Opening Day

The Fish Wife

by Leo

Tomorrow is opening day of Trout Season.  This is a big event for all the men and boys in our family.  It's a special day for me too.  I have turned it into my own private ritual, a celebration to honor myself and my creativity.  I do this, first of all, by basking in my solitude for a while, listening to my favorite music, usually Bob Dylan ...... with the volume jacked way up.  I won't tell you what I shout in my wonderful empty house before I get to work, some people are easily offended by certain words, and I don't want to lose any of my followers.  (That's a joke, by the way, the bit about my followers).  I'll give you a clue that only real Dylan fans will get.  It's what Bob shouted at his Royal Albert Hall concert when the audience was giving him a hard time about switching from acoustic to electric.   "Play it ------- loud!"  Then I get out my paints and I'm off, starting a new painting for my "Opening Day" series.

 Opening Day

by Leo

This was my first painting of the Opening Day series.  I'm far from being finished with it, especially since I've decided to make it interactive.  It's my kitchen door that leads into the basement. 

 1st panel

The Queen of Hearts from my Tarot deck is tacked to the sun.  She was missing from the deck for a long time, and one day, when I wasn't really looking for her, in fact, when I had given up hope of ever finding her,  she appeared, there she was, hiding from me under the refrigerator for about six months.  It was a joyous occasion.  After all,  the Queen of Hearts is my significator, it's an uneasy, unpleasant feeling to have one's significator missing.  She is the card all other cards in my reading revolve around.   I bought the deck in Florence, Italy. It's not really a tarot deck, but I use it as one.  Each card in this particular deck is a famous Italian masterpiece. So, when I finally found La Donna Velata, I tacked her to the sun for safe keeping.  Yes, I know.  I should clean under the refrigerator more often.

Raphael's The Woman with a Veil 

(La Velata or La Donna Velata) - 1516 

Medici Collection of the Palatine Gallery, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.

2nd panel

3rd panel

4th & 5th panel

Shine Your Light

Guercino (1591-1666)
Magdalen and Two Angels 

Date: 1622

Movement: Baroque
Theme: Saints
Technique: Oil on canvas
Museum: Vatican Pinacoteca
Location: Vatican City, Italy

Precious angel, under the sun
How was I to know you’d be the one
To show me I was blinded, to show me I was gone
How weak was the foundation I was standing upon?

 
Now there’s spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down
Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground
The enemy is subtle, how be it we are so deceived
When the truth’s in our hearts and we still don’t believe?

Love and Life

George Frederic Watts RA (1817-1904)

1885

"Love, strong in his immortal youth, leads Life, a slight female figure, along the steep uphill path; with his broad wings he shelters her, that the winds of heaven may not visit her too roughly. Violets spring where Love has trod, and as they ascend to the mountain top the air becomes more and more golden. The implication is that, without the aid of Divine Love, fragile Human Life could not have power to ascend the steep path upward. First exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885. Companion picture to 'Love and Death,' and 'Love Triumphant.'"

William Loftus Hare: Watts (1817-1904). Full text at Project Gutenberg.

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see

A Virgin

Abbott Handerson Thayer

(August 12, 1849 – May 29, 1921)

 Abbott Handerson Thayer
Smithsonian: A Painter of Angels 

My so-called friends have fallen under a spell
They look me squarely in the eye and they say, “All is well”
Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high
When men will beg God to kill them and they won’t be able to die?

Dante Alighieri and his muse Beatrice Portinari.

Carl Wilhelm Friederich Oesterly

(22 June 1805 – 29 March 1891)

Sister, lemme tell you about a vision I saw
You were drawing water for your husband, you were suffering under the law
You were telling him about Buddha, you were telling him about Mohammed
in the same breath
You never mentioned one time the Man who came and died a criminal’s death

The Ecstasy of St Cecilia
1645

Bernardo Cavallino
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see

The Cloister or the World
1896
Arthur Hacker Biography

  The dilemma of choice between worldy delights and spiritual fulfillment, a theme popular with Victorian painters and their public, in melodramatic counterpoint: a nun kneels in ecstacy before a vision of the angel of the Annunciation while a figure dances sensuously in the background. It was 'the Picture of the Year' at the Royal Academy.

