Notes on Magic and Art, Part 2
17. Navajo sand paintings are an integral part of Navajo ceremony where the Gods help is requested
18. Tibetan sand paintings are painstakingly made with individual grains of sand and are destroyed at the end of their usefulness. Their purpose is to bring enlightenment.
19. In Haitian Voodoo Ceremonies it is customary to draw a special symbolic image or “Veve” for the God whose help is being sought.
20. Geometry was once a sacred art in ancient Greece.
Copyright © 2019
William Schaeffer
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Thursday, June 27, 2019
A Little Worm
Comment on the bitchute video "a little worm"
J:
And of course you were too much of a PUSSY to handle the worm, to put him in the grass. So this makes you a fucking SADIST with more in common with MAGGOTS than an earthworm. You WISH you had the class of that earthworm. Thumbs down because you are a lowlife that would help an earthworm.
Atwaterpub:
Good comment.
1) I was hurrying from an appointment to work and was late. It is really remarkable that I even took time to make a video.
2) There really was no grass that I saw. I thought it best, at the time, to let nature unfold it its own way -- and hurry to my job so I wasn't late.
3) Ironically later that day while working as a security guard I saw a very similar thing. A little furry caterpillar in the middle of an asphalt driveway. In this case I coaxed the caterpillar onto my sunglasses lens and carried it across the driveway to a stand of dry grass. Later on my rounds I saw the same caterpillar, dead and being eaten by ants. It appears that it had tried to crawl back out of the grass and onto the driveway and dried out in the sun on the cement curb. It is difficult to know what the "correct action" really is.. TRUE STORY
4) Just the fact that you identified enough with the little worm to be angry makes me feel successful. To humanize the reality of other lifeforms sympathetically is an important job. I shot an amazing video of the death throes of a Honey Bee that was obviously suffering from toxic hive syndrome. I watched that Bee for ten minutes while I videotaped its death throes. That was a memorable experience and you should watch the video despite the technical flaws.
5) Thanks for your comment. It is always good to think and write about philosophical issues.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
J:
And of course you were too much of a PUSSY to handle the worm, to put him in the grass. So this makes you a fucking SADIST with more in common with MAGGOTS than an earthworm. You WISH you had the class of that earthworm. Thumbs down because you are a lowlife that would help an earthworm.
Atwaterpub:
Good comment.
1) I was hurrying from an appointment to work and was late. It is really remarkable that I even took time to make a video.
2) There really was no grass that I saw. I thought it best, at the time, to let nature unfold it its own way -- and hurry to my job so I wasn't late.
3) Ironically later that day while working as a security guard I saw a very similar thing. A little furry caterpillar in the middle of an asphalt driveway. In this case I coaxed the caterpillar onto my sunglasses lens and carried it across the driveway to a stand of dry grass. Later on my rounds I saw the same caterpillar, dead and being eaten by ants. It appears that it had tried to crawl back out of the grass and onto the driveway and dried out in the sun on the cement curb. It is difficult to know what the "correct action" really is.. TRUE STORY
4) Just the fact that you identified enough with the little worm to be angry makes me feel successful. To humanize the reality of other lifeforms sympathetically is an important job. I shot an amazing video of the death throes of a Honey Bee that was obviously suffering from toxic hive syndrome. I watched that Bee for ten minutes while I videotaped its death throes. That was a memorable experience and you should watch the video despite the technical flaws.
5) Thanks for your comment. It is always good to think and write about philosophical issues.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Notes on Magic and Art
Notes on Magic and Art:
1. The earliest cave drawing are found in the presence of what could be primitive shrines as if the paintings were used for magic purposes.
2. During the Middle Ages, people worked in the fields. They were illiterate and rarely saw art, or pictures, except when they went to the Cathedrals on holidays or Sunday.
3. In Islam today it is forbidden to make a realistic representation of a human, presumably because of some supernatural danger.
4. During the Renaissance, painters used the Camera Obscura for almost one hundred years without detection so they could “magically” and with “great skill” produce photorealistic portraits.
