Tuesday 6:25 A.M.
“Behave humbly with the people, keep yourself lenient, meet them large-heartedly, accord them equal treatment so that the big should not expect injustice from you in their favor and the low should not be despondent of your justice to them.” – Imam Ali Ibn Talib, Given to Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr when Ali appointed him as governor of Egypt
The Ankh, the Egyptian symbol of Life—I just sat in Siddhasana while wearing the Egyptian Ankh’s I have over here wrapped around my Chin Mudra-affixed hands, while doing Kirtan chanting and listening to some beautiful Indigenous American Indian music that is playing on the People Of Earth KPFT show. A nice way to start the day.
Inanimate material objects can evoke a powerful range of thought and emotion in both the conscious and subconscious mind of the perceiver. Therefore, I like to infuse things I send people with all sorts of super-powerful Energy! The visual symbol of the Ankh is already symbolically powerful and plus I want to add a personal element to these necklaces…
I just got back from rec. I held a discussion on some of the common psychological defense mechanisms utilized in this environment and ways to dissipate the dark cloud of defense mechanism bliss that exists here. I took the book “101 Defenses: How the Mind Shields Itself” by Dr. Jerome S. Blackman out with me. The book is, well, here’s a line from the back cover: “This comprehensive and fascinating text illuminates 101 defenses—the most ever compiled—to bring clarity and order to the vast sea of knowledge that is psychoanalysis.” Overall, the book is pretty good although I disagree with some of Blackman’s ideas.
One thing that made me burst out laughing when reading it for the first time was his assertion that “felonious criminals” cannot be effectively treated using the psychodynamic approach of elucidating deplorable defense mechanisms. For one, I’ve done it myself, so I know this is absolute nonsense and secondly it amazes me that someone who is not only a psychiatrist and professor but also a Training & Supervising Analyst would say such a thing. I really feel like writing this guy a letter and tearing apart some of his nonsense, but he is a Freudian Society Analyst so he’ll probably tell me I wrote him as a sort of manifestation of Psychosexual Libidinal Regression or maybe I’m reaching out to him as a result of Ipsisexual Object Choice. Phew! It amazes me how so many “academics and scholars” can be so divorced from real world reality.
Hell, I think it would be more rational to say that ultra right-wing neo-con Republicans simply cannot be treated with psychodynamic psychotherapy. I mean “death panels”, “Obama’s a Socialist”, the “birther movement”—sounds like the farthest reaches of extreme schizophrenia to me. Really, it is very disheartening to read things like professors of psychiatry who are responsible for teaching and training young psychology professionals studying that “felonious criminals” cannot be treated. Not only is this nonsense, but it gives “intellectual’ support to the “lock up and throw away the key mentality, a mentality that is counterproductive to the betterment of society.
Ah! Pablo de Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs just came on —perfect music for Ankh super-cosmic-interstellar-power Energy infusion! Ankh’s on and…Shaolin Qi Gong “Joining Heaven and Earth”…The ancient Egyptian Ankh…symbol of Life—Life that courses through the farthest Soul of Humanity, the depths of the Earth, the farthest reaches of the Heavens…Dancing Shiva Asana…Shiva Natarajan; a cosmic dance encompassing all of Life…Life, Life, Life—to live in a Life-affirming manner, to honor all Life…this violin is so very beautiful and moving…Ah! And the tempo increases—Jujitsu time! I just did some Jujitsu kicks with the Ankh’s wrapped around my fists. I’m reminded of the words with which Master Yagyu Munenori began his treatise The Book Of Family Traditions On the Art Of War: “Weapons are is instruments of ill, omen, despised by the Way of heaven. To use them only when unavoidable is the Way of heaven. The reason weapons are instruments of ill omen is because the Way of Heaven is the Way that gives Life”!!
I’m always creating which in essence is a radically Life-affirming act in this wretched Death House. I’ve been working on some artisan craftwork lately. News on: “Biggest turnout yet for protesters in Cairo. All protesters have remained peaceful.”—Thus the spirit of Life-affirming non-violent protest arises and remains steadfast in the land of the Ankh! (Perhaps Mr. Muhammad Hosni Said Mubarak should have read and heeded Imam Ali’s instruction to Abi Bakr!) These Ankh necklaces are part of the larger craftwork project I’ve been working on, an Art project that is Life. The symbolism of the Ankh can be broken down quite extensively, but Life, yes indeed, the Ankh represents Life.
And the fact that these Ankhs were created in this place of darkness, in opposition to death, in defiance of the negation of being, make their symbolism even more powerful. Ah, yes I feel them pulsing with vitality…more Siddhasana and Kirtan with the necklaces wrapped around my hand in Chin Mudra…Life! Yes, now these Ankhs are vibrating with the sense-enlivening illuminating flame of Life! Fela Kuti’s V.I.P. just came on—more pulsing with Life, the perfect song to complete the purification and Energy-infusion of the Ankhs—symbols of the Essence of Life.
In the Spirit of Creation
Rob Will