The Secret Doctrine of Being Beautiful

Quan Yin

2006-06-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Rhythm of Spirit

2006-06-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

...

Lady Chan taught me that each movement should be very slow. The communication was in between the movements with my focus and intent.
It was called the Rhythm of Spirit instead of the rhythm of flesh and blood.
My Chinese dance teacher did not approve of my ballet lessons. She said they would only destroy my gift of subtlety as a fine Chinese classical dancer.
Lady Chan told me that I should not treat the Peach of Immortality as a prop, but treat it as the real mythical peach in my mind,
and I should not only do the dance steps but to become the Deity Ma-Gu herself.
Which was actually not hard at all if you could see Her in your mind‘s eye.

“The Peach of Immortality” was mounted on a golden plate.
Lady Chan taught me how to dance with that golden plate in a figure 8, like the symbol of infinity.
The Peach should float around without people noticing it was moved by my hands and I should float around it like the cloud circling around the mountain.
Nobody should notice my movement but only see the Peach and I floating up and down,
like sky and rivers dancing together into the Ocean of Enlightenment.

...

source: http://www.omniparticle.com/eyes8.html

By Da Vinci

2005-07-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Fantasia of Colors

2005-04-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

We were girls from 11 to 14 yrs old.. I did not remember how old I was, but I remember most my friends in this group were older than me.

In our heart knowingness, we would all be future stars. We were serious beyond our age. We wanted so much to fly and to take our audience to fly with us.. We were purely innocent, purely worldly, purely clear, purely confused ... We were pure in our sophisticated simplicity.

Lady master Tsai had been teaching us since we were little girls. Most of us started our lessons around 4 or 5 years old. She was one of the most famous dance artist in her time. I was growing up seeing famous dancers in and out of the studio that was her house, our sanctuary. Something in us knew that our destiny would be very different than the destiny of our other school mates. We have to finish our home work for the other school and come to the studio receiving our lessons to be “ Beautiful and magical.”

Lady master Tsai told us that she was going to choreograph a ballet called
-- The Fantasia of Colors, and it would be presented in this coming concert.

She said -- White, is the color of snow. It is a symbol of purity. All brides wear white.
“ -- Oh, White! That must be me. I am the purest from inside out “ Secretly, I wish that she would choose me to dance the White, but she chose Mai-Shin, - a delicate, thin dancer. Her older brother was also in our class. Both were beautiful in their own way. I did not know that Lady Tsai thought Mai-Shin was perfect for the color White. Mai-Shin had no facial expression while standing up to be “ the White.”

“ Pink is the color for romance, it is a symbol of love.” Lady Tsai announced.
“ -- Oh, pink, it must be me. I love to be pink and I have always been romantic. This is so obvious to everybody …“ My heart jumped so fast because I knew that I should be the most romantic dancer, wearing pink tutu and pink toe-shoes in this dance. Lady Tsai walked toward me, then passed by me, touched the head of Show-Mei, a really beautiful dancer with maturer development than any of us. I could never imagine that she was romantic. She did not read as much poetry as I did, and she had no interest in getting alone with anybody. Maybe she was more romantic than any of us because of her mature figure. I told myself: "Its ok, there are more beautiful colors waiting for me."

“ Yellow symbolizes the intelligence. Intelligence is a different kind of beauty that makes you beautiful even in your old age” Lady Tsai was the priestess in our eyes. Everything she said must be true because she was the one who chose which one, among us, got to be beautiful and magical.

“ -- Intelligence!!! That could be me. I like being intelligent instead of being romantic. I wondered why she did not choose me to dance the pink, because I supposed to dance this intelligent yellow.” I began to see myself wearing yellow tutu, spinning and jumping, and the audience got so inspired by watching me dance with this ultra intelligent color yellow. I became the yellow butterfly … I became the full moon …I became the new born duckling playing with a baby chick; I became the sunflower that danced with sunshine… I did not even realize that Lady Tsai had already chosen Yu-Lee to be the yellow. until "a tree" stood up on my left side. Yu-Lee had the longest legs and arms. I had always admire her long extended Arabesque, and I could see why Lady Tsai chose her to dance the yellow ... Oh, I truly wish my legs could be longer.

“ Purple, likes grapes and the vine, is the color for the sacred ceremony. Purple brings compassions to humanity … “
“ -- Yeah!!!! Purple? Of course, how can I forget my favorite color. I love color Purple more than color White, color Pink, and color Yellow. This has to be me … “ Suddenly I was inside the church, celebrating Easter … Rising above those chanting priests wearing royal purple, I was inside a purple flame, floating … Before I came out that purple flame, Lady Tsai had already put her hands on Mei-Lin’s head. Mai-Lin was always elegant and graceful. She had the ability to make every difficult movement looked simple. She was one of my best friend, and I was happy for her. If anybody was chosen to be the color Purple, it had to be her. Lady Tsai was always right.

“ Now, Blue, like sky, like ocean. Blue symbolizes Freedom …” I wondered how come Lady Tsai just knew exactly which color meant what … Anyway, freedom should be danced by a free spirit , like me.

“ -- Freedom!!! I can see myself wearing blue tutu, with blue toe-shoes, dancing like a blue bird gliding through the shimmering air… Blue is not my favorite color, but if she let me dance Freedom in blue, I shall love color Blue for the rest of my life. “ What kind of blue would I have as my tutu? Sky blue? Or ocean mist? Pale blue? Or intense royal blue? I could not decide which blue I would love more, meanwhile Lady Tsai chose someone else whose name I could not remember … this only meant that I had never thought she was an excellent dancer. Maybe I just need to open my sight to see what I could not see. Too many surprises and disappointments had already made me a little dizzy …

“ Green is the color of Mother Earth, without green, this world would be very different. “ Lady Tsai seemed to know everything that was important to make this world different.
“ -- I never know green is that important, it is not my color, but I surely like to be important. “ Again, I was contemplating the possibility to dance like Mother Earth while Li-Hey had already stood up to be the green ...

Now there were only three colors left, Orange, Red, and Black. None of them were my favorite colors, Dancing Orange might be ok for me, after all orange could be the color of the Sun. Red? Nay -- Those adults often looked coo-coo when they wore red trying to find a date. I had no desire to be the red, nor black. None of us would want to dance black, that was a color widows wore all the time.

“ Orange is the color of the sun. It is a symbol for the sacred flame that lives in our heart! “ Lady Tsai said plainly. I saw flames in her eyes.

" -- Sacred Flame in people's heart? Wow!!! I like to be that flame in everybody’s heart. I love people. When I was a very little girl, I wanted to marry everybody, now I am old enough to know it is impossible ... Still, I could dance for everybody.Yes, I could hear the music of this dancing flame. Without this flame in our hearts, life would be very cold. Oh, thank you, Lady Tsai, for not choosing me to dance the other colors. I should be this dancing flame that ignite the flames in all hearts … "
Lady Tsai walked toward me, putting her hands on Yu-Lin, the youngest among us all, who sat next to me on my right side … I did my best to be calm and not to allow tears burst out.

