Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Thursday, July 27, 2017

The Sun - What is the Secret to Happiness?






The secret to happiness is, is that there is no secret!

Truth is I seldom draw this Major Arcana card but when I do my heart does the happy dance, because this card reminds me to be happy regardless of what is going on around me. For me it's a matter of attitude, and gratitude.

Happiness may seem like a secret but it's not. Simply to some of us, myself included take a while figuring out what makes us happy and learning that we're the only ones responsible for making our own happiness, nothing or no one else will. Oh sure people, places and things can add to our happiness, just not what will ultimately make us happy.

When I drew this card today my thoughts immediately went to my late friend Lillian (Diamond Lil) that I spent many hours with. She taught me a lot about happiness. She was also a long time Tarot reader and The Sun was her card, that she kept placed on the door of her refrigerator. After reading Lil's cards one day, which was the best card reading I've ever seen to date, I came to completely understand why the Sun was her card. Lillian was a finest example of what it means to have a striving and victorious spirit, both aspects symbolized by the sun-god.

And like the sun-god Lillian loved her music, played and entertained many folks over her long life. And just like Apollo, music,  an expression of the sun-god that transforms our darkness into light and meaning.When sorrow and fear was brought to Apollo in song he would take those sorrows and fears away.
Music is what healed, helped and transformed Lillian.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Page of Pentacles - Values



The Page of Pentacles is one of my very favourite cards because it's about being connected to the earth and having a thirst for knowledge.
 
Yesterday I had the wonderful experience of meeting two of my relatives ( cousins) I had never met before. One was in his 60s, a music teacher, and the other was just 20 years old, working as a barrista, and is attending University, studying political science.

They had come all the way from the West coast of Canada. We had some great conversation, lots of laughter, and of course it got me thinking about my family and why I am so grateful for them. My family's  values reflect a connection with the earth, loving nature, and all that it has to offer, the thirst for knowledge and learning about the arts and the world.

When I went to art college back in the 70s, I had the wonderful painting teacher, Dana Loomis, who imparted to me, a great foundation for learning, about art and the world, when he gave our class a required reading, Zen and The Art of Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It was a book about values, classical and romantic thought, rational and irrational thought and how it is essential to have a balance between the two. It is also about how we can't have one without the other for comprehending our values. This book influenced me greatly throughout my life, and continues to do so.

 “We have artists with no scientific knowledge and scientists with no
artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at all,
and the result is not just bad, it is ghastly.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values 


Artist: Dana Loomis
Title: Attributes of Art
Year: 1984
Medium: Oil on Canvas,
Size: 40 in. x 46 in. (101.6 cm x 116.84 cm)

Oil on canvas, "Summer Chance" 1977., 32" x 24"