While it is getting warmer here in these latitudes, you might like to see some pictures of an icy environment: The New York artist Roni Horn (born 1955), partly living since years in Reykjavik, Iceland, has installed in Stykkishólmur, a little fisher’s village on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, an exposition called Vatnasafn / Library of Water. There she has set up 24 big glass pillars representing the melted water from 24 glaciers. In these pillars filled with water the landscape – houses, ocean, islands, sky – gets reflected, and created an enchanted atmosphere with the continuously changing weather. The website (flash!!)
You can also download a PDF about the exposition. The Poem on the cover says:

Big enough to get lost on.
Small enough to find myself.
That’s how to use this island.
I come here to place myself in the world.
Iceland is a verb and its action is to center.

At the moment (untill August) there is also an expositionof her works in the Hafnarhús Reykjavik Art Museum entitled «My Oz». It is the first large-scale exhibition of Roni Horn’s work in Scandinavia. The landscape and isolation of Iceland have strongly influenced her art, and she has often traveled there since 1975.

(c) Vatnasafn – Library of Water

The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres has done an exhibition of satellite pictures of the earth with the title: KUNSTWERK ERDE (The Earth as a Work of Art). The original exposition in Brussels is over, but you find a series of beautiful photographs combining art and science in an interactive world map. And there are PDFs with more information in several languages.

About the exposition: “Countless observation satellites circle the blue planet, supplying floods of data, which are processed into satellite pictures. These images of deserts, glaciers, volcanoes and big conurbations show one thing above all else: the stunning beauty of our earth.
The pictures chosen for the exhibition combine scientific import with the extraordinary aesthetic thrill afforded by long-distance views of our familiar planet, a dual approach that also appeals to less scientifically-minded members of the public, providing them with an insight into highly complex subjects.”

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A friend yesterday sent a link to a movie which just started in German. A little search on the web showed that the film was out in English already since beginning of 2006: ONE – The Movie. A Contemporary Journey Towards A Timeless Destiny. It seems to be a fascinating movie. Here you can see some trailers.

And here is an extract from an article by Sita Stuhlmiller about the production of the film:

“What happens when a middle-aged trial attorney and father of three wakes in the night with an idea to make an independent film about the meaning of life? Ward M. Powers, with no experience at all in filmmaking, mail-ordered a video camera and set off with his best friend and a cousin on a two-year life-changing experience. Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s maxim: “Follow your bliss,” and with no budget or training, they took to the streets to film ordinary people responding to life’s ultimate questions.

They started with twenty questions, among them: Why is there poverty and suffering in the world? What is the relationship between science and religion? What are we all so afraid of? How does one obtain true peace? Describe God. What is the meaning of life? What is your one wish for the world? Eventually the filmmakers got up the nerve to ask their questions of spiritual teachers, philosophers, authors, artists, priests, rabbis, yogis, imams, monks, nuns, medicine men, social architects and scholars, including Robert Thurman, Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hanh, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Father Thomas Keating, Hasan Qazwini, Deepak Chopra, Riane Eisler and many others.

“And so, about three years ago, we set out on this odyssey with nothing but a DV camera, twenty questions and mantra—We Are All One. But what began as kind of a lark amongst friends to try to make an independent film, somewhere along the way turned into a life’s journey. And what started out back then as a kind of Kumbaya notion of Oneness also grew into something much greater. Somewhere along the way, Oneness became more colorful . . . more intense . . . more inclusive . . . more internal . . . richer and more beautiful than we could have ever imagined.” -Ward M. Powers, Director

“On the last day, in the final minute of the last interview, Father Thomas Keating summarized the journey: ‘The spiritual journey is the realization—not just the information but the real interior conviction—that there is a higher power or God. Or, to make it as easy as possible for everybody: there is an Other; second step: to try to become the Other; and finally the realization that there is no Other. You and the Other are One, always have been, always will be’.”

Yesterday a friend from Sweden sent me a text with a call from Don Alejandro Oxlaj, Grand Elder of the Maya, for Global Meditation on May 22. I found it also on the web, posted last Saturday. Don Alejandro is head of the National Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala, Day Keeper of the Mayan Calendar, a 13th generation Quiche Mayan High Priest and a Grand Elder of the Continental Council of Elders and Spiritual Guides of the Americas.

