Hi Casey.. I decided I'm probably making things a bit too difficult for myself.. I should just tackle a few tid bits at a time..
.. oh, I guess this is PART II (of what I'd been thinking about before)..
.. anyway, your Golden Eagle's been on my mind..
... and also.. how dramatic an entrance he made..
Casey Butler wrote:
We left last night at around 5PM and, after stopping for a snack, made the turn from La Verkin (a town that neighbors Hurricane) towards Virgin, driving parallel to Hurricane Mesa where, at the top, there is a testing facility for the ejection seats the military put in jet aircraft.
All of a sudden this eagle swept down and leveled off about 20 feet from the front of Silver, being on a level with us and traveling about our speed at the time (maybe 50 mph). Then the eagle veered to the right and up, and fortunately there was a pull-off right there so I slammed on the brakes, pulled off, grabbed the camera and leapt out of Silver (though it's possible I had to get out first because the camera was in the back of the truck if we hadn't yet retrieved it).
The eagle flew around in circles near us a couple of times so I was able to get that photo and a few others that weren't quite so sharp (though all show the characteristic golden nape of the neck, exciting because they are the first Golden Eagle photos I've taken outside of captivity that do so).
Casey
And also..
.. from: The Essence of Eagles, baldeagleinfo.com
Eagles and the Sun
The strong link between eagles and the sun can be traced through many cultures. The Aztecs told how during the creation of the present world, the eagle and the jaguar fought over who would have the honor of becoming the sun. The eagle settled the matter by flinging himself into a fire and, thus, becoming the sun… The Aztecs also tied the eagle to the sun in another way, comparing the daily journey of the all-important sun to an eagle's flight: rising on the warming air of morning and swooping down out of sight at night in pursuit of prey.
The eagle plays a crucial role in the sun dance of the Plains peoples of North America, and symbolizes the sun in the rites of some of the Southwestern tribes. The Iroquois tell of Keneu, the golden eagle, and of Oshadagea, the giant eagle with a lake of dew on his back who lives in the western sky.
This Iroquois poem, quoted in The Return of the Sea Eagle by John A. Love (1983) appears to tell of Keneu:
I hear the eagle bird
With his great feathers spread,
Pulling the blanket back from the east,
How swiftly he flies,
Bearing the sun to the morning.
On the other side of the Atlantic arose a belief about the eagle and the sun that persisted for many centuries. The eagle was thought to be the only animal capable of looking directly into the sun. Aristotle and Pliny wrote of this and added that the eagle tested its young by facing them to the sun, rejecting any that looked away.
The writers of early bestiaries, such as the twelfth-century Book of Beasts, added to the eagle's mystery by giving it the power of eternal youth:
When the eagle grows old and his wings become heavy and his eyes become darkened with a mist, then he goes in search of a fountain, and, over against it, he flies up to the height of heaven, even into the circle of the sun, and there he singes his wings and at the same time evaporates the fog of his eyes in the rays of the sun. Then at length taking a header down into the fountain, he dips himself three times in it, and instantly he is renewed with a great vigor of plumage and splendor of vision. (myth)
--Stephen Friar, A Dictionary of Heraldry, quoting the translation of T. H. White
Christians adopted this symbolism, comparing the eagle looking into the sun to Christ looking at His Father, and the renewal of the eagle's youth through its plunge into the fountain to the renewal of the soul through baptism. Even today, an eagle may be spied on the baptismal fonts in some older churches.
.. interesting above how the water of the fountain is involved.. water being more associated with the moon and the unconscious..
.. as for the Sun itself..
I'm just now looking at a little booklet I have on the Tarot that I like to use when doing readings (for myself mostly)..
THE SUN
In the sunlight, everything becomes clear and direct. The Kabblist letter for the Moon, Kaph, meant the back of the head, the most ancient part of our brain. The letter for the Sun, Resh, means the entire head, but especially the front, with its neo-cortex, or gray matter, that makes us human. The cortex is the area of rational consciousness.
And now, think of our little hare.. and I’ll quote a prior post of mine..
