a tumblr of Soma

Photo

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:24:34 -0500

Greenpoint's Best Graffiti

She's Got a Way with Spraypaint

An optical micrograph of a hybrid organic/inorganic polymer film...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:25:38 -0500

An optical micrograph of a hybrid organic/inorganic polymer film that exhibits both nanoscale and microscale structures due to a competition between self-assembly and crystallization. These materials provide fundamental insights into polymer science and have potential application in nanoscale pattern transfer processes.

(via areyousoma proofmathisbeautiful & freshphotons)

"Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right..."

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:59:15 -0500

“Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.”

- anonymous Hopi

"My father once told me the following: ‘Yes she is extremely pretty son, but someday a Man will..."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:50:46 -0500

“

My father once told me the following: ‘Yes she is extremely pretty son, but someday a Man will come and take her from you. A man much better than you or I.

These men are called DJs son. All women yearn to be with a DJ.’

”

- Comment on a DJ blog

"Of course, the movements have meanings behind them. If we were sure of the meanings, we would not..."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:42:10 -0500

““Of course, the movements have meanings behind them. If we were sure of the meanings, we would not need the dance. There is a great danger in trying to interpret the dance in words. Words get between us and the dance and the meaning behind the dance — just one more thing between us and the meaning. One must dance the dance and go through it to the meaning.””

- -Dorothy Bryant (The Kin of Ata are Waiting For You)

(via rebirth-through-adaptation)

(via clothedinsky)

"The “Three-tongued flame” that never dies is the immortal spiritual triad — the..."

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:59:00 -0500

“

The “Three-tongued flame” that never dies is the immortal spiritual triad — the Atma-Buddhi and Manas — the fruition of the latter assimilated by the first two after every terrestrial life. The “four wicks” that go out and are extinguished, are the four lower principles, including the body…

Just as milliards of bright sparks dance on the waters of an ocean above which one and the same moon is shining, so our evanescent personalities — the illusive envelopes of the immortal monad — twinkle and dance on the waves of Maya. They last and appear, as the thousands of sparks produced by the moon-beams, only so long as the Queen of the Night radiates her lustre on the running waters of life: the period of a Manvantara; and then they disappear, the beams — symbols of our eternal Spiritual Egos — alone surviving, re-merged in, and being, as they were before, one with the Mother-Source.

”

- The Secret Doctrine, I, 237

FTW!

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:27:08 -0500

FTW!

During WWI, Carl Jung commenced an extended self-exploration...

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:51:51 -0500

During WWI, Carl Jung commenced an extended self-exploration that he called his “confrontation with the unconscious.”…At the heart of this endeavor was his legendary Red Book, a large, leather bound, illuminated volume that he created between 1914 and 1930, and which contained the nucleus of his later works. (via americansatori)

now i hear you singing

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:18:39 -0500

clothedinsky:

“In the old days, we called ourselves the people of the circle (=ahmi). We see everything in life as similar to the image of a dog chasing its tail. And we have referred to outsiders as straight-line people (!hui juasi). We have always been aware of how difficult it is for outsiders to understand us.”

via clothedinsky: In “Passionate Enlightenment” by Miranda Shaw one can read about a social and...

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:43:45 -0500

via clothedinsky:

In “Passionate Enlightenment” by Miranda Shaw one can read about a social and religious movement in which women were at the forefront. They were considered leaders, very powerful and their sexuality and the whole of the feminine human expression was worshiped. In one of his works Daniel Odier quotes an old myth explaining that the Gods and Goddess gave women divine sexual power, one aspect of which naturalizes aggressive male tendencies, returning them to the earth. (From the little research I’ve done it seems the ancient rights of Summer where of a similar type in that sense, different in others.) This same feminine & sexual power when embraced/worshiped by males gives rise to altered/higher level states of mind/being. The social and religious culture that developed around these practices did away with the rules of the caste system, obviously lifted the social status of women and embraced both female and male sexuality. Lives based in peace, freedom and happiness appear the oder of the day, sadly this was short lived before being largely reabsorbed into more authoritarian, male dominated societies.

It gets really interesting when you tie in a wonderful story from Radiolab titled New Baboon: This amazing piece focuses on a group of Baboons who (through a pretty disgusting tragedy) lose half of their male population.

The typical adult males in Baboon society are incredibly violent, especially when a new male tries to enter a group (they leave their original families at sexual maturity). For the first 3 months of his tribal membership he will be beaten and tormented by the other males. None of the females will show him any attention, because they will be savagely beaten for doing so.

However, in this particular group after the alpha males died all at once the levels of stress and violence in the group declined greatly. The researcher was completely heart broken by the death of so many of his troupe, a group he spent 10 years with and he moved on to study another.

When he returned 20 years later his mind was blown to see this Baboon group still living peacefully, something completely alien to baboon culture.

This happened because the females were the majority. They no longer lived in fear of being attacked by super-aggressive males and the males learnt a more peaceful way to live, they didn’t need to kill each other to get ahead. The levels of grooming, even male to male grooming (something that never happens) went way up. They were able to keep this going for so many years because every time a new male would enter the troupe expecting to have to fight their way in, they were received openly and instead of it taking 3 months before things settled down and he was able to receive some attention from the females, the females approaching him within 3 days, they learnt there was another way to live and the ball just kept rolling.

In one generation one of the most violent, male dominated primate cultures became a peaceful, female orchestrated culture.

The Whore of Babylon (via clothedinsky) illuminated...

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:26:36 -0500

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…

"Feel how the Greater Being comes! Rejoice and, in rejoicings, die! Melt in the music of..."

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:03:27 -0500

“

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

Psytrance album cover designer

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:48:25 -0500

Psytrance album cover designer:

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

Kant's Philosophy of Excellent Dinner Parties

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:51:09 -0500

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.

clothedinsky: mollytov: (via verhext) here I want to build...

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:29:52 -0500

clothedinsky:

mollytov:

(via verhext)

here

I want to build one of these

Images from an abandoned Biosphere.

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:21:37 -0500

Images from an abandoned Biosphere.

quantumpossibility: Seafood Soup / Sopa Marinera (via...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:53:10 -0500

quantumpossibility:

Seafood Soup / Sopa Marinera

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

Contemporary Mandalas

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:52:42 -0500

Contemporary Mandalas

Blue Moon on New Year's Eve

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:44:43 -0500

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.

The Very Dangerous Teacher and Radical Teachings

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:22:48 -0500

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.”