Beastiary

Subject: Re: Beastiary Fri Nov 28, 2014 3:25 am

Mnemosyne.

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Quote :: "The agon between culture and civilization, human and animal, error and truth, takes the form of an agon between memory and forgetfulness:

The forgetful. - In the outbursts of passion, .and in the fantasizing of dreams and insanity, the human being re-discovers its own and the humans' prehistory: animal ity with its savage grimaces; on these occasions its memory goes sufficiently far back, while its civilized condition evolves out of a forgetting of these primal experi ences, that is to say out of a relaxation of its memory. The one who, as a forgetful one on a grand scale, is wholly unfamiliar with all this, does not understand the humans, - but it is to the advantage of all if here and there such forgetful ones appear as those who "do not understand the humans" and who are as it were begot ten by divine seeds and born of reason. (D 312)

Whereas culture affirms and holds o n to the human animal's continuity with the animals, civilization coincides with the forgetting of animality, the silen cing of the animal within the human. The forgetfulness of civilization dis rupts the filiation between the humans and the animals; it separates them and set them against each other. Nietzsche argues that civilization's forget fulness opens up the agon of human animal becoming and thus considers the forgetfulness of civilization to be future promising.

It is the forgetfulness of civilization that allows for the transformation of the human animal into something distinctly "human, all too human" and not animal. But this for getfulness forecloses the possibility of recognizing in the animal and its for getfulness a source of inspiration and creativity. The forgetfulness of civilization brings with it the risk that the denial of animality will turn into an overly passionate hatred and resentment against animality. If civilization ends up destroying the ground from which it grows, it will unavoidably lead to its own decline (Untergang). Once it consumes and lives up its life forces, it perishes and goes under. Nietzsche approves of certain doses of aggression against animality but rejects the aggression of civilization when it turns out to be an overdose. Once one destroys one's opponent, Nietzsche argues, one destroys the one from which one grows and is brought to health, life, and future becoming.

What in the competition against the animals brought about the humans their vic tory, at the same time brought about the difficult and dangerous sickness like devel opment of the human being: the human being is the not yet confirmed animal. (KSA 1 1 :25)

From Nietzsche's perspective, the history of civilization is above all the his tory of the generation of the most dangerous sickness. Civilization makes the human animal blind to its own animality, to confirming and affirming itself as animal. It keeps the human animal bound to its "all too human" form and thereby forecloses the possibility of its further becoming. Instead of cultivat ing a future-promising overhuman animal, civilization ends up producing the worst kind of animal: "The domestic animal, the herd animal, the sick animal - the Christ" (A3).

Against civilization, Nietzsche defines his own position as inherently pessimistic: true victory and liberation cannot be achieved through the over coming of animality but only through the overcoming of all-too-human morality and rationality as vehicles of civilization. Nietzsche places the humans amid the other animals (A 14) . He overturns the belief in the genius of human animal nature as the crown of evolution and instead hypothesizes whether it is not rather the genius of nature that uses human animal life as a means to its own perfection (AOM 185).

Pessimism instead is revelatory of the strength, health, and overflow ing life that results from the embracing of life in all its forms (BT, P1).

Since civilization has cut the human animal off its animal beginning, it cre ates a void that it attempts to fill through the invention of an origin [arche], a myth of the beginning, which as an absolute beginning causally determines the future, that toward which it evolves (telos). Civilization's construction of the beginning reveals an inherently moral design: the attempt to "improve" life and human animal nature (TI "Morality"). According to Nietzsche, this moral interpretation of human animal nature destroys all those forces and instincts within the human animal that are future promising and that are the growing ground of overhuman animal greatness and virtue (EGE 62). Nietzsche interprets Christian morality as an example of the hatred and resentment of the animal as much as of the overhuman, the exceptional ani mal, found in civilization. Christian morality sows the seed for the erroneous belief in the human animal's superiority over the animals and all other forms of life. Christian morality lives off the turning of the human animal against itself, against its animality. But due to the overly aggressive denial of animal ity, this morality cannot succeed in leading the human animal toward a "higher" form of itself. Its struggle against animality, animal and overhuman, is that of declining life:

The over-animal.- The beast in us wants to be lied to; morality is a necessary lie told so that it shall not tear us to pieces. Without the errors that repose in the assumptions of morality the human being would have remained animal. As it is, it has taken itself for something higher and imposed sterner laws upon itself. That is why it feels a hatred for the grades that have remained closer to animality: which is the explanation of the contempt formally felt for the slave as a non-human, as a thing. (HH 40)

Nietzsche turns the prejudices of morality against itself and exposes its "distance" from the animals as pretense. From the perspective of the animals, the illusion of the human animal's moral nature does not make the human animal more moral, it only makes it more prejudiced (D 333). Morality does not "improve" human animal life; it only aggravates the human animal's condition. The moral and civilized animal's claim to have surpassed the ani mals does not reflect a movement of overcoming in the Nietzschean sense of an agonistic encounter with the (overhuman) animals; on the contrary, it signals the escape from such an open and honest competition.

Culture rekindles the human animal's animality to heal the human animal from its self-denial and life-denial. Against civilization and its forgetful ness, culture stands for the rise of counter-memory as a form of memory that brings back the animal (D 312). Culture reveals that civilization's attempt to tame the animal, to frighten away the ghosts of the past, are in vain, for in the fragile states of dream and illusion the animal returns; it haunts the civilized animal. The memory of culture should not be confused with the voluntary act of bringing back the animal. Memory is not a means of mastery and domination; rather it is animality that irrupts into the face of memory, beyond its control. Remembering is surprised by what exceeds the capacity to remember. Memory becomes a form of attentiveness, a readiness to grasp animality when it comes forward to its encounter.

Generally speaking, for Nietzsche forgetfulness and memory reflect two dif ferent perspectives on the world. Whereas the perspective of forgetfulness is an articulation of singularity as what cannot be shared, the perspective of memory is an articulation of universality as what can only be shared." [ib.]

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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Tue Dec 02, 2014 9:56 am

Sponges and Starfish.

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Quote :: ""I teach you the friend and his overflowing heart. But you must understand how to be a sponge if you want to be loved by overflowing hearts [Nietzsche II 325]. Thus spoke Zarathustra.

