is what will be covered can not die, then

will happen this scripture: "Death is deleted the

victory is complete "

"Death, where is thy victory? Death, where is your power to kill? "

The death of sin is its power to kill, and sin is

power of the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the

victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

1 Corinthians 15.20-22,54-57

Lorsque ce qui est mortel se sera revêtu de ce qui est immortel, et

que ce qui meurt se sera revêtu de ce qui ne peut pas mourir, alors

se réalisera cette parole de l'Écriture: « La mort est supprimée; la

victoire est complète »

« Mort, où est ta victoire ? Mort, où est ton pouvoir de tuer ? »

La mort tient du péché son pouvoir de tuer, et le péché tient

son pouvoir de la loi. Mais loué soit Dieu qui nous donne la

victoire par notre Seigneur Jésus‑Christ!

1 Corinthiens 15.20‑22,54‑57

FRANCISCUS GYSBRECHTS CIRCA 1650/1680

2011-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

SAN MARTINO DE BATTAGLIA

2011-12-07T11:49:00.001-08:00

© All texts, images & photographs are under copyright of their owners, artists, gallerys, foundations or museums. Texts & Images may not be reproduced, transmited, publishe© All texts, images & photographs are under copyright of their owners, artists, gallerys, foundations or museums. Texts & Images may not be reproduced, transmited, published without the prior permission from their authors.

d without the prior permission from their authors.

LIN LEE ( MOCCA )

2011-11-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

The Naked Lunch

The book was originally published with the title The Naked Lunch in Paris in July 1959. Because of US obscenity laws, a complete American edition did not follow until 1962. It was titled Naked Lunch and was substantially different from the Olympia Press first edition, because it was based on an earlier manuscript in Allan Ginsberg's possession. The article "the" in the title was never intended by the author, but added by the editors of the Olympia Press 1959 edition.^[Nonetheless The Naked Lunch remained the title used for the 1968 and 1974 Corgi books editions, and the novel is often known by the alternative name.

Burroughs states in his introduction that Kerouac suggested the title. "The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork." In a June 1960 letter to Ginsberg, Kerouac said he was pleased that Burroughs had credited him with the title. He states that Ginsberg misread "Naked Lust" from the manuscript, and only he noticed; that section of the manuscript later became Queer, although the phrase does not appear in either of the two final texts of that novel.

GUYOT MARCHANT

2011-11-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

Puzzle-novel, which tells the story of a man who did not know if he left the army or the insane asylum,but who has discovered the secret of "ecstasy material" in heart of inaction attentive and somewhat hallucinatory.Roman young person as the author himself, wandering novel that does not avoid a certain brutality, both in tone andstyle. "I am certainly blame lots of things. Having stayed there on the ground for days, have sullied the house, drewsquid on the walls of playing billiards. Be accused of having cut roses in the garden, drinking beer by breaking the neck of the bottle against the window sill: it almost out of yellow paint on the wooden ledge. I guess he'll have to moveshortly before a court of men, I leave this garbage as a will, without pride, I hope that I condemn something, so I pay all my live body's fault ... "

Minuts - Le Clézio

Roman-puzzle qui raconte l'histoire d'un homme qui ne savait trop s'il sortait de l'armée ou de l'asile psychiatrique mais qui a découvert le secret de l'extase matérielle au coeur même de l'inaction attentive et hallucinée. Roman de l'errance qui n'évite pas une brutalité dans le ton et dans le style. - On me reprochera certainement des quantités de choses. D'avoir dormi là, par terre, pendant des jours ; d'avoir sali la maison, dessiné des calmars sur les murs, d'avoir joué au billard. On m'accusera d'avoir coupé des roses dans le jardin, d'avoir bu de la bière en cassant le goulot des bouteilles contre l'appui de la fenêtre : il ne reste presque plus de peinture jaune sur le rebord en bois. J'imagine qu'il va falloir passer sous peu devant un tribunal d'hommes ; je leur laisse ces ordures en guise de testament ; sans orgueil, j'espère qu'on me condamnera à quelque chose, afin que je paye de tout mon corps la faute de vivre... -

Le procès verbal - Le Clézio

Une des 17 gravures
sur bois de la Danse macabre du cloître des Saints Innocents à Paris. Publiées en 1485 par deux éditeurs parisiens, Guyot Marchant et Verard, elles furent diffusées dans toute l’europe. Le seul exemplaire parvenu jusqu'à nous se trouve à la bibliothèque de Grenoble

ALBERTUS PICTOR, TÄBYS CHURCH, STOCKHOLM

2011-11-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

The Seventh Seal / Ingmar Bergman

The knight Antonius Blok returned from the Crusades with his squire Jons. Suddenly the black figure of Death appears on the seashore to call the victim and the Knight defies chess in order to save time and discover the meaning of life. Nearby, the juggler Jof, his wife Mia, their baby and the juggler Mikhael Skat. Jof has seen the Virgin Mary. Blok and Jons latest stop in a country church: the monk interrogate the knight is none other than Death. As for Jons, who looks a painter working on a dance of death, he tells his crusade and is skeptical.Left the church, they saw a young witch and devoted to the stake, continuing their journey, arriving in a villagedeserted by its inhabitants: the plague reigns over the country and, when Jof is its number one lead processions of flagellants the singing of "Die Irae".