5. Some primitive peoples are reported to have believed that posing for photographic pictures is bad because the camera will steal your soul.
6. Thesis: in earlier times the picture evoked a strong, almost magical response in the viewer because of the unique rarity and realistic artistic skill.
7. Today we are surrounded with so many images, and paintings, and photographs and advertisements, and videos, and films, and billboards, that the individual image has almost lost its power.
8. In the past it was laboriously difficult to render a realistic and convincing painting or image. Today it is almost trivial to manufacture, create, reproduce, duplicate, and publish images.
9. Art has explored all the ways to display, distort, enhance, or copy the image in painting, print and photography.
10. The painted image is losing its magical power and therefore losing its artistic significance.
11. Voodoo shrines have certain objects arranged in a specific way for special magical significance.
12. "Feng Shui" is the Traditional Chinese practice of arranging objects in the environment to affect the flow of energy in the room or environment.
13. "I Ching" followers toss yarrow stalks, or cast coins that determine numbers to build a pattern which is key to their personal understanding of future fortunes.
14. “Sympathetic Magic” is the practice of “acting” on a symbolic object in hopes of affecting the actual object of intent
15. Artistic arrangements of found objects can release the impression of magical coincidence latent in the subconscious mind, because of the unique arrangement and relation of symbolic objects.
16. Artistic arrangements of found objects, or assemblage art, may replace traditional painting as the interesting and inspiring aesthetic of the future, because it still has the power to trigger magical associations in the conscious and sub conscious mind of the viewer.
June 25, 2019, copyright © 2019 William Schaeffer
1. The earliest cave drawing are found in the presence of what could be primitive shrines as if the paintings were used for magic purposes.
2. During the Middle Ages, people worked in the fields. They were illiterate and rarely saw art, or pictures, except when they went to the Cathedrals on holidays or Sunday.
3. In Islam today it is forbidden to make a realistic representation of a human, presumably because of some supernatural danger.
4. During the Renaissance, painters used the Camera Obscura for almost one hundred years without detection so they could “magically” and with “great skill” produce photorealistic portraits.
5. Some primitive peoples are reported to have believed that posing for photographic pictures is bad because the camera will steal your soul.
6. Thesis: in earlier times the picture evoked a strong, almost magical response in the viewer because of the unique rarity and realistic artistic skill.
7. Today we are surrounded with so many images, and paintings, and photographs and advertisements, and videos, and films, and billboards, that the individual image has almost lost its power.
8. In the past it was laboriously difficult to render a realistic and convincing painting or image. Today it is almost trivial to manufacture, create, reproduce, duplicate, and publish images.
9. Art has explored all the ways to display, distort, enhance, or copy the image in painting, print and photography.
10. The painted image is losing its magical power and therefore losing its artistic significance.
11. Voodoo shrines have certain objects arranged in a specific way for special magical significance.
12. "Feng Shui" is the Traditional Chinese practice of arranging objects in the environment to affect the flow of energy in the room or environment.
13. "I Ching" followers toss yarrow stalks, or cast coins that determine numbers to build a pattern which is key to their personal understanding of future fortunes.
14. “Sympathetic Magic” is the practice of “acting” on a symbolic object in hopes of affecting the actual object of intent
15. Artistic arrangements of found objects can release the impression of magical coincidence latent in the subconscious mind, because of the unique arrangement and relation of symbolic objects.
16. Artistic arrangements of found objects, or assemblage art, may replace traditional painting as the interesting and inspiring aesthetic of the future, because it still has the power to trigger magical associations in the conscious and sub conscious mind of the viewer.
June 25, 2019, copyright © 2019 William Schaeffer
Global Warming
Open letter to a friend who does not "believe in" global warming:
"I am astounded that you do not believe there is any Global Climate change.
