Thoughts in a Garden

Well, you shouldn't be reading other peoples' journals.

Lightly does it.

" You don't need success or failure, an opinion, or position, to be you. You've arrived ! You are already at, and have always been, at the present moment. It is your attitude that conditions and forms what you want, and how things turn out. With acceptance or trust, and a little optimism, you will be given a glimpse of what is, and what might be. Even the clouds have mystery and movement, and change each day. When you let the world go, you'll find what you're looking for."

TAKEN FROM THE HEXAGRAM " ACCEPT " IN THE TAO I CHING. THIS IS ONE OF A SERIES OF EIGHT CARDS CONTAINING THE EIGHT SPIRITUAL LAWS OF TAO.

What on Earth has Hitler got to do with this ?

"Hitler as an agent of social and political control, or as symbol of power and human inequality and suffering, had a huge effect on the world and a lot of peoples' lives. And yet, here we are now. "

This is a portrait of Adolf Hitler at Nanternis in 1929. He stands surrounded by the plant kingdom in our back garden, and poses with red and black in a world of green. The canvas is divided exactly in half along the vertical edge of the banner. On the right is an aspect of Human intervention and involvement, and on the left the physical world of Nature. There is a battle between two elemental forces symbolised by the opposite colours of red and green. The idea of industry, ambition, and reward, opposing or reflected by the benign forces of Nature has been aptly captured by Andrew Marvel in 1652, in his poem "Thoughts in a Garden" :
The painting can be read through four quadrants, and their symbolic meanings. In the top right quadrant is the human personality of Hitler, accentuated by the uniform and flag, dispaying his historical and social imperitives. Within the bottom right quadrant there is the embodiment of the force of evil. The Devil stares out onto the material world from the shadows cast by the upper right arm. A similar visual device was used in the painting "Salem" by S. Curnon Vosper in 1908, where the Devil can be seen on the edge of the shawl over the left arm of the lady as she enters a Welsh chapel.

In the bottom left quadrant there is the physical world, of grass, ferns, and the fallen apples of knowledge. In the top left quadrant is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - the title of the work. This apple tree does infact provide an abundance of fruit each year but ironically, if it be a tree of concepts, these are all 'cookers'.

THE ORIGINAL PAINING 'SALEM' IS IN THE LADY LEVER ART GALLERY, PORT SUNLIGHT, WIRRAL, U.K. THE ORIGINAL PAINTING "THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE", IS , LIKE SOME OF THE OTHER PAINTINGS ON MY WEBSITE, AVAILABLE FOR SALE.

The Way

Just another path . .

The way before us is often familiar, sometimes grand, and sometimes uncertain or awkward. Chance and Change can alter all that, or take us down other routes. And yet we proceed, day by day, following a path to somewhere we hope will be better than, or similar to, what we have now. Some say "The journey is the thing", others that "the destination is the reason to go forward". Some of course fall, or are pushed, by the wayside, in the rush to get where we are all going.

Myself and my partner Rachael, later joined by ten cats, lived in a remote part of Wales for 20 years. Nanternis, a mile from the coast at West Wales, U.K., is now a hamlet of no great importance, although once 'The Garden of Eden', and visited laterly by the famous. Part of the time, over eight years, we were without television, and so didn't even get to see a chunk of history play-out in our front room. We lived there in glorious isolation. I suppose, you don't think about it at the time, but the daily and familiar ways we take often lead to an overall impression, or way, of life. We all see moments of wonder or surprise, but without quiet contemplation they would be lost as the rest of the world intrudes. When the last of the local Welsh residents died, the village became a frontier settlement of 'second homes'. Deserted in the Winter, and a thriving holiday community during the short Summer months.

A path leads from our house at the bottom of the hill at Nanternis, through a small wooded valley, to the deserted cove of Cwm Silio. It's about a mile or so. Along the way the local farmers have done their best to chop down every tree over thirty years old, and each year the brambles and bracken emerge to reclaim the rest of it. While it was under Welsh occupation this land was wild, and each year my Great Aunt would hack her way down to the sea, for the whole of her life, 'to keep the path open'. However, this rugged and once desolate area, has now been opened-up into an almost Cornwallian retreat by The National Trust, for visitation, and views of tourist Wales.

This view, walking back home inland, sums-up the whole of the journey for me, without once considering the forty years or so I intermittantly trod this route. It could be anywhere (or nowhere). It is the path less travelled and goes only as far as the eye can see, and a rabbit sits in the sun.

LUCID DREAMING

LUCID DREAMING - The Reality of the Situation

Apart from three 'Out of the Body' experiences, I've also had many Lucid Dreams - dreams in which I am fully conscious and awake, but still in dreamland. It is a totally strange phenomena and an exhilarating experience ! , and it does have a profound effect upon one's perception of reality. There are ways or techniques to stimulate or encourage Lucid Dreaming, and enough stuff on the web, and in books, about the subject. I don't feel I need to add any more to, I think, an unresolved debate [apart from some notes on dream journals in my other blog http://www.hexagramhighway.blogspot.com/]. In my case, these Lucid Dreams happen periodically and spontaneously, but I've been a fast learner. I can only add here a summary of what I found out.