There are some touching thoughts in his call. It’s worth while reading the whole text. Here are a few extracts.

“We all are children of the Earth, we are flowers of the garden of our Creator coming in different colors, in different shapes, in different sizes, with different aromas; speaking different languages, and each one worshiping and meditating in their own way to the same Creator who has different names according to their own culture….”

“Let us talk now about our present times. We enjoy new advances in technology, inventions that make everyday life easier for us, we all use them, but the negative side is that we are finishing up our forests, and contributing to the contamination of the planet, the rivers are drying out, the waters are being contaminated. Our crops are affected by plagues as well as plagues killing our animals. We are threatened by contagious illnesses, incurable illnesses unknown in the past… Very harmful are the use of chemicals, the insecticides, transgenic seeds, etc. …”

“Now lets speak about the future. We, the traditional Mayan elders, and all indigenous peoples in the world, meditate on the future. We don’t think only for today, the present, we think for tomorrow, for our children, grand children and future generations. We see a dark shadow approaching, a shadow that will cause a lot of harm. It is the great contamination. All this is due to man’s creation… We don’t want any more wars, no more death, no more nuclear testing, no more chemicals, because the warming up of the planet is unbearable to Mother Earth. If we don’t change, sooner or later, she will strike back with millions of lives lost…”

“Our Creator created us here over the face of the earth to worship him, to love and respect each other. We all are equal, we are flowers of the earth, in different sizes, of different colors, with different songs, with different smell, but all looking at our Creator, honoring him with different dances, different music, different ceremonies. We all plead to him, we are his children, he is the creator of all that exist, all that we see and all which is beyond our senses. He has given us our life with an intelligence to do well…”

May 22nd 2007 is 5 Ajpu, the Day of Grand Father Sun, he shines upon all of us equally, he doesn’t know discrimination, he doesn’t get lost on his path, he doesn’t get ahead or behind of himself. He gives us warmth, he gives us life. One Sun, one Air, one Water, One Mother Earth. May 22nd 2007 day of Grand Father Sun, Grand Mother Moon.

The Maya Prophecy says: “Arise, all arise, not one nor two groups be left behind, together we will see once again the place from where we have come from.”

Mayan Tikal Temple, Guatemala, © Leonardo C. Fleck, Wikipedia

I just got a from a Californian friend a link to a fascinating videotape with� Portuguese subtitles of a child eloquently appealing to adults, delegates of the United Nations Environmental Conference to act upon what we teach children in kindergarten: to share, to clean up our mess, to care about others. My friend wrote:

“Three 12/13 year old children have dared to form an environmental children’s organization to be the change they hope to see in the world. Looking into children’s eyes and seeing 7 generations hence we can re-examine our values today, and change our habits. As Marshall Rosenberg observed, things we do habitually are not necessarily natural. We sometimes assume that and confuse the two.”

“Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market.”

Today, 8th May, is not only the annual World Red Cross Red Crescent Day (the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, this year’s motto: “Together for Humanity”), but also a more silent commemoration day, the White Lotus Day, the day of the passing of Helena P. Blavatsky (HPB) on May 8, 1891.

One year ago, I wrote already a blogpost about it, mentioning the little booklet I published two years ago: “H.P.B. – Trailblazer for the Aquarian Age” (free download). There is also an inspiring talk by K. Parvathi Kumar on The White Lotus.

The Lotus symbolises the life of man and also that of the Kosmos. The symbol stands for the principle of unfoldment and it is recommended for meditation. If you follow the right steps, the inner energy centres called chakras (: wheels) transform into lotuses. You might read more about it in the Lunar Messenger on Chakras and Lotuses.