“ Red is the color of blood, it symbolize passion and vital force. People often give red rose to their lovers … “
I wanted to be Purple, white, or pink, yellow … maybe green, but not red. I had no feelings about red. So when Lady Tsai chose Gin-Whai to dance the red, I had no emotion at all. I thought that I would just not be in this ballet, which was ok. Please just don’t make me dance that ugly black.

“ Black is the color of the night. It is mysterious and some people associate it with evil. I would like to dance the Black myself if I am young like you. It is very challenging to dance the black …” Lady Tsai talked on the on. She loved color Black because she was an old lady. I felt sleepy.

It was the most uncomfortable moment when Lady Tsai put her hands on my head, while every other girls were giggling. I just could not believe that I should wear a black tutu, in black toe-shoes, dancing this unlucky black ...Plus, I was never e-v-i-l ... How come Lady Tsai could not see my purity? My romantic nautre? My intelligence? My free spirit? My heart? How come she thought I was perfect for this ugly color Black? I could not hold my tears any more. Feeling humiliated and confused, I bursted out in front of everybody.

Lady Tsai was smiling …

Échappé --- Échappé --Chassé--Chassé …..Changement ----Jeté
Lady Tasi spoke those French ballet terms in heavy Japanese accent because she was trained in Japan. I had never asked other girls if they understood the meaning of these French terms.

We just moved with the sounds that came out of her mouth as a coded program. This is not unlike what you see in a cartoon, when a witch chanted an invocation, the spirits began to dance ...

Even to this day, I often ask myself how did that happen when we were little Chinese girls who just understood French?

How did she made us dancing to those Japanese - French ballet terms without missing a count?

Actually, it was not that bad when I begin to learn

The Fantasia of Color Black.

I might not like those black toe-shoes and that black tutu, but the music was really dramatic and enchanting.

First, I felt that I became Lady Tsai, dancing with a long black robe instead of a tutu, weeping a thousand tears in a mysterious, thundering night … These thousands tears bursted into millions and billions and trillions stars, shimmering against the night sky of the forever elusive, and the forever vast ...

Believe this or not, all colors coming out from the stars were her tears… they were infinite colors dancing and breathing like music, and many worlds were born …

Then, I became a black swan glided through the dark clouds, dove into a lake that was bottomless ... I was the Queen of the Silent Night and I was that mysterious abyss … something other than me had taken over. I was no more that shy girl who just wanted to be pure and lovely, I became a presence that was much older than anything I could ever imagine.

Every fiber of my being was spinning into a place that made everything around me simply vanished …

Then, I was in a forest, and soon I became the forest that had no end ... I was the night sky … and I was the ruthless Death ...

I was everyone’s fantasy and fear.

It was a different kind of romance.

I was cold and wild at the same time….

It felt wonderful. I did not know how marvelous it was to be the

color Black ...

Nothing else exist, except me and this color Black,

and then,

I was not me anymore,

but this Black …

I could feel the audience were holding their breath. It was not me dancing, it was that mysterious presence dancing through me.

Then the music stopped, all was silent, nobody made a slightest sound, I could not move but stood still ... like those elusive stars,

forever still.

Slowly, some people began to clap, then the whole house were applauding.

I bowed like a queen without a slightest hint of girlish smile.

The world was under my feet …

I was not that shy girl anymore.

I was something else that never had a name.

Lady Tsai held my hand proudly while receiving those rush in audience at the backstage.

My parents were so shocked that made them kept on asking me --

"How do you feel now? "

They were proud and puzzled at the same moment, just like everything else in this bewildering, timeless time.

That was the moment ...

Neither was I the sweet daughter they had ever known.

Nor did I know who was who any more.

My feet were on fire in those black toe-shoes,

and finally,

I fell in love with my black tutu …

Smiling, nodding at waves of audience like a goddess statue,

Lady Tsai murmured many times in a ultra low tone--

” Only if I can dance again like I used to ... “
Perhaps, I was the only one who could hear her …

Perhaps, I was the only one who had danced her tears …

Perhaps, I was the only one who had witnessed how she gave birth to the stars and colors ...

from those mysterious tears hidden beneath her

goddess like,

everlasting,

triumphant smiles…

Star Light

I remember ...

2005-03-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.punchstock.com

Dancer inside the mirror

2005-03-03T19:54:00.001-08:00

Someone told me that at least 3 bishops were buried where I danced alone, in thousands dark night … It was the crypt of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I had no fear to be there by myself. For me personally, this crypt was the Garden of Eden where dreams got birthed into realities. Surrounded by art studios, there was a stage in the center of this crypt, that looked like a playground for artists, mice, cockroach and spirits …

The directors of Omega dance company, Carla De Solar and Sandra Rivera, were fine artists in their own expression. They generously letting me use their studio after their hours The sound of silence gently embraced us all -- And the sleeping bishops, cockroach, mice, spirits and me, were all dancing together like stars whispering in those ever lasting, cascading diamond nights. Visions like fogs, floating in and out of those mirrors, Atlantis, Egypt, Greece, Tibet, Kingdom of An … were dancing from mirror to mirrors as my mind spiraling from time to no-time… Slowly, one breath, one movement, one image … unfolded like lotus bloom. Neither could I tell the line between dreams and realities, nor could I tell the line between dreams and fantasies. All was vivid and ecstatic … silence could be noisy, if you listen carefully - those stony wall cleared their voice humming endless ancient epic at nights when humans were busily worshipping in the “up-stairs” Cathedral. Ironically, the heartbeats of this Cathedral was in this crypt… oh, yes, the veils were very, very thin when I danced there. Not too many humans really had the awareness of what going on when I was dancing my “underground service” … perhaps, those sleeping bishops would have some appreciation about what was going on.

She was glowing inside the mirror, flying like rays from a thousand suns.
Her hair flowing like cloud as she danced from one side of the room into another side of the mirror … I could not tell the difference between she and I, except she was totally free and I was somewhat shy. This the magic began …

Star Light

A Weaver From the Mirror Realm

2005-02-12T21:17:00.000-08:00

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot:
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shalott.
Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.
But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

source http://faculty.stonehill.edu/geverett/rb/shalott.htm

Lady of Shalotte by John William Waterhouse

2005-02-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

ladyof_shalotte.jpg

Sacred Flame

2005-02-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

whale04w.jpg

you may order the print from
http://www.sacredspaces.net/Mandalas/04Whale.html

Keepers of the Sacred Flame

2005-02-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

She was a fine ballet dancer before she turned herself into a flamenco Gypsy.
She taught herself everything to be the authentic Flamenco dancer --
from her speaking tone, to her body language to her glances …she had lived in Span for this transformation.

I thought she was a Gypsy the first time when I took her class. Later I found out that she was from New Jersey. There were no secret in the studio dressing room. Beautiful dancers were not that beautiful when gossiping in the dressing room. In a comic way, we all knew one another very well in many levels.

I loved her, even though it was hard for me to dance flamenco, too much gravity and too much polarity. I was not interested in “ mating dance “ per se‘, but I was in love with the disciplines that took enormous amount of strength. Above all, I was fascinated with the spell from those feet works. I saw this strength also in another great friend of mine, S. R. … They both had tremendous power that was not too much ethereal but extremely physical. I was like a fairy falling in love with humanity and wanting so much to become part of it. The price of this was high -- I got injured by trying to be physical, just like others got injured by trying to fly.

