1 comments about The Gospel in Art by the Peasants of Solentiname.

1. "It is horrible that there are dead and wounded. Some day, instead, there will be an abundance of schools, hospitals, and clinics for everyone, food adequate for everyone, art and entertainment. But most important, there will be love among all."
   - from 'A Letter to the People of Nicaragua' written by the Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal in December 1977, two months after his Roman Catholic Parish and contemplative community upon the archipelago of Solentiname in Lake Nicaragua had been destroyed, raped, burned and massacred by the US-backed Somozan National Guard.
   
   Two years later the Sandinista Front of National Liberation came to power, and the Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal became the new Minister of Culture, fulfilling much of this prophecy, including as his brother, the Jesuit Father Fernando Cardenal initiated the national literacy campaign, and the new government built and staffed new health clinics and schools throughout the nation, before the terrorist invasion by Reagan's illegal army, the contra.
   
   The Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal studied prayer in contemplative community in Gethsemane under the Reverend Father Thomas Merton, then Novice Master, who wrote poetry and prayed with Father Ernesto and then advised him to return to his people, who were suffering under a dynastic and brutal US-supported military dictatorship. Father Merton advised Father Cardenal to found a contemplative community there among the poor and most illiterate.
   
   In 1966 therefore Father Ernesto Cardenal founded the famous Catholic contemplative community in Solentiname, engaging with the poor fishers and farmers and families there in Biblical study and discussions of the Gospels. Recordings of these discussions were published in four volumes in several languages, including in English The Gospel In Solentiname - published by the Maryknoll Catholic Foreign Mission Society through its publishing house the respected, the cherished Orbis Books.
   
   Here in this present volume we find snatches of these evangelical conversations matched with the beautiful artwork painted by the same unlettered yet profoundly talented, wise and expressive people of Solentiname.
   
   Beginning with the Annunciation and completing with the Resurrection, visiting nearly every scene in the Gospels in between, each pair of pages presents a Biblical verse, a page of the conversation regarding that verse in prayer, hermeneutic, meditation and exploration of its relevance to what His Holiness Pope Paul VI called "the sign of the times." The facing page contains a painting of the parable or the Life of Christ under consideration.
   
   Highly recommended for all Catholics, children and for adults at every level of progress in the Faith.
   
   Important to reflect upon in this our election year, and at this point in our Liturgical Calendar, particularly the reflections and representations of the arrest, passion, death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1 comments about Angels: A Modern Myth.

1. There are a small number of books in my posession that will always have a special place in my heart. Books that I have stumbled across almost by accident, books that have practically lept off the bookshelf demanding to be read.
   Angels: A Modern Myth, is one such book. The author Michel Serres has created a beautiful work that contains a myriad of subtle revelations that will appeal to both those with a scientific mind and those who's thinking is naturally more artisitc. Indeed the book seems to marry these all too often seperated thinking systems. Using angels as metaphor for communication, Serres takes us on a nonlinear journey through space and time in the form of a conversation between two friends. Reading and re-reading will offer insights to all that take the time to discover them. Be prepared for a journey at once strange and unkown and yet somehow familiar. Angels: A Modern Myth, a beautiful gift to yourself or to those that you care about. The worst fate this book will receive is to become a favourite of the coffee table; where it shall patiently sit until someone with fortune lifts it into their lap. And so shall begin a journey that has already begun and that shall continue to reverbarate throughout their conciousness, long after the last page has turned.

No comments about Covenant: Scenes from an African American Church.

5 comments about Angel Oracle.

1. The art of Sulamith Wülfing (1901-1989) reveals a hidden mystical world that captures the beauty and spirituality of darkness and light, fairies and angels, and otherworldly spirits.
   
   The Angel Oracle is a 40 card deck that features the whimsical paintings of Sulamith Wulfing. While the deck is supposed to help individuals understand the nature of angels and how they help with human problems, the sayings on the back are merely inspirational or motivational quotes culled from other sources. Also the deck references God as a "he" which may be unworkable for those who view the Divine as a she or genderless. Also, the sayings often mention devils or evil, which doesn't jive for those leaning towards non-dualistic, non-Christian spiritual paths.
   
   Some quotes include:
   
   "When the angels appear, the devils vanish."
   
   "Life vibrates. It does not move."
   
   "We learn that God is, that He is in me, and that all things are shadows of Him."
   
   "On the spiritual life, all paths lead to the same place."
   
   "The Angels of Death are full of grace and love."
   
   "Belief in not truly belief while doubt can still touch it."
   
   The sayings on the Angel Oracle cards are pretty shallow, so this deck isn't really suited as an oracle in my opinion. Also, there is no booklet that accompanies this deck.
   
