Our Own Asemic Symbolism Leads Our Way

I firmly believe that we each have within us a pattern of archetypes or symbols that lead us in our conscious and unconscious recognition and responses to them. The symbols we see in our dreams over and over are much like the symbols we see in our waking life again and again. Can we pay attention to them differently than we do now, and what would we learn if we do?

One of my favorite contemporary artists, Ronald Isom makes this idea of asemic symbolism integral to his artwork. He sees it like this:

Asemic symbolism has no verbal sense, though it may have a clear contextual sense. Through its design, composition and symbolic content, asemic symbolism may evoke an understanding, meaning or intuition. Through its composition and symbolic content, asemic symbolism may provide an understanding of complex ideas. This form of art depends on the viewers knowledge of philosophy, art history, mathematics, religion, philosophy, physics, sociology, nature and other esoteric subjects for it to make sense, or it can be understood through aesthetic intuition.

Asemic symbolism is truly a product of the Internet. Search engines have made it possible to generate thousands of links for words, and images. It also provides a way to unify esoteric ideas in a spontaneous manner.

The asemic symbolism process has five parts:

1. Creation of a spontaneous drawing (the genesis or nexus of all asemic symbolism; proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint )

2. Manipulation of the drawing through the use of a computer (with image software)

3. Formation of a spontaneous title using Asemic Symbolic Divination a technologically advanced form of scrying.

4. Researching the title on the Internet to provide possible explanations or meanings of the drawing ( link the drawing title to as many sites as possible)

5. Publishing the manipulated drawing, title and links to a web site

The bi-product of this process is an acute awareness that everything in our universe is related. Much like the physics concept of a "theory of everything", asemic symbolism is rooted in the ancient idea of causality. Publishing on the Internet allows the asemic symbolic art work to grow in geometric proportions. Linking is the key to provide a self sustaining life to the art work.

Asemic symbolism is not an art movement. Movements have almost entirely disappeared in contemporary art where individualism and diversity prevail. It is however a creative process that utilizes the manipulation of materials to find or define unity in the known or unknown universe.

Asemic symbolic predation is an organic metaphor that describes an
interaction where a predator design feeds on another design or visual source known as the prey

An example of an asemic symbolic listing on the internet: http://metrogadfly.blogspot.com/

Artwork also by Ron Isom Many thanks.

My Apologies to Sarah Palin and Her Family

I recently submitted an article to Subversify Magazine at the advice of an associate. The magazine states it "provides alternative perspectives to mainstream media. Our content features commentary, fiction, reviews, cynicism and just about anything else that disturbs the mainstream population." Unfortunately, I found out the hard way just what was meant by "disturb" when my article appeared in an issue that also featured an article titled, "...should Sarah Palin and her daughters be sterilized?"

I find this idea so absolutely abhorrent and reprehensible that I immediately notified the editors that I will no longer be associated with the publication. The fact that a publication would entertain the notion of sterilizing children because of their parent's celebrity is hateful. I apologize to the Palin family, and especially Governor Palin's daughters for my name being in any way related to this article. I am sorry for having an article in the same magazine as this one. No one in the world should diminish this family in this way for any reason. Please forgive me.

Sincerely,
Molly Brogan

Love as Becoming

Anonymous said...

A beautiful expression of love as emanation.

I would like to thank this anonymous viewer for this comment on my poem. It got me to thinking about emanation, or the unfolding principle, the outflowing from the source of creation. To me, this statement speaks to love as becoming in ways that completely connect us to all of creation. How wonderful.

The expression of primal urge into an emanation is also conveyed in one of my favorite James Russell Lowell poems, The Vision of Sir Launfall:

“And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries Earth if she be in tune,

And over her softly her warm ear lays:

Whether we look or whether we listen,

Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,

And groping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.”

We Share Together

Jim said..

I was surprised to find that your poem, We Share Together, was not included in A Blaze of Light. I saw it here on the blog and am wondering if it is another of your books.

