Symbolic Stuff Nobody Gives a Crap About

Re: Symbolic Stuff Nobody Give a Crap About

Pretty much everything I was going to say on the subject is summed up in your post and that article. :thumbs: I'll have to watch that video at some point as well. The whole thing is very interesting, but I also find it slightly sad that to be an acceptable female figure in the history of Christianity one must be made out to be either a virgin or an ex-hooker.

Glad you liked it. I had seen that documentary on the BBC years ago but on looking for it I watched it again. It's pretty good in explaining reasons how Mary Magdalene had been rivalled with Paul for leadership. I was watching another documentary about it and they said that soon after the death of Jesus there were many early Christian groups; some led by men, others headed by women. After a few centuries what was deemed acceptable changed and men started taking a more prominent role with women being sidelined. It was only then that women were forbidden for taking a priesthood etc and this coincided with the start of writing the bible in the 3rd and 4th century.

Yes it is sad about the only two states that women can hold. It reminds me of 1940's and 1950's film archetypes of the femme fatale and her virginal opposite (ie the Doris Day type). They make story telling easy and accessible.
 
Re: Symbolic Stuff Nobody Give a Crap About

Thanks for contributing to my thread guys, I love the Mary Magdalene angle.

I've been reading this book on the history of the Ghent Altarpiece, known as The Lamb of God, which the author describes as "the most desired and victimized object of all time." It was stolen six times by various people who thought it held some sort of mystical power. It's also a key piece in the history of art as it serves as the piece that divides the Middle Ages or Gothic age from the Renaissance, it encompasses distinguishing traits of both eras. It's a fascinating read, I'm only a few pages in, but the author has summed up for me EXACTLY how I feel about Morrissey and his work:

"The Ghent Altarpiece refers to many biblical and mystical texts, but is a synthesis rather than a precise illustration of any one of them."

also

"Pictures of this period were often puzzles. They lead the viewer through a maze and only hinted at what lay at the center. It has often been said that a great portrait should reveal a hidden secret about the person portrayed that the person would prefer remained secret -- the artist is privy to it and weaves the secret into the pigment, hiding it in plain sight for determined viewers to find, if they know how to look."

This sums up perfectly what I try to do with MOrrissey's work and insodoing, I hope (or had hoped but one t-shirt kinda dashes that idea,) that it helps him to better understand who he is. His own work is a verbal Ghent Altarpiece. One can say "Oh he lifted this thought from a Sheleigh Delaney book." and stop there, but I think there's something more being channeled by him because he is different from normal people.
 
Re: Symbolic Stuff Nobody Give a Crap About

I was watching this cool PBS documentary on Egyptian royalty the other night and they made a reference to the scarab beetle's significance in royalty that I can't seem to find reference to online. In addition to representing the sun god, one of the Pharoahs, whose name escapes me, commissioned artists to carve hundreds of palm sized scarabs out of wood, I think, and on their backs in hieroglyphs were carved the news of the kingdom, communications from the priests who talked to God or whatever. I'm sure I'm not the first person to put this thought together, but any discerning Egyptologist or symbologist for that matter would be wasting their time digging in the sands and tombs learning about what the Egyptians, and by extension their Gods, were up to when they could just be listening to John, Paul, George, and Ringo. :thumb:
 
When the real King Tut died they replaced him with the winner of a lookalike contest.
 
I wrote this in April 1994. :o Junior College in Santa Ana when I was 19.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.


The Heavenly Scales of Shakespeare's Sonnet XXX

Shakespeare's Sonnet XXX is a somewhat unusual example of the traditional English Sonnet, which Shakespeare himself developed. According to Miller Williams, Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms, this form consists of three Sicilian quatrains followed by a heroic couplet. Normally, "the problem presented in the octave [the first two quatrains] is ... dealt with tentatively in the next four lines and summarily in the terminal couplet." In Sonnet XXX the problem is presented in the first quatrain, dealt with the second quatrain, and resolved in the final couplet. The effect of this variation is to reinforce the metaphorical structure of the poem.

The language of the poem is highly metaphorical, with a consistent pattern of reference to matters of money and court. In addition, Shakespeare makes extensive use of alliteration, and the doubling of words and images. Behind the visible images of the poem, I believe, is another, unmentioned one: the image of the constellation Libra.

The narrative content of the poem tells of the situation of a person remembering his past, suffering his old shortcomings and losses as if no time had passed. As he becomes aware of this process of suffering the same problems all over again, he sees how unfair, or unjust it is to suffer the same losses, and to pay the same debts twice. Then he remembers his present friend (or love,) switches instantly to the present, and realizes that the past is cancelled out, and everything is returned to happiness.

The words sessions, summon, cancell'd, expense, grievance, account, paid, and losses are all words which we easily relate to matters of court and money. Other words with similar intent are not as obvious to us. In Mr W.H., Leslie Hotson points out that the vocabulary of Sonnet XXX makes reference to a specific court: the Court of the Exchequer. Shakespeare's remembrance of things past carries with it a special reference to Remembrancers, officers of the Exchequer whose job it was to remind the court of its responsibilities and duties. The word dateless in the narrative context of the poem means endless, i.e. the endless night of death, but in a legal context it infers that no termination time has been agreed upon. Such a difference may seem slight, but it is just enough to keep us in both contexts simultaneously. The word foregone is used in the sense of the past and done with, but when a debt is forgiven, it is cancelled without payment. Other examples of this kind of metaphorical use of language could be pointed out. The important thing to understand is that Shakespeare uses these metaphors in a consistent pattern which makes us think of two things at once: the story, or narrative of the poem, and the image of courts and trials.

The use alliteration is important (sessions/sweet/silent/summon, woes/wail/waste, death's/dateless. etc.), because it creates an air of verbal excess. More important, I believe, is the use of doubling. The third quatrain has one doubled expression per line: grieve at grievances, woe to woe, fore-bemoaned moan, and pay as if not paid. In addition to this, the second and third quatrains have the exact opening words: Then can I drown... and Then can I grieve.... The word dear is used twice, but in two completely different senses. It is a normal term of endearment in the phrase my dear friend, but in my dear times waste it has the unusual sense of expensive, and contrasts with waste, meaning of no value. But why does Shakespeare go to so much trouble making everything double? Well, as you might imagine, there are two possible explanations.

The first is that he was trying to present us with the idea of double jeopardy. When someone has paid for a crime once, it is not good justice to make him pay for it all over again. By making things doubled and re-doubled, Shakespeare leads us to the conclusion that what he is suffering is unjust. The second reason has to do with Justice itself, or herself.

The symbolic representation of Justice is a blindfolded woman with a sword in one hand and a balance in the other. It means that Justice is blind, decisive and equal, or equitable. Now, there are two versions of the balance which Justice holds. The first tilts in favor of truth (criminal justice, and determining facts,) while the second balances exactly (civil justice, suits between people, matters of money). The balance beam has two arms extending from a pivot point. The structure of the balance, therefore, is double, since without two of something there can be no equality, or balance. The balance itself is double; the balance beam has two arms. In Sonnet XXX the past is placed on one side of the balance and the present on the other, though not until the final couplet. Until Shakespeare's dear friend is remembered, the scales are tilted unjustly in favor of the past, which is very large, and filled with sorrows and regrets. The present, when filled with thoughts of happiness and friendship, is so precious that is sets the balance back to equal. This is the central message of the poem.

There is a final, interesting possibility that Shakespeare had a more distant metaphor in mind. The second quatrain describes precious friends as hid in death's dateless night. Shakespeare does not say that they are hid under the ground, but uses a metaphor of death which removes us from the pattern of court metaphors. Notice, also, that he drown an eye, unus'd to flow, so that it is not his dead friends, but rather the eye which is buried (under the tears). Tears would accumulate in the eye if the head were tilted back, looking into the dateless night. Thus, the hidden image of the poem is, I think, Shakespeare looking up at the constellation Libra: the Heavenly Scales.

The symbolism of Libra is so close to the underlying meaning of Sonnet XXX that I feel quite certain Shakespeare had this constellation in mind from the very start.

The precious friends hid in death's dateless night were like the precious gems, or diamonds of the night sky. Richard Hinkley Allen's remark about this sign of the zodiac fits the poem very closely:


Libra, the Balance or Scales, is the Italian Libra and Bilancia, the French Balance, the German Wage...all meaning the Scales, or a Weight. [The] latin Jugum, the Yoke, or Beam of the Balance, [was] first used as a stellar title by Geminos, who, with Varro, mentioned it as a sign of the autumnal equinox.​


Two things caught my attention. First that Jugum is probably related to the English word judge, which fits perfectly with the metaphors relating to court. Second, the connection of Libra with the equinox, (when the day and night are equal,) also fits. Allen quotes Manilius, the Latin astrologer: "Then Day and Night are weigh'd in Libra's Scales/ Equal a while..." But in addition to standing between day and night, when they are equal, Libra also stands between two halves of the year. Allen quotes James Thomson's line which indicates this: "Libra weighs in equal scales of the year...."

If we consider Libra to be the unifying metaphor in Sonnet XXX, then not only is there a balance of past and present, sorrow and happiness, day and night, but also a balance of the warm and cold season's of the year. With that in mind, Shakespeare's Sonnet XXX is a wonderful love poem which also speaks of the natural balancing of all things in heaven and on earth.
 
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Look at this funny doodle I found in the same folder as the Shakespeare paper. :) I was kind of awake to my situation, Stockholm Syndrome kept me afraid though.

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Another college paper from 1994. This is like my Greatest Hits Compilation of Symbolic Stuff that Nobody Gives a Crap About. :p

"The Horse Dealer's Daughter"

"The Horse Dealer's Daughter" by D.H. Lawrence is a simple story made structurally complex by the use of very heavy handed stylistic devices. From beginning to end, Lawrence sets a dreary, negative tone through the use of very repetitive, almost redundant diction. This overall tone is further complicated by distinct swings of mood from section to section of the plot. The final complexity is a turn of plot which takes us away from the ending clearly foreshadowed. This ending has sometimes been a source of confusion for readers, but once we understand Lawrence's intention, it becomes quite reasonable.

The story is set in England around the turn of the century. It opens around the breakfast table of Mabel Pervin and her three brothers who may be sitting together for the last time. The horse stable which their father left to them when he died has gone bankrupt, and each of the four must move on. The brothers have decided on their destinations, but Mabel, who remains passive and withdrawn, does not share a word with them of her own. Soon, Jack Fergusson, a young country doctor and friend of the Pervins drops by to wish them off. During this visit he takes special notice of Mabel, and she looks back "with steady, dangerous eyes." Later that afternoon, as Fergusson walks through town tending to his patients, his eyes meet with Mabel's, who is cleaning her mother's graveston in the cemetery, and a "mystical element [is] touched in him," and "he [feels] delivered from his own fretted, daily self."

As afternoon falls into night, Mabel strolls down to the nearby pond where again Jack Fergusson catches sight of her, but this time what he sees does not quite register in his mind:

He stood motionless as the small black figure walked slowly and deliberately towards the center of the pond, very slowly, gradually moving deeper into the motionless water, and still moving forward as the water got up to her breast. Then he could see her no more in the dusk of the dead afternoon.

After a pause of disbelief, Fergusson springs into action. What follows consists of almost half the story, but is a single, sometimes bewildering section. It is not what one expects.

Lawrence depends greatly on diction to create the persistent negative mood of "The Horse Dealer's Daughter." Almost at once we are aware that the words in the text border on the redundant. The same word may be used two or three times in close proximity, or the same root word word twice in the same sentence. This pattern, which seems very heavy handed at times, is very effective. It leads one to believe that there is something very important about the words themselves; perhaps they are keys to a deeper, symbolic understanding of the text.

Examples of this technique may be found almost at random throughout the story. In the first sentence of the second paragraph the word "desolate" is used with the word "desultory:" "The three brothers and sister sat round the desolate breakfast table, attempting some sort of desultory consultation." The word "round" shows up over and over again, suggesting, perhaps, the dull round of existence faced by the characters in the story: things are held round, passed round, sat round, and the doctor even makes his rounds. But no word is repeated with a more obvious intention of creating a sense of gloom and anticipation in the reader than the word "dead." Just listen to the slow, steady, trudging of this peak moment in the story: "It was grey, deadened, and wintry, with a slow, moist, heavy coldness sinking in and deadening all the faculties." Twice "dead." "He could see her no more in the disk of the dead afternoon." and finally, Lawrence makes his last reference to "dead" when Fergusson wades into the pond to save Mabel and feels the water clasp "dead cold round his legs." "Dead," "cold," and "round" in the same sentence. The word "dead" is used repeatedly in this, the last section of the story to create a dark, dismal mood where the reader is almost forced to imagine, or to expect Mabel's death will form the unhappy climax.