The knight, Jons and dumb girl rescued from a renegade monk, joined the caravan of Jof and Mia: time of peace.In a clearing, the stake shall be prepared Blok asked in vain witch. Death accuses him of always asking questions. The chess game continues: Blok Jof sees that diverts attention from the Dead who confesses to know nothing and have no secrets. The knight and a small group finally arrived at the castle where the woman waitsBlok. In the morning, Jof sees death all that leads up the hill.

Le septième sceau / Ingmar Bergman

Le chevalier Antonius Blok revient des Croisades avec son écuyer Jons. Soudain la silhouette noire de la mort apparaît sur le bord de la mer pour appeler sa victime ; le Chevalier de la raison la défie aux échecs pour pouvoir ainsi gagner du temps et découvrir le sens de la vie. Non loin de là, Jof le bateleur, sa femme Mia, leur bébé Mikhaël et le jongleur Skat. Jof a vu la Vierge Marie. Plus tard Blok et Jons s'arrêtent dans une église de campagne : le moine qu'interroge le chevalier n'est autre que la Mort. Quant à Jons, qui regarde un peintre travailler à une danse macabre, il raconte sa croisade et se déclare sceptique. Sortis de l'église, ils aperçoivent une jeune sorcière vouée au bûcher et, poursuivant leur route, arrivent dans un village déserté par ses habitants : la peste règne sur la contrée et, au moment où Jof fait son numéro, une procession de flagellant débouche au chant du "Die Irae".

Le chevalier, Jons et une fille muette sauvée d'un moine renégat, rejoignent la roulotte de Jof et de Mia : moment de paix. Dans une clairière, le bûcher est dressé : Blok interroge en vain la sorcière. La Mort lui reproche de toujours poser des questions. La partie d'échecs reprend : Blok qui voit Jof partir détourne l'attention de la Mort qui lui avoue ne rien savoir et n'avoir pas de secrets. Le chevalier et un petit groupe arrivent enfin au château où les attend la femme de Blok. Au matin, Jof aperçoit la Mort qui les entraîne tous sur la colline.

Robert Mapplethorpe

2011-11-14T02:31:00.000-08:00

Adam is the first man and Eve's companion, he died at the age of 930 years (Genesis 5-5).

Adam est le premier homme et le compagnon d'Éve, il mourut à l'âge de 930 ans (Genèse : 5-5).

Dead King

2011-11-14T02:05:00.000-08:00

Death Don't Have No Mercy

Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy in this land
He'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death don't have no mercy in this land

Well Death will go in any family in this land
Well Death will go in every family in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
Well you'll look in the bed and one of your family will be gone
Death will go in any family in this land

Well he never takes a vacation in this land
Well old Death never takes a vacation in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
Well you'll look in the bed and your mother will be gone
Death never takes a vacation in this land

Talk
Great God
Yeah

Well he'll leave you standin' and cryin' in this land
Well Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land

Old Death always in a hurry in this land
Old Death always in a hurry in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and your mother will be gone
Death always in a hurry in this land

Well he won't give you time to get ready in this land
Well he won't give you time to get ready in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
Well you'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death won't give you time to get ready in this land

Make your last talk
Talk to me Death
Talk to me

Rev. Gary Davis

Carlotta Manaigo

2011-11-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

Sensation

Arthur Rimbaud

Through the blue summer days,

I shall travel all the ways,

Pricked by the ears of maize, trampling the dew:

A dreamer, I will gaze, as underfoot the coolness plays.

I’ll let the evening breeze drench my head anew.

I shall say – not a thing: I shall think – not a thing:

But an infinite love will swell in my soul,

And far off I shall go, a bohemian,

Through Nature – as happy, as if I had a girl.

March 1870

Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue :
Rêveur, j'en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.

Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien,
Mais l'amour infini me montera dans l'âme ;
Et j'irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la Nature, heureux- comme avec une femme.