Thanks for asking, Jim. This poem is not included any of my published books. It may be included in my next book of poems, now that I know you like it.

I have posted it again here for your enjoyment. I try to change the poems on this blog from time to time to freshen the landscape. I will be glad to discuss the poem further here or elsewhere, if you are so inclined. Molly Brogan

Beauty as the Path to Inspiration

Sioban said...
This is an interesting post. In your books, do you connect beauty and inspiration?

Thank you, for the wonderful question, Sioban. I do think that when we allow ourselves to contemplate the beautiful, we are taking ourselves to the state of connection with spirit. This is a sure and easy path to allow ourselves to feel connected to everything and all that is, which is our God nature. Sustaining this state of awareness puts us in a place to receive inspiration, starts the creative juices flowing. When we are connected to all of creation, we become creation and are moved to express creatively.

I think that usually my poems express a state where everything is coming together into such a flow. My trilogy of novels also, follows the main character as she is able to appreciate and express this more and more until finally, she is living from it. Byron’s “she walks in beauty like the night” is the perfect example of a character that learns to live as the creative force, in a state of inspiration. My third novel, Shadow Dancing, portrays the main character moving beyond her own shadow to fully embrace her own beauty and live from it. Seen from the broad pallet of the trilogy of novels, this character has come a long way from allowing life to happen to her, to creating a life expressed as her own highest potential.

Bright Zellner

My friend, Peggy Zellner, ND, PhD, passed away suddenly on my birthday last Saturday. I discovered Peggy (or should I say, she discovered me) shortly after moving to Las Vegas at and IONS meeting. She was giving the crowd a hands on presentation of Kinesiology, a method used in her practice as a Naturopath, and I fell in love with her on the spot. She invited me to a "group meditation," held every Tuesday evening at her office. I was skeptical, and immediately pictured craziness and woo woo. She put me at ease and I was there the next Tuesday, and every Tuesday that I was in Las Vegas afterward.

Peggy had a method of meditation that, I quickly discovered, allowed us to witness the formation of group soul. I was blown away by the process and the potential. I will never forget the beautiful feeling that was shared each week by the participants (often different). Because the participants were different, each experience was different. Peggy guided us as we each described the images that came up for us in the meditative state. As the 90 minutes unfolded, these images revealed to us, without fail, how we connect at the soul level; how the group soul forms into a cohesive connection; how we are all and each left more than before. I was fascinated and devoted to this process. I now wonder if I will ever see anything like it again.

The genius of Dr. Peggy Zellner shed a light on this world that will never be dimmed. Why she made her sudden, final exit is one of life's mysteries. Somewhere, I suspect, she is smiling. At least, I hope so. I will continue to smile whenever I think of Peggy.

Arms of Mary

The Map of Beauty Translates

The Semanticist S.I. Hayakawa believed this about general semantics: “The end product of education, yours and mine and everybody’s, is the total pattern of reactions and possible reactions we have inside ourselves. If you did not have within you at this moment the pattern of reactions that we call “the ability to read” you would see here only meaningless black marks on paper. Because of the trained patterns of response, you are (or are not) stirred to patriotism by martial music, your feelings of reverence are aroused by symbols of your religion, you listen more respectfully to the health advise of someone who has ‘MD’ after his name than to that of someone who hasn’t. What I call here is a ‘pattern of reactions,’ then, is the sum total of the ways we act in response to events, to words, and to symbols, signs and symbol systems. Our reaction patterns or our semantic habits, are the internal and most important residue of whatever years of education or miseducation we may have received.”

As I view the artwork of Ronald Isom, these feeling responses for my deepest archetypal signs and symbols well within me. I am inexplicably moved and left with mystical feelings better left unspoken.

To a person who asked for a definition of jazz, Louis Armstrong is said to have replied, “Man, when you got to ask what it is, you’ll never get to know,” proving to be an intuitive semanticist as well as a great trumpet player.