If you have interest, watch videos by Paul Beckwith on youtube. He is constantly publishing new data. A relaxed presentation of serious data. https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulHBeckwith
1) Even if there is no climate change -- the Planet is in trouble due to human overpopulation. Here is some troubling data about animal die offs. Since 1960 the global population of all species has declined dramatically:
Animals 60% decline in population
insects 75% decline in population
honey bees 90% decline in population
marine life 60% decline in population
plankton 75% decrease in population
THESE are REAL NUMBERS and indicate a real "problem." When the bees die off, there will be mass human starvation. 30% of all agricultural products worldwide are pollinated by bees. If you consider the geological time scale of change, these changes are like "an explosion" Check the data yourself and see if you can find contradictory evidence.
2) Every mile you drive puts one pound of CO2 gas into the atmosphere where it stays forever (for the most part). The increase in CO2 in the atmosphere since 1900 is measurably significant. On a global time scale it is very rapid, like an explosion. There has not been this concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since 3 million years ago. This is before the ice ages began. Again -- check the data and see if you find contradictory information
Sincerely,
William Schaeffer"
"I am astounded that you do not believe there is any Global Climate change.
If you have interest, watch videos by Paul Beckwith on youtube. He is constantly publishing new data. A relaxed presentation of serious data. https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulHBeckwith
1) Even if there is no climate change -- the Planet is in trouble due to human overpopulation. Here is some troubling data about animal die offs. Since 1960 the global population of all species has declined dramatically:
Animals 60% decline in population
insects 75% decline in population
honey bees 90% decline in population
marine life 60% decline in population
plankton 75% decrease in population
THESE are REAL NUMBERS and indicate a real "problem." When the bees die off, there will be mass human starvation. 30% of all agricultural products worldwide are pollinated by bees. If you consider the geological time scale of change, these changes are like "an explosion" Check the data yourself and see if you can find contradictory evidence.
2) Every mile you drive puts one pound of CO2 gas into the atmosphere where it stays forever (for the most part). The increase in CO2 in the atmosphere since 1900 is measurably significant. On a global time scale it is very rapid, like an explosion. There has not been this concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere since 3 million years ago. This is before the ice ages began. Again -- check the data and see if you find contradictory information
Sincerely,
William Schaeffer"
Monday, June 24, 2019
Facts about the Roman Coliseum
The inaugural fight at the Coliseum was celebrated by a contest to the death between two gladiators that were longtime friends for twenty years and did NOT know they would be fighting each other. They each considered "giving" or "throwing" the match to their opponent but instead fought heroically and ferociously. They were very evenly matched and the contest lasted a long time. Finally, the emperor declared the contest a tie and they both were allowed to live. This is also almost the ONLY fight that was ever documented in the entire history of the arena.
Apparently the word "arena" means sand in Latin.
The pipe organ was invented for the gladiatorial games in 150 B.C. and the bellows were powered by the same running water that supplies the fountains of Rome. The pipe organ was only introduced into cathedrals in 700 A.D. or later in order to attract crowds. Those Church Organs used human power, or serfs, to power the bellows. Prior to that time it was a sin to play a musical instrument in a church and only acapella, or choral, singing was allowed.
The movie "Gladiator" is a very historically accurate depiction of the types of contests that were typically held, but the story.
There is a book called Arena that is just on the history of the Colosseum and gladiatorial games.
copyright(c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Apparently the word "arena" means sand in Latin.
The pipe organ was invented for the gladiatorial games in 150 B.C. and the bellows were powered by the same running water that supplies the fountains of Rome. The pipe organ was only introduced into cathedrals in 700 A.D. or later in order to attract crowds. Those Church Organs used human power, or serfs, to power the bellows. Prior to that time it was a sin to play a musical instrument in a church and only acapella, or choral, singing was allowed.
The movie "Gladiator" is a very historically accurate depiction of the types of contests that were typically held, but the story.