She made a simple announcement after the class, that she would perform in a Spanish restaurant in Queens, NY,
Dance in a restaurant? In Queens?
Had she not danced enough on great stages or in opera theaters?
I would not tolerate if people were “eating” while I was dancing … No, I would not tolerate being treated as an entertainer ... what was going on here?

It was like in a different world …Small and cozy, like a restaurant in Span instead in Queens, NY. The waitress brought us very fine food for the enjoyment. . I could not really “enjoy” any food at this moment. I was waiting to see a live performance from one of the greatest dancer that I have ever met in this lifetime, and she was my teacher.
There was a small stage with simple lighting, just like any stage in any restaurant. A fat man came to the stage made announcement first in Spanish, then in English -- Ladies and Gentlemen ---
Dressed in black twirling with a guy who dressed in gold like a club magician ... there she was, my beloved teacher M. M.

They did few traditional dance to entertain the guests while the “eaters” were drinking, talking, eating away every finest danced motions.
I could neither eat nor drink … under the spell from the wise ones, story-tellers, shamans and priestesses ... in robes, in veils, with swords, with castanet ...

"they" were all here, dancing through her and dancing around me. She grew taller and taller, her faces turned pale ... legends and myths were decoded in this moment while she and I were dance as one in spirit … I became her, sweat, on fire, spinning away layers of concepts and ideas, burning away the flesh, and turned into that one flame… Step by step, we marched together ... We were ancient and ageless, we were the priestess in the temple of Harthor, the temple of Isis, and the Temple of Aum, we were burned as witches in the Dark Age, somehow it has lasted to this day … then, I saw hero in the battle field, left their bodies behind in dignity like what has been told in those ancient songs …I saw babies ... and we have been coming back, beautiful and brilliant more than ever, like the flowers in the Springs ... Every cell in my fiber was telling a thousand stories ... I did not understand Spanish but I “saw” the stories behind the songs …such union, such beauty ...through my tearing eyes, I saw the glittering dew drops in her eyes.

Keep on dancing, keep on breathing … we travelled beyond space and time, lifetimes memories were spinning through our veins ... dust to dust, only pearls remain. Then we were back to this room, seperated again ... Fanned by my gazed, her firy feet tunred this tiny stage into a bonfire while I was sitting in my chair, sweating ... the whole restaurant felt like a cave now, women in black danced their dreams and sorrow, firy chanted with men, in tight pants, who danced like wild bull ... In a moment, those dancers vanished into the cigarette smoke, and the applause brought me back to my seat. Then, I knew why she chose to dance on this humble stage ... My soul was sobbing in ecstasy, there was much more to remember and much more to forget …

Deliberately, she bowed, with her eyes lowered, and a subtle glance just for me. Tears were but sparks … to kindle the fire for the sleepy souls …

Serving humanity in the midst of self-important consumers, Keepers of the Sacred Flame often in humble disguise, like a rare bird to be found.

She came to our table, graciously talked to my best friend M.P. who was my husband then.
Slowly, she looked into my eyes :
“ I danced for you tonight! “
Tears glittering …
We know that this Dance shall never end …

Star Light

It takes some sophistication to be that Simple!

2005-02-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

Every artist begins her / his journey as a Want-to-be.
We might feel oneness with a great poet,
As if we were twin flames from the time before time
We then trying to converse with that mind
Sadly we see our words have no gist but yeast …
We might be gifted in strength and insights,
Or having some external charm,
Perhaps a passionate yearning to become
something we could not yet
simple Be
We wish to fly like the greatest ballerina in our mind
Only to find our physical bodies were left behind, weeping, cursing

and not to understand
The secret key of those disciplines.
How come one is flying in ecstasy and another is injured and creepy?
Don’t be fooled by someone’s natural grace?
Without discipline she/he is just as creepy as all the want-to-be
Too many minds -- never mind!
Simple grace looks effortless.
It does take some effort to become effortless

-- by practice.
Practice what?

-- Some repeated patterns like boring routine?
If the practice become a boring routine,

it is time to change our mind.
All disciplines are about the mind.
To master the discipline is to master the mind.

Star Light

Discipline

2005-02-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Discipline is any training intended to produce a specific character or pattern of behaviour, especially training that produces moral or mental development in a particular direction.

Discipline can also refer to the following:
Discipline may be a euphemism for punishment, in particular corporal punishment.
A discipline is a branch of a profession or an academic field of knowledge.
A discipline can be a catgory in which a certain sport belongs, or a sub-category of said sport.
A line discipline imposes a specific character or pattern of behaviour on a computer serial link.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discipline

Bull Rite

2005-02-04T23:34:00.000-08:00

bull_rite.jpg

I Got This In My Blood

2005-02-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

Twirling within this brilliant flame
I see many “I” in different Ages,

In different costumes,
In different mind-sets
Dancing this eternal flame
She taught us how to bow
In this Flamenco style
Like a cunning Gypsy
She lowered her eyes
To someone special that I could not see
I could not bow the way she bowed
I had always bowed to All

And I did not lower my gaze
No, no fairy in this class -- she said
Flamenco is different than ballet
Don’t give everything away

in that bright light

Life is never black or white
Stay in the void

As long as I could

I got this in my blood

Shimmering

Dancing flames

Just now
From her

Circling palms

From the tiny voice

That circles my arms

Star Light

She Taught Us the Ancient Bull Rite

2005-02-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

It is the final moments of this class,
She taught us the Ancient Bull Rite
Her arms raising like horns
In between those horns
Shimmering like the flame from the
Valley below

Mountain gate stand still
Like the great mother telling

the story
From the beginning of all time

Never end

She hums
I could see those ancient ones
Dancing like gods by my side
Whirling flame like sunlight and moonlight

All stars are dancing in this

One flame
I am in my full glory, dance to the great ones

They bow to me and I bow to them

Together we dance the Ancient Bull Rite

Never to be tamed
Never to be seperated

For this is the night we dance

As thousand sparks in one flame

You shall always see me in your mind

Especially when you look into a flame

And dance like one

Star Light

I woke up one morning

2005-02-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

"I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...
and replaced by exact duplicates. "

-- by Steven Wright

How does a dancer / choreographer / artist deal with the fact
that her / his work has been cheaply copied?
Nobody can really replace the “exact duplicated” of another artist’s work because they do not have the same frequency; and they do not have the same mind. How about the exact duplicate of another artist's statement? Or the imitation of another’s style?

Here is an story from the ancient China:
The great King, Fu-Tzai, from the kingdom WU had many wives.
Two of the most outstanding ones were called “ The Beauty From the West Palace “ and “ The Beauty From the East Palace.”
The Beauty From the West Palace had a very tragical life, that made her frown a lot.
King Fu-Tzai would give her all kind of precious gifts whenever she frowned just to make her smile again.
In his eyes, she was always beautiful -- even when she frowned ... then, she was even more beautiful when she turned her frown into smile.
Now, everyone in the palace knew how much she was loved.
The Beauty From the East Palace got very jealous and she tried her best to win the favor back.
She bought those servants to find out the other’s perfumes, her dresses and her likes and dislikes …
She found out the real secret was that King Fu-Tzai gave "the other" great gifts whenever she frowned.
Now our Beauty From the East Palace began to dress like our Lady from the West Palace, she made herself smell like the other, having soft voice like the other … above all the imitations she had borrowed from the other, she began to frown bitterly in front of the King …
Guess what?
Very soon the king did not visit The Beauty From the East Palace anymore.
Our Lady from the West became the Queen.

