Category: General

Dies Venus

Luna wx 42%v

After going at it in fits and starts, finally clicked into something of a steady daily drawing practice. One hour a day, and I can take one day a week off. This will form the third point of a three-point daily regimen that includes the temple work and the brand new binder into which will be put one project narrative + budget analysis per day. There is a slight variance in how strict I will be about doing these – ritual dailies every day without exception, drawing six days a week with an occasional five day week allowable, project narrative exercise 4-6 days a week allowable but shooting for daily. Melete will be a constant presence. With some luck, hopefully also Thesis/Metis.

The minimum time required for these things is completely manageable:

• basic ritual dailies- 15 minutes
• daily drawing – 1 hour
• project narrative exercise – 15 minutes

The actual studio work (Melete), research, outreach/networking(Mneme), display and documentation (Aoide) times are separate things from the above and will take as much time as I can find to give them. If As it all comes together, Thelxinoe will escort the completed works into the world : )

Drew a single pear multiple times for an hour last night and boy was it ever boring. Until it stopped being boring when I remembered how to look at it properly. Then it was just hard work. I’m rusty.

Preliminary invocations and the visual form of the working circle are coming along. I’m playing with several variations now but I feel it will coalesce and settle well soon. I’ve been doing so much solve over the past few years it’s finally time for some coagula to happen.

Dies Mercurius

Luna wx 23%v

Studying Samekh again last night, happened to re-read the scholion and was surprised at how much of it didn’t register the last time through. It drove home the point that it really does hinge upon one’s capacity to reach and hold certain states, the ability to shape/push energy around, and the intensity of one’s ardor. The anatomy & personal sensate experience question is still a valid one when getting down to the practicalities of doing it, but really that’s a problem to be worked out by the student. It’s not really the instructor’s job to do that for them, even if he’s a real genius.

Next I’ll be looking at the GD Bornless ritual, the stele of Jeu, revisiting the Abramelin book and checking out V&V for the account of the aethyr where C receives detailed instructions in the method of K&C. The study of these rituals has a twofold benefit: 1) the enrichment of my knowledge on the subject and 2) as I read the parts, often it becomes clear to me as I read each section what the appropriate thing for my circumstance is. Sometimes right down to the exact wording of a line. This is meshing perfectly with the Muse studies.

Picked up more Eliade yesterday & read the introduction for Sacred & Profane. Hierophany = art that is doing its job. All of a sudden the term “hierophant” has been redeemed in my regard  : )  Exoteric religion, somewhat, as well.

Today I go to a workshop on fund raising for artists that I hope will be helpful, though I won’t be too disappointed if the topic is a little more advanced than where I’m at right now. I can always take good notes and tuck them away for later when I need them.

There is only one thing to do, and ten thousand ways to do it. How fortunate!

Mousai notes:

Pindar, Nemean Ode 7. 12 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :

“If success crowns a man’s venture, sweeter then than honey the them he pours into the Moisai’s stream. But lacking the songs to praise them, the mightiest feats of valour can but find a sorry grave a deep darkness. But for fine deeds a mirror to establish, one way alone we know if Mnamosyna’s (Memory’s) shining diadem will grant recompense for their labours, in the glory of music on the tongues of men.”

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Greek Lyric V Anonymous Scholia, Fragment 917c (trans. Campbell) (Greek lyric B.C.) :

“Gentle-eyed mother Mousa [Mnemosyne], keep company with the pure family of your children : we bring out a complex song, newly flowering with fresh-built skill.”

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Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :

“From Aether and Terra [were born various abstractions] . . .

[From Caelum (Ouranos) and Terra (Gaia) were born ?] Oceanus, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; the Titanes : Briareus, Gyes, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus [Koios], Saturnus [Kronos], Ops [Rhea], Moneta [Mnemosyne], Dione.”

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Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 29. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :

“The sons of Aloeus held that the Mousai were three in number, and gave them the names Melete (Practice), Mneme (Memory), and Aoide (Song). But they say that afterwards Pieros, a Makedonian . . . came to Thespiae [in Boiotia] and established nine Mousai, changing their names to the present ones . . . Mimnermos [epic poet C7th B.C.] . . . says in the preface that the elder Mousai are the daughters of Ouranos (Heaven), and that there are other and younger Mousai, children of Zeus.”

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Arnobius, Against the Heathen 3. 37 (Roman Christian rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :

“We are told by Mnaseas [Greek writer C3rd B.C.] that the Muses are the daughters of Tellus [Gaia the Earth] and Coelus [Ouranos, Heaven]; others declare that they are Jove’s by his wife Moneta [Mnemosyne, Memory], or Mens (Mind) [Metis?]; some relate that they were virgins, others that they were matrons.

.

The Elder Muses, the Mousai Titanides are three in number and according to most accounts are the daughters of Ouranos and Ge [Heaven and Earth].

• Mneme [Mnemosyne, Moneta], “memory, mind” and as Moneta “warning, money, memory”
• Melete, “practice, exercise”
• Aoide, “song”

Cicero and Mnaseus give four Elder Muses by Heaven & Earth: Thelxinoe (“charming the mind”), Aoide (“song”), Arche (“beginning”) and Melete (“practice”)

According to several sources, Mnemosyne is the mother of the later and better-known Olympian Nine by Zeus (Mousai Olympiades- Ovid: the Mnemosynides). These muses had two main cult centers in Boiotia on Mt. Helikon and another in Pieria on the slopes of Mt. Olympus.

There are also the Mousai Apollonides, the three daughters of Apollon: Kephiso , Apollonis, and Borysthenis, also called Nete (lowest note of the lyre), Mese (middle note of the lyre) and Hypate (highest note of the lyre)

The Elder Muses seem to be more about the aspects of making whereas the Olympian Nine are personifications of particular varieties of the arts in expression that unfold from the creation process.

Mneme- the well of accumulated personal and cultural knowledge, the raw source material within (and without when including access to recorded research materials) that when combined with inspiration forms the embryonic Works,  memorization and recall, one’s soul as “waxen receiver of impressions”

Plato, Theaetetus 191c (trans. Fowler):

“Sokrates : Can he [man] learn one thing after another? . . . Please assume, then, for the sake of argument, that there is in our souls a block of wax, in one case larger, in another smaller, in one case the wax is purer, in another more impure and harder, in some cases softer, and in some of proper quality . . . Let us, then, say that this is the gift of Mnemosyne (Memory), the mother of the Mousai (Muses), and that whenever we wish to remember anything we see or hear or think of in our own minds, we hold this wax under the perceptions and thoughts and imprint them upon it, just as we make impressions from seal rings; and whatever is imprinted we remember and know as long as its image lasts, but whatever is rubbed out or cannot be imprinted we forget and do not know.”

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Melete- muse of practice and exercises, willed shaping of one’s physical instrument

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Aoide- “song”, performance, the living art in actuality as existing and doing what it does in the world, the creator speaking his or her  living word through the Work.

Dies Venus

Luna NEW

“Dead you shall lie, for ever, a name that none recall;

For never you gathered roses upon the Muses’ tree.

Dim as you were in living, there too in Hades’ hall

You shall drift where only phantoms faint and forgotten flee.”

(Sappho of Mitylene, born c. 610BCE; Diehl, I, p.354)

Dies Mercurius

Luna wn 8%v

“It can be argued that there are two distinct categories of the REAL; that which is common and habitual, which I shall call ‘Reality,’ versus that which is suppressed by the first category which I shall call MARVELOUS. If one can believe the great thinkers of this century — the suppressed will return to haunt the bright plaza of low contrasts called ‘reality’ like lava extruded from a fault in the earth’s crust. If ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ then the imagination abhors reality (an opposition whereby what can be achieved achieves a clawhold on what is.)”