   If you love Wulfing's artwork--which is quite beautiful--you'll no doubt love this deck. Likewise if you connect with the concept of angels and spirit helpers. If you're looking for a good angel oracle, however, you're much better off with a deck like Doreen Virtue's Archangel Oracle Cards.
   
   (To see 6 images from this deck, visit the Reviews--Decks section at http://JanetBoyer.com)



2. How difficult is it to snip a few contrite "spiritual" messages and place them on cards just to promote your angel art-work? Exactly. These cards may be uplifting for someone with no real connection to spirituality, but for those of us who do have that, these cards are sorely lacking in inspiration. Pass this deck up, it's simply not all it's made up to be.



3. This deck of cards consists of forty of Sulamith Wulfing's mystical/spiritual paintings. She has to be the greatest artist of this genre in the 20th Century. So it is wonderful to have a collection of her paintings in a handy format for carrying around. Many of the paintings have traditional images of angels with wings, but on sixteen of the cards the images are more generally spiritual than angelic. Yet the spiritual nature of her work allows almost all her paintings to be interpreted as angelic whether the spirits or beings have wings or not.

   On the back of each card is a short statement chosen by the editor as a meditation to use with the card. Some of these are obviously taken from other sources. E.g., a card called Prosperity has the saying: "I cried because I didn't have shoes, until I met a man who didn't have feet." Some seem out of place. A card called Realization states: "The only thing a computer cannot do -- compared to a human being -- is to look into the evening sky." The painting is of two angels holding red candles without a computer or a machine in sight. Most of the texts are OK, but not being chosen by the artist, they are separate from the paintings and don't add anything.

   At the end of the introductory essay in Fantastic Art, Sulamith wrote the following personal statement: "My drawings are a visual representation of my deepest feelings: pleasure, fear, sorrow, happiness, humor. And, to people attuned to my compositions, they may well be mirrors of their own experiences. It is because of this that I have left the explanation of the drawings completely to the viewer, so that they are not bound by my interpretation of what each picture should be. For me it is not a matter of creating illustrations to fit nursery rhyme themes. My ideas come to me from many sources, and in such harmony with my personal experiences that I can turn them into these fairy compositions. My Angels are my consolers, leaders, companions, guards."

   These cards can do the same for you that Sulamith's Angels did for her. You will love these paintings.




4. Since I'm bored and theres just one review (at this time) that sucks, I'm writing something. When I opened the box I was disappointed because I wanted a little book to explain things! Instead there was a card and printed on it is: "Place the cards in front of you, with the image up. Relax. Concentrate on your personal angel and allow your Higher Self to choose a card for you. Your angel is sending you a message. Let it touch your heart and ponder it throughout the day." The cards have beautiful paintings (I usually find art boring) and on the back of each one is a smaller black and white version with words under them. For example: Belief is not truly belief while doubt can still touch it. But do the cards work?! Hmm..when I was looking through them for the first time (So far I've only had them for 2 days) I was feeling VERY lonely (being lonely is about the only thing that makes me sad). Anyways, after looking for a few seconds I accidently dropped one of the cards somehow and on it said: "Solitude is bearable only with God." A coincidence?? Some say nothing is a coincidence when angels are around...whatever it was made me very happy. Decide for yourself. I certainly think they're worth $10. I just wish the cards were a little bigger (they're just a little bigger than "poker size" playing cards, but I'm probably just used to bigger tarot cards!



5. This is a great book! I feel if you believe in angels then this is for you! It will lift your spirits!

No comments about The Mediation of Ornament.

No comments about Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum: Series Archaeologica Et Iconographica) (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum: Series Archaeologica Et Iconographica).

4 comments about Lady of the Beasts: The Goddess and Her Sacred Animals.

1. I bought this book in support of research into the Potnia Theron (Lady of the Beasts) tradition in ancient iconography. This tradition is very important to me personally. A Goddess associated with lions, owls, etc. is central to my spiritual practice.
   
   Lady of the Beasts does contain a delightful collection of animal-related iconography from a wide range of cultures. It was worth the price to me just for this.
   
   That is a good thing, too, because the text is so full of howling errors that I have to assess it to be perfectly useless as any kind of guide to the tradition.
   
   Androgynous figures, or figures of completely indeterminate sex, become Goddesses by default. Just a few examples: A seated figure on a stone from Sweden, shown holding snakes, which reminds me strongly of the Cernunnos (horned God) figure from the Gundestroup cauldron, becomes a Goddess "in birth position." (pp. 175 - 177) True, the figure's legs are spread, but it is seated, not squatting, which -- women, please correct me if I am wrong -- looks like an absolutely hideous and impossible position for birthing. The body is androgynous, but the shape of the head suggests a beard. The lighting on the picture precludes any firm conclusion on the question of beard vs. pointed chin. Another figure, clearly a woman seated on the back of a sow, is in a similar position, but holding one leg up. Johnston cites this as a fertility fetish and suggests the female figure here is also in a birthing position; this one looks much more likely to be that. Interestingly, these images are not linked with the later Sheela-na-gig images from Ireland and elsewhere. Perhaps that is understandable, since the Sheela-na-gig is nowhere linked with animals. At any rate, I can come up with several alternative spiritual interpretations of these figures without much effort at all, which is consistent with the nature of myth and of mythic art.
   