Precious angel, you believe me when I say
What God has given to us no man can take away
We are covered in blood, girl, you know our forefathers were slaves
Let us hope they’ve found mercy in their bone-filled graves

Unknown

You’re the queen of my flesh, girl, you’re my woman, you’re my delight
You’re the lamp of my soul, girl, and you torch up the night
But there’s violence in the eyes, girl, so let us not be enticed
On the way out of Egypt, through Ethiopia, to the judgment hall of Christ

Poème de l'âme 12 - L’Échelle d’or

Louis Janmot (1814–1892)

Biography of Janmot

Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Shine your light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn’t make it by myself
I’m a little too blind to see

Precious Angel

Bob Dylan

Copyright © 1979 by Special Rider Music

Yofiel is invoked as an amulet angel. An angel of presence or angel of glory, the highest order of angels who reveal the purpose or mystery of God to people. Yofiel, angel of divine beauty, is also known as Yefefiah the angel prince of the Torah. In the Zohar, Yofiel is a great angelic chief with 53 legions of lesser hierarchs serving him. In the cabala, Yofiel is the spirit of the planet Jupiter.

Jophiel, one of the seven Archangels, is the angel of judgement, the angel of paradise believed to have guarded the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. His name means "Beauty of God" and he is also the Patron Angel of Artists. He has a strong interest in beauty, and can be invoked by anyone involved in creating beauty in any form. Jophiel helps people who are using their creativity. You should call on him whenever you need help with a creative project.

Another possible name for Jophiel is Dina of the seventh heaven who was a Cabalistic guardian of the Torah (and wisdom itself). She taught 70 languages to souls at the dawn of creation, a guiding, teaching, inspirer of the pursuit of wisdom. She is listed as possibly being Yefefiah or Iofiel and seems to share many comparisons with him.

Angels in Art

Eleven Eleven

 1111

Title: [De Rouwdagen] De treurdagen
Artist: Voerman, Jan (1857-01-25=1941-03-25)
Material: fabric & wood & oil
Date: 1884 (approx)

An oil painting with from left to right:
Interior with four seated men dressed in tallit, a figure viewed from the back, a reader in tallit standing and facing to the left, two men, two women and a child, the scene around a table in front of a window, open door on the far right.

photo credit MicheleLovesArt

This old man, he played eleven,

He played knick knack up in heaven,

With a knick, knack, paddy whack,

Give the dog a bone;

This old man came rolling home. 

World War I ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

David had eleven Mighty Men

I Chronicles 12:8-15

And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains;  

Ezer the first, 

Obadiah the second,

Eliab the third, 

Mishmannah the fourth, 

Jeremiah the fifth,  

Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, 

Johanan the eighth, 

Elzabad the ninth, 

Jeremiah the tenth, 

Machbanai the eleventh.

Number Eleven possesses the qualities of intuition, patience, honesty, sensitivity, and spirituality, and is idealistic. Others turn to people who are 'Eleven' for teaching and inspiration, and are usually uplifted by the experience.

In systems such as Astrology and basic Numerology, eleven is considered to be a Master Number. Eleven can also represent sin; transgression and peril. Ten being the perfect number, eleven represents the exceeding of both. It is interesting to note that eleven when broken down ( 1+1=2) comprises the Two of duality. Number eleven is a master vibration and as such should not be reduced to a single number.  People with this number could be both idealistic and visionary, and they are attracted to the unknown. They can be both unusual, interesting and magnetic personalities.


Eleven bring the gift of spiritual inheritance, is gifted as the "Light-Bearer". It is the number of the Light within all. Strengthened by the love of Peace, gentleness, sensitivity and insight. Greatest facility is the awareness of Universal relationship. Is related to the energy of Oppositions and the Balancing needed in order to achieve synthesis. Eleven is The PeaceMaker... Colours : Gold, Salmon, Prune, White and Black.

Determining Your Life-Path Number
Let us say that you were born on March 29, 1968.
March is the third month--3
the day 29, 2+9 totals 11
the year 1+9+6+8 totals 24 which reduces [2+4] to 6
Now add 3 with 11 [11 being a Master Number does not reduce]=14 +6=20
Drop the zero, and you have 2 as your Life-Path Number.

Woman Sings the Blues

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten

 (January 5, 1895 June 29, 1987)

American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.

 Elizabeth Cotten on guitar

14 year old granddaughter, Brenda Evans. providing the vocal.

"Self-taught and having no knowledge of conventional guitar tunings (e.g. standard 'EADGBE' tuning or any established open tunings), Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach to left-handed guitar playing involved keeping the guitar in standard tuning but holding it upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature, alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking"

Smithsonian Folkways - Artist Spotlight

Helpless

 

There is a town in north Ontario
With dream comfort memory to spare

 And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there

Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes, leave us

Helpless, helpless, helpless
    Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now

 Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
The chains are locked and tied across the door
    Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby, sing with me somehow
    Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless

Blue, blue windows...

Helpless, helpless, helpless
    Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless 

lyrics source 

29. Jesus said, “If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels.

!!!!!!!