Reason is rotted to bits in sponge-space, because all the polar concepts which provide its structure depend upon the repression of scaling differences. Form is infested by matter, the abstract by the concrete, the transcendent by the immanent, space by time. (It is not only ideal/real, actual/virtual, infinite/finite, simple/complex that succumb, but also Euclidean/fractal, absolute/scaling, consistent/sponge.) Life is infested by death; terminally infiltrated by the unsuspendable reality of its loss. There is no integral identity or alterity, but only fuzzy sponge zones, pulsing with indeterminable communicative potencies.

Simple animals such as sponges and starfish are characterized by a relatively loose assemblage of cells, whilst linear animals—such as insects or vertebrates—exhibit a ‘more complex mode of composition’ [II 294] in which the organic elements succumb more profoundly to their integration. In his early ‘sacred sociology’ writings Bataille employs the distinction between colonies and societies to mark this difference between aggregated and scaled multiplicities. A society is an assemblage or composition which does not consist of individuals possessing a greater ontological density than its own, and this absence of privileged scale meshes it inextricably with death (the unrealizable zero of community). The ‘elements’ of a society are thus vampirically drained towards the nuclear whole, just as they are agitated in their integrity by the ineliminable flows at ‘a lower degree on the scale of composition’ [II 305], lending the labyrinth a ‘double aspect’ [II 292, 293]. Such particles—more spongiform than sponges themselves—are irreparably violated by their constellation into the dissipative mass of the labyrinth." [Nick Landa, The Thirst for Annihilation]

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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Thu Dec 11, 2014 5:27 am

Moles.

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Quote :: What did Nietzsche know about moles? Probably no more than the average person. Probably no more than this: the mole is a small animal with strong forefeet, weak eyes, and a large forehead. It is often blind and frequently lacks external ears. During its brief life of about one year, it is active day and night in rapid cycles of work and rest, making elaborate underground nests, shelters, and labyrinths. Above ground the mole's diggings are marked by small mounds of dirt. Their tunneling, which is sometimes damaging to the roots of plants, stirs and aerates the soil and kills noxious organisms. Their molehills annoy gardeners. Rarely seen by humans, and of little if any economic importance, moles are ecologically important as prey for larger mammals and birds, who pursue them despite their noxious odor. They do not carry diseases.

An animal with bad eyesight that smells badly. An animal that repels despite the fact that it is harmless. An animal whose underground burrowing refreshes the soil and rids it of unwanted organisms but is only seen by gardeners as an unwelcome creature that uproots plants and ruins their flower beds with unsightly piles of dirt. A misunderstood animal. An animal whose name is also that of the double agent, the spy who operates undercover, unseen, undermining the rule of established powers. Are we surprised that Nietzsche signs himself mole in the preface to Daybreak? ls this not the perfect totem for a genealogist?

But in identifying the mole as his double, Nietzsche marks this difference between them: what is natural for the mole, working in the dark, is a burden to a being whose eyes are highly developed and who craves light and heights. If he is willing to sign himself mole in Daybreak, he pulls his pen back in Human, All Too Human, The Gay Science, and Zarathustra. In Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche separates himself from the mole. Named as the organic source of the metaphysical concepts of substance and identity, the mole is now positioned as Nietzsche's adversarial other rather than his dou ble. In The Gay Science, Nietzsche continues this distancing. Now he figures the mole as the pathetic figure of modem humanity-a human being whipped by life and devoid of passion who requires the intoxications of music, theater, and culture to sustain him as he crawls back into his hole. In Zarathustra, the estrangement is complete. Now the mole is joined to the dwarf and identified as the spirit of gravity, the threat to Zarathustra's over coming.

As Nietzsche's Daybreak double, the mole comes to taunt Nietzsche as his other. It is the nausea of the modem condition, the devotee of the aesthetic ideal, Zarathustra's enemy, the spirit of gravity. Finding it necessary to take up the mole's subversive work, Nietzsche, always ambivalent toward this underground creature, ultimately rejects its dark existence. In Daybreak, by accepting the mole as that part of himself that must be simultaneously affirmed and overcome, Nietzsche presents himself as an argument against the metaphysical principle of mole identity. As he links overcoming the mole with destroying the enemy of overcoming in Zarathustra, however, Nietzsche seems to be affirming the idea of the self-identical subject. Zarathustra, it seems, cannot tolerate doubles. It may be in this relationship to the mole, rather than (as Heidegger thought) in the affirmation of the eter nal recurrence, that Nietzsche succumbs to the metaphysical temptation.

Nietzsche opens Daybreak by telling us that the text is the work of a subterranean man, a solitary mole who "tunnels and mines and undermines"; who goes "forward slowly, cautiously, gently inexorable." Unlike the mole, however, the subterranean man is not at home in the dark. He "needs eyes to work at these depths." Though his work does not betray it, he is in distress, under duress. The "protracted depravation of light and air" of the mole's world does not suit him. It is more than a matter of seeing and breathing. It is also a matter of the necessity of working in obscurity. Despite his love of sunrises and noon times, Nietzsche, in assuming the role of the mole, tells us that he "perhaps desires this prolonged obscurity, desires to be concealed, enigmatic because he knows that he will thereby also acquire his own morn ing, his own redemption, his own daybreak. . . . [T]his subterranean will return and tell what he is looking for when he has become a man again." Teaching us, through the mole, how to read Daybreak, Nietzsche give us, in this sketch of himself as mole, clues for understanding Zarathustra's down goings and over-comings.

As the image of the genealogist in Daybreak, the mole becomes the answer to the riddle of metaphysics posed in Human, All Too Human. Nietzsche as genealogical mole discovers the mole at the root of the philosophical principles of substance and identity. The irony is unmistakable. Metaphysics, which is enamored of comparing the mind to the eye and its domain of truth to the brilliance of the sun, is charged with perpetuating, as one of its fundamental principles, an idea of a nearly blind creature who lives in the dark. Metaphysics, Nietzsche tells us, has its origin in an organic mole error. The error is twofold. First it is a matter of not seeing the differences; then it is a matter of only allowing for differences so long as each differentiated thing is established as having a single essence. A thing is only allowed to be different from other things insofar as it establishes itself as singular. As self-identical, each substance must remain constant with respect to itself. In this way, organic life, inexpert in the business of seeing, situates itself within its environment according to the principles of pleasure and pain. The organism makes only those distinctions necessary for it to distinguish friend from foe. Nothing more complex is required, needed, or tolerated." [Acampora]

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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Fri Dec 12, 2014 5:12 am

Lizards.

