The Living Room

Hark !

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Michaela

Some more angelic creatures as perceived by the ” imagician” Giotto Bondone…

Angels

Angel2

Hark ! the herald angel sings

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This is Giotto’s beautiful Ognissanto Madonna, originally painted for a Franciscan church in Florence. The Italian title of the painting is “La Maestà di Ognissanti”, pointing to the the majestic quality of the logos or wisdom, giving birth to everything.

Giotto Ognissanti Madonna ca 1310 Galleria Uffici, Florence

Johann Ritter v Herbeck, Pueri concinite

Pueri concinite, nato regi psallite!
Voce pia dicite: “apparuit quem genuit Maria.”
Sunt impleta quem predixit Gabriel.
Eja ! Eja ! Virgo Deum genuit quem divina voluit clementia.
Hodie apparuit in Israel.
Ex Maria virgine natus est Rex.
Alleluia!

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Friends on the path – Surrender

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Michaela

Friends on the path came together yet once again. This time they meet at the dawn of the anxiously anticipated Dec 21, 2012, a day rife with prophecies, colourful expectations and an unusually intense planetary alignment. The “end of the world” is a familiar place on the spiritual path and so the topic of this friendly get together was surrender or ” The beginning of the end”.

Moderator: Ray

Enjoy.

PS: The youtube video may be blocked in Germany due to the Billie Holiday tune. If that happens, please use this link: http://vimeo.com/56160535

Posted in Friends on the path, On the sofa | Tagged AA, Alcoholism and spirituality, Eckhart Tolle, ETTV, letting go, Maya calendar, Presence, Present Moment, process of spiritual awakening, Spirituality, spirituality & religion, surrender | 1 Comment

Heissa

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Michaela

This is one of the altar pieces of the Parish Church St Wolfgang, Austria. The artist is Michael Pacher (ca 1430 – 1498) and this beautiful scene is complemented with a traditional Christmas carol from the area. Its a shepherd’s song in a local dialect. “Heissa” means something in between hurray and let’s go, an expression of joy and enthusiasm.

Michael Pacher Nativity St Wolfgang

Heissa Buama, steht’s gschwind auf,
es will Tag schon werden.
Tummelts euch, fei hurtig drauf,
Lauft’s zu euren Herden.
Veitl treib bald her zu mir,
nimm dein’ neue Geig’n mit dir,
und i nimm den Dudelsack,
dudl mir auf den ganzen Tag.
Heissa, Dudldudlsack,
dudl mir auf den ganzen Tag.

Auch an Wastl net vergiss,
tu eahms a andeuten,
er soll treiben hin auf d’Wies,
drunten bei der Leiten.
Sag eahm, dass er gschwind hoamspringt
und seine alte Bassgeign nimmt!
Und i nimm den Dudelsack . . .

Heissa Buama, lobet Gott
denn er ist geboren,
der uns all errettet hat,
wären sonst gar verloren.
Stimmt jetzt alle zsamm fei schnell,
machts a lustigs “Konterfell”.
Und i nimm den Dudelsack,
dudel Gott z’liab den ganzen Tag.

Heissa

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Apocalypse

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Michaela

This is Giotto’s Last Judgement. Just look at it and see what this is all about. Fire and brimstone, the purification of the soul and the alchemical reaction.

Here is the traditional interpretation:

The top part shows Heaven, with Jesus in the middle and the apostles at both sides. Jesus is casting the Last Judgment. The lower part shows the chosen, who will be escorted to Heaven, and the doomed, who will be cast into Hell. The archangels Michael and Raphael are holding the cross in the middle.

But I much rather view it as this:

Brimstone stands for (alchemical) sulphur, which represents the spirit of life. So what we are looking it is the Christ ( represented by Jesus), casting out the demons with the fire (of spirit), by taking them on. Not fight them, but bring it into the light. We see the cross, which signifies the spiritual path of surrender. ” God so loved the world that he gave his only son”. The two angels represent healing (Raphael) and battle (Michael), leading God’s army against the Satan.

It is possible that Dante, the great Renaissance poet and an acquaintance of Giotto’s, was inspired by this depiction of Hell when he wrote Inferno.

Giotto ” Last Judgement” ca 1306

Still, still, still

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Michaela

This is a detail from a ceiling fresco in Vienna – angels bringing the Christ Child from the heavenly father to the earth.

The Glory of the new born Christ Child, ca 1715, Ceiling fresco – St Anna, Vienna

And this is one of my favorites. …a carol traditionally sung in churches at the nativity

Still, still, still,
Weil’s Kindlein schlafen will.
Maria tut es niedersingen
Ihre große Liab darbringen.
Still, still, still,
Weil’s Kindlein schlafen will.

Schlaf, schlaf, schlaf,
Mein liebes Kindlein, schlaf!
Die Engel tun schön musizieren,
Bei dem Kindlein jubilieren.
Schlaf, schlaf, schlaf,
Mein liebes Kindlein, schlaf!

Groß, groß, groß
Die Lieb’ ist übergroß
Gott hat den Himmelsthron verlassen
Und muss reisen auf der Straßen.
Groß, groß, groß,
Die Lieb’ ist übergroß.

Angels everywhere

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Michaela

Here is another Giotto angel. Rather elegant and composed…

Giotto – Flight into Egypt (detail) ca 1306; Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy

Winged bringers of joy

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Michaela

A Giotto angel…one of his wondrous, birdlike creatures. Maybe this is how people saw them in the early 14th century ?

Giotto ca 1305; from the Dream of Joachim, Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.

Refrain
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your gladsome strains prolong?
Say what may the tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly song?

Refrain

Come to Bethlehem, come and see
Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

Refrain

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The earliest moon of wintertime

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Michaela

Another nativity by the visionary Giotto.- This one, from the early 1300 is clearly showing the advent from the traditional Byzantine treatment to features of the early Renaissance. The nativity is a scene from a fresco in Assisi. Nobody painted angels like Giotto. They are almost bird-like creatures and in a way – very human.

Giotto, ca 1310; Fresco North transept, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

Huron Carol (Jesous Ahatonhia)

Twas in the moon of wintertime,
When all the birds had fled,
That mighty Gitchi Manitou
Sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim,
And wondering hunters heard the hymn:

Refrain
Jesus your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark
The tender babe was found,
A ragged robe of rabbit skin
Enwrapped His beauty round;
But as the hunter braves drew nigh,
The angel song rang loud and high:

Refrain

The earliest moon of wintertime
Is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on
The helpless Infant there.
The chiefs from far before Him knelt
With gifts of fox and beaver pelt.

Refrain

O children of the forest free,
O seed of Manitou,
The holy Child of earth and Heav’n
Is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant Boy,
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.

Refrain

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The unified view

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Michaela

Walt Whitman. The humanist expressing the unified view.

Click for full text

I Celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil,
this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and
their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.