It is easy to copy the external from others, but it takes courage and wisdom to be the original.

My work had been copied many times and my statements had been duplicated by someone who just “ loved “ me unbelievably, badly. The funny fact about this is that no matter what kind of PR she did to promote herself, people always come to acknowledge me.
Why do I need any acknowledgement from these people?
Why do I create this kind of reality?

I have to laugh with the stars ...
The stars are laughing too.
They have seen so much … they have seen my anger, they have seen my rage ,
They have seen my letting go of the "stolen style" and start anew…
And this new expression is even more profound ...

I have no word for this, so there is no way to be "duplicated."
Ha ha … ha ….ha ha…

Star Light

The Mirror

2005-02-04T01:08:00.000-08:00

yienan_labyrinth.jpg

The Mirror Never Lies to Me

2005-02-03T23:32:00.000-08:00

The mirror never lies to me
It is magical
It is multi-dimensional
It shows me what I am able to see
It hides away what I could not handle
It is so magical
I have to work with its depth instead of surface
Don’t ever look into a mirror before you are ready to see

Especially when standing next to the ballet barre
Many dancers do this unconsciously,
That is why they are not that great

No matter what kind of techniques they display
A great dancer seeing the mirror in her / his own mind

Before they launch into the tangible world

The body simply follow the mind
After we could perceive ourselves from within
In the brilliance of our multi-dimensional selves
Now it is time to look into the mirror
Just to see what an “audience” might perceive

Objectively
A great artist knows the secret of bridging _
To bridge different worlds in one simple movement
To travel in dimensions in one breath

To take our audience soaring beyond their seats

To allow them merge with us in spirit

Without a second delay
When we have a glance of our divinity
Who dances inside the mirror

Don't let our fragil personality to interpret

How could the shell of an oyster

Explain the depth of the pearls?
Keep on dancing, keep on seeing
Don’t ever doubt about what we see
We see what we see
So let it be

Star Light

Beautiful?!?!

2005-02-03T21:36:00.000-08:00

classical_cover.jpg

This is every little dancers' dream

2005-02-03T21:23:00.000-08:00

ballet.jpg

This is going to be a long working night

2005-02-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a long working night.
He was not “inspired” tonight.
“ I don’t want to see this, don’t show me your undisciplined legs;

I don't want to see that, don’t show me your sleeping belly!!
The choreographer is the king or the queen in this room.
They have the power to tell you whether or not your life as a dancer is worthy of living.
No, actually they are more like high-priests or high-priestesses;
They have the power to choose the chosen ones, it might not be you.
Some of them would keep on telling you what they don’t want to see …
They might never figure out what they do want to see for a long, long time.
They are also brilliant ones, who are blessed with visions and the gift to inspire dancers to fly.
You could be a pain in the neck for one choreographer, and a brilliant star for another.
Sounds like marriage? Does it not?

The choreographers can also be a total ass-hole one night, and a total genius

another night.

Sounds like some gods/goddesses? " Does it not?

Could it be possible that many choreographers were priests and priestesses in a different timelines?

Perhaps, Shaman?

They love to play gods.

Actually, we all do.

Many dancers have love / hate relationships with the choreographers just

like what humans have with the gods.

I did not understand why they were so detached until I became a choreographer myself ...

Star Light

Beautiful! Do That Again!

2005-02-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Beautiful! Do that again!
Again?
Yes, again, and again, and again …
It is our job to be beautiful.
“ Beautiful! “ has become an mantra.
It has the power to keep us fly.
It has the power to keep us conquer the weakness of our flesh.
It has the power to get us into trance and perform the super-nature.
“ Beautiful!” has a different meaning for dancers.

It has nothing to do with pretty faces ...

This actually could be an insult if this is all you have ...

Beautiful!
It means that you have done something precious and brilliant,

It means that you have mastered certain discipline,
It means that you have fulfilled you “duty .”

Star Light

True Beaty Does Not Fade

2005-02-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

ice20723.jpg
http://www.discountgraphics.net/animals/wild/wildlife2.html

Bear Hug

2005-02-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

bear_hug.jpg source
http://www.discountgraphics.net/animals/wild/wildlife2.html

Beauty Quotes

2005-02-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity --Plato

By plucking her petals, You do not gather the beauty of the flower.

--Rabindrath Tagore

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper. --Aristotle

As a white candle In a holy place, So is the beauty Of an aged face. --Joseph Campbell

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. --Albert Einstein

The lover knows much more about absolute good and universal beauty than logician or theologian, unless the latter, too, be lovers in disguise --George Santayana (1863-1952)

You are to gather up the joys and sorrows, the struggles, the beauty, love, dreams and hopes of every hour that they may be consecrated at the altar of daily life. --MacRina Wiederkehr

Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built --James Allen

People are like stained glass windows -- the true beauty can be seen only when there is light from within. The darker the night, the brighter the windows --Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Beauty is in the eye of it's beholder. --Unknown

Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but reality (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may. --Plato

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise. --Marcus Aurelius

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting. --John Kenneth Galbraith

I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want--an adorable pancreas? --Jean Kerr

The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one's soul shine through. If there are places on your body where this is a possibility, you are not attractive--you are leaking. --Fran Lebowitz

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all --W. Somerset Maugham

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. --Edgar Allen Poe

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own--even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being --Katherine Anne Porter

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light. --John Ruskin

To me, fair friend, you never can be old For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. --William Shakespeare

The beauty of male has not yet been portrayed by the only one who can do so-the female --G. C. Lichtenberg

Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail. --Navajo Song

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. --Franz Kafka

Practice random beauty and senseless acts of love. --Anonymous

Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy, and my plain dealing; 'tis all I have to recommend me to the esteem either of others or myself. --Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) English author

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them. --David Hume

To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed. --Bernard Edmonds

May the sun bring you new energies by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away any worries you may have. May gentle breezes refresh your soul and all the days of your life, may you walk gently through the world and know its beauty. --Unknown

There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That's all there is to it. If an activity is not grounded in 'to love' or 'to learn,' it does not have value. --Anne Rice

What ever beauty may be, it has for its basis order, and for its essence unity. - --Father Andre

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. --Eleanor Roosevelt

source http://home.att.net/~quotations/beauty.html

Natural Beauty

2005-02-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

giraffe.jpg

Essays of Francis Bacon

2005-02-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

Of Beauty
VIRTUE is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best, in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue; as if nature were rather busy, not to err, than in labor to produce excellency. And therefore they prove accomplished, but not of great spirit; and study rather behavior, than virtue. But this holds not always: for Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Belle of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits; and yet the most beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that of favor, is more than that of color; and that of decent and gracious motion, more than that of favor. That is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot express; no, nor the first sight of the life. There is no excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler; whereof the one, would make a personage by geometrical proportions; the other, by taking the best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent. Such personages, I think, would please nobody, but the painter that made them. Not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music), and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that if you examine them part by part, you shall find never a good; and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel, though persons in years seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum autumnus pulcher; for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth, as to make up the comeliness. Beauty is as summer fruits,) which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine, and vices blush.
source http://insights2.org/divinity/Bacon43.html

I Am a Tree Hugger, What Are You?