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Quote :: "For his own part, Nietzsche characterizes the text that will draw forth his expression of what he calls his divine lizards in terms of his assault against the convictions and practices of morality, alluding here to the subtitle of GM:

"With this book begins my campaign against morality. Not that it smells in the slightest of gunpowder-quite other and more pleasant odours will be perceived in it, provided one has some subtlety in one's nostrils" (EH "Books" D 1 ).

The reference to smell is important for Nietzsche, as he liked sensual metaphors, especially (and particularly dissonantly for modem read ers) those of smell, but such an odor is also significant of the alchemical domain of the present metaphor. The odor of evil (rather than sanctity) recalls the lizard as it appears in Zarathustra, at the conclusion of the section entitled "Immaculate Conception" or on-bespattered knowledge (Von der unbefleckten Erkenntniss), where Nietzsche writes of subterranean odors and sensibilities: "Distance concealed from me the serpent filth and the evil odour, and that a lizard's cunning was prowling lustfully around." Thus this same reference emphasizes his (esoteric) appeal to the uncommon reader.

What I am calling to attention here in the context of the present review of Nietzsche's use of the word "lizard" is Nietzsche's writerly style as his prowess as rhetorician and hence as a modem master of an otherwise rarely achieved alchemical art. Not merely a writer, not merely a stylist, Nietzsche wrote for particular readers and he wrote to ensure that he be read in a certain way. So far, so good. Here I want to emphasize to what unprecedented extent this effort would exceed other instances of rhetorical achievement unprecedented enough to change-and this should be alchemy enough-the character of a language itself.

Language scholars count Nietzsche as one of the great stylistic masters of German, ranking him with Luther and Goethe. Such a ranking calls for the question What did he do as a writer? How did he do it? As Nietzsche con ceived his own achievement, his invention was a matter of rhythm and style: "Before me one did not know what can be done with the German lan guage-what can be done with language as such. The art of grand rhythm, the grand style of phrasing, as the expression of a tremendous rise and fall of sublime, or superhuman passion, was first discovered by me" (EH "Books" 4). A student of the art of language, Nietzsche achieved not only a theoretical but also and remarkably-for it is this accession that remains rare-a practical mastery of the art of written composition or style.

Like Nietzsche's other metaphors, the Eidechse thus works in more than metaphoric fashion in his text but has exactly metonymic resonance. In sound, Eidechse invokes "idea" along with the iconic philosophical associa tions that are thought together in the idea as such (Idee, eidolon). In addi tion, the lizard, the signified animal itself, has a characteristic brilliance in appearance, particularly as Nietzsche describes it. Small and clean, clear and precise, the scales of a lizard are increasingly variegated or detailed in com plexity the closer one looks at it. Yet in spite of the reptile's prototypical association with stolidity (such as turtles or as exemplified by the nine teenth-century invention of the dinosaur), the lizard moves with striking speed. And its movement is reactively directed, always in patent response to the viewer. The lizard's movement is so very much a response to conscious ness that the viewer is inspired to hold him or herself magically still to prevent the lizard from taking flight. The reptilian dimension, the cool, the cold, is always clear to Nietzsche and in its connection with transfiguration would seem to be related, at least in the metonymic order, with the amphib ian salamander and thereby and once again to alchemy.

Reflecting on his book Daybreak, Nietzsche develops his claim that the ultimate poetic (or musical, writerly task) is to learn to see out of a thousand eyes and-"shuddering with recollection"-to be able to catch the moments he calls "divine lizards," flashing, slithering moments, as they change and transform the thinker. In this context, the art of the book as a whole (and by the same token, the core of aphoristic achievement, which has as its goal to say what others do not say in a book) is described as the extraordinary art of freezing such elusive insights: "making things which easily slip by without a sound, moments which I call divine lizards, stay still for a little-not with the cruelty of that young Greek god who simply impaled the poor little liz ard, but nonetheless still with something sharp, with the pen" (EH "Books" D l).

Apollo, we will need to recall when Nietzsche speaks of young Greek gods, casual in their cruelty, was also celebrated for playing with reptiles the god was said to have received the gift of the first lyre when Hermes chanced upon the shell of a dead turtle, upended, a shallow vessel tautly strung with dried tendons. The invention of the lyre is thus attributed to Apollo, or, maybe more likely, to Hermes, and one may imagine that the lyre would have been made from the shallow shell of a sea turtle-thus explaining Nietzsche's reference to a sea animal-but the lyre could just as well have been fashioned out of the shell of the box turtles that one can still find by the heights of certain Greek temples, animals in either case with dimensions that could serve a god for a lyre. And, again, we recall Marcel Detienne's manifold studies of Apollo in all his aspects, aspects including cruelty, and "soaked in blood," to use a Nietzschean metaphor. The pure rationality of the Apollinian, which Nietzsche named a dream image, is an image that endures in spite of dissonant mythological associations.

Nietzsche here characterizes his Daybreak as a book of clear peace and calm: presenting the quiet demeanor of an animal "lying in the sun, round, happy, like a sea-beast sunning itself among rocks" (EH "Books" D 1).

Nietzsche will confess that ultimately "it was I myself was that sea-beast." Here, with the same metonymic resonance, we find another word for Nietzsche's claims that his writings are so many fishhooks. In this case, he speaks of his writing like Apollo's fisher's lance: "a spike with which I again draw some thing incomparable out of the depths: its entire skin trembles with tender shudders of recollection" (EH "Books" 01). But who is speared, who does the spearing? One is almost compelled to imagine that as the author, as the wielder of pen or spear, Nietzsche considered himself almost on the terms of his youthful reflection as he writes in a Nachlass note from the winter of 1880-1881, "joyful [frohlich] and acute [schlau], like a lizard in the sun" (KSA 9:8[23]).

The image in Daybreak, according to Nietzsche's own account in Human, All Too Human, is the story of convalescence or alchemi cal regeneration. To amplify the same image, Nietzsche recollects the lizard's power to regrow, in contrast with human beings, a lost finger (BGE 276).