   A figure from a Fremont Indian rock painting (p. 33), with a roughly rectangular body and long ears or horns, becomes a creatrix on no evidence whatever. It could just as well be Coyote, who in some of the stories from the region created the world as one of his jokes (and considering some of the more ribald Coyote stories, his maleness is not in any doubt). Since there are no living Fremont Indians from whom to collect oral tradition, we just don't know.
   
   On p. 19, conveniently unnamed archaeologists from "the Soviet Union" (which no longer existed by the time the book was published) are cited in support of the Universal Paleo-Neo-lithic Mother Goddess myth.
   
   Contrary to Johnston's assertion, Tammuz (Dumuzi) was not originally Ishtar (Inanna)'s son (p. 179). I am particularly displeased when people pervert the grand old stories of the Ancient Near East in support of a vision of all Pagan religions being exemplars of a particular monomyth. They were not, and their very chaotic diversity is part of their power. Much information is potentially lost when authors put their One True Interpretation first and the facts last.
   
   This sort of excess does not serve feminism, Neopaganism, or Goddess spirituality well. It is exactly why those movements, with their infinitely valuable message for humanity, are so easily dismissed by their academic and political critics (who, of course, are the same people in some cases).
   
   It would be so much better to present a balanced view, in which the ancient relations between Gods and Goddesses are preserved in all their messy glory, than to destroy the legacy of ancient Paganism by dismissing and trivializing the male half of it, even in just retaliation for how the female half was treated. Perhaps this is a necessary part of a dialectical process, and the balance I seek is being developed as the wild swings of the pendulum are damped by the critical process. A man can dream.



2. This book is gorgeous enough to be a coffee-table ornament, and substantial enough that it'll spend more time in your hands than on the coffee table.

   Many of the goddesses worshipped in ancient times were envisioned in the form of animals, or depicted with animals, such as the snake, cow, bird, or sow. Buffie Johnson writes lucidly about these goddesses and supplements her work with TONS of pictures. She touches on many different cultures, from the Mediterranean to Scotland and South America. If you're interested in goddess spirituality, you will definitely want this book.

   A side note: I really wish I'd had this on hand when I read _The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory_ a few weeks ago. In that book Cynthia Eller tries to disprove matriarchies, and among other things, questions the theory that there was goddess worship in Crete. She says that the two "Snake Goddess" statues don't necessarily prove anything. No, not by themselves. But from Johnson's book, I learned that there were similar but less elaborate statues on altars in people's houses...that a beautifully painted sarcophagus bore a mural of a host of priestesses performing a bull-sacrifice as a lone male flutist trilled in the background...that there were far more images of female power in the "seal stones" than I had seen before. Or that the smaller of the Snake Goddesses wears a rose crown, the sign of Ariadne, though I don't know if they're connected. I still don't know whether there was a matriarchy there, or whether it would have been a good or bad thing if there had been one. But Johnson has convinced me that there were goddesses worshipped there.

   This book does occasionally go a little bit overboard, seeing goddess symbolism where there may be no symbolism at all. But in general, it is a beautiful and useful resource that will delight anyone interested in the ancient Ladies.




3. this book tells about Goddesses and their sacred animals. i don't know what i expected, but still, it is a good book. the chapters tells about different animals; birds, cats, cows, bugs and so on. also, there are many pictures and drawings. only minus comes from the texts...they would be little bit longer.



4. This book was written very well. It covered many of the Goddesses from all around the world and told their stories. The photos were very helpful in showing the old Goddesses when reading their stores. This is one book that is a must for those studying the old religions.

No comments about How to Distinguish the Saints in Art by Their Costumes, Symbols and Attributes.

1 comments about Ten Lives of the Buddha: Siamese Temple Painting and Jataka Tales.

1. I started to collect Thai paintings long before I picked up a copy of the Ten Lives of the Buddha in 1982. As a serious collector, I try to find whatever available information there is about the subject and this book has provided me with invaluable background in understanding this particular art. The masterpieces reproduced in this book represent the best of this rich and unique artistic heritage. The ten lives of the Buddha are recounted in a lively narrative style that recreates the realms of myth and legend forming a vital part of the culture of the entire Buddhist world. Jataka paintings are not only works of art in their own right but also sermons in line and color. ()

No comments about Thesaurus: Religious Objects of the Catholic Faith.