To give the artwork of Ronald Isom an intuitive semantic response is not to ask for a definition, but to know our own intrinsic value, as we are led right to our core with each view.

PW Bridgman, Nobel Prize winner and physicist, once wrote, “The true meaning of a term is to be found by observing what a man does with it, not by what he says about it.”

Ronald illustrates his intuitive semantic reactions to his symbol systems. His paintings and drawings are kinetic in ways that allow us to FEEL what he feels. Organic in inspiration, his artwork brings us to our own symbolic systems, as they emerge and fly free, allowing us to see and know our own semantic responses.

In this way that the symbols of Ronald’s artwork brings us to ourselves and allows us to feel, I aspire, as a writer, to bring my readers into their intuitive core, and allow them to explore the possibilities of their lives, through the eyes of my characters.

Artwork: Spiritual Growth Form by Ronald Isom

Keep Up The Good Work

I recently received the following mail from a site visitor: "You're obsessed ... It's not healthy ... Get a life."

Which I took to mean: you're doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

Our Own Wonderful Infinite Nature

Ronald D. Isom said...

Great response to the question! The Goethe quotation is outstanding. Artist absorb what they see, hear, taste etc. and it emerges as new thoughts and idea. We must continue to absorb the world around us and keep the internal silo filled with fodder for new idea and creative thought.

Thank you, Ronald. Your artwork is an excellent example of just that. For any of you who have not seen his artwork, I heartily recommend checking out Ronald's blog through the link on his name. Like Dr. Carl Jung before him, Ronald has given life to the symbols of his unconsciousness and mapped the archetypes of his soul in his marvelous artwork. In Jung's memoirs, he recounts the three years that he spent documenting and categorizing the symbols of his dreams and fantasies, leading to his theories of the unconscious and archetype.

I know that developing this kind of intimacy with my own infinite nature allows me a clear path to my creativity. I am most inspired when I allow spirit to speak to me in this way, and all ways.

Artwork by Paul Klee

A Brilliant Moment of Inspiration

Mia said...

I like this post. How do you think of the things you write? Where do you get your inspiration?

Thanks for the questions, Mia. My inspiration comes during quiet times, and feels like the purest parts of me coming together. It can happen while waking from a dream, reading a book, meditating, watching birds in a tree, speaking to a friend - any time really. Something within me is triggered, and my ideas come together in a way that formulates an original statement and the desire to express it. I carry these statements around with me throughout my life, creating my life's work from them - like our symbols create our dreams.

I'm not sure I can explain it any better than Goethe did when he said, "It is not the material the artist takes from nature that makes a work of art, but what the artist puts into it from within. The most elevated work of art causes us to forget that it is based on a content from nature and awakens our interest only through what the artist has made of it. The artist forms naturally but does not form as nature herself does."

Owed to Robert

reinventor said...

Big Kiss Mary! You make my life Brighter with your light!

This is a comment from my friend, Robert Parker, whose genius is behind two of my book covers. His paintings don the covers of Without a Word and Shadow Dancing. We will all be hearing more from Robert over the years, I am sure. Currently, he is a free lance feature writer in the Knoxville Tennessee area, having recently moved there from the Santa Monica, California. Working on advanced degrees in Philosophy and life in general at the University of Tennessee, Robert moves into becoming one of the worlds great artists and thinkers.

Thank you Robert, for supporting me in my work. You brighten our world too.

Each Character Their Own Voice

Kim said...
I finished Chasing Twilight! Whew. I have lots of comments and questions but need to think about it some more. To begin with, I wonder, was it hard to write such a big novel in the format of letters between two characters? Developing the story in the things that two people say to each other can't be easy, but I will say it worked here.

Thanks for your question, Kim. You are right, this format for the novel was one of the biggest technical challenges that I faced while writing Chasing Twilight. This technique is tantamount to writing in the first person for two characters, which proved to be an exacting task. The first person is considered by many to be the most difficult voice in writing fiction because the story has to unfold in the confines of the psychological filters of the character. They may not be seeing events clearly because of intense emotion or immaturity. Yet in the first person, the writer can only convey to the reader the thoughts and feelings of the character within these confines. The format for Chasing Twilight doubled those confines because each of the two main characters wrote in the first person and conveyed their own version of the story as it unfolded.