2005-02-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

raccoon_tree.jpg

Inanna: Lady of heaven Mother of earth Mistress of the underworld

2005-02-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

INANNA.jpg

I used to be very beautiful

2005-02-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

gor_ang.jpg

from In a Chariot Drawn by Lions, Asphodel P. Long

2005-02-02T19:21:00.000-08:00

In other places we are told about the 'temple harlots'. These have a long and honourable history, reflected in the Hebrew word which is translated into English as prostitute, harlot, sodomite, and even dog. the words qadeshot and qadeshem derive from the word qodosh, which means holy. They were in fact the 'holy ones', women and men, who served in the temple.
Their name is linked with that of the Goddess Qodsha or Kadesh, the Holy One who gave her name to a city of which she is likely to have been the titular goddess. She is depicted in the British museum. Naked, she stands with a lion or panther, she carries a lotus blossom and a mirror, and is attended by two snakes. Other representations of her show her with serpents and with stars. She is described as 'mistress of all the gods'.
The temple service appears to have lasted from the early third-millennium BCE until the return of the Jews from exile in around 500 BCE or perhaps longer. It seems to be connected originally with the ceremony of the sacred marriage. This was the heart of the seasonal ritual in ancient Mesopotamia, among many other places. p. 132
This ritual marriage (hieros gamos), in which the king represents the people of the earth and the priestess the goddess, was a magical means of helping the land and the people flourish, and it also provided the king with his royal authority to rule. ...the hieros gamos seems to have also meant that the goddess in the person of the priestess was sharing her divinity and the king respresenting the people was accepting it in trust to fulfill their needs. There was participation on the part of humans in the holy, and the divine in the world itself.

Isis

2005-02-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

isis.jpg

Pleasing " the boss? "

2005-02-02T15:53:00.000-08:00

anunnaki.jpg

Anunnaki

2005-02-02T15:35:00.000-08:00

The Anunnaki are a group of Sumerian mythological deities. Anunnaki means "those who came from heaven to Earth" (Anu = Heaven / Sky, na = to come, Ki = Earth). The Anunnaki were the gods of ancient Sumer, one of the earliest known human civilizations. The head of the Anunnaki council was the Great Anu, the sky god. His throne was inherited by Enlil, resulting in a dispute between Enlil and his cousin Enki regarding who was the rightful leader. Enki was an alchemist and was said to have created mankind.

UFO conspiracy theory
Some UFO conspiracy theorists such as Zecharia Sitchin, Laurence Gardner and David Icke claim that the Anunnaki were in fact extra-terrestrials who came to Earth in antiquity and created or tampered with the genetic makeup of primitive Homo sapiens.
According to Sitchin, these beings live on a planet called Nibiru, allegedly the 12th planet of our own solar system, while some other channeled material claim that they actually came from the Pleiades. Other theories also claim that they are of reptilian nature and that they fed on human flesh. Some of this theory is based on the idea that we have not found a "missing link", on the Sumerians' knowledge of the solar system, and on the Sumerians' crediting their knowledge and crafts directly to the gods (the concept of me).

Astarte and Her Sacred Beasts

2005-02-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

Astarte.jpg

The Birth of Aphrodite

2005-02-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

Aphrodite_Venus_Ishtar jpg

Ishtar / Astarte / Inanna

2005-02-02T14:23:00.002-08:00

Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess ' A Ashtart<>. Anunit, Astarte and Atarsamain are alternate names for Ishtar. Inanna, twin of Utu/Shamash, children of Nannar/Sin, first born on Earth of En.Lil. The first names given are Sumerian, the second name derives from the first Semitic people, the Akkadians. Adding an [sh] to a name is typical Akkadian, as Anu to Anush.
The goddess represents the planet Venus (a continent on which is named Ishtar Terra by astronomers today). The double aspect of the goddess may correspond to the strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons. In Sumerian the planet itself is called "MUL.DILI.PAT", meaning "unique star". The meaning of Inanna (sometimes spelled Inana) is "Great Lady of An" (An being the god of heaven). The meaning of Ishtar is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem is the same as that of Assur, which would thus make her the "leading one" or "chief". In any event, it is now generally recognized that the name is Semitic in origin.
The Sumerian Inanna was first worshiped at Uruk (Erech in the Bible, Unug in Sumerian) in the earliest period of Mesopotamian history. In incantations, hymns, myths, epics, votive inscriptions, and historical annals, Inanna/Ishtar was celebrated and invoked as the force of life. But there were two aspects to this goddess of life. The goddess of fertility and sexuality could also destroy the fields and make the earth's creatures infertile. She was invoked as a goddess of war, battles, and the chase, particularly among the warlike Assyrians. Before the battle Ishtar would appear to the Assyrian army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and arrow. (She was probably the precursor to the Greek Athena.)
One of the most striking Sumerian myths describes Inanna passing through seven gates of hell into the underworld. At each gate some of her clothing and her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked. The queen of the underworld kills her and hangs her corpse on a hook on the wall. When Inanna returns from the underworld by intercession of the clever god, her Uncle, Enki, according to the rules she must find someone to take her place. On her way home she encounters her friends prostrated with grief at her loss, but in Kulaba, her cult city, she finds her lover Dumuzi, a son of Enki, Tammuz seated in splendour on a throne, so she has him seized and dragged below. Later, missing him, she arranges for his sister to substitute for him during six months of the year. (This is probably the origin of the Greek story of Persephone which renders the females in the story helpless and transfers Inanna's power to the god of the underworld.)
In all the great centres Inanna and then Ishtar had her temples: E-anna, "house of An", in Uruk; E-makh, "great house", in Babylon; E-mash-mash, "house of offerings", in Nineveh. Inanna was the guardian of prostitutes, and probably had priestess-prostitutes to serve her. She was served by priests as well as by priestesses. The (later) votaries of Ishtar were virgins who, as long as they remained in her service, were not permitted to marry.
On monuments and seal-cylinders Inanna/Ishtar appears frequently with bow and arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast or holding a child.
Together with the moon god Nanna or Suen (Sin in Akkadian), and the sun god Utu (Shamash in Akkadian), Inanna/Ishtar is the third figure in a triad deifying and personalizing the moon, the sun, and the earth: Moon (wisdom), Sun (justice) and Earth (life force). This triad overlies another: An, heaven; Enlil, earth; and Enki (Ea in Akkadian), the watery deep.
Ishtar is also an omnipresent figure in the epic of Gilgamesh.