FINIS GLORIAE MUNDI

2011-10-20T04:59:00.001-07:00

David Sykes

2011-10-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

Prints are available on www.davidsykes.com

Jean III de Trazegnies

2011-10-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

Nouveau printemps, XIII, 1828

Henry Heine

Ah ! J’ai la nostalgie de larmes,

De larmes d’amour, douces à souffrir,

Et je crains que cette nostalgie

Ne finisse par être exaucée.

Ah ! La douce misère de l’amour

Et de l’amour l’amer plaisir

Se glissent à nouveau, tourments divins,

Dans ma poitrine à peine guérie.

Ah! I'm nostalgic of tears,
Tears of love, sweet pain,
And I fear that this nostalgia

May ultimately be answered.

Ah! The sweet misery of love
And love the bitter pleasure
Slip again torment divine
In my chest barely healed.

Le sage vit autant qu'il le doit, non autant qu'il le peut. Sapiens vivit quantum debet, non quantum potest. Sénèque.

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

2011-10-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

Alexander Mair circa 1605

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Blind Lemon Jefferson

Well there’s one kind of favor I’ll ask for you

There’s just one kind of favor I’ll ask for you

You can see that my grave is kept clean.

And there’s two white horses following me

I got two white horses following me

Waiting on my burying ground.

Did you ever hear that coffin sound

Means another poor boy is underground.

Did you ever hear them church bells toll

Means another poor boy is dead and gone.

And my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold

Now I believe what the Bible told.

There’s just one last favor I’ll ask for you

And there’s one last favor I’ll ask for you

There’s just one last favor I’ll ask for you

See that my grave is kept clean.

Joshua Harker skull

2011-09-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshharker/crania-anatomica-filigre-me-to-you

Bernt Notke's dance of death

2011-09-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Dance of Death paintings were common in the late Medieval, they were painted to remind people that no matter how rich or poor they were, or no matter how powerful they were, death would take them all. Epidemics, such as the Black Death, were recurrent and numerous and they would kill millions of people. The Hundred Years War claimed three million people. They were artistic expressions of the fears with the subject of death. The character “Death” in these works was viewed not as a destroyer but as a messenger of God summoning his people to the world beyond the grave. Translation of some verset from the painting :

I know, Death means me!
I was never terrified so greatly!
I thought he was not in his right mind,
after all, I am young and also an empress.
I thought I had a lot of power,
I had not thought of him
or that anybody could do something against me.
Oh, let me live on, this I implore you!

And Death replies :

Empress, highly presumptuous,
methinks you have forgotten me.
Fall in! It is now time.
You thought I should let you off?
No way! And were you ever so much,
You must participate in this play,
And you others, everybody –
Hold on! Follow me, Mr Cardinal!

The Cardinal now says his piece :

Have mercy on me, Lord, [when it] shall happen.
I can in no way escape it.
[When] I look in front or behind me,
I feel Death by me at all times.
What will the high rank avail me
[the rank] that I had? I must leave it
and become more unworthy at once
than an unclean, stinking dog.

And Death replies:

You were in status equal to
an apostle of God on earth,
in order to strengthen the Christian belief
with words and other good works.
But you have, with great haughtiness,
been riding your high horse.
Therefore you most mourn so much more now!
Now step here in front you too, Mr King!

Les Danses de Mort en peintures étaient courantes dans le Moyen Age tardif, elles ont été peintes pour rappeler aux gens que peu importe riches ou pauvres ou peu importe comment ils ont été puissants, la mort saurait les prendre tous. Les épidémies, telles que la peste noire, étaient récurrentes et nombreuses qui allaient tuer des millions de personnes. Ils étaient en expressions artistiques, les craintes sur le sujet de la mort. Le caractère "mort" dans ces travaux a été considérée non pas comme un destructeur, mais comme un messager de Dieu à son peuple une convocation dans le monde, au-delà de la tombe. Traduction de certains verset de la peinture :

Je sais, la mort me signifie !
Je n'ai jamais été tellement terrifiée !
Je pensais qu'il n'était pas dans son bon sens,
après tout, je suis jeune et aussi une impératrice.
Je pensais avoir beaucoup de puissance,
Je n'avais pas pensé à lui
ou que n'importe qui pouvait faire quelque chose contre moi.
Oh, laissez-moi vivre, cela, je vous en supplie!

La réponse de la Mort :

Impératrice, très présomptueuse,
il me semble que tu m'as oublié.
Tombez! Il est temps maintenant.
Vous pensiez que je vous laisse hors?
Pas du tout! Et avez-vous été tellement
Vous devez participer à ce jeu,
Et vous autres, tout le monde -
Tenez! Suivez-moi, Monsieur le Cardinal!