-Peter Koch, editorial, fall 1977 issue of Montana Gothic (via prairiemary)

Dies Mercurius

Luna wn 78%v

1) Finally drafted the basic mentorship/instructor inquiry letter. I think it is pretty good, but am letting it sit for a day or two before editing further. It says what I want it to without telling my whole life story. Next- order and refine list of persons of interest. Make list of people who I know aren’t necessarily possibilities themselves but who may know someone who fits the bill to forward my inquiry on to, and a list comprised of artists to approach directly. Modify letter accordingly.

2) RACC website- calls for artists links page and other resources- bookmarked! From reading about a dozen show prospecti and entry forms I now have a better idea about what I need to have to be ready to enter a show (varies) and what I need to have to be ready to approach galleries for representation (at least one series of 10-12 pieces & good photos thereof). I’m still a ways away from having a decent 10-12 piece series made. That will likely be the next thing to accomplish once the current projects are done.

3) Have been getting a good deal of work done in the sketchbook and the studio, though I feel like I’m sitting on my butt in front of the computer screen or with my nose in books a whole heck of a lot. While I’ve balanced my time navigation in making, the next fun bit will be balancing research & wrtiting (& digesting that) time. I include work on the website and continuing legal/contractual, gallery and show research in that latter category along with research related to the conceptual part of making the work.

Dies Solis

Luna wn 97%v

M/end

1) Finished three pieces this week: the JB disk, the main TK garter buckle, and the first of the medals, aspiration. Roaring into three more: the other two somewhat simpler garter buckles (UO and MK), the sterling honeycomb padlock, and a talisman for a coworker. A seal disk for Khars is also exerting some pressure on my mind’s eye as well. We shall see. If I can get seven pieces done over this break and have a productive workshop at OCAC, I will be very happy.

The two buckles can possibly wait since they are not due until near the end of January, but if I can do them now so much the better.

Was reminded that cellulose acts as a catalyst in CA glues, and in some epoxy resins. Addition of jet dust to resin mix made it heat up and cure FAST. Faster than I could get it on the piece! Good to know.

2) Really have to do some work on the website. Just because it’s functional right now doesn’t mean it’s done. But I don’t waaaannaaaaa….

3) Have yet to get that intro & inquiry letter ready to send out to the first wave of prospective mentors. Why am I dragging my feet on this?

4) Ordered my own supply of nitric acid for etching silver plus asphaltum for the resist. It’s hotter than the other acid I use for copper & bronze at home (ferric nitrate chloride) so more care will be necessary. I tried being cheap and trying liquid resist wax that is usually used for ceramics resist but of course that didn’t want to stick to the metal and probably would have melted in the acid anyway. Oh well, at least I tried it. $3 sounded a lot better than $16 plus hazardous shipping charges, but if the cheaper stuff doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. No haggling over the black hen.

5) No work on the tarot pages. I thought I’d do a card a day, but other projects and work elbowed their way into that time slot.

6) Unconscious seems to be completely fixated on circles lately. The form is just THERE, behind everything else in my imagination, like a tired rhino that has decided to make a couch of the back of my mind. I’m not arguing with the rhino.

7) reading/research: rereading MTP, more sources for the $ project, continuing in the Arendt.

Library list: Eliade’s Sacred and Profane, a couple of art & business/law books, an MC Richards book of essays on art, ethics & community and some fiction.

It’s all been delightfully relevant and is kicking my ass.

8 ) Home with T all week, running around with him and hearing a lot of music, seeing a couple of plays. Has been just wonderful- I could get used to this, and I will miss it when I start the next show as I always do. I used to be sad about the fact that our personal circles did not overlap as much as they used to. Now I see they overlap even more, in different areas.