Cover of the book The White Lotus, by K. Parvathi Kumar

HPB has let quite an impact in my life. In the 80ies I was fascinated over several years by the title of her opus magnus, The Secret Doctrine, without buying it. When I finally got it (5 volumes, nothing for casual reading), I had a dive through it, without understanding much. In the 90ies I studied the volumes for a second, and in the last years for the third time. (now in English). I like reading a little passage every morning after meditation, its great panorama of life opens up the view, before entering into the daily hustle and bustle. One sentence from this morning’s reading, Vol. I, Cosmogenesis, p. 56:

“No man is conscious of more than that portion of his knowledge that happens to have been recalled to his mind at any particular time, yet such is the poverty of languages that we have no term to distinguish the knowledge not actively thought of, from knowledge we are unable to recall to memory. To forget is synonymous with not to remember. How much greater must be the difficulty of finding terms to describe, and to distinguish between, abstract metaphysical facts or differences?”

Helena P. Blavastky (1831.1891)

I yesterday came across the wibsite of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Last November they have launched a worldwide “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign“. People, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges online and help planting at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.

At the moment there are already 10,549,705 trees planted and pledges given for 810,485,520 trees. “We have but a short time to avert damaging and economically debilitating climate change. The goods and services provided by forests are worth billions if not trillions of dollars to the global economy. Forests are natural and economically important ‘sinks’, sequestrating carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away in trunks and branches. Globally, forest cover is at least one-third less than what it once was. It is time to reverse the trends, it is time to act” says Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director.

Al Gore writes in Earth in the Balance: “The symbolism – and the substantive significance – of planting a tree has universal power in every culture and every society on Earth, and it is a way for individual men, women and children to participate in creating solutions for the environmental crisis.”

Many nations and individuals have joined the initiative, also artists, and on the UNEP-website you find instructions how to plant trees or animation videos (wmv) and more material. They have also beautiful sayings on “Trees and Humanity“. Here are some:

“If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed.
If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.”
Chinese poet, 500 BC

“He who plants a tree loves others beside himself.”
English proverb

“They are beautiful in their peace; they are wise in their silence. They will stand after we are dust.
They teach us, and we tend them.”
Galeain ip Altiem MacDunelmor

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
Greek proverb

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Martin Luther

“To me, nature is sacred; trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.”
Mikhail Gorbachev

“Trees are poems that Earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness.”
Kahlil Gibran

“The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it affords protection to all beings.”
Buddhist Sutra

“If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are both branches on the same tree.”
W. B. Yeats

Old Olive Tree in Delphi, Greece

A friend from Belgium sent me today a beautiful powerpoint presentation entitled “Woman“, with colored images and verses of women, for women, and men, throughout the world. There is a quote of former UN president B. Boutros Ghali: “Now, more than ever, the cause of women is the cause of mankind.” Here you can see it as pdf, but without music.

I found it also on the website of WUNRN, Women’s UN Report Program & Network, an NGO dedicated to women’s rights. For a spiritual perspective ou might also like to read the Lunar Messenger on Woman and Man.

Chris Jordan was a successful lawyer in Seattle, USA. Then he decided to resign and work as a photographer. Today, he is a thriving artist with a great number of expositions. He and his wife made a deep transformation of their basis of life – the outcome is documented in most impressive photo series about the accumulated detritus of our consumption. Here are some excerpts from an interview, and also from his website:

“My spirit was dying inside, and I knew it, but I was afraid to make the leap into photography full-time because of the possibility of failing. The thing that finally got me going was a new kind of fear that crept up behind me over a period of several years: it was the fear of not living my life. This fear was motivating – it kind of pushed me forward.”

Today he is portraying American mass consumption: “The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.”

“This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books.”

“As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so.”

His photo series carry titles like: “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption” – “In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster” – “Running the Numbers – An American Self-Portrait”. The pictures are showing “a slow-motion apocalypse in progress”. Have a look at the website of Chris Jordan. His pictures are now also exhibited at the Q2 Gallery in Second Life.

Cans Seurat, 2007
Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds:

Partial zoom:

Detail at actual size:

Thanks, Chris, for the permission of reproduction.

I just came across a fascinating YouTube-video on the permaculture project “Greening the Desert” (you can also see the video in a better quality from here). In this story, Geoff Lawton talks about re-greening the deserts of Jordan. By applying the principles of permaculture, the Jordanians managed to salvage a heavily salted environment and turn it into a green oasis. Geoff Lawton lives and teaches permaculture at his farm near The Channon, a small community in Australia.

See also our blogpost “From Wasteland to Paradise“.