This technique persists throughout the story, but with one interesting twist: each of the five sections of the story has it;s own dominant vocabulary, and therefore, it's own dominant mood. Key words of the first section include: "foolish," "desolate," and "hopeless." The second section begins when Jack Fergusson arrives at the house. The mood becomes boisterous and loud. Key words of this section include "loudly," "shouted," and "sarcastically." The third part begins when Fergusson and the three brothers leave the house. Here the narrator explains the past history of the Pervin household. The mood is sad and depressing. It ends with Mabel tending to her mother's gravestone. We become aware of an odd assortment of words: "midless," "persistent," and "immune." In the fourth part the narrator explains the dreary life of Jack Fergusson. The mood itself is dreary, though not exactly depressive. He exhibits a deeply unsatisfied feeling about life. He is a doctor who hates the dreary life he lives, but who, nonetheless, is excited by the contact with the rough, inarticulate people with whom he works. It is at this moment of the story that Fergusson notices Mabel walking into the center of the pond, and just watches her. "Would you believe it?" he exclaims. The fifth and final part begins with action. The story, which begins with passivity, now begins to turn towards commitment. "And he hastened straight down, running over the wet, soddened fields, pushing through the hedges, down into the depression of the callous wintry obscurity." This sentence itself could have been a short story!

Up to this point, the reader has every right to assume that the whole story would end with the death of Mabel, and perhaps a speech about the unfairness of life, the tragic inequality of women in western society. The reader might very well have expected to close his book feeling the nobility of Mabel's death, how she chose death over the oppression of slavery. But Lawrence has something completely different in store for us. In a final scene which borders on complete unbelievability, Lawrence has the doctor return Mabel to her home unconscious, revive her, and then have us believe that because of this sudden, hazard-filled event, that the two of them fall in love. Not only do they fall in love, but they plan to marry the next day!

It is the wonderful genius of Lawrence that he does not try to make the final scene of the story seem to be a reasonable outcome of the precedinf events. The ending that the reader expects is one where there is the resolution of conflicts. Death resolves the conflict that Mabel encounters. Or, the doctor snatches her from death and shows her the way. Any number of resolutions might present themselves. But Lawrence's short story turns out to be not one of resolution, but of transformation. In fact, nothing prepares us for the ending, just as nothing in the worm prepares us for the butterfly. Mabel and the doctor are transformed. Transformation is not a question of degree. They are not more or less of something. They are new.

What Lawrence's elaborate structuring of mood prepares us for is the complete illogic of the ending. They each have gone down into the water and come up...new? Transformed? Bonded? It is impossible to say, because the story ends as abruptly as it begins.
 
I got REAMED by my teacher when I submitted that rough draft, he wanted me to prove the trasformation aspect. I mean you can read it and sense it and comment lightly one it, but I had to go back and select passages to substantiate my claim and read the bible and books on baptism and blah, it was torture. It's so hard for me to put words on paper, but I basically rewrote the entire paper into a much more interesting one. I had some help with transitions and obscure references, but I was pretty pleased with the result. I'll transcribe the Extended Dance Remix of The Horse Dealer's Daughter later. :p

The red ink on every page is hilarious, I was crushed. But I pulled it together.

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TRANSFORMATION & SYMBOLISM IN D.H. LAWRENCE'S "THE HORSE DEALER'S DAUGHTER"​

"The Horse Dealer's Daughter" is a love story. It is also a story rich in symbolism. In this paper I will present an interpretation of the symbols which appear both in the descriptions of the two main characters and in their actions. My analysis will be limited to the final scene, in which the two characters undergo a startling transformation. The symbolism to be dealt with relates to the Christian rites and symbols of baptism, shedding of the old skin, light, resurrection, and marriage.

The story is set in England around the turn of the present century. It opens at the breakfast table of Mabel Pervin and her three brothers, who are sitting together for what may be the last time. The horse stable and house which their father left them when he died has gone bankrupt. Malcolm has found a job, Fred Henry is leaving for Northampton, Joe, the eldest, plans to marry and work for his father-in-law, but the fate of Mabel remains a mystery. She is impassive and withdrawn, and will not share a single word with them about her future plans. Soon, Jack Fergusson, the young country doctor and friend of Fred henry drops by to wish them off. During his visit he takes special note of Mabel, who looks back with "steady, dangerous eyes." Later that afternoon, as jack Fergusson in walking his rounds just outside town, he sees Mabel, tending her mother;s gravestone in the cemetery, and their eyes meet. A "mystical element [is] touched in him," in that moment, and "he [feels] delivered from his own fretted, daily self." As afternoon falls into night, Mabel strolls down to a nearby pond. Again, Jack catches sight of her; but what he sees does not quite register in his mind: "He stood motionless as the small black figure walked slowly and deliberately towards the center of the pond...." After a pause of disbelief, he springs into action.

Against his fear, and despite his being unable to swim, Jack plunges into the water over his head to save Mabel. He carries her unconscious home, undresses her, and then revives her with spirits. When she comes to, she makes the startling declaration, "You love me. I know you love me, I know." Jack seems, at first, repulsed by her declaration. But, in his struggle to deal with her statement, he discovers an unexpected truth in her words. Everything in his past, as a doctor, as a young bachelor, as a young man about town, goes completely against what he does next:


...he bent forward and kissed her on the mouth gently, with the one kiss that is an eternal pledge.... He crossed over the gulf to her, and all that he had left behind had shrivelled and become void.​


With sudden movement toward resolution, Jack tells Mabel of his desire to marry her "...quickly -- tomorrow if I can." Mabel fears that his desire may not be true; and on that strange note the story, rather abruptly, ends.

BAPTISM: Submersion in water is a traditional first step in the symbolic process of transformation. For Christians, the central act of initiation into the church is baptism (from the Greek word meaning to submerse). Through baptism, the Christian initiate is renewed (which is to say, the sins of his old life are washed away), reborn (in Christ), and transformed. But the symbol of baptism is not limited to a single ritual of the church. In fact, according to J.E. Cerlot in A Dictionary of Symbols the connection between water, and both material and spiritual transformation, can be found in Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient Hindu and Chinese writings, as well as the Old and New Testaments. The earliest biblical example of what will later develop into baptism is the story of Noah and the Flood, where the earth itself is buried under water and symbolically reborn after forty days and forty nights. In the New Testament, before entering his public ministry, Jesus submits himself to John the Baptist to be submerged in the waters of the River Jordan.

Cerlot quotes John Chrysostom's interpretation of baptism and the Flood as follows:


It represents death and interment, life and resurrection....When we plunge our head beneath water, as in sepulchre, the old man becomes completely immersed and buried. When we leave the water, the new man suddenly appears.​


Cerlot's interpretation of this is that the waters dissolve the elements and allow them to recombine in a new pattern. In "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," Lawrence has his characters submerge themselves completely in a "square, deep pond." He communicates to us very clearly that the theme of this immersion is death, not merely because of the attempted suicide, but because of the very essence of the things surrounding the pond itself. The pond is described as "grey, deadened, and wintry..." Jack is repulsed by the "smell of the dead, clayey water, and [is] mortally afraid for his own health." This is also, appropriately enough, the turning point in the story, where the lives of the two main characters cross in such a way that in the space of a few minutes they are changed completely from the hopeless and unfulfilled people they were to beings on the verge of awakening.

SHEDDING OF THE SKIN: Alan Watts begins his explanation of Easter with the following words:


Before it can come to life as a plant, the seed must be buried in the earth. Before it can soar into the air upon brilliant wings, the catepillar must enter the long sleep of it's chrysalis tomb. Before the splendor of spring, all the earth is shrouded in gray, cold death of winter. "Unless a grain of corn fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." In those words Christ summed up the strange truth that life is ever dependent upon death. (Easter, It's Story and Meaning, N.Y., 1950, p.19)​


Baptism and symbolic shedding of the skin are very closely related, as Watts makes very clear in the above passage. For this reason, I believe, Lawrence makes a great issue of the wet clothing in the second half of the story. After carrying Mabel back to the Pervin house, and while she is still unconscious, Jack removes her clothing and wraps her in blankets. Jack's own wet clothing remains and issue until almost the the last page of the story. When he finally undresses, something of great symbolical significance takes place.

At first, Jack feels he may die from the cold. Later, as his heart warms, his body also seems to warm. In fact, though at first he fears death from the cold, he does not change until Mabel sends him to do so. ("...he had not the power to move out of her presence, until she sent him.") Baptism was the first step in their transformation, the shedding of their old skin is the next. This is symbolized in the story by the shedding of wet clothing. It is a physical transformation, of course, just as the caterpillar physically transforms into a butterfly, and as teh grain of corn physically changes in order to bring forth fruit. But the transformation itself serves as a symbol of something not physical as all, but spiritual. It would be quite easy to interprete Jack and Mabel's falling in love with each other as a mere consequence of their intimate physical contact (Jack clutches her in his arms, carries her home, undresses her.) In a story less symbolic, the plot might well have developed along the lines of physical attraction and arousal. But Lawrence has something completely different in mind. The first time Jack sees Mabel naked, they have their original relationship of doctor/patient. The next time he notices "for the first time [emphasis added] that one of her shoulders [is] quite bare," and he sees "one of her small breasts...." He notices these things, but he is neither aroused nor repulsed by them. What he does next demonstrates that something has begun to change in him. He asks in "an altered voice [emphasis added], 'Why are you crying?'" At this point he has changed from his role of doctor to that of compassionate human being. But the most convincing evidence that a transformation has taken place in Jack is found in his third encounter with what is now only a hint od Mabel's nakedness:


And as she went, the blanket trailing, and as he saw a glimpse of her feet and her white leg, he tried to remember her as she was when he had wrapped her in that blanket. But then he didn;t want to remember, because she had been nothing to him then and his nature revolted from remembering her as she was when she was nothing to him.​


Jack has begun to respond to Mabel in a completely new way. Her nakedness, or partial nakedness, triggers a response in him, but he is "revolted" by the memory of her as a mere physical being. Clearly, he has connected with something beyond the body. It is the self itself, the spiritual self, which he now relates to. Mabel's response to Jack is also interesting. When she sees him changed for the first time into dry clothing, she remarks, "I don't like you in those clothes." The meaning seems to be that she dislikes him in a state of concealment and disguise, as if he has taken a backward step into his old self.

(end part one)
 
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GIVING OF SPIRITS: The taking and giving of whiskey plays an interesting and important symbolic role in the story. Mabel is unconscious as Jack carries her home from the pond. She remains unconscious until the moment Jack gives her a little taste of whiskey. He "went into the dining room, to look for spirits. There was a little whiskey. He drank a gulp himself, and put some into her mouth." In other words, Jack administers spirits. By today's standards this is a rather quaint medical practice, but Lawrence was not making a comment on medicine, he was taking advantage of the oppotunity to introdice a particular word into the vocabulary of the story: spirits. The word spirit is used in a metaphorical sense when applied to whiskey, and a special metaphorical sense when applied to the development of the story. In fact, it;s exists as a kind of joke, or pun, which requires us to understand it in a literal sense. Jack quite literally introdices spirit(s) into Mabel, and "the effect [is] instantaneous." In effect, Mabel had died to the world when she lowered herself into the pond. Her new life depends, symbolically, on being filled with a new spirit. "She looked full into his face, as if she had been seeing him for some time, and yet had only just become conscious of him." She has awakened from one life into another.

There is also an effect upon Jack, who, having taken spirits himself, begins almost as quickly "divesing himself of his coat." In other words, the two processes, that of shedding the old skin, and taking on a new spirit, overlap.

LIGHT: The imagery of light and radiance contributes another layer of symbolism to the story. mabel is described, after her first expression of awareness that jack loves her, as "look[ing] up at his with flaring, humble eyes of transfiguration...." A few moments later she looks at Jack with a "transcendent, frightening light of triumph," and Jack is rendered powerless by "the delicate flame which seemed to come from her face like a light." The situation falters; the light is seen "dying" from her face. A period of tension follows in which water imagery dominates; it concludes with a description of Mabel's eyes being "unfathomable." But the light returns:


"When she turned her face to him again, a faint delicate flush was glowing, and there was again dawning that terrible shining of joy in her eyes, which really terrified him."​


The words transfiguration, transcendent, and dawning, are very important in the passages jsut quoted. Lawrence uses them not only to describe the appearance of Mabel, but also, I believe, in an allusive manner. The Transfiguration is an important stage in the life of Jesus. According to Matthew (17:1-2) :


After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. (NIV)​


Now, transfiguration does not mean beaming light form one's face face; this is simply the way in which Jesus was transfigured. Notice, however, how many things there are in common with the description in Matthew, and the descriptions in "The Horse Dealer's Daughter." Mabel is clearly radiating light (metaphorically) in the same manner as Jesus (in actuality.)

The New Saint Joseph Sunday Missal (N.Y. 1974) explains the Transfiguration of Jesus by referring to the seasons:


Walking through nature in wintertime and observing the seemingly dead trees and bushes, one can hardly believe that all of it will look like the spring of the year."​


Winter is the dead of the year, springtime the renewal. We cannot see the life hidden in the dead earth of winter, but we know by faith that it is there. The missal explains the transfiguration of Jesus as a demonstration of the true life within, a life which must wait until the appropriate time to shine.


In faith we know even that there is a beautiful reality behind the visible universe....In this mystery we anticipate our own exaltation to come.​


Until the time Mabel connects to Jack on a higher level, it is as though her life is dead, and in constant winter. But once she realizes that Jack has saved her from the pond, and undresses her, only then does Lawrence describe her as a shining, transfigured thing. Only then does she become "transcendent."

