Musings on trans-personal consciousness

Sitting on a ridge in the Mojave Desert, just north of Joshua Tree National Park, watching a rain storm blow in…

Like fronts of weather moving across a landscape, similarly, emotions and beliefs blow across human societies and through human consciousness, and we, without the “meteorological” tools to see, measure, track, or forecast those fronts of emotion, instead experience them as arisen from ourselves, individually, and thus with no capacity to prepare for and shelter ourselves from them, so that we might be able to remain largely unaffected and undamaged by the storms such fronts can bring on. Instead, we are overwhelmed by them, and blown like tumbleweeds across the emotional landscape; a society, a world of tumbleweeds blown about without shelter or stability.

We have yet to understand that...

To read the rest of this short musing, please go to:
http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/
or specifically:
http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/2018/12/30/musings-on-trans-personal-consciousness

I just posted 2 short vignettes from the Atternen Juez Talen translated back into 'normal' English. You can find them at Filtered Lights, A Public Notebook. Here's the link:

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

And here's a little add-on, a picture from our front yard looking at the lit up house across the street, shopped up a bit, of course:

Xerxes' gold cup

An illuminated gold cup, part of the Megillat Esther Josh and I are producing. Watch the short slideshow (6 slides) of its production, at...

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

3 fragments from my notebook

Here's a new post on my blog, Filtered Lights, with 3 fragments: a poem; a parable; an introspection.
You can find it here...

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

Check out the next steps in the illuminated Megillat Esther that Josh and I are producing. Click the link below to see what page 3 will look like, approximately, as well as a photo of Josh, Maddy, and me.

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

Transmigrant Journals, a new story

One of my long term projects is to compile stories of odd events, other-worldly experiences, and strange dreams in a book titled Transmigrant Journals. Here's the opening scene of a story that I'm currently calling "Re-Education".
Read it here...
http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

Megillat Esther: Vashti portrait

While Josh is producing pages of text, I'm working on the illuminations. Here's my most recently completed image, a portrait of Vashti, the king's courageous wife who will not be disgraced as a sex object by the crude and drunken king. 

To see the complete slideshow, presenting the portrait's development, please go to Filtered Lights. Here's the link:

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

Here's one of the images, showing the initial gold work:

Mystical musings by the Atternen Ju (Eternal Jew)

The following short excerpt is from a scene in The Atternen Juez Talen. Our hero has recently migrated to Poland (around 1320 CE) to start a new life, yet again. He is reflecting on a line from the daily prayers, that the Master of the Universe daily renews the act of creation (often interpreted to mean that the world, and each individual in it, is created anew each day, or even each moment). Reflecting on his own renewal, he goes off on a riff.

Here is a prose translation into standard English (what I call 'old English'), and then the original text as it was composed...

I, the Eternal Jew am a voice in the streaming world a-coil in you -- a recurring face, a recurring place, unknown, familiar, a recurring embrace. Hate me and I will choke you with hate. Fear me and I will hound you with fear. Love me and I will ignite a desire that consumes but can’t be satisfied ...

To read the whole excerpt, please go to my new blog, Filtered Lights. You will find the post here...
http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

For those who praise war...

The Eternal Jew hears a noise one morning. At first he thinks its thunder; then an earthquake. Then he realizes, an army is attacking. This scene in The Atternen Juez Talen takes place in approximately 1100CE. First a translation into standard English, and then the original in MetaEnglish. 

And behind the forward shock of noise
The walls of dust that choke your breath
And cloak your face in a deathly mask
So dragoon and drayman, commando and corpse
All look like statues in a Roman tomb.

And this the song them dragoons sung:...

To read the rest of the poem, go to my other blog, Filtered Lights -- A Public Notebook, at 

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

Jonah ReVisioned

I partnered with 2 others to produce a rethinking of Jonah for Yom Kippur -- Jonah ReVisioned. Here it is at the Forward:
http://forward.com/scribe/386907/jonah-reimagined/

Filtered Lights: Colorwork on Akhashverosh

Here's a link to a video showing the progression of colorwork on the first image for our Megillat Esther:

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

On Filtered Lights: While saying the Sh'ma

Here is a poem that came to me last night that tries to convey the ineffable experience of transcendence. The poetry is followed by a prose translation in normal English:
Wile Sayen the Sh'ma, I Wuz Herd...

The full text can be found on Filtered Lights:
http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

but here's a taste:

Wile Sayen the Sh’ma, I Wuz Herd...

Yur evver waer iz this Ruwakh werl
But hu knoez the Ruwakh tu see it?

Yu wuz spaken a roer
That ar seemen a silens,
Tho Yur Proffets say iz a wisper
Evver wun heerz
But hu ar lissenz? Evver wun
Stanz so klose but stil too far....


While Saying the Sh’ma, I Heard...

You are everywhere in this Ruakh world but who knows the Ruakh to see it?

You who spoke in a roar that seemed like a silence, tho Your Prophets say it is a whisper everyone hears, but who is listening? Every one stands so close but still too far.

On Filtered Lights - the first rhyton

Filtered Lights: a new post -- Megillat Esther, the first rhyton.
Six images showing the progress of my illumination work on an image. Here's the link:

http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

and here's one of the images:

On Filtered Lights: Megillah color work

My latest post on Filtered Lights, my new blog...
"Megillat Esther: new images; colorwork."
You can find it here:
http://www.steveberer.com/work-in-progress/

Here's a preview:

Filtered Lights -- illumination work on Akhashverosh

My latest post on Filtered Lights can be found here...
http://steve-berer.squarespace.com/work-in-progress
Next step, colorwork.

Here's a preview: