a tumblr of Soma

The Whore of Babylon (via clothedinsky)

illuminated commentary on the Apocalypse by an abbot from Liébana called Beatus ca. 975 AD

Esoteric gnostic symbolism during the Dark Age…

20 January 2010 • reblog: marsiouxpial

Feel how the Greater Being comes!
Rejoice and, in rejoicings, die!

Melt in the music of the drums!
For I am you and you are I.

— Brave New World, fifth chapter

20 January 2010

Psytrance album cover designer

Might also be useful in designing tattoos, or flyer graphics.

14 January 2010 • reblog: besaged

Kant’s Philosophy of Excellent Dinner Parties

Immanuel Kant was apparently famous for his dinner-parties. In his Anthropology Kant gives explicit advice for a dinner-party (and claims that it’s a bad idea for philosophers always to eat alone):

There should be no more than nine and no less than three guests, and the dinner-party should go through exactly three stages, in exactly this order:

Narration, in which you talk about the news of the day (he gives a set of rules to follow for deciding the topics to discuss);
Argument, in which people begin to argue their different views about the news, which stirs up the appetite for food and drink; and
Humor, because people begin to get tired of arguing, you should end with jesting and wit, which should preferably lead to loud, good-natured laughter, because that’s good for the digestion. Unfortunately, the German philosopher does not give us examples of the sort of jokes you should be telling at a dinner-party.

11 January 2010 • philosophy

clothedinsky:

mollytov:

(via verhext)

here

I want to build one of these

9 January 2010 • reblog: verhext

Images from an abandoned Biosphere.

9 January 2010

quantumpossibility:

Seafood Soup / Sopa Marinera

(via riazorenho j-p-g ak47 andi-b cielbleu americansatori)

6 January 2010 • reblog: j-p-g • art

The Blue Moon is a time of enormous influence for prophecy and divination. Its energies can be summoned for protection, wisdom and love. It is believed that any workings held beneath the Blue Moon are given additional magickal energy, which makes this time magnificent for all work in manifesting goals, passion, healing, strength, and power.

2 January 2010

The Very Dangerous Teacher and Radical Teachings

“…We have already discussed the role of a “safe” and reliable teacher as spiritual friend (kalayana mitra) which is associated with the idea of peer sharing found in traditional yoga as well as in Mahayana Buddhism. There is also another type of teacher (called in vajrayana Buddhism a vajra charya), one who teaches in subtle and hidden ways often upsetting the student’s personal life and order. This is akin to the teachings of the coyote trickster figure in Native American spirituality, the Crazy Wisdom teachings in Tantric Buddhism, Soto Zen, and similar. Another name for the vajra acharya is the “dangerous teacher”. Dangerous to whom, one may ask. The answer is dangerous to our delusions, illusions, petty clinging, pet beliefs, bad habits, false identifications, fixations, and stagnant tendencies.

Here the teacher and teachings operate outside of conventional mores, standards, and reality — they exist to the least part on the “edge of the known world”. On the official path of Vajrayana tantric Buddhism one has to have complete confidence in the vajra acharya as one’s mindstream’s meet as one. It is said in this path that the contradictions between where one is stuck and where one is going will collide head on, but through the guru’s grace and intercession, there will be a rapid spiritual transformation.

Such fast track methods of teachings have always been considered dangerous even in traditional monastic settings. Even more so in the Western milieu, where there is a great amount of pre-existing mental insecurity and disturbance, what can be said to be safe anyway (each individual’s definition of safety may vary considerably). For one person “safety” means predictable, sterile, insulated, and imprisoned; while for another safety means lasting happiness, Reality, and Truth. With the vajracharya method one must have complete confidence in the teacher/teachings — here one’s rational mind is purposely subverted and utterly destroyed by the vajra master whose purpose is to liberate the student from all narcissistic vestiges while catalyzing rapid transformation without recidivism.”

24 December 2009 • metaphysics Buddhism Religion education teachers yoga