There is a book called Arena that is just on the history of the Colosseum and gladiatorial games.
copyright(c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Problem Solving Techniques
There are two ways to solve a problem "Elegantly," or with "Brute Force." If you want to get through a closed door you can either "pick the lock" or "kick the door down." You can't always pick the lock, but kicking the door down leaves a lot of collateral damage and expense.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Global Warming
In a few centuries, the entire tropical region of the Earth will be uninhabitable. International shipping on the oceans will have stopped. Humanity will live at the poles of the Earth. The transitional social violence resulting from these changes is almost unimaginable.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Not sustainable infra structure of roads and highways
It is sobering to realize that the USA does not have an infra structure that is sustainable in the face of global warming. The current infrastructure of roads and highways arranged with industrial areas separated by long distances from gated communities and urban living areas, is not sustainable. It was created when gasoline was inexpensive and plentiful. There was no concept of global warming, or the use of automobiles dramatically changing the Earth's climate system and environment. Continued use of the automobile will make much of the Earth uninhabitable, and yet we cannot help but use the automobile because of the design of our cities and industrial areas. A little thought and reflection will reveal the likely probability that the entire infrastructure of the entire USA of roads and highways separating housing developments from industrial centers by long travel distances is not sustainable and cannot be preserved into the centuries ahead.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Monday, June 17, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
Herodotus says Scythians smoked weed
Greek writer Herodotus (400 B.C.)describes the Scythians as inhaling vapors from the Hemp (marijuana) seeds burning. The Scythians were a fierce Nomadic people that lived on the Russian Steppes. Apparently the Scythians also took Anamita Muscaria, which is a hallucinogenic mushroom from the "Old World" (i.e. not North or South America). Their priests would take the mushroom and then urinate in a large bowl once they started "tripping." It seems that the active ingredient passes through the body quickly. So then, the Scythian soldiers and other adults would drink the Priest's urine from that large bowl and start "tripping" themselves.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Capitalism is anti-human.
All the central values of Capitalism work to turn you into a predictable "working machine" with no relationships, or commitments, to disturb the efficiency of your work.
Capitalism is anti-human.
For example: The problem is that "on paper" the ideals of "fair competition" and "market forces" sounds good, BUT as an individual, you cannot compete with multi-national corporate power and wealth. You have few real rights except to do what you are told and shut up. For example, my career as a VFX artist was outsourced to India and China. There was nothing I could do when I watched my former employers open divisions overseas that did the work I used to do in the USA, Los Angeles. I was powerless to keep my job. I had no rights whatsoever to my work.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Why you feel alone
Thesis: American society, grade school, and corporate America actively work to destroy the network of social relationships you have, so that you are more easily controlled and manipulated for economic exploitation. This is especially true for men that are typically viewed as "potential criminals" and "labor to be used."
The loneliness and isolation you feel as an adult are the result of systematic destruction of natural social organizations of friendship and companionship that are prevalent in a less structured world. The plight of the homeless is an extreme manifestation of this lack of "true social networking" or "caring and love" in American society. Do an anthropological study yourself and compare the nature of relationships in USA with other societies. Most people in the USA have fewer close friends and fewer close family connections than any other society at any other time in history. This is not an accident.
Promotion of the "Blame the victim" mentality keeps us all from being accepting of the homeless, the institutionally abused, and the economically exploited. You are being manipulated into unfeeling by the popular media.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
The loneliness and isolation you feel as an adult are the result of systematic destruction of natural social organizations of friendship and companionship that are prevalent in a less structured world. The plight of the homeless is an extreme manifestation of this lack of "true social networking" or "caring and love" in American society. Do an anthropological study yourself and compare the nature of relationships in USA with other societies. Most people in the USA have fewer close friends and fewer close family connections than any other society at any other time in history. This is not an accident.
Promotion of the "Blame the victim" mentality keeps us all from being accepting of the homeless, the institutionally abused, and the economically exploited. You are being manipulated into unfeeling by the popular media.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Difficulty and Success
It is only the difficulties in life you confront, that allow you to rise to your greatest potential. Nobody that has achieved any measure of success in life has ever had it easy.
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
copyright (c) 2019
William Schaeffer
Saturday, June 1, 2019
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