While I found this difficult at times, I thought the technique reflected our contemporary world, and allowed a wonderful exchange of spirit between the characters. Romance beginning with emails over the Internet has become common place. The increasingly popular use of computers and the Internet has expanded our individual worlds and led us to a more worldcentric view. We can now develop relationships and exchange ideas with people we will never see. It is easier for us to stay connected with loved ones without having to take the time to physically visit with them. The technology not only expands our worlds, but offers us insights into who we are and opportunities to explore our consciousness. All of this came into play as I wrote Chasing Twilight.

I have also found that when people are writing to one another, they are much more profound and poetic. They can take as long as they like to write a paragraph, writing and deleting until the words are just right. We can’t do this in conversation. Using this format gave me a chance to explore what two people might express to each other, without the problems of emotional reactions, body language or time constraints. Letters allow our very best expression. The more we write them, the more profound we can become. I think this allows our hearts to open, not only to others but to ourselves. Molly Brogan

Molly Brogan Books in Development and Soon to Be Released

Janie said...

Are you going to publish more poetry? I've read A Blaze of Light several times and enjoy the spirituality. I wonder if they are primarily love poems because they were from your novels. Do you have poetry that is not simply love poems? Will you publish more?

Thanks for the questions and the interest, Janie. You are right about A Blaze of Light, the poems are from my trilogy that portrays the love and loss experienced in the life journey of the central character. It is the first book of poems that I have published, and although I have a file drawer of poetry written over the years, I have no immediate plans to develop my next book of poetry. I am currently writing the third novel in my trilogy, Shadow Dancing, and some of the poetry from this unfinished novel is included in A Blaze of Light. I am also, after much encouragement from my associates, writing a book about living life as I see it: All About Living. This book is not fiction, but is my first non fiction sojourn, and presents my view into the depth of my spirit. The material is taken from intimate conversations with folks all over the globe concerning explorations of consciousness. Both new books should be available sometime next year. After that, another book of poems is ultimately possible. Thanks so much for the encouragement. Molly Brogan

Keep the Spirit Alive

Robert said...

I thought about this (Logos), and decided for myself that it simply means the spirit of the word. This I can get my head around. Thanks Molly.

Thank you, Robert, and all my readers and supporters. You keep the spirit alive.

General Comments

Welcome to the blog created for readers of Molly Brogan books. All are welcome to post comments and all insights are appreciated. If you have a general comment or a question about a Molly Brogan book that does not relate to any of the posts below, post your comment here. Thanks for stopping by, your time and consideration are most appreciated. Feel free to contact me if you would like me to participate in your book club discussion of a Molly Brogan book.

Logos Moves Between You and I

Robert said...

"We are the writers, and the readers and the stories and the Logos."

What do you mean by Logos?

Through this Word – Logos – all things became. In it was life, the light of human beings. It shone in the darkness, and the darkness received it not. It was in the world, and the world did not know it. It entered in individual being and, to those who received it, it gave the ability to become children of God. Its radiance was seen, full of grace and truth.” – Georg Kuhlewind

In Carl Jung's analytical psychology, the logos is the masculine principle of rationality and consciousness. Its female counterpart, eros (Greek, love), represents interconnectedness. I think the term is really both.

To become aware of Logos is to become aware of logos in ones self. Logos shines through the visible and invisible alike. It is the light in relationship between persons, between words and meaning, between God and man. It is the knowing that you are. The speaking and knowing to what you are speaking … is logos. It is a living, present truth. What man cognizes, what is communicable, is the world. That man cognizes, is Logos. It is brought into meaning and passes between. This world exists for and through the knower, through Logos.

Thanks for the question, Robert. Molly Brogan
Artwork by F. Rassouli