After I watched it, first words coming to mind were: "All human life is there". Where did those words spring from? I pondered. They were buried in files at the back of of my memory bank. A now defunct British Sunday newspaper, News of the World used to carry its motto, those words, under its banner header during the 1950s. Originally a broadsheet, later a tabloid, that newspaper was one of Britain's most disreputable, its focus was on scandal, celebrities, sex and sport - it was popular with the masses, and nicknamed "Screws of the World". The newspaper had borrowed its motto from a line in a 19th century short story by Henry James, The Madonna of the Future. Full text of the story can be read at The Literature Network.VIDEO
Cats and monkeys — monkeys and cats — all human life is there!The story is about art and artists, their illusions and delusions.
All of which has little to do with the video, apart from the fact that a lot of human life is there too.
...a 16th century fable entitled The Monkey and the Cat. A monkey and a cat are roasting chestnuts in a hearth. The monkey persuades the cat to let the monkey remove the roasted chestnuts from the fire and embers by using the cat’s paw, promising the cat a share for obliging. As the cat scoops them from the fire, one by one, burning its paw more and more, the monkey eats all the chestnuts. They are disturbed by a maid entering and the cat ends up with nothing except burned paws.
The fable has given rise to two expressions:
To do someone else's dangerous or unpleasant task is to pull the chestnuts out of the fire (for that person) or to pull (that person's) chestnuts out of the fire.
A person who is tricked into doing something dangerous or foolish for someone else
is a cat's-paw.
Monkey year begins on February 8, 2016 on the new Moon in Aquarius at 6:39 am PT. Chinese New Years Eve is the the second new Moon after Winter Solstice.Those born in Monkey years 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 can read about themselves briefly HERE, and elsewhere on Chinese astrology websites.
ReplyDeleteBeing a Metal Tiger in a Fire Monkey year isn't going to make for the easiest time but it should bring some exciting results..
just have to see what happens and make the most of whatever does.
Peculiar, surreal video...made me pensive after the first several minutes. Not only is all life there, it's repetitive, too. I do believe that places, battlefields, houses, town squares, etc, vibrate with their past history. Stories abound regarding hearing, seeing, and-or sensing remnant trauma occurring at particular historical sites and places of past violence...an indelible psychic mark of some sort. I find the opposite true as well. I've been to many famous structures, such as temples, and felt an uplift. Sedona, AZ, had a magical feel to me. I remember walking the streets and plazas of Rome and sensing its history from "feel". I've been in houses and apartments that do or don't have good vibes, with no tangible, five-senses' reason.
ReplyDeleteSonny, you and I are keepers of the West, I see. And Twilight is center Sun. All three of us tigers. Ggggrrrrrrrrr.
"The Monkey and Cat" fable would never work on my cat, Junior. He'd shred the bejeebers out of that monkey's arm and hand...LOL. He's very gentle and sweet with GiGi and I, but a tiger in his own right. He once rescued me from a very large dog that was about to bite...Jr jumped from out of nowhere and swatted the dog across the face, landed right next to the dog, and immediately jumped-up and swatted the dog's nose. The dog took off in the opposite direct. My hero!
I probably mentioned this way back. Siblings and I were playing in our living room while Mom was taking a rare nap one afternoon. She hollered for us to come immediately...she was staring out of her bedroom window demanding to know about the grocery store she saw. We only saw the giant field that had always been there, across the street. Mom was acting very strangely and disoriented. She implied there was a Tilton's grocery store presently there, which was not there in reality. Several years later, a Tilton's grocery store was built right there!
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ReplyDeleteI have only had 1 cat and after her I can't imagine having another.
we were so very much alike and could read each others thoughts.. rip my sweet Eliza.
No one else could touch her, she would'nt allow it even when hungrey and bribed with food~!
Her original owner got sick and couldn't keep her- so I said- I'll take her. Both Noel and my hub at the time were scratched and biten. I remember when she arrived and they tried to get her to come to them- NO WAY~! I didn't say a word to her, in fact, I ignored the fact that she even existed. its was like-- 2 can play this game:) on night 3 she came to my room and hopped up on the bed- laid at the end all night. We went on that way for several weeks till one night she came and laid beside me and with only one paw she began the :what do ya call it-- needing? you know where they press on you.. for the next 7 years she rarely left my side.. we understood each other in ways its difficult to put into words. like the same being, in two different bodies/forms. One night, she jumped off the bed and I woke up and went to use the potty. When I got back she'd opened the folding doors on my closet- just enough to get in and bunched some clothes together that I had laying on the floor- I peeked in and she turned around with her back to me so I just thought- FINE.. about an hour later I woke up and I'd been crying in my sleep but couldn't remember the dream and then it hit me-- the KNOWING thing I mean.. I knew she was gone and I'd lost one of the best friends I ever had. The grieving went on for a long time. all these years later , every once in awhile I feel a light pressure at the end of my bed.. I know she's come to visit..
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I agree about feeling "Vibes" its never failed to prove true in my life. No matter how many may say a "thing or person" is wonderful- great- blah blah blah,, if I feel a bad vibe about a person-place- animal or anything, it always proves true , sometimes it takes longer than others to show the whys- but it always does.
ps- what does that mean Mike-- being the keepers of the west?
ReplyDeleteSonny - It's from Twilight's link, but on the tiger page: http://susanlevitt.com/astrology/chinese-and-taoist-astrology/tiger/
ReplyDelete"Tiger Personality
Tiger is grand, daring, powerful, independent, creative, and dynamic. Tiger individuals value freedom and don’t ever want to be caged in or held back. No matter how many obstacles stand in the way, Tiger’s courage will not diminish. Tiger attacks with unique swiftness and stealth. Tiger actions show a combination of style and power. No one can tell Tiger what to do, Tiger stands out in the crowd, and Tiger is a free thinker who never conforms.