Religious prostitution

2005-02-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

Religious prostitution, the vulgar epithet for hieros gamos, is the practice of having religiously motivated sexual relationships. A woman engaged in such practices is sometimes called a temple prostitute or hierodule, though modern connotations of the term prostitute cause interpretations of these phrases to be highly misleading.
It was revered highly among Sumerians and Babylonians. In ancient sources (Herodotus, Thucydides) there are many traces of hieros gamos, starting perhaps with Babylon, where each woman had to reach, once a year, the sanctuary of Militta (Aphrodite or Nana/Anahita), and there have sex with a foreigner, as a sign of hospitality, for a symbolic price.
A similar type of prostitution was practiced in Cyprus (Paphos) and in Corinth, Greece, where the temple counted more than a thousand prostitutes (hyerodules), according to Strabo. It was widely in use in Sardinia and in some of the Phoenician cultures, usually in honour of the goddess

Feline Geisha

2005-02-02T02:14:00.000-08:00

geisha_cat.jpg by Susan Herbert

Courtesan

2005-02-02T01:58:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A courtesan is a person paid and/or supported for the giving of social companionship and intimate liaisons to one or more partners. The word is generally reserved for those who enjoyed the most social status for such services. Although the term has been applied to people from several cultures and historical periods, it is most applicable for those to whom it was first given: the women of Renaissance Europe who held a socially recognized, if not quite socially accepted, position as well-compensated companions.

The role of courtesans should be neither overly romanticized nor offhandedly scorned. On the positive side, they had freedoms that were extremely rare for other women at the time. They were not only financially comfortable (when business was good) but financially independent, with control of their own resources rather than dependency on male relatives. They were very well-educated, compared even to upper-class women, and often held simultaneous careers as performers and artists.

On the negative side, courtesans were, as a means of survival, dependent on upper-class "protectors" to provide them with shelter and support. They were required to provide charming companionship for extended periods, no matter what their own feelings might be at the time. They were also, because of the sexual aspects of their profession, subject to lower social status and religious disapproval. They were sometimes limited in their apparel by various sumptuary laws and were restricted in where they could appear at social functions. Periods of overt religious piety in a city would often lead to persecutions of the courtesans, up to and including accusations of witchcraft.

Compare with: prostitute, geisha, hetaira, escort, tawaif.
References
The Book of the Courtesans, Susan Griffin, Broadway Books

Ophelia by Susan Herbert

2005-02-02T01:56:00.000-08:00

cats_Susan Herbert jpg

Where does the Ballet come from?

2005-02-02T01:41:00.000-08:00

pas_de_deux_jpg

Bronze Courtesan

2005-02-02T01:36:00.000-08:00

bronze-c jpg

Geisha

2005-02-02T01:33:00.000-08:00

(芸者) are traditional Japanese artist-entertainers. The word geisha literally means "art person" or "artisan." Geisha were very common in the 18th and 19th centuries, and are still in existence today, although their numbers are dwindling.
The geisha tradition evolved from the taikomochi or hōkan, similar to court jesters. The first geisha were all male; as women began to take the role they were known as onna geisha (女芸者), or "woman geisha." Geisha today are exclusively female.

Characters for Geisha, lit. "Art person".
Geisha were traditionally trained from young childhood. Young girls were often bought from poor families by geisha houses who took responsibility for raising and training them. During their childhood they worked first as maids, then as assistants to the house's senior geisha as part of their training and to contribute to the costs of their upkeep and education. This is part of a very long tradition of this form of training which still exists in Japan, where a student lives at the home of a master of some art, starting out doing general housework and observing and assisting the master, and eventually moving up to become a master in their own right (see also irezumi). This training often lasts for many years.
They began studying a wide range of arts from a young age too, including musical instruments (particularly the shamisen) and traditional forms of singing, traditional dance, tea ceremony, flower arranging (ikebana), poetry and literature. By watching and assisting senior geisha, they became skilled in the complex traditions surrounding selecting, matching, and wearing precious kimono, and in various games and the art of conversation, and also in dealing with clients.
Once a woman became an apprentice geisha (a maiko) she would begin to accompany senior geisha to the tea houses, parties and banquets that constitute a geisha's work environment. To some extent, this traditional method of training persists, though it is by necessity forshortened, since most geisha now begin their training in their late teens.
Geisha are not prostitutes. Although in the past the right to take their virginity (an event called a mizuage) was sold, they were not obliged to have sex with any customers, even the men who paid dearly for their virginity.
Modern geisha are no longer bought by or brought into geisha houses as children. Becoming a geisha is now entirely voluntary, and women who are not the children of geisha by necessity begin their training, which remains extremely long and difficult, at much older age. The practice of mizuage is a thing of the past.

Courtesan in Japan

2005-02-02T01:31:00.000-08:00

courtesan.jpg

Nature reflection

2005-02-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

fallmirror.jpg

Goddess and Her Mirror

2005-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

goddess_ mirror.jpg

Mirror

2005-02-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

mirror.jpg

About Immaculate Conception

2005-02-01T19:10:00.000-08:00

The most vivid symbol of lunar receptiveness is the mirror. Often the Goddess herself is shown holding a mirror for this reason. It is also a symbol of purity, or virginity. Though reflecting everything around it, the mirror itself is untouched by the reflections it contains. This is a true analogy whereby to unerstand the Immaculate Conception, which is nothing to do with physical sex, but with how the Materia Prima, or the original substance of the Universe, holds all forms, even the Universal Man himself, while Herself remaining untouched. A mirror on the altar can remind you that this is the detached, yet sensitive state you wish to retainin order not to be carried away by all that you reflect and are required for.

excerpt form Journey of the Priestess

by Asia Shepsut

2005-02-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

henna_handsfaded.jpg

2005-02-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

Salome

2005-02-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

Dance of the 7 Veils

Again, O Shulamite, Dance Again

2005-02-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

(7.1) Again, o Shulamite, dance again, that we may watch you dancing!

(7.2) Why do you gaze at the Shulamite as she whirls down the rows of dancers? O noblemans daughter The gold of your thigh shaped by a master craftsman

(7.3) Your navel is the moon's bright drinking cup may it brim with wine!

(7.4) Your belly is mound of wheat edged with lilies your breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

Song Solomon 3

from: Song of Solomon

http://www.a-voice.org/bible-vw/song.htm

The Cult of the Black Virgin

2005-01-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

the cult of the black virgin

The Black Madonna

2005-01-31T21:39:00.000-08:00

From Thunder, the Perfect Mind

2005-01-31T21:26:00.000-08:00

Do not be ignorant of me
For it is I who am the first, and the last
It is I who am the revealed, and the dispised
It is I who am the harlot and the holy
It is I who am incomprehensible silence
It is I who am the voice and whose sounds are so nnumerous
It is I who am the utterance of my name
It is I who am called life
And whom you have called death
It is I who am called law
And whom you have called lawless
For it is I alone who exist ...

- the thunder, Perfect Mind
from the Nag Hammadi Library

Sacred Harlot?

2005-01-31T21:19:00.000-08:00

She Who Knows

2005-01-31T21:08:00.000-08:00

She Who Gives Life and Loves Life

2005-01-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

What is the Christed?

2005-01-31T20:39:00.000-08:00

We have often seen the Black Madonna with a baby in her arms. Could the baby be Sara, Jesus's daughter, instead of being Jesus? What is " the Christed? "

The Christed ones are the ones whose personality is one with the God-within. There are many Christed in the human history. They shall stay unseen by the dualities. When Jesus said -- I Am the Only One. Could it be the Only One, that is you and me and our loved ones and our hated ones ... and everyone else, simply because We Are One. There is Only One, that is you and me and those who we don't even know who they are.