9) In touch with a friend and fellow artist who happens to be in-state for a little while this & next month. Excited to finagle a way to see her & trade adventure stories : )

10) Everything’s fine. I should draw more.

pendant medal pin

bronze 220, sterling silver, nickel, carved amber heart, silk ribbon, glass beads

4.5 x 1.75 inches / 1.15 x 4.5 cm

Dies Jovis

Luna wx 98%v

Construction and finish-work completed for JB seal disk. All that remains is the formal gifting of this piece to my hardworking familiar!

DISK: ebony, sterling silver, fine silver, 18k yellow gold, amethysts and garnets, miniature (glass) marbles, resin

BASE: thuya wood burl

The seal-side of the disk has an etched inlay of sterling silver from which I raised a thick layer of fine silver by repeated annealing and pickling. The fine silver is a layer of nearly pure silver as the copper had been raised to the surface by fire and removed by the pickling acid. The raw fine silver has a snowy, frosty white appearance and is extremely resistant to tarnishing (much more so than sterling, due to its higher copper content). The raised surface of the seal area was then burnished down by hand to produce a compressed and reflective surface. The fine silver in the channels of the lines of the seal retain their snowy appearance.

The reverse of the disk has a ribbon and ring motif carved in the ebony around a central “well” (the well hole goes all the way through the ebony). The bottom of the well is the back of the silver seal inlay on the obverse and was polished to a mirror finish.

The silver ring lining the wall of the well is of sterling silver with an area of 18k gold that has been stamped with my maker’s mark. The text stamped on the ring is as follows: PER MANUM NOSTRAM -maker’s mark-  JB A REGULUS AD REGENS

Within the well are six colorful miniature glass marbles fixed in clear resin.

Dies Saturnus

Luna wx 68%v

Hand-set four 4mm stones into the disk yesterday, took my time about it. They were  two pair of Indian amethysts and garnets, both nice and rich in color but not too dark. Used the burnisher and for once did not manage to jab it into one of my fingers. Then I set about burnishing the thick fine silver surface on the obverse. Want a mirror-like finish with a little tooth to the surface. Managed a subtle “linen weave” texture by linear application of the burnisher and am pretty happy with that. The sigil form stands out clearly, that part unburnished and still frosty.

Also polished the mirror in the well on the reverse, did a bit of sanding and refining. I think two more sessions and this piece will be ready. It is small but has some nice heft to it.

Decided to cut the ivory legs on the base, they’re just not right. I am sure I will use them somewhere else. Have another pair of options in mind.

Then it’s on to the home stretch for the garter buckles! I feel the excitement for that project returning to me, very good timing for the upcoming break from work.

Dies Mars

Luna wx 29%v

polished silver mirror and inscribed ring prepared for inset

foundation for triangle base cut, first sanding (thuya burl)

Dies Luna

Luna wx 20%v

rough obverse with silver piece, prepared for inlay

inscription ring lining, stones, miniature marbles, ivory triangle legs, burled/flamed wood for base

Dies Mercurius

Luna wn 2%v

Dies Luna

Luna wn 74%v

JB disk foundation roughed in

Nox Saturnus

Luna wn 89%v

“Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the intermediary of things or matter, corresponds to the human condition of plurality, to the fact that men, not Man, live on earth and inhabit the world…Action would be an unnecessary luxury, a capricious interference with general laws of behavior, if men were endlessly reproducible  repetitions of the same model, whose nature or essence was the same for all and as predictable as the nature or essence of any other thing. Plurality is the condition of human action because we are all the same, that is, human, in such a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will live.”

-Hannah Arendt, “The Human Condition”, Ch. I: Vita Activa and the Human Condition

Nox Luna

Luna FULL

(M4)

Continuing resin test pieces. The salt crystals suspend nicely in the resin, and do not dissolve or adversely affect the curing process.  Couldn’t help but finish this test scrap into a small pendant with a Saturn-scythe and wheel cog motif in ebony framing the salt in the “window”.

about 22mm/ 0.88 inches tall

If I were making this again for real, I would want the division between the scythe and cogs to be a bit more distinct- I’d make the cogs in silver.

Nox Mercurius

Luna wx 7%v