Four mighty Tigers guard the four directions. North is guarded by the black (water) Tiger who represents winter. East is guarded by the green (wood) Tiger who represents spring. South is guarded by the red (fire) Tiger who represents summer. West is guarded by the white (metal) Tiger who represents autumn. The center is guarded by the yellow (earth) Tiger who represents the sun.
The Chinese god of wealth, Hsai Shen, rides a tiger for Tiger brings good fortune. All Tigers scare off thieves, ghosts, and fires. Therefore, Tiger is a formidable animal totem to contact in the shamanic realm to assist in banishments and purifications."
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It's strange how animals come into our lives and leave such a hole when departed. GiGi's first human left her in my care "for a month or two", but never came back...ten years ago. Junior left his humans when his brother was killed by a car...he lived feral for a couple of years, then adopted GiGi and me...nine years ago.
mike ~ I like your idea about the video - taking it as a kind of looping history of what has gone on in that room, over time.
ReplyDeletemike & Sonny ~ I'm enjoying reading your experiences with pet cats (and GiGi).
I've not had much experience of cats, but do admire their independence. I too doubt that the average cat would have been so passive when tricked by the monkey in the fable.
That's an old story though, and maybe 21st century cats have learned many lessons. ;-)
3 Tigers eh? William Blake wrote a poem about "The Tiger" didn't he:
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
We'd best be polishing up our "fearful symmetry" ! :-)
I think my "fearful symmetry" comes not from muscular, threatening stealth, but from the aging process...LOL.
ReplyDeleteNice poem, Twilight...reminded me of Kipling's "The Jungle Book", chapter 5, "Tiger, Tiger", with Blake's poem being the origin.
Sonny's description of her Eliza is similar to P.Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series, with its daemons:
"One distinctive aspect of Pullman's story is the presence of 'dæmons' (pronounced 'demon'). In the birth-universe of the story's protagonist Lyra Belacqua, a human individual's inner-self manifests itself throughout life as an animal-shaped 'dæmon', that almost always stays near its human counterpart.
Dæmons usually only talk to their own associated humans, but they can communicate with other humans and with other dæmons autonomously. During the childhood of its associated human, a dæmon can change its shape at will, but with the onset of adolescence it settles into a fixed, final form that reveals the person's true nature and personality. In Lyra's world, it is considered to be 'the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable' for one person to touch another's dæmon — this violates the strictest of taboos. 'A human being with no dæmon is like someone without a face, or with their ribs laid open and their heart torn out: something unnatural and uncanny that belonged to the world of night-ghasts, not the waking world of sense.'"
The "daemon" quote from Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials#D.C3.A6mons
ReplyDeletemike (again) ~ A more friendly and relatable tiger, with less fearful symmetry was Tigger created by A.A. Milne
ReplyDeleteTigger is a tiger, and a very bouncy one at that. He does not appear in the first "Winnie the Pooh" book, only in the second. Tigger is met with some suspicion by the other animals when he appears, partly due to his newness and partly due to his bounciness. However, they learn that his bounciness is really harmless enthusiasm more than anything, and although they try to unbounce him at one point they soon realise their mistake.
Tigger doesn't know what his favorite food is when he first comes to the forest, but after a process of elimination he discovers that it is extract of malt.
http://www.winnie-pooh.org/tigger.htm
He sounds rather Aries-ish!
mike (again) ~ My daemon is going to have to be my computer (or anyjazz....lol!)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehad to delete the other comment cause I had to many errors:)
ReplyDeletewell Mike, so far I've staved off the thieves and fire- but the ghosts/spirits they seem to follow me:) I mean seriously.. I've gotten used to it however I religiously do a daily incantation of LIGHT, so any who enter here or come near me must be of the positive variety.
thanks for explaining the different Tigers. I had one for several years who smoked cherry cigars~!!! the scent wasn't around all the time but when it was, there was no mistaking it.. must have been some hot latin who had a thing for blondes and just wasn't totally ready to give them up lol.. he wasn't around long thank goodness..
oh my , so many stories I could tell ya'll.. speaking only truth here-- spooky but often funny too.
my "fearful symmetry" comes from :my Silence:.. Its my personal belief that "people mistake Kindness for Weakness" and they are so wrong to do so. As I have said in the past- the sweeter the peach-the more painful and bitter the Pit, and yet folks seem unable to stop themselves from going that one millimeter too far.
I've never heard of P.Pullman's "His Dark Materials" .. I'll go look it up- thanks.
My spiritual teacher taught me to never choose an animal-never~! a couple of years after Eliza moved on to another realm, I decided I'd get a puppy.. This had to be done in a specific manner. I had to find a little that was home raised in order for this to work , if it was going too.. The first two litters I visited- none of the puppies did what I needed them to do, which was choose me.. 3rd try was the charm. I arrived- the lady let the pups out with their mom and dad and she also had to stay in the room... I sat on the floor and of course all the puppies came over to me to sniff and play a bit and then off they went playing with their litter mates. One climbed into my lap and stayed, even though her little mates tried to entice her to come and play. I had explained this to the breeder in advance so as the other pups played she called to the pup in my lap, even came over and rubbed it and talked to it-- it stayed right where it was.. at that moment Buffy Saint Marie was mine and we are still together 14 years and 10 months later. Her birthday is april 11 and she is as Aries as any I have ever known.. again, we suit each other very well.