If we follow the idea of transfiguration back to the Bible, then we may also follow the idea of "dawning" back to the central mystery of Christianity: the Resurrection. Jesus is resurrected just before dawn. The rising sun. or dawn, is the symbol of the rising of Jesus from the grave. This is why Easter is commemorated by sunrise services, and also, interestingly enough, why churches are "oriented," (that is, turned toward the East). This discussion of the symbolism in "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" began with the topic of baptism. The story of dawn and the story of baptism are almost the same story. Both Alan Watts and John Chrysostom made this point (above.) Baptism, shedding of the old skin, dawning, and it;s association with Easter, overlap and complete each other. Symbols do not operate in isolation.

In the opening sentence of this paper it was stated the "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" is a love story. In the end, it concerns the coming together of male and female. The final, and most important symbol of the story is marriage. Marraige is an everyday occurance -- people get married everyday. but Lawrence is dealing with something far more important than the social joining of bodies, or people.

The symbolism in "the Horse Dealer's Daughter" is, it would seem, of an esoteric nature. Because of this, there will never be a single interpretation of the story. I have attempted to discuss the symbolism in terms of my own limited knowledge of Christianity and the Bible, but this may, in fact, represent no more than a single layer of the underlying symbolism. What is certain, however, is that both Jack and Mabel undergo a complete and sudden transformation.
 
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ISWYDT.
 
So lately I've been reading about the Ghent Altarpeice, and I read about this technique that an Van Eyck used to communicate God's thought in a painting. Being odd and courting ghosts constantly, I have a feeling the spirit of Van Eyck took the photo of Morrissey for the Throwing My Arms Around Paris single. :p

van%20eyck%20ghent%20mary-resized-600.jpg



So here's a section of the ENORMOUS Ghent Altarpiece, it's the panel classically referred to as The Annunciation where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is going to birth the savior. The technique Van Eyck uses to communicates God's thought is to paint the thought upside down and in reverse so that it would be seen from the angle of where God is, in heaven and inside the picture plain. Imagine God is hanging out above Mary's head and behind her, the text is backwards and upsidedown to us the viewer, but to God it is pointing in the right direction and legible. So the text reads "Ecce ancilla domini" or "Behold the slave of the Lord." God is announcing that Mary, pictured to the right of the text, head tilted, accepting of her task on earth, is a very special person. She is essentially like God's secretary and by extension, God himself. Or herself. It gets theosophically complicated explaining that part, but in short she is a very special person.


Im-Throwing-My-Arms-Around-Paris.jpg



Okay, so here is the single cover to Paris. I could dig out dusty boring occult tomes going into detail about this, or I could use the knowledge disseminated to us in the more interesting way, through modern music. (That's a whole nuther panel on the Ghent Altarpiece. :D) So there is a band that wrote a song about building the Eiffel Tower located in Paris, ("oh alexander i see you beneath the archway of aerodynamics" anyone?) Another more interesting song they wrote contains the key that unlocks this little puzzle, This Monkey's Gone to Heaven.

If man is 5, and the devil is 6, then GOD IS 7.

Upside down and backwards hidden on the poster are eight letters that are white, (the rest are greenish, ignore those.)

OLL
OUR
RE

The second and third line can be translated very easily to "RE: Our" or "Regarding our". This first line is a bit more complicated. It's not LOL, or laughing out loud, it's backwards code (770) that God understands and is announcing.

Seven Seventy. Say it: "Seven Seven tee"
Seven is God, that's the first part, thank you Pixies. :)cool:)
Seven T.
STeven

The final message is "Regarding our Steven, he is God." Even the font used for the title mimics Van Eycks backwards fontwork. The arches in the Ghent are mirrored in the MLK poster and in the blue half arch behind Moz's head. The poster is the similar tones as the room Mary stands in, the literal shadow on the poster falls right where there is a break in the room with a column. His head is tilted perfectly. Both Mary and Moz's eyes are directly to the right of the text. It's pretty darn cool if you ask me. :p
 
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Sorry, Geezer, but I couldn't resist...

Is this you? ;)

 
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Sorry, Geezer, but I couldn't resist...

Is this you? ;)



Ummmm, no. I don't go blabbing this stuff around and in real life I'm very normal.

I can't stand new agers though some of the things they offer can be helpful. Like I can't stand death metal, though I've been playing it lately on rockband (I know, soooo 2010 but I don't care.) and they really do interesting stuff with syncopation and mixing up the beat, it's just disguised as all that bullshit RAWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRR nonsense that people tune it out before hearing what it musically has to offer. I got a 98% on the solo of Battery by Metallica on Medium setting, first try!
 
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I've been playing it lately on rockband (I know, soooo 2010 but I don't care.)

I got a 98% on the solo of Battery by Metallica on Medium setting, first try!

Congratulations!
 
So lately I've been reading about the Ghent Altarpeice, and I read about this technique that an Van Eyck used to communicate God's thought in a painting. Being odd and courting ghosts constantly, I have a feeling the spirit of Van Eyck took the photo of Morrissey for the Throwing My Arms Around Paris single. :p

van%20eyck%20ghent%20mary-resized-600.jpg



So here's a section of the ENORMOUS Ghent Altarpiece, it's the panel classically referred to as The Annunciation where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is going to birth the savior. The technique Van Eyck uses to communicates God's thought is to paint the thought upside down and in reverse so that it would be seen from the angle of where God is, in heaven and inside the picture plain. Imagine God is hanging out above Mary's head and behind her, the text is backwards and upsidedown to us the viewer, but to God it is pointing in the right direction and legible. So the text reads "Ecce ancilla domini" or "Behold the slave of the Lord." God is announcing that Mary, pictured to the right of the text, head tilted, accepting of her task on earth, is a very special person. She is essentially like God's secretary and by extension, God himself. Or herself. It gets theosophically complicated explaining that part, but in short she is a very special person.


Im-Throwing-My-Arms-Around-Paris.jpg



Okay, so here is the single cover to Paris. I could dig out dusty boring occult tomes going into detail about this, or I could use the knowledge disseminated to us in the more interesting way, through modern music. (That's a whole nuther panel on the Ghent Altarpiece. :D) So there is a band that wrote a song about building the Eiffel Tower located in Paris, ("oh alexander i see you beneath the archway of aerodynamics" anyone?) Another more interesting song they wrote contains the key that unlocks this little puzzle, This Monkey's Gone to Heaven.

If man is 5, and the devil is 6, then GOD IS 7.

Upside down and backwards hidden on the poster are eight letters that are white, (the rest are greenish, ignore those.)

OLL
OUR
RE

The second and third line can be translated very easily to "RE: Our" or "Regarding our". This first line is a bit more complicated. It's not LOL, or laughing out loud, it's backwards code (770) that God understands and is announcing.

Seven Seventy. Say it: "Seven Seven tee"
Seven is God, that's the first part, thank you Pixies. :)cool:)
Seven T.
STeven

The final message is "Regarding our Steven, he is God." Even the font used for the title mimics Van Eycks backwards fontwork. The arches in the Ghent are mirrored in the MLK poster and in the blue half arch behind Moz's head. The poster is the similar tones as the room Mary stands in, the literal shadow on the poster falls right where there is a break in the room with a column. His head is tilted perfectly. Both Mary and Moz's eyes are directly to the right of the text. It's pretty darn cool if you ask me. :p
Ludicrous, goes to Show if you look hard enough you can see whatever you want in anything.
 
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So a month or so ago my dad had to remove my dashboard to get at something. He put all the things in my glove compartment into a box. I recently went to put all the stuff back and found this little hand in there my dad didn't bother to remove. I do these little cutouts, people and animals and stuff, put them on cards or give them to people, it's like paper dolls in a way. I think I had a cutout in my glove box from years ago of a person that fell apart from a school art project, this is a remnant of that cutout. To make a long story short, I opened the glovebox and found this little hand, I thought "Oh cute joke, God. Hand in Glovebox!" But yesterday at this party I went to I sat down in a bit of a trance and saw this keychain in a Master lock I had given my friend, a fellow Smiths fan, of Jesus with a button in the back that when you press it, a light shines out of his skirt. I said when I gave it to her "Look the sun shines out of his behind!" So bumping into these two things in one day was interesting, it's a song on God's mind maybe. I dunno. I do know that all of this collecting of stuff is just some blind leading the blind test of mastery by a bunch or bored Eli's, it's not helping my life, my real life, my real feeling that I am failing to contribute anything tangible and real to the world and I'm being swallowed up alive by a game of tests and hoops to jump through, and I ask that it please stop. Becasue I do not like where my mind wanders ala Inception, and those thoughts are very real. We can pretend all day that I will snap out of it, but maybe one time I won't and it'll be a Romeo and Juliet ending which would be f***ing tragic.

6743373339_e6d62d3423_z.jpg
 
"Rock me Joe." Hey C.G. I love this type of religious painting. Oh the swoon. It's just so evocative. Mind you, I'm not religious. I am merely observing the artist's wonderful illustration of religious fervour.
 
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