Le cardinal affirme maintenant sa pièce:

Aie pitié de moi, Seigneur, quand il doit arriver.
Je ne peux en aucune façon y échapper.
Quand je regarde devant ou derrière moi,
Je sens la mort par moi en tout temps.
Quel sera le haut rang me sert
Rang que j'ai eu? Je dois laisser
et devenir plus indigne à la fois
qu'un impur, chien puant.

La Mort répond :

Vous étiez dans un statut égal à
un apôtre de Dieu sur terre,
afin de renforcer la croyance chrétienne
avec les mots et autres bonnes œuvres.
Mais vous avez, avec hauteur,
été conduite de votre cheval élevé.
Par conséquent, ils vous pleurent tellement plus maintenant!
Maintenant étape ici, devant vous aussi, Monsieur le Roi!

Sirano & Victor Hugo

2011-09-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Victor Hugo - What has not been named yet

Whoever you are, listen:

It is.What is it? Give up! The shadow is the issue, the world is the answer. It is.This is the living, the vast radiant! That looks into the distance the sun dazzled is he. Heaven, you, us, stars, dust! It is the eye the abyss, opened the bottom of the light seen by all the torches, felt by all the nests, which the universe sprang into infinite radius. He looks, and that's it. Just see the sublime. He created a world just by seeing an abyss And this being who sees, having always been, has always created everything for all eternity.When the mouth down to this name key Supreme Test of praise is almost blasphemy. So no explanation! Do kneel your mind, and become a glance, like us. Why look for the words which are no longer matters? The vile human language does not have an apotheosis. He is, is hardly a glimpse of the tomb. He escapes the words black shade. It would make a beautiful verse with the eternal breeze, And to bask in the perfume and the two wings, put the sun in one and the next flower, and mix all the blue in their splendid scale, were God will not paint. Pensive, that the coating noise and north wind, lightning and storm Let shown awake, it is shown sleeping, breathing gently lifting all the depths of the full extent, moving comet lost in the depths of the heavens, the wind on his horse, the death of his flash, and the rocking of the sea monster, We do not paint. Him! Him! the inalienable, the eternal, uncreated, the unexpected, the impossible, it is.The mole digs and excavations, and see, The shadow told the Mole: Are you sure it is? The Mole meets God! God of the eagle is the prey.Assumes that a single person on earth believes in God, this being, if ever the sun was eclipsed, would replace the dawn. And do you know what it's like the wild hurricane and thundering great? It is in the depths of the abyss unaffordable, Infinity murmuring I love it! in a low voice, When the star shines, she said, I see! All art, all the noise and all the anthem of abortion rights say God! The kiss only the name. I like!

Victor Hugo - Ce qui n'a pas encore de nom

Qui que tu sois, écoute : Il est.

Qu'est-il ? Renonce ! L'ombre est la question, le monde est la réponse. Il est. C'est le vivant, le vaste épanoui ! Ce que contemple au loin le soleil ébloui, C'est lui. Les cieux, vous, nous, les étoiles, poussière ! Il est l'oeil gouffre, ouvert au fond de la lumière, Vu par tous les flambeaux, senti par tous les nids, D'où l'univers jaillit en rayons infinis. Il regarde, et c'est tout. Voir suffit au sublime. Il crée un monde rien qu'en voyant un abîme ; Et cet être qui voit, ayant toujours été, A toujours tout créé de toute éternité. Quand la bouche d'en bas touche à ce nom suprême, L'essai de la louange est presque lé blasphème. Pas d'explication donc ! Fais mettre à genoux Ta pensée, et deviens un regard, comme nous. Pourquoi chercher les mots où ne sont plus les choses ? Le vil langage humain n'a pas d'apothéoses. Ce qu'Il est, est à peine entrevu du tombeau. Il échappe aux mots noirs de l'ombre. On aurait beau Faire une strophe avec les brises éternelles, Et, pour en parfumer et dorer les deux ailes,Mettre l'astre dans l'une et dans l'autre la fleur, Et mêler tout l'azur à leur splendide ampleur, On ne peindrait pas Dieu. Songeur, qu'on le revête De bruit et d'aquilon, de foudre et de tempête ; Qu'on le montre éveillé, qu'on le montre dormant, Sa respiration soulevant doucement Toutes les profondeurs de toute l'étendue, Remuant la comète au fond des cieux perdue, Le vent sur son cheval, la mort sur son éclair, Et le balancement monstrueux de la mer, On ne le peindra pas. Lui ! Lui ! l'inamissible, L'éternel, l'incréé, l'imprévu, l'impossible, Il est. La taupe fouille et creuse, et l'aperçoit ; L'ombre dit à la taupe : es-tu sûre qu'il soit ? La taupe répond : Dieu ! Dieu de l'aigle est la proie. Suppose que sur terre un seul être en Dieu croie, Cet être, si jamais le soleil s'éclipsait, Remplacerait l'aurore. Et sais-tu ce que c'est Que le fauve ouragan, tonnant et formidable ? C'est, dans les profondeurs du gouffre inabordable, L'infini murmurant : je l'aime ! à demi-voix ; Quand l'étoile rayonne, elle dit : je le vois ! Tout le cri, tout le bruit et tout l'hymne de l'homme Avorte à dire Dieu ! Le baiser seul le nomme. J'aime ! -