Nietzsche had earlier compared the lizard with the convalescent (which we do read as speaking of himself) in his introduction to Human, All Too Human: recalling the needfulness of all and every means of knowledge, spo ken of as a "fish-hook," "which may not dispense with wickedness." This is the time when the convalescent truly convalesces, the moment of a turning that begins to return to health. In this sense, this is a time that is grateful for the patience of the course of recovery and the small comforts of the same, as the convalescent comes to himself, as if for the first time: "Only now does he see himself-and what surprises he experiences as he does so! What unprecedented shudders! What happiness even in the weariness, the old sickness, the relapses of the convalescent! How he loves to sit sadly still, to spin out patience, to lie in the sun!" Like a lizard, Nietzsche continues, "Who understands as he does the happiness that comes in winter, the spots of sunlight on the wall! They are the most grateful animals in the world, also the most modest! these convalescents and lizards again half turned towards life" (HH P:S). Like the poikilotherm, the ectothermic lizard, stilting to regulate its body temperature, the convalescent himself moderates his return to health.

If the image of inspiration, the absence of any subject for and of thought itself, points to the vulnerability of the idea that, as Nietzsche says, glances away when one looks directly at it, this is opposed to his example of philistine creativity, which is precisely productive for the sake of appearances and so that (this is the feminized aspect of bourgeois invention) it may be seen (i.e., TI "Maxims" 20; see BGE 148). By contrast, because the thought comes when it wants, the idea of the writer, as an idea, is falsified almost immediately: it is a consummation that is maculate or spoiled in every sense of the word.

As a writer, Nietzsche's procreative sensibility wants the kind of differences he calls musical-not in the sense of the lost music painstakingly measured out of the lyric texts of antiquity, not in the sense of the contemporary music he himself attempted to compose, but the kind of music he also claimed to have written, precisely where such wild aspects could be regarded as the chil dren of eternity for his metaphorical vision, his own texts. In this sense, he claimed in his Ecce Homo that one could count "the entirety of Zarathustra under music" (EH "Books" Z:l). The musical thoughts in question would call for a "rebirth in the art of hearing" and have only the value of seeming, and here Nietzsche repeats his reptilian image. They are "the values of the briefest and most transient, the seductive flash of gold on the belly of the serpent vita-" (KSA 12:9[26]). It is indispensable to an understanding of the meaning of these fleeting values, of thoughts that flash by unremarkably, to underscore them as values of appearance. Only poetry or the music of artistic invention can mark such flashing values as the highest will to power: marking becoming with the character of being, the seeming of being.

Another note captures this same reflection as a reflection on happiness. In a list of titles, between "Beyond Yes and No" and "The Last Virtue" we come upon " 'We Lizards of Happiness:' Thoughts of a Thankful Man" (KSA 12 : 1) . We are invited to reflect on N ietzsche's happiness, the happiness that he later characterizes as specifically his own: the happiness that should correspond to a love of fate, of divine blessing. And here too the image of the lizard recurs as a gliding allusion. Thus the parodic fourth movement or "act" appended to his Zarathustra prefigures images recalled in his Ecce Homo to write of music and happiness in a transposed time. Here in his song-not to night but to noontide, but still with a word for the burnished and "brown" reflections he will later recollect-now, when the day forgets its morning, it beats out a certain still point in time:

Take care! Hot noontide sleeps upon the fields! Do not sing! Still! The world is perfect.

Do not sing you grass bird, oh my soul, 0 my soul! Do not even whisper! Just see-still!

Old noontide sleeps, it moves its mouth: has it not just drunk a drop of happiness -an ancient brown drop of golden happiness, of golden wine?
Something glides across it, its happiness laughs. Thus-does a god laugh. Still! (2:4 "At Noon")

What, as "its happiness laughs," "glides across" the sleeping noontide, what fleeting movement catches the eye of the midday lover, would seem to be the lizard or its kin: "Precisely the least thing, the gentlest, lightest, the rustling of a lizard, a breath, a moment, a twinkling of the eye-little makes up the quality of the best happiness. Still!" (Z:4 "At Noon"). This littlest of things, the little it takes to make us happy, is music, Nietzsche writes. We hear the merest note of a bagpipe and we are transported-evidence for him of how little one needs for real joy. The French say there is no happiness, only small or lesser happiness, and Nietzsche recalls this when he speaks of the small woman he imagines to himself in Ecce Homo, a woman of the south, a woman who is a metaphor for music.

Writing a passage-poem, a poetic array of mixed titles and observations or "Halcyonic Expressions" and beginning with "Caesar Among the Pirates," Nietzsche explains his thoughts of gratitude, lizards of happiness, as the hap piness that, finding itself among what we descry as all-too-Wagnerian companionship (Zwergen), wishes for and embraces misunderstanding. This happiness is not merely a quiet, small happiness but the thankfulness of a convalescent grateful for the spots of sun in winter, like a lizard, a chance to stilt into the warmth: this Pindarian gratitude is thankful for being misunder stood-as it finds itself among dwarves, as among children." [Acampora]

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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:09 pm

Lyssa wrote:: Dog, Domestication and the Ego

We are constrained to think in terms of species: humans, dogs, elephants, leeches, and so on. But as both Darwinian biology and the Nietzschean ontology of differential will to power imply, the species is simply a convenient fiction. In the light of such a realization, we may come to give pride of ontological and ethical place to the individual, the "I." But to think recurrence, as the shepherd and Zarathustra struggle to do, takes us beyond the individual, beyond the dog we call "ego." To affirm recurrence is to give equal weight to all my experiences, both before and after thinking the thought. It leads to no coherent narrative ofmy own life but suggests that I am immersed in the stream of becoming. If "the innocence of becoming" frees me from guilt, it also radically transforms the very terms of "I" and "me" with which I began to pose such questions-the thoughts and hinter-thoughts that were interrupted by the howling dog. In the conversation with the dwarf, it was suggested that the passing moment or twinkling of the eye (Augenblick) is that which eternally recurs.

Perhaps that too was a necessary oversimplification; the closest approximation to the real that escapes conceptualization. Once the shepherd bites off and spews out the head of the snake we hear no more of the noisy dog. If this biting and spewing involves acknowledging the anti-individualistic thrust of the teaching of recurrence, the role of the domesticated ego necessarily falls away. And the shepherd, in his superhuman laughter, becomes something other than a shepherd. He will no longer be either domesticated or domesticator, for reflection on the canine condition reveals that these are two sides of the same coin." [Gary Shapiro; Acampora, A Nietzschean Bestiary]

Satyr wrote:: "These silly creatures I called my kind, now look so absurd to me; penises and vaginas fighting for a place in a vast bacchanal, fucking their way out of meaninglessness.
This is called life.
A fool’s existence.
Mucus filled corpses governed by chemical necessity, spewing excrement, releasing gases, gushing liquids from every orifice.
Then with ridiculous appendages and soft grey-matter they search for eternity, for nobility, for truth, for understanding so as to become more than animated dirt; a slow decay of cadavers obscuring the stench with perfumes, deodorants and disinfectants.
I laugh to stop myself from gagging.
Consciousness, as it is defined, is an orgy of engorged testicles and ovulating ovaries; every meeting a fuck-fest to weather mortality.