Just remember the word WAR means We Are Right ... and please do remember that the Christed lives inside

you and me.

Star Light

Who is She?

2005-01-31T20:37:00.000-08:00

Black Madonna

2005-01-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

by Zimdonna

THE MYSTIQUE OF MARY MAGDALENE

2005-01-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

The very name of Mary Magdalene conjures up in many, the question, ‘who was Mary Magdalene?’ Apparently she was a great woman with great power for the Catholic Church to subjugate her into a meaningless role and into the background behind Jesus and his mother the so-called Virgin Mary.
It was at the Council of Nicea convened in 325 A.D. by the Emperor Constantine that the New Testament was born. Constantine had consulted the writings left by a female Oracle 500 years previous, which foretold that he would have to create a new religion in order to keep his empire and expand it. Therefore, Mary Magdalene was portrayed as a prostitute, a woman who had seven demons caste out of her and possibly was about to be stoned when Jesus intervened.
In my book, Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, I portray the Magdalene as she possibly was based on my extensive research. It is quite possible that the name ‘Mary’ was a title given to priestesses of some renown. She was a powerful priestess and an equal of Jesus and all of his disciples.
As much as there have been those who had wanted to eradicate her from history, the Knights Templar left a legacy of her presence and her rich heritage in the building of the gothic churches in France and elsewhere. One only has to have an open mind with eyes that see to note the evidence of the reverence they held her in. She represents the wisdom of the feminine that so much of mankind has attempted to suppress.
My research indicates she was black and Ethiopian. Why else would the Black Madonna be so prevalent in almost all the churches in France and in parts of Spain? It is worth a trip to these areas to see for oneself. These Madonnas have a history of miraculous healings.
This is the age of woman and women are awakening to their worth and their power. I wrote Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls so that some semblance of her greatness can be made known to the world. There is within each of us the same greatness yet unrealized.

Bettye Johnson
http://www.magdalenescrolls.com/index.htm

Black Modonna

2005-01-31T20:27:00.000-08:00

Who is the Black Modonna?

2005-01-31T20:19:00.000-08:00

When I was in Brazil, I was facinated with the Black Modonna churches.

Some of them were paved in pure gold. My Brazilian friends told me that the gold there never got stolen. This is a sign of how BlacK Modonna is

" the Mom ." She is the All Seeing Eyes. She is the Eternal Bliss.

-- Star Light

Mary Magdalena

2005-01-31T16:19:00.000-08:00

She Again with An Egg

2005-01-31T16:17:00.000-08:00

She and her Beloved

2005-01-31T16:16:00.000-08:00

She, again, with his skull

2005-01-31T16:14:00.000-08:00

by Elcreco

The Mystery of Mary Magdalene

2005-01-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

And who Mary Magdalene is. That’s because the Gnostic picture of Mary departs—in some ways, dramatically—from the historical and biblical image of perhaps the most significant female follower of Jesus.
“If you read the New Testament you see that every one of the writings is attributed to a man,” Pagels pointed out. “In the New Testament there are the women and the ‘disciples.’ You know that the women aren’t the disciples, and the disciples aren’t the women.
“Suddenly you find in the [Gnostic] Gospel of Thomas that six disciples are named: Matthew and Thomas, James and Peter, Mary Magdalene and Salome.” (Pagels is quick to make the distinction between this Salome, identified in the Gospel of Luke as one of the women who followed Jesus, and the Salome who danced for the head of John the Baptist.)
“Here, explicitly, Mary Magdalene is Jesus’ disciple. In the Gospel of Thomas and also the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, she is seen as an evangelist and a teacher, somebody who is gifted with revelations and teachings from Jesus which are very powerful and which enable her to be a spiritual inspiration to others.”
Pagels believes it’s that perception of Mary Magdalene that the early church adhered to. The Gnostic writings—which were widely circulated among Christians throughout the Mediterranean—depict her as something of a mystic who had visions and was privy to some of Jesus’ most esoteric teachings. It’s clear from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene that her supposedly intimate relationship with Jesus, however the word “intimate” is interpreted, did not sit well with all of the disciples.
“She speaks to the other disciples about Jesus and what she’s seen, and Peter says, ‘I don’t believe the Lord said these things. These are certainly strange ideas.’ And she says, ‘Well, do you think I made them up? Do you think I’m lying about the Lord?’ ” Pagels says, paraphrasing a section involving Peter and Andrew toward the end of the gospel. “That debate probably reflects what happened in early Christian communities.”
Like Levi, who rose to Mary’s defense in response to Peter’s challenge, some Gnostic and early Christian writers apparently took a far more favorable view of Jesus’ female friend, but by the third century, her influence had been greatly diminished by those church fathers who were determined to relegate women to a lesser status (perhaps unintentionally affirming a sentiment attributed to Peter in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas: “Mary should leave us. Females are not worthy of life.”) Although women were openly functioning as priests and teachers and enjoyed a higher acceptance in the church than elsewhere in society, female leaders were branded as heretics by some of the more powerful church leaders, such as the second-century Irenaeus.
It was in the Middle Ages that Mary Magdalene’s association with prostitution became solidified, when a church leader—without any clear evidence to support his theory—identified her as the “immoral woman” referred to in Luke 7:38. The identification remains today among some Christian groups. Pagels believes that labeling Mary a prostitute was a means of dealing with the problem of women in church leadership. “They countered with, ‘No, she wasn’t a disciple and an evangelist and an intimate companion of the Lord, she was a prostitute.’ It was a way of not only slandering women but also attacking their presumption in claiming to take roles that one particular father of the church said were masculine functions,” Pagels said.
Over the centuries, the church did little to correct the image of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, all the while reinforcing her image as a repentant sinner. That, to Pagels, raises questions not only about the church’s authority but also about its view of sexuality. “If Mary Magdalene wasn’t a prostitute,” she asks, “what else was the church not telling us?”
An equally important question is one that Ann Braude picks up on: What did all this mean for women throughout church history—and history in general?

source http://www.explorefaith.org/ford/mary.html

Mary Magdalena

2005-01-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

by Da Vinci

Dancing Salome

2005-01-31T05:36:00.000-08:00

Salome

John the Dipper

2005-01-31T05:29:00.000-08:00

John the Baptist (also called John the Baptizer or John the Dipper) is regarded as a prophet by at least three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Mandaeanism. According to the Gospel of Luke, he was a relative of Jesus. That he was a prophet is asserted by the Gospels of the Christian Bible and the Qur'an (see also prophets of Islam). Eastern Orthodox Christians also refer to him as John the Forerunner because he was the forerunner of Christ