Jan Van Dallen

2011-09-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Le masque de la Mort rouge - Edgar Allan Poe

Dans une abbaye fortifiée, dans laquelle le prince Prospero s'est enfermé, avec mille de ses courtisans, afin de fuir l'épidémie de peste qui frappe le pays. Indifférent aux malheurs des populations frappées par le fléau, ils mènent alors une vie parsemée de vices et de plaisirs, que la « Mort rouge » (la peste) prend comme un affront.

Une nuit, Prospero organise un bal masqué dans sept pièces de l'abbaye, décorées et illuminée chacune d'une couleur différente. La dernière est tapissée de noir et éclairée par une lumière rouge sang. Elle inspire une si grande crainte aux invités que rares sont ceux qui osent s'y aventurer. Il s'y trouve une grande horloge d'ébène qui sonne sinistrement à chaque heure; alors, chacun arrête de parler et l'orchestre cesse de jouer.

Durant la soirée, Prospero remarque une figure dans une robe qui ressemble à un linceul, avec un masque semblable au crâne dépeignant une victime de la Mort Rouge. Se sentant gravement insulté, Prospero exige qu'on lui donne l'identité de l'invité mystérieux. Mais, comme nul n'ose obéir, il tire un poignard et le poursuit à travers les sept pièces.

Quand il arrive dans la septième pièce, le mystérieux personnage se retourne et fait face à Prospero, qui s'effondre, mort. Les courtisans, horrifiés et furieux, se jettent sur l'inconnu et lui arrachent son masque, mais découvrent que le costume est vide. Tous comprennent qu'il s'agit de la Mort Rouge elle-même. Pris de contractions soudaines, tous succombent bientôt à la maladie.

The Mask of Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

In a fortified abbey, where the Prince Prospero was locked, with a thousand of his courtiers, to escape the plague strikes the country. Indifferent to the plight of populations affected by the scourge, while they lead a life dotted with vices and pleasures, the "Red Death" (the plague) takes as an insult. One night, Prospero holds a masked ball in seven parts of the abbey, each decorated and illuminated in a different color. The latter is lined with black and lit by a light red blood. It inspires so much fear that the guests there are few who dare to venture. He found there a great ebony clock that sounds eerily every hour, so everyone stops talking and the band stops playing. During the evening, Prospero notices a figure in a dress that looks like a shroud, with a mask depicting a skull similar to a victim of the Red Death. Feeling severely insulted, Prospero demands to be given the identity of the mysterious guest. But as no one dares to obey, he draws a dagger and continues through the seven rooms. When he arrived in the seventh piece, the mysterious figure turns around and faces Prospero, who collapsed and died. The courtiers, appalled and angry, throw themselves on the unknown and he tore his mask, but discovered that the suit is empty. Everyone understands that this is the Red Death itself. Gained sudden contractions, all succumb to the disease soon.

Antonio Canova & Giordano Bruno, heretic.

2011-09-19T14:13:00.001-07:00

Penitent Magdalen, 1809 - Antonio Canova

Philosophy & Cosmology of Giordano Bruno.

In Banquet in the ashes, Giordano Bruno sets out his vision of the celestial movements: the earth is moving around the sun in a universe infinitely large. This approach is inspired by thoughts of Nicolas Copernicus and Nicolas of Cusa.

This book puts into perspective the evolution of knowledge in this key period. We are the famous before Galileo and just after Copernicus. At the same time the Dane Tycho Brahe attempts to map the sky and Kepler did still interrested to the orbits of the planets. Modern physics is being born.

The Feast in the ashes comes in the form of a dialogue between several characters with contradictory ideas. Téofilo, for example, exposes the mind of the author and the beginnings of modern science:

«You decide whether the observations made and approved checks allow you to draw any conclusion against us, after which you will be free to utter your convictions.»

For Bruno, we live in a heliocentric system. «The sun as center of the universe» is therefore «a motionless body and sets ...» The Earth rotates on itself and at the same time around the sun. In addition to the rotation and revolution, Bruno believes a movement of the Earth around the poles and between its hemispheres.

These ideas - just not all - are revolutionary for the time of the sacrosanct geocentric system. At that time, the Earth sat in the center of the universe, the planets revolve around, or simply fixed on the celestial sphere ...

Better, Bruno questioned whether «the stars are no larger than the sun? «And states long before they discovered that there must be other lands like ours in the universe.

Another passage dealing with the relativity of motion. It contradicts the followers of Aristotle who believed that «if the earth revolved side we call the east, the clouds would necessarily feel like running in the air to the west, because of the high speed and the extreme rapidity of our globe. «

Bruno shows, addressing what is later called the repository, the movement is always relative to the frame from which it is viewed. It takes as an example of a Repository ship on which you throw a stone

«You can see a man placed on the bank and throwing a stone right on the ship, while he follows the river, missed his shot all the more that the race will be faster. But put a man on the mast of the ship, regardless of the speed of it, will not fail to: nothing will prevent the stone or other heavy object thrown from the [top of the mast] to achieve straight point at the base of the mast and around the belly and the body of the ship. «

He ends his argument with a joke. If we were not attached to the Earth and so caught up in its movement, « it could never fall after a jump, at the very spot where one was slim.»

Bruno also affirmed that the universe was homogeneous, made up everywhere of the four elements (water, earth, fire, and air), rather than having the stars be composed of a separate quintessence. Essentially, the same physical laws would operate everywhere, although the use of that term is anachronistic. Space and time were both conceived as infinite. There was no room in his stable and permanent universe for the Christian notions of divine creation and Last Judgement.

Accused of heresy by the Inquisition, especially for his writings deemed blasphemous and his interest in magic, he is condemned to be burnt alive after eight years of litigation.

Dans le Banquet des cendres, Giordano Bruno expose sa vision des mouvements célestes : la terre est en mouvement autour du Soleil dans un univers infiniment grand. Cette approche est inspirée des réflexions de Nicolas Copernic et Nicolas de Cues. Ce livre met en perspective l’évolution du savoir à cette période charnière. Nous sommes avant le célèbre Galilée et juste après Copernic. A la même époque le Danois Tycho Brahé tente d’établir une cartographie du ciel et Kepler ne s’est encore interressé aux orbites des planètes. La physique moderne est en train de naître.

Le Banquet des cendre se présente sous la forme d’un dialogue entre plusieurs personnages aux idées contradictoires. Téofilo, par exemple, expose la pensée de l’auteur et les prémices de la science moderne :

«A vous de voir si les observations effectuées et les vérifications approuvées vous permettent de tirer quelque conclusion contre nous ; après quoi vous aurez toute liberté de proférer vos condamnations.»

Pour Bruno, nous vivons dans un système héliocentrique. «Le soleil comme milieu de l’univers» est par conséquent, «un corps immobile et fixe»... La Terre tourne sur elle-même et en même temps autour du soleil. Outre la rotation et la révolution, Bruno croit à un mouvement de la Terre autour de ses pôles et entre ses hémisphères. Ces idées – pas toutes justes – sont révolutionnaires pour l’époque du sacro-saint système géocentrique. A cette époque, la Terre trônait au centre de l’univers, les astres gravitent autour, voire simplement fixés dans la sphère céleste...

Mieux, Bruno se demande s’il «n’y a pas des astres plus grands que le soleil ? » et affirme bien avant leur découverte qu’il doit exister d’autres terres semblables à la nôtre dans l’univers.

Un autre passage traite de la relativité des mouvements. Il contredit les partisans d’Aristote qui croient que «si la terre tournait du côté que nous appelons l’orient, les nuages donneraient nécessairement l’impression de courir dans l’air vers l’occident, à cause de la grande vitesse et de l’extrême rapidité de notre globe».

Bruno démontre, en abordant ce que l’on appellera plus tard le référentiel, que le mouvement est toujours relatif au cadre depuis lequel on l’observe. Il prend comme exemple de réferentiel un navire sur lequel on jette une pierre : « On peut voir qu’un homme placé sur la berge et jetant une pierre droit sur le navire, tandis qu’il suit la rivière, manquera d’autant plus son coup que la course sera plus rapide. Mais un homme placé sur le mât du navire, quelle que soit la vitesse de celui-ci, ne manquera pas le but : rien n’empêchera la pierre ou tout autre objet pesant jeté du [haut du mât] d’atteindre en droite ligne le point à la base du mât ou ailleurs dans le ventre et le corps du navire.»

Il finit sa démonstration par une plaisanterie. Si nous n’étions pas fixés a la Terre et donc entraînés dans son mouvement, «on ne pourrait jamais retomber, après un saut, à l’endroit même d’où l’on s’est élancés».

Accusé d’hérésie par l’Inquisition, notamment pour ses écrits jugés blasphématoires et son intérêt pour la magie, il est condamné à être brûlé vif au terme de huit années de procès.

Vanitas, circa 1550

2011-09-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

The inscription in Dutch means "In all your actions, remember your end and you will never sin."

L'inscription en Néerlandais signifie : " Dans toutes tes actions, souviens-toi de ta fin et tu ne pécheras jamais."

As you like it - Scene VII - William Shakespeare

THE OLD DUKE. -You see that we are not only unhappy, this vast theater of the universe offers the saddest shows that this scenewhere we play our role.

JACQUES. -The world's a stage and men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances.A man in the course of his life, playing different roles, and the acts of the play are the seven ages. In the first, the child, wailing, drooling into the arms of his nurse.Then the student, still in tears, with her fresh face in the morning and her little bag, ramp, as the cochlea, against the heartto the school. Then comes the lover, sighing like a furnace and sings a plaintive ballad he wrote to his mistress' eyebrow.Then the soldier, lavish of strange oaths and bearded like the leopard. Jealous on the point of honor, carried away, always readyto quarrel, seeking fame, the soap bubble, into the muzzle. After him, the judge in the round belly, a good capon lined, his eyes severe and beard cut from a severe form and it is full of old sayings, maxims as vulgar and so that plays its role. The sixth age has a lean pants Slippers, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side: low well preserved of his youth are now far toolarge for his shrunken leg, his voice, once strong and male falsetto returns to childhood, and is no longer that of a sour tonewhistle and hail.

Finally the seventh and final age comes to unite this story full of strange events and is the second child, a state offorgetfulness in which man is without teeth, without eyes, sans taste, without everything.

LE VIEUX DUC. -Tu vois que nous ne sommes pas seuls malheureux ; ce vaste théâtre de l'univers offre de plus tristes spectacles que cette scène où nous jouons notre rôle.

JACQUES. -Le monde entier est un théâtre, et les hommes et les femmes ne sont que des acteurs ; ils ont leurs entrées et leurs sorties.Un homme, dans le cours de sa vie, joue différents rôles ; et les actes de la pièce sont les sept âges. Dans le premier, c'est l'enfant, vagissant, bavant dans les bras de sa nourrice. Ensuite l'écolier, toujours en pleurs, avec son frais visage du matin et son petit sac, rampe, comme le limaçon, à contre-coeur jusqu'à l'école. Puis vient l'amoureux, qui soupire comme une fournaise et chante une ballade plaintive qu'il a adressée au sourcil de sa maîtresse.

Puis le soldat, prodigue de jurements étranges et barbu comme le léopard ( Chaque profession avait jadis une forme de barbe particulière. La barbe du juge différait de celle du soldat. ), jaloux sur le point d'honneur, emporté, toujours prêt à se quereller, cherchant la renommée, cette bulle de savon, jusque dans la bouche du canon. Après lui, c'est le juge au ventre arrondi, garni d'un bon chapon, l'oeil sévère, la barbe taillée d'une forme grave ; il abonde en vieilles sentences, en maximes vulgaires ; et c'est ainsi qu'il joue son rôle. Le sixième âge offre un maigre Pantalon ( Allusion au personnage de la comédie italienne, appelé il Pantalone, le seul qui joue son rôle en pantoufles. ) en pantoufles, avec des lunettes sur le nez et une poche de côté : les bas bien conservés de sa jeunesse se trouvent maintenant beaucoup trop vastes pour sa jambe ratatinée ; sa voix, jadis forte et mâle, revient au fausset de l'enfance, et ne fait plus que siffler d'un ton aigre et grêle.
Enfin le septième et dernier âge vient unir cette histoire pleine d'étranges événements ; c'est la seconde enfance, état d'oubli profond où l'homme se trouve sans dents, sans yeux, sans goût, sans rien.

Charlotte Cornaton. Vanitas.

2011-09-13T12:21:00.001-07:00

Vanitas de la vidéaste plasticienne Charlotte Cornaton contient 751 feuilles, il s'agit du chiffre de Montaigne sur la Vanité : "Mundus universus exercet histroniam" ( Le monde entier joue la comédie ) essai sur la société des apparences et le costume de chair.

Vanitas of the videast & artist Charlotte Cornaton contains 751 sheets, this is the figure of Montaigne on the Vanity:"Mundus universus Exercet histroniam" ( The world is a comedy ) essay on the society of appearances and dress of flesh.