Cocks, pussies, tits and asses sum up humanity and an orgasmic spasm defines mankind’s creations; all that you see are remnants of multiple ejaculations splattered against emptiness, excrement of desire.

Priapus should be erected in every town square as a symbol of our real spiritualism.
Every other idol has been but a variation of the original.

Holy trinities representing mans triangular balance:
father/son/holy spirit,
mind/psyche/body,
life/becoming/death,
justice system/government/the people,
instinct/emotion/intellect,
male/sex/female,
attraction/apathy/repulsion,
good/neutral/evil,
true/doubt/false,
pleasure/contentment/pain,
love/indifference/hate,
master/power/slave,
past/present/future,
material/ethereal/immaterial,
here/movement/there and so on...

A fitting heritage for those to come…. and come… and come…."

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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:22 pm

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[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Sun Sep 06, 2015 3:02 pm

Panthers.

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Rome

Nietzsche wrote:: "Yes, my friends, believe with me in Dionysian life and the rebirth of tragedy. The age of the Socratic man is over; put on the wreaths of ivy, put the thyrsus into your hand, and do not be surprised when tigers and panthers lie down, fawning, at your feet. Only dare to be tragic men; for you are to be redeemed. You shall accompany the Dionysian pageant from India to Greece. Prepare yourselves for hard strife, but believe in the miracles of your god." [BT]

Nietzsche wrote:: "The complete woman tears you to pieces when she loves you: I know these amiable Maenads. Oh! What a dangerous, creeping, subterranean little beast of prey she is! And so agreeable with it!" [EH, Books, 5]

Walter Otto wrote:: "Wherever poets or artists represent the madness of the maenads at its height, there the dancers appear with young animals in their hands, tear them into pieces, and swing the bloody members through the air. In the Bacchae of Euripides they pounce on a herd of cattle, fell the most powerful animals among them, and tear them limb from limb. The same picture appears again in later authors. The true victims of their gruesome hunt, however, are the animals of the forest, the very ones they have mothered. In Euripides, Orestes and Pylades, who have seized Hermione, are compared to Bacchants who have in their hands a young animal. The verb "fawn") is used to describe the tearing to pieces of a young deer by a maenad. Since, however, the women also suckled the young of other animals, wolves and bears are also mentioned as the victims of their murdering lust.

Thus the madness of these bloodthirsty huntresses has evolved from the magic of a motherliness which has no bounds. Like their master, the maenads, too, pounce on their victims to devour their flesh raw. That no longer describes the hunter. That describes the beast of prey. For it was to the god as the "eater of raw flesh," that is to say, as a beast of prey that three Persian youths were sacrificed before the battle of Salamis.

That the murderous and bloodthirsty actions of the maddened women were actually looked upon as those of beasts of prey is substantiated by Oppian's tale40 (which surely goes back to ancient accounts) that Dionysus changed into panthers the women who were to rend Pentheus. Dilthey has compared these passages with a vase painting in which Pentheus, who is being seized by a maenad, is at the same time pounced upon by a panther.

With this the god of magical grace has entered a state of the most terrible contrasts.

His ability to transform himself into something else is often stressed. He is the "god of two forms", the "god of many forms":
"Appear as a bull, or as a many-headed dragon, or as a lion breathing fire!"

Even the animals who accompany him and in whose forms he himself appears from time to time stand in sharp contrast to one another, with the one group (the bull, the goat, the ass) symbolizing fertility and sexual desire, and the other (the lion, the panther, the lynx) representing the most bloodthirsty desire to kill.

The panther, as is well known, appears in descriptions of a later period as the favorite animal of Dionysus and is found with him in countless works of art.· As Philostratus tells US, the panther leaps as gracefully and lightly as a Bacchant, and this is the reason the god loves him so. It was even main- tained that he had a passionate love for wine. At the same time, however, it was because of his intractable savagery that he was compared with Dionysus.

Whenever or however the worshippers of Dionysus got to know the panther, which was as beautiful as it was dangerous, its nature told them immediately that it was akin to Dionysus and had to belong to his realm. That is confirmed by the other beasts of prey, similar to the panther, who were associated with Dionysus earlier or later.

Ever since the Augustan Age, Roman writers, following, of course, the Greek tradition, like to name the lynx as a beast of Dionysus. This animal had been native to Greece from a very early time and is still found there today. The panther or leopard, and the lynx (the tiger, too, is added in the references out of Roman literature) have that very thing in common which justifies comparing them in more than one respect with the nature and actions of the maenads. This makes itself felt most in the panther, which was, after all, the most loyal attendant of the god. Of all the cats devoted to Dionysus, it was not only the most graceful and fascinating but also the most savage and bloodthirsty. The lightning-fast agility and perfect elegance of its movements, whose purpose is murder, exhibit the same union of beauty and fatal danger found in the mad women who accompany Dionysus. Their savagery, fascinates those who watch them, and yet it is the eruption of the dreadful impulse to pounce on the prey, tear it into pieces, and devour its flesh raw. We are told that the leopard and the lynx are the most murderous of all the larger beasts of prey. Many more victims must bleed to death under their teeth than would be needed for their sustenance. And when one hears that a female leopard which is suckling her young is the bloodthirstiest of all the carnivores, one cannot help thinking of the maenads who were also nursing mothers." [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Rilke wrote:: "As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed."[The Panther]

Nietzsche wrote:: "Also
adlerhaft, pantherhaft
sind des Dichters Sehnsüchte,
sind deine Sehnsüchte unter tausend Larven
du Narr! du Dichter! ...

Der du den Menschen schautest
so Gott als Schaf —,
den Gott zerreissen im Menschen
wie das Schaf im Menschen
und zerreissend lachen —

das, das ist deine Seligkeit,
eines Panthers und Adlers Seligkeit,
eines Dichters und Narren Seligkeit! ...