1.Your 'level of awareness' determines the quality/reality of what you experience. In dreams, as in awake life (with interiorised thoughts about the past and future), 'fantasy' tends to dominate. This is none other than your ability to produce our own reality through your attitude, which affects perception. I suppose, people see what they know to be true. NLP and hypnosis might go someway in altering your attitude, then perception, so that you can affect and live in a different situation with new potentials. In dreams it is your 'ordinary' level of consciousness that interacts with what your own mind creates, and this is no more (and an extension) of what you are doing during each day, with your involvements, concerns, beliefs, and attitude ('experience as expectation'). I've hinted in my other blog that the use of the hexagrams of the TAO I CHING can circumvent this process, but probably only through an understanding of the energy we use (see my book). To step into Lucid Dreaming without this awareness would invite Fantasy, and a lot of other stuff.

2. Your activities betray your awareness. People do what they want to do, and always revert to their own 'nature' or interests. There is in Lucid Dreaming the prospect of all sorts of activities, which include flying, sex, all sorts of adventures, walking through walls, or under water, and at some point there may be the choice to go on to 'something else'. If you can think what that might be, you might be (close to) what you think.

3. You get through it all with (the use of) confidence. As you go through life, or just walking along, you don't have to think too much about what you are doing, you just get on with it. Some people do this confidently, and some worry all the time. Actually the conscious use or expression of confidence gets you flying, not the flapping of your arms or the Superman pose. In Lucid Dreams this confidence extends beyond your own mind and body and can cause alterations in the situation, weather, elements, and people. As the TAO I CHING might say "Confidence is ease, not force or control". What they didn't tell you was that Lucid Dreaming is easy - you've just got to know it's possible (most people have never heard of it, or think it's impossible), and then want to have a go. The techniques and flapping about is just something you go through to convince yourself that you're 'doing something'.

4. The expression of your Will is a last resort. Someone once said that in a battle between the Will and the Imagination, the Imagination always wins. "Imagination" here refers to the ability to see and feel what may not be material and real, rather than the commonly held notion of imagination as wishful thinking, or daydreaming. At some point, if you proceed a little deeper into Lucid Dreams you will encounter certain 'barriers' to put you off, and often frighten you. These are necessary to keep the 'uninitiated' in their place. The only way forward is the 'expression of your Will'. If you get into any trouble just make the sign of the cross and forcefully demand that 'the problem' go away. This of course will have no effect, but when you repeat with all your heart and soul (your Will) anything will retreat! You will only have to do this once to get through certain 'unpleasant barriers' that may be put before you. Whether these are from your own subconscious fears, or overseeing entities is a matter of debate. The sign of the cross is, in this case, an extension of flapping your arms about - it just focuses your intention. [Not withstanding the debate on symbols and their power].

5. Symbol manipulation is the name of the game. Alter the symbol and you alter reality. Sounds crazy, but that's what they do in Healing. You believe in the symbols and the rules. These can be changed. Some people involved in NLP would call this 'symbol manipulation' altering the neural pathways, by giving your fears and hopes a symbol (a colour, or feeling, a 'mantra' or phrase, or scenario, or a 'drawn object' or symbol), and then altering the symbol itself to change your outlook or situation. Interestingly enough, on page 48 of my book TAO I CHING, you can use this process to alter and change your selected hexagram (which is supposed to be a reflection of your present situation, and therefore 'real' and not open to change, since it is what it is), and yet by manipulating your Elements (which you should have purchased with the book), you can see the physical change to your hexagram, and what is possible. What is possible, is probable. Tread quietly through Lucid Dreams, for it is all a collection of symbols.

6. Is fantasy better than reality ? Well, that's up to you. Both have the same effect, and are probably the same thing - perception and imagination. If you are not using that imagination you're missing a lot of fun. 'Reality' shifts about, and seems to be connected to our perception. If your Lucid Dreams go further than our common ground of what we accept as 'real' (even to the possibility of walking through a wall - and we all know what a wall is), you may indeed step into 'fantasy' realms. Others have, and these other realms have their own reality and heirarchy, but they are not 'real' or 'reality', however much we belive in them. From my own background, if I see it, or it 'works', I use it, but always maintain an element of common sense, wherever I am.

Our Spirit inhabits this space.

'MARILYN AT NANTERNIS'

Film Still Life

Acrylic on canvas 31" X 39"

Tom Leworthy 1992

The 'Famous at Nanternis'. Marilyn Monroe stands on the bridge at Nanternis, a few miles from the town of New Quay on the West coast of Wales, U.K. Even though there are some visual clues to the present moment, it is a bright sunny afternoon in the winter of 1957. Married to Arthur Miller the year before, her wedding ring is placed neatly on the bridge, forming a triangular relationship with the small figure behind her. Although she makes some concessions to glamour, this is not the usual provocative pose. Here we have a film still from a moment in life, a few props, and a naked presence. Behind her stands a young girl - either her unborn daughter or the young Norma Jean.

At the end, what has a person to show for all their passion, involvement, and committment, in life ? What would one surround oneself with to show the influence of, and one's influence on, the world ? Property, possessions, children ? The film images left of Marilyn are as concrete as the memories of this place in Nanternis. That same place now made all the more powerful by her absense.

And the inscription on her wedding ring :

" A to M, June 1956. Now is forever."

How on Earth did she get there ?

Rachael in our back garden in Wales.

Even the cat has to get in on the act and give us a wave.