Violet wrote:
.. Though by no means an expert, I can say that the hare is associated with the moon in various ways.. so there's that moon again.. some cultures even refer to The Hare in the Moon.. as opposed to The Man in the Moon.. and you spoke of that lovely moon lit drive through Zion, which was so otherworldly sounding.. which reminds me.. there was something I read about the hare in relation to that rather fragile land between the unconscious and conscious mind.. the hare being "the messenger" from the unconscious, as it were.. this being said to do with transformation, as cited in reference to the trickster tradition, in this case, Native American.. oh, and the moon, as I've said elsewhere, is itself associated with the unconscious..
.. in any case, the moon on your moon lit drive transformed the landscape, and the drive sounded in some ways a transformative experience..
.. maybe to be truly awake (in the profoundest sense) one has one foot planted in this conscious reality and the other in that unconscious land that tempers all we see.. wondrousness, then, may well be when one experiences the world and something of its latent potential or latent self -- all at once, as it were..
Finally here, and there will be a Part III, which is probably the hardest part.. but finally there is this..
.. and I’m sorry.. it’s bit of a snuff film, I’m afraid..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsEUFYhiqxU
FULL SCREEN…
… only I’m meaning this video to be read more symbolically.. for although in the Tarot the Sun card could be said to presage good things.. my mind instead is on the sometimes aggressive nature of rational thought.. (like the way your golden eagle swooped down on you).. or perhaps it's the conscious mind I'm speaking of.. Freud comes to mind.. the ego and the id and all that jazz, which I’d have to have a look at again in order to speak of properly..
… oh.. but I'll post another poem of mine that I wanted to speak for me for the moment.. I'll place it beneath one of your lovely photos, Casey..
Feminine Sublime
The awareness broke in sounds
that seemed to rise up all around her;
sounds distilled in exultations of
human consciousness: teaming, like
the furious ascent of birds…
.. then the sounds were quieted,
running gently but alive, like
trickling waters off of mountains,
eagerly spilling their myriad
giddy losses
to larger throws of brooks
and streams…
… all was silent then… the heavens now
descending… her white breasts afloat like
water lilies… her subtle womb… dispersed like
stars…
ii.
When continents perilously shift,
their once imperceptible weight
is suddenly fathomed: annihilation
is the fear in our awakening; and
shame the site of splendor lost
under Reason’s bloody cloak.
dare to let its heavy folds
fall from Eden’s precious body;
strive to keep her naked, free
from the devouring by the
mind’s causative, treacherous
contempt. for this world’s subtle
body is luminous --
2000
I’ve read somewhere that all “things” are sentient beings.. and so even the earth itself could be thought of in those terms, with its "subtle body" perhaps having to do with its “unconscious”.. or at least that which is not clearly seen..
.. I’m still not knowing precisely where I’m going with all of this, Casey.. but it’s relevant to the work I’m doing, and so I want to pursue this further if I can.. some of this seems to conjure the abyss again.. that leap into the void, perhaps.. that “unknowing” experience..
Oh, also.. I looked over your photos, Casey.. and was reminded of the “fear” aspects of this thread..
.. the unconscious no doubt relates to fear far more than the conscious mind.. we fear those dark aquatic recesses.. leading to.. (?) .. Of course, your photo is of a fear we
can see.. and yet it may evoke some larger fear.. the fear of where this tremulous Age seems to be heading…
.. I like here the hot pink eye of the sun.. or is it the moon?.. no doubt the sun, but I like the confusion.. It's almost a hole in the sky.. a hole of pure heat..
.. anyway, as you can see, I’m swimming around in all of these things.. and I’m grateful for all of your adventurous journeying (and photo-journaling), Casey.. yours and E’s.. (oh, and Silver's.. not that the car took any photos, I don't think..).. (.. oh, sorry, Mr. Darcy, you're included in this too..)..
Oh yes.. I just thought of Don Juan again.. sending poor Carlos into the world’s vast and uncompromising unconscious.. there was real fear there too.. (as much as Don Juan liked to joke about it).. and it can also be depressing when everything that's near and dear to you is stripped from you, and you are perceiving Reality in ways for which there is no real "human" equivalent.. how lonely to have nothing familiar to you in your midst.. not a leaf, even... or even a..
v i o l e t (flower).. (thinking of a sip of Sleepytime, maybe.. with lemon and honey.. and then, I hope.. to sleep..
.. to sleep.. perchance to... ... .. (dream?)..