Bei abgehellter Luft,
wenn schon des Monds Sichel
grün zwischen Purpurröthen
und neidisch hinschleicht,
— dem Tage feind,
mit jedem Schritte heimlich
an Rosen-Hängematten
hinsichelnd, bis sie sinken,
nachtabwärts blass hinabsinken:

so sank ich selber einstmals,
aus meinem Wahrheits-Wahnsinne,
aus meinen Tages-Sehnsüchten,
des Tages müde, krank vom Lichte,
— sank abwärts, abendwärts, schattenwärts,
von Einer Wahrheit
verbrannt und durstig
— gedenkst du noch, gedenkst du, heisses Herz,
wie da du durstetest? —
dass ich verbannt sei
von aller Wahrheit!
Nur Narr! Nur Dichter! ...

"Thus
Eagle-like, panther-like,
Are the poet's longings,
Are your longings under a thousand masks,
You fool! You poet! ...

You that have looked upon man
As god and as sheep —
Tearing to pieces the god in man
As well as the sheep in man,
And laughing while tearing —

This, this is your bliss,
A panther's and eagle's bliss,
A poet's and fool's bliss!" ...

In the fading light of dusk,
When just as the moon's sickle
In between green and crimson-reds
Enviously creeps —
The day's enemy,
With every stealthy step
At rose hammocks
Scything, till they sink,
Sink down pale in nightfall:

Thus I myself once sank,
Out of my truth-madness,
Out of my day-longings,
Weary of day, sick from the light —
Sank downward, eveningward, shadowward,
By one truth
Burnt and thirsty —
Do you still remember, remember, hot heart,
How you thirsted then? —
That I be exiled
From all truth!
Only fool! Only poet! ..." [Only Fool! Only Poet!]

Quote :: "Black Panther’s Power Includes astral travel, guardian energy, symbol of the feminine, death and rebirth, understanding of death, reclaiming ones power, ability to know the dark, aggressiveness and power without solar influence, reclaiming Power.

The Panther is a very ancient and powerful spirit guide. Their power is lunar (moon). In Egyptian rites a panther tail was worn around the neck or waist to help protect and strengthen the individual. Panther has been a symbol of the “Argos of a Thousand Eyes,” who protected the heifer IO whom Zeus loved. After his death, the eyes were moved to the feathers of the peacock.

The name panther is frequently linked with a certain species of leopard or jaguar and sometimes the cougar. Black panthers are smaller but more fierce than lions and tigers. They are also brilliant swimmers and agile climbers. Because they have the ability to sprint with great speed, they hold the teachings of quick decisive action. Panthers are not the best long distant runners though, so those with this power animal should take part in movement therapies that improve endurance, e.g. swimming, martial arts. It is necessary to learn how to pace oneself, to not push to fast or hard on any one task.

Panthers are generally loners, extremely comfortable with themselves and are often drawn to other solitary people. Women with Panther, Leopard or Jaguar power animals frequently find themselves raising their children alone, whether it be through divorce or circumstance. People with this power animal can develop clairaudience, the ability to hear communications from other forms of life or dimensions. They must trust their thoughts and inner voice/visions as they are based in reality. This is an animal guide to assist you on your path, sometimes in the form of a real person such a mentor or teacher. The Black Panther is endowed with great magic and power, which will increasingly be experienced.

Panthers have over 400 voluntary muscles that can be used at will when required. Panthers are able to move gracefully in and out of situations, as well as freeze and not be noticed. This is a symbol of the ability to shapeshift realities, using all parts of the body to perform a task. The gift of Panther is the power of silence. They are near silent when hunting or stalking prey, and know when to make themselves seen and when to become unseen.

Panther holds the secrets of worlds that are unseen and are associated with lunar energies. Within the darkness of night resides the truth of creation. Black panthers have great mysticism associated with them. They represent the life and power of the night. They can show us how to welcome the darkness and rouse the light within it. Those with this power animal contain knowledge of a galactic origin, and have a responsibility to look after and respect this knowledge. Caution must be used when sharing it with others. When the student is ready the teacher appears, and vice versa. If the student isn’t ripe the information given could trigger negative consequences.

Panthers possess acute sensitivity. The hairs that cover their lithe bodies, especially on the face, pick up subtle vibrations. This is symbolic for those with this guide. It is an indication of a need to pay attention to their feelings and honour the messages those feelings transmit.

Touch can be a significant path to explore to awaken ones concealed gifts. The black panthers sleek, smooth and sensual coat has been linked to sexuality. If panther comes into your life it may be asking you to resolve old sexual issues, or to embrace your sexuality fully.

When experiencing the presence of panther, one of their most striking features is their unblinking stare. It seems to see right through the body. Those with panther medicine can use their eyes as a healing tool and have the potential to heal on a cellular level.

Panther is a powerful guide to have, always bringing a guardian energy to those to whom it comes.

Panther, Leopard or Jaguar people can develop clairaudience, the ability to hear communications from other forms of life or dimensions.

As a whole panthers are loners (solitary) although they do associate with others, they are most comfortable by themselves or within their own marked territory. They are drawn to those individuals who are likewise often solitary.

Panther is secretive, silent, and graceful in her every move. She is solitary by choice, she tells little though listens much. She is careful not to share too much information, only enough to ease curious minds.
Of all the panthers, probably the Black Panther has the greatest mysticism associated with it. It is the symbol of the feminine, the dark mother, the dark of the moon. It is the symbol for the life and power of the night. It is a symbol of the feminine energies manifest upon the earth. It is often a symbol of darkness, death, and rebirth from out of it. There still exists in humanity a primitive fear of the dark and of death. The Black Panther helps you to understand the dark and death and the inherent powers of them; and thus by acknowledging them, eliminate your fears and learn to use the powers. In China there were five mythic cats, sometimes painted like tigers or leopards. The black reigns in the north with winter as its season of power, and water its most effective element. This is the element of the feminine. This is the totem of greater assertion of feminine in all her aspects: child, virgin, seductress, mother, warrioress, seeress, and the old wise woman.