SCIENCE AND SANITY Alfred KORZYBSKI

CHAPITRE XXXVII DE LA NOTION DE « SIMULTANEITE »

Traduction: Isabelle AUBERT-BAUDRON

Une suggestion mettant en jeu la visualisation peut être utile. Si nous réalisons le fait structurel que les mots ne sont pas les objets qu’ils représentent, nous ferons toujours automatiquement la différence entre ce que nous voyons, ressentons..., aux niveaux d’abstraction inférieurs, et ce que nous disons au niveau d’ordre d’abstractions supérieur. Après avoir surmonté cette unique difficulté nous ne pourrions alors jamais plus identifier les deux ordres d’abstractions différents. Nous évaluerions les termes «matière», «espace», et «temps» comme des formes de représentations, et des non-objets, et nous décririons les événements dans un langage d’ordre fonctionnel, opérationnel, en termes de comportement. Si nous réalisons et ressentons la vitesse finie de propagation de tous les processus, nous pouvons visualiser tout ce qui a été expliqué ici. Schématiser et même suivre avec une main, la visualisation de l’ordre des événements, aide énormément. Une fois que nous serons familiarisés avec la structure du monde quadri-dimensionnel de Minkowski, nous accroîtrons grandement notre pouvoir de visualisation.

Double face, double skull

2011-09-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

Dr Henry Jekyll / Mr Edward Hyde

The dual title character is a doctor who has covered up a secret life full of cruel deeds. He feels as if he is constantly battling within himself between what is good and what is evil, but has spent a great part of his life trying to repress evil urges that were not fitting for a man of his stature. After drinking a potion of his own creation, Jekyll is transformed into the smaller, younger, cruel, remorseless, evil Edward Hyde, representing the hidden side of Dr Jekyll’s nature brought to the fore. Dr Jekyll has many friends and has a friendly personality, but as Mr Hyde, he becomes mysterious and violent. As time goes by, Mr Hyde grows in power. After taking the potion repetitively, he no longer relies upon it to unleash his inner demon i.e. his alter ego. Eventually, Mr Hyde grows so strong that Dr Jekyll becomes reliant on the potion to remain himself.

Stevenson never says exactly what Hyde takes pleasure in on his nightly forays, generally saying that it is something of an evil and lustful nature; thus it is in the context of the times, abhorrent to Victorian religious morality. Hyde may have been reveling in activities that were not appropriate to a man of Jekyll’s stature, such as engaging with prostitutes or burglary. However, it is Hyde’s violent activities that seem to give him the most thrill, driving him to attack and murder Sir Danvers Carew without apparent reason, making him a hunted outlaw throughout England.

Realizing he will soon be Hyde forever, Jekyll leaves behind a testament; pointing out that while Jekyll often felt like a charlatan, Hyde felt like a «genuine man» years younger and far more energetic than his more «sociable» self. He also states in his final confession that although Hyde knew people recoiled from him, he did not care.

Dancing Dead

2011-09-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

Phillipe de Gueldre

2011-09-08T11:40:00.001-07:00

Death Letter Son House

I got a letter this mornin, how do you reckon it read?

It said, «Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead.»

I got a letter this mornin, I say how do you reckon it read?

You know, it said, «Hurry, hurry, how come the gal you love is dead?»

So, I grabbed up my suitcase, and took off down the road.

When I got there she was layin on a coolin board.

I grabbed up my suitcase, and I said and I took off down the road.

I said, but when I got there she was already layin on a coolin board.

Well, I walked up right close, looked down in her face.

Said, the good ole gal got to lay here til the Judgement Day.

I walked up right close, and I said I looked down in her face.

I said the good ole gal, she got to lay here til the Judgement Day.

Looked like there was 10,000 people standin round the buryin ground.

I didn’t know I loved her til they laid her down.

Looked like 10,000 were standin round the buryin ground.

You know I didn’t know I loved her til they damn laid her down.

Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul.

I wouldn’t mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold.

I said, Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul.

You know I wouldn’t mistreat nobody, baby, not for my weight in gold.

Well, I folded up my arms and I slowly walked away.

I said, «Farewell honey, I’ll see you on Judgement Day.»

Ah, yeah, oh, yes, I slowly walked away.

I said, «Farewell, farewell, I’ll see you on the Judgement Day.»

You know I went in my room, I bowed down to pray.

The blues came along and drove my spirit away.

I went in my room, I said I bowed down to pray.

I said the blues came along and drove my spirit away.

You know I didn’t feel so bad, til the good ole sun went down.

I didn’t have a soul to throw my arms around.

Mark Bulford. Stratum.

2011-09-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Michael Reedy

2011-08-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

Italy, 6000 years ago...

2011-08-28T13:26:00.000-07:00