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Baptist

John the Baptist

2005-01-31T05:23:00.000-08:00

by Da Vinci

Ballet Gaia

2005-01-31T05:17:00.000-08:00

History of Ballet

2005-01-31T05:13:00.000-08:00

Ballet has its roots in Renaissance court spectacle in Italy, but was particularly shaped by the French ballet de cour, which consisted of social dances performed by the nobility in tandem with music, speech, verse, song, pageant, decor, and costume. Ballet began to develop as a separate art form in France during the reign of Louis XIV, who was passionate about dance and determined to reverse a decline in dance standards that began in the 17th century. The king established the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661, the same year in which the first comédie-ballet, composed by Jean-Baptist Lully was performed. This early form consisted of a play in which the scenes were separated by dances. Lully soon branched out into opéra-ballet, and a school to train professional dancers was attached to the Académie Royale de Musique, where instruction was based on noble deportment and manners.
The 18th Century was a period of great advancement in the technical standards of ballet and the period when ballet became a serious dramatic art form on par with the Opera. Central to this advance was the seminal work of Jean-Georges Noverre, Lettres sur la danse et les ballets (1760), which focused on developing the ballet d'action, in which the movements of the dancers are designed to express character and assist in the narrative. Reforms were also being made in ballet composition by composers such as Christoph Gluck. Finally, opera was divided into three formal techniques sérieux, demi-caractère, and comique. Ballet also came to be featured in operas as interludes called divertissements.
The 19th Century was a period of great social change, which was reflected in ballet by a shift away from the aristocratic sensibilities that had dominated ealier periods through Romantic ballet. Ballerinas such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler pioneered new techniques such as pointework that rocketed the ballerina into prominence as the ideal stage figure, professional librettists began crafting the stories in ballets, and teachers like Carlo Blasis codified ballet technique in the basic form that is still used today. Ballet began to decline after 1850 in most parts of the western world, but remained vital in Denmark and , most notably, Russia thanks to masters such as August Bournonville, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa. Russian companies, particularly after World War II enganged in multiple tours all over the world that revitalized ballet in the west and made it a form of entertainment embraced to one degree or another by the general public.

source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet

I would like to learn

2005-01-31T04:48:00.000-08:00

how to be beautiful

Love and Death

2005-01-31T04:42:00.000-08:00

Beauty Judge?

2005-01-31T04:10:00.000-08:00

Cat conference by Susan Herbert

Leonardo -- right to left

2005-01-31T04:02:00.000-08:00

Leonardo wrote in Italian using a special kind of shorthand that he invented himself. People who study his notebooks have long been puzzled by something else, however. He usually used "mirror writing", starting at the right side of the page and moving to the left. Only when he was writing something intended for other people did he write in the normal direction.

source http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/LeonardoRighttoLeft.html

what does she see?

2005-01-31T03:43:00.000-08:00

Art work by Da Vinci

If music be the food of Love -- from Twelfth Night

2005-01-31T03:38:00.000-08:00

If music be the food of love, play on;Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,The appetite may sicken, and so die.That strain again! it had a dying fall:O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,That breathes upon a bank of violets,Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,That, notwithstanding thy capacityReceiveth as the sea, nought enters there,Of what validity and pitch soe'er,But falls into abatement and low price,Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancyThat it alone is high fantastical.

source http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/12night.html#III-IV

The 12th Niight

2005-01-31T03:26:00.000-08:00

by Susan Herbert

A Master Would Tell You ...

2005-01-31T03:22:00.000-08:00

About the word " Doctrine "

2005-01-31T01:54:00.000-08:00

Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means "a body of teachings" or "instructions", taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogy is the etymology of catechism.
Often doctrine specifically connotes a corpus of religious dogma as it is promulgated by a church, but not necessarily: doctrine is also used to refer to a principle of law, in the common law traditions, established through a history of past decisions, such as the doctrine of self-defense, or the principle of fair use, or the more narrowly applicable first-sale doctrine.
In matters of foreign policy, a doctrine is a body of axioms fundamental to the exercise of a nation's foreign policy. Hence, "doctrine,' in this sense, has come to suggest a broad consistency that holds true across a spectrum of acts and actions. Doctrines of this sort are almost always presented as the personal creations of one paticular political leader, whom they are named after. Examples include the Monroe Doctrine, the Stimson Doctrine, the Truman Doctrine, the Eisenhower Doctrine, the Brezhnev Doctrine, and the less catchy Bush administration doctrine of military preeminence, and the Kirkpatrick doctrine.
In the US it has become something of a tradition for each President to have his own doctrine. See list of US Presidential Doctrines.
Sometimes 'doctrine' is an ambitious word for a mere slogan: the slogan 'Peace through strength' is termed a 'doctrine' at Wikipedia.
The term also applies to the concept of an established procedure to a complex operation in warfare. The typical example is tactical doctrine in which a standard set of maneuvers, kinds of troops and weapons are employed as a default approach to a kind of attack.
Examples of religious doctrines include:
trinity
transubstantiation
immaculate conception and virgin birth
Pentecostal Jesus-Only doctrine
Calvinist predestination
Mormon doctrine of the Heavenly Mother
See also the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Examples of military doctrines include:
Blitzkrieg of World War II
Hit-and-run tactics
Mutually assured destruction of the Cold War
Shock and Awe
See also Hallstein Doctrine.
Many more examples can be found at Wikipedia by searching doctrine * (doctrine and an asterisk).
The term indoctrination came to have awkward connotations during the 20th century, but it is necessary to retain it, in order to distinguish it from education. In education one is asked to stand as much as possible outside the body of accumulated knowledge and analyse it. In indoctrination on the other hand, one stands within the body of knowledge and absorbs its teachings. Compare theology and comparative religion for examples, of which many could be drawn.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine"

Beautiful? What do you mean?

2005-01-31T01:51:00.000-08:00

Da Vinci St. Jerome

2005-01-31T01:50:00.000-08:00

I Have Always Been Beautiful

2005-01-31T01:28:00.000-08:00

Being beautiful or doing beautiful?

2005-01-31T01:09:00.000-08:00

The secret doctrine of being beautiful is to believe that if we have done something right, then we shall earn the right of being beautiful.

The secret of being beautiful is to dance freely in life, beyond any belief system, beyond any ideal of beauty, beyond any wildest dream ... simple to be.

We have been conditioned to do instead of to be.

We also have the power to un-condition all that has limmitted us to be truly beautiful.

Life is Beautiful!

- Star Light

Creation Myth

2005-01-31T01:08:00.000-08:00

THE SECRET Doctrine of the Early Christian Church

2005-01-30T23:04:00.000-08:00

We can observe this same problem at work today in Communist China. There is only one church -- which is the government ordained church. Doctrine is controlled -- religious thought and expression is controlled -- the clergy being ordained to their position by the state, is tightly controlled -- by virtue of these controls, the church is never at odds with the government -- and the very manner in which the people worship is also controlled. Genuine, spiritual religion, is suppressed, and anyone who deviates from the prescribed doctrine of the government-church is immediately dealt with -- severely.
In a Spiritual Church such as that which Jesus ordained, the focus is not on the believer holding the proper set of beliefs, or a hierarchy of priests -- because the source and authority is spiritual, and remains above and beyond the physical world. The beliefs of each person are therefore seen as a product of the people's stage of spiritual development, and are in accordance with the individual person's condition in relation to man's spiritual reality. Because each person is at a different level of spiritual awareness, fixed creeds and dogma are a detriment to a truly spiritual religion.