When the Black Panther enters your life as a totem, it awakens the inner passions. This can manifest in unbridled expressions of baser powers and instincts. It can also reflect an awakening of the kundalini, signaling a time of not just coming into one’s own power. More so, the keynote of the Black Panther is Reclaiming One’s True Power. In mythology and scripture, the panther has been a symbol of the “Argos of a Thousand Eyes,” who guarded the heifer Io who was loved by Zeus. After his death, the eyes were transferred to the feathers of the peacock. The panther always brings a guardian energy to those to whom it comes.

In an ancient tale by Oppian, he tells that Dionysos turned the Mænads into panthers before they attacked Pentheus.

Philostratus says that the panther leaps as gracefully and lightly as a Bacchant. In a Roman mosaic of His panther, the animal appears to be a leopard, complete with spots. The panther offers the combination of grace & beauty contrasted with bloody fierceness that is seen in the Mænads.

The panther has also been attributed to Jesus. In the Abodazara (early Jewish commentaries on the scriptures), it is listed as a surname for the family of Joseph. It tells how a man was healed “in the name of Jesus ben Panther.” Because of this the panther often signals a time of rebirth after a period of suffering and death on some level. This implies that an old issue may finally begin to be resolved, or even that old longstanding wounds will finally begin to heal, and with the healing will come a reclaiming of power that was lost at the time of wounding.

Nietzsche once said that “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” It is this same idea that is awakened in the lives of those who open to the power of the panther totem. Those things of childhood and beyond that created suffering and which caused a loss of innate power and creativity are about to be reawakened, confronted and transmuted. The panther marks a new turn in the heroic path of those to whom it comes. It truly reflects more than just coming into one’s own power. Rather it reflects a reclaiming of that which was lost and an intimate connection with the great archetypal force behind it. It gives an ability to go beyond what has been imagined, with opportunity to do so with discipline and control. It is the spirit of imminent rebirth.

Panther people have a broader vision. Panther medicine gives them a deeper insight, both spiritually and psychically. Their enhanced perspective lets them see things in close detail or from a distance. Panthers enter the world enlightened whereas others have to work to achieve that."

"Pour, Bacchus! the
remembering wine;
Retrieve the loss of me and
mine!
Vine for vine be antidote,
And the rape requite the lote!
haste to cure the old despair, -
Reason in Nature's lotus
drenched,
The memory of ages quenched." [Ralph Waldo Emerson]

_________________
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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Thu Oct 01, 2015 4:05 pm

The Fox.

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Quote :: "The Fox /vulpes/
Traditionally the fox is a symbol of cunning and guile. The text of the bestiary combines the description by Isidor /XII.2.29/ with the tale of “Physiologus”. The origin of the word “fox” /vulpis/ from “volubilis pedibus” /walking in circles”/ is borrowed from Isidor. The implication is that a fox makes those circuitous pug marks because he never runs straight but goes on his way with torturous windings. In the Latin versions the story of the fox’s cunning, to be found in “Physiologus”, was complemented with new details. When the fox is hungry, he rolls himself in red mud so that he looks as if he were stained with blood. Then he throws himself on the ground and holds his breath, his tongue hanging out. The birds, seeing all this, think that he is dead and come down toward him. In an instant he jumps to seize one of the birds. Like the Devil, the fox who spoils the Master’s vineyard /The Song of Solomon, 2:15/ looks dead to those who live the life of flesh and fall prey to the Devil’s tricks upon his being bewitched by Evil. The story about the ingenuity of the fox catching birds arises from Oppian /Galievtica, 11.107/. The fox became the main character of the medieval “Roman de Renard” whose connection with the bestiaries should be noted here. Likewise, the bestiaries of the thirteenth century, are influenced by the satiric “Roman de Renard”. The plots of the fables and of “Roman de Renard” are represented in the Romanesque and Gothic art /for instance, the reliefs of the old tympanum in the portals of St.Ursin in Bourges/. The miniature of the bestiary reproduces the traditional representation of the fox feigning death and surrounded by birds."

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Quote :: "The mind of the fox is full of crafty wiles. Consider how it catches bustards: it droops its head downward and gently wags its tail. Aelian claims that the deluded (apatetheisai) bustards approach this object which they mistake for one of their own kind. When they are within reach, the fox suddenly turns round (epistrephein) and leaps upon them. If the mêtis of the fox is immediately detectable in its skill at playing dead., it is dazzlingly apparant in this sudden reversal. In effect, the fox holds the secret of reversal which is the last word in craftiness. In the fourth Isthmian, Pindar gives a very significant description of the mêtis of the fox: in many instances, he says, ‘the cunning of the weaker has taken the stronger by surprise and brought about his downfall (kai kresson’ andron cheironon esphale techna katamarpsais’). The courage of Ajax, the greatest of all after Achilles, is brought down by the craftiness of Odysseus, the polumetis: it is a victory for the Wolf over the Lion.[140] In this way Pindar comes to praise Melissos of Thebes, victor in the all-in wrestling. Although small of stature, his energy is daunting: ‘His courage in battle resembles the valiance of wild animals which roar so terribly.’ He is a lion, but a lion which is also a fox and which reversing its position, brings to a halt the flight of the eagle. Melissos is a past master at the feint employed in wrestling (palaisma) of eluding the grasp of the adversary and then, by reversing one’s body, turning against him the force of his own thrust. Similarly, when the eagle swooping down on it, the fox suddenly reverses its own position. The eagle is outwitted, its prey escapes it and the positions are reversed. This is the fox’s masterstroke.
It was not in nature that the Greeks found this type of reversal behaviour in animals, but rather in their own minds, in the conception that they formed of mêtis, its methods and effects. The fox, being the embodiment of cunning, can only behave as befits the nature of an intelligence full of wiles. If it turns back on itself it is because it is, itself, as it were, mêtis, the power of reversal."

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Quote :: "Oppian alone briefly describes its habits and nature: "the most cunning of all beasts of the field . . . warlike of heart and wise." Thus, lacking a vivid textual description of the fox's appearance, Rubens turned to nature itself for a model. Specimens were probably examined for the color and texture of the pelt and for physiognomic traits, such as the snout and the teeth, since these features in particular have the ring of truth. The foxes' behavior as well seems to be based on close observation from live models, especially that of the fox on the left that hides its tail between its legs, appearing to cower in fear (Fig. 6). While this act seems symptomatic of panic, in fact it is a defensive stratagem. Although authorities differed on specifics, they agreed that the fox deliberately soiled itself to elude capture. Phoebus, for instance, wrote: "if he [the fox] is hunted in open country, he shits on himself so that the greyhounds will leave him alone, because of the foul smell he has." Gesner, on the other hand, explained the action somewhat differently:

When the dogs are pressed neer unto him [the fox], and are ready to bite him, he striketh his tail betwixt his legs, and with his own urine wetteth the same, and so instantly striketh it into the Dogs mouths, whereof when they have tasted, so many of them as it toucheth will commonly leave off and follow no farther.

Rubens illustrates this action with characteristic decorum, intimating but not actually showing the fox relieving itself. Within Rubens's circle the motif gained currency, as the Fox Hunts by Paul de Vos in Antwerp (Fig. 7), Ghent, and Kassel attest. The fox's behavior pointedly emphasizes the creature's defining trait--wiliness--which the action of the stricken fox on the right of Rubens's picture instances as well. This animal strains to sink its fangs into the hind hock of the dappled steed in retaliation for the injury it has suffered, and, more important, to panic the horse so as tomake its escape in the ensuing tumult. With his attention focused on the wolves, the rider is ignorant of his perilous circumstance, and could even be faulted for a lack of circumspection regarding the fox, whose craftiness makes it a foe no less dangerous than the wolf. Whether Rubens intended this incident to carry allegorical instruction aimed at his noble clientele is not clear, but that the fox evoked quite specific moral and political associations deriving from its role in the beast epic Roman de Renard, as well as in fable literature, cannot be doubted."

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Quote :: "Fox feigning death: When a fox is caught in a trap or run down by dogs he fights savagely at first, but by-and-by he relaxes his efforts, drops on the ground, and apparently yields up the ghost. Thedeceptionissowellcarriedoutthatdogs are constantly taken in by it, and no one, not pre\i- ously acquainted with this clever trickerv' of nature, but would at once pronounce the creature dead, and worthy of some praise for having perished in so brave a spirit. Now, when in this condition of feigning death, I am quite sure that the animal does not al- gether lose consciousness. It is exceedingly difficult to discover any evidence of life in the opossum ; but when one withdraws a little way from the feigning fox, and watches him very attentively, a slight open- ing of the eye may be detected ; and, finally, when left to himself, he does not recover and start up like an animal that has been stunned, but slowly and cautiously raises his head first, and only gets up when his foes are at a safe distance. Yet I have seen gauchos, who are very cruel to animals, practise the most barbarous experiments on a captured fox without being able to rouse it into exhibiting any sign of life. This has greatly puzzled me, since, if death-feigning is simply a cunning habit, the animal could not suffer itself to be mutilated without wincing. I can only believe that the fox, though not insensible, as its behaviour on being left to itself appears to prove, yet has its body thrown by extreme terror into that benumbed condition which simulates death, and during which it is unable to feel the tortures practised on it." [W. H. Hudson, The Naturalist in La Plata (1903) in Mair, Oppian]

Quote :: The Thought-Fox

"I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed."

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_________________
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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Thu Apr 21, 2016 7:53 pm

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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Thu Jun 23, 2016 8:37 pm

The Jaguar.

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Ted Hughes wrote:: The Jaguar

"The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.
The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut
Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.
Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion
Lie still as the sun. The boa-constrictor’s coil
Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or
Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.
It might be painted on a nursery wall.
But who runs like the rest past these arrives
At a cage where the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized,
As a child at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged
Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes
On a short fierce fuse. Not in boredom –
The eye satisfied to be blind in fire,
By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear –
He spins from the bars, but there’s no cage to him
More than to the visionary his cell:
His stride is wildernesses of freedom:
The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.
Over the cage floor the horizons come." [Alice Oswald, A Ted Hughes Beastiary]

Quote :: "Jaguar is a Native American word meaning, “he who kills with one blow.”

They are associated with vision, which means both their ability to see during the night and to look into the dark parts of the human heart. The jaguar often warns of disaster, he does not offer any reassurance. Along with physical vision, jaguars are also associated with prescience and the foreknowledge of things to come."

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Quote :: "The jaguar is said to possess the transient ability of moving between worlds because of its comfort both in the trees and the water, the ability to hunt as well in the nighttime as in the daytime, and the habit of sleeping in caves, places often associated with the deceased ancestors. The concept of the transformation of the shaman is well documented in Mesoamerica and South America and is in particular demonstrated in the various Olmec jaguar transformation figures (Diehl, p. 106)."

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Quote :: "The Jaguar’s medicine includes seeing the roads within chaos and understanding the patterns of chaos, moving without fear in the darkness, moving in unknown places, shape shifting, psychic vision...
According to Mayan beliefs, the journey of the sun across the sky and the darkness of night represented the infinite journey of human consciousness and its transformations. The midday sun’s position was compared to the Eagle, flying high in the sky, to then plunge below the horizon, just as we plunge into the dark to face our spiritual challenges and to be transformed. The hidden sun was said to be Jaguar, whose spotted skin represents the stars glittering/shining in the night sky. Hence it was called the “Jaguar Sun.” The force that lives within the mountains, giving them their volcanic and transformative power, is the same underworld source of energy and power contained within the Jaguar Sun.

The jaguar growls, snarls and makes deep grunts – it does not roar like a lion. People with this power animal generally possess a good command of language, although their words can have a tendency to cut, tear and shred others apart. Learning correct communication skills is of foremost importance for these people.
It was said that their eyes were a passage to the underworld, and more so, if you gazed into the eyes of a jaguar your future would be revealed to you."

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Quote :: "Alert Jaguar
In ancient temples
your graceful form once walked
. . . silently.

Drifting in and out of shadows
like a vaporous mist of focused intensity,
your emerald eyes penetrating the darkness
. . . unflinchingly.

Vines now weave and constrict
the crumbling stones of sacred pyramids,
metaphors for the tangled jungle
of the human mind,
whose life has been misspent
in the shattering darkness
of ill intent.

In what echoing halls
of the Dreamtime do you still walk,
vigilant observer for
He who came from the stars?"

_________________
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"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Wed Jul 13, 2016 3:49 pm

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_________________
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

"ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν." [Heraclitus]

"All that exists is just and unjust and equally justified in both." [Aeschylus, Prometheus]

"The history of everyday is constituted by our habits. ... How have you lived today?" [N.]

*Become clean, my friends.*

Subject: Re: Beastiary Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:12 am

bump

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γνῶθι σεαυτόν
μηδέν άγαν